Transcript

Please turn with me to Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter one. Today we’re going to begin a new series. We just completed last week, the series on abounding grace. Today we’re going to begin a new series and I’ve titled it redeemed, redeemed. There are some truths that you need to know that will surely leave you to the highest kind of faith. I think I’ve mentioned it, sometimes in our preaching and I have covered some aspects of those truths. Particularly, there are seven different Christian truths that you need to know in order to have the highest kind of faith, and this is one among them. That is the reality of our redemption. Is redemption real to you? Are you filled with the understanding of what has happened to you by way of redemption, what it means to you on a day-to-day basis in every aspect of your life? Do you know you’ve been redeemed, something has happened? Something remarkable has happened? Do you know what it means to be redeemed? Do you know what to redeem from? I think this will really take us to the highest kind of faith once you begin to know this truth, you will see the difference.

Let me read to you from Colossians chapter one, from verse three all the way to verse 15, verse three to 15, all the way we’re going to study only verse 12, 13, and 14. We want to read from verse three to 15. We give thanks to God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of your love for all saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the word of truth, of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among us since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is the faithful minister of Christ, on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason, we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing and being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patients in long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has conveyed as into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins, is the image of the invisible God first bond over all creation. 

Well, in this whole passage, we’re going to look mainly at verses 12, 13 and 14 and focus mainly on three things. One is that we have an inheritance long with all the saints of God. Redemption is about an inheritance that God has made ready for us through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Do you know about that inheritance? This is one aspect of this truth that’s so important. There is an inheritance of so many blessings, good things. Secondly, that is mentioned in verse 12. It says, he has made as partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. So we have an inheritance and redemption is about that inheritance. We’ll learn about that inheritance. Secondly, verse 13, says he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the son of His love. So we’ve been delivered from the power of darkness, from the kingdom of darkness from the power and the authority and slavery to this kingdom of darkness, and I’ve been translated literally transported from this kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So something tremendous has happened. We’ve gone from one kingdom to another, gone from Satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom. Do you know about that? You know what that means? 

Thirdly, verse 14, says, in whom we have redemption. We’re going to look at this fact that we have redemption, it’s not that we’re going to have redemption, we have redemption. Let’s look at the inheritance first, that we’ve been given an inheritance. The very first thing about this inheritance, I want to tell you is that inheritance is available for us today. This is what is so important about redemption. Redemption, they have two different aspects of redemption. There are certain aspects of redemption that are already available to us today, the blessings of redemption already available for us today. And then there are certain aspects that are to be made available later when Jesus comes in the end. These two are separated in Christian teaching, they call this doctrine, the now and the not yet. The now and the not yet they call it. Not yet, all those things like where there will be no deaths, there’ll be no sickness at all, no deaths at all. A heavenly type of living, that is in eternity will have that. That is yet to come. And is not now, it is yet to come. But there are certain things about redemption that is available to us now such as healing, deliverance from poverty, from sickness, from the power of Satan, from the power of sin, and so on. All of that is available right now, to be enjoyed right now, and very important aspects of our Christian life right now. In this present life, those are very relevant things, to know that we have been delivered from the power of sin, delivered from the power of Satan, delivered from the sickness, delivered from poverty, all of these things, certain aspects of these things are available for us right now. 

Now, Paul tells the people here that these people have heard the gospel and have grasped the hope which is laid out for them in heaven. He says that in verse three to five. He says, because of the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven. They know that they have a hope that is laid up for us for them in heaven. But Paul says he prays for them every day that this gospel which they’ve heard and believed bears fruit so that they can be filled with the knowledge and wisdom of spiritual understanding so that they may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. All of that is mentioned in verse nine and 10, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So, these people know, and they have grasped the fact that there is hope that is laid up for them in heaven. But the problem with Christians is, they either put everything as things that are laid up for the future, or they put everything in the past and leave nothing for the present. Now, the evangelical world accuses the Pentecostals of going overboard and saying that things that are not yet are available now. I think some of us do that. And sometimes we do that. I think so that accusation may sometimes be right. In some cases, it is true. They say you take the things that are going to be available later on and you claim that it’s available now it’s not available now, they say, which is right but my thing that I have with them is that they take the things that are there available now, and postpone them for the future. That’s the thing. 

I don’t have any problem believing that there are some things that are available only for the future, not right now is going to happen only when Jesus comes when we get into the eternity, then only it’s possible. I believe that. But I believe there are certain blessings that are available to us now which some Christians have relegated to the future. And as they do this, they relegate everything to the past, and the future. And you ask them what is available now they say you just pray and hope that’s all, you just have forgiveness of sin. And you just hope everything goes well now. The good news is that the inheritance is ours today, the Bible talks about an inheritance that is ours today. Yeah, the hope that is laid up in heaven is there but we can be filled with the knowledge and spiritual understanding, understanding these things, and this will bear fruit for us now, in the now, in the present time. When we understand the gospel, it will bear fruit for us now, it make a difference for us now in this present life. Now, another thing about this inheritance is that God is not going to take any of this inheritance and push it down our throats. There is no force involved. No blessing of God, no inheritance is going to be taken and pushed down our throat. God never does that. He never pushes salvation down your throat, he does not push us his healing, down your throat, he doesn’t never push us any blessing of redemption down your throat. 

