Summary: How long have you been a Christian? How would you rate your maturity as a Christian? Getting older and growing up should go hand in hand, but that’s not always the case. A child who is getting older but not showing signs of growth is a major cause for concern! Paul addresses another major problem in the Prodigal Church of Corinth, while calling them to repentance and a new identity in Christ.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you would like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Well, good morning, and welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And we're so glad to have you with us this morning.

We'd love to connect with you. If you are interested in getting connected, one of the best first steps you can take is to fill out that little connection card in your worship guide. And you can either drop those in the offering baskets a little bit later on, or if you turn them in at the welcome center back there by the front doors, we've got a gift we'd love to give to you, as well as some more information about the church.

So, if you are just joining us, we are going through a sermon series this summer called Prodigal Church, where we are taking a look at a book of the Bible called 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians was actually originally a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church in the Roman city of Corinth. This was a startup church that the Apostle Paul had planted. And he has since moved on to Ephesus, where he's planting a new church, and in the process has heard reports that back in Corinth things are not going well. That the church in Corinth was a young church, and it was a church that was already dealing with a lot of problems.

And so, two weeks ago, Pastor Jan, as we opened up the letter, showed us that in Corinth there was, on the one hand, a serious lack of unity. And not unity in just like a general, "they get along" kind of sense, but unity in the sense that they were failing to unite themselves under the truth of the Gospel. And since they weren't being united under the truth, they were therefore being divided by the trivial. There was a lack of unity.

Last week, we saw that there was also a lack of purity. And so, we see this idea that, on the one hand, they were tolerating sin, and evil, and injustice in the church that they should not have been tolerating; and on the other hand, they were very quick to stand up and start fighting over things that really didn't matter. And it was tragic. In fact, it had gotten so bad that in our text today we're going to see that members of this church had actually started dragging one another to court and filing lawsuits against one another to settle their disputes. And it's hard to imagine the embarrassment that this would have been, but just try to like ... You turn on the TV, and you're like, "Oh, hey! Cool! There is Pastor Jan, and Pastor Shane, and ... Oh! That's Judge Judy, and this is not good. This is bad. This is embarrassing." The city of Corinth is watching, and the church is playing the fool.

And now we might be tempted, as we look at this passage, to be like, "Well, yeah. But what does that have to do with me? I'm never going to file a lawsuit against another Christian. That's never even come to mind." Well, maybe so. But underneath this embarrassing situation is a very real tension that every single one of us can relate to, and that is we all have this deep desire to be treated fairly. Right? No one likes being played, no one likes being conned, no one likes being taken advantage of. And justice is a good thing. We see this throughout Scripture: God is a just god. He wants us to be a just people. And if justice is so good, then why is Paul saying it's so bad for these Christians to pursue it in the way that they are? That's what we're going to be talking about today.

A lot of times, when you're trying to get your head into the mindset of an ancient culture, it can be hard to imagine what would it be like to live in a city like Corinth back then. But actually, when we look at the cultural context, the city of Corinth was almost too much like our city today. Very, very similar. And like our world today, and like the rest of the Roman world back then, the city of Corinth was a very litigious place. It was very common for people to file lawsuits against one another to settle these grievances. And it's very similar to our context today. I read this week that 80% of the lawyers in the world are in America, and that Massachusetts has the second highest number of lawyers per capita to any other state in the country except for New York. And I'm pretty sure like 80% of them go to Mosaic, so I'm going to be really careful about the lawyer jokes this morning.

But a very litigious place. Over 15 million civil lawsuits are filed in this country every year. And a lot of them are rejected. A lot of them are thrown out. Just frivolous cases. I wrote just a few of the better ones down that I saw that have just kind of made the headlines. The first one is probably ... You've probably heard of the Clapper case: a woman in New York sued the makers of the Clapper because she said she had to clap too hard to make it work, and she hurt her hands. There's probably like a Seinfeld episode about that, or something.

