1 Corinthians 6 - Part B

Paul the Apostle will say to the Corinthians, if you have great gifts but you don't have love, you're like a noisy gong, you're like a clanging cymbal, that the expression, especially brother to brother, sister to sister, brother and sister in the body of Christ, the chief expression ought to be the expression of love.

Because the church isn't perfect, there will always be conflict and disagreements. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares insight on conflict resolution within the church and how you can be a part of bringing believers together. Before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that will help you experience hope and renewal in your life. Forbes.com recently published an article with 22 tips for how to completely change your life in one year.

Sounds complicated. The Bible tells a different story about how to change your life. The Bible says, repent and return to God. And it reminds us we need to always insert but God into every situation.

Here's Skip Heitzig. But God is a phrase that appears 45 times in scripture. It's a game changing phrase. It means that no matter who you are, no matter what you have done, no matter how you may have failed, the truth is God can make things different for you from now on. But God. Discover the power of but God in scripture and why it's a game changer for your own life with the But God teaching series from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Our thanks when you give $35 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. Get your CD collection today.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's dive into today's teaching. We'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter six as Skip Heitzig begins the study. Now we know that Jesus will have an iron rod rule in the millennium.

He will rule and reign with absolute authority for a thousand 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's 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 the clouds of 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 written in the Old Testament. 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 3 continues, chapter 6, 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, hold up, God. They're going to judge us, those guys. 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.

So, Greeks, put that in your pipe and smoke it. Verse four, if you then have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame.

See, he's getting very pointed here. It's like he's saying to the Corinthians, shame on you, Corinthians. You should know better. I say this to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren, but brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers? Now, therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you should go to law against brother and that before unbelievers should go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong?

Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded? No, you yourselves do wrong and defraud and you do these things to your brethren. The whole idea here is an idea of love. So, you know that Jesus said, one another, you're to love each other. You're to even love your enemies. Paul, the apostle, will say to the Corinthians, if you have great gifts but you don't have love, you're like a noisy gong, you're like a clanging cymbal, that the expression, especially brother to brother, sister to sister, brother and sister in the body of Christ, the chief expression ought to be the expression of love.

So, what do you do if somebody wrongs you? Well, that was the question Peter had for Jesus. He said, hey, Jesus, you talk a lot about forgiveness, so how many times am I supposed to forgive my brother? Like, I don't know, seven times?

Could that be a lot? You know, if somebody messed with Peter like seven times, for me to forgive him, that's huge. So, I'm going to go big here, God. Seven times? Jesus said, no, not seven times, 70 times seven. So, we talked about that kind of love, that kind of forgiveness, that kind of willingness to be defrauded and even be wronged by people. Just forgive. Just move on. Don't hold a grudge. But in that same chapter, Jesus gives a context. He says this, if your brother sins against you, go to him personally, privately. That's how you handle it, one on one. Try to work it out.

Go charge him with the wrongs. Say, you know what? What you said was offensive to me. That really hurt.

I took that as an offense. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll never do it again. Or, they say, I didn't do anything wrong.

You know, you're the idiot. So, if you go and your brother that has sinned against you will not receive your admonition, your rebuke, your reconciliation, Jesus said, then you take with you two or three others that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word would be established. Now you have arbitration. Now you have some impartial witnesses who can give their wisdom and help you settle the issue. Jesus said, if that doesn't work, do you remember what he said? He said, tell it to the church. Tell it to the church. Bring it within the context of church, the church environment, and the authority of the body of Christ and let the church make that decision. It seems that Paul has this in mind when he writes that. Take it to the church. Isn't there one wise person among you who can make this decision and help you out in these matters instead of going to the secular courts?

Now, here's a question because we're sharing this tonight. Maybe right now you're in the midst of a lawsuit. And you go, man, I didn't know that verse was in there, but now I've got a lawsuit against. Well, once it's in the courts, you usually have to write it out. Although, when you hire a lawyer, I've given this counsel before, and I won't get into the detail, but the guy said, what do I do? I've already hired the lawyer.

I said, well, that's it. You hired the lawyer. You can fire the lawyer. Just call him up and say, don't need your services anymore. Bill me for whatever you've done and then call it quits. Handle it a different way. But if it's in the courts already, you have to write it out. If it's not in the courts already, number one, go to your brother. Try to handle it.

Number two, bring people with you. If they don't want to listen, then bring it to the leadership of the church and get elders and deacons and leaders involved in that. You know, fortunately, we live in a city that has seen great success with biblical reconciliation. In fact, a national group was started in New Mexico by Christian lawyers some years ago, all for the purpose of fulfilling this passage as a biblical mandate, keeping things outside the courts, getting people who are skilled in law, but more than that, Spirit-filled believers, people who believe the Word of God, to settle the issues, to settle the disputes outside of the secular courts in the context of the church. And because of their work now around the country, the idea of independent arbitration or reconciliation before it goes to a judge is widely accepted because largely of the work that was done with that Christian group in town some years ago. He says in verse seven, why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded? That's a novel concept.

