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 the book of Galatians chapter 1. In the first two verses Shaul Paul explained to the Galatian that he is actually a and a person that was called by the Lord. Now brothers and sisters, you know all of us who are believers, truly believers are called to be messengers by the Lord himself. We are called to we are called by the Lord to go to share the gospel and to minister the things of the Lord. But you and I can never be apostles in a sense the way that Shaul Paul or the other 12 apostles were because in order that one will be qualified for apostleship Acts 1 tells us that one must see the resurrected Messiah.

And what happened if you remember after Yeshua died and was buried and he rose again, he appeared to the 12 apostles in the days before he left back to go to heaven. And therefore they were qualified to be called an apostles because they have not only seen him in their lives but and in his life but they have seen him in his resurrection after his death and resurrection. Well, it was the very same way with the apostle Paul with Shaul. He did not walk with Yeshua in the time when Yeshua was here on earth. In fact, he rejected him.

He he didn't want the early Hebrew believers to follow him but he saw the glorified Messiah on the way to Damascus. And it was the glorified Lord Yeshua the Messiah who made him an apostle. So he's not made an apostle by men. He is not made an apostle of men but he was made a and a messenger of the Lord with authority directly from the glorified Lord Jesus and the Messiah. And notice in God the Father who raised him from the dead. So he was writing now to these Galatians in verses 1 and 2 and he was explaining to them that he has authority.

He is indeed a messenger, an apostle that was sent by the Lord himself. But now you notice as he moves along he explained the gospel. Now brothers and sisters, listen to me. It is so important to understand what is the gospel. There is no gospel. By the way, the Hebrew word is There is no there is no good news or gospel if we have to do something in order to gain salvation. If we have to do something, keep laws be circumcised keep rules, speaking tongues, be baptized, do something to earn our salvation, then it's not news.

It's not good news because we find ourselves that after we were baptized, we still fall in sin. After we were circumcised, we still fall in sin. After we speak in tongues, we still fall in sin. After we keep certain rules and laws, we still fall to sin and the wages of sin is death. So there's no gospel if it's men's works. And so the apostle Paul is explaining in verses 3 and 4 what is the gospel to the Galatians. They already knew it but it's so quickly some have come into their midst and told them as we read in Acts 15 and verse 1 where some came down from Judea saying taught the brethren there that except you be circumcised after the manner of Moshe you cannot be saved.

It's not enough to believe in Yeshua, they said. You got to get circumcised, otherwise you are not quite saved. Can you imagine how this is frustrated the apostle Paul and it's frustrating us and many many people today who are not quite sure well, I haven't arrived. I'm not quite there. I haven't kept enough things to get saved. And Paul determined to stand for the principle that he taught in the word of God and that's why notice he explained the gospel. And you and I need to internalize this into our own souls. So notice verse 3.

He says listen, grace be to you and peace, in Hebrew and Shalom, grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus the Messiah, our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And now notice how beautiful beloved brothers and sisters that it should touch our hearts every time we read such a passage as verse 4. Listen. Yeshua our Lord Yeshua the Messiah at the end of verse 3 and then notice who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. Now this is what touches our hearts when it's come to the gospel message.

Who is the one that is able to give himself for my sins? Who? Who is the one that can give can I pay for my sins on my own? Can you pay for your sins on your own? The best of us have fallen short of the glory of God. So Shaul Paul he says listen, brethren of the local area of Galatia, many local local at churches in this a local assembly, he says listen, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah gave himself. He willingly laid down his life. He offered himself as a sacrifice not for his own sins but for our sins.

You see this is something that we cannot even fathom that someone will be penalized for all the sin and sins which you and I I and you committed doing our life from the day that we were born until the day that we will die. And that's why, beloved brothers and sisters, the apostle Paul notice he emphasized gave himself. You remember what Yeshua before he died he said in John chapter 10 and I want to read these verses to you. John chapter 10 he says listen to this beautiful verse. He's speaking about himself as the good shepherd.

He says I am the good shepherd. John 10 11 the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He was the true shepherd of Israel. He is the good shepherd of the sheep. He is the one that laid down his life his life gave it over for the sake of the sheep. In John chapter 10 verse 17 before his death Yeshua Yeshua said therefore does my Father love me because I laid down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.

This commandment have I received of my Father. You see, beloved brothers and sisters, there's something that happened here that was already predicted by the prophets of Israel that in the fullness of time the Messiah will come and he will lay down himself willingly. You remember what Isaiah said? All we like sheep have gone astray. Isaiah 53 and verse 6 we have turned everyone to his own way but the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all. And that's why the apostle Paul is explaining and emphasizing the gospel that God the Son as men gave himself.

