After such an incredible song service, I feel like I want to just keep singing, and I thank each of you musicians for your faithfulness in leading us so powerfully. Will you take your Bibles and turn to First Corinthians, chapter five. We have now made a made our way to this section of Scripture as we continue to go through it, verse by verse. And here we are going to learn about the importance of purity in the church, of disciplining sin in the church. And before we look at verses one through 13, I would like to prepare your minds a bit so that you can see how important this is.

Even in our day, we continue to watch the deadly influences of Satan, and his world system wreak havoc upon our culture and our government and individual people. Certainly, the Judge Kavanaugh hearings are only a public sample of the kind of wickedness that is occurring in secret. We are witnessing dear friends, the effects of what Paul called "man's wisdom" that God considers foolishness; man's wisdom that he will ultimately destroy. And much of what we are seeing is wrapped up in a neat package called social justice that I've preached on before. In fact, I've written a new blog that's on our website, if you'd like to read that. Social justice, of course, is a very clever pseudonym for all that the wicked tends to demand, everything from the radical feminists to the leftists to homosexuals, transgenders, and on and on it goes. And unfortunately, these political and philosophical ideologies continue to make their way into the church, and when they do, immorality will surely follow.

And this was Paul's great concern in Corinth, they had, as you will recall, a very self-inflated opinion of their own wisdom, of the philosophies of the day, of their own political parties, and they were devoted to the agendas of their favorite group, and all of this was causing division in the church. Little by little, these philosophical ideas were conforming them into the world around them; and what was happening is they were unable to see the corrupting influences of sin, and this is what we see happening today. Paul was concerned about the spiritual hypocrisy that inevitably results when you allow the world to begin to squeeze you into its mold. You begin to think like it, you begin to adopt its ideologies, you bring it into the church, and inevitably, it will continue to influence the church and the people until the gospel is basically destroyed. We see this in evangelicalism today. Evangelical leaders being seduced by the political sirens of the culture so that they will embrace the latest cause of the culture. And today, it's kind of wrapped up in this idea of social justice. You see people devoted to things like homosexuality, and I'm especially grieved over some of the contact that I've had with other evangelical leaders around the country this week regarding the gay Christianity movement. I give this to you as just an example.

For example, you can go to pulpit and pen the website. You can read some of this article there, and there's other places, but there's an increasing number of evangelicals that are supporting Sam Allberry, who is the founder of an organization called Living out and it's fully devoted to this false teaching of so called, quote, "gay Christianity." They argue that practicing sodomy is not acceptable, but having the desire to do so is. That same-sex attraction is acceptable, that it's not a sin, and therefore homosexuals cannot expect to be changed by the Holy Spirit when they come to Christ and they're not going to be given a new nature that somehow overpowers that desire and that there are elements of the, quote, "gay culture" that are redeemable and should be celebrated. This is coming into the church. This errant, unbiblical philosophy is now being embraced by evangelical organizations like the Gospel coalition, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which is the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. And of course, one of the most prominent supporters of albury's Gay ministry is Tim Keller, that I've warned you about before, and now I'm sad to say that even Mark Dever of Nine Marks in Capitol Hill Baptist Church seems to be embracing this. They're going to be hosting a quote "Living Out training conference for church leaders" this November. I'm praying, by the way, that he will change his mind.

Folks never, ever underestimate the power of Satan and his world system to bring destruction into your life and into the church. It is deadly and it is dangerous. Of course, Satan's world system, as we see biblically, is a system of false religions and ungodly philosophies, violence, crime, materialism, godless lifestyle, vain pursuits, all of these things that govern the affections and the will of unbelievers and bring disgust to believers who reject it. In fact, one of the greatest evidences of genuine saving faith is a growing rejection of worldliness that dominates and destroys humanity. I have noticed that as I age, many things tend to happen, but one thing for certain is my contempt for the world only increases, and my love for righteousness only increases, because as you age, you see more and more of the mounting evidence of the unimaginable heartaches that occurs when you subtly embrace the world and let it into your life and let it into your family and let it into the church. The world system can be likened to a rising flood - flood waters that begin to push against a dike. It pushes and it pushes until it finally finds that slightest weakness, and then the erosion begins with a trickle, but it ends in a torrent. The spiritual dike of our life, dear friends, must be high, it must be strong, it must be constantly inspected and fortified. And the same is true in the church.

