Joseph Prince - Faith Over Fear, Grace Over Guilt
Some fishermen were by the, you know, by the Sea of Galilee, and they’re experienced fishermen. Maybe perhaps right now you are facing a time where whatever you are doing is not working anymore in your work life or in your profession or wherever you are, in your studies. It’s, like, you know, not producing. It’s always having, it comes up empty. If you are in that place, you are like the disciples toiling all night, catching nothing. Experience. They know where to be at. They know the seasons of that year, all right?
And they know where the best fish is. I mean, it’s not a big lake actually, you think about it, compared to the Lake Geneva and all that. And yet all night they caught nothing. And Jesus came on the scene. Jesus says, «Cast your net on the right side». Does it matter if all night they catch nothing, you cast on the right side, left side? But because Jesus said it, they did it. Whatever he says to you, do it. And over here, they caught so much fish that John was the first one, the disciple whom Jesus loved, he practiced Jesus’s love for him always, and he says… It’s like, when you practice Jesus’s love for you, you are the one with the quick discernment. And he says, «It is the Lord».
And Peter jumped into the water to go to Jesus, amen? You see the priority? Jesus first, not the fishes, not the profitability in your company, amen? But was there profitability? Was there success, earthly success? There was. Jesus didn’t come by and say, «Guys, y’all didn’t catch anything»? «No». «Good, now you all learned the lesson, right»? Sometimes, you know, you go through emptiness. No, they all knew. You know, the Jewish people back then, the Bible is very clear, they know what is blessing; they know what is not blessing. When God says, «I will bless your grain, wine, and oil,» they knew that it’s blessing.
Today we preach that, they will say «prosperity gospel,» when God blesses your grain, wine, and oil. Now, I’m against, like I said, materialism and loving money. But I think the truth is somewhere in between, where people need to know that God wants to supply them, and supply them with more than enough so that they can be a blessing, amen. I don’t believe in people that talk about giving to them and then… or «Give to me, and then God will multiply things to you». I mean, these are things that turn people off. But don’t throw away the baby with the dirty bath water. Discern there’s a truth, amen.
If you don’t believe in prosperity, God prospers his people. It’s not a priority. But even in blessing days, Jesus gave them a net. And this time around, it didn’t break, but a net full of fishes. The Bible says «large fishes». And this time, the net didn’t break. The first instance, Jesus introduced himself, right, to the fishermen, the net broke because he says, «Drop down your nets». He wanted them to believe big, expect more. Jesus said, «Let down your nets». «Nets» is plural. Peter says, «I’ll let down the net». No wonder it broke. There’s more supply than your need. There is more health and healing than there is sickness. There is more forgiveness of sins and grace than there is sin in your life.
Now, preaching like that, where you put your faith in God and you boast about God and who he is brings accusation. This is a gospel of grace, where you have more faith in the grace of God than in sin. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. I’m not saying needs don’t exist. I’m not saying poverty don’t exist. I’m saying we look at God and we look at his supply and its fullness. The good news. We have to share the good news. There’s much more. The world out there is starving, crying, sighing for Jesus, and they don’t even know it, amen. And whatever it is, the transformation happens in their lives, in their families. I don’t care how bad you think your husband is. If he’s not saved, he needs the gospel. And when love is shed abroad in his heart, I’m telling you.
I know stories where a child can tell you, «I have a new father. I have a new father». I’ve heard it. «I have a new father». And the father wasn’t a believer, always raised his voice, gets drunk and all that. When he received Jesus, the child, a little child himself said, «I have a new father, a father that’s not drunk anymore». But the transformation happened inside out. I’ve heard of a wife whose husband received the gospel of Jesus Christ. God saved, the wife is saved, of course. And it was under my teaching, that the husband received that gospel. You know what the wife said? The wife said to my wife, «I have a new husband. I have a new husband». With almost tears of joy, «I have a new husband». The gospel changes people.
