Rabbi Schneider - Humanity's Biggest Need

TOPICS: Deep Revelation From the Book of Ephesians Season 1

"To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved". So you and I, beloved one, if you're a child of God today, my dear brother or sister, you are predestined to the praise of God's grace. You and I were created to glorify God. We were saved to glorify God. Jesus shed His blood that our sins would be forgiven, so that we could become one with our Creator, through Him, to the praise of His glorious grace. You know what that does? It helps us know who we are and what we're here to do. We're here to praise Him. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

As I said on the last broadcast, everyone's looking for identity. The unfortunate thing is because of the mass deception that encircles the world right now, that's encircling the globe through the powers of darkness, people are misled. They're looking for identity in the things of the world. They're looking for identity and affirmation from other people. They're looking for identity in their looks. But that's not who... we're not going to find our identity there. Our identity is that we were chosen in the Father's love, predestined into a relationship with Himself that we'd be those that would praise Him because of a great love which He poured out upon us forever.

So we need to get brave, beloved ones. So many that call themselves Christians, even unfortunately, I'm afraid many that are watching right now, you're not walking around as a testimony of praise to God on the earth. Listen, let me read two verses together in context. "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind of intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved". What I'm driving at is that you and I, we are tokens of the Creator's marvelous grace in the earth. Like we should be walking around always salting our communication with the grocer, with the waiter, with our dentist, with whoever it is.

Our speech should always be seasoned with salt of praise. People should know you love God. People should know you love God. We were saved to the praise of His glorious grace. How can we keep that a secret? Yeshua said, if we don't praise Him, the rocks are going to cry out, the rocks are going to cry out. Everything's created for the Creator's glory. Yes, He loves us a thousand million percent, but we need to also think about our responsibility. Okay, our responsibility, beloved, is to praise Him. And He's not talking about just being a silent praiser. He's talking about, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise Him with timbrel. Praise Him with everything. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

I want to challenge you today, my beloved brother and sister, let the world know who you are. Let the world hear God's praise coming through your mouth. When something good is said, regardless by who it is that you're talking to, you know what your response should often be? Praise God. They should know that your speech is different. Praise God. When God answers your prayer, praise God. When God gets you safe somewhere, praise God. When something good happens, praise God. When the weather's good, praise God. And everybody should hear you saying that because we were saved to the praise of His glorious grace, which He really bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Now we're gonna move on to verse 7. "In Him, in Yeshua, in Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace". I want to just pause for a second. In Him we have redemption through His blood. The Lord bought us back from the devil. God owns everything. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they forfeited their relationship with God. Satan had a legal right now to torment them. Satan had a legal right over their lives. But Jesus bought us back. He bought us back from the dominion of Satan. The Bible says He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We've been redeemed. We've been purchased. The word redemption, the word "redeemed" carries with it the idea of being purchased.

God removed the penalty of our sin when we forfeited through our forefather Adam our unity with the Creator and instead became a slave of sin, Jesus purchased us out of that debt. He purchased us out of the penalty. He purchased us out of the consequences of the sin, both from our own life and that we inherited from our forefathers. You see, we were born into the world of sinners. David said in iniquity he was conceived. So we had to be redeemed from being under the realm of darkness. And God did that because He loves us so much. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, but because of the great love that the Father has for us, even when we were sinners, even before we came to Jesus, God loved us because of His great love for us He sent His Son to die and redeem us from our sin.

And so once again, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace". I want to focus on something for a moment that as human beings a lot of times we fail to fully appreciate. Here we are in this great book of Ephesians. To me, some of the most lofty revelation from the realm of heaven in the entire Word of God. I mean, this is the book that tells us we've been raised up with Christ and are seated with Him there in heavenly places. This is huge. This is foundational apostolic truth and doctrine. So right at the very beginning of the book, Paul tells us what God's done for us. And he's speaking of "In Yeshua," listen, "we have redemption, through His blood the forgiveness of our trespasses".

Here's the point, beloved one, I want to make. You and I, many of God's people, all of humanity, I would say is guilty of this, we think we need something more than forgiveness. When we think about what do we need in life, most of the times, you know, it has to do with something or someone or some circumstances. "I need this". Even things as serious as, you know, physical healing in our body, restoration of relationships, those are real needs. But you know what? From God's perspective and according to the written word of God, the biggest need that every single human being that's ever been born onto this planet has is the need for forgiveness. Because the wrath of God is upon creation because of sin. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save us from the penalty and consequences of sin.

So I just want to take a second with you to fully try to appreciate more what God has done for us. We've been forgiven. We've been released from our sin. The book of Revelation in speaking of Jesus, it says that He released us. And I love that word. He released us from our sin, from the consequences of it and the destiny of it. Jesus said, "He that has sin is a slave of sin". So although we have many needs that are real, the biggest need that any human being, first of all, has is the need to be forgiven. Because what happens is that when people die, if they haven't entered into a saving relationship with their Creator through Jesus, if they have not been redeemed through His blood and forgiven through His blood, what happens is when the soul leaves the body at death, it travels into the outer darkness, where there's weeping, Jesus said, and gnashing of teeth. It's eternal separation from the Creator.

Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins". So Father, we just want to thank You for saving us and forgiving us from our sin. Father, we don't really comprehend the fullness of what You've done for us in that, but we asked You to forgive us for that and reveal to us the fullness of what You've done. We celebrate You and we rejoice in You, Lord. Thank You that You've made us glad in You. "We've been forgiven through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace," listen now, "which He lavished on us in our wisdom and insight".

