Why Men Break The Hedge

Churchies and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a Godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Today Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Await the manifestation of the sons of God. And then we were able to link something together if you remember that three weeks ago. He said he was speaking to those who believe in him. He said, "If you keep my commandment, then you will know the truth and then you will be free." Then they said, "Ah, we were never been born. We are free people." He said, "You don't understand. Whosoever sin is a servant to sin and the servant cannot continue in the house forever." He said, "But if the son will set you free, you will be free indeed." So we saw that anybody who continue to sin, that does not have victory over sin, has not attained sonship. He's still a servant. So whosoever sin is a servant to sin and the servant cannot continue in the house forever. That's why you notice that Judas could not continue forever. Achan could not continue forever. Gehazi could not continue forever. Go and check those men who were servants to sin. They could not continue. As for Judas, his office let another take. As for Saul, the kingdom was taken from him and given to somebody else better than him. So you'll notice this pattern that the servant don't continue. It is the son that is free. So when we said the earnest expectation of creation is awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God, it means one element of those sons is that they are not servant to sin. So it is after God has made holy that God can make them, that God can make them to become saviors. Until we are holy we cannot be saviors. He said, "Be ready to punish every disobedience when your own obedience has been fulfilled." So if obedience is not fulfilled in your life, you cannot punish disobedience. You cannot loose men from bondage. That's why he was talking about the false teachers. He said while they promise liberty to people, they themselves are servant of lust and corruption. He said they are what? They are wells without water. They are clouds without rain. When a man is in bondage and he's promising freedom to people, he's just a well that has no water. You must first be free before you can free somebody. And freedom as far as we are concerned is what we saw, that to be free is to be a son, is to be free from sin. To be saved is to be saved from sin. So that's what we were looking at. So we were saying that God has always have this plan and that plan is that he wants to make us holy. This purpose which is also the plan. So that purpose is to make holy. And if he has been able to make men to be holy, eventually he will come back to take those men that have been made holy. He has a plan for them to come and reign. Even though today the plan is, heaven is what everybody talks about. Nobody talking about being holy. Not talking about overcoming here first. Everybody talking about going as if it's an escapist theory. "Let quickly escape and go." No, we must conquer here. We must conquer here. God, you remember we were making reference to some men: Job. You remember that God look at Satan and said, "Have you seen my servant Job?" And Satan was just scratching his head. He could not say Job sin one sin. He was speechless. God must be able first to be able to boast with our life. That is the purpose. And once he achieve that, his purpose is fulfilled, that with you he can say, "Have you seen my servant?" and Satan will be speechless. Even though he's the accuser of the brethren, he will have nothing to accuse. He will be speechless. If God could achieve that, then what we read in Ephesians would have been achieved, where God say that God want to make known to principalities and powers through the church his manifold wisdom. Now that is what we have been talking about. That is the issue. I'm just trying to bring those of us who are coming for the first time today together. Definition of work. Yes, definition of work. I will not be able to bring everything but at least I've just bring those of us starting today. Then we were looking at the works of God. What is the work of God? What is the work of God? We have been saying that it is to believe in him who he has sent. And we said if you want to do the work of God, our ability to represent Jesus in every and in anything. You do what Jesus will do. You act the way Jesus will act. Anytime we are doing like that, then we are doing the work of God. To do the work of God is to believe in who God has sent. And for whatsoever does not represent what Jesus preached, what Jesus said, what Jesus did, what he died for, what he rose up for, then there is a problem. We are not doing the works of God. Now I believe I've been able to bring us to a point where we can take some journey further. What we want to look at about this matter of God's eternal plan. You know there was something we mentioned. One of us was speaking then and the person said, "If holiness is a weapon..." You remember? That when Job was made holy, when Job was walking in holiness, you notice that Satan said, "Do you think Job fear you for nought? Is it not because you have placed a hedge around him?" So he had wanted to do something against Job but he couldn't. So we saw that holiness is a weapon. Holiness is a hedge around the believer. That holiness in itself is a weapon of war. It's a weapon that does not allow the enemy to be able to do anything. He said, "Because you have placed a hedge, even..." He said, "Now remove, you just remove this hedge, let me be able to deal with him." So the point we want to take it a step a little further today is in this other direction of the matter of the hedge. You remember it was the hedge that brought us into all of these things. That the second purpose of God therefore is to make us holy so that indeed being holy we will be within the hedge. Now have you ever wondered that if the Bible says—I'm going back now to the