You Should Be Able to Judge

Amen. Alright, if you would, please turn with me in your

Bibles to the first letter to the Corinthians. You'll meet me in chapter 6.

We've moved on to chapter 6. Verses 1 -11 today. It's been a really good series to see how a young church has functioned in the first century.

Every church has its issues. Every church has its sin. And it has been instructive to us to see them go through this that we may learn.

The title of the sermon today is You Should Be Able to Judge. You should be able to judge.

So starting in v. 1 of the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

God. V. 1, does any one of you when he has a case against his neighbor dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more are matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in this church?

I say this to your shame. Is it so that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren?

But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Actually then, it is already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another.

Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud.

You do this even to your brethren. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the

Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the

Kingdom of God. Such were some of you. But you were washed. But you were sanctified.

But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our

God. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent Word. Let's go before Him once more in prayer.

Lord, I think this is a really important subject. And it ends on a very important list of vices as well.

God, we need to understand Your Word. We need to know what this says. That we may never make these errors.

That we may never indulge in these sins. Purify us,

Lord. Consecrate us. Convict us today as You need to.

Instruct us by Your Spirit. And God, I understand that I am just a man.

And I have no power to convince Your people or to educate them. Lord, we need

You to be here among us. So please, illuminate these Scriptures today by Your Spirit.

I pray this all in Christ's name. Amen. Well, church, we continue to live in a world that is sue crazy.

Do we not? People sue each other for so many different things. Lawsuits are seen as get rich quick schemes.

And the schemers continually have their eyes open for another and new opportunity. You have the wet floor guys.

You have the fraudulent car crashing. You know, going in front of someone and hoping they rear end you so you can get your car replaced.

False injuries. False workplace accidents. Whatever, you name it.

People love to sue. They love to sue each other. They love to sue institutions.

And Germany has the most lawsuits per capita.

But as you probably wouldn't be surprised, the United States is the most litigious country overall with the highest number of lawsuits per year.

And again, as you could probably guess, the state that has the most lawsuits or at least the most frivolous lawsuits,

California. California. People love going to court. Now in the ancient world, even history tells us that Greeks loved going to court.

When pagans have conflicts, they have very little understanding of right morality except that which

God puts in every man and woman's heart according to Romans 1 because they're made in His image and likeness.

They have a conscience. Romans 1 says they suppress that truth and unrighteousness.

And therefore, mediation or judgment becomes an ever -present reality.

It is needed in the world. And you would think that as redeemed people being taught the oracles of God, the

Corinthian believers could settle minor disputes on their own. But today we're going to find out, and as we read, brother brought brother before the

Greek courts. And so they need less Corinthian in them and they need more

Christian in them to solve these things. They have acted like the unbelieving culture around them and it shows brother has taken brother to court.

And in history, we've seen this sort of thing before. In varying ways.

In history, we've seen European monarchs during the medieval times.

These monarchs sued the Roman Catholic Church and they sued the

Pope. They were seeking to get the authority to appoint bishops and officers of the church.

These are kings, queens, monarchs, state people were trying to get the power to appoint bishops and other religious offices.

And they went to court and of course they shouldn't have won. The state should not be allowed to appoint pastors, bishops, overseers, deacons, whatever.

The state shouldn't be allowed to do that. But it also resulted in the Pope having more power than ever before because of what occurred during that fight.

So you have examples like that. You have examples of lawsuits during the

Protestant Reformation. During the Protestant Reformation, you had

Protestants and Catholics and the Protestants went to court with the

Catholics over land. Over land, over buildings, over things like that, rights, doctrinal claims.

Land has always been a major reason for litigation in the church and in modern times it still continues to be so.

When there is a church split in an evangelical church even, you have two pastors and one of them takes half of the church, the other takes the half of the church.

They don't sell the building and split half. They sue each other over who's going to get it.

Who's going to get to keep this? Who gets this asset, right?

In some denominations, when a church is concerned that their denomination is going against Scripture and they seek to leave it.

