Romans Chapter 7 I want to preach on the famous part at the end of the chapter where Paul talks about the struggle that’s going on within him of wanting to do that which is right but then he ends up doing that which is wrong. I want to teach some important doctrine tonight about the subject that after we’re saved, it is still possible for us to continue in sin.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: We still have the flesh that dwelleth with us, and that if we walk in the flesh we’re going to continue sinning. I also tonight want to just expose to you how the ESV version of scripture just perverts the bible in so many ways. A lot of people think that it’s not really a big deal which translation of the bible that we use. It’s funny how they’ll just act like, “Oh, the King James is just one of many translations.” This is the way that is presented today. “Well, there are a lot of translations out there and the King James is just one of them.” Almost like those who are King James only just flipped a coin and just picked one and just went with it, but in reality the King James Bible for a long time was the only English bible.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: That’s what people are forgetting about. Because of the fact that all the bibles leading up to the King James agreed with the King James.
Man: Yeah.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Whether you’re talking about the Tyndale or the Matthew bible, the Coverdale, the Bishops’ bible, the Geneva bible, all the bibles leading up to it agreed with it, and when the King James came on the scene, it was just a perfection of that which came before. Over time it replaced that which came before, and those previous versions went out of print because the King James was the finished product. It was the final draft in the English language of a modern English bible. For a long time that’s just what everybody used. It was only in the late 1800s when they started discovering all these phony manuscripts, and then into the 1900s when they started producing all these phony bibles that people started to get away from the King James.
Even 50, 60, 70 years ago, the vast majority of people were still on the King James. Today we’re told, “Oh, it’s just another version.” No, the King James Bible has been the English bible for centuries. I believe it is the perfect word of God and that it is without error.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: That it is the preservation of God’s word into our modern English language. Now today we have all these other versions and people say, “Well, if you’re using one of these other versions it’s not that big of a deal.” But just in the couple of examples I’m going to show you tonight, I’m going to show you how it just completely changes bible doctrine. You wonder why there’s so many people with so many goofed up doctrines, and it’s because they’re not even reading from a real bible.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: They’re reading from the ESV, the NIV, the New American Standard, and these versions are nowhere near what God actually said. They just change it.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Let’s get into the doctrine that I want to talk about tonight here. First of all, look down at your bible at Roman 7 Verse 14. It says in Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, and this is the Apostle Paul speaking, but I am carnal, sold under sin. The Apostle Paul, who some people would even say is the greatest Christian who ever lived, he’s definitely right up there as being one of the great men, look how many books in the New Testament he was used by God to pen down, and he’s saying, “I’m carnal.” He’s admitting, in this passage, that he struggles with sin.
Even being the great man of God that he is, and the great transformation that he’d had in his life from being a Pharisee that persecuted Christians to now being the one who’s preaching the faith that he once destroyed, he’s admitting, “I’m carnal.” Carnal has to do with walking in the flesh. Now there’s a false teacher out there and his name is Paul Washer.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: A lot of people listen to this guy and the guy is a liar and a fraud.
Man: Right.
Pastor: You say, “Well, why would you name the name?” Well, the bible teaches us in the New Testament to name the names of false teachers.
Man: Right.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: That’s why the Apostle Paul named names like Phygellus, Hermogenes, Alexander, Hymenaeus, he called out the false prophets of his day and he warned people about the dangerous doctrines that they were teaching. This guy, Paul Washer, has one major emphasis of his ministry. One thing that he harps on over and over again, and basically that is that if you’re not living right you’re not really saved. I mean that’s the main thing that he just keeps coming back to. “Well, if you haven’t had a dramatic change in your life and if not you’re living for God, and blah, blah, blah, then you’re not really saved.”
He has a famous quote that he harps on over and over again. Paul Washer says this, “There is no such thing as a carnal Christian.”
Man: Like what?
Pastor: That’s what he says. Many times he said it. In many sermons he’s repeated this theme of there is no such thing as a carnal Christian. One time I heard him say it this way, he said, “There’s a doctrine today that is tailor-made for American Christianity, the doctrine of the carnal Christian. American Christianity has invented this idea of the carnal Christian because they just want to be carnal and every,” you know, and he tries to act like everybody in these countries are all just these wonderful Christians and everybody in America is a loser and whatever. Anyway, there’s no such thing as a carnal Christian. Okay, well, what did the Apostle Paul say in Verse 14?
Man: Right.
Man: Right.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: I’m carnal. If there's no such thing as a carnal Christian, then why did the Apostle Paul say, “I’m carnal?” Flip over if you would to First Corinthians Chapter 3. We’re going to come back to Romans 7, but look over at First Corinthians Chapter 3. I’m dealing with three things tonight, a false prophet, a false doctrine, and a false bible version, okay? The false prophet is Paul Washer, the false doctrine is the doctrine that anyone who is saved is going to automatically be living a righteous life or they’re not really saved, and the false bible version is the ESV.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: It says in First Corinthians Chapter 3 Verse 1, And I, brethren, now right away what’s he saying there in the third word there, brethren? Who’s he talking to, the saved or the unsaved?
Congregation: Saved.
Pastor: Yeah, because these people are not his physical relatives. He’s a Jew that was born of Tarsus, and these are people from Corinth, he’s calling them brethren because they’re his brethren in Christ, because they’re fellow Christians. He says, I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. These people are brethren, but they’re carnal. Then he defines what he means by carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. According to the bible, those who are babes in Christ are new believers, they’re going to be carnal. I mean if you think about it, when a person just got saved, are they just going to be just an amazing Christian overnight?
Congregation: No.
Pastor: No. I mean if you get an unsaved person and they just get the gospel and they just believe on Jesus Christ, they’re a newborn babe in Christ. They still have everything to learn, and it’s going to take them time to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to get the sin out of their life. Therefore, obviously a babe in Christ is going to be carnal to some degree. He’s saying, you guys are carnal even though you’ve been saved for a long time. You guys are like babes in Christ, like you just got saved. Now it’s okay for a babe to be a babe, but there’s something wrong when adults are acting like babes, okay?
For example, if you have a baby, you don’t expect that baby to change its own diaper, you don’t expect it to feed itself, you’re going to do all that for it. But if someone were to grow up and get to the point where they’re 10, 11, 12 years old and they’re basically using the restroom on themself and they can’t feed themself and you have to feed them, you would look at that person and say, “You know what, this person is developmentally disabled. This person is handicapped. This person may have Down syndrome or some other problem developmentally that’s causing them to not be growing as they should.” Now does that mean they’re not human?
Congregation: No.
Pastor: Does it mean this person was never born?
Man: No.
