{"id":19127,"date":"2016-10-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-036\/"},"modified":"2016-10-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-036","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-036\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 036"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[90],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19127","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-romans","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 036","sermon_date":"20161023","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":4010,"sermon_slides":4012,"sermon_mp3":4016,"sermon_id":"102316943447","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":90,"chapter_and_verse":"8:13","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 36, Acts 5:1-11\n\nOctober 23, 2016\n\nLet\u2019s pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for another day and we\u2019re grateful for Your grace that saved us, and as we\u2019re learning in this study, Father, we\u2019re particularly grateful for your grace that keeps us.\u00a0 And help us to be good stewards of this doctrine and learn how to look at the passages that people use to deny the doctrine of grace.\u00a0 We pray You\u2019ll be with us this morning as we study and we ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026\u00a0 Amen.\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 13.\u00a0 We\u2019re continuing to sort of navigate through these shark infested waters of eternal security.\n\nOf course by now you know that eternal security is the idea that the grace that saved\u00a0 you is the grace that keeps you.\u00a0 So if that\u2019s true forfeiture of your salvation is impossible.\u00a0 We\u2019ve gone through several arguments, about 13 of them, that teach security.\u00a0 And most people stop their series at that point and that\u2019s why there\u2019s so much acrimony on this because we just shout verses back and forth against each other; we don\u2019t really know how to interact with the other side\u2019s verses.\n\nSo we\u2019re actually taking this step a bit further and this is a little bit longer of a treatment than\u00a0 you would usually get on this subject where we\u2019re actually interacting with the passages that at first glance make it look like you can lose your salvation.\n\nWe\u2019ve looked at a bunch of passages from the Old Testament, several passages from Matthew, including the so-called unpardonable sin; passages from John, passages from Acts, such as the conversion of Simon the Sorcerer.\u00a0 And then last week we looked at passages from Paul; we looked at Galatians 5:4 where it says, \u201cYou have been severed from Christ,\u201d and I tried to show you what I think that means; and \u201cyou have fallen from grace.\u201d\u00a0 And then we looked at the so-called household codes where it mentions a bunch of sins and it says those that live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.\u00a0 There\u2019s about four of those so we went through those so we went through those and I tried to show you that none of them really deny the security of the believer when rightly understood.\n\nWe\u2019re continuing to move through Paul and some passages that are sometimes used to deny security.\n\nOne of them is Romans 8:13, which says, \u201cfor if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.\u201d\u00a0 So you look at a verse like that and it says basically to the believer, because these are people that have the Spirit, you\u2019ll notice the word \u201cSpirit\u201d there, but if you go back \u201cto the flesh, you will die.\u201d\u00a0 And kind of a side note, a lot of people today are arguing that we are one-natured as Christians.\n\nThe Reformed camp says that over and over and over again, that we\u2019re not two natured.\u00a0 And frankly I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s true, I think that we are dual natured in the sense that the Holy Spirit comes inside of me and I receive the new nature at the point of faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 But have you noticed that the old nature doesn\u2019t wither away and die?\u00a0 It\u2019s always there to return to.\u00a0 Now we don\u2019t have to return to it but we certainly can return to it.\u00a0 So we are very much dual natured in that sense and we don\u2019t become single natured until I\u2019m out of this body which would be glorification.\u00a0 So as long as I\u2019m in this body I have the potential of going back to the sin nature almost at will and God has given me certain resources where I don\u2019t have to do that.\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice that it says here in Romans 8:13 if you go back to the sin nature, which is the sarx<\/em> or the flesh, then it says you will die, and people that deny eternal security say well \u201cdie\u201d means you lose your salvation.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what it means here; it\u2019s not talking about a loss of salvation. It\u2019s, in actuality, talking about the reality of a death-like existence as a consequence of being temporarily separated from the joys and blessings of walking in fellowship with God.\n\nSo when I go back to the sin nature and I live in the sin nature and I don\u2019t confess my sins to God basically I\u2019m still saved positionally but my fellowship with God has been broken.\u00a0 So I may be pleasing to God positionally but the moment by moment intimacy and walk with God, practically I\u2019m displeasing Him.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like a relationship, a marriage for example; I can offend my wife, she can offend me but we\u2019re still married, right?\u00a0 Positionally.\u00a0 But until I confess whatever I said that hurt her or vice versa the fellowship, the intimacy in the marriage which still exists is largely broken.\u00a0 So that\u2019s basically what returning to the sin nature does in the life of the Christian.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the death that he\u2019s speaking of here; not eternal death, it\u2019s a death-like existence and you\u2019re sort of cut off from joys and blessing of walking in fellowship with God.