Partially sinful/Partially righteous: What to do with sexual sin

We turn to Jesus and accept the gospel so we can get saved and stop sinning right?  Then WHY do we keep struggling - especially in the area of sexual sins?  Not to mention the guilt that goes along with sinning.  Well, the good news is, struggling with sin, does not mean we are condemned.  John Fonville will help us out with these tough life questions and puts our consciences at ease with Gospel truths such as, you are dead to sin, alive to Christ and, now you are free to believe this and act on it.  Become, who you really are.  

Exciting news!  John Fonville 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 will take the time to pre-order and invest in your spiritual growth library.  

Pre-Order John's New Book - Available Early November 2022:

Hope and Holiness: How the Gospel Enables and Empowers Sexual Purity

https://www.moodypublishers.com/hope-and-holiness?fbclid=IwAR2rE5lUjJWQtmgi0xbQRL9cyt5KlRHunSBL8xBOCCJj3ckfRvzu9lSTZWU

About John

John Fonville is Pastor of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Paramount Church is part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). 

The Him We Proclaim Podcast features the preaching and teaching ministry of Dr. John Fonville at Paramount Church. This resource aims to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people. The gospel cannot be assumed. An assumed gospel will, in time, become a denied gospel. Thus, each generation must rediscover the paramount truths of the gospel and apply the gospel's implications to their own day and age. Him we proclaim (Col. 1:28)!

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Original sermons from this series by Dr. John Fonville

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Transcript

HWP Announcer  0:04  
We turn to Jesus and accept the gospel so we can get saved and stop sinning right? And why do we keep struggling, especially in the area of sexual sins? Not to mention the guilt that goes along with sinning? Well, the good news is struggling with sin does not mean we're condemned. John Banville will help us out with these tough life questions and put our consciences at ease with gospel truth, such as you're dead to sin, alive to Christ. Now you're free to believe this and act on it become who you really are. Be sure to check out the links in the description today. John Fonville 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 in was based on the current series. We hope you will take the time to preorder and invest in your spiritual growth library. Let's hear the second message in the Do you not know series called partially sinful, partially righteous, what to do with sexual sin. Here's John Fonville.

John Fonville  1:06  
First Corinthians chapter six verses nine to 20, as a text we're looking at and you've often heard this is it's not what you know, that can hurt you. But it's what you don't know. And this is exactly true for the Corinthians. And it's exactly true for us. And this is what Paul is addressing to them in First Corinthians chapter six. It's actually what he's addressing tone throughout the whole letter. But really, really laser focus here in chapter six. The same is true because in the case of the Corinthian Christians, they were a theological and moral mess. And first Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through 20. Paul is revealing that the problem with the Corinthian believers was they didn't really know the gospel. And they did not understand the Gospels implications for their daily life and the area of sexual purity. In first Corinthians in the letter, Paul asked the question, Do you not know 10 times? Six of those questions Do you not know occur in chapter six? And four of those questions occur? And in verses nine to 20, of which we're studying. Let me just give you the purpose for this quit these questions. First. On the one hand, Paul's question is questions throughout this whole letter serves as a rebuke. It serves as a rebuke and it also evidences the intensity of the apostles feelings about the matters in which he is addressing. So you could kind of look at, as Paul said, in sort of in an exasperated tone, surely you know this. That's what he's really saying here. Do you not know this? Surely, you know this. Second, his question is intended throughout this letter to draw the Corinthians attention to Cardinal truths of the Christian faith that ought to be self evident. And that should never escape their thinking. Now, in chapter six, in the passage that we're looking at verses nine to 20, which should not have escaped the Corinthians thinking, was the gospel and the implications of the gospel and regard to sexual purity. But since this was not the case, this is what Paul does is he reintroduces the gospel. And this implications for the believers life as the remedy for living a life that glorifies God and flees sexual immorality. He reintroduces the gospel to them. Now, as we're gonna go through this this morning, you're gonna see that this is highly counterintuitive, the way that the Fallen heart and human mind thinks. Through we'll come back to that, but let me just review from last week, the Gospel truths and implications the fruit of the gospel that he's reintroducing to them, to get them to live a life that glorifies God does verse 20, and flee sexual immorality. That's verse 18. He reintroduces to them the doctrine of adoption. And that is implied in verse nine in the word inherit. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Second, he introduces to them the doctrine of regeneration. You have been washed. He introduces to them and what you're going to look at today in quite detail because people miss this but he introduces to them definitive sanctification you have been sanctified. He introduces to them the doctrine of justification. He introduced he reintroduces the doctrine of resurrection. He reintroduces the doctrine of union with Christ. He reintroduces the doctrine of redemption atonement, and he reintroduces the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the fruit of the gospel, all as a remedy for sexual purity. Paul's heavy emphasis on the Gospel must not be understood as an exclusive emphasis. In other words, when he emphasizes the gospel so heavily he's not neglecting the role of the law.