And this is why Paul is so concerned about what is going on in the church, he was concerned about the effects of worldliness, and therefore the persistent, egregious sin of immorality that was being ignored in the church, the weakness in their dike was the worldliness and the arrogance of the people that caused them to not only excuse the sin, but to rationalize it away and kind of turn their heads the other way. But folks, persistent sin will ruin the testimony of a church. It will ruin your life, your testimony and your family, and certainly it undermines the testimony of the gospel. How many times have you heard unbelievers say, "I don't want anything to do with the church because it's full of a bunch of hypocrites." When sin is left unchecked in your life or in the church, it will eventually drown you in a flood of misery and despair and sickness and even death; it will cause you, and especially a church, to forfeit blessing. Ichabod will be written across the doorway, which means "the glory has departed," and ultimately that will bring judgment upon a church that can affect generations.

You know, it all begins with smug self-satisfaction. We can become kind of spiritual know-it-alls, and these people ascend to positions of leadership. They're ruled by the flesh, not by the Spirit. They excuse, they rationalize, sin, rather than mourn over it. And little by little, individual consciences are silenced, biblical standards of righteousness are gradually lowered more and more and more. In most cases, there will be an over emphasis on God's grace, which will eclipse God's call to obedience, and the Church will become a breeding ground for sin. The types of sin, for example, that Paul has summarized in the passage that we're about to read - the sins of arrogance, malice, wickedness, immorality, covetousness, idolatry, reveling, which means slandering, drunkenness, swindling and so forth. The tares begin to choke out the wheat. Ungodly leaders begin to emerge. They fail to feed, to nurture, to protect the sheep, and the flock gets malnourished, and the leaven of sin begins to increase more and more, bringing its destruction into the church, and eventually sin will be so rampant that any kind of discipline will be met with fierce opposition. Doctrinal preaching will gradually disappear. Social causes will dominate. Biblical shepherding and evangelism will get lost in all of the programs and all of the ministries of the church. There will be lots of words, but no power, and the church will become nothing more than a religious social club that can share the same slogan as Outback Steakhouse, "no rules, just right."

A study on church discipline, done by Dr Chuck Lawless, who is the professor of evangelism and missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, revealed 12 reasons why most churches do not practice church discipline. Let me read them to you. Number one, they don't know the Bible's teaching on discipline. Number two, they have never seen it done before. Thirdly, they don't want to appear judgmental. Number four, the church has a wide-open front door. Number five, they have had a bad experience with discipline in the past. Number six, the church is afraid to open quote "Pandora's Box." Number seven, they have no guidelines for discipline. Number eight, they fear losing members and therefore losing dollars. Number nine, their Christianity is individualistic and privatized. Number 10, they fear being legalistic. Number 11, they hope transfer growth will fix the problem. In other words, we hope that the sinning people will leave the church and go somewhere else. And number 12, leaders are sometimes dealing with their own sin and therefore don't want to deal with the sins of others.

Well, dear friends, all of this is contrary to Scripture. And with this, I want to bring you to the text here in First Corinthians, chapter five, beginning in verse one, Paul says to the church at Corinth,

"It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.

You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I, on my part, though absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavensthe whole lump of dough?

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;

I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard or a swindler - not even to eat with such a one.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?

But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES."

I wish to exposit this text under four headings that I think will serve us well in our understanding and application of what the Spirit of God would have us understand regarding church discipline. We're going to look at number one, the prerequisite. Number two, the procedure. Number three, the purpose and finally, the parameters of church discipline.

Notice, first of all, the prerequisite in verse one, "It is actually reported..."  The idea here is that this is common knowledge. "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you." Immorality translates the Greek word "porneia," where we get our word pornography. Pornography from that word, it refers to any kind of sexually illicit activities that are contrary to biblical principles. I hear that that's among you, "and immorality of such a kind does not exist even among the Gentiles." Well, what is it? "That someone has his father's wife." Present tense here it means that this has been going on for some time, and it still continues.

