Joseph Prince - Experience God's Restoration For Every Regret

I want to share with you about God's restoration. How many know when God restores, it is never back to the same condition? You know, when man restores, right, let's say this chair over here, man restores the chair, it's never really like the original, all right? But when God restores, it's always greater in quality or quantity, amen? I mean, if you have been a victim of divorce, or you've lost some loved one, you're not going to get seven husbands back in quantity, how many understand that? But you will get a sevenfold husband, amen? One man, one man, amen? Sevenfold husband, you know what I'm saying? Seven times better than the one before. That's restoration. He'll have seven folds, you know what I'm saying? I'm doing my best on Saturday night. But you'll have a sevenfold, either greater in quality or quantity, amen? That's the principle of God's Word.

So, let's read some Scripture as we get going. Look up here at Leviticus chapter 6. How many are glad on Saturday night in Lakewood Church you are reading the book of Leviticus? I mean, you can hardly pronounce it, Leviticus, amen. All right, look up here. Now, I want to tell you, in this chapter 6, it's talking about the fifth offering. There are five offerings in the Bible in the book of Leviticus.

1. Say "Burnt offering".
2. Say "Meal offering".
3. Say "Peace offering".
4. Say "Trespass offering".
5. Now say "Sin offering".

Five offerings to depict one act of our Lord Jesus at the cross, amen. It takes five offerings to describe the beauty of that one act, amen?

Now, we're looking at the fifth one, trespass offering. Trespass offering is offered for something that you have done. You have sinned, you have done something you shouldn't have done, all right? You bring an offering to the temple. Sin offering is for what you are. Your very nature is sin, but thanks be to God Jesus became sin at the cross that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Can I have a good amen, all right?

So, for the trespass offering, when you have done something wrong, you bring the trespass, the victim, the offering, all right, which is a ram for the trespass offering, it must be a ram to typify Christ. And you bring the ram to the priest in the temple or the tabernacle back then. And this is what it says, "It shall be because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about which he has sworn falsely".

Now, watch this, "He shall restore its full value, add one-fifth more to it", which is 20% more, 120%, okay? "And give it to whomever it belongs". So, whoever you have stolen from, whoever you have cheated, whoever you have injured, whoever you have done wrong to, you have to restore to the person the full value, which is 100%, add one-fifth, which is 20%. Altogether 120%, you got it? Okay, follow me now. You can understand this, you can go back and, you know, it gives you some boasting rights. "I have mastered the book of Leviticus". So, restore the full value, plus add one-fifth, it's 120%.

Now, the injured party on the day of his trespass, the injured party has become a gainer, right? The injured party has become a gainer. Not only he gets back the full value of what has been stolen from him, taken from him, but he added to it. He gets the 120%, amen. That's God's way of doing it, amen? And if you look at this and drops down, drop down, verse 6, "He shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord, a ram without blemish". A ram without... who is that? Our Lord Jesus. How many know that he is the ram without blemish, amen? He did no sin, he knew no sin, in him is no sin. So, here we have this beautiful picture of the ram without blemish brought as a trespass offering because this man has sinned. But the ram became his substitute.

Now, back in the Old Testament, the thief or the injurer, the one who did wrong, the one who did the harm, he has to compensate. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean today we have to compensate the people that we've wronged? Well, you know what? Let me just say this to you, there are people who believe in that today, but we are no longer under law. This is a picture of Christ. These are shadows. So, who is the one that pays back to the injured party? Watch this. In Psalms 69, it's a messianic psalm, it says of Jesus here, "They that hate me without a cause".

Now, this verse is quoted in John chapter 15 as pertaining to Jesus. "They that hate me without a cause", right? So, it's a messianic psalm referring to who? Our Lord Jesus. Now, he said this, look at the last line, "I restored that which I took not away". Do you hear that? The Lord Jesus took our place of sin at the cross. He took the place of the guilty party. He took the place as if he's the injurer, and he became liable for all our sins. Therefore, because he is now in the place of the one who did the wrong, the one who did the harm, he has to do the reparation. He's got to restore what he did not take away.

By the way, this reparation and this restoration is only for people that have lost something, someone who has been done wrong to, someone who has been injured, someone who has lost something, who has been stolen from, right? So, the one that qualify for 120% restoration is somebody who has lost something, who has been robbed, has been injured. Now, who amongst us have not been robbed by the enemy? Who amongst us have not lost something that we, you know, whether it's our foolishness or somebody else's foolishness, we have been robbed from, we've been injured by others. So, people like this qualify for the restoration. Are you listening? Only people like this qualify for the restoration.

