Holy Scriptures and Israel

Narrator: 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 Ephesians chapter 4. "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering." Another word for longsuffering is simply patience. We need so much patience as we walk here in this world.

If we don't have patience, don't ask God, "God, give me patience and I want it now." Do how God is going to give you patience? Tribulations, Romans, worketh patience. Do you want to learn patience? Patience you learn through trouble. The Lord is going to send us trouble so he will teach us patience, longsuffering. We learn it by experience.

When we rub shoulders with each other, when we deal with all sorts of issues in life, how much the Lord wants us to have this quality, this spiritual grace, spiritual qualities to enable us to have a walk that is worthy of our calling? This is in verse 2. Now, the fourth thing of course is connected with that, and it says, "forbearing one another in love." The fourth word is forbearance, and again, we have mentioned it in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 13.

Forbearing, bearing with each other. We are coming from various walks of life, various backgrounds. The Ephesians as well, they were Gentiles, believers who got saved and became part of the body of Messiah, and now they are living together. They are part of this local assembly in the city of Ephesus. They had friction, they had issues to deal with.

How they can continue to live with each other, to be able to function as a local assembly, to communicate with the world all around them? They needed also forbearing with one another, and it's beautiful that the Apostle Paul adds the words "in love." Love covers a multitude of sins. Love is the glue whereby we are able to be a blessing to each other.

Love is that which is needed, this unconditional love. It does not depend if he or she will respond to me in one way or another, if they will do what I say, if they will want what I want. Love is that which enables us to forbear with one another and continue to have this walk that is worthy of our calling. Paul gives us here those four spiritual qualities or spiritual graces to enable us to walk the worthy walk, the walk of the believer.

Now notice that in verse 3, he is telling them, if you are going to be able to walk together, brothers and sisters of the Ephesians, look what you need to do. It says in verse 3, you are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in bond of peace, in bond of Shalom. This is an important thing to learn. Oftentimes people are trying to make unity. Notice the Apostle Paul doesn't say to make unity.

But he says to keep the unity. Secondly, it doesn't say to make the unity of the body, but he says to keep the unity of the Spirit. Now, what is the difference? The difference is simply this. You and I do not make the unity of the body of the Messiah. The unity of the body of Messiah has been done by our Lord Yeshua himself in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

Once we become part of this body, we are not to keep the unity of the body. He does this keeping of the unity of the body. But the believers are to seek to keep the unity of the Spirit. In other words, the believers are not called to start to form all sorts of bodies, but to seek to keep the unity that was made already by the Spirit of God.

This is amazing. Oftentimes people say, "Why are we so divided? Let us get united together. All what we need is simply to love one another, make a unity out of one thing, out of loving each other. We can make one unity." But the Lord is saying no. The unity of the body is being done by the Lord. We are to keep or to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit, not the unity of the body.

That's why you find yourself having many names today in various groups of professing Christians. That's why we have all those names, whether it is Catholic or Protestant or all those names that men make, as if there is one body called by this name and there is another body called by that name. No, we don't have many bodies. There is only one body, but the believers are to keep the unity of the Spirit.

This is important, and we are to endeavor, we are to work hard at it. Sometimes there are people who are not in our midst, who are not with us. Does that mean that I'm supposed to shun them and treat them in a wrong way? No, we are to be gracious, to seek to be a blessing to them, but it is not the unity of the body, it's the unity of the Holy Spirit of God which we are to seek to keep.

Now, what about many groups who are forming certain bodies or certain groups on a basis of certain doctrine? What about if somebody does not teach sound doctrine? Can I be united with somebody who teaches that Yeshua is not God? Can I be united with someone who believes that Yeshua can sin? Can we be united with those who teach, for example, that there was no incarnation?

We are not to unite with everything and everyone. Can we be united with someone who denies the fundamental of the truth of the word of God? We can't. That's why we are not called to keep the unity of the body, but we are to keep the unity of the Spirit in bond of peace. It is very important to understand that here the Apostle Paul is saying we are to endeavor, we are to work hard at it, we are to labor, to make haste in seeking to keep the unity of the Spirit in bonds of peace, in Shalom.

But we cannot, beloved brothers and sisters, agree with every doctrine that are not right, not sound doctrine, not fitting to the word of God. This is important for us. Let me, for example, just show you a verse. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. How does someone become part of this one body? It is the Spirit of God who places every true believer in the body of Messiah.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13 says, "For by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body." We don't make the body. It is he who place believers into one body. Every one of us that become part of the family of God, we have been placed in this unity of the body. It's a work of the Lord, not the work of yours or mine.

But we are to keep the unity of the Spirit. We are to have an attitude, a way whereby we are seeking to keep the unity of the Spirit, that there will be harmony among the people of God, that there will be a right attitude among the people of God, that there will be a right behavior among the people of God. Yeshua set this example, but we cannot keep the unity of the body. He does it on his own, the Lord himself.

