Torah Portion Nitzavim - Jim Staley, 2014

[Music] hello everyone jim staley here passion for truth with this week's torah portion and uh before we dig into it let's take a time out and ask the father to bless us as we open up his word father god we just come before you and thank you so much for uh just a pleasure to know you to come before you father we just ask that your word will be opened up to our hearts lord wherever we're at in our journey whatever we're going through right now the god that you would create a pause lord in the storm create a pause lord surround your people with the depth and breath of your love and your angels god to protect them so they can hear your word illuminate bring revelation lord and i pray that you change our lives god through your word in yeshua's name amen all right this week's torah portion is called nitsavim which means one standing how many of you out there right now uh are a lot like my wife who has six kids homeschooling and at the end of the day she can hardly stand i walk in the door i have to catch her as she's collapsing maybe you you have days like that where you just feel like you know i can't hardly stand up well that this tour portion is kind of for you and so if you'll kind of open up your script open up the scriptures and and pay attention we'll dig into them and see what the holy spirit has to say uh so this is the 51st weekly torah portion we are almost done with the annual torah portion cycle if you're new to the torah portion you're coming at the very end here it's simply the torah genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deuteronomy divided by one year and divided by 52 and so we're getting very close to the very end of the torah portion readings for the year and uh when the israelites are crossing over the jordan river they're in the in the land they're taking over the land uh this is the moment uh where god is speaking through moses and he tells them to enter the covenant with him he talks about repentance he talks about the choices between life and death and he talks about keeping the commandments of god are not hard and so i know that most of us have been taught that god's commandments are extremely difficult and very hard well life is hard marriage relationships are hard relationships in general are hard that doesn't mean that we shouldn't do them we shouldn't be gauging whether something is true or not based on whether it's hard a matter of fact weight lifting is hard exercise is hard dieting is hard how many of you know that at the end of the day uh like i think uh you know the the old adage says in america that there when there's no pain there is no gain and so this week's torah portion kind of has that in mind so let's begin first of all uh before we begin this is critical that i kind of give you a little bit of backdrop here we're right before the fall feast days or right before the feast of trumpets right before yom kippur the day of atonement and we're right before the feast of tabernacles in hebrew sukkot and that month before the feast of trumpets is called the month of elul it's the month of which in in hebrew is to turn around or to repent in in english and it's this month that there is so much in judaism across the world and and in and for those of us that are getting back to our christian roots we kind of take this time as well to recognize that this is a time of introspection this is a time that we look inside of ourselves audit ourselves and prepare prepare for meeting our king this is the time that we're to look inside of ourselves now let me give an example of where that comes from if you know the feast days you know that the first four are called the spring feast days passover unleavened bread first fruits and a shavuot or pentecost in greek and that has to do with the first coming of messiah but the second set of feast days are the fall feast days and those all are connected to the second coming of the messiah so let me pose it this way if you absolutely knew for certain that this year the messiah would be coming during the fall feast wouldn't you prepare your heart when you start doing audits wouldn't you start looking at what you say and what you think and and what you do and how you respond to others and what do you do when you're when you're offended what about conflict resolution what about uh you know arguing with your spouse your children all of these things that that we take for granted that happen our daily life we don't really audit them very often well this is god's way of getting his people into an annual cycle of auditing so an audit happens in the spring and an audit happens in the fall and it's a beautiful thing because and at the end of the audit if you take it seriously you start looking at the things like how do i respond to my spouse when i'm upset how do i respond to my children you know when i'm when i'm what about other people what comes out of my mouth just the words alone that we speak if we audit those will radically begin to change your your life why because like james says one little rudder moves the entire ship and our mouth our tongue is like the rudder of our life what we say is what we end up doing what what out of the heart the mouth speaks the bible says we are justified by our words and matthew says and we are condemned by our very words not out of a spring should come salt water it should only be fresh water so just that alone is a good time to audit and so maybe that's for one of you that's out there today a lot of the things that you say and how do you respond to others that's what this whole month is about it's really about returning and we're going to see more of that as we kind of work through here but let's start in deuteronomy chapter 29 because that's where our torah portion finds us in verse 9 therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them that you may prosper in all you do now there's a lot of prosperity teachers that would love to hone in on that scripture if they just read the front of the book uh but we they don't for for a large part but this scripture i want to talk about this word prosper in the hebrew and share with you just the incredible uh backdrop of really what it means uh the word prospe prosperity uh in in the original hebrew does not mean uh to to um be rich whatsoever uh at all that's not what it means the word prosper let's just look it up real quick deuteronomy chapter 29 verse nine all right so the word prosper here is sequal and that is spelled with a sheen a cough and a lamid and that word in the hebrew amazingly when we think of prosper here in america we think of riches and glory and we think of cars and houses and he's prosperous but that's not what it means really in hebrew it means uh uh to be intelligent uh to consider uh to be an expert an instructor it means to be skillful to have good success