INTRODUCTION:
He had just gotten saved a couple years ago, and he was really thankful, because he was out from the bondage of sin he had lived in. The town where he lived was pretty rough, prostitution and drunkenness were accepted and prevalent vices. Now he was going to church and growing in spiritual maturity. The church was growing too, and new people were coming all the time. There was a woman who started teaching in the church; he liked her teaching style so he soon began to stick with her class being amazed by some of the things she said. Some of her teaching confused him, but what she said appealed to him and soon it started making sense. She talked a lot about Christian liberty and always had a verse or two to back up what she said. Like many others in that church he soon began to practice what she was teaching, and soon after that he found himself back in bondage…back to the temple prostitutes and idolatry. Except now his soul was troubled more than ever. He was part of the church at Thyatira (read Revelation 2:18-29).
This Jezebel was a false prophet who like her father the devil twisted and changed the Word of God, maybe even our text for today, 1 Corinthians 6:12. By doing so, she “seduced Christ’s servants” (Rev 2:20) and many young men were led astray, back into sin, all in the name of “Christian liberty.”
In our study of Church 101 we started with Christ’s assessment of the 7 churches in Rev 2-3. Most of them Jesus found lacking. Not because they weren’t busy, but because their love for Him had faltered, and then their obedience. Remember, Jesus tells His disciples, “If you love Me, then obey My commands” (John 14:21; 15:10). Some churches had compromised the truth, some (like Thyatira) corrupted it, and other churches were dead. We went from Rev 2-3 to 1 Corinthians. In the church at Corinth we see the recipe for the compromise, corruption and death of a church. They were clearly to the point of carnal living (1 Corithians 3:1), having their sin while “playing church.” It led to deep rooted division, pride, and open sin. Sounds just like the bar down the street, not what a church is supposed to be!
Our title this morning is “Not Under the Power of Any.” There are a couple things I say often, when it comes to Bible study it is “context, context, context.” One of the easiest ways to twist and change God’s Word is to take verses and statements out of context! Satan does it all the time; he even tried it on Jesus! That soon leads the church down the path of compromise, corruption, death. Today’s passage is one of the most abused and misused passages of the Bible in my opinion. First Corinthians 6:12 says twice, “All things are lawful for me…” Take that phrase by itself and you have got yourself ripe for heresy. Today we’ll see what the Spirit meant when Paul used that phrase. Guess what will help us and keep us from heresy…context, context, context!
(NOTE: This message was meant to cover 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, but we didn’t make it out of verse 12, so the rest will come after Father’s Day.)
NOT UNDER THE POWER OF ANY:
The Standard (Read 6:12-13)
“All things are lawful for me…” Question: are we even talking about Christian liberty here? Is Paul saying that as a believer I can do anything I want, even though some things are not helpful and as long as I don’t let them have power over me? No. Think about it, every person who gets into an addiction goes in thinking they are in total control, that it does not have power over them. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, lust, anger, gossip, co-dependency, unforgiveness, etc, eventually we realize that those things to have power over us.
Again, are we talking about Christian liberty in this passage? Drop down to 1 Corinthians 6:15, 18, and back to 6:9-10. The context immediately before and after the phrase “All things are lawful for me” is all about what not to do. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not receive the kingdom of God (followed by a list of things that God says are unrighteous); forbidding making our bodies “members of a prostitute,” and telling us to “flee sexual immorality” does NOT sound like it goes well with “All things are lawful for me” does it? If all things are lawful, there should be no restrictions.
Nothing in 1 Corinthians 1-6 is about Christian liberty, instead the Holy Spirit is rebuking the church at Corinth for living like the world as shown most clearly by their fighting and willingness to accept open sin (sin that even the unsaved in Corinth would not do – 1 Cor 5:1). Their philosophy of all things being covered by Christian liberty is what led them to earning this rebuke from the Holy Spirit!
In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul is not establishing a principle to live by. He is not arguing that “all things ARE lawful to me” It is actually rhetoric…probably a common saying among the people in that church. They were using that idea as an excuse to sin and return to the old desires they had before they were “washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). Just check these other verses the Spirit used Paul to write… Romans 6:15-23; 7:21-24; 8:1-8; and then Hebrews 10:26-29 also. “All things are lawful for me” is not a theological principle telling us it’s okay to do anything we want to do becuase that would be in sharp contrast to everything else here and in the NT. This understanding is bolstered by the fact that it is repeated and refuted twice…“all things are lawful for me”, but, “all things are not helpful.” “All things are lawful for me”, but, “I will not be brought under the power of any.” It is Paul using their own phrase or ideology on them, and immediately refuting it.
