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Alright, so last Sunday we stopped at identity, right?
We came from Mphaniso, we started talking about the fact that the identity of the believer
is first of all spiritual, right?
Spiritual because the kingdom itself is spiritual because we've previously from different pastors,
the kingdom has been explained to us, we've understood that this matter is not a location
somewhere but spiritual power, spiritual dominance, spiritual authority, spiritual kingdom of
God.
I proceeded into explaining that it's actually part of the character of the believer, that
the believer himself, him or herself is spiritual and we checked a whole number of scriptures,
also checking from Genesis, we found out that God himself is spirit, right?
So the spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
I don't know if it would be good to run through that particular scripture again just to add
some more, some more light to it.
John chapter 4, John chapter 4, the gospel of John chapter 4, the gospel of John chapter
4, just see a little bit of certain things there then we will be able to proceed, John
chapter 4, from verse 21, and Jesus said to the woman, believe me, the hour is coming
when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers must worship in spirit
and in truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship him, right?
He's seeking such people to worship him.
For God is spirit and those who worship him in spirit must worship him in spirit and in
truth, right?
And in truth.
So one of the further explanation we can add to it is that the believer, right?
I think I made a statement that the believer, the kingdom is spiritual, therefore the believer
is also spiritual, right?
And this spiritual kingdom comes as a result of what Christ did, right?
The barrier, the death, the death, the burial and resurrection of Christ.
Now in this context too, right, is also referring to similar thing, right?
Or almost exactly the same thing, saying that the most worshiping in spirit and in truth.
So it's going to the worship that comes right from the direction of what Christ has done.
Okay, the spirit and truth there is not a sincere heart or sincere spirit.
Spirit is actually referring to the spirit and truth in the sense of the context of the
spiritual achievements, right?
Spiritual fulfillment of what Christ has actually done, right?
So that is what he means there.
So the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ in the understanding of that, the
spiritual people will worship.
Okay, so it's not sincerity.
Why do I say that?
If you pay attention to the context of it, right, to understand what our spirit and truth
is, if you pay attention to the context of it, it's a woman.
Believe me, the hour is coming when neither this will worship in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
So two things are involved, right?
A matter of worship and a type of worship, one that takes place in Jerusalem and one
that takes place on this mount, right?
You say your father worshiped what you know, but we do not worship, right?
But we worship what we know because salvation is of the Jews.
Then the hour is coming now when the true worshipers, right, worship him in spirit and
in truth.
It definitely means no longer in Jerusalem, no longer on this mountain, right, but in
spirit and in truth.
So it's not going to be in types and shadows or in places and location, right, to believe
that God is in temples, right, as this would believe, right, or going to the mountain.
The concept of the mountain is actually something you would find from Israel's departure from
Egypt, right, Israel's departure from Egypt.
It's the same thing in Romans that say, do not say in your mouth that who would ascend,
right, who would go like Moses would do to bring the law or to bring the explanation
of the gospel to us, right?
So they understand this concept of going to the mountain and, you know, kind of it means
to get access to what is spiritual, get access to what is spiritual.
They also believe that Jerusalem is also spiritual, right?
Jerusalem is where God stays, is the capital of the kingdom of Israel, all that context,
right?
So Jesus is trying to point the focus of worship, right, to be something that takes place in
spirit and in truth and not in location, right?
It's collaborate much more with the fact that we say the kingdom of God is spiritual, is
not a location, is not a mountain, neither is it in Jerusalem, right?
So it's also not a particular location in the sky.
We said that.
Now, how do these worship take place?
It will take place in a spirit and truth in accordance or in the understanding of the
death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
So look at how God is spirit and those who worship him was doing in spirit and in truth.
So there's a way in which God explains us to worship, right, which is to worship our
worship stems from all that Christ has done, right?
All that Christ has done.
So it means it's in the spirit, right?
Worship is in the spirit.
Verse 5, you know, Father says, so the woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming,
who is called Christ.
When he comes, he will tell us all things.
Jesus said to her, I am right.
I, I who speak to you, I'm here.
So what we see again is that worship is going to be spiritual.
Worship is spiritual, right?
Because we do it in spirit and in truth.
So another word referring to or in addition to what I taught on on Sunday, we can also
go to first Corinthians two, first Corinthians two, verse nine, first Corinthians two, verse
nine, it said, but as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor any ear heard, nor the
heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
Right?
These things God has revealed to us through the spirit.
The spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Right?
The spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
If you go to verse 15, verse 14, said the natural man does not accept the things of
the spirit of God.
The natural man does not accept the things of the, now this, this is telling us that
there is a way in which this things of God is received.
