WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.400 Let's take your seats. Turn back in 1 Corinthians, page 952 of the Black Church. 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:29.980 ! Let's pray one more time as we come to God's Word. Father, in these moments we would ask that you would speak by that word that you have inspired and that we would hear and that by the same Spirit who inspired your word, we would be heard. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.840 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:54.760 There's something in all of us that really desires to be well thought of and to be respectable to those around us and to have a good reputation, not to be that guy or that girl or a bit odd. 00:00:54.759 --> 00:01:02.539 And in this day and age, the unfortunate truth is that that makes being a Christian really difficult. 00:01:02.539 --> 00:01:13.480 We wish it wasn't the case, but it is the fact that the one we follow was rejected and mocked and beaten and eventually killed. 00:01:14.359 --> 00:01:22.680 And he tells us that if we are going to belong to him, if we're going to follow him faithfully and obediently, we will have to walk the same path. 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:26.720 Anyone who comes after me must take up his cross. 00:01:27.020 --> 00:01:33.920 That is, he must do the same things that I did as I followed the path of obedience to my Father. 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:37.780 Well, that's a bracing way to begin this morning. 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:40.080 But it is true. 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:41.520 It is true. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:48.140 If anyone will come after me, Jesus says, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 00:01:48.739 --> 00:02:00.319 And the problem we have with that is that the draw to respectability, the draw to being well thought of and liked and respected and appreciated by those around us, it's so strong. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:05.439 We don't want to be thought of as weird or, as the culture would have it now, bigoted. 00:02:06.399 --> 00:02:08.159 That's what we're told. 00:02:08.859 --> 00:02:14.139 The culture may, well, it will always invent another slur that will be unpleasant. 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:17.019 And because of that, we try to fit in as much as we can. 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:19.479 We try and make sure that we don't stand out. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:22.019 We try and be respectable. 00:02:22.359 --> 00:02:25.599 That's been the case with the church and our nation for a while now. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:33.639 We say to the world, we say to our neighbors, we say to our friends, don't think that I'm one of those kind of Christians, whatever those kind of Christians are. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.099 Look, look, I do all the same things you do. 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:37.359 I'm very much like you. 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:38.439 We have the same values. 00:02:38.799 --> 00:02:40.079 Our children are very similar. 00:02:40.519 --> 00:02:47.199 It's just that I have some private beliefs about God that are really no different from the private beliefs that you have about whatever it is you believe. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:03:03.239 The UK church has managed to spin what Jesus calls us to such that the life of the cross that we say that we walk actually looks a lot like the lives that our neighbors and our work colleagues live. 00:03:04.579 --> 00:03:07.939 And so, we turn to the church at Corinth. 00:03:07.939 --> 00:03:17.840 We're going to be here over the coming weeks, months probably, and what we realize is that their situation is not as unfamiliar to us as it should be. 00:03:18.659 --> 00:03:21.180 So, by way of context, Corinth is an impressive city. 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:22.020 It's cosmopolitan. 00:03:22.139 --> 00:03:22.539 It's wealthy. 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:23.219 It's important. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:27.379 And the church in Corinth wants a Christianity that fits in with that. 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:32.020 Cosmopolitan, wealthy, important, well-thought-of Christianity. 00:03:32.419 --> 00:03:37.719 They love this church, loves influential people who do business and socialize in the right places. 00:03:37.719 --> 00:03:39.819 That's chapters 8 and 10, 8, 9, and 10. 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:46.039 And they're embarrassed about weakness and ordinariness in the eyes of the world. 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:48.259 If we're honest, we're just the same. 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:52.900 We want an impressive Christianity that impressive people will embrace. 00:03:53.079 --> 00:03:58.900 Think about the fuss that we make when famous people or impressive people show any kind of interest in Christianity. 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:04.840 Think about how much we'll suck up to famous people when they express an interest in our gospel. 