Sermon Tone Analysis

WEDNESDAY SERVICE

2021.11.17

We are going to look at 1 Corinthians 3, by way of introduction to tonight’s study of Revelation 2:7

It is always necessary to interpret the Word of God in light of the Word of God.

This means that when we study scripture, we look to clear or more clearly stated passages to give us insight into the passage we are studying - where applicable.

This lends us to the study of Systematic Theology where Bible Scholars establish links to other verses and systems of categorizing scripture, based on interpretation of other scripture.

If you have not read Chafer’s Systematic Theology, I highly recommend it.

It is the normal literal view of scripture that yields the dispensational view of scripture which yields the grace view which when applied together captures the ability to rightly divide the word of truth.

Starting in 1 Cor 3:11

In 1 Corinthians 3:11 the apostle Paul develops a metaphor of a building, any sort of edifice, and he starts with the foundation.

This is very important to understand in the context of what he has been talking about.

He has already laid into the Corinthians because many of them are carnal.

In the first three verses he separates them into two groups: “spiritual,” i.e. those who are filled with the Spirit and moving forward in the Christian life, and “carnal, fleshly,” i.e. those who are operating on the sin nature.

Then he adds a term, “as to babes in Christ.”

It is confusing in the English because it looks like he is equating carnality with being spiritually immature.

But that is not the word he is using here.

He is not using BREPHOS [νήπιος], which would be the normal word for a baby, he is using the word NEPIOS [νήπιος] which was used in slang terminology to indicate someone who was older but was acting like a baby.

This is a pejorative term.

So what he is doing is basically saying they were carnal, but “You are just babies.”

This is not a complimentary term.

He is really laying into them and calling them a bunch of arrogant, whiny, self-centered babies.

This is clear because in verse 3 he comes back and says, “Are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” What is he is saying there is that they are trying to live the Christian life simply in your humanity, simply in their own resources as a human being.

That is always going to end up producing the works of the flesh, because unless you are walking by means of the Spirit all that is being produced is the works of the flesh.

Having established that there are two different categories of believers—those who are carnal and those who are spiritual—he then goes on to say that if they continue long term in either one of these positions then those distinctions will be mad available when they come to the judgment seat of Christ.

In verse 11 he says there is a foundation which is in Christ alone:

Now to verse 12 and 13

At the instant of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone the believer lays a foundation in his life which is his new position in Jesus Christ.

But from that point on the issue is up to his volition as to how he is going to live his life and the production of his life.

If all the things he does in life are work, play, recreation, everything that he does, is either going to be done in the power of the sin nature or it is going to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The issue is that we have to keep short accounts with confession to make sure that we are walking by the Spirit and that we recover from our sin when we do sin.

But as we go through life and we get involved in all the activities of life we are building an edifice.

We are constructing our life.

At the end of our life we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is going to make evident what was from the Spirit; what had eternal value.

When we are building it we are not always sure what is wood, hay and straw and what is gold silver and precious stones, so there has to be an evaluation mechanism.

Paul says that we build on this foundation with all these various construction tools and says that each person’s work will become clear because the day of judgment at the bema seat will reveal it.

All of the human good produced in the believer’s life is going to be destroyed.

What is revealed is what survives the fire.

Remember, “work” is a key word in Revelation 2 & 3.

Each one of the seven churches is evaluated by their works, their production.

“He shall suffer loss,” is when the believer becomes a loser at the judgment seat of Christ.

The concept of being a loser is that you lose something; you lose rewards because you have been a failure in the Christian life.

This is not a matter of losing salvation, but rewards.

Rewards and responsibilities in the Millennial kingdom are based on production; not Christian service but whether or not the believer has been walking by means of God the Holy Spirit, producing the character of Christ which, if he is, will ultimately work its way out in various areas of Christian service.

It is very clear that not only are their two classifications of believers on earth—those who are carnal and those who are spiritual—but if a believer spends a maximum amount of time in carnality then when he gets to the judgment seat of Christ all of his human good is going to burn up.

If he spends maximum time in walking by means of the Spirit then he is going to produce divine good that will not burn up, and that will survive the evaluation test.

Now we have learned that there are four mandates to the born again believer, which we have reviewed

These are four mandates and in each one you are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit.

If you are filled with the Spirit you have entered the divine dynasphere, you are always indwelt.

