{"id":19118,"date":"2016-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-027\/"},"modified":"2016-08-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-027","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-027\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 027"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[91],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19118","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 027","sermon_date":"20160814","sermon_month":"8","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":5068,"sermon_slides":3815,"sermon_mp3":3820,"sermon_id":"81416931330","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":91,"chapter_and_verse":"9:24-27","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 27, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27\n\nAugust 14, 2016\n\nLet\u2019s pray.\u00a0 Father. We\u2019re grateful for today and this is the day that You have made and you have told us to rejoice and be glad in it, and there\u2019s many people around the world that didn\u2019t get a chance to see today, they could have died last night in a car accident or a heart attack but You\u2019ve sovereignly allowed us to see another day and so we thank You for that.\u00a0 We pray that we\u2019ll make the most of this day to worship You and glorify You which is something we need to get used to doing since we\u2019re going to be doing that for all eternity.\u00a0 So I pray, Father, that You will be with our Sunday School class today and the worship service that follows, and that Your name would be lifted up and magnified and glorified at Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory; we lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.\n\nAll right!\u00a0 Well, if I can direct your attention to 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, and if you\u2019re looking for a\u00a0 handout call the government\u2026 just kidding.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking for a paper handout we have those coming around, maybe you could put\u00a0 your hand up if you need a paper handout, Ron has some there in the back.\n\n1 Corinthians 3:10-15, and I want to thank Jim McGowan for subbing in last week, I appreciate that, I\u2019m sure you enjoyed his ministry.\u00a0 We were spying on you all in California through the mark of the beast technology we now have set up here at Sugar Land Bible Church, I can monitor everything.\u00a0 No, actually I woke up a little late but I caught the tail end of Jim\u2019s lesson.\u00a0 I was too sleepy to know what he was saying but he sounded good as he was saying it.\u00a0 He looked good, all you need is the three G\u2019s, the gift of gab, good looks and a guitar.\u00a0 You do the guitar too?\u00a0 And he\u2019s bilingual, most people didn\u2019t know that, he speaks fluent Spanish so that\u2019s a pretty impressive four part combo.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about the guitar, I\u2019ve never heard him play the guitar but I don\u2019t doubt he could do that.\n\n1 Corinthians 3:10-15, we are in the midst of a study on the doctrine of eternal security, so we\u2019re here in Roman numeral VII, we\u2019re spending the summer months on this critical doctrine and eternal security, as you know, is the idea that once you\u2019re saved God\u2019s grace that saves you keeps you so there really isn\u2019t anything that you can do to deactivate salvation.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s what we believe here at Sugar Land Bible Church, and we believe that this doctrine is true because it\u2019s found in the Scripture.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve given you about thirteen arguments, and next week, if everything goes as planned I\u2019ll start looking at the passages that pose a problem for eternal security.\n\nBut I won\u2019t reread these thirteen arguments to you, we\u2019ve reread them a number of times but we are going to finish up today, God willing, number 13 which is this: and people always ask this, well, what about the believer that\u2019s in sin, what about the believer with the unfruitful life, and what you\u2019ll notice is the Bible does address that issue very clearly but it never holds out a loss of salvation as a consequence of being in that condition.\u00a0 So that, in and of itself, is, to\u00a0 my mind, a very powerful argument for eternal security.\u00a0 So believers with unfruitful lives still have salvation, although as we\u2019re going to see today they lose rewards at something called the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\n\nAnd I have these charts here because I\u2019m trying to show people that we take sin very seriously because the Bible does.\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of people, when they hear our position on eternal security are kind of the mindset that we don\u2019t take sin seriously because in their minds you can\u2019t take sin seriously unless you threaten people with hell every week, which we don\u2019t do.\u00a0 We do that to the unsaved but not to the saved.\u00a0 But even though we don\u2019t do that we do look very carefully at the Bible and we have noticed that the Bible takes sin in the life of the believer very seriously; it leads to all kinds of what we would call temporal consequences that don\u2019t necessarily relate to heaven and hell, lack of power, grieving the Spirit, loss of joy, loss of spiritual sight, lack of growth, carnality, unfruitful\u00adness, lack of purpose, lack of stability, conviction, divine discipline, and even premature death.\u00a0 Does that sound pretty serious; it\u2019s a pretty serious list.\n\nAnd we left off last time at this one here, loss of reward.\u00a0 So notice, if you will 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.\u00a0 And what you have to understand is that the Corinthian church, you know Ray Stedman used to call 1 Corinthians 1 Californians, and I was just on the west coast so a lot of that\u2019s reverberating in my mind, but it was the most carnal church of the first century that we have record of.\u00a0 Other than Laodicea I can\u2019t really think of a worse church off the top of my head.