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:08.979 Corinth wants to identify with the right kind of leaders. 00:04:09.719 --> 00:04:13.000 And because of that, factions have crept in to the church. 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:16.439 Chapter 3, I follow Paul. 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:18.759 I follow Apollos. 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.639 Well, we have the cult of the leader everywhere today. 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:28.579 Whether it's sport or politics or online personalities, and the church has its celebrity culture as well. 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:36.800 Because of the online availability of big names all over the place, I follow dot, dot, dot, whoever your minister of choice is. 00:04:38.659 --> 00:04:41.919 Individualism and the pursuit of personal pleasure. 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:46.399 They're rife in Corinth, especially when it comes to sex and marriage. 00:04:46.500 --> 00:04:48.299 Chapters 6 and 7 make that clear. 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:53.980 In fact, Aristophanes coined the term Corinthian to describe sexual immorality. 00:04:55.699 --> 00:05:01.699 Well, in our day, our state church seems to be happy with all kinds of deviancy and perversion. 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:03.860 And we know it's not just there. 00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:05.699 It's everywhere. 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:09.840 Then there are divisions in society between rich and poor. 00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:13.740 And those divisions that are out there have come into the church as well. 00:05:13.740 --> 00:05:16.620 As has the Corinthian confusion about gender. 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:20.240 Chapter 11, we'll get there, Lord willing, in a few weeks' time. 00:05:20.340 --> 00:05:23.439 And the church is also divided about the gifts that God has given them. 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:24.699 Chapters 12 to 14. 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:29.060 They behave like there's an elite group in the church. 00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:29.960 Special group. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:31.740 And then there are the rest. 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:39.500 They believe that that sort of in crowd and outsider thing is something that God promotes. 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:43.860 God blesses some people in a particular way and the rest will their second rate. 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:50.240 It's simply the elitism of Corinthian culture that has come into the church and been baptized in spiritual language. 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:59.480 This church, the church in Corinth, is an example of what happens when your desire for respectability with the watching world, 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:05.139 acceptability in the eyes of those around you, is allowed to run and run. 00:06:05.579 --> 00:06:08.839 When the church looks the same as the world. 00:06:08.839 --> 00:06:19.199 And the letter to the Corinthian church, this 1 Corinthians, is what the Apostle Paul writes to challenge that state of affairs. 00:06:19.299 --> 00:06:21.599 To challenge that mindset and to course correct. 00:06:21.819 --> 00:06:24.579 And to encourage them to do that, to do it urgently. 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:26.500 He speaks very directly. 00:06:26.719 --> 00:06:29.500 It's clear there's been some dialogue between them before this letter. 00:06:29.959 --> 00:06:32.000 We think this is actually the second letter. 00:06:32.159 --> 00:06:33.779 And then 2 Corinthians is the fourth letter. 00:06:33.899 --> 00:06:35.259 So there's a first and a third. 00:06:35.679 --> 00:06:36.779 These are the ones we have. 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:38.399 There's been dialogue before. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:43.279 And it's clear that he's responding in some ways to questions that they've asked. 00:06:43.979 --> 00:06:50.959 But because he knows that this overriding issue, where their desire for acceptability in the eyes of Corinthian culture, 00:06:51.039 --> 00:06:54.459 has seeped so much into the church and caused so much compromise. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:58.279 Because he realizes that that is so serious, he speaks very directly. 00:06:58.519 --> 00:06:59.819 He doesn't mince his words. 00:06:59.919 --> 00:07:01.759 And he wants them to act decisively. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:04.360 He's not saying, here are a few suggestions. 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:06.800 This is not great over here. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.939 Maybe you could do that over there. 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:10.459 No, he speaks directly. 00:07:10.659 --> 00:07:11.779 He calls them to repent. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.439 He calls them to change their behavior. 00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:15.980 And he calls them to do it now. 