More Than What We Think We Are

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsick preaches from his sermon series titled 1

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Corinthians, Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel. Let's listen in. Good morning and welcome to Recast Church.

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I'm Don Filsick. I am the lead pastor here, and I'm glad you're here this morning. Didn't know who was going to be here, so we're here together.

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We're embarking, obviously, on a new adventure going to two services, so thank you for being here and being the nine o 'clock service together.

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These first few Sundays of two services, we're going to be figuring things out, and so it's going to be trial and error to see how the things balance out and all of that stuff, so please bear with us as we seek to make room for more.

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We're going to try our best to be flexible and see how that is, and I do encourage you as much as possible. This is a great season, a great opportunity, a great time to invite some others.

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You look around you and you see some space here, and so we have an opportunity to even add more chairs in the back if we need to, but I encourage you to invite others and bring others together so that we can grow in faith, grow in community, grow in service together, and that's the reason that we're doing this at this time.

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Now, I don't have any crystal ball. I don't know if this is the right timing to do this. I'm just trusting in God, and we just look at it.

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We just say we were coming right up against the inability to invite our neighbors, coming up against the inability to actually find seats and have places, and I don't know how many of you were here last week, but you would notice that people were actually sitting on benches in the back, and we were adding chairs and things like that, and so we're doing this in trying to honor our mission to worship

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Him and find more worshipers for His name. I encourage you to continue to be on that mission. We're going to be continuing on in our series in the book of 1

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Corinthians. This morning, I've entitled this series Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel.

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Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel, because this letter more than maybe any other New Testament letter, particularly 1

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Corinthians, highlights the way that the gospel of Jesus Christ overcomes the sinful issues that come up in churches.

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Sinful issues. How many of you knew that some sinful issues come up in churches because the church is made of people, right? You knew that, and we've experienced that.

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We've lived that. If you've been around the block and taken a few trips around the sun, then you already know that that's the case, and so scripture meets us where we're at.

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It meets us in the real day in and day out of our lives. There are threats to church unity that crop up within every single church.

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You could spend your entire life looking for the perfect church, and you will not find it, and so the best we can hope for is a church that is committed to applying the scriptures and the good news to those areas of brokenness.

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In our text this morning, we're going to see a specific issue of sinfulness at work among the Corinthians at the

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Corinthian church. They're using the secular Roman courts to resolve their internal squabbles.

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Of course, the bedrock problem in our text is that they are experiencing squabbles, but that's a real part of everyday life is when you have a group of people, even as much as just like, say, you've got a family of four together, there's going to be conflict because you have sinful people together.

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So how much more when you've got a gathering of people who are on mission together seeking unity?

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There's going to be squabbles, and there's going to be things that come up, but this passage stands here in the text of scripture as a reminder of what we are meant to be as a church.

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We think, and I think this is true. You guys, if you disagree with me, you can come up and talk with me about it afterwards, but I think in our

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American context, where we live today, we think less of the church than we ought. We think less of the church than we ought.

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In our modern age, we may think of the church as a Sunday morning program that we're just participating in even right now.

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We may think of it as a weekly dose of medicine that doesn't go down so easy, but it's like, well, we at least did our part.

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Some may even think of it as penance for their sins throughout the week, like, well, I paid my dues. I went and I listened to Don.

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Something like that, and yet others take it on as routine self -improvement. Well, I just know it's good for me.

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I just know it'll make me better, and so it's kind of a little bit mercenary, right? You just show up and you just take it in, like, okay, then

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I'll improve and then I'll be a better person for having gone to church. Good, got that out of the way. I fear that we as a culture are losing the image of church as God's gathering,

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Him gathering us together for His Son, Jesus Christ, and for His glory. Do we see the vitality of the community to which

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He's called us to interact, into the interaction between us, each other, and the

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Almighty? Me bringing my gifts, others bringing their gifts, and us serving one another in joy and gladness under the banner of Jesus Christ our

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Lord. The church in Corinth serves as a great reminder of the call to work through life together as a gathering of God's people, particularly because they're jacked up, particularly because they are messed up, and it's apparent throughout the waves of this letter.

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Problems and issues, problems and issues. Sinful church, powerful gospel.

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How bad would things need to get? Think about this. This is the context of the message this morning. How bad would things need to get before we would start filing lawsuits against one another?

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Before you're starting to sue one another and you could literally look across the room with stink eye at the other person who you know you're going to court with tomorrow.

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Like, can you imagine that kind of context? How many of you might say, that might be time to shut the doors? Like, that might be time to like, let's go disband and go to other churches.

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Like, they couldn't do that in Corinth, right? But I mean, it's kind of like, wow, if things get that dire and get that bad, we are not a functioning, living, breathing in God and breathing out

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God to kind of church, how bad would it need to get before we would start suing one another?

