This Gospel of the Kingdom; the Foundation of the Gospel

[Speaker 1] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly 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] I will bless you and make your name great. Ah, these are big blessings oh. These are wonderful promises. I will make you a great nation. That is number one. I will bless you, number two. And I will make your name great. So you can be a great nation and your name is not great. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great. Now, you know what amazes me? So a man can be great and not be blessed. You remember what comes to my mind? The rich man and Lazarus. He was great but he was not blessed. At the end of the day, will you say the rich man was blessed? Was he really blessed? He was not blessed. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse them who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. Look at this wonderful blessing. And Abraham started the journey and he was going. While he was going along this that he was trusting the Lord, by the time he will get to chapter 15 of his life— after these things, the word of Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and exceedingly great reward." And Abram said, "Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Are you getting something? Everything that God was doing, Abraham was still distracted. Something was distracting him from lying down. What was that? The issue of a child. That was the one thing distracting him from lying down, from staying in the green pasture. And one day, he jumps out of the green pasture. Sarah just said, "Ah, this is my maid. Let Abram." He just jumped out of the green pasture that he was inside. I'm talking about "He makes me lie down in green pasture." I couldn't take this example last week because of prayer, but it was something I wanted us to see because this is the father of faith. These are the heroes of faith. It is good for you to see God's making in their life. It is good for us to see how God and the need for us to humble ourselves before God and say, "God, make me." God, don't allow me to go my way. God, refuse, like Jesus did with Peter. Peter was boasting, "Me, you don't know me. I'll die for you." Jesus just shook his head. Jesus was just busy praying for him. Busy praying and praying and praying. By the time Jesus had been able to pray through for him, he said, "Simon Peter, Satan desires to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith—" you can see God making. You can see the Lord's making. He makes me to lie down. And so this was a distraction to Abraham and the distraction was there so much. The thing was there, was there, was there. By the time they will get to the next chapter in his life, what did Abraham now say? Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had born him no children and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children." Did God restrain her? God was not restraining her. Was Joseph's life regressing? Joseph's life was progressing. That Isaac had not come, was Abraham's life regressing? It was not. It was because God was planning that life after an eternal plan. Don't forget the matters we have discussed before. We are part of a great plan that began before time was. Don't limit your life to just the immediate circumstance around you. You have been before time was. You have been chosen in Christ before time. So there is a great plan and our life is being planned after a time that is to come. You must understand all of that. That was what God was doing. God had told him that through him all the families of the earth would bless themselves. God had told him earlier that through thy seed—not thy seeds. Seed meaning one. And that seed must not come the natural way. Because if he comes the natural way, it would defeat the purpose of God. Some people must be children of Abraham by faith. Abraham will get that promise by faith so that we can be the children of Abraham by faith, not by just natural descent. That's what God was working towards: the gospel, because he's to be the father of faith for those who will come to God through Jesus Christ. That's what God was busy doing. Look at the green pasture, because he had said, "I will make your name great." And God was working towards making that name great. What did he see? For Abraham, what did he see? "God has restrained me from having child. He has said that I should—" look, if God don't make you, you will jump out. If he doesn't make you, you will jump out. There is a making of God, honestly, there is a making. And we must daily say, "God, make me. Lord, make me." And so she said that. She said, "Please go in unto my maid and I shall obtain children by her." She said children by her. Even all the children she was thinking about, it's only Ishmael that came through the so-called thing. And Abraham yielded the voice of Sarah. He didn't even discuss, he didn't even ask from God. Which tell you that he himself had been contemplating which way to go. He too had been contemplating it. And quickly, and do you know the one that is very crucial for me in all of these things? The most crucial thing in all this thing that happened is what God said when he was dealing with Abraham. And God said something that honestly I was amazed when he was dealing with Abraham in the later part of that scripture. Abram, are you understanding me? As for you, you have missed your step. Are you following the point God is raising? That's why he said, "Walk before me and be blameless." If not that even when we are not faithful, God remains faithful, honestly, a lot of things would have gone wrong with our lives. Jehovah, you are the most high God. Honestly, that is the truth. He said, "Anyway, as for me, me I didn't forget my covenant oh. I didn't forget. My covenant is with you and you shall be the father of many nations." Is that not what he said before earlier? He was repeating them. I want you to follow, I want you to go on with something oh, please look at where I'm going. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. This was a man that has not given birth to one. How does this sound? How is it sounding? Note what God said oh, "For I have made you a father of many nations." Not that "I will make you." Are you following me? What God's saying, does it make sense to Abraham's situation? I want us to be real. Did it make sense towards what was around him? It's not making sense. Because it is from here I will go into understanding the foundation of the gospel, this gospel of the kingdom. This is the father of faith. This is Abraham. Genesis 17, we are now in verse 5. "No longer shall your name be called Abram... but I have made you father of many nations." I will make you exceedingly fruitful. This kind of person, does he need this kind of promise again when he's 99? Brethren, you are not talking. When you are 99, they are coming to make you fruitful. Is that when to make the person fruitful? We should have done this thing earlier. Abi? 99? How many days to go? We're already counting "only remembered." That would become my special number. Then you are coming to say you would multiply me exceedingly. That's what I'm trying to make us see. I'm talking about the green pasture of the Lord, the way it appears. If you still look at like green pasture, how is it looking? Is it only dry? We are counting special number "to be remembered by what I've done." Somebody is telling me, "I'll make you exceedingly fruitful." Is it the time to be fruitful? My body is dead, Sarah's wife is dead, everybody is dead, everything is dead. No spermatozoa, no egg, nothing. Now when everything could just be multiplying, you didn't bring it. Now that everything is almost gone, you are coming with all of that. I'm saying this thing for you to know the mind of Abraham when God was speaking. I'm going somewhere. Take Abraham along oh. You will see how Abraham will respond. That's what I want to show you. For you to know that he too was wondering, maybe God has not reached my 99? Or God forgot how old he is? Or God has forgotten that— that was going on in his mind. But I pray that even where our thoughts are not his thoughts, the Lord will make us. His mercy will avail for us. His faithfulness will keep us. His almightiness will help us. The Bible said to him who is able to keep us from falling. He will keep us from falling in the name of Jesus. So look at what happened. He says, "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generation for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you." Please follow this thing that God is saying and be following where the mind of Abraham is. By the time somebody respond, you will know what he's thinking in his mind, isn't it? Bible say out of the heart, the mouth speak. Is that not? Now, "Also, I give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the lands of the Canaan as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout your generation. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you: every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generation. He who is born in your household or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with money must be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant." Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai... but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her. Then I will bless her. She shall be the mother of nations. Kings of people shall be from her." Look at it. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old and shall Sarah, who is ninety, bear a child?" So you see that all the while when God was talking, Abraham was not thinking about his family again. Look at the next thing that he said. For you to know how confident he was on that statement. Can we all read Genesis 17:18 together? "And Abraham said to God, 'Oh, that Ishmael live before you.'" So all the while when God was speaking, where was Abraham's mind? It was on Ishmael. So all the while while God was speaking, he was like, "Ah, thank God. I acted fast. Ishmael is— ah, thank God there is a son. It would not be Eliezer of Damascus. Ah, thank God that Ishmael is there. Hehe." So God's promises were making sense in the light of his own understanding. When God now came to where God was going, he said, "God, you see, these promises you are making, they are no more making sense. If they were making sense to me before in the light of Ishmael, they were not making sense to me in the light of Sarah." So this one that you have now brought in Sarah, it looks like this thing has collapsed. It cannot move forward. So for Abraham, if it must be a green pasture, who must live? Ishmael. If Ishmael don't live, there is no pasture at all. But