Rabbi Schneider - God's Plan of Justification
What else has the blood of Jesus done for us? The blood of Yeshua has justified us. Now, what does it mean to be justified? To be justified means to be acquitted? What does acquitted mean? It means to be declared not guilty, released from any criminal charge. Now, once again, our battle is not with flesh and blood, it's against the powers of darkness. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. We titled this message "Release from accusation". Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And he's constantly bringing thoughts to us. And if we don't have discernment, we don't realize where they're coming from, and as a result, we don't even stand against them and fight them, because we receive the lie as if it's true. Because we believe the lie we can't fight against it.
So Satan is attacking us, beating us up by bringing all these accusations against us. Accusations that cause us to think negatively about ourselves. Accusations that make us have low self-esteem. Accusations that beat us up. They're coming from the enemy. They're charges. And some of the charges, if it weren't for the blood of Yeshua, would be true. But because of what Yeshua has done, we are righteous before him. We've been acquitted. There are no charges that can stand against us. We are holy and blameless, through Yeshua, through Yeshua by the blood of the Lamb. Let me read a scripture for you here. I'm reading from the book of Romans 5:9. "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood..." There's that word "justified," acquitted, set free, freedom from accusation, free from criminal charge. "...because we have been justified by the blood of the Lamb, we shall be saved from the wrath of God".
Let's continue with Romans 5:17-21. A lot of Scripture tonight, but the Word of God is washing us. "For if by the transgression of the one," speaking of Adam, "death reign through the one..." In other words, when Adam sinned, all of humanity became guilty before God because Adam was humanity's divine representative. So the punishment or the curse that came upon Adam because of his sin was passed upon all humankind. "For if by the transgression of one man, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace..." If death reign through Adam, much more is the reverse going to be true for those that receive the abundance of grace through Yeshua. "...and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ". And I could go on and read that but Romans 5:17 through 21 says that because of what Yeshua has done, you and I have been set free from guilt. The enemy may be beating you up tonight.
Maybe you've been living an immoral lifestyle in your past. Maybe even up to tonight you're feeling such shame. I want you to know tonight, through King Jesus, you are justified before God, holy and blameless before Him. Why? Because He, speaking of Yeshua, that knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God. You can stand against any accusation. You could say "You are a liar, that is a lie. Father God, I am righteous before you".
I want to challenge you today, my friend, you have to do it. You have to stand against the accusation and apply the blood of the lamb to your life, to your testimony, even as the children of Israel had to take the blood of the lamb that was in the basin and apply it to their doorposts in order to be saved from the enemy. You have to believe that God is not condemning you. You have to believe that you've been set free. You have to believe that no matter what you've done in your past, even to right now, if you will repent by turning your life over to Jesus, if you will right now acknowledge what you've done and say, "Yeshua, no more am I going to do that," you can stand against that lie of the devil and say, "I am holy and righteous in you, Lord. I am justified. I am not guilty. I am acquitted. I am free from all criminal accusation. I am holy and righteous through the blood of the Lamb".
You've got to believe it's already done and stand against the lie. My friend, you've got to resist the lie. Don't let the enemy keep beating you up. We've got to seize His word. How do we seize the word? Number one, through what we're doing tonight. We're going through the written word of God. We believe God's written word and we declare it. Believing it from our heart. That's number one. Number two, beloved, we seize God's Word in this way. This is the mystery that I was telling you about that I was going to share with you. Usually, when we think of the word, we think of the Bible. But in the Gospel of John the first chapter, beginning in verse number one of John one we read this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life and that life was the light of men".
So the word of God is more than just the written Bible. The word of God is Jesus Himself. It's the Spirit of God Himself. It's the Son of God Himself. Verse 14 of that same chapter says, "And the Word became flesh". So how do we seize the word? Because the word is a living person. The word is a living spirit. Jesus said, "The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life". And where is the word? Yes, the word is in the scriptures. But beloved, listen to me. The word-here's the mystery-is in you because Jesus is in you. The Spirit is in you. Paul said that he had been made a minister of the mystery, get that word "mystery," which for ages has been hidden, but in these last days has been revealed. And then he said what the mystery was. Christ in you the hope of glory.
So if we're going to be freed from all the stuff that's going on, on the outside where the enemy lives, all the lies, all the thoughts, all the bombardment of darkness upon our minds. The way to do that is to get out of your mind because the enemy can move in the realm of your mind to stop living in the realm of your mind and to instead tune in to the word that's in you. The spirit of life is in you. It's becoming aware of the fact that the life of God is in you. You turn within. You stop looking on the outside for answers. weekly mini devotional that You stop trying to fulfill yourself and run from your pain with the things of the world. Instead, you turn within. It's a painful process. Because you're separate.
It's like, you know, I used to have a blanket. I called it my Binky. It was this blanket I used to carry around with me, you know, till I was two years old. I'd be sucking my thumb carrying my Binky around all over the house. And my mom had to coax me to give up that Binky, that blanket because it was security for me. But eventually, she was successfully able to wean me from that false security, but it was painful for me. And the same thing is true for you. You give up those places that you're seeking escape in. You stop trying to fulfill yourself with materialism and the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life in other people. And instead, you just turn to God and turn inward where Christ the hope of glory is in you. You start tuning into the spirit of life in you. It takes a while. It takes discipline and practice. It takes spending a lot of time with the Lord. But eventually what happens, beloved one, my friend, is to begin to realize the difference between the outside where the darkness is and the inside.
