Covenant Life Is For Israel

THE COVENANT LIFE IS FOR ISRAEL Why the Awakened Remnant Cannot Share the Cover With the World A Sabbath Sermon for Day 14 of the Omer Count First Harvest Ministries International Rev. John Shane Vaughn Founding Apostolic Overseer Waveland, Mississippi The Companion Sermon to "The Starter Dough" Two weeks into the Count toward Shavuot OPENING SCRIPTURE READING (Congregation standing) Hear the word of YAHWEH from the book of Tehillim, Psalm 147, verses 19 and 20: "He declares His words unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them." From the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 31: "Behold, the days come, saith YAHWEH, that I will make a NEW covenant with the HOUSE OF ISRAEL, and with the HOUSE OF JUDAH." From the Gospel of Mattithyah, chapter 15, verse 24: "I am not sent but unto the LOST SHEEP of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL." (Be seated.) PART ONE — A COVENANT HAS BORDERS Last Sabbath, I stood in this pulpit and taught you that we are the STARTER DOUGH of the whole world. I taught you that YAHWEH has hidden a cultivated leaven inside three measures of meal — that the leaven is growing in stages of 30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold — and that very soon, the whole earth will be filled with the GOOD LEAVEN that began in us. Tonight, I have to teach you the OTHER half of that revelation. Because the moment you understand that YOU are the cultivated starter, the next question rises up in your spirit: Why is everyone else not called? Why won't my family walk this path? Why won't the church down the street keep the Sabbath? Why won't the world give up Christmas? Why is the cover only over US? Children, I am going to give you the answer tonight. And the answer is going to offend the religious establishment. The answer is going to scandalize the replacement theologians. The answer is going to make the Christian church accuse us of arrogance. But the answer is the TRUTH of the Word of YAHWEH. A Covenant Is a Contract Hear me, children. A covenant is not a feeling. A covenant is not a vibe. A covenant is not a mood. A COVENANT is a CONTRACT. A contract has SIGNERS. A contract has TERMS. A contract has BORDERS. When YAHWEH made the Sinai covenant, He did not stand on the mountain and shout it across the whole world for every nation to receive equally. He called ONE PEOPLE up to ONE MOUNTAIN at ONE MOMENT in history. He named the parties. He listed the terms. He sealed it in blood. He called it His. "These are the statutes, and judgments, and laws, which YAHWEH made between Him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses." (Leviticus 26:46) Between Him and WHOM? The CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Not Rome. Not Greece. Not Babylon. Not Egypt. Not the nations collectively. ISRAEL. That is covenant language. That is contract language. That is BORDER language. And no church council, no pope, no missionary movement, no modernist preacher, and no well-meaning replacement theologian can rewrite that line. The covenant has BORDERS. And tonight I am going to show you who is INSIDE those borders. PART TWO — THE LIE THAT EVERYONE WAS UNDER SINAI Now children, the modern religious world has been telling you a lie for two thousand years. The lie sounds humble. The lie sounds noble. The lie sounds spiritual. The lie says: "YAHWEH gave the Torah at Sinai equally to every nation on earth." That lie is a REBELLION dressed up as devotion. Because if every nation on earth was placed under Sinai equally, then Psalm 147 becomes nonsense. Listen again to what David wrote: "He declares His words unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath NOT dealt so with ANY NATION: and as for His judgments, THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN THEM." (Psalm 147:19-20) His words — to JACOB. His statutes — to ISRAEL. He has NOT done so with any nation. That is not poetry. That is LEGAL THEOLOGY in plain language. YAHWEH is the Creator of every man on earth. YAHWEH judges every nation. YAHWEH hears every sincere prayer. But UNIVERSAL CREATOR does not mean UNIVERSAL COVENANT. A king may rule over every foreigner in his realm without making them citizens of his royal house. A father may love every neighbor child without making them his sons. A baker may bless every customer without giving them the family starter. Holiness is not sameness. Love is not membership. Mercy is not covenant. The