Some of us were sharing earlier this morning, and I want to share with you some things that came up then. You know, the problems in a marriage would be gone if we would live in holiness. The problems that we run into and encounter every day may not be gone, but they would be overcome if we would live in holiness, because, believe me, the answers are in the Word of Yahveh. He created this earth and nothing on it has caught Him by surprise, so therefore every situation, every obstacle that is in this Earth–He has made a way to get around it. The Word says, “Let no man say he is tempted by Yahveh.” But if he is tempted, when he is tempted, know that there is a way made for him to escape that temptation, and we need to understand that– there is a way made for us to escape every temptation that comes upon us. Now, the matter is whether we are going to take the time to look through the Word, and take the time to get with The Father to find out what is the answer to that temptation.
I want you to turn with me this morning to John 5:38, and we’re going to be reading through to the 44th verse. And Yahshua is talking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees here, and He tells them something very plainly. Now you have to understand that this is supposedly the religious, most holy group of the community. These are the people who spend the most time in the Scriptures, so I say to you this morning that it’s not a matter of how much time you spend in the Scriptures–it’s with what heart you approach them, and how much of it you put to work in your life.
Yahshua, speaking to them, said, “But you do not have His Word abiding in you, because Whom He sent, Him you do not believe.” You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have Eternal Life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have Life. I do not receive honor from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of Yahveh in you. I am come in My Father’s Name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name–you will receive him! How can you believe, who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes only from Elohanu?
He just described human nature here in one whole shot; I mean He just went from top to bottom and described it. We need to understand that it’s not about how much of the Word we know–it’s about how much of the Word we apply and what authority we give the Word in our life. It’s not about religious concepts. You know, it’s just like the commercial: “WAKE UP! WAKE UP! You’ve slept too long!” And that’s exactly what the Ecclesia has done–they have slept too long.
There was a group of people in the beginning–they did not call them “Christians” –they called them “believers” “Yahshua imitators”–“Christians” did not come in until the Roman culture and idea came in, and that embraced the believers’ attitude, the Scriptures, and the Holiness, and the paganism that was brought in with it.
I was so shocked when–I think it’s been about two years ago now–Donna came and told me, “I was praying, and The Father told me not to call myself a Christian any more” I thought “Whoa!” He said that that word, The Father told her that that word enveloped so much that it did not have a good connotation to it, it doesn’t even have a good connotation to it to the unbeliever out there in the world, and it doesn’t have a good connotation to the believer. What it is, is a conglomeration of the Word and philosophies and traditions of men.
Somewhere along the line, we’ve got to get to the point where we hate the philosophies and traditions of men rather than the Commandments of Yahveh. And that’s where it’s at, because the traditions of men are set up to get us away from the holiness of Yahveh. It’s man’s concept about whatever; and so much of it has been filled in with philosophies that sometimes it‘s hard for us to understand. Well, that‘s what Yahshua was addressing with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He said, “Search the Scriptures, for you’re talking about you have eternal life, and you think that comes from the Scriptures, but you haven’t searched the Scriptures.” What you‘re standing on is something that‘s real shaky. Listen to me, you can stand on the Word of Almighty Yahveh this morning–it’s not going anywhere, it’s not going to move, it’s not going to fall down. Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but His Word shall stand forever. You can stand on His Word; you cannot stand on what somebody says about His Word. You cannot stand on traditions of men. You cannot stand on the fact that once you walked the aisle, shook the preacher’s hand and declared that you wanted to be a Christian and be baptized that you are on your way to Heaven. You can’t stand on that! I mean, you can, but it will fall with you. What you have to stand on this morning is exactly what Yahshua said. He said, “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have Salvation, but it is the Scriptures that testify of Me. If you had the Word of Yahveh dwelling in you, you would know Who I AM, and you would accept Me, you would believe Me. I come in The Father’s Name and you receive Me not. Let another come in his own name, and you will receive him.”
