Guilt By Association? - [1 Corinthians 5:9-13]

I've been in and out of a lot of doctor's offices in the last couple weeks, and I noticed one thing very interesting.

Nobody really says Merry Christmas anymore. Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays, and I talked to one lady at Fallon, and she said, thank you for saying

Merry Christmas. I'm not allowed to say Merry Christmas unless you say it, then I'm allowed to say it. So I thought, what you can say in a doctor's office and what you can't.

Then I walked in to have some blood taken from me with the operative word taken. I wasn't just going to give it, they had to actually take it from me.

There's a special kind of blood culture where they take smaller kind of beakers, fill both up, put a bunch of iodine on it.

It's not just a regular test. Then she's like this over by the trash can with the iodine, and she looked over at me and she sheepishly said,

I know, I feel like a Roman Catholic priest. I thought, you can't even say Merry Christmas, but you can talk that way, and then there's just kind of a buzz in the room, and I said,

I don't know, I'm not Roman Catholic, and some other person with a needle in their arm said, oh,

I was for a long time as a leader, and I'm not in that anymore, and then it just began to catch on like a wildfire.

Then the other lady said, well, I'm the chairman of the deacon board at my congregational church, and I thought, well,

I guess in this game of one -upmanship, here we go.

So I said, I'm a Baptist pastor. Only Mark would say amen to Baptists.

If I said independent, fundamental, non -affiliated, master seminary trained, they wouldn't know, so I just say

Baptist. Boy, there was a kind of hush. Really, I had the authority.

It made me think, when it comes to Christianity, we have one authority.

There is one person who can speak clearly, definitively, authoritatively, and when there's controversy, theological controversy, or behavioral controversy, we have the

Bible. We know what to do. We know how to solve the problems. How do we deal with all the issues in life, with sinful people, with the sinful world, if we didn't have the scriptures?

The people at Corinth were caught in kind of a sticky wicket. They had a situation where someone was in unrepentant sin.

This particular man was sleeping with his mother -in -law, his stepmother, and he didn't want to repent, and he didn't care about it, and the church began to walk on a tightrope.

The tightrope was this, well, we don't want to really be too aggressive, because after all we're all sinful.

Let alone, if we have to kind of deal with sin in the church and we have to kick out sinners that are in the church, does that mean we can never go outside and have friends that are sinful people?

We just have to be in monasteries? What do we do? We just have to balance. A tightrope walk, tightrope walking isn't very popular today, is it?

They used to do that all the time in New York City, and you could fall over on either side. It's kind of like with Christianity.

If we talk about the sovereignty of God too much, then what about human responsibility? At Corinth, there was sin in the church.

The world was invading the church, and Paul needed to tell them specifically, authoritatively, what do we do with sin in the church that's unrepentant?

And he helps us walk that fine line so that we don't underdo things or we don't overdo things.

So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 as we wrap up chapter 5 today, special Christmas message next

Sunday, an evangelistic style message, and then to chapter 6 the week after,

Lord willing. First Corinthians chapter 5, I'm going to try to be very nice today.

Someone said Friday night after the concert that when we have lots of unbelievers and visitors at the church that I'm on my best behavior and I'm very kind and I'm very gentle and I have a different delivery.

And they said, but when you get up and preach to us regularly on Sundays, you just let us have it. I didn't know which one

I was supposed to do today. Today we only have the chairman of the deacons of the congregational church to tell me

I might know. So I'm going to try to be very, very kind and very sweet today as I deliver this message.

First Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is writing to this church to lovingly correct them.

Remember it's Solomonic wisdom that when we're doing the wrong things,

God comes along and helps us. The wise one or the foolish one hears from the one who is exhorting them with truth and says

I'll listen and I'll obey. And so that's what we want to do today. I don't think we have problems in the church to the degree of First Corinthians, but we have some of these things popping up.

As a matter of fact, even a month ago, six weeks ago, we had to deal with an excommunication in our own church.

And so how do we deal with the family that was excommunicated? How do we deal with the person who was excommunicated?

Do we have fellowship? Do we not have fellowship? What do we do? Now if we polled the church, we might have some people say this and some people say that, but the great news is the

Bible is clear. How do we treat people that have been excommunicated? What do we do along this tightrope walk where we say we don't want to underdo things and we don't want to overdo things?

We don't want to be loose with sin, but we don't want to be legalistic and overbearing and caustic and hypocritical.

So what do we do when there's sin in the church? So let me read chapter five, verses one through eight, as we set up ourselves today for verses nine through 13 and dealing with this issue.

Do we associate with sinners or don't we? That's the question of the day. Do we associate with sinners or do we not?

But to make sure we understand the context, Paul is dealing with problems in the church, problem of disunity, and now the problem of immorality that's unrepentant in the church.

Verse one of chapter five, it's 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, Paul said, am present in spirit. And as if present,

I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the

Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

For a reason, a hopeful reason, 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 leaven leavens the whole lump?