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:24.340 Now, we'll see all of that unfold, Lord willing, over the course of this letter and these studies on Sunday mornings. 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:32.540 But with all that said, he starts his letter with a surprise. 00:07:32.540 --> 00:07:40.819 You see, given what I've just highlighted about the state of the church, how would you begin if you were writing a letter to them? 00:07:41.340 --> 00:07:42.260 How would you start? 00:07:43.540 --> 00:07:46.300 Perhaps you'd say, I've seen all these things. 00:07:46.420 --> 00:07:46.960 Cut it out. 00:07:47.340 --> 00:07:47.860 Stop it. 00:07:49.740 --> 00:07:51.800 I wonder if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.780 If you were going to write a letter to people like that, what would you say? 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:59.100 You'd say, you're a load of hypocrites. 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:06.800 In fact, the Lord Jesus uses language like that to people who are outwardly religious, but inwardly they are self-serving. 00:08:06.860 --> 00:08:09.080 He uses that language in the Gospels. 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:13.460 It would be a fair thing to level at the church in Corinth in many ways. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:15.480 Maybe you wouldn't say anything. 00:08:16.400 --> 00:08:20.420 Maybe you'd shake your head and you'd walk away thinking that you were right all along. 00:08:20.740 --> 00:08:23.680 There is actually nothing in this Christian thing. 00:08:24.140 --> 00:08:27.860 You see, the Christians, they say they're Christians, but they're no different to anybody else. 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:38.779 If that's you, I want to encourage you this morning to stick with this sermon series in 1 Corinthians and listen in to how the apostle addresses these hypocritical Christians. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.500 But I would also encourage you to look around this church. 00:08:44.420 --> 00:08:49.120 Look around this church here because I hope, broadly speaking, you won't see these problems here. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:09:00.419 What you'll see is a group of flawed people, yes, sinful people, but who, because they know that they are flawed and sinful, because we know that that's how we are, well, we're repentant. 00:09:00.740 --> 00:09:04.639 And we don't glorify in the sin the way the Corinthians were doing. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:14.080 I want to encourage you to listen to what the apostle Paul tells the Corinthians to do, what he calls them to, and see if you can see that around here at IPC Ealing. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:23.240 However you would start the letter, Paul must, he surely starts in a surprising place. 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:24.039 Look at verse 1. 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:25.039 Paul, 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:41.339 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:47.039 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:47.159 Christ. 00:09:48.379 --> 00:09:52.480 That's actually a remarkable opening from the apostle Paul. 00:09:52.699 --> 00:10:01.679 See, despite all the sin, despite all the compromise that he is going to go on to call out, he starts with God's grace to them. 00:10:02.919 --> 00:10:09.679 He starts with God's grace to this group of people that have wandered so far, and he does, he reminds them of two things. 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:12.120 And that's our first point is this. 00:10:12.539 --> 00:10:16.719 He reminds them of their status, who they are. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:23.059 He reminds them of their status, who they are. They are the church of God. They are chosen by 00:10:23.059 --> 00:10:29.879 Him in verse 2, sanctified in Christ Jesus. Sanctified means set apart. They are set apart 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:36.659 in Christ. They are united to Him, and therefore they are declared to be righteous before God. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:43.799 Jesus' death and resurrection have been credited to them. They are forgiven their sins. They are 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:52.779 cleansed. They are renewed. They have been declared to be holy. As part of that new status, they are then, 00:10:52.779 --> 00:11:00.359 verse 2, called to be saints. To be a saint is to be holy. They have been set apart to be holy. They 00:11:00.359 --> 00:11:07.319 have been called to be holy. For Paul, to be a saint is a Christian, nothing more. So, they're called to 00:11:07.319 --> 00:11:13.120 be Christians together with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:19.759 So, do you see, just as Paul was called to be an apostle of Christ, verse 1, in that encounter with 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:24.719 the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road, so the Corinthians have been called to be saints. 