I want to take up tonight right
where I left off this morning in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. Know ye 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. And such were some of you." The
word were, were, were, were, very, very important. Believers
are men and women who have been made righteous by the grace of
God. They are not men and women who
have made themselves righteous. They are not men and women who
make themselves righteous. They are men and women who have
been made righteous by the grace of God. Made righteous judicially,
yes. The blood of Jesus Christ has
atoned for our sins and we were justified by his blood when he
died at Calvary. Justified from all things and
his righteousness imputed to us just as our sins were imputed
to him. Believers are many women, however,
who have also been made righteous experimentally, made righteous
in the new birth, made righteous in regeneration, made righteous
by God the Holy Spirit putting a new, holy, righteous nature
in us by his almighty grace. He comes and plants in us that
holy thing which is born of God. Every believer is made righteous. And the believer is one who is
made righteous day by day in his conversation, in his manner
of life. Now this is what Paul's doctrine
is in this passage. If I live in sin, if the course
of my life is sin, rebellion, ungodliness, if the course of
my life is in violation to, in willful defiance of, the revealed
will of God in his word, then I don't know God, doesn't matter
what I profess. Doesn't matter what I've experienced
in the past. If I do not live in righteousness, then the righteousness
of Christ has not been imparted to me in regenerating grace. It matters not what we profess,
No man, no woman living in sin is a partaker of the divine nature. Be not deceived. Imagining that
through your knowledge and your profession you're saved even
though you live contrary to the righteous character of God. Those
who are born of God walk in the light. Those who are born of
God walk with Christ. All of them do. Believers sin,
oh yes. Everything we do makes us sin.
Believers fall into sin, yes sir, yes sir, they do. There's
absolutely nothing Gary Baker or Don Fortner is not prone to
do if God doesn't keep us from our evil nature. Absolutely nothing. But believers in the tenor of
their lives walk in righteousness. That's the tenor of their lives.
In the tenor of their lives, they walk with Christ. In the
tenor of their lives, they submit, as you sang just a little bit
ago, to the will of God. That's the way they live. That's
the way they live. Well, not all believers. Yep, all of them.
Every one of them. What about David? What about
David? He's a man after God's own heart. I haven't met anybody
yet who measures up to him. I haven't met anybody yet. What
about Lot? Lot vexed his righteous soul
from day to day with the ungodly deeds of the Sodomites. He vexed
his soul. He was a righteous man. He erred,
yes. He fell, yes. But he was a righteous
man in his conduct. What about Abraham? Abraham was
a man who's called the friend of God. What about Peter's cursing
and denying the Lord Jesus who bought him? Yes, sir. He fell
miserably and wept bitterly and repented sincerely. But in the
conduct of his life, he was a righteous man. Now, lest we be mistaken
about what Paul is saying here, he describes those people who
shall never inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, you
see it? Fornicators shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. Unmarried men and women who live
in sexual promiscuity, single people who are, as they say these
days, so politely sexually active. shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. But everybody's doing it. Not God's everybody. Not
God's everybody. Not believers. Not believers.
Be not deceived, idolaters shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
This is primarily referring to spiritual fornication. All through
the Old Testament, the Lord calls the sin of idolatry by the name
of fornication. He speaks of Babylon making men
drunk with the wine of her fornications, because it is the turning away
of that love which ought to be fixed upon God, upon Christ,
upon the Spirit of God alone, and giving it to those who are
no gods. Now this idolatry takes many forms. It involves the worship
of false gods, certainly so. It involves the worship of God
through the use of images. Absolutely. Absolutely. We worship
God in the spirit. We don't worship him with crosses
and pictures and symbols and statues and all that silly nonsense.
