Washed, Sanctified, Justified

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Well, good morning. Or good afternoon, sorry. I'm so used to saying good morning to everybody. Yeah, it's good to be here. I think I said to a few people this afternoon when I came in, are you new here?

Yes, so am I. So it's my first time here, at least on a Sunday afternoon. So greetings from Bethel Gospel Chapel in north-central Edmonton. I think it was just last week we formally said goodbye to you guys, and now we're here.

Personal Testimony and the Word of God

Let's start off with a bit of a personal testimony, because I think it fits in with the day's passage as you're working your way through 1 Corinthians. I came to Christ when I was 25. I was in the army at the time.

The Lord arranged for me to go to the island of Cyprus for six months on a peacekeeping mission. Before I went, I found a beat-up old paper-covered copy of the New Testament at a yard sale, which I bought for I think a dollar.

And I thought, I should read this. And so I took this to Cyprus, and over the next six months, I read through cover to cover the Word of God, or at least the New Testament. And I personally felt what it says in Hebrews 4, verse 12, that the Word of God is active and living and sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating and dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

That was my experience. And not only did it just cut me to the core, it convicted me of all sorts of things, attitudes and things. I thought I was a pretty good guy. I wasn't a drunkard. I didn't do drugs.

I didn't run around with my wife. I did all kinds of things I didn't do. But it just cut me to the core because it convicted me so deeply. But the other thing it did was it helped me to see life from God's perspective.

It turned my world upside down, my whole thinking. I learned what the term born-again means, to start thinking from a whole different way of seeing life, new life in Christ. Now, that was 45 years ago, so you can figure out how old I am from that.

That was 45 years ago. It's been a lifelong process. It's not like suddenly I knew everything I had to know about God. I'm still learning that. And so that certainly wasn't the case. This lifelong process of living, this journey, this radical journey of life.

Now, seeing life from God's perspective, then reorienting your own way of thinking, your own way of living, to that transformative process, to see it from that perspective, and transforming yourself into what you're learning from that perspective, that, I think, is the theme of 1 Corinthians.

That's the theme of 1 Corinthians from my point of view. It really tells you what it means to live this born-again life. In fact, it's the basis, the only true basis for life. The only true basis for life.

This is what we're designed to live. We are made to live a radical lifestyle. Radical from the point of view of the world, but normal should be from our point of view. John 10 .10, Jesus said, "...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.".

We are designed to have full life, abundant life. And it's not the abundant life that Hollywood or Madison Avenue would tell us is abundant life. It's a radically more full abundant life. And it's the only basis for true unity in the church, in the local body of believers, God's people.

So our unity must be based on the gospel, the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now, the introductory chapters of 1 Corinthians, in chapter 2, verse 2, Paul says, "...I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.".

Now, Paul has just gone on, just in a few verses before in chapter 1, verse 24, he said that the preaching of Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God. The preaching of Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God.

Paul summarizes his introduction in chapter 2, starting at verse 14. He says, "...the natural person," that's the person without the Holy Spirit, "...who understands life only through his own senses, his own thinking, his own motivation.

So that natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.". And then it says in verse 16, "...but we have the mind of Christ.".

And it's not because we're intellectually superior to other people. Far from it. It's because we've been born again into Christ, and now we have the Holy Spirit who gives us the whole different understanding.

See, when I was a... I grew up going to church. I tried reading the Bible several times. In fact, our whole church liturgy was full of Scripture references, and I had a lot of them memorized. It didn't mean anything.

I tried reading the Bible several times. I didn't get anywhere with it. When I came to Christ, when I surrendered to Christ, when... I didn't know it at the time. The Holy Spirit was now opening up His Word to me, and I could understand it for the first time.

At 25 years of age, I wasted 25 years of my life chasing the things that didn't matter until His Holy Spirit opened it up to me. So now here we have Paul. He's instructing a very young church. Maybe it was called Grace Fellowship.

I don't know. Except I had my notes here. Relatively New and Immature Believers. Okay, I know some of you are not immature believers, but... Relatively New Church. Okay. What he's telling them is, what does it look like to live practically, to live practically with this new spirituality?

Because it's not just sort of by the by in the sky, in the great far away. It's not that at all. It's practical. The Gospel is lived. And so, how do we live practically with this new spiritual reality?