\u00a0\u00a0 And one of the things Paul doesn\u2019t says is you guys are going to lose your salvation.\u00a0 What he does is he gives the most graphic description found anywhere in the Scripture of the loss of reward.\n\nSo notice what he says, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.\u00a0 He says, \u201cAccording to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. [11] For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, [13] each man\u2019s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be<\/em> revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man\u2019s work. [14] If any man\u2019s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. [15] If any man\u2019s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.\u201d\n\nSo following the rapture of the church what is going to happen is we\u2019re going to appear before the Lord and we\u2019re going to be put through a judgment.\u00a0 This is a judgment only for the Christian or the church age believer.\u00a0 We\u2019re not going to be tried as a group, we\u2019re going to be tried as individuals and the Scripture is very clear that WE will not be put through a fire, as you read this, it says any man\u2019s \u201cwork\u201d is put through a fire.\u00a0 So the fire is there not to determine heaven or hell, that issue was resolved the moment we placed personal faith in Christ.\u00a0 The issue here is to determine rewards above and beyond salvation.\u00a0 So all those who are rewarded are believers but not all believers are equally rewarded and not all believers are even rewarded.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the clear teaching of these verses, of verses 10-15.\n\nSo what Paul is saying, and this is his warning to the Corinthians, he\u2019s saying look,\u00a0 you all are building on a foundation, the right foundation, which is Christ.\u00a0 But every day of your life you have a choice of what building materials you\u2019re going to use.\u00a0 You\u2019re either going to build with wood, hay and straw, and what do all those have in common?\u00a0 They\u2019re combustible.\u00a0 Or you\u2019re building with gold, silver and costly stones.\u00a0 What do all of those have in common?\u00a0 They\u2019re non-combustible.\u00a0 The only thing a fire can do is purify those elements, it can\u2019t destroy them.\u00a0 So what Paul is warning the Corinthians about here is look,\u00a0 you guys are in Christ but you\u2019re living in a very carnal manner;\u00a0 you\u2019re on the right foundation but you\u2019re building with the wrong materials.\u00a0 And the day is basically going to come where God is going to put all of our work to the fire to test what quality it is; is it wood, \u00a0hay and stubble or is it gold, silver and costly stones?\n\nSo the things that we do as Christians that are carnal in nature is analogous to the wood, hay and stubble.\u00a0 So if I get up to teach a Bible study with wrong motives, if I get up to teach a Bible study through my own power, for example, that would be wood, hay and stubble, and it\u2019s going to be exposed for what it is because that\u2019s the fire\u2019s job.\u00a0 But on the other hand, if I get up to teach a Bible study under God\u2019s power and I do it for His glory rather than self-glory then that\u2019s gold, silver and costly stones.\u00a0 That too will be put through a fire but it will survive the fire and whatever is finished after the fire finishes its job is part of some sort of reward that I will receive, you will receive, above and beyond salvation.\n\nAnd it\u2019s very interesting here, he talks about people whose whole life is consumed, in a sense, all of their works are destroyed, but they\u2019re clearly Christians because verse 15 says \u201che himself will be saved\u2026 as through fire.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s like they are in heaven but they can kind of smell the smoke on their garments.\u00a0\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice here it\u2019s very clear that they will suffer loss.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how severe that loss is, but you think of losing a job, losing your health, losing a home, or if you\u2019re writing something, like I\u2019ve done, and crafted a beautiful piece of writing and then it\u2019s been deleted; you feel a loss because you\u2019re a klutz with computers, like myself, your whole day\u2019s work is gone, you know, you suffer this loss at the end of the day.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s very clear that there are Christians in heaven that will suffer some form of loss.\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s the clear teaching of the Bible.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the warning that he\u2019s giving here to the Corinthian church.\u00a0 And so living in carnality, living in the flesh, going back to the old nature does have a consequence in terms of loss of reward.\n\nNow go over to 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24-27, and what you\u2019ll discover is this doctrine that I\u2019m describing here that Paul has explained to the Corinthians is something that motivated Paul every single day that he had in ministry.\u00a0 Look at what he says there in verses 24-27, \u201cDo you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only<\/em> one receives the prize?\u201d\u00a0 We get that.\u00a0 We\u2019re having the Olympics now, we know the difference between a gold medalist, silver medalist, bronze medalist, someone who\u2019s a non-medalist, (if medalist is a word) you get the drift.\u00a0 And Corinth was very hear what\u2019s called the Isthmian Games, which is a prototype of our modern day Olympics, where people would receive crowns and prizes for participating in athletic contests.\n\nSo Paul says, \u201cDo you not know\u201d and I think Paul was a sports fan to a very large extent, a lot of his analogies that he uses come from the sporting world that the Corinthians knew a lot about.\u00a0 He says, \u201cDo you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only<\/em> one receives the prize?\u00a0 Run in such a way that you may win. [25] Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it<\/em> to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.