Today we're entering into an explosive chapter
in Paul's letter to the Corinthian church. You've
probably already felt the weight of the service,
and that's because we're walking into a bit of
a minefield. By the way, I hope you all got my
warning from earlier in the week about the mature
themes that we'll be discussing today. If you
didn't or you're visiting with us this morning,
let me just restate that for you. Some of the
things that are going to come up in the text
of Scripture may not be appropriate for young
ears. So this may be a good time for you to take
advantage of our wonderful ACORN ministry and
check your kids in. And if you choose not to,
that's obviously within your realm of freedom.
Just know you might have some conversations with
your kids later on. So just know that. Well,
chapter 5 in 1 Corinthians revolves around something
that is common to all of humanity, all of us,
something every single person in this room has
dealt with to some degree, including myself.
Whether we want to admit it or not, this is true
of us. We're talking about the temptation of
lusts and our potential to choose sexual sin.
Now, the core theme of 1 Corinthians 5 is not
really about sexual sin itself. It's about how
the church should respond when sexual sin happens
within the body of Christ. Nevertheless, we should
acknowledge up front that sexual sin among believers
is a very, very serious issue that God warns
us about repeatedly in His Word. So before we
just dive into today's passage, I thought I'd
take a few moments on the front end of this message.
to talk about why that is. Why is God so serious
about this issue? And this is just going to be
a quick run through. This subject is going to
come up multiple times in our series in 1 Corinthians.
And when we get there, we will dive in all the
deeper. But it's important that we understand
why we're driven to lust and what we're called
to do about it. And we will get to that, I promise.
For this morning, I just want to give you...
Four quick reasons why sexual sin is such a prominent
theme in the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
And here's reason number one. For the believer,
your body does not belong to you. For the believer,
your body belongs to God. And we will study this
very closely in the very next chapter of 1 Corinthians,
chapter 6, where Paul writes, do you not know
that your bodies are members of Christ? Feel
the weight of that. Your bodies are members of
Christ. Shall I take away the members of Christ
and make them members of a prostitute? He asks.
And of course, he answers his own question. God
forbid, may it never be. If you belong to Christ,
you are in union with him. That means that your
body is, how you deal with your body is very,
very important. Your body has been sanctified
as a vessel for God's glory. It is one with Christ.
And so Paul asks another question in the same
chapter. Do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you and that
you are not your own? How many of us think about
our bodies in this way? There's also a worship
aspect to it, right? In Romans 12, we find this
command to present our bodies to God as what?
As a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to
him, which is our spiritual act of worship. So
there's a lot just in that first point, and we'll
get to that in the next chapter. Here's the second
reason. Sex is a sacred gift from the Lord designed
to be used within the boundaries that he has
given to us. And we're told this right out of
the gate in Genesis 2 when God uses this phrase,
one flesh. And that's a word picture that Paul
is going to pick up and use in his argument for
sexual purity in the next chapter of this letter,
one flesh. That act of becoming one flesh in
a sexual union is not to be distorted or abused.
It was designed by God. It was given to us as
a gift to be enjoyed as long as we enjoy it within
the confines and the boundaries of covenant marriage.
See, God designed sex to be more than just a
biological urge. It connects us deeply. Not just
physically, it connects our hearts, our emotions,
our very lives. And it's the means by which we
bring forth new life and form our families. So
this concept of one fleshness makes the marriage
relationship absolutely unique among all human
relationships. And it's not to be shared with
anyone but our spouse. That's the second reason
why this matters so much to God. Number three,
sexual sin destroys the picture of the covenant
that God has established with us, his people.
It taints that picture. that he's given to us.
The New Testament uses marriage as a metaphor
to describe the covenant relationship that Jesus
has with his bride, which is the church, the
very people that he's purchased with his own
blood. And that means there's a spiritual significance
to how we express ourselves sexually. And of
course we know what God has created is good.