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And yet, we ought not skip this passage with dismissive thoughts. Like, you might just go then, okay, this doesn't apply to me.

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I would never sue another Christian, you might think. But by the end of this message this morning, we're going to see that the gospel has real world implications for all of us, for all of us, the way we live together in the here and now.

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This is meant to impact us. Faith in the goodness of Jesus Christ is not merely fire insurance for an afterlife, but it is about living for Christ now as well.

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The gospel grants the church wisdom to mediate problems. The gospel brings the power to absorb offense within us, and it brings life -transforming power to us as individuals that strengthens us corporately.

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So, open your Bibles, your scripture journals, your devices to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We're going to read verses 1 through 11.

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Again, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 through 11. Give you a second to get over there, but just to remind you, this is

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God's holy word, and I believe that this is exactly what the Almighty wants to speak into our midst this morning.

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So, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 1 through 11. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

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Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

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Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life?

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So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame.

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Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers.

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To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong?

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Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves, wrong and defraud, even your own brothers. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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And such were some of you. But you were washed.

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You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the

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Spirit of our God. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship.

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Brother, I pray that this would be our reflection this morning. What you have personally saved us from.

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Salvation is specific. It is embarrassing. What we have been saved from is specific to each individual.

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It is common to man. It is common to women. And at the same time, it would be imminently embarrassing to have on the screen our lives of sin before you.

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For us to be exposed to everybody in the same way that we're exposed to you would be the most shameful thing we could endure.

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And yet we've been washed, sanctified, justified through the blood of your

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Son. No more condemnation over us. No more threat of judgment over us, because we are righteous in your sight.

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Father, I pray that even in this early hour on this Sunday morning, that you would light our hearts on fire with gratitude, with deep thanks, with deep hope, because such were some of us.

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And now we're washed. Now we're cleansed. Now we're made right through Jesus Christ.

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I pray that you would receive these songs that we sing now before you as worship, as gladness, that we would see you high and exalted, and give thanks to you with our voices now together in Jesus' name.

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Amen. All right. Yeah, you can go to be seated. But like I say, every Sunday, get comfortable and keep your

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Bibles open. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 1 through 11. And at any time during the message, you want to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes.

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You're not going to distract me if you need to do that at any time. I think we can hardly even imagine the circumstances that our text spells out for us today.

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And the thing is, many of us would testify. And I know some of your stories. I've talked with you. I know some of your backstories.

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And I know many of you have experienced church hurt in the past. But the church in Corinth is full of litigation.

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Like, I think it's probably a very rare occurrence in the church today where there's lawsuits going on in between people in the church.

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And while we might be able to relate to being a culture of litigation in America, I hope that nobody here has experienced the types of depth of circumstances that this text, what's going on in the church context of Corinth here.

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Now, some of the reasons we can't imagine this are due to differences in our cultural context. So, I'm going to spell out here at the start before I even give you the outline, some of the cultural distinctions or differences between their litigation and our litigation so that you understand.

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The place for common court proceedings in the Roman Empire was the marketplace. It was the marketplace.

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It was the very public, very public location where people were going to get their veggies in the morning and going to get the meat and the fish and a buying place.

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And in the corner was the bima and the magistrate would sit there and take and try cases. So, it was very public, very common.

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It was first come, first served. Pending any bribes to grease the wheels of justice and be sure that your case was heard that day, then it was first come, first serve.

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Otherwise, we have ample writings from this era that explain without shame. I mean, they are direct and without shame that preferences to be given to the wealthy and the higher classes in courts.

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It's in writing. It's codified. You gave the wealthy and the higher class better standing because they were more dependable was the idea.

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We have a sense, of course, in our culture, we know deep down maybe on the slide that the wealthy can buy their own justice in our society while at least covering up and pretending that justice is blind, right?

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Like, we at least value that. We value impartial justice, right? Raise your hand if you value impartial justice.

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We would ascribe to that. We would say that's good that justice is blind, but we also have a sense in the back of our hearts that knowing sinful biases and sinful people that it's not always blind, right?

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How many of you knew that was the case, right? You know what I'm saying. So, what I'm saying about the Roman Empire is different than our perspective because justice in favor of the wealthy and well -heeled of society is actually written.

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It's codified. It was like, hey, here's how you judge. A judge would consider the source and in considering the source would also consider the flow of income, real bribes.

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Bribes were at stake in this and the wealthy could purchase justice easily. So, in other words, the wealthy have an advantage over the poor.

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The people from higher classes have advantage over the poor in the judicial system of this day and age.

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And in this culture, any trivial matter of dispute could be brought to the magistrate in the marketplace for adjudication.

