Alba 5-18-2025
WHO WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
I Corinthians 6:9-11
“Who’s going to be in heaven?” Just what kind of people do you suppose are going to be there? Many folks would say, “Good people get into heaven. If you are a good person, you get to go there; if you aren't, then you may be in trouble.” A problem, though, for those who take this view, is that they never know if they are being good enough. And if they think seriously, very seldom will they say, “I know I am good enough to make it to heaven.”
Still, many people seem to have the hope or feeling that when someone dies, death will somehow make a transformation in that person. Even though he or she was a scoundrel in life, they comfort themselves by acting as if that person will end up in heaven with God for all eternity.
So, who does get into heaven? Maybe what the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in I Corinthians 6, will help us answer that question. Paul addresses a variety of problems in the lifestyles of the Corinthians. Corinth was a metropolitan city with a bad reputation. Some have called it “sin city”. Its main attraction was the Temple of Aphrodite, goddess of sex. And the way to worship Aphrodite was by participating in sex with one of the more than 1,000 temple prostitutes. As a result, Corinth was probably one of the most pagan, most decadent cities of the 1st Century world, and sin ran rampant in its streets.
Yet God was able to use Paul to establish a strong and growing church there that was making inroads into the very pagan society of Corinth. But the people of the church needed to be warned that what was considered common and acceptable in Corinth was not in line with what the Lord wanted to see in their lives. And if they practiced such things, they would not enter the Kingdom of God. The warning is found in I Corinthians 6:9-10.
“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 homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Paul just described the culture of Corinth. Sounds pretty bad doesn’t it? The ten specific sins in this list were those that had been tolerated in that city. Sadly, this description is also accurate to the world that we are living in today. Tragically, these same sins are present and tolerated in contemporary society. Well this doesn't answer the question who will get into heaven. It tells us who will not. This list reveals our unrighteous condition before God. And because God is holy, sin will not be allowed into heaven.
The first five sins Paul mentions seem to be closely related, and they all deal with sexual immorality and perversion. Of course, that should be no surprise when we think about what kind of town Corinth was.
But I’m afraid that our nation is now rapidly becoming a modern-day Corinth. Amazingly we live in a world where what was once bad is now paraded as good----what was once good is being presented as bad.
In this list of unrighteousness, he first speaks of fornication, referring to the sexually immoral, using the term pórnos. It is a broad term that speaks of any sexual activity outside of the marriage relationship. Ever since the fall of mankind, human beings have had a problem with sex. What was meant to be a pure expression of the love between a man and a woman has been distorted and misused. And this clearly tells us that the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God.
And neither will idolaters. Idolaters are those who exalt anything, or anyone, above the Living God. The word idolatry means the dethroning of God, then worshiping something else. Likely, the idolatry Paul is talking about here is the worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual immorality. Worship her, then immorality is your lifestyle.
Paul then points to adulterers as those who are living unrighteously. We shouldn't have great difficulty identifying adultery; the word speaks of anyone who sexually violates the marriage vow, being unfaithful to your spouse. And the marriage relationship is one of the major areas Satan is attacking today.
Then it is interesting that two types of sinners added to this list includes two separate terms that refer to male prostitutes and homosexual offenders. Now, those who have studied these words say that the language used here is graphic, condemning homoerotic acts, and not sexual orientation. It seems obvious that scripture views homosexual behavior as a serious sin. Yet we are constantly hearing about gay rights, and lesbians and homosexuals. We’re told that homosexuality must be recognized as an acceptable lifestyle.
There are those who say that Jesus did not speak against homosexuality. It is true. Jesus never said a word against homosexuality. But He also never said a word against rape, incest, or spouse abuse. But reason tells us that these are wrong. And other scriptures enforce that understanding. Homosexual behavior, like all the other sins listed, is a sin.
The Bible clearly says that no one who practices these sexual sins: immorality, idolatry, adultery, male prostitution, or homosexuality is going to be in heaven. That’s pretty straight forward, isn’t it?
