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I just thought I'd share on what God is we need to be. Be kudos as he is kudos. That was Peter's admonition in his writings. Be ye holy as he is holy, be kudos, be set apart, be separated unto things the same way as the Almighty is, kudos, set apart, sanctified, separate. From all his creation he is high and above it, there is none like him. So let's see something about what we mean by what God is we need to be. The marriage relationship is a separation unto one to the exclusion of all others. We're well aware of that phrase, aren't we? If we've been to any weddings at all, it's one that's been used quite a lot, but too much these days. It doesn't seem to be modus operandi. But we have a relationship with our God that is one of exclusion to all other gods. So YHVH said, you shall have no other gods before me. He said we are to love him with all our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength. That's a pretty exclusive love, isn't it? That is a love that he says he wants nothing to get in the way of. He wants the whole of our lives to have an exclusive relationship with him where nothing gets in the way of that relationship, to rob it, to hinder it. So in Exodus 20, verse 1 we read, Then Elohim, or God, spoke all these words, saying, I am YHVH your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. Do not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth below or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to them. Do not let anyone make you serve them, for I, YHVH, your Elohim, am a jealous God, bringing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing loving-kindness to the thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4 to 9. Hero Israel, YHVH Elohim, YHVH echad. Hero Israel, YHVH Elohim, YHVH is one. YHVH your God, your Elohim, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. These words which I am commanding you today are to be on your heart. You are to teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Find them as a sign on your hand. They are to be as frontlets between your eyes. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Must be pretty important, mustn't they? That's an admonition that if it is not understood and taken seriously, it will leave us far short of the blessings that God wants to give us. And it's a mandate, it's not a request, it is a command. It is that which he requires of all mankind, not just Israel, which we're not going through because we've been through those scriptures enough times. Israel is the nation that the Almighty set up and established to proclaim everything that is on his heart. In that nation, their laws, their commandments, you will see the heart of God, the requirements of God, the will of God and everything that he wants mankind to be are written into his law, the Torah. And so he says, love me with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. That's a lot of effort, isn't it? That's a lot of navigating in a busy life and a big world to love God like that. You know, first love is obedience to Elohim and obedience to his Torah. That's first love. And that is the will of God written down so that we can understand it, never get it wrong and can follow it. So, YHVH, he had everything that we needed to know written in a form that we can read, study, understand, know and follow so we don't get it wrong. Torah is his will in written form. What is the will of God for your life? How many times have you heard that growing up in a Pentecostal church? What is God's will for your life? Oh, to be a missionary in China or to be this, that or the other. No, the will of God is obedience to his word, to walk in his ways and to be open to whatever he asks of us. So, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. It's pretty straightforward, it's pretty clear, it doesn't take a lot of understanding. So, we know that Yeshua took that scripture and he quoted it to Satan when he was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, 40 nights. The devil was there harassing him, harassing him, harassing him. Of course, Satan, he has to test him, he has to tempt him, he has to try him, he has to get from Yeshua what he wants for himself. The only way he can do that is to make Yeshua stumble, flip up and fall and to break one of the commandments of the Almighty and then he's in the box seat. Why did Yeshua quote to him the words of Moses? Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And that's all I live by is what Yeshua was saying to Satan. The natural must not take first place in our lives. The spiritual and the kingdom of God must take first place in our lives. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. How often do you hear that quoted? Seek first the kingdom of God and the other bits left off and His righteousness. What is His righteousness? Torah is His righteousness. His commandments and every word that came out of His mouth. Torah simply means as we know the teachings of God. That's what we live by, that is righteousness. Be ye holy as I am holy. Be kadosh as I am kadosh. Be right, let your righteousness be like mine. That's what He is saying to His people. That's the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is righteousness. It's based on righteousness. It's justice and truth and righteousness. It's peace and joy and righteousness in Ruach HaKadosh, the kingdom of God. And He wants that beating within our hearts. He wants that to be the living expression of our lives. Why? So that He may bless us instead of cursing us. That's a pretty good thing to say, yes, I will walk in His ways because I want His blessing upon my life. Righteousness is obedience to Torah as the truth which brings us into freedom. And we know and quote very often, the truth shall set you free. What is the truth? Torah is truth. Read Psalm 119. Read Romans. Read Paul's teachings. Torah is righteousness, truth. It is God's character, spirit, nature and being. It's Torah. Torah, the law, is righteousness. And Torah, the law of truth, is