Joseph Prince - The Stars Tell The Story Of Jesus

TOPICS: Christmas

Merry Christmas, church. Praise the Lord. So good to see all of you here today celebrating the birth of our Lord, our Savior. And once again, we are reminded of the words of the angels to the shepherds that night, "Unto you I bring good tidings of great joy". Not just joy, great joy, which shall be to all people, not just to Israel, to all people. Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, a Savior, not a judge, a Savior, not a lawgiver, amen.

Yes, there was a time in the Old Covenant in the Old Testament where the Lord is the lawgiver, and the Lord still is the judge. But above all else, he wants us to know that he is love and he is Savior, amen. And he will judge the earth. One day, he will judge everyone standing before him. The Bible says that you have a soul. I have a soul. "What does it profit a man who gains the whole world, but he lose his own soul"? Your soul is more precious than a billion dollars, than even trillions of dollars. You cannot put a price tag on your soul. The Bible says, what can man give in exchange for his soul? Jesus says, therefore, what does it profit man he gains the whole world, but he lose his own soul, amen?

So, make sure that in our pursuit of the good things in life, we don't lose our soul, amen. Jesus said, "I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly," amen? Jesus says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away". No matter how many bestselling books there are, the number-one bestselling book, do you know until today, it is still the Bible, amen. And God has ordained it to be so. All the stories of man, everything you want to know about life, amen, is in the Bible. It is the authorized manufacturer's handbook. And when something goes wrong, you go back to the manufacturer's handbook, amen, you find out what went wrong.

There is a pattern that God has for marriage. There's a pattern for parenting. There's a pattern for the way we steward finances, amen. And God is not against you having the good life. I was saying just not that deep down in your heart ask yourself, beyond all the religious mindset, ask yourself, what do you want for your children? What do you want for your children? You want them to have the best in life, but you just don't want them to pursue greats and have academia achievements without the quality of life that you want them to have.

You want them, next time when they are married, they have a happy marriage. You want them to have children that are beautiful, that are healthy and strong, amen. You want them to live as long as they can, amen, relatively free from sickness and disease, don't you? You want them to have more than enough so they don't have to worry about money, amen, not to be selfish. You don't want your children to be selfish, amen. You don't want them to be materialistic. You don't want them to be money centered. You want them to love people and use money, amen. You don't want them to use people and love money. You want all that for your children and Jesus says that, "if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will my Father in heaven give good things to them that ask him"?

So, don't worry about what this person say, ask yourself deep down what do you want for your children? What do you and I want for our children? You want them to be strong and healthy. "Oh, Pastor Prince, you are one of those that believe in prosperity, and health, and that kind of thing". Just push that aside, okay, and let's move away from all that hypocrisy and all that. Deep down in your heart, do you want your people to prosper? Do you want your family to prosper? Do you want your children to prosper? When you build a house, do you build it for other people's children? If you build a house for your children, I mean talking about, you know? Do you want them to be healthy?

Sometimes you see a child that's sick, sometimes you wish that you can like take the child's sickness, but you don't have to because Jesus did it for us. He took not only our sins, he took our sickness in his body on the cross, amen? So, we are caught in this drama, an exciting drama, a powerful drama, greater than all your Japanese Korean dramas put together, and all your local dramas, amen. And this drama is from before even we were born, when God and his angels, and God, he's self-existent, amen. God always is, amen, he never was. He always is, that's why he says, "I am," amen. "I am". And this God, he is love. The Bible defines him as love, and the nature of love is that you want to pour out, you want to give.

It's painful for love not to be able to express, not to be able to give, because a bell is not a bell till you ring it, a song is not a song till you sing it. Love is not love until you give it. It's gotta be given. So, being love, God created angels, God created man finally. So, when God created man, God created man in his image. God never created the angels in his image. You know what God looks like? Look at yourself. "Pastor Prince, if God look like me, I pity him. If God look like this guy beside me, Lord, oh, Lord, I'll pray for God". No. That was very bad, wasn't it? Okay, but God made you in his image before we fell.

Today we are all, all have traces of the fall, and the speaker, when the speaker talks about this, all right, everyone looks at him, you know, because no one looked at each other, right? No one looks in the mirror at themselves. So, we all have the results, the physical results even, of the fall on our body, on our faces, amen. There's a pimple, just a few days ago, I had a pimple. I normally don't get pimples, amen. I told my daughter, "Do you have anything like, you know, to put for pimples"? She told me, "God is renewing your youth". Say, amen. She said, don't touch it. I must learn from them what to do, all right, from a teenager what to do. Say, "Don't touch it, you'll be okay". Praise God.

All right, it's okay already. Now anyway, we all have traces of the fall. The fact that you fall sick, you grow old, you have pains in your body, God never, never meant for man to have all that. It's never the heart of God. You know, your children, it's not your heart to have them suffer, even nervous condition, depression, or shut down the blinds just be alone in a fetus position, you know, crying or feeling depressed, feeling afraid. That's not God's plan. God's plan is your body to experience optimum health and a sense of well-being, emotionally peace, amen, being at calm, at rest, you know, doing everything out of a fullness instead of an emptiness.

God ordained for man to function in his optimum level, in his best level. It's called shalom in Hebrew, a sense of well-being, a sense of peace. That's God's wish for you. But God told the first man, God made men in his image, male and female, he created them, amen. And the Bible called them Adam, and they are one, male and female, he created them. God called God names Adam. He was Adam, the male that called his wife Eve after the fall, and there's a reason for that. Because when they fell, her name was called mother of living, Havah, amen. Eve, Havah in Hebrew, means mother of living. From now on, she'll bring forth death, death has come in. The wages of sin is death.

