Andy Woods - Soteriology 08: Lordship Salvation Part II (Matthew 3:2)

let me as we're getting ready to turn to the scripture tonight make folks aware of the fact that not a week from tonight but the following week we're not having class so we're having class next week but we're not having it the following week which I believe is the 16th right or Oh spring break you guys thought you were too old for spring break right but we have a substitute we're not going to be meeting here at the church but the chafer Theological Seminary conference is going to be going on at West Houston Bible Church and I believe it starts Wednesday does it start Wednesday morning Wednesday at 1:00 and it goes all the way through Thursday and all the way through Friday and the keynote speaker in the evening sessions is dr. Stephen Austin of the Institute of Creation Research so he's one of the most well known young earth creationists and this is a conference that dr. Robbie Dean puts on every year at his church West Houston Bible Church which is only about 20 minutes from here and there's gonna be just some phenomenal talks dr. Charlie Clough is going to be dealing with global the global warming issue you know how do we as Christians think about that dr. Thomas ice is going to be there he's going to be dealing with the trend toward anti-israel ISM in the church sadly I'm gonna be speaking dealing with Hebrews 6 which is a hard passage to interpret so they give that to me so they can make fun of me I guess or something but if you and we have brochures on the Tagg table on your way out so take a look at that schedule and see if you can catch some of that so that we're gonna be having that in lieu of our normal Wednesday class here on the 16th does that make any sense okay all right well let's so take our Bibles and open them to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 and verse 2 and if you have been tracking with us in our study of soteriology which is what we've been going over this quarter which is the doctrine of salvation we're in a area that we call God's one condition of salvation and it's here that we're emphasizing that there's only one verb that must be employed by the unsaved sinner to get saved and that's the verb what believe and we looked at that biblically that's the overwhelming teaching of the Bible now when you get when you get into that subject you get a lot of questions and controversy because people say well wait a minute the Bible says repent so we took a look at that word repent a couple of sessions ago and I tried to show you what that word actually means it means change of mind which is a synonym for belief and the last time we were together we said well wait a minute aren't there verses that say you must submit every area of your life to the lordship of Christ in order to be a Christian and this is a doctrine called lordship salvation it's in tremendous ascendancy for some reason today it wasn't like this 30 years ago but all everywhere you look today someone within our camp the bible-believing camp is promoting lordship salvation lordship salvation would contradict belief the one condition of salvation so Robert Lightner a critic of lordship salvation defines lordship salvation as follows lordship salvation refers to the belief which says the sinner who wants to be saved must not only trust Christ as a substitute for sin but also see the word also should scare you because we believe salvation is by faith alone but also surrender and now some would say at least be willing to surrender every area of your life to the lordship of Christ so there's not one thing that's necessary to do to be saved according to lordship salvation there are two things that are necessary and this is a very popular view called lordship salvation one of the biggest proponents of it in our world today is dr. John MacArthur and a lot of times when you mention a name like that people say well he didn't say it he didn't say it or they like John MacArthur and I like a lot of the things John MacArthur says also but not on this and so there's this desire or people have to protect their favorite teacher so that's why I use these quotes which we went over last time to show you that yes he is in print and also in sermons teaching this view quite clearly and aggressively and so we went through some of those quotes last time we went through this quote by J I Packer it basically teaches the same idea and lordship salvation is the idea that if Jesus is not Lord of all then he is not Lord what at all and you hear this so frequently people start to believe that this is true and what I tried to explain last time is a lot of this stuff started now it did not start with John McArthur this is actually the teaching of the Puritans going back to those that founded America as you go into there they were voluminous writers as you go into their writings they were very strong on this what I think is a false view of lordship salvation and John McArthur around 1980 there's different theories as to why he went this direction but he got sort of disillusioned with what he called a low level of Christian living not only within his church but within Christendom and I'd have to concur with him that is very depressing but he diagnosed a problem really well but he came up with the wrong cure he reached back into the Puritans and brought back to life this doctrine of lordship salvation which basically says if people aren't living for Jesus claiming the name of Christ and they're not Christians at all whereas I would say well maybe they aren't Christians but maybe they are Christians and just haven't grown a lot yet so you know we have different approaches to this but I'm just trying to explain to you what lordship salvation is lordship salvation says in order to be a Christian at the point of personal faith in Christ you also must have a sincere willingness to obey Christ commands take up one's cross and forsake sin or sins and if you are not willing to do all of the above then you're you were never a Christian to begin with that's basically what lordship salvation is and because of the volatile nature of this debate I went rather slowly last time through we're looking