The Salvation Jesus Gives by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Romans 8:26 to Romans 8:39

Three exercises to show how the meaning of a text comes out of its context

Intercession

Romans 8:34

Intercession here doesn't mean Jesus is praying. It means the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus

We can say the Holy Spirit prays for us because he is on earth. He descended, he lives in us

To say Jesus prays for us is to say there is prayer in heaven. Prayer rises from the saints to heaven as incense, but prayer is not done there

If prayer was done there, you could repent in heaven. A sinner could die and pray. The meaning of prayer is hope

Psalm 110:1

Jesus is seated at the right hand in rest because he has finished his work

So his death, burial and resurrection is the monument of his intercession. It silences judgment and declares us justified

So his death is an intercession. When God wants to punish sin, our intercession is that Jesus has died for the punishment of our sin

Our sins were paid for because God has to be just. But it was not paid for by us. So God is merciful. He did it in love and mercy

Illustration: the speeding ticket

A man gets a speeding ticket. The judge says you have to pay a fine of $1,000

The man says he was rushing because he thought his pregnant wife was in labor. The judge is moved with compassion

But he will be a terrible judge if he lets him go after he broke the law. That is the character of the constitution in that moment. He is a judge, not a daddy

So the judge says: you will pay $1,000. That's me as a judge. But here is the $1,000, pay it

He did his job, but he was also a compassionate human being. That's what God did with the cross

He provided the sacrifice and made sure it was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins

God didn't just say, I'm forgiving your sins. There is no forgiveness of sins without blood. That's why he had to die for us Hebrews 9:22

Any God who just says "I forgive you because you are crying" should not be trusted. He forgave you based on how he felt

Don't trust anybody who operates by feeling. Trust somebody who is principled

Hebrews 7:25

Imagine what a miserable life Jesus would be living in heaven, begging for everybody's sin. Father, please forgive him, don't kill him

God is faithful to Jesus, gracious to us

For the sake of example, there is a conversation in heaven. These guys have sinned and cannot find their way. What are we going to do?

The Son said, I will go. On a condition: I will die for them, and once I die, everything allotted to me as a Son, you give to them

It has to be substitution, like Abraham and Isaac and that ram Genesis 22. I take their place so they can take my place. God said, perfect

So Jesus goes, dies and resurrects. Now God is not dealing with us according to our sins and trespasses. He deals with us according to his agreement with Jesus

He is faithful to his agreement with Jesus. We are on the benefiting end, so he is gracious to us

Even when you are not faithful, he never needed your faithfulness. You were always on the premise of grace

It was not you do and I do. It was I will do, Jesus will do. Then you receive

You can't say, God, I'm not faithful. He says, I know. That's why I made him die. I know you can't be faithful

Your portion in God is grace, unmerited favor. It was paid for, but it's free for you. That's why we are the righteousness of God in Christ 2 Corinthians 5:21

God would be unfaithful in his agreement with Christ if he were not gracious to us. Jesus has done his part. God's part is lavishing us with grace

Your Christian experience is actually receiving

Illustration: the medicine bottle

There is a way we do things in Nigeria and a way they do things in America. In Nigeria you use your teeth and force

I wanted to open a bottle of syrup in America and I started pulling. I just looked at the top, pressed it down, and it opened

That is what some Christians are doing. They carry the product instead of learning how to open it

If it's hard, chances are you are carrying a load he didn't give you. Pause and learn how he wants you to carry it

If not, you wear yourself out and get offended for no reason. You see others doing the same thing effortlessly, like fasting, and you feel they are faking it

3 exercises in context

1. More than conquerors Romans 8:37

   What are "all these things" that we are more than conquerors in? There is a context to what he meant

   From Romans 8:26 down to Romans 8:39, where do we find the "all these things" he is talking about? Romans 8:35

   So he gives you the context of what you are more than a conqueror in. He is not saying anything you face, you are more than a conqueror

   If you don't prepare, an exam can conquer you. You can feel you failed when you were just confessing "in all these things"

