Corinthians
26 Dec 2009
WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 165 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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If the angels, Adam, and Eve, without having sin natures and living in perfect environments failed, we are fools to think that we, who DO come into this world (Psalms 51:5) with a fallen nature that is inherently receptive to satanic deception and hostile towards the things of God (Romans 8:7), are not going to fail.
The more we desire to identify and execute the plan of God for our lives, the more intense the pressure there will be from the sin nature within us to impede our progress.
Dying daily is not accomplished by denying the presence of the sin nature within us.
Failing to acknowledge the presence and the threat that the sin nature poses is a serious tactical error.
Therefore, we are not to gauge our spiritual progress on how well we CONTROL the fallen nature within us.
We are not to control it; we are to deny its power over by refusing to listen to its influence while simultaneously listening to the voice of God who speaks to our soul through the regenerated spirit that we received at salvation.
Attempting to execute the post salvation spiritual life with the, so-called, “good side” of the fallen nature is what religion and religious rituals are all about.
I refer there being a good side of the fallen nature in Man for the purposes of identification only. It appears to BE good, as opposed to its counterpart that desires to get involved with overt sin and acts of immorality.
There really is no good side to the fallen nature, as ANYTHING that the fallen nature produces is the fruit from the same tree that is totally unacceptable to God.
Man’s initial response to sin is always to try to atone for it via some act of human good.
Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves after becoming aware of their nakedness.
It was not the mutual nakedness of the bodies that was at the heart of the issue. Their sin of eating the forbidden fruit did not dissolve the legitimacy of their relationship with each other, but with God.
It was the nakedness of their souls before God, exposing their consciousness of their sin regarding the eating of the forbidden fruit that motivated them to perform some act of human good.
Disobedient children and spouse will do all kinds of extra chores to make peace offerings in order to atone for some misdeed, even though the chores or peace offering had nothing directly to do with the offense committed
Adam and Eve could do NOTHING to cover up the nakedness of their souls, but they could cover up the perceived change in their relationship revealed by their self-determined need to address their mutual nakedness that was a result of the actual sin committed.
God, by providing animal skins for clothing, demonstrated to them that it was to be via divine intervention that the means to address sin was to be provided.
This was a foreshadowing of the ultimate provision, the spiritual death of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to come.
No amount of fig leaves or any other acts of human good could undo the sin committed by Adam and Eve, and no amount of human good, including the human good of religion, religious rituals, or penance can atone for our sin or restore the spiritual death that was passed down to us.
The issue of sin, as far as salvation is concerned, was addressed once and for all by the Person and Works of the Lord Jesus Christ, while ON the cross, and become personally applicable to the BELIEVING soul by a ONE time act of faith. The spiritual death status that is passed down to us is addressed by the one-time and irreversible WORK of God the Holy Spirit in the Titus 3:5 process that automatically takes place at the moment of salvation.
Even Communion or the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, as sacred as it is, is not for the purpose of reproducing the Person or the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but to bring such things into remembrance until He returns (1Corinthians 11: 24-26).
Satan WOULD have us believe that functioning under the good side of the fallen nature within us is what pleases God.
He, likewise, would have us believe that we can restore our relationship with Him by acts of human good, when we fail.
This argument makes sense to the fallen nature is Man, as it is with the “good” side of the fallen nature than Man produces human good, which includes religion. Such activity appeals to Man because it appears to provide Man with the means to make himself right with God, but this does no more good for us than the fig leaves did for Adam and Eve.
The voice of the good side of the fallen nature in Man will take and keep us just as far away from the plan if God as will any overt or easily recognized sin(s).
Human power, at best, can only produce human good. It NEVER has and never will produce ANYTHING of value in the spiritual realm.
The pressure to resist the plan of God will focus on both the point of identification and the point of application.
The mystery doctrines of the Church Age are not labeled so because they are hard to comprehend or to apply, providing that the disciple does so under the filling of God the Holy Spirit (John 15:5).
Comprehending and applying spiritual information with a nature that is hostile towards it is futile.
Man cannot execute a plan that he knows nothing about, has no natural desire to look into, and by nature is hostile towards it (Romans 8:7).
The pressure to neglect and or to reject the plan of God COMES from our own fallen nature and will be encouraged by the Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 166 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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Born again believers will be encouraged to invest the time and abilities that God has given us to glorify Him in other persons, places, and things.
