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I know. I love it. Would you pray with me please? Father, we thank you that in Jesus

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Christ we are made complete. That because of his coming into the world, his death and

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resurrection, we are alive in him, that we are forgiven in him, we are made righteous

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in him. We thank you that we are safe and secure in his love until that day that you

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call us home. Our hearts are filled with such joy and hope because of that. Thank you Father.

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Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, it's good to be back with you this morning. We enjoyed our trip to the Midwest last weekend

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for a family wedding. We arranged our trip through Minneapolis. And normally that works

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pretty well because there's a great airport there. But during the spring season, you never

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quite know what the weather is going to be in Minneapolis, especially in late March,

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early April. We were watching a storm develop in the Midwest before we even left. We took

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off from San Jose. The pilot told us how long the flight was going to be, three hours, blah,

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blah, blah, whatever it is. And it all looked great until about an hour out of Minneapolis.

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And he came on and said, well folks, I've got some bad news. Now you never like to hear

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a pilot say, we've got some bad news, right? He said, while we've been flying, the situation

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in Minneapolis has deteriorated rapidly. Right now they've closed the runways except for

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one of them. It doesn't have the best of the avionics on it, and so they're slow and landing.

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We're going to be in a holding pattern out here in western Minnesota for a while. He

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said, we've got 50 minutes of fuel to play with. Now my wife heard him say, we've got

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50 minutes of fuel. That wasn't quite what he said. He said, we've got 50 minutes that

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we can circle, and then we're going to have to go to our alternate destination, which

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is Bismarck, North Dakota. You don't want to land in Bismarck, North Dakota. So we began

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this process. You've all been through this. It's nothing new. He updated us from time

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to time. But about 40 minutes into that 50 minute window, he came back and I said, well

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folks, here's some good news. He said, there were lots of airplanes in front of us doing

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the same thing we were doing, but they were lower on fuel than we were. They've all gone

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to their alternate destination, which opens up the way for us to potentially get in. And

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sure enough, within 10 minutes, we were on the ground. We landed on the ground about

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the same time our flight to Kansas City was supposed to leave. However, there's a storm,

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remember? And so guess what? That flight is exactly by two hours. Time to stroll through

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that huge airport in Minneapolis, get some dinner, stroll to our gate, and we did that.

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And we sat down about 8.30 and it said, the flight's going to leave at 9.05, but there's

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nobody at the gate. It wasn't long before it said 9.30. And then it said 10.05. And

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then it said 10.30. And I'm beginning to look at my watch. We've got an hour and a half

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flight ahead of us. And about 10.30, somebody showed up at the gate and said, well, folks,

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the good news is that the crew that's taking you to Kansas City has just arrived from North

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Dakota. And they're at the other end of the airport. As soon as they can walk here, then

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we will take off. So sure enough, by 11 o'clock or a little after, we were on the airplane.

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And the pilot came on and she said, yes, she said, we're going to take a little time getting

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out tonight because we've got to de-ice. Never good news. We're going to have to de-ice.

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But it should have put us about 20 minutes behind. So we're looking at our clocks and

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11.20 comes and goes, 11.30, 11.45. Finally, at 12 o'clock, we're still sitting at the

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gate. She came on and said, well, folks, I guess you didn't hear me make the announcement,

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and we didn't, that they were changing a tire on the airplane out there in this blizzard.

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And so it's taken us a little longer to get away from the gate, but we're going now. And

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so we left the gate. We inched, almost literally inched out to where they were doing the de-icing.

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Well, the snow has come down as frozen Elmer's glue. It will not come off the airplane. It's

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taking each airplane 30 minutes to be de-iced. And so by the time we took off, it was after

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two o'clock in the morning, got into Kansas City about 3.30. But the good news is that

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the hotel didn't charge us for that first night because we were so late getting there.

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But it was a hard start to the weekend, but it was a great weekend being with family.

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All of our kids and grandkids were there. And it was the son of my sister who passed

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away a year ago. It's always a very tender and precious time to be together as a family

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and share in that wedding. Thank you, Pastor Day, for filling in last week so capably and

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talking about the Lord's Prayer. I appreciate you doing that.

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We are going to turn in our Bibles this morning back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 where we pick

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up our text in verse 9. This is where we left off the last time we were together. We're

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going to lump some paragraphs together. And I've entitled the message this morning, The

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Hard Side of Holiness. The Hard Side of Holiness.

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Have you heard of Bodine Bakery in San Francisco? They're the ones who make the original San

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Francisco sourdough French bread. Actually, they began their baking operation in 1846.

