DR. MENSAH OTABIL || GRACE AND WORKS||

[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] deliver him [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] amen well my wife uh sent her greetings to you and uh start from the book of romans and depending on how you see it it may end either with the book of hebrews or before the book of hebrews but be that as it may all the epistles of paul you get the impression that grace and works do not belong with each other and so as we become christians we get a bit worried about whether christianity is by works or by grace or the blessings of god or by works or by grace so i'm going to take my time as much as i can within the time i have to try and do justice with this subject so let me first start by uh defining what grace is from my point of view so what is grace definitely it's not a girl so what is grace and and there are many definitions for grace people say undeserved favor uh people say is god ability extended to others and different definitions but this is my definition mensah audible's definition of grace and i define grace as a gift a gift or favor from god to man a gift of favor from god to man so that is how i define grace a gift of favor from god to man because in in the in the new testament the greek word for grace usually means a gift and that's how why i define it as a gift of favor from god to man it is a simple definition of grace you can still use undeserved favor but this is my definition and a gift in the bible is naturally free for something to be a gift it must of necessity be free if you paid for it or worked for it it is not free it is a reward so grace is a gift it is not a reward it is a gift or favor from god in the bible normally grace is an act of god an act of god of course people can show grace one to another but in a biblical sense grace is from god it emanates from god it comes from god and god expresses his grace to us in various ways so that is my definition of grace a gift of favor from god to man what is works what is works and there can be many definitions but this is my definition menstrual table's definition when i say works it means an effort of man or woman to obtain something an effort of a man or woman or a person to obtain something so when i make an effort to obtain something it is works or work it has a very wide application from our salvation to our daily living so although god works in my definition of works i'm looking at man working not god working so i'm limited it to man now when you read your new testament and how many of you read the new testament if you are in ccc you are a bible student this is one of the most well taught churches you can find anywhere in the world that is why i can take my time to teach because in some churches you take your time to teach that people will sleep because they are not used to teaching they used to exhortation and encouragement but here people are used to teaching so i'm taking my time to teach and i have to lay them for my foundations right now when you read your new testament you will find that paul the apostle uses grace and works and he uses works very much and when you read paul's epistles you get the impression that works are not very important when you read paul you get the impression that works are not as important as grace but then when you read the epistle of the apostle james then you get the other impression as if works is more important than grace have you noticed that so why is that in the new testament one speaks as if works is not important and then another side it looks like works is important and the reason is very simple the apostle paul uses works in a different context from the apostle james so what paul means by works is not what james means by works when paul says works he's talking about the works of the law the requirements of the law of moses that was demanded by god for them to worship him so when paul says by the works of the law shall no one be justified that's what he means when he says we are saved by grace and not by works that is what he means the works he means is not you working like going to work or or farming that's not what he means he doesn't say when you farm you cannot be saved when he says works he means specifically the laws of moses are you following me because if you don't have that understanding you will misinterpret what works means when james says works he doesn't mean the law of moses when james says works he means what you do the works you produce because of your salvation so when a person becomes born again paul himself says they have been born again onto good works so being born again means that you are going to do something what you do because you are born again is what james calls works so he says show me your works and i will show you your faith why because what you produce because of your salvation reflects on your salvation paul also says you cannot just get salvation by your own works it is a work of grace they are using the same word but they have two different meanings in mind it's so important because if you don't get that you confuse yourself when you read the bible all right so let me get that out of the way now if we say that a person's success in life or what we achieve in life is purely a result of what god has done so if for example you you see that pastor ransford is in ministry and pastor runs for has done well and and and and you say well it's grace it's grace