Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
FORNICATION IN THE CHURCH
1 Corinthians 5:9-13, "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person."
Paul knew the weaknesses of men and women and their capacity to fall quickly back into sin after having been saved and becoming members of the church. The world, then and now, has such powerful drawing and deceiving forces that it will draw aside even the strongest Christian who begins to gaze upon the world to follow the desires of his own heart.
It seems that the Corinthian church had become infested with those who were involved in committing fornication. This fornication was not just one of fleshly lust and desire for sensual gratification; it went far deeper than that. Every facet of life carries with it the potential for being unfaithful to our commitment to Christ.
When we make a decision to follow Christ as one of His disciples, we promise to keep ourselves to Him only. Just as the marriage vows of a couple who are getting married contain promises and vows one to another of a lifetime of devotion, love, and faithfulness in every circumstance until death do them part; the commitment we make to Jesus is a life-long commitment to remain faithful and true to Him. We become a part of the body of Christ and one with Him.
Jesus used the analogy of marriage to explain his relationship to the church in Ephesians 5:25, 30-32, when He said, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; …For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church."
If you are committed in marriage, one to another, then each of you has the absolute right to expect your spouse to be faithful, true and loving at all times. Christ expects the same from you and I if we are truly promised to Him.
Paul then, writes that we are not keep company with fornicators and in so doing, he is making a strong statement and giving us a stern command that we are to stay away from anything and anyone that is unfaithful to God.
People do not have to be engaged in sexual immorality to be engaged in the fornication that Paul is speaking of though sexual immorality certainly is included in what Paul is describing.
Fornication, in the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ, goes a lot deeper though. God considers it fornication when we are unfaithful to Him in any manner. Whether we are unfaithful in reaching out to lost souls, engaged in blasphemous idolatry, or enamored with the things of this world, its all fornication in God’s eyes, because off of these things separate us from our complete surrender and commitment to Christ.
Paul is speaking to the church, not the worldly crowd. This just points out how bad the lack commitment exists inside the confines of the Church. There are many who are not living their lives committed to Christ and still claim to be Christian. It’s one thing to be ignorant of God’s expectations and then be unfaithful to His call upon your heart, but to willfully ignore or refuse to obey God’s call to holiness is treading on very dangerous ground.
Too many Christians think that its okay to move in with one another and that God will “understand” and forgive them anyway.
We don’t need to presume upon the mercy of God. How do we know that he Holy Spirit will draw us to repent of that sin before the live leaves this body? None of us has a promise of tomorrow and then, even if we do live on, we cannot come to Christ unless His Spirit draws us.
Paul says that we are to stay away from and not associate with those in the church, who call themselves Brothers and Sisters in the Body of Christ, and who are living lives of unfaithfulness or “fornication” against God.
God is not as easily deceived or as easily persuaded as men. Preachers, Pastors and teachers in the church might smile and turn their eyes away or turn a deaf ear to our unfaithfulness, but God, the Righteous Judge, never misses a thing that we do and we will have to answer for our sin one day soon.
There is no “gray area” in the mind of God. We are either living right, or we are not! God knows the difference and, in the end, He won’t let it slide for long.
I have counseled young couples that were living together without the blessing and sanction of God through the ceremony of marriage and without the license of the state and it seems that they were unbothered, unconcerned and even still claimed to be saved and even “full of the Holy Ghost”.
Let me tell you in no uncertain terms that if you are living that kind of a life, you had better get married, then fall on your face in repentance before God and ask Him to cleanse you from the sin of adultery and/or fornication. You will never, ever, make it Heaven while living in habitual sin.
Marriage without the sanction of both God and the State is still called adultery and fornication in the Bible, no matter what man may say to justify it, and those who commit these sins are specifically exempted from entrance in Heaven. Man might smile and say it’s all right and we understand but God calls it sin and that’s all that matters.
Galatians 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
That’s the Word of God and His opinion and His commands are the only ones that count.
Surely God can and will forgive for these sins, but we must repent and make it right and not presume upon God lest we find our very soul has been lost before we could make it right.
Paul, though, is driving toward an important point in these verses. He is trying to tell every member of the Body of Christ that we are bound by our vows to Jesus Christ and that we are remain faithful to Him always.
We are to keep ourselves unspotted, unblemished, untainted by the sin of this world and, just as importantly, we are keep the church cleansed from sin by disassociating ourselves with those who willfully and knowingly remain unfaithful to God and still call themselves saints or brothers and sisters.
Those people who live unfaithful lives toward Jesus Christ, whether they are unfaithful in their prayer life, unfaithful in their daily living, unfaithful in their obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit or unfaithful to Jesus in any other fashion are in rebellion against God and, if we stay around them, they will be like the “little leaven that leavens the whole lump.”
What kind of people does Paul include with those who are called “fornicators” in the church?
1)Those who use the Lord’s name in vain, speaking profanity and uttering curses and then refuse to repent and change because they expect God to overlook their faults and forgive them because they “have to sin a little each day”.
2)Those who speak great things and flattering words to you when you are face to face and then spread malicious words and gossip when you walk away and then claim to have the gift of “discernment” or that God has given them the gift of “criticism” of their fellowman. God still calls it gossip and gossipers won’t be Heaven either.
