October 1, 2025 • 30 mins
Grace demands a response. Throughout scripture, we see a consistent pattern: God initiates relationship through grace, but always includes requirements and expectations. This episode challenges popular notions of unconditional grace by examining the lives of Adam and Abraham to reveal God's true relational pattern.
We explore how Abraham, the father of faith, demonstrated his belief not through mere mental assent but through immediate and complete obedience. When God commanded him to leave his homeland, circumcise his household, or even sacrifice his son, Abraham responded without hesitation. This pattern reveals the true nature of biblical faith—belief that produces action.
Through powerful metaphors like circumcision and breaking up fallow ground, scripture shows that spiritual transformation requires both our effort and God's power. We must take responsibility for preparing our hearts, while God completes the transformation. This understanding explains why many believers reach spiritual "ceilings" in their growth—they respond to initial gospel demands but refuse to repent in other areas of life.
The conditional nature of God's promises isn't a limitation of His love but an expression of His wisdom. Like a good parent who doesn't enable destructive behavior, God establishes boundaries that lead to life. By understanding this pattern, we can break through our spiritual ceilings and experience the fullness of our relationship with God.
What area of resistance might be preventing your spiritual growth? Ready to break up the fallow ground in your own heart?
"Message Our Father's Heart a Question or Response"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (00:03):
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much-needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are sped,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose.
(00:26):
Sometimes it's interesting whenI give a message and I usually
start in Genesis, and I usuallygive a story as Genesis rolls
out, so I'd like to start there,if you will.
Turn to Genesis.
I guess I want to try to conveyto you a pattern that I see in
scripture.
Kind of a pattern that we'vebeen going over with our
(00:50):
children.
And this pattern combats theidea that is so prevalent in
Christian doctrine, inquote-unquote Christianity.
Where they believe God's graceis so overwhelming that it's all
(01:13):
about Him and really nothing todo with us.
So much so that we come up withdifferent doctrines like once
saved, always saved.
And uh the doctrine ofpredestination.
Well it doesn't have anythingto do with your choices.
It's all about what God says.
And if God wants you to besaved, he will be.
If God wants to do whateverhe's calling you.
(01:33):
And all of these are uhperversions.
They're perversions of thetruth.
And so using a pattern thatI've seen, I'm gonna try to
convey some things and realizethat there is a there is a
combination.
I think I've spoken thatbefore, that there is a
combination between you andbetween God that has to take
(01:56):
place.
Um it says that, you know, theword was not affective in a
certain area locale because theydid not mix their faith with
the word.
There was nothing wrong withthe word, but if it's not mixed
with faith, it doesn't, youknow.
If you guys have ever takenchemistry, you can put two
chemicals together and nothinghappens.
But you put the right chemicaltogether with the other
(02:18):
chemical, and you get anexplosion to happen.
You get something to takeplace.
Well, that's what it is in thespirit.
When you mix the word withfaith, true, genuine faith,
explosions begin to take place.
And God begins to move in a waythat you never thought
possible.
Beyond your wildest dreams,beyond your wildest
imaginations.
Because you finally, finallymix faith with the word.
(02:38):
Most of us hear the word, butwe don't mix faith with it.
We just sort of take it in andit becomes a part of our little
library of knowledge.
And you know that knowledgepuffs up.
So, starting in Genesis chapter2, verse 15, God is in the
process of creating.
(03:00):
He created on the first day,the second day, the third day,
the fourth day, the fifth day,and now we're into the sixth
day, and God has created man,he's formed them, he's fashioned
them into the ground, he'sbreathed in him the breath of
life.
And it says, And the Lord Godtook the man and put him into
the garden so he can enjoy it.
(03:21):
No, it doesn't say that.
But that's kind of like whatthe prevalent doctrines of
Christendom say today, that Godloves you so much that he's just
gonna bless you and prosper youand just give you all of these
things, and yet you don't reallyhave anything to do with it.
He's just such a good God, he'ssuch a loving God that he's
just gonna do that.
(03:41):
And you're gonna just be uhdrowning in all of the blessings
and the promises.
And yet, when I read this, hegave him life, he gave him
breath, and he took him fromthere, and then he gave him
responsibility.
He gave him something to do.
He went to dress it and to keepit.
(04:02):
It wasn't here, Adam, go enjoyit.
Dress it and keep it.
Furthermore, it says, and theLord God commanded the man.
He didn't ask him.
He commanded him, saying, Ofevery tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of thetree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat ofit, for in the day that thou eat
of us thereof, thou shaltsurely die.
(04:24):
And so the Lord, when hefashions man, he gives him life,
he gives him responsibilityimmediately.
He begins to command him ofthings that he can and cannot
do, and it was only one thingthat he could not do.
That was eat of the tree of theknowledge of the good and evil.
And so keep that in mind thatwhen God comes to you, when God
(04:46):
does something with you that youreally didn't deserve, that's
called grace.
That's grace.
That's God coming to you.
You weren't calling for him,you weren't crying for him, you
weren't asking for him.
He literally comes to you, buthe comes to you with
requirements.
He comes to you withconditions.
It's not just uh here, let'shang out, let's have dinner
(05:08):
together, and let's enjoyourselves together.
No.
He's requiring something ofyou.
And Adam wasn't even fallen atthe time.
But I want to go to Genesis 12now.
And let's look at this again.
In Genesis 12, God does itagain.
He comes to man.
To a man that was not lookingfor him, that was not praying to
(05:31):
him, that was not crying out tohim.
As a matter of fact,historically speaking, I believe
he lived in his father's house,and his father was an idol
worshiper.
He didn't worship, he didn'tpray to the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, becauseAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob
weren't even alive at the time.
But this particular man grew upin a house where it was just a
bunch of idols.
(05:52):
This man grew up in the Ur ofthe Chaldeans.
