The Ten Commandments – Part 6
05/12/18 (02/25) Video Broadcast
Well we are ready to begin
our study portion for
today's broadcast and we
are now into part 6 of our
study into the 10
commandments, appropriate
time of year to examine
the 10 commandments as we
soon here in a couple
weeks going to be
celebrating Shavuot or
Pentecost which is about
the time of the year the
10 commandments were
given.
And most of us when
we think about the 10
commandments you think
well that's just the
basics you know we're
beyond the basics, let's
look at some of the
commandments and see what
else is out there, try to
refine our walk and be
more like Yahushua
every day.
When Yahushua talked about
10 commandments he talked
about not just the
physical or the little
command but also the
principles it was teaching.
And so we're gonna look
just not the commandments,
we're gonna look at the
principles behind the
commands, the precept and
the principal, the overall
teaching, instruction
it's giving us.
And so we want to examine
ourselves in this to make
sure that we are walking
according to the 10
commandments and not just
literal commands but also
the principle behind them.
Probably most of us
understand the command
coming up next which is
commandment number 7, I
should say.
So number 7 says you shall
not commit adultery, most
of us if we have any
exposure to Christianity
at all, understand there's
not just the literal you
should not commit adultery
but also avoiding adultery
in the heart as well and
most of us are aware that
anyway.
So we're gonna cover
some of that but there's
another element of
adultery which is not very
commonly mentioned and we
need to look at it very
closely because there are
many ways one can commit
adultery the most obvious
would be extramarital
affair, that's what the
command is most basic form
is actually
teaching against.
It is guarding the
institution of marriage
which is an institution
that Yahweh himself
created in Genesis chapter
2, when Yahushua talked
about how we can violate
this command in our
hearts, even spoke of how
marriage can actually
itself be an adulteress
marriage at its core, in
the case of a divorce and
remarriage that Yahweh it
does not honor.
These things are going to
be discussed in our next
segment but when you look
at the word adultery in
the prophets there is
another kind of adultery
that is mentioned and
even though by and large
Israel, the people of
Judah were worshipers of
Elohim in the
first century.
Yahushua when he looked at that generation he lived in, he said this "a wicked and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign; and no sign shall be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah". And he left them, and departed. So he considered it to be an adulterous generation that he lived in even though most people were worshipers of Elohim and seem to be you know necessarily the marriages were necessarily a big mess weren't they or were they? He also said in Mark 8:38; for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation; of him the son of man will also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels.
Again he called it an adulterous generation and some of whom will be ashamed of the Messiah and the words of Messiah. Well I wanna draw your attention to the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 3 he says this; YAHWEH said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
And I said after she had done all these things, return to me. But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Now look at this he refers to Israel as backsliding, but then he calls Judah treacherous, interesting.
Then I saw, that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. He's talking about idolatry here and the
worship of Mighty Ones that are not Elohim, that is not Yahweh and calls Judah treacherous and
backsliding Israel. So it came to pass through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in
pretense, says Yahweh. Then Yahweh said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. I remember when I read this chapter I was floored
because it is treachery against Elohim to not turn
to him with a whole heart, but to be half-hearted in our service to him, to not have that enthusiasm and that passion for righteousness.
And look here this is under Josiah's reign. Josiah was a righteous king, 8 years old he is already turning things around and I think 16 years old he finally, he really I mean made some major reforms okay. But he's saying this is all fake it's not real,
I'm sure there were a true and genuine believers among them, by and large Yahweh said they are treacherous because they were hypocritical, they wanted Yahweh to be their Elohim and dabble in other
things too.
They were not given to Yahweh their whole heart,
now why is it considered to be adultery to Yahweh? I mean that would be that's very serious, it's one thing to commit adultery on your spouse, another to commit adultery against Yahweh the Mighty One of Israel. And why would it be adulterers I mean there's not really any you know physical thing going on necessarily why is it? Well Revelation 19:7 says; Let's be glad and rejoice, and giving glory: for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. We as believers are as a whole compared to a bride:
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of Elohim. So we are part of the body of the Messiah and we become one body with him in the same way in a marriage we have 2 people in this case male and female becoming one flesh. We are part of the body of the Messiah in a spiritual way not the physical way, we're part of him in a spiritual way as it says in Ephesians 5:30: we are members of his body, of his flesh, of his bones. But he who is joined to the master is one spirit with him. And so in spiritual way allegorically speaking, members of his body and spiritually speaking he says I have been crucified with Messiah: is no longer I who live; but Messiah lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of Elohim, who loved me, and gave himself for me. And so he dwells in us, in a relationship with him we
are one spirit with him and so there are areas in which we could unknowingly, perhaps be
committing adultery as the bride of Messiah against the bridegroom. Now we can't be thinking of this in terms of carnal things like male and female, yes in the case of a physical marriage on the earth there's male and female. But in a spiritual sense, we don't have to be a female to be a part of the so-called bride of Messiah, just you know in Hebrew everything's male and female there is no neuter okay. So even the city is called she, it's called a mother in one place. So we just have to look at the way things are set up on the physical realm and understand their spiritual correlations to many things that are in the physical world we live in. In this case the marriage, the covenant that was made with a husband and wife is similar to the covenant we make with our Elohim in that we are expected to be faithful to him. In the same way a wife is to be faithful to her husband and a husband is supposed to be faithful to his wife in this case Yahushua is always faithful to us, the question is are we always faithful to him or are we guilty or perhaps committing adultery against the bridegroom? Got to looking at the book of James I came to realize that even for us to involve ourselves, interest ourselves in the things of the world, the things that have been fundamentally at war with him could be an adulteress.
James 4:4 says: Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity
(that means hatred) with Elohim?
Whosoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously.
I find that a very fascinating passage, what does it mean to be a friend of the world?
What does it mean the spirit that dwells in us yearns jealously?
Well we know that Yahweh's spirit is in us that is given to us when we decide that we're going to repent and believe in the master Yahushua and it yarns jealously over anything that we might be involved in that could be characterized as kinship and friendship with the world.
Now the word in Greek there has to do with loving the world or having affections for the world, just having a certain affection for things that we know are contrary to the way Yahweh has set things up to the way he wants us to live. And so they have this love of the world according to the scripture is to be at enmity or hostility with our creator the word there Filia has to do with being
friendly, associate, joining together with perhaps unequally yoked with the world and as I begin to think about this and look at this I realized how important this is. Yahweh is looking at us he's saying where are your affections, what are the things that you are drawn to? What do you want to be together with? What are you looking for? Where is your heart directed?
I don't want him to feel about me like I've been an adulterer or adulteress I know I have been at various points in my walk most of you hopefully will not want to feel that way him to feel that way about you. So what is this mean? It's a real dangerous area I don't want us to get involved with committing adultery against the Messiah. Yahweh delivers us from darkness and every unclean thing and sanctified us to be as children and we are very blessed to have a spirit dwelling in us. Not everybody has that blessing to have a spirit within them and yet if this spirit he's placing within us yearns jealously then I mean all it's only through Yahushua HaMashiach, Yahushua the Messiah his spirit that we ultimately we are led into a way of life in peace and righteousness. And only through him can we be cleansed of our adulterous ways, in fact if we didn't have a spirit we are only just dead dust but Yahweh formed us and breathed life into us so that we would have the breadth of life and he wants to fill us with that life eternally. And we are created to be in his image and when we walk in his image then we know we're not committing adultery against him. But the word spirit in the Hebrew is Ruach, and Ruach means breath. So the breath of life is in us and when he breathes in us he is giving us life, his word breathes in us, words are formed through breath. In fact one of the most fascinating scriptures I know in the in the bible is John 6:63 where he says; It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, are a spirit, and they are life. Therefore, it's his word, the words of Messiah being placed in our hearts because Yahushua is dwelling there our savior is there, he's the living word made flesh to dwell among us. And we want the words of Messiah to dwell in us richly with all wisdom speaking, admonishing one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as the scripture goes. That's the spirit we yearn for, we long for that we want to be in us in such a way that we find ourselves living the way Yahushua did and that's how we want to conduct ourselves in this world differently than what the world does. Our priorities are different, our thoughts are different we want our thoughts to be more like his thoughts and it's by his spirit, his word living in us, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Your word I've hidden in my heart, that is the spirit that is in our hearts within us, our hearts are prone to yearn after other things, it
depends on what we connect our heart to the holy spirit or to carnal man. The promise in the new covenant is that Yahweh's spirit would be written in our hearts and minds and because the spirit of Yahweh dwells in us when something foreign to that spirit begins to enter the dwelling place of Elohim there should be a strong strong check in our spirit.
We have a foreign invader coming into our heart here, an unclean spirit with his doctrines, his teachings, his values. And that unclean spirit is very active in the world today and instead love it teaches hatred, instead of
humility it teaches pride, instead of peace it brings confusion, instead of hope it brings hopelessness, instead of righteousness it brings wickedness and it does not bring life. It's filled with the things that are contrary to the spirit of Elohim and we should not love the things that are of that other spirit or we may find ourselves committing adultery against Yahweh.
You know thorns plants startup as an innocent looking plant at first and it starts growing and before you know it you got this big brier patch in front of you, they grow very quickly. Thorns in your face and you can't really see the light of Yahweh to grow, that's the seed that fell among thorns can't bear fruit. That's the problem with the spirit of the world it entangles and grows and grows until soon there's nothing left for Elohim. And so we have to be careful that we are not getting involved in what's called the worldly things, worldly things that are not of him, that take us away from him, that take the edge off our spiritual walk And I want to share some scriptures today to talk about the deceptiveness of it because the thorns are just entangled and the only way you can get the thorns out is if you get the sword of the word of Yahweh and cut down the thorn trees, thorn bushes.
And I hope that today's study will encourage you if you have some thorns growing up in the soil of your heart that the word of Yahweh will convict you and that you will cut those things down,
anything that would keep us from growing spiritually we want to eliminate from our lives so that we don't have an unclean spirit hanging around and harassing us but we have and allow the holy spirit of Yahweh to grow fully rather than yearning jealously because we have this little thing on the side, this little thing of the worldly thing you know it's a worldly thing, you know Yahweh is not in favor of but you just you think you can just keep this little idol over here you know and it'll be alright and you know and this kind hangs around and you kinda like it so you let it be in your life. And that's the way it is some of you know what I'm talking about, you love Yahweh but sometimes there is this little thing on the side you know you kinda put him on the back burner sometimes yeah, sit him back here and let me go do this for a while, hey I have been guilty of it.