And there's living from God's perspective. Now in chapter 3, it was seeing unity and division from God's perspective. Chapter 4, leadership from God's perspective. Chapter 5, which I think you went through last week, seeing sin from God's perspective.

And in future chapters, you're going to address marriage and gender and sexuality and rights and freedoms and worship and spiritual gifts. In fact, all of life you're going to look at from God's perspective.

And so today, we're going to look at chapter 6, at least the first 11 verses. And we're going to look at disputes and grievances amongst believers from God's perspective. Now, we've already read the passage, so I'm just going to go through in chunks.

And we're going to take each chunk apart, or as they say nowadays, unpack it. Okay, the first, we'll start. You use that a lot, Shane? Okay, sorry. So chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, starting in verse 1.

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Now, go to law is just an old term for take them to court, sue them. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

Now, saints here is not necessarily particularly holy people. I'll talk about that a little later, why believers get to be called saints. And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life? So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? You see, when we start to see life from God's perspective, we see that it is so much bigger than our issues.

In fact, our issues become really trivial in perspective. There's so much more at stake. There are eternal realities at work here. And Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. There's going to be this new millennial paradise.

There's going to be a new world order. To borrow a phrase from, I think it was George W. Bush, a new world order, but not his. It's going to be a better one, a perfect one. There's going to be judgment with eternal consequences.

It's all going to be ruled over by Christ as King. And His people are going to be there in authority, ruling under His authority. But that's a whole different study. We're not going to go there. That's called eschatology.

And we're not going to go there. The point is we're living for bigger and better things. We're living in light of eternity. And this is what we have to keep in mind. In other words, what Paul is saying, get your head out of the sand.

There's bigger stuff. There's bigger fish to fry here. See God's bigger picture. Now, secular courts do have a legitimate role to play in our lives. But these so-called internal disputes within the church, that should not be one of the things that secular courts have to deal with.

And if believers insist on taking each other to court over these matters, what does it say about our testimony? What does it say about our testimony about unity in Christ if we do that? If we look back at chapter 5, verse 8, Paul says, Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

See, if we're acting with sincerity and in truth, why would we want to go to court to prove that somebody else, a brother or sister, is not acting with sincerity and in truth? Why would we want to do that?

Pick it up again, verse 5. I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle the dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers.

In other words, he's saying you should be ashamed that you're doing this. Shame to yourself, taking legal action against each other. Now, what about legitimate disputes? What if we have legitimate disputes amongst each other?

What happens in a family when you have legitimate disputes? You take it to the proper authority. Keep your fingers in 1 Corinthians 6, and let's just jump back to Matthew 18. Matthew 18, verse 15. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. In other words, as an outsider and as a sinner, as a non-believer.

So there is a mechanism within the church by which we settle legitimate disputes. And not everything has to go to the top right away. If you've got a problem with somebody, go and talk to them. We are blood-bought brothers and sisters.

Why would we be afraid to talk to somebody? I remember a number of years ago, we had a lady in the church. And I didn't realize this, but I had offended her by something I had done. And she came up to me afterwards and said, Frank, that really offended me, the way you handled this and that.

And I was thinking about that, and I could see where I thought I had my good reasons, but how it offended her. And I said, all I can say is I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Please forgive me. You see, one-on-one, fellowshippers restored.

I didn't know that I offended her, but she did. And she came, and we dealt with it. Easy to do, but so often we're afraid. So we have this mechanism, because the larger purpose of this reconciliation is the process of unity within the church, but for the greater purpose of the glory of God.

We don't live here for our own needs to be met. Our greatest need is to be connected with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the glory of God is what we are here for. Anything less is self-defeating, and that's what Paul says.

And verse 5, I say this to your shame. Sorry, I missed that. Verse 7, yeah. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. See, it's a defeat in the eyes of the world. So much for being this born-again life, right?

So much for this unity in Christ. Knowing Jesus didn't seem to do them any good. You can see how it's a defeat in the eyes of the world, but it's also a personal defeat. Jesus said in Matthew 5 .38 at the Sermon on the Mount, He says, Do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone should sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. And if we would treat our enemies with that respect in that manner, why would we not want to do it for brothers and sisters?

You see, seeing life from God's perspective and living that way rather than the flesh is radical. When I was younger, when I first came to Christ, it was during the hippie days, and everybody wanted to be radical, man!

I wasn't a hippie, I was in the army. Has anything changed? Do we all want to be radical, radically different? The only way you can be really, truly, radically different is to be in Christ. That's radical.

