The Church In Old Testament by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The church in types and shadows

We are looking at the church, or the promise of the church, in the Old Testament

Romans 15:4

2 Timothy 3:16 to 2 Timothy 3:17

Doctrine means teaching. Reproof means evidence. Correction is self-explanatory. Instruction in righteousness means learning the ways of God

Complete means entire, wanting nothing

The man of God here is any man that belongs to God, the believer. It is not only pastors that learn the word.

The end goal of scripture is that you as a believer be entire, thoroughly equipped for every good work

All scripture here is Genesis to Malachi, because the epistles were still being written. So what we draw from Genesis to Malachi is not only moral lessons

You can learn wisdom, life and godly living from the Old Testament. But Paul gives the purpose: doctrine

The Christian doctrine is not only in the epistles. The God of Genesis to Malachi is not different from the God of the epistles.

The job of the teacher, and the idea of the epistles, is to make sense of and explain Genesis to Malachi

We are not just drawing out stories. We are equipped in Christology

Reproof is evidence

The evidence that Jesus is the Messiah is from Genesis to Malachi. The possibilities attached to the Messiah were prophesied, and we compare his life with it and see he is the one

If they had understood the scriptures, they would not have missed that he is the Messiah Matthew 22:29

Everything Jesus did was prophetic. Born in Bethlehem, you can't miss it

Nicodemus said no one can do these things unless God be with him John 3:2. Jesus said, you call me good? None is good save God Mark 10:18.

Jesus was not denying he is God. He was saying, do you know the implication? You are saying I'm God

Somebody walking on water Job 9:8. When he called them men of little faith in the storm, he was saying, didn't you read the scriptures?

The Messiah is hung on a tree Deuteronomy 21:23. He doesn't die on water

Some things were in his control. Tearing his garments was not. They were moved to cast lots for the garment of a naked man, soaked in blood. Your mind can't go to Psalm 22:18

You can remember scripture when you want to argue, but once it is about the Messiah you forget

Doubt, unbelief and disbelief

1. Doubt

   To question what you believe. Your heart says it can happen, your head says it's not possible.

   You have to believe to actually doubt

2. Unbelief

   I cannot believe because I don't have proof

3. Disbelief

   To not believe in spite of proof

When Jesus rose, they paid people to lie that he didn't rise Matthew 28:12 to Matthew 28:15

The way you practice unbelief, you will end in disbelief. The lie becomes truth and reality to you. People don't want to lose an argument

Somebody is healed beside you at a healing service and you say they arranged it. Take poison, you say. The word in Mark 16:18 is if, not when. If means perchance it happens.

Testing the Lord is relegating scripture

Why can't pastors raise the dead in the mortuary? Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead Luke 9:60. Jesus didn't heal every dead person. If every dead person was raised, who would die?

Jesus never said, get me dead people. People came to him. Your coming is your faith

You cannot intellectually convince a blind man to see. You cannot wake a person who is pretending to be asleep

C. S. Lewis: there are two kinds of people. Those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says, thy will be done

If God is loving, why is there hell? Have you met someone who was raped and did not get justice? Hell is God's justice. You can escape here, you won't escape there.

That is where God makes everything right

Many argue on a moral premise, not an intellectual one. If God is good, you are bringing in moralism. But if there is no moral lawgiver, how did we all get a moral law?

What regulates you to say if God is good?

