Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Are you judging me?
[00:00:03] This is a question that I've heard a lot over the last 28 years of ministry.
[00:00:09] Normally in trying to counsel or confront someone who is in sin, are you judging me?
[00:00:20] And often there's been an attempt to quote Matthew 7, verse 1, the words of Jesus, which are judge not lest you be judged.
[00:00:32] We know how this tactic works. It's normally to deflect confrontation, kind of avoid the issue, kind of throw it back on the person who's counseling or confronting the sin.
[00:00:47] And I used to really try to argue against that, maybe to open up my Bible and say, you know, Jesus isn't saying don't ever judge in this verse.
[00:00:59] Jesus is actually condemning the Pharisees and self righteous of self righteous judgment from those who are unwilling to turn from their sin.
[00:01:12] And as a matter of fact, that's kind of what you're doing to me.
[00:01:17] Are you judging me for judging you?
[00:01:22] Are you self righteously judging me as you will not turn from your sin for judging you?
[00:01:28] I don't do that anymore. I just simply say when they ask, are you judging me? Yes.
[00:01:36] Because we understand that if judge not means to never evaluate or judge or confront sin, and it would nullify most of the Bible.
[00:01:48] I've even recently seen a graphic of Matthew chapter seven and it's sort of a cartoon that says this is how most people read their Bible today. And judge not is circled and highlighted and the rest of the page is just marked out because that's what that does.
[00:02:10] Even in the Context of Matthew 7 There is a judgment. Jesus says you can judge a tree by its fruit.
[00:02:20] You can judge those who proclaim to follow Christ by the way that they live.
[00:02:25] And there is a warning that those who do not produce fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. There's a judgment in chapter 7.
[00:02:34] The Bible calls us to judge the spirits, to judge false teaching, and even to judge ourselves.
[00:02:42] And so the Bible doesn't condemn all judgment. Again, it is self righteous judgment where you have the log in your eye and you're trying to evaluate and condemn others.
[00:02:57] And in Revelation chapters one through three, we see a judge.
[00:03:04] And as we've seen in this vision of Jesus, this judge, Jesus is judging his churches.
[00:03:13] He is evaluating his church.
[00:03:16] He is this priestly king who has come to purify his church and make her into a witness in the world.
[00:03:25] And so there is judgment involved in every one of these letters to the seven churches we're looking at. Jesus judges them and he calls the church to judge itself.
[00:03:37] And he Calls leaders in the church to judge the folks in the church so that they may be purified of sin.
[00:03:47] We've talked about this as the letter we read and studied to the church of Ephesus. They had lost their first love. Last week we looked at the church in Smyrna. There was no condemnation there, but there was an encouragement to continue to persevere in tribulation. And today we look at the church of Pergamum and Jesus is judging this church for something they are doing wrong.
[00:04:11] He's evaluating them, he's condemning their behavior in some ways.
[00:04:18] And we see that this letter to the church of Pergamum is a parchment of judgment. Notice verse 12. And to the angel of the church of Pergamum writes what's interesting, the word pergamum, it actually comes from a word that means parchment.
[00:04:35] And in the city of Pergamum there was the largest known library in the world at this time. Maybe only one other library was larger, but there were 200,000 scrolls in Pergamum in their library, words on parchment.
[00:04:54] And yet Jesus says the words I'm giving you as the church are greater than all of those words, this word of judgment. And he explains, he says the words of him who has the sharp two edged sword. Now remember in Revelation chapter one, this vision of Jesus and from his mouth is a sharp two edged sword.
[00:05:18] And it is a sword of judgment. It is a sword that comes to judge the church and it points to the word of Christ that evaluates and judges the church. It is a sword of judgment that Jesus brings into the church to purge sin.
[00:05:36] In Pergamum, the symbol of the city was the sword.
[00:05:41] And that's because the Roman government had given the authorities of the city to to judge their own. They had the right to judge their own citizens without taking them before Rome.