And that's different. And that's real. Because the real issue isn't whether or not we are right or wrong in a particular dispute. The real issue is of more eternal value, becoming better children of our Heavenly Father.

In other words, moving towards Christ-likeness. Therefore, it says in the second half of verse 7, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? Better to suffer wrong, to be defrauded, than to be defeated in our journey towards increasing Christ-likeness.

Paul expands on this in Ephesians 4, and he says,. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

Be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. As God in Christ forgave you, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

This is living in the light of the gospel. Living in the light of the gospel. Living for higher eternal purposes.

Verse 8,.

But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brethren. See, we need to check our own motives and our own actions. See, often the things that bother us in other people are the things that we wrestle with.

And maybe that's why it bugs us to see it in other people. So we need to check our own motives. In fact, when you get to chapter 13, the so-called love chapter, you're going to find a lot of help for checking your own motives.

And we'll see how well you're walking with each other. A number of years ago, I had a dispute with a brother, and he was totally wrong, of course. I was intervening in this dispute between him and another one.

And so I knew what the dispute was all about and everything. And I quoted from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, love bears no knowledge of evil, of wrong, has no remembrance of wrong. And he looked at me and he said, but you certainly have a remembrance of my wrong.

And I thought, he's right. I remembered everything that he had done that I thought was wrong. And I was holding it against him. And in fact, as I reviewed my own motives, I realized I was allowing this to chew me up.

It was a long time before actually, after thinking about this, I should say a couple of months, I guess, and I finally phoned him up and said, can we meet? I need to apologize to you for what I've been doing.

He was still wrong. What he had done, and he had to deal with the things that he had to deal with. But I had to deal with the things that I had to deal with. And so I had to go and apologize to him for whatever it was that I had, it was my issue, not his.

So chapter 13, if you have a problem with somebody, read 1 Corinthians 13 over again and check your own motives. Now, walking in love with each other doesn't preclude dealing with sin within the church.

It's the body of Christ. And verse 9 says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

See, we come to Christ in our sin, but Christ doesn't leave us there. We come not because we're good enough, we come because we're sinners. We come in our sin, but he doesn't leave us there. He's come to free us from this slavery to sin, to a whole sin condition.

And sometimes that's a painful process. In fact, I'm sure last week when you went through chapter 5, some of that pain was right there. Verse 11, And such were some of you. Now, some in Corinth at that time were guilty of some of these very specific sins, but we all come with the same sin condition.

We all come with the same sin condition. It's called the sin nature, or the flesh. Now, for the kids.

Noah.

Where's Noah? How many times have you and I been at the same camp together? Probably all of them. All of yours, not all of mine. Yeah, okay. So, you remember a story, and there's a thing that I usually bring out on Monday afternoons at camp.

Do you remember that? What does it stand for? Sin. Why is I put a rag there? Sin's bad and dirty. Because Isaiah 64, 6 says, All of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.

Right?

Yeah.

That's what our best looks like in God's eyes. Filthy rags. Thanks, Noah. I've got some more questions for you later. Actually, here's one. Do you remember Romans 3 .23? Memory verse.

Who knows it?

Romans 3 .23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory.

Remember that one?

Yeah.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It's not just the individual little things we do or don't do. It's our whole nature of who we are.

Again, Paul expanded in Ephesians 2, and he says,. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Like the rest of mankind. Without Christ, we were actually pawns of Satan. That's spiritual reality. But thank Christ He doesn't leave us there. Thank the Lord He doesn't leave us in our sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

That's the next verse. We didn't do that one at camp. That's okay. So He redeemed us. Redeemed us. He paid the penalty for our sin. He ransomed us. He bought us back from slavery to sin. And He became a substitute for us.

Now, Noah, do you remember what this thing was for? Okay, why is it so significant?

What is it?

Okay, here, somebody knows it.

Oh, that's a good illustration, but that's not exactly what I'm getting at.

What's your name?

Charlotte. Charlotte, okay.

Scarlet.

Scarlet, okay. Scarlet O 'Hara?

No, okay.

Elise, do you remember what the significance of the Lamb was? In the Old Testament, lambs were used as a sacrifice for sin. In fact, a man, if he wanted to get forgiveness for sins, he would bring a lamb from his flock, not just any old lamb, a perfect lamb.