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And that also brings up the availability of the courts in everyday life. Like I said, it was in the marketplace, first come, first serve.

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It was easy to bring a legal matter. One could go pick up their sweet corn, stop by the fishmonger, and sue their neighbor for a property boundary dispute all at the same place.

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Super convenient. And so, this is kind of like Walmart eventually having a little mini court in it, okay?

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And that could happen, you guys. It's not that far off. And the people of the church in Corinth were using this against one another apparently with some regularity.

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And that's where Paul is just beside himself. We can take things back a level from the issue of litigation to the issue of dispute.

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Of course, it's not just merely how they're handling the disputes. But that there's disputes at all is,

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Paul calls into question. He highlights the very nature of the litigation as a loss for the church that it's going that far.

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But he also goes, why all the selfish clamoring for personal rights to begin with? Why all the divisions and the disagreements?

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Why are they not working harder at resolving conflicts among themselves? That's the gist of this text. And my outline of the text this morning will take the end of the text and reinterpret everything through that lens.

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So, it's important that we get to the end and then read backwards. So, let's just glance at the end of verse 11 to see how squarely this passage lands on the gospel.

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This is where he lands it and it's good to keep this in mind all throughout. But you, church, were washed.

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You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our

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God. That's where it's all going. And it's important to understand how he's going to land the plane to understand the flight path.

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Why is he going where he goes? Well, because he's going to land it on the gospel. You're washed. You're cleansed.

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You're sanctified, set apart for God's purposes. You're justified, declared righteous before God. Should you not, therefore, be able to manage within disputes within the body?

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The but here in verse 11 highlights the difference that Paul sees between the church and the world at large.

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The difference between the secular Roman judge and a church -designated mediator.

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Between the behavior of the church and the behavior of the world. So, my outline will be three things that Paul sees the gospel bring to the church.

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Three things that we possess, recast, through the power of Christ's sacrifice for us. First, he has granted to us the power to mediate, verses 1 through 6.

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We have the power to mediate. The second is a surprising power. As far as superpowers go, you might rather be able to fly or be indestructible or heel like Wolverine or something.

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But this is the power to absorb offense. The power to absorb offense, verses 7 through 8.

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And then the third is the power of transformation, verses 9 through 11. The power of a transformed life. So, first we see that the gospel brings with it the power to mediate in the church.

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And the church was caught up in all kinds of legal shenanigans. You see that in the first six verses. There's all kinds of lawsuits being applied and people are going to the marketplace and trying one another.

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And in verse 1, Paul is so incredulous that the Greek text of the verse begins with the word dare.

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And the equivalent of this, starting with this verb dare, is the equivalent of how dare you? It's incredulous.

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It's shock. It's how could you? And I don't know who comes to your mind when you hear the phrase how dare you?

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There might be a couple of people. I don't know what the next slide is. Is there somebody? There you go.

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I don't know who comes to your mind when you think about how dare you. It might be a multitude of different people.

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It might even be your own mom, right? I don't know who it is in your life that's had the gall to say to you, how dare you?

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But that's what Paul is saying to the church. And it's harsh. It's intentional. Paul is in shock at the news that the church people in Corinth are dragging one another before the

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Roman magistrate for trivial matters pertaining to the lesser things of this life. In verse 1, he contrasts the distinction between the unrighteous judges of his era and the saints within the church who have been washed, sanctified, and justified as we saw at the end of the text.

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So, I kind of fear asking you all a question, and I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but I want you to just wrestle with it for a second.

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The answer may be, might, just might betray how low we think of the church or further how little we think of the power of Christ to transform lives, or maybe you're all in with this, but would you rather have a judge and jury try your case, a jury of your peers, or would you rather have the church try your case, whatever it might be?

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Think about that. Honest question that I wonder how all of us would answer. Would you rather have the church convene a committee to resolve your issue, or would you rather have the judicial system manage that?

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And I think we might have a smattering of answers, but I think many of us might just say, I just trust myself to the legal system.

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I don't trust the church. Now, Paul argues from the greater to the lesser in verse 2 and 3, the greater being a shock to us.

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Some things I kind of chuckled when I was reading it, because I didn't know we were going to judge angels. How many of you knew that? Like, I mean, I did, but I've read the passage before, but it's like,

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I don't really know what that looks like. But he's arguing from that position going, you're going to judge angels.

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You're going to be part of judging the world, and so ought you not to be able to handle, just like trivial things within the church.

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You see, greater to the lesser, and the greater is like, what? Are you kidding me? He lets us in on a view of the end times that comes as a shock to us.

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The saved will participate in the final judgment of the world, and further, we're going to participate in the final judgment of fallen angels.

