Rabbi Schneider - God's Inheritance
We begin in Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 2. Paul greets us by saying, grace to you, and shalom. And it's interesting that whenever Paul writes, he always begins his letters the same way. He says grace to you and peace. The Hebrew word there is shalom. Grace to you and peace, Paul says. From who? From God the Father. Listen once again. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 2. All Paul's letters start out the same or a very similar way. "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ". What does this mean, beloved? This means the Father loves you. Some of you are walking around right now, there's a stronghold of darkness on you from the enemy. You're thinking God hates you, you're thinking God's mad at you, you're thinking God's wrath is on you.
I want you to know, beloved, if you're a child of God, God's Word to you is always the same. Do not be afraid. Grace to you and peace today from God the Father and Yeshua HaMashiach. God loves you, beloved. He's a good heavenly Father. He's already paid the penalty for your sin by taking it out on his own Son. That's why in Ephesians chapter 1 we read there that Yeshua, in verse number 7, in him, in Yeshua we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. And so you see, when God comes to you, he's already forgiven you. That's already been taken care of. Your sin's already been dealt with. And so he comes to you, grace to you today, peace today from God your Father. And from Yeshua HaMashiach. So I want you to draw near now. I want you not to be afraid. I want you to open your heart and position yourself in a place to receive. Because Yeshua said the words that I speak to you are Spirit and are life.
He continues on there, Paul, in the third verse. He said blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, why does Paul say blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, of Yeshua HaMashiach? Because the Father, beloved, is the fountain of all blessing. And so he says blessed be God. Blessed be our God and Father. It's the same way we begin our Hebrew prayers, Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God. The Father, beloved, is the fountain of all blessing. And so Paul begins his letter in a very, very Hebrew way because Paul is the Jewish apostle, educated under one of the leading sages of his day, Gamaliel, who was Hiliel's grandson, and Hiliel's was one of the greatest Jewish sages of all time, and he was the leader of the Sanhedrin that we read about in Scripture at a different time.
And so Paul was very Jewish. He saw himself, beloved, as the one that was continuing in his Judaism and that he was trying to convince the Jewish community and the Gentile community that Jesus was the one that Moses wrote of when Moses said there's going to be someone that's going to arise from amongst your people, and he's going to be the one that's going to be the Prophet of God, and if you don't listen to him, you'll be cut off. And so Paul was convinced that he is continuing in the faith of his fathers and that his proclamation of Jesus as Messiah was the most Jewish proclamation that one could make. And from Paul's perspective and from my perspective, beloved, receiving Jesus as your Messiah is the most Jewish thing that you could do, because he was crucified with a sign above his head that said King of the Jews. And Jesus said don't think I've come to abolish the law. I've not come to abolish but to fulfill it. Jesus, beloved, is the fulfillment of the entire Hebrew Bible.
And so Paul's the Jewish apostle presenting Jesus in a Jewish context from a Jewish perspective. Blessed be the God and Father. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu. And then he goes blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, and then he says, listen now, who has blessed us. How come he can bless us? Because he's the Blessed One. And what has he blessed us with? Listen. Every spiritual blessing, get this now, in the heavenly places. The Father has blessed you and I with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In another portion of Scripture, we read this, that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it's love and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.
My point is, is that many people are looking to God, and they think walking in God's blessing is predominantly a material blessing. But I want you to know, beloved, the message that's being preached today, lifting up God as some magic genie that we can use to help achieve the American dream is not the God that Paul reveals and preaches. The God that Paul reveals to us and preaches is the resurrected Yeshua HaMashiach, the God man, the heavenly man, the Lord Jesus that has been raised into the heavenly places, is seated with God in the heavenly places, and has called us to be there with him. Our blessing, beloved, is not necessarily an earthly blessing. The Lord may bless us with material things, but there's no promise of that. The promise is, beloved, a heavenly placing, and that all your needs will be met on this earth.
Because listen when I say this. If the Gospel that I'm preaching or that anybody else is preaching does not work anywhere in the world, if the Gospel that I'm preaching or anybody else is preaching does not work in impoverished nations, if it doesn't work in poverty-stricken nations, if it doesn't work in situations where there's no economic employment, where there's no means of significant financial gain, if the Gospel that I'm preaching or anybody else is preaching doesn't work in those environments, then it's not the real Gospel. And so the message, beloved, that God is going to make us all rich cannot be the real Gospel because it doesn't work in impoverished countries.
