The Faith and Character of Messiah - Part 2: Knowledge & Self Control

[Music] [Music] okay everyone shabbat shalom and today we are continuing uh our this series on the faith and character of messiah and as i said when we first started this in part one this is going to be a teaching uh with two legs the first leg we're looking at second peter one uh and this is the process to spiritual maturity and then the second leg will be the fruit of the spirit and it will make sense as to why we're doing it in that order um so let's to introduce and we'll have a quick recap as well so this is the passage we we sprung off and for this reason do your utmost to add to your faith or your belief uprightness so in part one we really looked at what faith or belief was in a hebraic sense and what uprightness or virtue was so just to quickly recap faith or belief had this idea of loyalty reliability uh constancy um fidelity even within like a it had this kind of marriage sort of relationship illusion this idea that um it's sure it's uh immovable immutable so uh we can have faith in messiah in elohim in his word because it is so steady it does not change it does not move and because of that assuredness you can put your trust in it and trust is another big factor within faith so it's all these things i mean a really um a really neat way of looking at faith is a marriage covenant and we know that scripture is all about a marriage covenant between an elohim and his bride but again this idea of fidelity loyalty and obviously within the idea of faith was distrust in authority so we trust in elohim's authority because of who he is because he is unchangeable immovable he does not change he is faithful to his people he always um when he makes a promise to his people he will always keep it it is us that have the issue with being constant and faithful um and within this trusting in his authority this is where your obedience would come this is where obedience to his commands to his ways um if you truly trust in him and his authority you will um you will respect him you are you will do what he asks of you now that was just a belief part and already you know faith when you think of it this way i made the point in part one that we haven't even got our faith straight we like i i think we have a very you know we come from the majority of us will come from christianity where it's just a mental ascent and then we come into this more hebrew roots messianic side and we say well actually it's got obedience and trust in there and again just that's an incomplete understanding and that was that's what part one was about really opening up what faith is once you have your faith sorted out you add to your faith uprightness or virtue and again uprightness is is a really bad translation uh virtue the king james inc word is probably a bit better but this idea of moral excellence a character so brilliant and so excellent that it's actually worthy of praise and um we saw that actually this this usage in um in the tanakh was this i it always reflected upon elohim's attributes he that he was worthy of praise because of what he did and we saw that at the the root of this word or within the understanding of this word was that the good deeds and this moral excellence and this virtue was with the primary reason of helping others okay that was the primary driver behind it so once you have your faith your loyalty your trust your um your reliable your reliability sorted out you add to that moral excellence uh attributes that other people will praise because of what you do for the body so uprightness knowledge okay or gnosis in the greek to knowledge self-control to self-control endurance to endurance reverence and to reverence brotherly affection and to brotherly affection love for if these are in you and increase they cause you to be neither inactive nor without the fruit in the knowledge of our master yeshua messiah now here notice that in verse 5 the word knowledge here is gnosis in verse 8 is epignosis and we'll get into the difference there's a very slight difference there that you lose this in the english but again the whole point of this series is because this is the process that leads you to have fruit constantly increase in the knowledge of our master yeshua messiah and today we'll look at what that statement even means so gnosis uh this is actually where the word gnosticism comes from but it's essentially what you would think of it you know knowledge that signifies general intelligence understanding the general knowledge of christian religion but it's it goes beyond just mere facts okay this is what this idea of knowledge um has has with it now uh epignosis recognition and by implication full discernment acknowledgement so this is the difference between gnosis and epignosis gnosis is knowledge in general whereas epignosis is when you reach the the goal of that said knowledge you know everything there is to know about it so going back to this verse look at the process faith uprightness knowledge so as you amass knowledge and you do steps uh you know verses six and seven it should lead you to the epignosis or the full knowledge of our master yeshua messiah this is the reason for this process this so we get to the goal the end goal which is the full knowledge of our king um what's interesting is that the apostolic bible polyglot whenever the word epignosis comes in it's actually translated in the english as full knowledge it makes that distinction in the english so that um unfortunately this is something that the rest of the english translations you lose out on this so again the reason for why we're even doing this series is hopefully we can get one step closer to this epignosis of our king this full knowledge now gnosis that this comes from the word gynoscope or gynoscope which is the verb form of it so gnosis is the noun form and this is where it comes from this word guinasco to no um so i and i like this to absolutely no to know without exception this idea that there's no doubt within it and it says not merely to know based on personal observation or perception but also based on actual rational truth now we know what the truth is the truth is our king his word um and there's this idea as well that look not merely that which is based on or bound only by psycho experience such knowing comes from yah to completely grasp and have the comprehension of comprehension of as well and as why and how and to have the astuteness to apply it freely without error so essentially it's not enough to just have the knowledge you need to know how to apply it and knowledge is just not it's not just a um an awareness of something it's knowing how to use it and we'll get more onto this and notice that this there's this idea that yah has to give you something to have the full knowledge there has to be this interaction between us and our king or by ancient hebraic euphemism to have intimate knowledge of i.e sexual relations um now this is an another dictionary puts the word genosko and i really like what it puts here in entry number two to know to understand to perceive to perceive so with knowing with genosko with knowledge it's not about just having again an awareness of something it's able to um to separate things to perceive to and we're going to see this a bit more as we progress through the teaching this idea of discernment okay it's not just about knowing stuff it's about being able to for example to know right from wrong so this idea of perception now the word gnosis in the greek this greek word it's used in the septuagint and it has two hebrew counterparts uh one is the ah which is uh 1844 this strong's 1844 and the other one