Would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6? I'd like to read verses 9 through
11. This message is entitled, Who
Will Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses
9 through 11. Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates,
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, but
you are washed, but you are sanctified But you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Who will inherit the kingdom
of God? Now, you'll notice that the kingdom
of God is not earned. It's inherited. An inheritance is not given to
you because of some work you have performed. An inheritance
is given to you because you were included in the will. Turn with
me for a moment to Romans 4. Hold your fingers there in our
text and turn to Romans 4. Verse 13, for the promise that he should
be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed
through the law. They weren't going to become
heirs because of their personal obedience to the law, but through
the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, then faith is made void. And the promise made of
none effect, because the law works wrath, for where no law
is, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that
it might be grace to the end. The promise may be sure to all
the seed, and the only way the promise will be sure is if it's
by grace. Not to only that which is of
the law, but to also that which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. Now Paul begins this passage
in 1 Corinthians 6 by telling us who will not inherit the kingdom
of God. Here are the people who will
not be in heaven. And they are described as the
unrighteous. No unrighteous person will be
included in the kingdom of God. No unrighteous person will be
in heaven. You see, when God saves somebody,
they are made righteous. Now, did you notice when I opened
the service with that scripture in Psalm 71, verse 16, where
David said, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine
only. Now, why does he speak of only
the righteousness of God. Now, I can answer that question
very simply. It's because his righteousness is the only righteousness
there is. That's why he says, I'll make
mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Now, when God saves a man, when
he does a work of grace in his heart, here's what he does. He
takes his righteousness, his perfect obedience, the obedience
of his son. It's called the righteousness
of God. When Jesus Christ kept the law,
is that the righteousness of God? Well, you know it is. Now, he takes the righteousness
of his son, the righteousness of God, and he imputes it to
the believer. Turn with me to Romans chapter
four. Romans chapter 4, verse 6. Now, I don't want God to charge
me with my sin, do you? Not in any way. I don't want
to stand before God and have Him charge me for my sin. No,
I want to stand before God with His righteousness, the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ imputed to me so it becomes mine. Paul put
it this way in Philippians 3, 8, 9, he said, Oh, that I may
win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now, that's what I want to be
found in. Oh, that I may be found in him.
Now, he imputes his righteousness to us, but that's not all that
takes place. Whenever he imputes his righteousness,
he also imparts his righteousness. Now, this is what takes place
in the new birth. You're given a new nature, a
holy nature, a righteous nature. That does not seem. Turn with me to 1 John, chapter
2. Verse 29. 1 John, chapter 2,
verse 29. If you know that he is righteous, You know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of him. Look in verse 7 of chapter 3.
Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. Look down in verse 9 of the same
chapter. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed, the seed of God,
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. He lacks the ability to
sin because he's born of God. Can God sin? Does God even have
the potential to sin? Well, you know better than that.
Everyone that's born of God cannot sin. Now, do you ever see this
perfection that I'm talking about? Have you ever done anything and
thought, ah, I didn't sin there. That was perfect. No, you know
better than that. The only way we know we have
this righteous, holy nature is because the Word of God tells
us we do. And we believe what God says. Now, if God says I
have a nature that does not commit sin, I believe I've got one.
Do I see it? Not really. I see its evidences.
I do love the Lord Jesus Christ. I do love His people. I see evidences
of His holy nature. But do I see a nature that doesn't
sin? No. No. Every time I breathe,
I see it. Every time I think, I see it.
I'm never without sin because I'm around. My old nature is
always with me. But I also have a new nature,
a holy nature, and it's called the righteousness of God that
every believer has. Now, I don't see the electricity
flowing to that light bulb. Do you? No. But I see its evidences. The light's shining. I don't
see the electricity, but I know it's there. The light shines. Now, an unrighteous person does
not have Christ's righteousness imputed to them And they do not
have Christ's righteousness imparted to them in the new birth, and
they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now go back to our text
in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Let's look at what he says. He says, Know ye not that the
unrighteous, verse 9, someone who does not have the perfect
obedience of Jesus Christ charged to their account, and that's
my grant of salvation, his obedience. And the evidence that I have
his obedience charged to my account is the fact that he's given me
a new nature that believes him, that trusts him, that loves him.
That's the nature. And he says, the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And then he goes on to
name these particular sins that they which do such things and
practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now,
he says, don't be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor grumpers, nor revilers, nor
sorcerers shall inherit the kingdom of God." Now, don't be deceived.
Don't be deceived. If I practice these things that
he's talking about right here, I will not inherit the kingdom
of God. Now, what do you mean by that?
