Sermon Brief
Date Written: April 25, 2014
Date Preached: April 27, 2014
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series in 1 Corinthians
Sermon Title: Called to Holiness! Know What You Are!
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 [ESV]
Essence of the Text: Paul wanted the Corinthian church to know what they were in Christ… called out to be separate…to be holy!
Essence of the Sermon: The message of Scripture calls for all believers to know what they are in Christ… we are called out of this world to be separate FROM the world and to live a holy life IN this world.
Objective of the Sermon: We must make the choice as beleivers to know what we are as a Christian! We are called out by God, to live FOR Him and be obedient TO Him
Introduction:
When looking at this passage we can see that Paul is calling these believers to realize not only WHO they were in Christ but also WHAT they are in Christ… WHAT they are called to be… HOW they are called to live!
Paul saw the church as a ‘holy community of faith’… those who are redeemed by the grace of Jesus! Paul also knew that sexual sin corrupts that ‘holy community’… it does NOT only affect the persons involved in the sexual sin, but the community as a whole!
In other words, IF we are professing believers then we have a responsibilty to be WHAT we are called to be and that is HOLY!
Scripture tells us to ‘be holy because I am holy’… the term here for holy is NOT a term that means super spiritual or perfect and without sin… HOLY here means we have been set aside and separated from the rest of the world by Christ because of what He has done on the Cross of Calvary!
Holy here means that God is OTHER than us and we are called to be OTHER than the world! We are to be as ‘other’ to the world as God is ‘other’ to us!
What we are supposed to be in Christ is holy… we can see holy also as pure… We are HOLY in Christ and IN Christ we are PURE before God! Our holiness is because of Christ and our PURITY emanates from what Christ has done!
We need to understand that even though we may NOT think it to be true…purity in today’s society is still a thing that is sought after!
Did you know that in 2007, the Canadian gov’t authorized the production of a very special gold coin. It measured roughly 20 inches in diameter and they were roughly 1ΒΌ inches thick and weighed 220lbs! The gold with which they were made had a purity of 99.999%... thus the term 5 nines gold!
The face value of this coin was $1 million Canadian dollars. Now that’s a coin you wouldn’t be carrying around in your pocket and don’t try to put it in the soda machine...[show picture here]
Why did they do this? The plan was to showcase the technological breakthrough that allowed the Canadian mint, to achieve a never-before level of purity – 99.999% pure. In other words the gold used for this coin had less than 10 parts per million of any impurities.
Like I was saying, I believe that purity is appealing within our world today! There is something appealing to this world about the purity of things we possess or things we take into our bodies…
We constantly seek possessions that are considered ‘pure’ or ‘unblemished’ such as pure gold or an unblemished collectible.
We proclaim the health benefits of NOT polluting our bodies with impurities. . .so we seek to only eat and drink what is pure… pure water, pure or unblemished foods and such…
The irony here is that humanity places a very HIGH importance on "purity" within the physical realm! That is…until it comes to matters of conscience… or to things spiritual…
When we begin to address matters of conscience and things within the spiritual realm then then the idea of ‘purity’ become clouded and vague. Many see spiritual purity as something that is ‘outdated’ or ‘narrow-minded’ and for the most part that is rejected by the world…
The sad news about this is that this attitude is also prevalent within the membership of our churches! Why is it we seek purity for our physical health and purity in what we own or possess BUT we ignore and downplay the importance of purity within our spiritual walk?
The Importance Of Holiness v1-8
Here Paul is addressing a very specific incident of sexual sin, but the overall implication for us today is that this can be seen as a teaching on the very broad subject of holiness or purity as believers!
Paul says in v1
“…it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife…”
Basically a church member had begun a sexual relationship with his step-mother, which is forbidden by God
[show Lev 18:8-ESV] “…You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness…”
I believe if this had been the man’s mother Paul would have mentioned this specifically and so we can presume that this was the man’s stepmother.
