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1 Chronicles 17, Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in the house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains. Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee. Now, I know it was a few weeks ago when we were in the previous chapter, but in chapter 16, you remember David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, and if you go back to chapter 16 there in verse 1, it says, So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God. Now, if you remember, before the temple, they had the tabernacle, right? And that's actually the structure that God designed for them and commanded them to build when they came out of the land of Egypt. When you read the book of Exodus, God gives these very detailed instructions on building the tabernacle, and sometimes we think of the tabernacle as just being one tent, but here you can see in chapter 16 it says the tent that David pitched for it. It doesn't say the tabernacle, and in chapter 17, Nathan the prophet's going to talk a little bit later about how the ark of the covenant went from tent to tent, because obviously a tent is something that's not going to last. It's not a permanent structure, and so over the course of many centuries, the tabernacle had actually gone from tent to tent, so David sets up a tent for it, but he decides here that it would be better for there to be a permanent housing for the ark of the covenant, and so he says, you know, it just doesn't seem right that I would be in a house of cedars. I have this magnificent palace, and, you know, the house of God is a tent, and the ark of the covenant is a tent. So when Nathan hears this, he responds to David by saying, do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee. But look at verse 3, and it came to pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan saying, go and tell David my servant. Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in. Now one of the things that we can learn right away here is that even a good preacher can give you the wrong advice sometimes. Even a good preacher can preach something or say something that's wrong, because there's no question that Nathan is a great man of God, and it's obvious when you read this that Nathan didn't have any ill will or bad intentions. He's not trying to mislead David or teach false doctrine, but what he said was actually wrong, wasn't it? He tells David, go build the house. God's with you. Do it. It's a great idea. But then God reveals to him that night, actually, no, David's not going to build this house. So Nathan has to come the next day and set things straight with David and say, hey, I know I told you this advice, but actually, here's what God told me. So what we can learn from that is that even a great preacher, even a godly man could sometimes give you the wrong advice or could teach something that's incorrect, even if he's completely sincere, even if he's a man who loves the Lord and the Spirit of God has come upon him frequently as with Nathan the prophet. And then the other thing we can learn from this is that when a preacher does say something that's wrong or give bad advice or preach something that's wrong, he should set the record straight. You know, when God shows him the truth on that subject, then he needs to come in and correct that and say, here's what the Bible actually says. And so at the end of the day, even though God gave us pastors and teachers and evangelists, even though God uses men of God in our lives to preach to us and to guide us and to motivate us and to teach us sound doctrine, at the end of the day, the word of God must be our final authority because no man is infallible. Even great men of God like Nathan could steer you wrong. So make sure that you get the word of God as your final authority, the Bible that you read for yourself to check and make sure that what you're being taught from the pulpit jives with what the Bible says. It says in verse number three, it came to pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan saying, go and tell David my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not build me in house to dwell in, for I have not dwelled in a house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and this is what I just mentioned earlier, and from one tabernacle to another. So these are temporary dwelling places. Not only was the tabernacle moved from place to place geographically, but it was even a different tent. It would even go from one tent to another tent. One tabernacle to another tabernacle. Wheresoever I've walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, verse six, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedars? Now, therefore, thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel, and I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth. Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more, neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more as at the beginning. Now let me explain to you what's going on in this chapter. Why was it that God wanted to dwell in a tent? Why was the Ark of the Covenant going from tent to tent, and town to town, and place to place? Well, part of the answer is given here when he says to David, I took you from the sheep coat from following the flock, and I was with you whithersoever you went. And think about how many other men in the Bible God purposely had moving around, sojourning, moving from place to place. The Bible says that Abraham dwelled in tents and moved around as a nomad. Isaac dwelled in tents. Jacob dwelled in tents. And on and on throughout the Bible, there's this example of people without a fixed location. People moving and dwelling in tents. But then he says there's coming a time when he's going to plant them, and he says that David's son Solomon is going to build a permanent fixture for the house of God. He's going to build the temple. It just wasn't time yet in David's time, and there were reasons why he didn't have David build it, because David was a bloody man. David has shed too much blood. He was a warrior. And a lot of the warfare that he did was legitimate and righteous, but when you're out there as a warrior, you're shedding some of the wrong blood sometimes. And so because David had been a bloody man, God didn't want him to build the temple. But what's interesting is this idea of wandering and then settling in a place. That's what even God's ark did. And that's even what David did and a lot of other men in the Bible. And here's what this pictures. This pictures our lives. We are just pilgrims on this earth. The picture when we see men of God in the Old Testament being commanded to dwell in tents and to sojourn and to be portable. And even our Lord Jesus Christ himself did not have a fixed residence. He said, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he was moving around. Why is that? It's a picture of the fact that we're not supposed to get too attached to the things of this world. Now, God's not telling us don't live