Sunday Morning Service

I Corinthians 6 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"A Public Disgrace!"  •  10.7.12  •  Sunday Morning Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- When a church loses her primary, central focus, the natural result that follows is defilement and disgrace. Last week, looked at how they had been defiled privately.

- They had tolerated an immoral sexual relationship between a man and his stepmother. This was well known in the church, but was not known in the world.

- Defilement however, is rarely contained. That is what this chapter deals with.

- Paul speaks about examples of defilement that had reached the open square and were publically disgraceful. We will look at this chapter just as it is before us.

Text

• I Corinthians 6:1,2 : "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" : Would any of you be so bold to do this? You would take a fellow believer to a secular court, presided over by an unsaved person?

- The context indicates a matter that could be settled in small claims court, a civil matter.

- In Corinth, the courts were not private chambers as they are today. In Corinth, cases were argued in front of large audiences, in what amounted to an entertainment spectacle.

- But the saints will judge the world! People in the church, those who live to glorify Christ, will one day rule over people!

- Daniel 7:22ff tells us that after the tribulation period, the saints that return with Christ and will be given this responsibility on Earth. He is going to give us that charge for a Millenium!

- That is our future. It follows then that the world and those of it's way of thinking, would be ill equipped to judge even the most insignificant matters.

- Those who were going to court likely did not see it this way, but in light of what our life is leading toward, most everything that we worry about or fret over is ultimately insignificant.

- Note that Paul anticipates that there will be conflict, disagreement. He is also not proposing that everyone simply drop their case.

- He is championing the cause of seeking restorative settlement, so that they might live in peace with each other! Somebody, take a Bible and stand with those in dispute!

• I Corinthians 6:3,4 : "Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?  If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?" : You are going to judge angelic beings! Presuming that this refers to our taking possession of the Kingdom, then we will cooperate with God as He judges.

- There are many demonic spirits, fallen angels, that are awaiting judgment even now.

- You will recall the words of the demoniac that spoke to Jesus with the words "have you come to torment us before the time." (Matthew 8:29)

- II Peter 2:4 tells us of angels reserved in chains, a statement that Jude 6 also makes.

- Somehow, will be participating with the Lord in bringing righteous judgment upon these beings! How much more can you take actions to judge matters that pertain to here and now!

- Instead of standing up and doing this, submitting to each other as each submits to God's Word, they went out into the World, where the least esteemed, the most ungodly ruled.

- Another symptom of a church that has lost her way. There is a lack of submission to one another, an unwillingness to be the body of Christ, which carries the responsibility to govern itself!

• I Corinthians 6:5,6 : "I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!" : This is a shameful thing. You are part of a church and there is not one person that you trust to stand in judgment over a civil, personal matter? Is there not even one man?

- These guys decided to take their hostility and their case out in front of the watching world, in front of unbelievers! Why is that such a problem?

- The honor of the Lord is at stake! Everytime we open our mouths, everytime we are in a compromising position, everytime we allow our flesh to be featured, we are blackening Christ's eyes!

- The unbelieving world is watching the Corinthians and saying, "Why would I ever want to be around these petty people? What good has their god done them?"

• I Corinthians 6:7,8 : "Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!" : How bad was this? Paul is saying that a victory would have been to accept being wronged and cheated! This was a stunning defeat, a spiritual rout!

- Why not be treated unjustly? Why not be defrauded? Why not let it go for the sake of God!

- Their lack of being centered in the cross, caused them to look at their brothers and see not an opportunity for restoration to relationship, but for gain!

- What had they really lost? Money? A little land? Given your riches in Christ, what is that bad?

- Paul is turns his attention to the one who had been the source of the contention. He is not blind to the fact that a very real offense had been caused.

- It was sad that they had gone to law against one another. It was sad that they did not have the wisdom to appoint a Christian mediator. And it was sad that one of them caused this!

- Someone was guilty of cheating their very own family!

• I Corinthians 6:9,10 : "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." : What is Paul talking about? He is talking to the swindler, the one who had cheated.

  - He said, "If you keep acting that way, there are worse things in store for you than just excommunication!"

- "Do you not know!" Is it not clear to you! The unrighteous that he was revealing himself to be, did not have a portion of the Kingdom of God. They are outside of the inheritance.

- Do not be deceived! It's insane that people can be deceived by this! Some will claim ignorance, but still do things in hiding, knowing that they are sinning.

- Some will claim the love card, that God cannot fulfill His love by acting as a judge. Some will cry foul and tell people not to judge them! Don't be deceived!

- Don't think that you get to slap the name "Christian" on your life and then live in any way that you want because "God forgives and is loving!" two things that are true in their context!

- God forgives those who are repentant, willing to walk away from their sin in an act that shows their love to God. To these, God shows the full extent of His love and takes an eternity to do it!

- However, those who persist in sinful lifestyles, claiming to love Jesus, but sticking their finger in His eye with their blatant disregard for what God calls a righteous life, will see Him differently!

- Paul lumps in this crook with all of these other words. Each lifestyle guarantees the same result: These will not inherit the Kingdom of God!

- Paul starts with fornicators, those who make a lifestyle of gratifying their sexuality outside of the bonds of marriage.

- Idolators, worshippers of false gods, in this case, particularly Mammon, which was the god of possessions or materialism.

- Adulterers had a dual meaning in the Bible. This referred both to an unfaithfulness toward God, as well as those with little regard for the sacred bond of marriage.

- The word translated "homosexual" would literally be soft to the touch, which in turn would have been translated "effeminate."

