He had found so much fault with
these Corinthians. They had divisions, schisms among
themselves. They were carnal men, acted like
carnal men instead of acting like believers. They acted like
natural men. And then he chided them in the
last chapter for the fact that instead of being ashamed of the
sin that they were allowing to happen in the church, they read
their glory in it and were puffed up about it. And Paul says you
have to put that wicked one from among you. And you ought to be
ashamed of this. And I'm warning you that you've
got to do this. You've got to put this person
from among you. And here in these first eight verses here, 1 Corinthians
6, he shows us another fault in these Corinthians. Another
fault that they have in their church, in the church at Corinth. And the church was, the fault
that they had here was that these brothers, these brothers in the
church, believers, taking one another to court before unbelievers
to settle their differences. Now, Paul says that is utterly,
utterly a horrible thing to do. And the rebuke that he takes
here to take these fellows to task is, he says, our differences
ought to be settled among ourselves. And it ought to be settled, first
of all, on the basis of love, and secondly, on the basis of
grace. If you love one another, why in the world would you go
to court before the world? Why would you go to an unbeliever
to settle an argument, settle a dispute? And why would you
go before the wicked? And he don't know anything about
grace. He don't know anything about love. So he's going to
do things as a natural man would do. And oh, and what else would
happen was that the gospel that we believe would be held in contempt.
These fellows say that they're supposed to love one another,
believe the same thing, and here they are standing before me,
a judge of this world, wanting to settle their disputes. Oh,
what contempt would the gospel have by wicked men. And he also
tells them here and teaches this, that true believers, God's people,
ought to endure injuries and misunderstandings And do it with
patience, do it with love, do it with forgiveness, and don't
seek vengeance and don't seek compensation. And this is what I really honestly
believe, and I hope by God's grace we practice it. I told
a fellow this other day, a fellow that had a little business going
on, and I said, well, if somebody's got to be done wrong, let it
be me. If somebody's got to be cheated,
let it be me. Don't let me be the one doing
the cheating. Don't let me be the one doing
the wrong. Don't let me be the one mistreating somebody. If somebody's got to be beat,
let me be the one that gets beat. Somebody's got to be cheated,
let it be me. Somebody's got to be wrong, let it be me. And
that's what Paul's saying here. If somebody's going to be treated
wrong, let it be you. Don't you do it. Let it be you,
and take it patiently. And that's why charity covers
a multitude of sins, and always be ready to forgive. Don't seek
revenge, don't seek compensation. And so Paul here, he says here
in verse 1, he expresses his surprise. And oh, that one believer,
with a complaint against another believer, dared to go to the
court of law to settle it. Dare any of you, having a matter
against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the
saints? You mean to tell me you should
take this matter to the law to be decided by unbelievers? Is
that what you would do? Now, he's not saying there's
anything against the court of law, not against judges, not
against magistrates. Now those who have been summoned
to court have to appear to maintain a cause. He's condemning those
who bring their brethren into such a situation when it's in
their power to employ other means to solve a dispute. It's just a believer with another
believer. And here they are in the Corinthian
church. Instead of being able to settle this dispute, say,
well, I'll take you to court over this. We'll settle this
in the court, and we'll settle this before the law. And so when
they stand there, there sits the judge, and he says, ain't
you fellas going to the same church? Yes, sir, we do. Do you
believe the same thing? Yes, sir, we do. Do you believe
the same gospel? Yes, sir, we do. Well, why in the world are
you doing here? And that's why Paul says he goes
to the unjust to settle these accounts, to the unjust to settle
these things. And you don't go before the saints
to settle this dispute? Don't go before the God's people
and say, now listen, you all did make this decision for us.