Replacement Heresy The modern religious world cannot stand the idea that YAHWEH made distinctions. They say it is unfair. They say it is exclusive. They say it is tribal. They say it is outdated. So they have done what every rebellious heart eventually does — they have rewritten the contract. They took the words of Israel — and detached them from Israel. They took the covenant of Israel — and rebranded it as universal. They took the Sabbath of Israel — and threw it in the dumpster. They took the Feasts of Israel — and replaced them with Christmas and Easter. Then they called the THEFT "fulfillment." Children, that is not Christianity. That is REPLACEMENT. That is not theology. That is THEFT. That is not humility. That is REBELLION wrapped in religious language. YAHWEH did not call the nations to Sinai. He called ISRAEL. PART THREE — BUT WHO IS ISRAEL? Now children — here is where the rabbis get it WRONG, and where the Christians get it WRONG, and where FIRST HARVEST gets it RIGHT. The Jewish rabbi looks at Psalm 147 and says: "Yes — the covenant is only for Israel. And Israel means the Jewish people. The bloodline of Judah. The descendants of those who returned from Babylonian exile." The Christian preacher looks at Psalm 147 and says: "Well, that was for the OLD Israel. Now there is a NEW Israel — the church — and we have replaced them." Both of them are WRONG. Because both of them have FORGOTTEN something. They have forgotten the LOST TRIBES. The Twelve Tribes At Sinai When YAHWEH gave the covenant at Sinai, how many tribes received it? TWELVE. Reuben. Simeon. Levi. Judah. Issachar. Zebulun. Joseph (split into Ephraim and Manasseh). Benjamin. Dan. Naphtali. Gad. Asher. All TWELVE tribes stood at the foot of Mount Sinai. All TWELVE tribes heard the thunder. All TWELVE tribes received the Torah. All TWELVE tribes entered the covenant. Sinai was not made with the Jews. Sinai was made with ISRAEL — all twelve tribes. Now follow the history with me. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom split. TWO tribes — Judah and Benjamin — formed the southern kingdom called the HOUSE OF JUDAH. TEN tribes — led by Ephraim — formed the northern kingdom called the HOUSE OF ISRAEL. Two houses. Two kingdoms. Same covenant. Same Torah. Same YAHWEH. The Scattering of Ephraim In 722 BC, Assyria came down on the northern kingdom — the House of Israel — and CARRIED THEM OFF. Ten tribes. GONE. Scattered through Assyria. Scattered through Persia. Scattered through Media. Scattered eventually across every nation under heaven. And here is what the rabbis will not tell you: The ten tribes never came back. The Jews of today are descended primarily from the southern kingdom — the House of Judah — who were carried into Babylon and returned seventy years later. But the ten tribes of the northern kingdom — the House of Israel, led by Ephraim — they are STILL SCATTERED. Hosea prophesied it: "For Israel hath forgotten his Maker... and the Jews shall mourn over them as for a firstborn." Ezekiel prophesied it. Jeremiah prophesied it. Yahshua Himself confirmed it when He said: "I am not sent but unto the LOST SHEEP of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL." (Mattithyah 15:24) Yahshua did not say: "I am sent to the Jews." He said: "I am sent to the LOST SHEEP of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL." Children, the Jews were NEVER lost. They had Jerusalem. They had the Temple. They had the priesthood. They had the rabbis. They had every record of every birth from Abraham forward. The LOST SHEEP were not the Jews. The LOST SHEEP were the SCATTERED HOUSE OF ISRAEL — the ten tribes of Ephraim who lost their identity, lost their Sabbath, lost their feasts, lost their Sacred Name, and lost their way home. PART FOUR — WE ARE ISRAEL Now children — hear me very carefully — because everything is about to come together. Where did the lost ten tribes go? They went WEST. They went into Asia Minor. They went into the Caucasus. They went into Eastern Europe. They went into Western Europe. They went into the British Isles. They went into Scandinavia. They went into the Americas. They lost their language. They lost their identity. They lost their sacred memory. They became the "Gentile" nations. They were absorbed into Christianity. They learned to celebrate Christmas. They learned to keep Sunday. They learned to call YAHWEH "the Lord" and YAHSHUA "Jesus." But the BLOOD never forgot. The COVENANT never forgot. The STARTER never