Don't you love that word "lavish"? I mean, God's a big giver. He lavished this grace upon us. I mean, He lavished it upon us. He didn't just forgive us a little bit. I mean, He completely forgave us. He wiped the slate clean. He completely overwhelmed our sin by His love. Our sins have been washed away. And the Father is just doting on us. He loves us. We're His treasured possession. We're His people. He lavished His grace on us. I mean, it's overwhelming if we could only understand it, and experience it, you know, to our revelation more fully. It's an awesome thing. He lavished it upon us. You know, this speaks to me of how you and I as believers should be.

Let's listen to that verse again. "He lavished this grace on us in our wisdom and insight". So you think about the word lavished, I mean, that is a big word. It's like something lavish. It just like reminds you of Mary. Remember when she took the bottle of perfume that was worth a year's worth of wages, and she poured the perfume on Yeshua's feet, and began to wipe his feet with her hair. I mean, that was a lavish act of love. Remember, Judas is like... he was outraged. Like, "This money should have been given to the poor".

Of course, we know that wasn't his real intent. He was the treasurer and he wanted that money to... the perfume to be sold and put in the treasury boxes. He was pilfering from the Treasury box. But God is generous. He lavished this grace on us. I remember a dream that I had some time back. It was a really powerful dream. Strong, strong memory. I was actually in Africa. And I've heard in the night a few times in my life, less than half a dozen, but about half a dozen, I would say. I don't have them all written. You know, I don't have every single one of them memorized one, two, three, four. But I would say roughly a half dozen times.

I've heard heavenly music in my sleep. I mean, it was no mistaking. And I mean, I heard music from heaven that was so far beyond any way that I've ever been touched by music on this earth. And I love music. I've always loved music. But the music that I've heard a half dozen times or so in the night when I was visited by the Spirit of God, it was so incredible. It was so full. It was so deep, you know, like the depth and the width of the love of God. I mean, this music that I heard was just bigger, bigger, bigger than any music that I ever heard in the world. Not just louder, but I'm talking about just the fullness of the expression in the way that it touched my heart. But out of these half dozen or so times, beloved ones, when I've heard heavenly music in the night after walk with the Lord for 40 years.

So it's not like I hear music every night. I've been walking with door for 40 years, this has only happened a half dozen times. Only one of those times that I hear words with the music. Only once did that happen. And there was a song that was being sung with the music. Again, I was in Africa when this happened to me. And the song had the words in it: Take out the decimal point. Take out the decimal point. And what was being communicated to me by the Spirit was love big, love big, live big, give big, live generously. So just as the Lord lavished His grace on us, He wants you and I to lavish His grace upon people. I mean, for example, when we go out to a restaurant, how do we tip? You know. I mean, are we like trying to tip the minimum? Are we really trying to sell a blessing on the waiter or waitress?

And a lot of times I'll tip big even if they do a bad job, because I'm thinking, "You know what, God saved me when I was still a sinner". You know, His grace came to me when I didn't deserve it. So we should be big lovers, beloved, and big givers. God is a big God, a very generous God. Continuing on, "He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him". So let's just think about a few words, beloved ones, in this verse. First of all, He made known to us the mystery of His Will. What is a biblical mystery? A mystery is something that was concealed that now has been revealed.

So a mystery, once again, is something that had been concealed has now been made revealed. So God revealed to us something that was hidden before. And that was an understanding of His will. And this mystery had to do with God revealing His kind intention to us, which He purposed in Messiah. He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him. In other words, God's kindness to us came to us through Yeshua. It was purpose through Him, through Yeshua. Let's continue on. "...with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summation of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth, in Him".

So what's going on here? That this mystery of God's will was revealed to us and came to us through the person of Yeshua. And it happened, Paul says, at the end of the age. It said, in view to an administration suitable, listen now, to the fullness of the times. When I speak of the end of the age here, I'm not talking about like before Jesus returns, but I'm talking about Yeshua was manifest to the world in the fullness of time. Right? In the fullness of time. According to the biblical record, the world had already been in existence approximately 4,000 years before Yeshua had come. So it was God was waiting for the right time to reveal Himself to us. So at the right time, in the fullness of time, God manifested His will to us. He revealed the mystery to us at the right time. "And this mystery involves," Paul continues, "the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things of the earth. In Him".

So what this tells us is the glory of the person Yeshua, the glory of Jesus, God is bringing everything together in Him. That's why in the book of Revelation we see that Yeshua's throne and the Father's throne are united. That God is causing all creation to worship. Not just the Father, but also the Son. It was in Jesus that God reconciled you and I to Himself. So Paul was saying here that the Lord brought everything together, He brought it all together in the person of Yeshua. That's why when we get to heaven we're going to worship the Lord through the Lamb.

And so I just want to strengthen you today in your identity and in the person of Jesus. Remember that we are on the earth as those that have been chosen out of the world. And we've been reconciled to our Creator through the Son, through Jesus. We're here to declare the Son. We're here to give praise to the Father through the Son. We're here to be the witnesses of our Creator by bearing witness to Messiah Jesus just like John the Baptist did, when Jesus was first revealed to the world and John the Baptist pointed at Him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God". I want to encourage you today, to your neighbor, to your friend, to your work associates, to all professional people that you're in contact with, point them to Jesus. It's all summed up in Him.