Let us read the law of God as we find it recorded in Exodus 20. In response to the law, we sing Psalter 143, the stanzas 1 and 3. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land, which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors. May the Lord give us grace to keep his law to his glory out of thankfulness for all that he has done in Christ. We sing 143, stanzas one and three. O come, O come, O come, to Bethlehem. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ Sin by sin ♪ ♪ God of the moon, show me deeply ♪ ♪ In my tender love the sun ♪ ♪ Oh, let my broken heart rejoice ♪ ♪ And gladness be with thee ♪ I turn to the Word of God this morning to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5. We begin our scripture reading at verse 1, reading until chapter 6, verse 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning at verse 1. You may wonder, congregation, why we're reading from 1 Corinthians this morning. Today, I've decided to join with quite a number of other ministers across North America in Canada and the United States in preaching about human sexuality, and in particular about Bill C-4 that was recently approved by our Senate and received royal assent some weeks ago and is now the law of the land. I'll explain more about that in the sermon. But there has been a call sent out by the Liberty Coalition of Canada. Our Pastor Hicks is involved with this, urging pastors to preach about this. And so I think last time I checked, there were about 2,000 ministers that had signed up to preach on this subject today. And John MacArthur actually found out about this, and he took up the call in the United States and was urging ministers in the United States to preach on the same subject. And so we're joining our voices this morning with many churches across North America as we seek to address this subject in the light of the Word of God. And so that's why we're reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and we begin at verse 1. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as it is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person. What have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren. And now verses 9 through 11 form our text. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. and by the Spirit of our God. So far, the Word of the Lord. Beloved congregation, on January the 7th of this year, Bill C-4, which bans what's known as conversion therapy for homosexuals, became the law of the land in Canada. And you may wonder, what is conversion therapy? Well, Wikipedia defines conversion therapy, and I quote, as the practice of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual, or their gender identity from transgender to cisgender using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions. In other words, using some kind of method, whether that's chemical or shock therapy or whatever the case may be, or even counseling, to try to redirect one's sexual attractions to those of the same sex to those of the opposite sex. Now, for decades, such therapies were employed by the medical community on the premise that homosexuality and bisexuality were psychological disorders that could be corrected using medical means. But recent scientific studies have proven that at least some or many of these treatments are ineffective and may even cause psychological and physical harm. And so under pressure from various professional organizations and LGBTQ activists and lobbyists, the federal government of this country made all conversion therapies illegal in Canada. And that means if you are a homosexual and you want to try to become heterosexual, as of January the 7th, No one in this country can help you. And anyone who tries to help you, using whatever means may be available, including counseling, may be prosecuted under the law. Now, many Christian organizations in Canada, many pastors, have expressed the concern that the law, as it stands today, may even make it a criminal offense for a parent to counsel their child who is struggling with same-sex attraction, or a pastor to counsel a member of his congregation who is struggling with same-sex attraction, if the purpose of such counsel is to persuade the person that same-sex attraction is contrary to the will of God, contrary to the Word of God, and therefore they should seek to suppress such feelings and certainly never act on them. Now, likewise, many are concerned that it would be a criminal offense for a pastor or a parent to counsel someone who is struggling with their biological gender. So it would be against the law, as of today, if you're struggling with your gender, it would be against the law for me to say, you know, God created you male or female, whatever the case may be, and you need to acknowledge that. And you need to seek to identify as such, and you need to also celebrate the gender that God has given to you. But if a boy comes to me and says, well, I want to be a girl, or a girl comes to me and says, I want to be a boy, you can't say anything about that. You can't do anything to dissuade them from that. And if you do, you will be prosecuted under the law. Some have feared, even. that this law might even make it a criminal offense for pastors to say from the pulpit publicly that homosexuality and transgenderism are sins. Now, while that may be an ultimate consequence of this law, that's not specifically prohibited in the law. And so we need to be careful not to overstate the case. Now, in response to all of these concerns, our government has gone on record as saying that this law only seeks to criminalize coercive practices and treatments, and that the law