With great Jewish figurative language, 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 old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Would you bow with me and let me ask God's blessing on our message this morning. Father in heaven, we now as a church would ask your spirit to be present and we might learn from your scriptures.

May he with great generosity illumine our minds so that we can understand sin, forgiveness, the church,

Christ Jesus, his death, burial and resurrection. Father, we pray that you would help us.

We would like to act more like who we are. That is, we'd like to act more like Christ every day.

We're so thankful that we have your son's perfect righteousness given to us, credited to our account freely, graciously.

You lavish that great obedience of your son on us for no charge to us, but it costs

Christ everything. And so we thank you, Father, today for your son, for your spirit, and for your word.

So now teach our church, teach us, help us to be thankful, help us to be pure, help us to be clean, and help us to be biblical in our thinking.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, I have a very simple outline today for 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 9 to 13.

Here's the outline. Number one, don't associate it with those who are excommunicated.

Don't associate it with those who are excommunicated. And number two, do associate with those who are sinful people in the world.

So we're going to look today at the passage, and the passage is going to say, watch out for this excommunicated person. How do we deal with the person?

What can we do? What can't we do? And then I also want to remind us from another passage that we're supposed to associate with sinners.

We don't want to go so far to say, well, we've got to move to Montana, or we have to move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or we've got to get away from people.

How do we do this tightrope? And so two points. Let's look at the first one. Do not associate with a person who has been excommunicated.

And so let's pick it up in chapter 5, verse 9. Get some insight here to what's going on with the

Church of Corinth and Paul's correspondence. There are more than just 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians as letters to this church.

Paul says in verse 9, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

This letter that he's talking about is not 1 Corinthians. This letter is not 2 Corinthians. This is a letter that was not meant to be part of the

Bible, but it was a correspondence between Paul and the Church of Corinth, and he wrote to them and told them what to do about sexually immoral people.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with these kind of people.

We don't have this letter anymore. Probably never know what exactly was said in the letter besides this.

But Paul is writing to the church, and he's saying, I've already written to you. And by the way, that should have been enough for the church to know.

If someone's in flagrant, disobedient, unrepentant sin in the church, well, you have to lovingly discipline that person.

Hopefully they'll repent. Hopefully they'll be restored. Hopefully the church will embrace the repentant person. He said,

I've already written to you, and they have not heeded his advice. We don't know why they didn't heed his advice.

Maybe it was because this person was rich. Maybe this person was a leader. Maybe they said, you know what?

I guess we're not supposed to deal with any people who are sinful. If we have to do that, we can't even live in Corinth, so he must be going overboard.

Paul's too harsh. Paul's not practical enough. What do you mean we're supposed to leave Corinth? We're not sure why, but it was enough from Paul.

It was enough that they should have understood, if you've got someone in the church, and they're acting impurely, and they won't repent, it's problematic because it contaminates things, and you should be getting rid of this person.

He says, I've told you before, look at verse 9, not to associate. That word is very interesting.

It means to have fellowship with. It means to have social contact with. It means something more than mingle.

It means to accept as part of the family. Now you go across the world, and you meet other

Christians, and you think, this is like family. We sit down, have a meal together, and we love one another, and they're just part of the group.

He says, you ought not to do that. You ought not to do it because it shows them your sin has consequences.

It shows the world that we aren't going to tolerate unrepentant sin. I remember years ago with all the

Swaggart scandals and the Baker scandals, I can still remember news reporters saying the church of Christ is shamed because they can't even deal with their own sin, and yet they're pointing to our sin.

Garland said to refuse to have dealings with moral profligates testifies that such persons have no affiliation with the church and that their behavior, listen to this, is incompatible with the gospel.

We're not going to associate with the excommunicated person because their behavior is incompatible with the gospel.

So Paul says don't associate with them. Don't bring them along like family.

Now if you turn to 2 Thessalonians 3 for a moment, flip on over, it's to your right. This word associates only used one other place, and it's in church discipline context.

2 Thessalonians 3, verse 14, and I think it would be wise for us to go there because it's one more passage that talks about loving, obedient discipline of people who are unrepentant in their sin.

I'm going out of my way today because I'm being nice in my sermon this morning to say unrepentant over and over and over.

You don't get kicked out of a church for sin. You get kicked out of a church for calling yourself a

Christian and being in unrepentant sin. And so this word associate, what does he mean, associate?

Does it mean I can't go have a cup of coffee with you? What does it mean, associate? Well, let's find out what this one talks about in 2

Thessalonians 3. Let's get the context, so back up to chapter 3, verse 6. Now you can get kicked out of a church for sexual sin, but you can get kicked out of a church for not working, too.

And that's the context here. Men that should be working can work, have the ability to work, but don't work.

Verse 6, now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's 2

Thessalonians 3 .6, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads an unruly life, not according to the tradition which you received from us.

This is court language, edict language. Here is a court order

Paul is giving the very excellent church at Thessalonica. And he says in verse 7, for you yourselves emphatically know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you.

Paul says, look at me, look at the apostles, how did we act? Verse 8, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you.