is okay now these words both have a common root and actually these two words are part of the same family so you'll find in hebrew you'll have a a verb which is like the root and then you'll have a load of words that are associated with it they're all part of this family as it were now again this is from the theological word book of the old testament the root word is yada which means to know this is the the verb form and here you can see that and are just derivations of this verb to know what's really interesting is this one look yi oni 848 d this is a familiar spirit this is actually in relation to witchcraft so when someone had a familiar spirit and they were into witchcraft and you know they were speaking to the spirit world it is actually coming from the root to know something to have a a relationship with something in this case in the negative sense which means to have a relative so you have a relative you know them right kindred kinship um we can see from this family of words that knowledge has the idea of intimacy within its semantical definition this is this is why witchcraft is considered spiritual adultery because you're having intimacy with something you ought not to okay so it's this is really interesting this idea to know something is to be intimate with it there's almost this union whoops and as i've put here this is why the verb to know can be used for adultery and this is why it can be used for sexual intimacy between a husband and wife because it's all part of this family of words where the definition is it's it's more than knowing right it's relationship connection intimacy so let's look we're going to look at some of the scriptures like we did in part one in where the greek word gnosis uh has been used in the septuagint and looking at the hebrew counterparts of it in genesis 3 verse 4 and then the hush or the serpent said to the woman you shall certainly not die for elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes shall be opened and you shall be like elohim knowing good and evil so in the hebrew masoretic the verb here is yadah in the septuagint is the word genosko okay this word where the word gnosis comes from and yah elohim said see the man has become like one of us to know good and evil so here we see that knowing or knowledge has to do with discernment being able to separate to have the knowledge of good and evil there's this understanding here but notice it comes with this idea of being able to perceive one from the other knowledge is linked to discernment and we're going to see this as we progress in deuteronomy 1 verse 38 yahushua is the son of noon who stands before you he shall go in there strengthen him for he shall cause israel to inherit and your little ones and your children who you say they are for a prey who today have no knowledge of good and evil they are going in there and to them i give it they are to possess it so here we see the the the children they have no knowledge of good and evil they they haven't had the life experience to be able to discern between these things now what's really interesting in this particular passage the greek word is not genocide but it's eido now a door had it's a really interesting word because it in genesis 1 when elohim creates everything it's this same word jews where he says yah saw the light and that the light was good is this greek word here a dot so knowledge this idea of being able to see something perceive its intrinsic value and its intrinsic quality and be able to act upon it so what does it say elohim saw the light they were it was good so he separated the light from the darkness and you see it throughout the creation account elohim saw that this was good it's this word here so it's interesting i just thought i'd throw that out there to them i give it and they are to possess it we have something similar in isaiah 7. therefore yah himself gives you a sign look the maiden conceives and gives birth to a son and shall call his name emmanuel and he eats curds and honey when he knows to refuse and choose so when he knows to refuse evil and choose the good again the word here ya da in hebrew or genosko in the greek now these passages actually show that knowledge and discernment come with maturity and experience okay in the deuteronomy passage the children didn't know good and evil they would have had some idea of right and wrong but to truly know here this idea that um emmanuel he he eats curds and honey when he knows how when he knows how to discern between good and evil so this is where we get kind of tripped up is that in our greek western thinking we think that knowledge is information information is knowledge and we think that look this is where gnosticism comes from if i know enough stuff i will be a better person whereas actually in the hebrew thinking knowledge comes from experience in intimacy okay it's an intimate and experiential thing that so for it like to put it simply someone that is older should have more knowledge in an ideal world okay in the greek thinking it's all about amassing information and and just you know being able to regurgitate this not so in the hebrew so again in peter when he says enter your faith um uprightness into your virtue and add to your virtue knowledge he's not talking about information he's talking about having an intimate and experiential journey with your faith with your king jonah 4 verse 10 and yah said you felt sorry for the plant which you have not labored nor made it grow which came up in an eye and perished in a night and should i not pardon nineveh that great city in which are more than 120 000 beings who have not known their right hand from their left and much cattle so here yar is saying that actually there's a whole city that doesn't know the right from the left i.e right from wrong one can be an adult but spiritually immature look these are adults right here that like okay there'll be kids thrown in there but do you see where i'm coming from you have a whole city that doesn't know or have knowledge of the right from the left right from wrong so you can actually be an adult and have no knowledge the knowledge that scripture speaks of it is the intimate knowledge of his ways that gives us true knowledge and discernment we have a standard of righteousness right we have his word we have a messiah that showed us how to live that out so we've been given a benchmark to to go by now let me ask the question is an awareness of his ways enough remember what i said that is it's greek thinking to just have an awareness of something we've we've made faith about an awareness of elohim you know belief or we've made you know actually i'm gonna say it in this side of the torah journey we've we make the claim that just having a knowledge of torah and is enough is it though psalm 119 teach me good sense and knowledge for i have trusted in your commands again the art or gnosis now just want to look at this very briefly excuse me this good sense the word here is which means taste or judgment so a really good uh example of this you know what here in the in english when we say um this smells fishy i don't like this situation there's something fishy going on here it you know or i smell a rat the hebrew equivalent is that they use taste not smell so tasting was to do with judgment or making decisions i again discernment so the psalmist is saying teach me discernment teach me good judgment and knowledge because i have trusted in your commands now notice here that trusting in the commands actually comes prior to being taught discernment and knowledge king david is saying because i've already been trusting in you commands please teach me good sense and