Pastor: Here we are, we thought we gave birth to a baby, it turns out it was never born. No, it just means that they’re not developing properly. Okay, so it could be the same thing with a Christian. If you see a Christian that’s been saved for 20 years and it’s still acting like a spiritual baby, you wouldn’t say, “Well, it was never born.”
Man: It’s got a problem.
Pastor: Never say or you know, or it’s not human, it’s not a Christian. No, you just say, “Look, it’s a handicapped, spiritually handicapped.” You know, you’re spiritually challenged today. The bible says here, he spoke to them as unto babes in Christ. He says in Verse 2, I fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal, he’s saying you’re still carnal, when you should have grown past the milk stage and gotten into the strong meat. He says, you’re yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal?
How many times has he called them carnal so far? Three times, “You’re carnal, you’re carnal, you’re carnal.” Yet a person like Paul Washer just says, “Well, there’s no such thing as a carnal Christian.” Paul’s talking to these brethren and saying, “You’re carnal, you’re carnal, you’re carnal.” People say, “Well, maybe they weren’t really saved.” Okay, let’s keep reading. He says in Verse 4, for while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Again, he says in Verse 5, who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye what?
Congregation: Believed.
Pastor: These people believed. He’s calling them brethren, he’s saying they’re like babes in Christ, now he says they’ve believed, and by the way, that’s what you have to do to be saved.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. It says, ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. Let me ask this, what kind of increase did God give a bunch of people who weren’t really saved?
Congregation: No.
Man: Saved.
Pastor: No. If God gave this increase, if one planted and one watered, and God gave the increase, what’s the increase? He’s talking about them.
Congregation: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: He said, ministers by whom ye believed. They planted, you believed, they watered, you believed. God gave the increase, you’re saved.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: But you’re carnal.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Carnal, carnal, carnal, okay? Let’s keep reading. It says in verse number 8, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Is he saying to these people, “Hey, you don’t belong to Christ, you’re not really saved, you’re not of God’s people?” No, he’s saying, “You’re God’s building, you’re God’s husbandry, but you’re carnal. You need to grow up. You need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Now let’s go back to Romans Chapter 7. I think we’ve established pretty clearly that it’s very possible for Christians to be carnal or fleshly or walking in the flesh.
Now does God want us to walk in the flesh? Of course not, but do we have the capability or the tendency to walk in the flesh, and even if we’ve been saved for five years or ten years we could be stuck as babes in Christ? Look, Paul rebuked others in Hebrews Chapter 5 when he said, for when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Which be the first principles of the oracles of God and have become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Again, he’s telling them, “You should be teachers, you should be mature spiritually, but you’re carnal. You’re still acting like a babe in Christ, you need to grow.” Look at Romans Chapter 7, here’s where the Apostle Paul even admits the fact that, to an extent, he’s carnal. He says, “I’m carnal, sold under sin.”
Look at Verse 15, for that which I do I allow not, for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I. Now some people might read this and it might seem like kind of a tongue twister, you know, what I do, what I would not, I would do that I would not, and it could be confusing, but if you just slow down and read what it’s saying here, it’s pretty easy to understand. For that which I do I allow not. Now think about it, we have things that we don’t allow, right, and that’s things that we would say, “Hey, these things are wrong. These are things that we shouldn’t be doing.” But you know what Paul’s saying, “Sometimes I do the things that I allow not. Things that I don’t allow, but then I do them.”
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Okay. What will we call that?
Man: [Hypocrite 00:12:44].
Man: Carnal.
Pastor: Hypocrisy, okay. He’s admitting that sometimes there’s some hypocrisy there. He says, but what I hate, that do I. Okay, so there are things that Paul does hates. Now what’s something that the bible tells us over and over again that we should hate?
Man: Sin.
Pastor: Sin. But he’s saying, “You know, I find myself doing things that I hate.” Then he says, in Verse 16, if then I do that which I would not, okay, and when he says, I would not, he means that which I don’t want to do, okay. He’s saying if I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, and this is the key, watch this, for I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. He’s saying, “In my flesh there doesn’t dwell any good thing,” and he’s saying that I have the will to do what’s right.
To will is present with me. I want to do good things, I want to serve God, I want to obey the commandments. But he says, how to perform that which is good I find not. What’s he saying? Basically he’s saying what Jesus said, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. He said, “I want to do what’s right. I find myself wanting to get the sin out of my life and wanting to serve God, but then I just fail at it and I end up doing wrong things.” Now he says in verse number 18 at the end there, how to perform that which is good I find not. Verse 19, for the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
He says, “It’s great, you know, I want to do things that are good, I end up not doing them, and then there are bad things I don’t want to do and I end up doing them.” He says in Verse 20, now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Look what he says in that last verse there. With the mind I myself serve the law of God. He’s saying, in my mind, according to the inward man, I want to do what’s right. I hate sin, I love to do right, and I delight in God’s law, and I want to do all the right things, but then because I’m in the flesh, I end up doing all these wrong things. He says at the end there that he serves the law of sin with his flesh. Now if this is coming from the Apostle Paul, do you think that you’re above this and that I’m above this struggle, this battle that is going on?
Man: No.
Pastor: By the way, another great man, and arguably, you know, obviously the bible said that John the Baptist was the greatest man that was ever born of a woman, but outside of John the Baptist when you think of just human beings, outside of course of our Lord Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh, if you want to think about the great men of the New Testament, the two men that would kind of stand out would be John, the Apostle John, who is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who leaned upon his breast at the Last Supper, and the Apostle Paul, the great missionary that went out, and he even said, I labored more abundantly than they all. I mean he did great works for God.
Both of these men make admissions like this. The Apostle Paul says, “I’m carnal. I do stuff I don’t want to do. I serve the law of sin with my flesh.” Then what did John say in First John Chapter 1? If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. You have pretty much the two great apostles of the New Testament, and they’re both admitting, “Hey, we sin. We do wrong.” Yet you have people today that act as if they’re above sin.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: Or that if you’re saved, you’re not going to continue in sin and all this stuff.
Man: Right.
Pastor: But in reality, we as Christians have the capability to continue in sin. Now a lot of people misunderstand what it says in Romans 6:1, just back up one chapter. It says in Romans 6:1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? In Romans 5, and really in chapters 3, 4, and 5, Paul has been saying over and over again how our salvation is by grace through faith and it’s not by our works, it’s not by keeping the law, so he’s been hammering that for three chapters straight. Three, four and five, that’s what it’s all about in Romans.
Then he asks the question that people will often ask when you give them the gospel and tell them it’s all by grace, is like, “What are you saying? We just keep on sinning then?”
Man: Exactly.