Now what he's referring to here is a form of incest. A man is literally living with his stepmother, which was equally as abhorrent, for example, in the Old Testament, as a man fornicating with his natural mother; both are considered abominations to God worthy of capital punishment. You can read about it in Leviticus 18 and Deuteronomy 22. It was also forbidden under Roman law and what he's saying here is, yet you're actually allowing this to go on in the church? You're not doing anything about it? Now, what's interesting is, since the charge was not adultery, the woman was probably divorced from the father, and perhaps it was because of the incestuous relationship with the son we don't know, but neither the son nor the stepmother arelegally married. They're just living together in a state of fornication. And so we might also say that he is violating the whole concept of being yoked equally with a believer; he's unequally yoked with an unbeliever. You read about that in Second Corinthians six.

By the way, as a footnote, because this comes up every now and then. Living together outside of marriage is an abomination to God. God's institution of marriage is to be a lifelong commitment, a covenantal relationship between a man and a woman that is to model God's covenantal relationship to his people, the church. And according to First Corinthians six, nine, the quote immoral, the sexually immoral. In other words, those who have an unbroken pattern of sexual immorality in their life, they indulge in sexual immorality, particularly unmarried persons, the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom. In other words, their lifestyles prove that they are not within the spiritual sphere of salvation where God rules as the king of their life. So they're not part of that spiritual kingdom.

Now back to the text. What we see here is a man who obviously claimed to be a believer and part of the church, but he's called, in verse 11, "a so-called brother." Now if he remains in this sin, it's going to prove that he's probably not a brother at all, but he is a brother in Christ, this is how they're viewing it at this point. And so he is therefore the object of church discipline. But there's no such charge for the woman, she's not a part of the church, evidently. So she is an unbeliever.

So Paul is incredulous about what's happening here, and he has spent, as you will recall four chapters - four chapters, confronting their pride and boasting, worldliness, immaturity, love for man's wisdom, jealousy and strife and factious sectarianism in the church.

Now, of course, all of those kinds of things predispose a people to even further sin, even to the point of tolerating something like this. Talk about unrestrained pride. That's why he says in verse two, "You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead..." that is such a powerful statement. Think about this. He's saying your self-righteous, self-satisfying pride has blinded you to God's standard of righteousness. Instead of mourning over sin, you're ignoring it. You're tolerating it as if it's no big deal. This is unbelievable. Folks, isn't that what we all tend to do? You know, we have to choose between God's standard and the world's standard. God's standard is so clear. It's a standard of holiness set forth in his word. For example, in Romans 12 two, we are told, "Do not be conformed to this world." Second Corinthians 7:1, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness and the fear of God." Ephesians five, beginning in verse three, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints, and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting." It goes on to say, "For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Titus, chapter two and verse 12, we are told that we are to "deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, and righteously and godly in this present age."

Well, now, of course, the world has its own standard, and that standard is very appealing to our flesh, because our flesh basically says, if it feels good, do it, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. Too many people today, even in evangelical circles, are warming up more and more to the world standards. After all, we have Christian liberty, right? Grace covers all our sin; plus,many people subtly think, you know what my good kind of outweighs the bad. So I think I'm good. Beloved, our pride can excuse, it can rationalize, it can justify the most vile sins in our life and even in the lives of our children. And when this happens, there will be no mourning over sin; the type of sins that grieve the Holy Spirit. We will not mourn over the sins we see in our children or in our own lives, our family and our church. Oh, dear Christian, examine your heart. Don't let the world break through your spiritual dike and sweep you and your family into a deluge of sorrow.

Now, some historical background is important here. The letter to the Corinthians was written in the latter part of 55 ad and we know that first century churches were really thriving; they were strong until about the mid 60s, at which time they began to decline because of worldliness and false teaching. The seven churches of Asia Minor described in Revelation two and three give testimony to this. And one of the things that was going on during that time was what we called pre-Gnostic teaching. And this pre-Gnostic teaching included many things, but one was this idea that they literally encouraged people to engage and explore the sphere of Satan's domain. Revelation two verse 24 describes it as "the deep things of Satan." They literally argued that participation in evil, with the body, really causes no harm to the spirit, so it's not that big of a deal. And of course, this was a damning lie. And Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, saw all of this coming, which explains his insistence upon sound doctrine and purity in the church. And it's fascinating to see the devastating influence of that type of teaching upon the church.

