I was thinking there as Brother
Al was pointing out there about Reuben. Of course, Reuben was
the firstborn of Jacob's sons. And it is kind of a rule that we find in
Scripture that the firstborn is the one who is to whom the blessing is normally
reserved, as we see in the case of Esau and Jacob. And Esau, having no regard unto
this, sold his birthright to Jacob because he had no concern
or consideration for spiritual things. But I was thinking there
and thinking about Reuben and how He was bypassed. He was set aside because Reuben
is indicative of the flesh of man. I mean, what Reuben did
was, of course, a very fleshly thing, very much akin to what
we have looked at here in 1 Corinthians 5, that Paul is upbraiding these
Corinthians about this man who was caught up in a very similar
situation in sin. But we see that Reuben is like
Adam. Adam and Reuben are much the
same as Adam was the first of God's creation. That is, he was
the first man, and yet he was a man of the flesh. He was a
man who fell into sin most willingly, and he wasn't deceived, but he
was willing and openly complicit in entering into the sin. He
embraced it, and so did Reuben in that sense. But the Lord,
He said that through Judah the Lawgiver would come. So Judah
was not the firstborn, but he was that one to whom the promise
was made that through him this one would come. Even as we read
the earthly genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ as it goes
back through all the way back to Adam, but it does not come
through Cain. It does not come through Abel,
but it goes through Seth. who was the one through whom
the promise came. So that indicates several things
to me as I read the Scripture. One is that men do not have anything
to do with where they fall in the line of that which the Lord
would do. Now it does not make a difference
what Cain did or any of these others. They could not inherit
those promises. because the promises were ordained
for the line of Seth. And he was the one through whom
the Lord would send the Messiah, even as it was Judah and not
Reuben, even as it was Jacob and not Esau. And so it is that
we see throughout the Scriptures. You know, I heard a fellow say
one time, he said, you know, it's a terrible thing when men
start to believe the doctrine of unconditional election. He
said, because when a man starts believing that, he says, then
he'll see it on every page in the Bible. Now he was saying
that in a manner where he thought that a person would just ruin
once they believe that. But I'm telling you what, it
is on every page of the Bible. And a man is in darkness that
does not see and understand that it is God that orders the things
to occur and He is the One. The Scripture says, Blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Now, dear brethren, that is a
glorious thing. Now, what does a man have to
do to get chosen? There's not a thing in the world
he can't do. But you know, the Lord manifests those whom He
chooses. He manifests whom He chooses
by giving them faith so that they believe. They embrace the
things of God. Now, a man who is not given faith,
he can no more believe something than a man can come back from
where he's never been. But you see, when the Lord gives
a man faith, he just believes. And there's not anything he can
really particularly do about that. He just believes. And he can't help himself. He
just believes. And you know, such is the mercy
of God. It's a glorious thing. Because
you see, the man that doesn't believe, he's not. He doesn't
care. The man that doesn't believe
doesn't care, does he? I mean, a man that doesn't believe
the things of God, it's just so much talk to him. He's not
interested in it. I mean, you tell him, well, you
don't have faith, so what? He's not concerned about that.
But you see, the one thing that those whom God has given faith
all desire is to have faith, is it not? Isn't that an amazing
thing? That it is the gift of faith
that causes a man to want to have faith. A lot of times he
can't see that he has faith. But I tell you, a man that wants
to believe is given evidence of the fact that he does have
faith. Because of the fact that a man that doesn't believe, he
could care less. He doesn't want to believe. He
doesn't care anything about it. So it is the mercy of God. But
it is the mercy of God, dear brother. Let us never forget
that it is God that visits a man. and grants to him the blessing
just like he did to Seth through his line, just like he did to
Jacob, just like he did to Judah, just like he did as he favored
Mary to be that one who would be the mother of the one who
would deliver Israel. I mean, the blessing of God,
it can't be bought. It can't be influenced. By anything
men can do, it cannot be gained. But it is the mercy of God, the
grace and goodness of God that He would show down through the
ages. Because when He had no necessity laid upon Him to show
mercy to any, He has showed mercy to a multitude of those whom
He has loved in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of
the world. Chapter 5 of I Corinthians, and we read this in verse 9. He says, I wrote unto you in
an epistle not to company with fornicators. Now evidently he
had written to them on more than this occasion. We don't have
that letter, but he had written to them and instructed them not
to keep company with fornicators. not to be with those. Now the
word fornicator or fornication or fornicate, that word, of course
it's not used much in our day because it's kind of considered
to be an antiquated concept. But the Greek word that is translated
fornication is the word pornea. Now what the word literally means
is it has reference to any form of sexual impurity. It doesn't
make any difference if it's homosexuality, if it's adultery, if it's fornication. It doesn't make any difference
what it is. It's all lumped into the same
thing in the sight of God. It is using sexuality in a manner
that God has not ordained for it to be used. And therein is
the error in all of man's sexual sins. I mean, sexuality is a
thing that is ordained of God. There wouldn't be an ongoing
of the human race if it was not for the ordained use and purpose
of sexuality. There would not be the joy that
comes in marriage if it was not that God had ordained this for
the reason that He did. And so it is. You know, it's
a glorious thing as you look through the Word of God and you
see the blessings that God has poured out and bestowed upon
men, but yet in every case, men have taken the blessings that
God has set out and He has misused and abused them and turned them
into things that bring judgment upon Himself. I mean, it's over
and over again that we see that that is the case. So Paul has
written to them, not the company with fornicators, that is, Don't
mingle among them. Don't let them be your role models. Just like you were talking there
this morning about when they were casting away those idols.
