Biblical Concept of Faith (31)

[Intro Music] Unto the Lord shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee, unto the Lord. We are gathering together unto Thee, unto the Lord. We are gathering together unto Thee, unto the Lord. Unto the Lord shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee, unto the Lord. [Speaker 1] Our Father, we are grateful unto You. We thank You for this time. We bless Your holy name. We thank You again for another Monday in Your presence. We give You glory, we give You honor, we give You worship. We thank You, our Father, for bringing us together again. Blessed be Your name, our God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord our God, the Bible says unto You shall the gathering of Your people be. Our Father, we pray this evening that our gathering indeed shall be unto You, not unto ourselves. We pray for we who are here, our brethren who are connecting with us on Mixlr, our brethren who are connecting with us on Telegram. Lord our God Almighty, we commit ourselves together, both the population online and we who are here physically. Lord, we are asking, meet with each and every one of us in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, let there be an entrance of Your word. Let Your word find expression within our spirit. Meet us where we need You most. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [Speaker 2] As we start this evening, we want to quickly make a recall to where we left it last week. Last week we were looking at something very, very crucial in Hebrews 11. Let's go to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. We were calling our attention to the connection between the *logos* and the *rhema*. That there is a connection between the *logos* and the *rhema*. And for brethren who are just joining us today online and physically, by the *logos*, we mean the written word of God. The written word of God has a strong connection with the spoken word of God. We said until what is written becomes what is spoken, then it becomes difficult to walk in the fullness of biblical faith. That there must be a connection between that which is written and that which is spoken. And we gave two examples last week. Was it two examples? Can you remember them? Can you remember them, those of us who were here? What are the examples we gave? We made reference to John. We saw how men were trying to give John another identity. They were saying, "Are you the prophet? Are you the prophet? Are you the Christ?" But John did something very, very important. He said, "Look, I know who I am. I know who I am. You can't change my identity." He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." And we went to Isaiah 40. We saw that indeed that was what was written concerning him: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Then we took our example again from that of Jesus Christ. We saw that Jesus was telling them that today, a particular scripture was fulfilled before them. So, we saw that the faith men who were able to make a mark in their generation were men that were able to connect the written word of God and the spoken word of God. Until you can discover in the written word of God what is written concerning you, the truth is that you will remain an ordinary person. You will just be casual with Christianity. You will just be very, very casual. You cannot become a shining and a burning light until you can discover in the scripture what is written concerning you. And I want to make us today, in moving on in Hebrews 11, I want to make reference to a particular instance between Jesus and His disciples as we try to come to explain "By faith we understand," that is Hebrews 11:3, "that the world were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which are visible." I want to show us something about this *logos* and *rhema* in an instance that happened between Jesus and the disciples. There is an instance that happened between Jesus and the disciples. Let's look at that in Luke 24. The connection between the written word of God and the spoken word of God. If your faith must be built, there must be that connection. Luke 24. That is where we are picking the matter from today. Luke 24. I will take my reading from around verse 13. And I want you to follow the story. The Bible says, "Behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened." What was the thing that happened? What happened actually? What were the things that happened? Was it only the resurrection? The death? The death, the suffering, the death, and the resurrection. Those were the three things that happened. And they were discussing the things. They were talking about it. As they were talking about it, the Bible says they talked about these things. It says, "So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. Jesus Himself drew near and went with them." And I want to make us see something here very, very important. Jesus drew near and He was walking with them. The Bible says, "But their eyes were restrained, so that they could not know Him." Who were the people discussing? The disciples. What were they discussing? They were discussing the suffering, the death, the resurrection of Jesus. They were wondering. In fact, they have not begun at this point with the resurrection. Anyway, they were discussing the resurrection because some women came to tell them some things. We'll get that. So Jesus appeared to them. He was having a conversation with them. Let's see. "And He said to them, 'What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?' Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, 'Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?'" Now, why are they asking Him that question? Why are they asking Him that question? When He saw them sad and they were talking, and He said, "What is making you sad?" Why did they think He is a stranger in Jerusalem? He should have known what was going on. Jesus was a very popular person. The death, everything happened the way He suffered. It was an open thing. So, you cannot be asking people why they are sad. You should know why. You should have understanding of why it happened. So for them, this must be a stranger. From their understanding, it is only a stranger in Jerusalem that can be talking like this. Let's move on. "And He said to them, 'What things?' And they said to Him, 'The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He is alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.' Then He said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?' And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Please, what is going on here? What is going on here? Can we just try to look at the literalness of the story? Can we just relate to the story? What is going on here? Jesus had been crucified. Some women went to the sepulcher. They came back with news that they saw angels. The angels said Jesus is risen. You know, we have dealt with the case of Magdalene some time ago. Magdalene had an encounter with the angels and also with Jesus. And she came to announce Jesus is risen. The disciples were wondering, "Where is the Jesus? Is it really something that happened?" They were in the middle of that. Jesus appeared to them. He was asking them what is their predicament. And they were discussing their predicament with Jesus. Number one, ordinarily, what is the best way for Jesus to prove to them that He is risen? Who is speaking to them now? What is the best way to prove it to them that, "You don't need to be sad, I am alive"? He has appeared to them. Is that not so? How will He prove to them that "Look, me that you are talking about, I'm no more dead"? How will He prove to them? What is the best way to prove to them that "I am alive"? Who was speaking to them? When He came to them, what did He do to them? Please look at the story. Go back to verse 13. Go back to verse 13. "So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him." So what did He do to them? He restrained their eyes from recognizing Jesus. Then He began to speak to them from where? From the Word of God. From Moses—what is Moses? That is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, all of those books. Then to the Prophets—who are the Prophets? Isaiah, Jeremiah. He was speaking things concerning who? Concerning Himself. Now my question that I'm asking you: they were wondering whether Jesus is alive. That is why they were sad. Jesus is alive, is He not? Is He not alive? He is the one speaking to them. What is ordinarily the best way to make them know that He is alive when He appeared to them? He should not have restrained their eyes. Am I correct? Am I correct? He should not have restrained their eyes. He should have allowed them to recognize Him. When they recognized Him, what would happen? Jubilation, joy, rejoicing! All the doubt! "Some women came to us, they were talking whether it was Him or it's not Him." Would all their doubts not be cleared? It would have been cleared. But Jesus did not clear their doubt that way. Did He? He didn't clear their doubt that way. Rather, what did He do? He restrained their eyes from knowing Him. Then He took what? The scriptures. And He began to expound the scriptures to them one by one. The things concerning who? The things concerning Himself. So what are you seeing about Jesus? What are you seeing about Jesus? If Jesus wants you to know Him, how is Jesus going to handle it? Are you seeing something about Jesus? That for Jesus—now when Jesus was speaking to them, what did He say? Look at what He said. Look at verse 25. How does it read? "Then He said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!'" So for Jesus, what is the cause of their confusion? Their foolishness. What made them foolish? They didn't believe in what had been written. Some things had been written, but they did not believe what had been written. I'm trying to show you the connection between the written word and the spoken word. That's what I'm trying to draw our attention to. That for God to activate your faith, God must speak to you. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and they stood fast. For God to bring anything to pass in your life, when God wants to accomplish His purpose in your life, He must speak to you. There must be a speaking. God will have to say something. He has to say, "Tobi, do this. Wale, do that." When God doesn't speak into our life, our life cannot amount to anything. For your life to amount to something, God must speak. That's what we were looking at in Hebrews 11:3, that by faith we understand that the things that are seen, they are not created from the things that appear. They are created by what? By His command. So when God wants to create something in your life, it's not going to come by your certificate. It's not going to come by whether you are beautiful or you are ugly. It's not going to come by your—no. The things that will be seen in your life, they will not be as a result of what is seen. They will be as a result of His command. He has to speak into your life. That is something we have established. But I'm trying to make you see a strong relationship between God speaking to you and the scriptures. That's what we started with last week and I'm trying to properly situate them. You saw that John the Baptist, when they were trying to give him a different identity, he said, "No, I am not the Christ. He must increase for me to decrease. For me, something has been spoken to me. But that thing that is spoken is from where? Is from the scripture. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of God.'" When Jesus was to fulfill His ministry, you found the same thing. He opened the book of Isaiah where it is written, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to do one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine..." and He said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your sight." That is Jesus is saying, "This scripture is written concerning me." Are you getting it? So he discovered that. And so, he was able to—this is my identity. Now, I said that for every believer, until you can encounter that which is written concerning you, the same way you encounter scriptures on and on like that, you encounter from the written, the *rhema*. God speaks and says, "This is concerning you. This is about you." And then we looked at the prophet from Judah last week, who received a word that was concerning him and he was walking in the strength of that word. He was going until an old prophet came to him and said, "I saw a vision. You don't need to go in the spirit of this word. Return and eat." Immediately he departed from that which is spoken concerning him, what happened to him? It was his destruction. We said that which is spoken, which is written concerning you is your direction in life. Once you