Removing the Man of Immorality | Sermon 1/26/2025

Alright.

It has been a couple months. I think about a month and a half, but we're back in Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church. So please, if you would, turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5.

We're going to be in verses 1 -8 today. And the title of the sermon is Removing the Man of Immorality. Removing the Man of Immorality. We're going to be talking about some intense things today. A heavy topic.

I won't be going into detail about those specific things, but you will hear the words today. So please be prepared for that. But let's go ahead and read the Scripture. Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God.

1 Corinthians 5 .1 -8. It is actually reported that there is immorality among you and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged Him who has so committed this as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when You are assembled and I am with You in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover also has been sacrificed.

Therefore, let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired Word.

Let's pray once more as a church body as we approach this wonderful Scripture. God, we come before You just as the song we sang said with empty hands ready to be filled up. Hands that offered You our praise, but also hands that know we need from You.

You need nothing from us, but we need from You instruction. We need from You transformation. We need from You Holy Spirit-led guidance. And we need the conviction that the Scripture brings that change would be wrought in our lives, that we need sanctification.

We need to be made more like Christ as You promised us. And we believe, as Your Word says, that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. And this is just on the pathway to that, Lord.

So, God, I pray now that if there's anyone in any form of sexual immorality here today, Lord, that this would strike a chord in them and the rest of us, Lord, would guard ourselves fiercely against all forms of it.

So Lord, please be with us. Guide us by Your Spirit now. I pray this in Christ's name, Amen. Well, church, sexual immorality is something we know that is not only rampant in our culture, but it's celebrated in our culture.

It is indicative of statements in the Bible like God gave them over to degrading passions. To even do that which is not natural. And many of these things were only done in certain areas in the city in ancient times.

Even when America first started, there were certain brothels or areas where that part of the city had those things in early America. But it truly is a bought and sold commodity in our culture. It is even force-fed to us through every single screen that we own.

Even the screens that we go down on the highway by, we can see billboards. Sexual immorality is everywhere. And the church at Corinth was situated in an influential and sexually charged cultural context as well.

Corinth was the hub of worship for the goddess Aphrodite. So the expression of worship in Corinth was nothing less than religiously motivated sexual immorality and cult prostitution. That is to say, to properly worship Aphrodite, you would potentially partake in cult prostitution.

And yet, in that context in Corinth, the Lord planted a church. The Lord saved people. And the Lord declared to them, Be holy, for I am holy. And for once, as regenerated people, these Corinthians had the capacity by the Holy Spirit to do just that.

Bought by Christ, holiness could be theirs for the first time. But as we've seen in our text, something has happened in the Corinthian church. And something has happened even in the American church as well.

According to Pew Research, a survey showed 54 of mainline Protestants think that casual sex between consenting adults outside of marriage is sometimes or always acceptable. That's right, 54%. Over half of American Protestants said fornication is acceptable.

In recent decades, the Evangelical Lutheran church, the Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, the Episcopal church, all these said that it is right and good to have those who are openly homosexual in their clergy.

In a Barna group study, 57 of pastors, and 64 of youth pastors admitted that during their ministries, they were actively using pornography. At some point in time. And a good portion of that 57 of pastors and 64 of youth pastors admitted that they were still at the time of that study looking at that filth.

I remember, boy, it was not too long after I was saved. Maybe a few years after. Maybe 10 years or more, I listened to a sermon from Brother Paul Washer. And he was doing a pastor's conference. I forget where.

This has just stuck out in my memory. But Pastor Washer had done a pastor's conference. And so all these men, all these pastors were invited. And what he did was he called the local hotel to get a room block.

You get a room block, you get a better rate. You've heard of that. And so dozens and dozens, I believe totaling over 100 pastors came to this conference that Paul Washer set up. And they all got the hotel rooms.

And everything went well and the teaching happened and the conference took place.

And at the end,.

When the conference was over, the hotel manager approached Brother Washer and said, thank you again for the extra business. And Paul was surprised by that and said, what do you mean? I thought I already got the invoice.

He said, no, here's the other invoice. We have never in the history of me being a manager at this hotel, have we had this many men buy pornographic videos by remote in their hotel rooms than ever before.

Never have we seen so many men buy pornographic videos than your pastor's conference. And he was shocked. These are pastors. It's deplorable. But you go to any cult or any false religion, it's rampant there too.

And I wish I could say that the statistics for the American Christian church are better than the world. But they're not. And what does that say about the people in it? Makes you wonder, right? What we see in Corinth with one man has become an epidemic in the American church.

