All right, I'm going to ask you
to take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter
5. We looked at the first two verses of this blessed chapter last
week. And Lord willing, I'd like to
finish the chapter Tonight, I pray that the Lord has given
me the heart and the spirit of this chapter. This is a very
weighty chapter. It deals with the issue of putting
one out. putting one out of the assembly. And as I've sought the Lord's
leadership and direction, I believe that I truly have. When I say
the spirit of the passage, you know, if we don't see the mercy
of God, if we don't see the glory of Christ in a passage of Scripture,
then we've missed it. If we don't see the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation of His people, we've
missed the gospel. If we've missed the gospel, what
hope do we have? If I preach not the gospel tonight,
it will do us no good. It can be true. It can be true.
But if it's not the Gospel, and remember, the Gospel is the glorious
declaration of God Almighty who has mercy and compassion on sinners
in the glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses asked the
Lord, show me your glory. He said, I'm going to make all
my goodness Passed before thee, I will proclaim the name of the
Lord. Before thee, I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious,
will show mercy on whom I'll show mercy. So tonight, I pray
that the Lord teach us in this blessed chapter of a heinous
crime that was committed against God. It is 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. And the word fornication in this
passage is illicit relation specifically forbid by Scripture. This man
in the church at Corinth had married his stepmother. And that
act, marrying his father's wife, his stepmother, is dealt with
in Leviticus 18.8. Now here's the situation. This man was wrong. He was wrong. And Almighty God, through the
means of the Apostle Paul, was going to deal with it. This man
was wrong. And God's going to deal with
it. But I want us to remember, as the Lord deals with this man,
all we, like sheep, have gone astray. And we've turned everyone
to His own way. Isaiah 53, 6. Here's the state of all men.
Romans 3, 23. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. So it's not a question whether
or not this man was wrong. He was wrong. He had sinned against
God. but in the midst of this heinous
crime being openly and defiantly done, he was flaunting it. I want you to consider this marvelous
thought. It was the mercy of God that
exposed it. I have no idea how many We're
doing the same thing in that Corinth was an evil, wicked city. And I mean it was just an openly
wicked city. And this was just common practice. It's just done. It's just the
way we do it. If it feels good, you just do
it. But the only problem was that this man was doing what
he was doing in the midst of God's church. And the Lord was
going to deal with it. And the apostle Paul, under the
direction of God's Spirit, told them in verse 2, And you're puffed
up, and you've not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed
might be taken away from you. So in that passage, He was wrong,
and they were wrong. He said, you've not dealt with
it, you've not mourned over this thing, that God Almighty's name
is being blasphemed, and it's a mockery, but let me ask you,
in that passage, do we not hear the Spirit of God saying unto
the church, how long wilt thou sleep? Oh, sluggard! When will thou arise out of thy
sleep? Wake up! Wake up! Listen! How often do we find ourselves,
for whatever reason, fear of man, spiritual drowsiness, like
the bride in Song of Solomon 5.2. The Lord knocked and she
said, I've gone to bed, taking my shoes off, my coat. The Lord
left her to herself, you know, indifference to sin. And they,
like us, you know, we're no different. We're no different. I mean, we
might say, oh, we'd have never done that. Don't ever say we'd
never do something. Because the Scripture is filled
with people just like us that do such things. We're puffed
up. We've not mourned. They weren't
grieved over their laxness or their indifference that the one
that had done this deed for God's glory and for the sake of the
gospel might be taken away from among you. Here's what Paul had
to say in verse 6, your glorying is not good. Know ye not that
a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? But consider this,
how merciful again that the Lord would send a preacher to Corinth
that would be honest with him and how merciful his words of
rebuke because they were the words of the Lord. Whom the Lord
loveth. He chased me. You think how merciful
God has been that He has not left us to ourselves. You say, well, we wouldn't have
done that. Yes, we would have. Yes, we would. You say, I've
never done that. Yes, you have. Yes, you have. Not openly. Okay. Have you ever
thought it? Have you ever done it in your
mind? The Lord said, if you look on a woman, you committed adultery
with her, you hate a brother, you hate a brother, you murdered
him. When David had sinned, we just
read that blessed 51st Psalm, when David had sinned against