Pastor: Isn’t that what they say?
Man: Always.
Pastor: He knows that’s what they’re thinking, so he pulls out that question himself and says, shall we continue, what is he saying? Should we keep on sinning that grace may abound? Now a lot of people will look at this and say, “See, if you keep sinning, grace won’t abound.” Is that what it says?
Congregation: No.
Pastor: Back up two verses to Romans 5 Verse 20, moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. If you get the context, he’s saying, if we continue in sin grace will abound.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: Meaning we’re not going to lose our salvation.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: The more sins we commit the more is forgiven of God. Then he says, “Hey, should we do that?” God forbid that anyone would take their salvation and say, “Well, now that I’m saved and no matter what I do I’m going to heaven, I’m just going to go out and continue in sin.” Of course if you do that, the bible’s real clear, God’s going to punish you.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: On this earth. The bible says, whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If we go out and live a life of sin after we’re saved, we will be chastised, we’ll be punished on this earth. We will reap what we’ve sown. By the way, the unsaved, they go out and live a life of sin often with, and they get away with it in this life, but they’re going to hell, so they don’t really get away with it in the end. The bible says, if you be without chastisement, where of all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons. The bible’s saying the only people who can live a life of sin without getting chastised are people that are not saved.
They’re not the children of God they’re bastards, they’re not sons of God, okay. The bible’s real clear here, that once we are God’s sons and daughters that we have eternal life, we have everlasting life, if we continue in sin grace will abound, but should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We should do what’s right, we should go to church, we should read our bibles, we should serve Him. But are we just automatically going to?
Congregation: No.
Pastor: No way. There’s no way that we’re just going to automatically do it. That’s why the bible is constantly preaching to us how we need to guard ourselves from sin and grow and seek to please God, because it’s not automatic.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: If it were automatic he wouldn’t have to tell us about avoiding sin so much and preach to us and warn us that we need to abstain from fornication and live a clean life and all this. Okay, now go to First John Chapter 3, because in First John Chapter 3 there’s a scripture that people will twist in order to teach this doctrine that says, hey, if you’re saved, you’re not going to keep sinning. And you’ve heard people teach this, haven’t you?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: “Hey, if you see somebody and they just keep on sinning, well, that just proves that they’re not saved.” Well, my answer to that is well, then nobody’s saved.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: The Apostle Paul wasn’t saved and John wasn’t, then we’re all doomed, because nobody is without sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Whenever you say that to people, here’s what they’ll say, “Well, I’m not saying that you have to stop sinning all together,” and then we enter just this major grey area.
Congregation: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: You know what I mean, because people say, “Hey, if you want to be saved, you have to repent of your sins and if you’re still living the same way, you’re not really saved and there’s needs to be a change and you need to live right.” But then you say to people like, “Wait a minute, are you saying that you’re just going to totally stop sinning?” “Well, not totally.” You know, it’s like, “Well, you just have to kind of try.”
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Well, there has to be some change.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Well, you know, you’re not going to have a habit of sin or you’re not going to sin lots, you know, or you’re not going to sin hard, you’re just going to do the light sinning. But see, that’s just such a grey area and it’s such confusion.
Man: Yeah.
Man: Right.
Man: Right.
Pastor: I mean are Christians capable of sinning or not?
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Or are they just above sin now, they’re just delivered from sin. They say, “Well, you’re delivered from the power of sin.” Right, God gives you the power to overcome sin, if you want to.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: But what if you choose to go into temptation? You will. What if you get up in the morning and walk in the flesh? You’re going to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Congregation: Yeah.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Okay. If people, and I want you to pay attention tonight because I want to lay down this doctrinally clear from the bible. We saw it in Romans 7, but I’m going to show you a bunch of other passages. I want to make this real clear to you that when you get saved God creates a new creature that is known as the new man. That is a biblical term, the new man and the old man. We’re going to see it a little later in Ephesians. That’s the term the bible uses, the new man and the old man. This is also known as the spirit and the flesh. It’s also known as the inward man and the carnal mind, okay.
Let me tell you something, these two things exist in all of us. When we get saved, God doesn’t create a new creature and then the old man’s gone, the flesh is gone. No, the flesh is still with us.
Man: Yeah.
Man: Right.
Pastor: The old man is still there. The bible says, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. What did Paul say? I can’t do the things that I would.
Congregation: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Why? Well, in Galatians he said, it’s because the flesh and the spirit are at war with one another. By the way, a lot of people misunderstand when the bible’s talking about the spirit, it’s not always talking about the Holy Spirit. A lot of times it’s talking about our spirit.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Because when we get saved, because we’re a body, soul, and spirit, aren’t we?
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: When we get saved our spirit that was dead and trespassed in sins is quickened. When God created a new creature, the moment I got saved when I was six years old and I was on my knees by my mother’s bedside and I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and called upon the name of the Lord as a six-year old boy, God created a brand new Steven Anderson. Completely new. Not kind of new, mostly new, sort of new. No, 100% new creature Steven L. Anderson 2.0 was created when I was a six-year old boy and got saved.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: Okay, but the old Steven Anderson is still here.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: He has not died yet, he is still alive. In fact he has to die every day if I’m going to live for God.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Paul said, “I die daily.” He’s not talking about the spirit. You think he’s talking about the new man when he says, “I die daily?” No, the bible says we need to mortify the members or body parts of our uncleanness. The old man has to die that we might walk in newness of life. He said, “I die daily.” It’s not a one-time thing where the old man just dies. No, it’s a daily thing. Here’s the famous verse that everybody knows, everybody’s heard, where it says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.
A lot of people will look at this and they’ll say, “Well, you know, that verse right there says there has to be some change.” How do you get some change out of that verse?
Man: Right.
Pastor: “Well, there should be some change because it says right there all things are,” all is not some.
Man: That’s right.
Pastor: Just think with me now, if that verse were talking about the way we live our life, then that would be saying you will live sinlessly perfect after you get saved.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: But guess what, it’s not talking about our lifestyle. When it says if any man be in Christ he’s a new creature, old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new. He’s talking about the new man, the new creature that God created which is the spiritual man, the inward man. Let me tell you something, the new man, the inward man is incapable of sinning. He cannot sin.
Man: Right.
