Thank you, Art. Now, in 1 Corinthians
4, Paul told us there that believers are not to judge one another
quickly, rashly, unjustly, because our Lord is the judge. Now, here
in chapter 5, we're taught this. There is a time for the church
to judge our brethren. that we might keep the worship
of Christ free from all distraction. There's a time that the church
indeed has to judge brethren in order to keep the worship
of Christ free from all distraction. I've titled this, Let Us Keep
the Feast. And I want to show you, first
of all, just a brief exposition of these first, oh, seven or
eight chapters, and then I want you to see a few points why this
is so important. Now, understand this case was
a rare exception. This was not the rule. This was
rare. A rare exception. He says there
in verse 1, it's reported commonly that there is fornication among
you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among
the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." When
he says this was reported commonly among you, he said this is known
and talked about by everybody at Corinth, whether they're within
the church or outside of the church. Everybody knows about
this. And this was flagrant rebellious
sin, is what this was. Fornication that even the Gentiles
did not allow. This man was a believer, but
he married his stepmother, his father's wife. That means a stepmother. So this was not only fornication,
it was incestuous fornication. Now understand, we're not dealing
here with the kind of sin that we're talking about when you
hear believers say, sin is mixed with all we do. That's not the
kind of sin we're talking about here. You know, we have this
old nature that is sin and it's corrupt. And then we have a new
nature that God created. He put a new spirit within you
and that spirit is holy and righteous. It's of God. It is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. It wasn't of us. It's not of
our flesh. It's not of our works. It's not
of our will. It's not of our wisdom. It's
not of us. It's of God. So Paul said, if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin. That's what your flesh
is and that's what my flesh is. But if Christ be in you, he said,
the spirit is life because of righteousness. That's the only
kind of life there is, is righteousness. When sin entered, Adam died. Before that, he was alive, upright,
in righteousness, knew no sin, did no sin. You see, we have
a new nature that is without sin, holy, righteous, Christ
in you. But that old man, that old sin,
that old nature does nothing but sin. That's why Paul said,
in my flesh dwells no good thing, and that's why he said, He said,
I acknowledge the law that's good because it shows me that
I can't do what I would do. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. I still see by the law my sin. I see by the law I can't
do what I would like to do. And that is, I'd love to live
without sin, free of sin. So sin is mixed with all we do.
But we're not talking about that kind of sin here. If we were,
Paul would be telling us to to remove everybody out of the congregation. This was sin that was committed
with no care that it was against Christ, no care that it was giving
this world a reason to speak evil of Christ, no care that
it was dividing the brethren There was no repentance and no
intention of repentance in this sin. This was flagrant sin, a
total disregard for Christ and for His people. That's what this
was. So this sin and the way it had
to be dealt with was an exception. You see what I'm saying? This
is rare is what I'm trying to say. This is rare. We're not going around looking
for sin and reasons to judge one another. That's not what
we're being taught here. This was a rare thing. Alright, look
at this too. Paul reproves the rest of the
church because they were at fault. Verse 2, he said, And you are
puffed up, and if not rather mourned, that he that hath done
this deed might be taken away from you. He said you are puffed
up and you haven't mourned that this one that did this deed might
be taken away from you. Rather than this brother breaking
their hearts because of his sin, they were puffed up in pride.
Rather than mourning, pouring out a contrite heart to God,
which is the first thing we ought to do all the time when a brother
is overtaken in a fall. Go to God with a broken heart
and ask God. It ought to break my heart. when
I see sin in one of my brethren as much as it ought to break
the heart of that brother when it's finally revealed to him.
So go to God and ask God with a mournful spirit, a mournful
heart, a broken heart, powerless. Remove this old fleshly man here. That's who's here. That's who's
causing this. That old fleshly sinful rebel
that's in this brother of mine. Remove that man from our midst.
