Creflo Dollar - How to Be Trained by Grace - Part 2
Growth in spiritual life, growth in your spiritual life can only come by grace. I don't know what you call growth. You know five more extra scriptures. No, no, growth in spiritual life can only come by grace. In fact, look at 2 Peter real quick, 2 Peter chapter 3:18, 2 Peter 3:18. Growth in your spiritual life can only come by grace, because grace is what's going to teach you to grow, it's going to help you to grow, it's going to be the grace of God. Look what he said here. He says in verse 18, "But grow in grace", "Grow in grace," Peter said, "and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ". Grow in grace. Peter admonishes, "Grow in grace". Grow in grace. So growth in spiritual life comes only by the grace of God.
Now, there is a great need, I believe, in this year, there's a great need for a more complete understanding of the grace of God. I get excited when I hear people teach grace. I do flips. I love it. I'm excited about it, but I'm always thinking about the practical part. Do you think this is magic? Do you think that this, you know, just by knowing a few things, that these things are gonna begin to happen to you? And yes, renewing your mind, all that stuff is important, but I think we've got to, in this series, have a fuller presentation of grace, not only of the truth that salvation from condemnation is entirely of grace, your salvation from condemnation comes entirely by the grace of God. But even more of the truth that the very same grace which brings salvation also teaches the saved how to live godly in this present world. I can't emphasize that enough. Grace teaches you how to live godly in this present world.
Now, there's a false idea, and I'm gonna get us some scriptures right now. I want to lay this foundation. There's a false idea, a prevalent one, that God's law teaches men how to live godly lives, that the Mosaic law, the 613 laws have been referred to as our moral compass. And somehow we think that the Ten Commandments, operating by rules and regulations is how most of us have been tried to be trained, and I'm telling you, and I'll prove it by scripture, the law cannot produce godly living in your life. It cannot, never has. Now, let me explain to you so, you know, it'll come up here. You have the Mosaic law consists of a moral law, the laws that people live by. It consists of ceremonial law that was the different laws that people used to present their sacrifice, and it is also by the Ten Commandments. So, those are three things that make up the law, the Mosaic law.
Now listen to me very carefully so you can understand it 'cause the question comes up over and over again and took me years to figure out what was going on here. The Ten Commandments, that is the law of God, came from God, is the character of God. It's the character of God. So, you're telling me not to live by the law. You're telling me not to live by the Ten Commandments. No, that's not what we're saying. What we're saying is there are Ten Commandments that represents God's character and God's person, 603 laws to try to manifest that character in your life. It failed miserably. So, it would say, you know, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and then it'd have about 20 rules you have to do to try to get that to come to pass. That is, the Mosaic law, is the Ten Commandments that's being administered by rule keeping. Ten written on stone, six hundred and three written on tablets. Rule keeping failed. Nobody was able to keep the Ten Commandments by keeping rules, because it's not possible. It failed miserably. Well, why'd the law come in the first place? Because, listen, after Adam sinned, there was no standard.
So, people were doing crazy stuff. Cain killed Abel. He killed his brother, and there was no law. And so God was like, "Dude, we got to put some law in there to keep people in so they won't go crazy, absolutely lose it all, until the promise comes". He always knew that Jesus was the ultimate answer, but we need something to help out this situation right now, so let's get the law. And what the law is gonna do, it's gonna show them their sins. It's gonna show them how bad they are. You read the situation with Cain and Abel, and it just seemed like, you know, no big deal. He killed Abel. And then God shows up and says, "And if anybody touch Cain, I'm gonna kill them". What, he just killed his brother. Okay, so God says, "Let me get a law, so we can just kind of hold some stuff together until I can get Jesus in the earth".
Oh, my goodness. And the job of the law was to show you how bad you were. And so, hopefully, through fear and condemnation we can kind of stop you from doing some stuff. Fear of death was the main thing the law brought, the fear of death. And a lot of people died in the Old Testament under the law, bunch of people died. If you do this, you could be stoned to death. If you do that, you could be stoned to death. If you don't go to God with cheerfulness and thanksgiving, you could be killed. And so out of the fear of death, "Oh, my gosh, I'm not gonna do that 'cause I'm scared. I'm not gonna do that 'cause if I do it, I might die. I'm not gonna work on Sunday because if I do, I might". There's somebody that was stoned because they were working on the Sabbath day. But were you supposed to live by that? He says no. The promise is on the way, but he's not here yet. It's a ways to go before he gets here.