Pastor: He can’t sin. He’s perfect. All things are passed away. All the old things are passed away. Everything’s new. The bible says that the new man is created in righteousness and true holiness. That’s the new man, the new Steven Anderson, incapable of sinning, okay. I’m going to prove that to you from the bible. Let me tell you something about the old man, he’s incapable of pleasing God.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: The old man, the old Steven Anderson, Steven Anderson 1.0, it is impossible to reform him.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: No matter how hard you try, you cannot reform the old Steven Anderson, or you know, insert your name here. You can’t fix the old man, you can’t change. The bible says, the carnal mind if enmity with God. It cannot be brought into subjection of the laws of God. The only way that you are going to live a life that is pleasing to God is by putting off the old man and putting on the new man, by walking in the spirit and not walking in the flesh. It’s the only way to please God. That’s why people that are not saved and they try to reform themself, it’s not pleasing to God. They cannot, because they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Their spirits is dead as a doornail.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: Now let me prove this to you from the bible, because the bible teaches this very clearly. Look at First John Chapter 3 and Verse 9. It says in First John 3:9, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now go back just a couple of pages to First John Chapter 1, and what does he say in First John Chapter 1 Verse 8? If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Hopefully before you read Chapter 3, hopefully you read Chapter 1, because in Chapter 1 he admits, “Hey look, we all sin, and if we say that we don’t have sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not us.” People say, “Well, in Chapter 3 it’s a contradiction because he says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. But listen, that’s the new man. The new man is born of God. Listen to me, your old man, your flesh is not born again.
Man: Right.
Pastor: My flesh tonight is not born again. I mean think about it, when I got saved, did my flesh change?
Congregation: No.
Pastor: All of a sudden every blemish on my body disappeared, every imperfection disappeared, right, I started glowing because I was born again, my flesh came back like that of a newborn child, like [Nam the Assyrian00:29:19]. No, it didn’t, because my flesh is still unsaved. That’s why the bible says in Romans Chapter 8 that we are still waiting for the redemption of our body.
Man: Right.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Our body has not yet been redeemed. Has our spirit been redeemed?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: The moment that we believed on Jesus Christ our spirit was saved, our spirit was born again, our spirit was redeemed. But wait a minute, the flesh wasn’t.
Man: Right.
Pastor: The flesh is still the same unregenerate, unsaved, sinful flesh, which is why if you walk in the flesh you are capable of the same sins that you were capable of before you got saved.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: If you walk in the flesh you’re going to act the way you acted before you got saved. And you know what the only difference is going to be? The difference is going to be that God’s going to punish you.
Man: Yeah.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Because you’re His child now. The difference is going to be that because the Holy Spirit lives inside you, you’re going to have a conscience about it, you’re going to have guilt. You talk to people who got saved and then they went out and lived a life of sin after they got saved, and they said there was a lot of guilt.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Whenever you talk to people that are saved and now living a wicked life, they are troubled by guilt because they’re grieving the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit of God is there grieved, and they know that what they’re doing is wrong. And so an unsaved person can enjoy sin more because they don’t have the Holy Spirit bugging them and they don’t have God chastening them and so forth. Let me tell you something, as far as what the flesh is capable of, it’s capable of all the sins that it was capable of before you got saved, because nothing changed when you got saved in your flesh.
Man: Right.
Pastor: It wasn’t some change, a little change, no. Zero change in the flesh, 100% change in the spirit.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Okay. How Godly of a life you live is determined by how much time you spend walking in the spirit versus how much time you spend walking in the flesh.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: That’s what’s going to determine what kind of a life you live. Because the bible’s real clear in First John 3, it says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Now a lot of people will use this to say, “Hey, if you’re saved you’ll never sin.”
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Well, that would contradict a lot of scripture, wouldn’t it?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Is there anybody who actually thinks that they're perfect? Would anybody stand up tonight and say, “You know what, I never sin Pastor Anderson. Ever since I got saved, I just don’t sin anymore.” If they did, we would all laugh at them.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: And in our hearts we’d think that they were a fool, wouldn’t we?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: We’d think, “You are a fool. You know you’re a sinner. Everybody’s a sinner. It’s so obvious.” Yet this passage in First John 3, it troubles people. It confuses, and I can see why. I can see why people read First John 3 and it throws them for a loop, because when you first read it, it kind of throws you for a loop.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, you know, what are you talking about? Then once you compare with Romans 7, what did Paul say twice in Romans 7? I’ll refresh your memory for you. In Romans 7 he said this, in verse number 19, actually it was Verse 17. He says, now then, watch this, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Listen to this, Romans 7:20, now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. What is Paul saying? He’s saying, “When I do wrong, it’s not really me that’s doing it, it’s the sin that dwelleth in me.” Now you might look at that and say that sounds like kind of a convenient excuse.
That sounds like something you tell your parents, “It wasn’t me that did it, it was the sin that dwelled in me, Mom. It was not I that took the cookie out of the cookie jar, it was sin that dwelleth in me. O wretched child that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This is what kids are going to start saying to their parents. Here’s the thing about that though, okay, Paul is under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost here, I mean this is bible.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: This is truth. What he’s saying, if we get the context, because the whole Chapter 8 it’s all about the spirit versus the flesh, so that’s the context. What he’s saying is that when I do the wrong things, it’s not the inward me, it’s not the new man, it’s the old Paul. It’s the flesh. He basically doesn’t really identify with it, he’s like, “It’s not me. It’s the old man.” Okay? Because he delights in the law of God after the inward man. This guy who’s doing all the wrong things is the old Paul that has to die every day. Now this is why, and think about how much sense this makes once you understand it, this is why when you die physically you will never sin again. I mean have you ever wondered about that? I mean why is it that when you get to heaven you’re not going to sin?
When we get to heaven we’re not going to be lying and stealing and thinking wicked thoughts, we’re going to be totally without sin, we’re going to be like unto Him. And we’re going to follow Him whethersoever He goeth. And there’ll be no more sorrow, death, pain, everything will be great. We’re going to live a Godly life. Why, because the only reason that we’re sinning right now is because we’re in the flesh. It’s the only reason. When we die physically the flesh is gone, therefore, we’ll never sin again.
Or if we’re alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds and the trumpet sounds, we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, that is the redemption of our body, and at that point we will be saved body, saved soul, saved spirit, we will be 100% the new man in body, soul, and spirit, and our body will be perfect at that point. That’s why the bible says that God shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. That didn’t happen when you got saved. You still have a vile body, my friend. You did not change your body.
Think about it, we all have things that are wrong with our body. I mean everybody has physical ailments and problems, and even people that you think are in perfect health, I think pretty much everybody has something wrong with them physically, some physical ailment or something. You say, “What’s wrong with you Pastor Anderson?” Well, you know, for one, my middle finger on my right hand is completely messed up. If I make a fist like this and then open my fist, it makes this painful popping. It happens to me like 30 times a day. Click, ouch, click, ouch. I don’t know if it’s ever going to go back to normal. It’s been like that for about five or six years.
