Joseph Prince - Unlock Redemption's Blessings In Your Life
Yesterday, the Lord spoke to me, and the Lord said to me something that... you know, when the Lord speaks, how many know it's powerful but simple? And it's simply powerful, amen? He said this to me: "My grace", and for the first time, I heard it this way. He said, "My grace is my best for man's worst". God's grace is his best for man's worst, and he gave us heaven's best, our Lord Jesus Christ. The value of a thing is seen by how much you're willing to give up to obtain that object, amen? You may have $50 in your pocket, and you have a nice-looking pair of shoes, ladies, you wanna buy. Okay, doesn't cost $50 nowadays. What am I talking about? A few hundred dollars, okay? Do you value your money, or you value that? So it's seen in the object that's desired and how much you're willing to give up for the object.
God gave us his Son because God saw how precious and how... I wanna use this word carefully, not we are worthy of it, but we are worth his Son, amen. Are you listening, people? We're not worthy of, but we are worth. You're not someone without worth. You are someone with infinite worth, amen. All the money in the world, I was reading another verse just yesterday also that a wealthy man, with all the money he has, he cannot redeem his brother, amen. Nothing can redeem your soul. Your soul is eternal. Your soul is precious, and only the blood of Jesus can redeem your soul, amen? Praise the Lord. And we know that the gospel is all about believing right. The just shall live by faith. When you believe right, you will live right, amen.
There are a lot of people who are afraid when you preach Ephesians 1, verse 7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace". People are so afraid that when you preach this, and this is the Word of God, and it tells us, "we have". We're not "trying to have" it. "We have". We have what? Redemption. We have the forgiveness of sins. We have it, amen. We're not trying to get forgiveness. We are forgiven, amen. We are forgiven of all our sins, past, present, and future. People are so afraid, when you preach like this, that you will produce licentiousness in the church, that people will go crazy and commit all kinds of sin; but how can we, by believing the truth, produce a life of lie, a lying lifestyle, when we are believing the truth? How can God give us something that he did not, in his wisdom, see the prudence of it?
The next verse says, "Which He made to abound", this forgiveness, this redemption, "God made to abound towards us". I said this, forgiveness of sins, "God made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence". I read about a wealthy man who was interviewed, and he gives large, you know, amounts of money away for philanthropic causes and objects, and he was asked, "Do you have any regret in giving all this money away"? And he said, "I never regret giving, but I have regretted giving without wisdom, giving without prudence". Do you know that when God planned this forgiveness for you, that you will enjoy this forgiveness? God did not do it like some of us. When we give, we can give at a whim or a fancy. We can give based on impulse. We can actually give something, and actually harm. In fact, the wealthy man said that those times, "In some cases, I gave out of impulse, and when I did that, I caused more harm than good".
Now, but God doesn't forgive us like that. God forgives us with "all wisdom and prudence" in his forgiveness. God saw our life of sin, and God planned in such a way that the blood of Jesus is the only way, and God believes that if you believe the truth, it will have a powerful, sanctifying effect on your life. We know that there are parents who are wealthy, okay, and even some are not so wealthy, but they are willing to give anything for their kids. They might go without, but if their kid want the latest iPhone, the latest Android, the latest this, the latest that, the latest whatever, they'll give to their kids, and sometimes without wisdom and prudence.
How many understand? But the Lord doesn't give to us forgiveness of sins without wisdom. So, in other words, when we preach that we have forgiveness of sins, how can anyone try to steady the ark, try to say, like, you know, "You gotta be careful about preaching that, because we gotta preach everything with wisdom"? Because, my friend, the forgiveness of sins is our redemption, and the word we have, in the Greek, is in the present active indicative, which means the voice there is active. We must believe it. We must enjoy it. We must relish it, amen, and it is in the present tense, which means, right now, we have forgiveness. We're not trying to get forgiveness. We don't confess to be forgiven. We confess because we are forgiven. We have forgiveness of sins, and how do we have it? "According to the riches of His grace," not "out of His riches". "According to His riches".
If a man is worth $300 million, "according to his riches" means every dollar is placed on the floor, and he says, "Every one of it is yours". "Out of" means he's worth $300 million, he gives you $1 million. That is "out of". But "according" means he gives you all the $300 million. We are not "forgiven out of". We are "forgiven according to the riches of His grace," in which He has abounded toward us in all wisdom. It comes with wisdom and prudence, hallelujah, and when we preach the truth, we see lives transformed. In fact, I have here a testimony of a lady from Virginia, United States. Her name is Caroline. And let me read to you her testimony: "I have been an alcoholic for 34 years". That's a long time, 34 years. Some people, 20 years, they think that it's a long time already to be an alcoholic or to be addicted to anything. Thirty-four years. "Although I was born again at the age of 17, that did not stop me from falling into Satan's trap of mental lies. I love God in my heart, but my mind and body were not in agreement with me, and I did not know why. I felt like I was drowning in a black mental and emotional pool called condemnation".
You see, we think people like this, you know, when they're in sin and they're in the cycle of addiction and all that, we think they don't care about God, they don't care about the things of God, they have no guilt and all that. It's not true. She said that every time she binge, and she's in this cycle of defeat, she comes up with condemnation. The world is not trying to find a way into sin. I believe they're trying to find a way out. Many of them are enjoying their sin, but deep down, they know it's destroying them, and, believers, how much more believers? Let me speak for believers. I believe I have a perspective of those who are truly born again that they really want a way out of bondage, a way out of slavery, a way out of addiction, a way out of sin. I don't think believers are trying to find a way to be in sin, to find an excuse to sin. Like, people like to say, you know, if you preach grace, don't you know there are people out there, all right, Christians who are waiting to find an excuse?
My friend, I don't think people are trying to find an excuse. They're trying to find a way out, and I think we need to change our perspective of people before we can stand in the pulpit. I don't think if we hate people we can stand in the pulpit. There is a difference between people who have sin... you know, you don't hate people with cancer, but, in fact, you hate the cancer because you love the person. So how can we stand in the pulpit and preach, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," when you don't believe in everlasting life? If you are a preacher or a leader and you don't believe in everlasting life, you believe that a Christian can lose his salvation, then how can you stand up and preach John 3:16 and tell people, "If you believe in Christ, you'll have eternal life," when deep in your heart, you don't believe that? If eternal life is not eternal life, why do you preach it? Why do we tell people, "Believe in Jesus, you have everlasting life," when they can undo the everlasting life?
My friend, you see how crazy, how silly the whole thing sounds? No wonder we're not raising an army of missionaries, of history-makers, world-changers who can go out there and impact the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, because deep in our hearts, we ourselves don't believe that. We don't believe in eternal life. We believe that we can undo our eternal life. Then the next question comes: "What sin will cause you to undo your Christian life? What sin"? The devil will always have you playing around, you know, in this doubt and merry-go-round of uncertainty, and he's got you. No, friend, when you are born again, you are born again forever, amen. Jesus says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish". What is it about "never" we don't understand? When my Lord Jesus says we will never perish, we will never perish. Can I have a good "amen"?
