Joseph Prince - Be Healed By The Washing Of The Word
Thank you, Pastor Lian. Praise God. You know, all the healings that you hear just now, all right, all that you have heard, just remember that God is no respecter of persons, and what God does for one, God will do for another, amen? But God is a respecter of faith, so the healings can come. I just feel impressed, as I was listening to the testimonies that was shared just now, that I feel that the Lord wants me to tell you all this, okay? Some of you are just waiting for God to heal you. You are waiting for God to touch you. Now, God did everything He needs to do when He sent Jesus to the cross, and Jesus bore not just your sins in His own body, but also your diseases. "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses".
So to wait for God to heal you is like someone, a sinner, saying, "Yeah, I'm waiting for God in His own time. If God wanna save me, God will save me. He knows where to find me". Well, you are too later, 2,000 years actually too late, because God has already healed or saved you, given you the provision. It is for you to receive. So two ways healing can come, and you have seen it even in this church and you have seen in the lives and the testimonies of the people you have heard. Many have testified how they got healed, and some of them instantly, but healing can happen progressively as well. In fact, in the second miracle of Jesus, both were done when Jesus was actually in Cana of Galilee. The first was He turned the water into wine at a wedding. Remember that?
That demonstrate He's the Lord of time, because for us to get good wine today, you need to have a process of time to grow the vine plant, right? It takes a few years for the vine plant to grow. We have shared that before. And then after that, a few more years for it to become good grapes sufficient for good wine, okay? You need a few more years. Then after that, to really get good wine, excellent wine, after you get the wine, goes through all the process of the treading and all that, and the fermentation process takes place, but those people who know wine, they say that the longer you store the wine, the better it is. It's like men, all right? The longer they grow, amen, older, or advanced in their years, the better they get. And all the men said? Okay, for women as well, amen? Okay, mankind. Praise God.
So all in all, to get really excellent wine can be 20 years, 30 years from the time you plant the first vine, right? From that time all the way to excellent wine can be 20 years, 30 years, even 50 years to get excellent wine. Jesus compressed time, amen, in that miracle. So He's the Lord of time. He can compress time for you. So the miracle, it's the second one that I'm referring to just now, is the miracle, also He was in Cana. A nobleman came to Jesus and said, "My son who is in Capernaum is sick. Please come. Come to Capernaum with me". Okay, now Capernaum is way down there near the Sea of Galilee and Cana is way up there in the hills. It will take probably, if you travel by foot, it's gonna take more than a day. Someone can do it within a day if they move fast and they're strong enough, but we're talking about casual travelers like the noblemen, the businessmen. And he asked Jesus, "Please come down and heal my son".
Now, here's a lesson I want you to learn about healing. And Jesus says, "Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe". Then Jesus says, "Go your way. Your son lives". There's no sign and wonder. There's no goosebumps he felt. There is no confirmation. Jesus didn't show him the iPhone and said, "Here, your son's okay now". So Jesus just told him based on His Word, "Go your way. Your son lives," right? The Bible says he went his way. Now, obviously he can travel back that same day, because if you go on a donkey, all right, or you just travel by a carriage or the wagon in those days, they would have reached there within a day, but definitely he believed the Word of Jesus. How do I know that? Because he didn't go back until the next day. The Bible says, "The next day when he reached Capernaum," so he took his time. He believed when Jesus says it, "Your son lives," my son will live.
So the next day when he arrived, the people of his household came out and shouted that, you know, "Your son is alive! Your son is alive"! And then he asked him when was it that his son began to amend. Now, say the word "amend". "Amend" means what? Improve. Here you are, you can tell when someone is recovering. They start to amend. So some healings you will see the manifestation 30-fold, amen, 60-fold, and 100-fold. Doesn't mean it happened instantaneously, right? So the first miracle was compression of time. He can do it in an instant. But the second one denotes He's the Lord of space. So the Lord of time and space, amen. He can speak from a distance and then you will be healed, or at least begin to amend, in the words of Scripture. Now, did the man wait for a sign, a feeling, a goosebump, and angel appearing to him? No, so stop, you know, trusting all these physical things and just go by the Word of God. If the Word says you are healed, you are healed. Can I have a good amen? Amen?
So there are healings that happen by the anointing, and when the anointing happens... and I can tell when the anointing is there, I can sense it! I can sense it, and sometimes I just wanna stop and just call out the healings that God is healing. And even sinners can get healed. I know sinners who get healed of... for example, I know of one sinner who got healed of throat cancer and later on did not accept Jesus. But he can tell people he got healed, amen. I think later on he accepted Jesus, but not immediately, so it's not always that, you know, people receive healing, they respond immediately, because healing is a gift. And it's also like a call for sinners to see that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Savior, the Son of God, amen?
So healing can happen, and it doesn't mean that you have faith for it. So you can be healed by the gifts of healings. And I love it when the gifts of healings flow. I always pray for that to happen, and I've been encouraging you all to pray for that to happen in our church, right? So you don't have to wait for a flow, or musicians playing special, you know, anointed music. It can happen while the Word is going forth. Bang, you are healed. You don't even remember using your faith, amen? All you know is that you go back, the condition is no more. I said the condition is no more, amen?
This past week, I actually carried my son on my back. He's about 40kg, all right? So I carried my son on my back. Now, that's fine. I know how to use my stomach muscle, all right? The one that he calls washboard. My son calls it washboard, okay. Keep on calling those things that are not as though they are, amen? That was fine until he started shifting his position, so you feel like throwing him up and falling back again. That was a mistake. He slide down and I didn't want him to fall, so I twisted my back, okay? It was really painful and I knew that I made a big blunder. Number one, I shouldn't be carrying a 40kg boy, but I wanna carry him as long as I can, you know? I don't wanna accept the fact that he is growing up. You parents know what I'm talking about. You still wanna carry them as long as you can, right? Yeah, and that's fine as long as they stay still, okay?
So he shifted and I felt something, and I'm telling you, the whole day, it's like after I drive, I get out of my car... no, it's like, it takes a long time for me to get out of my car because of that pain. Then I'm thinking to myself, "Oh no," you know? I'll be doing a lot of driving and I can't afford this kind of condition, you know? So I told the Lord, and of course I wanted, like, zap, zoom, the healing comes, you know, and I'm healed, right? And God does do that, but I prayed, I commanded it to go, and the pain was still there. I did all kinds of things I know, it's still there. Finally, in this case, I need to hear the Lord how to receive it. Now, this is what I'm calling your attention to, all right? The Lord said to me, "Pray in the Spirit. Pray in tongues". But so I kept on praying in the Spirit the whole day. The whole day. That afternoon I got the injury, all right? The whole day, I said, "Look, when I go for a holiday, I want to remember you," I told my son, "but not like this". I don't wanna bring a token with me, you know?
And so the whole day, I prayed in the Spirit. All I know is this, all right? It was painful. It took me a long time to get out of my seat, all right? You gotta stop for awhile. You know, the pain is there. Some of you know what I'm talking about, right? And then finally, when I, you know, reached my destination, right, I really have to wait for awhile. I dread sitting down, okay? I prayed in the Spirit. The next day, I got up, that kind of pain became like very little pain the next day. And the next day after I woke up, another next day, the pain is almost gone. And I can sit down and get up and there's no more pain, but in this case I had to ask the Lord... now, usually for this kind of injury, right, it takes a long time. It can even become chronic, and some of you know what I'm talking about. It can become chronic, all right? It can come again and again. And I'm believing it'll never come back, in Jesus' name.