Psalm 50 verse 12, we need to understand who first of all the world belongs to okay; Yahweh says If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you: because the world is mine, and all its fullness. So the world belongs to him it's his world okay, we have to recognize it's his world and quit acting like it's ours it isn't, it's his. Psalm 9 verse 8 says he will judge the world in righteousness, and he shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. So the world belongs to him and those who are not willing to conduct their lives in such a way that reflects his principles in his leading, in his teaching will find themselves being judged this world he created he's coming to judge it. And so if we have this friendship with it and we're connected to it then we're gonna be among those he has to correct in a judge. In fact he says I will punish the world for its evil, Isaiah 13:11 and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud and will lay low the hotness of the terrible.
So the spirit of Yahweh dwelling in us ought to be saying no no no this is not what we are about, this is not what Yahweh is about and Yahushua made a prediction about when the spirit of Yahweh would come and dwell in us, it was going to do something about this wicked world we live in. Here's what he said is going to do John 16:7 says; Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is to your advantage I go away: for if I do not go away, the Helper (that's the holy spirit) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they do not believe in me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more; Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
And so the whole world will be judged including the residing prince and ruler, Yahweh put man in the Garden of Eden to rule this world and take dominion, to walk in his image and to keep things under subjection to him and then man goes along and follows these unclean spirits led by the prince he selected for himself to be his ruler.
Basically men have chosen a liar to be the ruler, the father of it, the father of lies. That's what Yahushua said about this ruler, he says you are of your father the devil, talking the Pharisees and the people who were against him, the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources: for he is a liar, and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. You see, he says you of your father the devil, he said devil's children why? Because they were a friend of the world, they were following the teachings and valuing the things the devil showed them which were corrupt and they were following the ways of Yahweh's enemy and they were not walking in the image of Elohim, they were walking in the image of his enemy, how do you know the difference? 1 John 3:10; In this the children of Elohim, and the children of the devil are manifest: whosoever does not practice righteousness is not of Elohim, nor is he who does not love his brother. So we need to have a love for righteous things, the things of Yahweh's spirit and not a love for the things, the spirit of his enemy because if we end up not loving truth and we end up not loving righteousness and instead we are entertained by and we love things that are contrary to him we find
ourselves in a predicament when it comes to seeking truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says; the coming of the lawless one as according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders. and with all unrighteousness deception among those who perished; because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason Elohim will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. That they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. We cannot have pleasure in unrighteousness when the holy spirit of Elohim lives in us, otherwise we
are in danger of not valuing in receiving the truth. And we are in danger of not receiving that love of the truth that we need to be saved.
And those who don't receive the love of the truth the reason why they don't is because they got this pleasure in unrighteousness going around here, they pleasure themselves in it. Obviously we should not be taking any pleasure in unrighteousness, unrighteousness lies in the world, are all synonyms and they're all working together originating from the spirit of the world. And we should not have any love for these things because the ruler of this world is a liar and he deceives the whole world. The scripture says Revelation 12:9; the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world:
he was cast to the earth, as angels were cast out with him.
Where are our affections? To whom is our loyalty? Because if you think deception is strong now it's going to get worse but the root of everything is having pleasure in unrighteousness and not loving the truth. In fact we ought to be so separate from the world,
we are looking forward to the day when we will judge the world for the things it's doing. 1 Corinthians 6:2 says; Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? and if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? The point is that they had this trouble there is an assembly in Corinth, worldliness they lived in a very worldly city and he's saying you realize one day you're gonna judge the world right you guys are going to be the judges. And so here they were squabbling over money and different things he says come on its really better to take the wrong than to bring them before the worldly judges and you're supposed to be people who are going to judge the world one day.
So he told them to cease from your uncleanness, cease from the immoralities that you are involved in. Now if you're looking for a pure and undefiled walk,
here's this James 1:27, Pure and undefiled religion (or walk) before Elohim and the Father is this, To visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Unspotted doesn't mean that no one can see you, it means unstained you don't have any spots, any stains from the world. So we're called to be unstained even though we live in a world that is full of wickedness.
Even though we live in a world that is contrary to Elohim we as believers can live and glorify our
father in heaven but we have to stay very close to our shepherd. And beware of things that pull you away from him and when you feel that pull away from him resist it, resist it. You can be surrounded by the most worldly, most awful things and you can still stay close to the shepherd that's what they are expected to do in the city of Corinth a very vile city we live in cities like that across America. But you know you ever felt the stain before?
I have you know I felt that stain I remember years ago very beautiful wonderful Shabbat day went to a meeting and then I went and visited the house of some relatives and they were not yet believers and they had the television on and it's pouring out its filthy worldly spirit you know into the room it's and I don't know how to describe it but what I felt after having left there. I felt this old yuck you know, the old before I was
a believer kinda yuck into its like, it just sucks the life out of me or I don't know how you describe it. But you know it's the old the old way and the things that are out there today with television shows and the things that the world are amused by. The things that they value you know we hang around that too much and we just get desensitized to the evil and I don't ever want to get this desensitized to it. I remember back in like 97 or 98 I realized what Hollywood was doing in my house, I grabbed the television and I went to throw it off the porch and my wife says well you know what if we wanna watch home videos you know? So I turned around and put it back but you know I am finding that I have not had my television hooked up to cable or antenna or anything ever since.
But what I'm finding now is the Internet is becoming the new TV, and it's like if he doesn't get you one way he's gonna try to get you in another way. And you know we have to be careful with the things that we are entertained by I'm not saying it's wrong to watch a movie not all movies are wicked some movies are very edifying and very instructive. We have a subscription to Pureflix which is you know, we don't do Netflix anymore we got Pureflix and Dove Channel you know on our box and you know 80 to 90 percent of that is pretty good but then there's that 10 to 20 percent that is not in my opinion right. And how much of that do you allow you know do you do you say all 0 percent and if you did that you know maybe just be better off. But then there are some really edifying things positive things and the truth is you can turn on right now you could turn on other Bible teachers listen about teachers and you might get an 80 to 20 on that too. So it's not just movies it's other stuff just the
world in general. So what we need is to stay close to our shepherd and let it be that Yahweh has filled our cup to overflowing and then that out of the overflow we flow on to other people. But you know we've got all these competing forces in our lives and sometimes it makes it very difficult to do that and we have to have our guard up continually.
And we have to know the truth, we have to have familiarity with scripture we're not gonna know when something's leading us astray.
And what a big problem is with TV and stuff is it thrust scenes at you all the time, only after the fact you like man I wish I wouldn't have seen that. And that's where the problem is, so we have to be very careful and on guard and be discerning and not let anything pull us away from life, abundant life in the Messiah Yahushua. And this also can take place with, you know, being around worldly people and now I'm not saying we should minister to people, we should minister to people, we should be willing like Yahushua to minister to people and all that. In fact Paul said; I wrote in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly do not mean with sexually immoral people of this world (like he's saying you should keep company with people of the world, otherwise how are you gonna teach them and bring them to Yahushua?) or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; then you would have to go out of the world. But I have written to you not to keep company, with anyone and a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; not even to eat with such a person. This is talking about one who is not repentant, yet they're calling themselves believers and they have gone through a process of examination and reproof and stuff like that. And they continue to practice these attributes
even after being confronted on multiple occasions. So you know we expect the world to be in the brother, we expect the world to be in brethren who are new, we expect people who are spiritually immature to have some worldliness in them.
And we can't run from everybody who doesn't fit our set of doctrines or beliefs and just try to
live in a cocoon somewhere you know. I mean we can't live like that and be effective in reaching the people of this world and the body of Messiah with life. And I find too often in an effort to be unstained from the world and unspotted from the world you know congregations and local fellowships has become like a social club where you know only the qualified are allowed to come in and you got to reach a certain level of spiritual maturity and then we'll accept you and then, the spiritually immature may not be rejected you know they got some willingness but they are not rejected you know they're just, they're made to feel like they're on the outside looking in while those who are in these little cliques you know are, they've reached a point where they're deemed worthy of true fellowship and acceptance and everyone's scared of the worldly when coming in, you know maybe not dressed appropriately, maybe not valuing the right things and all that. And it's all done in the guise of we got to protect our children from bad influence and I'm all for that but sometimes we can take it too far. How do you avoid becoming worldly when you live in a worldly world? And sometimes even our spiritual family has some areas where they're not yet to the point where they let go of certain things. But you know hopefully our spirit, our children are mature enough to where, we don't have to shelter them from every little thing and that they don't see us being high minded and arrogant against everybody and only people who meet our expectations are worthy of our fellowship. And everybody else is lesser than we are, that's not right either and sometimes when you see people who are not spiritually mature our children are going to run into that in their life so I mean can't we just let them be valuable teaching moments you know. Yahushua was very long-suffering with us every single day we live and we have to be long-suffering with each other. And if you see other people not walking uprightly yeah they may be worldly or whatever but it can be an opportunity to illustrate the example the Messiah and you know to be a light to them.
So now we're not gonna be able to save everybody but we can choose to love everyone and anyone can love those who love them but even the world does that. But I'm talking about love that even when some people wrong you, you love them anyway it's when we are willing to love people who are new, people who are just coming in, people who maybe they don't have maybe they have problems with addictions, maybe they have issues in their life and we're willing to love them any way that we turn from a social club to an outreach an outreach where newcomers can find grace and are not made to feel like they can never measure up and be accepted by us let alone Elohim. So the truth be told every one of us have ever coming to do we all need to be people who overcome the world, but don't be high minded humble yourselves and we don't have to run away from everybody who doesn't fit our standards because we are not up to Messiah's standards yet ourselves. I say bear with the weak, pursue those who are straying from the path, love those who aren't being loving; show a better way to those whose hearts are being drawn into the way of the world, and if they depart from the way well they'll know the true way of love as with their departing from not some a group of self-righteous social climbing phonies who are Pharisees you know. So how do you avoid the influence of the world even though the world is all around you? Do you go and crawl under a rock somewhere? Do you find some house out in the middle of the woods and you hope maybe no one even knows you exist because then you know you won't be influenced by them. I mean how do you deal with it? We have to stay close to our Savior that's all I can tell you, we need the word of Messiah to dwell in us richly to the extent that we have no want for the things of the world. We are grieved by it as Yahweh is grieved by it, we're all works in progress but this is not the time to peer down our nose at everybody else who's different than us. We can be unspotted and unstained from the world without going out of the world completely.
