Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We'll begin our lesson in
verse 9, but I want to recap just a little bit. The Apostle
Paul had been addressing serious problems in the Corinthian church
where the gospel had been set aside and self-glory had taken
a preeminence. What is self-glory? When we talk
about a church being filled with self-glory, it can apply to several
things, but the main thing is that everything concerning the
worship of God, and everything concerning the gathering together
of the saints, and the pastor's job, and all that is man-oriented. It's man-oriented. They want
to recognize the oldest and the youngest mothers, and they want
to recognize how much tithing and offerings came in during
the week. Everything is man-oriented. It surrounds man's will and man's
ideas and man's health and wealth and all this type of thing. And
that's what had taken place in this church, only in this church
it took took the form of wise men, philosophy, and wisdom,
and talent, and that type of thing. And this gospel had been set
aside, and self-glory had taken the preeminence, and this is
always the case in any church where the gospel is not preeminent. It's always the case. There's
no other way. I want you to hear me, and hear
me good. There's no other way to glorify God in worship than
through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Gospel. You leave
Him out of the worship service, you're not glorifying God at
all. You're not worshipping God at
all. You're worshipping man. You're
worshipping the Creator. There's no other way to glorify
God in worship. There's no other way to glorify
God in prayer. It is through Christ Jesus that
we have access to this throne of grace. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. That is what he said. And there
is no other way to glorify God in a ministry than through the
Lord Jesus Christ. All of the types, you know what
I am talking about, the pictures, the shadows, Paul calls them,
patterns of good things to come. All of the types. concerning
Christ took preeminence in the worship of God. Look back at
ancient Israel. Look at them gathering there
around the tabernacle and see what took the preeminence. The
high priest, who was a picture of Christ. The lamb, that was
preeminent. The altar, first thing you ran
into when you went into the courtyard, that altar. The blood, There
was no worship apart from the blood. There was blood. I don't
care what was going on. The blood was preeminent. And
the mercy seat. And then let me ask you this.
When did Israel fall into ungodliness and immorality? When they left
these things. When they left these things and
they said, which set forth Christ as their propitiation and began
to establish their own ideas about godliness and true worship.
They began to go up into the high mountains and build groves
and plant flowers and build shrines. And then they went up there and
they sang songs and they looked at those shrines and they glorified
each other over what they'd done. Look here what we've done. They
are kind of like old Nebuchadnezzar. You remember I was talking to
you about him one time and he stood up on that big hanging
garden of Babylon, one of the seven ancient wonders of the
world, and put them fingers in them suspenders and he said,
Is not this great Babylon which I built by the work of my hands
and for the glory of my name? And God sent him out to eat like
a beast until he learned who God was. And this is always the
case. And you can see it in ancient
Israel, whom Paul said, we have examples. We have examples of
following after this kind of nonsense. All you've got to do
is look back there and see. We're not the first generation
to come up with this idea of ministering to ourselves and
ministering to our needs and self-glory. We're not the first
generation to do that. So you can go back and look at
ancient Israel and you can see what happened between them and
God. Worship came to an end when they
left these things. Gospel preaching has taken a
back seat to natural man's concept of what church and worship and
salvation ought to be according to themselves. Well, I think,
who are you? Who are you when it comes to
worshiping God? Who are you when it comes to
setting forth the wisdom of God? Paul said, you will say unto
me, why doth he thus find fault for who hath resisted his will?
You know what Paul said? Who art thou? We have the Word of God. You don't need my Word. You have
the Word of God. I don't need man's opinion. I have the Word of God for these
things. Let God be true, Paul said, and
every man a liar. Let Him be true. Natural man, he wants to build
things and do things according to his own concept of what the
church and worship and salvation ought to be. A minister is no
longer a man who studies and prays for God to give him a message
for those that are gathered to hear him. Rather, they want him
to go out and knock on doors. I'll never forget years ago in
a little church I was pastoring a couple of the Elders in the
church came to me and came in to study and wanted to talk to
me for a minute, and I invited them in. They come in and sit
down and said, now, Pastor, we think you need to be out here
knocking on doors and trying to get some folks out here to
hear. And I said, well, I don't. But I said, if you feel that
way, you all go home and get your suit on, and I'll go get
mine on, and we'll go knock on doors. Well, as soon as they
found out they had to go, they didn't want to do it anymore. This is what it is. Men think
of ministers in that fashion. You need to be out here getting
folks. You need to get some activity going. We need to get some growth
in the church. We need to fill up the pews. We need to do this.
