SERMON NOTES: “THE LIMITS OF TOLERANCE”
Do not tolerate evil:
1. For T_heir_____ sake
a. Handed over to Satan
i. How long (Is it final)?
ii. What happens next?
iii. Who falls into this category?
b. If we refuse to exercise discipline, we are refusing to exercise love.
c. Enabling vs. Loving
2. For Y_our_____ sake
a. Who was Paul really angry with?
b. Don’t be a follower (Sheep)
c. Don’t be deluded (Father of Lies)
d. Don’t be contaminated (Leaven)
3. For C_hrist’s_____ sake
a. God’s mercy in the Passover
b. God can abide sin, but sin can’t abide God
Title: The Limits of Tolerance
Text: 1 Cor 4:21 – 5:13.
MP: Do not tolerate sin.
FCF: God is too holy to allow sin in your
Sing: Abide With Me…
Outline:
Intro – Appeasement of Germany: 3/7/36 Saarland / Rhineland, 3/12/38 Anschluss (Austria), 9/30/38 – parts of what is now the Czech Republic, leading Neville C. to declare this is a triumph for “peace in our time.” How short lived that peace was.
11/9/38 – Kristalnacht, 3/15/38 the rest of Czechoslovakia, 3/23 – Memelland (Lith.), and of course, on 9/1st, Poland.
Evil must not be tolerated, it only grows.
In Corinth, the Hegemon was less overt, but no less evil…
Do not tolerate sin –
1. For Their Sake (v5)
a. Enabling – Matt’s story
b. Being handed over to Satan –
i. isn’t eternal death
ii. it’s facing THE ACCUSER (reality check!)
iii. kills not the flesh itself but the fleshly nature that Gal 2.20 talks about
c. Understand – we’re only talking inside the church
d. Purpose is restoration – 2 cor 2: 5 – 11
e. Withdrawl of the Passover lamb protection / Exodus
2. For Your Sake (v2 / 6)
a. Why are you proud? You’re only proud if you consider the praise important
b. Isa 5:20 – Woe to them that call good evil and evil good – it’s confusing
c. A little leavening
3. For Christ’s Sake (v8)
a. Symbolism of the Pashcal lamb – He’s Holy,
b. He doesn’t abide sin
c. Holy cannot abide sin – b/c sin cannot stand in its presence.
His holiness is actually proof of his love – We are the ones who melt in his presence, not the other way around. He would have us restore relationship, but when we advocate that which is displeasing, it’s bad….
It started when the Nazis invaded a little part of Germany. It was called the Saarland, and on March 7th, 1936, they took moved into the Saarland against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. But they did it on a Saturday. The French were too busy to respond, and the British thought that perhaps the terms had been a bit too harsh anyway, and so when the Nazis made their first military move, nobody gave it hardly a second a thought.
Two years later, it was Adolf Hitler’s country of birth – Austria. Anscluss, he said – we should not be divided! The world began to take note, but they were tired of war and busy with their own problems. There was no protest. Of course, now with Austria part of the Nazi Empire, the next logical action was the Sudetenland – a part of the Czech Republic border Germany. This time, the Prime Minister of England, Neville Chamberlain was proud of his “diplomacy.” He boasted of the Munich Agreement that sold out his fellow Europeans. I believe in this document that contains both the signatures of Herr Hitler and myself, he said, this is peace for our times.
It’s called appeasement – give your enemy what he wants, the theory goes, and he’ll leave you alone. But, as Winston Churchill once said, you can always appease a lion by letting yourself be eaten.
Indeed, the lion is never satisfied. Less than 6 weeks later, the Nazis moved against the Jews during the Kristalnacht. Six months later, they invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, and a week after that, parts of Lithuania were “returned” to the Nazi horde. It was not until September 1st, 1939, when Germany began its blitz through Poland that Europe finally agreed: evil must never be tolerated. It must be opposed.
Here in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is not facing a genocidal mad-man, but he is confront evil. Worse yet, he is confronting those who insist that evil behavior is at very least something that should be “tolerated,” maybe it’s even good. Sure, they said, we have a guy in our church who is sleeping his father’s wife – but look at how forgiving, how tolerant we are. We’re so loving, and isn’t God love?
Paul has an answer – yes, God is love. But for their sake, for your sake, for Christ’s sake – that love needs to be understood in terms of his holiness.
Don’t Tolerate Evil for their sake
It is really easy to read this passage as a vitriolic diatribe seemingly lusting after the expulsion of this evil. I am sure it has been read many times as such. But I don’t think it’s that. Indeed, the way that I see Paul here, he’s crying for a change.
Look at what he says in verse 5. Hand this guy over to Satan – that just means hand him over to the Accuser – so that his flesh will be destroyed but his spirit will live.
Now, Paul is not talking about the Like of Fire or eternal judgment or anything like that. He uses this expression in other places, and what he’s saying is: let this guy learn the hard way so that he doesn’t need to learn it forever.
Paul is concerned that we stay with the Lord. He is concerned with our spirit. In Galatians 2:20, Paul is very proud to say, I have been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Paul wants us all to put to death the flesh that kills. It’s that fleshly nature inside of us that causes us to choose death.
No, Paul would rather that we turn to the Spirit, so that when the Day of Lord comes, we’ll choose life. Even in the here and now, the habit of choosing life is good for us. It builds up these Temples that we call our bodies.
Hebrews 12 is pretty clear – My son, don’t despise the discipline of the Lord because the Lord disciplines the one he loves.
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul gives some specific instruction about what happens after discipline. – We take them back after they’ve learned, and we comfort people whom the Lord has ‘loved’ pretty severely. Let me tell you what happens after you’ve “expelled the immoral brother.”
The majority of you have imposed a severe enough punishment on that person. So now forgive and comfort him. Such distress could overwhelm someone like that if he’s not forgiven and comforted. That is why I urge you to assure him that you love him. .. . I don’t want Satan to outwit us. After all, we are not ignorant about Satan’s scheming.
2 Corinthians 2:5-11 (GW)
The point is to get to repentance. Godly grief leads to repentance, and repentance leads to life. That’s in 2 Corinthians 7, by the way. Godly repentance is life. It’s that simple.
If we refuse to exercise discipline, we are refusing to love that person enough to help them get to godly repentance. We are refusing to see them learn how to choose life. For their sake, sometimes people must learn. It means loving people enough to stand up to their sin.
Some of you may remember that my little brother finally graduated from college after 6 years this May. When he came home, he refused to look for a job. Point blank, wouldn’t do it. Nope, he was going to follow his dreams and make money – get this – by playing online poker.
He was totally delusional on this. He was convinced that he was going to make money playing poker. He had bought the lie. Well, to make a long story short, my parents enabled him to do this. They let him use their computer, and my brother just kept playing till all hours of the night. He’ll be the first to tell you, he was getting compulsive and downright nasty. He wouldn’t even talk to Rachel when she came over, and everybody talks to Rachel!
Well, finally my parents demanded that he move downstairs. Since I’m the computer guy in the family, they asked me to set up his computer downstairs. How an online poker player is supposed to work if he can’t set up his own network, I don’t know, but they asked me.
Now, this where my wife gets the credit. I was going to do it, and she said no. She was sick of Matt’s behavior, and she was sick of me bailing him out. I had promised Susan that I wouldn’t be Matt’s enabler. So, I had to go over and tell my parents – and I love my parents – that I just couldn’t be a party to enabling illegal activity.
“Illegal?” they asked. “Yes. Online gambling is illegal in the United States.” Congress just passed the bill, even if Barney Frank is trying to get it overturned now, it is the law of the land.
That was new to them. Matt had convinced them that it was totally legal. It took some doing, but they shut him down.
And you know what? My brother is a much nicer person now. Notice, my parents needed me and I needed Susan to finally put her foot down. It’s so much easier to enable a sinner than it is to stand up – but sometimes that’s exactly what a sinner needs to stop.
Paul is saying the same thing here – for their sake, you need to tell them to stop. Sin is deadly. Sin is destructive. They need to stop. And if you’re not going to do it for their sake – out of love – then Paul says something else. You need to stop tolerating evil for your sake.
Don’t Tolerate Evil for your Sake
You will notice in what I read earlier that Paul’s real anger isn’t really for this guy in Corinth. He never even talks to this guy directly. No, Paul is angry with his church, and he’s got good reason to be angry.
Honestly, when Matt was trapped by the gambling bug, I was less angry with him than I was with my parents for enabling that. Matt was caught by his impulses. My parents were caught in what they thought was love – but it wasn’t really – it was just a fear that they’d somehow lose their son’s affection. Well, I know Matt better than that. He may make bad choices, but we both know my parents are better than that.
As I said just a moment ago, Paul’s really angry with his church. What are you guys doing? Why are you proud of a guy whose behavior is so bad that even the pagan Gentiles don’t do it?
I’m sure somebody was thinking – oh look, we’re just practicing radical grace and forgiveness. But forgiveness – repentance – begins with the assumption that someone is acknowledging their need for God. When we continue in sin, when we boast of sin, we’re not relying on God. We’re relying on a cosmic get-out-of-jail free card. That’s a gift of God, don’t get me wrong – but it is the gift, and not the giver. God is even better than his gifts.
Paul also knows that we’re sheep. I hope you know this verse – All we like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way.
Sheep are followers. Even when we think we’re being bold and self-actualized – being unique in our interpretations – we’re actually just following the crowd. Every time I hear some kid say, “Be yourself!” I ask myself, “I wonder who taught him to say that.” I know who told me to “Be Christ.” And I trust him more.
Well, when it comes to sin, we’re all sheep. We follow what others do. How many of you shop on Sundays? Fifty years ago you probably wouldn’t have dreamed of doing it – because everybody “knew” that Sunday was holy. Things have changed, right? And now you really can work 24-7. So much for God’s gift of rest.
I also suspect that Paul has Isaiah 5:20 in the back of his mind. Woe to you who call evil good and good evil. I’ve heard it said sometimes that we live in an age that is going to force God to give Sodom and Gomorrah and apology. Hebrews 10 says:
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. … 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Sin has a way of deluding good people into doing bad things. I do not consider myself so smart that I can outwit the Father of Lies. I don’t want the punishment, the judgment that is the natural result of being outside of God’s protective will.
