I've entitled this message, 1
Corinthians 5. They're not any easy chapters
to preach from, but this is not an easy chapter to preach from. And I covet your prayers. And
once again, this is why we preach through books. So we cover every
passage of Scripture in the Word of God. But I repeat, this passage
of Scripture is not an easy passage to preach from. I want us to
look at the whole chapter and perhaps in a couple of weeks
look at some individual verses out of this chapter. Paul switches
gears at this time and he says to this church in verse one,
it's reported commonly. This is common knowledge. This
is something that everyone is aware of. that there is fornication
among you. And such fornication is not so
much as named among the Gentiles. They would find this abhorrent
that one should have his father's wife. In this church there was
a man cohabiting with his father's wife living in a state of fornication. That is what was going on. Fornication is any kind of sex
outside of the marriage covenant. God made this intimate act of
a man and a woman married to one another, and it speaks of
His goodness. God made this, and it's also
given to typify the union between Christ and His church, when the
two shall become one flesh. And Paul said, I speak concerning
Christ and the church. But how men have perverted this
sexual Sin is so destructive on so many levels. It ruins so
many homes. It causes so many problems in
our society. Look over in 1 Corinthians 6,
just a page over, verse 16. What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to an 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 committed fornication sinneth
against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have
of God? And you are not your own, for
you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit. which are gods. Now, notice he
spoke of joining yourself with a harlot. Corinth was a town
that was quite famous for sexual immorality. As a matter of fact,
when people wanted to describe something particularly evil and
debauched, they'd say it's Corinthianized. It was a very debauched place
And it had a temple where a part of the worship service was sex. And there were 1,000 prostitutes
that people would go in for their religious services. This act
was involved. Fornication was not wrong to
them. They grew up with it as far as the way they thought.
That's just the way they did. Now Paul says what's going on
in your midst is even abhorrent to the Gentiles. They would know
that this is wrong, that a man is actually living in a sinful
condition with his dad's wife. Why the Gentiles wouldn't accept
this and it's going on in your midst. And look what he says
in verse two, and you are puffed up. This doesn't bother you. You're so inflated with your
views of yourself and you've not rather mourned that he that
had done this deed might be taken away from you. You're not grieved. over the reproach this brings
on the gospel. You have some kind of view of
yourself, I suppose, that you think, well, we're real non-judgmental
and unaccepting and so on, and we're got a judgmental spirit
that practices charity, some kind of rationalization that
made them think this is okay. And Paul said you should be mourning
over this and desiring that this person be removed from You're
mixed. He says your attitude is wrong
about this. He's rebuking the church of Corinth
over their toleration of this, their tolerant attitude toward
this kind of thing. Now, before I read verse three,
I want to remind you that the apostles had apostolic authority. When Ananias and Sapphira come
in, having lied, Peter pronounces their death and they both die. What about Paul in 1 Timothy
chapter 1 verse, I think it's at the end of the chapter, he
says, I've delivered Hymenaeus and Philetus to Satan that they
might learn not to blaspheme. Now, what does that mean? It
doesn't sound good, does it? They had this apostolic authority. You can read in Acts chapter
13, where there was a false prophet, a Liamus, and Paul blinded him. Men don't have that power today,
and I'm glad they don't. I suppose you ought to be glad
I don't. But I wouldn't want to be around somebody that had
that kind of power, because I know what would end up happening with
it. But Paul had that power. As a matter of fact, look up
in verse 21 of chapter 4. What will ye, shall I come to
you with a rod? Or in love and the spirit of
meekness. Now he's saying I can come with this apostolic authority
and do something about it and he could. And so with regard
to this person, look what he says in verse three. This was
his judgment. He's telling the church to make
this and he's made this judgment already. For I verily as absent
in body and present in spirit have judged already. as though
I were present concerning him that done this deed. In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my
spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm right
there with you to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the
Lord Jesus. Now, what does that mean to deliver
this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? I really don't
know what all it means, but I know it doesn't sound good. And I, as we're going to go on
looking in this passage of scripture, this does not mean let's have
a church meeting and call this person out publicly and excommunicate
them and get rid of them and exercise church discipline on
them and keep them from taking the Lord's table. That is the
way many people use this passage of scripture. That's not the
way it should be used. Paul is making his judgment regarding
this man. What does it mean to deliver
him to Satan? I don't know. Really, I don't
want to know. I'm glad it's here. It's inspired.
