Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Now, why am I going to address this again? Because it seems there's a lot of people out there that have heaped to themselves many teachers. But there's little understanding, it seems, about true New Testament order, New Testament leadership, and even how the church itself should function as a New Testament church. So this morning we're going to look at that, and we're going to start this morning. And then we're going to go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, is where we're going to start first. Now, I have very few slides this morning for PowerPoint, so Kevin's just going to put the scriptures up. But if you have your Bibles, please turn to the passages, because today is a teaching, and we're going to cover a lot of scripture. So 2 Timothy, I guess I ought to get there, huh? 2 Timothy chapter 4. Now, this ought to be familiar to many people, but again, I feel it's important to read it. So starting at verse 1, now let's remember the Apostle Paul, who stood in all fivefold ministry offices. He was an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, and a teacher, was addressing this to the young man that he was training and had laid hands upon and ordained to the fivefold ministry to be a pastor, okay? So this is leader to leaders here, and we're going to address the subject of, does the church have leadership? We've got a bunch of people out there that thinks if two or three people meet together in the home, that that's the church. No, that's fellowship. A church has God called leadership. Now, I know a lot of people think that's a dirty word today. But as you're going to see, God has established an order of how the church of Jesus Christ, the New Testament church, is supposed to operate. There's a fivefold ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, that are assisted by elders and deacons, and I'm going to address all that. And this morning, I think we're going to make it clear how a New Testament church is supposed to operate, and we're going to answer the question, should a church meet on Sunday or Saturday? Because I'm sick and tired of this nonsense that I keep hearing. In fact, there was a brother, one of the things I saw even this past couple of days, a brother I don't even know, took an excerpt of one of my sermons about scientism and exposing the whole heliocentric lie and all that stuff, and he took a little excerpt out, and he posted it, and of course, he's getting a bunch of views, and I'm finding people taking excerpts of the sermons from our church here
and getting thousands and thousands of views on just little clips. But he had a clip he pulled out, and I just happened to scroll down to the comments, and the comment said, well, this guy, this pastor, this preacher, he's a hypocrite because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. I thought, okay, y'all wouldn't believe how many comments, questions, and how much mean negativity I get over this subject, but I'm going to deal with it thoroughly from the Scriptures this morning about how a New Testament church should operate. I'm going to read these passages, and you can accept them or reject them, but it's Bible. And right now, there's a lot of people out there, there's tens of thousands of teachers. Well, you can go on the Internet, you can go on the radio, and you can find them. You can go on TV and radio, you can find thousands and thousands and thousands of teachers, but that does not mean that they are true leaders of the church. Some of them, some of the well-known ones in the Internet land, admit that they are not called to church leadership. They admit that they are not called to be pastors or teachers or evangelists or prophets or apostles, and so the popular term is they're watchmen now. But folks, let me tell you something. If you follow all these teachers out there, you're going to be deceived if you don't stick to the Word of God and if you don't stick to what the Bible says about New Testament church, New Testament leadership, and how the New Testament church is supposed to function. I mean, we've got all this confusion out there and false teaching, but this is what Jesus said through, you know, Paul said to Timothy about the last days, because chapter 3 says in the last days, perilous times will come, and then he gives you this long list, and then he gets into chapter 4. So let's read chapter 4, verse 1. Paul to Timothy here, the young pastor, he says, I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust or their own desires, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables. Now before we leave this passage, I want you to see that he talks about there will be a time coming, and he was referring to the end time in particular. But he said there would be a time coming when the people of God, the church, the Christians, the believers, would not endure sound doctrine. That means they wouldn't like it. They wouldn't want to hear it. They wouldn't want to bear with it. They wouldn't want to take it. But they would heap to themselves teachers. You know why he uses the phrase heap to themselves teachers?
He said they want to heap to themselves teachers. That means to heap something. What does it mean when you heap something? You pile it up, right? There's a lot of it. So they heap to themselves teachers because they have their own desires. They don't want to follow sound doctrine or God called leadership. They want to do things their own way. And I'm just going to tell you, if you want to do things your own way, you will be able to find a teacher who will tell you what you want to hear. You will be, because they're out there. But he warns they will not endure sound doctrine. Now what is sound doctrine? Sound doctrine is when we don't take any one passage or two passages out of their context and don't compare them with all the others that address that subject. This happens so often. This is why we've got the confusion about should the church worship on Sunday or Saturday, the New Testament church. This is why there's all this confusion because simply, I'm going to say this, the Sabbath pushers that we must keep the Sabbath on Saturday are where heathens. Those pushers reject. They ignore what Paul said in Colossians, Galatians, and what the apostles decreed for the church in Acts chapter 15. Just ignore it. Or they say, we don't understand what they meant. It is mind-blowing. But there is these, and I'm going to call them, these Judaizers that are compelling the New Testament church to live as Jews, which Paul rebuked Peter for. These Judaizers are causing division in the church and they're heaping upon people burdens that God does not intend New Testament believers to bear. Now I know there are well-intentioned, when I did the radio show on this, I know there are well-intentioned Christians who just feel that that's their conscience and that's their conviction, and they don't believe it's a requirement on the rest of us. It's just something they want to do, and that's fine. That's fine. Listen, I don't care if you want to worship God on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The early church in the beginning, when revival was going on, as the Holy Spirit was poured out, it says they met daily. Obviously, God didn't have a problem with them meeting on Saturday, Sunday, Friday, Wednesday, Thursday. It didn't matter anymore.
