His Cross Part 4

[Music: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord...] [Speaker 1] Church and fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Last week a lot was also mentioned. But one of the particular things that I dwelt on so much during the week was the matter of repetition. That it is when we repeat something that the light becomes flesh. And so during the course of the week, even up till now, this Jude, this verse of Jude that says, "Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the throne." So that matter has, especially that word faultless, without fault, in Yoruba, we say *lailabawon*. So that has been a prayer point, a burden in my heart that I've always been repeating, that I've dwelt on so much during the week. [Speaker 3] Thank you very much. Are we through with everybody? Okay, Victor. Let's have you. [Speaker 4] Praise God. Praise the living Jesus. Last week, I learned that Daddy explained about the apostles that he said when they were being persecuted, when they were being beaten, that they would go and be rejoicing. So he asked a question that, what have they seen that after persecution, they are still rejoicing? That really struck my mind because I was even on our daily basis, when you see people being killed, the way people are being killed to these days, they panic. But these people, they would go and then say, "I was beaten for Christ's sake." even until their death. So my take-home was, what are they seeing? What are they seeing that we are not seeing? So I really thought about that and that was my take-home last week. [Speaker 3] Thank you so much. Wow. We give God all the glory. So many things were said last week, and thank God Gospel took time to bring us to the picture of that. And for him, they were all things that were take-home for him. For some other people, it was different parts of what was said last week. Let me find out where we are. Can we? So we want to rejoin match from where we left it last week and move a little further again beyond where we stopped last week. One critical thing that you will notice the pattern where we have been coming from. We are now on the fourth series of The Cross. In the first series, we made it clear that the scripture says in the latter days, it will be difficult to live the Christian life. A lot of things were highlighted. And then we noted that for us to be able to deal with this time, you must be able to relate with the Holy Spirit so that you can know what is to come. You remember? And then we mentioned that one thing about the end is people will have a form of godliness but they will deny the power. In the second series, what we brought out very clear was an example from the Corinthian church. A church that display so much of the gift of God, seemingly knowledge, miraculous power, the signs, utterance. But we noted something about them. It was a shift from the cross. And Paul was saying that he does not want to know anything among them apart from the cross. And we noticed something about that church that shifted from the cross. What we noticed was that that church, when it came to the issue of living the life of God, they could not live the life of God despite the demonstration of power, utterance, everything that went among them. The Apostle said, "I will address you as carnal." He then began to reiterate, he was listing the various things that they were doing. A man people with his father's wife, brother taking brothers to court, immorality, idolatry, division too. We look at that church and then began to wonder, why were they like this? And Paul make it very clear that it was because they shifted from something very, very important. And then in the second series, we also made it very clear that the Bible says that the cross, the gospel, is the wisdom of God and is also the power of God. It is the wisdom of God and the power of God. Now last week, basically from all that we discussed, from all that we said, was the need for us—that there are, if you want to understand the matter of the cross, it is good to separate it from some things. What do we mean? In that separation, we took time to look at some things in the Old Testament. Is it riches? Is it miraculous signs? Is it display, anointing? We looked so much at the Old Testament and we saw very, very clearly that even before the cross came, some things have always been the heritage of God's people. Essentially, the cross must have come to add something to what was existing before. I hope you get the point I'm making. If all that the cross could do is just what was existing before, then it means the cross has no essence. And so today, my intention is to begin gradually to begin to ask ourselves what primarily is the essence? It is about all that the Old Testament had. All that the Old Testament did, it was a shadow of what is to come. The better thing were in Christ. So what we are to have now is something that should surpass what we find in the Old Testament. That's what we are to find. And this morning, we started studying the book of Samuel. I just saw something that I said I would just make comments about because it's in line with what we have been discussing. And then I will make it like an addition to what we discussed last week and then I will start into what we have this week. Look at 1 Samuel 18—no, chapter 19. 