Rabbi Schneider - Owning Your Salvation
Yeshua said, "You did not choose me, I chose you". To really give a powerful example, think about the Apostle Shaul, we call him in Hebrew, the Apostle Paul. Here he is on his way to Damascus, right, to arrest any Jew that believed in Jesus. He was going to take them, bound hand and foot, and throw them in prison. Paul was in hearty agreement when they were stoning Stephen to death. He was an enemy of the church. He was an enemy of God. He was an enemy of Jesus. So think about it again. He's on his horse on the way to Damascus to arrest any Jew that believed in Jesus and imprison them.
All of a sudden, as he's on his way to torture any Jewish believer, what happens? A light from heaven blinds him. He falls off his horse. He's laying on the ground, terrified. He is terrified. He just got shocked out of his mind when a light from heaven just blinded him and knocked him off his horse. He's on the ground overwhelmed by this power that was so much bigger than him. And in trembling fury, he says, who are you? And the voice says, "I am Jesus. I am Yeshua whom you're persecuting". And by the way, Paul said the voice that spoke to him was in the Hebrew dialect. So he said, "I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting. Now get up, Paul, and it will be told what you must do for me".
So my question is, what did Paul do to add to his salvation? What good work did Paul have to his credit? He's knocked off his horse. He's blinded by the light. And the Lord speaks to him and said, "Get up, Paul. It's hard to kick against the goats, isn't it? Get up now. And it will be told what you," listen now, "must do for me". It was a sovereign act of God. And that experience, of course, marked Paul and changed the trajectory of his life forever. The Lord left him in that state of blindness until Paul was utterly, just completely broken. And then after Paul is completely broken and God knows he's broken, he's prayed for, his eyes are open, and now he starts his mission.
The point is, my friends, and the point that Paul is trying to make here, our salvation is a precious gift that we've received. And so what makes you different from your neighbors maybe that don't believe or your in-laws or relatives or people at work, whoever it is? What makes you different from those that don't believe is just one thing. You were chosen and given a gift. This is how Paul begins the book of Ephesians. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," listen now, "who chose us in him before the foundation of the world".
Jesus said in John 6 to those that were not believing in Him, He said, but you believe not. John 6 and John 10, Jesus said, "You believe not because you're not my sheep". In John 10, Jesus said, "You believe not because you're not my sheep. I know My sheep," He said, "My Father has given them to Me". And in John 6 He says, "Don't grumble among yourself to those that weren't believing in Him". He said, "No one comes to Me unless the Father draws him. All the Father gives me shall come to Me, and He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out".
And then at the end of John 6, when almost everybody had left, Jesus said to the few that remained, "Do you want to leave too"? They said, "Well, where are we going to go? You alone have the words of life". And then Yeshua concluded the whole thing and he said, "This is why I said to you that no man can come to Me unless it's been granted Him from the Father". I know that many of you have heard me teach on this many times before, but it's a real important foundation to know this. Because if you think that you're the one that got yourself saved, then you could just as easily get yourself unsaved.
If you're the one that got yourself saved, then you've got to be the one to keep yourself saved. And what security can we possibly have in our walk with God if we have to keep ourselves saved? See what I'm saying? If I got myself saved, because somehow I chose God... the Bible says, "You did not choose Me," Jesus said, "I chose you". But if I got saved because I first chose God, then I got to keep myself saved. And what confidence can I have that I'm going to keep myself saved? I mean, if it's up to me to keep myself saved, I have no confidence in my ultimate destiny because I don't know if I can keep myself saved. I mean, who knows what's going to happen tomorrow?
Maybe I could get in the most tragic situation that I could ever face, and in my tragedy, maybe I would curse God. I mean, maybe if my house burned down and my wife got killed and my daughter got killed and then I got boils all over my skin like Job, I mean, how do I know if I wouldn't just in my humanity just break and curse God? And we don't know what tomorrow holds. And so it's such a comfort to know that He that began a good work in you, the scripture says, He that began a good work in you will complete the work in you. So my confidence isn't in my ability to keep myself saved. No. My confidence is in the fact that God saved me and He's going to keep me. He's going to keep me.
The Bible says we're protected till the day of Christ Jesus. We're saved, the Bible says, through faith. And now in verse eight once again, and the faith that we've received, listen now, it's not something that we chose or manufactured. It was given to us as a gift. You see, Yeshua said, everybody, in John 6, that hears and learns from the Father comes to Me. All that have heard and learned from the Father, Yeshua said, come to Me. Now think about that. Jesus said, if you've heard and learned from the Father, the result's going to be you're going to come to Me. Now think about this. Yeshua said to Peter, "Who do they say that I am"? And Peter said, "Well, some say Elijah and some say John the Baptist back from the dead".
And Yeshua said, "'Kepha, Who do you say that I am?' And Peter responded..." They're all the same person. Peter, Kepha, they're the same person. Peter said, "You're the Messiah, you're the Christ, the son of the living God". And you know what Yeshua said to him? "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of John". Talking to Peter, he said, "Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you". It didn't come from your own mind and someone else didn't reveal this to you. He said, "Blessed art thou," he said, "for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven".