Many of these persons, places, and things, in of themselves, are perfectly legitimate and a good part of our experience while here on earth.
Some of these persons, places, and things are a part of satanic strategy to stop the born again believer from entering into or advancing in discipleship.
Learning which is which is a part of growing up in the spiritual life
Of the persons, places, and things that remain, there issue is a matter of establishing and maintaining an appropriate list of priorities.
This is the challenge and the reality of Luke 14:26. Luke 14:26 refers to giving up one’s selfish, independent, and/or sinful life in order to pursue the calling of God, and the necessity of “hating” people who are naturally closest to us.
Hating, in the English, does not sound like a Christian characteristic, but its interpretation and application will be addressed in a moment. First note that Luke 14:26 is addressing discipleship and is NOT speaking of a condition in order to retain salvation.
Choosing to favor a relationship with one’s mate via compromise, over a relationship with God via obedience, was the sin of Adam.
Eve was deceived, but Adam chose to listen to his wife (Genesis 3:17).
This sin is a perversion of a legitimate desire to like and to be accepted by a person(s) with whom we desire to have personal relationships.
When this legitimate desire is perverted, relationships or the desire to have one is placed above one’s relationship with the Lord.
This inordinate desire allows one’s spouse, family members, and friends to become willing or unknowingly tools in the hand of Satan.
A bullet fired in ignorance can be just as lethal as one that is fired with malicious intent. No one is further lost than he who believes he is not!
When our Lord (Luke 14:26) taught that a disciple must “hate” family members and one’s own life, He was not fostering ill will towards family members or speaking against personal goals or interests.
What He was teaching is the need to establish and to maintain a set of priorities that put God and the things of God first.
Hate in Luke 14:26 is an English translation of the Greek word m-i-s-e-o, meaning to love less. Compliance with Luke 14:26 is a matter of establishing and maintaining a list of priorities.
There will be times when one must say NO to others in order to say YES to God. God will engineer or allow circumstances to develop that will reveal to US where God and the things of God are on our list of priorities at any given time.
These circumstances are not always a test for the advancing disciple, but merely opportunities for the advancing disciple to exhibit to others what his/her priorities are.
Don’t expect worldly oriented or religious family members and friends to have the same values, interests, or priorities that you develop along the road of discipleship.
The advancing disciple will develop and ever increasing desire for the things of God with an ever decreasing interest in the passing things of earthly life.
These differences will generate conflicts with friends and family when it comes to the setting of an agenda, and will compete for our attention, time, and resources.
Temporally oriented people will not understand what being an advancing disciple is all about until they understand what the true, post salvation spiritual life is all about. Once they do, they will no longer have any questions about why you or don’t choose to do the things that you do.
Contrary to the perception that legalists and religious persons have, retaining salvation is NOT the objective or the focus of the POST salvation spiritual life.
Spiritual death, that being the condition in which we came into this world (Psalms 51:5), is taken care of once and for all at the moment of salvation by the permanent, irreversible, regenerating Work of God the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
Once born again, spiritual death is no longer a possibility. There is no need to be concerned about something that cannot be lost. It only becomes a perceived need to those who are either ignorant of, or choose to reject the Word of God and listen to voice of Satan speaking through religion.
The Word of God is often rejected because it does not line up with how one “feels”.
Doing what we “feel” like doing and what our sin nature desires to have us do, are one in the same.
Discipleship is not about doing what we feel like doing. It is about learning and applying the principles of the Word of God regardless of how we feel.
The inability to sense the rebellious, independent, and hostile characteristics of the fallen nature within us is what makes us so vulnerable to its deception.
The issue of sin, as it relates to eternal security has also been addressed once and for all at the moment of salvation.
The heretical, but popular teaching that one can lose his/her salvation is not only a major source of distraction from executing the true post salvation spiritual life, it is a blasphemous attack on the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Such evil IS promoted by the Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil and there are many who continue to be deceived by it.
One cannot experience the peace, security, and necessary confidence that a born again believer will need to have in order to endure all the adversity that is to come during the post salvation spiritual life, if he/she is deceived into doubting the permanency or the integrity of his/her salvation.
You cannot be totally focused on the road up ahead if you spend most of your time looking in the rear view mirror.
Sin, as it relates to the POST salvation spiritual life needs to be addressed in order to have the necessary filling of God the Holy Spirit.