1 Samuel 19. It has just 24 verses. We will not read all the verses. We will just pay attention to some particular things there. In the verse 1, it says, "Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David." But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted greatly in David. So Jonathan told David. Saul still made up his mind to kill David. It says in verse 11, "Saul also sent servants to David's house to watch him, to kill him in the morning." And Michal, David's wife, told him saying, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed." So David escaped and ran away. Eventually, Saul sent people to go to David's house to bring him. Of course, they did not find him; he ran away. Now go to the verse 18. It said, "So David fled and escaped and went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth." Now it was told Saul saying, "Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah." So look at what happened. Then Saul sent servants to take David. And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied. And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers; they also prophesied likewise. Then Saul sent messengers again the third time; they also prophesied. Then he also went to Ramah and came to the great well that is at Secu. So he asked and said, "Where are Samuel and David?" And someone said, "Indeed, they are at Naioth in Ramah." I hope you know why he was asking. He thought they would have run away from that place to elsewhere. But they were told that they are still there; they didn't go anywhere, they are there. So he went to reach them. So he went to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was upon him also and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth. So from the road, before Saul got there, he started prophesying. He was on the street, on the road, still coming to that place, then he started prophesying. And look at the irony, verse 24, "And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they said, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'" I'm showing you the power. The power of preservation, the power of protection. There's another example in the Old Testament. All of these are in the Old Testament. And we have a better testament in the New. You see what I'm trying to say is that we are really yet to experience the power of God that is in the gospel. We are really yet to experience it. What I'm trying to make you see was that a testament that was less than our own—we saw that of Elijah last week, Elisha last week. I'm showing you somebody else again. This one didn't even talk. He was just where he was. And the person that came with all the army to arrest him, when he got there, he became a prophet too and began to prophesy among them. What I am saying, brethren, is that there is something that we are missing out. Honestly, something is missing somewhere. And I trust the Lord that in our own time, we will connect to what is missing and we will experience these things, this power again in the name of Jesus Christ. Now to where we want to go gradually for this week is Cross. You will notice something very, very crucial in the message, in the word of our Lord Jesus Christ at different points in which he began his ministration. But I want to draw our attention to the very common one. Something that we can all relate to very, very easily so that we can move to some other things. Now if you look at John 3:13. It says, "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved. He who believes in the Son is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation: that the light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds might be seen clearly, that they have been done in God. That's verse 21. Now I want you to look critically at the statement of Jesus in this place and I want you to relate it back. Let's relate it back to some very crucial things in Genesis. Let's look at some things in Genesis. We are checking Genesis, we are checking the New Testament. We are trying to establish his cross. When you look at creation in Genesis 1, the Bible makes us to see that in verse 26, that man was created in the image of God. He was made in the image of God and in the likeness of God. So man was a tri-partite being and man was also a spirit. God is spirit, man was like God. He was also a spirit. However, you will notice that that life of man that man has in God, it was not a life that was designed to be terminated. Are you understanding me? It was a life that should be endless. That is, Adam should have been alive today. There should have been nothing like pain, nothing like sorrow. It should have been a life in that place, a place we just continue like that, not experiencing sorrow or pain or death. I'm talking about when man was created in the image of God and likeness of God. Now another thing you will notice about that creation was that man in that state exercised some—there were some things that were amazing about man. Number one was that man, by the reason of the way he was created, he is an expression of the mind of God and of the will of God. In other words, when he was to name the animal and he said, "You, Tiger." what did the Bible say? That was the name. Whatever he called them, that was the name. You'd be wondering why that was the name. To have a clear understanding of that, we have it in the chapter 2 where God made Eve and brought Eve. When God brought Eve, Adam was fully asleep when Eve was molded. When they brought Eve to Adam, what did he say? "This is the bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She was taken out of man, she shall be called woman." Is that not what she is? I'm showing you that man was a natural expression of the will of God and of the mind of God. Man was a natural expression of the mind of God, of the will of God. I want to connect us to the matter of life, the matter of his cross. Because let me tell you something, look at Romans 5. We'll be taking old and new side-by-side so that we can establish this cross. We can really understand the cross. You see if we really know who we are, when the Bible say greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world, we don't understand it. We don't understand it. But look at Romans 5. I'm taking it from verse 1. