Joseph Prince - What Makes No Weapon Prosper Against You?
Hallelujah. Happy Resurrection Sunday. Amen, amen. We don't call it Easter, okay? Resurrection Sunday. What is Easter? What is wester? Resurrection. It's sort of clouds, you know. I mean, I understand the term by clouds. The whole scenario of the greatest and most momentous event throughout human history is when Jesus conquered death. When he rose from the dead, as you're about to hear, not only death is conquered, all your problems that afflicts you right now, whether is sickness or disease, is all conquered. Amen.
So Resurrection Sunday I am trusting God by the power of the Holy Spirit that he's going to touch you right where you are. You might not even have shared with your loved one, your spouse some secret, maybe some private struggles that you have, or some addictions, or even symptoms in your body, but the Lord knows. He knows the numbers of hairs on your head and he loves you. Amen? If you'll just allow yourself to be touched by him, let him love you. You know, actually salvation is when you consent to be saved. You cannot do anything to save yourself. There's no amount of good works you can perform that will cause you to be saved, but you're saved when you allow the good shepherd to find you, to carry you in his loving arms, amen, but he did all the work. Give him all the praise. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
I want to... also I have a beautiful announcement. It's so encouraging for me personally as a pastor because when we look at this new generation, this younger generation, the youths of today, many people are saying, "Well, you know, they experience things that we don't experience at their age". And many people, even pastors, have sort of, like, inwardly, they don't say it, but they sort of given up on the younger generation. But I want to announce to you that the Lord spoke to me and the Lord says that many are casting their nets. I've been hearing this from the Lord. Many are casting their nets on the wrong side. Jesus told the disciples after a night of fruitlessness, "Cast your net on the right side". And I have a Hebrew New Testament. A Hebrew. Usually, it's in Greek, right? Your New Testament is in Greek, but I have a Hebrew one, where Jesus said to them, "Cast your net on the right side". It is the word yamin where you get the name Benjamin, Ben-yamin. Son, Ben-yamin, son of the right hand. And the right hand is always the place of righteousness, which is a gift from God.
So the approach we should have is not to condemn them, is not to judge them, but to preach the righteousness of God that's available for them, and they'll come in. And guess what? This past week alone, not just on Chris, Good Friday, last Friday, this past Friday, but throughout this past week we had six youth services and it was attended by more than 5,700 youths. And we have a total of first-time salvation; 100 over salvation, first. Recorded. Recorded. God is moving among the youths in Singapore, amen, and all over the world. Praise the Lord. Are you ready for the communion? Amen? Get ready the elements right now. On the night of the Passover when the children of Israel partook for the first time the Passover, I mentioned this just now. I alluded to the fact that God told them when they partake of the Passover in Exodus 12, which is the first Passover ever, they were in Egypt.
Where were they? In Egypt, a place of darkness, a place of bondage. They were in slavery. And then the Lord says, "Institute the Passover". And the Lord told them, "Gird your loins". Amen? In other words, tighten your belt. In those days, they wear long robes. Tighten your belt means get ready to do something. And then another thing, "Hold your staff". In those days they walked with their staff, their stick. What is that a picture of, "Eat with your loins girded and a staff in your hand"? That means get ready for physical deliverance. So today, that type is for us, a fulfillment of when we partake, partake with expectancy. Don't do like, you know, people will look at this as a ritual, and then they go through the ritual, and then they get ritually nothing. Amen? The Lord Jesus said, "Take heed. This is my body which is broken for you". Jesus said, "And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world". Amen.
Death doesn't mean you lied in the coffin, people come and see your body. That's not death. That is the ultimate. It's not even the ultimate. There's a second death in hell for people who don't believe. But dead is death in the sense your physical body stops, your heart stops beating, but death can be a form of constant tiredness. A certain sickness is death begun already. So when Jesus says, "The bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life, for the life of the world," amen, I believe it will offset the death that has begun in the body. Amen. Amen. "And then the cup," he says, "is the new covenant in my blood". The Bible says we are to partake worthily.
Now, tell me what is partaking worthily. The Lord said, "This cup is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for the forgiveness of sins". But when you partake, instead of being conscious your sins are forgiven through the blood, you partake with sin consciousness, that is not partaking worthily. What did the Lord say? "This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed," for what, "for the forgiveness of sins". He didn't say for the consciousness of sins or for the reminder of sins which the blood of bulls and goats in the Old Testament cannot take away, but the blood of Jesus has removed it. Amen? So let's partake worthily. And by the way, if you don't want to be stronger than you really are, don't partake because this one can also retard your aging, all right? So turn to your neighbor and say, "Not retard, but it will retard your aging". Say, "It will retard your aging". Amen? Amen.
You know the Bible promises that God can renew our youth like the eagles? Amen? In Job it says his flesh will be fresher than a child's and he will return to the days of his youth. I believe God. Amen. When Abraham was under the blessing of God, Abraham's wife was 90 years old when the king, King Abimelech, wanted her for his harem. I don't believe all these things in the Bible they're just put there for show. I believe God is saying that God can do it for you, amen. God is against death, amen. And that's why we celebrate resurrection day, because Jesus rose from the dead. Hallelujah. Now, say, "Lord Jesus, I thank you. I discern your body that bore away all my diseases at the scourging post and on that cross. By your stripe, I am healed". Now, quietly, just say, "By your stripe I'm healed of this condition". Tell the Lord, "By your stripe, I'm healed". See that disease on the Jesus body and say, "Lord, by your stripe, I am healed and made every weak whole". Say, "By your stripe, my youth is renewed like the eagles, and by your stripe with a long, healthy life you satisfy me. Thank you, Lord". Now, partake.
It sounds like birds or raining. Beautiful. Lift up the cup, say, "Lord Jesus, this cup is the new covenant in your blood shed for the forgiveness of all my sins. Thank you, Lord". Now, partake. Amen. Praise the Lord. If you to ask any believer today what is the reason that God raised Jesus from the dead, I will submit to you that more than half of them will say to conquer death. And I used to believe that. I used to say that. And it's nothing wrong. It is to conquer death as well. To show death as a vanquish foe. God hates death. It's never his dream for men. God never meant for men to die. God told Adam, "If you sin," in Hebrew, "dying you will die". But God never meant for men to die. Hey, God, never even meant for men to grow old, to age. It's not his dream. The Father's love plan is for men to be strong, healthy, young forever, with no death.
So death is foreign to God. Until the day you see that God hates sickness, because God hates sin, therefore God hates death, you won't be wanting complete freedom from it because you will think that is part and parcel of maybe some blessing from God. No, it's not a blessing. The Bible says the last enemy to be put under feet is death, yet having said that, death is just an effect of sin. It's a consequence of sin. In fact, let me say it this way. Although death is an enemy to God, God counts death as an enemy, remember this. Death is the final vindication of God. In other words, when God tells you sin is evil, sin will destroy you, people, just like you love someone very much but the person has cancer, how much do you hate the cancer is in exact proportion of how much you love the person.
