A Vessel Unto Honour

The Scriptures talk about how once we come to knowledge of the Word of God, if we continue in sin, the Holy One of Israel gives us over to a reprobate mind.

Here’s the Scripture definition of sin: Sin is transgression of the Law. – 1 John 3:4

The Scriptures also describe how if we read what the Word says, but don’t do it, we deceive ourselves.

That is all it takes to be given over to a reprobate mind.

Most people imagine that only the obviously messed up people are the reprobate ones, but it’s actually more subtle than that.

The commonly held Christian belief that “Jesus did away with the Law when He nailed it to the cross” is the door through which many deceived people enter in.

Because they are deceived, they think they are saved and have Jesus living in their hearts.

I speak from experience: Leaving this belief behind and coming into the actual Word of God was extremely difficult because the signs and wonders and all the glory and excitement from my old Christian way of life went away.

Following the actual, literal, living Word of God lacks all of the hoopla and signs and wonders that Christianity is filled with.

Instead of having emotional experiences to validate my walk, now I had to intellectually check my experience, my thoughts, decisions and actions against what the Word of God said and how the Holy One of Israel was described instead of relying on enjoying how amazingly loved and freed I felt. It was a sincere challenge that lasted for what felt like a long, long time.

When we believe that only some of the Word of God is for us and the rest of that Old Testament stuff is for the Jews we are deceived by our own belief.

Because this is our belief, we then only apply the New Testament parts to our actions, and we don’t keep the Sabbaths set-apart, and we don’t observe the Passover, or Purim, or Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah, or Sukkot, or the Feast of Dedication like Jesus was documented to do in John 10:22.

When we don’t honor those days, we are actually walking contrary to how Jesus walked.

Paul says, “Be imitators of Christ.”

How well are we imitating Christ if we are doing things He never did?

How well are we imitating Christ if we are not doing the things He was documented as doing?

That is how easy it is to fall into deception.

One wrongly held belief can cause us to not do the things the Jesus and Paul said we must do… all because one little lie got planted by someone else’s words and people believed it and passed it along to others because they believed it was true as well… and their belief got reinforced because while walking in that belief, they experienced great signs and wonders. This is called inheriting lies.

Because we chose to believe something that the Word of God never said, and act on it, we fall into a pit of deception, and the Father allows this and gives us over to a reprobate (worthless) mind.

God told us clearly in Malachi that He changes not.

He did not change His mind about His definition of Righteousness or holiness.

Jesus says over and over again that He only speaks what He hears the Father say, and He instructed us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

Jesus explained the whole Old Testament to us in parables so that we can understand the Spirit of the Law; so that we can fulfill it too, like He did. We won’t do it perfectly like He did, but He expects us to try to do it over and over again until we get it right and do it better each time we try.

It’s a process, and the process is what cleanses us from within to make us pure in heart. This is the process that makes us set-apart and prepares us for the Kingdom of God.

The people that Jesus will say “I never knew you, you workers of iniquity” are the Christians that spend their whole lives praising God while eating pork chops and profaning the Sabbath by treating it like any other day of the week. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week and it will never be changed. God called it a sign between Him and His people for ever.

Fear God. That is the beginning of wisdom.

Eating pork chops and profaning the Sabbath indicate a lack of understanding of the true character of God the Father and shows that they misunderstand what Jesus really did for us, and Who Jesus really was.

Jesus keeping the Torah perfectly did not replace our need to keep the Torah. He helps us, guides us, teaches us, but we still have to obey the Word of God. We still have to keep the Word because the Word is the instructions for life!

It is the Torah, following God’s Commands, that brings life, blessings, and relationship with the Holy One of Israel.