to teach to have or to make it means to understand to have wisdom to behave to be self uh to be to behave in oneself to consider to be considerate to make one wise and and to be an instructor and i love that the whole part about being an instructor because that's connected uh to the word rabbi which means to is a teacher which is also connected to the same word for doctor and so what happens is is that if we actually do what the scriptures say to do in this week's torah portion in deuteronomy 29 therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them that you may be prosperous in all that you do that you may be successful that you may be intelligent that you may have wisdom that you may be able to teach that you will be such a light with so much wisdom that what will emanate out from you is the ability to be a doctor for someone else because listen what's the difference between a doctor and a someone sitting on the operating table they're both humans they both have brains they both have all of their senses intact the only difference is one knows the rules of that particular procedure that's it one knows the laws of brain surgery or cancer or heart surgery whatever it is that's it it's just the skilled knowledge of understanding and the wisdom of that particular area there's no difference between men the only difference is in the wisdom and our king says this he says that your wisdom is not found in the things of this world there are yeshua said it this way jesus said it this way he said it's like the shifting sands he said build your house on a rock did you know that when he mentioned that that that was a hebrew idiom that they knew that the rock was torah the rock was the law of god was never ending it was immutable it was never changing and it was the traditions and doctrines of man that were called shifting sands that's why yeshua said don't build your house on traditions and doctrines and religions of man build it on the only thing that never changes which is my word my holy instruction manual the gps doesn't change the maps when they're set in place those streets are in place the coordinates are there if you follow the instruction manual you will be wise it's like getting in a car and your wife says uh hey we're going to go to this place this restaurant i got a new restaurant so you say uh well what's the name of the restaurant well the name of the restaurant is uh uh is geppettos and so you might go to geppetto uh but where's the pedals i don't know just uh drive well that would be not a very good uh to just drive it's more uh it's more logical to take the coordinates and the address put it into your google maps or your smartphone technology or your gps and let the voice that has the instructions tell you exactly what to do that's exactly what the way that yahweh works he works just like a tom tom he works just like a gps that he's the one that has all the information he's the one that has all the instruction manual if we will simply listen to his voice and his instructions we'll get exactly where we're supposed to be and we'll gain wisdom in the process remember in the scriptures i can't remember exactly where it's at but i think it might even be last week's torah portion it's in the torah here where where the people come up and they say oh my goodness what an amazing god is this that has such phenomenal decrees and laws and instructions that bring such wisdom to a people what is this god who is this god i want to serve him and that's all in the context that yahweh says if you keep my commandments you'll be like a tree that will grow deep into the earth and the boughs of that tree will be like the bows of joseph that will go over the walls and drop fruit for the nations so that this the old testament strategy for discipleship or for evangelism i should say is actually growing wise and creating fruit and they will come to you that's really the original evangelism is be a tree in a desert be a light in the darkness you don't have to go to them they will come to you how much easier would it be let's for instance let's say that you're in sales i used to be in sales and i guess still am in a way i'm i'm offering the the word of god to people instead but for those of you that are in in secular sales today and you're out there and you're pounding the streets and you're making phone calls and you're trying to get people to hear your voice so that you can show them your product how amazing would it be is if literally they came to you and every person that came to you was really interested that's exactly the original evangelism structure of the old testament was be a light and they will come to you in your house how do you evangelize your own children be a light they don't really care what you say i have six of myself they only care what i say because they see a life that's backing it up so if you truly want to have credibility in your home with your spouse with your children maybe you've lost it apologies are great repentance is great teshuva is wonderful but when you live a life that is set apart in your own house that is when you have a children you have a spouse that wants to feed from that give them the fruit from the word of god don't be in your house somebody different than when you're outside that's a hypocrite that's a pharisee so maybe the children maybe your spouse has no desire to see what you see because what he sees is not fruit so maybe instead of a tree that is growing with no fruit you could pray and begin to ask the father to help me develop the fruit that i need of the spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control what about gentleness guys what about self-control ladies you know all these things are critical because they exp they explain the heart of god they show the image of god in the earth realm so grade yourself on that often i do that in marriage counseling i will write down the nine fruits of the spirit out of galatians chapter five and say on a scale of one to ten grade yourself and i'll hand it to your spouse and let your spouse grade you okay or actually the spouse grades you first and then you grade yourself and then you compare notes and what you'll find is you'll give yourself a much higher grade than your spouse will and it will shock you to realize really for some of you uh how low those scores really are and it'll show you really statically what you need to work on and what you need to pray into when i first did that uh years ago it it it shocked me that i actually got an f uh when you added it all up i got below a 60 percent uh and when i was in high school below is 60 if you got a 59 or below it was an f and so the question was when do i even have the holy spirit living inside of me i'm not displaying the fruits of the holy spirit that was a pivotal turning point in my life and in my marriage and relationship and in my