Andy Woods - Soteriology 13: Sonship

did you all get a copy of the handouts for tonight I have an extra one up here if somebody needs it let's take our Bibles and open them to the book of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 and if you have trouble with finding Ephesians just remember God's Electric Power Company Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians or if you don't like that go eat popcorn Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians that way you'll be the first one to find the book and people will think you're so spiritual but Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 and we are tonight continuing on with our study of the doctrine of salvation and we have spent a lot of time probably about five or six weeks if I remember right on God's one condition of salvation which is what belief or faith and Roman numeral five is really about how you acquire these blessings in salvation and God as we have said over and over again only holds up one condition for the lost sinner to satisfy which is faith alone in Christ alone so we kind of wrapped up that conversation last time and now we're moving into Roman numeral seven excuse me Roman numeral six which is about the results of salvation in other words once you trust in Christ to receive salvation what exactly do you receive and this deals with Roman numeral six the results of salvation and so what you're going to discover in this section it will take us several weeks to get through it but you're going to discover you're filthy rich you're far wealth the average Christian has far more wealth than they probably have ever taken the time to consider or contemplate but we're going to consider it and contemplate it so that's what I why had you turn to Ephesians 1 verse 3 and let me just sort of set the table if I could by reading this verse Paul says they're blessed blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places so that is an astounding verse isn't it I have a few points underlined you'll notice that God has already blessed us you see how blessed there's in the past tense the way the Greek the way the English reading out of the NASB translates the Greek so it's not a matter of going you know a lot of people have this mindset that they need to go before God as Christians and plead you know God bless me bless me bless me and a lot of people's prayer life is that way and what God is saying is I've already blessed you what else do you want so our prayer life is not really to go before God and plead for blessings because the Bible tells us that we already have been blessed and what does he blessed us with see the word every there he has blessed us with what every spiritual blessing not 99 percent not 96% not 99.8% but every spiritual blessing so a lot of times we go before God and we say Lord bless me bless me bless me and he's already he said I've already given you everything I can give you what else do you want so the word every there is very important and a lot of times in charismatic circles or Pentecostal circles which I've been involved in in different phases of my spiritual life they teach this doctrine of the second blessing and basically what they mean by that is the Christian has to kind of go on and through prayer seek something else from God which they called the baptism of the Spirit you know which they incorrectly define as something that you receive after you're a Christian and so they call this the second blessing so they have basically two categories of Christians those that have received the second blessing and then those that haven't and you can see how quickly that whole doctrine falls apart when you look at Ephesians 1 verse 3 because he it says there he has already blessed past-tense us with every spiritual blessing so there is no more need to go before God and grovel and beg and plead for a few additional scraps that fall off the table because the Bible clearly teaches us that we have already been blessed not just with a few blessings but every spiritual blessing and a lot of people mistakenly and they teach this on so-called Christian television a lot of they give you this impression that you need to give to God financially so you can get blessed well the fact of the matter is God has already blessed you with every spiritual blessing so we as Christians we don't give to God to get blessed we give to God because we've been blessed see the difference I mean we we serve God we give to God we sacrifice and different things that God calls us to do not to get blessed but we do it because we've already been blessed so we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing and notice where our blessings are there we're in the heavenly places now if you keep your place here in Ephesians and go back to Deuteronomy in the Old Testament for a minute chapter 28 I want to show you the difference between our blessings and Israel's blessings because we're not Israel we're the church God has two programs one for Israel one for the church but you'll notice that Israel's blessings were not in the heavenly places Israel God's special nation that we read about mostly in the Old Testament Israel's blessings were not in the heavenly places Israel's blessings were here on earth so Deuteronomy 28 starts to describe the place the things that Israel would receive when she was in the place of blessing and just starting there verse 1 it says