depart from that, then you enter into destruction. And we said that it is important that our life must first find direction before our life gains speed. That if you gain speed without direction—by speed, I mean what you call progress in life—before you marry, before you pick up job, before you begin to all of those things you add to your life, is what I'm calling speed. Before you gain speed in life, we said the greatest thing that must happen to you is direction. That which God said. So that whatever speed you are gaining is in the direction of that which God had spoken. Now we are looking at Jesus and the disciples. The disciples, they were having a problem. What was the problem? The problem of stupidity and foolishness. They were foolish. If you read some other version, it said they were stupid. Why were they foolish? Why were they stupid? They are relating to Jesus, but things have been written concerning Jesus. Where were they written? They were written in Moses, that is in Genesis, in Exodus, in Numbers, Leviticus, like that, like that, those things were written. Now those things that were written, the disciples did not give attention to it. So Jesus appeared to them. And when He appeared to them, He was asking them, "Why are you sad?" So was there any reason to be sad? Was there any reason to be sad? No. Was there any reason to be hopeless? Why were they hopeless? Because they were foolish. I don't know whether you're understanding me. I'm trying to describe what Jesus called foolishness. I want to show you something between the *logos* and the *rhema*. Jesus did not say, "Oh boys..." He said, "O foolish." It was Jesus who said so. I'm not the one who said so. And when God speaks, you don't say whether God is thinking about what He wants to say, whether it is right or wrong. This is the resurrected Jesus. He was speaking to His disciples. And Jesus established for us what is foolishness. What does it mean to be foolish when it comes to the matter of our walk with God? The Lord Jesus established what is foolishness. What does it mean to be foolish? When you are slow of heart to believe what had been written. When a man is slow... now listen. How do you now describe a man who does not know what is written? Are you understanding me gradually? I want to show you the connection between the written word and the spoken word. I want to show you why many people remain ordinary in their life. Why many young men and women, young couples remain without direction, and they are just foolish. I'm trying to show you because the person speaking is the way, the truth and the life. If you are looking for the way, the person speaking is the way. If you don't want to be deceived, the person speaking is the truth. If you don't want to be dead, you want to be alive, the person speaking is the life. Remove those three things from your life, tell me what you are. Remove those three things: leave the way, leave truth, and leave life. Tell me what you have. That is why you notice that Jesus said, "Without me..." It doesn't mean that you cannot have education. It doesn't mean that you cannot have money. It doesn't mean that you cannot marry. People are doing all of that without Jesus. Am I correct? But as far as Jesus is concerned, what are they? What are those things? They are nothing. Why? Because whatever does not have the way, the truth and life... remove those three things from your marriage. What do you have in your marriage? Remove it from your career. Remove it from your riches. Just remove those three things from your riches. What do you have? Now, so I am trying to call your attention to something. The disciples ought not to be confused. The disciples ought not to be sad. The disciples ought not to be sad. Something has happened. The Master suffered before their eyes. Judas had his way in betraying Him. The Pharisee, Sadducees, they were rejoicing. He had been killed. The stupid boy now is dead that has been disturbing them and telling them that they are foolish, that they are hypocrites. They have been able to terminate him now. The disciples ought not to be sad. They ought not to be sad because, you remember, Jesus had been telling them these things ever before He died. He had been telling them, "The Son of Man will be betrayed. The Son of Man..." He had been telling them, He had been telling them, He had been telling them. Now, when He came to them, He was asking them, "Why are you sad?" They were explaining their predicament. And when you look at it, is it not looking very good? What they were explaining. It's looking very good. Their leader had been killed and they had hoped that that leader would be the one that would restore the kingdom to them. The leader is somebody they believed came from God, and the enemy prevailed against that leader. Does it not call for sadness? Does it not call for sadness? The leader was just 33 years old. They didn't allow him to even live up to threescore and ten. What are the days of a man according to David? Threescore and ten. He wouldn't even allow him to even be seventy. He did not even enter forty. He died at the prime of his career, as far as they are concerned. Is that not a good reason to be sad? What I'm trying to make you understand: many times when men are foolish, they will be seeing good reason in what is no reason. Are you understanding me? You see, many times when men are foolish, because I want to describe foolishness for you from the point of who? From the point of the truth, the way and life. From the point of the Lord. Sometimes some things that look very reasonable to you—I mean very, very reasonable—"I have every reason, if you see what happened, if you see how it happened, I have every reason." Many times you may just be foolish. Many times it may just be because you are foolish. Were you not to be foolish, your reasoning will not be like that. So that some things that look very reasonable to us, it is just because we are foolish. And the Lord came to them very emphatically. He was very—with emphasis! "Ooh... is this where you are supposed to be? Is this where you are supposed to be? Is this what you should still be saying by the third day of resurrection when we are shouting 'Hosanna' and we are dancing and we are singing? Is this where you still are? Oh, you are foolish." Now, what was the foolishness? Please notice that the foolishness was not in that they did not