00:11:26.219 --> 00:11:33.979 Paul did not achieve his apostleship, and the Corinthians did not achieve their status as holy. 00:11:33.980 --> 00:11:41.899 The way it works is that when someone calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, it shows that God has called 00:11:41.899 --> 00:11:50.639 them. Salvation is always God's work. We respond, we answer, we repent of our sins, we believe, we call 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:57.860 on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but only because God has first changed our hearts. And we should note 00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:03.820 also that the root of the word here for sanctified and saints are variations of the name of the Holy 00:12:03.820 --> 00:12:11.360 Spirit. Paul is saying that when someone calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is at work, 00:12:11.740 --> 00:12:16.820 and God's Holy Spirit is self-evidently present, therefore, in their life together. 00:12:18.300 --> 00:12:24.300 So, can you see, Paul is starting with their status as a way of reminding this church the astonishing 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:30.639 grace that they have been shown by God? But he starts here also because of the responsibility 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:39.039 that comes with that calling. God chose these people to be saints. He chose them to be His holy 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:46.240 ones, those who were set apart and distinctive. That's what it means to be holy. It is to be distinctive 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:52.519 in the way that you live. It is to be different from those around us who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:12:54.299 --> 00:13:00.659 Not everyone in this city had known the blessing of Christ's grace, but those who did now come under 00:13:00.659 --> 00:13:08.259 His Lordship. When you receive His grace and you confess His name, you come under His Lordship in 00:13:08.259 --> 00:13:14.279 your life in a personal way. That means simply this, the Lord Jesus Christ owns His people. 00:13:16.079 --> 00:13:20.500 It's a very unpopular thing to suggest to a culture that thinks we shouldn't be owned by anybody, 00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:26.539 we shouldn't be mastered by anything. But actually, Christ owns His people. When someone is, verse 9, 00:13:26.659 --> 00:13:32.840 called into the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, they are united to Him. Putting 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:38.440 our faith in Jesus connects us to Jesus, and it means that we are called to live accordingly. We are 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:47.100 called to live by His ways, His rules, His plans. In fact, this will be the basis of all the rebukes 00:13:47.100 --> 00:13:52.600 that Paul gives in his letter. He's saying, stop behaving like this. He calls out a sin. He says, 00:13:52.680 --> 00:13:59.800 stop it. Why? Because you belong to Christ. There is a special bond. Theologians call it the mystical 00:13:59.800 --> 00:14:08.100 union between Christ and His people. He is the head, and we are His body. So, in this union, in this 00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:14.100 connection, we don't just take the name Christian with us wherever we go. There's a sense in which we 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:20.060 take Him with us as well. We are united to Him in this mystical, mysterious way. 00:14:21.820 --> 00:14:28.680 And what it means is that He is in charge. We take Him with us, but not as we might take our pet with 00:14:28.680 --> 00:14:34.779 us for a walk. We take Him with us, and He is in charge. He sets the course. He is Lord. 00:14:37.100 --> 00:14:43.279 By starting with God's grace, Paul is both reminding the Corinthians of the incredible blessing that they 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:51.279 have received. But He is calling them to live accordingly. If you have received Christ's 00:14:51.279 --> 00:15:02.299 grace, your status is that you are holy. You have been set apart for Him. But that also means that He 00:15:02.299 --> 00:15:11.039 has total claim over your life, every square inch. Now, it is vital that we get it this way around. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:19.259 He calls, He sets apart, and we respond. Now, Paul will speak to this church very harshly in places, 00:15:19.439 --> 00:15:25.019 but in order that they will be able to hear these rebukes, they first need to hear these assurances. 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:27.919 And that's true for all of us. 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:37.219 You see, you will only hear, we will only hear a rebuke against our ungodliness. 00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:44.759 We will only hear a call to change our lives and live in obedience if we have first heard the word 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:51.759 of comfort and assurance from God. God's word always delivers grace before correction. 