Now, the cancer is in the person. You cannot remove it, all right? You don't know what to do, but you hate the cancer with the same passion that you love the loved one. Am I right? How much you hate the cancer is how much you love the person. Why does God hate sin? Because God loves you. God loves you. Amen? So death is the final vindication. When people say, "I don't believe in God. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in all this nonsense. I don't believe that. I don't", finally they die. They still have to die; final vindication of God's truth. All the argument and all the political correctness comes to an end when they die. So in a sense, death, although is enemy to God, is God's vindication. The one that argues the loudest will have to die. No one can run away. They can climb to the highest mountain, all right, build a house under the deepest ocean, use their billions and all that, they'll still die. Death vindicates God's truth. Amen?
So God sent Jesus. And if I ask a question, why did God raise Jesus from the dead? Today we celebrate resurrection. Amen? We'll say, "Well, he conquered death". Yes, but the scriptural answer, death is but the consequence of sin. In other words, it's got to do with our sin, which is the deeper problem. "But, Pastor Prince, I'm not a sinner". Then he can't be your Savior. Tonight or today, you're just a spectator. But if you say, "I'm a sinner," he says, "No problem. I'm your Savior. I came to save sinners". If you say, "I'm sick," he says, "No problem. I'm the great physician, and I'm an expert in it". But if you say, "I'm okay," then you get into, you know, that's the problem with people today. They don't really believe that in their flesh dwells no good thing. Believers don't believe that. Believers don't believe that. And we got to realize that all our human righteousness comes to nothing. Amen.
Look at this verse in Romans 4, verse 24. "But also for us, God shall impute it to us..." Talking about Abraham here in the context, it here refers to righteousness, the gift of righteousness. Abraham believed God. God can't consider him a righteous man. Here it says righteousness shall be imputed to us who believe in God who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. So God raised Jesus from the dead. In Ephesians, the words used there, ischus, kratos, dunamis. Some of the... energeia. Some of the strongest words for power, energy like energeia, dunamis, dynamite, all those words are used in the raising of Jesus from the dead. God exert, if you would, the greatest power to raise his son from the dead. And the Bible says that power is in you and I because when God raised Christ from the dead, you and I were in him. We are crucified with Christ.
As far as the mind of God is concerned, which is the perfect reality, God sees you in Christ. Your old Adam's history is finished. All that attach itself to your Adamic nature, that includes frustration, depression, death, disease, all that attach to Adam nature has all been removed at the cross. The cross. Think of the cross as something that divest you, remove things from you. Think of the resurrection as something that invests into you. The cross divest everything that belongs to your Adamic nature as a son of Adam. That includes disease. Disease is not part of God's nature, amen, and it's not part of God's plan for men when God made men, but it attach itself because men sin. So everything to do with sin and with the Adamic nature was attached to us, all right, by the cross, it's all removed. Jesus divested us of all of it.
So don't be afraid of that saying "I am crucified with Christ". It's good news. It's negative, in a sense it removes, but then the resurrection is positive, it adds. Not only are you dead in God's eyes when Christ died, but when God raised Christ from the dead and the power he used, all right, the great power he used to raise Christ from the day, he raised you from the dead. He raised you and I from the dead. And now when he raise us from the dead, we leave behind everything that attach itself to us as a child of Adam with its fallen nature, with all its cursed tendencies and sinful habits and bondages, with all the curses of sickness, weakness. It's all left behind. And the church don't even realize it yet. When Jesus rose from the dead, the Bible says you were raised with him. Can I have a good amen?
Okay, look at this verse here. God raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Let's deal with the first line: who was delivered up because of our offenses. So I call this the circle of... there are two circles. One is circle of darkness, and then a circle of light. The circle of darkness, who is in the center of the circle of darkness? Not you and I, even though the world became a dark place after Adam sinned. People say, "Well, if God is so almighty, why didn't God stop this, why didn't God stop that"? Because is a fallen world, bro. It's not a perfect world. You want to see a perfect world? Go to heaven. You'll see a perfect world. There are no hospitals there. Amen? There are no police there. But this is a fallen world we live in. Amen.
"Well, if God is all-knowing, why doesn't God stop this from happening"? Because he's all-knowing, God will not stop it from happening because if God stop it from happening, okay, then you are just a mere robot. God did not want to create robot. God wanted to create people with free will that will love him because they want to love him. But when you create someone with freewill, you have a huge risk, right? And God is willing to take the risk because God doesn't want robots. Now, if God uses his power by stealth, and you don't even know he's using his power, all right, to make you decide to obey him, to make you decide, then it's still manipulation.
So everything that you think that you are justify in thinking, trust me, okay, God loves you and God is better at all that. He has a good reason. We don't understand, and where we don't understand, we trust. But even those things I can explain, I can explain why bad things are happening, God is not behind it because we live in a fallen world. But hey, you can come into the kingdom of God where he reigns. Amen. You can come into the kingdom of God where it's bright, it's full of splendor. Now, watch this. The first circle of darkness is Christ was delivered up because of our offenses. Now, who became liable for our offenses? Christ. The reason he died on the cross, that he became the center of the circle of darkness, he became the center because he took upon himself the liability for all of us to divine judgment. So he became the center, not you and I. He became the center of that circle of darkness because God loved us, but he wasn't there for himself.
"Pastor Prince, maybe he did it for his own benefit". He has no personal benefit except he gets you, amen, in his family because he has no sins to die for. I said he has no sins to die for. When he went to the cross, he went to the cross for you and I to pay for our sins. He has no sins of his own to die for. Peter said... Peter is a man of action. Peter says he did no sin. John, a man of love, a man of the heart says, "In him is no sin," John wrote. Paul, a man of intelligence, wrote, "He knew no sin". He's perfectly sinless. So why the cross? Why is he the center of the circle of darkness at the cross? Because he made himself liable for all the divine judgment of God for you and I. And thank God he did so. Amen, amen? You and I are not in the center. He is. So the Bible says he was delivered up because of our offenses. So how many can say amen? He was delivered up because of our offenses. Because of our sins against God, our offenses against God, he was delivered up. In other words, the reason Jesus went to the cross, the reason why he was delivered up, or the Father delivered him up, is because God loves us, amen, and because we have sin. We agree on that?
Now, by the same token, we come to another light, the circle, another circle rather, the circle of light. It's a beautiful circle. And there we find him in the center, the resurrection. He was raised because of our justification. Now, there are those who teach that he was raised so that we can become righteous. That's not what the verse is saying. The verse does not say he was raised so that in the future we can become righteous, but the verse is saying when your sins was born by him at the cross and he did a clean sweep of it by burying it in his own body on the tree, he bore it in his soul and he died to the imputation and the guilt and all the consequences of sin. He died to it all. When he died, listen, you were justified in him. God declared you not guilty. God acquitted you. God pronounce you righteous. Now, the moment God pronounce you righteous, God raised Jesus from the dead because you are declared righteous. In other words, Jesus cannot rise from the dead.