You make this decision for us. And he goes on to say here, and
you all listen to this, this is, do you not know that the
saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged
by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? And he's
saying here, you know, that if you seek the judgment and advice
of unbelieving lawyers and magistrates, and they say that there's nobody
among the saints of God but godly qualified to settle your disputes,
and he's what he's saying here, if God gives his people the spiritual
wisdom, the spiritual grace, to judge the world, and one of
these days he's going to judge the world, and right now we judge
the world. When it says that judgment begins at the house
of God, that means like with Noah. When he began to prepare
that ark, by that very deed, he condemned the world, he judged
the world. He said, I believe God, I bow to the will of God,
I rejoice in the will of God, I believe the word of God, and
I'm going to trust God. You folks do what you want to
do, I'm going to get in that ark. And by that act, we judge
the world. And that's why Paul said, if
we're judging the world, you mean to tell me that you can't
find somebody wise enough and godly enough and saintly enough
to settle this dispute without going to a lawyer or a judge
or the world? And we are. We're going to judge,
you know, when our Lord Jesus says to sheep over here on the
right. And all these folks stand up and start arguing with God.
I'm telling you, just as sure as God's on His throne, He's
going to point to all of His elect. He's going to point to
every redeemed soul. He's going to point to everybody
He's worked in His blood and covered with His righteousness.
And they're going to have a thousand charges that they can make against
Him. My wife can, my children can, and you can. People in the
world can. My neighbors can. They'll say,
I've seen him do this, I've heard him do that, and you wouldn't
believe what he done here. They can bring a thousand charges
against me, but God's going to say there's not a one. And we'll stand there and the
whole world will be condemned while God clears us before the
whole world. You know, Noah was in the same
shape and same condition that everybody else was in that world
he lived in. When it says, their mind was
only evil continually, but when the grace of God came to him,
the grace of God made him know what was fixed to happen. You
know, when God regenerated him and gave him faith and trust,
and I mean, beloved, he started building that ark. From that
day on, he judged and condemned the world. And that's what we
were doing. He said, if you judge the world,
you mean to tell me you ain't... What did he say here? Are you
unworthy to judge the smallest matters? The smallest matters? Oh, my. And let me show you something
over here in 1 Corinthians 2. This is what the world, this
is how the world, their judgment, you know, out in the world, their
judgment is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. While
the foundation of our judgment is grace and mercy, not an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And here it says, and this is
why we don't go to the world, it says here in verse 14, the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
Would you go to a natural man and ask him for wisdom concerning
a spiritual matter? Now, if you've got some worldly
thing, some property, you know, and something like that, you
know, it's just you. But I'm talking about, he's talking
here about something disputed between brethren. But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. And you
start talking to him about spiritual matters, something going on between
you, that ain't foolishness unto him, and he can't know them.
They're spiritually discerned. But now listen, this is what
he's talking about, saying to him that, can't you judge the
smallest matters? But he that's spiritual, he judges
all things. He discerns all things. He understands
what's going on. Yet he himself is judged of no
man. The natural man does not understand
or discern and grasp what a spiritual man's like. That's what he's
saying. He said, they don't know. When people see you, Brad, when
people walk into your office, unless you tell them you're a
believer, unless you tell them you go to the Grand Tanner Grace
Church, they don't know you from Adam as far as they sit down
there in front of you. They come there to do business. And when
they come to work, get a tire from you, they don't know you're
a Christian. They don't know you're a believer. They can't discern.
And if you start telling them, they say, well, yeah, I go to
a Baptist church, too. They do not discern a Christian,
a real believer. And so that's what he says here,
back over here in chapter 6. Do you not know that the saints
shall judge the world, and if the world shall be judged by
you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? And then
look what he says here in verse 3. Know ye not that we shall
judge angels? Oh, my! How much more things
that pertain to this life? You know, when he says, we shall
judge your angels, you know, the angels are subject to the
Word of God. There were angels that sinned and God rebounded
them in chains and reserved them in darkness. And Paul says, no,
we are an angel from heaven preaching the other gospel. And he said
here, you know, that we're going to judge the angels. And again,
how we judge the angels is because we believe God and they didn't.
We trust God and they didn't. We obey God and they don't. We
love Christ and they don't. We have the righteous Christ
and they don't. So these angels that left their first estate,
even we even judge them now. And oh, beloved, when we look
to the Lord Jesus Christ for our Savior and our Savior and
our substitute and our sacrifice, they didn't do any of those things.