\u201d\u00a0 So we\u2019re not in this race to get some gold medal that\u2019s just going to fade over time.\u00a0 We have the prospect at what\u2019s called the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ of receiving an incorruptible crown.\n\nPaul says, \u201cTherefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; [27] but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.\u201d\u00a0 And people look at that and they say well, Paul was afraid of losing salvation.\u00a0 Let me tell you this real quick, if Paul is expressing a fear of loss of salvation here he is contradicting everything he said elsewhere in Ephesians, Galatians, Romans, because salvation itself is always acquired by what?\u00a0 By faith alone in grace alone in Christ alone!\u00a0 So Paul could not be saying I beat my body and make it my slave so I don\u2019t go to hell.\u00a0 That would be works and it would be a self-contradiction in Paul.\n\nRather what Paul is fearful of is he himself, after teaching this doctrine to the Corinthians, he himself being disqualified for the prize at the Bema Seat Judgment.\u00a0 He is afraid that he himself, the great Apostle Paul, could be building with the wrong material.\u00a0 He says I\u2019m very fearful that if I preach this doctrine to others I myself may end up being carnal myself and I\u2019m not going to hell but I\u2019m afraid of an unfavorable ruling at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 And this is one of the things I so appreciate about Paul is when you study him you\u2019ll see that whatever doctrine he laid out for other people He himself lived by.\n\nSo it is true, quite clearly, that you can forfeit rewards and lose rewards at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 Paul is not the only biblical writer that speaks of this.\u00a0 If you look at 2 John 8, John the apostle writes, 2 John, just one chapter, verse 8, \u201cWatch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.\u201d\u00a0 Same doctrine.\n\nAnd then notice the book of Revelation, chapter 3 and notice verse 11, Jesus articulates the same doctrine, He says there to the church at Philadelphia, \u201cI am coming quickly; hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your\u201d what? \u201cyour crown.\u201d\u00a0 So these are all verses that clearly teach that the loss of salvation is not a possibility but the loss of reward is.\n\nGoing back to 1 John for a minute, take a look at 1 John 2 and notice verse 28, \u201cNow, little children,\u201d so is he speaking to believers or unbelievers?\u00a0 Believers!\u00a0 \u201cNow, little children, abide in Him,\u201d now \u201cabide\u201d is fellowship, \u201cso that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.\u201d\u00a0 So wouldn\u2019t that be sad, to get to the end of your Christian life and Jesus comes back and everybody else is greeting Him and you\u2019re kind of in the corner ashamed because you\u2019re going to suffer a loss at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ because you missed prioritized and miss invested your earthly life.\u00a0 See, that\u2019s what all of these biblical of these biblical warnings are about; these aren\u2019t loss of salvation verses, these are loss of reward possibilities.\n\nSo at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ there is going to be five crowns given, at least five that are mentioned specifically in the Bible: the incorruptible crown for the believer that gains mastery over the flesh, we don\u2019t conquer the flesh through human power, we conquer the flesh by tapping into God\u2019s resources that He\u2019s given us.\u00a0 We\u2019re not perfect, we\u2019re not sinless but hopefully we\u2019re sinning less.\u00a0 If that\u2019s true then you gain that crown.\n\nThere\u2019s the crown of rejoicing, at the end of 1 Thessalonians 2, for the soul winner.\u00a0 There\u2019s the crown of life, it\u2019s mentioned in James 1:12, Revelation 2:10, for the believer that endures trials.\u00a0 [James 1:12, \u201cBlessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.\u201d Revelation 2:10, \u201cDo not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that you can go through\u00a0 a trial and learn things from the trial and have the right attitude and God rewards the believer just for that.\u00a0 You know, our trials do two things, they make us better or they make us bitter.\u00a0 And the Psalmist, you can look it up, I didn\u2019t have it in my notes,\u00a0 just in my brain box this morning, but the Psalmist, one of the Psalms talks about how the Lord saves our tears in a bottle.\u00a0 [Psalm 56:8, \u201cYou have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?\u201d]\u00a0 So all the suffering that we go through in life there\u2019s a record kept of it by God and He wants to reward us in the next life, at the Bema Seat Judgment.\n\nIn 1 Peter 5:2-4 there\u2019s the crown of glory for the believer that faithfully shepherds God\u2019s people.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really see that as a pastor only gift or reward.\u00a0 Any time you shepherd somebody with counseling, teaching Sunday School, teaching Jr. High schoolers, I think you become a candidate for that crown.\u00a0 [1 Peter 5:2-4, \u201cshepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of<\/em> God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; [3] nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. [4] And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.\u201d]\n\nThen there\u2019s my favorite crown, the last one there, 2 Timothy 4:8, the crown of righteousness for longing for His appearance.\u00a0 I am so ready, I mean, I wish the Lord came back yesterday.\u00a0 Anytime Lord, I just look at the world and its unsolvable problems and I\u2019m so yearning for the kingdom to materialize, and what you\u2019ll discover in Christian history and Christianity is not all Christians think that way.\u00a0 They\u2019re very comfortable in the world, they\u2019ve made the world their home, they\u2019re trying\u00a0 to save the planet because this is all they see is this present earth.\u00a0 And when you start talking to them about the rapture, the return of Christ, they don\u2019t really want to talk about it because they\u2019re into long-term social progress.