1 Corinthians 5, Are You In or Out?

First Corinthians chapter 5 beginning verse 1 be reading the entire chapter Hear 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 the

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 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little 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 the sexually immoral people Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters

Since then you would need to go out of the world But I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality

Or greed or as 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 add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Hi, my name is

John Carpenter and I'm a sinner You're supposed to say hi back. Hi, John I'm hoping to kick the sin habit

But I can't do it on my own like a member of Alcoholics Anonymous I have to first admit that I have a problem and second that I need help

I need first the help of what they call a higher power. It's what they call it in the Alcoholics Anonymous. I mean

God's help. Well, we would call the power of Christ and I need your help I Can't do it on my own and that's what the church is for if you're in one to help those

Who are in one? to kick the sin habit and So glorify the

Lord But some churches many modern Christians, especially in a place like this don't see that that is what the church is for What's your church for?

Is it for acceptance, you know one denomination a few years ago put out an ad campaign Advertises themselves as open hearts open minds and open doors.

I Bet they still lock their doors when the last person leaves. What do you think? You think they really keep the doors open all the time If that's their motto

You you think they would follow a passage like this that we just read Purge the evil person from among you don't even he was such a one.

Oh, I wonder Is the church a place of sentimental attachment, you know, just kind of a nostalgia. That's where I grew up That's what's suggested by having a church homecoming, isn't it?

It's one of the strangest things I find is the idea of a church homecoming I mean if you're no longer a member there you go to a church somewhere else

But you come back to a church for a reunion a quote homecoming Aren't you saying that the church that you no longer attend?

Is your home? Some people so love their old church that when they even if they move away like if they retire to Florida or something like that They keep their church membership in their old church far away

What if we had an old girlfriend's day? That's not like a good idea You know just once a year

You drop the wife and you go spend the day with an old girlfriend You wives think that's a good idea.

You like the sound of that Why not? Because marriage is a commitment. Oh, but church membership isn't

What if a church is like a movie theater? You know trying to draw you in to the newest show

What is it now? It's the newest thing the Lion King right before that Toy Story 4 whatever maybe for churches

It's Christmas cantata one time or a Easter pageant or bounce houses for the kids Whatever gimmicks whatever events and there might come along some churches that are really so good at that Good at the razzmatazz that you just love it and tell of course

Another one comes along that does it even better? Maybe they have fog machines and laser lights in the stairway

With I mean with a slide down the middle so the kids can slide down the steps Of course a church like that would no more kick people out than McDonald's would get rid of customers would they

Or maybe the church is like a school That's probably what a lot of reform people would think it's a school that specializes in religious curricula

It's about getting good doctrine into your heads. And if some students do poorly, they just kind of never seem to learn

You want to keep giving them lessons? So maybe one day they'll learn so you keep them in What does it mean to be in a church?

Well here in 1st Corinthians 5 we see four things About us together the church from this passage first our purity second our

Passover third our presence and fourth our purging

Are you in? or out The Apostle Paul has heard that one of the members there at Corinth is involved in this in sexual morality

And he is apparently this man is apparently married or is living with of the it's not very clear just as he has his stepmother

That was forbidden in the Old Testament and it was actually illegal in the Roman law the famous Roman poet and historian

Cicero even though he was a pagan called such a thing quote an incredible crime in chapter 6 and 7

The Apostle Paul will deal with the subject of sexual immorality as it just kind of flows out of this issue

But here in chapter 5 first, he is concerned not really about the immoral man per se

But about the fact that the church was doing nothing about it And you can tell that Paul just shocked with the language that he begins with it's actually reported

I mean, can you believe it? I can't believe it He's thinking and it's of a kind that it not even tolerated not even tolerated among the pagans

But what are you shocked the most about is that they were arrogant literally that is they were puffed up They thought very highly of themselves.

