Are you ready to get into God's Word?
Amen, let's do so.
Open your Bibles with me to Deuteronomy chapter 12 and we're going to begin with
verse 29 in just a moment.
We're going to lay a foundation for this message and I just want to say on the
outset that this message may be a bit challenging for some of us, especially
those of us that were raised up in Christian tradition.
This may challenge our tradition a bit.
I'm going to be talking about the truth about Easter, the truth about Easter and
we're going to start with Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse 29 laying a
foundation in Scripture.
It says, "...when Yahweh your Elohim does cut off from before you the nations which
you go to dispossess and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, guard
yourself," Everybody say, guard yourself.
"...guard yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them." To follow whom?
To follow the people that you dispossessed from the nations when you went in to take
the land, all right?
"...guard yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are
destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire about their mighty ones." In
other words, don't ask about their gods.
Yahweh says, I don't want you to inquire about their mighty ones, about their gods.
"...saying, how did these nations serve their mighty ones?" In other words,
being inquisitive about how the nations that you dispossessed served their mighty
ones, their gods.
And it goes on to say, "...and let me do so too." In other words, I want to serve
Yahweh the way the nations served their gods.
God said don't do that.
Now this is a Torah commandment.
God says, don't serve me the way the nations served their gods.
Look at verse 31.
"...do not do so to Yahweh your Elohim." In other words, don't adopt the
traditions, don't adopt the customs, don't adopt the pagan ways, don't worship
me according to the ways of the nations.
Can you say amen?
Goes on to say, "...for every abomination which Yahweh hates they have done to their
mighty ones." Their gods.
So every abomination that Yahweh hates the nations have done in the service of their
gods, that's why Yahweh says don't worship me in that way.
I don't want to be worshipped in that way.
"...for they even burned their sons and daughters in the fire to their mighty
ones." Now for those of you that say that this Torah commandment in Deuteronomy
chapter 12 doesn't apply to us today because the Torah has been abolished,
let's take a look at what Yeshua said about the Torah and the prophets.
Go with me to Matthew chapter 5 beginning with verse 17.
Yeshua said, "...do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the prophets,"
Okay the Torah commandment that I just read in Deuteronomy 12, all right?
Yeshua is saying, don't think I came to abolish that commandment.
I did not come to destroy but to complete, to exalt it to its deeper spiritual
application.
Verse 18, "...for truly I say to you till the heaven and the earth pass away one jot
or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done or till all be
accomplished or completed," And that hasn't happened yet.
Verse 19, "...whoever then breaks one of the least of these commands," What
commands?
The Torah commands.
"...and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of the heavens but
whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens."
So if any one of us today teach that YAHWEH said do not inquire of the nations
how they worship their gods and worship me, this is YAHWEH speaking, in that way,
if we teach that then Yeshua said we're great in the kingdom.
Can you say amen?
All right, go with me to Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 2.
Notice what else the bible says.
Thus says YAHWEH, do not learn the way of the Gentiles, everybody say, do not learn
the way of the Gentiles.
"...and do not be awed by the signs of the heavens," In other words, the sun or the
moon, the pagans worshipped the signs of the heaven.
"...for the Gentiles are awed by them," They worship them.
"...for the prescribed customs of these peoples are worthless," Everybody say
worthless.
So God is saying the prescribed customs, the traditions, the customs of the nations
are worthless and so don't learn them.
And then Jeremiah chapter 16 and verse 19 says, "...O YAHWEH, my strength and my
stronghold and my refuge in the day of distress the Gentiles shall come to you
from the ends of the earth and say," What are they going to say?
"...our fathers have inherited only falsehood," That means only lies.
"...futility," That means vanities.
"...and there is no value in them," In other words, speaking of their worthless
idolatries and pagan traditions and practices.
So the Gentiles are going to come and they're going to say, we inherited lies
from our fathers, we inherited idolatries, we inherited pagan traditions and
practices that are worth less, that have no value, that's going to be the
confession of the Gentiles.
So with that being our foundation let's take a look at where the name Easter comes
from, all right?
So many ecclesiastical and secular scholars and historians agree that the
name Easter and the traditions surrounding it have their roots in ancient
polytheistic or pagan religions.
Let me give you a few quotes just to substantiate what I just said.
