Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to today's afternoon service.

By way of an experiment and for as long as I can physically manage health-wise both to prepare them and deliver them, we're going to have two separate weekly addresses this summer. That means having a longish teaching service, in which we for now resume our study on the Book of Revelation (which we did this morning) and a shorter pastoral or evangelistic one. When the Sabbath falls on a Roman weekend, we will aim to have both meetings on the same day (a Saturday or Sunday), with one service in the morning (the teaching one) and one in the afternoon (the main pastoral sermon), or vice versa (we can decide which way round we want to do that the week before each); and when the Sabbath falls on a Roman weekday (Monday to Friday), we will have the teaching service that day and have a pastoral assembly on either the Roman Saturday or Sunday, again by mutual agreement.

This is to enable those with work or educational commitments to be able to attend at least one service a week while they reorganise their schedules to accommodate the Creation Calendar lifestyle, which for some can take a while to fix and to whom we wish to extend as much grace as we can because we recognise it is not a straightforward matter doing this unless you run your own business or can come to an arrangement with your employers. Obviously this problem will diminish as we set up our own communal businesses, as we must and shall as the economic collapse accelerates, as is now happening. And please let me know in advance if there are subjects, topics or issues that you would like addressing in the pastoral sessions.

To kick-start our new programme I want to talk to you today about family values. Every society at any one moment in time more-or-less has a set of values. Quite whether we can now call them 'values', let alone 'family values', is another matter, and frankly I couldn't give a toss what the ever changing standards in a society actually are, whose values are in any case a constantly moving target. The societal values I grew up with have almost completely changed in my home country of Great Britain. With people now claiming they're not sure what gender they are from one day to the next, we should not be surprised if this isn't true generally of society's perception of values too.

There's a huge paradigm shift going on, at least in Western society, from what one might call a conservative Christian value system to an anarchistic atheistic one. What you may not realise is that as recently as 4 October 1982 - that's 40 years ago - the United States Congress proclaimed that the Bible was the 'Word of God'. You can imagine what the response would be if anyone in Congress were to make that claim today, or the Houses of Parliament in the UK for that matter, or the Bundestag in Germany, or the Storting in Norway. There would be an uproar, inflammatory and defammatory remarks would be hurled across the floor at the one suggesting it, and the one making that claim would be villified in the press as 'racist' (or something similar) and be 'cancelled'. No, the Bible is no longer the proclaimed 'Word of God' in any parliament in the West, at any rate, but something equivalent to it in claimed authority is vociferously proclaimed but without saying precisely what it is. I am speaking of a new highly destructive, ultra-liberal, Marxist-hijacked, pseudo-religion called (for wont of a better word) 'Woke-ism' that has spread like wildfire into the vacuum left inadvertantly for them by the atheists. Indeed, I feel a bit sorry for the atheists because they now have competition in the quest for the minds and souls of the clueless.

Today the word 'sin' is neither taken seriously nor even recognised as anything real. Indeed, as a concept it is politically incorrect. If you want to know what biblical family values consist of then a good place to start would be Leviticus 18 and 1 Corinthians 6. Here Yahweh, through His servants, tells us what sin consists of, and family values are the diametric opposite of what sin is. Preachers who have listed these sins out in public have been informed on to the state authorities by the modern equilavents of KGB, Stasi or Gestapo spies who go around churches looking for 'offenders' to report, and such ministers that have been reported have been fined, imprisoned, had their children kidnapped by Social Services, and even had their churches confiscated, closed down and on occasion bulldozed...IN THE WEST as in the East. That tells you with crystal clarity that Western governments not only no longer uphold biblical family values but actively persecute those who proclaim them.

A legitimate question - at least for non-believers and for those Christians claiming to be 'liberal' - is whether what the Bible says about such matters is either reliable or simply out of date. In other words, they want to know whether values are static and unchanging or whether they legimiately change with the times. People can, of course, believe whatever they want to and call themselves whatever they like, but we are not defending them or their choices. An axiom of our faith is that true moral values cannot change because the Creator of these values, does not Himself change. In the matter of ethics and morality, there is consistency in the stance of Bible-believing, and therefore Bible-implementing, Christians and Messianics. We assert that Elohim (God) cannot, and does not change (Heb.13:8). True, one or two instructions given in Scripture were provisional, and the reason given is the hardness of men's hearts, chief of which were the divorce laws (Mt.19:8). Divorce was pretty easy in Mosaic times, just as it is now in the West, but when Christ appeared He tightened up those laws, returning them to their original strictness. Liberals try to apply this to sexual values too but there is no evidence that Elohiom (God) ever did that. And that's the principle thing that makes unbelievers or literal 'believers' angry. They want the freedom to be sexually licentious.