personified in Yeshua. He lived, walked and talked Torah. The same one that we read in the book. So, righteousness and obedience to Torah is what brings us into freedom. It's freedom from the law's curse. It's freedom from it's condemnation, it's judgement, it's punishment. And it is an amazing blessing and gift of grace to us. Torah, the law, wow. The law we want to get rid of, the law we were told is not needed anymore, is the pathway of blessing. It's the pathway of freedom. Because if we don't live it, keep it, understand it, then it will bring judgement upon us. It will bring the curses of disobedience upon us. It will bring sickness and death to the world. If we live our way instead of his way, if we live the world's way instead of God's way, it doesn't bring us freedom, it brings us into bondage. The truth shall set you free. Live according to truth and the blessings of truth will be ours. The blessings of faith will be ours. The blessings of trust and relationship and love for God will be ours. Walk in obedience to his ways and see the goodness of God upon our lives. And all of that blessing, all of that redemption from the curse and from judgement and from punishment and from death was made possible by Yeshua's obedience to Torah, the law. And then shedding his blood on Calvary, rising from the dead on the third day, broke the stranglehold of Satan, the curse and death off of our lives. We entered into freedom, the freedom of joy, the freedom of peace, the freedom of shalom, no matter what's happening in the world around us, no matter what's happening in the world of ours, to us, no matter what circumstances are doing, no matter what people are or aren't, no matter where we are at, we have freedom in Yahovah, Yeshua, from bondage, curse, death. We found it in Yeshua, our Torah, our living Torah. The one who walked it perfectly, gave his life on the cross, shedding his blood and then rising from the dead. Why? Because he was perfect, sinless. He was one who was God in our midst, Emmanuel. And he brought freedom, freedom to what? Freedom to walk in righteousness and Torah. Freedom to walk as he walked, freedom to be as he is, where the works of the flesh don't own us, control us or manipulate us, but where we walk in the manner in which he walked by the power of the Spirit of God. We know we can't do it on our own. We know we need the power of heaven to enable us to walk beyond the works of the flesh. The flesh will always win. The flesh will always control us unless we have the power of the Spirit of God enabling us to walk in the ways that he wants. Beautiful, isn't it? We're not on our own. We don't have to do it in our own strength because we never can. We will fail every time. There's always something more important to do on the Sabbath than come to fellowship. That's the flesh. Everybody wants a bit of my time. There's so much going on that I need to attend to. There's so much that needs to be taken care of that I haven't got time. No, that's the flesh. The Spirit of God says, walk in the freedom of honouring Ruach. Spirit of God, and I will bless you and you'll still be able to take care of everything anyway. I'll take care of it for you. I'll walk you through it. I'll meet your need. I'll undertake. I'll help you with every circumstance that's on your mind. Love me first. Put my day first. Put my commandments first and you will be a blessed people, and we are. Thank you, YHVH, for the wisdom of your ways. When he rose from the dead, instructed and taught his disciples and walked throughout Israel, then he told us to be immersed into the name in baptism and to be filled with the Ruach, enabling us to walk in obedience to everything that came forth from the mouth of the Father. That's first love. Repent, be baptised, be filled with the Ruach, walk in obedience to my Torah. That's first love. We find ourselves in the position to be able to be everything that he asks us to be and in the process we are becoming more and more like him. That what God is, we need to be as we see it in Yeshua, our saviour and our redeemer. So, first love must always be first, never second. That's obvious, isn't it? Otherwise it's not first love. So, we must put life and living first. We always put God first to the best of our ability and not let life take over and consume us if it gets in the way of what we need to be on any given day. Serving God and being faithful to the church must never take the place of first love. Say that again. Serving God, obedience to the church, faithfulness to the church must never take the place of first love. The love is a relational contract that we have with Yehovah through Yeshua and it's for the rest of our lives, Him first. So, others second. That doesn't mean we don't care about each other. It doesn't mean that we don't put you before me. It means we put God before everything else. In other words, we make sure that what we're doing for others and for self is not getting in the way of what He's asking of me and out of that flows blessing and freedom. That's the definition of love. Him first, everything else second. We lay down our lives and we live by Torah and the prophets. If you love me, keep my commandments. The commandments are the ways in which to walk in love towards one another. The commandments are how we are to walk in love with Yehovah. That we're not putting any other God, any other idolatrous lifestyle, any other desire ahead of Him and Torah teaches us how to love others, love each other by not taking advantage of, not lying to, not living in adultery. It teaches us how to not desire and covet what belongs to other people. What God has given others, it's got nothing to do with us. If He gives them more than He gives me, wonderful. We do not covet because someone else has got something more or better than what we have, no. Be content in whatever state we find ourselves. That's loving others and God in their right order and right place and not letting ourselves and flesh get in the way. We want to be like Yehovah instructs us to be so that His best can be