\u00a0 I\u2019m in favor of trying to help society wherever we can but beloved, the ship is going down.\u00a0 I mean, are we going to sit around and rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic or are we going to be getting people off the boat.\n\nOur primary calling is not to fix this world. I don\u2019t mind being salt and light where we can but our calling is to reach and teach.\u00a0 The great commission is not go and bring social justice to the earth.\u00a0 Social justice is something that Jesus is going to do once Israel repents in the Tribulation and Jesus returns at the end of that Tribulation and sets up His kingdom what will last a thousand years.\u00a0 In fact, that thousand year kingdom is going to be so effective that the devil is going to be put under wraps for a thousand years.\u00a0 And even man\u2019s sin nature during that kingdom is not going to get out of control because anybody that steps out of line there\u2019s immediate justice.\n\nSo there\u2019s a crown for the believer that thinks that way.\u00a0 And by the way, people look at these crowns and they say this is the most crass capitalistic materialistic thing I\u2019ve ever seen, what are you talking about crowns;\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019re going to get a five rise apartment and I\u2019m going to get a one room over here in the corner; you\u2019re going to be in a Lamborghini and I\u2019m going to be in this little beat up Volkswagen, I mean what are you talking about, these rewards.\n\nSo people resent the doctrine of rewards but they don\u2019t understand that rewards are opportunities to glorify Christ because if you take a look at Revelation 4:10, it says, \u201cthe twenty-four elders\u201d now \u201cthe twenty-four elders\u201d represents the church, and you say well how do you know that?\u00a0 You just have to take my word for it right now, it just takes too long to explain why;\u00a0 \u201cthe twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their\u201d what? \u201ccrowns before the throne.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s even a band, isn\u2019t there, called Casting Crowns.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s probably where they got that title from, a Christian band.\n\nSo, you gain a reward,\u00a0 you have\u2026 it\u2019s sort of like, was it Mary, one of the sisters that broke the alabaster oil and began to pour it on Christ\u2019s head, expensive oil, and Judas, you know, was unregenerate and got upset about that.\u00a0 But you get a reward, you have this ability to not pay Jesus back for salvation but magnify Him, worship Him.\u00a0 And if there\u2019s no reward in your hand because you\u2019ve mismanaged your Christian life you have really nothing to glorify God with.\u00a0 You\u2019re thankful to be in heaven but there\u2019s no worship experience that you could have had.\u00a0 And so these rewards are not strutting around, I\u2019ve got this, I\u2019ve got that; that misses the whole point.\u00a0 It\u2019s a capacity to glorify Christ.\u00a0 So there is that consequence in returning to the sin nature.\n\nAnother consequence beyond loss of reward is a loss of fellowship.\u00a0 There is a big difference between position and fellowship.\u00a0 I was just with my family, immediate and extended, for about two weeks, so let me just put it this way, there was a lot of opportunities to get out of fellowship with my family, particularly\u2026 my mom listens to this so I\u2019ve got to be careful what I say, she is just totally on the Donald Trump bandwagon, which is fine, I\u2019m not, and so, you know, you run into these little frictions in the family and you\u2019re so tempted to want to speak your mind and say angry things, particularly when political subjects come up.\u00a0 And you can get into these situations with your family where you\u2019re still family, right?\u00a0 I mean, family is not like baseball,\u00a0 you know, baseball you can make a trade, with family you\u2019re sort of stuck with what you got, right?\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful for the family I have, a terrific family, but your family, you get into tension about something, an argument about this and that, and there\u2019s a breach, not in the position of the family but in enjoyment with each other, and fellowship with each other.\n\nSo every moment we go back into sin is a moment\u2026 the Bible isn\u2019t saying we\u2019re unsaved, we\u2019re out of fellowship with Christ.\u00a0 Our position is intact but the moment by moment enjoyment that we have with each other, us and the Lord, is jeopardized.\u00a0 And that is what 1 John 1:9 is about.\u00a0 Look at that real quick, because people misunderstand 1 John 1:9.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIf we confess\u201d and notice the word \u201cour\u201d so John is admitting he\u2019s in this class of people.\u00a0 Was John saved?\u00a0 I think so!\u00a0 So the people he\u2019s addressing here are saved.\u00a0 \u201cIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive\u00a0 us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d If you go to chapter 2, verse 1, it says, \u201cMy little children,\u201d indicating he\u2019s writing to who?\u00a0 Believers.\n\n1 John1:9 is not in the Bible to get folks saved; 1 John 1:9 is in the Bible to restore broken fellowship.\u00a0 Broken fellowship happens with unconfessed sin; it doesn\u2019t change our position in God but it does change our moment by moment abiding and enjoyment with Him.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the position David was in, the second King of Israel, when he hid his sin from the Lord, adultery, murder, lying, and he just swept it under the rug and pretended like it wasn\u2019t happening.\u00a0 And you study David in the Psalms in that condition, he says the heavens become like grass.\u00a0 So what he\u2019s talking about\u2026 and that\u2019s why he says \u201cHow blessed is the man whose sin has been forgiven,\u201d he\u2019s not talking about getting saved; he\u2019s talking about the restoration of broken fellowship and that fellowship is broken all of the times that we have unconfessed in our lives.