And chapter six, verse nine, when we come to it, the next time we're together, you will see that Paul issues a very strong warning against all who are characterized by serial unrepentant sinning. He says, Don't be deceived. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you're alive, Paul says, is characterized by an open rebellion against God's law. And you have no inward delight or desire to follow God's moral requirements for your life. You have never ever tasted the gospel. Is that crystal clear? And also, not only that does he issues his warnings, but we're gonna see in verse nine and verse 18, and in verse 20, that he has used three very powerful imperatives to believers that are to be followed and obeyed is that clear. They that he does not give suggestions for Christians, whether or not you can follow or not follow these laws, in regard to sexual purity for your life clear. But what we learn listen from Paul's pastoral strategy, for liberating a heart from deep and complex enslavement to sexual sin, as it he enter weaves through wise pastoral application, both law and gospel. And he gives us law for two purposes, to warn us and to direct us. Both are to be heated. But he gives us the gospel, not listen, to refocus us to show us our identity, and to give us the power to do what the law demands clear. It is most telling that as Paul waves this tapestry of law and gospel together and chapter six, listen carefully here. As he weaves his tapestry of law and gospel together, he unloads on the immortal Corinthians, and you and I, a Mount Everest of gospel truth, which all servers listen as the basis for all the imperatives that it gives. Do you know why he does that? It is because the law can tell us what our gracious Father calls us to do in our Christian life. But the law even for believers can never animate our hearts and motivate our hands to do it. Only the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, which is God's means of saving us totally. And this is what the Corinthians had lost sight of this is what they did not know. This is what you and I do not know. The Gospel way of holiness is not self evident to us. It is not self evident. It is Do you know what is self evident to the fallen human heart, religion. And religion says this, the role of religion in a fallen human heart is to give people moral instruction pep talks, self help therapies, behavioral modification seminars so that they'll no longer be dominated by their sinful habits. It is not what the Scriptures prescribed. It's not the Christian faith. Paul reminds us in this chapter that the Corinthians did not know the gospel. And he tells us that the answer to listen not only their guilt and their condemnation, but the answer to their corruption and their slavery to sin was the gospel. Augustus Toplady spoke of the gospel in his great hymn, he said the gospel is the double cure. It saves us from both sins, guilt and power.

Paul is going to argue that the gospel applies not only to the forgiveness of our sin, but the gospel also applies to the total transformation of the whole person, beginning with regeneration, which gives to us a whole brand new identity, not a moral makeover. It gives us a whole new beginning, a whole new starting point. And he says through this new identity, it leads to new obedience. Oh, you obey, believe me, you obey. We don't downplay the third use of the law. And this church, you do obey. But it's how do you obey. And that is the part that is so counterintuitive to all of our way of thinking. zekiel in his prophecy, set it like this zekiel 3625 through 27. The counter intuitive gospel way of holiness goes like this, God will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols, sexual immorality included, I will cleanse you. You don't cleanse yourself. I will give you a new heart, not a moral makeover. I will give you a new spirit and put it within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a new heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you. And when I put my spirit within you, listen very carefully, I will cause you to walk in my statutes and listen and be careful to obey my rules. Did you hear that? The Holy Spirit will cause you to walk according to His law and keep it carefully. And he doesn't do it by coercion. And he doesn't do it by lamb blasting you He does it by grace. The Holy Spirit in the gospel gives what the law demands but it's so counterintuitive. It the Holy Spirit doesn't give us moral pep talks be better, try harder. It's not what he does. We're gonna come back to that. The point that I'm trying to make you see is this is that the only source of life the only source of power for living the Christian life and forgiving obedience to the law which you are to give is to know the gospel and its implications for your Christian life. The Corinthians ethical failures stemmed from a fundamental problem of their lack of knowing who they are in Christ. The Corinthians were suffering from an identity crisis. Paul near that what the Corinthians needed was to be given a fresh knowledge of the gospel and of its implications for their daily life. And so in chapter six verses nine to 20. He asked the Corinthians For questions. And he begins each question with the with the question, Do you not know? Because they didn't know. These four questions are intended to reintroduce the Corinthians and to reintroduce you and to me to the gospel and its implications, which alone produces holiness and obedience in our life. We do not teach license in this church. We teach the gospel way of holiness and it is utterly counterintuitive to anything most people have ever heard. Paul is calling on the Corinthians, know who you are and Christ and then act like it.