Satan tries to twist. And so we're always under
the temptation to satisfy our lusts outside of
God's perfect design and to defile the beauty
of that gift that he has given us. And so engaging
in sexual sin quickly and easily devolves into
idolatry. Idolatry. It's a betrayal of his covenant
faithfulness to us. It's heavy stuff, isn't it?
That's the third reason. Finally, reason number
four, and if you're just looking for a practical
reason not to engage in sexual sin, this is it.
It has a devastating cost to our lives. A devastating
cost. When sexual sin is uncovered, it is utterly
destructive. And not just to the one who has
sinned, but it has a ripple effect that goes
out, it spreads, and it goes to spouses and children.
and friends and fellow church members into extended
family. It destroys marriages, reputations. It
wrecks careers. It disqualifies ministries. It
alienates people from their children. It ruins
us financially and more. It's a long list. And
when you stop and consider how much damage is
caused by this sometimes brief and fleeting nature
in the pursuit of pleasure, think about that.
How much damage is wrought by it? It is the epitome
of foolishness. Sexual sin will darken your thinking.
It will twist and pervert your affections. It
will cause you to physically waste away, and
it will block the power of the Holy Spirit in
your lives. Did you hear the call to worship
from earlier, from Proverbs 5, the warning? I'm
going to put it on the screen since you didn't
see it earlier because it's worth looking at.
Heed the warning. The lips of an adulteress drip
honey. Don't think of that in just one context.
The allure of sexual sin drips honey. Smoother
than oil is her speech, but in the end she is
bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two -edged
sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps head
straight for Sheol. Keep your way far from her.
Do not go near the door of her house. Don't even
flirt with it. Or you will give your vitality
to others and your years to someone cruel. You'll
give it all away to somebody else. At the end
of your life, it goes on, at the end of your
life, you will groan when your flesh and your
body are consumed and you will say how I've hated
instruction. In other words, I was warned and
I hated it. I didn't want to hear it. I wanted
pleasure and I hated instruction. How my heart
despised correction. I heard it preached in church
and I said, I don't want that correction. I want
what I want. I've not listened to the voice of
my teachers nor inclined my ear to my instructors.
I am on the verge of complete ruin. How practical
is that? In the midst of the assembly in the
congregation. May we have ears to hear that as
a warning. from the Lord himself. All right,
grab your Bibles with that heavy introduction.
We're going to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians
chapter 5. Once again, let me say that today's
message is not about sexual sin itself. The passage
we're about to study is about how the church
should respond when sexual sin is uncovered in
the congregation. And the instruction that we
have here actually covers the entire chapter.
All 13 verses are sort of one big idea on this
same subject matter, how the church deals with
this. And that made me think, I can do this whole
sermon, this whole chapter in just one sermon.
And the elders were like, don't do it. Don't
do it, Jeff. We don't have all day. So thanks,
guys. I appreciate that. So we've broken it up
into two. This is what this means. This is part
one of two. It's really one message. And I dislike
doing this because sometimes people will make
it to part one and miss part two or vice versa.
So everybody who's here this morning, raise your
right hand. Promise me you'll be back next Sunday.
No, I'm just kidding. At the very least, make
sure you listen online if you miss next Sunday.
Otherwise, you're going to go home and go, man,
there were so many things, so many questions
I had, so many unanswered things. I know, there's
a lot of nuance to this. That's why it's really
going to take two Sundays. Now, let's recall
the first four chapters of this letter have been
pretty much about Paul's focus on one really
big issue, and that is disunity. in the church
in Corinth. And now in chapter five, he sort
of turns the corner and now he's going to deal
with the next big problem. And what it turns
out is, is not only the Corinthians struggling
with fleshly thinking, they're also struggling
with fleshly lives. That's what we're going to
see here. So look at verse one. Paul says this,
it's actually reported that there's immorality
among you. An immorality of such a kind as does
not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone
has his father's wife. And I want you to hear
in Paul's voice there his shock and dismay at
what's going on. He says it's actually being
reported that this is going on. It's being reported
that sexual immorality is open, alive, and active
in your church family. It's become common knowledge,
right? It's gone viral, we would say, right?
