Such Were Some of You | 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Grab your Bibles, because we are going to jump

right into it this morning. We are in a series

in 1 Corinthians, and we are in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. Go ahead and turn there if you will.

Even though we're only covering three verses

this morning, we have so much to talk about.

So we want to get started. By the way, if you

are newer here at Oak Hill or you're visiting

with us this morning, you probably will not have

heard the warning that I issued. to our church

family and to our parents in the past week. And

if you didn't hear that and that's the case,

let me give it to you now. We're going to be

discussing some mature themes that come up in

this morning's passage, themes of a sexual nature.

So if you have a child and that child is not

ready for those conversations. You might want

to head over to our children's ministry, check

them in, then come back. And if you need to do

that, we have some ushers in the back. Blake's

walking around somewhere. He can help you, direct

you on how to do that. Fact is, sometimes these

things come up, right, as we work our way through

the Bible. We're looking at verses 9 to 11 this

morning, but let's back up to verse 1 so that

we make sure that we read it in context. 1 Corinthians

6, beginning verse 1. Here's what God says. 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? If the world is judged

by you, are you not competent to constitute the

smallest law courts? Do you not know that we

will judge angels? How much more matters of this

life? So if 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, one wise man, who

will be able to decide between his brethren?

But brother goes to law with brother, and that

before unbelievers. Verse 7. 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. You do this

even to your brethren. So obviously the members

of the church there in Corinth in the first century

were completely ignoring the basic principles

of forgiveness and reconciliation, and they were

not allowing church leadership to get in there

and help them work through these conflicts according

to the pattern that we have in Scripture. Instead,

they were dragging each other into court. They

were seeking financial vengeance, gouging one

another, and doing it all before unbelievers,

dishonoring the name of Christ and the testimony

of his church there in that city. So Paul says,

don't you realize that you are different from

the world around you? So why are you acting like

the world? Why are you operating as they operate?

It'd be better if you allowed yourself to be

wronged and cheated by someone than to go after

each other in court and bring division and disgrace

into the body of Christ. I say this to your shame,

he writes, which is strong language because remember,

Paul is their spiritual father. I say this to

your shame, but here's the truth. This is already

a defeat for you. Now he goes on. Here are three

verses for this morning, beginning in 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 the effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves,

nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,

nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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 our God. So let's start here. Who is

Paul talking about at the beginning of verse

9? He's talking about the unrighteous, he says,

adikoi in the original Greek. This is the same

word that he used up in verse 1 when he chastised

the Corinthians for bringing lawsuits before

unbelievers, before the unrighteous. Or as it

could be read, you bring your case before men

who are unjustified in God's sight. He's speaking

of people out there in the world who have no

fear of God, no saving knowledge of Christ, and

obviously then these are people who will not

inherit the kingdom of God, Paul says. But here

was the problem. Some of the church members in

Corinth were living just like the unrighteous,

unsaved population around them. They'd been sucked

into the culture. So Paul feels compelled to

warn them severely in the middle of verse 9.

Don't let yourself be deceived, he says. Do not

be self -deceived. You may profess to know Christ,

but you're habitually living like people who

will be shut out of heaven someday. Imagine getting

that letter from the apostle. And this is important

to point out before we get to the list of sins

that comes next. Paul is warning them about having

a lifestyle So this isn't just I stumbled into

sin or momentarily on occasion I fell into temptation.

He's talking about professing believers living

in an ongoing, continuous pattern of sin, clinging

onto their desires without any sense of repentance.

They're not battling against their sin. They're

not seeking God's face to try to overcome it.

They've simply chosen out of their own will to

resist. the moral commands of Scripture, and

go their own way. That's the posture that they've

taken. If that's you, Paul says, you should know

this. You are not a Christian. You cannot live

that lifestyle and claim to be a Christian. You're

not saved. You're either lying to yourself and

those in the church or you're self -deceived,

and therefore you need to wake up and hear the

truth. If you persist in a lifestyle that mirrors

the unrighteous, you will not inherit the kingdom

of God. It's a strong language, right out of

the gate in verse 9. And then we come to something

that Paul uses fairly regularly as a literary

tool. We call this a vice list, a vice list.

And these are not unusual. You'll find lists

in the book of Romans, Galatians, Ephesians,

and Colossians. And oftentimes you'll see a list

of vices that are contrasted to a list of what?

Virtues, right? A vice list and a virtue list.

And the intent of these lists in Scripture is

not to be exhaustive. Paul's not trying to list

every possible vice or every possible virtue.