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I was watching a program on yeast a few weeks ago on one of the cable channels, and they

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talked about the bakery there. And they said that, as you know, they use genuine yeast,

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not Fleischmann's or one of these packaged yeasts, but they actually use a yeast dough,

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a mother dough that goes all the way back into the 1860s. So there is a genetic connection

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between the bread you're eating today and the bread the people have eaten for the last

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150 years from Bodine Bakery. It's great bread. You know, yeast is not a chemical. Yeast is

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a living organism. You knew that, didn't you? It's of the kingdom of fungi. Doesn't that

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make you feel good about eating bread, yeasted bread, of the kingdom of fungi? Sounds like

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some African country, doesn't it? Paul compares yeast to sin. He says a little yeast works

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through the whole batch of dough in verse 6. He's going to pick up on that theme of

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the yeast and the dough and the necessity of living holy lives. Warren Wiersbe finds

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four similarities between yeast and sin. Number one, and this is in your notes, you may want

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to follow that and fill in the blanks, it may be small, but it's potent. It may be small,

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but it's potent, just like arsenic is small, but it's very potent. Yeast is the same way.

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Secondly, it works secretly. You can't see it. Sin is the same way in our lives. We can't

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see it necessarily, but it's at work. Third, it creates corruption. It always does. Yeast

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does its work through corruption. Sin corrupts everyone it touches and everything it touches.

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Third, it spreads. A little bit of yeast spreads throughout the whole loaf, much like a malignant

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cancer will spread if it's not dealt with. That's why Paul wrote this letter. He was

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concerned that their attitude of tolerance toward what God said was wrong was going to

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harm them as God's family and that the church's vitality would be destroyed. Already, he says

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the name of Christ was being disgraced in Corinth because of their attitude about the wrong

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behavior of their member who was in a sinful lifestyle. What did the Corinthians think

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about this man? They were broad-minded about it. They didn't see anything particularly

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wrong. They were oblivious to the shame that embracing this man brought to their church.

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It reminds me of the denomination today that has, as its little slogan, open hearts, open

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minds, open doors. It sounds wonderful on the surface, but what they mean by open minds

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is being tolerant towards what God calls wrong. Tolerance of what God calls wrong is never

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a virtue. It's actually self-condemnation. Paul's appeal is that God's family, those

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for whom the Passover lamb, Jesus, had been sacrificed, that they would forsake the yeast,

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the attitudes of sinfulness that had overtaken them and return to holy living. That's why

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he uses the analogy in the early text here that we studied last time. He says, keep the

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feast with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

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Holiness is vital for us as God's children who live in a pagan world just like the Corinthians

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did, a world that is driven by its lust for pleasure, for possession, for power and prestige.

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But Paul calls these believers to the hard side of holiness. Now our Father is holy.

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Our Father is holy and He tells us, His family, to live in the world without becoming like

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it. We are to live in the world without becoming like the world. We have a hard time making

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that distinction of points. Because you see the hard side of holiness gets into the cracks

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and the closets of our lives, into those places that are out of sight and invisible. The hard

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side of holiness involves the decisions we have to make that are painful, that constrain

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the natural desires that we have, that really mark us out in the world as being different

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from others. The hard side of holiness involves things like who we hang out with, getting

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reparation for wrongs that are done to us, and choosing to act in ways that may be contrary

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to the learned patterns of our past lives. The hard side of holiness. We can't justify

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reviewing in our past patterns by simply saying, that's the way I am, that's my nature. Our

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Father says, look, I am holy, I want you to be holy. I want you to be transformed. I want

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to change you. That's what this text is about. Our text provides guidance for living in a

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pagan world. Let's take a look at the first paragraph. It begins in chapter 5 and verse

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9. He says, I've written to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

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Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy, and swindlers,

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or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this what? This world. He says, but

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now I am writing, now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls

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himself a brother, but is sexually immoral, or greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard,

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or a swindler. With such a man, no not even to eat. What business is it of mine to judge

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those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside,

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but you expel the wicked man from among you. The first thing that Paul says, and I am going

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to sum up these paragraphs, is this. Be careful of your associations. Be careful of your associations.

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Now Paul had already addressed this. He says in a previous letter, it's a letter we don't

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have. It was not inspired by the Holy Spirit and has not been preserved for us. But Paul

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had written them once before. And he had told them to be careful of their associations.

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What Paul had said was, do not associate with sexually immoral people. This was an important

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word for Corinth. Because we have already talked about how broad immorality had been

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entrenched into that city. Paul says don't get mixed up with immoral people. Paul uses

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this term twice here in this text. And then he uses it again in 2 Thessalonians where

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he says, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him.

