Wednesday, April 26, 2017, 5:24 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Your Grace is Enough.” Speak, Lord,
your words to my heart. I read 1
Corinthians 5 (ESV).
Sexual Immorality (vv. 1-2)
It is actually reported that there is sexual
immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for
a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not
rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
This would be a gross
understatement for much of today’s church, especially here in America. With the
onset of the availability of private internet access for adults and children
alike in the home, and on their person, at all times, the numbers are staggering
as to how many adults and children, including a large percentage of pastors
(over 50%, according to statistics), regularly view pornographic images and
videos, and not just what might be considered “normal” sexual behavior, but sadistic,
degrading, and depraved sexual behavior, too, including child pornography and
beastiality.
And, it goes far beyond this,
too, as many children, teenagers, and even adults are involved in sexting, and some
of this between adults and children, too, which opens the door wide for child
predators to prey on young minds. And yet, so many parents blindly hand their
children these devices without any thought to what their children might
discover. And, that just kills me.
And, then, of course, there
is a TV in just about every American home, and many of them now large screen
TVs which take up a large space in their living rooms, and which most of the living
room seems to be focused around. And, the stuff that is available, and which is
promoted on TV and on Netflix today, includes pornography, sexual immorality,
nudity, crude and degrading humor, homosexuality, and the like. And, Christians
are regularly viewing this stuff for the sake of being entertained. Pastors, as
well, share movie clips from some of these sexually immoral movies as sermon
illustrations, while the movies themselves speak against God’s Word and his morals.
America has become like Sodom
and Gomorrah, and inside the church, too, and the church is proud. And, if you
speak out on these issues, many will think you are a fuddy-duddy or a prude,
and they won’t pay you any attention, even pastors won’t, because they are
steeped in it themselves, in many cases. But, as followers of Christ, these
things ought to make us weep! If the sexually immoral persons had to be removed
from today’s church, how many do you think would be left to carry on the
ministry?
So He May Be Saved (vv. 3-5)
For though absent in body, I am present in
spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who
did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord
Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to
deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
So many people today are
preaching a “grace” which just gives the sinner free license to continue in his
or her sin without guilt or remorse. They teach God’s gift of salvation as
though it is merely an escape from hell and a promise of heaven when we die,
with nothing much in between, because, they say, nothing is required of us by
God. And, this is one of the main reasons, I believe, why the church in America
is in the spiritually deprived and morally depraved condition in which she finds
herself. In fact, they teach that we don’t have to repent (turn from our sins
to God), that we don’t have to obey Christ and his commandments, that we don’t
have to submit to Christ and surrender to his will for our lives, and that God
is pleased with us no matter what we do, because his grace covers it all.
But, they forget that the
Bible teaches the church that if we walk in the flesh, we will die in our sins.
If we hold on to our old lives of living for sin and self, we will lose them
for eternity, i.e. we don’t have the promise of heaven when we die. If we don’t
make it our practice to obey Christ’s commandments, i.e. his instructions to
us, we don’t really know him, and we don’t have eternal life with him. If we
say we have fellowship with God, but we walk (in lifestyle) in darkness (sin),
we don’t live by the truth, i.e. we are liars, i.e. we are self-deceived. But,
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, his blood cleanses us from all
sin. If by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will
live with Christ for eternity. And, if we lose our lives for the sake of Christ
and his gospel, i.e. if we are crucified with him in death to sin, we will live
with him for eternity.
They also forget that God’s
grace, which brings salvation, teaches us to say “NO!” to ungodliness and
worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we
wait for Christ’s return (Tit. 2:11-14). As well, they don’t realize that God’s
grace to us is not merely to forgive us our sins, but it is to deliver us out
of bondage (addiction) to sin, and to free us to now walk in Christ’s
righteousness and holiness. Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness, not merely so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die.
He died that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his
life up for us. He cares when we sin against him, and he will discipline
(scourge) us in order to make us holy (Heb. 12).
A New Unleavened Batch (vv. 6-8 NIV)
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a
little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old
yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the
Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I don’t think, back when this
was written, that the people were actually proud of the person’s immorality,
but rather that they ignored it and were proud (arrogant) concerning how good
or how righteous they thought they were. And, this is true of much of today’s
church in America. They are shoving this problem with sexual sin addiction within
the church under the rug, in most cases, because even the pastors are given
over to sexual immorality. And, so they dilute the gospel, instead, in order to
ease their own consciences and in order to attract the world to their gatherings.
And, yet, isn’t it arrogant
to think that you can continue in willful sin against God and think he will do
nothing, but that he will still reward you with his heaven? And, don’t
Christians brag about the TV shows and the movies that they watch, even if they
include sexual immorality and sexually seductive material? And, they will use the
excuse that it was “only a little bit bad,” like having just a little bit of
poop in your brownies. How gross is that?
When we allow just a little
bit of “poop in our brownies,” though, it tends to grow, does it not? We
desensitize ourselves to what is evil by what we allow in our lives, and then
we allow more and more and more until it snow balls (“to increase, accumulate,
expand, or multiply at a rapidly accelerating rate” M-W). And, this is what it
means about the yeast in the bread multiplying (growing). Evil works its way
into our lives and throughout the church in this way when nothing is done to
stop it from growing and expanding. So, the counsel here is that we need to get
rid of this old yeast (sin, evil) from our lives and from our church
fellowships, so that it doesn’t continue to develop and to ruin all the lives
which it touches. And, instead, we are to walk in holiness and righteousness in
the power of God’s Spirit living within us.
Do Not Associate (vv. 9-13)
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with
sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this
world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would
need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate
with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality
or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat
with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is
it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those
outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Now, here is the really hard
part, even harder than the previous, I believe, and that is that, not only are
we to rid our lives and the church of unrepentant sexual immorality (the yeast
that works its way through the whole batch of dough), but we are to not even
associate with anyone who calls himself a follower of Christ but who we know is
living in sexual immorality. And, this means anyone who is regularly and consistently
involved in pornography, extra-marital affairs (romantic or sexual), engaging
in sex with people with whom they are not married, sexting, and the regular
viewing of and being entertained by sexually explicit TV shows or movies, for
the Bible speaks not only of doing the acts, but of approving of those who do
them, which is what we do when we are entertained by these sinful acts.
So much of today’s church is
big on not judging anyone, not even by biblical standards and according to the
teachings of scripture. They don’t want to offend anyone, and so they tell us
to “stay in your own lane.” And, this is partly because they know they are
involved in sinful behaviors and because they want to attract the world to
their gatherings. But, the Bible teaches that we are to judge those inside the
church, but for the purposes to bring the sinners to repentance, and for the
spiritual health of the church as a whole. So, we are to purge all this evil
from among us, meaning first from our own lives, and then, as a church body,
from the church as a whole.
If we do not do this, God
will do it for us, but it won’t be pleasant. And, yet, this will be his grace,
too, for his grace frees us from slavery to sin, and it frees us to walk with Christ
in his holiness and righteousness. So, if the American church is not repentant,
and she does not change her sinful course, she can expect God’s divine
discipline (correction, judgment) in order to bring her to a place of
repentance so that God can heal, revive and restore her to a correct and pure
(unadulterated) relationship with her Lord.
Your Grace Is Enough
/ Chris Tomlin
Great is Your faithfulness, oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters and to
mercy
And nothing can keep us apart
So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise, oh God
Your grace is enough for me
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