Dealing with unrepentant sin

Pastor Josh Smith

We are the church • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

1 Corinthians 5

A Sexually Immoral Person

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Good morning and welcome to CCC. We are so very glad each of you are here with us this morning both in person and online. Our live stream is back up and running. Last week the electricity went out during Sunday School and did not come back on until right before communion but the internet didn’t come back on right away.

I am so very thankful for this morning. I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family and that you enjoyed that fellowship. I also pray you spent time worshiping and thanking God for all he has done in you lives.

Let’s Pray

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Today we tackle I Corinthians 5. I am not going to lie today will be a heavy morning. Today may be eye opening for some…convicting for some and yet encouraging for others all at the same time!

One thing that I know for sure is today we will encounter God’s truth together so each of us will have to make a decision....accept or reject.

Paul addresses a major issue with the Corinthian church.......ignoring and accepting unrepentant sin. This particular sin was sexual in nature but any unrepentant sin must be dealt with by the church.

I want to start with a truth of God that all Christians must believe and apply to their lives

II Timothy 3:16-17

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“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

That truth includes today’s scripture. All scripture....that means there is no scripture that should be ignored or glassed over or watered down

I believe America and the world are in the position and experiencing the evil that they are experiencing because pulpits have ignored…glassed over....and watered down scripture for far too long!

Pulpits have preached on consuming instead of serving. We have bought the lie of satan that the church is here to serve us not us here to serve the church. The church is Christ’s bride. He paid for her with His blood. We are to serve the church. This is not the buildings the church meets in but the people!

I would venture to guess almost all if not everyone sitting here today and watching online has or is struggling with some sort of sexual sin. Most if not all may be dealing with unconfessed sin. I pray no one here today is dealing with unrepentant sin but if you are God has a message for you and wants you to repentant today.

I Corinthians 5:1-2

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“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.”

Paul jumps right into it. This is bad. This sin is so bad that society won’t even tolerate it. That is bad. Imagine someone inside the church living in a sin so bad that the world won’t even tolerate it but the church does!?!?!?!?!?!

What was this sin? A man was sleeping with his step-mother. Incest. This sin was punishable by death in the old testament

This was not just a one-night stand situation.....the word has indicates that this is an ongoing situation and continual sexual relationship. We are not sure because scripture doesn’t spell it out completely but it is even possible that this man may be living with his stepmother as if they were married....continual and unrepentant for sure!

Now Paul is addressing a specific situation but also sexual sin in general. How do we know because he uses the word immorality.

The Greek word translated immorality is the root of the English word pornography. So continual, unrepentant sexual sin would also fit here

Also notice it had to be well known because Paul had heard about it from afar. This was something that was not hidden yet it was accepted.

Verse 2

Paul says you are so arrogant that you accept this sin! You should be mourning but you are celebrating…going on with live ignoring the sin

This is why, I believe, Paul discussed all that he discussed in chapters 1-4. He was trying to wake them up to the fact that when you don’t completely focus on Jesus you become blind. You start to accept sin as righteous living and acceptable

I Corinthians 5:3-5

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“For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgement on the one who did such a thing

Many today would argue Paul is wrong. How dare he pass judgement on this fellow? If you are arguing that or thinking that you are wrong.

Jesus tells us to inspect the fruit in our own lives and the lives of others. Especially those claiming to be believers or Christians.

Notice Paul wants this judgement to save this man. He is not judging in terms of condemning this man to hell, no one can do that but God, no he is saying this man needs to face consequences of his sin which will hopefully awaken him to the Holy Spirit’s leading to repentance!

Paul’s judgement of this man was that he was unrepentant of this sin, refused to repentant but claimed to be a Christian.....that is false and he must go!

Look again at verse 4 and 5 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to satan for the destruction of the flesh, sot hat his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord

Paul says handle this in public while you are meeting together.....while you are gathered together remove him from the fellowship....kick him out

I can hear people now....What? Kick someone out of the church. God surely wouldn’t accept kicking someone out of the church

If that is you....you don’t know scripture....scripture never contradicts scripture…Remember in II Timothy all scripture is God breathed

Matthew 18:15-17

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““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

This is Jesus speaking here and this is very clear the steps Christians are to take with other Christians who sin. Paul knew the words of Jesus so he wouldn’t jump straight to kicking someone out of the church without knowing that the first steps had been taken.

This man knew he was living in sin....he had been approached about it and refused to repentant so it was time for the church to act....why? Why is this God’s truth and why did Jesus direct us to handle things in this manner

2 reasons

In a final attempt to save this man…give him over to the world.. Remove him from the blessings of Christian fellowship....

Being absent or forced to be absent from the Christian fellowship should awaken a Christian up to the fact that they are living in sin and must repentant.

So many Christians do this very thing to themselves by placing their wants....their desires…their plans....their hobbies…etc ahead of the Church and Christian fellowship.