2. All things freely given Romans 8:32

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   The "all things" can be appropriated to mean a job or a car. But in context, that is not what it means

   Anything unbelievers can get without God is not what Jesus died for

   Look at Romans 8:28 to Romans 8:30

   Not those that God loves. Those that love God and are called according to his purpose

   In as much as you are predestined, called and justified, you are going to be glorified. The "all things" is that at the end of the day, glorification will be your outcome

3. All things work together Romans 8:28

   What are the all things that work together? The things listed in Romans 8:35 will work together

   Then look at Romans 8:38 and Romans 8:39. Those are all the things that will work together

   Here is how you appropriate this scripture.

   If you heard something and thought it was God, and did it honoring God, and it was wrong

   But you did it in love, pushing the agenda of God. All things will work together for your good

   God will find a way to reroute that thing and make sure you still come out at the expected end

   Maybe you were in a ministry where they taught you terrible things and took money from you. If you did it in genuine love for God, you will suffer no loss

The meaning of the text is always in the context. Write that down

You don't have to impute into it. You don't have to add to it. Just read it in context

Take your time and you will find the meaning. It will be impossible to miss

Illustration: bind and loose

Matthew 18:18

You can read this and think it is a prayer text. It says bind, it says loose. If you are an African, even worse. You have entered warfare mode

Now start from Matthew 18:15. Read it in context and you see what he is saying. It is reconciliation in the church

The "one or two more" of Matthew 18:16 is where you get "if two shall agree"

So the two that agree in Matthew 18:19 are the two in the context of reconciliation, not prayer

You can assume it is prayer because you didn't read the context

Papa said textual interpretation is a curse to the church. It will injure people

So many Christians are hurt and wounded because they took one verse and assumed it was a promise

You have to be very careful with the Bible. It's a double-edged sword

Rightly dividing the word

2 Timothy 2:15

To rightly divide means there is a way to wrongly divide. It is always in the premise of source and consequence

The word is already there. The place you can miss it is the source of it, which is the intention, or the outcome

Why is there light here? Rightly: it is powered by the power company. Wrongly: to say it is a generator

Another way to wrongly divide is to give the wrong reason for the light

We don't have light here to see each other's faces. That's not the primary reason. We have light here to power things so you can hear my voice and listen to the word of God

During games and conversations, the light is not there to hear God's word but to fellowship together

So rightly dividing is always in the context of intention and consequence

Fundamentals of our faith

4. The bodily resurrection of Christ 1 Corinthians 15:17

   A dead savior cannot save you. That is why there is no other religion like the Christian religion. Its protagonist is alive

   Signs of life are speaking, movement, an ability to respond. When we mention Jesus, he answers, and we see it in miracles

   Nobody should tell us about the afterlife. If you are not there and have not come back, it is not smart to not be a Christian

   Illustration: the rich young ruler

   Jesus told him to sell all he had and come and follow him. Everybody apart from the Pharisees and Sadducees left Jesus happy. He left sorrowful, for great were his possessions

   I think he was sad because he really wanted to do it. He is a businessman. He came after concluding that what Jesus had was better than his. He wanted more than he had

   If Bill Gates told you to resign your job, sell everything you have and be with him in California for 3 years, to make you a success, how many of you would do it?

   The problem is not what he said. It is your valuation of who said it

   Once you know it is actually God telling him, it would be stupid to not do it

   Jesus died. His 12 disciples were not ready to die. Clearly they left him

   After three days he rose from the dead, walked through the wall, and let them touch his scars as confirmation that this was not a film. Right before them he ascended into heaven

   500 people saw it at once 1 Corinthians 15. The proof that what they saw was real is that they were willing to die for it

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   Pastor Dolapo Lawal

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   A Jew confessing that Jesus is God is not normal. Peter and all of them knew that once they confessed Jesus as God, they were leaving Judaism

   There is no atheist scholar on earth who doesn't recognize Jesus as a historical figure. Not one

   That a man of 33 walked the earth doing miracles, signs and wonders is clear historically. No other religion has that kind of credibility

   Without the resurrection, Jesus would have been seen as a blasphemer, rightly judged and condemned. Why did they crucify him? Because he said he was God

   The cross would have looked like God's verdict against him Deuteronomy 21:23

   Putting him on the tree was saying he is accursed of God. The Greek word for accursed is anathema, which means separate from God.