That was the expectations of Paul toward the Corinthians, how else can we reach the lost? How else can we make disciples of them? We can overcome the world whoever is born of Elohim overcomes the world, this is a victory that has overcome the world our faith. Faith comes by hearing; hearing comes by the word of Elohim. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Yahushua is the Son of Elohim? It's through him that we overcome the world; it's through him that we are able to defeat the enemy.
John 3:16; For Elohim so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Yahweh loves the world, does that mean he loved the things they do? Absolutely not, but he saw each person as a soul he created and chose to love them by giving his only
begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For Elohim did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved. It's not our job to go around condemning the world, it's our job to show them the way to salvation. Continuing; He who believes in him is not condemned: but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of Elohim. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
So we are called to be light bearers and those who love the light will come to the light those who do not love the light will avoid the light, they
do not want their evil deeds to be exposed they do not want your example to be around them and you'll find that you'll be wanting to minister to someone the way of Elohim and they're avoiding you, don't want to be around you because you represent something that exposes their evil deeds.
So it's not so much you need to run from them, it's them who are gonna run from you.
So how about us what do we love? Do we love light; do we love Yahweh's word? Do we love darkness or do we love the things of darkness? We don't love the world in the sense that we long to dwell in darkness, we love the world in the sense that we want to shine light upon it so they may come out of their darkness and into the marvelous light of Elohim. And when our life shines upon their life those who will humble themselves and say yeah I need to change my ways will be drawn to the light that they might come to Yahushua and be cleansed of all their darkness.
And that's how we reach the lost, the light shines in the darkness we don't run from the darkness, we expose it. So we certainly don't love the darkness if you have a problem with loving darkness then you're gonna have a problem sharing any light.
If we have a problem with loving darkness then we could very well fall into deception and be among those who marvel at and follow the beasts.
We know the world's going to fall on the beast and so if we're loving the world and the things in the world when the beast comes we may find ourselves deceived and end up loving the things they love and marveling after the things they marvel after, be careful. We live in the very very end of the age here I believe and so we have to be careful about our affections and the lives they promote.
They think they're going to make it with their ways. In fact, 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says; when they say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, and they shall not escape. You know peace is a good thing right I mean yeah peace is great, safety is good, it's not to be harmed its good thing right. That's where it's deceptive, we should be so far removed from darkness in the things of the world that when something comes in as foreign to the spirit of truth we immediately recognize it and we see it for what it is. They say peace and safety but we're gonna go wait a minute you can't have peace and safety without Elohim. He is our protector and the giver of all peace if he's not involved in this peace and safety thing going on, something's amiss I smell a rat.
Isaiah 48:22; there is no peace says Yahweh, for the wicked. How can they practice their wickedness and yet have peace? Something is amiss, some liar has taught them there
will be peace in their sin, and no it won't. Maybe for a while they'll think they got it but they don't, because there is no peace until we join ourselves to the prince of peace. There is no peace until we are at peace with our maker; there is no peace brothers because when we're at enmity with Elohim through our love of the world we cannot be at peace. Yahushua says; Peace I leave with you, my peace I
give unto you: not as the world gives, do I give to you (not as the world gives, it's a different way. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid, because he has given you this piece. The world does not really have peace and the foundation of their peace is they'll be safe from harm in this age that they won't be at variance with one another; they won't be at war with one another. You know even the enemy and his demons have peace with each other I think I mean it seems like that. They work together pretty good but they're at peace to do wickedness against our maker, they're at peace to not regard the things of Elohim, they're at peace to enjoy their darkness.
I want to get one day the world's all gonna gather together and be at peace with each other but not with Yahweh and they will seek to destroy the holy city. They'll be at peace with each other but not with our maker and therefore their peace is not real.
So we need to be different than the world, our peace that we have is different than the peace the world tries to achieve.
And the spirit that we follow is different than the spirit of the world; the things we value are different than the things the world values. The way we talk is different than the way the world talks. The way we look, the way we think, the things that we do are different than the things of the world. Are there marked differences in our conduct versus the conduct of all the other people in this world today? I mean unbelievers, you see they are like you know a group of sheep all going off the wrong direction, eventually going off a cliff. And we're like, excuse me I'm going a different direction here and they're all coming at us you know. And we're calling people, hey, there's a cliff back here. Come with me. But they think since there are so many going that way that everything's alright. But we're hearing our Master's voice and we're looking toward him and they're following their Master's voice and he's laying into destruction and our shepherd is leading us to eternal life. Don't listen to whatever they're listening to, if you start listening to both what they're listening to and what we're supposed to listen to it's easy to get caught up in their flow and we'll get tired, get tired of saying excuse me I'm going a different way, pardon me, follow the shepherd over here. And if you listen too much to the voice of his enemy
and you start to get worn down and you quit listening to the good shepherd's voice, the holy scriptures the word it's easy just so easy to get
caught up in the flow and go the wrong direction. We are like people who are going down, who are on a river and we know the shepherd's voice is calling us to fight against the current of the river and go in a different direction. And so we've got our orders you know and we're going against the flow as we have our orders.
And all we have to do to go the wrong direction is just stop using the orders and the current will just take us where we shouldn't go. We've got to fight; we've got the fight against it. When we focus completely on the voice of the good shepherd: that leads us to the green pastures and away from the waterfall, away from the cliff and into the house of Elohim, the house of living waters. Some people think oh I gotta look like the other sheep you know, I gotta act like him, look like him, gotta just like him, gotta be like him then they'll be attracted to me and then I'll turn around to follow the shepherd see and then as, by looking a little bit like the world I'll be attracted to them and then I'll tell them about Yahushua and then they'll follow Yahushua. But wait a minute they are attracted by what, worldliness in you? If that's what they're attracted to then they're still not converted and in fact we're not either.
If that's what we're trying to do we will end up still doing things like they did back in the year 300, pick up this Mithra celebration and try to Christianize it and say that's when Messiah was born when it really wasn't or start being like you know its compromised, syncretized. But we've got to march the beat of a different drum, we are different and we're willing to be different and not be like everybody else and be a light, a
loveliness, a purity, a piece, a kindness, a difference too many people are trying to imitate the world to win the world and that's how we got Christmas and Easter to begin with. But you can't bring something clean now the unclean you know people worship the devil and they're gonna try to make it clean somehow, you can't do that. You don't win the world by imitating the world you win the world by imitating Yahushua the Messiah by being different.
Ask yourself is this what Yahushua will be doing?
All of a sudden the answer becomes very clear. I'm not following my shepherd, I'm not I'm not doing what he did, I'm not walking as he walked, I'm valuing what he hates, I'm not loving what he loves.
Would Yahushua be doing today, what will he be doing tomorrow? What you got planned tomorrow is it something Yahushua will be doing? What you got planned after Shabbat tonight, is it something Yahushua will be doing?
We have to ask ourselves these questions because we don't want to be adulterers and adulteresses, we don't want the spirit of Elohim to yearn jealously over the things that we are valuing.
But he does give more grace. Therefore he says; Elohim resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to Elohim, resist the devil and he will flee from. Submit to Elohim, resist the devil and he will flee from you. But you gotta resist him, don't invite him into your living room, don't invite him into your car, you don't want that worldly spirit anywhere in your heart. And when you hear it which you will you reject it, you're not entertained by it, you're not thrilled by it, you're not amused by it, you are grieved by it. Draw near to Elohim, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of Yahweh, and he will lift you up. That worldly laughter, that laughs at sin, that laughs at the entertainments of this world, ha ha ha and America is going to hell and they're laughing all the way, worldly entertainments he says that your laughter is turned the mourning. How can you not be grieved by the sin they're doing? The spirit of Yahweh in us is yearning jealously
saying how can you love the things I hate, how can you value the things I am disgusted by, it's adultery. It is. It's mental adultery we love Yahweh but we love
the world too. We love Yahweh and we love the things that are against him, we love Yahweh and we don't hate the sin, we love our sin too, it doesn't work that way. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my, if you love the world the love of the father is not in you, strong words.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it: but he who does the will of Elohim (hallelujah) abides forever. He who does the will of Elohim, that's what I'm encouraging you to seek today, to value today the will of Elohim and beware of where your affections
are drawn. Something we all need to be on guard against because the world makes sin look so innocent.
The world makes sin seem so petty, but the very
sight of these things should grieve us.
We don't find joy in it, we don't want these things to be a part of us or a part of our family, the spirit of the world though it just has a way of seeming so innocent the person doesn't have the guard up, you gotta be very careful.
Carry the sword with you always in your heart and your mind and say this is, it's not me living anymore, its Yahushua living in me. And the life which I now live I live by faith in the son of Elohim who loved me and gave himself for me. I reject those things in the name of Yahushua HaMashiach can you say it with me, I reject all the things that are in the world I reject the lust of the flesh say it I reject the lust of the flesh I reject the lust of the eyes I reject the pride of life I resist you devil and I receive and submit to the will of Elohim. I don't love the world I am grieved by the world I love my father in heaven, I love my Savior and I know this world is passing away and the lusts of all these things are passing away and I know that he who does the will of Elohim will abide forever. And so I reject the enemy, his teaching and the
things he loves.
Isaiah 33 verse 10 says; now will I rise, says Yahweh. All right! Finally, now I will be exalted. Now, I will lift myself up. You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. It's because of the spirit coming out of your mouth is destructive. And the people shall be like the burnings of lime:
like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire. Why, because the spirit of the world, pride of life, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, cares of this world, grew up and choked the word and so like thorns, they are all...ever notice when you throw thorns in the fire? they burn very quickly, the fire is ever ready to consume the thorns. So Isaiah 33:15-16; very important verses here I
like these verses, alright: He who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing...actually that's not even the next verse. Alright we will put 13 and 14 up there next. I'm sure the enemy does not want to see these; these are really powerful verses here. Okay here we go it says; Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings (and not be burned up)? He says he who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; (the words in his mouth are the words of Elohim or according to the oracles of Elohim) he who despises the gain of oppressions, whose gestures with his hands refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing the bloodshed, shuts his eyes from seeing evil. He will dwell on high: his place of defense will be a fortress of rocks: bread will be given him; his waters will be sure. So we can't be entertained by these things, we can't; put them away from you.