in a house, because there's a time that came where Israel were supposed to dwell in houses and they were supposed to build houses. And God even tells people at other times in their history, build houses, plant vineyards, plant crops, you know, sit down under your vine and under your fig tree. Even when they were in Babylon, they were supposed to build houses and be stable and stay in one place. What is this picture? A picture is that while we're on this earth, we're supposed to be pilgrims and sojourners, because this world is not our home. We're just passing through. And our citizenship is actually in heaven. And too many people today are too attached to the things of this world. And it's what their life is all about, their possessions, whether it's their house, their car, their boat, their goods, their money in the bank, their stocks and bonds. And we need to loosen our grip on the things of this world and understand that this home that we have on earth is just a temporary place. And even our body is called the temple of the Holy Ghost, but what else is it called? It's called this tabernacle. And they talk about in the Epistles of Paul and Peter that this tabernacle is going to be dissolved one day. Even our body is a temporary housing, okay? Because we're going to get a new body. We're going to go to heaven. We're going to live with the Lord eternally. And so we need to realize that everything we have in life is temporary. Everything. And if you, whatever you can see with your eyes, the Bible says the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal. So anything that you can look at, you know, you look at your house, you look at your car, you look at your toys and your RV and your boat and your motorcycle, that stuff's all going to be gone. There will come a time when you will not have those things. No matter who you are, no matter how much money you have, how old you are, what your plans are, you will eventually lose every possession. Every souvenir that you've collected, everything, every memento, every photograph, you will eventually lose every single thing that you possess. And you know, those things are not going to last forever. But people live for those things. And we need to loosen our grip on the things of this world and understand that the things that are not seen are eternal. The soul. Now friends and loved ones, they are eternal. If they're saved, you know, then yeah, we can be with them in heaven. We can take them with us. Amen. But you're not going to take any physical items with you because the things that are seen are temporal. And so don't, don't go through life scared and worried that you're going to lose your possessions because let me just, here's a spoiler, you're going to lose all of them. Every single thing will be stripped from you and you will leave this earth as naked as you did when you came into it. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. That's what the Bible says. You know, we just need to live our lives day by day and realize that we can't take anything with us. Okay. So that's the picture of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourning in the land of promise. There's strangers and pilgrims in the earth and Hebrews chapter 11 kind of makes that connection and then that's what the tabernacle is even doing. Also dwelling in tents, moving around. But then there comes a time where there's a fixed location and there's going to come a time in the millennium where we can really set up shop on this earth and sit down under our own vine and under our own fig tree and have a more permanent location. But the Bible says in verse number nine, also I will ordain a place for my people Israel and will plant them and they shall dwell in their place and shall be moved no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness waste them anymore as at the beginning and since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the Lord will build thee an house. So isn't that interesting? He said, I'm going to build a house for the Lord. And basically God tells him, no, you got that backwards. I'm going to build you a house. You're not going to build me a house. I'm going to build you a house. Okay. And what he means by that is not a physical house, he's going to build him a household. He's going to bless him with children and a dynasty that's going to last forever. So this is what a lot of kings wanted, right? In the olden days they wanted their son to sit on the throne unto however many generations and that was a way that God would bless certain good kings. He'd say, hey, your sons are going to be on this throne for three or four generations or with David's case, you know, forever. Now you say, well how could that be forever? Well because there were kings on the throne of Judah, the ruler of Judah, up until Christ was the son of David. You know, it was just one son of David after another. Whereas the northern kingdom of Israel kept switching dynasties, the children of Judah were always reigned over by one of the sons of David all the way up until the Lord Jesus Christ who is the son of David and because his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, therefore that promise is made to David that his seed would reign forever because his seed is Jesus Christ. And there's a verse about that even in Genesis chapter 49 when Jacob is blessing his sons, he says of the tribe of Judah that the scepter would not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And that's a reference to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ who of course will reign with a rod of iron and he's the son of David. So the Bible says in verse 11, and it shall come to pass when the days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers that I will raise up thy seed after thee which shall be of thy sons and I will establish his kingdom. Now here's the double meaning and remember in the book of 1 Chronicles, the symbolism between David and Jesus is very strong, even much stronger than it even is in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. In 1 Chronicles, this is the major theme of David picturing Christ. So there's a double meaning here. When he says I'm going to raise up thy seed after thee which shall be of thy sons, what we're thinking when we read that is King Solomon. You know he's going to raise up his seed after him, one of his sons. And that is what this means. But there's a deeper meaning, Jesus is going to be the seed that's raised up of David's sons. And then when it says in the end of verse 11, I'll establish his kingdom, again the double meaning, he's going to establish Jesus Christ's kingdom. And then look at verse 12, he shall build me a house. Okay, what's that house? That house is the local New Testament church, the house of God. Jesus Christ said what? Upon this rock, I will build my church. So the reason that Solomon was the one who would build the temple and not David is because it was the son of David who would build the temple, because the son of David building the temple, building