Creflo Dollar - Grace and Truth - Part 1
We are looking at the Gospel of John, and last week we talked about the mosaic law versus the grace that came by Jesus. And so, tonight, what we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about, continue that grace and truth and see what that's about. Now, in this series, we're gonna stick with the Word, just textbook, it's just so many amazing pieces that we need to really look at and talk about, and I think it'll be a blessing to you. Saint John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 9. And he says here, "In the beginning was the Word".
Now, I'm gonna challenge how we've been reading. Okay? You know, sometimes we get an explanation of something and we just stick with that forever, and we say, "Well, that's just what that means". And I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit will take you deeper. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God". Now, here's the thing that should get our attention, "and the Word was God".
Now, this is in the beginning. This is before we called him Jesus. We see something in the book of Genesis, when the spirit of the Lord showed up in Genesis, right, when he was getting ready to sacrifice his son. You know, where was Jesus before he was put into a human body and called Jesus. You see? The triune existed but I want you to, I want you to go just a little deeper with this. Not to bring about any confusion, but you're gonna have a really big understanding of why Jesus was the only one that could give us grace and truth. Moses couldn't give it to us. No other man on the planet. Any, nobody that was created could give it to us. Jesus was the only one that qualified to give us grace and truth.
And so, I paused here today. I really had to take a break. I was like looking at this and I was like, I was so blown away, I didn't know, I didn't know what to do with this information. So, I said, let's go to Bible study and share it with you guys, you know? He said, "The Word was God". So, that's before we knew him as Jesus. We know eventually this is gonna be Jesus. "The Word was God". Verse 2, he says, "The same was in the beginning with God". The Word that was God, it was, was in the beginning with God. Yeah. Verse 3, "All things were made by the Word, that is God, and the Word that was with God, all things were made by him and, subtract him, without him, was not anything made that was made".
So, you can never include him with the created. I felt that thing. Boy, let me... you can't include him with the created. He's not created, but all of creation came through him. And without him, you ain't got nothing. "All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made". Verse 4, "In him," now, this is part I want you to get, "In him was life". He breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. But the life was in him, he wasn't the created. He had the ability to be responsible for everything that's created, both seen stuff and unseen stuff. Okay? "In him was life; and the life that was in him was the light of men".
The life in him, now, breathe into the nostrils of a man, became light to a man. 5, "And the light shineth in darkness; and darkness comprehended it not". Real quick, look at that verse in the NLT, and then we'll go back to the King James. Look at this in NLT. John, Saint John 1:5, he says, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it". The light shined in the darkness and the dark, it can never be, it can never be extinguished. Now, think about this now. You cannot kill a spirit. Once life has been given unto you, it can't be extinguished. It can exist in one realm or another, but it can't be extinguished. And that's why I look at church folks, it's like, "Dude, do you realize how much you don't know"?
I had a moment this morning where I just thought, "Everything I've ever thought I knew, everything I thought I understood, remains to be seen, once I leave this physical body and return to the creator of all creation, both seen and unseen. You don't even know how that's gonna take place". We think, "Well, you're gonna die and you in heaven". You, do you understand what happens? The body is like a container. What happens when you take the top off of a container? What happens when what's in a container comes out? Whoo, this is gonna be outstanding! And while I'm at it, spend at least 30 minutes a day praying in tongues over the next six months and you're gonna be all right. Stuff crazy right now. 30 minutes a day praying in tongues.
So, whether you believe it or not, pray in tongues. Okay? So, if you have to sit there and say, "Yaba daba doo, yaba daba doo," you just pray in tongues. "The light shines in darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it". Alright, go back, King James in verse 6, "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John". Now, he's not talking about the John that's writing this epistle, he's talking about John the Baptist. So, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John," referring to John the Baptist, "the same," John the Baptist, "came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe". He's the carrier of life. He's the carrier of light. He can impact all men who believe.
Alright, watch this. Verse 8, "He was not that Light". John says, "I'm not that light". "But was sent to bear witness of that Light". I need to see this. Alright, now, verse 9, almost there, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world". The true life light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And then in verse 14, skip on down, John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh". Now, stop right there. Are you serious? This amazing infinite being, that is not in the category of the created, hmm, that everything that was created came through him. He took a demotion into a flesh body. He who created creation stepped into it.
Let me give this, I was, oh, I was, oh, maybe 9, 10 years old. I was a member of Mount Zion AME Church. My pastor was Reverend Dunlap, and we were having, you remember the summer Bible school thing that your mom used to make you go to? And so, he was outside, we were talking and I asked him a question. I asked my mom a question. She said, "Ask Reverend Dunlap". I asked Reverend Dunlap. I said, "Now, if I got a father, and my father got a father, and his father got a father, who's God's father"? And he says, you know, most of the answer to that, during that time, was, you know, "God works in mysterious ways". And I was praying and just out of nowhere, God said, "Would you like to know the answer to that question you asked years ago"? I said, "Oh, yes". And he said to me, "You're trying to relate to God, like his creations relate to one another".
Hmm. He created the system of a father, having a father, having a father. You can't see him in what he's created. Don't try to put him in the same process as what he's created. But he loved his creation so much, he reduced himself from the Creator to dwell amongst his creation. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, so we could behold his glory, (the glory of the only begotten of the Father,) and he showed up in the flesh full of grace and full of truth". It's not grace, one piece; truth, another piece. You can't separate grace and truth. Grace is the truth. They always go together. Alright? So, I need you to see who Jesus is. I think sometimes, we reduce him down because of his love for us, to take on flesh, so he can deliver grace and truth. There's nobody else that could deliver eternal grace. Nobody. Nobody qualified to be full of grace and truth.