In other words, what I mean is, God does not take the blessings of redemption and force it on you. He doesn’t do that. There is no force involved in Christianity, there is no force involved then what has God done then, what God has done is he has made everything ready. All that we need is made ready. And then he has made us able to be partakers of all that inheritance. That’s how it is said here. My translation here I read from New King James Version, it says giving thanks to the father, verse 12, giving thanks to the father who was qualified us to be partakers, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. This is one way of putting it. He has qualified us. He doesn’t push it down our throat. He doesn’t force it on us. He prepares an inheritance. He has provided every single thing that we need for a successful Christian life. Here in the present. Everything that we lost in the fall, everything that we were deprived of because of the fall. Redemption brings back everything. Everything that was lost is now given back. And another thing that God does is after giving back all those things, after making all those things ours, he makes us able to be partakers, no forcing. He doesn’t come and push it down our throat. He makes us able to be partakers, and my translation here says he has qualified us to be partakers. Tamil translation also uses the qualified phrase. Able qualified is one thing, forcing down somebody’s throat is another thing. In other words, God doesn’t push it down on you. He just makes you able to be partakers, qualified to be partakers. He puts you in a position to receive the blessings of the gospel. That’s what it means. You’re now in a position you’re free. You’re not bound by Satan anymore. You’re not slave to sin anymore. You’re not in the former condition that you were in, you are redeemed, you have been delivered, you’ve been set free. By setting you free from sin and Satan. He has put you in a position to receive the blessings of the gospel. 

Now, you can receive the blessings of the gospel, how do you receive the blessings of the gospel? You have to really choose to receive the blessings of the gospel, you have to make a decision to receive the blessings of the gospel. So he prepares everything. Everything that has to do with our spirit, soul and body, our family, our finances, our social life. Everything that has been lost because of the fall. Fall did not affect just our spirit. Because some people talk about this whole matter of salvation as something very spiritual. Only spiritual, it has nothing to do with our body. So when you talk about healing and financial blessings, and all that, they don’t like it, because gospel has nothing to do with that. It has only to do with the forgiveness of sin and spiritual aspect of our life. But let me tell you, the fall affected not just the spiritual aspects spiritual side of our life, it affected every aspect of our life, spirit, soul, body, our work of our hands, our family, our society, everything is social life, everything is affected. Today in society, there is no peace. There is such hatred and bitterness in fighting against one another. And all of this going on all over the world. It’s always been like that always been like always wars and bickering and fighting, always. There’s no peace in this world. Why? Sin is the reason, sin has made people like that. Selfishness dominates societies everywhere in the world. 

So we differentiate people with regard to race, color, all kinds of things, differences are highlighted. And then people are treated differently and so on causes great problems in society. So the problems in society is as a result of sin, the problems in families is as a result of sin, families are not able to live in peace between the husband, wife, children, just in a family, there is so much complication. Family life has become very complex as a result of sin. Because man is that the way he was when God made him, sin has now entered and sin ruins and tears up everything, everywhere it enters, it’s got a way of tearing up everything. Health is affected. So our body is affected, and our mind is affected. The way our mind is affected is tremendous. Our mind is polluted by sin. And the Bible teaches so much about it. We become vain in our thinking, and, and so on. And the Bible talks so much about it in Romans chapter one, Ephesians, chapter four and so on, then our spirit is affected. So not just our spirit, not our spiritual aspect. Every aspect of our life has been touched by sin. There is not even one little aspect of our life that the sin has not gone in and messed up. Every aspect of our life has been messed up by sin. That’s the way the Bible teaches it. You study about sin. That’s the story of sin doesn’t leave any corner untouched. It’s pollution. Like dust settling in the room goes and settles everywhere, it defiles everything, ruins everything, dirties everything, and spoils everything. Therefore, redemption, which is redeeming that which was lost means that everywhere sin has gone and ruined every area of our life, everywhere redemption goes. Whatever sin has touched redemption, make sure it reaches in there and does something about that aspect of our life. That’s why I believe in redemption, being applied to spirit, soul and body work of our hands, family, social life and everything. So he has made us qualify by setting us free from sin and Satan so we can receive the blessings of God. He has also provided us avenues by which to receive these things. He has done enough to channel and funnel these things to us these blessings to us. These blessings can now come to us really without any hindrance. God has made avenues by which we can receive these blessings. The only thing he has not done is he does not make your decision to receive it. Only thing that is required by us is that we need to make a decision. Now that decision aspect is very important as far as God is concerned, because God has made you and I in His image and likeness, we are not made like dolls. We are not made like machines. We’re people with a mind, we can think we can decide, we can determine. 

That’s the way God has made us. And because he made us like that, he respects that aspect of our lives. That is why he never pushes it down our throat. That is why there is no force in Christianity at all. Nobody forced you to come here this morning. Nobody forced you to accept Jesus Christ ever. Nobody can take you by the neck and make you do something, never. They can’t even make you to come to church, they cannot make you read the Bible, make you have a prayer, or do anything, nobody can force you to do anything. You want to do something only if you decide to do something, if you like to do something, if you have a desire to do something, because God has made you like himself, a person who can clearly think analyze, determine a course of action and act accordingly. So you have to make the decision. Let me show you what he has done for us. I said he has done everything. And he has made us able to be partakers qualified to be partakers doesn’t force it down on us. But he has made us able qualified to partake in these things. He has made avenues through which the blessings can come to us. He is made possible, he is made as able and qualified. Let’s see what God has done for us just like give you a little taste of what God has done for us. First of all, he has sent his own son into this world, to die for us, and to atone for our sins and to bring us to God and remove this problem of sin that stands between us and God. So he’s done something tremendous. We can say just like that glibly. But this is something remarkable, God’s Son, the second person of Trinity, was sent down as a child, born to the Virgin Mary, and he came into this world, lived among us died on the cross. And when he died, God made sure he raised him on the third day, to show to the world that what he had done for our sins on the cross is accepted, it’s completed, therefore he doesn’t have to stay dead anymore. 