Shadow and substance

Hebrews 10:1

Shadow means an outline or frame

Your shadow shows the shape but it is not the substance. You can tell the shape of the one standing in the light by the shadow on the wall. But that is not the person

The Old Testament is not only history and moral lessons. It is God drawing the outline of the new long before the new was revealed

Everything in the New Testament has a shadow in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the shadow. The New Testament is the substance

5 types of the church in the Old Testament

1. A called out man
2. A chosen household
3. A lamb for a family
4. An assembly in the wilderness
5. A tent where God dwells, a tabernacle. Tents show the presence of God is a movement, not a permanent structure. We move with God's presence

Type 1: A called out man, Abraham

Genesis 12:1 to Genesis 12:3

Nehemiah 9:7

Get out of your country looks like God calling the children of Israel out of Egypt to the promised land

Get out is being called out. Ecclesia means called out ones 1 Peter 2:9. God preached the gospel to Abraham Galatians 3:8

Verses 2 and 3 give governmental power. A great nation, not a great family. The ecclesia is a called out assembly representing others in a public place to legislate

Abraham was a Gentile when the promise was made

Romans 2:28 to Romans 2:29

A major component of being a Jew is circumcision Genesis 17:10 to Genesis 17:14. You can also be a proselyte and move from another religion into Judaism

Genesis 15:6 Circumcision was not what made Abraham righteous. Faith did. Circumcision in Genesis 17 came as a sign of faith, a work of faith. It did not give him right standing before God

Abraham put his faith in the promise of the son. We put our faith in the promise that the son has come. The only difference is that Abraham's was future.

Before the foundations of the world the lamb had been slain Revelation 13:8

See the tenses in Genesis 22:13. Abraham lifted his eyes and looked behind him. The promise is coming but the promise has already happened

Romans 4:9 to Romans 4:12

He received the promise uncircumcised, then the seal of circumcision.

So he is father of the Gentiles, because he received the promise as a Gentile, and father of the Jews, because he had the seal of circumcision

Genesis 17:5

Abram means exalted father. Abraham means father of a multitude of nations. The word nations is goyim, which means Gentiles. God promised father of nations, not father of Israel

From the beginning the promise was never about an ethnic group. God was raising a father, not just a child. Sarah and Abraham thought it was about a child, and Ishmael could have been enough.

God was looking for a father who could typify him as Father and gather the nations. God is building a family

Sin broke the family

In Eden the father came to his son, where are you? Adam hid Genesis 3:10. Adam is the son of God Luke 3:38. Direct creations of God are called sons of God

Sin has dominion over a man in two folds. One, you conclude you cannot win, that desire can't change. Two, you hide. Whatever you do, don't run away.

Running away is being in sin Romans 6:12 to Romans 6:14

First, father and son broke apart. Second, marriage: the woman you gave me Genesis 3:12. Third, two brothers killed each other Genesis 4

By Genesis 11 the world had one language but everybody was scattered. At Babel they were trying to go up. At Pentecost God came down Acts 2.

They were in one accord and spoke in tongues. The language God scattered, he unified in the language of the spirit. That is family speaking

If God is raising a father in Abraham, he is raising a household in which Gentiles have a place

Abraham typifies the Father, Isaac the Son

Genesis 22:2 Only son, the beloved son. Does it sound familiar? John 3:16

A three day journey with wood and knife. Genesis 22:4 On the third day. Abraham had killed Isaac in his mind on day one.

So the third day is the day the boy came alive, and a ram was the substitute

Mount Moriah is in Jerusalem, near Golgotha 2 Chronicles 3:1. It is where the house of the Lord was built, where sons are born

Genesis 22:9 Isaac typifies the son's willingness to do the will of the father

Genesis 23:1, Genesis 17:17 Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 when Isaac was born. Sarah died at 127. So theologians say Isaac was about 33 to 37 years old.

An old man could not force a man in his thirties to lie on wood. The boy chose to lie down

Jehovah Jireh, God will provide Genesis 22:8. He preached the gospel to that boy

Jireh

God's provision has been provided. Abraham went there to give something to God. Jireh is a prepared provision

The mountain is where he shows you the provision is. Carry the boy to Afghanistan and you will kill the boy. The ram God prepared is at Moriah

Anyone who will experience God as Jireh is told where to go. You don't tell him what to do.

If your prayer is a grocery list you hand to God, that is not how prayer works

In Jireh you are instructed. It's a three day journey. You walk with me. I will show you the place. When you get there, you offer there

What people call unanswered prayer or delay is that they need something from God but give him terms. You are the needy one. He wants to help you.