We don’t know if the father was alive or dead… we don’t know if he had divorced this woman or not… we don’t know if this man had married his former stepmother… all we know is that he was with the woman his father had married!
Paul knew that the church had NOT done anything to admonish or rebuke this man or woman for their actions. It is implied that he was still an active and welcomed member of the church and involved in church activities just like ANY other church member would be…
Paul is outraged by this lack of action on the part of the church and its leaders. Paul calls this a sin, but the church in Corinth seems to be ok with the situation as if it was NO big deal. Paul tells them in v2 that their hearts are so arrogant:
“…and you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn…”
Their attitude baffled Paul! What he believed to be cause for grief, mourning, confession and repentance… the church in Corinth was treating it as if it was no big deal… this did not seem to be an issue for them!
However, Paul saw this as we should see this…it was SIN! The sin mentioned is sexual sin...Paul used the Greek word por-nee-ah and that is where we get our English word for pornography…
The same attitude is prevalent in the church today… as there are those who profess Christ as Savior and they spend the 1st 6 days of the week sowing wild oats, BUT they come to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.
There is a lie from the Enemy that many believers have fallen prey to and it says, “Hey, live like you want, live however you choose to live, be comfortable…”
BUT when we treat our faith “comfortably” it leads to flirtation with the world and when we flirt with the world we begin to be absorbed BY the world!
That is NOT what God desires for us as His children… God calls believers to higher standard…a standard of holiness and purity!
We MUST understand something here, holy living is NOT easy! We cannot just ‘will’ ourselves to being holy! It takes a total dependance on Christ and surrender to His will!
There is no shortcuts or detours on the road to holiness. Jesus came to the resurrection, but it was only THRU the cross, not around it! There was NO shortcut to holiness for Jesus and there is NO shortcut to holiness for us!
We cannot make the mistake that our efforts will lead us to holiness… or purity… We cannot know holiness on our own…
Holiness is not the way we get to Jesus…BUT RATHER Jesus is the only way we can get to the holiness He calls us to…”
Here Paul was calling the church in Corinth to get back to a submission to Christ that leads to holy living… get back to allowing God to set them apart for His purposes, not for the purposes of their own desires!
We are free in Christ and we have been delivered from sin’s bondage…in other words why would you want to go back to being enslaved by sin?
Paul tells this church, “You have an impurity among you! You must address that impurity and cast it out!” Here we find Paul once again asserting the Apostolic authority Christ had bestowed on him!
He tells them that they need to gather together and take care of this issue immediately! You need to do this just as if I was right there with you! He tells them to treat his letter as his presence among them at their meeting and for them to take the steps necessary to rid this impurity from their fellowship!
We know Paul’s heart was for the health and kingdom success of this church, but in v5 we see that Paul was also concerned for this man whom had fallen into sin… look what he says: “…deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord…”
This verse has caused a great deal of discussion over the years and has been misinterpreted by MANY… but we need to understand that this was a case of an unrepentant believer!
This was a case of a church member willfully living in a sinful lifestyle and openly refusing to repent! And the leaders of the church simply stood by and did NOT do or say anything to hold this man accountable to the holiness we are called to in Christ Jesus!
I believe when we see it like this we can begin to understand how divisive this would be for the family of God! We can begin to understand why Paul was so concerned about it!
Can you imagine how it would divide YOUR family if you have one child who was constantly flaunting disobedience and who was totally unrepentant…
How divisive would it be if you let them do what they wanted and live under your roof…what would your other children think? How do think it would affect the unity of your family?
So Paul instructed them to do something akin to what we would call ‘tough love’ in today’s language! Paul basically is telling the church leaders to cut ties with this person if he is unwilling to repent and allow the folly of his sin to take him where it takes him…
Paul was basically saying here that they had to let this man discover on his own how awful his sin was…so that he would come to true repentance. This was done to preserve the fellowship…but also to issue discipline to the unrepentant believer!
