Evening news is where they begin with good evening and then proceed to tell you why it isn't Gospel news is where they begin with good news and then proceed you proceed to tell you why you ain't The Greek word for Gospel is euangelion. It has a prefix, eu, and you are familiar with that prefix in the English language. Euphonic means good sound. Eulogy means a good word. And these are things that we talk about with regularity. Gospel, euangelium, is a good message, it's a good word. The root word, angelium, is related to the word angelos, transliterated into English by the word angel. meaning messenger. So an angel is a messenger by God, heralding God's news. So a person who is speaking God's gospel, God's euangelium, God's good news, is making a declaration. This is God's Word, His message, His good news. Now a full-orbed discussion about the gospel does not begin with Jesus. It does not begin with the cross of Calvary. It doesn't even begin with the state of fallen mankind. A full discussion about the gospel begins with its author, God himself. And when we talk about God and his character qualities, we might think about his sovereignty. We might think about his love, his mercy, his justice. And all of these character qualities would come into a discussion about God's gospel. But if the gospel itself is the focus of our discussion, we must begin here. we must begin talking about God's holiness. And when we talk about God's holiness, there are two facets that have to be addressed. First, God is separate. And second, God is morally pure. When we talk about God's separateness in the context of his holiness, We're talking about God being completely other than. He is not like fallen mankind. Specifically, point number two, he is morally pure. God never sins. God never breaks his own law. When we think about Jesus, one of the members of the Holy Trinity, there was never one time that a cuss word came out of his mouth. There's never one time when he had a jealous or selfish reason for doing anything. He was flawless, morally perfect. Now that doesn't characterize us. There's not a day that goes by that we haven't broken God's law in some way. His commandment, we have trampled in the mud and we've lived life according to our standards, according to our desires, according to our righteousness. And God says, No. Whoever wants to be in my presence has to be like me. If you want to be in the presence of Almighty God, if you want to be with him in heaven, you must be perfect. Morally flawless. Immediately you start backing up and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How can that be? I can't do that. Listen to the testimony of scripture. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13, your eyes are too pure to approve evil. You cannot look on wickedness with favor. How could a wicked person stand in God's presence? cannot look on wickedness with favor someone some five you are not a god who takes pleasure in wickedness no evil dwells with you the boastful shall not stand before your eyes you hate you hate all who do iniquity Here's the kicker, James chapter 2 verse 10, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. One peccadillo, one little tiny sin, one little tiny white lie. That's all it takes. And I am disqualified from being in God's heaven. I am not like him. I am condemned. I stand before a holy God, damned, judged, and cast out of his heaven. Well, here's the good news. This is why we speak about God's gospel, because through the perfect work of Christ, His perfections have been laid on my shoulder. His perfections have been credited to my account. Isaiah anticipates this. Isaiah chapter 61 verse 10, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will exult in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness. The gospel is that every man, every woman, every boy, every girl who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith alone, by God's grace alone, will through Christ alone be clothed in this righteousness. It is a foreign righteousness. It's not our own righteousness. But that's how, that's the only way we can stand before a holy God. It's nothing that I do. It's nothing that I say. It's no place where I go to. It's nothing that I can collect. I can't earn it. It's a gift given to everyone who believes. Martin Luther was quick to say that we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Let me explain this a little bit more. Point number one in your outline, I'd like to explore for a few moments the nature of our salvation, the nature of this gospel, the nature of this good news that God has announced through his people. When we talk about salvation, as I've done many times before, the Bible uses three different technical theological words, and all of them are under the umbrella of our salvation. Justification, the first word, second, sanctification, and third, glorification. In justification, I have been saved, past tense, from the penalty of sin. In sanctification, present tense, I am being saved from the power of sin. And in glorification, future tense, I will be saved from the very presence of sin. The first and the third of those three words are monergistic. mono, meaning one, like mono-rail, one rail, train. A monergistic work is something that God does. I don't have anything to do with it. It is a monergistic work. God justifies. God glorifies. Think about those two end pieces for just a minute. When a person is justified, he is declared righteous. He's still a sinner, so he's not righteous inside. He has been clothed as with a robe. He's