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produce perseverance, perseverance produce character, character produce hope. Hope does not make ashamed because the love of God has been poured out into our heart by the Holy Spirit whom was given to us." Now look at verse 6 carefully. It's coming to an enlightenment. It says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." When we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. The due time, of course, was when He came and then He died on the cross. It says, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been justified by His blood"—I will come back to all these things later when I come to our inheritance in Christ—"much more then, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son"—please note something, at one point we were without strength. At another point we were enemies. Reconciled by the death of His Son. Much more then, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received the reconciliation. Therefore—look at this closely—Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world—so do you notice that where did he move back? Back to Genesis. Back to Genesis. We are back in Genesis. It said, "Just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin." So what are the things that entered the world? Sin, death. So please, when man was the expression of the will of God and of the mind of God, what was absent? Sin and death. Sin and death. Are you with me? When man—please listen—when man was the expression of the mind of God and of the will of God, what were the other things that were present with him? What other things present with him? Do you notice abundance? Who made available all what he was supposed to have? God. Do you notice fruitfulness? Do you notice that it was not Adam? It was God preparing a wife and bringing her to the man. Let me use this—let me bring it a little to some elementary things. If you buy a broiler, either in a cage, particularly in the cage, the ones in the cage, then what happens to that broiler? Why will it be getting fatter? You will notice that you will be at the service of that broiler. So God was at the service of Adam. When we say God is at the service of Adam, we are not saying that Adam is greater than God. No. But because of the way he was positioned. He was positioned in the will of God and in the mind of God. Now such strong is the issue of this will of God and mind of God that theologians have debated and they could not conclude. And I think I said it in one of our meetings. If you notice when Adam said "This is the bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman. She was taken out of me." the next thing that came was that "For this cause, a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh." Then it said, "And the man and his wife, they were both naked and they were not ashamed." When you look at the order of that statement, some theologians have argued that it was Adam that was speaking when he said "the bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, therefore a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh." Some said no, it was Moses that Moses got inspiration to write that since God made male and female, so God was ordaining marriage. Some said no, it was God that was speaking. Now the reason was because they went to Matthew 19 where Jesus said "He who made them from the beginning made them male and female and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave father and mother.'" Are you getting something? So they all came to a conclusion. If it is Moses, he wrote by inspiration, holy men wrote by inspiration of God. If it is Adam, Adam was pure expression of the mind of God and of the will of God, just like he said "this is the bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." What I'm trying to make you see was the perfect harmony in the mind and will of God that was the expression of man. The mind of God, the will of God, that was what man was expressing. And when man was expressing that in that expression, what was essentially absent was sin and death. In that expression, God was at man's service. Man has what we call abundant life. The life was abundant. Abundant in the sense that he was not to sweat for what to eat, he was not to worry about how to eat. He was not to worry about a wife. The woman was not to give birth in sorrow. All those things were strange inside that mind of God and that will of God. Now the Bible now make us to see that actually what happened was that as by one man, sin entered the world. So what interrupted, brought, disrupt, what brought confusion, a chaotic situation into all that man was enjoying, that life, was sin and death. The problem of man was not what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, who to marry. That wasn't a problem as long as he was in the will of God and in the mind of God. I am saying this because you will notice that when Jesus was talking about prayer and he was to give us a template of prayer, essentially to that prayer, before you begin to talk about bread or whatever, as long as his will is done on earth, your bread will be available. You will notice Jesus connecting again to the matter of his will. He said "Thy kingdom come, Thy will"—because when the kingdom actually comes, what you will find is the will of God. So I'm calling your attention to