He's using representative sins on the one hand

and representative examples of righteousness

on the other. And here in 1 Corinthians 6, he

picks a sampling of 10 sins that show us, even

today, what an unrighteous lifestyle looks like.

So let's walk through them. And as we do, Here's

what I want you to do. I want you to resist the

temptation to say, this doesn't apply to me.

Because we all have that defensive measure in

us to say, oh, this is interesting, but not for

me. Maybe for you, but not for me. So be careful,

right? Before you do that, I want you to consider

the range of meaning of each of these words.

The range of meaning. Consider the most blatant

manifestation of these things, but also the most

subtle. manifestation, the ones that are least

detectable, that might actually be seeping into

your life right now. You might be surprised.

If you dig deep enough into your heart, you might

say, you know what? Now that I read that, I probably

need to guard my heart against the seeping into

my life. So let's start with the sinful lifestyle

that Paul puts first. It's fornicators. Fornicators.

In the Greek, the root word is pornos. Now, we've

already come across this word three times already

in the first six chapters of this letter. Obviously,

it's the root of our English word, pornography.

And in the context of a vice list like this,

it refers to a general category of sexually immoral

people. That would mean any sin that is forbidden

in God's word. Given Paul's Jewish background

and his understanding of the Old Testament, he

would probably have in mind things like prostitution,

adultery, incest, homosexuality, and yes, here's

the big one, any sexual activity outside of the

covenant of marriage. We categorize that as fornication.

This is why I just cautioned you to consider

the range of meaning. It would be so easy to

say, well, listen, I'm never going to engage

in prostitution or incest, but then miss the

possibility of the more subtle one, which is

any sex outside of marriage. So you might understand

why, if somebody were to come into our church

body and say, I'm living with my boyfriend or

living with my girlfriend, that any of us members

lovingly should confront that situation and issue

a warning. And I know that's not a comfortable

conversation to have, but it's a necessary one

for this reason, because we care about that person.

We care about their soul. We want them to know

that they're living in disobedience to God's

commands and that such a lifestyle might someday

exclude them from inheriting eternal life. Is

that not love to have that conversation because

we care about them? But also we would want to

tell them the good news about how to overcome

this problem that they have engaged in. What's

the remedy? Repentance. Submission to Christ

combined with practical steps to move out of

that lifestyle and to walk in holiness. Those

are important conversations that we have within

the body of Christ. Fornication. It's a big general

category. That's the first one. Second one is

idolaters. Idolaters. Now here, based on the

context of first century Greek culture, it's

likely that Paul has in mind all of the religious

activities. that were happening there each and

every day in the city of Corinth. Things like

sacrifices being made at pagan temples, worship

of Greek gods and goddesses, religious festivals

and banquets in honor of Zeus and Apollo and

all the gods, even the cultic sexual practices

that we know were taking place inside those pagan

temples. And again, we might say to ourselves,

well, I'm not planning to stop at a pagan temple

on my way home. I'm not going to build an altar,

a pagan altar in my living room today. But obviously

the term idolatry has a huge range of meaning.

In fact, you could say that idolatry may be the

most basic and fundamental of all sins. It's

giving status and loyalty to anyone or anything

that rightly belongs to God alone. And we are

all under the temptation, me included. to fall

into this, right? To subtly prioritize things

above our devotion to the Lord. Things like money

and material possessions, career and achievements,

vanity and appearance, safety and security, personal

comfort, entertainment, political ideologies,

social media, and the list goes on. We can end

up making those things idols. They come before

our devotion to the living God. And that's why

it's so important for a believer to constantly

be in prayer with the Lord, assessing his or

her heart, to walk through that self -examination,

asking the Spirit of God to reveal the deepest

part of our hearts, to say, Lord, what is it

I truly love? You know me better than I know

myself. I think I know what I love, but tell

me. Are there things that I need to lay aside?

What are the motivations behind why I do what

I do? That kind of self -examination and prayer

with the Lord is really important. This is how

we avoid falling into a habitual lifestyle of

idolatry. And by the way, there are going to

be times in our lives when we can be kind of

blind to our own idolatry. We end up in a habit

or something we're doing where we're kind of

blind to it. This is why we need one another.

loving fellow church members that will pull us

aside, again, motivated by love and concern to

say, hey, I'm seeing something in your life.

Can we talk about this? Because we don't want

one another to fall into idolatry. Does that

make sense? Third one, adulterers. So here Paul

narrows the focus to a subset of the first one.

sexually immoral people. These are people who

are unfaithful to their covenant marriage vows.

They're engaging in sexual relations with anyone

other than their spouse. But of course, in the

Sermon on the Mount, we know Jesus expanded the

meaning of adultery, didn't he? To include this,

simply looking at a woman with lust in your heart.