God in the taking of another man's wife. Was it not the mercy
of God that sent Nathan, the prophet, to David? Now listen,
this man had disobeyed God, and the people were puffed up, they
hadn't mourned, and God sent Paul the apostle there to rebuke
them, to rebuke them. But Proverbs 27.6 says, faithful
are the wounds of a friend. But the kisses of an enemy are
deceitful. But I want you to notice something
else concerning the mercy of God. I want you to notice, not
only was God merciful to the church at Corinth for sending
them a preacher to tell them the problem, but he was merciful
to this offender." Now you listen to the words, verses 3 to 5,
it's one sentence, verses 3 to 5. Paul says, "...for I barely,
as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already
as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered
together in My Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ
to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
Now what the Apostle Paul admonished the church at Corinth to do was
this, deliver such in one unto Satan. Now obviously, that was
a sentence of chastisement. Because of the wording, we realize
the mercy of God in it. He said, I'm telling you that
you're to deliver such in one unto Satan. The last verse, I
read this last week, the last verse of this chapter tells us
what they did. It says, therefore put away from
among yourselves that wicked person. They put him out. They
put him out. Okay? The delivering unto Satan,
there was an excommunication. It was more than that, I'll tell
you in just a second. But this one was to be delivered
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And again, when
we start talking about the destruction of the flesh, here's what it's
talking about. External ills and troubles by
which the lust of the old nature are subdued. Something done to
this flesh, this nature right here, that the lust of the old
man, there's two different kinds of flesh I'm talking about. Something
happened to this body that the lust of the old nature might
be subdued. Paul was speaking in the authority
and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was the appointed
representative and the minister to the church at Corinth. And
he revealed what had to be done under the direction of God's
Spirit. Alright, now the offender was to be delivered unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh. Now, that meant more than just
excommunication. That meant more than, okay, you're
not welcome here. We're going to put you out. But
that excommunication was going to have to be done. But this
man was going to be subjected to the shaking, the affliction,
and the buffeting of Satan, like Job was. under the permission
of God. When the Lord said to Satan,
have you considered my servant Job? Well, yeah, but you've got
to hedge about it. He said, okay, you can touch
him, you can't kill him. You know how he was buffeted.
How about the demoniac of Gadara? and that legion of demons that
was in him, and he'd go up and he'd cut himself among the tombs.
You know, that was... How about the Syrophoenician
woman whose daughter was vexed with the devil? So, Paul said,
I want you, and I'm speaking in the power and the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you come together, I want you
to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." Now
had that last portion of Scripture, in that verse, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, had that portion
of Scripture been absent, Well then, we might rightfully have
assumed that the man was nothing more than a reprobate, he was
a tear among the wheat, a certain ungodly man crept in unawares
who was before ordained to this condemnation. But the Apostle
Paul was surely moved by the Holy Spirit to exercise the conduct
that was set forth in Matthew, and I want you to hold your place.
Turn to Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 24. What Paul was going
to do, this is the parable about the
wheat and the tares. Matthew 13 verse 24 says, Another
parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while
men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat,
and went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up, brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath
it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go
and gather them up? He said, Nay. That's why you
gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time
of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first
the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up, but gather the
wheat into my barn." Now, he said, you want us to go when
there's tares in here? You want us to get them out of
here? You want us to rip them out and get rid of them? No. He said, because
you don't know who the tares or the wheat are. Now you talk
about a glorious revelation of that truth. We don't know who
the wheat and the tares are. As I've said before, we might
have a good idea from a good confession of faith, a good walk
of consistency, you know, who God's people are. But we don't
know. We don't know a man's heart.
