Series: Do You Not Know?
Sermon: The Unrighteous Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God
Text: 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
Introduction:
What Paul has to say here is very plain and simple. He is forthright and blunt. The situation in Corinth was serious. There was a man there who was fornicating with his mother-in-law. That was bad enough. To make matters worse, the Corinth Church of Christ was proud that they were being so tolerant in accepting this man. Corinth was a very worldly city and the new Christians there had a lot to learn about morality. Paul’s instruction to the church in 1 Corinthians 5:13 was “Purge the evil person from among you.” By the time Paul had written 2 Corinthians, the man had repented and Paul instructed the church to forgive him and comfort him and reaffirm their love for him. This instruction is appropriate for us as well: forgive, comfort and reaffirm.
Lesson:
This list is not based on the narrow-mindedness of the Church, but the holiness of God.
One of the reasons that the church is often viewed as being narrow minded is that people just don’t comprehend two things: the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.
Turn to Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 1: In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
When seraphim talk, we’d better listen. The seraphim are one of the types of angels. I am not an expert on angels, but I believe that these seraphim are the same as the four living creatures mentioned in Revelation. From the limited descriptions that we have, it appears that most of their time is spent worshiping God and giving him glory, praise and honor. What the seraphim say is “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of Hosts.” In Hebrew, they didn’t have bold, or underline or exclamation points! If you wanted to emphasize something, you repeated it. If you really wanted to emphasize something you repeated it three times. God is described many ways is scripture: he is strong, he is merciful he is love. But only one attribute of God receives the three fold acclamation. YHWH our God is Holy, Holy, Holy. This is found in Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8.
I want you to notice what happens to Isaiah when he realizes that he is in the presence of the Holy One of Israel. He falls apart; he declares I am ruined, I am undone, I am lost. Isaiah figures, “It’s over, I’ve had it, surely I will die for I have stood in the presence of God.” If we could jus grab a glimpse of his glory…but even that would be more than we could bear.
Look at what happened to Peter when he encountered Jesus and realized for the first time that he was standing in the presence of the Holy (Luke 5:1-10). On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
It was just a catch of fish. But Peter was a pro; he fished for a living. Peter realized that this was no ordinary man. He was standing in the presence of the holy.
The other side of this coin is man’s sinfulness. So often when it comes time for a little self-examination, we just give it a quick one over, don’t see anything major and go on thinking we’re pretty good. We haven’t looked very closely. In fact we prefer to keep our blinders on. If we only realized how retched we really are. Even at our best we’re pitiful and vile. Isaiah 64:6. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
Romans 3:10-18. “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
We’re not nearly as good as we think we are. Unrighteousness includes more than the nine categories listed here. Paul’s list in 1 Corinthians 6 gives us a pretty broad look at what he means by unrighteous, but this list is by no means exclusive. “neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Sexual immorality. Outside the church, there is no such thing a sexual immorality. The wisdom of the world says, “You’d be fool to marry someone without first sleeping with them.” God says otherwise.
Idolaters. The wisdom of the world says, “Nobody believes in that stuff anyway.”
Adulterers. “Poly-fidelity”
Homosexuality. “Alternate Life-style”
Thieves. “I was just borrowing it.”
Greedy. “I was just trying to protect my property.”
Drunkards. “Live the High-life (just get a designated driver).”
Revilers. “We’re just trying to have some fun.”
Swindlers. “Anyone that stupid deserves it.”
You can justify just about any thing you want to but those who live this way will not inherit the kingdom of God.
People can change by the grace of God.
Paul told the Corinthians, “that’s what some of you WERE. But something had happened to them. They were washed. Probably a reference to their baptism. Not to be taken as merely symbolic.
They were sanctified. Sanctification is the process of becoming what God has declared us to be. It starts the minute we are born again, but continues throughout life.
They were justified. They were declared to be righteous by the blood of Christ. This is not a righteousness of their own. It is an imputed righteousness. This takes place instantaneous, as we are baptized into Christ and are raised to walk in newness of life; A changed life. A new life.
Conclusion:
God is holy, we are not. Thanks be to God for his mercy and grace! God washes us and sanctifies us and justifies us. He gives us the power to change; the power to become; the power to be. One of our goals ought to be to be more like Jesus every day; to be Holy, because God is Holy.
How are we doing? Are we falling behind? Are we holding our own? Are we growing daily?
One Day Jesus will call my name.
As the days go by, I hope I don’t stay the same.
I want to get so close to him that there’s no big change
On the day that Jesus Calls my name.
Invitation:
Think about these things. If you need to publicly respond, or if you desire the prayers of your brothers and sisters, answer the call.
