WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.000 Well, please turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5, page 954 of the Black Church. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:21.719 As we continue our journey through this letter, we're really concerned about truth in advertising. 00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:27.620 When the whole thing of fake news broke a couple of years ago, and that became a phrase that we used, 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:32.400 it was particularly egregious to us. We don't like the idea that we're being misled. 00:00:33.400 --> 00:00:37.359 Whether it's advertising or anything else, we don't like there to be a mismatch between what 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:45.960 someone says and what they do. And we have a trade descriptions act to make sure that companies 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:52.879 don't mislead consumers. We want what it says on the packet to match what's inside. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:58.260 And what we're discovering as we go through this letter of 1 Corinthians is that that should be 00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:04.900 especially true of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the apostles' criticism that we're 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:10.760 beginning to pick up as the letter gathers speed flows from the fact that this is not the case. 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:18.140 There is a mismatch. The Corinthian church falls foul of the trade descriptions act because while it 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:25.080 might say first Presbyterian church of Corinth over the door, what's inside doesn't resemble a church. 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:31.980 The way they're carrying on is no different, in fact, to other social groups in the city. Well, 00:01:31.980 --> 00:01:38.480 that's not technically true, is it? Look at verse 1. They're worse. They're more shameful. It is 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:44.439 actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:51.939 among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. The chat doing the rounds about the behavior at first 00:01:51.939 --> 00:01:58.480 Pres even makes the pagans blush. Rivalry and factions, we've heard about that. That's not great, 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:04.820 but sleeping with your father's wife, your stepmother. And the tense of the verbs suggest 00:02:04.820 --> 00:02:10.360 that this is ongoing and it is widely known in the church. He's doing it, he's not ashamed of it, 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:18.360 and everybody knows about it. That's a whole different level of wrong, even in the very sexually 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:26.819 loose Corinthian culture. I think it's probably the same today. If I think about even my wildest friends, 00:02:26.819 --> 00:02:33.299 friends that I have that are the least morally bothered, if one of them said, you know, we're out 00:02:33.299 --> 00:02:38.099 socially or something and they say, you know, I've been seeing my dad's wife, I think the response would 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:45.799 be, sorry? That's filthy. You've got to cut that out. That's not okay. Even amongst the most morally, 00:02:46.079 --> 00:02:51.259 least morally bothered of the people that I know. Pagans wouldn't have it, but no one in the leadership 00:02:51.259 --> 00:02:56.539 at First Presby's Corinth seems bothered. They're actually, verse 2, do you see, arrogant. Verse 6, 00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:03.159 they're boasting about it. I'm not actually sure what this boasting looks like, but I suspect that 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:08.899 it's along the lines that they are proud that they don't judge anyone. They're a church that loves 00:03:08.899 --> 00:03:13.699 everybody because, you know, God is love and he accepts you on your terms. Here at First Presby's 00:03:13.699 --> 00:03:21.659 Corinth, we're all into grace. It's the same spirit that we saw last week, where what God wants is 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:26.859 actually sidelined in favor of a cultural permissiveness. But the irony here is that in 00:03:26.859 --> 00:03:33.639 their attempt to be relevant and accessible and down with what's cool in Corinth, they've made 00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:40.579 themselves a disgrace, an embarrassment in the eyes of those same people. And we see a bit of that 00:03:40.580 --> 00:03:46.100 same sort of thing in our day. We see churches that are falling over themselves to accommodate 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:51.180 sexual behavior that is unnatural. As the Church of England goes out of its way to glorify that which 00:03:51.180 --> 00:03:57.120 God says is inglorious, the watching world is starting to say, hang on a minute, isn't the church 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:04.920 supposed to be the church? Non-Christian journalists, Melanie Phillips, Julie Burchill, I've read both of 00:04:04.920 --> 00:04:10.560 them. They've both