You have been bought with a price

A blessed morning to you. I apologize, I couldn't sing along with you on the last part of the song. I just couldn't. I couldn't get the words out. This morning we're going into a passage, I have to confess, I taught it to you July of last year. So if it sounds familiar to you, that's why. But I think since it's in sequence and over a year has passed, I think going over afresh will be good. And perhaps there'll be some new insights or further depth that we'll gain from it.

One of the things in looking at this passage, this is 1 Corinthians 6, 9-20, the last part of chapter 6, Paul is writing to a church that was known even in New Testament times as being just overgrown, overblown with rampant sexual immorality. There was even a verb I'll anglicize it as Corinthianize, which was essentially brought up as they were the symbol of sexual immorality. And so they put together a verb based on the name of the city that stood for the sexual immorality. It was steeped in immorality and gross idolatry. That's the background that these believers came out of. It was a deeply pagan and immoral culture.

I think even in spite of the way our own culture is tending to slide and the direction that it seems to be sliding, we would have found it shocking. It was quite common for sexual immorality to be quite out in the open and regularly participated in by the people of Corinth. So here's a question for you. Should the believers in the body of Christ, that's them, that's us, be any different from the culture around them? Should we be just the same or different? How is that supposed to happen and why?

Well, that's I think the question that Paul is addressing here this morning in this passage. This first letter to the believers at Corinth, Paul, he started off, I mean very early, giving these believers full assurance of what God had done in their lives. And he gave the Lord the credit for this, most certainly.

1 Corinthians 1, 1-9, he tells them right off, you have been sanctified, made holy, been set apart for a special purpose. That was there. Secondly, in the first chapter, here again in verse 30, he says, by God's doing you have been made to be in Christ Jesus. You have been given that identification and position by God's doing. God accomplished it. So he had barely just started this letter before he's assuring them and telling them, even in spite of their many problems, God has already accomplished in you. God has already done by his own doing. these miraculous things within you that he intended.

But, as Paul made it clear, and he was actually, we reference here 1 Corinthians 3, 1-4, he was very clear, very blunt rather, that these people were spiritually immature and fleshly. Now, They were, because of the history, up to five years old in the Lord. But he said, even for five years, you should have been farther along in your Christian walk, in your growth by now. He said, I should have expected more growth by now, but it's clear that that's not where you're at.

As Paul wrote this letter, he repeated certain principles, and that's one of the things we're going to continue to find. He repeated certain principles, and a principle is a fundamental truth or fact, a spiritual fact, in order to make his message clear. Apparently, these people had a hard time hearing what Paul had been telling them, and so he needed to get it across, and so he would repeat things.

And so we're going to see that in multiple places and ways, even in this very passage. And so Paul didn't repeat himself, however verbatim, he would restate in various ways, the truth, and as we'll see that here this morning, with different words and from a different perspective in order to try to get the point across. Emphasis, but not simple verbatim, like a recording played back. Restated, put in different words, put from a different perspective. He would do that. Paul used a Jewish way of emphasis known as repetition. He would repeat things Not exactly each time, but the restatement.

So here in the first couple of verses in the passage, verses 9 and 10, we see some patterns here, and we have these also in your handout. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, and he has a list here of 10, and we'll notice the patterns. Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covenants, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." And by the way, there are those who are wanting to make my teaching this passage illegal. They're wanting to make it so that I can get in a lot of trouble for saying the things I'm going to say this morning. And who knows? It could be.

Examples of unrighteous are essentially what it's doing. This is not an exhaustive list, is it? But it's saying this is certainly indicative of the kinds of things that were going on in the church then and some of them are going on now in our own culture, right? These are examples of these who are unrighteous and the kinds of things that they chronically are involved in. He also, in doing this, has an interesting pattern. Five sexual sins are listed here, and idolaters has a sexual implication in Corinth where idolatry involved going up to the temple prostitutes. And then five non-sexual sins, five sins not having a fundamentally sexual character. Paul made clear that the unrighteous are unbelievers. That's his term.

Not the saints who have been saved by faith in Christ. Not those. In the very first verse in the chapter, we started in this passage last week, he says, does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? So the unrighteous are shown in contrast to before the saints. The saints are those who are saved by faith. The unrighteous are those who are not saved by faith. That's the distinction that he's made here.