You will recall in Revelation two God praised the church at Thyatira. By the way, it was, it was about 40 years old at this time; he praised her for for their deeds. He says, "'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.'" In other words, there's some great things going on in this church, but, he says,

"I have this against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bondservants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.

Behold, he says, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.

And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.'"

Folks, God simply does not tolerate persistent sin in his church or in the lives of his children; believers who are dealing with life-dominating sins, and they refuse to mourn over that, to confess them, to repent of that, will see those sins increase in power and strength and spread like gangrene. Those sins will gradually grow and it will ruin your testimony, and it will place you in the path of divine chastening, as it did here in this example in Revelation two. Paul was so concerned about this that he later said in Second Corinthians 12, verse, 21, "I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced."

Now folks I can tell you, having counseled literally hundreds and hundreds of people over some 30 years, that sin always begins very small, seemingly inconsequential little thing, likelittle tiny seeds, but like a little seed, they can grow into massive thorns and thistles; we always reap far more than we sow, right? Let me tell you how it typically goes. You have a husband and a wife who show little regard for the things of God and their life and their marriage, but they go to church all the time. They have what's called churchianity, kind of a Christ less Christianity. And one of the things they fail to do is properly instruct their children, so little acts of defiance are dismissed as just being naughty rather than deadly. Gradually, they find themselves living in a child-centered home where little Johnny and little Mary are in control. The whole family orbits around the whims of the children. Mom and Dad have no real fear of God, no commitment to personal holiness, no devotion to God's standards. Privately within their heart and within their family, they just go to church. Everything looks good on the outside, and so they become increasingly tolerant of those things that are displeasing to God in their own lives and in their family. Of course, they have no discernment about what's going on in the church. So little by little, they begin to grieve the Spirit, quench the Spirit, forfeit blessing in their life, and they slowly distance themselves from fellowship with God. Gradually, standards of righteousness are lowered. Kids are given unrestricted access to television and the Internet. In many cases, alcohol becomes the dominant feature in the family gatherings, they fail to realize the danger there, that what the parents do in moderation, the kids tend to do in excess. Sexually explicit materials are increasingly tolerated, until a lower standard becomes the new norm. So little Mary, who is desperate for attention as a teenager and ruled by her lust, begins to do and say things that are increasingly immoral and ungodly. You can see it in how she begins to dress, she thinks that she needs to be the center of attention. Boys are constantly on her mind.

Little Johnny becomes a slave to sin. He maybe develops some kind of an addiction to pornography, and he succumbs to peer pressure. He wants to be cool like the rest of the guys, and so he's always trying to be noticed. He's always after the girls. There's nothing in his heart that wants to pursue godliness and righteousness. The world is taking him over, and it's usually at this point in a family, dear friends, that I get the phone call. The wife is sobbing, and she says, "My husband has left me." Or the husband is sobbing and saying, "My wife has left me." Or my husband or wife has had an affair, or my husband has been abusing little Mary or beating the wife, or little Mary is pregnant, Johnny has a venereal disease. The kids just got picked up with a DUI. They're addicted to alcohol or drugs. They're threatening suicide, on and on it goes. And then eventually those kids grow up living a Christless Christianity, until eventually they live as if God doesn't even exist in their life. Folks, you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind and the misery and the heartache and the divorce and the disease and even death is certain to come.

By the way, the good news is there's grace. Isn't it wonderful to know that? That God is faithful to forgive those who repent. And you know, without fail, when I talk with people, they will say something like this, "I just don't know how we got here." Well, I can tell you how you got there. It's right here in verse two, you became arrogant, and you did not mourn instead. You became arrogant about your sin and your spirituality; you failed to mourn over it. You know, if you found out that you had a little bit of cancer, what do you think you would say to the doctor? Well, I'm glad it's just a little bit, let's don't worry about it, kind of keep an eye on it, see how things go. Of course not. You would want it eradicated, completely, immediately.