Let me illustrate. For example, let's say, all right, we live in the times of the Bible, and I have sinned, and someone loves me very much. I have committed a huge crime, and someone loves me so much he takes the punishment of the crime for me. So he goes into prison on my behalf, representing me. Now, how will I know I'll be justified? When will I be justified? When he comes out. I'm making things as simple as possible, okay? Are y'all with me so far? God is moving in a mighty way. And if you get this, you'll walk in resurrection power. So how will I know that I am cleared from all guilt before the eyes of the law, how will I know I've been acquitted? When the one who is serving my sentence comes out. Because he didn't go in for himself, he went in for me. So when he comes out, I know I'm declared what? Righteous. I'm acquitted. Can I have a good amen?
So here I like the Young's Translation, all right? Young's says like this: "Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous". The moment God declares us righteous, he raises his son from the dead. Hey, listen. The implication is that if we were not declared righteous, Jesus will not have been raised from the dead. Wow. I'll say it again. The implication is that if we are not declared righteous, if there's no settle before God, Christ will not have been raised.
So today when we think of Jesus being raised from the dead, is not just to conquer death, wonderful as that is, the main truth is that is a declaration that you are acquitted because the same body, Jesus's body, that bore all our sins, all our curse, and our judgment, and our guilt now rose from the dead, cleared them all. So we should have this attitude. The Bible actually says in Romans 6 likewise, in the same way he died to your sin once and for all and rose before God, likewise, in the same manner reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin, cleared from the imputation of sin. No charge of sin can be brought against you. Have that kind of life. Have that kind of attitude. Reckon, act like it, that you are someone that cannot be charged with sin.
Someone say, "Oh, Pastor Prince, be careful about saying that". I don't have to be careful. It's Bible. The Bible says, declaring his righteousness. In fact, the Bible says we are declared righteous, and because we are declared righteous, Christ was raised. Give them 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17. 1 Corinthians 15:17, "If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins". So in other words, if Christ is not risen, guess what? Your faith is vain. You are still in your sins. But the fact that Christ is risen, hallelujah, and we celebrate this resurrection on this resurrection morning is the fact that you appear before God as righteous. Jesus was not raised from the dead because he is God's Son. That he always is, but that's not the Bible reason why God raised him from the dead. God raised him from the dead when you were declared righteous. The resurrection is the proof that he cleared us of all our sins. He cleared us not just from sins, he cleared us from the factory that manufactured sin, which is our nature. We were crucified with him. Now we rose in him in a new nature. Can I have a good amen?
And everything that attach to us in terms of the fallen nature, that includes sickness and death, also have been left behind. Amen. So God did not raise Jesus, "Because he's my boy, he's my Son," that he always is, "because he's my beloved," that he always is, but God raised his Son because you and I are declared righteous. Oh, can you get that? So the resurrection is not the payment. The resurrection, I always like to say it like this, is the divine receipt. The resurrection of Jesus is the divine receipt that all your sins are cleared at the cross. All the guilt is finished at the cross. Satan is silenced. He can no longer successfully accuse you. The law cannot successfully condemn you anymore. God is glorified. God cannot forgive sinners and at the same time appear like he's in complicity with sin. God has to forgive sins righteously. So there's no way God... you know, people say things like, "Why the cross? I mean, if God will forgive us, God forgives us".
Well, if God just forgives us based on mercy, where is his justice, where is his righteousness? If God just operate by righteousness and justice and just wipe every person in the world who has sinned, there'd be no one left. Where is his mercy? Amen. But the Bible says God is just, but God is light, God is also love. Same Epistle of John, God is love. We know God is love, but also God is light. Amen? If God is not righteous, he doesn't punish wrongdoing, the whole universe will collapse. I'm going to tell you a story right now. But are y'all clear that resurrection is the divine receipt? The resurrection of Jesus is not a payment, any more than your receipt is the payment. You don't pay with your receipt. Your receipt is proof of payment. So Jesus being raised from the dead means what? You are cleared from your sin. 1 Corinthians 10 says... now, reverse it. If Christ is risen, your faith is energized. Amen? Your faith is alive. You are no more in your sins. Hallelujah.
I don't know if you understand that we are actually... I preached on this only once, that we are caught in a battle of the ages, men. Long before men... we all think that warfare happened because men came on the scene. Actually, warfare happened long before men was created. We became the target of the enemy because God loves us, a part of it is, he's jealous because in Hebrews 2 it says, God rendered aid to the seed of Abraham, to man, but God did not render aid to fallen angels. So Lucifer, his name was Lucifer, he was one of the archangels. Now, the church likes to say that, you know, he was a worship leader, Michael was the warring archangel, there are three archangels, and then the third one is Gabriel, who is a messenger archangel, but actually they were all worship archangels. They were all, because in the beginning, long before Lucifer fell, okay, there was nothing to fight.
Okay, think. How could Michael be a warring archangel when there's no one to fight? Okay, God has everyone in heaven, all right? There's no one to send a messenger to send a message. So Gabriel was also a worship, so all three were worship archangels, right? Okay, I submit to you God works in threes. When God made, like Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but one God, God made you. Amen? Your name is John. There's only one John, but there are three parts to John. Amen? Sometimes John thinks he got seven personalities in him. No problem. Jesus know how to handle that also, okay? But God works in threes. Amen? Even time, dimension, we have past, present, future. No more. No more. You can't go beyond that. And God is outside time. That's why the cross is outside time. He can die for man who lived before he came on earth when he was on the cross and he could die for all of us in the future.
You know, today there's a debate. Are all our future sins forgiven? You bet it is. Because if our future sins are not forgiven, we are, all of us are future when Jesus died. You better hope that our future sins are forgiven. Can I have a good amen, people? Now, even archangels, there are three, all right? There's Michael, there is Gabriel, and there is Lucifer, who later on became Satan. And the Bible says it like this. And all this is got to do with righteousness. The Bible says of Lucifer in Ezekiel 28, "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz, diamond", the ladies would love this. So people say that he became greedy of wealth. He was built, wealth was built into him, all right? "The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes..."
So first, I can't explain this, but he was created with musical instruments built in him. He was very beautiful, the Bible says. And then it says... drop down. He was created... By the way, God says, "You were created". So don't forget the devil is a created being. God is not. "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you". Now, watch this. "You were the anointed cherub who covers".
That reminds me of the ark of the covenant. Do you remember the Bible says when you build the ark of the covenant, like, show them a picture of the ark. All right, the ark of the covenant is that box, not the guy, and that one is not a cherub, okay? Nothing cherubic about him. We think about cherub as, you know, a cute, little baby. It's not. Cherub is the highest form of angels. Amen? They rule the angels. All three of them are archangels. Kerubim in Hebrew. Notice that God says the ark of the covenant is to be build with two cherub. Notice two cherub? So that they are guardians of God's holiness. They are guardians of God's righteousness. Do you remember when Adam sinned God drove Adam and Eve out? That's the first time that motorcar was mentioned in the Bible. God drove them out of the garden. Okay, it's a bad joke. I know.