been critics of these changes that are afoot, changes that we would read 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:16.220 redefine what marriage is in the life of the church. And among my secular friends, my most liberal 00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:20.540 friends, while they'd not say it in company, of course, for fear of being canceled, not allowed to 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:25.800 be heard to say it in public, in private, they'll be critical of the redefining of marriage in the 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:35.079 church. They've got no love for the church, but what they can see very clearly is that the church's 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:42.680 lame attempts to get cultural approval are exactly that. They're lame and they shouldn't bother. They 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:48.419 want the church to be the church. And the church should be unashamed to behave in line with what 00:04:48.419 --> 00:04:54.620 that means. And Paul says it doesn't mean accommodating sin in your midst and certainly 00:04:54.620 --> 00:05:01.259 not being proud of it. Now, what's interesting, well, actually, there are lots of interesting 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:06.860 things. One of the most striking things is that Paul doesn't rebuke this man for the behavior. He 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:13.480 rebukes the church. Verse 2, you there is plural. He's saying you, plural, congregation, are arrogant. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:19.439 The congregation is cheering. They should be ashamed. They're boasting. They should be horrified. 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:26.439 Because when the sign over the door says church, the community inside should look like a church. 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:33.500 They should look distinctive from the world around them. Holy. Holy means set apart, set apart for God. 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:41.040 Ordering our lives according to what God says, not what the watching world says. That underpins all 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:45.579 that Paul says in this chapter. In fact, I think it probably underpins all that he's saying through to 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:52.879 the end of chapter 7. And this is why they are to act decisively to address the sin in their midst. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:57.399 You see the thread that runs all the way through. Verse 2, have a look. Verse 2, let him who has done 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:04.299 this be removed from among you. Verse 5, deliver this man over to Satan. We'll say more about that in a 00:06:04.299 --> 00:06:14.219 moment. Verse 11, do not associate with them. Verse 13, purge the evil person from among you. 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:20.800 We're not left in any doubt about what needs to happen. But where does this ethical standard come 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:26.880 from? Is this an arbitrary thing that Paul has decided to make up? Why is it that this course of 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:34.020 action, pushing the person out as it were, why is this the course of action that he is promoting? 00:06:34.900 --> 00:06:39.640 Well, it's an application of the Old Testament holiness code in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:45.919 Leviticus 18 verse 8, you shall not have sexual relations with your father's wife. It's the 00:06:45.919 --> 00:06:52.539 exact phrase that Paul uses. Deuteronomy 27 verse 20 forbids a father and a son to share the same 00:06:52.539 --> 00:06:59.240 woman. And the repeated mention of the phrase among you, verse 1 and verse 13 here, strongly echoes 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:05.039 passages in Deuteronomy where Moses calls for the removal of sin among the people of God. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:11.960 Paul applies the Old Testament law to the New Testament church because the church is in 00:07:11.960 --> 00:07:18.960 continuity with the Old Testament people of God as it relates to holiness, the requirement for holiness. 00:07:20.280 --> 00:07:26.100 So purge the sin from among you, he's saying, because of God's desire for his people to be holy. 00:07:26.780 --> 00:07:30.960 It's the same desire he's had from the very beginning all the way through the Bible story. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:37.479 They are to practice what has become known as church discipline. When the church gathers, 00:07:37.599 --> 00:07:42.839 do you see verse 4, that is when the Lord Jesus is present in power by his Holy Spirit. 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:48.679 And they are to act in that context to put this man out of their fellowship. The church, 00:07:48.859 --> 00:07:55.099 under the oversight of her elders, acts in this case as God's agent to pronounce his verdict on that 00:07:55.100 --> 00:08:03.939 person. Now, does this sound strange? I suspect this sounds a bit strange to many of us. We're 00:08:03.939 --> 00:08:07.780 thinking, are we not supposed to be trying to bring people into the church, not putting them out? 00:08:08.820 --> 00:08:14.740 And who would want to hand anybody over to Satan? That language sounds pretty extreme. Apart from 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:19.939 anything else, is it not a bit judgmental to talk in these ways? Surely we're all sinners. 