So he raises him up, which is a nominal thing. Raises him from the dead to live forevermore. He has done that for us. And then he has recorded it in the Word of God. If you read the Word of God is very interesting. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John gives us the story of Jesus, what he taught and what he did, by dying on the cross and so on. Just tells us the story of Jesus, tells us that He died on the cross, it describes the event as it happened. But after that, if you go to the epistles and read, the epistles are totally different. They expound on his death, as burial and resurrection and the meaning of the death, the significance of that death for us, what we have received and what has happened to us as a result of that death. So the epistles are exposition of the redemption that has been provided for us through the cross of Calvary. Not just simply telling the story again, that the four gospels tell that the epistles expound on it and give us the meaning and the significance of that. So he has given us the word so he has said Jesus, made him die on the cross raised him again, then gave us the word, which tells us in detail about these things, so that I can take this subject and preach for you next several weeks, expound on the Word of God about redemption. And then he has given us the Bible says in Ephesians, chapter six, verse 10, onwards, if you read, it says that He has given us the whole armor of God, so that we can win against the wilds of the devil. No one here will ever be able to say that because of the devil, I’ve failed, because of the devil, I was not able to receive the blessings of God. That I fail to receive what God has obtained for me the inheritance that God has given to me, because the devil stopped me. The devil could not stop you, because the armor that God has given to you is described as a whole armor of God, nothing missing, every kind of weapon that you need, anything and everything that you need to defeat the devil has been given to you to use against the devil against the wiles of the devil, he has defeated him on the cross already. 

But everything that you need today to deal with him, and put him in his place has been given to you and you read about it in Ephesians, six verse 10 onwards. Not only there, he has given us his name to use, just think about that, the name of Jesus has been given to us to use. It’s like giving power of attorney, it’s like somebody saying, well, I’m going to be away for some time, I’m going to leave the earth and go back to the Father, I’m going to come back later on, but there’s going to be a gap between now and then. In the meanwhile, I want to leave the name my name with you. Use my names. When you use my name is like me being there, my authority, my power, will be in action there. Just like you have a power of attorney given to you by someone, that person can go out of town and leave you with the power of attorney you can conduct business in the name of that person, when you sign it is counted as his signature. So he’s given us a power of attorney literally, this great privilege to use this mighty name, not really as a human as the use of the name. He has made that name, an exalted name. Philippians chapter two says that because he humbled himself, even to the death on the cross, God has also highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name, in heaven and earth and under the earth so that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There is no name higher than the name of Jesus. God has made sure that before he told us to use the name, before he gave us the right to use that name, he made sure that this was the greatest name, in heaven on earth, and under the earth, that there is no other name above this name. This name is above all names. This is the name for salvation. This is the name for healing. This is the name for deliverance. This is the name for victory, this name, this powerful name is now ours to use, we can open the can — the Bible says, go into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples, lay hands on the sick in my name, and they shall recover, cast out the devils in my name. What a privilege it is. 

Casting out the devil in his name does not only refer to finding a person whose demon possessed and casting the devil out. Casting the devil out means dealing with the devil on a daily basis. When it comes to casting him out, get rid of him using the name. But the problem is a lot of people in churches today don’t know anything about this name. They do not know about this exaltation of this name, that this name is the greatest name. There is no other name in this earth, as great as the name of Jesus. That in the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess one day, God has put this name above every name, that uttering this name, a person can be saved. In this name healing can be brought, in this name the devil can be rid of. Other people don’t know how many places that teach and preach about the name of Jesus and the power of the name of Jesus. They have preached it here. I preached Jesus preached it. We preached it here extensively for many weeks, the power that is in the name of Jesus. There are churches that preach it, but I’ll tell you many places you will never hear about the power of the name. And you will never hear about the privilege of using that name that you can use that name, that you must use that name. So a lot of people today are Christians, but they have never realized the power of the name or never used the name anywhere. They don’t know what kind of power it has. Only they know what kind of power this is, they’ll use it. Only when they use it, they’ll see victory. 

So look at what God has done. He has sent Jesus, made him die, raised him again. He has written it in his Word, and the author of this word is also given to us the Holy Spirit coming into reciting in us so that he can interpret the word and help us understand the word. He has given the whole armor so that the devil cannot ever defeat us and deprive us of the blessings of God. He has given us the name above all name to use. On our lips, it’s our greatest privilege as Christians to use the name of Jesus. What more do we want? What I’m trying to say is when the Bible says he has made us able to be partakers, this is what it means by doing all these things, by giving all of these things he has made us able made us qualified to be partakers of that inheritance. Except making the decision, everything He has done. You got to make the decision. But the decision is like this. Decision, how many of you made decisions in January, on January 1. A lot of people didn’t even remember what decision they made. This morning I asked a Tamil congregation, some of them were scratching their heads, they even forgot by the time February rolls over, they forgotten what decision they made. Just because we make so many decisions we never follow through. Why? I told you last week, I think in our preaching, on one Corinthians 13, I said, just because you’ve made a decision to say no to sin or something like that, it’s not going to happen. You got to have a passion of the heart, something has to happen in your heart so that a passion is created for something. You must like something, you must desire something, then you make the decision. And even that is not enough, then you follow it with action. 