It's part of the word of God. But I know this, it ended up
having a positive effect on this fella. Now, does this mean they
brought him up and publicly humiliated him and exercised church discipline
on him and told him to leave? I never will forget one time
I was There was a fellow that came here for several months
from Louisville, and he was just here working on the job for some
reason, and he had to go back to Louisville later. But I saw
his pastor in a meeting later on, and I said, how's old so-and-so? I named his name. He said, he's
under discipline right now. Understand it's not punitive,
it's restorative. I said, oh. Oh, I didn't know
what to say. But that's not what this is talking
about. As a matter of fact, real quick
turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Paul
is saying pretty much the same thing. 14, and if any man obey not our word
by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him,
that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother. Now, what does that mean? Does
that mean have a meeting and don't let him take the Lord's
table? and publicly humiliate him. Everybody get together and
say, shame on you. You're a reproach to the church.
That's not what it's saying at all. It's saying, stay away from
him. Don't have him into your home.
Don't go out to eat with him. Don't put your approval on this
action that he may be ashamed. Now, how many times have you
said something And you could tell by the people's
response, they didn't like it and they just walked away. Or
maybe changed the subject and you were left with your words
and you were ashamed of yourself. Now that's if somebody is a believer.
Now an unbeliever may not feel this way. He may rebel completely,
but if somebody is a believer and other believers treat him
in that manner, He will be ashamed of himself. He will say, something's
wrong with my calling. I'm wrong. And that's what he's
saying. If somebody is carrying on like this, like this, don't
have this fellow in your home. Don't have him over there because
what you're saying is I'm okay with what you're doing. Now, turn to 2 Corinthians 2
for a moment. Look what Paul says about this
man. Verse four, for out of much affliction and
anguish of heart have I wrote unto you with many tears. He's
talking about this epistle that he was so troubled that he had
to say these things. Do you think he wanted to say
this about this man? Do you think he wanted to make
this? No, it troubled him and grieved him greatly that he had
to do something like this. For out of much affliction and
anguish of heart have I wrote unto you with many tears, not
that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love
which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused
grief, heeth not grieve me, but impart that I may not overcharge
you all sufficient, and to such a man is the punishment which
was inflicted of many." Now that's not talking about because of
this big church discipline committee they had and they said, this
man's... No, they just stayed away from him and it hit this
man, it hit him right in the face and it brought him to be
sorry over what he did. Look, sufficient to such a man
as the punishment, which was inflicted of many. So the contrary
wise, you want rather to forgive him and comfort him. lest perhaps
such and one would be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, wherefore
I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him."
This is that man he was talking about. This had a salutary effect
on him. And he said, don't keep holding
him off. Comfort him. Tell him you love
him. Be understanding toward that
man. Now, once again, This is not
talking about having a church tribunal where everybody gets
up and kicks the guy out. You know, with regard to being
thrown out of church, you need to be thrown out. You know what
my attitude ought to be? If anybody needs to be thrown
out of the church, I'm the one that needs to be thrown out of
the church. Every one of us ought to have that attitude, not this
thing of censoring people and trying to, but Paul, love this
church and he didn't want this going on. Now let's go on reading
back to our text in first Corinthians five verse six. Your glorying is not
good. Your inflated view of yourself
being so puffed up is not good. Don't you know that a little
leaven leavens the whole lump? Now what Paul is saying to these
people is they had rationalized that they had such a charitable,
nonjudgmental attitude that they were okay with this guy living
like this. And that's what he's rebuking
them for at this time. He says your glorying is not
good. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. Now that's one of two times that's said in the New Testament.
Paul said it in Galatians chapter five, where he said, know ye
not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? You put one work
in salvation and it leavens its way throughout it all and goes
through the whole batch. And here he's saying to them,
and this little leaven that you're allowing leavens the whole lump. Now, sin has such a leavening
effect like yeast working its way through the whole batch of
dough and making this rise. What is leavened bread? Well,
it's bread that's swollen, that's rising. That's what the leaven
is. Remember in the Passover, you
couldn't have leavened bread. It had to be flat bread. And
when we take the Lord's table, we use leavened bread. It doesn't
have any rise. We're gonna talk more about this
in just a second. Let's go on reading verse seven. Verse six. Your glory is not good. Know
ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Verse seven. Purge out therefore the old leaven
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened for even Christ
our Passover was sacrificed for us. In the Passover, All leaven was
to be removed from the house. You couldn't keep the Passover
even with leaven bread in your house. I think it's almost interesting. He talks about them being puffed
up. Leaven bread is puffed up bread, is what it is. It's a
lot of air to it. It's fluffy. It's puffed up. And that was to be taken out
of the house. You couldn't have that. In the
house, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even
as Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us, Christ, our Passover.