Because we do not have the right to this, he could have said, we're apostles, you can pay us for preaching the word to you.

He could have done that, he could have did that, but he said, no, we're going to work hard not because we have a right to this, verse 9, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you that you might follow our example.

Paul said, you know, apostles aren't freeloaders, apostles aren't loafers, apostles work.

It's good to work. As a matter of fact, did you know there was work before the fall, and did you know there'll be work in heaven?

It's amazing. Second Thessalonians 3 .10, here's a verse that even unbelievers can recite.

Unbelievers can quote this, they can quote, judge not lest you be judged, and they can quote this one, for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order.

You hear that kind of language? By the way, this was found also in Homer and other writers,

Pythagoras, if anyone will not work, say the rest, let them not eat.

That was good ESV English of you. Verse 11, for we hear, we're hearing right now, present tense, the rumor has started, we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.

Don't you know it? One sin leads to another. Now such persons we command and exhort, this is exactly like the language in 1

Corinthians, in the Lord Jesus Christ, to work, quiet fashion, not this busybodying stuff, and eat their own bread.

As for you brethren, those that work, do not grow weary in doing good. Jesus went about doing good, you keep doing good, even though some people might be taking advantage of you.

Now here comes our word again from 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 9, associate, only used two places in the

Bible, 1 Corinthians and here, verse 14, and if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man.

Do not, what, associate with him, so that he may be put to shame, that's amazing, and yet do not regard him, verse 15, as an enemy.

We're doing this in love, we're doing it because we want to admonish him as a brother. Let's go back to 1

Corinthians chapter 5. Paul had already written, he's written to the

Corinthians, and he said, if there's unrepentant sexual sin, you've got to deal with it, and you excommunicate him, and then you don't keep associating like everything's just the same.

Yeah, you're kicked out of the church, but everything else is good. No, there's a severing, there's a cutting off, there's no different than a father who has to say to his son with tears down his eyes, son, if you're not going to obey the house rules, you're going to have to live on the streets.

Doesn't mean it's not bringing sadness to the heart of the church, but what did

Paul not mean, verse 10? Not at all, 1 Corinthians 5 .10, meaning the sexually immoral of the world, and he gives some other things that the church of Corinth did often, are the greedy and swindlers or idolaters because if you can't associate with sexually immoral people, where are you going to go?

Answer? Mars, I guess, and then you're there, right?

Then we're there, but you would need to go out of the world. Paul is now correcting.

They wrote the first letter, they twisted it with good motives or bad, and now Paul is saying, let me make myself clear.

Here's what I mean. I'm talking about don't associate with the person who says they're a Christian, and you've gone through formal church discipline, step one, two, three, and four,

Matthew 18, and then you say, I can't associate with that person. We're not saying you can't associate with pagans of the world because then you're going to have to leave the country, and he gives a list.

Sexual immorality, do you see it? Greedy people, do you know greedy people? By the way, I could turn this into a list of people that you should associate with.

I can make this a little mini -sermon. Four kinds of people you should associate with in the world. You should associate, number one, with sexually immoral people.

By the way, we don't like to hear that, do we? Because we've gotten saved out of sin, and sin is gross, and sin is heinous.

Sin is defiling the holiness of God. Sin contaminates. Don't you sometimes wish the

Lord would come back soon so you don't have to deal with all the sin in the world? We're supposed to be walking in this world, friends with sinners?

Ooh. Paul said, you know what? You should be, indirectly, be fellowshipping with.

It's not Christian fellowship, but it's association with immoral people. How about greedy people?

The word means, in the Greek, you'll find this interesting, those that must have more. How much is enough?

I don't know, but I don't have enough. I've got to have more. They're possessed with possessions.

Swindlers, people who steal by violence. How about idolaters?

They have a wrong relationship to God, and they worship not the God of the

Bible, but the God of the world. Let me give you one of the most beautiful prayers in all the

Bible. I won't tell you where it is yet. I just want to read it, and you'll get the flavor of what we should do, and what

Paul was telling the church of Corinth. I have given them your word, Father, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth.

Aren't those beautiful words? Right from Jesus himself in John 17. He's not saying,

Father in heaven, would you just take these people, rapture them out, translate them like you did

Enoch, because it's just a messed up, sinful cesspool of a world. No.

He just is saying, don't let the world seep into them. That's exactly what he's telling the church of Corinth, too.

It's not wrong to live in a cesspool of a country, or a city, or a town.

It's just wrong to let that cesspool leak into the church, yes? That's exactly what he's saying. I thought to myself, we could be at Corinth.

I love America, but this is a wicked, idolatrous, greedy, immoral place.

Our options, beloved, are not ever monasteries, Montana, or the

Amish. I guess there goes my alliteration. See? Mark, I wouldn't be a good

Baptist pastor in that regard. Always alliterate. We can't retreat, because we take us with us.

By the way, are we not supposed to be the salt of the world? The world is corrupt,

Jesus said in Matthew 5, so we're salt. Salt helps stop the corruption.

