Rabbi Schneider - Understanding Predestination
We are talking, Beloved, about Paul's words in Ephesians 3, as... in Ephesians chapter 1, rather; as we pick up from last week and we hear these words Paul's saying in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah". "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world," listen Beloved, "and predestinated us to adoption of sons". "Just as he chose us in him," verse 4, "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love". So he predestinated us, he chose us that we would be objects of his love. He chose us before the foundation of the world, Paul says, that we'd be able to stand before him, that we'd be holy and blameless, get that word, holy and blameless before him in love.
That's how you are if they know the Lord today, Beloved, you're holy and blameless. That's your standing before the Lord, you're holy and blameless before him, listen now, in love. God loves you, Beloved. He already punished your sin by taking it out on Jesus. You stand before him now, if you know him, listen now, holy and blameless before him in love. Then Paul continues in the fifth verse, and he says, "He predestinated us to adoption as sons through Yeshua HaMashiach to himself according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed upon us in the beloved". Listen, you need, Beloved, to understand this. It will be a great blessing for you. If you're walking with the Lord today, if you know the Lord, if you're born again, the reason that you're walking with him, the reason that you're born again, Beloved, is because he chose you before the foundation of the world, that he loved you, Beloved, before you were born.
Jesus said, "You do not choose me, I chose you". Jesus didn't reveal himself to everybody, neither did he try. In fact at one point he was telling parables and the disciples came and asked him later, "Lord, why do you speak to them in parables"? And Jesus said, "To you," he said to his disciples, "it's been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God". "To them on the outside," he said, "it has not been granted; therefore I speak to them in parables". Jesus, in John chapter 10, was speaking to those that were listening, he said, "You believe not," he said, "because you're not my sheep but my sheep, I know; they hear my voice, they follow me, and I'll give them eternal life and no one will be able to pluck them out of my hand". Last week I was showing you John 6. In John 6 Jesus began to speak about how he came down from heaven. They began to grumble and said, "Who is this guy"? And Jesus said, "Don't grumble among yourselves," he said, "all that the Father gives me will come to me".
In other words, Jesus understood that the reason that there were those that were grumbling was because they weren't the ones that the Father had given him. That was the same thing he said in John chapter 17 right when Yeshua was praying before his death, Jesus said, "I manifested your name, Father, to those whom you gave me out of the world". And then he said in the ninth verse there, he said, "I don't pray for the entire world but I pray for those whom now is given me". Jesus understood, Beloved, that his mission, I know this sounds radical, but it's the truth, Jesus understood, Beloved, that his death on the cross would not save everybody, even though it is absolutely sufficient to save the whole world, but he understood that the ones who would be saved from his death and resurrection were going to be the ones that the Father, Beloved, had chosen and this is what he's saying in Ephesians chapter 1.
Listen once again. "Blessed be the God and Father," chapter number 1, verse 3, "blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing unto heavenly places just as he chose us," there's that word, I didn't say it, the Lord said it, "just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love". "He predestinated us to adoption as sons for Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace".
Listen, some of you may not like this teaching because you're thinking it doesn't sound fair but you know what, Paul encountered this in Romans chapter 9. I encourage you to get this teaching, study the Word of God for yourself. Don't block out what I'm saying, Beloved Ones, just cause you don't like it. Please don't do that. Please don't do that. Examine what I'm saying and see if I'm speaking the truth. See if I'm actually speaking to you what the Word of God says. I'm going to the Book of Romans, chapter number 9. In Romans, chapter 9 Paul gives this example, he's speaking about, he's speaking, he's lamenting the fact that so many in Israel are not believing. He's wondering, listen, if Messiah Jesus is really the Messiah and the Jews are really God's chosen people, Paul's asking himself, then why are so many of the Jews, why are so many of the Israelites, Paul is saying, why are so many not believing?
Listen to it once again. Paul is saying in Romans 9: "If the Jewish people are God's chosen people and if Jesus is really the Messiah, then why are so many Jewish people not believing"? And then Paul says, "It's not as though the Word of God has failed". And then he begins to show us that not everybody that's born an Israelite, not everyone that's born a Jew is a chosen child of the promise. So once again all I'm doing is reading the Word of God. If you'll accept this, if you know him, it will bless your socks off because when you know you're chosen, Beloved, you'll be on fire for Jesus, you'll be a bold witness, and you'll run the race, Beloved. So listen once again, reading in chapter number 9 in Romans, Paul gives this example, he says, "It's not as though the Word of God," he said, "has failed".
