Book of Nehemiah Part 4

Alright, let's pray and we will get started Lord Jesus again as we open your word.

We ask the Holy Spirit to rightly understand what you have revealed.

So that we may properly believe confess and do according to your word we ask in Jesus name.

Amen.

Okay.

Yes, Hannah.

You have a question.

Yeah, they cast lots.

Yeah, so I would say that in that particular case.

You know, there's I forget the text.

That's basically says that the lot belongs to the Lord a lot.

The Lord is the one who actually decides the lots.

So every time I win very big against my wife and Yahtzee, that's that God Shining down on me.

That that's a valid connection, what are you guys grown in about?

Yeah, I Should tell you but the connection between

Christ's a casting of lots and and the casting of lots in today's text.

That's more just a coincidence kind of thing.

But you know, I will say this there was one time I beat my wife really badly in Yahtzee.

I mean, it was like I got like three Yahtzee's and you know, it was like a huge score.

I was like 200 points better than her and I in and I won so handily in

that particular whole game that I put the the scorecard on our refrigerator using a

magnet because I wanted everyone to see it and.

And it disappeared very quickly and when I opened the toilet lid it was sitting in the toilet so

She wanted to make sure that she that I knew what the fate of that Yahtzee card was.

But that that's a whole other thing.

By the way, I I got to get back with you Hannah regarding your questions you asked about

Messianic Jews and seventh -day Adventist.

This might actually be a good kind of place to talk about that.

Actually.

So, you know from time to time we do have.

We do have like open open studies where people can ask questions and I had received from

Hannah Ganarvich to two pretty big questions.

What do Messianic Jews believe today and and and what about seventh -day Adventist?

So we'll start with Messianic Judaism.

So Messianic Judaism that I grew up with is different now than what is being put out there

as Messianic Judaism so the the best way I can put it is that there

was a group back in the 70s 80s and even 90s called Jews for Jesus and

what what these people basically are are people who grew up Jewish and

through the Word of God have come to realize that Jesus is the Messiah and They still

maintain some of their cultural identity in their in their churches, but their churches aren't a

true denomination so but what happened maybe about 10 and

15 years ago is a lot of the Jews for Jesus groups gonna ended up Being co -opted

by the the then up -and -coming false theology known as the Hebrew roots movement

and and so the Hebrew roots people have kind of decimated large portions of the Jews for

Jesus community.

And and considered them to be not Jewish enough, which is really weird

but the the the people who claim that they're Torah observant Christians and things like

this.

That is they literally if not, if they're not a cult they border on cultic practices

and there are some there are some conclaves of these Hebrew roots folks up in

Montana and in Idaho and they practice polygamy.

So, you know just I mean crazy kind of stuff going on in this and the horror stories coming out of that are interesting

so that that's so the Jews for Jesus if you can't think of them as like Like

evangelicals with like a slightly Jewish spin based on their culture.

It would have been better if they'd like become Lutherans, but that I say that about everybody.

But we'll talk about seven -day Adventism in a second.

Yes, you had a question James.

Oh Yeah, so the Hebrew roots people absolutely require circumcision and

the Hebrew roots folks.

If let me see if I can find this really quick.

Let's see here.

I need to do a Google search.

I'm and I'm looking sorry I was doing some research on North Point for issues, etc.

Interview.

Hold on a second here.

I want to go Hebrew roots

T sit -see.

Both let me see if I spelled that right?

Yeah, I'm trying to transliterate.

One of the other things they do is they require Their men to wear these tassels off

their pants.

These are called sit -see oath and so they'll connect them.

You know four of them, you know on their belt loops and and you know.

They're these are people who legitimately try to be like completely Torah observant.

So here's some photos.

So you got two in the front two in the back and and they think they're required to do this.

You know, it's so the Hebrew roots the best way I can describe the Hebrew roots movement is is that this is today's

modern -day version of the Judaizing heresy and just before

I Arrived here as pastor.

So this would be nine years ago like about this week I did a debate with a guy in the Hebrew roots movement by

the name of Jim Staley on whether or not Christians were required to keep the Sabbath and.

The guy is a super snaky guy the best was best way.

He ended up spending some time in prison because he like built old ladies out of millions of dollars in just

really terrible stuff, but.

And so they you know, they claim you're required to keep the Sabbath you're required to you know.

Continued circumcision and in my debate with him.

I asked him straight up.

I said so if they were to rebuild a temple in Jerusalem today.

Okay, would you be traveling there three times a year for the Mosaic Covenant

feast days?

You have to be there for Passover you have to be there for the Feast of Pentecost and you also have to be

there for The Day of Atonement.

I said, would you be traveling three times a year?

