Creflo Dollar - Maintaining Your Righteous Stance - Part 1
I want to talk to you today about maintaining your righteous stance. It is going to be under attack and here's how the attack is gonna show up. It's gonna show up through shame of your past, guilt of your past, and condemnation. Those will be the three missiles that will be launched against your soul. Shame, guilt, condemnation. All designed to get you to change your mind about who you are and who you are in Christ Jesus. Everything Satan wants to do against the Christian is designed to get you to step away from your identity in righteousness, to get you to one day to stand up to say, "Okay, okay, okay. I yield to my emotions. I yield to the shame. I yield to the guilt. I yield to the condemnation. And I'm just gonna lay down the Bible and I'm just gonna lay down my righteousness and I'm gonna listen to the world and I'm gonna go along with them because this is real".
That's what he's gonna try to put after you. I'm telling you now so that this time next year and you're wondering, what happened to the brother or sister? Why don't they care anymore? What happened to their love for God? They used to love God. They used to do this. What happened? I'm telling you now that they fell at the attack, an emotional attack, to try to get you to simply deny that you are the righteousness of God. I thought about this and I'm thinking, surely there's more you want me to talk about than that. He says, "Son, they hadn't even got that yet". Listen to me. Because if he can attack your righteous stance, you're gonna end up standing like the rest of the world. You'll be open for all of the new ideas that the world will bring your way and the technology that will come.
So, here's what we got to do. That's what we're gonna talk about here. Verse 16 and 17 in the NLT. Let's begin. "For I am not ashamed," look it there, "of the good news about Christ". And yet, the enemy's gonna do everything he can to get you to be full of shame. He says, "I'm not ashamed of this good news about Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ". Why? "Because it is the power of God". The gospel about Christ is the power of God. What is it that's so powerful about the news concerning Christ? And yet he says, while you're begging for power and praying for power, he's telling you where the power is, the gospel of Christ, this gospel of grace. The good news about Jesus Christ. This almost too good to be true news about Jesus Christ, "is the power of God at work".
So, it's something about believing this grace of God, believing this gospel of Christ that will be power, that'll be at work. What is it at work doing? "Saving everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Gentile. This good news," about Jesus, "tells us how God makes us right in his sight". So, the good news, the gospel, is about how God made us righteous. The gospel is about the fact that you have been made righteous and there is no more imputation of sin or God is no longer charging sin to the person that's been made righteous because he already charged that sin on Jesus. He's not charging it on you because Jesus stepped up and said, "I'll take all their sin". It's like going out to eat with somebody and they say, "I'm gonna pay everybody's bill". Jesus showed up at the restaurant and said, "I'm paying everybody's bill".
And with some of the friends that I hang out with, we work to try to pay the bill before anybody know the bill being paid. I am telling you, those of you who have not understood that the bill has already been paid, once you believe the gospel that you've been made right, then you don't have to go around in the shame and the condemnation and all that stuff because Jesus has taken all of your sin. He's also taken the punishment that we should have got for our sins. He went ahead and went to hell for us. He went ahead and paid the ransom for us so that we could believe that we are righteous in him. And the scripture says that's power. He said, "This is accomplished from start to finish," look it there, "by faith". "From start to finish by faith". You know what he's saying? "Can I get you to believe it? Can I get you to receive it? Can I get you to by faith declare to somebody that I am the righteousness of God. I am holy. I am pure".
Think about the apostle Paul who was behind the murder of Christian people, who was sat back and watched Stephen stone to death. When he got converted on the road to Damascus and when he received Jesus as his Lord and when he understood the power of the gospel, he said this, "I have wronged no man. I have corrupted no man. I have defrauded no man". And I know I can turn to the next page and find where he corrupted, where he defrauded, and where he did all the things he just said he didn't done. Well, who was talking? That was his belief. "I received that I've been made righteous and I will not contradict that with my action, I will not contradict that with my words, I received that he made me righteous". And he said, "That's power".
Don't you know it upset hell when hell can't convince you that you're still a sinner. Even the New Testament refuses to refer to you as a sinner. Now that you are born again, 67 times he says in the New Testament, 67 times you see the word "saint". Turn to your neighbor and say, "Hello, saint". Now, that's if you've been born again. Now, if you sitting by somebody hadn't been born again, say, "Hey, sinner". He says, "As the scripture says, 'It is through faith that a righteous person has life.'" He says, "Something happens when you become so convinced that I am righteous". When you so gain I am righteous with all of the mistakes and all the trip ups and it's getting better, because the more you can agree with your new identity in righteousness, the more the power is released to change you from glory to glory. Somebody shout, "I'm the righteousness of God". But the battle we fight is not believing we're righteous, so we continue to try to do something to be what he's already made us.
Go with me to the book of Romans chapter 5, verse 17 and 19. Verse 17 and 19. Romans 5, 17 and 19. You know, I figure today the best way to tackle this is scripture by scripture. So, if you still don't believe, you know it ain't God's fault and you know it ain't my fault. I done told you, I done told you, and I done told you. Look at verse 17 and then 19. He says, "For the sin of this one man, Adam," so now he's talking about Adam. "The sin of this one man, Adam," all that stuff that happened in the garden, "caused death to rule over many". Adam sinned, died spiritually, and so every person that's born on the planet comes here spiritually dead because of the sin of one man. Now they didn't do anything. They were just born. They just showed up. They didn't commit a sin. They showed up and they were victims of Adam's action.
Oh, my goodness. So, they were sinners. Born into sin, shaped into iniquity. "But even greater," so now there is something greater than sin. I need to pause, see, I didn't see this when I was studying it. I see it. There is something greater than sin. It's the righteousness of God. There is somebody greater than the first Adam. It's Jesus. You say, "Why do you keep emphasizing righteousness"? Because righteousness is greater than sin. And if you focus more on righteousness, which is greater than sin, it's gonna change your sin situation to line up with your righteousness situation. He says, "But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness," look it there, "his wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness".
Righteousness is so powerful that God gave it by grace. You are righteous by grace, which means, when something is by grace, you got it without having to earn it, without having to work for it, without having to qualify for it. You're righteous by grace. Say, "I'm righteous by grace". God favored you with it. There's no way you can brag about being righteous in him because it's a gift, alright? "But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness," now watch this, here's again the key, "for all who receive it," for all who receive it, for all who receive it. I can tell you about it, but will you receive it? I can put a gift in the box and extend it to you, but will you receive it? I can put a bow on it, tell you there's a million dollars in the box, but will you receive it? And that's the issue we have right now with Christian people.
We say we receive it at church and then when we're ashamed, guilty, or feeling something happened emotional or something happened in our lives, we forget we received the box. "For all who receive it". How many of you will receive it today? I'm not talking about just saying it. How many of you will receive it today? Now, you gotta know, every hand didn't go up. So, there's still a struggle with, "How can I receive that because my church told me I had to do X, Y, and Z in order to be righteous". So, you're trying to be something that Jesus has already made you. And what Jesus says is that "I don't need what you got to do to make you that. I went ahead and passed your actions and made you that free". My goodness. "For all who receive it will live in triumph," or victory.
How many wanna live in victory and triumph? Alright, so that's what I am prophesying over your lifetime. Because you've received the gift of righteousness, you will live in victory. You will live in triumph. Hallelujah, there'll be some days where it look like you're gonna lose, but watch out, at the end of that day you're gonna see triumph in your life. It may be a week where it looks like you're gonna lose. Oh, they messing with you, they lying on you, they talking about you, but watch out, you are the righteousness of God. Right in the midnight hour, your victory shall show up. I declare in the name of Jesus, if you'll receive this righteousness, you're gonna walk in victory. It might not seem like it's there, but you will always triumph in Christ Jesus. We will walk in victory. We will walk in triumph. We will walk in promotion. We will walk in the goodness of the Lord because we know who we are. We have received the gift of righteousness.
Now you see why he want to attack it. He says, "You'll triumph it". Now, watch this. Not only will you have victory, you're gonna have victory "over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ". See, we think that victory over sin is by making sin greater. Come to church, let me condemn you with sin, let me tell you you ain't no good, let me tell you God don't like ugly, and he don't like ugly, but all of that is designed to make you feel condemned, to make you feel shame. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, not praying," and all that stuff. "You ought at least feel guilty for doing what you did". That's not my job. That's not what I'm called to preach. I'm called to preach, "You know better because you are the righteousness of God. You'll do better because you are the righteousness of God. You are better because you are the righteousness of God".