ours, so that His blessings can flow upon and over our lives, so that peace and joy and shalom can be ours regardless of any circumstance. As we read earlier, Paul is right into the Colossians and he says, pray that I'll be able to proclaim the word and God will open doors for me, etc., etc., etc., for which I am in prison. He knew what it was to put God first regardless of the cost and God honoured that man's ministry for him. On these two, God first, others second, hang all the Torah and the prophets. We love unconditionally when Torah is our guide and Ruach's power, the Holy Spirit's power. So, we don't place conditions on our love for God and we're not to place conditions on our love for one another. God says, love your enemies. It doesn't mean I have to agree with them. It doesn't mean I have to even like them, but I have to love them. I'll be there for them if they need me. If they're hungry, I feed them. If they have a need and I can help them and it's appropriate and right, then that's putting others first. A true friend lays down his life for his friends and loves his enemies. In other words, we never act unrighteously towards others. We never act unjustly towards others. We are always aware to the best of our ability where other people are at and we try to be helpful. That's true love. Sometimes you can help, sometimes you can't. But if we are in a position or a situation where YHVH says meet that need, help that person, be available for this or that, we're listening to what Ruach HaKadosh, the Spirit of God is saying to us. We say, Father, whatever you want, whatever you ask, whatever it costs, help me to be someone who loves you and loves others your way. We're not putting conditions on it. When I say not putting conditions on it, we don't act unrighteously. We don't help people with unjust things. We don't help them with that which is going to be just used in a way that is contrary to the Word of God. There are ways of helping people that show them the true way of God and his Word. He helps us to do it. Anything less than that in our lifestyles and heartbeats and desires is idolatry. Idolatry is a love of self and doing our own thing. The will of man being more important than the will of God is idolatrous. We only have to look at what Paul's teaching on idolatry as well as what is in the Torah. Revelation chapter 1, verse 17 to verse 7 in chapter 2. Brendan has been doing some teaching on this. I'm just highlighting a couple of points. In verse 17 he says, This is John and he's brought into this revelation. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden menorah, the seven stars are the angels or the messengers of Messiah's seven communities. And these seven menorahs are the seven communities. To the angel of Messiah's community in Ephesus write, Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks in the midst of the seven golden menorah, I know all about your deeds and your toil and your patient endurance and that you cannot bear those who are evil. You have tested those who call themselves emissaries or apostles and are not and you have found them to be liars. You have persevered and have endured for my name's sake and you have not grown weary. But this I have against you, that you have forsaken your first love. Remember then from where you have fallen, repent and do the deeds you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your menorah from its place unless you repent. Yet you have this going for you, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah's communities. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. How important is first love. When that's God saying if you don't get this first love back, I'm just shutting you down. Ephesus was a major pillar in the Messianic world of Yeshua's followers. Ephesus was established by Paul and led by John near the end of his life during perilous times under Roman rule and they had forsaken their first love. And so serving Elohim had become more important than obeying and following Elohim according to Torah. They were very, very active as a Messianic community of Messiah's people. They hadn't abandoned the Torah to the degree or ways of the immoral and godless, the Nicolaitans and the heretical teachings of the modern religious system of their day, of which there was plenty, Gnosticism. Paul, the Apostles, Peter and Yeshua again and again and again keep on saying there will be many, many false apostles, false prophets, false teachers and Paul says when I'm gone you be warned that false teachers, preachers, pastors, leaders, whatever you want to call them, are going to arise out of your own midst because you need to be as strong as me in combating the falseness that will arise in your meetings and your fellowships. And so here Rome in my mind would pretty much sum up the Nicolaitans and their evil doctrines and practices today. It's important for us to really have this understanding in our hearts. It's not how you start your spiritual journey, but also how you run the race and how you finish. How we start is how we finish. If we start wrong we end wrong and when we start right run the race according to as it is written and we will finish right. So, faithful, we have to be faithful to the end as the Apostles were and that's essential. In Exodus chapter 23 and verse 14 to 26 it says, three times in the year you are to celebrate a festival for me. When did that change? Exactly. I haven't seen one scripture that says you don't have to keep that anymore. You are to observe the feast of Matzot, unleavened bread. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread as I commanded you at the time appointed in the month of Aviv. For that is when you came out from Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty handed. Also, you are to observe the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labours that you sow in the field, Shavuot or Pentecost, as well as the feast of ingathering, Sukkot or Tabernacles, at the end of the year. When you gather your crops from the field, three times in the year all your men are to appear before YHVH Elohim. Do not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, nor is the fat of my feast to remain out all night until the morning. Bring the choicest first fruits of your land into the house of YHVH your God. Do not boil a kid in its mother's milk. Behold, I am sending an angel before you, a messenger before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. Watch for him and do what? Listen to his voice. Do not rebel against him because he will not pardon your transgressions. For my name is in him. His name and my name are one. His authority and my authority is the same. But if you listen closely to his voice and do everything I say, YHVH is speaking through this one, Yeshua the Messiah, and do everything I say, here's a blessing, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. If people come and oppose you, I'll be on your side if you're obedient to me. For my angel, my messenger, my Messiah will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites and I will cut them off. You are not to bow down to their gods or serve them or do what they do. Rather, you are to utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You are to serve YHVH your Elohim and he will bless your food and your water. Moreover, I will take sickness away from your midst. None will miscarry nor be barren in your land and I will fill up the number of your days. Wow, that's worth following, honouring and living for. When all of that is built in to obedience to his commandments and his ways. He said, if you follow my angel, the one that I will send to lead you and to guide you and if you will listen to his voice, then I'm going to bless you. No curses will come upon you. You'll be a people blessed abundantly above all others. That's never changed. That's covenant relationship. Israel was brought out of bondage of Egypt and slavery to Egypt's gods. By the celebration of Pesach and unleavened bread. Moses established Passover and they came out on Passover. The sacrificial lamb, the unleavened bread they carried out into the wilderness was then saying, knowing and being brought to that place where in this sacrifice, in this feast, in this celebration, you will find freedom and the story goes all the way through their journey. They're immersed into Moses as they go through the river, the sea and on standing on the rock right through their journey. They were given the commandment of keeping the Sabbath day three days out from Egypt. They began with that before they reached Mount Sinai and 50 days later they're given on the mountain the Torah commandments at Shavuot, at Mount Sinai. This became a covenant of marriage to the one true God. I've brought you out of slavery, I've brought you out of bondage to Egypt, their gods, their religious systems, their ways of life. You've become a very synchronistic people who believe in the God of Abraham but follow the gods of Egypt and you've moulded them and melded them and made them work together and he said, now I've brought you out of that place and I have made a covenant contract with you on this mountain. I am your husband, you are my wife, we are one. My love with you is unconditional, for you is unconditional. Curses, punishments, disciplines will come but I will still love you and I will never stop loving you and I will always be there for you. If you repent, if you change, if you deal with your issues of life, blessing will come back upon you. So, Moses was given all the laws and the traditions, the statutes and the precepts, the plan of the tabernacle and all its furnishings by which they were to live and worship God for the rest of their lives. And their journey over the next 40 years was used to get rid of every false belief, idolatrous behaviour so that they would be suitable to rule and reign in the promised land when they got there. They all carried idols. They had these little idols in their pockets which they carried with them for the whole journey, too many of them. They didn't seem to be able to get rid of that which entrapped them and ensnared them in Egypt in their past life. They weren't going to be suitable to rule and reign and to run the Kingdom of God when they crossed the river. Of course, this is the cot and the coming of the king. When they crossed the river 40 years later and into the promised land, it was the Kingdom of God. He said, no nation will ever take over your nation. He said, when you come to worship me in Jerusalem, no nation will cross your boundaries. I will protect you. There'll be no sickness, there'll be no suffering, your crops will always be good, your women will never be barren, nor your animals. Every blessing will be yours. I will be an enemy to your enemy and an adversary to your adversary. Walk in my ways. That's the cot, that's the Millennial Kingdom, that's the reign of Yeshua on earth. God was demonstrating that in this nation to the rest of the world, how he is their chosen, he is their protector, he is the ones through whom he will reveal himself in all his power and authority and blessing and goodness as the creator. He wanted to reveal his greatness to the rest of the world through them in the land of promise. We know what happened, of course. All that generation never even made it into the Kingdom of God and being established in their promised land. They died in the wilderness because they kept disobeying, they kept challenging God and Moses, they kept breaking the Torah commandments and they would not be obedient. And every time they got so obnoxious, bad-tempered and argumentative, thousands of them would die in judgement and punishment. It was up to the next generation to walk there with them. What was the last congregation, what's the time, what was the last congregation mentioned in Revelation? Laodicea. This is the generation that will be spewed out of Yeshua's mouth. They think they are rich in the things of God, but they are miserably naked, poor and blind. What does Yeshua say to those kind of people? Depart from me, I never knew you, you are lawless. Laodicea. When