Ouch. And the obvious point of Jesus doing this

was to emphasize that a sin like adultery is

not just physical. Correct? Because long before

a man or woman physically cheats, he or she has

thought about it, rehearsed it, lusted after

it, and probably planned it in detail. So it's

a sin that begins in the heart and in the mind,

then it's fed by the heart and the mind as we

rehearse it. And then when the opportunity comes,

it flows easily out of the heart and mind. It

becomes one of the most devastating sins that

we can commit. You know why? Because it has ripples.

The consequences of adultery radiate out like

waves and affect all of our relationships. So

as Solomon warned us in Proverbs 4, guard your

heart with all diligence, for from it flow what?

The springs of life. Guard your heart. Be diligent

about it. Be careful. Now, the fourth and fifth

words in Paul's list are the effeminate and homosexuals.

I'm going to lay those aside for a second because

we're going to come back to them. They are at

the center of a very wicked propaganda effort

in our culture today, and I want to spend some

extra time on those two things, so we'll come

back to them. As we look at verse 10 now, we

see number six in our list, thieves. You see

what the word is there? Kleptists. Where do we

get from that? kleptomaniac, someone who has

a recurring compulsive urge to steal. Now, in

the context of that day in Corinth, I think Paul

likely has in mind the very thing he referenced

up in verse 8 of the same chapter when he talks

about these church members who are wronging and

defrauding their fellow brothers and sisters.

They're stealing. So with this one, don't think

of people, when we see kleptomania, what do we

think? Shoplifting? stealing supplies from the

office, things like that. But I want you to think

bigger. Thievery happens any time we manipulate

a situation to get a financial advantage, where

we manipulate it. We get an advantage over other

people. When we cheat people out of what they're

owed, or we lie to get some kind of deal that

we really don't deserve. And I know there are

people out there that will say, well, look, I'm

just being clever. I'm just being shrewd. Or

I'm just grabbing a hold of what I can get away

with. Guys, God sees all of it. And worse, he

doesn't just see the physical thing. He sees

the motivation of your heart when you do such

things. Thievery. Number seven, covetous. Another

one of the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not covet,

which is an old -fashioned word for greed. Being

greedy. Paul's talking about Corinthian church

members who were acting in greedy ways, marked

by an insatiable, selfish desire for more of

everything. More wealth, more possessions, more

power, more accolades, more of everything. And

covetousness, that's a hard word, covetousness

comes out most obviously when we see what other

people have and then we want to go take it. We

want that too. In fact, we want it bigger and

we want it better. It's actually a compulsive

expression of lust. It reveals a life shaped

by self -centeredness and a lack of contentment,

a lack of saying, thank you, Lord, for what I

have. I'm good with this. I'm content. And it

plays out in all kinds of ways that, again, is

no doubt connected back to Paul's concern over

these lawsuits in Corinth. He says you're suing

each other out of greed for what they have. You

want to take it from them. You want to see what

you can get out of a brother in Christ. This

is to your shame. So it can show up in our business

practices, in our efforts to do social climbing,

in power seeking, and then most commonly in our

day, in playing the comparison game. We've all

been tempted by this one. So don't exclude yourself.

I'm going to get a bigger house than him. Now

we fight that. We're like, oh, that's a terrible

thing. But we might feed that. I want a bigger

house. I want a nicer truck. Right? I want better

tools than my neighbor. We're going to go on

more elaborate vacations than that family. Or

I'm going to look even better than her. My kids

are going to outdo their kids. And even, you

ready for this? I'm going to grow a bigger church

than that guy down the street. This could be

really subtle, right? In fact, every aspect of

our lives, the comparison game, be aware, covetousness.

Number eight, drunkards. Those who repeatedly

abuse alcohol to the point where they lose self

-control and they lose moral judgment. And when

they do it, they damage relationships all around

them. But don't just think alcohol with this

one. It could be any substance that we turn to

for all kinds of reasons. For comfort, to deal

with pain, to cope with the hardships of life,

to just get a moment of escape. We'll turn to

substances. And the list of addictive things

shouldn't stop at just alcohol and drugs. There's

all kinds of things that can master us, right?

In fact, glance down at the very next verse in

this chapter, verse 12. We'll look at this next

Sunday. It says, all things are lawful for me,

but not all things are what? Profitable. All

things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered

by anything. Consider all the things in this

culture today. that might get a hold of you and

begin to master you. We'll save that list for

next Sunday. Come back. Number nine, the ninth

word is revilers, which is a summary term for

people who are verbally abusive. They slander

other people. Have you ever met someone who just

seems to love to use foul and harsh language

while attacking others? Right? That fellow parent

in the at Little League Baseball that just can't

stop? You know what I'm talking about, right?

