How are you at handling challenging circumstances? If you are like the rest of us, some circumstances have the potential to throw you off balance. So how do you maintain your balance and calm in life, even when the storms become unpredictable and so strong they are threatening to sink you?
In Matt 6:25-34, the Bible says we are to face the storms of life by doing righteousness. What is righteousness? 1.John 3 defines righteousness as doing the Torah, or what we would call, doing the law of Moses.
Matt 6:25-34 tells us this: face life’s many challenging circumstances with obedience to Moses. No matter what happens, obey Moses. If you do, you have the promise of Yehovah’s Son Yeshua; you will not need to worry about anything.
This is the same promise we read in Deut 28:1-13, where it says if we do Torah, Yehovah, our God will meet our every need.
And yes, I know, I have talked about this before in other sermons. But if there is one thing we humans, regardless of our faith, have to struggle with every day of our lives, it is the storms of life. So we need to be continually reminded how we are to handle it when life threatens to throw us off balance.
How the Bible says we are to handle life can be incredibly difficult for us to understand if we have a Christian background that has taught us grace. In Christian teachings, we have learned grace = passivity, so if we have any difficulties, they told us to face them with a passive faith on the cross. If we just believed Jesus died for us, then He would do the rest and automatically heal us, provide for us, deliver us, and so on. As we have just seen, this is wrong, and it is not in the Bible. Biblical faith is always and will always involve active faith where we show our faith by what we do. So if you believe Jesus died for your sins, you will show your faith by repenting from sin, which is lawlessness, back to righteousness, which is doing Torah. If you do Torah (obey Moses), Yehovah will meet all your needs.
Am I saying we can earn our healing, our provision, and what we need?
The Bible says yes, this is how the covenant we are grafted into by faith in the cross works. If we do A, then Yehovah will do B. If we obey, then Yehovah will care for us. How this works is no different from what we are used to in everyday life. We all know if we do what our employer expects of us, we will receive in return benefits and a paycheck. If we do what Yehovah desires of those who are saved, which is to obey Moses, He will care for us in a very tangible physical way. (Deut, 28:1-13). Then what we read about in the Old Testament and the book of Acts will become a reality in our lives.
Where does that leave the cross in all of this?
One thing the law of Moses can not do; it can not atone for intentional sins; it can only atone for unintentional sins. (Lev 17) Yes, I know, some of you have been told that the blood of bulls and goats covered sins but did not atone for it. That is a lie; the Bible clearly says it atoned for sins as long as it was unintentional.
So what is the difference between intentional and unintentional?
One example of intentional sins is the sin of Ananias and Saphira in Acts. Their decision to keep some money for themselves, even though they had promised to give it all to Yehovah, was intentional and egotistical.
One example of unintentional sins is what happened when Abraham lied to Pharaoh and said Sara was his sister. Telling a lie is a sin no matter how you view it, but causing someone’s death is a greater sin. In this case, Abraham feared Pharaoh would kill him and take Sara from him by force. So to protect himself and Sara, he lied. It was still a sin, and a sin needed to be atoned for, but it was an unintentional sin because he had to choose between a greater and a lesser sin.
The blood of bulls and goats did atone for unintentional sins, but not for the sins committed by Ananias and Saphira.
When Yeshua died on the cross, Isaiah says His death atoned for both intentional and unintentional sins. This was the first time in human history that Yehovah allowed for deliberate sins to be atoned for. But as we read in the book of Hebrews, this is a one time offer only. This is why the book of Jacob says a saved person can not commit acts of intentional sins. And if they do, then they will end up as Ananias and Saphira. They were saved, but they did what they should not have done, and Yehovah killed them both.
So the cross is our entry into the covenant of Moses if we believe Yeshua died for us, and we repent back to Moses. (Acts 26:20) When we have entered into the covenant of Moses by faith and repentance, we will still be able to commit acts of unintentional sins. Moses says we are to sacrifice on the altar in Jerusalem to atone for unintentional sins. The altar is gone, the temple is gone, but the book of Hebrews says we can still atone for our accidental sins by continued faith in the cross. Now, according to the book of Hebrews, Yeshua is in the temple in the heavens, and when we atone by faith in His death, He takes His Blood as our high priest into the holiest of holy and sacrifices for us.
This is why the cross is central to obeying Moses and why you can not claim to follow Moses without the cross. But this is also why you can not believe in the cross and, at the same time, reject Moses. Because if you reject Moses, you have not repented. If you have not repented, you are not in the covenant, and your faith in the cross is dead, unable to save or help you.
So the next time something unexpected happens, something threatening to throw you off balance, respond with your obedience to Moses. Do not worry, do not fear, remind yourself that Moses and your obedience to Him guarantee Yehovahs help no matter the situation. Do not worry about how it will happen, when it will happen, only focus your mind on Moses and his law, so you are sure to obey and stay in the covenant. Because when life threatens to throw you off balance, you need Yehovahs help, and you can only get His help by staying in the covenant of Moses.
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