Andy Woods - Soteriology 01: Introduction

good evening everybody can you guys hear me we're gonna start a class I think this will probably run about twelve weeks something like that on the doctrine of salvation and kind of one of the reasons we decided to do this and have it in the sanctuary is a lot of times some of our missionaries have questions about the church's stand on a particular point and we really had no specific teaching to send them to other than a scattered sermons so yeah we might have dealt with that in this sermon over here somewhere so so if they had a question on salvation rather than sending him to a scattered sermon we could send them to an actual course that we taught so that's why we're filming this so anyway welcome to soteriology when I use the word soteriology some of you probably think I'm speaking in tongues what does that mean soteriology and those names come from Greek words and these are the 10 or 11 major areas of systematic theology so systematic theology is thinking a little bit differently than what you're used to when we teach Sunday mornings we go verse by verse through books so you might be used to learning biblically line by line precept upon precept theology is different because there's no one book of the Bible that discloses everything about salvation or angels or Christ so to develop God's viewpoint on let's say angels you have to in essence go through all the sixty-six books and kind of put them to like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle because there's no single angel book right the doctrine of angels is all over the Bible so you go through the whole Bible you kind of assemble the pieces like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle you put the pieces together and you can look back and see a beautiful mosaic of what the Bible teaches on angels and that what I just described is what systematic theologians do they don't confine themselves to one book of the Bible they're trying to discover the mind of God as he has revealed himself in all 66 books of the Bible and systematic theologians do this in about 10 or 11 areas so let me kind of go through those too just so you have a handle on those the first area we study in systematic theology is prolegomena pro means introduction lagaa manam means word so prolegomena means introductory word or first word so prolegomena is what you study to do systematic theology you know what are your assumptions what are your sources that kind of thing and then the next area of systematic theology is called theology theost means God ology means what study of so theology is trying to figure out what is the whole Bible reveal about God there's no one book that tells you everything about God so you got to go through all 66 books and put it together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and then you'll walk away with a beautiful mosaic of the doctrine of God Christology is another area of systematic theology called the study of Christ what does the whole Bible reveal about Christ the second member of the Trinity pneumatology now the Greek word pneuma is spirit so pneumatology is the doctrine of the holy spirit there's no one book of the Bible that tells you everything you need to know about the Holy Spirit in fact Genesis 1 verse 2 you'll see the Spirit brooding on the waters and then you move into the book of Exodus and the Spirit comes upon the tabernacle workers and you just kind of go right on through the Bible and every book of the Bible adds something about the spirit and you put it all together and you have a beautiful portrait when all is said and done of what God has revealed about the spirit and that's what you call pneumatology another area of systematic theology is anthropology anthropology is what is the what does the Bible reveal about man from Genesis to Revelation and then we have another area of systematic theology called ha Marty ology hamartia is a Greek word for sin so what does the whole Bible reveal about sin ha marty ology and then what we're focused on is soteriology coming from the Greek words sotirios meaning salvation so what does the whole Bible reveal about the doctrine of salvation angelology what does the whole Bible reveal about angels that would be the good angels Lucifer a fallen angel and demons it's a great area of study ecclesiology the greek word for church is ekklesia so ecclesiology is what does the whole Bible reveal about the doctrine of the church and then probably my favorite is eschatology eschatos is a Greek word for last or end so what does the whole Bible reveal about the end and people think well that's just the book of Revelation well the book of Revelation has a lot to say but what you'll discover is the first eschatological statement made in the Bible is as early as Genesis 3 verse 15 where God says that one of these days there's coming one who is going to crush the Serpent's head that's an eschatological statement so that's your first piece of eschatological data all the other books give other pieces of it and so your job as a system maduk theologian is to put these pieces together just like you would put together a jigsaw puzzle so that's basically what systematic theology is it's learning to think the way God thinks in these major areas where God has disclosed himself so this is very different discipline than a verse-by-verse study of a book of the Bible so normally when I teach this class at school it the class is called man comma sin sometimes I say it fast and think people think I'm