What are you talking about when you talk about the practice of
sin? If I practice these things, I shall not inherit the Kingdom
of God. Well, isn't it true that a true
believer can commit any one of these sins? Now, you know that's true. As a matter of fact, we have
many examples in the Scripture where a believer has committed
all these sins that are mentioned in this passage of Scripture. Let me try to give you a few
examples of what it means to practice sin. What do I mean
by that? Well, let's take the sin of adultery. Are you capable of that? Well,
sure you are. You know that. You're capable
of that. And you know that apart from
the grace of God, you'll fall into that, apart from His grace.
But you ask for grace not to. But let's say, let's say somebody
They say, Lord's done something for me. And they're living in
an adulterous relationship. And they say, now, I'm not going
to leave that relationship because I believe in salvation by grace.
And so I'm not going to leave that relationship. I'm going
to continue in it. Has God done anything for that person? Honestly. Here's another example, let's
say a fellow is a bank robber. I mean, that's a drastic example,
but let's say a fellow is a bank robber. And he says, God saves
him. And after that, he says, you
know, this is all I know. It's all I've ever done. I'll
make a living robbing banks. And I mean, salvation by grace. I'm just going to keep it up.
I, you know, I don't know anything else. So he continues to rob
banks. Has God done anything for that
person? You know better than that. What about a murderer? Maybe he's a hit man employed
by the mafia. And that's all he's ever done.
That's how he makes a living. He kills people. And then somebody
said, the Lord does something for it. Well, wonderful. But this is what I made up. I've
never known anything else. I'm going to get Lord hadn't
done anything for that person. That's what we're talking about.
And that's what Paul's talking about when he talks about the
practice of seeing a believer. All you've got to do is breathe
and you say, you know that and you can fall into any of these
things. But if you give yourself to the practice of them in what
I'm saying, Scripture says you shall not inherit the kingdom
of heaven. And he goes on to name ten sins
that the unrighteous practice and refuse to leave, and they
shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Let's look at it.
He says, be not deceived, neither fornicators. Now, listen to me.
If you are unmarried and you are having an intimate relationship
with somebody and you refuse to leave that. And you continue
in that and you say, I'm not going to leave that. I'm saved
by grace. You will not be saved. That's what the Bible says, he
says, idolatrous, that's the practice of false religion. That's
worshiping a false God, isn't that what idolatry is? That's
worshiping a false God. Now, somebody says, well, God
saved me, but let's say I'm going to continue going to a church
where the gospel of God's grace is not preached and idolatry
is practiced, but I'm going to continue going there. I'm going
to continue supporting that. Has God really done something
for you? Obviously not. Someone who practices idolatry
will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And then he speaks
of adultery. The writer of the Hebrews said
marriage is honorable and all, and the bed is undefiled, but
whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. If I refuse to
break off from that, I will not be saved. And then he speaks
of the effeminate. Now, who are the effeminate?
It's where we get the word mollify from. It's not a man who acts
like a woman. It's a man It means to make soft,
to mollify, to make soft. When he's talking about someone
who's effeminate, he's not talking about a sissy. He's talking about
someone who softens the gospel. He compromises the gospel. He makes it soft. He makes it
more palatable to the flesh. He makes it to where people won't
be so offended. He takes the edge off. He makes it just real generic. He
makes it so nobody's going to be offended by it. He mollifies. Now, the person who mollifies
the gospel will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. That person
who practices that. Then he speaks of that person
who's an abuser of themselves with mankind. That's talking
about homosexuality. The practice of homosexuality,
if that's what you practice and you will not leave it, you will
not be saved. Just like the fornicator won't
and the adulterer won't. Thieves, people who steal, not
just shoplifting and robbing banks, but not paying your bills,
loafing on the job, attempting to steal glory from God, taking
credit where credit is not due. The thief who refuses to leave
that, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That's what he
said. That's what the word of God says. And he speaks of the
covetous. The covetous man has no understanding
of being content with Christ, always wanting more. He doesn't
know what it is to just rest in Christ and be satisfied. You
know, the only way you can really not covet is if you don't want
anything else. And if you've never trusted Christ,
you're always going to be coveting something else. And he says that
covetous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. No drunkard,
he said, next is going to inherit the kingdom of God. The abuse
of alcohol, the abuse of drugs, somebody who will not quit that.
They continue to go on in that. They just won't let it go. Paul
says they shall not enter the kingdom of God. They won't be
there. Then he speaks of revilers. That's abusive speech that comes
from an abusive heart. He's talking about verbal abuse.
That's what a reviler is. It's someone who's guilty of
practicing continual verbal abuse. You've never really experienced
grace if that's the tenor of your life. And you shall not
inherit the kingdom of God, he says. Then he speaks of the extortioner
taking what does not rightfully belong to you by unjust means. If that's my life, I shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. Now, Paul says, don't be deceived. Don't fool yourself. Don't say,
well, salvation is by grace. I'll make it in. It doesn't really
matter. No, if that is my practice, I shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Now, salvation by grace is not
a license to sin. Salvation by grace is not diplomatic
immunity. It's salvation from sin. Now,
look in Galatians, chapter 5. The same thing is said here.
