Please join with me in your Bible for first Corinthians chapter six. First Corinthians chapter six. This summer, we've been studying some of the major doctrines of the Christian faith. We looked at the doctrine of Scripture from Second Timothy three.
We looked at the doctrine of the Trinity, what Christians believe concerning the nature of our God. We've looked at justification and sanctification. And last Sunday, we considered how justification was applied to the thief on the cross. And this morning, I want to look at how justification is applied in the life of the church. of Jesus Christ, more corporate setting, not enough, not an unusual on the cross eleven hour conversion, but just a mention of Paul here with reference to the Corinthian church and how they had known a real savior for real sinners.
I'll just pick up reading in chapter six of first Corinthians at verse one. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Do you not know that the Saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then, if then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are our least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame.
Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. Now, therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong?
Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren. 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, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 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. Amen. Let us pray.
Our Father, we give you thanks for the Holy Scripture. We give you thanks that you have not left us to ourselves, that you've not left us in this dark world without the revealed mind of God. We just pray that your spirit would be upon us now. We know that, according to 1 Corinthians 2, the believer has the mind of Christ.
And we pray that the spirit of God would take the truth and continue to apply it to our hearts. And for any and all who have come here that do not know you, God, through our Lord Jesus, we pray that you would convict them. We pray that you would bring that sin up and cause people to be convicted of it and as well cause them to see the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord, that one in whom is forgiveness, that one in whom is mercy, that one in whom is salvation. And we pray this, God, not only for our gathering here, but wherever your word is preached.
We pray that Your Word would run swiftly and be glorified. Wash us afresh in the blood of Christ and cleanse us from all of our sins so that we may receive the things that You would have for us today. And we pray in Jesus' holy name. Amen.
Well,
Introduction: Context in Corinth
as you can see in the context here, very specifically, the apostle Paul is telling the saints in Corinth that they, as a church, ought to be able to deal with their matters. They ought to be able to deal with their disagreements. They shouldn't take their problems before pagan courts. They shouldn't take their dirty laundry, as it were, and air it outside of the local church.
He is basically highlighting the fact that the Church of Christ, with the Spirit of Christ, is able to engage in arbitration, and able to engage in mediation, able to engage in that blessed task of peacemaking, and bringing the people of God together to an agreement. That's the overall context. But what he says very specifically in verses nine to eleven give us several observations concerning the nature of the gospel itself, concerning the nature of the Savior and things that I hope will be instructive for each of us and will be a means of encouragement. So basically,
Five Observations on the Gospel
we'll take up verses nine to eleven and we'll make five observations on this particular text. And the first is simply this.
A Kingdom to Be Gained or Lost
There is a kingdom of God to be gained or to be lost. There is a kingdom of God to be gained or to be lost. Notice verse nine. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
That underscores the important truth we saw last Sunday morning. The thief on the cross says to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. There was an acknowledgement on his part that this material world was not all that there is. And we live in a day and age where increasingly we have to try and convince people that there is more than what meets the eye.
There is more than just what we can see and what we can touch and what we can feel. And that if on this earth we live for 70 or 80 years, we then fly away. We then enter into eternity, where 70 or 80 years is but a small drop in a very large bucket. Eternity is a reality, and Paul here reminds the people of God in Corinth, and these are things that we ought to take counsel or that we take reminder of as well, both as Christians.
We need to remember that those among whom we live and move and have our being are entering into a Christless eternity if they don't believe the gospel and repent. We need to be burdened. We need to have compassion. We need to have zeal.
We need to take seriously the fact that this world, as we know it, will end. And then comes eternity. The apostle in the book of Hebrews says that in Hebrews chapter nine, it is appointed on demand to die once. And then what?
Then comes judgment. And if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, you need to think about these things. You may think that you'll never die. You may not worry about that.
You may not plan for that. You may be young and you might conclude that it's so far off. I don't need to pay any attention to that whatsoever. It is appointed on you to die and then comes judgment.
