Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Tonight we're gonna do, really delve into an important topic of what it means to live and walk by faith in Jesus Christ. Entitled tonight, Abraham was not a Torah follower, walking by faith. Of course, I have addressed this issue, this topic of Torah observance. I've called it different things. I've addressed it really since April, kind of hard. I addressed it at different times. But I continue to get constant Torah observers and Hebrew Roots, Hebrew roots, individuals, whatever, they wanna call themselves. Really, really coming hard on this thing about keeping the Old Testament law. And so I tell you, I had an interesting kind of back and forth with a lady today or yesterday on the subject of, do we as New Covenant believers have to go back under the law of Moses? I know some of them don't like to call it the law of Moses, even though the Bible does call it that. But under the Old Covenant, Old Testament law, the rituals, the ceremonies, again, keeping Sabbaths, feasts, new moons, the dietary laws, circumcision, all those different things. Is that required for New Testament believers? And anyway, we'll probably get into that. We're gonna start tonight. We're gonna go to Romans chapter three, because I wanna start where this dialogue started. But it's just interesting. It's just interesting that it continues to be such a hot topic, such an issue. But of course there's the law pushers out there as what was it the cowboy called Wyatt Earp in Tombstone called him a law dog. And so there's the law dogs out there that just they're pushing it. And of course they have an angle that they come at it where it makes it sound legit. It makes it sound like, yeah, you should try to keep all these Old Testament laws, rituals, feasts, Sabbaths, new moon, where you should try to do it all. But again, we must keep things in context of where we are. We are under a new covenant. We're not under the old covenant. That was a contract. That was a covenant is a contract and we have an old contract and we have a new contract. And according to the book of Hebrews, we have a better covenant now with better promises. As I was talking with Pastor Kevin before the show tonight, it's interesting. I said, you know, one of the big issues and one of the big ideas they push, well, the law didn't change. Jesus didn't do away with the law. He didn't change the law. The law didn't change. And yet you bring up the fact, well, then why aren't you sacrificing animals to cover your sin? Oh, but that part changed. And I thought, well, how convenient for you. That part changes, but you wanna pick and choose what you think changed. Well, the Bible is clear. I mean, folks, listen, the book of Galatians is clear. The book of Colossians is clear. The book of Ephesians even lays it out. But, you know, the council in Jerusalem, the apostles, the apostolic council, when all the apostles and the elders came together in Acts chapter 15 and to ask the question, are the Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus Christ? Are they required to keep the Sabbath, the law of Moses, all of that stuff. And the end result of that was absolutely not. We gave no such commandment. And we may go back and cover that. I've covered all those. If you're new to prophecy quake,
you're new to this ministry or our church service or this radio show, you can go to our YouTube channel or Dean Old Ministry's Facebook page. You can find the shows we did, you know, since April. We've done quite a few so on this. But tonight I really wanna delve into what it means to live and walk by faith. And I wanna say this too at the outset. And I put it in the show description tonight that far too many are trying to have a walk with God by the deeds of the law, the Old Testament law. And then there's others trying to do it, what I call by the deeds of the dead church life. And either side of this fence that you find yourself on, whether you're trying to go back and find your spirituality or feel spiritual or feel superior or whatever reason you're going back or maybe you're sincere, but you're sincerely wrong and going back trying to keep the Old Testament laws that you're not required to as a New Testament believer in Jesus Christ, whatever your reason there, if you're going back there and you're trying to focus on these outwards to develop a walk of faith with Jesus, it's just not gonna work. And the scriptures tell us, the apostles told us, it's not gonna work because the law is not a faith. And we're gonna look at that. But then you have people and listen, I know plenty of them in which many people who have gone into become Torah followers or into the Hebraic roots movement, many of them were in dead churches and they were just, they struggled. And so listen, you can get into the same kind of legalism, thinking that your righteousness, whether you're a Sunday evangelical church-going American or a Westerner, and you think that, okay, I go to church, I go to Sunday school, I go to my small group meetings, I give in the offering, I sing in the choir. You got a checklist of things that you think, if I do these things, that makes me write with God and makes me have a relationship with God. And that means I'm walking by faith. And neither one, whether you're trying to go back and keep the law of Moses focused on all these outward rituals and Sabbath and dietary laws, or you're just an evangelical with a checklist. Either way, that is not what God ever intended. And the reason I brought up Abraham is because Abraham is the father of faith. I mean, it says those who walk in faith, those who live by faith, walk by faith, are the children of Abraham. So we're gonna read a lot of scripture tonight, but I just want you to understand that righteousness is by faith in Jesus Christ, in his blood shed on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, and by completely trusting in his righteousness, not your own, trusting in what he did, not what you can do. And this is where the divide comes. Now, that doesn't mean, the New Testament doesn't mean that, oh, because of grace, because we're in a new covenant, that we can just go live any way we want. The New Testament has its moral standards and limits and boundaries of what's required of us and what we can and cannot do. We'll touch on that too. But listen, true faith is, and as I said, the father of our faith, Abraham, was not a Torah follower. He walked in a faith relationship with God. And that's what I wanna talk to you about tonight.
The most important thing for you is once you are truly born again, and you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, and you know that you're born again, you've repented, you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've had the supernatural witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you've been born again, you're supposed to walk by faith, and faith is developing a relationship with God where you learn to hear his voice, where you're sensitive to the leading and to the moving of the Holy Spirit, his Holy Spirit within you. And true faith becomes then an exciting adventure of knowing the Lord Jesus intimately and being led by the Holy Spirit. That's what Romans eight talks about. The sons of God, the daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God, meaning, you know what? The goal of becoming a Christian is to fellowship intimately with God and to learn to hear his voice. Remember, John 10.27, I mean, you know, I'm gonna pop some of these off, you know, kind of quickly, but if Kevin can put them up at John 10.27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Now folks, this is not just talking about the scriptures and everybody out there that knows me, knows this ministry, knows that I believe the Bible, Genesis to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation, that the Bible is the inspired, God-breathed, infallible word from the Almighty. It is his revelation. And that we judge everything, doctrine, we judge every vision or dream or prophetic word or whatever, we judge everything according to the scriptures. It is the final authority. It is the highest authority. It is the standard, the measuring rod, you know, it's the way we discern truth from a lie and a bottom line. But having said that, also, God doesn't just speak to us through the scriptures. He can and does speak to his people directly. And I've shared this many times. For instance, there's nowhere in the Bible that it says, Dean Odell, move from Washington, DC to Auburn, Alabama and start a church in the year 2009, in January of 2009. The Bible doesn't say that. So how did I know that God wanted me to do that? Well, because I spent enough time reading the Bible, time in prayer, time in fasting, and because I've developed over many years, a walk of faith in a relationship with God, learning to hear his voice and be sensitive to his spirit, when his Holy Spirit spoke to me, when he spoke to me and said, this, the church in DC is gonna fire you on November 30th of 2008. When they do, and this was, of course, like several months before, he said, when they do, I want you to move to Auburn, Alabama, my hometown, my home area, where I grew up and start a new church. Well, I didn't hear that like you hear me right now, but it was so crystal clear on the inside in my spirit, from the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells in me. He spoke it to my spirit and my spirit communicated it to my brain. And I heard it just like I would, I mean, it was almost, it was so strong, it was almost like someone was sitting beside me. But it was not audible like you hear me, but it was really strong and clear. And because I know how to, I've had time experiencing that, I knew it was him, but I also set that on the back burner and let God confirm that. I had a phone call from a guy that lived in the area here and didn't tell him that I was thinking about moving back to my hometown to start a church.