Nobody knows another man's heart. I want you to look in Luke 23. This passage of Scripture always
amazed me. Luke 23. The Lord Jesus Christ
is on the cross. There's people all around Him. They're wagging their heads. He saved others. He couldn't
save Himself. Come down if you be the... I'm
mocking Him. Luke 23. starting in verse 32. And there were also two other
malefactors led with him to be put to death. And when they were
come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified
him and the malefactors, one on the right hand, other on the
left. Then said Jesus, Father, Forgive
them, for they know not what they do.' And they parted his
raiment and cast lots." Now, let me tell you something. When
the Lord was praying, Father forgive them, for they know not
what they do. I can tell you this. The Father
answered that prayer. Because that which the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed, He always prayed according to the Father's will.
And I'll tell you who He was praying for. He was praying for
those sheep that were yet to be called out of darkness, that
were mocking Him, and wagging their heads, making fun of Him.
Those that He would call out of darkness. Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're
doing. How do you know he was praying for the sheep? Because
he said in John chapter 17 in verse 9, he said, I pray not
for the world, but I pray for those that you've given me out
of the world. The Lord prays for His sheep. And when He prayed
for His sheep, He was praying for those who were yet to be
called out. So here's the whole crust of
the matter. Paul said, this one that has
done this heinous crime, he's going to be put out. Purge him
out. Put him out. Turn him over to Satan. Deliver
such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that
the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. The evil must be dealt with. To allow it to go on unchecked
would have been a hindrance to the body. But let's consider
also this act of delivering such-and-one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh. It was, according to Paul's wording,
in hopes that he might be corrected and humbled and be saved. So the Lord says to the church,
we've looked at 6 and now look at verse 7. He says, "...purge
out therefore the old leaven." that ye may be a new lump, as
ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us." Now how wonderfully the Holy Spirit moved
upon the Apostle Paul to draw our hearts again and cause us
to consider the glorious and blessed grace of our God that
was set forth in the Passover back in Exodus chapter 12, that
glorious message that was set forth in the eating of the paschal
lamb, and how God mercifully and justly delivered His people
on the night before they left Egypt. You remember how the Lord
told them, He said, well, turn over, turn over to Exodus. This
is so beautiful. Exodus 12. Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12, I'm starting in verse
3. We'll read verse 15. Speak ye
unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth
day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb
according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And the household be too little
for the lamb. Let him and his neighbor next
unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb,
and your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first
year. You shall take it out from the
sheep or from the goats, you shall keep it up until the fourteenth
day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take
of the blood and strike it on the two side post, on the upper
door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. They shall
eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire. setting forth
the judgment of God against the Lord Jesus Christ who has made
sin for His people, and unleavened bread, bitter herbs, they shall
eat it. You're going to remember while
you're eating this those bitter herbs. Every time you taste that
bitter herb, you're going to be remembering what you are,
what you are by nature. Eat not of it raw, sodden it
all with water, roast it with fire, his head with his legs
and all the pertinence thereof, you roast all of it, everything,
roast it all. And you shall let nothing of
it remain until the morning. And that which remained of it
until the morning you shall burn with fire. You eat everything
that can be eaten. And that which is left, the bones
and whatever organs were forbidden to be eaten by law. You eat everything
else. But whatever is left of that
that can't be eaten, then you burn it. And thus shall you eat
it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff
in your hand, you shall eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
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. And this day shall be unto you
for a memorial, and you shall keep it, a feast to the Lord
throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Seven days shall you eat unleavened
bread, even the first days you'll put away leaven out of your houses
for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day to the
seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel." So here,
the Lord told them, you take this lamb, prime of life, on
the night of the Passover, the next morning, they left, they
were leaving Egypt. This is the night before, you
kill it, you take the blood, you put it on the upper part
of the door, side post, roast it, don't sodden it with water,
you eat it in haste, Put your, get your loins dirt, your shoes
on, your staffs in your hand, and whatever's left after you
eat everything that can be eaten, you burn it with fire. And that,
on that night, that, that, the Passover lamb, they were to carefully
go through and remove any leaven, any bread that would be continuing
to germinate and make, you know, it was to be taken from their
houses. And the Jews were very strict
in order to be so, that no leaven should be found in their houses. It was a feast that was to be
kept without that which pictured sin. concerning the purity of
the coming Messiah, and you shall observe this thing for an ordinance
to thee and to your sons forever. That is, until the coming of
the Messiah. And now, We who live and believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, we continue now to feed
upon Christ, rejoicing in Him always with thankfulness and
the remembering of the great things that He's done for us. and striving after Paul's admonition
to the church at Corinth, he said, you purge out this man
that has done this heinous thing back in 1 Corinthians chapter
5. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new
lump, that you may appear to be that which you claim to be. Believers. Holy in the Lord Jesus
Christ, for even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Now, you know, we are admonished
in that purging out. of that leaven out of the houses
back there. You know, even Paul admonishes
us in Ephesians chapter 4. We're admonished to do that.
