Sin Accomodating Churches-2 Series

SIN ACCOMODATING CHURCHES-II—1Cor. 5:1-13

Attention:

Adding a screened-in porch to protect against wasps, without removing the wasp nest

Removing a beaver dam without removing the beavers, etc.

*To Dance around rather than approaching an object.

The true church is populated by Christians, all of the same heritage...they are brothers & sisters by the blood of Jesus. None of them are Christian sympathizers, they are actual Christians!

However, the sympathizers are readily invited to be witnesses of & be involved with the true Christian work, but only to a limited extent...

...Because...

1)The church ministers in the world & interacts with the world(Jn. 17:15)...

2)We cannot ultimately determine the reality of anyone’s salvation(only God can per 1Cor. 4-5)...

3)We minister to & with those who consider themselves ‘saved,’ the church can inadvertently & ignorantly become party to worldliness(Mat. 7:16-20).

4)Our hearts can deceive us so that we think we are doing God service when in fact we are undermining the Kingdom(Jer. 17:9-10; Jn. 16:2-3)!

Such a hodge-podge can invites a label of ‘hypocrisy’ upon the Church among outsiders, who assume the worldly ‘Christian’ sympathizers are the ‘real-deal!’

One of the horrible things about having so many denominations & even more so, to have many churches in the same area, is that there is no central church to which all Christians commit(as within Catholicism)!

Each church is instead built upon some aspect of preferentialism rather than an adherence to Jesus Christ! Thus those disappointed in a church or even disbanded from a church can ‘go down the street’ as it were, where they will be readily accepted & their unrepentant sin is disguised or tolerated.

Paul admonished the Corinthian church because they had allowed/accommodated heinous sin in their midst.

The church must not accommodate sin in their midst.

*How can the true church effectively act against sin in their midst?

When does a church accommodate sin?

9 deficiencies of a sin accommodating church.

We had previously visited the fact that,

Sin Accommodating Churches skirt/deny...

1. BASELINES(:1)

2—Sin Accommodating Churches skirt/deny...

BROKENNESS(:2)

Explanation:(:2)Mourning/Grief over sin

:2—“And you are puffed up, & have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.”

“The very least that they could have done(mallon rather than be puffed up) was to mourn for shame(penyew, old verb for lamentation) as if for one dead.”—RWP

“They were so self-satisfied & self confident that they excused or rationalized the most wicked behavior in the congregation”—MNTC

The church must never cease to be shocked by sin & certainly should “mourn” over it’s presence.

The Church as ‘the body of Christ,’ should always consider whether Jesus Himself would be tolerant of her beliefs & actions. Witness the churches of Revelation:

Rev. 2:13-17; 2:19-23—--Pergamos--“I know your works, & where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, & did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, & to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. ‘Repent, or else I will come to you quickly & will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, & on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”’.....--Thyatira--“I know your works, love, service, faith, & your patience; & as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach & seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality & eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, & she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, & those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, & all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds & hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.”

“Either with the gifts, learning, & eloquence of their preachers, & particularly of this man, who, by some, is thought to be one of their teachers; & though he was guilty of so foul a crime, yet they still applauded him, & cried him up for a wonderful preacher...” “...or the other were puffed up with their lenity & forbearance, boasting of it as an act of humanity & good nature, & an instance of charity, showing that they were not severe upon one another, for mistakes in life: or else were puffed up & gloried in the thing itself, as an instance of Christian liberty, & their freedom from the law, through a sad mistake of it; & in which they might be strengthened by a notion of the Jews, that it was lawful for proselyted Gentiles to do such things, for so says Maimonides {b}...