When
Yahushua was with His
disciples one day, He asked His disciples a question. He
asked them, "Whom do men say that I am?"
His disciples answered, and said "Some say that you are John
the Baptist; some say that you are Elijah; and others say Jeremiah or
one of the other prophets."
Yahushua then replied, "But whom do you say that I
am?"
Beloved, this last question Yahushua asked His disciples is perhaps the
most profound utterance made by Yahushua during His short ministry on
earth. In this question, Yahushua invites His true
disciples of that day, and those of today, to seek Him for the
answer.
Yahushua is
inviting us to search the Scriptures, to find the answer to this
all-important question. The answer to this one question, and
its implications, are profound, and of utmost
importance. This question must be prayerfully and carefully
considered by every sincere follower of Yahushua.
Why is this so important? It is because Father will use this
question, and how we answer this question, to determine who will
enter in to the City of the King, and who will not
be allowed to enter in! Not just everyone that wanders up to
the gate
will be allowed in. So everyone must first be tested, to
determine
their "right" to enter the City!
In
this series, we look at multiple items of Scripture showing
issues that
prove, or disprove, whether we really "know" who Yahushua is.
These
issues will ultimately qualify, or disqualify,
someone from entering
the City.
For those who follow of our Lord Yahushua, who hunger and
thirst for Him and His righteousness and His Kingdom, seeking
and
finding the answer to this question will become the most important
event in our daily walk with Him,
after we have
first been cleansed by His
precious Blood, and have received His Grace for the forgiveness of
sin.
When we were first introduced to Yahushua, we understood
perhaps in a general sense, that He is the Son of
Yahuweh, and the Messiah of Yahuweh,
and perhaps also that Yahushua is Yahuweh. Peter, when
asked that question, responded with,
"Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God"
(Matthew 16:16). It was the Holy Spirit, and not
man, that
revealed
Yahushua’s true identity to Peter. It was the Holy
Spirit also who revealed it to us, perhaps at the beginning of our
conversion experience. Knowing Yahushua's true
identity is
certainly the first step to becoming a Biblical "Believer."
However, as we shall
see, Scripture tells us that what we "do" reveals
what we truly believe about the identity of Yahushua. Indeed,
we are
even now being tested
daily by our heavenly Father, so that He may see exactly where
we stand on this
one, all-important question: "Whom do
you say that
I am?"
"Oh, He knows our hearts!" many will proclaim. Have we
not read about the Israelites (Deut 8:2), whom Yahuweh led in the
Wilderness, and tested,
in order to know what was in their hearts, by watching their
actions? And likewise Yahuweh tested Hezekiah (2 Chr
32:30-31), to
know what was in his heart. To be righteous in all things,
Yahuweh
uses our actions, not our thoughts, to test, and to prove His people.
So we see this question is very important!
There is far more to the answer to this question asked by Yahushua
than is first apparent. We must diligently seek Yahuweh for
further
understanding, in order to acquire Peter’s
revelation of Yahushua as the
Messiah of Yahuweh, and as the
Son
of Yahuweh. To most
observers of today, having Gentile backgrounds and a casual
understanding of the Old Testament writings, there is only minimal
understanding of the implications of Yahushua’s true
identity. However, to the trained Hebrew Scribe of
Yahushua’s day, for one to claim to be the Son of David, or
the
Son of Yahuweh, or to claim to be "the Messiah" of Yahuweh, had a great
and far-reaching
meaning, with very great implications. There are likewise great
implications for us today, though most of us do not yet realise this!
In this writing we will explore further, going beyond our present
understanding of Yahushua as being the Son of Yahuweh and the
Messiah of Yahuweh. We shall seek further the "true" identity
of
Yahushua. Our purpose for this writing is that we might grow
in grace, and (also grow) in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Yahushua Messiah. For we will see that what we "do" reveals to
Father what we
really believe — and whether or
not
we "know" who He really
is!
House on a Rock
We begin with a first look at one of the parables that Yahushua
taught. Yahushua’s parables appear at first to be
individual parables, somewhat unrelated and un-connected.
However, they are all related, and are part of one, great panorama,
each parable giving a piece of the puzzle, as it were, of the overall
portrait of the Kingdom of Yahuweh.
We will begin by looking
at the parable, and also the context in which it was spoken.
However, we must first take note of one thing. Derek
Prince said on many occasions, "If you see a
"therefore,"
find out what it is
there
for! This we will do as we look at the first
Scripture
passage to consider:
Therefore whosoever
heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a
rock: (Matthew 7:24)
The first thing we will note is the word
"therefore."
What do
we want to do? We want to find out what it’s
there
for! In order to do this, we must back up a few
verses, and
note that Yahushua is discussing two things. Let us observe:
Not every one that saith unto me,
Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we
not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and
in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from
me, ye that work
iniquity. (Matthew
7:21-23)
In this passage there are two main points. The first point is
that the one seeking to enter claimed that Yahushua was his Master, his
Lord, while
he was still a worker of
iniquity; He
claimed to be a
servant
of Yahushua, while still in
disobedience to Yahushua.