Right?
So as a spiritual man, there's a way the things of God is received.
So the natural man does not accept things of God.
Now he said, for they are fully to him and he's not able to understand them because they
are spiritually discerned.
The spiritual person judges all things.
Right?
He can understand all things, but he himself to be judged, but he's himself to be judged
by no one for who has understand the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him.
For we have the mind of Christ.
We have the mind of Christ.
So what we see here is first of all, right?
That the spiritual things, these things God has revealed to us through the spirit.
So in continuation of what we started on Sunday, it's the revelation, right?
Is given to us by the spirit of God.
So we are spiritual, we are spirits and we receive revelation by the spirit of God.
Okay.
We receive revelation by the spirit of God.
So we've seen that our worship is by the spirit, right?
Our worship is not by what's trained.
Our worship is not from, it doesn't stem from what's trending.
It doesn't stem from, from what is invoke.
It's not stem from popular culture.
Our worship does not stem from what we see other people do, but it stands from the spirits,
right?
That's why I said the spirit and truth.
So what about we want to do as worship must stay within the context of what Christ has
done, right?
What Christ has done in spirit and in truth.
And here we also see that the pains that are in the spirit, right?
They are revealed to us.
So we are in spirit, in the spirit, right?
But worship in the spirit, right?
The spiritual and he said also verse, progressive verse says that for the spirit suggest everything,
even the depths of the soul.
We are taught, right?
Through the spirit of God.
We are taught through the spirit of God.
Now if we continue to see from verse, from verse 14, he says, the natural man does not
accept things of the spirit, but they are fully what the spiritual person judges.
So we're going to move to something that is next, right?
So there are things that are reviewed to us by the spirit of God, right?
And those things are actually reviewed by the word of God, right?
So the point we are going is that the word of God, right?
Explains, right?
Reviews things to us.
So the spirit then, the fact that these things are reviewed to us through the spirit does
not mean something out of what we can control.
Does not mean what we don't understand, but means through the word of God, we receive
understanding, right?
We receive understanding by what is written.
We understand, he said, for the spirit such everything, even the depth of the soul, we
understand God by the spirit of God and through his word.
So these things that are given to us by the spirit, right?
These things that are given to us by the spirit that are reviewed to us by the spirit, it
is received by faith.
Okay?
The things that are given to us by the spirit, the things that are received, that are reviewed,
right?
To us is received by faith, right?
I'm saying that again.
What is reviewed by the spirit of God unto us through his spirit, right?
What he has not heard before, what eyes have not seen before, what the heart of men had
not imagined before, what God has prepared for those who love him before, is reviewed
to us by the spirit now.
And that is received by faith.
Okay?
That is received by faith.
Therefore, faith becomes the second or another identity that we can see that is of the believer.
So the next identity we'll talk about, right?
You know, is faith.
Is faith.
Because it will take faith to, you know, to manifest the kingdom of God, right?
So you're spiritual, you believe these things are not physical, right?
The next thing is to understand faith.
You have to understand faith, right?
You have to understand faith because it is true faith, right, that we also function in
the manifestation of the things of the spirit of the manifestation of the kingdom of God,
right?
In the essence of fear, in the essence of doubts, right?
We are not able to function even when you are spiritual, right?
So the spiritual man is a man of faith and must not allow fear or doubts to step in.
So faith becomes something that we should talk about, we should discuss.
Actually, when they were praying, I think Sister Christine led a prayer and said that
which is ours in the spirit might be made, probably made manifest or that we might be
able to walk in that which is ours in the spirit, right?
So that means that we need to be able to function in all the revelation that is granted to us
by the spirit of God, right?
So the spirit of God reveals salvation to us, it reveals our positions to us.
The spirit of God reveals all that is found in Christ to us, right?
So we need to be able to walk in all of that, right?
All of that and it takes faith, right?
It takes faith and faith is something that is an identity of every believer, right?
I'm saying that over and over because we must know it, we must know it.
Now faith is actually also what distinguishes the Christian faith from every other religion
or every other faction.
So even when we see people, they say they are believers or even when someone carries
the Bible, right?
One of the things you ask the person is, what do you believe, right?
What do you believe?
It's not just about using the same book, right?
But what do you believe?
You know, what do you believe in?
Because that subject of faith is crucial to know if the person is spiritual, the person
is really on the same page with you.
So faith becomes another common identity that we have, right?
It's a common identity that we have and it helps us to manifest the kingdom of God, it
helps us to function, right?
And the spiritual realm, right, it helps us to function from that spiritual realm, from
that spiritual position.
So we start with faith and we start with John chapter 1 verse 9 to 13.
