Rabbi Schneider - Religion and Political Correctness

TOPICS: Mysteries in the Gospel of John, Compromise

Baruch Hashem. I'm not sure if it's proper to have a favorite gospel, but my favorite gospel is the Gospel of John. I love the Gospel of John, because of the mysteries of the Spirit that John reveals. We're now in season 4 of a series that I'm calling, "Mysteries From the Gospel of John". You can go back and watch the previous episodes. We're going through each chapter of the Gospel of John and I'm pulling out and highlighting selected verses that I just want to have a commentary on with you. Today we're continuing where we left off last week. We're in the Gospel of John chapter 3 and I want to pick up today in verse number 31. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but beloved, God's word abides forever. Hear the Word of God. John is speaking of Jesus and John the Baptist says this about him, "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony".

You know Jesus Himself said something very similar in the Gospel of John as He was ministering. He said, "I am from above, you are from below". In other words, Yeshua is from a totally different realm than planet earth. The realm that He is from is so far above the earth that the scripture says, "His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways". In fact John the Baptist said here, because He was from above and we're from below, we're not receiving His testimony. Jesus said, "I come in My Father's name and you won't receive Me, somebody else will come in their own name and him you'll receive". Why do people reject the word of Jesus and reject the revelation that comes from Him and yet they'll receive somebody else? Because people that do not have spiritual revelation, which is a gift from the Father, cannot hear the words of God, because they're supernatural and they're not from this realm.

And so John said, "He's from above, but no one's receiving His word". You see today in the western world more than ever before, people are rejecting the exclusive claim of Yeshua. Yeshua said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man cometh to the Father, but through Me. Unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins". But in the world today, especially in the western world, that doesn't make sense; that God would keep what we consider to be good people out of heaven. We see people, they've treated us well. Maybe they give to charity, maybe they're sensitive to their friends, maybe they go out of their way to help people, but they reject Jesus as the Messiah. And we say, "Well God wouldn't send them to hell, would He"? But Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man cometh to the Father, but through Me".

You see Jesus was speaking from above, but we on planet earth evaluate from below. Think of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah you would think was one of the most righteous people on the earth that ever lived. I'm sure that when he compared himself to other people he was. But what happened when Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah chapter 6? When Isaiah encountered the Lord he fell on his face, a broken man and he cried out, "I am unholy. I am defiled. I am unclean and I live amongst an unclean people". Because he received the revelation from above, rather than by comparing himself and taking his cues about who he was from planet earth.

The question I have for you, beloved one, is this, will you and I align our self with the words of God contained in scripture and receive the word that's from above or will we say, "You know what? The word that I'm reading in scripture, it doesn't make sense when I compare it to what's going on in the world today". And then reject the word of scripture, because we're relying on earthly knowledge. Now if we are gonna enter in to eternal life, we're gonna have to come in to agreement with the word from above, even when it doesn't make sense to us and especially when it seems politically incorrect. You see today, so many especially from the younger generations are not aligning themselves with the word from above, with the word of God; because to do so is politically incorrect. And too many of us, because the words of Jesus that are from above are politically incorrect, rather than suffer the rejection that comes with aligning our self with His word, because it is politically incorrect; rather than suffering that rejection and wearing a thorn of crowns, a crown of thorns like Yeshua did, what we do instead is we compromise and we refuse to take a stand for Him and for what is right.

I want to challenge you today beloved. Jesus said, "Will I find faith on earth when I return"? You and I are gonna have to make a choice. The Bible says that in the end times many will fall away from the faith. People's hearts will grow cold. People will become conformed to this world, rather than being conformed to the Word of God. Will you choose to stand with Jesus and to stand with the revelation that's come from above or will you be a casualty of deception and align yourself with the culture, becoming politically correct, but finding yourself separated from God for not standing with Him and receiving His word? So once again I want to read the Word and we'll move on. John said this, "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony". Will you be among the few that will receive His testimony and stand with the Word of God or will you bow down to the culture and be carried away by the demonic power of political correctness and end up a casualty, washed away in a flood, separated from God?

It's powerful beloved. It's powerful. I want to continue on, verse number 36. John the Gospel writer says this, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him". I want to take this apart for a minute with you. Let's read it one more time. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him". Again, another very exclusive claim. What John is saying here once again is this, if you believe and obey the Son you'll have eternal life. If you don't, you'll not see life.

Now to take that stand today makes you in a position of walking down a very narrow path, because you're making an exclusive claim. What you're saying, the only way to life is to believe in and to obey the Son. That's what the scripture says, right? He who believes in and obeys the Son has eternal life; he who does not believe, does not obey, will not see life. And yet today to make the exclusive claim that the only way to enter in to the life of Hashem, the only way to enter in to the mystery of eternal life, the only way to know God in an intimate way is through the Son; to make that claim, once again, puts you in the camp of being outside the mainstream. More and more so, because there's such demonic pressure today upon the church to say, "No, people can go to God any way they choose to. Who are you to say that your way is the only way"?

And we as a people of God, as the church, are being so minimalized by the culture today and by the power of the enemy that's taken a hold of our culture; that God's people are shrinking back in fear and timidity from taking a stand that Jesus said He's the only way. Let's read it again. I want to just really drive the point home. John says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him". And so what are the options here? We either believe and obey the Son and have life or we choose not to believe, or not to obey and if that's the case, we'll never see life. But when you make that claim, what does that mean? It means that you're agreeing with scripture that states broad and wide is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that take it. Jesus said, "But straight and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it".