then it means that everything we see here in ccc is purely [Music] done by god all right it means that god built this building and arranged these flowers and put this microphone in my hand all right so because sometimes you know people say oh pastor runs what you've done well somebody said don't say he's done well he's all grace because once we say something is grace it means no effort was put into it it is purely a work of god but we know that that is not the absolute truth all right now if we also say it is not grace it is works past that runs for word then it means that god didn't play any role in it this is just the work of man so there is a confusion is it grace is it works how do we draw the balance when we see somebody successful do we say this is the grace of god or do we say this is the work of man is it of grace or of works and many times christians are not able to answer this question and as a result we are not able to determine how to achieve the things we have to achieve because some are waiting for god's grace and some are working as if there is no grace so how do we resolve this conundrum why isn't it why you have to throw in a big word for people to know that although you are simply dressed you are [Laughter] so we say things like conundrum all right so so that is the issue i'm trying to resolve and just be patient with me by the time i'm through you would know how to balance yourself properly between grace and works all right now first corinthians chapter 4 verse 7. first corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 it says for who makes you differ from another and what did do you have that you did not receive now if indeed if if you did indeed receive it why do you boast as if you had not received it it's a very interesting scripture you know and sometimes people throw it out there what do you have that you didn't receive if somebody uh is being honored for success we say that but there are three concepts that emerge from this passage the first one is that we differ from one another because of what we have received from god god's gifting to us god's gifting to me god gives in to you god gives him to pastor ron's work is what makes us different and unique so when we say that every human being is different and unique it's not because your face is different it's because god has gifted you differently from the other person god's gift is what makes us differ our difference is our gifting our difference is our gifting and our gifting is from god so we differ from one another because of what we have received from god god's gifts makes us different or unique second all that we have in life comes from what we have received from god all that we have in life comes from what we have receiving god so every achievement or height we get to in life is based on what we have received from god even when we work hard for something we must still see it as coming from god as christians so everything we have comes from god third we cannot boast of what we have as if we didn't receive it from god we cannot boast of what we have as if we didn't receive it from god that's what first corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 is telling us god owns all that we have now if that is so can we say that someone is more successful than the other person can we measure success can we measure achievement can we look at somebody and say this person has done well or that person has done better should we do that at all should christians look at one another and say this one has done better than him and because of that we will reward this one and not that one should we do that because if everything we have achieved is from god can we even judge people's success now to answer that question i want to go to proverbs chapter 31 verse 10. it uh proves that one as you know talks about the virtuous wife and verse 10 says who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies interesting who can find a virtuous wife how many of you have found a virtuous wife i see some husbands whose hands are down you found it but it wasn't okay who can find a virtuous wife now that question means a virtuous wife is not an accidental find you don't find a virtuous wife accidentally and i can say you don't find a virtuous husband accidentally also the question who can find means that it is rare it is rare it's not something that is easy to find some find it others don't find it all right then when you look at verse 29 of proverbs 31 it still talks about a virtuous woman it says many daughters have done well but you excelled them all so this woman is being compared with other women why is she rare because in comparison with others she goes above all right so it is clear that there are people who are more successful than other people so when you look at the virtuous wife for example can you just say is grace because if it is grace everybody will be virtuous is that also if it is grace every wife will be a virtuous wife so this woman has something else that has made her a virtuous wife and when you read through the whole of proverbs chapter 31 from verse 13 it says she seeks wool and flux and willingly works with their hands verse 14.

she's like the merchant ship she brings her food from afar 15. she rises while it is yet night provides food for her household verse 16. she considers a field and buys it from her profits she plants planted vineyard 17 she gets herself with strength 18.