Here’s the thing, over your lifetime, you start racking up these type of injuries and ailments, and that’s why people that are older they’ve got all kinds of ailments and injury. And you know, isn’t it great to know that one day your body is going to be saved.
Man: Yes.
Congregation: Yeah.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: You know, one day you’re going to have a perfect body. And the blind will see, and the deaf will hear, and the crippled will be leaping and skipping and running, and we’re one day going to have perfect health, and all of our injuries and ailments and problems with our body will all be fixed. Look, that is not where we’re at right now though. Not only does our body have physical ailments, but that sinful flesh of the carnal mind also is sinful and it actually leads us into sin and commits sin if we let it take over. That’s why we have to make sure the spirit’s in control, not the flesh, okay? First John 3 says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he’s born of God.
Now if you flip over to First John Chapter 5, just a few pages to the right in your bible. First John Chapter 5 Verse 18, it says, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Now I don’t know how people can just ignore these scriptures. If you believe that the bible’s God’s word, you have to believe that this is true, that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Since he just finished telling us that we all have sin, the clear answer is the fact that when we sin, it’s not the person who’s born of God that’s sinning, it’s the unregenerate flesh that’s sinning. Not Steven Anderson 2.0 that’s born of God, but Steven Anderson 1.0 that was born of sinful flesh and that continues to be sinful flesh until physical death.
He says, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. Let me show you how the ESV just completely perverts and corrupts this doctrine. By the way, the ESV is not alone. The NIV, the HIV, the New American Standard, the Holman Christian Standard, all these new versions corrupt scripture, and they usually all corrupt it in the same way. They’re all the same in so many ways.
Man: Right.
Pastor: The reason I want to pick the ESV is because it seems that the people who are the most goofed up on this particular doctrine that seems to be their bible of choice. I’ve got the ESV here tonight, I’m going to hand it off to Brother [Garrett 00:38:34] so that he can look up some scriptures in the ESV. I’m going to show you how the ESV perverts scripture. Now go ahead and go to First John Chapter 3, Brother Garrett. Now what these new versions will often do as a pattern, when they come across a verse that contradicts their doctrine, or that they don’t agree with or that they don’t understand, they’ll just change it.
It doesn’t make sense to them, just change it. Make it fit what we think it should say. It’s really not based on scholarship or evidence, a lot of times it’s just based on their opinion. A classic example of this is when the bible says, sons of God in the Old Testament, the new versions will just change it to angels. Then they put a note at the bottom that says, well, in the Hebrew it’s sons of God.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Well, wait, aren’t we translating from the Hebrew?
Man: Right.
Pastor: If the Hebrew says, sons of God, why don’t you make it say, sons of God, in English?
Man: Yeah.
Man: Right. Yeah, exactly.
Pastor: “Well, because we all know that it’s angels, right?” No, we don’t. They’re doing your thinking for you and when they come across a passage that they think is a contradiction, as long as they come to numbers that they think contradict because they’re confused, and then they’ll just change them, just fix them for you.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Thank you for fixing all the mistakes in the bible. No, sorry, the bible doesn’t have any mistakes.
Man: Right.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: When they come to this passage they don’t like it, they don’t like this doctrine that I’m teaching tonight, so what they do is they just change it. It’s a problem, change it. What does it say? Everybody look down at your King James Bible while Brother Garrett reads for you from the ESV. Read for us First John 3:9 in the ESV nice and loud.
Garrett: No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
Pastor: Okay, you notice all the extra words that they’re adding?
Man: Right.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Instead of saying what the bible says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, he that is born of God doesn’t make a practice of sinning. What is that supposed to mean? I guess they don’t set up an office somewhere and put up a little tile outside the door that says, “Steven L. Anderson, Practitioner of Sin”.
Man: Right.
Pastor: “Steven L. Anderson, Professional Sinner for Hire”. What do you mean make a practice of sinning? Set up shop as a sinner. What in the world is that supposed to mean? Who doesn’t make a practice of sinning? Then the next one they add another word, he doesn’t keep on sinning.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: You can sin a little bit, just don’t keep on sinning. And you know, well, you can sin as long as you don’t make a practice of sinning. Basically as long as your sins are isolated incidents and they’re not coming up as a pattern. I mean isn’t that just adding to … no, now you say, “Well, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, the ESV is based on the best Greek scholarship, and so.” Well I’m going to debunk that right now. But back up to Verse 4. I just want to show you how weird the ESV is, and how it just destroys key doctrines. Because in First John Chapter 3 Verse 4, we have it, read it, [Dominique 00:41:48], in the King James, First John 3:4.
Dominique: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.
Pastor: Now isn’t that a great doctrinal verse defining what sin is?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: It says, whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, and he defines it. Sin is the transgression of the law. Doesn’t that make perfect sense?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: That’s why whenever I’m out soul winning and just explaining salvation to people, if they don’t know what the word sin means, here’s what I always tell them. “Hey, sin is when you break one of God’s commandments.”
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: “Oh, okay. I know what that means. God has rules and you break His commandments, that’s what sin is.”
Man: Amen.
Pastor: Sin is the transgression of the law, when you break God’s law. Okay, listen to what the ESV does to Verse 4.
Garrett: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practice lawlessness, sin is lawlessness.
Pastor: Okay, sin is lawlessness. It says, everyone that practices sinning is also committing lawlessness. I mean it sounds bizarre, it doesn’t make sense to the, and they say these are easier to understand. Get rid of that … read us something that’s real easy to understand. Read us Verse 4 again, it’s so easy to understand.
Garrett: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness, sin is lawlessness.
Pastor: I mean imagine walking up to somebody’s door out soul winning, “Hey, do you know what sin is?” “No, I don’t know what sin is.” “Oh, okay. Here’s what sin is, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.” I mean now they know less what sin was than when you started. What the bible says in the King James actually makes great sense.
Man: Right.
Pastor: When you read it says, whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law, right, breaking the law, crossing the line of God’s law. They’ve destroyed the definition of sin, and then they’ve added all these words. Now you say, “Well, Pastor Anderson, that stuff’s all in the Greek.” No, it isn’t. Here’s the thing, I’m not one of these pastors that goes back to the Greek. I don’t get up here and tell you, “Well, here’s what the bible really says. Let’s go back to Greek.” Because let me tell you something, you know what the Greek New Testament says, all the same stuff that’s in the King James.
Congregation: Right.