\n\nAnd what you\u2019ll discover is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, warns us over and over again of this death-like existence.\u00a0 Just a few verses, you might notice the book of James; James has quite a bit to say about this.\u00a0 James is really misunderstood.\u00a0 To understand the book of James you have to understand that he\u2019s writing to believers that have the Spirit.\u00a0 And people want to turn James into a test of whether a person is saved and that\u2019s not the point of James at all.\u00a0 They clearly have the Spirit, chapter 4, verse 5 says that.\u00a0 [James 4:5, \u201cOr do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: \u2018He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us\u2019?\u201d]\u00a0 But he\u2019s warning them about if you go back to the flesh you will die in the sense that your fellowship with God will be broken.\n\nJames 1:15 says, \u201cThen when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So there can be death even in the life of a Christian who\u2019s eternally secure in terms of fellowship.\u00a0 James 5:20 says virtually the same thing, it says, \u201clet him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.\u201d\u00a0 So if God uses you to turn someone, a fellow believer away from the sin nature you\u2019re sparing him from death, not positional but practical.\n\nThe Apostle Paul talks a lot about this idea over in 1 Timothy, chapter 5 and verse 6.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about a widow, \u201cBut she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So the only thing she really has, this person given over to wanton pleasure, she has momentary pleasure which sin does bring but she\u2019s dead even while she lives; as long as she\u2019s in that state she can\u2019t enjoy moment by moment intimacy with God.\n\nOver in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, verse 24, he says, \u201cfor this son of mine\u201d this is the prodigal son, remember, \u201cfor this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.\u2019 And they began to celebrate.\u201d\u00a0 And your typical interpretation of the prodigal son is it\u2019s an unbeliever that gets saved; that\u2019s how most people preach that and that\u2019s the prodigal coming home.\u00a0 Well, let me ask\u00a0 you a question: if it\u2019s an unbeliever getting saved how does that fit the analogy of returning home?\u00a0 How does that fit the analogy of the prodigal still retaining his position as a son?\n\nAnd by the way, Luke was written to Theophilus, when you study Theophilus in Luke 1:1-4 you\u2019ll find that he\u2019s very much a believer.\u00a0 [Luke 1:1-4, \u201cInasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, [2] just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, [3] it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it<\/em> out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; [4] so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.\u201d]\n\nSo the story of the prodigal son is not an unbeliever getting saved, you go to the Gospel of John for that.\u00a0 This is talking about an out of fellowship believer that gets restored back into fellowship.\n\nAnd you say well gosh, that\u2019s very severe terminology, death, I mean, is it really that serious to be out of fellowship with God even though your fire insurance may be paid up and you\u2019re going to heaven?\u00a0 Well, you look at the life of David, David of course being the second King of Israel, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt that David was saved.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 But David, as we know, stepped out of fellowship with God through his sins that are given in 2 Samuel 11; he committed first of all adultery, then he tried to cover it up through the commission of murder.\u00a0 And you do those two you\u2019ve only violated two major of the Ten Commandments.\u00a0 And he then pretended like it never happened which is basically what we do when we go into sin, we just kind of bury it and act like no big deal.\n\nAnd David, I think it was about six months to a year we\u2019re told that he lived in this condition.\u00a0 And Psalm 32 is the description of his life in that condition.\u00a0 Psalm 32:1 says, \u201cHow blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.\u00a0 [2]\u00a0 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!\u201d\u00a0 So he\u2019s talking there about the blessings he experienced when he finally came clean and confessed his sin to God.\u00a0 Verse 3 says, \u201cWhen I kept silent\u201d that\u2019s describing the six months to a year that he wouldn\u2019t confess what he had done, \u201cWhen I kept silent about my sin,\u201d now tell me if this doesn\u2019t sound like death, \u201cmy body wasted away through my groaning all day long. [4] For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality\u201d vitality is life, right, \u201cMy vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.\u201d\u00a0 And then there\u2019s little word here that shows up all the way through this Psalm and many Psalms, \u201cSelah,\u201d which basically means to consider carefully, to contemplate carefully.\u00a0 And then he says, \u201cI acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, \u2018I will confess my transgressions to the LORD\u2019; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.\u201d\u00a0 And he says \u201cSelah\u201d again.\n\nSo he\u2019s contrasting what his life was like after he confessed his sin where spiritual life and enjoy\u00adment of God returned versus what it was like before he confessed his sin, and he says as long as he was in that unconfessed state, even as a believer, his vitality was stripped away like the draining of water, or a swamp, or draining water at least, and God\u2019s hand was heavy on him.\u00a0 How often was God\u2019s hand heavy on him?\u00a0 I think it says [verse 4] \u201cday and night\u201d doesn\u2019t it.\u00a0 And he talks about \u201cgroaning all day long.\u201d [verse 3]\u00a0 So that\u2019s what Paul is warning you against here.\u00a0 Don\u2019t go back to the sin nature because you will die; it\u2019s not necessarily a statement of loss of salvation; it\u2019s a statement of enjoyment of God\u2019s blessings, fellowship disappears from a person\u2019s life.