So when we hear the ugliness that's in the world we want to shut our eyes to those things, we want to clear those things, they vex our soul. The world wants to tell you all the gory gruesome details of murders and crimes and terrible rapes and all the things that we are not, why do we have to listen to all that, except to pray for whoever is involved I mean there's a bunch of people that are doing terrible things. And I want to hear things that are praiseworthy and lovely and pure and focus on those things not vex my soul with the latest sin that's been committed the neighborhood or the latest thing that has been going in Hollywood or whatever. I mean why do we concern ourselves with that I mean, I turn on the news and I'm like just go to a news website and you know I hardly ever click on any links I just see the headlines okay yep the world still worldly yup okay okay this going on over here. Well that's interesting we'll see how people respond to that you know get a pulse of what this nation is pursuing. So I can more effectively minister to them but beyond that you know I don't have to know every awful thing they've done and you know. Scripture says do not be children in understanding but in malice be babes. In understanding you to be mature but in terms of all the wicked things and why they do it and the things that they do I don't have to know all that or why they do it. I mean do I have to find out how evil something is before I realize I don't have to be listening to it? We can discern evil for what it is without knowing all the ins and outs about it because sometimes you want to know more and more okay what is this about again you know the spirit in you is going to no no no no don't go there you don't need to know all that stuff.
Because the knowledge of evil only brings more temptation to your life you know, we don't need more temptation than we already got.
So we want to search and Google all the stuff that isn't going to benefit us spiritually ask yourself is this going to benefit me spiritually the thing I'm watching, the thing I see, the thing that I'm seeing in the news or the thing I'm watching on a screen or the website I'm going to is this going to benefit me spiritually or is there a risk of temptation? Is there a serious risk of I mean the world itself you can't avoid that but you don't have to pipe in your house you know. So what we need to do is let the word of Elohim be
our focus, let his words be what feed us, his words. Let his teaching be in our households because there's a lot out there that we need to not be connected to. Again I'm not saying we shouldn't minister to people, I'm not saying you have to avoid everybody in your life who happens to be committing a sin.
I'm saying that if you are close to Yahushua you will
not have any desire for their things. Suppose you're ministering to some guy who is you know a murder an ax murderer or something you can minister to him and not have any desire whatsoever to be an ax murderer okay. So the same thing with other people, there are
people out there who are involved in all kinds of different things and you can minister to them and not be tempted to do the things they are doing. And the closer we are to Yahushua the more we are able to be effective in those areas. Now if someone has a weakness in a particular area there is wisdom in avoiding temptations.
For instance let's say someone has a problem with alcohol or a problem with drugs you know sometimes these folks the minute they feel like they got deliver they immediately go out to their former friends and try to convert them and then find themselves being dragged right back into it. So you got to be away from those things for a certain amount of time before you can effectively be a minister in those areas. So be aware of that and I don't believe you have to be a drug addict to minister to a drug addict. I don't think you ever had to be a drug addict to minister to a drug addict. Yahushua was never a drug addict and he ministers quite effectively, in fact he never committed any sin he ministers quite effectively to all of us. So we don't have to be that in fact if that's
been our habit for a lot of years we got to get out it for a while before we can be effective in ministering to others. So be aware of these things, be aware of the spirit of the world and be at a high level of sensitivity to deception. 1 John chapter 4 verse 1 says; Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of Elohim: because many false prophets have gone out into the world. If something is contrary to the words of Elohim don't believe it; by this you know the Spirit of Elohim: Every spirit that confesses that Yahushua Messiah has come in the flesh is of Elohim. And every spirit that does not confess Yahushua has come in the flesh is not of Elohim: and this is the spirit of the anti-messiah, which you have heard was coming; and is now already in the world.
So there are different spirits out there teaching different things and I would say this in the body of the Messiah if someone was formally a believer in the Messiah Yahushua and they are trying to present you with their arguments as to why Yahushua is not the Messiah do not listen to them. 1 John 5 tells you or a 2 John tells you don't even
bring him into your house.
So be aware of that, says you are of Elohim, little children, and you have overcome them: because he who is in you is greater, than he who is in the world. They are of the world: therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. So the one who dwells in us is greater than the one who is in the world and we have overcome these things, why because of Yahushua HaMashiach.
Scripture says; hear the parable of the sower.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes, and snatches away which was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. He who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word; and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received the seed on good ground is he who hears the word, and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and produces, some are hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
So our goal is to have the soil in our hearts that is
the good ground for the word of Yahweh to plant within us. But if our soil is ever ready to receive the seed that in our heart we have all these thorns kinda mixed in with the seed then we're going to find ourselves being unfruitful. So what are the thorns? The thorns are from another seed, the seed of the enemy ultimately that are planted and drawing as to the things of the world, riches, pleasures, cares of worldly things. The two cannot grow side by side without there being an effect and negative effect. And so we have to completely and utterly get the thorns out of our life, addictions, desires
for wrong things, being impressed with worldliness.
2 Peter 2:20 says; For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Master Yahushua and Saviour Yahushua Messiah, they are again entangled (because of the thorny ways) in them, and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog returns to his own vomit; and the sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Better to not even know than to know and turn away from it. 1 Peter 2:9 says; you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people; that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Who once were were not a people, but are now the people of Elohim: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Beautiful words beautiful beautiful words it's time
that we operate in the identity which Yahweh has
given us.
You're a chosen generation brothers and sisters,
you're not that generation that's adulteress you're a generation that's chosen.
A royal priesthood teaching righteousness, a holy nation undefiled from the world, his own special
people not a people of darkness but people of light that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light.
You once were not a people but now the people of Elohim who once had not obtained mercy but now you have obtained mercy. Do not take it for granted, direct your heart
out of the ways of darkness and beware of
adulteries, beware beware beware.
That's our message today and when you choose to be different be ready because here it comes, The world hates you know it hated Yahushua first and if you are of the world the world love its own but because you're not of the world, but because Yahushua chose you out the world, the world's going to hate you be ready for it and accept the fact that you're going to be rejected. They're not the ones you're trying to impress anyway what difference does it make? You're trying to please Elohim that's who you are trying to please not the people of the world but
you're trying to please Elohim that's why Yahushua said; No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of Elohim.
You can't look back, you can't be like Lot's wife oh, all these things you cannot look back you need
to look and keep your eyes on the shepherd where the good way is. If then you were raised with Messiah, seek those things which are above, where Messiah is sitting at the right hand of Elohim. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Because you died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim. Do you believe that?
You died you died you died a long time ago you died
and now a new creation you are. So set your mind on heavenly things not on earthly things; things which above keep your eyes on Yahushua so that when you're in this world and you are in this world you will not be of this world
because this world is not what has your affections anyway. When Messiah, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. Put to death evil desires. Put to death uncleanness. Put to death fornication. Put to death covetousness. Covetousness is adultery and therefore is idolatry and therefore is adultery also. Because of these things the wrath of Elohim is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Because of what things? Evil desires, covetousness, fornication, uncleanness, passion. In which you yourselves once walked, when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Bf bombs, calling women BIT** you know the rest how it's spelled, sh** word all these other words, filthy language that is not befitting a believer. Don't justify yourselves if you look this up in the Greek its talking about socially unacceptable language which could generally consider to basically curse words or cuss words, it should not be coming out your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Put off all these things that are of the world and we're not of the world, we're supposed to overcome
it not be overcome by it because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to Elohim, which is your reasonable service. And not be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind ( we need that renewing of the mind, continually by the word of Elohim), that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Elohim. We're gonna be confused by what the perfect will of Elohim is whenever we're trying to be conformed to this world.
But when we're seeking to be transformed by the renewing never mind we will begin to learn and understand what the good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim truly is.
So we need to have that renewed mind that's constantly being fed with the good bread, the good food, the living word that proceeds out of the mouth of Elohim, that brings life.
Psalm 101 verse 3 says; I will set nothing wicked before my eyes: I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. If you ever wonder should I watch this TV program, remember the scripture please what are they
teaching in this television show, what are they teaching in this program I'm watching, what is the theology to it because every program has a theology to it?
A perverse heart shall depart from me: I will not know wickedness person. Now all you got to do is walk into Walmart and they'll be wicked sitting right there in front of you, that's normal okay we live in the world its okay but don't get to pipe it into your house.
Let that be a place of refuge Yahushua will go away with his disciples into remote places for a reason, they needed to be strengthened, they needed to be renewed, they needed to stay close to Yahweh. And let the right spirit feed us, so that we can
then speak those words to others because we have
received not the spirit of the world but the spirit was from Elohim.
We don't want to be adulterers and adulteresses so we have to not receive the spirit of the world but we must receive the spirit from Elohim. Therefore the words of Yahushua which are spear in our life that we receive the words of the people of the world and the doctrines and theologies they teach in the media and Facebook posts and things like that. Those things we don't receive we've got to control Internet use, I work online, minister online it's very easy for me to get caught up in whatever is going on the Internet it's like a magnet and it's not all bad.
And often times I'm conflicted because I do minister you know how to balance everything out. But I can tell you this if you let it Facebook will take over your life, there are so many interesting things that people post believers too good things and there are things that people post on there just vile. If you're on Facebook use it as a place of ministry don't go there for entertainment there's just so much junk on there be careful who you're friends with on Facebook except that you want to reach them. If you want to minister it's a great place to minister but really Internet ministry has its limitations so be aware that.
But listen we need to pray, we need to pray that we can be among the unspotted the unstained, people who are not stained by the world but rather
being a people who have been renewed by doing the work of Yahweh, seeking his ways that we might be brought into that good land where only righteousness will dwell. And certainly not the spirit of the world the spirit of the world will be in prison for a while
because when we truly give our lives to the one who is gonna take us in the promised land we make him number one in every aspect of our lives and the things that grieve him grieve us the things that he hates we hate, the things that he loves we love. Let's pray, O Father Yahweh kaddosh kaddosh
kaddosh are you and kaddosh is your great name Father we want to be sanctified as you are sanctified: to be holy as you are holy.