And it says, Now the Lord hadsaid unto Abraham, now at this
point, Abraham never seen theLord, had never, maybe uh, had
never had any kind ofrelationship with him, and his
father didn't have arelationship.
But all of a sudden, out ofnowhere, God comes to Abram and
(06:13):
says, Get out of your country.
He doesn't say, Hi, I'm God.
Let's hang out.
No.
He comes to him and he demandsimmediately, demands that Abram
do something.
Get out of your country.
And he doesn't enter it.
He says, Get away from yourkindred, get away from your
(06:34):
father's house to the land thatI will show thee.
So God didn't come and say,Here, let me show you this lamb,
Abram.
You see this great, wonderfulland?
It's got honey and it's gotbeautiful trees, it's got fruit,
it's got everything.
No.
He says, Get out first.
Come out from among them.
(06:55):
He's demanding of him to dosomething.
And then God is then going toshow you the land that I want to
bring you to.
But you need to do somethingfirst.
You need to turn away fromwhere you're at right now and
come.
And then I will show you theland that I want to give you.
And he continues on and says inverse 2, I will make of thee a
(07:16):
great nation.
See, now the promise and theblessing that God wants to do
come afterward.
But first came the requirementand the demand.
And I will bless thee, and Iwill make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing.
And three, I will bless themthat bless thee, I will curse
them that curse thee.
In thee shall all the familiesof the earth be blessed.
(07:38):
What a marvelous promise.
What an all-encompassing,global promise that was.
But it came after the demand.
I want you to notice that thedemand of what was required of
man came first.
And now look at what verse 4says.
So Abram departed.
Abraham did exactly what wastold of him, even though he had
(08:02):
never met God before.
God made a demand.
Do these three things, and thenI will bless you and I will
keep you and I will bless thosethat bless you and curse those
that curse you.
And all the promises cameafterward.
But you see, Abraham obeyed.
He departed as the Lord hadspoken unto him.
Complete utter obedience.
(08:23):
There wasn't a question, therewasn't, well, where do I go?
No, you know exactly what todo.
Get away from your family.
Get away from this land.
Get away from your country.
And it says Lot went with him,but I'm not really focused on
that.
Then we go to Genesis.
I'm sorry.
Did you have a question?
Yes, ma'am.
(08:44):
How old was Abraham at thatmoment?
How old was he?
Does anybody with more wisdomthan I have the answer to this?
I know it wasn't 99.
And I know he was in 80something.
It was before that.
unknown (08:58):
Verse 48.
Speaker 01 (08:59):
Verse 4?
Where is he?
Verse 4.
Oh, 70 and 5 years old.
There you go.
But like I said, I wasn'treally focused on his age.
Okay, so he was 75 years oldwhen that happened.
And we go a couple chapterslater in Genesis 15.
Abraham's response when Godcame was complete, full
(09:23):
obedience.
He departed.
Just as the Lord had spokenunto him.
And it says in Genesis 15regarding the promise of Isaac.
And he believed in the Lord andhe counted to him for
righteousness.
But see, the believing in theLord was not something mental.
(09:44):
It was something that Abrahamhad done.
You see, because if Abrahamdidn't believe in the Lord, he
would have left his country, hewould have left his kindred, he
would have left everything thathe was grown accustomed to that
he was used to.
But he believed in the Lord somuch that he did exactly what
the Lord had told him to do.
(10:05):
And that belief, which is whatwe call faith in the new
covenant, is what was given toAbraham as righteousness.
It allowed Abraham to be ableto have a relationship with God
that he did not have before.
Faith doesn't necessarily saveyou in the moment.
(10:25):
What it does is gives yousomething that you didn't have
before, a relationship with God,whom you were separated from
because of your sin.
It makes you whole in the sensethat you now have a
relationship that had been tornapart, that have been ripped up
because of sin.
And now you now have arelationship where you now have
(10:47):
an opportunity to be reconciledwith God.
It says in Romans 5, repeatingthis same scripture, but to him
that worketh not, but believethon him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted tohim for righteousness.
Paul is writing to Roman saintshere and saying that to him
(11:12):
that works, or to him thatworketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly.
In other words, God is going togive righteousness not to the
person that works.
But everybody gets confusedwith that scripture and they
think, well, you see, you can'tdo the deeds of the law.
You know, you can't getjustified by the deeds of the
(11:32):
law.
So you don't have to do the TenCommandments and all of that
stuff.
But if you look at what it saysin Romans chapter 3, it says
what the works were.
The works were the deeds of thelaw.
But here's the thing (11:45):
this is what I was teaching to my
children.
I said, you had Adam here.
He begins all of the humanrace.
Okay?
Then you had Eve, and you hadCain, and you had Abel, and you
had Enoch, and you had Seth, andyou had all of these people,
and you had Noah, and you hadum, who else?
(12:06):
Who else?
Ham, Shem, and Japheth.
And then all of a sudden youhad Abraham.
From Adam to Abraham.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (12:14):
Right?
After Abraham, you had Isaac andJacob and Joseph and blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
Then you had Moses, right?
So Moses is way over here.
Now, what do we know veryremarkable about Moses?
What did Moses receive?
John H. S. Leyva (12:28):
The law.
Speaker 01 (12:29):
The law.
But wait a second.
Abraham came way before thelaw.
So Abraham could not have beenjustified by the law.
Abraham was justified or maderight in the sight of God by
something else.
Something that has always beenthe way that you get justified
(12:50):
before God.
Abraham was made justified byfaith.
But that faith was exhibitednot by mere belief, it was
exhibited by obedience towhatever God told him to do.
And when God told him to do it,he then did it.
So here's that example that I'mtrying to give you.
In Genesis 17, we see nowAbraham is 90 years, 99 years
(13:16):
old.