But I'm going to deal with this. But first, I want you to see where he talks about they won't endure a sound doctrine. Now let's back up and look at church leadership real quick. Let's go to Ephesians 4. Like I said, we're going to be all over the Bible this morning. Ephesians 4. Now again, so Pastor Dean, there's a lot of churches out here, organized churches, organized religion, that they've abused their power, abused their authority, abused their positions, abused money, taught false things. Okay, all that's true. You know, practiced pagan, you know, compromised with paganism at times, just like churches celebrate in Halloween. I'm sorry, that's compromising with paganism and demonic worship, okay? But Ephesians 4, we're going to start at verse 11. Now the Bible says here, after Jesus died on the cross and he descended into the lower parts of the earth as he was dead for three days, and then on the third day he rose from the dead, and says after this he gave gifts to men. Now look at this, I want everybody to look at this. Verse 11, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God as a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Now, let me back up, and I want you to look at this and get this clearly. We are, God says in the church, he gave gifts to men, and he calls a ministry to lead his church, so that the church won't be led astray by every wind of doctrine that blows around. Now, he gave five ministries, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor and the teacher. Now I believe, I know there's churches out there
that believe the apostle and prophet ministry were done away with after the twelve apostles. That's a lie. That's not true. Why do I know that? Because it says here that he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, to equip the saints until we come into the unity of the faith. Now, one thing I can tell you that's for sure is the church of Jesus Christ in the world is not in unity. So he said that he would have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers until that happened. Well, it hasn't happened yet. Not going to happen until Jesus returns. So these ministries are for today. Now, if the early church thought that the ministry of the apostle was going to cease after the apostles, why did Jesus tell the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, he said that you try those which are apostles and are not and has found them liars. Well, why would there be any test to see if one was a true apostle or not if the ministry of apostle was done away with? Okay? Now, let me explain these ministry offices. First of all, anyone called to church and leadership and I'm talking about to one of these fivefold offices, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher. These are not called by men. You don't just decide, well, I'm going to be a pastor and go to school, go to seminary and become a pastor. Now, a lot of do that. You don't just get up one day and say, I'm going to be a prophet. You don't get up one day and say, well, you know what, I'm going to be a fivefold teacher. And guess what? Just because you teach Sunday school doesn't mean you're a fivefold teacher in the body of Christ. Or because you teach school, oh, I have a gift to teach. That doesn't mean you're a church leader teacher. And this is what the concept and the understanding of these things have just gotten out of whack here. But let's look at them. The first thing you need to know about these things is these are supernatural divine calls upon a person that will be accompanied by fruit and signs of that calling. And after God calls those ministers and there is evidence and fruit of that calling and ministry on that person's life, other men and women of God who are mature and older and understand and walk in these offices themselves will confirm that calling upon a person. For instance, I remember when Jesus revealed Himself to me, let me give you an example of this, because you know what, I'm not ashamed to say, I know I'm called to the fivefold ministry, not ashamed of it at all. In fact, most people called to the fivefold ministry hold more than one of the five offices. But when God called me in 1987, He appeared to me, Jesus appeared to me in an open vision,
I saw into heaven, I saw Jesus, and the Lord spoke to me and He called me to the ministry and He told me that I was to be a prophet to the nations. Now you can say, well, Pastor Dean, I don't believe that that happened. I don't care what you believe. It happened. And that was 30 years ago, and the fruit of that office as a prophet to speak things inspired by God, to speak some things before they come to pass, those things have happened in my life so many times that I cannot even tell you. How many of you know Judge Moore? Judge Moore just became the senator from Alabama. Let me tell you, God has had me at times as a prophet. What? Well, yes right, He will be though. He had no Democrats winning that seat. So anyway, He will be, I'm sorry. He won the Republican nomination, but He'll be the senator, I know that. But years ago, in probably 99, 2000, right before Judge Moore ran the first time to become the Supreme Court Justice of Alabama, I used to know people. I lived in Montgomery and I knew people because I grew up with the governor, one of the governor's sons. In fact, before I get into the Judge Moore prophecy, in 1993, because I had prayed for a woman who was crippled for two years and God healed her and she got up and walked, another evidence of a five-fold calling will have supernatural, notable miracles that will happen. That spread around Montgomery and so this family came to my Bible study at my home in 1993 after they heard about this woman, Mary Elizabeth, that I prayed for, who was in a wheelchair for two years, who got up and walked in the name of Jesus. Not because of me, but because of the power of Jesus and because the Lord spoke to me and told her to tell her to rise up and walk and she got up and walked. So it was a notable miracle that spread around Montgomery. So this family began to come to my Bible study and I didn't know, I mean, their last name was Parker. I didn't know who they were, but I got to know them when we got to be friends and I remember it was Tom and Dottie Parker and her father, Louis James and the mother and another older child of theirs. And I'm sitting there and all of a sudden, you know, as they're coming to the Bible study for several months, the older man, Louis, dies because he was in his 80s. And so they tell me and I'm like, oh, you know, I'm sorry, I hate to hear that and they say, well, the funeral is going to be, he's from Auburn and said the funeral is going to be at First Baptist Church in Auburn. This is in 1993, so I get in, you know, we get dressed and we get ready and we drive from Montgomery to Auburn and go to the funeral and I'm in the balcony because the place is packed for Louis James' funeral.
And I'm standing in the balcony and before that, though, driving into the parking lot, I ran into a friend of mine. I'm like, I ran into a friend of mine, Cal James, what are you doing here? And then I ran into, then I saw Pat James. I was like, what are you doing here? And it didn't really hit me until I'm sitting in the balcony and you know how in a funeral, everybody's in there and then they bring the family in last. And as the family walks in, in walks the James family, our former governor, Bob James, I'm like, and I knew them, I knew Pat, his son, well, we grew up together. Used to spend the night at each other's house, play pool and all that, play football together, everything. And as I'm sitting there in the balcony, you know, he had been our governor for one term in the 70s, the Lord spoke to me and he said, Bob James will run for governor again and it is my will for him to be governor of Alabama, okay? So after, I mean, that was the Holy Spirit spoke to me, that is the gift of prophecy. God's speaking this word to me. So after the funeral, and I found out that Louie was his uncle who had been the mayor of Auburn back in the 50s. So after this, all of this goes on, I tell Tom and Dottie who I find out is his niece, the governor's niece, I said the Lord spoke to me and said, Bob's gonna run for governor again and it is God's will for him to be governor of Alabama again. And they laughed. They said, oh, no, he's not. They said he said he would never do that again and that he's enjoying too much, he's enjoying his retirement fishing. That's all he does. And I said, well, I'm telling you what the Lord said. Three months later, he announces to his family that he is gonna run for governor again. And in 1994, he ran for governor of Alabama and he won. And there was a purpose for him to be governor again. God had a purpose because his wife loved Jesus. I'm not saying Bob didn't, but his wife was really a true Christian. And she, through everything, that was during the time the Brownsville revival hit. And Judge Moore did the whole keep the commandments thing. Well, let me back up to Judge Moore. So Judge Moore, I'm in Montgomery. So Tom Parker, who is now a Supreme Court Justice, one of my old friends, now Tom is like, I've really got his attention. So he invites me to every political meeting there is. I don't go to all of them because I don't care all the time. But he invited me to this meeting, said you need to come to this meeting. Judge Moore is gonna announce he's running for the Supreme Court Justice.
This is 99, 2000 time period. And so I go into this, you know, huge house in Montgomery. Somebody had money, big house. And there's about 60 or 70 people there. And you know, it's the whole political hobnob and Christians and people I know and some I don't. The next thing I know, I'm sitting by the kitchen on the piano stool and Judge Moore comes and stands right beside me and gives his little speech. So when he finishes giving his little speech, his announcement and what he's gonna stand for and all this stuff, and he's gonna run for the Supreme Court Justice of Alabama, Tom points at me and says, Pastor Dean, would you pray for Judge Moore? Certainly, I will. Laid hands upon him and started praying for him and the Lord gave me a word for him. The Lord said to tell him that he would be like Daniel, that he would win this election, he would be removed from office, and yet he would be put back in it again. That was in front of everybody. And sure enough, it came to pass. And then in 2006, I ran into him again, Judge Moore. And I told him then that I knew he would either be the governor of our state or a senator or a congressman or something like that again. So I'm beginning to watch it. So I share all that to say, I can tell you like this story after story after story of standing in the office of a prophet, God giving prophetic words even over politicians and watching them come to pass. God spoke to me in January of 2016 before the primaries ever started and told me that Trump would become president of the United States and that it was his will for Trump to become president of the United States. And everybody's got a problem with that. Guess what? I don't care. You can have your issues with Trump. I'm just telling you what God said. And it comes to pass. Well, you know what? I've had men of God who had been in the ministry 30, 40 years longer than me when I was younger. When God would tell me these things, they would come and start to pray for me and God would give them a word. You're called to be a prophet. You're called to be a teacher. You're called to be an evangelist. You're called to be this. And the fruit of those things would be in my life. So this is something I'm speaking about that I know a little something about after 30 years of doing it all, okay? And folks, let me tell you, it's a rare thing now. But God commands His church, and you listen to me, He commands His people to find true churches, true men and women of God that are called to fivefold ministry, that are true elders, true shepherds in the kingdom. He calls you to find that and to submit yourself to it. And there's such a problem now.