We shall all stand before the throne of a thrice holy God. According to the Bible, we shall all give an account for sins or for deeds rather done in the body, whether good or evil. We will give an account for every idle word, Jesus said. Let that sink down for just a moment.
Every idle word, every useless word. How much more the blasphemy? How much more the cursing of God? How much more that the ungodly speech that so many engage in.
If we're going to give an account for every idle word, how much more for those words that violate directly the majesty of God's holy name. You cannot err on this area. You must realize there is a kingdom of God to be gained or to be lost. One man has described the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, and he said that his preaching was such that he kept one eye on heaven and one eye on hell.
He knew the glory of God and the terror of the Lord, and being convinced of those things, he therefore persuaded man. And in that he was like unto the Apostle Paul, who says that very thing. He says, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade man. We need to remember, we don't live just in a physical world without any eternal ramifications.
We are not materialists. We don't just appear for a time and then go off to be annihilated. We are going to live beyond this current world. And everything depends on what we think concerning Christ as to where we end when we enter in to that final state.
The Reality of Self-Deception
Notice, secondly, this is a scary thought. There is the reality of self-deception. There is the reality of self-deception. Notice what he says.
Do not be deceived. And I believe that modifies everything that is to follow. Do not be deceived. These kinds of people will not enter into the kingdom of God.
But before we get to that consideration, just think about this. Self-deception is a reality. What do I mean by self-deception? It means lying to yourself.
It means telling yourself that you have a part and interest in the kingdom of God because you were born into a Christian family. Means lying to yourself by saying that I'm going to go into the kingdom of God because I went to Sunday school or I memorized my catechism or I memorized the books of the Bible or I read my Bible every day. I'm going to go into the kingdom of God because of things that I have done. Paul says, do not be deceived.
That reality exists. It marked the Pharisees, didn't it? You talk about a deceived man. Turn to Luke 18 for just a moment.
Luke chapter 18, when Jesus taught a parable concerning two men who went to pray. And in Luke 18, verse one, it says, Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart to love that. What's the opposite of losing heart? Praying.
It's the opposite of praying, losing heart. You lose heart, you get discouraged, you get downcast. What is the biblical remedy to you? To pray.
And then Jesus says, there was in a certain city. I'm sorry, let's drop down to verse nine. Also, he spoke this parable to some. Same context, prayer.
Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. If you ask this man, are you going into the kingdom of God? What do you think his answer was?
Of course, I'm going into the kingdom of God. He just said that to God. And it was based on what he did. It was based on what he accomplished.
It was based on his performance. and arrogance and self-righteousness. Do not be deceived, Paul says. I'm sure that any of you who have ever done any amount of witnessing have met people like this. You ask them, why do you think you're going to go to heaven?
Because I went to Sunday school as a kid. Why do you think you're going to go to heaven? Because my father taught Sunday school. I have actually heard this testimony with my own ears, brethren.
Or you talk to somebody and they say, well, I'm not that bad. I've never done anything really horrible. I've never killed anyone. I've never actually committed adultery.
What's their problem? They're deceived. And happily so, willfully so. The God of this world has blinded their eyes and they don't give a rip about that fact.
Our task, our privilege, our job under the Holy Spirit is by the grace of God to try to rip that blinder away. Now, we can't do it. We use the means, we use prayer, we use the Bible, we use proclamation, trusting in a sovereign spirit who ultimately does that work. But self-deception is a reality.
And I dare say, if you're here this morning and you're not heading to the kingdom of God, this might be your problem, too. You might be young and say, well, I've never done really bad things. Do you know that every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come? It's not like, well, I only committed 15 sins.
God grades on a curve and therefore I'm going to enter in. No, one sin is enough to damn you to all eternity. Do not be deceived, Paul says. Do not look to yourself.
Do not look to your own righteousness. Do not look to your own upbringing. Do not look to your own pedigree. Isn't this what Paul learned according to Philippians 3?