So, one thing God told man when God made man, God did not make man robots. Today you all came because you all wanted to come, amen. Y'all came, nobody forced you, nobody can force you, nobody can make you come, amen. You came because you wanted to come, amen. So, that goes for anything, anything. Even there are things that we don't want to do, we do it because we want to do it. By the end, we are still the one choosing to do it.

So, God didn't make robots. If God made robots, our world today is a perfect world. But is that what God wants? There'll be no rebellion. There'll be no riots in Hong Kong. There'll be nothing of that sort. There'd be no, you know, no one dying before their time. In fact, no more dying at all. There's no more death because everyone is obedient, everyone, but is that what God wants? No. God made man in his image, but God gave man a choice. "You can choose to love me, you can choose to respond to my love because I love you. I created you to be the one to be the recipient for my love because I am love. I got so much good things I want to do for you. I have a life that I've dreamt a dream for you that I want you to fulfill, a life that when you fulfill it, there's nothing more blessing".

Like what I mentioned just now about man being an optimum level, all right, that's God's will for you. See God's heart for you. Jesus says if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father in heaven will give good things to those that asked him, right? But man sinned against God. Man used his freewill and rebelled against God. Now, God already said the day that you eat from that tree, God made everything good for food, the Bible says, but there was one tree that God made in the midst of the Garden of Eden that God says don't eat from it.

Now, you ask the question, I've been asked the question many times, "Why did God create the thing? If God didn't want man to eat the tree, why did God make the tree"? Very simple reason. If everything is good and God says, "I give you free choice," but everything you choose is good, there's nothing to show whether you would love God or not. There must be at least one tree to give man the chance to choose. You know what I'm saying? All right, if I give you everything good to choose from and nothing you choose can be wrong, there's no chance for you to exercise your free violation. How many understand?

Okay, never mind. I want to move to the stars, you know, so you better understand, you don't understand, never mind, we'll come back and pick you up, all right? Our bus will make a round again. So, because God did not create robots. If you are you in the hospital, or you are, you are not feeling too well and your friend come over to see you, you feel good because they come over by their own volition. But what if they tell you that, "I came over because I have to," amen? So, God doesn't want that kind of friendship, God doesn't want that kind of worship, amen, God doesn't want that kind of, you know, "Sit down, sit down," you tell the boy.

The boy finally sit down, then he tells his brother, "I'm sitting down outside, but inside I'm standing up," you know? I mean it's not the kind of obedience God wants. Can I have a good amen? And God is a good God. God knows that if you obey like when I tell Justin, "Justin, you know, don't play with the door. Don't play with the knife, don't play with that," it's because I want him to obey me because it's gonna be good for him. I don't want him hurt. All right, but my wisdom is on a different level compared to him, all right, him at... now he's seven. All right, he cannot understand everything, and we all know that even for teenagers they say that, that physically, their frontal lobe is not fully developed.

Now, if you're a teenager, you're the first one to rebel against that, amen, "My frontal lobe and all the lobes are all lobe-ified," okay? Yes, amen. But we can ask God for wisdom, can't we? Amen. So man rebelled against God, and the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Doesn't stop there. It said, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". So, don't forget, now man has sin, and God loved man so much. God's love for man is infinite. God's love for man is unconditional. It is not dependent on whether man behaves or whether man obeys him. God doesn't love you because you obey, and that's the thing we need to have with our children. They need to know that we love them, when especially they are bad, when they have done something wrong, something bad, something, you know, when they're disobedient and you love them at that time, that's when they experience love. If they experienced your love only when they are obedient, they'll never understand.

So, I know the last thing we want to do, all right, is to really show them love. But there are times for correction, yes, there's a time for discipline and but it's all done in the context of love. You never discipline out of anger, they can tell the difference. They can tell you're disciplined out of love, or just to fulfill because you are angry, you're under stress. They can tell, children can tell.

Okay, back to this again. So, God loves man. Now, Satan is watching. Whether God will accept man, now that God loves man, man has sin, and God said, God cannot violate his Word. The soul that sins must die, not only cut off from Garden of Eden. God cannot allow sin to dwell in his presence. God, something about sin you need to understand, sin is like cancer and like cancer, it spreads. It's like leprosy. Cancer spreads. It's not a matter of small thing. You gotta kill it. You cannot just say it's a small cancer, doctor say a small cancer. No, remove it, cannot just say it's a small growth, remove it. Why? It has the capacity to spread. Are you listening?

So, God hates sin. But what if this cancer is in your, your child, in someone that you love? How do you separate the two? You love the child, but you hate the cancer. Have you noticed that when Jesus cast the demon out, Jesus loved the person who was demon-possessed. When Jesus cleansed the leper, he judged the leprosy, but he healed the leper. He judged the devil, cast it out, but loved the person who was possessed, amen. So, the Lord differentiates and we differentiate, please understand, God does not hate man, but if man embraced the sin, God does not want man to embrace the sin, amen, and the wages of sin is death, not just physical death. And that's why all men die. A hundred years from now if Jesus tarries, not a single person here will still be alive 100 years from now. Are you listening?

Maybe 200 now, you all believe for 120, many of you. So, but whatever it is, that's not God's best for man. God never meant for man to die. Are you listening, people? But then the devil is watching to see can God accept men, a holy God? Can he accept man who has sin? He said, "The soul that sins must die". Dying is not just die physically, first die spiritually, then die physically. Adam died the moment he partook in rebellion, amen? But then his death was the 900 over years after. In those days, they lived many hundred years, and then life got shorter and shorter. You can see through the Bible. Until our day, they say 80, 90 is pretty good already, amen? But we are going for more. Anyway, that happened.

