Judgement Begins Here

Introduction

Background

Paul is writing a letter for a second time because the Corinthian church has walked away from the fundamentals of the faith. So far, he has addressed the gospel, the church, and the work of the ministry.

The church is behaving carnally, meaning that they are continuing to live like the world even though they are supposed to be Christians. And, it seems, that they have been very harsh on the lost people in the city, but they have been very gracious to themselves, never even condoning the sins that are present there in the church.

Context

The next two chapters have to do with discipline, and in this chapter, Paul is going to remind the church that judgement doesn’t begin on the outside, but that judgement begins on the inside.

What they are doing is behaving in ways that are a disgrace to the name of Jesus.

We’re here in our culture again, where the pendulum has swung from legalism to liberalism, and people don’t want to be held accountable for anything. In fact, if someone does speak up about what is true, the people will rage and spit and they don’t want to hear it.

But the problem is that it’s the people in the churches that behave like this. Forget about the world…if the church can’t behave, what makes us think that the world will? So, Paul begins his practical theology on church discipline here in chapter 5.

The title of tonight’s message is Judgement Begins Here. And we are going to see three aspects of this church discipline.

I. Confrontation

1 Corinthians 5:1 NKJV

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!

Here are the Corinthians, and they are claiming to be spiritual, but there is something happening inside their church that pagans wouldn’t even tolerate. There is a man who is in a sexual relationship with his step-mother.

There’s some context I want to give here.

This woman was probably his step-mother.

Some think that it could be his father’s concubine or some informal marriage, because the word used for ‘wife’ is also a word used generically for “woman”, but I think step-mother.

This is being done while the man’s father is still living.

This man, whatever the situation, is a member of the church and has entered into a permanent and sexual relationship with his own father’s wife.

The woman doesn’t appear to be a member of the church, but a pagan who is in a relationship with a member. If you notice, Paul doesn’t ever condemn her, he only addresses the man.

Another possibility is that this woman is actually a victim, being taken advantage of by coercion or whatever.

When Paul says, “It’s not even name among the Gentiles”, he is referring to Roman law.

So, first…Paul addresses these Judiazers, telling them that they are not as spiritual as they think they are…because the Mosaic law that they try to keep alive in the church condemns this behavior.

Second, for the Gentiles in the church, this is wrong according to their own barbaric Roman law. This charge is so serious that the man involved in this, according to the Romans, should be banished to an island.

D.A. Carson seems to think that this person was favorited in the church and was someone with high standing in society.

Here is what Carson says,

The New Bible Commentary 5:1–8 Immorality and the Church’s Legitimate Sphere of Discipline

Society and the church often turn a blind eye to the ‘indiscretions’ of socially powerful members but for the church this has always meant great spiritual loss.

As we’re going to see, Paul makes it a point to remember that God always disciplines for the sake of restoration, but he is going to remind them that discipline is a necessary part of this process.

Well, how did the church get to this point?

I mean, this is pretty bad…there was something that took place that was obviously wrong, and no one did anything to stop it, except for the person that reported it to the Apostle Paul.

The Result of Non-Confrontation

Now, whether it is in the church or in your life, this type of egregious sin is the result of non-confrontation.

In one aspect, the people were afraid to confront this man about his sin.

Like D.A. Carson points out, he was probably popular, and that insulated him from what was right

In another aspect, confrontation seems hard.

We get in our minds that we can just sweep things under the rug and that it will eventually go away, but that’s not reality.

If you have bills you cannot pay…they don’t just disappear, they get worse.

If you have resentment in your heart, it doesn’t dissolve on it’s own, it just festers to the point where you either snap or live your entire life in avoidance of the person or place you resent.

If you have sin and temptation that goes unchecked, where you thought you once stood, you just might fall.

I don’t believe that any Christian husband or wife wakes up one day and says, “I am going to have an adulterous affair today.”

Adultery and all other forms of sin come about when we refuse to confront ourselves regarding our temptations.

This refusal to come face to face with issues in our life brings me here to v. 2

Cowardice in the Form of Pride

1 Corinthians 5:2 NKJV

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Paul says that they don’t even care…they have just accepted this man because of his standing.

Think about the underlying issue in this church…the issue in the church is division over status. This church has placed worldly standards of success over God’s standard of success.

In Chapter 1, Paul tells this church, God has called you to holy living, and now I am hearing reports of division over status…he goes to chapter 5 and says, the fruit of this sin of favoritism is an incestuous relationship that even the Gentiles don’t approve of!