That's basically what he's saying is don't company with these people
who do these things. We don't have fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness. That's what the Scripture over
and over tells us. And that's what he says here.
I wrote to you in an epistle not to company with fornicators,
yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world. Now when he says
that, he understands that, well, if you said, well, we're not
going to be in the company of anyone who's a fornicator, well,
then we wouldn't be able to go out of the house. But he said,
that's not what I'm talking about. He said, yet not altogether with
the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners,
or with idolaters, because all of these things are of the same
ilk, you see. He says, for then ye must need
to go out of the world. But we are in the world, but
not of the world. We walk among those that embrace
these ideas and these manners of life, And we do business with
them, and they do business with us, and we go about our daily
walk, and that's all the way it is. That's just the way it
is. He said, I'm not telling you to not have any company with
any of them in that broader sense, because then you couldn't even
function in the world, because that's just the way the world
is. Have no regard to what God said. But he said, but now I have written
unto you not to keep company. Now what that means is to associate
closely with. That is to have fellowship with.
That is to meet together with. That is to embrace. That is to
agree with. That is what it means to keep
company with. If you keep company with somebody,
that means you have more than a casual passing relationship. Now, when people come into my
store every day, I just have a casual passing relationship
with them. I don't get over the counter
and hug their neck and say, I'm glad to see you. Now, I'm glad
for everyone to come in because I want to bring the money in
there. So I'm happy to see them come
in the door. But I don't have any fellowship
with them. In fact, I'm glad when most of
them leave. Because, you know, some of the
stuff they want to talk about and whatnot and go on about,
I mean, I'm not interested in that. I don't want to keep company
with them. And so he's saying here, I have
written unto you not to keep company, that is, not to have
that close fellowship and relationship, 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 know not thee."
I mean, you don't have anything to do with them, basically what
he says. He says, you turn aside from them. Now does he mean there
that somebody who has been guilty of such things is that? Or has
done such things in the past? You know, I mean, somebody say
they were a drunkard, in their past life and we say, well, he's
a drunkard, we don't have anything to do with him. No, that's not
what he's talking about at all. What he's talking about is those
that go on in these things without any sort of concept of repentance
and turning from them and confessing their sins and saying these things
are wrong. And I was wrong to ever walk
in them. So when he says here, I've written
to you not to keep company with a man that's called a brother.
That is, if there's somebody in our midst who's walking in
open sin which is unconfessed and unrepentant of, that is,
he thinks it's fine. And evidently, as what Paul's
upbraiding the Corinthians about, they did too. They thought it
was fine. Now some have surmised that maybe
this man of whom he's speaking here was someone who was highly
esteemed among them. Maybe he was a teacher or an
orator of some kind or someone who was considered to be a leader
among them. But he said, look, I've told
you. It doesn't make a difference who it is. If they are walking
in these things and they openly have no regard to the things
of God and the Word of God and the things He has taught us to
do, if they are walking openly in these sins, then we would
have nothing to do with them. Now, He did not say, if any man
be a sinner. Did He? What if he had? We would all have to stay home.
I mean, we couldn't even fellowship with ourselves. I mean, we'd
be in a mess. Now, he didn't say that, but
what he has reference to here is those who are unrepentant,
those who have no confession that they are sinners. Now, a
man that doesn't confess that he's a sinner, unworthy of the
least of the Lord's mercy, is not someone who has an understanding
of the things of God. And if he claims to be a brother,
then we are not supposed to have any fellowship with him if he
just goes on in his way without any repentance. Know not to eat. Now, some have surmised that
this has reference to partaking of the Lord's Supper. Now, I
would say it definitely would include that. Know not to eat,
but it is not. They look on this idea of what
Paul is saying here, well, we'll hug your neck and shake your
hand and have a fellowship with you just like we normally would,
but when it comes time to have the Lord's Supper, we say, no,
you can't eat the Lord's Supper. Now you can do all these other
things, but that's not what I believe Paul is talking about. What he
is saying here is you don't even so much as eat with them. The years, I mean, it is a form
of hospitality and fellowship, is it not? I mean, when we come
together and we eat together as a meal, and that's just as
far as I'm concerned, as much a part of our meeting as standing
here preaching and singing and praying and whatever. When we
come together and we eat together, we're fellowshipping together.
