The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is righteousness, which is manifested outwardly through keeping the commandments.

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Weekly Readings

For the Sabbath of July 31, 2010

The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

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What then? Are we Jews any better off ? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

in their paths are ruin and misery,

and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. / But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:9–26 emphasis added)

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If all, Jew and Greek, are under sin and if the law speaks to those who are under the law so that the whole world may be held accountable to God, are not all judged by the law? Is this not what Paul writes when he says, “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law” (Rom 2:12)? It isn’t whether a person has the law or doesn’t have the law that matters, but rather, whether the person transgresses the law that is the worldly manifestation of Love; for “it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (v. 13).

If it is the doers of the law who are justified and if the works of the law justify no one—both premises are stated by Paul—then it is the desires of the hearts and the thoughts of the mind that justify, not what the hands and body do; for when the inside of the cup is clean the entire vessel is clean, meaning that the person who believes God through hearing the words of Jesus and believing the writings of Moses will be “made clean” by faith. This person, regardless of whether Jew or Greek [Christian or nonbeliever], will by faith keep the commandments, not because keeping the commandments opens the door to heaven but because keeping the commandments is the reasonable expectation of everyone who loves God.

If by the works of the law no human being will be justified since the law gives life to sin (Rom 7:8) so that sin can consume all of humanity as sin consumed Israel at Sinai in the golden calf incident, then salvation isn’t a human matter but a matter of faith. And about this faith, John quotes the words of Christ Jesus:

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” (John 12:44–50 emphasis added)

In Greek, “faith” is belief, and “belief” is faith … all belief is through faith. Thus, Paul’s declaration that the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe has been manifested apart from the law brings disciples to Jesus’ words: “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life’” (John 5:24).

The writer of Hebrew says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (9:27–28 emphasis added). Yet Jesus said that the person who hears His words and believes those words doesn’t come into judgment but passes directly from death to life … Jesus dealt with sin when He left His words with His disciples. And when He left His words with His disciples no one was then condemned for the spirit had not been given: no one had indwelling eternal life except Jesus of Nazareth who had received that life when the breath of the Father had visibly descended upon Him in the form of a dove (Matt 3:16).

Again, the person, Jew or Greek, who is not and cannot be justified by the works of the law but rather is justified, according to Paul, by being a doer of the law (again, Rom 2:13) isn’t justified by what the hands do but by what the mind believes, with what the mind believes being outwardly manifested in what the hands do. The argument made by lawless pastors and rebellious theologians is that since Christians are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith (Rom 3:24–25) Christians can neglect the law and live as sons of disobedience, doing the same things these Christians did before they were drawn from this world by the Father … well, if Christians after being drawn from this world by the Father are going to do what they were doing before being drawn, why should the Father bother drawing them? Why give them a second breath of life? Why not simply wait until the end of the age before again drawing additional sons of disobedience from this world?

The inner self or inner man of every son of disobedience is dead and is without spiritual life. It is this inner self that the divine breath of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] makes alive when the Father raises the dead (John 5:21), but makes alive in a perishable tent of flesh. Thus, because of the unbelief [sin] of the first Adam, death entered the world (Rom 5:12) and became an inherited attribute of humankind: the visibly living human person is inwardly dead because of unbelief/sin. Thus, when this inner person is brought to life through receipt of the divine breath of God, this inner person comes under judgment for the “person” who was dead is now alive—

Peter writes, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” (1 Pet 4:17).

Judgment came with the giving of the spirit [B<,Ø:"] that made alive the inner selves of those individuals foreknown, predestined, called, and justified by the Father (Rom 8:29–30) to be younger siblings of Christ Jesus. Judgment has been on the inner self selves of these individuals, not on their fleshly bodies, for Jesus’ death at Calvary paid the death penalty for their sins in this world; i.e., the sins committed by the flesh. And as the reality of the Azazel goat, the glorified Jesus bears (or covers) the unbelief [sins] of the living inner selves of these individuals in the heavenly realm. Therefore, as the Father raised the dead by giving life to the dead inner self, the Son will, when judgments are revealed, give life to whom He wills (also John 5:21) when He comes again (1 Cor 4:5) to save those who eagerly wait His return. The Son will give life by causing the perishable flesh to put on immortality, and the Son will give life to those individuals who believed the writings of Moses, heard His words, and believed them.

When the spiritual environment is such that it is unlikely a person of this world will believe the writings of Moses, the prerequisite to hearing the words of Jesus (John 5:46–47), why should the Father draw a person from this world? Why should the Father raise anyone from the dead by giving the person a second breath of life? Why not wait to give life to the dead until the end of the age when the kingdom of this world will be taken from the Adversary, the spiritual king of Babylon, and given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15)?

Moses records, “The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt” (Ex 12:40–41) … Israel left Egypt on a specific day: the dark portion of the 15^th of Nissan, exactly 430 years after Israel entered Egypt. The Lord told Abraham [then Abram], “‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years’” (Gen 15:13). Apparently, Israel experience thirty “good” years in Egypt before being afflicted in a manner that foreshadowed the good years that the Church experienced mid 1^st-Century CE. Then after a proscribed length of affliction, Israel was liberated from physical bondage to Pharaoh: “‘But I [the Lord] will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions’” (v. 14) — the possessions [fine clothing, gold and silver] that Israel took from the Egyptians form the shadow and copy of endtime Israel, a nation circumcised-of-heart, receiving indwelling eternal life at the Second Passover.