00:15:54.200 --> 00:16:01.800 Again, Paul is saying, you've had all the grace. You belong to Jesus. So, stop living like that's not 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:09.959 true. And I want us to hear Him on this too. If you are naming Christ, but you are choosing the 00:16:09.959 --> 00:16:15.599 respectability of the culture such that you disobey Christ. If you call yourself a Christian, 00:16:15.599 --> 00:16:23.240 but you're persisting in some unrepentant sin, stop. Why should you stop? Because you received 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:33.440 Christ's gracious salvation. He has been so kind to you. But that also means that you belong to Him. 00:16:34.659 --> 00:16:43.680 You have a new status. You have a new identity. I've used this illustration before, but in order 00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:49.379 to grasp this, think about it in terms of the way it is for a child who is adopted. Some of you have 00:16:49.379 --> 00:16:55.720 experienced this, you know what I'm talking about. The child is taken out of one usually awful situation 00:16:55.720 --> 00:17:02.039 and they are brought into a new family. And in that new family, they receive love and they receive 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:05.819 blessing and more kindness than they could ever have known before they were adopted. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:13.559 And they take the new family name and they are expected to abide by the new family rules. 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:20.899 No, you don't do that because hunters don't behave that way. Hunters behave in a different way. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:28.200 And often with adopted children, their past means that their bad behavior is a means of protection. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:33.839 So they'll steal their new siblings food. It used to be that they didn't know when another meal was 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:38.579 coming and so they needed to take care of themselves. So what does their father say now? He says, 00:17:38.579 --> 00:17:45.159 no, you don't do that. Why? Because you have no need. You have no reason to live that way. In this 00:17:45.159 --> 00:17:51.119 place, you are loved and protected and we will always provide for you. You see what's happening 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:56.619 there? The new identity means that there is a new behavior that's expected and the bad behavior that 00:17:56.619 --> 00:18:02.639 used to belong in the old identity, when it comes through, it is corrected because you don't need to 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:10.320 live that way in the new world. And it's like that for us as Christians. Paul is talking to the 00:18:10.320 --> 00:18:15.680 Corinthians in this way. It is vital that we see this. You have no good reason to sin. There is 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:21.600 nothing to be gained by choosing the world's respectability over Christ. He has blessed you 00:18:21.600 --> 00:18:28.420 beyond measure. You are in fellowship with the living God. It's an astonishing thing. 00:18:28.420 --> 00:18:35.740 And you are the recipient of grace and mercy in abundance. 00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:44.380 And because of that grace and mercy, He has promised that He will steer you through all the way to glory. 00:18:44.500 --> 00:18:50.539 You don't need to live like that that belongs to the old identity because God is gracious to you. 00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:54.160 He loves you and He will give you all that you need. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:19:01.060 And to choose the alternative, well, that's out of step with your profession of Christ and your status 00:19:01.060 --> 00:19:02.240 as a saint. 00:19:06.340 --> 00:19:10.380 By the way, again, if you're not a Christian, can I say it's vital that you understand this order as 00:19:10.380 --> 00:19:15.880 well. Grace comes before instruction. You receive the grace from God and He instructs you on how to live. 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:21.460 Jesus doesn't ask you to clean up your life in order to come to Him. He says, 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:27.920 come to me in faith. Receive the free gift. Receive the grace of salvation. Let me take your guilt. 00:19:28.039 --> 00:19:32.620 Let me take your shame. Let me take all of the shortcomings and let me give you new life. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:39.120 There's an open invite. Grace upon grace upon grace. 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:47.059 So, Paul starts by reminding the Corinthians who they are. But God has blessed them even more than 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:51.740 that. It's not just their status. Secondly, point number two, He reminds them of their gifts. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:57.559 He reminds them of their status, who they are. Secondly, He reminds them of their gifts, what they 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:04.799 have. I give thanks, verse 4, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:10.000 was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him in all speech and all 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:15.659 knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in 00:20:15.660 --> 00:20:20.640 any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:29.080 guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. One of the ways that Paul can see so 00:20:29.080 --> 00:20:34.779 clearly that the Corinthians belong to God is the presence of God's gifting among them in their 00:20:34.779 --> 00:20:42.920 knowledge of the gospel and their ability to teach others. Paul can thank God because this church lacks 00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:49.080 nothing, He said. They lack nothing in terms of His gift. And He's saying, when I see the gifts, 00:20:49.140 --> 00:20:55.100 it confirms that He has been gracious to you. Going a step further, because this is evident, 00:20:55.259 --> 00:21:00.900 Paul then says, having started this work in them, God will continue it to completion and get them safely 00:21:00.900 --> 00:21:08.160 to glory. The church might look like a complete shambles, and Paul is going to tackle the mess head on. 