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Alright. Even though I walk through the valley and even though I walk through the valley of a shadow I'm there. Your perfect love's gotta stand out here. And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storm's love this night, I won't turn back. I don't know who I'm in.
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And I won't fear no evil.
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And for my God is with me. And if my God is with
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a woman shall I fear. A woman shall I
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fear. Oh, no. You never let go through the corn and through the storm. Oh, no. You never let go every time, every low.
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Oh, no. You never let go, oh, lord. You never let go of me.
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I can see the light, and I can see the light that is coming for the heart down Let's sing that again. Alright?
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Oh, no. You never let go through the corn through the storm. Oh, no. You never let go in every high and every low.
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I'd like to invite you to go ahead and have a seat and our frontline team here will come forward and we have the privilege and it really is a privilege to participate here in the worship of giving. And sometimes this is the part of the service where some flinch go, oh, asking for money again. But when you think about it, think of how generous God really is. You know, when we think of the generosity of God, the grace of God, that all things come from him. Let it be our honor and our privilege to give back to him.
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Amen? Let's pray together. God, we do give you thanks. We acknowledge once again that all things come from you. You are our creator and our sustainer, and so let this be our our privilege and our hearts desire to joyfully, give to you.
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Where would we be if we if we did not have you? What we have if if you did not give first. So, we thank you. Amen.
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Today, I've got, this is kind of unusual for me. I have a couple of slides here and the first one, I just want to start off with. This is not an apology. The sufficiency of scripture. I believe in the sufficiency of scripture to help with whatever ails us in our life.
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I really believe that the Bible really works. The gospel, the good news about Jesus is the power unto salvation for all who believe. So, I believe that scripture is sufficient. I want to mention though that the method of how we're doing this. I told y'all a while back that it's really a lifeline to sanity for me, okay?
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To go through it the way that we're doing it. First of all, we study the book of John about Christ's life first, then, we studied Acts about the life of the early church after that and since then, we've gone chronologically in order as best we can tell through the books of the New Testament. So, we've covered James and first and second Thessalonians and now, we're in first Corinthians. So, we are working our way through the New Testament to begin with. After that, I probably will go back and we'll pick up in the Old Testament but I want to mention why we do what we do or why I'm doing what I'm doing the way that I am.
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As best it appears to me, it seems to me this is a good way to do it. For these reasons, it's an a way to do an even handed treatment in sequence of scripture to avoid over or under emphasis and I'm saying this now today because the sermon today is about church discipline and whenever I hear a sermon on church discipline, if I'm not familiar with the church, I always think, who who did what? And who knows? So, I'm telling you, this is in order. This is the way we do things.
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It just happens to be today. While you're here, this is the one. Take it for what God put it there for. If the shoe fits, wear it by all means but in order to avoid over or under emphasis, I don't want to skip it because that would be taking something away from the word of God. We don't want to do that.
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I don't want to over or under emphasize and if I do it right, if I do it well and I won't always do it perfectly but if I do it well, we will mention stuff as often as the Bible mentions it and we won't, I, it takes the agenda out of my hands. I don't want that agenda. I don't want to look at y'all and say, whoo, they really need one about this. They need one about that. I want to do an even handed treatment scripture as best I can.
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So, that's why we're going in sequence. Giving special attention to grammar because I love it. No, because it matters so much. It makes a huge difference. What it says, I believe that the words really matter.
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I believe that the tenses and all that stuff will go through some of em today. It makes a difference. So, we'll pay special attention to grammar, longer rather than shorter passage. I know sometimes, I have people come up afterwards and say, I've heard that verse my whole life but I've never heard where it was and that's the reason that we're doing longer rather than shorter passages. We don't want to take things out of context.
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As a matter of fact, for church discipline, you'll hear verses used out of context all the time and if I can think of two or three of those today, I'll throw those in hopefully in an appropriate place. Longer rather than shorter passages give a better view of the context and to examine geographical and historical setting. The main reason I I look at what was then is so that we can build a bridge between then and now, looking into our society and looking at that society. Corinth actually corresponds pretty well with our society. Just the way that the land around them are outside of the church was acting and unfortunately, the inside the church is a lot like that too.
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So, that's the reason. I believe the sufficiency of the scriptures. So, we're going to pay as much attention as we can to that and hopefully, when we do longer passages, it gives less room for opinion and agenda on my part. I'll try to just expose what's there. That's my idea anyway.