00:08:19.939 --> 00:08:26.699 Why do some get put out and others don't? Well, I hope what follows will make clear, 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:31.980 will answer those questions, because Paul makes clear that the whole process, 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:37.940 all that he's talking about here, is motivated by three concerns. Three concerns. In fact, 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:44.080 they are concerns that are echoed by our book of church order in the IPC. Here's a line from our 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:48.759 book of church order. The ends of church discipline are threefold. The glory of God, 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:56.580 the peace and purity of the church, and the restoration of wayward members. That's what 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:03.639 is plainly here in 1 Corinthians 5. So, first concern. Why should this person be put out of 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:09.919 the congregation? The first concern is for God's glory. For God's glory. Paul has already told us, 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:15.819 God's people are the temple of his Holy Spirit. Chapter 3, verse 16. Corporately, the church is the 00:09:15.820 --> 00:09:22.420 place where God especially dwells on earth, and the presence of this kind of sin profanes his temple. 00:09:24.400 --> 00:09:30.480 Now, of course, we are all sinners. We confess that fact together every Sunday morning. We've done it 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:37.340 already today. And we don't do this as a superficial thing. We mean it when we say it. We confess that our 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:43.660 sin runs through our thoughts as well as our words and our deeds. There is no part of any human being 00:09:43.659 --> 00:09:49.379 that is not tainted in some way by sin. It runs all the way through us. So, when we confess our sins, 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:55.879 we're serious about it. We're not messing about. We're not pretending. So, how do you decide what 00:09:55.879 --> 00:10:00.799 sins require the level of action that Paul is talking about here? Should someone be disciplined 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:08.959 for pride, for example, or laziness? Well, if we read on, Paul actually tells us which sins qualify 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:15.240 for this level of action. Do you see verse 11? But now I'm writing to you not to associate with 00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:20.519 anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:28.340 idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. So, there they are. Sexual 00:10:28.340 --> 00:10:33.580 immorality or greed. Now, he's brought those together actually here, the apostle, and I think he has 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:40.600 a kind of greed that has a sexual element to it. Someone who indulges their appetites insatiably for 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:49.139 sexual sin. An idolater, someone who is in an obvious way committed to a false god. A reviler, 00:10:49.280 --> 00:10:54.340 what that means is someone who speaks with contempt about other people. Their nasty, malicious speech 00:10:54.340 --> 00:11:00.220 characterizes the way they live. Drunkard, their drinking is out of control. And a swindler, 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:04.180 somebody who's dishonest with money, technically they're stealing from other people. It's the 00:11:04.180 --> 00:11:09.980 eighth commandment. Now, what is it about these sins? Why does he list these ones? Well, first of all, 00:11:10.060 --> 00:11:14.960 they're obvious. That's one of the difficulties with disciplining for something like, say, pride. 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:20.320 It's not always obvious. These are obvious. You know when you're doing them, and other people know 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:27.980 as well. But these sins also do particular damage to both the one in sin and the one who is sinned 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:37.480 against. So, they have an effect beyond the person. But the main reason Paul chooses this list is, 00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:43.060 again, because they are the vices listed back in Deuteronomy as particularly offensive to God. 00:11:43.800 --> 00:11:49.519 It is an application of the Old Testament Holiness Code. That is why these are the sins that warrant 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:56.320 exclusion from the community. The fornicator is addressed in Deuteronomy 22. The idolater in Deuteronomy 17. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:02.620 The malicious talker is addressed in chapter 19. The drunkard in chapter 21. And the thief in chapter 24. 