Rules, Rules, Rules

We are talking about rules. That’s right, about rules, rules, rules; for rules are what make the world go ‘round. And do you know what? God Rules!

That’s right! HaSatan (the accuser) may be the god of this world for now, but his end is near. For when haMashiach Yeshua (the Messiah Yeshua) returns to this earth, Yahuweh will rule, and what a wonderful thing that will be.

Now have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly a jet plane? To be in a jet plane and start commanding those controls, pushing this button and that button, and this lever and that lever to make it go left and right, or up and down.

You watch the meters, and make it spin, and maybe even do a loop or two. And you just have a ball up there while cruising around at a 1,000 mph, and watching all the houses and landscape grow smaller and smaller as you rise in altitude. You’re feeling the forces of gravity on your body, and just having a great time.

And when you are all done, you’re a little bit out of breathe from all the G-forces that pulled against your body, but you’re exhilarated.

But do you know what? You and I could not fly that jet if our life depended on it, if we don’t know the rules about how to fly a jet.

That’s right, in order to be able to fly a jet, we have to learn some rules. There are some procedures that we must follow.

We must be able to know what buttons to push, and when; when to push a lever this way or that way. How to read the meters and gauges. There is a lot that we would have to learn. I know I couldn’t just jump into a jet and do it. In fact, it would probably take a considerable amount of schooling.

And you know, the same thing could be said about being a surgeon. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to be a surgeon. To know that your skills have been prepared and molded through commitment and study to the rules of surgery in such a way that you are now able to perform major surgery on someone who was just seriously injured in a car accident and save their life. And to be able to have the satisfaction that they are alive because you were able to be there for them.

But you know what, you or I could not be a surgeon if our life depended on it, without first learning the rules of surgery.

Let’s say you are a sports fan, that maybe you love football, or basketball, or soccer, or tennis, or hockey, or some other sport. You may love just one of these games, or you may love all of them.

But do you know what? These activities all have rules in them, and you or I couldn’t play any of those games if our life depended on it, if we did not first know the rules.

Likewise, when we do things that we really enjoy, do we get bogged down with the rules? Or do we learn the rules because that is all part of the learning process?

For example, if I wanted to be a jet plane flyer, is my focus going to be on all the rules that I need to learn in order to fly that jet? Or is my focus going to be on the end result, on the reward of being able to fly a jet?

My focus is going to be on the end result, on the reward. My focus is going to be, hey, if I go to school for 4 years I can learn how to fly this jet. I can do that. That would be very exciting to me. I can hardly wait to get enrolled for classes!

So you would not go through this schooling in order to learn the rules, but in order to learn how to fly a jet, which just happens to involve learning a lot of rules.

So how does all this relate to the gospel? How does this all relate to God? Much in every way, for Yahuweh runs everything by rules too.

Think about it, even the secular world teaches that everything is run by rules. Governments are run by rules, schools are run by rules, nations are run by rules, families and relationships are run by rules. Anything you can think of, everything, is governed and defined by some set of rules.

Think of science. Science is governed by rules. Take Murphy’s Law, that’s a rule. It is the rule that says that if anything can go wrong, it will. How many of us have experienced THAT rule!

And there is the rule of thermodynamics which states that all things are in a continuous state of decay.

So everything has some set of rules they are governed and defined by.

So how does all this relate to the Kingdom of Yahuweh? Because Yahuweh is the ultimate Ruler. That’s right. Yahuweh rules. Always has, always will.

So does walking with Yahuweh mean following a bunch of rules? Well, that’s like saying, “does being a jet plane pilot mean we follow a bunch of rules?”, or “does being a surgeon mean we follow a bunch of rules?”

No, that’s not what being any of these things is about. It just simply means that participating in these activities just happens to involve a lot of rules, and you learn the rules because you want to engage in the activity.

The rules are not the focus. We don’t place a horse in back of a cart, but in front of the cart where the horse can pull it.

And so what we will see as we look deeper into this subject is that we engage in activities not because it does or does not involve rules; for all activities are governed and defined by rules. But rather, we engage in activities because we enjoy and find fulfillment in those activities.