One thing you can receive, you can always receive by faith. I said you can receive by faith. That nobleman, when Jesus told him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Go your way. Your son lives," he believed what the Lord said for him to stay back in Cana. He didn't immediately rush to look at his son's condition. He believed the Word of Jesus. So many of you will say, "Well, I wish Jesus can come down here right now because I am in terrible shape and I want Him to touch me," you don't have to do that. The Word of God is nigh you, the Word of faith. You don't have to say, "Who will go up to heaven and bring Christ down that He might trust me"? You don't need that. You have the Word of faith. And you gotta learn to confess and speak the Word of faith because the Spirit of faith is manifested like this: "I believe and therefore have I spoken".
So thank God for the healing as the Spirit wills, but we don't depend on that. We depend on faith. The just shall live by faith. God wants His righteous by faith people to live by faith. Just like you got saved by faith, everything that's provided for you through the cross of Jesus Christ, through His death, burial, and resurrection is all provided for you to be received by faith. And faith is not hard. And you know something? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. So your constant hearing, and that's the reason why these past few weeks the Lord has been emphasizing to us the importance of hearing the Word of Christ. Your faith comes by hearing, amen? So you know, just when you feel like that faith inside you has gone weak, you find that there is such a thing as little faith.
Jesus says, "Oh you of little faith". And yet, God, how much more will He clothe you? Clothe who, those with strong faith? No, how much more will He clothe you, oh you of little faith? So little faith people can be clothed better than Solomon. And then He says, "How is it that you have no faith"? Remember that? When there was a storm, no faith. Paul writes about your exceedingly growing faith. I pray that all of you, your faith grows exceedingly, amen? So don't depend on emotions. Don't depend on feelings. Don't depend even on the, "I want God to move, and supernaturally like I heard this testimony, that testimony. God did it for them". Yes, God can do it for you, yes. And let's pray for more of the gifts of healings to flow, the gifts of working of miracles, the gift of faith. All these are gifts of the Spirit, amen? But you can receive through the faith.
Now, I mentioned the gift of faith just now. That is a supernatural gift when it comes and operates in you, and I've been there before. You just know that you know that you know. You can point in public and that person is not healed yet, and you point to the person, the person stands up, and the person gets healed completely. Many of you have seen this happen in this church, all right? Now, if you are not sure, you're still wavering, you won't point to a specific person, isn't it? I have pulled people out of their wheelchair in public and I just know that I know at that time. Tomorrow, I mean, the next day after that, I woke up and said, "What did I do? That was a fearful thing". Now the gift of faith is no more operating. So it's a gift. When the gift of faith operates, it just, there's just a strong knowing. There's no doubt whatever. I'm talking about our faith to receive by, that we live by, the faith that can grow. That one all of us have. I said all of us have that. God has dealt to every man the measure of faith, amen?
And one of the reasons why you keep on hearing the Word is so that your faith will grow. You don't wait for crisis to happen. You don't wait for things to happen where you say that, "I need to use my faith now". So don't forget, all provisions are given to you but it's received by faith. By grace through faith. It's always like this. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. Grace and faith goes together. It's not just enough to say, "Well, you know, by grace, one day God will save me. By grace, one day God will heal me. By grace, one day God..." No, no, no, one day is gone. Now is the time. In fact, you look carefully at the Scriptures, it says, "Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time". Now is the accept timed. It's "kairos". It's in the now.
There is a kairos of receiving these moments, I mean, these gifts, and that very kairos moment is actually now. It's never, "One day, God will heal me". You are too late, amen? Start confessing, "I believe by Jesus' stripes I'm healed". You take Communion, amen, say, "Lord, I thank You, You bore all these diseases when You hung on that cross, and by Your stripe I'm healed". Oh, by the way, that day when I had that pain, I took Communion, man. I don't care it's not on Sunday yet, Pastor. I receive for myself. I discern His body. He knew that I'll be injured like this 2,000 years ago because God is sovereign. That's why a healing service, right, that's done last week, for example, can still heal people in America when they listen. When they listen, sometimes a number of weeks have passed.
Now we're make more available faster, but of course it's got nothing to do with that because I just demonstrated to you from the two miracles in Cana that the Lord is the Lord of time and space. And just because in the first service there's healing or whatever I confess and I proclaim, right, about something that's happening, it's happening also in the second service, in the third service, in the online service. And then in future when America, and the world, and Europe, and all over the world watch this program, amen, they can still receive the miracle. And we've had so many testimonies, "I've felt the warmth while I'm watching and the cancer is no more, the growth is no more. Went back to the doctor, no more trace of that disease".
Now, all this shows that when it comes to motivational preach, talking and all that, sense and time rules. It's confined to that because there's no power of the Holy Spirit. It's just man's spirit, man's talents, man's eloquence. But when it comes to preaching the Word of God, you are not on your own. It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit knows the future. And sometimes I'm preaching and I'm talking about someone's condition that that person will be watching, amen, two, three weeks from now, or even three years from now. Are you listening, amen? I could be describing someone going through something, a depression or something like that, and I could describe. While I preaching, I'm illustrating, but the illustration is actually illustrating that person's life. And that person hears it, or he could be in prison, and then he gets healed.
I thank God for all the prison ministries in America that let them watch Christian television, and I'm on, and we have many testimonies. One touching testimony is a man whose life was transformed, completely transformed. He was on death row and he said this. He said that, "Pastor Prince, you know, I never forgave myself all these years, and I murdered someone, but your ministry has changed my life. The grace of God has transformed me," amen. We know it's the Lord. Only the Lord can transform someone, but it's the gospel of grace. And he said that, "I'm in prison because I killed my son, and I could never forgive myself for that". He didn't say whether it was an accident or whatever. I don't think it was because he was on death row at that time when he wrote, but he said, "My life is changed. I'm full of joy, love, and peace. I know God has forgiven me". To God be the glory, amen? Amen.
So something like this can happen within the time. So we look at whatever date it is, and with God date doesn't even matter. As far as God is concerned, Jesus just died just now. And when you take Communion, you must think, when you receive Communion, don't think that He died 2,000 years ago and confine yourself with that kind of thought. The Bible says in the law of the peace offerings, when you receive the... when the offerer offers the lamb to be sacrificed for his sins, right, there's an offering called peace offering and he partakes of the breast meat. So he partakes of the love of Jesus, because it is the breast of the victim, not his breast. He's not thinking about his love for Jesus, he is partaking of the Lord's love for him. It's food for you when you stop and think, "The Lord loves me. This same Jesus who's altogether lovely, He loves me". It's food for you, amen?
And then when you partake, it says this, "Do not partake the peace offering, that meat, more than three days," okay? You cannot keep it more than three days. It must be fresh. So then I was... you partake the Lord's Supper, you partake as if He just died just now, as if He just took your diseases just now. So with God, a thousand years is like one day, all right? With God, a thousand years is like one day. That's why the Bible said, "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee". The first miracle, on the third day. The first four words, "On the third day". And there's no insignificant details in the Bible. With God, a thousand years is like one day and one day is a thousand years, so as far as God is concerned, right, we are people of the third day. Because 2,000 years ago Jesus died, but as far as God is concerned two days has passed.