Help us Father Yahweh to have your perspective on all the things that come into our eyes, into our ears cleanse our hearts, purify our hearts lead us
in the way everlasting, fill us with your holiness, your truth. Let's not be defiled by the spirit of the world
for it is you that we long for, forgive us where we have failed you in these areas, forgive us where our hearts have looked to other things and saw other pastures and we're drawn to them.
Cleanse us and purify us in such a way but we want only one thing and that which is good upright, pure, lovely, a good report, praiseworthy things. We don't want the spirit of the world, we don't want to commit adultery against you, we want to be faithful with all of our house, for truly yours is the kingdom and power and glory and majesty forever and ever and all praise, honor and worship belongs to you Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh our Mighty One, forever and ever, in Yahushua's great name we pray, Amein.
Yahushua when he looked at that generation he lived in, he said this "a wicked and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign; and no sign shall be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah". And he left them, and departed. So he considered it to be an adulterous generation that he lived in even though most people were worshipers of Elohim and seem to be you know necessarily the marriages were necessarily a big mess weren't they or were they? He also said in Mark 8:38; for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation; of him the son of man will also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels.
Again he called it an adulterous generation and some of whom will be ashamed of the Messiah and the words of Messiah. Well I wanna draw your attention to the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 3 he says this; YAHWEH said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
And I said after she had done all these things, return to me. But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Now look at this he refers to Israel as backsliding, but then he calls Judah treacherous, interesting.
Then I saw, that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. He's talking about idolatry here and the
worship of Mighty Ones that are not Elohim, that is not Yahweh and calls Judah treacherous and
backsliding Israel. So it came to pass through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in
pretense, says Yahweh. Then Yahweh said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. I remember when I read this chapter I was floored
because it is treachery against Elohim to not turn
to him with a whole heart, but to be half-hearted in our service to him, to not have that enthusiasm and that passion for righteousness.
And look here this is under Josiah's reign. Josiah was a righteous king, 8 years old he is already turning things around and I think 16 years old he finally, he really I mean made some major reforms okay. But he's saying this is all fake it's not real,
I'm sure there were a true and genuine believers among them, by and large Yahweh said they are treacherous because they were hypocritical, they wanted Yahweh to be their Elohim and dabble in other
things too.
They were not given to Yahweh their whole heart,
now why is it considered to be adultery to Yahweh? I mean that would be that's very serious, it's one thing to commit adultery on your spouse, another to commit adultery against Yahweh the Mighty One of Israel. And why would it be adulterers I mean there's not really any you know physical thing going on necessarily why is it? Well Revelation 19:7 says; Let's be glad and rejoice, and giving glory: for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. We as believers are as a whole compared to a bride:
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of Elohim. So we are part of the body of the Messiah and we become one body with him in the same way in a marriage we have 2 people in this case male and female becoming one flesh. We are part of the body of the Messiah in a spiritual way not the physical way, we're part of him in a spiritual way as it says in Ephesians 5:30: we are members of his body, of his flesh, of his bones. But he who is joined to the master is one spirit with him. And so in spiritual way allegorically speaking, members of his body and spiritually speaking he says I have been crucified with Messiah: is no longer I who live; but Messiah lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of Elohim, who loved me, and gave himself for me. And so he dwells in us, in a relationship with him we
are one spirit with him and so there are areas in which we could unknowingly, perhaps be
committing adultery as the bride of Messiah against the bridegroom. Now we can't be thinking of this in terms of carnal things like male and female, yes in the case of a physical marriage on the earth there's male and female. But in a spiritual sense, we don't have to be a female to be a part of the so-called bride of Messiah, just you know in Hebrew everything's male and female there is no neuter okay. So even the city is called she, it's called a mother in one place. So we just have to look at the way things are set up on the physical realm and understand their spiritual correlations to many things that are in the physical world we live in. In this case the marriage, the covenant that was made with a husband and wife is similar to the covenant we make with our Elohim in that we are expected to be faithful to him. In the same way a wife is to be faithful to her husband and a husband is supposed to be faithful to his wife in this case Yahushua is always faithful to us, the question is are we always faithful to him or are we guilty or perhaps committing adultery against the bridegroom? Got to looking at the book of James I came to realize that even for us to involve ourselves, interest ourselves in the things of the world, the things that have been fundamentally at war with him could be an adulteress.
James 4:4 says: Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity
(that means hatred) with Elohim?
Whosoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously.
I find that a very fascinating passage, what does it mean to be a friend of the world?
What does it mean the spirit that dwells in us yearns jealously?
Well we know that Yahweh's spirit is in us that is given to us when we decide that we're going to repent and believe in the master Yahushua and it yarns jealously over anything that we might be involved in that could be characterized as kinship and friendship with the world.
Now the word in Greek there has to do with loving the world or having affections for the world, just having a certain affection for things that we know are contrary to the way Yahweh has set things up to the way he wants us to live. And so they have this love of the world according to the scripture is to be at enmity or hostility with our creator the word there Filia has to do with being
friendly, associate, joining together with perhaps unequally yoked with the world and as I begin to think about this and look at this I realized how important this is. Yahweh is looking at us he's saying where are your affections, what are the things that you are drawn to? What do you want to be together with? What are you looking for? Where is your heart directed?
I don't want him to feel about me like I've been an adulterer or adulteress I know I have been at various points in my walk most of you hopefully will not want to feel that way him to feel that way about you. So what is this mean? It's a real dangerous area I don't want us to get involved with committing adultery against the Messiah. Yahweh delivers us from darkness and every unclean thing and sanctified us to be as children and we are very blessed to have a spirit dwelling in us. Not everybody has that blessing to have a spirit within them and yet if this spirit he's placing within us yearns jealously then I mean all it's only through Yahushua HaMashiach, Yahushua the Messiah his spirit that we ultimately we are led into a way of life in peace and righteousness. And only through him can we be cleansed of our adulterous ways, in fact if we didn't have a spirit we are only just dead dust but Yahweh formed us and breathed life into us so that we would have the breadth of life and he wants to fill us with that life eternally. And we are created to be in his image and when we walk in his image then we know we're not committing adultery against him. But the word spirit in the Hebrew is Ruach, and Ruach means breath. So the breath of life is in us and when he breathes in us he is giving us life, his word breathes in us, words are formed through breath. In fact one of the most fascinating scriptures I know in the in the bible is John 6:63 where he says; It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, are a spirit, and they are life. Therefore, it's his word, the words of Messiah being placed in our hearts because Yahushua is dwelling there our savior is there, he's the living word made flesh to dwell among us. And we want the words of Messiah to dwell in us richly with all wisdom speaking, admonishing one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as the scripture goes. That's the spirit we yearn for, we long for that we want to be in us in such a way that we find ourselves living the way Yahushua did and that's how we want to conduct ourselves in this world differently than what the world does. Our priorities are different, our thoughts are different we want our thoughts to be more like his thoughts and it's by his spirit, his word living in us, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Your word I've hidden in my heart, that is the spirit that is in our hearts within us, our hearts are prone to yearn after other things, it
depends on what we connect our heart to the holy spirit or to carnal man. The promise in the new covenant is that Yahweh's spirit would be written in our hearts and minds and because the spirit of Yahweh dwells in us when something foreign to that spirit begins to enter the dwelling place of Elohim there should be a strong strong check in our spirit.
We have a foreign invader coming into our heart here, an unclean spirit with his doctrines, his teachings, his values. And that unclean spirit is very active in the world today and instead love it teaches hatred, instead of
humility it teaches pride, instead of peace it brings confusion, instead of hope it brings hopelessness, instead of righteousness it brings wickedness and it does not bring life. It's filled with the things that are contrary to the spirit of Elohim and we should not love the things that are of that other spirit or we may find ourselves committing adultery against Yahweh.
You know thorns plants startup as an innocent looking plant at first and it starts growing and before you know it you got this big brier patch in front of you, they grow very quickly. Thorns in your face and you can't really see the light of Yahweh to grow, that's the seed that fell among thorns can't bear fruit. That's the problem with the spirit of the world it entangles and grows and grows until soon there's nothing left for Elohim. And so we have to be careful that we are not getting involved in what's called the worldly things, worldly things that are not of him, that take us away from him, that take the edge off our spiritual walk And I want to share some scriptures today to talk about the deceptiveness of it because the thorns are just entangled and the only way you can get the thorns out is if you get the sword of the word of Yahweh and cut down the thorn trees, thorn bushes.
And I hope that today's study will encourage you if you have some thorns growing up in the soil of your heart that the word of Yahweh will convict you and that you will cut those things down,
anything that would keep us from growing spiritually we want to eliminate from our lives so that we don't have an unclean spirit hanging around and harassing us but we have and allow the holy spirit of Yahweh to grow fully rather than yearning jealously because we have this little thing on the side, this little thing of the worldly thing you know it's a worldly thing, you know Yahweh is not in favor of but you just you think you can just keep this little idol over here you know and it'll be alright and you know and this kind hangs around and you kinda like it so you let it be in your life. And that's the way it is some of you know what I'm talking about, you love Yahweh but sometimes there is this little thing on the side you know you kinda put him on the back burner sometimes yeah, sit him back here and let me go do this for a while, hey I have been guilty of it.
Psalm 50 verse 12, we need to understand who first of all the world belongs to okay; Yahweh says If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you: because the world is mine, and all its fullness. So the world belongs to him it's his world okay, we have to recognize it's his world and quit acting like it's ours it isn't, it's his. Psalm 9 verse 8 says he will judge the world in righteousness, and he shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. So the world belongs to him and those who are not willing to conduct their lives in such a way that reflects his principles in his leading, in his teaching will find themselves being judged this world he created he's coming to judge it. And so if we have this friendship with it and we're connected to it then we're gonna be among those he has to correct in a judge. In fact he says I will punish the world for its evil, Isaiah 13:11 and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud and will lay low the hotness of the terrible.