now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God being careful to do all his commandments which I command you today the Lord will set you high above what the nations of the what the earth so Israel was going to receive political and financial and material blessings relative to the other nations of the earth and that's why it describes Solomon's wealth in great detail Solomon the third King of the United Kingdom in Israel and then you get on to verse 2 it says all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord blessed shall you be in the city see that let's talk about an earthly City blessed shoyu being country blessed shall be the offspring of your body see how these are all physical things the produce of the ground the offspring of your beasts the increases of your herd and the young of your flock blessed be your basket and your kneading bowl blessed it are you when you go in blessed are you when you go out you drop down to verse 7 blessed the Lord shall cause your enemies to rise up against you to be defeated let's talking about earthly warfare and they will flee from you in seven ways verse eight the Lord will command blessing upon you in your barns and in all all you put your hand that's your physical hand to and bless you in the land which which the Lord God gives you and so you can just read all the way through verse 14 there and you see that you see the blessings that Israel had which were physical material and earthly now going back to the New Testament compare that to Ephesians 1:3 and the New Testament in the age of the church which we're in never promises us physical blessings the way Israel had them but what it promises us is we have already been blessed with every blessing where it's very clear we're not here on earth but in heaven so your spiritual edger of your wealth your true balance sheet of your wealth is actually heavenly so I'm not diminishing physical blessings and earthly blessings God can give those as well and many people he does give them to but that's not part of the guaranteed packages of the Christian because you see all over this world you know we're in here in America and we have a lot of material abundance but it's not that way in third world countries and other places where Christians are and yet God wants those Christians living in third-world poverty-stricken countries to understand that although they may not be Americans they have every blessing in the heavenly places as well so this is the great error of the prosperity gospel that you hear a lot on television so-called Christian television and radio sometimes less so on radio more prominent on Christian television where they take the promises related to Israel in the Old Testament which were basically physical and material and they make it sound as if you give money to their ministry then God is obligated to bless your bank account and that is intermingling or confusing God's program with Israel which is as earthly people with God's program for the church which is his heavenly people so we are not Israel we are the church and as far as heavenly and I'm not saying God is unconcerned about physical things he does promise to supply our needs and things like that but if you look at your blessings as a Christian just as physical things you totally miss the picture here the picture is we have indescribable wealth as God's heavenly people the church in heavenly places and then it goes on at the end of this verse and it says these blessings are ours in what in Christ in fact you can summarize all of Paul's theology with those two words in Christ if you are in Christ and we've talked about how to enter into a relationship with Christ you know by faith alone if you find yourself in Christ then you have access to all of these blessings if you are not in Christ by way of faith and none of these blessings are yours so being in Christ is really the the ticket if I can use that rushon towards accessing these blessings so that's what the results of salvation is designed to communicate looking at our spiritual assets looking at our spiritual balance sheet and trying to figure out what it is we own because God has told us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places so go over from there go over to revelation 2 for just a minute the book of Revelation chapter 2 and verse 9 this is Jesus speaking to the church at Smyrna it's an actual words of Christ to a 1st century Church called Smyrna in Asia Minor which is modern-day Turkey and Jesus through John says this I know your tribulation and your poverty now the word poverty there in Greek is the lowest level of poverty you could ever descend to as a human being so that's what we're these people were at in Smyrna they were at a extremely low level of poverty and yet notice what Jesus says but you are what rich and then he goes on and he describes the fact that they not only are poor but they're being persecuted he says that I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and or not but our synagogue of Satan so these folks were basically being persecuted by unbelieving Jews and beyond that they were at a very low level of poverty they had almost nothing and yet Jesus tells them in the midst of all of that that you are rich why would he say you are rich because their riches are we're going back to Ephesians 1:3 in the heavenly places so this is the great thing about being a Christian is the