The filling of God the Holy Spirit is required in order to execute the plan of God (John 15:5), but has nothing to do with salvation.
Satan can do nothing about the fact that a soul has been saved, but he can do much to impede the progress of a disciple if he/she can be dissuaded from focusing on the true post salvation spiritual life.
Just as God the Holy Spirit intends for us to execute the post salvation spiritual life in the midst of our daily routines, the Ephesians 6:12 forces of evil will use many of these same incidents and circumstances to distract us (Luke 8:14).
In order to DIE daily and to LIVE for the Lord, the advancing disciple must learn what it is that he/she is to put to death, and what it means to live for the Lord.
Living for the Lord, does NOT involve the retaining or preservation of the eternal life or the regenerated spirit that the born again believer receives at salvation (Titus 3:5).
Those who spend their post salvation spiritual life trying to do just that have never come to the understanding of what actually takes place at the moment of salvation.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 167 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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The advancing disciple must learn what part sin plays in both the PRE-salvation and POST-salvation spiritual life.
Failing to do so will result in one spending his/her entire post salvation spiritual life either trying to do what is neither required nor possible, or one might develop a loose lifestyle with the concept that sin no longer matters.
Neither extreme is what the true post salvation spiritual life is all about.
First, let’s take a look at the impact that sin has on our pre-salvation status.
Since the Fall of Man, we are born spiritually dead (Psalms 51:5) with a fallen nature that is passed down from generation to generation.
Our creation was not a choice that we made, and neither was the fact that we were born sinners.
We do not become sinners, we are born that way. What we do have a choice about is to remain in the spiritually dead condition in which we came into this world, or to choose God’s only and only solution to the sin issue.
While ALL sin has its temporal and eternal consequences, there is only ONE sin that will result in a soul remaining in the spiritually dead condition in which he/she came into this world.
Should a soul choose to remain spiritually dead, he/she will spend all of eternity, separated from God, in what the Bible calls the Lake of Fire (Rev.20:13.15).
One chooses to remain spiritually dead by not being born again (John 3:3). A person is born again by receiving a regenerated spirit (Titus 3:5) and eternal life, the moment he/she makes a positive response to the Gospel Message.
The unpardonable sin is the sin of disbelief (John 3:18) in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ that is made known to him/her via a presentation of the true Gospel Message.
The “Person” of the Lord Jesus Christ refers to WHO He is and His WORK refers to what He accomplished while on the cross to provide for the salvation of all mankind.
Those who do not come to believe in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ leave this world in the same spiritually dead condition in which they arrived.
Those leaving this world spiritually dead find themselves in Hades and will eventually find themselves in the Lake of Fire for all of eternity (Revelation 20: 13, 15).
Those who DO come to BELIEVE in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ are BORN AGAIN as a result. The regenerating, irreversible, WORK of God the Holy Spirit automatically takes place at the moment of salvation (Titus 3:5).
The saving WORK of the Lord Jesus Christ, already completed while on the cross, becomes applicable to the individual soul whenever anyone makes a positive response to the Gospel Message.
Our Lord paid in full the sin debt of all mankind.
He did so via His spiritual death, during the last three of the six hours He spent on the cross.
It was during these hours that He repeatedly cited, in part, the 22nd Psalm, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me…”, as He experienced spiritual death (separation from God the Father) in our behalf.
Before dying physically by giving up His spirit into the hands of God the Father (Luke 23:46), He announced, “it is finished”.
“It is finished, is an English translation of the Greek word t-e-t-e-l-e-s-t-a-I, meaning to complete, perform, or fulfill.
This same Greek term was what was written across a document of debt in the ancient world, just as the phrase “paid in full” would be written or stamped across an invoice today when a bill has been paid.
Paul used this same analogy in Colossians 2:14, where he speaks of the Lord canceling out our certificate of debt.
God the Father cannot send ANYONE to Hell to pay for ANY sin that has already been paid in full by the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Teaching that salvation can be lost as a result of a post salvation sin is a blasphemous attack on the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ who paid in full.
A person is BORN again and receives eternal life and a regenerated spirit the moment he/she believes a presentation of the Gospel Message.
The impact of sin, as far as one’s pre-salvation status is concerned, is addressed once and for all at the moment of salvation.