You back the decision with a heart’s passion. And you follow the decision with action. So it is passion, decision and action all of them going together. I heard a preacher say something very funny, an American preacher that I really like talking about going from his house in California to his church, he’s got a big church and going on the highway he said by the time he left his house and got on the highway and got off from the highway to the church. He saw nine holdings of advertisement regarding exercise place how if you came there they can help you achieve six packs. So he was very interested, he looked at them. And soon enough in a few miles again, you’ll see another advertising, all lit up and glorious, phone number is there, the cost is given there, equipment that they have and kind of training that they give everything is reading this thing again and again. Nine times he counted. He said nine times I saw the holdings by the time I got on the highway to the time I got out, he says. And then I came to church, but I didn’t have six packs, he says. Just because he read it nine times, he’s not going to have six packs, he’s got to make a decision. And decision is that going to be really lived out. If there is no passion, he’s got to desire it. He’s got to have a passion of liking towards it. He really need to want it, then only he can go after it. So he needs to have passion, then make a decision and then followed with an action. If he has passion and makes the decision then he will follow it with an action. 

There was a great preacher named AB Simpson. I don’t know if I told you last week or the week before. He was a Presbyterian minister, but later on became the head of Christian Missionary Alliance, a very major denomination in America. There are hundreds of churches all over the world. AB Simpson he was used mightily by God in the healing ministry in America about 100 years away. And when he was 46 years old, he had some terrible problems, health problems. And by that time, he was pastoring a Presbyterian Church which didn’t really believe in healing and all that. But he used to pray for healing for people in this church and found some wonderful results. Some miracles happening, people were healed. And he was quite taken by that and very interested in this area of healing. And then he found out at 46 years of age, when he went with some symptoms to the doctor, the doctor examined him and told him plainly that he’s got only six months to live. In these, some of these countries, they tell you point blank to your face. In India, they take your relative or somebody, a distant relative and tell him, third party, someone that you don’t want him to know. Sometimes they’ll say don’t tell his wife, don’t tell him, he’s sick. Don’t tell his wife, she’s afraid, I’m telling you is going to be gone. That’s the way we deal with it. But in some of these countries, they tell you point blank, no matter how sick you are, you may be looking like you’re going to die next moment, they’ll say hey, you’re going to die. Better get ready. 

So they told him six months, you’re going to die. You got six months you live and you got a terrible heart problem, you’re going to die. So the man came home very disappointed. And he was thinking about what to do. And he has experienced some healing in His Church, in the case of other people that came for healing. And now he himself is suffering with sickness. So he decided to take a couple of weeks off and go to a farmhouse and spend some time reading the Bible, because he wanted to know whether this healing thing is real. He is experienced some people getting healed. But he wanted to know for sure whether this is a part of redemptive blessings that have been given through redemption. So he wanted to read the New Testament and thoroughly examine this matter. He went in two weeks, he sat there and read the Bible again and again, the New Testament. And at the end of the second week, he took a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote on that piece of paper. I had the exact word somewhere, but I didn’t bring it today. But he wrote on the piece of paper, something like this, he said, after two weeks of examining the Bible, thoroughly, and studying all the passages in the Bible, and one passage he was very attracted to, and that is, one verse he was very attracted to, and that is, Matthew’s gospel, chapter eight, verse 17, where Matthew is writing the gospel, after Jesus rose again and went back to the Father. 

Now Matthew is writing the gospel. And he’s remembering the healings done by Jesus. He is talking about how sick people are brought from everywhere, all kinds of sick were brought, and Jesus healed them all. He is writing about it. And then he comments saying, this happened so that the prophecy of Isaiah which said, He Himself bore our weaknesses, and carried our diseases may be fulfilled. These healings were done in order to fulfill the Isaiah prophecy, Isaiah 53, for prophecy prophecies that He bore our weaknesses and carried our sickness. And when he read that, he says that, that phrase, He Himself, He Himself, in Tamil it comes beautifully [Tamil 00:38:02] he himself, he himself, and then he said, he realized that the Son of God, the second person of Trinity, came down from heaven. For what? Why should he come down, he came down, and on the cross when he died, one of the things that he did is that he himself, no one lesser than Jesus, Jesus Himself, the Son of God, Himself, the second person of the Trinity, God Himself, coming down on this earth, in flesh and blood hanging on the cross, he himself took my weaknesses and my sicknesses. If he himself took it, then that means I can be free from it. He realized, for the first time in his life, if he himself took it, he can be free from it. After two weeks, he came. And he was preaching in a luncheon meeting for some businessmen and so on. Usually those meetings, you preach something else, and he stood up and he could not think about anything else to preach other than he himself. He opened his Bible to Matthew 8:17 and preached on himself. He himself and told about what happened to him. He wrote in a piece of paper at the end of two weeks, he said, after examining the scriptures, the New Testament thoroughly I found that healing is there as part of my redemption because he himself, the Son of God himself came and died and took my informatie, my sickness. So healing is there. Therefore, I declare today that I am healed, and I’m well. And with this good health and strength and life that God has given to me, I will live for many more years, and glorify God and preach the gospel, and particularly preach this message about healing to people and help people to receive healing. 

