Abraham Was Not a Torah Follower: Walking by Faith

Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.

1. 0:00:04

   Tonight we're gonna do, really delve into an important topic of what it means to live and walk by faith in Jesus Christ. Entitled tonight, Abraham was not a Torah follower, walking by faith. Of course, I have addressed this issue, this topic of Torah observance. I've called it different things. I've addressed it really since April, kind of hard. I addressed it at different times. But I continue to get constant Torah observers and Hebrew Roots, Hebrew roots, individuals, whatever, they wanna call themselves. Really, really coming hard on this thing about keeping the Old Testament law. And so I tell you, I had an interesting kind of back and forth with a lady today or yesterday on the subject of, do we as New Covenant believers have to go back under the law of Moses? I know some of them don't like to call it the law of Moses, even though the Bible does call it that. But under the Old Covenant, Old Testament law, the rituals, the ceremonies, again, keeping Sabbaths, feasts, new moons, the dietary laws, circumcision, all those different things. Is that required for New Testament believers? And anyway, we'll probably get into that. We're gonna start tonight. We're gonna go to Romans chapter three, because I wanna start where this dialogue started. But it's just interesting. It's just interesting that it continues to be such a hot topic, such an issue. But of course there's the law pushers out there as what was it the cowboy called Wyatt Earp in Tombstone called him a law dog. And so there's the law dogs out there that just they're pushing it. And of course they have an angle that they come at it where it makes it sound legit. It makes it sound like, yeah, you should try to keep all these Old Testament laws, rituals, feasts, Sabbaths, new moon, where you should try to do it all. But again, we must keep things in context of where we are. We are under a new covenant. We're not under the old covenant. That was a contract. That was a covenant is a contract and we have an old contract and we have a new contract. And according to the book of Hebrews, we have a better covenant now with better promises. As I was talking with Pastor Kevin before the show tonight, it's interesting. I said, you know, one of the big issues and one of the big ideas they push, well, the law didn't change. Jesus didn't do away with the law. He didn't change the law. The law didn't change. And yet you bring up the fact, well, then why aren't you sacrificing animals to cover your sin? Oh, but that part changed. And I thought, well, how convenient for you. That part changes, but you wanna pick and choose what you think changed. Well, the Bible is clear. I mean, folks, listen, the book of Galatians is clear. The book of Colossians is clear. The book of Ephesians even lays it out. But, you know, the council in Jerusalem, the apostles, the apostolic council, when all the apostles and the elders came together in Acts chapter 15 and to ask the question, are the Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus Christ? Are they required to keep the Sabbath, the law of Moses, all of that stuff. And the end result of that was absolutely not. We gave no such commandment. And we may go back and cover that. I've covered all those. If you're new to prophecy quake,

2. 0:04:01

   you're new to this ministry or our church service or this radio show, you can go to our YouTube channel or Dean Old Ministry's Facebook page. You can find the shows we did, you know, since April. We've done quite a few so on this. But tonight I really wanna delve into what it means to live and walk by faith. And I wanna say this too at the outset. And I put it in the show description tonight that far too many are trying to have a walk with God by the deeds of the law, the Old Testament law. And then there's others trying to do it, what I call by the deeds of the dead church life. And either side of this fence that you find yourself on, whether you're trying to go back and find your spirituality or feel spiritual or feel superior or whatever reason you're going back or maybe you're sincere, but you're sincerely wrong and going back trying to keep the Old Testament laws that you're not required to as a New Testament believer in Jesus Christ, whatever your reason there, if you're going back there and you're trying to focus on these outwards to develop a walk of faith with Jesus, it's just not gonna work. And the scriptures tell us, the apostles told us, it's not gonna work because the law is not a faith. And we're gonna look at that. But then you have people and listen, I know plenty of them in which many people who have gone into become Torah followers or into the Hebraic roots movement, many of them were in dead churches and they were just, they struggled. And so listen, you can get into the same kind of legalism, thinking that your righteousness, whether you're a Sunday evangelical church-going American or a Westerner, and you think that, okay, I go to church, I go to Sunday school, I go to my small group meetings, I give in the offering, I sing in the choir. You got a checklist of things that you think, if I do these things, that makes me write with God and makes me have a relationship with God. And that means I'm walking by faith. And neither one, whether you're trying to go back and keep the law of Moses focused on all these outward rituals and Sabbath and dietary laws, or you're just an evangelical with a checklist. Either way, that is not what God ever intended. And the reason I brought up Abraham is because Abraham is the father of faith. I mean, it says those who walk in faith, those who live by faith, walk by faith, are the children of Abraham. So we're gonna read a lot of scripture tonight, but I just want you to understand that righteousness is by faith in Jesus Christ, in his blood shed on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, and by completely trusting in his righteousness, not your own, trusting in what he did, not what you can do. And this is where the divide comes. Now, that doesn't mean, the New Testament doesn't mean that, oh, because of grace, because we're in a new covenant, that we can just go live any way we want. The New Testament has its moral standards and limits and boundaries of what's required of us and what we can and cannot do. We'll touch on that too. But listen, true faith is, and as I said, the father of our faith, Abraham, was not a Torah follower. He walked in a faith relationship with God. And that's what I wanna talk to you about tonight.

