I figure out what I believe about something, I go to this book and this book alone, the
Holy Bible.
And here's what I want to point out.
You might have heard this too, but when I was in Christian school and when I was in
Bible college and pretty much any commentary you look at will all teach you, they say,
you know, Corinth at the time that the Bible was written, the city of Corinth was filled
with the most extreme sin imaginable, everybody was a sodomite, everybody was a prostitute,
and they go on and on about how bad it is.
Now look, does that line up with what this passage is teaching?
Because this passage here is teaching that even the unsaved worldly people at Corinth
were shocked by this sin.
So if these Sunday school manuals and Christian school textbooks and Bible college textbooks
are saying that, you know, in Corinth it was just accepted to be a homosexual, it was just
accepted to have all this prostitution, it was accepted, look, if that were really true
then they wouldn't have been shocked by this.
So the point that I'm trying to make there is just be careful what you believe, be careful
what you read in the history books.
You know, I'm going to trust the word of God, I'm going to trust the Bible.
The Bible here is saying that this sin was even shocking to the people outside the church,
they must not have been as promiscuous and permissive of a society as what the history
book will try to tell you.
I'm going to go with the word of God.
But look what it says in verse 2.
And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be
taken away from among you.
So he's saying that they've had the wrong reaction.
There's a guy in their church, he's committing fornication with his stepmom, they are reacting
wrongly.
How they ought to be reacting is that they ought to be upset about it, they ought to
be mourning.
Mourning means they're sad, they're crying, they're grieved about it.
He's saying instead they're puffed up.
What does puffed up mean?
Puffed up means prideful or arrogant, okay?
And he says, for I verily, verse 3, as absent in body, Paul's saying, I'm not physically
there.
He said, but I'm present in spirit, verse 3, have judged already as though I were present
concerning him that hath so done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together and my spirit with
the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Now what's interesting about this is that most people, if you start judging, they're
going to say you're puffed up.
Now think about that, isn't that true?
I mean if I were to point out and say, hey wait a minute, why is this guy in our church
living in open sin, committing fornication with his stepmother?
You know what they say, you're judging, you're proud, you're being prideful, you're puffed
up.
And then notice what he says a few verses down in verse number 6, he says, your glorying
is not good.
Glorying is a word that the Bible uses for boasting.
Now wouldn't boasting be associated with being puffed up?
People that are arrogant, they like to boast a lot.
And he says, you're puffed up and you're glorying.
Now is it because they were too judgmental here?
No, it's because they're failing to judge.
Paul's saying, I'm not even there.
I'm hearing about this on the other side of the world and I already have judged what needs
to happen here, how you need to get rid of this guy out of your church.
But he's saying, you're puffed up.
You're too prideful and arrogant to admit the problem and to admit what you need to
do.
Isn't that the opposite of what people tell us today when they tell us if you judge, you're
puffed up.
Here the Bible is saying, if you don't judge, you're the one that's puffed up.
You're the one that's glorying.
So a lot of the things that we're taught are backwards.
Now you say, well the Bible says never to judge.
Go to Matthew chapter 7 and I just want to quickly deal with this.
I went to a church service on Monday night at a local church in town here and it was
like a special service on a Monday night.
So I went to a service on Monday night and I don't know if this is true, but the guy
that was preaching, he said that statisticians did some kind of a study on what was the most
quoted Bible verse.
And he said it used to be John 3.16, because John 3.16 is the most famous verse in the
whole Bible.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Awesome verse.
I quote it every single week when I'm out giving people the Gospel.
But he said that statisticians have now determined that the new most quoted verse in the Bible
is not John 3.16 but rather it is Matthew 7.1 that is most frequently quoted.
Judge not that ye be not judged.
And most people when they quote this scripture they take it out of context and they misuse
it.
Let's read the context and see what he's saying here.
Because a lot of people will just take the first two words and that's their mantra.
Judge not.
Look what the Bible says in verse 2.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.
So what he's saying is judge not that ye be not judged.
He's saying if you judge people, you're going to be judged by the same standard that you
use.
Okay, let's keep reading.
It says, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider is not the
beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold
a beam is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite, and then he goes on.
So this passage is directed at hypocrites.
What's a hypocrite?
It's a person who says one thing and does something else.
It's someone who rebukes someone for doing something and then goes out and does the exact
same thing that they criticize them for doing.
That is what a hypocrite is, right?
Okay, so this illustration of the beam in the eye, what is a beam?
A beam is a giant piece of wood that's used in construction, right?
A beam.
A mote is like a little tiny splinter of wood, basically.
And often you get a piece of wood in your eye.
If you work in construction, like I've worked in construction for many years, you know you're
drilling holes and that little piece of wood or that little piece of metal gets in your
eye.
And you know, I've had a splinter in my eye for hours and it's very painful, it's very
annoying, and I've spent hours and hours trying to get that splinter.
And then once you get it out of your eye, it still feels like it's there, even after
it's gone.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Okay, so the Bible is saying that people who are hypocrites, they often have a great big
beam in their own eye.
