Transcript

Well, let’s all turn together over to 1 Corinthians 6 as we journey though this New Testament epistle. Epistle just means a letter, a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth. An immature church, a baby church, a back-slidden church, full of fleshly problems and humanistic conclusions and Paul addresses another key issue that they’re really messed up on as we begin, 1 Corinthians 6, I’m going to read verses 1-11 and I’ve entitled the message, “Lawsuits and Loose Living” [1 Corinthians 6:1-11].

“Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life? If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame, is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; nether fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall 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 Christ, and in the Spirit of God.”

Lawsuits and loose living. The Corinthians had done three things here that they should not have done. Three things that showed their immaturity and their lack of biblical outlook. First of all, they had dethroned their position. Dethroned their position. What I mean by that is they position in Christ. Ephesians 2:6 says, “we are seated with Christ in heavenly places”. When we were saved we were put in Christ, and we are today in Christ, in a very real sense, I am in Christ in the heavenlies. And that’s why we get the biblical truth of us already being glorified, already being sanctified, already righteous. Because I’m in Christ. And also down here in time and space history, Christ is in me. Both of those are true. Right now Christ is in me, working to make me more conformed to his image, but right now I am also in Christ, that is my glorious position.

But the Corinthians, by the way they were acting, were acting as if they had gotten off that high and honored position of being in Christ, and they were acting as though they were like the normal base people of the fallen world. Now let’s look at how they had dethroned themselves from their position of ultimate wisdom and glory and were acting like common people, unregenerate people of the world. He says there very clearly in verse 1, “does any one of you,” and that’s a strong emphatic statement. Its actually a strong and shocking rebuke, its like how dare any of you even think about doing what you’re doing. That is take your lawsuits one brother against another, before secular judges.

Now Rome, which of course ruled the world in this day and ruled the Jews, Rome allowed the Jews to settle their property disputes through arbitration among themselves, and the church in the early days any way, was seen as a sect of Judaism, so its almost certain that the church had the same liberties that the Jews had, that they could have settled their own small disputes among themselves, they were not required to take them to secular, pagan, Roman authorities. Matter of fact, Jewish rabbinical authorities wrote it this way: “It is a statute that binds all Israelites, that is one Israelite has a case against another, it must not be prosecuted before Gentiles.” It was well understood among the people of God, the Jews, you don’t take God’s matters, between God’s people, before ungodly people. You leave it right here.

And so Paul very strongly says, “does any of you, how dare any of you.” In other words, are any of you so bold as to do this thing that is so evidently and improper for a child of God. How bold and how brash and how unbiblical you are in your actions, when you and another believer in Christ have a dispute to take that to unbelievers to say, you unbelievers have wisdom to help us who have the mind of Christ, decide our problem. What an absurd thing Paul is saying.

Now, he goes on there in verse 1 “you dare to go to law before the unrighteous”. Now the word unrighteous here means wicked. Those not conforming to the word of God. He’s talking about, not a particular judge, but generally speaking, the world is made up of people who do not honor or respect the word of God. They do not see God’s word as absolute and of ultimate truth. They do not see the God of heaven, the true God as the only one of true justice and his word the only revelation of his just standards. So he’s saying, how would you go as a child of God, who know the true God of heaven, who was suppose to have the mind of Christ, how could you go to an unbeliever who does not even know the truth of God, to settle your disputes. Why do you go to a class of people like that. And then he goes on, the last phrase of verse 1 and says, “and not before the saints.” In other words you would go before an unrighteous lost judge, but you wouldn’t go before a fellow believer, a saint, which means a holy one.

And that’s the other class of people. He said, there’s two classes of people in the world, those that are saved, and God calls them saints or holy ones, and those that are unsaved, which are the wicked and unrighteous. Now how could a holy one, who has the mind of Christ, bypass other holy ones who has the mind of Christ, and go to an unsaved, unregenerate judge, who has no true wisdom, because he does not know the true God of heaven. Paul is simply saying, this is shocking, look how you dethroned yourself from your high position as Christians and gone to the lower class, as far as biblical wisdom is concerned, to settle your dispute. He said, its unthinkable and totally unacceptable.

