Who Shall Inherit the Kingdom?

Transcript

GR 1314
12-11-05
Who Shall Inherit the Kingdom?
I Corinthians 6:9-11
Gil Rugh

We're going to be in I Corinthians 6 in your Bibles, I Corinthians 6. We are making our way through this letter that the Apostle Paul, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, wrote to the church at Corinth along about 55 A.D. And the church at Corinth is 6-7 years old now, but it's a church having more than its share of problems and difficulties. One of the problems that has plagued the church from these early days is the tendency to separate in an unbiblical way the spiritual and the physical. We sometimes refer to our position in Christ and our practice in Christ. And our position and our practice are distinct, but they must not be separated from one another. In fact, the scripture says they are inseparably joined together. When you separate your position from your practice, you end up with people who are confident and proud in their spiritual position, but whose lives do not reflect truly the character of God and His redemptive work. This is not a new problem, it was a problem in the church at Corinth, it's a problem today, it's been a problem down through the church's history. Jude wrote concerning false teachers and said they turn the grace of God into licentiousness. How do they that? Well if you separate your position from your practice, you're in effect saying your position in Christ is what you are, the rest of it is not that important. And so if you are not living a godly life, you should, but at least you are secure and righteous in Christ.

Paul is concerned about this problem in the church at Corinth. They didn't make the connection as they should between their spiritual position in Christ and the life that they were now living. Their conduct didn't reflect what Christ had done in them. Remember some of the problems—they have quarrels and divisions and jealousy and factions in the church. There is immorality in the church and it is being tolerated, as we saw in chapter 5. There is conflict between believers and they are going to the law courts of the city and allowing the unrighteous to sit in judgment between two believers. And none of this seems to bother the Corinthians. We read the letter and think, what are they thinking? They are thinking like many people today think. They were proud and arrogant because they were confident in their exalted position in Christ. After all, as Paul would write to the Ephesians, haven't we been seated with Him in the heavenlies? Don't we have His righteousness? They were confident in their superior knowledge and understanding, in fact, they saw themselves as even Paul's superior, spiritually. In the second letter he'll have to deal with that. He's already referred to that fact in chapter 4. So here you have people living with the idea of their own spiritual exaltedness, and at the same time they're living ungodly lives. And they don't make the connection. In scripture there is always a balance.

We must understand our position in Christ, we must understand our practice in Christ. If you fall off on your position, you will end up turning grace into licentiousness. If you fall off on the practice side, you will end up becoming legalistic, as though people by their own efforts could be obedient and serve the Lord. Rather, it is the biblical balance of the people of God must live out in their practice the position they have in Jesus Christ. And those whose practice does not reflect their position in Jesus Christ really have no position in Jesus Christ. They are deceived and deluded, and that's what Paul is going to warn the Corinthians of.

He's talked about the unrighteous to start chapter 6, believers, in verse 1, who dare to go to law before the unrighteous, not before the saints. The unrighteous stand in contrast to the saints. In verse 6 he talked about believer going to law against believer before the unbeliever, brother against brother before the unbeliever. So the unrighteous are the unbelievers, they are not the saints. In fact the word unrighteous, as we'll look at in a little bit as well, is just a negative form of the word we have to justify or to be righteous. We'll see that as we get into our verses. Note how verse 9 picks up, or do you not know that unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here we have this expression, do you not know. Remember it is used ten times in this letter to the Corinthians. It has been used twice already in this one chapter. Verse 2, do you not know that the saints will judge the world. Verse 3, do you not know that we will judge angels. And now verse 9, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And as we've noted on this, this is not asking them if they are ignorant, it's a kind of expression we use with our children when they do something so obviously stupid. They do something for which there is no excuse, we say, don't you know any better. I mean, of course you do. There would be absolutely no excuse of any kind for you not knowing what you should do here. So the question, do you not know this. I mean, you can't be ignorant of this truth. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom. And the unrighteous are the unbelievers, they are the unjustified. Same Greek word we're talking about with righteous and justified. To be justified means to be declared righteous. The unrighteous are those who have not been declared righteous through faith in Christ.