In fact, He doesn't even think of two days, but for our sake, let us understand a thousand years is like one day, amen? When did Jesus rise from the dead? When was He raised from the dead? On the third day. And the Bible says in Hosea, there's a prophecy, after two days He will revive us. On the third day, He will raise us up and we will live in His sight. We will be in His presence. That's the Rapture. So first of all, after two days, what will happen? He will revive us. There'll be a great revival, and then on the third day He will raise us up. We are looking for that to happen. Meanwhile, there'll be mockers around. The Bible talks about that in Peter. Peter wrote about it in the New Testament, that in the last days there'll come scoffers and mockers, saying, "Where is the sign of His coming? Where is this coming? Where is His coming? As far as we know, since our fathers slept, things have gone on as normal".
One thing they do not know. That's when Peter explained with the Lord a thousand years is like one day and one day is a thousand years. The reason why God is... God is not slack concerning His promise, but He's longsuffering. He is patient towards these sinners even. He's not willing that any should perish. So the reason God delays, if there's a delay and it's, you know, there's a delay, isn't it? You can see it's a delay. It's because God is waiting for people to repent. He's waiting for people to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, their only provision out of their sin, out of guilt and condemnation, out of eternal death. And all the people said... Okay, that was a good introduction, hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. That was important, I feel, amen. When you don't feel anything, just say, "Lord, I thank You that by His stripes I'm healed. I thank You I'm healed".
If the Lord tells you, you know, to partake of the Lord's Supper, I wanna encourage you, if you are sick and you have not received your healing, partake of the Lord's Supper like you take medicine. Three times a day even if you want, if you're desperate enough, amen? But don't do it out of ritual, do it out of revelation. Or pray in the Spirit. At the same time, "Holy Spirit, I do not know how to pray for my condition, but You do. So Holy Spirit, I yield to You. Pray through me". Even all day long, you can be working and still be speaking undertones. Hagah, the Hebrew calls it hagah, speaking undertones, amen. And all the people said... That's not my sermon, you know? I wanna give you something that's solid, you can keep for the entire Sabbatical. I mean, the entire thing, amen? Are you ready?
All right, there's something very interesting that the Bible says about people like us living in the end times. Any time, Jesus can come back for us. And it says in 1 Corinthians 10, it says that all these things, and "all these things" refer to what happened in the wilderness journey of Israel, amen. When they came out of Egypt, they went through the wilderness and they spent 40 years there, not because God wanted them to spend 40 years, but because of their sin of unbelief. They didn't believe God was that good. The provision has been made. The land was flowing with milk and honey. And God says, "All you gotta do, just go inside".
In fact, when Joshua brought them in finally, it was only with a shout. That means only your mouth was the only thing that was lacking on their part. They used their mouth to say, "We are not able to. We saw giants there. We are like grasshoppers in their sight. We are like grasshoppers in their sight. In fact, we saw people that can eat us up". Whereas Joshua and Caleb, who also went into the land, saw the same giants, saw the same walls, say that, "They are bread for us because God is with us". And these are the only two that God brought in. God loves faith. God loves the spirit of faith. Can I have a good amen?
The whole world is in unbelief, but you walk in faith. They will mock you, they will make fun of you, amen, but what a small world they live in. And we don't respond with any vindictiveness, but with love, and pray for them that their eyes might be open. But the life of faith is the most exciting life, amen. Like I know there are angels around, you know? There are angels around. In every service, there are angels around. Praise the Lord, amen. And once in awhile, you'll find that someone will take a picture of a video of an angel walking in the clouds and all that kind of thing. "I mean, Pastor Prince, what do you think of that"?
Well, you know something? We don't have to depend on that, amen. The Word of God is enough. We are surrounded by angels and they watch over you. It's a good thing to tell your children that. You got strong angels going with you to school. Yeah, the plane that we take is TWA, Travel With Angels. We gotta think of something for SIA, okay? All right, so they are with us all the time. Are they there to be spectators? No, they are there to watch over us, to deliver us from all evil. I'll tell you this. You know, we give thanks to God for all the deliverances that we know happened.
When we... "Oh man, I just, I nearly crashed into that just now, and at the right time, I don't know why, I delayed and the crash happened to someone else". But we are grateful that we didn't get it. But actually we are not sad for the person. Someone says, "Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire"! The guy run all the way to the end of the street and he says, "Thank God it's not my house". You see, forget about loving one another as you love yourself. So people don't talk about that. They wanna keep the law, not realizing that we cannot. Now, the morality is still there, but how to get there from here, it must be through the new covenant grace. Can I have a good amen?
We thank God for things that we know. How about things that God protected you? Had you been in another marriage today, you wouldn't be doing what you are doing today. You might not even be alive today. She might have killed you a long time ago. Or the reason why you are doing, and you were disappointed many years ago when that happened and that career didn't work out, and you were very disappointed, but right now you are thriving, you are happy, you are fulfilled. You can put your head on the bed, right, on the pillow at night and sleep well, amen, because why? You are in this job. But you wanted to be another job 20 years ago or 30 years ago, and now you look back, you thank God for where you are. Who do you think delivered you from all that? Thank God, God knows more than us. That's why we pray in the Sprit a lot, amen?
We do not know the future. Thank God, had we gone by our own desires, amen, and God didn't stop us, and we were not happy with God when He stopped us, or He didn't open the door, or He didn't give us favor in that area. But we look back and now, had we been in that marriage, had we been in that, put ourselves in that investment, had we got ourself on this career course, you wouldn't be enjoying what you are enjoying today. There have been people who were disappointed when the Lord stopped them from a career course that could cost them dearly, but they're not happy. They're not happy. And many times, it weighs, you know, it bears that waiting period just so that people can see it was a mistake.
There's always a benefit of hindsight, amen? And some people will not come to you and say, "I'm sorry". They won't come to you and say, "I'm sorry". Why? It's pride. It's the flesh. But when they look back, they can thank God that they did not invest as they should. All the money is just down the drain. Preach it, Pastor Prince, hallelujah. Okay, now, I wanna share with you something that's very important because the Bible says that, "All these things happened to them [as] types, and have been written for our admonition". Your New King James says, "As examples," but the word there is "tupos," which is "types". "And have been written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come".
So there is a provision in the Bible, very interesting that I wanna share with you today. There's a provision in the Bible that is seldom preached and it is actually in, you might think it's in the wrong book actually because it's a sin offering. It's a sin offering that was introduced for the very first time in the book of Numbers 19, whereas all the sin offerings, all the burnt offerings, all the offerings for that matter where you bring a sacrificial animal, amen, and lay it on the altar, all the offerings, the five offerings, amen, the burnt offering; the minchah, the meal offering, the flour offering; the peace offering, I mentioned that just now; and then the sin and trespass offering. All that is mentioned where? In what book? Leviticus. Leviticus, right?