Now, I'm not saying that God can't take somebody in an impoverished country and do something supernatural and bless them. But I'm talking about that the vast multitudes of people that would believe in some poverty-stricken places in Africa or India, God's certainly I don't think going to make all those people multi-millionaires in this generation, but what he can do is give those people peace and give them power and give them joy and give them the ability to live, beloved, over their circumstances, like Paul, who said he had learned the secret of being able to be content in any and every situation. He said he had learned how to be content with a lot and he had learned how to be content with a little. The point is God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
You see, heaven is where God is. Psalm 115 tells us that the earth is made for the sons of men, but God possesses heaven. You see, God calls us to a heavenly blessing. He calls us to where he is. Our blessing isn't necessarily on this earth. Jesus said don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your heart is, there your heart will also be. Blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, Ephesians 1:3, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, get this, in the heavenly places. God hasn't called his people to a mountain of money. He's called them, beloved, to Mount Sinai. Hallelujah and amen. There's nothing wrong with being financially blessed, beloved. Praise God. I thank the Lord, beloved, for his provision. I thank the Lord, beloved, that we have a God of abundance and a God of grace. I bless the Lord for that. But beloved, it's not the primary message or theme of the Gospel. Jesus, hallelujah, is the center of the Gospel.
And let me tell you this. The only people that think money is the answer are people that don't have money. Because everybody that has money knows that money's not the answer. Now, it is important to have a roof over our head, to not be in debt. I understand that. God bless you. But to think that money is the source of happiness, Jesus said life consisteth not in the abundance of things. I'm making the point, beloved, that the blessing that God has blessed us with, it's a heavenly blessing. It's not, beloved, to achieve the American dream.
I remember years ago, the Lord revealed a situation to me in a dream one night. And I was preaching to this congregation, and in the middle of my message, somebody in the congregation in this dream stood up. Well, actually, let me back up a little bit. I'm getting the dream out of order. I'm preaching the Gospel in this sanctuary. In the middle of my message, beloved, the people stand up while I'm preaching, and they put their hand over their heart, and they start saying the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. They drowned out my preaching. They were saying it so loud, I couldn't even hear myself preach anymore. I was so humiliated in this dream that this happened. I walked off the pulpit where I was preaching. We call it in Hebrew the bema. I walked away from it. In the dream I went into the bathroom. I was so humiliated, felt so humiliated in this dream, I said to the Lord, do I have to go back in? And the Lord said to me go back in and finish.
So I went back into the sanctuary to finish in this dream. And as I walked back into the sanctuary, somebody stood up and said they don't want to listen to you anymore. But I kept on preaching. And when I was done preaching, the Holy Spirit said to me in the dream, you did a good job while you were here. And then he said to me, if people aren't waking up every morning and asking me to cleanse them, the best preacher in the world's not going to be able to help them. And then the dream was over. And that dream deeply concerned me, and it deeply grieved me. And I thought to myself, God, what did I do wrong? Where am I weak as a leader, that people would stand up in the middle of the preaching of the Word of God and drown out the preaching of the Word of God with the pledge of allegiance? I said Lord, what am I doing wrong? Where's my weakness?
And I was praying about this for several days. And about three days later, I was in a hotel room one night getting ready to go preach the next morning, and the Holy Spirit very vividly spoke to me, and he said to me this. He said it wasn't your weakness that caused those people to rise up and say the pledge of allegiance and drown out your preaching. It had nothing to do with you, the Holy Spirit told me. It had to do with the fact that I that I was showing you that people's allegiance today is not to me, it's to the American dream. And beloved, that's part of what's happening in the church today. People are hearing a message that basically is promising them wealth in this world and making that really the end, and it's not the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus, beloved, is the heavenly man, and he's blessed us with a heavenly blessing, and we have, hallelujah, a heavenly calling.
