Desert Hills Bible Church Sermons
How to Respond to Sin in the Church, Part 4 - 1 Cor 5:9-13 (Robb Brunansky)
well good morning it's so good to be here be outside with you it is a warm November day when we were planning this we looked at the weather and it rains an average of three days in the month of November in the great I'm not used to adore being there in the greater Phoenix area and so is a 10% chance this was not going to work out and the Lord has been gracious and we had the first two days of November it rained this month I don't know if you remember that but I was like okay that means just one out of 28 now for the rest of the month it is but it's it's a joy to be here and just to celebrate Thanksgiving together we're gonna be in first Corinthians five nine through 13 finishing up this chapter this morning and I'm gonna record this on my phone to just in case we have a power outage all right first Corinthians chapter five versus nine through 13 is where we'll be spending our time and in this chapter Paul is exhorting the Corinthian church to practice church discipline Paul had heard that a member of that church was living in an incestuous relationship with his father's wife most likely his stepmother and while that was a shocking report what was even more disheartening to the Apostle Paul was that the church at Corinth was so proud and so puffed up that they took no action against this man who was entangled in unthinkable immorality their inaction was dangerous on two fronts first it imperiled the immoral man because it allowed him to live in sin without consequence and without a call to repentance and Paul outlined this danger in verses 3 through 5 as Paul will go on to say in chapter 6 verses 9 and 10 the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God if someone in the church is living in sexual sin or some other sinful practice there are only two possible explanations to explain why a member of the church is living in immorality or sin one reason is is because it's a true believer who needs help to get disentangled from his sin the culture of pendants through church discipline is necessary to help that believer get out of their sin they have gotten stuck in sin they become entangled with sin and we all understand that there are certain times in life when maybe you get stuck and you can't get out on your own you need someone to come along and help you and there are times when a believer may get stuck in sin he may get entangled in sin and he may want to get out but he doesn't have the resources or the wisdom or the maturity or the self-discipline to do that and he needs the church to come alongside and help him get out of that sin and so sometimes this is why church discipline is necessary to help genuine believers who are stuck in sin to get back on track the other possibility is that the person is a false brother or sister that they're a member of the church but they're not really converted they're a part of the visible church externally but they've never been born again and what they need to know in that case is that they are not truly saved sometimes people think they're saved and they're not they're deceived about their own spiritual condition and so church discipline is a way to issue a wake up call to the false believer to the false brother or sister so that he or she can see their own spiritual condition brought face-to-face with the reality of their sin and their lack of transformation by the grace of Christ because the grace of God transforms us it changes us and as somebody is a member of the church and they haven't been changed they haven't been transformed by grace they need to see that and come to terms with the reality that they are not truly in Christ so that when Christ comes they might before that repent and believe the gospel and truly be saved and that's our prayer when somebody is under church discipline our prayers that they would repent that they would truly believe in Christ if they're not saved or that if they are saved they would get back on track and begin to walk in obedience but if we fail to practice church discipline we never engage with anyone like this in a meaningful way which imperils those who are trapped in sin leaving them vulnerable to destruction when Christ returns second if we fail to enact church discipline not only do we imperil the sinner but we imperil the church the whole church is endangered and that was the point in verses 6 through 8 a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough a little sin allowed in the church will infect the people of God and eventually break out in a deadly plague of wickedness throughout the church church discipline is a tool that God has given the church then to protect itself against the deadly disease of sin those who live and open rebellion against God are removed from the church so that such behavior does not imperil the entire body of Christ from being defiled by sin and so church discipline is critical for the spiritual life of the sinner and that is critical for the spiritual purity of the church as a whole now it's at this point that Paul anticipates in objection to what he is saying an objection to church discipline from the Corinthians and perhaps from future readers as well and the objection that Paul expects to come at this point in the letter is this Paul sin is everywhere sin is everywhere and so if we separate ourselves from sin and we separate ourselves from sinners where are we going to live how can we do that practically how is this realistic to practice church discipline this is an exercise in futility Paul sinners are everywhere you can't avoid sin and so rooting sin out of the church is ineffective and useless and impractical if we are so susceptible to sin infecting us when we come in contact with unrepentant sinners how will we ever survive in a world that is defined by unrepentant sinners church discipline is useless to protect us when we live in such a sinful fall and world well the