But this church had NOT done this, instead they were bragging on how wonderful their fellowship was… so Paul issues a stern command to STOP bragging because their example was a actually a travesty to God and a terrible witness for Christ!
In v6-7… Paul tells them stop bragging warns them to clean up their act or it is going to cost them!
“…do you not know a little leven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened
When just a bit of yeast gets into the dough… it ALL rises! So what Paul was saying here is that when a little sin creeps into the church… the entire fellowship is corrupted until it is purged from the fellowship!
Then Paul gives an illustration to drive home what he wants them to see…
“…for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therfore celebrate the festival, NOT with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth…”
This was a picture of the Passover celebration… a celebration of deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The passover lamb was sacrificed and the blood of the lamb on the doorpost caused the angel of death to ‘pass over’ their house… delivering them from death!
BUT also… once this happened they were freed from the bondage of sin and delivered OUT of that bondage and God told them to celebrate this deliverance with the Passover celebration… they were to eat the same meal they ate when they were delivered… a meal that contained UNLEAVENED bread!
The households of Isrealites in Egypt threw out the yeast they had in their homes so that there was NO chance the bread they had for their meal was unleavened!
The ‘leaven’ was used here to represent all that held Israel captive… Paul uses this as a word picture to illustrate that all that had held these people captive was the sin of their past… sin that they needed to ‘throw out’… if there was sin in the church it needed to be cast out!
Christ has come… He is the sacrificial lamb in whose blood we have redemption and deliverance from sin! Paul is calling this fellowship to not sully what Christ has done by introducing sin back into the fellowship! Cast it out!
The Importance Of Dealing with Sin v9-13
Holiness/Purity is VITAL to the Christian and to any Christian fellowship and here Paul wants this fellowship to know and understand that holiness requires action!
When sin is present, holiness cannot abide… sin must be expelled for holiness to reign! Paul clarifies that this is NOT the first time he has addressed them about holiness, look at v9: “…I wrote you in my letter…”
This former letter had instructed the believers in Corinth to NOT fellowship/associate with anyone who professes Christ but yet remains in a sinful lifestyle…especially a lifestyle of sexual sin por-nee-ah … the church had obviously mistaken what Paul was saying.
They had cut off all contact with those outside the church because they were sinners.. but Paul says that those OUTSIDE the church are who we are called to reach!
Paul’s admonition had been to cut off fellowship with those INSIDE the church who insist on living an unrepentant lifestyle that mocks God’s commandments! If a believer thinks he or she is above the command of God, then you HAVE to cut off fellowship with them!
But this does not apply to those outside the grace of Jesus… in fact our entire focus in this world is to reveal to the sinful lost that Jesus can take away their sin and save their soul!
But for those who have professed Christ in their lives it was quite a different approach according to Paul. Here Paul insists that they disassociate themselves with those who profess Christ but live in an openly sinful lifestyle!
The breaking of fellowship was not for punative reasons but were for reasons of redemption as it sought the offending party to confess and repent! If their Christian fellowship was taken from them, who could they turn to?
Most, if not ALL, 1st century believers had to cut ties with their families, some with their businesses when they accepted Christ… they were practically shunned by those outside the church.
So Paul believed that if the church shuns those believers living in sin that they would feel alone and that they would desire to reconnect with the fellowship!
So how can this apply to us as a fellowship? Well what Paul is speaking to here is the same thing Jesus portrayed in Matt 18 in dealing with conflict and sin…
We have a model to follow when sin enters the church. That model is what Jesus taught in Matt 18. When we follow that model, the church remains healthy and focused on Christ!
When we do NOT follow this model… the church becomes distracted and its focus is no longer Christ, but is on the issue at hand!
People as individual believer AND as a corporate fellowship we are called to a holy and pure life! This does NOT mean we are perfect but it does mean we accept and seek to live as one who is ‘called out by God’… as one who submits to the authority of Christ in their lives!