Now, the story came out when he was 70 years old, in a magazine. At 46 years of age, he was told that he will die, but he was at 70 still living, and the magazine published this story. Why I’m simply telling you this here is a man who’s going after healing. Look at the way he goes after healing. There is a passion. He has gone to the farmhouse, he spent two weeks he wanted to know whether it’s there, whether it’s his, whether he can depend on the fact that healing is part of the redemption. He wanted to determine it. He went there and passionately sought it determined that it was there for him, and therefore decided that he was indeed healed. And he is well and began to act like that. He talks about in that story, how, after 70 years, he has never had any symptoms, again, those bad symptoms that took him to the doctor, where the doctor told him that he will die in six months. Completely made well. What I’m saying is, you got to seek it passionately. All redemptive blessings are like that. You need to have a passion, decision, and action to seek it. Because God doesn’t push it down anybody’s throat, he makes you able to the partakers qualified to the point. You’re qualified. You’re able. He will never push it on you. But if you want to get any of the blessings, whether it is healing or any other blessings of redemption, you need to pursue it with all your heart. You need to have a passion for it. You have to make a decision. That’s the only way you’re going to get it. If you really want it, you will get it. 

And I hope in the coming weeks as we preached about how you’re redeemed from sickness redeemed from sin and redeemed from satanic rule and reign over your life, redeemed from poverty. I hope that in the weeks to come that many will experience healing and deliverance, and joy and peace and victory. All right, secondly, delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God. That’s the second thing. First is inheritance. There is an inheritance, I told you about the inheritance. Now, let me talk about how we’ve been delivered from the power of darkness and brought into God’s kingdom. Now we just talked about decision. Making a decision, being passionate about it and acting on it. Why is it that we can make decisions and God will back it now? What makes God to back our decisions now. I’ll tell you the reason. He backs it now because we’ve been delivered from the power of darkness and brought into God’s kingdom. We are not in devils Kingdom anymore. In devil’s kingdom, we were tied up. We were in bondage; we were in slavery. We were kept in that condition. He has delivered us, brought us, transported us into His kingdom. He has delivered us, brought us into His kingdom. Devil suppress us, devil oppressed us, kept us down so that we could not act along the lines of what we will do. We wanted to do certain things we could not do. But now we are in God’s kingdom. God says now you’re made in the image and likeness of God. Whatever you lost in the fall, I’ve given it to you back. I’ve delivered you. You’re a man with a mind you can decide, you can think, you can analyze, you can make up your mind. 

Make up your mind and if you make up your mind and believe my word which says that you’ve been redeemed and these blessings are yours, and if you stand on that word, I will back it up, he says. God is obligated to back it up. Because it’s His Word, it’s no more Devil’s kingdom. It’s God’s kingdom. God says, you believe what I say, I’m pleased with it, I’m going to back it up. Look at what Matthew’s Gospel says about this. Matthew’s Gospel chapter 18, verse 18, quickly turn over and look at that. Matthew 18:18, assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now this is one portion of scripture that you will never hear, in so many places preached, so many will never go this way at all. Because their thing is, what nonsense is this? If you bind on earth, it will be bound in heaven, if you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven. So preachers, many times they stay clear of this, they don’t understand this. They don’t understand this, because this is the law of the kingdom of God. This is how the Kingdom of God operates. Now, they are thinking theologically, and intellectually and so on. They want to decide whether this is true or not, they cannot, with unrenewed mind, they cannot understand it. So they stay clear of this, not only this, many other passages like that, like the one in Mark 11:23, and 24, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, have you heard anybody preach on that? Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt his heart, but believes that whatever he says, will come to pass, he shall have whatever he says, they will stay clear of that. 

As they say, what this is nonsense, you say to the mountain, be removed, it will be removed. What kind of nonsense is this? They won’t preach about that. But these are the laws of the kingdom of God, you shall have whatever you say, is the law of the kingdom of God, you got to have a revelation to understand that. This is a portion like that. So here, he says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you lose on earth, will be loosed in heaven. No wonder Jesus said, assuredly, I say to you, because He knows that many people will have the problem believing this, assuredly means, verily, surely, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, the amplified version puts it in a way that you can understand. What it really means is, you know what is bound in heaven, therefore, you bind it on Earth. And therefore, whatever you bind on Earth is bound in heaven. You know what is loosed in heaven, permitted in heaven, allowed in heaven, and you know it and you also permit and allow, whatever is loosed in heaven, here on Earth, and heaven is pleased with that. It follows you, heaven is pleased to do what you do, if you bind heaven binds, if you lose, heaven loses, your binding what heaven is already bound. That is why Heaven is led to bind what you bind. You’re losing what heaven has already lose. That’s why Heaven is ready to lose whatever you lose, by your words, heaven is happy to lose it because Heaven has already lose it. And you agree with it, and you enforce it on Earth. 