Well, this is the type of thing that was going on, even in Corinth and in every church. Little by little, the standards were becoming lower and lower until finally, you tolerate the most egregious kind of sin. So this was the prerequisite for discipline, not only for the sake of preserving the testimony of the church, but also to restore the sinning brother to a place of fellowship. Well, what about the procedure? Notice, verse two, "You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst." He's referring to excommunication here. "For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who is commit, who has so committed this, as though I were present." No, Paul knew precisely what needed to be done here, he says, "In the name of our Lord Jesus..." in other words, acting consistent with his word and for his glory, "...when you are assembled..." the idea here is, when you are assembled for the purpose of disciplining this brother and, "...I with you in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus," it says, "I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan." "Deliver" is a powerful word in the original language "paradidōmi." It means to give one over for judicial sentencing. It was also used to describe handing someone over to an executioner; "...deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

You know, whenever church discipline occurs, the Lord tells us in Matthew 18, verse 18, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." This, by the way, underscores the church's authority to declare the judgment of heaven based on the principles of the word. And when this is done, we can be sure that heaven is in accord. Whatever we bind, he says, or loose on earth. In other words, whatever we declare to be guilty, or innocent is already bound or loosed in heaven. By the way, the phrases "bound in heaven" and "loosed in heaven" were rabbinical expressions describing actions that were either forbidden or permitted in light of God's revealed will. John MacArthur said it well, he says, quote, "Never is the church more in harmony with heaven and operating in perfect accord with her Lord than when dealing with sin to maintain purity." End quote.

Back to Matthew 18 and verse 19, "'Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by the Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name...'" in other words, gathered togetherfor the purpose of church discipline, whenever you have done that, "'I am there in their midst.'"

By the way, the two or three harkens back to verses 15 and 16 of Matthew 18, regarding the two or three witnesses that are to be a part of the confrontation process to validate whether or not a person is truly guilty or innocent or repentant or unrepentant. You may recall that there's four steps in church discipline. Number one, you go to that person privately, you confront them. You hope that there is, there is repentance and restoration, if not, step two, you bring another one or two people with you to go through, the you know, the same process here. And then step three is in verse 17 of Matthew 18. "'If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.'" You enlist the rest of the church to pray for these people, to try to confront them and restore them. And then step four, if he refuses to listen even to the church, back to verse 17, "'let him be to use a Gentile and a tax collector.'" And there you have excommunication. In other words, remove the detrimental influence of that sinning person from the fellowship of the church and treat him as an unbeliever, even though they may say they're a believer, they're acting like a hard-hearted, impenitent unbeliever, and so you treat them that way; becomes an issue of evangelism at that point.

You see folks, to put an unrepentant, sinning member out of the church, removes him from the blessing of fellowship. Never underestimate the power of that. They are removed from the care and the protection of the body of Christ, and they're delivered over to the darkness and the dangers of the world. That's why he says in verse five, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. In other words, give him over to the world that he loves, and there he will suffer greatly at the hands of Satan and his minions, which can even include death as the term.

By the way, destruction can often refer in the original language (audio not available for transcription).....I've seen this many times, true believers who yield themselves to sin, they refuse to submit to the authority that God has placed over them. They're unrepentant, and the consequences of divine chastening can be so severe. Think what happened to the arrogant Corinthians who mocked the Lord's Supper. We're going to read about this later on, First Corinthians 11:30, Paul says, "For this reason many of you are weak and sick and a number sleep." In other words, a number were killed, God just took them out. Now mind you, not all sickness and disease and suffering is a consequence of sin. We understand that; Job was a great example of that; the man that was born blind in John chapter nine was another example. Verse two of that text says, Jesus said it was "neither that this man sinned nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him." And what a marvelous thing it is to behold God's glory being manifested in some suffering saint who is committed to faithfully following the Lord come what may.

But there are times when suffering, sickness and even death are directly related to an unrepentant sinner. Remember Ananias and Sapphira, great example of that. And what was the result in Acts five? "As a result, a great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things." Beloved, never think that you can sin with impunity, and God is just going to turn his head and look the other way. Nor can we do that as his under shepherds. This should grieve us.