We have a bond that we share together. And so what he's saying
here is you don't even sit down and eat with somebody. Now surely
if we wouldn't even sit down and eat with them at the table
as a form of fellowship and hospitality shown to one another, then certainly
we wouldn't invite them or be comfortable with them coming
and partaking of the Lord's table with us either, would we? Of
course not. So it does include that. But
it's not limited to that. Because what Paul is speaking
about here is more akin to what the Amish call shunning. Now
I think theirs is a little legalistic. It goes a little perhaps beyond
the pale of what Paul is talking about here. But our relationship to them is in such
a way that we want them to know in no uncertain terms that this
is not okay. And we don't approve of it. The
Lord doesn't approve of it. And we have passed judgment on
it. Because judgment, the Scripture says, must begin where? In the
house of God. I mean, we are our brother's
keepers. And so if we see a brother walking in open, unconfessed
sin, it's our obligation to say something to him about it. We
can't just turn a blind eye to it and ignore it. So know not
to eat. For what have I to do to judge
them that are without?" In other words, I don't have anything
to do with the people that are outside the church, he says.
I'm talking to you about those that are in the church. Because
those that are outside the church, God's going to judge them. That's
not your business. You know, if somebody's in the
community and they're all out here living in an ungodly fashion,
that's no business of yours. Now that doesn't mean necessarily
on that respect that you might not ever be called upon to say
something to them about it in a passing way, but it's not your
place to condemn them in an open way or get the community together
and say, well, we need to go down and burn old so-and-so's
house down because of what he's doing or something like that.
So that's not what he's saying. He said here, for what have I
to do to judge them that are without? Do not ye judge them
that are within. That's who we're concerned about
is the church of God, the people of God. But them that are without,
God judgeth. Therefore, put away from yourselves
that wicked person. So he's specifically speaking
about this man that he's pointed out to them that has taken his
father's wife, his stepmother, as a wife. He's saying, put him
away from you. But he's talking about it also
in a general sense that any brother, any man that calls himself a
brother, and I notice he didn't say he was a brother. Now he
may or may not be. See, we don't know that, do we?
I don't know who the Lord's people are, do you? But when somebody
comes together, they meet together with us, and they are in our
fellowship, one with the other, we consider them as brethren
unless they show us reason to believe they are not. In other
words, they don't have to jump through hoops. You know, if a
man comes among us confessing Christ, then we take him at his
word until such time as, in this case, he shows himself not to
be such. In that case, then we put away
from ourselves that wicked person. Not because we say we are holier
than you, but because it is obvious that there is no repentance on
the part of that person. And repentance is not an act.
It is not something you do. It is something that is part
and parcel of you. I mean, when a man is repeating,
has a spirit of repentance, it's not something that he does. Well,
I repented. That's all. I took care of it
all back there. I've heard people say, oh yeah,
I've repented. Well, brother, you're too late.
I mean, you'd better catch up because repentance is not something
that you did. Repentance is something that
you do. I mean, repentance is something
that is wrought in you by the Spirit of God to know what you
are by nature. Now surely, He brings it to light
more readily from time to time. There are some times when we
kind of go along, and yes, we know we are not doing what we
are supposed to do, but then there are some times when the
Lord just slaps us side of the head and shows us what we are,
and He really gets our attention. And such is the mercy of God
because, you know, the world, they just go on their merry way.
But the Lord chastens those whom He loves and He will not turn
them away. And then He moves from this. This is all related, keep in
mind now, because of the fact that what He is sending forth
here to these Corinthians is that there is a difference between
those who are of the light and those who are of the darkness.
And he's going to use that very language a little later on. But
he's showing that. He says, you can't come to me
with fornicators because that's not what you are. That's not
what you're called to be. Such were some of you, but you
have been called out. So he's coming on with some more
teaching that's related to this very subject. He says, "...dare
any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the
unjust and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints
shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged
by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye
not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain
in this life? If ye then have judgments of
things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least
esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it
so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall
be able to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth to
law with brother, and that before unbelievers. Now therefore, there
is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with
another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer
yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud,
and that is your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be ye not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God." Now, stop there and think about
what he said there. Now evidently they were having
a problem of property disputes or something anyway that caused
them, members of the church, members of the body, to take
their problems to the court system and go before ungodly magistrates
and get him to decide what their problems were. Now, sometimes
if you are dealing with somebody who is not a brother in the Lord,
who is not walking together with you in fellowship, there might
not be any other recourse than to go before an unjust judge."
