Rabbi Schneider - The Reason for Fellowship
Paul just got done in chapter number 1 verse number 5 through 7 calling us the beloved of the Lord, that we've been called to the Lord and that we're his beloved, that the Lord, he wraps his arms around us and he holds us right to his bosom. Do you know that is same love that the Father loves Yeshua with, he loves you and I with? Jesus himself taught this. He said the time will come when you'll go right to the Father, because he loves you himself. We are the beloved, beloved, of the Father. In fact, in every one of Paul's letters, he begins with these words, grace and peace to you from God the Father and Yeshua the Messiah. And I think it's so important when we pray that we pray using not just the term God, but using the term Father. Hallelujah, hallelujah and hallelujah.
Many times, folks pray, and they pray, and they're always praying God, God, God, and that's okay. But you know what? There's something personal when you call God Father. In almost every one of Yeshua's prayers, he refers to God as Father. And when he taught us to pray, what did he say? Pray this way, our Father that art in heaven. And I think it's good to pray sometimes addressing God not only as the Father, but just simply as Father. In other words, just simply say Father spoke to me, Father led me this way, I feel Father wants me to do this. Because you're owning God as your Father. And he is our Father, and he calls us his beloved. We left off there last week. We're going to continue on now in verse number 8. In verse number 8, Paul says this. He was rejoicing. Let's read it.
First he says I thank my God through Yeshua HaMashiach for you all because your faith, listen now, is being proclaimed through the whole world. This congregation was alive. These saints in Rome, beloved, were alive. How do we know they were alive? Their faith was being proclaimed. They were sharing it. And as I always do, I want to strongly encourage you and challenge you in the grace and the love of God to share your faith, don't worry about being rejected, don't worry if someone thinks you're stupid, don't worry if someone gets mad. Let's be who we're called to be, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, to share the Gospel, the good news with all creation.
Beloved, let's let our faith be being talked about. That's what Paul is saying. Your faith is being talked about. Why was it being talked about? Because it was manifest, it was evident. And our faith should be manifest, our faith should be evident. That's why Yeshua told the story that the Lord didn't make us the light of the world to put us under a rock where no one could see us, but rather he said I want you to be on a hill where everybody can see your light. Let's talk about our faith, beloved, and be like these saints in Rome, whom everyone was talking about their faith because they were sharing it. As we continue on, let's look at verse number 11 and 12. In verse number 11 and 12. Paul says I want to get to you, he says number one in verse number 12, to impart a spiritual gift to you.
Let's look at that together. He says, For I long to see you in order that I might impart some spiritual gift to you that you might be established. Isn't this interesting? Paul knew that when he was with them physically, he would be able to impart to them some type of spiritual gift. Why is that important for you? It's important for you for two reasons. Number one, because if you're walking with the Lord, listen now, you have the ability, listen now, to impart spiritual gifts to people just like Paul said did. Paul said again, I long to see you, that I could impart a spiritual gift to you. The application is that you and I that are walking in the Lord, you and I that are clinging to God, you and I that are praying to the Lord every day, almost constantly praying to the Lord, we're being built up with the Holy Spirit, we're being strengthened with the Ruach HaKo-dosh, we're walking in the grace of God, we have the ability to manifest the kingdom of God, we have the ability, beloved, to impart God's spiritual gifts to people that they might be established.
Paul said I long to see you that I might impart a spiritual gift to you that you would be established. We have the ability, beloved, to establish our children and our grandchildren and people that the Lord brings into our life, we have the ability, beloved, to be used of the Lord to establish them by imparting to them the Holy Spirit, to impart to them, beloved, spiritual gifting. We have the ability to breathe life into people through the Holy Spirit. We have the ability, beloved, to bring discernment to people through the Holy Spirit. Whatever it is that the Lord has given us, we have the ability, beloved, to transfer that to others. Not maybe exactly in the same, exact way fully, but we can be used of the Lord to bring that thing that's in us into them. See, walking with God is about multiplication.
Now, it's very true that the person that you're going to be with... let me say it this way. The person that you're going to be two years from now, if the Lord does not return yet and you're still here, the person that you're going to be two years from now is going to be much determined by who you're spending your time with today. What are we talking about? We have the ability, beloved, to impart spiritual gifts to people and to cause them to get more established in the faith. Now think about that in conjunction with this. The person that you're going to be two years from now is muchly going to be determined by who you hang out with over those two years. If you hang out with people that are walking with the Lord, that are spiritually advanced, maybe even walking with the Lord closer than you, they're going to bring you up, beloved, to a higher level.
You see, the spiritual gifts in them will be imparted to you almost by osmosis. It just happens supernaturally. You spend time with godly people, you spend time with people that know the Lord, you begin to absorb from them, beloved, who they are, what they have in the Holy Spirit, and it begins to fill you up and get you established. Conversely, if you hang around people that are not walking with the Lord or are walking at a lower level than you, they will have the tendency to pull you down. And so we need to be walking with people, beloved, that are living at a higher spiritual level than us if possible, at least people that are seeking the Lord, that we can be built up by their faith and they can impart something to us as well as ministering, beloved, to those that may be at a lower level or those that don't know the Lord.
