Open your Bibles with me again
if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, passage Brother Eric
read for us a minute ago. The title of the message is A
Brother Wronged. A Brother Wronged. Now you know
the story of this church at Corinth. Despite all the many gifts and
things, knowledge and wisdom and things that they'd been given,
Divisions had come up in this church at Corinth, and apparently
these factions had become so deeply divided, they were really
going to war with one another. They're taking one another to
court, to a court of law, and suing one another. At the beginning
of this chapter, Paul rebukes them for this behavior. And I'll
summarize his rebuke with four statements. Number one, if differences
arise between believers, Those differences should be settled
amongst ourselves, amongst believers, on the basis of love and grace.
Those things shouldn't be taken before the wicked who don't know
anything of love or grace. Taking one another to court before
unbelievers gives unbelievers a chance to blaspheme our Savior,
to blaspheme the gospel that we preach, and to ridicule our
faith. When a brother does do us wrong
in some way, true believers should endure these misunderstandings
and hurt feelings. We should be patient and forgiving
and loving with one another rather than seeking revenge against
our brethren. Now, we're talking about specifically,
I mean, these things, you know, you ought not seek revenge against
anyone, I suppose, but now I'm talking specifically our brother. You're not, don't go seek revenge
against your brother. Third, we should be very careful
not to offend our brother. Yes, believers are supposed to
be forgiving and loving, but don't take advantage of that.
Don't force your brethren to forgive you all the time and
say, well, it doesn't matter what I do, they've got to forgive
me. Well, yeah, they're supposed to forgive you, but don't take
advantage of that now. Be very careful not to offend
your brother. We're supposed to try not to
be offensive, aren't we? When these issues arise, let's
let these things be settled for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Following his example and for
his sake. Not for my sakes or what I think
my rights are, but for Christ's sake. That's kind of the summary
of Paul's rebuke here. So let's look at it in verse
one. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go
to law before the unjust and not before the saints. It's not
condemning the court system or judges or anything like that.
Because of our sin, the judicial system is necessary. I grant
you it's flawed, but it is necessary. And if we're summoned to go to
court or duty or something as believers, we should go and serve.
There's nothing wrong with going to court if you need to to find
yourself in that situation. Paul himself appealed to Caesar's
court. He said, oh, we tried by you
fellas. I'm appealing to Caesar's court. So nothing wrong with
that. But what Paul is talking about
here is two believers, two brothers. They have some sort of disagreement.
The last place those two brothers should ever find themselves is
in a court of law settling their dispute. Paul is condemning that. Two brothers should be able to
settle any differences that arise between themselves. And if they
can't, They should find another brother to settle it for them,
rather than going before a judge in a court of law, who more than
likely is an unsaved man. Now you think about this. Two
brothers taking one another to court. And when they do that,
they break that bond of brotherly love. That's a dysfunctional
family, isn't it? The family of God is not dysfunctional. The body of God is not dysfunctional. Christ is the head. We're his
bride. We're his children, members of
his body. The body of Christ is not dysfunctional. The body of Christ is at peace
and harmony. It always makes me sad to look
in the newspaper and see family members taking one another to
court. Many times they take one another to court over the will,
the will of their parents. And usually these are wealthy
people that got more money than they do since, but still it's
sad. And when we see that happen,
we think less of that family, don't we? We do. That's a dysfunctional
family. And we think, well, they act
that way because they weren't taught any better. We have. Now, we have. We've been taught
better than that. Well, let's act like it. One of the surest
ways I know of to cause permanent hard feelings with anyone, not
just your brother, but anyone, in my work, I've had to sue people
and take people to court. I'm telling you, these people
found out I'm leaving the employment there at that warehouse. They
are dancing the night away. I mean, to this day, they despise
the name of Frank Tate because I took them to court. How much
more so your brother? Boy, now I'm telling you, that
would cause permanent hard feelings. Because what happens when you
take somebody to court? If you're going to go there to
win, You've got to tear that person down. You've got to expose
everything that they did wrong, and you've got to do it publicly.
It's on public record. If you do this with your brother,
what are you doing? Airing your family's dirty laundry.
