The Pursuit Of Righteousness - Part 1

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All right, so today we're going to be doing a teaching called The Pursuit of Righteousness. The Pursuit of Righteousness. Um, this is one of a long list of teachings I've been promising you over the last couple of years, and I have promised you that we would show that righteousness is something you do. Righteousness is something you do, and this is the pursuit of righteousness. And in this teaching, we're going to talk somewhat about, you know, what righteousness is, you know, why you need it, and how you get it. But this is something that we ought to be pursuing. This is like what it's all about is that we want to be righteous people. It's the righteous that will inherit the earth, so we want to be understanding what righteousness is all about.

Now, in our experiences with mainstream of of the church system, you know, we've been told over and over again that the only righteousness you need is the imputed righteousness of Messiah. And this imputed righteousness is all you need. And that's so, there's nothing really for you to do to be righteous except to believe in him and believe that he's going to do it for you. And we've often painted a picture, and I'm going to put it at the beginning of this teaching so I know that this is a teaching that we can do it for, of where your righteousness comes into play and where his righteousness comes into play. And I want you to have this picture in mind as we go through the teaching because I'm hopefully going to prove my point during the teaching, but I want you to get have a framework visually.

So, my visualization is that there's a thing called the way, or the the road. And we call that the dere, the way, or the path. We're going to have that word come up in our study, the dere, or the way. And that path, let's picture it as a paved path, and it's not a real wide path, it's a narrow path, and it goes from where you are to a door that leads into the kingdom, the forever, the eternity, what we're looking forward to, the kingdom. And so, this path, this dere, this way, is covered by a canopy of the shed blood of Yeshua. It's covered by a blood canopy that covers you while you're on the path. And as you're walking on this path, we call that your Hal or your Hala. That's your walk, okay? The things that you do, the walk that you have, we call that Hala. Okay? And Hala is, you know, keeping Sabbath. This is a thing to do. How you keep the Sabbath has very specific, you know, instructions on how to keep the Sabbath. How you eat, feasts that you keep, how you talk to each other. All of these things are called Hal or.

And so, while you're walking on this path and you're doing your doing, this path eventually leads to that door. Now, my argument is that I'm going to make here, my case is that that's called your righteousness. Your righteousness is what gets you from where you are to the door. Now, you can't do it by yourself. You're going to need the Father to help you. You're going to need the the Spirit to lead you. And you're going to need the the interventions by your Mashiach, by your Messiah. But you have to walk it out. It's kind of like all of that will be with you, encouraging you, supporting you, guiding you, and holding your hand, but nobody's going to be walking it out for you. That's the case I'm going to make here. You have to actually walk this out yourself.

Now, when you get to that door, that door is locked. And you're, you know, of course, if you got to the door and found it locked, you'd probably be pretty frustrated. But it's your righteousness. It only can get you to the door. But you're still stained. Even though you've been forgiven, and even though you've been washed clean, just like a garment, if you spill wine on it or grape juice or some other thing that stains, you can wash it and have it be clean, but it can still be stained. The only thing that will get the stain out in your life is the shed blood of Messiah. And that gets applied to you ultimately at the door. Not that it doesn't get applied to you now, in in in a sense, but the ultimate fulfillment, and remember, he, there's multiple fulfillments of things, it's cyclical, there's a, there's a cycle to the thing. The ultimate fulfillment of the applying of the shed blood to you is at that door. That's when his righteousness is imputed to you so that you can be a pure white bride to enter into the kingdom. But until you get to the door, there's no need for that.

Now, there is a need for the shed blood in other aspect aspects in your life for forgiveness, for restoration, to be able to have a relationship restored back to you and the Father, between you and the Father. But in order to get through that door, that's when the fullness of that need for the shed blood gets applied in your life.

Now, by the way, the fullness of this picture is that to the left and right while you're walking is every horrible, hideous thing and every wonderfully looking tempting thing trying to either lure you off the road or scare you, whichever way it is, all going on. So, there's going to be things like it is in this life that you look at it, you go, "Wow, that scares me. I don't want a part of it." There is a lot of things in life that you can reasonably easily recognize as being, "Hey, that's not for me. I don't want to be anywhere near that." That's scary and dangerous. So, when you look off this path, you'll see some of that. But when you look also off the path, you'll see some of the stuff that when you look like in this life, goes, "Wow, that looks good. That looks fun. I bet you I'd enjoy that." But yet, it may not be good for you. Because only what's good for you is on that path. Anything off that path ultimately is not good for you. Because when you step off the path, guess what also happens? You step out from under the covering. And so, being uncovered is the most dangerous place you can be. And so, it's almost like all bets are off. You're on your own. You can step off the path. And that's why we have this thing called Teshuvah, which is where if you get off the path, you actually turn around and get back on the path. Teshuvah means to turn around, you repent, you make Teshuvah, you turn around, you get back on the path. And so, that's how this all works.

By the way, getting back on the path is a is a matter of mercy, which is unmerited, or grace, which is merited, depending on where you've been in your walk. If you're brand new and you've done nothing to earn favor or to merit favor, then it's out of mercy that Abba calls you to come back to the path. But once you've been walking the path, then it's when you turn to Father, say, "Father, if I've ever done anything right in your eyes, if you can approve of anything I've done, allow me back on the path." Because then it's grace that brings you back onto the path. So, hopefully, we get to see that how this works out and how this plays out.

So, all of that was to show you that in my opinion, in this picture, this beautiful metaphor picture, that it's your righteousness that gets you to the door. And that righteousness is something you do. Yeshua did everything he had to do. He didn't do a single thing that you have to do. He only did the things he had to do. He did the things you can't do. Can you keep the Sabbath? Absolutely. Can you eat right? Absolutely. Can you keep the right feasts? Absolutely. Can you love one another? Absolutely. Can you do? There's not a thing in Torah you can't do. There really isn't. There's nothing in there that you can't do, except that you have certain lusts and desires that tempt you away from doing them. And overcoming those lusts and desires is what this life is all about. It's a proving ground and a testing ground. It's it's a school of overcoming your lusts and desires.

So, let's go ahead and look look at this righteousness thing because obviously, if it's the thing that gets you from where you are to the door, it must be fairly important. Matter of fact, there's not a whole lot that could be more important than that. Anything more important than that has already been done for you, like the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua, the blood covering. Those things have already been done for you. So, and the things that in your life you can do, list this is the highest thing in the list. The thing that you can do is figure out how to be righteous.

