Who Defines Good and Evil
Messy Church - 1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsGod is the only one who determines what is good and what is evil, so we are to obey Him and glorify Him in all that we do because we belong to Him.
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If you have your Bibles please open them to 1 Corinthians 6
As we continue our time through 1 Corinthians in our series called ‘Messy Church’ we will continue to see all sorts of problems and sins that were happening in the Corinthian church. But the sins we read about are far from being unique to the Corinthian Church. They are sins that happen in the world today even here at LWC.
Now the Corinthian church was full of all sorts of sins that were creating quite a mess of the church. Their sins that compounded upon each other that made things an absolute mess of the church.
For example, they were a proud people. And so far we have seen that their pride has led to:
Division
Distain towards Paul and other preachers
Huge misunderstandings of the gospel
and even this week, we will see how their pride has led the them into all sorts of immoral sins as they had been doing what was right in their own eyes.
But despite all of their sins, Paul reminded Corinthian Christians how gospel calls them out from their sins so that they and we can glorify God with our life.
So as we do every week, stand for the reading of God’s word.
We are going to start in chapter 6 verse 9
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Let’s pray.
Intro
Intro
Often times, it can be difficult to have good judgment on what is good and right. And making the right decisions is all the more difficult when there are conflicting directions that are being given to you.
For example:
Do you ever use your phone for directions? I uses my phone as a GPS all the time, and there is a helpful feature that will show you what the speed limit is in a given place. But every now and then, the speed limit on my phone says something else than what is indicated by the road signs. While I think it is best to follow the road sign’s indication, there is none the less a judgment call that needs to be made so you can know how fast you ought to be going.
Even when I was a kid, I would ask my dad if I could go to a friends house. But if I didn’t like his answer, I would go ask my mom the same question hoping I would get a different answer… My guess is that I’m not the only one who has done this… but in the event my parents gave me a different answer, which parent should listen to?
This is a trick questions! I should have listened to my dad and not pit my parents against one another… that’s what I should have done…
But that’s not the point, what I want us to see is that there are times when our parents might disagree on different matters, and a judgment has to be made as to which one we are to obey.
Now these two situations are rather trivial, but there are times when God says something with absolute clarity in the Scriptures, and the world completely contradicts what God says. And so we need to ask, who should we be listening to, the world, or to the Lord?
Who thinks you should listen to the world?
And who thinks you should listen to the Lord?
It’s a no brainer, isn’t it. It’s as easy as any Sunday school answer… And yet, here is the problem. Satan is crafty, and he is constantly bringing an assault against God’s word. Even from the very beginning, Satan has caused God’s people to question and doubt the goodness of God’s word.
You remember what God commanded Adam in the garden?
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
This is what God commanded, and we know that God’s word is the one we are to listen to… But Genesis continues we learn of a different voice that contradicted God’s;
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Do you see how Satan brought God’s word into question.
Satan’s craftiness is one of the problems that cause us to disobey God, but the other part of the problem was Adam and Eve’s own judgment… for they trusted what they saw more than what God said.
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Adam and Eve knew what God said, and they even knew that they were to obey his voice, but Satan caused them to question the word of God, and Adam and Eve trusted their senses more than they trusted God’s word.
This is how we, even as Christians can go from knowing what is good and right, and yet we still do what is wrong and unrighteous. And this is very similar to what was happening in the Corinthian Church.
As we look at chapter six, you should remember last week Paul ended talking about how we are to judge sin that happens within the church. He also said that we have no business judging sins outside of the church.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
As we look at chapter 6, Paul turns his attention towards the church who is having their sins and problems settled by those who are outside of the church.
1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
Paul points out, that just as it is not our job to discipline and judge those outside of the church, so too those outside of the church have no business settling grievances and sins against one another within the church!
In fact, it’s those in the church that will judge the world in the end with Christ! In the divine court on the last day, we the saints will judge the world with Christ! So Paul says, why then are we bringing our sins and their grievances against one another before human courts?