it comes to the seven communities of Messiah Yeshua, there is a falling away from the first to the last. If first love is abandoned, Ephesus, if grace falsely does away with Torah or the law, then it's only downhill from there. What can we say? If we abandon first love, no matter how much we serve God, no matter what we do in His name, if we do it our way and not His way, it's downhill from there. He said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and to us, you have made the traditions of men more important than the traditions of God and your traditions have done away with God's traditions. That is the story from Ephesus to Laodicea. From the end of John's ministry to the end of the age, our era, as revealed in the book of Revelation, which is a 2,000 year period from what John said to when it's finalised at the end of Revelation, that is 2,000 years time. And here Yeshua is telling the world what it's going to be like from John's day to our day 2,000 years later. And so from that period to this period there is only one direction, decline. They abandoned their first love and everything went downhill from there till they got to Laodicea and Yeshua says, I will spew them out of my mouth. They're not hot, they're not cold, they're sickening. They haven't abandoned me completely but they're so wishy-washy and changed so much of my word it makes me sick. That has been from the beginning of the death of the apostles through the Gnostics, the Nicolaitans, the Roman Catholic Church, right in the beginning centuries till we get to today and what we have is Laodicea. So Yeshua prophesied, when I come back will I find faith on the earth? A legitimate question. Where will things be at when I come back faith-wise? Laodicea is the church of the falling away. When I come back there will be a great falling away. People will have walked away from first love because they don't know what first love is and they've never been taught what first love is in truth. So the church is not about first love anymore. They will quote often enough, love your neighbour as yourself and I heard a preacher preach when I was up at Mildura and went to his church meeting. No, mow your neighbours' lawns. That was true. He read a parable and quoted a parable, the parable of this man that was beaten and left half dead on the road to Samaria and the priest bypasses him, the Pharisee bypasses him etc. etc. And what did the Samaritan do? He picked him up and he took him into a motel and he paid for his debts and he bound him up and poured oil into his wounds and took care of the man. And the interpretation of that was love your neighbour, cut their lawns, do things to help them. This is the whole point of what Yeshua is trying to teach, the falling away. It is lawlessness. Oh, we prophesied in your name. We healed the sick in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We brought revival in your name. We speak in tongues powerfully with words of knowledge in your name. I'm sorry, I'm being a bit facetious. You know I've been a Pentecostal pastor for most of my life until God turned me around, so I know how it works. But it's a matter of, you are lawless. It doesn't matter all these good deeds that you did, no matter how good you are. The world is full of good people, religious or not. There's good people out there that are better than people in the church, good people. It doesn't mean they're going to run God's kingdom for him. They're lawless. They have no first love for God and his word and his commandments. They're Laodiceans. Yeshua is standing at the door of the Laodicean church, knocking, wanting to come in, but will they repent? That's what he asks in his word to the church of Laodicea. In Colossians chapter 4, I'll just nip back to that, where I read from earlier in the prayer time. Colossians chapter 4, verse 12 to 16. Paul is signing off to the church at Colossae, or the Messianic community. It's not the church, there's no such word in the scriptures. It's a theologian's word, church. It is the ecclesia, it is the called out ones, it is the people of the way, it is the followers of Messiah. It's a Messianic community raised up by Paul. And so here Paul is saying to the people, the believers at Colossae, Epaphras, who is one of your own, who is a slave of Messiah Yeshua, greets you. He is always labouring in prayer on your behalf. That's a great friend to have. So that you may stand complete and fully assured about everything that is God's will. For I testify that he has gone to much trouble for you and for those where? In Laodicea and Hierapolis, another place. Luke, the dearly loved physician, sends you greetings and so does Demas. Greet the brothers and sisters where? In Laodicea, as well as Nympha and the community that meets in her house. That's in Laodicea. When this letter has been read to the Colossians, among you make sure that it is also read in Messiah's community of Laodicea. In turn you should read my letter coming from where? Laodicea. So he is saying, I've sent a letter to them as well as to you and swap letters and see what I'm saying to each other. Because what I say to them is important to you and what I say to you is important to them. Amazing, isn't it? Yeshua said, well, let me just ask the question, how far have they fallen, the community and believers of Laodicea, in Paul's day to John's day? This is the Laodicea that Paul planted, who walked in righteousness and truth, who were obedient to everything that Paul was. He was imprisoned because of his message to these people and he has written to Colossi, to Laodicea, they're not that far from each other. He said, share, share the message, encourage one another, be there for each other. And then we get to John's and Yeshua is saying, I'm about to spew Laodicea out of my mouth. That is a terrible falling away from that day to what Yeshua is prophesying, declaring and telling. He said, John, you send this letter that I write, that I give you to write, the book of Revelation. You send a copy of this to each of these seven communities so they