Live in accordance with your new identity, your new state of being, this is Paul's Gospel philosophy. What is the gospel way of holiness? This is it, become who you are, be who you are. That is what Paul is teaching here. That's what he teaches in every letter and the New Testament that he wrote. That's what Peter teaches. That's what every apostle and the New Testament teaches. That's what every author in the Old Testament has ever taught us all the scriptures teach, be who you are. Not the gospel philosophy have become and be who you are, is infinitely different from religion which cause you to be something that you are not. Religion is saying, be better, do better, try harder, break this habit, do all this stuff. And you're not that the Scriptures teach know who you are, and be that let me just give you an example here from First Corinthians chapter six, verse nine. When we come to it, Paul is going to tell the Corinthians you once were serially, unrepentant, sexually immoral. idolaters. You once were adulterers, you watch for a man who practice homosexuality, you watch for thieves, greedy, drunkards, revisers. And swindlers, but you are no longer these things. So here's the therefore, because you are not this identity anymore. But now you're this the therefore is, in light of that, be who you are. Stop living and behaving like what you were, because you're not that anymore. You have been washed, that is regeneration brought to life and made a new creature in Christ, you have a whole new identity, you have not been given a moral makeover, you have been given a whole new identity. You have been washed, you have been sanctified, which you're going to come back to you have been justified, you have a completely new identity, you are now saints, you are now citizens of the kingdom of God. Therefore, act like a citizen of the kingdom of God. That is what the Scriptures teach is the gospel way of holiness. Now for the rest of the morning, I'm just going to help you understand this gospel philosophy of be who you are. Because you might be thinking, How could Paul call the Corinthians who are an absolute theological and moral mess saints? I thought a saint is somebody who has lived an exceptionally holy life and therefore worthy of that title. are Christian saints or senators? When I help you with that the answer is found in the scriptures in terms of how the Bible uses the terms st and sanctified to the rest of the morning, we're just gonna look at these two words, because this has everything to do with what Paul's teaching here in this chapter. So let's look at the word saints for a second. In first Corinthians chapter one, verse two, Paul begins his letter by calling and addressing these theological and morally corrupt Christians saints. In fact, he would often begin all of his letters just about by addressing his readers as saints. Do you know the only letter he did not address his readers as saints as a hope? You know, because we just spent four and a half years in it. The only people who are not worthy of being called saints are legalistic, right self righteous people who think they're earning their righteousness by what they do. Paul doesn't address those people as saints he addresses them with a warning. You don't know the gospel The Greek word for st is Hagia us, which literally means this to be separated unto God. This a saint, and this context, refers not to your character, but to your state of being. This new state of being is not based on anything that you have achieved.

