Rabbi Schneider - God Is God
If Jesus, if Yeshua really is the Messiah and the majority of Israel has disbelieved, does this mean that God's plan is failing? And Paul answers that in Romans 9, and he says, "May it never be"! And then what Paul begins to do is to show that just because someone is born an Israelite or born Jewish doesn't necessarily mean that they're automatically in the favor of God. Paul goes back to Abraham. And Paul mentions that Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, but the blessing and the favor was only on Isaac. And then Paul continues this trajectory and he brings us to Isaac and Rebekah. And the scripture says that Rebekah had twins in her womb: Jacob and Esau. And the Lord said, before the twins were born, neither having done anything either good or bad, in order that God's purpose, according to His choice might stand, the elder will serve the younger. And then Paul quotes, "As it is written, Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated".
Now, I'm going to read that just because I want it to fully sink in because it poses a problem for humankind. And that's what we're going to address today in the remainder of this broadcast. So listen, "Not only this..." I'm reading in the 10th verse of Romans 9. Paul was speaking, "Not only this..." illustrating the point to which I've been making, "...but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls..."
Notice what Paul is doing. He's saying that God is making a choice about these two twins, Jacob and Esau in the womb. And He's making a choice about these two lads before they were born, neither having done anything good or bad. And the point is, Paul is saying, that God's choice of one and not the other was not based upon anything within Jacob or Esau. It wasn't based on their works. Paul says that "they were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls".
So once again, Paul is saying this is all about the sovereignty of God. And God's choice of one and not the other is not the result of what either of them had done. It's simply a choice in God's heart. I used the illustration last time of 100 people just in front of me, none of them had worked for me, none of them had a claim of anything that is mine. But if I just simply out of an act of my own grace went up to one of the 100 that was standing in front of me and gave one of them $100 bill just because I wanted to bless him or her, that doesn't make me guilty of not giving the other 99 $100 bills. Because the fact is, if I didn't give any of them $100 bills, I would not be guilty because none of them deserved anything.
So this is the point that Paul was making here. All humanity is guilty before God. God doesn't owe any of us anything. But because of God's grace, He has chosen to extend favor to certain ones in humanity, not because there was anything better about the ones that He extended His favor to, but simply because He wanted to do it. So this is the point that Paul was making. "Neither had done anything either good or bad, but God, so that His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, 'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated.'"
Now right away many are reacting about this. "This does not seem fair. This does not seem like God. That's not who God is. God's not fair. That's unjust". That's what many of you that are hearing me right now are feeling in your heart. But notice the next verse. Paul says, verse 14, "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be"! Do you see the point? Paul knows that what he's saying, what he has written seems unjust to us. So right now you and I have to make a decision. Are we going to receive God's word or are we going to set up our own standard of what we think is right and what we think is wrong? The choice is yours because the word is clear about this. You can read it for yourself, Romans 9.
Paul just got done saying God chose one and not the other and He did it before they were born, not because He knew what they were going to do but only because it was what he wanted to do based upon His own heart. Like a mother that chooses to love her child that comes out of her womb, not because the child has done anything good or bad, but the woman, the mother has just chosen out of her own heart to love her child. So God has just then chosen certain ones of those He created in His image to set His favor upon.
So Paul says, "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" That's what it gets back to what I was saying a moment ago. If there's 100 people in front of me, none of them have worked for me, I don't owe any of them a nickel, in fact, I never even had any relationship with any of them, but something in my heart just moves me to go up to give one of them $100 bill, that's simply me showing compassion on whom I want to show compassion, and showing grace to who I want to show grace. I'm not guilty for not doing the same thing for the other 99.
So this is what Paul was saying. God says, "I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". The Lord actually said this to Moses. "For He says to Moses, 'I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion...'" And then Paul continues in verse 16, "So that it does not depend on the man who wills..." Notice once again it's not rooted in man, it's rooted in God. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God, man who runs, but on God, who has mercy".
Now Paul even makes it harder to receive as we pick up in the next verse for 17. up in the next verse for 17. We've already established He can show compassion and mercy to anybody that He wants to, He can show favor to whomever He wills. And no one can say that He's unjust for not showing favor to everybody. He said, "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. No one could accuse him of being unjust for showing favor to the one and not to the other. But now it even gets harder for the human heart to receive". Paul continues in the 17th verse. "For the 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.'"
In other words, when you read in the Torah about the story of Pharaoh, before Pharaoh hardened his heart, the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to harden His heart". People often like to say, "Well, Pharaoh is the one that hardened his heart". It's true. Pharaoh was definitely involved in the process. But before Pharaoh hardened his heart, the Lord said to Moses, "I'm gonna harden his heart because every time Pharaoh hardened his heart and said no to Moses, when Moses said to Him, "The Lord says, 'Let my people go,' every time Pharaoh said, "No, I'm not gonna let Israel go," God did a miracle.
So by the time Israel left Egypt, the whole region had heard about the miraculous powers of the God of Israel. The whole territory all around Egypt were terrified of the God of Israel because God had revealed His glory. And this is exactly what the Lord wanted to do. He wanted Pharaoh to resist Him so that God could respond to Pharaoh's resistance by doing a miracle and so the Lord would be glorified as a result. So the Lord told Moses, "I'm going to send you to Pharaoh, but I'm going to harden his heart". So this is what's going on here. Once again, in verse number 17, "For the scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.'"