So it’s more about what our goal is, than about what the rules are. About what one enjoys, and what one does not enjoy.

Let’s say that I am a jet plane pilot, and that I know all the rules required for flying a jet; and I have a friend I just met and I tell him all about what it takes to be able to fly a jet. And so I tell him about all the buttons I have to push, and all the levers I need to pull. I tell him about the laws of aerodynamics, and how much schooling it takes, and so on.

But lo and behold, it turns out that my new friend just simply has no interest in jet planes whatsoever, that flying a jet to him is about as exciting to him as standing on his head in the North Pole, with no socks on his feet.

Can you guess what all this information about how to fly a jet sounds like to him. You guessed it, it sounds to him like a bunch of rules.

On the other hand, if I share this same information with another friend who is as excited about the prospect of flying a jet as I was prior to going to school, it’s not going to sound like a bunch of rules at all. In fact, to him, its going to sound like INFORMATION.

And he is going to soak up this information, which really is just a bunch of rules, like a sponge. You won’t be able to tell him enough about the subject.

It is the same information I told my other friend. So why do these rules sound just like the rules that they are to my first friend; but to my other friend, it is perceived as a gold mine of priceless information?

It all boils down to what the focus of one’s interest is.

To one person, the rules of football define the activity of their favorite sport. To another, the rules of football are, well, just a bunch of rules.

For them, they could care less what a touchdown is, or what a field goal is, or what the line of scrimmage is. It’s all just a useless bunch of rules to them.

And it is the same with the Kingdom of Yahuweh. When we enter into a relationship with Yahuweh, is it about following a bunch of rules? Or is it simply about wanting to grow closer to God, and to have a meaningful relationship with Him; which relationship just happens to be governed and defined by a set of rules?

If you are not interested in a closer relationship with God, then His rules, to you, are just a bunch of rules.

But if you yearn to be closer to Him, and desire to absorb every word of His mouth; and you yearn to hear His voice, and want in every way to please Him; then His commandments are a gold mine of priceless information.

And if I share the rules, which define and govern how to have a meaningful and fulfilling relationship with Yahuweh with another person of similar desire, then they are going to be excited about His rules as well. Why?

Because they know that following the rules that define what a relationship with Yahuweh is to be, will ultimately maximize the pleasure and joy that is derived for them from that relationship. That following those rules is going to maximize their relationship with Him.

Just like following the rules of football is going to maximize the enjoyment derived from the game for a person who loves football. And just like knowing the rules about flying a jet, or being a surgeon, will maximize the enjoyment derived for the person who engages in these activities.

Additionally, not only will following the rules maximize the fulfillment derived from these activities, but it will also maximize the ability of these individuals to play football, fly a jet, or to perform a surgery, well.

Everything has rules.

But if, on the other hand, I tell somebody who is not interested in walking with God, or not interested in developing a more intimate relationship with God, about all the commandments ordained by God for our benefit and for our good; they would turn around and say, that’s really legalistic. You really need to get out of this group, because that’s legalism. That’s a bunch of rules. I don’t need to do all that. Take that stuff somewhere else. That’s legalism.

Now, what would it sound like if I told a football player who was really excited about a game, and who started telling me about all the rules of the game, “Hey, you know what, you’re being legalistic; you know you really need to get out of this football stuff, because it’s just a bunch of rules”.

It would be a very ridiculous thing to say. But this is in fact, precisely what people are saying when they criticize somebody, and declare them to be legalistic, for desiring to follow God by following the rules that He established to provide them the opportunity to develop a deep, healthy, and meaningful relationship with Him.

His rules, are in effect, what holds the very universe together. His rules are what caused our bodies to be formed out of the dust of the earth, and to be the magnificent works of engineering that they are.

You see, rules have there place, and are in every place. It is only a matter of whether we want to participate in the activity that is governed and defined by that particular set of rules or not, or whether we want to participate in a different activity, that is governed and defined by a different set of rules. In which case you would have no interest in the rules that define a healthy relationship with God at all.

