We are walking in today: Biblical Grace, Not A License to NOT Keep The Law!!!! Part 3
Today we look to the word FRUIT --H6529 -pĕriy -- fruit (literally and figuratively): bough, first, fruitful, reward.
The Torah testifies.........……
Leviticus 19:24
But in the fourth year all the fruit H6529 thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal.
The prophets proclaim..................
Ezekiel 36:8
But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit H6529 to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
The writings bear witness............
2 Kings 19:30
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit H6529 upward.
The Most High’s Goal: The Harvest
Before we home in on our main theme of our being prepared for Messiah, let us first summarise what we have seen. Most today have been long familiar with the first aspect of grace — our forgiveness while we were yet sinners. Likewise, most are familiar with the corresponding first aspect of righteousness — Yahushua’s own righteousness He has imputed to us, by our faith in His shed Blood. We have seen the that there is a second aspect of The Most High’s grace, and of His righteousness — that of springing up in order to produce fruit.
We have seen that The Most High’s goal is that the Seed He plants in our heart should be allowed to sprout, or spring forth, and mature, so that it becomes as a ‘Tree of Righteousness, the planting of the The Most High.’ We have seen that The Most High’s purpose for this Tree of Righteousness (“Messiah in you,” as the Apostle Paul puts it) is to bear the Fruit of Righteousness — for the tree is known (identified, or named) by its fruit.
We might say that The Most High’s purpose and goal is that the Seed of Light is to be sown in our heart, in order to harvest the fruit of Righteousness, which consists of works of righteousness done by the life of Messiah-in-us, living within.
We have seen that both righteousness poured out, and righteousness that springs up from the earth, are both claimed by The Most High to be His creation, hence they are both by His grace. We have seen also in the same passage in Isaiah 45:8 that salvation and righteousness spring up together. This would tell us that our salvation is not in the planting of the seed, but in the springing up, or sprouting of the seed.
We might say also that this Fruit of Righteousness is the ‘precious fruit of the earth’ for which the husbandman waiteth! (James 5:7.) Likewise, we might say that The Most High’s grace is the seed that yields the fruit of obedience, as seen in (Romans 1:5).
We will now go on to see how the fruit of Righteousness reveals the two-fold nature of The Most High’s Grace.
Works Produced By Grace
We are told in the letter to the Philippians the following:
“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is The Most High which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Php 2:12b-13)
In the above passages, we see that what we must ‘work out’ is that which The Most High has already ‘worked in.’ We might say that the Righteousness The Most High has worked in, we must work out. The Fruit of righteousness, springing forth from the seed planted in our heart, is what some have called the out-worked righteousness — the works of obedience that Yahushua produces within us.
Again, we must be reminded that it is not our own works that qualify as Fruit of Righteousness; these are mere dead works. The true Fruit of Righteousness is simply the works that Yahushua, as He lives within us, produces on His own initiative, with our cooperation, in obedience to His Word! (Philippians 1:11)
We found that these works of righteousness are the fruit produced by the Tree of Righteousness, by Messiah-in-us; which tree had been sprouted and grown from the Original Seed, the Living Word of the Gospel, planted in the garden of our heart. It was by His grace that we were forgiven, and by His grace the seed (Messiah) was planted in the earth (our hearts) by the Gospel.
It is also by His continuing grace that He enables us to walk with Him. Thus it is Yahushua living out His own obedience in us, (“Messiah in us”) that produces the Fruit of Righteousness — the “Works of Righteousness” which He has done, living in us.
The writer to the Hebrews, in encouraging and admonishing us, speaks of this second aspect of grace, as bringing forth fruit:
“…looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of The Most High…” (Hebrews 12:15a).
Notice the context of the above passage (from verse 11 onward) is that of a garden, and of ‘Grace’ as a crop that could fail. We see from the above passage, along with its context, that we should be diligent to receive The Most High’s grace that He gives us to produce the crop of obedience to His Word — the works produced by “Messiah in you” — the second aspect of The Most High’s Grace!