something very crucial. That you will notice that inside that life that Adam was, he was inside a kingdom. The kingdom of God was what was going on. God's kingdom was on earth. God will come down—don't forget that Adam was to be a representative of God. So God made him in his own image, in his own likeness, he can communicate with God, he can receive from, he can express God's will, he can express God's mind, which animals cannot do. He can express the will of God, can express the mind of God. He can say "no, this is the bone of my bone" and that is what is in the mind and the will of God. He was representing God. So it was like where he was was an extension of the throne of God. So God was the God of gods. Because actually they were called gods. If you look at what man—when man was created, he was made a little lower than God. The writers, they were afraid that "how can man be little lower than God?" He said he's a little lower than angel. Adam was somebody a little—and that's why Jesus have to reestablish in the New Testament that "if you call them gods..." Man was a kind of god. If you look at him, somebody cannot just wake up and say "this is the bone of my bone." He was operating at a frequency of God. So God could come around, it was a normal discussion, they could just fellowship. Once he comes, there was no hiding, there was nothing. "Hello, Adam." And they can just relate. There was no veil like Moses that have to wait. No, there was no veil. Nothing veiling because he was in glory. There was nothing to veil. Moses have to veil the glory that he brought. But there was no veiling, it was an extension of the throne of God. That is why you notice that Jesus was talking about "except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom." There was a loss from a kingdom. A kingdom was lost. And the kingdom was to be introduced, man was coming back into that kingdom. Please don't forget essentially about that kingdom is the will of God, the mind of God. For you to have a clear understanding of it, look at John 5. Look at something there in verse 19. Jesus, you know they were querying Jesus about what he was doing. They were saying that he's breaking Sabbath, the Jews they wanted to kill Jesus. A lot of people are still like that today, still following after Moses, following after the law. They were wondering what Jesus—he said if you look at 18, it said "Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also said that God was his father, making himself equal with God." Is God not our father? Look at what Jesus said. "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do. For whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.'" So what was Jesus? An expression of the will of God and the mind of God. That was who Jesus. When you say "who is Jesus?" That's why he said "whoever has seen me has seen the Father." Don't forget that as many as he foreknew, he also predestinated that they may be conformed to the image of God. The whole essence of our adoption is to become an expression of the will of God and the mind of God. I'm talking about his cross. What essentially—because I'm trying to say that the newer version operating system will do both the old and add some more things. I want to time begin to get into what was this thing. What made this one sell everything that we have? Why we must do everything? You're looking at an operation in Elijah. The king send his the captain and his 50 to go and arrest Elijah. He said "Man of God, come down, the king wants you." He said "Okay, if I'm a man of God, let fire consume you and your 50." And it happened immediately. They sent another one again. This one quickly know how to put his head together. He didn't say "man of God, please, pity me and my 50 so that I don't die like that other one." And Elijah went with that one. What am I trying to bring down? There an operation that we are not seeing. But there is a place where that thing operate. It operate where we can become the expression of God's will and God's mind. What we are trying to do is that we are pursuing the lower things. There is something to pursue. See when we enter into one level, the other things they are consequence of that level. They are consequence of it. They are mere consequences. They will just be coming out consequentially. Now look at that is verse 19 that I read. I think you will find a similar thing in verse 30. Let's look at verse 30 again. We are looking at the man Jesus. The man Jesus. What did he say? Because listen, it is his cross, it's not our cross. It is his cross, it's not our cross. It is his own. And we must get it right with him. It's not about denominationalism, it's not about all those things, it's about Jesus. I keep telling people there are no two savior. If you find that I'm not following Jesus, you better set me aside and follow Jesus. It's about him. It is his cross. And he's the only one that can tell us what that cross made available for us. It is his cross. If I package something for you, you can't tell me more about that thing. I'm the one to tell you more about it. "Come, take this gift, I fashioned it, it is the work of my hand, take." Suddenly you say "Ah, this thing, I know what it's all about." Can you know what it's all about if not that we are just being foolish? We can't know what—it is his cross. And the more we can—and that is why you notice the scriptures keeps saying "looking unto Jesus." It is about Jesus. It's about what he did, it's about what he said. It's about what he made available. Have you ever wonder when Jesus said that if you have faith like a mustard seed you will say to mountain be moved? Have you ever