So then, when we desire to walk with Yahuweh, what are the rules which He has set into motion to define and govern our relationship with Him?

Plain and simple. His rules are His 613 commandments laid out in the Torah, laid out in His “Law”, and whatever other rules and instruction He has laid out from B’resheet (Genesis) to Revelation in your Bible.

The Scriptures are His rule book on how to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and on how to love those around us as ourselves. And when we study His rules and apply them to our lives, we cannot help but become better people, and to see our relationship with God improve and become more abundant and joyful.

Those rules instruct us on how to interact with our neighbors, how to interact with our enemies; show us how to deal with property; and literally, show us how to run an entire nation. The nation of Israel. Which is the nation of God’s Kingdom on earth.

And those rules were given to the nation of Israel, as the Constitution of the Land, to guide every decision in government, and in private life.

And this nation of Yahuweh’s Kingdom on earth, which will be governed by the Torah; Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 2:1-4, will continue to be His Kingdom on earth for all eternity. You can read about this in Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) Chapters 40-48; Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 65 & 66; Zechar’yahu (Zechariah) Chapter 14; and Revelations 21:9-27, as well as in many other passages.

In these passages you will see that God’s Kingdom on earth will be in the form of Israel.

So what do you need to do to become part of Israel? Is all you have to do to become part of Israel, to be able to walk through one of the 12 gates of the city and partake of the tree of life, is believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, and to obey the commandments of Yahuweh.

Even as it says in Galatians 3:29,

3:29 …If you belong to Messiah then you are the seed of Avraham and heirs according to the promise.

And what was the promise given to Avraham, and why was it given to him? In B’resheet (Genesis) 26:1-5

The Promise is:

26:4 …I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your Seed (Yeshua who was to come) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. See also, Galatians 3:16.

The Reason is:

26:5 Because Avraham obeyed My voice, and guarded My hedge, My commandments and My appointed things - My laws.

That’s right, Avraham also obeyed the Torah, centuries prior to its re-introduction at Mt. Sinai; and His obedience to the Torah of Yahuweh was combined in his Faith in the Promise Seed of haMashiach Yeshua (the Messiah Yeshua) to come.

Yes, Avraham obeyed the instruction of Yahuweh, and had faith that what Yahuweh had promised, Yahuweh would bring to pass. That’s why Avraham offered up his son Yitz’chak (Isaac), because he knew about the eventual resurrection of the dead, and thought perhaps that Yitz’chak (Isaac) was that Promised Seed that Yahuweh would bless the nations through.

And that’s why Yitz’chak (Isaac) [who was at least 30 years old at the time Avraham offered him up]; went along with it, because he also was obedient to Yahuweh’s instruction, understood the prophecies concerning the resurrection of the dead, and believed in the Promise given to His father Avraham.

And because of this obedience and faith, he offered himself up willingly, believing that Yahuweh had appointed him as that Promised Seed that the nations would be blessed through.

As it turned out, Yahuweh had not appointed him as that Promised Seed, but was causing Avraham and Yitz’chak (Isaac) to play out a picture of Yahuweh’s sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, and of Yeshua’s willing cooperation in that plan in order to redeem us from our sins.

So you now have the opportunity to become a citizen of the natural Olive Tree of Israel.

Even if you were born as a Gentile, as a person of the nations, is all you do to become grafted into the natural Olive Tree of God’s Kingdom nation, is believe and conduct yourself in the same manner as Avraham and Yitz’chak (Isaac) did. Then you become an equal partaker of this natural Olive Tree, of which Yeshua and the Torah are the root.

So you have the natural branches, those born as Israelites. And you have the Gentiles, the people born among the nations, the wild olive branches who are grafted in because they have adopted the Faith of Avraham. As it says in B‘resheet (Genesis), through Avraham and his Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

And if you have committed yourself to obeying the Torah of Yahuweh, and to believing that Yeshua is that Promised Seed who was to come, then those blessings that were promised, belong to you as well; and ultimately, you will receive remission of your sins and the blessing of eternal life.

So, since all these things are true, what then are some of the commandments of Torah?