And he tells me, he said, you ought to move back to Auburn to start a church. I know some people to be interested in the kind of church that you would do. And I thought, well, okay, God, I hear you. There's a confirmation. And then I waited a little bit longer. And of course, when I got fired on November 30th for taking a stand for righteousness, or truth in that church where there was a problem, when I got fired for that, I knew it was on November 30th, just like the Holy Spirit told me. So then I knew for sure God was telling me, you get back to the South, move to your hometown and start a church. And so it's that kind of relationship with God. It's that kind of hearing his voice and walking by faith and stepping out on obedience. That is the goal of Jesus in your life. That is the goal of Christianity. That is the goal of God that he wants in your life. It's not just about learning doctrines and religious or religious creeds or a checklist of, you know, I've gone to church. I've been in Sunday school. I've given in the tithes and offerings. Or, you know, I've kept the Feast of Tabernacles or I kept Passover or I didn't eat pork this week. It's, if that is what your religion, if that's what your Christianity is boiled down to, a checklist where you're trying to get your checks and stars up on the chalkboard, then you're missing the whole point. You're missing the whole thing. And you're missing the revelation or the faith of Abraham and the faith that God wants us to have. Now, let's go back, let's go to Galatians chapter three, because I just posted, I'm sorry, not Galatians. Let's go to Romans three first, Romans chapter three. And I just posted a few verses and it's funny sometimes on Facebook, I will post just maybe a scripture or two or three verses without any commentary. And I will get people attacking me, particularly Torah followers attacking me, especially if I post verses from Romans or Galatians where Paul is specifically saying that we don't have to live. We're not to live by the deeds of the law. Let me get there, Romans chapter three. So this is kind of what started this particular exchange the last couple of days. And I'll get there shortly. Romans three, let's just go down. I think it was just one verse that I posted because sometimes I just don't wanna post the whole, like 10 verses because it's so much to read, but it was the verse 28. So let's put that up first. I posted this verse and it drew out the wrath of the Torah followers at me just for posting this verse. Now I did capitalize some words, and of course I guess capitalization makes people more incited here. But anyway, the verse I posted, Romans three, verse 28 says this, Paul said, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's all I posted. And here come the Torah followers wanting to argue, wanting to debate, wanting to throw out their indoctrination that they've received from their many Torah teachers out there that are scattered across the internet world. And I just sit there and for a while I just watch. I just watch an amazement at them just begin to kind of lose their minds.
But here is the issue. Here's the issue. And we're gonna read this because it's important. And I'm gonna read it again. Verse 28, Romans 3, 28, the apostle Paul writes, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, therefore we conclude, meaning everything he's been talking about in Romans one, in Romans two, and throughout this chapter three, he says, everything I'm talking to you about here, we conclude the conclusion. This is the sum of the matter. In fact, you look up the word in the Greek and it means this is the absolute reality of the way it is. That we conclude that a man is justified, made righteous, totally right with God, by faith without the deeds of the law, without the deeds of the law. Now faith is an interesting word. It is the Greek word pistis and it means to rely on, to trust in, to be fully persuaded, to be fully convinced, fully convicted. It means to totally rely and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, for righteousness. It means that you have no doubts in your heart. You are fully persuaded. You know that he died. It was the fact that he never sinned. He lived a righteous life. And then he paid the penalty because we could not live righteous. We could not obey the law. We could not obey all the laws of the old covenant. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so the whole purpose of it all, of the law was to bring us to Jesus. So listen, when you have phrases like, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, without the deeds of the law. If that drives you crazy, then you are a legalist. Then you have been deceived into believing that you've got to have the deeds of the law to be really right with God. Now I have people that's funny. I have these people, these Torah followers that'll come back and say, well, we're not doing it to be right with God. Our salvation is by faith in Jesus. It is by grace. But they always come in with that. But, but this shows that I love him. This shows him, and you know, they'll go down this road and I'm like, but nothing. You know, as they said, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas, right? And see, that drives me crazy. Just mentioning that dreadful, terrible Christmas. But hear me, folks, this phrase, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So that started it. And then right after that, I went ahead and backed up a few verses and posted these. So let's back up a few verses in this chapter here because it's so good. And I went back up to verse 20. And I think I posted verses 20, I can't remember, in a separate post on Facebook. But let's read from verse 20 here. He says this, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all, them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works, nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that man, man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now this drove this poor lady, this poor Torah follower, this drove her crazy. And so I think she started arguing and I started giving her, here's what you need to read, here's what you need to understand. We're in the new covenant, not the old. And so, and I started giving her passages to read. And I think I went to bed and I woke up the next morning. And so what she had done was that she came and just basically copied and pasted on my page, almost every, you know, a whole section from James chapter two. So let's go there. Talking about faith without works is dead being alone. So let's go there. Faith without works is dead being alone, which I'm, of course, very familiar with. Now, remember, she's equating works that you need to do to be justified. She's equating that with the deeds of the law, going back under the law of Moses, trying to keep feast and Sabbath and new moons and dietary laws and circumcision and all this stuff. She thinks that, you know, trying to keep the Sabbath, which she didn't even know what day to keep it on. And so she posed the entire, this entire passage, I'm sorry. Let me get there first. James chapter two, oh my pages. Hebrews trying to stick together there. All right, we're gonna start reading from verse 14. This is what she posted on my page. See, she posted this trying to point out to me, basically that, and again, her whole argument is that, no, to be really right with God, you need to keep the law of Moses, the old covenant law, Jesus didn't do away with it. So you need to be trying to, you need to keep the Sabbath, you need to keep the feast, the seven feasts of the Lord, you need to do this. You need to, you know, you need to keep the dietary. I mean, you know, she just, that was her idea of the works we need to do to be really right with God. So she, in that context, she posts this right here. So let's just read from verse 14 and we'll read verse 14 and this is James two, verse 14. What does it profit my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone.
Again, to me, that's an issue of love, but we'll move on from there. Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. In verse 18, yay, a man may say thou has faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believeth that there is one God, thou do us well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. Okay, so the point is made that if you have true faith, you will have works or actions to prove that you have faith. I agree with this 100%. But let's look at the examples that the Lord gives because he doesn't give any examples about keeping the Sabbath or the new moons or the feast or any of that, the dietary laws. He goes into talking about Abraham and how Abraham had actions, corresponding actions, or faith or works with his faith that imputed to him or gave him righteousness. So let's read. So James here pulls up the examples of Abraham. And she, remember this lady posted this entire passage trying to tell me that we needed to keep the law of Moses. And here's why, because of this passage, right? So verse 21, well, verse 20, we'll read it again. But wilt I know, vain man, that faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. You see then how that by works a man is justified not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and that sent them another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also. So this was her point that, her trying to make a point, this is why we need to keep the law because we're not justified just by faith only. And I said, you know, I said, what's interesting here? And I wrote this and this is when I got the sound of crickets. I wrote her back and I said, did you know that Abraham was not a Torah follower? That the law, the Torah did not even come into existence until 430 years after Abraham. So Abraham didn't even know the dietary laws. He didn't know the feast. He didn't know any of that stuff. Now God gave him a token, the sign of circumcision as a sign of a covenant already made, but Abraham walked by faith. Now, what I wanna show you is he uses two of the things about Abraham here. He talks about Abraham offering up his son Isaac and he talks about Abraham believing God and it being imputed to him for righteousness. Now let's check this out because I want you to see something. Let's go to Galatians chapter three first and let's look at, we're gonna cover this pretty thoroughly tonight because either you're a child of Abraham, a child that walks by faith, a child of God that walks by faith