Remove him. And God sometimes might do that
without even removing that brother. Bodily speaking, He might remove
that, mortify that old man of flesh. But by letting this brother go
unchecked without rebuking him, without correction. The other
thing they were doing is they were condoning the sin. They
were saying it's alright. See, pride puffs up in a lot
of ways, but there are two ways specifically we see here that
pride puffs up. One, it puffs up to use God's
grace as an excuse for sin. an excuse to sin. See, I don't
want anybody to misunderstand this. We're chosen of God freely
by His grace. We're everlastingly loved of
God and that will never change. God does not love some today
and stop loving them tomorrow. God everlastingly loves His people. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. That's the one reason we're not
consumed. God sent His Son who redeemed His people and purged
our sins so that God doesn't remember our sin anymore. Not
at all. And God won't let one of His
children fall away. He will keep us. He will preserve
us. You're kept by the power of God unto salvation. What that does not mean, and
what I don't want you to hear by that is, well then, it doesn't
matter if we sin. If we're saved by grace, not
according to our works, it doesn't matter if we sin. Is that true? Is that true, brethren? Listen
to what Paul said. He gave that beautiful declaration
in Romans 5. And he said, as sin has abounded,
as it's reigned, through unto death, he said also grace is
going to reign. Grace will reign through righteousness
by our Lord Jesus Christ and it will reign unto eternal life.
And he opens the next chapter with this word. What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Well, if grace abounds just more
and more of my sin, that's not what he said. He said grace abounds
over your sin. He doesn't say your sin makes
grace to abound. No, grace abounds over our sin. What shall we say then? Shall
we consent in you in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? And then he said this, what then,
shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. That's the first
thing. Pride puffs up and makes a man
use God's grace as an excuse to sin. That's not the Spirit
of God that does that. That's the pride of a man's self-righteous
or sinful flesh. But then two, another way pride
puffs up is it makes us self-righteous. makes us self-righteous. I'm
just sure that some of this being puffed up at Corinth had to do
with some that were there saying, I wouldn't be doing what that
man's doing. I can't believe he calls himself a believer and
he's doing that. Is there anything that surprises
you that a believer will do? Anything at all? Look at Moses,
I mean Noah. Look at Look at Abraham. Look at Lot. Look at Jacob. Look at David. Is there anything
a believer surprises you that they will do? That's the same
as what we saw Isaiah declared. The Lord said, they say, stand
over there, don't come near me, I'm holier than thou. Remember
what that scripture said? Paul said, remember yourself,
lest you be also overtaken in a fall. Self-righteousness. Puffed up in sin, using grace
as an excuse for sin, or puffed up in self-righteousness? Puffed
up in self-righteousness. So then Paul declares what shall
be done in their case. This is what they needed to do
and what would be done. Look at verse 3. For I verily
as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already
as though I were present concerning him that has so done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, When you're gathered
together, and my Spirit there with you, though I'm absent in
body, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the authority
of Christ, deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the
Lord Jesus. Now this is a difficult passage.
And some say Paul was speaking of exercising apostolic power
that Christ had given to these apostles, which men don't have
today. They don't have them today. And
no doubt Paul did have those gifts. He could cause disease
to come into a man. The Lord said to Peter and Paul
and the other apostles that He gave them the keys to heaven.
What they loosed was loosed and what they bound was bound. They
had powers that we don't have. This destruction, this deliverance
to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, this is what God
did to Paul, to humble him. Remember, after Paul showed him,
God showed him the third heaven, He said, He gave me a messenger
of Satan to buffet me. It was to humble him. It was
to mortify the pride of his flesh. And then, that the spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And I don't... I don't
see that this has to mean in the day Christ returns, but rather
in that day when Christ comes in power and grants him repentance
in the inward man and strengthens his inward man to save him from
this very wickedness. That's the only way he's going
to be saved from it. That's the only way he's going to have repentance
to turn from it. But that which Paul exhorted
the church to do, this is what we can still do today. And it's
at the end of the chapter. Look at the end of verse 13.
He says, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked
person. Put him away. Now, if this man's a believer,
if he's really saved by God's grace, then Christ is going to
use this to bring him to repentance. That's certain. See, there's
nothing that will awaken a believer from our slumbering in our flagrant
sin, or any sin, like Christ using His body, the church, and
every member in it, to wake us up and to show us this is against
Christ, this is against your brethren, this is against His
body, this is so detrimental to you and to Christ's church. And we don't have any other choice
but to ask you to leave. It's so distracting from Christ,
we have to ask you to leave. Nothing grieves a believer like
not being able to come in and hear the gospel preached, not
being able to assemble together with your brethren. That's something
the believer looks forward to doing. And not to be able to
do that, Christ is going to use that to bring His child to repentance. To make you want to repent towards
God and confess your sins and ask for mercy and forgiveness.