Now, I know. People write me emails all the time and they come and say, oh, Pastor Dean, I want to find a church, but I can't. Let me just say this first and foremost. As long as a church is not in some gross error, you're not going to find a perfect church that you agree with on every detail. But what you need to determine first and foremost, do they stand on the sound doctrine of the Bible? Do they stand on sound doctrine of Scripture, the foundational doctrines of Christianity, and is the people rather who are there truly, supernaturally, divinely called and appointed to those leadership offices? If you can't determine that, then it's time to pack up and go until you do. You say, well, Pastor Dean, where do you get this from? All right, well, let me give you this. Let's go to the book of Hebrews. See, these verses, I'm going to tell you what. You get hate mail like you won't believe, just for talking about church leadership. Folks don't like it. Oh, well, there's been so many abused their authority. Well, guess what? Churches have abused money, too. I don't see you throwing it out of your wallet. Just because somebody did something wrong doesn't mean we throw the truth out, right? People say, well, the gifts have been, the charismatics and Pentecostals have misused the gifts, so I ain't having nothing to do with it. Well, give me your money, too. Just go ahead and give me all your money, because Pentecostals, charismatics, Baptists, Methodists, everybody, they've all abused money. So, you know, are you through with your money? If so, please, please hand it to me. I'll take it for you. We'll do something good with it. No, no, they're not going to throw their money out. Well, then why would you throw the gifts out because somebody abused the gifts? Why would you throw out submitting to church leadership and finding a good church home? Why would you throw those principles out because somebody did it wrong before? We don't think logically most of the time, and we don't act logically. We act emotionally and demonically. That's how we react. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 is where we're going to start there, verse 7. He says here in this passage,
he says, Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation or behavior, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. And then he goes on, Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace and not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. But let's go back to the first part of this verse. He says here in verse 7, Remember those that have the rule over you. What? You mean we're supposed, as church people, we're supposed, there's someone that's supposed to have the rule or authority, spiritual authority in our lives? Yes. Yes. Now, again, it's not by force. I tell people all that. You either choose to accept it or you vote with your feet, and that's how you choose. That is going to make you do anything. But if you're going to be a functioning, Biblical member of the church, God's called you to find people who believe Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He hasn't changed. He still heals the sick. He still casts out demons. He still baptizes people in the Holy Ghost and they speak with new time. He says considering the end of their conversation, I mean, yeah, you should look at their fruit of their lives. They should have the fruit and evidence of these things, right? Now, let's look at verse 17. Same chapter, verse 17. This gets even stronger. This is what it says about church leadership. It says, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Obey those that have the ruler. Wait a minute, Pastor Dean. I'm an American. Nobody has a rule over me. I get to vote. I get to protest. Let me just go on and tell you. The church of Jesus Christ is not a democracy, but neither is it a prison. You choose. But just this verse by itself implies, clearly shows, that there will be in the church leadership that should be respected, submitted to, obeyed, in biblical, scriptural matters.
So that shows. Guess what? You say this stuff like, oh, oh, well, I don't have a pastor. I don't have a church. There's just three of us. We meet in the home. Okay, I understand. Maybe you've looked and you can't find that. But ultimately, I'm going to ask the question, who's your pastor? Who's your elders? Who do you submit to? Who do you get counsel from? Who do you listen to when you don't want to hear what they're telling you? If you don't have that in your life, you are not in order. You are a rebel. In the multitude of counselors, there is safety. With good advice, make work. Proverbs tells us again and again. So many people don't understand. See, if I come to you and say, who's your pastor? You should immediately. This man's a pastor. Or who's an elder in your life? Who's someone you'll listen to that's older, wiser, that's called to a five-fold office? Who do you listen to? If you don't know the answer to that question, or your heart immediately begins to get resistant to it, then what you need to deal with is what's inside of you. Amen. See, I'm still dealing with, I love this, you know, Ezekiel 33. I shared this with somebody the other day. I shared it with my wife too. I mean, there's still people in our church. In our church. Well, some now that are out of our church as well. But they love Pastor Dean's preaching. Oh, they love the stuff I talk about. They love my passion and enthusiasm and straightforwardness and the topics that I cover. Oh, I love his preaching. He's a great preacher. But they won't do what I say. And Ezekiel, God told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33, he said, you know what? They come to you. They said, let's go hear the word of the Lord from Prophet Ezekiel. He said, oh, they just love to hear what you say. You're like one that plays well in an instrument or has a beautiful voice. They love to hear what you have to say. He said, but they won't do what you say. I tell people to get out of drunkenness, fornication, rebellion, and they'll sit in their seat and just keep on keeping on.
Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 5. I keep wanting to go somewhere else. 1 Peter 5. Everybody there? Let's just read this verses 1 through 5 here at least. And can I say that an elder is not just someone that's older? It can be someone that's been saved a whole lot longer. You know? But look at 1 Peter 5 verse 1. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre or just for money's sake. But of a ready mind, neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves into the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore to the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due season. But notice the context of this. The context of humbling yourself before God. The context even if you keep reading of being able to fight the devil and win. The context of this is, are you younger, maybe younger in age, but maybe younger in your walk with the Lord, are you submitted to true, God called, anointed elders. Do you have a church family? Do you have a pastor? Do you have an elder? A true God called elder? Look, the Mormon church has people they call elders and they're not God called elders. Why? Because they're in a false religion. They're in a cult. Anybody can say I'm a pastor. Anybody can say I'm a prophet. Anybody can say I'm an elder. You got to figure it out. You got to figure out, are they truly what they say they are? Are they truly sticking to the word of God, to the Bible, to the doctrines of Scripture? Are they truly living the life? Do they confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, God in the flesh, the only way to heaven? Do they talk about a heaven and a hell? That's the way. I mean, you can look at Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Islam. You know all these are false religions because all you have to look at, what do they say about Jesus?
