Creflo Dollar - The Unforgivable Sin, Part 2
Jesus died to take care of the sins of the whole world. People who are not born again and they die without getting born again will die and go to hell and realize all they had to do is not live perfect, but believe in Jesus and they would be in heaven. That's the torment of hell; that your sins were paid for, but you didn't believe it enough to receive it and so you try to go pay the price yourself in hell. He's not coming to deal with our sins. The sin meter has been turned off, not that you don't sin anymore, but God is not charging you. That's why I use the word "meter". He's not coming to deal with sin anymore but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him, and this salvation is the final salvation of our glorified bodies.
So why is he not coming to deal with sin when he returns? Because he's already dealt with it when he died, when he declared that "My body is the final sacrifice. I have taken the sins of the whole world upon me, and if anybody believe it, they just bought the security of grace". Wow. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know any other way to teach you but line by line by line by line. Come on, let's go on into 10; Hebrews 10:1. "The old system under the Law of Moses was only a shadow". The old system, bringing men once a year, they bring a sacrifice and then they shed the blood of the animal and it covers the sin. He says that was just only a shadow, "a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves," all right?
The Sabbath was the day of rest, but today Jesus is our Sabbath. The Sabbath was a dim preview of what was to come, that you can rest in Jesus Christ. Jesus is our rest. Next verse. Well, he says the sacrifice under that system were repeated again and again. He said, "The sacrifice under that system were repeated again and again year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship," all right?
Verse 2, "If they could have provided the perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped". But the animal sacrifices could never deliver people from sin. He says, "For the worshiper would have been purified once for all time and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared".
So what he's saying also is that under that old system would have had to come every year, those feelings of guilt stayed there. And there are a whole lot of you still operate and carry the feelings of guilt because you don't really believe what he's done. That's the real test. Do you really believe that Jesus is the final sacrifice and he's taken your sins? Do you have confidence in that, or are you plagued and tormented and haunted by the guilt and condemnation of your past? He said once for all times and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared, if animal sacrifices did what the sacrifice of body of Jesus did.
Verse 3, "But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year". So every time they showed up with a animal sacrifice, it reminded them of their sins. And then they would go on, do the animal sacrifice, and they know they covered just for one year and probably on the way home they did something else. They were sin-conscious all the time. "But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year".
Verse 4, "For it is not possible for blood of bulls and the goats to take away sins". Those animal sacrifices couldn't take away sins.
Verse 5, "That is why when Christ came into the world he said to God, 'You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings, but you have given me a body to offer.'" Now, you know what? Jesus had to come with a body. That body was the sacrifice to take away sin from our lives.
Verse 6, "You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin".
Seven, "Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will, O God, as is written about me in the Scriptures.'"
Eight, "First, Christ said, 'You did not want animal sacrifices or sin sacrifices or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin; nor were you pleased with them, though they are required by the Law of Moses.'" And the Bible says he was never pleased with them even though they were required by the Law of Moses.
Verse 9, "Then he said, 'Look, I have come to do your will.' He cancels the first covenant". That old covenant, he cancels it. Check it out. Jesus cancels it. You won't cancel it, but Jesus canceled it. "He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second covenant into effect". You can't have those two covenants working at the same time. Jesus came to initiate a new covenant, and he canceled the old covenant. But you know what we do in church today? We want a little bit of the old and mixing with a little bit of the new, and you know what it equals? Zero. He cancels it. "Then he said, 'Look, I have come to do your will.' He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God's will was for us to be made holy," made holy.
You still trying to become something that he already made you. Your identity is holy. You're holy right now. People may not see your holiness, but you're holy right now. And the day you believe that, that holiness is gonna work its way out into fruit and people will be able to see it. But you don't like the fruit you're seeing so you're like, "There's no way I can be holy," when he made you holy. He made you righteous. "For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all times". I am holy right now. But if you stay stuck under that old covenant, you're gonna still be guilty and condemned based on what you used to do according to that first covenant, which Jesus canceled. Instead of saying, "Jesus canceled the old so I can be under the new," and the new says, "He made me holy, and I believe it".
"God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of his body of Jesus Christ once and for all times". Are you kidding me? You're going around being afraid to die? You're a Christian and you're afraid to die? Man, dude, listen. Is that how you count the value of what Jesus did for you, to completely ignore it and still act religious and not fight against that guilt, fight against that condemnation, fight against that shame? Tell it, "You're not gonna have me no more. You're not having me no more. I'm not going to be guilty no more. I'm not gonna be in shame no more. I'm not gonna be in condemnation no more, because I am not under that shame, guilt, condemnation covenant. I'm under this righteousness, redemption, holy agreement 'cause I believe in Jesus". And the Holy Ghost now will begin to work that identity into fruit into my life, and I look up one day and I'm just not the same because I believe in him.