If anybody has a reason to buzz, Paul says, in what they've accomplished, religiously speaking, Paul says, I the more. He says, I was born of the stock of Israel. I was born of the tribe of Benjamin. I was circumcised on the eighth day.
Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee and blameless. Concerning zeal, I persecuted the church of God. Well, what happened when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus? All those things that were gained now became lost.
All those things that were accomplishments were now done. And what was important for Paul was the glory of Jesus Christ, his Lord. Do not be deceived. You may have a lot of Bible teaching.
One of the most scary men I ever met. I worked with before and he said, you know, you don't need to keep telling me all that stuff. But I go to I went to Sunday school. I know a lot of Bible.
I know. I know a ton of Bible. I thought to myself and in prayer for that man, I thought hell's going to be very hot for him. You know that much.
When you understand that much, when you have the pleadings of a godly mother or father, you've gone to church every Lord's Day and you have not taken Christ as your Lord and Savior. When you have not ventured on him as the hymn says, what's your hell going to be like? You knew the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But in your self-perception, you concluded that you didn't need Jesus.
Do not be deceived. Do not go around repelling the truth of Almighty God.
God's Ethical Standard
Notice thirdly, with reference to first Corinthians six. There is an ethical standard established by God. There is a standard of conduct. If someone were to say to you, I'm not a sinner.
I met somebody on his deathbed. We're giving him the gospel and he says, well, I've never said. How do we show a man is never said we show God's law. We show God's truth.
We show first Corinthians six verse nine. 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.
Now, if you think that the Bible is being needlessly repetition is a homosexual thought of mine. Both words are used their technical terms. One describes the passive partner and one describes the active partner. I wish I didn't even have to say that because it's disgusting and against nature to even think about, but these same sins were extant when Paul wrote.
In fact, they were rampant in the day and age in which the apostle lived and moved and had his being. He's not being foolish and saying the same thing twice. He is describing two categories of men that engage in the same abominable act. That's why it may look repetitious, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
There is an ethical standard. God doesn't grade on a curve. God isn't just about loving you no matter what it is you do. God has established a law in this universe, and we as his creatures are duty-bound to obey it.
But as the Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray or like the preacher says Ecclesiastes 729. I have found only this God made man upright, but they've sought out many devices. What are those devices? Here's a small list of them.
Neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. It is not up to man to define the terms of right and wrong. It is not up to man to say what he can and cannot do. It is not up to man to legislate immorality.
It is not up to man to take unto himself the rights and prerogatives of God most high. It is the Lord who has said it is the Lord who has spoken. It is the Lord who has declared his rule. Notice this list finds us all out, doesn't it?
I mean, we in the Christian church are very good at saying, look at those filthy, wicked homosexuals. We're really good at that. We're not as good as saying, look at our filthy, wicked, fornicating heart. Or look at our reviling, or look at our drunkenness, or look at our gossip, or look at our slander.
This list finds us all out. This list nails us. I mean, I'm sure you have heard in the news about that incident in California, where the man abducted a young woman who was 11 years old and kept her hostage in his backyard for 18 years. and fathered two children with her. I mean, such things enter into the mind and shock and numb and cause you to just cry out.
Why, oh God, do such things happen? We look at those abominable sins, we look at those big sins, we look at those majestic sins and somehow we forget our gossip. We forget our otherwise respectable sins. I heard an account recently of Jay Adams when he went to speak at a big conference.
And he said, Who here worries? And just about everybody in the audience raised their hand and said, I worry. And then he said, What if I asked you who here committed adultery? If you had, would you have raised your hand as quickly?
Probably not. Just think about it. If I said here, who has worried, you'd all say yes. If I said, who has committed adultery, and you have, I doubt that you'd raise your hand.
Why? Because we in the Christian church have categorized respectable sins versus unrespectable sins. In fact, Terry Bridges just wrote a book on this particular concept. Respectable sins.
