God Had Always Had A Plan

[Speaker 1] Two weeks ago we saw that if we don't build correctly, if we don't build correctly then there might be a serious problem about the hedge. Building in terms of our foundation, building in righteousness, building in purity, building in holiness. If we don't build along that line, we may find ourselves compromising the hedge. We saw that as far as the hedge around our life is concerned, God places the hedge there. Only God can remove the hedge, the devil cannot. Then we too can break the hedge. If we break the hedge, the serpent will bite. And we saw that it is the kind of foundation we build for our life that determines whether the hedge becomes broken or not broken. But we'll do ourselves a lot of good if we build within the hedge. Today we want to try and move on from where we left all of those matters. We will try again very quickly as we try to move on, to look at Job, the same place where we started from. Let's look at the book of Job, chapter one. We'll look at the verses six and seven as we try to look at God having a plan. There has always been a plan. God has a plan. We want to relate the hedge to the plan. God has a plan. [Speaker 2] Job 1:6-7: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, 'Whence comest thou?' Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, 'From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.'" [Speaker 1] "And the Lord said unto Satan, 'Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth? A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?'" I take that verse eight in NLT. "Then the Lord asked Satan, 'Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless, a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.'" I remember the last time we were discussing something about understanding grace. You remember we had to make reference to this verse, this popular verse everybody quotes to this: "If God is to mark sin, who can stand?" You remember? And you remember what we said then, that that has become what everybody used to comfort themselves today, that if God wants to mark sin, who can stand? If God wants to mark sin, would Job stand? He would stand. He was truly and blameless, he was a perfect man. If it was not that it was God talking, if it was somebody giving the account, we might say maybe there is an exaggeration. But it was God talking with somebody, saying, "Have you noticed Job?" And he said yes. "Do you notice that he is a blameless man? Have you noticed that he has complete integrity?" And there was no response. All he could say was certain things that relate to the matter of the hedge. But the question is, why is it that that which God wants Satan to notice is that Job is blameless and that Job fears him? Why is it that what interests God is, "Have you noticed Job?" Why is it that the matter that became crucial to God in this encounter that we are seeing God? We are opportune here. God allowed us to have a picture of heaven in his word. Job was not part of this discussion. It was a discussion above Job. God only questioned him until he became confused and he knew that he could not question God in terms of his decisions and his actions. But this place is like an interlude. We were just allowed to see the heavenlies. It's like something that is beyond what we normally see. We don't always see Satan and God talking. We don't know what discussion they normally have. We don't even know whether they normally meet. But this place is giving us a picture that there is a possibility of a meeting and they could talk. The question God raised with me in connection with the hedge—it was there we picked the matter of the hedge—what is it that interests God? It is not the matter that Job was blessed. It is not the matter that Job had so many things. It was Satan that saw that one. What God was seeing in Job is that, "Satan, have you observed this man? That this man fears me and that this man is blameless and that he has complete integrity?" Why is it that what interests God is to shame the devil? "Satan, where are you coming from?" He said, "From to and fro the earth." Okay, good. "From going up and down in it." Okay, so you must have gone everywhere. You have seen everything. Okay. "From everything that you saw, you don't notice one man called Job of complete integrity that fears me?" And the response was, "Actually, I noticed him." Then he gave certain things that relate to the matter of the hedge. But the question is, if God—we know God for who God is in his sovereignty and in his almightiness—just like the same way we talk about the love of God. If God is so sovereign and so great and he could bother to come and die for man, then it makes you to understand that anybody that downplays humanity does not understand God. The same way we are looking at this one. If what interests God in a discussion with the gates of hell is that, "Have you noticed something? That there is somebody on that earth that you are going to and fro that fears me? That person has complete integrity." What is it about God, man, and the gate of hell? Why is it that these two distinct powers—I don't want to say because they are not equal powers, they are distant from themselves—these two parties involved in this conversation, the matter boiled down to man, whether man is holy and blameless or whether man is not holy and blameless? Which means all other men that were not holy and blameless did not interest God. Do you get it? They did not interest God in any way. There was nothing God could raise about them. There was nothing God could talk about them. What interest God in that conversation is that there is a man and that man is like this. It is what is coming out from that very clear to us. Look at Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66. [Speaker 3] Isaiah 66:1-2: "Thus saith the Lord, 'The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been,' saith the Lord: 'but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.'" [Speaker 1] Please take it in NIV. [Speaker 2] "This is what the Lord says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came to be?' declares the Lord. 