knowledge notice that the process here is you have to trust in the commands first what i'm trying to say is having the commands or knowing about them or even kind of walking in them doesn't mean you have good sense and knowledge look i know a lot of people that are keeping the shabbat the feasts and these types of things they've got no discernment or good sense so again just having the torah is the stepping stone as king david puts it it's the foundation because we have the torah now teach me good sense and knowledge this points to the idea that spiritual maturity comes through a journey of learning and discipline okay because notice here king david is saying teach me teach me so this is this is an authority thing going on here there's an authority and david is submitting to that not only that beca the submission to elohim comes in trusting in his commands which should take us back to part one what is faith you know what is your belief david has said he's already got his faith sorted he is trusting in the authority of elohim and he's saying because i'm there please teach me discernment please teach me knowledge proverbs 1. now i mention this in the wisdom in the discipleship teaching but again we're gonna see that anyway let's just read it the proverbs of solomon son of david sovereign of israel for knowing wisdom and discipline for understanding the words of understanding now the word here for understanding is bina in the hebrew bina keep this in the back of your mind for receiving the discipline of wisdom righteousness right ruling and straightness for giving insight to the simple knowledge and discretion to the young so here the word is again in the hebrew there's a different greek word but it basically means the same thing the wise one hears and increases learning and the understanding one gets wise counsel and as i've said in the past that verse five is giving you uh is pointing towards discipleship is pointing to you have someone that's not been walking as long going to someone that's been that has some wisdom some experience and again remember the hebrew concept of knowledge that it comes through experience and intimacy okay so the wise one here's an increase is learning and the understanding one gets wise counsel now understanding here is being so it's the same word as in verse two bina okay same family of words bina and being for understanding a proverb and a figure the words of the wise and their riddles now going here i i'd mentioned the word knowledge in the greek tanakh it doesn't use genocide or gnosis here it uses as thesis now his thesis just means again perception not only by the senses but by intellect discernment again discernment of moral discernment in ethical matters so again the the translators of the septuagint uh when they were going from hebrew to greek they understood that this hebrew word has discernment within its semantic definition it's not just understanding or an amassing of knowledge but it's being able to apply that knowledge and because you know something you can decide between left and right now this greek word is used for the hebrew word and again the word is also used for the word gnosis so again it's like in english we have many we've got quite a few words that imply the same thing like knowledge um my mind's gone blank now knowledge intelligence you know but you guys know what i mean now remember that the word for understanding in the hebrew was bina or been okay being the verb being means to understand to consider to perceive uh to regard what's really in here you have uh bina which means understanding and you have another form of it understanding what's really interesting is that the word here bane in hebrew we would well we would translate this as between so they actually use a form of this word to like um you know when you you hear the phrase between the evenings okay and it's separating one evening from the other it's using this word so again within the semantic definition of being orbina is this idea of separating things of you know again think back to what i said earlier elohim saw he saw that that you know the light was good and he separated the light from the dark again it's this idea of perception um and being able to judge one thing from the other to separate them wisdom understanding knowledge and discernment are fostered in increase to maturity through discipleship so what i mean by this is look we all have a degree of wisdom of understanding of knowledge and discernment we all have that degree but the point i'm trying to make is that through discipleship that will be increased okay i hope that makes sense and actually this is further confirmed in the following chapter so in proverbs 2 my son if you accept my words and treasure up my commands with you so that you make your ear attend to wisdom incline your heart to understanding again so the hebrew there is for if you cry for discernment lift up your voice for understanding now this is where our english translations in chapter one of proverbs are the isr translated binar as understanding okay and here we're having it called as discernment and here understanding is the word so i i'm trying to show that knowledge and discernment are kind of intertwined it this is what separates hebraic knowledge to greek knowledge greek knowledge is just about having information hebrew knowledge and understanding is about being able to um to know it to have experience of it and to be able to discern it's actually it's a practical application if you seek harry silva and search for her as hidden treasures then you would understand the fear of yah and find the knowledge of elohim it's saying that look again my son if you accept my words you have the more mature teaching the less mature again this in this instance is being in the family nucleus but this happens again in other forms but notice that to understand the fear of yah you have to cry for discernment you have to lift up your voice for understanding and the point that i'm making is that this will be increased and deepened if we seek discipleship that's the point i'm trying to make what's really interesting here is that then you would understand the fear of yah and find the knowledge of elohim in the greek it says epignosis the the full knowledge of elohim it's making that that separation this is not just about knowing our king it's about truly knowing him in his fullness which i think which is to me it's just amazing that you know this not only is this a goal but it's a possibility if that makes sense and i'm not saying we can know everything there is to know about elohim but to know him fully that's the point i'm trying to make for yah gives wisdom out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding so again this there's going to be a certain degree of knowledge that only elohim can dispense and i believe this is he does this through his ruach okay he does this through his ruach and again this is why i believe that some kind of discipleship is important because we all see through a glass dimly okay we all imagine yeshua is in the middle and we're around him we're all seeing like a different part of him and if we come together if we come together and through his ruach we can start building the a 360 view of our king if that makes sense so that you know with you know i have a bit of knowledge you have a bit of knowledge he has a bit of knowledge she has a bit of knowledge and we come together and we we get closer to the full knowledge of our king again the full knowledge or the epignosis of elohim comes with a journey of discipleship i'm not saying that those in the who are not in discipleship do not have this that's