Introduction
   The July 2018 monthly mailing of Sisters for Yah brought a timely subject to our notice. Because we are living in that time when some will not endure Sound Doctrine, but are, instead, turning their ears away from the TRUTH and after their own lusts, heaping to themselves teachers which neither understand what they say, nor whereof they affirm!
   For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables, 2 Timothy 4:3 – 4 NKJV.
   Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm, 1 Timothy 1:7 NKJV.
   We are living in that time, approaching the day of which the Apostle Paul spoke in II Thessalonians:
   Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, II Thessalonians 2:3.
   Nevertheless, and regardless of the eschatological calendar, churchianity continues to look towards an end-time harvest, and in some places they’re packing the people in. But they’re going about it the wrong way.

Providing For the Affections and Lusts of the Flesh
   Consider this: increasingly, church campuses today feature, or are otherwise being retrofitted to 24/7/365 fitness and recreation centers; cyber cafes; for-profit senior adult and child day care centers; theaters; and offer chartered motor-coach excursions to Branson to see the Bald-knobbers, ... and, oh, yes, trips to Israel, Rome, the Caribbean, and the Last Frontier (under the auspices of Bible Conferences) and a host of other amenities that compete with all that is the rest of the world.
   But there’s no way you can do Yahweh’s work, the devil’s way: compassing sea and land to pack them in. But once they’re in, shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against them by making fair speeches with great swelling words of vanity and therewith, make them twofold more the children of perdition.
   But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in, Matthew 23:13.
   For they that are such serve not our Master Yahshua Messiah, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple, Romans 16:18.
   While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage, 2 Peter 2:19.
   Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves, Matthew 23:15.
   Some few places, like Yahweh’s Assembly in Yahshua, keep back nothing that is profitable and shun not, to declare the whole counsel of Yahweh. But there will be many more who push back ..., they, whose hearts (as in the abundance of the heart) protest, “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.”
   And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house ... Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of Yahweh, Acts 20:20, 27.
   Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, Isaiah 30:10.
   And when the presbytery decline to ‘respect their persons, retorting instead,
   “The word that Yahweh putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak ... I cannot go beyond the word of Yahweh my Elohim, to do less or more... to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what Yahweh saith, that will I speak” (Num. 22:38, 18, 24:13), then, come the excuses:

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses
• “Yahweh has too many rules and regulations,”
• “Living Yahweh’s way causes my kids to be de- prived of fun,”
• “My friends and family hate me now,” and
• “I’m just not good enough to live up to Yahweh’s standards,”
   -Yahweh’s Assembly in Yahshua, Sisters for Yah, Volume 12, Issue 7, July 2018, Page 1.
   Let’s put these things in the context of Scripture. In Luke’s Evangel, we read several of them which were CALLED but who proffered excuses for not responding to the CALL! Chapter 9, verses 59 and 60, Yahshua says: “... Follow Me... Go, thou, and preach the Kingdom of Yah...”
   And in verses 59 and 61, they which are called, reply:
• “...Suffer me first to go and bury my fa- ther...”; and
• “...But let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house...”
   Then, in Chapter 14:16- 20), Yahshua tells of a certain man who made a great supper, and sent his servant to say to them that were bidden, “Come; for all things are ready.” And, in Verses 18, 19 and 20, they which are bidden, reply:
• “... I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it...”;
• “... I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them...”; and
• “... I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”

An Appointment to Supper
   This is serious business: we’re talking here about an appointment that precludes burying my father; bidding them farewell at home at my house; a piece of ground; five yoke of oxen; and marrying a wife. We’re talking here of stuff found in Revelation: “HalleluYah; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, to Yahweh our El ... HalleluYah ... Praise our El, all you His servants, and you that fear Him, both small and great ... HalleluYah: for Yahweh Elohim omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready ... Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb ...” (Rev. 19:1, 3,4,5,6,9).
   And though many are called and bidden, it will be the poor, the maimed, and the halt, and the blind in the streets and lanes of the city and on the highways and in the hedges that are chosen, and why? Because they are unencumbered with the cares of the world and the affairs of this life!
   So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind ... And the master said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled, Luke 14:21, 23.
   And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful, Mark 4:19.
   No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier, 2 Timothy 2:4.
   They didn’t protest, “Yahweh has too many rules and regulations” for they figured it out: OBEDIENCE to Yahweh’s commandments is not so grievous as His rebuke and chastening!