And so once again, God is taking responsibility, not just to show favor to some, but He's even taking responsibility for hardening Pharaoh's heart. In verse number 18 the text continues, "So then He, God," Paul is speaking, "Has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires". Let me read it again because I want you to know this is the word of God. I want you to hear the text. It's easy to react. But don't shoot the messenger. Hear the text. Verse 18, "So then He," meaning God, "has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires". Now, again, this doesn't seem right to many of you. This seems offensive to some of you, and you're wondering if I am teaching correctly.
Well, notice the next thing that Paul says. "You," speaking to you that might be offended, "you will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?'" Do you get it? Paul is anticipating your reaction. Paul knows that you're gonna think it's unjust. Paul knows even that some of us will accuse God. And so Paul responds and says, "Who are you, O man, to accuse God"? Once again, Paul just got done saying God can show mercy to who He desires, and He can harden whom He desires". You and I are gonna think that's unfair by our standards, but Paul's response, "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resist His will?' 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," or does the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and one for dishonor"?
In other words, Paul is saying God is God, and He created everything for His own purpose. And He can do whatever He wants with His creation. And whatever He does is just. And for you and I as His creation to accuse Him of being unjust is the root and the epitome of pride. Because we don't know. We don't understand the truth of what God is doing. The truth is, is that all humanity is in rebellion against Him. And in His sovereign grace He chose to save some. See, the Bible says, "No man seeks after God, no not one". Everyone that comes to Jesus, Jesus will save. Yeshua said, "All that are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I'll give you rest. He who comes to Me," Jesus said, "I will in no wise cast out". But Yeshua also said, "No man comes to me," in John 6, "unless the Father draws him".
So we're not talking about God hardening people that want to come to Him. We're not talking about God hardening innocent souls. We're talking about God rejecting souls that are already rejecting Him. We're talking about God hardening souls that are already hardened to Him. So once again, Paul says, "Or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use"? And if you're reading the King James that actually says "dishonor". So are you understanding here that God is God? And who are we, who are we to oppose Him and to question Him and to say that we're more just than He is? That because He doesn't fit into our paradigm of what's right and wrong that somehow we can accuse Him? No. The Bible says that all of creation, all of humanity, in the book of Ephesians, are children of wrath living for themselves.
So God is dealing with a planet that's in rebellion against Him. He's not hardening innocent people. But rather out of an entire planet that's in rebellion against Him, He sovereignly chose to save some. Are you getting what I'm saying? Now here's the takeaway that I really want you to receive today. If you can receive this truth that I'm sharing with you and study it for yourself, if you can come to understand and watch the previous broadcast as well to get the full heart of God on this, if you can understand that you are saved, that you love Jesus because He first loved you, and because He chose you even before you were born and then revealed Himself to you at the proper time, that you're in Him because of His doing, that you're in Christ Jesus, not because of your choice first, because Jesus said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you".
So if you can get a grip of this and come to understand that the reason that you love Jesus is because He first loved you and He chose you and brought you to Himself, if you can get a hold of that, then you'll know that your salvation is secure, that God is the author and the finisher of your faith. And knowing that, that He'll complete in you what He started in you according to the Word of God, knowing that, then you have something to take a hold of, that you can trust God, to finish sanctifying you, that you can trust Him to perfect you, that you can trust Him to keep you to the end because your salvation isn't dependent on you. It started and ends with Him. Now some people say, well, that gives someone a license to sin. And I have absolutely no time for that type of thinking. Because if we're born of God, we're not going to want to sin. The Bible says that we were born again, not to the will of man nor the will of the flesh.
Once again, getting back to what I'm teaching, the reason you're born again doesn't have to do with something that you created, it's what God did in you. The Bible says, "To those that were born not of the will of man nor the will of flesh, but of God". When you have God abiding in you, you're not going to practice sin. The Bible says no one that's born of God practices sin. So this concept of trusting God to keep you till the end, this concept of knowing that He that began a good work in you will finish it and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus, that's Biblical. To say well, I don't believe that... I don't believe this: one saved, always saved. I don't even use terms like that because it's just misunderstood. I don't talk like one saved, always saved.
That's not the language I use. I use biblical language. My language is I'm trusting God the one that saved me to keep me. Now does this once again mean that I have a mind that I can go out and sin and still be saved? Absolutely not. Number one, I don't want to do that. And number two, if I did do that, I question if I was even saved in the first place. So we're not talking about that kind of thinking. What we're talking about is humbly relating to God the way He wants us to relate to Him. Jesus once again said it, He said, "All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and of all that He gives Me I will lose nothing". Jesus said to Simon, "Who do you say that I am"? Simon Peter said, "Thou art the Messiah". Yeshua said, "Blessed art thou Simon son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed to you, but my Father who is in heaven".
And in closing, what I want you to take away, beloved, is if you let go of trying to do it yourself and instead trust in God the author and finisher of your faith to continue the work of grace that He started in you by His Spirit, you're going to open yourself up to Him to work in your life in a much more powerful way as opposed to you trying to keep yourself saved and sanctifying yourself in your own flesh and by your own power. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He that began a good work in you will finish it. He is your Lord. He is your Savior. He loves you and He will never leave you or forsake you.