So the spirit of Yahweh dwelling in us ought to be saying no no no this is not what we are about, this is not what Yahweh is about and Yahushua made a prediction about when the spirit of Yahweh would come and dwell in us, it was going to do something about this wicked world we live in. Here's what he said is going to do John 16:7 says; Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is to your advantage I go away: for if I do not go away, the Helper (that's the holy spirit) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they do not believe in me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more; Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
And so the whole world will be judged including the residing prince and ruler, Yahweh put man in the Garden of Eden to rule this world and take dominion, to walk in his image and to keep things under subjection to him and then man goes along and follows these unclean spirits led by the prince he selected for himself to be his ruler.
Basically men have chosen a liar to be the ruler, the father of it, the father of lies. That's what Yahushua said about this ruler, he says you are of your father the devil, talking the Pharisees and the people who were against him, the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources: for he is a liar, and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. You see, he says you of your father the devil, he said devil's children why? Because they were a friend of the world, they were following the teachings and valuing the things the devil showed them which were corrupt and they were following the ways of Yahweh's enemy and they were not walking in the image of Elohim, they were walking in the image of his enemy, how do you know the difference? 1 John 3:10; In this the children of Elohim, and the children of the devil are manifest: whosoever does not practice righteousness is not of Elohim, nor is he who does not love his brother. So we need to have a love for righteous things, the things of Yahweh's spirit and not a love for the things, the spirit of his enemy because if we end up not loving truth and we end up not loving righteousness and instead we are entertained by and we love things that are contrary to him we find
ourselves in a predicament when it comes to seeking truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says; the coming of the lawless one as according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders. and with all unrighteousness deception among those who perished; because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason Elohim will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. That they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. We cannot have pleasure in unrighteousness when the holy spirit of Elohim lives in us, otherwise we
are in danger of not valuing in receiving the truth. And we are in danger of not receiving that love of the truth that we need to be saved.
And those who don't receive the love of the truth the reason why they don't is because they got this pleasure in unrighteousness going around here, they pleasure themselves in it. Obviously we should not be taking any pleasure in unrighteousness, unrighteousness lies in the world, are all synonyms and they're all working together originating from the spirit of the world. And we should not have any love for these things because the ruler of this world is a liar and he deceives the whole world. The scripture says Revelation 12:9; the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world:
he was cast to the earth, as angels were cast out with him.
Where are our affections? To whom is our loyalty? Because if you think deception is strong now it's going to get worse but the root of everything is having pleasure in unrighteousness and not loving the truth. In fact we ought to be so separate from the world,
we are looking forward to the day when we will judge the world for the things it's doing. 1 Corinthians 6:2 says; Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? and if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? The point is that they had this trouble there is an assembly in Corinth, worldliness they lived in a very worldly city and he's saying you realize one day you're gonna judge the world right you guys are going to be the judges. And so here they were squabbling over money and different things he says come on its really better to take the wrong than to bring them before the worldly judges and you're supposed to be people who are going to judge the world one day.
So he told them to cease from your uncleanness, cease from the immoralities that you are involved in. Now if you're looking for a pure and undefiled walk,
here's this James 1:27, Pure and undefiled religion (or walk) before Elohim and the Father is this, To visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Unspotted doesn't mean that no one can see you, it means unstained you don't have any spots, any stains from the world. So we're called to be unstained even though we live in a world that is full of wickedness.
Even though we live in a world that is contrary to Elohim we as believers can live and glorify our
father in heaven but we have to stay very close to our shepherd. And beware of things that pull you away from him and when you feel that pull away from him resist it, resist it. You can be surrounded by the most worldly, most awful things and you can still stay close to the shepherd that's what they are expected to do in the city of Corinth a very vile city we live in cities like that across America. But you know you ever felt the stain before?
I have you know I felt that stain I remember years ago very beautiful wonderful Shabbat day went to a meeting and then I went and visited the house of some relatives and they were not yet believers and they had the television on and it's pouring out its filthy worldly spirit you know into the room it's and I don't know how to describe it but what I felt after having left there. I felt this old yuck you know, the old before I was
a believer kinda yuck into its like, it just sucks the life out of me or I don't know how you describe it. But you know it's the old the old way and the things that are out there today with television shows and the things that the world are amused by. The things that they value you know we hang around that too much and we just get desensitized to the evil and I don't ever want to get this desensitized to it. I remember back in like 97 or 98 I realized what Hollywood was doing in my house, I grabbed the television and I went to throw it off the porch and my wife says well you know what if we wanna watch home videos you know? So I turned around and put it back but you know I am finding that I have not had my television hooked up to cable or antenna or anything ever since.
But what I'm finding now is the Internet is becoming the new TV, and it's like if he doesn't get you one way he's gonna try to get you in another way. And you know we have to be careful with the things that we are entertained by I'm not saying it's wrong to watch a movie not all movies are wicked some movies are very edifying and very instructive. We have a subscription to Pureflix which is you know, we don't do Netflix anymore we got Pureflix and Dove Channel you know on our box and you know 80 to 90 percent of that is pretty good but then there's that 10 to 20 percent that is not in my opinion right. And how much of that do you allow you know do you do you say all 0 percent and if you did that you know maybe just be better off. But then there are some really edifying things positive things and the truth is you can turn on right now you could turn on other Bible teachers listen about teachers and you might get an 80 to 20 on that too. So it's not just movies it's other stuff just the
world in general. So what we need is to stay close to our shepherd and let it be that Yahweh has filled our cup to overflowing and then that out of the overflow we flow on to other people. But you know we've got all these competing forces in our lives and sometimes it makes it very difficult to do that and we have to have our guard up continually.
And we have to know the truth, we have to have familiarity with scripture we're not gonna know when something's leading us astray.
And what a big problem is with TV and stuff is it thrust scenes at you all the time, only after the fact you like man I wish I wouldn't have seen that. And that's where the problem is, so we have to be very careful and on guard and be discerning and not let anything pull us away from life, abundant life in the Messiah Yahushua. And this also can take place with, you know, being around worldly people and now I'm not saying we should minister to people, we should minister to people, we should be willing like Yahushua to minister to people and all that. In fact Paul said; I wrote in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly do not mean with sexually immoral people of this world (like he's saying you should keep company with people of the world, otherwise how are you gonna teach them and bring them to Yahushua?) or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; then you would have to go out of the world. But I have written to you not to keep company, with anyone and a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; not even to eat with such a person. This is talking about one who is not repentant, yet they're calling themselves believers and they have gone through a process of examination and reproof and stuff like that. And they continue to practice these attributes
even after being confronted on multiple occasions. So you know we expect the world to be in the brother, we expect the world to be in brethren who are new, we expect people who are spiritually immature to have some worldliness in them.
And we can't run from everybody who doesn't fit our set of doctrines or beliefs and just try to
live in a cocoon somewhere you know. I mean we can't live like that and be effective in reaching the people of this world and the body of Messiah with life. And I find too often in an effort to be unstained from the world and unspotted from the world you know congregations and local fellowships has become like a social club where you know only the qualified are allowed to come in and you got to reach a certain level of spiritual maturity and then we'll accept you and then, the spiritually immature may not be rejected you know they got some willingness but they are not rejected you know they're just, they're made to feel like they're on the outside looking in while those who are in these little cliques you know are, they've reached a point where they're deemed worthy of true fellowship and acceptance and everyone's scared of the worldly when coming in, you know maybe not dressed appropriately, maybe not valuing the right things and all that. And it's all done in the guise of we got to protect our children from bad influence and I'm all for that but sometimes we can take it too far. How do you avoid becoming worldly when you live in a worldly world? And sometimes even our spiritual family has some areas where they're not yet to the point where they let go of certain things. But you know hopefully our spirit, our children are mature enough to where, we don't have to shelter them from every little thing and that they don't see us being high minded and arrogant against everybody and only people who meet our expectations are worthy of our fellowship. And everybody else is lesser than we are, that's not right either and sometimes when you see people who are not spiritually mature our children are going to run into that in their life so I mean can't we just let them be valuable teaching moments you know. Yahushua was very long-suffering with us every single day we live and we have to be long-suffering with each other. And if you see other people not walking uprightly yeah they may be worldly or whatever but it can be an opportunity to illustrate the example the Messiah and you know to be a light to them.
So now we're not gonna be able to save everybody but we can choose to love everyone and anyone can love those who love them but even the world does that. But I'm talking about love that even when some people wrong you, you love them anyway it's when we are willing to love people who are new, people who are just coming in, people who maybe they don't have maybe they have problems with addictions, maybe they have issues in their life and we're willing to love them any way that we turn from a social club to an outreach an outreach where newcomers can find grace and are not made to feel like they can never measure up and be accepted by us let alone Elohim. So the truth be told every one of us have ever coming to do we all need to be people who overcome the world, but don't be high minded humble yourselves and we don't have to run away from everybody who doesn't fit our standards because we are not up to Messiah's standards yet ourselves. I say bear with the weak, pursue those who are straying from the path, love those who aren't being loving; show a better way to those whose hearts are being drawn into the way of the world, and if they depart from the way well they'll know the true way of love as with their departing from not some a group of self-righteous social climbing phonies who are Pharisees you know. So how do you avoid the influence of the world even though the world is all around you? Do you go and crawl under a rock somewhere? Do you find some house out in the middle of the woods and you hope maybe no one even knows you exist because then you know you won't be influenced by them. I mean how do you deal with it? We have to stay close to our Savior that's all I can tell you, we need the word of Messiah to dwell in us richly to the extent that we have no want for the things of the world. We are grieved by it as Yahweh is grieved by it, we're all works in progress but this is not the time to peer down our nose at everybody else who's different than us. We can be unspotted and unstained from the world without going out of the world completely.
That was the expectations of Paul toward the Corinthians, how else can we reach the lost? How else can we make disciples of them? We can overcome the world whoever is born of Elohim overcomes the world, this is a victory that has overcome the world our faith. Faith comes by hearing; hearing comes by the word of Elohim. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Yahushua is the Son of Elohim? It's through him that we overcome the world; it's through him that we are able to defeat the enemy.