The Lord appears to Abraham andsays unto him, I am the
Almighty God, walk before me andbe perfect.
There he is demanding again.
And some people might getoffended at that.
Well, how can I walk before Godperfect?
I can't be perfect.
And there's that pride again.
You always come up with someexcuse.
(13:37):
God never calls you and demandsof you to do something that you
cannot do.
You may not understand howyou're going to be able to do
it, but he always demands of yousomething, and he always gives
you the ability to do it.
So there we are in Genesis 17,after it was already counted to
him as righteousness, his faith,and then we read in verse 13 of
the same chapter.
(13:58):
Abraham is telling him, hey, Istill don't have this promise.
I still don't have this child.
I'm going to have a servanttake up my inheritance.
And so Abraham says, He that isborn in thy house, and he that
is that is bought with thy moneymust needs be circumcised.
God is telling Abraham, whoeveris bought in your house with
(14:19):
money as in a servant or aslave, he needs to be
circumcised.
And my covenant shall be inyour flesh for an everlasting
covenant.
So now God is talking to himabout, I require of you to be
covenant.
I mean I'm in covenant, and Irequire of you to be
circumcised.
I require not only you, butyour children and all of your
male servants in your house.
(14:40):
They all need to becircumcised.
Because God is calling him out.
God is calling him to besomething far different than
anything else in the world, andnobody in the world circumcised.
You don't see Abraham argueagain.
Because what we know as we readthe account is that Abraham
obeyed and was circumcised.
And after he was circumcised,then he received the promise.
(15:04):
The thing that he had broughtup to God.
I still don't have thispromise, God.
I still don't have thispromise, God.
I don't have this son.
I'm going to have a servantinherit my house.
So he says, be circumcised.
All your males be circumcised.
Abraham obeyed.
Abraham then got the promise.
Because a year later, then cameIsaac.
And he continued to obey.
(15:29):
Because on the eighth day,Isaac was then circumcised.
And here we see this patternagain.
God comes to Abraham.
This is Abraham, I want you togo up to the mountain.
I want you to sacrifice yourown son.
This is years later after Isaacwas born.
And this is in Genesis 22, 2.
(15:52):
God comes to Abram.
God then demands and requiresthat Abram do something.
And he said, Take now thy son,Genesis 22, 2, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and getthee into the land of Moriah,
and offer him there for a burntoffering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell theeof.
(16:13):
There it is, that same pattern.
He tells him what he must do,and then when you go do it, then
I'm gonna tell you whatmountain you're to do it on.
He gives him just enough thathe would begin the process of
responding to God.
And so hopefully I've shown youthis pattern that God comes,
(16:41):
requires, demands.
And then you need to respond tothat requirement, that demand,
in order to receive the fullnessof whatever it was that God
came to you for.
And what Abram did, what Noahdid, what David did, what so
many of the faithful patriarchsof old did, whenever God came to
(17:05):
them and told them to dosomething, they then did it.
This is what we call faith.
But that faith was exhibited inrepentance.
And it says in the New Covenantthat in Acts 17, 30, but now
(17:26):
God commands all men everywhereto repent.
If there's anything, anythingat all that you can do in your
life to start having arelationship with the Almighty,
it is repentance.
Because repentance ispredicated upon faith.
(17:48):
If you don't have faith, you'renot gonna repent, you're not
gonna change.
If you have faith, becausefaith is where everything
begins.
Without faith, it's impossibleto please God.
And God is a rewarder of themwho diligently seek Him.
So if you diligently seek Himin faith, the first thing you're
gonna do is repent.
The very first thing you'regonna do, my friend.
(18:10):
This isn't a new message.
I'm not preaching or teachinganything new to you.
I'm only highlighting it andemphasizing it because its
importance is pivotal to whatGod is gonna do in your life or
not do in your life.
If you turn to Deuteronomy 10,16, the word is in repentance.
(18:32):
God is going to use the wordthat he gave to Abraham,
circumcise.
He says in 1016, circumcisetherefore the foreskin of your
heart, and be no morestiff-nicked.
Be no more stubborn, be no moreobstinate.
Be no more rigid like a rock.
(18:53):
Circumcise yourselves.
That's what it says inDeuteronomy.
If you've read Deuteronomy, itis the story of God bringing
them out of Egypt and all oftheir accounts in the
wilderness.
And how God had to keep dealingwith their obstinacy and their
complaining and their murmuringand their wanting to go back to
(19:16):
Egypt.
And he says in the verybeginning, you guys need to
circumcise yourselves.
You obstinate people.
So stubborn.
And he repeats this echo, thisecho continued.
Even after the people left thewilderness, they got into the
promised land, and then they gotinto captivity.
(19:38):
Jeremiah hears that same echothat God spoke to the Israelites
coming out of Egypt.
He says in Jeremiah 4, verse 3,Thus saith the Lord to the men
of Judah and Jerusalem, break upyour fallow ground, and sow not
among thorns.
Fallow ground, what is that?
(20:00):
Fallow ground is ground that'shard.
Ground that's infested withweeds, with thorns.
Fallow ground is ground thathas not been tilled, that has
not been broken up.
It's just hard there.
And what we're going to come torealize is that he's using this
(20:21):
as a metaphor for the heart ofman, for the heart of people.
Break up your follow ground.
Sow seed not among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves.
There's that word, circumciseyourselves to the Lord.
Take away the foreskins of yourheart.
(20:42):
He's echoing the same thingthat he said hundreds of years
earlier, ye men of Judah andinhabitants of Jerusalem, lest
my fury come forth like fire andburn, that none can quench,
because of the evil of yourdoings.
If the people don't respond bybreaking up the follow ground,
(21:04):
the fury and the wrath of theLord is going to come and
consume them, because they willnot, what's the other word for
circumcise?
Repent.
They will not repent.