not what i'm saying i'm saying that your understanding your wisdom and your knowledge will be deepened and grown through discipleship through the power of the ruach and elohim working in each one of us the scripture points to the fact that one must have discernment or bina and it needs to be coupled with knowledge so again our scriptures are saying it's not enough to just have knowledge you need to know how to use it okay so this is again from the theological workbook of the old testament i really like it's um it's like a short little essay i've took snippets from it on this word being you know to understand to perceive to discern the background idea of this verb is to discern being includes the concept of distinguishment that leads to understanding the verb refers to knowledge which is superior to the mere gathering of data it is necessary to know how to use knowledge one possesses the verb yadda so this was the word to know remember earlier in the teaching i had mentioned this word yada which is the hebrew equivalent of genosky the verb yada can also mean understanding in the sense of ability so it mentions so he esau had a knowledge an intimate understanding of what it meant to be a hunter it can also mean to be perceptive however yada generally describes the process whereby one gains knowledge through experience with objects and circumstances being is a power of judgment and perceptive insight and is demonstrated in the use of knowledge i hope that makes sense so you you need the the uh the perception and the discernment to know how to use the knowledge that he feels them special especially emphasizes the ability to understand ezra read the word of god in the presence of men women and those able to understand and the hebrew here is implying that those who were old enough so again they had enough knowledge to be able to understand what was being spoken of god can make a person understand his ways his angel came to give understanding to daniel and the participle form refers to a teacher i.e one who gives discernment to his students and again ezra 8 16 so again hinting at this idea of discipleship there from a number of instances insight or moral understanding it's a is a gift from god and is not the mere fruit of empiricism so empiricism is you know you're watching what's going on around and coming to conclusions because of what you see and feel but again like i was saying earlier there's a certain level of knowledge that has to come from elohim you know this is what it means to have the the scales lifted from your eyes it is ethical discernment so you can actually judge right and wrong with this with bina a person prays for it and since this insight is uniquely god's he can reveal it or conceal it the seat of insight is the heart and it is the heart which discerns or fails to discern the works of the lord and the fear of the lord so remember when we were looking at um proverbs 2 it said that if you cry for discernment if you cry for wisdom then you will understand the fear of yah and through it you can understand righteousness and justice and his will as his word is obeyed while understanding is a gift from god it does not come automatically the possession of it requires a persistent diligence it is more than iq it connotes character i love that it cannot it's not just again it's not just about what knowledge you've amassed it's about how you apply it one is at fault if he doesn't have it and in fact not to pursue it will incur god's punishment and these are your references for that when one acts on the objective presentations of god's revelation he will attain the ideal of the significance of understanding so again we need to focus on his word it's through his word through intimacy through prayer through discipleship all of these things bring us closer together to the epignosis the full knowledge of our king now is knowledge just enough the what i'm insinuating is no i've already said that um to have knowledge without discernment essentially is pointless and when i was looking at this having a basic knowledge or an incomplete knowledge is actually detrimental to our journey and our faith you know yeah let let's let's look at the scriptures to to and uh you'll see what i mean in isaiah 5 13 therefore my people have gone into exile because they have no knowledge so the hebrew word there is and that esteemed men are starved and their crowd dried up with thirst so we see here that a lack of knowledge is what was one of the reasons israel were even sent into exile in hosea 4 verse 6 my people have perished for a lack of knowledge again gnosis because you have rejected knowledge now the abp here actually puts the full knowledge i reject you from being priests for me since you have forgotten the torah of elohim i also forget your children i actually believe that this is a warning to us today you know one of the promises to those who overcome is that they will become kings and priests for a thousand years now notice that a lack of knowledge resulted in them rejecting the full knowledge of elohim you've got to remember look the house of israel had some knowledge of elohim they had the temple they were worshiping elohim they were also worshiping all these other gods and that was the problem syncretism it's not like they've just forgotten about elohim so essentially they were saying we've got a bit of knowledge of you but we don't want any more that's essentially what they were doing and again this resulted in them in being exiled so the point i'm trying to make if we're not seeking the full knowledge of our king that could result us in from us being rejected as priests i'm not talking salvation here i'm talking rewards or lack thereof malachi 2 7 for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge and they seek the torah from his mouth for he is the messenger of yah of hosts again i believe this is a a warning to those who aspire to be kings and priests in the coming age now look was it just that like that the priests knew torah no because remember if you had an issue that like say there was a squabble between two people what was the commandment well you go to the priest so the priest it wasn't enough that he had the knowledge of elohim's ways he had to know how to apply them he had to know how to apply them you know for we do this uh in our modern expression like because it's sometimes we struggle applying some of the torah principles to a modern world and we think well what do we so what do we do we go seek counsel from those wiser than us and essentially you have this priestly function occurring but you you have turned from the way you have caused many to stumble in the torah you have corrupted the covenant of levi said of hosts so again um having incomplete or immature form of knowledge is actually detrimental to our faith in jeremiah 51 we see why this occurs okay flee from the midst of bavel from babylon and let each one save his life do not be cut off in her crookedness for this is the time of vengeance from yeah the recompense he is repaying her bavel was a golden cup in the hand of year making drunk or the earth the nations drank her wine and that is why the nations went mad yar of hosts has sworn by himself i shall certainly fill you with men as with locusts and they shall lift up a shout against you he made the earth by his power he established the world by his wisdom he stretched out the heavens by his understanding the word there will be by the way when he gives forth his voice the waters and the heavens raw and he makes vapers to ascend from the ends of the earth he makes lightnings for the rain and he brings the wind out of his treasures all