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Making the hard call
11 Plays3 years ago
Vernon takes us through 1 Corinthians 5 where Paul had to make the hard call regarding an issue in the "assembly" of believers. There was a pretty obvious issue that was affecting the whole assembly but no one was taking any steps to correct it. Perhaps there is a hard call you need to make? Ask the Father for His wisdom and then make the call with "sincerity and truth".
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Update
00:00:03
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free!
00:00:22
Speaker
And we're back. And yes, if you've been following along in some of the Facebook or other podcasts, I am officially married.
00:00:35
Speaker
Yes, got married March 19th, and Michelle and I have just had an awesome time, got back from the honeymoon and have been, of course, when we got back, we came back with a head cold. No COVID, praise the Lord. We were negative, but I came back with a head cold or flu or something for that week. So that wasn't a great start, but the Lord knew.
00:01:04
Speaker
And I still have a bit of a cough. So you may hear that at times and I may or may not edit it out. We'll just see how that goes. But for the podcast.
00:01:17
Speaker
I thought I would, we've had some great guests, by the way, and I'm so grateful for the guests.
Immorality in Corinth: A Modern Comparison
00:01:22
Speaker
I do have some thoughts I want to continue in 1 Corinthians, and starting in 1 Corinthians chapter five, that's where it gets really crazy. And if you know anything about Corinth, I mean Corinth was a big city, party city. I like how one pastor described it, he said,
00:01:46
Speaker
Think of Las Vegas and Spring Break combined on steroids. That's pretty good description there. And we have in 1 Corinthians 5
00:02:03
Speaker
Paul began to says, it is actually reported that there is immorality among you and an immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles. Now this is pretty bad. So, I mean, they're saying this, this isn't just a run of the mill, run of the mill type of sin issue. He goes, not even the Gentiles are dealing with this type of stuff.
00:02:35
Speaker
What is it? Well, someone has his father's wife. What does that mean? It means that there's a, there's a son stepson who's having intimate relations with stepmom.
00:02:59
Speaker
And it's continuing. That's the word. The word here is that not just that it's happened. Oh, one time thing. No, this is something that's ongoing and present right now at the time when Paul was writing. And he tells him in verse two, you have become arrogant. And you see that arrogant word on through chapter five and prior in verse four.
00:03:29
Speaker
And that arrogant being puffed up and, uh, prideful. He goes, look, you've become arrogant and have not mourned instead. So that the one who had done this deed and that who had done this deed is that time, but continuing would be removed from your midst. So this is harsh. Are we supposed to love everybody and, and, you know,
00:03:56
Speaker
just accept everybody as they are? Well, yeah. But Paul says, he explains this a little bit more and we'll read it and come back and forth here.
Judging Immorality: Action Over Arrogance
00:04:07
Speaker
He says, for I, on my part, though, absent in body. So he went there, he's writing a letter, had this letter delivered, not like we have email, FaceTime, video, conferencing, real time, no. He's writing a letter, he's hearing about it, writing a letter, he goes,
00:04:25
Speaker
Although I am absent in body I'm present in spirit and look I've already made a judgment on this thing. This isn't that difficult And I've judged and that word judge doesn't mean condemned
00:04:42
Speaker
It means to discern between right or wrong about the situation. And he said about the person doing this. He goes, and I did that just like if I was present, I'm doing it from way out here. I'm writing a letter. It's being delivered. And here it is. Verse four, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are assembled, when you come together as a body,
00:05:11
Speaker
And I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided, here's the, here's the hard part. 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. Wow.
00:05:44
Speaker
I'm making the call. Paul says, and maybe this was because he was the father of the church or his apostolic position. Uh, but he's telling him, look guys, this wasn't, I mean, this was pretty evident guys. He goes, look,
00:06:07
Speaker
I'm delivering this one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. And then he goes in verse six, your boasting is not good. And they're, but what it's like, you're, they're boasting. What are they boasting about? There's a good question. They're boasting. They're glorifying is not good now.
00:06:35
Speaker
You know, and I'm, we have to kind of interpret here, read between the lines and you ask the Lord what you think it means. I'm just, uh, coming up with a couple of thoughts. Maybe they're boasting about how they've handled the situation. Maybe they're saying all, you know what? Um,
00:06:57
Speaker
We're just going to boast in the fact that we're grace and we're full of love and we're just going to allow this and accept this and it's okay. Man, aren't we loving? Aren't we grace filled? It kind of sounds like that's what they're boasting about. When you read it, I don't know. I'm guessing Paul said in verse two, you become arrogant.
