New Power Over Old Sin

Transcript

GR 1829
02/14/2016
New Power Over Old Sin
2 Corinthians 13:1-4
Gil Rugh

We're going to 2 Corinthians 13. Paul is finishing up this letter to the Corinthians and he has been very personal in this closing letter. Paul had a deep, consuming passion for Jesus Christ, for the proclamation of the Gospel that brought salvation to those who heard and believed. He had that same deep passion and love for the people of God, those who came to trust Christ, be joined together in churches in various places. He was concerned for them and their growth, their well-being. They were God's family, they were His spiritual family. And so he is dealing with the Corinthians on that level. He has great concern for what is going on at Corinth because he has a great love for them. People that you love, you care about, you are concerned about. And they go through difficulties and trials, you are involved in them. And someone you love is going through particular difficulties, life just doesn't go on as normal. Well, the Corinthians are that way to Paul. He was their spiritual father, he has led them to Christ. But there are some serious problems in the church at Corinth, and it grieves Paul greatly, it concerns him greatly. He was not satisfied just to lead them to Christ and then let them go where they would. He pours his life into them, even when he is not there, he has that deep, abiding concern.

Come back to the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4. And this wasn't the first letter he had written, it's the first letter we have in our Bibles. You remember that he refers later to a previous letter he had written to them. So this is an ongoing communication with them. And in 1 Corinthians 4:14 he writes, “I do not write these things to shame you but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I became your father through the Gospel.” I was the one God used to bring you the message of Christ, when you heard it you believed, you were born again into God's family. In that sense I was your earthly spiritual father, and I continue to love you as my children, concerned for you in your growth and maturing.

Down to verse 21, “What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?” This is the ongoing issue. We know what it is like in the physical realm. You have certain children that are difficult children, it seems everything they do is a challenge to you. That's the way the Corinthians are. They are an ongoing struggle and conflict with Paul. So that's why he said, I may have to come with a rod. You won't take my admonitions, you won't respond to my writing, to my personal contacts. The only thing left for me will be to come to you with a rod, the severe harshest discipline.

So back in 2 Corinthians 13, you'll note he starts, “This is the third time I am coming to you.” He had mentioned that back in 2 Corinthians 12:14, “Here for this third time I am ready to come to you.” And we've noted the first visit Paul made recorded in Acts 18, that's when he carried the Gospel to the city of Corinth. People heard the Gospel for the first time and by the power of God they were saved, the church at Corinth was established. Paul spent a year and a half there with them, nurturing them in their newfound faith. Then on another occasion he had visited them. With the problems going on Paul addressed in letters and in personal contacts. So he had a later visit after that first visit, but it didn't go well, remember.

If you want to come back to 2 Corinthians 2:1, “But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again.” Now the first visit wasn't a sorrowful visit. It was a joyful visit. They heard the Gospel, they were saved, they were starting to grow, but there was a follow-up visit. We don't know when, it's not recorded in the history in the book of Acts, but he'll refer to it here and he'll refer to it again as we'll see. It didn't go well. Perhaps it was when Paul had his extensive stay in Ephesus. Remember Ephesus is just across the body of water there to the east of Corinth, so it was relatively easy to take a ship and go across to Corinth. He may have crossed over because the situation is serious enough in the church at Corinth that Paul thought it necessitated a second personal visit. But he calls it a visit that caused sorrow. It caused sorrow to the Corinthians, it caused sorrow to him. But it didn't take care of the problem.

So now he is anticipating a third visit, and he is writing this second letter to the Corinthians, as we have it, the second letter, to prepare them for that visit because he doesn't want it to be like the second visit where there were things that needed to be dealt with and he had to come down on them, evidently, harshly. And in spite of that they weren't receptive. And Paul is telling them this third visit is going to be to settle things once for all, if you will. I am going to do whatever is necessary to deal with the sins that continue to be practiced at Corinth. And at the end of chapter 12 he enumerated what some of them were, and they were his concern. In 2 Corinthians 12:20 he said, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come,” on this third visit, “I may find you to be not what I wish,” children that have been obedient, that are conducting themselves as they should, “and may be found by you not to be what you wish,” you won't be happy to have me come. And the analogy as an angry parent who has to mete out severe discipline. Why? “Perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.” And we went back and looked at his first letter, 1 Corinthians, and saw that these things were issues then. 1 Corinthians 1 we saw, started out when Paul says, “I hear there are divisions among you.” A family from Corinth had visited and told him. And so we went through and you see these things going on at Corinth.