at our seven problems with lordship salvation we've looked at the first for last time and then we're going to look at the remaining three tonight and then we're gonna open it up for Question and Answer because no doubt many of you may have been exposed to lordship salvation just by hanging around Christian TV Christian radio Christian literature and so forth but the first problem you remember that we said with lordship salvation is it changes the gospel gospel is no longer what Jesus has done for me and my willingness to receive it as a free gift by faith it's now what I do for Jesus and I think that's how you can always recognize a false gospel it's you have to ask yourself where does it put the spotlight does it put the spotlight on Christ where it belongs or does it put the spotlight on you and what you must do and what your performance is because God as we have studied is not interested in justifying people on the basis of their personal works but lordship salvation is an alteration of that lordship salvation beyond that place is an impossible burden upon the unsaved how in the world do you tell someone who's dead in their trespasses and sins and doesn't even have the Holy Spirit in them that they need to pick up their cross daily and follow Christ lordship salvation number three because they don't have the resources to do that is the point after the spirit enters them then that's different see then you teach them to grow according to the resources that they have but you don't dump all of that on them when they're not even saved yet so we talked about that lordship salvation confuses justification with sanctification justification as we've studied is the past tense of our salvation we're saved from sins penalty at the point of faith sanctification is the present tense of our salvation where we are gradually being delivered from sins power by walking according to God's resources moment by moment so there is one condition for justification faith alone but there are multiple conditions for progressive sanctification one of which is making jesus lord of your life so we dealt with that and then we talked briefly about how lordship salvation confuses the result of salvation with the requirement for it and you might remember that one of the verses that I used was first Peter 3 verse 15 which says sanctify Christ as Lord always be willing to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the hope that lies within you you see lordship and the command to make Christ as Lord relates to sanctification not to justification justification is by faith alone so hopefully that makes sense that's what we did last time that was review and now we come here to number 5 6 and 7 and that's going to be our lesson tonight the fifth problem with lordship salvation is it fails to make basic dispensational distinctions so there I just use the dreaded D word dispensation and what does dispensation mean and let me explain a little bit about what that means and then I'll try to show you how this becomes very significant in the whole lordship salvation controversy the word translated dispensation you'll find a translation of it depending on what Bible version you're using in Ephesians 1:10 and Ephesians 3 2 those are the two places where the word dispensation is translated in some Bible verses but the greek word that translates that word dispensation is the word icon Omiya economía comes it's a compound word meaning two words making up one word comes from two words a COS which means house and namaz which means law or rules so icon Omiya simply stated means house rules so what a dispensationalist is is somebody that looks at the Bible and notices that from age to age the rules change now the plan of salvation is always the same no matter what age of time you're in in the scripture in the Old Testament they were looking forward to a messiah that would come and they were saved by faith we look backward to a messiah that already came we know his name we're saved by faith so the plan of salvation is always the same for personal salvation from age to age however as you go through the Bible you'll discover that there are dramatic changes of rules for example in between Genesis 1 and 2 in Genesis 3 do the rules change well absolutely Genesis 3 isn't anything like Genesis 1 to Genesis 3 you have death entering the picture pregnancy becoming difficult you have people working by the sweat of their brow none of that's happening in Genesis 1 and 2 so what happened in Genesis 3 with the fall of man is the rules changed see God's basic governing structure changes just in the first couple of chapter II Chapter z' really of the scripture and a traditional dispensationalists like myself would look back at the Bible and say there's about seven times where the rules have changed for example how many of you brought with you to church last weekend an unblemished lamb I see a show of hands well the Old Testament tells us it tells God's people to do that and by the way why did you show up on Sunday you should have showed up on Saturday and you shouldn't have gone to your church you should have gone to the temple in the Middle East if you're really going to follow the Bible right well we all recognize that the rules have changed in between the Old Testament and the New Testament after the beginning of the church age we don't bring animal sacrifices anymore and we should you know because Christ resurrected on Sunday you know we show up on Sunday rather than Saturday and we understand that we're not part of the nation of Israel Israel was a nation the church is consists of people all over the world in multiple nations so there's obviously a change of rules so everybody is a dispensationalist whether they want to admit it of one kind or the other now the reason this is such a big deal is I had you open up to Matthew 3:2 okay which is the preaching of John the Baptist he says repent for the kingdom of God is at hand now lordship salvation people believe that's the gospel you know that is the gospel that we are to proclaim to the unbelievers today repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and they say there there it is it's not just faith alone it is