And I thought about how that is today. A man comes in The Father’s Name, and declares a message of The Father, many times he will not be received, a majority of time he will not be received, but if he comes in his own name and some philosophy that he’s got and where he’s touring the country giving some humanistic idea or philosophy that will hit you in your life, then everybody will flock to him. Why is that? That’s because we are a lot more comfortable with something that makes sense to us in our human nature. Can I tell you something? The Word of Yahveh makes no sense to the carnal man, it makes no sense to the human nature–none whatsoever. It is a Spiritual Thing. It has to be received in the spiritual man, because it just doesn’t make sense here. That’s the reason we have to be born again. That’s the reason we have to have a conversion. That’s the reason you find so many people unsuccessful at living the Father’s Word, because they have not been converted from a carnal man to a spiritual man. H-m-m? Listen to me. Peter was going along doing everything that Yahshua told him to do–he was healing the sick, he was casting out demons, he was doing all these things. And then at the end, Yahshua said, “When thou art converted.” Whoa! You see, he was following Yahshua, but he was following Him out of his human nature. He was following the Messiah that was going to take over and kick the Romans out and put the Hebrews back in control of their own country. He didn’t have a Kingdom vision; he had a carnal vision. How many of us are sitting in the Church today with a carnal vision? We want Christianity to apply to this world and this world alone.
I’m going to tell you something–I want it to apply to this world, but all more important to me is that it applies to the next one! I don’t care what I have to go through–I’d rather not some things–but listen, whatever we have to go through here, it’s worth it for the prize that is on the other side!
We have to have the Word in us, and the Word says that if you be a hearer of the Word only, and not a doer, that very soon you will be like a man who looks in a mirror, and he walks away and he’s forgotten what he looks like–he can’t remember where every little flaw, and this, that, and the other and his complexion. But if you are a doer of the Word, if you will turn a steadfast gaze upon Yahshua, and on the Word, then guess what–you will take on that image. You won’t just read about it and you won’t just think about it, but you will take it on. When you take it on then it becomes not difficult to do, because it becomes your nature. .It is the nature of Yahshua ha Maschiac to do The Word. He was The Word made flesh. If you’ve got Him ruling in you, then you need to be doing The Word, because that inner man inside you wants to be doing the Word. If you’re dying on the vine, then the reason you are dying is because you are not giving your spiritual man what he needs. You’re not giving him the exercise He needs.
Only by the Scriptures can we be sure. We can hear somebody say something, we can hear somebody tell us how it is, we can hear somebody teach us how it is, but that means nothing until we verify it through the Scriptures that that’s what the Scriptures say, that’s what Father Yahveh is saying, then it becomes reality, then we can stand on it.
I could bring fifteen preachers in here, and I could give you fifteen Scriptures, and you will get fifteen opinions on what each one of those fifteen Scriptures say. What’s the problem here? I mean I don’t want to be idealistic, but listen, The Scriptures have been given for no private interpretation. They shouldn’t be different–they should be the same understanding. Why are they coming up different? It’s because we mix philosophy in with the concepts of Yahvey, and sometimes we try to understand the Scriptures in a philosophical manner, rather than by the Ruarch ha Kodesh. And that makes it difficult, that casts confusion on what The Father is saying, because we cannot understand. We want The Father’s justice to comply with what we think “just” is, rather than what He says “just” is. And Yahshua said, “Because you do not have The Word in you, you do not understand Who I Am, you do not understand What I Am, and you don’t understand the necessity of having Me in your life”. Let me rephrase that: “having your life in Me.”
That’s what needs to happen to the Ecclesia today; they need to place their life in Him, and understand that He is the answer. He said, “Because you do not have the Word abiding in you, you do not recognize the movement of Yahveh. If there is anything that the Ecclesia needs today, they need to be able to recognize the movement of Yahveh. They need to understand where The Father is going and how He is going to get there. I hear people say to me–as a matter of fact, I had a man pray one time when I was on a mission, and I know that he assumed I was a “Judaizer” and he prayed, “Father, protect us from the Judaizers, and deliver us from the Judaizers.” And you know, what is so pitiful is that man didn’t stop to think that The Father gave the Scriptures through the Hebrew. The Oracles of Yahveh came down through Judaism. Now, they perverted them to some degree, and I understand that. And because of that perversion, they did not recognize the move of Almighty Yahveh when He came. What was that? Yahshua! But just because Yahshua came, did Yahshua do away with a ll the Oracles that The Father had given? As a matter of fact, He said He wasn’t going to do away with the least one, didn’t He.
So, you know, today we have this great philosophy that was set in place by guess who?–none other than Constantine who organized and set the rules for the Church, and we’ve come up with this concept that what we have to do is “believe”; and, that now, “it’s not important for us to keep the Commandments.” “If it’s comfortable for us, and we feel like doing that, that’s good, and The Father appreciates it, but if we don‘t–well, He forgives us, because we have been given ‘grace’.”