This whole new identity and state of being is based is all based upon God's act of setting us apart from the world, and from the dominion of our sin for himself. It's all based on God's actions, not yours, is God's achievement, not yours. Jerry bridges says and respectable sins, which I hope you pick up and read, you can get a lot of this from Jerry. And you gotta love the rest of it from Michael Horton, because they're both very helpful with this. But he says, We are made saints by the immediate supernatural action of the Holy Spirit alone, who works this change deep within our inner being so that we do in fact, become new creations in Christ. You are a new creation in Christ, you have been set apart by God for God. But Paul describes this change in Acts chapter 26, like this, he says, turning from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a place listen, and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Colossians chapter one, verse 13, Paul says, like this, he says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom. That is God's rolling blessing of His beloved Son. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 17, Paul says, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. You hear that? It's never coming back. We think it hasn't passed away. We think it's gonna come back and stay with us forever. It has passed away. And behold, the new has come. And so every believer in this sense, is a saint. From, from the most quote in the tour to the most immature in the church, everybody, every believer is a saint, in this sense. Let's look at the word sanctifying. Go back to First Corinthians chapter one, verse two. And look how Paul says this in verse two. He says to the church of God that is incoherent to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, if you read the whole book of First Corinthians, the last thing you would think with these group of Christians were sanctified. And Paul begins this letter, saying to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be huggy us, holy ones, separated unto God saints. Now here are Paul uses both terms in this verse. Now, sanctification is most often thought of as a process or this ongoing work within believers whereby you are progressively and inwardly being renewed and conform to Christ's likeness. And that is true. There's an aspect to that and we'll come to that but that's not what Paul's talking about. In first Corinthians want to know in First Corinthians chapter six, verse 11, when he says, You've been washed, you've been sanctified. The Scripture has used the term sanctified in a much broader way. Theologians make a distinction between what is called definitive sanctification and progressive sanctification. We this morning are talking about definitive sanctification and listen carefully. There will never be any progressive sanctification and less there is first definitive sanctification on God's part. And that's what Paul's trying to teach us and we'll come back to that and you'll see the implication. So what is definitive sanctification, the term sanctified means to be set apart, means to be separate God in the scripture when he sanctify stuff, he separates people, utensils, clothes, animals, whole nations, from their ordinary common use, listen for his own special use. So let me get do some examples. In Exodus chapter 40, verses nine through 10. The utensils in the tabernacle and later the temple, were said to be holy. Now how could that be holy is because God took them from their ordinary common use, and set them apart for a sacred purpose of use in the tabernacle and temple. So that became holy, they became set apart.

In Exodus chapter 28, verse four and the priests garments what they wore were called holy. In Exodus to chapter 28, verse 26, the priests were said to be holy unto the Lord, As they ministered before God in the tabernacle and temple, because God had set them apart for a specific purpose for his own use. And Leviticus chapter 23, verses 19 through 20, the animals used in sacrifices were called holy. And the reason an animal was called holy was not because of its intrinsic nature, but because of its its being set apart and designated by God for a divine specific use. In Leviticus chapter 20, verses 24 through 26, the entire nation of Israel was set apart from other nations, and declared by God to be holy, listen to what God says. I am the Lord God who has separated you from the peoples you hear that separated you from the people separated from the world. You shall therefore separate the clean beings from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean which has nothing to do with dietary habits of eating, it has all to do with being holy, this idea of definitive sanctification. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by birth, or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. News shall be holy before me, for I am the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. You hear that? He took them from the world, he set them apart so that they would be his therefore he says you should be holy. The New Testament carries over this same meaning, and shows that sanctification is first of all, God's act of setting us apart from the world for himself. Now, do you know where we find this definitive act of sanctification is originating source. We find it first and foremost in our election in Christ. In Ephesians, chapter one, verse four, Paul says this, he says even as he chose the US in him, this is just going back to like Leviticus 20 There's no difference, even as he chose us in Him before the world, that we should be hugging us, holy ones, saints sent apart. In Colossians, chapter three, verse 12, Paul says, Put on then, as God's Chosen Ones elected us, holy and beloved, because you have been chosen by God and set apart, you are now a holy one, and you are beloved by God, you are his you are set apart for Him. You have been taken from the world and set apart for his unique purposes and service, you belong to him, you have a new identity, you are now a saint, a separated one set apart, sanctified in Christ Jesus, for God's own purposes. Paul, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders, he said this, he says, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, the word of His grace is the gospel. And what was Paul commending them to the Gospel for because he says it is able to build you up? The Gospel, the word of His grace is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. In other words, those who are separated by God for God's special use. The author of Hebrews and chapter 10, verse 10, says, by that will by the will of our heavenly Father, we have been sanctified that is set apart by God for God through With the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Now, this quick tour through the whole Bible shows us this. Every Christian is a saint, a separated one. Why? Because you have been sanctified, you have been set apart by God, for God, you understand this. This is what Paul is teaching in First Corinthians chapter six. And until you begin to understand that Paul says there is no hope for you to ever, ever pursue holiness in your daily life. You have to know this, and you don't know this, you don't know who you are. I don't know who I am enough. That's why we have to be reintroduced to this refocusing re identification gospel all the time. Because if we don't, we'll default like the Corinthians and go back to our pagan past and be driven by that rather than driven by being set apart for God for His use. Do you understand me? Now, we must not think that because our state of being has changed, that we are now sinless and perfect. Our personal experience this past week of failure laws are crippling habits are endless addictions and constant frustration to do the good that we longed to do, but don't do clearly testifies that we're not perfect. And Paul says in Galatians, chapter six, verse three, if anybody thinks they have perfectly kept God's law, they're deceived. Who this morning can honestly claim to have perfectly fulfill the great commandment? Perfectly loving God and perfectly loving your neighbor this past week, I just give you one example. We'll take the seventh commandment which is do not commit adultery, which is not just pertaining to adultery, that's just an example that God gives. To actually show God requires the opposite of which is absolute moral purity. That's the point of the Seventh Commandment. So who can believe that who can claim this morning to have perfectly conformed that all that God requires and forbids and the seventh commandment has been perfectly followed by you? Question 62 of the Heidelberg Catechism states that even as believers our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin. Again, question 114 In the Heidelberg Catechism asked this question. But Can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly? And here's the answer no. In this life, even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience. Nevertheless, with earnest purpose, they do begin to live out not only according to some but to all other commandments of God. Do you know what that saying? It saying this, he says, All who have truly been set apart by God do not disregard any requirement in the law that God gives. Every believer who has been definitively sanctified and become a new creation in Christ, desires in his or her heart to give full obedience to everything that is required in the law, everything. But the reality is this is that in this life, saints still struggle to conform to what they really want to be. To, therefore Christians are both saints and sinners at the same time. This issue, raises this question, Will or for saying so we've been saying to find why do we struggle? Why do we continue to sin? Here's the answer. We have already been set apart by God from the world for God, but we're not yet glorified. And so the remnants of sin, this old Adam, this Adamic flesh still is with us. So we live Listen, we live and this already, but not yet tension that causes great frustration and struggle. Because our frustration comes from this, it comes. It comes when our experience in life doesn't match who we are in Christ. We live in this tension. Paul discusses this struggle in Galatians 517. And in greater detail in Romans chapter seven.