know what I'm thinking about them. I stand in the midst of these communities in each city. And he says, Ephesus, if you don't make changes now, I'm going to shut you down because I don't want you to convey or portray the message that you're giving to the world is not the one I once sent. I don't care how good your deeds are. I don't care how loving you are. If you don't do it my way and preach the right message with the right traditions, I'm going to close you down. And he goes through them all and he gets to Laodicea and said, when you've sunk this low, I'm going to just spew you out of my mouth. I haven't given up on you, I'm knocking on your door, but will you open it and repent and be an overcomer and change. But Yeshua said there was a sixth community raised up before the final shofar call is made at his return. And this is the Philadelphia community. The very name Philadelphia means, we know of course, love of brothers or the community of brotherly love. This was Philadelphia, a community whose very name means love. And so Yeshua said to them, all who follows Satan's ways, the world's ways, the doctrines of demons and their false prophets and pastors and teachers will come and bow at the feet of this community on that day and acknowledge that Yeshua loves this fellowship, this Messianic community. Why? Because they kept his word. What a statement. Tell the community of Philadelphia that all the others are going to come and bow at your feet because they will acknowledge that I have loved you and you have kept my word. Let's read it, Revelation 3 verse 7. I want to be as quick as I can, sorry. Chapter 3 verse 7. To the angel of Messiah's community in Philadelphia write, thus says the Kedosh one, the set apart one, the sanctified one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens. I know your deeds. Behold I have set before you an open door that no one is able to shut. Wow, that's what I want, one of those open doors. Because you have little power but you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jewish and are not, but lie. Behold I will cause them to come and bow down before your feet so that they acknowledge that I have loved you. I don't want to go into all this synagogue of Satan and Jewish and not Jewish because it's not talking about just the Jews, it's talking about who that community of Philadelphia is represented by and those who are the ones that are in opposition to who these Gentiles are and it's not just Jews. So, because you have kept my word about patient endurance I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is coming upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. That's a fantastic promise. Days of great tribulation and trouble are coming upon this earth and those who are part of the Philadelphia heartbeat, mindset and lifestyle, I'll protect you. Some will die, multitudes will die at the hand of the beast. Multitudes of people who believe in Yeshua and who turn to him on that day will be thwarted. But he says there's a group that I'm going to take care of, watch over and protect during this period of time. I'm coming soon, hold on to what you have so that no one will take away your crown. The one who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he will never leave it and on him I will write the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from God and my own new name. He was an ear letting hear what Ruach is saying to Messiah's community. Three names to be written on this community. God's name, the name of the city of Jerusalem, shalom, peace and Yeshua says and my new name, the one that he said to John 2,000 years ago. People will know, walk in, understand my name, the Father's name, the importance and power of Jerusalem, shalom, Salem. So, come out of Laodicea, touch not the unclean and join the Philadelphian community. People who will walk in Torah and first love and the ways of God's word. Come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing, Babylon, the false church. Philadelphia is the witness community to the end time community and they will be in ascendancy in the world as far as blessing and cursing is concerned. The blessed and the cursed, the protected and the ones spewed out and will suffer at the hands of the world. We are a Philadelphian community because we walk in the truth of the ways of YHVH. We have come out of Laodicea, we have come out of the systems of men that we may walk in the ways of God and God is saying, be that kind of person. I'm standing at the door and knocking on people's hearts. In this fallen fellowships and he says, I want to come in and change your life, repent. Hear what the spirit is saying to the communities in the word. At Mount Sinai, Israel was being equipped to rule and reign in the promised land of Canaan. They had encountered the God of heaven at Mount Sinai. They heard his voice, they were impacted with great fear and trembling at the kavod, at the glory, at the weight and the power of his presence. The sound of the shofar blast that just shattered the heavens, the thunder, the lightning, the fire, the earthquake, the thick darkness and the cloud and the smoke. From where the thunder of his voice came from, as he, the almighty, the great I Am, thundered out the Ten Commandments and the rule of his heavenly kingdom here on earth. This was a moment in history when the heavens were opened and God declared and revealed his power and authority and gave his rules and teachings and commandments. It was the kingdom of heaven coming down upon the earth. It was the rules of the heavenly being mandated upon the earth. Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. And Yeshua said in the prayer that he taught us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we see that picture played out at Mount Sinai as God came in such power and authority that Moses and the people trembled in fear. Be living according to what I have revealed and shown in the plan of the tabernacle and all the rules and commandments that surround it. This is not hard, he says. It's not hard to live righteously. It's not hard to live justly. It's not hard to live justly. If you love me, then my spirit, my power will enable you to be just like I am. Walking in righteousness, justice and truth and you'll come into a freedom where the power of sin is broken, where the power of Satan is dealt with, where the works of the flesh no longer control. But we walk in the ways of the spirit, that's freedom, that's blessing, that's the promise of God to the Philadelphian church, Ecclesia, Messianic community. People who will walk in the ways of the Messiah is Messianic. That's what we see in this picture of those seven churches. This was true power, true authority, the true majesty of the Almighty manifesting himself to mankind and humanity. The weight of the kingdom of heaven came down at that moment in time and bathed them in the pure righteousness that is God. We need to see this again in our land. This is true revival and knocking on the door. God will once again show up and reveal his power, his greatness and his love to man before he sure returns. My uttermost conviction. And when it comes, who will repent and return to first love? Who will repent and walk in the ways of God and his word when he comes and moves in power again? Who will come and eat from the tree of life that's promised to the Ephesian believers? Repent and eat of the tree of life in paradise with me. Be part of my kingdom. Yeshua said, many are called, few are chosen. And that means that only a few will repent and be overcomers in comparison to the multitudes. Why? It's got nothing to do with heaven and hell. Get rid of that nonsense out of our minds. This is about running the kingdom of God for 1000 years on the earth. This is about those who will be part of the first resurrection the first resurrection when Yeshua returns. And he says, I want Philadelphia. I want those who are the keepers of my Torah and the walker of my ways. I want those who know the truth of my law, my teachings, my commandments, who understand Torah, who understand Sabbath, who understands New Moons, who understands Tzakot. Isaiah says in the last days, chapter 66, the end and the beginning of Isaiah, in the last days all nations will come and worship me on New Moon and every Tzakot, every nation will be represented. Yehovah is looking for a people to rule and to reign and to run this earth for 1000 years between the first and second resurrections. And so these are Gentile believers that have been grafted into Israel and become one new body with Yeshua as the head. Those who are his bride running his kingdom here on earth for 1000 years with Yeshua as their king. They are called the remnant, the elect, the chosen, the bride, the body of Messiah. And Yeshua said in the last days, so powerful will be the supernatural works of Satan and his apostles that even the very elect can be deceived if they're not hearing the spirit right. Never ever doubt that Satan will try to emulate everything that God does. And we will have to be very discerning to know what's of God and what isn't. People chase revivals all over the earth when they're told not to. I'm not going into that. But Hosea and Acts and other places. Daniel, there is going to be a famine of the word and people will travel from sea to sea to get a word from God and there will be none. There's theology in all of that. God wants to build a body here, there and everywhere. He doesn't want us to be internet personalities attaching ourselves to every messianic group on planet earth where we become like teenagers filled with hopelessness, despair, suicide, depression and fear and fear because the only friends they got are on the internet and they can get harassed and bullied, no end. They had no community, no bodily relationships and friendships and I have encountered many people like that in the spiritual world. I have been speaking to people in America who have the same problem, surrounded by people and people following websites and rabbis and churches and they have no one to relate to at home. It's contrary to the word of God and it's dangerous, detrimental and cannot be part of a body to use your gift to be God's person in this place. It's a problem, I won't go any further than that. But the elect, the chosen, the remnant, the ones who become one with Israel and their covenants and their promises and their inheritance, these alone will rule and reign with Messiah for this 1,000 years on earth along with Israel and it will all flow out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. We either walk the narrow path into the kingdom or we follow the pathway of subtle decline into the feet of Satan, the wide pathway of deception, false apostles and prophets into the dungeons of darkness and disobedience. The word love has become nothing more than a cliché. The true, true, true love lost in the world of religious tradition and doctrine. The church does not understand what true love is based on the word of God and it's just a cliché that makes people feel good because I'm going to church, I'm putting my money in the plate, I'm doing what I'm asked to do and I'm serving God. That's not what it's about. First things first, the church has lost the fear of God and replaced it with good deeds and the works of the flesh. It's idolatrous and they cannot see it and Paul says we need to proclaim it even more loudly as we approach the end of the age. There has always been two camps. I'm going a bit longer aren't I than normal? I don't think I am, I'm always long but I'm not going to be back for a few weeks so just hang in there for another 10 minutes. There's always been two camps opposing each other in the religious history of man but they both can't be right. In the religious history of man but they both can't be right. There was the northern kingdom called Israel. They established themselves in Samaria, the 10 northern tribes and they developed their own religious traditions based on idolatry and paganism. They set new dates for the Feast of Sukkot. They built their own temple. They built a new altar and anyone