The Old And The New by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Old Testament Is the Background for New Testament Writing

The Old Testament — Genesis to Malachi — is the context for everything written in the New Testament. The New Testament is the foreground: the explanation, the fulfilment, and the interpretation of what the Old Testament promised. They are one scripture.

Habakkuk 2:4 — "The just shall live by his faith." Paul lifts this in Romans 1:17 and gives it its New Testament meaning: the righteousness of God, the gospel, the power of God unto salvation. He is not inventing a new concept. He is explaining an old one.

Genesis 22:18 — "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Paul's explanation comes in Galatians 3:16 — "He does not say 'seeds' as of many, but 'seed' as of one, which is Christ." He is showing you that what God said to Abraham in Genesis is about Jesus.

Isaiah 53:4–5 — "He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." Peter interprets this in 1 Peter 2:24 — "By his stripes you were healed." The healing being described is not primarily physical healing of the body. It is the healing of restoration — the return to the original state of union with God in salvation. Peter is interpreting Isaiah. That is the method.

You cannot interpret interpretation. Once you try to interpret the New Testament on its own terms, without Genesis to Malachi, you will cook the ingredients that are already in the finished meal.

What Your Theology Determines

Every religion has prayer. What makes Christian prayer different is theology. If you are not praying to a Father, you are not praying to the God of the Bible. If you are praying to a God you must appease — twist his arm, manipulate his will — you are praying to a different god.

There is a difference between pleasing God and appeasing God. Appeasing is motivated by fear. Pleasing is motivated by love. These are not the same posture, and God knows the difference. It means something to him.

If you are not praying to a Father, it is your native oracle in your village. That is not an insult — it is a doctrinal line. Christian theology is that you are approaching a Father, not a warlord.

How to Create an Altar

If you find a consistent place to pray in your home and you do it long enough, that place becomes marked. Angels ascend and descend at the place where prayer is habitual. It becomes a kind of embassy — if God wants to carry out an assignment in that area, he will use your room as the point of contact.

If you are making a call from that place and you begin to lie, the Spirit will witness it against your conscience. Move. The altar is there.

Theology is connected to prayer. Once theology is right, expectation becomes correct.

Peter's Revelation and Identity

Matthew 16:15–18 — Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father." Your true identity, people will not see because you tell them. God projects it to them. That is where value starts — when people have a revelation of who you are.

John the Baptist was Jesus's cousin. But when the favour of God came upon Jesus, John did not see his cousin. He saw "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." People don't value you because they haven't checked you in the spirit. They are not seeing you. They need to see you how God sees you.