Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Female): 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 1 John chapter 5. I did not make this water apply to the word, but Paul mentioned this in Ephesians chapter 5. Beloved brothers and sisters, whichever position one might take out of these four views that I presented before you, I would suggest that number two, number three, and number four combined together may really represent what Yochanan really wanted to say here to the Mishpachah, to the family of God. Yeshua was born of a woman. When a woman's water breaks, she's ready to deliver.

Yeshua was baptized, nitbal, in the Jordan River by Yochanan HaMatbil, John the Baptist. There he began his ministry, which began with the water baptism and ended with this bloodshed on the cross. And the last one is Yeshua, when he was pierced through, out of his side came that water and blood, these two elements of cleansing, cleansing us judicially once and for all, cleansing us practically, ongoing in the life of the believer because we quickly find ourselves failing, and the washing of the water by the word cleanses us on a regular basis.

Keep on cleansing us. This is important. That's why I wanted to take the time to speak here about verse 6. Notice at the end of verse 6, Yochanan is saying, "And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth." How do we know all these things? Because Ruach HaKodesh Elohim, the Holy Spirit of God, has enlightened us. You see, before we became believers, we didn't see those things.

The natural man in 1 Corinthians 2:14 receives not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto him. He or she, the natural man, by nature cannot grasp these, but the Holy Spirit of God can awaken us and enlighten us. Notice he used that expression because the Spirit is truth. The Holy Spirit of God is truth. What he says is the truth of the word of God.

Please bear with me. Go to John 14:16 and 17. Yeshua the Messiah, in the upper room, said to these Hebrew disciples there long before he died, anticipating his death, he said to them in chapter 14, verse 16 and verse 17, notice what he says about the Holy Spirit of God: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, Ruach Ha'emet, whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you."

Chapter 15, verse 26, there he says, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Ruach Ha'emet, again he's calling the Holy Spirit of God the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me." Notice chapter 16, one more verse, verse 12 and 13: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, Ruach Ha'emet, when he is come, he will guide you into all truth."

"And he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Beloved brothers and sisters, the Spirit of truth, Ruach Ha'emet, the Holy Spirit of God, is the Spirit of truth. And he is the one that bears witness. He has enlightened us.

He has revealed Yeshua the Messiah to us. Why is it that you and I are sitting here today and listening to the word of God all together? We could have gone to do something else today. Why come and listen to the word of God and hear about this Yeshua that died sometime 2,000 years ago? We could have done so many other things, but we have chosen to come to sit here and to be under the sound of the word because the Spirit of God wooed us, drawn us, pulled us closer and enlightened us and opened our eyes to see the lover of our souls, even Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

Back, please, to 1 John chapter 5. We are here in these verses, verses 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, that Yochanan presents the sure knowledge that Yeshua is divine, that he is God the Son, God and man in one. He continues about witnesses. This is also, brothers and sisters, very interesting verses, because in verse 7 and 8 it says this: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Verse 8: And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

Now let's pause here for a moment. Again, I want you to understand. Most Bible teachers tell us that part of verse 7 and verse 8 are really not in the original Greek manuscript. That's why those of you who have a different translation than the King James, you would read verses 7 and 8 in this way. I'm reading now 7 and 8, and I'm eliminating that which was not in the original Greek manuscript. Look what it is saying: "For there are three that bear record: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

I didn't read some of verse 7 and some of verse 8. Why? Because in the original Greek manuscript, it was not there. Apparently, later on, in about 1200s, when the King James was copied from the Greek into what is known today as the King James, someone had seen in one of the manuscripts these expressions that say there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth, and so on.

They saw it in the margin of the manuscript. Remember, beloved brothers and sisters, in old time, when the people who received the word of God were copying manuscripts from one to another, they did not have the privilege that you and I have today. We have the word of God in our hands. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of Bibles, complete Bibles in our hands in every translation, in every language that we have in our own hands today.

But in past days of old, in the early church age, the manuscripts that were written in Greek were passed from one to another. The scribes were passing it and adding to it as time went on; they were copying it. Apparently, one was putting in the margin these words: that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one, and there are three that bear witness on earth.

In other words, someone had kind of put it in the margin because he felt that this maybe should be inserted. And the next scribe perhaps took it and saw it there and he added and placed it in the scripture. Now this is also important for us to bear in mind. Can we trust the word of God? How do we know that there are not other things that have been inserted or added or subtracted?