A man in Texas sued his date for 17 dollars and 31 cents because she texted throughout their movie and ruined Guardians of the Galaxy ... Not Vol. 1, but Vol. 2. I bet you 17 dollars and 31 cents that guy is still single. Thanks.

A man in France is suing Uber because the ride tracking feature helped his wife piece together that he was cheating on her.

I don't support any of the prejudices in these cases. I'm not making these up. I'm just delivering the news. Because this last one is about a Frenchman as well: in Canada, a Frenchman is suing his former employee after being fired for acting rude and disrespectful to customers. He claims this is discrimination because rudeness is a trait of his culture.

There are times where this deep, insatiable hunger that we have for justice can cause us to act irrationally. It can cause us to even commit injustices of our own. And maybe not to the extent to filing a frivolous lawsuit like this, but maybe to the extent of burning bridges, of holding grudges, of harboring bitterness in our heart toward other people. And in today's text, Paul is going to tell the Corinthians that to have these lawsuits and disputes with one another at all is already a defeat. And so, why is their pursuit of justice so self-defeating? That's what we're going to look at. And Paul is going to, at the end, he's going to have some very stern warnings for the defendants in these cases. But what's interesting is he starts first by rebuking the plaintiffs.

And the big idea that we're going to see throughout this is that, before we became Christians, the lens through which we saw our disputes was primarily through the lens of fairness: "You did this, and now an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But when it comes to the church, that's too shortsighted. You have to have a longer, sharper spiritual eye to see what's really going on. And so, you can't just look at these disputes through the lens of fairness. You also have to look at them through the lens of family.

And so, that's what we're going to be looking at in 1 Corinthians, chapter six. If you have your Bible, go ahead and open it up. We're going to look at verses one through 11 of chapter six today.

Three points that we're going to talk about. First we're going to talk about a wrong way to get right; second, a better way to right our wrongs; and then third, a goal for our grievances.

So, 1 Corinthians, chapter six, starting at verse one: "When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God."

Amen! This is the reading of God's holy word for us today.

Point number one, we're going to be talking about a wrong way to get right. And we want to ask the question, what exactly is going on here in Corinth, and why does the Apostle Paul see this as being such a big deal?

As we read the passage, one of the first questions we might want to ask is, is Paul really saying that Christians are forbidden from ever using a secular court system or a human system of justice? And I would say the answer to that is no, not at all. But actually, in some cases, yes.

So, let me explain. We need to understand what kinds of cases Paul is talking about. And the first thing we need to know is that Paul, in this letter, he is not writing to address criminal cases. Right? Scripture is very clear about this. Paul actually wrote about this in Romans 13:4 that, in criminal cases, that God has given government the responsibility and the authority to judge and to punish criminals. This is Romans 13:4. "But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he ..." the governing official, "... does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on wrongdoers."

This is really important because a lot of churches have done this wrong and committed some terrible injustices of their own. 1 Corinthians, chapter six, does not give permission to churches to handle criminal cases internally, to harbor or to shelter criminals from facing justice. If a member of the church commits a crime, yeah, you might put them under church discipline, you might remove them from membership until they repent; but you're also going to call the police. You're also going to let the courts and the justice system do its job. So, Paul is not talking about criminal cases here.

Secondly, he is not talking about cases between Christians and non-Christians. If a non-Christian owes you money, if they swindle you, if they con you, whatever you do, don't call me, don't call Pastor Jan to come and settle that dispute.

Just for example, let's say you are a landlord, and your tenant stops paying or starts refusing to pay their rent. Whatever you do in that situation, don't call your community group leader, don't call me and Pastor Jan to come down and settle the dispute. We're going to take their side if you do. That's not our place to do that. What you should do, however, is be discerning. Seek the Spirit's guidance. Depending on the situation and the context, the Holy Spirit may be leading you in that situation to show grace. Right? To be patient with this person. Or it could be that they're showing you ... The Holy Spirit is leading you to pursue justice: hold this person accountable for their actions.

If you get in a car accident, right? You're probably not going to go to court over that, but you're going to file a police report, you're going to get a third-party agency, an insurance agency, involved to help you settle the damages over who is liable here. But don't call me. Don't call Pastor Jan to come down to the scene and try to work that out for you. That's not what Paul is talking about here.