[00:05:53] And so Roman soldiers patrolled the city with sometimes three foot swords to invoke fear in the hearts of the citizens of Pergamum.
[00:06:04] And yet Jesus says there is a greater sword, his word that is to cause us to tremble.
[00:06:13] Actually, the prophet Isaiah says, upon this one I will look the one who has a contrite heart and trembles before my word.
[00:06:24] It is the word of Christ that we come before in awe as we evaluate our hearts, as we evaluate our lives. And this is what this church is to do.
[00:06:35] And it's interesting that the sword of the word is called a two edged sword. Even in the book of Hebrews the word of the Lord is a two edged sword because it cuts both ways. It cuts two ways The Word of God cuts away sin from our life when we are repentant.
[00:07:02] And yet what's tragic is that this Word of the Lord also cuts us away when we are not repentant from the witness of the church. And we see this is what this church is called to do here. And so the question today is, how do you receive the words of Christ as you come before the Word of God? How do you receive this sharp two edged sword?
[00:07:29] Which way does it cut you?
[00:07:32] Repentance.
[00:07:35] The Word of God comes and it judges our lives.
[00:07:38] Where do we match up?
[00:07:40] What do our lives look like? How does that cut you when you're confronted by the Word of God, when you're rebuked of sin, when you open up the scripture and you say, I'm convicted by the Holy Spirit, that this is not right in my life, how do you receive that?
[00:07:58] You receive it through repentance.
[00:08:00] You know what repentance does? It leads you away from sin, which is a cutting away of sin from your life, which is what Jesus wants to do with this church.
[00:08:10] But there is another cut of this sword which comes when we reject the Word of God, when we push it away, when we do not repent, there is hardness of heart.
[00:08:26] We run away from the accountability and rebuke of the Word of God. We often quote the scripture in Isaiah that says the Word of God doesn't return void.
[00:08:37] When we go to the context there, you know what the Word of God does in context? It's judging, it is evaluating Israel. And it will not return void. Its judgment will come back as true.
[00:08:53] And so those who harden their heart to the Word of God, there is a judgment that is coming in their life that often pushes them away from Christ altogether.
[00:09:03] And Jesus is warning this church of that here as they have folks who are marred in sin. And he holds this two edged sword of his word to judge his church.
[00:09:16] And first of all, he judges them as faithful. Notice, verse 13. There is a way in which they have been faithful. Notice, he says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, where Satan has set up shop.
[00:09:32] He's ruling and reigning in the world.
[00:09:35] In some ways he is called the God of this age. He is the prince of the power of this world. And there's some ways in which he is ruling.
[00:09:44] And you can see his rule very clearly in your church or in your city.
[00:09:50] Pergamum was the place where the seat of Zeus the Savior was. It was a high altar above the city that overlooked the city with all kinds of other temples around looked like a throne of Satan above the city.
[00:10:08] The largest temple in the city was to the God of healing. And it served as a hospital in the city. But its symbol was the snake. And we even see that the symbol of hospitals with this pole and this snake around it. Many think it even came from this. There was a hospital like temple in the city and folks would go in and there were chambers where they would sleep with tame snakes.
[00:10:37] And if they touched a snake overnight, it was supposed to heal them of their disease.
[00:10:44] Maybe that's why this is called the throne of Satan, Pergamum.
[00:10:49] But it seemed to all culminate as we talked about week after week now in imperial worship, where everyone in Rome at this time was forced to worship the Caesar. And in Pergamum, the first temple, Augustus was built.
[00:11:07] And this is where this idea of Caesar worship began, where you would go in this temple and you would throw incense on the altar and you would declare Caesar as lord in an act of worship.
[00:11:21] Jesus says, you can tell in your city Satan is ruling in this way through Rome, which Rome would also force all of these other forms of worship. And so he says, I know where you live. I know the spiritual darkness all around you. You can see the rule of Satan in your city.
[00:11:48] And notice, he continues, yet you hold fast my name. You continue to cling to the gospel. You continue to worship and witness my name as all of this other worship exists in your city.
