Sunday School: Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church (1 Corinthians 5:1-8)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. We've got four more

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Sundays including this morning that we're going to be in First Corinthians and when we hit December we're going to do something a little more holiday oriented.

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But these are two real heavy chapters that we're in for the next few weeks with a confrontation of sexual immorality in chapter 5 and then we'll see the call to holiness and to abstain from sexual immorality in chapter 6.

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So here in First Corinthians 5 we're in verses 1 through 8. We're going to cover this chapter over the next two weeks.

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So we're going to split this into two parts. Today we'll look at verses 1 through 8. Let me begin reading here from the

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English Standard Version. The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.

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For a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant.

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Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

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For though absent in body, I am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

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When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our

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Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

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Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.

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For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to our text today, I pray that you lead us and guide us according to your truth.

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We understand we see a situation that's going on here in the church in Corinth 2 ,000 years ago.

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It's not limited to that church, but it's something that we all need to be mindful of when it comes to sin in our midst and the desire for holiness, the instructions that God has given to every church on how to handle these matters.

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And there's also a call for us individually to put away those sinful, evil things and pursue holiness and righteousness with our whole lives.

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Heart, mind, soul, body. We live our lives entirely unto the

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Lord, loving the Lord our God, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. These commands we see even here in 1

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Corinthians 5. So lead us in your truth today, as we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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So a reminder, once again, where we've come from. In chapter 4, we had the

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Apostle Paul talking to the Corinthians in some very harsh ways, even using some sarcasm at times to try to convict them of their arrogance.

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We've seen the pride that they've been confronted of several times over the course of this letter.

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So we had a very sarcastic section in chapter 4, verses 8 -13, where Paul says that we are fools for Christ's sake, oh, but you are wise.

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We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we have become a spectacle to the world.

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We have been held in disrepute. So he speaks very sarcastically there to them in that sense.

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But then in verse 14, he says, I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

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For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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He speaks very lovingly to them there. So biting sarcasm immediately before that, and then with very loving tones, even calling them his beloved children.

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So at the end of chapter 4, he says, now, when I come to you, which

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Paul do you want? Do you want the Paul that comes with a rod, or do you want the

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Paul that comes with love and in a spirit of gentleness? So he's given them kind of a taste of both there in that chapter.

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Very biting sarcasm, treating them with a rod, and then with love and affection, treating them gently.

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When my children have been disruptive throughout the day, we homeschool our kids.

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So my wife has been homeschooling the kids all day long. They've not been listening to mom. They've been disrespectful. They haven't done their chores.

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They haven't been doing their schoolwork. Eventually it comes a point where Becky says, okay, just wait till your daddy gets home.

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If you won't listen to me, you can talk to your dad. And they know that means spanking. Some sort of corporal punishment is coming when dad comes home.

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So then my children are faced with a decision. Which dad do we want when he gets home?

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Do we want the dad who's ready to come home, he's done with work, and he wants to play with the kids and laugh and have fun?

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Is that the dad we want? Or do we want the dad who has to come with punishment?

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Because that's what's needed. That's what the situation calls for. That's the behavior. That's what they have earned because of their attitude during the day.

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So Paul kind of presents the same thing to the Corinthians here. Now he's given them a couple of examples of that.

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Paul with the rod, Paul with gentleness. But here, what do you think his attitude is in chapter five?

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He's coming back to the rod, right? Now this is like a father here.

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He's still being very fatherly with this. As we read about in Hebrews 12, the

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Lord disciplines those he loves. If the Lord, did

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I say Romans 12? Hebrews 12. What did I say? Anyway, Hebrews 12 is the chapter. The Lord disciplines those he loves.

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And the references there come from Proverbs. The same Proverbs that we read about using a rod to get discipline out of the child.

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And where it says there in Proverbs, if you use the rod, you will not kill your child.

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In fact, you will save his soul from death. And so those very passages are utilized in Hebrews, talking about how a father disciplines his children.

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And so it is said there that God disciplines the ones that he loves. If he did not discipline us, then we wouldn't be his children.

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We would be illegitimate children and we would not be the sons and daughters of God. And so as Paul comes with this discipline here in chapters five and six, he's being very fatherly.