So, I'm gonna give you the law of Moses and rule keeping, and I'm gonna produce the fear of death, and I tell you one thing. You might not keep all of this law, but I guarantee you we're gonna kill a whole bunch of y'all until it brings something in your face to say I'd better not do this. Does everybody understand? But you were not supposed to take the Mosaic law and live by it now. Jesus talked about how we have been delivered. When Jesus came, he delivered us from the fear of death. And I'll show you that in just a moment. All right now, so watch this. God's law cannot teach men how to live godly, but most of the church, for a long time, has relied on God's law and the Ten Commandments administered by God's law. Now, do we throw away the Ten Commandments? No, no, no. It's still God's character. But the difference in the New Testament is that the Ten Commandments administered by the Holy Spirit.
See, Paul repeats all the Ten Commandments in the New Testament. He said it's still good for children to honor their mother and their father, but the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of grace is gonna teach you how to do that. Does everybody understand that now? That's the biggest misunderstanding the body of Christ fighting over whether or not you're supposed to live by the Ten Commandments or not. I'm not living by the Ten Commandments that are administered by rule keeping, because that was designed to give me the fear of death. I live by the characteristics of all ten of those Commandments administered by the Holy Spirit, as he first of all, pours the love of God in my heart, and he begins to lead and guide me, and I walk in honor, and I won't do those things and violate the Ten Commandments, because the grace of God is teaching me how to keep them, and he said, "You do love, you do all of them". That's why he poured the love of God in your heart, first place. Are y'all getting this?
Not one man has learned godliness by the precepts of the law, not one. They defend it, but not one has learned godliness by the precepts of the law. Here's the problem here. If godliness is, you know, ignoring God and doing things apart from God, then trying to live by the law by your own effort is ultimate ungodliness. Now, let's look at some scriptures. Let's let the scriptures talk now. Romans 3, verse 19 through 20 in the Amplified and the New Living Translation. Not one man has learned godliness by the precepts of the law. And now you know what godliness is, that I'm going to do things with God and not apart from God. I'm gonna do things regarding God and not disregarding God. Godliness is a total regard for God. Ungodliness is a disregard for God.
Romans 3:19-20, he says in verse 19, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that the murmurs and excuses of every mouth may be hushed and all the world may be held accountable to God". Verse 20, "For no person will be justified [made righteous, acquitted, and judged acceptable] in His sight by observing the works prescribed by the Law". No person. "For the real function of the Law," check this out, "is to make men recognize and be conscious of sin [not mere perception, but an acquaintance with sin which works towards repentance, faith, and holy character]". Now look at this in the NLT. He says, "Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given," it was given to Jewish people who were still under that old covenant. "For it's purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands". No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Look at Galatians chapter 3, verse 19. Galatians 3, verse 19. "Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people". How long was the law supposed to last? According to scripture, not according to what you heard, how long was the law supposed to last? Until who? Until Jesus the promise comes. Has Jesus come? So, it should no longer be a schoolmaster. It was a master because the promise hadn't come. But Jesus has come. And we're still trying to live by it. We're still trying to be trained by it. We're not trained by the law. Godliness cannot be taught by the law.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15:56 in the King James and then the NLT. 1 Corinthians 15:56. Ah, man. "The sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law". The law, which are the Ten Commandments, administered by rule keeping, the law gives sin strength. When you live a life disregarding God and you try to get the law to teach you godliness, it's only gonna cause more sin. It's not designed nor was it given to teach you how to live godly. Grace is what teaches you how to live godly. Look at this in the New Living Translation. "For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power". The law gives sin its power. Trying to live and trying to achieve the new, trying to achieve the Mosaic law through rule keeping is just not gonna happen. The law gives sin its power. The law, trying to live by the Ten Commandments governed by rule keeping is what gives sin power. You don't, nobody in here is absent in your mind of knowing somebody somewhere who tries to make the Ten Commandments by rule keeping their moral compass.
And you know what happened in the church? We keep looking for more rules to keep, more rules to keep. Don't wear no tattoo. Woman can't show her shoulders at church 'cause it causes a man to lust. If you lusting off somebody's shoulder, you are hard up. Something wrong with you. Having these little blankets out, your dress too short. What, you got a measuring stick back there? Too short, blanket. And church has gone from one rule to another rule, to another rule. It's like the Constitution, just keep adding amendments. And after a while, you know what happened with people? "I'm tired. I can't keep up. I mean, I came in as a sinner. I told you I'm a sinner. I know I'm going to hell. I just want somebody to show me how to change that". And we take them, and we give them a bunch of rules. You can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do that, none of that. It's like, dang. And God is not that hard. He's not hard at all. He is simple.
