Creflo Dollar - Walking In The Light
If you have your Bibles go with me to the book of Saint John chapter 1, Saint John chapter 1. And when you get to Saint John chapter 1, let's look at verse 6 through 9. I dropped a bomb on y'all last week when I told you, you're not the light of the world. And I felt like what I need to do is kinda back up a little bit and teach you into this so that you won't get in trouble with your momma'nem talking about, "Don't tell me, I ain't the light of the world. I know I'm the light of the world. You might not be the light of the world". So that we can see this. But I found a statement I wanted to really start off with tonight and it says that the first fundamental message of those who witness grace is not a message of condemning sin, but of proclaiming that sin is taken away by the Lamb of God.
And we have to understand that it is by Jesus alone that it's taken away. That man contributes nothing to it. That this grace is of the fullness of Christ. And upon this grace, there is also grace for daily living on this earth and there is grace that's going to be revealed at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, with that in mind, I wanna talk to you tonight about walking in the light. What does that mean? I have heard over the years so many misinterpretations and references concerning the light and we need to find out contextually what this means. You know, again, when you take things out of context and just kind of go with it, you end up in all kinds of weird places.
And the one of the reasons why we're talking about the book of John in context is 'cause John prophetically saw a lot of amazing things about the grace of God out of all those who wrote the gospel. I tell you, John really tapped into something, you know. You can see why Revelations, God could use him for that book as well: he really tapped into this. So let's look at Saint John chapter 1 and beginning at verse 6 and 9. And we're gonna look at this area of the light. Verse 6 through 9, verse 6 says, "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John". Now this John he's referring to is John the Baptist, Okay? Not John the the writer here, but John the Baptist. He says, "The same came," John, "Came for a witness and John was to bear witness of the Light".
All right, now we know that the light here is referring to Jesus Christ, okay. And he was sent to bear witness of the light that all men through him, all men through the light believing the light might believe. And John the Baptist was sent to bear witness. He said, "He was not that Light". John the Baptist was not that light, okay? But John the Baptist was sent to bear witness of that light. See that pretty clear, right? He said, "That was the true Light," referring to Jesus, "Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world".
Now you automatically know that you're gonna have to rightly divide the word when you read this in John. And it's very clear that John the Baptist, that man was not the light, but here's something that's even more important. Jesus is referred to as the light. Now under grace, man is not the light of the world. And that statement is so important. Under grace, he is not the light of the world. Only the Word that was with God, that's Jesus, and the Word that was God, that's Jesus, is the light of the world during the age of grace. Now, I said something so amazing here 'cause we're talking about now in the grace dispensation that no man, man is not the light. And we heard it very clearly as John began to foresee this, that Jesus is that light.
Now, the reason why I say it is I'm gonna take you to a place in the scriptures in Matthew 5 where it sounds like the contradiction. And you remember I told you, we've got to start dealing with the contradictions. And right now, I feel like I'm on a roll. I'm trying to find every contradiction I can find and resolve the contradiction, you know, me doing that, you know, now I'm controversial because I'm dealing with the controversy, all right, the contradiction that's in the Bible. But go to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14 and 16. Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 and 16. I thought about this last Wednesday. I said, my God, I just dropped that on everybody and left, you know. Like well, we ain't the light... what about the, you know, let your light shine. That's what we're getting ready to read. Don't shine your light, let it shine.
And we made that song, "Let it shine, shine. This little light, light of mine". That was my best song, favorite song, you know. Now watch this, Matthew 5:14. Look carefully. "You are the light of the world". That's already a contradiction to what we just read in John. "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid". Verse 16. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works". Ah, now notice now, "Let your light shine before men so they can see your good works". So this light and good works are going together here. "Let your light shine before men so they can see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven".
All right, now, if we look at the dispensation of grace, it is not our good works that glorifies God, it is our belief in him that glorifies God. So let's break this down a little bit. This was a condition under the law and that the good works were the works of the law. It's very clear here, the good works, these are the works of the law. Somebody says, "How would you say that"? Well, in verse 17, just move right on down to verse 17. Jesus is talking about I have not come, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law," okay, "Or the prophets: I am not come to destroy the law of the prophets, but to fulfill".
