Creflo Dollar - How To Maintain Your Righteous Stance - Part 2
Some of you think that God can't use you anymore because of your past, and your mess ups, and stuff like that. And he used three murderers in the Bible, and you don't think he can use you? Somebody said, "Say what"? Yeah, Moses, murderer; the apostle Paul, murderer; David, peeping Tom and murderer. So get over that and start focusing in on your identity. I am the righteousness of God. I have been made righteous; I have not become righteous. I didn't do nothing to deserve righteousness. I believed in Jesus, and he made me righteous. He made me righteous. I am righteous because of Jesus. And, as long as Jesus is all right, I am all right. Let me show you something, in the, when the law was given, at the same time, if you look in Exodus, that the law was given this, the sacrificial system was instituted, where the Lord said that we're going to introduce the sacrificial system where you bring a sacrifice that's acceptable. And, if that accepts that that sacrifice is acceptable, then I will bless you because of the sacrifice.
Now, those sacrifices could never take away sin; it could only cover sin. He says, "I'll bless you because of the sacrifice", which you automatically knew; when he gave the commandments, he said, "I know they're not gonna be able to keep them, so that's why I got to figure out a way where I can bless them". Mhm, oh my goodness, "I'll bless you because of the sacrifice". So, if the sacrifice presented wasn't not, wasn't all right, you ain't gonna be all right. So you got to bring a sacrifice that's acceptable. But, for all of us, Jesus is our sacrifice, and how many of you know, he's acceptable, huh? So, if the sacrifice is all right, you're all right. Is the sacrifice all right?
So, if you go around thinking, "Oh, I ain't righteous no more," I'm gonna go to Jesus, "You all right"? He say, "Yeah, I'm still good," and I'm thinking, "Well, what they doing? He's still good, we still good. I'm still good because he's still good". He's the acceptable sacrifice. He died once and for all, praise God. I am the righteousness of God today, tomorrow, when I'm up, when I'm down, I'm the righteousness of God. As long as I am focused and still tied into Jesus, I believe in him, praise God. He has made me righteous. I receive my righteousness. Are y'all getting this? I'm, can you see I'm just drilling this in, this is going to be your foundation for the year. "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"!
So they treated Jesus like the worst sinner. Think about what he went through. They treated him like the worst sinner ever, whipped with a cat of nine tails, nailed to a cross, spit on, ahh. Then, after all of that, he who had never sinned went to the hell that was our hell to go to. But he took our place and went to the hell that we were supposed to go through. My God, Mm hm hm. Why did he do that? He was treated like the worst sinner ever, my goodness, so that you and I could be treated like the best righteous person ever. Amen. He who had never sinned, and didn't deserve the treatment, did it so that we who had sinned and were made righteous, and didn't deserve the treatment of a righteous man, that's what he did. "I will become the sinner. Let them treat me like the worst sinner in the world so you can become the righteousness of God and be treated like the righteous of the world".
Wow, okay. Maintaining your righteous stance, that's what we're talking about. Now, let's look at Romans chapter 4, verses 1 through 8. Let's look at it again in the NLT, Romans 4:1 through 8. I didn't get a chance to really get to this last week, got to part of it, but let's look at the whole thing here. Are you seeing this? It's, people would get born again if they knew this, but not, they're not getting this. What they're getting is all the rules you got to keep in order to be born again. You, what are you talking about, all the rules you have to keep? It was a gift. Listen to me. If righteousness, if the blessing is a result of your good works, watch this, then you should get the credit for it. But, if righteousness is a gift, then Jesus should get the credit for it.
So now what we're gonna see here is, what do you really think? You really think you all that? So then you should get the credit for it. But, if it's a gift, he should get the credit for it. Watch this, they're gonna talk about Abraham here, and this is awesome because, in the book of Genesis, the Bible says that Abraham believed God, in Genesis, before Jesus, and heaven said, "You're righteous". Before Abraham did any goody goody thing, Abraham believed God, and heaven said, "You're righteous". And then somebody said, "Oh, Abraham was perfect". Oh, far from it. Oh, dude, we can show some scriptures about Abraham the coward, Abraham the liar, Abraham... oh, my goodness, the fear person. And God says, "It's too late. I've already made him righteous".