experienced that in your life? Do you know what enormous power is that? What enormous power is that. This mountain, move and be cast into... and the mountain will obey you. Does that look like something possible? Is Jesus saying great thing? Somebody said "you see, actually that thing is figurative." I agree with you because it's figurative, but I can tell you go and read the story of some men who try to touch this place of God's will and light. Because I'm talking about God's will and mind. Some men who try to climb into that place and power became a consequential thing. Consequential thing. They were just consequence, they were not the real thing, they were just consequence. All what you see in the Old Testament, they are just consequences. The real thing is what I'm trying to talk to you about is cross. Now we have the story of even, let's leave white men, let's come to black men. Go and read the story of Apostle Ayodele Babalola. A man who was going on the road and tree fell and they could not continue. Tree on the road. And the man told the tree "You, you cannot stop me on my mission. Leave the road for me." and tree left the road for him. You can be talking about some figurative mountain. It can be figurative, but I'm showing you men who did it what? Literally. Please I want some of you to go and read "Like a Mighty Wind", Indonesia revival. If you can afford to get that book, go and read it. Where brethren, brethren got to a river that they wanted to cross to go for evangelism. Now when they got there, there was no boat again. And brethren were walking on the sea, not one person. Brethren, they walked on the sea. They crossed to the other village to go and do evangelism. You see some things we have attributed it to... but I'm trying to show you something. I'm showing you a very, very important thing. That essentially Jesus said something in John 5:30. What did he say? "I can do nothing of myself. I can of myself do nothing." What did he say? "As I hear, I judge." Please was that different from the frequency which Adam was operating? You say "why do we so put it? Why do we put it that way? Why do we say it's like that?" Do you notice that when eventually Adam sinned—we noticed that when eventually Adam sinned and God came to Adam, God came to Adam and Adam said "I went to hide myself because I am naked." Please what did God say? Now which means that judgment is not coming from "as he heard". Normally, it is as he hear, so he will judge. So I'm trying to make you understand, Jesus said "I don't do anything. It is as I hear that I judge and my judgment is what? righteous." Please what made the judgment righteous? Because it is flowing from God. That is John 5:30. Because—please look at it, look at the word follows—"Because I do not seek what? My own will but what? Of the Father who sent me." Do you get what I'm trying to bring out? So essentially, if you want to say "what was Jesus?" The will and what? And the mind of who? Of God. That was Jesus. Jesus was the will and the mind of God. Now since, please let's go back to that Romans 5. Romans 5. I want to quickly wrap some things up. It's almost 6:30 already. I quickly wrap some things up. Let's go back to that Romans. Romans 5. We read up to verse 12. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and death spread to all men because all sinned. Because all sinned." Are you getting something there? Sin entered, death followed sin. But the way it followed is by what we call law of federal character. What I mean by that or what we call the law of representation. It's a principle with God. You will see it severally. It's something that God does a lot. It's a divine method of working. Let me show you so that you can understand it. When they were to kill the Passover lamb, they must not break any of the bone. To them, it does not make any meaning. Why should you not break? You are killing a goat. He said you should not break the bone. What is the meaning of that? To the immediate environment, it was meaningless. But to the eternal plans of God, it was significant. If they break any of that bone, it does not agree with the eternal plan of God that none of Jesus' bone must be broken. So that lamb, Passover lamb and that blood that they were looking at, was a shadow of what... are you understanding me? A representative. The law of federal character. Something that must essentially be like that because of what is to come. Are you getting it? I show you another one. God blessed the seventh day and He command that nothing should be done on that seventh day. Anybody that does not observe that Sabbath should be what? Should be killed. Come back to Jesus. Jesus said the Son of Man is the Sabbath. Do notice anybody that don't find rest in Jesus is dead. Representation. It's in Christ. Come unto me and I will give you rest. It's no more the day. That's why Paul was saying that "don't let any man carry you around with observing one day or observing Sabbath or observing that." There's nothing about day. Every day is the same. It's not about day. Law of representation. You will notice that when they were using the ox and the cow, all those things to carry out the farm work, God will tell them "you don't muzzle the mouth, you don't muzzle it, you must allow it to be eating." Or said "is God concerned about cow and goat?" No. He's saying that because they who preach the gospel should live by the gospel. Are you understanding what you call representation in God? It's a thing that God does clearly. That is why you notice when they want to take the bread that they use for holy communion, they use unleavened bread. Talking about because the leavened one