And it's going to bring you to want reconciliation with your
brethren. Ask their forgiveness. Now that's certain if this man
is a believer. Now, when we do something like
this, like I said, first go to God with a broken heart. And
then try to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Try
to point him to Christ first. And then there's at least two
more steps that we're going to see before we come to this third
step, this drastic step right here. And when we come to this
step, all those steps take time and prayer. And when you do come
to this step, it takes great, great care. Great care. not to be puffed up in our flesh. Do this in the name of the Lord
Jesus. Do it in the power of Christ, by His authority and
trust in His power to work repentance. Do it for Christ's sake, for
His church, for His people, to keep this feast right here. To
keep this feast. So that this brother, not that
he'll be lost, but that his flesh will be mortified and his inward
man will be strengthened. and he'll be brought to faith
and repentance by Christ. Now, I want to see two or three
reasons why this is so important. What is our motive for all this?
What reasons are we given for this? Well, Paul, by the Spirit
of God, gives us this. Now, before we get into this,
let me say this. If we heed this personally, later
we're going to see, Paul's going to say, if we would judge ourselves,
we wouldn't be judged. And if we would take this personally,
and heed this personally, and do what he says here personally,
then it'll prevent the church ever having to do this to any
one of us. Isn't it a lot easier to talk
about this right now when there's not a problem? So much, I don't
like strife. I do not like it. I'm a lover,
not a fighter. I don't like it. I want us to
get along. I want us to serve Christ peacefully.
I don't want to fight. Now look, alright, so let's apply
this to us as well as the church. First of all, the reason we have
to do this is because a little sin, left unchecked, will grow
until it causes great harm to the whole church. Verse 6, He
said, Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? You know who they were glorying
in? Themselves. And He said here, A little leaven
leavens the whole lump. Now, when you ladies are making
homemade bread, you take your dough and you put leaven in it. When Melinda makes that bread
for Sunday, she puts no leaven in it. It's just flour and water.
That's why it's flat and crunchy. But when you make bread, fluffy
bread, you put leaven in it. And that leaven, a little bit
of leaven, is gonna leaven that whole lump of dough. It's gonna
puff up and be totally different than when you put the leaven
in it. Well, a little sin A little self-righteousness, a little
contentious, divisive spirit will grow and grow and grow till
it permeates the entire church. It makes us all puffed up in
condoning the sin or self-righteous and condemning it. But it will
puff us up and divide us. I'll tell you where you can see
this. Look at Adam. Look at Adam. One transgression.
What happened? A little leaven leavened the
whole lump of mankind. Sin entered and death by sin
and death passed upon all men for that all have sin. We all sin in Adam. It results
in what you see around us now. We see it here at Corinth. Paul
said they were puffed up. Why? This didn't just happen
overnight, this took some time to get to where it came to. And
then we see it in our nation, don't we? We have legalized this
sin and that sin and that sin to the point now, what's happened? If you speak against any of these
things that our nation has legalized as being sin, Man, swell up at
you, puff up at you. What in the world are you doing
speaking evil of me? How dare you say such a thing?
You know what the world thinks now? We're so modern. That Bible's
out of date. That's being puffed up in your
own wisdom and your own pride. That's what happens. That's an
example of it. So sin, whether it's immorality, whether it's
an ill self-exalting spirit, or whether it's self-righteousness,
it's like false doctrine. It might start out just a little
off, just a little error. But you let it go unchecked and
it's going to permeate through the whole congregation. It's
going to leave everyone divided and puffed up one against another.
Alright, here's our next motive. This is our motive to purge out
the old leaven of wickedness. It's because of what we already
are. He says in verse 7, Purge out therefore the old leaven.
Now he's talking about this brother. That's who he's talking about.