[00:12:00] And notice, he says, you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness. We don't know who this man was. Many believe he was a pastor. Some actually believe he was one of the athletes, main athletes in the city during this day. But he was killed for his faith. He would not deny Christ and declare Caesar as Lord. And so he was killed.
[00:12:25] And you see Satan dwelling in this city, he says, and yet you have remained faithful through all of this pressure.
[00:12:34] Antipas, this faithful witness was burned inside of one of the pagan altars to scare the Christians, to force them and invoke fear that they would deny their faith. And he says, no, no, no, you held fast, you've been judged faithful in this way. But there's a way in which you have been judged unfaithful. Notice verse 14.
[00:12:59] But I have a few things against you.
[00:13:02] You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the Sons of Israel.
[00:13:10] Now he calls probably a contemporary teacher or false prophet of the day, Pergamum Balaam, because he's mimicking the behavior of this prophet that we find in the Book of Numbers who convinced Balak the king the way to defeat Israel is to put a spell over them and cause them to go after Moabite women that will eventually lead them into idolatry and they will eventually be judged.
[00:13:43] And he says, you have a false prophet in your city who's putting the same kind of stumbling block before the people of your church.
[00:13:51] He is leading them into idolatry.
[00:13:56] It's almost as though they have a spell over them.
[00:13:59] And what are they doing, he says, so that they may eat food sacrificed to idols in the city. We've talked about all of the temples that are there, and there were so many there.
[00:14:10] Part of the parties or festivals throughout the city would be that you go to these parties and in honor of the gods, you would make sacrifices, some kind of food or plant or whatever, and then you would eat part of the sacrifice.
[00:14:26] And what was being symbolized there was intimate fellowship with a false God.
[00:14:32] And many in the church are being led into that. If you want to be somebody in pergamum, you got to go to these parties and you got to take part with what all the businessmen are doing.
[00:14:45] You want to be accepted by your family, you got to go out to eat with them in these places where these false gods are worshiped.
[00:14:53] And you have to have fellowship with the false gods. But another way in which they were involved in fellowship with false gods was through the practice notice of sexual immorality.
[00:15:06] Often in the temples, there were temple prostitutes.
[00:15:10] And as an act of worship to these false gods, there was sexual immorality.
[00:15:16] And so he says, in your church, you got folks doing that they are in intimate fellowship with false gods. And in verse 15, he says, and some of you hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
[00:15:31] Really, it's really hard to know who these folks are, but they probably just summarize this group of false teachers who is leading folks in the church astray.
[00:15:42] But Jesus has this against the church, that there are folks in the church who have intimate fellowship with immoral idols.
[00:15:53] And here's where we get into the troubled waters. Don't jump out just yet.
[00:15:59] Jesus still has that against any church.
[00:16:03] He is against any church that claims to worship Christ and then worship the God of sexual expression in our culture. Any church that ignores that, Jesus is against them.
[00:16:18] Now, why is that? Well, we've talked about through the whole book, the issue is worship and witness.
[00:16:25] The church's worship is at stake. Who are you worshiping?
[00:16:29] Jesus or the God of Self and selfish desires.
[00:16:34] Who are you witnessing?
[00:16:36] Jesus or the God of self?
[00:16:40] Sexual desire.
[00:16:42] You see, Paul writes to the Corinthians, and he says the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord of the body.
[00:16:52] Now, we look at that passage of Scripture and Paul's actually using language of the body in two ways. He's talking about our physical body is for the Lord, but he's also talking about the body, which is the church.
[00:17:06] And the church isn't to be desecrated with sexual immorality. Why? The church is for the Lord.
[00:17:13] And in the church, we use our bodies for the Lord to witness the gospel of the Lord. How do we do that? Well, marriage itself is a witness of the gospel.
[00:17:26] Understand, marriage is a covenant.
[00:17:29] And it is a covenant between one man and one woman. And they vow before the Lord to become one legally, spiritually and physically, in every way. Just as Jesus has become one with the church.