Now, this is the kind of thing that Jesus was talking about when he said in his prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, pray saying, your will be done, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So here it is. The spiritual law and you can depend on it. Jesus says, you bind, I will back it up. You bind, I’ll back it up. You lose, and I’ll back it up. Now I like this God. Somebody said long time ago believe in the God who believes in you. I like that. Believe in the God who believes in you. He’s a God who believes in us. I like this God. He respects me as a human being. He respects my right to make a decision. He respects the fact that I have my own mind. I can think and I can analyze I can make up my mind that I am a person made in the image and likeness of God, he made me therefore he knows how I am made. Therefore this is the only God that says, behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man will open, I will come in, and I will sup with him, and he with me. He won’t enter into your life without your permission. He is going to stand there and knock on your door. He can kick any door open, no matter how many locks you’ve done on it, but he won’t do it. Why? Because he respects you believe in the God who believes in you. I like this God. And he says, you bind, I will follow it up. I will make sure it’s bound. You lose, I’ll back it up. 

Next verse says, again, I say to you that the two of you agree on earth, concerning anything they ask. Two of you on earth, or sending anything you ask. Notice those words, very powerful, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. Look how God has created man, man redeemed, man set free from the power of the devil and from sin, man restored and redeemed, is to be like this. If just two people get together and agree on earth, regarding anything they ask on this earth, it will be done for them of the Father in heaven. Amazing. What are these two people doing? They know what God wants to be done on this earth. So they are here on this earth not for themselves. They’re living for God, they are redeemed people, they are God’s people. They’re in the kingdom of God, these are Kingdom laws. So they’re saying, well, I’m living for God, I’m going to enforce God’s laws here, God’s will here on this earth. So I’m going to agree with this brother for this particular thing, in this matter, we’re going to agree together, that this will be done, because that’s what God’s will is. And they decided to do that, then God feels obligated to back them. God says I’ll back you up. Whatever you two ask here on Earth. If you agree, I will do it. That’s what it really means. Look at the third verse, that is verse 20, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. Now this, the church has taken it as a promised verse for small churches, where you gather and only two or three people are seated there, and the preacher gets up and says, wherever two or three are gathered, there I am, and I am in the midst and so on. It’s not like that. Jesus is saying, if two or three are gathered, and you know what my will is, you know what I want to do here on this earth and you are there for me, you don’t have your agenda, you are living for me, you are doing what I want you to do. And if you’re gathered together to do what I want to be done, there I am in the midst, why is he in the midst of those two or three people. He is in their midst, so that he can get that done? He can make it happen, he is in their midst. 

Just imagine what the implications of this can be for an individual where he can bind and loose. Implications for married people where two can agree. Husband and wife can agree in a home, what the implications can be what they can achieve in this world. And what the implications can be for three people usually we start with one and then we get a wife or husband and then we have a child or two. You can’t have more than that here in India, you got to have permission I think. But when you gather as two or three and you’re ready to do the will of God and carry out God’s will on this earth, then God says I’ll back you up. I will back you up. You make the decision. You decide what to bind, I will bind it. You decide what to do, I will carry it out, I am right there in the midst. I’ll do it. I’ll do it for you. Because you’re now in the kingdom of God, you’re redeemed person, you come out of that, I will back you up, I will do it. Now why has God bound himself to us like that? Why would he come and commit himself like that? If you bind on earth, I’ll bind on in heaven? If you lose on Earth, I’ll lose in heaven. If two of you agree on earth as touching anything, I’ll do it. If two or three are gathered there, I’m in the midst of it. Why would God want to bind themselves to such a such a thing? And commit himself to something like that? 

Why is it that God wants us to have that kind of authority? The reason we have the kind of authority is because we have redemption through his blood. So we come to the third point. We have redemption, the authority of the redeemed, it’s the authority of the redeemed, why does God want you to bind and lose and do all those? Why such power and authority? Because you are the redeemed. You are not a slave of the devil anymore. You are not run by the devil anymore. Your life is not run by the devil, you are in the kingdom of God, you’re operating by the laws of the God of the kingdom of God. So you have authority, God wants you to have authority. Finally, redemption, we have redemption, what is redemption? Now in India, pawning is very common. You go to a pawn shop, and pawn some jewelry or something. And you can’t get it back until you pay back. Try to make you understand what redemption is, that’s where the word redeem is used much. You got to redeem what you have kept there, got to get your jewelry back, you got to redeem it now. Now, there are some very poor people sometimes go and they pledge their jewelry because they need money for something and they end up not being able to get it back. They’re desperate. And some of them, try very hard to get it back. And still, they can’t do it. Just imagine what will happen if all of a sudden somebody shows up at their door knocks on the door and say, hey, bring that receipt, let’s go to the shop, I’ll pay what you owe that shop and I’ll get back your jewelry for you. I want to do this for you. Somebody shows up at your door and if you’re a very poor person suffering very much, and you’re losing your jewelry, somebody shows up at your door, how glad will you be to get back that little chain or something. That’s the only position that you’ve had, I think that you will be rated. You will be thrilled by that. Now redemption is something like that. 

