Biblical Concept of Faith (13) (isaac 4)

[Singing] We give you all the glory We give you all honor We give you all the glory We give you all honor Praise God, praise God, Hallelujah Praise God, Amen Praise God, Hallelujah Praise God, Amen Father, we give you all the glory We give you all honor We give you all the glory We give you all honor Our Father, we are indeed grateful unto you again for today. We thank you for your love, we thank you for your mercies, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for all who you are, we thank you for all that you are to us. We say blessed be your name, Abba Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. Everlasting Father, we look up unto you again this evening as we gather unto you this first Monday in the month of April. Our God and our Father, we pray into the month that Lord you will go into the month with us in the name of Jesus. We say your good hand will be upon us for good in the name of Jesus. And as we come Monday after Monday, Lord, through the month of April, Lord, we are asking you will meet with us. You will help us. You will bless us. You will enrich our life. You will instruct us. You will direct us. You will teach us in the way that we ought to go in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray, we and all our brethren, let your eyes watch over us in the name of Jesus. And Lord, as we come into your presence this evening, our brethren on Telegram, our brethren on Mixlr, who are gathered here physically, Lord, we are praying, walk in our midst. Lord, our God, meet each and every one at the very point of their need. Thank you, eternal Father. Lord, we beg you, Holy Spirit, seed for the sower, bread for the eaters in the name of Jesus. Let there be enough seed to sow and enough bread to eat in the name of Jesus. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [Speaker 1] So, we ended last Monday looking at the Lord our shepherd, because that was also our prayer focus. The Lord our shepherd was our prayer focus. We were looking at three important things. I don't know whether brethren who are here could still remember the three important things. If you are speaking you have to use the mic so brethren online can hear you. Okay. Brother Emmanuel wanted to say something. The three vital things about shepherding. [Speaker 2] I can recall we were taught that we hear his voice, he calls us by name, and he leads us. [Speaker 1] Exactly. Thank you. Those are the three things about the shepherding of the Lord. The Lord calls you by name, that is he shares a kind of intimate relationship with you. People you call by name are people you know. When you are saying "sh-sh-sh," you don't know that person. He calls you by name. He calls you, and I tell people it's a real thing. Do you know until this morning the Lord still called me by name? "Wale, this is what I'm saying." He calls us by name. He calls you. It's a relationship we must desire to share with him, to call you by name. And we saw that one thing about it is that we hear his voice. We hear his voice. Everybody who is under the shepherding of the Lord is able to know when the Lord is speaking to him or her. And the last one is that he leads us. He gives direction. "This is how we do it." And that was what we saw that David was saying in Psalm 23 that has become a common thing today: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me," even when for several lives the Lord is not their shepherd. That conclusion is about a life that the Lord is the shepherd. And we are trying to dig further today on that matter, and that will bring us back again to Isaac before we eventually come to the book of faith. Which book is the book of faith? Hebrews. We'll now come to where the Bible was talking about "Now faith." We'll now come to that. That is where we'll be concluding this discussion actually. We'll eventually journey to Hebrews chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, that now brought us into that why the Bible now say "now," not later, "now." Why the Bible say "now faith is"? We first want to look at everything that gather into faith. Many times the New Testament is not clear to us because we don't look at the reality that the New Testament is coming from a shadow in the Old Testament. So we're trying to bring these things together, and eventually we'll get to that point. So we were looking at Psalm 23 last week where the psalmist said: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pasture. He leads me besides peaceful water or still water. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runs over." Then the concluding thing is that "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen." That was the concluding thing in that Psalm. And what I will say in sweeping through Psalm 23 is the reality that, number one, we have looked at "he makes," and "he makes me to lie down in green pasture, he restores my soul. He leads me beside still water. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil." If you look at the summary of that Psalm, that Psalm 23 is saying something very critical. What is summarized in that song? God on the mountain is also God where? In the valley. Psalm 23 is actually saying that when the Lord is our shepherd, it doesn't really matter what our situation is. It doesn't matter how many enemies gathered against us. It doesn't matter the challenges we might be facing. It doesn't matter how difficult our situation may be. What will be the end of the story is that surely goodness and mercy will be what follow me. Psalm 23 is a strong assurance that it doesn't matter our situation and our circumstances. It doesn't matter whether you're on the mountain or you're in the valley. It doesn't matter how it turns. One thing you can be sure of is that these three things are in your life. You share intimacy with God. Number two, you receive instructions from him. Number three, he gives you direction. You can be sure of something. The Bible says mark the