Such WERE Some of You - 1 Cor. 6:9-11

Introduction  The thing we need the most is the grace of God. We cannot live without God's favorable disposition toward us. We know that, but we don't want to do things by God's terms. So, we bargain with God and offer him our terms. Then, we convince ourselves that those are sufficient terms, better yet, better terms than God's. That is exactly what at least some of the Corinthian Christians were doing.  They had convinced themselves that they could live like those who did not believe in Christ while professing faith in Christ. Life and faith were not connected and they dishonored Christ by the way they lived.  "The tendency to divorce religion from morality has manifested itself in all ages of the world, and under all forms of religion." Charles Hodge  Yet at other times they would point to their lives as the reason why God was going to accept them at the last day.  "A moral lifestyle, though admirable, in itself is no evidence of the kingdom of God." Paul Barnett  I. The Unrighteous Will not Inherit the Kingdom of God  A. Who is the unrighteous?  II. Stop Being Deceived, 9b  A. Don't allow this idea that you are ok and being like the world will work out just fine deceive you.  B. Our natural tendency is to be deceived  C. So we need to be on guard against deceit, including self-deceit, in this area because it is the difference between eternal life and eternal damnation.  D. The best way to keep us from being deceived about our condition is to look at ourselves against the standard of God's law.  E. By the time we are done using God's plumb line, we are ready to cry out with the apostle, "O wretched person that I am, who will deliver me?"  F. Paul brings this reality to the Corinthians.  III. Such WERE Some of You, 11.  A. Yes, the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, but you are not the unrighteous.  B. The fact that we WERE the unrighteous, but we no longer are the unrighteous must govern our thinking in several ways.  Conclusion  But there is all comfort in a true knowledge of Jesus Christ. And there is great hope in a passage like this one. We who were unrighteous are now powerfully, eternally, and securely declared to be righteous, washed by the blood of Christ, set aside of God's glorious purposes.  If you remain in your sins, I challenge you today to come to Jesus and turn your heart to him. Join those who were wretched like yourself, but who are now sons and daughters of the living God.  If you know the sweetness of Jesus Christ in his Gospel of grace, rejoice, for you have life eternal.

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