And that's not all. Verse 21, “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me,” or better, humble me, “before you.” It would be a humbling experience to have to go with all of his contacts to the Corinthians and they are still mired in sinful practices. “I will mourn over the many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented, impurity, immorality, sensuality which they have practiced.” Again, the moral sins that Paul addressed in his first letter as we have it. So there doesn't seem to be any progress, the Corinthians don't seem to be taking these matters seriously and Paul realizes that if this is the condition of the church, would you look forward to going to visit to straighten it out? I wouldn't, but Paul says it has to be done, it is going to be done.

That's why he is starting out, “this is the third time I am coming to you.” And then he quotes from Deuteronomy 19:15, “Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” There is no question about the sinful conduct of the Corinthians, that's so open and flagrant. Like that last word he used for sexual immorality translated sensuality, aselgeia. Denotes flagrant, open debauchery. Seems hard to believe this is going on in the church but remember when he wrote the first letter, in chapter 5 of that letter he had to address a man who was having a sexual relationship with his step-mother. And the church wasn't doing anything about it, it was fine. Paul says it has to be dealt with. This is not the Corinthians' church in the sense that they own it, it's not Paul's church. This is God's church which He purchased with the blood of His Own Son. It has to be dealt with, these practices have to cease. So what he is saying with at the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact will be established, my coming is the third witness to you. We don't have to have witnesses to decide whether these sins are going on, they are so open and flagrant. Everybody knows the reality of the sin and you have had abundant opportunity to deal with it.

So my coming on this third visit, time has run out. That's the point. There must be discipline, severe discipline. But I'm writing to tell you I'm coming, there is still time to deal with it.

The sins that are mentioned are basically the sins that characterize sinful people apart from the work of Christ. And this is what concerns Paul. They are continuing in some of the sins that were characteristic of them before their conversion. Remember we said the city of Corinth was notorious in the world for its corruptness, its vileness. To Corinthianize a person was to corrupt them morally. We noted to call someone a Corinthian woman was to call her a prostitute. That's the city. But the people who had been saved in that environment and out of that environment now made up the church, but some of the practices were being continues.

I want to review a few passages with you. Come back to Mark 7 for a start. We'll see these are the sins that characterize fallen men but this wasn't just a problem with the Corinthian church as bad as the Corinthian church was. It is something that has to be addressed and recognized for the growth of God's people wherever they are. We find Paul addressing it in a variety of places. In Mark 7 Christ is distinguishing between sins that really defile a person and external activities that sometimes get identified with being sinful. So He says in verse 15, “There is nothing outside the man which can defile a man if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” Down at the end of verse 18, “Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from the outside cannot defile him because it doesn't go into his heart.” It just passes through his physical system. The struggle begins to identify certain physical practices as sinful. Among the Jews, did you wash your hands appropriately before eating, did you eat certain foods, abstain from certain foods.

The church has always had these things. When our family was first saved way back, the churches we were involved with, you didn't play pool at a pool table. Homes didn't have pool tables, but bars had pool tables. So if you went to a bar to play pool, you'd end up drinking while you played pool. And then if you ended up drinking while you were playing pool, so pool tables were out. And external things like that which had nothing to do with being defiled. I'm not saying going to a bar to play pool is a good idea, but it's not the thing that defiles you. Variety of other kinds of things, I made a list of them but you don't want to go through them because they are back in my day. And things change. The Bible-teaching church I went to, the ladies who sang in the choir could not wear lipstick because that was worldly. There were reasons. One of the churches we were in, ladies could not wear blouses or dresses if the sleeves were above the elbow. And of course you didn't go to movies and no dancing. I have to tell you, when I came to Lincoln and we were just a little church and some people were talking about their kids were going to the prom. I said, Marilyn, what did we get ourselves into? They dance! We have to get back to Philadelphia where they are spiritual. Those are external things, so if we are not careful they get identified as what makes you sin and if you do it you are defiled. Whether it is a good idea or not is a separate thing. That's not what defiles you before the Lord.