or you're a child trying to walk by the law or, and that could be trying to be a Torah follower or trying to be just a Christian, an evangelical Sunday going Christian that just checks off their list, but they have no intimacy, no real interaction with God where they hear his voice and have a life of faith. But Galatians chapter three, and we got plenty of time tonight. We're studying the Bible tonight. So I hope you guys stay with me. And as we go through this, so I'm not trying to be mean to anybody, but we need to understand God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to walk by faith, not by sight. He wants us to learn to hear his voice and be led by the Holy Spirit. And truly, if that's your heart, you won't even wanna do things that are sinful because you don't want to hinder your ability to hear his voice and move on to the next adventure that God has for you. To me, this is why it's so great. I mean, you really, you have dead Christianity or you have living vital intimacy with God. I mean, you can have either one and you can have it in the Torah movement and you can have it in the evangelical Protestant church world. You can have it anywhere. But I don't care about either side of this issue. I want the truth and I want to have intimacy with God and I wanna walk by faith, not by the deeds of the law and not by a religious checklist. That's it. So let's look at the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit. I know some of them are Paul haters because he totally destroys their idea that you must keep the law to be right with God or to be really right with God. So let's look at Galatians 3 and actually we're gonna read the whole chapter, okay? So no one can say that I'm gonna take anything out of context. We're gonna read the whole chapter. We're gonna come back and point out some important parts. But verse one, he says, Oh foolish Galatians, now these are Christians, born again Christian, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit, the Holy Spirit he's talking about, by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Remember those phrases. Did you receive the Holy Spirit? Did the Holy Spirit fill you? Did it come in your life change you by the works of the law because you were doing the works of law or because of the hearing of faith? You heard the word of God, you heard the Holy Spirit drawing you, touching you, speaking to your heart and you responded to the salvation call. That's what he's saying. How did it happen? By the Holy Spirit, by the hearing of the word of God, the hearing of faith, or did it happen because you were trying to keep the law? Simple question. Of course it's rhetorical because he knows the answer. He says, are you so foolish? Verse three, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Now, what's he talking about? He's talking about if you're going back trying to keep the law, to have to have any semblance of righteousness for any reason that you think to be right with God, then you're really operating in the flesh. You've left the things of the Spirit, you've left faith and you've moved into the works of the flesh trying to keep the law. He goes on, he says, have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that minister to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you. Doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Again, he's comparing, the person that's operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, hearing from God, operating in miracles, operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Is he doing this? I mean, operating the gift of prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, gifts of healing, working in miracles. There's 12 gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. He's saying, the person that's doing these things among you, is he doing it because he's a law keeper? He's doing it because he keeps trying to keep the law of Moses or because he has a relationship with God walking by faith, hearing his voice and obeying and letting the Holy Spirit lead him. Which one is it? And again, it's rhetorical. He knows what he's saying. It's by faith, the new covenant and the power of the new covenant to walk in the power, to walk in the Holy Spirit, to walk in the gifts. It's all by faith. It has nothing to do with trying to keep Sabbath's dietary laws, new moons, feasts. It has nothing to do with that. And that's what he says. Then again, just like James brings up the examples of Abraham, the apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit has the apostle Paul bring up Abraham. And he says, even, verse six, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. So now what he's referring to here, and I may, we may turn to it in a minute, but when he's saying that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, I'm gonna ask Genesis 15 when God told him, you know, he says this, him and Abraham have this conversation. And again, they're having a two-way conversation and the Lord speaking to him in a vision about he's gonna have a child when he can't. He, you know, he's past the age, Sarah's past the age, they can't have children. He has, you know, he has one in his house that's come up, Eleazar. I mean, not Eleazar, but Ishmael. And he has this one come up in his house or that was when he was talking about Eleazar a servant would be the heir. But what I'm getting at is he, the Lord tells him, no, you're gonna have a son. You and Sarah, you're gonna have a son. You're gonna have an heir. And he said, Abraham believed, meaning Abraham at that moment, he didn't doubt God's word, his promise to it. He believed it in his heart. He was fully persuaded. He staggered not at the promise of God in unbelief according to what Romans four says, he believed. And when he believed, when he had complete faith and trust fully persuaded in his heart that what God promised him would happen and that it would be a miracle, that it would be supernatural and that God would fulfill his word. That moment that Abraham had true faith in his heart, it says God imputed to him, gave him righteousness. He was righteous before God because of faith. But remember that whole account had to do with God and Abraham having fellowship, having interaction, God speaking to him and Abraham hearing and believing what God was revealing to him and speaking to him. You say, well, Pastor Dean, I don't have that, but you can have that. You can have it. Every born again Christian can have that relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. You can be filled with the Holy Spirit, hear his voice, learn to walk and be led by the Spirit through faith, not because you go back and try to do everything under the old covenant law, all right? So he gives this, and then he goes on, let's keep reading. Verse eight, and the scripture foreseen that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. Now he's talking about all nations, not nations that are, not just the Jewish nation that would try to keep the laws of Moses.
He said, in thee all nations will be blessed. Why? Because it's gonna be by faith. All these different names, they're not gonna have to try to keep all the laws of the Jews. They're just gonna have to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he died for sin, he rose from the dead, it is a gospel of faith. It is a gospel of power. It is a gospel of walking in faith and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, that blessing is gonna come upon all nations. Remember, this is all about Abraham, who was 430 years before the Torah, before the law of Moses, before the Levitical priesthood, before the sacrificial system, before all of that, before the feast, all of that. He's all of this. So just the fact that you have James and now Paul using the examples of Abraham, they're going back before the Torah, before the law and showing you that what God desires, more than you trying to keep the law, he desires a faith relationship. And that true faith hears his voice, hears what the Holy Spirit is saying and acts upon it, believes it first and then acts upon it. Let's keep reading. But look, back to verse seven. I mean, the astounding statement he makes here is that know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same were the children of Abraham. Now, what's this chapter about? Because he's talking about they who are of faith and they who are of the deeds of the law. So he's saying those who are of faith, walking in faith are the true children of Abraham, not the ones trying to keep Torah. Well, I know this is gonna be hard for some of you tonight, but it's truth. Let's keep reading from verse seven. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same were the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify, make righteous, the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel of Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Now see, people get mad at me for saying this, but this is straight out of the Bible. If you are of the law, if that's what you're about, if that's what you think is important, the old covenant law, it says you are under the curse. I didn't say it, the apostle Paul said it under the inspiration, the Holy Spirit, that's what the Bible said. So you're putting yourself back under the curse of the law. Not me, not Pastor Dean, not Pastor Dean being mean to you, right? This is what the scripture says. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do that. So basically you are cursed if you don't do everything written in the law of Moses. And I'm telling you, there's not a Torah follower out there that with a straight face, you can tell me, you keep all the old covenant laws because there's many of them you cannot keep even if you wanted to, even if you tried to. So that is a lie in itself. So again, most Torah followers are just cherry picking things that they try to keep. And it's really, listen, honestly, it's just about you're trying to find something to do outwardly. You're gonna cherry pick, I'm gonna keep the feast and I'm not gonna eat pork. And there's a whole list of other things that you're supposed to be doing. But you're not gonna do those, but you're gonna cherry pick those because they make you feel superior. And really what begins to build up in you is religious pride at what you're doing instead of just total faith, trust in what Jesus did. And this is why it starts getting people off. And this is why a lot of the Torah people get mean and nasty
