This morning we’re going to finish this section which has been dealing with the discipline of an individual in the church at Corinth. The entire fifth chapter has addressed the problem of this person, but it has also addressed the general problem of the church which has not dealt with it very effectively.

It takes a letter from an apostle hundreds of miles away, who has been informed by a number of different people in this church who had certainly approached the sinning parties at some point, and yet these parties are not willing to repent or take action, and so Paul feels compelled to step in and do something about it.

He reminds them that despite the distance separating them, God is not separated from them and the Lord will simply declare through His apostle that divine action is about to enter into the picture; to the point where unless this person repents, Satan will be used to ultimately destroy his flesh, which implies, among other things, that he will allow this individual to die rather than to continue to dishonor Christ and His church.

1CO 5:3 "Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.
5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord."

Paul implies here that if this man is a true believer, despite his sinful behavior which is being addressed by Christ, and though his physical body may die because of his unrepentant attitude as the Lord takes the utmost discipline, his spirit will be saved on the day of the Lord.

This is possible only because the grace of God, which has been accepted by faith in Christ, is a gift which is irrevocable. Once we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ, including the kind of behavior spoken of here in this letter.

It doesn’t mean this kind of behavior is acceptable or that it doesn’t make any difference how we represent our Lord. This extreme type of discipline attests that it does make a difference to our Savior. But, it does mean that even a believer can find himself choosing the old man’s sinful nature at times, instead of walking in the new life and the new nature we have in Christ.

But, as is the case here in Corinth, this individual who is going to receive such discipline is not the only one who is held accountable for what has gone down. Those leaders and members of that local body should have collectively dealt with this problem long before it got to this point.

And because of their indifferent attitude Paul has to rebuke the church in Corinth because of shirking their responsibility before God to deal with this matter.

1CO 5:6 "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast - as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

It’s time to throw out the old yeast, which is a metaphor for sin, and its growing effects when left unchecked. In this case, the yeast which has grown rapidly in the environment of acceptance, has not only effected the individual involved in this sin, but it has also effected the entire church in an adverse way.

And so, to throw out the old yeast is to throw out the one who has performed this heinous sin, but also to throw out the old yeast in every individual heart there in the church at Corinth, so as not to be lulled into thinking that such sin is O.K. in the life of someone else, because if that’s the attitude taken, then it will be O.K. for you at some point. That’s the danger Paul wants to avert.

1CO 5:8 "Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth."

That’s where we left off last week. And as we wrap up this section Paul is going to make it clear that one way or another God will not be mocked in the life of His people. God Himself is aware of the problem and He will personally deal with it if the church in Corinth won’t.

1CO 5:9 "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people -
10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat."

Verse 9 would suggest that Paul had previously written a letter to these Corinthian believers dealing with some of the problems we now see in the letter before us. Some have suggested that if this is the case, then how can we call this letter "First Corinthians" when it’s not the first?

Or, we could even go further and suggest that if a previous letter had been written to these people then somehow or another we’ve lost a Holy Spirit inspired writing from an apostle which should be a part of God’s word. And if this is the case, then we do not have the entire Bible as it should be.

Now, before anyone begins to panic about such a thing, let me assure you that this Bible is complete from beginning to end. Remember, it is God who has given us His word and He has miraculously preserved every jot and tittle that He wants us to have. Nothing is to be added, nothing taken away.

And so, simply because Paul may have written previously to these people doesn’t mean that it was ever meant to be included in the canon of Scripture. We know that Paul had written a number of letters to churches which have never been found.

Well, how can this be? First, it needs to be noted that simply because Paul put pen to paper doesn’t automatically make it Holy Spirit inspired, any more than when he taught the word of God that every word that came out of his mouth should be recorded as the very word of God.

We know that he taught in Corinth for a least a year and a half. He taught in Ephesus for almost three and a half years. And in every church he taught in he most certainly said things which were very instructive. But suppose some studious Christian had taken down his words during those teachings, word for word.

Would this necessarily have made them Scripture? Not at all. To suggest that every time Paul opened his mouth, or even wrote to someone, that he was speaking or writing infallibly would have placed Paul in a position that no mere mortal can claim.

Paul was not infallible. But, when moved by the Holy Spirit to write in such a way that God intended for those words to be recorded for all time, then he wrote infallibly as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Suppose Paul wrote to his mom and dad in Tarsus, assuming they were still alive, and suppose he shared some perspective that was theological in nature in that letter. Does that necessarily make it the infallible word of God? No.

What makes it Scripture is what God intends to do with it. Could Paul have written a letter to his mom and dad which was instructive in nature, and God included that as part of Scripture? Absolutely.

The point is that if God wanted anything to be part of the word of God which we have in our possession today, He would have moved heaven and earth to have included it in the canon of Scripture.

ISA 40:8 "The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."

