1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – Such as Were Some of You – judging sinners

Introduction

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV  (9)  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  (10)  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  (11)  And such were some of you. 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.

• So March 17^th, that was what… the Saturday before last? It was St. Patties day!
  • Did Y’all have a good St Patrick’s day? (Insert joke here)
  • Man, I don’t know how it is here in Washington, but in Iowa St. Patrick’s day is a HUGE Holiday… they shut down the streets and have parades, all of the business decorated in green, people wish everyone else a happy St. Patricks day… and I don’t get it, it’s not like there is a ton of Irish people in Cedar Rapids… I think people just like to drink!
    • And the truth is, St Patrick would not be proud of the way in which we celebrate his namesake today! The dude wasn’t even Irish, he was British.
    • What he ought to be remembered for is that he almost single handedly brought Christ to the nation of Ireland!
    • He was brought there as a slave, but instead of being better he preached the gospel! Hallelujah!
  • Now, I don’t want to preach a sermon about St. Patrick this morning, but I do want to preach a sermon about cake!

• Now, Imagine you are baking a cake for St. Patrick’s day… what color are you going to want that cake to be? Green, right? Of course you want tit to be green!
  • So you decided you are going to make a vanilla cake and you are going to use food coloring to make it green, pretty simple right?
  • So you mix up the vanilla batter… and as you are mixing it you get a phone call, it’s your mom (she always calls at the worst time) so you step away to talk to her.
  • You come back to your cake batter sitting in a bowl and you are trying to remember “Did I add the food coloring?”
    • The cake batter is mixed, the bottle of green food coloring is next to the bowl, but DID you remember to add the food coloring?
    • Man there is a really easy way to tell! Look at the batter, if it is green then you added the coloring…
  • This may seem simple, but it illustrates a deep truth, you can judge what has happened in the past by examining change! You see the food coloring changes the color of the cake batter, simply by introducing the food coloring to the cake batter change happens, the cake batter changes colors!
  • Such is it without lives, simply by introducing the Grace of the Cross, that is accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and repenting from our sins, then change happens to ourselves!
• In fact, the Bible uses the same type of example when it comes to our sins!

Isaiah 1:18 ESV  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

• Just like the cake batter, our sins are an ugly scarlet, but when introduced to the grace of God they become white as snow. If we want to know if we are saved all we need to do is observe, are we white as snow, or are we still an ugly scarlet. In other words, can we observe change.
• Just to say it one more time, to make it clear: We can tell whether cake batter has been introduced to food coloring by observing if the color of the batter has changed, and we can tell if Jesus has been applied to our lives by observing if our sin pattern has changed.
  • Some of y’all know where I am going with this… I am not talking about Cake! I am talking about Jesus! Let’s pray.

PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY

• Now what does all of this have to do with those verses in 1 Corinthians that I read at the start of this message?
  • Because I really want to lock into your mind how simple this passage is…
  • It’s not as complicated as some may make it, much like a cake that is not green is a sinner without Jesus… all we need to do is add Jesus… regardless of who they are or where they are from… what does that matter, what matters is that we know the one thing that can radically change them, let’s read this verse one more time…

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV  (9)  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  (10)  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  (11)  And such were some of you. 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.

Point One – It’s about needing change

• This verse is about needing change. It’s not about condemnation, it’s not about identifying the sins that will lead you to hell (After all the Bible says we all deserve hell), no! It’s about Identifying the need for change!
  • If your St. Patty’s day cake batter isn’t green you don’t condemn the cake, do you?
    • “Your not green? YOUR GOING TO THE TRASH CAKE! BECAUSE YOUR NOT GREEN YOU ARE BEING THROWN AWAY!” You don’t pick up a picket sign that says “White St Patricks Day Cakes are going to the garbage!”.
    • That would be nonsense! Instead, if you see your cake batter is still white, then you simply add the food coloring. The color of the cake batter simply identifies the need for change.
  • When it comes to reading Scripture, CONTEXT IS KEY!
    • So many people take this verse out of context, you see if you skip verse 11 and only read verses 9 and 10 this section of scripture sounds very condemning, doesn’t it?
    • If I simply read verses 9 and 10 it sounds like this (Read in cynical voice):

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV  (9)  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  (10)  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

• When you put it that way, yeah man… through those verses on a sign and tell that gay pride parade what for!
• But when you add verse 11 in the mix it changes the whole tone!

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV And such were some of you. 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.

