Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Christians want to walk alongside fellow believers in a God-ward direction, but what does that look like? In a culture that insists loving someone means affirming their actions and attitudes, is it love to avoid and ignore sin when we notice it in the lives of our brothers and sisters of the faith? Today, Pastor Rich answers these questions from 2 Corinthians 1220-136 in this message titled Strong Exhortation. You're listening to part 2 of this sermon, which was originally preached on August 31st, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Even if it might be done with the right intent, if you are sharing harmful information about another person who doesn't need to know it, you're gossiping. Pride.
Really? Pride? Whisperings, conceits, pride, an exaggerated view of one's own importance? And the last word is tumult. Interesting word, isn't it? It's a word that can be translated rebellions. It just simply means open defiance of authority.
That's what it means. Open defiance of authority. Not willing to submit to and recognize God-ordained authority. Paul points these out.
This is a specific list. What comes next, look with me now at verse 21. Lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before, and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced. Now, when we hear those words, those are, we're thinking, okay, that takes us to the arena of sexual sins, right?
And we're thinking, well, that doesn't apply to me. But I want us to be careful here because notice something here that Paul lists these three things in verse 21 in the same sentence, in the same breath as the list in verse 20. So the list in verse 20 is specifics. The three that are in verse 21 are more general characteristics. For example, uncleanness, uncleanness, filth, filth that pollutes and infects.
I have a question for you. Can an attitude be infectious? We know it can. Can I be guilty of filth by having an attitude that is infecting other people? And then the second word is fornication. And we all know what that means.
Well, I'm not guilty of that, so I don't have to worry about that. And yes, there was a lot of that in Corinth, and some of that was coming into the Corinthian church. But fornication has some very general definitions to it. It's pleasure to go beyond God's loving boundaries.
It's just simply saying what I want, I will have, even if it means having to sin to get it. Ludeness is the third word. That word can be translated sensuality. You know what sensuality is? It is behaving at the level of an animal, meaning I am driven by my appetites. I have no thought of principle or precept or consequences. I am simply driven by my appetites.
What I want, I will have. That's sensuality. And it's not just in the physical realm. So these last three in verse 21, let's be careful we don't categorize them differently. Paul mentions them in the same breath, the same sentence he does the other eight. These three are general characteristics. I put these three parallel to the other eight.
The other eight are specifics, these three are general characteristics of them. Because I can look at these three and say, I don't do that and think well of myself. But my attitude can be infected with pride, slander and selfish ambition. And God hates that stuff. This is why Paul found it necessary to sound an alarm. He says it's time to sound the alarm. That's what he says in chapter 13 beginning verse 1. This will be the third time I am coming to you. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word will be established.
He's appealing to the Old Testament and the procedure of the Old Testament. If there's misbehavior going on, we're going to identify it and we're going to confront it. He needs to sound the alarm.
He says, I have told, verse 2, I have told you before and foretell as if I were present the second time. Those words are to foretell, to give a warning ahead of time, to sound the alarm. Why do we sound an alarm? Why does an alarm sound?
Because something's not right. And if an alarm sounds with a particular behavior, it means this is where this behavior is leading you. Where are we? Where is God's intent for us to be heading? It's to be, we're moving Godward.
We're moving, becoming more like Christ. And if I am exuding, if I am manifesting a behavior that is contrary to the character and purpose of Christ, then I need an alarm in my life. It's a warning. We all need warnings in our lives. Because a warning says, be careful, this is where this is leading you and it's not Godward. We get lots of warnings in our day. Some people might celebrate Halloween comes up at the end of October.
People be buying costumes and stuff like that. You know, Batman might be a good one. You might find a warning on it that says something like this. Warning Cape does not enable user to fly. That's an actual warning that came on one of these Batman costumes.
In our litigious society in which we live, you never know what somebody is going to do. And a warning is there because somebody is going to do something irrational. And that's what all sin is.
All sin is irrational. You have to think about that one for a while. Because it's self-destructive. It doesn't make any sense to stand back and just watch somebody do something that's going to hurt themselves, right? That's why we need warnings.
Supposing you saw somebody with a bottle of hair coloring. And an ice cream cone. And they're about to do this. You say, read the warning on the label, not to be used as a covering for ice cream. That's an actual warning.
Not to be used as an ice cream topping. Do you remember the cardboard shields that they put in vehicles and parking lots to keep the sun out? You know, to keep it from becoming an oven in there? Warning, do not drive with sun shield in place.
Serious. Some of you have young children, infants. On a portable stroller. Caution, remove infant before folding.
Bobby, you got that? That stroller also comes in a bag. Here's the warning label on the bag. Do not put child in bag. For some reason they felt they needed to put these warning labels on there because people do things that hurt themselves. Here's one for all you young people in here. This is a warning on an iron-on t-shirt transfer.
It says, warning, do not iron while wearing the shirt. Ouch. This one took the cake. This one actually won a prize for wacky warning labels. This was on a small tractor.
A real tractor. It's a simple warning. It says, warning, avoid death.
Now why would they have to say something? Because some people tend to act stupid around this machine and it can hurt you. And so they need the warning label. You see, we need warnings. Why do we need warnings? We might end up doing something that will hurt us, hurt ourselves.
What is our motive for warning a loved one? What Paul says in verse 21, lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you and I may have to mourn. I may have to mourn.
Isn't that interesting? What is Paul saying? Paul is saying, because I love you, I weep over your self-destructive behavior.
That's the motive. You're not moving in a God-ward direction. Warning is a loving thing. To warn a loved one is a loving thing.
Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust. He said this, the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Think about that, Christians. Does it make any sense to watch a loved Christian brother or sister engage in behavior that is pulling them away from Christ, maybe hurting others, and not warn them about it? Not exhort them. I weep over your self-destructive behavior. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. We've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