Jesus goes on to say in Matthew chapter 5, you're not just salt that helps the corrupting world, you're a what?

There's a dark world, and so you're what? He says to the apostles. You're light.

So we're salt and light, because the world's dark and corrupt, or corrupt and dark, and so how are we going to give the gospel if we're all in monasteries?

See how the tightrope begins? Because the world says, you know, we say the world is gross, so we run too far over, and we say, you know what?

We're going to go, I saw some of these places in Greece, by the way, up on these mountains. How do you even get up there?

Let's just run from the sinful world, except you take you with you.

We are to live as shining lights, bright lights. Just imagine in your own salvation, if you're a

Christian today, what if the person who kept preaching the gospel to you was living in a monastery in Montana?

You wouldn't have heard. I know it's hypothetical, because if you're an elect person, God's going to get you the gospel.

But we are the salt and light of the world, and we are not supposed to hide our Christianity under some kind of bushel to get away from the filth of the world.

Now, we shouldn't embrace the world and its filthiness. I remember our dog once, Jetty, I found her, and she was rolling on a dead possum.

I thought to myself, ooh, de possum, and she was rolling on it.

She was thinking it was good. She was thinking this was going to be a nice fragrance for the owner, for the other neighbor dogs.

Wow, man, she smells great today. Now, of course, even though we're supposed to be living where we do, we're not supposed to be rolling in the world thinking, you know what, this is just good.

If I can just become more worldly, then my worldly friends will think I'm kind of cool, then I can preach the gospel.

We're not supposed to do that. This kind of secret

Christianity, you know, I'm in the secret service, nobody knows I'm a Christian. Secret Christian.

Robert Murray McShane said, there cannot be a secret Christian. Grace is like the ointment hid in the hand, it betrayeth itself.

If you truly feel the sweetness of the cross of Christ, you will be constrained to confess Christ before men.

Aren't you glad we're here to tell our friends? The other option would be, let's retreat to the monastery, and I'm going to have to go back on my super nice and gentle delivery, and so here we go,

I have at least one exception. And let the world and my neighbors and my friends go to hell. That's not nice.

Don't let the world make inroads to Corinth or BBC. Discipline those kind of members, of course, but we're living in the world.

And by the way, the worse the world gets and the more secular it gets, the easier it is for you to preach this clear and bright gospel.

Believe me, you go to the South and you just meet somebody in Kentucky, when I was in Louisville, I never met so many born again

Southern Baptists. Hi, excuse me, what kind of religion are you? Everybody's a

Baptist. Everybody's accepted Jesus in their heart. Everybody's had Jesus fill their love tank.

Everybody's had, oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was going to be nice. But now, especially in Massachusetts, where we say, you know, look at how bad it's getting.

In one sense, it's better because it's clear. Who are the real Christians? Who are the born again

Christians? You say, well, what denomination are you? And if the answer is, I'm Methodist, I'm Episcopalian, I'm Baptist, I'm Catholic, then

I think, friends, you should evangelize them. And if somebody ever asked you, what are you? You ought to say, you know, by the grace of God, I'm such a sinner, but God has made me born again.

I'm born again. I'm a Christian. Look at the passage there in verse 10, if you would, since then you need go out of the world.

That's just a euphemism for death. He's not talking about Mars or Venus or let's go have a colony on the moon.

He's saying this is death. If you want to really avoid sexually immoral, greedy, swindlers, idolaters, guess where you're going to have to go?

Heaven. There's no way out except that way. And for a reason,

God has us on this earth. For many reasons, the glory of God, preaching the gospel.

Monkery doesn't solve the problem. I like what Martin Luther once said and he said, you can take the monk out of the world, but you can't take the world out of the monk.

He's probably right. Yeah, but Paul, what do you really mean by associate?

What does it really mean associate? Can I, you know, go to a, go to have Starbucks with the person?

Can I have them over for Christmas? What do you mean by associate? And Paul tells them in verse 11. They were not clear about his first letter.

He'll make sure they're clear about this letter. So he gives a further explanation in verse 11 of 1

Corinthians 5 on what does it mean not to associate with or what does it include? What does it go up to?

But now he says, I'm writing to you not to associate. There's that word again. With anyone who bears the name of brother,

NAS translates that so -called brother, the professing believer. If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or as an idolater, and then he adds a couple new ones here.

These words of characterization, reviler, that is a slanderer, drunkard, or swindler.

Then he gives what don't associate means or what it goes up to and includes. Not even to what?

Eat with such a one. Not even to eat with such a one. BBC, sadly, this is a relevant passage to us.

In light of the church discipline cases we've had, the two in the last probably two years, Paul says this is from God exactly how we should deal with sin.

And we should not associate with those people and we should not even eat with them. You say, yeah, but I think

I maybe have a better way. I had kind of a good relationship with them. I'm going to have them over for Thanksgiving.

We're going to kind of do this. We're going to do that. And Paul says, you're not to even eat with one. You're not even to eat with such a one.