and when you start telling them, no, sorry, you don't have to, righteousness is not by the deeds of the law, the righteousness of God without the laws manifested. It's by faith in Jesus Christ. It's by me walking with him. It's not by me trying to keep the old covenant law. It's not, it's not, it's not, it never will be. Not another new cup. You wanna live under the old covenant, go ahead. But I'm living under the new and that's what God wants you. He wants you to live under the new and he wants you to learn to walk by faith and he wants you to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. To me, that should be the quest, not to try to find out what calendars right so you know when to keep feasts and Sabbaths. To me, you wanna talk about a lot of wasted time and energy when you can just be spending time with God and learning to hear his voice and walking in the spirit and going out in power and making a difference in somebody's life because you can tell them the secrets of their heart through the gift of the word of knowledge or the gift of prophecy or you can heal them or you can cast a demon out of them or you can set the captive free. To me, that's more, far more important area to put your energy and strength and faith and time into then you know, trying to figure out what calendar and exactly when to keep the Sabbath. I mean, to me, it's ridiculous that again, to me it's ridiculous I have to tell people this. New Testament Christians should know this stuff. If you read the New Testament, you should know this. But again, there's teachers out there that are good at twisting and good at pulling, cherry picking a few verses here and there and avoiding or demonizing even like books like Galatians and so on and so forth. So let's just keep reading here. I keep getting off here. So he says here, we're gonna read from verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for what is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Everybody see that? No man, no woman, no person is justified, made righteous. No man is made pleasing to God by the law. No man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident for the just shall live by faith. So he said, we don't live by trying to keep the law, the just, the righteous live by faith. So the law and faith are completely separate things, completely separate things. And then he says it in verse 12, he says, and the law is not of faith. Boy, there's some Torah followers out there. You ought to repeat that verse, that first part of that over and over and over again until it sinks through the false teaching that you've been brainwashed with. Because he is clear that the law is not of faith. You can't say, I'm gonna keep the law and walk in faith. You cannot, they are completely different, diametrically opposed to the other. One is trusting in what you do, the other is trusting in what he has done. And you can't do both at the same time. And then he says these great words, verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So Jesus came, paid the price. That, verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith, not through the deeds of the law. Verse 15, brother and I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, he sayeth not and to seeds as of many, but as of one to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. So he's saying that the promise of relationship with God, blessing, I've got the gospel that was given to Abraham, the blessing of Abraham, the faith of Abraham that makes me a child of God, the example of Abraham of hearing God's voice and having an intimate relationship with him, all of that was by promise and that the adding of the law later cannot disannul the promise of the walk of faith. The law was added, he said, because of transgressions. The law was to bring the knowledge of sin. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But once we come to Christ and once faith comes, then we are no longer under the schoolmaster law. That's what it goes on to say here. Again, it couldn't be more clear in the book of Galatians, right? Now, I wanted you to see that because this verse 17, here is very important. Because he said, I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, and he's talking about through Abraham, the gospel that was preached to Abraham. Remember Jesus in John eight, or where was it? John six, John eight, one of those, I have to look. He said, I think it's John eight, but Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. The gospel was preached to Abraham. We see that in verse eight here. But what I was wanting to really focus in on, he says that this covenant in Christ, he said the law which was 430 years after this covenant with Abraham, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect, all right? And then he goes on, verse 19, he says, what then serveth the law? What was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions. So the law was added. Y'all wanna talk about adding too. There was already, God already revealed the kind of relationship, the kind of walk that he wanted us to have in his relationship with Abraham. That's our example. 430 years before the law, he says the law was added because of transgressions, because people kept rebelling and just indulging the flesh and rebelling against God. And so God said, okay, I'm gonna bring the law, I'm gonna add the law in, so the law will bring the knowledge of sin, it will bring conviction, it'll bring that heavy weight of guilt so that maybe they will turn back to me. So he says, what serveth the law? What purpose? It was added because of transgressions till or until the seed, speaking of Christ, should come to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there could have been a law given
that could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under faith. Meaning that before faith came, we were kept under the law and we were shut up or shut out from faith. He says, what should afterwards be revealed? Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. The whole purpose of the law was to bring the knowledge of sin, the conviction of sin, the weight of sin, the guilt of sin to make it so apparent and obvious and heavy upon us. That it would drive us to accept the sacrifice, the righteousness of Christ, and move from law keeping or a law failing to keep it, maybe trying but failing, and then it would move us into faith. But do you see again the picture? You cannot be trying to be a lawkeeper and walk in faith. It's the, again, completely different realms. You have to pick one or the other. This one makes me so sad for those who pick going back under the old covenant law. I'm like, you're just departing from walking by faith. You're just departing from the whole plan of, and really peace, joy. The fact that I can know, look, it's not dependent. It's not dependent on me doing everything right. It's not dependent on me keeping the law perfectly or trying to keep the Sabbath perfectly or trying to make sure there's no pork in the soup bite or whatever. I don't have to worry about all that. I just got to keep myself focused and I want to draw close to God. I want to spend time with Him. And the question I should always ask myself, not did I eat pork or not. The question I ask, am I hearing the voice of God? Am I being led by the Spirit? Am I being changed more and more into the image of Christ? Am I doing the works that He did? Am I preaching the gospel and seeing people saved? Am I seeing people healed? Am I seeing people delivered from demons? Am I seeing fruit of the Holy Spirit working in me and through me helping others? Or am I just recruiting a group of people around me to keep the law? But anyway, Galatians and the reason I wanted to really bring that out, the main points in this passage is that the children that are of faith are children of Abraham. Abraham and the covenant and the example of God of a walk of faith was 430 years before the law. That's why I entitled this. Abraham was not a Torah follower. There was no Torah to follow. He had a relationship with God. He heard His voice. He walked by faith. When God directed him to leave Ur of the Chaldees, that was faith. See, let's go to Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter. I absolutely love this. Hebrews chapter 11, look at verse one. We'll read that first and then we'll skip down a little bit. Let Kevin get that up for you on the screen. You know, sometimes I can feel the anointing to teach
and this is one of those nights. But let's read verse one. Just, we're gonna read verse one and then we're gonna jump down where he's talking about Abraham again. Cause he's talking about faith. This is known as the faith chapter, by faith. Hebrews 11, one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So he goes on to talk about creation. He talks about Abel. He talks about Enoch, verse six. Let's jump down to verse six. And he says, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And then he talks about Noah being warned of God. Now let's look at verse eight. He gets back into talking about Abraham. And I'm really focusing on Abraham. 430 years before the law, Abraham was not a Torah follower. He had this intimate, dynamic, powerful, real intimate relationship with the Lord and heard his voice and just an example of miracles, of miracle children and miracle protection and miracle provision. It's just one of, but look at this. Verse eight says by faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went. And by faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which had foundations whose builder and maker is God. Then he goes on to talk about Sarah. And this was really Sarah and Abraham's faith about children having a child. Says through faith, also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promise. Therefore, spraying there even of one of him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. Now these all died in faith, but let's go on down with verse 17. He uses another example of Abraham. He says, and by faith, Abraham, when he was tried or tested, offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting or believing, trusting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure. Now, the faith chapter uses the same examples. I mean, it goes on to, well, it uses the example of Abraham leaving Ur of the Chaldees. Let's look at that, go to Genesis 12. Because it uses the examples of Abraham leaving Ur of the Chaldees. It gives you the example of him and Sarah believing God, trusting what God said, that God would work a miracle and they would have a child. And also of when Abraham was tested when Isaac was older, when Abraham was tested about going to sacrifice his son. But Genesis chapter 12, let's look at this because I just want you to see it. I mean, a lot of you out there are probably familiar with it, but I want you to see it again, Genesis 12.