Martin Luther and the Reformers refer to this inner tension and struggle by using this phrase in the Reformation. We are assembled Eustace at pecan butter. We are similar at the same time, Eustace just at and pecan or center, we are simultaneously justified and yet still a sinner. Now, that's good news, by this phrase, the Lutherans in the reformers and they did not mean that a Christian who is still a sinners and unchanged person that we're not denying that you're no longer you're not a saint. By God's gracious actions were made new creatures and dwell by the Holy Spirit's set apart by God for God. Nonetheless, the Christian is still partially sinful and partially righteous in terms of his sanctification. He still struggles. And Romans chapter six, Paul is rejoicing over the fact that he's justified, that he's been definitively set apart from the dominion of sin, and that he's not been raised in Christ. He's alive in Christ. And he comes to Romans chapter seven. And he's agonizing over the incongruence it between the gospel truth, the Romans six, and the experience of his ongoing battle with indwelling sin in Romans seven, even though all of that is true of me, Paul's sin, I still, as a believer cannot give the kind of obedience to the law that I want to give wretched man that I am. But that's not cause for discouragement. And that's not caused to give up in failure and frustration. And the reason is, is because in Romans chapter eight, listen carefully, the struggling believer in Romans seven is not condemned. He says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And right before that, therefore, he was talking about the struggling Christian, who's the wretched man and the wretched person who is struggling, not serially unrepentant. But the Christian who is struggling and wants to obey but continually fall short. There is no condemnation for that struggling Christian. And that is what keeps you persevering and obedience and pursuing holiness. Because if you for a second thought you were condemned, you're not going to pursue obedience. Why would you want to serve a God that you can never ever measure up to? You don't have to because at the beginning of your Christian life, he's already measured you up. And so Paul says in Romans, chapter eight, the struggling believer he has not condemned he is alive in the Spirit, He is waiting and hope, a certainty of expectation for his resurrection body, and the renewal of all creation, of which he is already a part is just not consummated. And so in the meantime, until that happens, the Christians desires always, always exceed his or her practice in this life, and that is what causes the struggle, intention. And if you lose sight of who you are, do you not know that struggle and tension will cripple you? And then you can't pursue holiness? So Paul argues, listen, the conflict, this conflict that we experience is not for subpar Christians, the so called carnal Christian, there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. He says that this conflict is not just for subpar Christians over against the so called victorious Christians who are rarely sanctified. Rather, he says every believer experiences is constant daily conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Do you know why? Do you know why you experienced this conflict as a believer, this inner tension and struggle? Here's why. Because the already aspect of the gospel is so true for you that is causing it. You are already listen set apart for God by God. You are already in dwell with the Holy Spirit. And it is the Holy Spirit by virtue of being set apart by God for God that causes this inner tension, this inner groaning that Paul talks about in Romans 823 When will it be consummated? That's what we want. And so in answer to the question are Christian saints or sinners? The answer is simply this. Every believer is a saint because every believer has been set apart by God for God. But at the same time, every Christian is a sinner because it continued to struggle with their sin.

