Messiah’s Instructions: Entering In His Rest--Truth or Spiritualized Scripture??

Hebrews 4

We are walking in today:   Messiah’s Instructions: Entering In His Rest--Truth or Spiritualized Scripture??

Witness truth throughout the Bible: H571 'emeth--as spoken, of testimony and judgment, of divine instruction, true doctrine

Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, H571

The Torah testifies.....................
 Deuteronomy 13:14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it
be truth, H571 and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;

The prophets proclaim..................
 Isaiah 10:20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are
escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them;but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. H571

The writings bear witness.............
 Joshua 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: H571 and put
away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt;and serve ye the LORD.

Jeremiah 9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: H571 they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Stealing Your Inheritance
Some Believers today say they keep the Ten Commandments; others say they are only for the Jews, not those in the Nations. Still others say they are not for New Testament Saints, but are legalism and bondage. A few today keep and observe the Feasts of The Most High. Many today would say they love The Most High, and desire to keep His Word. However, they have been taught that the Second and Fourth Commandments are not for us. The meanings of these commandments, as much of Scripture, have been 'spiritualised' by well-meaning Pastors and Teachers, to mean 'something different,' so as not to apply to New Testament Saints.

Many Pastors and Teachers think that we are not able to search the Scriptures for ourselves, to see what it really says. And the spiritualised version of a Truth, which is a particular 'spin' put on the Truth, sounds very close to what Scripture actually says. The result is that some of the Pastors and spiritual Leaders are stealing the inheritance of their many followers! We must read the Scriptures for ourselves, and find the Truth!

How are we to know the Truth? Just what does it mean to spiritualise Scripture? Let us find out, as we make up an example of what it means to 'spiritualise' Scripture.
Let us say that we read the following verse:
Thou shalt not kill. (Exodus 20:13)

We may immediately say, Well, this must be for New Testament Saints, because Yahushua told us that we are not to hate our brother; and murder is the same as hating our brother. That explanation now becomes my definition of what the above passage says.

I could then conclude that under the spiritualised meaning of this verse, it is alright to literally kill someone, but not hate him, which is the spiritualised equivalent. By this example, we can see that in spiritualising the meaning, the plain, common- sense meaning is discarded, in favour of a spiritualised meaning or explanation.

The next example is a little less of a stretch of truth, and is actually believable to many Believers of this generation:
Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
Reading this verse one might think, For New Testament Believers, adultery in The Most High’s eyes is the equivalent of worshipping an idol or another god. If one were to spiritualise the above Exodus verse, one may conclude that it must be OK to commit literal adultery, but it is not OK to commit idolatry, which is a spiritualised adultery.

How utterly absurd this would be! Yet the same example of this reasoning occurs as a codified standard in the vast realm of the religious world today. Let us see why.

We will now look at a classic example of spiritualising Scripture, resulting in a doctrine that most Pastors and spiritual Leaders today have bought into, bringing great loss to the Body of Messiah, as a lack of fullness of the life of Messiah-in-us.

Notice the following passage:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy [set-apart as special]. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

The precious Believing ones today have been taught by their Leaders a spiritualised understanding of The Most High's Sabbath days. Believers worldwide have been taught the decrees of Rome regarding this passage, stating that for New Testament Believers, the Sabbaths of The Most High speak only of two spiritualised meanings, and are not to be kept literally.

Two separate, spiritualised explanations of this passage are generally given. First, it is spiritualised by some, who see this as merely a explanation for a 'future' event. This man-made explanation describes the future, millennial kingdom, which is actually a true, prophetic picture of what the seventh- day Sabbath Day portrays, but only in a prophetic sense of fulfillment. Along with this explanation, Believers are told they are not to keep this commandment in a literal sense, but to keep instead the 'New Testament Sabbath' [which is a man-made Sabbath decreed by Rome].

Second, the teaching of the Sabbath Day is taught by many as a 'spiritualised' explanation for the present. Many Believers today have been taught of a 'spiritualised' Sabbath rest, but not of the 'literal' keeping of the Sabbath Day. One man-made explanation goes on to say that to keep the Sabbath is to "enter a state of rest," which one supposedly enters into when one "rests, moment by moment, in Father's Grace, in the finished work of Yahushua." Along with this explanation, Believers are told they are not to keep Father's Sabbath Days in a literal sense, but are to keep only the 'New Testament Sabbath' [the man-made Sabbath decreed by Rome].

The Pastors and Leaders that say such things are not seeking The Most High, and are not studying the Scriptures. Perhaps they are assuming their followers are not reading their Bibles for themselves!
The result is that the above passage (Exodus 20:8-11) has been spiritualised to a point that its 'literal' meaning has been made of no effect in the lives of many precious Believers, ones who truly love The Most High! The Body of Messiah in this generation has been taught that a man-made notion of the 'Lord’s Day' has replaced the 'Sabbath Day' of the Ten Commandments.

Using the same line of reasoning, the Believers today have been taught also that idolatry is not so important in the lives of Blood-bought and forgiven Believers! See (1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 John 5:21; Rev 2:14, 20). We shall examine these ideas a little later, against the light of Scripture.

Scrambling to plug the holes in their theology, many Theologians have spun further webs of deception, to describe the closely-related teaching of 'entering into His rest.' As we saw above, some have taught that the Sabbath Day is only symbolic of the seventh millennium, the true Sabbath of The Most High; and the weekly sabbath was only a shadow of that Sabbath to come [this is half-truth, and half-lie].