So, the devil is watching to see if God would compromise in his love for man. Now, God is this, God loves man, but God has to uphold his Word. Can you understand that? Like a judge, you know, a judge judges the guy who came before and because he violated the traffic rule and all that. The judge says, "Three times you've violated, I have to sentence you," punishment or whatever. Nowadays in Singapore it's even, is it prison, constant violation? I mean, serious stuff. And then the next person comes in, it's his son and his son commit the same thing, constant violation. In fact, his son is one more stroke, one more strike, I mean, one more time than the person previously, but he looks at his son say, "Ah, you're my boy, I know you. You don't mean to, right? You don't mean to, right? Never mind, you are free".

What kind of person do you think the judge is? Loving? Yes. Oh, yeah, loving, loving to his son, not very loving to the first person. No, he's not righteous, he's not righteous. That's why justice is blindfolded, right? So, but God cannot compromise on that, but man has sin. The cancer is in that person. The sin is in that person. How do you divide the two? You love the person and you hate the sin. How much do you hate the cancer in your loved one? As much as you love the person. You don't think much about the cancer in somebody else you don't know because you don't love the person. You don't hate the cancer because you don't love the person, but if the cancer is someone you love, it all depends on how much do you hate the cancer is how much you love the person.

Why does God hate sin? Say, "Pastor Prince, why don't God just chill, you know, don't just hate sin"? Because God loves you, man. God loves you. And you know that sin will destroy, ultimately it will destroy. God's way is always best. So, how can God be righteous and still accept sinful men? There must be a way, amen. So, the devil is watching. If God ever deviates a bit, even a hairbreadth from righteousness, bang, he's got God. God has to give up his throne and he's next. He'll be next. He's the guardian of God's righteousness. So, even today, he still believes he is. That's what pride does.

So, the beautiful story starts. God, from then on God said to man, "This is what happens when you sin". All right, bring an innocent animal, a lamb, sacrifice on the altar, amen. Put your hand on the lamb. All your sins is transferred to the innocent lamb. All the innocency of the lamb is transferred to you, now kill the lamb. The lamb is now in your place, and you are now in the innocency, in the righteousness of the lamb, the divine exchange. So, the lamb is killed, amen. The fire falls on the lamb, on the altar. The man walks away and looks back and says, "That is my judgment, that is my death," and the man walks away free. And now he has something he never had before. He has the righteousness of the lamb and all that the lamb deserves his righteousness and innocency he gets.

So, it's a picture, in the Old Testament, it's a picture from the days of Adam all the way down. It's a picture of God one day will send his Son, the true Lamb of God. And that's why John The Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". Can I have a good amen? So, now is as when Jesus hung on the cross, the Christmas story, it's not a story of someone who was murdered, all right, someone who came to be murdered. No, it was some... it's God so loved the world that God gave love gifts. For God so loved you and I, God gave. God loved your children, he gave. God loves your family, he gave. He gave his Son, the best heaven has.

And the Bible says Jesus came as a baby, wasn't born in a palace. He's the only one who can choose where to be born in. I think some of you, you can be born physically again, you'd probably choose some family, I think, that has some billions. You want to be an amazing Amazon baby. Sorry, amazing baby. Did I say Amazon baby? Maybe you want your name to be, you know, like, Rothschild or something like, you know, because you have a choice. The only child that has a choice, he preexisted before he came as a man, was Jesus. "In the beginning was the Word", the Bible says, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us", amen.

So from the start when Adam sinned, when Adam sinned against God, when Adam fell, God told the snake that was demon possessed, the snake was one of the most beautiful creatures that God ever created, by the way. I know it doesn't look like it now, I know we look at a snake, inwardly we are repulsed by snakes. But they were upright. When the snake allowed itself to be possessed by Satan, amen, amen, Lucifer, who became Satan, because by then he had no right to have his affairs on earth, the earth was given to man. When God made man, but Lucifer, remember that this earth used to be his. But when God made man, God gave the earth to him, the place where he inhabited was now man's. There even, he become even angrier, amen?

So, he planned to get back the rule over this earth. But God gave the rule to man. But when Adam sinned, it's as if he bowed down, committed high treason, and gave the key of this world. 'Cause God told man, "Have dominion over the earth". God made man to have control over the earth. And God even says, "Over every creeping thing that creepeth". Ladies, you have authority over every creep. Amen, but now even the cockroach. Matthew, is there something crawling on your, even cockroach makes you jump, you know? I'm teasing Matthew because every time I say cockroach, he jumps, you know? And now we are so afraid.

Now even a creeping thing that we can't even see called bacteria or virus can knock us down for one week. What happened to man? His crown is laying in the dust. God made man to rule over everything, amen. Made in his image, because of sin, because of sin. And man committed high treason, gave the authority of this earth to Satan, and Satan brought in death. Satan, you know, he brought in disease. Disease is not from God, and that's why you see Jesus when he was born and he grew up, one of the first things he did, he went about doing good, healing, cleansing the lepers and stopping deaf ears, raising the dead to show God's will in action. You want to see what God is like? Look at Jesus. He never made one person sick, he made sick people well, amen. And he didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people live. We're all dead spiritually. Jesus came to resurrect us. And when we are resurrected, first of all, inside, one day we'll be resurrected physically when you see him as well, amen.

So God, when Adam sinned, here's what God said to the snake. Genesis 3:15, God said, "I'll put enmity between you," God is talking to Satan, "and the woman". And that's why Satan has a special hatred for women. I'm telling you the truth. He hates man and woman, but a special hatred for women. And that's why, you know, if he can, he will subjugate women. He will put laws that will subjugate women and make you think it's a Christian religion. He will apparently do things and women are the ones that are the target of depression, breakdowns. Because why? God spoke this, the woman will bring the champion, the one that will conquer Satan.