[00:17:42] Marriage is a picture of the gospel.
[00:17:46] It is through a covenant in the blood of Christ that he has become one with the church.
[00:17:53] And we are to, as the body of Christ, use our bodies to reflect this covenant in marriage. In our marriages, inside the marriage covenant, there is to be intimacy that says, yes, the two have become one.
[00:18:14] That's why outside of the covenant, we are bearing false witness. The two have not become one in a covenant.
[00:18:25] And this all has to do with worship and witness. What do I mean by that?
[00:18:30] Well, the one who worships Christ through the gospel, loves the gospel and loves Christ, longs to witness that Jesus is Lord in this glorious picture of the gospel.
[00:18:47] In marriage or through sexual purity.
[00:18:52] We long to say what is true about Jesus.
[00:18:56] That Jesus isn't selfish.
[00:18:58] He doesn't use his church.
[00:19:01] No. He makes a promise to never leave her or forsake her.
[00:19:05] Jesus is good to the church. He's faithful to the church. And we want to picture that in our marriages. And we want to picture that in our sexual ethics.
[00:19:16] But the one who worships self, they idolize sexual desire, which we see all over the place.
[00:19:25] They idolize sexual desire to the point that they desecrate the design that God has given us.
[00:19:36] The design to reflect the gospel in marriage.
[00:19:43] We say, I'm Lord, I'm Lord, and my desire is an idol that I worship.
[00:19:52] And it is better than Jesus.
[00:19:55] That's what we're saying. When we sin sexually.
[00:19:59] I'm Lord, and this idol of desire will satisfy me more than honoring Jesus.
[00:20:06] And it is a false witness of the gospel. This is why in Our culture, we have such an opportunity through being pure, through refraining, being faithful, avoiding the appearance of sexual immorality. We have such an opportunity to witness the gospel just by mortifying the desires of our flesh and honoring Jesus.
[00:20:36] We look at a world where we see the gospel being desecrated, the false lies of love through immorality.
[00:20:47] We have a great opportunity to witness the gospel by avoiding sexual immorality, in doing this in a way that honors Jesus. It's one reason why I love weddings around here.
[00:21:03] I used to hate weddings, all the stuff that goes into it and it just stressed me out.
[00:21:11] And yet here as folks stand before the Lord and vow to become one in every way and to never leave, there's this glorious picture of the gospel.
[00:21:30] And I've been to so many weddings around here that are what worship, where we get together and we worship Jesus.
[00:21:39] Even folks here who $500 weddings are glorious, glorious display of the gospel, their worship, what else are they? Their witness.
[00:21:55] You have an opportunity to witness to so many people by staying pure, being faithful, waiting till you are married to witness the gospel.
[00:22:09] So it is about the gospel. But I also have a side note here.
[00:22:13] The covenant Jesus requires of us is for our good.
[00:22:17] We often think waiting till I'm married, staying pure, refraining from sexual immorality, staying faithful, that God is.
[00:22:28] He's out to get me. He's trying to withhold something from me. No, God is protecting you with that covenant.
[00:22:35] He's protecting you from your self centered desires.
[00:22:42] He's protecting others from your self centered desires.
[00:22:46] You see, becoming one in this way, body and soul in this sacred way, is never to be broken.
[00:22:56] And yet when you become one in this way and you continually are tore apart, you know what happens to your soul, mind, body, heart, spirit.
[00:23:08] There are wounds that don't go away.
[00:23:13] No, they turn into scars.
[00:23:15] And there's redemption.
[00:23:18] And there's this goodness of God and forgiveness, but they don't go away.
[00:23:24] There are rips in the deepest parts of our souls that last forever. And so you know what God is doing in this covenant. You cannot forsake one another when you come together in this way. You cannot. You must not. It is to protect us.
[00:23:45] It is worship, it's witness, and it's for our good.
[00:23:49] And this is why he issues a warning of judgment here. Notice verse 16.