Remember what I said about the darkness. We think about what all these people are thinking about. That's the realm of darkness. What they're thinking about isn't even what they're thinking. It's all coming to you because you're looking on the outside. But when you stop looking on the outside and start tuning inside, you'll begin to just have that soft, gentle sense that the Holy Spirit on-the-ground crusades, is is in you. It's almost like you're leaning your head on a pillow. It's just soft. You might not even hear anything. It's not that you're always going to be hearing something or seeing something. But This could not happen it's just the presence. You turn your focus, your in sending him. kavanah, as we say in Hebrew, within where the Spirit is, and you begin to get discernment and separation from the darkness. And then you can begin to affirm these truths that I'm declaring to you with conviction because you'll have revelation.
But as long as we keep looking in the world, we'll never have the revelation. We might be able to confess it but we really want our power because we don't have the revelation. The revelation comes from the Spirit. This is why Jesus said to Peter, "Who do you say that I am"? Peter said, "You're the Messiah, you're the Christ". And Jesus said, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven". We're not going to get revelation as we're looking in the darkness. We get revelation when we turn within where Christ is seated. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is not here or there. The kingdom of God is within you". Luke 17. Let's continue on. What else do we have through the blood of Jesus? What other blessing have we inherited? The blessing, beloved one, of sanctification.
Now, what is sanctification? That just might sound to some people like that's just an out-of-touch word. They've got no place in their vocabulary anymore for biblical language, unfortunately. But sanctification comes from the root word "holy". And what does holy mean? It means to be set apart. It means to be cut out. It means to be unique. The blood of Jesus has set us apart unto God. Let me read for you a scripture from the book of Hebrews chapter 13. I'm reading here verse 11 and 12. Now, the original Greek word here is translated, in the New American Standard Version, as "we've been sanctified". But in the New International Version it's translated as "we've been made holy". Why? Because the Greek original word means the same thing. We've been set apart, we've been sanctified, we've been made holy unto the Father.
So hear the word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abides forever. "The high priest carries the blood", there's the blood, "the blood of animals into the most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to," listen now, "sanctify [and make holy] the people..." In other words, they're comparing Jesus' sacrifice to the type of shadow in the Hebrew Bible where the sacrifice was burned outside the city gate, but the blood was brought into the Holy Place. Likewise, because it was a type of pattern of Jesus, Yeshua was crucified outside the city gate, just as the Old Testament sacrifice was burned outside the city gate. But He was crucified outside the city gate, but the blood of Jesus, beloved, was brought to the very heart of the Father. Why? To sanctify you and I and to make us holy.
You see, I delight in the fact that I've been set apart. I don't mind being rejected by the world. Why should we mind being rejected by the world when we know we're the apple of God's eye? Think about Israel. They are chosen people, the most persecuted people on Earth. There's no explanation for it other than the fact that they've been set apart unto the Father. And so therefore the world hates them. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, know that it hated you... it hated me rather before hated you". But get this. Jesus said, "If you were of the world, if you were of the world," Jesus said, "the world would love you. But because you're not of the world, because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you". We're set apart. We're chosen by God. We're different. We're holy. We're unique. We're a people unto the Father.
So why should we care if the world laughs at us and hates us when we should just be laughing? Because Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and say all type of evil manner against you for my sake, so they did to the prophets of old, but you're blessed and have a great reward in the Father". Persecution comes with living a godly life. Persecution comes with being set apart. We've been chosen not just to reign with Yeshua, the Scripture says, but to suffer with him. Beloved, it's a privilege to suffer for the name of Jesus. You are set apart. But if you shrink back from being light on the earth and being the salt of the earth, if you shrink back from being a set-apart person unto the Father, if you keep silent, if you don't let people know you love Jesus, if you're ashamed of Him, what's going to be the end result of that? Your faith is going to be like... it's going to be like this flame. It would be like me pouring water on top of it, the flame would go out.
No. We need to testify we're saved by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Not only do we testify that we're set apart, that we're holy and unique, but we maintain our testimony of our love and faith in Jesus in the world around us. Not ashamed of Him. Be not ashamed of the gospel. Yeshua said this. I know I'm running a little long here tonight, beloved, but I believe that God's cleansing you by the word tonight. Just be patient. Go through this as a discipline, just sitting under the teaching, the sound teaching of the Word of God. Jesus said this: "If you're ashamed of me and my words in this wicked and adulterous generation, I'll be ashamed of you when I come again in the glory of my Father". We cannot be ashamed of Jesus. We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. We are a sanctified people. Church, we are set apart. And finally, beloved, through the blood of Jesus, we've been quickened. We've been made alive.
Again, the book of Leviticus, the life of the flesh is in the blood. Through the blood of Jesus a channel was open for the Holy Spirit to come into us and make us alive. This is why Jesus said, "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life in Himself. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink". Through the blood of Jesus and the provision of His blood we've received the literal spirit of our Creator. Eternal life, everlasting life lives inside us. Through the blood of Jesus we've received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the same power, the same spirit, the same Ruach HaKodesh that raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead, lives in you and me. We're alive. This is not a doctrine only, it's truth. We've got the spirit of life in us. And the spirit of life is giving life even to our mortal bodies, quickening our minds, making us alive to God, giving us power. Let's confess it together:
Father God, through the blood of Jesus, I have received the gift of the Ruach, the gift of your spirit. I have been made alive, truly I am alive. I'm a new creation, I'm born again. The Redeemer lives in me, I stand tall in the power of the living God. In the power of Yeshua, of your resurrection.