Remember, Jesus said the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. I'm not saying that God doesn't bless some of us sometimes with financial blessings, and praise God that we have a good God that loves his children and blesses them. But beloved, let me tell you, it's not the Gospel message. Jesus, hallelujah, is the Gospel message. We must pick up our cross daily, beloved, deny ourselves, hallelujah, and follow him. And if you look at the lives, beloved, of the New Testament writers, in my view, their lives were not easy, pampered lives. Paul, as I indicated on last week's broadcast, was writing this letter from the book of Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1 and chapter 4 verse 1 from prison. It wasn't a pampered life. We know that the apostles were martyred, burned in oil, hung upside down, et cetera. No, God has called us to follow Jesus. We read in the book of Revelation of the martyrs and how they're before the throne of God and how God is going to bless the martyrs. You see, beloved, we have a heavenly calling blessed with heavenly blessings. Let's continue on. Ephesians 1 verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, of Yeshua HaMashiach, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah, in Christ.
Remember, I reminded you a few weeks back that this blessing, beloved, it's not just a future blessing, because it says blessed be the God and Father of Yeshua HaMashiach, get this now, who, listen, has, H-A-S, already, who has blessed us. When were you blessed? Paul tells us when we were blessed in the very next verse, verse number 4. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. When were you blessed? You were blessed, beloved, when God chose you to be his, hallelujah, before the foundation of the world. What greater blessing could we have than that? Amen, hallelujah, and we praise you Father Yahweh God.
Paul continues on, and he says in verse number 5, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Yeshua HaMashiach to himself according to the kind intention of his will. We stand before Father God now, beloved, holy and blameless in the 4th verse. When you look in the mirror, you're in Messiah Jesus. You're holy and blameless because you're in Messiah Jesus. Your sins have been forgiven, beloved. The 7th verse here says in him we have forgiveness of our sins through his blood. You are now in him as an adopted son. You're a brother from another mother. And you stand before him holy and blameless as an adopted son of God. And Yeshua, beloved, owns God as his Father. I ascend, he said in John 20:17, to my Father and your Father. He's first Yeshua's Father. That's why Yeshua says I ascend to my Father. He's first Yeshua's Father. And now because we're chosen in Messiah and because we've been adopted as sons in Messiah, he's our Father, too.
So Yeshua says I ascend to my Father and your Father. Isn't that an awesome thing, beloved, to know that you are in Messiah, that you're a son, and that the Father loves you and me with the same love that he loves Jesus with? And beloved, he predestined this to happen in our lives. Some people don't like that word predestined. They don't like to think about predestination. Many Christians say I don't believe in predestination. Well, if you're sitting there watching this now, and you're saying I don't believe in predestination, let me ask you, what do you do with this? I'm reading Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, through Yeshua HaMashiach to himself. How can you say you don't believe in predestination when God tells us flat out that he predestined us? Those of us that know him, beloved, have been predestined. And he didn't predestine you, beloved, because he knew you would choose him. He predestined you because he foreloved you. You did not choose me, Jesus said. He didn't predestine us because he knew that we would choose him. Jesus said in John 15, you did not choose me, but I chose you.
Romans 8:29 and 30 says whom he did foreknow, whom he foreknew. That foreknow there, beloved, that foreknowing, whom he foreknew, it doesn't mean he foreknew what you were going to do. He didn't choose us based on the deeds of righteousness which we have done. The Scripture's very clear about this. He didn't foreknow your deeds. It wasn't the foreknowledge of your deeds that made him choose you. I was his love for you. That's why God said to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6, you alone have I chosen to be my people out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. And yet he also called them a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Jesus said about them, which one of the prophets did they not kill? Moses called them a stiff-necked people. So God certainly didn't choose Israel because he saw something good in them or because he saw that they would choose him, because they didn't. They rebelled constantly, eventually putting, yeah, absolutely.
And so God's choice of us, beloved, is based in him, not in us. The Bible says whom he foreknew, Romans 8:29, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Whom he foreknew he called; whom he called, he justified; whom he justified, he glorified. And so beloved, this is what Paul is referring to here. You can't say that you don't believe this, because the Word of God teaches it. You might not like it. Paul knows that some won't like it. That's why he says in Romans chapter 9 about the same thing, you will say to me man, is there injustice with God? In other words, he knows that people are going to rise up and call God unjust when he teaches this. Paul knows that people are going to stand up and say well, how can he blame anybody if he's God and he chooses one? No. Paul says who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Doesn't the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one for honor and one for dishonor or common use?