Do they confess He is God in the flesh? Do they confess He is the only way that sin can be forgiven? Do they talk about a heaven and a hell? It's not hard. Do they live it? Do they live what they're preaching? Go to Titus. I got quite a few. I guess I got to hurry up. Oh, goodness, Titus. Here's Titus to another young preacher. If the church didn't have order and didn't have leadership and wasn't supposed to have elders, why did Paul keep telling these pastors who were not just pastors over one church, who were pastor over multiple churches, why did he tell them to go and ordain elders? I'm making a point. The New Testament church is built upon the foundation, according to Ephesians 2, is built upon the foundation of the apostles and their prophets. But the New Testament church also has ordained leadership in it. Five-fold offices, two-fold offices, elders and deacons, and a five-fold minister is always considered an elder. There is order, and God always wanted order. That's why here in Titus he tells him, look at this, Paul, look at verse 1, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me, according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, my own son after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, for this cause left I the in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting or lacking and ordain elders in every city as I appointed thee. So Paul was saying, I left you on the island of Crete so that you could go through Crete as I ordered you to go through Crete and find faithful men to be elders, leaders in God's church. Supposed to be ordered. So these people, listen, these people out here, oh, I'm done with organized church.
What does that mean? Exactly. Well, they didn't do this right and they didn't do this right, so I'm done. You're headed in a bad direction. Bad direction. Now, I could spend all day on this. Paul did the same thing to Timothy. He said, go ordain elders. Go charge some. He said that they teach no other doctrine. What was the purpose of this? Why was there to be pastors, evangelists, elders, apostles, and prophets? Their main function, listen, our main function is not just to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not just to teach the Word of God, not just to disciple you, but one of our main jobs is to protect you from deception, from doctrinal error. If you find a pastor that never confronts a doctrinal error in the church, he is not looking out for you. There's a lot of them that won't touch these, won't take a position on these doctrinal questions because they're afraid they're going to lose people. Guess what? I don't care. My job is to tell you the truth whether you like it or not. My job is to rebuke heretics false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, false evangelists. My job is if I'm a true man of God, if I'm a true pastor, if I'm a true fivefold minister, if I'm a true leader, I'm supposed to rebuke and show you why these people are wrong and where they're leading you. I'm supposed to fight the wolves. That's what God called me to do, is fight the wolves. And they are abundant. They are all over the place. It's hard to keep up with them. There's packs of wolves. There's long wolves. There's wolves in sheep's clothing. But let's answer this question. I'm going to deal with one particular strain of deception that's just finally gotten under my skin to the point I about can't stand it anymore. And that's the Judaizers. That's the Hebraic roots, Hebrew roots, Torah observers that are Torah terrorists. Again, I'm not talking about people who have a private conviction. They don't put that requirement on anybody else.
That's fine. But when these people start calling New Testament believers who are walking with Jesus, who go to church on Sunday, hypocrites, lawless, antinominants, all of these names that they call, even start implying that we're not saved, really saved, if we don't keep the Sabbath on Saturday, say Yeshua and Yahuwah. I'm at the end of it. Now, I want to look at this. We're going to look at this thoroughly. And I'm going to show you. See, one of the big issues about Sunday worship is that they say that the Catholic Church changed that. And it was the Catholic Church that made the edict that we would change, that the Church always worshiped on Sunday, and that it was the Catholic Church that came in and changed that. That is not even true. Not even true. The Catholic Church did not even come into being, folks, until around 313 AD. You understand that? 313 AD. That means 300 years, almost, of Church history before the Roman Catholics came in and began their corruption of things. And you can go back in Church history all the way back to the 1st century and the 2nd century before the Roman Catholic Church, and you can find the early Church leaders, disciples of the Apostle John, talking about the Christians, met on Sunday. I'm going to show you that in a minute. But let's go to our Bibles here. Let's go to the Bible. Are Christians required to keep the Sabbath on Saturday? New Testament believers, are we required to do that? Are we required to keep the laws of Moses? And I'm not talking about the moral law, I'm talking about everything else. Dietary laws, Sabbath, feast. Are we required to do those things? Under the New Covenant. The Bible, it was clear, the Apostles were clear this question came up because guess what? There were Jews, there were Pharisees that believed Jesus was the Messiah, but then they came along and said, guess what? Unless you're circumcised, you cannot be saved. Unless you keep the Sabbath, you cannot be saved. Unless you keep the feast, you cannot be saved. So this question came up in the early Church while the Apostles got together to determine what the New Testament Church was required to do. This was settled. It was settled not by the Apostle Paul alone or Peter, it was settled by the entire council
of the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem in the first century. Settled. The question answered. Now let's look at it. Acts chapter 15. And let me just say, anybody who says any different, either they're deceived and deceiving you or they're purposefully deceiving you. Boy, could I name some names at this moment. It's funny, one of the biggest promoters of this and pushers of this, I guess he missed the Leviticus where he's not supposed to mar the corners of his beard, but we don't keep that law. I guess. I guess he's picking and choosing which laws of Moses to keep. Haven't seen him start stoning adulterers yet. I'm waiting on that too. Can't pick and choose. You either keep the whole law or you be a New Testament Christian. That's really what it comes down to. But let's look at Acts chapter 15. Everybody with me? Verse 1. And certain men, which came down from Judea, which is where you get the terms of Jews, taught the brother and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. And when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, that means they got in a big, hated argument. Right? Now remember, under the Old Covenant, if a man was not circumcised, he was outcast. Under the Old Covenant, it was so serious that Moses, when he didn't circumcise his sons, an angel appeared to kill him. So Moses' wife, Zipporah, took and circumcised her son, and she wasn't happy about it. But see, under the Old Covenant, circumcision was that serious because it was a token of that covenant. So you got these guys from Judea coming down to the New Testament church to the Christian saying, look, we know that you've been born again
by the blood of Jesus by faith. We know that you believe in Jesus. We know that you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit speaking in other tongues. But guess what? You Gentiles, you're still heathens because you hadn't been circumcised. So now you've got to keep the law of Moses. Is that clear? And in fact, they said, if you don't, if you're not circumcised, you cannot be saved. Boy, this is serious business for the Gentiles right here, right? So when therefore Paul and Barnabas, who were apostles, had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other men should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. So what did they do? They handled things the way we should. Guess what? Okay, we've got this huge disagreement. So guess what are we going to do? We're going to go to our church leadership. We're going to go to the apostles and the prophets and the elders in Jerusalem. And we're going to sit down with all the leadership of the church and we're going to discuss this matter and settle it. That's what this was. In verse 3, And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phineas and Samaria declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren, and when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now let's stop right there. So they get to Jerusalem and they're talking about how God is moving among the Gentiles and the Gentiles are getting saved left and right accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, the justification by faith, and they get there and they share with them about the miracles God's doing, the lame are walking, the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing. They tell them about the apostolic miracle, signs and wonders, and then you've got these Pharisees, these Christian Pharisees, who rise up and say, Guess what, guys? These Gentiles have got to be circumcised and then they added this, and keep the law of Moses to be saved. Everybody see that? There rose up a certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. So here's the question for the early church. Do the Gentiles, do the New Testament Christians,
do we have to be circumcised as men? The men have to be circumcised, and do we have to keep the law of Moses? That kind of comes over to the Sabbath, the New Moons, the feast, the dietary laws, everything. Do we have to do all that? Verse 6, And the apostles and elders came together, for to consider this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. How were the Gentiles, when Peter went and preached to Cornelius' household, how were they made clean of their sins? How were they born again? How did they get saved? How did they get filled with the Holy Spirit? Peter is saying here, these Gentiles simply believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ to repent and believe. They believed Peter's preaching that Jesus died for their sins, rose from the dead, and as he's preaching this, the Holy Spirit falls upon them and they are baptized and the Holy Ghost begin to speak with other tongues and Peter said, God purified their hearts by faith without the deeds of the law of Moses. That's the point Peter is making here. And then he says this, he says verse 10, so then he says, well let's read verse 9, and God put no difference between us, the Jews and them, the Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers were able to bear nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now let me stop right here. He's saying here, if you take these Gentile Christians who were born again by grace through faith, not having to keep the law of Moses, the Sabbaths, the circumcision, all these things, if you do this, you are putting a yoke of bondage on them. This is not Pastor Dean's words, this is not my opinion, this is what Peter the Apostle said about. He said you're tempting God and you're putting a yoke of bondage on these believers. Is that what it says? Okay, let's keep reading. Verse 12, then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring what miracles and wonders