God's house, pictures the Lord Jesus Christ building the church. And the Bible says in the New Testament that the church is the house of God. And it's built by Jesus who is the son of David. And then it says at the end of verse 12, I will establish his throne forever. Now look, the literal King Solomon didn't reign forever, did he? And even his sons only reigned until what? Until Shiloh was come. And then the kingdom of God was taken from the children of Israel and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit throne. So the real important fulfillment here isn't King Solomon. It's the secondary meaning that Jesus is the one who's going to fulfill this, okay? And let me show you why this is so important. It says I'll be his father and he shall be my son. Of course, that fits the bill with Jesus, the son of God. And I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him that was before thee, referring to King Saul. But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever and his throne shall be established forevermore according to all these words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. Now flip over to Psalm 89, Psalm 89. See scoffers would look at this and say, well, when the Bible says forever there, it's just, you know, it doesn't really mean forever, it's just a major exaggeration. But he makes it pretty clear, I mean, he keeps repeating it and saying it all these different ways how it's going to be forever, it's going to go on forever, it's going to last forever more. It's got to be referring to Jesus because Solomon's literal throne and kingdom did not last forever. How could it when he's a human being that's going to perish, he's a mortal man. Whereas Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again, he lives forever. And so all of this fits perfectly for Jesus. Now here's the beautiful part of it though, if you go to Psalm 89, the Bible says in verse number 20 of Psalm 89, I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him. Now again, who does David represent? David represents Jesus, Jesus is the son of David. What does anointed mean? Well what's another word for anointed according to the Bible? Christ or Messiah, okay. Because if you remember, it says that the kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, Psalm 2. And then the New Testament that's quoted as against the Lord and against his Christ, okay. So this is saying David is the anointed, with whom my hand shall be established, mine arm also shall strengthen him. Let's just jump down for sake of time to verse 28. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forevermore and is thrown as the days of heaven. So again, that seed of David is the Lord Jesus Christ, okay. Just like Jesus is the seed of Abraham, he's the seed of David. But look what it says next. If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever and is thrown as the sun before me. Now that's a pretty strong promise. Again, this isn't just an exaggeration because he hammers this over and over forever, evermore. It's never going to end. I've sworn by myself that this is true. Now this is a beautiful passage about the eternal security of the believer. Because when you get saved, what? You're a child of God. You are his children. The Bible says, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And what does he say? If my, if his children, verse 30, if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgment. That's us. We are his children, right? So what happens if we, as God's children, what if we break God's commandments? What if we forsake God's law and walk not in his judgments? What if we break his statutes and keep not his commandments? I mean, he says it four different ways. You're definitely not obeying God, are you, at this point? When you're breaking his commandments, forsaking his law, breaking his statutes, you're disregarding the commandments. And look, do you think there are Christians who do that? Do you think there are people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but then they end up forsaking God's law, not keeping his commandments? Of course, we all know people like that. And we've all been people like that at times, where we disobey God's word, because the Bible says there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sin is not. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The Bible says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Anybody who thinks they're not a sinner is crazy. They're deceiving themselves. You know why it says you deceive yourself? Because nobody else would be stupid enough to believe that. You only deceive yourself. You don't deceive the people around you. They're not like, yep, I know him. He's totally sinless. He's a perfect person. He never sins. He does everything right all the time. No, no, no. You're only deceiving yourself. That's the only person who would believe that about you. You're not deceiving your wife, you're not deceiving your husband, you're not deceiving your children, because they live with you and they see you every day and they know your flaws as a person. So this is an assurance unto the children of God, the children of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says if they forsake his law, walk not in his judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, what's he going to do? Verse 32. It's not just going to be no consequence. It's not just going to be fine. But it says in verse 32, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. So he's saying, look, if the children disobey God, they're going to get a spanking. They're going to get disciplined. They're going to get the rod. They're going to get stripes. They're going to get a whipping. And so if we as Christians disregard God's law, break his commandments, there are going to be consequences. The consequences are discipline from the Lord. He will chasten us. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, the Bible says, then are you bastards and not sons. Every single believer is going to be chastened, which proves that every single believer is going to sin. See, the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So what's this talk about people who are sinlessly perfect? Well then, why are they getting scourged? Alright, come get a spanking, kids, whether you need it or not. You know? Who didn't get a spanking yet today? Alright, line up, you're getting a spanking. Is that what parents do? No, you get spanked because you did something wrong. Well, God doesn't scourge us for no reason. If he's going to chasten us and scourge every son, you know what that means? That every son disobeys from time to time, period, period. Sinless perfection is a lie, it's a false doctrine. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And this is why we, and I'm going to go off on a little rabbit trail right now, but this is why we need to beware of the so-called deliverance doctrine. Who knows what I'm talking about? The deliverance doctrine. You know, oh, God delivered me from this sin and God delivered me from that sin. Now, I know that some people when they say that, it's an innocent thing that they're saying and they just mean that they've been able to get the victory over that sin and God helped them quit doing that sin. And you know what? That's correct. That's biblical that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can conquer the sin in our lives. We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us and whatever the addiction, whatever the sin, whatever the hang up, you can quit doing it. God can give you strength and power to get over that, okay? No question about that. But what we have to understand is that the only way to overcome sin in our lives is to walk in the Spirit. Put on the new man. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, read our Bibles, pray, walk in the new man and we have to die daily, the Bible says. We have to deny self and take up the cross daily and follow Christ. So this isn't a one-time thing. Every single day, we have to choose to deny the lust of the flesh, deny self, take up the cross and follow Christ. Okay. Here's what you have to understand about the old man because when we get saved, we're creating in Christ a new creature. But the old man is still there, right? We still have the old Steven Anderson, same as he was before he was saved. But now there's the new man, the new creature, because our flesh didn't get saved when we got saved. When we get saved, our soul and spirit is regenerated, but our flesh remains the same. That's why when someone gets saved, they look the same. It's not like all their physical flaws just go away. You know, just scars and acne are disappearing, just, you know, they used to limp and, oh. The body stays the same, okay? Because the flesh will not be saved until the trumpet sounds. That's the redemption of our body. When that trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ rise first and we which are alive and remain, hopefully that's we, amen, you know, are caught up together to be with them in the air. You know, that's when the body is saved. But right now, our body, our flesh is unregenerate, okay? It's carnal. It's still. There's a battle, right, between the flesh and the spirit that goes on in our lives. And if we walk in the flesh, what are we going to do? We're going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we walk in the spirit, what are we going to do? We're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh because we're walking in the spirit. But this is a daily thing of constantly putting on the new man, constantly dying to self, denying self, mortifying the members of our uncleanness that are on this earth. Here's the problem with the deliverance doctrine and why it's not biblical. And what I mean by that is they say, oh, God delivered me from such and such a sin, it's not even a temptation. You know, you've got to get deliverance, brother, where you'll just never want to smoke, you'll never ever want to drink. You know, it's funny how some of these deliverance preachers can't get delivered from McDonald's. Somehow that, you know, they can't get that one exercised, that demon, because the gluttony is still there. Their pride and arrogance is still there. But it's amazing how they can get delivered from cigarettes, whiskey, and wild, wild women. You know, that's what they got delivered from, just a couple things, but, you know, but then other things they're not delivered from. Okay, so it doesn't make any sense. But here's the problem with this deliverance doctrine that says, oh, yeah, God delivered me from this, delivered me from that, I'm not even tempted anymore. I say you're a liar. I say you're a liar. Now are there going to be certain sins that we get to a point where, okay, you know, we're not tempted by that anymore because we realized how stupid it was, or we haven't done it in so long, we don't even think about it, or whatever? Sure. But this deliverance doctrine, where it's some gift from God, where all of a sudden you just don't crave sin anymore, here's the problem with that doctrine. Stop and think about it. One of two things would have to be true if you're just totally delivered from sin. Either number one, you're saying you're walking in the Spirit 100% of the time. Because that's the only way you'd be totally delivered of sin where you would mean, okay, you must just be in the Spirit 100% of the time. Is that biblical? No, because he said what? Daily. Deny self. Daily take up the cross. He said, I die daily, okay? So that's not something where you're just, oh, all the time. No, he said if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If the Apostle Paul talked in Romans 7 about a struggle where he was constantly doing things that he didn't want to do and not doing the things that he should do, you know, if the Apostle Paul is having that struggle, why didn't he just go to one of these Pentecostal deliverance churches and they could have delivered him of whatever it was that he kept doing? It's not biblical to say that you're walking in the Spirit all the time. Okay, well then the only other option then for this so-called deliverance doctrine to work would be that the flesh could somehow be reformed. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Basically they're saying one of two things. They're either saying that that person's walking in the Spirit all the time, which is not possible, or they're basically saying that somehow that person's flesh has been altered where now their flesh wants to do the right thing or doesn't want to do that. You know what? It's impossible because the Bible says that the carnal mind is at enmity with God. And it says that it cannot be brought into subjection of the laws of God. It is impossible to bring the carnal mind into the subjection of the laws of God. You cannot reform the old man. You cannot eradicate sinfulness from the old man. The only thing to do to the old man is to kill him. That's it. If we want to do right in our lives, what we have to do is put off the old man and put on the new man. We've got to mortify the flesh. We've got to put it to death daily. We've got to die daily. And then ultimately when we actually physically die, it'll be dead for good. But we have to render it dead, die to self daily. Okay. Why? Because the old man can't be fixed. The old man cannot be reformed to the point where now he loves God and doesn't want to sin anymore and wants to do all the right things. Nobody's old man is like that. They got to get in the new man to experience that. Okay. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So for this deliverance doctrine to be true, you'd either have to be in the spirit all the time or you'd have to fix the flesh, which is broken and cannot be fixed and has to be discarded someday because it's irreparable. Okay. That's why I don't buy into this doctrine and a lot of people get sucked into this. Even independent fundamental Baptists get sucked into this and you know, I know that Alcoholics Anonymous is a bad organization and, and you know, they teach a false doctrine that, hey, just worship anything. I've even had people from Alcoholics Anonymous tell me you worship a chair as God. You just have to have a, something that you worship, a supreme being. Obviously we know that there's only one that's legitimate and that's the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It's not just some supreme being out there. It's Jesus, you know, it's, it's, it's a name that's associated with salvation, not just a God. Okay. But there's one thing that Alcoholics Anonymous says that's correct. And this is the thing that Alcoholics Anonymous gets the most flack for saying, but it is as true as the day is long. Here's what they say. They say once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. And I've heard Christian churches all the time say, oh, that's so wrong because you can just be delivered of that. And they teach this deliverance doctrine, but you know what? The deliverance doctrine is a stupid doctrine. And you know what? The Bible actually says is let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And that's what they're saying. When they say once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, they're not saying that that person is practicing that now. What they're saying is that's the kind of person that they are and always will be. And you know why they tell them that is because what they're telling that person is that you have already proven that you are the type of person that abuses alcohol. Now look, does everybody abuse alcohol? No. I've never abused alcohol in my entire life. I've never even tasted beer. I don't even know what it tastes. I know what it smells like. I've never tasted it. But there are people who drink alcohol in moderation. Now I'm against it. I'm against any drink of alcohol. The Bible says just stay away from it. Don't look at it. Don't touch it. That's what the Bible says. But there are people who do drink alcohol in moderation, right? Where they'll just occasionally have one beer. They'll just occasionally have one small drink or one glass of wine. And I'm against it. They're not going out and puking their guts out and driving drunk and going crazy with it and drinking every single day and Bloody Marys for breakfast. But then there are other people who are and that's called an alcoholic or a drunkard. Somebody who goes overboard with it like that, right? The person who goes overboard, what they're showing is that they're that type of person who does that. And what Alcoholics Anonymous is telling that person is that they should never take a drink again. They should never even have a sip of it again because they've already proven that they cannot be a social drinker and that they are an alcoholic by nature. And you know what? That person needs to stay as far away from the bar as they possibly can. Don't even touch it with a 10-foot pole. Stay away from old drinking buddies. Stay away. Why? Because they have the potential to fall back into that lifestyle of drunkenness. Any sin that you have done, whether it's drinking or drugs or fornication, adultery, whatever, gambling, pornography, whatever it is, you have the potential to go back and do that again. And you're more likely to go back and do that again than the person that's never done that. You've already opened that door and that's why you need to be extra careful. Extra careful. If you had some sin that was ruining your life in the past and you've gotten rid of that sin, you've repented of that sin, you've turned away from that sin, you've confessed it and forsaken it, then you know what? You need to take heed that you never go back to that because you have the potential to go back to that. You wouldn't be the first or the last person to think, oh, I'll never do drugs again that went back and did drugs. Oh, I'll never go out and do that. You know what? You better take heed lest you fall. And you better safeguard yourself against that because that is a danger in your life. But the deliverance doctrine just tells you, oh, yeah, never worry about that again. Oh, I've been delivered from alcohol. So it gives a false sense of security that they don't have to die every day, that they don't have to deny self every single day, that they don't have to put on the new man every single day because it's just like, oh, done, that battle's over, won that battle. Really? Wrong. And you know, I've talked to one of these deliverance people that, oh, yeah, I was delivered from that and I'll never touch that again. A couple of months later, back to the life of sin after they talked a big talk about how they're never going to do this and never going to do it. You know, when people tell you what they're never going to do, they're probably likely to do that. Like Peter, oh, I'll never deny you. Less than 24 hours later, what's he doing? Denying. Why? Because people who are super confident like that, their guard is down. That's what's wrong with this deliverance doctrine. And even a worldly, sinful organization like Alcoholics Anonymous recognizes the fact, look, somebody who's been a drunk before is very likely to be a drunk again. Don't touch it. That's why even if they've been sober for five years, they get up and say, hey, my name's Steven Anderson and I'm an alcoholic, right? What are, you know, even though they haven't touched it in five years, what do they say? That's my nature. You know, and when I drink, that's how I drink. You know, I go big or I go home. And they go all the way with it. And some people are addictive personalities and some people can drink in moderation, not saying it's right because it's wrong and that's a whole other sermon in and of itself. But they can drink in moderation. Other people just go and just go crazy with it. So don't get sucked into this deliverance doctrine and sinless perfection. You know what it is? It's just a bunch of liars trying to puff themselves up that they're better than you. And you know, when you hear these liars get up and teach this stuff, you know what you're thinking in the pew? You're like, oh man, that's not how my life is because I struggle every day. I struggle every week. You know what I mean? I have a hard time. And then they get you thinking that there's something wrong with you or that maybe I'm not saved or, you know, what am I doing wrong? And they confuse people. It's like, you know, it's like people who just act like their marriage is always perfect all the time. Their kids are always perfect all the time. Everything's perfect all the time. You know, if you looked at their Facebook, you'd think they have the ideal life and that everything is perfect in their life. Guess what? Those people with that perfect Facebook page, I guarantee they have all kinds of junk going on in their life that you don't even know about. It's an illusion. Why? There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. So the struggles that you struggle with every day or every week or every month, you know what? That's the same struggles that the people