\n\nAnd there\u2019s a tradition in some of the Bob Thieme, Berachah Church, and many of the churches here in Houston that were planted through Bob Thieme\u2019s emphasis and focus and they always begin with\u2026 any Bob Thieme church that I\u2019ve ever been in they begin this way, they begin with a moment of silence and what they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re giving people an opportunity to get back in fellowship with the Lord because we all know that we sin during the week and you\u2019re not going to hear from the Lord during the worship service, or really respond well to the teaching of the Word of God unless you have a chance to restore broken fellowship.\u00a0 And a lot of times when you\u2019re in these churches they do this and sometimes they explain why they\u2019re doing it, sometimes they don\u2019t, but that\u2019s basically why they\u2019re doing it.\u00a0 And maybe it\u2019s something we ought to start here; I\u2019m always afraid of starting traditions because what happens is the tradition takes over and you forget why you started the tradition to begin with.\u00a0 But in this case I think this tradition is a healthy one and it\u2019s connected to the Scripture.\u00a0 So loss of fellowship is another issue.\n\nAnother problem you run into through unconfessed sin is the possibility of excommunication from the church.\u00a0 Take a look, if you could, at 1 Corinthians 5:4-5,\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cIn the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, [5] I have decided<\/em>\u201d he\u2019s writing here as an apostle, \u201cI have decided<\/em> to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,\u201d now \u201cflesh\u201d there I don\u2019t think is the body.\u00a0 The Greek word for flesh is sarx<\/em>, it\u2019s talking about the control of the sin nature is what it\u2019s talking about, the control that the sin nature had over a certain believer, \u201cso that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 And you say well what is the problem here.\u00a0 Well, if you go back to chapter 5 and verse 1 he says, \u201cIt is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not even occur amongst the pagans\u201d or the Gentiles.\u00a0 See, there\u2019s proof right there in the Bible that an out of fellowship believer can sometimes out sin an unbeliever.\u00a0 Paul says the pagans don\u2019t even act the way you all are acting here in Corinth.\n\nAnd so what\u2019s going on? He says, \u201c\u2026someone has his father\u2019s wife,\u201d so it\u2019s incest, that\u2019s what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 And everybody in Corinth is just kind of going [Andy whistles several notes] you know, pretending like nothing is wrong.\u00a0 And Paul is basically saying here\u00a0 you should have kicked this guy out of the church a long time ago; that\u2019s my ruling on the matter.\u00a0 And what you need to do is you need to go through the steps of church discipline,\u00a0 you know the steps, right?\u00a0 They\u2019re outlined in Matthew 18:15-17 where\u00a0 you confront someone one on one about a sin issue, and then if that person won\u2019t listen then\u00a0 you bring two to three witnesses; if that person won\u2019t listen again then you announce it to the whole church, and you say So and So is living in sin and the rest of the church is not to have fellowship with this person.\n\n[Matthew 18:15-17, \u201cIf your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. [16] But if he does not listen to you,<\/em> take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. [17] If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. [18] Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.\u201d]\n\nI have been in churches where this has been done really well; I have been in churches where it hasn\u2019t been done that well; most of the churches I\u2019ve been ignore this and don\u2019t do it at all because when this happens\u00a0 there\u2019s not a dry eye in the house.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very painful thing to have to go through.\u00a0 But the goal of church discipline is not to destroy the person; it\u2019s to destroy the flesh or the sarx<\/em>, or the sin nature because the idea is you\u2019re trying to shame them into repentance.\n\nNow you have to understand that if you were kicked out of the Corinthian church you couldn\u2019t go down the street and join another church.\u00a0 Today in America if I get kicked out of First Baptist I\u2019ll just join Second Baptist.\u00a0 If I get kicked out of Second Baptist I\u2019ll just join 300th<\/sup> Baptist.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of hard to use it exactly the same way it was spoken of in the New Testament but in Corinth, if you were kicked out of the Corinthian church there wasn\u2019t any alternative to go to.\u00a0 There was no Corinthian satellite service, there weren\u2019t even mega churches.\u00a0 Today you can be totally anonymous and go to a megachurch.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t have stadiums full of people (like we have today in some of our churches) back in the first century.\u00a0 And it was a shameful thing.\u00a0 I mean, you were kicked out, you were cut off from the body of Christ, and this is the final step of church discipline and the goal is not to destroy a person\u2019s life; it\u2019s not to punish, it\u2019s to shame them into repentance.\u00a0 And then once the person has repented and is no longer involved in incest (in this case) then guess what, you let them back into the fellowship and that\u2019s the goal.\n\nThe problem with the Corinthians is they wouldn\u2019t kick this guy out.\u00a0 Now in 2 Corinthians, around chapter 2 I think it is, the guy repented.\u00a0 I take it as the same guy.\u00a0 And they wouldn\u2019t let him back in.\u00a0 So they either wouldn\u2019t deal with the sin issue or when they finally got around to dealing with the sin issue they came on this guy like a ton of bricks with the goal of destroying the person, when that\u2019s not the goal at all, it\u2019s to restore them back into fellowship and get them to leave this life of sin.