Tonight, we continue our study in the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, and we are looking at the second part of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, so we'll conclude chapter 5 tonight. I'm going to read the entirety of the chapter. Our text will be verses 6 through 13. So, first 13 verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. 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 now our text 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 idolater 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. As a pastor, I have at times been saddened over how church discipline is characterized and church discipline is viewed almost universally. When I talk with people today about discipline i get a look of disgust and i get a look of of real contempt for the practice and then of course follows an explanation of how cruel a church would be such a church would be to implement that kind of thing inevitably it would follow with the description of somebody they knew who was abused and mistreated by the church and therefore the whole practice is then questioned i have no doubt that uh doubt that abuses happen with discipline but i think what's most tragic is that when it comes to discipline in the life of the church so many christians don't understand or think much of its value that's what grieves me some i've met in the church not here but some i've met in the course of my time as a pastor who've even walked up and said, we don't even believe discipline should exist. We don't even think it should happen. It's a terrible thing. Well, with those thoughts in mind, as we turn to 1 Corinthians 5 tonight, my goal tonight is then to counter that thought, to consider why we do church discipline, why church discipline is so needed, but to present it in a positive manner in such a way that you understand why it matters, why it's important, why it's valuable. why it must happen in the life of the church the way that paul explains the importance of discipline really does and i don't know if you caught it it gives us the same it's a strange kind of a sad kind of consolation but even the first century church didn't get it i mean that's what you get reading first corinthians chapter five they didn't understand why you would do that they didn't appreciate it and paul is helping them in first corinthians and commanding them to think through just how important discipline is in the life of the church why it has to be implemented and how much it matters to the lord and that should be enough it matters to the lord why does the lord want this well you could go through a few initial initial reasons that he wants this done to neglect church discipline is to deny what Jesus has set you free from. To say it's okay to let sin go on in the life of the church is to deny the gospel. To refuse to render judgments about sin is evidence that we forgot who we are as Christians. I'll unpack that. To neglect church discipline is to, and this is a big one for tonight, bring down serious consequences on the whole body. In other words, there is absolutely nothing isolated about sin. There is nothing isolated about what you do in private. Very important point. And they hadn't thought through any of this. They hadn't thought through any of this. And tonight he's explaining this for them. Tonight he's helping them through by reminding them who they are, what the Lord required of them as a church and how they were to go forward through the process of discipline. So I hope tonight that you see the value of this and not think of it as just some horrid thing. It is an awful thing to have to go through the process. But not to understand that the Lord put this in place as a great benefit for the church and for the running center. And that's what He wants us to understand tonight. That church discipline is the ultimate expression of love in protecting the sheep. In protecting the purity of the church. And the means by which sinners are brought to repentance. What an important thing to say. As we return to 1 Corinthians 5 tonight, we have a case study here in the life of Corinth, which Paul is calling this church here, in light of a circumstance and situation that has happened, to exercise the keys of the kingdom, to exercise church discipline. And it is not a, I hope you guys do this, it is a command from the Lord to do this. Remember what happened. A man, in verse 1, had been involved with his father's wife, and it had greatly agitated the apostle that the church did nothing about this. They just didn't do anything. And we looked at all the different reasons possibly for that last time in a culture where family was exalted and it would be difficult to discipline a member of the family. It was a sin so evident. This is what shocked the Apostle. It was a sin so evident. It was a sin so perverse. Not even the pagans put up with this. Not even the pagans tolerated this one. And Paul's saying, but you guys allow it. And so he addressed their attitude in the whole thing. He really went after their attitude, their pride, their pride. They were fearing men. They were not fearing God. They were arrogant, he says. You are arrogant. And so then he gives the prescription. He gives a command, doesn't he? Here comes the command from the Lord. This was the hard part. Verse 5, last time. Here's what you do. The next time you are gathered together in your assembly, which is corporate worship, The next time you are gathered together, you deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Now aren't you thankful that there's something that followed that? That he may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now you ponder and you say, wait a minute. Paul just said deliver somebody to Satan so that his life would be destroyed. that he might be saved. Have you noticed here in Corinthians everything about our own wisdom and doing ministry doesn't work with God's wisdom? That doesn't make any sense. That does not make any sense. And nothing about the ministry that we've studied in Corinthians has made sense so far because God has told us everything we're doing is foolishness to the world. With regard to conventional wisdom, doing ministry as we think it'll work, everything the Lord is telling us, then whatever we think will work, what He's telling us will seem like it won't work. What is the last thing somebody wants to do? Discipline. God's saying, discipline. It made no sense. But the principle was this. You know. What do we do with somebody who is belligerent, hardened in the life of the church who in belligerence