On Being Accepting

Defining who I am doesn’t obligate the Church to accept who I am if what I am isn’t Godly

The scripture we are dealing with this week is deep and challenging.

For those of us who have been in the church since dirt, I suspect you might leave today shaking your head and wondering if you agree.

That’s good - do it.

Wonder -struggle - but take your struggles to the text.

Make sure where you end up is where God is.

Because it will be incredibly easy to end up some place else.

For all of us - listen prayerfully and carefully.

This is important.

Our text is 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.

The text is PG-13 but we don’t dwell on the opening statement and I will do my best to be gentle with the language.

So parents, be aware.

It will be helpful to you, whether you are here or watching by livestream

It will be helpful to you to open your Bible and follow along.

Maybe even take a note or two.

If you are visiting with us, this is how we preach.

We take a book of the Bible and we preach through it.

If we run into something difficult or uncomfortable, we mine it out to see what the Lord wants us to know.

Isaiah 55:11 says, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

We believe that is true from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

It is my prayer for us all today, that the Lord will open our hearts and eyes and ears and minds

So we can understand that He loves us and gives us the power to do what we need to do, even the very hard things.

Hear the Word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

1 Corinthians 5:1–13 ESV

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

It takes the Church to keep us from sin.

It takes the Church, you and me, “one another,” the Body gathered, us, it takes us helping each other to keep us from sin.

Through the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been talking about unity in the church.

And essentially, unity boils down to a single point - Jesus Christ died on a cross and was resurrected from the dead to forgive us of sins and give us new life.

That is our unifying belief.

We have lots of teachers - but we only have one Lord.

Paul ends chapter four by saying 1 Corinthians 4:21 “What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?”

The beginning of chapter 5 is essentially Paul saying, “and here is why a rod might be necessary.”

Now, this would be such an easy place to assail the immorality of our culture, and we will touch on it.

But that’s not the point of this passage.

So, I want to begin by making some stipulations that we should all be able to agree on.

So here we go, If you are a born again believer, you are not a sinner, you are a saint.

You have been born again - you have been made new.

The Lord’s law has been written on your heart.

The Holy Spirit indwells you and empowers you to live the crucified life.

Because of this change, we have a different standard of morality than the culture around us.

However, while our nature, our spirit was born again, we are still flesh and blood people with flesh and blood desires.

On occasion, the cravings of our flesh overwhelm us and we act like our old selves.

Sometimes, more often than we would hope, we - as saints - sin.

But there is a big problem with that.

The Lord hates sin.

Sin is the opposite of God’s goodness and it is an affront to His holiness.

He doesn’t think its cute.

He doesn’t giggle when He sees it.

It is abhorrent - and if the Lord could get sick to His stomach, that would be an apt description.

So when we recognize our sin - that what we have done is wrong in God’s eyes, we are embarrassed - we are disappointed in ourselves.

We feel remorse and grief and shame.

We repent - we turn away from what we have done and lament that we are capable of doing such a thing that Jesus hates.

It also causes us to remember the mercy of the Lord and to know His forgiveness.

It makes us grateful for His mercy and grace and brings us contentment.

Because we know, even when we fail, we can’t fail badly enough that our Lord won’t love us.

This is who we are as the Church - as “One another.”

In this text, what the mother and the son are doing is sin but here’s what’s happening in the Church.

Roman secular culture was totally sexually immoral. Period.

They believed most everything was permissible - get this - as long as you did it with someone who was of less stature than you.

In 2023, Western secular culture has caught up with Rome.

I contend that we’ve not only caught up with Rome’s immorality, we’ve surpassed it.

Not only in the various pleasures we seek, but also in the damage we leave behind.

As the people of God, we know that the only place for physical intimacy is between a biological man and a biological woman

United in a covenantal marriage relationship for life.

Listen, listen, any other sexual relationship is sin.

Any other.

Now, the cringe factor is huge in verse 1.

A mom and her son are acting like a husband and wife.

I suspect we all are internally going, “Ewe.”

But notice Paul doesn’t leave us with just this one sin.

He also talks about greedy people - people who have an insatiable appetite for more.

He talks about swindlers - vicious people who use cunning and personality to con unsuspecting people out of their possessions.

He talks about idolaters - people who are driven to be who they are by anything other than God.