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He's being very affectionate with this church, but he's giving them the opportunity to take care of these problems that they have in their midst that they're not doing anything about.

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As a matter of fact, they're being so arrogant that it's like they don't even care that this is going on.

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You have a sin that is happening in your midst that even pagans know is bad and you're not doing anything about it.

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So he's giving them the opportunity to mourn over this and respond the way that they should with regards to the sin that is going on so that when he comes, he doesn't have to be the guy that does that.

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And so when Paul comes back to you, you get to have the wonderful fellowship.

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We don't have to deal with some of these disciplinary issues. You've already taken care of that. So it's like Paul is kind of presenting, which apostle do you want when

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I come to you? The one who brings the rod or the one who comes with affection and fellowship. Now as we go through this, we're going to split chapter five up into two weeks.

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As I mentioned, part one, we're looking at parts one and two rather we're going to, we're going to look at today.

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So we have in verses one and two, an appalling report. And then in verses three through eight, we have the apostolic response.

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And then next week versus nine to 13, the appropriate reaction.

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So once again, number one, we have an appalling report. That's verses one and two, their sexual immorality among you, verse one, and there's been nothing done about it.

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Verse two. And then in the second part, verses three through eight, you have the apostolic response.

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This is Paul as an apostle, as a messenger of Christ, telling the church what they're supposed to do.

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Sin must be dealt with immediately, verse three. Sin must be dealt with authoritatively, verses four and five.

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Sin must be dealt with in the interest of purity, verses six through eight. So let's come back to the top here.

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Chapter five, verse one, as we go through our text together, Paul says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you.

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Now, when we're talking about a report, we're probably going back to Chloe's people informing

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Paul as to the things that were going on in the church in Corinth. This was back in chapter one, verse 11, where Paul says that Chloe's people has come to me and has reported to me on things that are happening there in the church.

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So it's been reported to me within that report that there is sexual immorality among you.

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I made the joke when we were back in chapter one that when Paul says, Chloe's people is reported to me, like everybody's head in the church turns to Chloe's people.

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Oh, really? Chloe's people have given you a report. But this here would not have necessarily caused the, or at least it shouldn't have, caused the members of the church in Corinth to be spiteful of Chloe's people.

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Instead, they're going to know exactly who Paul is talking about. And there should be shame among all of them, not looking at the one guy who has this problem.

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What is up with you, man? Why haven't you done something about this? But rather that the whole church would mourn and be grieved over the fact that nothing has been done about this.

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So Paul says it's reported that there's sexual immorality among you. And he says, it's of a kind that is not even tolerated among pagans.

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Like the kind of sexual immorality that's happening among you is so bad, even pagans are looking at you going, good grief.

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What is up with those Christians? Now, what do we mean, before we continue on here, what do we mean by sexual immorality?

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What is that? Yeah, sex outside of marriage. Pretty simple definition.

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And it's amazing that we even have to define what marriage means in our culture today, but we do.

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The culture has attempted to change these definitions just because the culture has a different definition of marriage doesn't mean that the culture's definition of marriage is what marriage is.

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Marriage is as God has defined it. It is one man and one woman in a covenant union, which should be for life.

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And Jesus had even said if a man divorces his wife for any reason other than sexual immorality and then marries another, he commits adultery.

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So there's even very specific definitions on what constitutes a solid marriage, a committed marriage, and then divorce, and whether or not a person can get remarried after that divorce.

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And so we have here sexual immorality. This is sex that is happening outside of the covenant of marriage.

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And it's a kind that's not even tolerated among pagans. What is it? That a man has his father's wife.

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So what specifically is the sin, the sexual immorality that's going on here?

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Incest. Yeah. Now, this is not a man sleeping with his mom, because if that's what was happening,

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I would think Paul would have said specifically a man is sleeping with his mother. Rather, he's sleeping with his stepmother, the woman that his father is married to.

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Now in the teacher's class that I lead on Wednesday night, one of the teachers had raised the question and had said, hey, this man is being singled out here and the church is not doing anything about it.

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What about the father? And what about his wife? Why aren't they being called out?

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The answer to that is most likely because they're not part of the church. They aren't Christians. But this man calls himself a brother.

