to read the first 13 verses of
Acts chapter 5. But a certain man named Ananias,
with Sapphira his wife, sold the possession and kept back
part of the price, his wife also being privy to it and brought
a certain part. and laid it at the apostles'
feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price
of the land? While it remained, was it not
thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God." And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave
up the ghost. And great fear came on all them
that heard these things. Now, can you imagine the atmosphere? I can understand why great fear
came upon them. It would scare me, too. Verse
6, And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out,
and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after,
when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter
answered unto her, Tell me, whether ye sold the land for so much?
And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How
is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which
buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
And then she fell down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the
ghost. And the young men came in and
found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her
husband. And great fear came upon all the church, And upon
as many as heard these things, now put yourself in these people's
place. I'd be scared to go to that church.
Would you? I'd be afraid. Verse 12, And
by the hands of the apostles, where many signs and wonders
wrought among the people, they were all with one accord in Solomon's
porch. And of the rest, dares no man
join himself to them. Now here was a church, they were
afraid to join. I understand them being afraid
to join, don't you? They were afraid to join. And the people
magnified them. Lord, we wait on you to speak
to us. For Christ's sake, in his name
we pray. Amen. He giveth more grace when the
burdens grow greater, and addeth more strength When the labors
increased to added affliction, He added His mercies to multiplied
trials, His multiplied peace. His grace has no limit, His mercy
no measure, His power has no boundaries known unto man. For out of His infinite love,
In Christ she thought, she giveth and giveth and giveth again. Our God is far greater than words
can make known. Exalted and holy, He reigns on
His throne. He guides the great galaxy, spinning
through space. Yet He sent the Lord Jesus And
the gift of His grace, His power is great. and will ever endure. His wisdom is peaceable, gentle,
and pure. But greater than all of these
glories, I see, is the glorious promise that He cares for me. His grace has no limit, His mercy
no measure, And His power has no boundaries known. unto men. For out of His infinite love
in Christ Jesus He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again. OK, would you turn to First Corinthians
chapter five? I read that passage from Acts
chapter five. Ananias and Sapphira, and what
were they guilty of doing? They sold a piece of property
for so much money. And they lied about how much
they sold it for, and they told the church that they were giving
all their money. Now, they weren't required to
give all their money. They weren't required to give
any of it. But they said, we're giving it all. It was a lie. Peter said, you've lied to the
Holy Spirit. And both of those people, God
killed them. And this really took place. This
is not just some fairy tale. This really took place. And the
scripture points out that great fear came upon the church. And I understand that. I mean,
I would, I'll be honest with you. I'd be uncomfortable. I'd
be, I'd be scared. Wouldn't you? I'd be scared to
make a move. I can understand why great fear came upon them. And it was a church that people were
actually afraid to join. No man dared join himself to
them. I understand that. Now, I want
to ask you a question, and I want to ask myself a question. Are
you afraid of sin? Are you afraid of sin? Are you and I, and I'm primarily
asking myself this question. Are you afraid of sin? Now, I think that a very relative
question at this time is we're going to get to 1 Corinthians
chapter five in a moment, but a very relevant question at this
time is what is sin? If I'm asking, are we afraid
of sin? What is sin? Well, there is such
a thing. And what it is, is not determined
by our culture. It's not determined by what the
majority thinks. It's not determined by relativity.
The Word of God gives very clear definitions of what sin is. Let me give you six definitions
from the Word of God regarding what sin is. First, we read in
Romans chapter three, verse twenty three, that it is coming short
of the glory of God. Anything that falls short of
the absolute glory of God is sin. And then we read in 1 John
3, verse 4, that sin is the transgression of the law. Now, he's referring
to what are known as the Ten Commandments. Sin is the transgression
of the law. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me, God said. There's the first commandment.
To transgress that is to sin. The second commandment is against
idolatry. Any false imagination of God
is sin. The third commandment is with
respect to revering His name, not taking His name in vain.