This is the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, volume five, page six.
It says, "...since be the venerable the origin of the term for the feast of
Christ's resurrection," This is talking about the term the Catholics use,
Easter.
Remember this is a Catholic encyclopedia.
"...this term has been popularly considered to be from the Anglo-Saxon word
estre, a goddess of spring.
The old high German plural for dawn, spelled e-o-s-t-a-r-u-n, whence has come
the German Ostern and our English Easter." So even the Catholics say that the word
Easter has its origins in paganism.
All right.
Albert Henry Newman writes in a manual of church history, page 299, "...the fact
that vernal or spring festivals were general among pagan peoples no doubt had
much to do with the form assumed by the Eastern festival in the Christian
churches." The English term Easter is of pagan origin.
And then let's look at Ethel L.
Erlen, she writes in Festivals, Holy Days, and Saint Days, page 73.
"...on this greatest of Christian festivals several survivals occur of
ancient heathen ceremonies.
To begin with, the name itself is not Christian but pagan.
Ostara was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring." Now it's important to note that
the name Easter is never once used in the original text of the Scripture nor is it
ever associated biblically with the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua
Messiah.
So you'll not see the word Easter anywhere in the Hebrew text or anywhere in the
Greek text, all right?
It was never once used in the original text of the Scriptures nor is it ever
biblically associated with the death, burial, and resurrection of our Messiah.
You won't find it in the context of the bible, that word Easter being associated
with the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua Messiah.
The word Easter is used only one time in the King James translation of the bible
into English.
I'm going to show you that, this is Acts chapter 12 and verse 1.
Acts chapter 12 and verse 1.
"...Now about that time Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vex certain
of the church and he killed James the brother of John with the sword and because
he saw it pleased the Jews he proceeded further to take Peter also.
Then were the days of unleavened bread," Now that ought to give us a hint,
this was happening during the season of unleavened bread and this is a reference
to the unleavened bread commanded in the bible in Leviticus 23 and it goes on to
say, "...and when he had apprehended him he put him in prison and delivered him to
four quaternions of soldiers to keep him intending after Easter," There it is.
"...intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people," But I thought this
was during the season of the feast of unleavened bread, so wouldn't that be
Pesach or Passover?
How did Easter get in there?
So now it's important to realize that the King James Version is a relatively modern
translation of the bible into the English language.
The tradition of Easter celebrated on the first Sunday after the vernal or spring
equinox had already been firmly established in the church at the time of
the translation of the King James Bible.
Remember, the Roman church divorced itself of its Hebraic root in the early
centuries, so when the translators of the King James Version were looking for a word
that would represent Pascha, which is the Greek word for Passover, derived from the
Hebrew word Pesach, they chose instead the word Easter.
It appears they didn't want anything Hebrew or Jewish to be represented in the
text, instead they supported the Roman way of placing a biblical theme over an
already existing pagan holiday.
Easter and Passover are not the same.
Everybody say that with me.
Easter and Passover are not the same.
Easter is always the first Sunday after the vernal equinox and according to the
bible, Passover is always the 14th day of the biblical month of Abib.
These dates can be as much as a month apart as they are this year.
So let's take a look at the New King James Version which has corrected the original
poor translation.
So Acts chapter 12 and verse 4.
So when He had arrested him He put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of
soldiers to keep him intending to bring him before the people, what does it say?
After Passover.
Again, the Greek word is Pascha from the Hebrew word Pesach and can only have one
meaning and that meaning is Passover, all right?
In reality, the King James Version translators inserted the name of a pagan
holiday in the place of one of Elohim's holy days and the English-speaking
Christian church has confused the pagan celebration of Easter and its many
unbiblical traditions with the holy day of Pesach or Passover for centuries.
So instead of endorsing the pagan celebration of Easter, Acts 12 for
properly translated proves the fact that the body of Messiah was still observing
the biblical holy day of Passover 10 years after the death of the Messiah.
As we've seen many reference books tell us the name Easter is derived from the name
of the Teutonic Goddess of Spring, although this relationship does exist in
reality the possible origin of the name and the goddess could go as far back as
the Tower of Babel.
The bible tells us that after the flood Noah had a great-grandson named Nimrod,
so let's look at that passage of scripture.
