WWUTT 1496 The Saints Will Judge the World (1 Corinthians 6:1-2)

The Apostle Paul rebuked the church in Corinth for being unable to judge matters among themselves.

They didn't judge the guy in sexual immorality, and when it came to small, trivial things, they were going before courts to be judged by unbelievers.

When we understand the text. Many of the

Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky. We're back to our study in 1 Corinthians and up to chapter 6 this week.

I'm going to begin by reading the first 8 verses out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

Does any one of you, when he has a case against another, dare to be tried 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 worthy to constitute the smallest law courts?

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

So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint those who are of no account in the church as judges?

I say this to your shame. Is it really this way that there is not one wise man among you who will be able to pass judgment between his brothers?

On the contrary, brother is tried with brother, and that be for unbelievers.

Actually then, it is already a failure 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 brothers. Now we often think about this particular section here in 1

Corinthians 6, 1 -8, as Paul having finished up confronting the

Corinthians about a matter of sexual immorality that was going on within their midst, and their failure to judge this man as they should, purging the evil person from their midst.

That was the way that we concluded chapter 5. So Paul confronted that matter, the sexual immorality that was going on in the body, and now he comes to a different matter.

So we've settled that. Now it's time for me to move on to something else. Oh, hey, I've also heard that there's lawsuits going on between brothers in the church.

A Christian is suing another Christian, and you're taking these matters before unbelievers when these are matters that could be tried among brothers.

This could be settled right there among you. You would not have to put unbelievers as judges over you when you should be able to handle these things yourselves.

Is there not one wise man among you who's able to pass judgment between his brothers?

That's the question that Paul presents in verse 5. So we think of this, once again, as Paul confronts a matter of sexual immorality.

Now he's confronting a matter of Christians suing Christians. So he's just moving from one subject to the next.

But actually what we're reading here in chapter 6 is very much in line with what we had just read in chapter 5.

Paul is confronting a matter of sexual immorality in the church in chapter 5. Definitely. We read about that in chapter 5 verse 1.

There's a sexual immorality among you of such a kind as does not exist even among Gentiles.

Even pagans look at what you are tolerating among you and shaking their heads at it.

What are these Christians thinking? Why have you not dealt with this man? You should have mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

That's 1 Corinthians 5. So here's essentially the confrontation. There's a man among you who's sexually immoral.

He's evil. He should be purged from your midst. But you're not doing it. You are not trying those matters that are clearly an issue of church discipline and you should be taking care of this, but you're not.

You've become puffed up. You're quarreling against one another over superficial things.

That was the confrontation that Paul made with them in chapters 1 through 4. Instead you've got this guy who's sexually immoral and you won't even deal with that.

So there's a matter of judgment that they should be taking care of and they won't. They're not taking care of a judgment matter there, nor do they even seem capable of handling trivial things between brothers.

So they won't deal with the sexually immoral man, chapter 5, and they won't even deal with disagreements between brothers, chapter 6, verses 1 through 8.

They're suing one another instead and saying, hey, let's let the unrighteous who rule in the courts, let's let pagan worldly people, let's let them deal over these matters that we can't seem to come to an agreement on.

So see how this is still kind of in the vein of the same argument, it's the same rebuke. You won't try the matters that you know that you should.

This man's sexually immoral, remove him. You've got disagreements between brothers.

You should be able to handle yourselves. Do that. Don't take it before unbelievers. This is a group of people that should be judging one another, and they're not.

And what do we often hear regarding judgment, right? And what's often the response whenever we judge another person's behavior, where do we turn to in that?

Matthew 7, 1, judge not, lest ye be judged. Don't judge me.

Only God can judge me. Well, according to his word, God has already judged you and you're guilty.

So what do we do about that? What is the sin? What is supposed to be the response to this particular sin?

We measure all things according to the word of God, even trying the fellow who is sexually immoral and needs to be removed from the church.

That's according to the word of God. And Paul even quoted from the law when he said, remove the wicked man from among yourselves right at the end of chapter five.

So the law says this man should be removed from you. That needs to be exercised even in the church.

But when it comes to understanding how we are to deal with wrongs within the church, the church in Corinth just didn't know how to do it.

They didn't know how to discipline this guy, nor did they even know how to handle simple things among brothers.

So let's let's go back here to chapter six, verse one. Does any one of you, when he has a case against another, dare to be tried before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

So you would take this matter before unbelievers to determine it between you, who's right and who's wrong.

You're letting unbelievers sit as moral authorities over you.

