Joseph Prince - Faith to Receive God's Blessings

So let’s dive right into the Word of God, praise the name of Jesus. We know that God is going to do something great in your life, something powerful, amen? The world is getting darker and darker but the church of Jesus Christ is shining brighter and brighter, amen? Romans chapter 4 verse 13, «For the promise that Abraham would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith».

Now the promise, this is God’s promise, God’s promise to Abraham that he will be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. So, let’s establish first and foremost, Abraham we all know, but who is Abraham’s seed? That’s you and I, we are Abraham’s seed. The Bible says in Galatians if you are Christ’s then are you Abraham’s seed and you are heirs according to the promise. So from now on, when you see the word «seed,» Abraham’s seed, think of yourself, amen? Because the Bible says you are Abraham’s seed, so this promise that he’ll be the heir of the world, God promised Abraham that he’ll be the heir of the world, it was not a promise through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Now before that, let’s establish again, okay, first and foremost, what is this promise? The promise is that he will be the heir of the world. As believers, we are not to look at the blessings of Daniel or the blessings of David or the blessings of Isaiah; we are told to look to Abraham, the blessing of Abraham, the promise to Abraham. Abraham is a picture of a man. In fact, God called Abraham my friend.

What a beautiful expression, huh? He’s the only one in the Bible that God calls my friend, and you know that he’s the first person the Bible says that’s recorded, we know that Noah as well, but Abraham in a fuller way, the Bible says that Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness at a time when Abraham didn’t even know the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments was not yet given until 400 over years after Abraham on Mount Sinai. And the Bible says sin will have no power when you are under grace and not under the law, isn’t that amazing? And yet we know that the law is… now we are conscious of the law, but during Abraham’s time, he wasn’t conscious of the Ten Commandments.

In fact, Abraham, if you are strict about it, you study his life, we all know that he lied twice, amen, and God still blessed him. Now, I’m not advocating that you lie. If you lie, there’s a consequence. God didn’t bless Abraham because of the lie, God blessed Abraham because he was righteous by faith, amen. He was under God’s grace, do you understand? That’s why we cannot look at David. David was punished. Even though his punishment was tempered with a lot of mercy and grace, David is a picture of a man under law. David lived after the Ten Commandments, post-Ten Commandments.

You cannot look at other people under the law and say that they were punished, how can we expect any different? No, we have to look at Abraham. Abraham was never punished because God treated Abraham as righteous. Abraham wasn’t righteous because of what he did, he was righteous by faith. Are you listening, people? The Bible says Abraham believed God and God imputed righteousness to him. God treated him and declared him righteous. Can I have a good amen? We have the blessing of Abraham, and the promise that God gave Abraham, according to Romans chapter 4 is the promise that he will be the heir of the world.

Now, this promise is not just to him but also to his seed. Smile at your neighbor and say, «I’m Abraham’s seed,» amen? So, let’s look at the phrase, «Heir of the world». Look at the phrase, «Heir of the world». Wow, that’s a mouthful. In the Greek, heir of the cosmos, amen? And Thayer, a Greek scholar, says it involves even earthly goods, amen. It involves everything that’s earthly.

Now, this is the greater blessing, heir of the world. Of course, the greater always encompasses the lesser. How can you be the heir of the world if you’re always broke? You don’t have enough money, you’re always cutting corners, right? How can you be the heir of the world? How can you impact people? Amen, I’m not saying we pursue riches, no, when you pursue God, money will pursue you. Don’t worry, supply will be there, amen? I said amen? Heir of the world is a larger blessing. How can you be the heir of the world if you’re always flat on your back, if you’re always sick, needing people to take care of you all the time? How can you be the heir of the world, right?

So in other words, the heir of the world includes all these blessings in order for you to be the heir of the world. How can you be the heir of the world if you are emotionally unstable, always depressed? How can you be the heir of the world? So, heir of the world includes what? Peace of mind. It includes emotions that are well balanced and controlled, amen, am I right? So, the greater always includes the lesser. Can I have a good amen? And this promise that you’ll be the heir of the world was not just to Abraham but also to his seed, okay?

