2 Corinthians 6:11-18 – Sin Is A Bad Choice – Bible study

2Cor 6:11-18 Sin Is A Bad Choice! Paul was writing to the Corinthian church. The first three verses use comparisons that dont 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 werent 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. Lets 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 Gods 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 cant 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 persons 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 sins pleasure. III. For those who want to break sins 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 sins bondage. B. The word power is defined by Strongs 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!