The topic of Christian liberty does come up later in this letter, AFTER the obvious change of topics in 1 Corinthians 7:1. The interesting thing is, what does it say when Christian liberty is brought up? That I have the liberty to do anything I want? NO! Quite the contrary. Look at 1 Corinthians 8:4-6. It is talking about eating food offered to idols and that they knew the idol was “nothing;” it was just a chunk of wood or stone and had no power to do anything. So big deal, right? Well, keep reading, because in 1 Corinthians 8:9-13 it says that if our Christian liberty causes a weak brother to stumble then we have sinned against our brother, and against Christ! THUS, forget the liberty…give it up (whatever “it” is)!!!
That just sounds too hard, too demanding, I want to do what I want; I want my Christian liberty! That is certainly the battle cry of many Christians these days. It’s all about me, and that sounds kind of selfish doesn’t it? That kind of thinking is so totally backwards from what Christianity is all about; we aren’t supposed to demand our way and our rights, we are supposed to look out for the best of others. Isn’t that exactly what was said in 1 Corinthians 6:7 were the solution to all the in-fighting was this: “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated.”
But let’s see keep making sure we’re not getting off track. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 10 because these exact words of 6:12 are used again in 10:23, “all things are lawful for me.” The topic here is again food offered to idols and fleeing idolatry. Here the people in the church at Corinth are clearly told not to eat food offered to idols. Wait a second…didn’t it just say that idols were nothing, so it was okay (8:4-6)? Go back to 1 Corinthians 8 and read the context in 8:1-4. Notice all the times the word know/knowledge is used? Underline them. Now follow what is being said, “We know we have all knowledge.” And the next line is, “Knowledge puffs up” that is, makes you prideful. Then it says, if you think you know it all, you know nothing that you ought to know. THEN it says right after that, “we know that an idol is nothing…” Do you think that there is a little bit of rhetoric going on here too? To paraphrase, “So, you know that an idol is nothing, well knowledge makes you prideful and if you think you know anything, you know nothing.” Now jump back to the context of 1 Corinthians 10:23 and notice 10:19-20 which says, “What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? RATHER, that the things which the gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do NOT want you to have fellowship with demons.” The idol may be wood or stone, but behind it is a demon; have nothing to do with it!
So in this part of 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 7-14) where it often talks about Christian liberty, what we see is that the Spirit through Paul tells the church at Corinth to have nothing to do with idolatry, so that you are not a stumbling block to your brother (1 Cor 8) and so you don’t have fellowship with demons (1 Cor 10). Don’t do what would later happen in Thyatira; don’t go back to your old sins! There are no contradictions here; you’ve just gotta take in the context!
Now, back to our “all things are lawful for me” comment in 10:23. This is almost exactly the same verse as 6:12 right? We are talking about Christian liberty in 1 Cor 10 (and the limiting of it). Same is true in 1 Corinthians 8 and limiting yourself so as not to cause a brother to stumble, and in 1 Cor 9 which is all about self-denial and serving others, and in 1 Cor 10:1-13 about God’s judgment upon Israel as an example for to us to obey Him, and in 1 Cor 11 about head coverings and not disgracing Communion. All of these are about limiting ourselves, obeying God and not causing others to faulter. First Cor 1-11 is NOT about enjoying Christian liberty – but restricting it! Thus, even in this section about Christian liberty, the phrase "all things are lawful to me" is used as a contrast to Biblical truth: that there is a standard of holiness put in place by God that all believers are to follow. I cannot go out and do anything I want and I certainly cannot go back to my old sins.
Very clearly the context of 1 Corinthians 6:12 (and 10:23) shows us that the phrase “all things are lawful to me” is not permission for us to go live for ourselves and do anything we want to do. Rather, it is clearly given as a dangerous philosophy of life that we should avoid because many things are not helpful, and can have power over us like they did before.
CONCLUSION:
Today’s passage, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 all goes together. We only got into the first section. After Father’s Day, well finish this section with a review of point one, and then points 2-3…
I. The Standard (6:12-13)
II. The Body (6:14-17)
III. The Temple (6:18-20)
The modern battle cry for Christian Liberty in today’s churches just screams of Revelation 2-3 and the loveless (selfish), compromising, corrupt, and dead churches. We need to stop trying to find excuses and verses to allow us to pursue our desires…and rather, start doing what the Bible says: love God and show it by obeying Him and fleeing from sin.
Don’t see how close we can get to sin, run from it.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Do Not Be Deceived (part 2)
INTRODUCTION:
Over the last few months of our study of 1 Corinthians we’ve seen the Spirit addressing the addressing division and other problems in the church at Corinth. The root of all these problems was carnality…living like the world, instead of like Christ. Last week in 1 Corinthains 6:1-8 we saw that division was so deep they were suing each other! We’ve also seen that division among believers leads to slander and passing bad judgment, resentment, and acting out on your lack of love for one another which stems from a lack of love for Christ. Maybe we as Christians in 2013 don’t bring lawsuits against one another very often (I hope), but we do other things that reveal the same heart attitude.