The unrighteous, the unbelievers, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Obvious truth. Unbelievers are not going to be in the kingdom that Christ will establish on this earth. They'll not inherit it, they're not going into it. Now the kingdom is referring to the kingdom that Christ will establish when He returns to earth. Remember Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3? And in verse 3 Jesus said, unless you are born again, you will never see the kingdom of God. No possibility for you to become part of the kingdom, Nicodemus, unless you are born again. You'll need to become a new creature, you'll need to have a new birth, a second birth, a birth from above, the work of God through the Spirit.

Turn back to Matthew 25. I realize I'm repeating some of this, because we've talked about the kingdom of God earlier in I Corinthians. And there is no reason, no excuse for ignorance on the subject of the kingdom when we talk about the kingdom. The kingdom does not exist now, we are not in the kingdom. Look in Matthew 25, but when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered before Him.

Back up to Matthew 24:26, if they say to you behold He, referring to Christ, is in the wilderness, do not go out. Behold He is in the inner rooms, do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. If anybody tells you the kingdom is starting, Christ has returned, don't believe it. Verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. All the tribes of the earth will mourn, they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Now you come to chapter 25 verse 31 again, when the Son of Man comes in His glory. When will that be? All the nations of the earth will see Him, the angels will be with Him, and He will sit on His glorious throne where all the nations will be gathered before Him. Has that happened yet? No. And then He will exercise judgment, separating the believer from the unbeliever. Verse 34, then the King will say to those on His right, come you, who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's when believers will be privileged to enter into the kingdom. Now you enter into your inheritance of the kingdom. God has planned and prepared this kingdom from before the creation of the world, now it will begin. And the righteous believers will go into that kingdom. Verse 41, while you're here, then He will say to those on His left, depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and His angels. The unbelievers are going to hell. So when Paul writes to the Corinthians and says, don't you know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, this is the kingdom he's talking about. And anyone not going into the kingdom, you know what they're doing? Verse 41, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. That's the destiny of unbelievers, the unrighteous.

Come back to I Corinthians 6. Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Command. Do not be deceived. One person wrote, a Christian is deceived if he thinks there is no correlation between spiritual position and practice. This is a command given in the present tense, and so some would translate it, stop being deceived. The commands in the present tense often refer to stopping something that is going on. Stop, passive voice, allowing yourself to be deceived. Now he is going to associate the fact that those who are unrighteous practice unrighteousness, just as those who are righteous practice righteousness. You cannot distinguish here. The unrighteous are those who are unrighteous in what they are and what they do. And now he's going to unfold ten specific sins that demonstrate a person is unrighteous, because his character and his practice are joined together. The Corinthians had allowed themselves to be deceived into thinking their position in Christ settled it, and it's all by grace. So there is somebody living in immorality, he shouldn't do that, but you understand he has his position in Christ and that's what matters because he is righteous in Christ, he is seated with Him in the heavenlies. And that's not the way it is. So it becomes a very strong warning to the church at Corinth. He's not writing this to the city of Corinth, he's writing this to the church at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, as chapter 1 verse 2 identifies them.