We need to do that. And it's all on you. So you go
do it or we're going to fire you and hire somebody else. He's
expected to visit the hospitals and try to convert those who
are dying and try to minister to their families. They look like a bunch of vultures
over there at the hospital. As soon as somebody gets sick,
boy, here they come, just like a bunch of vultures on a dead
carcass. Preachers are not expected to
preach to men, but to motivate them and cause them to work in
the church and give. Churches today have no semblance
to the church of the living God. They are for the most part just
social clubs and schools and centers for sports and places
to farm out your kids for a few hours every week so you can have
some peace. Churches have become places to
be entertained and inspired and made to feel good. A fella told
me that one time after church. He said, I just think a man ought
to, when he comes to church, he ought to leave there feeling
better than he did when he came. I said, not necessarily. If he
don't know God, the best thing in the world could happen to
him for him to go out with his head down, troubled, broken hearted,
realizing he's a lost man and don't know God. That'd be the
best thing that ever happened to him. I don't want them to
leave here feeling good, making somebody think they have peace
when they don't have peace. Listen to how God the Holy Spirit
describes the reprobate. They changed the truth of God
into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than
the Creator. That's what was going on in Corinth.
They were worshipping the creature. more than the Creator. And they
did so by taking the truth of God and changing it into a lie. The church at Corinth was a thriving
church, most likely a large church. It was full of gifted men. But
they set aside the one thing that's necessary to everything
that a church is all about. They set it aside. And immorality
and ignorance began to be practiced openly and grace disappeared
and law took its place. Brother taking brother to law
to settle little petty disputes. Spiritual men and women going
before ungodly men hoping to get some kind of satisfaction.
Brethren, there's only two things that exist in this world, and
these two things were the first to be established in creation.
Light and darkness. That's all there is. Now you're
walking in one or the other. You're speaking in one or the
other. You're motivated by one or the other. You're either in
darkness or you're in light. There's no middle ground. What we say, how we believe,
how we walk in this present world is one or the other. John said,
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we
have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. You see what I'm saying? It's
one or the other. And those who walk in darkness
love darkness. They prefer darkness. The Scripture
said they love it because their deeds are evil. Ungodly men live for the night. How they lay up during the day
and they save themselves for the night. Paul said, let us walk honestly
as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering. What in the world does that mean,
chambering? That means shacking up. That's what that means. The creatures of the night, ungodly. And brethren, you and I profess
faith in Christ. We've confessed Him in baptism.
We've made a public declaration of being His disciples. It's
His name which we wear. And as a bride wears her husband's
name, so we bear His. The church is the bride of Christ.
And as His bride, the last thing I want to do is bring shame or
reproach upon our husband. Alright, now let's look at I
Corinthians 6, verse 9. Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Men and women
who daily practice these things and show no remorse for their
sins, give no evidence of repentance, but go on living after their
ungodly lusts and pleasures have never yet experienced the grace
of God in their hearts." Now that's just so. That's just so. God did not sacrifice His Son
or watch Him suffer to save sinners, simply to leave them in their
sins. The work of God the Holy Spirit
is a work that reveals sin in its true light. When will a man
leave sin? When will a man turn from sin?
When he sees what it is. When he sees what it does. He'll
leave it. He'll turn from it. It becomes
repulsive to him. Sin is what put us under the
curse. Sin is what deceived us and made
us feel good like nothing was amiss. Sin is what gave us a
false hope, making us believe we could save ourselves and produce
what God has already told us that no man can produce. Sin
is what makes wickedness attractive, appealing, and draws us like
a moth to the fire. Sin. Sin to a believer is like
leprosy. And that's how it's pictured
in the Scriptures. Sin to a believer is like the hog wallow. He's
never satisfied with himself because he is, after all, a sinner. But I'll tell you this, believers
don't revel in it. They despise it. They despise
it. Believers don't continue in it.
They turn from it. That's what repentance is, to
turn. And believers, they don't love it. They don't love it. They love Christ. Now look back
at our text here in 1 Corinthians 6.11. Such were some of you. What do you mean, such were some
of them? But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. Such were some of you. Thieves. Covetous. Drunkards. revilers, extortioners, fornicators,
idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind. Such were some years. Sinners all, fallen, depraved,
unconstrained, haters of God. Enemies, Paul said, in your minds
by wicked works. But you've been warned. God didn't leave you to yourselves.