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That's a confrontation Paul makes later on here in chapter 5 and later in chapter 6. This man calls himself a

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Christian. He's a follower of Christ. He is a brother with these brothers and sisters that he claims are his and the

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Lord. And yet he's in the church, but he's doing this sin, and the church hasn't done anything about it.

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Paul has heard about it, and apparently it's known enough that the pagans are shaking their heads about it.

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But the church hasn't done anything about it. So here's the sexual immorality. Here's the problem that needs to be confronted.

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A man has his father's wife, verse 2, and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?

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Let him who has done this be removed from among you. So Paul says there should be two responses to this.

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News has come, is known to Corinth, it's even made it to me, where Paul is at writing this letter from, which we believe was

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Ephesus. So where Paul is at, he's heard that there's this sexual immorality in Corinth.

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If he knows about it, a lot of people know about it. And what does he say should be the response?

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There's two responses here. So what should the response be? Mourn and remove.

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Now notice that he starts that in verse 2, you're arrogant. How are they arrogant? What is it about their response to this situation that makes them arrogant?

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Yeah, they're not even ashamed of it. They know it's sin and they're not doing anything about it.

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Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I have a question about that. So we're calling it incest.

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Yes. So it's supposing that the stepmom is still married to the father, like the father hasn't died, but he didn't think in his head like, oh,

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I'm doing the Levitical commandment of marrying my brother -in -law. Yeah. Right.

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Like, like trying, like doing the, doing the, uh, uh, what, what does that call the lever at marriage thing?

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Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's that? What's that was among brothers. That wasn't among like a child of parent, but yeah, that's anyway, right.

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It's still when you read the command in Leviticus 18, it's still incest.

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So even though it's a stepmother, not a blood relation, but it would still be considered incest.

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Even if the father has died and he were to take his stepmother, it would still be considered incest.

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But because of the, because of like the, the seriousness of that, even the pagans would recognize this as, oh, this is pretty bad.

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I mean, we, we would have to believe the husband's still alive. Like the father's still alive. He's still married to this woman and this man is sleeping with his, with his stepmother.

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Yeah. That's, that's the sin specifically. But yeah, Sonia had mentioned, uh, it's in the law.

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They know that it's sin. Leviticus 18 for the Lord said to Israel, you are to do my judgments and keep my statutes to walk in them.

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I am Yahweh your God. And it's in verse eight where it says, you shall not, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife.

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That was considered incest. It was also considered a sin that was punishable by what?

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Death. Yeah. In Israel, the punishment was death if someone were to do such a thing.

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And so in calling that to attention, it's, it's to say, look, you know what the consequence of this should be.

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And yet you do nothing about it. You're arrogant. Or oftentimes when we use the words arrogant or boastful is the other word that Paul is going to use coming up here in just a moment.

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We use those words. We think of somebody who's a braggart, right? Somebody who is puffing themselves up and saying,

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Oh, look at me, I'm, I'm great. I'm holy. There's nothing wrong with me. So on and so forth. That doesn't appear to be the response to the

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Corinthians. It's rather Paul is using that label of them because they're not doing anything at all.

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Now it could still apply in the sense of the Corinthians boasting in themselves because is that not what

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Paul has been confronting in the letter thus far in the four previous chapters. And you have some of these guys that are saying, remember,

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I'm a Paul, I'm of Apollos and I'm of Cephas claiming that they're better than somebody else because they follow a certain teacher.

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And it's like, you want to say that you're holy and you're better than somebody else in your church because of the teacher or the teachings that you are affixing yourself to when what's going on in the midst of you that you're not dealing with?

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Are you kidding me? And you want to call yourself better than somebody else. And so also in this way,

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Paul says, they are arrogant, ought you not rather to mourn. Should that, should that not be your attitude and let him who has done this be removed from among you.

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Michael Pettit and I were talking a little bit before Sunday school because of course he's going to his class and he's teaching on this same section today.

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So we're talking about some different things that we were about to bring to our classes.

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One of the things that he considered earlier this week, listening to the sermon from somebody else and then

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I had mentioned I'd done a video on this myself. One of my what videos is on this, but there's so much sexual immorality in the world today.

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It is so extremely easy, even among Christians to become desensitized to it because we're surrounded by it all the time.