He is not talking about criminal cases. He is not talking about even cases between Christians and non-Christians. In those cases, be discerning. Try to figure out is the Holy Spirit leading you to be gracious? Is the Holy Spirit leading you like this is a time to pursue justice? What Paul is talking about is he's talking about non-criminal, personal disputes between two people who both claim to be Christians, and more specifically are both members of the same church in Corinth.

And so, why is that such a big deal? Why is that a problem for them to be going to court to settle their disputes? Well, it's a big deal to Paul because Paul is helping us see that what this reveals is it's revealing a very serious lack and failure of maturity on the part of the church; it's revealing a failure of their understanding of their identity as the church; and ultimately, it's a failure of their witness to the city and to the community around them.

So, look at them one by one. It's failure of their maturity. The Corinthian church is a young church, but it's not a baby church anymore. The problem is you wouldn't know that by looking at it. It's still filled with baby Christians. And by this time, it's almost as if they should be out there, out the door, on their way to conquer kindergarten, but they're still in diapers. They're still drinking from the bottle. And Paul says, "You're getting older, but you're not growing up."

Now, the sad reality is that this infantile kind of faith, it's characteristic of way too many Christians in the church today.

Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 3:1, he says, "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?"

Because the Corinthians have been given the Gospel, but they are failing to grow in the Gospel. And Scripture assumes that, as Christians, there is a spiritual trajectory that our faith should follow as far as growth and development. It's not a perfectly straight line, but we should be heading in the right direction. And unfortunately, too many Christians are like those in Corinth. They either hit a certain developmental stage and get stuck, or more tragically they never even make it out of infancy.

And if you think about maturity in Christ, I think it is helpful to think about our maturity in Christ and the lifecycle of a Christian in the same way we think about the lifecycle of a person. Right? The first stage, you have conception and birth; then you have infancy; and then you have childhood and adolescence; and then finally, you have parenthood. Well, what do those categories look like?

Well, conception and birth is a completely passive thing. You don't conceive yourself, you don't give birth to yourself. And in the same way, you can't make yourself a Christian. Christianity is not just a religion that you follow. It's not a philosophy you adapt. It's not a change in lifestyle. Christianity becomes with you, Jesus says it like this, "Being born again". Theologically, it's the doctrine of regeneration, that the Holy Spirit has to regenerate our hearts, make us alive, so that we can then respond to the Gospel in repentance and faith. But it's a passive thing.

Immediately, though, that should give way to infancy. Well, what is the mark of an infant? Well, an infant is now part of the family, but an infant is also, at the same time, pretty much completely dependent on the other members of that family for its survival. Infants don't think about the needs of others. Infants are fairly selfish: infants need to be fed, they need to be cared for, they need to be nurtured. And in the same way, new Christians, they need to be fed the Gospel, they need to receive it, and they need to believe it. They need to be taught the basics of what it means to live the Christian life and what it means to have this new identity, to have this new morality, to have this new rules of living in God's household as part of God's family.

And the thing about having a newborn in the home is it's one of the greatest joys that a family can experience. But a newborn that is failing to grow and failing to develop is one of the greatest concerns that a family can experience as well. And Paul, as their spiritual father, he is concerned because they've been infants for too long. By now, they should be growing and developing on to that next stage, which is childhood and adolescence.

So, what's the mark of that? Well, the mark ... The transition from infancy to adolescence, it's this constant progressive growth and maturity, where you're growing in holiness, you're growing in wisdom, you're growing in discernment, you're growing in grace toward other people, and you're growing and taking on more and more of the responsibilities of the family. Instead of primarily being served, more and more you're serving others. You're thinking less about yourself. You're thinking more about others. And you could put it like this, that you're asking different questions. Right? An infant is going to spend a lot of times thinking about themselves. An adolescent is going to hopefully begin thinking more and more of others. And so, instead of asking, "Who is serving me? Who is teaching me? Who is pouring into me?", as you grow you should begin asking, "Where can I serve? What can I teach? Who can I care for and pour into?"