and in a hardened heart walks away from it. In other words, how about this? What do you do with an Esau? What do you do with an Esau? Does God say, let him go? What does the church usually do? What does God say to do with an Esau? He says, deliver him over to the devil's realm so that all of the physical and emotional consequences of his actions would land on him. In other words, when he is attacked and he's assaulted and he has no more covering of the care of the community, when he's cast outside and the care of the community is closed off, he might wake up. When he suffers the terrible consequences on his own for his sin, directly handed to the devil, into the world, into the sway of the evil one where the devil holds sway. And when he wakes up, he might come home. And God is encouraging the church here, when you faithfully honor the keys, that is a great possibility. The door's wide open, that could happen. But to do nothing is not love. Not love for somebody's soul, Spare the rod, you hate your son. So, I want you to place him in the place where it will be the most probable in the realm where he could wake up and come back. And then you receive him back. That was 2 Corinthians. Now that was the principle. At this point, Paul explains why it matters. In other words, what was at stake in their neglect of it? Their neglect of not doing anything about this. The easy way was to do nothing. You know, we looked at, I mean, if this is your father, if this is your mother, if this is your son, and you've got to exercise discipline, the devastation of that mess, you understand. But Paul is saying, you're creating something far worse by doing nothing. This is what you're not considering. You're creating something far worse by your neglect and doing nothing. What? What were you talking about? Well, in verse 6, he says something. 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 has been sacrificed. What a glorious statement. Leaven. You'll remember Jesus warned about the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees, their doctrine, something that corrupted. Leaven was a substance, remember, such as yeast that makes dough rise and become light before it is baked. The basic point here is this. A little bit of leaven affects the whole lump. Affects the whole lump. In this context, you're thinking that by doing nothing, it's okay. You're thinking that's showing love. Let me tell you what it's doing. You're all wrong. This man's sin is infecting the whole body. You say, well, what do you mean? Not the whole body doesn't even agree with it. They're allowing it. And what does that communicate to the next generation? What does that communicate to people? and then the greater question is what does the lord then think of the congregation and here's where we really struggle because we really find out how american we are you know we really find out how american we are you know we're all trained to think in our country it's my life it's my own personal life who are you to judge my life who are you to step into what is private it's somewhat close to ancient roman thinking greco-roman thinking you know we're we're adults and you can't criticize us you have no right to criticize us and paul is attacking that and he's going to say okay that's true that's true on the outside that is true on the outside i'll come back to that that is not true on the inside that is not true on the inside when it comes to the church if you claim to be a christian you are part of a holy community you're part of a special people a covenant community and your sin and i'm i'm not talking about the struggle against sin everyone should understand that by now i i know everyone struggles against sin we're talking about belligerent hardened sin doing what i'm going to do with no regard for the law of god your sin contaminates the whole thing i once heard about a um a city in the hills of guatemala in which all the people got terribly and deathly ill with salmonella and they could not figure out they just could not figure out where this was coming from and after all of these these weeks that went by and everyone was getting deathly ill ill after sickness after sickness after sickness they found a little crack in their water line a little crack and a little bit of animal dung was seeping in there and the whole city was drinking it and everyone got sick this is the mentality the apostle the apostles working with you see this ebola concern or this this thing from africa everyone's panicked because we're bringing it back to the us why to make the point even stronger remember Achan boys and girls I've always been moved by the account of Achan the children of Israel had committed a trespass listen to this this is this is Joshua the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things for Achan the son of Carmi the son of Zabdi the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed things that the anger of the lord burned against aiken the children of israel well aiken did the stealing the children of israel committed the trespass and you see the principle there the sin of aiken was the sin of the whole it was attributed to all of israel and the Lord's anger burned against them until what he took Achan outside the camp and remember what they did to Achan they stoned him and his wife and every accursed thing was put out and it was all heaped up and put on fire to make clear that everything had to be put away the point was he was teaching Israel something very important sin affected the whole community and that's what's driving paul here in first corinthians chapter 5 tonight a little leaven leavens the whole lump so in other words you could say this your sin is very much the business of the church your sin is very much the business of the church everyone knew that a small amount of leaven could infect the whole batch of dough when the people see that happening in the life of the church and the people do whatever they want or live however they want and thinking it's not going to affect the whole it trains God's people to think that God doesn't take sin very seriously that that's the sad effect of it it trains the church that God doesn't take all this very seriously and Paul says what you do affects the whole now I want to explore something so we understand tonight exactly the motivation and the exciting drive to do church discipline. Notice what he says here. For you are unleavened. That is a remarkable statement. You are. In the same sentence, he mentions the Passover. Remember boys and girls of Passover, they took the blood of the Lamb and they