00:07:27
Speaker
You're arrogant. You're prideful. And you haven't mourned instead. So the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. So he's like, they're there. So they're boasting about something. They're prideful. And the guy is still there in the midst of this issue. They haven't really taken any action and evidently they're boasting about it.
Purity and Truth in the Community
00:07:53
Speaker
And Paul continues in verse six, he goes, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Just a little bit. That's all it takes. It affects the whole lump of dough. The whole body, that whole assembly is affected by this.
00:08:15
Speaker
In verse seven he goes, clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump. And I love this phrase, just as you are in fact unleavened. Look, Jesus has forgiven you. Jesus has made you holy because of the cross. You're unleavened.
00:08:39
Speaker
He goes, clean out that old leaven so that you can operate as the new lump because you are. You're holy and righteous. Clean out that sin, that old leaven, so you can operate in the truth of who you are. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast.
00:09:10
Speaker
And they were celebrating Christ, and a lot of when Paul has been talking about how they were really not observing the Lord's Supper very well. There are folks who are hoarding food and getting drunk, and you'll see that in a bit. He goes, let's celebrate, but not with the old leaven, not with the old sin.
00:09:35
Speaker
nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." That's how we celebrate sincerity and truth, not just sincerity without truth and not truth without sincerity. And that's why he said, look, it should have been mourning.
Association with Immoral Believers
00:10:00
Speaker
morning that you have to really get tell this guy to To you can't be here and do that. That's not acceptable And he continues to give us a little bit more context in verse 9 And he said I wrote you in my letter and here's another letter he wrote He's I wrote you my letter Not to associate with immoral people
00:10:31
Speaker
not to mix together and fellowship together with immoral people. And he goes, but look guys, let me clarify, he said in verse 10, I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world. That's not what I'm talking about. You're a light in the world. You should be going out into the world, being the light,
00:11:02
Speaker
That's who you are. He goes, so I didn't mean to not associate with immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers or with the idolaters, plenty of them in Corinth. For then you would have to go out of the world.
00:11:24
Speaker
That's not, that's not what I was talking about. He goes, but actually I wrote to you not to associate with any, here comes so-called brother. If he is an immoral person. So someone who is an immoral person, right? Who's coming into the assembly and calling themselves a brother. Why?
00:11:53
Speaker
someone who was covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler, those people who are those who represent that identity, possibly and most likely not saved, who come into the assembly or the church, he goes, look, those are the ones that I'm asking you not to associate with.
00:12:22
Speaker
Because what they're doing, possibly in that day, I mean, the culture of the church today, we expect goodness and kindness and moral values, and that was brand new in the day, in Corinth.
00:12:38
Speaker
That type of love and acceptance and sharing of food and sharing of resources was brand new.
Church Discipline: Tough Love
00:12:45
Speaker
And it was inviting. It was intoxicating. And some people were coming in to take advantage. Some people were coming in. That's why I said they were going in because they were hungry. I mean, you didn't have a grocery store on every corner. If there was no crops, there was no food. There was a famine. You're gone.
00:13:08
Speaker
And they were coming into the assembly, maybe coming into the celebration of communion, going after the food, the unleavened bread and the wine and getting drunk. He goes, I'm not talking about people out there. I'm talking about the so-called brother who's coming in, who is.
00:13:33
Speaker
in verse 11, who is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolatry, or a vial, or a drunkard, or a swindler? Don't even eat with that person. Because for what have I to do with judging outsiders, don't judge those who are, do you not judge those who are within the church? Those who are outside, God judges. And then it goes remove the wicked man.
00:14:02
Speaker
from among yourselves. How about that? I mean, this is this is really tough stuff. You know, there's there's always people will ask the question, was this a really a believer or not a believer? And that's not really the right question. I don't think.
00:14:25
Speaker
I mean, it sounds like this guy was not to me. He was a so-called brother. But he was in the assembly, taking advantage of the assembly. He was in the church.
00:14:38
Speaker
And God said through Paul, hey, this isn't right. This is going to affect other people in the body, especially if you're boasting about how accepting you are and allowing this to keep going. Instead of mourning that you want this person to be connected to their heavenly father, you want this person to know the love and forgiveness and the holiness and righteousness they can have in Christ.