Tonight we will have a fellowship meal followed by worship night and many will choose other things than to be blessed by Christian fellowship

If this man felt the consequences of his sin he may repentant. Just as the prodigal son had to eat pick slop to wake up....consequences may be required to reach someone.

How many times has the pain of consequences awakened us from sins grasp?

If telling someone you love them but you refuse to support their sinful lifestyle wakes them up to repentance Praise God!

The second reason is found in

I Corinthians 5:6-8

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“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

The old is gone the new is here. In Christ we are new. Sin and death no longer have power (leaven) in our lives. They were defeated by Christ on the cross and in the empty tomb!

The old leaven is the old sinful, fleshly life. If one refuses to die to that and chooses to live in unrepentant sin it will destroy the church

Others will begin to do the same. As a body we must protect our members from old leaven.

So Pastor what i hear you saying is no one can be in a church who sins.

Wrong that is not what I am saying at all

I am also not saying Christians can’t sin

I am not saying that Christians won’t struggle with sin

What I and God are saying is this....It is wrong to claim to be a Christian.....to be leading a ministry.....to join a church and refuse to repentant of known sin.

There is a difference between someone who wrestles with the sin of pornography or any sin…who realizes they are sinning.....confesses that sin....asks God to forgive them of that sin…takes steps to eliminate that sin but still falls to that sin again and someone who claims to be a Christian and makes no effort to stop sinning or remove the sin from their lives.

Someone who chooses to live together instead of being married or who supports and accepts abortion or gay marriage. They know it is a sin but love that sin too much to attempt to walk away

Paul drives this point home in

I Corinthians 5:9-13

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“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Paul had written to them before this letter not to associate with Christians who were sexually immoral....who were living in sexual sin and refused to repentant of that sin.

The Corinthians got it backwards.....they were tolerating unrepentant sexual sin inside the church but refusing to associate with the lost who were living in sexual sin.

They missed the point. They missed the Gospel! They were allowing those who claim to be Christians to live in unrepentant sin and refusing to minister to the lost because of their sin.

I hate to break it to you but the lost are going to live in sin. They have no other option until they are awakened by the Holy Spirit to that sin, to the consequences or wages of that sin, that they can do nothing to save themselves and that they need Jesus!

How will the lost hear that message if the church is too busy in accepting unrepentant sin among the Christians lives to go and tell them??????

I hate to break this to you as well but as long as we are on this earth we will struggle with sin. That is not the point of this passage or this message this morning.

What God and I want you to understand this morning is this is all about heart conditions.

What you accept you become. If you accept sin you become a sinner. If you accept Jesus you become a Christian.

This starts at home with each and every one of you. What do you accept? Is there sin in your life that you are unrepentant of?

Are you allowing someone you love, a fellow Christian to continue to live in unrepentant sin without bringing it to their attention and asking them to repentant?

That is what Paul is saying....love the lost. Reach out to the lost. Understand the lost will live lost. They will live in their sin. They will not be repentant of their sin. They may be sorry they feel some consequences of their sin but they are not repentant of their sin because only the Holy Spirit leads to repentance.

Paul is not saying reject the lost. No he is saying love the lost but beyond that he is saying love those who claim to be saved enough to call them out on their unrepentance because of the consequences HELL of that unrepentance.

God judges sinners. You and I are to love sinners.

God judges Christians. You and I are to love Christians....our brothers and sisters in Christ....we are to love them enough to hold them accountable to God and the scripture love them enough to judge their fruit and bring to their attention when their fruit stinks.

That starts, however, with you and me at home in the secret place. Asking God to judge our fruit and bring to our attention when our fruit stinks.

Then we must swallow our pride and repent of that sin. Repent of that stinking fruit. When we have done that God will then uses us to help our brothers and sisters grow in Christ through repentance of their sins.

This all boils down to a heart issue.

This morning I want to give you an opportunity to do just that. Ask God to examine your heart and life for stinking fruit so you can repent of that sin. I would venture to guess all of us in this room are Christians, which is sad if that is true but that is a sermon for a different day. Most are Christians here this morning. The question is are you a “Christian” living in unrepentant sin or are you a Christian accepting other Christians living in unrepentant sin?

Maybe you are a Christian who lives out this scripture in your life and have purged the evil from your life in hopes that will lead them to salvation. Praise God for you. Please pray during this time that the rest of us will join you!

Maybe you don’t know Christ and desperately want to repent of your sin, to turn 180 degrees and walk in the Spirit and not the world. Come and I will point you to Jesus through the Holy Spirit to salvation

But as I said most of us here today are Christians, as this song plays I pray this is your prayer this morning....Here’s my heart God.

When we truly realize the power of the cross....when we truly realize that our sin has the power to send us to hell without repentance we come to this time of invitation differently. We look for sin to confess. We look to God to show us our hearts to cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

This is a time to recenter Jesus in your life. To remove all that stands between you and God. I pray that you truly ask God to search your heart and then are moved to action as a result of what He finds.