put it on the doorposts of the houses. Remember, they put it on there so that when the angel of death came he would pass over and not pour out his wrath on them and not take their lives and remember what happened that that night he did destroy the egyptians and whenever the angel saw the blood on the doorpost he passed over well the passover and the feast of unleavened bread were celebrated together so on the 14th day of the month now if you follow me you'll see what paul's doing here They would celebrate the Passover. But all the leaven had to be removed from their homes. You had to take out the leaven out of your houses. Everyone knew. You left no leaven in your homes. In fact, anyone who ate leaven was cut off. So from the 14th day to the 21st day, they would all eat unleavened bread. And you say, well, what was God teaching them? Here's what's fascinating. Here's the manner I want you to eat, the bread. With your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. So they would celebrate these feasts together and they would be standing. Why were they standing when they left Egypt? Well, leaven was associated with the previous year's harvest. It was a symbol of corruption. what was the feast of unleavened bread in the Passover? What was it teaching them? So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Here it is. For on this same day, I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. What were they being taught? They were to eat the Passover and they were to enjoy the unleavened bread with the belt on their waist with sandals on their feet they were to stand up because they were going out for good from egypt and they weren't going back they were done god was freeing them once their deliverance came by the shedding of blood they were to leave and they were never again to touch that old leaven that whole former life of corruption so every time they celebrated the fast that passover and the feast of unleavened bread coinciding on the 14th day they were to be taught that as blood that the blood shed death passed over them the passover then pointed them to the need of the blood for the perfect lamb who is jesus christ the feast of unleavened bread celebrated for seven days, the number of perfection would remind them of what God expected of them after they were delivered. You're done with the old way of life. In other words, I'm bringing you out of Egypt. The old leaven of your sin, you leave there. The old leaven and idolatry, you leave it behind. He wanted a holy and sanctified life. And that's what He wants from us. That's what He calls us to. And these things were lasting memorials in Israel. Now, do you see what Paul just said to you? Christ is your what? Passover. His blood has cleansed you. And now, I have brought you out of the old life. I have set you free. I have brought you out of sexual immorality as a way of life. It's no longer your master. You are unleavened. So why don't you celebrate that festival? Celebrate that festival, not with old leaven, not with the leaven of malice and evil. Don't celebrate what God's done using and justifying and promoting those things. But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth in your lives. That's what he's saying. As a church. Because, you see, when you begin to justify sin in the life of the church, you're contaminating the whole and trying to bring back in the old leaven. You could put it this way. Purity is serious business with God. And sin just isn't to be swept under the rug. Why? Because God had to deal with our sin by pinning His Son to a cross. And He doesn't want us to remain in it, even though everyone here tonight realizes how much you still need to change. That's the life of sanctification. It's not undermining the struggle, you understand. The struggle's real. But to be belligerent in it, to harden your heart in it, To justify it, that's a whole different kind of thing. So this is what he's dealing with here, and that's the principle. Now, what would be the argument that might come out of this tonight? Okay, we exercise discipline. What do you really want from us, Paul, to be our own little sectarian group of holier-than-thous? I could hear that in the American context. You want us to do that and then we're just viewed as the holier-than-thou's? Do you know how prevalent sin is? Do you want us just to be our own little island, some sort of ivory tower of the really righteous ones? Do you know what we're going to be viewed like in society? I'm imagining that may have been an objection. But whatever the case, I believe that we come to a principle here in 1 Corinthians 5 that is so misunderstood today that if we appreciated this, if we understood this, I think some of the fear of perception of how we're always looked at would go away. I really do. What do I mean? I was watching a show the other day that portrayed Christians from the 19th century settling in the West. And it presented all these Christians as settlers of the West. And as they were traveling, they were singing in their high and mighty and proud tone, Lord, may we cleanse sin off the land. So they're going to settle the West and create their utopia, and they're going to cleanse off the land, and they're singing against drunkenness, and they're singing against revelry, and they're singing against this and that, and it's so high and mighty, and it's angry, and I hated that Christians are depicted that way. But you know what? It's sad because a lot of that's really true of how Christians act. I was reading a while back, Phoebe Judson, pioneer of the Pacific Northwest. In her book, A Pioneer's Search for the Ideal Home, she describes founding Linden. And I found this after I left Linden, so I never used it up there. I wish I would have. I want you to listen to this. Alas for fair Linden, the queen of the Nooksack Valley, with her prosperity, a dark cloud arose threatening to enshroud her beauty. To the horror and dismay of the gem city, mothers and sisters, they learned that two strangers had applied for a saloon license within her borders. With hearts all aflame, with love for husbands, sons, and fathers, we rallied to the rescue. But all in vain, our pleadings, prayers, and the saloon with its woeful influence was planted in our midst. I have lived long enough to realize that unless the government prohibits the manufacture of that curse of the world, that fell destroyer of mankind, rum, rum, it will be utterly impossible to rear on the mundane spear an ideal home. To the women of Linden, not the men, protect your men. Rise up, O mothers and sisters of Linden. Rise up, protect that blessed city and your ideal home from the single great fell destroyer of mankind and curse of the world rum. That is what's wrecked our witness as Christians. That. What does Paul say here? Here's the principle. 