Let's face it, sexual sin is paralyzing. It brings on crippling guilt and shame, and it makes it easy to forget the gospel of Christian freedom. Jesus wants to heal all the broken places in our lives, especially the hidden ones. Here's message number four in the Do You Not Know series called Healing Sexual Shame: Becoming a New Creation. And be sure to check out the links in the description today.
John Fondrell has been hard at work in the background on a new book called Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity. It comes out this fall, and was based on the current series. We hope you'll take the time to preorder and invest in your Spiritual Growth library. Here's John.
Okay, so if you have the scriptures with you, you can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And we're going to come back this week and we're going to finish verses 9 through 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. And just to refresh you, listen to what the Apostle Paul writes.
He says, 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. Last time in verses 9 and 10, we saw that Paul is taking up the theme of the kingdom of God in verses 9 through 11. And he's taken this theme of the kingdom of God and he's applying it to the problem of sexual immorality and unjust lawsuits in the church.
The Corinthians we saw in the context were arrogantly opposed to the sound teaching that accords with the gospel. And you see that back in chapter 5, verse 2, where Paul says, you are arrogant. The Corinthians did know the centrality of the gospel and its ethical implications for the church being the church. And so what the Apostle Paul does is he reminds the Corinthian believers of a basic fact concerning the kingdom of God in verses 9 through 11. And this is the basic fact in the form of a question, which is really a rebuke.
And he asked the Corinthians in verse 9, and here's the first point. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? This is the basic fact of the kingdom of God. The unrighteous will not inherit it. And so, in verses 9 and 10, what Paul does is he begins by issuing this chilling warning.
And he says that in the consummation of God's kingdom, the serially unrighteous. who are not characterized by repentance, they will not be there. Then righteous who are serenely unrepentant will not be in the consummation of God's kingdom. And he says this twice in verse 9. He says, Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
And in verse 10, he says, Again, he says, these will not inherit the kingdom of God. He's driving home this powerful warning that we're to take very seriously. He says there are some professing believers in the church who are not going to be in the consummation of the kingdom. And so he provides an illustrative list of serial unrepentant sins that leads to exclusion from the kingdom of God in verses 9 and 10. And we went through that whole list, so we're not going to go back through it.
But here was the point. The point that he's making in verses 9 and 10 is this: because unrighteousness will not characterize the consummation of God's kingdom, it is not to be tolerated and characterized in the church today. The ethics of the kingdom yet to come determines the morals of the kingdom that already now is in the church. The kingdom is already, but not yet. And the not-yet aspect, morality, and ethics of the kingdom to come in the future determines how the church is to live ethically now.
And so, what Paul was seeking to do in verses 9 and 10 is he was seeking to humble the Corinthians. They were marked by arrogance, they were marked by pride, they were marked by self-will, self-gratification, self-indulgence. And so Paul is reminding them of their former condition of unrighteousness. And he's using this pedagogical function of the law, which is to do this, it is to give us. A knowledge of our sin and our misery, and to lead us to acknowledge the grace of God in Christ toward us.
And that's what Paul is doing in verses 9 through 10. And then he comes to verse 11. And what he does is John Calvin shows that the greater misery that is to be acknowledged, the greater, listen, the greater the magnitude and kindness of God's grace shines forth. And so you have this contrast in verses 9 and 10 with verse 11. And verses 9 and 10 shine forth.
the magnitude of the grace of God in converting unrighteous people. And so this brings us to two final questions regarding the kingdom of God in verses 9 through 11. And here are the last two questions. If the unrighteous cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and if all of us are the unrighteous, Who can inherit the kingdom and how? Paul answers those questions in verse 11.
The good news is that Paul's warning from the law in verses 9 and 10 is not the final word on the matter. He brings his first argument to this climactic conclusion, and in this amazing, swift change from law and judgment, he gives one of the greatest, hope-filled, life-giving, powerful, most important theological statements in the book of 1 Corinthians, perhaps the whole New Testament, in verse 11. And this is what he says. He says to them. He reminds the Corinthians and affirms them of their conversion and of their new status as citizens in God's kingdom.