So, even when he lied about Sarah being his wife, even when he was a coward, wouldn't stand up for her, even when all of that stuff happened, he said, "I still got to treat him as righteous because I am showing a picture of what is to come". And the Old Testament was all about shadows and pictures. And that's why you gotta learn how to rightly divide between the old covenant and the new covenant. Because, in the Old Testament, the Sabbath was a day, and people still arguing about, "Do you worship God on Saturday or Sunday? We worship on Thursday at 3". That's not even the issue. The issue is that you've got to rightly divide and know that, in the old covenant, it was a shadow and a sign of Jesus. All of the shadows and the signs pointed to Jesus. Jesus even said, "These scriptures here speak of me".
But, in the New Testament, they talked about the Sabbath, and they made it plain. He said that the Sabbath is me. It was a day, but now the Sabbath is Jesus; Jesus is your Sabbath, glory be to God. Jesus is your Sabbath. And you still wonder what day? And we got whole denominations because we couldn't figure out what day it was because we didn't rightly divide the Word. Look at, do you see that, you see the stuff that has come because we don't know how to read the Bible. We don't know how to rightly divide between what was true under the old covenant and what is true under the new covenant, and we just, you know, the righteousness under the old covenant meant you had to earn it. You were righteous because you did something right. But people were still dying because the law was perfect, it was flawless, and men couldn't keep it.
And, if you complain, you die because the wages of sin was death. But, under this new covenant, Jesus said, "All right, we see they can't do it. So I'm gonna be the champion, God come down in flesh," glory to God, "and I'm gonna do what men can't do. And not one jot or tittle of that word in the law will go to pass until I fulfill every bit of it. So, no, nothing in creation will be able to say that Jesus didn't do it all". He did it all. And now, through him, you get to live life. You couldn't live it perfectly, but he lived it perfectly. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Get used to this; I'm gonna get bolder and louder and louder about this gospel of grace more than ever before. "Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of the Jewish nation". And here's what he said, "What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about".
So, if you believe that righteousness is a result of your good deeds, you have something to boast about. And, if you listen carefully, church folks are boasting; they are boasting about what they do every day. They are boasting, and, at the same time where they're boasting, they're condemning you and creating that sense of, you know, approval addiction. And you, now you're working real hard to try to gain their approval, and they ain't even doing half the stuff they're telling you. They might have did it one time, and they're making it seem like they do it every day. They don't do it every day. They sleep past past 9 o'clock all the time. They got up one time at 4 o'clock to pray, and that's the last time. But they got you thinking they get up every morning at 4 o'clock, and now you're get up every morning at 4 o'clock and feeling condemned if you don't because they do that.
Boy, these church people, they something else, boy. But I'm gonna love you. I'm gonna love you all the way to heaven. I know Jesus is coming back, that's why I'm stirred up because I know it, I know he coming, he coming. Praise the Lord, he coming. So, if you did good deeds, you got something, and you're made righteous because of your good deeds, you have something to boast about. The Bible even said in Ephesians chapter 2 that there is no boasting. Why? Because it's a gift of God; Salvation is a gift of God. Therefore, there is no boasting. So if you're boasting, somehow, you think you're responsible for the blessing and the righteousness that's in your life. He says, "If good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. For the scripture tells us, 'Abraham believed God,'" it tells us in Genesis. "'Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous.'"
Why, because of all of his good deeds? No, "'because of his faith.'" "When people work," I love this, "their wages are not a gift". You worked for that. It's not a gift when you work. The Bible says, "but it was something that you have earned". So please understand, it's not a gift, it's something that you've earned. If you came to me and said, "I'm gonna do you a favor, but I'm gonna have to charge you," it's no longer a favor. You are a hired hand now. "When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners". You are counted righteous because of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not counted righteous because of your good works and your good deeds.
Now, good works and good deeds will be born out of a person who have been made righteous because they believe in Jesus Christ. But the good works are not responsible for you being made righteous. You are made righteous because of Jesus Christ, and, out of that righteousness, you produce all type of wonderful things born out of love. Any work that you do that's not born out of love is a work that's not acceptable by God. So, if you're doing some good work so that people can, you know, recognize you or praise you in church, but it's not born out of love, it's not accepted by God. So you're keeping up with all of the little goody, goody works you do so, when you get to the gate, you can roll your little toilet back, put your toilet paper rolodex out, and say, and they say, Why "should I let you through the gate"?