John chapter 1 from verse 9 to 13.
All right.
It is the true light which gives light to everyone who was coming into the world, right?
Was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
He came to his own and people did not receive him.
But to all who received him, right, and believed in his name, he gave the rights to become
the children of God, gave the rights to become the children of God, right?
Give them the right to become children of God.
So what we see here, right, is actually expressing faith, right?
So faith and belief, there's no doctrine that says they are different.
There's nothing like faith is a belief.
Faith is basically a noun, right?
You have faith, it means it's a noun, just use that in that context.
And belief is actually your exercise of faith.
Believing is your exercise of faith in something, right?
Believing is exercise of faith in something.
So what we see is that they believe in his name, they exercise faith in his name, right?
Don't forget John writes in all Revelation from John chapter 1, right?
So believe in his name, don't forget our name, the name we talk about is what God will do
and has done, right?
So but to all who receive him and believe in means exercise faith in what God has done
he gave because this is passing right, he gave the rights to become the children of
God.
So everyone who exercise faith became the children of God.
So it means that faith is our common faith, right?
Faith is our common faith.
They're going to see that because that is very important, right?
Faith is our common faith.
The reason why I'm emphasizing that all of us as the children of God, we have faith is
that it helps us to know that the manifestation of the kingdom of God is not for some people,
right?
Manifestation of the kingdom of God is not for some people, right?
Is not for some people who have achieved, you know, certain level of spirituality, right?
But it is through faith, right?
Through faith for all who has believed.
So we see that faith is something that is common to all the children of God.
Faith is common to all the children of God and therefore the manifestation of the kingdom
is common to all the children of God.
John chapter 3 verse 1 to 8.
I think I'll just read from verse 5.
Jesus answered, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of the spirit, you cannot
enter into the kingdom of God, right?
That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
For no matter what I say to you, you must be born again, right?
The wind blows everywhere it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of God.
Okay verse 9.
Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
Jesus answered him, I shoe the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these
things.
Truly, truly I say, we speak of what we know and peer witness to that which we have seen.
But you do not receive our testimony.
If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you
heavenly things?
No one has ascended into the heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man
and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
So the Son of Man must be lifted up that whosoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
So we see this believing again, coming into play as something Jesus was preaching and
explaining to Nicodemus saying that you must believe, you must have faith.
Now we are starting within the context of salvation but it is the main place where faith starts
from.
So faith starts from salvation.
Then we find it in the Christian living.
Faith starts from salvation.
So we can say that, just to backtrack, we can say that in the context of a phonies or
emphanies, the two words that I have used in previous teachings, emphanies or emphanies
that talks about proof of God's salvation or that relates to God's salvation, faith
is needed.
Faith is needed.
Faith is what brings us into that salvation that God has provided for us.
So in the context of emphanies, the root word for emphanies is faith is founded.
Faith is founded.
Also in the context of the canal, which is presenting a proof by teaching or by science
and wonders, faith is also founded.
Faith is also founded.
So I've said two things.
In the context of emphanies, which talks about relating to the salvation that God has provided,
that brings us into that identity, faith is founded.
And in the context of the canal, which is to present proof, to show thoughts by science
and wonders or by teachings or by explanation, by preaching, there's also faith in that.
So I just quickly put those two together.
And that's why we actually are coming to pay attention to faith a little bit and to show
that it is actually common.
And it is the same that carries us through, right?
It's still the same faith that carries us through our work.
So we find that it's common to everyone that believes we found it in the context of Jesus
and as Moses lifted up the serpent.
Now one thing is to ask, this faith, right, is it in Christ being nailed to the cross?
Because when we read it, that's why I say when somebody carries Bible, you have to ask
them what do they believe, right?
Even if somebody calls them, you're a believer, really?
Okay, yeah, what do you believe this person can share?
You can share.
The reason is because first you can help the person to develop much more in faith, to align
their faith properly, right?
You can have faith in the scriptures in many aspects of the world with not an accurate
understanding, right?
With not an accurate, if you remember the case of Apollos, right, he had faith in something,
right?
But it was not in, it was not aligning perfectly, right?
It was not aligning perfectly.
Say, what do you believe, right?
We can go to that scripture, we can go to that scripture and just quickly see.
They ask him, what did you believe, right?
He said he had believed the baptism of John, he had believed the baptism of John.
So you can write in Acts chapter 18 verse 24 to 28.
He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures.
He had been instructed in the will of the Lord and fervently spoke, right?
Fervently in the spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of Jesus, though he
knew only the baptism of John, right?
So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue and when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they took him aside and explained to him the word of God more accurately.
What you see there is that someone has faith, but needs to be aligned very well, right?