2 Peter 2.9 is a similar clear contrast if you're looking for some comparison there.

Looking back at this, these are also all given as nouns. Meaning, these people had this as a fundamental character. They were, as a fundamental character, characterized by the sin of fornication. Characterized by the sin of idolatry and on down the list. That's the way Paul was picturing these people having these lists. They were characterized by their sin. Their sin was chronic. Their sin was innate to their character. That's the character they had. That's the character they lived out. It was who they are. It was fundamental to their character because they don't believe.

He starts off here in the list, fornicators, idolaters, and adulterers. A fornicator, that word refers to sexual intimacy of any kind outside of marriage. There is no squirming or straining at the definition of is. Any sexual intimacy outside of marriage.

Idolaters, while at first we might think of somebody bowing down to an idol, The picture, starting from Old Testament times, was one that involved sexual immorality. In the pagan idolatry of both New Testament times and on into the Old Testament times many centuries prior, this was the pattern. We see the word sodomites, at least as in the King James translation, or male cult prostitutes in the New American Standards. was written of numerous times, starting with Deuteronomy and on into 1 and 2 Kings. And that pattern continued on into the New Testament era where idolatry was involving sexual sin even into the city of Corinth.

That was the pattern. People knew clearly what Paul was talking about. There wasn't any ambiguity there. The next one he has is adulterers. Interestingly, in the Roman Empire, they'd come up with a definition of adultery. It was patently illegal. There's no question about it. It was only defined as sexual intimacy with another man's wife. So any other sexual intimacy outside of that, at least legally, was not considered the case. So that's why he includes the other descriptions along with this list of adulterers. Now, here's something interesting, and here's the part that, like I say, some would like to have me get in trouble for teaching on.

This word effeminate, the Greek word is based on a word for soft, and the Greek word in this context referred to one who took on a female role in a homosexual relationship or act. They had frequently at the theater these effeminate boys for rent. at the theaters and amphitheaters, at sporting events and theater events, and those were commonly available. It had been a long-standing tradition among those in the Greek culture to have the soldiers pair up an older with a younger homosexual male, and it would be the younger one who would be typically in this relationship. The city of Sparta was one of those that was most prominently of this persuasion. That's how you run an army. The word homosexuals that's translated there is from a compound for the Greek word male and bed. And it referred to the one who took on the male role in the homosexual act of relationship. So it covers both parts of the violation here.

It's interesting that it was not only prominent in the Greek culture, Claudius, who is mentioned in the New Testament, was the only one of the first twelve Roman emperors who didn't have any same-sex relationships. All the other eleven of the first twelve did have same-sex relationships, and it was well known and recorded.

The next that he has, stepping into non-sexual sins, thieves, the covetous. Now, interestingly enough, thievery was, of course, something that the Jews saw as sin in what we know as the Ten Commandments, you know, thou shalt not steal. But the Roman Empire was interesting in its treatment of theft. Theft was not a criminal offense in the Roman Empire. It was a civil matter.

If you lost something to a thief, that was your problem. And so that's why you see in the New Testament all the warnings about a thief in the night. You better be vigilant because the police aren't coming. And if you needed to get your stuff back, it was a matter of taking it back by force or taking them to court.

So good luck. It was even so acceptable, and of course we talked previously how in Ephesus there was a home base where you could steal and as long as you got back to this home base, you were completely untouchable. It was fine. And even at that, some pagans, we have record of them praying to their pagan gods to be able to steal better. Give me skill in my theft. Covetous.

Now, this sin is one that is in the heart, isn't it? It's a sin that starts there. It's a sin that is described there. It comes from the heart. It basically says, I want what you've got. That's the attitude of covetousness. It is a sin. It is a sin. It's one that chronically says, I, me, my, and mine. I want what you've got for me, I, me, my, mine.

Coveting isn't initially expressed outwardly, but it can turn into a theft. ultimately, or a swindling. The Jews viewed coveting as sin, but the Gentile pagans did not. They didn't see it as a problem at all. So the culture would have said coveting is fine. Paul says, no, it's not fine. The list goes on in verses 9 and 10. Drunkards, revilers, swindlers, drunkenness was considered a sin certainly among the Jews. But among the Gentile pagans, not only was it not considered a bad thing, they even had celebrations that involved days of drunkenness. They had processions and seasons of celebration dedicated to the god of wine. In the Romans, they called it Bacchus. The Greeks, Dionysus. Either way, the people in celebrating to these gods would get drunk sometimes for several days on end.