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It's everywhere. You can pass by billboards of it on your way to work and you just kind of get used to, man, there's that billboard again.

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And so we just, we just kind of let it go. We let it go by. We become desensitized to it and then it, the gravity of it doesn't even necessarily weigh on us so much anymore.

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Yes, sir. The steps we've gone today in this woke generation, if you take a stand in the church, then the people to the outside say, well, you're just not, you know, you're not woke.

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You're not really supposed to criticize that. Yeah, right. We're not even supposed to be critical on those things. Yeah. Michael said that he listened to a sermon from John MacArthur he believes was from the seventies, of course, because John's been teaching for over 50 years, so he has, he's got sermons going back that far.

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But he believes that the sermon that he listened to from MacArthur was that old, about 50 years old.

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And in the sermon, MacArthur said, we have seen sexual immorality in this decade that we didn't even think was possible in our nation 50 years ago.

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And where are we at now? Now, the, the common belief in the culture is that men can get pregnant or that a boy can become a girl.

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I mean, the level of sexual immorality that we've come to now in the last five decades, we, we didn't even think was what was possible 10 years ago.

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Yeah. It's, it's amazing how fast this has gone. Yes, sir. Sodom and Gomorrah just makes it look like nothing.

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Oh yeah, right. We would make Sodom and Gomorrah blush. Yeah. They would look at us and go, Whoa, we weren't that bad.

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Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Hey, judgment by fire is coming. Believe it.

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For we've, we've read that even in second Peter chapter three, that the, the heavens are being stored up with fire for the day of judgment that is coming.

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So here Paul says to them, you've become desensitized to this. You've become arrogant and ought you not rather to mourn.

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So it's very easy among us to even come to this place where we've just kind of become desensitized to.

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It's the way of the cultures, the way everything is. Why should we be surprised by it? But as MacArthur said, this very same sermon that Michael Pettit did listen to.

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And, and like I said, I did a video on this too and mentioned the same thing in my video, the ability to grieve over this and to be shocked by it and even disgusted by it.

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That's a gift of the Holy spirit. And if we look at stuff that's going on in the culture and we're not appalled by that, you have to wonder how much you're thinking in your heart is being influenced by the spirit, how much has been desensitized by the culture.

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Now we're certainly grieved by what we see in the culture, but it's a different kind of grief than when we see it in the church, right?

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Doesn't it feel, it feels different. It's same as if a sin were to happen in your own house.

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You hear something that happens with the neighbor. Well, you know, you might be grieved over that, but when the same sin happens in your own house, it's a different kind of grief.

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And so we have the same thing going on here with Paul telling the church, you, you ought to be grieved over this because it's going to be the grief.

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It's going to be the morning that precedes the action that needs to be taken.

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The action's not going to be taken if there's not grief in there over the sin. So mourn over this sin.

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That's the first action. And then the second being let him who has done this be removed from among you purge the evil person from among you is specifically the command that Paul uses that he quotes from the old

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Testament in verse 13. So if you'll look at this chapter is as kind of a whole, like I said, we won't get through all of it today.

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We're only through two verses here, but you, you'll notice that it's bookended by this command in verse two, remove the person who has done this from among you.

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And then in verse 13, purge the evil person from among you.

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So you have this same command at the start and at the close of this particular chapter, this is the action that should be taken, but this is what you are too arrogant to do.

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They've become desensitized to it in a certain sense, or they're not motivated by the spirit to be shocked by this sin as even pagans are and to grieve over it and to pursue and desire the holiness of the church.

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As we get into the next section here, this is the appalling report. That's what we have in verses one and two.

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As we get into the next section, which is going to be the apostolic response. Oftentimes when we think about church discipline, the discipline that needs to happen here in this church that Paul is motivating the church in Corinth toward.

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Oftentimes when we think of church discipline, when it comes to removing a person who is in sin that they won't repent of, what do we say is the reason why that person needs to be removed from the church?

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Yeah, that's actually not the answer I was looking for. That's the right one, but that's not the answer to this particular question.

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Yeah, unity of fellowship. A little bit of leaven can ruin the whole flock.

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Right, that's the analogy that Paul uses here in a little bit. Typically when we talk about church discipline, we say the person needs to be removed so that they'll repent, right?