Congregation: Amen.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Look, I’ve learned a lot of Greek, and I took it in college, and I’ve studied a lot more of it on my own, and especially when we were working on New World Order bible versions, I spent a lot of time reading the Greek New Testament every day, just trying to understand the translation issues so that we could expose these modern versions for the fraud that they are, and I never get up here and say, “Hey, if you go back to the Greek it says something different and all this,” because you know why, in all the reading that I’ve done and in all the study that I’ve done, all it ever does it just confirm that the King James is saying exactly the same thing in English what the original New Testament was saying in Greek.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: Says the exact same thing, okay. This adding of words, of well, practicing sin. You know why they put those words in there is because here’s what they want to say, there’s got to be some change.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: You know, I mean, “Well, you’re still sinning but at least you’re not making a practice of sinning. At least you don’t just keep on sinning.” And look, this is a lie and a false doctrine that is created by that version. If you have the ESV and you’re like, “Oh well, the bible says if I keep on sinning I’m not saved. That means I better stop sinning to get saved.” Then it’s like a work salvation.
Man: Yeah.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: Or, “Well, if I make a practice of sin I’m not really saved. I mean I guess I have to live a pretty clean life. I mean it doesn’t have to be perfect, but I have to live a pretty clean life.” No, that’s not what bible … you believe to be saved, it’s faith alone.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: But this whole new doctrine has been created by these false versions inserting this lying, false teaching of, oh, continuing to sin and practicing sin. That’s not what the bible says. You say, “Well, how do you know the ESV is wrong?” Well, listen to this, I looked up, and get ready to turn to some scriptures in the ESV. I looked up that word in the Greek that they’re making such a big make a practice of. The word in the Greek is basically the word that just means to do, to do something. He’s saying, if you’re born of God you don’t do sin, but in English we don’t say do sin, we say commit sin, but it’s the same meaning. I looked up in the Greek New Testament all the other places where that word is used in the exact same verb tense, the exact word in the exact way.
I’m going to read for you some of the examples because it’s funny how the ESV doesn’t do that in other places. To the identical word, they don’t add all this weird make a practice of and keep on doing it, they just translate it normal in a whole bunch of places. Then when they get to First John 3, they take the identical word and add all that just for their false doctrine. Well, there’s no such thing as a continuously carnal Christian, because First John 3 in the ESV. But listen to this, okay, let’s go to, and you turn to these in your King James so that you can follow along in the real bible.
Look at Matthew Chapter 8. Matthew Chapter 8. I just want to show you what a fraud these new versions are. Here’s the identical word, identical verb, identical verb tense that they’re making to be, “Oh, it’s a continuous.” Look, one of the biggest lies I ever heard when I’d be in these churches where they’re constantly going back to the Greek is this thing of, “Oh, it’s continuous.”
Man: Right.
Pastor: They do this all the time. Look, Garrett is saying that’s right because he went to seminary and heard this stuff constantly in the Greek classes, right, about, “It’s the ongoing, continuous, making a habit of, blah, blah, blah.” Let’s see if that jives with these other uses of the identical word, okay. Listen to this from Matthew 8:9. Okay, everybody looking down at your King James?
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Read it for us from the ESV, Brother Garrett. You got it, Matthew 8 Verse 9?
Garrett: “For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Pastor: Right, so it’s pretty much the same thing as the King James, right? For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. Now if the ESV were going to be consistent, then they’d be say, I say unto my servant, make a practice of habitually doing this, and then he makes a practice of habitually doing it. Is that what it says?
Man: No.
Pastor: I say to my servant, keep on doing it, and he keeps on doing it. I mean that’s what they’re saying, “If you go back to the Greek, that’s what that word means.” Isn’t that what they’re saying? Liars. But you know what they prey upon the fact is that people don’t know Greek, which I’m not saying they should have to know Greek, because you have the perfect word of God right there, the King James.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: This is all you need.
Man: You’re right.
Pastor: But you better have a Greek New Testament if you’ve got an ESV.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Because it’s garbage.
Man: Right.
Pastor: You need to figure out what it really says. But get a King James would be the right. Go to John Chapter 3 Verse 2. Actually just go to John 13:7, I’ll just blow past that one real quick. Go to John 13:7. But in John 3:2, this is the one where a man comes to Jesus by night and says unto him, rabbi, you know, Nicodemus. We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these things that thou doest, except God be with him. I guess in the ESV it basically just says, no one could do these signs that you do unless God’s with him. But if they were going to translate it the way they did the other one, “No one can habitually make a practice of the things that you do, Jesus, unless God with him.”
Doesn’t make any sense, right? Well, let’s prove it further. John 13:7 is the verse where Jesus is washing the disciples’ feet. Now here’s what’s funny about this example. How many times did Jesus wash the disciples’ feet?
Congregation: One.
Pastor: Once. He never did this before, He never did this after, so was this some habitually thing that He made a practice of?
Man: No.
Pastor: Same word, same Greek word. Okay, read it for us in the ESV. You look down at the real bible.
Garrett: Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
Pastor: Okay, so why didn’t he say, what I am habitually making a practice of doing on an ongoing basis repeatedly you don’t understand? Because it was a one-time thing.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Isn’t it a fraud when they say, “Oh, well that verse is always, that word, when you go back to the Greek, that verb tense is referring to that which is ongoing.” By the way, who here speaks fluent Spanish? Got a few people that speak fluent Spanish? Look, you know the difference between the imperfect and the preterite, past tense? Basically it would be basically the difference between like comía and como or [comay 00:51:01], right? That’s the difference there we’re talking about. Here’s the thing, anybody who speaks Spanish knows that that’s not always some habitual ongoing repeated action when you use that imperfect, is it?
Because for example, you could say, “I want eating breakfast when the phone rang.” How would you say, “I was eating breakfast when the phone rang?”
Man: [Spanish language 00:51:25]
Pastor: Did you hear that? [Estaba comiendo 00:51:30]. Nobody knows what that means. But you know, “Oh, that was ongoing habitual.” Look, that might have been the only day he ate breakfast in his whole life, but he’s going to use [estaba 00:51:43] because it was something that was ongoing while the phone rang that one time. Jesus used that verb of, “Hey, what I do now you don’t understand,” because He was in the process of doing it.
Man: Right.
Pastor: Not because He habitually repeatedly did it on an ongoing basis. I know I’m going too deep, but just realize that these versions are just making stuff up to fit their doctrine, and when it’s convenient for them they translate it normal everywhere else, and then just they get to that one place in First John 3, and then they just go nuts with it, and a few other places, to bolster this phony doctrine. I had a whole bunch of other examples here but I’m boring you. Let’s go to Galatians Chapter 5. Don’t let anybody tell … because look, I’ve been at this thing for a long time, my friend, and I’ve been preaching and soul winning for a long time, and every single time I bring up First John 3 to one of these false prophets, they always correct me, “Yeah, but that means ongoing.” “Oh, that’s habitual.” “No-no-no, that’s repeated.” “No, if you go back to the Greek.”