Now turn to Exodus chapter 12. You know, I love it. Even when
Paul is dealing with what is obviously a very difficult situation.
Uh, he goes straight to the gospel. Look in Exodus chapter 12. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Verse one, and the Lord spake
unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month,
when you're delivered by me through the Passover, this month shall
be unto you the beginning of months. Now, I think this is
glorious. The calendar is changed for the
Passover. and spiritual life does not begin
until I understand and am relying on what the Passover has to say. That's so significant. The calendar
is changed for the Passover. Verse three, speak ye unto all
the congregation of Israel, saying, in the 10th day of this month,
they shall take to them every man a lamp, according to the
house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household
be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next into
his house, take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make you count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish." That speaks of the sinlessness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never sinned. in thought, in word, in deed,
in motive, he never sinned. A male of the first year in his prime, you should take it
out from the sheep or from the goats and you should keep it,
you wash it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Now, 14. Why 14 days? Why not
15? Why not 13? Fourteens, two sevens. Seven stands in the scripture
for perfection and completion. Two sevens. This speaks of the
two natures of Jesus Christ. He is 100% God, holy God, perfect
God, complete God. He's 100% man, the man Christ
Jesus. He's not half God and half man.
He's holy God and holy man, the two natures of Christ. I think
it's interesting. Somebody says, well, I don't
see two natures in a believer. Well, Christ had two natures,
didn't he? Two separate natures. His nature as God and His nature
of perfect humanity. And watch it 14 days. This speaks of who the Lamb is. Perfect God, holy God, and perfect
holy man. Now, let's go on reading. You shall keep it until the 14th
day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation
shall what? Kill it. in the evening. This speaks of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now why did he die? The wages of sin is death. He literally bore my sin in his
own body on the tree. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Verse 7, and they shall take
of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the
upper door posts of the house, wherewith they shall eat it.
And they shall eat the flesh, and that night roast with fire,
Christ crucified, roasted under the wrath of God. And unleavened bread, not swollen
bread, but unleavened bread with bitter herbs, the bitterness
of sin, they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, it's Christ
crucified. Nor sodden at all with water,
watered down, all the nutrients taken out, but roast with fire,
his head with his legs with the pertinence thereof. And you shall
let nothing of it remain into the morning. You're to eat all
of it. Every doctrine of the gospel
is to be believed and received. There's nothing that's unimportant
in the gospel. You're to eat all of it. His
head with his legs, with the pertinence thereof, and you shall
let nothing of it remain into the morning, and that which remaineth
of it into the morning, you shall burn it with fire. And thus shall
you eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, in a
traveling posture. This world is not your home.
And your staff is in your hand, and you shall eat it with haste. It's the Lord's Passover. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. And I love the way he says to
eat it in haste. Believe on Christ, right now. Don't wait for anything. Don't
wait till you get better. Don't wait till you improve something.
Don't wait until you get your life straightened out. Don't
wait for anything. The time for you and I to believe
on Christ is right now and do so in haste. And look what he
says next in verse 12. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast, against all the gods of Egypt,
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
here's the promise of the gospel, when I see the blood. Not when
you see it. What was he looking for? Not
when I see your faith. Not when I see your repentance.
Not when I see your sincerity. Not when I see your reform. when
I see the blood. That's the one thing God was
looking for. Nothing else. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And that, my dear friends, is
the gospel. God says, when I see the blood, that's all he's looking
for. And that's all that's needed. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Now go back to our text, 1 Corinthians 5. Purge out there for the old leaven
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. even as Christ our Passover is
sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast.
Now, he's not talking about literally keeping the feast, but spiritually
keeping the feast by faith in Christ. He's not calling upon
them to slay a lamb again and eat the lamb again. He's talking
about believing the gospel. Therefore, let us keep the feast,
not with the old leavened swollen views of yourself, neither with
the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. Joshua said before he died, now
therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and
put away the God your father served on the other side of the
flood. Now if I hold on to false gods and false gospels, all I
prove by that is I'm not sincere and I don't have the truth. He
said, serve the Lord with sincerity and with truth. Sincerity, perhaps the best way
to define it is to think about what insincerity is. You know
what insincerity is. When somebody says something,
they don't mean it. They're using those words to
manipulate the situation. It's not real. It's not genuine. It's disingenuous. It's not sincere. And there's nothing more irritating
than being around somebody when you know they're being insincere.