mankind has become too brutish to know every smith has been put to shame by the carved image for his moulded image is falsehood and there is no breath in them now in in the english we've got the verb form to know and in the hebrew it's not actually in the verb form it's in the noun form so what the what it should be saying is all mankind has become too brutish to knowledge or for knowledge this idea of think of it as being darkened in your understanding you couldn't have the full knowledge and notice what the result is every smith has been put to shame by the carved image they are worthless a work of mockery in the time of their punishment they perish incomplete knowledge will eventually lead to idolatry this is the point i'm making and look i'm i'm going to pick on uh let's i'm going to pick on christianity but we've all been guilty of this coming from our christian journeys right what did we do we created elohim in our own image or we created an image of him why because we didn't know him we didn't know his ways we didn't know what pleases him what displeases him right we used some of us had a faith where the feasts and the sabbath were done away with or the commandments were done away with we created elohim in our own image which is a form of idolatry why because we we became we were too brutish for knowledge the point i'm trying to make is if we're not constantly trying to seek our king and to know him we will stagnate and the result will be we will create him in our own image idolatry this passage is actually paralleled in jeremiah 10 as well now jeremiah 10 some of you will know this is the quote-unquote christmas tree passage again and it it it makes the point it literally quotes verse 17 all mankind has been too brutish for knowledge and the result and it's in the context of idolatry so again an incomplete knowledge of our king will eventually lead to idolatry it will lead to us creating him in our own image because we don't know him this passage is also quoted in revelation you know come out of her my people i shall make her drink the wine of my wrath this is quote revelation quotes it from this passage which means that this applies to us today let us seek to know our king luke 11 woe to you learn it in the torah because you took away the key of knowledge gnosis there in the greek you did not enter in yourselves and those who are entering in you hindered this is really interesting because our king's literally warning us that you can be learned in torah and not have the knowledge of elohim look he's literally saying not only do you take away the key of knowledge you did not enter in yourselves you know what was one of the things yeshua said to the fact the pharisees says we know we are of elohim and we know we are of abraham and he says you don't even know elohim you don't even know the father because if you knew him you'd love the one being sent from him and these were those learned in the torah so again like having an awareness and knowing the hebrew for this and the greek for that and knowing the scriptures inside and out does not mean you have knowledge it means you have information knowledge on the other hand again an intimate understanding that can help you discern and apply these things in your life and these things are garnered and fostered through prayer like getting to know our king and through going to those wideners having accountability and discipleship i believe we can also ascertain what the key to true knowledge is we get these hints throughout scripture in jeremiah 22 verse 16 he defended the cause of the poor and needy then it was well was this not to know me declares yeah so to defend the poor and the needy means that you know elohim but your eyes and your heart are only upon your own greedy gain and on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and undoing violence look jeremiah is speaking to judah at this point they had the temple they had the torah but they were doing all these other things which meant they did not know elohim hosea 4 hear the word of yah you children of israel for yah has a case against the inhabitants of the land for there is no truth or loving commitment or knowledge of elohim in the land now the greek here is epignosis which means the full knowledge of elohim swearing and lying and murdering and stealing and committing adultery have increased and bloodshed follows bloodshed these two passages are literally pointing to the fact that to know if one of the ways we demonstrate we love elohim and know him is if we love our brothers this is directly linked to how we treat our fellow man and again i don't see it i'm going to paint the broad brush stroke here there's a lot of um greedy gain and shedding innocent blood metaphorically within the the torah movement people devouring one another claiming they know elohim yet their very actions show they don't no elohim and this is the delusional aspect of it because you can like like the pharisees they you know they had all this knowledge and all this understanding of the scriptures themselves and they treated the rest of their people like like garbage they literally elevated themselves above them that proved they did not know their king matthew 9 10 and it came to be as yeshua sat at the table in the house that see many tax collectors and sinners came down and sat down with him in his tort ones and when the pharisees saw it they said to his talk once why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners and yeshua hearing this said to them those who are strong have no need of a physician but those who are sick but go and learn what this means i desire compassion and not offering for i did not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners notice yeshua is saying go and get knowledge again what did proverbs 1 say that uh we're to gain we're to gain knowledge and understanding and so that we can understand and learn uh the proverbs and the sayings of learned ones yeshua is literally saying to them you don't know your own scripture go and learn what this means i desire compassion and not offering or sacrifice at that time yeshua went through the grain fields on the sabbath and his taught ones were hungry and began to pluck the heads of grain to eat when they pharise and when the pharisees saw it they said to him your talk ones are doing what is not right on the sabbath but he said to them have you not read what david did when he was hungry he and those who were with him how he went into the house of elohim and ate the show bread which was not right for him to eat nor for those who were with him but only for the priests or did you not read in the torah that on the sabbath the priests in the set apart plays profane the sabbath and are blameless i i don't want to get into what that this means but as you but i say to you that in this place there is one greater than the set apart place and if you had known what this means i desire compassion and not offering you would have not condemned the blameless so again like in in the previous passage in the luke passage you saying go and learn what this means and in this passage he's saying had you known had you had the knowledge of elohim that elohim actually desires compassion and mercy over sacrifice and religious uh uh show you wouldn't have condemned the blameless remember that the pharisees they were they they they were straining out the gnat you know and swallowing the camel they were so focused on their religious show you know the length of theirs eats and praying on street corners for the son of man the son of adam his master of the sabbath the pharisees had actually become greek in thinking they had