A Word of Warning and A Word of Comfort

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

We're going to be looking at verses 9 through 11.

And as you open it up, I know many of us struggle with assurance.

Many of us struggle with sin, and the sin that we struggle with leads to us doubting our salvation at times.

It causes us to wonder if we truly are a Christian.

Can we be a Christian, we think, if we struggle with some of the same sins day after day and month after month, and maybe even year after year?

Who of us have conquered pride?

I know I haven't conquered that.

Who of us have conquered all the imperfections of the flesh?

Who of us can live in the Spirit or live in the Spirit and have the fruits of the Spirit constantly and continuously?

We see ourselves struggling with the works of the flesh on a daily basis, and it's discouraging to us, and that discouragement leads us to despair, and that despair leads us to wonder if we're truly born again at all.

And so Paul has a word for us in this passage, and he's addressing those Corinthians who we talked about last time we preached here that were in the midst of defrauding one another.

So he's addressing those who were taking advantage of each other and taking each other to court, and he says you should rather be willingly to be defrauded, but rather you're defrauding each other.

And after he labels these Christians as defrauders, and earlier in chapter four he called them carnal Christians, and after he says you're defrauding one another, he gives them a word, and the word he gives them is a soft word of rebuke or a soft word of warning, but then ends with a great word of comfort.

And so if you're struggling with sin, as we all are, and you're struggling maybe even with assurance and wondering how you, maybe the weakest Christian, could be saved with such struggles that you're dealing with on a regular and daily basis, we see here we have a soft word of warning and a great word of comfort.

Read with me in verse nine.

"O do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexual immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God." So what he does to these Corinthians, after he says you're defrauding one another, he gives them a soft, gentle word of warning.

We see that in verses nine through ten.

No doubt what they were doing was very grievous.

We see that in verses seven and eight, that verse eight says,"Make you yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brothers." And this is a shameful thing to be doing.

And it appears that as Paul was writing this letter, they were in the midst of doing that.

"Here you are today, and it's easy for us to say,'Yeah, I sinned yesterday, but today I'm all clean and clear.' But what if you're here today and you want to take the Lord's supper, but you're in the middle of some sin?

You're not even yet repentant.

You're not yet returned from that.

You're in the middle of some cheating on your taxes, or you're doing something you're conscious says,'This is not right,' but you're still doing it, and you go, 'What do I do?''I am, I'm still living sinfully.' And so what Paul does, he gives us a warning.

He gives us a warning indeed to be taken seriously.

He says, "Do you not know?

I don't want you to be self-deceived.

Those who act in such a way will not inherit the kingdom of God." Look at verses nine, "Do not be deceived." And he gives a list of sinful activity, sinners who are identified by their sins.

These types of sinners do not inherit the kingdom of God.

He gives us a basic syllogism.

A syllogism is three statements.

It has a major premise, a minor premise, then a logical conclusion.

The major premise is this.

The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The minor premise is you're defrauding one another.

You're acting unrighteously.

But it's left for us to kind of draw the conclusion.

If the major premise is true, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, the minor premise is that you're behaving unrighteously.

What would be the logical conclusion?

Now, he doesn't draw that conclusion.

He doesn't make that conclusion.

He doesn't say you're going to go to hell.

It's just they're left for us to ponder.

And thus, this is a warning.

Gordon Fee says this is even a threat.

It's repeated in Galatians 5, 19, where Paul says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurities, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, divisiveness, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and these like things I warn you.

I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." So evidently, this is a warning to us if we're living in habitual sin.

I mean, we need to be careful.

Not everyone who claims to be a Christian is truly a Christian.

Not everyone, Jesus says, "Lord, Lord, will inherit the kingdom of God." I mean, one of the most awful, terrifying statements would be hearing the Lord Jesus on the day of judgment depart from me.

So wait a minute.

I've done this and I went to church and I homeschooled my children and I did all these wonderful things and the Lord says, "Wait, wait, depart from me.

I never really knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of iniquity." That's a scary warning.

And we need to take heed because there are some, maybe even among us, who claim to be Christians, but there's no change of their lives.

They're still living in their sins.

And Paul says, "No, don't be deceived.

Such people do not inherit the kingdom of God." And Paul says, "No, don't be deceived.

Such people do not inherit the kingdom of God." And Paul says, "No, don't be deceived.

Such people do not inherit the kingdom of God." We need to take heed.

You know, salvation is not just a ticket to heaven.

Salvation is a deliverance from sin.

It's the salvation is a deliverance from the power of iniquity.

You're saved from that old nature.

And thus we need to make sure our calling and election.

We do need to examine ourselves if we're living in habitual sin.

There's no doubt about that.

You do need to evaluate if you're living adulterous lifestyle.

And we need to make our calling, election sure, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

There's a warning here.

But we're not left without hope.