By the way, when we use the word canon, as in canon of Scripture, we simply mean the accepted books of Scripture. I touch on this because there are those both inside and outside of the church who would try to bring doubt and confusion by suggesting that God has hidden something from us by not giving us every letter any apostle ever wrote.

It is the Holy Spirit who determines what will be Scripture, not some individual person or group of persons who determine this. To put this power in the hands of fallible men is to create the possibility that what we have in our possession could in fact not be from God.

When Paul wrote to Timothy in his second letter that all Scripture is God-breathed, he means that what God wants to be Scripture will be so only as the Holy Spirit reveals it and is accepted by the world as the Spirit bears witness to the truth, and in the process the Spirit is directly involved in the providence and guidance of making His word a reality.

People want to get all hung up by suggesting that only men wrote the bible and therefore men have the final say as to what is contained in the Scriptures. If men can get in the way of what our Almighty God wants to reveal, then the word we possess is no good anyway.

If God can speak the universe into existence; if God can turn the hearts of people to seek Him; if He can come into this world as a man, die for our sin and then defeat the grave through His own resurrection, then how hard can it be for Him to make sure that we have His mind and will as it’s revealed in the written word of God?

Don’t let the world or people who claim to be Christians shake you when it comes to the very word of God. Study it, meditate upon it and know for certain that it is God who revealed it to men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and then walk according to it in the power of the Spirit.

Back to our text. Paul had previously written to this church in Corinth and what he wrote to them was that they shouldn’t associate with sexually immoral people.

That would seem straight-forward enough, and yet it appears that these Corinthians had taken, what Paul assumed was a clear message, and turned it on its head. And so, now he is going to make it quite clear by adding his own commentary on this previous letter.

They evidently thought that when Paul said not to associate with any immoral person that the "any" he was referring to were those outside of the body of Christ. In other words, the unbelieving world.

Now, it would be very easy to find immorality in the world. And so, to accomplish that misunderstood request, these Corinthians must have decided to avoid anybody outside of their fellowship. And so, in essence, they became a closed community.

The problem with this attitude is that if the church is meant to be reaching out to the lost, it’s pretty hard to do this unless you come face to face with them. When Jesus gave us what we call the great commission He didn’t mean we could accomplish this without going out to the world.

MAT 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

In fact, Paul most certainly taught these Corinthians about the life of Christ. And somewhere in that teaching they must have heard how Jesus didn’t limit Himself to just the 12 while excluding everyone else in the world.

LUK 5:27 "... Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him,
28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Jesus sought sinners. And praise God, He continues to seek sinners like you and me and gives us life in Christ as we repent of our sin and embrace our Lord’s atoning sacrifice for the penalty of our sin.

If no one had shared the gospel with us, who were at one time part of the world, how would we have heard and known what Jesus has done for us? In fact, Paul reminds these Corinthians that they too were once part of the world which they’re now not going to with the good news.

1CO 6:9 "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Now, what Paul meant when he previously wrote these Corinthian believers is that all of those in the world who might fit the description he just gave, must still be sought and given the gospel.

That doesn’t mean we participate in their deeds any more than Jesus did when He was with the tax gathers and sinners of every stripe. But we must go, as Christ commands, into all the world with the gospel.

So, what did Paul mean by not associating with immoral people? Well, you would think this would have meant the world where this sort of thing goes on; not with the church where it shouldn’t be going on.

But, as we’ve seen, this sort of thing can happen even in the church, but it is not to be overlooked. When referring to immoral people in his previous letter Paul says, "not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." (1Cor.5:10-11)

Paul says, ‘look, if I meant for you not to associate with anyone in the world who was immoral then you’d have to leave this planet because it’s full of immoral people. On the contrary, these are the very people you need to reach out to.

Rather, from a disciplinary stand-point, concerning one of those who is in the church, Paul is saying that not only are they to be put outside of the church, but they must also forfeit any fellowship of those within the church.

Until they repent, they are to have no association with other believers in the body of Christ. Notice in verse 11 that Paul makes that distinction. He says, [don’t] "associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat."

Paul is making the statement that if someone in the church would sin in such a way as the world does, without any remorse or repentance when approached by others in the church, then who knows if they are true believers. But, he doesn’t go so far as to say that they actually are unbelievers

He refers to him as one who "calls himself a brother", but is immoral in behavior. The NASB uses the phrase "any so-called brother", while the NKJV uses the phrase, "anyone named a brother."

What he means by this is that if someone has made a credible profession of faith in Christ, and they are acting like this individual in Corinth, then they are Christian in name only as far as their behavior is concerned.

Again, this doesn’t mean that they may not actually be a Christian, but you can’t tell from their behavior, and since we don’t ultimately know the heart, we must treat them as children of Christ who need His discipline.