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There's a minor note I need to clarify for those who were here last week. Paul said in verses 12 and 13 of chapter 5 that he doesn't judge the world or those outside the church, and leaves that up to God.

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Speaking of the here and now. But here, just a couple of short verses later, he's saying that he and we will indeed judge the world.

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So, what gives? In one passage, he says, it's not our business to judge the world. Now, he's saying it's our business to judge the world.

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We one day will. But timing is everything. In the present, Paul says, our business is not to judge the world in the here and now.

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But in the future, in some unclear way that I can't, I don't really have a full -blown understanding of, we will participate in the final judgment.

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This passage about judging the world and angels reminds me that there's a lot of things about the end times that I just don't have sewn up.

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I don't know when in my timeline of the end that happens, and I'm sure that many of us don't have that well sewn up, and that's okay.

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But there's things, there's these nuggets of the end that are revealed to us from time to time that can sometimes be mystifying to us.

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But what is clear is that God entrusts us with more than we assume. God entrusts us with more than we assume.

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We ought to be competent to handle the trivial cases among us during this time. We should be able to manage disagreements within the church because He will employ us in that final judgment.

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Still incredulous in verse 4, Paul wonders why in the world they're bringing their conflicts to those who have no interest in the church.

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The pagan courts, by the way, I don't know, I hope I don't have to say this to you, but I'm going to. The pagan courts do not share the values of the church.

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How many of you knew that? The pagan courts do not share the values of the church. We have a benefit of a high court right now that is kind of leans in the direction of many of the values of the church, but it's already, you know, it just doesn't always go that way.

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It doesn't always go there. Even with the current court, it doesn't always go that way. The values of the world are different than the values of the church.

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And in no uncertain terms, Paul declares how shameful this is that they're going to court, they're going to idolaters, they're going to pagans to try their simple cases.

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And he chides them here with a rhetorical question. I think it's kind of snarky and a bit sarcastic what he asks.

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Is it possible, guys, that you just don't have anyone among you wise enough to settle a dispute between brothers and sisters in Christ?

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Well, context matters here, and remember that the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians was tackling their arrogance about their own wisdom.

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And when you understand the context, and if you were to read all the way through chapter 6 to where we're at today, you would see this as a really deep dig.

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Not just a dig at them, but a really deep dig. You who think yourselves so wise, don't you even have someone wise enough to settle simple disputes among you?

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Even one who could rise up and kind of just like mediate and solve problems? But instead, they're filing lawsuits against each other to be tried by unbelievers.

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They're airing their petty dirty laundry before the magistrates in the public marketplace for all to see.

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Now, I think it's wise to declare a caution about misapplying this passage to terrible legal issues.

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We know that there are terrible legal issues, right? As a church, we have a legal obligation to follow laws regarding reporting abuse.

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There are trivial cases, and then there are cases that affect the society at large. And I hope it's clear to you that Paul is not recommending a mere internal handling of severe society -wide matters such as rape, murder, or child abuse.

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The phrase trivial cases in the text and matters pertaining to this life indicate that these are not, even clearly what he's referring to here, are not clearly adjudicating sin.

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But primarily, areas of disagreement quite likely regarding, there's a Greek word I'll throw out here, adiaphora.

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It means the gray area issues. The things that are not clearly sin and are not clearly not sin.

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It's kind of like that middle ground area. How many of you know we live a lot of lives in the adiaphora? There's a lot of things in our lives that God doesn't tell you where to shop and buy your clothes.

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He doesn't tell you where to go get your groceries. He doesn't tell you how much internet is enough internet, right?

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There's gray areas that we have to decide on. And how many of you know that issues arise in the church in the gray areas?

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Did you know that? There's plenty of disagreements, plenty of room for us to stand our ground on gray area issues and begin to have conflict with one another over those things.

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Remember that the church has been given a protocol for dealing with that which is clear sin. Matthew 18, for example.

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And further, chapter 5, what we just went over the last couple of weeks was very clear in formally removing an unrepentant man from the gathering.

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They have already been called to manage tough cases regarding entrenched sinful patterns where a person is unrepentant of those sins.

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But this passage is not a warrant for the church to avoid accountability in criminal matters, not at all. It's not a call to manage every single issue internally.

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And I fear that many churches have applied that to the shame of the church at large, misapplying this passage.

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There's absolutely a time and a place to report abuse and crime to authorities. The error comes in by not distinguishing between trivial cases in this passage and the reality that we know that we may encounter issues within a church that cannot be defined as trivial.

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You know what I'm talking about. There are issues that arise in a church that are not trivial that must be passed along.

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But what is meant here in this passage is the less clear issues that are still requiring arbitration.