And interestingly enough, or maybe not interesting, they would tear apart living small animals with their hands as a part of the celebration. So that's a part of what Paul is talking about here. He says this is really awful. Now, this is a fun one. Revilers, this word referred to someone using aggressively abusive speech. This is all talk, but it's rasty, nasty talk. The next one, swindlers, a thief who stole from others by trickery, faking a personal or business transaction. Among the cretins, it was considered the height of personal character to be an outstanding swindler.

Then what do we see? What's this about not inheriting the kingdom of God? This is one of three passages where Paul talks about specific sins and then those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. It shows up for the first time here. Those who are unbelievers whose identity was or is defined by their sins would have no part in the promised and coming reign of Christ.

Those who are characterized by these things. Conversely, we who believe will have a glorious part in the coming reign of Christ. We are not defined by Oh, I don't say we don't have struggles with. We were not defined by these actions. We are instead defined by Christ's righteousness, as we'll see shortly here.

Now, here's Paul pointing an interesting finger. Such were some of you. I won't do it here this morning. At the church where I grew up, I can remember one Sunday It was a much larger church building, and the church was full. After teaching through this list, the pastor said, those of you who are formerly on this list, stand up please. Boy, I tell you, it was a lot of people standing up. It was a lot of people standing up. One of the people who was sitting down and then stood up and said, boy, these are my kind of people.

But such were some of you. Now, as you go down this list, you may look at it and say, well, I didn't have any of those problems or not very much. But certainly the believers at Corinth could look down this and say, yeah, I was on this list. That was me. Such, of that character, were.

Now notice this past tense. Notice that Paul is using this keyword, were. The identification with and by these activities and lifestyles, he puts his past tense. How did this change take place that he could say, such were some of you? How did that happen?

He said, you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified. Paul wrote that the believers had been washed and sanctified and justified, and those actions were all by God's doing. Was it all anything that they did? No. It was God's doing. All they did was believe. That's it. God did it. God accomplished it. All they did was believe.

Paul credits here Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for these actions upon these believers who had been so radically changed. Who knows, some of them may have been among the temple prostitutes. He says, such were some of you, there were swindlers and thieves among them. Those who had been homosexuals, either of the female role or the male role.

If we take Ephesians 1.3 and use that, we can also credit the Father.

We have the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all involved in this having been washed, sanctified, and justified. These believers had been spiritually and morally washed by God. God was the one who did the cleansing. They had been sanctified, made holy, set apart for God's special purpose.

That's a completed past action as well. He said that in the very first chapter. They had already been justified, declared righteous. That's what justified means. Declared righteous. A judge's decision. By the way, that's God's decision. You've been justified! Bang! The gavel goes down. Done. Declared righteous.

So as we look at these, what we typically term the identification truths, where we were crucified with Christ, we were buried with Him, we were raised with Him, we were ascended with Him and seated with Him, in all that, you've been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified, declared righteous. You see, God had brought about As these people, all they did was believe. They didn't accomplish these things. All they did was believe.

Period. And by the way, you don't get credit for that. No credit for believing. God's the one who gets the credit and the glory. God had brought about a radical spiritual change in these people. The unbeliever is dead in his trespasses and sins. That's Ephesians 2, 1-3. He's dead in them. You see that? And that's one reason why Paul would say, you know, you were this adulterer. You were this fornicator. You were this swindler. You were all those things. That's how you were defined. Why?

You were dead in them. They were defined by the things they habitually did because they were positionally dead in them. Without Christ, they would have remained there. They would have been stuck there. How can I get out of this? You can't. You're dead in them. Yeah, that's the position that the unbeliever holds. They're dead in them. They're stuck in them. Can't get out. It's funny, you wonder about people who seem to go through rehab 10 times, right? Seems like it's really ingrained.

The believer, however, is by God's doing, only by faith, and that's not anything you get credit for. You don't merit it. The believer is in Christ's righteousness, all by God's doing. It's God's accomplishment. Once these people who had been idolaters and fornicators and swindlers and thieves Once they believed, they were changed, they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified. The gavel goes down, righteous! They were no longer stuck in, defined by the trespasses and sins that they were in, in, in. God made them instead to be in Christ. Look here in Ephesians 2, 1, and 3. You are dead in your trespasses and sins.

It's a position, isn't it? You're dead in them. Among them, we too all formerly lived in. It's interesting. You're dead in. This lived in means we interacted that way. Our interactions. We're in, positionally in, the lusts of our flesh. That's who we are. That's our definition before we believe. We're in those lusts of the flesh. We're stuck there. That's what defines us. That's our position until we're made to be in Christ.

