Creflo Dollar - Can Sin Cause You To Lose Your Salvation? - Part 2
1 Corinthians 15:56, he said, "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law". The law strengthens sin. So if you live by the law and the law strengthens sin, do you lose your salvation because you don't understand at the time. I lived by the law for a long time. I didn't know about this gospel of grace. God didn't throw me away. I didn't lose my salvation, all right? Look at this in the NLT. Look at this in NLT, 1 Corinthians 15:56 in the NLT. "For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power". I now understand that living by the Mosaic law, you know, it was given to bring men, really it was it was given to hurt you. The law doesn't care anything about you. It was given to show you how bad you are.
And notice again, the sin that's there. So if all of those things are true, then we should have all lost our salvation. All sin is on the same level in God's eye. That's the point I want to make. All sin is on the same level in God's eyes. Now, somebody says, "I haven't committed what's considered big sins, but I have broken God's law. I hadn't done the big sins, but I have broken God's law". Well, what does the Bible say about that? James 2:10, if you decide that you're gonna live by the law, James 2:10, says, James 2:10. He says this, "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's law". The law was like a plated glass window.
I remember as a little boy, me and my friend he had just got a BB gun. And we would shoot in a box in the house in front of a glass sliding door. So he hit the box, and I hit the box. And then I took it and aimed, and it fired up and the BB hit the glass. Okay, so whether you throw a chair through the glass or BB, the glass still gotta be replaced. So we weren't smart. We put a piece of masking tape on it, took the mother a while to discover it, took her a couple of years. And she called and, "You get out of here. I'm gonna whoop you". Back in those days, your mother would give other people permission to beat you. I don't understand that. But the whole glass had to be replaced. If a small BB or a big brick, it still meant the glass had to be replaced. So if you violate one tiny command, you're guilty of breaking the whole thing, okay.
Now, people who say you have to be holy, you can't have sin in your life and still think you're saved, you have to categorize it into big sin and little sin in order to even say that. In order to even say that, you've gotta say that's a big sin or a little sin. You can't be holy, you just can't have sin in your life and still think you're saved. You can't even say that statement unless you look at sin as big sin, really bad sin, and little sin, kind of insignificant sin. That's the only way you can make that statement because it means you gotta throw away everything that God says about this. You know, let's look at, for example, adultery versus speeding. You know, if the born-again believer who committed adultery and didn't confess it before dying goes straight to hell, then so does every believer who has ever got caught speeding, every one, 'cause it's on the level. I know that's so hard because for so long, we've categorized it, "This is a big sin, adultery. This is a little sin, speeding". But from God's eyes he's like, it's still sin.
If the guy goes to hell for the big sin and the guy don't go to hell for the little sin, God's not a God of justice. Listen to me carefully. So, if that were true, then nobody would make it to heaven because we all come short and fail in many different ways, nobody would. I mean, look at Romans 3:23 in the King James in the New Living Translation, Romans 3:23. We all fall short or we all miss the mark. It shows the place of inferiority in people's lives. He said, "For all have sinned, and come short". Everybody's sinned and come short. I know that just messes with you. "Oh, well, I've never sinned. I don't smoke. I don't look at R-rated movies. I don't look at my naked body when I get out of the shower. I don't do any of those things".
All right, so now we got your sin, self-righteous. Self-righteousness is your sin, and self-righteousness is unrighteousness. Please hear me when I say this. Hear me when this Word says this, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God". We've missed the mark, but that's the part of the process. We're growing. We're getting better than what we used to be. We're not what we used to be. We don't miss the mark like we used to miss the mark. But this idea that now that I'm saved, I don't sin anymore, so, so bad. It's just terrible. And what it's done to people and the condemnation and the shame and the guilt that's come on people because there's this idea that now that you're saved, that you are delivered from missing the mark.
Now, the problem is, and I don't have time to teach it tonight, is we don't interpret sin right. There's a difference between sin, the nature of sin, that old man, and sinning, the behavior or action of sin. Romans chapter 6 talks about the nature of sin. Every verse in Romans chapter 6 except for one verse, every verse is a noun. There's only one verse in Romans 6 that's a verb and what it was talking about is, how shall we sin? How shall we sin? Or how shall we continue in sin when the grace of God has come to rescue us? In other words, how can we continue in the old man when we no longer have the old man? So there's a difference between the old man called sin and the behavior or sinning. You are totally and completely delivered from the old man. He has been removed out of your life. You have a new creation. You do not have to follow suit with the old man of sin. Glory to God.
