Creflo Dollar - Secure In Grace, Part 1
Well, at this time, if you could go with me to the book of James chapter 4, verse 17, and then Romans chapter 4, verse 23. You know, I wanna entitle this message like a declaration: "I Am Secure in Grace". "I Am Secure in Grace". Now, let me start off with this statement. This is a very important statement: No human being on the planet will ever be able to free himself from the penalty of sin, from the death and hell and the destruction of sin. No human being. None of what you do will ever be able to free you from the bondage of sin, nothing you can, no, not even your performance can free you from the bondages of sin. The only way to be set free from the bondage of sin, the penalty of sin, from the death and the hell and the destruction, the only way that you can be free from that is through Jesus. Everything else you've ever tried is futile.
And when, you know, in this day and time when people don't believe in Jesus, they don't wanna have anything to do with Jesus, they think that the whole thing is just a fable, there's only one way to the Father and that's Jesus Christ, but there's only one way to be free from sin and the penalty that comes and that's through Jesus Christ. And there are people today who are still trying to come up with their plan and their performance and their self-effort and all of their self-made ideas to try to be like God without God, to try to overcome sin and the penalty that it brings, and I'm telling you, the only way that can happen is through Jesus Christ.
Now, let me start off with something so that you can see, 'cause I wanna show you how impossible it is for you to be able to try to do what I just told you is impossible. Let's start off with the anatomy of man. Man, that's you and I, man is a spirit, he possesses a soul, and he lives in a physical body. You are not your soul, you are not your body, you are a spirit being. You are a spirit being. You don't have a spirit, you are a spirit. You have a soul. Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. Now, traditionally, people have used the words spirit and soul interchangeably as if they are the same, and they are not the same. You are a spirit, you possess a soul, and you live in a physical body here in this physical world.
Now, listen to me carefully. When you get born again, your spirit is sanctified and perfected forever. Remember, you are spirit, soul, and body. When you get born again, one-third of you is perfect, one-third of you is just like God. That part of you that is perfect and perfected and sanctified is your spirit-man. Your soul still needs to be renewed and your body continues to have to be brought in line with a renewed mind which hopefully begins to line up with the perfect part of you, your spirit. So when you get born again, your spirit is sanctified, and it is perfected forever.
Now, since you aren't saved by your own goodness, then your lack of goodness can't unsave you. Let me say that again. Since you are not saved by your own goodness, then your lack of goodness cannot unsave you. So if you confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are born again. If you confess faith, "I have faith in Jesus Christ, I believe in him, I receive him as my Lord". If you do that, you are born again ,and your spirit man, the spirit man, is sanctified and perfected forever. Now, faith is the issue where born again is concerned. Faith is the issue. See, you have faith in Jesus Christ, you're born again. So since faith is the issue, listen to me, sin doesn't cause you to lose your salvation. Since faith is the issue, then sin doesn't cause you to lose your salvation.
Now, I know some of you are just freaking out because at this particular time, most people hear this, and the first thing they think is, "Oh, my God, I can have my cake and eat it too". See, you're the person that continues to try to find a loophole so you can live life to please you. And you're trying to find a loophole to do things that you know won't be pleasing to God. So someone, for example, someone might say, "I believe if you sin you lose your salvation". And they may continue on to say, "You can't tell me that a person who's committed some grievous sin can go to heaven". All right, now, I'm sure you've heard that at one time. Because the church is full of people who make this statement that I believe if you sin, you lose your salvation. And some of 'em say you can't tell me if you've committed a grievous sin that you can go to heaven.
Well, you've got to understand something, that all sin, first of all, is on the same level in God's eye. Let's look at these Scriptures here. All sin is on the same level in God's eye. When people say stuff like this, "I believe that if you sin you lose your salvation," well, they sin too. They sin too. That always amazes me. How can that come out your mouth? For that to come out your mouth, is somehow saying you believe you don't have that issue. If for somehow, you're believing that, "Well, I don't sin". That's what you're saying. And in order for you to say that, you've got to divide sin into big sin and little sin.
Let me show you what I'm saying. Look at James chapter 4 and verse 17. James chapter 4, verse 17. He says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin". So according to this Scripture, if you know to do good but you don't do good, it's sin. Now, somebody else might say, "Well, that ain't a big sin". No, no, no, no, no. The Bible never ever gave any information that God divided sin up into big sin and little sin. Only traditional people have done that to try to preserve their own issue. So here, he says: "Here is sin. When you know to do good and you don't do it, then you know, to him that is sin". Well, that's almost everybody on this stream. I mean, there are times all of us, we knew to do good but for some reason we didn't do it, we didn't lack the courage to do it, we didn't take the initiative to do it. But that's sin.
