Now in chapter 3, let's look
at verse 9 this morning. Let's start there. It says, Whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin. That's a pretty bold statement,
isn't it? 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. So he tells us
that whoever is born of God does not commit sin. He cannot commit
sin because he is born of God. So I think there's something
that we can maybe learn here today. But before we get to what
we might be able to learn if the spirit will enable us and
teach us is what this is not saying. A
lot of times I find, at least how I learn things, is I learn
things by what they're not saying. Sometimes I come to scriptures
and I'm perplexed by them. The carnal nature tries to figure
them out with carnal wisdom. I try to dissect it. I try to
run to scholars to tell me what it might say. I try to look at
lexicons to try to configure the words and all that kind of
stuff. And at the end of the day, I'm still not, in my being,
satisfied with what I'm reading, what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing.
The theologians, as great as they may be, and I have some
doubts on that, The theologians of the day and of yesterday all
are just like I am. They are looking in a glass darkly.
And they are at the very mercy of God to teach them the spiritual
application of what these black and white words are giving to
us. Do we have the revelation of God given to us? Yes, we do. But no man can understand this. It doesn't matter what you want.
We can quote this thing verbatim as much as we want. We can put
this to memory. We can be able to, at the drop
of a hat, quote this verse, that verse, and bring up verses to
do whatever we want and manipulate anybody's thinking any way we
want. We can lay it bare. Thus saith
the Lord. Brethren, listen, if the Spirit
doesn't give us understanding, if the Spirit doesn't give us
revelation, these are just black words on white paper. Unless
you've got some other weird Bible that has it backwards. White
words on black paper. These are just words in a book
that is unlocked only by the Spirit of God. It is a sealed
book to the natural man. It is a sealed book to the carnal,
Adamic mind. It cannot perceive the things
of God. And so, although you may come
with all your apologetics, this book is no good to you. It's
not going to teach anybody anything. This book, and I know it's a
bold statement to most people that are accustomed to hearing
other things, but it's not a bold statement to most of us who have
heard this truth. This book cannot teach anybody
anything. This book cannot save anybody
without the spirit doing the work. The illumination, the revelation,
the understanding, the gaining wisdom from that understanding,
the application of these things, the praise, the glory, the repentance
from false thinking, all the things that accompany the work
of the Spirit in applying and taking the things of God and
bringing the truth, bringing us and leading us into truth,
teaching us, growing us in the grace and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Without the Spirit, we're not going to understand
or know these things. So what we're going to do is we're going
to take and we're going to apply Adam's knowledge to it and Adam's
wisdom to it and we're gonna try to apply Adam's activity
to it. Because all that we know in Adam
is to, we're gonna try to hit that mark. We're gonna try to
hit the mark. Adam thinks that he can be as
God. Adam thinks that he can live
a life that in some way is pleasing and acceptable to God. Adam thinks
that there is something that he can do that can be accepted,
even though it may not be perfect, God's going to accept him because
he's at least trying. He's reaching for that mark. He's pressing towards that goal.
I know Paul said that, but Paul, better than all of us probably,
knew that even though he's pressing towards that mark, there's nothing
that he can do in that Adamic flesh to do that. He's speaking
of that spiritual man. The spiritual man is pressing
towards the mark. And when he means pressing towards
the mark, he doesn't mean I'm pulling myself up by my bootstraps
and getting back out there and taking that dung and trying to
make myself some religious expert or some religious help for God,
you know. Paul is pressing towards the
mark. He's looking towards the goal.
He's running that race. He's doing all that. He's doing
that in that inner man. Because the outer man only perishes. The outer man is just flesh and
it cannot please God. Who we are in Adam cannot do
anything. So anything that is done as far
as pressing towards, as far as mortifying, as far as yielding,
as far as doing this, is that inner man that is controlled
and is the Spirit of God within us. And I believe that a lot
of times in Scripture, we put so much emphasis on the exhortations
and admonitions in such a way that we believe that there is
some way that we can just pick up and just do it. A lot of the
admonitions and exhortations in Scripture, brethren, are based
in promises of God that He will do this in us, and that we must
rest and trust that He is doing that in us. It isn't us just
appropriating means. That isn't how things work. When
we try to appropriate means, that's Adam laying his hand to
the plow. Whenever we are trying to take
the means and make something spiritual happen with carnal
things, then that is just us trying to sew two pieces of cloth
together and make one garment. That's not gonna work. There's
only one garment, brethren, and that's the garment that Christ
has given us, His righteousness alone. Our garment will never
be infused in with the garment that Christ has given us. Our
righteousness and His righteousness are not gonna go hand in hand.
