How To Clean Up Your Life Of Sin

Psalms 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”

There is an amazing truth in our text Bible passage. I looked up the meaning of the words “by taking heed.” It is the Hebrew word shamar, which means: “a primitive root; properly to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect, attend to.” Ecclesiastes 5:8, “If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.” That word “regardeth” is the same exact Hebrew word shamar. It means that the Bible gives us protection! Throughout history men have built fortresses around their homes and cities for protection. In every major city in America you'll find all sorts of iron gates and chain link fences with sharp objects or barbed-wire on top to discourage theft and bodily harm to residents. In ancient times kings would build motes around their castle, and fill the water with alligators to deter invaders. Psalms 119:9 is teaching us that the way a young person cleanses his or her life of sin (the enemy invader), is to fortify your soul with the inspired Word of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:8 is teaching us that God is our guardian. Every sensible and informed American knows that 911 was an INSIDE JOB! Bombs brought those building down, not planes. All three World Trade Center buildings were brought down by controlled demolition, which requires months to prepare. The U.S. Justice Department is complicit to the crimes, controlled by the same evildoers who masterminded and orchestrated 911 attacks. Freemasons rule over America, whose god is Lucifer. It does not come as a surprise to Bible-reading Christians, for 2nd Corinthians 4:4 tells us this truth. The culprits behind 911 got away with it for now. They are above man's laws. Ah, but they cannot escape God's judgment. That is what Ecclesiastes 5:8 says. We ought not worry, because justice will be met! God has so promised in His Word. God is the Guardian of the universe and nothing happens without His permission, knowledge and concern. God does care very much about every living soul (1st Peter 5:7-9).

I receive many emails from people at my website ministry (Jesus-is-Savior.com), especially from men, who struggle with sin and confide in me that they cannot help themselves from sinning. I will not repeat some of the horrible and disgusting things that people have shared with me. I always respect people's confidentiality. That is important for any preacher, so people will trust me with their problems and personal information. I do not give counsel, but I do share Biblical principles with people to help guide them. There is no such thing as a person who cannot help but sin. Sin is a choice! We make decisions based upon our thoughts. Our mind is like a computer in many ways. We cannot help what type of thoughts enter into our mind, but we can control what we see and hear, to a great extent. Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). It is possible to love Jesus, but place one's love of the flesh as a higher priority than your love for God. That is why many Christians are locked up in prison, because they loved their sin more than Jesus! I don't care how you look at life, everything boils down to how much you love your God and Savior.

We have a sin problem in our country! I was shocked listening to the honorable Sheriff Grady Judd, talk about what is going on in Polk County, Florida:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w7H3It1X3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=civEJZWM14o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c489KwKjbnE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwj2rRRuiqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z0Z4fzvKC8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbTOm0izfDw

I had to go take a walk after hearing some of that disturbing stuff! Dear friend, anybody is capable of anything under the right circumstances! Pastor Jack Hyles said that, and I agree 100%. In the human trafficking sting videos I have provided links to above, you'll hear of pastors and police officers (last video) being busted. These are consequences of our promiscuous American media, sleazy Hollywood and degenerate lewd culture. People are sinners and we all need the Gospel and hard-preaching from the Holy Bible!

How To Overcome Sin In One's Life

In this area of sinning, the Bible makes two things abundantly clear:

FIRST, YOU MUST BE SAVED - The first thing is that until you get saved, you will never have the power to overcome sin in your life. Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” If you don't have Christ, then He cannot live in you! Romans 8:8-9, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 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.” The Holy Spirit comes inside to live (indwell) every believer at the time of salvation, and stays with that Christian forever (1st Corinthians 3:16-17; Hebrews 13:5). John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Isn't that beautiful? The Father and the Son live inside every Christian saint in the form of God the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is literally GOD IN US! 