\n\nYou know, the most miserable people on planet earth, the most unhappy people are God\u2019s people in sin in an unconfessed state.\u00a0 And the reason I know that is because God loves you, loves me too much to see us wreck our lives in sin.\u00a0 We always think well, you know, I can kind of contain it and I can keep things under control and we\u2019re self-deceived because we don\u2019t really understand the nature of sin; we don\u2019t understand is horrific consequences.\u00a0 And so we think we can play a little game of getting close to it, committing a few and it\u2019s really not going to affect us.\u00a0 And so when you get into that condition God just sits there and bothers\u00a0 you.\u00a0 In fact, I believe Lot\u2019s largely was in that condition all those years he spent in Sodom and Gomorrah because he talks about his soul being vexed and some of the Bible versions translate it as tormented.\n\nSo if you want to be very unhappy in your life then go back into sin because God is not going to allow you to feel good in that condition very long, because he loves you too much to see you wreck your life in it so He\u2019ll just sit there and bother you.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Anybody been in that condition?\u00a0 I\u2019ve been in that condition and it isn\u2019t a fun place.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what Paul\u2019s warning about, it\u2019s not an eternal security kind of issue.\n\nAnd it couldn\u2019t be an eternal security issue because what does He say at the end of Romans 8?\u00a0 What I quoted was at the beginning of Romans 8, what does He say at the end of Romans 8?\u00a0 [38] \u201cFor I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a powerful eternal security verse which, if you could go back to the sin nature and lose eternal security in Romans 8:13 that would be a contradiction of what he says at the end of the chapter.\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t make any sense.\n\nLet me take you to another verse that is used to deny security.\u00a0 Go over one book to the right, from Romans, go over to 1 Corinthians 8:11, and I\u2019m going to use the King James Version because a lot of people use the King James Version and the King James Version translates it in a way that makes it look like you can lose your salvation, which says, \u201cAnd through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?\u201d\u00a0 So 1 Corinthians 8, 9 and 10 are dealing with the subject of your freedom in Christ.\u00a0 So \u201cin Christ\u201d you have freedom to do a lot of things but as Paul says \u201call things are lawful but not all things are\u201d what? \u201cexpedient\u201d or \u201cprofitable.\u201d [\u201cAll things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.\u201d\u00a0 1 Corinthians 10:23]\n\nAnd the specific issue he\u2019s dealing with here is food sacrificed to idols.\u00a0 What\u2019s the big deal, I\u2019m under the grace of God, if I eat food sacrificed to idols it doesn\u2019t damage me spiritually so what?\u00a0 Well, what do you do with somebody that just got saved that has a strong Jewish background and they\u2019ve been told their whole life that food sacrificed to idols is a sin.\u00a0 Now they just got saved, they don\u2019t have the theological understanding you have, you know there\u2019s nothing wrong with eating food sacrificed to idols but that\u2019s not their conviction. \u00a0And they really haven\u2019t had time to grow, so what do you do then?\u00a0 What do you do with your freedom?\u00a0 Do you just flaunt it in their face or do you volitionally curtail your freedom for the benefit of somebody else?\n\nAnd that\u2019s what Paul is getting at and he talks about what happens to the weaker brother when you flaunt your freedom in their face.\u00a0 They actually perish.\u00a0 It says ,\u201cAnd through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?\u201d [KJV]\n\nAnd they look at that word \u201cperish\u201d and\u00a0 they go oh my gosh, that\u2019s hell because that\u2019s how the word \u201cperish\u201d is used in the famous John 3:16 passage, right, which says, \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not\u201d what? \u201cperish, but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 So when people see that word \u201cperish\u201d in 1 Corinthians 8:11 they kind of develop this argument that the weaker brother can actually go to hell if you flaunt your freedom.\n\nWell let me ask you just a real simple question; would God ever condition someone\u2019s eternity based on the response of another believer?\u00a0 I mean, if I flaunt my freedom or I don\u2019t flaunt my freedom why would God base someone\u2019s eternity based on my decision to flaunt my freedom or not flaunt my freedom.\u00a0 So that really doesn\u2019t make sense, does it.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just give you an example of this.\u00a0 Before I got married I had a roommate, a really nice guy, he was a Christian but he was\u00a0 coming out of a lifestyle of severe alcoholism and he got saved and actually he had part of his liver removed and all of these things because of the abuse of alcoholic beverages.\n\nNow my understanding of the Bible and I don\u2019t mean to get any Baptists mad at me here, I don\u2019t really see any great sin in social drinking; I really don\u2019t.\u00a0 I see a sin in drunkenness, I see that very clearly condemned in Ephesians 5:18, [Ephesians 5:18, \u201cAnd do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,\u201d] but let\u2019s say I\u2019m mowing my lawn in Houston and I\u2019m hot and I go into my house and I open up a cold beer and drink it.\u00a0 I mean, I really don\u2019t think I\u2019m in sin.\u00a0 However, what if I did that in the presence of this recovering alcoholic?\u00a0 I could sit and argue him theologically because he had such a bad experience with alcoholic beverages that in our apartment he banned anything related to alcohol, even certain recipes and bottles of things that you pour\u00a0 in for like spice and flavor and things like that, if it had alcohol in it, it was of the apartment.