There is no, here's the big 50 cent word for you, synergism
in the salvation of God. There is no synergism in the
legal aspect of it. And listen, there is no synergism
in the experiential aspect of it. I know the reformers, they
like to claim, and especially the conditionalist primitive
Baptists, they like to think that there's a synergism between
us appropriating the things of God, taking this scripture and
the admonitions and putting it to use. that we save ourselves
by applying this. But brethren, to will and to
do is by His good pleasure, right? To will and to do is by God's
good pleasure. To do God's pleasure. We do the
pleasure of God in willing and doing only as He is enabling
us. So any kind of anything that
we might have inwardly as far as a love for the scripture,
a love for the truth, a desire for righteousness, a desire for
obedience, prayer, anything, is all because of the Spirit
of God. And I think where we lose it, where we miss these
things, is not being able to distinguish between the seed
of Adam and the seed of Christ. not being able to distinguish,
or not distinguishing at all, not given, and again, this is
also by revelation. Unless we have been illuminated
to these truths, we're going to come up short in our understanding
of these things. But the fact that we have two
men residing within us, we have the old man which is perishing,
and we have the new man which is being renewed daily, we have
that old nature that is conceived in sin and is full of sin, and
then we have the new man that is created in true righteousness
and holiness. And not distinguishing that these
two men exist in one person, these two men are existing in
our body, that these two men are at odds with each other and
at war with each other, and are continually going to be at war
with each other and continually are going to be exactly what
they are created to be. The natural man is created to
be the natural man for a purpose. I preached about that a few weeks
ago that the natural man has been given to the child of grace,
God purposed for the foundation of the world to take his children
and to put them forth in a natural body that is confined to the
limits of that nature, which is the limits of that nature
is the inability to do spiritual things. That God, before the
foundation of the world, chose a people to be lost into Adam,
to be lost into sin and death in Adam, and to be put into this
body of death so that the exercise of the flesh and the spirit might
continually be there to hone and to shape and to mold and
to conform them and to teach them of the glory that is God. Now, with that being said, we
look at the Scripture here and we see the Bible says that whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. I've heard that said, I used
to say it, I used to preach it, I used to teach this exactly
this way, and if you are honest, that's what you hear mostly that's
out there. Most everybody, when they read
this verse of scripture, they apply this interpretation. They
say, well that's meaning that the child of God does not continue
in habitual sin. It's not saying that they don't
sin. It's saying that they don't continue
in habitual sin. Well, brethren, let me look at
this scripture and read it with me. If you want, we can read
it slow. But again, without revelation,
it doesn't matter how many times we read it or how slow we read
it. But let's read it. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. It says he cannot sin because
he is born of God. Now it doesn't say he doesn't
continue in habitual sin. It doesn't say that he doesn't
want to sin. It says he does not commit sin. He cannot sin. So just in Adam, the Bible says
that though the natural man cannot receive things of the Spirit. That's an inability, right? Well,
brethren, there is an inability in whosoever that is born of
God to sin. There is an inability to sin. It doesn't say habitual sin there.
Now, I know that that says that plainly and clearly in that,
but just to check, I wanted to make sure is the English language
not translating over the full meaning of what the Greek words
was that was written, so I looked at the Greek words to see is
it constructed the same. Guess what? It says the exact
same thing. There is nothing in the Greek
that even hints that that is meaning an ongoing habitual sin. It says they cannot sin. They do not commit sin. Now, let's define a few terms
this morning. I did look up the word habit
and habitual. Let's just kind of see what the definition of
habit and habitual is. The word habit, and I wrote this
down here, it says, a habit is an, and I want to pay close attention,
I'll put some emphasis on some of the things that I found that
was interesting in these definitions. A habit is an acquired behavior
pattern. regularly followed until it becomes
almost involuntary. A habit is a dominant or regular
disposition or tendency, a regular or dominant disposition. It is
a prevailing character or quality, the prevailing character or quality
of a person. So a habit is an acquired behavior
pattern. It is a involuntary behavior pattern. It is a dominant
disposition. It is a prevailing character
or quality of a person. The word habitual, which is taken
from habit, means of the nature of a habit. fixed by or resulting
from a habit. So something that is habitual
is something that has been fixed upon somebody because of their
acquired behavior, their dominant disposition, their prevailing
character. So to say that they will not
continue in habitual sin doesn't make sense even in the
wisdom of man. But let's apply spiritual principles
here and look at what God's Word says. When someone says that
they do not commit or continue in habitual sin, they miss what this is saying
as far as the definitions of habit and habitual. You could
actually say that to do something habitual, if we take those two
definitions there, if we do something habitual, That means that we
are doing something that we have acquired behavior to do and is
the dominant disposition and prevailing character that has
been fixed in our nature. Now, how can they say that a
Christian can no longer live in habitual sin if sin in and
of itself is the prevailing character, the acquired behavior pattern,
and the dominant disposition of who we are in this flesh. How can they say
that we cannot continue in that? Now, usually whenever somebody
says that, that we do not continue in habitual sin, usually what
they're meaning is they're talking about long-term big bad sins. You know, stuff like drunkenness,
stuff like drug addiction, stealing, fornication, adultery, sodomy. That's what they're talking about.
They're talking about sins that are external that they can clean
up because they have such a great love for God that they're going
to beat their body into submission and they're going to not let
sin reign in their mortal body. And so they've overcome this
sin. But let me ask you about this.
What about lust? What about greed? Selfishness? Arrogance? What about pride? What about covetousness and idolatry? What about all those things?