Again, I would like to say that teachers of the Bible, those who read those manuscripts, read it and they have seen it was not there. In the first 500 years or 700 years or 1,000 years, it was not there in the early manuscript. It was simply added by someone in one of the margins that had been placed into the word of God. So when you read some, let's say, New American Standard or NIV, you might find that it's not there at all because they have received their translation with much earlier manuscripts and it was not there.

It really shows us that it was not necessary because it says that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. Now, we do not know what's happening, you might say, in heaven, but what we know here and what is needed for us is the testimony here on earth, that you and I will hear the word on earth and believe what God says to us here on earth.

We could use this second half of verse 7 and the first half of verse 8 to show the testimony of the trinity of God. We could use it, but it's not necessary because we have other passages. So the reading of the text should be this way, of verse 7 and 8 together, as you might say, one verse. I'm reading this again for the benefit of all of us: "For there are three that bear record: the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." These are the three witnesses that together, they witness to us who Yeshua the Messiah is.

Number one, the Spirit. We read in John 14, John 15, John 16, that the Holy Spirit of God, Ruach Elohim, he is the one that witness concerning the person of Yeshua the Messiah. Secondly, the water. We have already looked at these elements, whether it is the water that broke from a woman who would bring forth a child because Yeshua was born to the Virgin Mary, or whether it is the water of baptism, the Tvilah in the Jordan River, Yochanan at the beginning of the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah, or whether it is the water that came forth from the issues that came out of the body of Yeshua when he died.

We have already looked at all this. It proved to us that he was a real man, that was born of the Virgin Mary, that God gave a testimony to him at his water baptism, and that when he died, the water around the sac was ruptured, and out of it came water and blood. He was a real man, yet without sin. Sin apart. You see, you and I are real people, real men, real women, but you and I are sinners. We have sin in us. In sin, David said, did my mother conceive me.

Paul said, "Oh, wretched man that I am." Isaiah said, "I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips." All Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." But there was one man and his name is Yeshua, who never sinned. And yet was a real, real God and man in one. He took union humanity with his divine nature. That's what makes him qualified to be our Mashiyach, our Messiah.

Those three together: the Holy Spirit of God, and the water, and the blood give us the witness that he is the one, the Mashiyach, the Savior, the one that came to this world to be born of the Virgin Mary in order that he will accomplish redemption for the human race. And so Yochanan continues now in verses 9 and 10. And look what he says in verse 9: God's testimony of his son Yeshua is greater than any human testimony.

In verse 9, he says, "If we receive the witness or the testimony of men, the witness or the testimony of God is greater: for this is the testimony, the witness of God which he has testified of his Son." Every day, we believe in a testimony of the human being, of the human race. You got up in the morning today, you opened the radio, you listened to the announcer who said that today is going to be very cold, make sure that you dress warm.

And you and I believe him. We put a good coat on, hat, scarf. I received yesterday a very nice hat and a scarf as a gift. It was kept me so warm. And when you listen to the testimony of the announcer and he says it's cold, you appreciate to listen to him and to believe his testimony. Other people tell us in the news and you see that there is war going right now in the Middle East. There is a problem that's going on in some other country, and we believe that.

Well, if we believe the testimony of men, it says the testimony of God is greater. The testimony of God, verse 9, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness. What did God witness? God said in his word that Yeshua is the Messiah. God witness, he testify of the person of his Son. This is important for the believers to grasp.

Paul said in the book of Romans how men have rejected the witness of God. Paul emphasized this in Romans chapter 1 verse 18. Paul said, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." Why? Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. Verse 21: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

You see, man by nature refuse the testimony of God. And it says here that his wrath is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth that he knows, but he holds it in unrighteousness. He has conscience within and he rejects God. He has creation without and he still rejects God. Men prefer to listen to the testimony of other men rather than to listen to the testimony of God who said, "You all have sinned, you need forgiveness of sins. Accept Yeshua the Messiah, he is my Son, he came to this world for you. Will you accept him as your Lord, Messiah, and Savior?"

John is saying that the testimony of God is greater than the testimony of any man. You know, those people who refuse Yeshua today, when they're going to stand at the great white throne judgment, they will say, "I played the fool. I should have listened to the testimony of God." And they will beseech God, "Please, let me come in." And God will tell them, "What have you done with my Son? He paid the price for you on the cross. He shed his blood for you on the cross, on the tree. Why you rejected him?"

When you die, when you leave this world rejecting the Messiah, there is no more hope after death. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, he is saying. That is the witness that God had given to mankind. And when men refuse the Son of God, there is nothing left for God to give anymore. And so we read now in verse 10: "The believer have within himself or within herself that witness."