Now, I didn't talk about people who are in church who are not born again. They call themselves "Christians". I'm not talkin' about those who fill in the form. It says, "What's your sex"? You say, "male" or "female". "What's your age"? You say, "Thirty years old". "What's your religion"? "Mm, I think Christian is cool," amen? I'm not talkin' about those who are not born again. You're truly born again, friend, you are enjoying eternal life. You can never, ever be thrown into hell. Are you listening, people? Amen? Okay, back to the story, huh? She says that she was in bondage to alcohol for 34 years. She said, "I love God in my heart, but my mind and body were not in agreement. Once, when I was recovering from the effects of an alcohol binge, I tuned in to a Christian television channel. God had led me to a sermon by Pastor Joseph Prince".
By the way, I was in London last week, and in my hotel room, I switch on... you must understand that, in London, their TV programs and broadcasts, there are so many choices to choose from, but it so happened that that particular day, I switch on my TV, and I saw someone familiar. I just saw him in the mirror that morning, all right? And I was thinkin' to myself, it's like God was demonstrating to me how people, you read so many testimonies of people who switch on the TV, all right, in the midst of their, you know, pornographic addiction or alcohol addiction, like this one, and then they encounter the gospel of grace. Only God can make them, because there are so many documentaries, there's so many news networks on television. To find me is really something that God is arranging, and I feel blessed, knowing that God would recommend my ministry, amen? It's more important than what people think. So, she said she switch on and she saw me, "even though my physical body was in horrible pain".
So don't think for one moment that people are enjoying their bondage. People are in horrible pain. So she said, even though her body was in horrible pain, she said, "I could not eat or drink. Even though I was still feeling guilty over my last bout with alcohol, I found comfort in watching this broadcast. I have been a student of the Bible for many years", see, born again, reading the Bible, "but found no deliverance. In the past, the word 'grace' to my religious ears and mind was just a pretty word used in beautiful church songs. Grace never had a fighting chance to free me because religious preachers were condemning me for my sins all the time. There was a laundry list of never-ending dos and don'ts that I knew, in my alcoholic state, I was unable to perform; but when I heard Pastor Prince use the word 'grace' on that dark, lonely night over your broadcast, there was such an enlightenment. Pastor Prince clarified what that word meant in God's kingdom and explained that it was never about me or my sins. When he preached on grace being all about Jesus, that was when the light of revelation turned on for me. My mind believed, my spirit knew, and my physical body was relieved because I had just heard the good news it was finished, just like when Jesus shouted from the wooden cross. This alcoholic was a highly favored and deeply loved child of the Most High God. God, in his great love for me, has given me double for my trouble". Listen, "I have now been sober for more than 16 months".
Amen, 16 months. Usually it takes them some time before they know it works, all right? And it's good that they don't write to me immediately so that you know that the deliverance is permanent. So after 16 months, she wrote this testimony. She said that "By then, I led four young women to Christ and helped to baptize them in the sea. I have also written and published a book about addiction. Yes, I am free because of Jesus, and it is and shall always be about him. Thank you, Pastor Prince". Praise the Lord. Hallelujah, isn't God good? Amen, once again, Ephesians 1, verse 7, "In Him we have redemption". Say "redemption" three times. "Redemption". The one redeeming is called "redeemer". In Hebrew, "goel," all right, "goel". "Gaal" is "redeem". "Redeem" means to buy back. "Redeem" means to repurchase. Something is lost. Something is sold away. "Redeemed" means it is bought back. Just when you think you have lost, you have not lost as long as you have a redeemer.
The story of Ruth in the Bible, the women in Bethlehem told Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, "Praise God, who has not left you without a kinsman redeemer". Now, throughout my preaching, I'm gonna use the word "kinsman redeemer". "Kinsman" means your relative, but the New King James used the word "relative redeemer," but I've been studying my Bible in the Old King James for many years, so, here and there, it will come out "kinsman redeemer," okay? I'm used to that. When I was preaching the series on Ruth, I used "kinsman redeemer". "Kinsman" means relative, all right, your cousin, your uncle, your auntie, your brother, sister, whatever. They're all kinsmen. They're all family, a relative. Can I have a good "amen"? "Kinsman redeemer," that means a relative who can redeem, who can repurchase for you the forfeited inheritance, or buy you back from slavery. That is your relative redeemer.
To be a relative, all right, you just have to be in the family. To be a redeemer, you must be wealthy, because the poor cannot redeem the poor, amen? The bound cannot redeem the bound, amen. You gotta be wealthy, you gotta be able, and most importantly, you gotta be willing to redeem. We all know we have relatives who are wealthy, who are not willing. Okay, never mind. You just brought them for the first time to church and they are sitting beside you so you don't wanna say, "amen". I understand that, all right? But how many understand this is the wonder of our Lord Jesus Christ, the reason why he became man? Why didn't God just redeem us from heaven as God? Why did he come as a man? Because only as a man can you be a relative redeemer, a kinsman redeemer, amen.
Now, of all the titles that the Lord Jesus Christ uses on himself... now, we all use the term "Lord," "Messiah," "Christ". Jesus is "the Christ," "the Son of," "the Messiah," Greek is "Christ," and "Son of David," the "bright and morning star". He himself called himself "the resurrection," "the life," "the way," "the vine," "the branch". Now, of all the terms the Lord uses, we know he's the Son of God, amen, but the one that he frequently use of himself, the number one title Jesus use of himself is "Son of Man". Though he's the Son of God, he uses the phrase "Son of Man". Why? He wants us to know, he wants the devils and Satan to know, he wants the angels to know that he came into this world to become our relative redeemer. Can I have a good "amen"?
So when you have lost something because of your sins... I'm getting ahead of myself, but let's read something very powerful from the book of Leviticus. Aren't you glad, on a Sunday morning, you are hearing the book of Leviticus? Yes, it's not an animal from Nat Geo. It is from your Bible, Leviticus, amen? That's the part where most people's Bibles, those pages are still stuck, all right? So we're gonna preach from the law. We're gonna take grace out because the law today can be taught in a way that Jesus taught it on the road of Emmaus. It's all about himself. Can I have a good "amen"? So, Leviticus 25, verse 25, 25:25, "If one of your brethren becomes poor", now, that's an indictment, because God said to the children of Israel that "If you obey My commandments, there'll be none poor among you".
So the fact that someone becomes poor, that means, in the nation of Israel back then, they have violated something. They have broken God's commandments, all right. That's God's promise that none will become poor. I can show you that verse as well, but for the time that we have, I'm gonna focus on this. "If one of your brethren becomes poor", so what happened is, when you have troubles and the troubles are your own making, does God leave you to yourself? Now, this is the gracious provision here: "If one of your brothers becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession", talking about forfeited possession now, you have forfeited your house or your field, your inheritance, "and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold".
Hey, hey, even when you have lost it. All mankind, when God wrote this law, it's not just a law for Israel. Yes, they applied this law back then, but it was God showing man that all man has forfeited their inheritance. You see, God made all of us, I should say Adam, wealthy, right? Come on. Adam and Eve had no lack. Everything in this world was theirs. Every diamond, every gold, every amethyst, every sapphire, every ruby, everything was theirs, all the fruits of the field, every possession, every land, every tract of field was theirs. They own it, and they were the only ones. So you must understand that they were wealthy however you wanna define "wealth". They were the richest person that ever lived on planet Earth, but they forfeited all their inheritance because of one sin of disobedience, amen. So God is telling us the gospel story here, not the entire gospel story. We'll look at other verses as well, but there is a story of what has happened to man. Man has become poor, not because God changed his mind and decide to put man in a poor environment, but man forfeited everything through his sin.
