Creflo Dollar - Man's Acceptance of Grace
It's one thing that Jesus has come and grace and truth has come, but here's the one thing we gotta get. Man must accept it. He's got to accept Jesus, him being full of grace and truth. And I wanna read out of, let's start at John chapter 1, verse 10 through 13. John chapter 1, verse 10 through 13. And let's call this "Man's Acceptance of Grace". Man's Acceptance of Grace. So that's the teaching for tonight. And in verse 10, he says, "He was in the world," Jesus was. We we know him as the light. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him," Jesus the light, okay. "And the world," watch this, "They knew him not".
So here's the deal. God was in the world and they didn't know he was in the world. God was in the world through Jesus Christ, the light was in the world and the world didn't know it. They didn't know him. They knew him not. Verse 11. He says, "He came unto his own". Now here it is making reference to Jewish people. So Jewish people are referred to as his own, his tribe. He came unto his own and watch this, "And his own received him not". He came to 'em, world didn't know him, he came to his own people, they didn't receive him. And then next verse, "But as many as received him". So the issue is not knowing him and not receiving him, all right. It's one thing for us to know about him, to have all the scriptures about him and everything. Have you received him?
And here's what he says, as many as received him, he gives them power to become the sons of God. You by receiving Jesus, have an opportunity to become a specie that no spiritual creation or physical creation has ever encountered before. Sons of God. So the Son of God, the Son of God became the son of man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God. And here he says, "Even to them that believe on his name". So those who receive God and those who believe on his name, something outstanding happens, they become this amazing brand new class sons of God. Ain't nobody ever seen that before. Angels men of men, but sons of God.
All right, now watch this. I wanna look at three scriptures real quick because everything that God did, he did it for every man but not every man received what he did. Let's look at this real quick. Let's look at the book of, let's see, chapter 1 here since we're there verse 9, John chapter 1 and verse 9, just back up there. He says, "That was the true Light, which lighteth," watch this, "Every man that cometh into the world". The true life was ready for every man that cometh into the world. So he did that for every man.
Look at Hebrews 2 and 9, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9, I want you to notice he's doing it for every man. He says, "But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor: that he by the grace of God should taste death for," watch this, "Every man". Look at what he's doing for every man. And then Titus chapter 2 verse 11. Titus chapter 2 verse 11. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to," who? "All men". So notice what God did. He did it for every man. Every man that's come on the earth, God has made it available to every man. But this doesn't mean that every member of the human race became a partaker of grace. You know, he made himself available to everyone, but not everyone received him. He made himself available to every man but not every man accepted him.
So there's a different reaction on the part of man to God's offer of grace in the person of Jesus Christ. The world knew him not knows him not. And those that he called his own received him not, but there are some who do receive him and some who didn't receive him. And that's the foundation of where we're gonna deal with it. And I've never dealt with just that little issue, but I think this little issue, I'm gonna show you how it blows up to a big issue. And I told you that in this series, we're dealing with every little crack and corner of the book of Saint John. And tonight we're looking at who's accepting him and who hadn't accepted him.
What happens when you accept him and what happens when you don't. What does it really mean to accept him and to receive him. All of those things, it just can't become something that we sit around pontificating about. We've got to look at what we're saying and then ask ourselves the question, what does that look like in my everyday life? Okay, so once again, let's go to verse 10 in chapter 1, he says, he was... John chapter 1, he said, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him," and he says, "And the world knew him not". Because the world does not know him. Because the world does not know Jesus. Listen to me carefully. This is huge because the world does not know Jesus, grace cannot rule in it in their life unto eternal life. Tonight, we're gonna find out, we gotta find out what eternal life is. For this is life eternal.
Look at verse 17, in John chapter 17 verse 3, I always settled, I was always settled with the explanation that eternal life was just living forever. It is so much more than that. And you're gonna see it right here in the scripture. He says, "And this is life eternal". Look what he says. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent". So watch what he says. He says, those that know him, those that have accepted him, those who know him know the true God. He says, they have eternal life. So all of a sudden eternal life is not a tying issue, it's a person issue. They that know him have eternal life.