hear God. No. That was not where it started from. And that was what I was trying to bring to you. The foolishness was in that some things have been written, but they did not what? They did not believe. Some things were written, they did not believe what had been written. They did not believe what had been written. And that is why I am trying to make you see something. Can you believe what had been written when you don't know what had been written? So which means when Jesus is dealing with His disciples, His disciples are not people who don't know what had been written. Are you understanding me? I am trying to make you understand the reason why anybody who says he is a disciple of Jesus must first of all—he has a duty to do what? There is first to know what had been written. There is a need to sit down. I tell people studying the Bible is not a matter of if you like. It's a matter of eternal life. It's a matter of eternal life. Because you can't come to begin to be... because when you even know what is written and you don't believe, you are foolish. Now when you don't know what is written, how do we describe you? Do we say you are mad? Do we say you are dead? Do we say you are a non-entity? So we put it that you are even—you are non-existent. You are not existing yet. The people we want to appear to—please listen to me—the people we want to appear to and rebuke are those who know what is written but they don't believe. It's not those who don't know what has been written. You are a non-entity as far as biblical faith is concerned when you don't give attention to the *logos*. This *logos*, this written word. You are a non-entity, non-existent. You are nothing. You have not started. You must deliberately, intentionally give attention to what had been written. You must decisively study it. That is why when you go through scripture, you will see, "Study to show yourself approved unto God." Have you read that scripture before? It says, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." What does Psalm 1:1 say? "Blessed is the man who does not stand, who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, who does not wear—what? Sit in the seat of sinners, or stand in the way of the scornful, but his delight is where? Is in the law of the Lord. And what does he do with them? In it he meditates how? Day and night." He said, "That man will become what? Like a tree planted by rivers of water." When a man don't give attention to scripture, he is a tree in the wilderness. And this is what I'm trying to call your attention to, and I'm showing you from the point of Jesus. You know, I was in one meeting one day and I just said, "You know, Elijah, God took Elijah to heaven by a whirlwind." Then I saw expression on the face of the people. Expression of... so that expression—I said, "Does it look like I said something not correct?" And then, someone said, "Sir, actually, it was a chariot of fire that took Elijah to heaven." I said, "Where did you get that?" He said, "That is the truth," or something like that. I said, "Who told you that is it?" And then another one said, "Yes, Elijah went to heaven by chariot of fire." I said, "So there is no wise person among all of you here." What did the Bible call the Berean Christian? What did the Bible say about the Berean Christian? It said even when Apostle Paul was speaking, what did they do? They went to confirm. I said, "All of you open your Bible." They opened their Bible. "Let's go to the book of Kings where the story is." I said, "Can we begin to read?" At the very first verse of that story, the very first verse—they were already perplexed by the first verse. The first verse says, "And it came to pass, when God was about to take Elijah away by a whirlwind." So they were already perplexed by the first verse. I said, "No, we are not stopping here, let's read on." We began to read, we began to read. Then the Bible says the chariot of fire appeared and parted between Elijah and Elisha, and the whirlwind, a whirlwind carried Elijah to heaven. I said, "What? Chariot of fire? What did it do?" They said they became speechless. I said, "Brethren, let us give attention to the Bible. Attention to the Bible is not a matter of convenience." Please, was it convenience that made you a graduate? Was it convenience that made you a graduate? Sometimes even when you are having headache—I remember one of our daughter in the Lord that was writing an exam. She collapsed while writing. She still asked for the script to be brought to the health center so that she can still continue. She collapsed while writing. They rushed her to the health center. She still said, "Bring my script, let me still write something." Her hand was shaking, her leg was shaking. She said she still tried to write something. Why? Because it was a matter of life and death. You see, I'm trying to make you understand something. Look at the way you look for money. Do you use convenience to look for money? I'm trying to make you understand why God said, "You will seek me and you will find me after you have sought for me with all your heart." God don't make himself known to a lazy seeker. He said, "You will seek me, you will find me after you have sought"—there is a need to understand that there is the place of diligence. You don't just see giving attention to scripture as a matter of convenience. That is what has overtaken this generation. I was telling a group of young people, I said as a student when we are doing our quiet time and we begin to feel sleepy, I said, "Do you know what we'll do?" I said, "We will stand up, we will begin to walk up and down and be reading our Bible so that the sleep can go away." I said, "Do you know why we did that?" Because we saw some people, when they were trying to read to get certificate, you know what they did when they were feeling sleepy? They went to carry ice block. They put it inside a basin, and they put their leg inside and they were reading. And we said for a certificate which today is and tomorrow is no more, men could put their leg inside ice water to be awake. Nothing will make us sleep when we want to read our Bible. You see, the spirit of diligently seeking God is leaving this our generation. We are not diligent with looking for God. We don't seek for God diligently. And that is why today, a lot of deceivers have taken over the stage. And they can just say anything that just... somebody