They were to put him away and he's represented here by old
leaven because he was living in his old sinful fleshly wicked
man. That's why he's called the old
leaven. That was what God saved us from. Now, but like I said,
take this personal to each of us individually. And you know
those scriptures tell us over and over again, put off the old
man, put on the new man. That's what he's saying right
here. But now he's speaking to the church as a lump, as a lump,
like a lump of dough. He says, purge out therefore
the old leaven that you may be a new lump. A new lump. You know when a self-righteous
wicked person is distracting a congregation, and I'm talking
about a believer, He could be a believer. You see here, this
is a believer. When a self-righteous person
is distracting the congregation, he's trying to implement works
to be seen of men, he's trying to criticize everybody, and he's
exalting himself. When that's going on and it starts
to permeate through a congregation, it affects everybody. And so
everybody loses their focus on Christ. I've sat in a congregation
where there was problems. You can't hear the gospel being
preached. You're sitting there thinking,
I wonder if they're hearing that. I hope he's listening to that.
I hope she's hearing that. You can't hear the gospel preached
at all. So what happens is, not only has this person's self-righteousness
permeated through, now you're not looking at Christ, Now everybody
starts looking at themselves and at others, and then next
thing you know, you just, everybody's just, it's just not a good place
to be. It's not a good environment anymore.
But, when God removes such a person, or when He uses His church to
remove that person, or He grants them repentance from that and
gives them faith to submit to Christ, it's like you're a brand
new lump. Everybody can just breathe a
sigh of relief. Man, it's so good to be out from
under that. And you start focusing on Christ
again, and Christ starts to strengthen your inner man. It's like you're
new all over again. That's what he's talking about
here. That's what he's talking about here. But look here at
why we're to do this. Look at this reason why we're
to do this. Verse 7, "...purge out therefore
the old lump, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened." It means, as you already are
holy. You already are holy. See, the
true church is holy. The true church is not everybody
that assembles. The true church is those Christ
has God's chosen, Christ's redeemed, the Spirit's regenerated, And
he's a symbol. That's the true church. And the
true church is holy. They're holy. They're righteous. So, this purging out to be a
new lump is not to make us holy and righteous. The motive he
uses here is, it's because you already are. You already are. See, you're an unleaded lump,
he says. Now get that leaven out of there
so you quit being all inflated and come back to being what you
are. Because you already are holy. You already are leavened.
I mean unleavened. You already are holy and righteous.
So his argument purge out the old leaven of wickedness that
you may be new again because you are holy. You see the motive
there? It's just the opposite of what
people are telling sinners. They're telling them, do this
to be holy. Well, that's not what God's saying.
God's saying do this because you already are. You already
are. Well, how did we become holy?
How did each individual member in particular become holy and
how is this whole church sanctified and holy and righteous? Here's
another motive we have for doing this. You know I found this interesting.
When I was studying this and I looked at that first verse
about that man that had his father's wife, I myself went over and
I looked in Leviticus, I believe it was, to find where that law
was, it said that. And so many other commentators
did it. It took you right over to the law. Paul, speaking by
the Spirit of God, didn't quote the law. Wouldn't that have been
a good spot to do it? Not really. You know why? Because
they're already puffed up. What's it going to do if you
bring the law in now? But what he does bring in is this. Our
motive is that we've already been made holy. Our motive is
this, verse 7, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. There's
our motive. That's the faith which works
by love. That's being under grace, not
under the law. You see how he did that? Christ
is our Passover, brethren. He was sacrificed for us. This
talk of the leaven and stuff, I'm going to show you. This has
to do with the Passover. On that night in Egypt, The Lord's,
right now we're seeing in our study of Joseph, we're seeing
them going into Egypt. That was on purpose. But a new
Pharaoh came up that put them in slavery and bondage and that
was on purpose. God raised him up just to show
his power. To put him down and bring his
children out. To show us a picture of Christ
and Him crucified. So on that night when it got
time to bring them out, About midnight, the Lord said, I'm
going to go out in the midst of Egypt and all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt shall die. All the firstborn in the land
of Egypt shall die, least to greatest. He said, but against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue. against man or beast." And here's