knowledge had become information they'd amassed all this information and they thought that they were righteous because of it okay knowledge had become information it wasn't experience and action they were not demonstrating the torah to their to their fellow kinsmen i.e their brothers and again like thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think of the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector and the fairy saying praise you father that i'm not like this filthy tax collector and what does yeshua say is the tax collector that was declared more righteous by the way that should help you understand when yeshua says your righteousness is to exceed that of the pharisees it's not to do with ticking the boxes the tax collector in this example was more righteous than the pharisee why because he had integrity and he was in repentance actually this is a growing trend among current leaders again this is a broad brush stroke but you see this a lot in in christendom um where they just churn out leaders you know you you go to theology college or theology school and all of a sudden you're fit to be a pastor and actually you end up with pastors like not knowing what to do because they've not it's all head knowledge they've been stuck in a classroom and they've not actually you know walked it out so to speak they've not had to deal with people and their their issues and again it's a growing trend look this is why paul says he gives particular you know what characteristics and traits that uh a leader needs to live by and what does he point to he points to for example a leader having his house under control why it's experience he's got like applicable knowledge that he's lived out first john 2 and by this we know that we know him if we guard his commands the one who says i know him and does not guard his command is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever guards his word truly the love of elohim has been perfected in him by this we know that we know him that we know that we are in him the one guarding his command stays in him and he in him and by this we know that he stays in us by the spirit which he gave us so again it's not just about keeping the commands it's spirit and truth is spirit and truth now in all these cases the word no here is genoscope this word that we've been looking at we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers the one not loving his brother stays in death again so the knowledge of elohim knowing that we have been ransomed that we've been bought and paid for we know that because we love each other everyone hating his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has everlasting life staying in in him by this we have known love because he laid down his love for it his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers again we'll get to we'll not next week but the following week we'll have a real look at this agape because this is ultimately the end goal but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his tender affections from him how does the love of elohim stay in him again if you know elohim you will love your brother we are of elohim the one knowing elohim hears us he who is not of elohim does not hear us and by this we know the spirit of the truth and the spirit of delusion by this we know that we stay in him and he and us because he has given us of his spirit now think okay if you have the spirit what should be manifesting in your life the fruit of the spirit again there's a there's a lot of people in the torah journey that are not doing this they're not demonstrating the fruit of the ruach which means that they have a pharisaical faith again broad brush strike and we know that the son of elohim has come and given us an understanding so that we might know the true one and we are in the true one in his son yeshua messiah this is the true elohim an everlasting life now what is the result of going from knowledge to full knowledge from gnosis to epignosis in hosea 2 and i shall take you as a bride unto me forever and take you as a bride unto me in righteousness in right ruling in loving commitment and compassion and i shall take you as a bride unto me in trustworthiness or in faith go back to part one and you shall know ya the greek in this is you shall fully know him like again this is bridal language so not only do you have faith loyalty uh trust submission you have full knowledge the bride of messiah will have the full knowledge of elohim and will know him intimately she will fully know him this is why we do this not because we have some insatiable thirst for information but because we want to know our king we want to be close to him one of the primary functions of knowledge will actually be to build up the house of elohim it's not for you it's for everyone else again that all these attributes that we've covered so far have to do with the brothers remember with virtue um that this uh moral excellence that is worthy of praise was centered around um doing good for your immediate community and the knowledge is actually there to build up the house of elohim in exodus 31 see i have called by name betsal son of uri son of of the tribe of yehuda and i have filled in with the spirit of elohim in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all work again the all these words keep popping up wisdom understanding knowledge and in all work now the greek word here in the hebrew is but the greek word here is epis epistemies it means enlightenment high knowledge education and in modern greek it's this word for science which is really interesting so that the meaning of the word is actually carried through but here like why did elohim give betsalo that's that knowledge it was to be with the tabernacle to build his house which we are okay and i believe this will be one of the bride of messiah's primary functions in the millennial reign she's not just ruling and reigning for the hell of it or because it's just a reward like it's actually to build an eternal family for the forever after to build up the house of elohim if your knowledge and your understanding of scripture is not benefiting other people other than yourself you have not got the full knowledge of elohim ephesians 4 11 and he himself gave some as emissaries and some of his prophets and some of his evangelists and some of his shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of the set apart ones to the work of service to a building up of the body of messiah until we all come to the unity of the belief and to the full knowledge of the son of elohim to a perfect man to the measure and the stature of the completeness of messiah again this is why we have these things teachers prophets evangelists they should be helping you come to closer to the full knowledge of the son of elohim that's the point of it so again even paul's giving you this idea of uh discipleship as it were so that we should no longer be children tossed and born about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of men in clevelanders unto the craftiness of leading astray but maintaining the truth in love in agape that we grow up in all respects into him who is the head messiah from whom the entire body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the working by which each part does its share causes growth of the body for the building up of itself in love again this is why we have teachers and shepherds and so forth because they should be helping you give you information not knowledge so that you can work it through so that you can grow so that you can learn so that the spirit can then take that and write it on your heart and the why so that we can build