Text: 1 Cor 6:9-11, Title: Baptist’s Greatest Deception, Date/Place: NRBC, 10/3/10, AM
A. Opening illustration: During the mighty movements of the Holy Spirit in the Moody-Sankey meetings in Dublin, the worldly father of C.T. Studd was gloriously saved. He invited some of his worldly companions to come to his home so that he could tell them the wonderful news. When one wealthy English sportsman arrived at the railway station he was met by the coachman. He could not wait till he got to the house to know what had happened to his old friend, so he began to question the coachman. ’I hear that something remarkable has happened to your master. I hear he’s got religion. Please tell me about it. In what way is Mr. Studd changed?’ ’Oh,’ said the Irish coachman, ’It’s a revolution. In one sense he is still the same man--he’s in the same body. But the best way I can explain him is he’s a new man in the old skin.’ The new creature receives a new set of appetites and a new set of attitudes. The babe in Christ has now a holy nature with a propensity toward holiness. The things he used to hate, now he loves and the things he used to love; now he hates."
B. Background to passage: Paul is in the middle of fussing at them for having a perspective that is not kingdom-oriented, and thus they are suing one another in secular courts. He has said things similar to what he said in ch. 3 when he said they were acting like mere men. And now this is the culmination of his thoughts on the matter, where he warns them against the deception that you can continue in sin and see heaven. And thus we get a lesson in genuine conversion and transformation.
C. Main thought: three exhortations from these three verses
A. Don’t Be Deceived (v. 9)
1. He tells them no to be deceived into the understanding that one can be truly saved, and continue to act like this list that he makes for them. So the understanding that he is combating must be already present (and the verb indicates ongoing) in the church. They believed that people like the man sleeping with his step mom and those suing one another (both by implication), as well as fornicators (single sexual sinners), idolaters, adulterers, effeminate men or male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, covetous (greedy), drunkards, revilers (abusers with words), extortioners (those who force the taking of others things), would be in heaven as long as they had prayed the prayer, been baptized, or gathered with the church. And he tells them through a rhetorical question that they should know this already! Note that Paul is not saying that if you do these sins you will be barred from heaven, we are saved by grace, get there in a minute. He says that it is a deception from Satan. Those that continually practice these things without repentance are in no danger of seeing heaven. These are descriptions of the lives of those that are not born again.
2. Eph 5:5, Gal 5:21, Rev 21:8, 22:15, Matt 7:21, Jude 1:4, 12, 16, 23
3. Illustration: Dr. Bill Bennett (prof at SEBTS) has pastored churches in the SBC for more than 40 years, and he says that the greatest heresy facing the SBC today is “easy-believism,” tell about Harriet and Darryl facing the problem, and deciding that rather than false profession, they would choose losing salvation, one cannot be hit by a dump truck without being changed, had a conversation just this week with someone who was not comfortable saying that someone will not be in heaven even though nothing in their life indicated salvation, and they didn’t even have a testimony, WAKE UP PEOPLE,
4. The biblical teaching is that people who exhibit no change of life are not really saved, even though they claim to be. Most teaching has been that anyone who “makes a decision” for Christ is automatically genuinely saved, never to be lost again. Now we believe in eternal security, but you have to get the “once saved” part right before the “always saved” applies. And we have to realize that our sentimentality and bias sometimes persuades our minds to operate with the mentality that is in diametric opposition to scriptural teaching. You might say, “Preacher, you are trying to get people to doubt their salvation.” But my job is to declare the word of the Lord, and you to hear it, and live by it. And if the teaching of scripture causes you to doubt your salvation or that of friends and love ones, take it up with the bible and not with me. Once we arrive at this truth, we can warn those who profess and evidently don’t possess Christ to examine their lives, and not simply claim Christ with their lips. If you are here today, and you profess Christ, but your life does not reflect anything but the old ways (not necessarily these awful things), you should be concerned as to the validity of your conversion.