Like any loving father, he's going to discipline his children. You may recall that Paul excommunicated Hymenaeus and Alexander for their false teaching. First Timothy 1:20, "...whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to discipline.” in other words, leave them exposed to the satanic influences of evil in hopes that they will repent and come running back to the sphere of God's protection and blessing. Folks, it is so tragic to be removed from the church, I’ve seen it happen in this church before, and in some cases, people have repented, and we have celebrated that. In many cases they haven't. Suddenly, they're in the realm of Satan, and they develop ungodly friends. They may marry ungodly people. They're immersed in this diabolical yet ingenious world system of Satan, and they begin to walk in the counsel of the wicked and stand in the paths of sinners, until finally, they sit in the seat of scoffers. Some of you have been there, haven't you? And like the prodigal son by God's grace, you were convicted, and you came home.

So what must be done? Well, they have to be removed from the midst of the church, delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Why? He answers it, "that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." My what an incentive. But where would there be an incentive for a man to repent, if his sin is tolerated in the church? There would be none. And see, we must understand that discipline is not about retribution. It's about restoration. It's about loving a person enough to confront them in their sin and point them to God's standard of holiness. And maybe this guy did repent, he may be the person that Paul later alluded to in Second Corinthians regarding the need, you remember this, for the congregation to "forgive and comfort in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his scheme." Second, Corinthians two, five through 11 speaks of that whole thing.

So folks, we can never tolerate that type of sin in the church, and to do so circumvents God's divine chastening in an individual's life to bring them to a place of repentance. But we also must be quick to forgive those who are repentant and who seek forgiveness, and even for those that remain in their sin, that have been removed from the fellowship; we still have to love them. We want to love them. Paul describes this in Second Thessalonians three. He says, "If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person. Do not associate with him so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy butadmonish him as a brother."

Well, we've seen the prerequisite in the procedure. What about the purpose? Verse six, "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven, leavens the whole lump of dough?" Leaven is a fascinating concept in Scripture. It is typically a symbol of influence, and most of the time, evil influence. One scholar by the name of Mitten said this, "Leaven is not quite the same as yeast. In ancient times, instead of yeast, a piece of dough was held over from one week's baking to the next. By then it was fermenting and so could cause fermentation in the new lot of dough, causing it to rise in the heat. This was a useful practice, but not hygienic, since dirt and disease could be passed on from week to week." They go on to say, "In the light of this, once a year, the Jews would break the chain and begin all over again with fresh unleavened dough. Hence, the influence of a small amount of material carried over from the past was eradicated and a new beginning took place."

Now you may recall that when God delivered his covenant people Israel from the Egyptians, he required them to bake bread in preparation for their journey, but he told them, don't put any leaven in the dough that would make it rise. Of course, there wasn't much time for that. They had to prepare to leave in a hurry. But why no leaven? Well, the answer is this. We must understand that bread, biblically always symbolizes life in Scripture, and our life simply cannot be tainted by the leaven of the old life, in this case, their old life in Egypt; all of that was to be left behind completely. And this, of course, is symbolized in the Lord's Supper. This can only happen ultimately through faith in Christ.

Now, the Exodus from Egypt was therefore symbolic of God's delivering them from the bondage of sin and sorrow and death and their entrance into the promised land and the blessing that would come. And so Paul says here in verse seven, "Clean out the old leaven..." clean out, I want you to understand this. Listen carefully. This is a command. It's what we call an imperative, and it's an ongoing command. In fact, the Greek word literally means to continually, thoroughly, root out and purge out and cleanse out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are, in fact, unleavened. It's interesting, if you think about it, we obey the imperative because the indicative is true. Now, what's the indicative? Indicative simply means the statement of fact, a statement of fact concerning what Christ has done and the reality of our salvation. So the indicative is, shall we say, the wellspring of our obedience. And what is the indicative here? What's the statement of fact, for Christ, our Passover, has also been sacrificed.

Now you will recall, in the Exodus, what this meant was this, you have to purge out everything leavened. And we know that this is what happened. They purged out everything leavened prior to the Passover, to emphasize the utter separation from all of the pagan abominations that have influenced them. And here, this imagery refers to the church and our need to be unleavened, to be separate from the world, to purge ourselves for from any influence of sin. Why? For Christ our Passover has also been sacrificed. What an incredible thought, what a powerful thought, what a deterrent from sin - to focus on the reality that the one who died in my place and who has delivered me from the penalty and power of sin has asked me to keep the old leaven out.