This is Genesis chapter 10 beginning with verse 1 and this is the genealogy of the
sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Jopheth.
These are the three sons who were with Noah on the ark.
It goes on to say, "...and sons were born to them after the flood," Then look at
verse 6.
"...and the sons of Ham were Cush and Mitsrayim and Put and Kena'an." Verse 8.
"...and Cush brought forth Nimrod.
He, Nimrod, began to be a mighty one on the earth, he was a mighty hunter before
YAHWEH.
Therefore it is said, like Nimrod the mighty hunter before YAHWEH." Look at
verse 10.
"...and the beginning of his reign," So we know he was a king.
"...was Babel and Eric and Akkad and Kalneh in the land of Shinar.
From that land he went to Asher and built Nineveh and Rehoboth, Ere and Kelah and
Rezin between Nineveh and Kelah the great city." So Jewish sources tell us that
Nimrod was a tyrant who led the people in rebellion against the Almighty.
Some authors believe that not only was he a hunter of animals but he was a hunter of
the souls of men.
They say he was a warrior who conquered people, built great cities, and enticed
people to turn away from the true worship of the Almighty God.
Some say it was Nimrod, or those he inspired, who built the Tower of Babel as
a temple of occult worship in defiance to the Almighty.
Other structures similar to the Tower of Babel were dedicated to pagan deities.
Let's take a look at that.
Genesis chapter 11 and verse 1.
And all the earth had one language and one speech and it came to be as they set out
from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there
and they said to each other, come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly and
they had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar and they said,
come let us build ourselves, notice it says build ourselves, they weren't
building for God, they were building for themselves, a city and a tower whose top
is in the heavens and make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered over all
the face of the earth.
Verse 5, then YAHWEH came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men
had built and YAHWEH said, look they are one people and they all have one language
and this is what they began to do and now they are not going to be withheld from
doing whatever they plan to do, come let us go there and confuse their
language so that they do not understand one another's speech and YAHWEH scattered
them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city
and that is why its name was called Babel because there YAHWEH confused the language
of all the earth and from there YAHWEH scattered them over the face of all the
earth.
So it's obvious that YAHWEH was not pleased with what they were doing and we
can gather from Scripture that Nimrod had aspirations to become a great emperor and
build cities but legend says, and I want to stress to you that this is only legend,
legend says that Nimrod had a wife named Semiramis who had much greater
aspirations, she wanted to become a goddess and as the story goes when Nimrod
eventually died his wife, the queen, deified Nimrod as the sun-god.
In various cultures the sun-god later became known as Baal, the great giver of
life, the god of fire, Moloch, Mithra, Apollo, and by various other
names.
According again to legend, when Semiramis became pregnant out of wedlock she claimed
that Nimrod, her sun-god husband, had impregnated her by the rays of the
sun.
The child that she gave birth to was a son named Tammuz and claimed that Tammuz was
none other than Nimrod reborn or the sun-god incarnate.
Semiramis, also known as Ishtar or Easter, claimed that her son was supernaturally
conceived by no human father.
By saying that Tammuz was the sun-god incarnate she was able to present herself
as the mother of God.
You see how Satan has perverted the true gospel story by using legends to fabricate
a twisted version of his own.
In the old fables of the mystery cults Tammuz was worshipped with various rites
in the spring.
According to the legends, after he was slain by a wild boar he went into the
underworld but through the weeping of his mother he mystically revived in the
budding forth of the vegetation each spring.
Each year a spring festival dramatically represented this supposed resurrection
from the underworld.
So let's go to Ezekiel chapter 8 starting with verse 13 and we'll see that Tammuz is
mentioned in the scripture.
Ezekiel 8 13, and he Elohim said to me, you are to see still greater abominations
which they are doing.
So whatever they're doing, Yahweh is calling them abominations.
And he brought me to the door of the north gate of the house of Yahweh and I saw
women sitting there weeping for Tammuz.
Is it possible they were reenacting this supposed resurrection of Tammuz by weeping
for him?
Then he said to me, have you seen this O son of man?
You are to see still greater abominations than these.
So obviously weeping for Tammuz in the house of the Almighty was an abomination
but Yahweh says, hang on, I'm going to show you something that's even worse.