'These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.'" [Speaker 1] You remember there is a translation that says, "To this man I esteem." NIV says, "Consider with favor." The man I esteem, the man I look. Now, take it from verse one. [Speaker 2] God's message: "Heaven's my throne, earth's my footstool. What sort of house will you build for me? What holiday spot will you reserve for me? I made all this. I own all this." God's decree: "But there is something I am looking for: a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say." [Speaker 1] Now, I want us to look at this and that of Job. We are comparing. If you take the whole universe, what interests God? Obedience to him, holiness, and uprightness. Any language you want to use is very simple. Either you say obedience to him, either you say holiness, either you say uprightness, either you say trembling at God's word, obeying God. You may put it in your own words anyway. But one thing is clear from those two passages that we read, Job and this one that we are reading. And that gives us an understanding about why God visited the earth. Is that not? Why was Jesus incarnate? "This is the Lamb of God that take away the sin of the world." So there is what I am trying to make you see. There is nothing apart from God that interests God about man apart from the fact that man fears him or man obeys him. There is nothing again about man that interests God. There is nothing. The thing that God seeks for, the thing that God looks for, when God is looking into the universe, when man is bringing sacrifices, when man—whatever man is bringing, whatever man is doing, whatever man is proclaiming, whatever man is pushing, whatever man is sacrificing, making—I mean, there is nothing that interests God in man apart from the fact that the man obeys and fear him. Once you remove that from a man, the man has no value as far as God is concerned. There is nothing about the man that interests God. There is nothing else the man offers. I mean, there is no sacrifice. There is no worship. Whatever are the other things that we do today? We go to church, we do many things, we do evangelism, we do prayer, we do vigil, we do just count everything that we are doing today. Giving, tithing, preachers, teachers, fellowship, revival meetings, praying. Just put all together. If God cannot find in a man that he fear and obey him, there is no value in him. The man has no value. He's just worthless. And if you look at the matter in Job, it relates to Isaiah in the sense that if God have said, "Now, let's go back to that Job. Let's go back to Job chapter one." Look at something in the verse four. Job chapter 1, from verse four. I will read verse four and five. I'll take the NLT. "Job's sons and daughters would take turns preparing feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to celebrate with them. When these celebrations ended, sometimes after several days, Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for each of them. For Job said to himself, 'Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.' This was Job's regular practice." Is Job a man of sacrifices? There is regular, it said this was Job's regular practice. Why didn't God see the sacrifice? Something was regularly done. God would have said, "Satan, do you see a man Job who sacrifice to me regularly?" I'm just trying to draw your attention to something about this matter of the hedge. This matter of the hedge that we have been talking about, the foundation, the hedge, the place of godliness, place of uprightness in our walk with God. That as far as God is concerned, the ultimate thing a man gives to God—not that does it mean that God don't take sacrifices? Is that what we are saying? I wanted to be very clear about that. So that you don't say that we were taught that all other things God don't accept. No, that's not what we are saying. We are saying that ultimately, the only thing that make any other thing to matter in a man, ultimately the only thing that make any other thing to matter, that will make God look at a man and have something to say about the man to say, "This is a man of worth," is that the man is upright, the man is holy. That's the only thing. If that is not there, all other things put together will amount to nothing. The reason is because we were opportune to see into the heavenlies. We were opportune to see that okay, oh, so there is the possibility of an engagement between the gates of hell and the person of the Trinity. That's why somebody said that Job could not have been—said Job is the word of God, that how could Satan be conversing with God? I just laugh. I say even when God put on flesh and he came down, was he not conversing with the devil? Was there no conversation between them? So that God is conversing, there is this conversation: "If you are the son of God, turn this stone to bread." He said, "No, it is written man shall not live by bread alone." "Okay, alright. Now take all of this I will give to you if only you bow down and worship me." "No, man