[00:23:53] Therefore repent.
[00:23:55] So what do we do about this? That there are folks who are marring the worship and witness of of God in the church. In this way you repent.
[00:24:05] And remember that this letter would Be read to all the church, to the folks there who are engaged in this.
[00:24:12] You ever thought about saying to the pastor, oh, you, you stepped on my toes today. Felt like you were preaching right at me. Well, imagine being in the congregation and you're these folks.
[00:24:25] So he, Jesus says to them, repent.
[00:24:30] What does that mean? Turn from your sin.
[00:24:34] Turn from your sin.
[00:24:36] That's good, right?
[00:24:38] Jesus is being kind and gracious here.
[00:24:41] Turn from your sin. And there is mercy. But he says, if not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth, meaning Jesus will bring about judgment, the judgment of the word upon the this church and the folks who will not repent. And I want to emphasize that. Will not repent, will not repent. So everything I say in the next seven minutes, understand, will not repent.
[00:25:07] He says, if they won't repent, they will be judged.
[00:25:11] And if we go back and read the story of balaam, there were 24,000 Israelites that died in a plague because Israel failed to judge the immorality in the camp.
[00:25:24] You can go to numbers 22 and 31 and read that 24,000 died because they would not judge the immorality.
[00:25:37] And I hate to say this, but I have seen the judgment of Christ in the church for those who would not repent.
[00:25:45] It is one of the most devastating things as a pastor to see over and over.
[00:25:51] And I don't say any of this lightly, and some of it I have not wanted to say, but I've seen great men and women who would not repent, destroy their life, abandon the faith, lose their family, and upon a few occasions, and I know there's not always a one to one to these things, but I've seen men in their prime drop dead because they would not repent of sexual immorality.
[00:26:27] The cutting away in judgment is tragic and it's painful.
[00:26:33] When that sword comes and they do not repent and they run from accountability, they deny the faith.
[00:26:42] It's heartbreaking in the life of a church, it's devastating to leaders and pastors, but we have to take the word of God seriously here.
[00:26:56] This is in our Bible and these are the words of Jesus and they're words of mercy and grace. Repent. That's all you have to do is repent, turn from it or you will be judged.
[00:27:13] And I just for a moment want to tell you kind of how this works out here at Ashland Church. So we're all on the same page when you come to join our church for your good and the witness of our church members at Ashland are called to flee all forms of sexual immorality.
[00:27:34] We're very clear about that in the membership process.
[00:27:38] We've even recently added that to questions. When you join our church, are you involved in sexual immorality?
[00:27:46] And that includes premarital sex, cohabitation, homosexuality and pornography.
[00:27:53] We're called to flee those things.
[00:27:56] And when we covenant together in this body, what we do then is we hold one another accountable to that in mercy and grace. Where we confess and we repent. We repent.
[00:28:11] There's repentance all the time over this issue.
[00:28:14] There's reconciliation that not everybody has to know about or does know about.
[00:28:23] But that's what we want to do because we don't want Jesus against us.
[00:28:28] And so we want to hold each other accountable. It's for our good.
[00:28:32] And when there is refusal to repent from persistent immorality, refusal to repent, it's not just immorality, it's the refusal to turn from it. And sometimes that process takes a long time.
[00:28:46] And we want to be patient and kind, but when it begins to hurt our gospel witness and call into question a person's profession of faith after following Matthew 18, as patient and kind and gracious as we can. And by the way, Facebook doesn't tell the whole story.
[00:29:06] Some of you are thinking, right, oh no, you don't know, don't do that.
[00:29:11] Facebook doesn't tell the whole story.
[00:29:16] Folks are removed from our membership at a congregational meeting and you've seen how that's done.
[00:29:23] But let me say it's when there is a refusal to repent and we don't do that with any glee. There's no joy in that.
[00:29:32] Some of the most devastating moments in my life in ministry that leave me today heartbroken.
[00:29:40] Heartbroken.