"And if you believe in him," notice what he says, "believe that he's the Christ," that's Saint John, the last chapter, 20 I think, verse 30, 31, "believe that he is the Christ, believe he's the Son of God and believing you'll have life and you'll have it eternally". Just by believing, you'll have life. Now, I'm looking at this today, and I'm thinking, "I ain't gonna finish this teaching today because I probably gonna get stuck here". I think we'll get, but I need you to pause a little bit and recognize who you dealing with. You're not dealing with Jesus, just a man. You dealing with God and his glory, full of grace, that he had to take a earth suit to deliver the package.
And I'll show you tonight, that this book of John speaks of the deity of Christ more than any writing in the Bible. And Jesus says stuff like, "The Father and I, God and I, are one". What would you think? Seriously, what would you think if I got up here one day and said, "I'm God and he me". Y'all like, "Stone, that joker". That's exactly what they did, because it ain't nobody hearing that. They're not hearing that. That his love was so awesome, he had to get a earth suit to deliver grace and truth to you and me, and that grace and truth through believing would be eternal. Ooo, Lord have mercy. That just blows my mind. And so, he says, "(And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth".
Now, you have to take this home and dwell on it a little bit, or you'll continue to diminish the greatness of what we have. We have the God of creation, who created stuff you can see and stuff you can't see. My God, who took a earth suit to deliver a package. The law came by Moses. Moses couldn't deliver grace. Who can you think of that could have delivered, it's even bigger than unmerited favor, who could deliver this glory to man? So, that's what I'm saying. When you leave this body, all this little church stuff that's going on, our little church thing, you know, the little church thing, little programs, we make the little stuff we do, the little songs we make, you don't even have a clue to the fact that once you stand before the one who created you, you will stand in perfect knowledge, perfect wisdom.
You got to, I doubt if you can hardly go remember anything because it's just gonna all, being in his presence is gonna burn stuff and wash the you... It ain't it, you will now be aware of all of the greatness that was imparted in you that was diminished because you had a earth suit. Now, I knew tonight, that everybody wasn't gonna understand what I was saying, but at least you got a chance to see how excited I am about what I'm saying, and we gonna be working on this through this series. And so, in my head, I thought, "I cannot just look at the Son of Man, and I gotta be careful at looking at just the Son of God. I now have to look at the Word in the beginning that was God who created principalities, powers, spiritual realm, physical realm and that awesomeness took on a earth suit".
I used to, like, wonder, "Why you didn't hang around 70 years"? I don't think that the body of Jesus could have held it that long. Mm-mm. And that's why it changed, he put on his glory suit. That's a lot of glory packed in that. Ooo. I got some other things I can say about that, but I'm gonna leave that alone. Alright, now, so, what we're gonna do here is we're gonna talk about, I've used this word before. I think I've set you up with this word called "preeminence".
I want you to get the definition of preeminence because that's the first thing that's got to be established before you can really take hold of this grace is you've got to establish the preeminence and the glory of Jesus Christ. Preeminence is the fact of surpassing all others. When something is preeminent, it is superior above all. It is superior above all people, it is superior above all things, it is superior and on a level above everything. There is no competition, there is nothing to compare to it, it stands alone. When it is preeminent, it is superior and above all.
So, it's necessary to understand his preeminence, not only over Moses, okay? And people did that, they always try to compare Jesus with Moses and the law. And I'm showing you ain't none. Ain't none. Ain't no...what Moses gave was something that was written on stone. When yeah, that just kind of a symbol, ain't no life in it. Moses couldn't deliver this life. The law couldn't deliver this life. And so, this preeminence had to be understood over Moses and in all things in order to understand the greatness and the fullness of grace. And so, the Gospel of John is devoted to setting forth this preeminence. And as we study the whole book of John, you're gonna see it over and over again, begin to establish there is nothing even near the level of the Word that took on flesh to deliver a package.
So in chapter 1, John, chapter 1, verse 1-4, I'm gonna read it again, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God". And notice, he said, "All things were made by him; In him was life; and the life was the light of men". So, please hear me now, the Word is far more than a revelation of God. See, we wanna stick the Word here. No, no, no, we're not talking about the Word, something that you read, that is a revelation of God. The Word is very God; he is very God. He's not just revelation of God; he is very God. Why am I saying like that? Because he ain't no just no, "I read this and I got a revelation". What it's referring to here, is God. I need to calm down. I am about really ready to fly.
"He is not a creature but the one by whom all things were created," Colossians 1:16, King James. Look what he says, Colossians 1:16, now he says, Colossians 1:16, "For by him were all things created". Now, this is awesome, "All things were created, in heaven," by him, "and that are in earth," all by him, "visible," things you can see, all by Him, "invisible," things you can't see, all by him, "whether they be thrones," all by him, "dominions," created all by him, "Principalities" created all by him, "or powers," created all by him. So in no book, is there found a stronger claim for the deity. What do I mean by that deity? The one true God in human form, the one the deity of Christ, the one true God in human. And let me say the one true God wearing a earth suit.