shall..." That's another conversation again between the heavenlies and hell. The point having been opportune to see the heavenlies, we saw that what matters to God is that God can stand before the gates of hell and say, "See, there are people who still obey me." God wouldn't stand to say before the gates of hell that, "See, there are people that I have blessed. They are people that I have made great. They are people that I have increased. They are people that I have expanded." No. What becomes a point of God, the score, what God normally score against them, is not in that he has blessed his people. It is not in that his people are offering sacrifice. It is in that see these people, can you see that they fear me? That is what God has when he wants to score himself against them. So you can understand why the Son of God manifested. He manifested, what did he say? He destroyed the work of the devil. He came to take away sin. You can understand the manifestation. And I am trying to say that God have always have this plan. God have always foreseen this. God have always known this. God have always put this in mind ever before time began. There have always been this plan that a time will come in time that the matter will be who obeys God and who does not obey God. There has always been this plan ever from ever before time was. Ephesians chapter three. Let's try as many translations as we can find. Ephesians 3. I will read KJV eight to ten. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Other translations please. [Speaker 2] NLT: "Though I am the least deserving of all God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord." [Speaker 1] What is the plan of God? What is the plan? This eternal plan, what is it? It said he carried it out through Christ. He said that plan was hidden in Christ. What is the plan from what we read? What is the plan? To make his manifold wisdom known to who? Why not to men? Are you following what I am trying to read? You know he said, "Let your light shine that men may see your good works." What do you think this verse could have read ordinarily? It should have been so that the world can see. But what did the Bible say? God wants principalities and powers to know his manifold wisdom through the church. This is the eternal plan. Is it different from what we read in Job? There was no difference. If God was interested, if the primary plan, you know we do evangelism, you make your light shine to men, you win souls, you do all of that. But in all those things, that is why you will understand when some people say that, "Lord Jesus, we prophesied in your name. We did that in your name." He said, "Look, I don't know you. You are workers of iniquity. You are not in the plan." The ultimate about that plan is that we want to show principalities that men can be holy. The real thing about the plan is not really about yes, there is evangelism, winning souls, all of those things. Yes, they are part of it because we win souls and then we disciple them to make men holy. Is that not true? We preach, we teach like we are doing now. All of these things is to make God known and to expand his kingdom. But the ultimate of it, it's like everybody go to different secondary schools. You will do assignment from JSS1 to SS3. There will be assignment, there will be note writing, you will write exam, first term exam, second term exam, third term exam. You understand me? Everything will go on. All of those activities is geared towards just one thing: WAEC. If after all those six years of doing everything, you have P7 in English, that six years is useless. Even if you have physics, chemistry, biology, you want to go for medicine, but you cannot make the English credit and the math credit, that six years is useless. You need to go back and rewrite that. So even if somebody don't go for those six years training and you can put him in your house, say, "My child, this is how to do WAEC," and the person goes in two years and go and register and get WAEC, he's better than the person who spent six years in that place because the ultimate of all those activities is that you pass WAEC. Now, but can somebody now say that since the matter is to pass WAEC, why are people going to secondary school? Everybody should stay in their houses. Why are we paying school fees to somebody? Let us stay in our houses, we'll go and write WAEC. Do we subscribe to that? That is why we are not saying that we don't go to church, we don't preach. So get me clear. We are not robbing a system, but we are looking at the ultimate purpose that God has a plan, the eternal plan. We are looking at this thing from eternal perspective. And when I mean eternal, I'm talking of not in time. I'm talking of not in our world. In our world, we are preaching, we are teaching, we are doing everything. But all that we are doing here, there is another world where there is a conversation going on. Look into time. Look into the other world. Everybody look into—I hope you normally look at all these Christian things. They are looking at the earth, people will be praying. When God and Satan look down, do you see that one that is holy? I see that one. But look at that one, he is fornicating. Do you understand me? The matter is not, "Do you see that one that is preaching? Do you see that one that is praying?" That is not the ultimate thing. The ultimate thing is, "Do you see that one that fears me? Do you see that despite everything you think you can do, you can manipulate? Can you see that men can still triumph over sin?" That is the plan. And that is why you will notice