Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, what awaits them? Wrath and indignation. There's one of two paths.

Dustin Roberts: Just get on social media and read the comments, and it is one judging comment after another. People are quitting social media and say, "I don't want to be a part of this all of the time because of the judgment." But did you know that the Bible says that which you judge one another, that level you condemn yourself? Rabbi Schneider's going to be diving into this topic today in our series exploring Paul's epistle from the book of Romans. If you'd like to connect with us more, visit us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And now, here is Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Thank you, Dustin. Good to be with you, my brother. Beginning in Romans chapter two, verse one: "Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same things yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?"

Jesus said, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged." And to me, this is a constant battle to reject the spirit of accusation. So I'm calling judging other people right now, which Paul addresses here in Romans two, I'm referring to it generally as a spirit of accusation. And we need to recognize that Satan does not come to the believer as a terrible, evil being, but rather he comes disguising his thoughts as our own thoughts.

In other words, Satan doesn't come to us in such a way that we recognize we're dealing with the devil. Satan comes to us through deception in such a way that he is transmitting into our mind—and our mind is a spiritual antenna that can pick up thoughts from both the realm of light and the realm of darkness. And we need to gain the experience to understand that not every thought that enters our mind is coming from the Lord or is coming from ourselves, but that some of the thoughts that come to our mind are coming from the sphere of darkness.

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And so this spirit that we struggle with of accusation, of judging other people, of condemning other people, we need to recognize that this is just not coming from the natural realm. This is the devil trying to work through our lives. And if we allow ourselves to agree with these satanic thoughts of accusation and hatred towards others, what we do is we open up the door for the enemy to attack us and to be judged by the Lord.

Dustin Roberts: So we have to ask ourselves, where is what I'm thinking coming from? Is this me? Is this the Lord, or is this evil?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The scripture says that the spiritually mature have trained their senses to discern good from evil. So this is a progressive experience, at least I know it has been in my life where I have begun to recognize the spirits. It's not just what the thought is, it's like, okay, I know where that thought is coming from because I recognize the spirit. And there's a tremendous battle that takes place to overcome these thoughts.

Dustin Roberts: Tell me about that, Rabbi. Like your personal experience, what's helped you understand the difference so you can know?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Well, as it relates to this specific example here where Paul is warning us not to judge other people: "Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For in that which you judge another," he said. So if you think about the fact that we're dealing with what are our thoughts towards other people, we have to recognize that we don't have a right first of all to judge them.

We don't have a right to condemn them. We don't have a right to accuse them. We don't have a right to hate them because God loves them. So if God loves them and God values them, who am I to think that I can have a spirit of accusation against them, a spirit of hatred against them? So that all of a sudden alerts me, okay, my thought's wrong because God loves them. And then it puts the fear of the Lord in you. I'm judging somebody, I'm condemning somebody that God honors and loves. Where does that leave me?

Dustin Roberts: So we have to compare our thoughts to the Word of God.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: And it also involves just being self-aware. I think this concept, Dustin, of self-awareness is not taught enough because we really can't be overcomers in the spirit without becoming self-aware. Because the mind is predominantly where the battle must take place. Remember the Apostle Paul said, "Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. But I think many people go through their lives mostly mindless.

They are not aware of what they're thinking. They're not judging what they're thinking. They're not trying to ascertain what they're thinking. They're not bringing thoughts captive because they're mindless. They're just going about life and being led by whatever they're being led by, and it's like they're going like sheep to be slaughtered.

Dustin Roberts: There's no standard like the Word of God to even compare it to. There's no foundation of truth, just tossed to and fro by whatever hits them.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: And I think another thing, Dustin, that is something that brings deliverance here from walking in a spirit of accusation towards others—and by the way, I should say, everyone wants to be happy, right? That's one of our primary needs as humans. There is no happiness when we're walking in a spirit of accusation and judgment towards other people. That produces no internal happiness. So if we want to be happy, we have to realize that we've got to root judgment and accusation out of our heart towards other people because it will not produce happiness. It will produce a brokenness and a lack of peace.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. Set us free, Lord.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: So I think that realizing that we want to be delivered from this, that we are developing a self-awareness so that we're recognizing thoughts of hate and accusation and condemnation, I think the next thing to add to this to help us be delivered is to really pray for the fear of the Lord.