around you are struggling with or something similar. There's nobody who's just living an easy Christian life. They just roll out of bed every morning just ready to serve God and they just, this is my story, this is my song, praising my savior all the day long. Their life is just this musical about serving God. You know, they're just, they get ready for work, they're on their way, oh, it is wonderful to be a Christian, oh, it is wonderful to be God's child, oh, it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven, oh, it is wonderful to be redeemed, justified, forever reconciled. But there's some people who they have you to believe that that's what their life is like. No, guess what? You get up every morning and you say, all right, it's time to read the Bible and your hand starts reaching for the remote control and you're like, you know, and you have to bring it into subjection, you know, and you have to force, you know, read the Bible, you know, and I'm joking obviously, but the point is, you know, nobody just naturally wants to go to church all the time, wants to go soul winning all the time, wants to read their Bible all the time, wants to pray all the time, but people act like, oh, yeah, well, if you're saved, yeah, you'll want that all the time and then everybody's like, oh, man, you know, but then you know what, those preachers want you to think like, oh, he's on such a higher level than me spiritually, oh, man, he doesn't even, for him, it just comes so easy. I mean, he just prays for hours a day, he just reads the Bible hours a day, look, hey, your preacher ought to read the Bible for hours a day, but you know what, it's not because it's just easy, it's because he's doing what? He's trying, he's struggling, he's fighting, you know, that's the real Christian life, that's what Paul said, are you better than the apostle Paul? I mean, it just doesn't make any sense, like you just think it's gonna be easy, hey, if it were easy, everybody'd be doing it, getting saved is easy, believing in Christ is easy, but living the Christian life is difficult, and look, I'm not excusing sin, because you know what, if you sin, you're gonna get a whooping, the Bible says, you're gonna get chastened, you're gonna get scourged, but newsflash, everybody's gonna sin at some point and everybody's gonna get scourged at some point, that's what the Bible says, so there is no sinless perfection, being totally delivered from all your sins, no, it's a daily fight, and I hear all this garbage now, even in independent Baptist churches where they say like, oh well, if your life's a struggle, that's not salvation, I heard that from an independent fundamental Baptist church, you know, it was Jack Treiber, you know, if you're struggling, if your life's a struggle, if you're constantly struggling with sin, that's not salvation, yeah, actually that is salvation, that is salvation, it's getting saved, the new man moves in, the Holy Spirit moves in, you got a new creature, you got the Holy Spirit, and you know what, it's the start of a fight, it's the start of a battle, and that battle lasts the rest of your life, and if you're waiting to get on easy street where it all comes easy and it's all easy, you know what, you're gonna be waiting a long time, and don't listen to these liars, these puffed up arrogant braggarts who just act like, oh yeah, I don't even have ages I don't even do any of those sins anymore, liar, funny the apostle Paul didn't get to that level of holiness that you've reached, you know, he wrote half the New Testament, so you know, I know I was a little bit of a rabbit trail, but it's important to lay down that doctrine of salvation all the time, because people are teaching a workspace salvation, or they're teaching a thing of well you're not really saved if you're struggling with sin, if you are not delivered from this or delivered from that, and sometimes they'll say, you know if there's just this one sin in your life that you just can't get over, you know, that just shows that you're not saved, I've heard that, what in the world? And look, I've known wonderful godly Christians who are soul winning and serving God and love God, and they smoke cigarettes every day, and they're just like, I can't quit smoking. Now obviously that's a dumb habit, it's unhealthy, it's bad for you, but does that mean they're not saved because they're just stuck on this one thing, and you know, it could be a lot of other things too, just think, and look, I'm not condoning it, and I'm not saying you're gonna get away with it, because you know, you will be disciplined, and we should all die daily, we should all strive to do right, but don't just think it's gonna happen on its own, and that if it's not happening for you on its own, then there's something wrong with you. And guess what, other parts of your life take work too. If you wanna succeed at your job, you gotta work hard at it, it's not just gonna come easy. If you wanna have a great marriage, it's not just gonna automatically happen, and then when it doesn't automatically happen, what do people say, oh I married the wrong person? No, you just maybe need to put more work into that thing, okay? And obviously there are some situations that are fatally flawed, don't get me wrong, so you know, don't marry a reprobate or anything like that, but the point is that you have to work at any area of life, you're not gonna get, I mean look, I'm sure there's some diet book that's gonna tell you, oh with this diet book, you'll never even crave the junk food ever again. Who's heard that one before? Oh yeah, you just get on this diet, you'll never be hungry, you're gonna lose all this weight, you know, guess what, if you wanna lose weight, you're gonna end up being hungry. And these preachers of diets that cause you to just not crave any sweets, they're like these same lying preachers who are telling you, oh you're never gonna crave sin. It's a fraud, folks. If you're on a diet, you're gonna be hungry. If you're on a diet, or these diets, oh you can eat whatever you want, and you're gonna lose weight. Right. Now if you wanna lose weight, you gotta suffer. But being overweight makes you suffer too. So you know, choose your suffering, I mean you gotta, you know, but losing weight is work. Well guess what, if losing weight is work, if being on a diet is work, and if you have to look at something and say, hey that looks good, that ice cream looks good, that dessert looks good, but you know what, I'm gonna skip it, because I'm trying to lose weight, that's what the Christian life is like, you look at that sin, and say hey, that sin looks appealing to me, but I'm gonna skip it, because I love Christ, because I love Jesus Christ, I'm gonna deny self. It's just like denying a piece of cake. Denying yourself whatever the sin. Denying yourself lying, or stealing, or gambling, or drinking, or drugs, or whatever it is. Whatever the sin, you name it. It's the same principle. There's no easy way, it's work, it's hard, and you gotta do it. So this is a beautiful