Every one of us today, beloved brothers and sisters, and I trust all of us are believers in Yeshua the Messiah, if any one of us here is not a believer, let me tell you, when you're going to have to stand before God, you're going to have to face the wrath of God. But if you will believe in Yeshua today, the wrath of God have already fallen upon him and you will never need to face this anymore.

Look what we read in verse 10: "He that believeth on the Son of God has the witness in himself or in herself: he that believeth not God," listen, "he made him a liar because he did not believe the record that God gave his Son." You see, when we do not believe in Yeshua the Messiah, we are actually calling God a liar. Paul said in Romans 3 verse 4, "Let God be true, and every man a liar."

So, brothers and sisters, we have a witness in our hearts, in our conscience. We have the witness within ourselves because the Holy Spirit is indwelling us. And speaking about some of us who just became believers just recently, when we're facing the world and the world tells us, "Don't give me this nonsense. How can you say that this Jesus, this Yeshua, is the Messiah?" We face opposition.

And then they tell us, "Why you are so dogmatic? Why you say there is only one way? Everybody has a way to get to God. You got your way and we got our way." But you see, there is not more than one way. There is one way to God. Yeshua said in John chapter 14, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." No more than one way.

John is saying here, "Listen, you have the witness in yourself, and if one does not accepting what God witness, he's actually calling God a liar." Earlier in chapter 1, he said, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar." Somebody says, "Oh, I haven't sinned, I'm pretty good." You are really telling God that he is a liar because God says you are a sinner. You will be judged because I'm a holy God and I love you, I gave the Messiah for you, but you are calling me a liar when you say that you have not sinned.

And here he says, if you say that God is not true what he said about his Son, you are calling God a liar. So John is very strong on these passages. So brothers and sisters, let me conclude here with verses 11, 12, and 13. Not only that Yochanan is pointing to the sure knowledge that Yeshua was divine, God and man and his humanity at one, then in verses 11 to 13, every believer he is assuring us that every one of us who believe now in Yeshua the Messiah, we have everlasting life, we have eternal life.

Notice in these beautiful three verses. In verse 11: "And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life. These things I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe on the name of the Son of God."

He's now giving us this beautiful assurance. It's clear now, you have acknowledged that Yeshua came by water and by blood. He was born into this world, he was a real man, a man who became a man of sorrows. He died for our sins. He's the one that washed away our sins. And now he's saying, by believing in this, you have eternal life. This is the testimony that God had given to us eternal life.

Now, brothers and sisters, how long is eternal life? Sometimes people deliberate. Look at us. Some of us that have been with us are no longer with us today. They gone out of this scene. They died, some at 60, 70, 80, 90; they gone. The life here is temporary, it's short. But eternal life, it has to do with our relationship with our Abba, our Father, our God, and that has to do with far longer the temporary time that we are passing here through this world.

Eternal life has to do with never to end. And notice it says eternal life because when a person become a believer, he was dead in the past, now he receive life, he's now born again, born from above, he is a new creation, he have life and now from here on it is eternal life. But eternal life, beloved brothers and sisters, is much more than just a quantity, but eternal life has to do with quality.

In John chapter 17, Yeshua the Messiah, on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, he says those words. Yeshua is now praying: "These words," verse 1, "spoke Yeshua, and he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him."

And now he's explaining in his prayer, you might say, what is eternal life. "And this is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Yeshua the Messiah whom thou has sent." What is eternal life? Eternal life is having relationship with God, relationship with Yeshua the Messiah. This is eternal life, beloved brothers and sisters. So we read in those last verses: and this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in the Son.

Outside of the Son, there is no eternal life. He that has the Son has life, but he that has not the Son of God have no life. A person who do not have the Son of God the Messiah, he has no life at all. He is dead, or she is dead, in trespasses and sins. And the conclusion: these things I've written unto you. He was writing to the Mishpachah, to the family, the family of God. I'm writing unto you that those who already believers, that you may know.

Brothers and sisters, you and I ought to know that. Not only intellectually, but to know it in our hearts, to know because we do have eternal life and yes, it says this eternal life is in his Son. And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. As we continue to follow the Lord here in this world, we ought to have this assurance in our hearts and continue to follow Yeshua all the way until he takes us home, knowing that we belong to him and that our life is eternal and that the witnesses, the Holy Spirit, the blood, and the water give us a testimony that Yeshua was a real man, God and man in one. Well, may the Lord help us to grasp it as the Holy Spirit of God is able to help us.

Guest (Female): You have 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.dot.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.dot.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.