Skip to content The Threat of Surface-Level Sanctification | Decoding the Torah Season 2 Jun 23 · 21 min ...more
The Threat of Surface-Level Sanctification | Decoding the Torah Season 2
June 23, 2025 · 21 min
Rabbi reveals how the Torah shows that God is personal and knows His people by name. Move beyond vague belief and truly submit to the one true God who is right here in the center of our existence.
Series Discovering The Jewish Jesus June 23, 2025 · 21 min · Discovering The Jewish Jesus
Rabbi reveals how the Torah shows that God is personal and knows His people by name. Move beyond vague belief and truly submit to the one true God who is right here in the center of our existence. ...more Show the full description Show less Rabbi reveals how the Torah shows that God is personal and knows His people by name. Move beyond vague belief and truly submit to the one true God who is right here in the center of our existence.
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Rabbi Schneider is equipping the body of Christ, building the church, and evangelizing the world. From the Old and New Testament, learn the biblical roots of Christianity and Jesus' Jewish heritage.
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Understanding God's Personal Connection 0:07 How does the Hebrew Bible teach that God really knows his people? We're gonna begin to answer that question today by going to the first of0:19 the 10 commandments. We're in the process of going through the laws of the Torah and applying them to our lives today as those that are following Messiah Yeshua. Hear the word of God as I read from the book of Exodus0:31 chapter 20 verse number 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The law that we've deduced from this0:42 scripture is this, to believe in God's existence and that there is only 1 true God. To believe in God's0:54 existence and that there is only 1 true God. This is a commandment of Judaism. It's 1 of the 613 laws that we've derived from the Torah. And today, beloved,1:06 we're gonna explore Exodus chapter 20 verse 2, and this particular mitzvah, which is the Hebrew word to say commandment or law. Again, this is the first of the 10 commandments, and1:18 we can deduce from this that God is personal, and that he knows his people. And we can deduce this from a number of different ways. First1:30 of all consider this, the text says this in Exodus 22, I am the Lord, and that word there, Lord, capital l, capital o, capital r, capital1:41 d, the way that it's translated in English, actually comes from the 4 Hebrew letters, Yud Hey, Vav Hey, which is God's personal name,1:53 which most Semitic scholars believe is pronounced a breathy Yahweh. So this is God's name. So the Lord is saying, I Yahweh. He's a person. It's not just a title.2:06 God's personal name called the Tetragrammaton sometimes because of the 4 letters, it's not a title. Like, Lord is a title. God is a title, but2:17 Yahweh is actually a name. The Lord said, this is my memorial name forever. So we go back to the text, and it actually goes, I am Yahweh2:30 your God. The Lord here is speaking to Israel, and he says to them, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery?2:41 So think about this additional aspect here that we pull out from this verse that helps us to know that God is personal, and that he deeply cares and2:53 knows about his people, that's you and me. He said, I am the Lord or I am Yahweh, get this now, your God. He's not just the God. He's not a God that's far3:05 removed. He's not a God that's distant. But he comes to his people, he says, I'm the Lord, your God. He heard Israel's cry. When he came to Israel, he3:17 said, I have heard your cry, and I've come down to deliver you from the land of Egypt. And so we need to remember that God has feelings, that God3:29 feels what we feel. He understands, the Bible says, our thoughts from afar. God intimately knows you. He is in the center of3:40 your thoughts. When you go from this thought to that thought, God is right there in the center between this thought and that thought. He actually knows3:52 the number of hairs Jesus taught us on our head. So this is a deep thing if we'll let it sink in, because a lot of times we don't bring God personally in our4:04 experience close enough to us. We think of him as he's as if he is somehow separated from us. We pray to him, but we pray to him as if he's afar.4:16 We pray to him as if he's just up in heaven somewhere. But beloved, he's not only up in heaven, he's here on earth. The scripture says he's closer to us than our4:28 own breath. He's not so high that we gotta go to heaven to find him or go to the bottom of the ocean to see him, but he's right here in the center of our existence. So he says to Israel,4:41 I am Yahweh your God. And in saying this to Israel, 2 things were going on. Number 1, he was commanding Israel to believe4:52 in his existence. I am Yahweh, the Lord your God. It was a call for Israel to believe in the 1 true self existent God5:04 that was sovereign and had authority over everything. So this first of the 10 commandments involves recognizing that there is 1 true God who is self5:16 existent and has ownership over everything, that he reigns. And then secondly, God was calling Israel to recognize that they must obey him.5:28 God was taking ownership over Israel and introducing himself to Israel as the Lord their God. He was saying to Israel, I have claim over your5:40 life. I have claim over you as a nation. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.5:53 And so we need to let this sink sink in. We may look up at the stars and recognize there's a God, but God's wanting us to go beyond that. It's not just that we6:04 believe, oh, there must be a God out there. It's not just believing, oh, it must have started somewhere. But it's recognizing that God is personal, that he knows6:16 us by name, that he knows the number of hairs on our head. He knows before we're gonna take the next breath. And not only does he know,6:29 but he cares. So he said to Israel, I heard your cries when you were in slavery in Egypt, and I've come down to save you. I am the Lord6:40 your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And recognizing that, there's an implicit call to surrender to him6:53 and to obey him. He's an intimate God that's connected, listen to this now, and is actively involved.7:05 He's actively involved in our lives. He's right here, right now. The Holy Spirit is right here, right now, actively7:17 involved in our lives. The fact that he brought Israel out of Egypt shows that he's actively involved. He's actively involved in your life.7:29 And God wants us to open our hearts and let that sink in. A lot of people even wonder, does God really listen to me? I mean, he's got so many things to do. Does he really care about my little prayer? Yes. He cares.7:42 He cares more than you care about yourself, and he wants us to recognize that and open up our hearts to let him make himself known to us as closely7:54 as he wants to make himself known. In laying a hold of Israel, he was calling them out as unique people that was set apart toThe Plight of Humanity and the Call to True Worship 8:05 him. So think about this, God is calling your name right now, and in calling your name, he's laying a claim on you that8:17 you're his and you're set apart to him. The creator of the universe, the self existent 1,8:30 loves you, and he's calling out to you by name, wanting you to recognize that he's been involved in your life and that he's the 1 that brought you to himself for Yeshua. And he wants us8:42 to respond to that by opening up our hearts so that his love can penetrate our emotions and so that we'll orchestrate our lives after seeking him.8:55 Now let's pause for a second. Let's contrast God's command to Israel to believe in his existence and to obey him. Let's contrast9:07 that to what the apostle Paul said is the plight of humanity in the book of Romans chapter 1 verse 18 through 25. It's a bit of a lengthy portion of9:19 scripture, but I wanna read you this because it really contrast this first of the 10 commandments to believe in the self existent God and that he's the only true 1, that he's the9:30 creator of all that we see. To contrast that with what Paul described as mankind's natural separation and disposition9:42 from true reality. Hear the word of God. Paul speaking, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of9:54 men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God had made it evident to them. For since the creation of the10:06 world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made, so they are without10:18 excuse. For even though they knew god, in other words, we look at the sky and we see that there's a, you know, that the sky goes on forever. We we we recognize the10:30 beauty of the world. Deep down inside, we know. Everybody knows. So Paul says, even though they knew God, he's speaking to humanity because they look at creation10:42 and deep inside they know there's a creator. But Paul continues, even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile10:54 in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. So even though deep down inside, everybody that's born into this world knows there's11:06 a god, the gospel of John tells us in the first few verses that Jesus enlightens every man that comes into the world. Everybody is born knowing there's11:18 a God. But even though we know there's a God, too many had become futile in their mind and begin to think of things like we11:30 came from some big bang in outer space that had nothing to do with God, or or we descended from from the monkeys, and it's not about God creating us as humanity, but somehow we simply evolved.11:42 Our foolish hearts, Paul said, became darkened. He continues, professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the11:54 form of corruptible man, and of birds, and 4 footed animals, and crawling creatures. Therefore, God gave them over in the lust of their hearts12:06 to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. Why? For they exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the12:18 creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Something that's perplexing to me is Paul's again, he's speaking about the beauty of creation, and the glory of God12:29 that's seen in creation. And when mankind looks at the stars, when they look at the vast universe, they know there's a God, yet they threw that off. And Paul says, they12:41 worshiped and served the creation or the creature rather than the creator. And what really is perplexing to me is it seems like when I12:53 travel, the places that I go that are the most beautiful natural landscapes, whether it's Colorado, whether it's the state of Washington, the places in the country that are so13:05 gorgeous, mountains and rushing rivers and and so on, blue skies, those are the places that I find the majority of people13:17 are deniers of God. They're the most godless sometimes. The people that live in the most beautiful places in the country are oftentimes the most godless people in our country or even on13:29 the planet. They they they love the mountains, but rather than giving God glory for the beauty of the mountains, recognizing that they're a display of his beauty,13:42 instead what they do is they choose to not to deny that there's a God that created the mountains, and they worship the mountain. They become worship they become, worshipers of