A local church is part of a greater denomination and they see the denomination doing things that are against Scripture and that church goes, you know what,

I think it's time that we start voting as a local church to maybe leave our denomination because of what we see.

Well then, there have been times in history where that denomination will sue that local church for wanting to leave.

Maybe they want to take the building. Again, that's the issue, right? Maybe they want to take what's in the bank that the church has raised and they want to put someone else there who will go with what the denomination teaches, okay?

Lawsuits have happened in Christian publishing houses. Lawsuits have happened in Christian music companies.

In 2021, the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries faced multiple lawsuits related to the allegations to their late founder brought by individuals within the

Christian community. And there's so much more. Litigation, lawsuits,

Christians, and they are a tragedy. They are always and almost a tragedy.

I'm not saying that some of these weren't necessary. Maybe some were, some were not, but Paul obviously has minor disputes, minor claims and conflicts in mind when he says the phrase matters of this life.

He's not talking about criminal actions, okay? But again, they are tragedies nonetheless.

The unbelieving world will utilize it. The unbelieving world will view litigations whether they're legitimate or not.

And the unbelieving world will see these as occasions that go against the gospel.

They'll weaponize these moments against the gospel and against the witness of the believing community.

It never truly helps the church. So today the

Apostle Paul will once again confront the Corinthians' arrogance and he'll do it in this 11 verse righteous diatribe.

This 11 verse rebuke. He'll be stern, but he'll be loving. Okay, so let's take a look.

Go to verse one. Does any one of you when he has a case against his neighbor dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

Now I'll be honest, I don't love this translation of the NASB 95. I like the ESV here, because this word neighbor is not in the

Greek here, the word for another. So it should say, does any one of you when he has a case against another here dare to go to law before the unrighteous over there and not before the saints, okay?

That's what's in mind here. This is brother against brother, not just a random unbelieving neighbor, but brothers in the church.

And we have here an interesting play on words in the original language for law.

In the original language for righteous, we see unrighteous, the root word here is justice.

And then he talks about unjust people. In other words, he's saying, are you going to try to find justice with unjust people?

Do you seek to find true justice in front of unjust people? You're the saints.

You're the Haggaion. Literally, you are the holy ones. That's what it means, the saints.

You are the holy ones. You know right and wrong better than anyone. And the application for us is that any conflicts among us that get showcased to the unbelieving world are a blight against Christ and his church.

Whether it be a physical fight or maybe even fights on social media, fights on X or something,

Facebook, maybe outside our building, maybe at a function, a man's camp, whatever.

If brothers start fighting and the unbelieving world finds out, they will weaponize these things.

When the public see these things, they feel affirmed in their unbelief. See, they're not any better than us.

They suffer from the same problems as us. We don't need that Christ and that church.

And that's how they can look at these things when they see them. In the ancient world, in a lawsuit before secular magistrates, one was to seek to attempt to obliterate their opponent.

In this ancient time, you were to sink as low as to even attack the character of your opponent.

You attack their character, you demean them, you slander them in front of the jury and the judge, and that's how you won.

And so to do this as Christians with the aid of the unrighteous, to do that in Corinth is completely opposite to what

Jesus taught them. I couldn't help but think of John 13 34 -35, a new commandment

I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you. You love one another by this.

By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

By this, people outside of here will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another.

Love is not a priority for those who drag their fellow churchmen to court for petty things.

Especially when judges, so many judges and so many lawyers are crooked, right? Men who are at enmity with God and do not know the will of God, even if judges are part of that group that Paul said are called the outsiders.

In verse 12 last week. And now, more pointedly, he calls them the unrighteous.

These are judges. These are magistrates. And he says, you go before them, they're unrighteous.

There's such an immense irony in seeking justice from the mouths of the unjust.

And Paul knows this well. If you read the book of Acts, what will you find? You can see that the

Apostle Paul had to defend himself before many judges, many magistrates.

He was beaten three times, which was a

Roman punishment, a formal punishment by the Romans. He spent time, many years in prison, just waiting to be heard.

Conspiracies and schemes were made behind the scenes to try to entrap

Paul or kill Paul. Do you remember that in the book of Acts? Let's try to kill him when he goes to court.