But more than that, let me ask you this. What about self-righteousness? Have you beat your body into
submission about self-righteousness? That's almost an oxymoron, ain't
it? I have brought myself to the
place where I am no longer dominated by that sin. Remember, brethren, Sin is missing
the mark. Sin is not obtaining the righteousness
or the righteous standard of God's law. And the Bible says
that if you have missed it in one, you have broken it all. So to reach or to attain or hit
the mark means to keep all of the law, all of the time. So any effort of you to try to
keep the law, yet fail in any of it. So let's just say drunkenness. You've overcome your drunkenness.
You've overcome your drug addiction and how it dominated your life.
Well, what about greed? What about idolatry? What about
self-righteousness? If you're failing in those, The
drunkenness and the drug addiction is only manifestations of the
sin that is still in you, yet it's not manifesting in drunkenness,
it's not manifesting in adultery, it's not manifesting here. Your
sin is manifesting in other areas. But it's still sin. You are still
under the acquired behavior pattern that you got from Adam, which
is missing the mark. Unrighteousness. Everything you
do that this flesh does is tainted with sin, because nothing that
we do in this flesh can obtain the righteousness from God, nor
can it attain the righteous standard that God requires. It cannot
get and may God give you anything and it definitely is not gonna
cause you to be something that God's gonna say, you're all right.
So to say they no longer walk in habitual sin is a lie because
we continually walk in sin. Whenever someone says this, they
have an ignorance of what self-righteousness is, they have an ignorance of
what righteousness is. Self-righteousness in and of
itself is saying that I can perform and God will accept. What about the fact that for
you to say that I have no sin God's saying you do, you've now
made God a liar. Matter of fact, I think it is
even in the same chapter, if I'm not mistaken, or at least in this book. I may
be wrong on the chapter, but it says that if we say that we
have no sin, that we've made God out to be a liar. Let me ask you this. You who
no longer walk in habitual sin, how is it that you changed your
spots? You know, the scripture says that the leopard can't change
its spots. How did you change your spots?
How did you quit sinning? How did you quit that habitual
sin? I know some are going to say,
well, the Spirit of God. is in me now, and now I have
a choice not to sin. Well, let me ask you, if you have the Spirit of God
in you at your disposal to stop sinning anytime you want to stop
sinning, then why do you continue in sin? Why do you continue sinning? Do you claim to be without sin?
Well, if you don't, and you shouldn't because the Bible tells us that
we still have it, But if you claim to be with sin, then why
do you sin? Do you not love the Lord enough? And is that not a sin in and
of itself? Because you don't love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, and strength? Mind, soul, body? You don't love
the Lord? Because if you love the Lord,
you're going to keep His commands, right? So you who no longer walk in
habitual sin, why is it that you sin at all? If you can keep
from sinning and not walk in habitual sin and make that choice
because of the spirit that's in you at your disposal so that
you can yield yourself to sin, how is it that you continue to
keep sinning? It's either because you love
your sin, or you cannot help but sin, Or because you don't
love God enough? I mean, what is it? There's something
there that you continue to go back to sinning, whether it not
be the drunkenness, it might be something else, but you continue
to go back and sin. You can't separate all these
sins out and say, well, I've mastered five, but yet I still
have, you know, 12 more to go, or whatever, you know. Have you somehow delivered yourself
from your Adamic nature. Because that's the only way the
Bible says that we will be rid of this body of sin. This body
of sin, the only way that we come out from the inability to
keep God's law, the inability to hit the mark, is for this
body of flesh to be put down and another body to be raised
incorruptible. Because this body is corruptible.
This body is full of sin. So wouldn't that be all sin is
habitual? If we take the very definition
of the word, all sin is habitual. All sin is an acquired behavior. In Adam we all have sin. Look with me, if you would, at
Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis chapter 1, God brings forth a
principle that He set in nature. And this principle doesn't deviate.
I don't care what all the smart scientists and everything say.
It doesn't deviate from this. Verse 11, And God said, Let the
earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth
brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind,
and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after
his kind. And God saw that it was good.
Verse 14, And God said, Let there be light. Oh, excuse me. Drop
down to verse 21. And God created great quails
and every living creature that moveth within the waters, or
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind,
and every winged fowl after his kind, and saw that it was good. Verse 24, God said, Let the earth
bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping
things and beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so. And God made the beasts of the
earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that
it was good. So we see, brethren, that God
has set forth a principle that everything will reproduce after
its own kind, and that everything has its seed in itself, and every
seed within that person is a seed that has the exact same likeness
as that which produces it. So as I've given an example many
times before, this oak tree out here will only produce other
oak trees. Whenever that tree has shot up,
although we don't see acorns on it right now, every acorn
that comes out of that oak tree will produce another oak tree.