she perceives that her merchandise is good and her lamb does not go out by night now if you look at the reason why she's virtuous it's no grace did you see that it is something she's doing it works she seeks wool willingly works with their hands brings food from afar rises while it is here at night considers her field buys it straight gets herself with strength strength in her arms helm does not go out by night so if somebody's lamp goes out by night rises late doesn't bring food from afar doesn't willingly work that person will not become a virtuous wife does it mean that god did not give her any gift she probably has grace but no virtue so the virtue therefore did not come because of the gift god gave her the virtue came because of the works she did that is what made her a virtuous person are you following me now i'm dealing with a virtuous wife but we'll bring it home very soon because we need to get the fundamental principles right the basis on which we achieve the things we achieve in life the success of the virtuous wife is therefore based on her virtuous works and virtuous works so let me uh ask you a question if this virtuous wife whom we have just talked about and we have tried to decipher where her virtue came from from her works if this virtuous wife a woman comes to her from ccc or maybe not from ccc and he says mrs virtuous i want to be virtuous like you lay hands on me and pray for me that the grace that is upon your life as a virtuous woman will be imparted to me would that recipient become virtuous we're getting somewhere we're getting somewhere [Applause] now if she became virtuous by prayer then she can impart her virtue by prayer is that not so if she became virtuous by prayer then she can lay hands on people and say receive it virtue and they'll be virtuous wives but if she didn't receive it by prayer then she cannot impart it by prayer she can only impart it by the way she received it she received it by works and she can impart it by works are you following me closely so there is a place for grace and a place for works and we have to know the balance especially when it comes to we doing things for god achieving our purpose in life using the grace of god fruitfully and effectively so let's go to the new testament since you know sometimes when you quote from old testament people say now quote from new testament so i'll quote from new testament but i'm not going to read all of it matthew 25 14-30 you can note it because it's a long passage i'm not going to read but it's a passage you are familiar with it's called the parable of the talents and you know the parable of the talents a merchant calls his servants and he gives them talents whose talent were they the master he gave it to them that is a gift it's grace give them talents it's not theirs it is the masters and when the master gave them the talents he took off and came back after some time and called the people he gave the talents to the one got five the other go two the other got one and he says okay account time now the interesting thing in that parable is the master did not tell them what to do but he judged them anyway he didn't tell them what to do because he expected that by implication they would know that gifts are not free it is freely giving but they must be accounted for you can't you can't squander gifts although it's a gift so he gave it to them and left it to their common sense what to do and the one who had five came and said sir you gave me five i worked and i doubled my five with another five so it's now ten master says well done good and faithful servant second one came says sir you gave me two i work hard got 100 increase other two more four talents master says well done good and faithful seven third one came the ghanaian oh should i see the charismatic [Laughter] who believes in gift but not work grace no works he says sir you gave me your grace you gave me one gift but i knew you were a hard man so i took your gift and i buried it and since i heard you have come i want to dig the same place and this is your gift and the answer of the master is you wicked and evil seven very harsh words you knew i was hard at least you understood my character that i am profit-minded you knew that i would be looking for profit but you gave me grace i gave you gift and you gave me back gift wickedness so what's the lesson of this parable that god does not judge grace he judges works god is not impressed with his grace upon your life because that is what he has given to you what impresses god is the work you have done that he didn't give you by which you have created that is what impresses god [Applause] god does not reward grace he rewards work god gives us gifts and grace but works make us successful it is therefore not accurate biblically both from the old testament and the new testament but particularly in the new testament it is therefore not accurate for somebody who has achieved something to say it is all grace they may be attempting humility but it is not biblical humility because the gift was grace but what has accompanied it was not grace was works and that is why god rewards if you give him back what he gave to you he doesn't reward you as a matter of fact he punishes you but if you work with what he gave you he rewards you so these days among charismatics my people we see it constantly a young pastor sees a successful pastor and sometimes even in public they will kneel down in front of you lift up their hands and say i want grace first of all i am not a giver of grace i don't dispense grace grace is god's sovereign act god does not consult anybody to impart grace to them and people cannot distribute grace at will it is a sovereign determined predetermined act of god so that is the first error i don't dispense grace so they come and say lay hands on me i want to tap into this grace i respect the hunger and the desire but it is a hunger and desire