John 3:16; For Elohim so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Yahweh loves the world, does that mean he loved the things they do? Absolutely not, but he saw each person as a soul he created and chose to love them by giving his only
begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For Elohim did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved. It's not our job to go around condemning the world, it's our job to show them the way to salvation. Continuing; He who believes in him is not condemned: but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of Elohim. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
So we are called to be light bearers and those who love the light will come to the light those who do not love the light will avoid the light, they
do not want their evil deeds to be exposed they do not want your example to be around them and you'll find that you'll be wanting to minister to someone the way of Elohim and they're avoiding you, don't want to be around you because you represent something that exposes their evil deeds.
So it's not so much you need to run from them, it's them who are gonna run from you.
So how about us what do we love? Do we love light; do we love Yahweh's word? Do we love darkness or do we love the things of darkness? We don't love the world in the sense that we long to dwell in darkness, we love the world in the sense that we want to shine light upon it so they may come out of their darkness and into the marvelous light of Elohim. And when our life shines upon their life those who will humble themselves and say yeah I need to change my ways will be drawn to the light that they might come to Yahushua and be cleansed of all their darkness.
And that's how we reach the lost, the light shines in the darkness we don't run from the darkness, we expose it. So we certainly don't love the darkness if you have a problem with loving darkness then you're gonna have a problem sharing any light.
If we have a problem with loving darkness then we could very well fall into deception and be among those who marvel at and follow the beasts.
We know the world's going to fall on the beast and so if we're loving the world and the things in the world when the beast comes we may find ourselves deceived and end up loving the things they love and marveling after the things they marvel after, be careful. We live in the very very end of the age here I believe and so we have to be careful about our affections and the lives they promote.
They think they're going to make it with their ways. In fact, 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says; when they say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, and they shall not escape. You know peace is a good thing right I mean yeah peace is great, safety is good, it's not to be harmed its good thing right. That's where it's deceptive, we should be so far removed from darkness in the things of the world that when something comes in as foreign to the spirit of truth we immediately recognize it and we see it for what it is. They say peace and safety but we're gonna go wait a minute you can't have peace and safety without Elohim. He is our protector and the giver of all peace if he's not involved in this peace and safety thing going on, something's amiss I smell a rat.
Isaiah 48:22; there is no peace says Yahweh, for the wicked. How can they practice their wickedness and yet have peace? Something is amiss, some liar has taught them there
will be peace in their sin, and no it won't. Maybe for a while they'll think they got it but they don't, because there is no peace until we join ourselves to the prince of peace. There is no peace until we are at peace with our maker; there is no peace brothers because when we're at enmity with Elohim through our love of the world we cannot be at peace. Yahushua says; Peace I leave with you, my peace I
give unto you: not as the world gives, do I give to you (not as the world gives, it's a different way. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid, because he has given you this piece. The world does not really have peace and the foundation of their peace is they'll be safe from harm in this age that they won't be at variance with one another; they won't be at war with one another. You know even the enemy and his demons have peace with each other I think I mean it seems like that. They work together pretty good but they're at peace to do wickedness against our maker, they're at peace to not regard the things of Elohim, they're at peace to enjoy their darkness.
I want to get one day the world's all gonna gather together and be at peace with each other but not with Yahweh and they will seek to destroy the holy city. They'll be at peace with each other but not with our maker and therefore their peace is not real.
So we need to be different than the world, our peace that we have is different than the peace the world tries to achieve.
And the spirit that we follow is different than the spirit of the world; the things we value are different than the things the world values. The way we talk is different than the way the world talks. The way we look, the way we think, the things that we do are different than the things of the world. Are there marked differences in our conduct versus the conduct of all the other people in this world today? I mean unbelievers, you see they are like you know a group of sheep all going off the wrong direction, eventually going off a cliff. And we're like, excuse me I'm going a different direction here and they're all coming at us you know. And we're calling people, hey, there's a cliff back here. Come with me. But they think since there are so many going that way that everything's alright. But we're hearing our Master's voice and we're looking toward him and they're following their Master's voice and he's laying into destruction and our shepherd is leading us to eternal life. Don't listen to whatever they're listening to, if you start listening to both what they're listening to and what we're supposed to listen to it's easy to get caught up in their flow and we'll get tired, get tired of saying excuse me I'm going a different way, pardon me, follow the shepherd over here. And if you listen too much to the voice of his enemy
and you start to get worn down and you quit listening to the good shepherd's voice, the holy scriptures the word it's easy just so easy to get
caught up in the flow and go the wrong direction. We are like people who are going down, who are on a river and we know the shepherd's voice is calling us to fight against the current of the river and go in a different direction. And so we've got our orders you know and we're going against the flow as we have our orders.
And all we have to do to go the wrong direction is just stop using the orders and the current will just take us where we shouldn't go. We've got to fight; we've got the fight against it. When we focus completely on the voice of the good shepherd: that leads us to the green pastures and away from the waterfall, away from the cliff and into the house of Elohim, the house of living waters. Some people think oh I gotta look like the other sheep you know, I gotta act like him, look like him, gotta just like him, gotta be like him then they'll be attracted to me and then I'll turn around to follow the shepherd see and then as, by looking a little bit like the world I'll be attracted to them and then I'll tell them about Yahushua and then they'll follow Yahushua. But wait a minute they are attracted by what, worldliness in you? If that's what they're attracted to then they're still not converted and in fact we're not either.
If that's what we're trying to do we will end up still doing things like they did back in the year 300, pick up this Mithra celebration and try to Christianize it and say that's when Messiah was born when it really wasn't or start being like you know its compromised, syncretized. But we've got to march the beat of a different drum, we are different and we're willing to be different and not be like everybody else and be a light, a
loveliness, a purity, a piece, a kindness, a difference too many people are trying to imitate the world to win the world and that's how we got Christmas and Easter to begin with. But you can't bring something clean now the unclean you know people worship the devil and they're gonna try to make it clean somehow, you can't do that. You don't win the world by imitating the world you win the world by imitating Yahushua the Messiah by being different.
Ask yourself is this what Yahushua will be doing?
All of a sudden the answer becomes very clear. I'm not following my shepherd, I'm not I'm not doing what he did, I'm not walking as he walked, I'm valuing what he hates, I'm not loving what he loves.
Would Yahushua be doing today, what will he be doing tomorrow? What you got planned tomorrow is it something Yahushua will be doing? What you got planned after Shabbat tonight, is it something Yahushua will be doing?
We have to ask ourselves these questions because we don't want to be adulterers and adulteresses, we don't want the spirit of Elohim to yearn jealously over the things that we are valuing.
But he does give more grace. Therefore he says; Elohim resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to Elohim, resist the devil and he will flee from. Submit to Elohim, resist the devil and he will flee from you. But you gotta resist him, don't invite him into your living room, don't invite him into your car, you don't want that worldly spirit anywhere in your heart. And when you hear it which you will you reject it, you're not entertained by it, you're not thrilled by it, you're not amused by it, you are grieved by it. Draw near to Elohim, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of Yahweh, and he will lift you up. That worldly laughter, that laughs at sin, that laughs at the entertainments of this world, ha ha ha and America is going to hell and they're laughing all the way, worldly entertainments he says that your laughter is turned the mourning. How can you not be grieved by the sin they're doing? The spirit of Yahweh in us is yearning jealously
saying how can you love the things I hate, how can you value the things I am disgusted by, it's adultery. It is. It's mental adultery we love Yahweh but we love
the world too. We love Yahweh and we love the things that are against him, we love Yahweh and we don't hate the sin, we love our sin too, it doesn't work that way. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my, if you love the world the love of the father is not in you, strong words.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it: but he who does the will of Elohim (hallelujah) abides forever. He who does the will of Elohim, that's what I'm encouraging you to seek today, to value today the will of Elohim and beware of where your affections
are drawn. Something we all need to be on guard against because the world makes sin look so innocent.
The world makes sin seem so petty, but the very
sight of these things should grieve us.
We don't find joy in it, we don't want these things to be a part of us or a part of our family, the spirit of the world though it just has a way of seeming so innocent the person doesn't have the guard up, you gotta be very careful.
Carry the sword with you always in your heart and your mind and say this is, it's not me living anymore, its Yahushua living in me. And the life which I now live I live by faith in the son of Elohim who loved me and gave himself for me. I reject those things in the name of Yahushua HaMashiach can you say it with me, I reject all the things that are in the world I reject the lust of the flesh say it I reject the lust of the flesh I reject the lust of the eyes I reject the pride of life I resist you devil and I receive and submit to the will of Elohim. I don't love the world I am grieved by the world I love my father in heaven, I love my Savior and I know this world is passing away and the lusts of all these things are passing away and I know that he who does the will of Elohim will abide forever. And so I reject the enemy, his teaching and the
things he loves.
Isaiah 33 verse 10 says; now will I rise, says Yahweh. All right! Finally, now I will be exalted. Now, I will lift myself up. You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. It's because of the spirit coming out of your mouth is destructive. And the people shall be like the burnings of lime:
like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire. Why, because the spirit of the world, pride of life, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, cares of this world, grew up and choked the word and so like thorns, they are all...ever notice when you throw thorns in the fire? they burn very quickly, the fire is ever ready to consume the thorns. So Isaiah 33:15-16; very important verses here I
like these verses, alright: He who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing...actually that's not even the next verse. Alright we will put 13 and 14 up there next. I'm sure the enemy does not want to see these; these are really powerful verses here. Okay here we go it says; Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings (and not be burned up)? He says he who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; (the words in his mouth are the words of Elohim or according to the oracles of Elohim) he who despises the gain of oppressions, whose gestures with his hands refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing the bloodshed, shuts his eyes from seeing evil. He will dwell on high: his place of defense will be a fortress of rocks: bread will be given him; his waters will be sure. So we can't be entertained by these things, we can't; put them away from you.
