When Sin Gets In

1 Corinthians 5 NASB95

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

INTRO: This morning, we are going to talk about sin. Now, if you are visiting and asking yourself if this is all we ever talk about, the answer is “no”. I think it is fair to say that sin is something each of us deals with on a daily basis.

ILL: I was speaking to a former secretary at the Baptist Association who said she received a phone message several years ago from an angry man demanding that a certain pastor in the association be fired because he preached on sin, and according to the man, he himself had not ever sinned in his life. He didn’t leave his name, but she thought it was obvious that it must have been Jesus because He is the only sinless man.

Most of us don’t like talking about sin because we struggle with it. Yet, Jesus talked about sin. In fact, He came to save us from sin. So, it really is kind of a big topic in the church. The reality is, that here at LRBC, we work through books of the Bible and so we deal with topics as they are addressed in Scripture. So, as Scripture addresses sin, so shall we.

But as we discuss sin this morning, I want you to understand that this is not simply a “Sin is Bad” message. (Quick poll: Raise your hand if you think sin is bad…) I think we know that. Today we are looking at sin in the context of the local church.

Now, up front, We need to acknowledge that you and I will not be perfect this side of glory, and so even as we are called to live as Jesus did, we are constantly having to deal with our sin.

This was true for the church in Corinth as well. They had a number of challenges and sins that were evident. What we see in Chapter 5 is not merely a condemning of sin, but a condemnation of the church’s handling of sin.

It’s kind of like spiders. You can’t keep all the spiders out of your house, but you can do things to prevent it and to eradicate those that do get in.

So, if you picked up a bulletin on your way in, I invite you to use the sermon guide as we study 1 Corinthians 5, “When Sin Gets In” - We will be looking at how the church should address sin among its members. Let us jump in.

The first thing we see is

The Church’s Reaction to Sin (1-2)

Now the text begins with the report. Let me just read v. 1 again (READ)

The sin that was reported was flagrant and abhorrent, and ongoing. Paul does not beat around the bush and instead names the sin and condemns it. There should be no mistaking that this was unacceptable. Paul’s words here convey that he was shocked and repulsed at this.

But the fact that there was a church member who was in sin was not the surprise. The fact that the sin was sinful was not the surprise.

Rather, the surprise was how the church reacted to this sin. Let’s read v.2 again. (READ)

So, the church body knew this sin was taking place- that is, that a man in their membership had taken his father’s wife. Now, there are a lot of questions you may have- Was this his mother? Was his father remarried? Was his father still alive? Those are all fun for speculation, but all we really need to know is that this was a public sin and the church was well-aware of it.

Yet, Paul says they reacted with arrogance. What does this mean?

This means that the church reacted to this man’s sin the way that they likely acted regarding their own sin.

ILL: Think about the sins that you commit. We tend to make excuses for ourselves, don’t we? We justify our gossip and the tearing down of other people with our words. We compare ourselves to others and thereby tell ourselves that our lusting and hypocrisy is normal.

Like I said, it’s not surprising that we sin, but what is surprising is how we react to our sin.... if only we acted towards our sin the way we react to spiders. But instead, we become numb to it; unmoved and unaffected.

And like the Corinthian Church we begin to tolerate sin in our body because we want the body to tolerate the ongoing sin in our own life.

This sin was tolerated in the Corinthian Church. Now, looking at Paul’s assessment, they did not simply tolerate it or ignore it, they began to celebrate it. That’s the way these things work in the world.

First, people make excuses for sin. Then they become numb to it, and ignore it. Then they tolerate it, telling the world that it’s not something people can help. Finally, they celebrate it. They begin to proclaim this sin as no longer a sin, but rather a virtue. (Paul lays this out in Romans 1 )

The Church in Corinth had lost sight of God’s holiness and their identity as the Bride of Christ. So, how ought a church react to sin?

Well, a church body should react the same way we ought to react to our own sins. We ought to lament them; to grieve over our sin. When sin is exposed in our life, we should fall to our knees and repent. James says it this way

James 4:7–10 NASB95

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

When there is sin in the church, we ought to react by mourning over it, for sin is an affront to God. Not only do we grieve the sin, but we grieve for the sinner who has been caught up in the deception of Satan. When we see sin in light of God’s holiness, we can react rightly. This reaction should then lead us to

Discuss: Is there a sin in your life that you have become numb to? Pray Psalm 139:23-24 over your life and seek accountability as you move forward.

The Church’s Response to Sin (3-5)

Let’s read v. 3-5 again (READ)

Paul says that he has judged the man who has so flagrantly sinned. You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, isn’t there a bible verse that says not to judge?”

Well, sorta, Matt.7:1-5 talks about how we should not judge one’s motives. We do not know a person’s heart, so we should refrain from assuming we do. But on several occasions, we are taught that we can tell a tree by its fruit. In other words, we can still call sin “sin”. And that’s what Paul is doing here. (BTW- Paul clarifies in v. 9-13 that this sin and hypocrisy in the church is what is being addressed. Sinners outside the church are the mission field)

Paul is commending the church to revoke this man’s membership in the church- to treat him as an unbeliever. This is the last step in church discipline.

