First off, pray for us here in Florida, USA, because Hurricane Milton is almost upon us. As I write this it is just east of Mexico, and a Category 5 hurricane, one of the largest and most powerful in recorded history. It will hit our west coast on Wednesday, 10/9 and be here on the east coast by Thursday, 10/11. Pray for us that it loses much of its power as it travels over the land, and that those on the west coast remain safe.
Now, let’s get to today’s message.
All I ever hear from Christians is that all you need is faith, or that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, or that Jesus died for our sins and we are now saved. Some go as far as to say once we are saved, all our sins will be forgiven, which is known as OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved). It sounds nice, but it is a lie from the pit of Sheol.
So we hear all about faith, all about love, all about salvation, but there is almost never any talk about obedience.
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Now, didn’t James say that faith without works is dead (James 2:26)? And the “works” he mentions means obeying God’s commandments in the Torah, which was the only scripture that existed then.
And what about Abraham? We are told, many times, that because Abraham was faithful, it was credited as righteousness to him (Genesis 15:6), which I hear all the time as being justification for not having to obey the Torah. But when Isaac was thinking of going to Egypt, God told him to stay where he was because he promised Abraham that he would have all this land for his descendants because Abraham did everything God told him to do (Genesis 26:5). Note that God didn’t say because Abraham believed him, or was faithful, but because Abraham did everything God told him to do.
It’s obvious to me that from God’s viewpoint, Abraham’s obedience demonstrated his faith.
When you are told you are saved by faith, there is more to it than that: faith isn’t just believing that God exists, or that Yeshua is the Messiah he promised to send. What is faith, really? It is believing in something, and that belief is demonstrated by how you act!
Oh, yeah, it’s easy to talk about your faith, but if you don’t show it in how you act, your talk means nothing. I learned a long time ago that people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do, which is why faith that isn’t demonstrated by actions is a lie.
And what actions demonstrate our faith? Well, loving your neighbor is one, but even Yeshua said that doesn’t really mean anything, for even sinners love each other (Luke 6:32). And what about going to synagogue or church every Sabbath day? Does that represent faithfulness?
No, it doesn’t- all it represents is doing something you are supposed to do, which is the essence of legalism. Besides that, if your synagogue has an Oneg Shabbat (Joy of Shabbat) after the services, lots of people go just for the free food!
There is only one way to demonstrate that your faith in God and Messiah Yeshua is real- and that is to show it by obeying what God said to do. This also demonstrates the strength of your trust in God, because if you truly trust God, then you will obey his commandments because you trust he gave them to us because they are good for us.
And if you profess to love God, then you will do as he wants you do to as a labor of love. Don’t you do what pleases the one you love, just because you want to see them happy? If a human can be happy because you do something for them, think how much happier God will be when you do what pleases him? And better than pleasing a human, when you please God, he promises to shower you with blessings (Deuteronomy 28)!
So, my friends, despite how Christianity, composed solely of man-made religions, has taught that Jesus did away with the law, or that all you need if faith, or that loving your neighbor is enough, or that Jesus is God, or any of the other multitude of lies and misrepresentations of what Yeshua actually taught, the truth from the Bible is this: if you love God and believe that Yeshua is the Messiah he promised to send, then you must be like Abraham, who believed what God said and did everything that God told him to do.
And now let me give you the kicker that most Gentiles hate to hear: the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, directly tells us what he wants us to do in order to please him and live a righteous life is…in the Torah! That means despite what your Priest, Pastor, Minister, or whatever has told you, if you reject the Torah, you are rejecting God, which means you are rejecting the one he sent, which means you are in deep doo-doo when you will have to face God at Judgement Day.
Yeshua said no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), so choose this day who will be your master: God or a religion.
Thank you for being here; that’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