It involves the worship of men or the worship of angels. Yes,
sir. It involves the worship of money, of mammon, the worship
of our children, the worship of ourselves, or the pursuit
of our lust in any other way. Idolatry is preferring something
to God. It doesn't matter whether it's
your son, your daughter, or your wife, or you. It's preferring
something to God. To walk after our lust, in greed,
in envy, in lasciviousness, is to live as idolaters. And believers
don't. We used to. That's exactly how
we live, like everybody else, walking after the lust of our
flesh, according to the course of this world. But God changed
that. God stepped in our lives. God turned us around. Be not
deceived, adulterers shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now,
I realize today that adultery is as common as spit. It's just
everywhere. And therefore, it is condoned
by society and condoned by preachers. I told you years ago, I told
you this years ago, some of you may remember it. I said that
adultery today, preachers say nothing about it because everybody
in church is affected by it. And everybody smiles at it, nods
at it, might not smile, but well, you know, we have to live this
way. We have to live in this manner. And so the preachers
zip their mouth. They're not going to affect neither
their pocketbooks nor their reputation. They zip their mouths. And I
said to you, if it ever comes to be, if it ever comes to be
that homosexuality becomes so prevalent in society that in
our churches, most every family's got some homosexual in the family,
preachers are going to start toning it down. See in the paper
a couple of weeks ago? where Mr. Falwell decided maybe
we ought not fight these fellows so much. Let's start mending
fences. Start mending fences. How come?
Because preachers generally stick their finger in there and see
which way the wind's blowing, so let's go this way. Just like
politicians, not God's servants. I realize how things are in our
society, but I'm telling you, adultery is still a high crime
against God Almighty. I know who I'm speaking to, but my soul I know who I speak
for, and therefore I dare not mince words. Adulterers shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Some years ago, one very dear
to me decided she was going to leave her husband. Walk off, bust up the family.
I wrote her a letter and I said, what are you going to do? You
going to become somebody's $2 whore? Oh, how dare you? It's called adultery. It's called adultery in this
book. I said, you go back to your husband
and you make your family right and do what's right. Just do
what's right. And thank God she did. I know
some of you here are divorced, some divorced and remarried.
I know the circumstances. If you acknowledge and confess
your sin, were your sin involved in the issue, forget it. God
has. It's under the blood of Christ.
God's forgotten it. We ought to, and you ought to.
But we dare not make a light, trivial thing of such ungodliness. We dare not do so. If you choose
to abandon your family, any of you here, this man included,
this one included, if you choose to abandon your family, I don't
care what reason you give. I don't care what excuse you
give. I don't care how you try to justify it. My soul, if it
weren't so sad to break your heart, it would be absolutely
laughable to listen to folks justify ungodliness. But if God
leaves us to ourselves, James, there's nothing we won't do and
say, I've got every reason to do it. Nothing. As far as I'm concerned,
if a man or woman chooses to abandon their family, they have
abandoned the kingdom of God. And when you walk out of your
family, you've walked out of this church. You've walked out
deliberately and purposefully. If you men and women, young or
old, choose to ignore God's law, I'm speaking like I am. I want
you to hear me. See Amy back there. I've been
involved in raising you all your life. That girl's my daughter.
You listen to me. Listen to me. If you choose to
live like brute beasts, shack up with somebody, decide you're
going to ignore God's word, ignore God's law, ignore respectability,
ignore uprightness, then you've made your bed. I have done my
last deed in this regard. And as folks say, well, let's
make this respectable and get married. Go downtown to the courthouse.
I ain't marrying you. I'm not going to condone such
behavior by my actions. I'm not going to do it. I've
bent over backwards, but time's come to quit bending. I will
not knowingly sanction ungodliness by performing a wedding ceremony
in the name of God for folks who despise God. Not going to
happen. Not going to happen. A preacher,
what do we do? It's time we started teaching
our sons and daughters and teaching one another, everybody under
our influence, you do what's right. You just do what's right. You young people, men and women,
God help you to maintain chastity. Folks all the time raising sand,
they want to know about women teachers. I get folks write to
me all the time about women preachers. Tell you what, Mama, if you teach
your women, your children, your girls to love their husbands
and to love their children and to be chaste and pure, Mama,
you've done something great. Teach them. Teach them. In these
days, especially when moral perversity is rampant, when moral perversity
is promoted from kindergarten, before they ever get to kindergarten,
from everything in society that can affect them, moral perversity
is promoted, and folks say, well, you know, we want folks to be
happy. I want you to be upright. Oh, my soul. Upright. Upright. And I promise you, uprightness
