{"id":19116,"date":"2016-07-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-025\/"},"modified":"2016-07-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-025","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-025\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 025"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[91],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19116","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-corinthians","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 025","sermon_date":"20160724","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":5066,"sermon_slides":3773,"sermon_mp3":3778,"sermon_id":"724161020573","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":91,"chapter_and_verse":"3:1-3","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 25, 1 Cor. 3:1-3\n\nJuly 24, 2016\n\nLet\u2019s open with a word of prayer.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re thankful for this morning and the opportunity that we have to gather and to learn from You and the truth in Your Word, and I pray that You will be with our Sunday School class today as we work through a difficult issue, the doctrine of eternal security.\u00a0 Help us to come to a right conclusion as individuals on what Your Word presents on this and we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.\n\nWell, here we are again, Lesson 25 in Soteriology.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember what lesson we are in with eternal security.\u00a0 But we started the summer months talking about the doctrine of eternal security.\u00a0 As you guys know we are taping these for the benefit of our missionaries; we do have some missionaries today with us, Phil and Arlene Blycher, did I pronounce that right.\u00a0 And they do have a table out there in the foyer so if you want to go by and take a look at their materials.\n\nAnd I\u2019m going to talk till about 10:35 and then if you have a question during the Sunday School class just write it down and we\u2019re going to open it up for questions at 10:35 and by then the second shift will have arrived so remind me to re-announce your table.\n\nHere we are in our doctrine of salvation; we\u2019ve been focused on eternal security.\u00a0 Eternal security is the idea that if a person has placed their faith in Christ then they are kept by God\u2019s grace forever.\u00a0 And this is a very controversial issue so the way we\u2019re structuring this teaching is we\u2019re looking at eternal security arguments which I think we\u2019re going to finish today, God willing.\u00a0 Of course how many times have I said that and we didn\u2019t finish.\u00a0 And then next week, if all things being equal we are going to start looking at problem passages.\u00a0 So I\u2019m really trying to not teach you what to think as much as I\u2019m trying to teach you how to think.\u00a0 How do you, as an eternal security believer, how do you interact with other passages that seem to disagree with eternal security.\u00a0 And there are quite a few that you look at them at first glance and it\u2019s like ooooh, that one denies eternal security.\u00a0 But we know the Bible can\u2019t contradict itself; right?\u00a0 So I\u2019m going to show you how all of those so called problem passages, and it\u2019s going to take a while to get through them, rightly interpreted, harmonize with the very clear passages that teach eternal security.\n\nBy way of review, here is why you cannot lose your salvation, what we\u2019ve covered so far.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to go through these fast, if you want to go back and study these we\u2019ve got in depth archiving on it on our website.\u00a0 Because self-righteousness did not save us in the first place it\u2019s not a condition by which salvation can be lost.\n\nNumber 2, salvation is not given by good works, so why would we think we have to maintain it by good works.\u00a0 Number 3, if a believer can lose salvation then how can eternal life be eternal?\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t make sense, does it?\u00a0 Number 4, the Bible promises guaranteed security, John 10:28 being probably the strongest passage.\u00a0 [John 10:28, \u201cand I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.\u201d]\u00a0 Number 5, the Bible promises the assurance of salvation, not just that you\u2019re saved forever but you can know it.\u00a0 So if you could lose your salvation then there is no such thing as the assurance of salvation.\n\nNumber 6, the believer is already predestined for glory; our glorification is placed in the past tense, as we\u2019ve seen in Romans 8:30, so if that\u2019s true what can I do to derail it.\u00a0 [Romans 8:30, \u201cand these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.\u201d]\u00a0 Number\u00a0 7, the Spirit\u2019s seal on us (do you all know you\u2019re sealed by the Holy Spirit) cannot be broken.\u00a0 Number 8, God keeps us from falling.\u00a0 Number 9, Christ is currently interceding for us and advocating for us.\n\nNumber 10, Christ\u2019s death perfectly dealt with all sins, past, present and future.\u00a0 So there is no sin in your future that you can commit which would cause God to rip the carpet out from under you.\u00a0 Number 11, a believer cannot be removed from Christ\u2019s body.\u00a0\u00a0 Number 12, the Bible never tells you which sin removes salvation; I mean, if it\u2019s gambling the Bible would say stay away from that one, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But there is no New Testament warning saying stay away from this sin because this one will cause you to lose your salvation.