The Bible says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God". You know, man had clothing. You know, people think that man was made naked, Adam and Eve. Adam wasn't born. You know, God made Adam and Eve, right, the first man and woman. And actually, the Bible says they had, God crowned man with glory and honor, that when you look at Adam and Eve, okay, you don't see their physical body as destitute of clothing. You see them clothed with something radiant, something bright, something effervescent. Something was shining. It was shining out of them that all the animals that's even larger than them, the mammoths, the dinosaurs, all obeyed man. When man spoke, they obeyed. God gave man dominion, and God crowned... the word "crown" in Hebrew, "atar," it's a surrounding clothing, and when man speaks, everything obeys.
And then, the Bible says, when man sinned, man forfeited, your English says, "Man fell short of the glory". The Jerusalem Bible says, "Man forfeited the glory of God". When man sinned, poof, the whole brightness disappeared, and then Adam and Eve realized they were naked. So for the first time, they looked for something outside to clothe themself. Everything in the earth, animals grow their clothing from inside out; man is the first to get clothing from outside in. Therefore, even you are the most wealthy man in the whole universe, you're still a poor man with plenty of money, amen. You can argue with me that "I don't believe in God," and all that, but there's one thing you cannot argue. No matter how politically correct you are, there's one thing you cannot argue: you are going off the same way as everybody else, either the coffin or the fire, amen. One thing you cannot argue is that death is imminent. You don't wanna think about it, you don't want to acknowledge it, but it's there.
Now, for the believer, we have something else. The believer in the New Testament is never taught to look forward to death. The believer is taught to look for the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are taught to look forward to the Rapture, and he's coming back for us, people, amen? So what a beautiful verse here about forfeited inheritance. How many are glad that God in his gracious, gracious provision for poor man provided a proviso for man where his relative can redeem him? So do you think that the Lord Jesus is rich? And there's the story of Christmas. One quiet, lonely night in a stable where no one cared about, you hear a baby cry. God became man in human flesh, amen. Jesus came as a man so that he can be our relative, our relative redeemer, because we have lost everything.
You see, many of us, we don't realize we are poor. When we hear Jesus talking about his ministry, "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me to preach good news to the poor," we don't think that we are the poor. We think of ourself, "Well, I'm quite okay, I got this amount of money in the bank," and all that, but, friend, when God looks at you, God says, "You say you are rich, you have need of nothing," but God says, "You don't know you're poor". There are many poor people with plenty of money but poor. All men have sinned against God, so God, in his graciousness and kindness, sent his Son to become a relative.
Now, you might think God has no choice. What "no choice"? God can actually wipe out the entire human race, amen, like there's an ant here on the platform. If the ant is railing at me, all right, and telling me, "I don't believe in you. I don't believe you exist. I curse you, I", this and that. You think I'm bothered... number one, I can't even hear what the ant is saying. Number two, do you think I'm bothered by the ant? In fact, during my preaching, I might just step on him. As far as I'm concerned, ant does not fit the bill, "Thou shalt not kill". But please don't write emails to me on that, okay? You can write to "Ant-Man". They also have a "Chiu Chow Man", anyway, the thing is this: God can actually forget about us. I mean, you can use the breath that he gives us to blaspheme his name.
As far as God is concerned, you don't even reach his realm where he is. God doesn't have to bother about us, but you know what? He cares. He's not willing for us to be lost, and God came down to where we were. He loved us, and even when men do not know they are poor, lost, miserable, naked, God still came to man and loved man. In spite of man not knowing and seeing who he was, he came to man, to where man was. God's best for man's worst. Isn't it amazing? Now, Jesus became our relative, but is he rich? 2 Corinthians chapter 8, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes, he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich". So, he's rich. Number two, is he able? Proverbs 23 says, "Our redeemer is mighty". Their redeemer is mighty, that's in the Book of Proverbs 23. So, our redeemer is mighty. Number three, is he able? Hebrews 7 says, "He's able to save us to the uttermost".
So, he's willing to come to be our kinsman redeemer, amen, to be a man. It's like me, if I have the power to transform myself to become an ant, that's how in total humility our Lord came to us, amen, when I don't have to entertain the ant. So, he's willing to be a kinsman redeemer. He is rich, he's able, and he is mighty. What a redeemer we have, amen? And all the while, the Lord is saying, "That man has become poor. How can you save your inheritance"? I'm talking about the realm that God gave you. I'm not talking about a house or a condominium. I'm talking about the realm that God gave you when God gave Adam before he fell. Man lost his inheritance. Number two, in the same chapter. Drop down to verse 47, "Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich," and that's another anomaly, all right? The stranger who's a non-Israeli when God wrote his law, he becomes rich instead of the Israeli and that is in the curse that the Bible says instead of becoming the head, you become the tail and your neighbor becomes the head.
So, even though it's an anomaly, see what God does. Look at his gracious provision. "And one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself". Now, it's no more your inheritance, it's yourself. You become a slave. You sell yourself, all right, "To the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger's family, after he is sold," as a slave that is, "he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him". You know, I believe that when the Holy Spirit wrote these words, the Holy Spirit was thinking about Jesus because he came to become our brother, to be of the human race, even though we have sold ourself to sin.
You see, even the freethinkers say, "Pastor Prince, I'm a freethinker". You're not free to think. If you think of naked women all the time, all right, or you're thinking of addictions all the time, or you're thinking of the dark side of life all the time, don't tell me you're a freethinker. But I tell you what, when Jesus sets you free, you shall be free indeed. We are the freest people on planet earth, amen? So, people who say they are free, they're actually more lost because now they can't see that they are lost. Nothing more worse than people who are lost and do not know they're lost, amen? If a person has a disease and he can actually have an operation the very next day to remove that disease, that lump, that growth, but he refuse to say he has a growth, how can he be helped? He might die, amen?
Friend, it comes with acknowledgment that we cannot save ourself. We need to look outside ourself. That's the story of the kinsman redeemer. We need to look outside ourself. But here it says that one of his brothers may redeem him. Again, a brother or a relative is outside yourself. You know, the thing is that our relatives have no choice but to become our relatives. They have no say, right? When your uncle become your uncle, does he have a say? Your cousin is your cousin, does he have a say? You see, our relatives, we cannot choose our parents. We are not choose our siblings. We cannot choose our relatives, but Jesus chose to become our relative. He chose to love us. He chose to come to where we were, amen. So, don't ever forget that, amen. So, one of his brothers may redeem him.