Then Paul becomes a little more general and mentions some other sins. He mentions thieves. No thief will see or inherit the kingdom of God. Now be honest. Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours? I'm afraid most of us have been tempted at times to take things that really don’t belong to us.
The ancient world was cursed with thieves. Houses were not very secure; they were easy to break into, and therefore easily robbed. Tragically, thievery has again become common in our world. It is almost encouraged when so called “petty thievery” is not prosecuted.
Then he mentions the covetous, meaning those who are greedy. That word originates from the grappling hook sailors used to hook another ship and pull it close. So greediness has the idea of grabbing or holding on, not releasing. Some may think this is a lesser sin, but Colossians 3:5 reminds us that covetousness is idolatry.
Next in the list is drunkards. That word needs no explanation. Just look at the carnage on the highways, the destruction of homes and families that goes on and on as humankind abuses itself with the use of alcohol and other drugs. Drunkards also will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Next is revilers. Other translations have “slanderers." A slanderer is someone who seeks to hurt or destroy another person with words. Now maybe you’ve escaped all the other sins, but have you ever used words to tear down someone else? Words! They really can hurt people, can’t they? This is another sin that keeps people out of heaven.
Then next is extortioners. That means swindlers. Swindlers take advantage of others. They see those who are vulnerable and offer them something that seems too good to be true, and it is. Then they take from them the last little bit that they have.
So in summary Paul says, “I don’t want you to be deceived. I want you to realize that people who do these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. They will not be in heaven.” That pretty well answers the question, “Who will not be in heaven?” Doesn’t it? Or, does it?
Notice verse 11. It may be one of the most amazing verses in all the Bible. It says, “And such were some of you.” Do you hear that? All ten of these things, that’s what some of the people in that congregation were. But then the verse continues, “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” This is the good news of the gospel.
When it says, “Such were some of you,” note that these words are written in the past tense, indicating that the condition no longer holds true. They are now...
1. WASHED – CLEANSED
You and I have a deep need to be clean. Our impulse is to try to wash our hands of sin so that it looks like we never did anything wrong. But it is impossible to clean our conscience by simply washing our hands. Shakespeare illustrated this point in his play, Macbeth. In the play, the character Macbeth kills his cousin Duncan in secret, and the people pronounce Macbeth as King.
But there is blood on his hands that only he and his wife, Lady Macbeth, know about. She tells him how to get rid of the blood, “A little water clears us of this deed.” And he washes his hands and presents himself as clean and innocent before the people. But there is guilt that is hanging over them. And while the rest of the country elevates them to a high position, the truth of their sin weighs them down.
Lady Macbeth begins to go insane. She has dream after dream about the blood of King Duncan on her hands. She sees the blood and she screams at it. And she washes them, and washes them and scrubs them and hopes beyond hope that somehow she can reconcile this sin with water and soap. But you know, and I know, that it doesn’t matter how hard you scrub, it doesn’t matter what words you say, it doesn’t matter the people you impress or the position that they put you in, that stain remains, and it weighs your conscience down with a burden that is too heavy for even the strongest of men to bare.
So how can we be cleansed? How can we be washed clean? In Revelation 7:14 when John wondered who were the ones dressed in robes of white, the answer was, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” That is the cleansing we all need. So when the apostle Paul was coming to faith in Jesus Christ, Ananias said to him in Acts 22:16 “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
If we have come to Jesus in obedient faith, we can say with confidence that God has forgiven our sins, cleansed us of unrighteousness and brought us into His Family as His dear children.
The Corinthians not only were washed, but now also they were...
2. SANCTIFIED – MADE HOLY
Sanctification means to be set apart, holy, consecrated. It means that you walk in your faith daily. Sanctification is also called holiness. Sanctification and holiness are English translations of the same Greek word. Sanctification means we’ve been “set apart”, set apart from the world to protect us from damage. When you have something that is valuable, you want to protect it. You want to “fence it off” from the rest of the world so that people won’t damage, destroy or steal it. And that’s the Biblical concept behind sanctification.