ministry and so i just put this out to you there to you today take that test find out what part of the commandments of god that really matter that you're not keeping oh you can keep shabbat you can keep the feast days you can do all these things and and pretend that god is is really pleased with you but on the judgment day i can assure you ladies and gentlemen he's judging off of the fruits of the fear spirit first if you pass that then he'll go to the rest it's loving god with all your heart mind soul and strength and you do that by loving your neighbor as yourself if you don't pass the first two golden rules shabbat doesn't even matter it doesn't even come up it doesn't even register you don't get a single credit for keeping a law if there's the fruits of the spirit and the top two commandments are not already being kept this is the critical part of the father saying that i'm looking for those that will worship me in spirit and in truth because truth doesn't mean anything without the rock huckadesh without the spirit of the living god and the love that is behind it the love of of the living god means nothing if the truth is not attached to it there's no instruction manual uh if that's just a un uh altered uh unabridged just just man be paying me love i love that love i love that's grace grace christ grace with no instructions that means he's constantly loving us and giving us grace for making mistakes but without telling us what the instructions are of the mistakes that we're making we would never be able to correct them so love spirit and truth and instructions go together like the gps in a car and the electricity that go with it imagine a gps a smartphone a tomtom whatever you want to call it imagine that being in your car but not having any electricity going to it all the information is there but it's worthless without being connected so let me just look into your eyes tonight and ask you this question are you connected are you sure you're connected because literally at the end of your day at the end of your days i should say the only thing that matters is are you connected matter of fact let's turn to matthew chapter five and let's talk about this for just a second we're going to go on a little rabbi trail if that's okay with you or matthew chapter 7 i should say and we're just going to share with you i can quote it for you but i would rather not i would rather read it to you matthew chapter 7 verse 21 says this not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven verse 22 many will say to me on that day on the day of judgment when the dead and christ rise first lord lord we've prophesied have we not prophesied in your name we cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name and then i will declare to them and i would imagine looking right into their eyes i never knew you depart from me those who practice lawlessness in the original first century that they would have understood that to be torrelishness those who don't practice the torah but what we like to focus on a lot of times uh in the messianic movement uh they focus a lot on keeping the torah but if you if you look very carefully that's part two the first part is this i never knew you now what's so interesting about that is this word no is connected to the jewish idiom for intercourse for the intimacy that one has with a spouse that is what this is this was the word that was used in the first century for intimacy and relations with a spouse so what he's saying is that there are two requirements that i have on judgment day if i am going to let you into my kingdom number one i have to know you intimately now let's just say this god knows everybody right i mean let's be honest he's omnipotent he knows everything he's full of of all the knowledge in the world there's not a person he doesn't know inside and out he knows the hairs on her head and knows them numb by number as the stars of the of the sky so on and so forth so is it talking about god knowing us intellectually or is it talking about that there is a reciprocated relationship where yahweh knows the people that are his and they know him you see let me ask a question how many of us know god really i mean how many of us know about him we know about him i meet a lot of people every day i've led a lot of people to christ who know about god matter of fact james uh the book of james says that that the the demons believe in god and they shudder uh so knowledge intellectual ascent of knowing about god doesn't do anything but knowing him how do you know what's the difference between knowing everything about your spouse and knowing your spouse the difference is knowing her heart the difference is knowing her mind it's knowing uh what she thinks before she thinks it you know where she's gonna go that's the kind of intimacy that brings that intimate relation with with a spouse is is there's nothing that turns a spouse on more in my experience than reading my wife's thoughts which is extremely difficult i would i would say most men have a hard time doing that but when we do guys we we get we get major kudos for that high fives that we read their minds right most of the time it's an accident but how do you think the father of the universe feels when we read his mind we don't have to pray about it we know exactly what he wants we know his will it doesn't say in here you know it says many will say to me in that day uh you know lord lord or excuse me verse 21 but he who does the will of my father it doesn't say that uh not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but those who pray the most but those who do the commandments the most but those who do this it's those who know him know him and there's two compartments if you want to know your spouse you have to know their mind you have to know their will and you have to be connected to their emotions and then number two that's called soul that's their soul is their mind will and emotions but then there's a whole other element you have to know her torah you have to know his torah you have to know the law of your own house what is sin to her the bible says is sin to you and so you may not be able to find it in the scriptures but what what she's it bothers her it should bother you and so if you don't know what bothers your spouse or you don't know what the laws are in your own home it doesn't matter how much of the mind will and emotions that you that you know you won't be able to bring a satisfaction or a loving obedient uh reciprocated relationship and intimacy because you won't have the torah down the instruction manual it's like loving a god with no instruction book well how do you love him i don't know it's everybody's own right in his own mind and that's exactly where we are i submit in christianity today so i just want to take a little a little bit of that little rabbi trail as i like to call him