Anytime I take His name in vain, if I speak His blessed name just
conversationally, casually, without fear and trembling, I'm taking
His name in vain. That's sin. Then there's the
law regarding the Sabbath day, breaking the Sabbath, and that's
Saturday. It never was changed to Sunday. It's Saturday, and
it represents resting in Christ. The fifth commandment is honoring
your father and mother. It has to do with a true respect
for all authority. Thou shalt not kill, not only
physically, but even to get mad at somebody without a cause,
to be envious of them. To be jealous of them, to murder
their character is to kill them. Thou shalt not commit adultery,
not physically, no, not in your heart. Our Lord said to commit
adultery in your heart, to lust after a woman in your heart or
a man is to commit adultery. It's to be guilty of breaking
that commandment. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not lie. Thou shalt not covet. You'll
be satisfied with everything God gives you. Now, sin is the
transgression of the law. James said, ìTo him that knoweth
to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.î Then we read
in Romans 14, verse 23, ìWhatsoever is not of faith is sin.î Whatever is contrary to simple
faith in Christ, whatever is contrary to the faith. It's seeing. Proverbs, Chapter 24, verse nine,
deals with seeing not so much what we do is even what we think
the thought of foolishness. You see, just the thought of
foolishness, you don't have to do anything, the thought of foolishness
and sin, and this one's the kicker to me, Proverbs 21 for. The plowing
of the wicked is sin. Now, plowing, there's nothing
wrong with plowing in and of itself, but if a wicked man does
it, that makes it sin. What that tells us is that sin
is a nature. If I do it, that makes it sin. Sin. There is such a thing as
sin. How afraid are you and I of sin? Look in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. Paul is rebuking the church at
Corinth now over their attitude toward sin. They pretty much through their
pride had become okay with what was taking place. Look what he
says in verse 1. It's reported commonly that there
is fornication among you. This is common knowledge, everybody
knows about it, sexual sin and such fornication as is not as
so much named among the Gentiles that one should take his wife. Now, this is something that even
the heathen are repulsed by, that what he's talking about
is a man getting with his stepmother. I don't know if she was divorced
from her husband. I don't know what happened. But
at any rate, some man in the church had actually married.
That's that's what this refers to. He actually married his stepmother. It was sexual sin. It was incest. It's forbidden clearly in Leviticus
chapter 18, verse eight, but on both counts. But what Paul
is rebuking this church about is he says, you're OK with it.
It's reported commonly That there's fornication among you, and it's
a scandalous type of thing. The Gentiles don't even have
anything to do with it. And he says in verse two, you're
puffed up. And had not rather mourned that he that had done
this deed might be taken away from you. Here's what bothered
Paul the most. He said, you're OK with this.
You're saying, hey, salvation is by grace. It doesn't really
matter. It's not that big a deal. They overlooked. They tolerated
this rather than mourning over it and praying that that person
would be removed from their midst. That's pretty intense language,
isn't it? Look what he says in verse two. He says, you're puffed
up and you've got rather mourned that he that had done this deed
might be taken away from your midst. Boy, I don't want anybody
praying that the Lord would take me away, do you? But he's telling
these people at this time, you should be praying that the Lord
would take this person away. You ought to be mourning out
with regard to sin. I tried to talk about what it
is, and if you have any honesty at all. You know. That you are a sinner. You don't have any trouble with
that, do you? If you have any honesty at all,
you know that's the case regarding you. How we need is grace. I mean, all I got to do is...
So when we're talking about this mourning over sin, even ourselves,
we're not talking about somebody looking down their nose at somebody.
Somebody feeling an air of moral superiority over somebody. I
mean, that attitude is sin itself. That's not what Paul's talking
about, but he says you should be mourning over this. And you
know, didn't the Lord say, blessed are they that mourn? What do
you mourn over? I mourn over my personal sin.
Before God, I mourn over my sin. I know exactly what David meant
when he said, my sin is ever before me. It's always there. I'm always
aware of it. And if somebody's thinking, well,
what are you doing? You just missed it. it all together. If you had any understanding
of your own heart, you wouldn't even ask a question like that.