They felt good about it They were proud of the way the situation was being handled or really not being handled

We're not quite sure they were what they were proud of but I suspect I think it's kind of clear Actually, you can kind of take for granted that they were much if they're much like us today they were proud of their laxity and they confused it with love and Patience we're so tolerant.

They're thinking to themselves. We're so tolerant and loving Even the immoral feel comfortable among us.

Oh We're so good For Paul that this arrogance that they kept him from doing anything was as shocking as the sexual offense themselves itself

They were probably congratulating themselves How loving and and accepting as a body they were we're so we're so loving even mr

Married to his mother -in -law our stepmother. I guess feels right at home among us Sure, he's an outcast in the marketplace.

Now the rest of the people in Koran think he's just atrocious He's derided but here among us

He's found open hearts open minds and open doors

And Paul just responds. He just blast them you you should mourn and you should kick him out of one of those

Doors this is our purity he is in But he should be out

This is simply This chapter really what I just said, it's simply just unthinkable to many modern

Christians, especially Here in this area of this culture when the purity of the church is at stake when a self -proclaimed

Christian a church member Lives in sin and I don't mean something he just slipped into And repented of I'm in a sin that he is coolly intentionally chosen to stay in after being told to change and to stop after he's gone through a process being confronted and and Tried to be taught when you need to turn from this and when he still just continues to live in that sin

But for the sake of the purity of the church and for his his sake we were We remove him from us in verse 2 not even to eat with such a one in verse 11

You purge him from your midst in verse 13 And this is exactly the opposite of what so many cultural

Christians imagine. The church is supposed to be a Lady once told me that we're supposed we're supposed to accept everyone.

I Said no, we aren't first Corinthians 5 says we're not even a with such a one and The lady turned her back and started walking away before I could even finish the sentence

So much for her acceptance, that's one of the ironies of our day is the accepting people are some of the most

Unaccepting they won't accept anything that's different than their acceptance our cultural Christianity This is playing church filled with gimmicks if it is denouncing sin at all is denouncing the sin of those out there

It's obsessed above all with numbers And of course if you you know

If you that's all you want is numbers and there's somebody here you don't want to get rid of them And it's obsessed with that rather than a longing for holiness.

It can't imagine That we would intentionally tell someone who doesn't want to kick his sin habit to leave and We dressed up that refusal to obey because that's what it is.

It's a refusal to obey what's here We dress that up our lack of concern for the purity of the church.

We dress it up and we call it Humility we call it love Acceptance we say how how could we how could we judge judge not we're too humble to denounce someone like dad

That's why we don't do it. We're so humble To actually tell someone that they need to repent to put them out of the church

And then and then what he said to refuse to be friendly with him to be pally with him to give them a cold shoulder

Are you kidding? You would never do that and the truth is that that Our refusal is proud

Because we say we know better than what God says and it is Unloving because we don't really care about what happens to him.

We just care about how we feel about ourselves Surely that is what the Corinthians were thinking, you know, mr.

Mary to a stepmother Came in the doors. They greeted him cheerily. Hi.

Good to see you. Mr Mary to your stepmother and they talked about the weather about the business. How's it going?

Maybe about the Olympics? Did you see the gladiators the other day or whatever they did? You know, yeah Christians were supposed to go to gladiatorial games.

Maybe the races now whether he's are you a Paul or you Apollos? We talked about that or how the other how's the wife of the girlfriend your former stepmother doing?

They would smile and they would joke and have a seat for the service to begin and we're so proud of themselves That they were able to make a man like that feel at home among them

The truth is they were not loving or humble They were arrogant and they couldn't care less about his soul.

They only cared about how good it made them to feel When they were able to be friendly to a man in sin

About being able to cheerily chat with him at Walmart. I'm so I'm so spiritual

I can see him at Walmart and have a conversation with him. Sure. So what? If he goes to hell

I feel good that I'm a friendly guy and that's what matters, isn't it?