Whoever expected that God will send his own son and he will come in human flesh and live among us and die on the cross, make the ultimate sacrifice suffers such agony and die on the cross and then be raised again. Why would he go through all of those things? Whoever imagined this, some scheme like this, a way of salvation like this, we could have never thought of it. We could have never even asked for something to be done like this. We would have never asked because we don’t know that much. We never asked we never expected. We never knew this could be done. But God in His wisdom did it. And it’s like somebody knocking on our door and we’re desperate and we don’t know how to get out of this nest. Sin has affected us, sin has ruined our lives, sin has polluted us, sin has turned us upside down. We’re unable to get out and somebody knocks on our door and says come, you can be free right now. That’s how redemption comes. Redeem means that come somebody has paid the price. Somebody has done what is supposed to be done to get back everything that you lost. What you lost is everything that you had and what is gained now through redemption is everything that you lost. So this person didn’t work hard and tried to make the money and go and get it redeemed, somebody came along, and just like that did it for him, just like that. How much the person will appreciate it, how much more that will be valuable than himself going and trying so hard to try to get it back. Just imagine that Jesus paid the price for our redemption. Jesus paid the price for our redemption, He had to pay the penalty for our sins, the price is His shed blood, and the life that is given through it. 

Now the Bible in this connection, since it uses the word ransom and all that they came up the whole theory of ransom theory of atonement, and so on, where they started talking about how God had to pay a certain amount to the devil, some price to the devil, to free us from his hold, all that is wrong, that is not taught in the Bible at all. What the Bible teaches is, God doesn’t have to pay the devil anything, God can just kick the devil out, and the devil has no power. So God doesn’t have to pay the devil anything. So the ransom theory is completely out of the, completely wrong. What has happened is, it is because of sin man has become a slave of the devil, man sinned, and therefore came under the power of the devil, because of sin, they will enslave them. So if you deliver him from sin, the devil will have no more power over him. So what Jesus came to do is to deliver us from sin, from this fall from the sin? Or does he have to do to deliver us from sin, the wages of sin is death, the soul that sin shall die, that’s the price. So he paid the price. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sin, so he shed his blood on the cross, the wages of sin is death. So he took death, the punishment for us of our sins on the cross. So he paid the price. That’s the price. And God is out of sin, therefore, devil could have no more power. Once he got us out of sin, we could join with God. Once we join with God, the devil has nothing to do with us, the devil cannot even come near us. That is what happened. 

And it’s amazing redemption is something that came as a gift from God to us. And this is more precious than if you went and you died for your own sins, and you got on the cross you suffered and died. God backs your redemption in a greater way since He redeemed you by His grace, and by His love, He backs it in a greater way than you would back the redemption that you obtained yourself, if you can do it. Just think about that. God would back your redemption in a greater way than you would back the redemption that you obtained on your own. God would back the redemption that he obtained for you because he did it in His love, and in His grace. He paid the price, He did it for you. He didn’t need anything. He didn’t need the authority over the devil. He didn’t need to defeat the devil. He didn’t need to do anything. He didn’t need to die for any sin that he has committed. He did not have to go to the cross and die and go to Hell and all that in order to destroy the works of Satan as the Bible says he came to destroy the works for the evil one. He was God. He didn’t have to do that, he already had victory over the devil. The devil could do nothing to God. God didn’t have to win against the devil by going to the cross. He did it for us. He did it as a man, he did as our representative. He did it in a flesh and blood body as a man for men taking our place as our substitute. The Redemption is complete the redemption that he obtained for us is complete. Look at verse 13 and 14, look at the past tense, because many Christians are defeated because of the tense problem. 

They have failed to notice the tense; it is all in past tense. It says He has delivered us, delivered us, past tense, from the kingdom of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of is done. Once again, a kingdom of His love, son of His love. That’s again past tense, has translated us in whom we have redemption. All past tense. We’ve been translated and brought into the kingdom of God is not saying that we are going to get it, we got it. It’s not saying that we’re going to get it when we get to heaven. It’s not a pie in the sky kind of religion, Christianity. Christianity is immediate effect. Immediate fruitfulness as a result of redemption, immediate results can be seen in the life of people as a result of redemption. Now finally, let me say this and close. Redemption revolves around identification. In Christianity, there’s a doctrine of identity, we will see more the days to come. But let me just say this, identification. You now what identification is? We are identified with Christ, we were dead, we died with Him. The Bible says we were buried with Him, we were risen with Him, we are seated together with Him in the heavenly places, identification all the way. When He died is our death. When He rose again, it’s our resurrection. He lives at the right hand of the Father, sitting at the right hand of God’s throne. And that’s our position and place of glory right now, even while we live here on this earth. But the thing is, redemption has two sides to it. One is the legal side, and the other is vital side. The legal side is what Jesus has already done for us. That’s the legal side, because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross of Calvary, in heaven’s law books, it is written that every man is separated from the power of Satan. And he can whenever he wants, he can be free. Because of what Jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago, every man is free, you can have free anytime he wants. 