And that acorn that produces another oak tree will produce
other acorns that will produce other oak trees. And so on and
so on and so on. But the lives of every one of
those oak trees that ever will come out of this tree right here,
out of that one acorn, was all within the life of that tree
before it ever was brought forth and manifested. Adam, whenever Adam sinned, it
brought forth and manifested a character that was in Adam. Adam was unable to keep the law
of God. Adam was unable to hit the mark
or the standard that God had set forth in righteousness. Adam
couldn't do it. And the law coming in, as Romans
5.20 says, the law came in that the sin might abound. The law
was given to show forth or to manifest that which was unseen
in Adam already. Adam already had the nature that
could not keep God's law. Adam already was made natural
of the earth. He could not keep the things
of God. He could not do the things of
the Spirit. He was not able to reach or attain
the law or righteousness that God had set forth. And when the
law came in, it didn't make Adam sin. It only manifested the fact
that Adam's heart already lusted after the things that God said
no. It already manifested the things
that showed forth who Adam was. Adam was the man full of sin. Adam was the man who was full
of a race of people who would be sinners. He was the first and after him
everything was made after its kind. Every one of us who came
forth out of Adam's loins was made in His image after His likeness. So Adam was made of the earth,
earthy. He was made natural. He was made
of the flesh. So brethren, every child of Adam
has an acquired behavior because they are of His kind. So yes,
sin is habitual. Why is it habitual? Because it
is an acquired behavior. It is the propensity of this
nature to sin. It is the inability of this nature
to hit the mark. Therefore, everything that this
flesh does misses the mark. But we have to distinguish between
that man and that which is born of God. Because whosoever is
born of God cannot sin, does not commit sin, is not tainted,
is not enabled, can hit the mark, does hit the mark. But the problem
is, is we cannot distinguish between the two. We think that
they are somehow meshed in together so that this new man is actually
the old man functioning in a new way. There are a lot of people
out there, and I've heard this among a lot of sovereign grace
and reformed people, that whenever God regenerates us, He regenerates
this old man, and this old man becomes able to obey, to do the
things that are spiritual. But brother, listen, whenever
we were born from above, that did absolutely nothing to the
Adamic man. This body of flesh did not receive
anything. It did not change anything. Nothing
changed in this mortal body that's full of sin. What happened was
is that seed of eternal life was placed within this pot of
clay, this earthen vessel. It did not change the vessel. However, the atonement of God's
blood covered that vessel and cleansed that vessel so that
it would be worthy to hold that treasure. But it did not change
the vessel itself. The vessel is still the vessel
of clay. It's still the vessel of flesh. It's still what it
is. A wretched man. It is still perishing
daily. It is not getting any better.
Unlike what most people think in progressive sanctification,
they think that this old man is getting better. and better and better by appropriating
the means. This is exactly what we are talking
about. There is no such thing of appropriating means by this
fleshly man to make him better or more holy. The flesh is just
flesh. But we see this principle laid
down in Genesis 1 that everything reproduces after its kind. Therefore,
we have everybody in Adam, just like Adam, sinners. That's an
unhabitual thing. But we have everybody in Christ
Jesus as His seed is just like Him without sin. Cannot sin. Do you think that Christ can
sin? The only way that the child of grace who is the seed of God
can sin is if Christ could sin. And Christ can't sin. He's the
man from heaven. He's spiritual. Not fleshly. He's not natural. He's from heaven. And He cannot sin. Matter of
fact, he even said it, that whenever they came and they brought forth
all the things towards him, he said, Satan can't find anything
in me. Why? Because there is no root
of lust in me. There is no root of sin in me. There is nothing to be enticed.
There is nothing to be tempted in me. God cannot be tempted
because there is no hint of sin within him. He is holy. He is
not sinful. He does not have that propensity. That's why he cannot be tempted.
Not that he is not tempted by the outward people. Not that
Jesus didn't tempt in the fact that he was tested and tried. But he cannot be swayed or lured
away by the devices of his own heart to do something against
what has been said. He can't do that. It won't happen. That's why Satan couldn't find
nothing in Him, because there wasn't nothing there to tempt.
There is no sinfulness. There is no lust there to tempt.
God knows His own things and knows His own will and knows
His own purpose, and that there, He does. Nothing can sway Him
from that. Nothing can change His mind from
that. Look in Romans chapter 5. In Romans chapter 5, we see here,
I believe it's verse 12 that I'm
looking for. Yes, verse 12. Notice if you would. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
So death passed upon all men. So there we have the acquired
behavior. Sin and death passed upon all
men. Why? Because we are of his kind. And notice, for that all have
sin. Not only do we have the nature
to sin, but brethren, We are engaged in it every day. We are
not just sinners because we are children of Adam, but we are
sinners because we sin. Now, just a side note, I will
say this, unless I'm deceived, I see that
the scriptures say that even though in nature we have inherited
that nature of Adam and we exercise the very sins of that Adamic
man, the imputation of that sin has never been put upon us. The
imputation of Adam's sin has never been placed upon the child
of grace. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not sin. If you say the child of grace,
like the reprobate, has been imputed with Adam's sin, then
there's nobody that fits that category. Nobody fits that category. That's just empty words that
the Bible has placed in there. It has no meaning. We were imputed
righteousness. Although in actuality, we were
sinners by nature, sinners by action in this Adamic man. Again, let's not forget that
we are separated, the Adamic man, from the spiritual man. Who we are in Christ Jesus, who
we are born from above, who we are in that spiritual life, the
very person that we actually are, versus the natural man that
we are in Adam. Whenever we're talking about
the Adamic man, that is the man who needed to be redeemed. The
spiritual man did not need to be redeemed. The spiritual man
had not committed sin. The spiritual man had not done
anything to transgress God's law. The spiritual man was created
in righteousness and holiness. The spiritual man was born from
above. His seed remains in him. That
seed cannot sin. That did not need to be redeemed,
but this body, it did need to be redeemed. Christ had to die
for this old man. He had to die for this old man.