that the matter of the hedge that we have been talking about is around the fact that men situate their life in the eternal plans of God. And when I mean plan, I'm not talking of something you pursue here and there. I'm talking of living to fear God. There is an eternal plan. God, this plan have always been there. It is something that is beyond us. And that's why when we read Isaiah, please before we move on, let's try the message again. The message for that phrase that we read just now, Ephesians 3:8-11. [Speaker 2] "And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along." [Speaker 1] He has been doing something in the secret and behind the scene all along. All the Genesis story, Exodus story, the going down to Egypt, all the when they said they should not break the bone of the Passover lamb. Why? Why shouldn't they break the bone of the Passover lamb? Because Jesus' bone must not be broken. Why must Israel go to Egypt? Because Jesus will escape to Egypt and he will be called out from Egypt. Behind, there has been something behind. He has been working all along, secretly all along. Yes, please read on. [Speaker 2] "Through followers of Jesus like yourselves, gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels. All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus." [Speaker 1] So what did God execute in Christ? What did he execute in Christ? It says, "He that sinneth is of the devil, for it was the devil that sinned from the beginning. For this reason, the Son of God was made manifest, that he may destroy the works of the devil. He that is born of God cannot sin because the seed of God is in him. He cannot continue to sin because he is born of God. If any man continue to sin, he does not know God or understand him." Do you get when Jesus was to talk? He said, "The thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." What God executed in Christ is just one thing. He didn't execute two things. One thing. And that was why when we check the scripture, when you check this scripture that we read on Saturday, Ephesians 1 and 2 Timothy 1:9, it becomes everything bear back to all and the same thing. Ephesians 1:4-6: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Looking at here again, "according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless." So when he was speaking before the world began, showing our existence, showing that we existed before the world began, and he was speaking before the world began, before he went to make time, in timelessness, because the lamb was executed too where? In eternity. So you find that we, even if when Apostle Paul said, "The things that are seen are temporal, the things that are not seen are eternal," another person says, "The things that are seen, they are not the real thing. The real things are the things that are not seen." Now, everything you see in time, are they really real? Where is their footing? Their footing is in timelessness. What you see in time, their footing is actually in timelessness. Ever before the foundation of the world was laid, everything was made. Christ have died, God have chosen men in Christ. Then at a point in time, we saw Christ dying, and then Christ was being preached and everything. So let me try that place again. It has been all along the plan of God. All along the plan of God. I want to avoid what they call speculation. When you are speculating, you say you are speculating. When you are speaking on the authority of the scripture, but what I see in all of this is that ordinarily, when Satan who used to be Lucifer separated from God, I just see a situation where a man threatens that, "I will get everybody. Don't worry, everybody. Everything you think you want to do, I will rubbish the whole thing. Everybody will be on my side." And God sees a plan. Because everything about the plan, everything—the killing of Jesus, everything—everything looked like it was about man, but it was about these two things, these two conversations. Who should not have crucified the Lord of Glory is not the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Was it the Roman government? It was principalities and powers that should not have, if they have known, they would not have. So you still see that what Jesus came to execute, even though man is a principal actor in this thing, but the real thing is about two people. And the real matter is, will men be holy and blameless or they will not? So that's why when we peek over there and we saw it, we were allowed to see into eternity, we saw that the argument was, "Have you seen Job? A man who fear me and is blameless?" When he was choosing men in Christ, what did he choose them for? To be holy and blameless. When they were conversing, what was the discussion? "Have you seen him?" He said, "No, it is because you have blessed him." He said, "No, it's not about that. Okay, let's try it. Go and do everything." Then he came back, he said, "See now." He said, "Okay, flesh for flesh. If you touch his flesh, he will curse you to your face. Okay, go too." And he went, and he came back. And by the time he went that time again, he moved against the wife. The wife moved everything and went Job told the wife, "How you talk like a foolish woman? God have given, God have taken, blessed be the name of the Lord." I'm sure at that point, Satan would just melt. Because we never discussed him again. We began to look at the other side, Job and his friends. And then the argument was, "Look, ah, stop being stupid. Evil cannot happen except people sin." And Job went, "No! If God knows that he has to answer, let him come