We gossip, we slander, we speak ill, we deceive, we lie, we cheat, we grumble, we complain, we this. It's okay for some reason, but it's those dirty rotten sodomites that are ruining the world for us. This list finds us all out. Albert Barnes describes a reviler this way, just for one definition, a reproachful man, a man, of course, harsh and bitter words, a man whose characteristic it was to abuse others, to vilify their character and wound their feelings.
Who of us haven't wounded someone's feelings and willfully so? It is needless to say how much this is contrary to the spirit of Christianity and to the example of the Master who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. This list finds each one of us out. It's not as if we gather here today and we extol the virtue of the Savior and the glory of Jesus Christ and we somehow think that we weren't as bad as everybody else.
No, we're all bad. Rolf Barnard was a Southern Baptist preacher in the 60s. If you ever hear his sermons, you think I'm loud. This man would send you screaming out of this building.
That doesn't justify my loudness. I want to get rid of this amplifier once and for all. I thought we were done with it, but the Rolf Barnard would define the doctrine of total depravity this way. It says the Bible says you're just plum bad.
The Southern preacher is just plumb. Oh, your badness may not look like those guys in the gay pride parade in Vancouver. Your badness may not look like that man in Southern California that had a slave in his backyard for 18 years. But your badness is there.
I don't care how old you are or how young you are. I don't care who you are. I don't care what upbringing you've enjoyed. I don't care what your economic background is, your subtle social stratosphere, where you went to school, how you think, how you move, how you live.
Do not be deceived. Each and every one of us are found out in this catalog of sins. And Paul says, Do not be deceived. People who practice these things, people who are defined by these things, people whose lives are ruled and reigned by these things will not enter the kingdom of God.
Sin Is Not Genetic or Environmental
There is a fourth observation that we need to pick out of here. There is the biblical declaration or assertion that sin is not genetic or environmental. We find in this particular passage, as we'll notice in just a moment when he says, and such were some of you, we need to understand that sin is not genetic or environmental. It's not hardwired into us.
God didn't make me a homosexual. God didn't make you with the specific wiring to carry out a particular sin. Now, environmental upbringing and nurture and those sorts of things may help you to become jacked up in a particular area. But the idea here is that we cannot shake our fist at God and say, why has thou made me this way?
It is not genetic. When I got converted, I wouldn't have minded adding another few inches to my size. I think this is a tall man's world, or at least North America. Being 5'9", you're right at that break of being short.
I wouldn't have minded being 6 foot. But in my conversion, my genetic makeup was not altered. I have Irish in my background. When I was converted, I was not made Jewish.
I was not spiritually Jewish. According to the Scriptures, I was not made black. Those are genes. We are taught today that certain sins are there because God made it that way, and it's being used as a justification to try and run from responsibility.
The Bible does not allow this doctrine. The Bible forbids this doctrine. The Bible insists that sin is forgiven. And I think that as the Christian church emphasizes this, we can preach hope.
What's interesting, in the 20th century, Freud, who was no lover of the Lord God, categorized homosexuality as an abnormality. Well, as social engineers have progressed and as things have gotten going, it's become an alternate lifestyle. It's going to become the preferred lifestyle before too long. And I'm not just trying to pick on sodomites this morning.
I'm trying to illustrate a point. That even in the early part of the 20th century, it was viewed as by an ungodly psychologist as an abnormality. You know what? It's a sin.
And you know what that brings? I know that this does not go with the spirit of our age, but the acknowledgement of that as sin brings hope. What do you mean? Because Jesus is a real savior for real sinners.
Right, if it's hardwired in, if you're genetically predisposed, if it's the way you are, you're going to be that way without help. without hope, without intervention, without any change in sight. And regardless of all the propaganda, that lifestyle is not gay. It is far from it. You see, the Christian church needs to be clear on thinking God's thoughts after him.
And when we hear of studies that prove science has proven that homosexuality is genetic. No, it hasn't. The Bible says otherwise. Not everything that says, thus saith science, is necessarily true.