Beloved, we must come to the realisation that Messiah in you is not only your hope of glory, but is your only hope of glory — and your only hope of obeying, of pleasing and of delighting the Father. It is only Messiah-in-us that can do any of these things, so we must allow Him to produce the fruit of obedience within us!
One might ask, “Just how do we allow Yahushua to produce fruit in us?” We might answer that question by considering how we may have been actually preventing the Master Yahushua from producing this Fruit of Righteousness within us. We must come to the realisation that the great majority of Believers within the Body of Messiah on earth today, including ourselves, have been preventing Yahushua from producing this Fruit of Righteousness within them. This is ‘crop failure’ of massive proportions, even a virtual plague against us. Let’s see how this has happened, so that we, as King David, might stop the plague. Let us see what Yahushua would do.
What Would Yahushua Do?
Beloved, what do you think? If Messiah is living in you, would He obey the Commandments of the Father any less (while living in you today) than He did when He walked on the earth almost 2,000 years ago? Let us remember — Yahushua is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8). Therefore He desires to walk ‘in us’ today — in the same degree of obedience as when He walked on the earth! He kept the Commandments of the Father as He walked in those days — all of them! We must ask ourselves, “Are we allowing Yahushua to do the same today, as He lives in us?”
Beloved, what would we do if we knew there was something in our life that was preventing us from walking with the Master — from really knowing Him? Wouldn’t we have a desire to find out, so that we could eliminate that thing? Surely all that have come to Yahushua He will not cast out. Yet today, in this present generation, there is a grievous cancer within the Body of Messiah.
The condition of the Body of Messiah in general can be described in the following way. Our New Master has set us free, but we have allowed the old master (satan) to re-shackle us back into bondage, simply because we have not been fully yoked to the New Master. Notice what Yahushua is saying to us today, in our generation:
“…Thus have ye made the commandment of The Most High of none effect by your tradition.” (Matthew 15:6)
“…laying aside the commandment of The Most High, ye hold the tradition of men…ye reject the commandment of The Most High, that ye may keep your own tradition…making the word of The Most High of none effect through your tradition…” (Mark 7:8,9,13)
According to the above Scripture verses, it is Traditions and Doctrines of Men that prevent Messiah Yahushua from fully living out His life of obedience in His people. Just as it was true for the Pharisees in Yahushua’s day, so it is true for us today.
Beloved, we must remember that under the Grace of the New Covenant, we are under no obligation to keep any of the things that please or delight the Father. The only motive for any New Testament action is our love for our Father — and our desire to avoid what Father hates, and to do what pleases Father — and to choose that in which Father delights (Isaiah 66:4).
So it was with Yahushua. You would not have seen Yahushua keeping the Father’s Commandments out of a sense of duty or obligation, also called legalism. You would have seen Him, however, doing the mystery of the will of the Father — because he had been instructed by the Law [Torah], and because He loved His Father, and desired to abide by Father’s House Rules! (Romans 2:18).
Again, we must be reminded that under the New Covenant we are under no obligation of any kind, even to obedience. This is the Grace nature of the New Covenant — we all have a choice of what we do, and The Most High simply urges us to repent, and choose life. There is a thin line between the yoke of bondage to a letter of death (legalism) and the yoke of bondage to the Master — the bond(age) of love. In many ways the two appear the same. In this regard Yahushua has reminded us, “If ye love me, keep My Commandments…” (John 14:15).
Yahushua spoke those words long before there was any written New Testament. Therefore, the idea of New Testament Saints keeping Yahushua’s Commandments was easily understood by His disciples in that day to mean keeping the Commandments of The Most High — as written in the Law and the Prophets — what we call today the ‘Old’ Testament, or Father’s House Rules for His children.