and and just just encourage you to not just focus on the keeping the commandments ladies and gentlemen we've got to love the lord god with all our heart mind soul and strength and then we can learn how to do the rest of his commandments we can learn how to take that instruction manual and apply it to our lives most of us fail in our relationships with one another because we don't have one or both of these things we either don't know the mind of our spouse we don't know the will of our spouse we don't even connect emotionally with our spouse and then we do the commandments and then there's still no intimacy and so you say well honey i did everything you want me to do and she's still not happy well you're never happy i i always do everything for you and i provide for you and i do all your list and you still are not happy why because she doesn't want someone she can hire someone to do all of those things what she wants is she wants someone that will not only do all those things expressing love but will know her intimately the knowledge of intimacy is what the spouse's what our spouses are looking for so please take that home with you and i hope that will encourage uh somebody out there all right let's get back to our tour portion because we've got an incredible amount to go through so we talked about prosperity we talked about how it deals with success look what it says here in joshua 1 8 the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that's written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success so the book of the law or in this case the book of the covenant they're both interchangeable words the book of the covenant is the book of the law the book of the law is the book of the covenant they go back and forth but the covenant of god when we keep inside those marriage boundaries i like to call them guard rails it brings success it brings wisdom why because it tells you how to handle almost every situation that you can ever run across the more you know of god's word the more you know of god's law the more you don't have to guess imagine for instance if we went back to doing bible things in bible ways and when a guy got a girl pregnant he was required to marry her and if the if the father of the bride said no the husband-to-be would still be required to give one year's dowry the entire bridal price would still have to be paid imagine if we did that actually it would cut down on sin in the body of christ for sure because the consequence would be there today there's no consequence for anything just about whatsoever but the bible gives us very strict commandments on what to do in every situation for our benefit all right let's continue man we talked a lot about that all right um how god does not bless us just for the sake of blessing us he tells us how to be blessed so that he will be glorified ultimately it's not about us it's not us being happy it's not about us being blessed it's about him being glorified why because this is the way it's supposed to work the more that we are blessed the more everyone else that's on the outside sees that blessing and it glorifies the father who's in heaven it glorifies god the more that they see us blessed the more that they want to come in to be part of the covenant so blessing is connected uh to glorifying him says this in deuteronomy 4 5-8 it says this see i have taught your statutes and rules as the lord my god commanded me that you should do them in the land and that you are entering to take possession of it keep them and do them for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who when they hear all these statutes we'll say this is the verse i was looking for in my head earlier surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what a great nation is there that has god so near to it as lord our god is to us whenever we call upon him and what a great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that i have set before you today and so the value that god puts on his gps is off the charts in what we call the old testament or the hebrew scriptures the new testament writers same thing in the book of timothy what did he say uh it says all scripture is worthy for doctrine reproof correction the way of righteousness when that was written there was no new testament so the only scriptures he could have been talking about is the hebrew scriptures or what we call the old testament of which he says are worthy for all doctrine and all righteousness and all the ways of living we've got to get back and learn some of these things now i know that that uh you know a lot of us have been taught a little bit differently growing up that the law of god's been done away with well that's like saying that the wheels on a car are done away with uh not at all you've got to have wheels on a car the car is the same uh and the wheels still need to be there just because maybe the the color of the of the car gets changed or maybe we change out the upholstery or we put a larger engine in a car which is what yeshua did doesn't mean that we do away with the very f chassis of the car it's the paint job that's changing it's the it's the it's the engine that changes it's making it faster easier more user-friendly if you will it's a new interface for those computer users all right let's get back to deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 10 through 15 let's read it you were standing here today all of you before the lord your god the heads of your tribes and elders and officers and all the men of israel your little ones your wives the sojourner who was in your camp from one who chops your wood the one who draws your water so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the lord your god which is the lord your god is making with you today that he may establish you today as a people and that he may be your god and as he promised you as he swore to your fathers to abraham to isaac and to jacob it is not with you alone that i'm making the sworn covenant this is critical listen up but with whoever is standing here with us today before the lord your god and with whoever is not here with us today did you get that it says that he is not making this covenant with just the children of israel that are standing there today this is what most of us in theological circles have been taught is that the law of god was for the jews only not only is that we we are so far off on that because it wasn't to the jews only it was to all of israel jew the word jew only comes from the southern kingdom the house of judah which is only made up of uh two tribes uh three including levi so you have benjamin judah that's the house of judah that's where the term a jew or jewish comes from but you have the rest of the ten tribes that are in the north that are scattered throughout bithynia and cappadocia and galatia you can read in first peter 1 1. so at the