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Do not associate with him in order that he may feel ashamed. Now the Corinthians had

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misunderstood what Paul meant in the first letter. They thought that he had meant cutting

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off everybody in the world who lives immorally. And yet at the same time they had retained

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as a member of their church a man who was living in gross immorality. You can imagine

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how that looked to the pagans who were watching them. And so a clarification is needed. What

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does it mean? What does Paul mean when he says keep away from, don't associate with

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immoral people? Well Paul clarifies it by saying number one, separation is not isolation

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from the world. He says that would mean leaving the world itself. You can't do that. How would

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you fulfill the great commission? That would actually mean not being like Jesus because

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he came into the world and he actually associated with sinners. Separation is not isolation

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from the world. But secondly he says, separation is an expectation within God's family. Paul

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then goes on to list six specific sins or lifestyles that are of concern to him as he

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thinks about this. He says these are lifestyles that should not be within the family of God.

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He says I expect you to keep away from people who call themselves Christians and who are

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involved in the lifestyle of immorality. We've talked about that. It means sexual looseness

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or greed. Those who are living just to have more things in life. That's their bottom line.

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Stay away from those who claim to be Christians and who are involved in idolatry or in gossip.

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The word gossip here is the word that means abusive language. It means to speak harshly

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to others. To be verbally abusive. He says drunkards. Those who are given to addiction

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whether it be alcohol or drugs. Any other kind of intoxicants. If there's a person who

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is characterized by that, stay away from them. He says if there's someone who claims to be

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a part of the family and who lives a lifestyle of fraud, who plunders other people, who scams

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people, who's a swindler, stay away from that person. He says don't even eat with a professing

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believer who lives that way. I want to tell you something. That is the hard side of holiness.

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That's hard for us to do. Particularly if we have within our circle of friends somebody

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who's living like this. Remember we're not talking about somebody in the world. We're

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talking about somebody in the church. Somebody who's a professing believer. The NIV has

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a helpful note. I think you have it there in your notes. I've copied it for you. Calling

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oneself a Christian while continuing to live an immoral life is reprehensible and degrading

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and gives a false testimony to Christ. If the true Christian has intimate association

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with someone who does this, the non-Christian world may assume that the church approves

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such immoral ungodly living and thus the name of Christ would be dishonored. This is Paul's

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concern. He says God is going to judge the world, those who are outside. That's not your

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responsibility. But He is saying to them and He says to us. It is your responsibility to

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judge those within the church. It's everybody's responsibility to take action in his own life

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to keep away from Christians who make chronic choices to lifestyles of sin. The hard side

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of holiness is just this. Be careful with whom you associate. Now we have to throw up

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some cautions at this point lest it be misunderstood. God has not called us to be censorious or

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judgmental of other people. A spirit of pride or arrogance. God has not either called us

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to be careless about this. There is a balance. And when we see a brother who is making sinful

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choices, we are to go to that brother and seek to restore him. But if that brother continues

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to make those choices time after time and there is a lifestyle this way, then we are

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not to associate with him any longer. I think we should always do this also after having

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examined ourselves first, right? To make sure we get what's in our own eye out before we

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go to our brother and deal with him. God's disposition is to bless his family but He

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demands holiness as a condition. This is the hard side of holiness. But it's not all that

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Paul wants to say about it. There is another issue. And we find it beginning in verse 1

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of chapter 6. It says, if any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before

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the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints

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will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge

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trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of

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this life? Therefore if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even

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men of little account in the church. I say this to shame you. Is it possible there is

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nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead one brother

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goes to law against another and this in front of unbelievers. The very fact that you have

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lawsuits among you means that you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather

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be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead you yourselves cheat and do wrong and you

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do this to your brothers. Let me summarize this paragraph this way. The hard side of

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holiness means to be agreeable to settle disputes in God's family, within God's family. Now

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Paul introduced the subject of judging in chapter 5 verse 12. And so now he goes on

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to an actual problem that was in Corinth. This is not hypothetical. Believers were suing

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one another in Corinth. The problem was that God's children were seeking legal remedy

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for what was apparently petty offenses. They were bringing these things to a civil court.

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These are not criminal things. Now these are civil offenses that had taken place. And

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they are bringing these things to the world's legal system. These are not spiritual issues.

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These are material issues of some sort. Paul calls them the things pertaining to this life.