Well, there are the ones that you commonly hear growing up: don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t have sexual relations with anyone other than your marriage partner.

Then there are the ones that you don’t hear so often: Keep the Shabbos (the Sabbaths); celebrate the appointed times; don’t engage in sexual relations with animals; don’t eat or drink blood; don’t eat cockroaches, rats, bats, maggots, vultures, centipedes, flies, or any other unclean creature, etc…

You name it, Yahuweh has a rule to help guide and benefit us in everyway concerning every conceivable category of circumstance, because His rules show us the way of life.

They show us how to enjoy an abundant relationship with Him. They show us how to enjoy an abundant relationship with our neighbor. They show us how to love.

That’s right. They ultimately, show us how to love Yahuweh our Father with all our mind, soul, spirit and strength; and show us how to love our neighbor as our self. And they even show us how to love our enemies.

That’s right. All of His rules, His commandments, His instructions, or whatever you want to call them, are all about how to love. Are all about how to produce life, and avoid death; and how to get off the path of death.

And you know, concerning this path of death, it is something that we were born into. We have inherited, from conception, the death brought into the world through Adam.

That is, when Adam fell, we took on his character; and when Havah (Eve) fell, woman took on her character. And as a result we have all inherited that nature which draws us like a magnet to those things, activities, and decisions that produce death.

We have all been born onto this path of death, and as such we all like to eat of the forbidden fruit of knowledge of good and evil, and believe that it won’t really cause us to die.

We all need to be redeemed from that path and way of thinking. We need to acknowledge and fully comprehend that partaking of that which is forbidden by Yahuweh is what produces death in us.

We as sinful creatures are like the child who doesn’t believe their parent when their parent says that if they touch fire it will burn them.

It’s our nature to not believe that the consequences attached to our disobedience and distrust are real. It’s our nature to want to seek out knowledge on our own, and to believe only out of our experience with the consequences.

It is our nature to trust that the consequences we were told about were real only after we experienced them, rather than to just simply obey the warning given to us in trust.

Our sinful nature is geared to searching out the experience of both good and evil, rather than just being content with that which is good.

In fact, I have heard many people say over the years that they think a sinless heaven would be boring. And when you look at our entertainment industry - and at entertainment throughout history, you find that it is overwhelmingly predominated with splashes of evil in order to make it “more interesting” as they say.

However, to the godly and the righteous, there is nothing interesting or entertaining about evil. And fulfillment and satisfaction through that which is good is one’s ultimate desire and excitement in life.

But even if we desire only that which is good, we have still all been born with a nature of evil inclination, and have partaken of the forbidden fruit of death to one degree or another.

As such, even if we repent and do only good for the rest of our lives, we still need to be released from the death penalty hanging over us in regard to our past participation in the ways of death.

And the way Yahuweh has provided for us to escape this otherwise inescapable penalty is through the sacrifice of haMashiach Yeshua (the Messiah Yeshua), who offered up His sinless body to death on our behalf, so that all who repent of the path of death and believe in Him can be restored to the path of life reflected in the Torah, which defines for us the way of Eternal life.

So the way off the path of death, and onto the path of life, is to confess our sins; repent of our sins (that is, stop violating the Torah and commit our self to obeying Yahuweh through His Torah); and believe in the Testimony of Yeshua, that He is the Son of Yahuweh, the Lamb of Yahuweh, the burnt offering, sin offering and High Priest of Yahuweh promised to all those who repent and believe for the remission of sins that are past.

That is, we agree to commit ourselves to the way of life which is encompassed in His rules, and believe in Messiah Yeshua for the remission of our past violations of those rules.

So, what is the difference between being under grace verses being under the works of the law?

Well, if you have heard some of my other radio shows, then you will recall that being under grace means being under the blood of Yeshua’s sacrifice for atonement and justification, and that being under the works of the law refers to being under the blood of animal sacrifices, which provide atonement only. My Galatians study covers this more in depthly if you’d like to explore more on this subject.