And so in verse 21 He says, “For from within, out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” See where it comes from, all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. We have to be careful we don't begin to identify just certain physical things that we do or don't do. But there are things that are defiling, and sin comes from within. That's why Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, Jeremiah 17:9. And only God really knows the depths of depravity of the human heart.

So these kinds of things are defiling, they come from within. That's why the salvation that God provides changes the heart, changes us within. Religious activity can't do that, baptism can't wash your heart clean from its defilement. Eating the elements of the communion service, that's physical drink and physical bread. That just goes in and through the system, that can't in any way cleanse or purify you. And on it goes. Sin comes out of the heart. But these kinds of things coming out of a sinful heart shouldn't be continuing in the life of someone who has been changed by God's grace.

Come over to Romans 1. Paul lists some of the things that characterize man in his fallen, sinful condition, in rebellion against God, cut off from the life of God. And as a result they are characterized by sin, by idolatry, verse 23; all kinds of sexual sin in verses 24-27 as they continue their idolatrous worship and they join in sexual immorality. And they follow a depraved mind. You can talk about the mind or the heart, we are talking about the inside of a person where their decisions are made. So verse 29, “They are filled with unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.” And these are the characteristics of those who are worthy of God's condemnation. They both practice them and give their approval to those who practice them. And we have abundant evidence of this in the world around us. Sin is not sin, evil is not evil because God is not taken into consideration and nobody can tell me it is wrong. If I want to, I can. So what is considered to be wrong shrinks down and down and down and now what is wrong is telling people what they are doing is sinful. That makes you a bully, you are not supposed to do that. But God has spoken. These are the characteristics, and this is not a full list, it just tells you the kinds of things. The problem is these things are continuing in the church at Corinth, these are the characteristics of people who are continuing in their rebellion against God.

Come over to Romans 6, you see the question here that starts the chapter. “Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?” And it comes out in the previous section where the greater our sin, the greater God's grace has been manifested. So as man's sin became so abundant, God's grace is shown to be more abundant. So does that mean it's all right for me to sin because I bring glory to God by magnifying His grace? Because every time I sin, His grace is manifested in forgiving me; therefore, maybe it's all right to sin. Paul said that is perverted thinking, it's not even something that can be considered. “How shall we,” verse 2, “who died to sin still live in it?” And then our identification with Christ in His death, His burial and resurrection, and we noted being identified in the baptism of the Spirit as 1 Corinthians 12:13 talks about. What happens when you place your faith in Christ, the Spirit identifies you with Christ in His death, in His burial and His resurrection. And “we have been resurrected with Christ,” the end of verse 4, “so we might walk in newness of life. And if we were united in the likeness of His death, we will be united in the likeness of His resurrection.” So if we truly believed and were identified with Him in His death, we will be living now the life we have as a result of faith in Him.

“Our old man,” verse 6, “was crucified with Him so that our body controlled and dominated by sin might be done away with.” Not removed, but katargeo, the power of sin over our bodies has been broken “so that we would be no longer slaves to sin. He who has died is free from sin.” So before God's salvation sets a person free, they are enslaved to their sin. Not everybody manifests their sin in the fullest possible way, thanks to God's common grace there is a restraint. But every unsaved person lives enslaved to sin. But “if we have died with Christ, we believe we will live with Him,” verse 8. Keep that in mind, that's where Paul is going in Corinthians, this is connected, that he is living with Christ. And the life of Christ and the power of Christ is at work in him. And at work in the Corinthians, so they shouldn't be living like they are.