And so what do we do?

What do we do?

We preach on it. We preach on it like the Apostle Paul. We confront it like the Bible says to, and we take action when the Bible says to. And those things aren't all often being done. Not many people are preaching on this.

But if they are preaching on this, they're not always confronting it. And maybe when they are confronting it, they're not taking action when nothing's being done about it. So all these things are shown in Scripture and they have to be done.

And so, right here in 1 Corinthians, he's going to do that. So far in this letter, the Apostle has addressed factions, unity, wisdom from God opposed to wisdom of the world. He's talked about the Day of Fire, which is the day of judgment for believers.

He's talked about how true Apostles are treated poorly opposed to how the Corinthians are acting like kings and queens. And finally, when we were last in this at the end of chapter 4, Paul came to them, he said, as a spiritual father.

He wanted to be gentle with them, but he was willing to discipline them for their own good. You see, much of what Paul has addressed is their arrogance. This church has walked with a spiritual swagger.

They have become inflated like a balloon and they need popping. They need to come back down to earth. And so that's what we're going to see today. Go to verse 1 in your text or in your printout. Verse 1, it says, it is actually reported that there is immorality among you, an immorality of such a kind as does not even exist among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.

The founder of this church has received a report. Maybe it was from Chloe's people as he referred to them in chapter 1. Or possibly it was Stephanas or Fortunatus or Achaicus from chapter 16. People who would come and report to him how the church is doing.

We don't know. But he said it is actually reported. That word in the Greek actually is there. It means verified as true. It is actually true that there is immorality among you. And he's shocked. He's amazed.

And he's horrified by the immorality among them. One that is not even endorsed by the neighboring pagans. That's what this word means. The ESV translates it pagans. This is a sin of immorality that is not even named among the pagans surrounding you.

It's unbelievable. Even the pagans would be shocked to know what's happening in the Corinthian church. Porneia is among believers. Porneia is the word here for immorality. It's where we get the word pornography obviously.

It means sexual immorality. And then that word porneia is really an umbrella term. It contains a whole host of immorally sexual behaviors. Anything opposite of the God-ordained and God-approved sexual activities would be contained in that term.

So you have anything from prostitution, premarital sex, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia, bestiality, transgenderism, religious cult sex, and whatever deviancy the world can think up, it's contained in that word porneia.

Porneia is in their midst. A man has his father's wife. And so in this particular case, incest is being covered. And Paul's right. Even though the pagan world in the Roman Empire was filled with porneia of all types, one thing that even they considered was despicable was incest.

He hopes to shame them with that comment. Even the law of common decency among unbelievers has been violated. The church's moral witness could be obliterated to the unbelieving world around them if something even the unbelieving world condemns as heinous is being done here.

And so as you know, incest is sexual relations with someone who is blood-related or adopted kin. Leviticus 18 .7 says, no one can cover the nakedness of their mother. The next verse, Leviticus 18 .8 says, you cannot uncover the nakedness of your father's wife.

These are both incest, but in different types. And they both deserve the death penalty according to Leviticus. But there's a distinction here. You cannot uncover the nakedness of your mother would be your own blood mother.

You cannot have incest with her. And then father's wife is a stepmother. And that's the exact title that this woman has here in 1 Corinthians 5. A man has his father's wife. Father's wife is stepmother.

A man's laid with his stepmother. And so we know the sin that's happening here. We've even read Paul's judgment on it. We know what Paul wants to do. What we don't know are the details surrounding this relationship.

We don't know if they haven't removed them because this is a wealthy man who gives large sums to the church. Maybe he is one of the faction leaders or a sophisticated speaker. And so maybe he's respected for his theology.

We don't know if the father is a Christian. What about the father who's a victim in this situation? He's not addressed. The stepmother appears not to be Christian in their assembly, since Paul is silent on what to do with her.

Okay?

He only addresses the son regarding the sin of incest. What to do with him. But there's another sin here. There is another sin here. A sin held by everyone else in the church. In Deuteronomy 27, verse 20, it says this.

This was supposed to be a statement and a community answer. Deuteronomy 27, verse 20, it says, Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.

And the people were to say in Deuteronomy 27, Amen. We agree. But the Christians in Corinth have virtually said Amen to letting this man actually stay in their midst and lay with his father's wife. In fact, Paul addresses the entire church community more than he addresses the individual man.

They are implicated in this. They are disgraced. An entire church is disgraced when the world finds out that the leaders in that church let an active pedophile in the nursery. An entire church is disgraced when the pastor is caught in adultery.