In today's verbiage. People are talking openly
about how you tolerate blatant sin within your
church. And what a sad and destructive testimony
this would have been in that day, right? What
a dragging through the mud of the holy name of
Jesus. And among unbelievers who are talking
about this. Part of Paul's shock is the type
of sin that he's referring to here. Look, it's
one thing, disunity is bad enough, right? But
this sin, this is something that not even the
pagans of Greece and Rome would tolerate in their
families. Think about that. When the world is
shocked by our sin, we're in trouble. We're in
deep trouble. And so Paul uses a particular word
to describe what's going on here. It's not a
surprising word. In the Greek, it's porneia.
We all know what the basis of pornography is,
pornia. In that day, it was sort of a catch -all
for all kinds of sexual sin. In the old -fashioned
English, we call this fornication, right? But
it's sexual immorality. It can refer to a whole
list of very ugly things. Everything from adultery
to prostitution to homosexuality to incest to
polygamy and even more. Even worse things, which
I won't even mention in church. Any kind of perversion
of God's design for human sexual expression is
caught up in this word, porneia. And here in
verse 1, Paul describes for us what kind of expression
specifically was happening in the Corinthian
church. He says, someone has his father's wife,
which is a very polite way of saying there is
a guy in your church who has an openly sexual
relationship with his stepmother. That's what's
going on here. And it's written in the present
tense. This accusation is in the present tense.
Listen, Paul isn't writing, look, there's a guy
in your church who once had a relationship with
his stepmother. Or in the past, he fell into
sin with this woman. This is the present tense.
It's still going on. It is active and ongoing.
It's a relationship that everybody knows is going
on. And they're not doing anything about it.
From an Old Testament perspective, by the way,
this would be considered incest. Even though
they're not biologically related, that intra
-family relationship, this would qualify as incest
in the Jewish community. It's really, really
bad. Now, trying to explain the details of how
this came about. We don't know. And it would
require too much speculation, things I don't
want to even walk through in a worship service.
I think we can just agree that however it came
about, however this relationship started, it
is repulsive in the eyes of Paul and is a blasphemy
in the eyes of God. And if you just want to make
it worse, if you want to put an ugly cherry on
top, the fact that Paul's going to talk about
only disciplining the man tells us that this
stepmother is likely not a Christian. So not
only is the relationship illicit, it is a professing
believer engaging in the sin with an unbeliever.
Think of the testimony in that. Bottom line,
what we see happening here is the believers in
Corinth have once again shown themselves that
the surrounding culture that they're living in
is seeping into the church. And it's affecting
their thinking and their living. And they're
inviting the world to basically mock and ridicule
the name of Christ. And that's what we're going
to focus on this morning, the church's atrocious
response to what's happening in that church.
So let's look at how Paul describes the response.
Look at verse 2. Everybody understand the setting,
what's going on here? What does Paul say about
the church's response? You become arrogant, he
says, and have not mourned instead. so that the
one who has done this deed would be removed from
your midst. Again, you can hear his frustration
in his words here. Now to understand the situation
completely, you have to consider what did the
Greco -Roman world think about sexual expression?
Pagans in the first century, it was very simple.
Sex was a biological urge, just as the body needs
food and water and exercise and sleep. And it's
true, intrafamily relationships were frowned
upon, but almost everything else was fair game.
Homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery, concubines,
both male and female prostitution. We know, obviously,
we talked about this earlier, in the city of
Corinth, there were temples dedicated to gods
and goddesses and filled with prostitutes. And
you would come in and you would engage in sexual
union with a prostitute under the banner of worship.
in that culture. So it was a culture that was
impacting this particular church. The believers
there are struggling to keep the world out of
their fellowship and to renew their thinking.