Today we’ll see the Spirit calling out the deep rooted unrighteousness in the church at Corinth. Division was a big problem – but it is really just a visible symptom of deeper sin. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul has already called them on living carnally…today He calls out the evil that remains in their lives.
DON’T BE DECEIVED PT2:
I. Utter Failure: Not Accepting Wrong (READ 1 Corinthians 6:7-8)
No doubt that 1 Corinthians 6:7 is one of the key verses of the opening section of this letter to the church at Corinth. It is kind of a key verse within all of 1 Corinthians, and I would even say of the entire New Testament! It is the foundation of the Good News of Christ; it is Jesus’ example – taking our sin upon Himself. He committed no sin, but He died in our place, taking upon Himself the punishment for the sin you and I have committed. Jesus let Himself be wronged for our sake (Philippians 2:1-11). We are to follow His example, letting ourselves be wronged and not demanding retribution, justice, or punishment upon others.
The Spirit says through Paul that it is an utter failure for you to demand retribution. Recall 1 Corinthians 5, the church must address sin for the good of the sinner, not for payback, but so a sinning believer will learn to forsake their sin and return to living like Christ. That is true in the church and true in our personal relationships. I would lovingly suggest that where we most violate this basic truth is in divorce.
The church at Corinth had utterly failed at this, and the Spirit places responsibility on the whole church! It is further evidence that they were acting like the world instead of Christ’s Church, His Bride. Not only did they not accept wrong, their selfishness led them to cheat each other in ways to be mentioned in the next couple verses. Here’s the bottom line: if everyone was willing to accept wrong…that attitude would eventually lead to there being no wrong to accept! What I mean is, if we as believers would all follow Jesus’ example of love, compassion, mercy, and grace and let ourselves be wronged instead of demanding retribution, eventually those attitudes and way of life would keep us from offending others…but that’s in a perfect world and we don’t live there. Still, there is plenty of room for improvement and we can get much closer than we are now.
Now that the Spirit has called this out…He is going to get really personal…
II. Utter Failure: Moral Depravity (READ 1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
“Do you not know”…third time this phrase used within 8 verses. “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (6:2) “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” (6:3) “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?” (6:9) What we are being told is that, the righteous should not take their case before the unrighteous (in civil courts) because the righteous should be able to judge for themselves since we will one day judge the world and even angels.
“Do not be deceived” – second time this phrase used in 1 Corinthians (3 times total). “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems wise in this age, let him become a fool to become wise,” worldly fool, Godly wise that is (3:18). “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived…” (6:9). “Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits” (15:33). Now, back to 6:9, the unrighteous – those who are characterized by the works of the flesh including all kinds of sexual immorality (anything outside sex as God ordained it: between one man and one woman who are married to each other), theft, greed, drunkenness, slander, and extortion. Those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom according to God Himself. This is in perfect agreement with what the Holy Spirit wrote through the Apostle John in 1 John 2:3, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commands.” God says those things just listed are sin and that we should have no part in them; that is His command. If we love Him, we will obey that command. The Spirit also said through James in James 2:20, “but do you not know, o foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” If our lives and thoughts are characterized by sins like those mentioned, then our “faith” is in serious question; because a being a follower of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit results in works of righteousness not of sin. That doesn’t mean we will be perfect, but sin will not be the patter of our lives.
Do not be deceived: a true believer’s life is characterized by loving and obeying God, NOT loving or obeying sin.
III. Utter Provision: Washed by Christ (6:11)
Look, We’ve all been there. We’ve all loved or obeyed sin…some of these ones in particular. That is what we do outside of Christ. I’ve been there. The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But praise God, we are no longer under the power of sin once we come to faith in Christ. Upon trusting Christ and giving ourselves to Him, we are washed – cleansed from sin and the desire for sin, we are sanctified – declared holy by God and in the life-long process with the Holy Spirit of learning to live that way, we are justified – legally acquitted by God of the guilt of your sin by Jesus’ blood. That is what God does for us when we come to Him the only way possible – through His Son Jesus Christ.
That doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect, like I said a moment ago. We will still struggle against sin, the old sinful self in us battles against the Holy Spirit who is in us (Galatians 5:17). I still struggle. The people in the Church at Corith struggled: immorality, greed (self-seeking), and slander were not only present, but prevalent. It’s all part of the “living carnally” the Spirit has been talking about, but a believer must never allow himself to come under the power of sin. They only way we can prevent that is to pour ourselves into the Word of God, prayer, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ so that we are much more cooperating with the Spirit than fighting against Him.