SECOND, YOU MUST ABIDE IN THE WORD OF GOD - The second thing you must have to overcome sin in your life, is to absolutely saturate your mind, soul and heart with the inspired Word of God, night and day. When a man writes a book, it is just a book. But the everlasting words of the Holy Bible are verbally inspired by Almighty God (Hebrews 4:12). Only the King James Bible is verbally-inspired by God. When God authors a Book—it is very special, verbally-inspired, absolutely powerful, eternally preserved, infallibly incorruptible!!! Thank God for the inspired King James Bible!!! And please avoid these modern Devil's Bibles! It is tragic that most churchgoers are embracing the Devil's corrupt Bibles. In so doing they are condemning future generations to many evils. Having hundreds of English Bibles to choose from is confusing, diminishes the authority of God's Word, and it discourages young people from memorizing the Scriptures. Why memorize them at all, since they'll just change again next year? The Southern Baptist Convention is now on their THIRD Bible in 20 years!!!

Make Sure You Are Saved

The following Scripture is one of the most misinterpreted and abused passages in the Bible. 2nd Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” In have listened to several dozen 'UNSHACKLED' episodes by the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. My father was a Skid Row preacher, who used to preach each week at the PGM mission on State Street. There was a tavern next door to the Mission, and I kid you not, the bar's address was 666 South State Street!!! The name of the bar was “The 666 Lounge.” Truth is stranger than fiction!!! PGM teaches the heresy of Lordship Salvation, merging sanctification with justification, which is a false gospel. Evangelist John Bunyan gets it right:

“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —John Bunyan (1628-1688)

When a person gets saved, they are a new creature. The Holy Spirit of God has come inside us to live (1st John 3:24). We are now spiritually alive in the Holy Spirit, awake for the first time, and able to understand spiritual things (1st Corinthians 2:14-16). But we are the same person. Nothing in our personal character has changed. Our sinful habits are still the same. The difference is that now we have the Holy Spirit living inside our body and soul, and He (God) will convict us about the sins in our life. 

When I got saved I was 13 years old. I had horribly sassed my mother as a boy before that. When I got saved the Holy Spirit started to convict me. I could hear that still small voice in my soul saying: “David, I don't want you talking to your mother like that anymore.” So I started improving, not to be saved, but because I was saved. Getting saved meant automatically receiving God's blessed Holy Spirit in me (1st Corinthians 3:16-17). If you can sin without being convicted by the Holy Spirit, then you are not saved (Hebrews 12:6-8). You cannot sin and go without discipline from your heavenly Father. God is not an absent parent!

As God's child I still sin, but I always feel convicted about it. Prior to being saved at age 13, there is only a blank in my mind concerning God. When someone tells me that they cannot stop sinning, the first thing I suggest is to make sure they're really saved. Many religious people have been deceived by Ray Comfort, Steve Pettit and John MacArthur. They are religious but lost, and cannot overcome the sins in their life. Only by the power of Jesus Christ can anyone overcome sin in their life. 2nd Corinthians 13:4, “For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.” Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” You and I CAN live right in 2020, through the power of Jesus Christ!!!

Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935) was gloriously saved at Pacific Garden Mission. I think it is tragic that the city of Chicago refused to grant landmark status protection to the great PGM historical building on state street. What a rich heritage and a great legacy for Chicago! The mission used to be located in downtown Chicago on State Street. Unfortunately, the city of Chicago wanted the land and the mission was forced to relocate. It's a shame that the city of Chicago granted “landmark status” to homosexual Henry Gerber's home, but then denied such status to the Pacific Garden Mission (which has helped millions of needy Chicagoans over the past century). 

Howbeit, the mighty works which have been done in Jesus' name over the last century are a testimony to the grace of God and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sadly, PGM has changed and succumbed to another gospel of Lordship Salvation in recent decades. It is tragic! Surely God's hand of blessing is not upon the city of Chicago today, because of their mistreatment of God's children (Matthew 24:40). Thank God that our anchor holds! God never changes (Malachi 3:6). Our Savior never changes (Hebrews 13:8). The Word of God never changes (Psalms 119:89). But men change, which is why we have to ”earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3).