Purge out. Purge out. What do you mean? Look at Ephesians 4 verse 21. It says, If so be that ye have
heard him, If you've heard the gospel of God's grace and been
taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning
the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind that you put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members
one of another." Did you see how, as they were to go out there
and get all this leaven out of their house, get rid of that
which was repulsive to the glory of God and the good of the people.
He said, get rid of that. Look what he's saying, you know.
He said, verse 26, Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun
go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, let
him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working
with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to
give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God." Listen, Brother Henry made a
comment on that right there that I thought was so good. He said,
where it says, grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you're sealed
unto the day of redemption. He's talking about the Spirit
of God that governs in this place, in God's people. Don't do that,
which is grieving to the Spirit of unity within the body. It's
what, you know, it's all about. Grieve not. the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby you're sealed. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you." So the Apostle Paul, He's encouraged that the
church at Corinth, he said, this evil must be dealt with. Just as leaven in the Old Testament
was a picture of sin and was to be purged from even the homes
of the people, they were to purge out the committer of this crime
because of the heinousness and the evil that was being committed.
But Paul says we're doing this for a reason. that this man,
by the grace of God, that his spirit might be saved. I think
about the Apostle Paul telling them to purge out, rid yourselves
of that which is shameful. Purge out this shameful action
that you might be made to be in appearance what you are. Look
at verse 8. Let us keep the feast, not with
old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." You
know, we're feasting tonight. Therefore, let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness. We feast spiritually, I know this, when we eat of the
Lord's Supper, that blessed ordinance, we eat that bread and drink that
cup in the remembrance of our Lord, but you know we feast every
time we meet. Every time we're brought together,
we feast as we hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ being
preached. We feast when we meet individually. with the Lord in prayer, or when
we read the scriptures and search the scriptures daily and seeking
His face. So as the Jews were encouraged,
told, you purge out and keep the feast of praise unto Him,
knowing there's in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
no leaven of sin mingled with Him. We don't eat of Christ thinking
that sin is not going to be dealt with. He did deal with it. So
Paul says, he says, I want you to purge it out. Let's keep the
feast, not with old leaven. but with the leaven of malice
and wicked, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
Then he said in verses 9 to 11, 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 idolaters,
for then must your needs go out of the world. But now I have
written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called
a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or
a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, which such and one
know not to eat." Paul says, I wrote a letter previously to
you. We don't have a copy of that letter, so obviously there
were some letters that had been written that were not canonized.
The Spirit of God did not see fit to put them in these scriptures.
But Paul says, I'd previously written to you, and he told us
what was in the letter. He said, I wrote you this letter,
And he said, I told you as believers not to associate closely or habitually
with wicked men who compromise the principles of godliness.