You don't tell people how to help you

God, I know you are rich, give me $1 million. God says, I'm an investor, pitch your idea. Oil and gas. God says, you will not do well in oil and gas.

You say, I don't need your idea, just money. If I give you this money, what you want to do cannot work. But I'm Jireh. There is a Moriah.

If you follow me, I will take you there

What matters more than a job is that your food is digesting and you have sound health. You didn't pray about it, but God saw to it. You don't know what you need the most.

So why not keep quiet?

The idea of prayer is downloading, listening. How many times did you see Abraham say, give me a child? The contamination of the process was to go and make one

The servants stay at the foot of the mountain. They refer to the law and the prophets. The son climbs Moriah and sacrifices Genesis 22:5

Genesis 22:18

Galatians 3:13 to Galatians 3:16

The seed is not seeds of many. It is Christ, the promised son

Romans 4:13, Romans 4:16 to Romans 4:17

God gives life to the dead. Abraham believed in resurrection when he was ready to sacrifice Isaac Hebrews 11:19. If Isaac came from the deadness of Sarah's womb, God can bring him back.

He believed God could cut off the boy's head and join it

Genesis 17:1

God first introduced himself as El Shaddai, the one who nourishes, who gives life. Hi, I give people life

Watch how God introduces himself to you. That is where your test is

If he introduces himself as a friend who sticks closer than a brother Proverbs 18:24, don't be surprised when people leave.

If he says I am your ever present help in time of need Psalm 46:1, you will be in need. If he says I'm your bridegroom, the same applies

The test was the boy on the altar. God had made all the promises, but activating the promise was the son on the altar.

Since you have not withheld your son, I won't withhold my son from your lineage Genesis 22:16 to Genesis 22:18

The blessing came with something on the altar. The pronouncement came with something on the altar. In your seed, God puts Christ

There is nobody in this world not connected to Abraham. Three major religions come from one man

Sacrifice is not money. Abraham was rich and God didn't ask for his money. Sometimes money is the smallest thing. He may want your time

1 Samuel 15:22 To hearken means to listen. Don't give God what you like. Nobody likes a gift they like given to them instead of a gift they want.

You don't serve God on your terms. He can make demands of you that he doesn't make of another

Application: the church is Jews and Gentiles in the promise of the seed

A Christian cannot be a racist, a tribalist or a classist. You have not so learned Christ Ephesians 4:20

I cannot marry Yoruba people. Igbo people are shady. Parents refusing a marriage because of tribe, and these are pastors. Instead of you to defend people, you suspect them because of tribe

Understand why you do the ordinances of Christianity. Don't do it only because that is how they gave birth to you

The commanded blessing in the ecclesia

Psalm 133:3

Psalm 68:6

God sets the solitary in families. Who is the rebellious? Anybody not in family. This is a prophecy about the church. Jesus saw sheep without a shepherd Matthew 9:36

Set means intentionally puts. When you joined a church and felt at home, you were set in family. God set you in your house

Illustration: the PlayStation

My mom raised us to be very honest. If you did something wrong and said it, she would give you money. It really affected me in life

I went to a friend's house and played PS1. I started stealing my mother's money for the game center, 200, 300 naira. I was also stealing from my sister's savings, as she deposited, I withdrew

My mother put 200 naira somewhere as a trap. She called us, who took the 200? I said it was me. She let me go.

Later they found the stolen savings of my sister, a year's worth

They flogged me and I stood down. The money did not come out. But they did not remove me from that family. I still ate that night. Today I'm not stealing from her.

I turned out fine. What if they took me to the police and said he's a criminal? That is what some of us do

Many Christians are shepherds who don't leave the 99 to go after the one Luke 15:4. That is where we conclude on somebody. Where is grace?