So, from then on begins the story in the Old Testament of how he tried to kill Eve's son, Cain and Abel, right? Abel was received by God because Abel came offering correctly, believing he's a sinner. And Abel brought the lamb, whereas Cain did not believe he's a sinner. He didn't bring a lamb because without a shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. God says there must be blood because it's to show that you recognize you're a sinner and you need my forgiveness, amen? To deny the blood is to say, "I'm not a sinner. I can do good and get my way back". God says, "No amount of doing good can get your way back. You have fallen too far".

So, when Cain killed Abel, who was the one behind it? Satan. He saw that maybe Abel is the one 'cause he's not all-knowing. One thing about Satan, he's not all-knowing, God is. When you follow God, you're following a winner. When you follow God, you're following... now, you cannot say, "I don't choose Satan. I don't choose God, I don't choose Satan". Sorry, friend, there's no middle ground. One of the greatest accomplishments of Satan is to make people think he doesn't exist. I think it's the biggest accomplishment that he has made. And yet, when things happen, you know, in Chinese, when pain happen, we say rheumatism, hong. Or the hong comes, you get the pain. The hong goes, you are no more in pain, hong, all right?

And very interestingly, in Hebrew, it is the word "ruach". You say with a breath, out-breathing, ruach. Ruach is a breath. The Holy Spirit is a breath. Sorry, I should say the Holy Spirit is a person, but his name is also ruach hakodesh, the holy breath of God. Evil spirit is also, in the Hebrew, evil breath, it's like a wind. And that's why in the name of Jesus, let me just tell you this, okay? There are things that is beyond us that you cannot understand. Just the other day, I was going through with my son, you know, on atoms, why we can't see atoms, and yet atoms are there.

How, for many years, people say, "I don't believe in atoms. I don't believe atoms," even when they try to find those who are professors of chemistry and all that back in those days, hundreds of years and thousands of years ago, they tried their best to convince people there's something there. Finally, only a few hundred years ago, they found out that there is something there. And only about 100 years ago or just... no, not even 100 years ago, decades ago, they found that they can even see the atom. So, does that mean that those people were wrong? No, but just because you can't see something. In fact, the things the Bible said you can't see are eternal. The things you see decay. Anything you see decays, it's temporal. The things you can't see, angels are eternal.

Even Satan is a spirit, that's why there must be a place called hell to house him forever. He cannot be removed. Spirits cannot be removed. You are a spirit, but you live in a body. You can't see your spirit. God breathed his life, a part of him into you, when God made man. Are you listening? So, God told the snake, "I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed". But wait a minute, women don't have seed, man has seed. So, God is prophesying the virgin birth. God is prophesying the virgin, this is the very first Bible prophesy in the Bible, by the way, all right? God was saying a dragon slayer, a champion will come that will rescue men. And God will do it righteously without compromising his righteousness, amen? And he'll be born of a woman.

So, Satan started attacking the woman, attacking Eve's son, Abel, whom God declared righteous, thinking that he was the one, but he wasn't the one. Then went on the story of Israel and how the devil tried to kill Israel, thinking Israel will bring forth the son, the 12 sons. And after that, he narrowed down all the way to Judah. And finally, when Jesus came, you know, as a baby boy born in Bethlehem, he realized the three kings, the magi, from where we get the word "magicians," magi is actually king makers from the land of Iran today, in the land called, during that time the Parthians were in rule, the Persians. And they were people who studied the stars. They don't study, listen carefully, they are not people, today, there's something called astrology.

People look to the stars to guide their lives. Hey man, look to the one beyond the stars who made the stars to guide your life, my friend, amen. The stars, they are created by God. God made the stars, can I have a good amen? Praise God. And this God who made the stars, Bible says he tell the number of stars, Psalms 147 tells us he counts the number of the stars. Do you know that until today with all our latest statoscopes... statoscopes. You know, telescope, all right, that looks beyond with all the scientific breakthroughs that we have had, man cannot still, cannot number stars. It's impossible to number the stars, but there's one who can count the number of the stars. Not only that, he calls each of them by name. He calls each of them by name. And this one, you think that he's so busy with the entire universe, right?

Look at the context. The next verse before that, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds". This God who counts the number of starts that man cannot and calls them all by names. He's very close to those who are brokenhearted. But one of the things Jesus came, he says, "The Spirit of God has anointed me to heal the brokenhearted". In every group, in every meeting, in every gathering, I don't care how nice the party is, how well dressed the people are, how wealthy the people are in the party, champagne flowing is a party that is of great opulence. I'll tell you this, there are broken hearts there, and he heals their broken heart. The one who counts the number of stars.

And the Bible says... I was telling my son that atoms, you know, positive and positive. He said, on his own, he said repel, he knows that. Negative, negative, repel. Positive, negative, attract. Very good. Well, the atom, the mystery of the atom is that it's supposed to repel. But there's a force that holds them together. That's as far as science can go. Science can only go down there, they can't explain to you what is the force that holds it together.

The Bible says in Colossians, "In Christ, all things are held together". When Christ is in your marriage, he holds it together. Your marriage needs a third party, his name is Jesus. Your party needs one more person, okay? Just husband and wife, focus, focus, love, love, love, love, love, cannot. I drain you, you drain me. One day, it's my turn. No, no, it's my turn. No, you need someone else, okay? That's the only way for marriage to be sustained. I don't know why I'm talking about marriage, but from the stars to the marriage, hey, praise God. It's good anyway, praise God.

