Sunday School: The Unrighteous Will Not Inherit the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Most Sundays I'm reading from the

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English Standard Version today. The Legacy Standard is what I have so it might vary slightly from what you have in the

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ESV but we'll talk about that. There's some significant differences that are noteworthy.

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So 1 Corinthians 6 starting in verse 9. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

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And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Let us pray.

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Heavenly Father, as we come to our text today, as we examine these things that the

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Apostle Paul said to the church in Corinth 2 ,000 years ago, we still find relevance to us now.

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Things that we must obey. An examination that we must do, looking into our hearts to see that we know the

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Word of God and we are following. We are doing what you have commanded. We have seen a rebuke that has been given to this church over chapters 5 and 6.

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It's easy for us to point back at them and say, look how foolish they were. But these things readily apply to us even now.

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Especially as Paul is calling this church to examine, as we're going to see through the rest of chapter 6 here, examine themselves that they walk in purity.

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That the body is for the Lord and not for sexual immorality. So may we continue to submit ourselves in holiness unto you.

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Clothe us in your righteousness that we may live for you day by day in the obedience of our

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God. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen. So a reminder once again, as we finished up the section last week on Paul rebuking the

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Corinthians because some of them were taking their brothers and sisters to court. And so we get to this section in verses 9 through 11, and I mentioned to you last week that this is kind of a hinge passage.

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Because we've been talking about, Paul has been addressing a matter of sexual immorality ever since the start of chapter 5.

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Remember, there is a man who was guilty of sexual immorality in their midst and the church had not done anything about it.

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They've been given authority to be able to judge, even those that are within the church.

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But instead of doing that, instead of exercising that authority, which the Lord has given them to exercise, they were taking their own brothers and sisters to court and having unbelievers be their judges.

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So Paul says, you won't handle the matters among you that you should handle. And instead, these things that you should just let go, you're taking to court and letting unbelievers be your judge when the reality is, do you not know that we are going to judge even angels?

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A day is going to come when we're going to sit with the Lord on His throne, as Jesus said in Revelation chapter 3, and we will judge with Him.

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And we'll judge even angels, according to what Paul says here. But you're abdicating that authority that God has given to you, and instead you are submitting yourself to the judgment of men.

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You're submitting yourself to the judgment of a kingdom that we're not even a part of. A kingdom that is coming into judgment.

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Instead of handling these matters amongst yourselves, which you should be perfectly capable of doing.

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Is there not a single person wise among you, as he says in verse 5, who is able to judge and pass judgment between his brothers?

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And instead, before unbelievers, you're going to court. One another is taking one another to court.

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We looked at some various examples of this last week, chiming in with some various ways in which we in our world today might judge one another or let others, unbelievers, be our judges, instead of handling these matters in ways that the

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Lord has said they are to be handled. If we have a difference between one another, we should be able to take that to each other and handle this as brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. So then Paul is going to get back to addressing the matter of sexual immorality.

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And this time, not about sexual immorality in their midst, but even examining themselves. Each one of you should submit your body unto the

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Lord as a living sacrifice, an instruction we also have in Romans 12 .1.

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But we do this in the context of understanding that our body is a temple of what?

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A temple of the Holy Spirit. Now Paul had said that previously in chapter 3. You are a temple of the

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Holy Spirit. But where he talked about that in chapter 3, he spoke about it collectively. He was talking about the church.

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Where he's going to make the address later on in chapter 6, now he's making it a personal examination.

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Your individual bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit for you have the

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Holy Spirit dwelling within you. So as we go from this talk about judgment, judgment in the church, submitting yourself to judgment among unbelievers, and then self -judgment, which is coming up in verses 12 through 20.

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Before we get there, we have this pivot point here in verses 9 through 11, where Paul says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Now if you're reading this in context, then you understand that that question is directly tied to what we had just read in verses 1 through 8.

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You're submitting yourselves to the judgment of people in another kingdom.

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We as Americans wouldn't let ourselves be judged by the Canadian government. Mexico has no authority over us.

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The Muslims can't come in here and go, hey, you're violating the laws that we have in Iran or wherever else.

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We would not submit ourselves to their judgment. So why would you submit yourselves to the judgment of those who are of a kingdom that you're not a part?

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This kingdom, this fallen kingdom, the kingdom of this world that is coming into judgment will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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The kingdom of this world is coming into judgment. The kingdom of God will last forever.