He doesn’t have to stay in bondage to Satan. It is written already, legally it’s done. It’s like Abraham Lincoln so many years ago declared that slavery is abolished. But for slaves to come to know that it’s been abolished took some time, because a lot of them didn’t know how to read, a lot of them lived in places where they couldn’t get the news. Back in those days, some of them lived for years like that, even after they’ve been set free for the news has not reached them. And the gospel is like that, the Gospel says that the legal side 2000 years ago, Jesus did it and we’ve been set free. Heaven has declared as free. Devil has no right over us, has no power over us. Blood has been shared, death has been taken from us. We are set free, we can walk out but a lot of us don’t know. That’s why they’re told to go everywhere and preach the gospel, tell the people that has been done. The gospel preaching is about how it’s already done. The vital side is where now we must have the reality of that freedom working on the inside of us. So that you break free, actually, literally today, here and now. The vital side is what you do with what has happened legally. The legal reality must be experienced vitally by you. The people of Israel were in bondage, slavery for so many hundreds of years. But you know, the one of the promises of the blessing of Abraham is that they cannot be enslaved. God told them in the blessing of Abraham, that they shall not be beneath, they shall be above only, read the English Bible says it’s above only, your place is for the top only, you will never be beneath. 

He said to them, you will not be the tail, you will be the head. Your place is you’re the head, not the tail. But you know how many hundreds of years they were the tail. They were beneath. Because somewhere along in their life, they forgot their God and the promise, forgot who they are that they are children of Abraham blessed, the most blessed in all the earth, that God has promised them all this. So they stayed in slavery. God had to prepare a man to deliver them and that man couldn’t even come from their society because if he came from that society, he’ll be a man that like a scared Crow, he cannot even go and talk to Pharaoh anything. So God had to have a child born and taken into Pharaoh’s house and raised there as the king’s grandson, so that he will have boldness and the courage to stand before Pharaoh and said, let my people go. 

Let my people go means they’re not supposed to be your slaves. They can’t be your slaves, they’re children of Abraham, let my people go, he says. That’s exactly what has happened. On the cross, what happened is an exchange. 2 Corinthians 5:21, puts it beautiful, he says, for He made Him who knew no sin, talking about Jesus. He made him that God made Jesus who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Sinless one made sin for us. How can a sinless one become sin? God took our sin put it on him made him to be sin, so that we might be made righteous, we are ones that knew no righteousness, there was no righteousness, all sin 100% sin, how can we become righteous, not because we did righteousness, because righteousness was imputed to us, given to us, gifted to us. Our sin went on him, his righteousness came on us. Now this applies to not only sin in every area, this is the story, though in the Bible, you’ll see that this works all the way through the Bible in every aspect of human life. For example, regarding sickness, Derek Prince uses this line, I like that. Derek Prince says taking this. What happened on the cross? He says he was made sin for us. He was made sin with our sin. That’s what it says. 2 Corinthians 5:21. He was made sin with our sin. And then he takes it and applies it to sickness. He says he was made sick with our sick fullness. The English is not so good, and he’s an Englishman studied at Cambridge. But he doesn’t mind using the wrong English as long as he gets a point across. 

He said he was made sick with our sick fullness, he said. That’s the way it is. That’s the way with regard to poverty in everything. We know the grace of God. Paul says how that though he was rich, yet he became poor so that we might be made rich, exactly the same thing. He was made poor with our poverty so that he may be blessed with his riches. This is all true with everything that has to do with our lives. He was made sick with our sinfulness. The sin produces diseased sin of Adam produce the disease that we have today, all over the world. A person is not sick because he is particularly sent. The person is sick because Adam has sinned. That’s the way generally it is. It breaks out in the world of flesh. He was made sick with our sick fullness for what? So that we may have his health. He was made sick with our sick fullness so that we may have his health and the fact that he took our sickness is shown. The Bible says by his wounds, we are healed. The wounds of Jesus on his back represents the fact that He bore our weaknesses and He bore our diseases. We can see with our physical eyes, the stripe that’s laid on him and know that our sicknesses were laid on him. By his stripes, we are healed. But the main point is this. The stripes are not there anymore. Only the healed wounds are there. He is not wounded anymore. He is not bleeding anymore. So don’t get hung up on how Jesus is hanging there with the wounds because some people are always crying at the foot of the cross, Oh, Jesus, look at your bleeding and your blood that is flowing and so on as if he’s bleeding. No, he is seated at the right hand of God, completely well, no pain, nothing. He is risen. He has carried and finished his work. And listen to this and our identification with him, is in that resurrection, is in that resurrection. Our identification is that he is raised from the dead, and his back and his back is no longer wounded, and bleeding but healed. Our identification is in that. You and I are raised out of those tribes of Jesus, which heals us, we identify with that healing. That is where our redemption lies. So that now even when we are sick, even when sickness comes upon us, we refuse to identify with sickness. Why should we identify with sickness, we identify with healing. Because he rose again, he took our sickness, He suffered, He died, He put it away, He rose again, we are identified with him all the way from his death to resurrection. 

And now he seated, risen, at the right hand of the Father, we are seated together with him, your identification, our identification is with his resurrection. We need to keep that redemption before our face all the time you lose sight of this truth, then you lose sight of the fact of what you really have in and through Jesus and through the redemption. The Bible says go into all the world preach the gospel, lay hands on the sick, the sick shall recover. You can cast out devil in the name of Jesus, all of this because we are the redeemed. We need to keep that before us. Our identification is with the risen Jesus, the redeemed people, we are the redeemed people. Everybody say we are redeemed. I am redeemed. You know the Psalms. The Book of Psalms says let the redeemed of the Lord say so. As you go out of this place today, keep saying I am redeemed. I am redeemed. I am redeemed, redeemed from everything that fall has gotten me into. I have redeemed everything that I lost has been redeemed. Everything that was gone has been given back to me, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of Jesus.