Needs to be aligned very well to understand.
So in this context of John chapter 3, what we will see there is that faith, right, as
Moses lifted up the serpent.
So faith is not only in the depths, right?
It's not only in the depths of Christ, but it's in the depths, the barrier and the resurrection
of Christ, right?
And the ascension, because we now understand that Christ in us is the ascension now.
So we have faith in his death, his burial, his resurrection and his ascension into us,
which is his presence in our lives.
So here, as Moses lifted up, he's not talking about the cross because the way you could
miss this quickly is to appropriate the cross and a snake to Christ on the cross.
And you say, okay, I believe in his death, right?
That's actually not what the scripture is saying, right?
Also I think some professions have actually adopted that as a symbol of life too, right?
To actually put snake on a tree, right?
Quite interesting.
But I wish they can show an empty tomb.
Maybe that could give us more revelation, right?
They can use an empty tomb for one of these medical fields.
Now to be lifted up is actually talking about the resurrection of Christ, right?
We've used this word several times, right?
To be lifted up, to be exalted, right?
These are words that are used to explain Christ's resurrection, Christ's resurrection, right?
To be lifted up, to be exalted, right?
To be given a name above every name, right?
So all this really explains resurrection.
They're in connection with resurrection.
These lifted up is not the cross, a sea, as Christ is on the cross, right?
Which some of us have said, okay, who is this that the son of man must be lifted up, right?
So that also Eva believes in him, so he's about his death as well.
More or less the resurrection of Christ and not just the death.
Because if you stop at the death and you believe the cross and he is still on the cross, right?
Like some people use cross, your fate is not aligning.
Are you getting it?
Your fate is not aligning because most of the things when it comes to manifesting the
kingdom of God is resurrection, right?
Is what we call the post-resurrection and things that we through the spirit understood
after the resurrection of Christ, right?
So eternal life is after the resurrection of Christ, right?
We receive eternal life after the resurrection of Christ.
If Christ had not been risen, then our faith, right?
Our first Corinthians 15.
If Christ has not been risen, then our faith, right, is a lie, right?
Is false.
Our faith is in vain.
So we can go to first Corinthians 15.
Let's add that to it because that is the context that would help us to explain this verse.
Verse 14.
So just add that scripture to it.
So it helps us very well to know that the rise of Christ, right?
The resurrection of Christ is crucial.
First Corinthians 15 verse 19.
Verse 19, they said, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, then we are all of
all people most pitied, right?
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit from those who have
fallen asleep.
Verse 17 says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, right?
And you are still in your sins, right?
So bringing that here, right, tells you that to be lifted up is to be raised, right?
To be exalted, lifted up, raised, exalted, right?
These are the words that I use.
So when you're reading the New Testament, you are reading the epistles, right?
Pay attention to these words and check the context, right?
It should mostly refer to the resurrection, right?
So the belief here is to believe in the resurrection of Christ, to believe in his resurrection,
because it's talking about being lifted up here, not just his death.
So you see the element of faith here as well.
Okay, so we go to Ephesians.
Let's go to Ephesians, let's go to Ephesians, let's go to Ephesians chapter 1 and from there
we'll pick up some things again.
Ephesians chapter 1, right?
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1.
It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints who are
in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ.
Did you see the description of them?
They are faithful in Christ.
So it tells you that's their identity, they are saints and they are faithful, right?
They are saints, they are faithful, they are committed to the faith, to the word of God,
they are believed, right?
They are believed in Christ.
So Paul used the word faithful to describe believers, right?
To the saints, right?
Those who have been cleansed and worshiped in Christ, the new creation man is a saint
and faithful, right?
They are faithful in Christ.
So we see that word describing them as faithful in Christ.
So we'll go to Ephesians 2 verse 8 as well and we see that when this thing is being described,
he's using it for a people.
He's using it for a people.
He's not using it just randomly.
Most of the context is for a people that have believed.
Ephesians 2 verse 8, we see this very clearly.
He said, for by faith you have been saved.
Sorry, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
Faith is not your own doing and is the gift of God, right?
It is not your own doing.
So we see faith there, faith there again as something very, very common.
So faith is an identity of a believer.
You are faithful.
They call you faithful.
They call you saints.
Don't say, oh, no, I'm not a saint.
No, I'm not a saint.
No, don't say that, right?
You are a saint.
You are faithful because you have believed the message of Christ.
So we see that now we can go to one more, one more before we begin to check Hebrews
and begin to see what this faith is holding on to, right?
I've shown in the epistles that faith is attached to what Christ has done, the resurrection
of Christ, not just his death.
We have seen that he's believing in his reputation, his name, John chapter 1, downwards.