It is true that a man becomes a new creature when he gets saved. But this doesn't mean that he instantaneously doesn't desire to live in sin anymore. That is the heresy of Lordship Salvation! Being a “new creature” simply means that our spirit which was dead in trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:2-2) is now made alive in the Holy Spirit of God. We are now born-again, that is, born anew from above by a supernatural miracle of God in response to our faith in Jesus Christ. If you aren't sure you are saved, please get saved now. Simply come to God as a needy sinner (Romans 3:10-23). Know that you are a guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20), and that you need a Savior (John 3:16-18). Know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31). Know that Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins, was buried, and three days later He physically resurrected from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). Simply trust that Good News (Gospel) and you are immediately, securely and forever saved!

Saturate Your Mind With The King James Bible

If you want to get the victory over sin in your life, then get into the inspired King James Bible. Listen to it. Read it. Study it. Love it. Talk about it. 1st Timothy 4:13-15, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” I encourage people to start memorizing passages of Scripture. Psalms 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” THE BIBLE! THE BIBLE! THE BIBLE! The answer is THE BIBLE!!!

Any Christian can live right if they choose to! Dr. Bob Jones Sr. (1883-1968) rightly said: “Behind every tragedy in human character is a slow process of wicked thinking.” So nip any wrong thinking in the bud while it is small! The Apostle Paul teaches us how in 2nd Corinthians 10:5-6, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” When an impure thought enters into a man's mind, we need to cast down that thought with the Word of God. I cannot encourage you enough to MEMORIZE these two Bible verses! Verse 6 says when we do mess up, and sin, we need to take revenge against all disobedience. We ought to be angry at our self when we fail to live right, and declare: “By God's grace, I will never do that stupid thing again!” Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”

If you'll read Matthew 4:1-10, all three times when the Devil tempted Jesus, the Lord quoted the Scriptures to resist the Devil. That speaks volumes! If our own Savior and Master needed the Bible to overcome temptation, THEN SO DO WE!!! We cannot defeat the Devil, we are not strong enough, we CAN only resist him until he goes away. Here is a helpful passage of Scripture:

James 4:6-12, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”

The Bible is telling us to get serious about our walk with God. Turn off the TV. Put on Alexander Scourby reading the King James Bible. I'm listening to the Epistle of 1st Corinthians today, right now. The Bible cleans us up! Even if you don't feel like you're benefiting your time in the Bible, you are! I am reminded of an illustration. A wise father wanted to teach his son a great truth. So he took a muddy bucket and put a hole in the bottom. He asked his son to go down to the river and fill the bucket with water and bring it back. The boy did, but by the time he returned the water had all leaked out. 

The father asked his son to do this three times. After the third time the boy said: “Papa, this is a waste of time, there's a hole in the bucket, and the water keeps leaking out.” The wise father replied: “Yes son, the bucket is empty, but look how clean it is!” I'm sure somebody made this story up, I truly don't know, but it is a good illustration of reading the Bible. You may not remember what you read, and you may feel that it is not benefiting you, but I promise you it is! How do I know that? Because we are taught so in the Bible. Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

When I keep getting emails from the same person, about their impossible struggle with sin, I ask them which parts of the Bible they read today. Almost always they make excuses and haven't listened to the Bible in ages. Folks, you are going to spiritually starve to death if you don't nourish on the milk and meat of the Word. 1st Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” We've got a bunch of spiritual dwarfs in our churches today, who have stunted growth, still being blown about by every wind of doctrine. You've got to get into the Holy Bible. 

There are millions of old-time Christians who know the Bible very well, but their walk with God is woefully lacking. If you are in a Neo-evangelical church (aka, the Bob Jones University crowd), I feel sorry for you. I saw that at the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam in 2014, during the year that I attended. Parents were surfing the internet during Pastor Marty Herron's sermons. Kids were playing video games during his sermons. Sin was never preached against. Christ's Second Coming wasn't mentioned once the whole year. I never heard him preach once  about Hell or coming judgment from God. He spent the whole year in Genesis, expositorily boring the congregation. I did learn many things, and I love Pastor Herron, but he is no preacher! America's pulpits are weak!!! Churches like Harvest have lost their authority, because they've adopted dozens of modern corrupt and weak Bible revisions.

