 Are Christian sinners, are we sinners saved by grace, or are we just saints and saints only? Sometimes the language can be a bit confusing, and so we need to be clear on what we say certain things. We know what it is that should be meant. The Bible is clear that every single person that's ever lived, that's ever been born, saved Jesus, they have been born as a sinner. We have inherited a nature to want to sin. Simply look at any one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old, any child, and you'll see just the nature, the propensity to do things even without being taught. So we are sinners in the sense that we all sin, but once a person places their faith in Christ, are they still sinners? Even if that person sins? Well, we're told that we all will sin. As a matter of fact, if we listen to what John says in 1 John 1, verse 8, he says that if we have, say we have no sin, then we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. In other words, we do sin. And he's writing to believers, so we do sin. However, you'll find this out, that we won't find anywhere in the Bible where a believer, a saint, is called a sinner. That's important, because how we're called, how we're viewed by God, ultimately is the more important thing. Not what we might do from time to time. However, and I use that phrase from time to time, because if we're in the habit of practicing sin, then we are not saints. We have not been saved. The Bible says the one who practices sin, and the word this used here over in the Greek is hapoion, which is the one that's doing, the one that's practicing, tain ha-martian, which is practicing the sin. So that person that lives a lifestyle of sin, that person is a sinner. Saints, however, are not such people. Paul talks about our new life, and that we are saved in Romans 6. He says that even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive in Christ. That's very important. God wants you to know that you are a sinner. That is, if indeed you happen to be a believer, you're not a sinner, you are a saint. If you have placed your faith in Christ. Remember, Jesus did not come for those that are healthy, those that have no need, but he came for those that are sinners. He says, this, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but to call the sinners, to call the sinners to what? For the sinners to become righteous, for the sinners to be holy. He is the one that makes us holy. Now that's important, because Paul makes this argument, this taping, because of thus, then I am not a sinner. So therefore, but he says, first 7 chapter 3 of Romans, he says, but if through my lie, the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also being judged as a sinner? In other words, you should not judge me or look at me as a sinner. I am not a sinner. I am a saint. I may have, I may sin. I might miss the mark. I might do some things that are not right, but ultimately it's going to be how God looks at me, because what does he say? In 1 Corinthians 6 9, he says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And he runs through a list of different sins, and people who are doing these things, these are the sinners. These are the ones who are engaged or practicing sin. These are the ones who will not inherit the kingdom of God. But notice what he says in verse 11. He says, such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of God. So you were these things, but then after that you were washed, you were justified, you were sanctified. Sanctified means to be made holy. You have been consecrated, made sacred, made separate. That's what a believer is. A saint is no longer a sinner. Now I was once a sinner, saved obviously by grace, and now have been called a saint, called a saint by who? Not from fellow men, but called a saint by God. Notice what he says in verse 2 of 1 Corinthians 1. He says to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling with all who in every place, called in the name of the Lord. So you have been called a saint who those who have called upon the name of the Lord, those who have placed their faith in Christ, and so you are called a saint. And so in truth, when we refer to another believer, we should never refer to another believer as a sinner, though he might sin. No much more so should we refer to a person as a basketball player just because he takes a basketball to his local basketball court and plays a game of basketball. He's not a basketball player, though he is playing basketball at the moment or at that time. That's not who he's known by. That's not what he's known by. That's not who he's called to be. Similarly, we are known by not any more our actions, but we are known by the person who has made us saints who has sanctified us, who has consecrated us. If a person is practicing sin and that person may have verbally made a profession of faith, he may very well not be an actual saint, but because of his practice, his lifestyle of sin, well then that person is in all likelihood still a sinner. Now we can't, it's hard for us to get an accurate judgment. So ultimately it's up to that person who knows for himself whether he is or he is not, and then God also. But a person who has legitimately placed their faith in Christ is no longer called a sinner, but he's called a saint, which again, there's a reason why the Bible never calls us sinners, never calls a Christian a sinner, but calls us saints. Amen.