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh and there at the door
of the temple of Yahweh between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their
backs toward the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east and they were
bowing themselves eastward to the sun.
So what were they doing?
They were worshiping the sun in the temple.
The sun rises in the east and these 25 men had gathered to worship Tammuz at sunrise
in the temple.
So could this activity be evidence of the origins of Easter sunrise service in
Christianity?
Well notice how Yahweh responded to this.
Verse 17.
And he said to me, have you seen O son of man?
Is it a small matter to the house of Yehudah to do these abominations which
they have done here?
Crying for Tammuz, worshiping the sun at sunrise, for they have filled the land
with violence, that most likely is a reference to child sacrifices,
and turn back to provoke me and see they are putting the branch to my nose.
Therefore I shall indeed deal in wrath, all right, so he's angry.
My eyes shall not pardon nor would I spare and they cry in my ears with a loud voice
but I shall not hear them.
So again, saints, what the Ruach HaQodesh has been saying to us in this journey of
over a year is that we have to test everything, we have to test every
tradition, we have to make sure that what we're doing is rooted and grounded in
Scripture and if it is not, we need to stop doing it.
Can you say a good amen?
We need to realize that almost every profane and idolatrous practice originated
with sun-god worship.
As the people scattered across the earth with their different languages they used
different names for the sun-god deities.
In other lands and cultures, the mother goddess was called Ishtar, sounds like
Easter, doesn't it?
Astarte, Ostera, and Easter.
Other names included the wife of Baal, Ashtoreth, and the queen of heaven.
The mother goddess was frequently worshiped as a sort of mother nature,
you've heard that before, right?
Mother nature.
And she was known as the goddess of spring and the goddess of fertility and the
goddess of sex and orgies and temple prostitution were often used in the
worship of Ishtar or Easter.
So let's ask a question that you might have wondered about for a lot of years,
where in the world did Easter bunnies come from?
Christian people, sincere people all over the world say they celebrate the
resurrection of our Lord Messiah Yeshua and they do it with Easter bunnies,
so where in the world did that tradition come from?
Well, one Babylonian myth states that a giant egg fell out of the heavens and
landed in the Euphrates River, the fish rolled the egg to the shore and
the dove sat on it and hatched it and out came the goddess Easter who, in a sign of
her divinity, turned a bird into an egg-laying rabbit.
Happy Easter to you.
There's a lot of mythology surrounding the origins of the traditions that surround
the Easter holiday, however, the fact remains that the Easter bunny,
an egg-laying rabbit, has absolutely nothing to do with the resurrection of our
Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah.
Again, according to Scripture, we are forbidden to worship Elohim with
the same practices, customs, and traditions the pagans use to worship their
gods, it's an abomination to the Almighty.
So where did colored Easter eggs come from?
There's a lot of churches that after they get through talking about resurrection are
going to go right out in the yard and they're going to have massive Easter egg
hunts and they're going to talk about how the Easter bunny came and visited and we
need to know where colored eggs came from.
The egg was a sacred symbol among the Babylonians, they would give painted eggs
to one another as gifts during the spring fertility festival.
The idea of a mystic egg spread from Babylon to many parts of the world.
In Rome, the mystic egg was used in processions in honor of the mother goddess
Roman.
The egg was part of the sacred ceremonies of the Mysteries of Bacchus.
The Druids used the egg as their sacred emblem.
In northern Europe, China, and Japan, the eggs were colored for their sacred
festivals.
All right, so this is very disturbing, this next account.
Some accounts say that on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox, that's Easter
Sunday, the priest of Tammuz would impregnate virgins on the altar of Tammuz.
The following year, they would sacrifice the three-month-old infants and dye Easter
eggs in the blood of the infant sacrifices.
Still today, one of the most popular colors for Easter eggs is blood red.
Where did the practice of Lent come from?
People say, well what are you giving up for Lent?
My answer is, I'm giving up Lent.
Since there's no instruction to observe Lent in the we must ask where this
religious observance came from.
Legend says that Tammuz became a great hunter like his supposed father Nimrod and
at the age of 40 he was gored to death by a wild boar.
In preparation for the spring fertility festival, worshipers of Tammuz would
abstain from pleasure a day for each of his 40 years of life in hopes of enjoying
the pleasures of Tammuz in the afterlife.