Or they're on the other side of the duck. Maybe

they're on the other duck out. I don't know.

But they seem to revel in this idea of using

foul language or trying to, you know, insult

people, mock people, demean them. They enjoy

tearing others down. Even if they're making a

false accusation, it doesn't matter. They enjoy

using their words as weapons. They're revilers.

Final word in our list for this morning, number

10, swindlers. And once again, I think Paul's

pointing back to the issue of defrauding one

another in these lawsuits because this is what

a swindler does. He's a con artist who takes

advantage of other people. He's not satisfied

with honest gain. He habitually seeks to cheat

others out of what they have through deception

and manipulation. And the sin that always parallels

the swindler is pride. He thinks very highly

of his cleverness. He believes he can scheme

his way into extracting goods and services from

other people, and he's actually proud of his

ability to do this. I've heard people go, can

you believe I got over on that guy? And I'm like,

that's not good. I can't believe you're bragging

about that to me. It's not good. Having finished

that list, I want to make sure I say something

very clearly before we move on. A vice list like

this can weigh heavily upon the heart of a true

believer. And it's a good thing if conviction

of the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you are

led to recognize something and guard your heart

so these things don't creep in. But there's always

the danger of a true believer reading a list

like this, feeling the weight of conviction,

and then wrongly concluding, maybe I'm not saved.

Be careful here. Let me repeat what I said earlier.

Paul is talking about professing believers living

in ongoing, continuous sin. Not occasional stumbles,

ongoing, continuous sin. A habitual lifestyle

where they have no sense of conviction and they're

not taking steps towards repentance. What they're

trying to do is say, I'm a part of the church

while at the same time living as they please.

and not expecting anybody to call them out on

it. They're not battling sin. They're not asking

God, please help me overcome these things. So

listen, let the exhortation stand to guard your

heart on those things, but also don't doubt your

salvation. Be careful with that. Don't let any

hint of these 10 things slip into your life.

But if they do, what do we do as believers? We

repent and we turn away. We confess those things

to God and say, Lord, strengthen me to battle

these things well. That is what a true follower

of Jesus Christ does. Amen? Okay. You ready for

this? Let's go back to those two words I skipped

over. Uh -huh. Let's go back to those two words.

What I'm about to share is dangerous language

in our culture today. So grab your chairs if

you have to. First, let me say this. It can be

typical of evangelicals, and it's good for us

to be self -critical when we need to be. It can

be typical of us to look at a list like this

one and employ tunnel vision, to look at 10 things

and say, yeah, but that one is more grievous

than the others, and to hyper -focus on just

one thing. So when we clutch our pearls over

a sin like homosexuality, But then we look the

other way when we think about heterosexual sin,

or we look the other way and give a wink to greed

or drunkenness. It hurts our credibility in the

world. Makes us look like hypocrites. So we need

to be consistent about the fact that God doesn't

wink at any sin. They're all serious before him,

and we should approach all of them with that

same seriousness. Amen? Having said that, there's

no question. that there is out there today, has

been for decades, a vibrant propaganda campaign

to categorize homosexual relationships as somehow

acceptable to God. Some of you know this. You've

read the books. You've heard the podcasts. And

as one of your shepherds, I always feel compelled

to alert you to the lies that are out there,

the lies that are disguised as intellectual scholarship,

but aren't. I'm always concerned that you may

bump into this propaganda someday while you're

doom -scrolling or something like that, and it

shakes your faith, or your trust in your leadership,

your elders, is weakened because you see something

that looks intellectual, but it's really there

to fool you. So know this. In recent years, lots

of books, lots of podcasts have been produced

by people that will label themselves progressive

Christians. And they're trying to reform homosexuality

in the eyes of God. Now, they're not employing

good interpretive principles, good hermeneutics.

They do this, the one thing that every good Bible

student knows you should never do. And this is

what it is. Rather than coming to the text to

interpret it with a blank slate, laying aside

all of my presuppositions, what they're doing

is starting with the conclusion in mind, Right?

Where they want to end up and then selecting

certain passages that they can twist and modify

and rework in order to get them to their goal,

which is their premise, that homosexuality is

okay. It's a completely backwards way of interpreting

scripture. They start with their goal in mind.

And if you're not familiar with any of these

works, you'd be surprised at the lengths that

they'll go to because they desperately want the

Bible To justify their lifestyles. They desperately

want this. And they try so hard. And they do

entire conferences about this stuff. And podcasts

and books. I mean, it's all over the place now.