I want you to know the day you got born again, that was the day you started eternal life. You have eternal life when you come to know Jesus and you need to keep that as you go throughout scripture and go throughout your study. I know Jesus, I've received Jesus. I have eternal life. Don't just settle with the fact that I got born again so I can live forever. No, your eternity is in Jesus. Jesus is eternity. Praise God. He was at the beginning, in the middle, on the earth, and he's still here. No, Jesus, no eternal life for this is eternal life that you've come to know and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the world, you know, they don't recognize him, but it's amazing about all the things they do recognize, but they've not yet come to the point of recognizing who Jesus is.
The world does not know him. They don't know the Jesus that is full of grace and truth. And when you don't know the Jesus that's full of grace and truth, check it out, it cannot, you cannot, you will not know grace as long as you find sufficiency and merit in mankind. As long as you see that your answer and your sufficiency is in what you know and in mankind, you won't know grace. As long as the things that you go through in life that you have been trained and equipped to believe, I got this, I know this, I got an education, I've experienced this, I know how to do that and all that may be true. But you are limiting because of what you know and the merits of man, your belief that I can bring the solution to everything to the table.
You're limiting ever really knowing this grace and truth because this grace and truth, we're gonna go right back to what we've been talking about, but we're gonna prove it tonight. This is all about setting your life up to be dependent upon God. So you gotta ask the question, are my own purpose setting my life up on a day to day basis to depend upon God? 'Cause that's gonna, we gotta deal with this issue of, oh, praise the Lord. I'm saved. And you are and all that kind of stuff. I have no doubt about that. But we really need to ask, what does that look like? What does that look like?
In verse 11, John chapter 1, "He came unto his own," again, "His own received him not", referring to the Jewish people. But I wanna take you somewhere in the book of Exodus chapter 19 and verse 8, see, they didn't receive Jesus at the time, but you know what the Jewish people receive right away? The law. When the law was given to Israel, they received it. When Jesus came, they didn't even know him nor did they receive him. And now watch this carefully because you're actually going to begin to see why God allowed the law to come in in the first place. One simple thing blew my mind when I saw it. If you have time, I want you to read chapter 19, 20, 21,22 because you read this and then you keep reading, you're like, what ticked God off?
All of a sudden, all this wonderful stuff he's talking about and all of a sudden he saying, all right, y'all need to build a boundary and you better not touch not even the bottom of the mountain or you gonna fall dead. I'm gonna tell you that right now. Oh, you wanna hear from me? He come down and they're in torment like please tell him, don't speak to us no more. Tell him to give the message to you Moses and you come tell us. And then he start issuing out of all this law. You do this, you're gonna die, you do that, you're gonna die. If you don't do this, you're gonna die. And if you do this with him, both of y'all gonna die. I'm like, what rubbed him the wrong way.
Look at this. "And all the people answered together, and they said," now this is interesting because let's back up to verse 7 so we can get the context in here. "And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them their faces, all these words which the Lord commanded him". So God's delivering a message here, they hear the message, verse 8, "And all the people answered together, and they said," now listen to this. "All that the Lord has spoken," hear these three words, "We will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord".
Go to verse 9, let's just show you what happened. "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with them, and believe thee forever.' And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord's ear". So now he's telling people like he already knew, but he's saying, you know, they heard your words and they say, yeah, we can do that. All right, now watch this. Next verse. "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Go unto the people, sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes," it's gonna be on, "And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai and thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, 'Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death.'"
What happened? You can't see grace if you continue to see and depend on your ability, you can't see it. That's what happened. And in the next chapter, started right here, he brings the law. Why did he bring the law? He says, you think you're all that? I'm gonna give you something so perfect and so flawless that we ain't gonna be able to do nothing without me. And I'm gonna send you this perfect flawless law that I already know you can't keep. And what people don't understand is the millions of folks that died under the law 'cause they couldn't keep it. And this thing went on until one day they made their mind up, we need you.
So the Bible says, we should exalt the law. Why? Because without the law, we would have never come to the place of understanding our need for a Savior. And because most people miss that little three words, "We shall do," then they have no idea why the law was put in, but it was put in to bring man to the end of his self so that he will understand you can't do nothing without me, all right? I am the God of all grace and mercy. So when the word full of grace and truth came, they received him not because they still desire to establish their own righteousness by doing the things that were demanded of the law.