When God restores, it's always greater in quality and quantity. Of all the 12 disciples, who was the one that denied knowing Jesus with cursing and swearing? You're not sure? Peter. Now, Judas should've hung around, but instead he committed the... excuse me, I don't mean it that way, but, I didn't plan for it to come out that way, all right? But the thing is this. I should've said he should not have hung around. It was the greatest act of self-righteousness to want to pay for your own sins. Because Peter also sinned, right, that night? He denied knowing Jesus with cursing and swearing, not just one time, three times.

Now, if Judas would just hang around, all right, just a little while longer the next day, Jesus would hang for his sins and the Lord would restore him. But instead, he committed the act of self-righteousness and hung himself. Now, that leaves us with Peter. Peter denied knowing Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead and the women came to the empty tomb that Sunday morning, Jesus left an angel there with a message. Look at what he said through the angel to the women. "Go, tell his disciples", and? And? Peter got a special mention. God's grace is like that, people. You know, where sin increase, grace super abounds. Romans 5 tells us clearly, verse 20, "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound".

You know, I think in Bible schools today, they ask the question, "Why did God give the law"? They'll say, "Well, to show his holiness and all that". No one will answer that the offense might abound. And yet the law came in so that the offense might abound. "But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more". Where, where is location, location, location. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Now, in the Greek, the word where sin abounded is the word pleonazo, which is the word increased in abundance. You can still measure it, increased in abundance. But the word grace abounded much more is the Greek word huperperisseuo, which means super abounded. Where sin increased, grace super abounded. Can I have a good amen? Two weeks after Jesus rose from the dead, he met the disciples by the lake of Galilee. You know, they toiled all night, they caught nothing, and then he says, "Throw your net on the right side". And they found an abundance of fish, so much so that they could not bring the fish into the boat, they had to drag the net to land. And then they had breakfast, Jesus made breakfast.

In his resurrected form, our Lord is not averse to making breakfast. And he made breakfast for them, they sat, they ate quietly. At the end of the breakfast, he looked at Peter. You all know the story, right? Let me ask you a question, who received this high dignity from the Lord? Who received this honor from the Lord? Who received this? "Feed my lamb. Take care of my sheep. Shepherd my flock". Who received this trust of all the disciples that were there? Come on, Peter, the one who denied knowing Jesus. And watch this, location, location, location. How did he sin? With his mouth. And when he got up on the day of Pentecost, and he preached with that mouth. Only a few days ago, denied knowing Jesus. Location, in the very mouth now he preached. And with that words that came out of his mouth, 3,000 souls were saved.

Now, church, we've been robbed of this truth, so much so the people are so afraid, they go to Romans 6 and say, "Yeah, what should we say then? Shall we sin that grace may abound"? Of course not. We're not telling you sin more that grace may abound. We are telling you where sin increase, grace super abounds. That is the truth no one can change. And no religious devil can change that. If you have done something wrong, the devil always come to you and, "Now, you can expect something bad to happen to your kids. Now, you can expect something bad to happen to your finances".

Now, it may not be outward or even vocal, but you sense that, the evil spirit trying to, and sometimes preachers, not this preacher of course, all right, but there are preachers from the pulpit, that's why they call it a pulpit, it pulls you into the pit or it pulls you out of the pit, you know? And preachers help along. When you sin, it's almost like they say, "Don't expect God to"... You know, say, "Look at what happened to David. David sinned and this happened, and that happened, and this happened".

David, listen carefully, David is not in the new covenant that you and I are under. He didn't have Jesus as his Messiah. He was under the blood of bulls and goats, which is temporal. David received mercy, listen carefully, even though God, he was punished, he was punished, but it was tempered with a lot of mercy. You are not where David was. You cannot use David as an example because David was under the law. We are not under the law, we are under grace. If you're going to use an example, use way before David, Abraham, father Abraham. Abraham lived 400 over years before the law was given. And you know something I noticed one day reading through the story of Abraham? And I challenge you, Bible teachers and all that, I challenge you. God never verbally rebuked Abraham, never. Have you noticed that? God never condemned Abraham.