But this particular offering appears smack dab right towards the end of the journey, almost towards the end of the wilderness journey. Almost when they finish their wilderness journey, there's a provision there for a new kind of sin offering. It's called the offering of the ashes of the red heifer, or the red heifer. All right, heifer is a female cow. But why did God not put this offering as the sixth one in Leviticus? After all, Leviticus is all about offering, right? The first part of it is all about offerings, amen? Why did God put this here? Some of you, "Pastor, I don't know". And some of you say, "I don't care," you know? But you should care because if you are hungry for God's Word, you know there's no insignificant details in the Bible, amen? It was put right at the end of the wilderness journey because of all the failures of God's people along the way.
So it's for people at the end times, people like us. That's why I read this verse, "Upon whom the end of the ages have come". We're the people of the end times, amen. Amen? And Jesus is coming back for us soon, hallelujah. So there's a provision here that God wants us to focus on, and that's the reason why the church in the wilderness then, amen, God's people are the people of Israel then, they had all kinds of failures, failure after failure. For example, they wanted to take the place of Moses. The son of Korah, they say that, "Does God only speak by Moses? Why does Moses exalt himself above us all, and Aaron also? What's all this with leadership? We don't need leadership. We all are holy". That's what exactly they said, "We are all holy in the eyes of God".
The next day, they all died, all right? God opened the earth and then God closed the earth and they are no more standing on the earth. They were all swallowed alive, amen. And then there was another one where they murmured. God gave them the manna and they're not happy with the manna. You know, man crave for man's food, the Egyptian's food, food of the world. They have more craving for that than food of angels, food of champions, the manna from heaven, amen? And they complained, "Manna, manna, manna. Always manna. Always the Word of God. Always the Word of God, you know? I'm hungry for more"! Amen? And you go through a merry-go-round, you know, in the wilderness until you realize man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
So they went through failure, after failure, after failure until God provided for them, Numbers 19. So let's look at this Numbers 19. Very interesting. It says this, "Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 'This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying: "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come".'" Now, it's a female cow. Now, that's interesting because the idea of female or male, in the Old Testament it's all types. It's not referring to the physical. It's pointing to a truth. In the Old Testament, there's a lot of types. Things are shadows pointing to a substance, types pointing to the antitype, amen, in the new covenant when Jesus comes, amen.
So what is this red heifer? It's a picture of Jesus, but it's a female cow which means it focuses more on the female, the idea of female is more subjective. This is for us to apply. Objective is something like positional truth. Female is more subjective truth. You know what I'm saying? Something that is positional, something that is active, something that is passive. That's the idea. Follow me so far? Okay, anyway, that is where the teachers come in, all right? So the red heifer is a picture of Jesus, don't forget. But another aspect God wants us to see is this. First of all, let's look at this red heifer. It's without blemish.
Now, that's nothing new, all right? All the offerings in Leviticus, all the offerings I mentioned just now, they all must, except for the grain offering, there's no animal sacrifice there. Only the grain, amen. But all the offerings God requires the animal to be without blemish, hallelujah. That's our Lord Jesus. But there is something very unique here, very particular about this sacrifice. It comes with, "In which there is no defect, and on which a yoke has never come".
Now, this is new. Without blemish is always a given. The lamb that you bring to God must be without blemish. It's a picture of Jesus. Now, Jesus is without blemish. Look, even the one, the man who is a heathen, doesn't worship God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he himself is there for his own self-aggrandizement, for his own career advancement, his name is Pontius Pilate, who was the governor of Judea at that time, right? And he was the one judging Jesus in Israel. After he talked to Jesus and all that, he came out and told the people, "I find no guilt". The word there, "I find no fault, no guilt in Him". He's without blemish. Now, these are not His best friends talking about Him, you know? You can say that these are His enemies, people who are set to do harm to Him. Even the ruler said, "I find no fault in Him".
When Jesus hung on the cross in the midst of two thieves, one of the thieves looked at Jesus, all right, and rebuked the other thief who was, at first, both of them rebuked Jesus actually. You'll find that in another gospel. But later on, I believe he saw how Jesus forgave those who sinned against Him, and said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do". He saw the love of Jesus. He saw how Jesus, without complaining, with no, you know, His words, nothing vindictive, nothing of a revenge nature, nothing, you know, imprecatory, like praying the imprecatory psalm, "Smite them, Lord," you know? And He could. He told His disciples one time, "Don't you know? Put back your sword," He told Peter. "Don't you know right now I can call 12 legions of angels"?
Have you seen one angel? One angel in the Old Testament killed 186,000 Assyrians in one night. Can you imagine 12 legions? They all have that, I believe they got their swords, you know, all ready already, glittering, shining. "Speak the word, Lord"! And Jesus was silent, the Bible says, like a lamb. Didn't even summon them, amen? He shut His mouth so that you can open your mouth and say, "The Lord is my Shepherd. No evil befall me. He gives His angels charge over me". He did it for us, amen? But after for awhile, the thief looked at Jesus and the thief says, "This man", He, in fact, rebuked the other thief and said, "This man has done nothing amiss. Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom". Jesus says, "Today, you shall be with Me in paradise," all right? He has done nothing amiss.
When Jesus cried, "Finished!" all right, there was an earthquake, and the temple's veil was rent in two, and the centurion at the foot of the cross looked up and said, "Certainly this is the Son of God," Roman centurion. Can you picture all that? What about the guy who betrayed Him, who lived with Him three-and-a-half years? He was there with Jesus. He saw how perfect Jesus is. He took, he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. There are still people, a lot of people, money is their first reason, amen, for doing anything. I don't care about morals, you know, I have to lie to do it. I don't care about my character, as long as it's profitable. That is the generation that we are entering into, you know, right now? Doesn't matter your character or whatever, but it is profitable, all right?
Well, he brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the Pharisees. He threw them to the ground and Judas says, "I have sinned against innocent blood". Innocent blood. Who better than him who spent day in, day out with Jesus, amen? He's without blemish. Okay, then the unique factor, particularity about this offering is that there is no defect. "In which there is no defect". I love this. Say, "In which". Say, "In which". And then "On which". Say, "On which". "On which a yoke never came". "In" is inside. In Him there is no defect. On Him there is no slavery. There's no servitude, yoke. Jesus, in Him, I'm telling you, you know what's defect? Not only He's without blemish, amen? He is without defect. "Without defect" means every positive good, every moral excellence is in Him. If anything good is missing, there is defect.
So it's not without blemish. "Without blemish" means, right, without sin, without fault, but everything that's positively good is in Him, everything that God the Father would delight in His Son. So is that our Lord Jesus. "So what's this offering all about, Pastor Prince"? Very interesting. You will want to be interested because it is one offering, there's one provision. Most of the offerings is done, offered for sin, like sin offerings, trespass offering. This offering has a unique feature. It is still sin. You can still say it's sin, but it is something that God provides for His people. And don't forget, they have failed so much already, by the end of the wilderness journey, God brings this provision of grace so that they can enter the land, amen, and it's a provision of the red heifer.