Why? Because we have committed sins.
We have committed these things. But Christ has stood as our surety
before the foundation of the world, and therefore, there has
been no imputation of sin. Because our surety was imputed
with our sin, and we were imputed with His righteousness. Therefore,
we have stood from the foundation of the world, before we ever
sinned in Adam, we have stood as righteous children of God.
Why? Because we do not sin. And this
man that was to come, who was to be a sinner, who was to fall
and to be in the likeness of Adam, that man's sin was not counted
against him because Christ was standing as his surety. He goes on to say, for if through
the offense of one many be dead, there again we see if many be
dead, through the offense of one many be dead. So it's passed
upon all of us. acquired behavior. Because of
one, we are all of his kind. He says, therefore, as by the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. The judgment of condemnation,
because of sin, passed upon all men. Our body We were under the
condemnation of sin. We were under the condemnation
that the law brought. The law was condemning us that
we in this body could not attain. Therefore, showing that we were
in Adam. Every time we sin, we prove the
fact that we are from Adam. And so that condemnation came
and was due to this man, but that's why Christ had to come
to redeem us. So that kills the argument that people say whenever
we preach these things, well, if you've never sinned, then
why did Christ ever come? If you were justified before
the foundation of the world, then why did Christ even have
to come? You're saying that you didn't ever sin? No, I'm saying
that I've never sinned in that spiritual man. That seed which
clearly says cannot sin and does not commit sin. That man has
never sinned and will not sin. That's why Paul could say, I
keep the law in my mind. I serve the law of God in my
mind. In that inner man. In that person
that cannot sin, I am serving the law of God. In Christ Jesus,
I have served all of the law of God and have been kept it,
and now in my experience of it, I serve the law of God in my
inner man. I cannot sin. But in these members,
in this flesh, the wretched man that I am, I cannot do anything
but sin. Everything I do is sin. There
is nothing good in me, Paul, the man from Adam. For as by one man disobedience,
many were made sinners." You didn't make yourself sinners. You were made a sinner because
you were made of Adam. You were made a sinner because
you were reproduced after your kind. You reproduce after your kind. I am a sinner. All my children
are sinners. All their children will be sinners.
Why? Because we are of Adam. We are made sinners because we
are made in the likeness and the image after our kind, which
is Adam. You know, Adam isn't just a name
for a particular man that stood back in the garden that God breathed
into his nose and pulled out a rib from. Adam is a word that
means mankind. It means of the earth. Adam is
a name that is given to all of us. Matter of fact, if you look
in Genesis, you'll find that Eve's name was Adam. Not that
there was some sort of transgender thing going on there. That's
not what it's meaning. It's meaning that we are all
of the same kind. We are all of the dust. We are
all of the earth, earthy. We are all mankind and our name
is Adam. And therefore we have that acquired
behavior from the first. That acorn tree can only act
like, or that acorn and what grows out of it can only act
like what produced it. It can only be that oak tree.
That oak tree acts just like an oak tree. Every fall, acorns
everywhere. Every spring, all these little
green things, everywhere. It's an oak tree. I've never once seen that thing
produce a rose. I've never seen it produce an
orange, and pecans never fall out of that thing, because that's
not what kind it is. And the only thing that can come
out of Adam is sin. Therefore, our behavior is an
acquired behavior. But one of the other things that
the definition says is that it continues almost voluntarily.