Now, Abraham learned the ways of God, but you never find God rebuking Abraham. In fact, two times he lied about his wife, remember? Amen, why? He has a very spiritual reason. He wants to save his own skin. He said, "I know you're a beautiful woman. Sarah, you're a beautiful woman, all right? So, we are going to this", the first one was Egypt, "And surely they will kill me to get you, so please say you're my sister". Very spiritual reason. Then she says, "Okay". And Pharaoh saw the woman, Pharaoh's servants saw, took her to Pharaoh. God had to intervene, remember?

A number of years down the road, Abraham was now about 99 years old, his wife was about 89 years old, and they went to Gerar. And Abimelech, he's the feature of that song, "Abimelech, Abimelech, la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, the lion sleeps tonight. La-la-la-la-la". You know that song? Abimelech. So, King Abimelech, Abimelech saw the woman at 89 years old, he was 10 years older than her. Saw the woman and says, "Get her for me". And what did Abraham say? "She's my sister". And the Bible says that night, God came to Abimelech. When I first read that, I said, "God, you came to the wrong man". The guy is innocent, right? Abraham said that, "It's my wife". I mean, "She's my sister". And she said, "My brother". But God said, "You're a dead man". The first thing God said to Abimelech, "Abi, you're a dead man".

Imagine God appearing to you at night and say, "You're a dead man". Then he in a very high pitch voice, Abimelech says, "Lord, I didn't know. I was innocent. In the innocency of my hands, in the integrity of my heart", you can read all about it. And God says, "I know you didn't know. Now, restore to the man his wife". Now, listen for this, "For he is a prophet". The law of first mention, the first time prophet is mentioned in the Bible is here. God calls Abraham a prophet. The man just lied. The man just lied, y'all. He just plain lied, and God says, "Restore to the man his wife. He is a prophet". And then God said this, "And he will pray for you, and you will live". And the next day, he gave Abraham so much money, 1,000 pieces of silver and said, "Why do you do this to me"? He could not even lift a finger on Abraham.

Now, what I'm trying to say is this. God could have rebuked, God should have rebuked. My natural, you know, instinct, my sense of fairness says God should have rebuked, God should have appeared to Abraham and says, "You're a dead man, you didn't stand up for your wife". Right? But you need to understand one thing. God wants us to understand the covenant of grace that Abraham was under. And God knew, listen carefully, that by his goodness shown to Abraham, it would lead Abraham to repentance. It would lead him. That's the same covenant that we are under. Are you listening? Amen.

Let me close. I can just imagine this man (show them that verse), Exodus 22, verse 1. "If a man steals an ox or a sheep, slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, four sheep for one sheep". I can just imagine this man lying in bed after he has been restored. The thief has been caught and he has been paid five oxen for one ox that he lost. So, he's lying there in bed and he's chuckling to himself, "You know, Martha, I'm so glad that boy stole our ox. Old Daisy was growing old anyway. And now, instead of one old ox". Ox cannot be Daisy, right? Okay, anyway, Danny. Danny boy, okay. "Instead of one, we now have five. I'm so glad that happened to us".

You know something? We are not back where Adam was. The restoration is always greater. Adam fell, but if Adam never sinned, have you ever wondered, if Adam never sinned, God's role, God even has become a gainer to what Christ did. Because before Adam sinned, God was not the Father, he was the creator with his creature. But because of what Jesus did, he's now the Father and his family. The glory that Jesus would've have won if Adam never sinned is only creatorial glory. But because of what Jesus did, he now wears the redeemer's crown.

If Adam never sinned, we will all still be living, we'll still see Adam alive today, he'll still be young. All of us will still be strong, all right, young, no one would die, but we'll never know about the, we live with uncertainty because everything about the garden depends on obedience. That means we are depending on one sliver, one thread of obedience. And if Adam doesn't disobey, maybe another son of his would. You never live with that kind of certainty. But today, because of what Jesus did, we are not dependent on our obedience but on the obedience of one who died for us on the cross, and our future is secure. Can I have a good amen?

Listen, God has gained much more glory. God has received more praise from the fields of redemption than all he ever received from the fields of creation. God himself has become a gainer through what Jesus did. We who have robbed ourselves because of our sins have now become gainers because Jesus took the place of the one who did the wrong, and he restored what he never took away. And we are now the beneficiaries, amen.