precise nature of this objection may be raised today we often face a similar but not identical objection to practicing church discipline that fits with what Paul writes in these next verses some people say this why should the church bother to practice church discipline when the person under discipline can just leave the church and go to another church down the street church discipline is ineffective because there are so many churches you might attend this church disciplines you that's fine you go to the next church and that church disciplines you then you go to the next church and and you're not going to run out of churches in the Phoenix metro area to attend and so is there any relevance of this today when it's so easy to jump from church to church without consequences very few churches will ask you why you left your previous church very few churches will follow up if there was church discipline very few churches will work together with other churches to try to help you repent and walk in an obedient manner to Christ if you're under church discipline and so what is the point of this in fact in my experience many people leave the church in the middle of the process of church discipline before we get to step four before we get to removing somebody from the fellowship they just remove themselves they can see where it's going they don't want to repent of their sin and so they just go to another church before we finish the process and so if if someone's going to do that what is the point of the whole thing why even engage with church discipline at all now these are these are powerful objections that require a serious and a thoughtful response and that's what Paul gives in verses 9 through 13 notice when he writes he says 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 Paul doesn't deny the reality that ungodly people are everywhere in the world but here's what he wants us to understand as a church to be relentlessly biblical we must know how to interact with ungodly people wherever we find them if we want to be a relentlessly biblical church we must understand how to interact and relate to those who are ungodly disobedient to Christ rebellious against his word we must know how to interact with them wherever we find them in the church outside the church and there is a different process for handling ungodly people outside the church then there is for handling ungodly people inside the church the dangers posed by each scenario are different and so the response is that God has given us in each scenario are different and Paul closes this section on church discipline and handling sin in the church by expanding his discussion on how to deal with sin and sinners wherever we find them and it's a very practical section talking to us about practical steps we take and when to take them as we deal with sin outside the church and sin inside the church now to this end Paul begins in verses 9 through 11 with two clarifications two clarifications verse nine begins with a statement that has generated a lot of discussion among Bible scholars and commentators and believers over the years Paul says I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people and the immediate question that comes to mind I think is what letter this is first Corinthians right so what letter is he talking about that comes before first Corinthians well most likely Paul wrote the Corinthians a letter previously to this and that letter is no longer in existence today there are no copies of it there's no mention of it there's no quotes from it we could say in a sense if we wanted to be technically correct that first Corinthians is actually second Corinthians and whenever we get to second Corinthians we'll see that that's probably fourth Corinthians if we really are sequencing out the letters as Paul wrote and how many he wrote to the Corinthians but he wrote the Corinthians a letter before first Corinthians that letter has not survived but in that letter Paul says he told them do not associate with immoral people now we don't know what situation he was addressing when he told them that maybe there was another immoral situation in the church that they had to deal with perhaps Paul was giving them instructions based on the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 and there wasn't necessarily a particular immoral situation he was dealing with he was just telling them that this is what the apostles have decided that Gentiles are welcome in Christ without circumcision by faith alone and God does not want them practicing sexual immorality and so it may be that Paul was giving them a general word of exhortation but regardless of what it was the Corinthians seized upon this statement and they widely misinterpreted it I think intentionally to avoid dealing with their sin you ever seen this before take the Bible use the Bible to escape the Bible set the Bible against itself you've got your little sin over here that you want to practice you've got an idol that you want to protect and so what do you do when the Bible tells you don't do that you you find another passage and you convolute the Bible to justify your ungodliness this happens all the time in the church happens all the time in the world people pervert the Bible Peter talked about it in 2 Peter 3 didn't he how there were some who perverted Paul's writings to their own destruction and I think that's what's happening here the Corinthians took something Paul had written to them and they twisted it to justify their sin to escape the reality of what God was calling them to do and so Paul gives them two clarifications so that they cannot wiggle out of what God's will is the first clarification verse 10 is this 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 so here this is the clarification here's what church discipline is not verse 10 this is what church discipline is not church discipline is not separating yourself from the world that is not church discipline that is not what we're talking