- If you have a NKJV, you'll see the word "Catamite" in the margin or in the footnotes, referring to a practice adopted from the Grecian culture called "Pederasty."

- That refers to a sexual relationship that developed between an older man and a younger man. In Paul's time, 14 of the 15 Caesars were homosexuals.

- Nero in particular had married a young man named Sporus, who he had castrated and called his wife. Later, Nero had become another man's "wife."  

- The next term "Sodomite" in Greek is literally "an abuser of one's self." This is a person who is devoted to unnatural pleasure. It's a general term for all homosexual activity!

- Paul mentions both the one who receives passively and the one who gives aggressively, pervertedly, both referring to the act or behavior.

- This is especially important, as many in the homosexual community will tell us that God only condemns the behavior of non-committed monogamous perverts.

- The language here indicates the actual behavior, not the lack of a loving relationship!

- Paul mentions next "thieves" from the familiar term "kleptes." This word refers to an embezzler or a pilferer. The covetous are the ones greedy for more at anyone's expense.

- Drunkards are the ones who make a practice of being intoxicated. These are the ones who drink with the intended purpose of being inebriated.

- Revilers, or as the NLT puts it, "abusers", nor extortioners, swindlers and cheaters, are also included as those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God!

• I Corinthians 6:11 : "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." : Paul asserts that the Corinthian church was made up of people who had fit into some of these categories prior to coming into the church.

- Please remember this: Paul says this for several reasons. First, Christianity is built from this group of people. "Such" were some of you!

- The call of Christ reaches down to the deepest sinner and calls them all to repent and believe that they might have life!

- There is not a private reserve of good people on the Earth that God found and said, "Ok, I'll take these!" God gets His people from gutters and alleyways and park benches and bars!

- We need to keep that in our minds. Those that we would give up on or believe to be unredeemable, are the very ones that made up the church in Corinth!

- Second, there is to be a permanent break between you and your previous sin upon entering into Christ! "Such WERE some of you!

- There can be no assurance of salvation if there is no clean break from your past. We can say that in every area of life. In order for me to be healthy, I have to forsake unhealthy things.

- In order for you to be a Christian, you have to forsake unChristian things!

- Some had been fornicators, but were not fornicators now! Some had been adulterers, but were not fornicators now. Some had been Sodomites, homosexuals, but were not now.

- Something had radically changed them and that can only be attributed to Christ's power!

- Whenever a person comes to Christ, they are washed. The pollution and the filth from your past has been washed away! That is what a Christian baptism symbolizes. The old man is dead!

- You were sanctified or you are being set apart for God's purposes. Before you came to Christ, you had set your heart's affections on the things of this world.

- Now, God has set your heart on the things of His Kingdom.

- You were justified, given a righteous decree by God over you, you now live a life that is righteous, free from your past!

- How then can they not judge themselves? How then can they tolerate such ungodliness?

• I Corinthians 6:12-14 : "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power." : This is now the second specific example that Paul mentions which publically disgraced the church. There were some who had taken to fulfilling their lusts with prostitutes.

- How did they get there? What could possibly be their justification? It seems that they arrived at that conclusion by a twisting of Paul's teaching! "All things are lawful! Paul said it!"

- All things were lawful for them in terms of when to worship or whether or not to eat or drink. He's referring to legalism. They had twisted it to endorse their license!

- Some in Corinth had taken Paul's words to mean that they were free to engage themselves to Corinthian prostitutes! No way!

- I am free to do anything, but not free to be brought under something that has power to enslave me!

- Twisting another of Paul's teachings regarding food, they equated the sex drive to that of the hunger drive! "Since I have a sexual need, I must fulfill it!"

- You are not a slave to your body and it's drives and desires, but to the Lord. Your body is not meant to be an anchor that enslaves you! It's meant to be a vessel that God is honored through you!

• I Corinthians 6:15-17 : "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For 'the two,' He says, 'shall become one flesh.' But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." : The Christian is united to Christ, in a way that is akin to being a part of His body. You are an extension of Him. You are not autonomous.

- How inconceiveable is it to take a member, a body part of Christ's and join them to a prostitute? A person is unified in one flesh with another person when sexually active.

- He is saying very clearly that when you would join yourself to someone sexually, you are bringing Jesus into that very action! That is true of every sinful activity!

- Paul quotes here from Genesis 2:24 and the first married couple, whose sexual union brought them into this permanent relationship.

- Sex is meant to be the superglue between a male and a female that has decided to legally enter into a relationship that lasts through their entire life!

- In the same way, someone who is joined to Christ is one spirit with Him. We are as united to Christ in Spirit as a married couple is in body!

• I Corinthians 6:18-20 : "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." : Paul commands them to run away from sexual immorality as one would flee from something dangerous! It's not enticing. It's dangerous and the only appropriate response is to run!

- Remember that the word for "sexual immorality" in Greek is our word "porn." Run from any action that is pornographic! Run from any website that is pornographic!

- Run from pornografiying your marriage relationship, bringing filth into your marriage. Anything that can be named pornographic must be expelled from your life Christian!

- The NLT renders the last part of verse 18 like this: "No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body."

- Today we know of this truth so incredibly well! In the ancient world, the diseases that were rampant and the cause for many deaths, were sexually transmitted.

- How can you sin this way Corinthians? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You can't act any way you want to because you were bought at a price!

- You were redeemed! You were in the marketplace and God purchased you, paying the price for your soul to be saved!

- Because that is the case, bring glory to God in your body and your spirit! They both go together and they both are God's!

Conclusion

- Let's pray!