Thus in
Yahushua’s eyes the
true identity of the
one seeking to enter
His kingdom was in question! The remnant of
Yahushua’s true Disciples are identified by several
characteristics, one of which is their obedience to the
will
of Yahuweh.
In this
passage we catch a glimpse of a great spiritual truth:
One’s true identity is not based upon
what one "says," but upon
what one "does."
The second point is that there are those to whom Yahushua will say, "I
never knew you." In the Hebrew way of
thinking, "knowing" someone is a very intimate
activity. It
takes two to tango, and truly knowing someone is not at all a one-sided
affair. If we do not do His will, we will be kept, as it
were, at arm’s length. Thus Yahushua will not know
us, and we will not be permitted to truly know Him, or His true
identity, nor
will we be allowed to know the Father. Thus it is the issue
of doing the will of the Father that reveals whether or not we actually
know
Him. We must further conclude, that in order to
do
His will,
we must
know His will. Lord Yahushua, let us become
seekers of You,
that we might find, and become doers of, Your will!
There also appears to be, in this same passage above, a connection
between knowing
Yahuweh and working iniquity. Now the word
iniquity
in the
above verse is the Greek word 'anomia,' Strong's number
<458> and <459>, which means
"lawlessness,
and transgression of the law," otherwise known as Sin, as the Apostle
John
tells us in his epistle. We also see from several other
Scripture references that there is a direct connection between knowing
and loving Yahuweh, and departing from Transgression of the
Law, from Sin. We now understand, that what Yahushua is
getting ready to
say in the parable has something to do with whether or not Yahushua
truly knows the one seeking to enter His kingdom, and whether the one
seeking
to enter truly knows Yahushua. We shall now proceed to the
parable:
Therefore whosoever heareth
these sayings of
mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a
rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was
founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth
these sayings
of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish
man, which
built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it
fell: and great was the fall of
it. (Matthew 7:24-27)
To aid us in seeking the major items within the parable, we will look
simultaneously at the same parable from the Book of Luke:
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not
the things which I
say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my
sayings, and
doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He
is like a
man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid
the foundation on a
rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently
upon that
house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a
rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not,
is like a man that
without a foundation built an house upon
the earth; against which the
stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of
that house was great. (Luke
6:46-49)
Beloved, please notice that in the two accounts of the above parable
most of the details, of both the wise and foolish builders, and the
rain and floods, were the same. Both builders
heard
Yahushua’s sayings, they both
built a
house.
Likewise the rain, floods, and wind came to both houses. The
one thing that is different is this. The
wise
man
heard and
did the sayings of Yahushua, which is shown as laying a
foundation upon
the rock. The
foolish man built his
house, without a
foundation, upon the sand, which is shown here as
hearing but
not doing
Yahushua’s sayings. The respective outcomes are
obvious. We may conclude from this parable that it is not
only the hearing of them that is important, but the
doing
of
Yahushua’s sayings, which will become a sure foundation for
our spiritual life.
Becoming a Do-er of His Word
We have seen that the heart of the matter of the parable is being a
"do-er" of these sayings of Yahushua, not a hearer only. We
have
previously seen that the word therefore in the parable relates to this
the idea of Yahushua knowing us, and of our truly knowing Yahushua and
the Father. We conclude that if we desire to truly "know"
Him,
we must find out what these sayings of Yahushua really are, so that we
might become a do-er of them.
As in the above parable, the wise builder first had to "dig deep" in
order to lay the proper foundation. Likewise we must
dig
deep
into the precious Word of Yahuweh in order to lay the proper foundation,
of being a do-er of the
sayings of Yahushua.
However, in order
to "do" the sayings of Yahushua, we must know what they
are.
And to know what Yahushua's sayings are, we must find the
"true"
identity of Yahushua. We
have been told therefore that we must dig deeply to find out what the
sayings of Yahushua actually consist of.
We might recall that the phrase "Lord, Lord" in
the parable above is also spoken by the foolish virgins of Matthew 25,
suggesting those of Luke 6:46-49 are prophetically
one
and the same
with those of Matthew 25, in whom they portray. We
see the word
'then' in Matthew 25:1 is
the Greek word
'tote,' which means "at
that time," telling us that the entire passage in Matthew 25 is in the
same context as the previous chapter
— the time of the coming
of
Yahushua, and of the bride being made ready, and being prepared for the
Bridegroom.
Thus we can see the passages in Luke 6:46-49 are likewise showing the
foundation of "doing" of the "things which I
say" to the preparation of the "wise" virgins who had oil, and so they were
allowed to enter in with the Bridegroom.
However,
there are many issues remaining that will help us to spot hidden
"enemies" that intend to prevent us from entering in. These will be
dealt with in this series, but we must begin at the foundation.
We must determine not only who Yahushua is, but what are His
"sayings," which have been revealed to us "from the beginning."