Look at Romans 10 verse 3 through 5, real quick. Still wanting to establish their own righteousness by doing the things demanded by the law. That's what religion is today. And religious churches, there are Christian people that still want to establish their own righteousness by doing things that are demanded in the law. Romans chapter 10 and verses 3 through 5 says, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that," watch, "Believeth". Verse 5, "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them".
They were trusting in themselves and they were unwilling to acknowledge their own inability to measure up to God's requirements. And we're living the same way today. I'm telling you about the grace of God. And I'm telling you how you need to depend on the grace of God. And I'm telling you, you're not gonna be able to do this without God. And I'm telling you, you need to depend on God. And we are still going around saying no, I can prove to you that I can do this by myself. I can establish my own righteousness and you can't. And then you deceive yourself by judging other people without recognizing that you got your own issues because you've convinced yourself, no, I don't. I can't fulfill God's requirement without him.
So you're committing the greatest sin in the Bible. What is that? Trying to be like God without God. Are you listening to me? Trying to measure up instead of acknowledging, I don't have the ability to measure up to God's requirements. And Church has taught you so that yes, you do. You don't. Even when I first 12 years ago understood the grace of God, I still kept fighting this thing of trying to measure up to God's requirements on my own. Now, today, I can't do it. And, you know, it's not like 'cause I didn't give a valiant effort, I did. And it went sometimes for months.
And then I realized I can't do it because as long as you realize you can do it when you mess up, you have this tremendous guilt and condemnation that says you're not enough. And the truth is like I said on Sunday, you're right. You're not enough. And watch this, without God, you are never going to be enough. That's the message of grace. You're never going to be enough. And so somehow what we have to do in all of our inferiority and all of our lacking this or that, that now really drives us to the place where I gotta depend on God.
And you know what I'm learning, I'm learning there's a difference between talking this stuff in church and then actually experiencing it in life. You know, God spoke to me, he says, I want to get to know you as you're living. Not in a compartmentalized position in your closet every day for 30 minutes. He says, don't compartmentalize our relationship. I want our relationship to be the good and the bad and the ugly of the day. I want it to be the good, the bad and ugly of the day and I want you to look at your life and when you're weak and when you're dogged out and when you fall in and when you failed and when the devil says, you know, stay home, don't pray, don't have nothing to do with that.
Don't go to church. You know, you've been enough, you need to... I've always told you, you know, when you go through something, you need to stay away from church. You need to go somewhere and get restored. No, no, no. I have been restored and in my living, I'm saying, God help me. I failed. It hurt. I didn't want to get up, but I'm gonna get my butt up because I depend on you. And when I am weak, that's when I am strong. Are you listening to what I'm saying?
Quit compartmentalizing your relationship with God. Thirty minutes in the morning in prayer. An hour in the morning in prayer and then you leave that 30 minutes or an hour and you ain't got nothing to do with God no more until the next morning where you enter into that closet to compartmentalize your relationship with God. Imagine if you did that with real people. The relationships would stink. Why? Because you're only compartmentalizing that, but throughout the day, you have no communion in that relationship. I don't want a relationship like that with God.
I don't mind, I was looking for a broadcast one day and then I saw some Clickbait, "The Messy Life of Creflo Dollar". I'm like, "You got that right, it was messy". I had no problem with it. Didn't bother me at all. I agree quickly. It was messy and you know what? The mess still not gonna be gone until Jesus comes back. There's gonna be something else in your life that you're gonna confront, whether it's your attitude, whether it's your mouth, whether it's your emotions or your feelings, something you're gonna confront where you're gonna say, "Ha ha, I still need you". But don't ever get to the place where you say we can do this. I can do this.
I always want to get to the place where I'm saying, "I hear what you told me to do. I can't do this without you". I wanna get to the place where you can say, "Lord, I'm not enough by myself, but with you, I can do all things". That's what in a lack of better terms, it turns him on. I mean, he's turned on all the time. But when his creation comes back to the place where they are in total reliance upon him, then you go to bed at night, you go to bed tonight and you look forward to tomorrow. God's gonna make me better tomorrow.