Yeah, if they were like many today, they arrogantly assumed that they were too humble to tell someone to repent. Oh They didn't want to be like those

Pharisees, you know, they heard about in the gospel stories. They were too humble. They thought to judge at least

Judge each other now, they would judge Paul and Apollos. They were grading him all the time. They would judge people outside But for those who call themselves

Christians, they would just you know, live and let live Celebrate diversity. We have open doors The arrogant are often sure that they are humble and the humble

Know that they are arrogant Paul says they should mourn You know like what you do at a funeral and someone's dead

That should be our attitude toward other professed Christians, especially members of our own church who refused to kick their sin habit

Now I know our cultural Christianity tells us that we treat them, you know, just pretend like nothing's wrong.

I know we're told wrongly That that's what Christ would do. He just accepts everybody really

I Mean you never read the Revelation thing about sending the people to hell Never mind, I would

I know that we will be considered bizarre and harsh and unloving if we follow this passage But if we're not arrogant

That is we we know we don't know better Than God if we're not arrogant if we crave the purity of ourselves and of the church

If we will not assume that we know better that how to handle such people then we will obey

We have to mourn We cannot have a good time Have a relaxed chat.

Hi. How are you? How the kids? Oh, I miss you looking forward to football season coming Whatever engage in amiable small talk with a professed

Christian, especially a church member that we know to be committed to sin We can't do it and be obeying this passage.

We have to have a passion for the purity of the church It would be as inappropriate You know just engaging and small talk be friendly to someone with a

Christian who's just Committed to sin acting like nothing's going on. That would be inappropriate as it's coming to the family it's going to a funeral coming in coming to the family of the deceased and acting like Acting like that.

Yeah, just the small talk. I've been cheery You know Who you for the season football, whatever?

there they are standing beside the casket where their loved one in it and We come up and start chatting about you know, how the

Panthers going to do this year How uncaring? How insensitive? It's a time to mourn and in this case

We're not speaking to the family of the deceased But to the deceased themselves still walking around Wanting to pretend like they are not trapped by sin

Wanting us to join them in that pretense Really conspiring with them to continue in their sin acting like it's not really sin

But we can't We have to mourn. I Know this is the opposite of what we are so often told these days, but the

Apostle Paul here He's just adamant about it right and he could write from verse 1 he he just insists

That we can't put up with this. We have they have to hear and Corinth They have to expel this man and he's angry at them for not having already done it

And he says in verse 3 that he's already made up his mind. I Hear the Apostle Paul tells them to have a meeting

But he leaves them no option about what they're to conclude at that meeting Right, he doesn't say take a vote in whichever you want you choose

I'll respect it no, they are verses 4 and 5 to assemble and to be so committed to the purity of the church that they

Deliver this man to Satan he says for the destruction of his flesh the language They are destruction of his flesh is like kind of like Job He was delivered over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.

He was handed over and his body was stricken with those painful boils What? Because Paul was this mean

No, so that the man may finally be shocked out of his sin He may repent and his spirit may be saved because this guy's probably thinking it's no big deal

I know some of them don't approve of it. But you know, really Whatever the excuse was sure if she married my father when he was alive, but she's about my age and why not?

They'll come around. She's a nice girl. Whatever his excuse was. He just thought you know, it's not a big deal and and and they were

Implicitly going along with that by treating him like it wasn't a big deal and he's and Paul is saying here No, you have to treat it now as a big deal

Mourn, it's a it's a as a big deal as someone dying. It's a funeral like big deal

Now here he's Paul is first concerned for the sinner's purity and for his salvation. And if he continues in this sin, then

Here he the man will show that he has not saved in the first place and if he is saved in this this act and it's finally treating it like it is a big deal casting him outside the

Protection of the church into Satan's domain to intentionally let Satan ravage him like you might let a savage dog

Loose on an intruder if he's saved that as he is being afflicted He will call to the

Lord for mercy And he'll finally see first man. This is a big deal And he'll repent

To do what we so often do today Which is nothing and hope our so -called kindness

Wins them over. It's not really kindness. This is selfishness. We don't want to be bothered We want to feel good about ourselves and we just hope that we call that kindness because we're arrogant

We don't want to admit what we're really like And we hope that so -called kindness wins them over that doesn't give the person the opportunity to repent and so finally be saved

It's not kind Loving It's just careless

John Piper says the proof of your pardon is your passion for purity Do you have a passion for purity?