Meaning that they have this huge sin, this huge problem in their life, but then they're
going to try to correct every little thing that's wrong with someone else.
Like they've got a beam, he's just being exaggerating obviously, like obviously you're not going
to get a beam stuck in your eye.
But he's just trying to be graphic here, like you've got a beam in your eye.
And you're saying, here let me help get that little splinter out of your eye.
He's saying that's ridiculous.
He's saying how are you going to say to your brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine
eye, and behold a beam is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out
of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's
eye.
Now, is he saying leave the splinter in your brother's eye?
Just leave it there.
Is that what he said?
Let your brother just have a splinter in his eye for life.
Now look, if I have a splinter in my eye and somebody can get it out, I want them to get
it out.
Now is it going to be fun as they remove it?
Now you know, you've had people try to help you with the splinter, right?
Oh man.
And you know, it's not fun when they're poking, you know, just let me do it myself, you know.
Because you know, just let me try.
So you know, it's never fun, it hurts.
But you know, if somebody's trying to get the splinter out of your eye, they're actually
trying to help you, they're not trying to hurt you, okay?
So what the Bible is saying here, it's not saying never judge anyone or anything for
any reason.
What the Bible is saying here is that don't be a hypocrite when you judge.
Make sure you're not judging people for things that you yourself are guilty of.
You know, look in the mirror before you start judging other people.
He says in verse 6, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.
Let me ask you this, if you were to just never judge anyone, how are you even going to be
able to identify who is the dog and who is the swine that you're not supposed to cast
your pearls before?
I mean, if you're not judging, how do you even know?
Because well, I don't judge anyone.
So then how are you going to know who not to cast your pearls before?
It doesn't even make sense, okay?
Go if you would back where we were in 1 Corinthians.
I just wanted to go to that passage and just clarify.
You know, Jesus also said judge not after the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
So there he's commanding us to judge, but he's saying, you know, judge a righteous judgment.
Don't judge on appearances.
He's saying don't judge when you're guilty of the same thing.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 at the end of the passage in verse 15, but he that is
spiritual judgeth all things, yet he that himself is judgeth of no man.
So if the Bible tells us never to judge, then why is he saying that you're spiritual if
you do judge?
And why does the Bible say that when you come to church and the preacher preaches, it says
that the people who are listening to the preacher should judge what the preacher says?
Because you shouldn't just come to church as a mindless robot and just say, well, whatever
Pastor Anderson says, I'm just trusting that it's right.
No, you're supposed to have the Bible in your hand and judge what I say.
That's what Paul said.
He said, judge ye what I say, and I want you to judge me, and I want you to decide whether
what I'm preaching tonight lines up with the Bible or not, and if it doesn't line up with
the Bible, I want you to reject it because that is what it means to judge, to decide
whether something is right or whether something is wrong, to decide whether a person is doing
right or wrong.
That is what judging is, and over and over again, he tells us to judge.
Look at chapter 6, just quickly.
It says in verse 2, do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this life?
And so the Bible is telling us again to judge.
In fact, there's a book in the Bible.
It's called Judges.
It's a whole book, okay?
And you know, the judges are the good guys in the book, by the way, okay?
So anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there because a lot of people will accuse
you of being prideful when you pass judgment.
Now look, are there people who are prideful and they pass wrong judgment?
Are there people that are hypocritical and they pass wrongful judgment?
Are there people who judge according to the appearances and judge wrongfully?
Yes, but is the Bible telling us to just never judge?
No, he's just telling us to judge righteously, okay.
So people will sometimes take that out of context.
So here, Paul, without being there, has already judged what they need to do about the situation.
They've got a guy in the church, he's having a relationship with his stepmother, he's committing
fornication with his stepmother, and Paul says, I've already judged what needs to happen
here.
And he says, to deliver, verse 5, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened, for
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
So here he's comparing this man who's living in sin unto leaven.
Now leaven is something that goes into dough, and the thing about leaven is that it multiplies,
it spreads.
For example, there's this stuff, it's this Amish bread, and who knows what I'm talking
about where you pass on the dough and it's just like this never-ending dough, does anybody
know what I'm talking about?
And ladies will sometimes have some of this going, and they take a portion of it and they
make bread with it, and then they add more ingredients, and it's just this endless dough
that the leaven just keeps multiplying and multiplying and multiplying.
So leaven is something that spreads, you put a little leaven into the dough and it leavens
the whole lump.
And God is saying that sin, when it's allowed to go unchecked, will leaven the entire lump,
it'll leaven the entire church is what he's saying.
And so he says you need to purge out the leaven, you need to get rid of the leaven.
And then he becomes very explicit at the end of the chapter, he says in verse number 13,
"...but them that are without God judgeth, therefore..."
Look at the last word of the chapter, verse 13 of chapter 5, "...therefore put away from
among yourselves that wicked person."
So his final judgment is you need to get rid of this guy, you need to put away from among
yourselves this wicked person, you need to get the leaven out of your church, you need
to cast this guy out.