each other up in love again the whole point of this is is for everyone else not just for you again if your understanding of scripture is not benefiting someone else you've missed the point this is what scripture says so for this reason do your utmost to add to your belief your faith your loyalty your trust your fidelity and to that moral excellence such excellence that it's worthy of praise right because you've been benefiting your community once you've got to that add to that knowledge intimacy experience discernment something that you can take and give unto others we're really failing like again with a lot of us are still stuck in faith we haven't even got our faith sorted out and if we don't have the faith bit sorted out we only have a form of whatever follows add to your so now that we have a deeper understanding of what knowledge is let's have a quick look at self-control like it is what you think it is but there is like a there's a nuance to it that we miss again because of our english translations it goes beyond just self-control the word for self-control in this particular passage is egg criteria it means self-control the virtue of one who has mastered his desires and passions especially his sensual appetites so the dictionary definition gives this idea of like more like a bodily thing you know like you know kind of it gives us the idea of controlling the lust of the flesh right but actually it goes a lot further than that it's more look when people think of the flesh they think of just the body but you've got to realize things like pride and greed the this is the flesh like think of it as the fallen nature okay self-control goes to those spiritual aspects too it's not about oh i you know i can't stop eating or i can't stop drinking or i can't stop you know fornicating or whatever this it goes much beyond that you know how about having control of your anger you know this is what it's talking about now this word egg criteria is actually only used three times in the in the brits uh and it's used in this passage in galatians 5 3 as one of the fruits of the spirit and it's also used in acts 24 25. so let's look at this passage uh to get a deeper insight into this because second peter and the fruit of the spirit passage galatians five they don't actually explain what self-control is they just say you know have self-control and after some days when felix came with his wife drusilla who was a female yehudi he sent for show and heard him concerning the belief in messiah and as he reasoned as paul reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come felix became frightened and said for the present go and when i find time i shall send for you now what i love about this passage notice what paul considers to be uh the primary things to teach a newcomer to the faith right look he's he's teaching he's coming to felix and what does paul talk about righteousness self-control and judgment that's what paul deems the elementary things to teach someone when they come into the faith now look who is our righteousness he's our righteousness how do we demonstrate righteousness in him he's given us a standard of righteousness so we've got our king we've got his ways in righteousness self-control and the judgment it's interesting that paul considers self-control one of the primary topics of the good news when reaching out to non-believers okay this should help us when we're talking to our non-believer friends actually it made me think of hebrews 6 therefore having left the word of the beginning of the messiah let us go on to perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and believe towards elohim i believe this is the equivalent of paul what you know when it said he was teaching him about righteousness about self-control and about the judgment i believe that the founder repentance that's within the righteousness like like when you repent you're repenting from your sins your your torah's right but you also know that it's only by his blood that you can even repent that you've been given that opportunity and that's your faith towards elohim of the teaching of immersions and then laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of everlasting judgment again paul considered this is one of the elementary things and this is what paul was teaching felix righteousness self-control judgment true faith should lead us to a state of repentance and staying in such a state will actually take self-control and this is where you have this idea of the flesh versus the spirit you know when we first come to this to this side of the walk with the commandments and stuff we deal with the more obvious ones right and i think most of you will agree that once you get the obvious stuff you know like the fleshly stuff like you know what i can and can't do on the sabbath what i can or cannot eat you know these are you know physical things then we start working on the deeper issues like our pride our anger our you know things like that character traits heart issues now what's interesting is that the word egg criteria so this is the word for self-control it comes from a different word it comes from egretes which means strong or robust having power over or dominion over something again it's this idea of being controlled or reserved almost this word ecretes only appears once in scripture and it's in titus the reason i left you in crete was that you should straighten out what was left undone and appoint elders in every city as i have commanded you if anyone is unreprovable the husband of one wife having believing children not accused of loose behavior or unruly do you think that this person has some hebraic knowledge you know he's actually lived some stuff therefore he can apply it to the assembly for an overseer has to be unreprovable as a managing one of elohim not self-pleasing not rough not given to wine no brawler so again brawler this idea that he's controlled over his anger his emotions not greedy for filthy gain again he's learnt to be content with what he's been given which takes great self-control but kind to strangers a lover of what is good sensible righteous set apart self-controlled this is a requirement for a leader clinging to the trustworthy word according to the teaching in order to be able to both encourage by sound teaching and to convict those who oppose it now the word here to convict means to it's more to do with careful examination and being able to bring someone to recognizing wrongdoing again knowledge discernment you need knowledge and discernment to be able to first see something and then know how to get through to a person for there are many unruly men again they've got no control of themselves senseless talkers and deceivers man the mouth is one of the hardest things to control especially those of the circumcision so religious people putting their faith in the flesh in religious observances whose mouths have to be stopped who upset entire households teaching what they should not teach for the sake of filthy game again this lust is pride um you you can by looking at other scriptures you can see that they were drawing disciples unto themselves and the entire households that they they upset these are people that are usually young in the faith that are a weak in the faith these people have to be stopped and one of the the main traits is that they have no self-control now the word egretes which is uh self-control in titus 1 it comes from the word kratos which is greek uh g2904 and this is where it gets interesting kratos means power strength a mighty deed with great power dominion okay so self-control the word self-control in the greek comes from this word kratos