They’re puffed up…they think that they are somebody, but the reality for these people is that they are cowards.

They don’t want to do what’s right, they don’t want to have the hard conversations, they just want their buddies to keep their status, even if the hand of God is going to be set against them. They are so blind by their pride and their division that they won’t even mourn over this horrible and wicked sin.

Do you know what that makes this church?

That makes this church a disgraced church.

Do you know what disgrace is? Disgrace is the abandonment of responsibility.

A Disgrace to Grace

We have defined that term “grace”. It is the unmerited favor of God on our lives…and what this church has done is they have abused the grace of God, they have abandoned their freedom and their responsibility to live holy lives…all because they are puffed up with pride…they are disgraced.

Let me ask you a question…are you disgraced today?

There are responsibilities in your life that God has given to you and you are living in abandonment of those responsibilities.

There are some hard conversations that you need to have…there are some debts that you need to get cleaned up…there are some things around your house, whether inside or outside that you need to get picked up…and there are some children in your home that need to be discipled.

When you stand before the Lord Jesus, you don’t want to be a disgrace, you want to be a faithful servant, someone who was faithful with everything that God allotted to you.

Jesus shares a parable about this…it’s the parable of the talents. When some read this, they literally think that Jesus was talking about talents…but Jesus was talking about taking responsibility.

Matthew 25:14–30 NKJV

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.

This was a charge against those in the nation of Israel who were tasked with believing the Gospel…but this is also a principle given to the world that God has given us responsibilities, and the abandonment of those things because of cowardice is both wicked and lazy.

And so is the charge against the Corinthian church, and so is the charge against you when you outsource your responsibilities because it’s too hard.

The Way We Outsource

How are we outsourcing our responsibilities?

Well, I know for some preachers, they don’t study God’s word, they just steal messages from others and take them as their own. They don’t seek the guiding hand of God, they just implement programs that other churches are doing because they are too lazy to seek the face of God.

For parents, we let cell phones, tablet, and tv baby-sit our kids.

Some parents wonder why their kids are attention deficit and have challenged behavior, it’s because their whole life is exposure to screens.

The reason that less and less adults are available for work, and I am convinced of this, is because they aren’t given any responsibilities as children. They grow up and they think that everything just falls out of the sky. We cannot outsource our children to media.

We also outsource the spiritual health of our homes to the church. Everyday our kids go to school and learn God knows what, but when they come home, they find that our homes are lacking in anything spiritual. The only nourishment they get is when they come to church.

Men, some of your wives are starving for a spiritual conversation and some general and non-sexual affection.

If the only time you pay attention to your wife is when there is sex involved, you are damaging your marriage in ways that you don’t understand.

Ladies, some of your husbands are starving for submissive service and care.

If every time your husband comes home, the only thing you do is nag and complain, hand off responsibility to him…you’re damaging your marriage. Your husband goes to work and is respected, he comes home and he’s treated like a house slave…and you wonder where the spark has gone.

Don’t fail to pay attention to your marriage.

There was a woman that went to see her pastor. She said, “Pastor, my husband has a drinking problem and no matter how many times I ask, he just won’t stop. Will you please talk to him?”

The pastor agrees and the husband comes into the office the next day.

The pastor says, “What’s the deal with the drinking, why do you drink so much?”

The man says, “Every time I walk in the door, all she does is nag, nag, nag. I can’t take it so I just drink to pass the time.”

The wife is nagging because the husband is drinking, and the husband is drinking because the wife is nagging.

Some of you live in a house where ya’ll act like two teenagers, afraid to have an adult conversation, so you just hide and hope the problem goes away…but it won’t.

These in the church were afraid to address the issue at hand, and it only got worse. v. 3-5 tells us that solving our problems requires restorative action.

Discipline Requires Restorative Action

1 Corinthians 5:3–5 NKJV

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. 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, 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 that I said discipline requires restorative action. In v. 5, Paul says to cast him out so that he may be saved.

Here’s what the conversation looks like, “Brother, if you want to remain a part of our church, you’re going to repent and you’re going to be accountable to us as your brothers. If not, then you will be delivered over to Satan and you will experience the fruit of your sin.”

Paul doesn’t do this to isolate the man or to give up on him, but to save him.

Here’s the principle…this sin was a public sin and it needed public condemnation.

If there is a sin between two, it is dealt with between those two…if it goes unresolved, then bring two others with you…if not then, then it comes across my desk, and we deal with it in house.