00:12:02.780 --> 00:12:09.180 It's all there in Deuteronomy. And Paul is taking that, and he's applying it into the life of the church. 00:12:10.340 --> 00:12:16.760 These are the sins that God says are particularly profane, and that's why they have no place inside his church. 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:21.780 If it says church over the door, these sins need to be addressed. 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:29.759 Now, let me be clear, and especially so if you're not a Christian, if you're not somebody who is 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:35.799 following the Lord Jesus. Paul is at pains here, in verses 9 and 10 in particular, to clarify who it 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:41.500 is that he's talking about. This is not a judgment on those outside the church or how they choose to 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:48.100 live. The church doesn't have authority in that realm. That's between you and God, verse 13. 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:55.320 Paul is talking about those who profess to be Christian. Verse 11, you see someone who is a 00:12:55.320 --> 00:13:03.340 brother, and yet they persist proudly in their scandalous sin. Can you see that? It's really 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:10.180 important that we're clear about that. If this man were to repent, whatever he's done, he wouldn't 00:13:10.180 --> 00:13:15.060 need to be put out of the fellowship. Again, it's really important to see this. This isn't about people 00:13:15.059 --> 00:13:20.599 in the life of the church going around sniffing out some sort of generic sin in someone's life, 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:24.799 or second-guessing whether or not they're genuinely repentant when they say that they are. 00:13:25.719 --> 00:13:29.319 This person is unrepentant, and they glory in their sin. 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:36.939 The church is not made up of sinless people who sit self-righteously above everyone else. 00:13:39.139 --> 00:13:43.339 Where that happens, actually, there's a similar problem with advertising standards. The problem is 00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:49.420 just run the other way. The church is not made up of self-righteous people who stand above others 00:13:49.420 --> 00:13:56.899 and look down on them. If you see yourself as a sinner, you belong here. And here's the most 00:13:56.899 --> 00:14:03.960 important thing that you need to know. Here it is. Every sin, even the scandalous ones on this list, 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:10.259 can be forgiven. However you have spent your life up to now, 00:14:12.220 --> 00:14:18.960 look at verse 7, Christ, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed. What that means is that the Lord Jesus 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:25.940 Christ went to the cross to pay for every sin that you may have committed, even the ones that you are 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:33.440 most ashamed of, even the ones that the culture around us might look on and say, that's a scandalous 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:40.340 thing to do. The Lord Jesus paid for those sins on the cross, and he turned away the wrath of God. And 00:14:40.340 --> 00:14:45.780 what that means is that if you turn from that sin and you put your faith in him, you will be forgiven, 00:14:45.779 --> 00:14:57.240 cleansed, restored, made new. The church is always composed of sinners. God has nothing else to work 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:07.659 with. But we are repentant sinners. And the criteria for sins worthy of excommunication are that they are 00:15:07.659 --> 00:15:16.799 obvious, public, disgraceful, and unrepentant. Obvious, we can see it's going on. The person is 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:22.259 unrepentant, and it's public and disgraceful. In this case, Paul says, God has given the church the 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:29.159 authority to put them out, and we do that first and foremost out of a concern for his glory. 00:15:31.379 --> 00:15:35.740 That's our first concern, God's glory. Our second concern, then, Paul says, should be 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:40.720 the man's salvation. The BCO, the restoration of wayward members. 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:46.159 Verse 4, when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:51.340 power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, 00:15:51.820 --> 00:16:00.419 so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. The language here is about as arresting as it 00:16:00.419 --> 00:16:07.779 gets. Who wants to think that they are handing someone over to the devil? But delivering the man 00:16:07.779 --> 00:16:14.279 over to Satan is synonymous here with removing him from the believing community. Paul is obviously 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:20.319 emphasizing here how serious this sin is. It puts you outside the community of the Spirit, cut off from 00:16:20.319 --> 00:16:25.779 the protection of the Lord and his people, leaving you vulnerable to Satan's forces. The very thing that 00:16:25.779 --> 00:16:33.039 Paul says in Colossians 1 verse 13, the