personal repentance of sins so that the I'm not sure how they interpret kingdom but you notice the words the kingdom of heaven is at hand is thrown in you see and what I'm trying to argue here is early matthew is a different stage of House Rules in comparison what we're governed by today and you see if you don't understand basic dispensational distinctives within the bible you get very confused as to exactly what gospel it is what scriptures were supposed to use to preach to unbelievers so what Matthew 3 verse 2 is is God's program with Israel now the nation of Israel began really in Genesis 12 and in Genesis 15 God made to Israel a covenant called the Abrahamic covenant given to the patriarch Abram who later became Abraham and he gave Israel an unconditional covenant consisting of three blessings land seed or descendants and personal blessing and so that's the foundational structure of God's beginning work with the nation of Israel God later on in the scripture comes along at later times and he amplifies those promises so he amplifies the land promises and what's called the land covenant Deuteronomy 29 and 30 he amplifies the seed promises and what's called the Davidic covenant second samuel 7 he amplifies the blessings and what's called the new covenant jeremiah 31 and verses 31 through 34 and what you have to understand is israel is the owner of those blessings she will always be the owner of those blessings because they are a promise that God made to national Israel unconditionally meaning with no strings attached now where it gets tricky as you go to the book of Exodus just for a minute chapter 19 and God brings the nation of Israel out of Egyptian bondage that had been there for 400 years takes him to Mount Sinai and now he makes them a different promise a different covenant called the Mosaic Covenant the Abrahamic covenant is unconditional the Mosaic Covenant is conditional and if you take a look at Exodus 19 verses five and six you'll see this it says now then if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples of the earth see that if then language that's not an unconditional covenant like what he gave to Abraham this is a conditional covenant so how does this whole thing fit together the best conceptual tool I know of to explain it is the distinction between ownership and possession see I can own a beach house in the Hamptons let's let me use my imagination on that I don't actually own one but let's pretend but I'm so busy working I never have time to possess or enter or enjoy see that so the nation of Israel is the owner they've always been the owner they always will be the owner of these covenant 'el blessings from the Abrahamic covenant land seed and blessing but whether in a generation of Jews enjoys or actually enters into or possesses what they own they have to respond to the Mosaic Covenant if a generation of Jews ever responded to the Mosaic Covenant they would not just be the owner but the possessor and the kingdom of God would manifest itself upon the earth you see now who does the Mosaic Covenant point to ultimately Jesus Deuteronomy 17 and verse 15 take a look at that just for a second Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 15 makes us very clear and it says that it says you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses from among your own countrymen so look at his birth certificate carefully and make sure he's one of your own from among your own country you shall set as king over yourselves you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countrymen if Israel ever enthroned the king of God's choosing they would satisfy the conditions of the Mosaic Covenant condition and they would not just be the owner but the possessor and the kingdom of God would come this is why Jesus in John 5 verse 39 and verse 46 says to the Pharisees if you understood if you knew but read Moses you would read about me before he spoke about me so consequently going back to Matthew 3:2 here's basically what's happening in Matthew 3 to the kingdom which is earthly and it's very well predicted in the pages of the Old Testament it's a time period when the nations will beat their swords into plowshares the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord no human need will be unmet agricultural prosperity was going to break out all over planet Earth this is the kingdom that was offered to Israel on a silver platter in Matthew 3 verse 2 that is what Jesus means when he says repent for the kingdom of God is at hand enthrone me the king of God's choosing and the kingdom which ultimately comes from heaven to the earth will be established so Israel had a bona fide offer to enthrone the king of God's choosing and the kingdom would have come John the Baptist preaches Christ preaches the exact same message in Matthew 4:17 what John preached repent for the kingdom of God is at hand now take a look over at Matthew 10 verses 5 through 7 Jesus now is sending out the twelve to preach the exact same message and what does he say in verse 5 that the these Jesus sent out after instructing them do not go to the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans but rather go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I mean you're gonna use this passage for your missions conference at your church your Christ for the nations conference obviously not this is an offer given early on in Matthew only to national Israel and what are they to repent excuse me teach or preach verse 7 as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand see this is the offer of the kingdom this is a chance that first century Israel had to enthrone Christ who was right there in their midst and had they done that the kingdom of God long anticipated in the Old Testament would have been established Israel would not just be the owner but the possessor but the tragedy that the gospel is revealed to us is that this offer was turned down in fact the Pharisees attributed Christ's miracles to the devil in matthew 12:24 and the moment that happened is the moment this offer is withdrawn the language repent for the kingdom of God is at hand disappears from Matthew's Gospel and actually doesn't surface again until the