We don’t discipline unbelievers. Discipline is reserved only for God’s people in Christ even if they are believers in name only. Often times the wheat and tares reside together. But it is only for Christ to ultimately distinguish between them. We must go on what we’ve been told by the person.

Now, we might wonder if Paul isn’t exaggerating a bit when he says that a brother may be sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. The fact is, that even though we’ve been delivered from such sin, it does not exclude the possibility of choosing such sin.

The normal pattern for a believer should be holiness because our Father who purchased us through the shed blood of His son is holy, but that pattern can be broken if the individual’s selfishness and lack of regard for his heavenly Father takes precedence.

John MacArthur makes the statement though that "the believer will never become totally sinful, [he] may be sinful enough at certain points in his life to be characterized as an unbeliever."

This is what Paul is referring to here in our text. He’s not addressing the person who sins, because we all sin, but the person who is making sin a pattern in his life. To break that pattern, God will often times use drastic measures, including the kind of discipline found in our text.

But, because a pattern of sin exists which this person is not willing to repent of, part of that discipline must include a total removal from the church and those individuals in the church as it relates to the normal graces extended, including fellowship.

As a quick note here, Paul doesn’t limit immorality to this man’s adulterous relationship with his father’s wife, but includes all types of unrepentant immorality like being greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler.

In fact, every one of these types of sin is implied in other individuals within this church. As we get further into this letter Paul points this out.

But back to our particular unrepentant sinner in Corinth. Paul says at the end of verse 11, don’t even eat with such a one. Why would Paul say such a thing? Because this is designed to show the heart of this person. If they are a true believer then being scorned by the church will eventually soften their hearts to want to come back into fellowship.

However, Paul seems to allow the door to stay open for the death of even a believer who is unwilling to repent and be reconciled to the church, though this would be entirely at the discretion of God. Remember what he said in verse 5.

1CO 5:5 "hand this man over to Satan, so that the flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord."

Well, the obvious answer is that they will come to someone in the body and request to be heard. And so, it’s implied that when they are put out of the church, the grace to receive them back under the circumstances that they are repentant must be extended at the time of them being put out.

Again, discipline is not meant to abandon a brother or sister, but to finally reconcile a brother or sister after that discipline has had its desired effect by God as they recognize their sin and repent of it. This type of discipline is designed by God only for professing believers.

1CO 5:12 "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

Even as an apostle, Paul is not willing to make judgments on unbelievers which would result in some form of discipline. Paul is not concerned with going to individual unbelievers and trying to change their behavior through some form of discipline.

And even if he could modify their outward behavior, that wouldn’t change their heart condition which only God can change. That doesn’t mean Paul isn’t concerned with the world’s immorality, but only to the degree that that immorality will be paid for by the individual being eternally separated from God.

Church discipline won’t change that for the world, the gospel will. And this is why Paul put his life on the line continually for Jesus Christ. And so, when he says that he has nothing to do with judging outsiders, it’s in the context of church discipline and the type of judging reserved only for God.

But Paul assures us in verse 13 that God does judge those who are outside in the world. And when it comes to placing one outside of the church they are put in the world in a very real sense. And it is in that context that God will judge the unrepentant offender.

The writer of Hebrews also addresses a similar situation with those who say they have accepted Jesus Christ and yet because of their behavior have denied His grace through deliberate sinfulness.

HEB 10:29 "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," (Deut. 32:35) and again, "The Lord will judge his people." (Deut. 32:36; Psalm 135:14)
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Only God ultimately knows the heart of a person. And His judgment in such matters, as we have in our text, will result in either the true believer being turned around or being taken home to be with Christ, as with Ananias and Sapphira, so that they will not continue to dishonor the Lord.

Or that judgment will result in being condemned by God because they were not truly believers. But since we don’t truly know the heart of a person we must treat them as brothers or sisters who have professed faith in Christ and carry out such discipline in the hopes that they do repent.

I like the way John MacArthur sums it up. "It is not the ones who recognize their sin and hunger for righteousness who are to be put out of fellowship, but those who persistently and unrepentantly continue in a pattern of sin about which they have been counseled and warned.....

..... We should continue to love them and pray for them that they repent and return to a pure life. If they do repent we should gladly and joyfully forgive and comfort them and welcome them back into fellowship."

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago this discipline seems to have been effective for this individual who had his father’s wife. Paul writes in his second letter:

2CO 2:5 "If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent - not to put it too severely.
6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him.
7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him."

Whether it was this individual in 1Corinthians being referred to or not, the message is clear; forgive when they repent and embrace them back into the fellowship.

Love does cover a multitude of sins, especially the sins of a repentant brother or sister who seeks forgiveness. May we love God above all and not seek after our own ways, but may we also love one another to speak the truth in love so that none would fall into the ways of this world, or the desires of the flesh.

May God be glorified in our lives in everything we do and everything we say.

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