\n\nAnd then number 13, which is what we started last time, and this is the question people always ask, well, if you can\u2019t lose your salvation then I\u2019m just going to go out and live like the devil.\u00a0 Well, I wouldn\u2019t recommend that because you lose a lot of things when you do that as a Christian.\u00a0 And the Scripture has multiple warnings of losses that we experience when we, as God\u2019s people, return to sin.\u00a0 But in the long list of warnings never once does it say you\u2019re going to go to hell.\u00a0 So believers with unfruitful lives, and there are many\u00a0 of them like that, still have salvation but they lose certain things, like rewards at the Bema Seat Judgment.\n\nSo what I have done, as we focus on number 13, is I\u2019ve put together a list of things that we lose as Christians when we go back into sin.\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover on this list is losing your salvation is not on this list because it\u2019s not in the Bible.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve gone through four of these and all I want to do today is complete the list, if we can do that.\u00a0 What do you lose as a Christian if you go back to sin?\u00a0 You lose power;\u00a0 you don\u2019t lose the Holy Spirit but you lose His power and enablement.\u00a0 We grieve the Spirit.\u00a0 We lose joy.\u00a0 We lose our spiritual sight.\u00a0 We went through several passages last time that indicate that.\n\nSo let\u2019s pick it up there with the fifth one; a fifth problem with returning to sin is all of the time that we could have spent growing in the Lord and maturing, our growth during that whole period is short-circuited.\u00a0 So take a look at 1 Peter 2:1-2.\u00a0 With each of these I have biblical verses just to show you I\u2019m not up here making things up.\u00a0 But you know, I went through high school and there was a number of kids that were really hooked on alcohol and drugs during the high school years and beyond.\u00a0 I was fortunate, that was one sin I never got involved in but it\u2019s sort of interesting to talk to these people today because all that time that they were inebriated, strung out, is time they could have spent maturing and growing.\u00a0 And what you discover with people like that is there\u2019s a knowledge gap, a maturity gap, because it\u2019s like taking a chunk of the years of their life when they could have been maturing, which is what you have to do as a young person, and they weren\u2019t because they were kind of out of it from the world.\u00a0 And the people that weren\u2019t strung out on drugs and alcohol have this years and years of a growth exponential compared to people that were strung out on drugs.\n\nAnd you see, that\u2019s how I\u2019d like for you to look at returning to sin.\u00a0 When you return to sin as a Christian and you start to live in it you short circuit not your salvation but the growth that you could have had for all those years.\u00a0 And notice 1 Peter 2:1-2, actually let\u2019s start with verse 2, it says, \u201clike newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.\u201d\u00a0 Now salvation there is not justification but it\u2019s what?\u00a0 Sanctification, this is the middle tense of salvation as we talked about.\u00a0 So we\u2019re called as Christians to grow in our progressive sanctification, the middle tense of salvation and that\u2019s why God puts an appetite in our hearts for His Word.\u00a0 And he uses the example here of a newborn child who wakes up in the middle of the night screaming like my daughter did.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how such small little babies have such loud lungs; she\u2019s screaming in the middle of the night and she\u2019s not interested in a theological conversation, she wants to be fed because her growth depends on being fed with her mother\u2019s milk.\u00a0 And so in the same way God puts in the heart of the believer a desire for His Word because if we don\u2019t have it we can\u2019t grow.\n\nNow there are things that are destructive to the appetite of the Word of God.\u00a0 What are those?\u00a0 They\u2019re in the first verse; the two verses are connected.\u00a0 So he says, \u201cTherefore, putting aside all\u201d the appetite suppressants, what\u2019s that? \u201cmalice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,\u201d that\u2019s quite a list there.\u00a0 Those are sins that we go back to as Christians, that\u2019s what it\u2019s talking about.\u00a0 And when we go back to sins as Christians it damages the hunger, verse 2, that God wants us to have for His Word.\u00a0 [1 Peter 2:2, \u201clike newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.\u201d]\u00a0 And when I don\u2019t have that hunger for His Word and I\u2019m not in His Word I can\u2019t, as it says in verse 2, \u201cgrow thereby unto salvation,\u201d the middle tense of my salvation which is progressive sanctification.\n\nSo unconfessed sin or perpetual sin in the life of the believer functions like an appetite suppressant.\u00a0 It\u2019s like my wife, she prepares this very nutritious meal at home and when I\u2019m driving home from work I stop and go to McDonalds, and I have the Big Mac meal with the fries and the Coke and of course I want to supersize the Coke and the fries and then I want one of those Sundaes with the nuts on it and the chocolate sauce.\u00a0 So I\u2019m inhaling all this stuff and then I get home for the meal, which my wife has worked dutifully to prepare a nutritious meal and I have no appetite for it because my stomach is filled with the wrong stuff.\u00a0 So when we go back to sin that\u2019s exactly what it does; it\u2019s going to damage or hamper the appetite for God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And if we don\u2019t have\u00a0 that we can\u2019t \u201cgrow thereby unto salvation.