We want to be both servants, beloved, and walk with people that are walking with the Lord so that we can be built up. It's a very important spiritual principle here. Be careful who we're spending time with. Let's go on to the next verse. Paul says I long to see you to impart this spiritual gift that you could be established, and then he says in verse number 12, That is that I might be encouraged together with you while amongst you, each of us by the other's faith. This is really important, too, when it speaks of a lesson of humility. Think about this. The apostle Paul, the individual that wrote most of the New Testament, and yet think of this humble spirit. He says I want to be with you because I know I have something to impart to you, but he also said I know that when I'm with you, you're going to impart something to me and that each of us are going to be encouraged by the other person's faith.
I think it's a beautiful lesson in humility, and I think it's the attitude that we should have. Even if we're talking, beloved, to somebody that's a babe in Messiah, we can still receive something from them. Maybe they look at something from a perspective that we've never quite looked at it before. Maybe they share an insight or share an angle of truth that we've never quite examined in the same way. And when they do, we should acknowledge it, receive it, and bless them for it. Notice once again this attitude of humility. Paul says I want to get to be with you, and I know when I get there, I'm going to be able to impart something to you, but he says this also. Look at verse number 12. That is that I might be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith.
Now, the next verse that we're coming to is one of the most important verses in the entire book of Romans. Many of you have heard it before. Key verse. We're now in the 16th verse of Romans chapter 1. Foundational verse. Hear, beloved, the Word of God. Paul says this. For I am not ashamed, 1:16. For I am not ashamed, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. Several important key concepts here. First of all, Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel. And you and I need to resist being ashamed in a culture that would make us feel ashamed if we let them. I was just watching a secular news channel the other day. And somebody had made a comment. They were standing for righteous truth. And this news commentator on a secular channel was making fun of what they said. And not only was the secular newscaster making fun of what this evangelical Christian was saying, but they were even using the Bible to try to wreak contempt and shame on him.
Think about this, unbelievers using the Bible to try to shame true believers. And of course, what do the unbelievers always do? They say Jesus said we should love each other. And so because this evangelical made a distinction between right and wrong, because this evangelical took a stand for righteousness and what was right, the secular media said he was not a Christian and was not being a Christian because he wasn't loving his neighbor. There's a difference between loving somebody and accepting everything they do and saying it's morally correct. Listen, we need to take a stand, even though the world is more and more going to try to wreak shame on us for taking a stand. Paul said I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And I need you to know, beloved, and hear that the culture that we're living in today is going to be a culture where we're going to find it more and more difficult to take a stand for Jesus without repercussion. You see, the culture that we live in today has substituted truth for political correctness. And the culture that we live in today esteems political correctness above truth. So when a believer takes a stand in truth, when a believer takes a stand and says Jesus is the only way, that's what Paul just got done saying. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God. What is the Gospel? It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Paul says I'm not going to let anybody make me ashamed of this. There is no way into heaven by which men can be saved but through the name of Jesus. And the world that we live in is going to begin to say, when we stand in the truth, they're going to begin to say that we're not Christian, that we're narrow-minded, that we're bigoted, that we're hateful. We need to resist this shame. We need to resist the political correctness. We need to resist the tendency to want to compromise and be politically correct. And we need to lift up Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel of God, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it, in the Gospel, is the righteousness of God. Let me read it again. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. It is written, but the righteous shall live from faith.
Now, when Paul speaks about in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, here's what he means. Jesus that knew no sin came to earth. He took upon flesh and blood. He lived a perfect, sinless life before the Father. He fulfilled perfectly the Mosaic law. And then as an innocent, perfect human being, he died on the cross as mankind's substitute. You see, beloved, the perfect Lamb of God, Yeshua, he took our sin in himself. The Bible says he that knew no sin became sin in our behalf, that we could become, listen now, the righteousness of God. So Jesus that knew no sin, this perfect Lamb of God, lived in perfect obedience. He died on the cross accursed. The Bible says he that dies on the cross is accursed. But Jesus that had no reason to deserve to be accursed, he became a curse so that those of us, you and I, that did deserve to be cursed for breaking God's laws, for breaking his commandment, and for sinning against the Holy Spirit in our conscience, so that those of us that were guilty, beloved, could become righteous.
Think about this. You and I did nothing to deserve to be righteous. The Bible says in Ephesians 2 that we were by nature children of wrath even as the rest, living in the indulgences of our flesh and the lust of our mind. We deserve to be cursed. We were guilty before the Lord. All have sinned, the Bible says, and fallen short of the glory of God. Conversely, on the other hand, Jesus did nothing to deserve to be cursed. And yet he that did nothing that deserved to be cursed, Yeshua HaMashiach became a curse so that you and I that deserved to be cursed could become the righteousness of God. So this is why the Gospel is so good. This is why it's such good news. This is why Paul says for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed, that you and I are made righteous in Jesus.