As a matter of fact, you wouldn't be thinking about me. You'd be
thinking about yourself. Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted. We mourn over the sin of others,
the sin that brings reproach on the gospel and so on. But
Paul says to the church at Corinth, and this church was messed up.
Now, he'd been talking about divisions for the first four
chapters and he's now switching gears here when he talks about
this other issue where it's reported commonly that there is fornication
among you and he says you're puffed up, you have an inflated
view of yourself that makes you not afraid of sin. Kind of like
when somebody loses their respect for power tools. What happens
when somebody loses their respect for power tools? They get their
fingers cut off. It's pride, Paul says, and self-righteousness
that prevents us from seeing sin as it is. And Paul says you
should be so horrified that you pray that this person would be
taken away from you. Now, that's scary, isn't it?
Turn over to John 15, though. Look what our Lord says here
in John chapter 15. Verse 1, I am the true vine,
and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. Now, what all does that mean?
I'll be honest with you, I don't know, but it don't sound good,
does it? Every branch that beareth not fruit, he takes it away.
Does that mean he kills them? I don't know. I know this, that
if I am truly in Christ, I will bear fruit. I know that. If I'm
truly in Christ, I'll bear fruit, because I have God the Holy Spirit
in me. I have the fruit. As soon as I'm born again, I
have the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's given to me by His grace.
What is this thing about not bearing fruit? Is it about a
believer who apparently, as far as the way he looks, he doesn't
bear fruit, and the Lord takes him away? Well, it might mean
that. I don't know. But it kind of goes with Paul talking about
praying that these people might be taken away. We ought to be
so horrified over sin. Let me drive this point home. How bad does God hate sin? Well, let me remind you of the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the sins of the elect became
His, and He was made to bear their sin, He bore our sins in
His own body on the tree. What did God the Father do to
Him? He showed Him no mercy. He killed Him. That's what God
thinks of sin. And he says, regarding this person
who was guilty of this, you ought to be mourning that he that had
done this deed would be taken away from you. Now, turn back
to First Corinthians, Chapter 5. Let's read verses 3 through
5 together. Paul says, For I barely, First
Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 3, For I barely, as absent in
body, but present in spirit, have judged already. as though
I were present concerning him that hath done this deed in the
name of our Lord Jesus, when you gather together and my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ 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 here he's saying
this person is going to be delivered to Satan. for the destruction
of the flesh. Now, what does that mean? I don't
know that one either, but it sure doesn't sound good, does
it? I don't want it happening to me. I know that. I mean, it
just when I read this passage of scripture, it just it. But
remember this at this during this time, this time of apostolic
authority, you saw where Peter, those fellows lied. What did
Peter do? He was instrumental in their death, wasn't he? Look
what Paul says in the last verse of 1 Corinthians 4. He says,
What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a
rod, to correct in discipline, or in love, and in the spirit
of meekness? And this thing of apostolic authority, you know,
there was one time when Paul, a fellow was contradicting him.
Hey, he blinded him. You remember that in the book
of Acts? He struck him blind. These fellows had, they had some
kind of power. How would you all like it if
the pastor of this church had that kind of power? I'm glad I don't. I'm glad I don't, because I'd
get every one of you, I'm sure. It's hypocritical, but they actually
had this going on at this time where he could He could deliver
such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, I really don't
know what that means, but I know I don't like the way it sounds,
and I sure don't want that happening to me. Now, can you imagine how
afraid people are? I can see why there in Acts chapter
5, those people dare not join that church. That would be a
church people would be very careful about joining, wouldn't they?
But Paul, at any rate, says, although you're indifferent about
this, I've made my judgment. And he says, I'm going to deliver
this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. But this once again
reminds us of what a grievous thing this thing of sin is. And
he says in verse six, he says, your glory is not good. No you not, the little leaven
leavens the whole month. Now remember, this church at
Corinth, they're believers. I mean, remember how the Lord
said to Paul, I've got much people in this city when he was at Corinth,
and there were many people brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.