Now you'll note verse 11, “Consider yourselves dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.” The power of sin to control me has been broken. I have been set free but the old man has not yet been removed. I am new in Christ but there are still old desires that are there that would like to reassert their control over my life. So I have a responsibility to consider myself as dead. Why would I do that? I died to that. I won't let sin reassert its authority and dominion in my life, don't let it reign. Verse 13, “Do not go on presenting the parts of your body to be used for sinful practices.” You see there is a responsibility there. We have been set free, the power of God is sufficient so we never have to sin. But we have a responsibility to exercise our will not to do it. “Present yourselves,” the middle of verse 13, “to God as those alive from the dead, use the parts of your body as instruments of righteousness.” Verse 15, “Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? Such a thought is inconceivable.” The reason is sin enslaves. And when you go back and indulge in sin, it wraps itself around you. The more you indulge in it, the tighter it wraps itself around you. It wants to re-enslave you to sin. The character of sin has not changed. It's like now I'm a believer, I can indulge in it and not indulge in it. No, sin is still sin, it still has the power to take hold. That seems to be what is happening with the Corinthians. And the more you do it, the more you establish a pattern, then the more trouble you are in.

You'll note verse 18, “Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” So nobody is free in the sense that now I am not obligated to anyone to do anything. There are only two kinds of slaves in the world, two kinds of people—they are all slaves, slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness; slaves of the devil or slaves of God. Two groups. You may say I'm free, I'm making my own decisions. We see the decisions being made in our own nation to make sin more acceptable, to promote sin, to encourage sin. Well, those people live in that realm, they're enslaved to sin, of course. But we have to be careful we don't get drawn along into it.

So now he tells them in the last line of verse 19, “Now present your members,” talking about the parts of your body, “as slaves to righteousness.” That's slavery but that's freedom because you are truly free when you can function as God created you to function. Now I can function in a relationship with Him, in obedience to Him. Before I could not, I would not. Now I can. Understand freedom. We sometimes use the example that you don't make a fish free by putting him on the sidewalk. Now he can be like me, out in the air on the sidewalk. No, he is free when he can function as he was created to function. We were created to function in a relationship with the God who created us in His image. Sin has broken that relationship, we have been enslaved to the devil and to sin, but God's salvation sets you free from that.

Verse 22, “Now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your fruit,” benefit, “resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” We live differently, our life is different. That's why Romans 12 will say, “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.” Now again we sometimes get turned around. We think we ought to conform the world, we think if we get the right President, the right Supreme Court justice we are on the road, we're winning. I just get so frustrated hearing about the evangelical vote. The evangelicals will be for this person, that person because they are conservative in an area. But you understand that doesn't solve the problem, it trivializes what the problem is. The problem can only be resolved by the power of God's salvation changing a heart. That happens on a one by one basis. So we are set free from sin and its power.

Come over to Galatians 5. This happens, everywhere Paul goes he has to deal first to bring the Gospel to the lost and the trials and opposition and conflicts that brings. But when people believe that Gospel, now he has to have them established and have them grow. It's just like in the analogy of parents and children. The birth of a child, that can involve a lot, sometimes more and sometimes less, always more for the woman than the man, but you are not done. That's the beginning. That's what Paul says, now you are new in Christ, now you have to grow to maturity in Him. So he is writing to the Galatians about the same thing about how are you brought into greater conformity to God's character. “You shall be holy for I am holy.”

So in Galatians 5:16, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Verse 13 said “you were called to freedom, brethren, don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.” God called us to freedom in Christ, I don't go back to the old master. How do I have the power? That sin has such a hold. Well, you walk in the power of the Spirit. “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. They are in opposition to one another.” And the deeds of the flesh, and here we have another one of those lists, immorality, impurity, sensuality. Sounds like 2 Corinthians 12:21. Then you have other things, verse 20, and these connect to 2 Corinthians 12. “Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, things like these.” And these are the things that characterize the people who are unsaved and will not be part of the kingdom that Christ will establish for believers.

And you'll note how all these lists are all put together. We tend to categorize these sins, this one is worse, this one is not as worse, this is worser. God just lumps them all together. And some sins have greater consequences, to be sure, but they all come from the same source. If it's a believer committing sin, he is functioning in the realm of the old man, the flesh, no matter what the sin is. So the Corinthians, once you get started you end up with a mess. I can't just decide I will just do this sin, keep that there, this sin. It has a way of moving out and it draws more and more in.