Well, I don’t know, but maybe, maybe I have a different Ruarch ha Kodesh than most people have, but that doesn’t ring true to me. And it doesn’t ring true to me when it is an insult to keep the Commandments, rather than break them! Today’s philosophy is, “If you aren’t concerned about the Commandments, you’re strong, then you are strong; you are Kadosh; but if you try to keep the Commandments, then you are not Kadosh at all, you are an insult to Yahveh. Now what’s wrong with this picture–what is wrong with it? Yahshua said, “Search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have Salvation.”
It is time to look at the Scriptures and KNOW that you have Salvation because you have complied with the Scriptures, and you have fallen in love with His precious Son that He gave to take away the sins of the world. We must have the Word in us, or how are we going to live by it? If we’re going to live by the Word–I mean, even when Peter and Paul taught, if we were going to live by The Word, what Word were we going to live by? The Gospels hadn’t even been written then–not even the Gospels had been written then. They said you had to follow the Scriptures! What Scriptures were they talking about? The Torah, The Torah. So why is it today that we have come up with the concept that we can just go any kind of direction?–that the Father is so co-dependent with us that He will put up with anything just to have a relationship with us. Isn’t that sick? That is sick!
What The Father said is, “If the head is sick, the whole Body is sick.” Let me tell you something–if you are putting out that philosophy today, THE HEAD IS SICK! If that philosophy is coming from the pulpit, then the head is sick. And the Word said, “If the blind lead the blind, then they both fall in the ditch.”
I choose not to be blind, I choose to have my eyes open, I choose to have the Truth of Almighty Yahveh put in my heart through the Scriptures. Scriptures? You see, the New Testament was collected, and this is not nearly all the writings that Paul and Peter were acclaimed to have written in the New Testament, but these were the ones that the Church, the organized Church at that time considered to be in agreement with their doctrine, so that was the one considered to be inspired. Well, who was the organized Church at that time? The Roman Church, the Roman Catholic Church, which Revelation says is the mother of harlots, whores, prostitutes, those who run after other gods, idolatry. And if every Church in this country came out of the Roman Catholic system, up front, what does that make us? The daughter of the mother of prostitutes! And if you are the daughter of the mother of prostitutes, you probably are a whore. So now we are talking about the system that most of the Ecclesia is in today. Is there any wonder that the angel flew and said, “Babylon is fallen! Babylon is fallen. Come out of her, lest ye be partakers of her judgment.”
Knowing that the Roman Catholic Church is a continuation of the Babylonian System, everything that they do in that organization, you can go back to the old Babylonian nation through the history–not even just the history stories you read about, talk about–you can go back through the antiquities and the artifacts, and see the very symbols that we are talking about, the very rituals that are done, even to the cap that the Pope wears with the tail down the back is just exactly like the fish-head that the priests of Dagon wore. It’s all the way through. And we want to hang onto that system and say, “This is what we have confidence in; this is the system that Father Yahveh has given us; this is what we want to die having our hope in.”
Not me! Not me! I do not want to die having my hope in that system. I want to draw my last breath having my hope in Almighty Yahveh and the fact that I have done the very best that I know how to do, to follow His Commandments, and live a kadesh life unto Him.
We must know what the general plan is, and how shall we know except we study the Scriptures? It says, “Study the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have Salvation.” Listen to me–if all you ever take is what’s been pre-digested for you, and what’s come through the philosophical system of this world and this nation today, you are going to come up short!
People can say to me, “Oh, Pastor R. C., you’re too hard, you’re too strict, you’re too judgmental…” I’m not judgmental! You’ve got to stand on your own, you’ve got to stand on what you hear from The Father on your own, not on what Pastor R. C. says. But I’m going to tell you something, if you check what Pastor R. C. says, and you check the Word–guess what? I don’t want to stand on my word. The problem is that we are the kind of society that wants it pre-digested for us, just like a nest full of little birds sitting there with their mouths open, waiting for someone to come along and drop some pre-digested, yucky, gooshy mess in our mouth!? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think the Father created us for that. I don’t think He ever intended for us to do that. He said, “Let all men–all men–be liars, and Yahveh be true.” No matter how many tell a lie doesn’t make it any more true. A lie is a lie, is a lie, is a lie. And it doesn’t matter whether it has become the trend of a nation or not, it is still a lie. You know, it’s been said before, when the lie becomes more widely believed than the Truth, then the lie becomes the truth to the people of that time. Now we can look at the system that we have today, and we can understand that ever since the time of Yahshua, every century has become more liberal, more liberal, more liberal, until today– believe it or not– they actually made exception and ruled that they can say the “f” word on television at any given time. It’s no longer against the law to use the “f” word on public television, prime time, or whatever. And you tell me we are a Christian nation, becoming more loving? I tell you, “It’s an abomination before The Father!”