for God, where is the green pasture? It's where nobody expected, where nobody thought. Out of his expectation. I want you to see all of these things so that those of us who are at the end of the age—it is here before us—and who are coming into this same faith should understand this God. And these things help us to comprehend what I am gradually describing as the foundation of the gospel of the kingdom. Because in all of these things, God was building a foundation for the gospel of the kingdom. Abraham is to be the father of faith for the Jews and for the Gentiles. He's to be the father of faith for the circumcised and also the father of faith for the uncircumcised. He said, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you." Genesis 17:19: then God said, "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you." Do you get something that is happening here at all? God was trying to finish Ishmael and set him aside entirely. Abraham was pleading that Ishmael might live. God said, "Okay, I have heard you." Hearing Abraham concerning Ishmael is where we are today oh. Do you understand me at all? I wish Abraham did not make a requirement that this one should live. God said, "Okay, as for Ishmael, I have heard you." That alternative that you think is a green grass, it's a dry grass you think is green. Let's prove it in your generation. And is God not proving it that it's not a green grass today? How green is that grass? How green is the grass of Ishmael? Is it really green? Brethren, talk. Is it not really green? If Abraham is looking at the whole matter now from where he is and what we are facing with Ishmael, what will Abraham be saying? "I wish this grass— I didn't see anything green in this thing." Now, he says, "I will make you fruitful and multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes." Sarah: kings. Ishmael: princes. "And I will make him a great nation." That is why I tell people, there's nothing you can do. They will be princes and they will be great. It is part of Abrahamic covenant. Do you understand what I'm trying to say now? There's nothing you can do. If you look around today, are they not great? The Arabs, are they not great? Islam, is it not great? Are they not ruling? He said, "I have heard you. If you think it is green, let's see how green it is. I will multiply him. I will make him great and I will make him a great nation." But thank God for what God said in Genesis 17:21. "But my covenant I will establish with Isaac." Thank God. It doesn't matter how great he goes, the covenant will not be with him. It doesn't matter how much he persecutes Isaac. It doesn't matter how much he fights him. It doesn't matter how much it goes, the covenant is not with him. But what am I trying to make you see in all of these things, brethren? "He makes me lie down in green pasture." If God does not make— and that is why, honestly, we must daily pray. God, these are heroes of faith, yet their understanding is beclouding God shepherding them. Am I not correct? Their understanding is making them to go this way, go this way, but thank God who is constant. And the same thing for us today. If God is not constant, you could now understand why Jesus said, "Men ought always to pray. Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation. Ask that you may receive and that your joy may be full." You can see why all of this is coming. We need to express so much dependence on God so that we can be made. We need to express so much dependence, so much "God help me, God carry me." We need to express so much our inability in his presence so that he can take us in his ability. But I know as the scripture says, being confident in this very thing, that he who began the good work finished it in the life of Abraham despite all the wobbling and the fumbling. And I pray that in our lives there will be a making in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, what, in rounding up this and in coming into where I am going, I've just laid down something for you. When God appears, the ways of God, how do they seem? They look dry. They look like something that will not work. And that is why, brethren, don't forget that we said the gospel of the kingdom abolishes death and bring life and immortality to light. What I'm trying to make you see is that the process of God doing that in our life is not going to be biological calculation and by philosophical thinking. The gospel of the kingdom—look at how the Bible presents it to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 1: the foundation. You can see a foundation in that place and now we are coming into the New Testament. The foundation of this gospel of the kingdom. The person who was to lay the foundation in the Old Testament, we saw the shadows. Because Ishmael corresponds to who when Paul was explaining it? What does Ishmael correspond to? Please let's see Galatians. I thought we got it clear. Let us see Galatians. Galatians chapter 3. Paul said something, "O foolish Galatians," chapter 3, "who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This not only I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, you are now being made perfect by the flesh?" Paul was asking a very serious question. Look at what Paul now did. He went back to where we are coming from from verse 5. "Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by