He talks about revilers - people who slander everyone, who are verbally abusive.

He talks about drunkards - people who abuse any substance with no desire to not abuse it.

I want to be just a little more careful with this one - he’s not talking about alcoholics or addicts who are struggling to be free.

He’s talking about those who abuse any substance and have no desire to stop.

Because they think it is OK, because they think they are a Christian.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of sins.

It was simply what was on Paul’s mind at the time.

And - and - Paul is implying that every sin is equally an affront to God.

Remember what we said about God’s attitude toward sin.

Sin is the opposite of God’s goodness and it is an affront to His holiness.

Now I’m sure you noticed that Paul said this man and his mother should be kicked out of the church.

You didn’t miss that did you?

I Corinthians 5:2 “Let him who has done this be removed from among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:13 “Purge the evil person from among you.””

So, if that’s the case, shouldn’t we all be thrown out?

Of course the proper answer to that is no - but that has to make us ask why?

Why do you toss one person out for sin and not someone else?

Or, to put it another way

What is the proper response to sin both individually and in the Church?

We gather from the way Paul describes the situation, that the son is proud of his “freedom” from social mores.

And we gather that the Church is proud that they can accept someone who expresses themselves in this way.

The Church is proud of its tolerance.

But is that the proper response to sin?

What is the proper response to sin?

Mourning

Have you ever taken a test you knew you were going to ace, but when you got the score back, you didn’t?

I wrote a masterful exegesis for my Greek class in seminary.

The translation was brilliant.

The exposition was masterful.

The application would have brought you to tears.

Only, Dr. Spencer didn’t think so.

He agreed that the vast part of the paper was excellent, but the application he said, was “moralistic and shallow.”

He gave me an A minus but I was crushed.

I was capable of better.

I mourned.

Not the A minus - but that I had failed to live up to the standard.

We are saints.

When we sin, we are failing to live up to the standard.

We disappoint ourselves - and we mourn.

So we

Repent

We don’t say, “Well, that’s just who I am - I’m a sinner and sinners sin.”

You can’t say that - that’s a lie.

Instead you say, “I don’t want to do that again.”

We ask the Lord for forgiveness and He does.

And once again we are reminded of His great mercy.

That’s our reaction.

But now

What is the proper response of the Church to my sin?

2 Timothy 2:24-26 says “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”

Correcting his opponents with gentleness.

If we see someone falling into sin - accidentally or on purpose - it’s our responsibility to help that person see the error of their ways.

Totally with the attitude, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Paul says in Galatians 6:1 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

Our goal is repentance and a “coming to their senses.”

Because we’ve been there, we know that we know that we know that when they come to their senses, they will mourn just like we did.

They will be embarrassed just like us.

We know when they come to their senses, they will confess and repent.

And be restored - and be ready to help us the next time we stumble.

But now you are either thinking now or it will come to you later, didn’t I read something about a log and a speck?

Matthew 7:1–5 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

What is the difference between what Paul is saying and what Jesus is saying?

Aren’t these two contradictory?

Absolutely not - and here’s why.

Jesus is speaking to the sin police.

You know the person - every church has had at least one.

They point out everyone’s sins.

They can tell you who did what when with whom and why it was bad.

They can tell you the day, time and hour when they saw a whole host of good Elders and Deacons acting in ways Elders and Deacons shouldn’t act.

They know all about you hypocritical Christians - never once looking in the mirror and recognizing that the very thing they are doing is what they say you are doing.

And there is our difference.

If you see a brother in sin and you try to gently correct them, that more than likely means you’ve seen the log in your own eye.

You don’t want them to suffer shame and embarrassment.

You don’t want them to bear the consequences - because you’ve been there.

You want your brother or sister to experience the joy of knowing the Lord’s mercy and grace and contentment.

You do it with gentleness because you’ve been there.

What if someone doesn’t repent?

I believe chapter 5 addresses a philosophical misunderstanding of the 21st century church.

We have worked hard over the last 30+ years to make church “friendly” to the secular crowd.

We thought, if we could make church friendly, then maybe the secular crowd will come to church.

Maybe they will hear, maybe the Lord will open their eyes and ears and heart and mind

And maybe they will be saved.

If we can be friendly enough.

But is that what a church should do?

Is that even something a church CAN do?