Just as a backdrop here, look over at I Corinthians chapter 1 and look at verse 25. 1 Corinthians 1:25. Paul here writing says “Because the foolishness of God is wiser then men,” he’s saying, if you take all of unsaved man’s wisdom, insight and abilities, and then you take the most foolish part of God’s wisdom, and God doesn’t have any foolish part, but if he’s speaking hypothetically. Take the most foolish aspect of God’s understanding and its wiser then the wisest of the unsaved man’s understanding. Just forming a correlation there or rather a contrast between the two. Verse 25, “because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger then men.” Verse 30, 1 Corinthians 1: “But by his doing, you are in Christ.” You were one of the foolish, darkened minded, lost, unregenerate, depraved people of the world. But what happened? God did something. By his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, “who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

Now, when we received Jesus Christ, we got the wisdom — I’m not saying we have it all available to us, in its fullness, we’ll know it I think in fullness one day in glory — but you have available to you, through the person of Christ who lives in you, the wisdom that created the universe. You have in you the wisdom that defined and established justice. So how could you bypass those who have that wisdom for the unregenerate who have no true wisdom, if you want to settle a dispute one between the other. Paul is just simply saying, how do you come down off of the lofty throne you have for an extremely, and that’s not even strong enough, the total antithesis of wisdom and that is a dark and unregenerate person, to decide your case between brothers. And one other verse, chapter two, verse 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.” Christians have the mind of Christ, they have the wisdom of the one who established and defined what justice really is.

Well, look at verse 2, now of our main text, 1 Corinthians 6:2. We’re still talking about how they dethroned themselves from their position in Christ. Now I’m not saying literally, I’m not saying you can never come out of Christ if you are in Christ, but they were acting as though they were not in Christ. They dethroned themselves practically speaking. Now look at verse 2. “Or do you not know,” now that phrase, “or do you not know” or just the phrase, “do you not know” is one of Paul’s favorite expressions when he wants to rebuke them. Its like if somebody came to you and they had stolen some money and they had gotten caught and they were full of shame and guilt and you were confronting them about stealing the money and they looked at you and said, well, I just didn’t realize it was wrong. And then you responded saying, “you don’t know stealing’s wrong?” That’s what Paul is saying here. “You don’t know, you didn’t understand”. And what else are you going to say, verse 2: “You do not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts.” And then look at verse 3: “Do you not know”, there he goes again, “that we shall judged angels, how much more matters of this life.” Now let me talk for just a moment about what I think Paul means when he says “we will judge the world” and “we will judge angels”. I do not believe that’s in an actual, practical, literal sense. I believe its in this sense, in that we will reign with Christ forever and ever and ever. Romans 8:17 says “we are heirs of God and fellows heirs of Christ”. 2 Timothy 2:12 says, “if we endure we shall also reign with him.”

Now if we are joint heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, then because of our relation to Christ, we will judge with Christ, and Christ is the absolute final judge. As a matter of fact, in the Old Testament, to judge Israel and to rule Israel was the same thing. If you were a ruler you were a judge. If you were the judge, you were ruler, and that’s what we have. We’re in Christ, we are one with Christ, and as Christ rules and judges, so we rule and judge. And I believe that’s what he means there. Christ certainly will rule and judge over all the world and he will certainly render the judgement of lost man and render the final judgement of the fallen angels. But also he rules over all the heavenly creatures, and we as joint heirs with Christ will rule with him.

