Creflo Dollar - Is Your Belief System Offline? - Part 2
Grace is all about supply, supply, supply, supply. The law is all about demands, demands, demands. The law demands righteousness from a man and man couldn't obtain it because it was a perfect righteousness. The law is demanding something from you that you are incapable of giving. It's demand... see, here's the thing. If you were able to keep all those commandments and you did it perfectly, I couldn't teach this, but I'm gonna tell you another thing that wouldn't happen. If you could keep all the law perfectly, you would've never had a story about a man born of a virgin, dying on the cross, going to heaven. It wouldn't be no use to do it. For if salvation and righteousness could come by the law, then there would be no need to have a Savior to come off the cross, 'cause come on the cross, what would you need a Savior for?
You got it all together. You's the man, boy. You got this thing, you can do whatever need to be done. I don't need no Holy Ghost, I don't need no Christ. Hey, you tell us to do it, I can do it, Lord, and that's why the law was put in because them jokers thought that they could do things without God. And he said, "I got to show y'all that you can't do this without me". You done got too high-strung, and I need to bring you down a tab. I'm gonna give you something that literally is gonna destroy you, it's gonna be against you. It's gonna bring shame into your life, it's gonna bring condemnation into your life. You gonna get so condemned and guilty and full of all that stuff until you have to come to a point of realizing, "I can't do this by myself". And that's the issue, is church folks thinking they have perfected their churchiness and their religion has deceived them and professing to be wise, they've become as fools. But under grace, God supplies that perfect righteousness through Christ, it's a gift to us.
Under grace, he supplies that perfect obedience, it's a gift to us. And through him we accomplish what we could have never accomplished on our own. Look at Romans chapter 3:24 real quick. The Bible says that we are made righteous freely. This is an interesting word here. We're made righteous freely. Look here. He says, "Being justified". The word justified means declared righteous. "Being justified freely by his grace". So notice we're justified, how? "Freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". So this word freely, it means without a cost. We were made righteous without a cost. You didn't pay anything to be made righteous. You were made righteous without a cost. We are all justified in God's eyes, made righteous without any kind of cost at us. There's no reason in you for God to declare you righteous.
What's the reason in you that God would have to say you're righteous? All the reason is in him. By one man's disobedience, Adam's disobedience, many were made sinners. By obedience of one man, Jesus, many were made righteous. Not because there was a cost you paid. And I'm sure you think, well, I paid the cost to be righteous. I was good today, wasn't so good the next day. I was alright on Friday, cursed a little bit on Saturday. Seriously? We're not talking about Jesus giving you, like, a little piece of righteousness and you working on it as you go. No, he made you completely righteous. You know what you're working on? You're working on the perfection of what he's already made you coming out on the branch. It's kinda like an apple tree, you don't know it's an apple tree really, until you see what comes out on the branches. It's got everything in the vine to make it an apple tree. And then the fruit comes out.
And so that's what's happened with you, you're righteous right now. Keep believing that and the fruit gonna start coming out. You're redeemed right now. Keep on doing that and the fruit gonna start coming out. You're holy right now, today even though you and your wife cussed each other out coming to church. I'm not justifying the cussing out, but I am saying that something's working itself out of you and will appear, hallelujah. It'll appear on the branch. We are about to see the fruit if you don't take your belief offline. You listening to me now? Woo, I tell you, when you're trying to convince people, boy, you get tired, otherwise you're like, "Ehhh, you believe it". You know, "Que será, será". Remember that there Doris Day, "Whatever Will Be Will Be". Some young people are like, Doris who?
Look at Romans 6:17 again. Let's go back to that now. To confirm that it's what you believe, look at Romans 6:17. He says, "But God be thanked," but God be thanked. We looked at verse 16. Look at verse 17. "God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed". You listened to, you hearkened to, "From the heart that form of doctrine to which you were," past tense, "Delivered". Now, what is doctrine? That's not a big fancy religious word. Doctrine is simply teaching. What's the teaching you're listening to? "Now, wait a minute, pastor, I thought you just said that's believing"? It is, I'm working my way down to showing you why it's important to discern what you're listening to and giving your attention to, 'cause listen, what you listen to and give your attention to, that's what you believe, okay? He says, he talks about whatever you obey, obey, or believed, or listened to, or gave your attention to, from the heart, this teaching, this teaching, that's what a doctrine is.
This teaching, this teaching, that's what doctrine is. To which you were delivered is... now, notice what he's saying here. This is so amazing to me because he is saying, you got to make sure you're listening to the right teaching. You gotta make sure you're giving attention to the right teaching, okay? He says, because from the heart, this teaching is gonna be what's responsible for delivering you. This is the process of renewal of the mind to the truth of the new identity in Christ in his righteousness.
Now, go to Ephesians chapter 4, 23 through 24. All right, so I say the most important thing for you to do as a human being is to be born again. Yay, and then people get born again and it stops right there. That's just the beginning. The most important thing for you to do as a born again Christian is to renew your mind, but we've even left that too general. Renew your mind with what? Watch this, with the Word of God. But we left that too general. You need more precision. Do I renew my mind by being able to recall all the Bible stories? Is that what he's talking about? Renewing your mind in this doctrine, renewing your mind in this teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of grace. Renewing your mind in the gospel, just very simply put. You're renewing your mind right now from obedience doing something, to obedience believing. Renew your mind in the spirit of grace.
