Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. And let's have a word of prayer
together. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, would
you help us this morning? Would you prepare us for what you have to say in your
word? Lord, would you make our hearts ready? We love your law. We love your
word, Lord. We love everything that you have
written for us. And we pray that we might learn
by it and give us a heart to love it. And Lord, we pray that
you would make this study clear and plain. And Lord, if it be
thy will, would you send your spirit to us here and in the
next hour and bless our hearts. Lord, would you cause us to glorify
our God and give great thanks for our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
we pray for so many things. We always ask and ask and ask,
but you know what things we have need of before we ask. And so,
Lord, we thank you for all of your blessings and thank you
for hearing us. Lord, thank you for all things.
Thank you for saving us. Thank you for calling us. Thank
you for laying hold on us and getting us up this morning, bringing
us here this morning. Lord, if it be thy will, would
you do this for us the rest of our days on this earth and do
it for many more here in Kingsport, especially for our children.
Lord, bless the class downstairs. Bless that class. and cause our
children to bear the yoke in their youth. I know that we keep
praying the same things over and over again, but Lord, would
you please just provide the things that we need, the things we don't
even know we need. Thank you for this place and
thank you for the freedom we have right now to worship you. If it be thy will, would you
keep this freedom for us? And bless us, Lord, and forgive
us for all of our sin. We pray for Christ's sake. Amen.
1 Corinthians 5, in the next two
chapters, in this chapter and in the next chapter, Paul deals
with judgments that need to be made. concerning
believers living in open sin. Difficult, isn't it? Very difficult. Judgments that need to be made
by the church. Look at chapter 6, verse 1. Chapter 6, verse 1. He said,
dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before
the unjust and not before the saints? You're going to take
somebody to court and let an unbeliever decide your case and
not the saints who hold God's law, hold His word? So he's saying
that there are some judgments that need to be made by the church. Chapter 5 verse 3 says, 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." Paul says, I've already made my judgment. So this is
concerning judgments that need to be made. I pray the Lord will
help us here, help us, make us ready for this. Before we get
into this, go with me to Romans 2. Romans chapter 2 verse 1 says,
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doeth the same
things. Paul is in no way, shape, or
form encouraging anybody to be the church's religious policeman.
Nobody. There's not a sin on this earth
that every person here is not guilty of. The issue in 1 Corinthians
5 is fornication. Our Lord said, if you lust after
a woman, you've committed adultery with her. So there's no sin that's
not common to all of us. There's no room to become high
and mighty on this. No room at all. You know, most
congregations, they read things like this and say, we're going
to get a board of elders together and all the elders, we're going
to talk about it. Now, whatever we decide, no. God is the judge. God's word is our judge. I am not the judge. Romans 2 verse 2 says, We are
sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against
them which commit such things. God's word is our judge. I'm not going to make my own
judgment calls based on what I think. God's Word is the judge. Every judgment that needs to
be made, God has recorded it in His Word. And if He has not
recorded it in His Word, then it's not a judgment that needs
to be made. Verse 3 right here in Romans 2 says, And thinkest
thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things? And
doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? He
said, do you think you're going to escape? You know, we point
the finger there. You think you're going to escape
the judgment? This must be done with fear and trembling. Fear and trembling. If we judge,
we will be judged. Period. We will be judged. Turn to Matthew chapter seven. Matthew 7 verse 1 says, Our Lord
said, Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment
you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam
that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam
is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. This cannot be
taken lightly. It just cannot be taken lightly. This must be handled with fear
and trembling. Before any judgment is ever made,
we must seek God's word on it first. We must take the time
to seek God's will on it. And we must seek the truth of
our own condition first. our own condition. Before we
go and judge another, we must take a minute and look right
here. Verse 5 again, He said, First cast out the beam out of
thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out
the mote out of thy brother's eye. Go with me to Luke 12. Luke 12 verse 13 says, And one
of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother that
he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man,
who made me a judge or a divider over you? And then the Lord gave
him a parable to not be covetous over riches, but he never gave
them a judgment. Never gave him a judgment call.
He was the perfect man. He was the only one worthy to
make a judgment call. So let's be cautious. Let's be
cautious. So this is, we need to be wise. We need to be wise by leaving
the judgments in the hands of God Almighty. Even in what we're
about to read in 1 Corinthians 5. Even in what Paul's saying,
the judgments are in the hands of God Almighty. All right, now,
with all of that being said, There are some things that God
has been very clear about in His Word. Very, very clear about. For us to ignore those things
or to tolerate those things would be direct disobedience to God
on our part. The fault would lie on us to
ignore them, be tolerant of them. Last week we saw where the Lord
said, I have some things against the church at Thyatira. He said,
you suffered that woman Jezebel to preach. Now, what if word
got around that Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church has decided one
of the ladies is going to start taking the Sunday night services?