These were believers, but boy, they got messed up. They got
very messed up, as we see, in the way Paul was having to deal
with them. And he says, here's what your problem is. Your glorying
is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump? Now he is. He's rebuking them
over the fact that they're OK with what's taking place. It
doesn't seem to be bothering them. They're OK. Well, salvation
is by grace. We don't need to worry about
this. Salvation is in Christ. We don't need to worry about
this. I mean, this is just. And He says, your glory, your prideful
attitude, your self-righteousness is not good. Your toleration
is not good. Don't you know the little yeast
in the dough will work itself through the whole batch? This
toleration you're demonstrating, this apparent indifference is
going to snowball. Your glory is not good. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. Verse 7. Purge out! Therefore, the old leaven, that
you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened, for even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us." Now, during the observation
of the Passover, all leaven had to be put out of the house, every
bit of it. And he says, this is typical,
this eating the Passover, he goes on to say, let us keep the
feast, what it represents is faith in Christ. He says, right
now, purge out this spirit of puffiness and pride that makes
you indifferent toward the gospel. Makes you indifferent toward
sin. You're okay with it. Now, isn't it amazing? I'm just appealing to you right
now. Isn't it amazing how desensitized you and I can become toward sin?
To where it really just doesn't bother us that much. It's just
not... Sure, we're sinners, but everybody
is. We're not horrified by it. We're not troubled by it. We're
not scared to death of it. And I know that gets in with
me. Same old, same old. Not that
big a deal. And you go on. And he's rebuking the Corinthians
over their attitude regarding sin. Sin is sin, whether it's
in a believer or an unbeliever. It's still sin. And he says,
what's your problem is you're puffed up. You're proud. This
is not bothering you. Purge out, therefore, the old
leaven, that you may be a new lump as you're unleavened. For
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Now, I'm looking forward
to getting back to this. Next week when we talk about
the Passover, but here is the greatest argument against sin
and to purge out the old man, Christ was sacrificed because
of it. The Passover, the blood was shed because of sin, he says,
Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us, verse eight. Therefore,
let us keep the feast and that's talking about eating the Passover.
We're going to consider what all that means next week, but
it represents faith in Christ. He says, therefore, let us keep
the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth. Now, eating the Passover meal
typifies faith in Christ, and we're to rid ourselves of leaven,
just like they did at that time. You had to get all the leaven
out of the house, representing malice and wickedness. And let's
use the unleavened bread, and let's talk about this for a few
moments, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now, here is the cure for a hardened,
desensitized, I don't know if that's a word, I'm using it anyway,
a hardened attitude towards sin. Sincerity and truth. Now, what's meant by sincerity?
This is the lump we want to get. This is the unleavened bread. Sincerity. What is sincerity?
Well, the word just by itself, it means unmixed. There's no alloys, it's unmixed,
it's pure, it's by itself, it's not a mixture of various things,
it's just pure. I need to always be brought back
to and where you always need to be brought back to. I mean,
this never gets old. If it gets old, we're in trouble.
If it becomes stale to us, we're in trouble. This is where we
need to be brought back to sincerity, purity. What do you mean by purity? What do you mean by unmixed?
Well, let's begin right here. The scriptures alone. That's pure. I want to know what
God says alone. God's Holy Word is my only rule
of faith and practice, and I'm not looking to anything else.
The Scriptures alone. Now, that's sincerity. That's
unmixed. We're not looking anywhere else.
The Scriptures alone. Christ alone. Now, you want to
know something about sincerity? Here's what a sincere person
believes. A sincere person doesn't have mixed views here. He doesn't
mix up grace and works. He really believes Christ alone
is his only ground of acceptance before God at all times. Now, that's sincerity. And somebody
has a problem with that, they say, well, what about, what about?
They're just insincere. They're not real. They're not
honest. They're not truthful. I know that. An honest person
is going to Look to Christ alone. Here's sincerity. Here's purity. Here's an unmixed view when we
talk about sincerity. You know what I'm
going to say next? Grace alone. Not grace hand. God's free grace
alone. You know, I've been talking about
sin and being afraid of sin, and it makes me afraid, but this
makes me feel better already just thinking about this, remembering
that salvation is by grace alone. It begins with God's electing
grace. God chose to be saved before time began. And that word
of grace is carried all the way through, all the way to the end
when I'm brought into glory. God's grace will be magnified.