distant future in Matthew 24 which deals with the Tribulation Period when the offer will be re-expanded Israel but in the interim Christ begins to outline an interim age of time that the Old Testament prophets never foresaw a mystery age he explains it through 8 parables in Matthew 13 and he begins to make reference to a church something that's never been alluded to before thus far in the Bible and he says I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it well what is the church is a different man Paul calls it a new man it started on the day of Pentecost and continues up into the rapture this is what we're part of we are not Israel we are those that have trusted in the Messiah that Israel rejected in the moment we trust in Christ we are inducted by the spirit through spirit baptism into this new man the church God has been working through the church for the last 2000 years one of these days that the age of the church will end with the rapture and then God who has not forgotten his covenant all obligations to Israel will reexpansion the Tribulation Period repent for the kingdom of God is at hand you'll see it they're called the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew 24:14 and then the kingdom will finally materialize so this is a basic outline of the of what's happening in the Gospels so what you have to understand is there is a massive dispensational shift after Matthew 12 Matthew 1 through 12 Christ's public ministry Matthew 13 through 28 Christ private ministry Matthew 1 through 12 Christ is ministering to the nation offering them the kingdom but that's not what he's doing in the second part of Matthew's Gospel he's ministering only to a remnant who would be the foundational leaders of the coming church his miracles in Matthew 1 through 12 is proved to the nation that he's the Messiah but when you get into the second part of Matthew's Gospel the miracles are only for the remnant to prepare their faith so to speak and train them for the coming Kingdom that's where Peter walks on the Duren sinks and those kind of stories the offer of the kingdom is dominant in Matthew one through 12 but it virtually disappears in the second half of Matthew's Gospel Jesus never taught in parables in Matthew one through twelve his teaching is open and playing so the nation could understand it but once you get to the turning point in the second half of Matthew's Gospel he starts talking in parables he doesn't want to be understood by everybody because the nation has already made a decision to reject him so he is speaking in parables to conceal truth from them but reveal it to this faithful remnant and in Matthew 1 through 12 you don't have any record whatsoever of interim program involving the church but suddenly that theme starts to get very prominent in the second part of Matthew's Gospel you see now why bring all this up why bring all this up because it relates to what work sharing with the unbelievers which scriptures do we use to preach the gospel today Jim McGowan and his excellent PowerPoint writes this the problem arises from the fact that lordship theology presupposes a theological construct which in turn dictates to the text for example notice how notice how John MacArthur responds when asked about his personal theology now notice the trashing if you will maybe that's too strong a word lack of respect for dispensational distinctives in John MacArthur's comments I was raised quote I was raised in a dispensational environment there's no question but as I got into seminary I began to test some of those things I have been perhaps a aptly designated a leaky dispensationalist here's my dispensationalism I'll give it to you in one sentence there's a difference between Israel and the church period all this that that part of the sentence I agree with at the same time in seminary I began to be exposed reading among more reformed theologians reformed theologians would be lordship salvation people non dispensationalists he's basically talking about Puritan writers and over the years of exiting the scripture it is again yielded to me a reformed theology reformed theology know that we have saying non dispensational I was convinced of it reformed theology when I started and I'm more convinced of it now as I've gone through the text I was convinced of it when I started because I read so many noble men who have held that view ie reformed theology it was more at that point hero worship and now it's become my own Jim McGowan writes my point here is to demonstrate how John MacArthur who claims to be a dispensationalist has arrived at his position on lordship salvation incredibly due to the imposed perspective lordship adherence like John MacArthur in spite of the undisputed lexical meaning of the word repentance which we looked at a couple of sessions ago insists on changing the basic meaning of meta no AO and its derivatives to include concepts beyond it's clear meaning John MacArthur writes quote there was a tendency among however for dispensationalists to get carried away with compartmentalizing truth to the point that they make unbiblical differentiations an almost an obsessive desire to categorize and contrast truths has caused various dispensational interpreters like Shaffer Riley and Hodges who we by and large follow in this church their teachings anyway or respect their teachings to has carried these people far beyond the legitimate distinction between Israel in the church many now look at this sentence here would draw hard lines between salvation and discipleship justification and sanctification that's what I did last week I drew a hard line between those two MacArthur says there is no hard line between the church in the kingdom I just explained to you why God's program of the kingdom through Israel is completely different than his program through the church faith and repentance crichton look at this Christ preaching and the Apostolic message see I'm going to show you in just a moment that there's a big difference between what Jesus preached in terms of repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and what Paul preached MacArthur won't acknowledge that distinction between the Apostolic message of faith