Anyway, look at the Genesis 3. God drove out the man. He placed cherubim... what did God place at the gate? Cherubim. So the cherubim had a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to tree of life. So they represent, they are custodians of God's holiness. They are guardians of God's righteousness. Can you understand that? You're about to meet the one who is behind all your bodily symptoms, behind all your broken heart. When you don't have enough, you're about to meet that one. Don't blame God. I'm just showing you you're caught in the battle of the ages, okay? So here we have the ark. Show them picture of the ark, again, of the covenant. So two angels once a year. And now you have the Ten Commandments inside this box. They represent men's rejection of God's law, okay? But once a year on Yom Kippur, blood is put on the mercy seat. And the custodians of God's holiness, their eyes, the cherubims' eyes represent God's eyes, when they look at the blood, they cannot see the broken law. They cannot see men's rebellion.
So they allow men to come in to the Holy of Holies because blood is on the mercy seat. There's one thing God's eyes cannot penetrate. God can look through walls, buildings, anything, even your heart, but there's one thing God's eyes cannot look through, the blood of his Son. And that's why the blood is a covering over our sin, but in our case, it's been removed, eternally and efficaciously removed. That's how powerful the blood of Jesus is. Hallelujah? So there are two cherubim there. And this is what Mary Magdalene saw on the resurrection morning. The Bible says she ran there with the two disciples, James and John. James and John were there first. Obviously, they were men, and she was a lady. She ran behind, but by the time she came down there, they looked in, and they left. So she was left there alone crying, but she look into the tomb. And that's where we are right now. We are in the tomb. This is really neat, isn't it?
Look at this tomb. We are inside the tomb. You know that, right? The cross is not inside the tomb. We are looking out, okay? So we are in the tomb. And what did Mary Magdalene see in the tomb? The Bible says, "She saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain". She saw the real mercy seat. Atonement has been made. The law, all right, was in the box of the ark of the covenant, but the blood, mercy, grace rejoice over judgment righteously. Amen? So back to the devil in Ezekiel 28, all right? "You were the anointed cherub," he was a cherub, "who covers". And look at his activity. "You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways until iniquity was found in you". So, his function was that of a guardian of God's righteousness.
Now, what gave him that audacity to want to usurp God's throne? What made him think that he can get God's throne? You think that, I mean, it's just a futile exercise. Anyway, we all know that, you know, but perhaps he knows something about God's throne. Maybe after the Triune God, if God should ever fail, if God should ever fail and the foundation of his throne is compromised, the devil has this idea he will take over. So the devil said in Isaiah that he will ascend to the heaven, he will be like God, he will take God's throne. Now, he was created like the other two archangels to be what? Guardians of God's holiness, God's righteousness, so much so when God asked him, in Job chapter 1, God says, "Satan..." The Bible says the angels came to present themself to God, and Satan came. And God said, "Satan, where do you come from"? He says, "From walking to and fro in the earth". And God says, "Have you considered my servant Job"?
In other words, even though he was fallen, in some perverted way he still believes he's a guardian of God's righteousness. So let me tell you this. Y'all, I'll be short. In a perverted way, I said. If I tell you, "Show me the work of the devil". Well, you'll probably, you know, go to the seditious side of town wherever you are living, all right, the seditious side of town where there are gangs and there are drug traffickers and there are ladies of the night on the streets, and all that, and you'll point to that and you'll say, "That's the work of the devil. That's the work of Satan". Well, no doubt the powers of darkness are involved, but actually those are the work of the lower minions. I'm not referring to the yellow minions. And his under rank.
If you want to see the devil's work, Satan's work, many are times it's found even in churches, institutions where God's law is upheld instead of the cross of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says, no wonder Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light and his preachers are preachers of righteousness, but righteousness according to works, whose end shall be according to their works. So he will say, "It's very important y'all know the Ten Commandments and do your very best to keep the Ten Commandments". God's law is holy. No doubt. I say amen. God's law is righteous. I say amen. But because it is perfect, because it is holy, and we are not, we cannot. That's why we need a Savior. But he will say you can do it, you can keep it, and he know the strength of sin is the law, okay? He will put, so that is the subtlety of the work of the devil.
People think that, you know, the seedy part of town and all that, that's the work of the devil. And no doubt it is, but it's of the lower principality. I believe the highest one gets by without even people knowing it, religious spirits that promote legalism, self-righteousness. You know, the Pharisees looked down on the Mary Magdalenes, they looked down on the prostitutes, they looked down on the social outcasts when actually they're trophies of Satan himself because those people did not cry out for Jesus's crucifixion. The tree that God says, "Don't eat from," it's not just called the tree of evil and evil, it's tree of good and evil. The good part will kill you as fast as the evil part. Some people manifest more of the evil, but the good gets by without no one seeing it. When you listen to a preacher, ask yourself, "Is he preaching the cross, is he preaching the blood of Jesus, or is he preaching the law"? Are you with me so far?
So Satan, let me show you God's throne real quick. Psalms 68... or 89. Excuse me. Almost the same. "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne". Righteousness and justice is the foundation of God's throne. God's throne is established on righteousness. Say, "Amen". "Mercy and truth go before Your face". This mercy and truth by the way is hesed ve emet. And don't forget in Hebrew, the law was given by Moses, but hesed ve emet, grace and truth, came by Jesus Christ, literally, all right? So this is grace and truth. So God loves. What goes before God's face? Mercy and truth, grace and truth, true grace, true grace, but his throne is established upon righteousness.
Now, the devil was created with Michael and Gabriel to be what? Cherub. Cherubim means what? Guardians of God's righteousness. And now the devil says, "Aha, God has created a new creation called man, Adam. And I see that God loves him so much". Just like I see some of you, you have a newborn baby. All right, after for a while I visit you again, I see the way you dote on your little boy. Y'all can see me doing that with Justin, right? You love that boy. So he's starting with yourself. "If I want to get God, I will get him through his love for that boy. I will cost God..." Now, this is his evil thinking, all right? "But, Pastor Prince, how you know"? Not because great minds think alike, because I read the Bible. I read the Bible, okay? He thinks to himself. And you can find this in Isaiah. He thinks to himself, "I will take the throne of God". But what is God's throne? God's throne is not mercy and truth. It's righteousness and justice. But God loves mercy and truth. Amen?