There is NO where in Scripture that tells you that you can live a life without the action or inaction of sin penetrating your life… but Scripture DOES tell us that we CAN live without the guilt and consequence of sin because Jesus has and will forgive us of our sin.
In this life sin will always be present, but that does not excuse us from seeking to live out a life that is holy and pure before God. Romans 12:1-2 state:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
God tells us in v1 of this Romans passage just how we can be ‘holy’ and pure before God! We place our bodies as HIS disposal, literally sacrifice our bodies in worship to Him! This is pleasing to God… this allows God to set us apart…
And then once we have presented ourselves in holy submission Paul shares that certain things will happen!
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
He says don’t allow the world to shape and mold you… but allow God to transform your mind to His will… His will that is perfect!
This is what Paul was calling the Corinthians to do… to submit their mind to God’s will and be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
They had been led astray by false teaching and now their actions had begun to bring shame on Christ… but Paul was calling them back to the truth… to the foundation… and he tells them to allow the truth and the foundation of the Gsopel message to fully transform their minds!
Change what you think?
Change how you act!
Change how you walk, talk and dress!
Change how you view the world and outside of the grace of Christ!
When our thoughts, actions, our walk, our speech and how wwe dress is focused on God… our walk is much more clear and we are able to live as those called and set apart! We are able to steer clear of the enemy’s intentions.
The sin of sexual immorality is NOT Paul’s only focus here as in v11 he addresses five more sins that are based on human desire…
Greed… the desire to get and keep all you can at any cost!
Idolatry…the desire to put ANYTHING ahead of God to please our own desires!
Reviler… the desire to use your tongue to inflicts pain and suffering thru harsh words to make yourself feel better!
Drunkard…the desire to partake of ANY mind-altering substance regardless of the consequences!
Swindler… the desire to stop at nothing to gain what you have not earned… to ROB others thru manipulation!
These sins, like the sin of sexual immorality are sins that focus on our OWN selfish desires…and here in v12-13 Paul is saying that they have NO place in the life of a believer!
Paul said to the Galatian church that he had been crucified WITH Christ that he no longer lived but it was Christ IN him that now lived!
When we submit to the Lordship of Christ in our lives like that… then we are NOT going to have a problem with holiness and purity in our walk!
This is because our focus will not be on OUR desire because our desire was crucified and we have taken up the desire of our Savior!
Paul says that this is NOT passing judgment on those outside of the church… that is for God to do… but this is to hold accountable those INSIDE the church so that sin would not poison the fellowship!
Paul ENDS this particular chapter with a very plain and straightfoward plan of action for this fellowship as regards to this situation…
“…Purge the evil person FROM among you…”
On the surface this allows us to know several things:
Evil and sin exits & it can & will creep into the life of a believer/fellowship of believers
Evil and sin have NO place in the lives of believer or in the fellowship of saints
When evil and sin creep into the life of a believer or a fellowship of saints... action MUST be taken to drive out the sin and evil…PURGE is what Paul tells them to do!
Application:
What can we learn from this?
Isaiah’s whole life changed when he saw the majestic Lord seated on His heavenly throne. His awesome vision of God pierced him to cry out, "I am a man of unclean lips...For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).
We will never be able to effectively deal with your sin without first realizing the holiness of who God is. When we can only know His holiness when we get into His Word! As we learn of His holiness we are led by the Spirit to live our lives according His calling on our lives!
Invitation:
Sin has a way of creeping into our lives and into our fellowships. The danger for the believer is when we begin to accept sin and allow it in. We must be constantly on guard of sin in our life and in the life of our fellowships.
If you believe you have NOTHING to confess or that your are living a life of holiness then ask yourself this question, “What kind of church would OAK PARK be if every church member were just like me?”
I want to open up the front of this sanctuary for all of us to come and confess sin and have God cleanse us as individuals and as a fellowship!
Give invitation for the lost…
