Rabbi Schneider - How to Be Holy and Blameless
You know the Bible tells us in the Book of Ephesians that in Jesus, get this now, we stand before God, get this now, Church, holy and blameless. Do you know that you stand before God right now, I'm talking about this minute, you stand before God because of what Jesus has done for you? And because you're in Jesus, you are presently standing before God, get this now, holy and blameless. In other words, when God looks at you and looks at me, he doesn't see any blemish in us. He doesn't see any sin because Jesus took our sin in his own body on the tree. He removed it. There's no sin between you and God. You are holy and blameless before God right now. And Abba Father, God and Jesus, get this now, see you as beautiful.
Let me tell you why God sees you as beautiful and why you are in fact and indeed beautiful, and why God wants you to agree with him about this fact so that you yourself will know that you're beautiful and feel beautiful, and experience the beauty of the beautiful God on your life. Number one, beloved ones, you're beautiful, get this now, because God is beautiful, and the eye of the beloved one who's God sees you through his own eyes. In other words, God is beautiful, and beauty comes through the eyes of the beholder. And because God, who is beautiful, loves you, he sees you as beautiful. Not only that, he made you and I in his own image. So if God the Creator is beautiful and you were made in his own image, that means that his beauty is in you; that the beauty of the Creator is in you and through you, 'cause you're made, beloved ones, in his very own image.
Thirdly, you're beautiful, beloved ones, because Jesus took away your sin. Lastly, you're beautiful, beloved one, because the presence of God is literally on your life. You and I are beautiful to God. God wants us to affirm this about ourselves. You see, as we journey into the Song of Songs here, we see that as Jesus kept on speaking this truth over his Shulamite bride, which is a type of you and a type of me, she accepted this truth about her life and she said this. She said in chapter number 2, verse 1: I am the rose of Sharon. I am loved. The rose is a flower of love. And she said, I'm pure. I'm the lily of the valleys.
Right now, Father God, we agree with your Word that we are roses of Sharon and lilies of the field; that we are loved and pure before you in Jesus; that we stand before you, Abba Yahweh, holy and blameless in love; Jesus, that you're in us and that our glory is you in us, Christ in us, the hope of glory; that we are holy and blameless and beautiful before you and in you.
Let me ask you, Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart right now about this. Will you break shame off your life and affirm this? Many of you that are under the sound of my voice right now, Satan is keeping you separated from experiencing the love of God through the foul demons of shame.
In Jesus's name right now I break shame and every spirit of shame off your life. Satan, I take authority over you. You're the accuser of the brethren, and I break you and every demon under your command off of the lives of God's children. I break off shame right now, Jesus, in your name over the lives and hearts of your people. Amen.
She received that revelation and you and I want to receive that revelation too. We're beautiful to God. Jesus just kept on affirming her over and over again. She says in verse number 3 here that she sat down under his shade and took great delight. In his shade tree, she said, I took great delight and sat down. And his fruit was sweet to my taste. She is just experiencing the love of the Lord, beloved ones. But you know what? Jesus leads us out from under the shade tree to face mountains in our life that we need to conquer. So after she had sat under the shade tree for an extended period of time, Jesus next appeared to her, beloved, as the one that was on top of a mountain. In other words, she was just enjoying his presence. And you and I go through seasons in our life where Jesus just blesses us by allowing us to sense his presence around us. But he's not gonna leave us there just to experience his, to experience his beauty forever. He's gonna move us on, beloved, to go to war.
And so the next thing that happens in the baptism of love is that the Shulamite bride is called out from under the shade tree to conquer. So Jesus next appears to her on top of a mountain. And he says to her, and I want you to come out from under the shade tree. Okay, this is strength in you. I've strengthened you there and you're ready now to climb this mountain with me. So notice what happens, beloved Church, as we continue in chapter number 2, verse number 8. She said: Listen! My beloved! Behold he is coming, Climbing on the mountains. And in verse number 10, after she sees him on top of the mountain, Jesus says to her, Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along. He says to her the same thing at the bottom of verse number 13: Come along.
Jesus said it's time for you now. You're strong enough. We're gonna face some things you haven't dealt with. We're gonna conquer some worries. We're gonna face some fears. We're gonna repair some relationships. We're gonna be dealing with some issues in your life that you've kept buried. We're gonna be dealing with some things, Jesus said, that you've been unwilling to face. Jesus said to her, it's time. In verse number 11 he said: For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for pruning of the vines. Jesus is saying you're strong enough now. We're ready.