\u00a0 That was no big issue with me because I\u2019m not a drinker anyway. But what if I had just flaunted my freedom in his presence?\u00a0 I would have actually been destroying him; see that?\u00a0 I would have been putting him back under a state of bondage and he would very much be perishing, not going to hell but going back into bondage.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And so that is really what Paul is dealing with here.\n\nGromacki, the New Testament scholar defines \u201cperish\u201d in the 1 Corinthians 8 passage as follows: The weak Christian perishes in that he suffered a spiritual loss, a sense of sin and that affected his fellowship with God.\u00a0 The reckless use of liberty actually violates the purposes for which Christ died.\u00a0 That\u2019s what \u201cperish\u201d means; \u201cperish\u201d doesn\u2019t mean hell everywhere it\u2019s used.\u00a0 It certainly means that in John 3:16.\u00a0 [John 3:16, \u201cFor God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.\u201d]\u00a0 But its flaunting one\u2019s freedom to the point where you\u2019re putting someone else in a state of bondage.\n\nSo back to the alcohol examples, once I saw that my wife and I just made a commitment that we\u2019re just not going to drink.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have alcoholic beverages in our house and the reason is because I\u2019m actually a Bible teacher and what if someone around town saw me drinking?\u00a0 Maybe they are a recovering alcoholic and I would be using my freedom in a way which would put them in a state of bondage.\u00a0 So because of the position I\u2019m in I just decided, we just decided as a couple that we\u2019re just not going to drink alcohol even though we don\u2019t have any big issue with Christians that drink alcohol.\u00a0 It\u2019s a private conviction that we\u2019ve decided as a couple to live by because we don\u2019t want others to perish.\n\nAnd how you come down on that is between you and the Lord; it\u2019s a freedom in Christ issue.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019ve got a lot of freedom as a Christian to do a lot of things but there are times when we\u2019re called to volitionally curtail our freedom for the benefits of somebody else, recognizing that the use of that freedom could cause someone else to perish, not go to hell but go back into a state of bondage.\u00a0 So that\u2019s really what he\u2019s doing here, it\u2019s not an eternal security issue even though the word \u201cperish\u201d is used, at least in the King James Bible.\u00a0 So this can\u2019t be a loss of salvation issue because what it\u2019s dealing with is abuse of liberty damages the immature Christian\u2019s growth.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he means by perishing.\u00a0 You\u2019re putting an obstruction in their pathway to maturity.\u00a0 Hopefully that makes sense.\n\nAnd let me take you to another one if I could, let\u2019s go to 1 Corinthians 9, I told you these would go faster once we got beyond those big problem passages about the unpardonable sin.\u00a0 Notice 1 Corinthians 9, just one chapter to the right, verses 24-27, a very common verse that\u2019s used by people to deny the security of the believer.\u00a0 Paul says\u2026 I think Paul was a sports fan because so many things he talks about deal with sports and in Corinth, I\u2019ll show it to you on a map in a second, there as an isthmus or a land bridge separating Corinth from Athens and on this land bridge they had a lot of Olympic contests, what is kind of a precursor to our Olympics, called the Isthmian Games where people were competing as athletes and they were rewarded with crowns and things of that nature.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice Paul uses the Isthmian games, that the Corinthians all understood, as a springboard for teaching spiritual truths.\u00a0 So he says, \u201cDo you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only<\/em> one receives the prize? 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. [26] Therefore 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\n\nSo Paul himself is teaching the doctrine of rewards and he is acknowledging that there are certain rewards God will give to some Christians and not others at the Bema Seat, and here he\u2019s talking about the incorruptible crown for gaining mastery over the flesh or the sin nature.\u00a0 Just because you\u2019re saved it\u2019s not automatically guaranteed that you\u2019re going to live above and beyond the sin nature.\u00a0 In fact, I would argue most Christians are not living above and beyond the sin nature because they\u2019re not in an environment where they\u2019re given instruction on how to live above the sin nature and they don\u2019t really understand their resources in Christ whereby they can reckon the sin nature dead and not obey it even though it\u2019s powerfully trying to pull them backwards into sin.\n\nSo the believer that is not perfect but basically lives a life above and beyond the sin nature is given a prize.\u00a0 That\u2019s the context, it\u2019s a rewards context.\u00a0 The problem really comes in when it says \u201cI myself will not be disqualified.\u201d\u00a0 So people, rather than understanding this as a reward think it\u2019s talking about going to heaven.\u00a0 So the issue is what prize does Paul think he might be disqualified from?\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have a doctrine of rewards in your theology, and by the way, here are the five crowns that will either be given or not given at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ following the rapture.\u00a0 The incorruptible crown for gaining mastery over the flesh, [1Cor 9:24-27]; the crown of rejoicing for the soul winner [1 Thess. 2:19-20], the crown of life for the believer that endures trials [James 1:12, Revelation 2:10]; the crown of glory for the believer that faithfully shepherds God\u2019s people [1 Peter 5:2-4], and the crown of righteousness simply for longing for His appearing [2 Timothy 4:8].\u00a0 And in the far left column you\u2019ll see the verses where I got each of those.\n\nBut a lot of believers don\u2019t have a doctrine of rewards so if you don\u2019t have any doctrine of rewards what are you going to do with this word \u201cdisqualify\u201d?