In any doctrinal matters or questions, we must ask ourselves, “What would Yahushua do?” In what ways would Yahushua have kept the Commandments today? Let us be assured of this one thing: In every way we see Yahushua in Scripture keeping the Commandments of the Father, He desires to do likewise living in us Today.
Many pastors and Bible teachers tell us today, that because of various and sundry theological reasons, we as Believers today are not supposed to do a particular thing. Many Bible scholars today are teaching that various doctrines or practices are only for a certain group, or a certain era, and not for Today’s New Testament Saints in a ‘Time’ of Grace. To that we should respond in our hearts, “What would Yahushua do?”
Messiah In You
Beloved, there are many Doctrines of Men that we have accepted as ‘truth’ that are actually hindering and preventing “Messiah living within us” from His own obedience to the Father. The Grace of The Most High is present, waiting to enable us, as soon as our doctrines will allow us to obey. Yet many of us are still living our spiritual life as the disobedient son in the parable of Matthew 21, by not keeping the commandments of the Father. We continue to refuse to keep all His Commandments, simply because we have been taught serious error concerning matters of grace and of the New Covenant.
However, a real adventure begins after we discover, for ourselves — that it was Yahushua that gave the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai [He calls these ‘MY‘ Commandments!] — and after we repent of disobedience, as did the first son in the Matthew 21 parable!
Beloved, we should be undergoing our full preparation for coming into the presence of THE KING! We should choose to allow ourselves to become equally yoked [the yoke of bondage to Yahushua] through our daily repentance, and full obedience to His Commandments. We must ask ourselves — why did the apostle Paul on many occasions call himself a ‘bond’ slave or servant of Yahushua? What is significant about the bond(age) of love? Paul reminds us also that we were reconciled by Yahushua’s death, but much more we are saved by his life (Romans 5:9-10). According to Paul in this passage, our abiding, daily life of walking with Messiah, with “Messiah in us,” is much more to be considered, than simply our reconciliation — our forgiveness!
Like the Israelites, we have been brought out of Egypt by the Blood of the Lamb of The Most High. The Israelites had been brought out, but failed to enter in because of disobedience. Yet we must still enter in to the Promised Land by obedience — by “Messiah in us” living out His own obedience within us! Let us recall this passage:
“…To whom The Most High would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:” (Colossians 1:27-28)
Thus we see in the above passage “Messiah in us” is our only hope of being presented perfect, and our only hope of [entering into] Glory! For two thousand years the ‘Come-out‘ ministries have ministered the grace of salvation to the Believers. Today there is very small number of ‘Enter-in‘ ministries, who are to locate the very small remnant of Overcomers, and prepare them to overcome, even as did Joshua and Caleb, who alone were able to enter in!
Beloved, we who hope to enter in, must focus all our energies into seeking Yahushua, and learning the Fear of The Most High, that we might say, with Paul, “…Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Messiah liveth in me….” Paul came to the place in His walk with Yahushua that he exhibited “Messiah in him.”
Let us also be followers together of Paul, as we have Paul for an example. Let us seek to take Yahushua’s yoke upon us, and learn of Him. We shall then be prepared to be Awakened to Righteousness, even as a tree is awakened in Spring, ready to bring forth fruit.
For those who hope to enter in, we must choose to focus our full attention on those things in our lives that The Most High reveals to us, first in matters of obedience, then in matters of pleasing and delighting Him. If you and I are not walking as Yahushua did while He walked on the earth, from the same motives He had [“walk as He walked,” as John puts it (1John 2:6)], then according to John we are not yet abiding in Him, even though we think or say we are. Thus we are under the same warning that Queen Vashti was under (See Esther 1:12).
Beloved, The Most High is building His Habitation, the Mountain of The Most High. The building process requires not only his grace of forgiveness from above, but also His enabling grace from within — from the Master Yahushua Messiah living within us.
Truly it is grace-grace, in both its aspects, that will very soon bring us into His presence!
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