Do not be deceived. There are ten sins here, six of them he talked about in chapter 5 verse 11. Paul doesn't mind repeating himself, because he knows that believers tend to let these things go right on by. So he's going to repeat six of them, we're just going to highlight them, a few of them we will spend a little more time on. All of them are obvious, but some are confusing because of the way people try to twist them. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators. The first area of unrighteous conduct that demonstrates a person is not going to be part of the kingdom—fornicators. That word was used back in chapter 5 verse 11 where it was translated immoral person, the pornoi, the immoral people. These are people having sexual activity outside of the bond of marriage. So it encompasses all kinds of sexual activity among people who are not married. Fornication, immorality. This was common practice in Corinth in this day. That did not make it acceptable practice in the church. You'll note here, don't be deceived. Some of you may be indulging in this sin secretly and think, I know I trusted Christ and that's what matters. There will be no fornicators in the kingdom of God. That's not me saying that, that's saying well you can't judge that, you can't see the heart. You're right, I can't. I just want to tell you what the judge of the hearts of men has said. Don't be deceived. Fornicators will not go into the kingdom. Something is wrong. Evidently the man in the church at Corinth in chapter 5 was guilty of immorality, thought he was going to go into the kingdom. He didn't think he was going to hell, he's part of the church at Corinth. Something is wrong here. Fornicators are not going into the kingdom. I know, our society has changed its thinking and now we don't worry about teaching young people that sex before marriage is wrong, we teach them about safe sex. There is no safe sex outside of marriage, because God will call you to account for it. It's not the physical consequences that are most dangerous, it's the eternal consequences. Don't fear those who can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, rather fear him who after he has killed the body is able to destroy both body and soul in hell, Jesus said. People are afraid of AIDS, that's not the real problem. The real problem is not AIDS, the real problem is hell. That's the real consequence of immorality. Remember those not going into the kingdom will hear, depart from Me, cursed ones, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Don't be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers. I want you to note, we would have put fornicators and adulterers together, because adulterers refer to those who have sexual activity in violation of their marriage covenant. But in between those two sexual sins you have idolaters, because idolatry is not just bowing down before some kind of statue or idol like we think the pagans do in some darkened overseas country. Idolatry is false worship. And you know what? When we get to chapter 10 verse 14, you know what command Paul is going to give to the Corinthian church and its member? Flee from idolatry, and then down from verse 14 to 22 he'll talk about the problem of Christians be associated with false worship and false religious system which really draws you in to the worship of demons. And Christians need to take this seriously. You find people who profess to know Jesus Christ, profess to have trusted in Him and they're part of a religious system and churches that do not bow before the living God and believe in His proof. Oh well, ............ I meet people who at one time were at Indian Hills. Where do you go to church? Well I go here. Well, they don't believe the Word of God. Well, it's not as good, but our kids liked it, they met friends there, we thought it would be .................. No, you didn't think, don't try to cover up your stupidity by saying you thought. I mean, don't be deceived. Idolatry is a serious matter, you shouldn't be dabbling with it. I'm not saying if you don't come to Indian Hills you're going to an idolatrous church, don't get this twisted around. But I am saying we need to be careful about it, and I'll show the connection even more directly in a moment.

The next sin adultery, nor adulterers. Some people think they can violate their marriage relationship with sexual sin. And, I know, it's probably not right, but you don't know about my marriage and I've found the right person and this is the person .............. I've heard all the reasons and excuses. That's one thing about being in the pastorate a long time and getting to be an old man. Now you can tell the stories that nobody wants to hear about I remember when, and this happened. It goes on, and people justify it. You understand, if you're married and you're having any kind of sexual activity with anyone outside your marriage relationship, you are in trouble with God. They say, well I don't think you can say all adulterers are going to hell. I can't, but here's what God says. Adulterers will not inherit the kingdom. Don't be deceived. You say, I don't know, what about............. I don't know what about, all I can tell you is what God said. I'm not God. I do know that He gave a command here, don't be deceived about this matter. People say I know I've trusted Christ, I sometimes feel guilty about this decision, but you know I just can't help myself. Don't be deceived. Adulterers will not inherit the kingdom. I know I trusted Christ, I could give you my testimony. It doesn't say those who have good testimonies will inherit the kingdom, it says don't be deceived, adulterers will not inherit the kingdom. We'll talk about who will in a moment, but adulterers won't.