Salvation is by the free grace of God alone. And we believe
that purely. No mixing here. No, no, no, no,
no. Free grace. Aren't you? Aren't
you thankful for that? You know what? I guarantee you,
when I start talking about sin and everybody starts feeling
bad, you should. You should. You shouldn't be indifferent
about it. But aren't you thankful that salvation is by grace? Faith alone. Not faith in anything. Simply trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith alone. You know, those
ideas of sincerity is what is going to create a horror regarding
sin. That's what's going to happen.
cause you to not have a hard-hearted view towards sin. It's puffiness
and pride and self-righteousness and a self-enclaved view of yourself
that causes you to be indifferent towards sin. But when you're
made to see God's Word alone, when you're made to see Christ
as everything in salvation, when you're made to really believe
grace alone, when you're really made to believe faith only, looking
to Christ, that's what's going to create a true fear of sin. Nothing else does. Anything else
proves otherwise. heartening view toward sin. He
said, here's what we're to keep the feast with, the unleavened
bread of sincerity and of truth. The truth of the gospel. Jesus
Christ himself is the truth. Now it says in verse nine, I
wrote unto you in epistle not to company with fornicators. Now evidently I guess he'd written
an epistle that we don't know anything about to the church
at Corinth and he said don't associate with people who are
guilty of this particular sin. Don't keep company with them
who indulge in sexual sin like that. Don't keep company with
them. Don't have them over to your home and act like everything's
okay and it doesn't really matter because it does is what he's
saying. If you have them in your home, if you socialize with them,
what you're doing, you're putting your stamp of approval on what
they're doing. Now, this doesn't mean to look down your nose at
anybody. This needs to be tempered with
other Scripture. For instance, Paul said in Galatians
1, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness. Considering yourself, lest you
also be tempted. Anything anybody falls into,
don't you know that apart from the grace of God, don't you really
believe you'll be worse than them? Now, do you believe that? If you do, it's going to keep
you from looking down your nose at anybody. But let's say that
I leave Lynn, and I shack up with somebody else, and I refuse
to quit, and I just I do something like that, and I get up and preach
to them. You can listen to what I say. You know you wouldn't. You wouldn't
listen to a word I had to say. And if someone is conducting
themselves like that, where they just won't, they won't leave
it. Well, you... He says, don't company with them.
Don't company with them. He says in verse 10, Yet not
altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous,
or extortioners, or with thy adulterers, for then must ye
needs go out of the world." He says, I'm not talking about refusing
to speak to, or not having business dealings with unbelievers who
are guilty of these kinds of sins, because if that's the case,
you won't talk to anybody, will you? I mean, if you just, I'm
not going to have anything to do with anybody who commits these
sins. Paul says, well, you'd have to
go ahead and go out of the world. If that's the case, you couldn't
even speak to anybody. Verse 11, now here's what I'm talking
about. He says, but now I've written unto you not to keep company
if any man that's called a brother. Be a fornicator. Or covetous. Or an idolater, that's talking
about religious sin. Or a railer, that's somebody
guilty of abuse of speech. Or a drunkard. or an extortioner,
somebody who takes things by unjust means, with such in one
know not to eat. Don't eat with him. And here's
what he's saying. Now, this person claims to be
a brother, and yet he's living like this. If you just act like
nothing happened and you go ahead and buddy up with him and so
on, what you're doing, you're telling him, I'm OK with this.
I'm okay with this. It's not really that big a deal.
And that's what Paul is rebuking this church about. He says, you've
grown puffed up. You'd rather mourn that this
one might not be taken away from you. Now, he says in verse 12, For what have I to do to judge
them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are
within? Paul's saying, I'm not talking about treating an unbeliever
like this. You know, the Lord didn't treat unbelievers like
that. You know, Scripture says he was the friend of publicans
and sinners. And these fellows, I'm putting
myself in that group, they could feel comfortable with him. They
could feel not threatened with him. They didn't feel judged
by him. He's so merciful. He's so gracious. He's not saying
treat unbelievers like this. Well, you're guilty of this,
you're guilty of that. I'm going to stay away from you.