\u201d\u00a0 So every minute in sin for the Christian is a moment they could have spent growing.\u00a0 See how we\u2019re warned there not to go back to sin.\u00a0 Now you notice that Peter never said you\u2019re going to hell if you go back to sin; he described the temporal consequences.\n\nSomething else that happens and let\u2019s go to 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 is we move into carnality. One of the doctrines that is dying (to a certain extent in the local church) is the doctrine of the carnal Christian. \u00a0And the reason it\u2019s dying is because of the influence of Reformed Theology, particularly a very strong version of Calvinism which says if you are really one of the elect then you have to be growing, you have to be producing fruit, and if you\u2019re in a state of stagnation and you\u2019re not producing fruit then you\u2019re not saved.\u00a0 So in the Calvinist system (to a large extent) you have two kinds of people, saved and unsaved.\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t have saved people that are struggling in carnality; that\u2019s not part of their theology.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s a matter of taking pre-existing theology and super\u00adimposing it on the Bible because when you actually study the Bible, although the Calvinist system would deny you can be a carnal Christian, they say if you\u2019re carnal then you\u2019re not a Christian.\u00a0 Paul, very clearly develops the doctrine of the carnal Christian in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3.\u00a0 It\u2019s crystal clear when you look at it.\u00a0 So you have to make a decision, am I going to adhere to a Calvinistic system or am I going to be a Bible centered Christian.\n\nSo the name of our church is Sugar Land what? Bible Church, so Bible is our middle name; we build our theology from the Bible, we don\u2019t bring our theology to the Bible.\u00a0 And that upsets a lot of people because they come into our church from different churches and they have a preexisting viewpoint on something and they want it reinforced.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve upset some people here because I won\u2019t reinforce any preexisting theological grid.\u00a0 What I\u2019m interested in doing is teaching the Bible and letting the Bible inform my theological grid.\u00a0 Are\u00a0 you guys with me on that?\n\nYou have to understand that because it seems like a strange ministry philosophy but I think what I\u2019m doing is normal, right?\u00a0 But people aren\u2019t that way; they have a preexisting idea of how they think everything should work and they go through the Bible and try to make the Bible fit their system.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t really care about our system.\u00a0 God is like a wrecking ball; He is coming into your house, He is not trying to put new carpet on the floor, He\u2019s not trying to put some new drapes on the walls, He\u2019s not trying to give you a coat of fresh\u00a0 paint on something, God is going to destroy your whole house if you let Him, but He\u2019ll rebuild it if you let Him, in His Word. So when you go to 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 it very clearly talks about carnal Christianity.\n\nPaul says, \u201cAnd I brethren,\u201d now when he says \u201cbrethren\u201d is he speaking to believers or unbelievers?\u00a0 Believers, very clearly.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as carnal, as babes in\u201d what does it say? \u201cChrist.\u201d\u00a0 You mean to tell me you can be a babe in Christ?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes you can.\u00a0 [2] \u201cI fed you with milk and not solid food; fur until now you were not able to receive it, and even now\u00a0 you\u2019re still not able, [3] for you are still carnal.\u00a0 For where there are envy and strife and divisions among\u00a0 you, are you not carnal, and behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 Now how do you recognize carnal Christianity?\u00a0 People start to develop idols within the church, in this case the Corinthians, who are believers, were dividing over the oratorical style of their favorite teacher.\u00a0 One says I am of Paul, another says of Apollos; I\u2019m of Swindoll, I\u2019m of MacArthur, I\u2019m of Piper, I\u2019m of Tony Evans.\n\nSee, we\u2019re just like this, aren\u2019t we?\u00a0 We can get like this very quickly where the authority becomes the oratorical style of a teacher rather than the Scripture.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul makes a point when he\u2019s writing to the Corinthians and he says I didn\u2019t even come to you with a bunch of oratorical pizzazz like the Greek philosophers did.\u00a0 So Greek philosophy, the way they idolize teachers\u2026 you know Greek philosophers and speakers, they would go down to the river and they would take rocks and they would put them in their mouth because they figured that if they could give a good oratory with a few rocks in their mouth just think how good you\u2019re going to be when the rocks are out of\u00a0 your mouth.\u00a0 So everything in Greek philosophy revolved around these oratorical styles that people had.\u00a0 And Corinth was in Greece, was it not, so that mentality slipped into the church; the church started to sound a lot like the world; the philosophy of the world overtook the church and so the Corinthian church was now dividing over its favorite speakers.\u00a0 Apollos was a favorite because he had what we call the gift of gab, which are the three things you need for success in the ministry today, right?\u00a0 The three G\u2019s, Good looks, a Guitar and the Gift of Gab.