about when Paul refers to this world he's not referring to the world understand this as a physical place but as a spiritual domain the world is the place where the prince of the power of the air is operating in the sons of disobedience it is the place where those whose eyes are blinded so they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ where they operate and live it's the present world that is passing away with its lusts so that we are not to love the world or the things in the world this is the realm characterized and defined by the lusts of the flesh and sin we are not to cease having social interactions with people who are of the world sexually immoral make no profession of faith in Christ this is not church discipline church not discipline is not to say if my next door neighbor is a homosexual or an adulterer or they're living with their girlfriend and they're a fornicator that I stop interacting with them if they make no profession of faith in Christ it's not church discipline Paul had some more sins doesn't he more these are sins that characterized the world covetous swindlers the covetous are the greedy they want more and more and more they want to have more they're never content with what they possess and swindlers scheme to steal so that they might have more and so Paul joins these together because he's often go hand in hand you have a a driving desire to get more you don't have the resources to get more how can you get more steel swindle take advantage of people have no ethical scruples swindlers are those who's only ethical guideline is do what benefits me regardless of how it affects you or whether things belong to you so this is these are sins that characterized the world in fact at the start of chapter six as we'll see beginning next week some Christians were doing this to other Christians in the church and so people were suing each other in the church because people were trying to defraud one another in the church because of their covetousness Paul addresses how horrifying that is in chapter six and it should never happen in the church but it's not uncommon in the world for people to defraud others to steal from others to take advantage of others to enrich themselves Paul says I'm not talking about those in the world that are idolaters and this refers specifically to people who worship idols pagans who believe in other gods and worship them but in our idolatry series this summer we saw that the Bible expands the idea of idolatry beyond just bowing down in front of a statue and worshipping a false god that is in some physical shape to anyone who places anything above the true and living God someone who loves or trusts or desires something or someone in the place of God is an idolater and the world is characterized by idolatry everyone in the world is an idolater everyone no one can escape that charge who is outside of Christ and so even as some people in the world can maintain a sexual ethic and some people do and even as some unbelievers can treat others with justice and compassion rather than taking advantage of others or stealing from others or defrauding others as some in the world do no one in the world can say well I'm not an idolater all unbelievers by definition are idolaters they refuse to believe in Christ and so they worship false gods even people who say well I'm an atheist I'm not an idolater you have something you worship self money status your job your kids your family your wife whatever it might be politicians the government even atheists are idolaters and so this encompasses everyone in the world who rejects the gospel the sexually immoral the greedy the thieves the swindlers and somehow you're an unbeliever and you're a moral upright ethical person but you reject Christ you're an idolater so you're in that camp and Paul says I'm not saying you don't associate with those people those who are of the world who live lives defined by sin because that's ridiculous you can't do that as a Christian you can't avoid the idolaters in the world the sexually immoral that would require you to go out of the world there's a sense in which humanity is trying to go out of the world right now if you're following along with science and technology and space and all of that you know that Elon Musk will wear a shirt often that says occupy Mars and he stated many times probably says it every day on X that his goal in life is to make humanity multi-planetary life multi-planetary and eventually he wants to colonize Mars and beyond I don't think that he'll succeed but even if he did succeed here's what we need to understand even if you leave the physical world the planet you don't leave the world you can't leave the world by going to Mars sin will follow you wherever you go we could become multi-planetary we could become multi-galactic as a species and we could become multi whatever is beyond galaxies I don't know what comes next after galaxies but we could inhabit all of those and you know what the world would still be there because it's all part of this present age it's all part of this creation that's under a curse and so Paul is not saying that to avoid sin and sinners we would need to go away from the planet he's saying that to avoid sin and sinners you'd have to go to another age you'd have to get to another dimension another realm where there's no sin where there's no curse Paul's not saying here that to avoid sin and sinners we would need to go live out in the desert like monks or separate ourselves from the ungodly so we have no un-Christian friends or no non-Christian coworkers and there are Christians that try to live like this aren't there there are people that they go to monasteries they don't want to be involved in the world they don't want to be near unbelievers or they don't they don't have any friends that are unbelievers they have to have only Christian friends and they don't interact with those who are who are non-Christians and they feel like as a Christian it's just not good for