Now you say, well, why would it be prideful or puffed up or glorying of them to not want
to deal with this guy?
Because sometimes people just take great pride in how accepting they are.
We're just really accepting.
You know, we're not these judgmental types, you know, we just accept everybody, we just
love everybody.
You know, we just want...
Now look, on the surface that sounds good and I can see why people are sucked in by
that.
Because it sounds good, you know, hey, let's just accept everybody, let's just love everybody.
It sounds good, but you have to stop and think.
Look around the room tonight, do you see all the little children?
Lots of little children in our church, right?
So here's the thing.
Let's say we have somebody in our church who is living in fornication, right?
And that's just their lifestyle.
A lifestyle of open fornication, right?
And let's say we just decided, you know what, we're just going to accept everybody.
We're just going to allow this person to be a part of our church because we want to minister
unto this person because we want to be accepting of everyone.
Now it sounds great, right?
But you know what, the message is that you're sending to these children though is that hey,
we're okay with this.
We tolerate this.
We think it's fine.
Well, I mean, it's a sin, but come on, we're all sinners.
And you can still be in church, you can still be serving God, and nobody's perfect, right?
So it sends the wrong message unto the children, and really it sends the wrong message unto
all church members.
It sends the wrong message to new believers.
Now look, is anybody in this church perfect?
Is anybody in this church sinless?
Now is God saying here, you must be sinless to go to church.
To be a part of the church you must be perfect, you must be sinless.
Is that what he's teaching?
No he's not.
He becomes very specific about why this guy has to go.
Why this guy who is fornicating with his stepmom cannot be allowed to be a part of the church
because it's going to corrupt the entire church.
And pretty soon the whole church is going to be corrupted, okay?
It's going to all be leavened.
He explains why, because he says in verse number 9, look down at verse 9.
And again, if I'm saying something that's unbiblical I'd love for you to show me what
it is.
You know, we're looking at the verses here.
I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators.
Now what does that mean?
Don't hang out with fornicators.
And what are fornicators?
Fornicators are people who are basically, you know, I don't like to use the word in
front of children, but you know, they're basically having a relationship that married
people are supposed to have in the bedroom.
They're having that type of relationship before marriage.
They're living in that type of relationship or committing those acts before marriage.
He says I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, not to hang around
with fornicators, right?
But when he wrote that they misunderstood what he meant by that, okay?
And so he's going to clarify what he meant by that right now.
Look at verse 10.
He says, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners
or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world.
So what he's saying is, he's saying I know I wrote to you before and said not to company
with fornicators, but he says, you know, if you were to just not be around any fornicators
or not hang around any fornicators, he's saying you'd pretty much have to leave the world
because pretty much everybody in the world is a fornicator, he says.
So you'd must need to go out of the world if that's what I was telling you.
But he says this, but now I've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is
called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or
an extortioner with such a one known not to eat.
So is he telling them never hang around with any fornicator?
No, because he says if that were the case, you pretty much need to leave this world.
But he says don't hang around with somebody who is called a brother who is a fornicator.
Basically someone who is claiming to be a Christian, someone who is called a brother
who is a fornicator, that is the one that you're not supposed to hang around with.
Now look, you can see here that God's people are judged more harshly than the unsaved world.
You see, your unsaved coworker that's a fornicator, that's to be expected.
They're not saved.
They often don't know any better.
They need to get saved.
They're going to live that lifestyle because frankly, fornication is accepted in the world
that we live in today in 2013.
And people who do not fornicate are the exception.
And people who do commit fornication are the majority today in 2013.
Wouldn't anyone disagree with that statement?
The majority of Americans are fornicating today?
The majority of teenagers in high school, the majority of people down at ASU are committing
fornication?
Right?
Now wait a minute, should it be so amongst God's people?
No.
Now look, are there saved people who commit fornication?
Absolutely there are.
Should we hang out with them?
No.
And should they be allowed to come to our church?
Now look, it sounds a lot better to just say, well everybody's welcome.
That sounds great, but is it biblical?
The Bible is saying that if somebody's a Christian and somebody's called a brother, and I'm not
talking about somebody who just got saved last week, you know if somebody just got saved
last week, obviously they need to be given time to learn about that subject, to grow,
to understand this.
But if somebody's called a brother, somebody knows better, they've been in church, they've
been a Christian, and it comes out that hey, this person is committing fornication, and
this person is unrepentant about that fornication.
Even though they're our brother in Christ, even though they're saved, we can't have that
kind of person around because it's going to leaven our whole lump.
But he says you need to put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Now again, it's not saying that the person is saved, it's saying they're called a brother.
So this could be either someone who's saved or someone who's not saved, but they are claiming
to be a Christian, do you understand?
So they are claiming to be a Christian, they are claiming to be a brother.
Whether they really are saved or not, we don't always know the heart, we don't really always
know who is saved or who's not saved.
But the Bible clearly says, now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that
is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or
an extortioner with such and one know not to eat.
