A Truth deliberately shunned by professing Christendom is found in Matthew 10:1-8. Here Jesus commissions His 12 Apostles by telling them not to minister to Gentiles, but to go throughout the known world, find the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel and tell them about Him and God’s coming kingdom. Throughout the first few generations following the founding of the New Covenant Church the Lord had His apostles focused on the Israelites he had previously scattered because of their rejection of Him (Eze. 12:14,15;20:23;22:15). Those Israelites eventually settled in the areas of the world that would later become known as Christian nations.

Following their scattering from the Promised Land, and having settled in their new locations, they began to take on the moral and social characteristics of the heathen (Gentiles) among whom they lived. Having retained none of their former Israelite characteristics (their God, religion and language), they soon became indistinguishable from their neighbors, so much so that they became known as “Gentiles.” Being totally absorbed by the heathen, the Israelites  took on the gods, religions and languages of the native people. For all practical purposes they had become Gentiles. It was to these biological-Isralites-turned-spiritual-Gentiles that Jesus sent the apostles with His gospel (good news) about the coming kingdom God would one day establish on earth. In due time they found the Lord’s “lost sheep” and reminded them of who and what they were and what God had promised them if they would return to Him. See White Fields. By the time of the apostles’ deaths many Israelites had returned to the Lord and were serving as His “lights” to the biological Gentiles among whom they lived (Isa. 42:6;49:6). This began His world-wide ministry to the biological Gentiles.

Recall that when God brought the children of Israel (Jacob) out of Egyptian slavery a “MIXED MULTITUDE came out WITH THEM” (Exo. 12:38). These were Gentile people who became Israelites by embracing and obeying the God of the Israelites. Proof of their belief in and obedience to Him was revealed while they were still in Egypt when they observed the “Passover” which caused the death angel to “pass over” their homes. This qualified them to escape Egyptian slavery along with their Israelite hosts. Recall also that, in order to become God’s people (become members of the Commonwealth of Israel–Eph. 2:12) they had to 1) observe the Israelite Passover after leaving Egypt, and 2) obey the Law God would soon write in stone. He prepared everyone who had escaped Egypt for the Law He would give them by telling them that “One Law shall be to him that is homeborn (an Israelite) and to the stranger (Gentile) that sojourns (lives) among you (as one of you)” (Exo. 12:49). That Law was the Ten Commandments. First John 3:4 tells us that the Ten Commandment Law continues to be the standard by which all men will be judged relative to righteousness and sin/life and death. Romans 6:26 reminds us that we must “fulfill the righteousness of (prescribed by) the Law.” Romans 2:13 tells us that each of us must be a “doer of the Law” in order to retain our justification (cleansing of sin). “SIN IS (today) THE TRANSGRESSION (breaking) OF THE LAW” (1 Jn. 3:4). Therefore, as God tells us, “He who CONVERTS (turns away) A SINNER (from breaking the Law), SAVES HIS SOUL (Jam. 5:19,20). THIS IS NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING FOR THE NEW COVENANT CHURCH TODAY. See God’s Royal Law. Those of you who have nailed the Law to the cross, please notice the correlation between obeying the Law and salvation. The former (obeying the Law) brings about the second (reception of eternal life). Breaking the Law is sin (1 Jn. 3:4), the wages of which is death (Rom. 6:23). To break any one of the commandments is to break all ten of them, making one a sinner–a “worker of iniquity”–Lawlessness. Jesus spoke about uber-religious Law-breakers in Matthew 7:22,23: ” Many will say to Me in that (judgment) day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? and in Your name have cast out devils? and in Your name done many wonderful works?’ And then I will profess to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me you workers of INIQUITY.” THE LORD’S COMMAND TO OBEY THE LAW INCLUDES COMMANDMENT #4–GOD’S SABBATH COMMANDMENT ESTABLISHED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN FOR ALL PEOPLE FOR ALL TIME. Please believe God, not your ear-scratching false prophets whom Satan has programmed to teach his heathen doctrines. Remember, the New Covenant Church kept the Lord’s Sabbath until 364 A.D. when the priest of Rome changed it from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday). God’s true saints refused to change, which brought about the Catholic Inquisition in which over 50,000,000 people were killed for refusing to obey the new doctrines established by “the church,” which today is known as Catholicism/Protestantism. God’s command to those who would inherit eternal life is to “Come out of her (the Institutional Church) and be separate … touch not the unclean thing … and (then and only then) I will be your God and you will be My people” (2 Cor. 6:17). To be continued. L.J.