If it will depend upon us to keep the unity of the body, we will definitely come short of what God is expecting from us. Therefore, we are not called to keep the unity of the body, but we are called to keep the unity of the Spirit. Verses 1, 2, and 3, the Apostle Paul appeals to the believers at Ephesus that they will endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in bond of peace. You notice the word "in bond of peace."

In other words, seek to do whatever you do to seek to have peace among the people of God. Oftentimes there is no peace among the people of God. Look what James says. Let me just read it because I think it is a suitable verse to read. James chapter 3, look the last verses of chapter 3. "Who is wise," verse 13, "and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good manner of life his works with meekness of wisdom."

"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." Then he says in verse 17 and 18, "But the wisdom which is from above, first it's pure, then it is peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."

"And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace, that make Shalom." Notice brothers and sisters, if we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit, we are to have that wisdom which is from above, as James says in chapter 3 verse 17, which is pure, which is gentle, which is easy to be intreated, which is full of mercy. This is the fruit of righteousness which is sown in peace, in Shalom.

This is very important as the Apostle Paul present before the Ephesians the importance of endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in bond of peace. But now he continue and here is now giving them the sevenfold facts of the unity of all believers. When we look around at the professing Meshichim, Messiah followers, we look at the world and we see the whole professing groups, everyone seems to go with another flag.

We have different flags, but as far as God is concerned, notice that there is a sevenfold facts of the unity of all believers. Notice the sevenfold, let me read them to you quickly so you can first have them before you, verses 4, 5 and 6. There is one body, there is one Spirit, there is one hope, there is one Lord, there is one faith, there is one baptism, and there is one God.

If we say it in Hebrew, there is Guf echad, there is Ruach echad, there is Tikvah achat, there is Adon echad, there is Emunah achat, there is Tevilah achat, and there is Elohim echad. There are not more than one body or more than one Spirit or more than one hope or more than one Lord or more than one faith or more than one baptism or more than one God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

The Apostle Paul present now before the Ephesians the true sevenfold facts of the unity of all believers. He began with the word "there is one body." The one body is a composition of all believers. There is only one body. That body is a composition of every person that have accepted that Yeshua is the Messiah. He or she have been placed into this one body, universal body.

Everywhere in this world, every true believer in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, he's part of this one body. Jewish believers, Gentile believers, living in one country or another country, there is only one Guf, one body, no more. This one body is a composition of all true believers. I read already in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13, it says, "For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one body."

Paul actually taken illustration from the human body. We have many, many members in our bodies, hands and feet and head and eyes and ears and nose. We have many, many members in our human body, but there is only one body. Every one of us is occupy only one body, no more than one. Among the people of God, the spiritual body of Christ, body of Messiah, there is only one body, no more.

There is no body for the Jews and body for the Gentiles. There is no body for this countryman or this countryman. There is only one body, a composition of all true believers. Secondly, he used the word "one Spirit" and one Ruach, one Spirit. There are not three or four or more than one Holy Spirit. It is one Holy Spirit of God that placed us all into that one body. This is again 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13.

There is no more than one Holy Spirit. You remember what the Apostle Paul said in other passages? If any man has not the Spirit of the Messiah, of Christ, he does not belong to him. In other words, every one of us, if we do not possess the Holy Spirit of God to indwell us, we do not belong to him. 1 Corinthians 6 says, "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Don't you know that you are not your own, you have been bought with a price?"

There's only one Holy Spirit that indwell in every one of us. I'm sometimes amazed when I think about how the very same Holy Spirit of God, one person, divine person, is indwelling every believer. We cannot fathom that, but there is only one Spirit. You don't have one kind of a spirit and another one another kind of the spirit. There's only one Ruach HaKodesh, Holy Spirit of God, that is dwelling in every believer.

If one does not have the Holy Spirit of God, he or she do not belong to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Romans chapter 8 and verse 9, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if or since so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Messiah, he is none of his." Every person belonging to the Lord is indwelt by the very same Holy Spirit of God. There are not more than one Holy Spirit of God, there is only one Spirit.

Thirdly, notice that he's saying "even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." There is only one hope. What is the hope of the body of Messiah? Yeshua said in John chapter 14 and verses 1 to 3, "Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."

The Hebrew word for hope is Tikvah. We have a hope, beloved brothers and sisters, and our hope is the same. Every believer in the whole world today who became part of the body of Messiah has that hope. What is our hope? We have the blessed hope that Yeshua will come and take us to be with him. Of course, Israel our nation had the hope of the restoration to the land, the restoration to Canaan where the Messiah will come and establish the Messianic kingdom in a future day.

This is the hope of the nation of Israel, the hope of our Jewish people who have not yet become believers in Yeshua today in the present day dispensation. For us as believers already today, we have that one hope, the hope that we are going to be with the Lord. The Lord is going to come to take us to be with him in glory. What a wonderful hope we have. I trust that you have today in your heart this glorious hope of the coming of the Lord.