Righteousness, by definition, is the quality of being morally right. Being morally right. And where do we find the code of the correct things morally? We call that the Torah. The Torah is the moral code of what's right. So, the Torah is the basis of righteousness. What does it mean to be moral? Moral is being concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. So, it's the quality of being concerned with being right and being good in your character. So, it's all about character. And what have we talked about in terms of character over the last couple of years? We've talked about it's our greatest responsibility, duty, and opportunity to change in our character from who we are into the image of the Son, into his character, to transform and conform into his character. And this is called righteousness because we're going to see from scripture that that was what his character was. He was a righteous one. He, his character was filled perfectly with righteousness.

Let's begin in First John 1, Yahanan 2 and verse one. Now, I don't know how many parts this teaching is going to go, but I want to make sure we really lay this out. And it won't be a whole lot, it'll be just a couple. But I want to read some really important things here, starting in chapter 2 of First John, and we're going to read the whole chapter. Verse one: "My little children, I write this to you so that you do not sin. If anyone sins, we have an intercessor with the Father, Yeshua Messiah, a righteous one."

All right, so right away in verse one, we're getting a contrast between sin and righteousness. Sin and righteousness. And that's the contrast. If you're doing the right things, you're called righteous. You're not sinning, which is when you're doing the wrong things. And sin, as we know, is defined as transgression of the law or the Torah. So, let's continue. So, we're seeing this contrast that Mashiach Yeshua is a righteous one. He's the righteous one. And so, this is all about the apostles, us Torah teachers, like myself, all trying to teach you things so that you do not sin. If you want to know what my desire, my greatest desire is, that as I teach, you'll be inspired to apply what's being taught from the scripture so that you do not sin.

He says, "And he himself," verse two, "is an atoning offering for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for all the world." So, let's understand that his atoning offering is for the whole world. This goes back to the whole teaching on "Are You Saved?" The idea that salvation and reward are not the same thing. Because if they were, salvation being this here, the atoning offering of sins for the whole world, that's salvation is possible because of that. You cannot be saved or delivered without this atoning offering for our sins. But yet, he did this for the whole world. So, what is the reward? Eternal life is the reward. So, if he did this for the whole world, does the whole world get eternal life? No. We all know that scripture makes that abundantly clear. Although the desire would be that everyone would get there, we know sadly that not everyone will because of the choices they make. But yet, we know that he was the atoning offering for our sins, not only ours, but also for the all the whole world. Yeshua himself said he lays down his life for the whole world. So, John is just quoting that.

Verse three: "And by this we know that we know him." Again, the word "know" when you see it like that in in the scriptures, really talking about a relationship, an intimate relationship. "By this we know that we have this intimate relationship with him if we guard his commands." If we guard his commands. Now, I know I've been promising, and this teaching is coming soon, where I will show you that his commands he's talking about is the Torah. Because this is the Lawgiver we're talking about. Yeshua the Messiah, who came in the flesh, is also the Yahweh of the Old Testament that interacted with man. The Father and I will hopefully prove this for you in the teaching that's coming. Has never been here. The Son has always been who we've interacted with. So, it was the Son at Mount Sinai, the Son giving the commandments, the Son eating lunch with Abraham, the Son face to face with Moses, the Son everywhere along the way. And and the verse that backs that up is Yeshua saying, "No one has seen the Father at any time, nor heard his voice." That's what it said. And so, it says that Messiah said that. I can't argue with that. So, therefore, all that interacting in the Old Testament must have been the Son. So, when he now, we take that context, give me the benefit of the doubt for that for right now.

In verse three, it says, "And by this we know that we know him if we guard his commands." We're not just looking for the red-lettered parts of the New Testament. We're talking about his commands. By the way, when John wrote this, there was no New Testament, okay? So, we're talking about the Torah. Those are his commands. He says, "For the one who says, 'I know him, I have a relationship with him,' and does not guard his commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Now, let's be real quick here. Back to our definition of truth. John 14 says in verse six, it says, "I am the truth." Well, it says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Yeshua says, "I am the truth." In John 1, excuse me, in Psalm 119, verses 142 and 160, we're told that the word of the Torah is truth. In John 1, we're told that the word put on flesh. There's your loop to follow along to see that Yeshua is the word, the word put on flesh, Yeshua is the truth. The word is the truth. The Torah is the truth. So, we're talking about him being the living, walking, talking Torah.

Now, let's plug that in. So, whenever we see the word "truth" or "word" or "Torah," we can interchange all of that. So, when we see the word "truth" here, we could say, "Okay, that's talking about the Torah, the Word, and the Messiah." So, now listen. It says, "The one who says, 'I know him,' and does not guard his commands is a liar, and the Torah, the Word, Messiah, etc., is not in him." Amen. You know, in John 14 also, we're told that the Helper is going to be sent. And Yeshua says, "I will not leave you orphans. I am coming to you." We all know that Messiah dwells in us if we are filled with the Ruach. But he says here, "If you're not guarding his commands, then the truth, or the Messiah, is not in you." That's right. And so, we have to be real careful with that. And by the way, this is a very harsh reality for people that are out there claiming that they're filled with the Spirit, filled with Messiah, and they're disobedient to all the commandments. John says that's just not possible. That's right. And I'm not trying to be mean to anybody. I'm not attacking them. They don't know. It's in their ignorance that they say these things. And it's sad, and it hurts when we see them going through this in abject ignorance because they've been lied to, as you were lied to. And you remember how much that hurt when you found out the truth, knowing that you were lied to, that you were deceived, when you realize the despicable nature of what was done to you was done to you by a system, not by individuals. And so, let's be clear that I'm not attacking anybody in a church or in the mainstream of Christianity, but to understand that they have been lied to, as we were lied to before. And that's the hideous thing that's going on here.

But he says here, John is making it really clear. "Those who say, 'I know him,' and do not guard his commands." And he doesn't just say keep them, he says guard them, which means to watch over them, to protect them, to be defensive, and make sure that they are kept. He says that person's a liar. Not necessarily on purpose, by the way. They may not know that they're lying. They may be in full, absolute integrity of their belief that they're telling the truth, but they don't know because our fathers have inherited lies. The Father says, the Father in Heaven says, "I will give them great delusion through the Son." He's told them this stuff. He's given them delusion. What is a delusion? Thinking the reality is one way when in reality it really isn't, it's another way, but you think it's the one way. And you, in your pure integrity, see it the one way, even though it's not correct.

He says, "So, the one who says, 'I know him,' and does not guard his commands is a liar, and the truth, the Word, the Torah, Messiah, is not in him." By the way, the Spirit is not in him either, because we call it's called the Spirit of what? The Spirit of Truth. So, the Spirit is not in him either.