All right, so God started by the first prophecy that, go back to the prophecy again, he will crush... by the way, the bruise there, I don't like the word "bruise" because only one translation, you know, Bible translation has the word "crush". The word there is crush, it's not bruise. When you have a bruise, you have a blue black. It's superficial sometimes, okay? But crush is the word here in the Greek, I mean in the Hebrew. "He will crush your head and you will crush his heel". So, remember that, the prophecy is that in crushing your head, you will crush his heel.

Now, which is better, a crushed head or a crushed heel? So, this champion dragon slayer, this warrior that will come, amen, to save man, he will be hurt. The Bible says that already. But it is because he's saving us by crushing the serpent's head. Can I have a good amen? So, the prophecy is there. Now, watch this, "Then God made the stars". God brought a man called Abraham. And Abraham was chosen by God, and God brought him out one night because he was complaining, "Lord, what do you give me? Seeing I'm going childless, you promised me a lot of things for my generations to come and for me, but I don't even see a seed. My wife is barren, and you know, the only one in my house is my servant. Don't tell me my servant will inherit everything". Then God says, "Abraham, one night, come outside". And God says, "Look at the stars".

So, for many years, I thought that this is what God said. God says, "He brought him forth abroad and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.' And God said to Abraham, 'So shall thy seed.'" Singular, the promised seed, right? "'So shall your seed be.' And Abraham believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted it to Abraham for righteousness". Wow, wow. He just believed something. It bothered me that just counting the stars, he became righteous in God's eyes. Number the stars, one, two, three, four, if it's possible. By the way, in the Middle East with lights out, out in the desert, you can see the stars, numerous of them. But to count them, I don't think you can.

So, let's look at the Hebrew. The Hebrew word for "and see if you're able to number them," the word is "saphar". Saphar, the Hebrew word for book is saphar. Saphar is a book. Saphar is to tell the story, to observe, to tell. Now, it is also number. By the way, it is number, that's why the translators put number here, but the word "number" only appears 20 over times. The word "tell" appears 40 over times in the Old Testament in Hebrew. So, I don't know why they say number here, but it should be tell the story. To prove that, Psalms 19, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard".

Every night even in Singapore, we see the same stars that someone in Johannesburg will see, someone in New York will see. The Orion Belt, Singapore can see it and those in New York can see it, those in Paris can see it, those in China can see it, those in Timbuktu can see it, amen? And all kinds of, places, all can see it. God ordained it in the sky. In fact, there is something that even the Australian flag, you look at it, I was showing my son this the other day, and I said, "Look at the flag," and you can see the Southern Cross, they adopt the Southern Cross as their emblem.

Why is the Southern Cross the cross in the sky? By the way, belongs to the constellation of Libra. Because when men are lost out in sea, they don't have GPS in those days. The mariners, the way they steered their way, their ship home, they will know find the cross and you'll find your way home. When you find your cross, you can just draw the line, you'll find south. You find south, you know where is west, where is northeast, you'll know where is north. Look up, find the belt Orion, draw a line across, you'll find north. And Orion is those three stars you all see. All of you can see the stars by the way, the three stars. God made the stars, and the Bible says he made them for a purpose, amen.

So, there are 12 constellations. And today when you look at the 12 constellations... by the way, 12 constellations are established. But unfortunately, because we are this generation, we are affected by the, we think it's very ancient teaching, astrology. No, no, no, no, beyond astrology back to the Bible times during the times, the Hebrews have the word for the 12 zodiac constellations, it's called mazzaroth. Show them Job 38. Job 38 says, "Can". God is challenging Job. The oldest book in the Bible is the book of Job. I used to think that this book is the book where you find a job. If you're looking for a job, look for the book of Job. But Job is a man, but it's the oldest book in the Bible. And God challenged Job and says, "Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the belt of the band of Orion"?

The word there is the belt of Orion. You notice Orion, the three stars in one straight line? It's a belt. "Can you bring forth Mazzaroth"? Now, Mazzaroth is the zodiac. Mazzaroth is the Hebrew word for zodiac. Zodiac is the word which means steps. It's the road, it's the way, the way. Listen carefully. In the book of Acts, Christianity is called the way. Many persecuted those who are of the way. And those who are of the way said those are the way, the way, it's called the way. Because Jesus says, "I am the way". Can I have a good amen? So, "Can you bring forth Mazzaroth, or can you guide Arcturus with his sons"?

So, obviously God created these things for a purpose, amen. So, when you look at the 12 constellations today, you see these 12 constellations, you'll find all this 12, okay? And they're shaped in this way. And they make up a picture, by the way. You can draw a picture on it. I'm going to show you Leo for example. Leo, the picture, let's show them the first picture of Leo, Leo in the sky. All right, look at the shape. And it's the brightest light on the foot of Leo. Can you see the brightest light there? It's a constellation that makes up it looks like a lion. Can you see that? With the legs, the tail, and the head, can you see that? Okay, you can see the brightest star. By the way, the brightest star there is star number 22 of all the 12 constellations, of all the brightest star, okay?

And Leo, if you look, let's show another picture of Leo. Regulus, that's the brightest star. Okay, show them another picture. The brightest star is the foot of Leo. Can you see that? It's called Regulus. Keep that in mind, okay? But Leo is the last sign. Okay, the first. If Leo is the last sign, the last sign of the constellation, what's the first? Look at the first, go back to the picture again, look at... can you find Leo? Second row, left, extreme left, can you see Leo? Okay, if Leo is the last, what's the first? Virgo, Virgo means virgin. Guess who I learned that from? My son. Sorry, it never occurred to me, I've been teaching on this so long, but the word "virgo" is from virgin. Said, "Abba, virgo is virgin, right"? Said, "Yeah, amen". And many of you know that, but I've been teaching on this for some time. But anyway, virgo is from the word "virgin".