Voluntarily. I know a lot of people say, well,
we have these sins that are sins of commission and some of omission,
some are habitual sins, some are accidental sins and things
such as that. Brethren, everything that we
do, again, is sin. Look with me, if you would, at
John 3. And again, the Spirit has to
give us an understanding of this, brethren. If the Lord doesn't
give us this understanding, we're going to continue in that wisdom
of Adam that thinks, well, I'm not doing as much bad as I used
to do, therefore I'm getting better. So obviously something
has happened, you know. Something has happened. Whenever
we begin to see or whenever we are given to see, I should say,
more correctly, when we are given to see that everything we do
is sin, Then we begin to understand a
lot of the things that the Scriptures tell us about other things, such
as cannot sin. Well, obviously if the Bible
says that everything that we do is sin, and then it says that
whoever is born of God does not sin, then there has to be some
sort of difference between the one who is sinning and the one
who cannot sin. The one who cannot sin, nowhere in Scripture do
we find anybody anywhere that has ever not only been recorded
to have done it, but is ever compelled or told that they can
not sin. It just makes the statement,
whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. It's giving a
statement of fact. It's telling who we are that
are born of God. We cannot sin. We do not commit
sin. Well, who is the one who does
not commit sin? Who cannot sin? It's the one
who is born from above. Well, this man is born from Adam,
not from above. That which is inside is what
is born from above. So with that distinction, now
we can see that everything we do in the flesh is sin. Everything
that is done in the Spirit of God or by Christ on our behalf
and then worked in us by the Spirit, that is from God. Look at John 3 and verse 6. Jesus says this. He says, That
which is born of the flesh is flesh. Right? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. How many of you have been born
of the flesh? If we've got it, we've been of
it, right? That which is born of flesh is
flesh. Now, with that in mind, turn
with me to Romans chapter 8, starting verse 7. It says, because the carnal mind
is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So there again we see that inability
to hit the mark, to subject itself. The carnal mind, that's not talking
about the spiritual mind. That spiritual man does keep
the law of God, loves the law of God. But the carnal mind,
that natural man, it says here, is at enmity, hatred against
God. Why? Because it is not subject
to the Law of God. The carnal mind hates the Law
of God, hates the God of Scripture, but notice why it hates it. Because
it is not subject to the Law of God. It can't keep it. It sees that it's not keeping
it. He thinks he can keep it, but he's not subject to the law
of God. But look, he says, neither indeed
can be. This isn't, he doesn't want to
be. See, this is where I have my differences in what I used
to teach. I used to teach, we will not walk in habitual sin
because if you love God, You're not going to want to sin against
Him, so you're not going to continue in those habitual sins. You're
going to love Him and keep His commandments. And so you're going
to see the Law of God, what it says, and you're going to work
to do that. You're going to keep that. And
that's going to show that you love God, and that's going to
show that you're one of His children. Keep you in the will of God.
Keep you in fellowship with God. But it says here that the carnal
mind is against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. And it cannot be subject to the law of God. Indeed, it
cannot. That's an inability. Verse 8, So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. So they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. Now someone's going to say, well,
read on, brother, in verse 9. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal body by his spirit that dwelleth in you." Now, that
right there is not saying that you no longer sin. That's not
what that's saying. It's just saying that there are
two people involved in this right here. Remember, Paul's speaking
to Christians. He's talking to the children
of grace at Rome. who have the natural man and
the spiritual man in them. The natural man is that which
is flesh, and all that can do is produce sin. But he said,
but you're not in the flesh but in the Spirit. He's talking to
the spiritual man here. You're not in the flesh, you're
in the Spirit, spiritual man, if the Spirit of God dwells in
you. And if Christ is in you, the
body is dead because of sin. There is no more accounting of
sin on your behalf. Yes, that spiritual man is going
to continue in that sin, but reckon yourself to be dead to
that sin. You're no longer alive to that
sin anymore. You're no longer under the dominion
of that sin anymore. And guess what? You are no longer
under the condemnation of that sin anymore. So why does sin
still exist in the child of grace? Well, remember what I said a
few weeks ago? The sin still remains because the relationship
that God has with the child of grace's sin is different. than
the relationship that he has with the reprobate. To the reprobate,
sin is only condemnation. But to the child of grace, the
exercising of sin and the inability to keep his law and the continual
missing the mark in this body of flesh is a continual reminder,
a continual support for the child of grace to look unto Christ,
who is the author and the finisher of our faith. To look unto Christ,
who is our Savior. to look unto Christ who is our
righteousness, to hope in Christ, to hope in His work of righteousness,
not in our works of self-righteousness. That's why the body of sin is
still here. Matter of fact, and I'll probably
touch on this at some future point, but as I was reading through
here, if you'll notice in verse 13, look at verse 13 of Romans
8. Something that jumped out at
me this morning whenever I was reading through here, I've probably
read it a hundred times, but I've never noticed it. But notice
if you would. For if ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die. Oh, that's not the verse that I was
on. I may have wrote it down wrong. Well, let me just table that,
because I don't remember where it is. the sin that we have is given
to us to be known by God and we continue in this body of death
because that is the lot that God has given for the child of
grace to remain in this warfare. Now, what I was trying to get
to is there's a passage in here and I don't remember where it's
at, brother, but I read it this morning that we thank God for the blessing of sin. And I'll have to find that and
pull it up because whenever I read that, I took a double take. I'm
like, man, that's not what I thought that would say. But it actually
says that we thank God that we have sinned or been a part of
this because we learn the glories of God from that, and I'll try
to find that and speak on that at some point. You guys might
remember where that's at. I don't remember off the top
of my head where that's at. I thought I wrote it down, but
I didn't. Anyway, so the very fabric of
our mortal bodies is woven in sin. It can only produce sin.
It loves the sin that it serves. It doesn't include just our bad
deeds, but it also includes all of our good deeds. In Matthew
chapter 7, we read Matthew chapter 7, starting verse
17. It says, Even so, every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. So notice here that there's no
mixture of the two. A bad tree's not going to produce
good fruit and a good tree's not going to produce bad fruit.
That goes to what I was saying a while ago. The outward man,
the fleshly man, the Adamic man, it can't produce anything good.