   So putting Jesus on the cross was saying he is not of God

   But what did God do? Romans 1:4

   The resurrection from the dead shows he is not a curse of God. He was paying the penalty of sin

   God appropriated Psalm 16:10. The resurrection shows that Jesus is the Holy One

   It shows clearly that the death of Jesus had God's hand in it. It was God's will, restoring us back by his death, burial and resurrection

   1 Corinthians 15:20

   We all must believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. That's what salvation means. That's our hope

   Illustration: the cure for cancer

   One of the major proofs that the life of God is working in you is that you catch the burdens of God. You cannot see darkness and feel everything is okay

   Suppose a man has the cure for cancer, two tablets and you are fine. He keeps it and gives it only to people he likes, at $1 million. Thousands have died right before him

   When we catch him, we can't kill him because we need him to make more. But the first thing we will call him is a killer.

   A lot of people have died not because they were supposed to die, but because you were evil

   That is somebody who knows the cure to a temporary death. How much more if you have the cure to somebody's eternal damnation and you close your mouth. Are you not a killer too?

   Why did God put you in that office space? Some of us have family members heading straight to hell. If they are dying now, there is no hope and we can't talk

   Testimony: the music director

   A lot of people call themselves Christians but know when they are not saved

   A man about to die sent his children to call me to lead him to Christ. They said their pastor could lead him. He said no. In other words, he wanted two factor authentication

   I led him to Christ on Monday and he died on Wednesday. He was a music director in the church for over 40 years

   Deep down, when he was looking at death, he knew that it was not like this

   I have seen people about to die calling people to say, I forgive you. They know they can't enter with it

   The claim of Christianity is very wild. Jesus ascended into heaven bodily. Bodily resurrection, not spirit resurrection

5. Salvation by grace through faith Ephesians 2:8 to Ephesians 2:10

   Salvation is a gift. It means we don't work to be saved

   Ephesians 2:9

   In salvation you have no additional input. The only thing you add is your sin that made it necessary

   Write it down: your only addition in salvation is your sin that made it necessary

   You don't work for salvation. You don't perform for it. You don't behave good, then God makes you saved. If not, you will boast

   God wants it to be on the premise of thanksgiving. Nobody will make heaven because they were a good person. You will be in heaven because you received God's gift of salvation

   Heaven is not for good people. It is for believers

   Encounters and prophecy

   Someone went to heaven and came back with reports from heaven. She said somebody was not allowed to enter the gates of heaven

   It is not wise to talk down on visions and encounters. We call revelation scripture. What is it? Vision and encounter

   If we remove all the revelations and encounters, the book of Daniel and the book of Isaiah will not remain. The prophetic experiences in scripture were encounters. The Spirit came upon them to prophesy

   That's why God is raising teachers that will make sure there is balance

   One extreme says the letter kills and the spirit gives life, yet they are quoting the letter 2 Corinthians 3:6

   The other extreme says "I am an eye" and the eye is not in the body. The eye is on the head. So I'm not with the body of Christ

   It's not always this or this. A balanced Christian is this and this

   I'm not taking away encounters, but we will judge your encounter if you tell us. If you keep it to yourself, we will not judge you

   A girl said she went to the gate of heaven and was sent to hell because she asked for a stick of matches and used three. Because of two matchsticks she went to hell

   Someone said weave is made from Satan's hair. Someone gave a list of food you must not eat if you want to make heaven, rice and stew

   We have to be very, very careful

   The devil can appear as an angel of light 2 Corinthians 11:14. You can have encounters that are not from God

   Something very dangerous about a familiar spirit or lying spirit. Look at the context for the lying spirit 1 Kings 22. Only the man of God said, oh king, if you go, you will die.