And I just sat back down and I thought about, Lord have mercy, where would I be right now if I knew precisely what word do I need to renew my mind with? The word of grace. If I knew precisely. Renewing my mind with the gospel, give my attention to hearing the gospel. The Bible says, it's good for your heart to be established in grace, give the attention to hearing the gospel. Myself included, we've not given attention all of our Christian life to hearing the gospel, why? We didn't know it. 'Cause everybody told us that we were hearing the gospel and what was happening is, we were preaching things and called it the gospel.
Now we know, now we know. Now renew your mind in it. Now renew your mind. Why do you need to renew your mind in it? Because you've heard so much religion. You've heard so much other stuff that it's going to create a war in your mind with the stuff you've heard. Your tradition has made the word, what word? The word of grace of no effect. And that's what's happening, your tradition, your traditional way of believing stuff. And here I am screaming like the dude who, John the Baptists, just like, listen, I know what you're thinking, I've thought all of the same thoughts. But this is right, and that was wrong, and there's so much more evidence when you start doing it right. Sweatless, effortless.
When you get this gospel right, you're gonna see effortless results. There gonna be some things, God gotta tap you on your shoulder and say, "Look ahead, look at that, that thing came to pass. Remember when you talked to me about that about three months ago? It's done". You're like, "Sure is". Effortless. How many of you experienced something like that? Just already, just stuff that's done, it's like, you can't even think about giving yourself the credit because you don't even know the intricate details of what happened, how this happened, when it happened, what did you do? And the only thing you've been doing throughout the whole process is, God loves me and I know it. Oh, I know God love me I know it. I don't know how he gonna fix this, but it's fixed 'cause I already know God love me. I don't know how he gonna do that, but God love me. Hallelujah. God's gonna heal me 'cause he said it and I know he love me. I just been operating in effortlessness.
Oh God, y'all getting this. Oh, Ephesians 4:23. He says, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man," so you see what he is saying here, right? Be renewed, when? When you put on the new man, you're renewing your mind with the new man. This gospel is lessons of this new and living way that came as a result of Jesus, which was created according to God, how? In righteousness and, what? Holiness. In righteousness and in holiness. So the teaching of the new covenant shows us that he alone is our righteousness. He lives in us and we are one with him, we are a new creation, we're formed in true righteousness and true holiness, we have the mind of Christ, we have a new heart, we have a new spirit within us, no matter what you feel.
Now, this is big deal right now. I figured let's go ahead and get really radical. Give you something talk about. And I'm gonna prove it to you and you're gonna see the battle of your old tradition and seeing what it say right there in the Bible. Go to Isaiah 54:9 in the New King James Version and then go to Hebrews 9:28 in the New Living Translation. All right, so, how God deals with disobedience in the new covenant, that's what most people wanna know. All right, so how does God deal with disobedience in the new covenant? All right, I just told you what disobedience is in the new covenant, it's what? What is disobedience in the new covenant? What is obedience in the new covenant? Right, so, but still people, "Well, how does God deal with disobedience in the new covenant"?
Now here's shocking, here's the shocking truth. Sin and disobedience are not the issue. Under the new covenant sin and disobedience are not the issue. Doesn't that freak you out because that's the whole issue in church, ain't it? That's the reason why people go to church, to get some sin relief. Hey man, why you in church today? "Man, you know, I gotta get God healed, man, I need". Sin and disobedience is not the issue. God has already dealt with those things through the obedience of Christ and has sworn not to be angry with you and never rebuke you again. Look at Isaiah 54:9. He has sworn not to rebuke you or never be angry with you again. "Well, God is angry with me 'cause of what I did, I disobeyed, so God is angry with me. You remember in the Old Testament when they disobeyed, you know, everything died and stuff like that". This is not the Old Testament. Verse 9, "For this is like the waters of Noah to me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth," and he swore that.
Have you seen after a big rain, there's a rainbow? You still see that today, right? Do you know God promised that before it ever showed up and says, I'm gonna put a bow in the sky as a token or a sign of my promise that the rain would never flood the earth again. There's something you can see today of what he promised in yesterday and you still see that bow. He says, just like I made that promise, "So have I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you". You know how New Testament unscriptural it is for you to go around saying, "God is angry with me"? You know what you're doing? You're calling him a liar. "This happened 'cause God must be angry with me".
That didn't happen because God had, you got the wrong impression of God. He swore to not ever be angry with you, he swore that. And he says, nor will I rebuke you, like he did in those days. He says, "I'm not doing that no more. That is not how I deal with man. Which means I'm not gonna allow fire to come down from heaven and burn people up 'cause they didn't do what I told them to do. I'm not doing that no more because I'm about to give you my Son, Jesus Christ, and in this new covenant, disobedience is unbelief". And you know the issue about unbelief? Until you believe, there ain't nothing God can do for you anyway. But now, watch this, Christ has already dealt with our sins on the cross.