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:13.460 He'll call them carnal in chapter 3 rather than spiritual, saying you're more worldly than you are 00:21:13.460 --> 00:21:18.920 spiritual. He will go for that, but that doesn't take away from the height of these introductory words. 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:24.259 The Corinthians have been richly gifted by God, and this shows that He is at work in them, and when God 00:21:24.259 --> 00:21:33.160 starts a work, He finishes it. Did you hear how cumbersome it sounded? Paul trips over himself to keep 00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:38.480 naming Jesus, Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, that you have in Christ, in Jesus Christ. 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:46.820 They're in Christ, and Christ is in them. And that is another way of encouraging the change their ways, 00:21:46.900 --> 00:21:52.100 both positively. He's saying you've been gifted so much, blessing on blessing. Why would you throw it 00:21:52.100 --> 00:21:58.420 back in His face? But also negatively. He's saying when Christ is in you, and He has gifted you, 00:21:58.420 --> 00:22:04.740 and He will then do what it takes to get you to the end, persisting in sin is actually a dangerous 00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:10.620 thing to do. Now, it is possible, I suppose, that some of the Corinthians didn't realize they were 00:22:10.620 --> 00:22:16.259 sinning with such a high hand. Being divisive isn't always obvious. You might not realize that taking 00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:21.860 other believers to a secular court is wrong. If you're enmeshed in the culture, what you think 00:22:21.859 --> 00:22:31.159 is normal will be skewed, for sure. So, Paul is saying, if Christ is in you, and He appears to be 00:22:31.159 --> 00:22:37.000 in you, I can see that in the way that you're gifted, don't do these things, because you're inviting the 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:43.379 refining of the Lord as He prepares you for the last day. What he's saying, in a sense, is leave the sin 00:22:43.379 --> 00:22:48.599 behind you so that the Lord doesn't have to knock it out of you along the way. Repent now so that He 00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:53.219 doesn't have to get to work and make it more painful for you. It's the grace of discipline. 00:22:55.679 --> 00:23:05.439 Chosen by the living God. Set apart for the living God. By the living God. This is where Paul starts, 00:23:05.500 --> 00:23:09.839 with this church that has now wandered away in all kinds of ways and is wayward. 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:20.819 As we think about that for ourselves, here are three implications. First is this. Don't think 00:23:20.819 --> 00:23:31.899 that it can't happen to us. Don't think that this kind of compromise can't happen to us. The 00:23:31.899 --> 00:23:39.639 Corinthians are an example of how far you can fall. They were so blessed, so gifted, 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:47.640 but now they are so unholy. We'll read bits of this letter and we'll think, what were they thinking? 00:23:49.060 --> 00:23:56.560 That's ridiculous. I would never do anything like that. The truth is we're all experts in justifying 00:23:56.560 --> 00:24:04.560 our own sin. We know about that at a small level, how we can justify our behavior in certain ways, 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:11.419 both to ourselves and to others, but we can do it in big ways as well. There's probably a time when the 00:24:11.419 --> 00:24:14.539 guy in chapter 5 who is sleeping with a stepmother would have said to you, 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:20.319 excuse me, you're insane to suggest that I would ever do something like that. Now he's meeting with 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:24.440 a minister and he's saying, look, I know it's not great, but have you seen stepmoms of TikTok? 00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:31.180 There was possibly a time when the church would have dealt decisively with this sort of sin as they're 00:24:31.180 --> 00:24:36.180 called to do in chapter 5, but now they're, well, you know, we're all about grace and stuff. 