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The word is pragma where we get our word pragmatics. He is thinking about practical, petty, financial

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kinds of things that had happened between believers. When Paul says this he is not belittling

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civil courts. There is certainly a place for them. He is not disrespecting them. But he

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is saying that believers ought to settle agreeably between themselves and if necessary let the

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church participate in coming to that agreement. Someone may say, well so what? So what if

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another believer takes a man to court? Takes a brother to court? Paul says there are four

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consequences of that. First of all it degrades your testimony. It degrades your testimony.

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Verse 1 verse 6 says imagine how unbelievers will interpret your actions. It degrades your

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testimony among the pagans. Number 2 it really exposes your greed he says. You are cheating

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and doing wrong. The word cheat there means to take unfair financial advantage of another

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person. This was far more about money than it was justice. I have known believers who

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have been of this mindset. Not necessarily against other believers but every little chance

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they got they sued looking for thousands of dollars to be given to them by an insurance

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company or someone else. Jesus said you know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit

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adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. The very same word

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that Paul uses here. Do not cheat others financially. Number 3 it dishonored their position. He

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says look Corinthians you have been seated with Jesus Christ. You are someday going to

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judge the world. Now we have other texts in scripture where this is said that we are going

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to sit with Christ on thrones and participate in his judgment of the world. But he also

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says you are going to judge angels. This is the only reference that I know of to this

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in the Bible. Is he talking about holy angels who are going to be rewarded for service?

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Is he talking about judgment of demonic spirits? I do not know. But he does say you are seated

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with Jesus Christ and someday you are even going to judge angels. Can you take care of

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petty things among yourselves? If you have been appointed to that kind of judgment eschatologically

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in the future can you handle the pragmatics of life right now among yourselves? You are

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dishonoring your position by doing this. Thirdly he says it defeats your case anyway. He says

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as soon as you go to court you are already defeated. There are no losers. No winners

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rather. You are all losers. Losers of respect. Losers of fellowship. Losers of your testimony

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among the pagans. And so Paul gives them a proposal. It is an alternative way of dealing

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with it. He says first of all settle these things with arbitration among yourselves.

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Verse 5, the last part of the verse. In fact he even uses a bit of sarcasm here. He says

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find even somebody who does not know very much in the church. He should be qualified

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to settle these kinds of things. Settle it with arbitration. Find somebody to judge between

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you instead of taking it to the civil courts. And then he says this is the hard side of

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holiness remember. Suffer loss if necessary. Now Paul is not suggesting that there be some

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kind of a separate court system set up here. He is saying that the court should appoint

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mediators. And when the decision is rendered it is better to experience loss on your part

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if need be so that harmony is maintained in the church and Christ's testimony is maintained

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in the world. Now the basic problem here is that they were demanding their own rights

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rather than yielding them up to God. Do you ever struggle with that? I do. I want what

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I want. I want justice for how I have been offended. I want my case to win. Paul says

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you can't approach holiness that way. You need to yield your rights up to God. Now this

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all raises a question. It is a question I have been asked a number of times. I am sure

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Dave you have been asked this question and we have all faced it in our own thought process

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when we come to this text. Is it always wrong for a believer to go to court? Is it always

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wrong for a believer to go to court? Chuck Swindoll has four guidelines to help us with

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this question. The answer basically is no. It is not always wrong. I have heard people

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say that. I disagree with it. I respect their right to their opinion. But I think Swindoll

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helps us here by giving us four guidelines that we need to think through before we would

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go to court. Number one, here is a guideline. When the dispute with a fellow Christian is

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not related to the local church. In other words, if it is a believer who lives in another

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city or goes to another church, it is not easy for one church. Now maybe the two churches

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can work together to bring arbitration. But that may open the door for the necessity of

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a lawsuit. Secondly, when the motive is not pride or greed but justice. We have to really

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check our hearts on this. It is easy to deceive ourselves. Third guideline, when the issue

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does not bring shame to the church of Jesus Christ in the eyes of the world. And fourth,

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when you are absolutely confident that it is the will of God and have complete peace

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in the inner person. So if you can pass those guidelines, you may choose to proceed. That

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is what Swindoll is saying. I think essentially he is right. But the hard side of holiness

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is this. Settle disputes whenever possible outside of court even if it means loss. That

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is not easy. Especially if you are the loser. But Paul is not finished. He wants to go on

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and talk more about the hard side of holiness. He says in verse 9, do you not know that the

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wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, he says. Neither the sexually

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immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves

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nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of

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God. Strong, strong verses. And he says, and that is what some of you were. But you were

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washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by

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the spirit of our God. Here is how I would summarize this text. Be mindful of the kingdom

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to which you belong. We live in a world in which there are two kingdoms that are at work

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opposing each other. The kingdom of darkness that controls the world system and the kingdom

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of God. Those who belong to God's kingdom are called out of the kingdom of darkness

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to a lifestyle of distinction and holiness. God calls us to live differently than our

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culture. And in these verses he brings about a contrast. Do you notice that? He talks first

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about the lifestyle of one who is in the kingdom of darkness. These are those who will not

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inherit the kingdom of God. They are lost. Now they may get saved. But up to this point

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these are the lifestyles of those who are not in salvation. They are not in God's kingdom.