And in Hebrews, we will see some other explanation of what Jesus did as his resurrection, right?
What the resurrection of Christ or the message that he is presented.
Let's go to Titus 1 verse 4.
Titus 1 verse 4, right?
You must hear into us that we are the faithful in Christ.
Titus 1 verse 4.
Let's read from verse 1.
Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's
elect and the knowledge of truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which
God who never lies, right?
Promised right before the age began and at the proper time manifested in his word through
the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God, Ascibio, to Titus,
my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the father and Christ our Savior.
So first we see expression of the faith of God's elect, right?
The faith of God's elect.
We see that expressed as the knowledge of the truth, right?
The knowledge of the truth, right?
That is why we are making sure that anybody who says they have faith are in the knowledge
of the truth.
Okay, they are in the knowledge of the truth.
They are in the spirit and in the truth.
They are in the knowledge of the truth, right?
They understand the resurrection of Christ and his sanction into us.
So what we see there, he says the knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness,
I mean, it comes with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God promised and he has
made manifest in verse 4, he concludes, he said, to Titus, my true child in a common
faith, right?
In a common faith, that is our common faith.
What we have together, right?
Something that identifies us together is common.
Faith is common, right?
Faith is common.
It's something we share.
It's talking about something we share, like in the faith that we share.
So faith is an idea of belief, right?
You have to therefore, right, know that when there is fear, right?
When there is fear, when there is doubt, then there's a challenge, right?
When there is fear, when there is doubt, especially one to the word of God, right?
When there's fear, when there is doubt towards the word of God, right?
Then you need to check it again because a believer will believe the word of God, a believer
will ask the word of God out.
The believer is to be free from fear and anxiety and all of that, to always exercise faith.
That's all that brought you into the fold and through faith we also continue.
So we say that this is a common faith.
Now let's check Hebrews.
Actually, the whole of Hebrews 1, like we know, is an expression of faith, right?
It's an expression of, an explanation of faith that we find, that we found, right?
That we found.
So let's check Hebrews 11, 1-6 because it's the scripture that actually tries to combine
the word, the use of the word faith and the use of the word belief, right?
To help us to understand that really there's no really doctrinal differences there.
It's just faith and a verb, right?
And now on a verb.
Now faith is the assurance of things, hoped for.
The conviction of things not seen.
So it's defined like as a noun, right?
It's not defined.
The way it's defined there.
So for by it, right?
So describing it as the subject.
For by it, the people of old receive the accommodation, right?
They receive the accommodation.
It means they receive the fact that they are faithful.
That's another way we say it.
They receive the fact that they are faithful.
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, right?
So that what is seen is not made out of things that are visible, right?
What is seen is not made out of things that are visible.
By faith, it was offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than came through which it was commanded
as righteous, God commanding him by accepting his gift and through his faith, though he
died, he speaks.
By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and was not found because by
God had taken him.
Now before he was, God had taken him.
Now before he was taken, he was commanded as having pleased God, right?
So he means he had exercised faith, is a man of faith, his identity.
Faith, we can call him the faithful.
Now there are six masses and without faith, it's impossible to please God.
For whosoever will draw near to God must believe that he exists and he rewards all those who
seek him, right?
Without faith it is impossible to please God for whosoever draws near to God must believe
and rewards those who seek him.
So we can say the action of faith is believing or the instrumentation of faith is believing.
Instrumentation, the expression of faith, right, is actually believing.
The expression of the fact that you are faith is to believe, right?
So no one wakes up being born again, right, I wrote it here, no one wakes up being born
again.
No one without faith can receive salvation, right?
No one because being born again.
No one without faith can receive salvation.
No one can receive salvation, you know, even through a vision.
A message must be preached to you, right?
A message must be preached to you.
Oh, I was just in a vision and I became born again.
When you wake up, you would express that belief in the message, right, when it's preached
to you.
So you can be led, you can receive a word by vision and you can say, go and meet so,
so and so person or someone will come to your house.
You can have such kind of revelations of you being connected.
However, the faith, right, that you receive, right, is something you believe, right, is
something you believe.
The faith that you have is expressed through believing.
So without faith, no one can actually please God, means no one can come into salvation,
right?
That is what it means.
No one can come into salvation.
So therefore, one of the identity we have is faith and we talked about that.
Again, our response to the gospel is faith, right?
You can write down our response to the gospel is faith.
Our response to the gospel is faith, is believing, is believing.
Our response to the gospel is believing.
So we can just read Hebrews 4, 1 to 2.
We have some scriptures there, some people who received the word.
I'm going to come back to Hebrews chapter 6 and I'm going to experience some things.