The next two, let me just note Hebrews 13:4, marriage is to be held in honor among all and the marriage is to be undefiled. So in marriage, sexual relationships between a husband and a wife is to be filled with pleasure and so on. This was a problem in the church at Corinth, when we get to chapter 7 you know what Paul is going to have to talk about? Sex in the marriage relationship. So things he is mentioning here are things that are issues in the church at Corinth. You know fornicators and adulterers, God will judge, Hebrews 13:4. You may think, nothing has happened to me. Well God didn't say He'll judge you yesterday or He'll judge you today, but you can be sure God will judge fornicators and adulterers. I know, but look at our society, everybody does it. And that's the God we have, He will judge everybody. As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow. God has appointed Jesus Christ as the judge of all men, and God will judge fornicators and adulterers for their sin.

The next two words, if you read anything in the commentators, recent commentators, you'll find endless material on the next two sins—effeminate and homosexuals. One writer wrote that these two words have been examined in recent years by those who would like to water down any condemnation in the New Testament of homoerotic acts. Another one wrote, here the notorious and intensive debate concerns whether these two Greek words refer to homosexual relations in general or more narrowly to prostitution, sacred male prostitution, adult child practices and so on. And we're talking hundreds of pages, and I haven't read them all, but I spent more time in theological journals and books on these words than I care to allow. You feel like you need to go get a shower after you read all that's going on. Anyone who says that the word translated effeminate and the word translated homosexual really just referred to homosexual prostitutes, or referred to child adult kinds of sexual activity that would have been wrong. Some even write, and they claim to be writing within evangelical frameworks, that in Paul's day they didn't really understand homosexuality as we understand it. They didn't know the genetic qualities that make up a person and determine that they will be heterosexual or homosexual. They didn't understand true, loving relationships among homosexuals. That's not what he is condemning here, just prostitution of a right relationship. Well that's a corruption of the Word of God, that's sinners trying to make the Word of God say something other than what it says.

The term effeminate simply refers to the passive party in a homosexual relationship. Homosexuals refers to homosexuals, all kinds of male to male or female to female, here it would definitely refer to male to male relationships. Interesting, this word translated homosexual, part of the discussion is it appears nowhere in the Greek language before Paul uses it. So evidently Paul coined the word. Now he probably put together these two words into a compound word, this is a compound word here. And in Leviticus 20:13, whoever sleeps with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They are liable to be put to death. The Greek translation of the Old Testament uses two words that make up this one word. It's almost never used afterwards either. Part of the problem is, as most Greek writers note, this would be considered a vulgar slang word. We don't want to talk about it's actual meaning, we just say, that's vulgar, it would be like a slang word. Paul is very blunt, like the prophets of the Old Testament were, when he talks about this kind of activity. The word is very blunt, very clear, very graphic and it encompasses homosexual activity. It is not talking about just those who are not in a loving relationship together, he's picking up the Leviticus condemnation in Leviticus 20:13 and other places. If you sleep with a male, one male with another male like you would a woman, you are to die, in the Old Testament. Here you are told you're not going into the kingdom.

Let me say something on this term since this is such an issue in our society, people promoting homosexual marriage, redefine marriage, and on it goes. These words would encompass, and this particular word, the second word we're talking about, the orientation of a person, not just the actions of a person. Some say they didn't understand you could be born a homosexual. The Bible says no, it is unnatural action, it is contrary to nature. And besides the Greeks knew all about this. Some say this is a recent phenomena. We are guilty of an anachronism when we try to read this in light of our day, but you understand this was common practice. Let me read you what one writer wrote. This was the sin, homosexuality, which had swept like a cancer through Greek life and which, from Greece, invaded Rome. Greek had given its name to this perversion. We can scarcely realize how riddled the ancient world was with it. Even so great a man as Socrates practiced it, we're going back now hundreds of years before Paul. Plato's dialogue, The Symposium, is always said to be one of the greatest works of love in the world. But its subject is not natural, but unnatural, love. Fourteen out of the first fifteen Roman emperors practiced unnatural vice. And you can read about the lives of the Caesars, and it is revolting. We think, what has happened to our society and our country. Nero was sitting on the throne when Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians. Nero castrated a young boy and then had a public marriage ceremony, using tax money. And after Nero died this boy was passed along to be the “wife” of the next emperor. I mean, we think............. What would you think of this going on in Washington if the next President went through that kind of ................ You say, it's not livable That's the world in which Paul lived, that's the world in which the Corinthian church had to be a center of God's holiness. Unrighteous people live unrighteous lives, ugly, vile, filthy things are practiced by the unrighteous.

