Joseph Prince - Not Ashamed Of The Gospel
Praise the name of our Lord Jesus. I want to welcome every single one of you. Let me just start off by saying that if you are here tonight for the first time and you're wondering what all this shouting is all about, we are all excited about one, one person. He's altogether lovely. Every which way you turn him, he's perfection. When he's strong, he's not hurtful. When he's kind, he's not soft. When he's enthusiastic, he's not fanatic. He's altogether lovely. He's a man's man. He's God, fully God, and yet fully man. And today, at the Father's right hand is one of our own, a glorified man. Within his breast beats a heart full of compassion for you.
You know, the Lord doesn't look at you the way others do? He doesn't even look at you the way you look at yourself. I read in my Bible in more than one place in the Bible where it says, when Jesus saw the multitudes and they were fainting, they were scattered, he saw them, not the way most preachers sometimes - you know, we can be very hard as preachers. We see people scattering, going astray and we say, "They are just rebellious. They have no heart for God". But the way the Lord Jesus looked at them, he had compassion on them when they were scattered on the mountains by the Lake of Galilee. I've been to that area. It can hold multitudes and when he saw that the multitude fainting and scattering, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He saw them as sheep, not as rebellious, but as sheep without a shepherd. You know, he is the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep.
Sometimes people say, "Pastor Prince, you need to preach more on repentance". I remember some years ago, I was seeking the Lord and I said, "Lord, teach me on repentance". And the Lord says, "The first area of repentance that Paul taught," and this is found in Acts 20, "is repentance towards God". What does that mean? Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance is the word "metanoia" which means change of mind and the first area you need to change your mind is towards God that God is not against you, God is for you. God is not looking out to condemn you, he's out to find an excuse, a way to bless you. Even for us who are his children, he gives us the grace to serve in the capacity we are serving in and then when we use the grace that he first gave us, he blesses and rewards us for using the grace that he first gave us.
What a deal. And you don't have to use the word "repent" all the time for people to repent. If we are preaching the truth, repentance is going on all the time. Minds are changing from smallness to a God who answers exceeding, abundantly above all we can ask or think. If the message is right in the pews, the believing will be right. When the believing is right, people will live right. Just preaching right living does not necessarily produce right living. Right believing produces right living. The Apostle Paul says, "The righteous shall live by faith," or by right believing. Right living is the fruit. A destructive sinful lifestyle is not called the fruit, it's called works of the flesh. Notice works, very interesting, works of the flesh, not fruit, why? Fruit of the Spirit, fruit is the result of life, works is the result of effort.
Yesterday Pastor Brian preached an excellent message. You know, I've been around the message of faith and confession of faith, but I've never heard it preached that good and that complete. He covered everything, plus push-ups. And one of the things about faith is that we can get very legalistic, and I was so glad that Pastor Brian mentioned toward the end that we don't use faith to condemn each other. Oh, you have a bad confession or you don't have enough faith, faith is to help and to lift, amen.
Look up here on the screen, Romans 1 verse 17, verse 16 and 17. Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ". You know, for the longest time as a young believer, I used to wonder why was Paul so bold to say, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ"? What is it about the gospel of Christ that Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God, definite article, it's the power of God unto salvation, soteria. That word "salvation" means all-encompassing salvation. It includes health, healing, well-being, rescue from danger, preservation, not only safe from hell, safe in the here and now. That's the word "salvation". When God sent his Son, God named his Son salvation, in Hebrew that's the name Jesus, Yeshua or in Greek, soteria, the noun for the word "sozo".
When Jesus healed that person or that woman that touched him with the issue of blood, he turned around and says", Your faith," in the Greek, "Your faith has healed you, sozo you," the word "salvation". So, your healing is in salvation. And what is the power God that releases salvation in your life? It is the gospel of Christ. And what is the gospel of Christ? Many of us, we believe we are preaching the gospel, but we gotta make sure we are preaching the primitive gospel, the 1st century gospel that Paul preached. Paul preached it so radically that people actually accused him of things that they don't accuse us anymore. They accused Paul of preaching, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound"? There must have been a reason why Paul was accused like that.
So, what was the gospel that Paul preached so strongly that he was falsely accused? And he says, "I'm not ashamed". There was a reason why in the natural Paul might feel ashamed because it was not the traditional message of doing good, you get good, do bad, you get bad. But it's a message where you can receive good you don't deserve because another received all the bad that you deserved. He says, "I'm not ashamed of this gospel," why? Let's check out this gospel. Next verse, verse 17 says, "For in this gospel for therein or in this gospel, the righteousness of God is unveiled, it is revealed".