"But whoever guards his word, guards Messiah, guards the Torah, guards the truth, truly the love of Elohim has been perfected in him." And again, that word "perfected." I would rather see the word there has been filled with integrity. The the love of Elohim is now walking in fullness of integrity in that person. Because there's no integrity if you say that you love him and do something that he against what he said to do, then where's your integrity? How many of you know people that say one thing and do another? Amen. Do you think of that person as having integrity? Absolutely not. Now, a lot of these people, though, think they're walking integrity in integrity because they just don't know they've been lied to.

He says, "But whoever guards the truth, the Torah, the Word, Yeshua, truly the love Elohim, love of Elohim has been perfected in him." "By this we know that we are in him." That's how we know we are in him. We first talked about knowing what's in us. Now we're talking about how we know we're in him. "The one who says he stays in him, stays in him." What is the "him"? Yeshua. What is the "him"? The Word. What is the "him"? The Truth. The Torah. "The one who says he stays in the truth, the Torah, Yeshua, all of that, ought himself also walk, have a Hal, even as he walked." Even as his Hal was. So, this goes back to the teaching we did called "What Did Yeshua Do?" Because we needed to understand what his walk was like. And we proved his walk was perfect in his Torah obedience. So, that may be a teaching you want to go back and listen to. So, we ought to walk even as he walked.

"Now, we were told in verse one that he is a righteous one. So, his walk was a walk of righteousness. So, there's one of the reasons why we want to be righteous because we're to walk as he walked."

"Beloved, I write no fresh command to you, but an old command which you have had from the beginning. The old command is the Word, the Truth, the Torah of Messiah, which you heard from the beginning. Again, I write you a fresh command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the True Light now shines."

"The one who says he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now." Now, by the way, when he says, "I'm not writing a fresh command, but I'm writing you a fresh command," what he's trying to say idiomatically is, "Look, you've always had these elements. You just didn't know you had them in the flesh. And then the resurrected Messiah, Messiah, you've always had the, the Torah was offered to you, you had the Word, you had the Truth. But now I'm giving you a fresh command that shows you, by the way, this is the one who's the Light of the world." In other words, "I'm changing the way you see things to realize that this has been refreshed. This isn't anything new." He's saying, "This is refreshed to you now that there's an an expanding of our understanding of all of this depth because now we have a right hand Advocate sitting at the right. We have a, a High Priest Advocate sitting at the right hand of the Father. He is the Light."

"It says, 'The one who says he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. The one who loves his brother stays in the light, and there is no stumbling block in him. But the one who hates his brother is in darkness and walks his walks in the darkness.' That means he's off the path. Let's go back to our picture. When you love your brother, you're on the path. When you don't and you hate your brother, now you're not on the path anymore. His Hal is not on the same Hal, the same road, the path that you walked."

He says, "The one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." So, with blinded eyes, it becomes challenging to find your way back to the path. But let's continue as we continue here.

And he goes, "I write to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven in account on account of his name." "Because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name." Let's take the word "name" again, as always, and replace it with the word "authority." He says, "I write to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his authority." Didn't he say as part of his walking when he was here on in the flesh, saying, "I need to show you and demonstrate and do these things to show you that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins"? He could have just as easily said, "has the name to forgive sins," but it's not about the magic sort of magic mumbo jumbo, you know, mojo with saying a magical word, incantation of his name. It's the authority. He says, "Your sins have been forgiven on account of his authority."

"I write to you, fathers, because you have known him from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him from the beginning. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of Elohim stays in you, and you have overcome the wicked one." How do they do all of this? The Word staying in them, the Truth staying in them, Yeshua staying in them, the Spirit staying in them.

He says, "Do not love the world, nor that which is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That talks again about your path. If you're on the path and you love the world, guess what you're going to do? Step off the path. Because the world is everything outside the path. When you're on the kingdom path, you are on a on a road that while it's in the world, is not of the world. Like Yeshua's prayer to the Father, "Father, I don't ask you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the world, even though they have to live in it." Well, that's where this road is. This road passes right through the world. But if you love the world, you're liable to get off the path. Because you cannot love the world and also, uh, then have the love of the Father be in you.

He says, "Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh is verse 16, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it. But the one doing the desire of Elohim remains forever." Let's catch that right. It says, "Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." So, what does that look like in your life? When you see the word "lust," it probably totally messes you up because you think of only things that are overtly perverted. We think of sexual stuff, almost always, when we hear about lust. Lust is simply a word for very strong, compelling desire. In other words, something you want really badly that you're drawn to. That's a better definition for lust. Because otherwise, a lot of us sit there going, "Well, I don't have sexual perversions and this other thing, so this can't be talking about me." No. Let's see what it's talking about. It says, "The lust of the eyes and the pride of life are all put into this." What does that look like in your life? When you say, "But I don't like that." Oh, but I like this, and I should be able to do this. Or, "I don't want that," or "That's not fair," or "Why do I have to do that?" That's all of the stuff going on in verse 16. Because all of that stuff started off with, "I, I don't like. I don't want. I buy." That's the pride of life. Well, you think you get to decide what Abba's going to be okay with? Yeah. "Well, I'm sure that Yahweh is going to be okay with this." And people tell me that stuff all the time. And I, I look them right in the eye and say, "You better be right, because if you're wrong, you're in big trouble." It's not for me to tell you you're wrong. I'm just saying, if you're going to step out on on this limb and say, "Well, I'm sure that Abba understands. Yeah, he's okay with me doing this." Well, he may be. I mean, not everything people say like that is actually wrong. But if you're going to say that, you better be sure. Uh-huh. Because if you're not sure, then you ought not be doing it. And so, the way to be sure is to find it in the book. The written word tells you so you can be sure. That's why we have it written down. Because people will say, "Oh, I prayed about it and and the Spirit told me." Well, did you compare it to the book? Come on. Because the Spirit may have told you, but which Spirit told you about it? And so, you need to compare it to the book. Compare it to the written word.