shout "Hallelujah!" say "Amen!" "Amen!" even when what they are saying does not have any correlation with scriptures. One of my sons in law was telling me something, that he sat somewhere to listen to a message. And then the man of God—I don't want to say so-called man of God because that is what I would have ordinarily said, but the man of God for that day on a Sunday message was to preach that "I have this to tell you." And he took a text, he took the text of Lazarus and the rich man. And the first thing he wanted to establish was about the necessity of riches. And then the next thing that follows necessity of riches was that look at the story of Lazarus. He was a poor man. Look at when he died. Where was he? Bible says "the bosom of Abraham." "The bosom of Abraham," you know what that means? Look at in life. Go to the Old Testament. Who was Abraham? Abraham was a rich man. Now, do you know the meaning of the "bosom" that is written here? That that poor man was in the bosom... you know what that means? He was actually in the backyard of Abraham's duplex in heaven. So if you are poor in this life, you will be poor in heaven. If you are rich on earth, you will be rich in heaven. You know what he said he did? He said he just closed his Bible and he left the church. That is a man who understands scriptures. He said he just closed his Bible and he left. And somebody shouted, "Amen! Amen! Yeah! Write on, man of God! We must..." Madness. Please, I'm not saying it is wrong to be rich oh. Please don't get me wrong. I have said that when we were looking at this matter. The Bible says, "Command those who are rich in this world not to be high-minded, but to be willing to give, ready to communicate." So believers can be rich. Believers can be rich. There is nothing wrong, I don't have problem with that. But when a man come to twist scriptures, and this generation today just follow people—do you know why? Because we don't give attention to scriptures. The first thing I'm telling you about bringing a relationship between the *rhema*—God cannot do anything with your life without the *rhema*. That was where we were coming from. But I'm trying to show you the connection between the *rhema* of God and the *logos*, the written word of God. That don't begin to jump all over the street and say, "God, speak to me! Speak to me!" That is not where to start from. I'm showing you where to start from. Is that the men He will want to speak to are men who know what is written. Foolishness as far as Jesus is concerned, when He was dealing with His disciples, was that it is not that they don't know what was written, but that what? They were slow to believe what had been written. And I am asking you today, do you know what had been written? Have you given attention seriously, consistently, deliberately, intentionally to what had been written? Do you have a clear understanding that beginning from Moses, from Genesis to Exodus, all those stories you are talking about, Abel about this and that, and you are reading, you think you are just reading stories. The Bible says when Jesus resurrected, Jesus began from where? From Moses. And He was showing them things concerning who? Concerning Himself. So what is in Genesis? The things concerning Jesus. What is in Exodus? The things concerning Jesus. What is in Numbers? The things concerning Jesus. He was showing them. He said, "Ought not Christ to go through these things?" What I am trying to make you see is that the resurrected Jesus, the resurrected Jesus is a Jesus who calls men to what? To what is written. It was so important, it was so crucial to Jesus. You know, the Lord Jesus could have skipped that stage. How will He skip it? By making them to recognize Him. There will be no need again to give attention to what is written. They would just say, "Eh! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The angels are singing, Hallelujah in the highest!" Heaven is jubilating. May you not be sad when heaven is jubilating. See, I'm trying to establish what it means to be foolish. I'm trying to make you understand why Jesus said, "O fools!" You know, he didn't just say foolish people. Go and read, look at your Bible. Look at what He said in verse 25. Do you see "O" in your... please look at your Bible. King James says, "O foolish ones." Please another translation. "You foolish people." Another one. That is verse 25. Another one. NIV says, "How foolish you are." Yoruba will say "O ri bo se go to, se ko le go to eleyi? O le go to eleyi." Now, Amplified. Amplified says, "O foolish ones." So what I'm trying to make you see, it was a matter that Jesus was handling emphatically. It was an emphasis. It was not just a discussion. Ah! It was something that... and for them, they thought they were reasonable. They thought they were correct. They were telling somebody, "Are you a stranger? Don't you know? You must be a stranger." So you, you are not sad. You must be a stranger. You see, I'm trying to make you understand the difference between when the Bible says, "By faith we understand that the universe was framed by the word of God, so that the things that are seen are not created from the things that appear." I'm trying to make you understand what it means to walk in the spirit as against what it means to walk in reason. Some things that look reasonable, some things that look calculated, some things that look plausible may just be as far as heaven is concerned a display of foolishness. Even though the thing look very reasonable. And the Lord came to them very emphatically. He was very—with emphasis! "Ooh, is this where you are supposed to be? Is this where you are supposed to be? Is this what you should still be saying by the third day of resurrection when we are shouting 'Hosanna' and we are dancing and we are singing? Is this where you still are? Oh, you are foolish." Now, what was the foolishness? Please notice that the foolishness was not in that they did not hear God. No. That was not where it started from. And that was what I was trying to bring to you. The foolishness was in that some things had been written, but they did not what? They did not believe. Some things were written, they did not believe what had been written. They did not believe what had been written. And that is why I am trying to call your attention to something. Jesus, as far as He is concerned, when He is dealing with His disciples, His