foundational thing we made. I want to go in that direction. You know we said the hedge is a wall that surrounds us. Two people can act against that hedge. Who? God and man. In Job, God took away the hedge. In man, he that breaketh an hedge, the serpent will bite him. Man can break it. God can remove it. But Satan cannot handle it. If God does not remove, he cannot handle it. If man does not break, he cannot do anything about it. So as far as the hedge is concerned, it's not a business of Satan. It's not a business of Satan. Whatever happens to the hedge is about God and man. There's nothing about Satan that relates to the hedge. I hope you remember when we discussed that. For those of us who are just joining us, we discussed that. Now what we want to look at today, a step further in that. If the Bible say he that breaketh an hedge, he that diggeth a pit will fall into it, which means that no matter how I see as if you are doing something contrary to holiness, contrary to righteousness, no matter how you dig the pit, the Bible say you'll still be the one to fall into it. They also say if you break the hedge, the serpent will bite you. The question is, why do men break the hedge? Why? Do you notice that more often than not, rather than stay within the hedge, men break the hedge? More often than not, rather than stay within the hedge, men break the hedge. The question is, as we journey in 2018, as we move on in the year, we are going to ask ourselves this question. Why? Why do we find man breaking the hedge? Why is it that, knowing that if we break the hedge the serpent will bite, or if he dig the pit he will eventually fall into it? What is responsible? Why is it? You will see believers, many Christians, you see have one or two things you are doing here and there. You see a believer still having one or two things here and there in different shades and breaking the hedge, the little foxes that spoil the vine. A little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. Why do we find believers? Why do we find Christians? Why? Why do we find believers breaking the hedge? What makes men to break this hedge? Why is it that? And many times, many times after men have broken the hedge, many of these men wish they never did. They wish they never did. Which means somehow, in the breaking of the hedge, when men breaks it, some environment surround, some things transcend that makes men to break the hedge. And that is, I was looking into scripture. Look at Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13, verse 13 and 14. King James says, "Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." "Whosoever despise the word shall be destroyed, but he that fear the commandment shall be rewarded." We'll come back to 13 much more later. We want to sit on verse 14. "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." Let's look at this scripture. Can we read this if these two things mean the same thing? "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from death." "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." Would the two mean the same thing? I take it again. Please listen to me very well. The first reading: "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from death." I'm adjusting what is here. I'm removing the snares of. Do you understand? I read it as, "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from death." Then, "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." The first reading and the actual reading, are they the same? [Speaker 3] No. [Speaker 2] What is really different? Is there a difference between the snares of death and death? [Speaker 4] There is. [Speaker 2] There is. What is? What is the difference? [Speaker 4] Actually the snares of death, the wise people keep us out of that. But the death itself, the person or the person of death is already there. But the snare is still within the confinement of the trap of death but actually it's not yet done yet. But actually it will lead to death actually. It's like a process and the death is the end of. [Speaker 2] So you must first enter the snare then maybe you be launched into the house of death. But if it is directly into the end, but the issue is that it will lead to death, whether death directly or the snare process. Okay. He has mentioned something: a snare. What is a snare? He said a trap. What is a trap? [Speaker 5] Something that puts in bondage. Something that is appealing but actually the end is just to capture. But it's appealing to you like sin now, that fornication, it will be appealing, ah, it's good, just come and have it. But it's just a joy of one minute and after that you now regret, "Ah, why did I fall into that?" [Speaker 2] Okay. Okay. I think we are getting around the answer. [Background motorcycle noise]. You see, I'm talking about why do men break the hedge. That's what we are looking at. Why do men break the hedge? Men break the hedge because death never appears as death. Death appear as snare. I say, why do men break the hedge? Why do men break the hedge? It is because death don't appear as death. Death appears as a snare. Don't forget what we call a snare. He has said something that is so beautiful. A snare has its strength in what? [Speaker 4] Deception. [Speaker 2] The strength of a snare is in what? Deception. Yes. The strength of the snare is that it doesn't appear as a snare. That's its strength. Once a snare appears as a snare, it has lost its strength. So the strength of a snare is that when you look at it, it's something very okay. Just very good, pleasurable, fascinating, all right. There's nothing really bad about it. No, it's just a little, there is nothing there. So that's the strength. I don't know which meeting, some time ago I was describing a snare. I said if for example you notice that you're having problems with rats in your house, you now go and look for a good maybe piece of wood and then you now go and stand by the way of the rat. When will you kill that rat? You will never