I mean, that is what they are there for, to solve disputes.
But he is saying this, when these disputes arise among brethren,
one with the other, he said, you do not have any business
taking that anywhere else. You know, if you've got a property
dispute with a brother or some issue that arises, he says, you
don't need to take that to the courts. He said, don't you believe
that even the weakest of God's saints, even the least of the
brethren has spiritual wisdom to make a determination of what
should be done? Because every one of us knows
that we are not to deprive one another in any way. And he says,
even if you thought you were going to be defrauded. Now this
is a hard pill to swallow, isn't it? Even if you knew that by
deciding a situation that wasn't in your favor, you felt like
that you were going to be defrauded and this was going to be unjust,
he said, wouldn't it be better for you to be defrauded for your
brethren's sake? He said, rather than taking it
to a court of law, he said, just take the laws. I mean, isn't
that what it is to esteem one another above ourselves? Now
that's not the way the world looks at it, is it? That's not
the way the carnal man thinks about it. No, what's mine is
mine. Brother, I do everything within
my power to keep what's mine. That's not what he said. I mean,
that's not the attitude that the children of God are to have
one towards another. If a brother feels he's been
defrauded, then he's to take it up with the brother. And if
the brother doesn't see it his way, then he's to suffer himself
to be defrauded. So, you know, it doesn't make
any difference. Why do we want to have these disputes anyway?
I mean, you know, where do disputes like that arise from? I want
what's mine. What it is, is it not? Well,
it's not right for him to get it. I mean, I wanted it. You know, it's like if there's
one drumstick left on the plate. I mean, I want to get that drumstick.
And I'll kind of feel offended if you reach over there and get
it just before I did. But I should be glad for you
to have it. Isn't that what Paul said? I mean, if there's one
drumstick left, You should be glad that somebody else, one
of your other brethren, got it. That's what he said. Suffer yourself
to be defrauded. Why do you not rather suffer
yourself to be defrauded? Because you do wrong when you
would defraud your brethren. That is that you would do that
which would cause them to feel the same way. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Now, we have to understand
what it is that Paul is talking about here. Now, we'd be in a
bad shape if he meant that in the literal strictest sense of
the word, the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
because we would never in the flesh be able, we couldn't enter
into the kingdom of God, could we? I mean, there'd be no hope
for us. But the point that he's making
is that apart from a man being made righteous in Christ, he can't enter into the kingdom
of God. And so the unrighteous, the man who goes on in this way
and demonstrates that he has no regard to the righteousness
of Christ going on in these sins which he lists here, which covers
the gamut, does it not? I mean, if you hadn't seen yourself
in these things that he set forth here, then you hadn't looked
at yourself very close. So he covers pretty well the
whole line of things. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous,
drunkards, revilers, extortioners. None of them is going to inherit
the kingdom of God. Now that rules out the whole human race.
As far as I can tell. I don't know anybody that if
you put that up there and you said, well, you know, if you've
never been guilty of any of these things, then you can be it. Or
you can be president if you check off his list. No. Look, it doesn't
matter. All of us are of the same cut
from the same cloth, brethren. And the only righteousness we
have is that which has been given to us, which is in Christ. And
as brethren who have been brought out of darkness into light knowing
what we are by nature, confessing to one another our faults and
confessing that we are sinners in need of mercy, then that is
the only righteousness we do have. And so we do not expect
that we are going to inherit the Kingdom of God on the basis
of what we are. but what we have been made in
Jesus Christ. Because what does He say? And
such were some of you. He says, such were some of you.
Now, there is a sense in which He
is saying here, such, some of you, or all of you actually,
you used to be sinners. But he said, you're not anymore.
Now we know that we are still sinners in the flesh, but what
he's saying here is in Christ we've been justified even as
if we had never been guilty of any of these things. He says,
such were some of you. But ye are washed. Ye are sanctified. You're set
apart. Ye are justified. in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. That is a
glorious thing, dear brethren. Just think of that phrase, and
such were some of you. That applies to the people of
God, does it not? It applies to all of those for
whom the Lord Jesus Christ came to save, because He came to save
that which was lost. He came to seek and to save that.
He came to save sinners. Paul said that he came to save
sinners of whom he was chief. He said such were some of you.
That's what you were. No doubt about it. You can't
ever say you weren't. But he said that's not who you
are now because you have been washed. You've been made clean
in the blood of Christ. And such is the glorious message
of the Gospel. to the people of God. And we
are different, dear brethren, than the world. Oh, in the flesh
sometimes it is hard to tell the difference, but in Christ
there is a stark difference because we have been forgiven by the
mercy of God.