You could probably already think of some names and faces with that in your head. When sinful extremes go unchecked, the church is exposed to God's fierce discipline, sometimes to the point of shutting down that entire church.

Okay?

And of course, the scorn of the unbelieving society is always at risk. Now, the Corinthian church has already been charged with being arrogant. They've been charged with being puffed up, is the word. They've thought that they have the most wisdom of any church.

They're the most spiritually gifted. Some have even thought that they're wiser than the apostles of Christ. And yet, for all their so-called wisdom, in their arrogance, they have tolerated sin in their midst.

Talk about wisdom, right? Verse 2,. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. It's possible that in the Greek, Paul phrased this more as a question, rather stating it like this, how can you still be puffed up?

How can you still be arrogant when such a blatant failure has occurred? They have no justification for their spiritual bragging, right? You see, a church can have a theological school. A church can have pastors with a hit theological podcast.

A church can have as many programs as there are television channels, but if that church tolerates sin in their midst, then no amount of boasting over those so-called successes can cover the stain left by such immorality.

It doesn't matter. Those things don't matter if sin like this is tolerated in their midst. Now, we don't know this. It's my opinion that it is most likely that they let this man stay in their church because of his social status or wealth.

That's my opinion. We don't know. We don't know why they continue to let this man lay with his father's wife and stay in the church. But no man or woman ought to be above confrontation and correction.

Not one. Not even the leaders of the assembly. And so, we should be rather willing to offend man than to offend God. Be willing to offend man rather than offend God. Be not a respecter of persons. Respect the Lord and His commandments.

Those are the heart of the Scripture. So the apostle gives them what their response should have been. When they became aware of this wicked deed, they should have mourned instead. In the Greek, that is pentheo.

This is a deep sadness, a grief one ought to feel at their own sin or the sin of others. It's even a word used in the Old Testament Greek Septuagint when used for someone in your family who has died. It's this deep mourning.

When someone commits sexual immorality in our church, we should be moved to the point of mourning. And I know I was consumed with that feeling weeks ago when we had to do church discipline for those of you who were here.

And it affects me. And it still affects me now. I'm sure it did for you. And it certainly is a sadness for the person or persons involved in the sin, but it is also according to Scripture, a grief for the sin in our midst that a local church has been tarnished or stained by iniquity, something that ought not even be named among us can be named.

We're not above reproach. That means that means that someone could accuse us and they'd be right. You see, people outside of this church are going to reproach us and they're going to try to slam us. But may they never be right.

May it always be false accusations. But here the the world could be right. OK, James, the brother of our Lord, says in James chapter four, verses eight through 10, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded, be miserable and mourn and weep about your sin. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you.

Do you have anguish over your sin? And the sin of others? Are you concerned with how the unbelieving world might make a mockery of the bride of Christ because of something like this? That's the posture we should have.

Jeremiah, chapter 23, verses 10 through 11, quotes God Almighty. Look at this in your printout, Jeremiah 23, for the land is full of adulterers, for the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.

Their course also is evil and their might is not right. Here it is for both prophet and priest are polluted. Even in my house, I have found their wickedness, declares the Lord, even in his house. Even in his house, church, who has become the house of God in the New Testament?

Us, the church. The Lord detests wickedness in his house, and the only proper response is mourning. Oh, God, you think of those moments in the Old Testament where they ripped their clothes, they tore their clothes and they put on sackcloth and ashes.

Oh, Lord, this is named among us. How could this be? And going to mourning, right? But it doesn't stop there. The connotations behind this word also carries with it action. So strong is this mourning that the Apostle Paul says it results in removing the individual who did this deed from their midst.

Remove him. It's what it said here in verse two. That means the person's right there in the middle of their assembly. They're right there in physical and spiritual proximity, and they must be removed from being in the middle of us.

Therefore, Paul will make the argument that not only does this letter demonstrate his authority to make this judgment on this man, but even though he's not there physically, he is present in spirit. 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. And for Christians, this is so much more than when people say, I'm with you in my thoughts, right?

I'm with you in my thoughts. It's like, OK, what does that really.

Mean?

You're thinking of me. But there's something different about believers where you could be on the other side of the globe and we could pray together over the phone or we're just praying separately or I know what's going on and you can tell me your burden and I'll tell you and I pray and it's on my heart and I'm actually doing something.

I'm bearing the burden with you. There's a connection with believers by the Holy Spirit that the world doesn't have. You could say I'm with you in thoughts all you want, but believers are the ones who have the connection.