Next verse, "Or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him". Don't forget, this is no more talking about inheritance. This is the person himself is sold. This is more close to us because it involves our entire being. No matter how much we say people are sold to addictions, they are sold to sinful habits, they are sold to sickness and disease, they are sold finally to death, and God never meant for man to die. And that's why you don't like to attend funerals. You don't like to see death because you know as a man, deep down in your heart, deep down in your heart, your heart of hearts, you know that this was not in the beginning. This was not meant to be. Man is not supposed to be created to die. A baby is not born into the world to die. And friend, you are right, God never made man to die, but man sinned against God. So, by one man, by Adam's sin, came death. "The wages of sin is death," the Bible says, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". And all the people said? Come on, give him praise. Hallelujah. Amen.
So, "His uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him or if he's"... Now, I like this part here. God knew that some people would try their best to redeem themself. So, God put this line, this last line here, "Or if he is able he may redeem himself". So, you know what man is trying to do? They have been trying to be able to redeem themself. They try philosophy. They try all kinds of beliefs. They try all kinds of approaches to God. But I tell you this, all these approaches, no matter what names they use, is based on one thing, man is trying to depend on himself and that's why Christianity is nothing to do with us. It's all gotta do with someone outside us, our Lord Jesus Christ. Can I have a good amen?
And some people think that Christianity is, "part God, part me," you know? It all depends on what you are saying. If you are saying, "Jesus did everything, I did nothing, my part is to believe," I agree with you. But if you say, "God does 50% and I do the other 50%," I'm sorry, grace is the only thing that's heavenly this side of heaven. Everything else is based on some trust in yourself. Even if you trust God 80%, you trust yourself 20% or 10%, it is still some form of anti-grace religious teaching. Man is trying to be able. So, God said in the Old Testament, I'm gonna give you a summary of the Old Testament. You understand the Old Testament? Very simple. The Old Testament is made of prophets, priests, and kings, right? So, what did God do? God says, "Okay, y'all want to try to be able to save yourself? Go ahead".
So, God gave them prophets and all the prophets prophesied, representing God to man and all of them failed. Even Samuel failed. Samuel failed to govern his sons. So, God says, "Okay, prophetic ministry failed. Let's do the kings, right? Let's do the judges". Judges in the Book of judges, all the judges failed. The final one was... there were a few successors but we don't know the entire story, okay, because we know finally, ultimately Samson was the final judge in the Book of Judges and Samson failed. And the last judge was blind so God says, "Okay, forget the judges. Let's do the prophets". So, Samuel was the first prophet, and on and on and on. Finally, all the prophets failed and God says, "What do you want now? Kings, okay, kings. Do the kings".
So, we have David, a man after God's heart all the way, and you know the last king was blind? So, the last judge was blind, amen? The last priest, by the way, I didn't mention priests. Priests are blind. Why? The last priests were the Pharisees and Jesus told them, "You are blind". The last king, by the way, was Zedekiah, a king of the Babylonian siege, king of Nebuchadnezzar. King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah was king of Judah. He was the one that the Babylonian king came to take him captive. He was the last king, Zedekiah, king of Judah. And the last thing he saw after the siege was that because he refused to submit to the king of Babylon. Actually Jeremiah the prophet told them, "Because of your constant idolatry, because of your constant sinning against God, rebelling against God". After so many years God told them to repent, "Do not worship other gods".
You see, there could be other sins they did but as long they keep on putting the lamb on the altar, the blood of the lamb covers their sins. But when they worship other gods, they exchange gods, they stop offering the burnt offering. There was no more covering for their sin. Do you understand that? So, God says, "Stop. Stop". Many a times God says, "Do not do that. Repent". And they refused to until finally Jeremiah says, "Listen, too late. The king of Babylon is gonna come, and God will allow you to be taken into captivity. But God in his mercy will only allow 70 years for you to be in captivity. Number two, if you want to live and not die, submit to the king of Babylon. Do not rebel against him". You will find all this in the prophecies of Jeremiah. But the king refused to listen to Jeremiah. In fact, King Zedekiah put Jeremiah in prison. And finally the siege took hold and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came in, got hold of King Zedekiah. The last thing he saw was his two sons being killed right in front of his eyes and then they gouge out his eyes.
So, end of Judges, Samson was blind. End of Kings, the king was blind. So, what do you want, priests? Priests end up Pharisees. What do you want? So, we say, the church, the denominational church. Then God shows the seven churches in the Book of Revelation and the last one is Laodicea. And they said, "We are rich and all that". And Jesus says, "You do not know you are blind". So, that's Christendom. So, everything that's of man, that man says, "We can keep the commandments. We can keep God's Ten Commandments. We can keep the law". God says, "Okay". Man boasted right at the foot of Mount Sinai. "We are well able to keep the law". God says, "Okay, here's the big ten". So, 1,500 years man tried, tried, tried, tried, failed, tried, failed, tried, failed, tried. Then finally God sent his Son and in essence God is saying, "Enough, man is not able to save himself".
You know, we are progressing, in the 21st century, backwards. With all the scientific discoveries, we are trying to use the scientific discoveries to find a way to produce a nuclear bomb and to produce other ways to kill as many people as possible. With social media, we're so used to social media to recruit people for terrorism, or we have people who are sitting on millions of dollars and they're oppressing. And sexual slavery, and human trafficking is an all-time high in the 21st century. Man is supposed to be more modern. This idea of Maslow's self-actualization does not work. Man is not going upwards, man is descending. So, the bottom line is this, accept God's verdict. You cannot save yourself. Even after we are Christians, all our hope, Christ is my wisdom. Christ is my holiness. Christ is my righteousness, amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. "Good preaching, Pastor Prince. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. And you look good from behind as well. Praise God".
Okay, want me to go on? Now, that bring us to an interesting story, okay, not a story, an event in heaven. Would you like to open up the veil of heaven and look in heaven for a while? This is literally the Book of Revelation, and I want to talk to you about the Seven Sealed Scroll. "Pastor Prince, you got a lot inside you after a few weeks". I got a lot accumulated down here, okay, but don't worry, I'll release you on time. But there's a lot here. And the first service really enjoyed themselves, so I trust you will too. Now, in heaven, this is what happened. I want you to know something, that a lot of the judgments, and the catastrophes, and the cosmic disturbances and all that in the Book of Revelation, the church is not the subject of the Book of Revelation. The church appears only in chapter 2 and chapter 3, after that the Rapture. Then we find chapter 4 talks about the throne of God, all right, in heaven.
And chapter 5, of which we are looking into now, talks about heaven. And then after that, the judgment falling on earth. But we are not here. We are up there looking down. Are you listening, people? That's why the believer is looking forward, not to death, the believer is looking forward for to meet Jesus face to face. He's coming through the clouds and he's gonna rapture us, in Greek, harpatzo. He's gonna snatch us away from this earth. I'm getting ready for that. We'll get a brand-new body, amen? Okay, chapter 5 of Revelation. "And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll".
Now, who is the him that sat on the throne? God the Father. So, the God the Father was sitting on the throne and in his right hand, there was a scroll written inside and on the back. So, inside the scroll, okay... by the way the word "book" in the Old King James is not accurate because in those days it's a scroll, right, even in heaven talk about scroll, okay? And the scroll is written inside, you can't see it, and outside. Let me show you a picture of the seven sealed scroll, okay? Can you see the Hebrew words outside? By the way, that's the name Adam. Okay, you can't see the words written inside. It's sealed with seven sealed. So, this was in the hand of God Almighty sitting on the throne, okay? So, go back to chapter 5, all right, it was in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, the seven sealed scrolls. "Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?'"