The Father never intended for young ladies to get out and dance around and prance around with no clothes on. He never intended for that to happen, yet there’s almost nothing that you can turn on that doesn’t have it in it. A matter of fact, I saw something the other day come across my television, and this was during the news thing, and an advertisement came across the television, and you know what it was? It was for Victoria’s Secret. And there were people out there dressed like Victoria. Do you know what Victoria’s secret is–she’s a whore and she is probably going to go to Hell, and she has a whole bunch of people following her. H-m-m? I’m sorry, people, when you start getting on television, getting in public, and making an art out of showing your behind, there is something wrong.
So what do we say? “Search the Scriptures, in them you think you have salvation”, but it is crucial that you recognize what the movement of Yahveh is, and believe me, Yahveh is Holy, and He is not moving toward anything except Holiness! He is not directing you toward anything except Holiness. Be diligent to present yourself approved of Yahveh. How is a holy, and righteous and just Elohanu going to approve of somebody even though they were unjust and came to His Son so they could be justified, and still act unjustly? How is He going to approve of them?
Have you ever talked to somebody who had a child, and that child was a real mess–I mean their life was in shambles–but you heard them talk about that child, and that child is just perfect? What do you think about those people? Do you think they’re blind? you think they’re dumb? you think they have no perception at all, you think they don’t deal with reality? Well, is that what you think about Yahveh — that He doesn’t recognize when His children are really “horses’ behinds”? I don’t think so. I think He knows exactly what you are. Matter of fact, He even said that you were going to be rewarded according to your works.
So how do people come off with, “Oh, it’s not a works thing–your works don’t have anything to do with it”? Works had nothing to do with Yahshua’s coming, but
if you have been regenerated, it is going to change your works from the works of the flesh to the works of the Ruarch HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), because, if you follow after the flesh, Paul made it real clear…to the flesh you reap your destruction. So I’m saying to you, we need to search the Scriptures; you don’t need to take my word for it; you don’t need to say, “That’s right because R. C. said it’s right.” You need to search those Scriptures so you KNOW for yourself. I guarantee you, that as far as I know and understand, in my spirit it’s right, or I’m not going to be up here speaking it. But you know something?– I don’t even trust me enough to trust my Salvation to me. I trust Father Yahveh and Yahshua with my Salvation. And if I don’t trust me enough to trust my Salvation to me, why should you trust me enough to trust your Salvation to me? The Father said that everybody, everybody, with fear and trembling, should work out their own Salvation. By saying that, I’m not giving you authority and an attitude to get on your own horse and just kick that thing around and jump into a rebellious attitude that doesn’t want to comply with what people say, anyway, and to turn against me, because I believe the Father has put me here. But if you have something you think I am in error about, then praise Yahveh, bring that thing to me, with the Scripture, and let’s talk about it. If we can’t get it ironed out, then you go the way you think the Ruarch HaKodesh has told you to do with it; because I am not your Authority. The Father and The Word are your authority. So we need to be diligent, we need to present ourselves approved of Yahveh, constantly reminding the Ecclesia of these things; that you don’t have to operate within agreement with people to profit, but you do have to operate within agreement with the Scriptures to profit in the Kingdom. It doesn’t really have a whole lot of profit if you don’t argue, and you can cause a breach in your relationship if you don’t comply.
Being diligent to present ourselves approved to Yahveh. You know I can’t do anything about your behavior. If your behavior is not approved of Yahveh, there’s nothing I can do about it except point that out to you and show that to you. That’s the only thing I can do, and then you have to submit yourself in a sincere heart to the Word of Yahveh, doing your utmost best to fulfill it, and then you know because you are compliant with the Word, and that you are trusting in Yahshua to cleanse you from all sin that you can have confidence that you are going to spend an Eternity with Father Yahveh and Yahshua. You can have confidence in that. You can have confidence when you are drawing your last breath, and when you get over to the other side and it is totally unknown to you now as you are on this side. When you get over to the other side, you are not going to be ashamed, you have studied to show yourself approved, a workman rightly dividing the Word, that need not be ashamed. But you can be blessed by Almighty Yahveh saying, “Come on in, My son. Enter into the joy of Yahveh, thou good and faithful servant.”
Being diligent to present ourselves approved of Yahveh.
Turn with me to II Timothy, Chapter 2, 15-17 verses. I think this is so pertinent to us today.