and repentance the age of law in the age of grace you see he's saying these are all compartmentalization --zz that were we're getting carried away and what I'm saying is these divisions are necessary so you understand what gospel we preach and from what text see you would probably think it's strange if I tried to put you under the Mosaic law wouldn't you similarly I think it's very strange to put the church under Matthew 1 through 12 when Matthew 1 through 12 has is dealing with the offer of the kingdom to Israel that was rejected turned down and God's program for Israel is in postponement Jim McGowan says the most critical point in the discussion of dispensational distinctives has to do with the use of the term good news in the New Testament Charles Ryrie who just sadly passed away recently points out the important dispensational distinctives when he writes even the New Testament uses the word gospel to mean various types of good news so one has to describe what good news is in view and what he is talking about here is the difference between what Jesus John and the twelve preached in early Matthew versus the gospel that we give out today a distinctive failure of normative classical traditional dispensationalism it's not a failure excuse me a distinctive feature of traditional dispensationalism which is basically where our church is at is that it has always held to the inherent difference between the gospel of the kingdom see those verses that we just went over and the gospel of grace as Paul preached it to unbelievers lordship advocates deny these clear distinctions resulting in a coalescing of long Grace and they end up teaching a very confused message in the process as has been stated above lordship proponents insist that repentance is always presented as the resolve to forsake sins or the actual turning from sin and that this fact is a prerequisite for salvation they seek to suffice support for this view where in the preaching of John the Baptist or in the preaching of Jesus and the Apostles prior to the big dispensational turning point in matthew 12:24 Lewis Sperry chafer the founder of the lot Dallas Theological Seminary says it is an error to require repentance as a preliminary act proceeding and separate from believing such insistence is too often based on Scripture which is addressed to the covenant people Israel they like Christians being covenant people are privileged to return to God on the grounds of their own covenant by repentance this is much Scripture both in the Old Testament and the New Testament that calls the nation of Israel - it's long predicted repentance and is usually placed before them as a separate and unrelated act that is required the translation is when John the Baptist and Jesus and the twelve were saying to Israel repent for the kingdom of God is at hand they were saying to Israel and thrown the King on his own term so the kingdom will come they were not in other words it was a national offer it was not an offer of personal salvation to an individual sinner see Schafer says the work the preaching of john the baptist's of Jesus and the early message of the disciples was repent for the kingdom of God is at hand but it was addressed only to who Israel now you get into the second part of Matthew's Gospel and Jesus says this go and make disciples of what all nations well how do you harmonize Matthew 10 go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel with the Great Commission go and make disciples of all nations the answer there's a dispensational shift in the middle of Matthew's Gospel now that Israel has turned down the offer God is on the precipice of raising up a new man that has a calling of missions to the world and isn't even called to be the instrument by which God is going to bring the kingdom to the earth the instrument that God is going to bring used to bring the kingdom to the earth as Israel because they're the nation with the covenants you see a cursory look at a few pertinent passages will assist the student of the Bible in determining whether the claims of lordship proponents are justified and will in fact reveal that this is not the case this is a quote from the theological word book of the Old Testament in Matthew 3:2 we are told that John came preaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and also that he preached a baptism of repentance it is noteworthy that most if not all commentators and scholars understand that John's preaching of repentance to be parallel with the Old Testament preaching and there the Hebrew word repent is used resulting in the force of turning away from sin see what's going on in the Book of Isaiah what's going on in the Book of Amos Jeremiah what is what is happening God these prophets are saying come back to the Covenant so that the curses that are built into the Covenant can be averted and John Matthew 3:2 Jesus Matthew 4:17 the twelve Matthew 10 5 through 7 are basically saying the exact same thing the King was there and they're saying and throne the king and then the kingdom which comes from heaven is at hand will manifest itself on planet Earth because Israel will not just be the owner but the what possessor see so you have to look at the early preaching in Matthew's Gospel not as a soteriological salvation message we're giving today it is something germane to God's program with this covenant nation the nation of Israel this is significant because according to the theological word book of the Old Testament theological uses of repent in the Old Testament were expressed in the context of the covenant community and their return to God and thus were non soteriological meaning they weren't designed to save people the way people are saved throughout the ages which is to trust in Messiah so I gave you a lot there didn't I the bottom line to the whole thing is you have to learn to figure out through a basic dispensational framework what verses apply to the unbeliever today and which ones don't and if you don't have this offer of the kingdom framework and you don't see the basic dispensational shift in Matthew 12 you'll be confused your whole Christian life because you'll be going to the wrong passages as a basis for communicating