saying Manson no it's man comma sin comma salvation so that would be anthropology Hammar t ology and soteriology and we teach them in that particular order because that's the order of events as you as you discover in the Bible Genesis 1 and 2 is anthropology God creates man and woman ha marty ology is Genesis 3 what went wrong and then soteriology is the whole rest of the Bible really what is God gonna do to restore man to his original state so you I think it was Dwight Moody that said you've got to get a man lost before you can get him saved a lot of people out there don't realize they're lost and the reason they don't realize they're lost is they don't understand ha Marty ology but you can't reach out for the life preserver until you realize you're drowning right so that's why we teach ha Marty ology before we teach soteriology which I'm not going to be able to do given some of the time limits I'm under I'm just going to have to focus on soteriology but normally if you take the full course with me at school we cover ha marty ology first before we cover soteriology and then we cover anthropology before that and by the way that's exactly how paul structures the book of Romans have you read Romans 1 verse 18 through chap dear three verse 21 lately there's absolutely nothing in that section about Jesus there's nothing there's absolutely nothing in that section about the love of God he doesn't even mention the gospel in that section it's all sin sin sin sin sin in fact I've taught Romans at this church and I noticed that our attendance went down when I was in Romans one through three there's not a lot of warm fuzzy thoughts for the day and the reason Paul does that is he wants to get people lost before he can get him saved and finally after revealing the Gentiles are guilty the Jews are guilty the religious world is guilty and the world is guilty Paul finally you get around to chapter three I think it's around verse 21 and following he starts to disclose the gospel so Paul never really taught soteriology before he taught ha marty ology and just look at the structure of the book of Romans you know and you'll see that so that's why we teach anthropology first homme archeology second soteriology third you don't even see your need for soteriology until you understand who we are in Adam as condemned sinners and only the study of ha marty ology reveals that so unfortunately I have to skip anthropology and ha marty ology and so we're just focused in our class on soteriology or the doctrine of salvation so here is an outline of what we're going to cover in the course we're only going to cover Roman numeral one this evening we're gonna deal with definition and introduction of soteriology now if you've ever struggled with election versus freewill does God choose us or do we choose him we're gonna try to hit that subject next week and then we get into the subject of the atonement which is the substitutionary death of Christ then we'll get into a subject called salvation words and you'll discover that God has disclosed our salvation through different words in Greek and each word brings out a nuance that the others do not and if you understand those salvation words you have a beautiful picture of what God has done for us in salvation and then we're going to spend a lot of time it'll probably take us a few lessons to get through it Roman numeral five God's one condition of salvation and you'll just you'll see that that's a huge area of confusion today in the body of Christ in other words what does a person have to do to become a Christian and that's what we deal with in God's one condition of salvation and then number six once you become a Christian what are the results of salvation after a person is trusted in Christ what transpires in their life that's what we call the results of salvation and then Roman numeral seven I think it is once you have salvation can you lose it and here's where we get into the whole subject of eternal security and you'll discover that the way I teach is I don't just give you my view on things I'll give you the passages that people who have a different point of view will use and will learn how to think through those and then finally we're going to end in Roman numeral eight at the very end of the course on what we call the faulty views of salvation there's a lot of wrong views of salvation floating around so that's sort of the outline that we're following so let's go ahead and start off with a definition of soteriology and an introduction you might want to take your Bible and go over to the book of Galatians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 by the way you need to bring your Bible with you every week to class you'll find that we're going to be using it quite a bit I personally don't believe we should hold theological views unless they're anchored in the text of the Bible so every point that I make you'll find that it's going to be well backed up with multiple scriptures so introduction to soteriology let's kind of start off with the importance of soteriology in other words is this topic a big deal I mean should we invest Wednesday nights from 7:00 to 8:00 in the rain studying this stuff there's a lot of other things we could be doing right so is this a big deal well I believe this that of all the subjects of all of the areas of systematic theology that I just walked through I believe soteriology is the most important for us because what you believe about this topic determines whether you'll spend eternity with Christ in heaven