1Cor. 6:9-11 Things God
expects us to know Part 2
A) When a jeweler wants to show the brilliance of a diamond
he will place that diamond on a black velvet background
1) The blackness of the
background is contrasted by the
brightness
of the Diamond!
B) Paul often did the same
things in his writings - He would contrast the blackness of our sin w/ the
Brilliance of God’s grace!
C) Such a place is Eph. Ch. 2
Paul writes
2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in
the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and
were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. ( THERE IS OUR DARKNESS )
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Note the description : We
were dead - meandering about trying to fulfill our lust & evil desires of
the flesh and mind !!
A) BUT GOD !!!!!
B) Another such passage is the
one we are looking at tonight 1Cor.6:9-11
9 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 homosexuals, nor sodomites,
10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were
sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God.
Here
Paul gives a pretty pointed description of what we once were and what we are
becoming in the Lord.
A) We were Unrighteous - and on
our way to Hell !
1) The unrighteous will not
inherit the kingdom of God !
B) Then Paul mentions several
Characteristics of the unrighteous and
although this is not an exhaustive list -
1) but those sins represent all
the major types of moral sin, the types of
sin that
have always characterized ungodly
societies
Paul gives a similar list in
Gal. 5 :19-25 Works of the flesh -turn
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of
wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I
tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who
practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
C) Lets briefly look at this
list
1st Fornicators has to do with sexual
immorality in general
A) The Word fornication in the
Greek is porneia, from which is derived the
English pornography.
B) The term has a broad
meaning, referring to all illicit sexual activity-especially, but not limited to,
adultery,
1) In fact the word that Paul
uses here is pornos which describes a man
who indulges in immorality (KJV, "whoremonger")
C) Fornication is also used to describe sex between 2 people who
are not married - no matter how much they love each other
1) How committed they are to
each other / or if they are planning on getting married - God’s eyes it is
Sexual immorality- condemns
D) The sin is characteristic of our own western
society today.
1) It is portrayed and exalted
in books, magazines, movies, and television as the norm of human living. THE
RESULT
A
recent survey in Mademoiselle, titled "Generation Sex," where they
surveyed "2,400 18 and 30, found
that Half of the respondents had had six or more sexual partners; only six
percent had never had sex; only 144 and more than half the men couldn't
remember the first and last names of everyone they'd had sex with. Forty-eight
percent of the men and 36 percent of the women said they had sex outside of a
relationship that was supposed to be monogamous.
A
few yrs. ago ABC's Primetime Live, did a feature on sexually active teenage
girls
A) Findings
were very disturbing
Sawyer cited statistics that
by the end of the ninth grade 33% of American girls have had sexual intercourse
and 70% by the end of high school. She supported this contention with
interviews of several sexually active teenage girls, some as young as the
eighth grade and claiming as many as 10 different partners
2nd
Idolaters: Now when we hear that word we
immediately picture people bowing
down to images.
A)
Now we really don’t see much of that in our country - but the word idolatry
also refers to those who worship any
false gods and or false religious systems,
B) Our society has never been
so engulfed by and enamored w/ false
religions and cults as in our day.
1) So many different religions
- People worship - the Planet - people worship - technology - people worship -
money .
C) People worship People - Church in Portland OR. Worshippers of Curt
Kobain - singer of Nirvana who killed Himself!
D) An idol is really anything
that is your number one passion and pursuit above God !
1) Some people worship their
Possessions - always working on their
car
washing
waxing / homes / toys
E) Some worship their bodies -
Idolatry has many forms
3rd
Adulterers refers specifically to
married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside the marriage partnership.
A) Because marriage is sacred,
that is a sin that is especially heinous in God’s sight. In fact in The Old
Testament required the death penalty for it.
B) In addition to corrupting
the participants themselves it also corrupts the family.
1) It defiles the unique,
God–established relationship between husband and wife - destroys the lives of
Children !
4th
homosexuals, nor sodomites, both
refer to those who exchange and corrupt normal male–female sexual roles and
relations.
A) Transvestites / sex change, and other gender perversions are
included.
B) God’s unique creation, those
created in His own image, were created “male and female” (Gen. 1:27),
1) and the Lord strictly
forbids the two roles to be blurred, much less
exchanged.
C) Homosexuality is condemned throughout Scripture. It was so characteristic of
Sodom that the term sodomy is a
synonym for that sin.
1) Part of the reason the
cities of Sodom & Gomorrah were destroyed was because of their indulgence
in this sin!
D) Now in our day - People try to
ignore that portion of scripture & others that clearly reveal that men
& women choose this lifestyle.
1) Instead they say - no they
are born w/ these tendencies
E)
One powerful passage that refutes that believe is Rom. 1 26 For this reason God gave
them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for
what is against nature. 27 Likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for
one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in
themselves the penalty of their error;
In Paul’s day homosexuality had been rampant in
Greece and Rome for centuries. reports that Socrates was a homosexual and Plato
probably was.
A) Plato’s Sym/ posium on Love is a treatise glorifying homosexuality.
B) It is likely that fourteen
of the first fifteen Roman emperors were homosexuals.
