Waking Up To Reality

The Result of Sin

Look with me at v. 9:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous2 will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Sin Blinds Us from Reality

Paul is correcting a heinous sin in the life of the Corinthian believers. They were boasting in their works. They thought that they deserved praise because of who they were and what they had done. This is what was causing them to clique up. They thought that their “group” was the only group that was right. They were defining themselves by the cult of personality. Here would be the equivalent for our situation right now. Let’s just imagine that there were two groups of students in here tonight, Group 1 is students who didn't grow up at Temple and group 2 is students who grew up here. Let’s imagine that those two groups of students cliqued up and looked down on those who were not in their group. Like if group 1 thought group 2 wasnt as cool, or as smart, or as holy…or vice versa. That’s what the Corinthians are dealing with.

Why is that a big deal? Because it isn’t how the church is supposed to function. The church is supposed to be one body, perfectly unified together by one head, Jesus Christ. Healthy churches look like heaven: people from all nations, tribes, and tongues all worshipping King Jesus in one Spirit of unity. This is not where the Corinthain church was at all. They were being torn apart because of the pride and arrogance of the believers in the church boasting in the group that they identified with.

So what does Paul do? He shows them that they have no room to boast by revealing to them just how sinful they had allowed the church to be. Not only were they prideful, but they had all kind of sexual immorality. One guy was sleeping with his stepmom, some people were likely having sex with prostitues, some people were worshipping idols, they were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper, and all the while they were arrogant and prideful…they couldnt see reality anymore. Their sin had made their heart numb to spiritual truth and they had no idea just how serious their situation had become.

It’s easy for us to shake our heads at the situation of the Corinthians, but I think that if Paul were to write a letter to us today he would ask us this same question. Many of us in here think that we are pretty decent Christians, right? Like your hear…your a college student and you come to church, you read your Bible sometimes, you pray, you are in a Life Group, you confess your sin…you’re doing pretty good. But simultaneously, you are hyper critical of other people and other churches. We judge others while we ourselves have serious issues pornography. We talk about other people spiritual issues and ignore our own issues.

Why? Because our sin has blinded us. This is why Paul asks them a rhetorical question, “Do you not know...” He is showing them that they have forgetten…they have been blinded by their sin to spiritual reality.

So here is a question: “Is it possible that you have been blinded by sin tonight?”

Answer these with “yes” or “no.”

Are you prideful? Yes or No

Are you critical of others? Yes or No

Do you ever gossip? Yes or No

Are you prideful? Yes or No

Do you hold others to a standard that you don’t live by? Yes or No

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions it is possible—and even likely—that you are blinded by sin.

If you look at what Paul’s motive is here, he says toward the middle of verse 9, “Do not be deceived”

He wants the Corinthian church to wake up to the reality of what the sin in their life has done...

So what is that reality?

Sin Separates Us from God

Look again at verse 9, “Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?”

Paul says that unrighteous people will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Who is unrighteous?

The word unrighteous is an antonymy for the word righteous, in order to know how you can be unrighteous, you need to first know how you can be righteous and then test whether or not you live up to that standard. When Paul uses the word Righteousness he is referring to God’s Holy character. In order to be righteous, we have to be have perfect moral-purity, not by our standards, but by God’s.

Look at what Paul says, “Dont you know that the unrighteous [that is, anyone who isnt totally morally perfect according to God’s perfect law] will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

What is the Kingdom of God? There are many different ideas of what the Kingdom of God looks like. Many people just equate this to to life in Heaven. That God’s Kingdom is somewhere out there in another dimension that we cant experience until after we die. The problem with this view isn’t that it is wrong, it isn’t wrong. God’s Kingdom is futuristic, the problem is that this is an incomplete view of the Kingdom of God. This idea, that the kingdom of God is somewhere we go, is wrong because the Kingdom isnt something we go to, but something that we receive as a gift.

Paul says that the unrighteous will not “inherent” the Kingdom of God. We don’t earn God’s Kingdom, we inherent it as a gift.