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First Corinthians five one through 13 is about pride and is the Greek word. Pornea porn. You'll hear what comes out of that. We'll get into it in a minute in the sermon about what exactly it means but pride and not prejudice but porneia and both of these will come out. To start off with, what is a hospital?
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It's a big building with patients but how's that important right now? Did anybody think that? It's a line from a movie from way back. It's a what is a hospital? It is a place where people who are physically ill go to get well, right?
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That's why we have hospitals. If you know something's wrong but you don't know what it is, you can go to the hospital and it can be diagnosed and they can tell you, oh, you have this form of cancer or you have this form of infection and then, from the diagnosis, they know what your prognosis is. If you do nothing, this is what will happen and if you do this, this is the method. This is the way of getting better. If it's a cancer, the best way is to get it and we always say, oh, I think they got it all.
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We want it all gone. You want to get rid of it. That's the best that you can do. Sometimes, you have to treat it in a different way. Chemo or whatever but you're trying to destroy the cancer.
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That's what you do. At a hospital, place where people who are physically ill go to get well and a church is a place where people who are spiritually ill go to get, I should say better, probably. Go to get well. We go to get better. We all have some spiritual ailment.
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Trust me, all of us have some spiritual ailment and the church should be the place where you can go to get better. So, right into the text. I'll start off with first Corinthians five one and Paul gets to it immediately. He's got an overarching argument for the whole section. All 13 verses are pointing towards I think the same thing and I'll get to that but we have to examine this both individually and corporately.
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It's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate. A man is sleeping with his father's wife. If you want to look in your Red Pew Bible, it's page number eleven thirty one. 1,131. The actually there is the word halos in Greek and it's where we get our word holistic.
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That actually really means it's generally known in a very big way, universally agreed upon in a wide ranging way, very, very publicly, it is known. It's reported. It's not like, oh, the scuttlebutt is or I've heard a rumor that. Now, he's heard a report that everybody knows that this thing is going on. So, actually, really has more weight especially since it's the first word in the sentence that says, can you believe that everybody knows and is talking about and it's been reported widely that there's someone in your church that is doing this.
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So, individually and corporately, as the body of Christ sitting here right now, as a body of mostly probably believers and a few others, I'm sure. As we're sitting here, I'm going to concentrate mostly corporately today and hopefully less on the individual but I will say, he says exactly what it is. He calls it for what it is. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and the word right there is and of a kind that evens the pagans do not tolerate. The among you means that it's in the context of church.
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This guy is here all the time. He's a part of, considers himself to be a part of. We'll see it later on and with all of the backlog that Paul has just done for the first four chapters, those of you who've been here know we've been talking about divisions within the church and factions and strong leaders. I can't prove it exactly but when Paul said in the last chapter, I have put my name in Apollos' name on these figuratively so that you would take this in. He's probably pointing out that this guy is one of the leaders who is gathering a crowd that says, this is okay.
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Does that make sense? Do you think so? That man is one of the people who is raised up as becoming more and more a powerful leader in the church. I can't prove that exactly but there, I'm not the only one that thinks that. It looks that way especially looking at later chapters of Corinthians where one side says, we can sin more so that God's grace may abound more and then the other side says, isn't it good that we don't have any sexual activity whatsoever, ever?
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Celibacy for life. Since those are the two poles and it's not God's design, I don't think. It's moving further and further apart. That's probably the case. That's among you.
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There's sexual immorality and that word there is and it's not just there. Actually, it says, it's actually reported that there is among you and of a kind. Well, the word itself means any form of sexual immorality. The NIV translates it very well, vaguely, sexual immorality. Now, if you go to Leviticus or Deuteronomy, you'll see all kinds of different types of of of immorality and you see them repeated and Paul mentioned several of em in the New Testament but this particular one, he defines it further and says, a man is sleeping with his father's wife.
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That is a form of incest and when he said, even the pagans don't tolerate it, under Roman law, this was illegal. It was something that was not to be. Even in the Roman Empire, something that they could be punished for and to punish fairly harshly but this is something that not even the pagans stand for this and he uses this because it's his absolutely strongest case. Nobody who was really serious could think that this was okay. Does that make sense?
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Alright. So, that's the individual. It's immorality and it's not just vague immorality specifically. It's incest in this case but immorality is what it's about. Now, corporately, what about the body?