Everything it produces is evil. It's a bad tree. But that which
is inside of us, that which is born from above, is a good tree
and all it can do is produce good things. It can't produce
anything bad. It cannot sin. So there's the duality that we
are, the old man and the new man. Continue reading with me
there. It says, every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast in. Excuse me,
verse 18. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. So see, God doesn't change the
tree. He doesn't turn the oak tree
into an apple tree. He doesn't turn the Adamic man
into the Christ man. No, there resides within that
man the Christ man. Two separate men. Two separate
seeds with two separate abilities and non-abilities. Notice also,
if you would, down in verse 21, it says, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils. And in thy name done many wonderful
works." Now Jesus did this right after he said that a good tree
cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good
fruit. Now why did he go into this?
Well, because there are some who are thinking because they
did good works outwardly, Therefore they must be a good tree. But
they're not a good tree. They're a bad tree. And so even
though they may have produced some fruit that looked pleasing
to the eye, it was still bad fruit. Because there is no cross-contamination
of fruits. He says there, have we not prophesied in thy
name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done
many wonderful works. And then while I profess unto
them, I never knew you, depart from me." And look what he says
about prophesying in his name, casting out devils, doing many
wonderful works. He says, depart from me, ye that
work iniquity. So he's saying that those good
works, those religious works, those zealously religious works
are works of iniquity. What would he have told the Apostle
Paul if the Apostle Paul had not been converted by God and
he showed up that day with all those things that he said, I
was the Pharisee among Pharisees, born on this day, circumcised
on this day, having kept all the law and done all these things,
zealous to keep God, running down those who were opposing
God, above head and shoulders, above all those who were my peers,
Most learned among all of them, steeped in the religion that
I was in. And Paul comes in front of God. If God had not had chosen Paul
before the foundation of the world, had not died for Paul,
had not given Paul that eternal life within, he would have told
Paul, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. All these people that are out
there preaching in pulpits, that are scouring the earth trying
to save people, that are teaching people in Sunday schools and
vacation Bible schools and church camps and all this kind of stuff,
all these people who are giving their tithes, all these people
who are giving to the homeless or to the poor and the widows
and the children, not that anything's wrong with doing any of that
stuff, All of this stuff that they think that in keeping and
doing those things, reading their Bible, spending their time in
their prayer closets, all the stuff that they're doing that
they think that this outward show of religion, this outward
show of things is counting as anything profitable, they are mistaken. It's works
of iniquity. Jesus spoke that at the end of
the day, whenever someone is commanded to, whenever they come
in out of the field, their servant has come in out of the field.
He said, after they come in out of the field, they're just not
allowed to just sit down at the table and start eating. But the
master, whenever they come in out of the field from working,
he says, go and fetch me my food, my drink, bring it to me, feed
me. At the end of the day, after they've done everything that
they're commanded to do, are they a worthy servant because
they did what was commanded to them to do? No. He said, no,
they weren't. They weren't anything worthy.
Because somebody does what has been commanded them to do does
not make them a worthy servant. They were done what they were
commanded to do because their master commanded them to do it.
And listen, brethren, even us, even though the Father has given
us works that He has ordained from us before the foundation
of the world, and the Spirit is working those things in us
to will and to do as He pleases. And there may be some sort of
outward show of that inward work of the things of God in us. That
outward work is nothing that makes us worthy before God. We
are still unprofitable servants in Adam. We still are without
righteousness. and in need of a foreign righteousness. And so we see that whether it
be good or whether it be bad, everything that is produced in
this flesh falls short of the glory of God and is not going
to hit the mark. It's going to continue to miss
the mark. It's going to continue lacking righteousness. It's going
to continue to be unacceptable before God. So those who say
that we do not walk in continual or habitual sin, are those who
are blinded by their own self-righteousness. They're going about to try to
produce a righteousness of their own, and they're ignorant of
the righteousness that has been given them already in Christ
Jesus at their child of grace. Brethren, the Spirit is going
to lust against the flesh, and the flesh is going to lust against
the Spirit until the day that we die. So our hope can never
be in our performance. Our hope can never be in what
we do outwardly, our perceived obedience, our perceived growth,
our perceived outward holiness. It can never be that. Our hope
can never be in anything that we produce or do or experience
or have activity in. Our only hope is in Christ alone.
Our only hope is in His obedience and in His righteousness, His
death, His resurrection, His ascension, His intercession,
His salvation. That's our only hope. It isn't
thinking that we can stop sinning. That's not our hope. Because
we don't have any hope to stop sinning. It isn't that we might
squelch our sin enough that God's going to say, well, hey, you
did a good enough job. And I've heard this a lot too.
And I've said this. I know your heart. God knows your heart. He knows you want to not sin.