And the main difference between these two methods of providing for the remission of sin, through that which is innocent, is that animal sacrifices were a work that we had to offer up on our own behalf, and at our own expense, for the remission of sin.

But that the grace which comes through Yeshua’s sacrifice is a work that Yahuweh offers up on our behalf at His expense. So that instead of having to repent and offer up a sacrifice on our own behalf, and at our own expense, now we simply repent and believe that Yeshua is that sacrifice.

Both methods require belief in God’s promises, and obedience to His commandments. And both methods require the shedding of blood.

But through Yeshua, the sacrificial work required for the remission of sin has been transferred from us, and the Levitical priesthood, onto Him as our High Priest and sin offering.

Another way to look at it is that the “works”, the animal sacrifices, offered up at the Temple focused on that which we owed, but through the grace offered through Yahuweh’s work in Yeshua, focuses on that which has been paid.

It’s like the difference between a good credit report and a bad one. The bad credit report will focus on what is owed; and the good one, on what has been paid. And the good one will present us in good standing with our creditors, even if it was somebody else who paid the debts off for us.

Now, in Yahuweh’s eyes, everyone has started off with a bad credit report that was impossible for us to clear up on our own efforts, because the debt was just simply beyond our ability to pay.

But Yeshua has agreed to pay that debt off for us, as a free service to us. Is all we have to do is accept His generosity and commit ourselves to not incurring any further debt.

Now if we do this, then at the time of our death He will present us with a good credit report, that contains no negative information within it,\ that we can take with us into eternity.

You see, though every believer in history prior to Yeshua‘s first coming had experienced the cancellation of their debts through atonement, made through animal sacrifices, their “credit report” was not purged of that negative information until Yeshua had offered Himself up as payment on our behalf.

Up until that time, though their defaulted loans showed up on their credit reports as “paid off“, the record of that defaulted loan remained on their credit report until Yeshua came and purged the record clean through His Blood.

The animals sacrifices, in a sense, also acted as IOU’s. That is, we would offer up the animal sacrifices in acknowledgment of our sin, understanding that the Promised Seed had not yet arrived, and understanding that those IOU’s would be paid off at the time of His arrival and ultimate sacrifice for us.

Like it states in Galatians 3, that the Levitical Priesthood, and accompanying sacrifices, were that which was added 430 years after the promises given to Avraham to deal with the matter of sin, and to act as a tutor to point us to Messiah Yeshua’s ultimate sacrifice as the Promised Seed to come. Galatians 3:19-25

And all these things were as yet still only partially fulfilled at Yeshua’s first coming. For the Levitical Priesthood is also symbolic of the priesthood of Yeshua to come during the Millennial Kingdom, where we will reign with Him as priests for 1,000 years offering up sacrifices on behalf of the nations that are yet unsaved through Yeshua as their High Priest.

This is a whole study in and of itself, but essentially is what it works out as, is that those of the 1st resurrection who are raised up to rule with Him as priests for 1,000 years, are those whose sins are remitted through Yeshua’s death directly; i.e. as their burnt offering, sin offering, Pesach Lamb, etc...

But those who enter life after the 1,000 years (at the judgment seat of Yeshua, Mattit’yahu (Matthew) 25:31-46) will be those whose sins were remitted through Yeshua as their High Priest.

Concerning those who are part of the 1st resurrection, He has died for them as the Pesach (Passover) Lamb, burnt offering and sin offering, etc... and for those in the 2nd resurrection He was raised back up to life to offer up sacrifices on their behalf as High Priest.

Right now, anyone in the world can enter into the covenant made with Him as the Pesach (Passover) Lamb, and as such, gain access to Him as the sin offering to qualify for the 1st resurrection, even as the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai received access to the sin offering through entry into the Pesach (Passover) covenant.

These things were symbolic of the things to come, and have now been fulfilled in Yeshua. But now that the reality has come and replaced the symbolic, replaced the shadow, does that suddenly mean we are free now to go out and incur more debt? Suddenly free now to go and return to a life of sin, or to jump back onto the path of death? Yahuweh forbid!

Is what it does mean, is that we are to cut up those credit cards, toss out those loans, and pay cash for everything from now on.

