Rabbi Schneider - Overcome Sin
Shalom uvrachah, peace and blessings. I'm dressed in white today because we're filming an episode on what is considered the most Holy day on God's sacred calendar. We're going to be talking today, beloved ones, about Yom Kippur, or the Day of Covering, the Day of Atonement. This gets to the crux of the purpose for which God sent His Son Mashiach, Messiah Jesus, into the world. I want to really bring home today by the unction of God's Spirit, how detrimental sin is. It's so unfortunate today that the gospel that so many of us are accustomed to hearing is not the gospel that was once and for all delivered by the apostles because the apostles delivered a gospel and the crux of that message was that man is guilty before God.
Now stay with me today. I want to help you to understand, beloved, how critical it is that we get a grip on the significance of evil and how Jesus was sent into the world to deliver God's people from their sin. Yes, He came to give us our abundant life. He came to give us an inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. All these things are absolutely wonderful, true, but if we don't have an understanding of the depths of sin, of the problem of evil, if we don't recognize that the biggest problem that mankind faced is evil, was taking him into hell. If we don't understand that, beloved, we are going to never really discover the grace of God. You see in the Book of Romans, Paul lays out for us, the most fundamental treatise of the Gospel message. And Paul begins the Book of Romans by sharing with mankind, that all humanity, listen, is guilty before God. Why am I stressing this? Stay with me.
The reason I really want to bring this home today, as we're going to be digging in Yom Kippur, this sacred day on God's calendar, The Day of Atonement, the Yeshua fulfilled. The Book of Hebrews writes all about this. If we don't have an understanding of the problem of evil, of the depths of sin, of the torment that it causes, of the separation it brings, of the end result of it, we are going to miss what it means to be washed, cleansed, and transformed. Again, Paul, who gives us the most fundamental, the most profound, the most exhaustive doctrinal treatise in the New Testament of what salvation is all about, begins by causing mankind to recognize the problem. And the problem is sin. Paul speaks to the Jew and he says to the Jew, "You are guilty before HaShem. You are guilty before the Creator, because even though you had the written law of God, you did not obey it".
And the law gave us a option. The option was, if you obey it, you'll be blessed when you come in, you'll be blessed when you come out, your offspring will be blessed. Everything that you set your hands to will be blessed. But the Lord also said in the Book of Deuteronomy concerning the written law of God, that if you don't fully keep its requirements, that curse will come upon you. Plagues will come upon you. You'll be cursed when you come in, you'll be cursed when you come out. And what Paul tells us is that even though the law promised a blessing, because there was a promise of blessing in the law if its requirements were kept, even though it held a promise of blessing, Paul said it became a curse because no Jewish person could fulfill the requirements that would result in the blessing. So that the law became a curse because mankind fell short in fulfilling the laws' Holy requirements. So the whole entire Jewish world, all of Israel stands guilty before God. And the scripture says in the Book of Ezekiel, "the soul that sins, it shall die".
Then Paul turns to the Gentiles. Paul says to the Gentiles, even though they knew God inside their heart and in their conscience, this God given sense that mankind has of God's reality, of his moral nature, this primitive sense of right and wrong. Paul says, "Every man is born with it". Paul says, they know inside, it's written in their heart, and they know in their conscience. And Paul said, and beyond that, when man looks at the world that he sees creation, he has a greater sensitivity, even still then beyond the conscience of knowing who God is, that we're responsible to Him. That He's unlimited. That He's all powerful. That He's the Creator of all things. That all man, Paul says, is guilty before God and has fallen short.