died. It just went into hiding for two thousand seven hundred years. The Awakening And now, in the last days — in OUR generation — something is happening across the earth that the rabbis cannot explain and the Christian preachers cannot explain. Millions of "Gentile" believers are waking up. They are feeling a pull they cannot explain. A pull toward the Sabbath. A pull toward the Feasts of YAHWEH. A pull toward the Sacred Name. A pull toward the dietary laws. A pull toward Torah they were never taught. A pull HOMEWARD that no church gave them and no rabbi taught them. And the rabbis say, "You're not Jewish — go away." And the church says, "You're being legalistic — come back to grace." But YAHWEH says: "You are MY SHEEP. I am bringing you HOME." Children, this is not a metaphor. This is not symbolism. This is not allegory. WE ARE ISRAEL. The man sitting in this pew tonight whose grandfather was a Baptist deacon — he is ISRAEL. The woman beside him whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower — she is ISRAEL. The brother three rows back whose family came from Ireland or Germany or Scotland or Mississippi — he is ISRAEL. The sister in the back whose people were African and Cherokee and French Creole — she is ISRAEL. The lost tribes were not lost to YAHWEH. They were lost to THEMSELVES. And what is happening at First Harvest Ministries — and what is happening across the world in every Sabbath-keeping, Torah-observant, Sacred Name remnant fellowship — is the FULFILLMENT of the prophecy of Ezekiel 37: "Behold, I will take the children of ISRAEL from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land... and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." (Ezekiel 37:21-22) The two sticks are coming back together. Judah and Ephraim. The House of Judah and the House of Israel. And we are watching it happen IN OUR LIFETIME. PART FIVE — WHY THE WORLD CANNOT WALK THIS PATH Now children, with that foundation laid, I can answer the question that started this sermon. Why is the church not keeping the Sabbath? Why is the world not coming out of paganism? Why is your family not awakening with you? Children, listen carefully. The answer is going to bring you peace tonight if you receive it: Most of the world is NOT Israel. The covenant life was never given to them. Now wait — before you misunderstand me — I am not saying YAHWEH does not love them. He does. I am not saying they cannot be saved. They can — through the Renewed Covenant in Yahshua's blood. I am not saying they are damned. They are not. I am saying: Most of the world is the THREE MEASURES OF MEAL. Not the STARTER. Most of the world is not being called RIGHT NOW into the covenant life. They are being preserved AS THEY ARE — until the Master Baker is ready to fold the matured starter into them during the Millennium. This Is Why They Cannot Hear This is why your Baptist mother cannot understand why you keep the Sabbath. This is why your Pentecostal cousin thinks you have joined a cult. This is why your Catholic neighbor still thinks Christmas is sacred. This is why your Methodist coworker calls you legalistic. It is not because they are wicked. It is not because they are stupid. It is not because they are unsaved. It is because the SPIRIT has not awakened them YET. They are not Ephraim. Or if they are Ephraim, the Spirit has not yet pulled their bloodline awake. Yahshua said it Himself: "My sheep HEAR my voice... and they follow me. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." (John 10:27, 5) Why do most Christians flee from the Sabbath? Why do most Christians flee from the Feasts? Why do most Christians flee from the Sacred Name? Because they do not yet recognize the voice of the Shepherd calling them home. And until the Spirit awakens them — they will FLEE from us. They will MOCK us. They will CALL US LEGALISTIC. They will accuse us of "falling from grace." Because they do not yet hear the voice that we hear. And that is OK, children. That is OK. Because the Master Baker has a plan for them too. PART SIX — WHY WE MUST REMAIN SEPARATED Now hear me carefully on Day 14 of the Omer count. If most of the world is NOT being called right now into the covenant life — and we have established tonight that they are not — then a question rises that every awakened Israelite must answer: If they are not in this with us, can WE still walk WITH them? Children — and this is the hard word tonight — NO. We cannot walk WITH the unawakened world the way