to the unbeliever you'll be given them the wrong message for example look at acts 16 I mean what are we supposed to say to unbelievers is that what you're going to say to an unbeliever tell me about Jesus you can say repent for the kingdom of God is at hand no what you say what we say is church age Gospel notice X 16 verses 30 and 31 this is the Philippian jailer and after he brought them out he said sirs what must I do to be saved don't you wish your evangelistic opportunities were that easy sir golden opportunity what was I do to be safe so Paul said repent for the kingdom of God is at hand no he didn't say that first of all he's in Philippi so if he's still preaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand he should have been back in the land of Israel secondly the Philippian jailer is a Gentile the offer of the kingdom was only to first century Israel what we say is in verse 31 they said what believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved that's the gospel so why is Paul saying something totally different than what John the Baptist was saying early on in Matthew Jesus was saying early on in Matthew and the twelve were saying early on in Matthew answer a basic dispensational shift so the concept of dispensationalism is is not there to scare people and give them a scare word because the word intimidates them it's simply to show them how to rightly divide God's Word and explain what verses go with what circumstances you see and in lordship salvation what you'll discover is this basic dispensational framework that i've tried to articulate is not respected and that's one of the reasons we're coming to different conclusions with lordship salvation people just dispensationalism is the Bible dispensationalism always thrives in a Bible teaching environment because as you are going through the Bible you'll quickly see different rules in effect it's not something that we are imposing on the Bible it is something we are observing happening as we read the Bible you see but if you're spending all of your time reading reformed theologians who don't honor dispensational distinctives you're gonna end up preaching a very very confused gospel and I won't even get into the issue of tithing right now number six because a lot of people say you've got to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse right Malachi 3 says that right test me and this says the Lord see if I will not pour out so great a blessing upon you that you do not have enough room to contain it how many of you heard that have heard that preached I mean just turn on so-called Christian TV you'll hear that over and over again and what the preacher is basically saying is bring your tithe to my ministry and God will bless you right financially well the problem is that verse comes from Malachi where Israel was functioning under her own covenant the Mosaic Covenant which had blessings and curses built into it financial curses and financial blessings so the whole concept and because people to understand dispensationalism all these they hear the preacher used the Bible to say it must be true but they don't really understand they don't have enough sophistication to know that that's another dispensation there is no verse in the New Testament the church age which says bring a tithe into the church and God will financially bless you in fact we don't even have a number that we're supposed to give Israel had a number because it was a country right with borders and a military and priests to support it's a mandatory tax just like in America April 15th is not optional because we have to keep the country afloat although it's becoming harder to do that as time goes on but nevertheless so Israel is a country the church is not a country so there is no New Testament passage that tells us to bring 10% of our income to the Lord so the Lord will financially bless us because we're not under the suzerainty aesol Mosaic Covenant that Israel had which had blessings and curses in it so what are we supposed to do what we're supposed to do is to follow adverbs given in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 you know what an adverb is right it modifies a what a verb 2nd Corinthians 8:9 you'll find a ton of adverbs that tell us how to give give cheerfully give hilariously give sacrificially give proportionally as the Lord has blessed you there is no ironclad number see now why does Malachi 3 have a number but the church age doesn't have a number in terms of giving the answer has to do with a dispensational shift and if you don't have any teaching on dispensationalism as you get very very confused different house rules govern at different times now 4th of July will come up and you'll hear a bunch of sermons everywhere on 2nd chronicles 7 verse 14 you guys know that verse don't you let's look at that for a second second chronicles chapter 7 verse 14 I remember pre when I was a kid I remember hearing this preached and what 2nd chronicles 7 verse 14 says is and my my people who are called by my name if they humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land and the preacher says the land is who the United States of America so if we just get rid of some national sin usually it's abortion or pornography which obviously we're all against abortion and pornography but they use this verse as a way if we could just get rid of those sins and turn back to God then God somehow is obligated to financially bless us now may I just say that God is under no such obligation the reason I know that is because only Israel had this Mosaic Covenant with these built-in blessings and curses God can bless America if he wants to he has blessed America but we were not in a type of relationship with the Lord where if I do X he's obligated to do why Israel had that kind of relationship because they were functioning under a prior dispensation with a covenant the United States of America is not Israel the closest you can get to saying the United States of America is Israel is spell out the word Jerusalem and you'll see the words letters USA after they are but other than that and I'm being a little bit facetious America is not the nation of Israel I love America if you