perfect man, behold the upright. What will be the end of that man? What will be the end of that man? He says the end of that man is peace. Psalm 37:37. What Psalm 23 is saying in summary is that when the Lord is your shepherd, the beginning may be rough, the middle may not be smooth, but the finishing line, what will happen? What will be the finishing line? Surely goodness and mercy will be what meet at the finishing line. My prayer for each and every one of us is that our finishing line be gracious and be glorious in the name of Jesus. Because I keep telling people, there is nothing so disastrous as succeeding and succeeding to fail. When a man succeeds and succeeds and succeeds to eventually fail, it would have been better the other way, to suffer, endure, suffer, eventually succeed. Because the reality is that it is how a man ends that matters. Do you agree with me, brethren? It is how a man ends that matters. It is how he ends. And what the psalmist said is "mark the perfect man, behold the upright. What will be the end of that man? The end of that man is peace." That is what David was saying in Psalm 23, that look, no matter how it turns, whether I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, whether the enemy gathered against me, in their presence he will prepare a table for me. Anyhow it turns, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. My prayer for each and every one of us is that it will not just be in the word of mouth but in reality, may the Lord be our shepherd. May the Lord be our shepherd. May the Lord indeed be our maker. "He makes me lie down." May he be the one making us spiritually, physically, financially, maritally, career-wise. May the Lord be the one making us. May he be our maker in the name of Jesus Christ. Now let's quickly turn to that John chapter 10 that we were looking at when we now went to Psalm 23 to draw conclusions and prayer issues last week. Look at that John chapter 10. I want to stay, take your attention to something very crucial in that book. John chapter 10. I'll first read some reading before I come to verse 26, 27 where I'm going to. Now after we saw he calls them by name, he leads them out. Look at what Jesus continues to say. Look at something. He says, "When he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." Please I want you to know something about the Lord's shepherding. What does the Lord do? He goes ahead. He goes ahead. Now when something is ahead, what does that tell you about the sheep and the shepherd? They're on the same path. If he's ahead, what happens to the direction of the sheep? They are looking ahead. They are not looking backward. He's not behind. Where is he? I'm trying to make you relate some things in biblical faith when the Bible says looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. Now he goes ahead. He's ahead. Now he leads them. He says they follow him. But he now told you why they are able to follow him. Why are they able to follow him? Look at what the Bible says. It says "the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." Now, so you see something about the Lord's shepherding. What do you see about the Lord's shepherding? It is not only the Lord that knows his sheep, the sheep themselves also know the shepherd. The sheep themselves know the shepherd. It is crucial to see that intimacy with God is a shared intimacy. It's not just a matter of God knows me. It's a matter of I know the Lord. This is one thing when Paul said, "I know whom I believe." Are you seeing that? What did Paul say? "I know who I believe." I know the person in whom I believe. That person, I know him. And because I know him, I cannot be confused. So the matter of intimacy with God is both ways. The Lord knows the sheep. The sheep are able to follow his voice, are able to follow him because they know his voice. So the reality is that when we're talking about the Lord leading a man or the Lord leading us in any matter, it's a two-way thing. You know the Lord, and the Lord knows you. You know the Lord in respect of his voice. The Lord leads us by his voice. That's how he leads us. He leads us by his voice. And when he leads us by his voice, wherever he's leading us into, we follow him. He speaks to us. We hear what he's saying. We know what he said. We know what he told us. And on the basis of that, we're able to follow him in every way and in everything. We're able to follow him. That's the reality. So that one very important thing about intimacy with the Lord, and that is one thing that is crucial in the biblical concept of faith. Somebody came to me one day and he said, "Sir, I now know who I'm to marry." And I said, "Oh, that's great. So how did you come about that?" And you know what the person said? He said, "Actually what happened is that I submitted two names to the prophet, and then the prophet eventually told me that of two names I submitted, one of them is to be my wife." And you know what I told the young man? I said I say fundamental problem. He said, "Sir, what is the problem?" I said, "One thing about the Lord being our shepherd is that the Bible says as many as are led by the spirit of the Lord, they are the sons of God." I said, "The way you entered into your marriage is making me afraid. You entered as a man who is not a sheep of the Lord, because you could not tell me how the Lord led you into it. You only told me how the prophet told you who to marry." I said, "So it is lacking something fundamental." I said, "I'm not against the reality of the scripture, because the scripture say in the multitude of counsel there is safety. The counsel of the elders, the counsel of our disciple, the counsel of our pastors, the counsel of our parents, all those counsel comes to play. But it does not take the place of the Holy Spirit in the life of each believer. Each believer should be able to say, 'This is how the Lord leads me.' In any Christian relationship where the believer cannot say 'this is how the Lord leads me,' it