They have hardened themselves,but the Lord can only do so much
because he will never possessyou, he will never force you.
He's saying to you, break upyour fallow ground, break up
(21:28):
your hardness.
John H. S. Leyva (21:29):
Amen.
Amen.
Speaker 01 (21:31):
You need to do that.
And there's a hardness in a lotof areas of our life.
We talk about it in thisfellowship as levels of
obedience.
Different saints have differentlevels of obedience.
And some hear the gospel, somerespond to it, they get
baptized, all of a sudden theyreceive the gift of the Holy
(21:52):
Spirit, and they're moving andthey're walking with the Lord.
But there's this one area oftheir life that they stop.
They fall short, and then theirlevel of growth in the Lord
hits a ceiling.
Because they will not repent inthat particular area.
They repented for the gospel.
They heard the gospel, theyobeyed, but then, oh, um, you
(22:15):
want me to stop listening tothat music?
Uh, what else?
Oh, um, you want me to stopdoing that job?
You want me to change jobs?
That job pays me so well.
Well, we have um the TV.
(22:35):
I gotta stop watching it.
Sexually explicit material?
Pornography of some kind on theinternet?
I have to stop that?
But I got baptized, I receivedthe gift of the Holy Spirit.
Yeah.
But did Abraham stop obeyingwhen God first came to him and
(22:57):
demanded of him something?
Or did he continue walking inobedience every time God came to
him?
Abraham is the father of thefaith.
And in his steps we are to bewalking it.
But he never stopped obeyingGod, even though in Hebrews it
says he never received the fullpromise.
(23:19):
He never saw it, he didn't seewho we are today, but he
continued walking in obedienceeven unto his death.
And so the same thing is withus.
But it starts really after Godcomes, it starts with us
responding.
It starts with us saying, Yes,I'm gonna take this pickaxe and
(23:41):
I'm gonna nail it into theground of my heart.
I'm not talking about anybodyelse's land, I'm talking about
your own heart.
There are issues, there arethings that you are unwilling to
deal with, even in your ownheart.
And you may be in the kingdom,you may be in covenant, but
you've reached the ceiling.
And you can't go any fartherbecause you will not repent of
(24:02):
that area.
Why would God give you meatwhen you're still nibbling on
milk?
You haven't developed yourteeth to grind the meat.
And yet you want more, but youwon't make the sacrifice to have
more.
Something interesting happensat the end of Deuteronomy.
(24:26):
I told you in Deuteronomy, hesaid to the people, You
circumcise your heart.
John H. S. Leyva (24:30):
Amen.
Speaker 01 (24:31):
But watch what it says at the end of Deuteronomy.
In Deuteronomy 30 says, 30verse 6.
And the Lord, thy God, willcircumcise thine heart.
And the heart of thy seed tolove the Lord, thy God, with all
(24:53):
thine heart, and with all thysoul that thou mayest live.
So which is it?
Am I to circumcise my heart oris God going to circumcise my
heart?
It's both.
That's what it means to mixfaith, your faith, with the
faith that He gave you with Hisword.
(25:14):
And His Word says, circumciseyour heart.
Get your heart ready.
That's what I tell my kids allthe time, and they're probably
hearing a repeated message.
You need to prepare your heartto receive the promise of God.
You need to do that.
That's what all of thischildhood is about.
Yes, you should have fun.
(25:34):
Yeah, that's all fine.
But you need to prepare yourheart because your destiny is
not so that you can have fun allthe rest of your life.
Your destiny is mighty andpowerful and high in the Lord
God.
And you need to prepare yourheart now.
That's why you need to showacts of kindness.
That's why you need to do thisof your own self so that God can
(25:55):
see that's faith.
I'm gonna bless that faith withmy power, and I'm gonna glorify
all that he does from here onforward.
But the idea that's sopredominant in Christianity is
that God does not loveconditionally.
God does not promiseconditionally.
(26:18):
Yes, he does, and there'snothing wrong with that.
Why should I bless arebellious, impenitent child who
will continue to walk in sin?
Why should I give him food?
Why should I enable him withclothes?
Why should I enable him with ashelter and a car?
Why am I going to enable him inthat knowing that that will
(26:39):
lead to his death?
Amen.
That's just common sense, guys.
But we're so spoiled, we're somessed up in our hearts that we
can't see that God's disciplineand correction is love.
Because he doesn't want us tokill ourselves.
(27:00):
He doesn't want us to beseparated from him eternally.
So, yes, when God says, I willbless thee at thy right hand,
it's an if then.
If you do this, then I will dothis.
It's always that way.
Look at them all.
It's always if then.
unknown (27:17):
Amen.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (27:20):
This conditional promise is so
prevalent throughout all thescriptures, but Christians,
quote unquote, don't want toacknowledge that the promises of
God, his blessings and cursingsare conditional.
They're based upon how do yourespond to his word?
How are you going to respond tohis word when he speaks to you?
(27:42):
When he tells you, change.
When he tells you, don't dothat anymore.
What are you going to do?
The Lord sets a standard ofrighteousness in his word.
And depending on you, dependingon what you decide to do with
that standard, you're going toreceive whatever the
(28:05):
consequences of that decision.
You choose righteously, youchoose wisely, God is going to
bless you.
And I can promise that to youbecause that's God's promise.
I'm only repeating what hesaid.
But you want to walk contraryto his word, He's not going to
bless you.
Matter of fact, he's going toallow the enemy to deceive you
(28:26):
into thinking that you'regetting blessed by God, and then
you're going to continuewalking in that rebellion.
And I've seen that so clearlythis past week in the lives of a
few saints that I'm ministeringto.
They think that because theirjob is overflowing and they're
(28:47):
not just breaking even, but thatthey're making money, that this
is the blessing of God, yet ittakes up all of their time, all
of their wives' time.