All the men are busy. They're all working. I'm overloaded. I'm still going to take Sunday
morning. I'll still do the Bible study. I'll still do the radio.
I'll still do Wednesday night. I'll still do the bulletin. But
one of the ladies is going to help me and start taking Sunday
night services. If my pastor brethren loved me, if they really loved me, those
who have been faithful to God's word for years and years, if
they loved me, should they mind their own business Or pick up the phone and call
me and say, Gabe, you can't do this. You just cannot do this. If they loved me, what should
they do? Oh, you're being awful high and
mighty on me, aren't you? No. You're in direct disobedience
to God's command. And all this is going to come
down on you, brother. It's all going to come down on
you. There is a time with the right
heart and attitude before God Almighty. You know, not to just
sit here and start judging the pews. Man, if we started judging
the pews, we all ought to leave. But there is a time with the
right heart, the right attitude before God to make a judgment
based on the Word of God. One of those times is in 1 Corinthians
5. Go with me over to 1 Corinthians 5. We're going to read these 13
verses, and we're going to see what Paul said. And then I want
us to see why he said it. There's a what and a why. And
I am so thankful the Lord opened up the why. There's a why here,
and it's a good why. Verse 1, chapter 5, verse 1.
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, its common knowledge all over Corinth." No use in trying
to hide it. Everybody knows. that one of
the members of God's true congregation is committing fornication with
his stepmother. There is a difference back in
Deuteronomy made between mother and father's wife, stepmother.
And Paul is saying possibly more shocking than that is the fact
that verse 2, he said, you're puffed up and have not rather
mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away
from among you." He's saying, not only are you
not appalled by it, you condone it. You're puffed up. You esteem
the man. Verse 3, for verily as absent in body, but present
in spirit, I have judged already as though I were present. concerning
him that hath so done this deed." Paul was saying, I know what
has to be done. I know exactly what has to be
done. Now hold your place right here in Corinthians and go with
me to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians 6 verse 1, Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, or minding
the word of God, restore such one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. That's what
we took the time to set up before we got into this. Consider it
in thyself. Do it in meekness, but restore such a one. Don't
just kick the man out. First, go to him and try to restore
him to God's Word. That's exactly what Paul did.
Go with me back to 1 Corinthians 5 and look at verse 9. He said, I wrote unto you in
an epistle not to company with fornicators. This was not the
first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He had written to them about
this. He warned them about this before. So he says in verse 3,
I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged
already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done
this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are
gathered together and 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. He said, when you're gathered
together, the whole congregation needs to know what's going on.
And the whole congregation needs to understand why this must happen. And in verse 5 he said, to deliver
such an one to Satan. What he means by that is cast
him out of the congregation. That's what has to happen. Our God here, our God is the
true and living God. Out there, our enemy has been
called the little g God of this world. To cast somebody out of
God's congregation into the world is to deliver him over. We see
how serious this is. This is so serious. All right, now let's keep going
with what. We'll see why here in just a second. Verse 6, he
said, your glorying is not good. This is going to come down on
you as a congregation. That's what he's telling them.
He said, know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Whether it's pride, whether it's
immorality, whether it's false doctrine. What if I started preaching
just a little bit of false doctrine? What if I told just a few lies,
just a few little lies on God? No, God's Word doesn't say that,
but this is what I think. Verse 7, he said, purge out therefore
the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. What he's saying is, take this
person that is committing incest. That's what my heading says at
the top of my page, incest is reproved. Take this person who
has been warned and he's not stopping and he's still committing
this incest and put him out of God's house. Just like the Jews
were commanded to go around their house with a lamp and find all
leaven in the house and get it out of the house before God's
Passover was slain. You get all the leaven out. All
the pride, all the self, all the flesh, get it out. Just like
our Lord went into the temple with a whip and he drove out
all those money changers. He said, my house is a house
of prayer. You've made it a den of thieves. So we don't come
here and spit in God's face. We don't spit in God's face and
then come sit down and glory in our sin against him.
He was sacrificed for our sins. That's what Paul is saying. I'm
going to sin until the day I die. I've already sinned today, I'm
sinning right now, and I'm going to keep on doing it. But everything
that I will sin, he died for it already. And I'm still going
to carry it out, but he's saying do not go blatantly against his
commandment and come. No, no, I don't have a problem
with it. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. My little children,
these things I write to you that you sin not. God forbid all that
stuff. Verse eight, he said, therefore,
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. We've been made to be new creatures
in Christ. I know that we don't see it really. Sin is all we feel, but we have
been made to be new creatures in Christ. May we worship God
and conduct ourselves as new creatures in Christ. It was so
important to me, I was writing all this out and I wanted to
take a few minutes and go through all those scriptures first before
we get into this. It was so important to me to
begin this Bible study showing that this is not for the purpose
of producing pride in any of us. Not at all. This is not written so we can
become holier than thou. None of us. This was written
to teach us obedience to our God. Verse 9, he said, 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 you needs go out
of the world. If you have zero contact with
sinners, then you're going to have contact with nobody. So
he said, I'm not talking about the world. Everything I'm saying
here, this applies to professing believers, people who have confessed
before God and man, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as my
only hope of salvation. Verse 11, 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, with such in one not to eat.