would not forbid some of the situations that I've just described. It wouldn't forbid a pastor speaking to a member of his congregation or a parent speaking to his or her child. In other words, the law, the government says, the law is only meant to prevent people from forcing others to subject themselves to these kinds of treatments. But congregation coercive treatments have been outlawed in Canada for many years now. So in that respect, there's no need for this law. And what is more, no assurances along the lines that I've just described appear in the language of the law. And that means it's going to be left up to the courts to decide on the limits of this law. And since the courts in Canada are extremely liberal, it's very possible that any challenges to the law would fail. And so it's hard to escape the conclusion that this law is purely political. It exists simply to please the radical gay rights activists in our country. A congregation, while the government of Canada has outlawed conversion therapy, God has not. He has given us another kind of conversion therapy that is powerful and effective, and it's called the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Christ, applied by the power of the Holy Spirit, has a transforming effect on those who hear it and respond to it. And it changes people. It converts not just homosexuals, but all sinners, including heterosexual sinners, from darkness to light. from death to life, resulting in a new nature, one that hates sin and loves holiness, one that lives for God instead of for self. And the Apostle Paul speaks of this conversion therapy in our text this morning in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. I read those words again. Paul writes, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So with the Lord's help, we want to consider these words under the theme Gospel Conversion Therapy. Gospel Conversion Therapy. God's answer to Bill C-4. We'll consider, first of all, the unworthy recipients of this therapy, and then, secondly, the astounding effect of this therapy. Beloved congregation, the words of our text are part of a larger section of Paul's letter that begins in chapter 5, verse 1, and that's why we began our Scripture reading there. And in this particular section of the letter, Paul addresses two problems in the Corinthians' lifestyle. The first was sexual immorality. It appears from the letter that the Corinthians were far too tolerant of sexual immorality. Now that's understandable to some extent, because the Corinthians, the city of Corinth, was one of the most notoriously wicked and immoral cities in the Roman Empire. And so this affected also the thinking of the people in the church. They became too tolerant of immoral behavior. And Paul cites an example of this, actually, in the beginning of chapter 5. And there he refers to a man who was a member of the congregation was living in an incestuous relationship with his mother, probably his stepmother. And Paul observes that even the Gentiles, with all of their wickedness and all of their issues, even the Gentiles would consider that to be immoral. But the members of the congregation of Corinth, at least many of them, had no problem with this. They even boasted about it. Maybe they went around saying, we'll see how loving and tolerant we are. We just accept everybody as they are. So yeah, we don't necessarily, we would never do what this man is doing. But you know, we just embrace him as a brother in Christ. And they boasted about it. Whereas what they should have done, Paul says, they should have excommunicated him. They should have, in his words, delivered him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And that prompted Paul. verse 11 to remind them something that he wrote to them previously, that they ought not, and I'm quoting now, they ought not to keep company with this man or anyone for that matter named a brother. In other words, anyone who professes to be a Christian and yet is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner. You're not to have anything to do with such people, Paul says, you're not even to eat with such a person. So they were tolerant of sexual immorality. The other problem with their lifestyle was they were taking each other to court. even for some of the most mundane matters. And Paul condemns them for that as well. We read about that in the first part of chapter six. And Paul says that you ought not to be doing this. You ought not to be taking brothers in Christ to court. And he gives the reason in verses 2 and 3, because the saints will judge the world and the angels. Now if that's true, if saints are going to judge the world and saints are going to judge angels with the Lord Jesus Christ, then how then can brother take brother to court? Can they not settle matters between themselves outside of court? Rather than take believers to court and allow unbelievers to settle their disputes, Paul says they should settle their differences among themselves. They should even appoint the weakest member of the congregation to adjudicate such matters. And if such matters could not be adjudicated, Paul says, well, then you need to suffer wrong and be willing to be cheated. So the point is there were some serious issues in the lifestyle of the members of the church at Corinth. We could say there was a disconnect between their profession and their life. There was a disconnect between their religion and their morality. They professed to be Christians, they professed to be in Christ, but they were acting like people from the world. And Paul admonishes them for this. Now following this, we have the words of our text. And our text opens with what we call a rhetorical question, meaning the answer is implied, the answer is obvious. It comes in verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Now, that's a pretty clear statement. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Who are the unrighteous? Well, the unrighteous are those who do not live in conformity to the law of God. You see, it's the law of God that teaches us what righteousness is. So those who do not live in accordance with the law of God, who do not strive to keep the law of God, they are the unrighteous, and they will not enter into the kingdom of God. Now, what is the kingdom of God, you say? Well, the kingdom of God is present wherever His grace and power are manifested in the hearts and lives of sinners, whether that's here on earth or in heaven. For the kingdom of God exists both in heaven as well as here on earth. Now, one day when the Lord comes again, that kingdom is going to be consummated. And all who dwell in this kingdom will be perfect even as he is perfect. They'll be in a glorified state and they will live and reign with Christ forever. Now Paul says that the unrighteous will not inherit that kingdom. Bible often speaks about believers being heirs of the kingdom of heaven. And their inheritance is the kingdom of God. That kingdom that will be consummated in heaven, in glory. And it's called an inheritance in our text because we can't do anything to earn it. If a dead relative passes away and you get a phone call from a lawyer one day and says, well, guess what? Your uncle so-and-so suddenly passed away and left you a million dollars. You didn't do anything to earn that, did you? It's just given to you. It's bequeathed to you. And so it is also when it comes to the kingdom of heaven. We don't earn the kingdom of heaven. We cannot earn the kingdom of heaven because we are sinners. We deserve nothing from God, certainly not the riches and the glory of the kingdom of heaven. Now Paul uses that same language and applies it to the unrighteous. He says the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And then this is to reinforce that Paul goes on to say this, do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. So Paul here presents us with a list of categories of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God, and it's very similar to the list that he gives in chapter 5, verses 10 and 11, with just a few additions. He mentions, for example, first of all, those who are fornicators. And the Greek word that's used here is pornai. We get the English word pornography from that word. A fornicator is somebody who is sexually loose and immoral. Somebody who will have sexual relations with just about anyone. That's a fornicator. He mentions idolaters. We all know what an idolater is. An idolater is somebody who worships an idol of wood or of stone. He mentions adulterers. These are people who have sexual relations outside of marriage. They're married, but they have sexual relations outside of the confines of marriage, which is strictly forbidden by the law of God. He mentions homosexuals and sodomites. These are men who have sexual relations with other men. The word homosexual probably refers to the passive partner in such a relationship, whereas the word sodomite refers to the active partner. Paul's very graphic here. He doesn't spare any punches. He doesn't sugarcoat this. He speaks of thieves, people who steal. He speaks of the covetous. These are people who are never satisfied with what they have. They're always looking for more. They always want more and more and more. He mentions drunkards. These are people who repeatedly drink to excess, to the point where they're almost always intoxicated. He speaks of revilers. These are people who attack the reputation of another person by libel or by slander. And then finally, at the end of the list, he mentions extortioners. These are people who seek to secure financial gain by taking unfair advantage of other people. All of these people Paul says, will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, they're not going to heaven, they're going to hell. Now, there's a couple of things we need to notice about this list. First of all, it's not a complete list. Paul is not saying here that only these people are not going to heaven, but instead are going to hell. Paul could have mentioned all kinds of other types of sinners. He could have mentioned murderers. He doesn't mention that. He could have mentioned rebellious people. He could have mentioned violent people, but he doesn't speak about it. This is only a representative list. And secondly, I want you to notice that included in this list are homosexuals. Now that needs to be pointed out. And I say that needs to be pointed out because we live in a society today that regards homosexual love as the same as heterosexual love. And because of that, our society says that homosexuals should be accorded the same rights and privileges, homosexual couples should be accorded the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. That's why, for example, the privilege of marriage was extended to them some 15 or so years ago. Now this thinking has infected the church as well. And this has led some churches, especially mainline Protestant churches, to solemnize homosexual marriages, to ordain homosexuals as clergymen, all in the name of diversity and inclusion. And so the idea that one can be condemned to hell just because they are a homosexual, that idea is anathema to many people today. But, congregation, that is the clear teaching of our text. That is the clear teaching of Scripture. I didn't write this. Paul did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Unrepentant homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God. Doesn't matter, they'd be very nice people. They'd be very kind people, and many of them are, by the way. But so long as they persist in this particular sin, they cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Now notice that the Bible does not teach, and neither does Paul in our text, that those who have a homosexual attraction cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Congregation, it's a fact of life that due to our fall in Adam, there are some in the church who are attracted to members of the same sex. This is a fact. Just like there are people in the church who have proclivity or a tendency towards all kinds of other sins. It doesn't have to be sexual in nature. Now, they don't act on those feelings. But they have those feelings nonetheless. There are some people who are addicted to porn, and to alcohol, and to smoking, and to gambling. They have this desire for that, and it's always with them, but they don't act on it. At least they strive not to act on it. They fight against it. Paul's not talking about those people. Now, the attraction is still sinful. But if they repent of that, and they're repenting of that continuously, then the attraction as such does not bar them from the kingdom of heaven. Repentant homosexuals are just as much citizens of the kingdom of heaven as those who are heterosexual. And we need to be clear on that. The third thing I want you to notice here is that in providing this list, Paul is not suggesting that those who have not committed such sins, in other words, unbelieving people who are still morally upright, that they will inherit the kingdom of God, even if they're not believers. No, the Bible is abundantly clear. that the only way to enter into the kingdom of God is by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. So even if you're not a believer and you've never committed any of these sins or you're not living in these particular sins unless you repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of heaven is closed to you. Nor is he suggesting that those who have committed these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God even if they repent. That's also not true. Because the Bible says that anyone who repents of any sin, they will be forgiven. And anyone who looks to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will become a child of God and receive the gift of everlasting life. Now in providing this list, what Paul is simply saying is that all who live in sin, all who live contrary to the will of God, to the commandments of God, without repenting, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. To underscore this, Paul says, do not be deceived. And the implication seems to be that there were some in the congregation of Corinth who were deceived. They were being deceived, possibly by false teachers or by their own faulty way of thinking about the connection between religion and morality. They were deceived into thinking that it's possible to go to heaven even if you live in sin. And Paul's putting his finger on that very problem. He's saying, don't be deceived. Whatever has led you to that conclusion, it's the wrong way of thinking. And there's still many people like that in the church today. That's why at funerals, you'll sometimes often hear ministers say, well, so-and-so is now in heaven, now at rest, even though the person that he's speaking of never went to church, never repented of their sins, never lived a life of holiness, never professed faith in Christ. Well, that is impossible. You can't go to heaven unless you're holy. Why not? Because heaven is a place of holiness. God is there, and he is absolutely holy. So if you're going to dwell in the presence of God, you yourself need to be holy. Holiness is as essential to dwelling in heaven as water is for a fish. Without it, you simply cannot go there. Why then does Paul say this? Why does he exhort the Corinthians not to be deceived about this? Because I said it already, the Corinthians were not living the way that they should be living. Yes, they were believers. Yes, they had repented of sin. Yes, they were looking at faith to Christ as their only Savior. At the beginning of the letter even, Paul addresses them as saints in Christ Jesus, but they weren't living that way. And they were far too tolerant of others who weren't living that way. And so Paul says, don't be deceived. Don't kid yourself. Don't fool yourself. Those who live in sin cannot and will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now that message comes also to us, beloved. You may be very orthodox and very conservative. You may be a longstanding member of this church. You may make profession of your faith. You may be an office bearer, even. You may attend the Lord's Supper regularly, but if you're not holy, you're not going to heaven. It's as simple as that. Now, I'm not saying you have to be perfectly holy, because nobody can be perfectly holy, at least not in this life. Our catechism says that even the holiest of God's people have daily to strive with the weakness of their faith. they daily have to strive against their old nature within them. There's a difference between an unbeliever and a believer. You see, the unbeliever doesn't care. The unbeliever just lives in sin. He doesn't care about it. He doesn't repent. He doesn't feel sorry for how he's living, but the believer does. And when he falls into sin, then he comes on his knees before the Lord and he confesses that before the Lord. He says, Lord have mercy upon me, the