And I mentioned ashes just now. How does it become ashes? Well, they bring this animal. I'm gonna cut the long story short, amen. You can read all about it. It's very long, Numbers 19. And they will bring the red heifer, all right, to the priest, and the Bible says someone will kill the red heifer in front of the priest, and the red heifer will be burnt on the altar. And while it's burning, the priest will take cedar. That represents everything lofty and greatest, you know, high flesh we call it. Flesh is still flesh, but it's high flesh, you know? More civilized, more cultured, more mannered, polite, but it's still flesh. When God looks at the flesh, He sees the sin, right? All high flesh, cedar wood, is all burnt at the cross. It's all finished at the cross.
And then low flesh, hyssop. Hyssop is a small thing, amen? Hyssop is like what we call, you know, the outcasts in society, so obviously morally, we cannot imagine how low can you go, you know? That's kind of, that's low flesh, hyssop. So Solomon is able to speak about. The wisdom of Solomon is so broad, he can talk about the cedar wood, the cedar of Lebanon, to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. So these elements are thrown into the fire, and scarlet. Scarlet represents all the glory of man, amen. See how famous I am? You see how rich I am? You see how much I have accomplished? All right, all that is scarlet. All that is in the fire, okay? Are you with me so far?
And it's burnt until it becomes ashes. And then they put it into a vessel. And then in the vessel, they fill running water. And the word "running water" in Hebrew is "mayim chaim". "Mayim," water. "Chaim" is life. Both plural, living water. Running water, your New King James says, right? But they fill up with water, and then the burnt ashes, the heifer becomes ashes finally. They take the ashes and they put it into the water. Okay, listen, that's the provision of grace for the end times. There's a, "So what is it, Pastor Prince"? I'm coming to it. When you talk about ashes, it's the final form of any matter. When you burn something, you cannot burn beyond what? Ashes. Hey folks, you are learning things that some even Bible schools don't teach you, you know? Aren't you glad?
Okay, I'm gonna tell you right now so that you'll understand why your interest is in this, because this provision is for anyone that touches a dead body, anything a dead, I mean, a dead bone, ha ha, a bone, right, a grave, or being in the tent where someone just died, all right? All this speaks of death. Now, let me ask you a question. Was death in God's plan for Adam when He made Adam? No. For man? No. In fact, the Bible calls death, I've been saying this many times, an enemy, right? Now, what is the process that leads to death? What is the process usually? You see this around you even. What's the process? First of all, the person become weak, and then the person become sick, and then the person slowly deteriorates or degenerates all the way down until he cannot even stand upright. He's flat on his back or in the hospital usually the case is, right? And finally death.
So death don't just happen, there are processes of death. Death, we know it's death. Your heart stop beating, that's death. But actually, death to God is really a process. But the Bible says, "If you live after the flesh, you shall die". But people are still around and they live after the flesh. Well, death has taken place. So we're gonna learn how to receive life every day man, come on. This is in your vested interest because I'm walking in it by the grace of God as much as I know how. I want to bring you in this journey, amen, that life flows through your body. You don't have to worry. When life flows, I'm telling you. What about my sins? You should preach more against sin.
Friend, listen. When life flows into a tree, what happened to all the dead leaves? The brown leaves, all the sins, all the things that don't belong to the kingdom of God, all those things in your life, what happened? Drop off. There's another way. I tell you the religious way. Religious way is that you climb the tree, you pluck off one by one. Every leaf that has turned yellow and brown, you pluck off by yourself, and that's what religion does. So don't turn Christianity into a religion. It's not about your works. It's about life. It's focused on life. John's emphasis in his writings in 1 John is on life and light. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of man". Jesus says, "I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly".
The absence of life is... we say that, "Well, you know what, the Bible doesn't say so much about health, you know"? The word "health" here and there, there is, you know, and all that, but because the word... what is health? Health is life. And the word "shalom," wholeness, it's all there in the Bible and appears so life. "Life" appears so often. "Peace" appears, "shalom" appears so often, "sofia" in the Greek. So often! So for us, we think that life means I'm still alive. See my heart? Feel my heart. Take the steths... and feel my heart. There's no arrhythmia, fine, you know? There's a rhythm of grace. Yeah, that's fine, but listen, that is just an indication you are alive physically. That's not an indication, and the fact that Jesus says, "I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly," that means there are measures of life.
The Bible says when someone sins, pray for him. Why? That God will give life to him. Wow, that means what? Death has leaked. No really, the picture I see is that when you sin, when you say, "No, I'm still fine. I'm still okay," all right, you're supposed to live until 90 years old, now it's 85. You gotta pray for life. It says that in 1 John. It says pray for life, that God will give him life. And you pray for life, God add it back. Yeah, I know you wanna talk about 120. Talk about 90 first, amen? I think the wages of sin is death. I think God means what He says. You are thinking about eternal death and all that. We've covered that, right? We're talking about what God has in mind when He talk about death, death in all its forms. Sickness is a form of death, all right? Death and sickness restrict you. It restricts your movement. Life, you are unrestricted. There's freedom.
There are people who say, "I'm free! I'm a free thinker". Actually, when they think, they cannot, they are not free. They cannot think but think a certain kind of unclean thoughts or they cannot stop thinking negatively, always in a pessimistic way, always in a negative way, out to look for fault, fault-finding. They cannot stop it, and they call themself free thinkers. The ones who are truly free is this: Jesus says, "If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed," amen. We are truly free. So like the Lord Jesus, He never came under servitude. "Upon which there came no yoke". That tell us what? That for Him, He never came... the world, this is something outward. He was never in servitude to anyone or any system of the world. In other words, the system of the world, the principles of the world cannot control Him, has no influence to alter His decisions or His direction in life.
Doesn't follow the principles of the world. He follows the Spirit. He's not, therefore He's free, truly free. Then, not only that, He's free from the opinions of man. He does not make decisions based on the approbation, or the praise, or censure, or the criticism of man. You look at the Lord Jesus in the Gospels carefully, one of the... I remember when I was just a boy reading the Gospels, this was the first thing that impacted me. I see a man who is not affected by praise, nor affected by criticism or rebuke. It never altered His decision. He doesn't take a step based or influenced by the fear of man, all right? Praising Him doesn't change. Praising Him doesn't make Him think better of you. Criticizing Him doesn't make Him think less of you. Look at us today. We are so in servitude.
There is a... don't say, "Upon which there's no yoke". That's true of Jesus. You look at us, we are so yoked. We think about what this person thinks, what that person thinks, what that person thinks. We are bound, but the Lord Jesus. That's why I'm saying to you when the Bible says to become like Jesus, don't you wanna become a man like Him? Part of... a lot, not just part. A lot, I would say more than half, 50% of your problems that you have within yourself, depression, and feelings of isolation, and rejection, and all that, all because of your enlarged opinion and thoughts about people's praise of you, of their rebuke or their censure of you.
If someone tells me, "Pastor Prince, this person is criticizing you," doesn't matter. I will not get bitter. If I get bitter, that person has an influence. I'm still in servitude to the criticism of man, "Yeah, Pastor Prince, do you know this is happened, and now there's another milestone," or whatever. I just thank the Lord for it and I thank the person for sharing it, but it doesn't affect me. I'm not there yet, okay? I'm not there yet. It still bothers me when my family says something, so that's why I make my son confess, "Washboard, washboard, washboard". Look at my stomach, washboard, amen? Yeah, so I'm still affected. I'm affected also still by the people around me that I love and care about.