been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That's a monergistic work. God does that. He has made a declaration. He has applied the work of Christ to a particular individual, one whom he has chosen from the foundation of the earth. Now, at the other end of the spectrum, regarding our glorification, this is when God finishes that work of making us righteous, where we are perfectly and completely cleansed from sin. It's the in-between stuff where we live. This is where we live the Christian life here on earth. And this is not a monergistic work. This is a synergistic work where we work with God. We are cooperating with the Holy Spirit. I have a responsibility in my sanctification. God is still very actively working, but so am I. From that time when I am clothed with righteousness to the time that I am perfectly made righteous, in that in-between time, in that sanctification process, I am becoming more and more like Christ, more and more like I will be in my glorified state. So having started with this state of justification, though a sinner declared righteous, I am working out my salvation, my sanctification, as Paul says, with fear and trembling, with earnestness and great humility. Now I'd like for just a moment here to compare the first in the middle of those two ideas, justification and sanctification. They are distinct ideas, but they are unified. They're not separated. There's two heresies that have raised their ugly heads over and over again historically regarding the relationship between justification and sanctification. The first is the heresy of legalism that blends the two, fuses the two, justification and sanctification, so much that there is no distinction, there is no separation between the two. A person is justified because they are sanctified. Justification and sanctification are The same thing, you are justified after you are righteous. After righteousness inheres within you, after righteousness is a part of who you are, then you are declared justified. The Judaizers of the first, second century, the Roman Catholic Church, many modern cults subscribed to this heresy. The second heresy related to understanding the differences of justification and sanctification is the heresy of antinomianism. Antinomianism comes from the Greek word antinomos, or literally anti-law. This position says Well, the first position has the justification and sanctification glued so tightly together that there is no distinction between the two. In antinomianism, you separate the two so much so that there's no unity. They're not connected. And it works itself out this way. An antinomian will say, well, all you need to do in order to be saved is to pray to receive Jesus. And if you are sincere, then you're in. You're justified. You're saved. And that's all that's needed. That's all that's required. It's that person who's really serious about spiritual things, really serious about the Bible, really serious about discipleship, that's the person who will take the next step. The first that you do in order to be justified is to trust Jesus as your Savior. It can be much later that you trust Jesus to be your Lord. And the two are not connected in any way. They are Separate, separate choices, separate works of grace, they are sometimes called. Question is, is that what the Bible teaches? This antinomian position, this false teaching, argues that there are two classes of Christian. There are those that are spiritual, those that are serious about their discipleship, and then there are those that are not so much, and we call those carnal Christians. Is that what the Bible teaches? Are there three classes of people? Unsafe people, and then among those that are saved, those that are spiritual Christians and those that are carnal Christians. Our text this morning is going to deal with that. But before we get there, let me say a few things to squash these heresies and get us centered on right doctrine. Let's talk about the nature of justification and sanctification and how they are related to each other for just a moment. It's important to see that there is a distinction without a separation. Let me give you an example so you can see what I'm talking about. A distinction without a separation. If I make a distinction between your body and your soul, I haven't harmed you. I'm maybe giving you insight into what makes you, you. But if I separate your body from your soul, I have just killed you and brought you great harm. We're talking about making a distinction without making a separation. Here's another example. We could talk about Jesus being the Savior and Jesus being the Lord. And it is helpful for us to make that distinction between those two roles, those two offices, those two responsibilities that Jesus has. He is the Savior and he is the Lord. but I do great harm to him and great harm to my spiritual life to separate the two. There is a distinction there, but no separation. Similarly, there is a distinction between justification and sanctification, but I must not separate the two. Justification speaks of my, what we might call my positional righteousness. My sanctification refers to my practical righteousness. There is a distinction between the two, but I cannot, must not separate them. The expectation by God is very clear in scripture. He expects, he demands, he requires holiness. Listen to the text of scripture Old Testament New Testament We find the same truth consistently throughout Leviticus 11 for I am the Lord your God consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy For I am holy for I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God thus You shall be holy for I am holy First Peter chapter 1 like the Holy One who called you, beholding yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. I am made in God's image. I am to reflect His likeness. Therefore, 1st John 4, 3, I'm sorry, 1st John 3, 3, everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. I purify myself just as he is pure. I am an adopted child and as such I want to be just like my heavenly father. Purify myself just as he himself is pure Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his fourth letter. We call it 2nd Corinthians Therefore chapter 7 verse 1 having these promises beloved. Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Listen to this, the author of Hebrews makes this so crystal clear. Listen, this is chapter 12, verse 14. All these are in your notes, you can look them up later. Pursue sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Pursue sanctification without which no one will see the pursuit of holiness is not optional. When God gifts us with the robe of righteousness, the robe of Christ, when he lays that across our spiritual shoulders, we are at that moment allowed to come into the presence of God. But underneath that robe, we are not righteous. and God will not allow his children to continue in that state. So God, by the person of the Holy Spirit, works in the life of a believer to mold us, shape us, remake us into his likeness. Without that process, we will not be in His presence. The two are inextricably linked together. You cannot have justification without sanctification. To emphasize that there is no distinction at all is to fall into the trap of legalism. To say that there is no unity, that there is a separation between justification and sanctification is to fall into the trap of antinomianism. So I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter three I'm going to read our text in just a moment, but let me have you highlight a couple things in your mind before I read. I want you to look at chapter 2, verse 14. It talks about the spiritual man. He cannot spiritually appraise truth. All that's in chapter two, verse 14. So we have the natural man who's unsaved. He is not justified. He is not sanctified. Now a Christian, as I have just argued, is one who has gone through justification and is in process, by definition, in the process of sanctification. Is there? Is there? Here's the question. Is there a carnal Christian? Is there a second class of Christian? Or a third class of person? one who has gone through justification, but has not entered that process of sanctification. Maybe you know people like this. Immediately, there's a young man who comes to my mind, who professed faith in Christ, but as you look at the fruit of his life, you saw absolutely nothing that would Demonstrate, authenticate, verify his profession. There was a profession of faith, but no possession of faith. Are there three classes of people? Two classes of Christians. Let me read our text. I'm on the second page of your notes. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, first four verses. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, you are not fleshly. Are you not fleshly? And are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not mere men? Number two, let's explore the nature of Paul's audience. Now he addresses them as brethren. You see that in verse one. You'll see it also in chapter 1 verse 10, chapter 1 verse 26, chapter 2 verse 1. You'll find it elsewhere in this letter. When Paul addresses his audience as brothers, he is affirming something. He is affirming a spiritual familial connection with these people. Now he's not saying that everybody in the Corinthian church, everybody that's going to be reading this letter or hearing this letter read is going to be automatically saved. He's not saying that. But he's saying in the main, the people receiving this letter are brothers in Christ. Brothers and sisters in the Lord. All right, that said, He says, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men. Now we have to pause here for just a moment because Paul broke a rule. The rule is, well, if you use a word in one way in one context, you have to use it that way all the time. Well, I don't know, that's a stupid rule, I don't do it. And Paul doesn't do it here either. He uses the word spiritual in two different ways within the scope of just four verses. Back in verse 14 of chapter two, he talks about the natural man and the spiritual person, he uses that word again in verse 15. Spiritual in that sense, is differentiated, the believer is differentiated from the unbeliever, the natural man, the spiritual man. So spiritual, at the end of chapter two, as Paul uses it, refers to a person who is genuinely born again, somebody who is a brother in Christ. But as he crosses the line over into chapter three, which is an artificial line that he didn't create, by the way, he begins using the word spiritual in a different sense. He's not talking about somebody who is a genuine believer. He's talking about somebody who is born again and somebody who is mature. The spiritual one is the one who is in that process, well down that road of spiritual maturity, of sanctification. These are able to receive spiritual meat. They may enjoy a glass of milk with their dinner, but they're able to eat a steak. He says, I couldn't speak to you as spiritual men. I couldn't speak to you as people that are down the road of sanctification. Why? He had to speak to them as men of flesh. This is where we get the term carnal Christian from this idea of flesh. Now if you were to go to