The Spirit produces the opposite. The fruit of the Spirit in verse 22, these things—“love, joy, peace, patience” and so on. Verse 24, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh.” So its power has been broken. I have died to that. It didn't die, the sin didn't die, the old man didn't die, the devil didn't die, but I died and now I have no more obligation to them. Like someone who was enslaved to someone else at a point in our history and they have been set free. Someone paid the price and they are set free, but they decide they want to go back and serve the old master. You don't have to do that. I know, but there are things I liked about them, there are things there that I did like. I didn't like everything, I liked some things. We've crucified the flesh with its passions. “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit. We are made alive in Christ through the ministry of the Spirit when we believed.” Now that same Spirit indwells us to empower us and to enable us.

Jump over to Ephesians 4, we have Paul talking about to the Ephesians, you see this just permeates. We ought not to think that we are different, that those churches were then. And we say how could the Corinthian church be like that? I don't identify with that at all. You understand we go from church to church and Paul had to deal with the same kind of problems. And the Spirit of God didn't put this here because we are such a perfect church, we could just read how bad churches that weren't as good as we were.

Ephesians 4 starts out, “Therefore I the prisoner of the Lord implore you, walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called.” And that includes humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, love, unity of the Spirit and so on. You come down to verse 17, “So this I say, affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the Gentiles walk in the emptiness of their mind. They are darkened in their understanding, they have an ignorance of God and His will, they are hardened in their heart,” they are calloused. They “give themselves over,” then you have all these sins—sensuality, impurity, he'll go on to talk about lust of deceit, selfishness, lying, anger. What does he say in verse 22? “Lay aside the old man,” translated self, “Put on,” verse 24, “the new man.” Same thing he said in Romans 6. We have to understand that God's plan of salvation, that salvation begins when we place our faith in Christ. But the power that saved us is the power that continues to work in us.

One of the most helpful things I remember all the way back to my Bible college days, a professor who said you never have to sin as a believer. You never have to sin. It is always a personal choice that you as a believer make. That just wipes off all the excuses, all the reasons. Maybe this sin is too powerful for me; maybe if they hadn't done that, I wouldn't have done this. No. Put off the old, put on the new. I'm set free. And the indwelling Spirit empowers me to live for Him.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 6. Look at what he says to the Corinthians, verse 9, and he asks these questions repeatedly in chapter 6. You may have it marked from previous study. Verse 2, do you not know; verse 3, do you not know; verse 9, do you not know; verse 15, do you not know; verse 16, do you not know; verse 19, do you not know. I mean, of course they know. It's like when you say to your kids, don't you know any better? You're not asking them for an answer, you're telling them they know better. In fact if they answer, they are in trouble. Don't you know? What's the problem here?

So verse 9, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” I mean, we saw that in Galatians 5 and the works of the flesh and those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You have to tell every church the same thing. “Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Remember Jesus said you must be born again or you will never receive the kingdom of God. Those are characteristics of those who are still living enslaved to sin. Then he says, “Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God.” What's the problem? This is the same thing we are dealing with at the end of 2 Corinthians. Don't you understand what God did for you when He saved you? True, this is what some of you were, but He washed you from the defilement of your sin, He sanctified you, set you apart for Himself, He declared you righteous. What are you doing? He goes on to talk at the end of the chapter about their immorality. He's going to write another letter in between 1 and 2 Corinthians, he's going to make another visit between these two letters, then he's going to visit and write the second letter. It's still going on. What don't you know? You know what salvation does for you. This is the problem, they are continuing with some of the sins that were part of the old life. And you know we live in a world, the Corinthian city was a model of sinfulness in a sinful world. And it's easy, you pretty soon feel like you are overwhelmed and everybody is doing it. And churches begin to adjust their practice. It's just like the tide, it just keeps overwhelming you, overwhelming you, overwhelming you.