They're trying to use you. They're trying to manipulate
the situation to get something that they want. Now, let me tell
you where sincerity is found, where there's true sincerity.
He said, sincerity and truth. When the truth is not believed,
I don't believe that person's sincere. I don't care what they
say. You can't separate sincerity and truth, the truth of the gospel. Listen to this scripture, 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13. We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. You can't separate the two. Where
you have the sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit, here's
the evidence, the belief of the truth, the truth of who God is.
Where you have someone believing the truth, it's because he's
been sanctified by the spirit of the living God. The unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you, verse 9, I
wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators.
Now, he's picking up where he started in verse 1. Evidently,
he wrote an epistle to the church at Corinth before this, and we
don't have a copy of that. In God's providence, no one's
ever seen that. But he's talking about this epistle
he wrote to them this one time. I wrote unto you. an epistle,
not to keep company with fornicators." Now, he's not talking about unbelievers. He's talking about men in the
church because that was such a problem there because that's what they
grew up with. This temple worship where that's all they did and
people were okay with it evidently. And he was saying, no, it's not
okay. Yet, verse 10, yet I'm not talking about with fornicators
of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters,
for then must ye needs go out of the world." Now he's saying,
I'm not saying don't have anything to do with people who are unbelievers
that would be called this. If you had a restaurant and somebody
came in and you knew they were a foreign caterer, you'd say,
I'm gonna serve you. You're a foreign caterer. Or
somebody comes in, It's an Armenian. You're not getting any of my
food. You're a freewheeler. I'm not going to give you anything.
Or someone comes in, it's a homosexual, and you say, well, I'm not going
to serve you. You can't come in here. If you have that kind
of attitude, go ahead and leave the world. the people you're
gonna be around constantly, nonstop. He said, I'm not saying treat
these people in this holier-than-thou way. Oh, you're a fornicator.
You're a, you know, he said, don't show that kind of attitude
because all that is is an offensive, self-righteous, holier-than-thou
attitude. Don't treat anyone like that.
As far as that goes, don't make someone that's an unbeliever
feel judged by you. Don't do that. Be gracious. Don't make them think, well,
I don't even deserve to be around those people. No, don't be that
way. You know, sinners felt comfortable around the Lord. Immoral people
felt comfortable around the Lord. He was called the friend of publicans
and sinners. And I want us to have that attitude,
don't you? I want people to feel that way around me. He's saying,
I'm not saying treat unbelievers like this. yet not, verse 10,
yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with covetous
or extortioners or with idolaters, for then must need you go out
of the world. If you're going to adopt that attitude toward
them, kill yourself because you're going to have to go out of the
world because as long as you're in the world, you're going to
have to deal with this. But now, verse 11, I've 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, know not to
eat. Now, people have used this to
say, you shouldn't take the Lord's table. This person, I'm putting
them under discipline, they don't get to take the Lord's table. Paul is saying, with such a one
know not to eat. Now, what's that mean? And here's why I want to ask
this question. Is there any one of those sins that probably you
have not committed in the last 24 hours in your heart, in your
mind? You see, you have an evil nature
that's just as evil as it was before God ever saved you. And
it's there, it's going to be there until you die. But what Paul is saying is, now,
while we still have an evil nature, we have a new man too, a new
nature. And if somebody would use their
old nature as an excuse to just go ahead and let it go. I can
live in the continual commission of these sins. It doesn't bother
me. I'm okay with this. This is fine. Salvation is by
grace. Stay away from that fellow. Stay
away from him. Don't eat with him. Don't act
like this kind of way of life is okay. We do have this evil nature,
there's no doubt about it. But we've got a new nature too,
and sin is never okay under any circumstance, to any degree. And that's the case, and that's
what he's saying. If someone says, I don't need
to worry about my conduct, salvation's by grace, I can live in the commission
of these sins continually, it doesn't bother me. Paul says, stay away from them.