or not and notice what Paul says in Galatians 1 verses 8 and 9 he says but even if we that would be himself right even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be accursed as we have said before so I say again now if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received he is to be accursed now the word of curse there you'll see it's used two times it's a translation of the Greek word anathema and anathema is a condemnation to hell Paul is saying if we preach to you a different gospel let us be condemned to hell let me be condemned to hell policy he is saying if an angel from heaven now isn't it interesting that some of the major religions of the world claim to have gotten their truth from an angel Mormonism for example claims to have come to Joseph Smith through an angel named Moroni Islam has come to the world through Gabriel's manifestations to Mohammed now I don't think it's the same Gabriel of the Bible I think it's a demon masquerading as Gabriel of the Bible but it's interesting that Paul says an angel could show up at your bedside tonight and give you some kind of manifestation but if it's different than the gospel that you know that angel is to be condemned he'll anathematized and even if we as apostles give you a different gospel let us be condemned to hell and you look at these words and those are very strong words or they're not so what this is teaching us is of all the areas of doctrine to understand correctly the area of soteriology is primary loose prey chafer one of my theological heroes the founder of Dallas seminary says this in his book salvation page 118 he says the privilege of preaching the gospel to one soul is priceless so in like manner any blender in its presentation may contribute to an eternal disaster and woe carelessness in preaching is criminal and ignorant is inexcusable the gospel is plain earnestness is important but no amount of earnestness can be substituted for the exact statement of God's message to lost men and I love to take chafers words and compare those to what Paul said and you see how both men Paul and Apostle chafer just a human teacher but both men took this issue of the gospel very very seriously they wanted their language to be precise because they knew if they fumbled the message it could contribute to an eternal disaster in someone else's life we don't we don't give them the gospel that they need many times many times we're so clumsy in our language that we teach a gospel of works as I'll show you without really knowing that we're doing that so all of that to say this subject of soteriology is is a big deal I mean this is this is important stuff you know we can disagree on the rapture we can disagree on the Millennial Kingdom and still go to the same heaven but you can't disagree on what the gospel is and end up at the same place eternally so soteriology is quite significant what is the meaning looking at definitions here for a little bit what is the what does it mean to be saved let's take a look at what I'd like to call the salvation word group these are four words that all come from the same root just so we know what it is we're talking about the verb to save in the New Testament is the greek verb Sozo now words can be used in the noun form or in a verbal form right you know we we do this all the time with the word Google when someone says Google we're talking about a search engine a noun but when we say Google such-and-such we've just converted it to a verb so the verb run you know I haven't run in my stockings I went for a run you can convert that to a verb you need to go run a lap so that's how language functions there's a common root you can use it in the verbal form you could use it in the noun form so the verbal form of two to save is the Greek verb so so the noun salvation coming from that same root is the Greek word sotiria sometimes it's so Terry on both of those are nouns meaning salvation and then the Greek name for Savior is Souter so those are the words that were using here as we try to define a little bit this evening the doctrine of salvation and what you will discover when you actually sit down and begin to work study through the Bible and try to figure out what these words mean is the word save has a very broad meaning it does not always mean the same thing everywhere it's employed typically in 21st century evangelicalism when I use the word save typically what I mean by it typically what what you mean by it is somebody trusted in Christ and is not going to hell and that's typically how we think of the word save but what you'll discover is the Bible has particularly the New Testament has a much broader range of meanings so let me give you what I would consider some non theological uses of the word save you might want to look at Matthew 9 verses 21 and 22 here is sozo and it's really not talking about salvation in terms of going to heaven by trusting in Christ Matthew 9 verses 21 and 22 says for he was she was saying to herself if I only touch His garment I will get well but Jesus turning and seeing her said daughter take courage your faith has made you well at once the woman was made well now this word made well is sozo that's not talking about going to heaven that's talking about being saved from a sickness so that would be what I would call a non theological use of the word notice Luke 8 in verse 36 Luke chapter 8 in verse 36 those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had made them well there's sozo again made well is translated translation from the