God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And after they had held their peace, James answered saying, men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out them people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written, after this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David which has fallen down and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. But that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, from fornication, from things strangled and from blood, for Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnum, Judas surnamed Barcivus and Silas, chief men among them, and they wrote letters by them after this manner. The apostles and elders and brethren sing greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. For as much as we have heard that certain went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandments. My God, can anybody see this except me? He's saying there the apostles said we didn't tell anybody from us to go tell any new believer in the church that they must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. That was not the message of the New Testament church, the apostles, prophets and elders. It was not the message. So if that's become the message today it does not match what they did in here. So frankly, I'm going to tell you just about the entire Hebraic roots movement is not a movement moving with the Holy Ghost. It is an emotional need to try to somehow think that if you do these things if you go back to the law of Moses you're going to somehow please God better or be more righteous. That is a lie. It's a lie. And let me tell you why. It diminishes the sufficiency
of the blood of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice. I either say that my faith in his blood is enough or I say I need his blood and I need to be sure and I need to keep the faith and I need to keep the self and. So let's read verse 24 again. He said for as much as we have heard that certain went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your souls saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas who shall also tell you of the same things by mouth for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things that you abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, from fornication, from which if you keep yourselves you shall do well, fair you will. So when they were dismissed they came to Antioch and when they had gathered the multitude together they delivered the epistle and when they had read they were rejoiced for the consolation and Judas and Silas being prophets also exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them. Now, it could not here be more clear. This was the council of the apostles. Do the Gentiles have to do these things? No. Now let me show you something else and you can go ahead and we'll put this verse up first and then you can put the power points up and I'm going to have you jumping around here a little bit. But let's go to Colossians chapter 1. As you turn into Colossians did you notice that when they wrote that letter the apostles and elders wrote that letter when they wrote that letter to the Gentiles what did they say? They said we're not going to put any greater burden on you. Meaning, when someone comes along and tells you you've got to keep the Sabbath, you've got to keep the feast, you've got to keep the dietary law, you've got to do this, they're putting a burden upon you. Or let me just say this, if you do it to yourself you're putting a burden on yourself that God never intended you to carry. Listen, Jesus carried that burden.
Jesus came to fulfill the law and He fulfilled it. Look at verse Romans 10.4, I love this verse. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. He fulfilled it when He said on the cross it is finished. What was He talking about? The book of Ephesians, the book of Colossians says He was not only dying for sin but He was nailing to that cross the ordinances and laws that were against us. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, let's go down to, oh, let's just read from verse 6. He's speaking to Christians here. Colossians 2 verse 6, He says, As you have received, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and the putting off of the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So He's saying, you know what, you don't have to be physically circumcised as a circumcision and spiritual that takes place. So He's dealing with this issue. Again, do you keep the law of Moses, or is Jesus sufficient? Verse 12, He says, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through faith of the operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that is the law of Moses. That was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man, now everybody, you better mark this verse, highlight this verse. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon or of Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come,
but the body is Christ. And then He goes on, and we'll come back to that verse and say, let's just keep reading. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility, worshipping of angels, and treating you of those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment, ministruth, and knit together, increased with the increase of God. Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using for after the commandments and doctrines of men. Now let's back up and look what He says in verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon of Sabbath days. Now what is the word judge? You got that first slide? I want to look up the Greek word judge in this verse. Here it is. I don't know if you can see it or not, but I'm going to read it for you. It is the Greek word krino, krino. And here is the outline. This is Blue Letter Bible. So this brings together several lexicons and their definitions together, both the Strongs, the Thayers, and others. But this gives you the outline of Biblical usage. So the word judge means here to separate, put asunder, to pick out, to approve, esteem, prefer, be of opinion, to determine, to resolve, decree, to pronounce an opinion concerning right and wrong. You've got to underline that. You've got to write that down. The word judge here means to pronounce an opinion concerning right or wrong, meaning when he says, let no man judge you about a holy day or a Sabbath or a new moon. What's he saying? No one can hold an opinion over you, judge you right or wrong with how you look at these days. See, if I decide, I believe the Bible says I don't have to keep the law of Moses. You can't judge me as wrong, and if you do, you're wrong. You have become a judge. You have become false. I watch these people on the Internet. The word credo, he goes on, the Strongs' definition, to distinguish, decide mentally or judiciously, to condemn, punish, avenge, conclude, condemn, damn, decree, determine, esteem, judge. He says, let no one judge you in respect to these things. Is crystal clear? Crystal clear. Now, let me show you something. I promised you I'd show you this.
Now, Ignatius of Antioch. We'll go back now. We've looked at some Scriptures, and I could give you plenty more, but let's just look at the Church of Antioch, I mean the Ignatius of Antioch, who lived from 35 AD to 108. I mean, he was born in the time of the Apostles, and he was probably, they said, may have even been born in the time of our Lord's ministry. And along with Polycarp, he was a disciple of the Apostle John, and he said this about the Sabbath and Sunday worship. He said, if therefore those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death, whom some deny by which mystery we have obtained faith. And this is the Epistle to the Maganesians, Chapter 9. So one of the early, this is, remember, the Roman Catholic Church didn't come around to 313 AD. So this is one of the church leaders in Antioch where Paul had been, where Paul and Silas and Barnabas attended church. So this is like a kid that grew up, being like a kid that grew up in this church. And he says here that even back then, they were no longer observing the Sabbath, but they were living in observance of the Lord's day, referring to the day of his resurrection, which would be the first day of the week, Sunday. All right. I'm going to show you some scriptures after these two. Here's another one, and I came across this one by accident the other day in writing my book, going through Josh McDowell's books, Evidence at Demands of Verdict. I came upon this quote from Justin Martyr, who was also one of the disciples of Polycarp, and he lived from 100 to 165. Anyway, he was like the next generation, would carry the torch, still 200 years before the Roman Catholic Church came into being. And he said, And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things, and the wealthy among us help the needy, and we always keep together, and for all things we're with, we are supplied. We bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place and the memoirs of the apostles, and he says the memoir, it means the Gospels, the writings of the apostles. He says, And the memoirs of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. So here, and I can keep reading, there are numerous references, numerous references in church history,
long before the Roman Catholic Church, that New Testament Christians knew that they were not required to keep the Sabbath on Saturday and met on Sunday. So this is not an invention of the Roman Catholic Church, so you've been lied to. If that's what you heard, let me ask you, has anybody ever heard that, or is it just me? Anybody ever heard that that was an invention of the Roman Catholic Church? That's not true. Not true at all. In fact, let's look at a couple of Bible verses that talk about the early church. Acts 20, verse 7. Am I there? Acts 20, verse 7. Don't shout me down. Now look at verse 7. Here we go. Acts 20. Now this is well into the establishment of churches across the Middle East and Europe and Asia. We're on into the time when years have passed. And look at Acts 20, verse 7. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. Let me just stop right there. When the disciples came together. Why is he bringing up the first day of the week, the disciples coming together to break bread? Was that just a day of fellowship, or was the breaking bread, he's talking about communion? I believe more than likely communion. But he says here that on the first day of the week, he said, let's read it. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow and continue his speech until midnight. See, I don't preach that long. But do you see here? People say, oh, it's not in the New Testament that the church met on Sunday, the first day of the week. Yes, it is. It's right here. Y'all see that, or is it just Pastor Dean? Got one more for you. 1 Corinthians 16. 1 Corinthians 16.