But notice what it says in the in a second point in verse 4 he gave himself for our sins. It is your sins and mine that we deserve to pay for because of our our falling nature but here come a man. God the Son as man Yeshua from Nazareth. And he gave himself for my sins and for yours. Did I earn that? Did I keep any laws in order to earn that? Did I get circumcised in order to be saved? Did he save me on a basis of circumcision and law keepings and rules of men?

It was totally from God. In fact, the only thing we have brought to the table is our sins. Jesus the Messiah paid it all all to him. We owe. And that's what Paul is seeking to explain to the brothers and sisters in the in the region of Galatia. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15 for a moment. There's a greatest explanation of what is the gospel that Paul explained it elsewhere in the book of Corinthians when he wrote to these Corinthians who had so many trouble in their midst. He said to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3 I deliver unto you first of all that which I also received.

You see Paul is saying I received it from the Lord. I'm not telling you my ideas. I receive from the Lord what I am telling you the people of Corinth. How verse 3 b how that the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures. Which scriptures? There was no New Testament when Shaul wrote to the Corinthians. He was writing to them according to the Hebrew scriptures because the Hebrew writers have predicted that the Messiah in a fullness of time will come and he will pay for sins. And that's why he said I I telling to you what I receive how the Messiah Christ have died for our sin according to the scriptures.

Then he continue and that he was buried verse 4 and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Here's the gospel. Here's the good news that the Messiah of Israel, the one that was promised to the people of Israel came in the fullness of time and paid for the sin of this world. Israel did not recognize him as a nation but the early few Jewish believers did and they were called to become missionaries, you might say, apostles that we spread the message of the gospel of the grace of God throughout all the nations of the world.

And you and I are today beneficiaries of what these first early apostles have done. And so notice that it says here after he says that he gave his life for our sins but notice the next thing that he says. In verse and I'm in back in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 4 in the second half of the verse he said that he might deliver us from this present evil world. Beloved brothers and sisters, the world in which we live in today, this present day, the the world system is an evil system against God and against his anointed one.

And when the Galatians, as much as you and I have turned our hearts to Yeshua Jesus the Messiah he delivered us from this present evil world. And for us, for the believers, we are only passing through and we are soon to go to meet the Lord and be with him for time and eternity. This world is heading to judgment. There's a day come in which God will judge this world in righteousness in the coming days but everyone of us that have turned our hearts to the Lord, that repented of our sins, recognized that we sinned against God.

And there is nothing that we can do to avail us for our salvation. We, when we have turned to the Lord, we have been transferred from one world to another, you might say. We became sons and daughters of the Father. Remember 2 Corinthians 5 17 all that are in Christ Jesus in the Messiah Yeshua are new creation. All things have passed away. All become new. So Paul is so determined to explain to express and to explain his authority to be the one that share the gospel with the Galatians and elsewhere in Asia Minor. And he was so sad to hear of what happened to the first century believers in Galatia.

Apparently the those who oppose Shaul Paul and those who sought to bring the believers into some sort of merits and work system and circumcision and laws keeping they followed him wherever he went. But in Galatia it's stuck. It didn't stick in other places because they were far more biblically sound but in Galatia it's stuck. And Paul heard about the condition there and he writes his letter out of so much concern for the welfare of the Galatians. So, beloved brothers and sisters, notice verse 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. In other words, Paul did not want his own glory but he wanted the glory of Yeshua the Messiah.

And that why at verse 5 he's saying glory is not mine but it is to be belong to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah himself. Now if you just turn with me to the 6th chapter for a moment, Galatians 6 you notice that those who came and taught otherwise they sought their own glory in contrast to the apostle Paul. In Galatians 6 and verse 12 he said to them this is the end of the book. We'll get to it at some point of time. He said to them as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of the Messiah.

For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. Notice they want to do glory in a fact that they were successful to influence those non-Jewish believers in getting them to be circumcised so they will glory in their own flesh. You see we got another one who is circumcised. Or others today will say oh, we got another one who we you meant influence to speak in tongues. Or we got another one that we have set upon him our rules and our laws and our views on on how a man seek to live for the Lord.

And, beloved brothers and sisters, Paul was so determined to stop this and to emphasize the gospel. He says listen, they want to glory in you for their their own glory but here is in contrast I seek the glory of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And that's why, brothers and sisters, Paul gave us in the New Testament in a 13 letters. If we don't believe what Paul wrote as might well take a side Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, take all these and set it aside and you will find out that half of your New Testament is gone.