Paul knows the so -called justice of the unrighteous judges, okay?

Because this was a time that was very much about bribery. You could bribe the judge.

That happens today. But that very much was what happened then.

If you had the money, if you had the means, you could go to court with anyone and you would be guaranteed to win if you just had enough status or money, okay?

Very biased toward the powerful and the rich, right? One ancient writer says this.

This is from thousands of years ago. Listen to this. One ancient writer writes this. Of what avail are laws to be where money alone rules and where the poor suitor can never succeed?

He says a lawsuit is nothing more than a public auction where the judge's record of vote is something to be bought.

So they understood the issue even thousands of years ago. So although we don't know what this dispute was about between these believers, what we might be able to assume is one had a higher status than the other.

He sought to use it to his advantage. We don't know. But what we do know is that this was not to be a solution for the church.

The church is to be impartial. The church is to be unbiased. The church is to give equal standing to both parties regardless of who you are.

They're supposed to use the standard of the Word of the living God to shed light on correct morality, petitioning the

Holy Spirit for assistance and letting the love of Christ guide the proceeding.

The church was supposed to mitigate and mediate this issue, but they would not let it.

They did not do it. So Paul continues in verses two and three. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?

Don't you know? How do you not know? The world won't judge the saints.

The saints will judge the world. And remember last week, Paul said that they cannot judge outsiders in the world and he was using that word judge in the ability to exact necessary discipline on people for their sin.

Remember, that was one use of the word judge. Now, he uses it in a different way.

Here they will judge the world. We see that since he was addressing the man of incest, that was one thing and now he addresses a brother suing his brother in the court.

Well, I believe the Scriptures wholeheartedly. We can trust what it says here.

It says we will judge the world and we will judge angels. And I believe that. Question is, do we see that idea anywhere else in Scripture?

What does that look like? Here's one possible example that sheds light on this.

After the vision of the One like the Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days and being given an everlasting kingdom, a dominion that will never fade away, that One we know to be

Jesus Christ, that's Daniel chapter seven. And in his prophecy, Daniel's seeing this happen.

He sees One like the Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days at the heavenly throne room.

He's given a dominion, this authority, this kingdom. And then all of a sudden, Daniel looks over at someone in heaven.

It doesn't say whether it's an angel or not. And he says, what does all this mean?

And so, this individual tells Daniel what this heavenly vision means.

He says that after there's a war and beasts that will be everywhere, after that moment, the

Most High will defeat all the beasts. And then he says this in v. 27.

This is what the person says in heaven to Daniel. Daniel 7 .27

Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the saints of the

Highest One. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all dominions will serve and obey

Him. That is to say, when Christ is given this kingdom, this dominion,

He will make a people to Himself. He will make a multitude of people His saints,

His holy ones. And He has inherited all of this, and therefore,

He has decided, Jesus has decided that He would share His inheritance with His people,

His saints, what He Himself has earned. The greatness of the kingdom is for us.

Prosperity and blessing of eternity will utterly outshine the promised land of Israel.

And the Lord says to Daniel that the saints will get even a form of sovereignty here.

Do you see that? The saints' dominion, sovereignty, and greatness will be given to the saints of the

Highest One. They will get some form of sovereignty, some form of the rights to rule, rulership.

It's hard to imagine, honestly, is it not? You will get to be in this position.

There's a certain level of mystery to that a bit to me. Our new position in Christ.

What else? Are there other places that speak of this? Well, after the rich young ruler walked away sad, not willing to give up his riches, despite supposedly keeping the whole law, the apostles asked

Jesus, we've given up everything to follow You. What will we get?

What about us? And so Jesus turns to the apostles and says in Matthew 19, 28 -29, truly

I say to you, that you who have followed Me in the regeneration when the

Son of Man sits upon His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life.

So we have you the twelve. There's going to be twelve thrones smaller than my own.

I'm going to be on the great and glorious throne, Jesus Christ says. You'll be judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Then He says, then everyone else, everyone else who has left house or farms or mothers or brothers or sisters or father or inheritance for My name's sake will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life.