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That's usually the way that we, why do we need to do this? Why do we need to go through this process? Why does that person who's sinning need to be removed from the church?

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So that they'll repent. Does that often happen? Whenever church discipline is practiced, more often than not, the person who is removed won't ever come back.

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Now we would certainly desire that they would repent and they would come back to the body and they would be restored in grace.

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Praise God, that's what we want to have happen. But if that doesn't happen, has the process of discipline failed?

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Because what ultimately is the reason for practicing discipline? And that was the answer

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Bill gave. The purity of the church. It's the desire that the bride of Christ would be pure.

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That's first our reason for practicing discipline. To obey the Lord for the purity of His bride.

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But then we would also desire that the effect of that would be the person removed would mourn over that.

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And would repent and desire restoration. You're right. I was wicked.

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And it was a sin of such a degree that I couldn't be part of the body. In my sin,

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I'm separated from Christ. Anytime we sin, we sin apart from Christ. We don't sin with Christ.

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So I recognize that my sin separated me from the body of Christ to the point that that actually had to be the action that needed to be taken.

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And I was removed from the body. And so I mourn over that and I repent. And that person comes and seeks restoration and they're restored.

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They're restored to the body. That's what we would hope to have happen. Paul even says that that should be the desire for this man as well.

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You should have the desire for the purity of the church. And you should have the desire that this person would be saved in the day of the

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Lord. So let's go on to the next section. The apostolic response in verses 3 through 8.

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Paul says, For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present,

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I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. OK, this is not

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Paul saying it's not some Jedi trick where he's his body is in Ephesus, but his spirit's over here in Corinth and he's with them.

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And, you know, just ignore the blue ghost that's sitting there in the front pew. That's not what

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Paul is referencing, but rather that that his spirit is vexed over what's happening in the church in Corinth.

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And if I could be there, if I was right there with you, I would be mourning with you. And here's the judgment that I would make.

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So that's what Paul means by with him in spirit. The same things that should be afflicting their hearts are the things that are afflicting his heart.

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In 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, he talks about I think it's chapter 11, rather.

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But he talks about how how one of the daily burdens that he feels is his anxiety for all of the churches.

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In other words, all of the churches that Paul is planted, where he spread the gospel and a church was planted there.

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He he feels this daily anxiety for them in that in that he's constantly praying for them. God, may your spirit be with them, that this church would continue, that it would persevere even in the midst of persecution, that they would not shrink back, that they would not lose their grasp on the gospel.

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Paul has that earnestness for those churches that he has been so affectionate toward.

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And so he expresses that same kind of affection, though, in a different way here for this church, where he's talking about I'm absent in body, but I'm with you in spirit.

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I have already pronounced judgment, Paul says, on the one who has done such a thing. And that's what he just did.

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Right. Let him who has done this be removed from among you. So Paul's already pronounced judgment.

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Verse four, when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present.

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So you understand the commands, the things that I have said to you. And you're acting according to those commands as a word that has come from an apostle of Jesus Christ.

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That's what Paul means when he says, my spirit is present with you with the power of the

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Lord Jesus. Rest of verse four on into verse five. You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord. With the power of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled together.

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And my spirit is with you with the power of the Lord Jesus. Where else do we hear that in the

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New Testament? We hear language that's very similar to that. Lynette, the upper room.

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Yeah, not quite what I was thinking of. But yeah, with the with the people gathered together and Christ among them.

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Not the Lord's Supper. That was kind of what Lynette said. Yes. Say again. What? There it is.

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Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be in the midst of them. Where do you often hear that verse used?

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Weddings. I haven't heard it in a wedding, but that's good. Yeah. Prayer gatherings. It's usually is somebody puts together a flyer for their church prayer gathering and they'll throw that verse on there from Matthew 18, 20.

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Is that the context? What's the context? Church discipline.

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It's not about a prayer gathering. Matthew 18, 15 to 20 is where Jesus gives the instructions to the church on how you are to be disciplined.

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Let's let's look at this together. So we see together from the word of Christ exactly how this process of church discipline is supposed to look.

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Matthew 18. And as I'm reading here in the English Standard Version at the top of verse 15, there's a bold text that says if your brother sins against you.