And he said, now I'm going to explain something to you. I didn't
mean not to associate with people of the world, he said, because
if you didn't associate with people of the world that were
guilty with this. He said, you just have to leave
the world altogether because, he said, that's the only thing
that's in the world. But he said, what I'm saying
to you is that if a man professes to be a believer, a member of
the body of Christ, that's known to be immorally doing that which
is strictly forbidden in scripture, separate yourself from him. In
this case, he said, we're going to do this, that his flesh might
be buffeted of Satan, destruction of the flesh, but we're doing
this that God Almighty might have mercy upon him. Then he
said in verses 12 and 13, For what have I to do to judge them
also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are
within, but them that are without God judges. Therefore, put away
from among yourselves that wicked person." What he was saying is
this, he said, judging those outside of the assembly, he said,
that's not our business. God's going to deal with them.
He said, I'm writing to you to deal with a problem within this
assembly, a problem that's a hindrance to the assembly and one that
is openly defiant to God's revealed scripture. He said, the offender
out, put the man. But in closing, I'd like for
us to look at a passage of Scripture over in 2 Corinthians and touch
on what happened because of Paul moving under the inspiration
of God's Spirit to have this man put out. Now like I said,
now listen, What the man was doing, it was not... He didn't stumble and fall into
a sin, repent immediately. This all happens. We all do that.
If we lambasted every time one of us stumbled, I'm telling you,
like I told you last week, there wouldn't be anybody here. It
would just be an empty room. We're all guilty. But what had
happened, this man, had openly and defiantly done something
forbidden of Scripture. He was flaunting it. Obviously
it was a problem. It was causing a great problem. And the Spirit of God sent the
Apostle Paul, said, now this is going to have to be dealt
with, but we're going to deal with it this way. We're going to turn him
over to the destruction of the flesh by Satan, that God might
have Mercy, peradventure of the Lord might have mercy on you.
But I want you to look what happened in 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 4 to
8. 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 4. For out of much affliction
and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears, not
that ye should be grieved, but that you might know the love
which I have more abundantly for you." Paul was saying, I
wrote a letter concerning that incestuous man, and I did it
out of love and out of a broken heart for you all. Verse 5, have caused grief, he hath not
grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all."
He said the grief that was caused was not against me personally,
and therefore my grief was in part that I might not overcharge
you all for being indifferent toward this man and the act that
was being committed. Then he said in verse 6, sufficient
to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of so many. He said you all as an assembly
came together and as an assembly put him out, just like I instructed
you to do. And he said, but now obviously,
he said the public rebuke and severe punishment that was inflicted
that excommunication and whatever else happened to him by so many
within that body when they put him out. Whatever happened to
that man, obviously it was sufficient. It did what the Lord had purposed
it to do. So in verses 7 to 8, He said,
So that 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." Paul said, listen, what this man did was wrong.
What he did was a heinous crime against God, against God's church,
and he said it had to be dealt with. But again, I'm reminded
of the mercy of God that would send a preacher and tell him
that. If God would have left him to
himself, only the Lord knows what would
have happened. But God was pleased to send a preacher and instruct
those members of that church, this is what has to be done.
This is what I want you to do. I want you to put him out. We're
going to turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
that God might show mercy to him, might accomplish the purpose
of Almighty God, and it did so. Last week I read this, and I'm
going to read this verse in closing. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual... Now here's the evidence of a
spiritual man. Restore such in one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." We
don't know what any of us would do. But I think about this man, I
think about the record of David, I think about Abraham when he
lied on his wife, I think about The crimes that committed Peter
that forsook him and the apostles too, after the Lord was risen,
they quit. He said, I ain't going back.
And Almighty God who purposed, I will have mercy. I will have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy. May the Lord have mercy upon
me. May God forgive me. for the laxness
and the carelessness of my spirit. May the Lord create within us,
as a body, a spirit of forgiveness and love for one another, praying
for one another, considering each other, you know, considering
what they've done. Paul the Apostle, who came to
this church and told them, said, you put him out. You know what
Paul the Apostle said of himself? Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. He said, of whom I am chief.
Paul said, I'm the worst. I'm the worst. May the Lord bless
these words to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.