Fiveamprayer, many Bible teachers today are teaching that the weekly sabbath is only a 'spiritual' Sabbath, in that the New Testament Saint rests in the finished work of Yahushua; and that the New Testament Believer no longer has to 'work' in ones own effort to be obedient, to be found righteous [another half-truth, half-lie]. Scripture tells us, however, that we must labour [work; expend great effort] to enter into the same rest Father entered (Hebrews 4:10-11). Perhaps the great effort is required, in order to defeat the great many man-made doctrines that would lead us astray!

It is important for the Bride-Company to note that both of these popular teachings are not 100% error, but express a mixture of truth and error. The truth aspect is in regard to both a future, and a present, spiritual aspect of the seventh day Sabbath of The Most High; the error comes by ignoring the literal aspect, just as our above examples of murder and adultery.

Moreover, in expressing the exclusiveness of the spiritual aspect of the seventh day Sabbath of The Most High, the popular teachings ignore the fact that there are seven additional Feasts of The Most High that He calls 'My Sabbaths,' for a total of 8 of The Most High's Sabbaths!

Let us now see why this issue of The Most High's Sabbaths is an important issue for the Bride.

 Labouring to Enter His Rest
We will now note the great importance of the Sabbaths of The Most High, which have been hidden from the Body of Messiah, who have been robbed and stolen from, as spoil from a battle, by an enemy that does not want to see Yahushua's people 'enter in' to their inheritance.

Let's notice the following passages:
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err [go astray] in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. (Psalms 95:10-11)

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Hebrews 4:11)

Scripture tells us that although Israel was redeemed from Egypt by the Blood of the Lamb, the original generation were refused entry into the Promised Land, all except Joshua and Caleb. In the above passage in Psalms 95: 10-11, we see The Most High tells us that they were not allowed to enter His rest, showing us that entering His rest is a picture of 'entering in' to the Promised Land.

The next passage above (Hebrews 4:11) warns us that we, too, must labour to enter His rest, lest we too be refused entry into the Promised Land, in the same example as the Israelites, as the context indicates. Since this is such an important example for us, taking up two chapters in the Book of Hebrews, we would do well to find out exactly what it means to enter His rest, and what could prevent us from entering His rest.

For a clue to what this means, let's look at the above passage again, this time along with its companion, the previous passage:

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Hebrews 4:10-11)

In the above passage, Yahushua tells us we must enter into His rest by ceasing from our own works, just as The Most High ceased from His works. What is the simple and plain meaning of this passage? Let's look at some possibilities of what it might mean.

First, let's ask, How did The Most High rest from His works? If we can find how The Most High rested from His works, perhaps we too could do the same, as we are told to do! Let's look into this.

So, how did The Most High rest from His works?

Did The Most High decide to postpone His rest until the future millennial Sabbath, the great Day of Jubilee? NO! But this is one explanation given by the Theologians, of what we are to do!

Did The Most High trust in the precious Blood of Yahushua, [that was shed for remission of Sins,] in order to allow The Most High to 'rest in Yahushua,' thus allowing The Most High to 'rest in the Grace of forgiveness of The Most High’s own sins,' so that The Most High might be made righteous, so that The Most High would no longer struggle under a consciousness of Sin?

That explanation is one of several given to us by the Theological Seminaries and their blind graduates — most of the Pastors and Leaders of this generation — as an explanation of how they say we are to enter into His rest!

How utterly absurd can the Doctrines of Men become, when held against the Blinding Light and Strong Meat of The Most High's precious Word!

Did The Most High rest in either of the two ways given in the above examples? How did The Most High rest from His works?

Let's see what Scripture tells us:
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Genesis 2:2-3)

We see the answer very clearly in the above passage: The Most High simply ceased his work, and rested on the literal seventh day!

We must stop spiritualising Scripture, and return to the clear and simple meaning of Scripture, and return to the simplicity and rest that is found only in obedience to Messiah Yahushua!

According to the Scriptures, it is plain to see that we enter His rest in our literal obedience to the Fourth commandment — of resting from our literal works on the literal seventh day, just as The Most High rested from His works.

What we do is simply a matter of whether we are yoked to Yahushua, or not. If we are yoked to Him, we work when He works, and we rest when He rests. If Yahushua rests on the seventh day, then we do the same.

The pattern for us is in the Gospels, as well as the epistles, as testimony to what Yahushua [and the Disciples] did on the Sabbath day, as well as on the other Feast Day Sabbaths. If we can say, as the apostle Paul did, "Messiah liveth in me," then let us ask ourselves these questions:

Questions to Ask Ourselves
Are we allowing Messiah to live in us in all His fullness, as revealed in the pages of the New Testament?
Are we preventing Messiah [who lives within our bodies] from observing the Feasts of His Father, in obedience to Scripture?
Do we say that Messiah lives within us, within our bodies — yet continue to refuse to allow Him-in-us to walk in obedience to the Scriptures, simply because of the teachings we have received?

Fiveamprayer, the New Testament is full of warnings, exhortations, and teachings, of simple, literal obedience to The Most High's Commandments, and to all His judgments, ordinances, and precepts. The Scriptures tell us of the consequences of doing so, and of not doing so — even though under the New Covenant, we are given a choice (Matthew 11:29), and they are voluntary!

There are many, man-made ideas commonly taught today, saying that the 'Old Testament' commandments are not for New Covenant Believers. These ideas are not true, they have no foundation in Scripture whatsoever, and they contradict both 'Old' and 'New' Testament Scriptures!

So, why don't we hear teaching today about the importance of 'Labouring' to enter His rest? It is because there are many weapons the enemy has arrayed against the Believing ones, the main one of which is the 'Doctrines and Commandments of Men,' which turn men from the Truth (Titus 1:14).
Shema Selah what is truth and what has been spiritualised???