Pastor Joseph Prince (2nd service live)
Jesus carried our sins so we can carry His righteousness
Having done no sin, became our sin & He became the object of judgement
Having done no righteous thing, we became His righteousness & we come the object of favour
Holy = set apart unto God
Holiest = Israel --> Jerusalem --> Temple Mount --> Holy of holies --> mercy seat = the Holiest thing to God at the centre of His heart
Advice for leaders = to love mercy & do justice (Micah 6:8)
Hands = execute justice
Heart = love mercy
Heart = love mercy
God will defend His people
Eg. Ananias & Sapphira, cheating the church & dropping dead. They were not believers
Eg. Shepherd will hit the wolf for attacking the sheep. Do u feel sorry for the wolf after that?
God hates sin but God loves the sinner
How much you hate cancer is how much you love the person
How much you hate cancer is how much you love the person
God wants to bless us even more than we want to be blessed
It is our Father's good pleasure to bless His people (Luke 12:32)
Person willing to receive = faith
Faith is the right response and allows God to bless you
Believe in a God that wants to bless you, not a God that wants to be persuaded before blessing you
You can never love God the way He loves you
Faith = I know God wants to heal
Pray = alignment with God's heart
A life lived for God & with the abundant blessing / zoe life is a testimony in itself
Sermon proper
Coming against the heresy of lordship salvation
What is lordship salvation? In order to be saved, you have to first ...
a) turn from your sins / repent of your sins and then you'll be saved.
b) turn from your sins / repent of you sins & receive Jesus Christ and then you'll be saved.
Both are incorrect because they presuppose on our own ability/strength to turn from our sins on our own first before being saved. b) just includes "receive Jesus Christ" to sound more spiritual but still presumes on our self effort to turn from sins.
No one can turn away from our sins on our own no matter how hard we try.
If we had the power to stop doing sin, then there was no need for Jesus to come.
Same as work salvation = salvation where there is no need of / no need to receive Jesus' finished work on the cross
World definition of repentance = feeling sorrowful / remorseful / guilty of sin committed. But this is NOT Bible repentance
Bible definition of repentance = metanoia = change your mind
I.e. When you believe in Jesus = repentance of unbelief = changing your mind from disbelief to belief in Jesus
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Sidetrack
God is the only one who doesn't throw away defiled / useless things. Beyond that, He loves the defiled / useless things.
No love is like the Father's love. Totally unselfish.
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Mark 1:14-15
V15 Repent / change your mind about what?
About believing the gospel / that Jesus is the Messiah
Acts 20:20-21
The original gospel of Paul; so important that it was done publicly and from house to house
First area of repentance = repentance toward God
Eg. From thinking "God is out to find fault with me" to "God is out to bless me!"
The phrase repent of sin isn't found in the NT
The idea is there, and yes we believe in repentance of sin but this is for believers AFTER being saved. It's not FOR salvation / IN ORDER to be saved.
Eg. You don't become a better man to become saved. You become saved in order to become a better man.
Eg. You don't clean yourself before taking a bath. You take a bath in order to become clean.
It's easy and free on our part to become saved, but it wasn't cheap for Jesus. He paid dearly.
The flesh wants to say "It wasn't easy for me to be saved, Lord! I did something, I gave up ____. You should be glad to have me!"
i. Jairus daughter who just died
ii. Widow's son who was dead slightly longer
iii. Lazareth who was dead for 4 days
Jesus raised all 3 from the dead no matter how dead they were. No one was more dead than the other.
There is no degree of deadness. Same as sin. There is no degree of what is more sinful.
Whether we're a prostitute, a banker etc, all of us are equally spiritually dead.
Why is lordship salvation dangerous?
Because it presupposes on man's strength to be able to turn from sins on our own. And because no man can do that, it becomes an obstacle between man and God.
Feeling sorry, conscious striken etc is not changing of mind
Changing of mind may involve sorrow or even joy (eg. when you're happy to change your mind), but feeling sorry isn't an indicator that repentance / changing of mind has taken place
Repentance is mentioned 46 times in OT:
9 times = man changing mind
37 times = God changing His mind
Exodus 32:14 (KJV, NLT)
If repentance is about sin, then does that mean that God is repenting about His sin here? No! God has no sin.
God repented / changed His mind about the people because of Moses.
God is a God waiting to be entreated
Eg. He knew Abraham would ask Him not to punish Sodom that's why He went to find Abraham and for Abraham's prayer of 10 righteous He would not burn down Sodom.
Repent = teshuva = turn to hei = turn to grace (see picture)
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| repent = teshuva = turn to hei / grace |
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Sidetrack
How do you see Jesus?
Luke 14
Jesus as miracle worker, a teacher, a celebrity. But Jesus was not at home amongst them.
You can learn from Jesus as a role model but still depend on yourself.