So right there, he's telling us that in context, this good works, "Let your light shine so that men might see your good works and glorify God," that is not true under the dispensation of grace while it was true under the law. And so and under the law, God was glorified by the good works of man. But under grace, all witness must be concerning the light. Under grace everything is about Jesus. Under grace, everything is about the light. Under the law, it was the good works of men that glorified God. Under the grace of God, it was the light, it was the Son of God and it is definitely cautioned to us that man is not the light. We see that in John chapter 1 and 8, he came to be a witness to the light, but Jesus is the light. The Son of God is the light.
Now, you see why it was necessary for me to talk to you about that because, you know, your momma'nem gonna go get the Bible and say see the area right there, Josephine, right there in Matthew chapter 5, I am the light of the world. And that's why we... oh my goodness. You understand why I teach homiletics on Sunday morning because we have to rightly divide the word of truth. What was true under this dispensation of the law may not be true under the dispensation of grace. What was true under the Old Testament, it may not be true under the New. For example, the Old Testament, the Bible talks about in Hebrews 10 and 1, the shadow of those things that are to come, all right.
Well, most of the Old Testament is nothing but shadows that point to Jesus. Somebody's got to be responsible for casting a shadow. I'm working on a sermon I call "Jesus the Shadow Caster," amen. He's the one that cast the shadow. And the illustration I wanna give you is that in the old covenant, you see people talking about the Sabbath and the Sabbath in the Old Testament represented a day. But then you come over to the new covenant and it says the Sabbath is no longer a day, the Sabbath is Jesus. Jesus under the new covenant is our Sabbath.
So if we're gonna deal with the contradictions, we gotta make sure we understand how to rightly divide between what happened and what was true before Jesus went to the cross and what is true after he went to the cross. We've got to understand what was true when you're dealing with shadows versus what the shadow's pointing to in the old covenant. We've got to understand what is true under the dispensation of the law versus the dispensation of grace. And when you can rightly divide those, you can easily rectify situations right here that we're looking at and you don't get confused.
Now, think about when you didn't understand what I just explained to you and you understand that. Now, think about what you would have done with somebody saying, "You are not the light". And you said, "Yes, I am. Matthew 5 says I'm the light". And then somebody says, "No, you're not. John chapter 1 say, he the light". You still follow what I'm saying? And then there's a split because of the light. Now we got Jesus is the Light Christian Center and I'm the Light Christian Center. That's how all of that started because we didn't understand how to rightly divide the Word of truth. You gotta understand that and I'm looking at this, I finally found the scripture. I got a book that I've been working on for three years. I didn't release it 'cause I couldn't find this particular scripture.
And I found the scripture that plainly said that you do understand that everything that was written so far is not everything. That it was just information from right there, but it's pointing to what is getting ready to happen. You don't have the whole story now. So the revelation of Jesus Christ is a progressive revelation. You first see the shadow of Jesus as all the shadows eventually point you to the one who's casting the shadow, all right. Melchizedek was a shadow. He was the high priest of the Most High God that was a shadow or a sign post pointing to Jesus our High Priest. Jesus is our Melchizedek. So when we read the old covenant, all we gotta do is follow the shadow pointing to Jesus and then back up and you begin to see what you need to see here. Now, I did wanna take this a little further since we're talking about the light and we know who the light is.
Look at John chapter 8 and verse 12. John chapter 8 and verse 12. Now, this is interesting here because now this is gonna be dealing with your performance versus, you know, who Jesus is, who is the light. All right, now verse 12 says this. He says, "Then spake Jesus again unto them," and look what he said, "I am the light of the world". My gosh! Did you see that? Did you see that? What did Jesus say? What did Jesus say? Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world". No, you're the light. No, you're the light of the world. Well, is you or is you not the light of the world? You follow what I'm saying? "He spake Jesus again said, 'I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of," what? "Life," okay.
So today we don't need to be afraid of his light because when we enter that light in the new birth, the new birth is how we enter that light. We enter Christ himself. So basically, when we enter that light or we enter Christ or the day we get born again, we enter that light. Now that light does not expose our sin. It reveals the perfection of the blood of Jesus in taking our sins away. The light doesn't expose the sin. The light reveals how the blood of Jesus has taken your sins away. So you have to be careful 'cause we love to use human illustrations to try to figure out God and they're not working here. Well, we gonna shine the light. You better watch out the light gonna shine on your sin and then we gonna... no, he don't need to shine no light on your sin. He already know your sin, right? But when you enter in, when you get born again, you become a Christian, you've entered into the light because Jesus is the light, okay?