them to be around people who don't know Christ and they it's like they're trying to go out of the world while they're in the world church discipline and separating from sinners here has nothing to do with avoiding all contact with unbelievers and there's a reason for that isn't there because we're called to be salt and light in the world we're called to be witnesses of Christ in the world who is going to witness to the unbelievers if we all just go live in a monastery somewhere in South America where no human contact ever happens we have to be in the world Christ left us in the world to testify of him if we were to somehow escape the world we would be unable to fulfill our responsibility and privilege to be burning and shining light for Christ in a crooked and perverse generation now there's a limit to this isn't there Paul's not saying look have social interactions with the world pair up team up partner up with the unbelievers in 2nd Corinthians 614 Paul told the Corinthians they can't be too cozy with the world either do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness evidently they took 1 Corinthians 5 and said oh well that means we can be friends with the world let's start marrying unbelievers dating unbelievers starting businesses with unbelievers let's yoke up with the unbelievers and Paul says whoa that's too far I'm not saying you can't have any relationship with them but there's a limit you can't avoid associating with them but you shouldn't partner with them in intimate relationships and partnerships now that brings us to our second clarification church discipline is not ending relationships with unbelievers but what is it church discipline we see what it is in verse 11 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 here is what church discipline is it is to end association with people who are ungodly but say they're Christians that's what church discipline is Paul lists the four vices he noted in verse 10 immoral covetous idolater swindler and then adds two more reviler this is a very rare word both in the Old Testament and Greek as well as the New Testament it's only used one other place the New Testament first Corinthians 6 9 and 10 where we see the exact same list again expanded upon and the best way to understand this term is that it is someone who uses abusive speech to destroy others someone who uses abusive speech to destroy others one commentator put it like this it is someone who when they criticize others their words are not constructive but insultingly destructive criticism the necessary part of life isn't it because we're all we all fall short of the glory of God we all sin we're all imperfect there's always ways we could be better and so there's there's a time in a place and every circumstance for criticism but the question is when you criticize with your words what's your goal if you're a loving person your goal is to be constructive to build up as you criticize if you're a reviling person your goal is to insult those for their imperfections and their sins and their shortcomings and seek to destroy them rather than build them up the second person in the list is the drunkard this was a problem in Corinth in church can you imagine this first Corinthians 11 they're coming to the Lord's table and some of them are drunk unthinkable but this was obviously an issue that Paul would deal with and so he includes this type of sinful person here as well the person who is habitually intoxicated filled with alcohol rather than filled with the Holy Spirit of God now this is not an exhaustive list there's a lot of other vices and and there's a lot of other sins that we might need to respond to a church discipline but this is just a representative list now notice in verse 11 that Paul identifies persons here rather than actions I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother this is a person characterized in some way this is not speaking of an isolated act this is focusing on someone's character they're an immoral person they're marked as covetous this is who they are this is not a brother who got drunk one time and now out of the church you're done this is someone who is a drunkard this is not a brother who verbally assaulted someone lost their temper acted in an ungodly fleshy way but they didn't they don't normally do that but it was a one-off that's not what he's talking about he's talking about someone who does this as a pattern of life Tom Shreiner wrote this the people to be avoided are characterized by the sins mentioned people in the church are going to sin and the scripture says this love covers a multitude of sins you know how miserable it would be to be a member of a church where every time someone sand boom church discipline I mean that would no one would want to be in that church that would be a horrifying place to serve and worship because you're gonna sin and I'm gonna sin and if we're gonna pounce on one another every time we sin and fall short of the glory of God we're gonna destroy each other love covers a multitude of sins most of the time when someone sins in the church what should we do forgive let love cover it you don't you don't need to hammer people over the head over every sin and every shortcoming but when someone sins and they claim to be a Christian and they're characterized by that sin we begin to see you know that that wasn't an honest sin sinful mistake this is how they live this is who they are this is what characterizes that person Paul calls the church in that case then not to associate with someone like that furthermore Paul is not suggesting in church discipline that we look for hidden sins or motivations in people in church discipline them over things we can't see and we can't know we must base church discipline on observable behaviors that are contrary to the commands of Christ you must be able to see the sin not speculate about it not guess that this is what they're really thinking this is what they really meant any of you who are married