Just be warned. It's out there. But here's the

thing. Homosexuality is labeled as sin in every

single place that it's mentioned in the Bible.

Both Old and New Testament. Whether it's Genesis

19, Leviticus 18 and 20, or 1 Timothy 1 or Jude

7, Old and New Testament, it's labeled as sin.

Perhaps most clearly in Romans 1, where Paul

takes the time to speak to both male and female

versions of homosexuality, explicitly, and using

some of the strongest language you'll find in

the New Testament. I'll put the phrases on the

screen. Tell me if this is ambiguous. He calls

homosexuality degrading passions, unnatural function,

indecent acts, a depraved mind, the lusts of

their hearts given over to impurity so that their

bodies would be dishonored. And in Jude 7, the

homosexuality from Sodom and Gomorrah is called

going after strange flesh and indulging in gross

immorality. Is that unclear? Now, Romans 1 is

hard for progressives to argue against because

it's so fierce, but they will try, and the giant

reach that they use is this. This is one of the

main premises that they will put forward. Well,

homosexuality in general is not what's being

condemned here. Given the culture of the day,

what Paul is condemning is abusive homosexual

relationships. They refer to what we call pederasty,

where wealthy adult men would keep adolescent

boys in their households purely for sex. And

yes, that did take place in the Greco -Roman

culture of that day. But the problem with their

argument is this. There is absolutely no hint

of any of that in the actual text that Paul wrote.

This is what we call eisegesis. Exegesis is extracting

meaning from the words of Scripture. Eisegesis

is putting your own spin on the words that are

there, inserting meaning that doesn't exist.

There is no hint anywhere in these verses about

pederasty. It's a made -up concept. It's what

we call an argument from silence, where the interpreter

gets to fill in the gaps in whatever way he wants

in order to get to his desired conclusion. I

just add that meaning in because it gets me to

where I want to go. Now, an even more common

argument that's raised in favor of homosexuality

being okay, and that's what they'll say, okay

in God's eyes, is even more simplistic and easily

dismissed. Here's what it is. Well, Jesus never

addressed the issue of homosexuality. First of

all, Basic hermeneutic principle, you can't separate

Jesus' words in the four gospels from Jesus'

words spoken through the apostles. It's all the

voice of God. There are not degrees of inspiration

where the red letters that Jesus spoke in the

gospels are more important than the black letters

written by the apostles. It's all God's word.

So don't ever let people do that. It's all God

breathed equally. Second, there are many things

that Jesus never addressed. In his time on the

earth, he never talked about rape, never talked

about kidnapping, never talked about abortion.

Would we then conclude that somehow it's okay

in God's sight? Any of those things? Again, it's

a childish argument from silence, and it doesn't

hold up. And by the way, in both Matthew and

Mark, we do have Jesus' explicit statement about

God's design for marriage and procreation, and

it's not same -sex. Not a surprise, right? Jesus,

who comes out of a Jewish tradition, right, affirms

the creation account in Genesis. He confirms

that God designed man to be male and female and

to procreate and fill the earth. That is the

essential framework for interpreting the Creator's

intention for our sexual lives. Let me say that

again. That is the essential framework for interpreting

the Creator's intention for our sexual lives.

The union of a man and a woman within the covenant

of marriage. That's the only way that God says,

yes, I bless that. And He does. He blesses our

sexual life within the boundaries that He's given

us. Isn't that great? But you guys seem to be

doubting that. Like, what's wrong with you guys?

Now, that was an even moment. We missed it. Anyway,

no, we're going to try it again. But going back

to Romans 1, I think this is why Paul so heavily

focuses on the issue of homosexuality there,

because it brazenly distorts God's design in

the beginning. It's a prime example of what's

at the root of all sin, worship of created things

rather than the creator. Paul says there it's

contrary to nature. Natural relations are exchanged

for that which is unnatural. And honestly, look,

just from a common sense perspective, this is

sometimes the things that I'll say to you. Just

for a second, let's lay aside the common sense.

Look at male anatomy. Look at female anatomy.

Does not logic and nature show you the proper

design and function? Do they not fit together?

It's obvious, isn't it? Now, the objection to

the nature argument that comes from the progressive

left is, and yes, they have a response to this.

They'll say this. Well, there are some animals

in nature who act in homosexual ways. Therefore,

it can't be called unnatural. But understand

this. You would expect in nature that some things

are disordered. You know why? Because the creation

was affected by the fall. Just as there are disordered

relationships among human beings, there are disordered

relationships in the animal kingdom as well.

