1 Corinthians Bible Study Message 14

Sobriety to Sin and the Saints

Do you believe there is a sobriety to sin among the Saints today?

I will begin with me as your Pastor. I failed to mention it Sunday. I know how it happened and why it happened because we were all hyped up about Saturday and the Community Fair. As a people, as the body called Mt Zion, we corporately were desensitized to the mass shooting that happened in Five Points South in Birmingham, 14 killed, 18 injured and they think it was a gun for hire type of scenario.

Do we hear of something so often we become desensitized to sin? Or, are we spiritually apathetic of those around us? Or, are we too self centered to focus on others? We must all ask ourselves those questions.

We study tonight where the church at Corinth had become desensitized to the sin right under their noses. There was sin going on in the church, everybody knew it, no one said anything, no one did anything, and thought the right answer was to “mind my own business.” Some took the approach of taking one verse and dying on the one verse, “judge not, less you be judged.”

Tonight, I am going to read this text in two versions so that you really get what is happening. I will exclude NKJV and read both the NIV and The Message tonight.

1 Corinthians 5:1–13 NKJV

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

1 Corinthians 5:1–13 NIV84

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. 6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:1–13 MSG

1 I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. 2 And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? 3 I’ll tell you what I would do. Even though I’m not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what’s going on. I’m telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master. 4 Assemble the community—I’ll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power. 5 Hold this man’s conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can’t, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment. 6 Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it’s anything but that. Yeast, too, is a “small thing,” but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. 7 So get rid of this “yeast.” Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. 8 So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious. 9 I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. 10 I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! 11 But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. 12 I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? 13 God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

Prayer

Message

Do you believe the Bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God? Meaning two things. Do you believe the Bible is God’s Word? Do you believe the Bible has error?

Let me ask you another question.

Do you believe the Bible is God’s Word for you? In other words, do you believe it is inerrant and infallible for your life?

The term infallible means incapable of making mistakes or being wrong. In a theological context, it is often used to describe something (like Scripture or God) that is completely reliable and free from error. For example, the belief in the infallibility of the Bible refers to the conviction that the Bible, in its original manuscripts and teachings, is without error in all matters it addresses, particularly concerning faith and practice.

If you believe that then I want to a reaffirmation in Scripture to this point.

Psalm 119:128 “128 Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right; I hate every false way.”

Psalm 119:128 NIV84

128 and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians while he was in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, around A.D. 55. Ephesus was a major city in the Roman province of Asia (modern-day Turkey), and Paul spent a significant amount of time there, about three years (Acts 19:1-10). During this time, he heard about issues within the Corinthian church, including divisions, immorality, and doctrinal confusion, which prompted him to write this letter to address their concerns and provide guidance.

1. A Critical Concern for the Response of the Church

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 “1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.”

“It is actually reported”-I sense that Paul was flabbergasted, he could not believe that such an act had happened and the church had made no response to the situation happening right under their noses. No action was being taken.

By the fact that “it was actually reported”, if Paul is in Ephesus at the time he writes his comments, the knowledge is basically common knowledge. People outside of the church knew this heinous behavior. Whether the Romans, the Gentiles, the Greeks or whoever knew and whether they still saw “the Way” being Jewish or by this point was well aware of the Christians, this did not bode well for the church. If ever there was a sin going on that would say that “if Christians act like that, I want no part of it.”

People were saying,” in my worst day and I’m not even a Christian, I have never even thought about let alone acted on such a scandalous behavior.”

By the way, I do not believe The Message got it right in the translation because the Bible states that it was an act that “was not even named among the Gentiles.” I believe the man had committed incest.

Verse 2

1 Corinthians 5:2 “2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.”

Let’s be very clear what we are talking about. We know that if we break one law, we’ve broken them all. There is no rank and file in sin, but I believe we would all agree that this sin we are discussing tonight is off the charts sinful. I am very aware that in God’s eyes sin is sin. I am sound in my theology here.

Mosaic Law had much to say about such a sinful act:

Leviticus 18:6–8 “6 ‘None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lord. 7 The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness.”

Deuteronomy 22:30 “30 “A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s bed.”

What is the issue here? Beyond the fact the sin is off the charts. The sin is not happening with a brand new convert. The sin is happening among a stark member who had been in membership for some time. Listen closely.

Patience

This is not a situation of having patience. There are new converts that we must exercise patience due to them having little or no background about the things of God.

For example, today’s church does not have the deep roots of biblical training in the home (and if they did not have it in the home, they had it in school) that it had in yesteryear. The family of today whether they are next door to a church or not have been families that have never darkened the door of the church and we see young people that come into the church today that have never been taught the Word of God. They have had no exposure to Christian Biblical values.

Does this require patience? Absolutely, does new converts require patience? Absolutely.

There are a couple of scenarios that quickly come to mind as I think about exercising patience and the different day upon which we live. Think about it. The Bible is no longer taught in school, let alone the home today as in yesteryear.

Couples living together. “My pardner.”