hearing of faith?" Verse 6: what do you see? "Just as Abraham..." because I'm discussing the foundation of the kingdom. I thought we would raise Abraham last week and then we'll be praying also with the life of Abraham, that God, even in my seemly reasonability, Lord don't let your hand leave me. Even when it looks as if I think I'm reasonable although I'm foolish, don't let your hand leave me. That was the prayer we're supposed to have prayed last week. That God, even where it looks as if "moti gbo, mo mo nkan ti mo n so, let Ishmael live." And he was talking as if he know what he was saying. But we thank God. God said, "No. I will bless him, but my covenant will be with Isaac." Thank God God did not change anything. God remained constant. Even in our wobbling and fumbling, the shepherding of God guarantees that he will be constant. He said, "He will lead me in the path of righteousness for your name sake." He will lead us for his name sake. So we own everything about our life to his mercies. That's the point I'm trying to make. When we say he will make us, it means we own everything about our life to his mercies. Now look at where we are going. It says, "Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." And the scripture— please listen to this. And the scripture— you know where this thing— please I want you to look at something in this place, brethren. Please look at the way this verse of the scripture is written. It says, "And the scripture, seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith." Is it the scripture that saw? Can the scripture see something? Please any other translation for this reading? Galatians 3:8. ESV: "The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith..." So can scripture foresee God? It was all laid out in scriptures. You know what I'm trying to make you see? Is that scripture cannot see. It is God that sees. But it says the scripture foreseeing. God, intending us to understand by scriptures what he wants to do, make scriptures to write. What I'm trying to make you understand is that please God by the Holy Spirit is very intentional in scriptures. Mark my word. God by the Holy Spirit is very, very intentional in scriptures. If there is any word you must work with God under the gospel of the kingdom, if you don't give primacy, authority, divinity to scriptures, you will not go far with the gospel. I come again. For the gospel of the kingdom, if you don't give authority, primacy, divinity to scriptures, the gospel of the kingdom cannot abolish death and bring life and immortality to light in your life. One major challenge that our generation is having today is that they did not understand that scriptures— they do not take scriptures— that scripture foresees God. Let me give a good example. Maybe you will understand me. Somebody was to go— it was on a WhatsApp discussion. One of our brethren was asking a question that we should please give assistance to. He was going for a talk about the daughter of Jephthah. You know Jephthah said the first thing that comes out to greet me, I will give it back to God. Now, when he came back, what was the first thing that came out? The daughter. And then the Bible says when he told the daughter what he had decided, the daughter said, "Give me time to go and weep for my virginity and then you can now do with me as you have said to the Lord." After that, according to scripture she came and Jephthah did to her as he had said to the Lord. She was asking us that could it be true that Jephthah really killed the daughter? That could it have happened? And you know where we concluded? For anything to be the truth, it must be consistent. If we don't believe that as it is written in scripture, so it was done, then we should also not believe that Jesus died and rose again the third day according to scripture. How did we know that Jesus Christ died and rose again? The Bible says we know that Jesus died and rose again the third day according to what? What I am saying about the gospel of the kingdom is that anybody that does not give primacy, supremacy, divinity to scripture, cannot truly experience the fullness of the gospel of the kingdom. Do you know why? Because the gospel of the kingdom is summarized in that which is written. That is the truth. So what is the gospel? The gospel is simply that which was written has been fulfilled. That which God promised is now here. That which God said is now available. And if you don't give authority to that, you don't give divinity to that, you will not be able to experience the gospel abolishing death in your life and making life and immortality possible. You see it in Jesus. He said, "How will the scripture then be fulfilled? But the scripture says." You will see that Jesus was molded by the scripture foresees. If you must enter into the fullness of the gospel, if the gospel must abolish death and bring life and immortality to light, these things must happen in your life. One: you must understand that it is by that which God said. It is not by that which naturally follows. Some people don't want to believe that they are righteous because they have not felt so. They want to first see themselves live right to believe they are righteous. That is why some people are struggling with sin today and they will die in their sin. God said you have been made righteous. They want to first experience it