But God told us what he intended from the beginning

before the fall, and homosexuality is a departure

from the purpose that he built into us. We know

that before the fall. So these are not good arguments,

man. But listen, if you're not careful, they

will persuade the uneducated, right? The immature.

So be careful. They're out there, and they're

growing in size. Now, let's turn our attention

to these specific two words, because this is

a part of the propaganda campaign as well. Two

words, the effeminate, malakoi. Malakos means

soft. Malakoi, the soft ones. And homosexuals

are senokoitai. In their continuing effort to

prove their case, the progressives have tried

everything to try to redefine these two words.

They do not like 1 Corinthians 6, 9. And so they

try to redefine the terms. Once again, they want

so badly to say that these terms are included

in a vice list, right? Only because Paul has

something in mind other than what they have,

which they claim is a loving, monogamous, homosexual

relationship. They insist that he's referring

to relationships between powerful men of that

time, and effeminate call boys. That's what they

would say. So it's about sexual exploitation,

slavery, and rape, not about their loving relationships.

And yes, malakoi does mean soft, literally. It's

generally thought of as referring to the person

who takes the passive or the female sexual role

in a gay relationship. And the second word, arsenokoitai,

is the person who takes the active or male role.

Which, by the way, is quite ironic that even

progressive Christians speak in terms of male

role and female role. It's ironic, but I digress.

There are two big obstacles to their argument

on this. First, again, there is zero indication

in the actual text here that Paul is limiting

his condemnation to a particular type of same

-sex relationship. It's not there. It's an argument

from silence. Now, if he'd wanted to do that,

limited to a certain type of relationship, there

is a common Greek word he could have used here

that literally means pederasty. Literally means

that. But he doesn't choose that word. Instead,

what he does, and this has fascinated Greek scholars

for centuries, he creates his own unique word

to describe this particular sin. Okay, you see

the word, I know you may not be able to read

Greek, but you see it there, the pronunciation

there. He takes one of the Greek words that refers

to a man, arson, and adds a word that refers

to a bed, koite. Now in Hebrews 13, koite is

used to describe the marriage bed. In Romans

9 and 13, the same word is used to describe a

place of sexual activity. So the implication

is very clear. It's describing a man who lies

in bed with another man for the purpose of sex.

That's it. Nothing about abuse or older man and

younger boy. None of that. None of that. And

I think the reason Paul puts both of these terms,

malakoi and arsenokoitai, in the vice list, get

this, is because he's condemning both sides of

the homosexual relationship, the active and the

passive role, both of them. One doesn't get a

pass just because he's trying to mimic the female

role. He too is condemned. Now, just as a follow

-up objection, they'll go, but yeah, but the

word homosexual is a modern word. It's a bad

translation. Well, it's true. Did you know the

word homosexual was first put in print, I think,

in the year like 1892? It's not a first century

word. I think the first time it shows up in a

Bible, a modern translation, is 1956. But it

is the appropriate word for modern day translations.

Unless you want Paul to write men lying with

men in bed for the purpose of sexual, he just

says homosexuals, which is perfectly reasonable.

Perfectly reasonable. The second and more devastating

argument against the progressive position is

the source. of this word that Paul creates, the

source. If you were able to read Greek and you

took the Greek Septuagint, which is the Greek

translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, and

you looked at Leviticus 18 .22, you would see

this in the text. In fact, here it is in English.

You shall not lie with a male as one lies with

a female. It is an abomination. What is the Greek

word for male there? arsenos, and the Greek word

for lies, koiton. Put them together and you have

the word that Paul created. And these are the

same two words that are found again in Leviticus

20, where that act is described as detestable

in God's eyes. And here's the point, and I'll

finish with this. As Paul is writing here in

1 Corinthians 6, he quite literally has the Torah

in mind. As he writes, he's employing the Greek

version of the two Hebrew words that make the

very same statement from God about homosexuality

that God made to Moses. The same statement about

what homosexuality is in God's eyes from Moses

until the days of Paul. Nothing has changed over

time about God's view on this issue. No matter

how much some of these people say, well, it's

2026, man. Get with it. Nothing has changed in

the way God sees this issue, and it's not going

to change. Okay, deep breath. If you have questions

about any of that, please find me after the service.

Again, we're not trying to be mean here. We're

not trying to hurt anybody's feelings or to lift

this one thing up. It's just that you guys are

being bombarded these days. with all kinds of

really bad information. And I want to warn you

because my heart is for you. Okay? Let's get

to our key verse. Actually, the key verse is

verse 11. You want to end on a high note? Good.