Are you in? or out Then in verses 6 to 8 he shows us the meaning of the

Passover In Exodus the people of God experienced the Passover when the wrath of God, you know passed over Their homes it spared their lives and saved them from slavery and death for Passover people were supposed to Cleanse their homes of all leaven

That is and for a whole week They eat only unleavened bread and made for Passover itself eat the Passover lamb and the

Lord Jesus took that Passover meal and he Transformed it into the Lord's Supper as we'll be having next week is showing us

What he is doing that he was bearing all the guilt that we had earned So that the wrath of God at our sin

Could be poured out on him so that God's anger could then Pass over us so that we could be free a punishment and so be saved in verse 7 our

Passover lamb has been Sacrificed a past completed action. It's done now that the

Passover lamb has been sacrificed. What do you do in Israel? You read your home your life of all leaven here a picture of sin

Here the Passover lamb has been sacrificed. It's accomplished. Now. How do we separate celebrate the

Passover? The festival is about to begin the the party celebrating

God's Judgment passing over us. How do we celebrate? We rid our homes. We rid our lives of that leaven of that sin a

Picture of that is the Lord's Supper. Yes This is why in church discipline we prevent members who have been disciplined and expelled from receiving the

Lord's Supper It is as some call it excommunication and exclusion from communion

It is part of what what we do to define who is in and who is out Look, that's why when churches understood this

Generations ago not that many generations ago. It was actually pretty recently only like the past couple generations

They began to forget it. They would honor each other's excommunication understand here There's only one church of Corinth.

So the man has no choice about where to go. They excommunicated me They're gonna keep it now in our day We have multiple churches, but they're supposed to communicate to each other

This person is excommunicated. You cannot serve him or her the Lord's Supper You can't treat him as if he or she is a

Christian now They're welcome to come in here because they need to be called to repentance, but they're gonna be called to repentance They're not gonna be treated like a church member as long as they're in their sin

When churches understood this they would then honor each other's excommunications They wouldn't accept other churches excommunicated members or let them have the

Lord's Supper. That's why they had to practice This is a this is as recent as in my childhood because we moved around a lot and all to move transfer to a church

You would have to show a letter from the church You have been a member of before basically saying you're a member in good standing and you can be accepted by the other church

You have to have a letter from one church to transfer to another That to be accepted in here you need to show that you were not kicked out elsewhere

That was common when churches understood this Christ has been sacrificed

We celebrate this Passover this festival By cleansing our lives our church of sin cleanse ourselves

To be as clean as We already are That's the interesting thing about this because so far it sounds like a lot of works

We do this to achieve standing before God, but notice that the middle of verse 7 he said get rid of the old yeast

Picture of sin get rid of the sin in your life. You may be a new batch as You already are

That's the miracle thing there. That's the thing that's unexpected That's the thing that comes out of the gospel become

What you are he's not saying earn Cleanness in God's sight by doing this but you already are clean now live like it

Christ has been sacrificed for us We are clean So live like that We live like it by getting rid of what is not like What we already are a

Little leaven leavens the whole lump. So to one persistent flagrant sinner who remains accepted without discipline

Contaminates the whole body just that the Israelites couldn't celebrate the Passover with leaven in their homes.

We cannot celebrate Truly in worship the gospel having the wrath of God pass over us.

We can't celebrate that with unconfronted sin in our church we can't

It's against God's law if we want to celebrate the gospel celebrate God's salvation

Keep this festival We have to get rid of the sin This commitment and this somebody's just committed to stay in their sin.