He's saying don't even go out to eat with this type of person.
Basically I would be more likely to go out to eat with a worldly, unsaved, fornicating
drunk than a saved fornicating drunk.
Because the Bible is telling me that I am not supposed to keep company with anyone who's
called a brother who is involved in that kind of sin.
Now they end up taking his advice here in this passage, because if you read the book
of 2 Corinthians it explains how they took his advice and how actually once this guy
was thrown out of the church and ostracized, actually that woke him up.
And then he got right with God and then they're being told in 2 Corinthians, hey you need
to accept that guy into your church, you need to forgive him and let it go and don't
ever bring it up to him again.
Because now he's ready to straighten up and fly right.
So look, is the goal here of kicking the guy out, is it just because we hate this guy?
We hate you, we want you gone.
No actually it's better for this guy, it's actually for this guy's own good that he's
being thrown out.
Because according to 2 Corinthians, getting thrown out of the church woke this guy up
and made him realize.
I know people right now in other independent fundamental Baptist churches who are committing
fornication and you know what, they need to be thrown out of their church and that'll
wake them up.
And it's better for them, it's better for everybody.
Because if they're allowed to keep coming, it's basically making them feel like their
sin is acceptable.
Now again, is God asking for perfection?
No, he's listing certain specific sins here.
He's not saying anyone who sins can't come or else none of us could come to church, because
we've all sinned.
The thought of foolishness is sin.
But these are specific sins that should not be allowed to exist in a church according
to the Bible.
Now what are they?
Let's look at them.
It says a fornicator, we already covered what that is, or covetous.
This is talking about someone who basically lives their life for the love of money, for
greed, for financial gain.
He says, or an idolater.
This is someone who basically makes graven images, you know, whatever the graven images
are.
Statues that they, you know, you see people have statues of Mary or Jesus or the saints
or whatever.
That's what the Bible says, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
He says, you know, make sure that fornication, covetousness, idolatry, a railer, or a drunkard,
or an extortioner.
Now people that are drunkards, that is not acceptable in a local church for people to
be drunkards.
And then the other thing he says is an extortioner.
Now what is an extortioner?
Well extortion is when I force somebody to give me money, right?
Isn't that what extortion is?
It'd be like, when you think of extortion you think of like the mafia.
Like hey, you know, you've got to pay us a thousand dollars a month protection money
and then your place isn't going to get burned down or whatever, you know.
And so, the government, yeah, exactly.
Basically when it says extortioner, you can't have a government job.
Well, I mean, you can have a government job, it better not be with the IRS.
You better not be working for the highway patrol, you better not be working for DPS,
okay.
You know, he's saying, you know, don't be an extortioner.
And he says, you know, with such and one know not to eat.
And so an extortioner is somebody who basically forces other people to give them money at
the threat of violence.
You connect the dots and figure out what that is in 2013, okay.
But anyway, he says an extortioner with such and one know not to eat.
Now what's a railer?
What's a railer?
A railer is basically, you know, from what I gather studying the Bible, railing is usually
it's coupled with the word accusation.
The Bible talks about somebody who just throws out railing accusations.
This is somebody who just basically is just blowing off their mouth about other people,
just basically just lying about people, just, you know, making railing accusations.
You know, you can study that word and come to your own conclusion on exactly what you
think that is.
The other ones are a little more cut and dry and easier to understand.
The word railing is used a few times in the Bible.
So basically he's saying, look, if people are committing these certain major sins, he
says these people, you shouldn't hang around them.
As a Christian, you know, you shouldn't be around these kind of people.
Now look, none of us are perfect.
Everybody here is a sinner.
Everybody here makes a mistake.
But is everybody here a fornicator?
Is everybody here an extortioner?
Is everybody going around telling people they're going to break their fingers if they don't
pay them $1,000?
You know, is everybody here going out and getting drunk out of their mind?
No.
So, you know, to sit there and say, well, we're all sinners.
It's like, yeah, I know that, but these particular things are things that are not acceptable
in a church, according to the Bible.
Not according to Pastor Anderson, but according to the Bible, okay.
Now look, let's go through these few verses that we've skipped over here.
It says in verse 4, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together
and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such and one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh, because we want to see this guy go down hard and we're
going to enjoy every minute of it.
Is that what it says?
It says, for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord Jesus.
So is that for this guy's own good?
Yeah.
Basically, you know, I believe here that this guy was not saved and basically what he's
saying is, you know, this guy's never going to get saved while you're just condoning of
his sin.
You know, this guy, you're not, you know, and this is what people often think.
By allowing everybody to come in all the time and just every wicked sinner to attend church,
we're going to reach more people.
Is that what this is teaching?
Or is this teaching that you're going to reach this guy by telling him the truth and saying,
hey, you're involved in a wicked sin, man.
We don't accept this here.
We don't condone of this.
We don't want our children to be exposed to this.
You know, you need to leave.
Unless you're going to get out of this relationship with your stepmom, you need to leave.
You know, telling people the truth is the best thing that you could do for them.