And so Paul is like, I'm not there physically, but I'm there. It's more real than you would think. I'm there with you. OK, and so since he's right besides them, beside them in the spirit, he declares his judgment.

I have already judged this man. And he expects the rest of the church to conform to the scriptures as both he and they look at them. It's like saying, I'm not sure if you think I need to be there among the elders to make my judgment known.

I don't think I know if you think I need to be there adjudicating some sort of trial. If you're waiting for me, just know I've already judged this man. Remove him from your midst right away. Procrastination, in this case, especially to Paul, is inexcusable.

Do something. Do something. How is this man still here? Therefore, the apostle proclaims in verses four and five. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

OK, and so he's saying when he says the name of Jesus, he's saying with the endowed authority of Jesus Christ. And I with you in the spirit, in the power of the Lord Jesus, do this. Do this action. You have authority in Christ.

I have authority.

I'm with you.

I planted the church.

I'm with you.

Christ's power is working in me and in you, and therefore do this. He says, when you go to remove this person, when you are assembled, you have been given authority by Jesus, probably even referring to Matthew 18.

I believe that Paul's referring to Matthew 18, the teaching of Jesus Christ on church discipline. OK, you have my authority with you, even though I won't physically be there. You have the authority of Jesus when he gave us Matthew 18.

Deliver this man over to Satan. Deliver him. You remember, we went over a couple of weeks ago what Jesus said, Matthew 18, the steps when someone's in unrepentant sin, but when Jesus finishes and says, treat them as a Gentile and tax collector, he says in verses 19 through 20.

Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my father who is in heaven for where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst.

OK, so Jesus says when you do this, when you assemble and and you see the man and you declare the charges and he's unrepentant and he says, I'll be with you in spirit and you have my authority is as an as an apostle and you have the authority of Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus.

Remove this man, do this. And then Jesus says, and I'll be there in your midst so that when we had to do church discipline two weeks ago, Jesus was with us and said. As long as they're obeying the scripture, as long as they're not wrong in their accusations, as long as they've done all that they could to restore this person, then I'm with them.

They're doing right.

They're doing right.

OK, Christ is with us. His power and authority and love will be present with us and with the Corinthians as they do this. Now, I have something to say about our translation in the NASB ninety five, the words I have decided.

Versus four and five, they're not there. If you look in there in your Bible, it might be in the in the italics. OK, I have decided to hand this man to deliver this one over to Satan. Those words I have decided are not there.

And I think that's important because it's not simply that this is Paul's church and Paul gets to say what happens or because he's an apostle, that they have to do everything that he says. I've decided this.

So you do it. OK, those words aren't there. From the basis of Leviticus 18, from the basis of Jesus's teachings, especially Matthew 18, from the basis of the word of God even coming forth from Paul as he's moved along by the Holy Spirit, in other words.

From God, not man, expel this immoral man. From God, from the authority of God, expel this immoral man. So verses four and five could be read this way. OK. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I with you in spirit, with the power of our 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 Lord Jesus.

He says this is a collective thing. This is a collective thing, we all look at the scripture together and we recognize that this man ought to be delivered over. OK, you see, Paul is confident. He's confident that a spirit filled people, regenerate people, after he reminds them of what the scriptures say, they'll do the right thing.

He's confident that they'll do it. He'll remind them of the standard of God. And as they all look at it together, they will agree together and they will take action together as well. OK, so the church is to deliver this man over.

In the Greek, that literally means hand over, hand over this man to Satan. Now, what does that mean? Delivering or handing one over to Satan, what occurs when one is handed over to Satan? Paul says the same thing in First Timothy, chapter one, verse 20, and it's the same fate for two others.

He says, keep the faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Himeneas and Alexander, whom I handed I've handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.

To hand one over to Satan demonstrates God allows the enemy to be used as an agent for punishment. And we certainly see that with King Saul, with the afflicting spirit. We see that in other cases in the Bible.

Interestingly, in chapter seven of First Corinthians, Paul says Satan is the one who tempts Christians with sexual sins. He says, come back together again. So Satan will not tempt you. Satan loves to tempt Christians with sexual sin.

The lust of the flesh marries the sexual temptation from the enemy and sin is born. OK. In other words, all sexual sin is satanic. It's rebellious in nature. It rebels against God's word, just like Lucifer did.

Therefore, handing this man over to the one he obeys, that is Satan, since he won't obey God, is what's in view here. And it's for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved. OK, what does he mean by that?