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There are things that become entrenched in our lives that we have a hard time getting past, that we begin to draw a conflict with one another, and it can be really detrimental to a church when those gray area issues begin to conflict within the church, and all of a sudden, well, you don't do this, but I do, and we begin to divide.

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Well, most all of us might be tempted to skip application on this point because we're not suing one another in court.

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So, let me speak to the opposite side of this to correct and kind of think about what Paul is driving for here.

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I want you to just take on as an application, like, this is legitimately, like, a possibility of what you would need to, like, take on to your mindset and take on to your life, and that is simply that you consider the church as a place of arbitration.

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That you take this on as a, I haven't ever thought about enlisting the church in the help of arbitrating between me and the conflict of another, but that would be healthy.

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That would be good. If you're not getting along or you feel defrauded or cheated by a brother or sister here,

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I would encourage you to bring it to light and come together. We are to be a people who are committed to working through our crud together.

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I would even recommend, just for the sake of propriety and not spreading rumors, just maybe start with an elder.

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Go there first and say, we're having some conflict here, we need resolved, and see if you can get it resolved with the help of an elder.

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But it's shameful when there is no arbitration within the church, and ought we not equally to be ashamed when we refuse to settle our disagreements and squabbles within the body, but instead jump ship to another church while carrying our grievances with us?

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That's often what happens in America today. Moving churches is not always sinful, but moving for the mere purpose of avoiding unresolved conflict should give us pause to consider why in the world

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Paul is here speaking about settling disputes in the first place. Why doesn't he just say, hey, when there's conflicts in the church, isn't there anybody wise enough to tell them to go to another church?

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Is that what it says in the text? When there's conflict, pick a side and tell the other to go. No, he doesn't say that.

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He says, settle the disputes among you. Get it resolved with the people. Now, some of you have moved here after settling disputes, and I appreciate that.

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Some of you are here, and you've realized that your previous church wasn't going to settle your dispute or your concern on the

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Bible as the primary authority in those disputes, and I think that's a pretty good reason to leave a church if they're not going to stand on the

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Word. But there are others here who, maybe you're here, and you've never even given it a shot. You gave up before any attempts to try to settle conflicts.

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I will leave the point with this encouragement. Some of you may walk away from this message with a conviction to get back to some unfinished business, and that's okay.

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I'm not looking to make more space in the seats, but I also recognize that that might be the healthiest thing for the body of Christ, for you to go and make right any kind of conflict that you have unresolved.

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Here's a way to diagnose that. If you would actually, in private conversation about your previous church, feel comfortable saying some bad things about them, then maybe there's something that's unresolved there that you haven't resolved.

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Now, maybe some of those things are legitimate, and maybe some of those things center on the Word, and they center on the biblical aspect of things.

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I would encourage you to not bad mouth another church, but it's okay to hold convictions. There was, I'll tell you a brief story.

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I won't use any names, but there was a man who started attending Recast. He only came here for about a month or two, but I started to get to know him over that month or two.

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This is 10 years ago. We were probably about 60 people at that time, and so it was very easy to get to know visitors.

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I started to talk with this guy, and we went out for breakfast one morning, and he began to tell me about the story, wound around about the difficulties he had had with his previous pastor, and this, that, and the other, and how glad he was to be at Recast.

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I said to him, I said, is it, did you talk with that pastor? No. Have you tried to just share with him your thoughts?

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No. Have you tried to reconcile together? No. I said, maybe that would be a good step.

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Maybe that would be where you'd want to start. So we went to his pastor. He talked with him. They reconciled.

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There was some misunderstanding, and that man is now, today, he's an elder at that church. He's very connected and very involved in that church.

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That's a success. Recast church isn't for everyone, and I mean, I'm not,

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I'm not going to be the kind of pastor who's like, this is the only place for you. No, go resolve those conflicts and see where God lands you.

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Where does he, where does he desire? But I know he does not want you to have unresolved conflict with others in the body of Christ, in the kingdom of God.

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The gospel gives us power to mediate, and second of all, it also gives us the power to absorb the blow.

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No, absorb the offense, verses 7 through 8. Absorb the offense. The conflict itself within the church is a problem here, and the bringing forth of public lawsuits is an unqualified loss for the church,

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Paul says. It's a defeat. You're already, you're already losing. You're already losing on the basis that people are going to court with one another.

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Just merely by going to the court of public, of the public judgment seat of the magistrate, the church is suffering defeat. Every petty lawsuit is shameful,

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Paul says, and he uses the word shame, and I would say much like it's shameful when Christians in our day and age take their church squabbles to the court of public opinion.

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That's probably where this gets applied the most in the church, right? Somebody just starts out, launches their podcast with animosity toward a church, or when church members take their church issues to the socials.