Though outwardly conservative, the religious leaders in Yah'shua's (Jesus') day had gone soft and liberal in a number of areas to suit themselves. I've mentioned easy divorce, though there was a biblically true school defending the original laws too. Where tightening up needed doing because laxity had crept in, the New Testament in nearly every case makes perfectly clear. You'll not find the apostle Paul beating around the bush in this department. He is explict in who will not inherit the Kingdom of Elohim (God) and (by implication) the first resurrection - the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers, are especially singled out (1 Cor.6:9-10). If you're guilty of any of these sins and haven't repented of them, you categorically aren't going to inherit the Kingdom of Elohim (God) and that means you aren't going to go and live with Him and Christ in the next life. And yet for some reason all of this gets forgotten in the eulogies spoken over the dead at funerals.

What often causes people to waiver over such matters is they question the status of the Scriptures. Let's just focus on two statements made by the apostles Peter and Paul and explain them so that we are in no doubt. Starting with the apostle Peter:

"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the navi's (prophet's) own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from Elohim (God) as they were carried along by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)" (2 Pet.1:20-21, NIV).

"All Scripture is Elohim- (God)-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim.3:16, NIV).

Or if you think the Aramaic is more accurate than the Greek translation here:

"Every writing (scripture) which was written by the Ruach (Spirit) is profitable for teaching and for reproof and for correction and for instruction which is in righteousness" (2 Tim.3:16, HRV) [1].

The "Scripture" referenced here is the Tanakh (Old Testament) because the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) either hadn't all been written yet or hadn't been canonised, a process that would take place in the future, the Protestant canon that we own being formed in 300 AD. The point is this: biblical ethics and morality, that is to say, 'family values', are enshrined in the Old Testament which are endorsed in the New. There is no case for ethical or moral 'evolution' as our studies in the Book of Revelation have clearly born out too. You can make a case for these passages pointing to a future New Testament but it is by inference only. And those who turn to the Book of Revelation hoping to find that some of the Old Testament family values have been cancelled or modified will be sorely disappointed. Elohim (God), as you would expect, has not changed. Rather, He has tightened up the rules where men have deliberately relaxed them. The Scriptures have never been at fault. Men have.

Our choice is simple: we either believe or disbelieve the Scriptures which have been faithfully preserved in spite of attempts by wicked men to corrupt them. Peter and Paul wrote what Yahweh told them to write and I say that as one who has extensively researched the Scriptures, sharing that knowledge with you over the years. Indeed I think it would be true to say that we have dared to go where few conservative evangelicals and messianics ever would, for fear or for whatever other reason, because I have wanted everyone to have a sure foundation of truth. In any case, a 'conservative' is really just someone who is 'conserving' a particular tradition, right or wrong, and a 'liberal' is often one who is relaxing or overturning it. To be a true biblical 'conservative' means one who 'conserves', 'preserves' and 'lives out' the entire ethical and moral law of Old and New Testaments.

If the Torah (Pentateuch) Tanakh (Old Testament) and Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) are 'God-breathed' as Paul declared, then if you have any dispute with me in what I have been saying this afternoon, your dispute is not with me but with the Creator. That's what it boils down to. And it's not over-simplistic of me to say so. The biblical definition of sin, which is the violation of the Torah or Yahweh's laws and teachings, has not changed. Sin is the same today as it was when the apostles wrote the New Testament and as it was when Moses wrote down the Pentateuch. And let me warn you most strongly and urgently of this truism: once you decide, willfully, to compromise one commandment it's not long before you'll compromise another and another (Jas.2:10). I've experienced it first hand, and I have seen people led away into complete darkness. The problem was never disobedience per se but willful disobedience, which is the failure to love Elohim (God). Love is the whole Torah, for the Torah-giver is love (1 Jn.4:8.16), the Torah of Liberty (Jas.2:12).

