Friday, July 18, 2014

Keep the Sabbath or not?





Some believers claim that since Messiah died for our sins we are no longer to obey the law but have faith in him because all of our sins are erased, but does that really what Messiah himself taught?
Lets dive into really what Yeshua messiah kept stressing and teaching his followers regarding the commandments of God.
Even though it is not recorded that any one kept the Sabbath before Moses gave the 10 commandments from mount Sinai to the Israelites it does not mean the laws did not exist, just as Cain knew pretty well what he was done was wrong when he murdered his brother Abel even though he did not receive the law from mount Sinai, God punished him because he was guilty, God condemned Kane by saying "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand" (Genesi 4:10) God judged Cain and rendered him guilty according to his own holy law because Cain knew the law. Cain knew murder was wrong even though it never happened before. we can safely assume the ten commandments existed long before Moses gave them to Israel officially, God's word is part of him and is him, his laws are not something that he suddenly made up one day, it is part of his infinite character, our world's history is the first and the last time he would ever have to punish and judge his creation according to the law but it was and always will be part of who God is.
we also know that the law of God is in every man's conscience; 12For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and theirthoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. (Romans 2:12-16)
Paul is explaining that every one will be judged according to what they knew BUT every one will still be judged according to the same law, the ten commandments.
How can any one be found righteous in the eyes of the Lord if he is not judged according to a law? and by what law will any one be judged? by the law of God of course!
Past present future, it matters not, every one will be judged according to their works(according to the the law of God).
How else Abraham and other saints were found righteous by God? how else was Yeshua messiah found sinless if not keeping the law flawlessly? the Ten commandments is a universal standard that God uses to judge man kind and decide who love him and who does not, If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 15:14)
 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10 


Jesus kept stressing to keep the law of God, he even explained that by keeping it is how one earns eternal life.
Matthew 19:16-22
16And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?  17And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?  there is  none good but one,  that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.


Matthew 5:17-20
17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach  them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed  the righteousness  of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.


Notice what Jesus himself said here "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
the ten commandments stand as they did from the creation of the world and will stand until the old heaven and earth pass away and the new comes and all is fulfilled, heaven and earth has not passed away yet which means the LAW abides!
Also notice how much Yeshua stresses the importance of teaching the law and clearly warns that those who teach that the law does not abide will be considered the least in the kingdom.


How can we pick and choose which commandments we obey and which not? do we obey "do not murder" but do not obey "keep the Sabbath holy?" isn't being a hypocrite cherry picker? you either keep all the commandments or do not keep them at all, there is no half way. it is said in scripture if we stumble in keeping one of the commandments we fail to keep them all! (James 2:10)


In a simpler way, if the law would not exist today then there would be no sin, you cannot commit sin if there is no law in place that you can break! In other words you cannot break a law that does not exist. common sense.



I hear Christians say all the time, we are saved by grace not by works. but they forget to compare scripture with scripture, we are saved by GRACE through FAITH, and what James says about Faith without works? it is a dead faith!
having said that, we are saved by GRACE through FAITH with WORKS. or we are saved by WORKS led by FAITH by the GRACE of GOD almighty.


There are many scriptures that tell us all men who ever lived will be judged according to their works, good or bad.  Matt 16:27, Romans 2:5, 2 Cor 5:10, Matt 7:21, Rev 20:11, Rev 3:5, Ex 32:33, Rev 22:14, Rev 22:12.


To deny keeping the Sabbath is to deny the forth commandment, to say the forth commandment was only to the Jews is a very faulty statement because it means that the entire law was only for the Jews which means only the Jews can sin, when Gentiles sin they don't really sin since the law does not apply to them which of course we know cannot be true, Yeshua said to the woman go and sin no more, he preached that is better to lose an eye or a hand than to sin, he stressed of the importance of living holy life without sin, why would he preach not to sin if his death would cancel sin anyway? well because his death replaced animal sacrifice and gave those who believe in his sacrifice pardon to their sins but did not abolish the law! Messiah himself stressed that very important point in Matthew 5:17-20!
the new covenant is a better covenant but by no means a completely different one, God is consistent he does not change his mind.


We either keep the law of God or we don't.
Also there is a good reason why the gospel of Yeshua is backed up by four different accounts, it is because Satan has corrupted so much of the new testament and the only way to find the truth is to compare what Yeshua taught, if we have four different witnesses claiming the same thing we can rest assured it is truth, Yeshua taught to keep God's commandments and that includes the Sabbath, he is the way, the truth and the life.

"remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy", remember that God loves his children that is why he gave us his ten commandments, those are commandments of love, because God is love, the Sabbath day is for every one to take a day off and spend time with God and their families, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath (Mark 2:27), if so happens you need to work or break the Sabbath God will understand, as long as your heart is true and you love God with honesty that is all he wants from us, to show him our love in truth, honesty and all humbleness.

Shabbat Shalom!





Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The law of God (the ten commandments) still abide today as it did 5000 years ago




At the day of judgement all the people who ever lived past, present and future will be judged according to how they lived, according to their works. (Romans 2:6, Revelation 20:13)
But what standard or law is there that all the people who ever lived and will live throughout the ages can be judged upon? the answer is the law of God which are the ten commandments.
The ten commandments are the universal standard of what is good or bad, every person in the world knows in their heart that to murder, lust, steal, lie... is wrong.
Some believe that the ten commandments do not apply today since messiah's death covers everything, this is a wrong thinking because messiah himself stressed that "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:18)
Heaven and earth had not passed away and all has been definitely not fulfilled, this means the law stands as it did 5000 years ago even before Moses officially received it from God on mount Sinai and passed it to the Israelites.
There is a big misconception among the Jewish people that the messiah was a Christian that encouraged the persecution of the Jews, this could not be more further from the truth, the Messiah was a Jew born under the law, he kept the law of Moses and stressed how important it is to keep it" he taught about love and compassion to our neighbors and enemies. those who persecuted the Jews and other God loving people throughout the ages in the name of God have nothing to do with God , they have used the name of God for their own purpose and evil desires, those same people will also be judged according to the law of God at the day of judgement.