I believe that this cry has gone on ever since Adam fell, every since the earth has been forfeited and the devil committed, you know, all kinds of bullying, and all kinds of oppressing, and all kinds of demonization and all that because man has fallen. And the devil has a right now in the sense that man bowed his knee, instead of to God Almighty, so that God's kingdom can rule through man, man has bowed to Satan and committed high treason.
I want to tell you something about redeeming and redemption. The reason we are studying this is so that when you worship God as a Redeemer, you'll have a new praise, a new song in your heart. When you take Communion, you will know why the body and the blood, this redemption, remind us, tells you that health is in the Communion, in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, not in creation. You see, you can be eating well. You can be running every day. You can be exercising and all that, but you're trusting creation. You say, "But I eat organic food". But everything in creation has fallen, and you're trusting in creation to give you health. Now, if you run every day, you'll be fit, not necessarily healthy. But if you take Communion with revelation of redemption, not take Communion like magic, "I'll try it for a while to see what's gonna happen," but you take Communion with revelation of redemption, you no more trust in creation, you trust in redemption, guess what. Health will spring forth speedily in your life.
See, health comes from redemption. Fitness can come from creation. You take care of yourself every day, you run, you walk, you know, whatever it is, you know, you'll be fit, doesn't mean healthy. There are people who run, run, drop dead. They're not healthy. Now, by the way, running is a new creation of man. During Jesus's time, they didn't run, they walked. You don't see Jesus and 12 disciples running, all right, from place to place. They walked. Their exercise was walking. They walked a lot, and they didn't walk on smooth surface. They walked on terrains and mountains. Those that are been to Israel, you know what I'm talking about, amen. You do a lot of walking, even though you take a bus, but there's a lot of walking involved. I mean you can become strong in your muscles and fit after that, right or not? Amen? But honestly, running is a new creation.
Now, by the way, don't write to me, okay? You want to run, run. Run yourself happy. I recommend many of you, like I recommend people sometimes they say they have no time for exercise, I say that if your house is on 14th floor, all right, just take your elevator to the 10th floor and go up 4 floors. Anyway, you're going home to bathe, right? You'll find, at first you are puffing and huffing and all that, but after that, after a few days, you will find yourself running up two, three steps, amen? You know, Singaporeans are famous for parking as close to the elevator in a shopping mall as much as they can, and they are very unhappy when they find it's very crowded. Actually, there's no competition for you far away because out here, a lot of people don't park. There's a lot of places down there. Why don't you park down there and walk? Seize an opportunity.
Anyway, that's not my sermon. I'm just saying, all right, you cannot get from creation what you are thinking you can get. All right, it's all fallen. Don't expect the world to give you an answer from redemption. They don't even know they need redemption. They don't even know that they are poor. They don't even know they are blind, amen? But you know, amen, and because you know, don't put your trust in creation. Put your trust in redemption. You know, watch what you eat. Yeah, by all means don't keep on eating all the time, amen? You know why they have breakfast? It's called break fast. You don't wake up halfway in the middle of night and eat again and go back to sleep. There's no fast to break, okay? Praise God.
All right, so since Adam fell and earth was usurped by the devil, because man, you know, I want you to know that there's a cry in heaven, amen? "'Who is worthy to unseal the scrolls, to loose the seals thereof?' And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth". No one in heaven, eternal, heavenly or on the earth, earthly or under the earth, infernal, demonic. No being was able to open the scroll or to look at it. Next verse, "So I wept much," John said, "I was weeping much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it". So, obviously, people, look up here. Obviously, to have the scroll closed and sealed is not good news. That means what? Earth is still forfeited, man is still lost, and there's no redeemer and that's the reason why John wept much. He didn't just weep, he wept much. So, whatever it is, it's bad news for the scroll to be sealed. Are we agreed on that?
All right, "But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.'" And who is that? Our Lord Jesus who came to the tribe of Judah in Israel, amen? So, the elders said, "Don't cry. Look, look, the lion of the tribe of Judah". So, John looked to see the lion. When he turned to look and see the lion, the next verse says, "And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb". He turned to see the lion, he saw the lamb. How many know Jesus conquered, even though he's the lion, he did not conquer with ferociousness, with fierceness, with aggression. He conquered as a lamb on the cross. John turned to see the lion, he saw the lamb.
And by the way, the word "lamb" here is a small lamb. It's a diminutive term, all right, like a pet lamb. It's not a mature ram. It's a little lamb, the one you use for the Passover as a sacrifice, all right, to be our burnt offering, to be our sin offering. That's the lamb that is used here in the Greek, a diminutive term. And this lamb was as though it had been slain. In other words, it had all the evidence of what? Suffering on it. Now, I don't want you to think that, you know, in heaven Jesus looked like a lamb. All this is symbolic. John saw spiritually, he's describing in scriptural language, Jesus was there as a person, but the marks of his suffering is there because this is the evidence that he has paid the price of our redemption. Are you listening?
You know you are redeemed from the curse of poverty. You are redeemed from the curse of depression. You are redeemed from the curse of mental torment. You are redeemed from every addiction. You are redeemed from sickness and disease. You are redeemed from aging too early. You are redeemed from old age, amen. You are redeemed from physical death. You are redeemed from eternal death. You are redeemed! And let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Say "I'm redeemed". The world will never say, "I'm redeemed," amen? They don't understand that they are lost. They don't see themself. None is so blind as the one who cannot see he's blind. You know, he who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is blind. You cannot help him. He who knows not and knows he knows not, there's hope, teach him, amen? That's how we all got saved. Finally, God gave us a revelation that we saw we do not know as much as we think we know, amen? Blessed are you, you are redeemed.
First song written in the Bible is not about creation. Even though in Job, it says all the creation, all the angels of God at creation sang in praise to God, but the first recorded word-for-word song in the Bible is a song of redemption. After Israel was redeemed from slavery, they went through the Red Sea, the first song was written, and the words are there for us. What is God telling us? The final song in the Book of Revelation is also about redemption. They sang the song of Moses and of the lamb. It's all about redemption, people. You know who's meeting in this place today and who is watching? Redeemed people. And people like this lady that I shared just now that God redeemed at one point in their lives. People who are listening to the gospel, the devil, the God of this age is blinding the minds of people so they can't see the truth.
You see, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The devil is the small g-o-d of this age", of this world in the King James, and it blinds the minds of people. Let me tell you this, if our gospel is boring, our gospel is not exciting, why blind, right? Guys, when a beautiful girl passes by and your wife covers your eye, it's because she's beautiful. If an old grandmother pass by, your wife don't cover your eyes, right? If something is not exciting, if something is not beautiful, why blind the person's eyes? The devil knows if the real gospel is preached, it's exciting. It's beautiful. It's nothing to do with religion. It's the love of God. It's the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. I wish I have a thousand tongues and the expression to be able to describe the beauty of our Lord Jesus and the perfection of our gospel.