\u00a0 People look at that and say Paul is buffeting his body and making it his slave so that he doesn\u2019t go to hell is the way people understand that, wrongly.\u00a0 If that is what Paul is saying then he would contradict everything he ever taught about salvation because how do we gain salvation?\u00a0 By faith alone in Christ alone and we\u2019ve been justified freely by His grace.\u00a0 Paul says that over and over again.\u00a0 He says it in Ephesians 2:8-9.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is<\/em> the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d]\u00a0 So then if Paul were to turn right around and say I buffet my body and make it my slave lest I have preached to others I might go back to the sin nature and be disqualified, meaning going to hell, he just contradicted what he taught about the doctrine of salvation, which is always gained by faith alone in Christ alone by grace.\n\nSo Paul, from his other very clear verses, never taught a theology which based his salvation on his ability to buffet his body and make it his slave and keep his sin nature in check.\u00a0 If Paul taught that not only would he be contradicting everything else he ever said about the doctrine of salvation he would be teaching a doctrine of works.\u00a0 And really, when you get right down to it (and people don\u2019t like to hear this) but the truth of the matter is the view that you can lose your salvation is nothing more than a doctrine of works because the focus is always on\u00a0 you and your ability to stay away from some kind of sin.\u00a0 The spotlight is no longer on Christ and what He has done for you and how He\u2019s given you a free gift that you\u2019ve received by faith and it can never be withdrawn, that\u2019s no longer the focus; suddenly I\u2019m the focus.\u00a0 The focus is my ability to stay away from sins X, Y and Z.\n\nSo in this doctrine of eternal security or lack thereof is a heavy works emphasis.\u00a0 And I think it\u2019s a legitimate question to ask people who believe very strongly you can lose your salvation, I think it\u2019s a legitimate question to ask them are you really saved. \u00a0I mean, who in the world are you trusting in?\u00a0 Have you trusted in Christ to give you eternal life and keep you?\u00a0 Or has works and\u00a0 your works mentality simply followed you into your so-called Christianity, because under Arminianism you literally are\u00a0 your own savior.\u00a0 It is simply a works based system.\n\nSo is Paul teaching works here?\u00a0 No, he\u2019s not teaching works here.\u00a0 If he was teaching works here he contradicts everything he ever said about the doctrine of salvation by grace alone.\u00a0 What he is teaching here is the doctrine of rewards; that\u2019s the disqualification.\u00a0 The disqualification is not going to heaven; the disqualification is a disqualification of receiving a reward above and beyond salvation.\u00a0 And there will be people, mark my words, at the Bema Seat Judgment, who will enter heaven and will stand before the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgment and not be rewarded.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because Paul has explained that very clearly, has he not, in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.\n\n[1 Corinthians 3:11-15, \u201cFor 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\nHe talks there about people who are saved so as by fire; I mean, they made it in by God\u2019s grace but they smell the smoke on their garments almost because their life is spent \u201cin Christ\u201d in fleshly pursuits and they\u2019re in heaven and that\u2019s great, but they\u2019re unrewarded in heaven.\u00a0 And one of the things I love about Paul is he practiced what he preached.\u00a0 He taught this doctrine so aggressively about loss of rewards that he says I myself am a little bit worried from time to time, that after I\u2019ve preached to others I might go back to the flesh and be disqualified from the prize; \u201cthe prize\u201d is not heaven, the prize is rewards received above and beyond salvation.\n\nSo how do we please God?\u00a0 We believe in His provision, Jesus Christ\u2019s, so as to be justified and then we grow in our progressive sanctification, learn about our resources and we seek to live a life under God\u2019s power, not a perfect life but hopefully a life that\u2019s not sinless but sins less as we mature and grow.\u00a0 That\u2019s how we please God practically and that\u2019s the believer that God rewards; that\u2019s the believer that God uses.\u00a0 That\u2019s the believer that has intimacy with God moment by moment.\n\nLet\u2019s go to another verse, go over to 1 Corinthians 11, a lot of these are in Corinthians interestingly enough.\u00a0 How would you like to be the pastor of The First Corinthians Church.\u00a0 I mean, these guys\u2026 and it\u2019s funny, they\u2019re called saints at the beginning of the book but they\u2019re not acting like saints, they\u2019re acting like aint\u2019s, just take the \u201cs\u201d off.\u00a0 So they\u2019re positionally right with God but they\u2019re really not living, growing the way God would have them to grow.\u00a0 In fact, these people got so messed up that they actually showed up to the Lord\u2019s table inebriated or drunk.\u00a0 I mean, how low can we go here guys?\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason why Ray Stedman used to call 1 Corinthians 1 Californians.\n\nNow here I\u2019m quoting from the King James Version because it translates one of the words a certain way which causes people to question can you lose your salvation.\u00a0 Paul says, [1 Corinthians 11:28] \u201cBut let a man examine himself, so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.\u00a0 [29] For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily\u201d you should underline that word \u201cunworthily\u201d in verse 27, it says that also in verse 29, \u201cFor he that eateth and drinketh unworthily<\/u>, eateth and drinketh damnation\u201d that\u2019s how the King James translates it, \u201cdamnation,\u201d so people think that\u2019s got to be hell.