• You know it’s funny, verse 11 never seems to make it on protesters signs.
  • And such were some of you… but you were washed and sanctified, and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus?
  • You mean there is hope for the sexually immoral, the idolater, the adulterer, the homosexuals, the thieves, and the greedy?
  • That’s exactly what I mean, that is exactly what Paul means.
• You see in context this section of scripture is NOT about condemnation, instead it is about the hope of Christ Jesus.
  • Look if your cake batter ain’t green yet simply introduce the food coloring to the mix!
    • And if there are people who are not changed, regardless of what religion they claim, what sins they have committed, how they self identify… none of that matters, what matters is either they are changed or they are not and if they are not changed then simply introduce them to Jesus!
  • You know the Bible says it’s not condemnation that leads people to repentance, in fact the Bible says it is God’s goodness, or God’s kindness that leads people to repentance!

Romans 2:4 ESV  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

• According to this verse the whole point of God’s kindness is to lead us to repentance! Not condemnation, but kindness, goodness, and love!
  • Church… if you want to see the drunkard, the swindler, the homosexual, and the fornicators repent? Want to see them change and come to know Christ!
    • Then instead of condemning them, love them! Show them the riches of Christ’s kindness.
    • I have never meet anyone who came to Jesus because they saw a sign that says “God hates homosexuals”… but I have meet tons of people who have came to Christ because of His kindness, His goodness, His Love.
  • Now remember, this point is titled “It’s about needing Change”. The problems with taking this verse out of context swing both ways!
  • We have to remember the context of this letter, remember this is a letter to the church in Corinth.
    • Now I spent two and a half years studying and preaching through the book of first Corinthians at my church. I know it better than any other book in the Bible. I have spent hundreds of hours digging through this book…
  • So let me just kind of tell you the setting this was in…
    • Corinth was a church full of sin… all kinds of sin… and some really bad sexual sin.
    • In fact probably one of the most often things is that there was a man who was sleeping with his stepmother in this church.
      • You see we often times focus on those hateful protestors who yell out “God hates the homosexuals” when we think of this verse out of context, but what is just as bad as those protestors is what the Corinthians were doing, which was ignoring the sin on account of Grace.
        • I will remind you what the Corinthians were doing… they were boasting about how full of Grace they were!
        • “Look how full of grace we are, we are so full of grace we let dude’s sleep with their steep moms!”
        • And Paul is saying! WOAH! Don’t you know the sexually immoral aren’t going to heaven? You can’t just ignore sin like this!
      • Now I know in Seattle y’all don’t have any churches around here that celebrate sin… right?
        • Of course we do! And there is a word for it, it’s called the “false-agape-love-gospel”… the idea that instead of changing sin, we ought to celebrate it just how loving God is to love someone in their sin… after all, it’s not very loving to tell someone what they are doing is sinful… right?

• Let’s go back to the cake example. Let’s say you were invited to a big St Patrick’s day celebration, and there is just one rule, all food must be green! So you got your green eggs and ham, your green garden salad, and of course it is your job to bring the green cake. All food that is not green that is brought to this party will be promptly thrown away.
  • Now if you know this, and you are making your cake, and you notice the batter is still white and not green… you’re not going to be like “Well I am just so full of grace that I can call white cake green!” Your not going to continue baking the cake as a white cake and hope for the best, what nonsense that would be, your are just ASKING for your cake to get thrown out!
    • You are going to take that white cake to the St. Patrick’s day party where only green food is allowed and you are going to get stopped by the food bouncer!
      • (Because you know in fictional St. Patrick’s day parties there are always food bouncers)
    • And that food bouncer is going to look at your white cake and say “Sorry bro your cake can’t come in, green food only”
    • You don’t understand though, this is a Saint Patricks day cake!
      • “Your cake aint green bro, it’s not coming in”
    • But my cake grew up in a green cake family!
      • Cake aint green bro
    • But my cake goes to St. Patrick’s Cathedral every Sunday morning for church!
      • AINT. GREEN. BRO.
    • BUT WHAT ABOUT GRACE
      • Bro, I don’t know about all that… all I know is that your cake ain’t green bro.
    • That’s what Paul is saying, only people who have been changed by the saving grace of Christ, who have goon from scarlet sin to white as snow… only those people can enter heaven. So please don’t ignore the lack of Evidence of Christ in your life!
  • #CAKEAINTGREENBRO
• But that’s exactly what the Corinthians were doing… they were ignoring the sin… they were allowing the sinner to stay a sinner, and hoping at the end of the day that Grace would win.
  • And Paul is scolding them! “DON’T BE DECIEVED” he warns, these kinds of people will not enter heaven!
  • But Paul doesn’t suggest condemning them to hell, he suggest introducing them to change.
  • We talked one week about church discipline, and how the WHOLE POINT of church discipline is to lead people back to Christ.
  • If a church is forced to throw someone out because of their unrepentant sin, they are not to do so because they don’t want to be around them anymore, it is because the church wants them to find Christ, and God says the best way in this scenario is to remove them from the church so they can see their need for a savior!
• It’s not about condemnation, it’s about needing change.
• Now speaking of needing change, we as Christians need to be able to IDENTIFY the need for change…

