WWUTT 1487 You Have Not Mourned Instead (1 Corinthians 5:2-3)

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The Apostle Paul has heard about sexual immorality that is going on in the church in Corinth. And even from as far away as he is, he is able to make a judgment on that man because he judges with right judgment, as we should when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul is confronting sexual immorality in the church.

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I'm going to begin by reading the first seven verses out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

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It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the

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Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. And you have become puffed up, and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

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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.

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In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our

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Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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

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Clean out the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.

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For Christ, our Passover Lamb, also was sacrificed. So there's this sexual immorality that's happening here in the church.

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As I mentioned yesterday, this is not everyone in the church in Corinth, but everyone is being held accountable for the fact that the sexual immorality has not been dealt with.

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This man is still committing sexual immorality and still going to church with them.

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No one has done anything about it. And so Paul says this to their shame. You've become puffed up,

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Paul says in verse two, and have not mourned instead. You should be in mourning.

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You should be in grief over the fact that such a sin exists in your midst. So that you will pay attention and do something about it, according to the word of God.

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And Paul will even come back to the law when it comes to how such a one should be dealt with.

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You have the Old Testament reference in verse 13. Those who are outside God will judge, remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

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Or as the English standard translation puts it, purge the evil person from among you.

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So instructions have been given to the church on how to deal with such a situation.

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Even though the New Testament has not fully been written, the Corinthians should know how to deal with such a one.

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They should mourn over the fact that there is this sin, this sexual immorality among them.

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But Paul says you've become puffed up because what has Paul been confronting all this while? In the first four chapters that we've read here in First Corinthians.

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They're all kind of thumping their chest going, well, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ.

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And as Greeks, they even pride themselves on the fact that they've discovered this new thought, this new idea, this

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Christianity. And trying to look impressive in the eyes of the world when the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

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It's amazing to us. The things that we read in scripture are amazing to us. They are indeed brilliant.

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God, what a smart guy, right? They're fantastic to us because we have the

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Holy Spirit of God. That's why we can read things in the Bible and marvel at the wonderful working of God.

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How high his thoughts are way above our thoughts. The genius and the brilliance of this plan that he has put into effect to redeem those who would believe in his son.

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We marvel at these things because we have the Holy Spirit of God. Paul is saying that it should be the same with the

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Corinthians. They also should be marveling at this, but they're still infants in Christ. They're still of the flesh, as he said of them in chapter three.

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They're not thinking with the mind of God. They're thinking with the mind of man. That doesn't mean that they're unbelievers.

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Just as Jesus had to confront Peter with this in Matthew, chapter 16, when he said to Peter, get behind me,

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Satan, he wasn't saying to Peter that he was an unbeliever. And now you're not even a Christian anymore, Peter. That wasn't what

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Christ was saying. But in that moment, he was thinking with the mind of a man instead of with the mind of God.

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He had previously answered a question right on the money because it had been revealed to him by the father.

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Jesus even said so. But when it came to what Jesus shared with his disciples about the fact that he was going to go to the cross and die and then rise again from the grave, and the disciples did not understand that Peter even tried to prevent him from going to the cross.

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In this, Jesus said, get behind me, Satan, for you are thinking with the mind of man and not with the mind of God.

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So here in this particular circumstance, Paul is is confronting a sin here in chapter five, but he's also showing he's doing two things here.

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He's confronting a sin, but he's also showing them how their pride has made them neglect some of those things that they should be paying attention to, especially concerning sin in the body and the need to be holy, not just the individual call to holiness, but even the call for the whole church to be holy.

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And that is not a an instruction or an idea that they are taking seriously because this man is allowed to continue in their midst in this sexual immorality without being dealt with.

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In the meantime, the rest of the people in the church are arguing over who's better because they follow which teacher you've become puffed up,

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Paul says, and you've not mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from you.

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Now, again, it's not that everybody in this church is committing sexual immorality.

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We know that's the case because Paul says going on in chapter six in verses nine, 10 and 11.

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I've quoted this one several times already. Of course, we're coming to it as we're getting closer to chapter six. We're in a section here where Paul is confronting sexual immorality.

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He's going to call them to sexual purity, especially when we get to chapter six. So it's there in six verses nine through 11 that we read this.

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Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.

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Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals.

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Those sins that Paul confronts there in verse nine all have to do with sexual immorality. Then you go to verse 10, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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So you have all sexually immoral acts in verse nine. You have other sins listed in verse 10.

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Now, what does Paul say in verse 11? And such were some of you, but you were washed.

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You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our

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God. So some of them there in the church in Corinth had previously been in these sins and are not anymore.