All of that hopefully leads to the final stage, which is parenthood. And I say "parenthood" instead of "adulthood" because the distinguishing mark of a parent is they reproduce. And that's the assumption, right? That as a disciple of Jesus, it's expected that you grow up and you mature until you begin leading other people to Jesus. You begin teaching other people what it means to be disciples of Jesus. You reproduce yourself, and then ultimately you progress even on that to like the greatest stage of all, which is being the grandparent. Who is more happy and joyful than a grandparent sitting around the dinner table with all their kids and grandkids over for Christmas dinner? That's the Christian who has led another person to Christ, and then begins to see them leading other people to Christ. And they just walk into church with this incredible joy of seeing that faith lived out. And that's the big glorious vision for Christian maturity.

The unfortunate reality is that the Corinthian church is nowhere near that. They're stuck in their infancy, and they're failing to grow up into this great vision for who they have been called to be. So, they've had this failure in maturity, and it's coming from a failure to understand their identity.

Throughout the letter, Paul is constantly addressing them as brothers and sisters; he's constantly addressing them as saints; he's constantly reminding them of who they are positionally in Christ. And here, in 1 Corinthians 6:3, he says something just absolutely crazy. He drops it on them, and then he just moves on without an explanation.

Well, look at this. He says in verse three: "Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!" What on earth is that about, Paul? Honestly, I don't know. I do know that Scripture, and we see this throughout Scripture, this idea that we, as Christians, we are going to participate, and we are going to serve with Jesus in his kingly, royal, judicial role at the Resurrection and in all of eternity. We're going to rule and reign with him. Paul is not trying to give us a full theology of what that looks like. He is trying to get us to marvel at this vision that Jesus has for who we are to become and what he has in store for us. And the application is the point. The application is clear: if that's who we're going to be, we need to start living like that right now. We need to start practicing that right now. If we're going to judge the angels, we shouldn't be having any trouble handling these personal disputes between people in the church.

So, they'd had a failure of maturity that was caused by their failure of identity. And unfortunately, it was leading to a failure in their witness. They were called to be witnesses to the city of Corinth of the power of the Gospel. And what is the power of the Gospel? The Gospel has the power to transform lives and to reconcile enemies. Well, they weren't living transformed lives. They were living lives of unrepentant sin, and they weren't showing, witnessing, to the power of the Gospel to reconcile. They're still fighting with one another, and it's ruining their witness. They were called to be a light to that dark city. And instead, right now, Paul is saying, "You're defeated." It looks like the darkness is winning. He says, "To have these ..." Verse seven: "To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers!"

This brings us to point two, talking about a better way to right our wrongs. Obviously, they're doing it wrong, and Paul is trying to help them see a better way to do that.

And so, what does that look like? Well, what does Paul mean when he says, "Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?" Is Paul saying that in the church we just need to be passive? We just need to be doormats to one another, and allow one another to just kind of commit these kind of injustices towards one another unchecked? No, he's not saying that. He's not saying don't ever seek justice. He saying be careful how you do it.

Don't seek justice by going to the unrighteous instead of the saints is what he said earlier. And he uses that word "unrighteous" intentionally, I think, for two reasons. Don't go to an unrighteous, pagan judge for a practical reason: the Roman judges weren't necessarily known for being particularly just. In fact, they were known for being corrupt, and being partial, and for oftentimes ruling in favor of the rich and the upper-class. And so, I think that's the practical part of what he means by "unrighteous". But I think there is a more important theological reason that Paul is getting at as well: these Roman judges were also unrighteous in the Christian sense that they had not received the righteousness that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. They were not Christians. They didn't understand the Gospel. And among brothers, that matters, because what that meant is they did not have the proper eyes to see the proper perspective to understand all that was at stake in these disputes between Christians.

So, Paul is not saying that the church should just tolerate one another's sins and injustices. He is instead calling the church to see these situations through the lens of the Gospel and the church's mission, and to understand that there is a lot more here at stake than merely fairness. That what is at stake here, ultimately, is family.