Colossians 2.13 says a similar truth.

In John 8.24, Jesus is talking to the Jews who don't believe. Oh, they're leaders. Oh, they're well regarded by the people. And they're quite convinced that they're following the law to every jot and tittle. But Jesus says to them, therefore, I said to you that you will die in position in your sins. Where? In them. The sins. That's what defines you.

You go about thinking you're very holy and you keep the law, he tells these Jews. But he says, I'm telling you, you're going to die in them and you're stuck. Unless you believe that I am He, that's what these believers in Corinth did. Unless you believe that I am He, you will die stuck right there in your sins.

Not getting out. You're there. You're defined by them. You're in them positionally. You don't want to die that way. You want to believe. That's what Jesus was telling them. You guys don't understand. Unless you believe in Me, it doesn't matter how righteous you think you are. Even your supposed righteousness is sins, he tells them.

2 Corinthians 5.21, Lord willing, we'll get there. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God where? In Him.

These are the same people that he'd written to. He says, you were this, you were that, right? So that we might become the righteousness of God Because of our great efforts? No. Because I'm such a great guy? No. In Him. That's how it happens. Christ's righteousness. For one reason and one reason only. Belief. The unbeliever's basic spiritual problem will not be fixed, resolved, by changing their behavior or behaviors.

Okay? We have this illustration of a dog chewing on a shoe. Okay? You can imagine some owner thinking, if I can just get him to stop chewing on the shoes, he won't be a dog anymore. Okay? You're not going to make that change of character, are you? Okay? You're not going to make it stop being a dog by not chewing on the shoes.

Whether the sins are large or small in our eyes, and we tend to rank them and compare ourselves to one another, They will still be, where? In their sins. And Paul does not hesitate, and neither do the other authors of Scripture, to put a plural in there. In them. In the sins.

The unbeliever does not have a basic need to be made into a nice unbeliever. Not going to happen. The unbeliever does have a basic need to believe and so to be placed into Christ. That's the basic need of the unbeliever. You will hear about, see news reports about folks who call themselves Christians going around trying to put down the homosexuals or this group or that group. If they change that behavior, that's still not going to change anything. That's not the basic problem. The basic problem is they need to believe. That's the basic problem. Sin or righteousness is a matter of position. The unbeliever is in, positionally in, their trespasses and sins. They're stuck there. They can't get out. There's nothing they can do to keep from being defined by the trespasses and sins as to who they are, their identity, except for belief. The believer, and the believer only, is in Christ's righteousness. And it's because of God's doing. All we did is believe. The difference in these two positions is belief. Bottom line. Paul will spell out later in 1 Corinthians, the fundamentals of the gospel, when you say, what do you have to believe? Do you have to believe in something? Oh, I believe in God. That's not good enough. There will be people who believe in God who will go to hell. That's not good enough.

Paul wrote, he says, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, by which also you are saved. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and so you believed. Believing in God or a God or some kind of God is not good enough. Thinking that Jesus was a nice guy is not good enough. Believing that there was a Jesus is not good enough. That's the content of the Gospel.

Paul next writes, here in verse 12, a principle that he's going to restate just a few chapters later, but here, interestingly enough, he personalizes it. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Notice he takes it personally here. Not everything is beneficial. I will not be mastered by everything. When we get into chapter 10, verse 23, he restates the principle in a general form. Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.

In verse 13, he puts out another principle, food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will do away with both of them. They're for here, they're for now, aren't they? Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

You see, Paul was correcting a very common misconception in those days. The Greeks had equated food and sexual passions as being on the same level. Oh, I need food to live, and I have to fulfill these sexual passions. And what Paul is trying to put into view here is that those are both for now.

Those are both temporal, temporary. There is no salvation in either one of those things. Yes, they both have an appropriate place and purpose and God intended. But don't just go putting them on the same level and don't forget, this life is not all there is. The Greeks also created a separation in their thinking between spiritual things and physical things, so that the physical actions were thought to be separate from spiritual impact. It doesn't matter what I do, because that's in the physical realm. What I do in the spiritual realm, that's a separate thing.

No. God says they go together. God says they go together. In verse 14, as Christ was raised, so we shall be raised. Believers have been made to be in Christ, having been baptized, that's immersed with the result that there is a radical change, immersed into Christ, immersed into Him. He has several passages here where that's made clear. So as Christ was raised and we having been identified with Him or raised with Him, we can walk in newness of life now.