There is no really family time.
It's like the couple wee hoursof the night.
And they're thinking that's Godblessing them.
(29:08):
And they don't realize thatthat's the enemy being allowed
by God to busy you so that youcan't grow any further with God.
You only reach a ceilingbecause you can't give God that
much time.
You're so busy doing everythingelse.
If you were blessed andappreciate listening to this
podcast and you would like tosupport us in our efforts,
(29:30):
consider lifting us up in prayerfirst.
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(29:51):
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May God bless you and make youprosperous in Him as you listen
and obey His voice.
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much-needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are sped,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose.
(00:26):
Sometimes it's interesting whenI give a message and I usually
start in Genesis, and I usuallygive a story as Genesis rolls
out, so I'd like to start there,if you will.
Turn to Genesis.
I guess I want to try to conveyto you a pattern that I see in
scripture.
Kind of a pattern that we'vebeen going over with our
(00:50):
children.
And this pattern combats theidea that is so prevalent in
Christian doctrine, inquote-unquote Christianity.
Where they believe God's graceis so overwhelming that it's all
(01:13):
about Him and really nothing todo with us.
So much so that we come up withdifferent doctrines like once
saved, always saved.
And uh the doctrine ofpredestination.
Well it doesn't have anythingto do with your choices.
It's all about what God says.
And if God wants you to besaved, he will be.
If God wants to do whateverhe's calling you.
(01:33):
And all of these are uhperversions.
They're perversions of thetruth.
And so using a pattern thatI've seen, I'm gonna try to
convey some things and realizethat there is a there is a
combination.
I think I've spoken thatbefore, that there is a
combination between you andbetween God that has to take
(01:56):
place.
Um it says that, you know, theword was not affective in a
certain area locale because theydid not mix their faith with
the word.
There was nothing wrong withthe word, but if it's not mixed
with faith, it doesn't, youknow.
If you guys have ever takenchemistry, you can put two
chemicals together and nothinghappens.
But you put the right chemicaltogether with the other
(02:18):
chemical, and you get anexplosion to happen.
You get something to takeplace.
Well, that's what it is in thespirit.
When you mix the word withfaith, true, genuine faith,
explosions begin to take place.
And God begins to move in a waythat you never thought
possible.
Beyond your wildest dreams,beyond your wildest
imaginations.
Because you finally, finallymix faith with the word.
(02:38):
Most of us hear the word, butwe don't mix faith with it.
We just sort of take it in andit becomes a part of our little
library of knowledge.
And you know that knowledgepuffs up.
So, starting in Genesis chapter2, verse 15, God is in the
process of creating.
(03:00):
He created on the first day,the second day, the third day,
the fourth day, the fifth day,and now we're into the sixth
day, and God has created man,he's formed them, he's fashioned
them into the ground, he'sbreathed in him the breath of
life.
And it says, And the Lord Godtook the man and put him into
the garden so he can enjoy it.
(03:21):
No, it doesn't say that.
But that's kind of like whatthe prevalent doctrines of
Christendom say today, that Godloves you so much that he's just
gonna bless you and prosper youand just give you all of these
things, and yet you don't reallyhave anything to do with it.
He's just such a good God, he'ssuch a loving God that he's
just gonna do that.
(03:41):
And you're gonna just be uhdrowning in all of the blessings
and the promises.
And yet, when I read this, hegave him life, he gave him
breath, and he took him fromthere, and then he gave him
responsibility.
He gave him something to do.
He went to dress it and to keepit.
(04:02):
It wasn't here, Adam, go enjoyit.
Dress it and keep it.
Furthermore, it says, and theLord God commanded the man.
He didn't ask him.
He commanded him, saying, Ofevery tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of thetree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat ofit, for in the day that thou eat
of us thereof, thou shaltsurely die.
(04:24):
And so the Lord, when hefashions man, he gives him life,
he gives him responsibilityimmediately.
He begins to command him ofthings that he can and cannot
do, and it was only one thingthat he could not do.
That was eat of the tree of theknowledge of the good and evil.
And so keep that in mind thatwhen God comes to you, when God
(04:46):
does something with you that youreally didn't deserve, that's
called grace.
That's grace.
That's God coming to you.
You weren't calling for him,you weren't crying for him, you
weren't asking for him.
He literally comes to you, buthe comes to you with
requirements.
He comes to you withconditions.
It's not just uh here, let'shang out, let's have dinner
(05:08):
together, and let's enjoyourselves together.
No.
He's requiring something ofyou.
And Adam wasn't even fallen atthe time.
But I want to go to Genesis 12now.
And let's look at this again.
In Genesis 12, God does itagain.
He comes to man.
To a man that was not lookingfor him, that was not praying to
(05:31):
him, that was not crying out tohim.
As a matter of fact,historically speaking, I believe
he lived in his father's house,and his father was an idol
worshiper.
He didn't worship, he didn'tpray to the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, becauseAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob
weren't even alive at the time.
But this particular man grew upin a house where it was just a
bunch of idols.
(05:52):
This man grew up in the Ur ofthe Chaldeans.
And it says, Now the Lord hadsaid unto Abraham, now at this
point, Abraham never seen theLord, had never, maybe uh, had
never had any kind ofrelationship with him, and his
father didn't have arelationship.
But all of a sudden, out ofnowhere, God comes to Abram and
(06:13):
says, Get out of your country.
He doesn't say, Hi, I'm God.
Let's hang out.
No.
He comes to him and he demandsimmediately, demands that Abram
do something.
Get out of your country.
And he doesn't enter it.
He says, Get away from yourkindred, get away from your
(06:34):
father's house to the land thatI will show thee.
So God didn't come and say,Here, let me show you this lamb,
Abram.
You see this great, wonderfulland?
It's got honey and it's gotbeautiful trees, it's got fruit,
it's got everything.