disciples are not people who don't know what had been written. Am I correct? I am trying to make you understand the reason why anybody who says he is a disciple of Jesus must first of all—he has a duty to do what? There is first to know what had been written. There is a need to sit down. I tell people, studying the Bible is not a matter of if you like oh. It's a matter of eternal life. It's a matter of eternal life. Because you can't come to begin to be... because when you even know what is written and you don't believe, you are foolish. Now, when you don't know what is written, how do we describe you? Do we say you are mad? Do we say you are dead? Do we say you are a non-entity? So we put it that you are even—you are non-existent. You are not existing yet. The people we want to appear to—please listen to me—the people we want to appear to and rebuke are those who know what is written but they don't believe. It's not those who don't know what has been written. You are a non-entity as far as biblical faith is concerned when you don't give attention to the *logos*. This *logos*, this written word. You are a non-entity, non-existent. You are nothing. You have not started. You must deliberately, intentionally give attention to what had been written. You must decisively study it. That is why when you go through scripture, you will see, "Study to show yourself approved unto God." Have you read that scripture before? It says, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." What does Psalm 1:1 say? "Blessed is the man who does not stand, who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, who does not wear—what? Sit in the seat of sinners, or stand in the way of the scornful, but his delight is where? Is in the law of the Lord. And what does he do with them? In it he meditates how? Day and night." He said, "That man will become what? Like a tree planted by rivers of water." When a man don't give attention to scripture, he is a tree in the wilderness. And this is what I'm trying to call your attention to, and I'm showing you from the point of Jesus. You know, I was in one meeting one day and I just said, "You know, Elijah, God took Elijah to heaven by a whirlwind." Then I saw expression on the face of the people. Expression of... so that expression—I said, "Does it look like I said something not correct?" And then, someone said, "Sir, actually, it was a chariot of fire that took Elijah to heaven." I said, "Where did you get that?" He said, "That is the truth," or something like that. I said, "Who told you that is it?" And then another one said, "Yes, Elijah went to heaven by chariot of fire." I said, "So there is no wise person among all of you here." What did the Bible call the Berean Christian? What did the Bible say about the Berean Christian? It said even when Apostle Paul was speaking, what did they do? They went to confirm. I said, "All of you open your Bible." They opened their Bible. "Let's go to the book of Kings where the story is." I said, "Can we begin to read?" At the very first verse of that story, the very first verse—they were already perplexed by the first verse. The first verse says, "And it came to pass, when God was about to take Elijah away by a whirlwind." So they were already perplexed by the first verse. I said, "No, we are not stopping here, let's read on." We began to read, we began to read. Then the Bible says the chariot of fire appeared and parted between Elijah and Elisha, and the whirlwind, a whirlwind carried Elijah to heaven. I said, "What? Chariot of fire? What did it do?" They said they became speechless. I said, "Brethren, let us give attention to the Bible. Attention to the Bible is not a matter of convenience." Please, was it convenience that made you a graduate? Was it convenience that made you a graduate? Sometimes even when you are having headache—I remember one of our daughter in the Lord that was writing an exam. She collapsed while writing. She still asked for the script to be brought to the health center so that she can still continue. She collapsed while writing. They rushed her to the health center. She still said, "Bring my script, let me still write something." Her hand was shaking, her leg was shaking. She said she still tried to write something. Why? Because it was a matter of life and death. You see, I'm trying to make you understand something. Look at the way you look for money. Do you use convenience to look for money? I'm trying to make you understand why God said, "You will seek me and you will find me after you have sought for me with all your heart." God don't make himself known to a lazy seeker. He said, "You will seek me, you will find me after you have sought"—there is a need to understand that there is the place of diligence. You don't just see giving attention to scripture as a matter of convenience. That is what has overtaken this generation. I was telling a group of young people, I said as a student when we are doing our quiet time and we begin to feel sleepy, I said, "Do you know what we'll do?" I said, "We will stand up, we will begin to walk up and down and be reading our Bible so that the sleep can go away." I said, "Do you know why we did that?" Because we saw some people, when they were trying to read to get certificate, you know what they did when they were feeling sleepy? They went to carry ice block. They put it inside a basin, and they put their leg inside and they were reading. And we said for a certificate which today is and tomorrow is no more, men could put their leg inside ice water to be awake. Nothing will make us sleep when we want to read our Bible. You see, the spirit of diligently seeking God is leaving this our generation. We are not diligent with looking for God. We don't seek for God diligently. And that is why today, a lot of deceivers have taken over the stage. And they can just say anything that just... somebody shout "Hallelujah!" say "Amen!" "Amen!" even when what they are saying does not have any correlation with scriptures. One of my sons in law was telling me something, that he sat somewhere to listen to a message. And then the man of God—I don't want to say so-called man of God because that is what I would have ordinarily said, but the man of God for that day on a Sunday message was to preach that "I have this to tell you." And he took a text, he took the text of Lazarus and the rich man. And the first thing he wanted