end of the day god says that i'm not just going to establish my covenant with just natural-born israel but i'm going to establish my covenant with any and all people that want to come to me anybody that comes to me anybody god's instruction manual for life is not just for the secret meeting of the saints it's not just for the chosen people it's for the entire world why do you think in romans paul says that the whole world is guilty before god for breaking his law because the law is built for the entire world that's why on judgment day people can actually be found short and not inherit eternal life and be thrown into the the lake of fire how can he do that because they're held to the same standard the standard is you broke the law of god a curse ensued and you don't have the messiah therefore you are under the curse of the law when yeshua came he paid for the curse he paid our tickets so we don't have to go to jail that's the whole point remove the instruction manual you remove the curse because the curse only comes from breaking the law hopefully that makes sense to you but what i wanted to point out here is that everyone god wants everyone and all people to be a part of his covenant it says even the sojourners are to keep god's commandment and are his people it's interesting to note that the group entering into the covenant with god includes the sojourners they are are a people originally coming out of egypt they were called the mixed multitude remember moses comes for yahweh and says hey what do we do all these egyptians and these mixed multitudes are coming out should we tell them to go back and yahweh says no let them come and be my people i will have one law for the native born and the sojourner or the alien i will have one law for both not one law for the jew and one law for the gentile that would contradict god himself god says no my law is perfect my law is my word my instruction manual is my instruction manual and i don't change it because as long as you're breathing i have two eyes and a mouth uh you know and all the features of a human being and you're human it's the same instruction manual because our blood's still red in every single one of us uh and so when you get down to it here's what's some specific examples of the journal the sojourner being required to do uh in order to be called a child of god which by the way they were allowed to be called children of god and when they came in they didn't know what tribe they were from because obviously they weren't native-born israelite they didn't know they weren't part of the tribe of dan or ishtar naphtali or whatever but wherever they settled whatever tribe they chose to become a part of is the tribe that they became so a thousand years later they might have become a benjamite and not even from the tribe of benjamin because originally their forefathers were sojourners this really messes with a lot of people because we like to look at this you know a lot of people like to look at this bloodline you know i'm from this tribe i'm from that tribe the reality is there's been so much mixing nobody knows anything about what tribe you're from what we do know is that our southern brother judah the jewish people today have maintained their identity they're from the southern kingdom but the rest of the tribes are gone and what god's trying to say is that listen there's no jew there's no gentile what matters is that are you a child of god and here's the requirements to be part of a child of god first according to the the last part of of revelation the revelation of the brit had a shah the new testament is you must believe god god says if you don't believe that yeshua was the savior then you're not even part of god's kingdom period because god said that's part of what it required to come into my kingdom is you must believe in me and believe on whom i sent outside of that listen to what he says here passover if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the passover to yahweh according to the statute of the passover and according to its rule so shall he do you shall have one statue vote for both for the sojourner and the native that's in numbers 914. let's look at unleavened bread for seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses if anyone eats what is leaven that person will be cut off from the congregation of israel whether he's a sojourner or a native in a land again out of exodus 12 19 we see that sojourners gentiles were keeping the unleavened bread there there were instructions for them as well how about the shabbat or the sabbath exodus 20 verse 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to yahweh our elohim our lord our god on it you shall not do any work you are your son or your daughter your male servant your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who's within your gates they're required to take a shabbat as well how about yom kippur the day of atonement or judgment day as we like to call it leviticus 16 29 i know i'm going fast but i got a lot to go through here and it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month you shall afflict yourself and shall do no work either your native or the stranger who sojourns among you who are part of israel again tabernacles deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 14 you shall rejoice in your feast you and your son and your daughter your male servant and your female servant the levite the sojourner the fatherless the widows who are within your towns everyone is supposed to take part in this he gives those instructions to be a part of it and in verses 14 to 15 it says it is not with you alone i'm making this one covenant but with whoever is standing here with us today before the lord our god mighty and with whoever is not here today and so god is giving the covenant to his people and says just because i know how you all think i'm not just giving or he should say i should say he knows how all of us were going to think thousands of years later he says i'm not just making this covenant with you i'm making this with every single person that comes after you that wants to be part of my kingdom it's real simple you want to be live in my house you got to play by my rules i don't have two sets of rules for two sets of children i don't adopt children and have a separate set of rules for the adoption of adopted children i have the same rules for both the native children and the adopted children all right let's continue here how about uh in verse deuteronomy chapter 29 uh 16-28 he talks about man there's so much to go through in here that we're not going to have time to go through uh but let's let's focus uh let's see start in verse 23 the whole lamb burned out with brimstone and salt nothing sown and nothing growing where no plant can sprout he's talking about he's given a history of of what happened as they served the lord god