We will one day have a new body like this. And I'm daily reminded of how good a thing that's going to be. Verses 15 through 18 in this passage, who you are now is all about Christ. In these verses here, Paul paints a picture that is all about Christ. The believer is all about Christ. He has been joined to Christ, as he wrote to the believers in Rome.

For the believer, to join himself to a prostitute is to live out a spiritual monstrosity. Why is that? He says you've been made one with the prostitute. You are joining yourself to the prostitute and because you're a believer, you're joining Christ to the prostitute. Does it freak you out yet? Christ is joined to the prostitute.

If that doesn't kind of freak you out and get you to shudder, I don't know what it is Paul's trying to get their attention saying you really Made a spiritual monstrosity. This is awful First Corinthians 6 19 and 20 is one where he says Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit is in you you have from God and that you're not your own you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and and you have been bought with a price.

You are a walking temple. You're a two-legged temple. Live like a temple. Live like a temple. Glorify God in your body. You have been bought with a price. Looking at this song, Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary. In fact, we are. This song is about making the truth, which is already the case, reality. And so it's a prayer to make what is already true be lived out.

What's interesting is he is going to repeat this message, you're not your own, you've been bought with a price, again at the end of chapter 7. Again, we made the point that he repeats himself for emphasis. This tells me that the Corinthians had a problem. And their problem was they had this attitude, one that's common today.

I am my own man. Ever heard the term a self-made man? I am my own. I determine what I do. I go and make my own decisions. And I am my own to choose. And nobody has a right to tell me to do this or that or not to do this or that. And Paul is saying, he's making clear here, you have been bought with a price. You are not your own. You can't say, I am my own person. I belong to me. I have rights. I get to make my choices. He says, no, you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. You have been paid for by the price of Christ's very life and blood. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. He tells them that twice here. The first time, he follows it with, therefore glorify God in your body. The next time, do not become slaves of men. Another reason for each believer to carefully consider what is done with this body.

This isn't my own to just, oh, I have rights. Do I have a right to do this and a right to do that? Well, no. As a matter of fact, one of the questions we asked in the Revelation elective last week, do people have a right to go to hell? I suppose you could put it that way. I'm not sure it does you much good, but I suppose they do. This is a recognition we have no right to claim ourselves as our own. We have been bought with a price. I've been spoken for and so have you. We've been joined, we've been indwelt, we've been bought, all by the Father's intent and direction.

All three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are involved with who we are as believers in Christ. What we decide to do with our bodies has huge spiritual implications because of who we are, because of the price that's been paid for you and me.

I think as we look at this passage, one of the things that comes out is we look at things that characterize our old lifestyle. And you know, whether you have have done or failed to do things as an unbeliever or as a believer, one of the things that becomes clear is there are some things that are simply part of the old. some of the things that are to be left behind. And thankfully the Lord has paid the price for them. Sometimes we still have consequences here though, don't we? And I think coming to grips with this passage is really critical when we look at things that we should have done or shouldn't have done, things we should have done differently. I've tried to be fairly honest with you about some of the Big ticket items in my own life. I've been pretty clear in times past.

The first 15 years of my marriage, I finally, when I recognized what I did, I sat down with Nancy and each one of my kids individually and apologized to them. Told them I have not been the husband and father that I ought to have been. And I can't promise to do something differently in the future, but I'm telling you, I certainly recognize what I did wrong in the past and that I hope to learn differently and for the Lord to grow me differently. Maybe I wasn't on this list of 10 things that Paul listed.

Sometimes I'll tell people, no, I didn't have that problem. I had other ones. I have different problems. Not those, but I had my own. One of the problems that I had significantly in my younger years was a rageaholic. I got so angry and carried it out that it scared me. It scared my older brother too. I can remember more than one occasion him stopping me. Stop, stop Vern, you're going to kill him.

You look at things like this, you look at it and you say, ah, I've been washed. I've been sanctified. I've been declared righteous. That's the character that I have by Christ's righteousness. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we may look at it and we may say, yeah, I'm on that list. That was me. We may look at it and say, well, no, what I did wasn't on that list, but I'm certainly on another one. Thank you that we've been washed, we've been sanctified, we've been justified, that is declared righteous.

And thank you, Lord, that we are not alone. I don't have to go about basing my actions and my life on who I have made myself to be. but graciously upon who you have made me to be. We thank you for that, Lord. Thank you that it has an eternal impact. Thank you that all we had to do was believe and nothing more and nothing less. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.