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So here is the instruction that Jesus gives. Matthew 18, starting in 15.

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If your brother sins against you. Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

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If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

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Gentile or a tax collector. In other words, let him be to you as an unbeliever. Let's finish up verses 18 to 20.

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Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

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Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my

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Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am

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I among them. So what's our context there with verse 20? What's being said by Christ?

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Say again. He's there. Like if you have to discipline somebody in sin and be removed from your midst, don't be timid in this.

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Don't be thinking to yourself, are we dividing the body of Christ? Jesus is saying,

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I'm right there with you. And the judgment that you have issued, if it's been according to the word of God, the judgment that you've issued has been my judgment as well.

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And so Paul, using that same language in 1 Corinthians 5, it's as though I'm there with you.

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I've already issued judgment. And so let the judgment you issue be reflective of the judgment that Christ has issued and the judgment that his apostle has issued in the name of Christ.

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Make sense? Now, this is complicated. The church discipline process that we have here is not fun.

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I don't think anybody wants to have to go through this process. Matthew 18, 15 to 20. We're not going to go into this today.

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There may be another day to talk about this. I think we talked about this actually when we were in 2 Thessalonians 3.

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We discussed this a little bit. But there are actually three different discipline processes, all with the same desire and the same goal and the same end, but just with different steps.

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What we're reading here, this is the main disciplinary process. So more often than not, when a church is practicing church discipline, this is the process that's going to be followed,

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Matthew 18, 15 through 17. This is a four -step process. So it's you confronting the person who's in sin, that's step one, but they won't listen, so you bring two or three others along with you, that's step two.

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But they won't listen to them, so you bring it before the church, that's step three. And bring it before the church, by the way, may not necessarily mean somebody standing up here and saying to the entire congregation.

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It could be going to the elders. So it just kind of depends on how you would translate that or understand that with going before the church.

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Does it mean the entire body or does it mean the elders? And then maybe the elders will bring it to the entire body.

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That's step three. And then the fourth step is they won't listen even to the church. And so you must treat them as a

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Gentile or a tax collector. They must be removed from your midst as if they were unbelievers.

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Now we have the instruction given in 2 Thessalonians 3 that we are not to regard them as an enemy, but warn them as a brother.

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So the testament as to whether or not they're truly a brother or sister in Christ is going to be how are they going to respond to that.

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When being removed from the body, are they going to grieve over that and repent and come back to restoration or would they be completely removed from the body?

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Yes, sir. It's a great point.

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Yeah, you need to have membership in order to practice the discipline process. And that's another reason why membership is so important.

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We don't have membership explicitly mentioned in the New Testament, although there are plenty of passages that we could go to that would certainly be an argument for membership.

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There's other places where Paul talks about keeping lists, like for example in 1 Timothy 5 where he says one of the things the church should do, keep a list of all your widows.

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Make sure the widows are cared for. Well, how do you know who those widows are that need to be cared for if they're not members of the church? How do you know who's qualified to be elder or qualified to be deacon if they haven't been members of the church and you've not seen their behavior and be able to test them according to the qualifications that are given?

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Anyway, all of that to say, yeah, membership really is a prerequisite to discipline. Yeah, they had membership.

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That's just the word we use, right? Yeah, absolutely. So anyway, this is the four -step process, and this is the one we're most likely going to be utilizing or needing to follow in our body.

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There is also a three -step process. That three -step process is highlighted in Titus chapter 3 where it says warn a divisive person once, warn him a second time, and after that have nothing to do with him.

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You can be sure that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned. That's three steps. Now, that's specifically with regards to a false teacher.

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So that's somebody who is speaking something heretical that's actually dividing the body. He's been warned.

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What you're saying is dividing this body. It's not bringing us together in unity. Remember back to chapter 4 verse 6 of 1

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Corinthians where Paul said, don't go beyond what is written. The result of that is that people get broken up.

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There's division among you when you go beyond the scriptures. So you warn a divisive teacher once, you warn him a second time, and then if he still won't repent, he's to be removed.

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And there's your three -step process, something that would be exercised on a teacher in a slightly different way. But then there's a two -step process.

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And what we're reading here in 1 Corinthians is really the two -step process. The sin that this man is guilty of is not secret.