Look at this amazing declaration in verse 11.

Such were some of you. Such were some of you.

Paul's saying, look, friends, I know that some

of you have a sinful, ugly, wicked past. And

some of us could stand up and testify in church

this morning. Yeah, me too. A sinful, ugly, wicked

past. You were fornicators, he says. You were

idolaters. You were homosexuals. You were drunkards

and swindlers. But praise God, not anymore. What

a statement, right? One of the most beautiful

statements in the New Testament. That's who you

used to be. That's that old man, right? prior

to being born again, a fleshly, self -worshiping

man. You lived in pursuit of nothing but your

own desires. But then come these three glorious

uses of the word but, this adversative word but.

Each one is designed, by the way, to emphasize

the monergistic work of God in transforming us.

But you were washed. But you were sanctified.

But you were justified in the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. When

I say monergistic, I simply mean that these are

things that we cannot do for ourselves. They're

things that only God can do for us. He washes

us. He sanctifies us. He justifies. He's the

active cause of these works in us. We are the

passive recipients of them. And praise God for

that, right? Let's look deeper. The first one

is often misunderstood, so let me walk you through

this. Many Bible readers make a mistake here.

Many. It turns out it's a wrong way of interpreting

this word. We have a tendency, whenever we see

water in the Bible or washing, we think of the

ordinance of baptism. And sometimes that's right,

but oftentimes it's not right. The context of

the passage is always going to determine the

right meaning. I'll give you a great example.

John 3, 5. We know this great conversation that

Jesus has with Nicodemus, right? And he says

to this famous rabbi, he says this. There we

go. He says, unless one is born of water in the

spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And

immediately our mind jumps to the ordinance of

baptism because he spoke of water. But the context

there has nothing to do with an ordinance of

the church. In fact, at this point that this

happens, the church hasn't been established.

and neither has the ordinance of baptism for

the church. It doesn't make sense that he would

be speaking that way. What he's talking about

here is being born again. That is the context.

He's speaking of the work of the Spirit doing

spiritual things in us, bringing us to life through

a regeneration of our hearts, breathing life

into our hearts. This is the point of what he's

saying. By the way, this lines up with all the

prophetic statements about what's coming. When

Messiah arrives. God says through Ezekiel, I

will sprinkle clean water on you. I will put

my spirit within you. This is a fulfillment of

that. So the water in this conversation is a

spiritual cleansing and renewal. The penalty

of our sins metaphorically being washed away.

And that lines up with the New Testament as well.

Titus 3 .5, we're told this. This is how we're

saved, it says in Titus 3. Not on the basis of

works, but by the washing of regeneration and

renewal by the Holy Spirit. That is not baptism.

That is a work of the Holy Spirit in us when

we're born again. So this is what Paul means

in our text for this morning. Such were some

of you, but then you were washed. You were these

awful things, these ten... representative sins,

but then you were washed. God took your spiritually

dead heart of stone and brought it to life, granting

you new life in Christ. You were cleansed, purified,

and renewed by his washing. And once that happens,

once a man repents of sin and puts his trust

in Christ, then yes, he should be baptized as

soon as possible. And that baptism serves as

a sign of the spiritual reality that's already

taken place. Through the work of the Spirit.

And when we call it a sign, we're not demeaning

the power of baptism. We're not denying that

it's a means of strengthening grace in our lives.

What we deny is that the physical water itself

or the act of baptism itself can accomplish the

work of spiritual washing. Only God can do that.

Because if we could do that, we'd grab everybody

off the street and start dunking them. Get in

the water, man. and you'll be saved. Nobody thinks

that way, because only God can do this work.

He washes us when we put our trust in Christ.

Okay, then the Spirit does the second thing you

see here in verse 11, but you were sanctified.

Now, when we hear sanctified, our minds go straight

to sanctification in the sense of our progressive

growing and maturity in Christlikeness. But here,

Because sanctified is put second in the list

of these three things. And before justification,

Paul's talking about something different here.

What he has in mind is what we call positional

sanctification. Here's what that means. When

we trusted in Christ and we were washed, we also

received a new status as sanctified. We were

set apart. That's what that word means. Set apart

as holy unto God. That is the positional truth.

about any one of us who's born again. And we

know this based on the original Greek usage.