Who are to guard leadership can understand that. Our judges can understand that. Amen. You have to keep righteousness. You have to keep, maintain justice, but your heart must always love mercy and truth, amen? Sometimes we have to do justice but our hearts must love mercy. Listen carefully. The devil says: "Well, if he loves man, I will try to get God to compromise his righteousness. I will cause the one that he loves to fail him and then I'm gonna see how can he forgive him. Righteously". Is the coup de grâce, the master achievement of an evil mind. He-he-he-he-he. We are caught. Man is just caught in the battle of the ages. So just like the story of King Darius. When King Darius, the king of the Middle... king of Persia, he had people that he got from... rather, it's people from Jerusalem and Judah that were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. There's the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, prophesied by Daniel. But after Babylon was the Middle Persian. Now we come to that period, the king of Persia, Darius, his name.
Now, the captives that were taken by Babylonians were still there. One of them is Daniel. Daniel is a captive, but the Bible says he rose through the ranks. Even through the time of Nebuchadnezzar, all the way to Darius, he rose through the ranks to become one of the top three, again three, governors of the entire kingdom of Persia, one of the top three. The other two were jealous and all the satraps and the princes throughout the entire domain of King Darius was jealous that Daniel, being a captive, not even one of them, was promoted and how? So they were jealous of him. So they plan to find some fault in Daniel. But the Bible says Daniel had an excellent spirit. They could not find any fault in Daniel, except he prays three times a day, openly, on his balcony. So they said, "Okay, let's get something there".
Now, there is a law of middle Persian that says once the king uses his ring to punch the clay tablet and establish a law, once it's signed, that decree cannot be changed, even by the king himself. So they all got together, okay, and the Bible says: "Show them all the..." So they came to the king, they came to the king like this, "All the governors of the kingdom," now, they lied because it's not all the governors. They didn't approach Daniel. The whole thing is designed against Daniel, and yet, because they know the king loves Daniel. By the way, did I establish the king loves Daniel? The king loves Daniel. So they came to him as if Daniel is part of this petition. "O king". "All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors, advisors, have consulted together to make a decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions".
The subtlety of it. They flatter the king. They say that for the next 30 days no one can pray to nobody, no god, no man, "except you, O king. All of us have decided". You know, when people come to you and say, "People are saying about you," usually it's just them, their wife, their mother-in-law, and their dog. "Everybody is saying this about you," usually it's not everybody, okay? So when he said, "All the governors," obviously, this whole thing's designed against Daniel, right? And what's the devil, what is the enemy after? They're after the fact that they want to take advantage of the love of the king for Daniel, to make the king compromise his law. I think some of you are getting this already, right? Are you listening, people? I'm talking about the battle of the ages. And God put his stories there to illustrate to us.
Now, is this a good law? No, it's an evil law. Is the king a good man? No, he's a heathen king. The one being accused, is he a good man? Yes, he's a godly man, Daniel. And yet, you know what the king did? Drop down. "'Now, O king,'" remember, they said that anyone who prays to any other god or man would be thrown to the den of lions. "'Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.' Therefore King David signed the written", King Darius, excuse me. Did I say "David"? "Darius signed the written decree". Drop down. "And the king, when he heard these words," I'm going ahead of myself. They actually... This was another time, after he signed the thing, they actually caught Daniel praying. Daniel knew about it, but Daniel still prayed. He would not compromise when it comes to God. Daniel prayed. And as a king, we found Daniel. He petitioned during these 30 days.
"And when the king heard it, he was greatly displeased with," Daniel? Was it with Daniel? "With himself". He knew it was a trap, and he knew that once the law is signed, the decree is in place, even the king cannot change the law of the Medo-Persian. He knew. He fell for the trap. "And he set his heart on Daniel," he loved Daniel, "to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him". Wow, he loved Daniel. Here we see when love is powerless against the law. So the devil, seeing God, now God is not King Darius, right? God is a King, amen, King of the earth, King of the universe, but God, is it like King Darius? No, God is holy. King Darius is not. God's law, is it evil? No, it's perfect law, good law. But the people that God wants to save, are they evil? Are they sinful through and through? Yes. So God used this little picture to show us even the contrasts illustrate his grace and mercy. Are you with me, amen?
And you all know the story. Daniel didn't die, by the way, all right? I'm waiting for another sermon where I'll preach on how to spend an overnight stay in the lions' den, okay? To cut a long story short, Daniel came out and all the lions became little cats, you know, that played with him, spent the night with him, but the moment you think they are small cats, let me tell you this. The moment the king says, "Okay, Daniel has paid his..." Daniel was not delivered, listen, Daniel was not delivered because the king says, "No, he will not go in. I love him". No, he went in. He paid the price. But once he has been in the judgment, he cannot be put back in. It's called the law of double jeopardy. Even the king knows that, and the king says, "Bring all those who tricked me. Throw them in". The Bible says the baddies that came, all right, before they even reached the bottom, the lions killed them. The hungry lions cracked their bones. Are you listening, people?
All right, so these are no little pussy cats, okay? So here we see a beautiful picture and then we come to the New Testament. We see the Lord Jesus. You all know the story. I love this story. And how they brought to Jesus, when he was teaching in the temple, amen, they brought a woman caught in adultery, in the very act. I wonder what they're doing. They are, you know, hiding themself behind the curtain, or what are they doing, you know? And they're probably volunteering one of them, you know, to do it so that... and the whole purpose, if you wanna stone that girl, they don't have to bring her to Jesus. There's plenty of stones and plenty of willing hands. The fact they brought her to Jesus, it wasn't that they were zealous of God's law being upheld. They were, it's a pretension to the law.
The problem with people coming against grace, it's a pretension to the law. Because if you really believe the law, the law will cause you to despair. You'll say, "I need a Savior". Jesus says, "You think committing adultery is just jumping into a bed physically with a woman? I tell you, if you undress her mentally, you are guilty of adultery. Then you will scream, 'I need Jesus,'" all right? Nonetheless, they brought this woman caught in adultery before Jesus and in most rude fashion they threw her right in front of Jesus while he was teaching in the temple precincts. And they said, "Master, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. Now, Moses says that such should be stoned. What do you say"? Any resemblance is purely coincidental. And Bible says Jesus didn't answer them. Jesus just stooped down, with his finger he wrote on the ground.
Look at this picture here. He wrote... now, the reason why I show you he's writing on stone. I want you to see this. It's because one of the advantage of going to Israel is that you learn things like this. God's Spirit can show you. One day, a number of years ago, many years ago actually, I was in Israel, in the area of the precincts of the temple. The temple is no longer there. They threw down even the the huge stones of the temple, but the marketplace is still there. The precincts, the idea of the stone, is all there, okay, at the bottom. And then I realized that nowhere is it grassy, nowhere is it like a garden. It's all stones. So the place that Jesus taught was the precincts of the temple. It must have been when he wrote on the ground, he didn't write on earth ground, he wrote on stone. So they are saying, "Moses said that such should be stoned," and he's telling them by his action: "You presume to tell me what Moses said. I am the one who gave the law". Hallelujah.