And when we do that, we bring reproach upon the name of the
Lord that we serve. And Paul should condemn that
kind of behavior. We really, as believers, don't
have the right You know, we Americans are big on our rights, aren't
we? A believer really doesn't have the right to do this. Paul
said, do you dare do this? Do you dare? We don't have that
right as believers, and no believer should want to do this. Now,
verse 2, Paul says, 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? Now, saints aren't going to be
judges of the world in the sense that we're going to sit in the
judgment seat and pronounce judgment on people of the world. Our Lord
said in John 5, 21, the Father judges no man, but if committed
all judgment to the Son, Christ is going to be the judge. But
we will sit beside him. We'll watch him. We'll agree
with his judgment, but we won't take part. Now, believers are
one with Christ. So in that sense, When he judges
the world, we will judge the world. But this is the point.
The point is not that, you know, you get to lord it over people
and you're going to judge them. The point is this. Believers
are given spiritual understanding and spiritual wisdom. And one
day we will reign with Christ. And right at this moment, we're
children of the king. And we ought to have more understanding
than someone who does not know the Lord. So we should be able
to judge the smallest matters, shouldn't we? The smallest matters,
what Paul means are the things of this life that comes up as
opposed to spiritual differences and so forth. When these matters
of this life come up, now you ought to have the wisdom to be
able to handle these things with a little bit of grace and a little
bit of wisdom and some love. We have to go before unbelieving
judges and lawyers to solve our problem. You know what we're
telling them? There are no believers in the church with the wisdom
to take care of this situation So we got to come to the ungodly
to find help. And these men don't know anything
about believers. The basis of their judgment is
always an eye for an eye. The basis of our judgment is
grace and love, mercy. And the unbelieving world doesn't
know a thing about that. But now, by God's grace, we do.
Don't we know something about God's grace? Don't we know something
about love and mercy? Well, we ought to act like it.
Every person in this room, without exception, knows the doctrines
of grace, don't you? You know the doctrines of grace.
Let's pray we know something about an attitude of grace, an
attitude, a spirit of grace. That's what's important. Knowing
the doctrine is important. Don't get me wrong, but now we
must have an attitude, a spirit of grace. Verse 3, Paul goes
on, he says, Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much
more things that pertain to this life. Now the angels that Paul
refers to here are the fallen angels. And they're already under
God's judgment. Now we're not going to deal with
them. We're not going to deal in judgment with Satan or with
the fallen angels any more than we are men. All judgment is committed
to the Son. We've already seen that. But
believers do judge angels and men in this way. We believe the
word of God. They don't. We bow to the will
of God. They don't. We look to Christ
for salvation. They don't. God gives us grace
to act with a little bit of wisdom and some righteousness. They
don't have that. Believers judge angels and judge
the world in this way because of our faith, because of our
way of life, which stands in contrast to them. Now if you
look over in Hebrews chapter 11, I'll show you this. Believers
judge the world and will judge angels in this way, by comparison,
by contrast to our faith and love for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 11, verse 7. By faith Noah, being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an
ark for the saving of his house. By the witch, he condemned the
world. Now, God condemned the world,
didn't he? God sent that blood, but this is by the witch, he
condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which
is by faith. Well, how did Noah condemn the world? By comparison. Nobody else moved with fear.
Nobody else had faith and moved with fear and obeyed God. By
comparison, by contrast to Noah's faith, he judged the world. Now
if the Lord gives us as believers wisdom to know more than these
fallen angels know, who at one time were in the presence of
God himself. These angels at one time were
in the very presence of the Almighty. If God's given us wisdom to know
more than them, shouldn't we have the wisdom to be able to
settle disputes over worldly things that come up amongst our
brethren? Absolutely, we should. We should
have more ability, certainly, than some lawyer who's never
been in the presence of the Lord either in heaven or in the world. You want to have some wisdom,
Bill. Do those things. In verse 4, Paul says, If then
ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge
who are least esteemed in the church. Now, I love the King
James Version, but the King James translation of this verse is
not as clear as it could be. What Paul is saying here, he's
continuing his rebuke along the same line that he's been on.