Psalm 51 verse 1 says, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins." If you're here and maybe you're not a Christian and you're wondering, well, maybe I made a profession of faith but you haven't had a life-changing revolution.

Psalms 51:1

There's been no power over your sins.

Well, what do you do?

The Bible tells us to confess our sins, repent from them, come to Christ and you will be forgiven.

And not only forgiven of all unrighteousness, according to 1 John 1.9, you'll be transformed.

Psalm 32, do as the psalmist did in verse 5,"I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you will forgive the iniquity of my sin.

So I have good news for you if this is your state.

Maybe you're unconverted in living in sin, but you may have a profession of faith.

What do I do?

Well, come to Christ and you'll be forgiven of all your iniquities.

You'll be made new." So this is indeed a word of warning, but what's amazing about this text, it's a soft word of warning with a great word of comfort.

He's addressing these carnal Christians, if you would, in Corinth who were in the midst of defrauding one another, but he did not draw the conclusion, the natural conclusion that they would not inherit the kingdom of God, but rather he draws the opposite conclusion.

He reaffirms their salvation.

He assures them, even in the midst of their sin, that they were still of the Lord.

And this is where we need to take great comfort this morning because of all of us, we fail and we stumble.

And if we were going to be saved by our own ability to live above the sinful nature and our own ability to be perfect, none of us would stand.

We'd constantly do this self-evaluation of ourselves and say,"Well, am I a Christian based simply upon my works of righteousness?" All would cause us to fall into great despair and leave us empty feeling because we stumble in so many ways.

Yes, it's a soft word of warning and that is needed.

The Corinthians needed to hear that.

They didn't need to be deceived or presumptuous.

But Paul doesn't leave them with a warning.

He turns around and ends with this great word of comfort.

Again, the major premise is that unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The minor premise is you're behaving unrighteously.

But the conclusion is you're a righteous.

You are going to inherit the kingdom of God.

Look at verse 11.

Here's his conclusion to his syllogism.

It's amazing and such were some of you.

But you were washed.

You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

How can this be?

This doesn't seem logical at all.

Though you are defrauding one another, you are no longer identified as defrauders.

You may be defrauding, but you're not defrauders.

Wow.

You may sin, but you're not a sinner.

You may commit lust in your heart, but you're not an adulterer.

If you're a Christian, you're not identified any longer by your sin.

You're not identified by your past sins.

And let me give you encouragement.

You're not identified by your present sins.

No longer are you what you used to be.

No longer are you identified by iniquity.

Now don't misunderstand me.

This word of comfort is not permission to sin.

It's not that we have freedom to sin that grace may abound.

But thankfully, our identity is in Christ Jesus.

Our identity is not in our failures and our weaknesses and our stumblings.

Our identity is not in where we fell and we fell often miserably.

That's not who we are anymore.

We struggle with sin.

Yes, we do.

We still have the weakness of the flesh that tempt us.

Our remaining corruptions, as our confession says, is still present in our lives.

We haven't yet been glorified.

We're still struggling.

But our identity is not in our failures.

You see, verse 11, this is not us.

Yes, you're defrauding one another, but this doesn't mark your identity.

You're no longer sexually immoral.

You're not a idolater anymore.

You commit idolatry.

Yes, we all have committed adultery this week, probably.

We've more likely loved this world in a way and cuffed it, which both of these things, the Bible calls idolatry.

We've done that today.

Have you committed idolatry this week?

Raise your hand.

Raise your left hand.

Not your right one.

Raise your hand.

It's true.

You have.

But are you idolater?

No, you're not idolater anymore.

You're a worshipper of the living God.

You're no longer a homosexual or a thief.

You're no longer a greedy person or a drunkard or a reviler or a swindler.

This is not your nature anymore.

This is not who you are.

This is not your identity.

We may struggle with some sins and many sins and grievous sins, but we don't live in these sins and practice them any longer.

We no longer identify with these sins.

This is why it says such were some of you.

What has happened?

You've been transformed.

You've been washed.

We see that in verse 11.

You but you were worse.

See, the problem with unbelievers, the unconverted, is that they cannot change their sinful behavior by trying.

This is not like unbelievers can become a Christian by just working salvation within and changing their habits and learning to put bad habits aside and learning to do good habits.

And if you practice long enough, you'll start being a better and better person.

You can't undo your nature.

Jeremiah 1323 says the Ethiopian cannot change his skin and the leopard his spots.

Then you also doing can do good who was accustomed to do evil.

If you're unconverted, you cannot slowly merge into a Christian by doing good things.

The problem is deep down your true identity, your true nature is evil.

That is, if you're unconverted, if you open up a sinner, put a sinner through an MRI and look at the inner being of the sinner, you would see sin through and through.

How do you wash dirt off of dirt?

How do you clean dirt?

You can't cleanse dirt.