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What about the body of Christ? Corporately, what's he going to have to say to that? Well, he follows that up immediately too and y'all, I changed it from you and and I've been. I changed it to y'all because it's plural. It is and I think it makes a difference.
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It's not individually and I'm proud. It says, you are proud. He's talking to me. I'm proud. No, it's y'all.
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The church body, the body of Christ in Corinth. Y'all are proud. You're actually proud of this and he, the emphasis there with exclamation thing, I think is warranted. Shouldn't y'all rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship, the man who has been doing this. When it says, who has been doing this and if you back up a couple, this is sleeping.
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It is an ongoing, unrepentant, proud sin that's happening with somebody that's in their midst and he is arguing for his right to do so. Man has been doing this. It's ongoing, long. There's a pun later on. Well, this is the beginning of it.
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It says, and you instead of saying proud the way we would think, the word for proud it is and you are all puffed up. You're all puffy. You're puffed up. Shouldn't you rather have gone into mourning? Instead of bowing up, shouldn't you have ducked your head like you had lost a loved one that died and then put the man out or put the man out and then mourned that who has been doing it.
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I have to keep on saying this continual nature. It's not that they found somebody that made a mistake, comes wounded to the hospital, to the church, and says, I want to be better. I have a broken heart. I did something wrong. We've all done something wrong.
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If you come like that, this is not that passage, okay? There's no passage like that. If you come and you call out in faith, God does something about it through his people. This is somebody who is resistant and unrepentant. So, immorality is the sin for the man but pride is the sin for the church and he says it, you're puffed up, you're proud.
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Later on, he'll say, you're boasting is not good. You're ground of boasting. You think you have ground to be puffed up about this. So, individually, that man, this was widely known. We see that that's been reported but that pride is perhaps unseen.
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You can make pride something pretty holy. Do you agree? You can be proud of your sound doctrine and theology and stand up and say, we're not that guy. We believe this and you can be so set in that but I call back again to Paul last week. He said, my conscience is clear but that doesn't mean I'm innocent.
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He says it in great humility that the word says this, I'm saying this because I know the lesson. I've learned the lesson not to go beyond what is written. Whenever the Israelites began an Old Testament to put a fence up around the law and put extended laws so that they wouldn't get anywhere close. Whenever they put a fence up and went beyond what was written, it was a problem. So, pride is perhaps unseen although people can see it.
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You can see a proud person. A lot of times, you can see em from a mile off and if you can't, oh my goodness, the world can't. They can spot a proud Christian. Individually, that immorality was widely known and it was very visible. It was something that was of an ongoing nature and they could see that man and whoever never mentions the lady presumably because she was not a Christian, not a part of the church.
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That's presumed though But invisible is the sin of pride. It's something that's in our hearts. You can't say either way. Bottom line is they're both sin. It's one of them is very interesting.
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Remember the interesting and important sermon? Some things are very interesting like sexuality. My goodness. Can you watch a television show where that's not the subject? Is there a crime drama on television where that's where there's an actual crime other than something sexual?
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Every single one of them is about sexual immorality because those salacious details sorted. You remember sorted? The word sorted? Unheard of is what that means. It's not unheard of now.
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It's all the time. Twenty four hours a day all the time. That's interesting to us and we want to go to that. I'm begging you. Don't go to that.
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Go over to the corporate side and see that this passage is about that. It's about a sin that is lesser known, less seen. It's about pride. So, he gets right on into it. So, the first one says, individual sins.
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Second verse says, corporately, this is what's going on and then third, he says his remedy basically. For my part, even though I'm not physically present with you, I am with you in spirit. Now, he was the founder of this church, right? He brought the gospel to him. He called it in the last chapter.
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He said, I am your father begotten you in in the gospel. I'm the one that was there from the beginning. He spent eighteen months with him and then, it's been three and a half years since then and the wheels are coming off the wagon. When he was there, he said, I want to preach the cross, Jesus, and him crucified. I want to know nothing else but that.
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I want to concentrate efforts on the cross and him crucified. We've had several weeks in a row where it comes back to the message of the cross because it always comes back to the message of the cross. For those who believe, they are the ones who God saves at the moment of belief but he is progressively saving them. Those who are being saved up until the point of glory. They're being sanctified.