He says, And such were some of you, verses 9 and 10. This is what you used to be. But you were washed. But you were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul is contrasting their past with their present. He says, You once were, but now you are. Verses 9 and 10, this is what you were. Verse 11, this is who you are now by the grace of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit. He brings in the whole Trinity to the spiritual transformation of an unrighteous person.
And he says that some of you Corinthians, not all, but some of you prior to your conversion were once sexually immoral. You were once idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, greedy drunkards, revilers, swindlers. You were once excluded from the kingdom of God, but now. Having been granted life through Christ by the Holy Spirit, you are a new creation. You are a new citizen of the kingdom of God.
But there's just hardly more hope-giving words than all the scripture than this. In recounting these Corinthians' remarkable spiritual transformation, Paul lists three verbs in verse 11. And the three verbs are actually the focus of verses 9 through 11, because this is what Paul wants us to get to. These three verbs that we're going to look at this morning show what it looks like for Christ to exercise his kingly power in his kingdom through the scepter of his gospel in order to grant the unrighteous an inheritance in his kingdom. What does it look like for Jesus to rule over men as king?
Verse 11 tells us. Verse 11 shows us his gracious authority. It sets forth the Lord's kindness and the magnitude of His grace shines forth. And these three verbs have great power, great force, and great hope for sinners. All three verbs direct our attention to the gracious action of the triune God.
The gracious actions of the triune God with respect to how unrighteous people inherit the kingdom. And so let's take a closer look at these three verbs that Paul uses to describe the Corinthian spiritual transformation. Look at the first verb. Look at verse 11. He says, but you were washed.
You were washed. What is he referring to? In describing their spiritual transformation, Paul first deals with the doctrine of regeneration. The doctrine of regeneration. Question, how can the unrighteous come to inherit the kingdom of God?
The answer is regeneration. Regeneration is how an unrighteous person inherits the kingdom of God. It is how an unrighteous sinner enters the kingdom of God. Jesus, for example, taught Nicodemus that the spiritual rebirth is indispensable to seeing and entering the kingdom of God. Listen to what Jesus told Nicodemus.
In John chapter 3, he said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see, enter the kingdom of God. Jesus in verse 5 says, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot. Enter the kingdom of God. Regeneration is the entry point to the kingdom of God. It highlights this fact that entrance into the kingdom of God is solely based on grace.
Why? Because look at verses 9 and 10 of chapter 6. In verses 9 and 10 of chapter 6, Paul reveals the unrighteousness of the Corinthians, which underscores their need for grace. There is nothing in verses 9 and 10 that tells us that the Corinthians possess any type of righteousness or merit that would qualify them to have entrance into the kingdom of God. Nothing.
Paul says they were excluded from the kingdom of God. In chapter 2, verse 1 of Ephesians, Paul describes it like this. He says that those who are excluded from the kingdom of God are dead in trespasses and sins.
So here's the question. How can a person who is spiritually dead and morally defiled inherit the kingdom of God? Paul's answer first is this, is that the glory of the gospel is that God in His great grace reaches down to the lowest depths of human need and depravity and moral defilement and meets all the requirements necessary to bring an unrighteous sinner into his kingdom. He washes them. This radical change cannot be explained or attributed to any human resources or merit.
Obviously, in verses 9 and 10, the Corinthians had no merit whatsoever, no spiritual resources, morally defiled, excluded from the kingdom of God. And so Paul says it is by grace alone. Through regeneration, that we become members of the kingdom of God and partakers of the King's blessings in his kingdom.
Now look at the word inherit. In verse 9 and verse 10. It's really important, as I said, Paul uses this word twice. In verses 9 and 10, and the reason this is important is because the word inherit further underscores the need for grace. The kingdom of God is not merited.
You're not like a worker earning a wage. It is an inheritance bestowed freely upon a son by a gracious father, and this, Calvin points out, draws us to the great privilege of adoption. All citizens are adopted sons by the Father, which excels and magnifies the grace and kindness of God, adopting estranged orphans who are unrighteous and making them sons in his kingdom. And so Paul is underscoring inheritance, adoption.
Now, there are two aspects from how you're supposed to understand regeneration. I'm just going to quickly go through this because this has everything to do with your daily life in pursuit of sanctification.