You see, the Bible says that when you and I become believers, that when we enter into relationship with Jesus, when we enter into relationship with him, he forgives our sins, he removes them from us as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. They're absolutely gone. This is why the Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Yeshua HaMashiach, that we stand before the Lord, listen now, holy and blameless. You and I in Jesus, listen now, have become the righteousness of God. And when Jesus told us in the gospel of John that the Father now is going to send the Holy Spirit to convict of righteousness, what he's actually talking about now is that the Holy Spirit is convicting us, listen now, that we have become, listen now, the righteousness of God.
See, the Holy Spirit isn't condemning you if you're a believer, if you really belong to the Lord. The Holy Spirit isn't condemning you as a wicked sinner. The Holy Spirit rather now is convincing you that you are the righteousness of God. You see, the apostle Paul wrote that when he sins, it's no longer he that's doing it, but evil that's within him. He didn't see himself anymore as a wicked sinner. Rather, he saw himself, beloved, as the righteousness of God. And the Lord wants you and I to be convinced that in Jesus, you and I have become, hallelujah, the righteousness of God. There's a place to acknowledge, beloved, the fact that the Lord saved us when we were sinners. But we have now become in Jesus, hallelujah, the righteousness of God. And when we look in the mirror, we need to begin to affirm this. I am the righteousness of God in Messiah Jesus. We need to stop allowing the devil to beat us up.
You see, the Hebrew name for Satan is Ha-satan. And what that means is the accuser. See, the devil wants to continue to cause you and I to live in depression and oppression and defeat by accusing us. He wants us to make us think we're hypocrites. He wants us to make us think that God really doesn't love us. He wants us to make us think we're not worthy. We need to begin to reject, beloved, the accusations of ha-satan and instead affirm the truth about our lives, that in Jesus the righteousness of God has been revealed, and in him, hallelujah, we become the righteousness of God. Titus 3:5, Not because of deeds of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us. We've been forgiven. We're washed. We've been made the righteousness of God in Messiah Jesus, beloved, apart from the works of the law. It's in Jesus. Jesus died in the flesh, beloved, absorbing our sin in himself and giving us, beloved, his righteousness.
See, even as Jesus, listen now, did nothing to be cursed because he was innocent and perfect and holy, even though he did nothing deserving to be cursed and yet he was cursed for us, likewise, you and I did nothing to be blessed. In other words, there wasn't anything that you and I did deserving a blessing. But because of God's grace, we're blessed. Think about this. You and I did nothing to be blessed, and yet we have now been blessed in Messiah Jesus. Jesus did nothing to be cursed, and yet he was cursed for us. It's the divine exchange. He took our sin and the curse that should have been upon us, died in our place, descended into hell, was raised again, beloved, for our justification, and we now have received, beloved, his righteousness. We've been made, beloved, the righteousness of God.
This is why it's such good news. This is why Paul will never be ashamed of it. And this is why the message that he preached was all about Jesus, him crucified, raised, and now ascended and seated at the right hand of God. I's not about causes, it's not about pet peeve doctrines, it's not about getting sidetracked. It's only about the person and the name of Yeshua HaMashiach, hallelujah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's read it again, Romans 1:16 and 17. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, the good news. That's what the word gospel means again. That's why it's good news, what Jesus did. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God. There's power in this. Power to live rightly, power to be free, power to know God, power to be filled with the Spirit. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. And that word salvation is wholeness, spirit, soul, mind, and body.
Jesus makes us free. He makes us whole. To everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. God's not done with the Jew. It's always the same. To the Jew first, Paul says, Romans 1:16, and also to the Greek. We should never stop, beloved, looking to, beloved, reach out to Jewish people with the good news of the Gospel. They're still God's first covenant people. He doesn't love them more. They're just in order in this thing. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. And then in verse 17, for it is, or in it, the Gospel, in it the righteousness of God. What does righteousness mean? It just means to be made right with God. It means to be right in God, to be right with God. It's God's own righteousness. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
What does this mean? It could mean a number of different things. From faith to faith. From God's faith to our faith. Where do we get faith? From God. God is faith. It's a substance. And the Bible says, again, Ephesians chapter 2, by grace you've been saved through faith, and that faith, he says, is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So from faith to faith. From God's faith to our faith. See that? God's faith, and then he gives us faith, it becomes our faith. It also involves, beloved, the Scripture that's quoted here, for the righteous shall live by faith.
How was Abraham justified with God, Abraham the father of all believers? By faith. Remember, there was no law yet. When Abraham was living, there was no law. How was Abraham brought into a relationship with the Lord? How was he able to walk with God? Through faith. And so it's from faith to faith. The faith that we see evidenced in the patriarchs that continues all the way through Scripture now culminates with full revelation in Messiah Yeshua.
Well, Father God, I pray that you will set your people free through the simple preaching of the Word of God. Father, your Word tells us that men are saved through the foolishness of preaching. And I pray, Father, that as we go through the book of Romans together line upon line and precept upon precept, that you will come against confusion in your people's minds. I come against you, Satan and every spirit of confusion and division in the minds of the people of the Lord Jesus Christ. And right now, I command you to leave and I command you out and not to return. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will come in now and bring truth and set your people free for your name and your fame.