If in doubt about divorce, follow Christ's and the apostles' rulings. If you're in doubt about alcohol consumption because it was permitted in the Old Covenant, remember also that there was a specially blessed group of Old Testament believers called the Rechabites who totally abstained and were blessed by Yahweh for doing so when the navi (prophet) Jeriemiah no less urged them to drink (and was corrected in no uncertain terms by Yahweh - Jer.35). The Rechabites were a foreshadowing of the stricter code of the Royal New Covenant Melchizedek Priesthood (1 Pet.2:9), of which as we, regenerated believers, are either already a part or are called to be, where total abstinence is required as one who is on duty 24/7 in the temple of his flesh (1 Cor.3:16; 6:19), for you will remember that the Old Covenant cohen (priest) on duty in the temple of stone was not permitted to drink alcohol (Lev.10:9). And I will tell you now that there are no alcohol-drinking believers in the Remnant. None! Just as there are none who think divorce is 'easy come, easy go'. But you know all these things and you know what the Scriptures teach if I have done my job thoroughly. I have never permitted alcohol in my house and never will. So choose to be a New Covenant Rechabite because Yahweh makes huge promises to those who abstain! Read Jeremiah 35 again if needs be.

The same goes for pork. You may wonder what on earth this has to do with family values but it has everything to do with them, because the issue is obedience whether you understand the reasons for the mitzvah (commandment) or not. Pork is unclean on spiritual grounds and, as we now know scientifically, extremely unhealthy and potentially lethal. Yet I have seen messianics eating bacon! Inconsequential? Not if you consider the fact that those willing to be disobedient in the 'minor' commandments eventually graduate into the major ones. I've seen it so many times. It's the willingness to entertain disobedience that is the major problem, as I said. And I'm not talking about people who accidentally break commandments because we are all guilty of that and must be merciful to ourselves and each other. It all boils down to a heart-attitude - whether your heart is pure or corrupt, and you know Jeremiah's warning. Those who know Yahweh has forbidden the eating of pork and those who deliberately rebell, will be destroyed or consumed at the day of judgment - His words, not mine. And if you don't believe me read Isaiah 66:17-18 where pork is put on the same level as "mice...and other disgusting animals" (Is.66:17, NET). So choose. I take this seriously as a Bible-believer. So you'll find no pork in my house either unless it has been accidentally admitted as happens sometimes because it is not uncommon to find pork mixed in with beef in ground or minced meats. So check the food labels carefully!

Some family values ought to be obvious (though perhaps surprisingly some people are genuinely blind to them for whatever reason) whereas others are not always so easily discerned. Lat's take some obvious opposites to family values - Paul lists them to the Galatians:

"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim (God)" (Gal.5:19-21, NIV).

Always remember Yahweh's motive for every ban because you will find love underlying them, and love is the Royal Torah or Law of genuine Liberty. Husbands and Fathers who teach and enforce these principles in their families are loving their families and sparing them much trouble and distress. The crux of the matter is therefore always very simple:

"For Elohim (God) so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, NIV).

So if you have any alcohol in your house, except for external use as a sterilising agent, empty it down your sink, flush it down the toilet, of use it to start a bonfire, as I once did many years ago when my first wife smuggled some into the house when she was in the process of departing from the faith and into her newly acquired New Age religion. Give any pork you have to your pets or throw it out to the wild animals. Burn any tobacco on the fire. Hand over any recreational drugs you have to your pharmacy or dispose of them by whatever lawful means are available to you. Do it right after this meeting if you have any of these theings and never buy it again or bring it into your home, no matter how upset anyone may get. Establish a strict system of family values in your home and stick with them come hurricane or firestorm. You won't regret it and your children will one day thank you for it.

Elohim (God) loved the world so much that He sent Yah'shua (Jesus) to save us and whoever believes in Him and His message, he says, won't perish. It's guaranteed. And let's not forget the next verse that we are apt to forget:

"For Elohim (God) did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:17, NIV).

Now we can't go into the world by looking at any group and condemn it (unless, of course, it claims to be Bible-believing and is openly violating the mitzvot/commandments, or is trying to force us). We can only give unbelievers the Good News - the Gospel or Besorah - love them, and pray for them, leaving judgment up to Yahweh. I once had a Lutheran minister tell me how he rebuked another Christian for being teetotal and asked him why he didn't obey the rest of the 'Law' too like not eating pork. And he was right. You can't be selective because if you condemn other believers for not obeying a law that you are, whilst you are disobeying other ones, you are a hypocrite to be sure. When you are doing what Yah'shua (Jesus) commanded in Matthew 5:17-20 - when "your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the [ancient] scribes (Torah-teachers) and Pharisees" (Matt.5:20, NKJV) - then you can come down hard on other Christians who may not be obeying the one mitzvah (commandment) that you have chosen to highlight in order to do some virtue-signalling. The Lutheran minister was pretty smug, needless to say, until I reminded him that both he and the other evangelical Christian were wrong. He took exception to that and quipped back saying that, if were right, it would be alright to have multiple wives too. When I replied, Yes, and told him that we permitted our people in Kenya to live that way (where, incidentally, it's protected in their laws), he was shocked but also silenced. So you you see, there is no such thing as 'partial righteousness'. You either go all the way, as Yah'shua (Jesus) taught in Matthew 5, be quiet, or step down until you are doing the same. We have to be no-nonsense about these things or our 'family values' are but a sham.