And he says, you do have cases of everyday life, worldly, fleshly
matters that come up and they have to be decided. Why should
you set these cases before lawyers and judges and people outside
the church when these people don't have any standing in the
church? They don't have any esteem among God's people. They don't
fear God. They don't know God. Now pastors
and elders, they're held in high esteem in God's church. These
men should be able to judge these matters. And what Paul's saying
is even the least believer ought to have more wisdom and understanding
than some judge who does not know the Lord. To be able to
judge them in helping these matters. There has to be a better way
than taking these things to an unbeliever. It has to be a better
way if it's handled inside God's church. amongst brethren, amongst
the family. Any believer who has an understanding
of the Word of God and the way of God must be able to judge
between two brethren better than someone who doesn't know the
Word of God or God's way. Even the least believer understands
that, has an understanding of God's Word and God's way. So
verse 5, Paul says, Now I speak to your shame. Is it so that
there is not a wise man among you No, not one that should be
able to judge between his brethren. Now, you children, don't you
hate it when your mother says you ought to be ashamed of yourself?
I hated that. Maybe your mother never says
that to you. My mom told me that. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
That's what Paul's saying here. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
You all brag about all this knowledge and wisdom and gifts that you
have, yet no one in the church is wise enough to settle these
disputes. If someone had true wisdom, they would be able to
prevent these issues from getting so big in the first place. You
know, if there's a dispute and you bring them before a man you
think is wise and he's able to negotiate a settlement, you know,
in the dispute, what do you think of that man? He's the wisest
man in the room. He's got some wisdom. Well, I'll
tell you who the wisest man in the room is, is the man that's
got the wisdom to stop this issue from getting so big in the first
place. That's the man with some wisdom. That's the man and woman
we ought to pray that God makes us. That we've got the wisdom
and the grace to conduct ourselves in such a way that these molehills
don't become a mountain. That's the wisest man in the
room. In verse 6, Paul says, but, you say you've got all this
wisdom, but, brother, goeth the law with brother, and that before
unbelievers. Now these are spiritual brothers.
Members of the same family. And it's bad enough if two brothers
get in a fight and they can't work something out. And if that
happens, you can't work something out, couldn't you get a third
brother to be an arbitrator and help solve this thing rather
than take them to an outsider? Because remember, if you take
these things to an outsider, you've got to air the family's
dirty laundry. And you're going to bring shame
on the whole family. Because they're going to think
the whole family is just like the two of you. who are fussing
and fighting. That's what they're going to
think. I read in the newspaper these dysfunctional families
taking one another to court. And when I do, I think the whole
family's that way. I read one time about this child
movie star. Took his brother to court because
his brother stole six million dollars from his little brother. Six million dollars! And I thought,
where's this kid's mother? Didn't somebody teach him not
to steal? Didn't somebody teach him to
love his brother? My word. And I really thought
the whole family is this way. From the parents on down. I don't
know anything about any of them except what I read about these
two brothers going to court because one of them stole money from
the other one. We do the same thing if we take these differences
before unbelievers. We claim to be children of the
Prince of Peace, don't we? Then how can we go to war with
one another in court? How can we go to war with one
another just in general? We're children of the Prince
of Peace. And if we do that, we decide I don't want to go
to war with my brother, we show no concern at all for our brother
and no concern at all for the name of Christ. Unbelievers see
that and rightly condemn us. rightly condemn us. Our conduct
before unbelievers is important. Don't think it's not. It's important. Most people, all they see of
the gospel is you. Do you conduct yourself in such
a way that they think I've gotten absolutely no appreciation for
what that man claims to believe? All they see of the gospel is
you. What if a brother really does
do us wrong? And sometimes that's going to
happen. He really does, whether it's intentional or not. How
should we handle this? Well, look at verse 7. 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's your brethren. Now, Paul
said there's utterly a fault. among you. And that word fault
means defect or a loss. He said there's a serious defect
in your character if you find yourself doing this. If you find
yourself doing this, there's something lacking. Something's
been lost somewhere. There's a lack of brotherly love.
There's a lack of wisdom. There's some bad conduct here.