Greek word verb so zou well that's not talking about trusting in Christ and going to heaven that's talking about being protected from demons notice the book of Philippians chapter 1 and verse 19 just for a moment I told you we're going to be using our Bible a lot flipping is chapter 1 verse 19 it says for know this for I know this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ the word translated deliverance there is sotiria and Paul uses salvation or sotiria basically to describe him getting out of prison so you could say I got in the car and drove to the Bible study before the rainstorm hit or before a traffic jam hit so I was saved from the rain I was saved from a traffic jam so you're using the word save in a certain way but it really has nothing to do and that non theological sense of trusting in Christ and going to heaven I'm just trying to show you the broad range of this word notice John 12 verse 27 John chapter 12 verse 27 this is Jesus speaking he says now my soul has become troubled what shall I say father save me from this hour but for this purpose I came to this hour so if you think say always means trusting in Christ and going to heaven then you have to conclude that Jesus had to trust in himself and go to heaven because even Jesus had to get saved well saved here is not talking about a theological concept he's he's praying to be kept out of the ordeal of the Cross but then he said not my will be done but thy will be done that's so zou once again Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 here is a non another non theological use of the word save Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 it's talking about Noah says by faith Noah was being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith so when it says there Noah prepared a ark for the salvation of his household what it's talking about is him being protected from water protected from the flood in the ark another non theological use of the word save and you have to start thinking this way because if you think save always means trusting in Christ and going to heaven a theological sense you'll get very confused one verse that will really confuse you is Matthew 24 verse 13 I can't tell you how many Christians are in bondage because they misunderstand what Matthew 24 verse 13 is talking about Matthew 24 verse 13 says but he who endures to the end will be saved now you're Calvinists or your are minions will come up to you and say hey man are you producing fruit you better not have any doubt in your life you better be enduring to the end because if you're not endure to the end you're not saved because the Bible says he who endures to the end will be saved you have to watch theologians very carefully because they do this constantly they cherry-pick verses to support their pre-existing belief system and so their understanding save here in a theological sense but what is the context of Matthew 24 and verse 13 it is the tribulation period fact when you study Matthew 24 it's the Olivet discourse it's the Jews in the tribulation period what's happening to the Jews in the tribulation period they're being pursued by the Beast the Antichrist in fact Satan when you factor in Revelation 12 is about ready to be kicked out of heaven and he's going to be pursuing these Jews with full force during the final three and a half years of the tribulation period so Jesus says this he who endures to the end will be saved the end of what the end of the Tribulation Period because once the end of the Tribulation Period transpires Jesus will return to the earth his feet will touch the Mount of Olives and he will physically protect the Jews from the wrath of Satan and the Beast and Matthew 24:31 is basically that's what it's talking about he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet he will gather his elect from the four winds of the earth from one end of the sky to the other so this isn't talking about making it to the end of your life in good works so you'll go to heaven that's not what it's talking about at all it's talking about the protection that Jesus is going to give to the Jews who make it to the end of the seven year Tribulation Period so that's just an example of why you need to understand that sozo and sotiria and these these words have a broad range of meanings however having said all that most of the time when the word these words are used whether it be sozo so teary off they typically have a theological meeting it's they're typically being used the way we understand it trusting in Christ for salvation so I won't go to hell for example notice Matthew 1:21 here is the word being used in the in a theological sense Matthew 1:21 that says she thats Mary will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins so that's the normal use of the word I'm being protected from the consequences of my sin which would be hell here is so so also in a theological sense notice Romans 5:9 Romans chapter 5 verse 9 much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him so there's Sozo in a theological sense we all know luke 19:10 the Son of man has come to seek and save that which is what lost their save in a theological sense and you might want to jot down second Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 15 it uses save and a theological sense as well it says for we are a fragments of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing so they're saved is used in in the way we normally use the word which is being saved from the consequences of my sin which