Purity in Christ

The Sermon No One Wants to Hear

(Purity in Christ)

I Corinthians 6:9-11

Introduction

Sometimes, I think I need to take a break from FaceBook.  Every day someone posts a link to an event or an essay that is controversial and upsetting.  This week, my feed was swamped with postings taking Pastor Carl Lentz of Hillsong Church in New York to task because he gave moral cover for the killing of babies in the womb and homosexuality on ABC’s The View on October 30th.  Hillsong New York is a church plant of the very popular and influential Hillsong megachurch in Australia.  Most evangelical churches sing some of their songs, including Shout to the Lord, Cornerstone, and O Praise the Name.  They are terrific worship songs and it is obvious that God has blessed and used the ministry of Hillsong for his Kingdom. 

But to me, Carl Lentz’s failure to articulate a clear understanding of biblical morality when he was given a huge platform on The View is deeply troubling.  Granted, it would have taken a mountain of courage to challenge the prevailing cultural approval of abortion and homosexuality to the audience on The View.  Still, his sidestepping and soft answer does not bode well for the church. 

But…this is nothing new.  Last week we started a short series of messages that are based on passages in the book of I Corinthians.  The church at Corinth was a very gifted but immature church.  They were cliquish, demoralizing to the poor in their midst, and some were even taking other members to court to sue them.  In the context surrounding our text in I Corinthians 6, Paul was correcting them for tolerating an egregious sin in their midst.  One of the members was actually having sexual relations with his stepmother!  Even worse, (if that’s even possible) the church was proud of the tolerance and progressive spirit that they were demonstrating towards the man.   The Apostle Paul demanded that they put him out of the church immediately until he repented (I Corinthians 5:4-5).[1]

Our text this morning, then, is Paul’s further instructions to the Corinthian church on the matter of moral purity.

Text – I Corinthians 6:9-11 (p. 1777)

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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.

First Century Challenges

Even though the title of this message is “The Sermon No One Wants to Hear,” this will not be my rant against abortion or homosexuality.  In time, I will address those issues specifically from Scripture.  But I want to speak more broadly about moral purity in our church in the remaining moments of this message.

Corinth was, as I mentioned last week, a prosperous merchant and port city in ancient Greece.  During Paul’s time, it was a Roman colony, though Greek culture remained predominant in the city.  The sin lists that Paul includes in his letters to churches, including this one to Corinth, always begin with sexual sins.  Many today would say that he was obsessed with sex – that he was a prude.  While Paul never married, he was no prude.  He celebrated the good gifts of God, including sex within the covenant of a marriage relationship.  There were, I believe, several reasons why the Apostle’s lists of sins always begin with sexual sins. 

First, Greek and Roman cultures in the first century were saturated with idolatry – the worship of multiple gods.  The worship practices for some of the ancient gods included temple prostitution and other acts of sexual immorality.  This practice was no different than what the ancient Jews encountered with Canaanite religion when they first entered the promised land.  It is one of the reasons why God commanded Israel to completely destroy the Canaanites. 

Second, ancient Greek culture included the hellish practice of female infanticide.  Baby girls were often abandoned at the city dumpsite.  Consequently, there was a shortage of eligible women to be married.  Greek men often waited till they were about 30 before they married.  From the time of puberty until they got married, young Greek men were sexually active in all of the ways that Paul condemns in his list.  Sexual immorality among men was a regular and generally accepted practice in the ancient Grecian world. 

Sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it?  Like today, Christianity in the first century was countercultural.  A candle in full daylight doesn’t have much of an impact.  But bring a candle into a pitch-black room and the effect is immediate.  The darkness cannot overcome the light.  It was the same with the early church.  The biblical call to purity that Paul was reinforcing with the Corinthian church would be shining light to the darkness that surrounded it. 

And it is the same for us today.  If we are wondering how the Church can survive and thrive in this day and age, we have only to look to the New Testament Church.  The era of the first three centuries was our finest hour.  The Church pushed back the darkness until, in the fourth century, Christianity became the dominant positive cultural force in the known world.  And that is an encouraging hope for us.   

Called to Holiness

But we have to be “light” – counter to the culture – in this darkening world.  Just like he did in voicing his displeasure over Corinthian division in the first three chapters of his epistle, the Apostle Paul did not mince words when unrighteousness and immorality dimmed the light that the church should have been shining.  The gospel was compromised.  And that always got his dander up!

But sexual sins aren’t the only kind of impurity that stains the gospel.  Paul’s direction to the Corinthians began in his admonition just prior to our text.  The believers in the church were suing each other in secular courts.  (This was SOME church!) 

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.