to establish was about the necessity of riches. And then the next thing that follows necessity of riches was that look at the story of Lazarus. He was a poor man. Look at when he died. Where was he? Bible says "the bosom of Abraham." "The bosom of Abraham," you know what that means? Look at in life. Go to the Old Testament. Who was Abraham? Abraham was a rich man. Now, do you know the meaning of the "bosom" that is written here? That that poor man was in the bosom... you know what that means? He was actually in the backyard of Abraham's duplex in heaven. So if you are poor in this life, you will be poor in heaven. If you are rich on earth, you will be rich in heaven. You know what he said he did? He said he just closed his Bible and he left the church. That is a man who understands scriptures. He said he just closed his Bible and he left. And somebody shouted, "Amen! Amen! Yeah! Write on, man of God! We must..." Madness. Please, I'm not saying it is wrong to be rich oh. Please don't get me wrong. I have said that when we were looking at this matter. The Bible says, "Command those who are rich in this world not to be high-minded, but to be willing to give, ready to communicate." So believers can be rich. Believers can be rich. There is nothing wrong, I don't have problem with that. But when a man come to twist scriptures, and this generation today just follow people—do you know why? Because we don't give attention to scriptures. The first thing I'm telling you about bringing a relationship between the *rhema*—God cannot do anything with your life without the *rhema*. That was where we were coming from. But I'm trying to show you the connection between the *rhema* of God and the *logos*, the written word of God. That don't begin to jump all over the street and say, "God, speak to me! Speak to me!" That is not where to start from. I'm showing you where to start from. Is that the men He will want to speak to are men who know what is written. Foolishness as far as Jesus is concerned, when He was dealing with His disciples, was that it is not that they don't know what was written, but that what? They were slow to believe what had been written. And I am asking you today, do you know what had been written? Have you given attention seriously, consistently, deliberately, intentionally to what had been written? Do you have a clear understanding that beginning from Moses, from Genesis to Exodus, all those stories you are talking about, Abel about this and that, and you are reading, you think you are just reading stories. The Bible says when Jesus resurrected, Jesus began from where? From Moses. And He was showing them things concerning who? Concerning Himself. So what is in Genesis? The things concerning Jesus. What is in Exodus? The things concerning Jesus. What is in Numbers? The things concerning Jesus. He was showing them. He said, "Ought not Christ to go through these things?" What I am trying to make you see is that the resurrected Jesus, the resurrected Jesus is a Jesus who calls men to what? To what is written. It was so important, it was so crucial to Jesus. You know, the Lord Jesus could have skipped that stage. How will He skip it? By making them to recognize Him. There will be no need again to give attention to what is written. They would just say, "Eh! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The angels are singing, Hallelujah in the highest!" Heaven is jubilating. May you not be sad when heaven is jubilating. See, I'm trying to establish what it means to be foolish. I'm trying to make you understand why Jesus said, "O fools!" When you cannot believe the word of God, you cannot believe what had been written. You cannot believe it, you cannot rest on what had been written. You cannot just agree with what had been written. You cannot just rest on it. And I'm talking about there are ten thousand and one things that you don't need a revelation for. And I do it with my teenagers one day. That's where I'm going to close today. With my teenagers one day. I said, "Teenagers, somebody in your class approached you and the person said, 'Look, when you get home, lie to your mommy and daddy that after school tomorrow we'll be having extra lesson so that we can go and visit Yetunde in her house. Make sure you tell lie to mommy and daddy oh.'" I said, "Then when you got home as a Christian, you were confused whether you should tell the lie or you should not tell the lie. So you now knelt down and then you are now praying, 'Precious Father, Lord Jesus, speak to me. Should I lie to daddy and mommy or should I not lie to them?'" You know, the teenagers, they were looking at me. And I said, "Please, what do you say about that prayer?" One said, "I know it is good to pray, it is good to pray." Another one said, "But do I need to pray about that?" Another one said, "But Bible say we should pray always, but we already know that God don't want us to lie. Should we..." You know, different level of understanding. "We want to pray always, but..." So I said what I want you to see: that there are certain things you'll be telling God, God will say it's not because you are confused, it's because you are wicked. It's not because you are confused. It is because you are slow of heart to agree with what had been written. You are slow. You see, you read, "I am with you always." You are saying, "God, are you sure you are with me?" You are asking again, "God, are you really sure you are with me?" Are you understanding me? You read in scriptures, "All these things the Gentiles seek. Your Father knows you need them, but seek first the kingdom of God." Somebody offered you a job and it is written clearly, "You must not be more than 25 years old," you're already 30. And you are asking God, "God, should I take it? Should I? Lord, please give me direction. Lord, please speak to my heart." Is there anything God wants to speak to your heart? I'm trying to make you understand something why many people don't come to where we are going, why God don't speak life to many people. It's because there is a strong connection. There is a strong connection. You see, the word of God that is written and the word of God that is spoken, there is a strong connection between them. When men don't reference what had been written, they disqualify their life from what will be spoken. Do I take that again? When men don't have strong regard for what had been written—they