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve got those going for you you\u2019re going to do well.\u00a0 And Apollos apparently had the three, I don\u2019t know if they had a guitar back then.\n\nSo what I want you to see is Paul does not look at the Corinthians church and the world as saved and unsaved, the way Reformed theology looks at it.\u00a0 Paul is far more sophisticated than that. He sees unbelievers, those are what you call the natural man, the man that has not been born of the Spirit, and then within the ranks of the believers you\u2019ll see he mentions three types of people: number 1, the carnal Christian, he says it right there in verse 1.\u00a0 Number 2, the infant, or what he calls the babe in Christ, also verse 1.\u00a0 And then number 3 what he calls the spiritual man, also verse 1.\u00a0 See, there\u2019s different words for each one here.\u00a0 That\u2019s the person that is a blessing in the church because they are no longer catering to the sin nature, they\u2019re growing in the middle tense of their salvation.\n\nAnd Paul says within Corinth you\u2019ve got all three kinds of people.\u00a0 Now in Corinth they were all believers but Paul divides up believers: spiritual, infant and carnal.\u00a0 Infant I would say would be a new Christian, they do things that are age appropriate, so they suck their thumb at the age of one or two because that\u2019s what infants do, right?\u00a0 The carnal Christian is the Christian that is sixteen years old and still sucking their thumb, see it loses its cuteness, doesn\u2019t it, because it\u2019s no longer age appropriate, you have a developmental problem.\u00a0 And let me focus just a minute on the carnal Christians.\u00a0 I have a list of seven truths about the carnal Christian; I got this from Dennis Rokser\u2019s book which is very good, called Shall Never Perish<\/em>, and he\u2019s got seven truths about carnal Christianity.\n\nNumber 1, carnal Christianity hinders one\u2019s growth but never his position in Christ.\u00a0 And he\u2019s getting that from verse 1 where these people are identified as babes in Christ.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re carnal your growth is inhibited but because of the promises of Jesus Christ regarding grace and eternal security\u00a0 your position is not hindered.\n\nNumber 2, carnal Christianity affects one\u2019s desire, this is exactly right out of 1 Peter 2, what we studied earlier, carnal Christianity affects one\u2019s desire and ability to take in and digest\u00a0 God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And you see that in verse 2 where he says, \u201cI fed you with milk, not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you\u2019re still not able.\u201d\u00a0 So when we brought Sarah home from the hospital (she\u2019s 10 now) we didn\u2019t cook her a steak dinner on her first night home because she doesn\u2019t have teeth, she doesn\u2019t have the digestive ability to absorb a meal of that level.\u00a0 But as she grows she begins to have teeth, she can chew, she can cut up her food and digest it and so a steak is appropriate at a certain age of maturity.\n\nAnd you see, there are people, and this is how you recognize carnal Christianity, they can only handle a message that\u2019s very, very light.\u00a0 They cannot handle in depth Bible study.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been hearing basically the same sermons for the last twenty years, a lot of people.\u00a0 You know, three points and a poem.\u00a0 And if a pastor commits the unpardonable sin and preaches beyond the 12:00 o\u2019clock hour, I mean\u2026 look at what we do here, we go till 12:30, they start to get really irritable and antsy and they\u2019re looking at their watch and they can\u2019t concentrate or focus on anything beyond a very simple message.\u00a0 And this is how you recognize carnal Christianity, Paul says I fed you with milk and not with solid food, they cannot handle the deeper things of God.\n\nThere\u2019s a parallel passage (I don\u2019t want you to leave 1 Corinthians 3 but you might put your finger in 1 Corinthians 3 and just take a quick look at Hebrews 5:11-14.)\u00a0 You know what I mean by a parallel passage?\u00a0 Same idea, different author, different book.\u00a0 So the author of Hebrews says: \u201cConcerning him we have much to say, and it is<\/em> hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. [12] For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. [13] For everyone who partakes only<\/em> of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. [14] But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.\u201d\n\nNow when the author of Hebrews says this is he writing to believers or unbelievers?\u00a0 Well, clearly believers because he says in verse 12, \u201cby this time some of you ought to be teachers.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, would you ever want an unbeliever to teach a believer?\u00a0 That makes no sense.\u00a0 And yet when you go through Reformed Commentaries on Hebrews, like John MacArthur\u2019s commentary on Hebrews, not that I disagree with everything John MacArthur says but I\u2019m just using him as an example here he converts this whole passage to unbelievers.\u00a0 Why is he doing that?\u00a0 Because his Calvinistic lens is so strong that if you are really the elect you must persevere through good works that every time he sees any reference to carnal Christianity he psychologically or mentally makes an adjustment; he just waves a wand and converts the passage to unbelievers.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I would call a theological reading of the Bible, not an exegetical expositional reading of the Bible.\n\nThe issue is, is he addressing believers or unbelievers here?