This is a revelation that you have, Peter, that was given to you as a gift from God. And he said, "And on this rock," Jesus continued, "I'll build my church". The church is built on the revelation that the Father gives to those that are His, that Yeshua is His Son. And then they come to His Son and are saved. So by grace you've been saved through faith and it's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. And then in the ninth verse, Paul continues, this gift that we've been given, it's not as a result of anything that we've done. It's not a result of works. God didn't say, you know what? I'm going to give you faith.
He didn't say, Jill, I'm going to give you faith. You know what? Because you're a pretty good gal. And he didn't say, Mikey, you know what? I'm going to give you faith because I've been watching you. You're a pretty good dude. You're a good guy, Mikey. I saw you help that person the other day. I'm going to give you faith. No. Paul said it's not on the basis of anything that we've done. He said it's not a result of works so that no one may boast. Nothing that you did has contributed to your salvation. It is the gift of God. Yes, we do have to choose Jesus, but we choose Him because he first chose us.
The Bible says we love Him because He first loved us. God is at work in our life, both to will and to do for His own good pleasure. God is the one that's at work in our soul, sanctifying us, transforming us, giving us faith, giving us a new nature. What is the new nature that you have? The Bible says that when you were born again, the Bible says we were born not of the will of man nor the will of flesh, but we were born by God. There's nothing that you did to cause yourself to become born again. It's not of the will of man nor the will of flesh, John revealed to us, but we're born of God. We're given a brand-new nature. We're given the actual zoe life, the uncreated, everlasting life of God's Spirit and the Son.
And so this whole thing I'm trying to help you understand, it's the work of God. It's all the work of God. And so what this does and where I really wanted to get to with all of this, my beloved friends, is that we need to be very careful to guard our heart against pride. Because the only difference that you and I that love God are different from anybody else is that God gave us this gift. The Scripture says that we, you and I, that believe, were by nature, in other words, in our natural state of being, you and I were by nature, listen, children of wrath, the Scripture says, even as the rest, indulging in the lust of the flesh and of the mind and being led by the course of this world.
So we were no different than anybody else. The only thing that made us different is God Himself. "Not as a result of works," listen now, "so that no one may boast". So we got to be careful with our words. All right, let's continue on. New territory now. We have not covered this next verse much. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them".
So I want us to think about the fact that a lot of times we think that getting saved it's all about our own personal enjoyment. I mean, a lot of times we've come to Jesus because we need help. We just want to feel better. We've got a problem. We want the problem to be solved. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with coming to Jesus for help. In fact, Jesus said, "All that are weary and heavy laden, come to Me and I'll give you rest". Jesus said, "All that are thirsty, come, I'll give you living waters".
So there's nothing wrong with you and I coming to Jesus in desperation, looking to Him for help. But the problem is, if we never go on to maturity from there. Because it's not just about our personal enjoyment with God, it's not just about us being made whole or looking for our own happiness. God's got a work for us to do. And some of us really need to understand this. Some of us are looking for all the benefits and all the blessings, but we're not willing to look to God to understand what our responsibilities are.
So listen what verse 10 says again in chapter 2. "For we..." That's you and me, right? You and I. "For we are His workmanship..." He made us. He created us. "...created in Christ Jesus," listen now, "for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would," listen, "walk in them". So God's got a work for you and I to do. He's got a work for us to do. He's created us to be His witnesses in the earth. I mean, these are Jesus' final marching orders. You shall be my witnesses. But I am so disheartened. I'm so sad and disheartened by so many of God's people that will not take their faith outside of their own home or their church walls. They don't talk about Jesus in public. They don't talk about Jesus with anybody that they don't first know knows Jesus.
They will not be willing to put themselves out there, excuse me, to be rejected. Beloved, oh my gosh, it's so terrible. I just was watching a YouTube earlier today and they were talking about a particular person that... this past June during Gay Pride Month, the number one Christian song on iTunes was by a transgender artist, okay, Christian songs, number one song for a brief period of time by a transgender artist.
And then they were interviewing some of the other Christian artists about this phenomenon and one really well-known Christian artist, I mean like mainstream, known for worship, she was on a radio show. They asked her, what do you think about homosexuality? She said, Well, I really don't know about homosexuality. I don't really have an opinion. She said, "I'm still learning. I would just tell you to go to the Bible and see what it says. I'm still, you know, trying to figure it out".
It's like she just didn't want to take a position. What do you mean go to the Bible? The Bible already told us what God thinks about that. But so many of God's people they're not willing to be witnesses. God created us to walk in good works. And the one work that He's called us all to walk in, beloved, is to be a bold witness that Jesus is the only way to heaven and to be a mouthpiece for the principles of the kingdom of God. I'm going to see you next time. Until then, I love you. This is Rabbi Schneider.