Christian theologians who teach that human beings are humanly born with immortal souls are liars, and the bastard sons of the Adversary. They serve the prince of this world … Paul writes, “For such men [super-apostles who ask for money] are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds” (2 Cor 11:13–15). And it is through asking for money that endtime disciples can quickly and accurately identify false apostles; for genuine servants of God who certainly have needs ask God to supply those needs, not other men or women.

Christians will be made willing to believe the writings of Moses when liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover. Remember, Jesus said, “‘Do not think that I will accuse you [Pharisees] to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:46–47 emphasis added)

When the truth is told, it will be the rare person who doesn’t today believe Moses’ writings that will believe Jesus’ words when liberated from indwelling sin through being filled with spirit.

The Christian who doesn’t today believe Moses simple cannot hear Jesus’ words or Jesus’ word [message], which comes from the Father; so even when filled with spirit and having the Torah written on the heart and placed in the mind, this Christian will not spurn the mingling of the sacred and profane that has long been the habit of the person. Hence, 220 days after the Second Passover, Christendom will rebel against God as Israel in the wilderness rebelled against God (see Num chap 14), with this rebellion coming on or about Christmas day and coming from the Christian’s desire to keep Christmas [it’s for the children].

The Second Passover liberation of Israel will occur on a year like 2011, a year that has Christmas occurring on a Sunday exactly 220 days after the second Passover of that year … Jesus said, concerning His return, “‘But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man’” (Matt 24:36–39 emphasis added) … Noah entered the Ark on the 10^th day of the second month (Gen 7:4, 11), the day when the chosen lamb is penned for the second Passover. As Israel entered the Promised Land on the 10^th day of the first month (Joshua 4:19) and was penned in God’s rest until sacrificed in the personage of Christ Jesus who entered Jerusalem on the 10^th day of the first month (cf. John 12:1, 12), the Christian Church will be “penned” in righteousness as Noah was penned in the Ark, with the seven days until the world was baptized into death by water equating to the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation that will see humankind crossing from one world [era] into the next, the Millennium.

The person who will be justified by grace receives Christ Jesus by faith, for sin no longer has dominion over the person (Rom 6:14). But the person who continues to transgress the law [sin — from 1 John 3:4] because the person believes that he or she is under grace will find, when judgments are revealed, that this person was not under grace but was under the law.

Paul writes,

Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Rom 6:15–19 emphasis added)

John wrote about righteousness in his oft cited passage,

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (! John 3:4–10 emphasis added)

If sin is lawlessness originating in unbelief, then whoever practices lawlessness is of the devil for this person—Christian or otherwise—neither believes the writings of Moses nor hears the words of Jesus. This person can “wrap” him or herself in the words of Paul, insisting that the person is justified by grace alone, that God has passed over the sins of the person, without realizing that what was covered by the blood of Christ Jesus is the record of debt with its legal demands that stood against every son of disobedience, that the trespasses of the person which were forgiven occurred so there would be no condemnation of the inner new self that was initially given life when this former son of disobedience is born from above or born of God.

It really doesn’t matter what the lawless person believes or what excuses the lawless person uses to justify continuing in sin: this lawless person will be just as dead when condemned to the lake of fire if the person uses the epistles of Paul or the writings of Martin Luther to support his or her lawlessness. So arguments written to convince the person to quit his or her transgressions of the commandments ultimately become a waste of time: the angel tells John in his vision, “‘Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy’” (Rev 22:11); for the evildoer (i.e., the unbeliever) will not be convinced even by one raised from the dead (see Luke 16:31).

The above is the toughest concept any saint has to accept: the person who is, by habit, lawless will not suddenly begin to hear and believe Jesus’ words even when filled with spirit. Seven months are allotted by the Father for circumcised-of-heart Israel to make the journey from spiritual Babylon to Jerusalem. Two hundred twenty days, actually—and that isn’t much time even though each of those days will seem like a lifetime.

Paul didn’t contradict himself or make a mistake when he wrote that it is the doers of the law who are justified and the works of the law justify no one. He simply assumed that his audience [his auditors] would be born of God and would be able to understand that a disciple’s belief of God, a disciple’s faith would cause the disciple to keep the commandments; for legislating compliance to the law produces outward obedience and inward rebellion. It is only when the outwardly uncircumcised person begins to keep the commandments and live as a Judean—or when the outwardly circumcised person who keeps the law professes that Jesus is Lord—that hearts have been cleansed by faith so that they can be circumcised … the observant Jew who professes that Jesus is Lord and believes that the Father raised Jesus from the dead stands on the same theological turf as the gentile Christian who by faith keeps the commandments. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). Christ, uncovered Head and covered Body, is the same in the 1^st-Century as in the 21^st-Century. There is no getting around the reality that whoever practices righteousness, which is manifested outwardly through keeping the commandments, is righteous as Christ Jesus is righteous (1 John 3:7). It isn’t keeping the commandments that makes the person righteous, but the inner desire to please God, whom the righteous person believes.

The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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