And so the point he’s making, if you have in you, the one whose going to rule over even heavenly beings like angels, don’t you have enough wisdom to constitute a little court within the church to decide when there’s a dispute between brothers. Doesn’t it make sense, Paul’s says, that you can do this. Now when he says in verse 2, “are you not competent,” that phrase literally means, do you have too little weight, too little value, do you have neither the dignity nor the ability to settle these matters among yourselves. Since we are the regenerate, we have the mind of Christ, then how could we bypass the court of the saints to have our disputes settled in the court of the depraved. And by depraved I’m talking about the theological truth that all men who are without Christ are totally depraved.

In the last 20, 40, 50 years in evangelical preaching, lost man has risen some. We’ve gotten away from the biblical doctrine of total depravity where man’s not quite so bad any more. But total depravity means there is inherent corruption that extends to every aspect of man’s nature. Inherent corruption that extends to every aspect of man’s nature. He doesn’t mean that every man is as bad as he could be, but it means that every man, in every aspect of his nature is tainted and touched by sin. There’s no part of him that is truly, truly good. So the point he’s making is how could you bypass the court of the saints. You who have the mind of Christ, you who are one day going to rule with Christ and judge over the world and over angels.

How could you pass up that group to go to a totally depraved man and say, solve this dispute. You’ve dethroned yourselves, you are going to the lowest level. And that’s what he means there in verse 2 when he says, “can’t you constitute the smallest law courts.” He’s probably referring to the fact that most of the disputes in the church at Corinth and they were taken to the secular courts. And as a matter of fact, historians tells us that Corinth was much like America is today. I mean, you just expected every two or three years you were going to be in a lawsuit of some kind. Everybody’s looking for a lawsuit, or in a lawsuit, or getting out of a lawsuit, or looking for a settlement. Its just the way they function.

They sort of enjoy the whole process of suing people, one another. And so the church at Corinth was drawn into this very thing. And many of them had cases before unregenerate judges. So here we have Christians at a church, wanting to take their case with another brother or sister, to the light of justice, but they go to those who grope in total darkness, bypassing those who have the light of truth. We don’t have to say this, but Paul is simply saying, its totally completely and absolutely unacceptable for a Christian to sue or take to court another Christian in a secular court setting. Now look at verse three. Still talking about how they had dethroned themselves. He says “Do you not know that we shall judge angels, how much more matters of this life.”

Once again, very simply, if we’re going to rule with Christ, we’re going to reign with him, and as we reign with him, we’ll rule over angels, all celestial beings, and all the created universe actually, and are we not able to take care of little disputes between brothers and sisters and rule in those. Look at verse four “If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are no account in the church.” I believe he simply means this, if when you have something to decide in your church, do you go out here to an unsaved, unregenerate secular leader, or secular judge and bring him into your church family and say, “will you tell us what to do next for God. Well you show us what our next thing ought to be as the church of God.” He said, no, you wouldn’t do that. Well, why take your case out to them then. Of course you wouldn’t do that.

Verse 5, he’s very strong when he says, “I say this to your shame.” Literally means I’m trying to shame you, I’m trying to produce shame. There are those times when God speaks to us and his goal is to shame us, his goal is to bring guilt, make us be ashamed for how we acted and for what we did. “I say this to your shame. Is it so that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren.” He says, you mean to tell me, there’s not one person in your whole church that you respect enough that they walk with God that you and this brother that you have a dispute with, can’t sit before him and say, “brother listen, we’re going, I’m going to tell you my side, he’s going to tell you your’s, you pray and you give us from the word of God what you think the conclusion ought to be and we’ll honor that and go on and love each other.”

And folks, that’s okay if we have to do that every now and then in the church. That’s okay. You know what most Baptists do, they want to act spiritual and not bring the case up so they spend the next six months talking about the other person, behind their back. You ought to just go to your Sunday school teacher and say, “I’ve got a problem with old Joe here because of what he did,” and Joe said, “well, I’ve got a problem with you because of what you did.” Oh, alright. Let’s sit down with your Sunday school teacher, and say Joe gave his side, Tom gave his side, I don’t know anyone called Joe and Tom, I just thought those up. And the Sunday school teacher says, “I’m going to pray about it,” and the Sunday school teacher comes back and says, “well, I believe Joe, you are really responsible, you ought to apologize and get this over.” Joe apologizes, its over and they go on. Instead of this going around acting spiritual, not bringing it up to anybody, not bringing somebody in to help us settle it, and back biting and gossiping and slandering each other in the church. Its not of God.