wrongly expressed and wrongly placed because what i have achieved in life what pastor ransford has achieved in life what any man of god has achieved in life is a result of works based on grace that was given to them so what you should come to me looking for is not impartation because what i have done with my life i didn't get it by impartation this message did not come from impartation it did not come from grace this message it came from works normally for me to preach any message usually i plan way ahead what i'm going to preach sometimes i start messages now and preach them a year later two years later sometimes five years later when i start my salmon preparation process and i start doing my first study i can read minimum 40 commentaries on one verse not to copy what the commentary is saying but to judge my own thinking against others who have thought about the same verse and whether my thinking is way off or sensible because you have to know you are not the first one to read that verse others have thought about it contemplated about it struggled with it and you are struggling with the same verse it is sensible to refer to others who have studied just like a doctor is going to operate on somebody he knows his stuff but he has to go and read what other people who have faced similar verses or similar problems have thought about it so we also study not to copy people but to weigh our view against their view at least they do that if i take a verse i'm going to do if it's in the new testament i'm going to do a greek study and i don't just read one greek reference i can do probably about 10 or 12 and then i start constructing and i read all kinds of materials and all kinds of comparison as i build my case case upon case case upon case careful that i will not deviate and say the holy spirit told me i don't preach it on despair of the moment everything i'm preaching here is written down because i don't trust my memory some people say when you're preaching just open your mouth god will give you utterance that's why people preach rubbish because when you open your mouth and nothing is coming you have to say something so like the virtuous woman if somebody comes and say i need i want to be able to do things the way you do them i will not lay hands on them because i didn't receive it by laying on of hands i received it by diligent labor and study so if you want to get what i have you have to then steady my diligence and practice my diligence there is too much emphasis on impartation because people want to receive freely and not work and i've said it before if the great footballer ronaldo or if you prefer mercy either of them or abedi pele you know if any great footballer a young footballer comes and say mr cristiano mr messi mr pele i want to be like you i need them please lay hands on me and impart your skills to me do you think that person would become a great footballer but if they said i want to study your exercise regime your training regime i'm going to watch every tape of yours i'm going to watch how you pass i want to watch your your ball control and i'm going to steady you like crazy even if they don't become like him they will acquire so much from him to add to what they have to their grace and become successful also [Applause] so what makes you think that somebody can lay hands on you and impart their success to you because people say i tap into your grace the grace the grace i need the grace from whom from me did i manufacture the grace myself did i call myself i didn't call myself i was called by the same man who called you his name is jehovah and he gave us the same spirit called the holy spirit so if you want grace the address of grace is heaven [Applause] talk to the man sitting on the throne who is the giver of grace and he will give you grace but if you want to learn works come to me because god does not impart works he imparts grace man produces the works so how many of you want to be successful you want to break through you have to work like crazy i'm telling you pastors who want to be successful you have to work like crazy pray like crazy study like crazy be holy like crazy discipline like crazy because no indisciplined person can sustain success no indiscipline person in any listen in any profession even in boxing where you say is fist you can be the biggest hitter but once you become indisciplined you will lose your fights football you can be the best footballer once you become indisciplined your play goes down you cannot negotiate discipline grace is free discipline is expensive so god's grace is freely giving but grace does not produce success if grace produce success each one of us will be successful because god gives to every person generously his grace if grace made us successful there will be no failure on earth grace is god's investment in us works is our investment with god's investment god has invested in us we must invest his investment that's what the parable of the talent teaches you've been given the talent you invest the talent god has given you grace you will invest the grace an investment means you're going to work and you're going to work very hard if we understood this charismatics understood this we will be the most successful people on earth you know why because we are the most committed people you can find anywhere but it is commitment amiss even when it comes to prayer the commitment is all i miss because i don't i don't think speaking in tongues in the bible was monosyllable what is that you know what it is it is lazy prayer why people are not disciplined because if you are praying your mind your thoughts your desires your knowledge of the scripture must all come into alignment what kind of prayer is that there is zeal there is passion do you think that's what paul was doing in ephesus philippians philippi [Music] and that's what they were doing in the jail you think that's what they were