And they should have known better. If you drop
your eyes down to verse 11 really quickly, we'll
look at this more in detail next week. Paul says,
I previously wrote to you about this. This is
what we call the first lost letter. Paul to the
Corinthians. I wrote to you about this very thing,
and clearly you didn't get it. Clearly you didn't
get it. I wrote to you, he says, not to associate
with any so -called brother if he's an immoral
person. And the root word there is the same in
the Greek. Paul's talking about a man who is
professing to trust in Christ. He is in the body,
yet he is a pornos. He is a man who's living,
it's not just falling into sin, he's living a
outwardly sinful lifestyle right in the face
of God and worshiping in the body. And obviously,
Apollos, when he arrived, he would have reinforced
the same teaching that Paul wrote about, right?
How the believers have to bring their sexual
impulses under the restraint of the Holy Spirit
and he would have taught them that if anyone
in the church claims to belong to Christ but
is living this this lifestyle in direct opposition
to apostolic teaching, that type of person should
not be associated with because he's a liar and
he's a fraud and he's a threat to the overall
health of the body. Paul says, I wrote to you
about this, but you didn't get it. It wasn't
happening. To Paul's shock, not only were the
Corinthians not dealing with this man as they
should have, get this now, they were actually
boasting in that sinful relationship. They're
boasting in it. They become arrogant about it,
which is mind -blowing. You have to think, right,
how is that possible? What kind of twisted theology
do you need to have where you'd end up boasting
in this kind of immorality? Now, I wish we had
a little more information from Paul here about
why, why this is happening, but we can speculate
just a little bit based on the culture of the
day. It's possible that there was a thread of
ancient Gnosticism there in the church of Corinth.
The idea that sexual sin is actually meaningless
to God because the physical is already condemned.
It means nothing. Only the spiritual matters.
So some might have thought, hey, look, I have
a Gnostic view of life. I can do as I please
with my body because it really doesn't matter
in the end. It's all about the spiritual stuff.
That's possible. More likely, what was going
on? was this, and this is something we see in
our world today. The Corinthians had come to
a place where they were proud of having a very
liberal view of grace and Christian freedom.
They were proud of this. We hear this in liberal
churches today. We hear this in various liberal
parts of our society, places where open -mindedness
and tolerance are said to be the highest of all
virtues. You know what I'm talking about? Places
where the mantra is, do not judge, Do not lay
your beliefs on me. These are the same places
where you'll find the world redefining and co
-opting the definition of love. They'll say,
oh, love is love, right? The LGBT community says.
They co -opt a biblical word and use it against
us by redefining it. So -called gay -affirming
churches will boast in the fact that love is
love. We're open. We're accepting. You guys are
bigots. You guys are unloving. They obviously
confuse God's grace and freedom in Christ with
lawlessness, using it as an opportunity for the
flesh, as Paul says in Galatians 5. So you can
almost hear these Corinthians, these boastful
Corinthians going, look, who am I to judge this
guy? Right? Who am I to judge this guy? I may
not agree, really, with what he's doing. I know
I wouldn't sleep with my stepmother, right? But
you know what? I know him. Seems like a good
guy. You know what? I'm not going to get involved
in his business. I'm not going to stick my nose
in that mess. Live and let live. You can almost
hear that, right? And to Paul's dismay, taking
that kind of hands -off approach was something
that Corinthian believers were actually boasting
in. They were proud of that liberal view. We're
super tolerant. Super tolerant here in Corinth.
But Paul's gonna make the case. And again, we'll
save the details for next week. If you look at
verse six real quick, he says, guys, your boasting
is not good. Don't you know that a little bit
of leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Don't
you know this, he asks? You let that kind of
sin remain in your body and like a cancer, like
a cancer, it spreads to every corner of the church
and it rots the church from the inside out. Don't
you know this? Back to verse two then. Paul says,
this is how you should be responding. He says,
you should mourn over this. You should be grieved
over this sin. And furthermore, you should take
immediate action to remove this man from your
congregation. Now, let's take a deep breath.
And I want you to think carefully about the principle
here. If this man had sinned, even in this heinous
way, but he had turned away from it, Right? He
had rejected it, renounced it, repented. This
would be a very different conversation. Right?