When is there not a wise man among you who should be capable of discerning who's right and who's wrong in this particular matter?

Verse two, do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

What did Christ say in Revelation chapter three would be the reward for the person who is able to overcome?

He says in Revelation 319, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me.

This is Jesus saying that he's the master of the house, not knocking on the door, waiting for you to open it up and invite me in.

He's the master of the house. He's coming. And you who are the servants of the house should be listening for when the master returns.

And then he says in verse 21, he who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me where?

On my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes this world, he who is not led astray, he who is not tempted by the trappings of this world, who is able to resist a temptation, who holds fast to Christ, whose eyes are fixed toward glory, who is anticipating the day of Christ's return.

And when Christ's return, it won't take him by surprise. But Christ who is at the door knocking, meaning that his return is imminent and soon we are ready for the master to return and opening up the door and we will fellowship together in glory.

We have overcome the ways of this world, have not let them ensnare us, have not been stained by the ways of the world.

That's something that James mentioned in James 1 27. Religion that God our father finds pure and faultless is this, that one cares for orphans and widows in their time of need and keeps oneself unstained by the world.

So if we overcome the world and we are not taken by the world, we have given to us a place to sit with Christ on his throne and we will rule and judge with him.

Consider these words in Revelation 20 verse four, then I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given to them, talking about the saints, judgment given to the saints.

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their witness of Jesus and because of the word of God and who also had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years to him who conquers,

Jesus says to him who overcomes, I will give a place to him to sit with me on my throne.

So we come back to first Corinthians chapter six, verse two. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

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

Now consider the matters that Paul is talking about here. So he, he mentions the smallest courts.

These are small matters that should be able to be handled between brothers.

Okay. This is not a capital crime that we're talking about here. So it's not like somebody in the church in Corinth had murdered somebody.

Well, you shouldn't take that before the court. You guys can take care of the murder charge between yourselves. That's definitely not what

Paul is saying here. With the, with regards to the sexual immorality charge.

So going back to chapter five, that's not a capital crime. The man was guilty of incest and even the pagans are going, well, that's pretty bad.

Christians. I mean, you guys are tolerating incest even, even we know incest is bad, but though the pagans had that perspective of it, that doesn't mean that it was a crime.

So this man would not have been taken in front of any pagan court and ruled for some sort of criminal conduct because he had slept with his father's wife, according to what

Paul says in, in chapter five, verse one. So this was a matter definitely that needed to be handled in the church.

This man had done evil. This man had done something that according to God's law would have gotten him stoned to death in Israel.

So he needed to be purged from the church, removed from the body, the evil person purged from among yourselves, remove the wicked man from your midst that his flesh would be given over to Satan and his spirit may be saved in the day of the

Lord. That was chapter five, verse five. So this was a matter that the church needed to take care of.

But then smaller things you're talking about issues now that are even smaller than the matter of the man being guilty of incest.

There's no one in the church in Corinth that seems to be able to handle this matter among themselves. So they take it to the secular courts or the

Roman courts may not have been secular. They may certainly had their own version of religion, their own paganism.

But anyway, they take it in front of the pagan courts and let these pagans rule in these judgments that should be able to be handled between brothers.

Brothers should be able to try these things reasonably so they don't take care of the big thing.

And when it comes to the small things, they think, well, we can have the unbelievers decide these matters for us.

So Paul says, I'm talking about these things to your shame. It is shameful for you that you can't seem to try these things.

The big thing you don't take care of, nor the little things. You take the little things before the secular courts and they're the smallest law courts is the way they're described in verse two.

So these are small matters, not capital crimes. If it was something where somebody in the church had murdered somebody else, well, that would definitely be a matter for the governing authorities.

Consider what Paul said in Romans chapter 13, verse one. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those which exist have been appointed by God.

Therefore, whoever resists that authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of that authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same for it is a minister of God to you for your good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid for it. Talking about the governing authority does not bear the sword in vain for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the wrong, who practices evil.

So if you're talking about something that would be a capital crime that does need to go before the governing authorities who bears the sword as God has appointed him to issue those kinds of judgments upon those that do this wicked evil.

So you would be talking about things like murder or or even a physical assault or or sexual assault, some some sort of sexual immorality that would be of such a crime.

It's worse than the incest matter that's going on here in the church in Corinth. It would be a rape or or pedophilia or something like that.

Those kinds of matters would definitely go before the state authorities. And that's the way that we need to consider that.