2. Foul language and course jesting. God usually gives me I hope and pray gracious and gracious ways to address it in love, but dearly beloved, if we believe that the Bible is inerrant, we must address the matters.

And note: It’s not me or you addressing the matter and my opinion, it is the Word of God and we all agree we stand on the Word of God.

Pride

The issue with the individual is that they were “puffed up” about it. They were prideful about it and had an attitude of defiance if anyone even mentioned anything to them about it. They exhibited an attitude that its “my business and I will do what I want to do.”

2 Timothy 3:16–17 “16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Paul writes to Timothy about the dangers of pride as a Pastor

Proverbs 16:18–19 “18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.”

1 Timothy 3:6 “6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.”

2 Corinthians 7:8–10 “8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

Passive

Paul goes on to day, while there is a pride on the part of the sinner, i have mourned over such a matter and I can not understand that you have not taken him from your midst in the church.

2. There is a Corrective Action to be taken on the Part of the Church

1 Corinthians 5:3–5 “3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul is saying, dear church, you can not sit back and be idle on this matter.

When I came to Mt Zion I quickly realized that Mt Zion does not make decisions hastily. I like that. It’s important we do our homework on a matter and pray and make sure that we are in the center of God’s will in decision making and that’s important.

Paul here is addressing a whole other matter. He is addressing an apathy or a avoidance of the inevitable. Corrective action is never fun and something that will make us all uncomfortable. Paul was struggling with the fact that the church I assume thought that if they did nothing the matter would go away.

Again, let’s be clear here. We are not talking about a new saint or one that has not had to have a great deal of patience with their past upbringing to walk with them through discipleship. We are talking about one that was prideful and defiant that he was going to continue to act as he wanted and did not care what the church or anyone else thought.

Listen here, sin has consequences. Whether you are saved or not saved, sin still has consequences as stated here in verse 5:

1 Corinthians 5:5 “5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Notice Paul states “deliver to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” When one will not conform to the things of God even though saved, He will have to pay the consequences in very sorrowful condemning action here on earth for his actions.

We tend to forget that Jesus in honoring man’s free will states a cold but sobering statement:

Matthew 10:14 “14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.”

What is said is when the church gets upset and judgmental of the leadership of the church taking corrective action due to church discipline, they take attitude with the leadership. Dearly beloved, you then must take attitude with the Word of God because you stated that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and such sin is not to be tolerated among the people of God. The sad commentary is that the church will struggle with harsh action taken toward an individual or a family and forget what hurt the remainder of the church is experiencing.

3. Take a Christ Action to Redeem the Church

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 “6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Paul is saying, do you not know that your passive action is a punitive action on the whole church. Everyone in the church is talking. Everyone knows the sin that is happening right under their noses. The church looks bad, the neighborhood is speaking of the scandalous behavior. Other members are going to leave because they are embarrassed to be a part of a church that allows such actions to happen, yes, but continue to happen, and rub it in the face of the congregants week end week out. The people can not be worshipful for being wearied from it all. The people can not be holy because all of the heinous living happening right on the next pew to them.

“a little leaven affects the whole lump.”

When we make the statement that sin carries you further than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, keeps you longer than you want to stay” has all to do with the fact that sin does not just affect you, but those around you.

If we turn our heads to sinful action time and again (for the saint-the ongoing longstanding believer) and do not confront the sin, we are saying that type of sin is acceptable to the people of the church. God will not honor that.

Dearly beloved, if we exercise church discipline in any other fashion than to be redemptive in nature, we have missed the mark, the church has sinned. Always, always, always, the nature of church discipline is to bring a brother or sister to restoration.

Matthew 16:6 “6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.””

Matthew 16:12 “12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Let’s be very clear as I close. This subject we are dealing with tonight ranks in the top most stressful part of being a pastor or leader of the church. There is nothing fun whatsoever about dealing with such difficult issues. Our aim as Christians is to draw people to Christ, not kick people to the curb. I want to be clear about something here.

Again, we are not discussing people that come to Christ from adverse backgrounds, or people that are basically good people that have not had Christianity values and upbringing. We call that a great deal of patience bathed with grace and I encounter that today more than ever as your pastor.

What I am talking about is the person that comes week in and week out that by all measures has been a seasoned saint and member of the church and commits sin that is out and out wrong and will not accept correction, nor shows any form of remorse for their actions and somewhat spits in the face of God over His judgments and statutes and refuses to conform to the tenets of God’s Word, there will be a price to pay if the church does not take action.

In all my time of the active pastorate, to date I have never asked an individual or a family to leave the church, but on one occasion I should have and did not and the church suffered for the passive actions of our leadership and for that I am gratefully sorrowful. Dearly beloved, a little leaven will affect the whole lump.

1 Corinthians 5:8 “8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Dearly beloved, may we never stand on enjoyment of being punitive. May we never land on what I think or what you think, but always stand on truth and responding to the truth of God’s Word when it calls for.

Let’s pray.