Oh, they're going to tell me, oh, you just don't understand the writings of Paul. Why not? I guess this just doesn't make sense. In verse 1 and 2, Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye, what's the order? Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. Why the first day of the week? Why the first day of the week? He gave an order that upon the first day of the week, that they would take up offerings. Well, I guess the church was coming together, so they could take up offerings. Look at me, everybody. Is that in your Bible? So we have it from the Scriptures. We have it from church history that followed the apostles. And we have it from the apostles decreeing that it was not a requirement upon the Gentiles. And we have it in the teachings of Paul. Is that not enough? And the book of Galatians, which I don't have time to get into today, is an absolute destruction of the idea that you have to keep. He even said it there in Galatians. He said, you observe days and months and years and times. He's talking about you observe Sabbaths. Listen, I see these folks trying to figure out when to celebrate these feasts. They don't even know what calendar to use because the calendars and everything's been so screwed up. They can't even figure out how to do it. They can't figure out a new moon. They can't figure it out. So there's a chance that even some of these feasts, they're not even celebrating them on the right day because the calendars have been so screwed up. And they debate among themselves, which calendars should we follow? And I'm sitting here going, really, y'all are debating what calendar to follow to figure out what day that you can keep the law of Moses on. I'm just smacking my head. But let me just tell you, if you go through the book of Galatians, he says, he said, I'm afraid of you. You observe days and times and months and years. He's like, what are you doing? Let me explain some things that you do. And I'm going to explain this to people out there. These are some words in the book of Galatians that ought to scare people that are into this whole thing.
Listen to me. And again, what I'm talking about is people who are trying to be righteous or right with God through trying to keep the law of Moses. And he says, in Galatians, that if you're trying to be justified by the law, listen to me, those who seek, Galatians 5.1, if you seek to be justified by the law, Galatians chapter 5. Well, you know what? Let's just turn there. We're not going to get hurt. Go to Galatians. This is important. Galatians 5. Actually, we'll just read from verse 1 on through. These are some pretty serious verses here. And you know, I guess what troubles me about this is that there's so many well-meaning Christians getting trapped in this. They're all out of the mean ones. You're a hypocrite. You're not even saved. You're this. You're that. Galatians 5 verse 1, Stand fast, therefore in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. So what's he talking about? Getting entangled with what yoke of bondage? Then he tells you. It's the law of Moses. He says, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. Now, understand what that means. He's not talking about you can go live in sin. See, in Galatians 5 he continues and tells you, Yes, you can't be a fornicator and adulterer, which he tells you, there is a moral New Testament law that you must, that you're required to keep. Morality. But those things are primarily things you don't do. Not things you are to practice. Things you don't do. Like adultery or fornication or witchcraft. Or drunkenness. We tell people all the time, not doing something is not a work. Right? I mean, if I'm laying in my bed taking a nap, am I working? No. So if I'm not committing adultery, if I'm not committing fornication, if I'm not taking drugs, if I'm not getting drunk, I'm not doing anything. But he says here, if you seek to be justified, this word means to be made right with God, to be made righteous, to be acceptable to God,
by the law. If that's where you seek your righteousness, if I keep the Sabbath, then I'm righteous. If I keep the feast, then I'm righteous. If I keep the dietary laws, then I'm righteous. If I don't cut my beard, then I'm righteous. If that's where you're seeking your righteousness, then you have fallen from grace. And what is grace? A lot of people have even the word grace mixed up. The word grace means God's supernatural touch and help on your life. Grace means the Holy Spirit moves and helps you do what you can't do. I admit, I cannot keep the Lord. I can try. I can't do it. And you can't do it. But the law of Christ, the law of faith, what's written in the new covenant, if I submit to the blood of Jesus, and I submit to the grace of God, guess what He will do? If I find my righteous in Him alone, guess what? He will help me do what I can do. But if I seek that I'm going to be made justified, righteous by being circumcised, by keeping the Sabbath, by keeping the feast, by keeping the law, then I do not have grace because I'm trying to do it in my own strength. And grace departs from me. See, these people in the Torah observance movement and the Hebrew observance movement, they hate this book. I'm not talking about all of them. I'm just talking about the ones that are the zealots. They hate this because it exposes the whole mindset. It exposes the whole thing. I want grace, y'all. I don't want to have to strive in my own strength to think I've got to please God in every little detail to get any little bit of help from God. But they actually believe, going back to trying to observe the law, the Torah, they actually believe that that's going to give them grace, and it's the exact opposite according to this, according to what the Scripture says. Now then it gets even worse. I mean, it gets even worse when he talks about that Christ has become of no effect. Look at that. Do you want this?