So let's go to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1 to 2.
Therefore, while the promise of entering is rest still standing, let us fear lest any
of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
For the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit
them because they were not united by faith, right?
It means that they did not exercise faith, united by faith or united in faith with what
was preached to them, with those who listened, right?
He says here, he says it with those who listen.
For we who have believed have entered into the rests, right?
I've entered that rest.
As I said, I say, swore in my mouth they shall not enter in my rest.
So what we see there is that they did not mix it with faith, right?
But some people believed, right?
So we see faith and believe in there as nothing different, but simply exercise in just the
use of words, right?
For goodness came to us just as came to them, but it did not mix it with faith.
It means they were not united with faith, with those who listened.
So they didn't have the same faith as they basically want to sing.
They didn't have the same faith, right?
With those who listened, for we who have believed, so we who have the faith have entered into
the rest of God.
So we see that believing there as an action, right, to believe a word.
So we go to Mark 16 verse 17.
Mark 16 verse 17.
Mark 16 verse 17, just to exercise, Mark 16 verse 17.
So going to the world and proclaim the gospel, right, from verse 15, to the whole nation,
whosoever believes, right, is baptized, and whosoever believes is baptized and will be
saved, but whosoever does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs shall follow them who believe in my name.
They shall cast out demons, they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues,
they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will
not hurt them, right?
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
Now what this path really helps us to do, right, is to bring, right, is to bring something
together.
And what is it bringing together?
It's bringing those who believe the gospel, right?
Those who believe the gospel as being saved.
We see there that they will come into salvation by believing.
We see that there.
And the second thing, he also said that verse 17, and these signs will follow them that
believe.
The same faith, right, is not like, oh, they need another believing, right, they need another
believing to do signs and wonders.
After they have believed salvation, they will now have to, another type of faith will have
to come, or another type of belief will have to come for them to manifest.
No, it's still the same, it's just a continuation of it, right?
It's just a continuation.
So it means that those that believe, right, in salvation, and they are saved, and they
are not condemned, right, in continuation of the work they will be doing, these signs
will follow them.
The only thing that makes a believer not to be able to exercise these signs, right, is
ignorance.
Not that the signs cannot follow them, not that the signs are not even following them,
right?
It's ignorance and the, what we call the desire not to, right, the desire not to.
So there is no like, okay, the faith that brought you to salvation, or what made you
to believe, right, that identity is different.
Then you need another believing, right?
You need another believing, right, another type of faith, now you now begin to manifest.
That one is different.
So if you say that, it therefore differentiates believers and says, oh, one believer is saved,
but he has not been saved to cast out demons, right?
He has not been saved to heal the sin, he has not been saved, no, no, no.
If talking about this part of the scripture really helps us to unite it very well, to
say that the same faith that we are coming to, right, we continue in that faith, right,
to manifest all that is said, these signs, we follow them that believe, right, still
in the context of those who have believed and have been saved.
In my name they will cast out demons.
So for us to manifest the kingdom, therefore, we do not need, right, a particular, we do
not need to go into a new faith or another areas of faith or another levels of faith,
right?
Then we can be able to now say, oh, I've gotten to the level of faith where I can cast out
demons, just as you have believed and you have come into salvation, therefore, you can
manifest the kingdom of God, just as you believe that you have come into salvation, you can
manifest the kingdom of God.
So that's what we see here, which I tried to explain that while the faith that brings
you in, which is what I use, and the other one that determines your manifestation is the
same, right, is the same.
You just believe you have faith, the same way John 3 says, then it's preached to someone,
right?
And the person believes, right?
When it comes to the manifestation of the Spirit, the scriptures are also open, the
same way you believe that you continue in faith, it's just the continuation of faith,
right?
You continue in faith and manifest, right, manifestation.
That's what we see in these scriptures, right?
And they believe these signs shall follow them, these signs shall follow them.
So we just go a little bit back to Genesis a little bit, right, and see how the gospel
has been described, right?
What this believing, right, the object or the subject of faith, the subject of faith,
by the way it has been described, right?
So that when we read the Old Testament, we also know that faith is also what God is demanding,
right?
Faith is what God desires.
So without faith, you can't please God.
So we want to see from Genesis, right, how this faith has been explained, right?
How God has acquired faith.
So we can see that it's not something that faith is not a post-resurrection thing.
No, it's not.
I mean, you should know that it's not.
Faith is not after Jesus died, then people begin to believe, right?
Faith has been something that actually binds, faith is something that binds both those who
believe in the promise of God before it was fulfilled in Christ on earth, right, and manifested
in resurrection.
Those who believe before and those who believe after, it is faith that binds us together,
right?