Now, I wanna share something that God wants you all to learn and know. There’s a phrase that the Jewish people, and it’s very exclusive among them. They even use it in the Old Testament. Now say this after me: «Hesed ve’emet». Say, «Hesed ve’emet». Anyone knows what’s «hesed»? Oh, oh, oh, oh, love this church! One more time. What is hesed? Okay, we spell it H-E-S-E-D. Hesed, what is it? Very good. You know, in Israel today, they use the New Testament, believers, Jewish believers. They use the New Testament by Delitzsch, a foremost Hebrew scholar who is a Jew himself. And they use it, but you know when we use our New Testament, it’s from the Greek, right? So in the Greek, grace is «charis,» charis.
So if your name is Charis, it means grace, amen? The gifts of the Spirit is «charismatas,» right? Charismatas, charismata, that’s where the word «charisma» comes from… a gift, a person who is gifted. So the gifts are there. Everyone has a gift from the Lord, amen? But what grace does is that grace abounds on you, amen. Look at this. Look at the fullness of this verse. «And God is able to make», actually, it’s not «able to». «Able to» is future tense. Actually, the word down there is present tense: «Right now, God is», and the word «dynamite» is from the word «dunamis,» dynamite. God is now powering up to you all grace. You know that verse, «God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work,» all right?
Now, break it down. He’s telling you in the present tense, present tense. It starts with the present tense. God is now dynamiting, powering what? How much? All… stop there. How much? All grace right now. If I don’t preach it, you don’t see it, it will come… It will pass by you. God is right now powering, dynamiting all… how much? All grace. God is able to make all grace, and «is able to» is future tense. It’s not correct. That’s why you look in your King James, it is in italics. It’s not there in the original. In the original, right now it’s happening. Even right now as I’m preaching, God is powering up ALL grace towards you. You! You, Ling Peng’s son! You! Wake up! Don’t, Peng’s son. Amen? Towards you.
Name yourself under your breath. Name yourself. Towards you. Under your mask, name yourself. God is now powering up ALL grace, ALL favor towards you that you ALWAYS: good times, bad times, rainy season, non-rainy season, whatever the world economy is… you ALWAYS…having what? Let’s see if it’s not enough. All sufficiency. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. I preached myself happy. HAVING ALL sufficiency. We stop here, we go home, we are happy. But, no, the verse is not finished yet. Is the verse up there? All right, you see the «able to»?
In fact, if you look at your King James Bible, it’s in italics, all right? You can show them the verse in italics. It doesn’t matter, all right? So it’s not «able to,» in the future. It is right now, present tense, in the Greek. «It’s powering up all grace to abound towards you, that you, always having,» what? How much, how much, how much? Having what? How much? All sufficiency. Having all sufficiency. Having all sufficiency. God gave man free choice, amen. You always having all sufficiency. That’s what I’ll preach to you because that’s the truth of God’s Word, all right? In how many things? Having all sufficiency what? In how many things? In all things!
What is «all things»? What is all things? Everything, lah! Amen? EVERYTHING! IN ALL THINGS! Nothing excluded, nothing excepted. ALL is all…things. Spirit, spiritual, earthly, temporal, eternal, all things. And look at the result. Look at the result. Sufficient in all things. «All sufficiency in all things». We can stop on this and we celebrate. This is enough to last you the whole week, you know. Monday is God is powering up. Just meditate on that. Tuesday, all grace, grace, amen? The purpose is that you may have an abundance. A lack? An impoverished state? What? Abundance! Amen?
Abundance for WHAT? For every good work. Unless you are full, you cannot overflow. I said unless you are full, you cannot overflow. You owe it to be full. You owe it to the world to be full yourself so you can overflow. Those who are poor cannot help… now I’m coming to the poor part, okay? Yes, this part is the poor part, okay? This part is not just about money. But this part, illustrations of the poor part. The poor cannot help the poor…amen?