husbands you ever have that conversation you say this and well this is what you really meant early on in marriage that happens a lot you know as you get as you get older it sends to lessen the longer you're married but those early days of marriage and then you say your wife well you said this and I know this is what you really meant you didn't say what you meant either right and and you can have these games or you begin to condemn each other over saying they didn't actually happen and saying that wasn't actually meant because you're trying to see what can't be seen and church discipline can't be done over invisible things motives thoughts intentions has to be observable behaviors Shreiner goes on to add this the list almost certainly focuses on activities and not motivations for instance a person is characterized by greed if there are particular actions which demonstrate the presence of greed in that person's life in other words you can't look at someone go I think they're greedy just based on the way they hold themselves carry themselves things they talk about things like that no it's what do they do do they do things that demonstrate they have a greedy heart now it's not an attitude or a internal thing that we're disciplining in the Old Testament a matter had to be established based on observable action and on the testimony of two or three witnesses who saw the evidence of it and church discipline is no different it has to be based on observable actions that is witnessed with two or three witnesses who can show that this characterizes someone's character we can't know the heart we might suspect that somebody is an idolater we might suspect that somebody is greedy we might suspect that somebody is immoral in their thinking but unless there are clear and convincing activities in their lives that demonstrate an idolatrous heart or an immoral heart or a greedy heart we can't move ahead in church discipline based on just what we think somebody might be thinking or what might be motivating them let me add one more thing about what church discipline is church discipline is for clear and unmistakable sins not matters of preference or opinion clear and unmistakable sins not matters of preference or opinion if we look at 1 Corinthians 5 what was the sin incest that's pretty clear right that's an obvious sin that's that's very clear violation of a command of Scripture we look at other passages like Titus 3 showing discord in the church is an observable sin you can see that you can watch as the church divides and defactions around personalities it's not hard to see it it's obvious it's evident we look at 2 Thessalonians 3 ignoring apostolic teaching and doctrine and saying things contrary to the word of God is an obvious and clear violation of God's will and so there will be many sins in the church that we witness that are not as clear not as obvious maybe they're internal they're related to motives and thoughts that no human being can see we can't discipline for those types of things that are not clearly contrary to Scripture and observable furthermore there are many gray areas in Scripture aren't there there are many gray areas in Scripture and we might disagree whether something is sin for example should a Christian acknowledge Halloween well about what I'm saying about that and so Christians have different opinions about it and then you could go a step further if somebody says yes you say how should you acknowledge Halloween what does that look like and then guess what there could be another 10,000 opinions about that and so there are certain things that Christians can disagree on and they feel very strongly about it they're very convicted about it but when you look at Scripture you there there's no clear command and Scripture that's being violated there are different preferences there are different convictions and I think there will be times in the church where people sharply disagree over whether something is sinful sharply but it's not clear from Scripture that it's sinful it's clear to you that it would be sinful for you but it's not clear from Scripture that would be sinful for everyone so what do you do well in such cases we're called to love one another rather than judge one another aren't we Romans 14 verse 10 Paul says this but you why do you judge your brother and he's talking about issues that are not clearly sin people feel strongly about them there are deep personal convictions but they're not clearly sin in Scripture and so what do we do do we church discipline each other over preferences and gray areas and disputeable matters no what do we do we love one another we seek to build one another up in those situations we don't bring church discipline against them we got the different opinion than us or a different preference than us and it takes some spiritual maturity to be able to figure out where that line is between our preferences sometimes and a clear command in Scripture but we have to discern that church discipline is only for clear and unmistakable sins that shape the pattern of a person's life and our expressions of ungodly character and when that happens we must not associate with that person do not associate with them this means to mix with someone to mix with someone it's in hosea seven eight the Prophet says this ephraim mixes himself with the nations ephraim has become a cake not turned why is it that Israel got defiled so quickly because they mixed with they associated with the pagan nations they formed alliances and treaties and intermarried with unbelievers with idolaters they allowed the wicked in and they got mixed up with them and then they fell under divine judgment and I think this is the idea in the background for what Paul is saying hosea seven eight that God's new covenant people can't mix up with the ungodly you can't have idolaters coming into the new covenant people of God and remaining there if that happens what's going to happen to the church become just like Israel of old