Gentiles, once again, they knew God in their heart, they could see His attributes in creation, and yet they still sinned against their conscience. And when they sinned against their conscience, they sinned against God. And even Gentiles, when they looked at creation, they saw that God was all powerful, that the sky goes on forever. They didn't submit to Him, they didn't bow to Him, they didn't make Him their Lord. They lived into themselves. The entire Gentile world is guilty before God. And as I said, the entire Hebrew population, every Israelite, guilty before HaShem because they did not live up to the requirements of the law. Mankind is separated from God. This is the essence of where the Gospel begins. This is the essence and the platform from which the good news must be spoken. That man is guilty before God, he's separated from God. And the consequence of separation is death and hell. Outer darkness, Jesus described it, is that mankind that has not been reconciled to the Lord will die in their sin and cast into the outer darkness. Yeshua said a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I want you to understand, my friends, how serious evil and sin is. A lot of us, we don't get it. The only message we've been hearing is about God wants to somehow satisfy our desires. And a lot of us are looking for God to satisfy earthly desires. Jesus wants to fulfill us. He said, "If you drink of the water that I'll give you, it will become within you a well of water springing up to eternal life. That you'll thirst no more". God wants to forgive us. He wants to satisfy us. He wants to create within us a harbor for Him to live in so that we can find satisfaction in knowing Him. But instead, the message that many of us are hearing today. It's not a message of repentance from sin. It's not a message that convicts us of evil. It's not even a message of looking for satisfaction in knowing God, but rather the message that many of us hear is a message where God almost becomes a magic genie, that if we do the right formula, if we say the right prayer, if we do this, or we do that, that somehow God, like a magic genie, is going to jump out of the lamp and He is going to grant our wishes and He's going to give us whatever we want in this world. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life.
People are trying to use God to gain the things of the world. But the scripture says all that's in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life, it's not from the Father. It's from the world. I want us to understand today that if we're going to truly enter in, to knowing God, to walking with HaShem, we need to understand the depths of our sin, beloved, and the depths of evil. And when we understand that we'll be in a position to be cleansed, to experience forgiveness, to be washed, to be transformed. But too many of us, we're trying to cover up our sin. We're trying to make excuses for our sin. Adam said about Eve, "She made me do it". Eve said about the serpent, "He made me do it". And I wonder how many of God's people are not cleansed and delivered because of their sin because they are making excuses for it and they won't face it.
I remember as a very young believer, when Yeshua first appeared to me 1978, I had almost no sin consciousness. I knew I was lost. I knew I was confused. I knew I was afraid. I knew I needed something desperately. And when Jesus appeared to me in 1978, I was so happy that God had shown me the way. But beloved ones, the longer I continued on with HaShem, the longer I continued on with Yeshua, with Jesus, the more convicted I began to become of my own sin, of my own evil. And you know, I've been walking with the Lord now since 1978 and every year that goes by, I'm more convicted of the evil in my heart. Selfishness, not dying to pride, wrong ambitions, blaming other people, but it just keeps going deeper.
You know, if I compare myself to most people that call themselves believers, I can think I'm pretty good. I mean, my life is pretty disciplined in the Lord. If I compare myself to most believers, I could think you're pretty good, but you know what, beloved, I don't compare myself to believers. I compare myself to the light of God's Spirit. And when I see myself in the light of God's Spirit and recognize how far away I am from holiness, it's terrifying. Don't misunderstand me. I have confidence in Yeshua, I have confidence in His blood, but when I see myself in the light of God's Spirit and see the depths of my selfishness, the depths of wrong thinking, the depths of having all kinds of thoughts going through my mind that are not submitted to the Kingdom of Heaven, I'm a million miles away from God. And all I could do is cry out for mercy and for deliverance. The closer I get the farther away I am.
You think, "Well, Rabbi, is something wrong with you"? Well, do you remember what happened to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six? Isaiah was possibly the most righteous man in the entire world at the time. But when Isaiah saw the Lord, in Isaiah chapter six, when he really saw God, you know what Isaiah did? He fell on his face, beloved, in dust and ashes, terrified, and he beat his hands against his chest. And he said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. And I live amongst a people of unclean lips". When he saw himself in the light of HaShem, the light of God's Spirit, he realized how corrupted he was. And in his state of desperation, in his state of conviction, he called out and God touched him and cleansed him. But I wonder about you today. Have you ever been convicted of your sin? Have you ever been convicted of your sin? Have you come to an understanding of the depths of evil that you need to be delivered from? The depths of deliverance from making yourself Lord, instead of living for Him?