So, the first one is virgin. And if you count 12, Leo is the last. Our Bible, the New Testament, the story of Jesus opens up. The Old Testament is all pictures of the one to come. The New Testament, he came. The story of Christmas, amen. He came to die for our sins, amen. And now we look back. The Old Testament believers, Abraham, Daniel, David, they all looked forward to the sacrifice. We look backwards. We live in the accomplished sacrifice of Jesus. We don't need to bring a lamb anymore. He is the Lamb, the ultimate Lamb that all the sacrifices of the Old Testament was pointing to. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins, but how can sinful blood cleanse sinful blood? It must be innocent blood. It must be of someone who never sinned.

And that's why he was born of a virgin because it wasn't until only recently they found out that the mother's umbilical cord, they used to think that the mother gives the blood to the baby as well, but now they found out, you know, God's Word is always true. Let me tell you this, the mother's umbilical cord brings food to the baby, oxygen to the baby, and takes away waste. Not a single drop of the mother's blood go to the baby. The baby, it has been ordained, the blood, by the father. Jesus's blood is determined by the Father, his heavenly Father. None of Mary's blood go into Jesus because if any of Mary's blood go into Jesus, Jesus will have sin in his person. Because Mary is a sinner like everybody else. In fact, Mary says of the Lord, "My Savior". She called the Lord "my Savior".

And the Bible is very clear. Every time the Bible talks about Mary in the Gospel of Matthew, it is always the child and his mother, the child and his mother, the child and his mother, never the mother and the child. The child comes first, okay? Amen. Mary had to be born again as well. But God chose Mary, she has a very high honor. Of all the women, God says, "Hail". The angel Gabriel says, "You are highly favored among women". Notice among, not above. "You are highly favored among women". No doubt she was. All the women of Israel were hoping that they will bring the champion, the dragon slayer, the Messiah, the anointed one. They were hoping they are the ones. They were hoping they were the Virgo. Okay?

So anyway, that's Virgo, we start with Virgo. Show a picture of ancient, a very ancient star map, all right, from a few hundred years ago. And notice that, try to look sideways. She's holding a branch and she's holding a shuck of corn, can you see that? And the brightest star of Virgo is this one in her left hand called Spica. I don't know if you see the word "Spica," okay? Spica, Spica is the brightest star, just like Regulus is the brightest star in... Now, what is the meaning of this? Listen carefully. The word for Spica is seed. She'll bring forth the seed. Spica means seed. And that's established among those even in astrology, they call it spica, seed. But Mazzaroth in the Hebrew, it is the word "tsemach". Tsemach is the name of Jesus.

Last two years, I preached in Israel in a place called Tsemach. Tsemach means the branch, or the offshoot, the seed, the sprout. It's not only seed, the seed has sprouted. She's going to bring the child, hallelujah. Can I have a good amen? Can you see this? All right, so each constellation would have three other clusters of stars or four other, you know, and they all make one constellation, Virgo. On Virgo's right, on Virgo's right is a woman carrying a baby. She's called Coma, C-O-M-A. And she's carrying a baby, and the baby has a star called, the Desired One. Amen? So, this is interesting. What is after Virgo? What is after Virgo? Libra. Now, libra is a pair of scales, a pair of scales. What is a pair of scales a picture of? Justice, equality, equity, amen, amen? When there's a pair of scales, no one can fool you. It's based on righteousness.

So, God put man on one side, bang, man is completely sinful. Amen, the judgement is coming because they're not scaled out. But then in the Libra, there's scales, the stars that make up the scale, I told you there are a cluster of stars in each one, like Virgo. Libra also has clusters. And right below the scale, all right, there is a cluster showing the Lamb. Astrology has perverted it in making a wolf or a coyote. All right, but look carefully, a coyote doesn't have that kind of ears that a lamb does. It's a lamb that's dead. Who is the Lamb that died? And beside the lamb, another cluster of stars in Libra called the Southern Cross. What evened out the scales is that God put Jesus on the scale and all of us are justified. Hallelujah, hallelujah! Can I have a good amen?

Okay, we are bringing this to a close, we are coming to the story. You are caught in this drama, you understand, or not? You ask yourself, "Why must I attend funerals? Why do people die? Why do people get sick? How come God doesn't do"... No, it's not God's fault. God never ordained this earth to be like this. This is a fallen earth. It's time for you to wake up and realize the earth is fallen. God gave power, like if I give you the key authority, I give it to you, or your car or whatever, you give it to someone else and someone drives it, don't blame the one that gave you the key. But Satan's lease on this earth is running out. Are you listening, people? Amen.

And Orion is in the belt in the cluster of Taurus, a bull. Bible says, "Can you bind Pleiades or lose the bands of Orion"? Pleiades and Orion are all in the cluster, in the zodiac of constellation of Taurus. Taurus is a bull. Does the Bible describe our Lord Jesus as a bull, as an ox? Which book is that? Mark. "A tireless, powerful servant, and on his neck are the Pleiades". Pleiades means seven stars on his neck. Is there seven stars connected with Jesus? Yes. In the book of Revelation, he holds the seven stars in his hand. So, the bull and neck refers to the power. So, don't forget, it is not Hercules, it is Jesus. He is the champion that was promised that will come. Can I have a good amen?