So we at least see there that twelve men will get to judge others in the regeneration.

Yet, Paul says that even the average believer, the saints, will judge in some aspect too.

This is reinforced in Revelation 2 v. 26 -27 when

Jesus had an angel send a message to the church in Thyatira, which is just a local church by the way with regular

Christians. Listen to this. Jesus tells the angel, send this message to the church in Thyatira.

Listen, He who overcomes and He who keeps My deeds until the end, right here, to Him I will give authority over the nations.

And He shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces as I also have received authority from My Father.

It's absolutely fascinating. It's fascinating. After all this, you might be wondering no longer if we will judge, but how will we judge?

What does this look like? We will judge the world and angels? Who are we?

Now personally, when I look at tota Scriptura, that means all of Scripture, when

I look at the whole message of Scripture, I think that these verses demonstrate not that we will be declaring judgment.

I don't think we will have the books open before us and we'll be on these thrones and we'll be declaring judgment on people.

I don't think that that's what's being said here. All through the Old Testament, it says the

Almighty judges. Then in John 5 and then in Acts 17 -19 and all these other places, it says that the

Father gave the rights of judgment over to His Son. So there's something unique there where Christ will judge.

And so what I believe in the semantic range, the lexical range of this word, is

I believe that judge is being used here for ruling. This is about rulership.

That's what Daniel shows. Sovereignty, dominion, rulership. Revelation, you'll get authority over the nations.

Rulership, we will get to rule. And what's crazy is we'll even get to rule over angels and over the world.

If it's declaring judgment, then obviously it would be declaring judgment over fallen angels.

Over angels like Lucifer. Over demons. Over unclean spirits.

But if it's just ruling, then it's ruling the world and ruling over angels.

Even benevolent angels. And I see this as a demonstration of God's grace. What an exalted place for all of us to be when we're just wretched people.

That's where we came from. We don't deserve to be even the lowest peasant in the kingdom of God.

And He says, I'm going to take you and I'm going to save you and I'm going to clean you off and you're going to be seated with Me in the heavenlies.

And I'm going to give the earth to you as your inheritance because it's Mine, Jesus says. And what's Mine is yours because I love you.

And you've been adopted into the family. And you're going to get to rule over the world. You're going to get to rule over the angels.

It's incredible. Angels look to us as the highest creation on day six, right?

I pray this truth humbles you. I pray it gives you fuel to forgive others who wrong you.

Do you see what Jesus has done for you? Do you see what awaits you? It's incredible.

Christ truly has changed our entire future. Rulership. In chapter four, the apostle said that he was a spectacle before the world of men and angels.

Something to look at as he dies daily to himself to serve Christ. As he and other faithful ones suffer harm for the spread of the

Gospel. He's a spectacle. I told you that that's the word for theater. He's on the theater.

He's on the stage before men and angels gawking at him. Faithful believers are being gawked at by the world and angels.

But then, the faithful ones, the roles are going to be reversed.

In the resurrection, it won't be us.

It won't be Paul, who are the spectacles. We will rule over the world and angels.

Right? That's incredible. And so if Corinthian believers will rule in eternity, can they at least make a ruling on matters of this life?

Are you not competent to even try the most trivial cases between brothers?

You're going to rule the world. Surely, you can take the oracles of God and the things you know and make a judgment on what's happening in your church.

So look at v. 4. Again, I like the way the ESV translates this better than the

NASB 95. It says, so if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?

This is key. The people of the world, the officers of the world, the judges of the world, the state, all of these have no authority to speak on matters of sin and righteousness in the church.

But I will say this, and you've probably been wondering if I was going to mention this.

There are sins that are only sins. And then there are sins that are crimes in the

Bible. And so, the state does have authority as God's servant to punish those who commit crimes.

And therefore, it is the duty of the church if one is found to not only have committed sin, but also a sin that is a crime, then the state must be informed.

I can't tell you, you could probably do a Google search. Whether it be in the

Christian church or the Mormon church or any sort of group, the Roman Catholic church, you see articles where pedophiles are being hid under the guise of this is an ecclesiastical matter.