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They are justified. They're being sanctified as they continue to grow and progress in this faith.

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Some of them were in sexual immorality and they're not. But there are others of the church that are in sexual immorality.

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Paul singles out a very specific case right here in chapter five that is not being dealt with.

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Then he's going to talk to the whole church about sexual purity coming up in chapter six, the call to everyone to glorify

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God in their bodies back or looking forward to verses 19 and 20 there in chapter six.

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Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and that you are not your own for you were bought with a price?

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Therefore, glorify God in your body. All the church is called to that, but there's still a recognition there that not everyone in the church is in this sexual immorality.

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And in this particular instance that Paul is confronting, of course, not everybody is committing this.

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In fact, Paul singles out this in because it appears to be only this guy and he's doing a sin that is so outrageous that even

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Gentiles, even the pagans will be looking at this going. Are you are you kidding me? That's awful. I don't even have to be a

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Christian. I know that's bad. A man is sleeping with his father's wife. He is committing incest by sleeping with his mother in law.

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It appears that it's not his biological mom. It's his father is remarried.

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And this woman that his father is married to is the woman that this man in the church is sleeping with.

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So as Paul is going to be confronting sexual immorality, it appears as if he's confronting the most serious case of sexual immorality.

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First, there are others in the church that are being sexually immoral, maybe still tempted by what's going on in the pagan temples.

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There's temptations. There's lust going on there. So Paul is going to confront that. But he's starting with the most serious case.

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First, this man who is committing incest. And, you know, this is the only time in the New Testament that incest is even mentioned.

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If it were not for this story in first Corinthians five or if it were not for the sin of this man in the church in Corinth, we would not hear about incest at all in the

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New Testament. Some of you are probably aware that that J .D. Greer, a couple of years ago, preaching from Romans one of all places, had made this statement that the

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Bible whispers about sexual sin. It's one of the stupidest things

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I've ever heard preached, not even pulling a punch on that one. It's straightforward. There's nothing nice to say about it.

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It is stupid that he said that. This is what he said. Here's the quote exactly from a sermon that he preached on Romans one, twenty four to thirty two on January twenty seven, twenty nineteen at the

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Summit Church. He said, quote, We ought to whisper about what the Bible whispers about and we ought to shout about what it shouts about.

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And the Bible appears more to whisper when it comes to sexual sin compared to his shouts about materialism and religious pride, unquote.

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A year later, January of twenty twenty, Ed Linton, the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, preached the exact same thing.

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Of course he did, because Linton is a plagiarist who took what Greer preached and he preached it to his church as if it was his own idea in his own sermon.

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So, of course, he's going to repeat exactly the same stupid thing that Greer said. The Bible speaks loud and clear flee from sexual immorality.

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That's coming up here in chapter six. God takes sexual sin so serious that he judged

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Sodom and Gomorrah with fire because of their sexual immorality. Jude seven,

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Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued a natural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

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Does that sound like God is whispering about sexual sin? Like I said, it's a very serious matter.

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Paul would have rebuked J .D. Greer to be ashamed of himself in the same way that he is saying it here to the church in Corinth.

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It's actually reported there's a there's sexual immorality among you and sexual immorality of such a kind.

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It doesn't even exist among the Gentiles, Paul said. And you've become puffed up.

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So is Greer and so is Lytton and anybody else that would repeat the same nonsense that they were saying.

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You've become puffed up and you have not mourned instead. Mourn over these sins have nothing to do with them.

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So that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst that it wouldn't be tolerated.

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That the church would not tolerate these sins for which Christ died.

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We are called to holiness. Purge the evil person from among you, Paul says. That's how serious this is.

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He's rebuking them because they're tolerating it. You've become puffed up.

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You've not mourned so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

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Look at verse three. 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.

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Now, it is often said, judge not that you be not judged, right? That's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter five.

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And so when it comes to judging anybody's sins, well, we better not judge because if we judge, then we're also going to be judged.

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That's not what Jesus is talking about. When we read this in context in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter seven, beginning in verse one.

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It's great to be able to share this with you because it's exactly what my pastor Tom Buck preached on Sunday as we were in Matthew chapter seven, verses one through five.

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Here's what Jesus said. Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged.

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And with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. So what we're really talking about here in context is don't judge hypocritically.

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When you do judge, judge with right judgment. That's exactly what Jesus said in John chapter seven.

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Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. With the judgment you judge, you will be judged.

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With what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Verse three, why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

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Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye.

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Consider what Jesus says in verse five, you hypocrite. You're trying to handle these sins that exist in somebody else.

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When you've got the same sin that you're not taking care of in yourself, you hypocrite first, take the log out of your own eye.