We read about preachers quitting the ministry, pastor's wives committing adultery, pastors being arrested for soliciting prostitutes, pastor's children texting shocking messages about rape and sodomy, deacons guilty of murder, pastors stealing money from their congregation, and worse! We are all sinners! It is just a matter of which sins, and how far in sin we choose to travel. 1st Timothy 5:24, “Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” Dear reader, sin will always cost you more than you wanted to pay, take you farther than you planned to go, and keep you longer than you intended to stay. Don't let those pet sins grow into monsters! The answer is THE BIBLE. Therefore, please don't let Satan deceive you into trading in your double-edged Sword of the King James Bible, for a pocketknife of the English Standard Version (ESV) or other garbage translations!!!

And I don't mean randomly opening the Bible to whatever passage you pick by the Eeny, meeny, miny, moe method. It is okay to randomly read or listen to the Scriptures, but I recommend starting in Genesis and listening all the way through at least once a year. You can hear Alexander Scourby read the entire Bible in just 75 hours! I think that is amazing. If you want to clean up your life of sin, then abide in the holy Word of God. Sin will either keep you from the Bible, or the Bible will keep you from sin. A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. That is a great statement, made by Pastor Charles Spurgeon.

I don't know about you, but I've never wanted to be closer to God than I am right now. Like a starving man, I run to the Bible for spiritual food! But I know that evil is always with me. No matter how close I get to God, sin is always with me (Romans 7:14-25). I have to be on guard ALL THE TIME against sin creeping into my life. And so do you friend! Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” We all have to be on guard. The flesh is our enemy! It is as simple as this friend—if your walk is wrong, it is only because your mind and heart are wrong! Many Christians know the Bible inside and out, even theologians, but their heart is wrong toward God. All the Bible college in the world won't make you a faithful Christian. How much do you love Jesus? 

Some people have to learn the hard way! I think I can safely say this includes everyone. Sometimes a child has to touch a hot stove when a parent's back is turned, to learn the dangers of playing with fire! Sometimes people have to get burned by sin, before they realize the dangers of sin. It feels good to live right. It feels good knowing that God is pleasing with me. It feels good to know that I don't have anything to worry about. I don't have to look over my shoulder. I don't have to hide anything. That is the way God wants us to live, as bold as a lion. Proverbs 28:1, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” The Bible is choked full of helpful Scriptures to help us live right, but you have to CARE enough to want them, like anything else in life. Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The Word of God will sanctify and transform you oh saint, if you truly want it!

I encourage you to listen to lots of Bible-preaching. Please DON'T listen to Neo-evangelical false teachers like: Paul Washer, Chip Ingram, John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, Adrian Rogers, Sam Horn, Steve Pettit, Marty Herron, Ray Comfort, Ken Ham, Henry Morris III, Stephen Davey, Franklin Graham, Moody Bible Institute, Bob Jones University, et cetera. These men are ALL wrong on the Gospel of free grace! You won't find a perfect Bible preacher, but at least you can find one who cares about THE TRUTH (like me, humble said)! To God be the glory! Anyone can walk in the Spirit if they want to, God will help you.

In closing, the key to living for the Lord is a heart of gratitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ. 1st Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Do you realize what God has done for you dear saint? You are no longer on your way to Hell. Jesus paid your debt of sin in full. Your name is written in Heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life. You are now a bonafide child of God! All of your sins have been forgiven and washed away, erased. Micah 7:19, “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Gone, gone, gone, gone Yes my sins are gone; now my soul is free; and in my heart's a song; buried in the deepest sea! I don't know about you, but my dear Savior deserves so much better than what I give Him. Jesus is precious!!!