We have to get rid of that we are to cleanse out the old leaven that sin that can start so small but grow and like a little bit of yeast and Permeate all through the body it ferments it until every part of us is

Flavored by it inflated with it and Puffs us up with air.

We are to cleanse our lives to become in practice what we are before God new you are new

Now live like it Paul writes in verse 7 that we really are God's eyes in fact on leaven

So it was a result of what we are Cleanse out the sources of sin then feast keep the festival of the unleavened bread and feast on sincerity and Truth, and I think he puts that there

Sincerity and truth because that's the opposite of the hypocritical superficial acceptance of sin that so probably what's going on here

You know, mr. Mary to his mother -in -law's coming to church and getting a fine greeting No one's saying anything to him about it because it's it's superficial.

It's not sincere. They're not telling what they really think There are bigger fakes Same we have today people will beat someone they know to be trapped in sin addicted to it

Like an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol, but we'll just pretend like everything's fine It's hypocrisy

Masquerading as love it's play acting and pretense The the darkness in which the yeast of sin spreads right a little yeast and go of it doesn't mean much baking

But I understand you actually cover it up. You keep it in the dark because sunlight Kills it

The same here sincerity truths expose it to reality to sunlight because that kills the yeast sunlight kills the sunlight of truth kills the yeast of hypocrisy of sin, so we need an atmosphere then of openness of Integrity in which we tell the truth in which our sins and our failures can properly be dealt with courageously and consistently

No more fakery Our boasting about how sweet and forgiving we are when in reality, we're just refusing to deal with sin is not good

Cultural Christianity will tell us it is good But it is lying to create the darkness so that the yeast of sin

Can spread instead believing that Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed

Keeping now the festival to which we're called Celebrating the salvation that God's wrath has passed over us

We're to rid ourselves of that sin by shining the sunlight of truth on it. We are to have a passion for the

Passover lamb but some in their passion for purity and For what they think is

Christ Imagine that to be in with God they have to be out of the world just kind of detached from the world

So we've had in church history for about a thousand years of church history The idea of monasteries or convents where people would go to live the rest of their lives in seclusion detached from the world

Closer to us that we have the idea among some Christians They were just they think they're so zealous they and so they got to be in church all the time

There's a multiplication of church meetings. So Christians spend all their time quoting in church. So detached from the rest of the world

Maybe they know you can say they're kind of no television. They go to home school their kids They're gonna live all their life in free time in church, and they're just totally detached from the rest of society

But we see here that we have are to be a presence in the world At first it may seem odd that is in verses 9 and 10 because you've been saying kick this guy out sin but then in verse 9 and 10 he says

You know You don't to go out of the world Here's to be stay in it in verse 9 and 10.

They were standing back They're judging the world in that odd They're judging the world those pagans are so immoral

When they aren't dealing with the problems in their own body You know, mr. Mary to his mother -in -law is probably going.

Amen. Yeah, those pagans are so bad It's odd It's hypocritical.

It's weird It's also common goes on all the time still today

Some audience sonic some audiences today. They just demand they really love these hellfire brimstone sermons

I'm pretty good. You go down on the liberals and the homosexuals and the Hollywood perverts.

They're earning God's judgment Are they love to hear that stuff? Meanwhile, they don't want to hear a thing about their own

Materialism, you know, they're living for things are their own making an idol out of the relationship Their racism they certainly they sure don't want to hear about that around here

Are there arrogant refusal to submit to the Word of God? Maybe their lack of integrity. Maybe the way they break commitments They don't want to hear about that They may be out of the world

Going to church meetings all the time three four or five times a week with no time for the world They may be out of the world

But they're still of it We see here that we are to have a friendly presence in the world

That we aren't to be judging the world notice verse 12 What are we to do with judging outsiders?

Yeah What Those are the kinds of people the Lord Jesus himself It was friendly with remember he would eat and drink with him.