This is an internal church matter. No. No, that has to have the state come and bring to bear what

God's Word says in that situation. A crime has been committed. It is the duty of the church.

We would be going against Scripture if we hid a crime. We cannot hide crimes.

Now, the church may still need to hold an ecclesiastical hearing for church discipline for someone who committed a crime, of course, but otherwise, for the most part, these trivial matters relating to everyday life,

Paul says should never, ever, ever include those outside the church as they hold no standing, he says no authority in the church.

None. Go to v. 5 -6. I say this to your shame.

Is it so that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren?

But brother goes to law with brother and not before unbelievers. Earlier in chapter 4,

Paul didn't want them to be ashamed. But something like this, he hopes they feel shame.

I want you to be embarrassed by your failure to do what is right.

Their pride and their arrogance need to be squashed for good. Is there not someone there with enough wisdom to adjudicate over this situation?

Don't you have one person with wisdom there? Which is funny because this church, if you remember from our first couple chapters, they were a church going, we have the most wisdom.

We're the most sophos. We're the most wise here. And he says you have worldly wisdom.

You don't have wisdom from God, but you have access to the mind of Christ. So he says go after the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of this world.

And so this is honestly even something where it's a dig at them. Is there not one wise person there?

Which is to say, no, there's no one wise enough who would stop these brothers from going to the

Greek courts. It's ironic. A brother goes to law against his brother.

It's a tragedy in and of itself. You go to the unbelievers' court to judge over the conflict, and it's powerful here that he uses the word brother.

Okay? This is our family. The Greeks and their courts are cutthroat.

They're combative. But families employ love. Families employ forgiveness, selflessness, especially the church family.

Right? You know, I remember when my older brother

Greg went off to college. And I took his old room, and my dad made a home office out of my old room.

And it had been months since we had seen my brother. Really not that long, honestly. For my mom, she cried every day when the first one left.

I think she cried tears of joy when I left. You know, like, yes! But for my brother, she was distraught for months.

And so my brother came back to visit after the semester was over. And I'm not even kidding, my mom has admitted to me and my sister she loves my older brother more.

I'm not even kidding. And so when he came, it was like the red carpet was put out.

And he came in, and she took his bag for him. I'm not kidding as well,

Greg, if you're listening. She washed his clothes I think for 15 years.

I mean, even once he got married, his wife was like, stop taking your clothes to your parents' house. It's like, what is this?

Man, I never did that. So, she loves him. And so he comes in, and she takes his duffel bag, and she goes to my new room.

And she puts it on my bed, and she says, Greg's going to take your room. He's going to take it for the next couple of weeks during winter break.

And I was like, what? Are you kidding me? I have to sleep on the couch?

This is my room now. And I get all upset, and I start arguing with my mother. And my brother goes, that's my mom.

Don't talk to her like that. And so we turned to each other, and we started a fist fight.

Like I punched my brother, he punched me. I think we were pulling them a little bit, but we were hitting each other in the face a little bit, in the stomach.

Then we fall on the bed, and we're wrestling around. It's deplorable, right? Horrible thing to do with my own brother.

And my mom is just like, oh my goodness. And she goes, stop. You're family. You're brothers.

You're supposed to love each other. And she starts crying. She goes, you're supposed to love each other. And all of a sudden we stop.

We look at each other. I'm like, I'm sorry, Greg. And he goes, you know what? This is your room.

I'll go sleep on the couch. I'm sorry. I love you. And so we shake hands, give each other a hug.

Sorry, Mom. And it all worked out. And that's how family ought to act, right?

And families are capable of hurting each other the most. Do they not? But because we're family, we ought to be capable of forgiving each other just as easily as hurting each other.

And how much more should we do this in the church, right? Especially now as transformed, regenerated believers of Christ.

I'm not saying that all our conflicts will be as easy as a couple punches and then a hug, but you should understand the spirit of what

I'm saying, right? We should be able to forgive each other, okay? Because think about that too, honestly.

