Creflo Dollar - The True Meaning of Obedience - Part 3
Let's go to the Book of Romans chapter 1 and verse 5 and then at the same time Romans chapter 16, verse 25 through 26. And I'm going to start off in the ESV Version. Romans chapter 1 and 5 in the ESV and Romans 16:25 through 25. One of the things I want you to understand is that I want to encourage you to remain in this atmosphere of grace where we can hear and believe the good news. That good news will continually convince us to rest in Christ all sufficiency and it'll start eradicating unbelief from our lives. And what I simply described to you is what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about obedience to the faith. We're going to talk about obedience to the faith or in some translations it's obedience of the faith.
And so let's read verse 1. I'm going to read verse, and chapter 1, verse 5. He says, "Through whom we have received grace and the apostleship", Paul is speaking here. He says, "We've received grace and the apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name and to do it amongst all nations". That's really interesting 'cause Paul says that he's going to take this. His apostleship is to bring about obedience of the faith for the sake of his name and to do it all over the world. So he tells us his objective here, to get and to bring about obedience of faith and to make sure it gets around the whole world.
And then look at Romans chapter 16, verse 25 through 26. So he starts off talking about obedience of the faith and how one of his callings is to get it around the entire world, and then he goes to verse 25 and 26 and he says, "Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to make it known to all nations to bring about obedience of faith". So he opens with this in Romans chapter 5 and then he closes with it in Romans 16, and the whole deal is to bring about obedience of faith around the whole world.
Now I'm interested to see what that's about, obedience to faith. What is this urgency in Paul to say, "We got to get this for the glory of God to the whole world"? He said, "This has been hidden. This has not come to light. And we got to get obedience of faith to everybody". How many of you know this is big time? We got to figure out what this is 'cause that mean he wants to get it to us. Well, let's put up this transparency. I want to make sure we're all together on this so you can see obedience to the faith. Let's define some words and let's look at it clearly out of just what it means. In both cases you see obedience of faith, obedience of faith, and it only really appears twice in the New Testament but both time in Romans.
So faith comes from this Greek word pistis, and it means, here it means reliance upon Christ for your salvation, but it also means constancy in such professions, where you're professing your reliance upon Christ, obedience to the faith. But then we look at this word obedience. And when I get to digging, I want to dig and make sure that there are, I'm using the right Greek word and that I'm not, you know, taking for granted that what it meant over there in James it means the same thing here. So hypakoe is the Greek word here for obedience, and it means an attentive harkening to. It means an attentive harkening to. So the words obedience of faith just literally now in this verse means an attentive harkening to rely upon Jesus, an attentive harkening to rely upon Jesus. Let me say that again. An attentive harkening to rely upon Jesus.
And Paul says, "I've got to get this to everybody around the world, that there is a new way of believing now and we've got to have an attentive harkening to rely upon Jesus Christ". And so the words of obedience of faith, an attentive harkening to rely upon Jesus. Obedience to the faith. We talked about obedience is believing in the New Testament. Disobedience is unbelieving in the New Testament, but it's talking about, Paul says, "I got to get everybody to see that right now because Jesus has come. It's now I got to get everybody to see it's not about now keeping the law, 613. It's now about believing and relying upon Jesus".
Let me show you what happened before he came. Go to Galatians chapter 3, verse 23 and 26 in the NLT. And if you would, put that on the screen too, Galatians chapter 3:23 and 26. So he hadn't come, and he's now going to talk to us about the law. And I want you to see this way of faith and how it's referring to Jesus; this way of faith, this new way of living, and how it's referring to Jesus. Now watch this. He says, "Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us". All right, a way of faith in Christ. We didn't have that way of faith, this way of faith in Christ, this way of faith to rely on Christ. It wasn't there before Jesus came. We had to depend on the law. He says, "Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law".
So before Jesus came the law was our school master in a sense. He says, "We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed". The way of faith. Now the King James says until faith has come, but what he's talking about, until this new way of relying. We're now relying on Christ. This new way of faith is reliance upon Christ. All right, now watch this. He says, "We were kept on protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed". Next verse, "Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us until we could be made right with God through faith".