to believe that promise. But God said believe the promise to experience it. Look, the gospel of the kingdom is that one: it is by that which God said. It is by promise. Number two: the gospel is asking you in its foundation— we are still more things about the foundation— but where we stop today, I'm summarizing. Number one: the gospel is that which God promised. Number two: you must give supremacy to scriptures. Number three: you must give authority to scriptures. Number four: you must give divinity to scriptures. We are not children according to the flesh. Things are not going to happen in our life according to natural things. They are not going to come out in our life, the thing that God planned for us. We are not going to get them by natural thinking. We are not going to get them supernaturally. We are going to get them by believing something. We are going to get them by believing promises. And which is symbolic, for these are two covenants. Have you seen something? That one came naturally, the other one came through promise. It's symbolic. One from Mount Sinai which give birth to bondage. Everybody who want to be a naturalist—people that want to be like that follow God—will never get God. Because you are seeing it, it's according to promise and these two things are symbolic to two covenants. One correspond to bondage, for this is Hagar on Mount Sinai on Arabia and correspond to Jerusalem which is now, and she's in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For as it is written, "Rejoice, O barren—" listen oh, "Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear, break forth and shout. You who have not labored, for the desolate has many children than she that has a husband." Is that naturally possible? Brethren, is that naturally possible? Is it naturally possible that rejoice, O barren, you who did not bear, break forth and shout, you who did not labor, for the desolate has many children than she that has a husband? Is that naturally possible? I'm showing you the foundation. This gospel of the kingdom, Paul began to say that we preach this thing as foolishness. The foundation of the gospel. Please see how it comes. It is based on God said, I believe it. God said Abraham will have a son by the following year. He believed it and his son came. Let me round up at this point. We'll still be looking at this matter of the foundation of the gospel of the kingdom next week. But I want us to stop here. I want us to pray. This gospel of the kingdom. Personally, you need to check, you need to look inward. If the gospel must abolish death in our life and bring life and immortality to light, we must understand that it is by believing promises. It is by giving primacy, authority, divinity to scriptures. Number one: the gospel is that which God promised. Number two: you must give supremacy to the scriptures. Number three: you must give authority to scriptures. Number four: you must give divinity to scriptures. The Bible says scriptures foreseeing. Jesus said, "How will the scripture then be fulfilled?" "But the scripture says." You will see that Jesus was molded by the scripture foresees. If you must enter into the fullness of the gospel, these things must happen in your life. One: you must understand that it is by that which God said. It is not by that which naturally follows. Some people don't want to believe that they are righteous because they have not felt so. They want to first see themselves live right to believe they are righteous. That is why some people are struggling with sin today and they will die in their sin. God said you have been made righteous. Believe the promise to experience it. Number one: the gospel is that which God promised. Number two: you must give supremacy to scriptures. Number three: you must give authority to scriptures. Number four: you must give divinity to scriptures. So I want you to pray. The gospel is that which God promised. "Olorun so mo de gba be." God said so, I have accepted so. You must know what it means to say, "Thus saith the Lord." You must know what it means to say, "It is written." Two: supremacy to the scriptures. Can you talk to God this evening? God help my heart. The just live by that which God said. The just live by faith. You can never be just until you can rest on promise. You will struggle and struggle till you will die. It is to believe that which God promised. Number two: you must give authority to scriptures. Scriptures foresee. There are things in your life, scriptures foresee them. Give authority to scripture. Give supremacy to scripture. Give divinity to scriptures. The scriptures can foresee. Help us as believers to know that as often as we stand on scripture, our future is secured in the name of Jesus. Help us to know that we are on the safe side as long as we agree with scriptures. It doesn't matter how it looks, for scriptures can foresee. Oh Lord, help our heart. Thank you Eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's share the grace together. 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. [Speaker 1] 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 the gospel, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and missions aid. 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 outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Ije 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 all.