nature13:54 rather than worshipers of God. And so that's just interesting to me that you would think these people that live in the most beautiful states would be the first ones to give God glory.14:06 But instead, for some strange reason, these are the ones that seem to have exchanged the glory of God to instead worship the creation. Well, once14:18 again, repeating this law or this mitzvah, here it is. To believe in God's existence and that there is only 114:31 true God. There's only 1 true god. That's the mitzvah. That's the commandment. This is what we get from the rabbis. This is what we get from the Torah, to believe he self existed, to believe his14:43 existence, and that there's only, get this now, 1 true God. And yet if we look at the political climate on planet Earth today, so many14:55 don't believe that there's only 1 true God. They believe in God, but they don't believe in 1 true God. They don't believe in a God that has defined15:08 himself. They believe in the God that they choose to believe in. Do you see the difference? The Lord introduced himself in Exodus 20,15:20 verse 2. I am Yahweh your God. I am the Lord your God. And it gets very personal who delivered you out of Egypt and from the house of slavery. Notice here that God is self15:31 identifying himself. He is defining who he is. I'm Yahweh, and here's what I did. He's the 1 that's defining who he is. But when you consider15:44 the planet and the culture we're living in today, most human beings don't define God by by who he said he was, but they define God by who15:56 they say he is. In other words, they say, God is whoever I want him to be. Or I don't believe what the Bible says about God. I have my own faith. I have my own16:08 religion. I don't believe in Christianity, or I don't believe in Judaism. I'm a spiritual person. I believe in God, and this is what I believe. And then then they go ahead, they go forward, and they16:19 invent their own God. They invent a God that they like. People invent a God whom they're comfortable with. They don't believe in a God that would punish people for their sin. They don't16:31 believe in a God that would have a place called hell. They don't believe in a God that would define the difference between male and female. They don't believe in a God that set boundaries.16:43 Instead, what has happened is most people, the vast numbers of humanity, have invented God who is nothing more16:56 than a figment of their own imagination. So let me ask you a question. Have you submitted to the 1 true God? Have you submitted to the God17:08 who's made himself known by intervening in human history? The God of Israel, Yahweh, who broke into the earth and delivered Israel from Egypt, and then sent forth17:19 his son, Yeshua of Nazareth, to die on the cross for your sins and my sins? And in so doing, he not only revealed himself as the 1 true real God, but he also laid a claim17:32 to our life. That's what the Bible says, if we believe in our heart that God raised Yeshua, Jesus from the dead and, listen to this,17:44 confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, will be saved. What does that mean to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord?17:56 Does it just mean that we say Lord Jesus? No. It means that we've made him our Lord. Just like he was saying to Israel, I am the Lord, your God. So as we close today, I wanna18:08 ask you, have you submitted yourself to the God who has given us revelation about who he is? Do we accept him on his terms and come under18:20 the obedience of his truth and of his word? Or have we invented a God that's a figment of our own imagination because we're comfortable with that18:31 God because he doesn't demand anything of us and he doesn't judge. I want to encourage you my friend today, the same God that broke in and delivered Israel out of Egypt is looking18:43 at you and examining your life and my life right now. And he's demanding a response from us to acknowledge him as the 1 true creator in18:55 God and to recognize the claim that he has over your life because he created you. And because he created you and me, he owns us. And19:07 there's only 1 response that he's looking for from us, to love him and to obey him. And by his grace that's given us in Yeshua the Messiah, we can do that. So19:19 let's get on our knees in the posture of our heart and acknowledge him as our God and ruler and the 1 that has a claim over our life. And because of that, we19:31 obey. The Hebrew prophets spoke about a time where there would be a famine for the word of god in the earth. And beloved ones, I thinkA Call to Obedience and Support 19:42 in a very real way, we're in that time. I know there's a lot of teaching out there, a lot of YouTubes, but so much of it's based on spectacularism and the next, quote, prophetic word.19:54 But when it gets down to just sound teaching of the word of God, it's pretty rare in the earth. And what griefs me even more is that so many of God's people are not interested in20:06 just the line by line teaching of God's word. But here at Discovering the Jewish Jesus, that's what we're committed to do. And if this ministry is blessing you, I'd like to humbly ask you for your20:18 financial support because the truth is, it cost us a lot of money to do what we're doing. Everything costs money. And without you, my friend, I can't do it. So if the Lord is using this ministry20:30 and my teaching to help you and bless you, would you offer up an offering to the Lord through Discovering the Jewish Jesus? Thank you for your support.In this video 0:00 Understanding God's Personal Connection7:57 The Plight of Humanity and the Call to True Worship19:31 A Call to Obedience and Support10:39
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