It is faith that Hebrews 11 tells us that.
But we'll come to that.
Let's just go to Genesis chapter two and just see Genesis chapter two and just see how that
word, because it was faith.
God has always demanded, God has demanded nothing from man, right, without faith.
He has always wanted men to believe in his promise, right?
God's demand.
So it becomes part of our identity when we believe, right?
It becomes part of us when we believe.
So Genesis two verse 16, it says, and God commanded, and the Lord God commanded the
man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat it, you shall surely die,
right?
You shall surely die.
And so on is asking, right, how is, how is faith here, right?
What is the expression of faith?
What is God requiring here?
First, the way to understand that God is actually asking, God is actually asking Adam to believe
in his message, the way to understand it is to first note a couple of things.
First, the person that is writing Genesis is Moses.
Okay?
So the person that is writing Genesis is Moses.
That's the first thing, because you have to note who the author is.
It's the one that communicated this thing in this way.
It would mean that we need to pick some words that he used and check other books and understand
how he used those words altogether.
Then we will understand what he means here.
So he said, and the Lord commanded man saying, you may surely eat of the fruit.
That word commanded is an intentional word, right?
By Moses.
Okay, that word is intentional, is intentional by Moses.
Why?
Because the author is writing to a people, right?
Is documenting this for a people who knows their hearts, right?
First, a people who knows their hearts.
And if we also check his communication to these same people, Moses always used command,
the word command, and it's a commandment, right, for them to believe.
So we can just go to Exodus.
Let's go to Exodus.
After Exodus 20, right, we actually have a couple of them, written everywhere, scattered
around in his communication.
We have most of these commands scattered around in Moses' communication through Israel.
We can start with Exodus 20, right?
We can start with Exodus 20 because Exodus 20 actually directly links to what we are
teaching.
So he used the word command, right?
Used the word command.
So when you see, and God spoke this word saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out
of Egypt, right?
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery?
You shall have no God, right?
You shall have no God before me.
If you go to verse 6, right, if you go to verse 6, it says, but showing the first law
to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandment, right?
Who love him and keep his commandment.
You shall not take the Lord your God, and it continued the commandment, the statement
about the commandment here.
You can go to Exodus 19 verse 7.
It also said something there.
So Moses came and called the elders of the people and said before them all these words
that the Lord had commanded, right?
The Lord had commanded all these words that the Lord had commanded.
If you read up from Exodus 19 from verse 4, it's a universal sin that I did not, sorry,
that I did, what I did to Egyptians and how I bore you on egos winds and brought you to
myself, salvation.
Now, therefore, if you indeed obey my voice and keep my commandments, sorry, and keep
my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people.
For all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of grace.
And these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
So Moses came and called the elders of the people and said before them all these words
as the Lord had commanded him.
And all the people answered together, all that the Lord has spoken we will do.
And Moses reported the words of the Lord to the people and the Lord said, Behold, I am
coming in a thick cloud and I will speak.
So from here, right, from here, the moment they came out, we started seeing the introduction
of the words of the Lord to be seen as commandments.
Okay, the words of the Lord, right, from Exodus towards Israel, we started seeing it as commandments,
right, we started seeing it as commandments.
So we'll come to the Ten Commandments, what we'll call the Ten Commandments as well, right,
what we see and is written as the Ten Commandments as well.
It's also the words of the Lord, okay, the words of the Lord using the word commandment,
right.
So the word of the Lord is the word of the Lord in Ten Commandments as well.
So therefore, just with this and subsequent readings of Moses' writings, we can see that
the commandments can be said or can be referred to as the words of the Lord.
And the words of the Lord is the gospel, okay.
The commandment is the words of the Lord and it is the gospel message.
What God spoke to Israel, what God spoke to them when they were in the desert, what God
gave to Moses.
So what Moses is communicating here, right, of course, these people are used to this word,
right, so they should be able to understand that his commandment, right, his instruction
is actually the gospel because it is the word of the Lord and it is what is coming.
So the gospel is a commandment, we can say that, right, the gospel is a commandment.
So we're connecting Genesis to Exodus 20 and Exodus 19.
Also when we repeat Exodus 20 and look at Jesus' reiteration of Exodus 20, right, Jesus'
explanation of Exodus 20, right, let's go to Mark 12 verse 28.
We will see that he summarized it as believing God, or Mark 12 verse 28.
He said, oh, okay, this is Luke's for real, Mark 12 verse 28.
He said, the one of the scribes came up and heard him disputing with one another and seeing
that he answered them well, he asked him, which commandment is the most important of
all, right, so which commandment is the most important of all?
And Jesus answered, the most important is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength.