00:24:39.180 --> 00:24:46.039 Don't be complacent about sin. I hope we'll see as we go through, that's one of the big lessons of 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:50.539 the book, one of the big pastoral lessons of the book for us. Don't be complacent about sin. 00:24:50.539 --> 00:24:56.159 Listen, don't treat God's grace with contempt. Don't think that it can't happen to you. 00:24:58.579 --> 00:25:05.879 Second big implication is on the one hand, I suppose we're taking sin seriously. Don't 00:25:05.879 --> 00:25:09.220 think that it can't happen to us, but then don't think that there's no way back. 00:25:10.139 --> 00:25:15.879 Don't think that there's no way back. One of the aims of this letter is to restore these wandering 00:25:15.880 --> 00:25:20.660 saints. Yes, they have wandered away, and in some cases they have wandered quite a way. 00:25:23.780 --> 00:25:28.580 But one of the points of this letter is that you can fall a very long way and still get back. 00:25:29.900 --> 00:25:34.660 That's not to encourage you. It's not to encourage you to wander and think, well, let's see how far we 00:25:34.660 --> 00:25:41.360 can go. Not at all. But it is to say to those of you that think that you've blown it, you haven't. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:50.719 If you think that you've blown it, you haven't. If you're ensnared by hidden sin and you think either 00:25:50.719 --> 00:25:56.059 that you can't leave it behind or that because you've sinned so badly that God won't have you 00:25:56.059 --> 00:26:00.000 back and therefore if you can't have God, well, that's all you have left and you're going to stay 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:06.919 in your sin because it's the only thing that you have, God will have you back. Turn from it and come 00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:15.620 back to Him. Or if you've fallen into obvious sin and you're consumed with guilt, you can come back. 00:26:16.840 --> 00:26:25.920 So come back. Don't hang about. Come back to Christ. Come back to Christ now. And think about it. Think 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:30.400 about it in the context of what we were just saying. If you belong to Christ, He will bring you back 00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:37.220 because, verse 9, God is faithful. But the longer you wait to respond, the more sin you will have to 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:42.320 repent of, the more shame will have accumulated, and the more regret you'll feel when you finally do 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:51.420 come back. Don't let failure and shame keep you from Christ. Don't let failure and shame keep you 00:26:51.420 --> 00:27:00.700 from Christ. If you can hear my voice this morning, you can come back. Come back. Come back to Christ now. 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.320 Don't think it can't happen to us. Don't think there's no way back. And then thirdly, 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:17.740 don't think the Christian life is all or nothing. What I mean is this. The way some of us are wired, 00:27:17.740 --> 00:27:24.279 we need things to be perfect. And if they're not perfect, they're terrible. There are only two 00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:33.359 options in life, all or nothing. And that means we want the church to have tidy, clear edges, 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:44.220 Christian, not Christian, in, out. Only God knows where those edges actually are. And His work in us 00:27:44.220 --> 00:27:52.799 over a lifetime is very slow. It's slow the way yeast works through bread. It's slow the way a mustard 00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:59.900 seed grows to be the biggest tree in the world. That is why churches get messy, even messy in the 00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:06.860 sort of shameful ways that we see in Corinth. We read this letter and we write them off. We think of 00:28:06.860 --> 00:28:11.380 the Corinthian church negatively, defined by their present sin, but it's not all or nothing. 00:28:11.380 --> 00:28:20.540 Repentance is possible. Change happens. Grace works its way in and is seen as it is lived out. 00:28:21.980 --> 00:28:29.760 Don't be a perfectionist. There's only one who is perfect. And to seek to be… If you're a 00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:34.860 perfectionist, you're seeking to be like the perfect one, and only He is perfect, and that's the sin of 00:28:34.859 --> 00:28:41.219 the garden wanting to be like God. Don't be a perfectionist. It will crush you, or it'll make 00:28:41.219 --> 00:28:50.379 you unbearable, or both. Trust God with His slow, faithful work in you and in your brothers and 00:28:50.379 --> 00:29:00.159 sisters in the church. We might know the Corinthian church by its sin, but Paul starts this letter with 00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:08.200 their true status. And like any Christian, they aren't defined by their sin. They're defined by 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:14.259 the fact that they are sanctified in Christ. These first nine verses in this letter aren't just opening 00:29:14.259 --> 00:29:18.279 pleasantries. He's just not flattering them, buttering them up, something like that. It is 00:29:18.279 --> 00:29:22.920 actually the foundation of everything else. This is the true status of who this church is. This is the 00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:31.960 ground of everything else that He's going to say to them. So, with that in mind, don't settle for 00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:38.800 cultural respectability when you've been called into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Him. 00:29:39.940 --> 00:29:44.740 Stick with Him, because God is faithful. Let's pray.