cut me open I'd bleed red white and blue but that doesn't give me the right to go in the second chronicles 7 verse 14 and rip that verse completely out of context and hold it up to people as if God is obligated to bless America if we do X Y & Z we're in a totally different age totally different dispensation and I'm just trying to explain why this concept of dispensations that sometimes we harp on around here is actually a big deal it will save you from multiple interpretive errors in terms of your view of finances it will save you from multiple interpretive errors in terms of how you share the gospel itself in evangelicalism were confused amongst ourselves about how we share the gospel some people are going to Matthew 3:2 we're not why the difference of opinion because of the fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of dispensations real quickly number 6 let me move out of that one number 6 the sixth problem with lordship salvation is it ignores the reality of the carnal Christian take a look at first Corinthians 3:1 through 3 now we've gone through this passage before Paul says let me back up for a second if you believe in lordship salvation you do not really believe there can be a carnal Christian either that or you take the concept of the carnal Christian and you heavily marginalize it and de-emphasize it why is that because according to lordship salvation the way you're justified is you have to submit every area of your life to Christ or at least be willing to do so so if that's true then all the people that are saved should be submitting every area of their life to Christ so you don't even have room in your theology for a Christian who is in a state of carnality you know what does Paul say and I what's the next word brethren is he speaking to believers or unbelievers believers I brethren could not speak to you as spiritual people but as to cause to carnal as to babe's in Christ Wow you mean I can be a carnal and a babe in Christ yes you can well how do you know if you're if you're in that category verse 2 I fed you with milk but not with solid food for until now you weren't able to receive it even now you are still not able for you are still carnal for where there is envy and strife and divisions sounds like church life a little bit where there is Envy strife and divisions among you are you not carnal and behaving like mere men lordship salvation says you're saved or you're not period Paul says the unsaved is the natural man but within the ranks of the saved there are three kinds of saved people the spiritual man that's the believer that's growing the infant that would be the very new Christian and then the carnal carnal you recognize the word carnal from the word carnivorous which means meat right I had any chili con carne chili with me that's where we get this word carnal carnal means devoted to the flesh it's a Christian that really continues to live on for the patterns of the sin nature and they haven't been taught correctly or they're not an environment or they can grow so they can start to discover their resources in Christ where they can start start saying no to the sin nature and it's yearnings Paul says there's a whole category of Christians like that called carnal Christians and i have many many verses here which revealed the reality of the carnal Christian Peter backing up for a minute the nation of Israel was carnal was it not coming out of Egypt traveling to Sinai complaining against God constantly and yet those people are saved how do I know that Hebrews 11 29 tells me they were saved they were in the Hall of faith Peter had lapses into carnality he was told in a dream to arise and eat that would be the animals that he was no longer bound to abstain from under the law of Moses because there in a new dispensation now arise and eat what does Peter say in acts 10:14 not so Lord well if he's your Lord why'd you just tell him no you can't say not so Lord those are two terms that don't go together that's like saying reasonable attorneys fees or jumbo shrimp or government intelligence or postal service or all that kind of stuff see Peters rebellion against God right there demonstrates rebellion he was in a state of carnality at that point Peter this is the guy that preached on the day of Pentecost and three thousand people were saved there's no doubt Peter's a believer he drifts into legalism in Galatians 2 to the point where Paul has to rebuke him the whole book of 1st Corinthians is about carnal Christianity race Steadman used to call first Corinthians first californians but you go to 1st Corinthians 1:2 these folks are called say Saints verse 7 of chapter 1 says they were lacking in no spiritual gift they looked saved to me but look go through that book they're not acting very saintly are they chapters 1 through 4 they're dividing over their favorite teachers chapter 5 a guy is involved in incest to the point where Paul says the pagans an act like this see and this is what Paul is getting at back in first corinthians 3 3 are you not acting like mere men a carnal christian can out sin and unbeliever chapter 6 they're involved in prostitution and suing each other chapter 7 there's rampant divorce and remarriage chapters 8 through 10 they're stronger brothers are flaunting their freedoms in the presence of the weaker brothers chapters 12 through 14 they're totally out of whack with related to the spiritual gifts they're putting people that speak on tongues on a pedestal and they're just blabbering things that don't make any sense because there's no interpreter chapter 15 they're denying resurrection and what you'll discover as you go through that book is Paul never once says you all aren't Christians lordship salvation would say you're not a Christian what does Paul say in chapter 6 verse 19 do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit when you join yourself to a prostitute you're bringing the Holy Spirit into that relationship don't you know what you're doing he's not second guessing whether these people are saved what he's saying is you're in a state of carnality and God will discipline and God will you'll lose major rewards at what's called the Bema seat judgment of Christ Paul