Now, it says, verse 17, "And the world passes away, and the lust of it. But the one doing the desire of Elohim remains forever." The one doing the desire of Elohim, not doing your desire, but the desire of Elohim. You know, it's kind of like the the Sabbath verse in Isaiah 58:13-14, which says, "If you turn your foot from doing your pleasure or your desire on the Shabbat." Wow. Well, that's not just about the Shabbat here. He's saying, "Look, if you do the Father's desire, Elohim's desire, you get to remain forever." So, everything needs to be about His desire, not your desire. "But I don't like that." Okay, you don't have to like that. You also don't have to get to the door, and you don't have to get in. Amen. You don't have to do anything. You have free will. You don't have to. But if you want to get in, and you're going to say, "But I don't like that," then my answer to you is, "So what? What does your liking it have to do with anything?" And I say that because I want you to get to the door. That's my job as a shepherd is to get you to the door. So, if you come to me and say, "But I don't like that," or "That's not fair," and my point is, "Well, so what? What's your point? Did Abba say it? Yes? Well, then you better be doing it. Or did Abba say it? Yes? Then you better not be doing it because he said not to do it." That's as simple as it gets. "Oh, but I don't think I like that." So, you're, well, actually, I wouldn't even say then, "Well, you're free to go wherever you want. Get off the path and go enjoy the rest of your life and know that that's all you got. Eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow you die, and that's it." I mean, if that's all you want, then you're not really setting your your sights high very high, are you? We're being offered eternal life. We're being offered the greatest things ever been offered to anybody. And so, we ought to set our sights real high. And it's not like setting your sights high saying, "Well, let's see, the most I've ever made in my life is $28,000, so I'm going to set sights on being a millionaire next year." Well, of course, that's a little bit ridiculous and not necessarily going to happen because you have no reason to believe you're going to go from $28,000 to a millionaire. You have every reason to believe from this book, from the Word, from what you've been told, that you can go from whatever you are into eternal life. Amen. From whatever you are into a Yeshua-like character. So, it's not a a a ridiculous goal. The Father would not put you in a in your heart, give you something in your heart that you cannot have. He put it in your heart because you can get there. And when I say that, I don't mean like putting your, you know, because remember I said the Father put in your heart, there's all kinds of other spirits putting other things in your heart, including yourself. So, just because something's in your heart doesn't mean that, "Oh, well, see, I should be able to have it because it's in my heart." No. If the Father put it in your heart, you will absolutely be able to have it. Problem is, a lot of us can't tell the difference between the Father speaking to us in our heart and the other voices speaking to us in our heart. And there's only one way to know for sure. You go into the Word and compare what's going on in your heart with this book called the Word, the scripture. And then you see what's in this book and you say, "Is what I'm feeling in my heart consistent and in in line with this book?" That's all you need to do.

Let's continue. Little children, verse 18, "It is the last hour, and as you have heard that the anti-Messiah is coming, even now many anti-Messiahs have come. This is how we know that it is the last hour." Now, let's understand something here. What is the anti-Messiah that he's talking about when he says many have come? So, we're not talking about a being called the anti-Messiah, just like many Messiahs had come. I, even though King Cyrus was the Messiah, that's what he said, he's an anointed one, but we're looking forward to the Messiah Yeshua's return. So, just because there are multiple Messiahs doesn't mean there isn't one called the Messiah. Well, guess what? There's multiple anti-Messiahs, but there's also one called the anti-Messiah. So, what is it that makes the thing that they have in common? While the Messiahs all have in common is that they were anointed of Yahweh to deliver his people in some way. The anti-Messiah also have something in common. Every one of the anti-Messiah have been to undermine the going forth of Torah obedience, the anti-Torah, the lawlessness, because the anti-Messiah is known as the Lawless One. And so, we have that going on here. They said, "Look, we know that we're in the last hour because there are anti-Messiahs." Are there not plenty of people out there teaching against being against the law? Are there not plenty of anti-Messiahs out there, including those right now that are pushing this whole Book of the Covenant, Book of the Law thing to try to take some of that law away from you and tell you that was not, that was not for you, that was done as a punishment because of the disobedience of the golden calf? When Moses is speaking in Deuteronomy, which by the way comes after all of that, Moses is saying, "All these things that I'm giving you, they're all for your good. All of it." Yeah, he doesn't give you stuff that's for your harm. He gave it to you for your good. But yet, this is the spirit of the anti-Messiah to try to tell you to stuff you don't need to do. What, what happens when you stop doing what you need to do? Guess what? You're stepping off the road. Because now you're listening to a voice that's trying to draw you off the road.

Let's continue. Verse 19: "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if indeed they had been of us, they would have stayed with us. But in order that it might be made manifest that none of them were were of us." By the way, that's probably true for this congregation. Some of those who left weren't really ever of us to begin with. I'm not saying that to attack them or to judge them. It's just this is what it's talking about. There are those that are with us right now, even I can prove this from scripture, that are really not with us. Us. How do I know that? Well, there's a parable called the wheat and the tares. And in that parable, the wheat and the tares are together in the assembly. And the tares are really not of us. They're not of the wheat, they're the tares. And yet, they are still sitting in the same room next to each other. And so, that's what this verse is talking about.

Verse 20: "And you having an anointing from the set apart One, and you know all. I do not, I did not write it, uh, to you because you did not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no falsehood is of the truth." Let's replace the words "I did not write to you because you do not know Yeshua, because you do not know Messiah, the truth, the Word, the Torah, but because you know it, because there is no falsehood in Messiah, in the truth, in the Word, in the Light, in the Torah." These are all the same thing. All those words mean the same thing.

"Who is the liar except the one denying that Yeshua is the Messiah? This is the anti-Messiah, the one denying the Father and the Son." By the way, there are those out there that teach that there really is just one. It's a Oneness doctrine, that the Father and the Son are really the same being, and there's only one. Well, here it's very clear. It says, "The one denying the Father and the Son." There are two. There are not three. There are not one. There are two. Yeshua said, "I only do what my Father tells me to do." Is he talking to himself? No. He's not talking to himself. There are two.

Let's continue. "As for you, let that stay in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning stays in you, you shall also stay in the Son and in the Father." See, again, there are two. "And this is the promise that he has promised us everlasting life." That's the goal. That's what we're looking forward to. "He said, 'I've written this to you concerning those who lead you astray.'" Those who lead you astray are going to cost you your everlasting life. That's why this is so deadly serious. "I have written this to you concerning those who lead you astray. But the anointing which you have received from Him stays in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as the same anointing does teach you concerning all, and is true, and is no falsehood, and even at it, as it has taught you, you stay in Him."