Dustin Roberts: That's not something we talk about these days. We always hear, "God loves you, God loves you, God loves you. He's your friend, He's your friend." And you're telling us now, pray for the fear of the Lord.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And of course, most believers want to say, "Oh, I have an awe of God," while they're sitting in their church drinking a cappuccino while the sermon is being preached. And then as soon as the pastor ends, while they're giving the altar call, they slip out of the sanctuary so they don't have to wait another ten minutes while people are coming to the Lord to get saved.

So you can say you have an awe of God and a fear of God, my friend, but what you've got is cappuccino fever and you've been immersed in this contemporary culture that is full of sloppy agape love, and it doesn't work. And it's a defilement. No, the fear of the Lord's the fear of the Lord, that there's a consequence for sinning against God.

Dustin Roberts: Well, so tell us then, if it's not this awe, what essentially is the fear of the Lord?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Well, to me, the fear of the Lord is a fear of what will happen if I disobey Him. Like David said, "I'm terrified of your judgments." Jesus said, "Don't fear man that can kill the body, but fear Him that's able to destroy both soul and body in hell." I don't think Jesus was just talking about awe there.

Dustin Roberts: That's true. We glance over these parts of the Bible today and talk about God's grace, but historically, especially in the Jewish roots of our faith, we see God judge humanity. And if we can look back on the Flood and God opening the earth up, even swallowing His people that were disobedient, there should be a pretty healthy dose of fear in us of God is God and we're not on His level of playing field.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Amen. You know, God is first of all compassionate and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, but He will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished. So I think that the spirit of the Lord is longsuffering and patient and compassionate and kind, and He begins to correct us. And as we yield to Him and respond to Him, He blesses us and we get stronger and grow.

But if we're disobeying Him and not yielding to His patient, loving correction, then what happens is judgment comes. And if you're a child of God, the judgment isn't coming because God hates us. The judgment comes to discipline us, to train us in living righteously. So like a child will maybe get spanked by their parent after they don't listen to a verbal warning. The spanking hurts. That should make us afraid. Because getting a spanking by God does not mean that He hates us or that He's rejected us. But let me tell you this: a whopping from the Lord can really, really hurt and be very costly and be very painful. So we should fear the Lord.

Dustin Roberts: Before we continue, Rabbi, I want to let our listeners know that our prayer is that today's message has really been blessing you so far. And we're here to support you in your walk of faith with Yeshua. And if you have a prayer request, we invite you to submit it online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. That's discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Our team prays for every single individual request before the Lord, and it would be our pleasure and an honor to us to get to pray for you, your needs, for you and your family.

And did you also know that Discovering The Jewish Jesus is a listener-supported ministry? Well, it's true. Rabbi Schneider's teaching is made possible through the generous gifts from people like you who are listening, who understand the importance of sharing the good news of Jesus' return. To give online, go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com, and now let's continue our message on the fear of the Lord and judgment. Rabbi?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Well, it's really interesting, Dustin, you and I are just kind of looking to the Lord together and talking. The very next verse here, it says exactly what we were talking about in Romans two, verse three. Paul says, "But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things, and then do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?"

In other words, God is very longsuffering towards us. He doesn't just strike us when we've sinned one time. He tries to lovingly and gently and patiently guide us into the right path. But then Paul continues: "Some people think lightly of this." "But because of your stubbornness," verse number five—in other words, people are not responding to God's loving, tender correction—so Paul continues, "but because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds."

Dustin Roberts: Wow. So unless we first understand fearing God, we can't genuinely actually recognize the level of kindness that He actually bestows toward us. And so if we don't get that fear and it leads to that stubbornness, and then we're in danger of God's judgment.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: People can actually think that God's grace and patience is a sign that He's blessing them in their sin.