will put yeast, the thing rising and that is not the actual size of the flour. Say "no, they should use the one, show the natural something, show sincerity and truth." So I'm showing you representation in God. God work with representation. Now but because that is actually the basis of this cross, it's about understanding the law of representation or the federal character, that in one man, all were taken. Now it says "As by one man, sin entered the world. Death follows sin. And that sin spread to what? All men. For that what? All sinned." Which means when Adam sinned, how many people sinned? All men. You say "how?" by representation. That is what is a foolish thing to the world. That no, that's what I told you about the case of the man I was preaching to. I've mentioned it here before. He said "you see, actually you said that we all sinned in Christ." He said "Excuse me, excuse me, are you a family man?" I said yes. "You have children?" Yes. He said "Now please, I want to ask you, if one of them do what is wrong, how many will you beat?" I said "I will beat that one." He said "Now look at the foolish thing you just said about God. That Adam sinned and you are now saying we sinned. Do you think God is a mummy? That Adam will sin, you are now saying we sinned." He said "The premise of your preaching is foolish." Was that not excellent reasoning? And I told him "Until you believe this foolishness, you will die in your sin." I don't need to defend it. I said that is the foolish thing you must believe. Until you believe it—and that is also our problem many times. The things we got in Christ, we actually got them by representation. We got them by what? Representation. You must understand this matter of representation. I'm taking—Paul will say "I have been crucified with Christ." He says "I have been... because I was nailed to him on the cross, I was nailed with him on the cross." They'll be wondering. They are men who understand this representation. It's the law of divine working. That is why today, you see some people, God said in the Old Testament "you don't sew your cloth with both linen and cotton. Whoever does that is an abomination to God." Some people in the New Testament, people that wear suits, they are sinning. Because it has cotton and linen. They are still carrying those things are just what? Representation. They are pointing to something deeper than that. And you can keep look, you can keep multiply it. I don't have time. But one day we can look at some—all of these law of representation, a man must not wear a thing of a woman. They are all there together. But they will leave all the other ones and just pick one because they could not explain it, they could not operationalize the other ones, the law of representation. Now but I want to focus here so that we close for today. I will pick it from this point. I told you that we are not rushing this matter. It's something that calls for—because it has affected the church away from. We need to get it right. We can operate at a level, at a frequency that surpasses what we have seen before. But it looks as if the power of God is going down, as if there is no—you understand me? Like it's happening in traditional worship. They say "ah, in those days who can just carry a king? Before you carry the king, fire will just consume you. Today, kings are political kings, they don't have power again like their fathers." And I'm telling you, is it not so true about the church? Just shows that everything is dying. But I'm trying to make us see where the church got it wrong, what we shifted into as against where we should stay. It's not about seeking power, it's about seeking a life. Once that life, once we operate at that level, power becomes a consequence of that life. It's not about seeking riches, it's about seeking a life. Once that life come, riches will be a consequence of that life. It's about getting into a life that is an expression of the will of God and the mind of God. It's about getting into that life. Now let's see, let's see what the Bible says here. Romans 5 again. Let's go back to that Romans. Romans 5. We read up to verse 12. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and death spread to all men because all sinned." Now I want to ask you by this thing that you have said here, how did you sin? Is it by something you did physically? There was nothing you did physically, which means our being made sinner is by the mystery of the law of representation. So iniquity is a mystery. Iniquity is a mystery. Sin and death is not something that anybody can handle with the will of man. No human being can handle sin because sin is spirit, it's a mystery of God. Are you understanding me at all? Are you getting what I'm trying to say? Sin is not something you did. Sin is a mystery of God. Are you getting it? That we are sinner is not because we did something. What God said was that when Adam sinned, you were there, you ate that thing too. Tell me how? Explain? Give the logic? Where's the logic of it? Victor, you were in Eden. How old are you now? Count your age. Are you seeing something? How were you in Eden? It is the same thing when you say "how were you at the cross?" Are you understanding me at all? It's the same thing. How were you buried with Christ? It's the same mystery of representation. Why is it that we could believe the first, find it difficult to believe the second? It's a law, it's a mystery. It's not something about common sense. It's not something that you can reason out and get—no, you cannot reason out. You cannot tell me "how old am I? How old are you? When were you born? When was Adam born? How many people do you know