is only by the voice of the leaders, it is not biblical faith. That is not what the Lord is saying. That is not the Christian faith. That is more of manipulation. That is more something that looks more like witchcraft. It is not looking like the Christian faith. The Christian faith establishes that individually, the sheep, each sheep has a relationship with the shepherd. So that we that you may call disciple, we that you may call pastors, we that you may call leader, the first reality of everybody is that all of us, we are first sheep of the Lord, all of us together. Then within that sheep of the Lord we're now in categories. Some are captains over hundred, some are captains over hundred, some are captains over millions, some are captains over ten, some are captains over fifty. But there is no one of the sheep that does not have a personal connection with the Lord. That is very vital in our Christian faith. Or else, what will happen? As the Lord lives, when the Lord leads and the Lord is leading you, when the Lord leads and you cannot hear his voice, what happens to you? You're lost. No, you cannot follow him. You cannot follow who you don't hear. Look at this adage in Yoruba, they say "the dog that doesn't hear the whistle cannot follow the hunter." Why? Because once it cannot hear the whistle, it cannot follow him there. That's the point. The Lord leads us, and the Bible establishing that he leads us, you cannot lead who you cannot speak with or you cannot speak to. There must be a way the believer recognizes when the Lord is speaking to him or when the Lord is leading him or when the Lord is telling something very crucial to him. There's a way the believer should be able to know. And the Bible says that they hear his voice, and so they're able to follow him, which is very vital in our relationship with the Lord. If that is not there, then there is likely going to be a serious fundamental problem. Now look at the next thing in that John chapter 10. Verse 5. He says, "Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but flee from him, for they do not know the voice of the stranger." Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. He will go in and out and find pasture." Please I want you to know something in this scripture. Look very closely. Look at the verse 7, 8, 9, and 10. I want to establish something. Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly I say to you, who is the door? I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them." He established again, "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved." What is Jesus trying to say? Salvation is only through who? Through Jesus, isn't it? If anybody is trying to say that there are two saviors, that person is a what? Is a thief. Please I want you to know something about the matter of thief. He says if he will be saved, he will go in and out and find pasture. "The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and they may have it abundantly." Now please, who is Jesus referring to as thief? In the context of this scripture, who is the thief? No, no, brethren, look at the scripture very well. Let's look at the Bible. In the context of this scripture, let's look at it very closely. He says "all who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. He will go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not," he's not referring to the devil. Many times we use this scripture to refer to the devil, but it's not the devil. I'm going somewhere about the Lord's shepherding. I'm going somewhere about the Lord's shepherding, that if anybody wants to shepherd anybody and that person becomes the center of that other person's salvation, that person is a thief. A true shepherd makes the sheep to have a direct contact with the Lord. If you block away the sheep from the Lord and you are casting a picture that everything is about you, I'll give you a good example. When the men rushed towards Peter after they healed the man at the beautiful gate, everybody rushed towards them. What did Peter say? Peter said, "Why do you look at us as though by our power or by our holiness we have made this man to walk?" He said God has glorified Jesus. You see what he did? What did he do? He pointed men away from himself, he pointed men to who? To the Lord. Anybody who does not point men to Jesus, but makes himself the bus stop for anybody's Christianity, is a thief. That person is a robber. The whole idea, you see, I'm trying to make some things clear about biblical faith. Biblical faith, the center of biblical faith is Jesus Christ. Nobody can take the place of Jesus. No man, no disciple, no pastor, no G.O., no overseer can take that place. Jesus is the savior of all, and nobody, nobody can be Jesus in anybody's life, in anybody else's life. We are, we are servants of the Lord, and in anything that we do for the Lord, we are stewards. Who is a steward? Who is a steward? A steward is somebody who is handling something that is not his own. Am I correct? A steward is anybody that is handling something that is not his own. If something is your own, you don't give account. Am I correct? If you have to give account for anything that is in your hand to somebody, it means that thing is not your own. You get the point I'm making. You get the point I'm making. It's like the government cannot call me to come and explain how I spend my salary. But if the government normally gives me thirty thousand every month as office impress, what will they ask me to do? You have to give report for that thirty thousand because it's not your own. So we are stewards, because we are going to give account of our life, of our gift, of our calling, of all of these things to God. What happens actually to us, each and every one of us? What are we? We are stewards. So there is no way a steward can replace the master in another person's life. It's not possible. This is the reality. I'm not saying this to reduce the place of we disciples, of we teachers, of we pastors. But I'm