So, the devil has to blind people's minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Okay so, "I looked and in the middle of the throne, in the middle of the four living creatures, in the middle of the elders". How many know that Jesus wants to be in the middle of your life? When he's in the middle of your heart, your whole body becomes integrated, and the world calls it healthy. When he's in the middle of your relationship, you will submit to your husband because you see Jesus, even you don't respect the rascal, but you look at Jesus down there and you do it for Jesus's sake. And for you, husband, you love your wife as Christ loves the church. You're always seeing Jesus in the middle. If you look at each other only and you draw from each other, very easily you will deplete each other out, because you will make each other into a God, and none of you makes a good God. But when you look to Jesus Christ, what a wonderful Savior he is.
And I think when there are moments I feel like I'm not pleased, I'm not happy with my spouse, I think about how the Lord loved me when I am not having the best of my days, when I'm just being plain ornery, they call it, just being bad-tempered or moody. Y'all ever get moody? "No, I don't"! Okay, sorry. I'm just asking only, I'm just asking, all right? Those times when the Lord loved me even when I'm moody, I'm being irritable and all that, I think about how he loved me, that's how I love my spouse. And that's why we gotta experience this, this vertical relationship before we can experience a wonderful horizontal relationship. Amen, church? He always want to be in the midst. Anyway, he saw the lamb in the midst of all this. "And this Lamb looked as though it had been slain, having seven horns," which is perfect, supreme, complete power.
"And seven eyes," which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. Then Jesus came, "the Lamb came, and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne". Wow. And what is this scroll? What is this scroll? It's a scroll of redemption. Are you ready for another story from the Bible? Look up here, are you ready? You see, something is happening in the Spirit world. Let me tell you right now, all right? You might have to say goodbye to some of your old addictions after this message. You might have to say goodbye to your chronic illness. No more sympathy from people, you know? No more reporting sick, is that okay? I have to ask you this because Jesus asked the man who was impotent in his feet for 38 years, Jesus asked him a very interesting question, "Do you want to become well"?
Some people don't want to become well because they lose welfare in some countries. Some people don't want to become well because they like the sympathy. You want sympathy, or you want healthy? Do you want to become well? Amen. You need to possess your redemption. The price is paid. I'm gonna come to a bit on the how to possess it, because let me finish this, another story first on the Old Testament, okay? And this time we go to the prophet Jeremiah that I mentioned just now. King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, put him into prison because he said that, "You don't prophesy anything good. I'm gonna put you in prison," like a spoiled child. So, there was Jeremiah in prison, okay, and Jeremiah was a prophet. And the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. By the way, at this time, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebu, from now on, Nebu, okay, he was surrounding the city of Jerusalem, and he laid a siege around Jerusalem. So, in the middle of the siege, this king of Judah, Zedekiah, threw Jeremiah the prophet into the prison. Such a silly thing to do. That's the time you need to hear from God, isn't it?
And Jeremiah has been saying, "If you submit to the king, you will not be killed". But he didn't listen, all right? And Jeremiah was thrown in the prison. Let's follow the story in Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah said, "The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Behold.'" God is talking to Jeremiah, "Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle". Now, if Hanamel is the son of Shallum your uncle, Jeremiah's uncle, who is Hanamel? His cousin. That's very deep, I know, all right? So, follow me now. In other words, your cousin will come to you saying... You see, God could have said, "Your cousin will come to you". Why did God say Hanamel, the son of Shallum? I'll tell you why in a while's time. So, his cousin is gonna come to him saying, "Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it". In other words, the Babylonians are coming in. The cousin, all right, Hanamel told Jeremiah, or rather God was telling Jeremiah that Hanamel will come to you and say, "You know what? My field will be taken away by the Babylonians, but I want you to buy it. I want you to buy it". Why? There's a reason for it.
Now, why did God go into the length to give us the names? If you are interested in the Bible, how many are really, really interested in going to the meat of the Bible, not just superficially? The rest can sleep. How many of you really want... Okay, let me give you this. The word "Hanamel" is God's favor. Hanan is favor. El is God's name, God's favor. Like you say Yohannan is John in Hebrew, God's favor. But yo is Jehovah. El is Elohim. There's a difference. So, Hanamel is God's favor. The son of Shallum. He's a product of Shallum. You know, what Shallum is where you get shalom. Shalom is peace, healthy, whole. Shallum is payment. Shallum is payment. You know how we get peace? Jesus paid the price.
In Israel, like I told you before, when I want to pay for my pastors, now they all know the language already. But last time I spoke a bit of Hebrew, I will tell the person at the shoe shop, let's say I want to pay for one of my pastors, Pastor Lawrence, whatever, I want to pay for his shoe, I'll tell the guy, I will pay for it, Shallum. Shallum is pay. From Shallum you get shalom, peace. That's how they greet one another in Israel, shalom, peace, health to your body, shalom. Shalom comes from payment. No payment, no shalom. So, God's favor is the product of payment. Can you see it? That's the reason why the Lord did not say, "Your cousin will come to you". We think that we are smart in making it more concise, but God has a reason, all right? "Buy my field," which is in Anathoth. Anathoth means answers to prayer. In Hebrew, the word Anathoth means answers to prayer.
So, you're about to find that Jesus has redeemed for you the place of God's favor where all your prayers are answered. Did you hear that? Because he paid for it. Jesus paid for you to have the place of God's favor. The Bible says we have access into this favor in which we now stand. And not only that, in this place of favor, all our prayers are answered. Your colleagues, your friends, when they're desperate, when they're in need, they cry out to God. They may or may not receive an answer. You will always have answers. By the way, this place Anathoth, a few months ago my pastors and I, we were there. We were there at Anathoth, and there's a stream of water there. It's a very beautiful place, Anathoth. It's known as Jeremiah's spring, okay? You may want to put that in your next itinerary if you want to go, all right? It's a beautiful place, Anathoth. Okay, buy the field there. Verse 8, "Then Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison".
Now, how many know that when God says, "So-and-so's gonna come to you the next day, and he's gonna say this, this, this, this". And next day so-and-so came and said that, do you know it's God? Duh? Many of you, you pray for God to show you, marry this one or this one. Go to this school or that school, or this or that. After you pray, look out for how God confirms it. God may something through someone you say, "Wow, that's strange". Then somebody else will say something, same thing. Another person will say something you see it on TV, the person will happen to say the same thing. Hello? What you want, a megaphone? But pray first, pray and ask God and God will create the desire stronger and stronger for one area. And another area, when you think about it, it shrinks. It gets smaller, you know, like, do you understand? If you think about something that's God's will, it's mmm. When you think of something that's not God's will, ugh. If you understand, mmm, and you understand, ugh, you can be led by God, how many know that?
Turn to your neighbor and say, "You don't have to be smart to follow God," amen? Okay, are y'all with me so far? Are y'all learning? All right, praise God. Let's go on, and we'll bring this to a close. So, he came to Jeremiah, according to the Word of the Lord, and said, "'Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord". Next verse, "So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle, my cousin, who was in Anathoth". In other words, the place of favor, the place of answers to prayer was bought, it has been paid, okay? And Jeremiah says, "And I weighed him out the money, seventeen shekels of silver".