and coming out of egypt and and what happened when they when they followed yahweh they're talking to their the children and the children's children he says all the nations will say why has the lord done this to this lamb these terrible things because they broke the commandments he says what caused the heart of this great anger then people will say it's because they abandoned the covenant of the lord the god of their their fathers which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of egypt and went and served other gods and worshiped them gods whom they've not known and and whom he had not allotted to them therefore verse 27 the anger of the lord was kindled against this land bringing upon it all the curses from their land and anger and fury and great wrath and cast them into land as they are this and so i just want to talk about this this this concept of the unpardonable sin or blasphemy as as we like to talk about it in the new testament according to the passage above the lord will not be willing to forgive those who do the following whose heart is turning away from the lord who have a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit and who deceive themselves into thinking they are safe while they walk in the stubbornness of their own heart this ladies and gentlemen is the unpardonable sin mark 3 28-30 says this truly i say to you all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemes they utter but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin for they were saying he has an unclean spirit it's interesting to note that yeshua did not say that the scribes have indeed committed the unpardonable sin he's saying that they're on their way to committing the unpardonable sin if they maintain a position of rebellion that is what causes people to fall into the unpardonable sin and they won't even know it and again yeshua is warning them that if they refuse to repent they are in danger of hell fire the unpardonable sin is the heart's refusal to be pardoned it's the heart's refusal to be pardoned now listen to this you don't have to cognitively know that or practice that let me give an example i'm going to go back to these three rules that that happen uh from verse deuteronomy chapter 29 16 through 28 is where this unpardonable or god saying i'm not going to forgive these things these are the three things whose heart is turning away from the lord so they chose to turn away from the lord whether they know it or not it it's it's it's irrelevant their heart turned away from the lord they have a root that bears poisonous fruit so the fruit that they produce is poisonous how do you know someone by their fruit not by their words not how much of the bible they know not how much they smile not how nice they are you know them by their fruit when they look at their lives what's around them is destruction all around them or is life all around them everything they touch turn to to life or does it turn to death you'll know them by the fruit so they'll produce poisonous and bitter fruit by the way this is connected in hebrew to the word leshan hara or the evil tongue it is poisonous the bible says so when someone speaks evil or speaks poison something that's not true or even something that's true that they're legally biblically not allowed to share with anyone what they're doing is they're planting poison in someone else which produces death in that person because that person doesn't even know what to do with that information which produces bitterness so when you have poisonous mouth you you can't keep your mouth shut and you have constant poison that's coming out you're constantly saying negative things uh it produces bitterness both inside of you and to the one that you're talking about and so if you have a root a tree that bears poisonous fruit you might be in high danger of crossing over to the concept of blasphemy and number three who deceive themselves into thinking that they are safe while they walk in the stubbornness of their heart so they know that what they're doing is wrong or they don't know what they're doing is wrong either way they totally believe that they're safe in rejecting the actual scripture someone even come to them and say this is what the scriptures say and they reject it well at that point that's god's bidding on how he determines that but that person begins the process of starting that rebellion in the heart against god's ways and by the way it is not our job to tell people uh how god's going to judge them that's not our job so if you share this message with someone you share the christian roots of your faith with someone you begin to share the torah and the law of god and his word and the gps instruction manual and all these things and they reject it it's not your job to tell them their judgment it's not your job to tell them that they're going to be judged it's your job to present the information and if they say no you love them anyway where they're at because god loves them where they're at and it's his job to make those final judgments all right let's talk about deuteronomy 29 29 says this the secret things belong to the lord our god but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law god doesn't reveal everything to us there's a lot of hidden things a lot of secret things in the bible and you know what there's a lot of people that get caught up in wanting to find the secret things wanting to get into that secret knowledge you know that was first century gnosticism that was early mysticism and how it developed is we want to know what we're not supposed to know isn't that true you hear somebody talk and whisper in it you want to know exactly what they're saying because it's built into us to want to know things that we don't know or things that aren't our business the grass is always greener on the other side type of thing is that whatever i can't have i want it's the forbidden fruit mentality and i'm here to tell you my friends that it is absolutely against the word of god to look into the secret things i know people uh in my past and in my present that spend their days trying to figure out the secret things not the things that we're supposed to study out that's different okay it might appear to be a secret but we're supposed to study it for instance uh you know the the mark of the beast you know god would not have put it in his word if it to be a secret it's meant to be a mystery revealed in the last days there's a difference but there are other things that the lord does not tell us exactly how he did something or exactly how for instance how exactly did creation happen you know there seems to be a discrepancy of of what is the light that's created in you know day one versus day four and although i have my own theologies and my own thoughts on exactly how that worked we're not to know what we don't know where the scriptures are