would be health so you hopefully what I've tried to communicate is this word save really has a very broad semantic range save does not mean the same thing every time it's used in the Bible so you determine which meaning to plug in when you see the word save in the Bible what are the three rules of real estate location location location what are the three rules of Bible study context context context the better you understand context the better you'll understand what a given word means and that's why I'm more of a verse-by-verse teacher because it forces me to keep everything in its context in my teaching but what you'll discover out there is people aren't doing this they're just grabbing verses here and there throwing them around kind of like ping-pong balls making them sound any way they want and that's not really proper Bible study method one other major concept that I want to cover tonight is the three tenses of salvation I find there's a lot of confusion out there because people really do not understand salvation and what I like to call 3 timezones and if you understand salvation is used in three different senses past tense present tense future tense it will save you from a ton of confusion so here is the chart that I like to use I've used this from the pulpit so some of you probably have seen this before but it deals with the three tenses of salvation the first tense of salvation is justification justification is something that happened in my past as a Christian I have been saved in other words something has happened in my life where I've been saved from something and in justification the past tense of salvation I have already been saved from sins penalty sin brings a horrific penalty which is eternal separation from God eternal death the wrath of God and the moment I place my faith in Christ I have been justified before God it's already happened not something I have to get something it's already transpired its salvation in the past and this is true of every child of God so you'll notice Ephesians 2:8 9 very famous verses basically place our salvation in the past some of you know these verses by heart visions 2 vs. 8 9 says for by grace you have been saved through faith so my salvation is already transpired Titus chapter 3 and verse 5 is another very good verse on the past tense of salvation he saved see it's already happened us not on the basis of works which we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and so forth so you notice once again saved is something that already happened then you have the middle tense of salvation sometimes called progressive sanctification and that's where I am being saved unlike justification progressive sanctification is more of a process now when you're talking to your Roman Catholic friends essentially they're going to try to convince you that justification is a process and that's not the Protestant belief that's not the biblical belief we believe justification is a one-time event it's not a process it's something that happens in a nanosecond the moment you trust Christ it's already been accomplished the process though is not justification but it is progressive sanctification where I am being saved save from what not sins penalty but sins power and so what is happening is I'm is a Christian I'm learning about my divine resources in Christ I'm in a Bible teaching Bible preaching environment I'm around God's people and I'm learning about the resources God has given me to live my life as a Christian and as I begin to tap into those resources moment by moment hopefully what is happening is not that I become sinless but I begin to sin less and gradually what is happening is my life is being conformed and transformed into the moral image of Jesus Christ and that's a process that we're all in until we die and everything God brings into your life is basically designed to contribute to that process to get us to grow to make us more christ-like in daily life not in position that's a one-time act that already happened but in daily life hopefully we're becoming more christ-like so having said all that look at Philippians 2:12 here you'll notice the word salvation not used in the past tense but used in the present tense look what it says here so then my beloved just as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but how much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling now if you're debating a Roman Catholic they'll throw this verse on you because what they basically believe is we contribute to our not progressive sanctification but our justification God did 95 percent and I got a kick in my 5% what do I have to do I have to pay pray and obey so I've got a sort of supplement what God has done and this is one of their favorite verses work out your salvation with fear and trembling and if you're not sensitive to the three tenses of salvation you'll be easily fooled by their argument but you as a member of circle and Bible Church who's gone through the soteriology class knows wait a minute didn't the pastor say something about the three tenses of salvation and what determines which tense I'm working in what's our three rules of Bible study context context context now look down at verse 14 do all things without grumbling and disputing he's not talking about justification that already happened he's talking about their daily lives in Christ he's moved into the middle tense of salvation and in fact if you go over to Philippians four two and three he says I urge you Odia and sent a key to live in harmony in the