I realize that that has usurped, thus saith the Lord, in our generation. But science is very, very philosophical in nature, very much open to the interpretation of data. and one's bent in certain matters of philosophy and theology will affect how that data is interpreted. I like what Paul says when he signs off his first letter to Timothy in 1st Timothy 620. Oh, Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.
By professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith. What is falsely called knowledge? Paul doesn't say, well, that's a knowledge in the category of science, but we're dealing in the category of religion. We have two truths, but just in a bit of a different way.
No, if it contradicts the scripture, it is falsely called knowledge. If it contradicts God's written revelation, it is falsely called truth. The Christians need to be convinced of that. Brother, I got to tell you, We've got to understand the Bible.
We may think that the battle is going to be won because we're nicer or were kinder or were gentler. There is a battle being waged against the God of heaven and earth and against his price. And for whatever reason, his people don't take seriously the dictum and the maxim that the Bible alone is the word of God. And we need to internalize it.
We need to memorize it. We need to have it in our minds and in our hearts. And we need to be able to refute those things falsely called knowledge. Too many Christians get scared.
Oh boy, he's got great arguments. Do you know that you hold in your lap if you have your Bible open right now in nuclear arsenal? Do you know that any argument anybody brings is like bringing a pea shooter to a gunfight? It's like trying to charge hell with a squirt gun.
Do you really? Not equating the Bible with hell. Just trying to give an analogy about how futile it is. You have the truth of God most high.
Why don't we know it better? Because we're lazy, because we're selfish, because we are careless and because we just don't think it's that important. What is that? I just went through a block of studies on cults and heresies.
That was an interesting thing. Do you know how whacked out it is out there? Do you know how weird some of these cults are? I mean, it's amazing.
But do you know who the cults prey on? Not the pig ignorant, because pig ignorant people usually don't have a lot of money. Cults like money. They like dough.
You don't build big buildings and you don't get to wear fancy clothes and drive nice cars without money. You know who they target? Religious people. Now, they'll go after non-intelligent, non-religious people as sort of the drones.
I'm not saying they'll reject you if you're poor. Certainly you can come in. You can always sweep. You can always make the coffee.
You can't pay for Scientology's little council where they hook you up to the machine. I'm sure they've got something that you can do. They're preying on religious people. Why?
Because religious people don't know their Bibles. I'm not saying these are genuine Christians and they're going into the cult world. All I am saying is that there is a necessity that you understand God's word. The longer I live, the more I'm happy that we're a confessional church.
Please don't roll your eyes if we say the London Baptist Confession, the Westminster Shorter Catechism. These are historic, proven documents of the Christian faith. They're not the Bible, but they help clarify what we believe concerning the Bible. They're accurate summations of Christian doctrine. that it would do well for all of us to be more familiar with, so that we don't fall prey to these things.
Sin is not genetic. And that brings us to our fifth consideration.
A Real Savior for Real Sinners
There is a real savior for real sinners. You love these words in verse 11. And such were some of you. You ever just want to stop right there and praise and worship and adore and rejoice in God.
Such were some of you. To the Corinthian church. wasn't a bunch of righteous people that decided for Jesus and added him to their already complete religious life. No, the church in Corinth was made up of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous drunkards, revilers, extortioners. That's their religious pedigree.
You realize that in this context there was a verb formed out of the noun Corinthian. To Corinthianize meant to engage in sexual immorality. I mean, unfortunately, there was still some of it in the church, because that's what Paul goes on to deal with in verses 12 to 20 in this particular passage. But in principle, such were some of you.
Here's the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's the glory of substitutionary curse bearing. Here is the efficacy of a real savior for real sinners. He says such were some of you.
You can all consider what your big defining sin was. And when God, by his grace, converted you, you can look back and say, and such was. It's like that hymn in 188 and there, I quoted it last week when we looked at the thief on the cross. 188, Cooper's glorious hymn when he mentions the thief on the cross. When he says, the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.
And there have I, as vile as he, washed all my sins away. Don't you love that? There have I, as vile as he. That's what the Christian does.