Turn to Romans 1. You ought to note this sin, homosexuality, whether you're talking about the passive or the active partner in it, is listed among different kinds of sins of the unrighteous. So we want to be careful we become .................. Oh, some sins I can understand, but certain sins are so vile I don't even like to talk about them. Well, it's interesting, Paul puts this in the same category as he put fornication, as he put adultery, and he's going to put stealing and covetousness. Look at Romans 1, I think the situation is important in the context. Note verse 26, for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions. Now note this, their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, literally, against nature. And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman, burned in their desire toward one another. Men with men committing shameless deeds, indecent acts. They burned in their passion. This is what I am, this is the way I was born, they're consumed with it, I can't be anything else. But you note the context. Back in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. There is the unrighteous, are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. The end of verse 20 he says, they are without excuse. Verse 22, professing to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, birds, four-footed animals, crawling creatures. In fact, verse 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Remember in our list of the sins of the unrighteous, fornication, idolatry, adultery. These sexual sins are simply a manifestation of people who have rejected the living God and His truth. That's it. They refuse to bow before the living God, they refuse to submit to His truth. And so, verse 24, God gave them over to the lust of their hearts to impurity. Verse 26, He gave them over to degrading passions; verse 28, to a depraved mind. But you understand, this comes out of hearts that have rejected the living God and are in rebellion against Him, those who are worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. That's why people who have rejected God, they've rejected His truth, moral depravity always finds its way into their lives. And it's why the solution will not be to try to correct their moral depravity. The problem is their relationship with the living God, that's what needs to be corrected.

Come back to I Corinthians 6. We have Christians on crusade to save marriage and we've got to stem the tide of this vileness. You know, you don't find Paul anywhere talking about in the city of Corinth, they have to try to turn the city of Corinth away from the vile, open practice. And I didn't bring the quotes from some of the other writers before Paul and then Paul's day, and some of them exalt man-to-man love as a higher form of love. And they understood calling this an orientation because some of the writers, secular writers, now, say that men were born this way and never knew the desire for a woman. And they are the true men. We think we have something new and now we understand the genetic......... Nobody is born this way, if you have it, it is an unnatural state. We read it in Romans 1. You either believe the Word of God or you don't. All these sins are a manifestation of a rebellion against God, of a person who is unrighteous. That's why they won't be part of the kingdom that is characterized by righteousness. You note, it's not just their character, their actions reveal their character.

Back in I Corinthians 6. He goes on. Thieves, self-explanatory, and it's also mentioned other places in the scripture. The covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, all of the .............. Thieves wasn't mentioned in 5:11, but covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers, all were mentioned in 5:11. Drunkards, we know now, one evangelical commentator that is very well received, has some good things to say. He says, well Paul in his day didn't have the understanding we have today of alcoholism. I talked about this when we were in 5:11. So what he says about this activity today would be adjusted in light of our modern knowledge. Forget it. Alcoholism is just a sanitized word for drunk, that's all. Sounds better to call the person an alcoholic than it does a drunk. And besides, if I have alcoholism I'm not responsible, it's not my fault, I was born this way, I'm a victim, it's a disease. And besides I can't help it, I was born with that desire for the same sex, it's genetic. I need to be free to be in a loving relationship to express what I am. Where does it stop? I shared with you before, I have in my file an article about a man with a Ph.D. From Harvard, on his way to prison for adult child sexual relationship. You know what his claim was in the court? I was born this way, why can't you people accept that? Somewhere the line has to be drawn, right? _________I've shared with you, one of the major secular psychological groups that define the terms that psychologists use, changed adult child sex as from being depraved to now they say it is wrong if it is harmful to the child. Who are you going to ask if it/s harmful? The child? Will you take a vote of the kids that say, did you find it harmful or not? You realize, we don't have any grounds to say anything is wrong, because some people say this is the way I was born. And if they're born that way, there must be a reason, they ought to be allowed to express what they are from birth, so it must be okay. And where does it stop?