If you took all the dirtiness off of dirt, you would no longer have anything left.

You see, you can't take a sinner and remove all the sin and clean all the sin away.

It's because the sinners are sinners within.

That's their very makeup.

That's their nature.

They're depraved.

They're totally depraved.

And that's what we was.

We were sinners through and through, and we didn't transform ourselves by our good behavior.

What happened? We were cleansed.

We were washed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You see, the washing of regeneration is not just that external cleansing of the flesh.

It wasn't just an outward bath that left the conscious dirty and the soul filthy within.

You know, the washing of regeneration is a cleansing by giving us a brand new nature.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, so from now on we regard no one according to the flesh.

Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do not any longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old has passed away.

That is, the sinful nature has been done away with.

Behold, the new has come.

All things have been made new.

If you're a believer, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus.

You've been cleansed from within.

You haven't been patched up.

You've been converted.

You haven't been just tweaked a little bit.

You've been renewed.

You've been born at a fresh.

You've been washed from the inside out.

He's equal.

Thirty six tells us, then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

This is what salvation is.

It's a cleansing of the soul.

Not by us working ourselves into this position, but it's by the blood, the precious blood of Jesus.

And by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, Titus three five says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

But according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

I know you may think, well, Jeff, you don't know me.

I'm a sinner.

No, don't identify yourself as a sinner.

That's not who you are any longer.

You have been washed.

And you've been washed in two ways.

We see in our text war on your nature has been changed in what we call positional sanctification.

And to your debt has been cleansed in what we call justification.

So this washing takes care of that old nature.

And you've been, as we see in verse 11, you have been sanctified.

And I think this past tense sanctification here is talking about positional sanctification, not the progressive sanctification that we partner with the grace of God.

And we grow more and more in the image of Christ that more we mature in the faith.

And we need progressive sanctification, but he's not talking about the progressive sanctification that we're all working on and progressing toward.

I think these Corinthians here are new Christians or conor Christians.

They haven't progressed very far in the Christian life.

They're very immature Christians that he's addressing.

But even these immature Christians are still past tense, perfectly sanctified in Christ Jesus.

Even they are addressed as saints, holy ones of God.

And this positional sanctification gives us a holy and a new nature that becomes a slave to righteousness.

Roman six six tells us we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

This is wonderful news.

You may sin, but you're not a slave to it.

You may fall, but this is not something you're bound to.

Verse 17 of chapter six, but thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to the which you were committed and having been set free from sin.

You have now become slaves of righteousness.

Your real nature.

It is a matter of you're the weakest Christian in the room.

The one who stumbles the most among us.

Your true nature is a nature that's enslaved and captivated to righteousness.

You see, your sin does not define you any longer.

One, you're not a slave to it.

And therefore the Bible tells us in Romans that were to the old King James version says reckon ourselves dead to sin.

We're to consider ourselves dead to sin.

It begins with identifying ourselves with our true nature.

And this is not us pretending like we're righteous and hopefully we're righteous.

No, this is something the Bible tells is true about us.

This is a true reality about you.

You may have a hard time believing that, but it's true.

You're a righteous man of God.

Positionally been transformed a new and your progressive sanctification must work itself out of that positional sanctification.

You must work out with faith.

And what do you believe?

You believe what God says is true about you.

You know, you can see a teacher having a young kid and saying, you're stupid.

You're still never going to learn this.

You can't figure this out.

You don't know what you're doing.

And the kid begins to believe, I'm stupid.

I can't do this.

Maybe the kid is not stupid.

Maybe the kid is very smart and intelligent.

He's just having a hard time figuring out the equation.

Maybe you can get the answer wrong, but you're actually smart.

Maybe you can figure this out.

You see, you must first believe that you're free from sin.

You must believe what the Bible says is true about you.

So what you know, this idea is like, well, I'm just I'm enslaved to this.

You know, A. A. Tells us that if you're an alcoholic, if you were ever an alcoholic, you're always an alcoholic.

That's not biblical teaching.

If you're saved, you're no longer an alcoholic.

If you've been born and again, you're no longer a homosexual.

If you're born again, you're no longer a dulcherer.

Now you may commit these sins again, but that's not who you are.

And you're not bound to that.

And you must believe the truth about your identity in Jesus Christ.

This is not boasting in yourself.

This is the thing I can do is no, it's the fact you've been transformed in Christ Jesus.

He has set you free.

So believe what the Bible says is true about you.

Don't identify yourself with your sins.

Identify yourself with the righteousness of Christ and the positional sanctification he has brought into your life.

You see, your sins no longer define you.

You see, positional sanctification, I think, is the power behind our progressive sanctification.

Knowing who we are will lead to us growing, not in sin.

This won't lead us to sin so grace may abound.

This is not going to encourage us.

I'm right.

I'm holy.

Therefore, let me say I knew all this is going to push us towards holiness and righteousness.