   Every other person prophesying with a lying spirit was a company of them

   Lying spirit has confirmation. If you say it is God because three people told you, it can be a lying spirit

   If a prophetic word is not quickened to you personally, don't collect it

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   One man came to the fellowship and told a girl he saw her dying. She said, stop it, I will not die. Don't prophesy like that.

   The thoughts were coming to her and she was fighting

   If it was the Spirit of God, he would declare life. If you understand how the spirit realm works, be very careful

   Somebody can prophesy what seems correct, and there is a confirmation

   You had three dreams in which you died, then a prophet comes and says I'm seeing death. You say, it's true. By what spirit did he say that?

   God told Hezekiah to prepare his house, he was leaving in 3 days Isaiah 38:1. The man said, I don't want this prophecy, and God said okay

   This is the problem I have with us Pentecostals. When a prophecy is positive, we believe that if we don't believe it, it won't come to pass

   If somebody gives you a positive prophecy that you will be rich in 3 days and you don't believe, an average Pentecostal believes the reason you didn't get rich was that you didn't believe

   But if somebody says you will die in 3 days and you say I don't believe, the average Pentecostal doesn't believe that saying "I don't believe" is enough to stop it

   We believe a negative prophecy is sealed in heaven

   Where did we start thinking like this from? If you say no, it's no

   If somebody tells you, I'm seeing a lot of delay in your family, you are seeing the me that died on the cross.

   This me, old things have passed away 2 Corinthians 5:17

   The blood that is speaking for me rose. Some people enter panic mode, and it is that fear that will kill them

   1 Corinthians 14:3

   If it's a prophecy from God, it edifies. It builds up. Edification, not terrification

   I'm not saying prophecy can't come as a warning, but even in the warning there is a declaration of a way out. Don't tell me I will die and not tell me I will live

   Reject that prophecy. You don't need to fast. Just say no, I don't want it. That's all

   Saved by grace, saved for works

   Martin Luther put it this way: we are saved by grace through faith alone, but faith that is not alone

   Ephesians 2:10

   We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works

   We are not doing something so God can like us. We are doing because we are loved by God. We are doing from a place of acceptance

   It's not semantics. In one you are striving with effort. In the other you are empowered by love

   Illustration: the husband's list

   A woman was married to a man and they had a lot of issues every year.

   She told him that every year they should write out what he wants out of the marriage and check how she is trying to meet up

   Every December 31 they went through it, and she never met up with all of it. The man died and she married another man

   Years later, in her garage storage, she found the papers where she used to write for her dead husband.

   She checked and realized that everything her ex-husband asked for that she never met, she was doing for her new husband

   She said, I realized that love empowers me to do so. In an environment of demand he couldn't bring it out of me. When demand wasn't there and love was poured, things started coming out

   Romans 5:5

   You have not been in love. That's why you think you are busy

   When you are in love, you will be on the phone, laughing, doing weird things. You will sleep with the video call on

   You can wake up one morning and say, how far is a 16 hour drive? You will see me by night

   If somebody calls and asks, are you busy? You say, I'm not busy, even when you have a deadline

   That's what God did in Christ. He poured out his love on us

   Your love for God is the revelation of the abundance of his love for you. You cannot love God if you don't know he loves you. Your love for God is knowing he loves you

   What the devil is actually fighting is the revelation of God's love for you

   You lose your job and he attacks your job, so you would think God doesn't like you.

   Job lost his children and his business, but that was not the goal. The goal was for him to curse God

   Losing the job or losing this and that is not the goal. The goal is for you to say God doesn't like me, God hates me

   A believer is not allowed to say God doesn't like me. If you say God hates me, God doesn't take it lightly. It kept them from entering the promise

   Deuteronomy 1:27

   Basically they are saying God hates me, and he saved me to destroy me

   Deuteronomy 1:28

   Those ones came and preached them into fear. There are people who can preach you into fear

   You can't talk like that. God hates you and he came to die for you? What else should he do?