out." And that was where God said, "Heh, you said I should come out. I should come out. Okay, I will answer you now." If you go to Job 40, 41, he said, "If I should come out, if God, let him come out and explain." You say, "I wish God would come in a—I wish God can just become somebody and I can see him. Let him come and show me my fault, why he allowed this to happen." And his friends said, "Ah! You are talking like this? How can a man say he is holier than God? God that is so holy, so great, you are talking to him like this?" He said, "Look, keep quiet! What I am saying is if God knows that he knows that he can find one fault, let him come and say it." That man knows how he has lived his life. That man knew how he had lived his life. If you look at those arguments, although he went very far, you know, but you know that he knew. He was too certain, he was too confident that I have a walk with God and I'm conscious of this walk with him and I know my walk with him. That's a challenge for us all anyway. Sometimes when something happens, you begin to think back, "I hope it's not because of yesterday that I was not sincere with yesterday. I hope that's not why God this thing happened to me. Hey, I hope it's not because of that certificate. You know that day I was writing the exam, I cheated. I hope that did not why God's not making me to—Why is it that I have done this interview ten times and I didn't get the job? It may be because of that sin." You know you always trace issues. Am I being practical? You always trace issues to one thing that you didn't do right. We're not having a clear conscience. We are not having, we always have, "Hey, I hope it's not..." There is one thing that we say, "God, dari ji if it's sin, Lord, have mercy." Because we're not always very confident. It's a challenge for us all that somebody could say, "God..." Go and read—that was why his friends became—that was why his friends got out of hand and they had to repent, they had to pray for them again to receive forgiveness because they too went and began to say what they don't know about God. They went into—and God said, "Look, Job has even spoken better." Because they were trying to defend God. "How will you as a man say that if God will come down, you will tell God to his face that what he did is wrong and you have no sin?" And that was too much for them. That was arrogance. That was too much. But that man was right. He was right. The only thing that God questioned him for, "Aha, you said I should come down to answer you. I've come. Now tell me, the earth is on water, where is the foundation? Okay, can you feed the lion? Okay, can you send thunder on errand? Can you gather the winds?" It was just deep. You know? And that was where Job began to melt. "Can you tell the exact time that the wild goats normally give birth?" Everything was becoming too much. He said, "God, I have wandered into what I don't know. I have spoken more than what I understand. Please, I repent in dust and ashes. In fact, I have said what I don't understand." And God said, "Okay, go and pray for your friends." Then God restored everything back to him. But one thing stands clear, that that life silenced the devil. It silenced him. The purpose of God was achieved. It was achieved. And that is the purpose. I'm saying that God has always had a plan. Will that plan be achieved in your life? Don't begin to say we cannot but sin. Go beyond that. There is a place you will get to and God will face principalities and say, "Have you seen that person? With all those 'we cannot but sin' that everybody is saying around? We cannot but sin, we know we are human, we know we are flesh and blood, we know there are different things we say." The reason why I am making reference to this is because somebody was speaking somewhere, you know what he said? He said, "Even Enoch that we are talking about, it's because we don't know so much about his life. If we see the story, we would have been able to know where he too made mistakes." That's why we have to pick a living person, at least Job. It's not just just pick his life out of—the Bible not said, "And Job walked with God and Satan found nothing wrong with him." If the Bible said, "And Job walked with God and Satan found nothing wrong with him," we would say maybe at a point Satan did not find, at some other point he found. This one is a detailed story. They talk about his children, they were eating, they were drinking, how they grew, everything. And this man have brought up children, he had servants, he had riches. Somebody who has wealth can be righteous. They show it, they showed everything. He has business, a businessman who would have been cutting corners. Do you get the point I'm making? So we saw everything and we saw his family life. They even spoke about his wife. You saw there was a family relationship. They talk in their home. They do everything. He has friends, they know him. Everybody knows him. He's a man like that. And God gave a record that there is a man, he is blameless. "Have you seen that he is blameless?" So what I am trying to say is this: God has always had this plan. The mystery of why it is this plan, we really don't know why. I'm just speculating because we didn't find where the Bible says, "Okay, Satan say everybody come to my side." We didn't see that in the Bible. But what Paul says is that if before God created time, read that 2 Timothy 1:9. [Speaker 2] "Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before time began." [Speaker 1] I want you to read that thing in the Amplified. Read it in Amplified. [Speaker 