You say, "Here you go, Lord. Look at all this. Look at that, look at that. Look at that, that toilet paper still rolling down there. Look at that. Look at that. All my good works". And then they close the gate. Say, "What, what, what, what happened"? You still didn't get it. You still didn't get it. You're in heaven bragging. We don't want to hear but one word. Why should I let you in? Jesus. Come on in. I have faith in Jesus. I trust in Jesus. And people don't get that, to the point where there are religions that have been started as enemies of the cross. I got a problem with Jesus because I don't like the painting Michelangelo did of Jesus.
Everybody know that ain't Jesus but you; everybody in the world know that ain't Jesus. I can't even see Jesus walking around with long hair that he curled up right before he left with rosy cheeks and makeup, that ain't, are you serious? Have you read the description of Jesus and the work that he did and all the stuff that's going on? That ain't how no Jesus look. But here's the deal. I don't care. I'm not moved by how he look. I'm moved by what he did. I'm moved that he died for me, that he was whipped with a cat of nine tails for me, that he was nailed to a cross for me, that he went to hell for me, that he got up from the grave for me, that he rose to be seated on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, for me. And that he is coming back again for me. I don't care what he looked like. It's because of what he did that's exalted, instead of me trying to look at what I'm gonna do.
See if I believe I'm the righteousness of God, then, out of that righteousness, behavior is gonna line up with it. But, when your behavior ain't right, you come to church, preacher make you feel bad, Christian folks make you feel bad... It is amazing to me how Christian people love turning on one another, like you celebrate somebody's fall, which indicates you don't believe. Even if they did fail, we forgive, quickly, we forgive quickly. But now you start qualifying who can fall and who can't, when all of us got an issue. And, for you to act like that is for you to believe you don't have no issue. You mean to tell me you got time to slander somebody else's fall, when, in the booth in the back in the corner... Wilson, you remember him...? In the booth in the back. Geraldine, you remember him...? Booth in the back in the corner in the dark, you got your own little stuff. And your little stuff might not be somebody else's stuff, but you got some stuff somewhere.
Wake up and smell the coffee. You are not a bed of roses. You got some weeds in your yard somewhere, too. It's amazing; it is so amazing to me. I sit and look at preachers who are supposed to be preaching love and the gospel, and they did, they did it, it's Mammon, ain't it? They got their podcast because they're, "We're gonna get paid now. We're gonna get paid now". And you wouldn't believe how Mammon has substituted as gods in the lives of a lot of Christian. You still trying to get your bag instead of trying to get your salvation. "Well, I don't agree with that; right is right". Who you think you are? Let us follow you home; let us shrink and get on your little shoulder, say, "Right is right. Right is right".
Let me look at your computer and see where you've been. Ha, yeah, stop it. That's why folks don't want to have nothing to do with y'all because y'all too holier than thou, dog gone Holy Ghost sheriff, going around trying to arrest everybody. You need to turn around and handcuff yourself, and rescue... Where are the Christians? Where are the Christian people? I tell you where they are. They're illiterate of the manuscript of life. They still don't know how to read the Bible, so what are they doing? They're making up their own right and wrong. And they keep joining churches that tell them what they already know or what they think they already know.
Well, it wasn't a scripture one time out here... You fall down, whoever falling in the ditch, and then you gonna, you have somebody that's gonna fall in the ditch right behind you because you're all gonna fall, the blind leading the blind, and everybody in the ditch. "Better watch out, pair, you might go viral". I've been going viral for 30 years; I don't care. I am delivered from approval. I don't need nobody's approval. I already got God's approval. That is the only approval I need. Well, well, Well, what, well, what? Just got baptized two hours ago. Look at them all, looking at me like that. "People are counted righteous, not because of their works, but because of their faith in God who forgives them".
Now, now watch this; I'm saying I'll let to set you up for this next verse. Here it goes; are you ready? I hope I did a good job to prepare you for what we're about to read. "David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it". So here's David because David's looking at this, and he's like, what he was saying is, "Ooh, y'all don't know how blessed y'all are". He said, "That wasn't the same when I did it". Verse 7, he said, "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, and whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin".