When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life? So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brothers. 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. nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 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. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are healthful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food. and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. You may be seated. Almighty God, as we approach your word this day, we ask that our hearts and our minds would be open to hear from your word, from your truth. We thank you that you have proclaimed your truth to us, that we may look into the riches of what you have shown us. I pray that you would use these words that I speak this day that they would come from your spirit and that you would be glorified as we seek to be slaves of your righteousness. Father, we thank you. In Jesus name, Amen. Oh, how easy it is for us in our modern world to get our dander up. We're so easily offended today. We wear our emotions on our sleeves and words by others are often taken out of context. Now, I know there's some fans of social media here this morning and some who are not so much fans of social media. One thing that it has done for modern society is that it has made us more easily offended by others. You know, words on a page, sometimes limited to 160 characters or less, cannot convey tone, emotion, and intent. But boy do we like to take offense if our thoughts and emotions, our posts, our tweets, our pins are not liked and shared. Now I do use Facebook, but I do think that it is by and large an exercise in narcissism. It's kind of like the two-year-old mentality who thinks the world revolves around me. We all build these profiles of our likes and our dislikes, and we share about the lunch we had, the guns we own, the movies we watch, and if someone disagrees with what we like or what we post, we can hide them, or better yet, we can defriend them. If you only knew me by my Facebook profile, then you do not know me. Now let me repeat that again for the younger audience who may indulge more in social media than the older crowd. If you only know me by my Facebook profile, then you really don't know me. I would venture to say that we could learn more about another person over a cup of coffee than a year of Facebook. Now the other downside besides narcissism is voyeurism. We have become busybodies from the privacy of our own homes, iPads, and smartphones. I can tune into my favorite soap opera by following the most controversial posts by my friends, and not really live as I eat up time the Lord has given me watching someone else live their own life. Now, lest you think that social media is all bad, I don't think it's all bad. It can be a great tool in the proclamation of the gospel, They can be a great tool to catch up with long-lost friends, real friends, not those ones that you don't know where you met or why you are their friend. A classic example of this happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I was wondering how I knew one of those friends of mine on Facebook. So I sent them a private message and said, how did we meet? How do I know you? Where's our connection? How did we become friends? And this person responded to me, I don't know. Now that would be funny if it weren't so sad. We don't know how we knew each other. Either I accepted a friend request or he accepted a friend request along the way and neither of us really knows the other person. Now I also like to share things that seem kind of controversial on Facebook as an attempt not to offend but more as a way of saying don't take yourself on Facebook too seriously. If social media is your life, then I feel sorry for you. There are a lot of hurt, lonely, and broken people who are nearby to you who could physically use your time, attention, and prayers a lot more than that exercise in narcissism. Now we're not going to spend a lot of time this morning on the first eight verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 6, but I think the topic of lawsuits among believers that Paul is writing about bears a direct reference to the society that we live in today and our insecurities that get displayed sometimes on social media, and it also has a direct reference to the rest of this passage in chapter 6 that we're going to look at starting in verse 9 and following. Paul writes in verse 7, about these lawsuits. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? The Corinthian Christians are standing before the world, and they're not just airing their dirty laundry and taking their fellow believers to court, but they're standing there affronted. with chest puffed out thinking, how dare they treat me this way. I have been wronged. I have been hurt. I demand justice. And just like in Corinth, we live in a world today that's full of victims who are ready to sue. You've hurt my feelings. You've hurt my self-esteem. You've made me feel bad. And I'm mad at you. And I'm not just mad at you, but I'm going to get even if I can. That isn't to say that there isn't a time for taking things to court or that people in certain cases haven't really been wronged. But boy, do we think too highly of ourselves. We have become so self-righteous. Now some of you will leave this morning and all you have gotten out of the message is that proverbial, I sure wish so and so, and then you insert the name of that person you're thinking of and you see their sin so clearly. I wish so and so were here so that they could have heard that message. They really needed to hear that. I hope you don't do that today. I hope instead we all leave with the attitude that Paul has in Romans 7 verses 24 and 25. Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Wretched man that I am. Sin is a struggle. But too many who wear the name of Christian in our world today have given up the struggle and have simply given in. I mean, after all, we're living under grace, right? Romans 6, 1 and 2 again, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it? So we have lawsuits among the believers in Corinth. in the public court system. And Paul is stating that they ought to rather settle their disputes among the brothers. Or if you're going to display your sin in public, it would be better if you were wronged. It would be better if you were defrauded. Rather than throw all of that sin out there before a watching world. Kind of applies to Facebook at times, doesn't it? Now we come to the first half of verse nine. And Paul writes, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Now, I hope and I pray that that verse bothers you just a little bit. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Romans 3 10 tells us as it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. People, we have a problem. And the problem is not the apparent contradiction that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, and that we know that none is righteous, so that would indicate that none can inherit the kingdom of God. That isn't the problem. Because I think that we're all well-versed enough in theology to know that on our own, in our own righteousness, we cannot inherit God's kingdom. We know that. We proclaim that. We teach that. We rest in the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. Romans 6 that we read earlier in the service talks of our righteousness that is in Jesus Christ. We rest in that. We understand that we cannot earn our way to heaven. We understand that faith is a gift of God. It's not of works that lest any man should boast. We understand what justification is. The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a great answer to that in question 33. What is justification? And the answer is justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. Praise God. On my own I am unrighteous. Christ is righteous and his righteousness has been imputed to me. I praise God for that fact and I hope that you do as well. That is not the problem. The problem is not our salvation. The problem is our sanctification. The problem is that the beginning of verse 9 doesn't bother us any longer. Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? I got my tickets to heaven. Jesus saved me. I am now accepted by Him, so it doesn't matter how I live my life. I can do what I want, think what I want, say what I want, be what I want. After all, life's all about me. I have no restrictions any longer, because I've been saved by Christ, and at the end, none of this life and how it is lived matters, because I can't lose my salvation. Too many Christians today. are flippant with salvation and with the idea of sanctification and that scares me and it ought to scare you as well. Matthew 7 verses 21 through 23 tells us, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. We get that attitude. Lord, I did all these great things in your name. We have all these great ministries going on. We looked good to those around us. We had those Jesus bumper stickers on our cars. We listened to the good music. We had it all. We had everything. Except a real faith in Jesus Christ. Our faith is not a faith that enables us to live like the devil for most of the week and try to put on appearances on Sunday. We need to be serious about wrestling with our sin. We need to get serious about those idols in our lives, that unrepentant sin, that repetitious sin that keeps pushing us down. And I know that sin is a struggle. Sin is hard. Paul said, I do the things I don't want to do, and the things I don't want to do, I do. Sin is hard. And even after we've been justified, that doesn't mean that we don't battle with the flesh. I want to encourage you this morning to not give up in that struggle against sin. Don't give in. You're going to fall. You're going to get pushed down. Don't stay down. Don't give up. Don't give in. Stand firm. Fight against those schemes of the devil. Too many Christians today have fallen out of love with God and have fallen in love with their own sin. We love our sin. Verses 9 and 10 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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor grunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." And so I looked through that whole list that Paul lays out there for the Corinthian church that he points out. All these types of people. that are living in these unrepentant sins will not inherit the kingdom of God. And I go through this list and then I start to feel a little bit better about myself. I start to pat myself on the back a little bit. I start doing my own comparison with others whom I know are bigger sinners than I am. And then that self-righteousness starts to creep in and I sleep a little better at night. Let's see. Sexually immoral. Nope, I'm faithful in my marriage. Idolaters? Nope, I don't have any statues around the house I bow down to. Adulterers? Nope, I don't cheat on my wife. Homosexuality? Nope, I don't steal, I don't want too many things or cash, I don't over drink, I don't revile, I'm pretty good. And I'm really glad that Paul stopped with such a short list there. Because I really do pretty good, so I ought to be able to inherit the kingdom of God. And we slip into that works righteousness mindset. Earlier, we quoted together the chapter from the Westminster Confession on good works and the place of good works in our lives. And it said, these good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. Is there evidence in your life of your faith? And it also says, we cannot, by our best works, merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God. We dare not look at this list of sins that Paul points out in the Corinthian believers and compare ourselves to them or to anyone else. We dare not look at this list and try to feel good about ourselves. Let's look at this list again. The sexually immoral. Phil mentioned a few weeks ago, he quoted or spoke about the 2014 State of Dating in America, a report that was published by Christian Mingle and J-Date, which stated in that report 61% of Christians said that they would have sex before marriage. 56% said that it's appropriate to move in with someone after dating for a time between six months and two years. Does it bother you that six out of ten people who are single and claim to be followers of Jesus Christ are either living sexually immoral lives or would have given half the chance? Does that bother you? A sin which Paul here states will keep a person from inheriting the kingdom of God and yet there's no shame, there's no disgust, there's no remorse. We've been swallowed up by the culture around us and we don't even care anymore. And that's the problem. It's not the fact that we don't sin. It's not the fact that we don't do the things that are on this list. It's the fact that we do not care. Our sin does not cause us to grieve. It does not cause us to weep. And that study should bring us to our knees and weep for the young people today. Sexual immorality should never be embraced by the church. It's time for us to repent of the sexual immorality in the church. A few weeks ago you heard what I believe to be one of the best sermons on the topic of sexuality that I've ever heard. And I'm not sure, or I am sure, that it was an uncomfortable topic for Phil to bring to the church. But it was a necessary topic And in a sex-crazed world where nothing is left to the imagination any longer, we need to deal with sexuality in the church. We need to proclaim what the Bible teaches about sexuality and stand on it unashamedly. And we need to confess our sins and be honest with one another and repent of how we have allowed immorality into our homes and our thoughts and our lives. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 87, says, What is repentance unto life? And the answer is, Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. With grief and hatred of his sin. I want to ask you a serious question this morning. When you came to faith in Jesus Christ, were you simply clinging to a ticket to heaven to escape the fires of hell? Or was there really repentance unto life? Now think about that for just a moment. Were you clinging to a ticket to heaven to escape the fires of hell? Or did you experience repentance unto life? Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with wanting to avoid hell. Every rational human being should want to avoid hell and not want to go there. But as the Catechism states, repentance unto life involves a grief and a hatred for our sin. It should be evident to all of us as we look at the culture around us, as we look at the church in America today, that we do not hate our sin nearly enough. We coddle it. We feed it, we foster it, but we really don't hate it. We cling to it, and in the process of sanctification we need to hate and abhor our sin more and more day after day after day. The problem in our world today is not that a survey taken by a Christian single website says that 6 out of 10 Christian singles would have sex outside of marriage. The real problem is unfortunately many of those probably taking that survey have never really experienced repentance into life and do not hate their sin. Many will say to him on that day, Lord, Lord. And he will say, I never knew you. So maybe you don't have a problem in your life with sexual immorality at all. Let's go back to our list now and let's move through it a little bit more. Idolatry. What are those things in my life that attempt to dethrone God? What are the things in my life that I try to place on par with God or consume a lot of my time and resources and devotion? A lot of my thoughts. You see, idols can be tricky things. At first glance, we can say that we do not have any idols in our lives, but then when God throws our world upside down, we see how important the things we value really are. Idols can be anything. They can be people, things, abstract concepts. Now, there's always a great danger in giving a message like this to start being too candid with your own sins, because you risk your wife shouting, Amen. Amen. And then which is more embarrassing? Either exposing and sharing your sins in public or hearing your wife confirm them. But at the risk of an amen so that you can see how subtle idols can be, even in our strength that the Lord gives us. And even though I'm still in denial, my wife often tells me that time is one of my idols. I was waiting for that. Now maybe some of you have noticed in your own marriages that different people are wired differently when it comes to time and time management in their lives. I like clocks. I like watches, not that I need one because I can usually tell you within a matter of 10 or 15 minutes what time it is, any time of the day or night usually. Without a watch, I'm just wired that way for time. I think time. Every time I start a project, I'm thinking, how long is this going to take? What can I accomplish? So when something throws off my time or throws off my schedule, I don't often react in the most godly way possible. But God, in His wisdom, gave me a wife who's wired exactly opposite in regard to me, in regard to time, to help me deal with that idol in my life. Anyone else have any kind of a relation there? I've got hands going up now. Another time in my life that God really used to show me an idol in my life is going way back to 1996, and he exposed an idol in my life I didn't know I had at the time. Melissa and I had just moved to Newcastle to pastor a church there. We were new to the community. Teresa was a baby, so Thomas must have been three, something like that. And I was at the church building working one afternoon, and Melissa had gone out running errands to the grocery store. And she tripped coming out of the van we had at the time with Terry in her arms and fell backwards, hit her head on the pavement, and really hit it hard. And some tourists were going through Newcastle. They saw it happen. And they ran literally three or four blocks up to the church building where I was. Melissa told them where I was at. And so I got down there where she was and took her to the doctor. And they said she had a slight concussion. So they gave us the list of things and all that good stuff and sent us home. We went home about an hour later, Melissa speaking German or something crazy, her speech is starting to slur and she's not making sense anymore and I'm like, that's one of those things on that list. So I took her back to the doctor's office and they decided they were going to take her to Rapid City, an hour and a half drive over to Rapid City to do a CAT scan. And I stepped out of the examining room when the doctor went to call the ambulance and I overheard him say to the ambulance driver over the phone, No, I cannot wait an hour. I want you here 15 minutes ago. That makes a husband a little nervous. Kind of scared me. And a member from our church that we had just met came and picked up Thomas and Teresa and took them so I could go to the hospital. The ambulance came, took Melissa, and another church member was going to drive me to Rapid City because I probably shouldn't have driven myself through the hills, the Black Hills at that time. But I had to wait 45 minutes for this church member to get there to take me. And so I kept it together until the kids were gone and Melissa was gone. And then I went back to the church building and I sat in the parking lot and I sobbed. And I wept. And I cried for that 45 minutes. I had my children in a safe place. And as I was sitting there, that was one of the best times that I've ever had with the Lord. And I know that sounds kind of funny. And I hope that doesn't sound like a horrible Story because it was one of the best things that happened to me. You see. Yes. I was concerned about my wife Yes, I was concerned about her health. I didn't know what was going to happen. I Was concerned about you know, how am I gonna raise children without her or what's going on? But more importantly the Lord took that time in my life To make sure that I wasn't looking at my wife as an idol That I couldn't live without that no matter what he was sovereign and that he was in control of his concussion and whatever was going on with her health and I had to trust him and if he wanted to take my wife, so be it. He's God. And it was one of the greatest times I've ever had, weeping with God. Now I love my wife. I adore my wife and I hope the Lord gives us many more years together. Marriage is sweet, it's beautiful, it's hard, but I cannot idolize my wife. Today is a day in our society when we esteem mothers. We value them. We treasure them. We adore them. We're so thankful for the things that they've done in our lives. But we can't make an idol out of a mother or a father or a person or a thing. We can even make idols out of places. Our favorite restaurant can be an idol. Our favorite vacation spot. I've been wrestling a lot this last month with my own attachments to location, excuse me. I love Wyoming. I would love to spend the rest of my life in Wyoming, but Wyoming can become an idol if I'm not willing to say, here I am, Lord, send me. Adulterers. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 27 and 28, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It's not just the physical act of adultery, it's the strays thought. It's the watching simulated sex acts on TV or in the movies. It's the romance novel that Phil mentioned last week. It's the dissatisfaction with one's spouse. that is sin. We like to boast like that Pharisee. I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like that sinner over there. That person who has fallen into sin. I do all these wonderful things. I haven't committed those heinous sins that we think about. And yet we don't guard our own hearts and our thoughts like we should. Homosexuality. This is the sin du jour, the sin of the day. And like the proverbial frog in the cattle, the agenda to push same-sex relationships in society has been slowly simmering for over a generation now. And now we're at the point in our culture of cultural acceptance, and that doesn't mean tolerance either. This is not something that you are allowed to tolerate. You will either be forced to accept it or pay the price. And I fear that in the very near future, I believe, that this is a sin that's going to put pastors in prison in America. Anyone who dares to stand in a pulpit in America and proclaim that men who practice homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God are going to be jailed. And yet God's word is very plain. And we need to not single out this one sin. There are plenty sins in this list that Paul gives us to go around. The cultural battle on this particular sin, I believe, was lost when we allowed people to associate sin with their identity. You know, the other sins in this list we would never think about boasting about. Hi, I'm Bob the swindler. I'm Bob the drunkard. I'm Bob the adulterer. We say, Bob, quit being a swindler, a drunkard, and an adulterer. That's wrong. But when it comes to homosexuality, we have allowed people to identify themselves with that sin, and we've established this victim mentality, after all, God created me this way. And I think we should love people enough who are caught up in any of these sins to tell them to quit doing them. Those who remain in sin, unrepentant sin, will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do we love people engaged in sexual immorality of all types, including homosexuality, enough to warn them to flee the wrath that is to come? Or are we more concerned about offending them? Or have we embraced the lie that sin defines who a person is? Nor thieves. Well, it's an easy one, right? Thieves? I mean, most of us are honest, we don't steal, we were probably taught at a very young age that theft is wrong. Can you honestly tell me this morning that every second you have ever worked for an employer has been productive and you have never stolen any time from them? You know, I think it'd be a very short look at our own selfishness that we would be able to see that we take things that don't belong to us all the time. I'm tired and my children need my attention, so I make excuses why I can't go and play with them or give them the attention they need. Remember that old McDonald's commercial, you deserve a break today at McDonald's. Life's all about me, but when I focus on myself, I steal time and resources from those around me that God has given me to serve. The Grady. Boy, I think I do a pretty good job with this one. You know, I don't have the biggest house on the block or the fanciest stuff. I don't need riches and wealth to make me happy. I want to be able to provide for my family, but I don't consider myself too materialistic. And yet we have to get very careful with those possessions. Because at any time in our lives, we can stop owning them and they can start owning us. Drunkards. You know, I thought, finally! Finally, I get to this part of the wrist and I can really say, now, I don't have any issues here. I don't over-imbibe, so I don't have to worry about that. But then I went and I read John Calvin's commentary on 1 Corinthians 6. Calvin writes, he, Paul, employs three terms in reproving injustice and injuries. He gives the name of thieves to those who take the advantage of their brethren by any kind of fraud or secret artifice. By extortioners, he means those that violently seize on another's wealth, or like harpies, drew themselves from every quarter and devour. With a view of giving his discourse a wider range, he afterwards adds all covetous persons too. Under the term drunkard, you are to understand him as including those who go to excess in eating. He more particularly reproves revilers because in all probability that city was full of gossip and slanderers. In short, he makes mention chiefly of those vices to which he saw that city Corinth was addicted. Calvin said, drunkards includes those who go to excess in eating. Now Calvin, you're starting to meddle. You're pushing me out of my comfort zone. Now you're starting to step on my toes a little bit. Now Calvin points out a sin that I deal with that's a little bit more visible than a lot of other sins in this list. A little harder to hide than other things. And yet I wonder how many of us, myself included, have secret sins that we cling to that we wish no one would ever find out about. So I pray that we learn to hate our sin. that instead of clinging to sin, we cling to the goodness and love of Jesus Christ and seek to repent. Revilers. The word revile means to speak about someone or something in a very critical or insulting way. How many times have our words gotten us into trouble? How many times have we said things that we should not have said, that we wish we could have taken back or used language we should have not have used, whether or not it was profanity or Using the Lord's name in vain that we would recognize as an outright sin, what about words that damage and cut and hurt others around us? Words of criticism and not of encouragement. Harsh words. Words that bite like venom. You know that childhood phrase, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. It's a lie. It's a lie. We need to learn to know when to speak and what to speak and when to refrain from speaking. And finally, we get to swindlers. That word swindler reminds me of the con artist, you know, the snake oil salesman trying to sell you something that's just too good to be true. But in our own selfishness and pride, aren't we all swindlers at heart? I'll give you the smallest piece of cake and take the biggest one for myself. I deserve the first place in line. I deserve that break today, hopefully not at McDonald's, but at someplace nice. Swindlers and manipulators are we all if we're left to our own devices. There's a great commentary on sanctification in the Reformation Study Bible on this passage. It says, according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 35, sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. It is a continuing change worked in us by God, freeing us from sinful habits and forming in us Christlike affections, dispositions, and virtues. It does not mean that sin is instantly eradicated, but it is also more than a counteraction. in which sin is merely restrained or repressed without being progressively destroyed. Sanctification is a real transformation, not just the appearance of one." Sanctification is a real transformation, not just the appearance of one. We spent a lot of time today looking at this list of sins in verses 9 and 10. Sins that will not inherit the kingdom of God, Paul writes. Matthew Henry in his commentary wrote, unrighteousness is sin, all reigning sin, nay every actual sin committed with design and not repented of shuts out of the kingdom of heaven. Henry says every sin committed with design, deliberately, and not repented of shuts out of the kingdom of heaven. Are you living today in unrepentant sin? What is it today in your life that you need to deal with. And I would venture to say when I just said that, that something popped into your mind right then. Don't push that thought away. Don't bury that thought. Deal with your sin. Repent and turn to Christ. It's only by the Spirit's help and power that we can deal with the sin in our lives. It's not a matter of willpower. It's not a matter of discipline and habit. Discipline is good. But we need to spend less time with the latest self-help psychobabble and more time on our knees before God and in his word with broken and contrite hearts. We know that we're not righteous. We know that we cannot attain salvation by good works. We know that we are commanded to be slaves to righteousness instead of slaves to sin. In verse 11, Paul speaks of the good news for the sinners in Corinth and these sinners here in Wyoming. He says, 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. You'll notice here that Paul does not write, and such are some of you. He uses the word were. He uses a past tense. In the Greek word, we translate the word were as a verb that denotes continual action in the past, in past time. You were these things. I don't think Paul was naive enough to think that everyone in Corinth was completely sanctified by this time. If he thought everyone was sanctified, he would have never written that first letter to Corinthians that we read about in the Bible. There's a lot of struggling. There's a lot of sin going on in the church. And Paul points those things out and he rebukes them. But here he takes this group of sins, this list if you will, and he says, and such were some of you. It's almost a directive and a reminder not to live this way any longer. It's your past life. It's what you used to be. Part of the problem with our modern world today is that we're not reminded enough of what we have been saved from. Christian, as you look at this list of sins and a host of others that you may be dealing with, remember that 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. Christian, you have been changed by the power of God Almighty, and you do not have to wallow in your sin any longer. Stop feeding the flesh. Stop playing with fire. Stop just going through the motions of your faith. It's time to get serious about it. Remember that you have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood covers you and cleanses you and purifies you and makes you righteous in the sight of God. Remember that you were sanctified and are being sanctified. You now have the power of the Holy Spirit living within you to help you battle that sin. And remember that you are not alone. that you have brothers and sisters in the body of Christ who care for you and who love you and will pray for you. Stop pretending to be holy. For you are not. You were justified. James 5 16 tells us therefore. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. You know, I guess I should have believed Chad a couple of weeks ago when he told me I wouldn't get to verse 20 in this sermon. And I really wanted to make it to the end because that shows part of why we have the tendency to change the word in verse 11 from were to are. And such are some of you instead of such were some of you. Because today we see people who wear the name of Christ living in unrepentant sin. We see people who wear the name of Christ boasting of their sin. Saying that they willingly engaged in sexual immorality on surveys. And we think, and such are some of you. Not were. I think it's because we have watered down the gospel of Jesus Christ and we have made grace cheap. must skip ahead from verse 11 to verse 20. The last verse of chapter 6 says, For you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. We do not remember enough the price that was paid for our salvation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who died in a concentration camp toward the end of World War II and he wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship And in that book he wrote about cheap grace. He said cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field. For the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy for which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow. and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of His Son. You were bought at a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace Because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for your life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God. Let's pray together. Father, this morning we thank you for your word. We thank you for the great price that you are willing to pay. That you offered up your son to deal with our sin problem because we could not earn our salvation. We couldn't do enough good works. We couldn't merit your favor. You and your love chose to show your grace to us. Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Thank you that we do not have to live in our sin, that we don't have to wallow in it. I pray that you would help us to hate our sin, not to cling to it, that we would Seek your face. That we would seek your word. That as we struggle, that we would be honest in our struggles. That we would confess our sins to one another. That we would ask for help and prayers. Lord, you have given us a body. You have given us a church family. Friends who are there to counsel and encourage. You've given us your word. You've given us your spirit. Help us in this sanctification, which is a journey as we strive to live more holy lives. We thank you for the power that you give us to do that. In Jesus name, Amen.