Lord indeed true companion I asked that you help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life here you got two women fighting with each other in the church can that happen to Christians can Christians get carnal sure because these women clearly are believers because they once contended with Paul in the cause of the gospel and then the dead giveaway is verse three their names are in the book of life I can't get more saved than these two women were they weren't stumbling in justification they're stumbling in what middle tents of salvation progressive sanctification the third tenths of our salvation is the future tense and this is where I will be saved see justification I have been saved sanctification I am being saved glorification I will be saved saved from sins what sins very presence you see in justification I'm saved from sins penalty in the past in sanctification I am being saved gradually from sins power but in glorification we'll come or I will be saved from sins presence in other words I will be out of this body I will be in the presence of the Lord and I won't even have a desire to sin anymore won't that be nice as long as you are in this body you're in the process of progressive sanctification but the moment you die or the rapture comes I'm I'm praying the rapture comes before we die I can't guarantee that but the moment we are out of this body either through rapture or death we are into glorification and that's the third tenth of our salvation or we are delivered from the very presence of sin the temptation to sin won't even be an issue anymore that's why Paul said absent from the body is to be what present with the Lord he said in Philippians 1:21 through 23 for me to live as Christ to die is gain I'd rather depart and be with Christ which is far better Paul couldn't wait to die I'm not saying he was suicidal or anything but he really had no fear of death because he knew that after he died he would be in tents three of his salvation glorification and the temptation to sin wouldn't even be a reality anymore in his life as it is in sanctification so here is saved in the future tents notice Romans 5 verse 10 for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son how much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life see how we put saved there in the future so save past tense justification save present tense sanctification save future tense glorification and if you can just sort of master those three tenses you'll spare yourself from a ton of confusion and every time you hear the word save in the Bible you'll be asking yourself is this past tense press answer future tents and what's determining factor context context context so if someone asks you are you saved the correct answer is I have been saved and I am being saved and I will be saved and they'll probably say that's a little bit more information when I was looking for but that's that's to think biblically about this great subject of salvation now let's see here I'm had a role can you help with the time I got about 15 minutes left okay okay very good look at Romans 8:29 and 30 and as I'm reading this somebody tell me or what's what seems fishy about this verse so let's read this Romans 8:29 through 30 now we just talked about the three tenses of salvation look at this verse here for those whom he foreknew he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren and these whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified yes sir Michael well that that's all true but focus here on you see how he says justification at the end and he leaps right over into what glorification what's phase did he skip sanctification so really the $20 question becomes why in the world did he skip sanctification now think about these three tenses of salvation for a minute think about what's different about sanctification as compared to justification and glorification you see just for the sake of time I'll give you the answer justification the only thing you have to do to be justified as I'll be showing you in this course is to trust in Christ period if you have trusted in Christ you're justified glorification the only you have to do is die eat too many hamburgers and french fries and clog your arteries and die or be raptured but sanctification is quite different isn't it to really grow as a Christian you have to number one start becoming aware of what this book teaches you have to be an environment that's teaching the book correctly you have to start looking at the multiple multiple multiple commands in the Bible and you have to start appropriating those commands through God's resources that are within you by faith moment by moment so the only command that's given to an unbeliever is to believe the gospel the only thing you have to do to be glorified is to die or to be raptured but what do you have to do to grow you have to be aware of these commands you have to start obeying these commands and you have to tap into the power God has given you to obey these commands think about how many commands are in the I bow to the Christian Hebrews 10:25 2425 forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of some how many Christians blow that command off pray without ceasing put on the full armor of God study and show thyself approved as a work man who need not be ashamed but accurately handle handling the word of truth do not let the Sun go down on your anger I mean I'm just giving you a handful here command after command after command after command is given and a lot of Christians