1 Corinthians 6 - Part A

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Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now we're in first Corinthians chapter six. As Skip Heitzel gets into today's message, Paul writes to his beloved believers in Corinth saying, dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints. Now I want to give you a little bit of context to what we're reading in case you weren't with us the last few weeks or you haven't been a part of this book.

Even if you have, it's good to sort of get a running start into these checks. The book, the letter of first Corinthians is addressing various issues, problems that the church of Corinth was facing. It happens to be a favorite book of mine because it was a church filled with problems. I don't say that because I like problem churches. I just know that every church is indeed a problem church. Every congregation has its own issues and I'm glad that, and I've said this before many times, that the New Testament portrays accurately just how lacking the New Testament church was. So when people say we need to get back to the New Testament church, I'm always wondering which one are you thinking of because Corinth was a New Testament church.

And it is, it's very contemporary and applicational to us. Chapters one and chapters two, chapter one and two of first Corinthians is about congregational disunity. They were breaking up into various groups.

They were playing favorites one with another or one against another. Some saying I'm of the group that loves the teachings of Paul or I'm of the group that loves the teachings of Apollos or I'm of the group that loves Cephas Peter. And so they were, there was disunity among this one congregation, preferring certain emphases of Bible teachers one against the other. That's chapter one and two, organizational disunity. Chapters two and three addresses spiritual immaturity. They thought they were so wise being Corinthians, being of Greek origin.

They had the Greek writers as part of their heritage. Paul says that they were immature. They were carnal. They were fleshly. And he talked about the difference between the spiritual man and the fleshly person.

And he says that you are carnal. So that's chapters one, two, three, and four. Chapters five and six, and we looked at chapter five last week, thought we would make it to chapter six. We didn't, so we will tonight, is about sexual impurity. So we have organizational disunity. We have spiritual immaturity, and now we have sexual impurity. And it wasn't that they were just struggling with what every human being struggles with as they are living in a world that is very loose in their morality.

They were dealing with an issue that they actually prided themselves in their toleration of. And that is a case of incest in the church of Corinth. Chapter five, verse one addresses this, it is a case of incest in the church of Corinth.

Chapter five, verse one addresses this, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife. So there is a man coming to church, married to probably his stepmother, and the church priding themselves in the fact that they were so filled with grace and love that they would just accept this person no matter what his proclivity is or propensity might be, or personal choice. Oh, he's so brave to make that personal choice and come to church. And Paul said, well, I'm not even there, and I can tell you what you should do. Next time you get together, kick him out. He said, I'll give you that ruling from the Lord, that you deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

A little leaven leavens the whole up. He's telling them to use some sanctified authority. Now, with that in mind, we get into chapter six, because he is continuing on this theme that the church needs to take its authority and make certain kinds of judgment calls, because they were having a problem in trusting themselves as a local group, a body of Christ, to make good judgments. They weren't even judging sin within the church when they should be judging sin within the church. Chapter five, verse 12 says, what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?

So we looked at that last week, and we noted that the church has a responsibility, indeed a mandate, to make certain discriminations against character by those who claim to be of Christ, who name the name of Christ. That's just what a body does. You know, a body, a human body, your body is marvelous.

It's amazing, amazing how it responds to problems that it encounters. So if you get infected, you have blood cells that will surround the germs, sort of just like mounting an attack against them, to glom onto them, to isolate the problem. If you cut yourself, red blood cells rush to an area and deposit a certain kind of a substance that will provide a sticky ability for new skin to grow on top of it later on, and then once the wound is fully developed, it will begin to shrink. It's just you're fearfully and wonderfully made. The body is created to purge itself of problems. God did that. The body of Christ should have the same ability. We are the body of Christ. When God wants to do something on the earth, when Jesus wants to do something on the earth, He does it through us. We are His hands, we're His feet, we're His mouthpieces.

If He's going to work a work on the earth, He does it through His body. Well, His body can sometimes get infected. The church can get infected.

And the church at Corinth was infected with, well, we noted three things it was infected with. And Paul said, you need to come in and do something about that. You need to extricate that person who calls himself a brother. Put him into Satan's domain that he may learn not to sin the way he's sinning so flagrantly.

Do that. That's what the body of Christ should do. Now, continuing with that thought, he now moves from immorality, though he's going to get back to it in chapter six, but he includes now legality, the courtroom scene. We just sang a minute ago a beautiful statement of faith. And I know you believe it because I just heard you singing it. You said, the words we all sang is, I have the authority.