So just listen and get the doctrine, because without the doctrine, there is no practice.
So there are two aspects to the doctrine of regeneration. First, there is recreation. Second, there is purification. First, there is recreation. And this doctrine re in recreation, the Holy Spirit through the announcement of the gospel.
Sovereignly and graciously raises to life in Christ those who are spiritually dead. Ephesians chapter 2, which we read this morning when we pronounced this good news to you, you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, God has made alive and raised you up with Christ. And so, in short, what the Holy Spirit does in regeneration is he creates newness of life. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come.
So that's recreation. He literally creates out of nothing something new. Second, Regeneration entails purification. In regeneration, the Holy Spirit purges and washes away the defilements of our hearts because of our unrighteousness. Paul most likely begins with this emphasis in chapter 6 when he says, but you were washed because in the context he's addressing sexual sin that is most defiling of body and spirit.
And because he says that nothing unrighteous or unclean will enter God's kingdom, it is necessary for the unrighteous to be spiritually cleansed and made fit by the king himself to have entrance into the kingdom. And so Paul uses this verb: you are washed, which stresses the inward removal of dirt. The inward washing of filth. And the filth that they were washed from is verses 9 and 10. This ungodly lifestyle that was a part of their pagan past growing up in Corinth.
Paul says, The Holy Spirit has spiritually cleansed you from the filth of your former sins. He has graciously purged away the defilement of your hearts. This is how the Holy Spirit makes an unrighteous person. Yeah. for entering and inheriting the kingdom of God.
Jesus makes the same point to Nicodemus when he said, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is Jesus talking about? He's simply referring Nicodemus, which Nicodemus should have known as a teacher of the law. He's referring Nicodemus back to Ezekiel 36. I want you to turn back to Ezekiel 36 very briefly.
And let's look at verses 25 and 26, and then verse 27 in just a moment. In Ezekiel 36, Jesus... From John chapter 3, is that the Old Testament parallel of his teaching connecting water and spirit comes from Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel is prophesying of the new covenant to come, the work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. Teaching the doctrine of regeneration.
And this is what Ezekiel the prophet prophesies. Ezekiel 36, verse 25. God, listen to what God promises to do. This is all grace. This is, I am among you as one who serves.
This is God's gracious actions to you in Christ. Making you fit to be a citizen of his kingdom. This is how he lets you inherit the kingdom of God. I will sprinkle clean water on you. And you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and a new spirit, and I will put it within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. In regeneration, we are a holy passive. It is a complete, gracious, sovereign work of the Holy Spirit working through the gospel. And this is what God does for the unrighteous.
This is remarkably good news.
Some back in First Corinthians chapter 6 see in Paul's word in allusion to baptism.
Now, certainly baptism serves as a sign and seal of regeneration, but it does not affect it. Paul says that this washing was done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
So if Paul has baptism in mind of this washing, What he is teaching believers is this.
Now, listen carefully to this. We're going to have a baptism class in a couple weeks. And if you've never learned this, come to the baptism class, even if you've been baptized. Because what Paul is teaching, if he's alluding to baptism, is this. He's teaching believers how to make proper use of their baptism and their daily life pursuing sanctification.
You don't just get baptized one time in your life and then forget about it. You use it every single day of your life to pursue holiness. And so, what Paul, if he's alluding to baptism here, is teaching is that baptism is a powerful, visible sign and seal, which means it's a guarantee. You see it, you experience it, it is a guarantee. It's like a neon line, neon light flashing.
Your filth and your shame is washed away.
So what is Paul's point? Here's his point. Because the Corinthians have been washed, they must no longer disgrace themselves with new defilements of sexual sin. That's his point. And his point is also: this: if you defy yourself and you become ashamed, what do people not want to do?
When they're ashamed, Adam and Eve, you do not want to be totally naked, exposed before the living God who is holy and righteous, because you're ashamed of your filth and your defilement. And so, what does God, the Holy Spirit, assure you of? You don't have to be ashamed if you're a believer because your shame has been washed away. You are clean. You have been brought to life by the Holy Spirit.