why. That you may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. God
said, what I'm doing in my son, what I'm doing in the Lord Jesus
Christ in putting away the sin of my people is to show all this
world and all my people that the only one who can make a difference
between condemnation and salvation, between unrighteousness and righteousness,
between a corrupt nature and a holy nature, the only one who
can make the difference, God said, is me. It's me. He's the only one that made a
difference. The only one. And so then He told the heads
of the house, you take a lamb, a spotless lamb, And you put
him up and observe him, make sure he's a spotless lamb, male
of the first year. All pictured Christ Jesus the
Lord. And he said, and you slay that lamb and you sprinkle his
blood on the doorpost of that house, out over the lintel, over
the door there. And God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. and the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt." Well, I thought
God said He was going to destroy all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt. He did. Even those in the house of Israel. You know what the difference
was? Those under the blood died in a substitute. That lamb that
was slain was God slaying them. slaying that lamb instead of
him. And he said, when I see that blood, I'll pass over you
and the plague won't come on you again. Paul says here, brethren,
here's our motive for putting out anything that's going to
distract us from Christ. Anything that will distract us
from Christ. Our motive in putting it away is this, Christ. He is
our Passover Lamb. He was sacrificed for us. And
now, because He's put away, He took our sin, He took our judgment,
He satisfied God and purged us of our sins. And now God says,
the plague will never come upon you. It will never come upon
you. Blood came out of His side, representing
our sins being remitted by His blood. Water came out of His
side representing us being washed in regeneration through the blood
of Christ so that in Christ Jesus our Lord now we're holy and righteous
by His blood, by His doing and dying. And then God did something
else over there though. After He did this, He said, now
you're going to make a feast. You're going to make a feast
to remember this. To always remember this work
that I've done. Now get that. A feast to remember
this. to remember what I've done to
you in providing this Passover lamb for you. You're going to
have a feast." And he said, seven days you're going to eat unleavened
bread. And he said, the first day at
this feast you're going to put all leaven out of your houses.
You're going to go through that house from top to bottom. As Spurgeon said, if you see
a mouse run across the floor, you're going to go hunt him down
in his hole because he might have a piece of bread in his
mouth, a piece of leaven in his mouth. You're going to get all
the leaven out of that house. And you're going to do no work,
he said, during these holy days. Now, we're not keeping the old
Passover feast. That's not what we're talking
about. That Passover feast pictured what we're doing right here.
Pictured what we're doing right here. It actually pictures the
entire life of faith of a believer. What are we doing? We're, as
Christ said, eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Every
time we come together, it's a feast to remember Christ our Passover
and what He's done for us. Every time we pick up this book,
we're reading it to remember Christ our Passover and what
He's done for us. Every time we go to God in prayer,
we're praying, thanking God for Christ our Passover and for what
He's done for us. It's not a seven-day feast. It's
not a 21-day feast. It's a continual feast throughout
the life of faith. to remember what Christ has done
for us. That's why we only preach Christ and Him crucified. The Lord didn't say, I'm going
to make this feast so you can remember how you put up the lamb,
and how you looked at the lamb, and how you slew the lamb, and
how you sprinkled the blood, and how you, you, you. No, He
said, I'm going to do this so you can remember what I did for
you. And we don't come here to hear about what you did for God,
we come here to hear about what God done for us. And now He says,
I'll pass over you because I see Christ's blood. You see that? So what does He say here now?
Look, verse 8. That's what this feast is. In
this state of holiness, we're feasting on Christ. In His kingdom,
in His church, in His power. Now look, He says, verse 8, Therefore
let us keep the feast. You see why I titled it, Let
Us Keep the Feast? Therefore, since this is so important
to remember Christ constantly, and not be distracted from Christ,
and not having our heart's attention taken off of Christ, therefore,
let you and let me keep this feast. Let us keep this feast. Not with
the old leaven. That's going to distract us and
puff us up. Neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Not with
old leaven, not with hypocrites who delight in a continued course
of wickedness, refusing to repent and follow Christ with us. Not
with those who want to separate and divide and question and do
all these, bring up all these distractions and all these, run
down these rabbit trails to try to get a focus off of Christ.