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I think this is a very similar situation to what was happening in Corinth. Just post about it. See if you get likes.

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See if other people are experiencing the same thing that you're experiencing, and like I said, there's some big -name podcasts that are, their success is precipitated on the, not resolving the conflict within the church, but just airing it.

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There's plenty of podcasts like that. To be sure, we're not called to be a secret society. This is not an attempt to sugarcoat and whitewash the church, and pretend that there's never any conflict, and to present a face out there that, nope, nothing wrong here.

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Nothing ever goes bad here. Everything's fine here. No, we're not a secret society like that, but we are a place that has been well -equipped to resolve minor grievances and petty trivial squabbles internally.

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We should be able to demonstrate to the world that we can handle those kinds of things. Corinth was not living up to the high and powerful calling that they have in the role of mediation, and I fear we also in our modern era have not leaned into the powerful gospel community to help resolve our squabbles as well.

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But that power of the gospel comes with something that is often overlooked in our American society of rights and individualistic dignity, right?

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Like, don't tread on me. Don't step on me. Nobody's going to push me around. Nobody's going to, you know, we of all people, church, we of all people have a warrant to suffer wrong.

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We have a warrant to suffer wrong. We have the power to be defrauded without fear, without concern for loss.

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So I lose a couple hundred dollars from a Christian neighbor who ran his tractor through my fence. So I suffer some indignity through gossip or slander by a brother or sister.

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So I'm called back seven times to redo petty requests from a church customer of my business who just can't ever,

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I can never seem to please them, and I can't seem to get it right. They're the one who picked the color, but now they don't like it.

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Whatever. As strange as it sounds, the gospel, the only gospel, the one with the crucified

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Messiah, can you picture Him dying on the cross for you? The gospel with the sinless one accused for us.

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The one where He was beaten for sins He didn't commit. The one where He suffered the eternal wrath of God for the evil that you and I committed on the cross.

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That gospel shows us a better way of life together. Amen? A life where it takes a lot to get us upset.

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Does that define us, church? Are we a church that it is hard to knock us off our joy? Hard to knock us off our game?

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Hard to knock us off of the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Or are we a people who is quick to demand our rights?

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I fear that the church in America has gone one of those two directions. You have a guess which way

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I think. Are we a people who demand our rights first, or do we have a warrant to suffer a bit?

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I hear people say, well, I don't suffer at all. I don't suffer at all. I bet there's opportunities.

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Maybe we're guarding ourselves a bit too much. It takes a lot to get us upset.

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It should take a lot to get us upset. We should be living a life where we can suffer wrong more easily.

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A life where it is tough to knock us off of joy and gladness and giving others the benefit of the doubt.

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I heard someone once say, and I think this relates, the Christian, the mature Christian is one who is easily edified.

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The mature Christian is one who is easily edified. It doesn't take much to give you joy.

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It doesn't take much to build you up in your faith. It doesn't take a lot, and you're not always looking for the wrong in the speaker.

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You're looking for what nuggets you can take out. You're looking for what's good. You're looking for what's of benefit, what's going to fuel you.

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The mature Christian is edified, and I would add to that quote that they are also not easily stirred up to demand their rights.

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The mature Christian is okay with a little suffering from time to time. It can absorb the suffering, can absorb the wrong.

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Now, that might be attacking, I might be attacking a sacred cow in our culture, and I'm sure I'll hear from some of you if that's the case, but nothing is more

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American than demanding our rights, and Paul here is saying, slow down there, Tex. Why not rather suffer wrong?

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Why not rather be defrauded? But to remind us that we are not the first culture to place our rights over everyone else and think of ourselves first, unlike Philippians, verse 8 is clear that the

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Corinthians are very much in line with the direction our culture goes. They are not suffering wrong in the strength of the gospel, but instead, they themselves are actively wronging each other and defrauding or cheating their own brothers and sisters in Christ.

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They're not, they're not just, it's not just that they're not suffering the wrong, they are the ones wronging. My guess is that this might be convicting to many of us who have developed habits surrounding self -defense.

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Let this phrase become an increasing question you ask yourselves over the petty nuisances that arise in this fellowship from time to time with brothers and sisters in Christ.

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Let this be a question you ask yourself frequently. Can I just suffer the wrong on this one? Can I suffer the wrong?

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Why not rather be defrauded instead of going to war right now? That's a good question.

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Now, don't get me wrong. I'm telling you, I'm suggesting you ask the question because I would say there is a time to address sin where you cannot just merely take the hurt.

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There's a time to address it. There's actually a time to go to war with sin in our midst, as was made clear emphatically in chapter five.

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But that's not every single time I'm offended or I'm wronged. I've heard people so regularly say,

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I can't let them get away with it. What will that communicate? If I let them get away with it, they're just going to keep doing it.