stock market can tank the economy can go south we could enter another Great Depression you could lose your job I mean all sorts of economic bad news can come your way we could go into hyperinflation and yet God is telling us that our riches because there in heaven are not impacted at all so that's why he can look at a church like this and tell them that they in fact are wealthy and so the results of salvation communicates that to us we are fabulously wealthy so what exactly do we own in terms of our spiritual blessings and I'm so glad you asked that dr. Lewis Sperry chafer in his book salvation pages 59 to 65 of that book describes 33 blessings these are 33 things not that you have to go to and ask God for these are 33 things you already have so just to kind of survey the landscape I'm going to just read through these very quickly just to give you a broad sweep of them and then I'm going to come back afterwards and drill down on a few of them and probably tonight we won't get through but two or three if we're lucky so what exactly do you have well number one you are in the eternal plan of God because Romans 8:29 says we are four known elected predestined and called number two you have been reconciled to God we've talked about that word reconciliation when we were talking about salvation words which means you have perfect peace with God positionally 2nd Corinthians 5:18 through 20 number 3 you have been redeemed which basically means you have been purchased out of the slave market of in Romans 3:24 Romans 8:23 number four you are related to God through propitiation and you might recall that was a Salvation word that we went over which essentially means that God's anger against you because of your sin and my sin has been satisfied completely because of what Jesus did for us on the cross which means that the only attribute left for God to express towards you is not wrath because his wrath has been satisfied but it is his love so therefore everything that happens to you as a New Testament Christian is an expression of God's love towards you even the trials that we go through we think God is gonna punt is punishing us because we've been bad or something but the wrath of God has already been satisfied he sends us through tribulations not to make us bitter but to make us what better so even trials and tribulations we go through our manifestation of his love because of propitiation number five all of our sins have been covered by the atoning blood of Christ past present and future every sin is under the blood first John 2:2 number six we are vitally joined to Christ this is what's called our baptism into Christ when he died who else died I did when he was buried who else was buried we were when he rose who else rose we rose when he ascended to the right hand of the Father who else ascended to the right hand of the Father Ephesians 2:6 is that's our position right now we are literally legally anyway I should say at the right hand of the Father because we have been joined into the transaction of Christ we are free from the law number seven we'll talk a lot about that few sessions down the road we are children of God we're going to talk about that one tonight we have been adopted as sons or daughters we'll talk about that one tonight we are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ in other words God the Father looks at you the same way he looks at Jesus this just like he looks at Jesus and sees purity and perfection that's what he sees in you now you say well I don't deserve that and you don't deserve it none of us do we received it by grace or imputation because it has been transferred to us number eleven were justified by faith that's announced innocent we'll be talking about that one down the road number twelve all of our sins have been forgiven past present and future number thirteen we've been brought near you see formerly we were enemies of Christ but now we've been brought near in fact into the very household of God that's number thirteen number fourteen we have been delivered front-seat the way the Bible describes all these these are things that already happened to us and see most most Christians go through their Christian life not understanding what they have and they have a very low image of themselves as a result but you see the biblical approach is to understand what you have and then guess what happens with your life your life if you understand your wealth isn't it interesting how our practice starts catching up with our position in other words if I'm really holy like God has decreed me to be maybe I should behave that way in my daily life see that but if you don't see yourself as holy positionally then there's really no incentive to live holy so we act consistently with how we view ourselves so we have been delivered from the power of dark in other words totally liberated from Satan's realm we've been translated into the kingdom of the son of God Colossians 1:13 we are all on the rock of Jesus Christ and we're building on the right foundation because of what Jesus has done for us 1st Corinthians 1 verse 13 we are a gift number 17 from the father to the son and you'll see that in John 17 verse 6 it says Schafer like to use the King James so it reads they were thine they were yours in other words father as Jesus is speaking and thou or you gave them to me so it's almost like we are of such value that the father took us as a present