God didn't just make a way of escape, give you an insurance
policy toward that day. God saved your soul and He did
it through washing. Washing. He said, you're washed.
You're washed. Turn with me to Titus chapter
3. Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 verse 3, For
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Has it? Has it appeared? That's it. Have you received that revelation
of Christ? And that love of God manifested
in His death? Have you ever seen the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward sinful man, fallen man, depraved
man? It's manifested in His coming
as a man, in His obedience as our representative, in His death
on the cross. and in His resurrection from
the grave. He raised us up together with Christ that in the ages
to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. Titus 3, 4, "...after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us." How did He do that? By the washing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Believers
are new creatures in Christ. They are born of God. They have
been given an understanding, given a knowledge that even the
princes of this world were not given. There is a washing in regeneration. God the Spirit washes our minds
from deceit. We know the difference. Somebody
lies to me. I know they are lying now. I
didn't at one time. He washes us from false concepts,
from the basic principles of this world, from this world's
philosophy, and from the lying ways of traditional religion.
As of washing and regeneration, God does not leave us to ourselves. He sends us faithful men to teach
us. He arranges His providence for
us to hear, and He gives us eyes and ears to see and hear. Back
to our text in I Corinthians, verse 11. Such were some of you,
but ye are washed, ye are sanctified, and ye are justified. Listen
to Colossians chapter 1, verse 21. We are talking about what
you were and what you are. We have been washed in regeneration. We have been given an understanding.
We've been taught the difference. We've been given light. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight, if you continue
in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the
hope of the Gospel. Love Christ. They rejoice in
Christ. They honor His glorious name.
And the last thing they want to do is disgrace Him, or His
name, or His people's name in this world. That's the last thing
they want to do. I Corinthians 6.12. All things are lawful unto me,
that is, permissible. And obviously, he's not talking
about those things that are strictly forbidden by the law. Paul's
not saying here that it's lawful for him to murder. He's not saying
here it's lawful for him to do all of those things which Paul
said, if you do these things, you're not going to inherit the
kingdom of God. He's not talking about things
strictly forbidden by the law like drunkenness and fornication
adultery and all these things, but he's talking here about foods
and drinks and material pleasures. All of these things were forbidden
by those who taught the law. That certain things you could
eat and certain things you couldn't eat and all of these things.
He's talking about, but these foods and drinks and material
pleasures, and these things are lawful for me, Paul says, but
they're not expedient. That is, they're not necessarily
good for me. All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under the power of any of these things. Meats for the belly and the belly
for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. Now, the body
is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body. Now, while food is made for the
body, and the body has need of food, you cannot say the same
thing about these sexual immoralities. That's what Paul is saying here. And these Greeks, they were as
indifferent toward one as they were toward the other. They were
just as indifferent about sexual immorality as they were about
eating. The Romans and the Greeks, they
were both indifferent about these things. And what Paul is saying
here is when the body is hungry, it demands and craves satisfaction,
but you can't apply the same thing toward wicked desires. You see his point here, what
he's trying to say? We have a body to manifest the
glory of Christ. Our bodies picture the body of
Christ, His church. And as a man and woman come together
in marriage and become one flesh, so it is with Christ and His
church. We are one. We are one. Our bodies are for
the Lord. They have been given to us for
a purpose. God is going to resurrect our bodies. Why? Why in the world
would He resurrect these bodies? Because these bodies were designed
with a specific purpose and a glorious end. And He is not going to let
them lay there in corruption. He is going to raise our vile
bodies and give us a body like unto His in that day. Verse 15,
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall
I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of
the harlot?" This whole thing of marriage and these relationships
in this world, they are all given with a purpose. They all picture
that redemptive work of Christ and that union with Christ and
His bride. All of these things. The Father
and His children pictures our Heavenly Father and His children. And on and on it goes. We have
brothers and sisters according to our blood relationship. We have spiritual brothers and
sisters. All of these things stand for something. They're
all designed with a specific end in mind. But man just goes
about destroying those things and corrupting those things and
taking away the very end to which they were formed. And this is
what Paul's saying about these things. Yes, you're going to
offend your wife. Yes, you're going to have a bad
reputation. But the big hurt in all of this is Christ and
His gospel. You're taking away the very things
that picture His work of redemption. And that's what he's telling
them. And the reason you're doing this is because you have no gospel
preached to you and you don't know the difference. You're ignorant
of these things. And that's why Paul spent four
chapters in this book establishing gospel preaching.