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 So they can have a favorable ruling at the Bema Seat Judgment as well, is what Paul is getting at here.\u00a0 So if\u00a0 you go back into sin and you live there you become a candidate, depending on if your church is aggressive about this or not; you become a candidate for church discipline which is always unpleasant.\n\nAnother consequence of living in the sin nature is you become subject to the law of sowing and reaping.\u00a0 Take a look at Galatians 6 for just a minute. \u00a0It goes 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and then right after 2 Corinthians you should run into Galatians 6 and verses 7-8.\u00a0 \u201cDo not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows,\u201d this is an agrarian society so they understood a lot about planting and harvesting, \u201cwhatever a man sows\u00a0 this he will also reap. [8] For the one who sows to his own flesh\u201d that\u2019s the word sarx<\/em> or the sin nature, \u201cwill from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.\u201d\n\nMost people disconnect this from the context.\u00a0 What\u2019s the context of this.\u00a0 Go back to verse 6, I like this verse, \u201cThe one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 What does that mean; it means pay the preacher is basically what that means.\u00a0 What that means is church is not free; the gospel is free, church is not free.\u00a0 Those that have been blessed by the Word of God are expected, in God, to financially support whatever institution, church, they are at where they are being fed the Word of God.\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t want to spend my money that way, I want to go out to South Coast Plaza there in Orange County and spend my money like a drunken sailor.\u00a0 Paul says well, you\u2019re going to reap what you sow.\u00a0 If you won\u2019t support your local church then you\u2019re not going to have a local church and you\u2019re going to have a very poor quality of teaching and doctrine and you\u2019re never going to really arrive at the middle tense of your salvation the way God wants because you don\u2019t know how to live as a Christian because you need to support the teachers that are teaching you the way of truth.\n\nSo Paul, in this context says you reap what you sow.\u00a0 And as he\u2019s talking about reaping and sowing he unleashes a principle of God that is binding on the Christian and non-Christian alike, and the principle is this: Whatever you put into the ground is going to come back, so if I put apple seeds in the ground I\u2019m going to get a what?\u00a0 An apple tree.\u00a0 If you put orange seeds in the ground I\u2019ll get an orange tree.\u00a0 And if I put poison ivy in the ground I\u2019m going to get poison ivy.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s poison ivy seeds but you get the idea.\u00a0 (There it is, Eric is nodding, he\u2019s the agrarian here, he\u2019s the one out here cutting all these hedges and everything.\u00a0 See, I just took his reward away because I glorified Eric so sorry Eric.\u00a0\u00a0 You can share Jim\u2019s reward, if he\u2019ll let you do that.)\n\nIf I don\u2019t put anything in the ground I get nothing back.\u00a0 So there is this principle of sowing and reaping.\u00a0 If I cruise in here\u2026 not cruise in but speed in at 80 miles an hour and I get pulled over and the police officer shows me, through is radar device, how fast I\u2019ve been going I can\u2019t say to the police officer well gee, officer, you know, I\u2019m a Christian, I\u2019m even a pastor and Romans 8:1, in the Bible says there\u2019s \u201cno condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 How far is that going to go? Obviously I\u2019m subject to the law of sowing and reaping just like anybody else.\u00a0\u00a0 Romans 8:1, the only thing it promises is that the eternal consequences of my sins are removed.\u00a0\u00a0 But there\u2019s no promise in God that the temporal consequences of my sin are removed.\n\nSo, you know, if I eat like a pig and drink like a well and cuss like a sailor and I abuse my body my whole life guess what?\u00a0 I\u2019m going to have heart disease, I\u2019m going to have cardiovascular problems; just because I\u2019m a Christian doesn\u2019t exempt me from that.\u00a0 And if you want an example of somebody whose ministry had to be sped up because he mentally acknowledge, and you can hear this in his teachings, the law of sowing and reaping, I don\u2019t know if you all listen to J. Vernon McGee on the radio, great, great Bible teacher, expositor, but if\u00a0 you get into some of his lessons what he starts to talk about is cancer; he had cancer hanging over his head and he actually, a couple of times I recall called that the judgment of God on his life because he put himself in that condition through chain smoking.\n\nIn fact, in the old days he was brought out as a chapel speaker at Dallas Seminary and he would just sit there on the bench and light up and it was like such a problem, the administration didn\u2019t know what to with this, bring in a chapel speaker and he\u2019s lighting up a bunch of cigarettes and things as he\u2019s sitting there near the chapel, after speaking or getting ready to speak.\u00a0 And J. Vernon McGee recognized that because he kept doing that he cut short his lifespan.\u00a0 That\u2019s why his ministry is called Thru the Bible in Five\u00a0 Years.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if \u201cFive Years\u201d is in the title but the emphasis is five years.\u00a0 I mean, why did he want to rush through the whole thing in five years, I can\u2019t even get through John in three years.\u00a0 Well, because he had a sentence hanging over him which he acknowledged that he deserved because of this law of sowing and reaping.\n\nSo you can go back to sin if you want to, and live there, you\u2019re still going to heaven but nothing good is going to come out of it because the law of sowing and reaping applies across the board.\u00a0 It applies to unbelievers, it applies to believers.\n\nAnother consequence associated with sin is unanswered prayer.\u00a0 Notice Psalm 66:18.