Well, that was a whole big lot of gobblygook. Let's break that down a little bit. Because there are people who say, "I don't need a teacher because look at this verse. It says, 'You have no need that anyone should teach you.'" That is only true if you are staying in Him, if what you have received stays in you, and you're allowing the Ruach to lead you correctly according to the Word. And by the way, then says, "Even though you say you have no need of anyone teaching you, it says, 'But as the same anointing does teach you concerning all.'" So, it's that anointing that is teaching you concerning all, and is true, and is no falsehood in it. But you need to stay in Him to have all that. Guess what? If you are leaving, walking off the path, going going astray, then you are not in the truth, and you need a teacher. If you are walking that path and walking it just right, so to speak, and straight and narrow, you really don't need a teacher. A teacher should be like, we read in Peter, was Peter says, "I should not have to be teaching you or or anything, but I know I because you know these things already." But it's my job to remind you. So, now the teacher isn't teaching you, but reminding you. That's in, let's see, in Second. I just want to read that verse to you. He says, "Look, he says, 'And so I intend to remind you of these matters again and again.'" This is in verse 12 of chapter 1 of Second Peter. He says, "And so I intend to remind you of these matters again and again, though you know them and have been established in the present truth. But I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by a reminder." So, yes, if you are walking in the truth, if you are filled with the Ruach, if you are on the path, you don't need a teacher, but you need a reminder. You need someone to encourage you and remind you. And so, let's understand what this is talking about. So, still, there's a need for a shepherd, a rabbi, a teacher to be up there to remind you. It is my greatest hope, prayer, and desire that there's not a single thing I say that you don't already know. That's really what it should be. You should actually already know everything. I should never say one thing that you don't know. But but the reason I do is because we're all coming out of the darkness. We're not there yet. And so, we're all together. Like we all together came to understand grace differently recently, all of us together. I did too. So, we're all coming gradually out of that darkness. And be careful. We think, you know, you arrived. Lest you fall. Or stand. Lest you fall. A lot of us think we've arrived. Hey, I've arrived. They know all of this stuff now. There's nothing more. I know everything. Well, be careful. Be be careful. We go back to that verse 16 where it talks about the pride of life. Be careful.

He says, "Now, we're going to finally get to this righteousness thing here as we get through this." Now, look at verse 28. "And now, little children, stay in Him so that when He appears, we might have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." As His coming. Listen, when Yeshua shows up, if you've not been doing what you're supposed to be doing, you're going to be ashamed because he's going to reveal everything. He said, "But we, but if we're, if we are doing what we're supposed to be doing, we can be bold. We could be bold."

He says, "If you know that He is righteous, now listen, this is where it comes down to verse 29. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone doing righteousness has been born of Him." This is part of our definition of righteousness. If we know that He is righteous, and we're supposed to be transforming and conforming into His image, and it's our goal to become like Him, then we also know that if we're doing righteousness, we have been born of Him. And notice the word "doing" there. Righteousness is something you do. Now, there, everybody's out there is going to be arguing with you when you start to tell them this stuff and say, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's salvation by works." Absolutely not. We taught that in the "Are You Saved?" teaching. Remember, salvation and reward are two separate things. Salvation makes the reward possible. He said it earlier. We read the verse where his giving his life and the shedding of his blood for the atoning of our sins makes the reward possible. But what's the difference between those who get the reward and those who don't? What was the reward? Everlasting life. What determines whether or not you get it? What you do. What you do. We call that works. What you do determines what you get. You're going to be judged according to your works, and you're going to receive according to that judgment. That's what it says. That's what it says in Romans when it says some will be judged to eternal life, some just to condemnation and wrath. That's in Romans chapter 2. You will be judged according to your works. So, what you do affects your reward. It has nothing to do with salvation. Salvation was made available to everybody. Now, whether you get to enjoy the salvation is up to what you do. Because we already know that not everybody will be ultimately saved. That's right. Even though they were offered salvation, some people are not going to take the rope that's being extended to them. Okay? They're all sort of drowning in the water there, and life preservers are being thrown out, and some people are just going to keep their hands in their pockets. But they were still thrown a life preserver. What's the difference between the person that doesn't take the life preserver and the one that does? The one that does actually did a work. He reached out and grabbed a hold of it. We're told in scripture other places that you need to grab a hold of what's been offered to you. And so, that's really what it's talking about. The work.

He says, "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone doing righteousness has been born of Him." Now, let's not twist that to say that if you've been born of Him, He's doing it for you. No. You're doing it. It shows your fruit to others that you're born of Him. You've been born again in the renewing of your mind and your attitude. You now know what it takes to be right, to be saved, to receive eternal life. Now you have a different mind and a different approach. And so, you bear different fruit because you take different actions. When you thought and believed a certain way, you acted a certain way. When you thought and believed now a different way from what you thought before, your actions have changed. Like what? I don't know. You eat differently. You observe different days. You talk to people, hopefully, differently. You treat people, hopefully, differently. Those are the fruit of being born of Him. Those are righteous characteristics of behavior according to a correct moral code. We call that the Torah. The Commandments. Amen.

Let's now go to chapter 3. We'll stay in First John. Wow, I thought I was going to get almost this whole thing done today. I'm not only getting through two readings.

1 John 3, verse 1: "So now that we just had that whole little thing about righteousness there, saying everyone doing righteous has been born of Him, look at what we have coming now in verse in chapter three. See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of Elohim. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. The world doesn't have a relationship with us because it didn't have a relationship with Him. Understand that when you're struggling in your relationship with the people that are still in the world, they struggle to have a relationship with you because they struggle to have a relationship with Him. Let me say that again. It probably bears repeating. They struggle having a relationship with you because they struggle having a relationship with Him. Amen. Because if they had a

Proper relationship with him. We read this in the previous chapter. Then they would not hate their brother; they would love their brother or sister. But because they're struggling in their relationship with him, they struggle in their relationship with you.

Continuing, he said, "Beloved ones, now we are children of Elohim, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

Let's go into verse two a little deeper. He says, "Look, we know that when he is revealed." In other words, when he comes in the fullness of his manifestation, in all his glory, as king of kings, we shall be like him, for we shall see him like he is. So, what are we saying? First of all, John is saying, for all of you out there who are struggling to understand the nature of the Godhead, the nature of what Elohim is, he says, "Just let it go." He says, "I lived with him and don't get it." He says, "Look, we struggle to understand what it means to be incorruptible. What does it mean to be not of the flesh? What does it mean to be able to come and go like the wind? What does it mean to not have time or space affect you? What does that mean?" We can't figure that out in our, you know, our three, four-dimensional flesh, three dimensions plus time. We don't understand that. It's like, I've said this all over and over again, it's like an amoeba understanding a human being. You've got a one-cell amoeba trying to understand the bazillion-cell human being with our consciousness and all the things, how we can interact with our environment. There's no way for an amoeba to understand you. There's no way for you to understand Elohim, not in its fullness. We can only understand what he reveals to us in his word, in however way we're able to do that. And still, we're looking through the glass dimly. But yet, so John is saying, "Look, don't worry about all that. All we know is that we, when he's revealed, will know what he's like because we're going to be changed."