That's what the Christian's about. You don't have to be self-righteous. You don't have to be proud. You don't have to walk around like God somehow rewarded you for your activity.
There have I, as vile as he, washed all my sins away. That's what the apostle is highlighting here. There is a kingdom to be gained or lost. There is the reality of self-deception.
There is an ethical standard established by God. Sin is not a genetic problem. You don't go to the doctor to get fixed. You don't go to the doctor to get your heart cleansed.
It's not a broken arm. It's not an external symptom. It is an internal root problem that only one can deal with, and that is the Lord Jesus. And that's what Paul goes on to say here.
He says, and such were some of you. And I love the way they phrases this language in verse eleven. There's two different Greek words for the word, but. We might say something like I'm going to go to the store, but I might go over here as well.
That's not the kind of but that Paul uses here. He says, you can either go to the store, but you better go do this. It's a really emphatic but. But he says, you were washed.
Here's your condition. Here's what you were. You were a fornicator. You were an idolater.
You were a thief. You were a reviler. You thought that you had everybody fooled. Everybody looked on and said, what a good person you are.
God knew better, but he washed you. Don't you love that? He washes us. It makes me think of the prophet Isaiah when God says, I, even I am he who blots out your transgressions.
Makes me think of the prophet Micah who, at the end of the book, uses a play on his own name and says, Who is a God like you? Pardoning iniquity. He says that God will take our sins and cast them into the depths of the sea the same way he took Pharaoh and his armies at the parting of the Red Sea, and he cast them into the depths of the sea. So our God through Jesus Christ will deal with our sin in like manner.
It should make you think about Acts 13 when the apostle is in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch and he tells the people there that you cannot be justified by the law of Moses. You cannot be justified by external deeds of obedience. He says, therefore, let it be known to you that there is forgiveness preached in this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be washed.
That's our problem. We need to be purified. Again, Ray Comfort, in his emphasis on preaching the law so that men will see their sin, says the problem in America today, North America, we can say is that men desire happiness. We need righteousness.
We need washing. We need cleansing, we need purification, we need what Zechariah prophesied in Zechariah 13.1. He said, behold, the days are coming when there will be a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Have you washed there?
Have you cleansed there? Have you come to the Lord Jesus? Could it be said of you, and such were some of you? Or are you continuing in this state?
Does this list find you out? Are you rebelling in your heart? Are you saying, no, I'm not going to change. No, I'm not going to come to Christ.
No, I'm not going to do what this preacher is saying. If you are in that mindset, our prayer is, is that the spirit of God would convict you and show you this and show you this place of cleansing. I love the way that the Apostle Paul puts it in Titus chapter three, when he highlights the salvation of our great God. And he says, when the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
That's what Jesus is talking about in John 3. Remember, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He says, Teacher, we know that you're from God. Nobody teaches the way you do unless they're from God.
What's Jesus say? Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven. What's Nicodemus do? What do you mean?
Do I have to enter back into my mother's womb and be born again? What's Jesus response to him? Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't know these things? What's Jesus' point?
Nicodemus should know these things. Why? Because the prophet Ezekiel wrote about it in Ezekiel 36. It's called regeneration.
It's called the new birth. It's called heart circumcision. It is that divine act of God Most High where he takes out the old stony heart and he replaces it with a fleshly heart that then believes the gospel and repents of sin. We need that.
You need that if you are here on washed. You don't get washed by making your life better. You don't get washed by stopping certain activities. You don't get washed by starting other activities.
There is one means of washing. Just being around washed people doesn't wash you. Just kind of rubbing shoulders with those who are washed doesn't mean that they somehow through osmosis cleanse you from your sins. See, we get that mindset.
Some of you might right now say, I better stop fornicating. I better stop being a liar. I better stop being a thief. You'll still go to hell unwashed.
The answer is Christ. You don't get washed by being in a place filled with washed people. You get washed by going to Christ, by believing the gospel, the truth about who Jesus is and what he has done at Calvary. That's where washing comes.