Not with that old leaven. No sir. No sir. But with the unleavened bread
of sincerity. Oh, let me see. He says, not
with the old sinful man of our flesh, not in the sins of immorality,
not in the sins of wickedness and self-righteousness, not in
any of that. Put off the old man. He says this. But let's
keep this feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity. It means transparent clearness. Transparent clearness. And truth
following Christ fully. That's what it means. He's our
only worthiness for this feast. He's our only motive for putting
off the old man of sin and putting on the new. And He's our only
ability to do it. He's the power to do it. Living
a life in a state of holiness consecrated to Him. Let's keep
the feast, He said. Now lastly, I want you to look
at this and I'll be brief. Now remember, this is not speaking
of the world and it's not speaking of brethren. who hate their sin
and who repent of their sin, not speaking of brethren who
are not disruptive. Look at verse 9. I wrote unto
you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous,
or extortioners, or with the idolaters, for then must you
need to go out of the world. We got to work, we got to pay
our bills, and to do that you're going to have to be keeping some
company. with these types of folks all
the time, old, just natural men. Verse 11, But now I have written
unto you not to keep company, not to keep fellowship in the
arm of the right hand of fellowship with any man that is called a
brother. be a fornicator, or covetous,
or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner,
with such a one know not to eat." Keep company with Him. Now, when
you read that list right there, does that make you think, my
brethren probably shouldn't be eating with me. They probably
should not be keeping this feast with me. Remember who he's talking about. He's talking about divisive people. If we put out every person, every
believer that sins or is guilty of these things right here to
some degree, spiritually or literally, to some degree, everybody would
go home. What he's not saying is this.
He's not saying for us to seek sin in one another. He's not
saying for us to expose one another's sin. He's not saying for us to
organize a board of elders and start going out and getting everybody's
business and trying to find some sin that we can expose and that
we can judge so we can cast folks out and keep them from coming
to church. That's not what he's saying. Now what he's saying
at all. But in a rare instance where
any of these sins is performed in a scandalous fashion, where
it's commonly reported, where it's flagrant without any indication
of grieving or repenting or any such thing, with such we are
not to eat of this feast, this gospel feast. So, he's saying
don't judge those that are without, but we're to judge those that
are within. Starting with myself. Starting
with yourself. And then, in rare instances,
we have to judge brethren. Now read it on out, verse 12.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do
not you judge them that are within? But them that are without, God
judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked
person. I want to end, I want to show
you two scriptures. I think this will be important.
Matthew 18. Matthew 18. Our Lord showed us those steps
we are to take when a brother is overtaken in a fault. And when He shows an indication
of forgiveness, of repentance, we are to forgive him. And forgive
him. And forgive him. And forgive
him. Look here. Look here now in verse 15. If
thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault
between thee and him alone. I would not suggest you email
because email can be taken very wrongly. He said, go tell him. Go confront him. We're usually
not as harsh and usually not as bold standing face to face
with a fellow. That's why he says do. And if
he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he
will not hear thee, here's step number two, then take with thee
one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every
word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear
them, here's the third step, tell it unto the church. But
if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen
man and a publican. That's what Paul is saying. With
such a one do not eat. Permit him to come into the company.
You're treating him like he's a heathen and a publican. That's
awful to have that happen for a believer. That's why I say
Christ used that to work repentance. Look at this now. But what if
he comes back? What if he repents? Look at verse
21. Then came Peter to him and said,
Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive
him? Till seven times? That'd be a lot for some of us.
Seven times. When the Lord said, no, not seven
times, seventy times seven, that means without end. That's an
infinite number, without end. Now, I want you to go to 2 Corinthians
2. So what happened with this fellow
we've been talking about in our text? Was this really a believer? Well, if he is a believer, I
know this is some wickedness, but if he's a believer, Grace
won't let this man destroy grace. Grace won't let this man destroy
God's love for him. Grace won't let this man destroy
what Christ has done for him. And he will be brought to repentance.
Was he a believer or was he not? Let's see. 2 Corinthians chapter
2 and look at verse 6. Sufficient to such a man He's
talking about that man. "...Sufficient to such a man
is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that now
contrarywise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him,
lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch
sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that
you would confirm your love toward him." See, I bet you when he
came back and they loved him and comforted him and received
him, I bet you their love, I bet you his love for Christ was stronger
than it was before. And his love and bond between
his brethren was stronger than it was before. If you don't love
a child, you won't correct them. But if you love them, you'll
correct them. But if you let it go, today the sin that's just,
you know, stealing a piece of candy, down the road it'll be
robbing a bank. Whatever, you know what I'm saying?
As Barney Fife used to say, nip it in the bud. So anyway, all right.