See, you're trying to stop sin when sin has already been dealt with and you already have victory over it, but sometimes you give victory to sin just by receiving that, "Well, I still must be a sinner. It must not have took". Are y'all seeing how important this is? Come on, let's travel through the scripture. So far, all I've done is read the scripture and explain it. Look at Romans chapter 3 in the NLT. Let's go to the NLT. Romans chapter 3 and I'm gonna read 20 through 31. Romans chapter 3, 20 through 31 because there's always somebody quote, "trying to correct my teaching," unquote. And I'm like, "Dude, I'm not even teaching. I'm just reading. I can't help it that I know how to read the Bible".
And in order to read the Bible, you got to understand context and pretext and you just got to understand how to read. You gotta understand, what if I wrote you a letter, okay, and that letter was from me to you, that's part of context. I can't take your letter and make it for everybody. That's part of context. And then I got to understand the old covenant, or agreement, and the new covent, or agreement, and then in the new covenant he says, "We have a new agreement. We are not going to operate by the old agreement anymore. We have a new agreement". And then we tell you the new agreement and you still want to stay with the old. It's just like if I give you a contract and we're doing business and... I said business, we're doing business, and I give you a contract and we got a $200,000 bill on that contract.
And then I come back and say, "Let's tear this up. Here's a new contract". And then when I leave, you get the old one out of the trash can tape it back together and say, "No, I'm gonna live by the old one". That's what church folks doing. I keep trying to tell you about the new agreement and you keep trying to take me back to the old agreement. We have torn up the old agreement. According to the new agreement, this is a better agreement. "Well, Creflo, then, you know, Creflo about to tell people not to tithe". Yeah. Don't you dare bring no animals in here. "Well, Jesus, you know, he said we should tithe". Did you see what he was talking about tithing? Spices. Because he was still under the old agreement. The only time they mentioned money was when they were taking a long trip and they said, "You can go ahead and sell all of your animals and your produce and convert it over to money".
And then when you get to where you're going, then if you want to use it to buy some other stuff, because they weren't taking no money. The priest wasn't taking no money. Money could not get your sin covered. Over there, the priest wasn't taking no money. The priest had to have some animal stock or some produce. Now, if you want to keep doing that, do it at home. And listen, if you wanna give 10% of your finances, 20% of your finances, that's between you and God. And some people will fight you.
"Well I just don't agree with that". You have that right. But you're gonna look real funny in heaven trying to explain to Jesus after he died, crucified, dead and buried, went to hell for you, only for you to stay with the old agreement when he said, "We don't need no more sacrifice because I'm the one sacrifice, I'm the one for all time sacrifice. I'm the one for all time", Jesus even said to the priest, "Sit down now because we won't be coming back no more". "I'm the one and I'm the one and forever time sacrifice and through this one... and so, through this one and for all sacrifice, I done took care of your sin".
I don't know why that's so hard to believe. It's because religion, like a demon, has put handcuffs on you and you don't wanna take them off. The only thing talking about me has done has made me more bold to keep preaching because I'm not going back to where I came from. I'm not going back to the old agreement. I'm not going back to the old contract. That contract had me feeling shameful. That contract had me feeling guilty. That contract had me feeling condemned. That contract had me feeling unworthy. That contract had me thinking, I don't even know if I'm gonna get to heaven. I was scared to die because the old contract made me, it made it hard for me to believe that I was gonna die and go to heaven.
But under this new contract, I have a blessed assurance that when I'm absent from the body I'll be present with the Lord. I mean, I'm going for it this year. Y'all might have to put me out because I'm getting so radical. And I got other churches I can go to, I just start up there, but I ain't holding back nothing. Jesus is on his way back. I am gonna preach this gospel of Jesus Christ until it gets the hell out of you or you let heaven get in you. I will not go back. I ain't doing it. Y'all can get together and vote me out. Well, you can't vote me out. I was here first. I mean, it say all of what I'm saying. It say right there, rat there, R-A-T, right there in Hebrews and right there it say there is a better covenant better than the old one.