But look at what Paul says,

Religious people hate this idea because religious people take pride in their performance. Religious people hold up their acheivments before God and say, “see you owe me.”

And this is where the story of Jesus begins to make sense, Jesus came preaching a message of the Kingdom of God.

What the Bible tells us is that God’s Kingdom cant be earned, it is something that comes to us...

But this passage doesnt mean that their are no contingencies to the Kingdom, Paul says that unless we are totally righteous—morally pure before God—we will not inhereit the Kingdom of God.

What is Paul saying? He is saying that sin separates us from God. If we arent pure before God, we should never be totally confident that we are saved. This does not mean that you cant be a Christian until you are morally perfect, but it is a call to humility. We should always be pleading for God’s mercy and grace when we realize that we have sinned.

The result of sin is that sin blinds us to the reality that we have nothing to boast in because our indwelling sin seperates us from a holy and righteous God.

The result of sin is that we are unrighteous and cannot inherit the Kingdom of God…Paul doesnt just talk about the result of sin though. He goes on to talk about the reality of sin

The Reality of Sin

Look with me at verses 9-10.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous2 will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: xneither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,3 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Sin is Birthed out of Love of Self

Look at the list of things that Paul describes in the passage: sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, theft, greed, drunkenness, revilers, and swindlers.

All of these things describe a person who places their own pleasure above others.

Sexual sin--

The Rescue for Sinners

English Standard Version Chapter 6

11 And ysuch were some of you. But zyou were washed, ayou were sanctified, byou were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We Have been Washed by the Blood of Jesus

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ywe have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 zHe is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but aalso for the sins of the whole world.

Christ came to save sinners…not good people

Christ came to purify sinners.

You who feel that your sin has made you too unclean for God, Jesus took on your sin, and offered up his blood as an attoning sacrifice for you…he was the propitiation for your sin.

Tonight you can stand before God pure…Holy…rightoeous becasue of Christ’s sacrifice

English Standard Version Chapter 2

11 In him also vyou were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by wputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 xhaving been buried with him in baptism, in which yyou were also raised with him through faith in zthe powerful working of God, zwho raised him from the dead. 13 aAnd you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God bmade alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by ccanceling dthe record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 wHe disarmed the rulers and authorities2 and eput them to open shame, by ftriumphing over them in him.3

Unrighteous people will never inhereit the Kingdom of God, but we who trust in Jesus by faith alone have been graced with a perfect righteousness.

We who were seperated from God by our sin, have now been called children of God because of this gift of righteousness by the work of Christ!

We have been Sanctified:

At the cross, all of the work for holiness was accomplished…now by faith in Christ we recieve righteousness as a gift.

Unrighteous people will never inhereit the Kingdom of God, but we who trust in Jesus by faith alone have been graced with a perfect righteousness.

We who were seperated from God by our sin, have now been called children of God because of this gift of righteousness by the work of Christ!

English Standard Version Chapter 2

11 In him also vyou were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by wputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 xhaving been buried with him in baptism, in which yyou were also raised with him through faith in zthe powerful working of God, zwho raised him from the dead. 13 aAnd you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God bmade alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by ccanceling dthe record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 wHe disarmed the rulers and authorities2 and eput them to open shame, by ftriumphing over them in him.3

We have been justified:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

16 For dI am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is ethe power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew ffirst and also to gthe Greek. 17 For in it hthe righteousness of God is revealed ifrom faith for faith,5 jas it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”6

English Standard Version Chapter 3

21 But now athe righteousness of God bhas been manifested apart from the law, although cthe Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God dthrough faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. eFor there is no distinction: 23 for fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 gand are justified hby his grace as a gift, ithrough the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God jput forward as ka propitiation lby his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in mhis divine forbearance he had passed over nformer sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Those of us who trust in Jesus…we stand before God justified…God doesnt look at us as sinners, but saints.

What is the point? Paul is telling us that we live the Christ centered life in this chaotic culture by looking to what Christ did for us on the cross! In Christ, we are freed from sins captivity and freed to live a life of righteousness and holiness!