There would be no call for his removal if he
had done this in the past but had repented of
it. Now, clearly, if he was at Oak Hill, we'd
say, bro, you still need to come in for some
counseling because we got to figure out what
was going on in your heart that led you down
the path where you got here. But you know what?
There's grace for this. There'd be no church
discipline. If he'd repented of it. In fact,
in the midst of that counseling, we would praise
God for his heart of repentance. Because we all
fall into sin, right? Guys, we have to understand
this. The local church is a community of repenting
sinners. I'm going to say that again. Because
this is so important. The church, our church,
is a community of repenting sinners. That's who
we are. We don't live life together going around
acting like we're perfect or free from sin because
we're not. But we do strive together to maintain
purity in the body for the sake of Christ and
for our testimony in this community. And that
means calling sin what it is, what God says it
is. That means battling for righteousness together
as a family. And yes, it means from a heart of
love holding one another accountable. to biblical
living. This is at the core of one of our most
important covenant items in our church covenant,
where it says, we will walk together in brotherly
love, exercising an affectionate care and watchfulness
over one another, and faithfully admonishing
one another when the occasion arises. Guys, that
is an essential principle for any healthy church.
All of us together being committed to the truths
of Scripture. All of us together encouraging
one another to live those principles out. All
of us together, when we fail in that, when we
come up short, being willing to confront ongoing
sin out of love, motivated by care and concern.
That's a healthy church that can do those things.
Ephesians 5 .11 commands us, have no fellowship
with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead,
what? Expose them. They've got to be brought
to the surface and dealt with. We all need that,
me included. We all need this in our lives, right?
Don't do what the Corinthians were doing. Don't
tolerate sinful lifestyles and say that's okay.
Because God says it's not. Don't cover up sinful
acts. Don't think it's okay to just look the
other way, like I'm not involved in this. You
are. You are your brother's keeper. The truly
loving thing to do is to go to your friend, go
to your brother, help them see the error of their
ways by pointing to Scripture and then walking
with them through a process of repentance and
restoration. Now, that's a tricky thing to do.
It has to be done carefully. It has to be done
with compassion. It can't be done hypocritically.
But the Bible gives us a path on how to do that
well. We just need to be faithful to do what
God says. The one thing we can't do is ignore
a cancerous cell in the body. Can't do it. And
it's not loving to do that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
if you know who he is, wrote a famous book called
Life Together. And look what he says about this.
And it's the act. absolute opposite of what the
world thinks. And that's what makes it so brilliant.
He says this, nothing can be more cruel than
a leniency which abandons others to sin. Nothing
can be more compassionate than a severe reprimand
which calls another Christian in one's community
back from the path of sin. Do you believe that?
Because much of the evangelical church, they
don't like that quote much. Because it's messy,
isn't it? And it's hard. But that's a brilliant
truth. We call this the ministry of loving confrontation.
Anybody want to sign up for that? Right? We all
go, oh man, that's so hard. It is. But this is
what scripture calls us to. See, when a local
church gets to a place where it's not grieved
over open sin and it becomes a haven for the
tolerance of all things, it forfeits its right
to be called Jesus' church. It forfeits that
right. And when I look around at this part of
the world, in my opinion, this may be one of
the most neglected practices in the evangelical
church. One of the most neglected. Churches that
are either looking away from sin intentionally,
choosing not to get involved, or churches that
are so big they're not even aware of the sins
that are happening in their body. I know of churches
where there is a sort of a rumor that is, look,
if you're openly gay, if you're living with your
boyfriend or girlfriend, that's a place that
you can go to and you'll be quietly accepted
and you can worship there and hide. Nobody's
going to ask you questions. That ought not to
be in Jesus' church. For other churches, this
is a matter of strategy and branding because
of church growth. We just don't want to be known
as that kind of church, they say. You know, the
church that gets in everybody's business, that's
just not who we are. We don't want people to
think that we're judgmental or legalistic, which
is a complete misnomer, legalistic. So they choose
to ignore biblical commands. And then sadly,
there's other churches that have just made a
practical calculation out of ignoring discipline.