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And so do you not know that the unrighteous, these people whose judgment you're submitting yourselves to, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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Now, this is not to say that we should not be going out into the world and doing evangelism.

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After all, Paul said earlier that in chapter 5, I wrote to you in my letter, this is verse 9 of chapter 5,

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I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the greedy, the swindlers, the idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

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So then certainly we have to go out of this church into the world and we need to share the gospel, right?

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Paul had shared with us this morning, not the apostle Paul, but this Paul, had shared with us the importance of the

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Lottie Moon Christmas offering and what that is, what that offering is going to do. The Christmas offering is to help our missionaries and 100 % of that offering goes to help our missionaries.

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So we know that we have a call and we have a responsibility to go out into the world and share the gospel.

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If it was a matter of having to go out of the world, then we wouldn't be going back into the world and sharing the gospel.

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I mean, there's a responsibility we have to our own community to share with people. You have family members, work associates, people that you encounter on a fairly regular basis.

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There are people that you're going to encounter that I'm never going to encounter. And you have a responsibility to share the gospel with them.

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So certainly we should do that. But we understand that the vast majority of people are not going to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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And we have the promise that is given to us in scripture that judgment is coming against this world.

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In fact, that should be part of our evangelism. The judgment of God is coming.

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So repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And those that do not repent will be part of this kingdom that will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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So you're either going to be of the kingdom of God or you're going to be of the kingdom of Satan. And Paul is essentially saying to the

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Corinthians here, why would you submit yourself to their judgment? And the same can be said of us.

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As I said last week, we looked at this in various different contexts, but we still need to understand a general principle that we do not submit ourselves to the judgment of this world.

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As Paul said in Galatians 1 .10, am I out to please men?

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If my ambition was to please men, then I would not be a slave of Christ. My desire is to serve the

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Lord first and not men. The apostles in Acts chapter five, we must serve the

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Lord first rather than men. So we understand that these who are of this world are of a kingdom that is coming into judgment.

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They will not inherit the kingdom of God. So why would we subject ourselves to their judgment?

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Why would we try to please those who are not out to please God? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Now, what's interesting to note here, I didn't do in this Bible. I don't have this underlined, so I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly where this is at.

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But over the course of chapters five and six, we've had Paul asked this question several times.

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Do you not know? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Look back up at chapter six, verse two. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

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Look at verse three. Do you not know that we will judge angels? These are all things that Paul has said to this church previously.

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These are all instructions that they should know, but they're not exercising them, are they?

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You know, one of the most indicting questions that the Lord, our savior asked during his earthly ministry was this question.

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Have you not read? One of the most indicting questions that Jesus asked, especially of those scribes and Pharisees, those who had read and were entrusted with teaching the people, but they weren't.

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They were feeding themselves rather than feeding the flock of God. And he says to them, have you not read?

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I am burdened with that question every time I see it. Because we live in a culture and in a time in this day in which the word of God is so readily available at our fingertips and we don't read it.

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I have it right here. I have it right here in front of me in two forms. I have my Bible right here and I have about five or six

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Bible apps on this phone that I use for cross references and other things.

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You have it on your computer. You have how many Bibles at home? According to surveys, the average

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American, the average American has an average of three

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Bibles in their home. The word of God right here in a book.

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And yet do you look around at the state of America right now and see people that are reading the word of God that they have at home?

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We just look at the rotten fruit that's being produced by our nation. You can know that people are not reading it.

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What an indictment it is against the people of this culture to say to them. Have you not read?

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And we have less of an excuse than probably any generation in the last 2000 years.

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We have less of an excuse to say that we haven't read. For by the wonderful providence of God, the invention of the printing press, and then the invention of the

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Internet makes it so available, so accessible for us to be able to come to the word of God whenever we want to read it and by his

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Holy Spirit be able to understand it. And yet we're not reading it, let alone applying it.

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And here these things, the apostle Paul has previously said to the Corinthians, and we know that by the number of times that he asked this question, do you not know?

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Do you not know? As though to say, do you not remember what it is that I said to you and what

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I told you about these things? So they have no excuse not to be doing the things, not to be following the instructions that Paul is reminding them of here.

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They've been given these instructions before, and yet they are not following them.

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So do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Have you not read? Do you not remember?

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Do not be deceived, he says. Four words right there in the middle of verse nine, do not be deceived.