He's using these things as an example of faith. Look at Genesis 12, verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless him that blesses thee and curse him that curses thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. So he obeyed. So God is revealing that this is a demonstration, an example of faith, of walking in faith. And what is it? It's a relationship with the Lord. And the Lord said to Abraham and the Lord heard what he said. I mean, he's pretty specific. Abraham didn't have a Bible to go by. He didn't have scriptures to go by. He might've had the book of Enoch. He might've had something else, but he still didn't have that for guidance. So he had to spend time with God. He had to know God. He had to become familiar and acquainted with God's presence and God's voice and know how to distinguish it from his own inner voice versus the devil trying to lie, deceive him. And was Abraham perfect? Did he get in fear a couple of times? Did he lie one time? Yeah, he wasn't a perfect man. But yet he was the father of faith. He was called the friend of God and God revealed to him and spoke to him things. I mean, I love the story, you know, the part in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah when the Lord says, you know, shall I hide from Abraham? The thing that I'm gonna do. I mean, it's like Abraham's my friend. Abraham and I have a relationship. Why would I hide from him what I'm going to do? That's the kind of relationship that God wants us to have. But the example, again, of Abraham's faith, 430 years or 400 years before the Torah, before the law was added, was hear God's voice, know him intimately and let him lead you. Leave her of the Chaldees. Leave your kindred. Leave your father's house. I'm gonna show you where. So Abraham had to obey that direction to leave his home, his family, his kindred, I mean, not his wife, but I mean, you know, his extended family, what he was familiar with, where he grew up, leave this place. And God was like, I have another place. And see, this is, I just, this should be the life of a Christian. We should be hearing and be led by the Holy Spirit in what to do and what to do next and what to do next. That's what the end goal should be. That's it. Be filled with the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit. You know, the other example where it says that the Lord, you know, and I said it a minute ago, let's just, I mean, just flip to Genesis 15. Get a little sip of my Alabama sweet tea. Genesis 15. Here's God establishing the covenant with Abraham, and this is where Abraham believed God was accounted to him for righteousness. 15 verse one, let's just read here. After these things, the word of the Lord, the word of Yahweh, the word of God, God spoke, the word. A word came to Abram in a vision,
saying, fear not Abram. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, Yahweh, God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, behold to me thou has given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. And he, Abraham believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land and to inherit it. And then this is when Abraham asked him, how do I know I'm not gonna inherit it? And God made a covenant with him, and I'm not going into all that right now, with the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice. But I wanted you to see again, here's God speaking to Abraham in a vision that you're gonna have an heir. Abraham starts talking back to God because he's looking at it from a fleshly natural standpoint. Well, I don't have an heir, can't have children, but one born in my house, that's my heir. And God said, no, that's not the way it's gonna be. You're gonna have one coming from your own loins, you're gonna have a child, that's gonna be your heir, one born from you. So here's again, it's a two way conversation going on. And because of that, it says Abraham believed what God told him, even though he has this conversation with God, you know, I love it. We should be able to have these conversations with God. I have them with him all the time. Lord, I don't understand this. Why is this this way? Why is this? I'll read a verse sometimes, Lord, I don't understand this. And we'll have a two way conversation. You'll say, well, this is how it is. And he'll explain it to him. There's times I have like three or four questions running through my brain. And the Lord will say, sit down and read this passage. One day he gave me three different chapters in the Bible to read and it answered every question I had in my mind. And he had told me, he said, you read this chapter, you read this book, this chapter, this book. And it answered every question and every issue I was kind of struggling with in my heart, he answered them all. So I was just blown away and he does that. This is what I'm talking about. It's, you know, people think for us preachers about preaching or it's about teaching. And let me tell you, for me, I do that because I know that's what the Lord wants me to do. But I know that he wants me to do it because I've spent time with him and he talks to me about it. And he tells me, that's what I want you to do. That's the way it should be. There's a lot of people that just say, oh, I think I'm gonna be a minister or a priest or whatever. And they just say, okay, I'm gonna, they decide that's what I wanna do. They go to school and they go to seminary or whatever and then they do it. But, and the Lord never told them to do it. And we got a lot of people like that. We got a lot of people going to churches that God didn't tell them to go to. Going to Bible studies or, you know, to rabbis that God never said to go to. And there's really, there's the reason there's so much chaos in the church, body of Christ at large, you know, everywhere. It's because so few Christians are taking the time to pray, read their Bibles and hear from God and let the Holy Spirit lead their lives. You know, the other example, you know, Abraham, Stephanie had to go to Genesis 22.
I mean, I hope everybody's getting this. Before the law, before the Torah, before Moses, Abraham, the father of our faith was not a Torah follower. He was a man that had an intimate relationship who walked by faith. And that's why the Bible says that those who are faith, those who walk in this kind of relationship with God are the children of Abraham. That's what this is all about. I know I keep saying that, but it's just, I felt so strongly tonight from the Lord before, you know, today, getting ready that I had to emphasize how important this is because so many, I mean, there are people out there, I'm talking about, you know, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, healing, word of knowledge, God revealing things supernatural, revealing the secrets of men's hearts. Like for instance, I mean, a word of knowledge. I remember one time a young lady came to a service and I'd never seen her before in my life. And she came forward in an altar call and I laid hands on her and God gave me a word of knowledge about her life. And the Lord began to tell me she's, you know, she's never had her father in her life. He abandoned her, she's been broken over it. It's caused all kinds of problems in her life. And I began to share those things with her. And the Lord began to say, I want you to tell her, I know about her pain and her tears and her being abandoned, but tell her, I want to be her father and I want her to look to me as that and let me heal her. And the tears are just running down, just pouring down her face. See, that's the gifts of the Spirit. There are people out there who mock the gifts. They say, oh, it's not for today or you bunch of crazy Pentecostals and Charismatics. And I don't know, you know what? If that's you, you're in dead religion. If that's you out there, you're dead. You're dead. You're exactly what Paul warned about in 2 Timothy because he said that there would be those who would have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Deutemus, Holy Ghost, miraculous power that we're supposed to walk in. And you only can walk in that by faith. I mean, so many times over the years, I lay hands on somebody and start to pray for them and God begins to show me things about them. Let me tell you something. It takes great faith to step out and say it to people you don't know. If you don't know anything about them, you have no way of knowing if this is true. You're just trusting that, okay, God, I'm trusting that this is your Holy Spirit, that you're speaking to me, that you're revealing this, that this is a gift of the Spirit. And you always have to step out in faith. It's one of the Bible and Romans, that was about prophesying according to the proportion of faith that you have. There are people out there that mock it, but this is, it's New Testament Christianity. It's the way it's supposed to be. We're supposed to, you know, 1 Corinthians 14, people should come in and the gifts of the Spirit should operate not just through the pastor or the leaders, but through the body. And the secrets of their heart should be revealed to the point it says they fall on their knees and say, God is in you of a truth. I mean, that's New Testament Christianity. Not somebody coming in and us pointing at them 100 times, you need to keep the Sabbath to be right with God. No, you need to believe in Jesus to be right with God. You need to give your life to Jesus to be right with God. You need to let him fill you with his Holy Spirit so that you can hear his voice and learn to walk with him and find out how much he loves you and what kind of plan and awesome things and adventure that he has for you. Man, I'm gonna tell you, I can sit here all night. I can sit here and tell the stories, the adventures I've had. And I've shared some, I mean, some of you that are regular viewers and listeners, you know,
I've shared some of these, these are things that are real, I've even found letters and stuff from people written to me 20, 30 years ago, reminded me of things that, you know, just incredible adventures of obeying God to go pray for this person at this hospital or to go to Texas and cast demons out of a man that I hadn't even met yet. Or, I mean, just, you know, I mean, again, the book of Acts, the book of Acts, that's what you need to be thinking about. You can have it in your life. You can have that relationship. You can have those experiences, you know, I mean, I've been held prisoner in a foreign country and God supernaturally get me out of there and get me home. I mean, I just think about stuff like that and go, wow, you know, I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't trade anything. You know, these people coming at me going, trying to convince me, oh, Dean, you need to be, you need your eyes open. You need to be more enlightened. You're gonna be enlightened at how much coming back to the Torah and keeping the Sabbath and the feast, how much that's going to just help you. And I'm just sitting here going, don't try to help me. I don't need help that way. I, that's not helping me. No, I wouldn't trade the adventures that I've had in God by walking by faith and walking in the Holy Spirit. I wouldn't trade that for any of your religious rules and legalism and your superior, prideful, you know, ideas of what it means to be a true follower of God. You start setting the captives free, you know, you start moving in the power of the Holy Ghost. I'll talk to you then, you know, I'll listen to you. Coming at me with, you gotta keep the Sabbath and stuff to be right with God, no, sorry. It's just not true. We walk by faith and not by sight. New Testament Christianity is a walk of faith. I mean, let's go to this verse. This is just a passage, you know, people wanna talk about works and doing the work of God. Go to, let me look down here, John six. It's probably why I was getting John six and John eight a little backwards a minute ago. We might read John eight in a minute, but John six, this is just good stuff. We're gonna go down to, oh, where will we go here? I guess we'll just go 28 and 29. You know, this verse just kind of wrecks that whole idea of what's all the religious stuff I need to do, Jesus. So Jesus had just walked on water, fed a multitude, worked miracles, and so the people saw this stuff happen, all the miracles of God, the works of God, and it saw him healing the sick and the blind and the deaf and the lame. And in verse 28, they ask him, it says, then said they unto him, and the people, the multitude, the people around him speaking unto him. What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Jesus had a perfect opportunity here. If it was about keeping the Sabbath, the feast, the new moons, dietary laws, the feast, if it was all about that, we'd say, okay, what you gotta do, guys, if you wanna do what I do, you're gonna have to keep all that old covenant law. That's not what he said. Here's what he said, faith, believe. Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Now the word believe, I'm just gonna read it to you. The word believe, pistuo, in the Greek dictionary, to have faith, to credit someone, to entrust, especially to entrust one's spiritual well-being to Christ. It's from the word pistis, which means persuaded, fully persuaded, moral conviction, means to rely on, to trust in, to cling to Jesus, that he is everything to you. So what Jesus was saying here, guys, you ask, what do we do? What shall we do that we might work the works of God? And then Jesus said, this is the work of God. You wanna know the work of God? Believe on me, believe, walk in faith, be fully persuaded in your heart, learn to hear my voice, learn to obey the still small voice of my spirit within you. If you'll learn to be led by the spirit, then you will do what I do. This is why Jesus said, go to John 14. Folks, if we fall short, it's not because we didn't keep the law perfect. I tell you what, I hate the fact that I would fall short in the fact that I don't spend the time I need in prayer to hear what God has to say, so I miss an opportunity to do the work of God, to set a captive free. That's what ought to bug you. That's what bugs me, not whether I kept the Sabbath or not. What bugs me is that I miss an opportunity to minister the power of the Holy Spirit to somebody to the point it set them free and it brought them to faith or it brought them out of darkness or out of misery or out of pain. And it brought a moment of healing and peace, joy, love, delivered them from a demon, delivered them from a disease or from an injury. I wish more of that was happening. That's what I desire. John 14, verse 12, he says here, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, Jesus said, he that believeth on me, again, this word believe faith, he that believes faith in his heart. The one that's walking in faith, the one who believes in me, trust me, credits me, the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these because I go to my father. They talk about works. Listen, you folks obsessed with wanting to do works, okay? Finding Dandy, let's do these works. Let's do the works. Let's cast out demons, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, preach the gospel to the poor, see multitudes converted, see miracles happen, see the gifts of the spirit working. That's the work. You wanna be in the works of God? It is not about trying to keep tabernacles
or Passover or the Sabbath on Saturdays. Well, that's not even the day because the calendars are all messed up. It's not about that. Gosh, I tell you, I mean, it just can, I mean, I hope somebody out there, some torah fall is finally, it's sinking in to your head, to your heart. It is not about the deeds of the law. It is about the operation and walk of faith, walk of power, set the captives free. Jesus came and said, the spirit of God, Luke four, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to set at liberty those of the bruise, to preach deliverance to the captives, the opening of the, you know, the opening of the eyes of the blind, faith. See, let's go back. Go to Colossians chapter two. Lord help us. Oh, so many, so many passes. Let's keep going too far one way and too far the other. Here we go. Colossians two. We're going to go down to verse six. Verse six. Now think about this. Even many Torah followers, many in the Hebrew roots, Hebraic roots movement will say, oh yeah, I believe that we are saved by grace through faith. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not of trying to keep the law. We're not saved by trying to keep any of the laws. They'll say that. Okay, we're good. Cause if you admit that you're not saved by any deeds of the law, new moon, Sabbath, rituals, circumcision, say none of that saves me. Pastor Dean, I agree with you. None of that brings salvation, circumcision. None of it. Sabbath, feast, none of it. None of it brings salvation. We are saved by grace, meaning God's gift to open our eyes and to draw us the part. He does the part. He said, no man, Jesus said, no man can come to the father unless he's drawn. No man can come to me unless my father draws him. John 12. So nobody's coming, let's go. So that's great. So God wields everyone to be saved, meaning, and then Jesus said, of course, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. So Jesus was lifted up on that cross. And therefore he says, the Holy Spirit has gone forth to draw all men. That's why Calvinism is wrong. They believe some chosen to be saved, some chosen to be damned. God's not drawing all men. Calvinism is demonic error, okay? That's for another show. But God is drawing all men. So the grace, God is convicting, drawing, brings the gospel to you, brings people to you, draws you to a church service, draws you to something. But God's grace works. And his grace demonstrated that he died for you, that while you were yet a sinner, blind, deaf, dumb, had no knowledge of him, Christ died for you, took your sins in his body on the cross. So it's, grace is there. God did what we could not do for ourselves. And he says, for by grace are you saved, through faith, faith is believing.
I'm gonna go to Romans 10 in a minute, but faith says, it's simple. You believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Faith, believing what Jesus did on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead, requirements, right, to be saved. So it says, so that's how we're saved. So you say, Pastor Dean, I agree with you. Ephesians 2.8 and 9, for by grace are we saved through faith, that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. I believe it. So that's how we're saved, Pastor Dean. But I believe that once you're saved, you gotta prove that you love God, and prove that you have faith by keeping the law of Moses. Nope, not what the Bible says. Let me read something to you here. Colossians 2, verse 6 and 7 says this. Well, actually, we'll read through verse, say 10. I just love it. He says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Let me rephrase that. So he's saying, as you receive Jesus, so just like you receive Jesus to be saved by grace, through faith, not of works. He says, just the way you receive Jesus Christ the Lord, so you walk in him. Is anybody catching what I'm saying there? You catching what I'm saying, Kevin? Meaning if you're saved by grace through faith, you walk in him continually. In fact, the Greek verb tense here for walk is a present tense Greek verb, which means ongoing continuous action taking place in the present. So what he's saying was, just the same way you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior by God's grace, through your faith, believing in your heart, confessing with your mouth, the same way you're responding, the Holy Spirit drawing you, convicting you, pulling you, and then you finally responding to that and submitting to the Lord, the same way you were born again, the same way you were saved by grace through faith, by responding to that communication and pull of the Holy Spirit is the way you continue to walk in him. And that is letting the Holy Spirit speak to you and then obey and walking and communicating and cooperate with him. So he says in verse six, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ, for in him that is in Christ Jesus, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. You are complete in him. Let's keep in whom you are also are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and the putting off of the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, he hath quickened, made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses and blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, the law that was against us,
which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you, meaning let no one say you are right or wrong in meat or drink or respect of a holy day or of new moons or of Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ. So there you have it. As you received Jesus, so walk he in him. It is by grace through faith. It is a walk of faith. And I said we'd look at Romans 10. Let's look at Romans 10. Romans 10, good stuff. Pastor Dean, what about sin? What is sin? Well, the New Testament lays it out, look. Paul said if while we seek to be justified with Christ, we're found to be sinners, is God the minister of sin? God forbid, no. The New Testament, I mean, it's laid out. It's laid out in Romans 1. It's laid out in Ephesians 5. 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. Ephesians chapter 5. It's laid out in Revelation 21, 6 through 8. God lays it out. Galatians 5, he gives you the list. He says adultery, fornication, witchcraft, hatred, variance, drunkenness, reveling, partying, murdering. He gives you these lists and he says, those who do these things, practice these things habitually, will not inherit the kingdom of God. He tells you flat out in Revelation 21, the Hormongers, the sorcerers, the liars, the adulterers, they're what? They're gonna have their part in the lake that burns the fire and brimstone. The New Testament lays out, listen, you can't be licentious. You can't be lasciviousness. You can't just live and go indulge the sins of the flesh and think that that's okay. No, grace is not a license to sin. But that doesn't mean you have to go back, that you have to go back under the law of Moses either. You have to go back under all the feast and the Sabbath and the circumcision and all that. I don't know why people get those confused and why they can't understand that you look at the new covenant requirements that God wants us to do. And again, here's the thing, if you have a relationship with Jesus, with God and you're hearing his voice and you're filled with his spirit and you're seeing the supernatural and you're seeing God move and you're operating in faith and you're operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you really don't wanna go out and become an adulterer. I'm not saying you can't slip away. I mean, there's plenty of Christians who get lukewarm, they get hurt, they get offended, they get overwhelmed by the flesh for some reason, they end up falling away and going back to sin. It happens. But what I'm getting at is the walk of faith, once you've really experienced it, that's not your desire. And the person that's had that kind of walk with God and father, they are the most miserable people in the world because they've had the joy, the peace, the presence of God, the power, the gifts of the spirit. They've seen what it's like to minister to people in power and see the power of God touch people and how God can minister to them in such powerful ways. I mean, it's not just you ministering to others. The beautiful thing about a relationship with God, a true walk of faith, a true life of faith, is that God can speak to you about your issues and confront you and reveal things to you