That's where we get cleansed from all unrighteousness. It's through the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, and that alone. Do not leave here saying the preacher said, I better get better. The preacher said, I better stop this.
The preacher said, you better believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's the gospel? Simply this. Christ came into this world, sinners to save.
Christ lived in obedience to his father's law, fulfilling the righteousness that we could not. And then Christ died as a substitute at Calvary, taking in himself the punishment due for our sins. I don't know how we aren't doing backflips right now, considering this gospel. I mean, in such were some of us, but he hung our Savior on the cross and it pleased the Lord in the language of Isaiah 5311 to bruise him, to crush him, as the N.A.S. says.
Why? To save us from our sins. Christ didn't come on willingly. Christ didn't come on happily.
Christ said, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down willingly and I have the power to take it up again. What's that show us? But then in the midst of the persons of the Trinity, they are unified.
They're on the same page. They are operating in glory and in power and efficacy to save his people from their sins. You need washing if you're here today and you don't know Christ. You need to be washed because you're filthy.
Sin pollutes. Sin is destructive. Sin brings destruction. Paul doesn't stop there.
He says, but you were washed, but you were justified. I'm sorry, but you were sanctified, he says next.
Sanctified: Definitively Set Apart
And sanctification means to be set apart. And I believe it is the language here. Sanctification also refers to our growth as Christians, as we defined it a couple of weeks ago. Growing in the Christian life, reading our Bibles, praying, living for the glory of God, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to do, for his good pleasure.
That's generally how we understand sanctification. But what Paul means here is the primary route, meaning the set-apart. But some theologians have called definitive sanctification. He has set you apart.
You're no longer a vessel of wrath. You are now a vessel of mercy. You are no longer a child of the devil. You are a child of God.
You've been set apart. Notice the emphasis in the text. You didn't set yourself apart. Which you do that.
We didn't say, well, I got to set myself apart. God does this. God is glorious, God is sovereign, God is in charge, God is responsible. We saw that all the way back.
If you read 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says, by Him you are in Christ Jesus. Gracious God has done this for you. The merciful father. You didn't just get better.
You didn't just get smarter. You didn't just achieve or attain or gain some spiritual insight or wisdom. God opened your eyes. God opened your heart.
God gave you the spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 2, 16. He's given you the mind of Christ.
Justified: Imputed Righteousness
And then he says you were justified. on a blessed doctrine of justification that we considered a few weeks ago. What is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to them and received by faith alone. Pardon and acceptance.
Remission and acceptance. Such were some of you. Isn't it an amazing gospel? I mean, if we walked into the Corinthian church in the first century, we would have been like, why are these people going to heaven?
You walk in, you ask this group, where are you going when you die? We're going to heaven. What? Well, we were this, but we've been washed, we've been sanctified, we've been justified.
You should see yourself in this passage. I think this is a good means to promote worship. Why does theology matter? Brother Joe's wearing his theology matter shirt today.
Why does it matter? Because if you don't understand these truths, you're not going to worship God. You're not going to praise and worship and adore and honor and glorify him. Why should we gather here on a Sunday to worship?
Because such were some of us. But he's washed us, he sanctified us, he justified us, he's called us out of darkness into marvelous light. We can't but proclaim his excellencies. We can't but sing his praises and honor his name.
This ought to affect us when we go out in the world. I was there. Now I'm this. Let me tell you all about it.
You know, we talk about evangelism and sharing the gospel. You don't have to go to a course. Courses aren't bad. We should have a course.
Here's some tips or thoughts on how you can share the gospel of Christ to others. You take that guy in John 9. What was the sum and substance of his declaration? I was blind and now I see.
The Pharisees didn't like that they challenged him, they were arguing with him. What does he say? You want to know more about him? Go ask him.
And then he takes it to one more level, when they keep chiding him and they keep going after him. He says, this is an odd thing. You guys are the religious leaders. You don't know these things.