another dictionary puts the ability to exhibit or express resident strength might look power rule sovereignty exercise of ruling ability so it's actually got um a regal sort of idea to it the idea of a king being able to control in the brit had a show or in the new testament this word kratos it's used 12 times 11 of which are used in reference to the mighty power of elohim think about this elohim when we think his power his majesty his awesomeness his you know the the the awesome the uh reverence inducingness of his character this word power it self-control comes from that word and it's you it made me scratch my head how can the word self-control be derived from the idea of power might this means that the word self-control has the idea of strength and dominion over one's self but that it's almost a kingly quality it's a kingly trait okay now think about this if you want to be a priest and a king if you want to overcome first corinthians nine whoops do you not know that those who run in the race indeed all run but one receives the prize run in such a way as to obtain it and everyone who competes controls himself in every way now the word is accra terume it's a derivative of self-control okay so this idea of controlling themselves training themselves now they do it to receive a corruptable crown but we for an incorruptable crown look the fact that he's saying we're doing this for an incorruptible crown this is a bridal thing like that those who wear the crown are kings and priests this is a bridal statement therefore i run accordingly not with uncertainty thus i fight not as one who beats the air but i treat my body severely and make it my slave lest having proclaimed to others i myself might be rejected but paul is saying that he has to train his desires his impulses lest he be rejected even though he's proclaiming the good news which should be a serious um warning to leaders or teachers or evangelists just because you're proclaiming to others if you're not training yourself up if you do not show any self-control you might be rejected from a crown again i'm not talking salvation here i'm talking rewards again this word uh control agra to me it's from the word egretes which is self-control and at the root of this word in the greek is this idea of might and power which brings me to exodus 34. this is when yah passes before moses and shows him his back and yah passed before him and proclaimed ya ya an el compassionate showing favor patient great in loving commitment and truth watching over loving commitment for thousands forgiving crookedness and transgression and sin i.e he's long suffering but by no means leaving unpunished visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation patience self-control long-suffering it's one of the very attributes of our king again like look at this self-control he he he showed in the wilderness you know these ten times these people have tried me these 10 times and he still didn't smite them just like that he allowed them to die out which meant that they had a chance for for repentance that's how patient and self-controlled he is patient like when you look at the hebrew he's got this idea of long-suffering and slow to anger man the hebrew roots movement really needs to learn this being slow to anger having control over our flesh matthew 26 this is in the garden of gethsemane then yeshua said to him to peter return your sword to its place for all who take the sword shall die by the sword peter clearly lacked a bit of self-control at this stage in his life okay or do you think that i am not able to pray to my father now and he shall provide me with more than 12 legions of messengers i bring this up because we see yeshua demonstrating like the fullness of what it means to be self-controlled like he literally allowed himself to be put on that ancient of on that cross on that stake he allowed it he could as he said he could have called legions of messengers at any point but he didn't though he endured one of the most horrific ways and not only that he bore this sin well the whole plan of redemption hinged on that one thing on what he was doing there imagine the pressure and not only that being separated from the father in that moment ultimate self control how then would the scriptures be filled that it has to be this way our king demonstrated full you know temperance and self-control and this level-headedness no matter what happened in front of him look guys a lot of us believe that we're about to enter in of a great tribulation let it not be us that's swinging the sword panicking not having our desires and our impulses under control because that means we don't have his peace which means that we're lacking in the fruit of the spirit which means we're not mature in our faith so let's wrap up here for this reason do your utmost to add to your faith your belief you add to your faith virtue uprightness so uprightness add to it knowledge walk this out a bit you know do walk this out with some brothers that know a thing or two more than you do get to know elohim learn discernment pray read his word you know wrestle with the word wrestle with his truth that's what it means to have knowledge so that you can then pass it on to others because like i said if the knowledge is for to puff you up you've missed the point it's for the building of the body for the building of his tabernacle which we are to knowledge self-control this this kingly regal attribute that no matter what happens in front of you you can be it's okay when people come against you when the government comes against you when one day your life may be asked of you that you're just it's okay that you're not gonna react out of fear or anger or frustration but you're going to react out of peace to self-control endurance to endurance reverence guess what we're doing next week we will look at endurance long suffering and this idea of reverence or godliness or fear to reverence brotherly affection and to brotherly affection love this is where we're ultimately headed brotherly affection and love and let me say this i don't think a lot of us even know what love is i think we're still in this brotherly affection thing and again this is going to be a broad brush stroke but i see a lot of um manufactured brotherly affection thankfully not within this community you know to the guys i'm speaking to now but unfortunately that's what goes on out there for if these are in you and increase not stay stagnant but increase they cause you to be neither inactive nor without fruit in the full knowledge of our master yeshua messiah i hope that's been a blessing i hope it's given you a deeper insight into what it means to know your king what it means to have knowledge of him how that knowledge is uh sought and how it is found you know i hope it you guys have a deeper understanding of what self-control is and look self-control is not something for it to be from the spirit it's not something you right i'm gonna sit here and be self-controlled i need to show more self-control it should be a natural outcome i hope that makes sense it should be something that just comes naturally not something that you try and do because if not it's not in you it's not on your heart anyway let's stop here for today and uh let's do some q a q a amen [Music] you

Channel: OliveBranch Fellowship

Views: 1,447

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: YHVH, YHWH, YHUH, Yehovah, Yahweh, Yahuah, Yeshua, Messiah, Torah, Truth, Knowledge, Self-control, Spiritual, Maturity, Body, Paul, Wisdom, Discernment, Discipleship

Id: Vb4GBVNFvvQ

Length: 80min 48sec (4848 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021