All the defilement. A filth of your past sin or your present failure as a Christian is washed away, and you don't have to be afraid of God. You are clean. Use your baptism to continually guarantee this washing truth of the gospel for your life, and then you'll pursue holiness. But until you come to understand this doctrinal truth of regeneration, you will not pursue holiness.
Sexual sin leaves a person defiled, naked, open, and ashamed before God and people.
So what does God do for those people who are suffering in their shame, openly exposed before the world to see? This is what he does in his kingdom. He exercises the scepter of his gospel through the Holy Spirit, and he washes you. He cleanses you from all your defilement, gives you a new nature that is pure and undefiled. And gives you newness of life so that now you can go for the first time in your life and obey.
Going back to Ezekiel thirty-six and verse twenty-seven. Ezekiel says this: He says, After God has cleansed the sinner, Verse 25. After he has recreated a new heart, taken out the heart of stone, given a heart of flesh, recreated a new heart, purified and recreated. Listen to verse 27. After he is purified and recreated, God says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk.
In my statutes. and be careful to obey my rules. What is Paul teaching us about the doctrine of regeneration in terms of its application to sexual purity? Listen carefully. Regeneration, Paul says, is the basis of all change in your heart and life.
You have been cleansed and you have been brought to life and given a new heart. That Paul says, that Ezekiel says, and Paul says, and Jesus in John 3 says, that the Holy Spirit is now causing you to be careful to keep the rules, the laws of the king. This is the basis of all change. and heart and life. You have no excuse now, Corinthians.
You have been washed. You have been brought to life. You have been given a new spirit. You've been made new creations by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. And now your heart wants to carefully obey and follow the laws of the kingdom of God.
This is the root. Regeneration is the root of all true obedience in the pursuit and basis for holiness in our life. And so you use your baptism to remind you to go back to this regenerating truth of God. I've been washed, I've been recreated, I've been purified, I've been granted the gift of the Holy Spirit, I'm a new creation in Christ. I have been raised from the waters to walk in newness of life.
This is who I am.
Now we're going to go live it. Second. In describing their conversion, Paul deals with the doctrine of definitive sanctification. Look at verse 11. He says, But you were washed, but you were sanctified.
Through the preaching of the gospel, the Corinthians received the gift of regeneration and the gift of sanctification.
Now in the context here As we previously learned, and if you want to go back and get the details, go back to Do You Not Know Part 2, and I go into great detail about definitive sanctification, but I'm just going to hit on it here since I've already covered it in detail. But what Paul has in mind here is this: it's not the process of sanctification. That is slowly but surely through agony and failure and defeat with a few victories thrown in, becoming like Jesus. It's not what he's talking about. He's talking about definitive sanctification, which is this.
By the electing grace of God. God has chosen to set apart his people from their former state of sin and make them saints, make them holy so that they can be used for holy purposes in his kingdom. That's definitive sanctification. And that's what Paul is talking about here. Paul begins his letter with the doctrine of definitive sanctification in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2.
Listen to how he addresses the Corinthians, who are a theological and moral mess. He says to them in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints.
So, what is Paul's point to direct these believers who are failing in the area of sexual purity? What is his point to get them to pursue holiness? Here's this point. It's very simple. Because you have been set apart, sanctified by God, to be holy and used for holy purposes, stop polluting yourself again with unholy purposes, because this is not who you are.
His point's very simple. Here's his point. If regeneration is the basis of all change in heart and life, definitive sanctification is the purpose for that change. You have been set apart by God for himself to be saints, to be used in his kingdom for holy purposes, definitive sanctification. And you've been given a new heart that wants to respond to the king's laws because you've been washed from all your defilement.
So now be who you are. God had made these unrighteous sinners holy. He had made them suitable citizens for his kingdom. And this stands in stark contrast to verses 9 and 10, where Paul says they were excluded. You were sanctified, but you were formerly excluded from the kingdom of God.
But this is how God, by grace, brought you in. What does sexual sin do? It leaves us polluted and set apart for unholy purposes by which God has never, ever designed us to be and to live. And so, what does God do? He sanctifies us.