Church discipline is never enacted to embarrass or to destroy, but always to restore.

So, when judgement and discipline comes to the house of the Lord, it always begins with a confrontation. Once the confrontation has been initiated…then there is the cleansing.

II. Cleansing

The Need For Cleansing

1 Corinthians 5:6 NKJV

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Unresolved sin and the abandonment of responsibility in your life, in the church, or in your business is like a cancer. If it’s not killed, it will spread and spread and spread until it takes the life of it’s host.

Paul here compares it to leaven in bread.

Obviously, the Jews don’t eat leavened bread, meaning that it doesn’t rise because it their bread doesn’t contain any outside agent that causes it to rise.

In the same way, in the life of a Christian and the church… bad actors, bad attitudes, and sinful living act as an outside agent that causes unnatural and perverse things to grow in the body we call the church.

This body needs to be cleaned because it is disgraced, allowing this perversion to be tolerated in the open and celebrated..there is no mourning over this sinfulness.

The Method of Cleansing

1 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV

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.

To “purge” means to “cleanse”. It literally means to remove any contaminants that cause corrosion.

When I worked on Navy ships, there were all kinds of specifications and tolerances that we had to follow. And when you fit the pipes on board, there are different methods you can use to fit them together, but each class of ship had their own specifications and methods to use.

Well, there was a particular program that required any pipes butted together and welded without a fitting to be purged with argon.

Well, what argon does is displaces all the oxygen in the area it’s present. If you were to ever crawl down into a hole with and argon leak, you’d suffocate, because you couldn’t breath.

The purpose purging pipes with argon is to displace all the oxygen inside that pipe so that the weld doesn’t corrode.

Paul is saying here, “you are pure and holy but you allowing this corrosion into your life. Purge it, displace it, completely remove it from you, because Jesus Christ intended for you to be free from it when He died and was raised for you.”

We cannot allow sin to exist in our life or in our church, we have to purge it, or else it will take over.

The Reason for Cleansing

1 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV

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.

When we allow leaven in the body, when we allow corruption in the body, we negate sincerity and truth…and if we lose sincerity and truth, then we aren’t a church, we’re just a country club of sinners.

That’s why he says, “let us keep the feast”. He is referencing the festival of unleavened bread, and he is pointing us to our future glory, where we will see no corruption.

So, he is saying, let us keep the new covenant of grace where God will keep us from corruption, instead of returning to our old way of living.

The reason you need cleansing in your life, the reason that our church needs to be purged, is so that we don’t destroy the fellowship that Jesus Christ died to give us.

III. Comprehension

Paul wants this church to comprehend Godliness. It’s not enough to know information and buzz words that make you sound spiritual. These guys in Corinth had it all, but Paul says that they are “puffed up.” They are puffed up because of their worldly wisdom, but they have failed to comprehend the nature of Almighty God.

A Reminder of Judgement

1 Corinthians 5:9 NKJV

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.

Now remember, this is actually the second letter that Paul has written to this church, and he is giving them a reminder of what he said.

Paul wrote and said that there is zero tolerance for sexually immoral people. They are defiled, and they will reap the judgement of God.

We’ve grown very relaxed in our tolerance for sexual immorality.

Today, the pornography industry earns more than every sporting industry combined. It’s a sad reality that we are facing, and we are going to see it rear it’s filthy head with this younger generation. Already, porn addiction is one of the leading causes of divorces in our world, right behind money trouble…and where there is porn addiction, there is money trouble.

Sexual immorality is a plague, and we have to protect ourselves against it, and we must protect our kids against it.

Don’t give me that lame excuse, “Well, you’re not going to stop it.” I may not be able to stop it, but I am not going to willingly contribute to it.

Paul says have nothing to to with sexually immoral people…but look at what he says in v. 10

A Clarification of Judgement

1 Corinthians 5:10 NKJV

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.

He says, “I’m not talking about the lost people. If I was, then the only way to get away from it al would be to die and go to glory.”

1 Corinthians 5:11–13 NKJV

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. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

Paul is saying, “Judgement begins here.”

I’ll leave you with this…

Judgement can only take place with the body of Christ. To place judgement on the sinner is to take the place of God. We must make every effort to be purified in our homes, but present in the world.

Conclusion

In your life, there is some sin that needs purging. I don’t know what it is, but get it out of your life. If you need to, seek accountability so that the Lord doesn’t deliver you over to Satan.

Finally, we cannot expect to win the world by judging the world, but by judging the church so that we can be restored to Jesus Christ.