One church, when we asked them about church discipline, they said we just don't even try to deal with it anymore. Everybody sins, we're just not getting into it. What does that mean? It just keeps coming. Of course, we live in a sinful world, but the Corinthians had somehow adjusted, and if the church is accepting to it, is it any wonder it spreads? So they got all those kinds of sins we see in 2 Corinthians 12:20-21 because everybody in the world is doing it and they say it's acceptable and a significant number. Paul said many in 2 Corinthians 12:21 were involved in these things. I guess it's not so bad, let's not make an issue of it. Paul says we have to make an issue of it.

With all of that, I'll leave out the other verses we were going to do, come back to 2 Corinthians 13. So Paul says in verse 2, having established, your guilt is established. This will be my third visit, I've dealt with you enough on this that there is no more space. The fact of your sin is affirmed, and he has given them time to deal with it and testify to the importance to deal with it is clear. “I have previously said when present the second time,” so this is the same thing I told you when I visited you the second time. “And though now absent, I say in advance,” so I'm telling you in preparation for my third visit, “to those who have sinned in the past.”

Now I want you to note something, if you underline or mark your Bible and you should, it helps you find your way around. In 2 Corinthians 12:21 he talked about many of those who have sinned in the past, those who have sinned in the past. You have the same expression down in 2 Corinthians 13:2 we just read, those who have sinned in the past. You ought to underline or highlight or circle that. They are both those perfect participles, it's an imperfect about a tense. The perfect tense, remember, something that was done in the past and continues into the present. This is the problem. This is the word sin with the preposition before on the front. What he is saying is many of those who have sinned in the past and they are sinning continues right up until now when I am writing this letter. They have continued in their former sins. So he repeats that down in verse 2 after having said it in verse 21. That's my concern, I'm going to come and I'm going to find you doing the sins like we've talked about in 2 Corinthians 12:20-21. You're going to be continuing in the former sins. You have not truly repented of them, you are continuing to do them.

And he says not just to those but to all the rest as well. I mean, this includes the whole church because those in the church that are not involved in these sinful practices should be dealing with them. What's going on here? Like he rebuked them in his first letter in 1 Corinthians 5 for not dealing with that flagrant immorality of a man with his stepmother. The church is complicit so the sin has to be dealt with. So what he says, “If I come again I will not spare.” He has already said he is coming, “the third time I am coming to you,” verse 1. If it hasn't been dealt with, when I come this third time it will be dealt with. The time for adjusting is over, the opportunity for you to deal with it on your own without my involvement there is coming to an end. My visit is imminent. With this third visit the hammer falls, the rod is applied.

What does he mean? Come back to 1 Corinthians 5, look at verse 5, this is the man I just referred to involved in immorality with his stepmother. We know it is his stepmother and not his physical mother because he refers to it as his father's wife. Verse 5, “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Still dealing with this man as a believer, but if he won't stop his sin, then he will be put out of the church.

Come down to verse 9, “I wrote you in my letter.” So see he had a previous letter to what we call 1 Corinthians, he wrote it. “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. I didn't mean with immoral people of this world, the covetous or swindlers, idolaters.” Then you would have to go out of the world. We live in a sinful world, you are not defiled by contact with sinful people. You are not expected to avoid any kind of contact with them. You can. “But I did write to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, covetous, idolater, reviler, drunkard, swindler. Not even to eat with such a one.” Verse 13, “Remove the wicked man from among yourself.” If he won't stop the sin, he has to be removed. He'll be, verse 5, “delivered over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved.” Paul viewing this person as a believer on the basis of his profession. He is looking for what will be best for him ultimately. If he is put out of the church, he is put where? Well the church is the family of God and you are put out of the family of God, you are left where? In the realm of the devil. Do you know what the devil loves to have? The child of God who is put out there in his realm where he has greater freedom to deal with him.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 11 for an example. Again Paul just keeps coming up, the conflict, the divisions. We've referred in our previous study, verses 17-18. This church got together, Paul said it is worse when you get together than if you don't get together. And there are divisions among you and the factions just serve to draw the line and make clear who is approved by God and who isn't. But you come down then, because of their functioning improperly in the context of the communion service, come down to verse 29. “He who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself as he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many,” there is that “many: again like we have many in 2 Corinthians 2, many who are corrupting the Word of God. In 2 Corinthians 12:21, many who are practicing these sins. Here “many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep,” referring to the death of a believer. That's God's disciplining judgment. Satan giving the right to assert a certain authority over that person—physical weakness, sickness, even physical death because they are committed to persist in their sin as though God won't do anything. Like God can't do anything, I'm His child.