sinner. sometimes even with weeping, with tears in his eyes. And he repents of his sin before God, and he asks God to graciously create within him a clean heart, to make him white and clean as the snow, as we sang from Psalm 51 earlier this morning. The unbeliever doesn't do any of those things. He loves his sin, and he lives in his sin. And I ask you, beloved, this morning, are you holy or are you unholy? Are you living in sin or is your life characterized by continual repenting from sin and a trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." Now maybe there's somebody here this morning who's saying, but Pastor, I see myself in that description. I know better than those other people. No, maybe I haven't committed the same kind of sins, and maybe I'm not living in those sins per se, but I'm still a sinner. Is there any hope for sinners like me? Oh yes, there is. And that brings me to my second point. After listing some of the representative sins that prevent one from inheriting the kingdom of God, Paul goes on to make this astounding statement, and such were some Now the verb here that Paul uses is the imperfect tense, and that means it's describing a continuing pattern of behavior. So it's not just that some of the Corinthians fell into these sins, no, they lived in these sins. Some of them, some of the people sitting in that congregation, as this letter was being read to them on the Lord's Day, some of them were fornicators. Some of them were adulterers. Some of them were homosexuals and sodomites. Some were thieves. Some were covetous. Some were drunkards. Some were revilers. Some were extortioners. But they weren't anymore. That was in the past. Such were some of you. They were these kinds of sinners, but now they are saints in Christ. Now you say, what happened? How do we explain this? How do we explain this remarkable and astounding transformation? Paul tells us. He says in our text, but you were washed You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You notice how each one of those phrases begins with the word but. That's what's called in Greek grammar an adversative. It contrasts. But, he says, but, but. He's emphasizing the radical transformation that has taken place. And he also switches from the imperfect tense, describing a continuing state in the past to what's called the aorist tense, which describes a completed action in the past. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified. What does Paul mean by this? Well, the word washed here probably refers to regeneration, which is the work of God. by his Holy Spirit, by which he implants within the heart of a dead sinner a principle of spiritual life, enabling the sinner to respond to the call of the gospel, to repent, and to believe. It's synonymous with being born again. And it's compared to washing, because that's what God does in regeneration. He washes away the filth of our sin. And that's what happened to the Corinthians. washed them so that they were completely clean. He also sanctified them. The word sanctified is derived from two Latin words. The word sanctus meaning holy and facere meaning to make. So sanctification literally means to make holy. And that's also what the Holy Spirit does in the heart of the sinner whom he calls out of darkness into the marvelous light of the gospel. He makes him holy. Not perfectly holy, we talked about that already, but positionally holy. He is holy in Christ, so that as long as he's united to Christ, God no longer regards him as a sinner worthy of condemnation and eternal hellfire. He's positionally holy. sanctified in Christ and he becomes progressively sanctified as the Holy Spirit takes up his abode in his heart and enables him to put sin to death and to walk in the ways of the Lord. They were sanctified. And they were also justified. The word justified means to declare righteous. That's what God does in justification. He declares the sinner righteous, not on the basis of anything in him, because there is nothing, but on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ, who takes our sins upon himself and pays the penalty for those sins in full, and in turn imputes to us his righteousness, so that we stand before God as though we had not sinned at all. Now normally from the perspective of the order of salvation, justification comes before sanctification. Paul reverses the order. It's not clear why. We can't explain this, but one thing is for sure. He's not presenting here an order of salvation. He's simply mentioning various aspects of the work that God does in the heart of the sinner who believes in Christ. He washes him, he sanctifies him, and he justifies him. And he does all of these things, he says, in the name of the Lord Jesus. In the name of the Lord Jesus. And that simply means by means of or by virtue of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Christ made this possible. And what did the Lord Jesus do that enabled sinners like us to be washed and justified and sanctified? Well, in a word, he did everything. took upon himself our sinful human nature, our human nature in its sinful, human, fallen condition. Not that he had sin, because he had no sin. He was perfect. But he took upon himself our nature in its fallen condition. That means it was subject to all the miseries in which we find ourselves, sickness and death and hunger and fatigue and depression and everything. And he experienced all of this to the nth degree, and he suffered his whole life long. At the end of his life, he went to the cross. He was nailed to the cross. He shed his blood so that he might make an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And