Sermon Cloud

When I was a kid one of my favorite movies was a Disney movie that was actually made the year before I was born.  It was called “The Biscuit Eater.”  The movie is about a couple of little boys and their dog that they train as a bird dog.  The problem is everyone else has given up on this dog because of some bad habits that he had.  As a matter of fact one of the little boys, Lonnie, is the son of a champion dog trainer who got rid of this particular dog because he caught him eating eggs in the hen house.  He’d call the dog names like “egg-sucking biscuit eater,” because he felt like the dog was worthless.  Lonnie and his friend, Text, come up with a way to get the dog back and they start training him.  When anyone starts to call their dog a biscuit eater, they stop them or cover the dog’s ears.  They say it hurts his feelings when people call him that. 

The amazing thing is that this dog that would do nothing for Lonnie’s dad, the professional trainer, is now hunting like a champ for Lonnie and Text.  They enter him in a county hunting competition and end up in the finals against; you guessed it, Lonnie’s dad and his dog.  Now the man who actually pays Lonnie’s dad to train dogs is joking around that evening with some friends and says that if the boys win then he’ll have to fire Lonnie’s dad.  When word gets back to the boys, they don’t realize it was just joking.  So in their minds, if they win, Lonnie’s dad loses his job.  So this is what happens the next day.

Play video clip.

You see, Moreover is having an identity crisis.  The truth is he’s one of the 2 best bird dogs in the county.  But he keeps getting reminded of who he used to be and told that he’s still worthless and no good.  So in response he doesn’t act according to who he is, he acts like who he used to be.

I know you didn’t come here this morning looking for tips on how to train bird dogs.  But I think that Moreover is not the only one who gets confused about who he is.  I think that many Christians are in the same position most of the time.  Confused about who they are, what they should do, and what exactly they’re here for.

You see if I started one by one to go around this congregation this morning asking for you to tell me who you are, I’d get as many different answers as there are people here.  But let me tell you what’s likely to happen.  A good many of the men would tell me about what their occupations are.  They wouldn’t tell me about who they are; they’d tell me about what they do.    Probably a lot of the women in the room would identify themselves by their relationships:  a wife, a mother, a friend, etc..  They still wouldn’t be telling me who they are, only who they’re connected with.

Many of you would tell me about your history.  You’d tell me about the past…who you’ve been.  Still others would tell me who others have told you that you are.  I think probably everyone in the room this morning could tell of what others have told you that you are.  Some have heard like the dog in this movie that you’ll never amount to anything or that your past will always define you.
But if we are the Body of Christ here this morning, and we’re looking for who we are, then it might be a good idea to consult the one who made us.  We should probably ask the one who not only formed us in our mother’s womb but who also birthed us Himself into the Kingdom of God.  After all, isn’t that what it means to be born again?

Turn with me to I Corinthians 6:9-11.

The apostle Paul wrote first and second Corinthians to the church in Corinth. Corinth was a port city, located on the coast of Greeces. The economy of Corinth was fueled by commerce from the sea as well as tourism. On any given day the city would be filled with sailors from many nations with many of the people paying a visit to the temple of Aphrodite who was the goddess of sex. The way to worship Aphrodite was by way of one of 1000 temple prostitutes.

To simplify, Corinth was sin city. And here, in the midst of it all, was the Church of Corinth; Planted by Paul at the end of his 2nd missionary journey. In the midst of sin, debauchery and fornication was the church, the bride of Christ.

So, who populates a church founded in the middle of sin city? Converts, that’s who, people, who once worshiped at the temple of Aphrodite; people who were once a part of that culture of sin. The church in Corinth is full of those who have been converted from the effects of a culture that would tempt anyone.  And to them the Apostle Paul writes this:

1 Corinthians 6:9 -11
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.

Paul tells the Corinthians to look around them and see what’s going on in their city.  He says don’t fool yourselves; the unrighteous are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.  He then goes as step further and tells them what the unrighteous look like.  Paul’s not shy about naming things as sinful and unrighteous.  And I want you to notice that list.  Our eyes might go immediately to the identities that we personally think are the worst.  We are quick to point out that call the homosexuals unrighteous.  We don’t mind to nod in agreement when the adulterer or the drunk is called unrighteous.  But what about the greedy?  How many of us right here today could honestly say that the word greedy could never have been used to describe us?  What about that word reviler?  That word means one who is abusive?  Or swindler?  How many of us could have been called by that name?  What about idolater? Maybe you’ve never knelt down in front of some statue and worshipped, but it’s not an overstatement to say that everyone under the sound of my voice has worshipped something or someone other the living God.  Most of us spend a large portion of our lives just worshipping our own selves.  My point is this, Paul isn’t giving this list to the Corinthians and saying here judge the world by this list of sins.  Paul is showing the church that unrighteousness covers a lot of territory and that measured by this standard we all come up short.  Everyone of us.  He doesn’t say the homosexuals don’t inherit the kingdom but the cheaters aren’t as bad so they can squeak in.  Or adulterers are out but the greedy aren’t that bad.  He identifies all these identities as unrighteous and says that none of them have any part in the Kingdom of God.