trying to put something in perspective about the Lord's shepherding. Because what has happened so much today, one thing that the Lord is making me to realize, you know one thing he's making me to realize? That his sheep have been estranged from him. Many times in the way we handle people's lives today, we have removed Jesus from the central place. Something else has taken the place of the Lord. And it's very crucial about biblical faith to know that Paul plants, Apollos waters, but it is only the Lord that can give increase. Or else what will happen to those that you are discipling is that they will grow in church. They will grow in fellowship, but they will not grow in grace. There are people who have become so much church people, but they are not graced people. They have become so much church. When I say so much church, I'm talking about Phariseeism, Sadduceeism. I'm talking about people who don't have an ability to relate one-on-one with the Lord. People, people that everything about what they call Christianity is "I'm a member of so-and-so place." And for them, that's enough to be a Christian. There's nothing wrong about being a member of a place. I'm a member somewhere. But I'm drawing something very crucial. Jesus said, Jesus said, "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved." But it's not only that he will be saved, there's now something very crucial. What is crucial? "He will go in and come out, and the person will find pasture." Do you get what that means? Paul may plant, Apollo may water, but it is only in the Lord that there is pasture. It is the Lord that gives increase. So when someone is not personally connected with the Lord, no matter how much Paul plants, no matter how much Apollo waters, what will happen to that life? Christ will not be formed in the person. Did you notice something when the Lord was talking to Peter? He said, "You are rock," a kind of example. Then you have a revelation that I am Christ. He said, "You are Christ," which is the rock. "On this revelation, Peter, I will build my church." Do you notice the word? "I." It is only the Lord that can build his church. He may work through several of us, disciples, ministers, pastors, leaders, but the truth is that the person who builds is who? Is the Lord. He said "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." So it is very crucial to know that in our relationship with men, in our relationship with the brotherhood, we must respect the universal brotherhood of believers. You know what that means? What do I mean by that? That regardless of our grace and calling, regardless of our position, regardless of how many we are captains over, in the biblical faith there is nobody who by his gift is placed on the church. We are all what? We are all in the church. The person on the church who is the head is the Lord. Every other person, they are in the body. Nobody by his gift, nobody by his calling, nobody by his operation, nobody, no matter how many men they place him over, is still a member in the body. He's never the head over the church. Everybody are in the church, in the body. That is why when you look at the ministry gift, what does he say? The Bible said some he made to be what? Apostles. Some he made to be what? Prophets. I'm going to follow the order. Then next? Evangelist. Next? Pastor. Next? Teacher. All were made that arrangement. Verse 11, it said "for the perfecting of the saints, in view of the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ, till we all come." Do you notice that? Do you notice what the Bible say? Till we all, all of us. Not till they. Not till they all come. Till we all, that is the one that are called pastor, the one that are called teacher, the one that are called apostle, all of those people, as they perfect the body, the body also ministers back to them. The eye help the body to see, but the eye need the leg to walk. The heart may not be seen, but if the heart stop pumping blood, the eyes will not work. What I'm trying to say, those gifts that are visible, they are no more important than the gifts that are not seen. Some gifts make people to be visible. But there are people that they may not be visible. They are insides. But if they stop working, that visible thing you are seeing will die. That is why you notice that even Jesus said while he was in this body, "Can't you pray with me for one hour?" Even Jesus needed that he be prayed for. Paul said "pray for us." What I'm trying to make you see is that there is no man who by his gift takes the place of the Lord in the biblical concept of faith. We are all in the body. We are all in the body. We are in the body. No one person tries to take the place of the Lord. What does he become? He becomes a thief, he becomes a robber. He becomes a thief, he becomes a robber. Nobody is the head, there's only one head, and that head is Jesus. And the whole body is connected to the head. They all take instruction from where? From the head. The eye help the body to see, taking instruction from the head. The heart is working, is connected to the head. The mouth, everybody like that. Anyone you sever from the coordinating head, what happens to that organ? And that is why it's so crucial that the first thing in discipleship, I tell people, when people consciously father you or mother you in the faith, the first thing is to teach you how to have a personal walk with the Lord. That is the first rudiment of spiritual growth, how you bring somebody into the faith. Go and check it. He said "the Lord does not want any to perish, but to come to repentance." He wants all men to be saved, that is one. What's the next thing? "And to come to the knowledge of the truth." It is all men that must come to the truth. Who is the truth? The Lord. Because if you don't know the truth, you can never be free. No matter how much you are relating with me and to you, you must know the truth yourself. You can never experience liberty more than the level of your revelation of the