and help you change and help you grow and put you in the right place at the right time so that you are learning the lessons you need to learn. I mean, one time God told me after fasting for days and I was seeking direction for my life, I was a young man and the Lord told me, I want you to go to this Methodist church. Now for me as a Pentecostal to go to a Methodist church that had a pastor that taught against the gifts of the spirit and the supernatural of Jesus, I'm like, what? But the Lord said, I want you to go there. I want you to take this particular job that's gonna be offered you not from that church but in town and I want you to work. And I ended up being there for two years and God was, he was training me, he was teaching me, he was working some things out of me, he was giving me some on the job training in so many different areas. And I look at that and go, you know, I'm glad I obeyed. I'm glad I obeyed him for those two years because it grew me up spiritually and in a lot of other ways. It grew me up and made me learn some things I needed to learn. That's where I worked for a radio station, a Christian radio station for two years. God told me he was gonna open that door and he opened that door. And that's why one of the reasons I was able to, when we started out with blog talk radio that I wasn't afraid to do radio because I had been a DJ for two years and I'd been on Christian radio from that point on. Everything God prepares you, you know, if you listen, he's gonna take you down roads that prepare you for your future. And that's what it's about, folks. That's why you wanna hear and you wanna learn. But I said Romans 10, let's go for Romans 10. I'm just sharing my heart with you. I'm sharing, this is the real stuff here. I don't want you to be Methodist or Baptist or Pentecostal or Torah or anything else. I want you to just find the Lord Jesus and start living a life of faith, not one of deeds of the law or religious checklists and start learning to hear his voice and walk in the spirit. Romans 10, now we read this a minute ago, or I quoted it, but let me read it to you because I wanna bring up something here that, again, a lot of people in the charismatic and Pentecostal and faith movement world, they've been taught this, they understand this, they forget it though. I mean, a lot of them are even dead, Luke, warm and spiritually dead. But here's what he said here. And let's go to, well, actually, let's just read chapter 10 from verse one here. We're not, we'll read to verse 17. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves into the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law that the man that doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture sayeth whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now again, this is true faith. This is not just a head knowledge. This is a heart that has been convicted, pulled, communicated with by the Holy Spirit that truly surrenders to the Lordship of Jesus. I tell people all the time, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you have no intention on him being Lord of your life, being the boss, then you're a liar and you really haven't had the work of the Holy Spirit in you for you to truly submit to his Lordship as God Almighty in your life. So this is talking about a person who is truly been communicated, convicted, drawn by the Holy Spirit. They confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus. Jesus is my Lord. He's my master. He's my boss. He's my God. And I believe, completely believe in him and believe in my heart that God has raised him from the dead. So with my heart, I've already begun my faith has brought me into his righteousness and with mouth, the confession is made into salvation. And then he goes on for the scripture says, whosoever believes, operates in faith, walks in faith on him, believeth on him on Jesus shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And let's go down. Let's go on and drop down to verse 17. He says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God faith. So he says faith cometh by hearing. Now what's interesting, the word here. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now there's two different words used in the New Testament, two different Greek words used. One is Logos, one is Rhema. These are the two words. Now, Logos means the divine expression, the written expression. It can mean the actual, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's called the word of God, the Logos. Not saying the word Logos is not important. It is powerful, it's the living word, all right. You could say just like the Bible says in Hebrews 4.12, the word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than he to insert. So the written word, I would say, is a description of the Logos. It's still alive, it's powerful. The written word is most important. But there's also the Rhema word. The Rhema word, that word gives us the idea of what God is speaking, what God is saying. Not what he has said. What he's written here is what he has said to us. So there's what God has said and there's what God is saying. And we need them both, that's the two-edged sword. The written word of God, what God has said, that's what we judge everything by the standard. Then there is what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. What he is saying to me. What is the now word? What does God want me to do now? Just like I said, there's the written word of God. Yes, go preach the gospel to all the world. Go preach the gospel to all creation, to every creature, we have that word. But then there's the word I needed. Okay, how do you want me to do that, God? Well, Dean, I want you to go to Auburn, Alabama in January of 2009 and start Firing Grace Church. Okay, so there you have the logos, the written word of God. That's still alive and powerful. Go preach the gospel to every creature. Okay, God, but specifically, how do you want me to do that? Some people are called to go preach in Africa. Some are called to go to South America. Some are to start churches in America,
in the United States of America. So how do we know? Well, we have to be led by the Spirit, meaning we have to get acquainted with Him. We have to get close to Him. We have to be serious about Him being Lord of our lives and meditating in the word, reading the word, studying the word, fasting, praying, and listening. Listening, learning to hear, getting, you know, I can't even express this enough, getting filled, baptized in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit beginning to work in your life, vitally important. So He says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So this verse is literally saying, not just faith comes by hearing somebody read the Bible. No, He's talking about faith comes when we actually hear the voice of God, what He is saying to us. Remember Abraham, let's go back to Abraham, our example tonight. Abraham heard God, they had a conversation two way. Abraham was thinking, you know, somebody in my house is going to have to be my heir. God's talking about I'm going to be the father of many nations, but I can't have children in the natural. So this servant in my house, one born in my house, delegates are, he's going to be my heir. So Abraham's trying to figure this out. God said, no, that's not the way it's going to be. So they have a conversation. And from that conversation, that two way conversation between Abraham and God, Abraham believed God more than he believed his own ideas, his own thoughts, his own reasoning. And it said, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him, imputed to him as righteousness. That's what this verse in Romans 10, 17 is about. Faith cometh by hearing, you see. And that's when your Christianity, that's when it's no longer religion. It's alive, it's a relationship. It's, wow, what does God have for me next? You know, it's just like I have on the flat earth international conference in Raleigh that I preached in. And that whole thing was, that whole Senate beforehand, the Holy Spirit spoke to me ahead of time and said, Robbie Davidson didn't even know Robbie. Robbie's going to ask you to be a part of the conference. And then he called me and he said, I want you to do devotions before. Not a presentation, not a speaking. And then later on, the Lord said, he's going to ask you to be a presenter and to give a whole presentation. And when he does, I want you to accept. And so both times I knew before Robbie called me and I shared these things with my wife and others, I knew God gave one of my elders a dream before I told her about it, that she had the dream of me speaking at the conference. And I've shared some of this. And so what I'm getting at is I knew that was God's will. And so I began to prepare for it. And I immediately bought my tickets and immediately got hotel reservations. And at the time, didn't have the money. And within a week, God had brought in the money and just amazing series of events. But all of that, all of that was supernatural. Went there and completely obeyed God. I don't care what any of my enemies or detractors, whether they're Christian or non-Christian, I don't care what any of them say. I know the Holy Spirit opened that door, told me he was gonna do it before it happened and told me exactly what to give in my entire presentation. And through that, I literally got to preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Call people to repentance, call people to faith, call people and warn people that there's a heaven
and there's a hell. And that the only way to salvation and forgiveness of sins is by giving your life, by faith in Jesus Christ and surrendering your life to him. And I made that clear to everyone in the conference, to everyone live streaming, to the videos that have gone out. We're talking about tens of thousands of people now. Heard the God, that was all God and that was all being led by the Holy Spirit. Because if God hadn't told me to accept, I wouldn't have accepted. Right before the Flat Earth Conference in Raleigh, I was invited to another conference to go be a speaker and basically pay my way, hotel room, everything was taken care of and the Holy Spirit said, no, don't go that, don't do it. So, I mean, I don't care. I mean, I could be invited to, I could be invited to preach to a stadium full of people, 60,000 people and the Holy Spirit said, no, I'm not going. And, but if he tells me to, I'm going. And that's what God wants in our lives. He wants us to walk in this, you know, in this exciting, you wanna talk about the exciting, look, I know there's been a lot. You know, just this one thing, you wanna talk about the Flat Earth Conference. The crazy attacks that have come my way from New Agers and witches and atheists and agnostics and unbelievers and people in the Flat Earth community and people outside of it. And, you know, I look at all that and I just, I just laugh. I'm like, what's got them so stirred up and losing their minds going crazy and attacking the gospel, the sword of the spirit went forth and it's stuck in their chest and they can't get it out. And I know that's just terrible for them to have to wrestle with, but I love them. And I hope and pray that the seed of the word of God, the gospel that was planted and all those people that many will come to Him. And, you know, and that's why the Lord even had me, I hear He had me address some of the end time stuff that's coming upon us. So it would be a further witness to them. But again, it's just an adventure, man. Was that, I mean, Kevin's in here though, silent Kevin, cause I've been just rattling on. But Kevin though, that was quite the adventure. You know, but that's just one example. I mean, Christianity is supposed to be living. It's supposed to be, you know, challenging yourself. You know, that's why the Bible talks about we move from faith to faith and glory to glory. It's like we move from one act of faith to, okay, God, what's the next act of faith? What are you gonna tell me to do now? It sounds crazy, you know, but, or impossible or something totally outside of my comfort zone. What are you gonna tell me to do and confirm it by your spirit and I jump out there and do it and just see the power of the Holy Spirit move. I mean, you know, I saw people in tears. I saw people touched. The emails I had, you know, God convicted me or God brought me back to Him or God really touched me and ministered to me or, you know, your boldness encouraged me to, it was time for me to quit hiding or being in fear or being timid about the gospel of Jesus and Him being the only way to heaven. Listen, all of our acts of faith, and again, I'm not talking about, I love it.