Did you know in Eastern society, if you were to tell another person, sorry, I can't eat with you anymore, it could be misconstrued as an act of war because of this whole

Eastern social structure. I'm not going to eat with you. This is not some kind of two -minute

Burger King wolf down some kind of lunch. This is, I'm having you over and you're part of my family and I'm going to protect you and I'm going to provide for you.

Now, some commentators think this means you shouldn't let the excommunicated have the Lord's Supper.

Should we let the excommunicated have the Lord's Supper communion? The answer is no, but that's not what it's saying here.

This is saying literally to eat. He just got done talking about Passover and the Passover meal and so it's easy for him to just slip into this, not even to eat any meal.

Why? Because if I eat a meal with a person, I accept them. What you do is right.

What you've done is right. Not eating with the person who's excommunicated says this to the person.

It says, I obey you, God, but to them it says this. Of course, I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God, but the church of Christ Jesus that he bought with his precious blood does not tolerate your behavior.

And therefore, you forced me to do this. This is the language I always use. It's not like I woke up one day and think,

I can't eat with you. You know, you're repulsive. It's been, it's, it's with sadness and a broken heart that says, do you see what sin has caused?

Your sin has caused this. Do you see now what I'm forced to do? I'm forced to go through Matthew 18, steps one, two, three, and four.

I have a lot other things to do in my life. I never want to do it. And now you force me. I can't even eat with you.

I would love to eat with you. I've eaten with you often. I can't accept your behavior.

It's a sad thing. Leon Morris, do not eat will refer primarily to ordinary meals.

Garland, refusing to eat with fellow Christians, guilty of such acts breaks all social ties with them as well as excludes them from the

Lord's supper. See, Paul is saying this so -called brother isn't a

Christian because Christian is a word of characterization. He says this person in first Corinthians chapter five, he's not a

Christian. He's a fornicator. This person isn't a Christian. They're an adulterer.

They're not a Christian. They're a drunk. And the Christian church is for Christians, not those who still act the same way they did before they're saved.

You say, well, yeah, but if you go down this line, you're going to have a bunch of people in the church who become prideful, arrogant, hypocritical.

They're going to look down their nose on people. I guess that could happen. But that's the chance we have to take because you have to obey the scriptures.

One man called this, don't eat with someone, kind of an electric fence that warns about the limits of admissible conduct.

This is the fence. We're putting up a fence. Listen to what

Jonathan Edwards said. He preached a sermon. Listen to the name of the sermon. Here in Massachusetts, 1749, the nature and end of excommunication.

And he preached the sermon, it says, on the occasion of the excommunication of John Bridgman's wife.

His theme was, quote, those members of the visible Christian church who become visibly wicked ought not to be tolerated in the church and should be excommunicated.

Edwards goes on to say, we are forbidden such a degree of associating ourselves with them as there is in making them our guests at our tables or in being their guests at their tables, as is manifest in the text.

We are to have no company with them, not even to eat. Christ's meaning must be that we should treat an excommunicated person as the

Jews were wont to treat the heathens and publicans. Edwards asked the question, what kindness and respect may and ought to be shown to such persons?

I answer, to pray for them and to admonish them. The duties of natural and civil relations are still to be performed.

Excommunication does not release children from the obligation of duty to their parents, nor parents from their parental affection and care towards their children, nor husbands and wives released from their duties proper to their relation.

Yeah, but you know, if we do this, if we just judge the people in the church, who's going to judge the world?

The world needs to be judged. Who's going to judge the world if we don't do it? Verse 12,

God's going to judge the world, so we don't have to worry about that. Judge not actually applies to us regarding judging the world.

Verse 12, 1 Corinthians 5, for what have I to do with judging outsiders,

Paul asked the first rhetorical question. Then he asked another rhetorical question with a plural you.

It is not those inside the church whom you, ye, y 'all are to judge.

Notice this judgment that he's talking about. This is not criticizing. This is not, you know, I'm judging in my mind.

This is judgment which includes discipline. How are we going to discipline the world? How long would services take if we had to read the role of excommunicated people who are excommunicating out of the world for being so worldly?

I mean, we're not going to have a service. Paul says, I don't judge outsiders. It's not those, is it not those inside the church who you judge?

Yes, we are. We're to judge insiders, not outsiders. No jurisdiction outside the church to judge.

Look at what it says in verse 13. Somebody will judge. You've been wronged. You've seen sin in the world and you think

I want those people to get what's coming to them. Well, it will. But God will do it.

God judges those outside. That's God's task. The Greek could be

God is presently judging or God will judge. We don't know. But what we do know is this, the judge of the universe will do right, won't he?

Abraham asked that question in Genesis 18. God's going to judge them. So what's our response?

Verse 13, purge the evil person. Here's this leaven kind of talk again.

Purge the evil person from among you. So Paul is clear.

He says for the unbelievers outside the world, God will take care of them. But for the person who says they're a

Christian who doesn't act like a Christian in your church, you've got to purge them. If I can say this as a pastor to try to encourage you or to try to exhort you, unbelievers act like unbelievers.