And he said he basic he kind of balked at the question of initially.

He says well in order to be obedient to my Lord, I would have to.

I'm just totally Not understanding what the scripture says that.

That the Old Testament temple and all that was a was a type in shadow.

Pointing us to Christ.

And so I mean, yeah, these these are people who.

They they've taken the writings of Paul and completely flipped him on their head.

In fact, Jim Staley who is.

Now that he's out of prison.

He's like reasserted himself in the Hebrew Roots movement.

He is a fellow who claims That he has a divine interpretation

of the book of Galatians which basically his divine interpretation is it

contradicts what the actual text says and he learned it because An angel appeared to him while he was

reclining on his lazy boy Chair in his in his living room.

Yeah, I was thinking that maybe the angel Moroni and Joseph Smith appeared to him as well.

So you'll note that the Hebrew Roots movement very dangerous very dangerous movement.

Last year at the issues, etc Conference we actually met a fellow who came out of the Hebrew Roots movement because of the work that we've

been doing at fighting for the faith.

So because once you see that the Sabbath is actually type in shadow and the scripture actually says that in

Colossians 2.

And we're not required to keep it and you'll note that Paul and the Apostles they argue strongly against

circumcision.

You're not required to be circumcised just full stop.

You know, that's that's and in fact Paul goes on to say anybody who's circumcised.

Because they think they're keeping the law.

They're required to keep the entire law.

They've actually been severed from Christ so.

You know, there's that and then when you talk about Seventh -day Adventism I think they're

connected with the Millerites if I'm not mistaken their history but you have to go back into the 1800s and you have

to recognize that in the 1800s with the rise of Evolutionary theory

a lot of Christians and a lot of Christian groups went super mystical.

You think of like Ralph Waldo Emerson and you know, all these like these kind of like pseudo Mystic

writers of the 1800s.

With that then you had the rise of very real really weird sectarian groups including

Mormonism and the Seventh -day Adventists and so the Seventh -day Adventists, it's a Who is their

prophetess again?

LNG white there we go.

LNG white.

This is a woman who claimed to be a prophet and and but.

Basically, I consider her to be like a prototype Hebrew roots lady, so she claimed to be a prophet.

She actually has some notable false prophecies.

She's not a prophet and and she she claims that.

The only day that Christians are allowed to worship because they have to follow the Sabbath is on Saturday.

So there that's why their Seventh -day Adventist is that they only worship on Saturday.

It's a legalistic group and I would note that despite their legalism.

The gospel is still present there.

It just gets papered over by a bunch of other stuff.

And so when this so we don't actually say that the Seventh -day Adventists are a legitimate cult.

They they have some they do not properly distinguish between law and gospel so there are some Chris there are

Christians in the group, but the the the overall warp and woof of the teaching

especially from Ellen White is Is it's really dangerous stuff and can shipwreck your faith pretty

quickly.

So Yes.

Mm -hmm.

Yep.

Yeah, no, see that's that's kind of the thing.

That's good.

That's the story if you would have like how false teaching works is.

You'll note that the devil when he comes to us.

He doesn't say he doesn't come to us, you know on fire with horns and a pitchfork and hi I'm here to take over your church,

you know.

Instead what the devil does and you'll see this in the screwtape letters if you've ever read the screwtape letters.

Is that CS Lewis wrote about how when we're deceived

it's always Christianity and It's Christianity and something else.

So I've been in an online debate over the past five weeks now with like

legitimate Nazis.

And and I'm not actually speaking in hyperbole here.

Okay, just I'm.

It's one of the craziest things I've ever had to deal with and in fact If I can give you an example of what I

mean by kind of Christianity and let me see if I could find this in my screenshots.

Yeah, Christianity plus something.

Hang on a second here.

What'd you say?

New Christianity and Hang on a second.

I gotta hunt this down.

Let me let me find this real quick.

Just allow me to wander through my Twitter stream for just a minute if I could okay

and yeah, this is kind of just a mess, but.

Yeah, yeah, you know what?

Let me go through maulers.

Hang on that I can probably get to a quicker my apologies.

What you're gonna see now is actual Nazism, but I'm gonna.

I'm looking for something very particular and This will give you an example of kind of what's wrong.

You know the same thing that's wrong with Lng white and and these guys

it's the same thing.

Hang on a second here.

Let's.

Yeah, that's he's truthy, okay, but I gotta find there it is,

okay, this is what I was looking for.

Okay.

So, I mean if that doesn't just take your breath away just looking at it.

But here's the so I don't I don't read German so but here's the here's the.

So Hitler come on Luther's lair, okay.

So Hitler's struggle and Luther's teaching.

The issue is the wound.