\u00a0 Psalm 66:18, David, the author of this particular Psalm, writes this, Psalm 66:18, \u201cIf I regard wickedness in my\u201d what? \u201cheart, the LORD will not\u201d what? \u201chear.\u201d\u00a0 See every moment I spend out of\u2026 and this is why David said the heavens became like brass during all of that time of his unconfessed sin.\u00a0 Every moment I spend in sin, without confessing it, is a short circuit to the effectiveness of my prayer life.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the book of James, chapter 5, [verse 16] says, \u201cthe prayer of the righteous man availeth much.\u201d\u00a0 Is that talking about practical righteousness or positional righteousness?\u00a0 I think it\u2019s talking about practical righteousness because that\u2019s the whole context of the book of James.\u00a0 The book of James is not a book about how to gain positional righteousness through personal faith in Christ, it\u2019s a book about practical righteousness.\n\nSo what kind of person does God answer?\u00a0 He answers the person who is one of His children, who is keeping short accounts with God through regular confession of sin, so that he or she can abide in Christ, so that their prayers can be answered.\u00a0 So God is interested in answering the prayers of a person who is not sinless but is sinning less, is making progress in the middle tense of their salvation, and is keeping short accounts with God when we do fail, 1 John 1:9.\u00a0 That\u2019s the kind of prayer that God answers.\u00a0 That\u2019s what David is saying here.\u00a0 If I\u2019m covering my sins, pretending like they\u2019re not there the Lord doesn\u2019t hear.\n\nWell, pastor, do you have any good marital advice for us?\u00a0 Yes I do, the Bible does actually.\u00a0 Notice 1 Peter 3:7, see, this affects your marriage, \u201cYou husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker,\u201d now I know there are these amazon women that you watch on TV the WWF wrestling that can put men in a headlock and pound them; that\u2019s not the norm, okay.\u00a0 He\u2019s not dealing with every exception of planet earth.\u00a0 I mean, if you take a men\u2019s football team and a woman\u2019s football team if I were a betting man, which I\u2019m not, I\u2019m placing my money on the men\u2019s football team because men are naturally stronger than women, with some exceptions.\u00a0 A woman will be reduced emotionally faster to tears than a man, that\u2019s just a fact.\u00a0 It\u2019s not saying that men are invulnerable but the woman has a more delicate composition as ordained by God Himself.\u00a0 It\u2019s not saying that the woman is less valuable than the man; it\u2019s not saying that the woman is not as smart as the man; it\u2019s saying just by definition the woman has a tendency to be weaker physically and emotionally.\n\nSo the husband needs to understand that and not treat her like one of the guys or like he\u2019s barking orders at his subordinates at work.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how he\u2019s to treat her; he is to honor her as the weaker vessel; that\u2019s how God made her.\u00a0 Well, what if he doesn\u2019t do that?\u00a0 What if he just runs right over her roughshod?\u00a0 What if he\u2019s a male chauvinist pig?\u00a0 What if he looks at her as a slave?\u00a0 Then what?\u00a0 What does the Bible say here?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026so that your prayers will not be\u201d what? \u201chindered.\u201d\u00a0 So if there\u2019s unconfessed sin in a marriage that damages the effectiveness of one\u2019s prayer life as well.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 Two more and we\u2019re finished.\n\nAnother consequence of unconfessed sin is a loss of testimony.\u00a0 Notice Genesis 19:14, this is Lot, who we\u2019ve defined in previous lessons as a believer.\u00a0 How do I know he\u2019s a believer? \u00a0Because he\u2019s called righteous Lot three times in 2 Peter 2:7-8.\u00a0 [2 Peter 2:7-8, \u201cand if he rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men [8] (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds,\u201d]\n\nBut as you look at this guy\u2019s life as he\u2019s dwelling in Sodom and Gomorrah he doesn\u2019t look very righteous, does he?\u00a0 So what is Lot?\u00a0 Lot is a person who is saved positionally but he\u2019s not making progress in the middle tense of his salvation, practical sanctification.\u00a0 So Genesis 19:14 says this, and this is where Lot gets serious after living in carnality.\u00a0 He knows Sodom and Gomorrah is about to be destroyed, so he\u2019s trying to get his relatives out of there and it says, \u201cLot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters,\u201d so he\u2019s speaking here to his own family, and then he preaches a sermon, he \u201csaid, \u2018Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 A pretty serious sermon, right.\n\nDid you catch the next line, \u201cBut he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 To my knowledge that\u2019s the only time in the Bible where the word \u201cjesting\u201d is used; when the guy finally gets serious his family looks at him and says oh, there he goes again, joking around when he wasn\u2019t joking here.\u00a0 Well what happened?\u00a0 The guy had no credibility any longer; he had shot his credibility because of his open carnality against God.\u00a0 You know, this is the guy who is offering his virgin daughters to the mob; this is the fellow who at the end of this chapter is drunk with his daughters and in an incestuous relationship with two of them.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a man that\u2019s really walking out the spiritual life.\u00a0 And when the time came for him to be serious and to tell people here\u2019s what\u2019s going on, God is going to destroy the city, the man had no credibility.\n\nSo you see, that\u2019s what happens to us when we go back into sin and live there as Christians;\u00a0 yeah, you\u2019re still going to heaven but your sphere of influence just shrunk.\u00a0 And I remember very clearly the televangelist scandals of the 1980\u2019s, that caught all of these preachers and teachers on television in moral sins, financial sins, and all kinds of things.