Let him wash his feet do that kind of thing the sinners You know the rest of the people called them as though they weren't sinners, but they were called that he's friendly with the sinners

Don't don't any knows touching him the traitors the prostitutes the drunks who didn't pretend to be

Saints. He knew they were sinners And Paul you're saying you don't judge them

Friendly with them and get along fine with him So, please don't take anything. I've said today to mean that any person you meet out, you know out there

They're living together without being married or they're having an affair or they're homosexual or they're drunk and or they're a drug addict

Or they're just lewd and crude, you know, they're dropping f -bombs every other word that you're just a shun them

No You have a co -worker or a neighbor or a fellow student or whoever is any of those things in moral or homosexual or or an?

Advocate of it a advocate of it or whatever. You should be able to relate to them in a and a friendly kind respectful way

You can eat with such of them There's nothing wrong with having amiable chats with them

We're engaging a small talk with people like that in the world about football or weather or whatever or even having them as close friends

Nothing wrong with that Nothing wrong with having lunch with them or being a friend with them in any way

And in fact, I encourage you to do so some of you are a great advantage to this church into the kingdom of God Precisely because you have those kinds of friendly relationships now, please

Nurture them keep them and use them to help those people Help them not just to see the error of their sin

But to see the glory of the Savior the Passover lamb who was sacrificed to free us from those sins their first need

Is not for us to lecture them about morality It is to know the power of the

Passover lamb who has been sacrificed to keep the festival and So Once they know the wrath of God has passed over them

Then they'll cleanse their lives of sin of that yeast. We are to be a presence in the world in the world

But not of it The great reformer Martin Luther an ex -monk remember he remember he knew all about this

Instinct to so so -called be spiritual is to separate from the world He used to be a monk and he wrote this is sound so much like Luther But the kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies and he who will not accept

This does not want to be of the kingdom of Christ He wants to be amongst friends to sit among roses and lilies not with the bad people

Oh you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ if Christ had done what you were doing who would ever have been spared?

Oh, that's Luther all over. Isn't it? Are you in? Are you out? If you are outside of Christ Then welcome

We have open doors for you We're not here to judge you or to scold you

We're here to invite you in But there are those who claim to be in Who have to be purged

That to be put out for thing The purge those

Paul mentioned in verse 11 those who claim to be brothers They claim to Brothers or sisters

Implication is they may not be they might be if they repent we'll see but we're not sure now They're living like they aren't so we're not sure anymore

They're living like they're out. They may be sexually immoral But notice that this this putting people out their church discipline isn't just for sexual immorality

It can also be for the greedy They they live to make more money above all

That's what Obsesses them they call themselves a Christian But they're so desperate to make a few more dollars that they can't bother to come to church because it's gonna make you know

That's a that's what most matters most of them got to make the money or they're giving is just stingy They hardly give anything and then but they work overtime so they can afford always a new car or another expensive vacation

Yeah, or maybe they're an idolater that is they use images of God or Christ in their worship or Covetousness Always wanting more things the newest gadget the new

I whatever the luxury car is idolatry Or believe it or not

Paul says They're revilers Someone who someone who scoffs and ridicules others especially authorities constantly critical verbally abusive

Assumes the worst particularly of leaders jumps to conclusions Accepts every rumor is it just kind of confirms this attitude.

They have that it you know, they're all everyone else is all bad reviling He's illustrated by Noah's son

Ham who found his father Noah passed out drunk and naked in his tent and Rather than respectfully cover him up went to tell the other brothers to try to humiliate

Noah before Noah's sons now today We think ham the reviler

You know sees Noah drunk goes out and tells others. We think he's normal We think he's the yeah, we understand ham the other brothers though who refused to even look at their father in the moment of humiliation remember they put a

Blanket between them on their shoulders and Backed in and cover him up. They refused to even look at him like that And in his moment of humiliation, we think well, man, they're weird

Some weird with those guys respecting their father like that for a culture now of revilers or maybe a drunkard or Swindler those who use tricks or deception or the naivete of a buyer to make more out of them

The Apostle Paul says that if someone who claims to be a Christian claims to be a brother or sister lives like that Any of those things or even more?