By the way, Arcturus I mentioned just now is in the cluster of Virgo, by the way. And Virgo has the man on the side. You have Coma, and then you have Arcturus. Arcturus is a man holding, listen carefully, a rod, a shepherd's rod and a sickle. That's our Lord Jesus. He saves souls. Sickle is harvest and then he shepherds them. Amen? Doesn't just save you, he shepherds you. When the Lord is your shepherd, when the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack. I shall not lack. You will not lack for anything. Let's fast forward in closing to the last cluster, which is Leo. I showed you Leo just now, right? Leo, Leo is... show them Leo again, the picture of Leo. All the way, the final one. Okay, Leo has a foot called Regulus, remember Regulus? Show them the one before this, Regulus, okay. Show them a picture again.

Okay, he has the foot, Regulus. Regulus is the word, I know the word "Regulus" is the word for foot, okay? The foot that crushes, that's the meaning. Isn't it interesting? I'm not too sure whether the word "regal," the lion is a picture of the king of animals, whether the word "regal" came from there. But what is interesting is this. When I was studying this, I found out I knew about the Hebrew word about this, the word for hand is yad in Hebrew. The word for "foot" is regal, is regal. You can ask your Hebrew friends, your Jewish friends, the word for foot is regal. And in his foot is the brightest star, why? The promise come one full circle. Virgo, the story of the New Testament opens with the virgin, amen?

The prophecy to the virgin, the promise and the seed was born, story of Christmas. All the way to the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Revelation 5:5, "Behold, 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.'" Amen, Jesus has prevailed. You know how he did it? By dying for our sins on the cross. There was no other way. There was no other way.

So, Satan was watching to see whether God compromised. No, God sent his Son. Jesus, who never sinned, took our place, amen? And he died bearing all our sins. It's as if, you know, we lay our hands on him at the cross and all our sins are transferred to him. The sins of our entire life are transferred into him. And then he suffered the full vengeance of God's punishment upon his person. And then he cried the cry, "Finished"! He exhausted all of God's anger and punishment, all of God's judicial righteousness against all lawlessness into his own person until everything is paid for.

So, now anyone that believes on Jesus, listen carefully, God cannot judge you. And God ordained it to be so. In fact, today if God judges you, if you believe on Jesus and God judges you for your sin, God will be unrighteous. So, Satan has nothing to say. Jesus's death shut his mouth, amen. He has nothing to say, you know why? God is now righteous in making any sinner that comes to him and say, "Lord, I have no righteousness of my own. Be my righteousness". And God says, "You are saved". Abraham believed the same story. Abraham looked up at the night sky, he saw Virgo, and God told him the story.

And then see if you're able to recount the story. Where did Abraham learn the story from? I believe from his father, from his father, father, father, and from father all the way to Adam it was handed down. Today, we don't need to look at the stars anymore. Look up here, we have the Bible. Today, we are lost in the sea, we don't have to look up for Orion. We have GPS. The problem with the world today is that we are looking down too much. The technical word for man, all right, is actually the word for look up. You know, that's man, we are made to look up. Animals look down. Animals, cows and all that, they look down basically. That's why they live life, they be still, lives that are animal-like.

You and I are to look up. More and more we look down, I'm not saying that don't use GPS, but there are some things GPS cannot do. Lord, help. God knows what is ahead. God knows what is ahead. Oh, because in this coming year, God has gone into the year. Time with God is nothing. God has gone into the year and he's come out and says, "I know the way. Take me by the hand, trust me step by step because in this coming year, it's going to be the year of", I'm telling you, I'm so tempted to tell you what God has shown me, but just now sort of like... But you know something? Just trust him one step at a time. Justin don't have to worry about where I'm bringing him. Sometimes I tell him, "I'm bringing you to a surprise place, a place that you would love it".

I know what is in store for him. I know he love those things down there. I know what he will, I can imagine his eyes. In fact, sometimes I get ready my phone just for the moment he steps into that. I get my phone ready to see the bliss and the joy on his face. And so, fathers who plan this kind of thing, but you only have to put your hand in his hand to trust him. Amen? The Bible says, the other day, talking about my son a lot, but he's been ministering to me, what can I say?

I asked him the question, "You know what's the difference between Old Testament and New Testament righteousness, to be right with God"? And now he knows because you can learn everything about the Bible, you can learn about the Bible's facts, this, all the facts about the Bible, or you can name all the kings, you can recite all the 12 disciples, you can recite all the 12 tribes and all that. But you do not know this truth, you have missed everything. What makes a man righteous? What is supposed to make a man righteous in the Old Testament? By him keeping the Ten Commandments, by him being moral, by him being good.

All right, everyone failed, even David failed, the best of them. By law, no one can be justified. Now, a new righteousness has come. Look up here again as we close. Abraham, Genesis 15, God told Abraham, "Look at the stars, so shall your seed be". Now, Abraham had been shown the stars because he didn't have a Bible. He was making the Bible at that time. His story was making the Bible for us. But he looked up and God told him the story, and finally God says, he reached Leo and God says, "That's what your seed will do. It will come from your seed". Jesus came from Israel, Abraham's seed. "Your seed, the one that will crush Satan will come from you". Abraham says, "I believe".

Do you know Abraham believed the same gospel you believe? Abraham believed the same gospel you and I believed. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? And today, the gift of righteousness, notice the next verse, he believed in the Lord and what happened? "God counted it to Abraham for righteousness". God said, "Abraham, from now on, I'm going to treat you like you are the best thing on earth. I'm going to treat you righteous in my eyes. And all my blessings of the righteous, they are now yours. All the promises for the righteous, they are now yours". For example, the seed of the righteous, that means the righteous man's seed will be delivered. Amen?