Galatians, chapter 5, verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like of which I told you before, as I told
you in times past, that they which do such things." shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 5. For this you know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now, I
don't know how else to take those scriptures. David do such things. David practiced such things.
That's the direction they're going. They will not inherit
the kingdom of God. Now, let's go back to our text. Verse 11, And such were some of you. Now, when those sins are mentioned,
If you have anything to you at all, any honesty at all, you
know every one of those things have been in your heart. Every
one of them. And he says, and such were some
of you. Now, here's the glorious good
news. God saves fornicators and idolaters. and effeminate, and adulterers,
and compromisers, and homosexuals, and thieves, and covetous people,
and drunkards, and revilers, and extortioners, such were some
of you." Now, this statement does some things. Such were some
of you. First, it illustrates the power
of the gospel, that He saves such. It magnifies the mercy of God
in saving such. It checks our self-righteousness.
You and I don't have any room to be self-righteous because
we don't have any righteousness. We really don't. Not personally. I mean, that's for some of you. And this encourages us to preach
the gospel. God saves sinners. He saves people
like this. It encourages us to come to Christ.
I love that verse of scripture. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Well, that gives me a
reason to think I can come into his presence and he'll have mercy
on me and he'll embrace me and receive me. It excites gratitude.
He that hath been forgiven much loveth much. Have you been forgiven
much? You have every reason to love
much, don't you? He says, and such were some of
you. But. I believe there's a wonderful
definition of grace right there, but. This is what you were. This is the direction you were
going and you couldn't stop yourself. You were going in this direction,
but. God did something for you. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace,
ye are saved. But, that's the definition of
grace. And he mentions three things,
and all of them should be read in the past tense. Verse 11. Look at this with me. And such
were some of you But you have been washed. I know it says you
are washed, but it should read you have been washed. You have
been sanctified. You have been justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now, he
mentions three things, all the past tense that God has done
for us. He says, but you've been washed. You've been sanctified. You've
been justified in the name of the Lord and by the Spirit of
our God. Now, I think this is very interesting
when he says you are washed. Acton read, you have washed yourself. It's not spoken of in the passive
tense the way the other two are. The other two, it says you've
been justified. You're totally passive in this.
You've been justified. You've been sanctified. And the
evidence that you've been justified, the evidence that you've been
sanctified is you're washing yourself. And you know, every
time you hear the gospel, there's some washing going on. Our feet are washed every time
we hear the truth. Our feet get dirty walking through
this world, our conversation, our feet are washed every time
we hear the truth. Now, if God has done something
for you and in you, there will be things that you do that give
evidence of that. If God's justified you, if God
sanctified you, you know what you're going to do? You're going
to believe, aren't you? You have to. You're going to
repent. You're going to love the Lord
Jesus Christ. You're going to walk with Him.
There will be evidence that He has done something for you. Now, I'm going to get back to
this washing in just a moment. I believe we'll understand it
a little bit better after we consider being sanctified and
being justified. He says to these people, such
were some of you, but you have been sanctified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, to be sanctified is to be
made holy. That's what the word means. Made
holy. You were made holy by the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how? How is it that his
name actually makes me holy? Well, I'm really holy. Good question. How can this be? He is my sanctification. And my name and his name are
the same. My daughter has a car. It's a 1998 Volvo S70. Got a hundred and some thousand
miles on it. She's got a car. It's her car. You know whose name it's in? Mine. Who is responsible for whatever
happens in that car? If she wrecks it, Who do they
come looking for? Her or me? The car is in my name
and that means it's totally under my responsibility. Now, I am
declared by God to be holy in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he holy? I am too. He bears full responsibility
for me. I am declared by God to be sanctified,
to be holy in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am sanctified. Look what he says next in verse
11. He says, you are sanctified. You are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus. I sanctified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. He has birthed me. He has given me a new nature. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. You know, we read in Second Thessalonians
2.13 of the sanctification of the spirit. When God sanctified
me by His Spirit, He gave me a new, holy nature, born of God. Now, He says you're sanctified
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you're sanctified by the
Spirit of God. Look what He says next. He says
you're sanctified. Now, such were some of you, but
you're sanctified. You're declared by God to be
holy. But you are justified. in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of God. You've justified by the name
of Christ. Not only am I sanctified, not
only am I declared by God to be holy, not only am I holy in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God,
I'm justified. If I'm justified while I'm talking
to you right now, you know what that means? That means I ain't
guilty. I do not have any sin to give
account for. Well, it takes the grace of God
to believe that, doesn't it? I am justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Jeremiah 23, 6, this
is the name wherewith he shall be called Jehovah Sidkinder,
the Lord our righteousness. That's his name. But it also
says in Jeremiah 33, this is the name wherewith she shall
be called. The precise same name, the Lord
our righteousness. That's my name. My name is not
Todd Malbert. That's one of my names, but here's
the name that's better. My name is Jehovah's Witness.