If there weren't some defect, you wouldn't find yourself at
such odds with your brother. I mean, much less going to court
with him. But there's another defect. Apparently, there were
real legal issues here. I mean, they were issues that
a court of law is designed to handle. They really were defrauding
one another somehow. And that is not the way a believer
conducts himself with anybody. A believer conducts himself with
honesty and integrity with everyone with whom he does business. And
brethren who love each other Now, they're going to suffer
the wrong. They're just going to take care of the matter within
the church or do something rather than expose their brother by
fighting with him in open court. And if not, there's a defect
in our love. Now, I know that's against human
nature, but it really is better to be defrauded personally than
to cause a rift in the family of God, to cause a rift in the
unity and love of our brethren. And it's better to be personally
defrauded and suffer loss than to bring reproach upon the name
of our Savior. I can't stress that enough. Look
over in Proverbs chapter 18. Going to court with your brother
will probably cause permanent damage, permanent harm. It really will take a miracle
of the Lord to fix it. Proverbs 18. Verse 19. A brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city, and their contentions are like
the bars of a castle. It's hard. You can't go back. It just those
hurt feelings are too deep and they're just you can't go back.
So when this issue comes up, if something like this comes
up now, talk it out in grace. and love and mercy while you
pray for wisdom. Don't let there be a rift in
the family of God on your account. Now, suppose we defraud our brother
some way. We just get one over on him and
he's upset about it, but we just out mean him and he backs off
to keep the peace. Well, I won. I got one. No, I
didn't either. No, I didn't win at all. I lost. We defrauded, Paul says,
not just our brother. We did defraud our brother, but
more than that, we defrauded ourselves. Because what we did
is we defrauded our brother, who's also a member of the body
of Christ. We defrauded the very body of
Christ that we're a member of. We didn't win. If you take your
brother to court, you win a great big settlement against him. You
got a bunch of money from him. We didn't win. We lost. Because we defrauded the family
of God, the body of Christ. You just remember this. Whatever
you do to your brother. You are doing to the Lord himself.
You really want to hurt your brother and think he got away
with it, you want to strike your brother and hurt him just because
it makes you feel better, do you? Just remember, if you do
that, what you do to your brother. you're doing to the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. Would our Lord say in Matthew
25, as much as you did it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, you've done it unto me. We serve the Lord by serving
his people. If I desire to serve the Lord,
I do it by serving you. You're the body of Christ. And
if I do harm to you, I've harmed the Lord himself because you're
his body. Now, just remember that. Now,
that's some instruction on this matter. But now, here's the blessing. Here's the blessing. Suppose
a brother did me wrong. And he really did. He did me
wrong. Whether it was on purpose or not, he did me wrong. He caused
me to lose a lot of money, say. And legally, he's required to
pay it back. He's got to pay it back with
principle plus pain and suffering. And I'm willing to go to court
to force him to pay back what legally belongs to me. Our brother
lied about me. He ruined my reputation out in
the community, and I'm going to sue him. I'm going to sue
him for libel and slander, and I'm just going to go get him,
because he really caused me to suffer wrong. If you ever find
yourself thinking that, I hope you remember this illustration.
When I was a boy, my dad taught me to play checkers. And we'd
be playing checkers. And I'd make a move. And it was
a bad move. I might move right where he could
triple jump me or something. And he'd say, sure you want to
do that? And I learned quickly to say,
nope, didn't mean to do that. Because if he said, are you sure
you want to do that? Even if I didn't understand why
I didn't want to do that, I knew I didn't. Because he said, are
you sure you want to do that? Before you hold a grudge against
your brother, Let me ask you, are you sure you want to do that? Before you keep bringing up something
in the past that your brother did to hurt you, let me ask you,
are you sure you want to do that? Before you hold someone's feet
to the fire to make them do what they really should do to make
you feel better, let me ask you, are you sure you want to do that?
Before you refuse to go apologize and make it right with your brother,
you think to yourself, Am I sure I want to do that? Am I sure?
Look at verse 15 here in our text at 1 Corinthians 6. Know
ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot?