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How is it that we are deceived? We're deceived three ways.

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These temptations come at us three ways. It's either by Satan, by the schemes of Satan.

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It's by the temptation of the world. The world might try to tempt us or entice us to do things that are contrary to what

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God has said. But then the worst enemy that we have against us is, yeah,

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Son is tapping it. Ourselves, our own flesh, we can be deceived by our own flesh.

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No one lies to you more than you lie to yourself. Paul says, do not be deceived.

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How can we prevent from being deceived? Yeah, yeah, and he's tapping it right there.

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Read the Bible, read God's word, know what it says and apply it. And we can keep ourselves from deception by walking in his truth, in the light of his word.

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Remember the song that Andrew closed with last week? When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way, right?

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By the light of his word. In Psalm 119, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

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By the light of God's word, we walk and we will not be deceived.

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Do you not know? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers.

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Paul gets real specific. Here are those who will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Who are the unrighteous? Paul gives these lists of vices.

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Now, anytime we see a list of vices in the New Testament, it's by no means exhaustive.

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There are other sins that we could put on this list, correct? In fact, when Paul gives a list of vices in the fruit of the spirit, where we read about the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter 5, it immediately follows the works of the flesh.

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So he contrasts the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Where he has the works of flesh and he gives a list of vices, he rattles off this list of sins and then at the end he says, and things like these.

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So there are other sins that could be added to this list. It's by no means exhaustive. But Paul uses this one here because it's the one he's been using as he's been issuing this rebuke to the

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Corinthians in chapters 5 and 6. We just read it a little bit ago in chapter 5 verse 10. When I told you not to associate with sexually immoral people,

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I did not at all mean the sexually immoral people of this world or with the greedy swindlers and idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

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So this is the list that Paul has been using. And here it's particularly organized because in verse 9, in chapter 6 verse 9, he's got five sins listed there and in chapter 10, five sins listed there.

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If you have the English Standard Version, if you're using the ESV today, there's not five sins in verse 9, there's how many?

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Does anybody know? You got the ESV right in front of you? You can poke it and count it.

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Four, right. It's not five, it's four. And then there's five in verse 10.

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So it's actually a list of, in the ESV it's a list of nine vices. But in the

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NASV, if you're using the New American Standard or the Legacy Standard, it's 10, it's five and five.

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Now, if you were to read it in the Greek, it would be the same thing. There would be five vices in the

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Greek in verse 9, five vices in the Greek in verse 10. So what is the

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ESV doing by listing four instead of five in verse 9?

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Let's consider that. So midway through verse 9, again, Paul says, do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral.

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Now, he's condemned sexual immorality already. And basically what comes next, the next five or the next four vices that are listed are just expounding upon sexual immorality.

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These things are sexually immoral. Now, what do we mean with that term sexual immorality?

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What does that mean? Some translations will just use the word immoral. It won't even qualify it as sexually immoral.

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It'll just say immorality. But what do we mean by sexual immorality? Anything that goes against what

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God created, yet what he intended for sex. And what's sex meant for? Procreation, intimacy in marriage, between a husband and a wife.

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Sex in any other context outside of marriage to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife, sex outside of that context is sexually immoral.

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And so Paul lays out four examples of sexual immorality that immediately follow that.

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The sexually immoral idolaters, that's interesting. We'll come back to that. Adulterers, effeminate, and homosexuals.

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So starting with idolaters, why, as he's listing sexually immoral sins here, why idolatry?

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What's the significance of listing idolatry in the sexually immoral sins? It doesn't say in the

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Bible somewhere that when you have an adulterer, you're with somebody other than your wife, that what happens when you come together is like gluing two two -by -fours together.

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When you come apart, you take from that other person with you, whatever lifestyle they have or something, you take that with you when you separate.

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And which, that's pretty dangerous. Yeah, sure, right. So two people that come together that are in a bond of any kind, you try to separate that and you can even apply that to marriage.

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So you take a husband or wife and you tear them apart and they're taking something of each other with them. You have a man who's in a marriage and he sleeps with a woman that he's not married to.

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They're taking something of each other with them. I like the illustration of the two -by -fours glued together because I've done some carpentry work.

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And yeah, when you mess up on that glue and you try to pry that apart, you're going to take some of the other board with you. It's amazing how strong that glue is.