The problem is that some people claim to be Christians, but don't act like it at all. They say they are believers in Christ, but their lives show no evidence of being born again, or of receiving spiritual life from the Holy Spirit. They claim they are Christians. But the way they act, they don't look like Christians. There is a problem when people can’t tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer.
Why is it that sometimes, we catch ourselves sinning again even after we commit ourselves to Jesus? It’s because our sanctification will not be complete until Jesus returns. When we come to Jesus in faith, sanctification is the process of becoming what God has declared us to be. It continues throughout life. We do not become a Christian one day and get rid of all our sins by the end of the week. Throughout our lives, we Christians struggle with sin and temptation. But, as believers in Jesus, we are no longer the same people we were.
If we have really committed ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not going to continue to be an idolater, or an adulterer, or a homosexual offender, or a thief, or a greedy person, or a drunkard, or any of the things Paul mentions as he lists those who will be excluded from God's Kingdom. In Christ, we are set apart as God's people to live in a way that pleases Him. So Paul reminds the people in Corinth that they were sanctified. And that is something we need to be reminded of often as well.
And then, though Christians in Corinth may have done any or all of the sins mentioned in these verses, in Christ they are declared to be...
3. JUSTIFIED – MADE RIGHT
Justification is when a guilty person is acquitted of his sins, he goes free with no record. No one can ever accuse him again of his sins. Because, justification declares us to be innocent, having been made right before God. If you went to church in Corinth you might very well be sitting next to former drunkards, thieves, adulterers.
But those titles don’t fit the people sitting there any more. Because not only have they been washed clean of their sins, they are in the process of sanctification. And though once each was found guilty, they have been justified. Whatever some of the people may have once been, they were now transformed. 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 instantaneously, as we are baptized into Christ and are raised to walk in newness of life. Justified, we have been made right with God. The reason is because Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The reason why God calls us righteous is because a sacrifice was made on our behalf, a price was paid that we could never pay on our own. It was an act of love that we can never repay. It is a part of God’s mercy that we will never deserve.
To be justified means that the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ is being credited as our own. It is Jesus' perfect score being put next to our name. It is the reason why we, who have done, and said, and thought so many things which are against God's will, are now able to relate to Him as our loving Heavenly Father.
It is the miracle of all miracles, that sinners like you and me could have our sins and guilt paid for by the very one that we have sinned against. For sinners who desire to find new life, Jesus Christ came to provide washing, sanctification and justification, so that when a believer stands before the Lord God, he or she no longer stands there in unrighteousness, but rather stands in the righteousness of Christ the Lord.
The proof of Christianity lies in its power; it can take the worst of humanity and transform such individuals into trophies of God’s grace.
CLOSE:
Melvin Newland, former President of Dallas Christian College, told this story: A preacher he knew was called very early one Sunday morning by a member of his church, asking him to go and tell his sister that her husband had just been killed in an auto accident.
The man who had died and his wife were not members of his church, but her brother couldn’t get hold of their minister, so he asked his own preacher to go and break the news to her. So at around 2:00 in the morning this preacher went to tell her of her husband’s death. It was not until the next day that the preacher learned that the accident had occurred while the man was rushing home from having spent most of the night with his current mistress.
Well, the preacher went to the funeral, and heard the man’s minister preach him right into heaven. He lifted him up as a pillar in the community, a man of integrity and honesty and great faith. He said he was just sure that this man was now walking side by side with Jesus on the streets of gold.
Can that be true? Will death just instantly work its transforming power, and all of us, regardless of how we have lived here, end up in heaven? I think not, because Paul says, “Don’t be deceived”.
Without Jesus making changes in us: washing us, sanctifying us, and justifying us, we’re not going to heaven. But He wants us there. And He calls us to Himself.
