Thank you.
If you're a Christian and you're dating an unbeliever, why is it that you're able to have such great fellowship with somebody who's an unbeliever?
It's because you're living in the flesh. It's because you're not right with God. It's because you're carnal.
You see, when a person gets saved, the Bible says,
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
That's an often abused verse, an often misunderstood verse, because the verse is very clear.
It says, all things have become new. Now, people will try to use this verse to say,
Well, if somebody got saved, but they didn't have any change in their life, then they didn't really get saved.
Now, wait a minute. Is that what that verse said, that there will be some change?
No. And yet people will use this verse to preach their heresy that if salvation isn't followed by works, then you're not really saved.
The devil has been trying to add works to salvation since Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, all throughout the Bible, all throughout history.
The devil wants you to trust your own works for salvation when the Bible says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
The faith of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, the Bible says.
And so, no, this is not saying that there will be some change. Come on, there's got to be some change.
It didn't say some change. It said a brand new creature. And so when you get saved, a new creature is created within you known as the new man, the inward man, the spiritual man.
But the natural man is still there. The flesh is still there. I mean, when I went somebody to the Lord, when I got saved, for example, nothing about my flesh changed.
All of a sudden I began to glow. There was no difference in my physical body. But something changed inside. A new creature was created.
But what happened to the old creature? He's still there. The old man is still there. That's why the Bible says that we have to die daily.
He said if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
So when it comes to living the Christian life, you're either walking in the flesh or you're walking in the spirit.
Now the flesh, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 that the old man, the natural man, it says the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the laws of God.
Neither indeed can be. So it's impossible for the old man to be subject to the laws of God. So when you got saved, God didn't change your old man.
He didn't change the flesh. He created a new creature. So now you have the spirit and the flesh, the old man and the new man.
Now if you walk in the flesh, you will be the same as you were before you were saved because the flesh did not change.
But if you put on the new man, the Bible says, then you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So when you see somebody who's living in sin, they can't be saved because they're living in sin.
No, they're just probably in the flesh. Now perhaps they're not saved, but perhaps they are truly saved. They've believed. It's just that they're walking in the flesh.
Now let me say it to you this way. If a person can be dating an unbeliever, I mean spending all this time palling around with an unbeliever, considering marrying an unbeliever.
It's because they're totally walking in the flesh, otherwise they wouldn't even have fellowship. I mean look down at the Bible.
It says, what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what conquered hath Christ with Belial? And watch this. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? An infidel is an unbeliever.
You see, if you as a believer can sit down and enjoy hour upon hour upon hour upon hour speaking with and conversing with and palling around with somebody who's not even saved, you are walking in the flesh.
You are a carnal Christian. You are not filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says, be filled with the Spirit. You're not filled with the Spirit if you can pile around with the world and pile around with unbelievers.
Now I know Paul Washer says, I learned this from Brett's sermon. Hey, I know Paul Washer, who's ever heard of Paul Washer? This heretic that's preaching all over and he's really popular among Baptists.
And oh man, I can't believe that I named the name. Kind of like Paul named the names Alexander, Hymenaeus, Hermogenes, Philetus, Diotrephes. Hey, Paul named the names of the heretics of his day. I'll name the names of the heretics of ours.
Paul Washer who believes that salvation is by begging God. You have to beg God for days or weeks on end to be saved. And you have to turn away from all your sins.
And if you just believed in the past, you know, past tense, no, it has to continue or I guess you lose your salvation is basically what he teaches. I don't care how he tries to lie about it and disguise it.
Paul Washer said this, there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. That's his famous quote. There's no such thing. I'm going to borrow some of your sermon. Is that all right?
There's no, what chapter was that in? 1st Corinthians chapter 3. Go back to 1st Corinthians chapter 3. This part of the sermon has been sponsored in part by bread.
But anyway, he said there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. There's no such thing as a fleshly, worldly Christian. Well, let's see if the Bible agrees with Paul Washer.
It says in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1, and I brethren could not speak. Who's he talking to? The brethren, people that are saved, right?
He said, and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto what? Babes in Christ. So these are baby Christians, right? They're new believers.
But he said here, he's not talking to new believers. They'll say, well, you know, when you first get saved, you might be carnal, but you're going to go past. He's not talking to new believers.
He said, I had to talk to you as if you were newborn babies in Christ. Do you see that? They've been saved for a long time. And he says, you're still a baby.
He said in Hebrews chapter 5, for when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of Christ, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belonging to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to deserve both good and evil.
But look, look, keep reading. He said, I've not fed you with milk. He said, 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, the word yet means still, you're still carnal. Years and years have gone by, you're still a baby.
You're still a little baby of a Christian. You're a carnal Christian. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Paul Washer. And it says, for ye are yet carnal. Verse 3, he says it again.
For whereas there is among you, envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? So he says again, you're carnal, you're carnal, you're carnal, you're carnal.
And yet Paul Washer stands up and says, there's no such thing as a carnal. Maybe it's because he preaches out of the New American Standard Version. Maybe it's because he doesn't have a King James Bible.
Maybe it's because he's not a real Baptist. I don't know why. You figure out why. You tell me why. I don't know why he's preaching this kind of garbage.
But the point is, there is such thing as a carnal Christian and if you're dating an unbeliever, you are one. If you marry an unbeliever, you are one.
Now that's not saying you can't become spiritual. Hey, why don't you put on the new man today? Why don't you get out the Bible and read it?
Why don't you put away the TV, put away the radio, put away the hip hop, put away the R&B, put away the rock and roll, put away the God of this world, the television that's in your house, pumping your mind with all its trash.
And why don't you get a Bible? Why don't you get on your knees and pray? Why don't you get in church? Why don't you sing the hymns and be filled with the Spirit of God?
Then you won't have any fellowship with unbelievers. You're not going to be able to sit down hours and hours on end with somebody you've not even saved when you are filled with the Spirit of God.
And so God's commanding us here. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. He's saying you must marry someone who is saved. You must marry someone who is a believer.
And so you shouldn't be dating people that aren't saved.