I think it was my former pastor many, many years ago, Dr. Larry Lee, I think, I'm pretty sure this was him saying this. Again, we're talking about 1989. So if I'm this quote this, forgive me. But he wrote a book, one of my favorite books, The Hearing Ear by Dr. Larry Lee. And, you know, of course he had his problems in the 90s and struggled and fell and, but he was a man that loved God and I know he still loves God and, but one of the things he talked about and I remember him saying one time, that faith is not a blind leap in the dark. That's why a lot of people have an idea of taking a step of faith is a blind leap in the dark. That's not true faith. True biblical faith is obeying a word from the light from the Holy Spirit and stepping out and doing it. What you hear are what He reveals to you. And it can be in a dream. It can be in a vision. It can be Him taking a passage or verse of scripture and just making it leap off the page and apply to your situation. And it just gives you the, you know, what He's saying and what He wants you to do. And I just, you know, I mean, I'm so, I try to stay so in tune. I listen, I can hear God sometimes talking to me through, you know, a five year old or a seven year old. They'll say something. I'm thinking, I'm asking God about, and then this little, little kid runs up to me and says these words and they answer my question. God uses a little child. He can speak in so many ways. But I, you know, we, the other night, reading other day, reading, you know, Matthew one, the story of the birth of Jesus and all that surrounded it. Over and over, God warned Joseph in a dream. God warned the wise men in a dream. God speaking or God sending an angel to speak. Sometimes He does that too. Maybe we'll talk more about that another time. But anyway, it's, this is what New Testament Christianity should be. I mean, you know, I know we've got a few minutes here and we didn't even take a break tonight. So I hope you guys are okay out there. But just, just go to Acts nine. I just want to just read this because it's such a powerful story. I mean, and I'm not even talking about the story of when Saul of Tarsus, this is Acts nine and you know, starting in one is when Saul of Tarsus is going to, you know, attack the church and Jesus appears to him and he falls down and he gives his life to Jesus, but he's blinded. But what everybody, you don't hear very many people talk about is the guy that God spoke to, to go pray with Paul and to pray for him that his vision would return and that he would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Let's look at this in verse eight, I guess we'll go to Acts nine, verse eight. It says, and Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. But they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. And he was three days without sight and did neither, neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus. And this again, a disciple, a Christian, someone truly followed the Lord. His name was Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. So the Lord speaking to him in a vision. Now, a vision is when you're seeing something in the spirit realm and you're awake. A dream is when you're seeing something in spirit realm and you're asleep. So something in some, he sees this vision.
He said, I don't know if he sees the Lord appear in a vision, I've seen this before myself, but the Lord said to him, Ananias. And he said, behold, I am here, Lord. So here we have this two way conversation between Ananias and the Lord. The Lord said in him, listen to this instruction, arise, go into the street, which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. And he hath seen in a vision, a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he may receive his sight. And he answered, Lord, whoa, wait a minute. I've heard how many, I've heard by many of this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all that call upon thy name. But the Lord said in him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared to thee in the way that thou canest have sent me, that thou might has received thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scaled and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul's certain days with the disciples, which were at Damascus. So here we see, I mean, the Holy Spirit, God coming to this man Ananias in a dream and they have this two way, I mean, in a vision, not a dream, he was awake, but the Lord speaking to him and say, look, here, this is what I want you to do Ananias. Go into the street that is called straight, the house of, you know, one called Judas and inquire for one Saul of Tarsus. I mean, that's like the Lord saying, I want you to, Dean, I want you to go down the road here. I want you to go to this street over here called Waverly Parkway. Go to this house and knock on the door and ask for, so and so. I mean, you want to talk about specific direction, but that's what God wants to do. And I mean, it's all through, you read the book of that and people say, Oh, well that was just for the apostles. Ananias was just a regular guy here. He wasn't an apostle and that's what's so amazing. God will take, you'll have these people called to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers or their elders or whatever and churches. And God will bring some, you know, some little child with the message or bring just any brother or sister or even a new Christian or whatever. God can use any one of us that's walking in a faith relationship and listening. I guess I'm going to quit. I mean, there's so many more verses that we can read. I mean, you can go to John 16. Jesus said the Holy Spirit, when he'd come, he would speak to us. Anybody out there that would say the Holy Spirit doesn't speak to people anymore, that God doesn't speak to people or the gifts are not for today. That's just dead Christianity. It's just deception. It's lies. It's false teaching. We can have a vibrant, intimate, powerful relationship with God where we learn to hear his voice and be led by the Spirit. I'm going to turn to one more passage. This will be the last one. I love it. Romans chapter eight. Oh, I almost forgot. You know, we'll save it for next time. We don't have enough time now, do we? Yeah, we don't have enough time. We'll play the video a different time.
But here's the verse of scripture I want to read this. Let's go. Goodness. It's just, I mean, you could just about have to read the whole chapter, but I don't want to do that. Let's just go to verse 10 or verse nine. And we'll read from there. He says, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not or have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your moral bodies by his Spirit that dwell within you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Do you hear that? As many as are led by the Spirit of God. Are you led by the Spirit of God? Are you just going through a religious checklist of do's and don'ts? Are you trying to the checklist of being a Torah follower? Are you the checklist of being the good churchgoer and participator and all the programs at your local mega church? Or do you walk in faith? Do you hear the voice of God speaking to you? Are you led by the Spirit? Is anything supernatural happening in and through your life by the Holy Spirit of God? That's the question. Am I a child of Abraham? Or am I trying to keep the deeds of the law? Am I a dead religious Christian? What am I? I wanna be, you know, if I died tomorrow, I would not wanna be known as he kept the Sabbath or he was, you know, faithful to his small group at his local mega church. I would want it to be said, he was a man of faith. He knew God, he heard God's voice. And you never knew what in the world he was gonna do or say, but people were saved and people were healed. People were set free from demons and people's lives were changed. He was a little crazy sometimes, seemed a little strange sometimes, seems like he would do things that made no sense and then, but the power of God would flow. That's what I want to be said. I want it to be said that I was a man of faith, not a man of religion and they are not the same. Oh, what a lot of people call faith. Oh, I'm the Lutheran faith. I'm of the Catholic faith. I'm of the, you know what that, that's no, you have a religious stamp. Well, do you walk in faith? You walk in faith, you hear his voice. You're led by the Holy Spirit.
The power of Jesus is evident and working through your life. So do you hear his voice? Do you have dreams, visions? Do you hear the still small voice? Do you know the logos and the rainbow word? That's the questions you need to ask. And if you walk in faith, if you're led by the Spirit, if you truly submit and are a person led by the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, if you are led by the Spirit, then you are a son and daughter of God. You have, you are righteous by faith, not by the deeds of the law or by your church attendance or your own little list of checks and stars on the board. Anyway, I hope many of you have been blessed. We're out of time. You've been listening to Prophecy Quake. I'm your host, Pastor Dean Otto, along with silent Kevin Wilkinson tonight. But I know that tonight I've communicated to you what the Lord wanted me to give you. And I hope you've been blessed. Join us back here live Sunday morning, 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Until then, we'll be praying.