What a shame it would have been to my parents if the police came and everyone in the neighborhood saw that they had to break up a fight between two brothers.

And they knew that we were Christians on the street, a Christian family. That would have been a blight against Jesus.

And the neighbors would have scoffed. The Lord was disappointed in us. Brother versus brother before unbelievers is horrible.

And so Paul continues to address this. Let's go to verses 7 and 8.

Actually then, it is already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another.

Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud.

You do this to even your own brethren. He says this is a defeat. This word in the

Greek is a legal term. It's an official losing of a lawsuit.

Paul says no one wins when you as believers go to the unbelieving court.

No one wins. It's a defeat. Everybody loses in this situation. Because this goes directly in line with maintaining the church's moral witness to the pagan nations around them.

The Christians ought to know the law. They ought to know righteousness. They ought to know proper morality.

And asking people who are not regenerated, people who don't know the

Word of God, asking them to decide over cases of righteousness and morality is wrong.

Needing the world demonstrates that those in the world don't need you. Or worse, that they don't need

Christ. When the Christian church is no better off than the world, the world mocks

Christ. It blasphemes the great name of our Lord. And not to mention, this shows their faction -making charges are legitimate.

That's what he said. You're making factions. You're divisive. And sure enough, they're going to court against one another.

The selfishness that breeds division in factions is also the selfishness that breeds their conflicts.

And the conflicts breed then the desire to humiliate another brother in front of the

Greek magistrates. How does that affect the body? If one family went to court against another family in this church, what would that do to this church?

I'll tell you what. People would all start talking. And they would try to figure it out.

And pretty soon, you have people on this family's side, and then you have people on this family's side when they go to court.

That does not end well for the congregation. He says, why not rather be wronged and let it go?

Why not rather be defrauded and do nothing? The Apostle says it would be better to do nothing about the two brothers' conflict than to bring it to the courts of the unbelieving world.

It would be better to do nothing. Christ was defrauded. Christ was wronged at the cross.

He was reviled, but He did not revile in return. Christ had every right. He was defrauded and He was wronged, but He did nothing.

Peter says in 1 Peter 3 .8 -9, to sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind -hearted and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

Don't return evil for evil. Right? Don't give insult for insult.

You're insulted here? Don't give an insult. You're wronged here? Don't wrong someone else.

And all of this echoes Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verses 39 -40.

Famous words of Christ here. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.

If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. You've heard those words?

Everyone's heard that, right? As much as people think so, those are not

Scripture passages on pacifism when attacked. Those are not Scripture references for that when an enemy invades someone's territory or nation, you can't defend yourself.

This is not what these things are about. The phrase, resist an evil person, is legal language.

Do not take legal action, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, which is the formal form of Jewish insult, especially before litigation.

It was a public accusation. You're in front of everyone, and the man that you want to go to court with is in front of you, or the man who has wronged you is in front of you, and in front of everyone.

You slap them on the cheek. It's legal stuff, typically. And so Jesus says, don't start fighting, turn the other one to him also.

Fine. Because the next verse is, if he wants to sue you for your tunic, just give him your cloak also.

Don't take legal action if you don't need to. This section from Christ demonstrates this very important thing.

This is it. You want to know the heart of those verses? The heart is, don't retaliate when someone wrongs you.

Let love guide you instead. No retaliation, rather love and sacrifice.

Those are the words that Jesus gives. Be willing to even forego your legal rights for the sake of love.

And that's what Jesus says right after these verses. That's what's interesting is right after verses 39 and 40, just two more down, is you have heard it said, love your neighbor, hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your neighbor, love your enemy.

Do good to those who hate you. So you see how that's all in the same vein? Love your enemy.

Because in the end, love and forgiveness is the only way that the

Gospel takes off. After Jesus ascends into Heaven, the

Gospel can only go out if you love people who hate you. Because the world hates you.

It's easy to do things to people who love you. It's hard to do good things for people who don't love you.

And so the Gospel is built on the premise that you would love people who hate you and give them the truth that they may be freed as well.