When God came down, the first time, God wrote on stone. And when he stooped down, he was demonstrating he is the God that stooped down at Mount Sinai to give the law, that he knew man cannot keep. And then he rose up and he said, "He that is without sin throw the first stone". Look, people, he did not say, "Stone here". The people would start saying, "Well, you talk about love, grace, where is the love and grace now"? Neither did he say, "Don't stone her. The Pharisees will say you are breaking Moses's law". But what did he say? "He that is without sin throw the first stone". Actually, there's only one without sin: him. They would throw the stone if they could, but they could not. He could, but he would not. And then the Bible says, second time: "He stooped down".
Now, how many times did God give the Ten Commandments? Twice. The first time, you know who broke it? Moses broke all ten. He took the commandments. Before he reached the bottom, he broke them. And God says, "Mo, come back up," all right? And when God gave him the second set, where did God put a second set? Where did God tell Moses to put the second set, where? In the ark of the covenant where the blood is over it. And God cannot see through the blood. God sees the blood that redeem us from all our sins, amen? So, Jesus also stooped, second time. When Jesus stoops down, he always raises us up. You know, the read the Bible carefully, the woman was standing. She was standing when Jesus stooped down. When he stoops down, it's only to raise you up. When he breaks your heart, he always does it with kindness. It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
Now, did he break the law? No, he didn't. Now, what law was this? Just now, Darius's story, it was an evil law, right? But this story, here, is God's law, it's holy law. It is righteous law. And who is the one talking about the law? Jesus, the Pharisees. But who is the one that the law was targeted towards by the Pharisees? Was she godly like Daniel? No, she was guilty. Mind you, adultery. She committed adultery. She was guilty. Daniel wasn't, and it was an evil law. This is God's law, and she is guilty. And then Jesus says: "He that is without sin throw the first stone. Yes, you can throw, but only the one without sin throw the first stone". The Bible says: "One by one, they slink away. One by one, they left, beginning from the eldest". It never gets better. As you grow older, you see more sins. So the oldest being the guiltiest, the youngest are a bit more "Duh? That is sin, ma'"?
So, the Bible said: "Beginning from the oldest, they left, one by one". Everyone left until Jesus and the woman was left. Then Jesus looked at her and she was weeping. I love it. The Savior and the sinner alone. And he says: "Woman, where are those, thine accusers"? And she looked around. Probably she was crying all the time. She looked for the first time and she says, "No man, Lord". She called him Lord, and he says, "Neither do I condemn you". Did you hear that? "Neither do I condemn you". Do you know why he say that? Because he'd be paying for her sins not too long after that. There's a price for her forgiveness. I told you God cannot just appear like he's forgiving sinners with complicity with the sinner's sin. So that must be paid. Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more". So the church want to tell you, "Go, and sin no more first. And then we won't condemn you". But Jesus says there's no condemnation. If you receive this, it will empower you to go and sin no more.
Now we see the law is powerless against love. Just now we saw that love was powerless against the law. Now we see the law is powerless against love. Oh, God's wisdom. God's wisdom. Now, what has this got to do with our righteous... I'll close with this. What has this got to do with our righteousness? Well, friend, listen. There's this verse in the Bible. Proverbs 17, verse 15: "He who justifies..." Let's all read this together, as we bring this to a close. "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord". The word "just" there is righteous. So the Bible says: "You know what's an abomination? It's worse than sin".
When God uses the word "abomination..." it is a intense word. It is like I was told the image, the picture there, the Hebrew picture there, is that of smelling a dead rat that's been dead for a number of days, and you are stuck in that small room with a rat, all right? The way you feel towards that rat as you smell, all right, the deathly corpse, the carcass of that rat, you smell that, that's an abomination. Just like the Bible says Christ's sacrifice was a sweet-smelling aroma. We, all of us, are unto God a sweet aroma of Christ, amen? When God smells like Jacob, you know, he smells... Isaac smells, rather, and he blesses Jacob, amen. God smells the sacrifice that went up to God. God smells it, and God blesses it. God blesses us, amen? So, abomination. What's an abomination? "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both alike are an abomination to the Lord".
When God gave me this verse some time back, I was stunned and I said that I understand those who justify the wicked. Now, put this as your own self. Can you justify yourself? Yes. What аbout: You are God's righteousness, right? Jesus rose from the dead when you are declared righteous. Are you righteous now, in God's eyes? Okay, New Creation Church, if this church has a weak "Yes," God help every other church, all right? I'll try it one more time. Give you another chance, another chance, okay? Are you now righteous before God? Now, you are just, right? You have been justified, right? You have been justified. Am I right? Amen? And when you receive this gift of righteousness, Romans 5:17, "You reign in life," right? So it's a gift, right?
Show them Romans 5:17, all right, "By one man's offense death reigned. Much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift", it's a gift. It's not a reward that you do because of your long prayers, your good works, and all that. It's a gift. Say "Gift". Say "Gift of righteousness," two times. Say the word "Gift," two times. Gift. So it's a gift because it's all done by Jesus, am I right? So he rose from the dead, you receive the gift of righteousness. God treats you as righteous, amen, and you receive abundance of grace. Now you will reign in life. So the devil will not want people to find out about abundance of grace. "Oh, Joseph Prince teach too much on grace". We need an abundance, bro. We need an abundance. And being the devil, he will try his best to try to remove abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness because it will stop people short of reigning in life. Reigning over their habits, okay?
Now, back to the Proverbs 17 again. The Bible says what? We understand justifying the wicked, like the Pharisees. Are they wicked? Yes, but they justify themselves. Abomination, abomination alert, abomination alert. Whenever you are self-righteous, example, "Pastor Prince, I don't need to be saved, I'm quite okay, and I do this kind of thing, I do charity work, I do this..." Well, you know what the Bible calls that? There's a law in the Old Testament about leprosy. If you have leprosy on your hand or on your forehead or on your limbs, the Bible says you're unclean. The priest will have to shut you away from the rest of the assembly of Israel. But there's a very unique law also in the Old Testament. It says: "But if you are covered with leprosy from top to bottom, completely covered with leprosy, the priest will pronounce you clean".
The priest pronounce you clean when you're covered all over with leprosy. What does that mean? If you say, "You know, sometimes I do the wrong things, yes, but I'm not that bad. I still have a lot of good parts". Okay, this is a bad illustration. I know you all like food. If I tell you all, "This is your favorite food," then you say, "Whoa, man, I'm hungry. I really wanna eat this food". "Okay, ah, one moment, just to let you know, I thought you just need to know that we put a little bit of my favorite cat's feces, just a little bit, and it's like, it enhances your manhood. Just a bit of feces from my cat. My cat is okay, you can, it's just a bit, and don't worry about it, all right? All of it is your favorite". Would you take it? No, neither will God. You understand? Paul says, "In my flesh dwells no good thing". So when you say, "I'm a sinner through and through," then God says, "No problem, I'm your Savior". Are you listening, people? All right?