In His kingdom, He sets us apart for holy purposes and holy use. And it is precisely because we have been set apart by God. To be holy, to be saints, that we are given the moral imperative to be that. As we saw a couple weeks ago, the Christian faith is not calling us to do and be something that we are not already definitively made by God to be and do. And so, this brings us to the third aspect of Paul's description of the Corinthians' gracious transformation.
He says, You have been regenerated. You have been definitively sanctified, set apart, made holy saints of God to be used in the kingdom for holy purposes. And third, he says, look, he says, but you are justified. Through the preaching of the gospel, the Corinthians received the gift of regeneration. They received the gift of definitive sanctification.
And then, third, Paul says, they received the gift of justification. Are you beginning to see why, if you don't know the gospel, you can't live the Christian life? If you don't know what regeneration is, It can't give you hope. If you don't know what definitive sanctification is, you don't know the purpose for why you were set apart, you don't know what the purpose of your life is, and if you don't know what justification is, listen, justification is the chief article of the Christian faith and life. Everything hinges on justification.
Everything. Paul says in verses 9 and 10: the unrighteous Corinthians were excluded from the kingdom of God.
So, how can the unrighteous? come to inherit the kingdom of God. This is the good news of the gospel. The king declares the unrighteous. justified.
This is astounding. This is astounding. What is justification? What is it for the king to exercise his verdict from his throne and say, You're justified? What is this?
Listen carefully, and then we're going to apply it. Here's the doctrine. Justification is God, the judge's verdict. that declares the unrighteous to be righteous even while they are within themselves inherently unrighteous. And the reason it is not a legal fiction but a true declaration, and the reason it is not unjust but just for a judge to declare an unrighteous person righteous when they're not.
It's because the judgment rendered by the king is given on the basis of the righteousness of Christ himself. And all of that perfect righteousness is declared, reckoned to you as if it is yours, so that when the king in his kingdom declares you unrighteous to be righteous, it is just as if you have never sinned and just as if you have always obeyed every second of every moment of your whole life. And so though formerly unrighteous, God justifies the Corinthians so that they could be counted righteous and inherit the kingdom from which they were formerly excluded.
So that's the doctrine. Why does Paul remind the Corinthians of that in the context of sexual purity in the church? How does the gospel of justification apply to my daily life of sanctification? Here's his point. Sexual sin results in paralyzing guilt, regret, and self-condemnation.
And Paul says, because the Corinthians were justified by the king. They must not now call down upon themselves self-condemnation and live in self-regret and self-remorse. The doctrine of justification frees us forever from self-condemnation, from God's condemnation, and the paralyzing guilt and regret that we have. because of our failures. Don't forget the nature of the kingdom of God that we're looking at here is the already, but not yet, aspect of the kingdom that we live in.
Because of that, The point is none of us are perfect. And all of us, even though sin Since dominion has been overthrown, And all of us have been declared justified by the king. Sin still indwells believers because the consummation of the kingdom hasn't occurred yet. But we're not perfect yet. Paul talks about this continual tension and struggle in Galatians chapter 5, verse 17, which is Paramount's favorite book of the Bible.
Yeah. And just to remind you, after four and a half years in it, This is what Paul says in Galatians 5, 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. How many of you ever felt like that? Every day, All day long.
Ah! That's me. Because of this continual struggle, even though we've been justified, delivered from the dominion and tyranny of sin, death, and the devil. We continually fall short of the perfect righteousness God requires in His law, and sexual sin for believers. leaves believers paralyzed with crippling guilt.
Every time, what are you young guys in here, or some of you women? Hit the key on the keyboard and go to the website you're not supposed to immediately what you experience. Deep remorse and regret and guilt. You put your head down, you go, why did I do it again? Every time.
And the reason you have this struggle is because the Holy Spirit is in you. Because he's washed you and he is saying, This is not you. Stop. Sexual sin paralyzes us in a crippling guilt and regret for our past and present failures. And how easy, in the midst of our struggles, is it to forget the gospel and to forget that at the moment you are feeling that incredible regret and guilt for what you have done, it is easy to forget you are still right with God.
