2Cor 6:11-18
Sin Is A Bad Choice!

Paul was writing to the Corinthian church. The first three verses use
comparisons that don’t translate well into our language. Paul used
the term "mouth," "bowels," and "straitened" like we use the words
arms, hearts, and stubborn. Paul was saying \\#1\\ our arms are open
to you and our heart is filled with love; \\#2\\ but you being
stubborn toward us. You are being stubborn in your own hearts. \\#3\\
Now, open up your hearts!

Obviously, we are walking into the middle of a conversation.  Paul
had ministered to the Corinthians, starting a church there, and had
returned at least once, along with sending several letters and some
representatives, but he could not convince them that Christians do
not live like lost people.  They just weren’t getting that.

Perhaps they were saved. Perhaps they were not. Paul had some doubts.
But barring that, Paul pressed upon the Corinthians to live a holy
life!  In this chapter, he presses again.

Let’s see if we can learn some thing too.

I. \\#14\\ The main point Paul makes is that light and darkness
    cannot abide together.
    A. It is a physical impossibility for light and darkness to abide
        in the same space.  The one always vanquishes the other!
    B. \\#14-16\\ Five times in our text, Paul asks what relationship
        a saved person can have to sin.
        1. What fellowship can righteousness have with darkness?
        2. What union can light have with darkness?
        3. What accord can Christ have with Belial?
        4. What part can a believer have with an unbeliever?
        5. What agreement can God’s temple have with idols?
    C. The point in asking almost the same question five times is
        to point out that there is NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
        A SAVED PERSON AND SIN!
        1. You will never be happy doing what you did.
        2. You will never be comfortable doing what you did.
        3. You will never be prosperous doing what you did.
        4. If you are, something is wrong with your salvation!
        5. If you are praying for someone who is happy, comfortable,
            or prosperous in their sins, pray for their SALVATION!
    D. \\#17\\ From that point, Paul draws a conclusion:
        1. Come out from among them.
        2. Be separate from them.

II. Why can’t a Christian abide in sin?  It is because believers have
     been internally altered.
     A. We are not the same people we were before salvation.
     B. God has made a change in us that is on the level of changing
         a person’s physically DNA.
         1. We have been born again.

1Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever.

1John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and
he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Romans 6:1  Shall we continue in sin that grace
may abound?
2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to
sin, live any longer therein?

        2. We have been indwelled by God.
            a. \\#2Cor 6:16\\
            b. Specifically by the Holy Ghost of God.

1Cor 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you?
17  If any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are.

Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

        3. This changes our lineage, our family, our very nature.
            \\#Eph 2:1-7\\

1Cor 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God.

    C. Every lustful and evil thought and action comes from our
        old nature and bloodline.

John 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar, and the father of it.

        1. If we have been born again, that DNA has been killed and
            removed.
        2. For we to act like we once did, we must be deliberating
            empowering the old creature to live or else we are
            imitating the old creature in an attempt to re-create
            sin’s pleasure.

III. For those who want to break sin’s power, this internal
      alteration gives us the power to break free!

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name:

        A. This verse is not just promising the power to be saved.
            It is also promising the power to be free from sin’s
            bondage.
        B. The word power is defined by Strong’s concordance as "the
            power of choice, the liberty of doing as one pleases."
        C. Since we have the power of Christ, we are commanded to
            use it.

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we
continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin,
live any longer therein?

Rom 6:12 LET NOT SIN THEREFORE REIGN
in your mortal body, that ye should obey
it in the lusts thereof.
13 NEITHER YIELD YE YOUR MEMBERS AS
INSTRUMENTS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO SIN:
but yield yourselves unto God, as those
that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 FOR SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU:
for ye are not under the law, but
under grace.

        D. Not to use the power that is been made available to us is
            in itself a sin!
            1. For the child of God, there is no excuse for abiding
                in sin.
                a. Ignorance - We have the Word of God and the Holy
                    Ghost.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for
he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will
shew you things to come.

                b. Environment - Greater is He that is in us that He
                    that is in the world.  \\#John 4:4\\
                c. Wrong teaching - We have the Holy Ghost to guide
                    us to all truth.
                d. Weakness
            2. In the end, there is only one reason why a Christian
                continues in sin.  It is a willful act of choosing
                sin.
            3. It is a dangerous act that endangers our whole
                Christian life.
                a. No sin is singular like a rope.  It has multiple
                    cords which capture all that come near it.
                b. Once a Christian sets sail in the waters of known
                    sin, you begin to loose the ability to guide your
                    life altogether.

IV. Here are some Biblical truths that we should understand.
    A. We are no longer of this world.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world
would love his own: but because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.

        1. The word for "world" means more than the terrestrial ball
            we inhabit.  It includes all things associated with the
            world system.
        2. Our adoption has made it so that this world is suppose to
            now hate us and we are supposed to hate it
    B. We are not to be friends with this world system.

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye
not that the friendship of the world is enmity
with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God.

    C. We must separate ourselves from the system.

2Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive
you,

        1. As we do that, we will want to break the old vices!
        2. Once we want to break the old vices, we will learn how.
        3. If we do not want to break them, we are not living up
            to our altered powers.
    D. Our ultimate end is to be in the image of Jesus Christ
        Himself.

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren.

The outward manifestation of this internal change and adoption takes
place at different rates and in different orders, but we are
continually going to move in the same direction!

<OutlineIndex>  <Close Window>