\u00a0 \u201cFor he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. [30] For this cause many are<\/em> weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. [31] For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. [32] But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.\u201d\n\nSo the word \u201cdamnation\u201d makes it look at first glance that if I show up to the Lord\u2019s table with a heart that\u2019s not right then my eternal destiny is somehow in the balance, I can lose my salvation.\u00a0 But what I want you to see is verse 32, which I think is the key to the whole thing.\u00a0 He says, \u201cBut when we are judged, we are\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cdisciplined by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned along with\u201d the what? \u201cthe world.\u201d\u00a0 The world is characterized by certain sins and God doesn\u2019t want us to be like the world.\u00a0 He wants us to be different than the world so what He does to us is He applies momentary pain in our lives to get us to associate the pain with the sin and that keeps us away from behaving just like the world.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll see very clearly that He\u2019s distinguishing the Corinthians from the unsaved world.\n\nSo even though the King James translates that \u201cdamnation\u201d it\u2019s not talking about the same damnation that the unbelieving world one day will experience, it\u2019s really talking about a different category.\u00a0 So what is this talking about; I mean, some of them are sick, some of them have \u201cfallen asleep,\u201d the King James translates that \u201cdamnation\u201d which I don\u2019t think is the best translation.\n\nWhat it\u2019s talking about is chastisement which can be so severe that it can result in what I like to call maximum discipline, where God actually takes believers home early. He terminates their natural life span because they\u2019re such an embarrassment to Him.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very clear here that that\u2019s what God did with some of the Corinthians.\u00a0 These people didn\u2019t go to hell, their eternal security was not an issue.\u00a0 What God did is He introduced death, that\u2019s what He means when He says \u201csome of you have fallen asleep.\u201d\u00a0 The word \u201casleep\u201d is a figure of speech called a euphemism, you recognize the \u201ceu\u201d prefix as in euphoria; a euphemism is a polite way of saying something.\n\nHe could have said they croaked, they kicked the bucket, some kind of crass terminology but he uses a polite way, a euphemism, he just says they fell asleep which is a pretty good description of the believer\u2019s death because yes, they\u2019re out of their body but they\u2019re going to need their body one day, so just as sleep is temporary the position of the body as the believer separates from their body is temporary as well because in the great resurrection, which we believe will happen at the rapture of the church, they\u2019ll be in that body again except it\u2019ll look better and feel better because it will be resurrected.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why the euphemism of \u201csleep\u201d there is an appropriate one.\n\nSo what he\u2019s dealing with here, and even though the King James I don\u2019t think is the best translation, translating this damnation, it\u2019s really not an eternal security passage; it\u2019s really talking about maximum divine discipline.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already seen that with Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1-11.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen that in the church at Thyatira, Revelation 2:23-24.\u00a0 And you see that concept in the writings of the Apostle John, 1 John 5:19 where he talks about a sin that leads unto death.\u00a0 So these are divine discipline passages and you see that because the Corinthians are distinguished from the world.\u00a0 He\u2019s doing this because he doesn\u2019t want them to be like the world, they are distinguished from the world.\u00a0 And the King James, unfortunately translates that as damnation and people see the word \u201cdamnation\u201d and think it\u2019s hell.\u00a0 It\u2019s not talking about hell.\n\nNow while I\u2019m on the topic of 1 Corinthians 11 let me just clear up a major misunderstanding and that comes from the word \u201cunworthily,\u201d we saw it in our passage but if you go back to verse 27 I want\u00a0 you to understand something.\u00a0 It says,\u00a0 \u201cWherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this<\/em> cup of the Lord in an unworthy\u201d what? \u201cmanner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.\u201d\n\nSo here\u2019s how your typical Christian (and this is how it\u2019s taught 99.99% of the time, if I come to the communion table and I have some kind of unconfessed sin in my life from six months ago or a year ago or something that happened a long time ago and I\u2019ve never confessed it, then God can strike me dead at the communion table.\u00a0 And I want you to understand that that is not what the verse is talking about.\u00a0 It does not say \u201cunworthy\u201d it says \u201cunworthy manner.\u201d\u00a0 See the difference.\u00a0 We might put it this way; it doesn\u2019t say unworthy, it says unworthily; unworthily, which I think is the right under\u00adstanding of verse 27, unworthily, sometimes translated unworthy manner, is an adverb, not an adjective.\u00a0 What\u2019s the difference between an adverb and an adjective.\u00a0 An adjective modifies a noun; an adverb describes a verb.\u00a0 So adverbs, you remember from English grammar, basically end in\u00a0 l-y\u2026 we don\u2019t have any Sam\u2019s in here do we?\u00a0 Sam ran quickly.\u00a0 What\u2019s the verb?\u00a0 Ran.\u00a0 What\u2019s the adverb?\u00a0 Quickly.\u00a0 Quickly describes running.\n\nSo when Paul condemns the Corinthians for coming to the Lord\u2019s\u00a0 table unworthily he\u2019s not talking about some sin they committed six months ago, he is describing the behavior of these people as they practice the Lord\u2019s table.\u00a0 That\u2019s what God is mad about.