So, the next thing we want to find out is how does it come and why is it that many people don’t seem to have it? Even though we have put our trust in Christ, we don’t seem to see the manifestation of the blessings… of course, many others have seen that. What is the difference? It tells you very clearly here this promise to Abraham and to his seed is not via the law, it’s not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. It is through the righteousness of faith, and yet you hear time and time again the teaching if you want to be close to God, if you want God to bless you, you want God to bless your family, then you got to do this, you got to be obedient, you got to consecrate yourself more, you gotta obey God more. It all basically comes back to through the law. It’s the opposite.

The promise is not through the law, it is through the righteousness of faith, amen. Righteousness of faith is a gift, amen. Just like Abraham did not become righteous because of his conduct, his performance. Now, is this important, performance and conduct? Yes, but performance and conduct is like the branches of the tree, it is not the root. The root is what produces the leaves and the fruit, amen? The root is not the fruit. The fruit is not the root. Grace is the root and holiness, abundant life, and all the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit. Grace is the root. Holiness is the fruit. But instead, we are focused on holiness, the fruit, amen, and we try to make the apple tree produce orange.

How many know apple tree produces apple fruits? Martha, we came all the way to hear him preach that? No, friends, apples will always produce apples, oranges produce oranges, and if you are righteous by faith, you will produce righteous acts, you will produce righteous results, amen. Right believing will always produce right living, amen. The fruit of the Spirit versus the works of the flesh. Notice it’s not fruit of the flesh. If you believe you are righteous by faith, the more you believe that, you will produce the fruit. The byproduct is love, joy, peace, self-control. Even self-control is a fruit.

I learned a long time ago when I was a youth pastor that if I want self-control for my young people, I don’t preach self-control. If I preach self-control, it’s like putting wood on fire. The more I preach self-control, the more they try to control themselves, the more they use their own efforts, the more they will see the opposite. If I want self-control, I must preach grace, and the fruit of preaching grace, the fruit is self-control. If I want joy, peace, no point telling someone who has no joy and peace don’t be depressed, don’t be depressed, don’t be depressed. The more they try not to be depressed, the more they are depressed.

Like, you know, don’t think, don’t picture a pink elephant. Don’t picture a pink elephant, all right? Or about lunchtime, don’t picture chicken rice, juicy, oily, seeping through. Chicken, juicy chicken, all right, don’t think of it. So, the more you try not to, the worse it is, and this is the result of our preaching. We preach something so much, don’t, don’t, don’t, it produces the opposite. That’s the nature of the law. God gave the law, nothing wrong with the law, the law is holy, but it cannot make you holy. The law is designed to bring out your sin, and that’s what the Bible says.

The sting of death is sin, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 56. The sting of death is sin, but the strength, the strength, do not miss, the strength of sin is the law, wow. The strength of sin is the law. The more you try to keep the law the worse it is, amen? Okay, you got a colleague that is, you know, always rubbing you the wrong way or talking to you in a way that provokes you, you don’t like him at all. So, you wake up this morning and say, «I am determined I’ll be patient with him. I’ll do my best. I’ll bite my tongue and do my best not to say anything back, all right? I’ll do my best,» guess what? It’s your worst day with him, right? The more you try, the worse it is.

«So, what are you saying, Pastor Prince, let go»? Hey, in fact, I wrote a book called «Live the Let-Go Life,» amen? When you let go, Jesus takes over. When you hold on, he lets go, you choose, amen? So, we are back to this again, that our holiness, the overcoming life, the life of victory, the abundant life, cannot come by our efforts, by our trying to keep the law, albeit we have good intention, it only comes by righteousness through faith. So, the reason we don’t see believers even walking as heirs of the world with the blessing of Abraham on them is because they are trying to get it by the law instead of the way God ordained it through the righteousness by faith. But the more you declare you are righteous by faith, you’re going to see the blessings of God come on your life and abound. Are you listening?

What we need to focus on is really to focus on the fact that we are righteous by faith. Can I have a good amen? Amen, we’re righteous by faith. By the way, you know why it’s by faith? When God pronounces you righteous, it doesn’t there’s no more manifestation of sin, you won’t see, like, bad thoughts go through your mind never again, no, no, no, the reason why it’s by faith is because you are conscious of the presence of sin in your members, in your body, in your flesh. You’re sin conscious, but in spite of that, you believe what God says. God has made you righteous. You confess I am righteous by faith, amen?