Christians have been rescued from. Verses 7 and 8, when Paul 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:38.220 talks about Passover, this was an event in Israel's history where the people killed the lamb and daubed 00:16:38.220 --> 00:16:43.459 the blood on the doorposts of their homes and sheltered inside, protected from God's anger as God 00:16:43.459 --> 00:16:50.240 passed over. When the man is put out of the church, it's like he no longer has the protection of the lamb 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:57.299 and is at Satan's mercy. And because Satan has zero mercy, in fact he loves to destroy people, 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:04.460 it is a frightening place to be. But don't miss the intent. Look, verse 5, deliver this man to Satan, 00:17:05.180 --> 00:17:11.740 put him out into the realm where Satan has remit for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:17.660 may be saved in the day of the Lord. One of the goals of the whole thing is that the sinner will come 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:24.360 to his senses. He will wake up to what he's done, wake up to what he has lost, and repent of the sin, 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:29.820 and come back to salvation. The destruction of the flesh is bringing the man to the end of himself, 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:34.740 whether that's physical through the consequences of his immorality, or emotionally through the guilt 00:17:34.740 --> 00:17:38.980 and shame that eventually haunts everyone who gives themselves away to this kind of life. 00:17:40.340 --> 00:17:45.779 But when they lie in their hospital bed, or when they wake in terror in the night, if they call out to 00:17:45.779 --> 00:17:50.539 him, Christ will meet them. He will meet them there, and in the midst of their destruction, 00:17:50.639 --> 00:17:51.619 he will bring them to glory. 00:17:55.299 --> 00:18:01.359 If they were allowed to stay in the church, they could deceive themselves that God was okay with 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:07.660 what they were doing, and they could live in that delusion. But the point is that when they are then 00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:13.899 put out, they see that repentance is needed. And when anyone repents, whoever they are and whatever 00:18:13.900 --> 00:18:20.759 they've done, God is always merciful. He will receive us, and he will find in our favor on the 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:29.019 last day. When the church doesn't act in this way, it gives that person permission to persist in their 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:34.040 sin. Because what we're saying as a church is that God is fine with this scandalous behavior. 00:18:34.600 --> 00:18:39.500 It's absolutely fine that you can carry on like that and remain within the community of the people of 00:18:39.500 --> 00:18:49.259 God. Churches that do this are profoundly unkind. To mislead someone in this way is an egregious thing 00:18:49.259 --> 00:18:55.259 to do. It's egregious in itself because of what the Bible says here, but it is the most unloving thing 00:18:55.259 --> 00:19:02.700 that we can do. You've probably heard there's lots of talk of something called spiritual abuse these days. 00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:07.360 And it is the case that a Christian leader who uses their authority to manipulate people 00:19:07.360 --> 00:19:15.519 in their care is abusive. But to let someone persist unchallenged in their sin is the highest form of 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:22.120 spiritual abuse. For those who have been entrusted to shepherd the flock of God, to care so little 00:19:22.120 --> 00:19:28.319 about someone's eternal state that you stand back while they self-destruct is heartless, it is callous, 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:37.759 and such a minister should be fired immediately. So, however shocking we find this language, and it is 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:44.919 shocking, I want us to see that there is mercy in church discipline. Because it always has restoration 00:19:44.919 --> 00:19:53.179 as part of its goal. Part of the goal of the hard conversation, the awkwardness that inevitably follows 00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:58.279 in the life of the church, and the decision to put that person out, part of the goal is that this 00:19:58.279 --> 00:20:04.240 person will repent and come back to God, that they will be restored, that they will receive His mercy. 00:20:06.320 --> 00:20:10.580 If we were in this situation here, we wouldn't simply cut the person off. We would plead with them 00:20:10.580 --> 00:20:14.980 to start with, to repent of their sin. We would be praying as a church that God would change their 00:20:14.980 --> 00:20:20.840 hearts. Galatians 6, if anyone is caught in any transgressions, you who are spiritual, restore him in a 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:25.480 spirit of gentleness. Like a rebellious child, our posture toward them would be brokenhearted. 00:20:26.539 --> 00:20:33.099 Repent of your sin. Don't go on living like this. It is so destructive to you and to other people. 