kill that rat because once the rat comes out and he see you with the stick, what will the rat do? He'll see the stick. If he comes again and he has seen this, no matter what is appealing to the rat, it will look for another direction to be passing than come out to that direction. Is that not true? But because you want to kill that rat, you will now go, you use this device. That device the rat will not see you. The rat will only see maybe an iron on the floor. For example who use indocid, they'll put indocid inside good fish and meat that is smelling nice. Just throw it on the floor scattered as if it is free food everywhere. Then the rat will come and eat and later they'll start dying. But look at issue of the device. You put the device. So you put the device there. You will go and sleep with the hope that the device will help you to trap the rat. Is that not? Now you know that when the rat comes out, the rat will see maybe a fried fish or a fried meat, something that he will say, "Wow! Hey! Me alone!" And if there are some other rats, will try to block them not to know that something good is on that way. So that he alone can eat that thing. You get the point I'm making. Now, fascinating and all to that thing, he goes for it. But in the real sense of it, that thing that is there, what really is that thing? That thing is still you standing with a stick. How will you know? You will discover by the time you are sleep, by the time you wake up from your sleep, where will your mind be? On the trap. Then you go and look at the trap. Once you have been able to trap the rat, what do you say? "Hey! I've caught it today!" You see, it was still you. Do we say the trap got rid of them? You will say "I. I got rid of them." You get the point I'm making? So even though the rat did not see you carrying a stick, the real thing about that device is still the same you carrying a stick. So if you had come carrying a stick and standing by the road, no rat will die. So if death appears as death, nobody will die. So for death to kill, for death to destroy, for death to waste, death must appear with another coloration. Not as death. But the truth about the matter is everywhere there is the snare of death, death itself is physically present. Present as an unseen guest, watching and waiting. And as you are coming and you are entering into the snare, death smile. Carry on, carry on. And then when the hook have taken hold of the gill that you cannot go away, it will now come out in black and black or whatever manifestation. "Look at this idiot! He don't know that this thing will..." You get the picture I'm trying to create? I'm trying to make you see why do men break the hedge. Why do men break the hedge? Men break the hedge because the serpent that bite, the serpent that waste, the serpent that destroy, you know how it operate around the hedge? If for example, I'm trying to look for something I can use. This is the hedge. Let's take this a line. You cannot go beyond this point. This side you are within the hedge. The other side you are outside the hedge. You know what the serpent does? Because he's at the other side, he cannot come through the hedge. You know what he does? He drops a car key beyond the hedge. Then you say, "Ah! Hey! You mean, I will now be driving everywhere! My mate will see me, they will say, eh, you understand me!" There is something, there is a profit, there is a gain beyond the hedge. But it's just to take one step and take it. Is there anything wrong with ah, I'll just go and then I'll just come back. Is there any problem? And then, by the time I drive the car, by the time I have a car, by the time I do this... you look at all the advantages of the car. They just say, "Let me just..." and then the serpent bite. So beyond the hedge are attractions. Beyond the hedge are juicy offers. Beyond the hedge are seemingly advantages. Beyond the hedge are seemingly gains. Beyond the hedge seemingly profit. But just beyond that hedge is serpent staying somewhere. And the truth is that that method has not changed till today. Can we look at it at the beginning? Adam, Eve. God said, God said you should not eat. Is that not? That was instruction. Is God saying you should not eat? No. The woman wasn't too clear about exactly what God said, although she has, she says, "God said we should not eat now." No. She said God said we should not eat. No. No. Let me tell you number one: if you eat this thing you know that you cannot die. Let me tell you what will happen. Number one, your eyes will become open. Now I want to ask you, will their eyes not be open? So what I'm saying is, we are looking at why men go beyond the hedge. It's because within those things that looks attractive, within those things that look alluring, within those things that look like a gain or a profit, there's actually the fact of life that they are gain. If you steal money today and you steal a billion, there is a gain! You get a gain in a billion! Is there no gain? There's a gain! Whichever way you get the billion, if you have a billion today, a lot of things will change about you regardless of how you got it. So there's a fact that yes, there's a gain. So it's not as if there is no gain. There's a fact. Because when they ate it, their eyes will actually open. Number two, you said they will become like God. Did they become like God? They become like God! There was a fact. There was a fact. And then the woman now begin to consider the matter about the edge. He said when the woman saw, she had been seeing the thing all this while, but now she is seeing it from the level of the keys beyond the hedge. What make the tree now good for food is that something has been placed beyond the hedge. And what was placed is something wow, like God. Hey! We are stepping higher. We are going up. You get the point I'm making? Our eyes will become open. The way God is just speaking to us, we no need again God to be speaking to us, we just be moving, be able to decide ourselves. Wow! That's