explains that in chapter 3 verse 15 you know Paul in 1st Corinthians 9 he himself was worried about drifting back into carnality because he says I buff at my body and make it my slave lest I have preached to others I might be disqualified for the prize what's the price going to heaven no because if the prize is going to heaven then Paul just taught salvation by works because he says I Buffett my body and make it my slave so that I might gain the prize the prize is a reward at the bee see above and beyond salvation and he says I'm worried that lest I preached to others I myself might be disqualified for the prize it's that's an impossible series of verses to interpret unless you acknowledge the reality of the carnal Christian notice that we said at the top there an unfortunate possibility because a lot of people when we say carnal Christianity think we're saying yay we like carnal Christianity we're not saying that at all we think it's a terrible place to be in what we're simply doing is acknowledging that it's a possibility you move into heavy lordship salvation and the possibility many times isn't even acknowledged which I think makes nonsense of all of these verses Euodia and Sint aqui I call it call call them odious and sin touchy we're fighting with each other like cats and dogs in the Church of Philippi now were they saved yeah they were you know how I know that because verse 3 of Philippians 4 says their names are in the book of life and they want stood with Paul in ministry so their names are in the book of life yet they drifted back into carnality and they're fighting with each other and Paul says what you're you're doesn't say you're not Christian what he says is your behavior is unbecoming of your identity it's what he's saying and then my last example of carnal Christianity it's an Old Testament example it's lot a good sermon title is are you a lot like lot because lot Genesis 13 12 pitched his tent toward Sodom he started fantasizing visualizing about Sodom a wicked city you get to Genesis 19 and he's sitting at the city gate meaning he's in a position of authority in that city and then the sodomite crowd surrounds his house and he says my two virgin daughters does that sound like a guy that's walking out the spiritual life offering his virgin daughters to a sodomite crowd and then when he gets spiritual and says we you guys got to get out of here because God's gonna destroy everything they all start laughing at him they thought he was jesting oh there goes a lot again just goofing around because the man lost credibility and the whole story of lot concludes with lot in an incestuous relationship with his two daughters he's in a drunken state there's incest taking place and from the those unholy unions came the Moabites and the ammonites who became perennial enemies of Israel and yet despite all this lot was saved why do I think he was saved because Genesis 1922 God says I cannot bring judgment on this city until you're removed beyond that you get into second Peter 2 7 and 8 the New Testament and those verses not once not twice but three times call a lot a righteous man and to be completely Frank with you if I didn't have those verses in my Bible I would never think a lot was a believer at all well how could he be a righteous man when he acted like he did in the book of Genesis he was a righteous man positionally he was a believer in a coming Messiah and yet his practice had not caught up with this position and lot let me tell you lot paid dearly for this when you study the story of lot so I'm not saying yay let's go out and be carnal because you lose big time what I'm simply saying is carnal Christianity is a is an unfortunate possibility lordship salvation on the other hand would hear some of the things I'm saying and they do just be a gas that I'm even saying it because in their minds you the condition for being justified in the first place is laying down every area of your life to Jesus Christ or at least being willing to do so and they would deny if they don't deny it they heavily minimize the doctrine of the carnal Christian oh and one other thing they heavily minimize the Bema seat judgment the judgment of awards have you had teaching on that we're gonna stand before the Lord one day as Christians and he's not going to determine whether we're saved or not he's going to either give us rewards or withhold rewards based on our faithfulness to him in the here-and-now living under his resources some Christians will be radically rewarded others will not Paul talks all about it in 1st Corinthians 3 verse 15 but you see in lordship theology the Bema seat judgment gets heavily minimized it's almost like everybody gets a participation trophy we're all going to be rewarded equally why do you think that well because the condition for being justified in the first place is submission area of your life to Christ you haven't submitted every area of your life to Christ you're not a Christian so the Bema seat to them is if everybody just gets a participation trophy that is not what Paul is saying at all about the Bema seat judgment 1st Corinthians 3:15 he says if any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet as through fire some people get to heaven and they smell the smoke on their garments they're still in heaven it's just the reward that they could have had above and beyond heaven as consumed so the bottom line I'm going to save that last one for next time the final two numbers five and six to problems with lordship salvation we cover tonight are a failure to make basic dispensational distinctives and then it also ignores the reality of the carnal Christian I am a little bit over so I will stop at this point well let you go if you have to pick up your kiddos and we can open up the floor for QA if you want to do that you

Channel: Andy Woods' Unofficial Channel

Views: 5,260

Rating: 4.972414 out of 5

Keywords: andy woods, soteriology, lordship salvation, calvinism, calvinist, calvinists, john mcarthur, john macarthur, paul washer, faith, thru, grace, osas, once saved always saved, eternal security

Id: X9uR4F3sxco

Length: 67min 36sec (4056 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019