00:20:34.619 --> 00:20:38.579 But we wouldn't stand back and watch them blow themselves and others around them to spiritual 00:20:38.579 --> 00:20:47.419 smithereens. We wouldn't do that. We want them back. But in the end, that must be left to God, 00:20:47.420 --> 00:20:52.120 because the final concern that Paul expresses, church discipline, first he says, is for God's glory. 00:20:52.600 --> 00:20:57.300 Secondly, it is for the man's salvation. And then thirdly, it is for the church's protection. 00:20:57.980 --> 00:21:04.080 What we say in the BCO, the peace and purity of the church. Verse 6, you're boasting. It's not good. 00:21:04.800 --> 00:21:09.220 Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may 00:21:09.220 --> 00:21:16.120 be a new lump as you really are unleavened. Paul describes the potent effect that a tiny bit of 00:21:16.120 --> 00:21:23.460 yeast can have on a batch of dough. I've taken over in our house some of the time making the pizza dough 00:21:23.460 --> 00:21:29.259 at the weekend. I know how this works. I can tell you firsthand, I know how this works. You put a small 00:21:29.259 --> 00:21:34.079 sachet into the flour and all the mix and it goes through the whole thing and it all expands. 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:42.699 Paul is concerned that if left unchecked, sin will spread like that yeast and wreak havoc across the 00:21:42.699 --> 00:21:50.579 church. That is how things work in any group. In a team environment, when one person starts cutting 00:21:50.579 --> 00:21:56.179 corners in training, others follow their lead. In work, when one or two people start playing with 00:21:56.179 --> 00:22:02.539 the expense account, others do it too. And here, if one guy is celebrating his promiscuity as an expression 00:22:02.539 --> 00:22:06.500 of his freedom in Christ and nothing is done about it, well, why not me too? 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:13.339 One commentator puts it like this, Paul fears the dire consequences that will ensue 00:22:13.339 --> 00:22:18.379 if the church tolerates such wickedness. It contaminates the whole community with a moral 00:22:18.379 --> 00:22:25.059 blight that will surely destroy it. So what he's doing is, he's saying, yes, we're concerned about 00:22:25.059 --> 00:22:31.659 God's glory. We really want this person back. We want them to be saved in the end, but we also really 00:22:31.660 --> 00:22:38.880 care about the protection of the whole body. Church discipline is like the church's immune system. 00:22:40.120 --> 00:22:45.340 If it is functioning, the church will be healthy. If it is suppressed or absent, the church will get 00:22:45.340 --> 00:22:51.180 sick and eventually die. Our national church currently has no immune system, so it is dying. 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.740 And it happens the way bankruptcy happens. First of all, it's slow and then all at once. 00:22:56.740 --> 00:23:04.700 And every church has a responsibility to keep her immunity strong in order to be the church, 00:23:05.160 --> 00:23:11.019 in order to be the distinctive people that God has called us to be. Paul returns to his motivation, 00:23:11.180 --> 00:23:16.079 Luke, verses 7 and 8 again, with reference to this Feast of Unleavened Bread where the Jewish people 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:21.559 would remember the exodus by getting rid of all the leaven, all the yeast in their homes. They did this 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:26.779 as a reminder of the Lord's rescue of them from slavery in Egypt and as a symbol of them leaving 00:23:26.779 --> 00:23:32.579 their old life behind. And Paul is saying to the Corinthians, although mainly Gentile, the audience, 00:23:32.899 --> 00:23:37.379 they must have known this story. He's saying, look, you've left the old leaven of your sin behind, 00:23:37.379 --> 00:23:45.079 so live like that is true. Purge sin from your midst. Don't let it take hold in the community. 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:51.220 That's not who you are. It will spread and you're out of step with who you claim to be. 00:23:51.559 --> 00:24:00.419 And that takes us back to where we started. When the sign above the door says, church, 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:07.899 we must make sure that the community inside matches up. What should we see? We should see 00:24:07.899 --> 00:24:13.960 a group of people who, whilst not perfect, do care about God's glory and who take unrepentant sin in 00:24:13.960 --> 00:24:20.799 their midst seriously and who act in faith in such a way that protects one another. And in so doing, 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:28.319 adorns the reputation of Jesus Christ to the world, God really, really cares about His church. 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:35.220 He cares about the reputation of the church in the culture. He cares about His own glory. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:40.700 He cares about our salvation, but He cares as well about the reputation of the church in the world 00:24:40.700 --> 00:24:46.740 so that the church might be a light in the darkness, that it might be a city on the hill 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:55.120 that people are drawn to and that they find their salvation in. May God help us to be such a place. Let's pray.