It's not extensive Comprehensive list and we are to dispel their illusion that they that a

Christian can live like that We are to confront them and eventually if there is no no change after some process

Expel them from the church and the command there at the end of verse 11 is clear. Do not even eat with such a one

It's not primarily because they offended us The world understands people just refusing to get along because they offended each other.

They're mad at each other it's because Christ the Passover lamb has been sacrificed for now to keep the festival and we keep it with Unleavened bread by getting rid of the un by giving rid of the leaven the sin that That by him leaving the glories of heaven to humble himself as a man he lived perfectly as a man

He submitted to even the most brutal of executions so that he could be our sacrifice So that God's just anger at our sins could pass over us and we could be free now.

We celebrate that By getting rid of sin is because such a person says he believes that but he won't get rid of the sin.

He stays in it He's a he says he's experienced crisis as Passover, but then he rejects him as his purifier he says he's new

But he lives like he's old Such a one makes the sacrifice of Christ appear to be nothing to have no effect to bring no change

And so we determined to say as a church acting together That you cannot reject

Christ is your purifier You can't celebrate the festival to him of the wrath of God passing over us and keep that yeast of sin in your life and Or in the church and you can't have that and have him as your

Passover lamb that if you don't act like you are You aren't

We may not say that we know you're going to hell But we will say that the way you you are living is the way people going to hell live

And we will not help you tell the world that you can live that way and go to heaven

We'll be friendly to the lost person but to you Claiming to love

Jesus claiming that the wrath of God has passed over your life But you won't keep the festival.

You won't get rid of this yeast of sin We will show the world that we no longer consider you a brother or sister

If You sit at our table when we're eating out We'll get up and move If we run into the food line

We'll mourn if you want to talk We'll talk about your sin and nothing else.

No more fake congeniality No more hypocrisy Do not even eat with such a one purge the evil person from among you

Are you in? Are you out I'm glad that each of you who are in are in One thing we see here is the need for church membership

There's no idea in this passage like this like this passage destroys the idea what we have so much of today There's kind of wandering

Unaccountable so -called Christians who do not want to make a commitment who do not have a body of people to whom they are accountable

No one in their life who can challenge them We all need the support of each other of the church of fellow believers who will love us enough to tell us the truth

Who will shine that light? Into our lives who will expel the yeast of sin from our lives and if we fall back into our old addictions

He will tell us You know, hey You're living the old way

Who will mourn? over our sin Now we're no longer living like people for whom the

Passover lamb was sacrificed, but we're not keeping the festival If you are not a member of a church

This passage shows us clearly why you need to be We need we need a church that will put us out if we start acting living like people out there live

Don't wander around thinking you can handle the Christian life. You can handle the temptations of the world of your own

Nature by yourself, even if by God's grace, we never have to confront each other. It is both encouraging as a warning of Temptation that in if this, you know that the safety net is out there, you know

I know if I if I fall into the sin, hey, those people are gonna get on me. So I guess I won't do it that the church will not just let us fall to our destruction and do nothing and Feel good about itself for doing nothing

We're all addicts of sin I Hope most of you.

I hope eventually all of you are recovering addicts If you'll never you will never fully recover in this life

You will always have your weaknesses your vulnerabilities and your occasional stumbles, but you can because of our

Passover lamb be seen by God as Unfermented with that yeast of sin if you truly trust and truly believe in Christ you are clean now

Live like it and We can't do that by ourselves By being rugged American individualists who don't need a church

We can only be accepted by God in with him because Christ was on the cross out

He was expelled from God's favor forsaken shunned ostracized from the presence of God he was out on the cross

He suffered Outside the city outside of society outside the approval of the father ostracized

So that we would never have to be That is the one ostracism.

You should strive to avoid above all and You can

If you'll be purged by the Passover lamb Keep the festival

Drive out the yeast of sin from your life purged by being in the presence of the

Lord Are you in Are you out?