And the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, right, there is no other
commandment greater than this, right, there is no other commandment greater than this.
Now this is parallel to Deuteronomy 6 verse 5, right, Deuteronomy 6 verse 5, which is
the second explanation or the second giving of the law of the same law, the second explanation
of what Moses had told them before.
Deuteronomy 6 verse 5, the same thing was reiterated there from verse 1.
He said, now this is the commandment, the statute and the rules that the Lord God commanded
me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess
it and that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your sons and your sons' sons by
keeping his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life
and that your days may be long.
Henceforth, therefore, O Israel, be careful to do them that it may go well with you and
that you may multiply greatly as the Lord the God of your father has promised you in
a land flowing with milk and honey.
Now we all know these are figurative.
Therefore, here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.
And these words that I command you today shall be on your hearts.
So we see that the Ten Commandments, right, the commandments given to Israel explained
by Christ and the word commandment is actually referring to the message of the gospel, right,
the message of the gospel.
What Moses is giving them, right, in the Deuteronomy here, right, is demanding faith from them,
right, is demanding faith from them, right.
Of course, he had given them the Ten Commandments, that is just after he had reiterated the Ten
Commandments in chapter five of the Deuteronomy.
So if you look here, I reiterated the Ten Commandments, right, and now in six is repeating
the same thing.
So all along when Moses was giving commandments, right, as he has received, what he was demanding
from Israel was faith in God, right, was faith in God.
To love the Lord your God is actually to obey, which is the same thing as to have faith in
him, to have faith in what he has spoken, to have faith in what he said he will do,
right.
That is why you see he brought the context of the Lord your God of your Father, what
God has promised and the land is taken them to, right.
So their job is to believe what God has said, right, to believe what God has said, right,
which is to love him, which is to obey him, right.
So these three words actually are very similar and are used most especially when Moses is
telling them and demanding an action.
So the way to communicate it is to say to love, right, to love, which is to obey and
to believe.
We're going to see that subsequently much explained.
But what we see now is that the commandment is the gospel and from Genesis therefore we
can say that what God is demanding from Adam when he said, right, he has been commanded
not to eat, right, it means that the gospel has been communicated to him, right, which
is to love, to obey, right, and to believe or to believe the message of God.
Right, that's another way to help us to clarify that what Moses was saying, right, majorly
was demanding faith, right, from Adam saying that God was expecting Adam to believe a communication
that has been passed on to him, right, to show love or to obey.
So he said, the Lord took man and put him in the garden and commanded him saying, you
may, right, surely eat surely of the fruit and the garden.
We've talked about eating as a way to explain this part and now I'm bringing and revealing
some, explaining some things using the word command because when Moses used commandment
and this most of the time, it's actually demanding faith from the people of Israel, right, it's
demanding faith.
So we can apply that and say it's faith that has been demanded.
So the identity that Adam would have received is identity of, what I've received in the
Bible, is identity of faith, someone who believed the message of God, right, someone who believed
the message of God in communication that has been spoken to him, right, from this explanation.
So faith therefore becomes an identity that is given to us, right, when the message of
the gospel, the commandment of God is preached to us, right, it's preached to us, it's explained
to us, it's opened to us, the love of God is shown to us, the instruction of God is
shown to us, the commandment of God is shown to us.
So we love, we obey and we believe, right, that is what it means to love God with your
heart, with your whole mind.
Again, you can add Romans chapter 10, we talked about believing with your whole heart and
confessing with your mother and believing with your whole heart.
He aligns together to explain that the message of God, right, is salvation, right, and this
is what it desires all men to believe and come into this faithfulness.
Lastly, we can just also see some scriptures that refer to God as a faithful father, right,
you see, 1 Thessalonians 5, right, he shows that picture that God himself is faithful,
right, God himself is faithful and finite, right.
So we can check that scripture and see that God himself is faithful, the one who has called
him faithful also, right, home to the fulfillment of it, right, you know what he has said regarding
you.
So we believe as therefore, we can call ourselves faithful, right, because of the faith that
we have in God, right, because of the faith that we have in God and because of Christ's
expression of faith.
So we can pick up Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12 already established Christ is the author and the finisher
of our faith, so it means God himself is the author of our faith and just like I said,
the father of spirits is God, the father of faith is Christ, okay, the father of spirits
is God, the father of faith is Christ, Hebrews 12 verse 1, the father of spirit is God, is
Christ himself, right, the father of faith is still Christ, right.
So this is what we see, we can see that what we are calling our identity is birthed Christ
himself.
We appreciate you being here today.
We hope you carried this word with you throughout your week.
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Until next time, stay blessed.