So we judge them. And oh, beloved, and we act in
wisdom and we trust the righteousness of Christ, and they don't. And what he's saying here is
we judge them by their actions. And if by the grace of God we
are set to judge the world, how in the world How, if by the grace
of God a believer can discern these heavenly things, and discern
what the things of God, the things of the Spirit of God, how in
the world then could you not judge among yourselves in things
that pertain to this life? If you're going to judge angels,
why can't you judge things that pertain to this life? If you
understand these spiritual things and heavenly things, why can't
you judge the things, the small things that pertain to this life? I've seen this happen a couple
of times. I really have seen this happen a couple of times. One dear preacher friend of mine.
I mean a dear, dear preacher friend of mine. He's preached
here a couple of times. Church decided, you know, they didn't
want him. Didn't want him running the thing. Didn't like what he
preached and all that. They decided to take him to court, take the
building away from him. You know, and they did. I mean, boy, they
wrapped it right up in court. They took Ed, took him, and you know what he done? You
know how he, and he win. He had, you know, they said,
well, you know, you preaching a gospel we don't believe. You're
preaching a gospel we don't, you know, that's just not true. He said, we're going to take
you to court. We're going to take the bill and we're going to put you
out. He said, now, wait a minute. You've done a bit off more than
you can chew, I believe." Well, they sure enough, they took him
to court. They called him preachers, even. What about this fellow? Why does he believe in all that?
And you know all he done? He went to their own articles
of faith, laid them out, and says, this
is what they claim to believe, just exactly what I'm preaching.
And he just laid it out there. That's the only argument he had.
Said, right here it is. They have to leave the building, and
he's got to stay. But that's what they've done.
That's what wicked people do. They've got to be right. As old
Barnard used to say, thank God we don't have business people.
That's what Barnard used to say. To have business people, you
have to bring out the high sheriff and three deputies to keep peace. And we don't want none of that.
Oh, listen, where love reigns, Grace reigns, mercy reigns, Christ
reigns. And then look what he said here
in verse 4 here. If then you have judgment of
things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are the
least esteemed in the church. Now this sounds like what he's
saying is, if you have them judgments, you've got to have judgments
and things pertaining to this life among yourselves. Set them
to who are least esteemed in the church to be the judge. That's
not what that saying is. Paul is rebuking them here. And
what he's saying is here, if you judge, set the things clear,
and you know it's obvious that you can judge the things that
pertain to this life. And when you have cases of everything
that just happens in everyday life to decide, Why do you set
these matters before such men as lawyers and judges and outsiders
who are not esteemed in the church at all? Those that heathen, why
would you bring the heathen in to make your decisions for you?
Why would you bring them that the church don't even esteem?
Why, if you're going to have judgment of this life, why do
you bring in, folks, the heathen, people that have no standing
among the saints of God? That's what he's saying here.
And they have no standing, no account before the church of
God. Would you set them that are least esteemed? Would you
set the world over you? Would you let a lawyer come
in here? I got a couple of calls back
when people were lectioneering. Oh, I'm running for this office,
I'm running for that office, and you know, I'd be glad to
come to your church and if you give me a few minutes, you know,
No, no, we're not going to let no politicians get up here. We
ain't going to let no lawyers get up here. Ain't going to let
no doctors get up here. Ain't no nurses either. That's what he's saying here.
We're not going to let anybody that's not esteemed. And we don't
esteem the world. We don't esteem unbelievers.
We don't esteem them. And then he says here in verse
five, and I speak to your shame. I speak to your shame. Oh, you ought to be so ashamed
of this. Is it so that there's not a wise
man among you? Do you mean to tell me there's
not somebody wise enough among you, no, not one, that shall
be able to judge between the brethren? Is there not somebody in the
fellowship wise enough, confident enough to decide the grievances,
the disputes and quarrels between brothers that already boasted
about their wisdom, already boasted about their gifts, and yet they're
denying it all by their actions? They was acting carnal again,
acting completely carnal. And you know, and I go so far
as to say this. I think if married couples have
problems, if they can't settle them among themselves, and it's
a spiritual matter, they ought to come to the pastor. Try to,
you know, because I know that there's lots of things that goes
on in this world. We have problems of communication. We have problems
of keeping things to ourselves that, you know, sometimes that
maybe we ought to say, I need some help in this area. But what
he's saying here is, is there not somebody wise enough and
competent enough to take what grievance you have? And I'll
never forget this. I'll tell you this right here.