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So this is not the kind of a thing where you've seen your brother sinning and not everybody knows about it, so you go to your brother and you just talk between you and him alone, and if he repents, then you've won your brother over, the step that Jesus gives there in Matthew 18, 15.

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This is now a sin that's known by everybody. Even the pagans know about it, and they're going, man, those

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Christians. And so what is the two -step process? You mourn, and you remove him.

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And it's in the being removed from the body would be the step where hopefully this man would grieve over the sin that he's done, and he would repent and come back to restoration.

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Notice here that when Paul gives these instructions to the church, he does not say to them the guidelines that we have in Matthew 18, 15 to 17.

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The principles are still there, but it's not, hey, is any one of you gone? Like, is there one person that's gone to him and had the private conversation, you and him alone?

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Have you gone through this process yet? This is a public sin. It's known to everybody.

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Here's how it's to be dealt with. And so in verse 5, you are to deliver this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord. Now what does it mean, deliver this man over to Satan? This is something that Paul has used in other places.

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In 2 Timothy 1, for example, he mentions a couple of teachers that he had delivered over to Satan.

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It means to put out of the church. Very simply, that's what it means to deliver a person over to Satan, that they would be removed from the church.

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It's likened to the scapegoat that was sent out of the camp of Israel to Azazel in Leviticus 16 .10.

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By being put out from the body of Christ, the sinful man was to learn that sin separates one from a holy

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God and from his people who are to be holy. This is so the man would grieve, repent, and be restored.

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But also so that the rest of the body would recognize and be in fear.

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If this person can fall into that sin, I can fall into that sin too. And so we need to be watchful of ourselves.

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The instructions that Paul gives to the Galatians in Galatians 6 .1, if you see anybody that's going astray, correct that person in a spirit of gentleness, but keep watch on yourselves lest you too be tempted.

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So don't ever come at this with an attitude of, I'm holier than you and you need to listen to me, but recognizing any one of us are just as capable of falling into sin that needs correction such as this.

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So that we likewise by this testimony would be in fear and desire holiness. What about the next part of that instruction there in verse 5?

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You're to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. It does not mean that the man would die, or else

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Paul would not have also hoped that his spirit would be saved. Destruction of his flesh doesn't mean when a person needs church discipline, we're dragging them out to the parking lot and stoning them.

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This isn't theocratic Israel in the church here. Although that same thing, that same instruction that was given to Israel, that you were to put that man to death, we're practicing that in a spiritual way within the church.

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He was to suffer the consequences of his actions, and in so doing put to death the fleshly appetites of his carnal affections.

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As Colossians 3, 5 -6 says, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, and desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. What is the next part of that?

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You deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved.

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Means that he might be corrected, and humbled, and return to the path of righteousness.

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The intention is not to be vengeful toward him, but to recover and save him from ruin.

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Again, Galatians 6, 1. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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Keep watch on yourselves, lest you too be tempted. And the last part of that verse, that he may be saved in the day of the

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Lord. Means that on the day of Christ's return, that man will be gathered up with the rest of the saints, for his sins have been forgiven, and he was found to be with Christ, and not with Satan.

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So there is a desire that he would be restored. But again, not the main point.

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The main objective is obedience to God in the purity of his church. And that's where Paul goes next with this analogy that we have in verses 6 -8.

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Look at this with the analogy of the leaven. Your boasting is not good. Paul comes back again to confronting their arrogance.

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Your boasting isn't good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

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Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are really unleavened. You are really unleavened.

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For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let's stop there for a moment. When we're talking about leavened bread, what are we talking about?

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Not yeast. Okay, not spiritual application yet.

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So literally, what are we talking about? What is literally leavened bread? It's not yeast.

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No, it's not. What's that? Yeah, spiritually, we're talking about the body. I'm talking about what is leavened bread?

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There you go. Yeah, like a sourdough. Yeah, it's a fermented dough.

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Now, what's the difference between, did you say it and I wasn't listening to you? Okay, okay, anyway.

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It's a fermented dough. Anybody who's a baker or bakes bread, what would be the difference between a fermented dough and a dough with yeast in it?

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Calories, okay. Well, the leavened bread will rise too.

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So it's the same effect, but why the difference? I mean, what's the difference between leavened bread and?