passage in Psalm 89, go back to 1 Chronicles 17, we'll finish up. It's a beautiful passage in Psalm 89 that tells us, or I'm sorry, I didn't finish Psalm 89, go back to Psalm 89, because it's really important that we finish, because there's a great thing coming up here. I do wanna finish what this says here. He says, then I will visit their transgression, verse 32, with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. So that's the chastisement that every single one of us will endure, or we're not even a child of God if we don't endure that. And if we're enduring it, we must be doing a sin to merit it, okay? But look at the next verse. Nevertheless, and this is the great part, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. So even when God's whipping you and punishing you for the sins in your life, he's not gonna utterly or completely take his loving kindness from you. He's still gonna love you because the Bible says nothing can separate us from the love of God. Now he might take some of your loving kindness, but he's not gonna utterly take the loving kindness. He's still gonna love you always. You're his son, you're his daughter, and nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then it says, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. What's faithfulness mean? Here in this context, it means trustworthiness. He's saying, look, I'm still trustworthy. No matter how bad you screw up, I'm not gonna break my promise. And he follows it up in the next verse by saying, my covenant will I not break. He's saying, look, if you sin, if you break my commandments, if you forsake my law, I'm not gonna break my end of the deal. I'm not gonna break my promise, nor alter the thing that's gone out of my lips. I'm not gonna change what I said when I promise eternal life. When I said, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. I'm not gonna change that. I'm not gonna back out of that deal. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever and is thrown as the sun before me. He's saying, look, if you're saved, you're gonna endure forever. You're gonna be saved forever. Once saved, always saved, eternal life, everlasting life. You may get a lot of whippings. You may be the black sheep of the family, but you are in the family if you believed in Christ. You are saved. You're a child of God. And nothing can change that. Isn't that wonderful? And that's from the book of Psalms. Just hammering this doctrine of the fact that we are saved eternally. Go back to 1 Chronicles chapter 17. We'll finish up quickly here. 1 Chronicles chapter 17. He said similar things to David here and then David responds to this because it says in verse 15, according to all these words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. He faithfully preached God's word to David. Even though it contradicted something he had preached before, when he was mistaken, honest mistake at the beginning of the chapter, he gave David the wrong advice, when he finds out the truth from God, Nathan sets the record straight, which is what every preacher should do when they realize they've preached something in error in the past. Set the record straight. Say, hey, I've learned more. Here's what the Bible says. Let me tell you how it really is. Not just, well, I said that 10 years ago, I better just stick with that. That's stupid. But that's what a lot of preachers do. They just will not budge because they won't alter the thing that's gone out of their lips. But guess what? You're not God. Sometimes you do have to say, hey, I've learned more. I've changed that. Okay? Look what the Bible says in verse 16. And David the king came and sappered for the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is mine house that thou hast brought me hither to? Meaning to this point. And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God, for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come. He said, man, I'm just glad to even be king, and you're talking about my throne's going to endure forever. David remained humble, even though he's in a high position here. And has regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God. Verse 18, what can David speak more to thee for the honor of thy servant, for thou knowest thy servant? O Lord, for thy servant's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness in making known all these great things? O Lord, there's none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we've heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee an aim of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt. For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people forever, and thou, Lord, becamest their God. Therefore, now, Lord, let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as thou hast said. Now here David says, your people are Israel. You made Israel your people forever. Now the Zionists will jump on this, but guess what? They're not all Israel, which are of Israel. Of course Israel will always be the people of God, except for the fact that that fake nation over in the Middle East is not Israel. Like what if we just changed the name of Tempe to Israel? Would that make it Israel? Say, well, but it's that land. It's all about the land. Really? Is this all about dirt and rocks and trees and plants? No, it's the people. Israel was a person. That's a person's name. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's name was changed to Israel. That's a person's name. The children of Israel, okay, is who we're talking about. Well, who are the children of Israel? Who are the children of Israel? Today, in 2018, who are the children of Israel? You know who the children of Israel are? You know who the children of Abraham are? It's the people who have the faith of Abraham, who have the faith of Israel. It's not a physical descendant. That's why the Bible said avoid genealogies. I mean, look, if being a physical descendant of Israel made you the people of God, then let's bust out the genealogies and figure it out. Let's trace it back. He said avoid it. Stay away from it. The last genealogy we need is the genealogy of Jesus. That's the last genealogy you'll find in the Bible, the genealogy of Jesus, because you know what? Here's how my genealogy goes. It's the genealogy of Jesus, and then Jesus begat Steven Anderson. That's the only genealogy I need, so I'm in the line. I'm descended from all the right people, Abraham, David, everybody, because Christ had all those wonderful genealogies in Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter three, and I'm tapped into that by being begotten of him. I'm his son, so therefore I share that same genealogy. No, no, you know, you've got to be the...what, these bunch of white people? It's funny how they left Israel brown and came back white. These white Europeans, these freckled, red-haired, blond-haired, blue-eyed people from Poland and Germany and Hungary, oh, they're the chosen. No, Jesus didn't recognize them in John 8. He said, Abraham's not your father. We be Abraham's seed. He