\u00a0 Clearly believers, now let\u2019s build our theology from what the text says rather than trying to rewrite passages that contradict our pre-existing grid.\u00a0 So I just wanted to share that passage with you because it is a parallel passage and you\u2019ll see the same idea that these people in Hebrews 5 could not really handle solid food but thrived on milk.\u00a0 Actually the whole context of Hebrews 5 is he was trying to teach them about the Melchizedekian priesthood, that Christ in His present position in heaven is a priest, not after the order of Aaron but the order of Melchizedek.\u00a0 Now Melchizedek is only mentioned\u2026 he\u2019s going to use Melchizedek as his typology, but Melchizedek is only mentioned one time, a couple times really, Genesis 14 and Psalm 110, so he\u2019s going to have to give them an in depth teaching on this. He\u2019s going to build a whole doctrine, Paul is; the priesthood of Christ from this obscure character named Melchizedek.\n\nNow to be able to do that you have to have an audience that\u2019s mature, right?\u00a0\u00a0 You can\u2019t have a carnal audience and try to teach something at that level.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why he gives a warning in Hebrews about carnal Christianity before he gives this more in depth teaching on Melchizedek.\u00a0 So he wants to say something more to them than God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, in other words.\u00a0 He wants to give them something deeper and he knows that a carnal audience won\u2019t absorb it so that\u2019s why in context you have this warning against carnal Christianity.\u00a0 So carnal Christianity affects one\u2019s desire to take in and digest God\u2019s word.\n\nNumber three, carnality may be due to weakness, you know when you\u2019re young and dumb, right, you wander off into strange things.\u00a0 Someone said the problem with youth is it\u2019s wasted on the young.\u00a0 The time in your life when you had all of your energy you\u2019re doing stupid things, getting drunk with your friends or whatever, and you don\u2019t really wise up till you get older.\u00a0 So young people do dumb things, which is called weakness, they just haven\u2019t had enough life experience.\n\nOr sometimes we go back into carnal Christianity because of willfulness.\u00a0 So it could be due to weakness or willfulness.\u00a0 Now why would I go back into carnality willfully?\u00a0 Because, and you heard it here first, ready\u2026 sin is fun!\u00a0 I will not lie to you about that; there is always a window of pleasure associated with sin.\u00a0 If that wasn\u2019t there we wouldn\u2019t do it, right?\u00a0\u00a0 What we\u2019re never told though, on the front end, is the long term consequences of sin.\u00a0 So promiscuity is a lot of fun, the problem is the window of pleasure is long over and they venereal disease and the unwanted pregnancy and all of the other problems associated with that particular sin, those continue on.\u00a0 But there is a window of pleasure associated with sin.\u00a0 So many times people go back into carnal Christianity, not just because they\u2019re weak but because it\u2019s a willful decision on their part.\n\nNumber four, and this is the one that really would upset the Reformed people.\u00a0 Carnality is not automatically connected with time, because the assumption is oh, you\u2019ve been in the Lord twenty years, you\u2019re supposed to be at a level of maturity but you\u2019ll notice carefully what Paul says here in verse 3, \u201cFor you are\u201d what? \u201cstill carnal.\u201d\u00a0 So they had been\u2026\u00a0 you\u2019re not dealing entirely with new Christians here, you\u2019re dealing with people that should have grown up an awful long time ago, and they had been in the Lord chronologically for some time and yet they had not come out of carnal Christianity.\u00a0 In the parallel passage I shared with you earlier in Hebrews\u00a0 5 it says, \u201cFor though by this time you ought to be teachers,\u201d so they had been in the Lord for an extended period of time yet they had not reached a level of maturity where they could take on their normal responsibilities.\n\nIt\u2019s like dealing with kids; as children grow up they get more responsibilities, they get more chores around the house.\u00a0 You get a kid in the house that\u2019s 18 years old, 19 years old and has no chores, no responsibilities, that\u2019s not age appropriate.\u00a0 They should have taken on basic responsibilities and household a long time ago, and that\u2019s how it is in the church; there are a lot of people that should have graduated, they should be taking on ministries in the church service, in the church a long time ago, yet they haven\u2019t because of this perpetual return to carnal Christianity.\n\nNumber 5, carnality is evidenced by works of the flesh in your life.\u00a0 What are the works of the flesh?\u00a0 The works of the flesh are the emanations of the sin nature and there\u2019s a pretty good description of them over in Galatians 5:19-21, which I\u2019ll read to you very fast.\u00a0 It says in Galatians 5:19-21, \u201cNow the deeds of the flesh\u201d the Greek word for flesh is sarx<\/em> or sin nature, \u201cNow the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery,\u201d look at these next ones, \u201cenmities,\u201d quarreling and fighting amongst Christians over non-issues, \u201cstrife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,\u201d that describes some of our congregational meetings, some of these things, does it not? Good grief, this is just too convicting. [21, \u201cenvying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.