Let me ask you. Has there ever been a season in your life where you were just kind of being drenched in the love of God? You just felt God's favor in your life, but then suddenly you felt the wind of the spirit change and the Lord was saying to you in a subtle voice, you just sensed it in your heart, listen, I want you to deal with some things now. Maybe it was some family relationships you needed to repair. Maybe you needed to confess something's. Maybe you needed to conquer some sins. God, maybe you had some false crutches that you were holding onto. God was saying to you, it's time to give that thing up right now. It's time to let go of that thing. It's time to let me be your everything. You don't need that any more. I want you to know, many of you can relate to what I'm saying right now, and Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart right now. He's calling out to you again. He's appearing to you as one on top of the mountain, meaning come now and let's conquer this thing. Let's conquer these things. And if you will follow him, my beloved one, what's gonna happen is you're gonna get strengthened and you're gonna enter into a deeper baptism of love.
You see, God is so patient with us. He's so merciful. He's so sensitive and understanding. He doesn't require us to deal with some things immediately. He tolerates certain things in our life until we're ready to deal with them. And some of you right now know exactly what I'm talking about. There are issues in your life. The Holy Spirit's been gently knocking at the door of your heart about tackling some of these issues that I've described. And right now those of you that are hearing under the sound of my voice by the Holy Spirit, you know that now it's time for you to step out and climb the mountain and overcome and conquer some of these things. Whether it's sins, whether it's letting go of false crutches, whether it's facing some of your insecurity or fears, whether it's dealing with relational issues that you've just been pushing aside and not dealing with, Jesus is saying now come on, come to the top of the mountain with me.
Come to the top of the mountain. It's time to conquer these things. And when you follow me to conquer, because Jesus said, he that overcomes will inherit these things. When you do, Jesus is saying to you, you're gonna enter into a deeper level of my experience in your life. You're gonna enter into a greater strength of me. And the strength will impart to you even more of the emotional experience that you're looking for in me. In other words, that you're gonna be brought into a deeper experience of the love of God, consciously and tangibly in your life.
And so Jesus calls her to conquer the mountain. But you know what, beloved, she is a shadow of you and I. You know what happened? She didn't go immediately. She wasn't ready to leave her comfort zone. She was too comfortable where she was. She told us in verse number 4 of chapter 2 that she was really being blessed under the shade tree. She was just blessed just sitting in his presence, you know, listening to the worship music. She wasn't ready to leave that comfort zone and conquer the mountain. And so when Jesus called her, she said to him, you know what? I'm not ready. She said in verse number 17: Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, she said, Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle Or a young stag on the mountains of Bether. She's saying to him, you know what? I'm not ready. Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, she's saying.
In other words, until it's comfortable for me, until all my doubts are gone, when the shadows flee away, she said, Jesus, you, you go that direction right now. You go on top of those mountains, but she said, I'm not ready to go with you yet. She even says, as a young stag on the mountains of Bether, in verse number 17. And Bether is the Hebrew word that literally means, beloved ones, separation. She knew in her heart that Jesus was going one direction and she wasn't willing to follow him there. And you know what happened as a result of that? Get this now, she lost a sense of the intimacy that she had previously been experiencing. See if God is talking to us about one area in our life and we consciously know that the Holy Spirit is putting his finger on an area of our life that he wants us to deal with; he wants us to repair a relationship, he wants us to make things right. He wants us to let go of a false crutch. He wants us to stop sinning.
If there's a specific area in your life or my life that we know that God is putting his finger on and we refuse to yield to him, we refuse to follow him, you know what happens? Fellowship is broken. And that's what happened here with the Shulamite bride that's a shadow of you and I. When she refused to yield to the Holy Spirit you know what happened? She lost the sense of Jesus's closeness to her.
So look what happens in chapter number 3, verse 1, after she said no to Jesus, you go, I can't follow you there. Chapter 3, verse 1, says: On my bed night after night I sought him Whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. In other words, when she said no to Jesus, the Lord withdrew the sense of his manifest presence from her. And the same thing will happen with you and I. Eventually this sense of separation became so intense that the pain of the loss of intimacy became more uncomfortable with her following Jesus up the mountain. So when she realized that her disobedience and refusing to go up the mountain and conquer, when she realized that that was the cause of her loss of intimacy, eventually what happened was she said you know what, I'll go, because the pain of the loss of intimacy was more uncomfortable of the pain of stepping out of her comfort zone. And so she said, I will go now, I will arise. And as soon as she made the decision, beloved ones, to arise, she said in verse number 2: I must arise. As soon as she began to really, really seek him, Jesus re-presented himself to her.