And so I'm reading in verse number 10, he gives this example: "Rebecca, when she conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac," so here's this woman, Rebecca... Isaac, the husband, gets her pregnant. She's got twins in her womb. Verse number 11, Paul says, Romans 9, this: "For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose, according to his choice might stand, not because of works". What does he mean, not because of works? He said the twins weren't born yet and neither had done anything either good or bad so he's taking away this idea of God chooses one and not the other on the basis or foreknowledge. He's making the point the twins had not been born, neither had done anything either good or bad. To say that, yeah, but God knew what they were going to do is to completely twist opposite what Paul's trying to say here.
Paul's trying to make the point that God chooses one and not the other, not because of anything that the person does, but solely on the basis of who God is and you're going to hear it very clearly. If you have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying. Listen once again, Rebecca, she gets pregnant, there are twins in her womb. Paul said, "For though the twins," verse 11, "were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad," here we go, "in order that God's purpose according to HIS choice," see it wasn't based on what the twins said, but it was God's purpose, Paul said, "according to his choice might stand, not because of works but because of him whose, who calls". I'm going to read it again, "though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to HIS choice might stand, not because of works but because of him who caused".
It was said to her, the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated". Now some of you don't like this. You think it's not fair. You think it doesn't sound right because it doesn't sound fair and you're thinking if it doesn't sound fair, it must not be God. But look at the very next verse that Paul says after saying that, continuing Romans, chapter number 9, very next verse. Paul says in the 14th verse there, "What shall we say then"? "There is no injustice with God, is there"? "May it never be". You see, Paul knows, Beloved, that when he's teaching this that some will say it's unjust for God to choose one and not the other but let me ask you this question: When we look into the Hebrew Bible, we look into the Old Testament, what did God say concerning Israel? God said, "You have I chosen to be a people for myself out of all the peoples on the face of the earth".
Did God choose everybody? Did God choose the Amorites? Did God choose the Hittites? Did God choose the Jezubites? Did God choose the Amalekites? Absolutely not. God said to Israel, "You have I chosen to be a people for myself out of all the peoples on the face of the earth". They were a chosen nation. God chose them, not because God foresaw that they were going to be a good nation. The prophets tell us they were a stiff-necked nation but God said, "I chose you because I loved you". Listen once again, Paul was saying here the twins were not yet born, neither had done anything either good or bad and God made a choice, the elder will serve the younger, Jacob I love, Esau I hated, before the twins were even born, and then Paul continues in the 14th verse and says, "What shall we say then"? "There is no injustice with God, is there"? He says, "May it never be".
Notice this, verse 15: For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy; I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". So in other words, God's saying, listen, I can show favor to whoever I want to. If I want to show favor to one and not the other, that doesn't make me unjust because no one's deserving of my favor. Paul continues, Romans, chapter 9, verse 16: "So then it does not depend," listen up, "so that it does not depend on the man who wills or on the man who runs but on God who chose mercy". So this takes completely out of the way the thought that God chose one and not the other because of the basis of what the man did. God didn't see something good in one and not see something good in the other and chose the one based on the good that God saw in them because the Bible said all our righteousness is as filthy rags and concerning those that God has chosen.
Ephesians, chapter 2 tells us that we were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. So Paul says here, once again Romans, chapter 9, verse 16: "So that it does not depend on the man who wills or on the man who runs but on God who shows mercy". So God shows you, not because of what you did, but because of what he did. See the Bible says we're born again not according to the will of man nor according to the will of flesh but by the will of God. God was the one, Beloved, that chose you, if you know him, before the foundation of the world he quickened you by faith through the Holy Spirit, he sanctified you through the Holy Spirit, he drew you to himself, Jesus said in John 6: "No one comes unless the Father draws him". Not because he saw something good in you, not because of you, not because of what you willed, but because of him. Amen. Jesus said, "You do not choose me, I chose you".