Brethren, if you've had your eyes open, if you've been washed, sanctified and justified, tell sinners about it. Tell people we have heard the wonderful news. Jesus saves Jesus saves. This ought to affect us with reference to the way that we live our lives.
You see, we're playing this now. Worship evangelism and daily life. We've been washed. We've been sanctified.
We've been justified. So why would we continue in those patterns? If I've been washed and sanctified and justified, why would I lie now? Why would I deceive now?
Why would I cheat now? Why would I follow after strange flesh? Now, if you do find yourself doing that and you sin, we have a blessed remedy in First John one nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.
The point is, this doctrine of justification by God's free grace alone ought to promote in us holiness. It ought to promote in us carefulness. This was the defining characteristic of me before I came to Christ. How can I continue in it?
How can I continue in it? That's Paul's whole point in Romans six. You have died to sin. How shall you live any longer in it?
Application: Worship, Evangelism, Holiness
This what we find in this passage ought to promote worship. It ought to promote evangelism. It ought to promote holiness. And then finally, if you're not in Christ, it ought to promote you.
To flee to him. to believe in. And that's what it means, you know, we we get a lot of wow, what is it? It means to believe what God has said concerning his son. Don't make it harder than that.
You have to feel something. I don't feel like this great change is taking place. Luther was right. Feelings come and feelings go, but feelings are deceiving.
My warrant is the word of God. None else is worth believing. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Silas told the jailer and you will be saved.
Not if you believe and you have good feelings. Not if you believe and fireworks go off. Not if you believe and there's a warm burning in your bosom. No, you believe the truth concerning Jesus and the Bible says you're a Christian.
Now, I truly believe that as a believer, when you feed your soul, when you learn more of this, when you understand just the glory of a statement like and such were some of you, you can't help but having those good feelings of love and honor and praise. to the Lord Jesus Christ. Gardner Springs said one reason why our religious emotions are so languid and cheerless, why our hearts are so often hung upon the willows and under the mere twilight of spiritual joy that we keep at such a distance from the cross and the realities of eternity are kept at such a distance and forgotten. The washed, sanctified, justified man, woman, boy or girl is going to live near the cross. And it's at the cross that all these blessings come to Christ.
If you don't understand what that means, don't go home today and forget about it. Ask someone here if you're unsure about what does it mean to believe the gospel? What is the gospel? You didn't understand because I was confusing.
Stop. Don't go home without having these things answer. Talk to your parents. Ask your father.
Ask your husband if he's a convert converted and you're not or your wife and vice versa. Ask Pastor Cam. Ask a brother in the church. Ask me.
Don't go resting when you're not sure of your position before Christ. Life is too short, man. There's too many variables in this world. There's too many diseases and pestilence, and there's cars, and you realize the guts it takes to strap yourself into a little metal tube and drive with a bunch of other people in little metal tubes?
And yet we live like there's no end to our physical existence. I would hate to be called upon to preach a funeral for someone who just didn't take these things seriously. Just didn't think twice about it. So, well, you know, I got plenty of years to think about these things.
It's a book by a Puritan named Token for Children. It talks about all these little, little kids been praying, earnestly seeking the Lord, reading their Bible, and then they died at three. I haven't met a Christian who's done that. Dying at a hundred and three.
See, they lived under the reality of impending death. So sanitize now. It's all clinical now. You go somewhere else to die.
Can't let anybody see that. There's power in that reality. I'm not trying to scare it. I am trying to scare you.
If you're outside of Christ, you should be scared. You should flee to the Savior and you should know that he'll take you. He took these ones, He'll take you too. That is good news.
Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus. We thank you for the washing, the sanctification, the justification that sinners have in Him. And Lord God, we pray that knowing these things, it would promote in us worship and evangelism and holy and careful lives. And God, for any and all here that do not know you, I pray they would not be able to rest tonight.
They would not be able to have any peace in their hearts or in their consciences until they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray you would stir people up. We pray that you would forgive sin and that you would cause more and more to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to the glory of God the Father. We ask that you would go with us now and we pray in Jesus' holy name.
Amen.