will breed something happiness in time can never bring. It'll
breed something called peace with yourself. Peace. Be not
deceived, effeminate men shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
This word effeminate is only used one time in the Bible, right
here. I'll not make it less than it is. It means soft, delicate,
womanly. Mamas and daddies, raise your
boys to be men and to act like men. In this society, everybody's
wanting to change roles. You know, teach the boys to be
good homemakers, teach the boys to be good domestics, teach them
how to cook and sew and iron and wash and mop floors and teach
them all those good things boys do. Now you fellas who do such,
that's all right. But don't you alter the roles
of society as God has ordained them. A man is to be the man
of his house, and a woman the woman in the house. A man is
to lead his house, a woman is to live to serve her family and
her husband. A man is to direct his house
in the worship of God, in the service of God. A woman is to
follow. Now, in our society, Everybody's
changed roles. That's the reason psychiatrists
are getting rich. Everybody's going nuts. Men trying to act
like women, women trying to act like men, neither one of them
know what to do. So the psychiatrists and psychologists and educators
and politicians getting filthy, filthy rich. And lawyers come
clean up the mess and they get what's left. They get it all. These men who assume the role
and identity of women are here called effeminate. The specific
reference, of course, is to homosexuality. It is a reversal of God's law,
a reversal of God's order, a reversal of nature. Be not deceived, abusers
of themselves with mankind shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
These are sodomites, homosexuals, but more. They are the practicers
and promoters of sexual perversion. homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality,
pedophiles, rapists, adulterers, fornicators, this is what he's
talking about. Read on. Be not deceived, thieves shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Isn't it amazing? We like to
categorize sins, you know. Well, I'm not this. I'm not like that. No, no. Thieves too. The word's cheats. Dishonest folks. Not just bank
robbers. Dishonest people. They may be
respected by others and may never go to prison, but they cheat.
They steal. They don't pay their bills. They
take eight hours pay and work six hours. They cheat. They're covetous folks. That's
what it says next. Be not deceived. Covetous people
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The stingy, selfish,
greedy miser who cares only for himself, always takes and never
gives. He doesn't know God. He doesn't
know God. Doesn't matter whether he's poor or rich. You can be
a miser and be as poor as Job's turkey. Doesn't matter. The covetous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Drunkards shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. The use of alcoholic beverages
is nowhere condemned in scripture. It's condemned by self-righteous
religionists. But drunkenness is condemned.
It is condemned. Be not deceived, revilers shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. The reviler is a gossip. A gossip. They're ranked right here with
fornicators, and idolaters, and adulterers, and effeminate, and
homosexuals, and thieves, and covetous, and drunks, revilers,
gossips. These are folks who slander,
spread reproach and scandal, smear the character and reputation
of others, revilers. Did you hear? Now, I don't want
to be one to gossip. Well, don't then. I don't want
to be one spread. Tell them, don't spread them
then. Shut your mouth. Revilers shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. And I promise you, I promise
you, if in the course of your life you live as an adulterer,
a reviler, a fornicator, a drunk, a homosexual, effeminate, if
you live in defiance of God's word, you haven't yet met God
in grace. Hasn't happened. Extortioners
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Extortioners, not just
folks who stick a .38 to your head and say, give me your wallet.
Extortioners are men and women who get gain manipulating the
misery of others, who take advantage of the misery and the hardships
of others. Extortioners. It doesn't matter
what we profess, what we claim to believe. The apostle here,
writing by inspiration, By God the Holy Spirit tells us plainly,
such shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But pastor, what are
we to do? Repent. Except you repent, you'll
perish. Except you repent, you'll perish.
But what is repentance? It's a change of mind about everything. It's a change
of manners. Repentance is a man recognizing
how it is that God justifies a sinner, not by my works but
by his grace in Christ. A change of mind, but it's a
change of manners. Repentance is turning from ungodliness. It's turning from the former
way. It's turning from the former path. It's turning from walking
this way to walking this way. It's a turning about. It's a
change of masters. That's what repentance is. Bobby
Erste's faith in Christ means that Jesus Christ is my master,
not me. Is that what the book teaches?
Is that what this book teaches? It means that Christ is my master.
I no longer decide what's best for me. I no longer decide how
I'm going to behave. I no longer decide what I will
do. Christ is my master. He's my
master. Folks, so this is how I think
about it. It doesn't matter how you think. This is what I think. It doesn't matter what I think.