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For those who are not believing, they are perishing and it's on them. So, that's the message. He says, even though I'm not with you physically present, can you hear his heart for this people? The people that he knows and loves and he says, I'm with you in spirit and as one who is present with you in this way, as one who feels like, I'm a part of this and I'm a part of you. I've already passed judgement in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who's been doing this.
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Again, continual action. It's a normal, unrepentant state that this guy's in and he says, I don't need to hear anymore. This one is obvious. There might be some judgment calls down the line somewhere but this one is not and it shows that you've become lax about purity. It shows that you've been become lax about sin.
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If you're letting this go on, obviously, it looks just like the world around you. You look no different. You know, Ecclesia, the church, or the called out ones. They're called out of a civilization that acts one way but they are to act differently because they are differently. Their doing should follow their being and we'll get to that in a minute too.
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I've already passed judgement. In the name of our Lord Jesus, as the one who's been doing on the one who's been doing this. Again, continued action. I want to mention that right there, he mentions this. Anytime that you go into anything, even approaching church discipline, then, you need to make sure that the Lord Jesus is right there with you the whole way through.
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It rarely goes well if it gets to the end stages. If we don't work and work and work and work and work on the going to our brother and going with a witness to our brother and going back and keep on pursuing them. If we don't do that well, it never ends well. So, one, he mentions in the name of the Lord Jesus and then in the next couple verses, he says, so when you are assembled, that's when you're gathered. You remember the this is one of those out of context things.
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People say, well, when wherever two or three are gathered, you'll see it on cards and you'll see it in different places and usually it's a prayer meeting. When it says, we're going to get together for that Wednesday morning fellowship wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. The context of that is Matthew 18, the other big Jesus's sermon, Jesus's presentation about church discipline and he says, there, that wherever two or three of you are gathered together in my name, where when you are assembled and I'm with you in spirit. Wherever two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst. Paul calls that back up when he says, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present.
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That's a in a context of church discipline where two or three are gathered humbly in Jesus name. There is he in the midst. He will give the power that's needed to present lovingly and carefully what's going on and what needs to happen. Give the diagnosis, prognosis, and remedy, prescription. Power of our Lord Jesus is present.
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Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord and that's three times he's mentioned the Lord. Two there, three there, and I want to look at those. In the name of the Lord Jesus suggest that we act under his authority. When you say, I don't know. I don't know why this just came to me but he man, way back when was by the power of grace skull.
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They said, this is this is an an announcement of authority. I don't know what grace skull even is but that's what he would always say. So, if you act in the name of when I'm doing a wedding and I say under the authority invested in me by the great state of Wyoming, I'm doing it in the name of. In the name of signifies his authority and if you start reading the New Testament and seeing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you don't think, well, I'll skip that part. That didn't mean anything.
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It does mean something. It's suggest the authority of God goes with you in that area and in the power of the Lord Jesus suggest that he will aid in the process. It's something that he has recommended. He has told you to do. He's told you how to do it and he will be with you when you have to.
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It's not going to be pleasant but he will be there to aid you in the process and then, in the day of the Lord, suggest that he is ultimately the judge. We have to look on the outward appearance. We don't have any other choice. We cannot see the hearts of man but prayerfully, with the Holy Spirit living in our life and paying attention to his word, not going beyond what is written, looking and seeing obvious, outright public. It's not about going after someone's secret sins.
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It's not a witch hunt. It is dealing with something that has become a problem. Suggest that he will ultimately judge. It removes it removes the agenda again of just expelling people because we don't like em. God is the ultimate judge.
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Now, I will say this, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. I usually go through a couple of weeks where I read it two or three weeks out and then I get closer. I do the language study. I do all of this stuff and as I get closer to it and I feel like the sermon is more ready, kind of what's there. Then, I start listening to other people and yesterday, I listened to five sermons in a row about this passage.
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This is some of the most harsh present I've heard some of the most harsh presentations of this. Handing this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That one is one that sounds, wow, that's hard. I don't care who you are but handing him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. When Paul argues in Corinthians, first Corinthians, he says, there's the spirit and there's the flesh and the two are not compatible but they live within us.
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We've got our human frailty. We've got this flesh that we drag around and we carry with us and some of us feed that side more and more and more by giving in to temptation, lust, and that sort of stuff and once it takes root, it's harder and harder to live and you get further and further off of the beam. Over on this side, if you feed the spiritual side, that you get closer and closer to God. Now, you're more humbled because you see more and more of your flesh. Handing this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh is merciful.