If you are functioning at the different gates you walk by means of the Spirit and at the same time you are indwelt by the Spirit.

If you are in cosmic 1 you grieve the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt by the Spirit.

If you are in cosmic two you quench the Holy Spirit but you are still indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit does not preclude the communication of Bible doctrine by the pastor but aids it and enhances it.

“churches,” e)kklhsia, the thing that made Rome great.

All teaching is conducted in the classroom of the local church.

The reason for that is by God’s design.

As teaching flows from the pastor to the congregation, academic discipline provides a means for members of the body to receive teaching unimpeded.

There is a system of authority - From God , through His word, taught by the pastor, taken up in church services and thus feeding the local body.

All of the local body are then to exercise their gifts for the church body, through the church body, and glorify God as their unique gifts are shaped by bible doctrine to the glory of the Father.

Translation of verse seven so far: “He who has an ear, let him hear what sort of thing [Bible doctrine] the Spirit communicates to the churches.”

If you learn your doctrine, if you grow in grace, if you advance to maturity, there is a future reward in eternity.

To those who overcome.

So let’s deal with this issue of overcoming first, and once that is understood then we can better address and understand the concept of the Tree of Life, as it is intended in Revelation 2:7.

There are basically two views on this concept of being an overcomer.

One is the view that every believer is an overcomer; the second view is that only believers who advance in the Christian life are overcomers.

The latter is the view that we take.

The word translated “overcomes” is a Greek participle based on the verb νικάω nikáō.

It is a present active participle with an article, which means it functions as a substantive; it is like a noun.

This is simply a name for a person, the one who overcomes or the overcomer or the victorious one, the successful believer; any of those terms could fit.

The verb νικάω nikáō is related to two Greek nouns.

The feminine noun is NIKE, the Greek goddess of victory (and where we get the name for the athletic equipment), and the masculine noun νικάω nikáō which emphasizes the prize of the victory, which in 1 Corinthians 15:57 talks about:

The focus is on the ultimate victorious reception of that prize of a resurrection body when the Rapture occurs.

The question must be asked: What do they overcome?

Overcomers of what?

In order to understand this we have to do some work on this word “overcomer.”

This word is used about nine times in Revelation, about four or five times other than in the letters to the seven churches.

The word is used a number of times in 1 John, and that is really where we run into the problem of trying to understand what we are overcoming.

Before we get into this we need to remind ourselves of the three stages of salvation: phase one, phase two and phase three.

At phase one we are justified; phase two is the spiritual life; phase three is glorification.

The Bible used the word “saved” to refer to all three of these stages, and that confuses a lot of people.

In fact, in some epistles such as Romans and Hebrews it is doubtful that the word “saved” σώζω sṓzō ever refers to phase one.

It is talking about phase two, which Paul refers to in Philippians chapter two as “working out your salvation with fear and trembling,” i.e. saved from the power of sin.

At phase one we are freed from the penalty of sin—spiritual death, Genesis 2:17.

At phase two we are being saved from the power of sin.

We still have a sin nature and are learning, as Paul says, to put to death the deeds of the flesh.

We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, Romans 6:11.

The whole argument in Romans 6 flows out of the resurrection of Christ because at the instant of salvation, Paul argues, we are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, and just as he rose to newness of life so we have a new life post-salvation.

We have to learn to live as those who are identified with Christ and not as those who are spiritually dead.

In phase three we are saved from the presence of sin.

When we talk about this concept of overcoming or having victory over something in phase two, we are having victory over the sin nature, and specifically in the epistle of John, you are overcoming the world system.

We have to understand this in light of Romans 12:2,

Rom 12:2

Renovating of the thinking means taking in doctrine.

You can’t do it twice a week; you can barely do it seven days a week.

Any believer who thinks he can renovate his thinking by coming to church once a week or twice a week is fooling himself.

The cosmic system is so ever-present and so overpowering, and it has such receptivity with his sin nature that he has to constantly have our minds refreshed and renewed by listening to the Word of God and the teaching of the Word of God.

It is a way of life.

You are never going to make it in the Christian life until you realize that doctrine is your life.

That is the only way you are truly going to make it as an overcomer, as a successful believer.

In Romans Paul says that we are not to be conformed to this world.

Conformed is the Greek word

συσχηματίζω suschēmatízō which has the idea of being pressed into a mold.