I'll never forget it. I, as a fellow, had some grievances,
and he had some grievances with me. I don't know what, why I've
done to him. I'd have no idea. But all of
a sudden he got his nose out of joint, got out of pocket,
and he was really upset with me and talked to me two or three
times. And one time he called and he
said, I want to come up there and talk to you and get this
settled once and for all. And I said, that's fine. But
I had sense enough to know that you don't do nothing with somebody
without a witness around. So I called another brother and
I said, you know Florento's coming up here. I want you to be here
when he gets here. And he walked in and there was that other brother
sitting there and he got mad. He got, this fellow got so mad,
he got aggravated. He said, I thought just between
me and you. And I said, anything between me and you is as far
as I'm concerned between me and you and the whole church. And
if you don't like that, you know, you can stop it right now. I
mean, that's what I'm talking about, you know. The fellow should
have, if he had any grievances, he should have brought it to
the whole church and brought his grievances up. Talk to the men about it. But that's what I'm talking about. You know, I speak to your shame. Is there not a wise man among
you? Somebody competent enough? Not enough wisdom and gifts?
And then he goes on to say here in verse 6, But brother goeth
to law with brother. And this is the astounding thing.
And that before the unbelievers. Now, he's talking about this
spiritual relationship. He's talking about brothers. Brothers,
spiritual brothers, spiritual relationship, both sons of God,
both born again, one family in Christ. And a brother going to
court against brother, and that before unbelievers? Paul said,
what a serious, shameful thing, because it will bring reproach
on the name of Christ and on the church. You know, it'd be like a mother
taking a child to court, or the child taking the mother and father
to court, or two brothers or two sisters going to court to
argue over something that their mother over a quilt that their
mother left them or something. You'd say, boy, can't you, what's
wrong with them brothers doing one another that way? Why, I can't believe that that
mother would sue her own daughter. I can't believe that that daughter
would take her daddy to court. You know, we do that in the natural
world. That's what he's saying here. How much more in the spiritual
realm? Here we're the same family, we're born of the same Spirit,
trust the same Christ, have the same righteousness, have the
same love of God shed abroad in our heart, and then go out
here before unbelievers to settle a dispute? Now, he says here in verse 7
and 8, There is utterly a fault among
you. Not only sinful, but there's
a serious defect in you, a fault in you. You go to law with one
another. You're seeking revenge and you
want a legal settlement. And Paul says, why don't you
rather take the wrong? Why don't you just say, well,
I'll just be wrong in this matter. I'll take the law. I'll be wrong
in this matter. Let's just, you know, I'll be
wrong. That's what he says. Why do you not rather take the
role? And that's why he says, why don't you let the brother
have his way? Just let him have his way. If
that's what's going to take satisfying to, you know, to ridicule you
and he says he wants this and he wants that, just let him have
it. Ain't that what our Lord said? He said, if a man wants
your coat, give him your coat also. If He smites you on the
one cheek, give Him the right also. Didn't He say, if you want
to go a mile, walk two? And that's what He says here.
Instead of going to court and causing division or upset the
fellowship, bear your injustice patiently and glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ. That would settle so many things
if you just automatically say, how will it affect Christ and
His people? That's the thing. How will it
affect the church? How will it affect Christ's glory and His
people, His saints? How will it do that? And Paul
goes on here to say, Why do you not rather suffer yourselves
to be defrauded? Why don't you suffer it wrong?
Won't you just say, Well, you're right. I'm wrong. What I need
to do is settle this. You just tell me what you want. Tell me what you want. But instead of this, he said,
instead of doing that, instead of suffering wrong, taking the
wrong, suffer yourself to be defrauded, suffer yourself to
be embarrassed, suffer yourself to suffer the wrong. Nay, you
know what you do? You do wrong, and you defraud,
you embarrass, you take away, you shame, you lie, you cause
your brother to suffer, and that your brother. your brother. You defraud your own brother
by treating them in this manner. And oh my, may God of all save
us from ever, ever having such a thing happen to us. Ever having
such a thing happen to us. I couldn't imagine two brothers
in Christ settling, going before a judge to try to settle an argument. I just, I can't imagine anything
happening among brethren that didn't have to do that. Do you? I just can't, I just can't.