So, in other words, like the amoeba becoming a human being, now can understand what a human being is. When you take off the corruptible and put on the incorruptible, and you are changed from what you are into what he is, well, guess what? Now, all of a sudden, you'll get it, because you'll see him as he is, because you'll be like him. By the way, there is a caveat to this. It's not mentioned exactly in that verse, but I've always had the understanding that you are not going to be like him unless you're already like him. Wow. So, let's not kid ourselves and think, "Oh, well, this is just a process that's just going to automatically play out." No, it's only going to play out if you are becoming like him in your character, in your mind. The renewing of your mind, it says, "Let this mind be in you that was in Yeshua Messiah" (Philippians 2:5). Let you have to let three-letter word, biggest problem in all of scriptures, is for you to let his mind be in you. If you let that mind be in you, that mind will manifest in a character change into fruit of actions in your works, and then you will get this change, and you will get to see him as he is. But you have to first become like him as much as you can. Now, you can't become like him in his physical characteristics of being incorruptible and outside of time and space, but you certainly can in his character, in his behavioral traits. And that's what we're talking about.

Going back to the last verse of chapter 2, it says, "If you know that he is righteous, that that's his character, that that's what he is, even though you don't understand his physical body," which is what's happening in chapter 3. He says, "Then, then you also know that everyone doing righteousness has been born of him." You're letting that mind be in you.

Continuing in verse 3, it says, "And everyone having this expectation," what expectation? To put on the incorruptible, to be changed physically into what he is. "Everyone having this expectation in him cleanses himself as he is clean." You cleanse yourself to be as he is clean. He, Yeshua, is clean. So then we have to say, "What did Yeshua do that kept him clean? That made him clean?" Well, he says, and we're going to read verses with this, he says, "I only do what my Father tells me to do." In other words, I'm completely 100% perfectly submissive and obedient to the commandments, to the instructions of the Father. Because even though he was the lawgiver on Sinai, he was only giving what the Father wanted him to give. He's the spokesman, he's the word for the Father. So it's still the Father's commands, even though the Father's voice was not the one speaking them, he was the word, the speaker, the spokesman for the Father.

Continuing, so we're told that we need to cleanse ourselves. He says, "Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness, because sin is lawlessness." The word there in Greek would have been better translated as "lawlessness." Sin is lawlessness, without the law. So when you do sin, you're also lawless. And we're also told that the lawless one is the problem, the Anomia. We were warned about chapter 2. He says, "And you know, verse 5, that he has manifested, that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin." The more you become like him, the less sin that you have, because in him there is no sin. So, wait now, what was sin? Lawlessness. So in him is no lawlessness. The next time someone calls you a legalist, you say, "You bet you." So is my Messiah, because in order for him to have no sin, he had to be filled with lawful behavior, or to be a, um, a legalist, so to speak. He, everything he did was legal. What is legal? According to what? Well, according to the throne of heaven, according to the judge of the universe. He did everything legally and correctly. He broke no laws. What was happening with the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees when they interacted with Yeshua? They were always trying to trip him up, to get him to break a law, or to accuse them of breaking a law. But there was no lawlessness in him. There was no sin.

Verse 6: "Everyone staying in him does not sin." Okay, so there now, this is the funny thing, because there are people out there saying that once you're quote-unquote born again, you can't sin. Absolutely 100% not true. You can sin. However, if you stay in him, you don't sin. To sin, you have to get off the path. When you're on the path, you're covered by the blood. It's like you're in him, so that's that protective covering. You're in him, you're on the path, covered by the blood. In order to sin, you have to get off the path. As long as you're on the path, there is no sin in you either. You have to step off the path to sin. He says, he says, "Look, everyone doing sin also does lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness." And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins. He was manifested to take away the sins. So what is he? Again, the truth. The truth was manifested to take away your sins. What else is he? The life. The life was taken. No, the real life was to take away your sins. What else is he? The word. The word was there to take away your sin. What else is he? The Torah. The Torah is there to help take away your sin. Guess what? If you keep the Torah, you don't sin. It's a perfect analogy. Everything that I say, I've got people out there attacking me for. "How dare I call him the walking, talking Torah?" Here it is. I mean, I don't know how you can't see it. It says, "Everyone staying in the Torah doesn't sin." That's true. "Everyone staying in the word doesn't sin." That's true. "Everyone staying in the truth doesn't sin." That's true. "Everyone staying in the light doesn't sin." That's true. "Everyone staying in Messiah doesn't sin." That's I mean, where's the mess up here? There's no disconnect.

"Everyone sinning has neither seen him nor known him." Okay, now let's look at that. Now, everyone sinning has neither seen him nor known him. Now, it's not just talking about physically having seen him. Only a few people have ever physically seen him. But what does it talk about over and over in scripture? Having eyes to see and ears to hear. So when he says that no one has seen him, they say these people who act this way show that they haven't seen him. In other words, they show that they've seen a false image of him. They've seen something that's not exactly him. By the way, you see that today with the way the church worships the Son as Jesus, and they worship basically a false manifestation or image of what the Messiah is really about. Because the Jesus they worship, and we talk about this in the Bearing False Prophets, represents the lawlessness that Jesus represents. Christmas and Easter and Sunday and eating whatever you want, no kashrut, etc., because they're not seeing him. When you used to see Jesus, you couldn't see Yeshua, because it's this false overlay over Yeshua. It's a false representation. And people get go to me all the time like, "Well, why do you get so hung up on Jesus, Yeshua? What's the difference?" It's the same one, not the way you're seeing him through your eyes. He's not. Now, I'm not saying there are literally two separate beings. I'm simply saying is the image that you see under the Jesus name doesn't match generally the image you see under the Yeshua name, because they're representing very different things in most cases. Now, I know to an Adventist, the Jesus still represents the Sabbath. To other groups, the Jesus may actually represent a lot of the Torah keeping. But generally speaking, to the majority of people that use that name, it is not the they're not seeing him because they're seeing Sunday and Christmas and Easter and eating, you know what I'm saying? They're not seeing him. And back then, it was the same problem. There were people running around even saying Yeshua, but they were misrepresenting Yeshua. So any kind of misrepresentation of Yeshua shows that they're not seeing him.

So it says, "Everyone sinning has neither seen him nor known him." In other words, not had a relationship with him. Because if you had a relationship with him, you would never think for a second that he could ever tell anybody they could eat pork. You know, this is the absurdity of when we have people read Mark chapter 7 and they don't understand this is a Jewish Messiah speaking to Jews. And they were already upset with him with his disciples not washing their hands, eating bread. What do you think they would have done if he told them they could eat pork? I mean, if not washing their hands with this ritual called ntil made them have a cow, if he said they could eat pork, forget it. They just, as a matter of fact, they wouldn't have had to fight with him at all. They just, everybody would have left him. He'd had no audience whatsoever. But yet Christianity wants us to believe that the issue here was eating pork. Well, no, chapter 7 of Mark said they were eating bread, and he wasn't talking about what goes in the man and what comes out, meaning that the food that you eat. He expects that what you eat is food. Pork's not food. Shellfish is not food. We have a teaching called kashrut. What is food? Those things are not food. They have a different purpose. They're not food. So it was never a question of whether or not it was food going in, but he's saying, "Look, it's not about what goes in, but what comes out." And had nothing to do with whether or not you could eat anything you wanted to eat. But here's the thing, if you knew him, you would never ever suspect for a second or accuse him of doing away with any Torah commandment. If you knew him. And so if you knew him, you would never stand for someone trying to convince you of such ridiculousness.

