FBC Morning Light – March 9, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Here we are in the middle of the week already, and I trust your week is going well.

So today we begin reading the letter to the Corinthians from the Apostle Paul, and I'm really encouraged by the way this letter begins, aren't you?

Have you read 1 Corinthians before? If you have, you kind of know what's coming, don't you?

Paul has to address in this letter all kinds of problems. I mean, it doesn't take long as he begins this letter for him to address the problem of strife in the in the in the congregation, as people are debating which is the better spiritual leader,

Paul, Apollos, and so on and so forth, and there's division over that. He says you're acting like you're in the flesh, like you're unconverted in some of these things.

He goes on to deal with the problem of some tolerated immorality in the church, and then there's problems with the abuse of the gifts, and there's problems of how they're celebrating the

Lord's Supper and so forth. This is a letter where Paul addresses all kinds of problems among the people of the church at Corinth, but listen to how he begins it.

After this initial greeting of identifying himself and Sosthenes, who's with him, he says this, to the

Church of God, so he's acknowledging that the congregation that is receiving this letter is the assembly of called -out ones that belong to God, your

God's people, to the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all who in every place call on the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ, of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now again, when you know what's coming down the road, isn't this amazing?

That Paul addresses this congregation as the Church of God, so the fact that it's got problems, he doesn't conclude that, you know, you're the

Church of Satan, you're a bunch of evil people that are controlled by the wicked one. He doesn't go there.

He doesn't label them that way. You are the Church of God, but then he says you are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

You are set apart unto Christ Jesus. The fact that you are in Christ Jesus sets you apart from the rest of the world, and he says you are called saints, holy ones, holy set -apart ones.

Now, I remember years ago a preacher putting it like this. He says, Paul says, he opens this letter and he says to the

Church of God, which is at Corinth, those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called saints.

He said, they're not acting like it all the time, and neither do you and I, but they're saints, and there's the encouragement that though, even though, this is not to excuse it, but even though you and I don't always act saintly, that doesn't diminish or destroy our status as saints in Christ Jesus.

Aren't you encouraged by that? Aren't you encouraged by that? Think about the

Think about the last time you blew it. Maybe wasn't that long ago, within the last 12 hours perhaps.

You behaved in a way, acted in a way, responded in a way towards someone.

You made a decision, you took a course of action, you did something that was very unsaintly, and you know it.

And yet, if you're in Christ Jesus, you're called a saint.

You are sanctified in Christ Jesus. You are set apart in Christ Jesus.

Now, of course, clearly the challenge is that we live up to our status. You know, that is the passion and the goal of the

Christian life, isn't it? That we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ.

We grow in our sanctification. We grow in more and more becoming like Christ Jesus.

But today, I am not like Christ Jesus. I am not like he is, and I will not be wholly like he is until I see him.

Then, when I see him, I will be like him, for I will see him as he is. But now, now, my sanctification in everyday life, my lived -out sanctification, my saintly life, is not what it ought to be.

And nevertheless, Paul says to this church, filled with carnality and problems and strife and division and all the rest of that stuff, nevertheless, you are saints.

You are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Take encouragement from that, not to sit back and relax and say, oh, well, okay, good.

Then, I guess that means I can live any way I want to live. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound,

Paul asks in Romans? Absolutely not. God forbid. No. No, don't take encouragement from that to continue in sin and continue bad behavior and unsaintly way of living.

Be encouraged that your status is set, and let that set established status encourage you to live up to the status of being a saint, to pursue saintliness, to pursue sanctification.

Let that be the encouragement to our hearts in our lives. Well, I hope it will be.

And as here we are in the middle of this week, and I know you can look back and you can regret over some behaviors, some thoughts, some words, and so forth in the last few days that weren't saintly.

Okay. Confess those things. Forsake them. Turn around.

Look up. Look at the word saint, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and pursue it.

Our Father and our God, may we. May we truly pursue that.

May we love Christ. May we see Christ for who he is and what he's like, and may seeing him be the stimulus that would cause us to pursue the sanctification that is ours in him, and may we live up to the status of being a saint in your sight.

Give us that heart to pursue it, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. All right.