Every believer is simultaneously justified and sinful. And it is this reality that causes frustration. But it is also this reality that causes great hope and not discouragement. So you know what? Not the last thing is that we need to be told, try harder. We don't need to be told that Paul does, you will rain go home and read first Corinthians six nine through 20. And if you find it, I'll repeat it publicly, but you're not going to find it. Nowhere does Paul tell these believer these immoral Christians try harder. He doesn't do it. We have all tried harder and we continue to sin. What is so troubling for the Christian is that his or her sinful desires do not simply disappear, even though they've been set apart by God for God. We still live in the aftermath of original sin. And it affects us every moment of every day. And so Paul, because of this doesn't exhort the Corinthians try harder, be better. He doesn't offer relevant practical steps for overcoming sinful habits in our life. Do you know what those do, they only impose more expectations and more demands as conditions for success. And then when we fell at those conditions for more success, we just beat ourselves up even worse. We throw up our hands in frustration and despair. Paul doesn't call us to enter the higher victorious Christian life for spiritual Christians. He re introduces the Corinthians and you and I to a fresh knowledge of the gospel and its implications for our life. This is how the Bible drives us to sanctification. It is precisely because we have been sanctified, set apart by God for God, that Paul calls on the immortal Christians in us now live like it. Be holy, because you have been set apart to be a holy one, therefore be holy. John Piper says it like this. He says holiness is first a position and a destiny before it is a pattern and a behavior. This is what Paul's teaching us. Do you not know? Do you not know you have been set apart by God for God. This is your destiny. This is your state of being therefore in light of that start to become more and more who you already are. Michael Horton will finish with this and it's just so helpful. He says in spite of the fact that the Corinthian church had become filled with immorality and strife, division and immaturity Hobb against both letters to this body by addressing them as saints holy ones. And he reintroduces the wonder of the gospel, precisely because their status was defined by the Gospels and negatives, the apostle could call them to repentance, which is the only legitimate response where most people think that the goal of religion is to get people to become something that they're not the scriptures called believers to become more and more what they already are in Christ. Because they were definitively sanctified or set apart as holy to the Lord, the Corinthians must reestablish proper relationships, order and behavior in the church, their practice must be brought in line with their identity. This is what you and I need to know. We need to be constantly reintroduced to the wonder of the gospel so that our practice can be brought in line with our identity. We need to be constantly reminded of our new state of being sainthood. Everybody is trusting in Christ, you've achieved sainthood, not because of your works, but because of what God has done for you. And then, because you're a saint live in light of this gospel reality. We know that we're not called to try harder to be something that we're not what we need to know. And what we don't know is that we're saints called to be who we already are.

We need to know that we're called to become more and more what we already are in Christ. We need to know that we are already separated unto God, you need to know that you are a saint. You don't know this. Paul says Know this, you need to know listen, that while you're a saint, and been saved from sins, guilt, and since power, you're not yet saved from sins presents, therefore, you need to know that you'll continue to struggle with your indwelling sin. But you don't have to throw your hands up in discouragement, and give up and exhaustion. Because listen, and this is the good news. All legal obstacles that might withdraw your new status as a saint has been forever resolved and the justifying act of God on your behalf. And you need to know Paul says that not only with this justifying declaration never be recalled, your status will never be revoked. But you have been given power not only over guilt, but over sins, corruption and enslavement and tyranny, so that you're free now to obey. Because the gospel will empower you to obey, you're not helpless. There's hope for your life. You can change. It's slow, but you can change because the gospel is the double cure. This is what Paul is teaching us so we don't have to fall into despair. We do not struggle from a position of condemnation. But we struggle from a position of hope for the future. Amen. This is Paul's Gospel strategy and logic. This is what none of us know. But this is what Paul is going to teach us in First Corinthians chapter six.

HWP Announcer  47:06  
Thanks for listening to the Hembree proclaimed podcast with John Banville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Banville of Paramount church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at Paramount church.com We look forward to next time

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