The word sanctified here is the aorist passive

form of a word hagiazo. And the root of hagiazo

is hagios, which means holy. So catch this. At

the moment of conversion, we all become holy

ones, which is another word for saints. Forget

what the Catholic Church says. We've got to take

a vote and say that guy is a saint and you're

not. He's amazing. You're just average. No, we're

all saints, holy ones. It's right there in the

text. And now we're set apart for service to

God's kingdom. And then finally here in verse

11, we see such were some of you, but now you've

been justified. This is God's legal declaration

rooted in the ransom payment that Jesus made

on the cross. that says we are now acquitted

before the Lord. We are now innocent in God's

eyes. And here's the key. This is often, we get

attacked for this. Not just because God says

so, but because the perfect righteousness of

Christ has been credited to our spiritual accounts.

There's an actual transaction. Without the cross,

we can't be declared righteous. There's a transaction

that takes place there. We're declared justified

based on what Jesus accomplished for us through

his atoning death. And when that happens, when

we're declared righteous, listen to this now,

this is so great, our past is fully severed.

We now have a new identity in this one who gave

himself up for us. And if I can borrow Paul's

language from Ephesians 2 .10, having been saved

by God's grace through faith, we are now called

his masterpiece. created in Christ Jesus. He

has made you his workmanship, his masterpiece,

by doing these things for you. Man, it's so beautiful.

So catch the movement. Once we were lost, cut

off from eternal life, but now we've been brought

to life. Now we've been set apart as holy. Now

we've been declared righteous because of what

Christ has done and because we are in union with

him. And what a comfort we find here. Guys, what

this tells us, remember those 10 things? Nobody

is too far gone to be saved. There is nowhere

God can't go, no person too sinful that he can't

save. There are people that might be involved

in all 10 of those things. God can still save

them if it's his will. And if I could, just one

last word of clarification. This is for some

of you because I know I've talked to some of

you about this. You've come into conflict with

either Roman Catholic or Orthodox polemics on

social media. You will often hear them attack

Protestants by saying, well, nobody can know

for certain that they're saved. That is a teaching

in both branches of Christendom. You can't know

for certain because in their doctrine, salvation

is a lifelong process of good works. and participation

in the sacraments, and who knows if you're going

to make it faithful to the end. All you can really

do is try to persevere in the faith, and in the

end, hope it's enough. That's what gets taught

in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, but that

is a betrayal of this passage. You have to know

this, and it's a betrayal of so many other passages.

It is a position rooted in ignorance of the Greek

text. Know this. All three of the action verbs

you see in verse 11, they're action verbs. Washed,

sanctified, justified. They are written by Paul

in a form we call the aorist indicative. What

that means is they are actions completed by God

in the past. They're done. They're accomplished.

And they can't be undone by human beings unless

you foolishly think, I'm strong enough to undo

the will of God. Uh -uh. That's why in our English

translations, verse 11 is written in past tense.

But you were washed. It's done. Upon conversion,

you were washed. You don't have to keep trying

to earn it. Oh, my, if I just do some more things,

maybe in the end I'll be washed. You were washed.

You were positionally sanctified. You were justified.

You were legally declared. It can't be changed.

Thank you, Lord, for your sovereign power to

save us, right? to do what we never could have

done for ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let

me finish. I'm just going to bring your mind

back to the two things we read earlier in the

service, and then I promise we'll be done. Thanks

for your patience. First, this description of

the true believer found in the Westminster Confession.

Chapter 13. We are those who are, look, effectually

called and regenerated, having a new heart. and

a new spirit created in us. In other words, washed

by God. At the end of the chapter, we're told

that we are saints who grow in grace, perfecting

holiness in the fear of God. In other words,

we are sanctified as holy ones. And finally,

we're called the justified there. The justified

who, by the word and the indwelling spirit, are

more and more made alive and strengthened in

God's grace. Isn't that beautiful? Confessions

are important. And then let's look a final time

at our call to worship passage in 1 John 3. See

how great a love the Father has bestowed on us

that we would be called children of God, and

such we are. Not, and we hope to be someday.

Such we are, present tense. We're washed, sanctified,

justified right now, children of God. And listen,

therefore it's inconceivable. Because of that

truth that we would begin to act like the unrighteous

in lifestyle, right? Because of who we are, starting

today, make it your prayer that God's spirit

would cause you to start living according to

who he declares you are. Make that your prayer.

It goes on, for this reason. The world does not

know us because it did not know him. Beloved,

now we are children of God. Now we are children

of God. And it has not appeared as yet what we

will be. Guys, what a glorious future we have

if we're found in Christ, someday perfected and

free from sin forevermore. And lastly, we know

that when he appears, we will be like him. because

we will see him just as he is. And everyone who

has this hope fixed on him does what? Purifies

himself as he is pure. May that be our final

prayer this morning, that every one of us would

strive to purify our lives in growing measure

as we await his return. Wow, amen? Let's bow

our heads.