Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of First John, Chapter 2. Paul wrote to believers in Galatians, Chapter 5, verse 16: "Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit, and they are contrary to each other." Galatians, Chapter 5. There are many other verses that we can read in scripture which oftentimes we fail because we don't submit ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, and we are at fault.

But you know, we have the Holy Spirit of God. We ought to be able to discern, is that from the Lord, or is that not from the Lord? So every believer has the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, Romans 8:9 says if any man has not the spirit of the Messiah, he does not belong to him at all. In other words, we all have the Holy Spirit of God, meaning all believers. If we don't have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us, that means that we do not belong to him at all. Romans 8:9.

First Corinthians 12, verse 13 says, "By one spirit we have all been baptized or placed into one body." It is the Holy Spirit of God that has indwelt the believer in accordance with John, Chapter 14. Yeshua said that he will send the Comforter and he will teach you all things. John 14, verses 16 to 18. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, we have to be wise and discerning whether something is from the Lord or not because we have the possibility to learn that and to discern that because Ruach HaKodesh, the divine person, is indwelling every believer in Yeshua the Messiah.

So John is writing in verse 21, and he said, "I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth." You know the truth on a basis of the Word of God. You know the truth because you have the Holy Spirit of God, and you have the ability to discern whether something is from the Lord or whether it is not. And so now he's saying in verse 22, "Who is a liar?" Look, he is now speaking about those who profess to belong to the Messiah, but really they do not belong to the Messiah.

Look at this, verse 22: "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Yeshua is the Messiah? He is an Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." Now John is making a very plain statement here. You notice that? And why he is mentioning that? I tell you why he mentioned this, especially here, because in the early church age, there were already those that had crept in among the people of God that have claimed that Yeshua is really not the Messiah, and they deny his Messiahship, his Lordship.

They denied his humanity. They denied his divine nature. They denied the triunity of the Godhead. They denied all that which has been very clear and been given to us both in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament, as well as in the Brit Hadashah. And so he is saying in this verse 22, a person who is denying that Yeshua is the Messiah and coming among the people of God and claiming to be a believer, he is a person that is really not saying the truth.

And he is calling him here, according to verse 22, "Who is the liar but he that denieth that Yeshua is the Messiah? He is against, he is an Antichrist against the Messiah that denieth the Father and the Son." Now you know, I can tell you that as a Jewish person, I had a hard time as a young person exposed to the Gospel to understand that in the Godhead there is the Father, Abba, and you have the Son, Ben, and we have the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit.

I had a hard time with it, and I wanted to know, is it from the scripture, from the Word of God? It takes time with the help of the spirit of God to understand this truth, that in the Godhead there is one God, the God of Israel, but he expresses and he exists and consists in three persons: the Father, the Son, the Spirit. And it was very hard, and by the way, it's not only hard for us as Jewish people today, but remember the first-century writers were all Jewish.

They themselves had to learn these things. It is by the revelation of the Holy Spirit of God that the spirit of God has revealed to them of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. And so look at this again, and I'm emphasizing verse 22, denying that Yeshua is the Messiah and denying the Father and the Son. This is amazing truth. Again, I would like you to go back with me to the Gospel of Matthew once again. This time I want you to go to Matthew, Chapter 16, verse 13.

Yeshua was among our people in the land, the disciples were following after him, the talmidim were following after him, and he began to instruct them to help them to understand certain things. And he asked them in Caesarea Philippi in the north of Israel, in Matthew 16, verse 13, "When Yeshua came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples and he said, 'Whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?'" Can you imagine? He's asking those Hebrew disciples there in Galilee, there in the Golan Heights.

He asked them, "What people say about me, the Son of Man, Ben HaAdam? What is their opinion?" So it says in verse 14, they responded to him, "Some say that you are John, Yohanan, this is John the Baptizer. Others say that you are Elijah, Eliyahu HaNavi, Elijah the Prophet. Others say that you are Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, and even yet others say that you are one of the prophets." So Yeshua talked to them, and he says, "Well, really it's very nice to hear that some say that I am Yohanan HaMatbil, or Eliyahu HaNavi, or Yirmiyahu HaNavi, or one of the Hebrew prophets of old."

He said in verse 15, he says, "But whom do you say that I am?" Direct question to the disciples. So Shimon Petros answered him, "Thou art the Mashiach. You are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God." "Yeshua, you are the Messiah, the son of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You are the promised Messiah." Those are Hebrew disciples that had to give him an answer some 2,000 years ago.

And you and I have to give the same answer today. Is he the Mashiach? And if he's the Mashiach, is he, notice that, he is the son who came from the Father? I know it is hard to grasp, but the spirit of God can help us to understand that. For us who are believers today, we know because the spirit of God helped us to understand it. But those who came and crept in among the people of God, claimed to be believers, but really never, never acknowledged the Messiahship of Yeshua.

And he's saying to them, and I'm back to First John, Chapter 2, verse 22, where he says, "Who is the liar but he that denieth that Yeshua is the Messiah? He is against Christ, against the Messiah, that denieth the Father and the Son. The Father sent the Son to be the savior of this world." Again, it is a truth that we only learn as we read it in scripture and as we clearly get the help of the spirit of God to understand it.