He will come very soon and will take us to be with him in glory. There are many, many verses that we can mention here from scripture, but I want to read one verse in Titus. Listen to what Paul said to Titus in chapter 2 and verse 13. "Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Yeshua the Messiah, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

"Looking," as it says here, "for the blessed hope." Do you know, beloved brothers and sisters, we are awaiting the coming of the Lord? He might come even today as we are in this meeting this Shabbat afternoon. Because the next thing in God's program is the snatching of the church, is the coming of the Messiah to meet his own in the air. He might come today. This is the hope.

Our hope is not to live longer and longer and longer and longer in this world and to get older and older and more pain and sorrow and trial. Our hope is to meet him in the air and to be taken out of here. This is the hope, there is not two hopes, there is one hope. Do you know that believers in Taiwan, believers in Chicago, believers in Yerushalayim, and believers in Egypt in Cairo have the very same hope?

What is the hope? You ask every believer. I'm longing for the coming of the Messiah. I want to be with him. I want to go to be where I belong because he had saved me and he had brought me into this wonderful relationship. This is the hope of every believer who possess the Spirit of God and who is part of this one body. There's one body, there is one Spirit, there is one hope.

Look at the fourth thing that he mentioned here. Verse 5 says there is one Lord, Adon echad in Hebrew. Not two Lords, not three Lords, but there is one Lord. Notice that as he mentioning here, the Hebrew word of course is Adon, but you know that the Bible is very clear. If Yeshua is not Lord, he's not Lord at all. He must be Lord. If you shall confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord and believe in your heart that God had raised him from the dead, Romans 10:9, you shall be saved.

The Hebrew word Adon simply mean that he's master. I know that we fail him many times and we don't allow him to be the Lord over our lives, but that doesn't change the fact that there is only one Lord. He is Lord. In fact, the Bible said to us very clearly, I mentioned Romans 10 verses 9, the basis of our salvation is acknowledging the lordship of Yeshua the Messiah.

Notice what we read in Philippians chapter 2, that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God made him Lord. It says this Jesus whom ye have crucified, God made him both Lord and Messiah, Adon ve'Mashiach. He's Lord. Sometimes we sing that song, "He is Lord, He is Lord."

He's everything. He's Lord of all. He is the one that is in charge of all things. God gave him the authority over this universe, over this world. He is the Adon, he is the master, he is the Lord. At time we fail this Lord of ours, but there is only one Lord. If somebody haven't acknowledged Yeshua as Lord, he or she are not saved, are not forgiven. If you shall confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord and believe in your heart that God had raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

Beautiful to see: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord. And he continue notice, because there are sevenfold facts of the unity of all believers. In verse 5, he says there is also one faith, Emunah achat. You know sometimes we hear people says, "You have your faith and I have my faith. Why do you tell me that I have to have your faith?" I didn't say that you have to, God said.

It's not what I say or what you say, what does the word of God say? The Bible say to us the importance of understanding there is only one faith, one Emunah, one belief and one way in which one believe in order to enter into a relationship with the Lord. You know what the Bible calls it in Jude and verse 3? Jude said, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once and for all delivered unto the saints."

Jude, Judah, he was writing to his Hebrew brethren and he was telling them, "Brother, Achim, I want to tell you, dear brother, this is the common salvation. It's needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you, beloved brothers and sisters, you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." I love this expression because this expression "the faith" is not a matter of now what God I believe, but there is only one body of truth upon which we all have part in this common relationship in this body of Messiah, body of Christ.

The body of truth means simply this, that there is only one way to be saved and to be forgiven, that God provided this body of truth. He loved the world, he sent the Messiah, the Son, who died on the cross, paid for the penalty for our sins, was raised, be taken to glory, and on the basis of this one single the faith, we can become part of this family of God. This is no two faith, not this Islamic, I believe in this way.

Even our own Jewish people, they believe through Moses, they believe in the Torah, but they reject the Messiah Yeshua and that is what makes the different between Jewish believers and Jewish who do not believe in Yeshua the Messiah. The faith is found in the Hebrew scripture and lead us ultimately to the person of Yeshua the Messiah. We don't have to talk only about our Jewish people and Muslims, we can talk of Hinduism and all sort of groups of people who have their own faith, but there is only one faith and the Bible teach us this is the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Paul said this like this in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20: "I am crucified with the Messiah. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but the Messiah liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." There are many other verses that can be added to that: Acts 6 and verse 7, Acts 16 and verse 5, 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. There are other verses that speaking about the faith. There is only one faith and this is faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

That's why, brothers and sisters, we might be called many times narrow-minded, people who think that they are only right and everybody else is wrong. But there is no other faith. There is only one faith, and this is the faith of the Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, who loved us and gave himself for us. Now notice number 6, as the Apostle Paul write to these Ephesians. In number 6, he says there is only one baptism. This is very interesting also, and many Bible teachers talking about what does it speak about? Spirit baptism or water baptism? I'm inclined to take the position that he's really speaking about the Spirit baptism.