Who wants it to be said over them as a Christian that Christ has become of no effect to you? I want Jesus to have some effect in my life, right? This is serious, y'all. So it says Christ has become of no effect if we seek justification by the law. It says that we fall from grace, and the Bible says if we go back under the law, we go back under the curse of the law. Why would any Christian, why? And again, I have friends that have been in this thing for decades. Why would you seek to put yourself in that place? And you know, I don't even have time to get on the name of Jesus. I'm just going to say this. Since the Reformation, and even I'm sure before, the Holy Spirit of God in nearly every single revival and move of God that's ever hit the church in church history, the First Great Awakening under Jonathan Edwards in the 1700s, the Second Great Awakening in America spearheaded by Charles G. Finney in the 1800s, where we're talking about millions of people, hundreds of thousands, millions into the millions of people were truly converted and came to the Savior in great revivals. John Wesley, the great Methodist revival of the Circuit Riders. I look at the great Azusa Street revival. I look at the great Welsh revival. I look at the great Hebrides revival. I look at the great revivals of history. And what do I see? I see churches used, ministers used, who met on Sunday, God forbid, who preached the name Jesus Christ in English. Jesus Christ of Dadsburg. I have seen thousands weep and repent and fall on their knees and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior when the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached in His name Jesus. Not Yeshua, not Yahuwah, not any of these names they want to come up with. I'm telling you, it's fine. You want to say those things? That's fine. But I'm telling you, the name of Jesus Christ of Dadsburg,
I have seen the death here, the cripple walk, I have seen cancer disappear, and I have cast out thousands of demons. So tell me that name is demonic or from Zeus or whatever kind of crazy. Let me tell you something. That, a lot of the Hebraic Roots movement is flat out blasphemy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm sorry I'm getting a little fired up about it, but I've seen some of these people mock the name of Jesus that I have been saved by, delivered by, healed by, and seen God work through for 30 years, and all of a sudden they got it figured out? No. It is another deception in the body of Christ. I'm sorry. So, if anyone asks you why Fire and Grace Church meets on Sunday, why Pastor Dean says Jesus instead of Yeshua, point him to this message, because I will not back down from this. I cannot believe, as my wife said, I cannot believe in 2017, from what we know, what we can look at in the New Testament, that I even have to address this. I cannot even believe it. But I've had to address it multiple times. And you know the folks out there, listen, once I just, oh, I mean, I'm going to have to disable comments on YouTube, because the venom that's going to come from these Pharisees, oh, I don't know, it stirs up. I guess it's the same spirit that was in the Pharisees that decided to crucify Jesus, because they couldn't stand the fact that he wouldn't keep the Sabbath like they wanted him to keep. They couldn't stand the fact, couldn't stand it, that he would heal people on the Sabbath. That was working. And you know what, Jesus called it work, too. I do the works of my Father. And he was healing on the Sabbath day. And I love it. A lot of times he'd do it just right in front of him, just to aggravate him. He let his disciples run through the corn, gather the corn on the Sabbath day. They weren't supposed to do that either. The Pharisees start complaining about, oh, why do you let them do what's not lawful on the Sabbath day?
And then Jesus will walk over and heal a blind man. Boy, you want to talk about confusing their religious brain. He doesn't do what we think he should do, but yet, I love the one where Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery in John 8. She's caught in adultery. The Pharisees come up. The law says she should be stoned. But what do you say? If Jesus didn't change the law, if the new covenant is not changed, what should have Jesus should have said if we're still supposed to keep the law? He should have said, all right, gentlemen, stoner. You know what the law says? You know what the law of Moses says? Doesn't it say she should be stoned? The adulterer should be stoned? Yes, it does. He said she was caught in the act. Where does that information come from? They brought her to Jesus a multitude of Pharisees and said she was caught in the act. So they were claiming multiple witnesses. I'm sorry. You've been taught wrong about that. See, that's Hebraic roots right there. They add stuff. That's not in the book. It's not in here. Show it to me. I'm not being mean. I know. And I'm not even talking about salvation. I'm talking about seeking righteousness that way. Yeah. But what I'm saying is you don't get to add to what's here. We don't add to it. We don't take from it. So again, you started this with me here on this in publicly. So I'm going to say, Scripture says in John 8, who's brought by a multitude of Pharisees who said she was caught in the act. Now, whether they were lying or not, we don't know. But we know that's what they said. And there were multiple witnesses. So that I don't know where you got that from. But it's not in here. And this is the problem. It's not in here. If it's not in here, we don't get to say that. Am I right? I love you. I love you. And I know you are. I know you have good intentions. But these people out there teach a lot of stuff. That's not in here. And what I'm getting at, Jesus clearly. And see, OK, let's just take let's take it a step further. Because what they say is the holy braised roots movement says this.
The law did not change. The law was not done away with it. The law was not abolished. Isn't that what they say? That's what they say, right? Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Let's see what the Bible says. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I'm sorry, but this is a hill I'm willing to die on. Let's read. 2 Corinthians 3. Has the law been done away with it? Because the Hebraic roots movement, the Torah observers, they say, no, the law had been done away. We're supposed to still keep the law. Circumcision, Sabbath. We got to keep all that. And they say, Jesus, the Bible doesn't say. The New Testament doesn't say. The law has been done away with it. Guess what? Yes, it does. Over and over and over again. 2 Corinthians 3. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart, and such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death, now listen to what he calls the Law of Moses, the Law of Moses, even on the tablets he calls this, the ministration of death. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this regard by reason of the glory that exceleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains. So what is he talking about? What is he talking about that's being done away with here? He's talking about the glory of the Law of Moses. He's talking about when Moses went up on the mountain and he got the law, and his face was shining.
And he said that was a ministration of death. Why? Because the law kills. When Moses came down from the mountain and they were in sin, 3,000 people died that day because the law brought death. And he's saying the law had glory on it, but that glory was done away with because there is a new glory, a new righteousness that comes in. You can't have it both ways. Righteousness either comes by the Law of Moses or it comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Now let me ask you this. They say the law has not changed. Yet, Hebrews chapter 7 says what? The priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, was done away with. And now the priesthood we're under is the priesthood of Melchizedek. And he says in Hebrews 7 that there was of necessity a change of the law. So the law was changed. Yet the Hebrews roots movement says that the law was not changed. Who are we going to believe? Them or this? Done away, changed, disannulled, nailed to the cross, blotted out. These are references to what Jesus did to the law. Not just to sin. So let me ask you this. And I'm going to ask you this, John. If it doesn't matter, if it's not required, if it's not required for me, or anyone else, because I know you agree that it's not a requirement, then why is it that important? But what I'm getting at too is, see, this is what I don't get. If it's not a requirement, and if God says if you go back under that, you're just putting a necessary burden upon yourself.
But again, under, okay, but see what you're talking about, though, is apples and oranges. Because while under, okay, if God gives you a covenant, if God gives you a covenant, then that's the only one you got. That's it. So under the Old Testament, until the New Testament came into being, that's all they had. Right? So that's it. Right. That's all they had, though. But Hebrews 8, Hebrews 9 says, what? Well, we have a better covenant with better promises established in a completely different way. And so I just read in Acts, you said you didn't see what the Scripture said, but in Acts the Apostle said that if we tell the Gentiles, Christians, that they have to keep the law of Moses, we are putting a yoke upon their name. Again, I don't have a problem with the way you go about, but I'm talking about lots and lots and lots of people who tell me. Okay, I'll give you one. You know what? One of the famous ones teach, he teaches that 1 John chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, where he says there about, he talks about Jesus as our advocate, and it says if we keep his commandments, if we don't keep his commandments, we are liar and the truth is not in us. That individual, and you know who I'm talking about? Yeah, you do. He says it on his Facebook all the time, and he says it in his books and in his videos. But he says that those words, those commandments he's talking about, is the law of Moses. So what he's saying very clearly by using the term commandments in the New Testament and applying it and making it out to be the law of Moses, what he's saying is that you must keep the law of Moses or you are not saved. You are not a true believer. And he's one of the leaders of this whole thing. But when I read the threads on his page, do you know what I see? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people agree with it. And because I have spoken up against it, they come at me like a battalion of Spartans.