That is, we are to go and sin no more. Because every time we sin, it is like incurring a new debt that must be paid. And the Scriptures state that if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth that there remains no more sacrifice for sin; Hebrews 10:26-29.

In effect, every time we violate the Torah, we fall back under the death penalty; but if we obey the commandments of Yahuweh, it is like paying cash for everything. And no debt is ever incurred when we pay cash.

So now that Yeshua has paid off our debt for us, we are to, plain and simply, go and sin no more; that is, we are to stop sinning, stop violating God’s rules, stop violating His Torah, stop incurring new debts.

We must stop violating the Torah of life, for you cannot find life by following the path of death, or obtain life by following the way of death.

So which torah is it that we are no longer under; the Torah of Yahuweh, or the torah of haSatan (the accuser)? The Torah of righteousness, or the torah of sin?

Which law, that is, which torah, is God’s Torah? The Torah of Yahuweh is obviously the Torah of righteousness which leads to life; and the torah of haSatan (the accuser), the torah of sin that leads unto death.

If anyone wants to believe that the Torah has been done away, I say to them with utmost confidence, that the only torah that has been done away in the life of a true believer is the torah of sin. And the torah of sin, is to violate the Torah of Yahuweh. The Torah of righteousness.

The Emissary Shaul (the Apostle Paul) states that the Torah of Yahuweh is just, and good, and holy; Romans 7:12, and that His Torah is spiritual; Romans 7:14. So let’s get our torah’s straight and not confuse one with the other.

Do not make the mistake of declaring evil anything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahuweh. For all that proceeds out of His mouth is Truth.

And do not make the mistake of declaring as done away, anything that proceeds out of His mouth; for He is eternal, and He changes not, but is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And do not make the grave mistake of labeling anybody as a legalist for committing themselves to Yahuweh’s rules. For everything is defined and governed by rules, and those who obey Yahuweh’s rules, which are truth, are defined by those very same rules as belonging to Him. For they are the one’s who have heard His voice and obeyed Him.

Be certain, that all things brought forth out of the mouth of Yahuweh are eternal, and ordained for the purpose of calling us, and preserving us, in the way of life, and of warning us of the ways of death. To lead us into life, and away from death.

It is all about choosing to eat only that fruit which is allowed and which leads to life, and refusing to partake in that which is forbidden and which leads unto death. As such, you are either obeying Yahuweh, or obeying haSatan (the accuser).

Obedience to haSatan (the accuser), is disobedience to Yahuweh; and obedience to Yahuweh, disobedience to haSatan (the accuser).

You can only serve one master. You cannot serve both good and evil; but must serve good only. To obey Yahuweh, is to serve Yahuweh; and to serve haSatan (the accuser), is to disobey Yahuweh.

Do not think that faith in Yeshua combined with disobedience to Yahuweh will gain you Eternal Life.

Yeshua Himself stated that if you desire to enter into life, obey the commandments. Did Yeshua lie? Yahuweh forbid!

Yeshua cannot lie. He tells us the truth only, and it is only through the truth that we can be set free. He wants us to have life, and to have it more abundantly.

People will say, well if we are saved by grace and not through works, then how can you say these things Hezekiyah?

I can say these things because people, in separating themselves from the Hebrew background of the Scriptures, have failed to differentiate the difference between receiving salvation and receiving eternal life.

You see, eternal life has everything to do with doing things God’s way. And if we had obeyed His Torah from conception, without violation for all eternity, we would have had eternal life from the very womb.

The problem is that we have all violated the Torah, and so are born onto the path of death from the very beginning. This is why we all die. But death of the body does not have to end in death of the soul.

This is where salvation comes in, that is, this is where remission of sin comes in.

The root word for salvation in fact comes from the word salvage. And even as you do not have to salvage something that has not been wrecked, even so, you do not need to provide salvation to anyone who has never sinned. Yeshua, of course, is the only one who never sinned; who never violated Torah.