We're to live in this world where we don't associate with people who've been excommunicated. But number two, we're moving to this point now.

We are to associate with unbelieving people. I could ask you a question. Do you have any friends who are sexually immoral, greedy, swindlers, idolaters, drunkards or revilers?

You should. Of course you shouldn't say, oh, that's great that you do those sins.

Let me help you do those sins more and faster and more often. Let me condone those sins. Of course you ought not to celebrate those sins, but you should love those people.

And by the way, unbelievers are really good at being unbelievers. Matter of fact, unbelievers are better at being unbelievers than believers are being believers.

Did you get that? Unbelievers are always 100 % acting like unbelievers all the time with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

But believers sometimes act righteously, sometimes act not righteously. By the way, believer who's here today who doesn't always act like a believer, that's why we need somebody else's perfect righteousness.

That's why we need someone else who always acted perfectly, sinlessly, because when we don't act like a believer in our practice, we've got position, we've got cover, we've got the righteousness of Christ.

But believers sin their minds out, they sin their brains out. They're sinning all the time.

And so what are we supposed to do? Run? No. I'll ask the question this way.

Would Jesus's life help us analyze how we're supposed to live in this world?

I think it would. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 5. Let me give you a series of verses to show you how it's okay and Christ -like to associate with homosexuals, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, abortion doctors, and anybody else that you can think of,

Hamas terrorists. It's good to associate with the riffraff of the world, and we'll see

Jesus did this. Jesus didn't compromise who he was. He didn't celebrate it. He didn't condone it.

But he wasn't in some kind of monastery either, and so I'm going to give you a little preview of a few verses, and then we're going to end in Matthew 11 today.

Luke 5 .27 to 32, I want you to hear the refrain of how Jesus was criticized for being around sinful people.

Luke 5 .27, and after this he went out and saw a tax collector named

Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me, and leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

Levi made a great feast in his house, and he was thankful. There's a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with him.

The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus answered, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

He eats with the immoral. Chapter 7, please, same book, Luke 7.

There is a refrain. Jesus hangs out with sinners, and I'm glad for that. Now when the

Pharisee, Luke 7 .39, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, of course

Jesus can hear the whole thing because Jesus is omniscient. He said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.

Luke 19, please. Luke 19, verse 7. Luke 19, 7.

I think we get a good illustration found in the life of Christ rooted in the epistles.

We are supposed to be with sinful people. Before I read this one, I'll never forget, I was at Mount Hermon, a

Christian conference center in California. Beautiful, redwoods everywhere, and Chuck Swindoll got up to preach, and it was a conference, it was summertime, and I think he was preaching on Rurie that summer, and he had shorts on, and I remember him getting up and preaching in shorts, and the first thing he did as he got up, in Chuck Swindoll style, he said, how many people here live at Mount Hermon?

Because you can live in the homes really close to it. I remember Kim grew up there, and so many people raised their hand, and when you see the

Mount Hermon crowd, people are probably rightfully proud to live there. I live there. It's a privilege.

I get to live there. How many people out here live at Mount Hermon? Tons of people. They've got their own post office.

You can use the Mount Hermon Bible conference facilities. How many people live here? You know what then

Chuck Swindoll said, it's classic, I feel sorry for you,

I feel sorry for you, and I was thinking, you're the one with no hair and those white bony legs.

My first thought, but then, I was glad Swindoll couldn't read my mind like Jesus reads this other guy's mind in Luke 7.

He said, all your neighbors are Christians. Your post office is Christian. Your gym is

Christian. Your cafeteria is Christian. All your summer visitors are Christian. You don't get to hang around any immoral, vile people.

I feel sorry for you. I know one pastor, he said,

I'm going to join the gym down the street. A, I like to work out, he said, and B, I need to know some pagans.

Of course, it's good to come back to the church. Yes, people that have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. People that have been given a mind to worship the risen

Savior. We come back and we refresh ourselves and then today we go out, entering your mission field because you're going to be around people.

You know, tomorrow there will probably be some people who might swear around you. Now, if they swear around your kids,

I usually say to people, excuse me, my wife and kids are here. But you've got bigger problems than people swearing in your presence.

You say, I just don't want to hear my Lord's name in vain. I applaud you, but you've got problems that are bigger than swears in your life and instead of going to them all the time and saying, can you please not say those things,

I guess maybe a better approach would be, I'd love to have you over for dinner. I've got a gift for you.

Somebody in the church just told me about, they bought this person a bunch of gifts and included with some

Bible book and stuff. So they almost feel, you know, compelled to read the Bible book because there's so many other great gifts.

That's a great idea. Luke 19 7, I'm going to make sure I get to this, and when they saw it, they all grumbled.

He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a what? Sinner. Jesus, a friend of sinners, not a friend of saints.

He's a friend of sinners, but maybe the best Matthew 11.