And guess what. So now you don't have to behave or sin, the verb, you don't have to sin if you don't want to. You had to sin when you had the old man, but now that you got a new creation, you can reject it. Follow me. Let me get on down the line. I don't want to run out of time here. Now, if you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to heaven is to die immediately after being born again. "Lord Jesus, I believe you. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me. Now, Lord, kill me". That's the only way. And you know that's not true. And yet, that's what somehow has been put in our minds and that's what makes people holier than thou and walk around with this arrogance of judgmentalism where they can look down at another person and forget that that person is in the process, that God is making him holy. God is faithful to make you holy. God is faithful to make you holy. God is faithful to make you holy. He's gonna make you holy. And the day you realize that you are the righteousness of God, you're gonna want to do right.
Your behavior doesn't define who you are, who you are defines your behavior. The Holy Spirit is gonna change your desire. He's gonna take away the old want-to's, he's gonna give you the new want-to's. Glory to be to God. And you're not gonna want to. This idea of, "Well, Brother Dollar, you're just gonna, you're telling people this and they're just gonna go crazy in sin". No, they won't. They're gonna finally recognize, "Wait a minute, I don't have to do this if I don't want to," and they'll be free from the condemnation and the shame and the guilt and the fear. And they'll know that no matter what happens, God hasn't left them. He hasn't stopped loving them. They didn't lose their salvation. All is gonna be well. And the Holy Spirit's gonna begin to work on the inside of you. See, we don't factor in the Holy Spirit when we're doing this stuff. It's just a bunch of religious rules and regulations that brings shame and condemnation on people.
So since salvation depends solely upon putting your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin doesn't affect your relationship with God, as far as your righteousness and salvation is concerned. Now, let me make sure you understand that. Faith is the key issue here. Your salvation depends solely on putting your faith in Jesus Christ. That's how you got born again. Not nothing you did, it was by grace. Not nothing you deserved, it was by grace. Now, behaving wrong can affect you. It could bring about shame. It could deal with your confidence in God. You will start questioning whether God loves you. Yeah. When you miss the mark in some things, yeah, you're gonna, "Oh, God, I disappointed God. Oh, I don't know if he loves me. I'm shameful. My heart is hardened".
All these things can happen to you. But there's one thing that won't happen, you won't lose your salvation. After you miss the mark in some area of your life, be careful that you don't hear the words of condemnation. "You're no good for the kingdom anymore". And then what happens? You compare yourself with somebody else. You say, "Well, man, if I hadn't have missed the mark, that could have been me. God's really blessing them, but that could have been me". How many of you have ever experienced God blessing you and you know you didn't deserve it? I mean, something in your life, something happened, you're like, "I don't even know where that came from". And it changed your mind. That's what the Bible says. It says that the goodness of God will cause a man to repent. So God knows how to change your mind. Does everybody see what I'm saying here now?
Let me let me end with this right here. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5:17 in the King James and the New Living translation. Since salvation depends solely upon putting your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin doesn't affect your relationship with God. It may affect you and it could lead you to shame and it could lead you to idolatry. You could start valuing things more than God. It could lead you to unwanted consequences. It could lead you to a hardened heart. But here's the thing about it, it won't affect your relationship with God as far as your being saved is concerned. He fellowships with you based on your faith in Christ alone. God fellowships which you based on your faith in Christ alone. There have been some days that I didn't have perfect days, some days where I missed the mark, and God was still talking to me.
You know what blew my mind? You remember when Cain killed Abel? I don't know if you recognize this. Cain killed Abel, and God started talking to him. God was just talking to him the whole time like ain't nothing happened. God just talked to him. And then they were like, "Well, we're gonna kill Cain for killing Abel". And God says, "I'mma put a mark on Cain". And please let me straighten this out, that's not where black people came from. I heard that in Bible study. I heard that the reason why black people are black people is 'cause God put a mark on Cain and it spread it on his body, and he became black. And I was in a conference one time and a minister got up and said, "Let's pray for our black brothers that the curse will be removed off him".
Well, like what? I ain't gonna turn colors. I mean, what you trying to... I'm like don't pray for me. I ain't got no curse on me. I ain't got no curse. The day I got born again, all the curses got rid of... God got rid of all the curse. The curse has been removed. Ain't no curse on me. That's not what that was. That was an actual mark that was put on Cain that when you saw that mark, you knew don't touch him. That's God's mark on this man. And God promised if you touch him, "You're gonna have to deal with me". But I was blown away. You are sitting here talking to a man who just murdered his brother, God. And that's part of the definition of grace is unrestrained love. And what was it that restrained God from loving man the way he wanted to love man? That restraint has been moved.