It's not the sinfulness of man. Instinctively we all know we fall short. We don't need constant reminders, but the revelation of the gospel is not the sinfulness of man but the gift of righteousness. You can receive righteousness you didn't earn, you didn't work for. It's a gift. I said, righteousness is a gift. Your right standing with God is a gift and if you learn to receive that gift - and what Pastor Brian taught us yesterday, confession of faith, the spirit of faith is I believe and therefore I speak. It's not enough just to believe it in your head. You must say, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus," especially when you find yourself in the midst of your sin.
Now, normally I don't promote my website but just to let you know that every single week, no exaggeration, on my website, you will have testimonies coming from of people all over the world, especially in America, who are delivered, set free, especially from pornography, from drug addictions, smoking. It's not just freedom from guilt and condemnation, it is freedom from destructive habits, especially pornography. I don't know why that is so, but you'll find it.
Let me read to you a testimony of this man who wrote into our ministry. He says, "I grew up as a pastor's kid". By the way, he's from Illinois USA. "I grew up as a pastor's kid, and I was baptized as eight years old but from the age of 15 right up to 28, I was involved in heavy drinking, experimenting with different kinds of drugs, and taking anti-depressants to cope with my life. I got married at 25, after three years my wife finally told me she couldn't handle my lifestyle choices anymore and was taking our brand-new baby girl to live with her mother because I was destroying my own life and the lives around me. It was then that I cried out to God for help. Right at that moment, I happened to turn on the television and heard this man of God, Joseph Prince, telling me that God loves me. I also heard that no matter what I've done, God has forgiven me and will never stop loving me," that is if you're a believer.
How many know that God always sees you righteous, even if, it will blow your mind, even in the midst of your sin? Because if you can sin away your righteousness, then what Adam did is greater than what Jesus did. Listen to me first. If you believe right, what did I say? If you believe right, you will live right. We need to believe right. We cannot sin away our righteousness, that produces a rest in regards to your performance that will cause the fruit of the Spirit to manifest. Watch what happened.
So he said, "I began to watch Joseph Prince 'Destined To Reign' broadcast twice a day for two years," twice a day for two years. I don't even watch myself twice a day. "For two years. In that time, I stopped drinking, and experimenting with drugs, and stopped taking a anti-depressants all at once without any side effects. In 2011 after five years of meditating, studying, and focusing only on the message of the finished work of Jesus at the cross, I started a grace-based ministry. I began to introduce the gospel of grace into nursing homes, other churches, as well as had our own service on Saturdays".
How many know that grace is the gospel? Grace is not an ingredient in your food, grace is the meal. Grace is not a teaching, grace is the gospel. Grace is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you touch grace, you touch holiness, true holiness. You know, you cannot be under grace and not be holy anymore than you can be under water and not be wet. For sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law, but under grace, amen? "My wife..." Before that, "We are also in the process of uniting churches in the area to come together at a different church building each month to pray together under the finished work of Jesus". Let me just say a word to all those of you who have been turned on the by the gospel of grace or rediscovery of the gospel of grace, do not condemn churches or other ministries that may not have that revelation you have, that's not what grace people do. Grace people are gracious.
And this guy, the result of understanding grace, "We're in the process of uniting churches in the area to come together under the finished work of Jesus. My wife," who left him, "My wife saw the change in my life and chose not to leave me. We have just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in July and we now have two beautiful girls, age seven and five. Learning about the gospel of grace through Joseph Prince Ministries has transformed a depressed drunk and drug addict into a healthy pastor who takes the message of grace everywhere. Praise be to the name of Jesus". Amen, church? Hallelujah.
Look up here. Romans 5:19 the Bible says, "For as by one man's disobedience," who is that one man who disobeyed? Adam, that's why in heaven there's a place for Adam, it's heavily guarded 'cause everybody wants to find him. Because of him, sickness came in, disease came in, you know, aging came in, death came in. How many know that God hates death? How many know that God considers death an enemy? God hates death, God hates disease as much as God hates sin because all this was not part of his dream for mankind when he made man. Do you know why God hates sin? Because he loves you.
Just imagine you have someone that you love who has cancer, you love the person passionately, you really love the person, but the person has cancer and the cancer is destroying that person slowly. Now, how much do you hate that cancer? To the degree that you love the person, you hate that cancer. How much do you hate the cancer? To the degree you love the person. How much does God hate sin? To the degree he loves you but that cancer is in the loved one. Do you understand that?
So, how to reconcile, save the loved one? Jesus, when he cast a demon out of that boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus knew how to judge the devil and save the sinner. He knew how to separate the two. The only way there's hope for you and I is that Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross and he was condemned in our place so that God today, the thrice holy God, can accept sinful man on a righteous foundation and that righteous foundation is the cross of Jesus Christ. The Bible doesn't say God is merciful in making you righteous. God's mercy sent his Son, but the Bible doesn't say God is merciful in making you righteous, it says God is righteous in making you righteous.