You might be interested, the word for thieves is klepti. Familiar with that? Somebody gets picked up for shoplifting. They're not thieves, they had kleptomania. I mean, I can't help it, I'm compelled to steal. I can go into a store and I see something that's nice and I'd like to have it and I prefer not to pay for it and I put it in my pocket. And I get arrested and they tell me I'm a shoplifter. I am not, I have kleptomania. I mean, there's no end to it, is there? The Bible says it is sin. This is what the unrighteous do who have rejected God, refused to bow before Him, suppress His truth because they don't want to hear it. The want to believe what they want to believe. You'll note, all these sins and others, this is not a complete list. He mentions six of them in verse 11 of chapter 5, he adds four more here in chapter 6. He's just giving you the kinds of things that characterize the life and behavior of the unrighteous, the unbeliever.

Turn back to Mark 7:20, Jesus speaking, that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of man, out of your inner being, proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All of these things proceed from within and defile the man. They come from within your being as a fallen person. That's the problem. That's why you cannot correct the problem by legislation against this. If they come up with a marriage amendment, I'll vote for it. And if they come up with a law outlawing the practice of homosexuality, I'll vote for it. But I'm not going on a crusade to try to reform and clean up society, because I know that the real problem isn't that they commit these specific acts. The real problem is they are unrighteous at heart and it comes out of what they are as fallen beings, corrupted by their sin. And so they just manifest what they are and what they do. That's the whole thing. That's why by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Those who practice righteousness are of God, those who practice sin are of the devil, I John 3. That's what Jesus said in Mark 7, out of the heart, your inner being, what you are comes your conduct. So unrighteous people do unrighteous things, righteous people do righteous things. It's not very difficult. The children of God have one kind of lifestyle, the children of the devil have another kind of lifestyle. Does that surprise you? Where did we ever get the idea that those who are born of God live the same way as those who are born of the devil live? I mean, Paul had to tell the Corinthians don't be deceived about this, but we have the same kind of issues rolling around us right down to our day.

Back in I Corinthians 6. None of these, the end of verse 10, will inherit the kingdom of God. And you'll note, this list of vices, sins, are bracketed by that assurance. These, the unrighteous, those who practice these things, will not inherit the kingdom of God. And the alternative as we saw in Matthew 25:41 is you will inherit hell. There are only two destinies laid out before you—the kingdom over which Christ will reign, which is ultimately heaven as the abode of God and the fires of hell. We're not just talking about your orientation......... this includes everything—what we are. Our conduct reveals what we are in our being.

Then Paul says in verse 11, such were some of you. What a statement. The power of God's salvation. Such were some of you. And this particular word for “were” is in the imperfect tense and it refers to this is what they were continually in the past. Such were some of you. And he hasn't listed all the sins. Some may not have indulged in sexual immorality. The Apostle Paul himself probably didn't, but he was a murderer and a persecutor of the church, and spiritually proud and arrogant. And all he prided himself in had to go on the dung heap when he gives his testimony in Philippians 3. Such were some of you. Look around, what are we? Sinners saved by grace, right? We sometimes give the idea, thank you, Lord, that I am not a sinner like other men. I don't even like to hear the word homosexual, I don't even like to talk about adultery. As though we are so pure and so clean and we never were sinners like other men. You know the beginning of salvation is to realize, under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, how sinful we really are, right? Isn't that what happens? All of a sudden my self-righteousness dissolves, my high thoughts of myself collapse and I realize I'm a vile sinner. Paul didn't see himself as better than other sinners, he says I was the worst of the sinners, the chiefest. But God saved me. Such were some of you.