silent we can't impute information moment we do that we break this scripture why because he says there's so much that's been revealed you need to spend your time on the things that i've already given you revelation on why do you spend so much time listen uh husbands wives listen to me very carefully what for those of you that are zealous for god's word you spend so much time wanting to learn the deeper things of god's word but you fail in the process because you don't know how to love your spouse you don't know how to love your children you don't know the basics of repentance teshuva restoration when you wrong someone you don't even know what to do in conflict and i'm saying that generically of course because many of you do but many of us want to know the deeper things of god's word we study those things we get out we look at all these teachers and we learn all this information and we fail we fail on judgment day because we didn't do the basics the very basics that you grew up with that are found in almost every religion outside of islam loving your neighbor as yourself we all love ourselves we all love to to to satisfy and gratify you know uh you know me the i but when it comes to satisfying other people and the compassionate and loving heart i know that we all a lot of people struggle with that including me but that is the higher part uh what's in hebrew called the havaco mayor light and heavy it is the heavier parts of god's law is the laws of love deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 1 through 3 when all these things come upon you the blessings and the curse which i have set before you and you call them to mind among the nations where your lord god has driven you and return to the lord your god you and your children and obey his voice and all that i command you today with all your heart with all your soul then the lord god will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and he will gather you again from all the people where the lord god has scattered you look god is so brilliant he says at the time that he's giving the speech look you all are going to fail you're going to fail miserably i'm going to have to divorce 10 out of you 12 tribes i'm going to scatter you into the four corners of the earth but at the end of time in the four corners of the earth when you hear this call this shofar blast which is what passion for truth is all about is trying to be part of that shofar blast to call out to the nations to fulfill deuteronomy chapter 30 verse one through three when you hear that call and you and it comes to your mind and you repent among the nations of which i've driven you which you don't even know that i've driven you when you return the word there is teshuv to shoof to repent to return when you turn around to the lord your god you and your children and obey my voice in all that i command you to do today did you catch that it's critical he's talking about thousands of years in the future when you're spread throughout all four corners of the earth when you return to me thousands of years from now when you realize you're out of covenant and curses are upon you and your life's not working out great and you go man i guess what i'm believing is not working because the fruit of my life does not reflect the belief system that i thought was true when you come to that place i want you to remember this on this part of the timeline so he doesn't say thousands of years later i want you to go back to the time of christ doesn't say that i don't want you to go back to the time of of uh you know the reformation he says i want you to go all the way back to this moment and i want you to do what you said your forefathers actually said they were going to do i want you to obey my voice in all that i command you today with all of your heart mind soul and your strength then the lord god will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and he'll gather you again from all the peoples where the lord god has scattered you god is moses is given a prophetic vision of the end days and the end days are all about god's people hearing his voice and going there's got to be something more i'm going to go back to the original covenant that is connected to yeshua it's not except yeshua or outside of yeshua it's the original covenant believing god at what he said and trying to do bible things in bible ways by the inspiration of the holy spirit which yeshua gave us on the day of pentecost that's what this torah portion is all about it's about how to be prosperous how are you prosperous by doing what he said and ladies and gentlemen it starts at the end of the day with loving your neighbor as yourself it starts with the the rudder of our tongue it starts with the fingers on our hands it starts with the thoughts that go through our mind the music that we listen to the things that we watch the movies that we see the speech that comes out of our head or our mind our mouth everything that we do is either keeping the covenant bringing a blessing or breaking the covenant and bringing a curse every relationship that i deal with in counseling and that we as as leadership here walk into comes down to this when someone has a marriage problem it's because they have a curse on their life how do i know that because the bible says i'm not saying someone placed a curse on them i'm not saying that their salvation is cursed i'm saying that they i can trace it back to they broke a commandment and the curse ensues it's a cause and effect if you take your foot and put it on the gas pedal and you put it all the way to the metal and you close your eyes there is effect that could happen of you running a red light and killing someone or crashing your car god's not trying to prevent us from anything other than the curse of he created the universe he created you he created relationships he knows exactly how relationships are supposed to operate and he gave us a set of instruction manuals a gps roadmap of how to navigate through those relationships and if we actually know what those laws are if we know what those instructions are for relationships and in every circumstance which is what the entire torah is all about i get it some of those are are some of the laws are are very time specific no question about it okay uh we don't deal with the laws of polygamy today because uh we don't have polygamy uh we don't we don't have that particular sin god said because they are sinful uh he had to give them laws so because those things happen he had to give them laws so it's either uh they're gonna be sinful uh and any not give the laws to help them out or he doesn't give the law at all and and people end up getting hurt so at the end of the day god gives instructions for our benefit every single one of them are given for our benefit he doesn't want us to not eat unclean foods because he's trying to be mean he