and gave it one member of the Trinity gave us as a gift to another member of the Trinity that's number 17 number 18 we have been circumcised spiritually in Christ number 19 we are partakers of the holy and royal priesthood did you know you're a priest revelation 1:6 says that number 20 we are a chosen generation and a peculiar people Titus 2:14 says that that's why we don't really fit in with this world because we're a peculiar people because we operate by a different value system number 21 we have access to God so the Bible says for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the father that's why Earle could lead us in prayer and Greg prayed and others prayed because we have direct access to God because of what Jesus has done let me tell you something in the Old Covenant they didn't have direct access to God in fact when you study the tabernacle and the temple you learned that the most holy place was separated by a fail and the only person that could go behind the veil was the high priest and he could only do it one time a year the day of atonement after the right animal sacrifice had been offered for his own sins and if anything went wrong the priest was struck dead and you could not go back into that Holy of Holies because of the righteous character of God and that's why according to Jewish tradition there was that rope tied around the priests foot because on his garment the hem of His garment were bells so if he didn't hear the bells ringing as he was behind the veil you would think oh my gosh something went wrong maybe he's dead he didn't just charge in to get him or you'd be dead too right so the the Rope was there to pull the priest out so your life could be spared so and when Jesus died on the cross Matthew 27 verses 50 and 51 says what happened to that veil it was torn asunder from top to bottom signifying that the sin debt has been eliminated so now we we can just go on into the throne room of God anytime we want to but we're too busy to pray see we're living beneath our privileges so this access to God is is a tremendous part of your wealth that you have number 22 we are within the much more care of God in other words if God did the greatest thing already isn't he gonna help you with the little things like one of the prayer requests was the sale of a house I mean what's the sale of a house to God when he's done everything he can do in Jesus Christ to bridge the gap between you and God if he if he gave you the greatest thing already he's going to help you with the sale of a house see so that's what chafer means by the much more care of God number 23 we have an inheritance an inheritance is something that is legally ours we just haven't entered into its fullness yet and I believe its first Peter if I'm not mistaken or is it second Peter first Peter 1:4 second Peter 1:4 one of the two it says that our inheritance is kept in heaven and it can't fade or be defiled so inflation can't corrode it thieves can't break in and steal so we have this inheritance coming to us and we have that was actually number 24 our inheritance and there's the verse up there 1st Peter 1:4 sorry if I misled you not in 2nd Peter 1st Peter 1:4 says an inheritance that fades not away reserved in heaven for you and then we going back to number 23 are actually his inheritance so we are of such value that God looks at us as his own inheritance if you can think of that astoundingly number 25 we have a heavenly Association because we're partners with Christ's life position service and suffering many verses talk about that number 26 we are heavenly citizens I love America but the fact of the matter is I'm just an American citizen here on earth my ultimate citizenship is in heaven I have actually dual citizenship in that sense I'm an American citizen but I'm a heavenly citizen as well Philippians 3:20 number 27 were of the family and the royal household of God number 28 were light in the Lord number 29 were vitally joined to the father to the son and to the spirit number 30 were blessed with the firstfruits or the earnest of the spirit now firstfruits are an earnest some Bible trans relations call that a down payment you know if you if you make a down payment on something you're guaranteeing to the seller as the buyer that more payments are coming so the fact of the matter is God has already given you a down payment it's called the Holy Spirit inside of you and the Spirit of God inside of us that convicts us and directs us and prompts us and empowers us is God's guarantee to us that we're gonna get the whole rest of the package one day and number 31 we've already been glorified Romans 8:35 now you might look in the mirror and say I don't look glorified and factually you're not yet in glory but legally you're in glory see and God can look at you as if you're already glorified that's why going to God and begging and pleading and saying Lord is just me and we have this kind of worm theology I know God you don't want to hear from me I'm such a bad person but can you please help me out of this one you know we have this attitude God is saying what are you talking about I'm looking at you not the way you see yourself I'm looking at you legally as already in a state of glory number thirty-two we are complete in him a lot of churches they'll give you the 95% theology you're 95% complete but here's the rest of the stuff you got to do on your own and it's usually pay pray