Paul’s point: Sin amongst Christians ought to be dealt with by those who belong to the family of God!
Paul continues,
5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
Notice the irony that Paul is using. Repeatedly, Paul has called attention to the Corinthian’s pride in their so called wisdom… but the problem is, none of them are actually wise enough to settle the disputes that are happening among them!
Those who take a person into a lawsuit do so to win something from the other person, but Paul’s sayid that going into the lawsuit is already a defeat for you…
Why?
Well for one, you are bringing reproach upon the name of Christ. We are supposed to forgive one another, and bear with one another. Remember that is what Christ did for us when he died on the cross! But when we harbor hatred and animosity against one another and drag each other into court, we throw out so much of what Jesus taught us to do.
And furthermore, bringing a Christian before human law it is a loss, because sure, you might get a sense of justice when you get some money out of that person… But really, it is a loss, because the sin is never actually dealt with and the human court will not result in the reconciliation of two Christians who’s relationship has been broken because of sin.
This sin is hi-lighted in v 8
“But you yourselves wrong and defraud — even your own brothers!”
Paul’s point… why go to human laws, when that sin is a grievance not just against a Christian, but against God. And the punishment sin is always death. And human judges cannot deal with sin the way Christ and his church can.
So Paul says:
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Do not be deceived… Paul says… Satan is a deceiver and he is always twisting God’s word to make sin look less deadly.
Let’s take these each of these sins and consider what they mean…
Sexually immoral - that’s those who distort sex, and use it in was that that God does not intend it to be use…
sex outside of marriage
but sexual immorality this isn’t just the act of sex itself, but any sexual activity outside of marriage
pornography
being intimate with a boyfriend or girlfriend, yes even kissing in a way that awakens passions that are meant to be enjoyed only in marriage…
Idolaters
Sure we don’t have golden calves that we bow down to
But we sure love a lot of things in this world more than we love God… and such a love for anything other than God is still idolatry
Adulterers
that’s when a married man or woman breaks the covenant of marriage by being sexually immoral with any other person.
Men who practice homosexuality
sure, these days, the world celebrates homosexuality
and there is a gay pride all throughout our culture
But make no mistake, such activity is sinful, wrong, and those who practice homosexuality are not Christians and they have not been saved
Let’s just round out the list:
thieves - a person who steals
greedy - those who store up their possessions for themselves
drunkards - those who get drunk
revilers - those who give abusive insults and criticism
swindlers - Those who use deception to get what they want
What about such people?
look at v 9 and the end of v 10
they will not inherit the kingdom of God
What’s the point of all of this?
1. Human laws and judges are unable to define what is good and evil.
1. Human laws and judges are unable to define what is good and evil.
While the Corinthians are looking to human courts to settle their conflicts and sins, Paul shows them how the the word is so unfit for judging Christians, for they participate in all sorts of ungodliness themselves and they even celebrate sin. The world calls sin good, while God condemns sin and he hates sin.
Listen, human laws are constantly changing and evolving…
Not all changes to the law are bad, but certainly not all changes are good.
But God’s word never changes
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
So often, people try to excuse sexual immorality and homosexuality as things that are okay for today, but they just weren’t okay back when Paul was writing the Scriptures… but that’s not what the Bible teaches. Isaiah said the word of our God will stand forever.
No human writing, nor ideas from men are like the ideas of our God. Our ideas are constantly changing, but this is not so with God. His word is fixed and sure… and what he calls good is good and it will always be good, and what he calls sin is sin, and it will always be sin.
Now, while human laws and judges are unable to define what is good and evil, human laws and judges still have their place.
Just because human laws are fallible (meaning that they are full of mistakes), this doesn’t mean we get to break them.
It simply means, where human laws contradict God’s law, we are to reject them and instead we are to cling to God’s word.