truth. The reason why it looks like we have so much crowd inside our churches today but they cannot stand as men for the Lord is that many times these people are added to the church but they are not added to the Lord. I don't know whether I'm making sense, but I'm trying to explain something. I mean they are added to local assembly, to denomination, which is not wrong, because we must go out to preach the gospel, we must go out to bring men in, but we must be careful to be sure that they are not just added to local assembly, they are added to general assembly. There is a general assembly. They are added to the Lord. They are added to the Lord. It's a very, very crucial thing. So what I'm trying to draw out of shepherding in the Lord is that we must be careful. We must be what, we must know something, that when the Bible is talking about thieves and about robbers, it's not talking about the devil. Many people say, "Ah, you see, the thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy." It's not about the devil. It's talking about how we handle the lost people. If you want to know again, you see when the Lord entered the temple in Jerusalem, purification of the temple. He said "this house should be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." When he say den, den talk about where thieves dwell. Who were dwelling inside the temple? Was it not the Pharisees, the religious leaders? He referred to them as thieves. It's supposed to be a house of prayer. What do you mean by house of prayer? A place where people talk to God. Prayer, listen to me. Prayer is not talking to God alone, it's God talking to you. Prayer is a two-way thing. God, I tell people, God is a father. When I talk to my father, I expect him to talk back to me. We must understand the concept of Christianity. God is not "Ogu-Ogu-Ogu," you talk you don't expect answer, no. When you talk to God, God talks back to you. He talks back to you in his word. He talks back to you as you fellowship with the word of God. You will discover that by the Spirit of God, God talks to his people. God who gave mouth is also able to talk. God who gave eyes is able to see. God who said to us what? "Go, teaching them to observe what I've told you." Who told us to go and raise men by talking to them? He cannot raise us if he does not talk to us. Because until he talk to us, there is nothing we can declare. Look, I want quickly get to the devil, just I'll get there then we'll close. Please look at something in Matthew 10. I'm trying to make you something about this walk, biblical faith, the shepherding of the Lord. A clear understanding of this matter. Look at something that the Bible says in Matthew 10. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. The Lord was speaking on something very, very crucial and he's saying that he makes something very, look at what he says. Matthew 10, are you there? Verse 24. "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master." I'm reading Matthew 10:24 and then 25. "It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house, Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household? Therefore, do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, secret that will not be made known." Please look at something in verse 27. What do you see in verse 27? "Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight." So you see that there is a place of being with the Lord to hear the Lord before you now come to the daylight to declare it. Anybody who don't have that dark part of being with the Lord cannot have the light part. He said "whatever I tell you in the darkness, shout abroad when daylight breaks." NIV, "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the rooftops." So please, before you can proclaim anything, what is the first thing about your life? There is first a whisper where? In your ear. Before you can shout in the light, what is the first thing? They give you something where? In the dark. So you see that there is a whisper part, there is a dark part. He's talking about that part with the Lord. Anybody who does not have this part cannot be relevant for the brethren. So if a believer don't have where he hears the Lord, when he come to light, what does he want to declare? There is nothing to declare. If you are a steward, who do you call a messenger? Let's look at a messenger, who is a messenger? You carry a message. For a message, is there a sender? Is there a receiver? What are we? We are messengers. Who is the sender of message? Who is the receiver of message? The people. Now if you are not connected to the sender, what you are carrying, is it a message? I'm trying to make you see when you don't make men to be established with the Lord, whatever they'll be doing with the people will only be that you are stealing, you are killing, and you are destroying, because you cannot build outside the Lord. Outside the Lord, nobody can build. What did I say? What did I say, brethren? Outside the Lord, nobody can build. Look at what the Bible says in Hebrews. It says "every house is built by somebody," isn't it? "But who is the builder of all things? But the builder of all things is the Lord." The builder of all things in the Lord. And so it is very, very important for us to see that, beside that, there's something we must do before we close this evening. I've just a minute or two to mention that. Please, where then does the devil come in in this chapter? Let's read on. I want to quickly get to the devil. Just I'll get there then we'll close for today. [Outro] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and marriage through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission health. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 p.m.; Adolescents and Singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 a.m.; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 a.m.; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Igede road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you.