But he knows you're just frail. By the way, Jesus was tempted
in all points just like we, so he is our sympathizer. He knows
how hard it is to battle sin. That's because they think Jesus
could actually see him. That's why they say that. They
actually think Jesus was not impeccable, but peccable. That
he could have seen him. That's why they say that. They
think that he's the sympathizing savior, resisted temptation so
hard that he never did sin because of his love for the Father. Jesus
didn't sin because He's God and He can't sin. He's impeccable. He never could have sinned. Jesus
went through the temptation so that He would know what we have
experienced, yet without sin, the Bible says. He was tempted
in all points, yet without sin. There was no sin in Him that
could have been mustered up. There was no lust in Him. And
so, we have a Savior that knows how we feel and can sympathize
with us because every temptation that has been known to man was
thrown at Him. But thankfully, He was without
sin. He didn't succumb to sin. No. He became our righteousness. He overcame sin and death. He overcame that which we are
by nature. And that overcoming that, that
is now given to us. And so there is no hope in us
trying to not habitually sin. But brethren, know this, because
every one of us knows we battle with our sin every day. I don't
know about you, but I'm faced with my sin not just daily, hourly,
faced with that sin. And to be given to know that
is actually a blessing in and of itself. But to be faced with
your sin, you can easily come into despair. That's why John
wrote, those whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. That was not a charge to say,
go out and try not to sin. He's letting you know that though
the outward man perish, the inward man is renewed daily. And he cannot sin. He will not
sin. He's pleasing to the Lord. He
has been given a righteousness that cannot be exceeded and it
cannot be diminished. And that righteousness that has
been given to us is what's going to stand for us. That is what
we are going to be clothed in when we stand before God. And
so it is given to us as an encouragement, it is given to us as hope, it
is given to us to let us know that there is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who are experiencing
the very battle that whenever I don't want to sin, I sin, and
whenever I do sin, there's within me a thing that doesn't want
to sin. Whenever I want to do good, I don't do good, and whenever
I do good, Sin is always there with me, tainting everything
that I do. It's evil, a wretched man that I am. And so, John is
saying, good news, brother. That inward man that was born
from above, he's not tainted with that sin. That outward man
that's tainted with sin and that's all he can do, one of these days,
the Bible tells us, one of these days, that body is going to dissolve
and that we will receive a new body that is not tainted with
sin, that is not after Adam. Matter of fact, I was going to
read this earlier and I forgot and I know I went long, but let's
read this one time here before we leave. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, As a matter of fact, in verse
38, I want to start reading that. But God giveth the body as it
hath pleased Him, and to every seed His own body. To every seed
His own body. Now let's think about that as
it pertains to spiritual things. To Adam He'd give a body to be
like Adam. To Christ He gave a body to be
like Christ. Now we haven't received that
Christ-like body yet. It's waiting for us. Right now we have the Adamic
body and it is like our Father that we came from. But drop down
if you would Verse 42 says, And so is the
resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It
is raised in corruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is
raised in power. It is sown a natural body and
it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. See, we have a spiritual body.
We just don't have it yet. We have yet to claim it, to take
possession of it. Well, who's taking possession
of the spiritual body? The spiritual man. The spiritual
man takes possession of the spiritual body. And so it is written, the
first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first, which
is spiritual. So that was telling me Adam wasn't
made a spiritual man. He was made a fleshly man. He
was made a natural man. He was made a man of the earth,
earthy, fleshly. Howbeit, that was not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after that which
is spiritual. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. Now look here.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as
is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. So we
have the nature that is earthy and we have the nature that is
heavenly, residing in us. We have Adam's nature, we have
Christ's nature. It says, as we have borne the
image of the earthy, that's now, we are bearing the image of the
earthy, it says we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
See, we don't bear the image of the heavenly yet, One of these
days, when this body of death is put down, we will bear the
image of the heavenly. Therefore, they that are heavenly
will bear the image of the heavenly. Right now, they that are heavenly
are bearing the image of the earthy. Verse 50, Now this I say, brethren,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in the moment
of the twinkling of the eye at the last trump. For the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the same that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. So, brethren, that tells me that
that sting of death and the strength of sin is going to continue until
we die. But thanks be to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You notice that
phrase there is also the phrase that Paul used at the end of
Romans chapter 7 when he said, Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Praise the Lord. Anybody have
anything they'd like to add? Any comments? Can we possibly
sing this song? We can. 517 in the old school
hymn book. How can I, a lowly mortal, Born
yet earthly, formed of clay, Seek to praise the Lord Jehovah,
Who has turned my night to day? How can such a one of Adam Long
is strange from God above. Hope to find His blessed favor. Hope to know His blessed love. For His eye is far too pure to
look upon this sinful frame. His own perfect being never can
accept my sin and shame. Oh, that I knew where to seek
Him. Oh, that He might smile on me. But unless my sin is covered,
such a joy can never be. But oh listen, do you hear it? Do you hear that glad new song? It is telling how the Savior
has been sent to claim His own. Blessed Jesus died to save me,
save me from the fatal sting. Now I know that He's my Savior. Praises to my Lord and King. Amen. Does anybody else have
another song that you'd like to sing before we dismiss? Any comments or any other scriptures
you'd like to read or any questions or reviews or anything? Father, once again, we thank
you for this day, and we thank you for all that you've done
for us, and for your salvation in Christ Jesus. We thank you
for life eternal. We thank you for hope that we
have been given in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Father, that we
can look forward to the day that we put down this body of death,
and that we will no longer be entangled with sin any longer.
Thank you for these brethren, and thank you for the Word of
God, and we thank you for salvation in Christ Jesus. I pray it all
in Christ's name, amen.