\u201d]\n\nBut this is the whole problem with the Corinthians because if you go back to 1 Corinthians 3:3, \u201cyou are still carnal,\u201d why are they carnal?\u00a0 Because the works of the flesh are evident in their lives, the ones that I emphasized, the enmities, the factions, the outbursts of anger, disputes, the jealousy, because he says in 1 Corinthians 3:3, \u201cfor you are still carnal. For there is envy,\u201d does that sound familiar, that\u2019s what he just said in Galatians; \u201cstrife,\u201d divisions \u201camong you, are you not carnal \u2026 are you not behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 So he says I know you\u2019re carnal because you\u2019re dividing over something as silly as the favorite oratorical style of your teacher.\u00a0 And if your needs aren\u2019t met then you follow some other guy who is going to down the street and start his own church.\n\nAnd what you have to understand about church splits, when\u00a0 you study church splits, you know we always think ooooh, church split, man, they must have split over some big issue, like the virgin birth or the deity of Christ or the Trinity or some big issue.\u00a0 And sometimes a split does occur over a big issue but that\u2019s not the norm; the majority of church splits and conflicts in the body of Christ have to do with someone not getting their way on something.\u00a0 So Sister So and So got more time on the piano than I did.\u00a0 You know, I don\u2019t like the color of the carpet.\u00a0 I wanted this program and the elders wouldn\u2019t go along with it, I\u2019m mad.\u00a0 And it\u2019s really\u2026 it\u2019s an emanation of the sin nature clothed with spiritual language.\n\nAnd that\u2019s what\u2019s going on here in Corinth. It was clothed in spiritual language, oh, I\u2019m following my favorite teacher, and Paul says that\u2019s not the problem; the root problem is carnality, you\u2019ve gone right back to the sin nature and consequently the works of the flesh are evident.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how you recognize carnality, people losing their cool over the slightest provocation, impatience, a perpetual demand to be in charge, a perpetual demand to be in the limelight, that\u2019s just an emanation of the disgusting sin nature that we left and shouldn\u2019t go back to.\n\nNumber 6, carnality is often characterized by self-deception. So you see how they masqueraded their issue regarding their disputes?\u00a0 They\u2019re following their favorite teacher; maybe some of them actually thought that way mentally, but Paul says you\u2019re deceived because that\u2019s not the problem. The problem is the sin nature.\u00a0 So we\u2019re so blind to our sin nature that when it rears its ugly head we like to throw kind of spiritual language on it to kind of baptize it a little bit and we deceive ourselves, many times, and I know I\u2019ve done this, believe me when I\u2019ve got one finger out at you guys I\u2019ve got three coming back at me here.\u00a0 Many times I\u2019ve wanted to fight some great battle, you know, for God or whatever.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is I was mad about somebody that offended me so I\u2019m going to get back at \u2018em.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s my sin nature under self-deception; that\u2019s what that is.\u00a0 That\u2019s me giving reign to my sin nature and throwing a little bit of Christianity on it to deceive myself into thinking that really I\u2019m not such a bad guy.\u00a0 So number 6, carnality is often characterized by self-deception.\n\nNumber 7, carnality in the believer\u2019s life causes him to walk like an unbeliever.\u00a0 Going back to 1 Corinthians 3:3, look at that last phrase there, \u201c\u2026are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 When he says \u201cmere men\u201d who is he referring to?\u00a0 Remember our chart?\u00a0 He\u2019s referring to unbelievers.\u00a0 What he\u2019s saying is you\u00a0 \u201cin Christ\u201d are acting like the natural man.\u00a0 You, as a Christian, are behaving just like an\u00a0 unbeliever.\u00a0 And let me tell you something about an out of fellowship Christian.\u00a0\u00a0 An out of fellowship Christian or a carnal Christian can out sin even an unbeliever.\u00a0 I know that \u201cin Christ\u201d when I go back to my sin nature I have the ability to sin and even exceed some of the sins that I committed before I was even \u201cin Christ.\u201d \u00a0I know that when I go back to my sin nature I have the ability to look just like an unbeliever.\n\nNow this is a revolting thought to the strong Calvinism that we get indoctrinated with many times because they say if you really are \u201cin Christ\u201d there has to be fruit, and there\u2019d better be fruit in massive supply.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t have fruit in massive supply you\u2019re not a Christian at all. And what Paul here is saying is you can be \u201cin Christ\u201d for sure but you can also have a lifestyle that looks an awful lot like an unbeliever.\u00a0 And in fact, if I were to look at such a person\u2019s life and compare it to the unsaved world I would see no difference.\u00a0 That\u2019s not my theology folks; this is what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 3.\n\nIf you don\u2019t believe me take the example of Lot, and here\u2019s a good sermon title; you ready?\u00a0 Are\u00a0 you a lot like Lot?\u00a0 You look at the story of Lot in Genesis 13 when he pitches his tent towards Sodom, he just started to think about what life would be like in the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah; see, it starts in the mind, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 When you order your meal and then they come around and they say would you like to order dessert, and you say no thank you, there\u2019s a reason they say would you to look at the dessert tray?