But this was not what the Corinthians believed:
Paul continued:
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
Notice the quotation marks around the phrases here in these next few verses… those are there because most commentators believe that these are mottos that the Corinthians believed in and followed…
They thought that because of the grace that is given to all who believe in Jesus, they believed that that God’s grace freed them from the need of following any and all laws.
There’s a name for this:
Antinomianism - it simply means, anti law.. and such notions are to be utterly rejected
We just saw this a few verses ago:
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
These verses utterly desolate any notion of antinomianism
So this idea, that Christians are free to do whatever they want because of God’s grace is utter foolishness
Jeremiah described what happens when God’s Spirit dwells in the hearts of his people:
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
It is true, that law keeping does not give a person right standing before God… we are saved by faith and not by works. But when we are saved, we receive the Spirit of God who writes the law of God on our hearts. This simply means, he gives us new desires to obey God’s law but not the freedom to disobey his word.
This is why at the end of the fruit of the Spirit Paul says
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Paul continues to quote the corinthians mottos, listen to the second motto that the corinthians followed:
13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
What the Corinthians believed was that if food nourishes the stomach, then it must be because the stomach is meant to have food…
If it tastes good, and it feels right, then it must be good…
There is a name for this kind of thinking too and it too is to be rejected:
It’s called hedonism - and it is the philosophy that our sole purpose is to pursue pleasure and live the best life now.
The Corinthians took this motto further than just food, but they also applied it to mean that if sex seems good and feels good then it must be good…
2. What feels good to you does not define what is good and evil.
2. What feels good to you does not define what is good and evil.
Remember Eve,
when she “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate”
She thought it would be good to do what she wanted instead of obeying what God said was good…
How did that end up for her? Not so good right?
Just because the fruit looked good and was a delight in Eve’s sight, did not mean Eve then had permission to eat the forbidden fruit…
and the consequences of Adam and Eve eating that fruit are felt by each of us today…
We should not trust our own judgment to define good and evil for ourselves.
But instead we ought to feast upon the fruit that grows from God’s word, for it alone is what will nourish us and sustain us.
The Corinthians thought that they were free from the law to do what they wanted, and they believed that if something felt good, they were to indulge. But Paul lays out how we ought to treat our bodies… for they are not meant for pleasure, rather they are meant for the Lord
14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
What’s the point?
3. God alone can define what is good and evil, and since we belong to Him we are to live for His glory.
3. God alone can define what is good and evil, and since we belong to Him we are to live for His glory.
This means we honor God with our bodies, because our bodies belong to the Lord and have been made one with him!
God is holy, and he is without any sin. And he will not take part in any sin. Therefore it is incompatible for any Christian to take sin into his or her own body through any kind of sexual immorality.
But if God is holy, and he cannot take part of sin, then how is it that we can become one with him since we are sinners too?
Look back at v 11
After listing all the kinds of sins and sinners that will not inherit the Kingdom of God, Paul says
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
You were washed, and sanctified…
something happened when Jesus died and you believed in him… though you were once filthy because of sin, Jesus has cleansed you of all your sin. And he sanctified you Paul says…
While sanctification is the ongoing process of becoming holy and killing sin, notice how Paul uses the word here
You were sanctified… meaning, you were made holy… past tense… you were made sinless…
and furthermore, he says, you were justified… Jesus work on your behalf not only cleansed you and made you sinless, but he made you clean just as if you have never sinned.
Because of what Jesus has done for us, Paul say…
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Salvation wasn’t free… the cleansing of your sin cost something. It cost Jesus his life. Therefore we are to glorify God in our body.
Don’t use grace as an excuse to sin, instead, rest in his grace, trusting that you are in right standing with Jesus not because of what you did, but because of what Jesus did. And now continue on in this life obeying Jesus in all that you do so that he will be glorified.
God defines what is good and evil… so let us obey him, and let us ask him for help so that we might have the Law written on our hearts.