Beloved one, you and I are His witnesses in the earth. What is being a witness for Hashem, for Jesus on the earth? It's not saying to people, "Well Jesus might be good for you, but if you choose not to believe in Jesus that's fine too". That's not being a witness. Being a witness is not simply saying, "Well you know Jesus is right for me, but I understand that you know He might not be right for everybody". That's not being a witness. Being a witness is not just being loving to other people, but never challenging your loved ones and your friends and your neighbors and your co-workers with the exclusive claims of Jesus. That's not being a witness. Being a witness is to represent Yeshua in the earth to those God has given you influence with and lifting Him up and lifting up His words, so that people can have an opportunity to reject Him or accept Him. If we just represent Jesus as just being some good guy that you know has become the Savior of some, but all the other religions of the world have their own way. Baruch Hashem, it's all well. No! Jesus said, "Unless people believe that I am He, they'll die separated from God". And so we're in this world to declare what Jesus said.

Yeshua, by His own words said this, "I did not come into the world to judge the world. The Son of Man," He said, "has come into the world to save the world". You see the world is already, beloved ones, under the penalty of sin. If God would have not sent Yeshua into the world, every person that has ever lived since Adam and Eve fell, would have been separated from God for eternity. Yeshua didn't come into the world to judge the world. Yeshua came into the world to save the world. And so this is why He's saying here, "If you believe Me and obey Me, you're gonna enter into eternal life. If you don't, you're gonna continue on the trajectory that the world has been on since the fall of Adam and Eve; which is eternal separation from God and an eternal darkness".

Jesus didn't come to judge the world, but to save the world. But the fact is, that His death, his atonement on the cross alone is the way that sinful humanity's sins can be forgiven and they can be washed away. Their sin can be washed away. They become blameless before God, because Yeshua took our sin. And as a result of Yeshua taking our sin, we now enter back into relationship with Hashem, with God. But I feel like the Lord is speaking to me now. I feel in my spirit I'm hearing His voice and I hear the word pride. And somehow I sense that there's some people that are listening right now and the message that I'm bringing, is stirring something up in you. You're feeling an agitation, you're feeling an anger and God is putting His finger on pride in your life.

You see somehow you think that you are above Jesus, that you're above religion, that it's up to you to define what's right and wrong, that it's up to you to define the way that God can accept people into heaven. You're lifting yourself up above God's word and the fact that I'm making this exclusive claim is bothering you, it's irritating you. But you know what it is? It's pride. Either Yeshua is who the scripture said He is, or He's not. Yeshua claimed to be the only way to God and His death on the cross, His blood shed for humanity, the only door that sinful humanity could pass through, have their sin taken away and become blameless.

And if what I'm saying is true, that Yeshua is the only means to the Father, that He alone is the only method the Father has given to the earth for their sin to be taken away; if what I'm saying is true, then the only possible response, beloved one, is for you and I to humble ourselves, to bow down to the Word of God, to let our pride be broken up and to say, "Yes Lord. I receive Your forgiveness. Please forgive me. I believe that Jesus is Your Son. I believe He is the Messiah. I believe He was lifted up on that cross and died for my sin, forgive me for my pride, for my rebellion. I recognize that it was an antichrist spirit to oppose your revelation, to oppose Jesus. And I humble myself to You now Father and I receive Your gift, Your only begotten Son, for me. Thank You for forgiveness and for eternal life".

Let's continue on beloved one. I'm going now to the 4th chapter. Speaking of Yeshua now, He's entering a city. "So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give Me a drink.' For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?' (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.' She said to Him, 'Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?' Jesus, Yeshua, answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life'".

Yeshua is making the incredibly, fantastically, terrific, claim here, that when we become full of His Spirit, who is a Spirit of eternal life, that would come within us, continuously bubbling up, newness, everlasting life; It would so satisfy our deepest longings, the deepest yearnings of our soul, that we would no longer thirst. He's talking about satisfying human desire, that we would become so fulfilled by being saturated with His Spirit, with the Father's presence, that our deepest longing as human beings would be utterly fulfilled and satisfied; that we wouldn't be running over here thinking if we get a new car, if we get a new house, if we marry this person, if we do. We no longer have a desire for those things, because our desire will be fulfilled in God, in Hashem.

I don't know about you, but beloved, this motivates me so terrifically in life. I believe this. I believe there's a supernatural reality that is the answer for my soul as a human being and that as I more and more get filled up with God's Spirit, the Spirit that Yeshua is speaking to the Samaritan woman about, I'm gonna become more and more content, more and more at peace, more and more satisfied. I'll move out of the place of constantly trying to fulfill my own needs, because it will already be fulfilled and I'll be able to become like Jesus, who was focused on the needs of others as a servant; because His own needs were already fulfilled.

Before Jesus went to the cross He washed the disciples' feet and the scripture says, "Jesus knowing that He had come from God, knowing the Father had given Him all things and knowing He was going back to God, He girded Himself with a towel and washed the disciples' feet". What's the point? He was fulfilled. He had everything. The Lord wants to do that for you and me. But we have to thirst after the living water. We have to seek first the kingdom of God. And as we hunger and thirst, beloved, we're gonna be filled and we'll reach the end of our life ripe with satisfaction and a blessing to everybody that knew us. This is Rabbi Schneider. I love you. I'll see you next week.