freedom! And then... but you will notice that what was making her to consider the boundary is because something has been placed beyond the boundary. Something has been placed beyond it. I'm relating this to us. That method has not changed till today. It is the seemingly profit we think we will make, the seemingly gain we think we will have, the seemingly advantage that we think we will get, that gets us saturated and then we go beyond the hedge. Just like he said, you see, immediately after Eve ate, and I'm not understand this spiritual thing, nothing happened because of course she didn't carry the authority. The authority is in Adam. She went to Adam, "I have eaten it, nothing." You ate it? Nothing happened? I'm okay. Ah, nothing happened to you. Eat it! Because you will notice that Adam was not deceived. Scripture say Adam was not deceived. He wasn't. The woman was deceived. But Adam was not. He said God told Adam, he said, "Because you hearkened to the voice of your wife." The wife came with convincing argument because she ate it and there was no consequence. Do you know how many times our hearts has been emboldened to do certain wrong because of the fact or the reality or the situation that some others has met? I'm talking about why men break the hedge. Why men break the hedge. It looks reasonable. The first level: the level of deception, a key beyond the hedge. The second level, I want to show you, there's another second level. When men has been sold out and it looks like there's no consequence. "Judgment upon an evil work not executed speedily." So the heart of men is set in them to do evil. Even becomes the norm. And so you become the abnormal. You hear what I'm trying to say? I remember one day that we had an issue with some police officers. They said, "Ah, you must give this bribe." I said, "I'm sorry I can't give." "Ah, you're like a pastor. You're a Christian." I said, "No, but you are like a pastor." I said, "Okay, yeah." Only you? Just yesterday, pastor so-and-so, he gave us his own! Our own pastor! Our pastor doing it! Pastor is doing it! He was telling me. He said, "Our pastor, they give us here, no problem! Pastor is giving!" It was at this police station at, you know this Adebimpe, that their A-Division. That A-Division. And he was saying it convincingly. "Pasteur, they give us here! No problem! Even your pastor! Our pastor is giving us! So please, give us this thing. Our pastor is giving!" What I want to say is that, because it looked operational, it looked sensible and makes a lot of sense to do. Profitability of sin. When it look sensible, it makes sense, it looks reasonable, you can put reasoning, you can see how it can be justified, it can work out. You hear what I'm trying to say? I'm talking of why men break the hedge. I remember one of our sister who was posted to one office. Just somebody moving people from Lagos to Abuja head office. You remember when they made Abuja the capital city then, under Babangida, and they were moving people, they were moving a lot of head office to that place. So she came back and said, "There's problem oh. The office resumed." She's somebody who goes to office early because they have to sign government thing, there's this notebook they have to sign, the teacher there, something with the government. So the rule in that school when she got there, if you get there 8:40, you must write 7:15. Because if you write 8:40, the person that come 8:30, the person that come 9 o'clock will not be able to write a lower time. So nobody must write beyond 7:30, no matter when you, no matter the time you report. Did you get what I'm trying to say? You know if you come 7:30 and you write 7:30, the person that come next cannot write 7:25 again. So any time you come, you must give allowance. You must be consistent! That is the word! "It should be that we love ourselves." Now that was the word she was told that she should love her neighbor. "Do you want her to lose her job? You should love your neighbor. By the time you came 7:30 and you wrote 7:30, do you want her to go in trouble? You're supposed to have given allowance. You put 7:10, so that even if she comes 7:50, she'll be able to write 7:15 so she won't be in trouble." They use religious word and they were trying to persecute her. "You want her to lose her job? You're supposed to have given allowance! You want her to lose her job?" So she came back to the church in Lagos and said, "Brethren, help me. What do I do? Is it Christian love as, I don't know, it's because sometimes I have to write the earlier one because her life is at stake, her life is at stake, her job is at stake." She said, "But she really want to find out from the brethren: is it correct, is what she was doing what was right when she had to be?" She seemed to be the only one that was different. The other believers, people that look Christian, the one that look more Christian than her, they operate by this principle. And I said, "Sister, all unrighteousness is sin." God has said... there's something God said. That was the problem of Adam. Because Eve prosper. Because it is operational. It looks sensible and makes a lot of sense to do. Profitability of sin. When it look sensible, it makes sense, it looks reasonable, you can put reasoning, you can see how it can be justified, it can work out. You hear what I'm trying to say? I'm talking of why men break the hedge. I remember I was in an exam and I was trying to control the students. Then somebody came and said, "Mr. Olushola, what something I want to tell you. You see, the man who taught this course, he didn't teach it well. He didn't even have time for them. No. There's a way. I'm not saying we allow them to cheat, that's not what I'm saying. I'm only saying that the way you are moving them, the way you anyway, you know..." So I had to ask him then, "So what exactly are you trying to say?" He could not say exactly what he wants to say. He just said, "No, that's what... I'm not saying we should allow them to