Such Were Some of You! (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Daily Bible Reading and Family Worship Encouragement

Welcome to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Several days ago, I began doing a daily Bible reading and several of you have been keeping up with that, watching it daily as we've been going through our New Testament readings.

And I've been working with the format every day, trying to make it a little bit better, a little bit more fun to participate in and a little bit more interesting. And I thought about it, I'm going to try to continue this on as a podcast and so we are renaming it and the podcast name is going to be Coffee with a Calvinist.

And so my goal is to have this video uploaded every morning by the time folks are getting up and getting ready to start their day, maybe when they have their first early cup of coffee and they can watch this video and it'll help them get started with their day.

I'm hoping to give you insights into the scripture that we're reading for the day, as well as helpful hints as to how to incorporate this into your family worship, because that's a big part of what we're trying to do as well.

I want to see you and your family grow closer together around the word of God. So I'm trying to give you some helpful hints with that. So along with the daily Bible study, I'm going to be giving some insights into family worship, some helpful tools that you can use, some that will be resources that are free and available to everyone on the internet.

And sometimes there'll be some things that I throw on here that will be subscription services. But just know this, I'm not being paid for anything. Everything that I give out is something that I've either used or that I have had recommended to me by someone else that I trust.

So just know that that's what's going to be a part of this daily study. Now, today we're going to continue on in our reading and we are in 1 Corinthians chapter six, very, very important text. So I want to encourage you to read the whole chapter.

We, at first, when we started doing the daily Bible readings, I was reading the whole chapter to you, but I've discontinued doing that because I want you to read the chapter for yourself. I want you to read it, think about it, digest it, spend some time with it, and maybe do that before you listen to this video, because this video, I don't want to, I don't want to give you information that might influence your thinking until after you've read it and had an opportunity for you to seek to understand it for yourself.

So, just want to also mention, before we read the text we're going to read today, if you do like what you, if you do like this broadcast, if you like what we're doing, please let me know. That helps me, it encourages me, it lets me know that folks are actually listening.

And this is on YouTube, so you can like, comment, and subscribe. And if you do those three things, it helps us reach a broader group of people, and more people will see what we're doing. So, today we're in 1 Corinthians chapter six, very important text, as I mentioned before, it begins by talking about lawsuits between believers, it goes on to talking about fleeing sexual immorality, and some other areas, but the part that we're going to focus on is a very important text, and this is verses nine through 11.

The Vice List and the Warning Against Deception

1 Corinthians six, verse nine. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, 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. Now, just right off the bat, it's important that we note that the Apostle Paul here is listing several different sins in a row, we call this a vice list or a sin list, and in this list he includes several things that he would identify as being unrighteous, sexual immorality, obviously something that's unrighteous, he talks about idolatry, obviously that's one of the commandments, we know that idolatry is wrong, adultery is wrong, but one of the things that's in this list is the issue of homosexuality.

Now, this issue of homosexuality is huge because there is a lot of confusion about this subject, and some churches have even gone into not only accepting homosexuality, but they've gone into actually encouraging it and saying that it's a right and virtuous behavior.

But the Apostle Paul here clearly identifies homosexuality along with other sins, thereby identifying it as a sin. So, ultimately though, my point to bring this up is simply to say, this is one of the few times in the New Testament that homosexuality is mentioned, it is always mentioned in the negative, it is never seen as a positive expression of love between two individuals, so people who say that homosexuality is a proper and right expression of love are not doing so based on scripture, they're doing so based on a false understanding of the way God made human beings.

God made men and women to complement one another, he made man and woman to have the ability to come together and to become one, there are two complementary parts that come together and become one. And so, homosexuality is a deviation of that and is ungodly and not something that the Bible ever does support.

It goes on though to say something else that's equally as important, and that is this, later, when he's finishing this vice list, he says, and such were some of you, that word were is hugely important because that indicates that this is what the Corinthians had come out of, they were idolaters, they were adulterers, they were homosexuals, but when they came to Christ, they were no longer identified by those things.

One of the worst things I think that has happened is the idea that we should be identified by our sin, when somebody refers to themselves specifically as a homosexual, and even worse, somebody who identifies themselves as a homosexual Christian.

Well, I've never met anyone that would say, I'm a lying Christian, or I'm a thieving Christian, or I'm a murderous Christian, because those are all sinful things. And so when they identify themselves as a homosexual Christian, what they're trying to do is they're trying to say, this is not sinful, and the Bible just does not support that.

And so in this particular text, it lists homosexuality along with other sins, and it says, this is what you were, not what you are. And so this is something important. When we come to Christ, our lives are changed.

Now, do we still fight a battle with sin? Absolutely. Do we still struggle with sin? Absolutely. Galatians 5 clearly says that there's the spirit, and there's the flesh, and the flesh does try to get us to go against the spirit, and so there's this struggle, this internal war that's going on.

But ultimately, something that we have to consider in this text that's very important is that that's not our identity anymore. That's what we were, not what we are. In Christ, we are a new creation. Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. Therefore, when we consider the fact that we are believers in Christ, we should not try to have any sinful modifiers. We should simply be able to rest in Christ. We have been washed.

That is speaking of regeneration. In other passages, it refers to the washing of regeneration. We have been washed. We have been sanctified. That means set apart, and we have been justified. That means declared righteous in Christ, and that is the blessing that we have as believers.

We should not seek to identify ourselves with our sin. We should seek always to seek to identify and live for our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, as I'm drawing to a close here, I want to mention something for family worship.

Washed, Sanctified, and Justified in Christ

If you are a family that is practicing family worship, and you're looking for a good resource to use, I want to encourage you to look up Seeds Family Worship. That's seeds as in like a mustard seed, S-E-E-D-S.

Seeds Family Worship. They have a YouTube page. They have a Facebook page. You can go on, and you can find some of the best music for your family to use for family worship. It's scripture set to music, and it is a tremendously fun and catchy songs.

It's not cheesy. It's good, solid stuff, and our kids love it, know many of the songs, learn the hand signals that go with it, and it keeps them engaged and keeps them focused. So I would encourage you, and I would point you to Seeds Family Worship.

All right, I'm gonna close the broadcast now with a prayer, and then we'll close. Father, I thank you for this opportunity to look at your word. I pray that the words that I have said have been encouraging.

I know this is a difficult subject and one that's hard for us to always understand, but I pray that you would help those who have listened to truly come to this with their eyes and their ears opened, and with the Holy Spirit as the guide.

For Lord, we know that if the Spirit is the teacher, then we will truly learn, and if he is not teaching us, then we will not. So Lord, I pray that your Spirit would be the ultimate teacher. Use this to glorify yourself, Father, and I pray all this in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

Closing Prayer and Sign-Off

Again, thank you for watching. This has been Coffee with a Calvinist, and I want to encourage you to please like, comment, and subscribe, and may God bless your day.