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It's actually the merciful act of a of a godly body if they will turn someone out to let them live in the world and deal with the world because there is no solace there. There is no hope there. What you're hoping will happen for them is that they will hit rock bottom and that they'll turn to the only place that salvation and comfort is available and then, welcome em back in. The whole goal comes up right here is so that his spirit may be saved. It's all about restoration.
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So that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. We will not bad. Jesus says, we will not bad someone who comes to the hospital, finds out what is wrong, and then does nothing about it. Insist on staying, taking up a bed, taking up resources, and does nothing whatsoever to get any better, not willing, completely unwilling, does not want the surgery, does not want the chemo, just wants to hang out, have somebody pat him on the back and say, it's going to be okay. When it's not going to be okay.
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If somebody's in a burning building, they're up on the 2nd, 3rd Floor and it's burning out of control and they're waving and you just say, well, he looks like he's having a good time. No. It would be unrighteous mercy if you were just to wave at that guy and do nothing about That's not merciful when somebody's in a burning building. Jude actually says, you will be snatching people from the fire if you live this way, if you speak this way. So, that his spirit may be saved.
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It is all about restoration and it should never be applied, never be applied just to get him out of here. So, individually, immorality, widely known, visible, sin, and then, the remedy, the prescription for that is turn him over to Satan for his own good. Hoping, like I said, that he'll hit rock bottom, have a realization, and come back around. In our day, it's hard to imagine this because we have so many churches and if somebody practices church discipline on somebody, they just go to the next church and that's a normal thing. If if church were a place that we felt that we were as much a part of the body as we should feel that we are.
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If we felt like it was the place where we had comfort and friendship and love and appreciation and it was a place where it was built up. We would want to be here. If you want to be here and you're humbled by the fact that God has saved so many and gathered us in this place and allowed us to do his will. If it's the place to be and then suddenly, you are no longer extended that fellowship because of something, some cancer, something in your life that you're not willing to deal with. It should draw you back in.
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You should want to, okay, I'll have the surgery now. I'll do that. Whatever the cost. That's the idea there. Turn over to Satan for his own good and then welcome him back in.
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He mentions that in multiple places. He does not mention it specifically here. And then he goes corporately again. Your boasting is not good. Mentioning the pun.
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The boasting. Remember when he said the puffed up? You are puffed up. His his follow-up to you are all puffed up is don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? What does yeast do?
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It puffs up. Your biscuits come out awful flat, right? Swedish pancakes instead of sourdough pancakes. Your boasting is not good. He's calling attention to their pride and it's on both sides because you can be in either ditch.
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The sin so that grace may abound and proud of it. We welcome everybody no matter what. That's one side or we're a holy church. We only welcome those who bow their heads properly, do exactly the right thing, exactly the way we say. You can be in either ditch.
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He's calling me say, you're boasting on this ditch or you're boasting on this side. Neither of those is good. You have no ground to boast. It's by grace that you're saved. It's not something you deserve.
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Don't you know the little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Now, yeast in this context is talking, he'll mention it in just a second about the the feast of Passover. After the Passover lamb has been slain, they were to take all of the yeast in the house. Absolutely, all of the yeast in the house which represents sin. They're take all the yeast in the house and get rid of it.
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Throw it out. Start a new batch. Absolutely new batch of bread and it would be flat bread. It would not be raised bread because it's unleavened and pure and it does not have the leaven in it and actually, I'll mention this too. Yeast is actually from rotten bread.
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Did you know that? Yeast comes from spores that grow on something that has been allowed to ferment and rot. So, once something has gotten to the place of fermenting and rotting, what we do to add altitude, to add a little bit of puffiness to our bread, sourdough pancakes, whatever I had Dave Kaufman stand up in the first service. We have a sourdough recipe that we've had the starter that's been going on for one hundred years. We're not Jewish.
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So, we're not doing the Passover but anyway, the the the starter is something that from every batch of these pancakes they've ever made, they save a little bit. They save a little bit and that goes to make the next batch and it makes them puffy and light. In this context, he's saying, don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Now, if you want to go back to Exodus 12, I think it is and you can look for the story of when they were in Egypt and God had sent all the plagues. Talk about church discipline.
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My goodness. He sent all kinds of plagues that seemed really unmerciful but it was a way of setting his people free. He asked them to believe him. He asked him to smear the blood on the post, lentils of the house and when they did that, the angel of death passed over theirs but didn't pass over the Egyptians. So, they lose all the firstborn and finally, the pharaoh says, y'all just get out.