and obey so you spend the rest of your life saying have I prayed enough have I paid enough and I have I obeyed enough so there's no assurance of salvation and that kind of thinking because how can you subjectively tell if you've done enough but the scripture on that on the other hand says that we are complete in him Colossians 2:10 and many other verses and then finally number 33 is the the verse that I started with Ephesians 1:3 we already have been blessed past tense with every spiritual blessing so I hope you feel wealthy I hope you feel better about things because that's what the Bible says about you if you find yourself in Christ if you trusted in Christ so one of the things that we struggle with as human beings and even as Christians is a low self-image because we bought into what I would call a quality of life mentality we ascribe Worth to things or people if their life is of a certain quality if they look good if they're young if they've got money if they've got career prospects if they're healthy you know those kinds of things and so we say well someone so is valuable because they have all these things they have talent they have money but you see all those things can disappear your health can disappear your career prospects can disappear so if you're a scribing self worth to yourself based on quality of life then you're gonna be like an emotional roller coaster some days you're gonna feel great about yourself other days you're gonna feel bad about yourself because we're living in a fallen world where things that are temporal can be taken away you know just like that and God is trying to move us out of that mentality and trying to move us into not a quality-of-life mentality but a sanctity of life mentality where all of us have value because of what God says about us what God says about you is what gives you value not what the world system says about you so the guy that's living under a bridge it's got alcohol all over his breath that can't hold down a job he has just as much value as the richest person in in Houston the richest healthiest quote best person in Houston that person has the exact same value in God's eyes as the wino living under the bridge because of a scriptural teaching called sanctity of life or we don't we don't really think this way because we're in a world system that speaks of quality of life so there's going to be times in your Christian life when you're gonna get really discouraged and down on yourself and the best stuff solution to that is to go back and that's why I printed these out for you I want you to have these and I gave you the verses where you can go look these things up on your own you could say it I'm not making things up the best solution when you get down on yourself is to go back and review your wealth start looking at yourself the way God sees you rather than how you see yourself or how other people see you or how you see other people we have to start looking at ourselves the way God sees us and that's what these riches describe so this is a section that we call the results of salvation now Schafer had 33 things I kind of shortened his list to about 10 or 11 just for purposes of time and even with these 10 or 11 you're gonna see it's it's going to take several weeks to get through just these ten or eleven so I'm gonna basically drill down on some of the ones that you may be less familiar with so the first in my list is our sonship or adoption that is item of wealth spiritual wealth number one our sonship or adoption so if you have your Bible with you you might want to try to follow me around here as we look at a few verses but according to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19 it says so that you are no longer strangers and aliens what gives us access to these blessings is being in Christ as we saw so what was I like before I was in Christ while I was far from the household of God you know I was in fact a stranger and an alien to God and then came that time in my life for I trusted in Jesus Christ and suddenly I moved from position of stranger or alien and I was brought into a brand-new family of God we are part of the royal family of God and it's very sad because many people grow up in dysfunctional families so they extrapolate their bad experiences in their earthly family to God's heavenly family and they think God's heavenly family runs by the same rules as their dysfunctional earthly family by the way every family on earth is dysfunctional it's just a matter of degree as we're told so the problem is we transfer dysfunction in our earthly families like if you had a bad relationship with your parents or something we think God treats us the same way and that couldn't be further from the truth and that's why we need our minds renewed through the scripture so that we aren't so we're understanding God as he has expressed himself so what happened is I was the moment I trusted in Christ brought into a brand-new family and if you look at the second part of verse 19 formerly I was a stranger in an alien but now I am a fellow citizen with the Saints and I am of God's household so God looks at us as family now we treat family differently than strangers don't we even in our dysfunctional families we treat you know we invite people over for Thanksgiving not complete strangers we invite family over you know in when you set up a will or a trust you typically don't leave your wealth to a complete