I Corinthians – “Moral Solutions to Immoral Problems”

Scripture: John 17:11-17

C.I.: The Moral Way to Deal with Unrepentant Immorality

Last week… - Today we will look at an ancient problem which continues to affect the modern church, i.e., “How to correctly deal with the problem of immorality in the church.” – Today's believers say: Isn't God's grace good…! – Ignore the problem; it will go away - we will be seen as unloving, - our numbers would drop if we dealt with all immorality,…!” But what does God say?!!

•  Three Reasons Why the Church Must Deal with Immorality, (I Corinthians 5)

•  For the Good of the Offender, (vs. 1-5)

•  ( v. 1 ), “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.”

a. Corinth was a wicked city, but even Corinth was not this wicked, i.e., sex with someone's step-mother!
1) “Immorality” = Porneia ( porneia ), it means any sexual sin; fornication, adultery, homosexuality, etc.
2) The one committing the sin is a Christian, the step-mother is not – otherwise she would be mentioned.
3) Sexual immorality is a sin that lives by lies.. – These lies Paul debunks from I Corinthians 6…
a) “Everybody's doing it!” ( vs. 9-10 ), “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not….”
b) “Nobody will know,” ( v. 16 ), Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one
body with her?” – This “oneness” has deep & lasting consequences (guilt, shame, less marital satisfact.).
c) “No one is getting hurt!” ( v. 18 ), “Flee I. Every sin a man commits is outside the body, but the
immoral man sins against his own body.” – (physical = STDs, spiritual, vs. 19-20; Acts 2:38 ).

•  ( v. 2 ), “And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who has done this deed might be removed from your midst.”

a. Everyone has two choices regarding sin: arrogance or mourned.

•  Arrogance = they are wrongfully proud of God's grace in the face of sin, ( Rom. 6:1-2 ), “What shall we say then, shall we continue… God forbid! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

•  Mourned over the sin and its consequence for the individual, ( Rom. 6:23; Rev. 21:8 ), “The wages….”- “But for the cowardly and unbelieving… and immoral persons … their part will be in the lake that burns w/fire...”

3. ( vs. 4-5 )., “In the name of the Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus,
deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

a “Deliver such a one to Satan…” = To exclude someone from the fellowship of the church!
1) ( I Jn. 3, 5, 7 ), “The things we have seen & heard we proclaim …God is light … If we walk in the light….” 2) Since he is already living “like” the world – he needs to be treated as such!

b. Notice the motivation, “…that his soul may be saved…” – currently he is lost (but not if we can help it!!!).
1) This “removing him your midst” is a loving act of discipline (to bring him to repentance)!
2) If through this action – he misses the love and fellowship – more than he enjoys the passing pleasures
of sin – then it will have all been worth it!
3) As the Lord says, ( Heb. 12:11 ), “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet for
those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
4) Therefore, as the Lord's people, the most moral thing we can do w/unrepentant sin – remove ourselves
from the person who refuses to cease sinning!!!

B. For the Good of the Church, (vs. 6-8)

1. ( v. 6 ), “Your boasting is not good. – Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?”
a. It is incredibly foolish for a church to brag about being “open-minded” about its “liberal attitude”!!!
1) Jesus loved every sinner who came to Him – but He never let them continue in sin unchallenged!
a) Woman brought to Him in adultery, ( Jn. 8:11 ), “Go, and sin no more.”
b) Man healed after 38 years, ( Jn. 5:14 ), “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore….”
c) Therefore, as God's people we are to be very accepting of others – but never accepting of SIN!

2. The Apostle Paul uses the Passover celebration to illustrate his point…
a. ( vs. 7-8 ), “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as in fact you are unleavened. – For Christ our
Passover has been sacrificed. – Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
1) Leaven (yeast) was a symbol of sin/corruption. – The Jews were to remove it from houses at Passover.

b. Situations where believers must stop fellowship with other believers:
1) The Christian who will not repent of on-going sin, ( Matt. 18:15-17 ), “If your brother sins, go & reprove…
2) Christians who teach false doctrine, ( Rom. 16:17-18 ), “Now I urge you, brethren, that you keep your eye on
those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching that you have learned, and turn away from
them. – For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and
flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”
3) Those who cause divisions, ( Tit. 3:10-11 ), “Reject a factious man after a first and a second warning, knowing
that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.”

C. For the Good of the World, (vs. 9-13)

1. It is impossible for the church to change the world – if the church is just like the world!
a. ( vs. 9-11 ), “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 I
actually wrote to you not to associate with any so called brother if he should be 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.”
1) One of the reasons why the church has so little influence in the world – it's because the world has so
much influence in the church!!!

b. Faithful believers are called to live AROUND non-believers – but we must never live LIKE non-believers.
1) No monasteries allowed! – God expects His people to be in the world having a positive influence!
2) Jesus commands these things, ( Matt. 5:14-16; Mk. 16:15 ), “You are the light of the world … Go into….”
3) If we are going to do the world any good – then they must see a noticeable & greater difference in us!

c. ( vs. 12-13 ), “For what do I have 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.”
1) “Judge” = Condemn! – It is not our place (but God's) to judge/condemn this world.
2) Yet it is our place to condemn those who belong to Jesus yet who live a sinful life!
3) And it works, ( II Cor. 2:6-8 ), “Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was by the majority … [we]
should rather forgive and comfort him … Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.”

Thus, for the benefit of the believer, the church, and the world – the most moral thing God's people can do - is to
live pure lives ourselves – and to lovingly discipline those who choose not to! Mark 16:15-16!