So look what happens now as we continue in verse number 4. She said: Scarcely had I left them When I found him whom my soul loves. In other words, beloved ones, she said, he re-presented himself to me. I found him, she said, whom my soul loves. And when she found him again, in other words, when Jesus re-presented himself to her after she had experienced a season of loss of intimacy, she said, I'm never gonna let you go again. She said, Jesus, I'm never gonna make the same mistake again. I will never, she said to him, keep you separate. She said, I am committed, Jesus, to obeying you fully for the rest of my life. We know that we're all on a progressive journey, but she, beloved, got a big yes in her heart to God. Once she learned that disobedience caused a break in fellowship with God, when Jesus came back and re-presented himself to her after she repented, she said, Jesus, I'm never gonna do that to you again. I'm never gonna say no to you again. Right now, beloved ones, I want to give you an opportunity to re-present yourself to God in repentance. And as you do, he will re-present himself to you.
Father God, in Jesus's name, Father, thank you for revealing to us how you work and the strategy of love in the Song of Songs. Father, we see that when we say no to you, we grieve the Holy Spirit and the result is that you withdraw, you withdraw your manifest presence from us. And Father, all of us here have experienced that. Right now, Father God, as we see clearly how it works and what goes on, because we do love you more than everything; Jesus, because we do desire your love more than wine, more than anything else as the Shulamite bride said, we repent and we say yes to you. We will go with you up the mountain. We're gonna follow you, Jesus, wherever you lead us. Whatever you want us to conquer, whatever you want us to repent of...
...and now beloved Church, just name what that thing is. What is that thing that God has been putting his finger on in your life that you know he wants you to respond in? If it's an addiction, you tell him right now that you forsake it, that you are willing by his grace to let go of that addiction, to depend on him alone. If it's some sin that you know you've been sinning but you've been unwilling to let go of it, to repent, right now, beloved, what I want to encourage you, beloved child of God, to confess it to him, yield it to him, tell him that by his grace you repent of it, you give it to him, really mean it in your heart. Give it to him right now. If it's a false crutch that you've been leaning on and you know that you've been taking, you've been taking a false comfort in this crutch, whether it's food or alcohol, whatever it is, right now tell him Jesus, I've been relying on this false crutch. I give it to you now. I'm gonna depend on you alone. And as you say yes to Jesus, beloved ones, and follow him up the mountain, he is gonna re-present himself to you. The Bible says, draw near to me, saith the Lord, and I'll draw near to you. And you're gonna have a fresh encounter, beloved ones, with the love of God.
Jesus, we thank you that you have made a way. And Jesus, we come to you right now. Jesus, we're confident in your operation in our lives.
Beloved ones, as she made that decision to repent, Jesus came to her. He re-presented himself to her, and she had a whole new encounter, hallelujah, in the love of God. And as soon as she committed himself to him, as soon as she repented and Jesus came back to her, you know what happened? She started experiencing, get this now, a supernatural deliverance in her life. As soon as she realized, beloved, that her sin, her refusal to follow Jesus to the top of the mountain, as soon as she realized that that caused a break in fellowship, and repented of it, and said Jesus, I'll never let you go again, she said, Jesus, scarcely that I left them When I found him whom my soul loves; I held on to him and would not let him go Until I had brought him in to my mother's house, And into the room of her who conceived me.
What she's saying here is I received him back into my life through obedience. And she said, and I brought him, get this now, Church, into the deepest, most intimate places in my life. I brought Jesus, she said, all the way back into the room of her that conceived me. In other words, she's saying, I didn't keep anything separate from him. I didn't keep any room locked from him anymore. She said, when I found him the second time, I brought him to every chamber in my heart and I gave him full access to me. Now next week we're gonna see that once she made this decision, a radical transformation began to take place in her life. We're gonna see that once she said yes to Jesus without reservation, the powers of darkness began to break off her life and she was led out of the wilderness into the experience, beloved, of bridal love, of the type of intimacy that Father God wants to have with all his people.