We'll offend people, they say. If we do church
discipline, we will offend people. And if we
offend people, we're going to drive them out
of our church, maybe to another church down the
street. We're going to stop growing. Giving is
going to slow down. So it's best if we just ignore
this. Guys, can I just tell you that oftentimes,
be careful when you choose a church. In the evangelical
world today, numbers and money often... are the
leader of decisions made by leadership. It's
sad, but true. And failing to deal with sin in
the body hurts the testimony of every Christian.
Have you ever felt this? Another prominent pastor
or church leader is caught in sexual sin, and
it affects all of us, doesn't it? It affects
our testimony, and it hinders the gospel when
these things happen, right? It gives unbelievers
another reason to mock us, another excuse not
to consider their own depravity because they
look at the church and go, see how messed up
they are? If unbelievers look at the church and
they realize, look at all the sin happening there
that nobody's dealing with, they don't perceive
that it's different than the world that they
live in, why would they give the church even
a second thought? So this is a messy issue. That
we can't just ignore. It's got to be dealt with.
So what should the Corinthians do? Let's look
at verse 3. Paul's going to tell us. This is
really hard. Are you ready for this? Now remember,
before we dive into verse 3, where's Paul writing
from? You guys remember? He's writing from across
the Aegean Sea from Corinth. The other side of
the sea, he's writing from Ephesus. So you've
got to imagine, he would love to be present in
Corinth to deal with this. But back in the first
century, you didn't just hop on a plane, right?
So this is hard for him. He can't be present.
So what does he write in verse three? He says,
for I, on my part, though absent in body, but
present in spirit, have already judged him who
has so committed this as though I were present.
This is Paul invoking all of his apostolic authority.
And his authority as a spiritual father. the
one who planted this church, the one that led
many of these Corinthians to faith. He is invoking
that authority, and he's saying, look, I may
not be with you physically, but you know I'm
always with you in spirit, in my prayers, in
my love for you, my concern for you, and now
in my command to discipline this man, I am spiritually
present with you, and I have come to a conclusion
about this situation. I have judged it already,
he says, which this tells me that whoever reported
this situation to him, it's a reliable source.
He knows that it's true and he knows what has
to be done. And since the Corinthians have failed
to take action, he says, look, I'm stepping in
and I'm acting as if I were there with you. And
here's what you should do. Verse four, in the
name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled
and I with you in spirit with the power of our
Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a
one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh
so that his spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord Jesus. Whew. Yeah. Yeah. That's not
the most seeker -friendly verse that you'll read
in the New Testament. But man, is it important.
Okay, a whole bunch of things to talk about here.
The first thing I want you to see in these verses
is that church discipline is congregational.
This often gets ignored in evangelical churches.
It's congregational. Paul didn't say, look, I
want you elders to get together and go deal with
this man. Doesn't say that. He doesn't say, hey,
grab the bishop and make sure he deals with this,
or go out and call the denominational officers.
Put together a committee to deal with this, right?
He says, no, the church should gather and they
should handle this. The members of that local
church, they're given jurisdiction. They have
autonomy over their own local body. It's not
farmed out to some individual somewhere or to
a committee outside, right? Because it's the
members, the ones who love this person who's
in sin, who love each other and have to do this
work. Where there is unrepentant sin in the body,
the body as a whole should come together in unity
and confront it. And take whatever steps are
necessary to remedy the problem. Now, next Sunday
we're going to see that Paul didn't come up with
this on his own. This plan came from Jesus himself.
He told the disciples in Matthew 18 about how
to do this. And you notice here, how many times
does Paul drop Jesus' name in these two verses?
Three times. He's making sure you see this is
not just his teaching, it's the Lord's. And that's
important. The church is to assemble, he says,
in the name of the Lord Jesus and with the power
of the Lord Jesus. That's important. So lest
you think that church discipline is just an earthly
formality, Paul is setting us straight here.