Dustin Roberts: Wow. And it's really God giving you time to repent because He loves you.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Exactly. This is what Paul is saying here. And then it's interesting, he continues on and basically talking about the reality you can go one of two directions. You can respond to the grace of God, the truth of His word, the call that He has placed on your life and turn to Him and obey Him and follow Him, or you can continue in your own way. And this is the result of the two decisions. Verse number seven: "To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life."

So there's nothing wrong in seeking for glory, God's glory. He says, "For those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, they're going to gain eternal life." We believe that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. But notice the next verse: "But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, what awaits them? Wrath and indignation." There's one of two paths.

You know, I just was at a church in Florida a few weeks ago, and the service was over. The lady in a row in back of me, she passed on a note to get to me. So she said, "Can I talk to you after the service?" So I went outside after the service was over, and she was a very caring person and she was crying to me about her Jewish friend that didn't know the Lord and didn't receive Jesus. And she was saying, "This she won't go to hell, will she?"

And I said to her, "Listen, there's only one of two places. There's heaven, and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by Him, or there's hell. There's nothing in between." But today in today's culture, it's like we don't want to believe that there's such a thing as hell, that who we consider to be a good person even though they reject Jesus will really go to hell.

But notice what Paul says: "If you don't obey the Lord, what awaits you? Wrath and indignation." I mean, this is no joke. In the culture that we live in where we've become so clouded in our thinking, we have a difficult time thinking that God is going to judge people for their sin. But my friends, if we believe the written Word of God, if we believe the old-time gospel that was once and for all given to the saints, there is a hell.

And we need to believe in the reality of hell. Paul talked about hell and he said to us if anybody comes to you and brings another gospel, he should be accursed.

Dustin Roberts: We're just thinking, "Oh, everybody gets to go to heaven. God loves us." But that's not what the Word of God says.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: And then Paul goes on here and he says, "Hey, this truth that I'm telling you guys right now, that if you'll seek for good and persevere in doing good and seek to enter into God's glory, you're going to receive everlasting life. But if you harden yourself and decide you're going to continue down your own way and ignore Him, you're going to reap wrath and indignation." And then Paul goes on here in Romans two and he says, "What I'm telling you is true, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile." This same truth, it's true for everybody you know.

The whole world. Some of you are thinking, "You know what, my next-door neighbor, that person that lives down the street from me, I know they don't believe in Jesus, but you won't allow yourself to think that maybe they'd go to hell." But Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins."

So I want you to know, my friend, we have a mandate on our lives to be witnesses for Yeshua. When Yeshua gave the Spirit, He said, "You shall receive power and you shall be my witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth." Listen, if people didn't go to hell, there'd be no urgency in sharing the good news of Messiah.

But the Word of God clearly teaches that unless people call upon the name of the Lord, they will go to hell. And straight and narrow's the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. That's why we have to be who God's called us to be and be His witnesses and be His light. Some of you are not doing that because of what it's going to cost you and because you're a part of the world.

Jesus said, "If you're of the world, the world would love you. But because I've called you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." He said, "I have chosen you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appoint you to bear fruit." I'm challenging you today to believe the word that we're teaching today, that there's a heaven, that there's a hell. That everybody makes a choice. It doesn't matter if they're a nice person, it doesn't matter if they're Jewish, it doesn't matter if they're Gentile.

Wherever they're coming from, whatever color is on their life, at the end of the day there's only two doors that people can go through: the door to heaven, which Jesus said is straight and narrow and few there be that find it—He said, "I am the door. He that enters through Me shall be saved"—or there's the wider door that most people take that leads to hell. And believe me when I say that most people that are going to hell do not know, Dustin, that they're on their way to hell.

Dustin Roberts: And nobody's telling them. That's because we're silent about it. The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few. I think, Rabbi, you probably know this quote. There was a man in England and he wasn't saved, and he said, "If I believed this gospel that you preached, I would crawl on my hands and knees across glass across all of England just to reach one person with the gospel."