And if we had obeyed Yahuweh’s commandments from the beginning, we likewise, would have had no need for salvation; but would have eternal life. So you see, salvation and eternal life are two different things.

Salvation is what we need because we have become spiritually wrecked through violation of the Torah - through violation of the law of life; through sin.

Salvation has to do with atonement and justification; has to do with that which is required to salvage us back onto that path of life. But His commandments have to do with eternal life.

His commandments show us the way of eternal life, but only the Blood of His Son can purge us of the death penalty owed for our past violations against that law of life, so that our present and future obedience to that law of life can be of benefit to us.

In effect, His commandments can only lead us to life if our past violations against it have been paid for, and likewise, Yeshua’s payment of that debt only benefits us if we follow the path of life.

To the Torah of Yahuweh and the Testimony of Yeshua, if anyone does not speak according to these words, it is because they have no light in them; Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 8:16-20.

Let’s take this a step further now and say that you rob an elderly person of all their retirement, and that you get caught. Now you know that there is going to be a penalty for this crime that you will have to pay, and let’s say that the penalty is prison.

So after being convicted, you are standing before the judge and you show great remorse, and state how you didn’t know the money belonged to an elderly person, or to a retirement account.

That you had just lost your business, and was in a desperate state of mind to try and figure out how to feed your family and to keep from losing your home. That you just stumbled across this faceless account, and in your desperation took advantage of the opportunity to rob this account to keep your family fed and off the streets.

And you plead with the judge, and tell him how horrible you feel that it was sorely needed income from an elderly person’s retirement account. That in your normal state of mind you never would have considered stealing anybodies property, much less an elderly person's property.

And you weep, and confess, and state with great sincerity how committed you are to paying restitution to this injured person, and after all is said and done, the judge says, “I forgive you. As heinous as this crime of yours was, I am going to forgive you of this grave sin.”

So why does the judge forgive you? Does he do it because you had asked to be forgiven? Or does he do it because you have convinced him of your remorse, and of your commitment to making restitution, and convinced him that when he lets you go that you are not going to engage in anymore criminal activity?

Be rest assured, you will be forgiven because the judge is convinced that your repentance and remorse are sincere, and believes that you are committed to going out and “sinning no more”.

But let’s say that the judge does sentence you, but that while serving your time in prison, you present this same plea to the Governor, or to the President of the United States; and they hear your plea, have compassion on you, and grant you a Governor’s Pardon, or Presidential Pardon.

You can be certain, that they would grant their pardon’s on the same basis that the judge did, and on the condition of going and “sinning no more“. Because forgiveness and pardons are given to those who are committed to changing their ways, not to those whose future conduct is questionable.

Now, let’s say that you indeed did receive one of these pardons, and as a result, are immediately released from prison, and even have your record of guilt expunged from the court record.

And let’s say that after all this, you go out and rob the retirement account of another elderly person. Do you think at this point that your pardon will be of any benefit to you?

Absolutely not! In fact, the pardon could very well work against you in that it would present your confession of remorse and repentance as having been insincere and unreliable, and reflect an ability and willingness to betray even the highest level of public trust.

And this image reflected could very well cause you to receive a more severe sentence than if you had just completed your prior sentence and never received a pardon.

They are NOT going to say, "Well, in light of your previous pardon, we’re just going to overlook this heinous new crime you just committed".

No. It will be as if that pardon never existed, and when you return for sentencing you will be facing a very unsympathetic judge and Prosecuting Attorney, who are going to be supported by an unsympathetic Governor, or President.

Yes, your punishment would be greater than if you had not ever received a pardon, for you had proven yourself as insincere and incapable of public trust.

So when Yeshua provides payment (atonement), and pardon and acquittal (justification) for your sins, He does it because you have confessed your sins and committed yourself to sinning no more.

That is, you have agreed to conduct yourself from that time forth as a law abiding citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, or as one who is committed to learning how to become a law abiding citizen of His Kingdom.

That is, you have agreed to stop doing things haSatan's (the accuser’s) way, and to start doing things Yahuweh’s way. And where is Yahuweh’s way listed? In the Torah. In His word.