This is what we really want in our true nature.

This is what we crave.

I can tell you something is true about you.

Now I know you hate your sins and you struggle and your doubt, sometimes your salvation and you're struggling with assurance.

I know that could be true of many of you, but I'll tell you something else is true about you.

You long deep down to be holy.

You can't wait to get to heaven where you have to struggle no more with sin and you cry out, "Lord, how long?

Let me be with you.

Let me not struggle with sin any longer." Because that's your true heart's desire.

Because God has put that in you.

He's changed.

He's made you a new creation.

Are we to sin that grace may abound?

No, how can we, Paul says.

How can we?

Can we continue to sin if we've been set free from it?

We don't want to.

We have no desire to.

Oh, we will fall today.

We'll fall tomorrow.

But that falling in those sins does not hold us captive, nor does it identify who we are.

Not only have we been sanctified in Christ Jesus, we have been justified in Christ Jesus.

This is dealing with our guilt, our record.

I know you know this, but we hear it so often we forget the beauty of it.

And we just let these words pass through our mind and we don't focus on it.

But justification is not just your past sins being forgiven.

We all think about the past sins.

The sins of our youth.

Oh, I'm glad those are gone.

I'm not held accountable for them.

But you recognize that justification forgives you of your present sin.

Now, let me tell you how audacious and bold and how crazy that is.

If you sin in 10 seconds from now, let's say you have a bad thought about Pastor Jeff.

And you're about to have that thought of me.

You're just as justified in the midst of that thought as you were before that thought.

All your sins past, present, that's what I'm and future.

That's why Paul can address these print the ins as they are in the midst of defrauding one another and say you are still justified.

Can you believe it?

Is that not the most glorious, wonderful, encouraging news in the world.

If it wasn't sold, none of us would stand.

If it wasn't sold, who would us make it to Heaven?

We're kept by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We're kept by the power of his hand.

Nothing can take us away.

We are secure.

Our assurance is in Christ Jesus.

Our salvation, our justification is in him alone.

And that we rejoice.

We can be filled of hope even though we're still fallens and sin often.

Every charge has been cleared.

All your sins past, present, and future have been fully entirely, perfectly forgiven.

Everything you've ever done, have done, will do has been thrown into the sea to be forever forgotten.

We need justification.

Not just yesterday.

We need it today.

And we're going to need it tomorrow.

We must live by faith.

We must live by faith in the gospel.

This is our hope.

This is our assurance.

This is the word of comfort to us who still sin.

Bible tells us in Psalm 31, "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Bless is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity." I'm here to tell you, by faith you stand forgiven.

By faith you are righteous in Christ.

How righteous are you?

The exact same degree of righteousness that Jesus Christ is righteous.

For it's not your righteousness that has justified you.

It's the imputed, alien righteousness of our Savior.

That's why God views you constantly and consistently through the lens of His Son.

This is what this verse ends.

It says, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God." This is our hope.

Now here's three closing applications.

Paul identifies these carnal Christians who were in the midst of defrauding one another.

He identifies them not as sinners, not as defrauders.

He identifies them as saints, as holy ones in Christ Jesus.

I'm here to tell you, if you are indeed a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ, if that's your hope and your hope is not in your own righteousness, that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus and you are totally forgiven, oh yes we need to progress in sanctification.

We need to repent of our sins. We need to have maturity.

But for now just focus upon the reality you already have.

Build the strength to live a holy life, to fight sin on the reality of already standing, perfected and cleansed.

You've already given a hundred percent on the test.

Now enjoy the class.

You're already saved thoroughly.

Now enjoy the Christian walk.

Yes, try to mature and fight sin, put energy behind, stopping all the iniquity that still remains.

Yes, but do it from the position of comfort and peace and rest.

You begin with rest and then you take that rest and energize yourself to please the Lord.

Yes, there is a word of warning for us.

That's why I think Paul reminds us that if we're living in ongoing habitual sin, if we identify ourselves as adulterer, we are because we're living in a constant state of idolatry, adultery, homosexuality or any of these other sins.

If that's what we are then yes, be concerned.

Such people do not inherit the kingdom of God.

But that's not us. That's not me.

That's not us who believe.

We have been changed. We have been washed.

We have been transformed out of that sinful state and condition and been made into new creations in Christ Jesus.

So, dear saints, don't allow sin to keep you down and to define you.

Don't believe the lie, the temptation of the devil that says you have to sin and this is just who you are.

No, this is not who you are.

There's a new reality, a new truth about you.

God's the one who's done this reality.

It's He who gets the glory.

You've been washed. You've been changed. You've been forgiven.

Yes, this is a needed warning for us all.

We all need to take heed to some degree.

We also all need to take comfort.

And we come to the Lord's table, come through Jesus Christ, your positional just, sanctification and your ongoing and eternal justification.

Amen.