   Illustration: the blood

   I saw two men arguing. One slapped the other. The man who was slapped stepped back and said, why did you slap me?

   The other pursued him and punched him, and blood came out. When he touched the blood he said, ah, my blood

   His trigger was blood. You can slap me, but don't let me see blood. That was just a small cut. Jesus shed his blood for us

   His blood is not a goat's blood. It is the blood of God.

   He wants to make sure you are completely free from the yoke of sin and law, all because he had you in mind

   It would be unfair to judge his love because you didn't get a miracle, or because you don't have work

   Illustration: the tithe

   When I was pastoring in Maryland I tried to convince a girl that she was experiencing loss not because she didn't pay tithes

   She argued that once she doesn't pay, things are tight. At a point I said, be it unto you according to your word

   Do you know how preposterous it is to think that because you didn't give God money, your washing machine will spoil? Angel, go and touch the wire. People think like this

   That kind of person can never get to generosity. Some people have never met God

   If you change your mindset today that God can never be against me, the torment will stop

   Illustration: the rapture dream

   Somebody told me that whenever she dreams of the rapture, she never makes it. It happened to me too

   In the dream they carried a friend who is a sinner, and I didn't make it. I said, this thing is not right. This is a torment, not from God

   The Holy Spirit said, sit with Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 2. I want to change how you see

   The first thing he showed me: I have been quickened with Christ. He said, don't try to make where you already are. Is Christ not in heaven?

   Are you not seated with him? Why are you afraid you will not make heaven?

   That was the last time I had that dream. The next dream, God said, preach my gospel

   I told the girl to sit with Ephesians 1 and 2. It was not a prayer problem. It was mindset

   Many people think God is wicked and watching out for their sin. I'm not saying don't sin

   If he introduces himself to you as Father, there are things your child can do that are bad and you will not react in a certain way, being a good father

   God is better than you. How can you insult God with that wicked thought?

   Everything we are doing here is out of love. That's what Christianity is about. The premise is red, the blood, love. The initiation came from him. He is the initiator

   Ask men, can you die for your wife? They will say yes. But if it comes to it, I don't know. Maybe when I'm 85

   The incarnation

   When Jesus was born, the angels rejoiced Luke 2:14

   This was the first time they were seeing the form of God. They looked and God is a baby

   The conversation of angels was: what is man that you are so mindful of him? Psalm 8:4 What is so special about this clay that you do these weird things for them?

   God was born in a manger. If he's the Lamb of God, he has to be born in a manger

   Then God told Joseph to carry Jesus and run to Egypt Matthew 2:13. God is running to Egypt

   The Bible calls being a human being poverty 2 Corinthians 8:9

   The God who cannot sleep or slumber is sleeping on a boat, tired Psalm 121:4, Mark 4:38

   Some of us have not sat down to conceptualize the incarnation. We are not saying a human being became an animal. God becoming a human being is already too far

   We don't even want to talk about the cross. They spit on his face and beat him

   They hang God naked on a cross. The Father has to look away. This is the darling of heaven, the most precious thing

   And God did all this for one thing: your salvation

   If you make that kind of investment, do you make it and walk away? He that has begun a good work will bring it to completion Philippians 1:6

   Your part is believing. Once I'm believing, I have assurance of salvation

   At an altar call I once invited people forward, and one man came out in front of me. I asked, by what spirit is this? It was very disheartening to me, because it means somebody damaged his mind

   You can be praying in the spirit and not know you are saved. May God help us

   If I know I'm saved, I'm not saying, Father, in the name of Jesus, please let me make heaven. It is a gift. You receive it in salvation.

   You don't have to beg him for it

   That's why he died. He died so he can be with you, and when you die, you can be with him

   Are we saved by what we do? No. But the proof that we are saved is what we do

   We want to live for him. We want to love him. We want to love the brethren, to serve, to be of help

   We have lost appetite for sin. We are dissatisfied with imperfection. Even when we sin, we feel bad for it because our nature has changed

   That's the heart of the believer

2 Timothy 2:2