Look at the next verse. "Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sin". Think of that. It could never take away sin. Do you know the work that was required just to prepare a sacrifice? And you had to make sure that the sacrifice was good. 'Cause if the sacrifice was good, you'll be good. But if the sacrifice ain't good and it's not acceptable, neither your sins won't be covered. That's why I love the fact that Jesus is my sacrifice. Jesus is always good. Jesus is never gonna not be good. So if Jesus is good, I'm good. And always I'm not good as he ain't good, and he never not going to be good. So if he going to be good, I'm going to be good, hallelujah. Glory to God.
Look at this. Next verse, "But our high priest offered himself", our high priest, Jesus, "offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time". Oh, glory to God. My sacrifice is Jesus, not no lamb, no calf, no goat. My sacrifice is Jesus, and Jesus offered his body as a sacrifice and it's going to be good for all times. The sacrifice is good for all times and so I'm good. I'm good for all times. "Then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand". He sat down. That's something that never happened with the priests on the earth. There was not a chair behind the holy of the holies. They never sat down, why? Because they had to keep doing it over and over again. But Jesus, when he did it, it was done to the point that he sat down at the right hand of God.
I have a Savior that's seated in heaven, why? 'Cause the work is over. It's over, and you still in church working. You'd be so shocked that the things you struggle with every day just 'cause you won't let it go and say, "All right, God, I believe you and I trust the Holy Spirit to do the work". The Holy Spirit has committed to making you in the image from glory to glory, even by the Holy Ghost. He's committed to your transformation, but you won't let him. I tell you again, I told you once, I told you again. The worst sin from heaven's view is when you remove trust from God to trusting in yourself, trusting in your performance, trusting in your self-effort. Self-righteousness is just an atrocious sin from heaven's view.
Look at the next verse. "There he waits," seated he waits, "until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet". I tell you something about this year. There's a big humbling ongoing. There's some mighty humbling going on. And while there are people who don't believe in Jesus, who make fun of us as Christians and that's all gonna change. "For by that one offering, he forever made perfect those who are being made holy". He forever made perfect or complete. No, no. Seriously, this word "purchase, perfect", the Bible says, I believe, in Hebrews 9 he talks as pertain to the conscience. And so he made perfect as pertaining to the conscience, as pertaining to the conscience, those who have been made holy. As pertaining to the conscience. Your conscience has been delivered from dead works. What's left?
If my works don't get it done, you know, John 6:29 says, "Here is the works of God. Believe in the one who he sent". We're still trying to make it busy stuff that I got to do in order for God to do that. And then when something good happens, we wanna go back and tell people, "The reason why this happened 'cause I did these three things". And then you turn it into a sermon or write a book. "The three things I did to get God to heal me". That ain't how that work, man. You're still under that old covenant. He says, "For by that one offering, he forever made perfect those who are being made holy".
Verse 15, "And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so," why? "For he says, 'This is the new covenant I will make with my people on the day,' says the Lord. 'I will put my laws in their hearts. I will write them on their minds.'" Now, immediately somebody says, "See there? See there? That's the Ten Commandments, see"? Now, he's not talking about that. See, under the new covenant there's some laws. You know what the law of the new covenant is? The perfect law of liberty, the law of love, the law of love. He says, "I'm going to put that law of love in your heart". This is the Holy Spirit speaking. And you know when the Holy Spirit did it?
In Romans 5:5 when he says that the Holy Spirit poured the love of God into your heart. He poured it into your heart. He pours that love in your heart. He pours that perfect law of liberty in your heart. Do you know, by trusting the Holy Spirit and operating in this new covenant God starts working in your heart and then what's in your heart begins to grow out of your heart into fruit and you see the fruit of the Spirit operating in your life because he poured it in your heart, he wrote it on your heart. It's there in your heart. You're going to know by intuition it's in there. It's there. You know when you're walking in the way you ought to walk the Holy Spirit's in your heart. He's leading you, guiding you, and put the love of God in you.
Verse 17, "Then he says, 'I will never again remember their sins and their lawless deeds.'" Are you kidding me? And some people want to ignore this and go on to something else, no, no, no. What are you gonna do with this? Do you see this amazing statement? I almost used the word "scandalous". You see this scandalous statement? That's scandalous. That's why people get so mad at me when I teach grace. It's scandalous. A religious man's got to go and redo all of his sermons if people listen to me and hear this. But I'm telling you, I'm just reading the Word. "I will never again remember their sins and their lawless deeds". That's not a license to keep on sinning, because you've been set free from sin. And when you're free from sin, that means you're free to do what's right. It's not freedom to do what's wrong; it's freedom to do what's right.