And then when you enter into Jesus who is the light, you don't have to be afraid of the light exposing your sins because what the light is going to do is reveal, glory to God, the power of the blood of Jesus and how he has removed your sins. And what happens is you become enlightened to the grace and truth that happened to you when you got born again. Hallelujah, praise God. All right now, so in John chapter 8, verse 12, you see this phrase "Shall not walk in darkness". You see that? "Shall not walk in darkness". I was so blown away. For the believer who is in Christ. Now, those of you who are born again say, "I'm in Christ". And to be in Christ also means you're in what? You're in the light, right? Say, "I'm in the light because I'm in Christ".
All right now, for the believer who is in Christ or in the light, I'm gonna say something that's really, really strong and controversial. It's cool. Truth is controversy. You understand? Just 'cause something is controversial don't mean that it's wrong or it's bad, but truth by itself is controversial. And here it is, once you're in Christ, once you're in the light, it is impossible to walk in darkness ever again. I mean, y'all easing today, amen. Praise the Lord. If you say so, Reverend praise Jesus. Hop hop, hallelujah. I tell you, I had the same reaction and I couldn't stop right there. I'm like, okay, hold on. "I am the light of the world," Jesus said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life".
And so I'm saying to you that you who are in Christ, it is not possible for you to ever again walk in darkness. Now, we still sin but we will never be in darkness again. Think on that a little bit now. Now again, let let me turn it back on you. I dare you to act like you shot when I say we still sin. You are getting better and you are growing and your state is catching up with your stance every day of your life because of the Holy Spirit. He's taken desires away from you that you used to have. You are on a journey and you are being successful because of the Holy Spirit. But you're never gonna walk in darkness again. You're in the light.
How can you ever walk in the darkness when you're in the light? You're never gonna walk in darkness again. That old man, you'll never walk with that again. That's gone, that's gone. You're not perfect. And that's the thing I say to people who want to be judgmental of other people saying I wanna like okay, how was your last week? Well, I ain't did the Big Ten. Yeah, but you did the Teeny Weeny 20. Bad attitude, a white lie. Come on, sin is sin. Stop it. You're getting better because of Jesus.
You're living life better because of Jesus, amen. But you will never be in darkness again. Now, I realize I've got to explain that and I'm prepared to do that tonight. Go back to 1 John 1 and 7. 1 John 1 and 7. Yeah, we're still not perfect but we will never be in darkness again. Y'all like to hear it like that, right? Because somehow the church has convinced you, you know, when I say you still sin. We're not supposed to sin.
You know, every imperfection in your life is the imperfection of sin that by the Holy Ghost and by you being in Christ, he is walking you out of. You no longer have a nature that wants to sin. You have a nature that wants to do right. You have a nature that wants to live holy. You have a nature of God glory to God, a new creation on it. Whereas before your nature was to sin, you don't have that nature anymore. You're not serving that sinful man anymore. You'll never have to serve that sinful man anymore. Your nature is a nature of Christ. Praise God.
Now, 1 John 1 and 7, he says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin". But you gotta know how to put this stuff together 'cause now you get confused just reading what he talking about. Look what he said. If we walk in the light, if we walk in the light. Now, first of all, when I got born again, I'm in the light, right? So "If you walk in the light, as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin". Excuse me.
Now, if we have a performance work mindset and we see a phrase like this, we'll automatically assume it's talking about behavior. Again, it's rightly dividing the truth, you automatically assume 'cause under the law, it was all about performance. It was a self-performance. The law was a performance based agreement, all right. So if you read this right here and you automatically think, well, this is performance or work. If you walk in the light as he's in the light, then you have fellowship with him. So you're thinking walking in the light is gonna be based on your performance, okay, and on your works.
If you have a works mindset, you see this phrase as, you know, and automatically assume this is about your behavior, your behavior, behavior, but this phrase is not referring to how we walk. He says, if you walk in the light, he's not referring how we walk. He's not talking about how we walk, is referring to where we walk.
Let me say that again. It's not talking about how we walk. If you walk in the light as he is in the light, we have a... he's not talking about how we walk. He's talking about where we walk. If you walk where? As he is where? He's talking about where you walk, hallelujah. Not how you walk. To say, now look at this and see how I touch. I'll show you why this doesn't work. To say that it's talking about our behavior would not make sense. Why? It would mean if we behave ourselves like Jesus behaves himself, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all of our sins. Now, why would we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us if we behaving like Jesus and Jesus is perfect?