He's making it clear that when done biblically,
church discipline is executed only under the
authority and lordship of Christ, which, and
this is where it gets important, is something
that Jesus himself promise to the church. Did
you know this? In Matthew 18. We're going to
look at Matthew 18 next week, but I'm going to
put this on the screen. Oh, wow. I'm way behind.
Okay. I'm going to put this on the screen because
it's so important. Jesus says to the disciples,
I say to you that if two of you agree on earth
about anything that they may ask, it shall be
done for them by my Father who is in heaven.
For where two or three have gathered together
in my name, I am there in their midst. How many
of us recognize that verse? How many of us have
heard it quoted out of context a million times?
As if it applies to everything. But the context
here is Jesus promising to be in the midst of
the church when discipline is required. Where
you gather for discipline, I am present in your
midst. So the church acts on God's behalf. in
disciplined situations, with Jesus present, using
what we call the keys of the kingdom. And again,
we're going to touch more on this next week.
Here's how Jesus describes the keys that the
members of the local church wield when it comes
to discipline. He says in this same chapter,
Matthew 18, whatever you, the church, bind on
earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth shall have been loosed in
heaven. So take a step back. Here's what Paul's
saying to the Corinthians. I will be with you
in spirit when you assemble and Jesus will be
present in your midst. He promised that. And
you church members gather together in his name
and in his power, you take hold of these keys
and you deal with this problem. That's what he's
saying here. You're going to have to use these
keys as a church body, you're going to have to
bind this man as guilty of unrepentant sin, of
an unrepentant lifestyle. And when you do that,
know that that decision done in the name of Jesus
will have already been authorized in the heavenly
realms. Now, as you hear this laid out, a couple
things you have to know. Number one, this is
a very, very serious thing, isn't it? Very serious
step for the church to take. A huge responsibility.
And by the way, we talk about this with membership.
More on that next week. When you come and become
a member of Oak Hill, one of your promises is,
if discipline in the body is necessary, I will
participate in this. I will be a part of wielding
the keys of the kingdom. It's a huge responsibility.
You're dealing with eternal souls here. The second
thing is, it has to be done with great soberness.
has to be done with grief and mourning. That's
what Paul said to the Corinthians. You should
be mourning over this. You should be grieving
over it. And by the way, in verse 5, it gets
even more serious. In unity, not only do you
wield the keys, but you deliver this man over
to Satan. Remember, not just the pastor, not
just the elders, the body, the members, deliver
this man over to Satan so that... his flesh is
destroyed. What does that mean? It means removing
the unrepentant sinner from the fellowship of
the body. You've got to remove him from fellowship.
And in particular, you've got to tell him that
he is disqualified in terms of coming to the
Lord's table, to receiving that sacred meal.
Not because the church is acting out of hate
or vengeance. This is an obedience to Christ's
commands. It's for the protection of the whole
body. And it's done to protect our testimony
in the community. If we don't understand the
motivation of this, we're going to be all confused
and upset about it. But that motivation matters.
And above those reasons, there are two purposes
that Paul tells us about here in verse 5. First,
immediately, it's done so that his flesh might
be destroyed. And then second, in a greater context,
so his spirit might be saved in the end. Those
are important. Notice the first purpose up there
is physical. The second one is spiritual. So
you put this man out of the fellowship, you put
him into the world, into Satan's domain, so that
he might reap the physical and emotional consequences
of this sinful lifestyle that he refuses to give
up. Right? You let the world sift him in this
habit that he has, in this lifestyle. You let
Satan sift him for a time. Let him feel the weight
of the destruction that he has wrought. The devastation
to his friendships and to his career, reputation,
finances, whatever it might be, let him feel
the weight of that apart from the fellowship
of the church. Let the destruction of his flesh
bring him back to his senses. Pray that it will
bring him to a place of repentance, that he would
return and realign himself under the authority
of God's word and back to, full fellowship in
the body of Christ. And if he stubbornly refuses,
and this happens, if he rejects the discipline
of the church and goes on in his lifestyle, then
the truth about his heart will be revealed to
all. As heartbreaking as that is, in the words
of John the Apostle, they went out from us because
they were never really of us. Because if they'd
been of us, they would have remained with us.