Well, you know what, that’s not how the King James translated it, so I guess those 54 great scholars were all wrong, and I’m wrong, and I guess the ESV was wrong in all the other verses where they translated it normally. It’s a fraud, my friend. The emperor is not wearing any clothes, friend, and these people are just repeating stuff and everybody just believes it because they heard it. “Oh, it’s ongoing.” “Oh, it’s repeated.” Listen to me, if you’re saved, you can sin on an ongoing basis, and repeatedly. There are people who do it. It’s not right, they're going to be punished, but it’s possible. But they’re teaching this doctrine that well, everybody who’s saved is only sins every once in a while. It’s a fraud.
Okay, let’s look at what the bible teaches here in Galatians Chapter 5 Verse 16. It says in Verse 16, This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, you’re not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.
Now that’s a pretty broad list of sins, isn’t it? He lists a lot of sin. But then as if he didn’t list enough, he said, “and such like.” Anything like any of those things. That’s a pretty big list, isn’t it? Then he says this, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. People will take this verse and the Paul Washers of this world will say, “See, if you do anything on that list you’re not saved.” They’ll say, “Well, you know, if you’re a drunkard or if you have murdered or if you hate anybody or if you have strife or sedition or heresy, revellings, partying, envying.” I mean envying, envying. What’s envying? You wish you had something that belongs to someone else.
Man: Covetousness.
Pastor: Covetousness. Oh, well, they you … no, because again, what are we talking about here? Those are the works of the flesh. He said, the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. That’s because the bible said flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God, my friend.
Man: Right.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: It’s a new man, that’s why he said, all liars shall have their part of the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Because when you go to heaven you’re not going to be a liar.
Man: Right.
Pastor: You might be a liar on earth here, but when you get to heaven you won’t be a liar anymore because the flesh will be gone.
Man: Right.
Pastor: You won't be a drunk up there, you won’t be envious up there, you won’t be have strife and all these things up there. But he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. But watch Verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Why doesn’t he say if we live in the Spirit we’ll automatically walk in the … no, he says, “Look, if we live in the Spirit, let’s also walk in the Spirit.” Meaning we need to make the decision that we’re going to walk in the Spirit.” He says, we’re debtors to live after the Spirit, not after the flesh.
Flip over to Ephesians Chapter 4 Verse 20, Ephesians Chapter 4 Verse 20. There’s a lot of scripture on this, I don’t have time to go to all of them, but I’m just trying to just lay out this doctrine tonight and just help you to see this important teaching that when we are saved we have two natures, the new nature and the old nature. The new man, the old man, the inward man and the carnal man, and these two guys are in opposition one to the other, because one of them can’t sin and the other one can’t please God. They cannot be brought into synthesis, my friend, because they are at enmity, they are in opposition to one another.
It says in Ephesians 4:20, but ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, do you see that? He says, put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Look, a corrupt tree can’t bring forth good fruit.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: The old man is corrupt, he is carnal, he cannot be brought into subjection of the laws of God. He’s a loser, he has to die. Kill him. Okay. But what does he say next? He says, put off the old man, but Verse 23, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. He says, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. And on and on he lists all these things that we need to get rid of and all the good things that we should start doing. What is the moral of the sermon?
First of all, we need to know that this teaching that says that if somebody isn’t living a Godly life they’re not saved, that’s a false doctrine.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: This thing of, “Well, we’re saved by faith but if you’re not living right you’re not saved.” No, all that is a back door to work salvation.
Man: Right.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: It’s just a thinly veiled work salvation being disguised as, “Well, you don’t have to do works to get saved, but if you don’t do works you’re not saved.” I mean see how that works?
Man: Yup.
Pastor: Because we’re saying salvation is by grace, through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. And they’re saying, “Well, it’s not the works that save you, but it’s just if you don’t do them you’re not saved.”
Man: Yeah, it’s ridiculous.
Pastor: I mean isn’t that just the same way of saying it?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: It’s six and one half-dozen the other of saying the same exact thing.
Man: It’s [inaudible 00:58:53].
Pastor: It’s deception to just switch it around on you, and it’s the same way of, “Well, you don’t have to do works to get saved, you just have to do works to stay saved.”
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Or if I look at you and you don’t have enough works, I’m just going to say that you never were saved in the first place. You know, that’d be as foolish as looking at someone who has Down syndrome and saying, “Well, you’re not really even human. You were never even born.” It doesn’t make any sense. There are some spiritually retarded people out there.
Man: Yeah.
Man: There are.
Pastor: But that doesn’t mean that they’re not saved.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: That doesn’t mean that they’re not of God’s people.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: There are a lot of people out there who are carnal Christians, just like those Corinthians were. When we see Christians who their whole life is wrapped up in the things of this world and what they get excited about is TV, and they get all excited about Hollywood, and their life is professional sports and partying, and they don’t have a big interest in church, that’s carnal.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: But you know what, there are people that are saved that are like that.
Man: Yes, there are.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: There are people who are saved who’ve always been like that. Then there are other people who are saved who got on fire for God and started living for God and then they backslid and became like that. Look, I could tell you so many examples to illustrate these truths that I’ve seen this in real life. One great example is Brother Dave Berzins, pastoring up in Prescott Valley, Arizona. I mean here’s a guy who loves the Lord, he’s serving God pastoring a church, independent, fundamental King James, he’s out soul winning, he’s doing great work for God, but here’s the thing, when he got saved, he’ll tell you his testimony, he got saved but it was nine years later that he got baptized and in church and started living for God.
During those nine years people that are messed up on this doctrine they would’ve looked at him and said, “Well, he’s not saved. He’s living the same way he did before he got saved.” But you know what, he’ll tell you that in his heart during those nine years he knew he was saved, because he knew he had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior and he’ll tell you that he was chastened by God during that time that he wasn’t living for the Lord, and he’ll tell you that he felt guilty during that time because of the fact that he was grieved of his sins. He knew what he was doing was wrong. But people would’ve looked at that and said, “He wasn’t really saved.”
Now once he got into Faithful Word Baptist Church, got baptized, got under the preaching of God’s word, there was a dramatic change in his life. Why, because now he’s putting on the new man. The new man was always there, always in true righteousness and holiness, but he wasn’t walking in the new man. The flesh dominated. Stop and think about this. Just think about this for a minute. If a person believes on Jesus, right, let’s say somebody knocks on their door and gives them the gospel and they believe on Jesus Christ, and they don’t go to church and don’t read the bible, and they just fill their mind with TV and their old unsaved friends and partying and whatever, why in the world would that person ever be walking in the spirit?