3)Those who come to the House of God at church times and then go to the worldly places at other times. If we think that God will overlook our hypocritical spirit, we are sadly mistaken and we won’t be in Heaven either.
4)There are a lot of other examples that we could cover but I think that you get the point here.
Paul’s letter is strong toward the Corinthian church and I believe that his words are just as strong to the church of today. We are to remain faithful to God and we are to not associate with people of the world any more than necessary and then we are certainly not to associate ourselves with those who are in the church and still living in sin.
The old saying still holds true today, “You will become like those you hang around with.” That’s why we must not hang out with backsliders. Love them, pray for them, but don’t hang out with them because they will draw you down with them.
The natural tendency for all of creation since the fall in the Garden is to go downward and grow worse over time. Nothing ever improves if it is left alone to stand the forces of nature and time.
Iron rusts, all times of metal corrodes, wood will turn to dust, buildings crumble and fall, automobiles wear out and, in the same fashion, even the strongest Christian will begin wear down over time. Just as surely as the waves of the sea will eat away at solid rock, the spirituality of a Christian begins to grow weaker when under constant wear of an ungodly friend or family member.
Paul lays out a number of descriptions of different types of sinners within the church at Corinth and those same sinners are in nearly every church right now.
Covetous – Those that have a strong desire after the possession of worldly things. Their treasures are on the earth and not in Heaven. If their treasures are here, there heart will be also, and if their heart is here, they are not a citizen of Heaven and will never go there.
Extortioners – those who would attempt to obtain anything of value by illegal means such as fraud, theft or blackmail. There are a lot of extortionists in the church today. If I can’t have your position given to me, then I will do whatever I have to do to get you removed, then I can have it. I will have my way, no matter what it takes or who gets hurt in the process. If you don’t give me my way I will do anything I can to destroy you. These people have cause more church splits and caused more people to backslide than any other group in my opinion.
Idolaters - The forms of idolatry are:
(a.) Fetishism - the worship of trees, rivers, hills, stones, etc. – God says that you shall have no graven image before Him. You can go hug a tree or build a statue to bow to if you want but if you are really faithful to God, you will bow only to the Lord Jesus Christ.
(b.) Nature worship - the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as the supposed powers of nature. Why should we worship the creation when we can worship the Creator? These things will all pass away and yet multitudes are placing their trust in horoscopes, crystal balls and the physic hotlines. Even many of those who claim to be Christian are guilty of watching, calling and participating in such things. God says that those who do are fornicators and have no place in Heaven.
(c.) Hero worship - the worship of deceased ancestors, or of heroes. Yes there are those who “worship” an athlete in the sports arenas of the world. They won’t claim to worship them but if they would miss coming to the House of God and worshipping the Lord to stay home and watch the Super Bowl or any other sport event, then the players and the sport itself becomes their idol.
There are those whose desire is to fulfill the wishes of a relative or friend that has passed on. There are even those who tell you that they would rather spend eternity in hell with their friends than go to Heaven where they will not know anyone. How deluded and deceived can we be so say such things?
No one; not mother, father, sister, brother, Pastor, friend or anyone else can become more important than God. If so, they become our God and we called fornicators. Again, those who do these things will never see Heaven’s Gates except from the pits of hell.
(d.) Railers and Drunkards are included in this list – those who fight and speak out against anything that is good if it doesn’t line up with their thoughts. Those who are “drunk” on self-centered pride and recognition.
My, what a great bunch of people this must have been in the church at Corinth to have all these types of people in the church! Wouldn’t you just love to have a church full of people like these? Don’t laugh - we still have them. They are servants of the devil, exhibiting the spirit of the antichrist, and they are being used everyday by the devil to destroy the works of the Lord in the Body of Christ. That’s why we have to stay away from them.
The key to this passage is this: Do you want to avoid being caught up with these types of people? Then stay away from them so you won’t fall into their influence.
Paul says that the church at Corinth stayed in trouble because they put up with and even condoned these people inside the church. The influence that these people had upon the church would bring it to destruction if it were not removed from their midst and it still will today.
God help us not to allow the spirit of fornication against the Lord Jesus Christ to exist within our church. God help us to keep ourselves pure and holy before you. Lord help us to make wise choices of the friends that we keep and those we associate with.
We cannot leave the world and there will always be a certain amount of business that we will have to do with those of the world that Paul labels as fornicators. We might have to do business with them but we don’t have to be friends or live with them.
That’s what Paul is saying to the church at Corinth and to us today. Keep yourself pure and holy. Present yourself as a chaste virgin, a committed and totally surrendered heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t get caught up in things that will draw you away from the Lord. Stay away from those, especially those within the church, who refuse to live a holy and sanctified life so that they will not draw you away from the Lord.
Paul writes to the Corinthian church again in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
That’s my heart’s desire – that you will all be totally committed and righteous before God. I pray that we shall all enter Heaven’s gates hand in hand and walk down the golden streets together. Keep yourself pure and white, unspotted and unblemished.
Jesus bought us with His own blood. He desires that we remain faithful to Him. In Ephesians 5:27 we are given the reason for Jesus purchasing us -, "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