we used to walk with them. We cannot share the cover with people who have torn the cover off. The Cover Cannot Be Shared Last Sabbath, I taught you why bakers COVER the rising dough — to keep the wild yeasts of this age from contaminating the cultivated starter. And I told you the Sabbath is YAHWEH's weekly cover. The clay jar is the cover. Our separated life is the cover. Now hear what comes next: If we let the unawakened back UNDER our cover — their wild yeasts come WITH them. If we celebrate Christmas with them — to keep peace in the family — the Christmas leaven settles on our dough. If we go to their Easter dinner — to be polite — the Easter leaven settles on our dough. If we attend their Sunday service — to honor a wedding or a funeral — the Sunday leaven settles on our dough. If we eat the unclean meat at the family barbecue — to not offend — the dietary leaven settles on our dough. Every COMPROMISE is a CONTAMINATION. And the cultivated starter that YAHWEH has been preserving in your bloodline for two thousand seven hundred years — the starter He fed through Polycarp and the Waldensians and the Sabbatarian remnant — the starter that finally awakened in YOU — Can be SOURED in ONE GENERATION if the cover is removed. This Is Not About Hatred Children, hear me well — because this is where the Christian church will twist what we are saying. Separation is not HATRED. Separation is PROTECTION. We are not separating from the world because we hate them. We are separating because we LOVE them — and the only way we can be of any use to them in the Millennium is if the starter survives this present age UNCONTAMINATED. A nurse who catches the patient's disease is no good to the patient. A lifeguard who drowns with the swimmer saves nobody. A starter that gets soured cannot leaven the lump. We are separated FOR them — not separated AGAINST them. Practical Separation So what does this look like for you, sitting in this pew on Day 14 of the Count? You stop celebrating pagan holidays — even when the family pressures you. You stop attending Sunday services — even when invited. You stop eating unclean meat — even at the family table. You stop using pagan names for the Father and the Son. You stop allowing the world's calendar to govern your time. You stop apologizing for being strange. You stop trying to drag the unawakened across the line YAHWEH has not yet opened for them. You stay UNDER THE COVER. You stay COVERED. You stay SEPARATED. Until the Baker says otherwise. PART SEVEN — THE COST OF SEPARATION Children, I would be lying to you tonight if I told you this path was easy. The covenant life COSTS something. Yahshua never hid this from His disciples. He said: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26) That word "hate" in the original language did not mean malice — it meant LOVE LESS. Love them less than you love YAHWEH. Choose Him over them when the choice has to be made. What You Will Lose You will lose family members who think you have lost your mind. You will lose lifelong friends who think you have joined a cult. You will lose church communities you used to call home. You will lose the comfort of fitting in. You will lose the approval of the religious establishment. You will lose holidays that used to anchor your year. You will lose foods you used to enjoy. You will lose the ease of being normal. And every loss will be a TEST. Will you choose the family of YAHWEH — or the family of flesh? Will you choose the cover — or the contamination? Will you choose the cultivated strain — or the wild yeast of compromise? What You Will Gain But hear me, children — what you LOSE is nothing compared to what you GAIN. You gain the Family of YAHWEH. You gain the brothers and sisters of the Two-House Remnant. You gain the Sabbath rest that the church world will never know. You gain the Feasts that paint the redemption story across your year. You gain the Sacred Name on your tongue. You gain the Torah written on your heart. You gain the IDENTITY that was stolen from your bloodline twenty-seven hundred years ago. You gain a thousand-year Millennial assignment teaching the nations. You give up a Christmas tree — and you receive a CROWN. You give up Sunday morning donuts — and you receive an ETERNAL SABBATH. You give up the family barbecue — and you receive the WEDDING SUPPER OF THE LAMB. Yahshua said it best: "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time... and in the world to come eternal life." (Mark 10:29-30) PART