That’s why it’s by faith. In spite of all the evidence that tells you you still have the kind of wrong thinking, you still have the negative emotions and all that, you say I am righteous by faith. The more you believe that, the more you will see the blessings of the righteous fall on you, the blessings of Abraham fall on you, all these things added unto you. You become the heir of the world, which includes even health, provision, emotional well-being, poise and confidence in the Lord. So, friend, just be open to the Lord. The more you rest the more you’re open to his love, the more good things happen to you, the more blessings flow into your life, amen? It’s all based on, like, what I’m sharing.

You know, the church as a whole, we still don’t understand the fact that we are under grace. Grace is all about supply, law is all about demand, amen? The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law demands righteousness from man, and man could not, it’s a perfect righteousness, but under grace God supplies that perfect righteousness through Christ to be received as a gift. Can I have a good amen? The Bible says that we are made righteous freely. Look up here, Romans 3, it says, «Being justified». By the way, this is quite amusing for me, because many of us know the verse before this, we do not know this verse. The church as a whole knows the verse before this. You know what’s the verse before this?

Let me show you, «For all have sinned and fall short the glory of God». This was our memory verse. When I was in school last time, I memorized this verse, «For all have sinned and come short the glory of God,» all right? But no one taught me the verse after, «Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus». Now, this word «freely,» I highlighted that to show you something. It is a great word, dorean, and dorean means, listen, dorean means freely without a cost. You know, Jesus said in the upper room on the night that he was betrayed, he talked about the nation of Israel and the way they treated him. He says that they hated me without a cause. That phrase, «without a cause,» is actually dorean, without a cause.

So, being justified freely means what? We are all justified in God’s eyes, made righteous, without a cause in us. The cause is not in you. There is no reason, all right, that is in you that God justifies you, all the cause is in him. So, right now we still see, well, you know, maybe God declares me righteous because I prayed extra today or maybe I treated someone good today. We are still trying to find a cause in ourselves, but the cause is not in you. Dorean means without any cause, C-A-U-S-E, not C-O-S-T, without any reason. The reason is not in you. There’s no reason in you for God to declare you righteous, all the reason is in him. By one man’s disobedience, Adam’s disobedience, many were made sinners. By the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ, we are all made righteous, amen.

Now, let me ask you this question. You all know the first Adam, right? The first man, Adam. By the way, his wife is the first wife, right? Like, Eve asked Adam one time, «Do you love me»? Adam says, «Who else»? If she’s like some wives, you know, I know when Adam is sleeping, she’ll probably creep slowly and then count the number of his ribs to make sure that not another one is missing. Well, the first man, Adam, that Adam sinned against God, and as a result all were made sinners. By the same token, the last Adam, the second man, all right, the last Adam, Jesus Christ came the Bible says. The federal head brought sin and death into the world, another federal head was raised by God, Jesus Christ.

God sent his Son to become a man, to die as a federal head, and then that obedience at the cross, by one man’s obedience we are all made righteous, amen, amen, but the church still has this thinking, I’m righteous until my next sin. Let me ask you a question, okay? This is where it really gets tough for some people because their religious emotions will rise up and they’ll fight it. When you sin, now I’m not, listen, I’m not against holiness, I am for holiness. I’m not against the law, I am for the law for the reason God gave the law, and God never gave the law to justify men by, God gave the law to show man’s sin like a mirror. You cannot blame the mirror if the mirror shows ugly. The mirror is faithful and true, amen? Why y’all laugh at me? Very bad, huh? Anyway, when it comes to Adam’s disobedience, Adam disobeyed, we are all made sinners. Nothing we do can change the fact that we are sinners.

Now, let me ask you this question and don’t answer religiously. If by Jesus’s obedience now, by one man’s obedience we are made righteous, can we undo it? Can we sin and become unrighteous again? Think carefully, by the same token, when you were a sinner, you all remember when you were a sinner, those days when you were a sinner? Did you do something that was right, all right, help the poor or something like that? I’m sure you did something right. Oh, you’re so terrible, you know? Do you all remember doing something right when you were a sinner, right? You did something right, right? But did doing right change the fact that you’re still a sinner? You’re still a sinner.