Jesus has given me. Well, in Corinth, it's like they didn't believe they had as the church the authority that Jesus had given them. You see, one of the problems in the Greek culture was litigation. Litigation. The Greeks were a very litigious culture by and large.

In fact, they even made fun of themselves. There was a saying going on just 60 miles to the northeast over in Athens that every Athenian is a lawyer. That everybody just and people loved a lawsuit back then. They loved to follow legal proceedings. In fact, people wanted to be called for jury duty. Very different than today.

We do everything we can to get out of it, even though it is a civic duty that we should all perform. But back in those days, people loved it. I mean, they were into Judge Judy before there was ever Judge Judy.

It was like entertainment to them. And the juries in those days were enormous, sometimes over 100 people on a single jury. So in that culture, if there was a problem, you would usually go to an arbiter. Somebody who would arbitrate the case, who wouldn't be taken to court. You'd try to settle that dispute through a private arbiter, and then another private arbiter.

They would try to get together and settle the deal. If you couldn't settle it, you would take it into the public Greek courts that had a typical jury of 40 people. You know, the typical jury today is 12 people in our country. In those days, 40 people.

Good luck trying to come up with a good outcome in that. And if by the time you reach 60 years of age, you had to give yourself to a period of time to be on a jury. And so you had to have maturity. You had to have lived a while. So in your 60th year, you would then sign up for jury duty. And people were just, I don't know if they just had time on their hands, but they loved to do it. Some juries were over 1,000, according to the ancient records.

Well, so they loved this. And here's the problem with the church. Instead of believing, I have the authority, we as the church have the authority to settle disputes between ourselves. They were taking the disputes of the church into the civic law courts before unbelievers to make an adjudication or a judgment. So in chapters, wrong page, chapter six, verse one.

Dare any of you, or how dare that you do this as God's people? Having a matter against another. And this is in particular a Christian brother against another Christian brother, because he'll go on to say in the following verses, brother against brother. So we know it's talking about some internal dispute in the church between brothers and sisters or one party and another who are all part of that Christian group. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints. Now Paul has two concerns. Concern number one, you are not respecting the ability of the church and the authority given you by Christ himself to settle a matter of dispute from one Christian and another Christian.

That's one concern. The other concern is by going to the unbelievers law courts, taking this out into the secular courts, you are airing the dirty laundry of the church before unbelievers. You are providing a terrible testimony to the unbelieving world. You are showing them just how bad it is. You're telling them that they should get saved and come to Christ and all of hope and peace and joy and all these great things. And they're seeing you take your brother to court going, ah, I don't need to be a part of that.

There's no difference between them and us. So that is a concern of Paul. What are you doing taking this dispute into the law courts? Verse two, do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Now I just want that to fall on your hearts.

This is your future we're talking about. Do you know that one day you, all of you, all of us, as the saints of God, as the children of God are going to judge the world? I just want you to hear that because, again, like we said last week, some people say, you know the Bible says don't judge.

Really? Do you know that one day we're going to actually judge the world? Now I'm going to describe what that means as we go on. And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge in the smallest matters? Okay, Jesus left this earth. He went away and he said, if I go, I am coming again. Ever since he said that, we're waiting for Jesus to come again. When Jesus comes again, Revelation chapter 19, the saints are going to come with him at that second coming. After that judgment at the second coming, Jesus is going to set up a kingdom on the earth that will last 1,000 years, according to the book of Revelation. It is called also the millennium, or the kingdom age. It is a glorious international ruling and reigning of Jesus Christ on planet earth for 1,000 years, called the kingdom age. Jesus, in Matthew 19, said to his 12 disciples even, he said, you know, fellas, you guys are going to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

Now he said that, speaking yet future. You're going to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So, the apostles have an adjudicating position coming up.

Also, you and I, I think, are going to help them. Don't you know that the saints are going to judge the world? In Revelation chapter 2, Jesus addresses the church, one of the churches there, and he says, to the overcomers of the church, the true believers, he said, I have given you authority over all the nations, and you will rule with a rod of iron. Now, we know that Jesus will have an iron rod rule in the millennium. He will rule and reign with absolute authority for 1,000 years. It will be the only time there will be a perfect government on the earth.

Don't care who you voted for, you'll never get it on this earth. We certainly don't have it now. It's far from perfect. But you say, oh, yeah, but if so and so runs, still not going to be perfect.

Be better than what we have, but still not going to be perfect. Perhaps, perhaps not. Never know.