\u00a0 And I remember before those scandals hit, I remember just as a kid looking at the TV, seeing Jimmy Swaggart preach, I don\u2019t agree with everything Jimmy Swaggart says but my own opinion is I believe that Jimmy Swaggart is one of the most gifted orators I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 And I remember seeing, through the television camera, just a packed house.\u00a0 I mean, Jimmy Swaggart was like on every television station you can imagine, and every book store and all that stuff happened to him where he was caught in financial and sexual scandals (along with others) and it was so sad to watch his whole ministry shrink to almost nothing.\n\nAnd today he\u2019s on a few stations; you look at his audience and it\u2019s like they have to just keep the camera rolling with people in the front row because the whole place is empty when they actually scan the stadium with a camera.\u00a0 And to this day I\u2019ve seen Jimmy Swaggart post all of that stuff, preach, and I see the exact same gifting in Jimmy Swaggart.\u00a0 I still think Jimmy Swaggart is a very gifted orator.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is, you mention the name Jimmy Swaggart today and it\u2019s a joke, it\u2019s a laugh.\u00a0 The only thing that he\u2019s good for, to some extent, is to be made fun of by sitcoms and things like that.\u00a0 I believe Jimmy Swaggart is a Christian, I believe he\u2019s gifted by God, I believe God has used him, but where is his influence today?\u00a0 It\u2019s shrunk.\n\nMy prayer and hope for somebody like that is he could go to some place where nobody has ever heard of this stuff, these scandals, and start some kind of ministry somewhere, in some part of the world, where no one even knows about what happened here and that he could still bless people, because that\u2019s how God works.\u00a0 God still wants to use us, even when we\u2019re a disaster.\u00a0 And we shouldn\u2019t point our fingers too severely at Jimmy Swaggart because but for the grace of God there go I.\u00a0 All of\u00a0 us have the same sin nature that Jimmy Swaggart has and all of us can be pulled right back into sin and we forfeit a sphere of influence when we do that.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what I mean by loss of testimony.\n\nThe last one I\u2019ll share with you is loss of leadership privileges.\u00a0 Look at 1 Timothy 3 just very quickly; 1 Timothy 3:1-13, there\u2019s kind of a mentality out there that we\u2019re all leaders, we\u2019re all called to lead.\u00a0 And that is just so unbiblical.\u00a0 When you look at the qualities for leaders of elder and deacon you\u2019ll see that leaders are supposed to have a particular quality about them.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that when Paul gives these qualifications he\u2019s not talking about talent.\u00a0 See, we\u2019re totally focused on talent people have; Paul doesn\u2019t even mention talent here except one little time, he says they have to be \u201capt to teach.\u201d\u00a0 But when you go through these qualifications, above reproach, husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, apt to teach, not addicted to wine, pugnacious, gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money, you drop down to verse 8, he begins to talk about deacons, this is why we have you, as a congregation, say yea or nay on people that we\u2019re putting on our elder board and deacon board, because you might know something about their character that we elders don\u2019t know about and we want to know about it.\n\nDeacons, likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, addicted to much wine, not fond of sordid gain, it goes on verse 12, good managers of their family, their household.\u00a0 What do all of these characteristics, what are they talking about?\u00a0 They\u2019re talking about progress that people have made in the middle tense of their salvation.\u00a0 These are character issues.\u00a0 And we\u2019re living in this culture today where people say character doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Well, to God it does matter.\u00a0 God cares about character because if a man is not going to be faithful to his wife how can you trust him with church money and finances.\u00a0 And people all the time are on my case over this Donald Trump issue because they\u2019re saying well, Andy, we\u2019re not electing a pastor you know.\u00a0 Well, the fact of the matter is if a man is a flagrant adulterer and has had five children through three different women and brags about it in his book and calls his personal Vietnam his ability to avoid venereal diseases how am I supposed to ignore that?\u00a0 If a guy can\u2019t be faithful to his wife how can I trust him with the United States of America.\u00a0 People say well, you\u2019re for Hillary.\u00a0 I\u2019m about as anti-Hillary as you can get; I\u2019m anti everybody, I don\u2019t know my problem is this time around.\u00a0 But you see, the fact of the matter is character matters.\n\nCharacter matters!\u00a0 It\u2019s not about just talent, it\u2019s not about starting a business and getting the job done, it\u2019s about character.\u00a0 God says character matters.\u00a0 So before you appoint someone to a position of authority in the church you have to look very carefully at their character.\u00a0 What kind of character do they have.\u00a0 So if you\u2026 and by the way, David, 2 Samuel 12, lost his position as leader over Israel for a season, because of character.\u00a0 He was removed from his throne when he went back into lying and adultery and murder.\u00a0 So this idea that we\u2019re all leaders, we\u2019re all qualified to lead, that\u2019s just a bunch of nonsense.\u00a0 This idea that character doesn\u2019t count, that\u2019s just a bunch of silliness; that\u2019s anti-God thinking.\u00a0 And so when you wander back into sin you forfeit leadership privilege.\n\nSo can a believer lose their salvation?\u00a0 No they cannot because of number 13, believers with unfruitful lives still have salvation although they forfeit a lot of rewards and temporal consequences at the Bema Seat Judgment.\u00a0 Anyway, I went a little long so we\u2019ll 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