Paul recognizes, beloved, that even as God chose Israel out of all the peoples in the earth in the Hebrew Bible, Paul teaches in Romans 11 so too at the present time, right now in the dispensation of Messiah Jesus, there's a remnant chosen according to grace. That's why Jesus said in John chapter 10 I know my sheep, my Father has given them to me. But then he said to others that didn't believe, he said but you believe not because you're not my sheep. This is why Jesus said to the few that followed him and stuck with him in John 6, everyone else left, Jesus looked at the few that remained, and he said do you want to leave, too? And they said well, where are we going to go? You have the words of life. And then Jesus said this is why I said to you that no man can come to me unless it's been granted from the Father. Paul is writing here to the elect of God, to the chosen of God. And so he says the Father has chose us in him, 1:4 of Ephesians, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons, hallelujah, through Jesus Christ, hallelujah, to himself.
Now, I just want to take a second here and go to Romans chapter 9 once again. I know we've covered this, but I really need you to understand this. If you're rebelling against this, you need to understand, you're not rebelling against me. You're not rebelling against my preaching. All I'm doing is reading the Word of God. Get it for yourself. You can't rebel against the Word of God and call it me. It's the Word of God that I'm reading, beloved. Listen to what I'm saying here. Paul is arguing this same thing in Romans chapter 9. Here's the point that Paul's making in Romans 9. He's saying if Israel is God's chosen people, and Jesus is really the Messiah, and most of Israel is not believing, what went wrong? It doesn't make sense. If Israel's God's chosen people and Yeshua is the Messiah, and most of Israel's not believing, where has the plan failed? And this is what Paul's addressing. And he says it's not as though, in verse number 6 of Romans 9, but it is not as though the Word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.
So now Paul is saying that just because someone was born from the twelve tribes of Israel, it doesn't mean they're a child of the promise. What promise is he referring to? He's referring to the promise, beloved, that he speaks of in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, those that are chosen before the foundation of the world and that have been predestined as a result of their being chosen by the Lord to adoption as sons. So he's saying listen, even though that many in Israel are not believing, God's plan is not failing. And then he goes on to say that even during all the Biblical times in the past, you can see that not every child of Israel was walking in a covenant of intimate love with the Lord. And he gives the example, beloved, of Jacob and Esau. And so he says this in verse number 10, not only this, Romans chapter 9 verse 10, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac.
So here's Rebekah, she's pregnant by Isaac, Jacob and Esau are in the womb. And listen what Paul says in the 11th verse. For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad. So in other words, God's going to make a choice here, and it's not going to be based on anything that they've done. Paul says they're not born, neither had done anything yet. Listen, the point is not that God knew what they were going to do even before they did anything. The point is that Paul is saying God's making a choice, and it has nothing to do with anything that they're going to do, either good or bad. He says 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, listen now, in order that God's purpose, listen, in order that God's purpose.
I'm going to say it again. In order that God's purpose according to, get this, his choice, according to God's purpose that his choice might stand, not because of works, not because of anything either Jacob or Esau did, not because of works, but because of him who calls, it was said to her the elder shall serve the younger, just as it is written, he continues on here, Jacob I love, but Esau I hated. And then in verse 14, what shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? And then he says may it never be. He has mercy on whom he has mercy, he hardens whom he hardens. This is what Paul's talking about here, that if you know Jesus today, beloved, you have reason to be filled with joy to know that he chose you in his love to be his, to be with him in heaven even before you were born. And he has a glorious future for you. And even now, his glory is inside you. And Paul prays that you would understand the glory of God's inheritance in you.
So Father God, we just want to thank you today for loving us. We're so thankful, Father God, to be yours, and we want to be like Jesus, Father, and be willing to suffer with you, with you, Lord Jesus, outside the city gates, not to be ashamed of being a witness, but we want to lift up your name because you said to us, Jesus, if you were of the world, the world would love you, but because I chose you out of the world, the world hates you. Jesus, I want to love you and be your witness.