The moment you believe in Jesus, God, let me say this reverently, God almost has like no choice but to pronounce you righteous. God designed it to be so and you cannot lose that gift, people. I said, you cannot lose that gift. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. You know, we sin because we are sinners. We are not sinners because we sin. I know that's deep for tonight but try to follow me. We are sinners because of Adam's sin, according to this verse, right? So, by the same token, how are you and I made righteous? By one man's obedience. I said, by one man's obedience we are made righteous. It's not your obedience, it's not my obedience, and that's why there's a new kind of obedience in the gospels called obedience of faith, obedience of faith, obeying the truth. Obedience of faith is nothing more than right believing, amen? One more time, why are you righteous because of what you have done, because of what you have performed? No, one man's obedience made you righteous, right?
Now, before we go to the next verse, let me ask you this, whose disobedience made you a sinner? Adam. Whose obedience made you righteous? Jesus. Now, if I in one day we have this teaching, when I sin, I am unrighteous and depending on your background and denomination, there are certain things you do to get re-righteous. And then before the day is over, something happen again and you are now unrighteous and then you gotta get re-righteous. Something is wrong with that teaching because when I was a sinner, do you remember when you were a sinner? Come on, do you still remember when you were a sinner? Were you a sinner all the way or there was some good things that you did when you were a sinner? Were there some good things that you did when you were a sinner? Man, you're a bad sinner. You know, there are sinner sinners and there are wicked sinners, you are a wicked sinner. If you've never done anything... no, you know, we have all done something good, even when we were sinners.
Did the good thing we do change our status as a sinner? I repeat, did the righteous thing that you do or good thing that you do change your status as a sinner? What do we preach, pastors and leaders, what do we tell our people? What do we tell the sinners and people who are lost? What do we tell them? Your actions, your performance, your good deeds cannot change the fact you're a sinner. You need Jesus. Am I right? Wait, wait, hang on. Don't take my time by clapping. Listen, you want to clap, I'll give you a reason to clap because when I look at this runway, it's a waste not to use it.
Now, I tell you, that's what you use it for, not for push-ups. I love my wife, been married to the same woman all these years, still in love with her. She's watching now live. Love you, Wendy. I know what some of you are thinking, "Oh, he's probably married a few times, he's preaching grace". No, no, no, you're looking at a guy who has never, never, never, I know never say never but I can say never by the grace of God. I have never slept bodily with any other woman but my wife, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't say that to condemn anyone. I'm just telling you just in case you're wondering. "He's probably got a lot of baggage". That's not the reason I'm preaching grace, it's for the grace of God I am what I am.
Now, how come when we were sinners, our good deeds, our righteous acts that we performed cannot change our status as a sinner, but now that we are righteous by Jesus's obedience, the wrong thing we do, the unrighteous act we perform can change us again within the day as a sinner or unrighteous? We are dishonoring the work of Jesus. We are believing wrong and as a result we have wrong results, wrong effects in our life. Are you listening, people? "So, what are you saying, Pastor Prince"? I'm saying in the midst of your addiction, pastors and leaders, hold your horses, people are still gonna sin, people are still gonna do it behind your back. You can say whatever you want, stop the wrong and do the right. If we can stop the wrong and do the right, Jesus need not come. I said, Jesus need not come. Israel had the law.
No, we have no power to stop the wrong anymore than we do the right, but when you confess, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ," and most of these people that I talk about that write in every week, and I'm not exaggerating, every week we have testimonies of people being delivered from pornography and all that. What I teach is this, that in the midst of your drinking, pastors, listen, they will still do it, some of them because how much you preach. While you're drinking, confess, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ". As you fill your glass, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". As you are smoking, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ". I tell you this, as you are watching pornography confess, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ". The devil will come screaming at you, "You're a hypocrite. How can you say that"? But say it. The Spirit of faith is I believe and therefore I speak and every single one of them, this is the key to their deliverance. Many of them, they are addicted to drugs, but while they are...
Let me read to you one testimony of a lady that wrote to us recently, or excuse me, it's a man. I can't tell, the name is Billy, it can go both ways, from Minnesota United States. "Praise the Lord, I have been freed of a drug addiction that I have struggled with for most of my adult life. For the last two years, I have been listening to Pastor Prince preach via television and podcasts. Because of what I've learned through his messages, I would say out loud, 'I am the righteousness of God in Christ' during the very moments of my drug abuse. It seemed a ridiculous thing to say while in the process of sinning". See, they know it. "Yet, it had an enormous impact on my behavior. As I repeatedly confessed, 'I am the righteousness of God in Christ,' the desire to use the drug became less and less until it finally left completely". In the midst of your sin confess, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". Everything about your flesh and the devil will say, "You are a hypocrite. This is not who you are". The devil wants you to define yourself by your actions and your behavior. God defines you by Jesus.