I mean, where are we to go with this? I mean, again, my friend, I've had a friend for years that's been in the messianic movement for years. I mean, we were like this. We did ministry together, we did prison ministry, we did all kind of things together. He never once said or implied or pushed or that you have to do this this way. I mean, he didn't care. He would go to church on Friday night, Saturday, Sunday. He never made it an issue. He just liked to do it. Am I fine? Go ahead. I would go with him sometimes. I would go. I've gone. Again, no problem. You want to meet on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Friday? I don't care. You're free. And that's the point. The point is that as New Testament believers, we have freedom in the sense of how we come together. When we come together, what days we come together, we have total freedom. According to 1 Timothy, I can eat anything I want. I mean, there are people out there saying if you eat pork, you're going to hell or you're an antinominate or you're lawless or you're a pagan. This is what I'm dealing with here. I'm not trying to... Again, if I told you you couldn't do it, I would be wrong because I shouldn't be able to tell you you can't do that. I mean, if that's the way you want to worship God, that's fine. But again, the point is freedom. Freedom. That's why he said, in Galatians 5.1, stand fast in the liberty. Liberty from what? I don't have to be circumcised if I don't want to. I don't have to keep the Sabbath on Saturday if I don't want to. I don't have to keep the feast if I don't want to. I don't have to be bound to the ordinances. I don't have to be compelled to be a Jew. But see, the moment people start saying, well, see, this is the problem. Because what happens is called coercion. You know what coercion is, right? It's indirect. I mean, the freaks went to a messianic, he-break-roots group. And it all starts out nice and slow and easy and subtle. But then it begins to grow. And if you don't, hey, you need to do this a little bit more and you need to do that a little bit more. Even if it's to the point of just being accepted by the group. And if you don't, then you start getting looked down upon. See, even those things, that's what I'm saying. A lot of people get into this innocently enough,
but then they begin to look down their little self-righteous nose and think that because I keep the Sabbath or I keep the feast or because I do these things, I'm better than the Sunday churchgoer. This is even a problem. Not just the point of, is it a matter of salvation, but is it a matter of pride and self-righteousness? Is it a matter of coercion? Am I pushing people? Am I subtly controlling them, manipulating them, or putting fear in them if they don't do these things? And what I hear from these leaders, and I've listened to a bunch of them, I hear coercion. I hear requirement. I hear even for salvation. But even if they don't, they still imply, we got it better together better than you guys. So there's a pride level that's in there that is mind-boggling. And you know, I think about this. Look, I'm going to tell you, this is where I'm going to end today, right here. This is where I end. You go to Revelation 12, verse 11, one of my favorite verses. It talks about overcoming Satan. You know what he says there? He doesn't say you overcome Satan because you keep the Sabbath. He doesn't say you overcome Satan because you keep the feast. He doesn't say you overcome Satan because you lived a perfect sinless life or you didn't eat pork. He says we overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony and because we love not our lives and none to death. When we stand before God, the question, there will never be the question, did you keep the Sabbath? There's never going to be the question, did you keep the feast? There's never going to be the question, did you eat only acceptable Torah food, kosher food? No, the only question that's going to be looked upon, you're going to be looked at upon, are you covered by the blood of Jesus through faith because you chose to walk with Him according to a new covenant, not the old covenant? See, I can't, I can't. If anything, what this comes down to, when the Bible talks about rightly dividing the word of God, we know that passage in Timothy. We rightly divide the word of God with the division, when He's talking about one of the main issues, what is old covenant and what is new covenant? I'm not a Jew. I am not a physical Jew. And I got to deal with that. See, I got to deal with this, I got to deal with the Jew haters too. I got to deal with that in the days ahead.
Christ is the end of the law for me. I mean, what the Bible says what the law could not do in that it was weak. I mean, as God said, if the old covenant, and here's another one for you, if the Old Testament law was perfect and complete, why was there need for a new? There wasn't need. If it was perfect, if it could make you righteous and it could make you perfect, there was no need for any more. But we have a new covenant because it wasn't perfect. And the Levitical priesthood was changed and the animal sacrifices was changed. And Jesus said, we're not stoning people anymore for adultery. We're not stoning homosexuals anymore. There's going to be a period of grace. And at the end of that, there will be a day of judgment. See, He took our sins on the cross, but He also took the law, and He took the punishment of the law. That's why the woman was at stone. Jesus took the punishment. He was just showing you a little preemptive story. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Meeting rebellious kids. You know in the Old Testament, if you backtalk your mom and dad, they drug you out of the tent and stoned you to death. Aren't you glad you're under a new covenant? Is that not a change? Thank God for the change. Because guess what? All of us, if we lived in the desert, in the wilderness, everyone sitting in this room would have been stoned. Except maybe the kids. Was that? Because you know what? I was a fornicator. I took the name of the Lord in vain before I was saved. I was an adulterer. I was a drunkard. I was a railer. I was an idolater. So what did I deserve? Death. And the law said, you were to be executed. A man had sex with another man in the Old Testament. He was to be, both were to be put to death. Put to death. And now, what? What do they have? Grace. Meaning, time. Time. Patience. Mercy. To come to the Messiah.
To come to Jesus. To be forgiven. To be washed. See, people wonder why God's, God's let evil and sin continue in the world for so long. It's simply because His patience. He's allowing for people. But one day, it's over. That day's coming pretty quick. And when you die, it's over, for sure. Decisions made then. You made a decision of who you lived for. But there's much more we can get into this, but we can't today. Father, we thank You, Lord God. Lord, we know that grace is not a license to sin. You've spelled out in the New Covenant the works of the flesh, the sins that are unto death. We know what they are. They're spelled out in Galatians 5, Ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. They're spelled out. We know what is required of us as New Testament believers. I pray, Lord, that You would just reveal both Your love and Your mercy and Your patience and Your grace. And Lord, especially those watching and listening out there today, that this would show them that, yes, under the law, under the justice of God, they deserve death and eternal damnation, but the offer under the New Covenant is grace and mercy and forgiveness. Jesus, we thank You that You were nailed to that cross for our sins, but also that You were whipped for our healing. You took the punishment for our sin. And that all we have to have in You is true faith and begin a life of seeking after You to know You intimately and in a real way. So, Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that those out there that are watching and listening and anybody in here that might need to just know, hey, you're being patient because the price has been paid. And they just ask for faith and for repentance and a dedication of life. You know, we were singing a minute ago and I was thinking about the New Covenant and the New Testament law. And Jesus said, what? There's two commandments. Hang all the law and the prophets. Love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind and strength,
and love your neighbors yourself. And I thought about that. Do we love the Lord? You know what I was thinking about? That was during worship and I was thinking, how many of us in here really love God enough? We want to love on Him during worship. We want to love on Him in our private time. We want to spend time with Him. You know? It's going to come down to you. You love God, you love the world. And I mean love the world. I'm talking about the lust of the world and the sins of the world and which one do you love more? That's what it comes down to. A lot of people are going to be good people and end up lost and in hell because they never walked in faith. They never walked in a relationship with the Lord Jesus. They never had the blood to wash their sin away. Father, I ask You, Lord, to make the truth clear. Make it clear. We pray this today in Jesus' name. Amen.