we're gonna become unfaithful and so we don't mix up with them further Paul says to make this clearer what he is meaning by this he says we don't even eat with such a person you don't even eat with such a person now this statement reminds me of Genesis 43 32 where we find the same verb and we read that the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews for that is loathsome to the Egyptians does that mean that the Egyptians never had any interaction with the Hebrews at all no it doesn't mean that if it meant that they wouldn't have been able to buy bread they wouldn't have been able to feed their families when Joseph's family came he just said your Hebrews we have nothing to do with you go home that's that's not the meaning but what it meant was that there was a clear unmistakable line of demarcation that one group was outside one group was doing something or was something unacceptable that line was clearly drawn they could shop in the same stores they could eat in the same restaurants but there had to be clarity that this is a line of demarcation and we don't associate here because we don't have that level of intimacy and in the ancient world the meal was a sign of a deep level of intimacy with someone and so the Egyptians says we don't have that with the Jews they're loathsome to us and so what Paul is saying here when he says we don't eat with such a person is that we make it clear that they are not part of the church they are not part of the people of God that they are outsiders to the body of Christ until they turn away from their wicked ways. Second Thessalonians 3 14 and 15 really clarifies this for us Paul says this if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter take special note of that person and do not associate with him so that he will be put to shame it's the same word you're not associate with but then he says this yet do not regard him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother now that's interesting isn't it don't associate with him don't associate don't mix up with him but don't hate him don't think of him as an enemy admonish him you know what you can't do to somebody if you don't have any relationship at all admonish and so there there's an acceptable way of having an interaction with somebody who's under church discipline but the goal must be admonishment calling them to repentance not hey everything is cool you're still walking as a faithful believer there's no issues between us the issues need to be clear the discipline needs to be clear but there also needs to be the opportunity to speak truth into that person's life if they're willing to hear it there's there's a balance it's necessary in church discipline we want to give them an opportunity to repent and admonish them so this is not a total shunning you just you see them in the grocery store you turn around walk the other way I mean it might be awkward and you may feel like doing that because that it just can be a really uncomfortable situation when somebody's under church discipline you happen to see them in Walmart or something like that but but you don't have to avoid the person you can admonish them treat them as an unbeliever what would you do to an unbeliever run away no you would call them to repentance right you call them to repentance you make it clear they're outside of Christ and call them to repentance and so this tells us what church discipline is not and what church discipline is now this leads to two questions these clarifications lead to two questions in verse 12 the first question is this for what have I to do with judging outsiders and this is a rhetorical question where Paul puts himself in the place of any believer or any church and he says what do we as Christians or we as the church have to do with judging those who are of the world and the expected answer is we have nothing to do with judging people outside the church nothing it's interesting some people say well how come Paul so hard on the man in this passage and he lets the woman off the hook if you notice that I mean he doesn't say go after the step mom too make sure you really put her out of the church as well make her ashamed she doesn't even get mentioned out in the fact that she happened to be part of the relationship well it's not because women are exempt from church discipline it's because she probably wasn't a member of the church she was an unbeliever and you can't church discipline an unbeliever someone who makes no profession of faith in Christ she's outside their jurisdiction we have nothing to do in this present time with judging unbelievers now the second question Paul asks is this do you not judge those who are within the church do you not judge those who are within the church and the answer to this question that he expects is yes yes we judge those in the church we have to follow the parameters from verse 11 but we must judge those who are within the church we must confront sin we must deal with sin when it takes place in our midst and the tragic thing about contemporary evangelicalism today is that we typically spend more time judging the world and almost no time judging ourselves we tolerate all kinds of sin in the church today and we speak all kinds of condemnation of sin outside the church it's really tragic to see how many men who have been pastors and who have been some of the most vocal voices against homosexuality and the immorality of our culture end up disqualifying themselves due to their own sexual sin have you noticed that how does that happen it happens because you're consumed with the sin outside the church you're doing nothing about the sin inside the church including your own nobody just wakes up in an adulterous relationship one day that takes a process a process of not killing your own sin but this is the natural thing to do to focus on sin outside rather than sin inside isn't it it's easy for us to do individually it's so much easier for me to help my wife and children see their sin then it is