Okay in German the issue is the wound.

Okay, and note who gets taught billing.

Hitler does.

Okay, and this guy.

You know so he put this up because he claims that you know that guys like me are Stupid

because we claim the Nazis were pagans and atheists.

They actually most of them were but.

So you'll note that in 19 and no 1933 that's kind of an important thing there

by the way because with Luther with Hitler rising to power in

33 you couldn't oppose him within five weeks.

He was the dick.

He was not Chancellor of Germany.

He was the dictator of Germany and there were people who were dying and I hate to say a lot of churches Capitulated

him it like immediately.

And so so this was a piece of Nazi propaganda and the issue is the owned.

Alright, the issue is the owned.

You don't mix Hitler and Christianity.

You don't mix LNG white and Christianity you don't and that's

always how it goes with the with with with false groups.

And I would note that we conservatives are very very prone to an wound ourselves the

Republican Party and Christianity, okay, be careful with that be careful.

Okay, so vote principally, but don't add to the scriptures.

Does that make sense?

So, you know, this is again, you know, I got to get that off the screen.

Go away.

Go away.

Yeah, it keeps a look at so but so if you wanted to do

more research on LNG white and in the Seventh -day Adventist

if you look up like lectures by the late.

Dr. Walter Martin on Seventh -day Adventism.

I think that gives a very balanced approach to it.

Where he for real takes on their legalism.

But they come all all the old school cult Apologists would

come up short and say that they they don't quite Fit the actual bill of being a cult, but they're cultic

if the best way I can put it.

So does that make sense?

So lose the owned the end, right?

How we doing on time terrible?

Okay.

All right, so Sherry online says she's an ex -member of the Seventh -day Adventist interesting.

All right.

Oh moto I'm so glad to see that somebody appreciates Napoleon dynamite.

Um, I don't know if Luis and Bill saw that but

All right, let's in this short amount of time that we have.

Let's consider something that happened in our text from the book of Nehemia

we were in chapter 8 and we were in the portion of Nehemiah's book where the Ezra the

scribe was reading out the scriptures and he was on a lifted up platform and

We got the names of the guys who were also in the crowd in Jerusalem while the book of the law was being read and

it was being read over a long Period of time, you know multiple hours.

There were people there that were helping them understand That what what the what the book

meant what they were reading and what it meant.

They read from the book of the law of God clearly and they gave the sense of the people understood the reading.

Now, here's the thing If you have had a large number of your

relatives your ancestors at this point.

This is 70 years since the destruction of Jerusalem who lost their lives in the

campaign of Nebuchadnezzar.

Remember out of all of the millions of people living in Judah at the time

only roughly 5 ,000 of them survived Nebuchadnezzar's campaign and They

surrendered as they were instructed to by God and as a result of surrendering their lives They went into exile, but who of

these people did not lose family members.

Who of them can say they didn't lose an uncle a grandma a cousin, you know.

You know large portions of their family that are no more and One of the

reasons why all of this went down is because in the reign of Manasseh the Word of

God got Moved away, you know no one was reading it anymore and he basically

paganized Solomon's temple and Put in a Shira pole in the Holy of Holies because everybody knows Yahweh

needs a wife and it was all kinds of Craziness going on in the temple and they refused to

listen to the prophets and ultimately to Prophet Jeremiah and God executed the judgments that he

threatened the punishments from the Mosaic Covenant received the book of Deuteronomy chapter 28 if you're not sure on this

and so.

Now they've come back to Jerusalem.

They've rebuilt the Walls there is no temple yet.

There is no temple at this point and now they are having the

law read to them and they are hearing God's law and

They're connecting dots at this point looking at the temple mount.

There's not a workable temple there.

The worship has come to a stop hasn't gone on for 70 years.

And this is all because of their guilt because of the guilt of their ancestors and their sin.

So that being the case What do you think would be the normal response to hearing God's law read

and having all of this stuff brought to the front?

Of your mind.

It wouldn't make you leap for joy.

It would actually cause some grief, right?

And that's what happens.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin through the law.

So Nehemiah who was the governor Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites who taught

the people?

Said to all the people this day is holy to Yahweh your God.

Do not mourn or weep for all the people wept as they heard the words of the law.

So then he said to them go your way eat the fat drink sweet wine.

Send portions to anyone who has nothing ready for this day is holy to our Lord.

Do not be grieved the joy of the Lord is your strength.

So the Levites calmed all the people saying be quiet this day is holy do not be grieved.

And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing.

Because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Isn't it interesting now?

Normally when somebody tells me how to feel the the only thing I feel is anger.

You know, it's like what do you mean?

Don't tell me to feel this way.

Ah.

You know.