You know, you can speak the truth in love.
You don't have to be unkind or, but you know what?
Sometimes the truth, no matter how you say it, is going to hurt, but you've got to tell
the truth.
And so he's saying, look, he's saying, deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the lay of the Lord Jesus.
Now you say, what does that mean to deliver him unto Satan?
What does that mean?
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 1 because that term is actually used in 1 Timothy chapter 1 also.
But I think the best thing that could help us to understand what it means to be delivered
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh when you think of the book of Job in the Old
Testament.
In the book of Job in the Old Testament, if you remember, God delivers Job unto Satan
and gives Satan permission to basically destroy his flesh.
I mean, he smites him with all kinds of disease, with boils in his body.
Now Job had not done anything wrong.
Job had not committed any sin.
I mean, Job was a righteous man, but basically God was just allowing him to go through testing,
allowing him to go through trials and tribulations to strengthen him.
All of his friends looked at Job and they accused Job of having committed sin.
They said, Job, these bad things are happening to you, you must have done something wrong.
You deserve this.
And Job is saying, honestly, I haven't done anything wrong.
I mean, I'm trying to live right, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
And they said, no, Job, you know, if you were doing right, this kind of stuff wouldn't
be happening to you.
And Job just keeps saying, no, I don't know what it is.
I mean, I'm, you know, it'd be like if somebody's living a good life today and all of a sudden
everything bad happened to them and all their friends start accusing, man, you must be living
in sin for this to be happening.
And so the book of Job teaches us that when bad things happen to people, it's not always
a result of their sin.
Sometimes it's just trials and tribulations and testing that God's bringing them through.
So we should never look at someone who's going through a hard time and just assume, yep,
finally caught up to them, their wicked life.
I mean, I don't know, but I'm just saying for that kind of stuff to be happening, you
know, that's the wrong attitude and the book of Job teaches us that.
But we do see that Satan is afflicting Job with boils all over his body, he's afflicting
his flesh.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter number 1 and verse 20 where Paul uses the exact same term.
Look at verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
So these guys are blasphemous in one way or the other.
The Bible doesn't really give us the details, but Hymenaeus and Alexander are blasphemous
in one way or another and Paul is saying that he has delivered these guys unto Satan that
they may learn not to blaspheme.
Basically this is basically some kind of a chastisement that they're going to need
to go through.
Basically he's saying they need to go through some pain, they need to suffer because they're
sinning very grievously and they need to be punished so that they can learn to straighten
up and fly right.
And I believe that's exactly what we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
Basically when Paul says he's delivered such and one unto Satan, he's saying, you know,
basically he's saying we need to kick this guy out of the church and then we need to
pray that God does something to get this guy's attention.
You know, we need to pray that God brings some suffering into this guy's life to wake
him up.
Because, you know, a lot of people, you know, they continue in sin until suffering comes
in their life and punishment comes in their life and then that will often wake them up.
Think about Manasseh in the Old Testament.
Manasseh was a very wicked king, I mean very wicked.
And because of his sins and wickedness, God allowed him to be taken captive into a foreign
country and put in prison.
And while he was in prison there, you know what, he realized, you know what, I've messed
up my life.
I've not been right with God.
And he got right with God there in the prison cell.
And then he came back and did right, okay?
But you see how that's what it took to get Manasseh on track?
He had to go through suffering and pain in his life.
That's why a lot of times God will bring us as believers, when we start going down a sinful
path and when we start going down a wicked path, he'll bring chastisement into our life.
He'll bring pain into our life, not because he hates us, but because he's trying to wake
us up, because he's trying to get us back on track.
The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
He said, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous.
Nobody likes, you know, getting their backside whipped.
And he said, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous.
Nevertheless, afterward it worketh the peaceable fruit of righteousness and then which are
exercised thereby.
And the Bible teaches that when God disciplines us, when God chastens us, it will often improve
our behavior.
Because things are going great as we live in sin, we don't have a care in the world,
but then all of a sudden God clouds up and rains on us because of our sins in our life.
You know, it's sort of like when you're a kid and you're living your life, you're committing
sin, you're getting away with it, mom and dad aren't punishing you, you're going to
keep doing it, right?
But then when the spanking comes, it's a wake-up call.
You know, and you stop and think, wait a minute, I've blown it here, I'm doing wrong.
Or you might just think, you know, I don't want to go through this spanking again.
So I'm going to straighten up and fly right.
And that's what we see in both 1 Corinthians 5 and 1 Timothy chapter 1.
When he says to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, basically
praying that this guy's flesh will be destroyed, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord Jesus, if somehow that will wake this guy up about the path that he's on.
It says in verse 6, your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leavened at the
whole lump, purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are on leaven.
And then he ties in the Passover, he says, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, talking about the feast of the Passover, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.
Now this is referring to the Old Testament Passover feast.
In the Old Testament this was instituted in Exodus chapter 12, where they were told that
on the first month of each year, in the tenth day of the month, they were supposed to take
a lamb on the tenth day of the month, and they were supposed to basically observe that
lamb until the fourteenth day of the month.