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 greedy or swindlers or idolaters. Since then you would need to go out of the world i'm not saying that you should have this kind of authority over the world to judge it to discipline them for their sins i am not saying that you can't command the outside paul says you can't command the outside and that's what we've been doing as christians all the time and we lose our witness that way we kill our witness that way don't we because we would never sit down with the world we would never go to the world they're the bad sinners and the hypocrisy the world sees is this stuff going on on the inside we don't command those on the outside sure we call them to repentance but we're not commissioned to purge their sin god never calls us to do that in fact paul says here something very plainly for what have i to do with judging outsiders that's not your business it's not my business god judges those on the outside you catch that in verse 13 that's his business you leave that to him in fact i'm not even saying that you should eat you should not eat or separate from them for then you would need to leave the world your witnesses you don't accept their behavior but that doesn't mean you just stay away when we're judging the world in the wrong kind of way we lose all our credibility come across as everything we're always concerned about high and mighty but here's what you are to do here's what is your responsibility i am writing to you verse 11 i am writing to you and telling you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he's guilty of sexual immorality or greed or an idolater reviler drunkard or swindler not even to eat with such a one that's where you judge anyone guilty of those sins on the inside Notice what he included there so we don't wrongly prioritize. Greed. Anyone who is highly greedy, who just wants more and more and more and more, hurting the poor, threatens the good of society. Anyone who is an idolater, a drunkard, a reviler, a swindler, if they're running around saying they're Christians, uh-uh. I am not talking about fighting against and struggling against sin, brothers and sisters. I'm talking about someone who lives like the Dickens and then comes in and thinks that it doesn't matter. But they're in church. Paul says, that's where the line is drawn. That's where Christians are to render a judgment. You are to make judgments. Because they take up the name of Jesus and they drag His name through the mud. They run His name through the mud in their lives, making a mockery, and anyone who ever sees that will never take Christianity seriously. They'll never take Christianity seriously. Here's what you are to do to those on the inside behaving like that. Make a judgment. Yes, on the inside. You have to judge, verse 12. Exercise discipline is the judgment in correlation with the Old Testament principle that the evil person has to be put out. Has to be put out. Too much is at stake. Do you support anyone named a brother who says they're a Christian in their sin? Do you turn to blind eye to it? God doesn't. And He doesn't want His church to. And so it's a challenge today to, as a church, take a lot more seriously the holiness of his body what we are part of and what god did for us in setting us free will you struggle sure that's why he gives you the table and that's why he says come to me and confess your sins not like you saw running the other way but come i'll forgive you i close tonight saying i realize how hard this is today one of you said well we you see what's coming you see the challenges that are coming you know how are we going to do this it's going to take a lot of wisdom, a lot of prayer, a lot of support from the people if the elders have to do discipline. Because any elders that stand up and do discipline, trust me, this is the last thing they really want to do. But discerning the facts, they're trying to be loving so that with the goal that if somebody is running down a path and hardening their heart, they would be restored. But the lax attitude in Corinth is the one thing that will kill a church and now you understand why the Lord said and why all the reformers believed in the importance of discipline and said that is the mark of a true and faithful church because the Lord cares a lot about its purity and holiness we never want to become a harsh, judgmental unloving group, of course not it should always be done in the spirit of gentleness and humility and love and finding that balance of of welcoming sinners which we should but finding a balance between that and a line of somebody who says i'm going to live any way i want it well it's going to take elders but the holiness of christ's church and his great name is at stake i close with this verse therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them. This is 2 Corinthians 6. Be separate from them, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we have considered a passage tonight that is challenging to us. And we realize, Lord, that we're all great sinners. And that if we were to run our own way, we would do things that would be shocking before the bottom. And so first and foremost, we judge ourselves tonight and say that many of the things that we've done in the course of our life individually have not brought honor and glory to you, and we've not considered what we're a part of. we've taken that lightly and not considered that our sin affects the whole. And so be merciful to us and forgive us and let us all together as a church pursue holiness and pursue what you love and value what you value. And if we have to go through the disciplinary process, give us the courage and strength to do it for the honor and glory of your name first, even if it's family. Because you have called us to put you first. But in all things, we pray, Lord, that the purity in this place, in the Escondido URC, would be maintained, that You would continue to exercise great mercy to all of us in our struggle with sin and that You, Lord, would encourage us more and more as we see the day approaching that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us full and free redemption and that You use discipline as a way of restoring wandering sheep. Thank You for that. And thank You for Your unfailing love which remains forever. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.