Paul has never thought.

That we are two parts, right?

We're a whole being and he talks about the spirit, the soul, the body. But what does he mean that your flesh will be destroyed, the flesh will be destroyed, the spirit will be saved? Well, in First Thessalonians, chapter five, verse twenty three, Paul says, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so obviously he's not saying like this man's flesh will never be redeemed and only his spirit will be saved. That's not what he's saying. This isn't a formulaic cursing either, as some have thought, because the handing the man over to Satan is in hopes that he would be saved.

OK, curses typically don't result in something that's good. So this isn't a formulaic cursing. OK, likewise, this is not what's called expiation or propitiation, something that only Jesus could do. You see, some have thought and even those in false religions have thought this, that this man's repentance is linked to his death.

OK, that if he dies, his death will atone for this incest and then he'll be saved. OK, well, adding our deaths as payment in addition to the death of Jesus Christ would distort the gospel. OK, your death, your sacrifice will not earn you salvation, only the death and sacrifice of Christ.

OK, and so this isn't something where, OK, if only this man goes out of the church and dies, let's hope he dies, right, and then he'll be saved. That's foolish. I know Brigham Young has a doctrine like that, that if you catch someone in, it's called blood atonement, you catch someone in some sexual immorality, it says stab them through the heart or spear them through the heart and you'll save them, you'll save their souls.

That's ludicrous. It's only the payment and death of Jesus Christ can save us, not our deaths. OK, so what is happening here? You see, Paul is concerned about the sanctity of this church as well as the fate of this man.

All this language points to removal, clean out the leaven, do not associate with people like this, remove him from your midst. This sin could cause others to sin and threatens the purity of the entire church if left unchecked.

But this was a man who did turn to Jesus. He was part of the covenant community, this incestual man. He's not simply just someone to get rid of. Church discipline is not just about getting rid of sinful people.

OK. It's more than that. There's a domain of darkness and there's a domain of light with Christ. And he says, send back the man to where you all came from, back to the darkness, back to the prince of the power of the air.

Send him to Satan. What it means is let him over to his sin. And here it is. And hopefully when he goes back to the darkness and he goes back to Satan, he will get to such a low point in his own wretchedness that he will repent there with Satan.

May his flesh, his sinful inclinations, not his body, but his fleshly desires, may they be destroyed when you remove this man and you give him over to Satan and he's totally in his flesh and he's living in his sin and he's under the dominion of Satan.

May he have his flesh destroyed. This desire for incest may be destroyed. May he repent and return. Give him over in hopes that he will be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. A desire, hope for repentance is in mind here.

Hand him over so that he'll return. OK. Because you have to think about it. Today, someone who is disciplined in apology, a church can just go to another church a few miles away, right? And they can go to that new church and they can never mention a single thing that they were in immorality at their last church and under discipline, could they?

They could say nothing. Well, I mean, it is a small valley in a way. It's a small Christian church, but you never know. They could get away with it. They could say nothing. And I'll tell you what, we have done that for others, but we have hardly received that for us.

OK. Most churches, I'm afraid, would not discuss something like this. And so you have to imagine in the infant stage of the New Testament church, this man would have already rejected a lot of the unbelieving people in his life.

OK. This incestual man turned to Jesus and he turned from his sin. And there's unbelieving Corinthians around him. Right. And he maybe even gave some of them the gospel and he turned and he's with the church now.

And so he's kind of an outsider to the people in the world. Hey, man, you told us you loved your Jesus. You said you were part of that church that was called the way you were with those Christians. And so this man has no one to go to outside of the church, really.

And now when you think about it, since there's no other church down the street, he has no one in his church either. That means when they do this, this man who committed sexual immorality is an outsider to the church at Corinth and he's an outsider to the world because he burned bridges.

You know how lonely that would be? There's no going back to a community like that in Corinth. Maybe some people would accept him again. But in this moment, in this extreme loneliness where he's in limbo, I don't belong here.

I don't belong there. They had to remove me because I won't repent from my sin. And these people hate me because I told them about Jesus. He's in this limbo state and he's lonely. And may that loneliness pierce his heart with the gospel that he doesn't belong to Satan, that he doesn't belong to the kingdom of darkness.

May that loneliness and that despair and that wretchedness of your flesh, may that moment where you're in limbo between two worlds cause you to go back. That's the hope. That's the hope. Therefore, may his flesh, the part of him that puts himself above God, and this is all of us, the part that is still attached to us, that still desires to do evil, the flesh, may it be demolished.