Furthermore, we ourselves sometimes need to be reminded - and now is as good a time as any - that after Paul had made out his list of sins, he finished with the following:

"And that is what some of you were. But you were washed (cleansed, forgiven), you were sanctified, you were justified (declared righteous) in the name of the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ) and by the Ruach (Spirit) of our Elohim (God)" (1 Cor.6:11, NIV).

Understand that the scripture in 1 Corinthians 6:11 is not hateful but encouraging. That noisy, immature and troublesome bunch in Corinth were being given an escape hatch to get out from under their sin. What Yahweh did back then was an amazing example of His grace - His undeserved lioving-kindness - but He's doing the same thing today if you'll just believe it and take Him at His word. The sins Paul listed were as common back then as they are now. There's nothing new here. Satan's 'sin menu' hasn't changed much over the millennia. We were forgiven back then, 2000 years ago, by virtue of what Christ did for us all on the cross and that redemption is just as available now as it was then. The problems only arise when we won't acknowledge our sins and turn from them.

People are sad, bitter, and heart-broken because marriages and partnerships break up and families get smashed. So am I. But when they refuse to live with, and by, family values, they are surely inviting trouble and increasing the chances of things going wrong. That's not to say that Christian/Messianic marriages and families don't have problems or experience divorce and break-up because they do, but they shouldn't if they were authentically regenerated and they lived covenantally by biblical family values. And not all believers, as we know, are regenerated or spiritually born-again. The problem as always is the refusal to admit sin or, almost as bad, admitting sin when there isn't any, in order to placate an implaccable partner who won't repent of his or her own sin. Instead of being angry, we need to acknowledge sin and repent of it. Pure and simple.

Finally, Elohim's (God's) family values are, ultimately, love-values. And love, above all else, wants to protect and nourish. Don't rail, gripe, moan, sulk, go silent, slink off, or attack when Scriptural truth is spoken to you. When I was young the hippie or 'sexual revolution' was in full swing. Let's not beat about the bush - there was nothing good about it. It was a sinful revolution. The present 'woke' revolution is no different - it's the 'Sinful Revolution Mk.II'...or maybe it's Mk.III by now, I don't know. All I do know is that it isn't just breaking up the family like the hippie revolution did, it's eradicating the family altogether! The final end of this is extinction of the human race. So when Yahweh says 'No! - I'm not the problem you are the problem', believe Him. Don't cross over to the devil's side and embrace hate and pride. It amounts to suicide even if at first your rebellion seems 'moderate'. Rebellion is rebellion, period.

Yahweh has sent me and other preachers...and you, if you've saved...to speak out against sin and to show with kindness those damaged or destroyed by it, what the path of reconciliation and shalom (peace) consists of. Our calling - all of us - is to reconcile the lost to Yahweh through Yah'shua (Jesus). This is the Ministry of Reconciliation I was talking about the other day - it's what the Ruach Eliyah or Spirit of Elijah that Malachi speaks about at the end of his book is all about. And don't shy away if you feel yourself incapable or uniquipped to minister or teach. As the current Dalai Lama once insightfully said, "there is nothing like teaching to help one learn". And it's not as though we who are ministers haven't been on the 'other side' ourselves - even those raised in Christian and Messianic families still have to make a personal decision because the main issue will not be dealt with until you have made your personal choice for Him. We are to love sinners as He does but never the sinning. Those calling for repentance must be the 'repentant ones' themselves! It's a repenting community that we're building, and part of that repentance includes aligning ourselves to Yahweh's Torah (Law, Teaching) where His family values are spelled out very clearly indeed. We are to keep making adjustments (repenting) until we have it perfectly right (Mt.5:48)

A final thought to end today's second message, taken from the Psalms:

"The Davar (Word) of Yahweh is integrity itself, all He does is done faithfully; He loves virtue and justice, Yahweh's love fills the earth" (Ps.33:4-5, JB).

Endnotes

[1] Both these variants are included in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)