for me to do it my own it's easy for me to see the sins of others it's hard for me to want to do with my own sin that hurts that can be painful and so as a church we can just extrapolate that out as a group we just will tolerate sin in the church will tolerate sin among Christians but what we won't tolerate is the ungodly world sinning and Paul says that's completely backwards we don't have anything to do with condemning the world and judging the world we should be judging within the church we don't do what comes natural we do what is supernatural by the power of the Spirit now all this leads to two conclusions in verse 13 two conclusions the first conclusion is that we must preach the gospel to the world how do we interact with the ungodly well we don't separate from them we don't discipline them we don't judge and condemn them we preach the message of salvation to them that is our task to the world Paul says in verse 13 but those who are outside God judges now if you have a new American standard Bible you can look in the footnote of the word judges and you'll see that an alternative translation is God will judge God will judge and the word translated judges in this verse is spelled the same in Greek whether it's a present tense verb or a future tense verb God judges or will judge in Greek looks the same the same spelling and so it's possible that Paul could mean God judges in the present or God will judge in the future but ultimately I think it comes down to the same thing because we know that right now God is not bringing eschatological wrath on the world right Jesus is not being revealed from heaven in flaming fire right now pouring out retribution on the ungodly which he will do in 2 Thessalonians 1 when he returns that's not happening right now and so if it's a present tense it just means it's God's prerogative to judge not ours God judges as a principle the world or if it's future which I think is a better way to read it it means that God will pour out his wrath on the ungodly when he comes we don't need to condemn them now God will do that in the future and that means that the church's job now is not to inflict the wrath and judgment of God on the world but to warn the world that the wrath and judgment of God is coming upon them they are under the wrath of God God will judge them we should not be condemning the world we should be calling them to flee from that wrath that is coming we do speak words that to the world sound like condemnation don't we because we have to highlight their sin why is God angry with them we have they have to know that they have to understand why God's wrath is coming upon them and so we have to highlight their sin but we don't say look at all your horrible sin and how wretched you are and how how wicked you are and then walk away here's the answer here's the solution here's what's going to happen to you if you don't repent Christ is going to come and pour out his wrath on you and give you retribution for all of your sin but God has made a way for you to be saved from that wrath and it's through the death of his son on the cross and if you would turn from that sin and believe in Jesus Christ you can avoid the wrath of God that is coming God is going to judge the world don't be part of the world when that happens that's our job because God will judge beloved let us never tire of showing the world that sin but every time we show the world that sin let us make sure that we point them to the Savior so they understand that there is an escape from the judgment that is coming there is nothing we could do to the ungodly that is remotely as horrifying as what Christ will do when he comes and that should motivate us not to sit back and get out our popcorn and wait for him to come and destroy them but that should motivate us to plead with them to flee from that horrific judgment that is soon to come the second conclusion is we must purify the church knowing must preach the gospel to the world but we must purify the church he says remove the wicked man from among yourselves this is Deuteronomy 17 7 in the Old Testament they removed the wicked man from Israel by execution under the new covenant we remove the wicked people from the church by excommunication the goal is to see them repent and to protect the purity of the church until they do and so we preach the gospel to the world and we purify the church by removing those who claim to be Christians but who are characterized by sin until they repent and live a pattern of repentance and obedience and so with these conclusions Paul satisfactorily answers the objections to church discipline some might say it's ineffective and pointless but Paul and the word of God disagree when we understand our responsibility to relate to ungodly people in the world one way and ungodly people in the church in another way we learn what it looks like to be in to be a relentlessly biblical church in an ungodly world a relentlessly biblical church beloved is a mighty force in the hand of God that's why church discipline matters not because we think it will be effective not because it could be ineffective because they could just go to another church God is not constrained by that a relentlessly biblical church is a mighty force in the hand of God because it will be mighty in preaching the word of the cross to the world and seeing sinners come to repentance and faith in Christ a relentlessly biblical church will also be a church that lives life in Christ insincerity and truth a true community of holiness and grace obedience and forgiveness power and mercy God uses churches that are faithful to proclaim Christ to the world and faithful to purify the bride of Christ to accomplish great things things we could never fathom until God brings them about say why should we do church discipline because we want to be relentlessly biblical because God uses such churches to reach the unreachable and he uses such churches to bring wandering sons home to their loving heavenly Father