It just doesn't matter. What does he say? What does he
say? Repentance is a change of motives. There was a day when I spent my life living to
please Don Fortner. And my attitude was to hell with
everybody else, God included. And yours too. Yours too. That's right, Sammy. This is
the way we live by nature. But I want to tell you something. If your life is still lived for
your pleasure, And your attitude is to hell with everybody else,
God included. You still don't know God. Repentance
is a change of motives. The believer, Rex, is a man or
a woman who wants the will and the glory of God Almighty. We want His will. Thy will be
done. Father, hallowed be thy name. Glorify your name. every believer
without exception, everyone. And such were some of you. This is what we were and where
we were when God found us and saved us by his grace. Don't
ever forget it. I don't ever want to return to
you. I still bear the scars. I still
know the pain. I don't ever want to return.
Look you to the rock which you're in, the hole of the pit from
which you've been digged. And this is what we all still
are by nature. at the root of our beings by
nature, adulterers, fornicators, lascivious, covetous, that's
what our Lord said. These things in your heart, these
things in my heart, and for that reason we must guard against
them. But why on earth does Paul remind
us of these things? I'll give you four reasons. Number
one, to humble us. To keep us from pride and self-righteousness. So that you don't look at folks
and say, well, look here, I haven't done what you did. I'm a good
fellow. And you don't look down your
nose at folks. They stand by yourself. I'm holier than you.
Who maketh you to differ from another? How come you're here trying to
worship God when so many who come in here and sit down where
you're sitting have decided to walk out and
live as they would? How come you're still around
here? How come you're still seeking his will and his glory? Because
God called you and God's kept you and there's no other reason. He reminds us of this to exalt
and honor and magnify the grace of our God in Christ. Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. It was grace
that taught my heart to pray. It's kept me thus far. Grace
will keep me tomorrow, too. Paul tells us these things to
encourage sinners to come to Christ with all their sins. Trust him. Oh, will you come
to Jesus Christ, the Son of God? A preacher, what do I bring him?
All your corruption, all your nakedness, all your guilt, all
your depravity, all your sin, come to Him and acknowledge,
God, I'm the sinner. Just sin, that's my name, that's
my nature, that's my act, that's me, sin, sin, sin, sin. I can't be described low enough,
vile enough, wretched enough, sin is what I am. be merciful
to me." And he tells us these things
to inspire in us an intense zeal, an ardent love for the glory
of Jesus Christ our Savior. Do you remember our Lord's words
to Simon? He said, Who loves most? He who's forgiven most. Love Christ, Larry. He's forgiven
you. Love Christ, Don Fortner. He's
forgiven you. Me. Me. He's forgiven me. Everything. Look at this. But
you're washed. You're sanctified. You're justified
by the Spirit of our God and in the name of the Lord Jesus. I love this psalm. God being
full of compassion forgave their iniquity. and destroyed them,
not ye. Many a time turned he his anger
away and did not stir up his wrath." We've been washed, washed in
the blood of Christ. We've been sanctified by God
the Holy Spirit, putting a new nature in us, new creatures in
Christ. We've been justified by the grace
of our God. God has turned us to himself. Now look at verse 20. Back up verse 19, see the last
sentence. You're not your own. You're not your own. If I had been trusted with David
Coleman's family, and David Coleman's money, and David Coleman's property. I'm his steward, and I've been
trusted to take care of it according to David Coleman's stipulations.
I cannot, in honesty, with integrity, with uprightness, decide what
I'm gonna do with what he's got. I can't, it's his. All I am is
just a steward, that's all. You want me to spend the money
there? You want me to take your child there? That's where I take
them. You want me to do this in your house? You want me to
paint it purple? Paint it purple. It's your house. It's not my
decision. David Coleman, you and Don Fortner
are not your own. That means it's not up to me
what I do with me or mine. It's not up to you what you do
with you and yours. Not up to us. You're bought with
a price. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
bought us with his precious blood. Therefore, is that motive enough,
Lindsay? Therefore, therefore, glorify
God in your body and in your spirits, which are God's. Whether therefore you eat or
drink. That's right down to, that's
where we eat breakfast every morning and have a snack before
we go to bed every night, buddy. Whether you eat or drink. Whether you
eat or drink. That's just the simplest, most
mundane affairs of life. Whether you eat or drink. Do
all to the glory of God. And I promise you, I promise
you, my brothers, my sisters, You seek to do all you do for
God's glory, and you will walk in righteousness by his grace. Amen. All right, Lindsey, you
lead us in the hymn, please.