I'm not talking to bad people. I'm talking to Christians. If you are a bad person, what happened to Ananias and Sapphira is what will happen to you Acts 5.

Not as a curse, it is the premise. When you take advantage of the ecclesia, things die in your life

A man lied to the entire church that he was sick. Every week they gave him money. He had 30 million naira. They caught him

A lady came out of a terrible relationship. I told her you have two options. Curse him, abuse him, say it will not be well with him.

Or bless him, want his highest good, and don't see yourself as the victim. He left you because God wanted you to leave him but you were too emotionally attached to do it.

She said, I pick the latter. She is getting married in December

Where there is a chief cornerstone, there is a rock of offense 1 Peter 2:6 to 1 Peter 2:8.

If bad people treat you bad in church, that is the chief cornerstone and also the rock of offense

If you stay and iron it out, God will bring beauty from ashes Isaiah 61:3. He called light out of darkness.

If you go with anger, your reward is the sympathy of people saying you are right

This is a very spiritual place. It is the assembly of God, the church of the firstborn Hebrews 12:23. You can behave like Lucifer, because he too was one of the sons of God

Don't break the hedge around your life

God could not afflict Egypt until Egypt afflicted Israel with wickedness. Pharaoh was feeding them, he was being good to them. The first signs were not human related.

When Pharaoh's heart hardened and he increased the burden on Israel, that was where he broke the hedge over his life Exodus 5

Don't break the edge around your life with wickedness. Once the devil gets you attacking people and talking them down, you lift that edge of favor from yourself

A lot of people lack spiritual intelligence. There is a prophecy over a believer's life. Do you want to be condemned? Isaiah 54:17. Don't joke with a believer.

There are too many prophecies around him

Genesis 12:3. God is called a man of war Exodus 15:3. You touch Israel, one angel, 180,000 died 2 Kings 19:35. The same God disciplines them, but don't touch them

Church is a communal way of life

Individualistic living is western culture. Christianity has a culture. It is a communal way of life

Growing up we stayed with a family, the Chilakas. I'm in their house, they are in my house. That is how we grew up

I don't know what my neighbor's garage looks like. The first time he spoke to me was the day I bought my Tesla

People import western culture into church. Nobody knows their name. After service they pick their car and go. That's not how to do church

Seeing somebody in church for the first time is not a church growth strategy so that they like our church. You have to see it as family

Your cousin you've never met knocks on your door, my name is Dapo, I'm your cousin. How we were raised, you say, wow, come in.

But western culture says, I don't know you, my house is full

Some don't talk to their siblings. You came into the world through the same channel. You start life absolutely dependent, naked. Some clothed you, fed you, gave you context in family

Then you meet friends at the university and in four years you realize they never cared. After school you never saw them again.

If something happens to you today, it is the family with bad energy that will be responsible for you

A man carried his father to a nursing home. His son in the car asked, Grandpa is not coming with us? That's where we put old people.

The son said, so that's where I should drop you? The man turned back and carried his father. What you sow you will reap, God is not mocked Galatians 6:7

Are you doing church the way you like or the way God designed?

Restoration or hardening

The shame of being caught and pain changes some people. When you catch somebody stealing, what we do next determines their future: restoration or hardening

Think how pain softened your heart and made you better. Imagine if there was no Holy Spirit comforting you in that window. It could have hardened you

Many cannot think restoration. They think vengeance

To condemn is to conclude that the way you have seen somebody is how they will forever be, with no grace for improvement. If you do that, you don't have a ministry

The ministry of Jesus is no condemnation for those in Christ Romans 8:1

Jesus didn't condemn Judas. Judas condemned himself. The sacrifice of Jesus was paid for restoration. Jesus wanted him so bad

We have a poor valuation of church. I don't feel like coming to church today. If you can't do it with work, don't do it with church. You don't come because you feel like it.

You come because that is what believers do

• Father, we thank you that the entrance of your word gives light.
• Lord, let the things they have heard from me among many witnesses be committed to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:2