This is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. I'm justified in the name of
the Lord. Now, if God says I'm justified.
I'm justified. And like I said, it takes the
grace of God to really believe that. To actually believe that
you would have sinned before God. That takes the grace of
God to believe that. I tell you what, I believe it.
I'm without sin before God because he justified me. My sin became
his. He died on Calvary's tree. He
suffered the wrath of God as the sin bearer and his perfect
obedience is imputed to me and I am justified. Not only am I justified by the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it also says we're justified
by the Spirit of God. Turn with me to Titus chapter
three. Titus chapter three. Verse five. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. We're justified by the Spirit
of God. What that tells me. When I stand before God justified,
not guilty, it's not merely a covering that hides a still sinful nature. Let me repeat that. Justification
is not merely a covering that hides a still sinful nature. I have a nature that is just. That's holy. It will prove that
I am justified because I have that nature. We have been sanctified. We have been justified. Those
are both spoken of in the past tense, passive. I didn't have
anything to do with this. It's not something that God gave
me as a reward for something I did. I've been justified by
his work. I've been sanctified by his work.
I'm passive in this. Now, let's go back to the first
thing he said. He said, you're washed. You're washing yourself
is what it literally says. You're washing yourself because
you've been justified and because you've been sanctified. Now,
I can only find one other verse where this particular word was
used in the New Testament. It's found in Acts, Chapter 22.
It's a term with me there. Acts, Chapter 22. Verse 16, these are the words
of Ananias to Paul after he's heard the gospel. He says in verse 16 of Acts chapter
22, And now why tarryst thou? What are you waiting on? Arise
and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name
of the Lord. Now, what in the world does that
verse of Scripture mean? Arise and be baptized and wash
away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. Now, does that
mean that in the act of baptism, when I go under the water and
I come back up, does that mean in that act I'm washing away
my sins? I hope everybody here knows better
than that. Your sins aren't washed away by the act of baptism. Your
sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. What washing away
there was in His blood, Hebrews 1.3 says, He by Himself purged,
washed away our sins. And He did it by Himself with
no help from us, with no contribution from us. It was a work of His
grace and His grace alone. So what's he mean when he says,
arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling upon the
name of the Lord? When you're baptized, you confess
Christ. And you prove your sins have
been washed away. Baptism does not save, it doesn't
wash away sins, but I do not have anybody or I don't have
any confidence in anybody who refuses to be baptized. I do
not consider that person someone that the Lord's done a work of
grace in their heart. Not if you refuse to be baptized. No,
I just don't have any confidence in you. It is the act of baptism
that gives us some confidence that that person really does
believe the gospel. And I'm not going to have confidence
in that person until they confess Christ and believers baptism.
And so that's what he's saying, this act of baptism is the evidence
that God's done something for you. If you're unwilling to confess
Christ and believe his baptism, God hasn't done anything for
you. Now, does baptism save? Of course not. It doesn't save. You could be baptized a million
times. It wouldn't wash away one sin. But doesn't the Lord
say, he that believeth and is baptized, the same shall be saved? that doesn't mean baptism saves
you, but I'll tell you this, I don't believe the Lord's done
something for you. If you refuse to be baptized, somebody says,
what about the thief on the cross? He wasn't baptized. Now, come
on. That's a silly objection. No, he wasn't baptized. You're
right. He was not baptized, and he was
saved. It would have been kind of hard
for him to be baptized, wouldn't it? I mean, he was nailed to
a cross. He died on that cross. That's no support for not being
baptized. But here's the point of this
thing of washing yourself from this passage of scripture. If
God has sanctified you, if God has justified you, if God has
done a work of grace in your heart, there will be evidence. You're going to believe the gospel.
You're going to continually come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
going to be in a state of repentance. You're going to continually see
your need of Christ. You may go up. You may go down.
You may go up. You may. You will go up and you
will go down. I mean, it's going to no doubt
about that. But to you, which believe. He
is precious. That's a reality. He is precious,
and you wouldn't dare want to come into God's presence apart
from Him. That's your experience. If God
ever does something for you, if He ever does something for
me, there will be evidence. I'll confess Christ and believe
His baptism. And like I said, as long as someone refuses to
do that, I personally don't have any confidence in them. The Bible
doesn't give me a reason to. There's works that will prove
the reality of faith. Doesn't James say faith without
works is what? Dead. Being alone. He said, you show me your faith
without your works. I'll show you my faith by my
works. You wash yourself, if you've
been justified, if you've been sanctified. Now, let me tell you how I wash myself. I wash myself by looking once again to that
sin-cleansing fountain, the Lord Jesus Christ. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Let's pray together.