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." Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Put him out from the congregation.
That's what God said through the Apostle Paul, must be done. Now let me very quickly tell
us why. Why put a man or woman out of
the congregation? Why put a man or woman out of
the congregation? And why does God single out fornication
or adultery to be so wicked in His eyes? Why does He single
that out so much? He talks about it so much. Is
one sin really that much greater than another? Not really. Sin is sin. You know, a person
can say, well, I've never committed fornication. That's great. Are you proud of the fact that
you never committed fornication? That's worthy of the same judgment.
It's worthy of the same judgment. So one is not greater than another. Are there some sins that God
didn't pay for? Are there some sins that He is
not willing to pay for? Because he's saying, put him
out. The vilest offender, the chief
of sinners. Why is fornication then so singled
out and condemned by our Lord? Here's why. Look at the end of
verse 7. It says, For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for
us. He was slain for us. Fornication represents false
religion. That's what it represents, false
religion. It represents leaving the love
of Christ alone and going after another love. And it's such an
insult to our Lord. It is just such an insult. Such
a slap in his face after everything he's given for us. Is it possible
for a person that after God saved him, is it possible for him to
commit fornication and still belong to the Lord? David wrote
Psalm 51 right after he did that. He took a man's wife and killed
the man. And we glory in Psalm, we're
so thankful for Psalm 51. Is it possible? Yes. But it's a slap in our Lord's
face. It's an insult after everything
that he's done for us and given for us. Look at chapter six,
verse 15. 1 Corinthians 6.15 says, Know ye
not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot?
God forbid! What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall
be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the
Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that
a man doeth is without the body. But he that commiteth fornication
sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Don't you realize
that God has put His Holy Ghost inside your body? And he says,
which you have of God and ye are not your own, for you are
bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Do we need any more
reason than that? Well, man, you've put me back
under law. No, this puts us under love. That's
what it does. Now why put a man or woman out
of the congregation? That's why fornication. Why is
that so specifically? Why put a man or woman out of
the congregation? Go back to chapter 5, 1 Corinthians
5, verse 5 says this, 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. By putting
him out, he's not saying that he doesn't belong to Christ.
He's not saying that. That's God's business. That's
God's business. Now, if he does not belong to
Christ, if that man does not belong to Christ, then the church
needs to be delivered from that distraction. That's a huge distraction. It interferes with worship. And
a distraction like that will quench the Spirit. There's nothing
I desire more than to come here with God's people and worship
in the Holy Spirit. And that will absolutely quench
the Spirit. And that distraction needs to
be purged out so that the spirit of love and unity and obedience
and grace can grow and thrive. That's what we want this to be,
is a place that grows and thrives in that. But if this man does
belong to the Lord, and if he doesn't, the church needs to
be spared of it. If he does belong to the Lord,
the most merciful thing that could happen to this man is if
God would absolutely destroy his flesh, slay him, kill him,
completely destroy his flesh, that the spirit may be saved.
David said, search me, O God, didn't he? And see if there be
any wicked way in me. and lead me in the way everlasting."
If that person does belong to the Lord, and the Lord puts that
person in the position of having to do without the fellowship
of His Word, could you imagine not having
a place to go worship God with His people? If God puts him in the position
of doing without the Lord's favor, without his grace, without his
touch, can't hear his voice? Absolutely. You know those times
when you can't hear his voice? We think it's forever, but it's
really just about a day and a half. What if it was just David said,
are you clean gone? Are your mercies clean gone? The mercy to David was that God
sent a man straight to his face and he said, David, thou art
the man. So if he's truly God's child,
he will start begging. David said, have mercy on me,
O God, according to your tender mercies and your loving kindness.
Purge me, blot out my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in my sight.
And you're just. Whatever you do to me is right. He'll start begging. The man
was happy laying over there in the lap of sin because he was
full. He was full of himself. He was
full of everything. But if God ever makes him hungry,
he'll start begging. He will start begging. So, the
Lord says through Paul concerning individuals, verse 5, 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 Jesus. And he
says concerning the church in verse 7, purge out therefore
the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. May the
Lord teach us wisdom in this. Man, let's not go around kicking
everybody out of the church. May the Lord teach us the mind
of Christ on these issues. Give us wisdom, humility, fear,
reverence, And may in all this he keep us looking to him. We've
got to keep looking to him. All right, you're dismissed.