Then Paul starts verse 11 with words of encouragement although it may not look like that at first glance.  Paul lists all these people who are unrighteous and outside God’s kingdom, and then he says, “And such were some of you.”  It may look like Paul is rubbing there face in their sins, but take a closer look.  He says you were these things.  What does it mean when someone was something?  It implies that they aren’t still that same thing.  If someone comes up to me and says, “Hey, what happened to you?  You were skinny.” I know what that means.  Paul’s telling these people that’s what you used to be, but you aren’t who you used to be anymore.

Pastor Rountree talked last week in his message about coming across that word “but” in the scriptures.  There’s an important one in this verse.  Paul says you were all of these things, BUT you were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  Paul’s telling them what their new identity is.  He says you were unrighteous and on your way to hell, but now you have been washed.  Your sins are gone; you’ve been made clean.  You’ve been sanctified; set apart for the holy purposes of God.  You’ve been justified…declared guiltless.

Paul tells them, “Hey, it wasn’t anything that you did that brought about this change.  It’s all about what God did.”  It’s in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit of God that we can walk in this new identity.  It’s only by God’s doing that this is possible. 

I want you to keep in mind why Paul is writing this letter.  He’s not writing this letter telling them that they are saints of God and that they are washed, sanctified, and justified because they’ve been doing such a bang up job of showing it.  This letter is sent to a church that’s got divisions arguing one with the other.  There’s sexual immorality that’s going on and not being confronted by anyone.  They are taking one another to court and letting pagan judges settle their disputes.  They have some who are gorging themselves at the Lord’s Supper to the point that there isn’t any left for others.  Some are actually getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper.  Their church services are chaotic because everyone wants to show off their spiritual gifts.  I mean this church is messed up even by today’s standards. 

But instead of saying to them that they were no good for nothing and they’d better get their sorry selves in gear if they ever want to make it to heaven, Paul tells this group of people they are washed, sanctified, and justified.  Don’t misunderstand what he’s saying!  He’s not saying that the things they’re doing aren’t wrong or that there aren’t negative effects not only for individually but for the church as a whole.  Paul at no time condones their behavior.  He scolds them pretty severely.  He calls sin sin.

But Paul argues differently from the moralist of his day and from many of the preachers of our day.  Paul doesn’t say stop sinning and you’ll be holy.  That wouldn’t be true would it?  If there’s an unsaved person in this room this morning and he walked out of here determined to never sin again, he still wouldn’t be holy.  He’d still be a sinner.  If I’m not in Christ and I’ve been a liar, if I never tell another lie again, I’m still a liar. 

Paul argues that God has already made them something different, something holy so they should remember that and live from that identity.  He tells them that the behaviors that he’s hearing about that going on at the church don’t line up with who they are.  He says, “Stop living like a schizophrenic with multiple identities.  Understand whom it is that God has made you.

Paul explains this to this same group of people in his second letter to the church.  Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.

14For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. â—™ The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling â—™ the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Because Christ died for all, all have died.  All of those old identities that used to define us are dead.  Those people that we use to be:  crucified in Christ. Verse 17 says that if we are in Christ then we are a new creation.  All of the old has passed away, and everything is made new.  You may have been an adulterer, but today according to verse 21 if you are in Christ, then you are the righteousness of God.  That’s your identity.  That’s who everyone of you who have truly been born again can identify yourselves as.  You need to become convinced of that.  As pastor has shared over the past several weeks, to become convinced of something is to be convicted of it.  You need to be convicted of the fact that God has made you the righteousness of Christ.

You need to understand that this identity of being the righteousness of Christ has nothing to do with following a list of rules or laws.  Paul would say in Philippians 3:5-9 that his identity that was based on his performance and credentials had to be viewed as lost and as trash.




Philippians 3:5-9
5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law â—™ blameless. 7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Did you hear that?  All that stuff that he could do on his own was worthless, but the righteousness that counted came solely from faith in Christ.

As I close this morning, my heart cries out for you to not misunderstand what I preached this morning.  If you leave hear thinking that I said that our behavior doesn’t matter, then you missed the point.  If our behavior didn’t matter, Paul certainly wouldn’t have wasted his time writing this letter to a dysfunctional church body trying to instruct them.  But this message isn’t about behavior at all.  It’s about your identity.  It’s about how you see yourself in Christ.  If your mindset is that your just a sinner and that you’ll try harder but in the end there’s not really much you can do because we all are sinners and I just have to sin. Well then, that’s what you’ll do.  You continue to sow and reap the same old stuff you’ve been sowing and reaping.  And it’s not working for you.  It hasn’t ever worked, and it ain’t gonna work tomorrow.

But if you can see what God sees.  If you can see that in Christ Jesus you are the righteousness of God, and you become convicted of that, then you won’t need some preacher to stand up and give you a list of rules to follow.  You won’t need someone to tell you not to do this or that.  You’ll learn that you’ve been made one spirit with Christ and you can let Him live His life through you.

And for those of you who have never been born again.  That first passage I read this morning couldn’t be any more clear.  If your an adulterer, a fornicator, an idolater, greedy, abusive, a homosexual, in other words, unrighteous because you are not in Christ Jesus then you shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  The only thing awaiting you at this end of this life is eternal separation from God in hell.  I beg you this morning, if that’s you, don’t leave without eternal life.  Don’t think that you’re good enough or that you really aren’t that bad.  All have sinned and come short of God’s glory and the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.  Come be made new.  Leave here today as the righteousness of Christ.