So 40 years, 40 days.
John Lancer in his book, Sabean Researches, page 111 and 112 says,
a 40-day abstinence period was anciently observed in honor of the pagan god Osiris,
Odonis, and Tammuz, and these are all just different names of the sun god.
So where does Easter ham come from?
Christians are going to gather around the table and they're going to say,
Lord bless this Easter ham that you told us not to eat as we celebrate this high
pagan day that you told us not to celebrate.
Easter ham, well as mentioned earlier, a legend says that Tammuz was gored to
death by a wild boar, so pagan tradition states that every year during Easter the
worshippers of Tammuz would slay a wild boar and eat it in honor of their sun god
Tammuz.
Now some of you may know what hot cross buns are, when I first started researching
I wasn't familiar with that, that was one tradition that we never did in our home
but some of you may know what that is.
We read in Jeremiah chapter 7 verse 16, and you do not pray for this people nor
lift up a cry or prayer for them nor make intercession to me for I do not hear you.
So this is Yahweh saying to Jeremiah, don't even pray for these people,
I am so upset, I am so angry with these people that as prophet I don't even want
you to lift up a prayer for these people, I'm not going to hear you.
Verse 17, do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Yehudah and in the
streets of Yerushalayim?
The children are gathering wood, the fathers are lighting the fire,
and the women are kneading their dough to make cakes for the sovereignness of the
heavens, the queen of heaven.
So they're baking pastries, special pastries, in honor of the queen of heaven
and then they pour out drink offerings to other mighty ones to provoke me,
Yahweh says.
By making these special pastries which we see during Easter time, people make
special pastries and offer them to the queen of heaven, God says, you're
provoking me to anger.
Amen?
So the pastries made specifically for the celebration of Easter have their origin in
paganism.
So as believers, should we celebrate Easter or the feast of Passover?
We've already shown you that Easter is in the bible only one time in one verse in
the King James Version and we've shown you how the New King James Version then comes
back and corrects that poor translation.
Amen?
It was never supposed to be there.
Passover is the word that should have always been there and our bible tells us
that in Leviticus 23 we are to observe the holidays or the holy days of Yahweh and
Passover, of course, is one of those.
So it's undeniably clear that believers are to keep the Passover, not Easter.
Notice this from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, volume 8,
page 828.
It says this, this is the Encyclopedia Britannica.
There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New
Testament or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers.
The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals.
Now again, this is just a writer in the Encyclopedia Britannica because I would
add that Yahweh, when He gives them to us in Leviticus 23, doesn't call them Jewish
festivals, He calls them the feasts of Yahweh, they're my feasts.
Amen?
Though in a new spirit as commemorations of events which those festivals had
foreshadowed, thus the Passover with a new conception added to it of Christ as the
true Paschal Lamb continued to be observed.
So the Encyclopedia Britannica says that the early family of faith, the early body
of Messiah, continued to observe the Passover recognizing that Yeshua was the
Passover Lamb, amen?
The original apostles, including Paul and the early New Testament believers,
did not observe Easter.
All right, I want you to allow that to sink in.
They observed the feasts of Passover which includes the days of unleavened bread.
So let me bear that out, go with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 5.
Now this is the Brit Hanashah or what you might call the New Testament and notice
what it charges us to keep.
1st Corinthians chapter 5 starting with verse 7, it says, therefore cleanse out
the old leaven.
Now this is Paul talking to the body of Messiah in Corinth and he's using the
foundation of the understanding of Passover and the feasts of unleavened
bread that time when they were to remove all the leaven out of their homes.
Of course, leaven represents sin and so Paul is using a very common terminology.
Therefore cleanse out the old leaven so that you are a new lump as you are
unleavened for also, here it is, Messiah our Easter Lamb, is that what it
says?
Messiah our what?
Passover was offered for us.
Messiah our what?
Passover was offered for us.
Now this is in your New Testament.
For Messiah our Passover was offered for us, so then let us observe the festival.
What festival?
The ancient pagan festival of Easter?
No.
Let us observe the Passover and unleavened bread.
Let us observe the festival not with old leaven, get the leaven out of your home,
nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness and get the sin out of your life.
You see what he's saying?