Instructions for Church discipline are given in Matt. 18:15-20. Jesus described the process that ought to take place in the church when a Christian is found in sin.

Confront them individually

Confront them with others who can be trusted

Bring them before the church

These steps are all with the hope that the person found to be in ongoing sin will repent and be reconciled!

ILL: I find it funny how little people talk about church discipline. When people talk about it, they like to call it ‘getting churched’ and usually it’s a story of how a person is brought before the church and ambushed. The reality is that if handled biblically, by the time one should be brought before the congregation, that individual would have had ample opportunity to acknowledge their sin, and to turn from it.

And listen, they are confronted not out of high-horsed-holiness, but out of our surrender to the most high God! Remember we exist to bring God glory, and our sin is an attack on God’s character.

The situation in Corinth was so bad that instead of confronting the sin, they just decided to go with it. Paul says, no, church, this needs to be addressed NOW.

Now, I want you to notice that the Corinthians probably had some of the same objections to church discipline that many of you have.

It’s awkward.

They might think I’m nosy or ‘not nice’

I’m not sure I’m the right person…

Paul says that not only is he supportive of this, but as a body assembled in the name of Jesus Christ, you have the obligation to respond to sin. You are equipped with His power and His permission to respond to sin.

The man Paul is referring to must be removed from the church. Now, this does not mean that he was to be treated poorly, beat up, or anything. But, it is to say that he had not truly surrendered his life over to the Lordship of Jesus, and thus could not genuinely can call himself a follower of Christ. This is surely a firm and uncomfortable step to take, but it highlights the value of the church to God. Remember, the church is precious to God. To not address sin actually demonstrates a lack of love for God and neighbor.

The church, should grieve sin that infiltrates the body and should respond by taking the steps to confront such sin. The reaction, the response, and now we turn to

Discuss: Why is church discipline necessary? What is the goal of church discipline?

The Church’s Resolve toward Sin (6-8)

The church must have a strong stance regarding sin and how we address it. If we are not certain and consistent, then we will face many challenges. The apostle Paul helps to grasp the importance of this here. Let’s read v. 6-8 again (READ)

Paul uses the OT picture of the Passover to draw us in here. In Egypt, the final plague that God would send was one that would take the life of the firstborn of every household. The Jews were given instructions to prepare a lamb and make a sacrifice to God and put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. In so doing, the angel of death would pass over their homes and leave them safe.

Paul says that Jesus is our passover. He is the perfect lamb slain for our salvation.

Leaven is a picture of sin. It starts small, and would be easy to overlook. That is why the Jews were told to remove all leaven from their house for 7 days before preparing the unleavened bread! Paul says clean out the old leaven!

I recognize that some of you might not be bakers, so let me put it this way > Suppose you went to the doctor and you hear, “You have a cancerous tumor”. You wouldn’t say, “oh it’s just a little bit of cancer...” No, that sucker requires immediate removal!! You know that leaving it alone will not make things better. You take that seriously because you know it will bring destruction to your body.

Just as the leaven or yeast infects the whole lump of dough, so sin that remains unaddressed in the body will infect the church. The feast of unleavened bread was taken every year with bitter herbs that reminded the Jews of the bitterness of their oppression, and the purity of their rescue.

We celebrate our salvation in the church by taking the foods of malice and wickedness from our presence.

You see, the church should be resolved to take sin seriously because God takes sin seriously… so seriously that He would take the punishment upon Himself so that we could live in a restored relationship with Him. We have been saved from our sin; purchased with the blood of Christ.

When sin is not addressed, we are effectively saying that we know better than God. That we can change His standards. It is a blatant act of rebellion.

This is not a call to legalism, nor is it a condemnation on us for not being perfect. Rather, it is a call to live out the identity of the church. Paul says that our lives should be marked by sincerity and truth every day in celebration of our salvation.

We, the church, should be resolved to address sin in such a way that the offender is restored if at all possible. That means being genuine and honest with one another.

Hey, listen- The price for sin has been paid in full. And we are called out of that life- as we learned in Galatians:

Galatians 2:20 NASB95

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

To continue in sin is to refuse the provision of Christ who says “This is my body, broken for you; This is my blood, a new covenant” and to ignore sin in the body of Christ is to devalue the price paid for our redemption.

As we close, I want to ask you: How valuable is the Gospel to you? Is there unaddressed sin in your life that you need to deal with?

If you have never taken the steps to repent of your sin and follow Jesus, I want to encourage you to do so. Following a prayer, we are going to sing as a congregation. If you feel led , Just come forward and let me share with you how you can place your trust in Jesus today.

[PRAY]

Discuss: How have you seen sin multiply? How does church discipline convey love?