EIGHT — THE MERCY IN THE DISTINCTION Children, before I close, I have to address something that the religious world is going to throw at you for preaching this message. They will say: "You think you're better than us!" "You think you're more saved than we are!" "You think you're the only ones going to heaven!" And to every one of those accusations, the answer is the SAME: NO. We are not BETTER than them. We are EARLIER than them. The Two Resurrections There are TWO resurrections in the Bible. Read your Revelation 20. The FIRST resurrection — the early harvest — the matured Bride — the 100-fold starter — rises when Yahshua returns. The SECOND resurrection — the rest of the dead, the nations of the saved, the 30-fold and 60-fold believers — rises a thousand years later. Both groups are SAVED. Both groups are LOVED. Both groups are eventually GLORIFIED. But ONE group rises EARLY to RULE the other group. That is what we are being prepared for. That is why YAHWEH has separated us. That is why the cover is so essential. We are not better than the Christian church down the street. We are EARLIER. We are not more loved than your Baptist mother. We are EARLIER. We are not more saved than your Pentecostal cousin. We are EARLIER. We are the FIRST FRUITS. They are the LATER HARVEST. And one day — we will TEACH them what we know, and they will be glad we kept the cover ON. The Distinction Is Mercy The fact that YAHWEH has not awakened most of the world to the covenant life right now is not exclusion. It is MERCY. Because the standard for the awakened is HIGHER. The discipline for the awakened is FIERCER. The judgment for the awakened is STRICTER. To whom much is given, much is required. YAHWEH has been merciful to the unawakened by NOT calling them to a standard they could not yet bear. Their day is coming. The Master Baker will fold them in. They will be taught everything we have been taught. They will keep the Sabbath in the Millennium. They will keep the Feasts. They will know the Sacred Name. But not YET. Not THIS age. Not in THIS pre-Millennial cultivation. And we — the awakened Remnant of Israel — must accept that distinction without bitterness, without superiority, without pride. CLOSING — THE CHARGE TO THE AWAKENED Children, look at me. You have walked into this room tonight as a member of an awakened bloodline that runs back two thousand seven hundred years to the day Assyria carried your ancestors away. You are not a Gentile. You never were. You are not a Christian by replacement. You are an Israelite by inheritance. You are not adopted into the covenant. You are RETURNING to the covenant. YOU ARE ISRAEL. And the covenant life — the Sabbath, the Feasts, the Torah, the Sacred Name, the dietary laws, the separated walk — This was always YOURS. You are just COMING HOME. So tonight, before you walk out of this building, hear this charge from your Pastor on Day 14 of the Omer: ONE. STAY UNDER THE COVER. Do not let the unawakened pull you back into their compromise. Do not apologize for the Sabbath. Do not negotiate the Feasts. Do not soften the Sacred Name. Do not eat their unclean meat to keep peace at the table. The cover is what the Master Baker uses to keep the cultivated starter alive. STAY UNDER IT. TWO. LOVE THE UNAWAKENED — BUT DO NOT JOIN THEM. Your Baptist mother is NOT your enemy. Your Pentecostal cousin is NOT your enemy. Your Catholic neighbor is NOT your enemy. They are sleeping. They are not yet called. Pray for them. Bless them. Serve them. Love them with the deepest love you have. But do NOT pretend you are the same. Because you are not. THREE. REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE. You are not lost anymore. You are not a stranger to the covenant anymore. You are not a Gentile begging at the door anymore. You are an awakened son of Jacob, an awakened daughter of Sarah, a citizen of the Commonwealth of Israel, an heir to the covenant of Sinai, and a STARTER of the Master Baker preserved for the leavening of the whole earth. Thirty-six days from tonight, we will gather at Shavuot. And on that day, we will wave two leavened loaves before YAHWEH: The HOUSE OF JUDAH — and the HOUSE OF ISRAEL — Together at last. Two sticks made one. The covenant family REUNITED. Until then, children: Stay COVERED. Stay SEPARATED. Stay AWAKE. And remember — THE COVENANT LIFE IS FOR ISRAEL. AND ISRAEL IS YOU. Let us pray. Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International Waveland, Mississippi