Called Out, Separated
   Yeah, “Living Yahweh’s way causes my kids to be deprived of, ‘What did you say?’” — ...wasting the substance of life, running to an excess of riot and revelry and otherwise, making provision for the flesh to fulfill its affections and being drawn away by lusts which conceive sin and afterward, death!
   And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living, Luke 15:13.
   Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, 1 Peter 4:4.
   But put ye on the Master Yahshua Messiah, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, Romans 13:14.
   And they that are Messiah's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts, Galatians 5:24.
   But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed, James 1:14.
   Yeah, your kids need to be deprived of that kind of Foolish Unruly Naughtiness (F.U.N.)!
   So, “My friends and family hate me now.” Perhaps, they never loved you very much in the first place.
   Well, take heart, the Family of Yahweh is made up SOLITARIES:
   Yahweh setteth the solitary in families: He bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land, Psalm 68:6.
   What else do you suppose Yahshua meant when He said,
   I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household, Matthew 20:35 – 36.
   And Yahshua answered and said, 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, ...If any man come to me, and hate not (love less) his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple, Mark 10:29, Luke 14:26.
   Indeed, when father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister, etc., etc., forsake you, then Yahweh takes you up!
   When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up, Psalm 27:10.
   The TRUTH is, they which make this excuse, “My friends and family hate me now,”
• don’t want to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12);
• don’t want to save themselves from an untoward generation (Acts 2:40); don’t want to earnestly contend for the faith presumed delivered them (Jude 3);
• don’t want to both will and do of Yahweh’s good pleasure (Phil. 2:14); and
• don’t want to give diligence to make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10).
   One must present themselves before their family and friends to be exemplary believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity! (I Tim. 4:12).

None Righteous, No Not One
   By saying to yourself, “I’m just not good enough to live up to Yahweh’s standards,” you’re right. Really, you aren’t! If you were, you could scratch out Hebrews 4:16,
   Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
   They which invoke that excuse don’t want “To live up to Yahweh’s standards.”
   They’re the same who declare of themselves, “O wretched man that I am ...,” but never get quite so far as to pray, The gift of Yah to deliver them from the body of this death. (Read Rom. 7:24, 6:23).

His Yoke Is Easy
   I’ll add one more: “His commandments are a yoke I can’t bear.” These like to cite Acts 15:10,
   Now therefore why tempt ye Elohim, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
   They assume that “the yoke” here is the TORAH, which they will also insist, was contrary to us, blotted out, taken out of the way, and nailed to the cross, Col. 2:14. But, given this convocation of apostles and elders in Jerusalem, who had been called to consider the question of circumcision after the manner of Moses to be saved, we don’t but wonder the yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear may rather had been the oral torah for which this Pharisaic sect of the Jews’ religion, were much more zealous! In fact, according to Yahshua, Who, in Matthew, Chapters 15 and 23, had very much of derisive attestations against scribes and Pharisees, we may appreciate that if anything was contrary to us, blotted out, taken out of the way, and nailed to the torture stake, it would have been traditions and the commandments of men taught for the doctrines of Yahweh.
   Moreover, by making such an assertion that “His commandments are a yoke I can’t bear,” they are making a liar, like unto themselves, of Yahshua, Who said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light!” (Matt. 11:30).

Conclusion
   And, we conclude that excuses are given only by the lawless and disobedient, who were once thought to have heard the Word with gladness, confessed, repented, and renounced their sin and so endured for a time. But afterward, when affliction or persecution arose for the Word’s sake, immediately they were offended... having no root in themselves. (I Tim. 1:9; Mark 4:16 - 17).
   Therefore, their excuses for having fallen away have become, precisely, the reason their latter end is worse with them than their beginning and become, also, the reason we have both exhortation and admonition. There’s a thief out there, and a murderer and a destroyer and a devourer going up and down and to and fro in the earth on an unrelenting quest to tempt you, to entice you, to beset you, to overcome you, to bring you into bondage, to destroy and devour you ... and all, in that order, too! (II Thes. 2:3; II Pet. 2:20).
   We couldn’t say it any better than Yahshua, so we’ll let Him take it from here: READ Mark 4:1 – 19.
   Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall, I Corinthians 10:12.