No.
He says, Get out first.
Come out from among them.
(06:55):
He's demanding of him to dosomething.
And then God is then going toshow you the land that I want to
bring you to.
But you need to do somethingfirst.
You need to turn away fromwhere you're at right now and
come.
And then I will show you theland that I want to give you.
And he continues on and says inverse 2, I will make of thee a
(07:16):
great nation.
See, now the promise and theblessing that God wants to do
come afterward.
But first came the requirementand the demand.
And I will bless thee, and Iwill make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing.
And three, I will bless themthat bless thee, I will curse
them that curse thee.
In thee shall all the familiesof the earth be blessed.
(07:38):
What a marvelous promise.
What an all-encompassing,global promise that was.
But it came after the demand.
I want you to notice that thedemand of what was required of
man came first.
And now look at what verse 4says.
So Abram departed.
Abraham did exactly what wastold of him, even though he had
(08:02):
never met God before.
God made a demand.
Do these three things, and thenI will bless you and I will
keep you and I will bless thosethat bless you and curse those
that curse you.
And all the promises cameafterward.
But you see, Abraham obeyed.
He departed as the Lord hadspoken unto him.
Complete utter obedience.
(08:23):
There wasn't a question, therewasn't, well, where do I go?
No, you know exactly what todo.
Get away from your family.
Get away from this land.
Get away from your country.
And it says Lot went with him,but I'm not really focused on
that.
Then we go to Genesis.
I'm sorry.
Did you have a question?
Yes, ma'am.
(08:44):
How old was Abraham at thatmoment?
How old was he?
Does anybody with more wisdomthan I have the answer to this?
I know it wasn't 99.
And I know he was in 80something.
It was before that.
unknown (08:58):
Verse 48.
Speaker 01 (08:59):
Verse 4?
Where is he?
Verse 4.
Oh, 70 and 5 years old.
There you go.
But like I said, I wasn'treally focused on his age.
Okay, so he was 75 years oldwhen that happened.
And we go a couple chapterslater in Genesis 15.
Abraham's response when Godcame was complete, full
(09:23):
obedience.
He departed.
Just as the Lord had spokenunto him.
And it says in Genesis 15regarding the promise of Isaac.
And he believed in the Lord andhe counted to him for
righteousness.
But see, the believing in theLord was not something mental.
(09:44):
It was something that Abrahamhad done.
You see, because if Abrahamdidn't believe in the Lord, he
would have left his country, hewould have left his kindred, he
would have left everything thathe was grown accustomed to that
he was used to.
But he believed in the Lord somuch that he did exactly what
the Lord had told him to do.
(10:05):
And that belief, which is whatwe call faith in the new
covenant, is what was given toAbraham as righteousness.
It allowed Abraham to be ableto have a relationship with God
that he did not have before.
Faith doesn't necessarily saveyou in the moment.
(10:25):
What it does is gives yousomething that you didn't have
before, a relationship with God,whom you were separated from
because of your sin.
It makes you whole in the sensethat you now have a
relationship that had been tornapart, that have been ripped up
because of sin.
And now you now have arelationship where you now have
(10:47):
an opportunity to be reconciledwith God.
It says in Romans 5, repeatingthis same scripture, but to him
that worketh not, but believethon him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted tohim for righteousness.
Paul is writing to Roman saintshere and saying that to him
(11:12):
that works, or to him thatworketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly.
In other words, God is going togive righteousness not to the
person that works.
But everybody gets confusedwith that scripture and they
think, well, you see, you can'tdo the deeds of the law.
You know, you can't getjustified by the deeds of the
(11:32):
law.
So you don't have to do the TenCommandments and all of that
stuff.
But if you look at what it saysin Romans chapter 3, it says
what the works were.
The works were the deeds of thelaw.
But here's the thing (11:45):
this is what I was teaching to my
children.
I said, you had Adam here.
He begins all of the humanrace.
Okay?
Then you had Eve, and you hadCain, and you had Abel, and you
had Enoch, and you had Seth, andyou had all of these people,
and you had Noah, and you hadum, who else?
(12:06):
Who else?
Ham, Shem, and Japheth.
And then all of a sudden youhad Abraham.
From Adam to Abraham.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (12:14):
Right?
After Abraham, you had Isaac andJacob and Joseph and blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
Then you had Moses, right?
So Moses is way over here.
Now, what do we know veryremarkable about Moses?
What did Moses receive?
John H. S. Leyva (12:28):
The law.
Speaker 01 (12:29):
The law.
But wait a second.
Abraham came way before thelaw.
So Abraham could not have beenjustified by the law.
Abraham was justified or maderight in the sight of God by
something else.
Something that has always beenthe way that you get justified
(12:50):
before God.
Abraham was made justified byfaith.
But that faith was exhibitednot by mere belief, it was
exhibited by obedience towhatever God told him to do.
And when God told him to do it,he then did it.
So here's that example that I'mtrying to give you.
In Genesis 17, we see nowAbraham is 90 years, 99 years
(13:16):
old.
The Lord appears to Abraham andsays unto him, I am the
Almighty God, walk before me andbe perfect.
There he is demanding again.
And some people might getoffended at that.
Well, how can I walk before Godperfect?
I can't be perfect.
And there's that pride again.
You always come up with someexcuse.
(13:37):
God never calls you and demandsof you to do something that you
cannot do.
You may not understand howyou're going to be able to do
it, but he always demands of yousomething, and he always gives
you the ability to do it.
So there we are in Genesis 17,after it was already counted to
him as righteousness, his faith,and then we read in verse 13 of
the same chapter.
(13:58):
Abraham is telling him, hey, Istill don't have this promise.
I still don't have this child.
I'm going to have a servanttake up my inheritance.