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But so yeah, anytime. And Paul is going to illustrate that as we go into chapter six. Do you not know that one who sleeps with a prostitute unites himself with the prostitute?

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So that's certainly coming up. Yes, ma 'am. I was thinking the connection with idolatry. Wasn't it common practice with a lot of the cults in the area, like the cult prostitutes that would be involved in the sexual immorality and worshiping the false god?

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Absolutely. So as far as the connection to idolatry goes, in Corinth, sex was tied to idolatry.

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If you went to the pagan temple, like the temple to Aphrodite, for example, remember that temple was there in Corinth.

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You go to the temple of Aphrodite to sacrifice to Aphrodite, you would sleep with a priesthood prostitute on an altar to Aphrodite.

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That's what would happen. So this was the connection between idolatry and sexual immorality.

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Now, this isn't the only place that Paul makes that connection. If you go to Colossians chapter three, he makes it there as well.

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And in fact, he ties sexual immorality in with covetousness.

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So even desiring it, even coveting this sex outside of marriage, even that is just as wicked in the eyes of God.

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As one who actually follows through with it and does it. For Paul goes on to say in Colossians 3, 6, the wrath of God is coming against such things.

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Even the desire for sexual immorality, the wrath of God is coming against it.

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And so quite the, quite the call to check ourselves that, that our desire would be for Christ and for his holiness.

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And we don't do that begrudgingly. Oh God, all these people in the world and all the sex that they enjoy,

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I wish I could be like them. That's, that's wicked. That's evil. That's to say that what the

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Lord has given to you, which is himself and his son, is not good enough for me.

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I got to have these other things in order to be satisfied. That's idolatry. It's putting something in the place of God.

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It's putting something higher than God. If I could have this other thing, then I would be satisfied. And you could try to portion out your faith walk and you could say 99 % of myself

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I give to Jesus. Can't I just have this other 1 %? If it's without this 1 % that you're not satisfied, that's your

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God. That's what it is that, that governs your thinking and owns your heart.

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The thing that you think you have to have in order to be satisfied is the thing that rules you.

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And so particularly when it comes to sexual immorality and especially in the context of what the

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Corinthians were enduring within their own culture and what was surrounding them, idolatry was connected to sexual immorality.

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Sexual immorality connected to idolatry. You know, whenever you look at the pagan practices, not just what was going on in Corinth, but you look at pagan practices in the history of the world, whatever the pagans worshipped, there was sex and gross immoral sacrifice that was attached to that.

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So if you were to have some sort of pagan culture, it was like we worship the wind. Let's go worship the wind today.

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They would go somewhere and have sex and then sacrifice a baby. And that's not far -fetched.

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That's exactly what they did. There was human sacrifice and there was sexual immorality attached to the worship of false gods.

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Attached to their paganism. So it was not too different here in Corinth.

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Sexual immorality in virtually every temple that was going on there in this particular city.

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And we did our background to the city of Corinth at the start of our study. I had mentioned a lot of that, that these

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Christians here in Corinth, they were coming out of that. They were being rescued out of that. But some of them had not fully disconnected themselves and not fully cut themselves off from the ways of the world.

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And even though they were attending the church here in Corinth, there's still part of them that still desired the lifestyle that they came from.

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So Paul says in verse 11, such were some of you, but there are still some amongst them that haven't let go of those things yet, right?

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So the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And here's that list of sins, the sexually immoral, the idolaters, the adulterers.

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Now, adultery is very specifically a person who is married sleeping with someone who they're not married to.

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That's adultery. Sleeping with someone outside of marriage is not technically adultery.

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What's the word that we use for that? Fornication, right? So if you're sleeping with somebody that you're not married to and you yourself are not married, that's fornicating.

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But if you are married or this other person is married and you're sleeping with somebody that is married to somebody else, that's adultery.

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But in the context of the way that the word is used here, both would apply. Whether it's adultery or whether it's fornication, they're both considered adultery in this context in which

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Paul is listing these vices. So we have sexual immorality, we have idolatry, we have adultery.

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Now the next two, and this is where the ESV combines these into one. In the

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New American Standard and in the Legacy Standard, and there's also two different words in the

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King James and the New King James. But what we have here in verse nine are these two words, the effeminate and homosexuals.

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If any of you have the Geneva Bible from 1599, it's wantons and buggerers.