Even in our context, in whatever country or nation that you live in, your nation likely has laws against sexual abuses that if something like that were to happen in your church, that's not a matter that just stays in the church.

That's a matter that needs to go before the governing authorities to try that person who's committed this crime and then face the consequences for the crime that they have committed.

We're hearing about in churches today, in churches in America, in the Western world, wherever you might happen to be, there's probably a church near you somewhere that tolerates sexual immorality.

And they will say even of this sexual sexually immoral act that has happened in our midst, we can take care of this matter.

We can take care of this ourselves. It doesn't need to go to the governing authorities. And so they will try to cover it up and they will say, well, we're handling this matter among ourselves.

Right. We're trying our own cases here. We're not taking lawsuits before the world.

Well, if it's something that is a crime that definitely needs to go before the governing authorities for God has appointed those authorities to punish evil.

And in this case, they've done something evil, evil against the law of God, as well as an evil against the law of the land.

So that's something where the governing authorities should certainly be contacted. What you're seeing in these churches that try to cover that up and they try to hide that such a sexual sin has taken place.

They're not even doing church discipline in those matters. So they they try to make it look like we can handle this matter among ourselves.

But they're really not because they're not purging the evil person from their midst either. They're not even taking the step that Paul says to take in Chapter five.

If when someone is guilty of some kind of sexual immorality that is so great, it's even a crime, then both things should happen.

That person needs to be given to the governing authorities. And it should also be a matter of church discipline within that church, that the church, even though that man would be given over to the law, man or woman, whoever it would happen to be more often than not, it's probably going to be a guy, but man or woman, whoever it is that's committed this sexual crime should be given over to the governing authorities.

And meanwhile, the church decides this man is no longer of us and he's going to be purged from our midst.

And so still following the instruction, though the court is handling this matter, the church also needs to handle the matter and say, this man is not of us anymore.

We are cleansing out the old leaven that we may be a new lump.

We are turning this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. We are removing the wicked man from among ourselves.

And then if that man goes to prison or whatever would happen to be the consequence for this sexual crime that he has committed, it should be said to him that he's been removed from the body of Christ so that he would understand the evil that he's done.

The thing that he's done, the worst consequence is not that he got thrown in prison.

The worst consequence is that he's no longer part of the body of Christ so that he would mourn over his sin and that he would repent of it.

And if there's somebody in the church still in contact with that guy who would now be going to prison because of the crime that he's committed, may he repent of his sin and desire to be restored.

And the church might demonstrate the grace of God upon that guy and say, yes, he's genuinely repentant over his sin.

God has forgiven him. And so do we. And then that man can even become a member of the church again.

And that can happen, though he might be in jail for the crime that he's done and still serving the sentence of the crime that he has done.

Let's say the guy did something as heinous as murder. And this happened in a state that practices the death penalty.

So the guy goes on death row and he's waiting for his sentence to be carried out, which, of course, takes like a decade. But as he's waiting for lethal injection or the chair, whatever manner of capital punishment is going to be carried out on this guy, even in that circumstance, he can repent of his sin.

He can be genuinely repentant. Maybe the church that he was a part of is able to test this man, examine him and see, yes, he's repentant over his sin and he desires to be restored.

And so we restore him, though he's going to have to face a consequence for his sin. He's still going to have to receive the death penalty.

But as far as his standing in the church goes, we can recognize that this man has been forgiven by Christ and is part of his body.

I know that's a real complicated matter, and that all has to be very circumstantial. It's based on the circumstances, not just issuing some sort of blanket thing.

But but this is just to show that there's there's a difference between these great big crimes that can be done that have to be taken before the state, which

God has given authority to try over these capital crimes. And there's the smaller things we should be able to take care of among ourselves.

And that's what Paul is confronting here in Corinth, these small matters they're taking before the courts, but they should be able to handle it among the brothers.

So we're going to continue to examine that further tomorrow as we go into verse three of this section of First Corinthians, chapter six.

Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, forgive us our sins, forgive us of our pride when we try to go our own way, when we think we know better than God.

And so we're trying to rewrite the rules the way that we think that they they best fit the situation.

Teach us to come back to the word of God and give us a discerning heart and spirit that we may examine these things, examine ourselves according to your word and then examine one another, judging in a right way that we may encourage and admonish one another, building each other up in the

Lord so that we would not find ourselves falling into the schemes of Satan, but we continue in righteousness, in sanctification, that we may stand with God in glory on that great day.

Jesus is returning soon. His judgment is imminent. Make us overcomers that we may sit with him on his throne on that glorious day.

It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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