Jesus said in Matthew 10:22 “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake...”

If we will be hated because of the one we follow, how far do we have to go to be friendly enough so the secular world won’t hate us?

Do you see the problem?

The only way to become friendly enough for the secular world to like us, is to abandon Jesus and become like them.

A part of loving each other is holding each other’s feet to the fire - with gentleness.

If they repent - then we’ve restored a brother and the body is stronger.

But if they will not.

If they persist in the sin with no desire to change.

If they are recalcitrant - they are right and you are wrong - even though scripture says otherwise.

The only loving thing to do, is remove them from the body.

1 Cor 5:13 “Purge the evil person from among you.””

“Well brother, don’t they need the church?”

No - they don’t need the church.

They need Jesus but they don’t want Jesus.

So, send them to a place where they might realize they are going to drown without Jesus.

Keeping them in the body does two things, neither of which are good.

By accepting them in the Body, the Church is affirming to them that they are saved - that they are accepted by the Lord and will stand before Him blameless at the judgement.

And maybe they are - but their life doesn’t indicate it.

And that has to make you wonder.

If they are unrepentant in their sin, if they refuse to follow Jesus and they refuse hearing from the church

Why would the church continue to affirm them as a part of the church?

The church has no authority in their life - they are proving that by their actions.

And it makes you wonder if they are backsliding - to coin an old term - or if they even know Jesus.

So the best thing to do, is “Purge the evil person from among you,” so they can work out their salvation and

The second part of this, so the church doesn’t become infected.

1 Corinthians 5:6 “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”

If you know anything about baking, you know a little bit of yeast goes a long way to make dough rise.

The folks at Ryan’s, Logan’s Roadhouse and way back when, O’Charley’s were masterful at using yeast to make rolls so light they’d almost float away.

But, but in the day, yeast wasn’t in great supply.

So what they would do, is they would take a pinch of the dough they were making and they’d save it for the next day.

And on the next day, they’d take the “old dough” and mix it in with the “new dough” and guess what happened?

The yeast in the old dough permeated the new dough and you had light and fluffy rolls the next day.

You see the analogy right.

If you have someone in the church who is “old dough,” blatantly sinning and unrepentant

And you don’t do anything about it - just what do you think the outcome is going to be?

The entire body of the church will be affected.

Either the person will harm the church - I was pastor of a church with an unrepentant reviler.

The church went through a ton of torment and pain before and after the person left.

Either they will harm the church that way or

The church will become accepting of the sin.

We’ve done that.

There are sins we’ve become desensitized to and pretty much accept them without batting an eye.

I leave us to mull that over for a bit.

So, if we are in the business of kicking recalcitrant sinners out of the church,

How does anyone get saved?

1 Corinthians 5:9-10 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.”

You associate with unsaved people every day.

Tell them about Jesus.

Listen, if they smell Jesus on you, and they need Jesus - and they won’t know they need Jesus

But if they smell Jesus on you, they are going to talk to you about their problems.

And if you’ve had a problem that Jesus helped you with

Then you tell them what Jesus has done for you.

And you invite them to come to Church with you.

And they see the “one another” thing happening.

And they see that we are serious about taking care of one another.

Not intrusively or legalistically.

But we do - really - love each other.

Then, God willing, they will be saved.

What is our endgame?

Jesus is our passover lamb.

It’s His blood that is smeared over our doorpost.

He is the reason the death angel passes us by.

He died for us to be forgiven and He was raised to give us new life.

That’s not a mantra to be memorized and repeated.

It is our way of life.

We must remind each other of that weekly.

That’s why we sing what we sing.

That’s why we read what we read.

That’s why we meet in Sunday School and groups.

That’s why we preach what we preach.

We know, it is almost impossible to be strong and courageous alone.

We need Jesus.

We need each other.

It takes the Church to keep us from sin

What is your attitude toward sin?

Are you heartbroken because you know you aren’t living up to the standard the Lord has set?

Are you living free and content because you know - as best as you can - you know your sin

and you know you are forgiven in Jesus?

Our altar is open for prayer.

It will be hard for you to step out and come down and pray.

But I encourage you to do that if the Spirit is moving you.

And if Jesus is calling your name - you know it in your spirit - come tell me.

Let me be the first to welcome you home.

Let us pray