Point Three – It’s about Identifying the Need for Change

• The verse from 1 Corinthians I started with… that scary sounding, condemning sounding vers… its about needing change, but It’s about identifying the need for change… some might call this “judging”…
  • Church, can we stop being so afraid of the word “Judge”?
  • Now whenever a conversation comes up about judging people everybody and their mother quotes Luke 6:43…

Luke 6:37 ESV “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;

• This is a beautiful verse, but you have to keep it in context… just a few verses later Jesus says this…

Luke 6:41-42 ESV Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (42) How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

• Now catch this church, Jesus does not say “Don’t worry about the speck in your brother’s eye”… Jesus never says “Ignore the speck in your brothers eye” no!
  • Jesus specifically says in verse 42 that He wants us to help our brother with the speck in his eye… but first we need to take care of the log in our own eye…
  • First we need to judge ourselves and get ourselves right before we go and try to help others, so that in doing so we operate in a godly and holy manner…
• So then verse 37 says “Judge not” and verse 42 says “take the speck out of your brothers eye”… Was Jesus contradicting himself, of course not! There is simply a right and a wrong way to judge…
  • Now we all know the wrong way to judge… to judge someone based on their appearance, their culture, their race, their background, they way the talk… whatever… we know the wrong ways to judge… but what’s the right way to judge?
  • Well stay in Luke chapter 6, because right after Jesus tells us to take the log out of our own eye so we can help our brother, He then tells us how to judge in a godly way…

Luke 6:43-44 ESV “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, (44) for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.

• Now Jesus is not talking about trees, y’all, in as much as I am not talking about green cake… He is saying you judge a tree by it’s fruit… if you see oranges on a tree, it’s safe to say it’s an orange tree and not an apple tree… in the same way you judge a person by their fruit… a Christian has Christian fruit… it’s as simple as that…
  • What are the fruit of Christian, they are listed in the book of Galatians:

Galatians 5:22-24 ESV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (24) And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

• Now in the same way that it’s ok to “judge” our cake batter to see if we have put the green food coloring in yet, it is ok to “judge” our lives when looking to see if Jesus has changed it or not…
• So if you have ever wondered “am I truly saved, am I really going to heaven? I mean I said the prayer… but did it stick?” I am going to show you right now how you can judge yourself… judge by the fruits…
  • Do you have love… not just emotional love, but compassionated, encompassing love… love without conditions… love for God, love for your Neighbors, love for your enemies…
    • Or do you only love those who love you back?
  • Do you have joy?
    • Not happiness, not fun, but joy… a since of fullness, completeness in the Lord, a joy that comes in all circumstances good and bad…
  • Do you have peace?
    • The Bible says Jesus is the peace that surpasses all understanding! Praise God!
  • Are you patient, kind, and good to others?
    • Or are you quickly angered, often getting into arguments over silly things?
  • Are you faithful? Does your yes mean yes and your no mean know… can people trust you?
  • Are you gentle?

• Do you exercise self control.
  • Remember I am not talking about judging others, I am talking about judging yourself, y’all.
• Now I added verse 24 as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, I am not sure why it is left out most of the time… but I believe that the crucifixion of our flesh is a fruit of the Spirit… that we take up our Cross and follow Jesus, that we repent… that we die to ourselves to live in Christ… does that describe your relationship with Jesus?