\u00a0 He\u2019s not worried that they\u2019re unworthy, I mean, we\u2019re all unworthy (outside of Christ obviously).\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about unworthily, he\u2019s talking about the practice of communion on that given Sunday, is what God\u2019s mad about.\n\nAnd what was wrong with their practice?\u00a0 Well, pretty much everything, other than the fact that they were at least trying to do communion, I\u2019ll give them credit for that, but Paul says you\u2019ve taken what is holy and you\u2019ve made it profane.\u00a0 You\u2019ve taken the communion table and you\u2019ve turned it into a common meal; that\u2019s what God is mad about.\u00a0 It was like a picnic lunch kind of thing.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why he says, quoting Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Caddy Shack, not the best movie to be watching as a Christian\u2026 no, it wasn\u2019t Rodney Dangerfield, it was the guy that plays the judge, what was the guy\u2019s name?\u00a0 I won\u2019t test your knowledge because you\u2019ll reveal your carnality that you\u2019ve watched that movie.\n\nBut he makes a statement, I think it was Ted Knight, right? He said something like don\u2019t you have homes, you know, like go eat at home.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Paul is basically saying; he\u2019s saying don\u2019t you have homes for this?\u00a0 In other words, if you want to have a common meal go home and have\u00a0 your common meal but don\u2019t take what\u2019s sacred in remembrance of the body and blood of Christ and turn it into a common meal.\u00a0 And beyond that you had to have\u2026 it was a pay to play mentality that they had because the only people that could participate at the Lord\u2019s Table were people that had resources.\u00a0 So you had to have resources to participate because it was a common meal so what do you do with the brother and sister in Christ that\u2019s poor?\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re excluded from the whole process.\n\nAnd you see, the dominant theme of Corinthians, it was J. Dwight Pentecost that opened my eyes to this, the dominant problem in the book of Corinthians is divisions; in almost every major section you\u2019ll see Paul upset about divisions.\u00a0 And the way these people were practicing the Lord\u2019s Table brought division into the body of Christ.\u00a0 It put an unnatural barrier into the body of Christ because if you were wealthy and had means then you could participate because they had turned this into a common meal.\u00a0 If you were not wealthy and didn\u2019t have means, even though you had Jesus and the Holy Spirit inside of you, you were on the outside.\n\nAnd if all of that weren\u2019t enough these people had actually shown\u2026 it shows how little respect they had for the Lord\u2019s table, they actually showed up (as you study this chapter) intoxicated.\u00a0 I mean, can you imagine that, coming to the Lord\u2019s table wasted?\u00a0 And that\u2019s what was happening in Corinth.\u00a0 And now that you understand that background, now you understand why he uses that adverb, verse 27, therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord \u201cin an unworthy manner\u201d\u2026 what manner?\u00a0 The manner in which they are practicing it, \u201cshall be guilty of the body and blood of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s why God moved into this church with divine discipline, some became sick, some died.\n\nNow the reason I covered that background is because most people are terrified to come to the Lord\u2019s Table unnecessarily because the way they think, and I know this because I thought this way myself for many years until I understood what was happening here, gosh, maybe there\u2019s some sin that I committed when I was 16 that I never confessed.\u00a0 I mean, can you even remember all the sins you committed at age 16?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s an impossible burden in and of itself, too many to confess when you think about it.\u00a0 But if I come with that unconfessed sin, boom, I could be struck dead, and that\u2019s not what it\u2019s saying. It\u2019s not saying unworthy (do you follow?); it\u2019s saying \u201cunworthily.\u201d\u00a0 The only way you can come under this type of discipline is if you\u2019re disrespectful in your tone and attitude towards the Lord\u2019s Table on that given Sunday morning that you\u2019re practicing it. So hopefully that alleviates a little fear in people. So again, it\u2019s not a loss of salvation issue, it\u2019s a divine discipline issue.\n\nLet me cover one more, 1 Corinthians 15:2, this is the resurrection chapter. Paul says, \u201cby which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in\u201d what? \u201cin vain.\u201d\u00a0 Now Arminians love that verse because \u201cbelieved in vain\u201d means you had salvation then it was taken away.\u00a0 The Reformed camp loves that verse because they have the doctrine of spurious faith, they talk about the faith that saves and the faith that doesn\u2019t save, which I oppose that doctrine from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.\u00a0 And the reason I do is because of the negative effect it has on God\u2019s people.\u00a0 If you believe there\u2019s a faith that saves and a faith that doesn\u2019t save you\u2019re going to spend your whole life wondering what?\u00a0 Do I have the right kind of faith.\n\nFaith saves, period!\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if your faith is followed by good works or not; faith saves, period!\u00a0 Let me ask you just a simple question; when Noah walked into the ark with his family, which I would guess would be one step into the ark, right, he took one step and he was saved from water.\u00a0 Did his salvation from water depend upon him holding the door the rest of the flood, to make sure water never came in?\u00a0 No, because that would make Noah\u2019s salvation from water contingent on his performance.\u00a0 It\u2019s not his holding the door that kept him safe; what kept him safe was the grace of God and he took a single step.\u00a0 The moment anybody in their entire life, I don\u2019t care if they did it as a little kid or whenever, if they ever exercised faith in Jesus Christ they are saved, period.