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I have to be the one to stop them. I have to be the one to educate them. I have to be the one to arrest this slide.

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And sometimes that's the case, but I just would suggest to you that we ought to think this way. Why is our sense of justice so keen when we're the victim, but suddenly grace rises to the top when we're the offending party?

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Grace for me and justice for thee has no room in the kingdom of God.

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Grace for us. Amen? Grace for us. Some examples seem needed here because I have a feeling that our minds could be kind of warping around a little bit of like, what are we talking about here?

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What kinds of things, what kind of conflicts could come up? Well, here's one. I found out that my best friend in community group was talking behind my back to someone else, and they're really bothered that I'm sending my kids to public school.

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Now I'm ticked, and I just can't even. Can you imagine that?

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Could you overlook that? Maybe. My previous pastor required the church to wear masks.

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I can't even worship like that. I can't believe he gave in so quickly to a symbol of oppression.

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Can you overlook that? Maybe. Probably should.

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Probably should give him some grace on that as we were all like, raise your hand if you were a bit confused during that season.

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All of us, heads spinning around, just kind of, what's happening? Everybody trying to do what they thought was best.

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Or how about this one? This one's going to ruffle some feathers. I saw Gertrude at Applebee's with what looked like a whole pint of Bud Light, and it was half gone.

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Trivial matter? I think not. I don't know if you can get past that one. I'm just kidding.

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I'm just kidding. But seriously, if you cannot let it go, and something has been brought to your attention, you've encountered something that's conflicting, like this kind of gray area issue that becomes so elevated within the church and can become all -consuming, if you can't let it go, then come together and get some help.

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Get some mediation. Go to them, obviously, first, and try work that out, and if you can't, get a mediator. But a concern becomes an issue.

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An issue becomes a quarrel. A quarrel can become a rift, and a rift can become a split, and a split destroys churches.

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You know what I'm talking about? That can happen in a week. That doesn't take a long time for that progress to happen.

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It can happen over a text thread. So, we have been given the power to absorb the wrong, and the last thing that we've been given in the gospel, according to this text, is the power of transformation, the power of a transformed life, verses 9 through 11.

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Verse 9 pokes at the unrighteous judges mentioned back at verse 1. So, in case you're wondering, why in the world is he talking about unrighteous?

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Is this a threat to the church or unrighteous people within the church? I don't think so, because we just saw the word unrighteous as a modifier to the judges earlier in verse 1, and now he's saying, in essence, how can you entrust church matters to people who have not received the transforming power of the gospel?

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People who don't value the most fundamental thing that is true? The people who don't possess this kind of transformed power?

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How can you expect the unrighteous to adjudicate matters on behalf of the righteous? And Paul gives a colorful vice list saying, these are what your judges are.

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Here's your judges. When you go before the public and you go before unbelievers and have them try your cases, here's a list.

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Here's the kind of quality and character that you're going to get in the world. It's a given. It's a colorful vice list in verses 9 through 10, and it would make us blush, by the way.

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It would make everybody in this room blush. I don't care how unsqueamish you are, the words that are used in these verses are very graphic, and the

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ESV and the NIV have done a really good job bringing them down a little bit. And I actually used a couple, and I got censured in a good way by a couple of the people who read my sermon.

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They said, yeah, but maybe don't say that. I was like, okay. Okay, so you're not going to get it.

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Three of the nine sins are specifically sexual in nature. Some see

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Paul generally seeking a list out of vices common in the Roman culture to address, but I don't think so.

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I'm intrigued by the thought that he is specifically thinking of the church in Corinth when he makes this list.

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Not just such, there are people like this out there. Now, you guys know because you used to be there.

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You guys know. When he says in verse 11, such were some of you, he had at least a name associated with each one of these sins.

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In Corinth, he knew who fit in which category, and he could have listed them out, and he could have listed them out by name, and the effeminate ones, these are you.

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These are the people that are here. These are you. The sexually immoral, here you are. The people who are greedy, here you are.

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I think he had names and associations with these people, and that's a helpful way to think about this list as you look at it in verses 9 and 10.

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You see, far from remaining theoretical, our salvation church is very specific.

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You weren't saved from theoretical sins. You weren't saved as a person corrupted by sin.

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You were saved as a sinner from specific acts, from specific things, from specific filth.

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I was too. What we have been saved from is personal.

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It's unique to us. We have our own makeup and the own vices that are like a mix that defines our character aside from Christ.

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What we are saved from is personal, unique, humbling, and extremely embarrassing.

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When you think of salvation, and you think of that cross, and you think of what he's paying for, do you think about the specific sins he died for for you?