Struggling Christians. Are right with God. Unstruggling professing Christians are excluded from the kingdom of God. How often do we forget the justifying grace of God in Christ toward us when we fall and fell as Christians in our sin because of the reality of Galatians 5, 17?
So what is it? That will keep us pursuing life change and the pursuit of holiness for sexual purity in the church and not fall in to paralyzing and crippling guilt. What is it? It's the doctrine of justification. You see, listen, if regeneration is the basis of all change in heart and life.
If definitive sanctification is the purpose for this radical spiritual change, Justification is the continual motivation to keep pursuing that change. You see, if every time you sin as a believer, with your gossip. With your sexual sin, with your anger towards your spouse, with your impatience towards your children. With your bitterness toward your boss at work, with your bad attitudes on the highway and cutting people off in traffic, or whatever it is, the sin that you're guilty of. You have to remember the declarative statement of God the king from his throne justified.
Because, see, every time you sin, if you came unjustified, there'd be no hope for you to continually pursue unless you came back and justified yourself. Listen to the Heidelberg Catechism, question 60, and it insightfully gives us an amazing, remarkable truth about justification. Question 60 asks: How are you righteous before God? Here's the answer. Quote.
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God's commandments, have never kept any of them. and am still inclined to all evil. Yet God Without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never nor had ever committed any sin.
And it is as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience for which Christ has rendered for me. If only I accept this with a believing heart. Only true through True faith. That is one of the most remarkable statements of justification written in the history of the church. Every day you and I sin, every day our conscience condemns us on this basis.
And so we must take, listen. We must by faith learn to bring the verdict of our conscience which says guilty. We must learn by faith to bring that verdict of our conscience guilty and to line with the verdict of God's declaration justified. And until you learn on this basis to live by faith in the gospel truth, that you are no longer condemned for your sin forever by the King, you will have no strength to pursue holiness in your daily life. That is why Paul says to the Corinthians, you don't know this, you've forgotten it, so let me remind you, you've been justified.
A self- Conscious awareness of justification is the basis for the continual pursuit of holiness in your life. You have to have this assurance. And so you have to know this cardinal truth of your faith well. You cannot have A kindergarten education understanding of the doctrine of justification. It just won't work.
You must grow in your faith. You must know this cardinal doctrine of your faith well. And you must meditate on it daily. Because you sin daily. And you must pray often.
And long for the Holy Spirit to assure you, both in your head and heart, that you are justified.
Now, just really quickly, I just want to make an observation. You can get it in the notes tomorrow, but note how Paul establishes all of these gospel truths: regeneration, definitive sanctification, justification. Notice how he establishes all of this in the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is not some kind of weird doctrine that's way out there that we can't grasp, has no practical ramifications for our daily life. Paul says this: He says that God has affected regeneration, definitive sanctification, and justification.
How has He done it? Look, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. He's saying that regeneration, sanctification, and justification. The cause of that is the work of Christ in the gospel outside of us. The cause of our salvation is Christ.
But as long as Christ remains outside of us, he doesn't do us any good. And so the Holy Spirit takes the perfect work of Christ outside of us, which is the gospel, and then He unites us to Christ and puts all the blessings that Christ is within us. And that's why Paul says that God has done this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Salvation originates with God the Father, it is carried out by God the Son, it is effected by the agent of God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a Trinitarian work.
The pursuit of holiness is because of a Trinitarian work. This is good news. Your Father is for you. Jesus the Son is for you. God the Holy Spirit, Paul says, is for you.
He is not against you. The Trinity is all for you to bring about why he has washed, sanctified, and justified you. And so Paul emphasizes this total transformation made possible through the work of Christ for us and effected by the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
Now there's a lot more we could say, but we'll wrap this up with just a couple application points. As we reflect on Paul's teaching regarding the spiritual transformation of the Corinthians, I want you to remember this this morning. Remember this. Paul's words are filled with hope for sinners. This is a bad bunch of people.
And so are you. And so am I. Really bad. Unrighteous. But Paul says, in a given moment, God.
The Father, through the Son and by the Holy Spirit, through the announcement of the gospel, cleansed these unrighteous Corinthians from their former defilement. He set them apart for his holy purposes, and he declared them righteous in his sight. Just like that. This is amazing. This is the gospel of the kingdom.