Let's turn there. And here's what I'm trying to do this morning, trying to teach you first Corinthians five to say when there's an unrepentant person with flagrant, grievous sin that can contaminate a church, you must do church discipline on that person to the glory of God and for the good of the person.

But I also, in the heart of Paul and in the life of Christ, we see that we're not supposed to go so far over and fall over on this side of the tightrope that we just never hang out with Christians.

I know people that hate Christmas because all their family are coming over and all their family's pagan. I think you should be saying, great, all the pagans are coming over.

And especially if you're the father of the house, you're going to sit down and say, let's open in prayer. Now, I don't advise preach praying on many occasions, but that's one that I do.

Dear father, we thank you that you're the creator of the universe, the only God almighty. And off you go and talking about Jesus Christ, his substitutionary death, but you go, you know what?

Pagans come over to your house. Guess how they're going to act. They're probably going to act paganly. And I hope all your friends and neighbors go, look at all those people, they're hanging out with sinners.

I loved it at our home Bible study back in California, Northern California, excuse me, North Hollywood. There's a bunch of ex kind of hell's angels guys that came over for Bible study.

One guy's nickname was Bones and he had hair down to past his knee and he was really skinny.

He was skinny as a skeleton or bones and he used to be into heroin, but he'd been saved. He invited all these other motorcycle people.

And I just thought, wait till the neighbors get a load of this. The hell's angels are coming to Pastor Mike's house.

I thought, that's right, we want people to know. We want people to feel our love.

I had to make an admission. This was about, I think it was in the summertime, I said to Kim, you know, I want you to know that I kissed another lady today.

I said, but it was in front of everybody. It was out on the street in our, we have a cul -de -sac, boy,

I'm trying to get myself out of this one now. Let's close in prayer. And we have some homosexual neighbors and I hadn't seen her for a while and I just came and gave her a big hug and I kissed her on the cheek and I said,

I love you. I thought that's exactly how Jesus would act. And you know,

I know it's the gospel working because that's not the old Mike. That's not unredeemed Mike. That's not new

Christian Mike. I just think I want to receive sinners. Other people in the neighborhood might say things, might not like things, but I want them all to know the pastor's family.

This is more driven by Kim than me. The Abendroth house is open to receive sinners. Matthew 11 verse 16.

But to what shall I compare this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates.

You know, kids play games then like they do now. They had two games back then that they loved to play.

Wedding was the first game. Funeral was the second game. For us, it's nothing better.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Red Light, Green Light. I played when I was a kid. Probably the young kids don't even know games now because it's, you know,

Angry Chickens or whatever they play. Call of Duty and stuff.

We played one of the games that we played growing up. Red Light, Green Light.

Heads Down, Thumbs Up. Red Rover, Red Rover. Charade kind of games. Oh, Ring Around the

Rosie, Pocket Full of Posies. Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down. Well, they had two games they loved to play back then.

Wedding and funeral. One certainly follows the other. Both were public things.

When there was a wedding, there was a big procession. Singers accompanied. There's the bridegroom.

The groom. Excuse me. The bridegroom. The bride. The attendants streaming down the agora of the city, the marketplace.

So the kids would go, hey, let's play. Parents are shopping. Let's play wedding. I'm the dad and I'm the bride and I'm the groom.

I think I used to play Batman, too. When I was a kid. I always wanted to be Batman. They had another game, too.

Funeral. You would hire, back in those days, people to wail for you. You can see, after a while, the kids become disinterested.

They're like, we don't want to play wedding anymore. Now let's play funeral. So we've gone to, oh, great, so -and -so is getting married, too.

Oh, I've lost my loved one. Jesus is going to tell a little story.

Here's the story. The ministry of John the Baptist was like a funeral dirge.

From his clothes, to his food, to the way he acted, to his message, to who he hung out with. But Jesus' message, his life, and who he hung out with was more like a what?

A wedding. And by the way, you peevish Pharisees and false teachers, you didn't go for either one.

You didn't like either one. Verse 17, we played the flute for you. You did not dance.

We sang a dirge. You did not mourn. Now John, Jesus ties into the funeral game.

He neither came eating nor drinking. And they say, when you hear the messenger of God and he comes aesthetically preaching repentance, what do you tell?

Other people. Messenger from God. No, he has a demon. Well, Jesus, he came and he was more like the wedding festival.

He came eating and drinking. And to John, they said, you are demon possessed.

What's the worst thing they could say about a person? What's worse than saying you're demon possessed?

Have you ever got so mad at someone you looked at them and said, you're demon possessed? I mean, that's pretty bad. I've been pretty mad at people, but I never even thought to say that.

You're of your father the devil. I've never said it. So, they're going to one -up it because John is gone and they're going to try to get

Jesus. What's worse than saying to someone, you're a demon possessed person? What does it answer? Look at him.

A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of what? Of whom? Tax collectors and sinners.

You can tell he's bad. He hangs out with sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by our deeds.

I think we live in a great time. Because the more foul the world gets, the more polluted the world gets, the more corrupt the world gets, the more they need salt, and the more that light shines in the darkness.