Observe the Passover not with the old leaven, get the leaven out of your home,
nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, get the sin out of your life,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Amen.
So this is a charge directly from what you might call the New Testament to observe
the feast of Passover and then look at 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23.
Again, the Apostle Paul is writing, for I received from the Master,
Master Yeshua Messiah, that which I also delivered to you that the Master Yeshua in
the night in which He was delivered up took bread.
So He was delivered up when?
During the Passover season, was He not?
All right.
In the night in which He was delivered up, took bread, look at verse 24.
And having given thanks, He broke it and said, take eat, this is my body which is
broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.
So again, Yeshua was saying, I am the Passover Lamb.
When you take the bread of the Passover, you are eating of me, you are eating of
the Passover Lamb, you are eating of Messiah, our Passover.
When you eat it, remember me.
In other words, it's not just about the Lamb in Egypt, that was a type,
a shadow and a picture of Messiah who would give His life up on the cross as the
true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And so Yeshua was simply saying, when you eat this Passover, remember I'm
the Passover.
Hallelujah.
And having given thanks, He broke it and said, take eat, this is my body which is
broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.
Verse 25.
In the same way, also the cup after supper saying, this cup, which cup?
The cup of the Passover.
This cup is the renewed covenant in my blood as often as you drink it,
do this in remembrance of me.
So how often were they going to drink the Passover cup?
Once a year at Passover and when you do it, Yeshua is saying to us, remember me.
Amen.
Look at verse 26.
For as often as you eat this bread, the Passover bread, unleavened bread,
and drink this cup, the Passover cup, you proclaim the death of the Master,
the death of the Passover Lamb, you proclaim it until He comes.
So how long are we as the body of Messiah supposed to observe the Passover and eat
the bread and drink the cup?
Until He comes, until He comes.
This doesn't say anything about celebrating Easter until He comes back.
This says we are to celebrate Yeshua as the Passover Lamb who willingly laid down
His life on the execution stake and took our sins upon Himself, paying the ultimate
price.
His body was broken, His blood was poured out, and every year at Passover time you
should come together and you should eat the bread and you should drink of the cup
and you should remember the sacrifice of Yeshua that He died for you and do it
every year until He comes back.
You know, the bible tells us that we're to come out from among them and be separate,
that we're not to touch what is unclean, God said, I'll receive you, I'll be a god
to you and you'll be my sons and daughter.
The Christian religion has touched a lot of what's unclean, there are a lot of
pagan traditions that the Roman bishops in the early centuries embraced and we could
say today in this passage that I shared earlier that the Gentiles will come before
the Almighty and say, what we've inherited from our fathers are lies, they're
vanities, amen, they're worthless.
And so, in these last days I sense in my spirit the Holy Spirit wooing whosoever
will because if you love your tradition you're going to go after your tradition,
if you love your tradition you're not going to be willing to hear me talk like
this, you're going to go find an environment that will cater to your
tradition and to your flesh and make you happy in the moment but one day you will
stand before the Almighty and you will give an account of whether you loved His
truth more than the traditions that were given to you.
The bible says in the book of Revelation talking about the Laodicean church,
the sin of the Laodicean church, and many bible scholars believe that that
church represents the church of the last days, the sin of the Laodicean church was
a mixture.
Yeshua didn't say, I want you to be red hot only, He said, I would that you were
hot or cold but because you're a mixture, because you're lukewarm, you nauseate me.
Isn't that what He said?
You make me want to throw up.
Why do you think it says in in the Torah that you're not to mix threads in a
garment?
Why do you think it says in the Torah that you're not to sow two different types of
seed in a field?
Why do you think it says in the Torah that you're not to plow with an ox and a donkey
together?
It's teaching you that holy means set apart, not mixed up.
And the Christian religion is very mixed up.
I am not speaking from the perspective of someone who has not known the Christian
religion.
I was born in it, I lived in it, I preached in it, and when I preached in
it, I preached with all sincerity based on the truth that I understood at the time.
But the ruach ha'qodesh, if you're willing, will lead you in all truth.
And the question for us all is what are we going to do with transformative truth?
What are you going to do with transformative truth?
Are you going to stay in your comfort zone?
Are you going to hang out with the large crowd?
Because broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who are on
that path but narrow and difficult.