We couldn't be made right with God 'cause we didn't have this new way of faith in Christ. The only way you could be made right with God is by relying on Christ 'cause we couldn't qualify in our own efforts to try to keep the law because the law made no man right with God. Until Christ came, we now have this way of faith, and that way of faith is relying on Christ. If everybody is understanding me so far say, "Amen". I get excited. And I don't want to ignore you and then keep just being repetitive. He says, "Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us until we could be made right with God through this way of faith and reliance upon Christ". 25, "And now that the way of faith has come".
All right, so what happened? Christ showed up, glory to God, went to the cross, died, went to hell, got up. He's taken all of our sins on itself. He's satisfied the ransom for sin, satisfied the ransom for justice. Glory to God. Now we have a new reliance. We can rely on Jesus. "And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian". Kick it away. We're not relying on keeping this, keeping that, keeping that. He says, "No, no, no. The way of faith has come, reliance on Christ". Amen? You understand that? "And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian". Verse 26, "For you are all children of God," how, "through this new way of faith in Christ Jesus".
So now Jesus is the centerpiece of this new way, this new and living way, this new and living... see, there are some people today that are still trying to become right with God by the old school master. The old school master has been dismissed because Christ has come, oh, and my new way of living is relying upon Christ. Relying upon Christ. Obedience in the new covenant is relying upon Jesus. How and why? I rely upon Jesus for my righteousness. We rely upon Jesus for our provision. We rely upon Jesus for our approval. We rely upon Jesus for our blessing. We rely upon Jesus for our favor. We rely upon Jesus for our strength to love others the way he loves us. To rely is to depend on with full trust and confidence. When you rely upon someone or something, it gets your full trust, it gets your confidence. It's who you lean on now. You're relying on him, and you're relying on him for everything. You're relying on him.
See, I am not righteous because of what I do 'cause I found out that there's nothing I can do to be made right with God. That I'm righteous because I rely on what Jesus did. And so I'm righteous 'cause of what he did. Glory to God. But not only am I righteous because of what he did, I am blessed because of what he did. I am approved because of what he did. I am favored because of what he did. Now watch this. I have the strength to love people that don't even like me because of what he did. It's relying upon Jesus every moment of every day. I need to hear you. I need you to adjust your Christianity. It is now about relying upon Jesus each and every day. You never stop relying on Jesus and what he has done for you. You rely on him in the morning.
Excuse me while I get baptist just a little while. You rely on him in the midday hour. You rely on him in the evening. You rely on him when you're up and you rely on him when you're down. You rely on him when you're sick and you rely on him when you're well. You rely on him when everything's going all right and you rely on him when ain't nothing going all right. You rely on him when you up and you rely on him when you're down. You've got to adjust. We're not talking about you relying on yourself. We're not talking about you relying on your abilities. We're not talking about you relying on your education. We're not talking about you relying on who you know. We're talking about there's something awaiting you who will rely on him every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, every Christmas, every Thanksgiving. Something will happen in your life when you make this adjustment to rely on Jesus every day and all the time. Are you listening to me now?
I know it sounds like a simple message, but I got to get this thing on the inside of you, man, because in addition, this obedience to the faith, the faith part here also remember it means a constancy in such profession. It means you are in constant agreement with the Father's view of you in Christ. You are constantly in agreement with the Father's view of you in Christ. So the Father views you as righteous. So when you mess up, you want to get out of agreement, "Oh, I just ain't right". No, I am constantly in agreement with his view of me. Glory to God.
Now that sounds simple until you do something stupid. And he's saying, "Don't get out of agreement because you missed the mark. We can get over this hump if you'll stay in constant agreement with who you are in Christ Jesus". Man, I had to learn that lesson. I can't start feeling sorry for myself and start getting out of agreement with how God sees me. I can't do that. I can't do that. "I have wronged no man. I have corrupted no man. I have defrauded no man". And a part of you want to say, "Lord, now that's just a lie". No. Let God be true and every man a liar. You got to learn how to stay in agreement with your identity in Christ Jesus no matter what happens, no matter how you feel. Obedience to faith means I'm going to rely on him to help me maintain who I am in Christ. If you understand all that say, "Amen".