Matthew 18 is the same basic instruction, your brother wrongs you, or hurts you some way, you are to go to him and try to get it settled, if you don’t get it settled, what do you do? You bring another one into it, then two goes to that brother. Settle it biblically. Certainly don’t go to secular courts. Well, Paul first says, listen, you’ve just dethroned yourself with your position. You’re seated with Christ in the heavenly places, you have available to you the wisdom of the God who defines and established what justice is, and you jump down off of that and run to the base level of this world a person who does not have any wisdom at all, dethroning your position.

But notice number two here, he says, you’ve defeated your purpose. Now what’s the purpose of the church. The Bible speaks that Christ deserves glory in the church. Its to glorify God. We’re here to bring him glory. We’re here so people can look at us and see us. The lost world can look at us and they can see God and his love and his truth. And he’s saying, by the way you’re acting, you’ve defeated your purpose. You’re preventing the church from being what it ought to be, an organized body of Christ, an organism rather that’s bringing glory to the head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how they did this defeating their purpose beginning in verse 6. He says “But brother goes to law with brother and that before unbelievers.” Now he’s making a point here of what they are doing. There are two things in verse 6. Number one he says, first of all, you’re blowing it because you’re suing one another. You ought to just go and through Christian arbitration get it settled, but the fact that you are officially wanting to sue another brother in Christ, first of all, that defeats your purpose.

And why is that? Because what did Jesus say? “All men will know you are my disciples by the love you have one for another”. In 1 John 3:16, he talks about love is this, that Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. The very fact that you have a lawsuits against another believer, that’s a defeat right there. I mean, anybody in the world hears about that, your testimony is gone. You’re telling the whole world, “we know the true God of heaven, the God who is love and I’m suing my brother by the way.” Its over, you’ve defeated your purpose of bringing glory to God. That won’t glorify God at all. But not only that you have a lawsuit, but secondly that you went to law before unbelievers. Talk about assassinating your testimony. The unbelieving judge and the unbelieving world looks on as two professed believers are fighting it out in a court. A secular court in a lost world. Totally defeating your purpose.

Look at verse seven, “Actually then it is already defeat for you”. And we just explained how it is a defeat for you. “That you have law suits with one another, why not rather be wronged, and why not rather be defrauded.” And the type of individual cases that Paul was dealing with here, he said the Christian thing to do was to take the loss. Take the loss before you would go to a secular court. Somebody stole a hundred dollars from you, and they’re suppose to be a Christian and there’s some dispute about it, and they won’t get right about it, then just lose the hundred dollars before you go to secular court to settle it and lose the testimony of the church and your reputation of love for your brother and of Jesus Christ. He says “Why not rather be wronged, why not rather be defrauded.”

Let’s do this, let’s turn to Galatians chapter 5, I debated about doing that, but let’s turn there real quick. Galatians chapter 5:15-17. Here’s the arena where the defeat took place. It’s revealed in Galatians 5:15-17: “If you bite and devour one another” that sounds like two people that got something against each other, don’t they! Probably in a lawsuit. Verse 15 “if you bite and devour one another” that might be talking about the nursery, I don’t know! [laughter]. “Take care lest you be consumed by one another.” Now about what I think Paul is talking about, he says, “you’re going to consume one another,” What I think Paul is talking about as he writes to the churches in Galatia region, he says “you’re going to consume one another” he means you’re going to consume, your going to destroy your testimony. People are going to see you biting and devouring, fussing and feuding, same thing as in the Corinthian church, taking lawsuits before secular court and you’re testimony is wrecked. Verse 16, “but I say walk by the spirit”, present imperative, it means I command you, keep on walking by the spirit as a lifestyle habit, “and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” You won’t be defeated by flesh desire. Now verse 17: “For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh”. These are irreconcilable adversaries. So that, look at last phrase, verse 17, Galatians 5, “So that you may not do the things that you please, or that you wish.”