And they were supposed to make sure that their lamb was a male lamb, and that it was also
without spot and without blemish.
So they don't want to get a lamb that has problems, that's ill, that has injuries, or
that has speckled or spotted or ring-streaked.
He's saying, you know, find a lamb without spot or blemish, take it out of the flock
on the tenth day, observe it until the fourteenth day, and on the fourteenth day at evening
they were supposed to kill that lamb.
And then they were to take the blood of that lamb and sprinkle it upon the doorpost of
their house, they were supposed to put it on the top and on the side post of the doorframe,
and then they were supposed to take the meat of that lamb and they were supposed to roast
it with fire, he said don't boil it, don't cook it any other way, it must be roast with
fire, and then he says you're going to eat of that roasted meat and you're going to eat
it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
That was the Passover feast that they observed every year.
Now it symbolized a few different things.
You know, it symbolized of course the Passover in Exodus where the death angel was sent to
slay the firstborn of all the people living in Egypt, and they were spared from that.
But it also symbolized the Lord Jesus Christ, because when Jesus Christ came on the scene,
if you remember John the Baptist pointed to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world.
Now here's what's interesting about that.
Not only that, but Jesus Christ died on the Passover also.
Remember how they wanted to get his body off the cross because it was the preparation of
the Passover?
So here's what's interesting.
Jesus Christ died on the 14th day of the month Abib, just as the lamb was to be slain on
the 14th day of the month Abib, and not only that, but if you back up a few days, it was
the 10th day of the month Abib that he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, what we
often think of as Palm Sunday, the holiday Palm Sunday, where he came into Jerusalem
and they laid down the palm branches and said, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.
That was basically the presentation of the lamb on the 10th day of the month.
And then a few days later, on the 14th day, he was slain.
Then he was in the grave, he was dead for three days and three nights.
Those three days were the 14th day of the month Abib, which is the Passover.
The 15th day of the month Abib, which was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the 16th
day of the month Abib, which was the seventh day of the week, or the Sabbath day.
And then on the third day, he arose again, right?
So he spent three days and three nights dead.
The first day was the Passover, the second day was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and
the third day was the Sabbath, basically the seventh day of the week.
And then he rose again on the first day, early in the morning, first day of the week, he
was already risen.
So what's the significance of that?
Well because they weren't supposed to work on the Passover, were they?
They weren't supposed to work.
Were they supposed to work on the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
No.
Were they supposed to work on the Sabbath day, the seventh day?
No.
So all three of the days that Jesus Christ was dead, no one was supposed to be working.
Now what that symbolizes is the fact that we do not work our own way to heaven, Jesus
Christ did all the work.
Because the Bible is very clear, Acts 2.31 is a great scripture, but there are many,
many scriptures that very clearly teach that during those three days and three nights,
Jesus Christ was in hell.
That's what Acts 2.31 tells us.
Many other scriptures we could turn to.
Whole sermon in and of itself, which is what was symbolized by the Passover being roast
with fire after it was killed.
But Jesus Christ's body was buried in a tomb, but his soul went to hell for three days and
three nights, where he paid the price for our sins.
Three days later, he rose again from the dead, having conquered hell and death, having
the keys of hell and death.
So wait a minute, while Jesus Christ was paying for our salvation, no one was to be working
on the first, second, or third day.
Because of the fact that salvation is not of works lest any man should boast.
Salvation is by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
And so that is what that all, I mean, isn't it amazing how Jesus just fulfilled that perfectly?
And then there was also the day of the first fruits, that's when Jesus Christ rose from
the dead.
And then 50 days later on the day of Pentecost, that was all fulfilled.
And then when Jesus Christ comes back for the second time, that was his first coming,
when Jesus Christ comes at his second coming, he will fulfill the three fall feasts.
The blowing of the trumpets, the day of atonement slash year of the Jubilee, and the Feast of
Tabernacles.
So he'll fulfill the fall or harvest feast at his second coming, because the Bible says
the harvest is the end of the world.
And so, you know, that's a whole other sermon.
But the Bible's telling us clearly here in 1 Corinthians 5 that Jesus Christ is our Passover.
Now look, we don't sacrifice animals today, do we?
Do we offer a bird offering of lamb?
In fact, after the service tonight, if you stick around, we're going to be doing a bird
sacrifice tonight of a lamb.
Now if we did so, it would be blasphemous, because the Bible clearly tells us that Jesus
Christ was the lamb, he's slain once for all.
The book of Hebrews is clear, we don't need any animal sacrifices anymore, Jesus fulfilled
all that.
All of that was just pointing people toward Jesus, it was symbolic of Jesus, and once
he fulfilled it, it's done.
Now let me ask you this though, the Jews, do they believe that Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sins of the world?
No.
Do they believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah?
No.
Do they believe he died on the cross for their sins?
No.
Now let me ask you this, why aren't they sacrificing a lamb today?