try to fulfill those commands to human power and that's where they get frustrated and burnt out the Christian life is someone has said it's a difficult life it's not a difficult life it's an impossible life the Christian life was meant to be lived under divine power every single moment so we have to know what the commands are we have to have them taught to us accurately we have to develop proper Bible study habits we have to develop a prayer life to God and quite frankly some Christians make great great strides in this area and others don't that's why justification is automatic if you believe glorification is automatic you just have to die or be raptured sanctification is a non automatic in your life it's a possibility and that's why I believe Paul leapfrogs from justification to glorification because both of those are automatic sanctification is not it is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination now let me show you what I mean look at 1st Corinthians 3 verses 1 through 3 race Stedman used to call first Corinthians first Californians here's how most Christians think about people saved unsaved heaven hell you're the child of God or your child of the devil that's that's about the depth of thinking that you have amongst most Christians Paul is a lot more sophisticated and nuanced than that first Corinthians 3 verses 1 through 3 and I brethren could not speak to you as spiritual men but as to men of the flesh as to infants in Christ infants in Christ notice that verse 2 I gave you milk to drink not solid food but you were not able to receive it indeed you're still not able for you are still fleshly for since there is jealousy and strife among you are you not fleshly are you not walking like mere men if you want to really think the way Paul thinks you can't just say saved unsaved because within the ranks of the saved there are three kinds of people the unbelievers are unbelievers we just call them the natural man but within the ranks of the say if there are three kinds of saved people because Paul uses three kinds of words different words my brethren could not speak to you as spiritual that's category one but as two men of the flesh that's category number two that's what we call carnal that's the translation of the Greek word Sarcos flesh carnal and then he uses a third word infants in Christ so who are these three kinds of people well let's start with the infants in Christ those are very young Christians those are Christians that really haven't had their minds transformed yet and they're acting like little kids and then you have a different group called the carnal Christians you recognize the word carnal from the word meat or flesh carnivorous is derived from that Greek word you had some chili con carne chili with meat so carnal would be a Christian that is still living for the sin nature you see a child sucking their thumb is appropriate at age one or two right when the child is 16 years old and still in a crib and sucking their thumb it's not cute anymore right it's appropriate to be a little child when you're brand-new in the Lord but you see some Christians because they're devoted to the sin nature and not living above the sin nature and keep regressing back to the sin nature it's they should have matured a long time ago and yet they're stuck in a place of immaturity and then the top of the screen is the spiritual Christian that's the Christian that is basically not sinless but it's sinning less is maturing and growing in Christ the spiritual Christians will bless your socks off the infants in Christ are kind of cute to look at because it's appropriate for their spiritual age the carnal Christians will put hairs on gray hairs on your head they'll make your life miserable as a spiritual leader and as a pastor and unless you're called to be an evangelist which is basically transferring unbelievers to believers unless you had that specific calling the most of us have ministries based on the different gifts that God gives to the body of Christ or were trans auditioning people from carnality or infancy into spirituality how do you recognize a carnal Christian iGate verse two I gave you milk to drink but not solid food for you were not able so when we brought our Sarah home from the hospital we didn't plop her in the middle of the room and say when she was born help yourself to a ham sandwich when you get hungry because she doesn't have the ability to digest meat and that's how you recognize a carnal Christian they can handle preaching as long as the pastor lets everybody out by noon because we got to beat the Baptist to the cafeteria and they can handle sort of very minimal messages you cannot take them to a deeper place they would be very uncomfortable in a study like this because we're going deeper places so they thrive on milk but reject the meat a carnal Christian is a lot like looking at a child in the natural world have you noticed that children the whole world revolves around them the Sun rises or sets with them they have to be the center of attention that's how you recognize a carnal Christian everything is focused on them they're sort of if I could use a psychological term narcissistic they haven't grown beyond that I'm not saying there they go into hell I'm saying this is what their life is like because they haven't progressed in the middle tenths of their salvation and then Paul goes on and he talks about jealousy and strife see that's how you recognize carnality there's jealousy their strife there's bickering there's fighting