Somebody say, "Reverend, have you started preaching yet"? No, I'm trying to lay the foundation. We mixing this pancake batter, boy. I'm trying to lay the foundation here. Amen. Kind of like yesterday me and Taffi were in the kitchen trying to figure out the best recipe for a plant-based pancake, and then we were trying this and trying that. I said, "I want it a little bit more fluffy". So I put some baking soda, and there was some lemon juice. And that thing came up. I'm like, "Whoa. What just happened here"? We were like mad scientists going in there looking at the best recipe.
And I'm telling you this morning that the best recipe for your Christian life is a consistent reliance upon Christ Jesus, this new way of living. When you live by faith you are constantly relying upon Jesus for everything you need. What is it that you need today? You got to rely on him. "I need a job". You got to rely on him. "I need peace". You got to rely on him. You got to rely on him. Relying upon Jesus for everything you need; speaking in agreement with who you are in him. That's this obedience to faith. For instance, you begin to declare, "I am blessed because of Jesus". Say it. Say, say, say, say, say. "I am righteous because of Jesus. I am blameless because of Jesus. I am healed because of Jesus. I am righteous because of Jesus". Say it again. "I am blameless because of Jesus. I am healed because of Jesus. I am whole because of Jesus. I am complete because of Jesus".
Now what's all of that? What's all that? That's faith because you are relying upon Jesus and not yourself. I'm relying on Jesus and not myself. I need you to put that in your to-do list every day. I live every day relying on him for who I am, what I have, what I do. I rely upon Jesus. Now let's dig into this for a moment. "Yeah, I hear what you saying, preacher. I don't believe it take all that". Hence the problem. If you're not doing that, I guarantee you you relying on you. If you can get this, it's going to be like removing a dam, and the water is just going to stop coming on in there. And every day becomes an opportunity where the Holy Ghost has got to show you, "Have you noticed you didn't do this at all today? Have you noticed the joy you got"?
Next week, "Have you noticed you're healed"? Now watch this now. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 1 and verse 6 in the New Living Translation. 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 1 and verse 6 in the New Living Translation. I want to take you through just how this worked when even people in the Old Testament did it. Verse 1, "Three days later when David and his men arrived home at their town of Ziklag, they came home to Ziklag and they found that the Amalekites had made a raid in Negev and Ziklag. They had crushed Ziklag and they burned it to the ground and they took all the family members".
But look at verse 6. "David was now in great danger," families missing, homes destroyed, "because his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters," and, you know, when things are not going right you looking for somebody to blame. "And they began to talk of stoning him". But David called his lawyer to see if they could get him out. "But David found strength in the Lord". David found strength in the Lord. Here's a serious situation going on, but he was relying on God. There were probably a lot of different paths he could have taken, but he decided, "I'm going to trust and rely and lean confidently on God". You got to get yourself in a position where that's automatic. Your priority is relying on God automatically. You don't even think about it no more. It's automatically, "Let me go pray. Let me go talk to God. Let me go and think. Let me go get my Scripture".
It's got to be automatic. David found strength in the Lord. And you know the rest of the story. "Shall we pursue? Shall we overtake"? God spoke to him, told him what to do, and the Bible says, "And David recovered all". Wonder what would have happened had he turned to something else. Let's look at these things in the Old Testament, then bring it on up. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 14, verse 11 through 12 in the NLT. 2 Chronicles 14:11 and 12. My God. He said, "Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, 'O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty.'" We got to get that same attitude. We've allowed the world to condition us into thinking that we got a little God. And when we talk about turning to God when something is going on in the world, somebody will say, "I ain't got time to be playing church. This is real". Well, so is your God.