There's a lot going on here that is hard for us to understand, primarily because we are in a very individualistic culture that has a fairly weak ecclesiology. That's the study of the theology of the church. And so, we don't understand a few of the things that Paul assumes that we understand. He assumes that we understand that, as Christians, we have been personally saved by Jesus Christ, and we have a relationship with him personally. But we do not have a private relationship with Jesus Christ. He saves us out of sin, into his church, and that as Christians we are then to submit ourselves to the care, and the accountability, and the authority of a local church. And in fact, a lot of what he has to say doesn't make sense to a Christian who doesn't have that kind of relationship to a local church. And Jesus, in Matthew 18, he teaches that the local church has that authority to care for and hold one another accountable. And there's a reason for it.

In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches us both how and why to handle these kind of disputes among Christians in the church. And just for example, compare these two paths: the knee-jerk reaction of the flesh is to get even, to make things fair. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You did this to me, and now this is what it's going to take to make things fair." And that's good as far as it goes. But the knee-jerk reaction of the Spirit is something far more significant: not to merely seek fairness, but ultimately to seek righteousness and reconciliation.

What I mean by "righteousness" is it seeks to right the wrong in a situation. Yeah, that's part of it. But more importantly, the Spirit seeks to right the hearts of the people involved in the dispute, both the plaintiff and the defendant. It aims to protect the person who was wronged from growing bitter toward the person who wronged them. And then ultimately, it's not about forcing the person who did the wrong thing to do the right thing: it's about bringing them through this Spirit-filled process in which the hope is they will have a change of heart where they actually want to do the right thing. Not because they have to any longer, but because it's an outflow of their character, and it's what they want to do.

So, for example, I have my guitar here. Most of you know that my wife and I have two children, and I have three children: Owen, Nora, and my American Deluxe Telecaster. Absolutely precious child, and I love this guitar. Now imagine, if you will ... This would never happen, but just for the sake of the illustration, imagine that our fearless worship leader Caleb, in a moment of just unscrupulous weakness, decided he is going to break the golden rule, the musicians' code ... Which you all know what that is, right? You don't touch another musician's instrument without permission. He throws that out the window. He says, "I don't care. Shane is not in the room. I'm going to break the code. I'm going to pick up his guitar, and start playing it." But then, in the process, it slips out of his hands, falls off the stage. I walk back in the room, and all I see is just Caleb towering over my dying child with a broken neck. And I am devastated.

Now again, this would never happen. But let's imagine in that moment a little demon pops up on Caleb's shoulder and says, "It's not your fault. Don't take responsibility. Just deny it. You don't owe anyone anything." In that moment, I have been wronged. In that moment, Caleb is refusing to make things right. So, I have two choices: I can either take him to court, or I can take him to church.

So, what does that look like? First, option one: take him to court. I call Judge Judy. She hears my case. I bring the evidence, I bring the witnesses, and in her wisest, sassiest voice, she declares Caleb guilty. Guilty of breaking the code, guilty of being a bad friend, and guilty of cold-blooded murder. And she awards me the damages that I am due, and justice wins the day, right? But what happens after that? Well, most likely, Caleb is going to begrudgingly pay up, because Judge Judy is going to make him. Then he is going to quit the band, and he is going to leave the church. We're going to burn our bridges, and we're going to both walk away from that situation angry and bitter at one another. That is option one, and that is what the Corinthians were doing.

Now, option two is we follow Matthew 18. And option two is harder, and option two has a higher risk. But option two also has a higher reward.

So, what does following Matthew 18 look like? Well, the first thing Matthew 18 tells me to do is to go to my brother one-on-one. So, I do that. I go to Caleb one-on-one, I try to reason with him. And Jesus says if he repents, then praise God, I've won my brother. But let's say in this situation he doesn't. He is being stubborn, and so I'm forced to go on to step two, which is I bring some Christian friends along and we try to reason with him together. And still, he won't relent. So finally, we bring the church in, and he still refuses to repent. And so, we're forced to move on to that final stage and remove him from membership in the church.