2] Living Bible: "It is he who saved us and chose us for his holy work, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ." [Speaker 1] What is the work? Holy work. It is in the holy work he want to show his love and kindness to us through Christ. The holy work. Yes, Amplified. [Speaker 2] "For it is he who delivered and saved us and called us with a calling in itself holy and leading to holiness, to a life of consecration, a vocation of holiness. He did it not because of anything of merit that we have done, but because of and to further his own purpose." [Speaker 1] Now, because of what? To further his own purpose. So he didn't do it because of us. Now listen, the plan is it about us? Is the plan about us? Is it because of one thing good or bad that we did? No. So it does not relate to that. But it is him that have a purpose. He wants to further his own purpose. He has a plan. He wants to do something. He has a plan. So and I want you to get something very clear. God did not call men because they were fit, but he is fitting them because they are called. Do you understand me? God knows that we are fornicators, we are immoral, he knows that we are—he didn't go and choose some good things. Bible says through the foolish things of the world, the weak things, and things that are not, God wants to shame the things that are strong, the things that are wise. So what did God choose? The weak things, the foolish things. So when you are saying, "Ah, they don't know me. My great-grandfather died of anger. Even my father too, it was anger. This anger is hereditary." That is why God need you to become meek. If God goes and choose a meek man, it is not his purpose. He need to choose—do you understand me? That your life is inadequate, that is why God took you. He wants to use you to score a point. So the more defects that you see in your life, the more reasons why you should know that God needs you. Don't draw away from God. God has a plan. Without you that is all your legs bend, bend, everything, your life squandered, everything like this, God wants to score a point. That Satan, see this one. You will see. You will see. You say you have bend it, you think you are finished? Don't worry. And then God will begin with the life from salvation and God will be working. And then it will come to a point, God will say, "Have you seen that crab that is now walking like a man? I saw it. Yes, yes." Nothing can be more humiliating. So don't say your infirmity as a reason to remain there. Do you understand? God saw all these problems. But it's not because some people were good, that is why God went and said, "Heh, you see that Funke? And she's an upright girl. We need to choose her. She'll be able to help us score the point." Satan can say, "Is it not because she was very good?" We have to take—do you see this one? Okay, yes. Then we are picking. God is picking the foolish thing, the weak thing, the things that are not. God wants so that any man that want to glory, the only glory in who? Glory in God. That is why his glory he will share with no man. So no matter your circumstance, your situation, the veil that has covered the church today is that when men see their inability, they concluded that that is what Christ came to do for us to be managing sin. They don't understand that God pick men that are like this in Christ to do a work that by the time he represent them, Satan will be speechless. So it's not a thing to submit. Don't submit to your situation. So it's not because, he say he want to further his own plan. What is the plan? The plan is that through the church, and what is the church? Go and check the church. It will say, "Husband love your wife, as Christ love the church. He laid down his life for it to do what? To make it blameless, to present it to himself holy and blameless." So who is laying down himself? Who is doing the washing? Who is making it blameless? Who is making it holy? Christ. Who is presenting it to himself? Christ. So what's your problem? Why do you say you cannot be one? It's like you are saying no, no matter how God can work, God cannot work my own. It is his own purpose to make you holy. The matter is not—are you getting what I am saying? Are you following me at all? The reason why I became unrepentantly committed to this matter is this understanding I'm discussing with you. I saw that it is not because I want to be holy that I will be holy. It is because God is working, God wants to score a point with my life. So it gave me confidence. The confidence I came to realize that actually, that's when I came to understand the scripture: He is the author and the perfecter of our faith. It is to further his own plan. It is his own plan. Yes, you are doing this, you are working, but the real thing, if you look at it again, it says God is at work where? In you. Both to do what? To will. What does it mean to will? To have a plan. To be determined about something. What else does it mean to will? Desire and interest. Even the generation of the desire and the interest, it is still God. For you to know how much it is the plan of God. God, I keep telling people, the day you realize—there was no time that we were holding God's hand. So if you understand this thing, an unusual boldness that you cannot but be holy will come into your life. And it is that boldness, that is the faith that produce the work. Without faith you cannot please God. You know the woman with the issue of blood? There was an unusual boldness that, "If I can just touch." And she was pushing everybody. Eventually when she touched, others have been touching, nothing