How many of you have had an experience where somebody came up to you and said, "Wow, I heard this about you," and you look him in the eye and go, "You know me better than that"? Or you look and say, "I thought you knew me better than that"? That's even worse when you have to say that, because now you're disappointed in the person where you say, "You know what? I really thought you knew me better than that to believe such a thing." Because what they just demonstrated to you was that they didn't really know you. Well, that's what this John is saying here about Yeshua. He says, "Look, he says, you know that he has manifested to take away our sins, and he, and in him there is no sin, and everyone staying in him does not sin." Everyone sinning has neither seen him. In other words, they really didn't see him for what he was. They didn't see him as he really is. He said they've never, neither seen him nor known him. They've neither seen him nor known him. They didn't have a relationship with him. Because if you did, you wouldn't sin. You understand this? I know you understand this, that when you sin, you know you're breaking your relationship, you're damaging your relationship. And that's why you need to confess your sins, repent, and restore a broken relationship, a damaged relationship. Because if your relationship was perfect, you would not have sinned, because you would have respected the relationship enough not to do that. When a man or woman cheats on their spouse, there's a problem in that relationship. If the relationship was where it should be, neither one would ever do such a thing, because the relationship would be such that there would never even be a thought to do it.

So what we're talking about here is relationship. Yahweh wants a relationship with you forever. And guess what? He expects you to spend forever with him in a certain character and a certain relationship with him. It's not "come as you are and you get to be forever with him as you are." He wants you to grow into a very specific type of behavioral set of patterns. He wants you to love one another. He wants you to have no hate in you. He wants you to be submissive and obedient to his authority. He wants you to be like his Son. Yes. I mean, in case we just need it to be more easily understood, he wants you to be Yeshua-like. He wants you to be transformed and conformed into that image. He still wants you to have your personality, all the beautiful individualistic things you bring to the mix, but he wants you to have the character of total submission to his authority, and the character of love, and the willingness to love so much that you're even willing to lay down your life for your brother. I, that's what he wants us to develop. What does that really look like? It looks like all of the Torah being worked out in the fruit of the Ruach: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, all that stuff, all nine of those. That's what we're describing here.

He says, "Everyone staying in him, walking in him, keeping yourself in him." What's him? The truth, the Torah, the word, the light. "Does not sin." And "everyone sinning has never seen him nor known him."

"Little children, let no one lead you astray. The one doing righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." The one doing it doesn't say that he did it for you. The one doing righteousness is righteous. Didn't I tell you I could prove it? There it is. I don't have to do anymore. We could end the teaching right now. John says it: "The one doing righteousness is righteous." Righteousness is something you do. The problem is that the church won't teach people what it is that you need to do to be righteous, because they've wiped it out and said it was all done away. You know, in Ezekiel 22, it says, "Their priests have done violence to my Torah." What's more violent than ripping it out completely and saying you don't have to do it? "There is a conspiracy of her prophets, they have done violence to my teachings." I'm not going to go there, we'll never get out of Ezekiel 22. I love that section.

Continuing, because I want to finish this chapter, he says, "The one doing sin." Okay, we just learned that the one doing righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. In other words, if you're doing righteousness, you are righteous like Yeshua. That means that you're becoming like Yeshua. However, the opposite is, "The one doing sin is of the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning." For this purpose, the Son of Elohim is manifested to destroy the works of the devil. So now we're seeing a complete contrast. On one end of the spectrum, there's righteousness, Yeshua, the truth, the Torah. On the other hand, there's the lies, the deceptions, the devil, and sin. And there's no mixing them together. He says, "Yeshua was manifested." The purpose of the Son of Elohim was manifested. "On Sinai, in giving of the Torah, the Torah is the Son, the Word is the Son, the Truth is the Son. The Truth was manifested, the Word was manifested, the Light was manifested. The Son came in the flesh, the Word was came, put on flesh, was manifested to do what? To destroy the works of the devil." What are the works of the devil? To get you to break the law. Let's just call it what it is. It's not all the, you know, other things that maybe people. It's very simple. The works of the devil is to get you to be disobedient so you don't get into the kingdom. That's the one single purpose of the devil is lawlessness imputed to you, getting you to be lawless so that you, I shouldn't say imputed, but to be getting you to be inspired or encouraged to do lawlessness so that you won't get in. That is his whole purpose. So what was, so what was manifested to destroy that purpose? The truth, the word, the Torah, the Messiah, Yeshua. All was manifested to destroy that work. Amen and amen.

Continuing, he says, "Everyone having been born of Elohim does not sin, because his seed stays in him, and he is powerless to sin because he has been born of Elohim." Yes, if you're staying in him, you are powerless to sin. The problem is, you don't always stay. Because again, people will use that verse. Now, now let's use it like we did with the grace teaching. Let's let's change the words around here. Let's pretend we didn't just read everything in chapter 2 and this much of chapter 3, and now we're going to take this verse after everything we just read and say, "Everyone having been born of Elohim does not sin." And so now that you're born of Elohim, you can't sin. Does that make sense? Just because you're born of Elohim now, you, it's impossible, you can't sin. So that means whatever you do isn't sin? Or does it have to do with everything he's been saying over and over again? "If you stay in him, if you stay in him, if you stay in him."