stranger you leave it to a family member so we understand that if you're in the family you're treated with greater prep and that's essentially what God is saying about us we are in his family and remember what Jesus said over in Matthew 12 verses 48 through 51 of the disciples I think it was says your mother and your brother they're waiting for you and remember what he said you know who was my brother who was my mother who was my sons who was my daughters are not they the ones that do the will of what my father in heaven so right then and there he was speaking of a spiritual family that transcends physical family lines so the moment that you are in Christ you are part of a family of God you know you're still a member of your physical family but you're actually a member of a higher family than just your physical family and Jesus is actually your brother spiritual brother you say well where does it say that in the Bible I'm glad you asked Romans 8:29 Romans chapter 8 verse 29 says this for those whom he foreknew he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he that's Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren so Jesus is the firstborn in a sense and all of us that are born in him are his brethren or brothers or sisters in Christ so that's what kind of kinship we have with Jesus and you'll see the same kind of teaching in Hebrews 12 11 and 12 where we're called the Brethren or brothers of Jesus Christ even though he's in a different position then we're at because he's deity that doesn't change the fact that we are also his brethren and we at that point of personal faith in Christ become God's very own child so the family relationship is so tight that God looks at you as if you are his own child spiritually speaking and notice the Gospel of John chapter 1 and verses 12 and 13 John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 it says but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believed in his name who were not who were born watch this not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but God what makes you a child of God is the spiritual birth which is something we call regeneration which we'll be talking about probably next week you hear you hear of politicians and people of the world say things like we're all God's children referring to everybody in the world 6 6 7 billion people on planet Earth we're all God's children well the Bible says we're not all God's children we're all God's creation but we're not all his children in fact Romans 5:8 right in their five-nine five-ten says if you're not in Christ you're actually God's enemy you don't actually become his child until you receive the new birth or you're born spiritually so first John 3:2 tells us that we are children of God and if you'll follow me over to the book of Galatians for just a minute because we are chilled of God we are given the privilege of sonship sons of God or with the female obviously daughter of God but notice Galatians 3:26 Galatians 3:26 calls us sons of God it says for you are all sons of God through what faith in Christ Jesus now if you go over to Galatians 4 verses 5 through 7 it tells you what privilege you have as a son of God notice what it says Galatians chapter 4 and verses 5 through 7 it says so that he might redeem those who were under the law that that we might receive adoption as sons so we have been adopted into the royal household and family of God verse 6 because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts so because I'm God's son God says I'm going to put my son in you through the Holy Spirit and look at this next expression into our hearts crying Abba Father now Abba is Aramaic word and basically what that word means is daddy we are of such close kinship to God that we can actually call God daddy and I know that when my daughter don't tell her this says daddy that is such a heartwarming experience as a parent you will do anything that kid wants you to do at that point won't you anything she wants she calls me daddy I'll probably end up doing doing that for because there's nothing more warming and intimate and personal than your own descendants calling you daddy so we actually can call out to Godfather and call him daddy and think of think how that warms his heart and it goes on here and it says therefore you are no longer a slave now what was the slaves someone that worked for the master but was not an heir you are no longer slaves but a son look at this if a son then an heir through God so we as new privileges as sons of God have the privilege of heirship see let's say let's see is it my does bill is the Bill Gates start Microsoft right ok what would you rather be would you rather be Bill Gates top CEO now think of all the money that would entail you would have stock options you would have you know think of the salary you would have I mean that would be a privileged position to be his CEO or would you rather be his own physical child who is going to inherit everything what would you rather be I mean CEO would be great but I'd settle for son and see that's what the the Bible is saying is you are sons of God if a son then an heir you're not like a slave working for God which would be a privilege in and of itself but your heir to the whole estate your heir to the whole fortune and that's why the scripture speaks of our inheritance in God Romans 8 verses 14 through 17 we don't have to turn there