This is the good news of the kingdom. In short, what did God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Father do? He made them citizens of the kingdom of God when they were once excluded, and He can do the same thing for you today. If you're excluded from the kingdom of God. Look to Jesus.
Look to him. He'll wash you. He will set you apart for himself so that you belong to him, so that you can be set apart for holy purposes and fulfill the reason for why you are created. And he can declare you righteous in his sight forever and ever if you'll just come to Jesus and trust him. There's hope for you.
You don't have to live in your sin. There is hope for sinners, and God is exceedingly gracious to you. Second. Paul teaches that all who are transformed by the gospel are expected to live out the implications of the gospel. We don't live the gospel, we live out the implications of the gospel.
Jesus lived the gospel. The gospel Paul teaches brings about a whole new sexual ethic in God's kingdom. And all three saving actions by God: regeneration, sanctification, justification, all of these demonstrate the purpose for why God has graciously delivered us from our unrighteous, excluded state and brought us into the inheritance of his kingdom, which is this: it is to belong to him, the essence of the covenant. The essence of the new covenant through the gospel is to belong to God. To be his people, to be set apart for holy purposes in his kingdom.
And regeneration is the basis for all of this change. Sanctification, definitive sanctification is the purpose for all this change and justification is the motivation to continually pursue this life change in his kingdom. Paul is reminding the Corinthians. On the basis of the gospel, become what you are. Let me just paraphrase it for you like this.
Corinthians, you were once unrighteous, excluded from the kingdom of God, but now by the grace of God you are citizens of his kingdom because you have been washed, set apart for him, and made righteous, declared righteous in his sight. But your problem is that you don't understand who you are. You don't know that you are an inheritor of the kingdom of God. You don't know that you are a people of the Holy Spirit. You don't know this, but instead you are arrogantly tolerating sexual immorality among you as if you are still excluded from the kingdom of God.
But you're not excluded, you are brought in.
So, therefore, because you are a new creation, a saint, act like it. This is his argument. Third, the gospel is not a license to indulge in the sins of unrighteousness. I think this is just so crystal clear, it doesn't need further comment. The gospel does not lead us to arrogant toleration of sexual immorality in our life.
It does not. The gospel, Paul says, brings about through the Holy Spirit a powerful transformation of individuals which issues in a new creation and a new sexual ethic. By which that new creation desires and wants to live by. Fourth, and finally, the gospel is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Let's not lose sight of Paul's emphasis upon the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in this passage. It is profound and it is clear in this text. The coming of the Holy Spirit into the world signifies the coming of God's kingdom. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the church is evidence of the presence of the future consummation of God's kingdom coming. The Holy Spirit is the presence of the future now.
He signifies that all the realities of the consummated kingdom are already now at work in the church, transforming unrighteous people into citizens of the kingdom of God. This is such good news. Paul says that apart from the working of the Holy Spirit, the gospel would fall upon deaf ears. And this morning in our church prayer time, which I'd encourage you to come to at 10 o'clock, I want the whole church to come and pray. Jared and all the other guys in there Pleading, Holy Spirit, open up everybody's eyes today.
Give them hearts to receive, give them ears to hear, minds to comprehend, eyes to see. The Holy Spirit does not work. The gospel falls on deaf ears. He is the one who affects, listen, spiritual resurrections from the dead, the doctrine of regeneration. He brings the dead to life.
He does it through the gospel. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration, sanctification, and justification. And how often do we Ignore the indispensable work and role of the Holy Spirit, all because of overreactions to the excesses of some others in the church. We do it to our own fault. Gordon Fee says that the Holy Spirit belongs to the creed and to our theology, but he is all too often left there.
So that his genuinely transforming and empowering work is often left until the second coming of Christ rather than experienced in the present. The Corinthian church experienced the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified. Let's not forget the ministry of the Holy Spirit in concert with the gospel. He is the one who brings about this powerful, good news spiritual transformation of the unrighteous through the announcement of the gospel.
He affects it. Jesus secured it, and God the Father planned the whole thing, all for your joy and his glory. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com.
We look forward to next time.