and Paul says are you not acting like mere men what's the mere man it's the natural man Paul says when I look at your life I see no difference between you and the unsaved person an out of fellowship carnal Christian can out sin an unbeliever many times and this is the teaching that Paul is giving he's not threatening them with hell what he's saying is you're missing out on maturity you're missing out on growth and if you read verse 15 this week we don't have time time time to take a look at it tonight he warns them that they're gonna have an unfavorable ruling at the Bema seat judgment or rewards that's the whole point that he's making here in chapter 3 Hebrews 5 verses 11 through 14 is also dealing with infants in Christ and carnal Christians parallel passage Paul author of Hebrews says concerning him we have much to say to you and it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing for though by this time some of you ought to be teachers but you need someone to teach you again the elementary print Oracle's of the Word of God you have come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of milk it's not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant but solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil people look at that verse and they say that's unbelievers there can't be unbelievers because he says by this time some of you ought to be teachers would you ever want an unbeliever to teach of course not he's talking here about people not progressing in the middle tents of their salvation he's not dealing with justification here folks he's dealing with middle tents progressive sanctification Paul you might want to jot down first Corinthians 9:24 through 27 because he talks there about lest I have preached to others I might be disqualified for the prize the prize is heaven No if the prize is heaven then Paul contradicted everything he said heaven you gain through faith alone the prize is reward he's worried that he's going to drift back into carnality and be disqualified for a prize or a reward see what I'm trying to communicate is simply this justification automatic glorification automatic middle tenths of salvation progressive sanctification not automatic that's that's my point a very clear verse which teaches us very clearly as Paul says in Galatians 4:19 my children they're obviously Christians right with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you well how could he be in labor with them a second time because he says I'm like your mother who gave spiritual birth to you I shared the gospel with you our birth UN's a justification now I'm pregnant with you all over again I mean how could he be pregnant with them using this spiritual metaphor all over again because Paul is not dealing with here justification that's been accomplished what does he want them to move into progressive sanctification the middle tenths of their salvation that's why when you study Paul's missionary journeys in the book of Acts what you'll see is Paul always retraced his steps because he wasn't just interested in winning people to Christ checking off a box saying okay these folks are going to heaven he goes back into the same areas that he was in earlier to make sure that these folks that have experience justification are now developing properly in progressive sanctification you see in the world of medicine you have obstetricians and pediatricians right obstetricians help the birthing process pediatricians help the child grow and mature correctly and I've noticed that I've never seen an obstetrician who's also a pediatrician or a pediatrician who's also an obstetrician those are two totally different disciplines so the gift of evangelism is more focused on birthing the gift of pastor teacher along with other spiritual gifts that God gives is more focused on helping people to grow correctly and those gifts have to be in operation because progressive sanctification is not automatic in the life of every child of God that's my point and when I start talking this way I have a lot of students that are very strongly Calvinist Arminian they think I'm teaching heresy and I say you guys need to read your own doctrinal statement look at what our own doctrinal statement says at the College of biblical studies every true believer is promised positional and ultimate sanctification those are synonyms for justification and glorification with what possibility of progressive development in life spiritually ie progressive sanctification in other words the doctrinal statement of our school very clearly says that progressive sanctification is not automatic forget the doctrinal statement the Bible says that our progressive sanctification is not automatic so that's why when we study these three tenses of salvation we have to distinguish the middle tents from the others so anyway that's next so next week we're going to talk about election not not Ted Cruz or Donald Trump but does God choose us or do we choose him so anyway hopefully you learned a little something that you may not have known before we're talking about the importance of this subject what the word saved means and we've spent a little time on the three tenses of salvation

Channel: Andy Woods' Unofficial Channel

Views: 10,069

Rating: 4.884058 out of 5

Keywords: andy woods, andrew woods, osas, once saved always saved, eternal security, soteriology, chafer, systematic theology, gospel, grace, works, sin

Id: V6t3ZJ-aS8E

Length: 62min 13sec (3733 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019