And I wish I have time to camp here and tell you the meaning of that. "And I signed the deed and sealed it," and what? Sealed it. It was the scroll that the property is now yours. In other words, it was sealed, and I took witnesses. So, in prison, the cousin brought some witnesses, and the witnesses put their names there. That's why the scroll just now... Show them the scroll again. The scroll just now has the name Adam there. Can you see that? So, from Adam all the way down, there are witnesses. No one can save themselves. We need a kinsman redeemer, amen? Are you with me so far? So, from here, from the Old Testament we understand Revelations 5, what happened in heaven. Okay, go back to Jeremiah. "I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales".
Next verse, "So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open". Say "Purchase deed". Now, in the Old King James it says evidence deed, title deed. When you buy a house, even though your house is not built yet, they give you what? The title deed, the evidence deed. Do you know, friends, in Hebrews 11, verse 1, it says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"? In the Amplified the word evidence is the word title deed in the Amplified Bible. Faith is the title deed to what you hope for. If you're believing God for healing, all right, faith is the title deed. Even though you don't see manifest yet, faith is your title deed. Your house is not built yet. You haven't seen it yet. You haven't lived in it yet. But the title deed is yours. So, the purchase deed is the title deed. Are you with me so far?
Now, do you remember those days of when you have pawnbrokers? You know, you want some money, you go to the pawnbroker, all right? And you pawn your watch, for example, all right? In a larger scale, that's what happens when people want something, and they put down a pledge, okay? You put down your watch, and you get some money from the man. Within the stipulated time, you're supposed to redeem your watch, right? But also with accumulated interest. Am I right? So, the same thing happens in a larger scale when you buy a house, okay? Or you want something, and you can't afford it, you put your house on mortgage. Your house is like your watch, becomes a pledge. They call it what? Mortgage, you mortgage your house. Am I right?
Say the word "mortgage". All right, the word "mortgage," which is a pledge deed, or purchase deed, mortgage come from two words, M-O-R-T, G-A-G-E. It means, M-O-R-T means... you know the word rigor mortis? Mortis, mortuary, you know what's mortuary? You know what's mortify? The word "mortgage" means death, mort, death deed. When you put down your watch, that means it's a death deed. You put on your house as a mortgage, it's a death deed. That means if within the time, you cannot redeem your house, your house dies to you. Do you understand that? So, all men have mortgaged their health, their peace of mind, their shalom, their place of favor, amen, because of their sin. Thank God for the Redeemer. He bought it back.
Now, another thing I wanna stop you from thinking, because of so many preaching out there, is this. A lot of people make it sound like the devil is so big, you know? Jesus died on the cross to pay the devil to bring us out from... the devil says, "Payment Jesus," and Jesus paid the devil, and the devil released us. That's nonsense. Even though the devil takes advantage of man's sin and bullies man or oppress man, let me tell you this redeeming. Who gets paid? The payment is between God the Son and God the Father. God the Father is holding the forfeited inheritance in his hand. Jesus is the grace of God making payment to the justice of God. I repeat, Jesus is the grace of God making payment to the justice and the holiness of God, but it's not paying the devil. Jesus owes the devil nothing, but the devil is a squatter. The devil takes advantage of men.
Men sinned, the devil says, "Aha, I got you there". The devil will use God's law 'cause he has no power. He will tell you, "Look at you. Look at how you're thinking about Pastor Prince right now. Don't you know what the Bible says," amen? "Look at you. Look at how you feel right now. Don't you know what the Bible says? You know what God's law says? You know what God wants from you? You know what God wants from you. You know what God", he use God's name to oppress you, to accuse you. Are you listening, people? So, the devil will always take advantage. You understand? But redemption is not payment to the devil. It's payment to the holiness of God, to the justice of God, the grace of God making payment to the justice of God. You understand that so far? Man, I'm telling you, you are getting free. You are increasingly walking in your redemption, because now wisdom has come in. Light has come in. I'm gonna finish this, okay? "And I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah".
Oh, I wish I have time. Baruch means blessed. "Baruch hashem Adonai". "Blessed be the name of the Lord". So, why blessed? Because Jesus is the blessed one, and only he can hold the title deed. Oh man, I wish I have time to camp on this, but let's go on, praise God. "In the presence of Hanamel, uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison". And this is what God said, next verse. "I charged Baruch before them, says, 'Take these deeds, both these purchase deed'". God is saying, "Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they last many days". So, the title deed is exactly what you saw just now. It's a scroll sealed, and God says, "Take this scroll, put it in an earthen vessel". Say "earthen vessel". After 70 years, this is what's gonna happen.
Next verse. God says, "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land". How many know that God is such a gracious God that even though, all right, the people went into captivity, God still prophesied their liberty, their freedom when they come back, their restoration, and it's a year of restoration, amen? Long before Peter fell, long before Peter denied knowing Jesus, Jesus says, "Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail". Peter failed, but his faith never failed because Jesus prayed for him. "And when you are turned around, go and strengthen your brothers". Jesus prophesied Peter's victory long before Peter fell. I want you to know one thing. In heaven today, he is praying for your future. You are praying for a job. He is praying for your position. You are praying for a healthy body. He's praying for you to become 120. He makes intercession for us, don't he? Isn't he wonderful? Oh man, I gotta finish this. Praise God. Okay, are you all with me so far? So, go back to the book of Revelation.
Now you understand. Okay, book of Revelation 5. We'll close. Jesus came and took the scroll. And obviously, it's something wonderful. What a momentous time. And the next verse says the moment he took the scroll, "Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints". Next, come on. "They sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll, to open its seals; For you were slain, and you have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'" Jesus's blood didn't just redeem Israel. It redeemed every language, people from every nation, every tribe, hallelujah, and look at what's gonna happen. "And you have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth".
People think when Jesus comes again we'll go up to heaven and live forever there with him. Let me tell you this. We are gonna come back to earth and reign on earth. You might reign in Clementine. You might reign in Bardo. You know, you might reign in Paris. You might reign... let me tell you this. We are reigning on the earth. It will be a different earth. We shall reign on the earth, people, amen? And the earth will be different. There'll still be people who are not saved on earth. They will live to 1000 years, the Bible says, amen? And if they die at 1000 years, they're considered an infant. I wish I had time to share that one day, but all of us, we'll have our new body. We'll never die again. We'll be forever young, forever strong. Our bodies are saved, all right? Look at the response. Look at the response of the people. They responded in heaven. They respond praise and worship because Jesus took the scroll. He has a right to redeem our inheritance, to redeem us. Are you learning, people?
In Ephesians 1, give them the entire thing. "In Christ you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed", when you believe in Jesus, what happened? "You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory". So, we have a past redemption, which is the same chapter, chapter 1, verse 7, says, "In Him we have redemption". In him we have redemption. See, we have this, present tense. In the Greek, also present. Okay, we have redemption, but drop down to verse 13 and 14. It says, "until the redemption". So, which is which? Let me tell you this. We have forgiveness now, but our bodies are still not new bodies, but Jesus paid on the cross for you to have a brand-new body.