When you start preaching truth not everybody's going to love you.
If you want to live godly in this life people will persecute you and you don't
have to be an ugly person to get persecuted, all you have to do is stand
for truth.
If you stand for truth you will be persecuted, if you speak the truth you
will be persecuted.
And the scribes and the pharisees said to Yeshua, why don't you toe the religious
line?
He said, you love your tradition so much you're willing to break the commandments
of the Almighty to keep your traditions and they crucified Him for speaking the
truth of His Father.
And don't think for a second that if you walk in the truth there won't be some
people on this planet that want to crucify you.
Narrow and difficult is the way that leads to life and there are few who find it.
Why?
Because there are few who love truth more than the traditions that they've received
from their fathers.
He said, because you're mixed up, you nauseate me.
I don't want to be mixed up.
We have the truth right here in the scriptures.
If we're willing to search it out the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to us and we
will begin to walk in the ways of Yeshua.
Your root is a Hebrew root, not a Roman root.
And if you dare to do the research you will discover how much paganism has been
adopted by the Roman church.
You say, well I'm not a Roman Catholic.
Let's see, there's Roman Catholic, there's Protestant, there's evangelical,
there's non-denominational Spirit-filled, trace it all the way back, it all has the
same root.
If you don't believe it, then discover what most people are celebrating today.
They're going to talk about the resurrection and they're going to go right
out and have their Easter hunt and they decorate their houses with bunnies and
they're probably going to sit down and have an Easter ham.
There's nothing more offensive to a Jewish person than people eating ham and so
wouldn't that be just like the Romans to say, well we're going to eat ham on Easter
as a slight to the Jewish people.
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to walk in the truth.
He who says that he abides in Yeshua, now why does the scripture say that?
Because there's a lot of people who are nothing but talk.
I said that with a smile on my face this morning.
They talk a religious game, they're all about religion.
He who says that they abide in Yeshua must also walk just as He walked.
People say, well what's going on over at Triumph Family?
What is Pastor Gary teaching you guys?
I've heard all kinds of wild things, tradition-busting things.
Just say, He's teaching us to walk in the ways of Yeshua.
Amen.
So we met on this Sunday, this Sunday belongs to Yahweh.
We spoke the truth about Easter.
You say, well I'm not sure I believe you.
Well do the research yourself.
If I've done nothing but inspire you to go home and study your bible, what a novel
idea then I'm successful, amen?
If I could get you reading your bible.
Praise the Lord.
But we're here to worship our God for His goodness and we're thanking Him that He's
giving us a wonderful holy day, a wonderful season that we can keep that's
all about Yeshua and that is Passover, our Passover lamb, unleavened bread.
He took our sin, we were leavened, He was unleavened, He became leavened so
that we might become unleavened.
He took our sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Yeshua Messiah,
amen?
And then first fruits, you want to know when we're going to celebrate the
resurrection?
We're going to celebrate the resurrection when the Almighty celebrates the
resurrection on the feast of first fruits because the scripture tells us that Yeshua
was the first born from the dead and He presented Himself before the Almighty on
the feast of first fruits, amen?
So let's not muddy the water, let's not get it all confused, let's not adopt a
bunch of pagan traditions and pagan ways and pagan customs and say we're the people
of the Almighty.
Let's walk in His ways, let's walk in His truth, amen?
When Yeshua comes back we want Him to receive us unto Himself, why?
Because we walked in His ways.
Can you say amen?
Hallelujah.
Let's pray together.
Father, we love You so much, we're so thankful for the truth and even though,
Lord, this might have been somewhat challenging for some of us, we thank You,
Lord, that the truth is what makes us free.
We realize sometimes the truth makes us uncomfortable but ultimately it makes us
free and so today I ask Lord that You bless every truth seeker in this house.
I thank You, Father, that the Spirit of truth is leading us all into the truth of
God and I thank You for the courage to be able to forsake what we have been given,
what we have inherited from our fathers that are lies and are vanities and are
worthless things and embrace fully the truth of the Almighty God.
We want to walk in that truth.
Father, we thank You for today in the precious and wonderful name of our
Passover Lamb, Yeshua our Messiah.
And everyone said amen and amen.
Oh clap your hands all you people.
Come on.