Are you saved, born again by the Blood of Jesus? Most Christians would make a claim they are saved because they prayed the sinner’s prayer and asked Jesus into their hearts. These same Christians believe the Torah was done away with at the cross, and now the only they have to do is to accept Jesus died for them. Are you one of them? What if you are wrong?
A fundamental Christian doctrine is this, Jesus Christ (His Hebrew name is Yeshua) was sinless. Because He was sinless, He could atone for all man-kinds sins. He was sinless because He obeyed the Torah (the written law of Moses) perfectly. What does the written law of Moses have to say about idol worship? The first of the ten commandments says this; I am Yehovah, your God who brought you out of Egypt, you shall have no other Gods before Me. So it goes without saying if Yeshua was sinless, He had to obey by this commandment as well and worship Yehovah. If He at any time encouraged worship of Himself, He would no longer be sinless. And if we read the Gospels, we quickly conclude He never encouraged worship of Himself. He always worshiped Yehovah and only Yehovah. So why then do most Christians today believe it is ok to worship Yeshua?
Today, in this week’s Shabbat sermon, we will try to answer these two questions from the word of Yehovah.
So how did you get saved? Did you walk down the aisle of a church and prayed the sinner’s prayer, asking Yeshua into your heart? Or perhaps someone led you in the prayer through a tv screen? The only one who can tell us if we are truly saved or not is the Bible. If the Bible says something different, then what your pastor told you, you have to listen to the Bible and not your pastor. If I were to tell you something different then what the Bible says, you have to listen to the Bible and not me. Does the Bible support the idea you can “ask Yeshua into your heart” with a prayer?
In John 14:23, Yeshua says anyone who loves Me will obey My teachings, and My Father and I will love the one who follows My instructions, and we will make our home in them. Nowhere does it say we have to pray Him into our hearts; instead, we have to obey Him if we want Him to come and live in our lives.
So what were His teachings? What did Yeshua teach His disciples? Matthew 23:2 says He taught them to always at all times obey the written Torah, what we call the written law of Moses. So according to John 14:23, if you want Yeshua and His Father Yehovah to live in your heart, you have to start obeying the written Torah the one thing most churches tell us not to follow.
Yes, some of you would argue you know you have to obey the moral law of the Torah, but the rest of the Torah does not apply to you. If that were the case, we would see Yeshua telling this to His disciples. We never see Him telling His disciples only to obey parts of the Torah. And when the Gospel is preached to the Gentiles, we never see anyone telling the gentile believers only to obey the moral law of the Torah. In Acts 15, the council in Jerusalem even goes as far as to instruct all new gentile believers to learn and follow everything Moses taught.
So we know the Bible says Yeshua will only come to live in your heart if you obey the Torah. We know the Bible says we are to obey every commandment in the Torah, applicable to us and our gender living outside Israel without access to a temple. Let me ask you this question when you know what the Bible says, are you saved?
What about the second question, is it ok to worship Yeshua?
Yeshua is Yehovah, but He is not Yehovah, the Father. John 1, 8:58 leaves no room for doubt, Yeshua is divine, but John 14:28 tells us there is a difference between them. We know by now the Bible says salvation is found in repentance when you decide to start obeying the Torah. We know the Torah states in Ex 20:2 and Deut 5:6 “I am Yehovah your God who brought you out of Egypt, you shall have no other gods before Me.” So it stands to reason if we are to obey the Torah and we want to inherit eternal life, we have to worship Yehovah and not Yeshua.
We see this in John 3:16; most people, when they read John 3:16, understand it as if it is talking about the love of Jesus. And it is true, Yeshua loves us. But if you read John 3:16 carefully, it says, “for so has Yehovah loved the world that He gave His only Son.” So the focus of the verse is the love Yehovah has for us, not the love Yeshua has for us. If Yehovah gave us Yeshua, why then do we worship Yeshua and not Yehovah?
As I mentioned earlier, Yeshua’s divinity is never in question. The Bible is evident on this; He is God. But the Bible also says He is not Yehovah the Father, for Yehovah the Father is more significant than He. And nowhere in the Gospels do we see Him telling His disciples to worship Himself. The focus is always on the Father, telling His disciples to worship Yehovah.
So if we are to go by the Bible, we should worship Yehovah and not Yeshua. If we are to be disciples of Yeshua, we should imitate His life (1.John 2:6) and do what He did. He never worshiped Himself; He worshiped Yehovah.
If this ministry or your local pastor teaches you anything that does not agree with the Bible, you should always dismiss it as false. The Bible and what it shows have to be your highest authority in everything.
Now you know that the Bible says you can not “pray Jesus into your heart.” It does not work that way; the Bible says He will only come and live in your heart IF you love Him enough to obey His Torah. Now you know that the Bible says eternal life is found in repentance where you turn from living lawless to start following the Torah. When you make this change in your life, you will soon notice how the Torah demands atonement for your past sins. So if you want to inherit eternal life and be obedient to the Torah, you have to believe Yeshua died for you as well and His Blood atones for your sins. And if you want to obey the Torah, you can not worship Yeshua because that would be idolatry, you have to worship Yehovah.
This is what the Bible teaches, but most Christian denominations would disagree. Now you have to make a choice, do you listen to what your denomination teaches you or what the Bible teaches you? This is a choice between eternal life or eternal damnation in hell.
I pray you will make the right choice.