Nothing you do can undo what the first Adam did, that’s how powerful it is, right? By the same token, the last Adam, Jesus Christ, has come. By one man’s obedience, his obedience, we are made righteous. Can we undo it? If you say we can undo it, then I submit to you you are saying that what the first Adam did is more powerful than what Jesus did. Friend, no way. By Jesus’s obedience we are all made righteous permanently. Can I have a good amen? Believing that, believing right will produce right living, not to worry. Can I have a good amen?

Now we are ready to go back to Romans 4, amen? Romans 4 says the promise that God gave to Abraham, that Abraham will be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed, all of us, through the law. It’s not through the law, but it’s through the righteousness of faith, and how is the church trying to get it? They are trying to get it by the law, by keeping the law, but the Bible says it’s not through the law, it’s not via the law, it is through, via, the knowledge that you are righteous by faith, through the righteousness by faith. Can I have a good amen? Amen, that means the more I declare I’m the righteousness of God in Christ, the more I see the blessings of God abound in my life, amen?

I used to use my faith last time to believe God for this provision, to believe God for healing, to believe God for this, for that, for this, for that. It seems my faith was dissipated in so many directions until one day the Lord showed me, «Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,» his righteousness which is a gift, «And all these things will be added unto you». In other words, I should use my faith only for one area, to believe that what God declared about me as being righteous is so, and every day I declare I am righteous by faith. I declare I am the righteousness of God in Christ. The more I declare it, the more I see the blessings of God in my life. Can I have a good amen?

For those of you taking down notes, this will be worth your while to jot down. In the New Testament I used to think that when I studied on faith, I learned about faith, faith is all about receiving healing, receiving blessing, receiving this, but now, this is a great note to write down, okay? That faith in the New Testament 20 times is mentioned is directly related to righteousness. Twenty times in the New Testament, faith is directly related to righteousness, to believe that you are righteous by faith.

Only four times is faith in the New Testament directly related to salvation, yet we preach a lot on salvation. We talk more on salvation than righteousness in the church, but faith is only directly linked to salvation four times in the New Testament, but faith is directly connected to righteousness 20 times in the New Testament. What does that tell you? It tells you where to use your faith. Every day there will be reasons for you to wake up feeling unclean, feeling you’re not in right standing with God, feeling that God is far away, feeling that you don’t deserve God’s answers, you know, to your prayer, feeling like you have missed it, feeling like you don’t deserve the blessings. That’s the time you must declare by faith I am the righteousness of God in Christ. Can I have a good amen, people?

And it’s more important that you establish… don’t worry about your children, your family. In fact, the Bible says that when you are… you know, many a times we try to change our wives or we try to change our children and we bring a lot of anxiety into the process. We try to change our wives, we try to change our loved ones, and understandably so because we don’t want them to suffer the consequences that we suffered. We want our children to have a better deal in life, amen, to have a greater break in life than we did, you know?

We want them to avoid all the pitfalls so we focus on them, we advise them, but many a time the approach becomes very law based. And our wives as well, we want her to be a woman of God, amen, a woman of God submits to the husband, amen? And all the women say nothing, all right, ha, ha. Like the wife says, my husband is the head but I’m the neck, I turn him around, amen? Praise the Lord. So, you focus on your wife, you place the demands on your wife, remember, demand is law-centered, amen. Law is always what? Demand, grace is what? Supply, does that mean that God doesn’t require for us to do anything? No, of course not, we are to love one another.

For example, how do you love that colleague that always, you know, you find you better be patient with him, let alone come near him. Well, the only way you can do it is like this, I’m the righteousness of God in Christ, amen? Declare it by faith, and then tell the Lord whether I try or I don’t try, right, it is not me anyway, it is you. Live the let-go life. When you’re with him, relax. True holiness is not by your effort, and you’ll find you’ll be more holy by accident than you can on purpose, amen? You’ll live the overcoming life by accident. By accident means byproduct than to be focused on it, and all the people said?