doing in the upper room when the holy ghost came is that what they were doing why can't we read the bible for once and sometimes it's like a symphonic orchestra this one makes one sound that one makes another there's one missing and then they repeat it and and then do it for five hours and say we pray for five hours no no no no no you did voice rehearsal for five hours [Applause] that's not prayer that's not you know why because people don't want the discipline of waiting on god and talking to him and pouring out their desires and asking him to help them and asking him to reveal himself to them encountering god in such a way that when you leave the place of prayer you know without a doubt your heart has been poured to the lord and the lord has poured his heart to you but we take the easy way out of monosyllabic choruses so there's so much prayer but no power because the people were just entertaining themselves and some are doing it just to score time people actually say i'm going to pray for six hours and they do that for six hours and say hey today we pray sixer that anybody can do that because true prayer is the intensity of the soul the depth of your soul it is honesty and bearing yourself your weaknesses your your desires to the lord and asking the lord to cleanse you and the foul the holy spirit to purge you i ask and because people do all that kind of prayer and then go and fornicate because there's no bearing of the soul to god because that kind of prayer that is intense oh yeah you stay in the presence of the lord you're not clocking time you are being refined in the place of prayer that's the kind of prayer that people like charles finney david brainard these were the prayers they were praying that is why the new testament can record the prayers of paul and the prayers of the apostles even if it's in a summarized form but because this whole thing about grace and works has not been understood and people think if they sit on the chair i sat on they will get what i got you know may the lord deliver us first deliver the men of god who promote this concept and deliver the people who follow it may the lord deliver us may the lord deliver us nowhere in the new testament do you find the disciples going to the tomb jesus was buried in to catch the spirit you don't hear paul says beloved in ephesus to be filled with the holy spirit go to the upper room where the spirit first came no they didn't do that it's not about sleeping on beds and wearing garments and people's shoes and people's stuff and somebody will say well handkerchiefs from paul heal the sick that's another matter i can deal with exegetically for you but it is not distribution of cloth it's a totally different concept so there are those who are praying for mountains pastor ransford i'm sure there are people who are praying for your mantle the people praying for my mantle i don't even know what my where my mantle is i don't know where it is somebody has to show me hey this is your mantle so i can know i have a mantle because they talk about elijah and elijah elijah had a mantle it was a prayer shawl that he carried as a prophet and elijah did not ask for a mantle the mantle fell and he took it but he didn't ask for it he said i want a double what is on you by the time he said i want a double of what is on you he had walked with elijah for 20 years studying if he went to school primary six years shs ghs another six 12 years university four years that is 16 first degree two years master's degree accelerated phd 20 years of meticulous study he studied the works he studied the works the ways the methods then he could step into his own ministry after the man had departed if you're a young pastor don't go mental hunting steady hard pray deep not shallow deep prayer wait on the lord purposefully and it may take you 20 years but your works will begin to demonstrate who you are [Applause] so somebody said so pastor you're saying that so if a person is anointed is all his works no that's not what i say i say he received the grace and he worked it's like you go to a speech and praise giving day and as happens in most speech and price giving days some of us just go to a club for other people's children almost invariably there is one boy or most most of the time one girl she keeps going up and down english she goes mathematics so you just see one child collecting all the prizes and people are clapping but most times you would notice that child would notice where their parents are and every time she collects a prize she goes to give it to the mother or the father collect the price because it gives the mother is smiling i'm going to give what is she saying did the mother work hard no did the mother study the mathematics no did the mother say the exam no their mother passed no did the mother get an a no but if the mother had not been there she would not be in school so that's grace she says i know this woman gave me life or this man and then paid my school fees enrolled me in school that is the gift they gave me but for the learning i did it myself however after i have achieved all of it myself i go back to the source where i got it from to the one who gave me the opportunity and the grace and the gift and that is what we do as christians god gives us the gift we work hard and achieve success but when all is done we say lord i give you all the praise and i give you all the glory and i thank you and i thank you for your mercy and i thank you for your gift and i thank you for your holy spirit because if grace had not started the process wax would not have the chance to manifest [Applause] this is how the apostle paul himself answered this question and i'm closing with this this is how the big man himself paul the man of grace and works this is how he answered it in first corinthians chapter 5 verse 10. very brilliant submission first corinthians 5 15 15 sorry first corinthians 15 verse 10.