[00:29:43] But we want to be a church that honors Jesus and understand as your pastor.
[00:29:51] I want to be a good pastor.
[00:29:54] And one day I'm going to stand before the one who holds this two edged sword and I'm going to look into the eyes of fire and give an account for how I lead this church.
[00:30:09] I want to be a good pastor.
[00:30:13] I want to shepherd you well.
[00:30:17] Let me tell you this. I love Jesus more than you.
[00:30:21] I do. I love Jesus more than you. And you should be glad.
[00:30:26] I love him.
[00:30:29] I love his word. I'm not trying to be self righteous and I want to honor Jesus word because I will give an account and so will the other pastors.
[00:30:43] So that's how we do it here.
[00:30:45] It's all on the table.
[00:30:47] There it is.
[00:30:49] That's how we deal with sexual immorality around here, hopefully prayerfully.
[00:30:57] It doesn't have to be public all the time.
[00:31:00] Only when there is unrepentance. Get that?
[00:31:05] We're all guilty certain ways, but we all must repent.
[00:31:11] This is what the sword of the Word calls us to do.
[00:31:15] And so now let's get to the better place.
[00:31:18] Notice verse 7.
[00:31:20] This is what repentance means for us when we do repent. Verse 17.
[00:31:27] There is better fellowship. Notice he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers. Again, there is a call to repent. Your worship and your witness is at stake in your immorality. Turn from it and turn to Christ. That's what it would mean for this church to conquer.
[00:31:47] Notice what Jesus would do when there's repentance. I will give some of the hidden manna. Now, throughout Revelation, there's all this kind of imagery and hiddenness. Now remember, it's so the folks in Rome don't just pick the letter up and say, oh, they're Christians, let's kill them.
[00:32:04] No, they would pick this up and go, hidden manna. This is just silly, but we know what it is.
[00:32:09] God provided manna from heaven for the children of Israel in the wilderness.
[00:32:14] And then what they did with some of that manna was they hid it in the presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant. They put it in a jar.
[00:32:25] And so we know when Jesus comes along and he begins to say, I am bread from heaven.
[00:32:31] We know that this hidden manna has now been revealed.
[00:32:36] The hidden manna has come from the presence of God to us.
[00:32:41] And remember what happens in these fellowship meals with these pagan gods. There is this intimate fellowship with a pagan God. What Jesus is saying here is through me the bread of life. There is a better fellowship. Whoever eats of this bread, they will never grow hungry and they will live forever.
[00:33:02] And here's the better fellowship Jesus offers is that through him you don't have to chase eternal joy in temporary pleasure.
[00:33:15] There's pleasure in the presence of God forever.
[00:33:19] So turn and turn to Christ and enjoy faith fellowship with God. You do not have to chase after idols that will never satisfy you. Pixelated pleasure lies of love that make you sick and destroy your. You don't have to chase those things. God has better fellowship for you in the bread of life who is Christ.
[00:33:44] So he offers better fellowship, but he also gives you a new name. This gets very powerful right here. Notice I will give him a white stone during this time, rocks and stones were, were used in the court system.
[00:34:00] And there would have been a black stone placed before someone if they were guilty. And then there would have been a white stone for those who were not guilty.
[00:34:12] So what does Jesus say? If you repent, I will give you a white stone.
[00:34:18] I will declare not guilty. This is the gospel of justification by faith in Christ. When we believe in Jesus, his righteousness is credited to us. And before God, we are not guilty. If you turn from your sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, you turn from it, you are not guilty.
[00:34:42] You are given the stone of Jesus's righteousness.
[00:34:46] Another thing that the stones were used for during this time is admission into these pagan parties.
[00:34:54] They were kind of like the invites. And so you were granted admission if you brought the right rock to the party.
[00:35:03] And so Jesus says, if you turn from your sin, I will grant you admission to, to my party, this marriage feast of the Lamb. But notice it gets even better here with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Again, the Christians, they are being tossed in jail, they're losing their jobs, they're being killed for the name of Jesus. And so there's kind of this subtle hiding of the name of Jesus here, these secret parties.