\u00a0 Okay, what harm can it do, I\u2019ll look at the dessert tray and thinking about it, you know what the next step is, the next step is you\u2019re ordering dessert and you\u2019re way over your caloric limit for that month or year or day or however you do it.\n\nBut you see, looking at something is just the next step to doing it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why there\u2019s so much in the Bible about the mind and discipling the mind and allowing our minds to be transformed and putting on the helmet of salvation.\u00a0 Philippians 4, whatever is excellent and so forth, contemplate on these things.\u00a0 [Philippians 4:8, \u201cFinally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.\u201d]\n\nSo Lot was just sort of thinking about Sodom,\u00a0 You get into Genesis 19 he\u2019s actually living in Sodom.\u00a0 Not only is he living in Sodom but he is actually sitting at the city gate in this wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah, indicating that he had risen to some level of prominence within the city.\u00a0 And then he\u2019s doing bizarre things, like offering his daughters, his virgin daughters, to a Sodomite crowd.\u00a0 And then how does the whole story of Lot end?\u00a0 It ends with him in a drunken state and you can read all about it, I\u2019m not making it up, Genesis 19:30-38, he\u2019s in a drunken state and he\u2019s having incest with his two daughters.\u00a0 From that unholy union came the Moabites and the Ammonites who became perennial enemies of Israel.\n\nNow let me tell you something about Lot.\u00a0 Lot was saved.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 I know that for two reasons; the primary reason I know it is because in 2 Peter 2:7-8, we won\u2019t turn there just jot it down and you\u2019ll see it for yourself, Lot three times is called a righteous man.\u00a0 [2 Peter 2:7-8, \u201cand if<\/em> He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men [8] (for by what he saw and heard that<\/em> righteous man, while living among them, felt his<\/em> righteous soul tormented day after day by their<\/em> lawless deeds).\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, if I didn\u2019t have that reference to Lot as a righteous man in 2 Peter 2:7-8 and I only had the Old Testament record to go by I would never think Lot was even saved.\u00a0 I really wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 But I read this reference in 2 Peter and it says \u201ca righteous man\u201d and I\u2019m like slapping my forehead, \u201crighteous man,\u201d what are you talking about Peter, have you not read the book of Genesis?\n\nWell, the point is Lot was righteous positionally.\u00a0 He had come into the first tense of his salvation, which is justification by faith alone, but he was not righteous practically.\u00a0 2 Peter 2 is just making a reference to his righteousness positionally, first tense of salvation but Genesis is commenting on his unrighteousness, practically.\u00a0 In other words, Lot really hadn\u2019t graduated very, from what I can tell, in the area of progressive sanctification.\u00a0 His practice, which was very bad, had not caught up with his position.\n\nAnd did Lot suffer because of that?\u00a0 Yes he did.\u00a0 His soul was vexed, 2 Peter 2:7-8 tells us.\u00a0 And in fact, here\u2019s another reason you know Lot is a believer; when the angel came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, I think it\u2019s around verse 19, the angel says \u201cI cannot,\u201d not I will not, \u201cI cannot destroy this wicked city until you\u2019re out because you\u2019re one of God\u2019s people. \u00a0\u00a0And then all of a sudden Lot got spiritual; oh, the city is going to be destroyed so he starts to preach to his family and to my knowledge this is the only time jesting is used on the Bible.\u00a0 The book of Genesis, 19 says they thought he was jesting.\u00a0 The man had no credibility to preach because his lifestyle didn\u2019t match his rhetoric.\u00a0 But because God was going to hold up everything until Lot was out that\u2019s a second reason you know that he was saved.\n\nSo what I\u2019m simply saying is you can have a person like Lot who looks completely like an unbeliever and behaves like an unbeliever that actually is a believer.\u00a0 And going back to 1 Corinthians 3 this is the very thing that Paul says.\u00a0 He says, in verse 3, are you not behaving like mere men.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see any difference between you and the unsaved world.\u00a0\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 3:3, \u201cfor you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?\u201d]\n\nIn fact, let me say this: the Corinthians church \u201cin Christ\u201d was doing things worse than the unsaved world.\u00a0 Where are you getting that from?\u00a0 I\u2019m getting it from 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul says a man has his father\u2019s wife, incest.\u00a0 Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5 says the unsaved world doesn\u2019t even act that way.\u00a0 The pagans don\u2019t even act that way.\u00a0 And so this is sort of a development of verse 3 when he says \u201care you not behaving like mere men?\u201d\u00a0 An out of fellowship Christian can look just like the unsaved world; in fact, sometimes our sins can exceed the unsaved world.\n\nSo a major problem with going back into sin is we begin to exist at a level of carnality which we\u2019re warned about here and that\u2019s why I wanted to give you those seven principles on the doctrine of the carnal Christian.\n\nNow you notice what Paul never says in this warning?