You know what it was like when you were young. I don't know what it was like in your family, but I know what it was like in my family. My dad was a steelworker, he didn't know I had feelings he had to take into consideration. He didn't know that I couldn't be expected to behave perfectly as he said. We are going to dinner tonight at an adult's house. You will not talk, you will not squirm. If you are talked to by an adult, you will respond respectfully. Do we understand each other? What do you mean, each other? I haven't voiced my side yet. I never said that, I wouldn't be here if I had.

That's what we are talking about, God just doesn't let His children go. That's great. So that's what Paul is saying. I represent God, I can't let you go. It will be dealt with. We won't go to 1 Timothy 1:20, he talks about Hymanaeus and Alexander—I have turned them over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 13. “Since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me and who is not weak toward you but mighty in you.” Paul in effect is saying there are questions whether I am truly the representative of Christ, He is speaking through me to you. You are going to get proof, and where it comes is in verse 4, the weakness and the strength. You'll note the end of verse 3 he says, “Who is not weak toward you but mighty in you,” that contrast with weak and mighty or powerful. Comes into verse 4. Christ was “crucified because of weakness, He lives because of the power of God.” We are weak in Him. We will live with Him because of the power. Weak and power, weakness and power. Remember we had that back in 2 Corinthians 12:9, God told Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, power is perfected in weakness.” The end of verse 10, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” That contrast. What Paul is saying, my life will be patterned and is patterned after the life of Christ. He was crucified in weakness, to the appearance of the world it was weakness that Pilate was more powerful than Christ. He had the power. Remember he said, don't you know I have the authority to set you free? He didn't have any real authority, only the authority God had given him, it is delegated from Him.

But it looked like weakness. It was weakness from the human perspective, but the power of God manifested in His resurrection from the dead to accomplish the greatest of works for the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. So Paul said you have been seeing my weakness. That has caused some of you to disregard me. When I come this third time, you will see the same power that worked in Christ in His resurrection in me. And it will be manifest toward you. And you will see the power of God and His discipline in my handling you. So you want manifestation and power, you are about to get it. Such a severe warning. A reminder, the church shouldn't tolerate sin. We as believers shouldn't practice sin. If each of us individually don't practice sin, there will be no sin in the church. But sadly all of us battle with sin. If you've been a believer for more than about 30 minutes, you know something of the struggle with sin and frustration. Why do I even have this desire for that? I would have thought I would outgrow this and be more mature than this. But the old man doesn't go away and there is pleasure in sin for a time. Like the Corinthians, we have the best of both worlds, we're on our way to heaven and we've become children of God, and we get to enjoy the things that the world does, too. No, God says I saved you to change you, to make you new so you would be My slaves, practicing righteousness, My character produced in you. And that is most fulfilling because that is why God created us, so we could live in fellowship with Him, manifest the beauty of His character and enjoy all the blessings that God has for those who belong to Him.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. And Lord, at times is disappointing to read of a church like Corinth, wracked with sin, practicing sin, tolerating sin. Lord, they just won't stop and yet You in Your love won't let them go. And we are encouraged, we are reminded, and as Your children individually and as Your church in this place we desire to be a testimony of Your grace to manifest the power that You provide in living for You, walking in a manner worthy of the calling which we have in Christ Jesus. Thank You for the power of Your salvation applied to us, a power that began when we believed in Christ and were born again. That same power continues to work so that we might be enabled and empowered to live for You in a way pleasing to You wherever we are. We give You praise. In Christ's name, amen.