Now, in that moment, it seems like a lose-lose situation, that we've lost the case and we've lost our brother. And that is the risk of Matthew 18. But that is not the vision of Matthew 18. The vision of Matthew 18 is heart changed and reconciliation. And so, we have faith. We go through this process, and we pray. And hopefully, as time goes by, the reality of the situation begins to sink in. The Holy Spirit begins to convict Caleb's heart that he had gotten away with murder, but now he can't shake the guilt. He can't get the blood off his hands, and finally he cries out to God in repentance, and he comes back to me and asks for forgiveness. He says, "I could never make up to you what I've done, but I want to do everything I can to make this right."

Now, you could say, in that moment, all I've really done by doing it, taking him to church instead of taking him into court, is I've simply just delayed justice. Maybe so. But ultimately, I've won back something infinitely more significant than what I had originally lost: I've won back my brother. I've won back our relationship. Because had I just been passive, and ignored him, and been the doormat, well, I probably would have lost him anyway to the hardening effect of sin on his unrepentant heart. If I had taken him to court, I probably would have lost him due to our mutual bitterness towards one another by forcing him to do the right thing. But by bringing it to Jesus, bringing it to the church, I've won the possibility of winning the thing that matters most, which is his heart, which is our relationship, and which is ultimately our witness to the power of the Gospel. That the Gospel really does have the power to change people's hearts, lives, and to reconcile enemies.

And that brings us to point three, which is the goal of our grievances. When you're going to court, the goal is fairness. In going to church, the goal is family. It's reconciliation. But it's more than that as well, because in these situations the sobering reality and the question we need to ask is what if the reason this person in the church in Corinth is going around conning people, swindling them out of their money, is because he is actually not a Christian? What if the reason they're acting that way is because they've been fooled and deceived into thinking they're something they're not, and they're actually not in the family? What if this is an opportunity for them to wake up, to be sobered by that reality, repent of their sin, and actually join the family, be born again, become a new creation for the very first time?

And so, Paul gives this very sobering warning at the end of the passage. Look at verse seven again: "To have these lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

So, there is a stern warning to the plaintiff. Why not rather be wronged? If you are so quick to go out and seek vengeance, to make things fair, that you don't even pause to consider the state of your brother's heart, well, then maybe you're still walking in the flesh and not the Spirit. There is an even more stern warning for the defendant. If you are able to live this way, swindling people out of their money, living in unrepentant sin, living in rebellion to God and to his word, then you're walking in the flesh and not the Spirit. And the warning to both parties is that this kind of life, a life lived in the flesh, is a life that is characterized by either revenge, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, or unrepentant sin and rebellion to God's word. A life lived in the flesh is not the life of the person who has been washed, who has been sanctified, who has been justified, set apart, and saved by Jesus.

He says, "Don't be fooled. Do not be deceived." He wouldn't say that unless that was a real possibility, and that we could be easily fooling ourselves. And this is a sobering reality, but Hell is real. But salvation is not just about getting people out of Hell. Salvation is also about getting Hell out of people. And where we are right now, and the way we are walking right now, is a good indication of where we're headed. Are we walking in the flesh, or are we walking in the Spirit? Honestly asking ourselves, "Is my life marked by faith? Is my life marked by forgiveness? If my life marked by holiness and repentance?" If not, don't be deceived. Don't deceive yourself.

And we need to be careful here, as Christians on this side of eternity, we will always be at war against temptation and against sin. We're all going to be tempted, and we're all going to sin. Paul is not saying that anyone who has committed one of these sins or is tempted by one of these sins is going to Hell. But what Paul is saying is that we've all committed these sins, or sins like the ones on this list, and we were all once on a broad road to perdition, headed toward destruction. But that was before Jesus. "Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified." And yes, that is who you were, but by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit that is not who you are. Now live it.