You’ve got an old flesh desire raging in you and then you’ve got that new nature that came in at salvation. And in what I think Paul is saying to the church at Corinth about these lawsuits, you’re already defeated because you’ve already let the flesh desire have its way. You let the flesh desire have its way in that first of all you filed a lawsuit with a brother and then secondly you let the flesh completely defeat you in glorifying God and walking in the spirit because you went to a secular court to solve the matter. Its already a defeat for you. You’ve been defeated by your flesh passions. The flesh passions are raging, but the new nature gives us direction; we’re to deny the flesh passions and live out the new true nature that was put in us at conversion, the nature of Christ that is there.

And then look at verse 8: “On the contrary, in other words, instead of just being wronged and defrauded so that you could keep your testimony. And not be a stumbling block and not rob God of the glory he deserves in your life and the church, instead of doing that, verse 8, on the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud and that your brethren.” Instead of maturely submitting to injustice so that God’s testimony will not be hurt, you’re going out looking for how you can hurt a brother or sister to get gain. Now Paul is not suggesting that the entire church live this way, but there was enough problem that he got very, very strong and clear about it. And it ought to be a settled conclusion in our hearts, that we would never ever accept in one church family, this church, one believer taking another believer to an outside court. There may be very legitimate, very difficult to understand disputes that need to be settled; if so you bring them to the elders of the church, you bring them to men or women of wisdom in the church, and in one sense and lack of a better phrase, argue your cases, and let the saints of God render the decision and you live as if that decision is from God and its settled and go on. There should not be lawsuits in secular courts from one Christian against another.

Well, Paul says, because of what you’re doing, you’ve already dethroned yourself form your position, you’re suppose to be high, you’ve got the mind of Christ, nobody else is as high as you, but you’re leaving the high mind of Christ and letting folks that don’t even know Christ settle your cases. Secondly, he said, you’ve defeated your purpose, you’re here to glorify God and you’ve just wrecked your testimony. By suing your brother and taking him to a secular court. And then thirdly he says, you’re denying your purity. You’re denying your purity. My wording here is very deliberate. Because in Christ, because of the regenerating work of Christ in our hearts, we are now pure in the eyes of God. We are now pure because we’re in Christ. But some of them had become open at least to the concept that if you just professed Christ and went through the religious motions and the observances or perhaps the ordinances of Christianity, then your daily lifestyle didn’t matter if you were immoral or not. Just as long as you jump through the right religious hoops, everything was okay.

And so they were denying, some of them, the purity that God said is in your life and you ought to be living out. You see, if you’re saved, you’ve got the purity; your goal is to live out what you got. Your goal is to live out what you are. Jesus made you pure in Christ. Now we begin to live that out. And let me say this Paul makes it very, very clear here, if you’ve been saved, and that new pure nature is in you, the purpose and pattern of your life will be to live out that purity. You cannot willfully indulge in an immoral lifestyle and have a regenerate nature. Now let’s look at this for just a moment. Look at verse 9 of our text, 1 Corinthians chapter 6: “Or do you not know”,  there’s this phrase again, do you  mean to tell me, you didn’t know it was wrong to do these things. You mean to tell me you didn’t know it was inconsistent with your new nature as a Christian to live in these kind of sins. “Do you not know”, and what’s the first one he says, “that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor homosexuals,” then he goes to thieves and the covetous, verse 10, drunkards, revilers, nor swindlers.