And so Abraham says, He that isborn in thy house, and he that
is that is bought with thy moneymust needs be circumcised.
God is telling Abraham, whoeveris bought in your house with
(14:19):
money as in a servant or aslave, he needs to be
circumcised.
And my covenant shall be inyour flesh for an everlasting
covenant.
So now God is talking to himabout, I require of you to be
covenant.
I mean I'm in covenant, and Irequire of you to be
circumcised.
I require not only you, butyour children and all of your
male servants in your house.
(14:40):
They all need to becircumcised.
Because God is calling him out.
God is calling him to besomething far different than
anything else in the world, andnobody in the world circumcised.
You don't see Abraham argueagain.
Because what we know as we readthe account is that Abraham
obeyed and was circumcised.
And after he was circumcised,then he received the promise.
(15:04):
The thing that he had broughtup to God.
I still don't have thispromise, God.
I still don't have thispromise, God.
I don't have this son.
I'm going to have a servantinherit my house.
So he says, be circumcised.
All your males be circumcised.
Abraham obeyed.
Abraham then got the promise.
Because a year later, then cameIsaac.
And he continued to obey.
(15:29):
Because on the eighth day,Isaac was then circumcised.
And here we see this patternagain.
God comes to Abraham.
This is Abraham, I want you togo up to the mountain.
I want you to sacrifice yourown son.
This is years later after Isaacwas born.
And this is in Genesis 22, 2.
(15:52):
God comes to Abram.
God then demands and requiresthat Abram do something.
And he said, Take now thy son,Genesis 22, 2, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and getthee into the land of Moriah,
and offer him there for a burntoffering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell theeof.
(16:13):
There it is, that same pattern.
He tells him what he must do,and then when you go do it, then
I'm gonna tell you whatmountain you're to do it on.
He gives him just enough thathe would begin the process of
responding to God.
And so hopefully I've shown youthis pattern that God comes,
(16:41):
requires, demands.
And then you need to respond tothat requirement, that demand,
in order to receive the fullnessof whatever it was that God
came to you for.
And what Abram did, what Noahdid, what David did, what so
many of the faithful patriarchsof old did, whenever God came to
(17:05):
them and told them to dosomething, they then did it.
This is what we call faith.
But that faith was exhibited inrepentance.
And it says in the New Covenantthat in Acts 17, 30, but now
(17:26):
God commands all men everywhereto repent.
If there's anything, anythingat all that you can do in your
life to start having arelationship with the Almighty,
it is repentance.
Because repentance ispredicated upon faith.
(17:48):
If you don't have faith, you'renot gonna repent, you're not
gonna change.
If you have faith, becausefaith is where everything
begins.
Without faith, it's impossibleto please God.
And God is a rewarder of themwho diligently seek Him.
So if you diligently seek Himin faith, the first thing you're
gonna do is repent.
The very first thing you'regonna do, my friend.
(18:10):
This isn't a new message.
I'm not preaching or teachinganything new to you.
I'm only highlighting it andemphasizing it because its
importance is pivotal to whatGod is gonna do in your life or
not do in your life.
If you turn to Deuteronomy 10,16, the word is in repentance.
(18:32):
God is going to use the wordthat he gave to Abraham,
circumcise.
He says in 1016, circumcisetherefore the foreskin of your
heart, and be no morestiff-nicked.
Be no more stubborn, be no moreobstinate.
Be no more rigid like a rock.
(18:53):
Circumcise yourselves.
That's what it says inDeuteronomy.
If you've read Deuteronomy, itis the story of God bringing
them out of Egypt and all oftheir accounts in the
wilderness.
And how God had to keep dealingwith their obstinacy and their
complaining and their murmuringand their wanting to go back to
(19:16):
Egypt.
And he says in the verybeginning, you guys need to
circumcise yourselves.
You obstinate people.
So stubborn.
And he repeats this echo, thisecho continued.
Even after the people left thewilderness, they got into the
promised land, and then they gotinto captivity.
(19:38):
Jeremiah hears that same echothat God spoke to the Israelites
coming out of Egypt.
He says in Jeremiah 4, verse 3,Thus saith the Lord to the men
of Judah and Jerusalem, break upyour fallow ground, and sow not
among thorns.
Fallow ground, what is that?
(20:00):
Fallow ground is ground that'shard.
Ground that's infested withweeds, with thorns.
Fallow ground is ground thathas not been tilled, that has
not been broken up.
It's just hard there.
And what we're going to come torealize is that he's using this
(20:21):
as a metaphor for the heart ofman, for the heart of people.
Break up your follow ground.
Sow seed not among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves.
There's that word, circumciseyourselves to the Lord.
Take away the foreskins of yourheart.
(20:42):
He's echoing the same thingthat he said hundreds of years
earlier, ye men of Judah andinhabitants of Jerusalem, lest
my fury come forth like fire andburn, that none can quench,
because of the evil of yourdoings.
If the people don't respond bybreaking up the follow ground,
(21:04):
the fury and the wrath of theLord is going to come and
consume them, because they willnot, what's the other word for
circumcise?
Repent.
They will not repent.
They have hardened themselves,but the Lord can only do so much
because he will never possessyou, he will never force you.
He's saying to you, break upyour fallow ground, break up
(21:28):
your hardness.
John H. S. Leyva (21:29):
Amen.
Amen.
Speaker 01 (21:31):
You need to do that.
And there's a hardness in a lotof areas of our life.
We talk about it in thisfellowship as levels of
obedience.
Different saints have differentlevels of obedience.
And some hear the gospel, somerespond to it, they get
baptized, all of a sudden theyreceive the gift of the Holy
(21:52):
Spirit, and they're moving andthey're walking with the Lord.
But there's this one area oftheir life that they stop.
They fall short, and then theirlevel of growth in the Lord
hits a ceiling.
Because they will not repent inthat particular area.