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That's the two words that you have there. Wantons and buggerers. But here in the most current

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English translations, the words are effeminate and homosexuals. It's translated from the

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Greek effeminate malakoi and for homosexuals in the

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Greek arsenokoites. So these are the two Greek words that get translated effeminate and homosexuals.

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Why then does the ESV translate it as what? What do you have in the English Standard Version? Those who practice homosexuality, right?

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Isn't that what you have there? It's not two words, it's just one word, those who practice homosexuality. Now in defense of the

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English Standard Version, most of the Bibles that I have are the ESV. Tom and I, since last year, we've been transitioning into preaching from the

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Legacy Standard Bible. But in defense of the English Standard, it's not that the

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English Standard is wrong. What they've done there is that they're taking what is essentially the giver and the receiver in a homosexual encounter.

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So the effeminate is the receiver. Sorry to be graphic, but that's the case. That's what Paul is laying out here.

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And then the homosexual is the giver. The effeminate is the receiver, the homosexual is the giver. And the

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ESV translators just combine that into one, into those who practice homosexuality, rather than dividing it up in the two.

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But as you have the list of vices in the Greek, and if we're gonna be as accurate to the text as possible, it comes out as effeminate or soft.

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That's malachoi. And then homosexuals, which is man better. That's literally how the word is translated, a man better.

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Now, there are some who in criticism of this particular verse will say that this word, even arsenokoites that gets translated homosexual, but such a word didn't even exist in the

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Greek language at that particular time. In fact, the earliest use that you can find of that particular word is where?

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First Corinthians. That's the earliest use that we can find in antiquity of the word arsenokoites, which gets translated homosexual.

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So where did this word come from? Well, it actually comes from, it may not have been that Paul was the first one to use it.

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It could have been that it was used in other contexts, but it's just the earliest record that we have of the use of this word is

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Paul's use of it here in First Corinthians chapter six. So where did the word come from? Well, likely the word comes from the book of Leviticus.

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And in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in the

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Septuagint where you go to Leviticus and it said that a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman, it's an abomination.

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In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of that passage in Leviticus, the word arseno for man and to lie with koites, those two words, pardon the pun, they lay next to one another.

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So you have arseno and koites. And Paul or whoever else, it could have been all of the teachers at that time were using the word in this way.

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They took those two words and they put them together. This is called a neologism where you take two words and you create a new word.

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But they took those two words and put them together and that became the Greek word, essentially the

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Greek word for sodomite. As in the Hebrew, that's the word that they use for a homosexual, they use the word sodomite.

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And even in the King James Bible today, you can go to your King James and you see that word sodomite being used to define men who have sex with men.

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But in the Greek language, there wasn't really a good effective word for that. And so there was one that was used, that was invented essentially, a neologism taken from Leviticus in which the word arseno and koites are put side by side.

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Now you have arsenokoites, which again, as I mentioned, literally is translated man better. So you have the effeminate and you have the homosexual or the man better.

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Both of those are listed here. So whether a person, if a man makes himself effeminate in that kind of a sexual encounter or you have the aggressor in that particular encounter, both are considered wicked and sexually immoral.

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Now, because we are seeing within our culture today, men who are wanting to call themselves women or women who want to call themselves men, these things are becoming more and more prominent.

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And I, as a teacher of the word of God, would prefer to use a translation that is going to distinguish those two sins.

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And so we have effeminate, will not inherit the kingdom of God, men who would want to make themselves women, in other words, and the homosexuals or those who have same -sex sexual relations with one another will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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Now, as I said to you, I think it was either last week or the week before, the way that we think about verses nine through 11, we often think of those passages as being a clobber verse for homosexuality.

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This is how we can tell people that the homosexuals do not inherit the kingdom of God because of what Paul says in 1

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Corinthians 6, 9. And that's true. We can use the verse in that way so that a person will be convicted of their sin and recognize that the homosexual attitudes that are being adopted and accepted in this culture today are not of God.

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He does not honor that. They will not gain entrance into the kingdom of God.

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They're not part of the kingdom now and they will not be at the final judgment. And so it is urgent for us in the state of our culture today to be able to tell people these things so that, again, as I mentioned, with our responsibility to evangelism, so that they will turn from that sin and they will turn to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and be saved so that they will recognize these sins, these passions of my flesh,

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I was not born this way. God does not just accept me this way.

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These are sins that we need cleansed from ourselves and we must come to Christ to be washed and made new.