B. Don’t Be Prideful (v. 11)
1. Lest they become self-righteous against all those “sinners,” Paul deals out one of the greatest bombs to a “holier than thou” attitude—“such were some of you.” Note that it is in the past tense, and it could/should be translated “used to be.” All the same, he reminds the Corinthians that these heinous sins that he just listed were not some darkness harbored only by those of a reprobate lifestyle, but things that these church members used to practice. Among them were former homosexuals, adulterers (ask for a show of hands), prostitutes…they may be sitting beside the thief who ripped them off the month before coming to Christ. Alcoholics and gang members, promiscuous young men and women, greedy businessmen who have stomped on competitors and friends alike to attain their fortunes. They had no right to look down their pharisaical noses at those entrapped in sin.
2. Rom 6:17-18, Eph 2:1-3, 4:17, 5:8, Col 3:5-7, 1 Sam 25:26, 33, Gen 20:6, Rom 3:24-27, Luke 18:13-14
3. Illustration: testimony given of a guy in seminary who used to be a homosexual, last week of Gloria’s former lifestyle as a crack addict, “No thought, no wrong, no dark of night, can hide me from Your eyes, I cannot fall or climb, farther your grace can reach.”
4. We must not ever forget from whence we came. Even if you didn’t participate in these particular sins, you were more than capable. And your sin was equally offensive to a holy God (maybe without as many consequences). And if you didn’t do them, it is only because God restrained you from it. Many of you can testify of God’s sovereign hand preventing you to do what you thought about doing. You deserved the same hell. And you were equally helpless to do anything about it. So have compassion on murderers and homosexuals for they are in the same place you were before Christ. Also know that there are no sins that cause one to be beyond the reach of grace! You cannot do any act of immorality, idolatry, etc, that will cut you off from God inherently—not suicide, not homicide, not infanticide, not genocide, not homosexuality, adultery, child molestation, gossip, whatever you can think of, God can redeem!
C. Be Saved and Transformed (v. 11)
1. Paul then gives a beautiful description of salvation for these Corinthian believers. “You were washed,” from the filth described above. He uses three strong adversatives, “but…but…but.” This description points to salvation as a whole where those who put their faith in Christ have their sins washed away by the blood of Christ. It is the only way to deal with sin. They have also be “sanctified,” set apart for God’s service as God’s instruments, made holy and will be made holy. They had been set apart from the sin in their lives and their city so they could shine for Christ, so that the world may see Him. Then he brings up justification, which is the legal declaration of righteousness that is pronounced over you by the Judge, crediting righteousness to your account, because of Christ through faith. All this is done in the name of Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit.
2. Titus 3:3-5, Ezek 36:25, Ps 51:2, 7, Rev 1:5, 7:14,
3. Illustration: Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb, are your garments spotless are the white as snow are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow, there’s power in the blood, power in the blood, sin stains are lost in this life-giving flow, there’s wonderful power in the blood, You can educate a pig to stay out of the mud and eat differently but on a hot day with fellow pigs he will resort to his normal nature and dive happily into the mud. If you could give him a new nature, say, the nature of a cat, when the test of a hot day and welcome mud came, he would not be happy in the mud hole even if his friends persuade him to join them again, he has a new nature, new desires. He does not think he is better than them, he just does not enjoy those things anymore. Saved, sanctified, satisfied, on my way…
4. If you have been born again, you have been washed of all your sin! You have been cleansed from filthiness and the guilt that comes with it! You have been freed from the wrath that your sins demand! If you are not, then you are filthy in the sight of God. Pastor, you shouldn’t say stuff like that! It’s the clear teaching of scripture. If you had some life-threatening disease, you would want the Dr to tell you, right? There is a sense in which we are already sanctified, and also that we are being sanctified. So God views you as set apart for Him, if you are born again. And your life should be becoming more holy as you continually kill sin and progress in holiness. And if you are born again, you have been given righteousness by Christ, and declared righteous by the Judge of all the Earth! There is no condemnation for you because of this pronouncement. So every the world, or Satan, or your spouse condemns you, know that in the eyes of God you are righteous. So, if you are washed in Christ’s blood, rejoice!
A. Closing illustration: Robert Slabaugh’s testimony,
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