Do you know that? Jesus rose from the dead with a brand-new body, which means he did it for you. If you have a brand-new body right now, do you know that you'll never, never, ever, ever feel fatigue? You will never have disease. You will never grow old. You know for how long? Forever. You'll never fall asleep when the pastor is preaching ever again, amen? Because you have a glorified body. So, the only thing we are awaiting right now, until the redemption of the purchased possession is our new body. That's what the Rapture is all about. The Rapture, when Jesus comes again, is that we receive a brand-new body. So, even you look ugly right now, turn to your neighbor and say, "Don't worry. He's coming back". Even when you find you are growing old, you know, your body is aging or you find you can't do something, don't worry. It's all temporary. Your future is as bright, amen, as what the Word of God declares it is. You'll have a brand-new body forever, people, amen?
Now, I'm gonna prove that, Romans 8 tells you real quick. Look at the last part. "Eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body". Do you see that? Meanwhile, you're gonna have a brand-new body. Meanwhile, do you understand why we can receive healing today? Because healing is only for people with a old body. If you have a new body, you don't need healing. Think for a while. If you have a brand-new body, like Jesus's body, you won't need healing. The reason we need healing today is because, all right, we can take advantage of healing is because we don't have a new body, and that's why we take communion. Every time we take communion, we are showing the evidence, all right, the evidence of redemption, and that's why Jesus went to the throne of God, when God was holding the scroll. He's the open evidence, a Lamb as if it had been slain. He's the open evidence, taking the sealed evidence, and he came in an earthen vessel. Come on, church. He came in an earthen vessel. Amen?
That's why sometimes you pray for healing, it happens so easy, it happens so fast. You are healed. You pray for your child, your child is healed. Sometimes you have to fight for it. You have to, like, command that spirit that holds that site of your body in bondage to loose that part of your body. Have you done that before, in the name of Jesus? Why? Because one is, like, redemption by price? Actually, redemption by price, payment alone is enough, but sometimes the squatter, sometimes the devil, refuses to give up what is not his, but unless correct, right preaching is being preached, people do not know the procedure. They don't know that there's a title deed.
So, right now, when you have a sickness in your body, and you pray, and it doesn't seem to happen, many teachings will tell you maybe it's not God's will. That's nonsense. They're not giving you the title deed. You gotta stand up tall and say, "Redemption by payment is not enough for this disease. I'm gonna force it out, in the name of Jesus. Get out of my body, in the name of Jesus. Get out of the body of my son, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ". That's why you cast out devils. You don't say, "Can you come out now? What's your name, by the way"? "My name is Lying". "Are you telling me the truth"? "You ask me for what"? So, you don't negotiate with the devil. There's no terms on negotiation. He has no right to oppress your body. That sickness has no right. You must come to the place, unless I preach like this, unless you know redemption, when you take communion you'll be like, "I hope so, I hope", no, it's your title deed, man. Jesus has the open wounds to show payment! Amen.
So, the rest of the earth will happen after we are raptured. You will see him take the seal and break one by one all the seals, and then something will happen on earth. It's redemption by force, redemption by power, because the devil refused to give up the ground. So, when you read the book of Revelation, please know we are not the subject of the book of Revelation, okay? Have you been blessed? Stand up. For what he has redeemed you into, amen? Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place.
Friend, if you are here today and you've not put your trust in Christ, let me just say this to you. Friend, this is not a message that is from man or someone's opinion. This is Scripture, Holy Scripture, the Word of the living God. God, who cannot lie, tells us that there's a new heaven and a new earth, where Jesus will reign on earth for 1000 years, and then all heaven will come down. Earth and heaven becomes one, but earth will still have its chance for the Lord Jesus Christ to reign on it, and we will reign with him. The Bible says we shall reign on the earth, not reign in heaven, reign on the earth. What I'm sharing with you, friend, you know in your heart. You cannot accept death. You cannot accept poverty. You cannot accept lack because you know in your heart you were not born for such things.
You were born for great things. That's how God made you, and yet you know in your heart you don't have the power to overcome your addictions. You can say as much as you want, "I'm a free thinker," yet in your heart you know you cannot set yourself free, but Jesus says, the kinsman redeemer says, "If I set you free, you shall be free indeed". He says unto you, "Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". So, friend, whether you are watching this, watching by way of television, in the privacy of your hotel room, with family and friends, or all by yourself, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved and your house. Let's pray that prayer right now. Let's put our trust in Christ as our Savior and Lord, as our Redeemer. Renounce all your trust in creation, creation has fallen, and put your trust in Christ alone, whom God raised from the dead. Pray this prayer with me right now. Say:
Father in heaven, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he became the Son of Man to be my Savior. I believe he died on the cross for all my sins, and you raised him from the dead as a declaration that death has been defeated. Christ is my Redeemer, and he has redeemed me from the curse of the law. He has redeemed me from sickness. He has redeemed me from poverty. He has redeemed me from eternal death. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Redeemer. Thank you, Father. I am totally forgiven, completely saved, eternally saved, and I'm under your favor forevermore, in Jesus's name, amen, amen, amen.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Remember this, that you are redeemed, and the Bible says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," amen? When something try to fasten on your body, on your family, and all that, remember, say, "I am redeemed. I refuse to have this". Reject it. It might go on for a few days. Keep on standing your ground. Amen? It has to yield, amen. Use the name of Jesus on it. Praise the Lord?
Stand to your feet, church. You know, it may happen this week. It may happen next month. We do not know, but everything is pointing towards the Middle East, and before the worst happens on Earth, the Bible tells us very clearly that Jesus is returning for us. It says, "Lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near," and the moment you see him face to face, the Bible says, "In the twinkling of an eye". In the Greek, atomic second. Your body will put on incorruptible body. You have a body that's forever strong, forever healthy, forever young, eternally, all right? It can happen any time. All you need to do is be born again. You know, the Bible says the Holy Spirit is the guarantee. Right now, when you put your trust in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit, and the word guarantee in the Greek means down payment. When you put a down payment, that means what? You are coming back another day to get everything and to pay it in full, right?
So, the Holy Spirit is the down payment. He's coming back for you and I, amen? Keep on lifting up your heads. Any day soon, amen. Live a life that glorifies him. Live a life that exalts him. Don't be chasing after gold and silver. It's okay to have them chase after you, but don't chase after them. Don't chase for the futile things and vain things. Don't find pleasure in addictions and all that. Find pleasure in him who loves you, amen? Live life to the honor of his name. Will you do that, amen? And keep on telling your friends about the good news of your Redeemer. Lift your hands all across this place.
This coming week, my friend, the Lord bless you and your families. The Lord bless you with the blessings of Abraham. The Lord bless your families with every blessing, make you the head and not the tail, make your loved ones successful, always triumphing in Christ, and the Lord cause no weapon formed against you to prosper. The Lord make his face to shine on you and on your families throughout this week. The Lord keep you, preserve you and your little ones, preserve you and your families throughout this week from all danger, from every infection, from the MERS disease, from every sickness, from every disease, from every tragedy, from every adversity. The Lord keep you and give you many good days. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and your loved ones, and the light of redemption. The Lord grant you and your loved ones his shalom health, peace, and harmony, in Jesus's name, amen, amen, amen.