So I want you to know that God can love you today, and there is nothing that restrains him from his amazing, awesome, unmerited love. He can love you. He can love you into a place where you will make a decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior. He can love you. God died for the world, the whole world. He died for the whole world. Praise God. Jesus was the sacrifice for sin and the payment for the whole world. He's just now trying to get the whole world to see, "Some of y'all have accepted me and some of y'all have not. Please accept me. That's all you gotta do, except me, and I handle the rest. Except me, I'll save ya. Make me your Lord. I'll deliver you. Make me your Lord. I'll change your desires. Make me your Lord. I'll make you holy. I'll do it. I'm faithful. You can depend on me. I'm gonna do this thing". Oh, my goodness.
So he's told us our part to play in soul winning. When was the last time you ministered to someone, maybe even in your family? When's the last time you shared Jesus with somebody? The only way you go to hell... yeah, I'll say that, Lord. Okay, take a deep breath. Okay, you ready? Okay. If anybody in here goes to hell for sin, everybody in here is going to hell. "How you say that"? You don't go to hell for sin. "This man, this man". It's gonna be a whole lot of these days. You don't go to hell for sin. You go to hell for rejecting Jesus Christ. You go to hell for rejecting what Jesus paid for you to have. Everybody in hell rejects Jesus. I know this is messing up your tradition. You don't go to hell for sin. You go to hell for rejecting Jesus and you go to hell for rejecting the gift of forgiveness.
Jesus paid a ransom that had to be paid, and he did it so you could be born again. And you won't accept what he bled and died and went to hell so you can have. He is the propitiation for our sin. He is the payment for your sin. He is the sin offering. And you got enough nerve to say, "Not interested". Well, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? "No, I can't say I do". Oh. Jesus will give you the desires to do what pleases him, but he needs your faith. You know, he gave you a faith too. He gave you some faith so you can believe. Believe Jesus. Get saved. Give him your life. Get born again. Make him your Lord and Savior. And if you should miss the mark, get up, dust yourself off, go forward. I don't care how bad it is.
You know, there are three things you're gonna see when you get to heaven. Number one, you're gonna look around and not see some people you thought you knew they were gonna get there, and you don't even see them. Number two, you're gonna see some people that ain't no way in the world, how in the world they got here. Number three, you're gonna look around and say, "Thank God, I'm here". To say that you're missing the mark can stop Jesus from being who he is, is to say that you're seeing is greater than his blood and your sin is greater to him. This is the thing I gotta get in people's head. Get Jesus, he'll take care of you. He'll teach you. He'll work. He is faithful to do the job.
"Well, Brother Dollar, you just don't know what I did". I don't care. You're still saved. "Well, you don't understand how many times I did it". See, the only thing you're affecting...now here's the deal. Here's the problem with that so that you won't think that you can just go do anything. The problem with that is, the more you keep doing it, the harder your heart gets till you wake up one day and you have no sensitivity towards the things that God anyway. Now, he trying to help you, but your heart has become so hardened because you continue to willingly do the stuff when the Spirit of God is saying, "Stop it. Don't do that". He's talking to you. "Don't do that. Leave that alone". And you're just ignoring it and going doing it again.
Please understand, grace is not a license to sin, but it will teach you how not to. It will teach you how to live a godly and a sober and a righteous life. See, the thing we're missing is we had no confidence in the Spirit of God to be able to do this. We only had confidence in our rule keeping and what we got to do to make this happen. So can sin cause you to lose your salvation? No. No. If I was a bettin' man, I'd put some money on the table I'd go through the whole Scripture with it is nowhere in there. It doesn't happen. "Well, this script here", you were probably not reading it in context.
That's most of the problem when people say, "No, but this Scripture say this". And I sit down with them, I say, "Let's read the chapter before and the chapter that it's included". Context is king and if you miss it, you're probably missing it in context. And it's not there. It's not there. Now, Hebrews 6:46, we will talk about that because that's the only place where it talks about renouncing your salvation and not many people do. I don't know anybody that has done that. I know some people that tried to do it, and God just came on them with his mercy and just blessed them and just made an awesome thing. That's all that time I have tonight. You get anything out of that tonight?