Otherwise, we will never understand this. Brothers and sisters, we have no confidence in ourselves to even explain this. I feel so inadequate in explaining this, but it is the spirit of God who can take the Word of God to help everyone to understand that Yeshua is the Mashiach, the Messiah, and that he came from the Father and that he was the eternal Son of God who came from heaven, became a man who was born to the Virgin Miriam, lived in the land of Israel and died outside of Yerushalayim, was buried and resurrected and had been ascended from Mount Olives back to the Father.

There is a Father, there is a Son. There is Abba, there is Ben. The Father sent the Son to be the savior of this world. Only the spirit of God can help us to understand it. On our own, we can't grasp it. And that's why denying this, a person, the spirit of God haven't revealed this yet to him or to her. But for us who are believers, we need to stand firm in expressing that he is the son of the Father and the Father sent the Son to be the savior of this world.

And so we continue here in this verse 23, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same has not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son, he also has the Father." You know, some people say like this: "Oh, I don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but I believe in God. And I believe that we all going to get to him one way. You go to him your way, and he going to go to him his way, and they're going to go to him their way." And yet they deny that Yeshua is the son of the Father.

Now we cannot all be right. There are not many ways to God. You know what they say about us who are Bible believers? They say we are very much insisting on our way. We are narrow-minded. Well, what do you want to do? If the Bible teaches us that "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me," Yeshua said this, how can we now introduce our own way? And that's why it is so important to hold on to this truth. Denying the Father is denying the Son.

God sent forth his son. Go to Galatians 4. Paul said to the believers at Galatia, Galatians 4, verse 4: "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Notice that, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son. He was made of a woman. He was born to Miriam. He was made under the law because he was born among our people, the people of Israel.

When Yeshua was born into this world, he was born into the world when Israel as a nation were still under the law. In accordance with the law, he was born among our own people, the nation of Israel. But it was in a fullness of time where God made that decision to send the Messiah, the Mashiach. And then he says, why was he sent to this world? In order to redeem them that were under the law. We could not keep the law in which God has demanded from everyone. In fact, the law condemned us.

But Yeshua is the one that fulfilled the law fully and went to the cross to the tree and died for our sins and redeemed us with his precious, precious blood and made us sons and daughters of the Father. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, whosoever, as he says in verse 23, whoever denies the Son is actually really denying the Father. And he that acknowledged the Son also acknowledged the Father. Well, back to First John, Chapter 2. Verse 24 and 25, John now encourages the believers to hold on to the truth.

And he's saying to them in verse 24, "Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall also continue in the Son and in the Father." What did they hear from the beginning? That's how the whole epistle of John begins. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled the word of life. For the life was manifest, and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life."

That which was from the beginning is the Messiah, who was born into this world, the incarnation. He says, hold on to the truth that the Mashiach, the Messiah, was born into this world for the purpose that he will give his life. He will shed his blood and he will become the redeemer and the savior of this world. He is encouraging all of us, brothers and sisters, to hold on to the truth of God's Word.

It is so important, especially today, because we are living in the last days of the church age. You don't need to go too far. Listen to the radio, watch what we hear what we see on television. Just open the internet and you will see so many religious systems are being introduced towards us. And we are to hold on to the fundamentals of the Word of God, to the Father and to the Son, to the Messiah Yeshua, and not to allow ourselves to be swayed by all sorts of false teachers and false teaching.

So he is encouraging the believers in verse 24 to hold on to the truth, and then in verse 25, God's people have a promise of eternal life. And that's why he said, "And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life." You know, you can never get this kind of promise from any other religious system or religious group or religious leader. Who can promise to us eternal life?

Eternal life is something that only God can promise to those who believe what he says and what he have done. And you remember what we have in scripture, there are so many verses, especially the Gospel of John. For God so loved the world, John 3:16, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. It's amazing. Can you imagine to have eternal life?

It is a promise that when we end our time here, should the Lord going to come today, for the believers, it's just the beginning. We have eternal life. Eternal life is not only a quantity, long time, but eternal life has to do with a relationship with the person of Yeshua the Messiah. John 17:3 says, "And this is eternal life: to know him, the only true God and Yeshua the Messiah." Amen. So we have eternal life. He promised this to us.

Only God has promised this to his own beloved people, those who believe in his Son, in the Messiah. By nature, we deserve eternal punishment because we have sinned against God. But because of what Yeshua have done for us, we have a promise of everlasting life. The Gospel of John teaches through and through. If you read this Gospel, you will notice again and again how the Apostle John speaks about eternal life again and again in those verses. Eternal life that the believer is promised to have if he or she, if any man or woman will accept Yeshua the Messiah, they're promised to have eternal life. And thank God for that.

Now, the third point. In conclusion, not only that John is warning us against false teachers who will not remain among the people of God, verses 18 and 19. Not only that John warns us against false teachers who will deny the truth of God, verses 20 to 25. But thirdly, John is warning us against those false teachers who now also will seek to sway true believers. False teachers will seek to sway the people of God.