Let's remember what it looks like to really live for God, to really be in right relationship with Him. Yeshua said, "I do nothing by my own initiative". He said, "I don't do anything except that which I see the Father doing". He was totally living as one that was alive to the Father. He wasn't searching for His own path. He wasn't looking to the world to make Him happy. He wasn't in the Earth to make Himself happy. He was in the world to serve God. I remember just the other day I was in my car, just as a side note example, and I always considered myself a really bold witness. I mean, I'll witness to anybody anywhere, but you know what, I noticed, even in me, how I needed to conquer being ashamed of the Lord.
I had a little business card in my car, says WhoAmI.com. And I don't know where it was, but I saw it laying in my car, I was about to go into a convenience store. And I said, "Oh, I have to give this card when I check out at the convenience store to the cashier". WhoAmI.com, they go to the website and then it leads them on a Gospel journey to know Jesus. But you know what? When I thought about picking up that card in my car and giving it to the cashier in the convenience store, something in me, beloved, shrunk back thinking, "Do you really want to do that? Do you really want to create that situation where they reject you? Do you really want to create that situation where they look down on you"? And I had to fight, I will not be ashamed of the Lord.
You see Jesus said, "He that's ashamed of Me and My words in this wicked and adulterous generation, I will be ashamed of him when I come again in the glory of the Father with His heavenly angels". But how many of you have been ashamed of the Lord? You're not public about your love for Jesus. You don't share your faith. You're not surrendering to Him your finances. You don't put Him first in your life when you wake up in the morning by spending, I'm not condemning anybody. I'm trying to point out, beloved, the day of atonement is about forgiveness and deliverance from evil and sin. And unfortunately, too many of God's people have never been convicted of their sin. They're just trying to use God to make themselves happy.
Let me share something with you. Our first goal is not to be happy. Yes, we want to be happy, everybody wants to be happy, but that is not our primary goal. Our primary goal is to obey Father God through Jesus. That's the goal. Jesus said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you". But many of us have got it all wrong. And we're hearing a gospel message today that's not the authentic gospel message.
So today, as we're thinking about this sacred day in God's calendar, the most Holy day of all called Yom Kippur, Yom meaning day, Kippur meaning covering, I want you to understand that the primary reason Yeshua came into the world was first of all, to cleanse you and I and deliver you and I from evil and sin. And until you and I are willing to face our sin, to allow the Holy Spirit in to convict us of our sin, to bend our knee to them and say, "Yes, Lord deliver me from this sin".
And to truly repent, what do we mean by repent? Repenting is when you're given the opportunity to the same thing again, that same sin, but you don't do it. It's not just saying, "I'm sorry". Repenting means to turn away. Remember Jesus' first words were "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand". Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you shall perish". So as we are celebrating Yom Kippur, I want to call you away from the false gospel that you've been hearing. Beloved, the first and primary aim of our life is to follow Jesus, to be cleansed and delivered from our sin. Just because something feels good or something makes us happy, that is not what makes it right. God's word defines right and wrong. And His Holy Spirit convicts us of right and wrong. And Jesus said, "Unless you pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple". Everybody that desires to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer.
What do we suffer? We have to deny the flesh. We have to deny doing what we want to obey Him. We have to be humble enough to admit when we're wrong. We have to be humble enough to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us. We need to stop blaming our husbands. We need to stop blaming our wives. We need to stop blaming our employer. We need to stop blaming our pastor. We need to stop blaming the devil and we need to submit to the Lord and say, "Lord, I'm the problem. Forgive me, God. Change me, God. I surrender my life to You Jesus today. I ask You to come through Your blood, cleanse me of my sin by Your Spirit and Your Word and deliver me".
You see, beloved, when Yeshua was announced to the world, He was announced to the world through His mother and the angel said to the mother, "You shall call His name Yeshua. You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin". I'm calling us back, church, to the original message. We need to be delivered and cleansed of sin. The Bible says, "Without holiness, no man shall see God". Let's stop trying to use God to fulfill the lust of our flesh. And let's instead die to ourself, submit to Him, confess our sin and repent. As we do, we'll be transformed into the image of Jesus and prepared, beloved, to see Him face to face.