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And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

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Jesus is actually saying here to judge. But don't do it hypocritically.

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It is important that we hold one another accountable. And in order to do that, you have to judge.

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Colossians 3, 16 says that we are to be teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom to admonish means to correct with goodwill, to correct a brother or sister in the

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Lord. You have to look at that person and determine that they are walking in such a way worthy of correction, right?

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They're doing something that they should not be doing. They're wandering away from righteousness and they're dabbling in sin.

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Correct them. And Jesus gives a manner by which we deal with some of those personal, quiet sins that might happen between us when we look at the order of church discipline in Matthew chapter 18.

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Now, as we continue on with this section of first Corinthians five, I'm actually going to argue with you that what

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Paul is calling for the church to do with this man who's committing this sexual immorality does not follow the guidelines in Matthew chapter 18.

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Why? Because this is not a private sin between brothers. This is an openly public sin that even the

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Gentiles know about. So it's going to be handled differently than confronting a personal sin between brothers or brothers and sisters in the

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Lord, as we see talked about an outline regarding church discipline in Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 17.

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If you want to go there and read that or 15 through 20 rather. So there's where we have dealing with personal disagreements, sins, confrontations that exist within the church.

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When you're talking about a serious public sin, that's going to be handled differently. When you're talking about a sin that has been committed by an elder or a pastor, an overseer in the church, that's going to be handled differently to Paul talks about that with Timothy in first Timothy chapter five.

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We'll talk about some of those things as we continue on in first Corinthians five. But in the meantime, the point that I'm making here is that we've all been called to hold one another accountable.

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And the fact that this church is not holding one of its own accountable is the cause for the rebuke that Paul is issuing to this church.

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You've become puffed up. Instead, you should have mourned so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from among you.

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If you were mourning over this sin, you would be doing something about it and doing something about it does not mean you would go confronting one on one and tell him to stop it.

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Now, it's already well past that. And Paul is saying he needs to be removed from your midst for I on my part, though, absent in body.

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Again, I'm coming back to first Corinthians five, three now tying this in with what I just read in Matthew seven for I on my part, though absent in body, but present in spirit have already judged him who is so committed this as though I were present.

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So Paul, even from a distance, is seeing clearly. To remove the sin that still exists there in that church in Corinth, he is exercising exactly what

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Jesus is saying to do in Matthew seven five. Paul is not judging hypocritically.

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Out of a pastoral desire and yearning for this church, he wants them to be pure, to cleanse out the old leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness.

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But instead, they would be the unleavened bread of sincerity, sincerity and truth. Paul is making that judgment, that assessment from a distance.

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But he can do that because he is judging rightly. For I on my part, though absent in body, but present in spirit.

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And this is not something, you know, new age or supernatural that Paul is talking about here.

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He's saying that his heart is yearning for them, is contending for them earnestly.

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I'm with you in spirit. I pray for you. I thank God for you. Remember, going back to what he had said in chapter one,

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I thank God always for you in my prayers. I've heard this report from Chloe's people. It's grieved my heart over the things that I'm hearing going on in your midst.

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I'm with you there in spirit. And I've already judged this guy. I've heard about what he's doing.

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I don't need to come and start, you know, doing interviews with people. We don't need to arrange a committee.

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There doesn't need to be a disciplinary committee. We got to get down to the bottom of this. It has been seconded and thirded by two or three witnesses who know this is going on in the church.

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I've already judged this man who is so committed this as though I were present with you.

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And it is not out of bounds for us whenever we encounter sins like this, that we make those judgments.

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We make those determinations. And it's not so that we would be puffed up with pride, because remember, that's exactly what

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Paul is confronting about this church. You've become puffed up and you've not mourned instead. So it's not that we correct things that are going on in the church, in our church, in someone else's church, in someone else's teaching or any of these things.

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We don't do that to puff ourselves up. We do that because we love the church, because we love

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Christ and we want his holiness to fill his body that we might be purified as we're being sanctified until the day of glory.

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Look out for one another and not because you think you're better than somebody else, but because you love them.

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You love God. You love his people. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage that we've read today, and I pray that it's something convicting, that we see the responsibility that is upon each and every one of us to hold one another responsible, to hold one another accountable, that we are on the path of righteousness and that we keep each other on that path, not wandering off into destruction if it should go that far with a person who was allowed to continue in this sin all the way until judgment.

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May it not be said of us that we did not consider our brother, that we were not our brother's keeper.

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May it be said of us that we were faithful to the very end, faithful to God and faithful to one another, that we should keep one another in the faith until the day of Christ.

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It's in his precious name that we pray. Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.