But that's also how it works in this church. Love is how the Gospel spreads, but love is how a church stays in unity.

Love is the essential component to this.

The brother who sued his brother should have just let it go if it wasn't being tended to in the church.

He should have never gone to the courts. And this person thinks they've been wronged, but Paul says this man has actually wronged others.

Not to mention the fact that the problem isn't finding an adequate judge and court system for lawsuits between brothers.

The root problem is that they're sinning against each other and therefore necessitating the need for a judge anyways.

Necessitating mediating judgment. If they didn't sin against each other, they wouldn't need these things.

And so he brings them back to what I called last week Christianity 101. Right morality.

The basics. He's told them very sternly, do you not know this?

Do you not know that? Don't you have someone there wise enough for this?

Don't you realize you're going to rule in eternity? Don't you realize that this act is a wrongdoing in and of itself?

Don't you know? He says that multiple times. And here in verses 9 -10, the

Apostle Paul forcefully reminds the church that those secular judges or the man or woman who is unrepentant in the church, the person who changes their identity from Christian to whatever vice, they will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. The people of this list in verses 9 -10 will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. The judges, the unrighteous judges and magistrates outside of the church will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. He said, don't you know, don't be deceived. They will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. The one that the Ancient of Days gave to the Son of Man in Daniel 7.

The kingdom and dominion that Jesus received from the Father that He then gives to the saints to rule.

He says people like this won't get that. They won't get rulership. They won't get to be in the

Kingdom of God. They will not rule with the King of Kings. Verse 9 -10, look at this.

Or do you not know, there's that phrase again, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the

Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the

Kingdom of God. Now with these last three verses,

I could do a sermon just on those three verses and maybe I will one day, but I didn't want these verses to lose their fierce power in the rebuke from Paul.

You see, don't you often hear these verses in isolation? Do you ever hear these in context with brother suing another brother?

And that's how we're gonna finish this out. I don't wanna go too far off from the point that I'm trying to make here, but I will real quickly go over each sin.

I'm gonna just real quick go over who these are, these types of people, these types of sin, okay?

First, he says the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God. These are specifically the ones mentioned who are outside the church in verse 1.

Therefore, anyone who calls himself a brother or herself a sister, but is really one of these things in this group, they are then lumped in with the unrighteous.

Those outside the church, those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God, those who are not truly saints or brothers.

The unrighteous. The next word is fornicator. In the Greek, pornos. Those who commit sexual immorality.

Basically anything outside the one man, one woman covenant. Marriage is off limits.

Anything outside of it. The idolater I told you last week is someone who takes anything from creation and worships it.

Anything. You take anything from creation, you worship it, that's an idolater. Adulterer is just that.

One who commits adultery. Someone who has sexual relations with someone outside that one man, one woman marriage covenant.

Effeminate. The effeminate will not inherit the Kingdom of God. This is the word malakoi.

It means soft in the Greek. But specifically in the ancient world, it was a word used for the passive man in a willful, sodomite relationship, a homosexual relation.

He is the soft one. And that is why Paul immediately says the next word, homosexual.

Arsenikoites literally means man in man. Man with man in bed.

Malakoi and arsenikoites, they're lumped together. In recent scholarship, liberal theologians and the world have tried to change the meanings of these things.

I'm telling you, these are the meanings of these words. Again, we could preach on this a lot, but essentially, this is arsenikoites, the homosexual in the

NASB is the active one versus the passive one in a homosexual relationship.

So basically, Paul says whether you're the sodomized man or the sodomizer man, both are condemned and will not inherit the

Kingdom of God. And so although those are traditionally used for men, the principles are the same for women.

You can often see a more masculine woman in those situations, can you not? So same thing goes for there.

These things are wicked, right? These go against God's design. No doubt, some of the

Gentile believers used to engage in those sins. Then he says kleptists.

Kleptists, thieves will not go to heaven. We talked about the covetous who want other people's possessions or their spouses or their families.

And swindlers who steal things from others. The drunkards, people who constantly get drunk and have made alcohol an idol.

They will not enter the Kingdom of God. And those types of people are often revilers.