the store and you were to pick up a can of chili, chili con carne, you would be picking up a can of chili with what? Meat. With carne. And the carnivores at your house will smile as they smell that chili cooking on the stove. Alright, Paul couldn't address these brethren as spiritual men, but as men of flesh. Now let your eyes go down to verse 3, and you'll find twice there it's translated fleshly in verse 3, two times in the New American Standard text. I'm seeking to highlight without giving you the raw data, I'm seeking to highlight two different Greek words that Paul uses. One in verse one, and the second one twice in verse two. Of flesh, verse one, fleshly, twice in verse three. They have the same root, flesh, but the suffix is different. The suffix in Greek can change depending on the case and its usage in a sentence, but I'm not talking about that portion of the suffix. I'm talking about a substantive portion of the suffix, in this case, a single letter that is different. The point is, there are two different Greek words very, very closely related, but they have different nuance, different meaning. In verse one, when Paul talks about men of flesh, he's not making a moral judgment against them. He's using the word flesh in a neutral sense. He's saying, and here we know this because of the next phrase in verse one, I'm speaking to you as infants in Christ. There's nothing wrong with a baby being born. We expect that a baby is gonna be a baby. We're surprised if anything else pops out, right? But we don't expect a baby to stay a baby. Here's my illustration. I pulled this out of Marianne's Sunday school classroom. She's teaching three-year-olds right now. And if we had a three-year-old come up here and sit in this chair, we'd say, that's cute, I like that. And then to see that we have tables that match, that's really sweet. However, if the mommy of one of those three-year-olds was to come up here and intentionally choose to sit in this chair, we would say, That's odd. That's strange. That's infantile. That doesn't make much sense. So when Paul talks to these brothers and says, you are men of flesh, he is saying you are infants in Christ. That's not a pejorative statement. But that's not right. You shouldn't be infants anymore. Verse three, he uses that word flesh in the New American Standard Translation, fleshly, in a different sense. It has the connotation of being unacceptable. inexcusable. This is something that is morally not right. You are still fleshly, Paul writes. Not only are they immature in their faith, they like it that way. They're content in their sin. And that's not right. That's not okay. Here's a parallel text for you. Romans chapter 8 verse 6. The mind set on the flesh is death. Verse 7. The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. Here's the problem. In the Corinthian church, there were those, and it appears to be a good number of them, that were not engaged in sanctification. Their spiritual life had stalled out, and they were okay with that. They had gone back to their old habits of sin, and that's not okay. God says, you are to be holy as I am holy. Yes, we are immature in our faith as we are growing in sanctification. We are not there yet. But to stall out and to no longer pursue practical, personal holiness is not an option. Those who are fleshly were dominated by their lusts, their desires, their inclinations of sin. And that's unacceptable. That's inexcusable. So the spiritual ones, as Paul addresses them in verse three, well, he actually says, I can't address you as spiritual men, as maturing men, not mature in the sense that you've got it all dialed in and you are perfect, not in that sense at all, but you are in process. Those that are the spiritual are the ones that are maturing. He says, that's how I must be addressing you as my brothers, but there's something wrong here. I can't even give you a regular meal because all you're drinking is milk, and that's not right. For a six month old, we don't expect them to drink much more than just milk. But for those that are six years old or 60 years old, we think something else is a little bit more appropriate. I want you to turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 11. Paul deals with all kinds of difficulties in this church, and here's another one. In 1 Corinthians 11, we find that the believers there are abusing the Lord's Supper, their agape feast. And Jesus, not Jesus, Paul, writes in chapter 11, verse 27, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. Look at this next verse. For this reason many among you are sick and weak and a number of you sleep. A euphemism for the fact that they have been taken by God. They're not on this planet anymore. They have been severely chastened by God because they have been persistent in their sin. God takes our sanctification very, very seriously. And so much do we. Well, back in our text, the issue for the Corinthians here in chapter three, Paul says, there is jealousy and strife among you. One says, I am of Paul. Another says, I am of Apollos. You drive by their house and you see placards in their yard as though it's an election season or something. Well, I'm throwing my support behind Paul or Apollos. The problem here in the Corinthian, one of the problems in the Corinthian church was they were divisive and their loyalties bred competition. And that's not okay. That's immaturity. And they should have known better. That's not pursuing Well, let me close with some points of application and spend a little bit of time here. I left blanks in your notes for you to fill in, the whole