\n\nNow that\u2019s not what you\u2019re going to get from Reformed circles.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what you\u2019re going to get at the Passion conference and all these big Reformed conferences, they say there\u2019s a faith that saves and a faith that doesn\u2019t save and unless your faith is characterized by fruit and sorrow and this and that it\u2019s not the real kind of faith.\u00a0 So you can see why this verse is a very happy verse to their theology because it talks about believing \u201cin vain,\u201d there it is they say, there\u2019s a faith that saves and a faith that doesn\u2019t save.\n\nAgain, you\u2019re rescued from these very poor understandings of the Bible by going back to the context.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 15:2 says, \u201cby which you are saved, if you hold fast the Word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.\u201d\u00a0 Now what chapter in the Bible are we in here?\u00a0 What do we call this?\u00a0 The resurrection chapter.\u00a0 These people in Corinth are denying bodily resurrection and that\u2019s why Paul in verse 12 says, \u201cNow if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?\u201d\n\nNow why would these people here in Corinth deny resurrection?\u00a0 They deny it because that is what was taught in Greece; Greece was overrun by an early form of Gnosticism.\u00a0 Gnosticism, Gnostic\u2019s taught a dualism and they basically said the spiritual world is good, the physical world is bad.\u00a0 That was the overarching belief system or philosophy all over Greece and it became more dominant in the second century.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why when Paul is preaching in Greece on Mars Hill he had an audience, until he got to this part about the resurrection.\u00a0 He\u2019s getting ready to close his sermon there on Mars Hill, Acts 17:32, he says, \u201cNow when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer,\u201d well, why are they sneering?\u00a0 Well, there can\u2019t be a resurrection from the dead because we believe, Gnosticism, the spiritual world is good, the physical world is bad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c\u2026but others said, \u2018We shall hear you again concerning this.\u2019\u201d\n\nI mean, he had common bond with these people; his unsaved audience he was reaching them until he got to this subject of resurrection.\u00a0 So that\u2019s in Greece.\u00a0 Now let me ask you a question; how far away is Greece from Corinth.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see it well on that map but they\u2019re right next to each other.\u00a0 In fact, what separates Greece from Corinth is that little strip, called an isthmus, where soldiers, to prevent going around the southern part of Greece, where many lives were lost, they would just drag their boats on wheels across this land bridge.\u00a0\u00a0 And so the mentality in Greece was very connected to the mentality in Corinth and this mentality seeped into the Corinthians church.\u00a0 And so the Corinthians believers, who were all saved, started to question whether there is such a thing as resurrection.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why Paul is explaining 1 Corinthians 15, why he\u2019s defending resurrection to these people.\u00a0 He\u2019s not just\u2026 the thing to understand about the Bible is it\u2019s what we call \u201ccrisis literature,\u201d it\u2019s not like reading Oswald Chambers thought for the day; that\u2019s not the way the Bible is written.\u00a0 The Bible is written to resolve problems; there were actual crises happening here in Corinth, not the least of which was the movement of incipient Gnosticism into the Corinthians church which was causing Christians to doubt bodily resurrection because after all, the physical world is bad, the spiritual world is good.\n\nSo Paul spends a whole chapter defending resurrection.\u00a0 And he makes an interesting statement in verse 14, \u201cAnd if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in\u201d what? \u201cvain, and \u201cyour faith is also in vain.\u201d\u00a0 His only point is simply this; if you have believed in a Jesus that never rose from the dead then you\u2019re believing in a Jesus that has no power to save you anyway because you\u2019re believing in a man that never authenticated who he was through his bodily resurrection.\u00a0 So what he\u2019s saying is your whole gospel has no power if there is no such thing as the bodily resurrection from the dead.\u00a0 He\u2019s trying to get them to understand\u2026 it\u2019s just a really simple point he\u2019s making, he\u2019s trying to get them to see the ramifications of buying into incipient Gnosticism, the ramifications being if Jesus really did not rise from the dead then there\u2019s no sense in believing in Jesus for salvation because He doesn\u2019t have the power to pull it off anyway.\n\nHe\u2019s not getting into the subject of whether these people are saved.\u00a0 So when he says you believed in vain he\u2019s not at all getting into the topic of loss of salvation and he\u2019s not developing the Reformed doctrine of the two faiths.\u00a0 That\u2019s totally contrary to the context of the passage.\u00a0 He just is making a very simple point, if, in fact, Jesus never rose from the dead,\u00a0 and you guys might be going down this road because you\u2019re starting to buy into incipient Gnosticism, then you\u2019ve believed in someone who doesn\u2019t have the power to save you anyway.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what he means by \u201cbelieving in vain.\u201d\u00a0 So that makes some kind of sense.\n\nNow next week we\u2019re going to look in depth at the passage \u201cexamine yourself to see if you\u2019re in the faith\u201d because a lot of people take that to mean oh my gosh, I\u2019ve got to examine myself to make sure I\u2019m a Christian.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll show\u00a0 you contextually that\u2019s not what he\u2019s dealing with. So we\u2019ll probably spend the whole lesson just on that one verse.\n\nAny questions or thoughts?","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