God forbid. Now, you know what that verse
means. It doesn't do any harm to that
verse to apply this to what we're talking about. Do you really
want to take the body of Christ and go harm your brother? Do
you really? Are you sure you want to do that?
Is there anything more contrary to grace than that? If we do
that, it seems like we forget what Paul wrote here at the end
of verse 19. You're not your own, for you've been bought with
a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now don't forget that.
Now look over at 1 Peter chapter 2. I've been looking at this over
the past few days. If this doesn't break your heart,
nothing will. 1 Peter 2, verse 19. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? But if,
when you do well and suffer for it, and you take it patiently,
this is acceptable with God. Now, if your brother does something
that's unjust to you, Scripture says, bear it patiently. Cover
your brother's sin with love. Doing that is pleasing to your
Heavenly Father. And here's the key. All these
other things that I've said to you are just good advice. It won't mean anything to you
unless you understand what I'm about to say. I've preached all
up to this point to say this. This is the message. Isn't that
what the Lord did for his people? Isn't it? If Christ would suffer
and die to redeem us, don't we want to follow his example? Yes,
if he died for us, we do. Look at verse 21. For even here
unto were you called because Christ also suffered for us.
Leaving us an example that he should follow his steps, who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
hauled into court, it was on Trump charges, wasn't it? And
our Redeemer never one time defended himself, never. He never tried
to accuse his accusers. He never tried to tear down his
accusers, even though they deserved it. And he never one time blistered
his disciples who all ran off and left him. Never did it, did
he? They defrauded him. Never one
time did he blister them over it. Now you imagine that. This
is what the Savior did for his people. Day on his lesson Sunday
said, think on these things. Think on these things. Think
upon what the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, what he suffered
for his people. Now look at verse 24, who his
own self bear not his sins, bear our sins in his own body on the
tree that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness
by whose stripes you were healed. Now our Lord took our sin. That means He actually became
guilty of every sin His people ever committed. Our Lord never
one time opened His mouth to defend Himself. You know why?
Because every accusation they hurled at Him was true. It was true because I did it. And He took my sin. And He never
defended Himself. He bore the sins of His people
to bring us to God. He bore the iniquity of our sins
because He loves His people and He would have them to be His.
He would have them to be made like He is. And when our Lord
suffered for our sins, He suffered for our sins that were against
Him. Every one of our sins is against
God, against His Son. That's who our sin is against.
You want to talk about a brother offended? Look at our Lord. Oh, He's a brother offended.
And He suffered for those sins so that He would heal our souls. I don't know that we can understand
how diseased and how defiled with sin our souls are. Yet because
the Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of His people, We're made
holy and righteous by a thrice-holy God. Think on these things. A brother offended. Can't we
bear some small injustices from our brethren in order to keep
peace and unity when we think about what our big brother did,
what our Savior did for us? The Savior bore my sins that
were against Him. He bore them patiently. He bore
those things with His mouth shut. And then He forgave me all my
sin. Eternity will not be long enough
to get over that. Ever. He took all of my sin against
Him. Suffered for it. Suffered the
penalty of the law for it. Suffered everything that I am
against Him and forgave me all my sin. You think I should have learned
by now a little bit about graciousness? A little bit about forgiveness?
From the amazing grace and the forgiveness that my Lord showed
He saved a wretch like me? I ought to. I ought to know something
about showing grace and forgiveness to others. Because of the grace
and forgiveness The Lord showed me. And if I find myself in a situation,
I've offended one of you, if I've offended Ralph, it ought
to be easy for me to say, Ralph, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Would
you forgive me? I'm so sorry. Will you forgive
me? We ought to have a lot of practice
with that phrase. If you don't, start making use
of it. I use that phrase. repeatedly
every single day in prayer. Father, forgive me. I'm ashamed. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I ought to have practice with
that phrase so that if it's necessary to apologize to you, I got that
phrase. It'll just roll off my tongue.
I'm sorry. Would you forgive me? Isn't that what the Lord did
for his people? took our sin against him and
forgave us all of our sin, all of our iniquity by sacrificing
himself for us. The Lord followed his steps.
All right. Well, I hope the Lord blessed
that to you.