Now, let’s take a look at the impact that sin can have on our post salvation life.
Born again (John 3:3) believers are saved from the torments of Hades and the Lake of Fire, but engaging in post salvation sin results in receiving divine discipline (Hebrews 12:6) while here on earth and loss of certain rewards, aka their inheritance (Galatians 5:21), in Heaven (1Corinthians 3: 12-15).
It is VERY important NOT to confuse one’s potential inheritance, spoken of in such passages as (Galatians 5:21), with one’s salvation that has already been secured and cannot be lost or compromised.
The “inheritance” is a reference to certain blessings that will be received in Heaven, for the production of any divine good that God produces through born again believers in the course of one’s post salvation spiritual life (John 15:5/1Corinthians 3:12-15).
All born again believers start out with a full inheritance awaiting them in Heaven, in what would be similar to an escrow account.
The omniscience of God knew of every deed of divine good that each and every born again believer of the Church Age would have the opportunity to perform in the course of his/her post salvation spiritual life and assigned an accompanying eternal blessing for it that was to be received at the 1Corinthians 3:12-15 evaluation in Heaven.
Rather or not any given born again believer receives his/her full reward, partial reward, or no reward, is determined by the free will choices that he/she makes every day of his/her post salvation spiritual life.
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WELCOME BACK. I AM PASTOR DOUG. WE NOW CONTINUE WITH PART 168 IN OUR SERIES ENTITLED, “PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS”.
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An earthly escrow account contains funds that were placed in it for a specific reason and objective in mind. The assets are distributed when the preexisting conditions are satisfied.
Our inheritance will be distributed at the 1Corinthians 3: 12-15 evaluation of the born again believer’s deeds. The condition to receive them is the corresponding production of divine good while here on earth.
The reason that born again believers lose their inheritance, in part or in full, is because NO ONE can produce divine good while out of fellowship with God (John 15:5).
The more time we spend out of fellowship with God, engaging in sin, the less time and opportunity we have to produce divine good.
A born again believer loses fellowship (2Corinthians 13:14) and remains out of fellowship as long as ANY known sin(s) are not confessed (1John 1:9).
These “out of fellowship” periods of time during one’s post salvation spiritual life can be as brief as the time it takes to confess the known sin(s).
The inheritance that IS lost consists of the 1Corinthians 3: 12-15 rewards that would have been given to the same believer for the divine good he/she would have otherwise produced during these same periods of time, if he/she had remained Spirit filled.
It is also worth reiterating here, that although the filling is immediately restored as soon as the known sin is confessed, sin must also be forsaken (John 8:11), the believer is to retain the fellowship and filling necessary to execute, the post salvation spiritual life.
1Corinthians 3:15 clearly teaches that even if all of one’s potential rewards are lost, he/she remains saved.
All believers start out in their post salvation spiritual life Spirit filled and with a full inheritance in their escrow account but how much of that inheritance they receive will differ greatly from one believer to another and will not be made known until the 1Corinthians 3: 12-15 evaluation in Heaven.
Success in the execution of the post salvation spiritual life cannot improve and failure in the execution in the post salvation spiritual life cannot diminish the integrity of one’s salvation, but can certainly impact the inheritance that any one believer could have received.
The two things that can NEVER be recovered is the accumulated time that a born again believer spends out of fellowship with God during his/her post salvation spiritual life and the eternal rewards forfeited that he/she could have otherwise received.
The Doctrine of Eternal Security is not a license to sin, as confirmed by the severity of the consequences that post salvation sin can generate.
While loss of salvation is NOT a possibility, divine discipline can result in anything from living with a guilty conscience (Psalms 32), up to and including physical death (Acts 5).
As we have just seen, in additional to divine discipline here on earth, there will be the forfeiture, in part of in full, of heavenly reward and privileges, as well.
Loss of eternal reward consists of the honor and accompanying privileges that the same believer would have received and enjoyed for all of eternity.
The struggle between the fallen nature and the new spirit/creation in us that we received at salvation (Titus 3:5) is for the control of our thoughts, which inevitable determines our behavior.
Keep in mind the purpose that Man was created.
What the devil wants to see is individuals using their free will to reject God’s plan of salvation and the true post salvation spiritual life. He wants them to choose independence from God by choosing the self-centered life that is endorsed by the fallen nature.
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Pastor Doug Laird
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