Sin in the Body | 1 Corinthians 5:1-5

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,

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

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

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

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.