So when we don't believe that, it's very hard for us to declare, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". It's very hard because we believe, deep down, we still believe that we are our own righteousness. And now watch this. The Pharisees represents the first part, justifying the wicked. They are sinful and yet they act like they are justified. They are sinners but they act like they're not. And all those who are like them, God says are an abomination, okay? That's hypocrisy, right? Hypocrisy is pretending to be what you are not. The world out there calls us hypocrites. Let's see who is the real hypo, all right? Watch this. He who condemns the righteous. Now, when Jesus rose from the dead, you are made righteous, right? That's why Jesus was raised from the dead. Am I right? Okay, now are you righteous? Are you justified? "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God," am I right?
What if you condemn yourself? What if you condemn yourself? Do you fit in the bill of condemning the righteous? If you condemn another brother, is that fitting of this verse? It's an abomination. And by the way, maybe you don't condemn another brother, but you condemn yourself. What is that? Abomination to God. So, when you were a sinner, you cannot say you are righteous. That's hypocrisy. But now you are righteous, you cannot say you're a sinner. That's hypocrisy. So, we believers, I'm sorry, our actions are not perfect but we are righteous. Tilt, tilt. "How can you say that"? Can you tell me how come Jesus became sin? He committed no sin. He received our sin at the cross. Same way we commit no righteousness, we receive his righteousness. And at the cross, God treated him, right, with judgment, with his righteous indignation, amen. God poured his wrath on him. Likewise, now that we receive righteousness, God pours his favor on me.
Let me ask you a question. The devil now, can he complain? The devil saw God's love for you and I, right? And he thought to himself, "Ah, God is righteous, mm-hm. Man is sinful, ah-hah. God loves man". No, God is righteous. He cannot compromise. He must punish sin. "Man is sinful. God loves man. I think the throne is about to be mine". You get what I'm saying? That's the battle of the ages. If God ever compromised his righteousness, his throne will crumble. His throne will be handed over to somebody else, which Lucifer believe he's the next one. By the wisdom of our God, the cross changed everything. The cross changed everything, all right? God is now righteous in making you and I righteous. We've no complicity of sin. God didn't compromise. In fact, when Jesus says, "He that's without sin, throw the first stone," he didn't compromise. He didn't break the law. Yet he saved the woman. The wisdom of our God, hallelujah. The Bible says he's righteous in making us righteous.
So, when the angel of death passed through Egypt at night and the people were trembling behind the door, all right, the Israelites were praying and confessing their sins and they were eating the roasted lamb and the blood is on their doorposts, amen, on the lintel and on the doorposts, making a cross, and the angel of death passes by, God didn't say, "When I see your good works, when I see your good family name, when I see all the wonderful things you have done", no, no, no! God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you. I will not allow the angel of death to come in," amen? So, the angel of death saw blood. That means what? There has been a judgment, all right, pass by this house. You understand? And a lot of crying that night because the Egyptians did not have blood on the doorpost.
Now, we have two families, two Israeli families, one is praying, confessing, crying, begging, all huddled together, and trembling. Another room, another family singing, "Hallelujah, praise be to God. God is a God of his word. He says, 'When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Children, don't worry," amen? The blood is the foundation for our forgiveness and our protection. But his Word gives us the assurance, amen. So you can rest on God's Word, amen? Now, which house is safe? Both. Both house is safe, but one suffered needlessly throughout that entire night. One had depression. Probably the next day they need to be on Xanax or whatever, I do not know, all right? They need to find, you know, but they were, I mean, they are so depressed, they don't have love, joy, peace, but over here, they're rejoicing. But their rejoicing did not change the fact they're forgiven.
They're not more forgiven because they rejoice. Neither is this family less forgiven because they didn't rejoice. I do not know how to appropriate the benefit of the blood. Doesn't really matter. It's not for you to appropriate. It's for God to see. Your faith is to know that God sees the blood. When God sees the blood, you know that God sees the blood, that judgment passes over you. My part is to know that God sees the blood. As long as I know God is satisfied, I can rest. My faith is not to assess the blood. It's for God to assess the blood, the value of the blood, amen? It's not for me to assess the blood. My part is to know that when God sees the blood, there's no judgment for me. When God sees the blood, I am forgiven. God sees the blood, he pronounce me righteous. I know that. Do I understand completely? No, but I know that. It's for God to understand. It's for God to see, amen? Are you with me so far?
Now, in a Christian life, this will affect everything in your life. Many of us are condemning ourself. We wonder why our prayers don't work. We condemn ourselves when actually we are actually, in a way, committing abomination. There are Christians who confess their sins but they confess the ones that are overt and clear, but they don't confess that they're condemning themself. It's an abomination when you condemn yourself. God told Peter, "What I have cleansed", referring to the Gentiles, "What I've cleansed, don't call common. Don't call unclean". God doesn't like it, okay? This will affect your relationship with your children. You must be established that you are God's righteousness, amen?
Isaiah 54, we close, look at this: "All your children shall be taught by the Lord". Doesn't say you must teach your children about the Lord, but that the Lord himself will teach them. "All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the shalom," the word "shalom" is not just peace of mind, but also "health". Great will be your children's health, great will be their peace, great will be their wellbeing, because they are taught directly by the Lord, why? Because in righteousness the father is established in. The mother is established in righteousness. Our being established in righteousness affects our children. When we are legalistic, they are insecure. When we are restful in what we've got, great shalom comes on them. Don't try to just focus on your kids. Focus on your walk with the Lord and ask yourself, "Are you established in this truth of righteousness? Are you the righteousness of God in Christ"? And every day, look for that. And the Bible says that "you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror".
We live in a world of terror, all right? But the Bible says: "When you are established in righteousness you'll be far from oppression, for you will not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you". God did not say there's no terror, but it will not come near you. The more you say, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ," before you board a plane, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". And that's the greatest humility before God. But people that say, "I'm not righteous, you know, I'm just this, I'm just that," and all that, that's not gonna help you. That's false humility, pseudo humility, amen? When you say, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ," Jesus is glorified. The Bible says he will see the travail of his soul and he'll be satisfied, amen. And drop down, all the way. It says: "No weapon formed against you..."
Weapons will be formed. There'll be new weapons formed by the enemy against you, but "'no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,' Says the Lord". So it helps you in your business, even getting sued, whatever it is, God didn't say you wouldn't get, but God says, "No weapon formed against you will prosper". Every bad letter written against you will not prosper. Every tongue that rises against you in judgment will not prosper, why? Because we are good? Because you are good? Because you're righteous? No, "Your righteousness is from Me". And that's what you establish in, and the more you establish in that, the more you will find the realities of these truths being fulfilled in your life.
One last verse, we'll close. Jesus says this in Matthew 6. Matthew 6, verse 31: "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'" We call this, in Christianity, they call this the lower needs, compared to your higher needs, your spiritual needs, you know, wisdom, favor with God, and all that. But let's look at these lower needs. Does God care whether you are provided for? Does righteousness cover that? Let's see. All right? "'What shall we drink?' 'What shall we wear?'" And Jesus says the body's more important than clothing, which refers to health. So it's all covered here.