And I never want to be the kind of person who allows sin in the church to just go unbridled.

But I also never want to be the kind of person that says, I don't love sinful people. That I don't love sinners who act like sinners.

I can't resist myself, and we've got a different message next week. So, Luke 15. One last passage about Jesus and how he dealt with sinful people.

And how we should. I'm going to pray in just a minute that God's going to give you sinners this week to love on. And it's going to be sticky.

But you're going to have the opportunity to preach, and to love, and to share. Wouldn't it be a compliment if somebody ever said to you, that person loves sinners.

Luke 15. Parables have context, and you've got to know why he gives a parable, before you can understand its meaning.

Well, sometimes it's the beginning, sometimes it's the end. But here it's at the beginning. Three parables of lost things.

Lost sheep, lost coin, lost sons. But why were they given? Verse 1 of chapter 15,

Luke. This is the best. This could take me 50 minutes, but I'm going to try my hardest to get it done soon. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

Can't you imagine that? And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled. This man receives sinners and eats with them.

Of course he wasn't saying, your sin is good. He eats with sinners because they know they're not righteous, and then

Jesus tells them about his righteousness. How to be forgiven. Who he was.

What he'll do. These Pharisees hated Jesus because he ate with sinners. He associated with them.

So he tells them three stories. Have you ever lost something and then found it? You lost something, you found it, and then rejoiced.

I'm sorry to give you this example, but this is the latest thing I could think of that I lost. I have a special card, a gun card, so I can carry firearms with me while I preach.

This right here is just the microphone, that's all that is. And I lost the card.

You can't buy ammo, you can't have a used round, you can't have mace, you can't do anything. You can't even make a gun out of bread or you get thrown into jail.

I lost that card. It cost a lot, like re -fingerprinting all these things. I lost the card. But you know,

I found that card. Right where I left it, by the way. You know what I did? I was happy.

Something is lost, you find it, you rejoice. So Jesus gives three parables. When you lose something and you find it, you rejoice.

And he says, you know what? The lost sheep, there's a lost sheep, the person found it, and what did they do?

Verse 7, there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99. The sheep was lost,

I found the sheep, rejoice. Lost, found, rejoice. Situation 2, the parable of the lost coin.

She loses the coin, verse 8. Verse 9, she found it. She says in verse 9, rejoice with me.

Verse 10, so I tell you, there's joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. I lost a sheep,

I found it, I rejoice. I lost a coin, I found it, I rejoice. When you lose something and it's found, what do you do?

Then he gives the knife. And this is the parable of prodigal son. And he says, you know what? This son is lost.

This son is going to be found. And that other son isn't going to rejoice.

He's going to be mad. And you Pharisees are that other son. And he talks about the son who's lost.

Prodigal son goes out, eating the pig stuff, spends all the money, maybe with prostitutes and everything else.

He is lost. He comes home. He's found. The dad runs out to forgive him.

And what should that other son be doing? What's the paradigm? Lost, found, rejoice. Lost, found, rejoice.

Here the paradigm is lost, found, what? Mad. He says in verse 32, it was fitting to celebrate and be glad.

For this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. The key to Luke chapter 15 is lost, found, rejoice.

Lost, found, rejoice. Lost, found, mad. And you should have rejoiced. And Jesus says, when there are sinners who by the grace of God have been found, and God regenerates them and gives them new life, and breathes his spirit into them, what should be the response of other people?

I'm glad. I'm happy. Jesus associates with sinners, and he gives them the gospel.

We associate with sinners. We give them the gospel. But those who have heard the gospel and stay in the church and refuse to repent, we have to kick out.

That's the message of 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It's hard to tightrope walk on this kind of truth.

What about sin in the church? What about those outside the church? So what do you do? I hate watching tightrope walkers in the circus unless they have a net.

I hate it when they don't have a net, because I've seen people fall off of things before, and the sound of a human body hitting the cement,

I'm telling you, isn't very good. So I'm always worried about the net. Are they going to fall off or not?

It's like in the Golden Gate Bridge. Work went up after they put the safety nets under.

And I'm thinking, I've got to tightrope walk this as your pastor and as a fellow Christian. Can you be too hard on sin?

Yes. Can you be too lax on sin? Yes. What do you do? Do you know what I say to close? I've got the net.

I've got Christ Jesus, His righteousness, His obedience, His wisdom, His sovereignty. And so we're going to do what we've been called to do because we've got a safety net under us.

And so therefore, in Him I rest. And you should too. Let's pray. Father, we were lost.

We didn't find you. You found us. Now the angels rejoice. Now you rejoice.

And now we rejoice. Lost sinners found. Lord, help us to deal with sin in our own life properly, in other people's lives properly, in the world properly.

Father, I pray for every person in this room today who's a Christian. Give them more sinners as friends.

Give them more sinners as acquaintances. Give them a heart for their neighbors, people at work, people at the library.

Lord, it'll be a supernatural love because we don't love like we ought to. So give us Christ's love for sinful people, especially during Christmas.