1) Not a new thing - God’s
views on it have not Changed !
Well How you doing so far -
any of these a description of who you used to be - ( Actually all of us nailed
by idolatry ) CONTINUE
5TH
Thieves and covetous relate to the same basic sin of greed.
A) The covetous person desires
that which belongs to others;
the thief actually takes it.
B)
Greed is a manifestation of selfishness and, like all selfishness, is never satisfied.
The greedy demand more and more.
6th Drunkards is self–explanatory. Today
alcoholism is spreading even to the elementary ages.
A) Preteen and young teen
alcoholics are becoming more and more common,
Of all alcoholics, 28% are under 18.
7th
Revilers are those who destroy with
their tongues & wound with words. God does not consider their sin to be
mild,
A) because it comes from hearts
full of hate and causes misery, pain, and
despair in the lives of those it attacks.
8th Extortioners or Swindlers are thieves who steal indirectly.
They take unfair advantage of others to promote their own financial gain.
This is a pretty incredible
list that - really nails all of us in this room
Now when you add to this
list the ones mentioned in Gal. 5 it gets even more interesting - let’s turn
there ! Gal. 5 :19
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of
wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Impurity & Sensuality both have to do w/ sexual sin but also refer to
any excess or lack of restraint especially sexual excess.
A) It is unrestrained sexual
indulgence, It refers to uninhibited
sexual indulgence without shame and without concern for what others think or
how they may be affected (or infected).
B) See story about the guy w/
aids who has infected several women - taken to court - actually went to jail -
now has to get “partners” sign a
release form
Another one mentioned here
is Sorcery
translates from which we get pharmacy
and pharmaceutical.
A) It was originally used of
medicines in general but came to be used primarily of mood-and mind-altering
drugs similar to those that create so much havoc in our own day.
B) Many ancient religious
ceremonies involved occultic practices in which drugs were used to induce
supposed communication with deities,
1) and thereby came to be
closely related to witchcraft and magic.
C) Aristotle and other ancient
Greek writers used the word as a synonym for witchcraft and black magic,
1) because drugs were so
commonly used in their practice.
Now this next group is
really interesting hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
A) if we had any hope of
standing on our own - it is shattered after reading this group -
B) REALIZE God’s word is true - all have
sinned and fallen short !
GRAND
CANYON -
So there is our black
background - Now let's see the Diamond - back to Cor
11 And such were some of you OUCH PAUL DO
YOU HAVE TO BE SO HONEST
But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Take in order of occurrence
!!!
Justified speaks of new standing before God. New Position
A) In Christ we are clothed in
His righteousness and God now sees in us His Son’s righteousness instead of our
sin.
B)
Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account !!
Washed speaks of new life,
of regeneration.
A)
Regeneration is God’s work of re–creation. “Therefore
if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17
Many
years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some
business. Before the two parted, his
client said to him, "I've often
wanted to ask you a question, but I've been afraid to do so."
"What do you want to know?" asked
the lawyer.
The
man replied, "I've wondered why you're not a Christian."
The
lawyer hung his head. "I know enough about the Bible to
realize that it says no drunkard can enter the kingdom of God; & you know
my weakness!"
"You're
avoiding my question," continued the believer.
"Well, truthfully, I can't recall anyone
every explaining how to become a Christian."
Picked
up His Bible & shared the gospel - redemption that is in Christ - asked him
if he wanted to pray!
The lawyer agreed, "O Jesus, I am a slave to drink.
One of Your servants has shown me how to be saved. O God, forgive my sins and help me overcome
the power of this terrible habit in my
life."
Who was that Lawyer? How many of you have a
Scofield Bible?
That
lawyer was C.I. Scofield, who later edited the reference
So Justified speaks of a new standing / Washed speaks of a new life
Sanctified speaks of new behavior.
A) To be sanctified is to be
made holy inwardly and to be able, in the Spirit’s power, to live a righteous
life outwardly.
B) Before a person is saved he
has no holy nature and no capacity for holy living.
1) But in Christ we are given a
new nature and can live out the new kind
of life.
In
a 3rd-century debate on Christianity, Celsus said to Origen, "When most teachers go forth to teach,
they cry, 'Come to me, you who are clean and worthy,' and they are followed by
the highest caliber of people available.
But
your silly master cries, 'Come to me, you
who are down and beaten by life,' and so he accumulates around him the rag, tag
& lowlifes of humanity."
And Origen replied: "Yes, they are the rag,
tag & low lifes of humanity. But Jesus does not leave them that way. Out of material you would have thrown away
as useless, he fashions men, enabling them to stand on their feet and look God
in the eyes. They who were black, bound
& broken the Son has set them free. And made them New “
A transformed life should
produce transformed living
We
were unrighteous and now we have been made righteous by Jesus Christ -
Prov.4:18 But the path of the righteous
is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
A) Guys we are like the moon -
no light in & of ourselves the light that we have is merely a reflection of
the sun.
B) The closer we get to the
Lord the brighter our glow gets
C) By contrast the way of the
unrighteous gets darker & darker
SO SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU
!!!!!!!!