but it also says we can cry out to God Abba Father which means daddy Ephesians 1:5 calls us sons of God so this is a tremendous blessing that we in our ledger I mean this is a huge spiritual asset this privilege that we have of sonship now let me see if I can cover just one more before my time is up the second blessing you have I don't have these in any particular order I'm just using numbers to organize my thoughts but the second one that's huge is you have eternal life so take a look if you could at John 3:16 of a verse you already know by heart most likely second blessing you have is eternal life John 3 verse 16 says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have what eternal life John 4:14 says virtually the same thing whoever drinks of this water that I give shall never thirst again excuse me yeah she'll never thirst again but the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up to eternal life John 10:28 John chapter 10 verse 28 says and Jesus speaking I give eternal life to them Romans 6 verse 23 Romans 6 verse 23 says for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is what eternal life notice the little prepositional phrase in Christ in Christ gives you access to eternal life now eternal life are the exact same words used to describe God's life Romans 16:20 six of God says but now is manifested by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal god that's ion EOS ion EOS means eternal the word eternal that describes God is the same word that's used translated eternal life which we have first Timothy 1:17 first Timothy chapter 1 verse 17 says now to the king what eternal and then over in the book of Revelation chapter 4 and verse 10 of God it says the twenty-four elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever that's ion EOS so the word eternal ion EOS is the exact same word in the Greek New Testament used to describe God so what we have is we as recipients of eternal life we share in God's life that never ends that's what eternal life is we are sharing in the life of God and just as God never ends the eternal life that we possess as New Testament Christians never ends as well so synonyms for eternal life are number one you'll never die you may die physically but absent from the body is what president with the Lord Paul said for me to live as Christ to die is what gain so death is separation life is being joined to God so the very worst thing that can happen to you in this life as someone could take your physical life away but that doesn't impact your eternal life that's why Jesus talked about don't fear those who can kill the body but fear the one who can cast body and soul into hell so eternal life another way of saying it therefore is you'll never die you can't die if your life is eternal right notice what he said to the women there regarding the resurrection of Lazarus which was about to happen John 11 verses 25 and 26 jesus said to her that's Martha I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in Me will live even if he what dies verse 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die so that's another way of explaining eternal life we never die another way of saying it is immortality now sometimes I've been preaching fast up here on Sunday and I say immorality and that's not what I mean I mean immortality we don't have immorality that's not something we want to involve ourselves in but we have immortality in God that's another way of saying eternal life notice 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10 second Timothy chapter 1 verse 10 it says but now has been revealed by the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel so we have life and immortality meaning it's impossible to die death I'm defining as separation from God you cannot if you once you receive the gift of eternal life once you begin to share in God's life which never ends death or separation from God is impossible this is one of the reasons when we get into eternal security I'll show you that the Bible teaches that once saved always saved because think about this for a minute if the life you have in God is eternal which lasts forever how can you what lose it how can you forfeit something that's eternal isn't that an impossibility so synonyms are never die immortality the exact same words that are used to describe God's life another way take a look at John 17 verse 3 for a minute as Jesus is giving what I would call the Lord's Prayer you know we think the Lord's prayers in Matthew 6 that's not the Lord's Prayer that's the disciples prayer Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray but in John 17 see he's giving them a model prayer but in John 17 it's actually his prayer so if you really want to study the Lord's Prayer you don't study Matthew 6 that's just the disciples prayer the Lord's Prayer is in John 17 and notice what Jesus says there in John 17 verse 3 he defines eternal life this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent it defines what eternal life is there it's knowing God now in the Bible church environment we think knowing God means I know some facts about God and that's not what the word Guinness Co means at all no is the deepest level of intimacy you can have with another in an earthly sense another human being so I think it's the King James in Genesis 4:1 says Adam knew his wife that doesn't mean he learned about her favorite color and horoscope