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I'm paraphrasing but he says, get out and as they do that, God says, on this day, this Passover, this feast, I want you to take everything, all of the leaven, and get rid of it. Have nothing to do with it. Actually, the Passover lamb at that time for that one. He said, if you don't finish all of this Passover lamb, if you don't finish it all, completely consume it and take none of that stuff with you. When you get out of this land, I don't want you looking back.
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I'm delivering you. And I want you to start over a fresh, new, unleavened lump. So, get rid of the old yeast so that you may be new, unleavened, batched as you really are. This is cool. This is grammar.
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So, this is the imperative, indicative complex but it's reversed. So, get rid of the old, nobody clear, nobody cheered for that. Nobody amen that nobody said anything about it. Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be what you already are. Be what you already are.
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He says it multiple times throughout the writings of Paul. He says, put on what you already have. Be what you already are. Get rid of the old yeast. In fact, the ESV says it this way, cleanse out the old leaven, cleanse out the old sin so that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.
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For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. The ones who had been formally Jewish or Jewish background believers in this would have known perfectly and they've had four and a half, five years to study the Old Testament. See this story. It is repeated from Exodus. It's told again and again and again all throughout the Psalms.
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So, this is something that would be a real clear analogy to them about the leaven. Get rid of it. So, individually and corporately. Individually, we cover. Turn him over to Satan for his own good and then the corporately pride that's unseen and invisible is still sin.
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Be what you are, pure, and unleavened. Humble. Don't get puffed up about anything. You have nothing to be puffed up about. If you boast, boast in the cross of Christ.
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There's the story right there. If you need to know what about the whole Egyptian thing, there it is right there. I'm going to skip past that but it is actually Exodus chapter 12 verse 39 where God told Israel, it's time to leave Egypt, you know, and he's saying, put this behind you, your mind. I'm going to deliver you. I'm taking you out of this land.
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Don't want to remember that anymore. First Corinthians five six through eight, he says, therefore, let us keep the festival. He's saying, let's hold on to that idea that we are unleavened and that's what we should be. Chunk that stuff. Not with the old bread that was leavened with malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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He's being figurative. I want to mention this guy, David Brainard was a missionary to American Indians and it's from his journal. So, if you see anything in there that seems politically incorrect, he wrote it. I didn't write it. The great missionary David Brainard, ministering American Indians, wrote this in his journal.
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He said, I never got away from Jesus and him crucified and I found that when my people were gripped by this great evangelical doctrine of Christ and him crucified. Second time he mentioned it. I had no need to give them instructions about morality. I found that one followed as sure and inevitable fruit of the other. And then further down the page, he says, I find my Indians begin to put on the garments of holiness and their common life begins to be sanctified even in the small matters when they're possessed by the doctrine of Christ and him crucified.
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Early in Corinthians, what did Paul said? He said, when I was among you, I determined, I resolved to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified, to live it out. If you pay serious attention to the sacrifice that a perfect guy who never had any sin in his life, did not owe a sin debt. If you pay attention to that guy, placing his life in jeopardy and ultimately losing his life. On your behalf, if you pay attention to that, Christ and him crucified on my behalf, then, everybody else's sin becomes less important than my sin.
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You're not looking around to see what your neighbor's doing. You're going, lord, please forgive me. When Isaiah is confronted with God's glory, his goodness, his everything, he says, woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips. He knew exactly what his primary sin was. Not looking at other people but looking at yourself and if you're dwelling on the cross of Christ, you are less likely to try to be puffed up in glory.
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Philippians two, I come to it every sermon. I feel like where the humility of Christ is put on display of this mind which was in Christ who being in very nature was God but did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He was not trying to prove to absolutely everybody who's right. He told them and if they would accept it, that was the difference but when they didn't accept it, he did not keep on pushing that on them. He made the offer out there.
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It was real. Therefore, let us keep the festival not with the old bread, leaven with malice and wickedness. Malice and wickedness covers a lot but it's pretty puffy, both of em. You start to. If you are malicious or if you're full of wickedness, you get pretty puffed up about it.