In fact, we are very affected by people we care about. But Jesus, even Jesus, when it comes to His well-meaning mother who tried to tell Him, "Do your miracle now," He wasn't influenced by her in the first miracle at the wedding of Cana. Even His disciples, their fears and their praises of Him did not change His course. He didn't decide based on their fears; He didn't decide based on their praise. How wonderful is our Lord? And He's Man. These are all the character developments and moral excellencies of that perfect Man, the Man in whom God delights. And we will be conformed to that image. What an image to be conformed to, amen? We are so easily irritated, so easily affected by man, so easily affected by people's censure or rebuke. Let's from this day on aspire to be like Jesus, amen?
Okay, let's come back to this ashes of red heifers. So they put the ashes inside. The final form of fire, all right, through its course and all that, you cannot burn beyond ashes. So that speaks of the finished work of Jesus, amen? The red heifer is Jesus, so it is put into the water for application. If anyone touch a dead man, or touch a bone, or touch a grave, they have to find recourse through the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer. Drop down, it says here, "Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword, who has died, bone of a man, grave, shall be unclean seven days". Okay, drop down, "A clean person". Okay, "For an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burn for purification from sin," note that word, "purification from sin, and running water shall be put on them in a vessel. A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water".
Now, this is not a priest, or Moses, or Aaron, which would signify that the person here is Jesus, but actually it's a clean person, so I would assume this clean person is someone, one of the believers in Christ, amen? They're actually applying it on another one. You can also say it's like, right now, do you know that I'm sprinkling, I'm not referring to physically, for those in the front row, okay? But do you know, as I'm preaching, I'm sprinkling clean water on you? I'm actually, and it's important that the word that you hear, my friend, I'm right now sprinkling the ashes of the red heifer on you, amen. And all the death parts in you, the dead spots in your mind, in your brain, you know, dead spot, you wanna think about it but you cannot think. It's a dead spot. And you find that some people say as you grow older, amen, more dead spots.
Well, let's not accept that. Let's not accept that. The Bible says Moses died 120 years old. His eyes was not dim nor was his natural force abated. In the Hebrew, "Natural force abated," is that his moisture never fled. His moisture. He was still moisturized. I'm not referring to moisturizer. I'm referring to his bones. There's no osteoporosis. He's strong. The Bible says certain things that you do, He will make fat your bones. You read that before? You know what's, "Make fat your bones"? It's not brittle. Yeah, you can depend and you take calcium supplements, all that, but I'm telling you, God's way is the best, because we have examples in the Bible of people who didn't take supplements.
Now, you're on medication, please continue, all right? I'm just talking about people who don't take, right, and they were strong. Now, I do take. Every day, I do take. I do. I let you know first. I'm just saying, in comparison, can you just see how much more we need to depend on the Lord and on His Word, amen? So, "A clean person shall take hyssop". Now, I believe this is your tongue, the smallest part of your body, the Bible says, in terms of your outward body. Okay, "In hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, on the one who touch a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave". Would you agree with me that this provision is for those who touch death? Sin always leads to death, yes, but particularly we have other sin offerings mentioned in Leviticus already. This one particularly talks about death, so I can submit to you it's also for provision against sickness and disease. It's a form of death.
I submit to you it's also for depression, because it's a form of death in your mind, amen? And God wants you well, all right? Let's hear a picture of a Man who is well, our Lord Jesus. Don't forget, when He was on earth, He was fully Man. Yes, He's God, but on earth He was fully Man. He came as a Man. And all the character developments I told you just now is in its highest development and in its perfected development in Christ. He grew up. He grew in... you see, God doesn't grow. God is a Spirit, amen. But became a Man, He had to grow. He didn't have perfect knowledge. He wasn't in the mother's womb, say, "I know everything, you know. I know how this whole thing functions". No, no, He was a baby until there was a time somewhere, amen, I believe the consciousness came that He's the Son of God, He has a life before this life. At the age of 12, He astounded the doctors of the law, okay? Are you with me so far?
So would you say this provision is for every area of death in your life? And yet, what it tells you, if you touch death, "Now, Pastor, what do you mean by, 'You touch death'"? You know, sometimes some things are not clearly sin. Not clearly sin, not seen, S-I-N. Not sin. You know, like some things you can tell it's sin for sure, amen? Amen? You better know what's evident sin, right? Okay, but some things you can't tell. Once upon a time, I was with Pastor Mark. We were overseas. And one of those times we had free time and we were actually in a bookshop in this particular city, and Pastor Mark was with me and all that. I was browsing through some books and then there's a famous nonfiction book, all right, that wants to reveal to you the secrets of the universe, that kind of thing.
So out of curiosity, I pick it up. It's a best seller, huge best seller. I pick it up and it talks about how, you know, if you utilize these new age principles and these, all these, using your mind power and that kind of thing, you can actually manipulate your circumstances, and your future, and all that. Then I realized that I've seen all this before many years ago when I was in the occult and the Lord delivered me and all that. I realized the same kind of thing, but I kept on reading some parts just to see how I can counter it, but I was reading it. Then when I put the book down, I remembered, I was walking with Pastor Mark, all the sudden, bang, I had a terrible headache, just terrible headache. You know, I can't imagine, looking back, ever having a headache like that. It was so severe. And I said that, "Mark, you know," you know what I'm saying? The doctors might think, "Well, you might have a seizure". No, just be cool.
After that, I went for a checkup and I ran on a treadmill, and I had no problem, all right? But I went to the toilet. I had, it lasted for some time, and finally, I was still in the mall with Pastor Mark, you know? I said, "I need to", you know, I didn't tell him, but I wanted to go toilet. I need to talk to the Lord about this. So I spoke to the Lord. I said, "Lord, tell me what happened? Suddenly it's like that. What happened"? And this is the word that He used. This is from Him. So after that, it caused me to search this, right? He says, "You touched death". It's not a matter of physical touch. You understand or not? You came into contact with death, the principles of death in that book. And He pointed to me that book is of the devil. The philosophies and the ideas is to cause man to be independent of God and trust himself that they can create, amen. You touched death.
So I told the Lord, "What do I need to do"? and this is what the Lord said to me, "You need to wash yourself with the washing of water of the Word". And straightaway, I knew that I had to meditate on the Word of God. Because I was out there, I don't have a Bible on hand, and I began to just meditate on the Word, just any Word that came to me from the Spirit just that flows out of me. I began to meditate because I memorize some Scriptures for meditation. I just bring up the Scripture, and just meditate on it, and just meditate on it. And as I meditated... now, this is the provision of the washing of the water of the Word, wherein lies the finished work of Jesus. I meditate on it, and all of a sudden, just like that, the whole thing, the headache just left me like that. And Pastor Mark was a witness because he saw me before and then he saw me then, and it is amazing experience. And from then on, I began to see more of what God is saying through the provision of the ashes of the red heifer.