Now, am I telling you that God will make all of us multi-millionaires and all that? No, I’m not saying that. I’m telling you what God is really doing. He’s POWERING UP all grace towards you, that you ALWAYS having all sufficiency in how many things? In ALL things you may abound to every good work. Ooh, hallelujah! No wonder he has put an anointing on this verse. He wants me to preach on it. I’m telling you: Is that real in your consciousness right now? If you walk out of here and say, «Grace is abounding towards me, grace abounding towards me…» I’m telling you: Ever since Jesus was manifested grace, the true grace, the reality of grace came forth.
Let me show you this verse. It says in John, Chapter 1, «And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace». Just let you know that this «His» here is our Lord Jesus. Of his fullness, of his fullness, out of his fullness, amen, his fullness we have received. And grace for grace. And the word «for» is «anti,» or «anti,» all right? Grace for grace, grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. Because anti can also be «in place of», in place of grace that has been used, another grace comes. When that grace has been used, another grace comes.
I was meditating on this many years ago, and God gave me this illustration of this: wave, amen? Grace. Once that grace is used, another grace comes. Grace upon grace upon grace. And you know where you are? You know where you are? Pastor Matthews, by the way, can you see Pastor Matthews down there? He looks like Elijah the prophet, amen. He’s contemplating whether to open up the sea or not, amen. He’s contemplating really hard. And I missed the illustration I was gonna tell you. Anyway, where you are when the wave was coming in, you know where you are? You are there, right under it. So one grace is used, comes on you, God doesn’t run short, amen? He’s not impoverished. Another grace comes.
That’s what it means, «of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace». There’s a grace for everything. You don’t feel it now. You say, «You know, I don’t think I wanna have kids and all that. I see some of my friends and all that. They cannot go on holidays as freely as they want to. I don’t wanna have kids». Listen, God will give you the grace. What you don’t have right now, God will give you the grace, amen? «I don’t feel like getting married». God will give you the grace. In every stage of your life, grace will come. Then, all of a sudden, after you enjoy that grace, «I wish I had kids earlier. I wish I had married,» amen. «I wish I had learned about grace earlier».
You look back, there will be grace for every level of your life, every stage of your life. Are you with me so far? Now watch this. The next verse says, «For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ». Now, I always say this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. The law was given and can give from a… you all know me. I mean, y’all must preach after me already. The law was given, and «given» can be what? I give you a message. I can give. You receive it. I give you, but it can be from a distance, amen. Grace and truth is on one side. It came through Jesus Christ, all right? Law was given by Moses. The division is not between grace and truth. It’s between the law on one side and grace and truth.
The law says, «Do, do, do». Grace says, «Done, accomplished». Find out about it, walk in it, flow in it. Even salvation is done, amen? Learn about it. Receive it. So the division is the law says, «I will remember your sins to the third and fourth generation». That means God will visit your sins upon your children’s children. That was the law. But down here, grace says, the new covenant of grace «I will not remember your sins anymore. I will no longer remember your sins». And the «no longer» there is a very strong word, double negative in the Greek. «I will not ever remember your sins anymore,» amen. Are you listening?
«Their sins, I’ll remember no more,» which means «I will not remember to visit it, to punish you for it». Wow, there’s a change. Am I right? I said there’s a change. It is true grace. The word «truth» there is not, listen, it’s not grace on one side, truth on one side. Don’t divide them. They are one. Instead of saying like in English, «Grace and truth come,» it says, «Grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ». That’s how the Greek says. It doesn’t make sense unless grace and truth are one. And then they always say, «Yes, there’s grace, but you must balance with truth. That means severe,» amen? «Just like you love your son, you’ll be nice to him, and then you’ll discipline him,» right?
Yeah, we all know that. That’s the truth, but you cannot apply that there. Grace and truth means it’s all supply, all goodness of God released through unmerited favor. It means you don’t deserve it, but you receive the supply. I’m gonna demonstrate to you, and then we’ll close. Are you ready? Are you ready? Watch this. Watch this. Now say, «Hesed ve’emet». Okay, you see, grace and truth: grace is «hesed». Truth is «emet». «Ve» means «and,» conjunction. «Hesed ve’emet,» grace and truth…okay?