says i created them to be the vacuum cleaners of the earth i don't want you to eat them because they're toxic and i want you to be healthy and i want you to be whole because if you're healthy you can do more to restore my name in the earth so at the end of the day this torah portion is all about standing when you've had enough ladies and gentlemen and you've had a bad day i had a bad day this last week really rough day you know what i could do just stand stand on the word of god stand on the promises that he gave me but ultimately the promises can only be fulfilled when we choose to fulfill his instructions his promises we better know what it says love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control i think that's where we need to start if we can get those things down then maybe we can learn the deeper things of god's word as a good professor would do he would never go to chapter two if his students didn't understand chapter one let us go back to the beginning i mean the very beginning and let's learn love let's learn truth let's learn spirit let's learn all of these things but let's learn them in the priority order that god gives them love the lord god with all your heart mind soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself so let's end in prayer and pray that god opens up our eyes and brings uh a revelation of the things that we need to work on the things that we need to uh focus on this week pick one of those things and just say you know what my tongue i am tired of my tongue getting out of control i know my husband makes me mad my wife makes me mad my chip but i am going to absolutely control my tongue this week and and pic and pick one of those and every week pick a commandment to work on that will make an impact in your life you're not supposed to work on all of them at one time you can't we're not made to do that if we were he wouldn't have said hey you're the top two he wouldn't give us ten commandments uh to look at it you know he would have put all of them on on the ten commandments uh on that stone but he just gave us ten words 10 commandments to let us start there acts 15 is the same thing james gives us four things hey they'll learn the rest verse 21 they'll learn the rest and they come to synagogue there's a synagogue every corner in every city on every shabbat they'll learn the rest but these are the top four things if they want to be part of our community at at the end of of uh of the scripture at the end of this torah portion i believe that god's trying to tell you this he loves you stand he's there for you he wants you to prosper stay in his ways do what he says love your neighbor and he will have your back let's pray father we thank you so much for your word we thank you for working inside of us and through us lord we just praise you and thank you for your goodness your holiness that you care about us god that you take time out of your eternity to wrap your arms around your people and father god i know that there's someone in the sound of my voice that's had an absolutely terrible day and everything has gone wrong lord i believe that you want them to know that you saw that day and that you loved them through it and you were there through every moment of that day and lord that you loved them that you cared about them that you have a purpose for them that you want to bless them you don't want to harm them you want to bring restoration and healing not harm or hurt and so god i pray that you would begin to convict your people to come back into covenant in the smallest of ways to make the largest of impacts yahweh i pray that as you call out to your people everywhere in every tribe and every tongue that you would bring them home and heal them lord i pray that you'd open up eyes right now god if someone has physical ailment in their body in their eyes god i pray you'd heal it right now in yeshua's name father i pray god that you would open up the tongue to speak life and father at the same time if someone in the sound of my voice god has something wrong with their mouth in the physical realm gone and i pray you'd heal it heal it in the spiritual realm as well father i pray that nothing but life that changed their vocabulary god father i pray lord in the hearing that the things they will hear would be of you lord and if there's any hearing ailments god i pray that you would heal them if it be your will put your hands on their ears father and i pray that you would make them hear let the deaf hear father i pray for those of you for those that are out there god that struggle in their walk lord they limp in both the physical and the spiritual lord i pray that you'd heal their legs heal their knees heal their feet and father i pray that you'd heal their spiritual walk as they walk with you yahweh we only want one thing we want you to be pleased we want to be intimate with you we want to know you so god would you know us and help us to know you the way that you know us we don't want to just be torah keepers god we just don't want to keep your laws but we want to know you in your heart behind them show us your heart open up your chest oh god and make it ours take the heart of stone and make it flesh let us give grace to one another and love one another according to the love that your son gave us when he spread his arms out and gave us the biggest hug we could ever have nailed to a cross father bless your people keep them let your face shine upon them please have grace on them god on all of us let your countenance be lifted up over them and lord at the end of their days i pray you give them shalom and let it start today in yeshua's name be blessed everyone and i pray that god does bless you this day make a difference in your own life and write down five things pick out one thing this week that you want to work on and then write down five three to five rules three to five rules that you can have that will help you accomplish that goal so maybe uh it is uh that you want to uh that you you want to watch your tongue a little bit you don't you so so you're going to create a rule that i'm going to say three nice things about someone today that's one rule and maybe you'll create another rule and as you do these rules it'll begin to change your mind which will change your heart until next time i'm jim staley passion for truth may god bless you shalom if you were blessed by this teaching please consider helping us reach the nations by making a donation today thank you and god bless [Music] you

Channel: Jim Staley Teachings

Views: 3,369

Rating: 4.9789472 out of 5

Keywords: Jim Staley, Passion For Truth, Yeshua, Torah, Hebrew Roots, Torah Portions, Torah readings, God's Prophetic Calendar, Christian, Israel, Messiah, Messianic, the Law, Nitzavim, standing

Id: P6lRAxXdC_4

Length: 56min 43sec (3403 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021