But you were washed. Changes the tense there. Something happened to them who had lived in sin in the past. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, and you'll note that conjunction but appears three times. Such were some of you, but. You were, but you were washed. You were, but you were sanctified. You were, but you were justified. I mean the transformation, the contrast is overwhelming in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. It is on the authority of Jesus Christ and His finished work, His death, His resurrection, on the basis of who He is. All authority is given to Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations. And in Him this change is taking place. And in or by the Spirit of our God. It is the work of the Spirit of God, and Paul will get to this later in the letter to the Corinthians. It is the Spirit Himself who by God's grace took us and identified us with Christ in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection. We were baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ in I Corinthians 12:13.

You were washed. Here is the cleansing, I mean, don't you feel like you need a bath after you go through these sins? And you realize, that's where we live, that's who we were. We were the unrighteous, the filthy, the defiled, the polluted. But we were washed clean. The Psalms refer to this, we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. We receive that cleansing. Isaiah called to the people as God's spokesman and said, come, now, let us reason together says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they'll be as wool. And nobody too sinful, too defiled, too polluted that God cannot wash them clean. Remarkable. We give up on people, we get disgusted with them, we decide we don't want to be around them, even though we're the followers of the One who was a friend of sinners, who came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We can tell people, you can be washed, you can be clean. Takes care of all the guilt of sin. We tell people who profess to be believers, you have to get counseling. Oh, I have a guilty conscience. Well, get rid of the guilt. Then you have a guilty conscience because you are truly guilty. A guilty conscience can be a good thing, a condemning conscience. You can be washed clean from all the defilement and all the guilt. That's what you were.

We were having an extensive discussion over a period of some time with a man who had become a believer, came out of a homosexual lifestyle. We continually had the disagreement. He kept saying, I am a homosexual who is now a Christian. And I would say, no, you were a homosexual and now you .............. He said, no, I am a homosexual. I said, no. We have a conflict here. You either are a Christian and were a homosexual, or you are a homosexual but not a Christian. Because I Corinthians 6:11 says such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified. Could I make a word up? Paul did. You were holified? Sanctified is the word for holy. You were made holy. In chapter 1 verse 2, you were sanctified in Christ Jesus, you became saints by calling. Saints are holy ones. The people described in verses 9-10 have become God's holy ones. Well, we're born of God, are we not? We're born from above, we're born again. What is God's character? You shall be holy, for I am holy. What did he tell the Corinthian church in chapter 3 verses 16-17? You are holy, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you as the church. And when we get done with chapter 6 we'll find out He dwells in your individual body as a believer, producing His fruit which is the character of God and His holiness in your life. You were justified, you were declared righteous. So there we have the unrighteous. We take off the “un,” take off the negative in front of the word unrighteous. You were declared righteous, legal term. So those who were defiled and polluted and filthy, reeking of sin were washed clean, set apart as God's holy ones, declared righteous. All of this happens in Christ Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit. That's God's work. That's why we have passive voices here, something done to these people.