So he says, "In this, the children of Elohim have..." Let me go back to verse 9. I skipped it to verse 10. "Everyone having been born, born of Elohim does not sin, because his seed stays in him, and he's powerless to sin because he's been born of Elohim." That's if he stays in him, and if that seed stays in him. But John already talked about that. He said in, um, in verse, uh, 6 of chapter 2, he says, "This, the one who stays, says he stays in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked." He says, "But you've got to stay in him." You know, and by the way, Yeshua says this in John 17. In John 17, or excuse me, John 15. In John 15, it says, it says, "If you stay in me and my words," in verse 7, "If you stay in me and my word stay in you, you shall ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you." But if, if, if, if, if you stay, in verse 6, it is said, "If anyone does not stay in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." This is chapter 15 of John. And so John understands this whole idea of staying. That's one of John's themes. Stay in him. And if you leave, then you're in big trouble. And so John doesn't say this over and over again, and he doesn't claim Yeshua said it over and over again, just to have you all of a sudden say, "Okay, now that you think you're born of Elohim, you can do whatever you want because it's impossible to sin." By the way, that would be also a very bad interpretation. Even if that was true, that would mean that you could not eat pork, that you could not do the wrong feasts, that you could not. It wouldn't say that whatever you do is not sin, it means you couldn't do sin. So let me ask you, is it possible for you to eat pork? Anything stopping you? Really? No. Can you keep Sunday, Christmas, Easter, and any other thing? Can you hate your brother? Can you steal, rape, pillage, and whatever other commandment you want to break? So that can't mean that it's impossible for you to sin, meaning that you can't possibly do it. It simply means that if you've been born of him and you stay in him, you won't sin. You won't sin. He is powerless to sin because all of the power is in obedience.

He says, "In this, the children of Elohim and the children of the devil are manifest." "Everyone not doing righteousness is not of Elohim." I don't know why is that not in every Christian Bible? "If you're not doing righteousness, you're not of Elohim." "Neither the one not loving his brother." Because of this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that one should love one another. So let's understand what we're talking about here. He says, "Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and killed his brother." And why did he kill him? Because his works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous. One did the right thing, one did the wrong thing. Which, by the way, absolutely implies that they knew better. Abel didn't punish one because he didn't know any better and reward the other because he accidentally got it right. They knew, they were taught, it was expected, how to do it correctly. And so here we're being told by John, says, "Look, Cain, who was of the wicked one and killed his brother, why did he kill him? Because his works were wicked, and those of his brother were righteous." So now we're getting a comparison of works. John is advocating works.

"Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. The one not loving his brother stays in death. Everyone hating his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has everlasting life staying in him." Okay, let me just clarify that. You have left death and entered life because you stepped onto the path. By the way, if you step off the path, you're back into death. You can walk on and off the path as much as you want. Nothing stopping you whatsoever. When you're on the path, though, you have entered into life. As he says, he says, "So you passed out of death into life, you walked off of the death path into the life path, but you could always walk back off." That's why I wanted to give you that picture when we started. He said, "But, um, let's see. Everyone hating his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has everlasting life staying in him." So anybody who breaks the commandments is not have everlasting life staying in you, right now? You have the potential for everlasting life, but you have to get to the door. You have to walk to the door. Oh, people say, "Well, how much do I have to do to get to the door?" That's between you and your Father. I have no idea what you have to do. It's not about getting it right, by the way. We need to throw in Deuteronomy 8:2. It says that it's about being tested and humbled and proved whether it's in your heart to get it right, not about whether or not you get it right. Deuteronomy 8:2 says that you would go through this wilderness of life so that you could be humbled and tested to prove whether it's in your heart to keep the commandments. So it's not about how many commandments you get right. It's about proving to the Father that you want to get it right. Yes, that's all that matters. Did you prove that you want to be submissive and obedient? And if the answer is yes, in his eyes, if he decides it's yes, you will get in that door. That's what it's all about.

Continuing, he says, "By this we have, we have known love because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." "But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his tender affections from him, how does the love of Elohim stay in him?" Lay down our lives for our brothers. We won't lay down a pet doctrine for a brother. And when I say lay it down, I don't mean break the commandments. I mean just stop fighting about it. You can't lay down anything for your brother. I've seen that. I've witnessed it. We're supposed to be willing to lay down our life for our brother.

Continuing, he says, "My little children, let us not love in the word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." And by this we know that we are in the truth and shall set our hearts at rest before him. By this we know that we are of the Torah, of the light, of Yeshua, of the word, and shall set our hearts at rest before him. "That if our heart condemns us, Elohim is greater than our heart and knows all." Beloved ones, "if our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward Elohim." And "whatever we ask, we receive from him because we guard his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight." Whatever we ask, we receive. Why? Because we guard his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. The one thing Christianity does not push hard enough is to figure out what is pleasing in his sight. You need to do what is pleasing in his sight, amen, not pleasing in your own sight, but his sight. And this is his command, that we should believe in the authority of his Son. Remember, we took the word "name" and changed it to "authority" in the authority of his Son, Yeshua Messiah, because his name is right there anyway, Yeshua Messiah, and love one another as he gave us command. And the one guarding his command stays in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he stays in us by the Spirit which he gave us. What's the Spirit? The Spirit of truth, the Spirit of the word, the Spirit of the Torah, the Spirit of Yeshua stays in us that he gave us. The Ruach. Amen and amen.

We're going to have to end here for today. We've got a whole lot more to cover here with righteousness. I hope this is beginning to open up your eyes and being able to defend exactly what righteousness is, and what it, not only what it is, but why is it so important? Well, because without it, you're not going to get to the door, and you're not going to experience eternal life. Eternal life is for the righteous. The kingdom is going to be filled with the righteous. And so we need to figure out how to be righteous. Amen, amen.

Let's go before the Father. Father, we come before you and we desire to learn to become righteous. Father, we are so excited that you have given us a path to righteousness. You've given us a roadmap on how to get to the door. And so, Father, help us to have the strength and courage. Encourage us to have the strength, the conviction, the commitment to stay on the path of righteousness so that we may pursue it all the way to the end, to overcome all obstacles, and pursue it all the way to the end. Father, we desire to be righteous as he, your Son, Yeshua, is righteous, as you, Father, are righteous. That everything you two do are righteous things, and we are to become changed and conformed into that image, the image of righteousness, the image of righteous actions, righteous thoughts, righteous behaviors, so we literally become a righteous person. Father, we know that the type of person you want to live with are righteous people. Help us to be that. Help us to understand it. Help us to find out and to discover and apply in our lives what is pleasing in your sight, because what we greatest, our greatest desire is that we would do what's pleasing in your sight so that you would say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," or that you would say, "This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased," because he's done what pleases me. By the way, we should understand that when the Father said that to Yeshua, "This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased," is because he did what was pleasing in his Father's sight. He may just say those words to you if you would do what is pleasing in his sight. So, Father, help us to do what's pleasing in your sight. Help us to know what is pleasing in your sight. Help us to be transformed and conformed into the image of the Son so that we can be righteous as he is righteous. And so, Father, we ask your help. We plead our case before the throne of grace. We come to you seeking mercy and intervention, seeking you to pour out your love on us, to help us down this road which is so challenging with the world all around us on all sides. Father, help us to stay on that path. And we ask and we plead and we come before you, thanking you in advance, in the name of Yeshua and his authority. Amen, amen.

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