Just imagine the church is like this giant spiritual rock tumbler. I don't know if you had one of these when you were a kid. You throw a bunch of dirty, jagged stones in, and they all kind of look the same. But then as they collide with one another, the reality of what they're really made of begins to be revealed. And sometimes it's dust, sometimes it's diamonds. Right? Sometimes it's limestone and it turns into sand, and sometimes you have a precious gem at the end.

Now, the bad news for a stone, the bad news is that it is what it is. A diamond is a diamond. Limestone is always going to eventually turn to dust. And the worst news for us is that none of are born as diamonds. We're all born as dust. The good news is that Jesus is quite capable of making diamonds out of dust, right?

If an honest evaluation of our lives reveals nothing but sand ... By which I mean if there is no evidence of true salvation, no fruit of the Spirit, no affection for Jesus, no love for the Scriptures and for his church, then the solution is not to pretend that we're something we're not, or to deceive ourselves, or to just feel guilty, try harder, and fake it till we make it. No, the only solution is that we would be born again, that Jesus would make us a new creation, that he would take what we are and make us into something new. And the only way we can do that is to just stand before the Cross, and on the one hand to just tremble at our own sinfulness and price that Jesus had to pay because of it; and then on the other hand, just marvel at the incredible mercy and grace that we have been shown in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I want to close simply by reading out loud Jesus' teaching from Matthew 18. We've been referring to it a lot this week and last week, and I just kind of want to read it out loud. But I want to read it, then, in the context of the rest of what Jesus has to say around it, because after Jesus teaches his disciples this in Matthew 18, Peter comes up to him, and he has a question for him, to which Jesus responds with this very insightful parable that helps us understand what is going on.

So, Matthew 18, starting at verse 15. Jesus says this. He says, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or tree witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven."

A lot of people don't realize that was ... Jesus said that in the context of church discipline. And he says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. And then Peter came up and said to him, 'Well, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' And Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.'"

And he tell them this parable: "Therefore the kingdom of Heaven will be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents." An astronomical amount of money. "And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife, and children, all that he had, and payment to be made. So, the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, and seizing him, began to choke him, and say, 'Pay what you owe.' So, his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him: 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' Be he refused, and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

Now, when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him, and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all of his debt. So also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

The big idea there is that anyone who has experienced that kind of just amazing generous grace, after that experience, can no longer continue walking down one of two different paths. On the one hand, they can't continue walking down the path of unforgiveness, of withholding forgiveness, withholding mercy, withholding grace, because they've been shown such incredible grace. It's only natural that they would then show that same kind of grace to others. Now, on the other hand, they're not going to go out and continue walking down that path of acquiring more and more debt through their sin. Anyone who has been relieved of that kind of debt, the last thing they're going to go out is to try to go out and acquire more by living a life of sin and rebellion to God. The Gospel changes that, and when we properly understand it, it changes how we relate. How we relate to one another, and how we relate to our sin. We're quick to repent, and we're quick to forgive.

If you're here today and you'd like to learn more about what it means to be a Christian, if you have not experienced this grace that we're talking about, there will be people up here after the service that would love to meet with you, pray with you, and answer any questions that you might have. But for those of you who are Christians, let the life that you live be a right and rational response to the life that you've been given in Christ, to the grace and to the mercy that you've been shown. We are children of our Father, and we want to bear his resemblance. And we know that our Father is holy and just, and so we should flee from temptation, and we should be quick to repent. We also know that our Father is merciful, kind, loving. And so, we should be patient with one another, and quick to forgive.

Let's pray. Father God, we cannot comprehend the true depths of your holiness, or your love, or the full extent of the price that Jesus paid to free us from sin. God, we ask that you would forgive us, and that by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would help us to grow, help us to mature so that day by day we become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. More like him in holiness, in justice, in mercy, and in love. God, fill us with your Spirit, to walk in your Spirit. Give us victory over the flesh so that we as your church can be a shining witness to this city around us. Your Gospel, your kingdom, your power, your glory are magnificent, and we want to bear witness to that with our lives. So, give us strength, Lord, give us faith. Fill us with your Spirit. We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.