Now that shows you the hypocrisy of that false religion, because if they don't believe that
Jesus Christ came, where's their sacrifice?
We know why we don't sacrifice a lamb.
We know why we don't offer a burnt sacrifice, because Jesus Christ is our lamb, he is our
burnt sacrifice, but Judaism today has no sacrifice.
And the Bible very clearly says that without the shedding of blood is no remission.
God said, I've given the blood upon the altar to be an atonement for your soul in the book
of Leviticus.
Where is their atonement?
Where is their sacrifice for sins?
They don't have it.
And I've asked a lot of Jews, you know, where's your animal sacrifice?
I said, do you guys believe in Moses?
Oh yeah.
You guys believe in the Torah?
Oh yeah, you believe the first five books of the Bible, oh yeah.
I said, well half of it's about offering animal sacrifices.
When was the last time you did that?
Oh well, yeah, see, the temple, the temple was destroyed back in 70 AD, and so we can't
do any sacrifices without our temple.
Really?
Because God never even told you to build that temple.
Did you know that?
Did you know that God never told them to build that temple?
That was David's idea.
When David had the idea to build the temple, God said to David, you know this never was
something that I told you to do, okay?
He never even told them to do that.
But he said, you know what David, he said, you know what though, I'm glad that you want
to do this, and so I will allow you to build this temple.
And he told them, here's the way you're going to build it.
And so he built the temple.
But look, before that temple existed, they had the tabernacle.
It was a tent.
They can make a new tent anytime they want, and they can set that tent up wherever they
want and do the sacrifices.
It's just an excuse that says, oh, we don't have the temple, we can't do it.
And then even before the tabernacle, they offered burnt offerings on an altar of whole
stones or an altar of earth.
They built an altar of earth, they built an altar of whole stones, and they offered sacrifices
unto the Lord before the tabernacle, before the temple, which God never even told them
to build.
And so it's just a false religion.
They don't even believe their own book.
Because if they believed their own book, they'd be doing animal sacrifices.
But they don't.
Now, the Bible is clear, during the tribulation, they will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem
and they will reinstitute animal sacrifices.
Is that of God?
But a lot of so-called Christians today would be sucked in by that and think, this is great.
When the Bible says Jesus is the Lamb of God.
We don't need an animal sacrifice.
He's already been slain, he already paid for it with his blood.
And so I just wanted to make that clear to you that those who are Jews, they often say,
well, the Jews believe the Old Testament, they just don't believe the New Testament.
Okay, well here's what Jesus said.
Jesus said, if you believed Moses, you would also believe me, for he spake of me.
So who should I believe?
Should I believe Jesus, who said that if you'll believe Moses, you'll believe in Jesus?
Or should I believe people who tell me, oh, the Jews believe the Old Testament?
The Jews do not believe the Old Testament because Jesus said that if they believed the
Old Testament, they'd believe in him.
The Bible says, who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he is anti-Christ,
which denieth the Father and the Son.
The Bible says that whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.
But he that acknowledget the Son, hath the Father also.
Then you say, oh, those that are Jews, those who practice Judaism, have the same God we
do.
How can you say they have the same God when the Bible says they have not the Father?
So what God do they have?
Because the Bible says, whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.
But he that acknowledget the Son, hath the Father also.
So how can you say they have the same God when it says they don't have the Father?
Then who do they have?
Beelzebub?
Rem-fan?
Well they carry around a banner of the Star of Rem-fan.
And the Bible never teaches a Star of David.
The Bible teaches that whenever they worshiped other gods, they carried a banner with a star
on it.
And it was called the Star of Rem-fan, the Star of Kyon.
So therefore, it is not the same religion, it is not the same God.
You say, oh, you're anti-Semitic.
No, I'm just telling the truth because I want Jews to be saved.
I'm not going to be like John Hagee and tell them they get a free pass, you know, because
they're one of the special chosen ones.
That is a false doctrine, that is a lie.
There is none, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and that name is Jesus.
And if you don't have the Son, you don't have nothing.
You don't have the Father, you don't have the Holy Ghost, you have nothing if you don't
have the Son.
Because God has given all power under the Son, he's given him a name that is above every
name that is the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things
on earth and things under the earth that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
That's not Judaism.
That's why I'm not a Judeo-Christian, I'm just a Christian, okay?
So in 1 Corinthians 5 it's clear Jesus Christ is our Passover.
He explains that, you know, we shouldn't have people that are calling themselves brothers
but living in these kind of wicked sins.
He says, you know what, you're better off to just not have company with these kind of
people because they're going to rub off on you.
It's that simple.
But it says in verse 12, for what have I to do to judge them also that are without?
Do not ye judge them that are within?
But them that are without, God judges.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
What's he saying?
He's saying, you know what, I don't really care about judging people outside the church
because I don't really care.
There's seven billion people in this world and whatever goes on outside of our church,
you know what, that's their business.
I'm not worried about getting in everybody's business and worrying about who's being with
their stepmom.
I really couldn't care less.