reading because she got pregnant as a result of knowing him Adam knew his wife and she became pregnant and brought forth begat Cain so in the Bible knowing is is the deepest level of intimacy you can have with someone which is analogous to the sexual relationship between man and woman within marriage that's the deepest level of intimacy you can experience with somebody and by way of analogy we know God it's not knowing facts about God and data about God though knowing facts and data about God is important but it's talking about something much grander than that it's talking about a deep level of intimacy and that's how Jesus defines eternal life that's why in Ephesians 5 we are the bride as the church he is the what groom that's why that analogy is used it's analogizing our relationship to God to the most intimate relationship you can have with another human being I mean only the marriage relationship would even qualify as a potential descriptor of knowing God so that's what eternal life is I like to define eternal life as sharing in the life of God which never ends I have many many verses there on point number 5 that articulate that but one that I won't look up all those I'll let you look those up this week in your personal study time but one I will share with you is Galatians 2:20 which is Galatians 2:20 is the secret of the spiritual life Galatians 2:20 the Apostle Paul says I have been crucified with Christ look at this it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me isn't that an amazing statement so the secret to the spiritual life is not me going out and doing a bunch of stuff for Christ I mean the secret to the spiritual life is not me going out and living for God you mean the secret to the spiritual life is not me going out and checking off on my checklist what I've done for God that's not the secret to the spiritual life at all the secret to the spiritual life Paul says it's not me doing it it's Christ who what lives in me I mean the best thing I can do is get out of the way right the secret to the spiritual life is get out of the way and let God live his life through you that's that's a totally different concept isn't it then relate what religion offers where we have to do X Y & Z to to merit something from God that's not what the Bible teaches at all the whole spiritual life is he lives his life through us that's what he turn a life is it is sharing I got to watch myself I'm starting to preach here I could tell myself I feel a three-point sermon coming on here it's it's sharing in the life of God which never ends and one other thing and I'll close with this take a look at John 5:24 eternal life is a present tense reality and there is so much misunderstood this I'm gonna die and go to heaven and have eternal life in other words we look at eternal life as something we're gonna get you know in the in the in the after life some at some point that is not how the Bible ever describes eternal life it is a present tense reality it is something that the believer experiences right now and of course death only accentuates that but it's something you have now so notice John chapter 5 verse 24 Jesus says truly truly now when he says truly truly we need to truly pay attention he's saying truly twice truly is a translation it's it's translated amen so um when we say I'm in you know like the preacher makes a point that's good or people agree with us say Amen or after a prayer we'll say Amen and that means true it's true or it's certain so Jesus says truly truly amen amen certainty times two is what he's saying truly truly I say to you he who hears my word and believes him who sent me see that's the that's what gets you into these riches belief in Christ he who believes in Him who sent me look at this has eternal life you see that he doesn't say he who believes in Me will get eternal life doesn't say that at all he who believes in Me has eternal life now when you translate the verb has in Greek it's a present tense verb eternal life is something you get right now it's something it's it's a it's a rich one of your riches that you immediately enter into at the point of faith in Christ he who believes in Me has eternal life does not come into judgment but has passed out of death unto life see death is some separation is something you passed out of but now that you've passed out of separation you're into this union with God which never end and it starts pronto them at the moment you trust Christ as as your Savior so it is knowing God intimacy and it is sharing in the life of God which never ends so what exactly do you have in Christ I mean you have adoption or sonship or airship and then you also have eternal life so I hope you're feeling pretty rich because that's it's not what what I say about you it's what's God says about you and we're just we're just barely getting into this next week we'll look at regeneration and some of these other things all right I'll stop talking we'll let folks go to pick up their kids if they need to do that and the family has any questions we could open it up for you

Channel: Andy Woods' Unofficial Channel

Views: 2,659

Rating: 4.860465 out of 5

Keywords: andy woods, soteriology, sons, of, God, sonship, son, children, daughter, daughters, osas, eternal secutiry, once saved always saved, gospel, andrew woods, chafer

Id: COPeujI6nk0

Length: 64min 5sec (3845 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019