They're slanderers. They hurl abuse, verbal abuse towards other people.

Paul says, thinking any of these people actually inherit the Kingdom where you'll rule over the world in angels, you're deceived.

You're deceived if you think you will be saved and inherit the Kingdom of God and rule with Christ.

He says don't kid yourself. Don't change the doctrine. Those who try to change those things are walking on thin ice.

Don't twist God's standards. Don't twist His commandments. These types of people do not go to heaven.

These identities will inherit hell and the lake of fire.

That's the reality. And so, so far, in these verses, the points of this section of Scripture are this.

1. Don't sin against each other. And if you do, 2. Don't bring trivial things before the unrighteous, unbelieving pagan courts.

And finally, 3. Realize you'll rule in the new creation. Those are the three main points of this text so far.

Christians have the standard. Christians have the revelation. Christians have the correct morality.

They have the right worldview to understand and know what is good and what is evil.

They can do it. We alone have the capability by the Spirit to judge rightly in the church and even outside of it.

You ever see that with your co -workers or your neighbors? They know you're a Christian and somehow they come to you for advice.

Because you guys know the revelation of God. You know right and wrong. You know correct morality from the

Word. And Paul ends with how all this is possible.

V. 11 One of the most amazing verses from God's Word. I wish

I could preach longer on it. He says, "...Such were some of you..." He goes through that list.

"...Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

Paul says all this that I've talked about is possible because of this.

All those things are possible because of what? That's the Gospel. V. 11 is actually just the

Gospel of Christ. This is how we rule over angels.

This is how we rule over the world. By the grace of Jesus in His sacrificial death and resurrection.

Okay? This is how. It's His grace. It's undeserved favor.

It's the blessing of God. You haven't worked for or merited the ability to rule.

You don't get a kingdom just because of who you are. It's because of who He is and what He's done. Amen? That's what it is.

Now, some of us focus too much on our past when we see a list like that in v.

9 -10. But my exhortation to you is that if you've repented of these things, you don't need to worry.

V. 11 should shine the brightest for you out of these final verses. And if you are still one of those things on that list, then you can repent today and v.

11 could be a reality for you. Such were some of you. But you were washed.

But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those can be your reality.

But for the believer, you were those things. And God still justified you.

He declared you righteous in the name of Christ. He sanctified you.

It means made you holy. He is making you holy. Therefore, don't do those sins,

He says. How? How can you not do these sins? How? Because you were washed in the

Spirit of our God. You have the Spirit. And so, who can undo what the

Almighty has done? Who can change the such were some of you? Who can add an addendum that says such were some of you and now you are again?

Who can do that? No one can undo what God has done for you.

This is an act of God. And so then, by this truth, by this gracious Gospel, by these final words in v.

11, this is how we not sin. This is how we avoid going to court with each other.

The Gospel is how we judge rightly. How we keep conflicts in the church and not bring them outside.

This Gospel is how we get to rule. Because He rules.

And He loves us. And that's how. That's how. So let's pray that none of these things ever happen in our church.

Let's pray that none of these vices ever become our identities. We were these things, but we are no longer.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before You today with thanks and praise.

Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this instruction. Lord, let us think twice before we consider suing one another.

Let us think twice before we want to get the world involved. And yet,

Lord, let us understand what is a sin and what is a crime. Let us know when to do what

Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to let us be sued, to forego our legal rights, that we would rather be wronged or defrauded.

Lord, I think this really points to the fact that we ought to have more love. We ought to have more forgiveness towards each other.

That it would be worse for us to be divided than to make sure that every wrong was righted.

And so God, humble us with these truths. Show us, Lord, that we should be less demanding of others than we are.

We should give more grace than we are. We should give more understanding. We should, as the

Word says, let love cover a multitude of sins. Help us to guard this church, the church of Christ at large.

Help us, Lord, to not have any scandal that would bring reproach or shame to You or Your great name.

Lord, thank You for these things. Thank You that in this little bit of Scripture we see and through the

Gospel we'll get to inherit the Kingdom and all that You have in store for us. We look forward to that day.