Man: Right.
Pastor: Why are you surprised that they’re not walking in the spirit?
Man: Amen.
Pastor: I mean think about it, does walking in the spirit just come naturally to you?
Man: That’s right.
Pastor: It’s just automatic for you, “Ever since I got saved I just roll out of bed, l literally just roll out of bed every morning when my alarm goes off, I throw back the covers, this is my story, this is my song, praising my savior all the day long. And I read the bible for a few hours, I pray for a few hours, I go on soul winning all day, and I’m just out preaching and I just live right, and I’ve no desire to ever sin. Everything I eat is right, everything I drink is right. What’s wrong with you, you’re still living in sin? You’re not even saved. When I got saved, I never had any desire to sin again. I lived for God 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it’s automatic.” I mean isn’t that just ridiculous?
Congregation: Yes.
Woman: Yes, definitely.
Pastor: Because you know and I know that every single day we get out of bed and it’s a war, it’s a battle. The moment we wake up there’s a battle, and the devil’s there to tempt us, and the world’s there to tempt us, and our flesh is saying, “Hey, I don’t want to read the bible and I don’t feel like going to church, and I don’t feel like praying.” You say, “You just feel that way because you’re not saved.” No, that is the flesh talking.
Man: Right.
Pastor: You know, there are a lot of liars out there that’ll lie to you. Don’t believe everything you hear. People that tell you, “Oh yeah, the moment I got saved I never desired a cigarette again.” I could ask for a raise of hands in here of people that struggled with cigarettes long after they were saved. I’ve seen people live for God and clean up their life majorly and still be smoking. I’ve seen people who got rid of a whole bunch of other sin in their life and that was like the one thing that they really struggled hard with. Newsflash, it’s hard to quit smoking for some people. Especially by the way, it’s harder for women than men. Men scientifically have an easier time quitting smoking than women.
It’s a physical addiction. But he says, “Oh, the moment I got saved I never craved another cigarette.” I talked to a guy who he is a Baptist pastor and he talked about quitting smoking and here’s what he said, “You know, the first three days were the hardest.” But he said, “The craving never totally goes away. In fact a cigarette sounds pretty good right now,” he said. But he hadn’t smoked in a decade. That’s real life. That’s a preacher getting up and telling you the truth.
Man: Amen.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: That’ll get up and tell you the truth and say, “You know what, sin is always going to be a temptation.” That’s why let him that thinks he stands to take heed lest he fall, because we all have the capability to fall back into old ways.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Especially if you lived a really sinful life before you got saved. My life before I was saved I didn’t really hit rock bottom at age six. You know what I mean? I didn’t really hit rock bottom of just I was arrested, and I was strung out on drugs, and I was a drunk, and I had lost my marriage, I lost my job, I was filled with disease. No, I was six years old. Okay, so not everybody’s had that same experience. People who did live a really sinful life and then got saved, need to especially be really careful because it’s easier to go back where you’ve already been than to go there for the first time.
This teaching that makes people doubt their salvation by saying, “You know, if you still crave cigarettes you’re not really saved and if you still find yourself struggling with sin you’re not really saved, and if you commit the same sin over and over again, you’re not really saved.” You know what, it’s a lie. Yeah, the ESV teaches that. Well, go to ESV preaching churches then. This is the King James Bible-believing Baptist Church and the King James Bible does not teach that.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Well, if you make a practice of watching whatever, doing whatever, looking at, you’re not saved. No, you know what makes you not saved that you don’t believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Man: Right.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: He that believeth not is condemned already-
Man: Amen.
Pastor: because he hath not believed in name of the only begotten son of God, but he that believeth is not condemned.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Now look I’m not saying, and again, in this sermon I’m trying to get one point across, only one. Other sermons have other purposes. My purpose tonight is to get this point across that you know what, it’s possible for people to be saved and yet still continue living in sin.
Man: Right.
Pastor: That’s the point I’m trying to get across. Don’t misconstrue the sermon that, “You know, well, Pastor Anderson got up and said that you know, it’s fine if we keep sinning.” God forbid.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: God forbid. That’s why I have plenty of other sermons where I get up and tell you don’t sin, don’t commit sin, don’t do this thing. But you know what, doctrinally the reason we need to fight for this is because we need to fight for teaching that salvation is by grace through faith.
Congregation: Amen.
Man: That’s right.
Pastor: It’s always been under attack and it always will be under attack and the devil will repackage this so many different ways.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: I look at all of it as one thing, work salvation.
Man: Yeah.
Man: That’s right.
Pastor: Work salvation, works-based, but he’ll package it so many different ways, “Well, it’s not works, but you can lose it if you don’t do the works.” Huh? Shiny new packaging, right?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: So many different way, “Well, you don’t have to do good things, but you have to stop doing bad things.” I mean look at all, it comes in all these different packages, but it’s all the same thing.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: You earning your salvation.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: It’s no longer a free gift.
Man: Right.
Pastor: We need to nail down this doctrine and be very secure on this and firm on this, and also I hope that tonight’s sermon illustrate to you why it’s so important you have the right bible. You’re going to be all over the place doctrinally if you’re in one of these goofball versions.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: You’re not even going to know what sin is.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Let alone what it means to make a practice of continuing sinning. Let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the free gift of salvation-
Man: Amen.
Pastor: eternal life purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Although those who would scoff at the truth would call this doctrine cheap grace, we know that cheap grace is what they’re selling.
Man: Right.
Man: Yeah.
Pastor: Because our righteousness it says are as filthy rags, and if our righteousness is what purchased our salvation then that would truly be cheap grace, but there’s nothing cheap about the blood that was shed on the cross. And so Lord, thank you for that free gift, that priceless gift, that unspeakable gift of eternal life that was purchased, not cheaply with our righteousness, but rather with the precious blood of the Lamb.
Man: Amen.
Pastor: And Lord help us to preach that message unto the lost, help us to preach to the unsaved, and Lord, help us every day to kill the old man and to mortify and put the death the members of our uncleanness on this earth. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Let’s sing one more song before we go.
Man: Song number 207.
Man: We’ve broken the record.
Pastor: How many do we have tonight?
Woman: A hundred and twenty five.
Pastor: Hundred and twenty five, so that means we have, are we doing ice cream or just barbecue?
Woman: We can.
Pastor: Who says the barbecue is enough? Who says we need ice cream also for [inaudible 01:09:50]? All right. You know what, this is the first time our church has ever voted on anything in the nine years that I’ve been pastoring. All right, it’s carried, the ayes have it, we’re having ice cream.