They repented for the gospel.
They heard the gospel, theyobeyed, but then, oh, um, you
(22:15):
want me to stop listening tothat music?
Uh, what else?
Oh, um, you want me to stopdoing that job?
You want me to change jobs?
That job pays me so well.
Well, we have um the TV.
(22:35):
I gotta stop watching it.
Sexually explicit material?
Pornography of some kind on theinternet?
I have to stop that?
But I got baptized, I receivedthe gift of the Holy Spirit.
Yeah.
But did Abraham stop obeyingwhen God first came to him and
(22:57):
demanded of him something?
Or did he continue walking inobedience every time God came to
him?
Abraham is the father of thefaith.
And in his steps we are to bewalking it.
But he never stopped obeyingGod, even though in Hebrews it
says he never received the fullpromise.
(23:19):
He never saw it, he didn't seewho we are today, but he
continued walking in obedienceeven unto his death.
And so the same thing is withus.
But it starts really after Godcomes, it starts with us
responding.
It starts with us saying, Yes,I'm gonna take this pickaxe and
(23:41):
I'm gonna nail it into theground of my heart.
I'm not talking about anybodyelse's land, I'm talking about
your own heart.
There are issues, there arethings that you are unwilling to
deal with, even in your ownheart.
And you may be in the kingdom,you may be in covenant, but
you've reached the ceiling.
And you can't go any fartherbecause you will not repent of
(24:02):
that area.
Why would God give you meatwhen you're still nibbling on
milk?
You haven't developed yourteeth to grind the meat.
And yet you want more, but youwon't make the sacrifice to have
more.
Something interesting happensat the end of Deuteronomy.
(24:26):
I told you in Deuteronomy, hesaid to the people, You
circumcise your heart.
John H. S. Leyva (24:30):
Amen.
Speaker 01 (24:31):
But watch what it says at the end of Deuteronomy.
In Deuteronomy 30 says, 30verse 6.
And the Lord, thy God, willcircumcise thine heart.
And the heart of thy seed tolove the Lord, thy God, with all
(24:53):
thine heart, and with all thysoul that thou mayest live.
So which is it?
Am I to circumcise my heart oris God going to circumcise my
heart?
It's both.
That's what it means to mixfaith, your faith, with the
faith that He gave you with Hisword.
(25:14):
And His Word says, circumciseyour heart.
Get your heart ready.
That's what I tell my kids allthe time, and they're probably
hearing a repeated message.
You need to prepare your heartto receive the promise of God.
You need to do that.
That's what all of thischildhood is about.
Yes, you should have fun.
(25:34):
Yeah, that's all fine.
But you need to prepare yourheart because your destiny is
not so that you can have fun allthe rest of your life.
Your destiny is mighty andpowerful and high in the Lord
God.
And you need to prepare yourheart now.
That's why you need to showacts of kindness.
That's why you need to do thisof your own self so that God can
(25:55):
see that's faith.
I'm gonna bless that faith withmy power, and I'm gonna glorify
all that he does from here onforward.
But the idea that's sopredominant in Christianity is
that God does not loveconditionally.
God does not promiseconditionally.
(26:18):
Yes, he does, and there'snothing wrong with that.
Why should I bless arebellious, impenitent child who
will continue to walk in sin?
Why should I give him food?
Why should I enable him withclothes?
Why should I enable him with ashelter and a car?
Why am I going to enable him inthat knowing that that will
(26:39):
lead to his death?
Amen.
That's just common sense, guys.
But we're so spoiled, we're somessed up in our hearts that we
can't see that God's disciplineand correction is love.
Because he doesn't want us tokill ourselves.
(27:00):
He doesn't want us to beseparated from him eternally.
So, yes, when God says, I willbless thee at thy right hand,
it's an if then.
If you do this, then I will dothis.
It's always that way.
Look at them all.
It's always if then.
unknown (27:17):
Amen.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz (27:20):
This conditional promise is so
prevalent throughout all thescriptures, but Christians,
quote unquote, don't want toacknowledge that the promises of
God, his blessings and cursingsare conditional.
They're based upon how do yourespond to his word?
How are you going to respond tohis word when he speaks to you?
(27:42):
When he tells you, change.
When he tells you, don't dothat anymore.
What are you going to do?
The Lord sets a standard ofrighteousness in his word.
And depending on you, dependingon what you decide to do with
that standard, you're going toreceive whatever the
(28:05):
consequences of that decision.
You choose righteously, youchoose wisely, God is going to
bless you.
And I can promise that to youbecause that's God's promise.
I'm only repeating what hesaid.
But you want to walk contraryto his word, He's not going to
bless you.
Matter of fact, he's going toallow the enemy to deceive you
(28:26):
into thinking that you'regetting blessed by God, and then
you're going to continuewalking in that rebellion.
And I've seen that so clearlythis past week in the lives of a
few saints that I'm ministeringto.
They think that because theirjob is overflowing and they're
(28:47):
not just breaking even, but thatthey're making money, that this
is the blessing of God, yet ittakes up all of their time, all
of their wives' time.
There is no really family time.
It's like the couple wee hoursof the night.
And they're thinking that's Godblessing them.
(29:08):
And they don't realize thatthat's the enemy being allowed
by God to busy you so that youcan't grow any further with God.
You only reach a ceilingbecause you can't give God that
much time.
You're so busy doing everythingelse.
If you were blessed andappreciate listening to this
podcast and you would like tosupport us in our efforts,
(29:30):
consider lifting us up in prayerfirst.
Then remember these four socialmedia buzzwords.
Share, like, subscribe, orfollow.
Share this podcast like button.
Like the podcast web.
(29:51):
Subscribe to support the showpodcast with the link.
Follow us on the web.
May God bless you and make youprosperous in Him as you listen
and obey His voice.
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