And I want you to notice that in the last verses here, verses 26 to 29. And now John is saying in verse 26, he says false teachers seduce true believers. "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you." You know what they do, those false teachers? They seduce. The word for seduce here is "lead you astray." False teachers seek to seduce or to lead astray the people of God. And they do it because they are actually messengers of the evil one, of Satan.

And what Satan wants, he always seeks to take the place of the Messiah, the place of God. And what false teachers do, they're seeking to draw after them those that belong to Yeshua the Messiah. You see, they don't need to seduce the unbelieving world because the unbelieving world already are blind. They do not know Yeshua the Messiah. So what they do, they come in the midst of the people of God and seducing the people of God to follow after their sort of doctrine, sort of ways that they believe in.

By the way, any cult has their main leader picture right in the front. Any system have so-called the one that they worship right in the front. He is their leader, you might say. You know, all sorts of religious system in the world you'll notice, whether it is Buddhas or the Hinduism, and all these kind of groups, they have their leaders are the one that is their focus on. Now obviously they take it from the people of Israel and the believers whose our leader who is none else but Yeshua the Messiah.

Now we don't have a picture of him because we do not know how he looks like, but we have who he is and what he have done in God's word. And therefore for us, the one, Yeshua the Messiah is our leader. He is the one that is the one who is supreme, the one that we are to acknowledge and extol and worship and praise, but we don't have a picture of him. Because the Bible gives us plenty of information about him.

None of us have been there when he lived here 2,000 years ago. We know that he is the one of whom the Father presented before us. He is the leader. He is the one that lead his own people, and therefore those false teachers seduce, seeking to draw believers away from the truth of the Word of God. And what do they do? They really do the work of Satan, seeking to draw people after him.

In verse 27, the believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and they can discern that. Notice that, verse 27: "But the anointing which you have received of him, he abide in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him." You see, brothers and sisters, the true believers, those of us that belong to the Lord by the grace of God, we have the anointing, again using the same word as it is in verse 20, the chrisma, the Ruach HaKodesh, which we have received of the Father.

He abide in us. You see, the Holy Spirit of God is remaining in the people of God to guide us, to lead us, to instruct us, to help us to discern, is it from the Lord, or is it not for the Lord? And we should be able to discern that because the false teachers seek to lead astray the people of God. And what a shame it is when people who ought to have known the truth have been led astray by false doctrine, false teaching, by false teachers, and end up instead of growing spiritually are ending up losing out and not growing spiritually because they have been occupied with that which is not the real, the genuine, that which is from the Lord.

And sometime we are in the danger of this. We need to be careful, but we have the Holy Spirit of God that is able to help us. And so he's concluding here in verse 28, he says, abide in the Messiah, stay close to him. Verse 28: "And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming." Do you know, brothers and sisters, Yeshua is coming very, very soon? And if he is coming very soon, what's going to happen when he is going to appear?

You know, one day we are all going to stand before the judgment seat of the Messiah, all believers. Not the great white throne judgment, this is for unbelievers, but the judgment seat of the Messiah. He's going to appear one day. He's going to take us to be with him, and we are going to stand before him, and we're going to have to answer him. And notice what John is saying: that we may have confidence and be not ashamed before him at his coming.

You know, it is sad if when he come and we will have to answer him to certain truths that we have known and by somehow got influenced by others that drawn us away from the things of the Lord and allowed this to happen in our life. We are not going to lose our salvation, but we are not going to be happy when we're going to have to answer to that which we knew as believers and now end up not honoring him by that which we know. You see, he says that you'll be not ashamed at his coming.

You know, we want to stand before the Lord and we might say, "Lord, I know I fail you much, but I have held on to the truth that you are the Messiah. I held on to the truth that the only answer for sin is through you. I held on to the truth that we understood from scripture. I know I always not have been where I should have been. I know I could have done better, but nevertheless, Lord, I am so thankful that I have held on to that which you have taught us in the word of God, that you are the Messiah, you are the Messiah."

And that I would not allow others to sway me, to teach me all sort of things that are drawing me away from you. Lord, I am so thankful that you have helped me to maintain somehow the truth of the Word of God. So he's going to appear, and we ought not to be ashamed at his coming because it is important for the believers to have the guidance of the spirit of God and to keep us somehow away from false teaching.

And here's the final word: the believers ought to seek to live a life that is pleasing to him. He ended up these verses in verse 29: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that does righteousness is born of him." We are to, as believers, to discern what teachers are teaching us, and we are to be very careful to seek to live a life that it is pleasing to the Lord.

And so, brothers and sisters, just in conclusion here, John is warning us all against those who are false, who are not real believers in Yeshua the Messiah. And he is telling us again and again, those who are false teachers will not remain too long among the people of God. They come for a while, they teach their own things, and then they leave. Secondly, they deny fundamental truths of the Gospel. They deny the Father and the Son. They deny that Yeshua is the Messiah. And thirdly, false teachers will seek to sway believers away from the truth of the Word of God, and therefore we ought to be alert. And with the spirit of God, we are able to do so. And may the Lord help us to help each other because we are not always, none of us always is in a 100% suitable spiritual state. We all at time need additional help from each other and help from the Word of God.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0. Or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM, and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.