Don't eat with them. Don't have them in your home
and do this not out of a holier than thou morally superior attitude. You want this to have a good
effect for them. And it did for this guy, as we
read about in second Corinthians chapter two. Isn't this being judgmental toward
people? No. You know that you can easily
do all of this, but this is the man who believes it's okay to
live like this. No, it's not. It brings reproach
on the gospel. And we don't want to do that.
Verse 12, for what have I to do to judge them also that are
without? Do you need to, do you need to,
we need to stand out against the sin in society. We need to,
we need to fight against the sin in society. Preach the gospel. That's what you need to do. Not
try to expose everybody's sin and so on. You know, I think
it's interesting. Paul didn't deal with the sin of society.
He said, leave them alone. He said, God will judge them.
God will take care of it. You don't need to worry about
it. And that's what he's saying right here. He says, for what
have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not you
judge them that are within, but them that are without God judges.
You see, no sin is going to go unpunished. God's gonna take
care of everything, but you don't need to take care of it. You
don't need to try to straighten up society. You know, we're not
trying to save the world. We're trying to preach the gospel.
That's all. I've determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's our desire, is to do that. Not to straighten out everybody's
moral problems. But them that are without, God
judgeth. Therefore put away from among
yourselves that wicked person. Now I think it's interesting,
in the original, person's not there. Put away from yourselves
wickedness. Let me repeat, this is not about
a church meeting, everybody agreeing to excommunicate somebody and
get them out of their midst. If that's my attitude, he that's
without sin among you, let him throw the first stone. This is about, you're not, and
don't even, I'm gonna get together with some of you over here. We
need to avoid this guy. We need to avoid this woman. No, just
do it. Don't talk about it. Don't talk
about it between yourselves. Don't think about what you need
to do. So-and-so needs to do it. No, avoid them. Mark him,
avoid him. And thank the Lord this had a
good effect upon this man. And it brought him to repentance. And he was ashamed of himself. And of course, the old Corinthians,
they're saying, well, you need to save. They had evidently agreed
to, let's don't forgive him. He's horrible. Look what he's
done. And Paul said, don't do that. Don't let him be swallowed
up with overmuch sorrow, but rather forgive him. Galatians
chapter six, this is what we're gonna close with. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, don't you know how easily that
could happen to you? and how it will happen to you
apart from the grace of God, and how easily it will happen
to you, and how easily you can be entrapped by any temptation
and any trial. Listen, the reason the Lord told
us to pray that we might not be tempted is because if we're
tempted, what's gonna happen? I'm asking the Lord that I be
not tempted. Deliver us from evil. Lead us
not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. If I'm
tempted, I know what direction it'll take. So let me not be
tempted. Put a hedge about me. Put blinders around me. Make
it to where I can't even see. Now, if a man be overtaken in
a fault, you ought to be very sensitive. I ought to be very
sensitive of how easily this can take place. I hate it when
people say, would believers do that? Yeah. That's the dumbest
question we can ask. If you knew yourself, you wouldn't
ask a question like that. Do believers do that? Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, I love this, you which are spiritual. You know
what that means? Exactly what it says. Somebody
says, I'm spiritual. I got a spiritual, I hate the
way people use that. You know, I'm a spiritual person.
I'm not materialistic. I'm real, you know, no, you're
not spirit. The only people that are spiritual, people who have
the Holy Spirit, who have been born of the Spirit of God. They're
the only people that are spiritual. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
you which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of
meekness, considering yourself, lest thou also be tempted. If you were tempted like he was,
you'd fall like he did. You believe that? If you were
tempted like he was, you'd fall like he did. Bear ye one another's burdens. Is your sin a burden to you? It's a burden to your brother
too. Bear one another's burdens. Put up with one another. Forgive
one another. Bear ye one another's burdens. And so fulfill the law. of Christ. This is his law. For if a man think himself to
be something, when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, not
in another, for every man shall bear his own burden. Well, I
hope that's been helpful. That's a difficult passage to
preach from. Chapter six is too. So pray for
me when we look at chapter six as well. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might not
be tempted. You told us to pray that lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And Lord, we ask
that we might not be tempted. We ask that you would give us
wisdom. We ask that you would give us
a gracious attitude. We ask that you would enable
us to do all things for your glory. And Lord, we pray that
none of us would be conducting ourselves in a way that would
cause the brethren to have to not eat with us. Lord, deliver us from that. Lord,
we know it would happen apart from your grace, but we ask that
you would deliver us from that. Bless this word for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.