Paul continues making his case in Romans 9 in verse 17: "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh," remember Pharaoh, the one that was persecuting God's people, "for this very purpose," God says, "I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth". Verse 18, "So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires". What is happening here is the Scripture says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now you may say, but the Scripture also says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. It is true. The Scripture says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. But listen, before Pharaoh hardened his heart, God said, "I'm going to harden his heart". So the Lord is saying here in Romans, chapter 9, verse 17 and 18, God is saying to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose, for I raised you up that I might demonstrate my power so that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth".
You see it was God's will that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened because every time Pharaoh hardened his heart and behind Pharaoh hardening his heart, God was behind it cause God said he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. It was God that was behind the hardening of Pharaoh's heart but understand that God wasn't hardening an innocent person's heart, God was hardening a wretched person's heart as we all are outside of the mercy of Jesus. That's what the Bible says in Ephesians 2, we were by nature, those that know him, children of wrath even as the rest; but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, he saved us. But listen, God is saying to Pharaoh, "I raised you up for this very purpose that I might demonstrate my power that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth".
What the Lord is saying here is this: That God was behind the hardening of Pharaoh's heart because every time Pharaoh hardened his heart, God did a miracle. Then, Moses would go before Pharaoh and say, "Let my people go". Pharaoh would say yes, then he'd change his mind, he'd harden his heart, and when he did God did a miracle. He turned the rivers to blood, he caused insects to cover the land, he caused the whole land to be clothed in darkness, he caused the cattle to get sick, and eventually he parted the Red Sea and he drowned the Egyptians in the middle of it and as a result of all the miracles that God did in Egypt, the God of Israel's fame, Beloved, spread all over the world. Everybody heard of what the God of the Hebrews did.
So this is what God is saying here concerning Pharaoh, listen, for this, for this Scripture says to Pharaoh, "for this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth". Listen to verse 18. "So then he has mercy on whom he desires and," listen now, this is God's Word now, and he, listen now, "he hardens whom he desires". I didn't say it, God said it. "So then he has mercy on whom he desires," verse 18 of Romans 9, "and he," Romans, chapter 9, verse 18, "hardens whom he desires". Now you don't like it but Paul knows we won't like it; that's why he says in the very next verse, verse 19, "You will say to me, then why does he still find fault? For who resists his will"?
You see, if Paul wasn't saying what I'm saying he's saying, he wouldn't be raising these questions. He knows that it's not going to seem right and fair to us. That's why he says earlier on in verse 14, "What shall we say"? "Is there injustice with God"? Verse 14, "What shall we say then"? "There is no injustice with God, is there"? "May it never be". That's why he says in verse 19, "You will say to me then why does he still find fault? For who resists his will"? In other words, if he has mercy on some and hardens others, how can anybody, you know, be blamed because who can resist his will? But notice what Paul says in the very next verse: "On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God"? "The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this, will it"? "Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for a common," The King James reads, "dishonor"?
So this concept, Beloved, of God choosing his people, Beloved, this is not something, first of all, that started in the New Testament, it started in the Hebrew Bible where the Lord said to the Jewish people in the Book of Deuteronomy that: "You have I chosen to be a people for myself out of all the peoples," hallelujah, "on the face of the earth". Verse number 6 of Deuteronomy, chapter 7, the Lord says to Israel: "For you are a holy people to Yahweh, you're God". "You are a holy people to Yahweh, Elohim". "Yahweh, your God, has chosen you to be a people for his own possession," listen to this now, "out of all the peoples on the face of the earth". So God is saying to Israel I chose you out of all the world. He's telling us real specifically, I didn't choose the whole world but he said I chose you out of the world. That's what Jesus said. If you are of the world, the world would love you but because I chose you out of the world, it's the same thing that Jesus said.
So listen again, Deuteronomy, chapter 7, verse 6, the Lord says to Israel, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God". "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth". Yahweh did not set his love on you nor choose you, in verse number 7 of Deuteronomy, chapter 7, listen again, "the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more number of any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples". In other words, it's not because there was something great about you but because, in verse number 8, the Lord loved you, and, Beloved, the Bible tells us in Romans, chapter 11, at the same time there's a remnant, just like Israel was a remnant out of the world, God said, "I chose you," to Israel, "out of the world".