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But the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Jesus gave him the opportunity at truth and he did so in a very very sincere manner. And if we are sincere about our sin, if we're paying attention to the truth, we'll see that there's a diagnosis and the prognosis is bad and there's a prescription for it and the church is to help foster that, to get better. For all of you who are here, that's what you're doing is recognizing your spiritual ailment. When the when the Pharisees, Pharisees, oh how holy were the Pharisees.
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This is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at Jesus's disciples and said, why do you eat and drink with tax gatherers and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, it's not those who are well who need a physician but those who are sick. You think you really meant that they're well? I've used last week Paul's use of sarcasm.
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Jesus is being sarcastic here. If you think you're well, you're wrong. At least they recognize that they're sick. We'll have a chance to mention that one again. So, this is be what you really are, pure and unleavened.
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Be what you really are corporately. Your children of God. If you dwell on this, by the cross of Christ, we are made right with God. We are already saved but we are being sanctified. If you see it that way, it's very very helpful and it's very hard to boast.
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Be what you already are. So, then, Paul comes up on a four verse clarification to close out and this, up to this point, you could take that and you could dwell on that sexual immorality and you could make that your one note. You could say that this is it but Paul does a four verse clarification. It's for them. He says, I wrote to you in my letter.
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So, first Corinthians really was not the first letter that Paul wrote them. It's the first one that we have in the Bible. First one that's Holy Spirit inspired for us, for people of all ages but he wrote him a letter before that. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all, meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters.
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In that case, you would have to leave this world. Doesn't that make sense? That's all around us all the time. That's what's all around the church all the time. That's what people are.
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That's what people do. That's who they are. I'm saying, not at all was I talking about them. You got me wrong. In that case, you'd have to leave this world.
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You have to go to a different planet to find a place where there were no sexually immoral greeters, swindlers, or idolaters but now, I'm writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but he is actually sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater, slander, a drunkard, or a swindler. Do you notice the list increased? It's a different standard. Do not even eat with such people. That's a hard one to take too but this anyone who claims to be a brother or a sister.
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If they're coming to you and they're saying, no, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian but nothing about their life is saying that. If they're a Christian, they're recognizing the cross of Christ, recognize the sacrifice, then, the right response to a brother coming to you and saying, man, you're out of line right here. I don't know if you knew but doesn't it feel wrong when you do that?
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I I want to clear that up. I want to help. How can I help you? If they're a believer, the right response is, you're right and it is shackling me. It's killing me and I want to get out of it.
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That's the that's the person who recognizes something's wrong and I need to get somewhere where they can do something about it. Diagnosis, prognosis, and prescription. But anyone who claims to be but is immoral, greedy, idolater, slander. I I actually listed all those. These are the Greek words and their translations right here.
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The first one is the general term porno. Like I said, this is a person who is involved in sexual immorality. Could be of any type whatsoever. He's not saying incest. He's not saying the same thing the first verse did.
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He's saying generally that or a coveter or an idolater or a reviler. That's someone who slanders other people and is constantly tearing people down. With their words, a drunkard or a swindler and that's someone who's taking advantage of other people, a scam artist. Now, that list, those things are actually all legal. The Roman government had no problem with you being any of those ways.
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You could do all those things. In our society, look at that list. Sexually immoral, coveting, idolatry, slandering, reviling, drunkard, swindler. Those things are all commonly acceptable in our society too, aren't they? They're not really, there's some laws managing some of those things.
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A lot of them are for tax purposes but anyway, because they know people are going to do em. They were all acceptable in that society and I would go beyond saying they're acceptable in our society especially in little enclaves of our society. They're encouraged and expected. Paul said that this should not be so in the church. Not that people shouldn't have a proclivity that way but that they should recognize that that is that sin is a disease that they need to get out of.
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Go to a place that can help. They're all like cancer. So, the hospital be in the place where people are physically ill go to get well. The church should be a place where people know that they can have a true diagnosis and they can know that the sin that's in their life ultimately will kill. Death is a result.
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James says that when lust conceives, it gives birth to sin and sins ultimate end is death. Place where people who are spiritually ill go to get well and then Paul goes back just to make sure they understood. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Now, we do that. My goodness, the church does that like crazy.
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We have been known to just point around and say, so, yeah, but look at that group. I won't even, I don't even want to listen. ACLU or whatever. It's it's look at that group. It's so horrible.
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Absolutely horrible. They should not do that. Well, that's true but how they going to get out of it? You cannot expect for people who don't know Christ to act like they do. What business is is it of mine to judge those who are outside the church?