So when we hear the ugliness that's in the world we want to shut our eyes to those things, we want to clear those things, they vex our soul. The world wants to tell you all the gory gruesome details of murders and crimes and terrible rapes and all the things that we are not, why do we have to listen to all that, except to pray for whoever is involved I mean there's a bunch of people that are doing terrible things. And I want to hear things that are praiseworthy and lovely and pure and focus on those things not vex my soul with the latest sin that's been committed the neighborhood or the latest thing that has been going in Hollywood or whatever. I mean why do we concern ourselves with that I mean, I turn on the news and I'm like just go to a news website and you know I hardly ever click on any links I just see the headlines okay yep the world still worldly yup okay okay this going on over here. Well that's interesting we'll see how people respond to that you know get a pulse of what this nation is pursuing. So I can more effectively minister to them but beyond that you know I don't have to know every awful thing they've done and you know. Scripture says do not be children in understanding but in malice be babes. In understanding you to be mature but in terms of all the wicked things and why they do it and the things that they do I don't have to know all that or why they do it. I mean do I have to find out how evil something is before I realize I don't have to be listening to it? We can discern evil for what it is without knowing all the ins and outs about it because sometimes you want to know more and more okay what is this about again you know the spirit in you is going to no no no no don't go there you don't need to know all that stuff.
Because the knowledge of evil only brings more temptation to your life you know, we don't need more temptation than we already got.
So we want to search and Google all the stuff that isn't going to benefit us spiritually ask yourself is this going to benefit me spiritually the thing I'm watching, the thing I see, the thing that I'm seeing in the news or the thing I'm watching on a screen or the website I'm going to is this going to benefit me spiritually or is there a risk of temptation? Is there a serious risk of I mean the world itself you can't avoid that but you don't have to pipe in your house you know. So what we need to do is let the word of Elohim be
our focus, let his words be what feed us, his words. Let his teaching be in our households because there's a lot out there that we need to not be connected to. Again I'm not saying we shouldn't minister to people, I'm not saying you have to avoid everybody in your life who happens to be committing a sin.
I'm saying that if you are close to Yahushua you will
not have any desire for their things. Suppose you're ministering to some guy who is you know a murder an ax murderer or something you can minister to him and not have any desire whatsoever to be an ax murderer okay. So the same thing with other people, there are
people out there who are involved in all kinds of different things and you can minister to them and not be tempted to do the things they are doing. And the closer we are to Yahushua the more we are able to be effective in those areas. Now if someone has a weakness in a particular area there is wisdom in avoiding temptations.
For instance let's say someone has a problem with alcohol or a problem with drugs you know sometimes these folks the minute they feel like they got deliver they immediately go out to their former friends and try to convert them and then find themselves being dragged right back into it. So you got to be away from those things for a certain amount of time before you can effectively be a minister in those areas. So be aware of that and I don't believe you have to be a drug addict to minister to a drug addict. I don't think you ever had to be a drug addict to minister to a drug addict. Yahushua was never a drug addict and he ministers quite effectively, in fact he never committed any sin he ministers quite effectively to all of us. So we don't have to be that in fact if that's
been our habit for a lot of years we got to get out it for a while before we can be effective in ministering to others. So be aware of these things, be aware of the spirit of the world and be at a high level of sensitivity to deception. 1 John chapter 4 verse 1 says; Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of Elohim: because many false prophets have gone out into the world. If something is contrary to the words of Elohim don't believe it; by this you know the Spirit of Elohim: Every spirit that confesses that Yahushua Messiah has come in the flesh is of Elohim. And every spirit that does not confess Yahushua has come in the flesh is not of Elohim: and this is the spirit of the anti-messiah, which you have heard was coming; and is now already in the world.
So there are different spirits out there teaching different things and I would say this in the body of the Messiah if someone was formally a believer in the Messiah Yahushua and they are trying to present you with their arguments as to why Yahushua is not the Messiah do not listen to them. 1 John 5 tells you or a 2 John tells you don't even
bring him into your house.
So be aware of that, says you are of Elohim, little children, and you have overcome them: because he who is in you is greater, than he who is in the world. They are of the world: therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. So the one who dwells in us is greater than the one who is in the world and we have overcome these things, why because of Yahushua HaMashiach.
Scripture says; hear the parable of the sower.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes, and snatches away which was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. He who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word; and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received the seed on good ground is he who hears the word, and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and produces, some are hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
So our goal is to have the soil in our hearts that is
the good ground for the word of Yahweh to plant within us. But if our soil is ever ready to receive the seed that in our heart we have all these thorns kinda mixed in with the seed then we're going to find ourselves being unfruitful. So what are the thorns? The thorns are from another seed, the seed of the enemy ultimately that are planted and drawing as to the things of the world, riches, pleasures, cares of worldly things. The two cannot grow side by side without there being an effect and negative effect. And so we have to completely and utterly get the thorns out of our life, addictions, desires
for wrong things, being impressed with worldliness.
2 Peter 2:20 says; For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Master Yahushua and Saviour Yahushua Messiah, they are again entangled (because of the thorny ways) in them, and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog returns to his own vomit; and the sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Better to not even know than to know and turn away from it. 1 Peter 2:9 says; you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people; that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Who once were were not a people, but are now the people of Elohim: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Beautiful words beautiful beautiful words it's time
that we operate in the identity which Yahweh has
given us.
You're a chosen generation brothers and sisters,
you're not that generation that's adulteress you're a generation that's chosen.
A royal priesthood teaching righteousness, a holy nation undefiled from the world, his own special
people not a people of darkness but people of light that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light.
You once were not a people but now the people of Elohim who once had not obtained mercy but now you have obtained mercy. Do not take it for granted, direct your heart
out of the ways of darkness and beware of
adulteries, beware beware beware.
That's our message today and when you choose to be different be ready because here it comes, The world hates you know it hated Yahushua first and if you are of the world the world love its own but because you're not of the world, but because Yahushua chose you out the world, the world's going to hate you be ready for it and accept the fact that you're going to be rejected. They're not the ones you're trying to impress anyway what difference does it make? You're trying to please Elohim that's who you are trying to please not the people of the world but
you're trying to please Elohim that's why Yahushua said; No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of Elohim.
You can't look back, you can't be like Lot's wife oh, all these things you cannot look back you need
to look and keep your eyes on the shepherd where the good way is. If then you were raised with Messiah, seek those things which are above, where Messiah is sitting at the right hand of Elohim. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Because you died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim. Do you believe that?
You died you died you died a long time ago you died
and now a new creation you are. So set your mind on heavenly things not on earthly things; things which above keep your eyes on Yahushua so that when you're in this world and you are in this world you will not be of this world
because this world is not what has your affections anyway. When Messiah, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. Put to death evil desires. Put to death uncleanness. Put to death fornication. Put to death covetousness. Covetousness is adultery and therefore is idolatry and therefore is adultery also. Because of these things the wrath of Elohim is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Because of what things? Evil desires, covetousness, fornication, uncleanness, passion. In which you yourselves once walked, when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Bf bombs, calling women BIT** you know the rest how it's spelled, sh** word all these other words, filthy language that is not befitting a believer. Don't justify yourselves if you look this up in the Greek its talking about socially unacceptable language which could generally consider to basically curse words or cuss words, it should not be coming out your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Put off all these things that are of the world and we're not of the world, we're supposed to overcome
it not be overcome by it because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to Elohim, which is your reasonable service. And not be conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind ( we need that renewing of the mind, continually by the word of Elohim), that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Elohim. We're gonna be confused by what the perfect will of Elohim is whenever we're trying to be conformed to this world.
But when we're seeking to be transformed by the renewing never mind we will begin to learn and understand what the good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim truly is.
So we need to have that renewed mind that's constantly being fed with the good bread, the good food, the living word that proceeds out of the mouth of Elohim, that brings life.
Psalm 101 verse 3 says; I will set nothing wicked before my eyes: I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. If you ever wonder should I watch this TV program, remember the scripture please what are they
teaching in this television show, what are they teaching in this program I'm watching, what is the theology to it because every program has a theology to it?
A perverse heart shall depart from me: I will not know wickedness person. Now all you got to do is walk into Walmart and they'll be wicked sitting right there in front of you, that's normal okay we live in the world its okay but don't get to pipe it into your house.
Let that be a place of refuge Yahushua will go away with his disciples into remote places for a reason, they needed to be strengthened, they needed to be renewed, they needed to stay close to Yahweh. And let the right spirit feed us, so that we can
then speak those words to others because we have
received not the spirit of the world but the spirit was from Elohim.
We don't want to be adulterers and adulteresses so we have to not receive the spirit of the world but we must receive the spirit from Elohim. Therefore the words of Yahushua which are spear in our life that we receive the words of the people of the world and the doctrines and theologies they teach in the media and Facebook posts and things like that. Those things we don't receive we've got to control Internet use, I work online, minister online it's very easy for me to get caught up in whatever is going on the Internet it's like a magnet and it's not all bad.
And often times I'm conflicted because I do minister you know how to balance everything out. But I can tell you this if you let it Facebook will take over your life, there are so many interesting things that people post believers too good things and there are things that people post on there just vile. If you're on Facebook use it as a place of ministry don't go there for entertainment there's just so much junk on there be careful who you're friends with on Facebook except that you want to reach them. If you want to minister it's a great place to minister but really Internet ministry has its limitations so be aware that.
But listen we need to pray, we need to pray that we can be among the unspotted the unstained, people who are not stained by the world but rather
being a people who have been renewed by doing the work of Yahweh, seeking his ways that we might be brought into that good land where only righteousness will dwell. And certainly not the spirit of the world the spirit of the world will be in prison for a while
because when we truly give our lives to the one who is gonna take us in the promised land we make him number one in every aspect of our lives and the things that grieve him grieve us the things that he hates we hate, the things that he loves we love. Let's pray, O Father Yahweh kaddosh kaddosh
kaddosh are you and kaddosh is your great name Father we want to be sanctified as you are sanctified: to be holy as you are holy.
Help us Father Yahweh to have your perspective on all the things that come into our eyes, into our ears cleanse our hearts, purify our hearts lead us
in the way everlasting, fill us with your holiness, your truth. Let's not be defiled by the spirit of the world
for it is you that we long for, forgive us where we have failed you in these areas, forgive us where our hearts have looked to other things and saw other pastures and we're drawn to them.
Cleanse us and purify us in such a way but we want only one thing and that which is good upright, pure, lovely, a good report, praiseworthy things. We don't want the spirit of the world, we don't want to commit adultery against you, we want to be faithful with all of our house, for truly yours is the kingdom and power and glory and majesty forever and ever and all praise, honor and worship belongs to you Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh our Mighty One, forever and ever, in Yahushua's great name we pray, Amein.