Yeshua states that man is not to live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahuweh. By every word.

Why, because every word of His produces life in us. Because every word of His is eternal.

Yahuweh is not the one who wants to send us to hell, haSatan (the accuser) is. And that’s another lie of the devil, that Yahuweh wants to send us to hell. But no, Yahuweh is trying to save us from hell.

If we would just listen to Him when He says “Here, eat of these trees, these trees are good for you. These trees will give you life. But don’t eat of that one over there because it is poisonous, and if you eat of it you will die. Don’t eat of that tree!”

But instead, when haSatan (the accuser) comes along and says “Oh no, don’t believe that. If you eat of that tree you won’t really die; God is just trying to keep something from you", people continue to believe this lie to this very day. To this very day! It’s in our genes to be like Adam and Havah (Eve).

We continue to believe to this very day that we won’t really die if we partake in that which is forbidden.

Look at cigarettes. It says right on the package that they will kill you, that they are going to give you cancer, heart disease and any number of other physical ailments, and what do people do? They smoke them. And what do what love to say, “Oh, but those things won’t happen to me”.

We are so blind. Come on people, wake up, the house is on fire! This is the same lie that haSatan (the accuser) said to us in Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden) “Oh, it won’t happen to you.”

This lie did not prevent Adam and Havah (Eve) from dying, and it did not prevent the tens of millions of people who smoke cigarettes from dying from lung cancer either.

We need to wake up. Yahuweh’s rules are wisdom. They are life. And they are eternal and of eternal benefit to us. Yahuweh’s rules are wisdom, and His wise rules are contained in His Torah. His Torah is there for our benefit, and for our good.

Believe me when I say that when you are obeying Yahuweh’s commandments, you are obeying Yahuweh.

If anyone believes that obeying Yahuweh’s commandments will cause them to go to hell, then that person has believed and received a twisted concept of what the gospel is all about; and needs to seriously reconsider the Scriptures, because you don’t go to hell by obeying Yahuweh, you go to hell by obeying haSatan (the accuser); which is plain and simply, to disobey Yahuweh.

The Torah of Yahuweh is not the torah of haSatan (the accuser). The Torah of Yahuweh is Yahuweh’s Torah. And the commandments of Yahuweh are Yahuweh’s commandments, and haSatan (the accuser) is opposed to them all.

Whatever Yahuweh tells us to do, haSatan (the accuser) tells us to do the opposite.

Yahuweh told Adam and Havah (Eve) not to eat of the forbidden tree, and that if they ate of the forbidden tree that they would die.

HaSatan (the accuser) responded by encouraging them to eat that which was forbidden and by stating that they would not die, and Adam and Havah (Eve) believed haSatan (the accuser), believed his lie.

The result was that they died just as Yahuweh stated they would, and death has been in the world ever since.

And as such, we must be redeemed even as they had to be; because we, as even they, have all believed the lie of haSatan (the accuser), to one degree or another, over the truth of Yahuweh.

We are out of time for now. So let me wrap up this session by sharing some of His commandments, some of His rules, and see how wonderful they are.

Listen to this.

Do not engage in sexual relations outside of marriage.

Just look at society today and see what happens when people have sexual relations outside of marriage. What a disaster.

You have unwanted pregnancies which lead to abortions, you have broken hearts, sexually transmitted diseases, broken homes, parentless children, drug abuse, the list goes on and on.

In fact, did you know that divorce rates are highest among those who engaged in pre-marital sexual relations prior to their marriage? So much for the try it before you buy it philosophy.

Here’s another one.

Do not pervert justice.

Just look at this Torahless world. You have injustice everywhere, but how many people do you know want to be on the brunt end of it?

Do not deny justice to the widow, to the fatherless, or to the poor. Do not steal. Do not be drunk with alcohol. Do not shed innocent blood. Do not hate your sibling in your heart. Celebrate the feast of Sukkoth (Tabernacles). Observe Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). Do not adopt the customs of the pagan nations around you. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong, and do not forsake the God of Avraham, Yitz’chak (Isaac) and Ya’aqob (Jacob).