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We cannot enter the kingdom of God in this state. We must be made something else.

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And that, of course, is what we get to when we get to verse 11. Yes, ma 'am. It's becoming a part of what you're saying because it seems like in my work setting, it's like it's not only that people want to have that relationship, but they want you to acknowledge that relationship, embrace that relationship, tell them it's fine for them to be that way.

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So it's getting really hard to keep that attitude that they need to become repentant.

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Right, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, it could cost you your job. Yeah. We're seeing that in the world today of Christians that are, just because they won't go along with it, are being ostracized and could lose their jobs as a result.

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Yes, sir. To go ahead with that. Also, where I teach, I end up coming in and my understanding is that God places people in our way so that we can somehow speak to them and very carefully not offend them.

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I look at myself as an opportunity. They're there for a reason.

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But the thing I look at, being through the prison system and everything, that I have seen a reversal and God will forgive them.

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Yeah. God will forgive them. Absolutely. That's what we desire, that they would turn from their sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Absolutely. It is getting a lot harder in our culture today and we're seeing popular evangelicalism right now beginning to capitulate on this issue also.

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Yes, niece. The good news is we don't have to convince people. We don't have to change them. God does that.

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That's right. God does that. Speak the truth and let it be. That's right.

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As I've heard Vodie Bauckham say, I'm just in communications. My daddy's in sales. He's the one that seals the deal on that.

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I like Vodies. Hey, I just deliver the mail. I don't write it. That's right. I deliver the mail.

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I don't write it. That's it. Yeah, so the responsibility for us is to stand firm on the truth.

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When you tell a person that their sin will send them to hell, they're going to tell you that you're a bigot, that you're hateful, but this is the most loving message that we can give them.

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To stand in their way and say, I don't want you to go to hell. I want you to turn from your sin to Jesus Christ and be saved.

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It's the most loving message that we can give them. We must stand firm on what God says.

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And it's because we love God and we love them. And we want them to turn from their sin to the

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Lord Christ and be saved. Now, as I mentioned a moment ago, there's all kinds of capitulation that's happening on this.

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David French, who's been a very popular evangelical columnist, just recently wrote an article this past week on how his mind has been changing on this subject, on these issues.

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Christianity Today, their CEO, Timothy Darrymple, who's the

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CEO of Christianity Today, the highest chair of the magazine that was founded by Billy Graham, is pro -LGBTQ.

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And he attended a same -sex wedding that was officiated by Jonathan Merritt, who's the son of a former

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Southern Baptist president. He attended that wedding before he was made the

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CEO of Christianity Today, just to give you an idea where the magazine is at.

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We're capitulating on this issue more and more and more. And the same question that Jesus asked, indicting the scribes and the

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Pharisees, is the same question we hear the Lord asking us now. Have you not read?

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Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Now, the next list of sins that we have is not so much under the category of sexual immorality.

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That's what we have in verse 9. But these other sins, definitely in the realm of covetousness.

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Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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Now, whenever I have done evangelism encounters, in public, if it's a complete stranger, somebody

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I don't even know, usually my encounter might happen something like this.

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I might ask them, do you think you're a good person? Or the question I'll ask them is, where do you think you will go when you die?

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Do you believe there's an afterlife? What do you think happens to us when we die? And somewhere through the conversation, we get to understanding that none of us are really good.

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Or this person might think that they're good, and I say, can I test you on that? They say, sure. And I will say to them, have you ever stolen anything before?

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No, I've never stolen anything. Are you sure about that? You ever pad your time card?

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Like, write down hours that you didn't really work? Isn't that stealing from your employer?

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So we're closer to being thieves than we really are. I'll ask this person, have you ever told a lie before?

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Oh yeah, I've lied. Everybody lies. What does that make you if you tell lies? It makes me a liar.

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What does it make you if you steal? It's funny how many times I get the answer, it makes me a stealer.

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No, you don't play football for Pittsburgh. It makes you a thief.

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You're a liar, you're a thief. You ever taken the Lord's name in vain? Sometimes I ask that question, they'll do it right there.

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Have you ever committed adultery before? Sometimes they answer yes, sometimes they say no. I say, have you ever lusted for somebody before?

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Like you've imagined yourself sleeping with that person or try to take their clothes off with your mind? Yeah, I've done that before.

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Well, Jesus says in Matthew chapter five, that it's the same as if you've committed adultery with them in your heart.