Some of the Jews, even to this day, when it comes Passover time, will take leaven and they will throw it all around their house. I have seen this in Israel. They will throw it under the refrigerator. They will throw it in the vents where the cooler heat comes up, throw it up on cupboard. They'll throw it everywhere, hard to reach places, and then they will absolutely tear that house apart, cleaning up all the leaven, symbolizing their obedience to this thing. You know what? I am so glad that Christ did all of this for me, aren't you? I mean, I understand the symbolism, but the reality is Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. Therefore, he says in verse eight, "Let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven..." in other words, not with the pagan, ungodly, politically correct, unbiblical, worldly corruptions that are constantly seeking influence in our lives, "...nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." So this needs to be our continuous commitment.

There are some interesting words here, "malice" refers to evil habits of thought in the mind, and that's the opposite of sincerity, which in the Greek literally means to be examined by the sun's light and to be found pure and unadulterated. And so he's saying, don't have an evil habit of the mind that will tolerate evil mixed with good. He also uses the word "wickedness." These are ungodly actions that flow from the poison well of malice, that mind that is trained in evil. Sohe's saying here, don't allow the fermentation of malice and wickedness to permeate, to corrupt and spread in your life and in the church. Instead, let the new creation - realities of purity and truth - -be reflected in your mind and flow out of your will in your life and in the church.

This is why we have to discipline unrepentant sin. And finally, what are the parameters? Well, he says here, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." "Associate" means to keep intimate, close fellowship or company with. Now, "I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world." And evidently some of them must have broken off friendships, even with their unbelieving friends. But verse 11, he says, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, covetous, idolater, reviler, drunkard, swindler - not to even eat with such a one."

Folks, I want to tell you, it is far more dangerous associating with worldly believers than worldly unbelievers. Worldly professors of Christ will gradually permeate the church with their sinful ideas and behaviors. You know, it doesn't take long for one rotten apple to ruin the whole bunch, right? And it's very hard for immature believers to discern truth from error when they see a believer living out some crazy thing, like a gay Christian, don't associate with. Parents, let me underscore this. Don't let your kids associate with these kinds of people. He gives a list here, immoral person, by the way, this is sin, a sin against your body. Immorality, a sin against the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Or the covetous; this is a sin against your neighbor, wanting what your neighbor has, doing anything you can to get it. Or an idolater, there is a sin against God, and whenever a man worships the true God falsely, or redefines him, or attributes to him that which is not true, he is an idolater. Don't associate with revilers. This is a term that means an angry, quarrelsome slanderer, a person who would be in the church that's constantly running down other people that don't agree with them, ridiculing those in the church with whom you may differ. By the way, he was probably setting them up for Timothy, who was about to come to them, and he was afraid that they would probably reject him. Then he even adds drunkards and swindlers not to even eat with such a one. In other words, you don't fellowship with these kind of people socially.

"For what have I to do with judging outsiders?" Obviously, nothing. You evangelize the lost. You don't judge them to purify the church. Then he says, "Do you not judge those who are within the church?" And the answer is, of course you do, because you cannot allow egregious, unrepentant patterns of sin to infect the entire church. Plus, you don't want to fail a sinning brother by ignoring their sin and refusing to confront them and try to restore them to fellowship and just let them wander off into divine chastening. You want to see them come to true faith in Christ.

Finally, verse 13, "But those who are outside God judges." So he adds this, and this is really a quote from Deuteronomy 13, five, "REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES."

Dear friends, I challenge you, I plead with you, do not underestimate the seriousness and consequences of sin in your life, in your family, in the church; the power of the world - don't underestimate it. Deal with it. Aggressively kill it before it kills you. Guard your heart, guard your family, guard the church, and may all of us who celebrate the grace of God - who is long suffering - be willing to come before him on a regular basis and say, "Oh, Spirit of God, help me to see those areas in my life where I'm blind, where the enemy is beginning to corrupt my thinking. Help me to deal with that."

If you're here today and you don't know Christ, oh, I just plead with you that you will come running to the cross, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. So let's all together celebrate the gospel, and all that God has given us in Christ. Amen.

Father, thank you for the truths of your word. May we live them out in humble obedience, forever celebrating your grace in our lives, we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.