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This list helps. Sexual deviance. Such were some of you.

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Don't worry, I'm not going to list any names. Idolater. Worshipping a god of your own imagination.

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Such were some of you. Adulterers. Some of you. I won't name names, but the phrase in Greek that is translated, men who practice homosexuality, is a three -word

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Greek phrase that has received a lot of shade in the past couple of decades for obvious reasons. People want to explain that phrase, those phrases and those words, away.

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They are very specific. They are very keyed in on the G of the LGBTQ plus sexual revolution.

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The G is absolutely full -orbed explained in that phrase. And one can argue words all day long, but it is an uphill losing battle to try to get scripture to be okay with homosexual practices, homosexual activities.

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Leviticus, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy all address it. And the clear creation accounts in Genesis and the continuance of the marriage covenant,

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Adam and Eve, not any other combination. And through the New Testament, it's endorsed time and time again.

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Jesus reaffirmed one man and one woman. All of this combines to bring one clear message.

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The sexual expression outside of the confines of covenant marriage between one man and one woman is sin.

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That's truth. It's not so much as scripture defines and lists out every form of sexual deviancy, amen,

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I'm glad. It would take up a lot of time if he just went forward in this list.

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But rather scripture emphatically and clearly expresses what sexual expression is blessed and glorifying to God. One man, one woman in marriage.

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And he defines what is acceptable. And yet rather than merely leaving the vice list with the more generic and broad word pornea, which is sexual immorality,

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Paul saw fit to clarify in this context, male homosexual practice to be sure to specify, to be sure that we understand the types of people that God washes and sanctifies and justifies before him.

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Such were some of you, but you've been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified.

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Some of you were thieves, petty or otherwise. Most of us were greedy, such were some of you.

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Some of us were drunkards. Some were revilers, using their mouth to harm others. Some were swindlers, applying intellect to greed to get money through scamming others.

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When you think about it, swindling is just a word that means creative theft. The intellect applied to thievery.

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The more intelligent you are, the better you can swindle. Filth, gross, disgusting defines us outside of Christ.

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We have this common history. All of us repugnant, broken, and breaking. Victims of sin, yes, but also victimizers of others, abused and abusers.

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Such were some of you. Such was I. But what are we now, church, if we were those things and we are no longer defined by those things?

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Does he say that the difference is that, well, such were some of you, but you got your act together. You cleaned yourself up.

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You got it fixed. You got it figured out. Such were some of you, but you cleaned up your act. Is that what made yourself presentable to God?

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Is that what it is? No. My life is now defined by the work of God expressed in the last verse.

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The work of God unleashed on my life when I was brought by his spirit to my knees at the

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First Baptist Church of Middleville, Michigan, 40 -plus years ago. I was washed. I was set apart for a service in worship, sanctified.

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I was justified, declared righteous before him. Oh, I don't deserve that at all, but that's what he did.

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These things were the word of the Trinitarian God over me. The gospel benefits were applied to me in the name of Jesus by the spirit who works in accord with God the

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Father, washed, sanctified, justified, now empowered to live for him.

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What benefits does the gospel bring to us, church, as we come to communion this morning? Consider the glory of his salvation over us.

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During this next song, come to the tables to take the cracker that represents his body broken for us and take the juice that reminds us of his blood shed for us, and do this while reflecting on the great blessing he has given us in his sacrifice.

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If you belong to him by faith, come to the tables. If you do not follow Jesus Christ as your

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Lord, then I encourage you to skip it, but you can come and talk with me afterwards or come and talk with Dave or the elder on duty.

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We would love to talk with you about a relationship with Jesus Christ. But consider, church, that in Jesus Christ, God has given us the power to mediate, the power to absorb offense, and the power of a transformed life.

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He has bought us back from the sins that once owned us, that once defined us, but we have been washed, we have been sanctified, and we have been justified by him.

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He cleanses his people of all unrighteousness, he sets us apart to a life of loving obedience to him, and he has declared us righteous before the

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Father for all time. And let that be your meditation this morning. Let that be your meditation even throughout this week.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the grace that is given to us undeserved.

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Such were some of us, and we could list them out. We could say the sins that defined us, the sins that owned us, the sins that may have even taken our lives if we were given over to them.

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But in your grace, you reached down, and through your Son, you have washed us. We don't deserve that.

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It's your act doing that for us. We've been sanctified, set apart to live for you now, in the here and now.

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We've been justified. Our hope for eternity rests in the justifying work, the declaration that we are no longer sinners based on what

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Christ did for us. Father, I pray that we'd rejoice as we have an opportunity to come to the tables and reflect and remember.

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Awesome, awesome, awesome sacrifice. His body broken in our place, his blood shed for us, that we might be a redeemed people together.