"I will never again", this is the part of the security policy, "I will never again remember their sins". God's not dealing with you from a place of remembering what you did. You go to God and say, "Lord, I know you can't help me because of what I did last week". He's not dealing with you based on what you did yesterday. He's dealing with you based on your belief in Jesus today. And you keep beating yourself up, and you keep denying yourself of great things and great character. You think freedom is your liberty to do something that's wrong. The freedom he's talking about is the freedom from the law.
You remember the Scripture in Isaiah 43. He says, "Remember not the former things for I will do a new thing in your life". And you've heard all kinds of sermons about that, right? In context he's talking about "Remember not the former things of the law for I'm gonna do a new thing in this new covenant. I'm never gonna remember your sins and your lawless deeds". That's scandalous. If that doesn't blow your mind a little bit, it's like, "Who is like unto thee"? "Who is like unto thee, O God, that would dare to say, 'I will remember their sins' or 'I will remember the law?'" Who does this? It's not hard to love this kind of God. Who wants to sin after experiencing this kind of love, this kind of mercy, this kind of grace? Are you kidding me? "Oh but, Brother Dollar, if you keep preaching that, it's gonna make people sin more". No. They're already sinning more.
If I preach this, they're gonna learn how not to sin. God is good, and you still wake up every morning in shame 'cause of some stupid thing you did last night because you haven't received your freedom. Where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty. Liberty from what? Liberty from the consequences of the law, liberty from having to sin and don't think you're free from it. Can't you see? Can't you see what God is trying to say? Verse 18, "And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices". And maybe you're not offering animal sacrifices, but some of you are still offering sacrifices. "Oh, I sinned so I need to fast for 50 days. Oh, I sinned so I need to go and look sad for a while. Oh, I sinned I can't come to church because I sinned and I'm so shameful and oh, I just can't read the Bible because, oh, I sinned".
So you're still offering sacrifices. You still having no confidence in what Jesus has done. When your heart condemns you, it's because you don't have confidence in what he has done and you don't know that God's greater than your heart. But when your heart condemns you not, that's when you know you have confidence in God. Your maturity is not based in the number of years you have been saved, but it is based in the progress that you make to finally trust God more than yourself. And every time something stupid happens in your life, that reminds you still how much you need God. It reminds you still how much you need God. You can't do anything to pay the price that Jesus has already paid for you.
And some people think, "Well, I don't need Jesus. I'll just be real good and I won't go to hell". It's too expensive. You don't have what it takes to do anything to stop you from going to hell. If you live under the law, then any little thing you do qualifies you to go to hell. Whatever is done not of faith is sin. To know to do good but to do it not is sin. The only way out, the only way possible, even going to hell is not gonna be enough payment for what you deserve. The only way out is Jesus. The only way out is Jesus.
This is gonna be a very interesting few months ahead of us. These are gonna be days where there'll be so much pressure that confronts you, and you got to know who Jesus is. And should you live through it all, it will only be because of God that was carrying you through it. I'm gonna stick with Jesus. I'm done being concerned about what people think about me or they don't like that. I cannot be a blessing and deliver people if I'm in bondage to people, and I'm telling you this is right. What I'm preaching is the gospel. Take it. Take it. I am assured that I am perfectly secure in the grace of God. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for this Word today, and I pray that it has found a place in good ground, that the seeds that I've released this morning, they have found a place in good ground. I pray that you bring the increase. I pray that we step away from our self-righteousness and step into his righteousness, that we step away from our self-preservation and trust him to preserve us, that we step away from our religion and our bad interpretations of the Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth into our lives. It's my prayer, God, that lives will be changed like never before, that the power of the Holy Ghost will protect us and watch over us and keep us well. And if any pressure should come, that we are operate in the joy of the Lord and the Word of God, which is our strength. We trust you. We trust you. And because we trust you, Lord, we can say, with all assurance, all is well. A lot of people can't say that, but we who know you, Lord, can say that all is well. And we trust you for our family members to be saved. We trust you for our children to be saved. We trust you, Lord, we trust you that our families won't go to hell, that the work of the Holy Spirit will get their attention like no man can and they'll turn to Jesus and give their heart to him, amen.
Now, if you're here and you're like, "Listen, I wanna turn my heart to him right now. There's a lot I don't know". Well, you're not by yourself. There's a lot I don't know. I don't know what is when preachers think they know everything. There's a whole lot I don't know. And then, you know, when I die and leave my body, there's just a whole new curriculum. There's just, like, quadrillions of things that I got to learn 'cause I don't know anything about that realm except what the Bible teaches me, but do this 'cause it's right. Make him your Lord 'cause it's right. Come on, pray this prayer after me.
Heavenly Father, I realize that I'm a sinner, but right now I repent of my sins. I make you the Lord of my life. I believe that Jesus died and was raised from the dead and he's seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. I receive his forgiveness. I receive his security. I receive his redemption. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Be my Lord and my Savior, and I thank you, in Jesus's name, for saving me, amen.