And so you gotta understand for you to make the comment that says, "Well, I believe if you sin, you're gonna lose your salvation," then nobody would be saved. Come on, let's look at something else. Romans chapter 14 and verse 23. And I've taught this before, but I like to review these things and get 'em fresh in your spirit to think about 'em again. Romans 14, verse 23 says: "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin". So that's almost everybody on this stream. It's like whatever's not in faith so if you've ever been in doubt, if you've ever been in fear, whatever's done not of faith, he says, it is sin.
So are you saying that, you know, that you're gonna lose your salvation? "Oh, well, I'm not talking about that one. I'm just talking about the big ten: adultery, killing somebody". No, no, no, no, no, no. You say sin, you got to understand that all sin has the same measure. There's no big sin or little sin. Let me say this. "I haven't committed what you would call a big sin," somebody says, "but I have broken God's law". Now, I've heard that said. "I hadn't committed what some would call the big sin, but I have broken God's law". There you go again, you're trying to change the rules to try to keep you out of hell that you say that people ought to go. You're trying to change the rules so you can keep your salvation when you just said that if you sin you lose your salvation.
Well, what does the Bible say? James chapter 2 and 10, you know, somebody says, "I hadn't committed what you call the big sin, but I've broken God's law". Well, look at James 2, verse 10. He says, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of breaking all of it," wow. He says, you know, you can keep 612 laws, but break one of 'em, he says, you're guilty of breaking all of 'em. So the law, listen to me, is like a plated glass window. Whether you put a BB through it or a huge chair through it, the size doesn't make a difference, because the glass can't be patched. Whether it's a BB or a chair you throw it, the glass can't be patched.
I remember as a little boy, me and my friend, we were shooting a BB gun on the inside downstairs in his basement. They had a sliding glass door. And they had a box in it. If you hit the box, you all right. And it was my turn, and I missed the box and a BB went through the glass. And we came up with a great idea to cover it up with masking tape and so one day his mom was down there, and she finally decided to clean the glass, and she found out that our patch job didn't work, that she finally knew that this window was gonna have to be replaced. See, understand, it doesn't matter the size. You still can't patch it up. It's broken and it must be replaced.
Violate one tiny commandment and you're guilty of breaking the whole thing, that's what he says in James chapter 2. Regardless if you throw a chair through the window, or you throw a BB, it can't be patched up. Violate in one area, and you know, you're guilty of the whole thing. Now, to me, it just sound like, "Wow, I'm gonna need some help because this almost sounds impossible for me to have victory over this thing in this area". Well, let me go through some other little things I've heard. People who say, you know, "You have to be flawless and holy. You can't have sin in your life and still think that you're saved". You heard that one before? "You can't have sin in your life and still think that you're saved". And in order for you to say something like that, listen to what you're saying. "Can't have sin in your life, think you're saved".
In order for you to say something like that, again, you've got to categorize sin into big sin and little sin. If you understand it doesn't have any measure, it would eliminate all of these weird statements that people make and please understand something, you know, somebody says, "Well, all right, you know, committing adultery is one thing but speeding, it's another thing". You know, you don't consider speeding sin. But according to, I think it's Romans 13, verses 1 through 7 or so it talks about obeying the law of the land that God supports the laws of the land. And so all of a sudden, speeding is the issue, just like adultery. "Well, I don't agree with that". We don't care what you agree with, because that's what the Word says.
See, you can't even get to the point we talk about, "I don't agree with something," and you don't know the heart of God and what God said in his Word. And there's no Scripture in the Bible that supports any of those comments that I have made. If the born again believer who committed adultery and didn't confess it before he died, then he would go straight to hell and if you believe that, if you believe that if he committed adultery and didn't deal with it, that he'll go straight to hell, then so does every believer who has ever passed the speed limit. "Oh, that's radical". Yeah, it is.
If you believe that everybody that's committed adultery's gonna go to hell, then everybody that's caught speeding is gonna go to hell too. Same thing. If that were true, like I said, nobody in the whole world would make it to heaven, because why? We all come short and fail in many different ways. We all come short and fail in many different ways. Now, I'm not preaching this to give you an excuse or to give you a license to keep falling short when Jesus has already given us an answer, where we can do better in life. We may not, you know, have perfect flawlessness and actions in this life, but he has made it a way where we can mature and grow and get better in life.
If you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to have an opportunity to go to heaven is to die immediately after you get saved. Think about that. If you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to heaven is to die immediately after being born again, why? Because human beings fall short. And when you look at this, there's no way you can, no, there's no way you can resolve this issue without Jesus. There's no way you can deal with the sin issue, the penalty of sin, none of that, without Jesus Christ. So since salvation depends solely upon putting your faith in Jesus, since salvation depends solely upon your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin, listen to me carefully, your sin doesn't affect your relationship with God as your righteousness is concerned and going to heaven is concerned.