What a transformation, what a change has been brought about. What else can you say? Now you note, there is to be no distinction here in the sense of a separation between the position and the practice. The unrighteous are unrighteous and they do unrighteousness. Verse 9, the unrighteous, that's what they are, will not inherit the kingdom of God. And that's inseparably tied to what they do. They are fornicators, they are idolaters, they are adulterers, and on it goes, because it is out of the heart, out of their very being, out of their fallen nature they manifest what they are. That's why Jesus said we'll be judged by our words, because it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. We can't separate I am a righteous person in Christ, I'm just not living for Him. Or parents want to give themselves false security, oh I remember, I wrote it down, I rehearse it. When they were 4 I prayed with them, they trusted Christ. But now they're not living for Him. You may want to use that to talk to them, you know there was a time when you were young that we talked about your sin and the Savior. And then you indicated, but you know, your life indicates that there has really been no change in your heart. I don't say this to be mean or cruel, but to be kind and loving. The cruelest thing to do is to go along in a pretend world as though people living in sin are going to heaven, and they're going to hell. That is cruel and it's not loving that I should go along and pretend. I remember I trusted Christ at Indian Hills, you preached and I trusted Christ. Yes, for the last 10 years I've been living in immorality and I've been a drunk and I haven't been going to church, but I keep going back to that. And it's a comfort to me to know I am saved. Well, I'd like to pull the rug out from under you, take away that comfort. Because if the Word of God is true, you ain't saved. I mean, it's just where we are. Because the immoral, the drunkards, the covetous, they will not be going into the kingdom. And those not going into the kingdom are going into hell. This is a serious mater.

The wonderful thing is, the washing, the sanctifying, the justifying is sufficient for anyone. There is nobody here too sinful. You say, you don't know my secret life, you don't know what has gone on. No, I don't, but God does and He provided a Savior who can cleanse the vilest sinner. I mean, we get pretty low here, pretty descriptive in the kinds of sins. You may be having an affair and your spouse doesn't know. Just what makes you think you're a believer? I come to church here, I know it's not wrong, I just do it.

We close with Romans 6:16, do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, resulting in death, or of obedience, resulting in righteousness. Now note this, but thanks be to God. Though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. You believed the gospel. And having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness. That is what did happen. They became holy, they became slaves of righteousness. Now I realize our position and our practice aren't perfectly conformed, but neither are they radically disconformed. Verse 19, just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Verse 22, now having been freed from sin, enslaved to God, you derive your fruit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. Only two kind of people—those who are slaves of sin and those who are slaves of God, those who are slaves of sin and those who are slaves of righteousness. That's all. The slaves of sin manifested in their life of sin, the slaves of righteousness manifested in a life of sin, too. Where does that come from? Don't be deceived, that's not true. Those living a life of sin are manifesting they are slaves of sin, those not manifesting the holiness of God in their life are manifesting their unrighteous character. Does that mean I can sit in judgment, I can tell every case I know? I don't, God does. Paul expected his word, because it was given by the Holy Spirit, to be clear and the Corinthian church should respond. I always have the question when somebody comes to me and they're living in sin. They want to talk about it. I say, what makes you think you're a believer? And they want to give me their testimony. I say, that's a nice testimony, but what makes you think you're a believer? Where is the evidence? What is there in your life that's manifesting the character of God? You're sitting here tell me you're in an adulterous relationship and you can't break it off, I want you to know the Bible says there will be no adulterers going into the kingdom. They're going in to hell. I have to take God's Word, even over your testimony. But praise God there is a transforming power that can change you and make you new. That can happen to you today if you believe in Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God will do a work in your life that no one else can do, and you cannot do for yourself. And He'll set you free, He'll wash you clean, He'll make you a child of God, holy, with the righteousness of Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for a salvation that is overwhelmingly wonderful, unbelievably powerful, that cleanses the vilest sinner, that brings holiness to the most unholy, that brings the righteousness of Christ to the most unrighteous. Truly you are a saving God, the message of your Son, Jesus Christ, is the power for salvation to everyone who believes. Lord, I pray for those who are here today. Some sit and hear me preach week after week, confident and sure that they will go to heaven in spite of the fact their life is characterized, not by holiness, but by sin. Some of the things we've mentioned are the characteristic of some of the lives that may be here. Lord, I pray that your Spirit might bring the conviction, that they might rejoice that there is a Savior



THE TAPE ENDED BEFORE THE PRAYER WAS COMPLETED.