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And he gives us a specific list. Do you notice it? If you compare this list with the one

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earlier in chapter 5 you will notice some overlap. There are four additional ones that

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he adds to this list. Specifically he says adultery which is a form of sexual immorality

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but Paul nails it. He calls it out and he specifies it. He mentions male prostitution

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which was very common in the city of Corinth and particularly related to the worship of

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their gods. He speaks about homosexual behavior whether it be male or female. Very common

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in the Roman Empire. I read somewhere this week that all but one of the Roman emperors

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practiced homosexuality. That was Rome. Paul says that is the lifestyle of someone who

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is in the kingdom of darkness. Then he talks about theft. Have you ever heard of kleptomaniacs?

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Kleptomaniac is someone who is unable to control himself from stealing. We get our word kleptomaniac

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from this Greek word klepti. It's those who steal by trick rather than by force. So Paul

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outlines the kinds of lifestyles that belong to the world out of which God has called us.

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Now he gives in contrast the transformation of one who is in the kingdom of God. He says

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some of you were these very things. I think we would all have to say if we are honest

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then we ought to be honest. That we are somewhere in that group. If not in thought, indeed.

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We can say we were some of these things ourselves. But Paul goes on to say you were washed. You

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were sanctified. You were justified. Anybody want to say amen to that? God has washed

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us completely. He has cleansed us from the defilement of past lifestyle. It no longer

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is a stain on us. He says you were sanctified. God set you apart. He made you holy. You were

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justified. God declared you now through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross to be

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righteous in His sight. He has cleared you legally before the law. Now it's very clear

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from the text that all of this was true about the Corinthians as it is true about us in

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the family of God today. We still struggle with what was our past. Just like they did.

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Some of them were beginning to fall back into the shadows of what they had been saved out

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of. You see the past patterns that were cleansed of, the guilt of them, those patterns are

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still imprinted on us. And so God takes us through a process of cleansing and of holiness.

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He makes us new people. He transforms us little by little over time. There's an old hymn that

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we used to sing, I'm pressing on the upward way. New heights I'm gaining every day. The

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point is that the journey that we're on as God's family is a journey toward the goal

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of perfection. But we aren't there yet. Just like the Corinthians. And that's why He has

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to write this to all of us. And He says, look, your Father is holy. Please remember He's

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called you to be in the world without being like the world. Here's what the world is like.

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God set you apart for something better. He's destined you for the throne of Jesus Christ.

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He wants to clean up your life now so you can get out of those dark patterns from the

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past. He wants to continue and make you a new person so that day by day, little by little,

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you're growing toward the goal. That's what God wants from us. I close with the statement

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that you see at the bottom. Our Father calls me as a child in His family to come out of

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the world so that I can go back to the dark kingdom as His light. Would you say that with

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me together? Our Father calls me as a child in His family to come out of the world so

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that I can go back to the dark kingdom as His light. If we don't come out, we can't

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go back. If we're not becoming light in the Lord, we can't be light in a dark kingdom.

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And so God calls us to holiness. God calls us to change. God calls us to transformation.

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And it's a wonderful process. It's a wonderful thing. Are you on that journey? I hope you

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are. If you are still a part of a lifestyle that God condemns, and you've never confessed

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that to the Lord, would you bring it to Him today? And say, Jesus, You know what I am.

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You know the pattern of my life. You know the lifestyle I've lived. But I come to You

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confessing that, that I receive You as my Lord and Savior. You know what? At that moment,

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you'll be washed. You'll be sanctified by Jesus Christ. You'll be justified in the eyes

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of God. And He will begin working in your life to make you a new creature. And if you

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did that some years ago, forsake the shadows. Turn your back on them and keep walking with

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Him. Let's pray together. Father, I pray the holiness of life, cleanness of life, Christ-likeness

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of life, will be something that each of us in your family will reflect a little more

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every day. And when we stumble and we fall backwards as we all do, Lord, give us quick

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confession of that. Don't let us walk on in darkness. But bring us to the point of confession

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so that we can come back, walk with You, and know greater holiness. Lord, we cry out to

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You for holiness in our lives this day. Let's stand together, please, and let's sing this

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song together.