He'd bring it to the place of slaughter, to the altar. He'd place his hand on it, and by faith, his sin was transferred to the lamb. The lamb now had to die, and the man killed his own lamb for his sin.

You see the substitute. Christ came as the Lamb of God, who died as our substitute in our place. He redeemed us. Finishing off verse 11, it says,. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

It says you were washed. Now, how many of you kids at bath time, you come in and you're filthy dirty, and mom puts you in the bathtub, and you come out, and she says something to the effect, you're a whole new person.

I don't know, any mom ever done that? I think I've heard it in my house a few times. You're a whole new person, because you look different. That's what washed is, you're a whole new person. You've been washed by the blood of the Lamb, metaphorically.

Everything's been washed away. It's a picture of baptism, Romans chapter 6. Plunged under the water, cleansing, dying with Christ, rising again to new life. A whole new person in Christ. It says you're washed, and it says you're sanctified.

Hebrews 10, 14,. For by a single offering he has perfected, past tense, completed action. He has perfected for all time those who are being, ongoing action, sanctified. Those who are being made holy. He's made perfect for all time those who are being made perfect.

Perfect.

Two things here. Positional perfection. That's why at the beginning of this chapter he said the saints will judge. That's you and I, if we're in Christ. It's not because we've done some beatific thing.

That somebody's prayed to us, or whatever. That's not what saints mean in the Bible. It's those who have been declared holy and perfect by Christ.

For what he has done.

So we have this positional perfection. We've been perfected for all time. But we also have the ongoing life of Christ in us. This experiential process of being transformed into his image. This is the journey of faith that we are on as Christians.

This journey of faith towards Christ likeness. Being conformed into that. Transformed into it. And it's not always an easy journey. But it's a glorious journey. And often times we don't recognize it until we look back.

And this is why personal testimony is so important.

Because it helps us to look back.

And to see where we've come from. That's why fellowship is so important. Because brothers and sisters tell each other looking back and tell us where we've come from. That's why it's so difficult to be a Lone Ranger Christian.

Because you don't have that fellowship. Washed, sanctified, and justified. That means declared righteous. It's a legal term. You're declared judicially not guilty. Because Christ died as our substitute for our sin.

And so, as the picture of the Lamb indicates, our sin was laid on him. His righteousness is transferred to us. So God's justice is completely satisfied. Completely satisfied. When we accept that spiritual reality by faith, as I said, his righteousness is now laid on us.

And so we are declared not just forgiven. We're not just forgiven. But we're declared not guilty.

It's a difference.

It's not that we didn't do something. But it's the whole sin nature that has been dealt with. So we're declared not guilty. 2 Corinthians 5 .21. I love this passage. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.

That's Christ.

So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. His righteousness is transferred to us. Therefore we are fit to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Of course, that's next week's passage. We're fit for the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.

Not because we are righteous in and of ourselves, but because he is and we are in him. And the Holy Spirit can now dwell in us and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. And therefore we're enabled to see increasingly the life that God calls us to from his perspective.

To live a life of increasing conformity to Christ. I was looking for a passage to bring all this together. I never consulted with Shane, but I have the exact same passage that you read a few minutes ago, Shane.

And so I take that as a confirmation that this is what I should have come to you with. Romans 12. Verse 1. Paul has just spent 11 chapters explaining the gospel. Explaining all what Christ has done for us.

I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship or your reasonable service. Or in Greek, it's logikon.

It's a logical thing we should be doing.

It's logical.

It is not a leap of faith, a blind leap in the dark. This is logical. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay you, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's pray. Father God, your word is active and living. Lord, as we hear what you have to tell us, as we take it into our hearts, into our minds, as we think about it, as we turn it over, and we think about how far short we have fallen, we think of your glorious cross, we think of the resurrection of Christ, the new life we have in him, and we rejoice in that.

And forgetting what has passed, we press on, as Paul said. We press on for the goal of the high calling that we have in Christ. Lord, may that be our desire. May that be our heart's sincere desire. May that be what we bend our mind to, to be more Christ-like, to live the life that Christ has called us to, in this world, in this flesh.

And may it be glorious. May we see your glory in everything. Help us to do it in our families. Help us to do that with each other. Help us to do it here in the church. Help us to do it at work, in our neighborhoods, wherever it is you call us, Lord.

May you be glorified. May we live that life that you call us to. May we see your Holy Spirit at work. And we just thank you. And we give you praise in all glory. It's because of Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Amen.