I got an e-mail from a man last week. He said, “you are talking about needing to use the proper Names. What happens if someone is dumb–can’t talk–are they lost?. What about somebody who can’t talk plain–are they lost because they can’t say it properly?” How foolish–you know, I didn’t even bother to answer the message. Right away you know he doesn‘t have his spirit open, or he would be hearing what the Ruarch HaKodesh was saying to him. No, the Father‘s not going to condemn some dumb person because they can‘t speak or can‘t say His Name, and no, He isn‘t going to condemn someone with a speech impediment and can‘t say His Name properly. But I‘ll tell you what–I think He‘s going to be awfully harsh on those who ignore His Name and make no effort to find out what His Name is, for He says, “My people shall know My Name.” Hello? And it’s not “God”. Has anybody seen anything in the Word where it talks about the word g-a-d? Gad–the false god? Did you see anything about how to pronounce that word–it’s g-a-w-d — gawd. Makes you .wonder about it sometimes, doesn’t it?
Being diligent to present yourself approved to Yahveh, not others, but yourself– and you have to, and this is the key to it right here–this is the whole secret, people–it’s not about the thing that you do, o.k.? It’s not about the thing that you do or don’t do–it’s about that desire to do those things which please Him, and searching and looking , and being diligent about finding out what He wants for you to do. I think if you sincerely have not discovered His need and sincerely have never heard what His Name is and you are saying the terms that we use, I don’t think The Father is going to condemn you about it, but I think when you have heard, when you have understood, and you know and you don’t make any effort to make any changes, and you reject that proof, then I think you’re in hot water. And I think that’s the way it is with any proof–I think that’s the way it is with the Sabbath, I think that is the way it is with everything that The Father gives us. When we start rejecting the Truth, then we set ourself above Almighty Yahveh and His Commandments, and that puts us in trouble.
O.K., II Timothy 2:15 says, “But shun profane and idle babblings, for they shall increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeous and Philetus are of this sort.” Shun vain babblings, don’t participate, they will bring on more ungodliness, they will bring on aggravation, they will bring on disagreement, they bring on discord, they bring on all kinds of things. When you start talking about things that you can’t back up with Scripture, when you start talking about human philosophy, when you start talking about the traditions of men rather than Commandments of Yahveh–shun those things–they are profane babblings, they’re not the Word of Yahveh, they’re profane babblings, and they will increase to more ungodliness, they’ll increase to hard feelings. How many times have you seen people argue over denominational differences and religious differences, and what they do is they increase to hard feelings.
Listen, you have got to teach the Word of Yahveh, you’ve got to give the Word of Yahveh, and if somebody rejects it, they reject it. That’s it; there’s nothing you can do about it. You can sit there and beat them over the head with a hammer, and they may some day accept it, but they don’t accept it. you see, there has to be a heart condition, and we have to trust Almighty Yahveh to bring things to pass. You see, when we get so dogmatic about things, what we’re doing is we’re not trusting Yahveh to bring things to pass. We want to see things work so we can get another notch in our Gospel pistol.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to Yahveh, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, approved of Yahveh, and not of men–there is a difference.
Many times when you start teaching the Truth of Yahveh’s Word, you become disapproved by man, disapproved by man. And you know what is so important to me this morning, is that I be approved by Almighty Yahveh.
Now, am I unconcerned about man’s approval? No. I want it–it feels good when I get it, but I don’t have to have it to live. What I do have to have to live is the approval of Almighty Yahveh. What you have to have to live is the approval of Almighty Yahveh. It’s not my approval, not man’s approval, but the approval of Almighty Yahveh, and the only way we can have that is by doing The Word, by following the Scriptures–not some religious thing, not some doctrinal thing, but taking The Word, studying The Word, hearing The Word, being a doer of The Word, incorporating The Word into your body that all of a sudden you become what–what do you become?–The Word made Flesh! Whoa! Isn’t that what Yehshuah was–He was the “first fruit of many” and they were going to be just like Him? H-m-m–must mean that we are going to follow the Scriptures and let the Scriptures be the guideline for our lives, huh? That’s the only way I know to be like Him, because He followed them, because of the prize that was set before Him, He endured the shame, the pain of the stake, and we have to be willing to, too.
If you realize that you have not been converted, and you want to be converted, I want you to make a mind-set that you’re going to turn away from sin, and that you’re not going to go back to it willingly and knowingly, and that you are going to live for Almighty Yahveh for the rest of your days. Send me an e-mail, or phone me, and I want to pray for you, I want to pray for you that you will receive that conversion.