[00:35:37] Well, to get into God's party, there is a name on the stone that you will get that those who don't believe will not receive it, but it is in the name of Jesus. In Revelation 22:4, says they will see his face, the face of Jesus, and his name will be on their foreheads.
[00:35:56] He will claim them by his name and they will be admitted to his kingdom forever.
[00:36:03] Now, one of the things that would happen at the healing temple, this God of healing, when you would go sleep in these chambers with the snakes, the next morning when you would leave, if you were healed of your disease, and under, we would say, the spirits or demons of false gods, people were healed.
[00:36:24] There would be a priest of the temple who would take a stone and he would etch on the stone the disease that you were healed from.
[00:36:34] Then he would write the name of the God that healed you of that disease and you carried it around, kind of like your vaccination card, I guess. I don't know.
[00:36:43] I've been healed of the disease.
[00:36:48] Well, Jesus says he's going to give you an even better stone because he's going to heal you of the disease of your sin and write his name on, on the stone.
[00:36:58] What a powerful picture of the gospel. When you repent, Jesus heals you. That's why we call one another to repentance, because of the joy of the fellowship and the forgiveness.
[00:37:11] You don't have to live in guilt.
[00:37:13] You don't have to live in the condemnation.
[00:37:16] You don't have to have your life so devastated by the sin of, there's better fellowship. There's a new name for you in First Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. We don't have time to unpack all of that, but Paul there is. He lists the names of sexual immorality.
[00:37:39] And in verses 9 through 11 of First Corinthians, chapter 6, he says, Sexually immoral, nor idolaters or adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality will inherit the kingdom.
[00:37:53] He names the sins.
[00:37:58] And if we stop there, that would be horrible because none of us ultimately would inherit the kingdom.
[00:38:07] So what Paul then says is, and such were some of you, and such were some of you.
[00:38:14] But you were washed and you were sanctified and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.
[00:38:24] So whatever sin it is, through repentance and faith in Christ, it is washed away and you are made pure.
[00:38:33] And you can say, that used to be my name.
[00:38:36] That used to be who I was, but the sword of judgment exposed me, cut that sin from my life.
[00:38:48] So often we think about our past. And many of you here today, probably most, are thinking about this sin issue in your life. And there's moments in your life that you regret and that you hate. And maybe you're even hearing my voice and it's making you angry with me. Please listen.
[00:39:06] What I want you to know is in Christ, as much as you can. Try to scrub that away and delete that. You can't.
[00:39:15] You can't.
[00:39:17] But Jesus will.
[00:39:20] He will. He will wash it away.
[00:39:23] He will sanctify you in the gospel. And it will be his name that covers your sinful reputation. It will be his name that covers your sin. If you turn to him, you see, not only does the sword come to remove sin from our heart and our life, it comes to etch a new reputation over our life, the life of Christ that is credited to us.
[00:39:50] You know how that's possible?
[00:39:52] Because he took on your name.
[00:39:55] He took on your name at the cross, all the sin that you were guilty of.
[00:40:00] Jesus said, name me.
[00:40:04] Name me the idolater, the immoral, the adult. I will take on that name.
[00:40:11] And the sword of God's judgment and wrath pierced him at the cross.
[00:40:17] This is how he can forgive us. This is how he can save us.
[00:40:21] And for those who believe in him and turn to Him, I want to be abundantly clear. Today, there is joy.
[00:40:27] And all the things that haunt you in this life will not be present in heaven.
[00:40:33] You will not walk around in heaven with that reputation and that shame.
[00:40:39] The things that folks know and if they only knew. You will not walk around in heaven. It will not steal your joy. It will be gone. So why don't you live in that now?
[00:40:50] Embrace the gospel and live with confidence and the identity in Christ.
[00:40:54] Because when we're in heaven, we won't walk around asking, are you judging me?
[00:41:00] Because we've already been judged.