Now, notice this provision. The provision here is what? The washing of the water of the Word, but it has ashes inside there. It has ashes inside there, right? Ashes means what? Finished work. So it's not just a matter of preaching. Listen to any preaching and you are washed. There must be ashes in it. There must be the proclamation of the finished work of Jesus Christ, how our sins are finished in His body at the cross, how our diseases are finished in His body at the cross. That's the ashes. That's the thing we gotta preach to the people. The people do not know that they are... they think that God is still against them. And the Bible is saying God is reconciling the Word unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and we are more conscious of this sin, and that sin, and this sin. Some sins are more remarkable. Some sins are more outstanding. Some sins are more prevalent within a group and all that. And these are sins, no doubt, but we call upon these sins and that.
And sometimes some sins like gluttony and all that, complaining and all that, being fearful and all that, it's almost like these are okay sins, you know? And what makes it okay? So you know something? All sins are finished in the body of Jesus Christ, and God is telling the world. So the only reason why anyone would experience eternal death after this life, right, would be to reject the provision. It's not because there's no provision, okay? But we are smart. We will take everything that Jesus did for us, amen? Amen? So it must, the preaching, and whatever you are reading, whatever you are hearing must have the element of Jesus Christ and the cross. If the person is teaching you, even if it's a pastor, and he talks about all the good teachings of Jesus, especially talking about, you know, you can even preach, listen carefully. Don't misunderstand when I say this, all right, because we are supposed to draw this from the Word of God and interpret in the light of the new covenant, amen?
Sermon on the Mount, for example. If you live by the Sermon on the Mount, you will live a life that's successful, and then after you die, you'll be in heaven. No, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount so that you'll come to the end of yourself. The elements in it, for example, your hand cut, sin, cut it off. Your eye offend you, pluck it out. Anyone done that? Yeah, so what is Jesus doing? Jesus is bringing you to the highest level of the law that God meant it to be, and the Pharisees brought it in a way that is manageable, amen, but He brought back the pristineness of the law so that everyone is left dumbfounded, amen? Everyone is guilty. The Bible says God gave the law so that every mouth may be stopped and everyone become guilty before God, and then we see our need for the Savior. Can I have a good amen?
But some elements, some parts there is meant for the future when Jesus comes and reigns again because it's the constitution of the kingdom. And the part where it says, "If someone take your coat, let him have your inner coat also," amen, anyone done that? I don't think so, amen? But that one is for the future, I believed. I believed him. There are elements there, it's like when He preached the Sermon on the Mount, the old covenant was passing away. The kingdom has come, but later on we realize that the kingdom was, you know, rejected because the King was rejected. Then came the church, and the mystery of the church happened after Jesus was finally rejected by the Jews.
But Jesus came preaching the kingdom, not about the church age. But in the upper room, He began to unfold the truths about the church age, amen. But does that mean the Sermon on the Mount is not relevant for us? No, there are elements, you read about it, "Love your enemies" is still carried on in the new covenant. Overcome evil with good, amen? "Be not overcome of evil". Do you understand what I'm saying so far? The one, Paul's letters, you can go for it all the way. For example, one part Jesus actually told the disciples, "Go not to the way of the Gentiles. Go to the way of," the louse, I mean, "the lost house of Israel," amen. Are we gonna apply that today? But it's in red in the Gospels. No, we must interpret in the light of the new covenant.
So we gotta spend more time, and you say, "But those are Paul's letters. These are Jesus' Words". Hey, Paul did not write out of his own words. He received the words from the ascended Christ. So when Jesus was on earth, all the things that He said, right at the end, what did He say? "I have many things to say unto you but you're not yet able. When the Holy Spirit has come, He will guide you into all truths". So you spend more time in the new covenant. Especially Paul's letters, Peter's letters, amen, John's letters, all of them, spend more time. That's written directly to you. But every book of the Bible, amen, is profitable for the man of God today, amen. It's like some things are written to you, but some things are written for you. The New Testament, amen, is written to you. Are you with me so far?
Let me bring this to a close. So what am I saying? I'm saying that a lot of the benefits you see is actually in the area of receiving the Word because you do not know how much death you have contracted in a given day, in a given week. So the best thing is put yourself under the bath, under the washing. We learned that last week, right? Keep yourself, keep coming. I mean, listen, if the only time you get the Word, all right, is on Sunday, then come on Sunday. "But people call me Sunday Christian". Never mind, at least on Sunday you'll be clean for the coming week. I'm just glad you came. I'm just glad you came. "But Pastor, I didn't attend church for a long time". But you are here now in order for you to tell me that, right? I'm glad you came, amen.
Stop criticizing every area of people's lives that's not even mentioned in the New Testament, right? You don't find Paul saying, "To all the saints in Rome, except for those who are not attending church regularly". I don't know why we do it. We are patient with our children while they are growing up with all their faults and failures, but we are very impatient with one another. What's this about us? Anyway, before I go into this, let me finish it, all right? So you contract death, people. You do not know how. I just wanna close real quick to show you something that, you know, you read it many times, you read it many times, you read it many times, and you don't realize that it's there. In fact, I just mentioned this miracle just now, and I'll close with this. Look up here in John 2, "On the third day there was a wedding".
Okay, drop down. Okay, and I'm gonna show you the story first. You know what happened, right? He was in Cana. This is the first miracle of Jesus I shared just now. Thank God I shared so you understand the story, for those who have never heard the story. So Jesus was invited, the mother of Jesus was there, Mary was there, and Jesus and His disciples came. Now, in a wedding, what do people do? They eat. They don't fast on a wedding, they eat. They celebrate, all right? In this case, they drink wine. And then the wine ran out. Now, in that day and age, in that culture, the Jewish culture, for the wine to run out, that means you didn't do enough preparation. It reflects bad on you. It's a bad sign for your marriage. It's just bad. They didn't prepare for this, or something happened. The wine ran out.
So the mother of Jesus came to Jesus, all right, and said that they have no wine, and again, to show you that now He's a man already, there are men still receiving instruction from their mother. Even after they marry, they still receive instruction from their mother. Even when it contradicts sometimes what the wife is saying, they still receive instruction. Now, the mothers not happy with me. No, I'm not referring to you. You're a New Creation mother, amen, new covenant mother. You know, Bible says, "For this cause," when you get married, "a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave". You cannot cleave until you leave. Now, that doesn't mean you don't respect them. It just means, right, you are now your man. You gotta make your own decisions and all that. You'll always honor them. Make sure you provide for them. Make sure you honor them all the days of their lives, but they don't treat you like a child anymore, amen. You have a new life with your wife now.
Notice that the wife never leaves the father and mother. It doesn't say wife leave. The man leaves. For some reason, there's a revelation around that. So if you live with your in-laws, all right, woman, and the husband is listening to you know, and there's strife and all that, pray. Pray for God's pattern to come in, amen? And if you are an in-law yourself, just know the tendency to want to advise your son against the wife. Watch out for that. Some parts you must let go, especially when it comes to the grandchildren. Let go and let God. Love them and send them back. It's the best thing to do. Love the children, make joy, I mean, have fun with them, you know, and after that send them back. It's something you get to do as grandparents.
Last time, parents, right, you got no choice. You gotta stay with them, clean them up, make sure they are bathed, you know, and they are well fed, but this one, you just come, make them love you, give them candies, give them whatever you want, you know, let 'em celebrate, enjoy them, bring them to arcades, you know, and play games, and all that. When they really love you, send them back wanting more, amen? But don't put pressure on your son or the marriage, amen? Preach it, Pastor Prince. Okay, so I said you can read a passage so many times, so many times, and yet you miss something. I missed this. Remember the six waterpots of stone there, right? Look at this, "Now there were set there six waterpots of stone".