Now, this is used a lot in the Old Testament. And every time it’s used, it’s always good. There’s no balancing tenderness with toughness. So what is grace and truth? It’s like bread and butter. Or you can say that, you can say, like, one piece of buttered bread, buttered bread. You like buttered bread? Yeah. But you can say bread and butter, but it’s buttered bread. It’s one. The word «truth» there is actually «aletheia». Aletheia is actually reality. Grace was there in the Old Testament, but it’s, like, hidden. It’s, like, in a shadow. The laws are all about shadows in the Old Testament. But grace, the reality, came when the person came. If you encounter the person, you know what’s gonna happen to you? You’ll experience grace, in reality. No more in shadow.
Now, one more story, and we’ll close. Okay, are you ready? Okay, this is Genesis, the servant of Abraham. So he prayed, «O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day». It’s okay to pray for success. It’s okay to pray for success. The Hebrew word here is «qarah». It’s okay to pray, which is chance happening, a fortune happening, a good happening. I’m praying for a good happening. Pray this every day! The blessing of Abraham is ours! He prayed, «Give me success»! in his area to find the right girl for Isaac. And not only success, «Show kindness ('hesed'), grace, to my master Abraham. And behold, I stand here», that’s where the daughters will come.
So, finally, he gave God a sign. He said, «God, the one», it was an extra mile, you know? «The one that comes and says, 'I’ll feed you, and I’ll give drink to you and your camels.'» You know how many camels he had? And you know how much one camel drinks? And they are there because they are thirsty, right? And she will run back and forth, run back and forth. The Bible literally says she ran back and forth, giving drink to the camels. He gave a sign, and she fulfilled the sign compared to all the other girls. But he’s still not sure. «Is this from the right family,» all right? «I can only get one who is an unbeliever».
So he asked God, and he asked the lady, «Where are you from»? She says, «I’m the daughter of Bethuel». That’s it. Abraham gave him instruction: «Don’t get anyone outside our relative, our family circle». Back then, they were married within the believer’s tribe. Now watch this. When the servant heard that God had guided his step, this is what he said. This is the first occurrence of hesed ve’emet, just let you know, and I’ll close. «He said, 'Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His'», come on, church; come on, church, «'His mercy and His truth towards my master, ('hesed ve’emet'). As for me, being on the way, I do not know who, but I was just walking my way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.'»
Now, here he knew that his path was prospering. There was success. There was grace. I’m about to step down again. There was grace, amen? So we know, we know that every time hesed ve’emet appears, it prospers your way; hesed ve’emet appears, you are successful; hesed ve’emet appears, you receive healing just like the blind man of Jericho. Jesus went into Jericho, the city of the curse. And his name was Bartimaeus, son of the unclean, literally, son of the unclean, amen.
And Jericho was destroyed by Joshua, and Joshua pronounced a curse on anyone who builds Jericho again, and his son will be killed. The curse says his son will be killed. When he build the foundation, his firstborn will die. When he build the gate, his secondborn will die. And the fact that this Bartimaeus was at the door, and his name was son of Timaeus. He has no name. He’s a blind beggar. That means something happened. His father most likely rebuilt Jericho. He’s a man under the curse, but when grace and truth came and the cry, only one cry: «Bar David Yeshua! Bar David Channeini»!
«Channeini» means what? Grace. «Show me grace». Hanan. It’s like grace, hesed; and favor, hanan. Johanan, John. Channeini, «Have mercy on me». It’s not mercy. It’s «Show grace to me». You cannot be the same. When you expose yourself to Jesus, every curse in your life is destroyed, every lack goes, every blindness goes, amen. You are healed. Then Jesus said something very beautiful: «Go your way. Your faith has healed you». You know what he did? He followed Jesus in the way. You tell me to go my way? My way from now on is your way. I pray that’s true for all of you. In Jesus’s name, amen? Give praise to the hesed ve’emet, our Lord Jesus.