When Paul says, ‘a little leavening works through the entire dough,’ he’s not giving baking secrets. He’s actually beginning to talk about the most famous Jewish festival of them all – Passover. And talk about a metaphor of God’s protective will.
If you know Passover, you know that the first Jews do is get rid of all the yeast – all the leavening in the house. They even go so far as to “sell” anything they own for the week so that there is no yeast in the house. For that week, yeast becomes a symbol for sin, and they want it all out.
Now, you only need a little bit of yeast to make a lot of dough rise. Put just a bit into anything, and it’ll all start rising. Well, sin is like that too. Just a little bit can spoil it all.
When Paul is saying a little bit of leaven works through the whole dough, he’s saying, look – sin is fire. For your sake, I don’t want you to get burned. Don’t follow the example of sin! For their sake, let them learn! For your sake, I’d don’t want to fall. And for Christ’s sake, there’s something better!
Don’t tolerate evil for Christ’s sake
Christ our Passover has already been sacrificed for us. Let us therefore keep the feast.
This feast is a festive, holy gathering. God himself is there. And God cannot abide sin. Actually, let me take that back. We know that God can abide sin – he’s already taken that sin upon himself and killed it all. It’s sin that cannot abide God.
When the Angel of Death passed over Egypt, it killed only the firstborn in all the houses where the blood hadn’t been sprinkled. Modern people look at that and say, ‘What a bloody God.’ Personally, I look at that and say, ‘What a merciful God – to leave so many alive – even when justice would have demanded that all Egypt pay for the slavery they had put the Jews under.
When the Nazis committed genocide against the Jews, it was a whole country that collectively had blood on their hands. It was a mercy – and a right one – that so few were convicted for it.
God’s holiness is such that when we see it, we immediately know what his justice demands.
As much as I joke about the Ark of the Covenant being the thing that makes Nazi’s faces melt, it’s actually a good image of what I think happens. He is a refining fire. He strips away everything that cannot stand in his presence. And in my sin, there isn’t a thing to stand on.
But God’s love is such that he says: You can be more. I can make you stand in the presence of my glory BLAMELESS with great joy [Jude 24 – 25]. Your love can be such that you will say, ‘hey – God is coming. Don’t get arrogant – Just because you can’t see his presence doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I love you enough to make you unwilling to settle for your sin. Even if that means standing up to you, maybe even taking away our mutual presence – if it means we can be together for eternity, then it means everything else in the world.
After all, Jesus did it for us once, too.
I’m sure Paul has Isaiah 5:20 in the back of his mind. Woe to you who call evil good and good evil. I’ve heard it said sometimes that we live in an age that is going to force God to give Sodom and Gomorrah and apology.
Hebrews 10 says:
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I for one still fear God. I know what I deserve. I don’t want to
Verse 2 is clear – There’s this evil, and you are arrogant about it. You’re proud! You’re boasting of evil. What is wrong with you? What’s wrong with you is pretty simple. Your brains have fallen out. If you understood how bad this was, you wouldn’t be proud, you’d be in tears.
Woe to
Maybe, he says, you’ve forgotten because I’m not here, that you are a church. You are holy. You represent Christ. And the last time I checked, Christ didn’t tolerate sin. Last week we talked about that some. He wasn’t very tolerant of the money changers who were ripping people off. And even if he didn’t condemn the woman at the well, he still told her, “Go and sin no more.”
People want to turn Jesus into some kind of hippie who was a counter-cultural rebel. Well, he was counter-cultural, but only insofar as he was counter to the culture of sin. Jesus was all about maintaining holiness. Get clean inside and out, he’d say.
…
This isn’t right, he says – don’t tolerate it for your own sake. And if not for your own sake, don’t tolerate evil for the sake of the person doing it. And finally he says, if you love Christ, you cannot tolerate evil for his sake. So, the choice is very simple, he says: Don’t tolerate evil. Separate from it. Oppose it. Overcome it with good.
…
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Meditation Psalm 94: 1 – 6
Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Opening Hymn #648
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
Welcome & Announcements
Morning Prayer
*Hymn #655
“Sanctuary”
*Responsive Lesson [See Right]
*Hymn #657
“Cleanse Me (Search Me, O God)”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
*Scripture 1 Corinthians 4:21 – 5: 13
Sermon
“The Limits of Tolerance”
*Invitation Hymn #337
“Nothing but the Blood of Jesus”
*Benediction
*Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ our Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE LESSON
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
But keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.
For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Gal 6:1;Mt 18:15-17;Is 5:20;2 Cor 2:5-8;Heb 12:5-6;Mt 18:21-22;2 Co 7:10; Gal 2:20
PRAYER LIST
Cindy & Lee Thompson, Martha Puryear, Susan Schulz,
Warren Lee, Irene Griffith, Cory Keely, Debbie Grigsby,
Jeff Coleman, Zane, Bruce, Steve
The Anglican & Episcopalian Churches, Long Branch Church
1 CORINTHIANS 4:21 – 5:13
21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