when Adam was there you were eating that things eh-eh fabu, this na mythology." And that is why the Greek, they said "the preaching of the cross is foolishness. Ah, e ma je ki a s'oro gidi. You tell me that I was... how? Explain, explain. I can tell you my father and my mother, I know when I was born, I know my birthday. How was I in Eden? Ah-ah this cannot be true." That was why to the Greek it was what? Foolishness. But that thing, the law of representation, is the power of God. It's the mystery of God. It's the wisdom of God. Now, now, oh, 20... maybe we will leave the matter here today. Let me just read something. I want to quickly read something. Because all sinned. Until the law was in the world... was in the... and nevertheless. Now look at verse 14. I will explain those other ones later much more. I just want to stop at a point here. It said "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is what?" So Adam was just a type. Adam was a type of him that was to come. So I want to ask you, in the eternal programming of God, after Adam, what should follow? After Adam, what should follow? So all those things in between, they were just temporary. After Adam, the next thing was Christ. So Moses was waiting for Christ. Abraham was waiting for Christ. Noah was waiting for Christ. All of them, they were waiting for Christ. Until Christ died and rose again, none of them could see God, none of them could enter their place of rest. That's why Bible say "when he died, he led captivity captive." After Adam, it is Christ. We stop for today, we stop there today. I'll pick it from this matter of... because we are looking at his cross. But what I want you to stop with today is that after Adam, it is Christ. We expand on this next week. After Adam, all those things you see, they were just helping you to know how the power will look like, how it's going to look like. They were showing you how it's going to look like. Elijah was showing you how it's going to look like. Moses was showing you how it's going to look like. Unfortunately, we missed the point. We missed the point. Please let's go ahead to pray. Talk to the Lord this evening. After Adam, it is Christ. That was the plan of God. After Adam, Christ. That was the plan of God. And I want you to pray this evening. Talk to the Lord. The matter of insight. Oh Lord Jesus. Lord insight, insight, insight. Grant insight. Grant insight. Grant insight. We have been talking about knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. There is—I'm trying to make you see what we should know. Knowledge, insight into this Christ. It's all about this Christ. Everything was settled in Christ. Everything was finished in Christ. It is his cross, his cross. I want you to just pray, God, insight into this cross. Lord, light into this cross. Understanding into this cross. Lord, insight into this cross. Understanding into this cross. We are traveling gradually. We shall come to the direct statement of Jesus, "If any man want to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross." Why are we taking up this cross? What is—what is he saying about taking it up? Talk to the Lord this evening. Insight into your cross. Insight into your death, your suffering, your resurrection. Insight into all that you have provided for us in Christ Jesus. Insight into all that you have packaged in Christ to bring us back to what we lose in Eden. Insight into even greater things because if it is after Adam is Christ, Lord, You have a complete kit for us. Lord, please cause us to know. Lord, please open our eyes. Oh Lord, please help our heart to understand. Oh Lord, please give us insight. Give us inspiration. Cause us to live fully in this great grace. Lord, we live fully in this fold. That it took Your mercy to save us. And everything, oh Lord, to transfer us from kingdom of darkness into light is in this cross. Lord, help us also to live it fully in the mighty name of Jesus. To comprehend it fully. Lord, to express this life and mind of Christ fully in the mighty name of Jesus. This is Your will. And we pray, let this Your will be done in our lives in the mighty name of Jesus. Beyond this point, oh Lord, please speak on, speak to our heart. Holy Spirit, take over from us. Open our eyes to see Jesus. Grant us understanding. Open our mind to understand the scripture in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for Your son that You have used. Oh Lord, we pray that continually let it flow, let Your life, rivers of living water flow from through him in the name of Jesus. We pray, Lord, both the speaker and hearer, we shall all experience this word of life. Lord, we will all live it out. We will not be forgetful hearers. Lord, the power of God is available. We have all the takes to live it. Lord, we shall live it out. In the mighty name of Jesus. We will be living epistles. We will be living gospels. We were living sinners before we met Christ. Lord, we will be living gospels. We will be living epistles in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You, Father, for answers to our prayer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The grace in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be 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. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5 PM. Adolescents and singles' club every first Saturday of every month at 10 AM. Marriage forum, second Saturday of every month at 10 AM. Family life seminars, regular school out-reaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Illere community opposite Very Joy Filling Station along Ijede Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you.