that wanted to be a priest in their system was made priest, a whole lot of things. And then there was the southern kingdom called Judah, Judea. They followed the way of King David in obedience to Torah and worshipped at the temple keeping the feasts of God. And the temple was uppermost in their thoughts and their worship and the commandments of YHVH. And we know they had bad kings in there and we know over time that they lost their way and went into captivity. But there were these two camps and they were diametrically opposed to each other. And then we have two camps in Yeshua's day. One was made up, this first one, was made up of the Sanhedrin and they ran the temple and the religious system of the day. This was made up of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They made up the Sanhedrin council. They didn't like each other much. They tolerated each other and they disagreed on many doctrines. But it was a marriage of convenience. They agreed on enough to pretend unity and to make room for each other. There were a number of different sects within the Pharisees and within the Sadducees and they all twisted the scriptures and the Torah to suit their own traditions. That was the camp in Jerusalem in Yeshua's day. This John, the baptiser, wouldn't be a part of, even though by heritage he should have been a priest in the temple. But he was not going to align himself with that whatsoever. And then there was Yeshua and the apostles and the people of the way of Messiah. Yeshua said to this group, you will sit with me at my table in my father's kingdom. And Yeshua warned, if our righteousness is not better than that of the Pharisees, you won't even be part of my kingdom. These two distinct camps in the days of Yeshua. And now, 2000 years later, nothing's changed. There are still two camps. There is, I'm game enough to say it again and again and again, the Roman Catholic Church with Eastern Orthodox counterparts. And there's the Protestant Church with its multitude of different denominations within the system. The Catholics are like the Sadducees and the Protestants are like the Pharisees for various reasons. And they have a truce. They have an ecumenical unity that makes room for each other. It's a love-hate relationship on many levels. But they follow the same idolatrous paganism as each other. Rome establishes, let's get rid of the Jews. Let's get rid of Passover. Let's get rid of Sabbath. Let's get rid of anything that smacks of us having to identify with the Jews. Passover disappears, Easter's there. Sukkot disappears, Christmas is there. Sabbath disappears, Sunday is there. Eat anything you want, doesn't matter. And the Protestants have followed the Catholics and together they celebrate the same things, different theologies, one will have a go at the other. But they still are part of the same system in today's world. So, now we have the Messianic congregations who are making it back into the ancient paths of truth as found in the Torah and the Prophets. The true followers of Messiah and his teachings is being restored in an ever increasing way. The opposition will always be great, as it always was. The message of the Ruach, the Spirit of God, is to be unflinchingly strong and to be true to our calling. No falling away or slackening off because of opposition. We see it in Yeshua and the Apostles, what it cost them to stand true to the way, the way of Yeshua the Messiah, to the way of the good news of the Kingdom of God and not to one iota distort it, change it or back away from it. That's the falling away. The way, the right way, God's way, the Messianic way, the ways of following Messiah as the speaker of truth is the good news of the Kingdom of God. That is the message. And the call is to be faithful to it. And it's getting stronger and stronger in these last days. More and more people searching and looking for the truth of Torah and the ways of the commandments that God gave to Israel in the Feasts and the Sabbaths and all that he's proclaimed. More and more is it finding voice. More and more is it tugging at the heart of people around the earth. And so we are a people that are saying, first love will always put the Kingdom first and his righteous commandments. That's first love. The broad church of Christianity is Laodicea. The people of the way, the Messianic community is Philadelphia. It's true the Messianics have a lot to learn and a lot of changes to make in many quarters of the Messianic community. Much, much, much of the Messianic community is still very Christian in its traditions and doctrines and beliefs. But Christianity has a lot of repenting to do if it wants to be part of God's Kingdom in the millennial reign and to be part of the first resurrection when Yeshua returns. Amen. And of course you can understand when we go from place to place, the message isn't received that nicely. But it's only going to get harder, it's not going to get easier. When God begins to move in power and authority, as Yeshua did and the apostles did, they even contested the miracles that he did. He said, you're doing them in the power of Satan. What a thing to throw at the Messiah. And when Peter and John raise up that lame man at the gate, beautiful, they throw him into jail, throw them into jail for it. It's pretty tough. At any rate. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the power of your word, the truth of your word, the authority of your name. We thank you, Father, as we become more and more acquainted with it and aware of it, then the power of that name will flow through us into the peoples around us. Father, may we take the message of hope and life and freedom. And that may we see the power of the miraculous and the supernatural. May we see, Father, the healing of the sick, the casting out of demons, the doing of miracles, the revealing of your kingdom here on earth in people's lives. Father, for that day we pray and wait and believe. In Yeshua's name. Bless each one, Father, as we go throughout this coming week, watching over, protecting and keeping. In Yeshua's name. Amen.
