This Changes Everything
Pastor Don Carpenter
A Beautiful Mess / 1 Corinthians 6:9–20
Many people all over America are hoping that their lives will change for the better. The addict is hoping to find freedom only to become enslaved. The broken hearted seek pleasure, only to find more pain. The guilty search for religion, only to find greater condemnation. It seems for many that they are condemned to hopeless situation, with no chance in sight.
Some people, however, have encountered some incredible truths. They saw that they were sinners, hopelessly condemned before God. They saw they could do nothing on their own to erase that sin. They realized that Jesus paid the price for sin and asked him to save them from their sin. This changes everything!
The apostle Paul outlines this wonderful truth in our text this morning. The only thing that will truthfully change a person inside and out is salvation.
When you come face to face with God’s saving grace, you will come to realize that this changes everything.
Salvation changes your inheritance
1 Corinthians 6:9 KJV
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
A. No one is righteous
Romans 3:10 KJV
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Romans 3:23 KJV
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
B. Unrighteousness is described
1 Corinthians 6:9–10 KJV
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
If a person commits just one murder, he is considered a murderer
1. Fornication= “Pornos”= one who has sex outside of the marriage bond.
2. Idolaters- worshiping something other that the true God- one who has passionate devotion to a person or object.
3. Adulterer- one who has sex with another’s spouse
4. Effeminate= soft – one guilty of addictions to sins of the flesh
5. Abusers of themselves with mankind= homosexual.
6. Thieves
7. Covetous= “desires enviously what belongs to another”
8. Drunkard
9. Reviler= slanderer
10. Extortioner= obtain by force or improper pressure.
C. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God
Salvation changes your standing before God.
1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
You are washed -> cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ
Psalm 51:2 KJV
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51:7 KJV
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Isaiah 1:18 KJV
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Titus 3:5 KJV
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
You are sanctified= set apart, made holy.
1 Corinthians 1:2 KJV
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
John 17:17 KJV
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
You are justified= declared righteous.
Romans 5:1–2 KJV
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Salvation changes your value system.
Because I am saved I refuse to be enslaved to anything
1 Corinthians 6:12–13 KJV
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
1 Corinthians 9:27 KJV
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Romans 6:1–2 KJV
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Because I am saved I refuse to yield my body as an instrument of unrighteousness
Romans 6:12–13 KJV
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
1 Corinthians 6:13–14 KJV
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
Where at one time, having sexual relations outside marriage was considered liberating, current studies show that it damages one’s ability to trust, affecting future relationship, one’s respect for self, affecting every decision and diminishing the value of right decisions, and one’s respect for health.
Liberating? At what cost.
Drs. Freda Bush and Joe McIlhaney released a study at Harvard University that shows that exposure to immorality and participation in sexual acts during childhood years actually changes the brain, interrupting the normal production and usage of dopamine, vasopressin and oxytocin in the brain for the remainder of the life.
These chemicals, when released properly, create the “monogamy syndrome”, in that moment bonding the person to another. If this occurs outside of marriage, that moment of bonding never fully takes place, even after marriage.1
According to the study, listen, “But that bonding, which acts like adhesive tape or Velcro, is weakened when people tear away at its power by breaking off with a sexual partner and moving on from one to another to another. So when it does finally come time to bond permanently with a spouse, the ability to bond is damaged.
The brain actually gets molded to not accept that deep emotional level that’s so important for marriage. When they do marry, they’re more likely to have a divorce than people who were virgins when they got married.”
Others studies, reported by American Journal of Preventive Medicine, physical and emotional changes in unmarried people who have sex, as well as in married people who have sex outside marriage.
This is not to discount the spiritual changes in these people.
The Bible is relevant concerning the building blocks of a strong, supportive, fulfilling family life, although some have misrepresented what it is teaching through the years. One of those building blocks is entering into the most important human relationship of choice with the ability to commit fully, and much further than you have ever committed to another in your life. Purity before marriage is now seen as a crucial part of that. This is something many will miss out on because the deemed the Bible irrelevant to themselves.
1 Corinthians 6:15–19 KJV
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Because I am saved I resolve to glorify God with my body
1 Corinthians 6:20 KJV
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Conclusion:
Can you fathom this? The God of the universe, who holds all things together by the word of His power, who fills all things and is bigger than the universe; bigger than time, literally lives in you. Calls you His dwelling place. What a magnificent creation you are! What high and wonderful privilege we have been given, to house the Holy Spirit of God!
– Clark E. Tanner
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 7:28 PM April 21, 2022.