00:15:06
Speaker
But you may have to do something that we talk about with those who struggle with addictive behavior. You might have to exercise that tough love and just make the stay and make the call.
00:15:25
Speaker
and say, this isn't right. You can't be doing that here. We love you. We care about you. We want your back. But this is hurting us and it's hurting you. And if you're going to do that, you have to leave this place. But the door's open. If you want to know Christ, if you want to know love, you want to know your Heavenly Father who loves you, the door's open.
00:15:49
Speaker
But you can't, we can't accept that type of behavior that's hurting you. It's hurting the other person and it's hurting everyone else who is witnessing this. So you may be in a place where this is happening right now and you have a call to action here.
00:16:17
Speaker
See, I'm wondering if they were arguing when it said, you've become arrogant and remember what they were arguing about before. I follow Paul, I follow Cephas, I follow Apollos, I'm of Jesus. So maybe they were arguing, maybe there was some dissension about this and there was inaction. They're trying to figure out what would Cephas do
00:16:43
Speaker
And what would Paul do? What would Apollos do? What would Jesus do? WWJD, right? And Paul says, look, I made the judgment on this one. You need to remove him from your midst. And Paul even used this phrase that said, I have made the decision to deliver such a one to Satan.
00:17:13
Speaker
for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved or delivered in the day of our Lord Jesus. Now for the unsaved, the destruction of his flesh, Paul uses flesh often in a big way. You know, flesh is really defined by the context, that word.
00:17:34
Speaker
It could simply mean our human body or any type of flesh, depending on the context, a flesh of a animal could be a human body. It could be, as Paul used the word flesh about, uh, in Philippians, he talked about his background, his way of life and how he thought and how he operated before he knew Christ. That's flesh, those fleshly strategies.
00:17:59
Speaker
He even used it when he said that I've crucified the flesh. And as part of that is that sin nature. When we received Jesus says we were crucified, that old self, that old nature. So that word picture can be pretty broad. And so maybe for the unsaved context it's saying to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.
00:18:30
Speaker
So he would just realize that that's not gonna satisfy. So that his spirit may be delivered. So he can have that old, he can come to believe, realize there's no, that this doesn't work. That the way he's living will not satisfy. That God offers unconditional love and acceptance and forgiveness and life
00:18:58
Speaker
And that old self can be crucified and gone so that his spirit can be reborn and saved and delivered in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Self-Examination and True Nature
00:19:11
Speaker
Now someone may say, but can a believer act that way? Yeah. Often in the scripture, you'll see that the writers of these New Testament documents are often talking in black and white, you're saved or not saved. You're delivered or you're not delivered.
00:19:27
Speaker
You're righteous or you're unrighteous. You're holy or you're not holy. You're forgiven or you're unforgiven. You're light or you're darkness. You're in Christ or you're in Adam.
00:19:41
Speaker
It's one or the other, and that's true, but there is this messy middle that we all live with, right? There is this sense where that believer can be deceived and sometimes act like the devil, as my grandmother would say, acting like the devil. Well, that wasn't too far from the truth. We can sometimes act, the lies that we believe can come out in our behavior and we can act.
00:20:09
Speaker
Contrary to our righteous, holy nature. And if you were to look at us at a point in time, kind of like a balance sheet for a company is a point in time for that company. Doesn't show the whole picture. It's that point snapshot in time. Well, sometimes we can see a person's life, a snapshot in time. We say seriously. Are they a believer seriously?
00:20:35
Speaker
And that's why we're not really called to judge. We're not called to, in our everyday, to be the fruit inspector. That's the father's job in John 15. He's the groundskeeper. We're the branch. We abide in the vine who is Jesus. That's our role. That's our job. But when it comes to the church, God says, yeah, we are to really look inward and make some decisions and judgments, if you will,
00:21:06
Speaker
about ourselves, about our body, the body of believers. And Paul made a hard call on this one. He goes, look, it's really not that hard of a call. That's wrong. We can't accept that. And if they're not willing to stop, they gotta leave. And Paul on this one said, look, I'm delivering them to the enemy to destroy the flesh. And for the believer,
00:21:37
Speaker
I think Paul would say the same thing. You know what? I'm going to deliver them to themselves and to the impact and effect of the enemy lies until there's nothing left for them to try. And for the addict, for the one struggling, that's exactly what they need.
