Sermon Tone Analysis

I’m Not Who I Once Was

One of the most amazing things about the Gospel is that God often takes disobedient people, and turns them around... God loves to take someone who realizes they are broken and confused and makes us into something that is useful and beautiful.

One of the ways God did that with me was to show me where I was.

God made me aware of my emptiness and need.

It is like when you get on the wrong bus/train trying to go somewhere new– you have to know where you are presently standing, so you can get where you intended.

Very rarely does anybody just “happen” to end up in the right place... and sometimes the process involves redirection in our lives, and sometimes it is painful, slow, and even confusing.

Sometimes it seems unbearable.

That has been the way it has been for me at times.

Think about Jonah... you know his story, don’t you... he was basically a bigot/racist about the Non-Jewish people God sent him to... he was so prejudiced, stubborn, openly rebellious and spiritually insensitive that instead of doing what God told him to do he tried to run away from the Lord.

If you don’t know/learn anything else from Jonah learn that it is not a good idea to run from God!

Somewhere in his process of running/hiding from God he got on a boat headed the wrong way... heading West to Tarsish instead of East to Nineveh... but he didn’t make it.

God arranged for him to be in a place where he could start over, slopping around in seaweed and juices inside the belly of a huge fish, no doubt wishing he had a match so he could LIGHT his way out.

In that dark, disgusting place Jonah took a long, honest look at his short, dishonest life.

He prayed, he yelled for mercy, he quoted all the Bible verses he could remember.

He made vows to God, and promised to do what God told him to do... and I’m guessing that only one creature on earth felt sicker than Jonah about all of this — that poor Fish who had swallowed Jonah whole.

It was an act of Grace that God forced that fish to vomit Jonah out of his belly on to dry land.

And Jonah ran toward Nineveh!

God gave Jonah the opportunity to know where he actually was... God gave him time to honestly admit his present condition.

He let Jonah see himself as he was, and stand alone inside the fish, so he could come to terms with the things in his life that needed attention.

My prayer for you this morning is that you will understand where you are, and that you will start there.

That all of us will openly and freely declare our need to the One who cares so deeply.

That we will not hid a thing... that God will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten... Joel 12:25a.

READ TEXT/PRAY

The church of Corinth was contaminated by the world.

Division, sexual immorality and love for law suites were all prominent features of their society, and it looked as if they were well on the way to becoming prominent features in the church.

They needed to find out where they were, and they didn’t really have a clue.

The church members themselves seemed to be taking all this contamination as normal life.

So what if they were living like the world?

As long as they were saved, it didn’t really matter!

If they were doing things that were wrong, what need was there for worry?

They could always count on a loving God to forgive them!

If God always forgives sin, why forsake it?

Paul, on the other hand, has been insisting throughout this letter that there is a radical difference between the child of God and the unbeliever.

In the first half of this chapter alone, we can see a great divide running through his words.

On one side are those he terms the ‘unrighteous’ (6:1) and ‘unbelievers’ (6:6).

On the other side are those he terms ‘saints’ (6:1–2) and ‘brethren’.

This morning I want you to take to heart 3 unchangeable truths that God confronts us with right here.

The first one is:

1.

The Unrighteous Will Not Go To Heaven

So here is the issue: some of those who claimed to be on the Christian side of the divide were maintaining they could live both ways.

They thought they could be saved, and still continue to live like the world.

In the verses before us, Paul drops a bomb on that kind of thinking.

He flatly asserts that people who continue in sin are not going to make it to heaven.

‘Do you not know’, he writes, ‘that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?’ (6:9).

And he goes on to teach that anybody who believes otherwise is deceived.

Remember, Paul is repeatedly saying ‘Do you not know’, ... of course they knew, but they were not living in light of the Gospel they claimed had changed them!

So there could be absolutely no mistake about what he was saying, Paul proceeds to list

some lifestyles that are incompatible with the kingdom of God.

The first half of the list is primarily devoted to sexual sins.

The words “sexually immoral” or ‘Fornicators’ are those who are

guilty of all forms of sexual sin.

‘Adulterers’ are the married who engage in sex outside of marriage.

‘Homosexuals’ and ‘sodomites’ are those who engage in sexual acts with persons of the same sex.

The word translated ‘homosexual’ literally means ‘soft’ or ‘effeminate’ and probably refers to the passive partner in a same-sex affair; the word translated ‘sodomite’ probably designates the more active or aggressive homosexual partner.

Only the word ‘idolaters’ doesn’t seem to belong in the first half of this list.

It could be that Paul included it because sexual acts played such a prominent role in the worship of idols in Corinth.

Or perhaps he included it to suggest that those who practice these sins are guilty of making sexual pleasure their god.

Either way it is a picture of man caring more about his sexual pleasure than worshiping God as He has called us to do.

The Corinthians needed desperately to know where they were with God!

The second half of Paul’s list deals primarily with sins against one’s fellow man.

‘Thieves’ and the greedy or ‘covetous’ are those who are in the grip of greed.

The only difference is that the covetous desire the possessions of others, while the thief actually takes them for himself .

The ‘Drunkards’ may seem, at first glance, to be only abusing themselves, not their fellow man.

But we know that the fact is, families in particular, and society in general, have had to pay a heavy toll for this sin.

‘Revilers’ are those who destroy with their words.

Swindlers or ‘Extortioners’ are those who secure financial gain by taking unfair advantage of others.

They are the dishonest and are those who cheat people out of their things.

Maybe you are wondering why Paul selected these particular sins.

He could easily have mentioned others.

Why just these?

We must keep a couple of things in mind.

First, Paul undoubtedly intended only to compile a representative list, not an exhaustive one.

Secondly, these were probably the most prominent sins in the city of Corinth.

Please don’t misunderstand what Paul is saying.

He is not suggesting that Christians are perfect and they never fall into any of these sins or others.

There are plenty of examples in the Bible of great men of God falling into terrible sin, but that is not what Paul is talking about.

He is referring to continuing in these sins.

The Christian has his lapses into sin, but his basic bent is towards righteousness, and he hates the sin he falls into.

The unbeliever is just the opposite.

His basic bent is towards unrighteousness, and he hates righteousness.

The reason why people who live in sin cannot enter heaven is plain to see.

It is ‘the kingdom of God’.

And what is God’s fundamental characteristic?

It is righteousness, or holiness!

This is a very sobering truth indeed, but thank God it is not the only truth in these verses!

The second undeniable truth is that We can go on to conclude no one is too unrighteous to be cleansed.

2. No One is Too Unrighteous To Be Forgiven

‘And such were some of you,’ Paul says.

Some of the members of the church had been among Corinth’s vilest, worst sinners.

All the Corinthians were sinners, but Paul specifically calls attention to those who at one time practiced the lifestyles he mentions.

I had to wonder “Why did Paul want to single out these?”

It was to make the point that even the worst sinner can be cleansed and made fit for the kingdom of God!

God’s forgiving grace, offered to sinners who repent, is both overwhelming and thoroughly gratifying.

Jesus tells the immoral woman who entered the house of Simon the Pharisee, “Your sins are forgiven.…

Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (, ).

He addresses the woman caught in adultery by saying, “Go now and leave your life of sin” ().

To one of the criminals crucified with him he remarks, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” ().

And don’t forget that God actually calls Paul, the former persecutor of the early Christians, “my chosen instrument” ().

In the Old Testament there is an astonishing account of God’s grace that was given to Manasseh, king of Judah and son of Hezekiah.

He is a perfect illustration of the idea that no one is too sinful to be forgiven.