Wealth is laid up for the righteous. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous. Amen. Many more promises, there shall no evil happen to the righteous. If something seemingly bad happens, God would turn it for good because to keep this promise, amen. So, all the blessings of the righteous is now yours. Amen. So, I told my son, he was so excited, he said, "Is that why you call me Justin"? Yes, because Justin is from the word "just," righteous. And he says, "My Chinese name also is righteousness". And his Chinese name is also righteousness. Righteousness today is a gift. It's a gift to be received. So I said, "If I give you a gift," by then we just bought him a toy or something that he liked that day, and said that, "How do you receive it? Say what? Thank you, and it's yours".

Just believe and it's yours. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today, you shall be saved and your house, amen? And Satan's mouth is shut. Everything is done righteously. Jesus took your sins and gave you his righteousness. There's nothing Satan can do. But the moment Satan comes to you, today he will try his best to say, "You are not righteous. See what you just did. Look at your thoughts just now. Hey, hey, hey, look at the way you think just now. Look at your feelings or how do you feel towards that sister. Look at your feelings of envy and jealousy, look at your bitterness, look at your"... He'll point to you, point to you, point to you. You need to point to Jesus. Point Satan to Jesus and say, "Today, God is not looking at me. God is looking at Jesus to assess me". Amen, are you listening?

In the Old Testament, they brought the Lamb, a picture of Jesus. The priest examines the lamb, not the person. It's very obvious why the person is there, he has sinned. It's a question of how good your lamb is, not how good the sinner is. It's very obvious why he's there. Today, who is your lamb? Who is your lamb? Jesus. Amen, and he is the Lamb. Today, we don't need the stars. Listen, thank God for understanding these things. Today, we have everything in the Bible, amen. We have the Word of God, okay? And by the way, if you're into astrology, I really feel for you because I'm telling you it will not save you, will not help you. There is no answer there. Amen, are you listening?

And especially, you know, fortunetellers and all that, if they tell you things about the future that is evil, you better bind it, in Jesus's name. 'Cause Satan is telling you what he's about to do in your life. I remember one man, God was praying for a lady and the lady was pregnant and... no, no, sorry, one man of God. A man came to this lady who was pregnant like a fortuneteller and says that your baby will be born dead. Not stillborn, not born in the, no heartbeat in the womb, but born dead. And then when the baby was born, the umbilical cord was around the baby's neck and the baby died.

So, she asked this man of God, "Why, why this happened"? And the man of God looked at her with eyes of fire and said, "You believe what the servant of Satan said to you. And because of that, you gave him authority". Don't believe, all right? Don't believe the horrors, that's why they call it, horoscope, okay? Believe the Word of God, believe the Word of God, believe the Word of God. Jesus says, "I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly".

Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place just for a while. No one looking around, walking around just for a while. It's okay, your bladder will be blessed for holding, amen. Just for this moment, I want to give you a chance to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved you so much, he gave his Son to die for your sins. Friend, if that is you wherever you are right now, you say, "Pastor, pray for me. I want Jesus Christ to come into my life. I want to be saved," then pray this prayer with me right now. Say:

Heavenly Father, I thank you Christ died for my sins. And Christ was raised from the dead when I was justified in him. I thank you, Jesus Christ is my Lord. And I thank you that today I'm born again. I thank you that, when you look at me, you see me righteous. The way you see Abraham, the way you see all the believers in the New Testament, you see me righteous. Help me to see this reality. Teach me about this, my new identity. Jesus Christ is now in me. Thank you, Father, the blood of Jesus has washed away all my sins. I'm greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved, in Jesus's name. And all the people said amen.

Stand to your feet right now, praise the Lord, I want to pray a blessing over you. Lift your hands all across this place. What a good God, oh yeah. Hang on, put on your hands first, yeah. Let's welcome my family. We're going to bless you all together, okay? Praise the Lord. Oh hallelujah. Aren't they beautiful? God has blessed me, huh? And you know that all the promises of the righteous is now yours, amen?

God says, "The seed of the righteous is delivered". This is the seed of the righteous, amen? And our righteousness is now a gift, amen? So, all the promises of the righteous is now yours. For example, there shall not evil happen to the just. The word "just" is righteous, like Justin, amen? So, even when something bad happens to you, the promise must be kept. God will turn it for good. There shall no evil happen to the just, amen? All the promises of the righteous, they are now yours. Lift your hands all across this place.

Heavenly Father, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice. I pray, Father, that whatever light has come into their hearts, Father, today is just the beginning. Let that revelation, let that light get brighter and brighter and brighter. We don't want any of them, Lord, to miss out on the good life, to miss out on the abundant life that Jesus came to give. We don't want them to leave their life, climb the ladder of success, only to find at the top of the ladder, the ladder is facing the wrong building.

We pray, Father, today that you will redirect our lives, Lord. That you will be our shepherd, that we'll follow you and you alone, Lord. Lord, you know the way better, Lord. You have all the wisdom. We want to be like a child, carefree in your hands. Thank you, Lord. I pray for this coming Christmas week, Lord, for everyone under the sound of my voice. I pray, Father, that you'll preserve and protect and keep every one of them from every danger, from every harm, from terror, from accidents, from tragedy. I pray, Father, in Jesus's name, you'll keep their families strong and sound in health, Lord. I pray, Father, that your peace will prevail in their hearts and minds.

In the name of Jesus, if there's anyone who is brokenhearted, Lord Jesus, you who love to heal the broken heart, heal that heart right now, in Jesus's name. We pray, Father, if there's anyone who's depressed, in Jesus's name, shar shalom, Prince of Peace, let your peace prevail. Conquer that depression in Jesus's name as the Lion of Judah, and cause your peace to prevail in that person's heart and mind. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus's name preserve everyone from all evil throughout this week, in Jesus's name we ask. And all the people said amen, amen. Amen?