happened. But when she touched, something happened. And Jesus said, "Peter said 'Lord, people have been touching.'" Jesus said there is a different touch. There was a touch that came with what? A confidence, a faith. For you to know that, by the time Jesus met with her, what did he say? He said, "Your faith." Until we can touch the provision of God by faith, it cannot become an experience in our life. We can never experience it. We will just be saying "Oh, Lord, have mercy, Lord, forgive me," you will never become holy. But when faith suddenly comes, then the production of holiness in us is not something anybody can boast about. That's why Paul said "Grace." It is nothing about us. It is just that we—just like when he said if they lift up their head to look at the serpent, the serpent on the floor, the venom will go. Now when they look up and the venom goes, is it their power? So there is nothing like, "By my power I will conquer sin." Nobody can conquer sin. So it is the work—God want to further his own purpose. It is to come to a point where he will say, "Have you seen Caleb?" Have you seen Dami? The purpose of God is achieved. That is the plan. There is no any other plan that God has. That is the plan. It is this one plan that determines every other thing. It is this one plan that determines who you will marry, which work you will do, where you will live, where you will settle, whether you will be born a Yoruba man or a Hausa man, whether you will be born by parents that are rich or that are poor, whether you will be a male or a female. It is this one plan. Because God made that plan ever before anything existed. He was the only one that was existing. God was not under any necessity to create. He created out of his own pleasure. There was nothing that constrained him to create. Angels are worshipping. Even when Satan left, there were angels, they were worshipping. But let's take something ordinary. Let's take dust and sand. Not only dust and sand, let this thing fall down again and become nothing. Then from nothingness, I will raise it and I will shame you. If Adam was in that glory and power winning with Satan, the story will not be sweet. Let that thing, let's make something that is flesh and blood. That flesh and blood again, let it—it's like after you have done your work, what can you do further than making nothing of a man? All the powers of the devil, what else did they show further than to make man to be a sinner? What else? What else again is there anything else? The wages of sin is death. So what else? What else further can man become? I mean, when you want to devalue man, what can be more devaluing than sin? He brought death, sickness, look at how everything is today. So from that, it has always been the pattern. Check Jesus too. When was the victory won? When they were busy trying to kill him, nothing could happen. The victory was not sweet. Finally, wow, we have made it. He was betrayed, he was arrested, he was beaten, he was insulted. Without those things, victory was going on. God was busy working, busy working. Final, final battle, finish it up! And then they say "Tafay! Tafay!" Say have you finished now? Any other thing else? God now started. The spirit of holiness raised up Jesus. It is always when the worst have taken place that God begins to rise. So the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the same power that is at work in us. After he might have done his work, God can still have victory over them. These are things you must believe. This is the gospel. The gospel is not maybe we will overcome Satan. That's no good news. What is good in the news? That "maybe, hey, Funsho will be able to get to heaven." Some people are even afraid as to whether they will get to heaven. Do you know that people are afraid about that? Is that a good news? To be living in fear? It looks like a holy thing to be afraid whether you get to home. What did Paul say in Philippians 1:6-7? "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Are you confident of that thing? The plan did not begin with you. The plan ever before time was, the plan began—it's an eternal plan. It's something that transcends what man can think, what man can see. It cannot even enter into your mind. Nothing was in existence when God went ahead within that timelessness in his own words, in his own realm, in that timelessness there, the lamb was crucified, men were selected, everything was settled, everything was concluded from beginning to the end. The author and the perfecter, it was concluded. And then God began to execute it. And I assure you of this, if Christ could talk and prophecies were fulfilled with all accuracy, I am telling you, all the other details of the plan will be fulfilled with all accuracy. And I want you to know something. That details—look at the coming of Christ—included the workings of the powers of hell. He said they will betray me for thirty pieces of silver. Hell could not work otherwise. It was for that same thirty pieces. I'm trying to show you God. He said the person who eats with me that will betray me. Hell could not work it otherwise. It was that way. He said before the cock crow thrice you will have denied me. Before the cock crow, you will have denied me thrice. They could not work it otherwise. It was that wise. Satan has asked to have you that he may sift you, but I have prayed for you. The having, he gave Peter the details. And he could not work it otherwise. I am telling you, there is nothing to fear in Satan if you understand the power that is at work in you. We need to know, there is a need to drink into God. There is a need to see God for who God is. Because if you look at that Ephesians, the last verse I want us to read and we will pray tonight. Let's go back to that Ephesians 3. Go back there. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him. What do you have in him? In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him. NLT says, "Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now boldly and confidently come into God’s presence." NIV says, "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." Freedom and confidence! Men want to approach—"God, I don't know when last I come before God. God, you know, the sin I sinned yesterday, forgive me. Don't let the sin block my..." That's slavery. You don't understand the mystery. You are still operating in that room because you don't understand certain things. There is a confidence. God is working. It's not only about me, God is working globally. God is raising people. People are understanding this thing. They are coming into God's presence. There is a faith that come into God's presence that make the power of God possible. There is a faith. The slavery spirit only brings torment, for fear hath torment. He that fear has not been perfected in love. Perfect love casts away fear. People live in fear because they are not perfect. "If you love me, you keep my command." There is a walking in the presence of God, there is a walking in his command that casts away fear. Anybody who is perfected in love cannot approach God with fear. It is because believers are not perfected in love. They are just religious. I'm saying that, look! He says, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him." Freedom! There is liberty that makes you to say, "God, this sin, as I touch Jesus today, you end in my life." And as you touch Jesus, there is a flow that make that things to cease. If it is not possible, he won't tell that woman, "Where are your accusers? Nobody condemn you? Nobody? Neither do I. Go and sin no more." There is a touch of grace, there is a touch of God that alter men. That is what we should covet and not—the riches, the provision, they are too many. And what the connection to the hedge? It is within this holiness that the hedge operate. That is why you find that it was within that holiness that Satan could do nothing to Job. The hedge around our life operate within this eternal plan. Tied to the plan that as they are in here, their hedge in. If they are in there, their hedge in. That is the eternal plan of God. Let us pray. Let us pray. We'll pick it on. By the time we come next, we can try to expand this to material things, mundane things. How do they tie together? We'll try to link them and you will feel the provision, you see them together. But what we are saying today is that God has always have this plan to make you holy. Look! It is not about you. Don't begin to look at your shortcoming. "Me, I have anger. Me, I have this. Me..." Look away from yourself, I beg you in the name of Jesus. Look at the almightiness of God. Look at the almightiness of God. Look away from yourself. It's not about you. Somebody authors your faith, somebody is perfecting it. Looking unto Jesus! Can you shift your eyes away from those serpents around your life today? And look unto the bronze serpent? It says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up, that anybody that look up, that person shall be saved. Oh! He said except a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone. But when it falls to the ground, it brings forth plenty. Ah! He said, "And I, if I be lifted up, I will draw men to myself." Brother, sister, it's about Jesus have been lifted up. Can you lift him up? Can you magnify his provision above your infirmity? Can you magnify him above your shortcoming? Can you magnify him above that your struggle? He said, "And I, if I be lifted up, if I be lifted up, if I be lifted up, if I be lifted up, I will draw men." His power can draw you into holiness. He can draw you into righteousness. He can draw you. He can draw you. He said, "If I be lifted up, Lord!" Lift him up! Magnify him in your life. Come by boldness and confidence into this grace wherein the saints stand. [Praying in the Spirit/Tongues] In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. That word of prophecy that came earlier, that God is turning things around, he's turning something around. I don't know who I am preaching to, but the Holy Ghost called my attention back to it, that somebody need to look into his life and say, "God, I will see you turn this thing around. I will see you, Lord." Somebody need to receive that word. Somebody need to confess that word. Somebody need to actualize that word. Somebody need to run by that word. Somebody need to look—I don't know who the person is, I don't know whether one person or two or three, but what just happened is that I'm having a strong impression in my spirit that someone need to run by that word and say, "Yes, Lord! You have given your word, you have given the decree. I would see this matter turning around. I will see you turn this matter around. I will see you turning it around. There will be a turning around! There will be a turning around! There will be a turning around! There will be a turning around! There will be a turning around for my good! For my good! For my good! There will be a turning around for my good!" Yes! Jesus, Lord! Thank you, Holy Spirit! Turning around! It shall be! Even now! Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Let me invite Sister Comfort to round us off. [End of Audio]