3. 0:08:02

   The most important thing for you is once you are truly born again, and you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, and you know that you're born again, you've repented, you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've had the supernatural witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you've been born again, you're supposed to walk by faith, and faith is developing a relationship with God where you learn to hear his voice, where you're sensitive to the leading and to the moving of the Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit within you. And true faith becomes then an exciting adventure of knowing the Lord Jesus intimately and being led by the Holy Spirit. That's what Romans eight talks about. The sons of God, the daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God, meaning, you know what? The goal of becoming a Christian is to fellowship intimately with God and to learn to hear his voice. Remember, John 10.27, I mean, you know, I'm gonna pop some of these off, you know, kind of quickly, but if Kevin can put them up at John 10.27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Now folks, this is not just talking about the scriptures and everybody out there that knows me, knows this ministry, knows that I believe the Bible, Genesis to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation, that the Bible is the inspired, God-breathed, infallible word from the Almighty. It is his revelation. And that we judge everything, doctrine, we judge every vision or dream or prophetic word or whatever, we judge everything according to the scriptures. It is the final authority. It is the highest authority. It is the standard, the measuring rod, you know, it's the way we discern truth from a lie and a bottom line. But having said that, also, God doesn't just speak to us through the scriptures. He can and does speak to his people directly. And I've shared this many times. For instance, there's nowhere in the Bible that it says, Dean Odell, move from Washington, DC to Auburn, Alabama and start a church in the year 2009, in January of 2009. The Bible doesn't say that. So how did I know that God wanted me to do that? Well, because I spent enough time reading the Bible, time in prayer, time in fasting, and because I've developed over many years, a walk of faith in a relationship with God, learning to hear his voice and be sensitive to his spirit, when his Holy Spirit spoke to me, when he spoke to me and said, this, the church in DC is gonna fire you on November 30th of 2008. When they do, and this was, of course, like several months before, he said, when they do, I want you to move to Auburn, Alabama, my hometown, my home area, where I grew up and start a new church. Well, I didn't hear that like you hear me right now, but it was so crystal clear on the inside in my spirit, from the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells in me. He spoke it to my spirit and my spirit communicated it to my brain. And I heard it just like I would, I mean, it was almost, it was so strong, it was almost like someone was sitting beside me. But it was not audible like you hear me, but it was really strong and clear. And because I know how to, I've had time experiencing that, I knew it was him, but I also set that on the back burner and let God confirm that. I had a phone call from a guy that lived in the area here and didn't tell him that I was thinking about moving back to my hometown to start a church.

4. 0:12:02

   And he tells me, he said, you ought to move back to Auburn to start a church. I know some people to be interested in the kind of church that you would do. And I thought, well, okay, God, I hear you. There's a confirmation. And then I waited a little bit longer. And of course, when I got fired on November 30th for taking a stand for righteousness, or truth in that church where there was a problem, when I got fired for that, I knew it was on November 30th, just like the Holy Spirit told me. So then I knew for sure God was telling me, you get back to the South, move to your hometown and start a church. And so it's that kind of relationship with God. It's that kind of hearing his voice and walking by faith and stepping out on obedience. That is the goal of Jesus in your life. That is the goal of Christianity. That is the goal of God that he wants in your life. It's not just about learning doctrines and religious or religious creeds or a checklist of, you know, I've gone to church. I've been in Sunday school. I've given in the tithes and offerings. Or, you know, I've kept the Feast of Tabernacles or I kept Passover or I didn't eat pork this week. It's, if that is what your religion, if that's what your Christianity is boiled down to, a checklist where you're trying to get your checks and stars up on the chalkboard, then you're missing the whole point. You're missing the whole thing. And you're missing the revelation or the faith of Abraham and the faith that God wants us to have. Now, let's go back, let's go to Galatians chapter three, because I just posted, I'm sorry, not Galatians. Let's go to Romans three first, Romans chapter three. And I just posted a few verses and it's funny sometimes on Facebook, I will post just maybe a scripture or two or three verses without any commentary. And I will get people attacking me, particularly Torah followers attacking me, especially if I post verses from Romans or Galatians where Paul is specifically saying that we don't have to live. We're not to live by the deeds of the law. Let me get there, Romans chapter three. So this is kind of what started this particular exchange the last couple of days. And I'll get there shortly. Romans three, let's just go down. I think it was just one verse that I posted because sometimes I just don't wanna post the whole, like 10 verses because it's so much to read, but it was the verse 28. So let's put that up first. I posted this verse and it drew out the wrath of the Torah followers at me just for posting this verse. Now I did capitalize some words, and of course I guess capitalization makes people more incited here. But anyway, the verse I posted, Romans three, verse 28 says this, Paul said, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's all I posted. And here come the Torah followers wanting to argue, wanting to debate, wanting to throw out their indoctrination that they've received from their many Torah teachers out there that are scattered across the internet world. And I just sit there and for a while I just watch. I just watch an amazement at them just begin to kind of lose their minds.

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