Romans, chapter 11 tells us in the same way at the present time, right now, in the same way that God chose Israel as a remnant out of the world. Paul says in Romans 11, "In the same way, at the present time, there's a remnant chosen according to God's grace, not from among Jew only but also from among Greeks or from among Gentiles as well". So this theology, Beloved, that I'm teaching, this is, this is powerfully and sovereignly rooted in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus taught it very plainly and very explicitly. "You did not choose me," he said, "but I chose you". And this is what Paul is referring to in the Book of Ephesians when he said in verse number 4, "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy". Why are we holy? Because Jesus, Beloved, died for our sins. He cleansed us by his blood. He's our divine head. He's our divine representative because he is holy and because he purchased us by his blood and paid for our sin. We're holy by virtue of our head who's Jesus.
So the Scripture says even as in Adam, I'll sin. We became sinners because Adam was the head, now that Jesus has purchased out of that by his blood, now we're holy because we're related to the One who is holy, Yeshua HaMashiach, our head, who died for our sins. He's our divine representative and so God looks at us through the eyes of Messiah. "Just as he chose us," in verse 4, "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestinated us," verse number 5, "he predestinated us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, who himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved".
Let me just make some final comments once again. Some people, they hear that word, predestination, they react. Listen, you can't say if you believe in the Bible, I'm going to repeat it again, if you believe in the Bible, Beloved, if you believe in the Bible, you cannot say you don't believe in predestination because predestination is in the Bible. The exact words, predestination, are in the Bible. He predestinated us, Romans 7, not because he foreknew what you were going to do, but because he foreknew you. Remember, Paul just got done saying in Romans 9, "It's not by the man that wills or the man that runs," Paul got done saying in Romans 9, "before the twins were born, neither having done anything either good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to election, or according to his choice, might stand not because of works but because of him who calls".
God chose you, Beloved. He loves you not because of anything you did and not because he foresaw what you would do, but rather he chose you in advance. That's what we mean when we say he foreknew you. He loved you in advance, he foreloved you, and because of that, Beloved, he predestinated you to Jesus and that's why Jesus said in John, chapter 6, "No one can come to me," hallelujah, "unless it's been granted from the Father". I want to conclude, Beloved, today what Yeshua's words in the Gospel of John, chapter number 17, I spoke about these earlier, I want to read them to you, Jesus is about to go to die on the cross and to ascend back to heaven, he says in verse number 6 of John 17, we call this the high priestly prayer, "I manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world". So Jesus is saying, "I revealed myself, Father, to those that you gave me". Remember in John 10 Jesus said to people that weren't believing, "You believe not because you're not my sheep". Jesus said, "I know my sheep; my Father's given them to me". So there's these ones that the Father has given to Jesus.
Jesus looked at those that didn't believe in John 6 and John 10 and he said, "You don't believe because you're not my sheep". In other words, you're not one of the ones that my Father gave me. Jesus says, "I manifested my name to the ones that you've given me". And then in the 9th verse he says of John 17, he prays to the Father, he says, "I ask on their behalf". Whose behalf? The ones that the Father had given him, that's what he just got done saying in John 17:6. He said, "I ask on their behalf, I did not ask on behalf of the world". In other words, he's not praying for everybody. He says, "I ask on their behalf, I did not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom thou has given me for they are thine". Beloved, listen, I want to challenge you to receive this. If you'll receive it, it will bless you. You will surrender to God; you'll know who you are. This series is called Identity and Destiny. When you know who you are, when you know you've been chosen by God before the foundation of the world, Beloved, you'll go a long way in knowing who you are, and in knowing who you are, you'll find your destiny, Beloved. God bless you today.
Father, I pray for these that are watching this broadcast today. Father, I know that for some, Father God, this is a word that they're unfamiliar with but, Father God, I pray that you'll bless your people through the preaching of the Truth. Lord Jesus, sanctify your people today. Yeshua, open up our hearts and open our eyes. Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, Lord Jesus, I pray to know you. I release blessing, Father God, to those that are watching right now through the television set. Father, I release blessing. You told us, Father, that you chose us in advance and predestinated us to stand before you holy and blameless before you in love. Father, I pray that you release now through the Ruach Hako-dosh, the Holy Spirit, the confirmation of your Spirit in people's hearts, that you'll bear witness, Father God, by your Spirit in the hearts of these of yours that are listening right now, for them to know how much you love them, and how secure they are in you because you chose them before the foundation of the world. God bless you Yedeed. Shalom.