don't have regard for what had been written. They don't have reference for what had been written. They don't have reference for what is... see, you have read—let me give you a practical example—you have read in scripture, "Do not lie to one another." You have read that, very simple. You have read in scripture, "Let everything be done in sincerity and in truth." You have read that. You have neglected that. And then you come to a point, you're asking God, "God, please I want you to speak to me. Should I marry Tobi or Esther?" Do you think God will speak to you? Because in the things that are written, you have ignored God. You are slow. You are slow to believe what had been written. You are slow to agree with scriptures. You are slow to tremble at the word of God. That is why I want to close today. Look at Isaiah 66. That's where I'm closing. Isaiah 66. Isaiah chapter 66. Are you there? Look at what the Bible says: "Thus says the Lord: 'Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all these things my hand has made, and all those things exist,' says the Lord. 'But...'" Are you seeing what God is saying? "Everything is mine. There's nothing you can give me that can do me anything. Are you getting it? Because I own everything. Whatever you are giving me is from what I've given you." Is that not true? Is that not true? He said, "But there is something that I look at." What does God give attention to? "'But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.'" A man who don't tremble at what is written is not a man that God will regard. Let us close for today. A man who don't tremble at what is written is not a man that God will regard. Let us go ahead to pray. Please talk to the Lord as we close today. A man who don't tremble at what is written is not a man that God will regard. People don't understand that little lie, that little unrighteousness, that little thing you... what you already know, what you already understand, you deliberately don't give attention to them and you are saying, "God speak to my heart, what is your direction for my life? Lord, give me direction. Lord, give me this." You don't understand something. A man who don't tremble at the word of God is not a man that God will regard. A man who don't tremble at God's word—you may give sacrifices, you may do everything you want to do inside church, you may do whatever... He said, "Heaven... heaven is my own, the earth is my... what do you want to give me that you want me to regard?" You can't use anything to bribe God. You can't use church membership, service, this, you can't use them. He says to obey is better than sacrifice. To obey... there is something about God. There is something about God. A man who don't regard God is a foolish man. When you are slow to agree with scriptures, when you are slow to give attention to scriptures, when you are slow to regard scriptures, you are a foolish person. When Jesus is to speak to you, it's about, "Look, why are you slow? Why are you slow?" The men who come to *rhema* are men who are quick to receive the word of God. Are men who understand that the Bible is not just any book, the Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the word of God. They tremble at the word of God. They tremble at scripture. They come to scripture with reference. They come to scripture because they want to obey. They come to scripture because they want to follow. They come to scripture because they are seeking instruction to obey. Those are the men that God will regard. Thank You, everlasting Father. Almighty God, we commit ourselves into Your hands today. O precious Father, we are at a time in history where diligence to study scripture has become a discipline that is lost. People don't discipline themselves to diligently study scripture. Again, we are in a time in history where people trivialize scripture. They just trivialize the word of God. In fact, men make caricature of scripture. "Ah, is that one a Bible? Let us face reality." Men make caricature of the word of God. Little wonder there is no faith. Little wonder vision and revelation is scarce. Little wonder, it is scarce. We are in a generation where revelation, where the *rhema* of God has become so scarce. When you talk to people, they say, "I just feel like doing this." People cannot say again, "The Lord is asking me." It has become a very scarce thing to hear in the mouth of people. And men who so speak, they are looked at as strange men. They are looked at as... "Look, what are you saying? From which realm are you speaking?" Oh precious Father, revive Your church again. Lord, revive Your church again. Lord, revive Your church again. Lord, revive Your church again. Begin with our soul. Begin within us. Begin with us. In the name of Jesus! In the name of Jesus! In the name of Jesus! In the name of Jesus! Lord, start something new with our heart. Start something real in our soul. Start something deep within us. Start a work—a work of grace, a work of truth, a work of life, O God, within us in the name of Jesus! Lord, quicken us again. Lord, quicken us again. Lord, quicken us again. Make us burning and shining light in our own generation in the name of Jesus! Lord, Lord, Lord, beginning with us, Baba, deal with every area of our life where we are at the level of non-entity. Deal with every area of our life where we are at the level of foolishness. Lord, deal with these things in our life. Take us beyond these levels. Break us, O Lord, in the name of Jesus! Thank You, eternal Father. As we gather when we will be gathering next week in the Lord, carry us beyond this point. Lord, be intentional with our lives. Lord, be intentional with our lives. We yield our lives to You. Thank You, everlasting Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Can we share the grace in fellowship? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Speaker 3 - Closing announcement] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development and mission aid. Our regular activities are discipleship class, every Monday 5:00 PM; adolescents and singles club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; marriage forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school out-reaches and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Berryjoy filling station along Ijera 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 080-338-61136, 070-336-13848. God bless you all.