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Okay, now here's my understanding. I'm not a baker. I don't bake bread, but here's my understanding.

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Now, yeast is a bacteria that we put into the bread that helps to make it rise, right?

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But yeast eventually dies. And when you take bread with yeast in it and you combine it with other dough, you don't transfer the yeast to that dough.

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The yeast is dead already. But with leavened bread, you've got fermented dough. And when you take just a little bit of that fermented dough and you add it to a new lump of dough, the rest of that dough becomes fermented.

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The fermentation process continues into the rest of the dough. So hence why the analogy is specifically with leavened bread talking about fermented dough, not yeast, lest we get the idea of a bacteria that's spreading, which the yeast is dead already, so it doesn't spread.

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So the picture of the leavened dough, the fermented dough, is that it constantly spreads.

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And whenever the Israelites were making bread when it came to the Passover and preparing bread for the

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Passover, the instruction was that they had to get rid of all leaven that was in the house, leaven anywhere in the house.

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Because if any of that leaven gets anywhere near the dough that they're making for the bread for Passover, it's going to leaven that dough.

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And it will not be usable. It will now be an impure lump of dough considering the instructions that God has given for how this bread preparation is supposed to take place.

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Why was it that the Israelites were supposed to make unleavened bread? Anybody know? Exactly, right.

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They didn't have time to let it rise. So it has to be done quick. They have to be ready at a moment's notice.

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When God says, go, He even said, you've got to have your sandals strapped and your staff in hand. So when

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He says, go, you're ready to gather up your unleavened bread. It doesn't have to wait for it to rise.

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We can take our bread with us and we can go. And this was all part of Passover. And then from that point on, every time they celebrated

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Passover, they were supposed to follow those same instructions with regard to the leavened bread.

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Having unleavened bread. Because it was in remembrance of Passover, which ultimately, okay, now let's get into the spiritual application, which ultimately

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Passover is pointing to what? Christ. Yeah, right. Passover is pointing to Christ.

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For Paul mentions here, Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

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When the Passover lamb was sacrificed, that was the beginning of Passover. Get all of the leaven out of your house.

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Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Get the leaven out. Let us therefore,

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Paul says in verse 8, let us celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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Now it's interesting that he refers to the leaven that they're leaving amongst themselves. He refers to it as malice and evil.

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Malice is like what? Yeah, spite, like hatefulness toward another person. The fact that they won't do anything with this guy who's in this sin that the judgment of God is coming against, according to what we read in Colossians 3 .5.

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Because they won't do anything about this, it's as though they have malice toward that guy. They don't really love him because they're letting him continue in that sin that would be unto his own destruction unless he repents of it.

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And so, don't celebrate with the old leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity.

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Ought you to mourn and truth. Remove that man from among you, as was even instructed in the law.

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Now, we're out of time. That's as far as we're going to get today, but we'll come back to this again. We'll begin with the analogy again next week.

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Study up on your leaven. Okay, Gabe. Yes, ma 'am. That bread that you're talking about that goes,

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I mean, people give you the recipe. It's actually called friendship bread. Oh, great. Okay. Which is, you know, you take a little bit of dough and then you make 10 of those.

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Right. Friendship bread. It just multiplies. Exactly. Let's pray and then we'll be dismissed.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've heard instructed here in the Word. It would be easy for us to look at this and say, boy, those

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Corinthians. But surely we understand that sins even such as this exist even in the church today, perhaps even within our own midst.

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Maybe it's not as public as what was going on in Corinth, but there is sexual immorality.

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There are people here who are entertained by sexually immoral things and they're desensitized to it.

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Some engaging with their bodies in sexual immorality and as Paul will say later in chapter 6, flee from sexual immorality.

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Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God? So may we not become desensitized toward this.

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May we not become so arrogant to think that that's somebody else's problem. Somebody else is dealing with this. But where we see these things even in our midst, may we be patient and obedient to confront those things according to God's Word.

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We mourn over it. We desire to see the purity of the bride of Christ. And may all of our souls be saved for the day of the

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Lord that we would be standing with you in your eternal kingdom and not in the midst of the destruction that is coming against this world and the kingdom of Satan.

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Forgive us our sins. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus' name that we pray and all