No, don't do that. Don't do that. He says, what have I to do to
judge them without? You judge them that are within God's people,
but them that are without God judges. Therefore, put away from
among yourselves that wicked person. Now, you look at the
strength of that language. Paul says, you put that person
away. Now, I don't know how many times
people have asked me, how do you all deal with discipline?
how do you deal with church discipline? And here's my thought, I pray
we don't have to. I don't want to. And it always, it weirds
me out, to be honest with you, when people ask me that. I mean,
that's kind of strange. What would you think of somebody
if you were talking to them and said, how do you whip your children?
What do you do? I mean, you use a belt, you use
a chain, you use a weeder, you know, what do you? Why are you asking me that? I
mean, how do you all handle discipline? Next time somebody asks me that,
I thought, if they haven't asked me this in a while, because I knew
I was going to say, we take a week. You know, just take care of it,
you know. But the point he's making is if somebody professes to love
Christ and they're conducting themselves in this way, I want them out. I don't want them to be. Now,
if the Lord brings them to repentance, I'm thrilled. And I know that
apart from the grace of God, I'll be the same way they will.
So it's not looking down your nose at them. But that brings
a reproach on the gospel. It just brings reproach and shame
on the gospel. Paul, how many times do we read
where we're to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things?
A lowly, meek, Christ-like life honors the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings glory to Him. To be
like Him and to walk in a way that's contrary to Him. He's
saying, no, that one is to be put out. It's not to be tolerated. He says, a little leaven leavens
the whole lot. Now, you remember this. A big
tumor starts out small, doesn't it? A little leaven. A little toleration in this leavens
the whole lump. A big forest fire started with
one little spark. Now you all know this. You all
know this. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. You put one work in salvation and you make it all of works.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. And here's what produces
a true fear of sin, and that true fear of sin, this is why
I'm afraid of sin. I'm afraid of sin because I'm
afraid of God. That's what the fear of God is. The fear of God
makes somebody afraid of sin. That's why I'm afraid of sin,
because I'm afraid of God. And this is, listen, the fear
of God is good. It's the beginning of wisdom. It's the product of
faith. You can't know the Lord and not be afraid of Him. You
fear His awesome majesty and His holiness and His glory and
His greatness. And that's why we're afraid of
sin. It's not so much I'm afraid of sin because I know where it
leads and all that kind of stuff. I mean, I guess that enters in. But I'm afraid of sin because
I'm afraid of God. I'm scared of Him. He's the God
of glory. And this is a good kind of fear.
This is not a bad fear. This is a good fear. And that's
what makes us afraid of sin. And I'm so afraid of God and
I'm so afraid of sin that I'm scared to death to look anywhere
but the Lord Jesus Christ for everything in my salvation. That's
how afraid I am of sin. I'm afraid to look anywhere but
Christ. Are you? Now, am I afraid of sin? Well, there's three things that
Paul brings out. This is what I'm going to close
with about these people in this chapter. He says you're puffed
up. You're puffed up. You know, he
says this to Corinthians, I think, six different times. You've got
an inflated view of yourself. And you know, it's an inflated,
self-righteous view of self that makes people have a low view
of sin. Pride goes before destruction. Doesn't scripture say that? A
haughty spirit before the fall. It's puffiness, swollenness that
causes people to have a bad view of sin. And look what he says
in verse six. He says your glorying is not
good. They're glorying. They were glorying
something other than the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
I have the wrong grounds of glory, and what's the only grounds of
glory? Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you glory in the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ, I guarantee you'll be scared to death of
sin if you glory only in the cross. But when you lose that,
when he says you're glorying, the glory you have is not good.