And if you want even more, the whole book of Acts from chapter 9 on with exception, the whole book of Acts is the life of Shaul Paul and his journeys as he share the gospel. If you take half of the book of Acts what you got in the And that's why Paul is so strong in emphasizing the importance of understanding what Yeshua have done. And can you imagine what a man will have to stand before God one day and to say God, you are wrong. I know that I need to do this in order to satisfy you, God.

If you only listen to what I have to say, God will show us where we are and what we are. And he will expose us. And he will show us that we all fail. And if you wouldn't be Yeshua the Messiah who died for our sins, we would have no hope. Religion doesn't save only the Messiah the Son of God saves. Now he moves along and as I mentioned in the first 10 verses Paul Shaul relate to the Galatians three important facts. If you open this letter to the erring Galatians and in the first five verses he told them he explained to them that he receive a God-given authority.

He's an apostle not because of men, not because anybody send him but because Yeshua the Messiah is the one that have send him. And, by the way, if we don't believe Paul how can be we believe Moshe? We were not there. How can we believe Isaiah? And how can we believe Jeremiah? And how can we believe Ezekiel? And how can we believe the early days of Genesis if we begin to play with the word of God? We can't believe anything anymore because the Bible would have no authority if we don't accept what we have it in the written a word of God.

Now in verse 6 and 7 Shaul Paul expresses now his concern for the Galatians. And you notice, brothers and sisters, what he does. He was astonished. He was really astonished. It says in verse 6 and notice what he says, I marvel that he has so soon removed from him that call you into the grace of the Messiah of Christ unto another gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Messiah, the gospel of Christ. So in verses 6 and 7 Paul shows that he's so much concerned for the welfare for the spiritual welfare of the Galatians that he was shocked.

That he was so surprised that just after he left explaining to them and leading them to Yeshua the Messiah simply by faith in the work of the Messiah and no more then somebody else come in. He says wait wait wait wait wait. Jesus is not enough. 0:00:00 Yeshua but add some additional thing in order to be actually saved. You are not quite saved. You haven't arrived. And that's why Paul was so surprised. He says I marvel. In the Hebrew word is I am is the Hebrew word I'm puzzled. I'm shocked. I'm surprised that you are so soon removed.

Notice he says removed from him. This is removed from God. Removed from God. In other words, God who had this plan the plan of salvation originated not by men. Men never think of such a thing. Men always think of a way to be right with God. I got to do something. You see I'll keep certain days. I'll keep weeks and months. I keep a certain rituals and I'll please God. You see. But again, beloved brothers and sisters, when it's come to the gospel it's not what you and I keep. It's what what the Messiah himself have done for us.

And Paul is saying listen, I marvel at you that you are so soon removed from him that is God that called you into the grace of the Messiah. And then they he said and to another gospel in Hebrew. Another gospel, another news. You see what is going on in the world in which we live in today because there are many religious groups in this world. Some of them is part of Christendom that give us various messages. You can hear it on the radio. You can watch it on the television. You can read it in the newspaper.

You can open magazine. You can go on an internet. And there's so many messages that are spread in a world in which we live in. And because we are human and because we have seen nature, we sometimes even as believers, if we are not careful, we are so quickly are shifted and began to wonder, maybe he's right and maybe they are right and maybe I should go there and I should do this instead of looking at what God gave us in his word. In other words, he said I marvel that you are so soon removed from him from God.

God, beloved brothers and sisters we read this morning in our reading today in the Psalm that was read for us in Psalm 146 praise ye the Lord, not man. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, while I live will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. And he continue put not your trust in princes no in the Son of man, in Ben Adam, in human race, in people in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth. He returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish.

You know, brothers and sisters, what sometime is fascinating is that we look to men to try to fix our understanding of the word of God instead of looking to the God of the scripture who taught us that men at is best with all his religious activities cannot avail us for salvation. The best of us Shaul was the Pharisee of Pharisees. He kept all that which God had given our people of Israel plus the rabbinical and Pharisaic in views that he lived in his life every day and he find no peace to his heart. He needed forgiveness that will be provided when the Messiah will die for his sins.

So he says I marvel how quickly you move from God. And we can't blame the Galatians because we are no different. We are just the same. We look there and we find that we trying to find oh oh there it's a it's a better way. Oh, he teaches something greater. Oh, if I'll keep this, I will be more happy spiritually and I'll grow and I'll be and then we find out that even those that try to influence us to do it, they don't keep it themselves. They fail themselves.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the 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 Holy Scriptures and Israel.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. 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 Holy Scriptures and Israel.com.

God bless you. Shalom Shalom.