blank, the whole sentence. Point number one, there is no such thing as a carnal Christian, okay? There is no such thing as a second class of Christian. When Jesus began his public ministry, you can see this in Mark 1, verse 15. In his very first sentence as Mark recorded it, Jesus said, repent and believe. What was he doing? He was making He was making a statement that brought together two ideas. There is a distinction between repentance and faith, but there is no separation there. Both of them are intimately tied together. There is no such thing as a Christian who puts their trust in Jesus as Savior, and then puts their spiritual life on hold, and just kind of assumes, well, they're okay, because they got donked, or they went forward, or they said the right words, or they prayed the right prayer, they filled in a court, whatever it was. If our hope and our faith and our trust is in that one past event that took place when we were 10 years old or whatever it was, you're not saved. The person who is saved is one who has been justified, has put their faith in Jesus as the Savior, but he has submitted everything that he has to Christ. He has repented of sin. He has turned from his wickedness and said, I don't want that to dominate my life anymore. I want Jesus to be the focal point of everything that I do and I say, that's the person that's redeemed. Maybe this was your experience if you grew up in a Christian home or grew up in a church in some manner or fashion. You prayed a prayer at one point because the Sunday school let everybody in this prayer and you said silently that same prayer. And there were three or four or five or six of you that got baptized soon after that. And if that was the extent of your Christian, in air quotes, experience, if that was it, you're not saved. There is this humble submission to Christ. in all of who he is. As the Savior? Yes. As the Lord? Yes. Does that mean that I don't sin anymore? Oh, by no means. My point is that once a person enters that crosses the line and is justified, they immediately are in process of being sanctified. Point number two. There is no carnal Christian, but Christians are often carnal. And by that I mean that we all make bad choices. We all make fleshly mistakes along the way. Listen to Paul's own testimony. You can no doubt hear your own life testimony in Paul's words. I'm reading from Romans 7, verse 15. What I am doing, I do not understand, Paul writes. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Verse 19. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Same chapter, verse 22. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Yeah. Those who are genuine Christians. who we would call spiritual people. They are on that path of sanctification. They're walking the narrow road. But every once in a while, maybe even for a season of life, they will stray off the road and be besmirched by carnality. However, When you look back over your life, you see progress. You see more and more of Christ in you. Now maybe if you just look back yesterday, you won't see that. But if you look back a year, you look back a decade, you will see growth toward Christlikeness if you are indeed genuinely saved. Even if they be shriveled grapes, there will be the fruit of faith. Martin Luther King was quoted to have said, I may not be the man I want to be. I may not be the man I ought to be. I may not be the man I could be. I may not be the man I can be. But praise God, I'm not the man I once was. Which leads me to my third point. The Christian life is marked by continual repentance and humility. For when I stray off the narrow path and I am besmirched with the mud and the muck of the world, One who is a genuine Christian says, God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And in humility, in repentance all over again, we say, God, I don't want the world to dominate my life. I want the indwelling Spirit to move in my heart so much that I yearn to make Christ the focal point of my life every day, beginning right now. 1 John 2 3-4 The Apostle wrote, by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I have come to know him, but does not keep his commandments, is a liar. And the truth is not in him. And I might add, and the wrath of God is bearing down on him. First Corinthians chapter six, let me read this quickly. Verse nine, Paul says to this obstreperous church, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Are you saved, my friends? Can you look back at your life? Can you see spiritual fruit? One of the well-used tools in the hands of the Lord during the First Great Awakening was a man by the name of John Wesley. He once confessed, quote, I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England. Now his mother Susanna Wesley may not have had much theological polish on this statement, But she rightly understood the distinction without separation of justification and sanctification. She said this, there are two things to do about the gospel. Believe it and behave it. Let's pray. Father, it is my earnest desire and prayer. As for any that might hear this message, certainly for those in my hearing this morning, they will be convicted of their sin and the desperate need that they have for righteousness to be in your presence. Blessed God, would you dog us with the immaturity or the inexcusable nature of pursuing things of the flesh? That's not right. That's not fitting. That's not okay for a believer. Show us the holiness of the Lord Jesus and bring repentance and humility into our mind and into our soul all over again. We pray this in the name of the risen one. Amen.