Luke 15
Jesus as saviour. And Jesus was most at home amongst them.
Why? Because in order to see Jesus as Saviour, it means you first see yourself as a sinner needing saving.
Jesus came to be used, not admired.
Jesus is a much better Saviour than I am a sinner.
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Recap story of lost sheep (Luke 15:5-7)
V7 subject of parable is about repentance. But how did the sheep repent?
Entire parable is about the good Shepherd who looked, found, rejoiced (active)
What did the sheep do? It didn't do anything except consented to be found, to be carried / rest on shoulder, to be rejoiced over (passive)
Repentance = consenting to be loved
Lost sheep 1/100 = if you're just 1 of many, the world will usually cut losses lest they lose more. But to Jesus, every single one is precious & unique even if there are many more similar ones around
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Sidetrack
Recap story of lost son (Luke 15:16-20)
V17 son was thinking about food, he didn't miss his father. He missed the food provided by his father
Motive for going home was to be like hired servants who have food. He wasn't going home to become a son
V20 great way off = father was looking for him
V18,19 (practised speech) vs V21 (actual speech) father didn't allow him to finish his confession.
Ring = credit card
Shoes = worthy to stand before me
Shoes = worthy to stand before me
Many times, we accept God for the wrong reasons (e.g. out of fear, for 'insurance' in case He's real). We may have come for the wrong reasons, but whatever our reason for coming to Him, He will run to us.
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Is repentance about feeling sorrowful?
Matt 27:3-5
Judas was remorseful, even repaid the 30 pieces of silver (i.e. restitution / action) and went to hang himself
But is this Bible repentance? No. Even though he was remorseful, made restitution and even tried to pay for his mistakes on his own with with his life, there's no mention of the word reptenance anywhere here.
Hanging self is pride because he wanted to pay for himself rather than let Jesus pay the price for him.
Even if we want to bring something to Jesus, what do we have that's valuable to give Him? He's the one who fills our hands with everything for us to bring to Him again later. We have nothing of our own.
If you want to bring anything to Jesus, bring your sins. He loves that!
If repentance is about feeling sorrowful, and if salvation is about repentance (=feeling sorrowful), then Judas should be saved here but he wasn't.
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Sidetrack
V4 when devil has no use for you, he drops you.
The devil hates you, God loves you
Whatever a person gives the devil, he may get fame for a while but later he drops him & he'll be worse than before. (E.g. Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler)
Whatever you give God, he multiplies it
E.g. Peter's boat - Peter toiled all night and caught nothing, but the moment he lent his boat to Jesus, after that all the fish were attracted to it. (Luke 5)
Give your brain, time, money etc to God. He's a debtor to no man.
Give so you're in a posture to receive more
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Must we repent of sin first in order to be saved? (ie. lordship salvation)
Eg. Acts 10:43-44 "whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins"
This is the first time that gentiles are preached to and "repent" is not used by Peter here.
Eg. Acts 11:2-4, 15-18
V18 what they saw was "repentance to life" although Peter never said anything about repentance
Eg. Romans 10:9 "… that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Eg. John 20:31 "believing you may have life in His name"
Not "believing and repenting"
Eg. John 3:16 "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life"
Not "whoever believes and repents"
John = to reach out to non believers
In the entire gospel of John, it's all about believing never mentions repenting at all
You cannot believe without repenting
If repentance of sin is needed first in order to be saved (i.e. lordship salvation), then surely it must have been emphasised in the speeches made by Peter and John. But all of them only talk about believing.
Do not confuse root vs fruit
Root = saved by believing in the Lord
Fruit = repentance
When root is right, fruits will follow naturally
Many of us want Jesus to be the centre of our lives / to be Lord over every part of our lives. But is He really? No, it's still a process.
Must we repent of our sin AND make restitution / action in order to be saved?
Then how can the thief at the cross pay? He's stuck at the cross about to die.
But Jesus said "today you shall be with Me in paradise." (Luke 23:43)
It's easy to be saved! Doesn't mean it's cheap. Jesus paid heavily for us.
How about "narrow is the way and few find it" (Matt 7:14)?
That's present tense for the time when Jesus walked the earth. Not for today.
Multitude that no man can number in heaven (Rev 7:9)
Doesn't say multitude in hell, although yes there is hell
It's easy to be saved but it's not universal salvation either. Have to believe first.
How about on the day of Pentecost and Peter said "repent" (Acts 2:38)?
That's because those there are primarily believers and Peter is talking to them.
Summary
- Yes, we believe in repentance of sin but that's for believers AFTER being saved. It's not FOR salvation / IN ORDER to be saved.
- For salvation, just believe! You will naturally repent after that.
- Repentance is not about a feeling or action, but about changing your mind about a wrong belief and consenting/allowing yourself to be loved by Christ.
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