Now, Paul is in no way shape or fashion, trying to give us an exhaustive list of the sins that will keep you out of heaven. He’s just showing you the classifications of people who live in open and willful sin. Now, the tendency of man to divorce religion for morality has manifested itself in all of the ages of the world, and in all forms of religion. There’s always been that notion, that well you know, if you show up on certain days of the week and you do these certain things, that, that appeases God, that’s a propitiation between me and God, and then my lifestyle doesn’t matter a whole lot. That thought pattern has been around form the beginning. Listen to what Charles Hodge, the great theologian said about verse 9. He says, “the pagan, the Jews, the Mohammedan, the nominal Christian, have all been exact in the performance of religious services and zealous in the assertion and defense of what they regard as religious truth, while unstrained in the indulgence of every evil passion. This arises from looking upon religion as an outward service and God as being, as a being to be feared and propitiated but not to be loved and obeyed”.

The point is, for the Christian, all moral godliness is religious service. Are you listening. All moral godliness is religious service. That means abstaining from fornication, that is my service to Christ. Abstaining from adultery, that is my service to Christ. Abstaining from being a reviler, that is my service to Christ. Abstaining from being a homosexual, that is my service to Christ.

But there are those in a crowd this large, probably in this church today, that have let habits and things settle in your life and you think because perhaps you do certain things on Sunday and you show up certain times, well, I’ve jumped through the hoops, and my morality doesn’t matter. Paul says, it matters extensively. You see, for a Christian to be religious and immoral is a gross contradiction. And there were some in the Corinthian church who professed Christianity as a system of doctrine, and they accept Christian forms of public worship, but they did not follow Christian principles as a rule of life. And Paul says, that is a fatal mistake. Let’s go over this list of specifics he gives, just a generalized list, but doesn’t he doesn’t mean to list all the things, because all willful indulging sin gives evidence that you are not a regenerate child of God.He makes it very clear. Or do you not know, verse 9, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now the word unrighteous in here means one who violates principles of justice in dealing with their fellow man.

A person who willfully, knowingly, as a habit and a pattern of his life, unjustly deals with his fellow man, that person is not one that is going to inherit the kingdom of God. He’s not been saved. Here’s one place where we can have some common ground with the person who thinks you get to heaven by works. Because the person who thinks you get to heaven by works would see a man whose deliberately, openly, willfully living in sin, and say, “he lost his salvation.” Paul looks at that same man and says, “he never had it.” So either way, he needs it. Amen! Whether he lost it or never had it, so we agree on that. They say they lost it; Paul says, no, they didn’t ever get it.

Well, he goes on verse 9, “Do not be deceived, neither fornicators,” of course that’s sexual impurity between people who are unmarried. I”m going to tell you, if there’s a young person in this church, college person, and the pattern of their life is sexual immorality, they don’t feel that its that bad, they just want to live in it, they want to see what they can get by with, Paul says, “you’ve never been saved. You don’t know Christ, you’ve never been given a new nature.”

Now Paul is not saying, if you ever have committed fornication you’re not going to heaven. He’s talking about the purpose and the pattern of your life. I mean, in this day folks, you’ve got to realize the Corinthian culture was a very corrupt culture. And to be religious in their pagan temples, you participated in fornication. And Paul was making a contrast. Once you get saved you have a new nature that makes you sick of that old desire. You have a new nature that grieves you and burdens you, you hurt over that old passion and desire. And now the new pattern of your life is to live above that sin of fornication. Well, he goes on, “and adulterers”, or rather “idolaters”. anyone who puts anything before the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this world we live in today is full of idolatry. They may not make them out of stone or wood or marble or granite or whatever, but if you’re, if you’re honoring serving, following after, you’re love and devotion is to anyone, anything other than Christ, you’re an idolater.

“Nor adulterers”—married persons having sex outside of the marriage bond. A person who lives that kind of pattern, that kind of lifestyle has not been born again. Then he says, “nor effeminate, nor homosexuals.” Paul was very exhaustive in this area. Now Paul was very exhaustive in this area of homosexuality.  When he uses effeminate and homosexual, he’s covering all the areas of the multitudes of gross perversity in the sins of homosexuality and lesbianism.  Paul says, you know a person who lives in that openly, willfully promotes that lifestyle, that’s what they are, you can be for certain, they may show up at a church, they may take something they call the Lord’s supper, they may have been baptized, they may give their tithes, but they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.  They show by what they willfully live in, they’ve never been born again.