on the third day, he rose again, and he ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father. And from there, what does he do? He washes, he sanctifies, he justifies his elect, and he will continue to do so. until the day that he comes again in glory. But you notice he doesn't do this alone. He does this, Paul says, by the Spirit of our God. You see, Christ accomplished our redemption, and the Holy Spirit applies our redemption. And we're reminded here, aren't we, that the work of salvation is the work of the triune God. not just the work of the Lord Jesus, the work of the triune God. God the Father is the originating cause of our redemption. He's the one who planned our salvation from eternity, even before the world began. The Son is the mediating cause of our redemption. He's the one who actually paid the penalty for our sins and earned for us the righteousness that we need. The Holy Spirit is the affecting cause of redemption. So he's the one who actually applies the work of Christ to the hearts of his people. So all the glory for our salvation, congregation, none of it belongs to you or to me. It all belongs to God and God alone. The point that Paul is making here is that a transformative change had come over these Corinthians. It cannot be explained by anything human. This is the work of God himself. They once were filthy, but now they are washed. They once were living in sin, but now they are sanctified. They once were condemned before the law of God, but now they are justified by Christ through the Holy Spirit. And notice too, beloved, that this change is so radical. It is so transformative that whatever the Corinthians once were, by virtue of their union with Jesus Christ and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, they were such no longer. They have a new identity. They're no longer fornicators, and idolaters, and adulterers, and homosexuals, and sodomites, and thieves, and covetous, and drunkards, and revilers, and extortioners. That's all in the past. That's not who they are today. They are saints, sons and daughters of God. The same is true for us who believe. Believers should not identify themselves as homosexuals, or people of same-sex attraction, or idolaters, or adulterers, or thieves, or any of the things that Paul mentions in this list, because we're washed, beloved. sanctified, we're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. That means that our old identity has been left behind. It's in the past, and our new identity is in Christ. We are Christians. That means little Christs anointed with the office of prophet, priest, and king in Christ. That's who we are. Not a homosexual Christian. Not an adulterous Christian, but a Christian. That is the transformative power of the gospel, and I wonder, beloved, do you know something of that transformative power in your own life? None of us are guilty, I trust, at least to my knowledge, none of us are guilty of the same kinds of sins that Paul mentions in our text chapter. Certainly none of us, to my knowledge, have actually lived in these types of sins. But beloved, we're still sinners. That's how we're born. And our form for baptism says it so clearly, that we with our children conceived and born in sin and therefore are children of what? Of wrath. In so much that we cannot enter into the kingdom of God except, except what? Except we are born again, except a transformation takes place in our heart and in our life, and except we become new creatures in Jesus Christ. That needs to happen for every one of us. Now in the sphere of the covenant of grace, in which most of us have been born, that change takes place gradually and slowly. But in some cases, as it did in the case of the Apostle Paul, and as it did in the case of these Corinthians, at least many of them, it takes place suddenly and dramatically. But however it happens, it needs to take place. We must be converted. Not just once, not just at a specific moment in our life, but again and again and again. You see, initial conversion has to result in daily conversion. Every day we need to repent of our sins and turn to the Lord and seek for his face and cast ourselves on the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's conversion. Do you know of that in your own life? Are you converted and are you still being converted? If not, you can't be saved. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But listen, the good news of the gospel is that God is able and willing to do this. He is able and willing to take hardened sinners, even the types of sinners that Paul describes in our text, and he's willing to wash them, he's willing to sanctify them, he's willing to justify them and make them new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's able and willing to do this also for you if you're not converted this morning. So I urge you, look to him. Believe on him, and this transformative power you will experience, and you'll see the evidence of it in your life, and you'll give God the praise and the glory for it. The government of Canada has outlawed conversion therapy in our country. But beloved, there's one kind of conversion therapy that the government of Canada will never be able to outlaw, and it is the conversion therapy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has converted millions throughout the ages, and it will continue to do so until he comes again in glory. So let our government do what it wants. Christ will continue to build his church. He will continue to wash, to justify, and to sanctify sinners until the day that he comes and not even the gates of hell itself can prevail against him. Amen.