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If they're outside the church, what business is it? Paul says, are you not to judge those inside? Now, from the grammar and context, this obviously demands a yes answer. Are you not to judge those inside? You are.
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Absolutely, you are but this is another one of those where it's often misquoted. It's probably, it's one of the most quoted verses in the Bible because it's easy to remember and it's convenient. Judge not, lest you be judged. When you say, judge not, lest you be judged, what you're saying is, don't be looking at me. Judge not, lest you be judged in context, says, Do not go and try to remove a piece of sawdust from your brother's eye without first removing the plank that's in yours or the log that's in yours.
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He's saying, do some self examination, figure out what it is that is in your own eye and once you have pulled that in great humility, go to your brother and say, I just got this huge log out of my eye and I'm seeing this speck in yours. Can I help you get it out? That's loving and that is the way that we should be judging one another. To not do so would not be loving. It would not be merciful to just let it go.
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So, God will judge those outside. Now, that, you can take that two ways too. You can say, God will judge those people outside. Big deal. They're all going to burn one day or you can say, God is going to judge those people outside.
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If we are pure and holy and be in the light that God has called us to be, it will be attractive and some of those who are outside will recognize that. And they will join us And if we can all help each other to get well. Imagine cancer was infectious. If there's cancer in the church and it's infectious. Sin is.
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It is infectious. If there's sin in the church and it's infectious and we all start to look exactly the same but we're proud of it, then, what does that look like to the outside? I don't want to have anything to do with that. Expel the wicked person from among you. For his own good and for the good of the church.
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Individually and corporately, it's for the good of both. And he ends with that. On that chapter at least, he ends with expel the wicked person from among you. Unrepentant and insistent and on maintaining the present course. That is the deal.
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Now, I say all of that. I'm not taking one bit off of what I've already said to say. We are not looking for your secret sins. I don't have a list of y'all and your and your sins in my office that I check daily and I just check up on you. I don't do that.
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But if if there's something that is going on, it's of a public nature that comes out or if somebody comes to me and says, I'm going to do this. I don't care what you say. Doesn't matter. It goes completely against scripture. Then, there's a problem there.
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There really is a problem. If I say that, there's a problem here and y'all should do something about it. There's one more or a couple more slides. Corporately, be what you really are in Christ. It's much much better for Paul to keep on reminding them, you're a child of the king.
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Read Ephesians and say and see what all the good things that Paul says that you are. You're a saint. You're beloved of God, all the stuff. If you see that, it's it's better for you to be longing for that than for you to think, I'm just a drunk and you turn back towards it or I'm just a whatever and you turn back towards it. Be what you really are already in Christ.
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Positionally, you have the righteousness of Christ and as you grow in the grace of the Lord, you will see that more and more and you'll be more and more of that. Yield your life to him. Pure, holy, humble, Look into him as the great physician should have been capital G and capital P. In the place, he has called you into for surgery and that's this place. Every week, when we open the word, it should be like a knife cutting out cancer from our lives.
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As we yield to him, it will be. So, the takeaways, Carl said, put a takeaway slide at the end just in case we confuse people. Takeaways from this sermon for me. Do not in your own individual pride, call something okay in your life that the Bible calls sin. Individually, that's great and I'm going spend the rest of them are corporately.
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We should not corporately expect people of the world to act as if they know Christ. What else are they going to do? We should expect people who call themselves Christians to act like they do know him. We should expect of ourselves and of our other brothers and sisters holiness and we should help each other get there. And we all have some spiritual ailment and the church should be the place to come to deal with it.
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Those are my takeaways. I think we have one more song. This morning, we sang, I surrender all after that and I told them, I'm available all week, pretty much all the time and by appointment or just by drop in and if there's something that God's dealing with you, he's you're seeing a little leaven in your own life and you want to talk about it and talk about the biblical way to cure that ailment. The diagnosis, prognosis, and the prescription, please come. Please come or mention it to somebody around you.
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Thank you. What are we singing? Have you any room for Jesus? I think it's what we're thinking. Scott, would you come on back up?
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And would you all stand? And I normally step down. Sometimes, I step down and I offer an invitation but the invitation is that. I'm here and I'm available. I'd love to talk to you about it.
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And after that, may the God of peace give you that peace and knowing that your heart is surrendered to him and that you are ready for whatever he says. In Jesus name, amen.