(vs. 7-8)

The words translated “do wrong” in verse eight is adaikos, and it is the same word that is translated “wicked” in verse nine in our pew Bibles.  Some translations render the word in verse nine as “wrongdoing” in order to coincide with the context of the previous section.  That’s a bit technical, I know. But the point that Paul was making is that the behavior of the Christians in Corinth was no different than those who don’t believe.  Their “light” was seriously diminished. The gospel is compromised.  And it wasn’t just sexual sins.  It’s the same today.  It is those who lust after other people’s things and those who steal them through greed and thievery.  Christians who destroy people with their words through slander are no different than unbelievers.  Believers who are drunkards abuse their bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Christian people who steal through manipulation and unfair advantage are playing the world’s game. All of these people, along with the sexually immoral, have usurped the place of God in their lives with pleasure and material things.  Doesn’t matter if they call themselves Christians.  They don’t act like one.  And the consequences of impurity are plain and clear.  They are not living under the rulership of Christ now so they will not be in the Kingdom of God in the future.

When we sin and purposely tolerate moral impurity in our life, we disempower ourselves.  If indeed, we are a child of God, the Holy Spirit will not let you get away with it.  When we willfully sin, the Bible says that we grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).  And because the Spirit lives in you, you will feel the heaviness of his grief.  You won’t have any peace.  It will weigh you down.  How can you raise your children in righteousness if you aren’t living that way yourself?  How can you teach that Bible story to children if you know in your own life you’re living a lie?  How can you preach that sermon when you, yourself aren’t living a holy life?  That’s why this is a sermon that no one wants to hear…or prepare.  You see, pastors are human, too. 

Peter reminded the church that was under persecution and intense cultural pressure of God’s command, “Be holy, because I am holy” (I Peter 1:16).  God commands us to be holy – to avoid sin in our lives – for the sake of the gospel mission.  But God also commands us to be holy for our own sake.  Sexual sins always appear first in the biblical lists because they are the most damaging to our soul.  Sexuality is a profound and good gift to us from God.  And the church has been prudish because we’ve done very little teaching and preaching on a biblical understanding of the gift of sexuality.  And good grief, God gave us a whole book in the Bible – the Song of Solomon – that celebrates it!  In place of a wholesome biblical teaching on sex, we’ve tended to approach the topic with fear and negativity.  No, no, no!  Bad, bad, bad!  Shame, shame, shame!  In time, I will teach and celebrate biblical sexuality from this pulpit. 

But friends, flee sexual immorality (vs. 18).  Biblical sexuality is beautiful and literally life-giving.  But sexual immorality will damage your soul.  Just look at the soul damage that has swamped our culture ever since the sexual revolution took place in the ‘60’s.

But where sin abounds…grace so much more.  I have a song by Matt Papa that I play in my car several times a week.  I just can’t get over the words, “Our sins they are many; his mercy is more.”  Paul wrote to the Corinthians,

“that is what some of you were. 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.”

That’s the transforming power of the gospel – the good news!

Don’t Just Talk About It; Live It!

So how can we stay pure for the sake of the gospel and for our own sake?  A couple of weeks ago, I offered a practical strategy for resisting temptation.  It’s worth reviewing. 

1.     Resisting temptation starts with a decision.  You can say you don’t want to sin.  But until you decide ahead of time that you will not succumb to the temptation, you’ll lose every time at the critical moment.  Decide ahead of the moment of temptation that you will not succumb.

2.     Set up your boundaries.  If you are dieting, “stay out of the bakery aisle.”  If you struggle with porn, don’t have your electronic device with you in private.  If shoplifting is your temptation, don’t enter a store alone.  You get the idea.  Don’t put yourself in the place to be tempted.

3.     Saturate your mind with the Word of God.  “Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).  Scripture was the primary weapon Jesus used in defeating Satan’s temptations.

4.     Enlist a trusted friend to keep you accountable to overcome the temptations.

5.     Keep your eyes on Jesus.  Jesus lived the life you are living now in weakness as a human being.  With the Holy Spirit resident with you, you can live a holy life.

If you do fail, as we all do, confess your sins immediately.  The Scriptures promise that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).   We all struggle with sin.  The immorality that Paul was addressing with the Corinthians was a continual lifestyle and pattern of sinful behavior.  There is no sin that is unforgivable except the sin of unbelief.  Confess when you fail.  God still loves you.  He is faithful to his promises to forgive you.

Finally, live out the truth of your baptism.  We are called “Baptists” but we are sometimes impoverished in our understanding of what that means.  Baptism is more than just a one-time event where we testify of our faith in Christ and then we are dunked.  Baptism is also a reality in which we are to live.  Paul again, to the church in Rome:

Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

…In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master…

Romans 6:1-3; 11-14a

Sin is no longer your master.  You died to it when you were buried with Christ in baptism.  Live a holy life.  In that way, your life will have power and will be a true reflection of the transforming power of the gospel of Christ bringing light to a dark world.  

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[1] II Corinthians informs us that he, indeed, did repent and the Apostle encouraged the church to forgive him, embrace him, and bring him back into fellowship (II Corinthians 2:5-10).