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Have you ever murdered anybody before? No, I've never murdered anyone. Have you ever hated somebody or called them names?

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The same thing in Matthew five in the Sermon on the Mount. It's amazing the number of people that I encounter, I can say

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Sermon on the Mount, they've heard of that before. Nobody's ever told me, what's the Sermon on the Mount? In Matthew five in the

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Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that if you've hated your brother, it's the same as if you've murdered him in your heart.

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So what have we established right here? That you're a lying, thieving, adulterous, murderer, blasphemer at heart.

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Those are five of the 10 commandments right there. So if you were to stand before God on judgment day, and he were to judge you by that standard by the 10 commandments, would you go to heaven or hell?

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And rarely do I have somebody stand there and go, well, I think I'm still going to heaven. Although it does happen, because God would never send anybody to hell.

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But if this is the standard that he's judging us by, by his own law, can any of us say that we are guiltless?

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That we have never broken his law before? And so what do we deserve for breaking

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God's law? What we deserve is hell. But what do we get instead?

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Through Jesus Christ, we have the mercy and grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of everlasting life.

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So we have these further sins that Paul says, thieves, greed, drunkenness, that's any kind of intoxication, not just drinking wine, but any kind of drug that you would give yourself over to, to lose yourself in that, reviling, hating others, swindling, cheating them out of their money.

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These people will not inherit the kingdom of God. And Paul says in verse 11, such were some of you.

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Now in the past tense, you were this, meaning that you're not this anymore.

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You've come to the Lord, Jesus Christ, and you've been justified. You've been washed.

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You've been sanctified in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of our God. So among them in the church in Corinth, hearing this letter read aloud to them, among them were those who could say,

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I once was that, but I've been washed. I've been made new.

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I'm not that anymore. I am not guilty. I'm justified in the name of the

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Lord, Jesus Christ. But notice the word, some.

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Yeah, right. It's everybody who is in Christ. But as he's saying this to the

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Corinthians, there's still that word, some. Such were some of you, meaning what?

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Some are still in those sins and have not yet crucified the flesh, have not yet been washed, but are still trying to figure out ways,

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I can be in the Lord. I can still be in this stuff that I enjoyed in the world too, right?

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Paul's gonna confront this again a little bit later on in chapters 10 and 11, where he's gonna say, you cannot dine at the table of demons and at the table of the

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Lord. You are either in the kingdom of Satan or you're in the kingdom of God.

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You can't have a foot in both. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, but what will the righteous receive?

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Everlasting life in the kingdom of God. These words that Paul uses here in verse 11, you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.

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You know, in the Greek, those words sound a lot the same. Doesn't work for us as well in English.

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Washed, sanctified, justified. In the Greek, it kind of sounds the same. You think that, you know, using same sounding words to make your points is just a

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Baptist preacher thing. It's not. Paul did it too, even in his letters. We kind of lose it in the

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English translation, but that whole mechanism, he uses it here and Pastor Tom, who reads

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Greek much more fluently than I do, has showed me where it's in the book of Hebrews as well. You'll see points that begin with the same letter.

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It's like, oh, hey, look, just like we do it with our points in Baptist preaching. So they did it in the

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Greek as well. Some of that stuff is fun to see. I'm just kind of throwing that out there. But yeah, these words, they sound a lot the same.

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And you might imagine you were washed, hallelujah. You were sanctified, hallelujah.

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You were justified, amen. In the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We once were guilty.

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We once were subject to judgment. Remember, we've been talking about judgment through chapters five and six.

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But Paul concludes with this characteristic of those who are in Christ Jesus, that they are justified.

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You are innocent. You are free from judgment by faith in Jesus Christ.

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So no longer walk in the way that you were in before. If you're still in the sins for which the guilty will be counted, then you're not really justified.

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You haven't really been washed. You're not really being sanctified. But if you are in Christ and you've been washed and made new, then you shouldn't be in those sins anymore.

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Doesn't mean that we won't sin as we're walking this narrow way, but it's not our desire.

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It's not our orientation. We're not going toward the sin. We're going toward what? We're going toward Christ.

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Or as Isaac Watts said, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.

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So let our desire be for Christ and His righteousness. Let us put off, as it says in Hebrews 12, to every sin and every weight that entangles and run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

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We've got one last Sunday we're going to spend on sexual immorality and then we'll finish this section before we come back to our study in 1