Yeah, right and in this particular case, you know, they're not being rude to them.

Yes, the law has convicted them their sins.

But they also have much to rejoice about and the thing that they found to rejoice in was what?

Because they had understood the words that were declared to them if

anything if Anything they could rejoice in they didn't have a lot to rejoice in the thing that they can rejoice is they?

Understood God's Word that is something truly to rejoice in it is an

absolute blessing from God.

When through the power of the Holy Spirit he opens our eyes.

So that we rightly understand the Word of God so that we can see not only our guilt.

But are the great mercy and kindness of our God that we would believe rightly.

Regarding him and worship and war walk in our lives according to his holy commands.

So you'll see that's that's kind of a thing so they need something to kind of fire things up a little bit and get

people to not feel so terrible about themselves and.

So while they were reading through the Torah.

They would have run across the feast days the Mosaic Covenant feast days and it just so happened.

Hey, wait a second.

The Feast of Booths is just next week, you know and so They they decided they're

going to what they're going to do this and what's interesting is you don't really have any other account in the Old Testament prior to this

of the Israelites actually observing this feast, which is fascinating.

So on the second day the heads of the father's houses of all the people.

With a priest and the Levites that came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the law.

So now the Bible study continues.

We need to keep studying this.

We need to be in this.

We need to understand what it says and means so they found it written in the law.

That the Lord that Yahweh had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths think

tense here.

But have you have you any of you ever seen any documentaries about the Hasidic Jews who live in

Brooklyn?

And and how those Jewish communities in New York what the when they how they celebrate the Feast of Booths.

It's absolutely Fascinating.

Okay, it's Legitimately interesting so and so you think back in the day you to build

a tent.

Maybe didn't have canvas you would have had to use trees and branches and stuff like this.

So during the Feast of Booths in New York to this day, okay Jews who live in like

condominiums or are in Are in apartment buildings.

They will put on their balcony.

They will construct a Tent or a booth of some kind and

they live in it during the Feast of Booths.

It's really fascinating.

Okay, you just google it, you know.

Maybe I just nerd out on the wrong things.

Anyway.

So here's they said so.

That they should dwell in booths during the Feast of the seventh month and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their

Towns in Jerusalem go out to the hills bring branches of olive wood oil myrtle palm and other leafy trees.

To make booths as it is written.

So the people went out and brought and brought them and made booths for themselves each on his

roof in their courts in the courts of the house of God in the square at the

water great in the square at the gate of Ephraim and all the assembly of those who had returned from the

captivity made booths and lived in the booths.

From the days of Yeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done.

So going all the way back to when they first came into the land of Israel.

You'll note that that's kind of an indictment.

Isn't it that they knew that this was what they were supposed to do and After you know,

Joshua gets in and they finish the conquest.

Do they do it?

Nope.

It's like ah, okay, and this is kind of an interesting thing, too I think it's in the prophet

Ezekiel is in describing life in the new earth it talks about

this feast day actually being observed in the new earth of All the feast

days that you know that could end up in the in the new earth.

This is the one that makes sense and let me let me explain it.

The reason why God instituted this the the Feast of Booths was for them to remember

their wilderness Wanderings how God had had led them Through

the wilderness to the promised land.

And so I think it's in the book of Ezekiel I'll have to do a little research on it.

See if I can pull out some of the passages for that before you guys next week because obviously I'm running out of time.

Because you know we had so much to do today.

But all that being said this is the feast that makes sense for us to celebrate in the future.

Okay.

So imagine in the new earth one of the feast days that we have you know.

They're gonna be feast days because we're worship is gonna be a big deal in the new earth, right?

And so, you know, we're gonna all like build booths for ourselves and live in them for a week.

And to remember our wilderness wanderings here on the earth.

I Think that makes perfect sense.

It just it's a beautiful picture.

So anyway, they hadn't done so all the way from the time of Joshua the nun and then Son of Nun and then

day by day from the first day to the last day He read from the book of the law of God.

They kept the feast for seven days and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the rule so, you

know, they are absolutely this is a resurgence a

revival if you would of the study and the hearing of God's Word and

keeping the feast days that their their ancestors had never kept and so

Just a fascinating fascinating thing boy.

I wish I can say that we had more time, but we don't so Let me see

Louise says we admit nothing.

I I have no idea why Napoleon dynamite is such a hot topic with the with her.

So, you know gosh anyway.

What was that a Greatest movie ever made.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you know Tina eat your food.

Anyway Yeah.

You dang quesadilla, all right.

We're gonna end up here because I've got a head off to Emmanuel.

I got another confirmation to do shortly.

So peace to you brothers and sisters Lord willing.

We will see you next time.