"For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness... seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you". "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you". Notice, "seek first" what? "The kingdom of God". And what is the kingdom of God? Romans 14:17 says the kingdom of God is not food and drink. It's righteousness. So, it's actually saying: "Seek first the kingdom of God," underline, "His righteousness," and all these things, the lower needs, the lower wants, will be added to you. That's like clothes added to you. Food added to you, as if you need more. All that you need physically will be added to you. Added.
Okay, watch this amazing wisdom of God and we'll close. Have you been blessed? Jesus says the primary thing is his righteousness, not your righteousness. You must be established in his righteousness. Jesus rose from the dead. That means I'm righteous, amen? Because God sees me in him. God never looked at Jesus without seeing me in him. I repeat: God never sees Jesus without seeing me in him. And God never sees Jesus without seeing you in him. You understand? God doesn't see you outside of Jesus, never. So, you are righteous in him. How righteous are you? As righteous as Jesus. He is the measure of my righteousness. And to say otherwise is an abomination. It's pride, okay? Are you with me so far?
Now, watch this. This an amazing wisdom from God. Tell me you can find this wisdom of God anywhere else, okay? Except here in Jesus's words. Jesus says if you put the primary thing, the primary good, in the primary place, then the secondary good will be added to you without even your seeking it. But, listen, if you put the secondary thing in the primary place, you will forfeit all the primary good and there's no promise you'll get the secondary benefit. So, the idea of people pursuing physical things all the time, when Jesus says, "You don't put physical things, your priority in life is physical, physical, material, material," and Jesus is saying, "You're gonna lose both. You're gonna lose the primary thing," his righteousness, "and you're gonna," in our case, we lose the consciousness of it.
"And you're gonna lose the secondary benefit". But Jesus says, "If you put the primary thing first," his righteousness, "every day just know this. If you declare you're righteous, you believe it, you listen to messages on it", Joseph Prince messages are quite good on it, listen to it, amen? Not the only one but quite good. Okay, listen, listen, listen. The more you listen to it, you see this is your priority, this is your primary main focus, then not only you get the benefit of righteousness, you get the physical lower needs added to you. But you put this lower need in the primary place, you lose both. What wisdom. It helps your focus to be very simple, you know?
Every day in life, I just, I don't have to pursue health. I pursue the fact, "Am I righteousness conscious today"? I seek intensely to be established in that righteousness consciousness. And guess what? Clothing is added, food is added. Doesn't mean there's no challenges. Doesn't mean there's no weapons. But any weapon formed won't prosper. And it doesn't mean tongues won't rise. Tongues will rise, amen? But it will not succeed against you because of what Jesus did, people. Satan cannot successfully accuse, and the law cannot successfully condemn. You are the righteousness of God in Christ, and all because of resurrection. Give him praise, hallelujah! Boy, I'm glad I came to church, amen? Hallelujah.
Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place and everywhere that's watching this right now. Thank you, Father God, hallelujah. Thank you, Father, thank you, Lord, and all those watching at home, friend, the Lord loves you very much. You are the apple of his eye, and you and I, we were caught in the battle of the ages. And although man is fallen, God has not forgotten man. God loves man. God love, and the way Jesus says that little intense word in English, "so," "But God so loved man," "For God so loved you, he sent his Son to die for your sins".
To think that the Son of God, the thrice holy, the righteous, the blameless Son of God would take our place, take upon himself all the liabilities, all the judgment, and all the consequence of our sins in his own body, that we might be righteous. Where is Jesus today? At the Father's right hand. The same Jesus on the cross who bore our sins, who was under the curse, who became a curse, where is he today? At the Father's right hand. What does that mean? Your sins are cleared. Your sins are cleared. Have you received this? Have you received this? If not, I'd like to lead you in this prayer to receive the Lord Jesus. Just say this from your heart. Those watching at home, say this from your heart. Say:
Heavenly Father, I believe Christ died for my sins. He was delivered for all my offenses. He died, bearing all my sins, curse, judgment, and guilt. And all the wrath of God consumed my sins on that cross. He rose again, completely cleared from all my sins, from all the consequences of my sin. He rose completely free from every curse. So am I. I've been raised in him, cleared from every charge of sin, from every imputation of sin. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I'm saved, completely saved. The blood of Jesus is eternally effectual. I'm kept righteous by the blood of Jesus. I can never be imputed or charged with sin, ever again. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ, in Jesus's name (and all the people said) amen, amen, amen.
Praise God, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Stand to your feet, church. Are you glad the devil is defeated? Are you glad that God's wisdom is amazing? And he has wisdom for every area of your need, amen? I mean, a touch of his wisdom made Solomon the wealthiest man, I was gonna say "in his day," but actually, in history. No one can beat the wealth of Solomon. Just one drop of his wisdom. Just imagine, the Bible says Christ has given unto us wisdom. I wanna pray that for you right now. I just feel like praying that for you, and all those at home, amen, I have illustrated the wisdom of God, even in the battle of the ages, but friend, perhaps for you, you're thinking to yourself, "Well, I'm at a loss. I do not know what to do". Just talk to Jesus. Tell him your troubles. Tell him what is weighing on your heart. Tell him. Tell him about your worries and your cares. He loves you. He's there, right with you, right in that house by you, amen.
You know what Jesus says, people? "I'm with you always, even to the end of the world"? You know what I found out about that? I just found out about it. I read it the other day and I look it up. He didn't say, "I'm with you always, always". The Greek there is, "I'm with you in your every days," plural. I'm with you in your every single day. It's the word "hamira," past means in your every... hamira is a day. It's not, "I'm with you always". I'm with... that is always true, of course. He's with us all the days, but "I'm with you in your every day". So talk to him. Tell him, "Lord, I'm worried about this symptom in my body. Lord, I'm worried about my son. Lord, I'm concerned about this". Just tell him. Just tell him that. And see what happens. See how all of a sudden a supernatural infusion of strength, of wisdom, comes in, amen? Lift your hands, and everyone that's watching this at home, lift your hands to the Lord.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I release right now the abundance of grace upon everyone that's watching this, Lord, right now, and upon everyone that's under the sound of my voice. I pray in Jesus's name that there be an infusion of your wisdom, wisdom that is heavenly, Lord, that this world's wisdom cannot compete with. That wisdom, Father, for their situation. Father, I pray, Lord, that it'll cause grace and truth to prevail. I pray, Father in heaven, that the people that are watching, Lord, their establishing themselves in righteousness will continue to be stronger and stronger and they'll be more and more established, and they'll see their children having great shalom. No weapon formed against them will prosper. They will live a life victorious over fear, free from oppression, and even terror will not come near them. They'll be at the right place at the right time, in Jesus's name. Thank you, Father, and all the people said...
Shout, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". Say it. God bless you. We'll see you again. Happy Resurrection.