But they've gone out to show that they never
really belonged to the body of Christ. Guys,
this is never an easy thing to do, right? And
here at Oak Hill, in the 20 years of our church,
we've had to do this a number of times. It is
always distressing. It is always grievous. But
it has to be walked through because it's what
the Lord tells us to do. Just know this. The
goal is never, well, we just want to throw people
out of the church. That's never the goal. The
goal is not, well, we want to play the role of
judge and jury and Pharisee. We're not trying
to embarrass people or lord our authority and
power over them as a body. The motivation, again,
is obedience to Christ. It's love and concern
for that person's eternal soul. And the true
goal is always to win our brother or sister back,
to bring them to this point of repentance and
restore them to membership in the church. As
Paul puts it, so that he himself might be saved
on the day of the Lord. And can I share some
good news for you, with you? There's grace for
this. This sin, this is a heinous sin. There
could be even worse, but God's grace is still
sufficient for any sexual sin. It's sufficient.
There's hope for forgiveness, but it might require
some pain to get there. And that's by God's design.
to walk through that pain so that we come to
our senses and say, God's ways are best. But
we as a body have to be willing to walk into
this process to help that person see those things,
amen? So let me just close with one last thought.
I realize this is a scary concept. The whole
time I was writing this week, I'm like, man,
this is gonna freak some people out. And I'm
watching to see if anybody gets up and leaves.
Okay. If you didn't grow up in a church that
practices church discipline, I know this is scary.
If as an adult you came to a church and you haven't
seen it practiced, I know this chapter can be
off -putting and difficult. But let me reassure
you of the one foundational truth that will ease
your heart. If you are worried that someday it's
going to be my name that gets put forward for
church discipline, There is a very simple remedy.
Repent. Don't be afraid. Just be repentant like
all the rest of us. Again, what is the body?
A group of repenting sinners. That's it. This
applies to every one of us here, me included.
Don't be afraid. Just be ready to repent. I'll
say it again for the third time. Every local
church is filled with repenting sinners. We are
imperfect. We are in process. We are growing.
We are maturing. We are being slowly transformed
into the image of Christ, but we still have to
repent. In fact, that should be a daily habit
of yours, a daily spiritual discipline to continue
to repent. First, repenting of sin before the
Lord in prayer. And if necessary, to go to a
trusted friend in the body of Christ and saying,
I need to confess some sin. I need to let you
know that I fell into this, but I'm repentant.
That too is biblical and healthy. This needs
to be a discipline in our lives. And when we're
living that kind of life together, guess what?
We will welcome a brother or sister who comes
to us humbly and says, hey, can I talk to you
about something? I see this in your life and
it concerns me. If we're a repentant body, we
will welcome that. We will welcome it. I know
it's hard, but we'll welcome it. And if that
brother or sister is right and we do need to
repent, we will have no problem doing so. Because
we're not stuck in our pride. We're not stubborn
in our lifestyles. Like, no, we want to live
lives that please Jesus. Which means if we're
always repentant like that, guess what? We will
never be put up for church discipline. Listen,
God has been so gracious to give us the gift
of church discipline, and we really should see
it as a gift. He's given you and I, people who
love one another deeply, the privilege of living
life together in both purity and accountability.
It's a life that glorifies him and is beneficial
to us, as we always say, right? For God's glory
and for our good. Church discipline is that thing.
Don't be afraid. Just repent. Amen? There's much
more to talk about in part two. I saw you guys
promise to come back. Why don't we bow our heads?
I'm going to give you guys a little bit of time
on your own to talk to the Lord about this. And
this is a time to bring Him your fears, if you
have them. Or to bring Him your confession and
repentance. Whatever the Spirit put on your heart.
Take a few moments and pray. And then Grant is
going to draw us out.