And we keep making it difficult, and we beat up people when we see them mess up. They're in transition. Grace is teaching them, and when grace teaches you, you're in transition. Grace doesn't finish the day you get saved. Grace is in transition all the time, just working on you, using every situation, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Grace is using, I just saw something. Excuse me. He's using everything to change you. He's using everything to change your mind. He's taking out the old want-to. He's replacing it with a new want-to. That's why you don't want to judge people in the midst of transition. Okay, so they messed up, but you should've seen them a year ago. Okay, so they slipped up and said a cuss word. Boy, you should've been here eight months ago. They would cuss you out. They're in transition. They're not there yet, but they're on their way 'cause grace is teaching them. Praise God. All these rules and regulations.
Grace will teach you. And I think what happened is when we heard about all these rules and regulations, the grace people thought, well, hey, no rules and no regulation. And still we're talking about, we're talking about achieving godly character and Christian conduct by the Holy Spirit, a built in want to and a built in don't want to, and the stuff you used to want to do, you don't want no more, and the stuff you didn't want, you now want. You want to read the Bible. You want to pray. You want to come to church. You want to hear some Word. You want to get some understanding. Hallelujah, you want to reject sin. It's like a bird that flies over your head, like that bad thought, but you say, "No, no, just 'cause you came to my head doesn't mean I have to do this. I don't want to do this. I've already done it. I've done it a whole bunch of times, and I now, I now have a desire for Jesus, and I want to please him. I want to make him proud of me. I don't want to do that no more. Get that stuff out of my house. Get that stuff out of my face. I don't want that no more".
Now don't come quoting scripture. "Well, the Bible said it's all right". No, no, no, no, no, I don't know how you're interpreting that, but I know him. See, that's the difference between a Christian who knows the rules and a Christian that knows him. I know him. I spend time with him. He hears me. I talk to him. He talks to me. And all of a sudden, I don't want to do it, and I don't know why. I don't want to do it, except I'm more in love with him. And it's not because of the rules, and I didn't even know that was a rule. I just know I didn't want to disappoint him. Ooh, lift your hands up and just say, "How great thou art". Thank you, Jesus. Now, are y'all receiving this? Something ought to be going on, on the inside of you.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1:9. He tells you who the law is for. The law, now you know the law is, it's the Ten Commandments trying to be administered by rule keeping. Who's the law for? "For the law was not intended for people who do what is right". The King James says the law was not for the righteous. Look at the King James. It reads better. The law is not for the righteous. "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but it's made for the lawless and the disobedient".
See, that goes back to what I was just telling you. All of the lawlessness that was going on in the land before Jesus was able to come and die and all for our sins, that's who the law was made for. The law is not made for people who have been declared righteous by the grace of God. And now look at this, and then we'll go on. Hebrews chapter 2:14-15. This is to give scriptural reference to what I said about what the law is. Just stop it. Everybody keeps trying to, "Yeah, but," and it's just so clear. It's just all over the New Testament. If Jesus died so everything could stay the same, then why did he die? Doesn't make any sense to come here on Easter and celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why are we celebrating if nothing changed? He died, he was buried, he was raised from the dead, he ascended, he sat down on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, he's coming back again.
What are we celebrating if everything's the same? And we keep going to the law to teach people how to live today. And it doesn't work. The only thing you're doing is, "Here's the rule, keep it". No desire to keep it, no Holy Spirit. "Here's the rule, keep it". And hey, once we get a rule, "Aha, you broke the rule". But you done broke it, too. Shut up. I ain't the only one broke the rule. You broke it, too. How many times you broke it? Struggling, having a hard time trying to live right, want to live right. "God, help me, Jesus. Lord, I'm trying, Lord. I'm trying, Lord". God tired of all that. He said, "Just stop with all that. Would you please make the switch"? "Lord, no, Lord Jesus, you know how hard I've tried. I've tried, Lord. I've prayed all night long. I've been praying, I just prayed, I just prayed, I'm praying. Help me, Jesus. I'm praying all night long. I'm just praying". Stop! A new and living way has come. The Holy Ghost has come. He is able to do what you can't do on your own.