And I think, how many neighbors on my street, how many people around me have I not shared the gospel with? Maybe you're at home today and there's someone in your atmosphere of orbit that God's given you influence with. I want to encourage you to pray and seek the Lord today about Him challenging you to share the truth of heaven and hell with your friends and your neighbors, and let the Holy Spirit do a work through you.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Amen, my brother. Father God, we pray that You would anoint us with power. Father, You said we'd receive power and be Your witnesses. Father, we ask You today to pour forth Your Spirit upon our lives. Pour forth fire and cleanse us of all unrighteousness and everything that's in us clogging our soul from Your Spirit moving forward through us in dimensions of power that You want to broadcast into the earth through our lives.

Father God, we believe in the reality of Your Son, that He did what You said He did in Your word, that He died on the cross to save people from their sin and that there's no other name under heaven but the name of Yeshua, the name of Jesus, by which men can be saved. That You have made us Your ambassadors, beseeching, begging man to be reconciled to You.

My dear brother and sister, I just want to challenge you right now with this: your life is not your own. You are not in this world to indulge yourself. This is not your final home. The world is not a vacation. The world is not our playground. We are here on assignment. Jesus came into the world to complete the work that the Father gave Him to do.

And you and I are in this world not to get as much as we can, not to try to satisfy our lives with everything that the world offers, even the good things. We're not here for that. We're here to complete our assignment, to complete the work that God gave us to do. We are here to grow in our relationship with Him, and we're here to make Him known. We're here to know Him, to discover Him more and more, to walk in His ways more and more, to grow in His grace, and to make Him known.

So we just need to get clarity of why we're in the planet right now. We're here to grow in grace, to draw closer to God, to enter deeper into the realm of eternal life, and to make Him known. And everything else is worthless and is going to be burned up. So I want to encourage you today to break the world off, shake off the world, stop looking to satisfy yourself with temporary pleasure, and instead say, "Father, I mean business with You. I'm here to get to know You and to be Your witness."

The scripture says everybody that desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It will cost you something to live for Jesus in this world, both personally because you're denying yourself the things of the world and denying yourself those temporary pleasures, and it will cost you rejection even as it did Jesus who ended up being crucified because He stood with the Father. What will you do today, my friend?

Well, those of you that are being inspired by this broadcast and feel the witness of the Holy Spirit that we're teaching the truth and that people need to hear it and that you need to hear it, I want to ask you would you financially support this ministry if you feel the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of your heart and asking you to do so right now just through the simple witness of His presence? We need your support because it costs us money to be on radio, costs us money to do everything that we're doing: television, podcasts, outreaches around the world. It costs money, and the only reason I can do it, beloved ones, is because of you. The Lord has ordained that we are to be supported by those that are benefiting from the ministry. So I want to thank you in advance for your love and for your financial gift. And until next time, may God richly bless you.

Dustin Roberts: To support Discovering The Jewish Jesus with a gift of any amount, just head on over to our website. We're at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Or if you'd prefer, give us a call. Our number is 800-777-7835. And also, don't forget we want to bless you with a free gift. It's our self-deliverance teaching bundle and it's an encouraging resource that includes Rabbi Schneider's step-by-step PDF guide.

This PDF guide explains how to recognize spiritual footholds and to close open doors to the enemy through scripture. You'll also receive an MP3 audio file with prayers that you can model and declarations that have been designed to help you walk in lasting freedom in Messiah Jesus. So make sure to claim your free self-deliverance bundle right now just by visiting myfreegift.com/freedom. And now here is Rabbi Schneider once again to speak God's sacred blessing over your life today.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter six is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person: Yahweh, God Almighty, our Creator and Maker. So receive God's blessing into your life right now.

Yevarekhekha Yahweh veyishmerekha.

Ya’er Yahweh panav elekha vikhunekha.

Yissa Yahweh panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and Shalom.

Dustin Roberts: This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and I'm Dustin Roberts. Make sure to come back next time when Rabbi Schneider explains our need for redemption that can only be found in Jesus. That's coming up Thursday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.