One never knows. But one day, when Jesus returns, he will set up his kingdom upon the earth and give authority to the 12 apostles and to the saints, the body of Christ, God's people, to rule and reign with him, to have some kind of co-rulership with him in the kingdom. He has given us authority over the nations to rule with him, and he has given us authority over the nations to rule with him with the rod of iron. That is something that was talked about even in the Old Testament. It is alluded to many times and spoken about in the New Testament, but way back in the Old Testament, in chapter seven of Daniel, Daniel has a vision of the Son of Man, and the Son of Man is given a kingdom.

And it says in that chapter, I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with heaven. He came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom.

This is all on the earth. That all peoples, nations, and languages, all that context is earthly in scope, should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. His kingdom, the one which will not be destroyed. Same chapter, it says, then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the most high. And his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him. So in the future, there's some big stuff ahead for you. In the future, in some role, you're going to help in the kingdom age with Jesus Christ as he rules and reigns. He's going to let you help him adjudicate that perfect government with a rod of iron. A lot could be said in describing that. Someday I'll preach a series just on the kingdom age.

It'd be a fun thing to study. But we're going to have some kind of rulership. So here's Paul's thinking because he is thinking eschatologically when he writes this in the end times. Don't you know you're going to judge the world? So if you're going to have that kind of a role in the future, if God is going to allow you to be on his Supreme Court in the kingdom age, why do you think you're unqualified to deal with issues between brother and brother in the church that you have to take it to a secular court to handle it? And he's writing that to their shame.

They should be qualified. Now hear me out. When a Christian takes another Christian to court, nobody wins except the devil. You are saying, number one, I don't trust that this can be handled by God's people. It's a statement of unfaith against the church. And number two, it is allowing dirty laundry to be aired before the unbelieving world.

Paul makes that point. Do you think you're unworthy to judge in the smallest matters? Verse three continues, chapter six, 1 Corinthians, do you not know that we shall judge angels?

How much more the things that pertain to this life? Now, if I'm an angel and I look at that, I'm not stoked. I say, wait, wait, wait, hold up, God. They're going to judge us, those guys, right? Remember, the angels are looking into things pertaining to salvation, Peter said. They marvel at the fact that God could extend such grace and love to us. They're blown away at God's grace toward mankind. And yet God says, yeah, my people, my saints, the ones that aren't getting along there on the earth, they're going to judge the angels. Now, what does that mean exactly? Well, I don't think it means that you're going to find your guardian angel when you get to heaven and go, hey, I have a couple questions for you. Remember that time I got in a car crash?

Where were you? You know, what's up with that? I don't think that's the idea. I don't think we're going to be judging good angels. I think we're going to have some kind of role in judging evil angels. You remember both in the book of 2 Peter and in the book of Jude, both of them write almost the identical truth that God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them into hell and has them in everlasting chains of darkness awaiting judgment. Some kind of judgment call will be made that you and I are going to help administrate.

That's what I believe it's a reference to. Not the good angels, but the evil angels, the fallen angels. He's going to let us help in some kind of a capacity. So again, if you're going to judge the world and if you're going to judge angels to some degree in the future, you can't handle a squabble between brother and sister in the church. Here's Paul's point.

The most untrained believer, the least, the most untrained believer in legal matters, but who believes and knows the Word of God and is filled with the Holy Spirit is much better at handling a case like that than the most trained Harvard law student or professor who doesn't have the Word of God or the Spirit of God. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from his series Expound 1 Corinthians. Now here's Skip to share how you can help keep this broadcast going strong, connecting you and others around the world with God's Word.

You know, we all have a past, a time when we tried to live life on our own terms. The good news is that when you hand your life over to Jesus, he redeems your past, gives you a future full of hope and joy. We want to share that great news with more friends like you all around the world, and you can be a part of that work to change lives. When you give a gift today to keep these messages from God's Word going out, you can help redirect someone's eternal future. Here's how to give. To give today, simply call 800-922-1888. That number again is 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Your generosity helps keep this biblical encouragement coming your way and going out around the world to help change more lives.

And did you know there's an exciting opportunity for you to be a part of this? And did you know there's an exciting biblical resource available right at your fingertips through your mobile device? You can find several of Skip's Bible reading plans in the YouVersion Bible app. Simply download the app and search Skip Heitzig. Next week, Skip Heitzig shares insight on conflict resolution within the church and how you can play an important role in bringing believers together. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.