And I used to think at one time it was waterpots of stone, of clay. Most waterpots are clay. Even in our house, you know, remember you bathed with a clay waterpot? Remember last time? Your neighbor can hear, "Dung, pshhh, dung, pshhh, dung, pshhh". Everyone knows in that block that you are having your bath, right? I'm talking about those of you... that's how I... and I would sing. I would, you know, at one time we would have no warm water. I remember growing up with that big vessel thing, "Dung, pshhh, dung, pshhh". Just do it fast and you won't feel the chill. And I would sing, and the neighbor would knock on the door and say, "Can you please tell your son it's a bit late to be singing?" all right? Where do you think you get the voice from, man? Come on, practice, all right? No money to buy amplifier and all that. That's the amplifier. The best place to sing is in the bathroom, amen?
So Jesus, notice, "There were set there six waterpots," of what? Stone. Now, one thing about stone vessel, it purifies. Even in the natural, purifies, okay? But notice, "According to the manner of purification of the Jews". Hmm, there is this detail by the Holy Spirit, "According to the manner of the purification of the Jews". Could this be the water containing the ashes of the red heifer? Something sad, it says, "Containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece". The word "containing," one translation says it doesn't mean the water is there. IT's empty. One translation says, "Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons". Each could hold means the potential is there, but it's empty. If it's not empty, how do you explain Jesus saying, "Fill the waterpots with water"? It's empty. There's no provision there.
"What does this gotta do with no wine? Pastor, how about you preach? I'm thinking I'm sick, you know, and you give me ashes. You give me a cow. Why do you give me a cow"? It's all gotta do even with your needs being met. So here, notice the provision. The mother thought they have no wine, but Jesus pointed out the six waterpots of water. The fact that He pointed out to them to do something with them tells us something. Israel came to a place where they don't see their need for the ashes of the red heifer. God forbid that, the first miracle of Jesus. God is bringing us back to the first miracle because it's the basis first mention of miracles, sets the tone of every other miracle. It tells us the importance of being under the washing of the water of the Word. And the water of the Word must contain what? Not just any sermon about the Bible. It must contain the finished work of Jesus. You can preach anything on marriage and all that, but it's gotta come back to the cross of Jesus Christ. Are you with me so far?
"Jesus said to them, 'Fill the waterpots with water.' And they filled them up to the brim". So we know that from this point here, they filled the six waterpots of stone with water up to the brim. That's like filling yourself full of the Word. And what happens after that? You can only fill yourself up full of the Word. The rest is up to the Lord to turn that water into wine. In this case, that water was turned to wine. So even all the ashes of the red heifer in the past is only pointing to the substance, the reality. You know, the first miracle of Moses, the law, first miracle was to turn water into blood, resulting in death. The first miracle of grace, our Lord Jesus, is to turn water into wine. Wine is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Wine is a picture of joy. It's always used in these types in the Bible for joy or for the power of the Holy Spirit.
God's gonna transform what is cold and what is plain in the old covenant, and that is contained under the law, into the power of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God in our lives. How many waterpots of stone are there? Six, number of man. So man is just a cold, cold, cold stone, and stone speaks of the law. It's a provision of the law and it's cold. It cannot really cleanse you. We all know that ashes of red heifer is just a picture. It cannot cleanse you. In fact, the Bible says in Hebrews 13, if we look at Hebrews 9, excuse me, "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer," there you go. Now you understand. Back then, "Sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh". Wow, back then even it can purify the flesh. Does that mean that it helps people with skin problems even back then? "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God"?
So today, the reality of the ashes of the red heifer for us is preaching that cleanses your conscience, amen? It's the blood of Christ that does it. Preaching about the blood of Christ that cleanses, and the result must be your conscience is cleansed from dead works to serve the living God. What is dead works? It's not necessarily sin, okay? Dead works primarily is about things that you do to become righteous before God, things that you do to make God accept you even more, because your idea is that Jesus' work is not enough, I must do. So the preaching has gotta be, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God"?
You see the Holy Trinity here. Very seldom you see the Holy Trinity. You see the blood of Christ who offered through what? The Holy, the eternal Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Offered Himself to who? God. The Trinity. You better listen when the Trinity is in one verse, the Triune God. The blood of Christ has cleansed your conscience. The whole topic here is about your conscience being cleansed. And actually I just got started. Ahhh, oh man, but I gotta close, okay, so that you can fetch your children. If you are experiencing symptoms of death in your life, whether it is starting to lose your memory, death has started in the area of your mind, or always having dark thoughts in your mind, you don't know how to break free from it, or symptoms of sickness or weakness in your body, amen, these are signs of death. Death begun, and finally the heart stops. That's death.
And the Bible says there's victory over that when Jesus comes again. We'll have a brand new body that will never die. But meanwhile, we're surrounded by death. Would you agree? Every movie you watch, it might not be a bad movie, or unclean movie, or rated RA or whatever, but it can be elements of death here and there. We do not know. What I'm saying is that we do not know when we touch death, we come in contact with death, but the provision is there. What happens if you keep yourself under that flow all the time? And that's why those who meditate on the Word day and night, they are under the constant washing. Under constant washing. No wonder whatever they do prospers, because their hands are no more in touch, no more defiled with death. Whatever they do prospers. You keep yourself under the washing. Keep on hearing the Word, amen? Amen?
Keep on hearing the Word. I have thousands of sermons down through the years, all right? You ask yourself, "What are you going through now"? You need healing, there are a lot of teachings on healing. You need some parenting advice, what better advice than from God's Word, amen? We'll teach all down through the years, amen? Get ready for the Grace Academy. We're gonna have excerpts of my sermon. For example, how to parent your child, how to do parenting God's way, we'll take excerpts, amen, and we'll put it there. So you have everything from different sermons of one topic, amen? But keep yourself... what is this? Washing yourself with the water of the Word, amen? Praise the Lord, hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus, amen? Amen, amen, amen.
Every head bowed, every eye closed in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Lord. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, I just feel all of a sudden that I'm gonna pray a prayer of healing over you. And from this day forth, believe.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command every sickness and disease in your body to depart out of your body in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I unleash the healing virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection life to flow through every cell, organ, and bodily function right now in your body in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by might, not by power, but by Your Spirit. Thank You, Father.
If you have never made Jesus your Savior, in other words, you have never received this forgiveness of sins that come as a gift because Jesus died for your sins, you only have to receive it by faith. If you have never done that, pray this prayer with me right now. Say after me:
Heavenly Father, I confess Jesus Christ is my Lord, my Savior, and I thank You Christ died for my sins and was raised from the dead for my justification. I thank You, You did it all because You love me. I confess Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Praise the Lord. Stand to your feet, church.
This coming week, the Lord bless you and the Lord keep you, you and your families. The Lord make His face to shine upon you, be gracious, chased, hand upon you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, bless you, preserve you, and protect you from every evil throughout this week. The Lord Himself is your peace, in the name of the Lord Jesus. And all the people said... God bless you.