said, you're your father the devil. You're not Abraham's children. He said, if you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. You know what? The real son...I mean, think about this. God forbid that I would ever have a son that would grow up and just do everything wrong and wicked and not believe in Christ. You know, God forbid that I'd be the worst thing as a parent, you know, to have a child like that that would go out and do all those horrible things, right? But you know what? If some child went out and just hated Christ, that would...I wouldn't recognize that as my son. I'd say, you know, that's not my son. Some Christ-hater, somebody who hates the Lord Jesus, I would say, that's not my son. You know what? Someone who loves Christ and say, that's my son. You know what I mean? Somebody that I'd won to Christ, that loves Christ, that serves Christ, and say, that's my son. Isn't that what Jesus said? Jesus said, who's my mother? Who are my brethren? Whoever does the will of God, the same as my mother and sister and brother, you know. So they sit there and say, oh, these are the sons of Abraham. Really? That's funny because they hate Jesus Christ. They hate the one who Abraham prayed to. They hate the one that Isaac and Jacob worship. They hate the one who Israel worship. How can they be his sons? They're not his sons. You know whose sons they are? They're the devil's children. The Pharisees were the sons of the devil and today's Judaism is the religion of the Pharisees, a Christ-killing, Christ-rejecting religion is what it is. Call it what it is. It's what Judaism is. It's a false religion that has been hating and rejecting Christ now for 2,000 years. Spitting on the ground when they hear his name. Literal disgust for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, they're the chosen people. We ran into one of the chosen ones out soul winning today. It's funny how she didn't even want to hear Romans 3.23. She wouldn't even listen to one verse. She was just quick to get us out of there, just no interest. And 99% of the time, if you knock on the door of a Jew, that's their reaction when you try to give them the gospel. Now I've won a couple to the Lord in the last 20 years of soul winning. It's very rare that they will get saved. So when he says, Israel's going to be my people forever, amen, amen. And guess what? I'm Israel. You're Israel. Because the Bible says we're the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The Bible says, if you're Abraham's seed, then, or he said, I'm sorry, if you're in Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. He said, they're not all Israel, which are of Israel. They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And he compares it to Isaac and Ishmael and he says, we, to the Gentiles that are saved and in Christ, he says, we as Isaac was are the children of promise. That's what he told the Romans in the epistle to the Romans. He said, we as Isaac was are the children of promise. He said, you know, the Jews are, they're Ishmael and Hagar. Cast them out. They're the bond woman and her son. Cast them out. So of course, the Judaizers, dispensationalists and Zionists love to pull an Old Testament verse like this out of context and try to pin it on the Zionist state over in Israel. But you know what? That is misapplying scripture and failing to rightly divide because they'll never find anything in the New Testament. They'll never find anything in the New Testament that people who reject Jesus are God's people. That doctrine is completely foreign to the New Testament. It's completely stupid in light of the New Testament when every page is telling you, hey, it's all about Jesus. If you got Jesus, you got everything. If you don't have Jesus, you have nothing. If you're in Christ, you're what you're in. You have Jesus. You got the father also. You don't have Jesus. You don't have the father. You're damned. You're doomed. You're anathema. You're separated from God. You're an enemy of Christ. You're an enemy of God, the father. You're an enmity with God. You're a child of disobedience. You're a child of wrath. You're under the power of the prince of darkness. The Bible just tells you over and over again, if you don't have Jesus, you're nobody. And if you have Jesus, you're a joint heir. You're a son of God. You have all these blessings. I mean, how can you read the New Testament and not see it? But the Jews are like Esau. Isn't there a little blessing left for us also, my father? No. I've already blessed the Christians with all the blessings. The Christians have already come and taken away all your blessing. There's nothing left for you. Well, Esau still had a little blessing left of at least serving Jacob, you know, right? Playing second fiddle for Jacob. The Jews don't even have that. Of course, the Jews are too prideful and arrogant to ever play second fiddle for anyone since they think that they're God and they think that they're their own Messiah is what they actually believe in their teachings. They don't accept Jesus as the Messiah. Well, they're still waiting for the Messiah. They think they are the Messiah. I can't even count how many times I've seen them say, we collectively are going to be our own Messiah, they said. That's why they're going to have a little trouble with the Antichrist because eventually they're going to be like, all right, thanks. We'll take over from here. And he's going to be like, no, I'm going to kill all you guys now. And you know, God's going to be like, yeah, this is all part of my plan to punish these wicked people. I mean, God's got some wrath coming in the book of Revelation. That's a whole nother sermon. That's a whole series of sermons, but let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for all the blessings that are in Christ. And of course we know that they are only to be found in the person of Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you that we're in Christ through faith. Thank you for promising us eternal life and that you're never going to leave us. You're never going to forsake us. Nothing can separate us from your love. Thank you so much for giving us salvation Lord. And Lord, I pray that every Jew and every Muslim and every Hindu Lord that, that, that would have an ear to hear. I just pray that as many of them as possible would get saved because they're all damned. And Lord, I just pray that you would help us to evangelize them and preach to them and, and show them the gospel so that they could be saved Lord. But thank you for the blessings that we have. Those of us that are in Christ and that you'll never leave us. Thank you for your promises, Lord, and, and help us to fight that battle with sin every single day and not to get a false sense of security that it's going to be easy, Lord. Help us to work at it and put up safeguards in our life to not toy around with sin, not to go near the bar, not to go near the way to the house of the strange woman or whatever, but to not make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.