cheat. I'm only trying to explain that anyway, you know, because I remember that the man did not even come more than two or three times. He's an adjunct lecturer. He did not come. The student, they were even confused about the course. So that's so why not allow..." I could not say exactly what he wants to say. He was just saying, "No, I'm not saying we should allow them to cheat. I'm only trying to explain that, you know, because I remember that the man did not even come more than two or three times. He's an adjunct lecturer. He did not come. The student, they were even confused about the course. So that's so why not allow..." What exactly are you trying to say? He could not say exactly what he wants to say. He just said, "No, that's what I'm not saying we should allow them to cheat. I'm only trying to explain that you know because..." He was just trying to say that I should, the way I'm moving them, that they have arranged themselves to help themselves. So the way you stand up God this way, stand up God this way, re-arranging the network! And he felt that students all of them will fail the way you are re-arranging. and it looked plausible, the lecturer have not showed, so why not allow? I'm talking of things that look, profitability of sin, why men break the hedge. But when he ate, what God said still remain what God said. It was at that point that his eyes became open and the woman eyes became open. That was when the woman realized that, "Hey, there is consequences!" on the long run. You will know that no matter how it looks now, things will come to appear the way they really are. Things will come back to appear the way they really are. It doesn't matter the picture how we put them now. things are still coming back to appear the way they really are. And it was at that point that he now, when he was now first talked about the serpent, what did she now say? She said, "The serpent! She he deceived me!" At that point it was not like a deception. It was like a partner in progress. A partner in progress. What I'm saying is this, every time death appear, it must appear as a partner in progress. It must appear as a partner in progress. If death comes and says, "You see, I have come now and everybody will die here," how many people will move? Nobody will move. It must come as a partner in progress. And that is why you notice the scripture say, "Be vigilant. Be sober! Be on your guard! Be watchful!" Another translation say, "Be on your guard! Be watchful!" Another one says, "Watch out and be alert! Watch out and be alert for your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion goes about, seeking who he will devour." I want to close here. I want us to take this to heart. Seeking who he would devour. [Background noise]. Now, please get this. The Bible says he goes about seeking who he will devour. Now let's look at that case back again at the beginning. At the point where Eve began to enjoy the juicy fruit and she was eating it, juicy that she should convince somebody else about it. Do you understand me? You know at that point, the reality of her life is that she's being devoured. She was being devoured. So seeking who he may devour is what I'm trying to explain to you. That at that point where she looked at it and it was, "Ah, this thing is indeed good for food. Ah, it should be able to eat it. It will make me wise." For her, she was stepping up. She was becoming a better person. But the reality is that she was being devoured. She was being devoured. You notice that the Bible says, "Be vigilant. Be sober. Your adversary goes about seeking who he would devour." So vigilance, soberness against being devoured. Vigilance against not being taken. Vigilance against not catching what you should throw off. If she began to catch what she should throw away, she began to embrace what she should not embrace, she began to see, you understand me? So from that point where, for example, a Christian ought to say, "Please, I'm not doing again!" One has to say... "What exactly are we saying?" You get the point I'm making. From that point, the believer is being devoured. From that point, the believer is being devoured. The Bible says, "For he that depart, he that leave the path of understanding will walk in the path of death." Whoso leave the path of understanding then we are in the company of the dead. I'm just showing you why men break the hedge. As we journey through 2018, please let's note this. That we won't break the hedge. Let us pray. Let's pray. Let's talk to the Lord. Speak to God. I don't know what you have learned from what we have just discussed. I don't know how the message came to you, the sharing, how it came to you, what it is speaking to, what it is addressing in your own life. But I think we should stop here. When we come next week, we'll magnify it a little further. But I want you to just pray. What are you seeing? What is God speaking to your heart? Is there areas where because of the attraction beyond the hedge, you have broken the hedge? Or the other way, the plausible argument, the reasonableness, the prevailing evidence. Where? Is there areas you need to repent? Why not say, "Baba, ah, Lord, I retraced my step. I retraced my step. I'm coming back within the hedge. I'm coming back within the hedge." The purpose of God is that we should be holy and we should be blameless. That is his purpose. That we should be upright. That is the purpose of God. Nothing turns it, nothing bends it. "Without holiness no man will see God. Blessed are the pure in heart for theirs is the kingdom of God." Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. You find out that it's all about purity of motive, purity of heart, purity of life, uprightness. It's all about that. He said, "He who have this hope in himself purifies himself even as the Lord is pure." Oh, thank you Jesus. Blessed be your holy name. Thank you, almighty father. Thank you, holy spirit. Thank you, Jehovah. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.