Now, I wanna spend some time with this because I've heard people say, "Well, you know, your sin doesn't affect your relationship with God at all". Oh, yeah, it will affect your relationship in other areas. It won't affect your relationship with being the righteousness of God is concerned and going to heaven, but think about this, man. When you continue in sin and you're not allowing the Holy Spirit to mature you, eventually you're gonna come to a point where you start dealing with condemnation, you're gonna come to a point where you lose confidence in God, you're gonna come to a point where all of a sudden you're gonna walk in shame and condemnation. You'll do like Adam and Eve did: you'll hide yourself from God, you don't wanna spend your time with God and what happens? Your heart is being hardened more and more.
So please understand something. To continue in sin and not allow the Holy Spirit to help you to resolve those issues, eventually it does affect the quality of your relationship with God. It's not gonna cause God to love you less. It's not gonna cause God to take his righteousness away from you. But I'm talking about the intimacy that we share with God on a day-to-day basis. It could be affected by, you know, living a life where I've got a relationship with God and then I'm sinning over here, and all of a sudden my confidence is not there and oh, I feel shame, and I feel guilt, and I'm not getting the intimacy that I would normally get from the Lord. He will help you to overcome those things, but we've got to understand that God wants to fellowship with you and want you to enjoy it just as much as he does.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and 17. God fellowships with you based on your faith in Christ alone. Based on your faith in Christ alone. It's not God who's backing off of the relationship. Just like in the Garden of Eden, God still showed up to have fellowship with 'em. They were in hiding. God still showed up to talk to Adam and Eve. They went and hid. And so likewise, God fellowships with us based on our faith in Jesus Christ, and even though you're in a bunch of mess, he's still gonna show up. The problem is the condemnation drives you away and you're hiding from God because of the shame. God's always gonna show up. And I tell you, here's the confidence that you have in God.
When you have this kind of confidence in God, and you don't allow yourself to be condemned in your heart, and you know that God's greater than your heart, then even when you do stupid stuff and crazy things, you still show up because you know your best chance of getting help is to spend time and have fellowship with him. And 2 Corinthians chapter 5:17 says: "Therefore if any man be in Christ," he is a what? "A new creature". So if you're in Christ, you're a new creature. He says, "The old things are passed away; and all things have become new". So when you get in Christ, you lose that old sinful man and you got a new creation and that new creation is designed to produce new fruit in your life. But sometimes we just don't renew our mind with the Word. We keep thinking the same way, and we don't produce that new fruit when we have the root to produce that new fruit. We just maintain all the old fruit and that old fruit begins to spoil because you've got a new creation on the inside of you.
And so Scripture doesn't teach... and listen to this, I don't want to get too far into this. But Scripture doesn't teach, "Once saved, always saves". There are several places that discusses the possibility of a reprobate mind and losing your salvation. Now, I just wanna show you the Scripture, and we'll do a separate teaching on this one day, but Hebrews 6, verse 4 and 6, it's just almost impossible for a Christian to lose his salvation. Unless you get in a position where you allow your actions to continue to harden your heart and then one day you get to the point, and I have met people who have decided, "Well, I don't wanna have anything else to do with God. I'm tired of fighting this demon. I'm just tired of it," and their heart begins, it gets harder and harder and harder and calloused to the point where there's no relationship.
That's not 'cause God left you. It's just you've just kind of renounced your relationship and eventually you will say, "Well, I don't even believe there's a God". Man, there's a lot of that going on right now. There are people who used to believe in God who now say, "I don't even believe there's a God. I used to believe a God. I used to be in church. I used to do all those things, but I don't believe that no more," wow. But even then you have to really qualify to fall back. Look at this, Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6. This Scripture's gonna show us that you can't sin your salvation away, but you might be able to renounce it if you do what I just explained.
Rejecting your faith isn't easily done but it's possible, and I don't believe that there are very many people who do fall away. I think it's just so, so hard to be able to do that according to this Scripture. Now, look what he says in verse 4: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, for them to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame".
You know what he's saying here? He says before you can even think about going back like that and renouncing God, you gotta first of all have tasted of the good Word, you've gotta have revelation flowing in you, you've got to have, you know, the Holy Spirit gifts operating in you. A lot of that, a lot of people just don't have in full operation. God's trying to make it very difficult for you to renounce him or to cast him away, because you know, you might think, "Well, I renounce God". And God knows you're too immature to renounce him. He's like, "Ah, you're not even a mature Christian to do that. I ain't even paying you no attention. You'll be all right".
You know, I did that one time over a little silly thing. I thought, well, this guy told me that, you know, because I did this, then I'm not going to heaven and God don't wanna have nothing to do with me. I'm like, "Well, fine. Then I quit. I'll just go in the world and have a good time". And I read this, and I thought, "Oh, I have renounced God, and I have fallen away from God". And then I start reading, and I'm like, "Wait a minute, I've not even matured into those things". So, you know, God forgave me and praise God, we went on, and we did what we need to do. But before someone would ever renounce so great a salvation, they would have to become hardened toward God. Now, think about that. So the enemy's thing is how can I harden your heart, ultimately to try to get you to renounce God.