\u00a0 He never says you all aren\u2019t saved.\u00a0 He never says you know, if you were saved you wouldn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Calvinism.\u00a0 He never says you\u2019re going to lose your salvation.\u00a0 Arminianism.\u00a0 What he warns about is the category you\u2019re in is not good, it doesn\u2019t threaten your position but there\u2019s a lot of temporal consequences associated with it.\n\nYou know, I\u2019m fascinated by the book of 1 Corinthians; it just destroys so many theological systems out there because when you go to 1 Corinthians 1:2 he calls them saints.\u00a0 He says, \u201cTo the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our\u201d in other words, Paul\u2019s identifying with their spiritual state, \u201cour Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:\u201d\n\nWhen you go down to verse\u00a0 7, in 1 Corinthians 1, he says, \u201cso that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift,\u201d the gifts of the Spirit were flowing, they were awaiting eagerly the return of Christ.\u00a0 And then the whole rest of the book, after declaring their position as saints he criticizes them for their unsaintly behavior, the whole rest of the book.\u00a0 How bad was it?\u00a0 Chapters 1-4 they\u2019re dividing over their favorite teachers.\u00a0 Chapter 5, incest.\u00a0 Cheer up, it\u2019s about to get worse.\u00a0 Chapter 6, lawsuits amongst Christians of such a level of bickering that they actually went to a pagan judge to get their issues resolved.\u00a0 And Paul says what do you think a pagan judge is going to think?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Jesus say all men will know you are My disciples by your ability to win arguments?\u00a0 No! by your love for each other.\u00a0 [John 13:35, \u201cBy this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d]\u00a0 What\u2019s a pagan judge going to think when he sees two Christians quarreling like this?\n\nChapter 6 they\u2019re sneaking out at night and visiting the temple prostitutes.\u00a0 Paul says you\u2019re taking the Holy Spirit with you into that when you do that.\u00a0 Chapter 7 there is rampant divorce and remarriage.\u00a0 Chapter 8-10 the stronger brothers, the ones that should know better, have a lot of freedom in Christ, they theologically understand this, like there\u2019s no big problem in the church age eating fruits sacrificed to idols, but they\u2019re flaunting their freedoms in the presence of somebody who is offended by what they\u2019re doing.\u00a0 So they have no concern for the weaker brother.\u00a0 So that\u2019s chapters 8-10.\n\nChapter 11 they are drunk at the Lord\u2019s table.\u00a0 Can you imagine coming to the Lord\u2019s table in an inebriated state?\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s happening in chapter 11.\u00a0 Chapters 12-14 they are taking people that speak in tongues and putting them on a pedestal, and Paul says you don\u2019t even have anybody here to interpret the tongues, what are unsaved people going to think when they walk into your midst and some guy is just babbling in tongues?\u00a0 They\u2019re going to think you\u2019re insane, they\u2019re going to think you\u2019re out of your mind.\u00a0 That\u2019s chapters 12-14.\u00a0 Watch this, chapter 15 they are denying resurrection.\u00a0 I mean, isn\u2019t the whole Christian message the concept of resurrection?\u00a0 They\u2019re denying the whole concept of resurrection so Paul spends a whole chapter, chapter 15, to straighten them out on that.\n\nBut what I want you to see is this: I went through that whole litany, you know what you don\u2019t find in 1 Corinthians?\u00a0 You all lost your salvation; or maybe you guys were never saved.\u00a0 He never even brings that up.\u00a0 He simply warns them about losses that they\u2019re going to experience of a temporal nature, that have nothing to do with salvation.\n\nSo if 1 Corinthians does not prove the doctrine of eternal security or the idea that you can never lose your salvation, I don\u2019t know what book would.\u00a0 I mean, you can\u2019t get a more reprobate church than this.\u00a0 How would you like to be the pastor of that church, by the way.\u00a0 Good grief!\u00a0 And he\u2019s condemning their behavior all the way through and he calls them saints at the beginning and he never reverses that all the way through the book.\u00a0 And it\u2019s frankly the same into 1 Corinthians.\u00a0 So all of this to say yielding to the old nature does not cause us to lose our salvation but it brings us back into carnality which is very destructive.\u00a0 So it\u2019s yet another warning of something bad that can happen to us that has nothing to do with the loss of salvation.\n\nSo of course I was going to finish two charts today, right, I got really far, I got through two points.\u00a0 See, we\u2019re supposed\u00a0 to be through the end of that today.\u00a0 But you got a nice excursus anyway.\u00a0 So I\u2019m going to continue this next time, looking at these temporal consequences and the central point is believers with unfruitful lives still have salvation but lost temporal benefits and blessings. And that\u2019s one of the great arguments, I believe, for eternal security.\u00a0 So I\u2019ll go through more of these temporal consequences next time.\n\nFor the second shift that walked in I just want to remind you that Phil and Arlene Blycher are here and they\u2019re going to be doing our missions moment and there\u2019s a table they have in the foyer set up where you can investigate some of their materials. \u00a0I know there\u2019s got to be some questions today so I\u2019ll stop talking and open it up for questions.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t