When you lose that, you're going to have this indifferent hard
view of sin. So we're to avoid an inflated
view of self, the right grounds of glory, and we're to have a
right view of toleration. Now, Paul said regarding this
person who was guilty of this, he said, you ought to pray that
this person should be taken from your midst. He's to be removed. Now, I don't know what all that
means. I just pray I'd never have to even know what all it
means. I don't want to deal with anything like that. But I want
to have the right view of toleration. Now, what is the right view of
toleration? I love what Rich told me. This
was so funny. He said they were having some
kind of class for your, what do you call it? Governor's School
of the Arts. And he was going through this class about toleration,
how you need to be tolerant of everybody and tolerant of everything.
And that was kind of like the watchword, you know, be tolerant.
I'm telling that right, right? Be tolerant. And Rich raised
his hand and said, well, I've got a question. Do we need to
tolerate people who are intolerant? And she didn't know how to answer. Well, we're supposed to be tolerant
of everybody, you know. Do we need to be tolerant of
people who are intolerant? Well, you know, I don't know how she
ever had to answer it. She didn't know. Well, maybe
I'll have to come back on that one. But the thing is, I'll tell
you what. I sure want you to be tolerant
of me. I want you to be merciful toward
me. I want you to be gracious toward me. I want you to have
a tolerant attitude toward me. Don't you want me to be that
way toward you? We want that so much, this tolerant
attitude. Now, I want to practice true
tolerance in that sense, and it's easy To be tolerant of other
people if you really believe that you yourself are the chief
of sinners. It's easy, isn't it? And when you're intolerant
of other people in that sense, it's only because of self-righteousness
and pride. Isn't that so? You know that's
so. A lack of toleration is just
created from pride. But there's also a toleration
that's not good. You know, when the Lord warned
the church at Pergamos, you can read about this in Revelation
chapter 2. He said, I'm going to remove my candlestick from
you. And you know, that happens to every local church at some
point or the other. The Lord removes his candlestick
and it just is a machine without the Spirit of God. It's going
on through the motions and so on. But the gospel is not really
preached. It's just a bunch of religion
going on and God has already removed his candlestick. But
you know why he removed his candlestick? It wasn't because of what they
did, but because of what they tolerated. He said, you have
been there that hold the doctrine of Balaam. You have been there
that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. It was what they
tolerated. It's what they just allowed to
take place. Now, while I want to have a truly
tolerant, gracious, merciful attitude, I want I want to be
merciful to people. And you do, too. But I don't
want to tolerate anything that's contrary to the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. No toleration at all. Do you
remember what Paul said? If any man preach any other Gospel
unto you than that which I preached unto you, let him be what? A cursed anathema. Let him be
cursed upon the return of the Lord. Now, may God give me grace
to be utterly intolerant regarding anything that is contrary to
the gospel. And in a situation like this,
in a situation like this, it's reported commonly, it's common
knowledge that there's, he says that there's fornication. It
was a, the man had married his stepmother. Now he says such,
such conduct as this, even the Gentiles know better than this.
I mean, this is, this is obviously wrong. And he said, you're just
okay with it. This is what he was, he was,
rebuking them over, if somebody, listen to me, I'm speaking to
myself, I'm speaking to you, if somebody is going to walk
in a way that is contrary to the gospel and they refuse to
leave that, don't make us have to deal with
that, just leave. Just leave. And if I act that
way, may I just leave? You know, in that sense. Don't
make us deal with it. That's what he's saying. If the
Lord brings you to repentance, wonderful. We receive everybody. We really do. We receive everybody.
But if somebody's going to... Like what he's saying here. He
says it's reported commonly that there's fornication among you. Well, I'll tell you what. If that's going on here, I don't
know it. And I'd rather not know it, to be honest with you. I
mean, ignorance is bliss. It is, isn't it? May God give you and I a fear
of sin. These things have I written unto
you that you sin not. But how can you? Don't we have evil nature? Aren't
we going to sin? John said, these things have I written unto you
that you sin not. Everybody in this room, may God give you grace. May God give me grace to make
it our objective to not sin anymore. Is that what the Bible says? Thank God when you do. We have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Are
you afraid of sin? Well, I know how you can answer
that question. You're afraid of sin if you're
afraid to look anywhere but the Lord Jesus Christ as everything
in your salvation. May God give us grace, truly,
to always be afraid of sin. Let's pray together.