00:22:02
Speaker
Some folks who come to counseling, they're just not ready for counseling because they're not ready to stop trying or to stop using. Excuse me. They're not ready to stop trying to stop using. They've got more things to do, more things to perform, to make life work. And sometimes they just need to let it all out
00:22:31
Speaker
until they're ready to come to a point where they say, all right, God, I don't have anything left. I guess I'll turn to you. And the Lord says, well, that's where I wanted you all along, is to look to me. Stop all the trying and the trying to make it work and the coping strategies you're using to manage yourself
00:23:03
Speaker
Rest. Jesus said, come, all of you who labor and are heavy burdened, you come to me. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.
00:23:24
Speaker
If your religion or Christianity is hard and heavy and burdensome, you might want to check that. Jesus says, well, mine's easy. My burden's light. Cause he, he did all the heavy carrying of the cross. He took your burden. He took the heavy load for you so you could rest in his accomplishment in his finished work.
00:23:55
Speaker
So yeah, sometimes the, even for the believer, can believers get addicted to alcohol or drugs? Absolutely. See it all the time when they're deceived. Is it possible? They're not saved. They're not living right. That's possible. We're always told to examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith, but absolutely. I believe it a hundred percent. I see it all the time. Believers can be deceived.
00:24:24
Speaker
and they can be in that cycle of addiction, or that cycle of performance, trying to do good, make life work, and some are really good at it. And until things break, they're just cruising. The Lord loves us too much to allow us to keep cruising along. He wants you to rest. He wants me to rest.
00:24:54
Speaker
So are you boasting about something, about how accepting you are, maybe of your own behavior, maybe of your believing a lie that there's some pretty obvious things in your life that don't line up with the holiness and righteousness that God has gifted you with right now?
00:25:25
Speaker
Maybe you need to make the hard call for yourself because she had a little leaven leavens the whole up. It just, it, it just seeps in effects and not just you in every part of your life, which it does, by the way, it'll affect your, when you start letting things and accepting the lies that bad is good and good is bad.
00:25:51
Speaker
When you start accepting those things, it seeps into your finances, into your relationships, into your serving, into your job. It just seeps all around and it affects other people. Clean out the old leaven. Ask the father, what am I believing and how am I trying to get my own needs met with whatever it is?
00:26:23
Speaker
Clean it out. Because you are in fact, as a believer in Jesus Christ, unleavened. You're forgiven, you're righteous, you're holy. And the more you realize that and know that, the sooner and the more consistently you will walk in that truth.
00:26:47
Speaker
and celebrate the feast, celebrate the fact of what Christ has done in your life, and not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So.
00:27:11
Speaker
Do you have someone you know that you need to talk to? Someone in your immediate family that you've just been accepting and maybe enabling? It's the word we often use. And this is something that this isn't easy.
Counseling and True Freedom
00:27:28
Speaker
This is really the messy middle.
00:27:32
Speaker
But ask God for your situation, am I enabling this situation? Sometimes as counselors, we're talking about this in a counselor debriefing, that we get together and talking generically about situations and learn from each other of how to handle things. And some counselors, they just want to talk.
00:27:54
Speaker
And they don't want to understand God's solution. They don't want to understand how to walk free. They just want to vent. And that's not a bad thing. But there comes a point where, are you going to take what you're learning and own it and walk free as who you are in Christ? Or are you going to just talk?
00:28:23
Speaker
We may be as counselors enabling their coping. You know, one of the number one flesh strategies is control. And some counselors want to control the counseling session. We may be enabling their coping strategy and not helping them move along to experience the freedom they have in Christ. Well, you asked the father.
00:28:51
Speaker
Am I enabling myself or someone else? Or am I experiencing life? Am I taking the tough love stance for the person that I love and I'm mourning for maybe my child and saying, this needs to happen. I love you too much to let you keep going and to accept this.
00:29:18
Speaker
and take, make the call, take the stand, whatever the consequences may be. I'm sure that guy wasn't happy. Probably stormed out, calling some people hypocrites and you're supposed to love us. And I'm sure it might've gone down that way, but they were loving and so are you.
Call to Action: Implementing Change
00:29:42
Speaker
So don't get caught in the trap of just talking and talking and talking and talking and accepting the same old same old. If God's prompting you now and He's touching your heart, it may be time for you to stop talking and start walking.
00:30:04
Speaker
You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gment.org. That's gminc.org.