Look at Hebrews 9:28 for in the New Living Translation. Hebrews 9:28, New Living Translation. And this is mind boggling, and if you're not careful, you'll take this the wrong way and think that God's given you permission to go and act like a fool. And then sin has consequences and you wonder why, you know, "Hey, I jumped off the building, why am I dead"? You jumped off the building, stupid. "Well, I ate this poison 'cause the Bible says you can eat a poison and will not die". You better get context on stuff. All right, "So also Christ was offered," how many times? "Once," for how long? So is Christ getting on the cross every second 'cause somebody messing up? Uh-uh, he's offered "once for all times as a sacrifice," to do what, to do what, to do what? Read it, read it, read it, to do what? "To take away". To do what, do what? To take away sins of many people.
All right. Here's the radical part. "He will come again". You better believe that he's on his way back. "He will come again". I tell you, he's on his way back. Look at the frequency and intensity of everything. "He will come again," watch this, "But not to deal with our sins," whoa. He's coming but he ain't coming to deal with your sins. All my life I thought, "Oh, Lord Jesus coming back, I better hurry and say forgive me. You know, they say he's coming back in a moment of twinkling of an eye," and I used to practice to see if I could say forgiveness before I blinked my eye and I never could. I said, "For...", I tried again, "Forgive me"! I still didn't make it. "Forgive me... Oh God". And my heart stop beating real fast, "Oh Jesus, don't seem like I'm gonna make it".
I figure I better, I gotta get it together 'cause I don't know if I'm gonna beat that twinkling of an eye. 'Cause if he come and deal with our sins, he says, "I'm not coming to deal with your sins". Why is he not coming back to deal with our sins? 'Cause he what? 'Cause he what? He's already dealt with your sins. He's already dealt with your sins. Oh my goodness, he has turned the sin meter off. Some of y'all freaking out 'cause you got so much sin and so you're not gonna feel satisfied unless you can do something where you feel like you have earned the right for your sins to be taken care of. You just ain't believing in God. He said, "I took care of the sin".
Some of y'all gonna meet Jesus. "Oh, Jesus take care of my sin". He like, "Listen, I ain't talking, don't talk to me, move". "But Jesus, I want you to take care of my sin". "I took care of your sin. I'm tired of you, every time I talk to you, you talk to me about your sin". Ain't you glad Jesus ain't got an attitude, he'd be all up on y'all, "I already took care of your sin. What else do you want me to do? I done died, got beat up, mugged for you, they beat me till I got black all over the place, my eye blue and I went to hell for you. They nailed me in my feet; you think you got problem with your feet? My hands got holes in them. You sit up here trying to be sanctimonious asking me to do what I've already done. I done did it and I'm done with you, don't talk to me no more. I done told you I'm through with that. And I'm about to be through with you. You need to get online, you're offline. Somebody done turn your Wi-Fi off and now you gotta Fi-Wi going on in your life, it ain't working". He says, "I'm done with your sin. Believe that I'm done with your sin and you'll be done with your bad behavior".
Real freedom is not the freedom to sin some more. "So you trying to say that", you know, you sound just like the guys in book of Romans, "You're trying to say that since he has already handled our sin, that I can go and just sleep around and smoke all the weed I want"? See, what is that in you that can't hear that you're free from that? That's not even a part of the equation, 'cause if God is working on the inside of you, which he is, if God has accepted the responsibility of transforming you until you are in the image of Jesus Christ, how are we putting 15 more prostitutes in there, more weed in there, and more hatefulness in there?
That ain't a part of the equation, it is Jesus has delivered you from your sin, and the Holy Ghost is changing your behavior. You're still trying to make more and more excuses, why? 'Cause you don't believe. 'Cause you keep listening to the wrong teaching. 'Cause it make you feel a certain way, "Ah-ya-yah"! You ain't even heard what the guy said 'cause you're so busy. "Ah-ya-yah"! You ain't even heard what he said. You don't listen, you just talk too much. And I know something, some people don't listen cause they're too busy talking: "That's right, preacher. Yes, amen. Oh, hallelujah". You shouting up the preacher right now, you need to shut up and listen to what I am preaching. 'Cause you'll be the very one going out here, getting online, talking about how you disagree with the grace message and don't even have enough information to support your disagreement, except, "That ain't what I heard".
I told you you were smart. That ain't gracious. Look at 1 Timothy 2 and 4 right quick. "Christ has already dealt with our sins on the cross and he desires for all men to come to the knowledge of this through a full revelation of the new covenant". And verse 4 says, "Who desires all men to be saved". He wants everybody to be saved and he wants them to come to the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of grace, the knowledge of Jesus. He wants you to come to that.
Now look at John chapter 16 verses 8 through 9. Got a few more minutes less. This is, you see why this message is like paramount, it's like, it's vital to the foundation of the gospel? Have to hear this, have to know this. And even after you know this, you are bound, if I was betting, man, I'd bet you you are gonna hear somebody say, "Well, you know, brother, obedience is better than sacrifice". Just religious jargon. Yeah, it is under the Old Testament, but we ain't offering sheep and doves no more. Jesus is our final sacrifice.