What am I going to do? Like, let him walk all over me? Well?

Well? Well, what did Jesus say? Jesus said, turn the other cheek. If somebody slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek. Instead of, do what am I supposed to do? Let him slap my cheek?

No, both cheeks. And he says, if he sues you to take away your tunic, give him your cloak also. Well, just let him take my cloak? He has no right. Go buy another cloak. Let yourself be defrauded. Because, yeah, you can go to court and you can win the case and lose your brother and lose your testimony.

It's not worth it. He says, no, you yourselves do wrong and defraud and you do these things to your brothers, your brethren. Do you not know, verse nine, do you not know that the unrighteous, you're bringing this before the unrighteous, the unbelieving world, you're settling these court cases instead of playing the role of the judge, the arbiter, making adjudications, making discriminations when people have these behaviors, whether it's for incest or whether it's for legal cases.

He's kind of tying these things together. You're willing to take it before the unrighteous, but he says, don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? You're bringing kingdom matters before unrighteous judges.

Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators. Fornication is sexual sin. Usually it is a sin described in the Bible before marriage, when a person is single, nor idolaters, worshiping false gods, false religious systems, nor adulterers, usually a sin talked about as once a person is married, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites.

It's an unfortunate translation, because you don't really get the force of the Greek language. Those two words, homosexuals or sodomites, the Greek language is much more precise, and incidentally, the old King James version happens to be a more accurate translation than the new King James, or for that matter, most of the other translations of this particular verse. The old King James translates those last two sins by saying this way, nor the effeminate, nor the abusers of themselves with mankind. The effeminate, that word translated here, homosexuals, usually refers to in a homosexual relationship, the person who takes the passive role.

In a male homosexual relationship, it would be who would take the female role, the softer role. And then the second word, sodomites, or abusers of themselves with mankind in the King James, is in a homosexual relational context, somebody who takes the more dominant, aggressive role. And he's bringing that up because he's speaking to Greeks. And high-born Greeks, and high-born Greeks saw homosexuality a couple thousand years ago as the purest form of all love. William Barclay says that Socrates was a homosexual, as was Plato.

In fact, Plato's writings, that famous writing, the Symposium of Love, was Plato writing about homosexual lovers. And in those days, it was an adult with an underaged male child. And that was accepted in that culture. I think I mentioned last week that 14 of the first 15 Roman emperors were also homosexuals. So it was very, very common in those days.

And in those days, the older male usually took the aggressive, dominant role, and the young boy in that culture took the passive role. That's the reference of the word. Sorry to be so explicit, but I figured you should know that's what he's writing about.

So he says, do you not know that fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, nor sodomites, whichever role they take, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. Now, I know, you read that. Some of you go, man, that messes with me. It's not my problem. It doesn't mess with me. Well, that really bothers me.

It's not my problem. My only duty is to declare to you what God has said through His word, and you either accept it or you don't. So in the book of Romans, chapter one, which we already covered, I'll just remind you of this. Paul writes about the Gentile flow of sin throughout ancient culture. Throughout actually all time. Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the nastiness of their life, and they exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Against nature. Likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their do. Now you might say, well, you know, that was back then in that culture. But in today's culture, things are different and you can't say those things because in this culture, that kind of stuff is acceptable. It was more acceptable in that culture. The reason it's becoming now acceptable after a long period of time is because of the rich Judeo Christian heritage this country has had for so long to abate and stem the tide of that kind of stuff in modern history. It was the injection of Christianity in the world that put an end to that. Now you're seeing a resurgence back to an ancient culture. So understand, when Paul wrote these things, it was like when people read, they're like, because if 14 of the 15 first Roman emperors were homosexuals and Paul is like talking smack, you know, pretty upfront, you know he got blow back for it.

So here's what I want you to see. Paul says in Romans 1, these things, they happen, they have happened, but it's against nature. And the word there in Greek is physis, and it means against God's natural created order. God's natural created order. God has set a created order from the beginning. And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God does not change and his word does not change. So if you tell me, well, God made me this way, I'm going to say, no, he did not. You may be a product of your environment. You may be a product of some social conditioning. You may be a product of a lot of different messaging that is going on. You might even be the victim of some feelings that every human being has toward his or her own sexuality. But there is God's physis.

And then there are those things that are against physis, against the natural creative order. That's Skip Heitig with a message from the series Expound First Corinthians. Now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to the gospel. The greatest demonstration of love, I mean true love, is Jesus Christ. He left heaven, came to earth, went to a cross, and paid the ultimate penalty for us.

He gave his life. And we want to bring the good news of salvation through Christ to as many people as we can. And you can help make that happen. Will you give generously?

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800-922-1888. Thank you. Tomorrow Skip Heitig shares how God's grace covers your mistakes and failures and how you can help encourage your fellow believers when they fall. God is in the business of fixing people, fixing broken things, adding the glue of his grace to fix the sin in our lives. Such were some of you, but you were washed, cleansed by the blood. You were sanctified, set apart. You belong to God. Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.