Verse 10. He goes on to other, “nor thieves, nor the covetous”, now he’s talking about greed here. Those people who would just steal and want and want and take and abuse others to get it. Just the greedy. Then he says, “nor drunkards”. Now the word drunkards I think is self explanatory, generally that just means people who use intoxicating drinks for recreational purposes. And then “nor revilers”. That’s just using your tongue to destroy and slander and hurt others. Then he says, “nor swindlers”. That means ho, people who steal indirectly. They scheme and they use trickery and they use manipulation to take and get from others.

Then he says, “Shall inherit the kingdom of God.” He tells the church at Corinth, if you’ve been saved, you have a new regenerate nature of purity. And some of you wanting to be broad minded and wanting to be accepted into the community, wanted to be applauded by the present culture, you’ve slipped on your standards. You need to get back to it, because you need to understand people who live like that don’t belong to God, and you do belong to God, so don’t live like you don’t.

Now look at verse 11, what a beautiful verse. “And such were some of you”. Paul’s very definite in his writing here, he, he wants to tell them, I know not all of you were entrapped in these kind of lifestyles before you were saved, but a lot of you were. You know every church has some who are former fornicators. Former idolaters, former adulterers, former effeminate or homosexuals, former thieves and covetous, former drunkards, former revilers, former swindlers. Such were some of you. In other words, that’s what you were and that’s how you lived, because that was your nature. But that’s not your nature any more.

Now you may have some of those old passions and desires lingering around, but that’s not the new true you. Live out the new true you, the new desires of the new man, not the old desires of the old man. That’s suppose to be passing off of your life. Notice how he words it there, “and such were some of you, but you were washed”. Just a general word that means purified. Now these verses, the verbs in this verse, the scholars tell us they are in the middle voice, which means it can mean action on the subject. In other words, you’re washing yourself, and I believe Paul includes both. What he means here is when you were saved, the old was washed out, the old was washed away and a new nature was put in there. Now you have the new nature in you, but now you yourself must honor the desires of the new nature, live a washed life. Wash your life by living out the desires of the new nature. Now Jesus washed you, and regenerated you, and put the new nature in you, but now you yourself must live out what you now are.

And then he goes on. “And you were sanctified”, it just simply means set apart. Now its true that when you were saved, God brought down the verdict in heaven that you were now his, his property, and now you are set aside for his use, you’re not set aside to follow the old desires and the lust of the flesh, passion that’s in you, you’re set aside now with a new nature to honor God and bring glory to him in this world. You’re set aside from the kingdom of this world, you’re now of the kingdom of heaven.

And this world’s passing away, so you are not going to miss anything. He’s getting you out of what won’t last and getting you into what can’t fade away. Getting you out of this world’s kingdom and set you apart, sanctified for service in his, his work and in his kingdom.

And then the last phrase, “but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of God”. Justified means that judicial verdict, there was a judicial declaration in heaven whereby the Lord Jesus Christ paid our punishment on the cross, took all the judgement for all of our sins, its settled, done, finished forever, and God brought the gavel down on the judicial bar of heaven and said, not guilty. They are now just in my sight. They are not righteous in my sight.

The word justified does not mean any aspect of living it out, it means a declaration that stands in heaven and cannot be revoked. The only way you can revoke it is to take Jesus back to the cross and de-crucify him and take the sins back off that he took. Its a settled, rendered, declared, done forever, aren’t you glad that’s that way. Aren’t you glad the declaration of heaven is justified and that’s why Paul’s saying, my stars in heaven, you are saved and justified, Christ has done it, the new nature is there, live out what you are. Don’t be drawn back into the polluted corruption and immorality of those who are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.