• These are just a few questions, and God doesn’t expect you to pass that test perfectly, but we should see change in the way we answer these questions then before we were Christians!
  • We should see a change in how much joy, and peace, and love, and patience we have… not that we are perfectly patient, or always full of perfect joy and peace… but there should be a definite change, amen?
  • My cake may never look like the cake that is on the Title slide here… but it certainly isn’t white anymore either!
• And maybe you are saved, but there are areas of your life where these fruit are missing…
  • Maybe your marriage doesn’t seem to be flowing with the fruit of the spirit and things are falling apart… there seems to be nothing but anger, resentment, hurt… maybe all you do is argue… maybe the love is gone…
  • If that is the case, let me save you thousands of dollars on professional marriage counseling…
    • If the cake ain’t green, you add the food coloring.
    • You don’t need to go digging through the garbage to find the instructions to the cake mix…
    • You don’t need to replay your day’s events to see what went wrong where…
    • You don’t need to closely examine the contents of the food coloring bottle to see if there is any missing…
    • If the cake ain’t green, the cake ain’t green, just add the food coloring!
  • If your marriage is not full of Godly fruit, you don’t need to dig up each others trash from the past, you don’t need to replay your life story to see what went wrong, you don’t need to carefully examine every moment of your marriage up until now…
  • If your marriage is lacking the fruit of Jesus… just add Jesus.
    • That’s not to say that there are not issues that need serious counseling, but lets at least start by adding Jesus, amen?
  • And it’s not just marriages, if your work life is lacking the fruit of Christ, your family relationships, your relationship with your kids, your friends, your finances… whatever… maybe all you need to do is add some Jesus…
• I am not asking you to tell me if you have added Jesus or not… I am asking you if the fruit of Christ is present… if it’s not… then your cake ain’t green bro… just add Jesus.

Point Three – It’s about the Changed

• Final point this morning, it’s about the changed. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is about needing change, identifying change, and it is about THE CHANGED… people who have been changed by Christ.
• You see the climax of this section of scripture is “Such were some of you!”
• Let me read these verses again:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV  (9)  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  (10)  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  (11)  And such were some of you. 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.

• And such were some of you!
  • Some of YOU, Corinthians, Pauls says!
  • Some of you were Sexually immoral!
  • Some of you were idolaters!
  • Some of you were drunkards!
  • Some of you were greedy!
  • Some of you were revilers and swindlers!
  • Some where thieves!
  • Others still were fornicators!
  • Some of you were practicing homosexuality!
  • Don’t you remember? You were this way! But Christ saved you and changed you!
• It is verse like this that make me laugh at the thought of churches closing their doors to homosexuals…
  • Because the Church of Corinth was full of homosexuals, and thieves, and idolaters, and greedy men and women, drunkards and fornicators!
  • And Christ changed them!

• I hope that Faith and Victory church is a church that welcomes such people, because we were such people!
• I was such a person when Pastor Matt and Faith and Victory accepted me and lead me to Christ…
  • I am sure that there are people in the seats of this church this morning how have been freed from such lifestyles…
    • I know I am not the only one in here who has had a homosexual thought.
    • I know that I am not the only one who has practiced sexual immorality.
    • I know that I am not the only person who has been greedy in my life, or stolen… man I have stolen thousands of dollars of software, music, and movies by downloading them online.
    • I know I am not the only one in this church who has ever been drunk, or made idols.
    • I know I am not the only one who has used my words to hurt people, such a revilers do!
    • I know I am not the only one who has tried swindle people out of money!
  • In fact as I look at that list I think I have done or been tempted to do all of those things, and I am sure I am not the only one here like that!
    • But the beauty is that Christ changed me! I was lost but now I am found, I was blind but now I see, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a WRETCH like me!
    • You see if I stayed that way then I would have no part in the kingdom of heaven, but God loved me enough to change me! He loved you enough to change you!
    • He loved this church, Faith and Victory, enough to fill it with a bunch of sinners who have been changed and saved by the grace of God through the death and the resurrection of Christ.
  • Verse 11 is one of the most beautiful and powerful verses in all of Scripture:

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV And such were some of [us]. But [we] were washed, [we] were sanctified, [we] were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

• If we were changed, if we were washed, if we were sanctified and justified by the Grace of God… Then why would we withhold that grace from others?
  • It is for this reason that I pray that God would fill our church with people such as these, fill our church with the greedy, the swindlers, the sexually immoral, the homosexual, and the drunkard.
  • Not so we can leave them in their sin, not so we can condemn them to hell, but so we can lead them to the saving grace that is in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus!
• You see ignoring sin is not grace! Ignoring sin is lazy, and it is hurtful. It is just as hurtful as condemning a sinner to hell.
  • Ignorance is just as hurtful as condemnation!
• Instead we pray “Lord, let the sinner come, so they might know you like we know you, so they might be changed by your goodness and lead to repentance!”

Conclusion

• Folks 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is not about condemnation, it’s about baking a St. Patty’s day cake and determining whether or not you added the food coloring to the batter. If you haven’t don’t ignore the problem, don’t condemn the cake to the garbage, simply add the food coloring.
• If there are people in FVC who’s lives don’t show change, we won’t condemn them, but we don’t ignore their sin either… instead we pray for them, and God willing, we will lead them to Christ.
  • Gospel message/Alter Call.