Like if my neighbor down the street is having a relationship with his stepmom, you know,
I'm really not that worried about it.
But he says, you know what, when it comes to what's going on in your church, you better
be worried about it.
You know, you better judge that sin.
He said, you know, stuff out there, God will take care of that.
God will judge what's outside those walls.
Is the man alive?
Are you going to judge anything within your church or is your church just going to become
this just fornication fest?
Just this open, drunken, fornicating fest.
No, no, no.
Where do you draw the line?
Well, you draw the line at these particular sins that have no place being in church.
Now you say, well wait a minute Pastor Anderson, I need to hang around with these backslidden
brothers in Christ in order that I might reach them.
Now hey, unsaved people, yeah, sometimes you do go out to eat with unsaved people because
you're trying to win them with the Gospel.
But we're talking about somebody who's already at least calling himself a brother.
And you say, well I'm going to try to be a good influence.
Well come on up here Quinn, I'm going to use you as my illustration, my victim.
I'm sorry, my illustration.
Here's the deal, this is how it works.
There's a certain gravity involved here.
So this is me, right?
Like I'm living for God, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
And this is my buddy Quinn here who's a fornicator, he's a drunk, whatever.
And no he's not in real life, it's just for illustration purposes.
So what do you think is easier right now?
Do you think it's going to be easier for me to bring him up to my level?
Or do you think it's going to be easier for him to bring me down to his level?
Go ahead and try to bring me down, would you?
Bring me down.
I have no chance to stay on this chair and I'm a lot stronger than him in real life.
I have no chance when he pulls me off that chair.
But look, now come on over here, now it's like okay I'm going to bring you up to my
level, I'm going to come down.
Go ahead and sit down.
So you see what I mean?
It's a lot easier to bring somebody down than it is to bring somebody up.
So you think to yourself, well you know I'm going to hang around with these drunken brothers
in Christ, these fornicator brothers in Christ, because I'm going to be a good influence on
them.
I'm going to reach them.
No, they're going to reach you.
They're going to influence you is what's really going to happen.
And so you better take heed unto yourself lest you fall.
And again, this has nothing to do with being loving, because people say you're unloving.
And you say well have you ever instituted or implemented this in 1 Corinthians 5?
You know I've only had to implement this about twice.
In seven years of pastoring I've had to implement this twice.
One time there was a couple that was coming to our church, they were not married, they
were living together in fornication, they just got saved, right?
So because they just got saved I figured you know what, they just got saved, they need
some time to learn the truth about this.
You know so I preached some sermons where I showed what the Bible said about fornication
and you know it just didn't seem to be getting through, because they're just coming week
after week and they're just living in open fornication.
And so finally I went to these people and just very kindly, very politely just showed
them this passage and just said look you know this is what the Bible says.
You know you know you're living in fornication, I know you're living in fornication, I said
look here's what the Bible says.
Now if you want to be together then you need to get married.
You know if you want to get married and keep coming to church, great.
If you don't want to get married then you can split up and keep coming to church, great.
But I said you know you cannot just keep living together in fornication and keep coming to
this church because you know the Bible says no.
Because you know otherwise that's sending a message to my children and everybody that
we accept fornication and we don't.
You know and so basically they ended up not coming to church anymore.
You know I mean it's really too bad.
I mean I was very sad about it because I love those people.
You know I wish that they would have either just parted ways or moved out from one another
or gotten married and I said you know if you want to get married I'll perform the ceremony.
You know I know you guys are newly saved, you're both saved, you know I'll perform the
ceremony but you can't just continue to live in the situation that you're living in, okay.
And so it has nothing to do with whether or not I love these people because I did love
these people.
But you know what I love God more than I love them.
I love God more than I love them.
I love God more than I love anybody.
And so anybody that fits the bill here is going to go before the Spirit of God decides
to go.
You know we want His Spirit to be upon us.
We want the power of Christ to be there and so we'd rather cut these people loose than
to lose God's blessing because we are just in complete disobedience of 1 Corinthians
chapter 5.
So yeah you know it's rare that this ever has to be implemented.
You know it's not something that's happening every month or every week.
It's rare because most people they figure it out, they hear the preaching, they figure
out okay you know this is a bad sin, we need to get this right.
Or usually frankly if people hear this kind of preaching and they are living in sin usually
they're just like well I'm never coming back to that church.
That church isn't loving you know.
And look to them love is just tell me what I want to hear all the time.
You know tell me I'm wonderful, give me a little pick me up to get me through the week
instead of telling people the truth.
You know I'm here to tell the truth and sometimes the truth hurts.
But that's life.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father thank you for this chapter 1 Corinthians 5 as we're going through the book of Corinthians
here we're learning a lot of things that we need to know and definitely things that
have an impact on how we run things at our church here.
Just I pray that every person who's here would take these things to heart and to study their
Bible and to read it and to understand that this is the truth.
And God I just pray that our church would be a church that is honoring and glorifying
to you not a church that glories in how accepting of sin we are.
And please just bless us as we go our separate ways tonight in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.