Let me, well he says there, the last phrase of verse 11, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of God”, the phrase name there just simply means the Lord Jesus. He’s not here physically, but you can believe on the teaching of him. So, they didn’t see Jesus physically and bodily but they believed on his teaching. And what he means, when he says “the name of the LORD Jesus”, just means Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of our God. Here’s what it means. The spirit applied the redemption that was purchased by Christ on Calvary’s cross. The holy spirit of God came to these Corinthians, and he applied to them what was accomplished for them when Jesus died on the cross. It was applied to their account.

You know all of us have an account ledger in heaven. And on my account ledger in heaven, you know what it says. It says, it says, washed, it says sanctified and it says justified. How, how did you get all of that brother Jeff. You been a good person. No. Jesus accomplished all of that at Calvary, it was put on my account when I believed on Jesus Christ. Its placed on your account. That’s what he means “in the name of the LORD Jesus and in the spirit of God”. The holy spirit made all of that happen, you and I could not have done it. And so he exhorts the Corinthians, live out what you are. Don’t be drawn in to a corrupt lifestyle that is like those who are not inheriting the kingdom of heaven.

Now, turn with me to Romans 5:20 right quick, and we’ll be through. Romans chapter 5 verse 20. Romans 5:20. “And the law came in that transgression might increase”. What does that mean. God wants transgression to increase. No, it just means when God revealed his law to man, man understood how sinful and what a law breaker he was. You didn’t, you and I would not know how, how far we fall below God’s standard, how completely we transgress God’s law had God not shown us the law. You’re going down the road doing 75, you may think you are just fine, until you realize they’ve bumped it down to 65, they are going through a city. And then you’re aware you are a transgressor. Boy, that’s what the law does, it makes you aware of what you are. That’s what he means there, Romans 5:20 when he says, “and the law come in that transgression might increase”, but notice this, “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”. Well, my goodness, if God gives me the law and I see what a wretched sinner I am and that I totally am disqualified, is there any hope. Yes. Because God brought the law and showed us the depth of our sin and depravity, but in Christ he showed us the infinite blessing of grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

Here’s a summarizing statement under this this last point that they were denying the purify that was suppose to be their’s in the Christian walk in life. The law sends us, might even say drives us or pushes us, the law sends us to the gospel for justification. You see, you look at the law and say, whoa is me, I’m undone, I can’t help myself, I’m a wicked, law breaking sinner. And what does it do. It pushes you to the gospel that Jesus died for wicked law breaking sinners. He took all of your punishment, he buried it away in the ground and he rose again to impart new life to those people who were sinful lawbreakers.

So the law drives me to Jesus, the gospel. But then the gospel drives me to the law. For lifestyle purification. You’ve got to go in that order. The law drove me to Jesus to get saved, because the law showed me I couldn’t save myself, too corrupt, too sinful, too much of a transgressor. But then after I got saved, what happened, he gave me a new nature. And my new nature is like who? The one who gave the law. My new nature is the same nature as the one who wrote the law. And so now my new nature desires to live out the law. I want to honor his, I love him from my heart. And so this gospel provided a new nature, whereby now I’m guided back to the law to guide my lifestyle habits, actions, motivations, disposition, whatever, behavior.

The law sends us to the gospel, so we can get justification, but the gospel sends us to the law for lifestyle purification. That’s what Paul is saying, You weren’t saved by works, but now that you are saved, you go back to the law to find out how I want to live. Cause I love my Lord now. His law is not a burden, its a blessing. Because my new nature lines up with. Now used to my whole nature said, I don’t like that law, but now I’ve got a new nature that says, I love that law, but I still have some old desires that says I don’t like that law, but I’m suppose to look at those old desires and say, you’re not the true me any more, this new nature is. And that’s what Paul’s telling the Corinthians when he said, don’t deny the purity you’re suppose to have in your life, that’s what you are now, as a born again child of God.

So Paul gives them some very practical, very direct teaching on lawsuits and loose living.