CONCLUSION:
The church at Corinth struggled with sin and carnal living. We struggle with the same issue. It may involve different sins, but it all leads to pushing ourselves away from God, fighting with each other, and being miserable. That’s not how God wants us to act. He wants us to follow His Son’s example of grace and mercy, allowing ourselves to be wronged at times and not demanding judgment upon anyone who offends us in any way. He also wants us to understand the truth, that those who love or obey sin will not inherit His Kingdom. We are to love and obey Him, and that will be evident in how we treat other people.
Over the last few months of our study of 1 Corinthians we’ve seen the Spirit addressing the addressing division and other problems in the church at Corinth. The root of all these problems was carnality…living like the world, instead of like Christ. Last week in 1 Corinthains 6:1-8 we saw that division was so deep they were suing each other! We’ve also seen that division among believers leads to slander and passing bad judgment, resentment, and acting out on your lack of love for one another which stems from a lack of love for Christ. Maybe we as Christians in 2013 don’t bring lawsuits against one another very often (I hope), but we do other things that reveal the same heart attitude.
Today we’ll see the Spirit calling out the deep rooted unrighteousness in the church at Corinth. Division was a big problem – but it is really just a visible symptom of deeper sin. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul has already called them on living carnally…today He calls out the evil that remains in their lives.
DON’T BE DECEIVED PT2:
I. Utter Failure: Not Accepting Wrong (READ 1 Corinthians 6:7-8)
No doubt that 1 Corinthians 6:7 is one of the key verses of the opening section of this letter to the church at Corinth. It is kind of a key verse within all of 1 Corinthians, and I would even say of the entire New Testament! It is the foundation of the Good News of Christ; it is Jesus’ example – taking our sin upon Himself. He committed no sin, but He died in our place, taking upon Himself the punishment for the sin you and I have committed. Jesus let Himself be wronged for our sake (Philippians 2:1-11). We are to follow His example, letting ourselves be wronged and not demanding retribution, justice, or punishment upon others.
The Spirit says through Paul that it is an utter failure for you to demand retribution. Recall 1 Corinthians 5, the church must address sin for the good of the sinner, not for payback, but so a sinning believer will learn to forsake their sin and return to living like Christ. That is true in the church and true in our personal relationships. I would lovingly suggest that where we most violate this basic truth is in divorce.
The church at Corinth had utterly failed at this, and the Spirit places responsibility on the whole church! It is further evidence that they were acting like the world instead of Christ’s Church, His Bride. Not only did they not accept wrong, their selfishness led them to cheat each other in ways to be mentioned in the next couple verses. Here’s the bottom line: if everyone was willing to accept wrong…that attitude would eventually lead to there being no wrong to accept! What I mean is, if we as believers would all follow Jesus’ example of love, compassion, mercy, and grace and let ourselves be wronged instead of demanding retribution, eventually those attitudes and way of life would keep us from offending others…but that’s in a perfect world and we don’t live there. Still, there is plenty of room for improvement and we can get much closer than we are now.
Now that the Spirit has called this out…He is going to get really personal…
II. Utter Failure: Moral Depravity (READ 1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
“Do you not know”…third time this phrase used within 8 verses. “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (6:2) “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” (6:3) “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?” (6:9) What we are being told is that, the righteous should not take their case before the unrighteous (in civil courts) because the righteous should be able to judge for themselves since we will one day judge the world and even angels.
“Do not be deceived” – second time this phrase used in 1 Corinthians (3 times total). “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems wise in this age, let him become a fool to become wise,” worldly fool, Godly wise that is (3:18). “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived…” (6:9). “Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits” (15:33). Now, back to 6:9, the unrighteous – those who are characterized by the works of the flesh including all kinds of sexual immorality (anything outside sex as God ordained it: between one man and one woman who are married to each other), theft, greed, drunkenness, slander, and extortion. Those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom according to God Himself. This is in perfect agreement with what the Holy Spirit wrote through the Apostle John in 1 John 2:3, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commands.” God says those things just listed are sin and that we should have no part in them; that is His command. If we love Him, we will obey that command. The Spirit also said through James in James 2:20, “but do you not know, o foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” If our lives and thoughts are characterized by sins like those mentioned, then our “faith” is in serious question; because a being a follower of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit results in works of righteousness not of sin. That doesn’t mean we will be perfect, but sin will not be the patter of our lives.
Do not be deceived: a true believer’s life is characterized by loving and obeying God, NOT loving or obeying sin.
III. Utter Provision: Washed by Christ (6:11)
Look, We’ve all been there. We’ve all loved or obeyed sin…some of these ones in particular. That is what we do outside of Christ. I’ve been there. The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But praise God, we are no longer under the power of sin once we come to faith in Christ. Upon trusting Christ and giving ourselves to Him, we are washed – cleansed from sin and the desire for sin, we are sanctified – declared holy by God and in the life-long process with the Holy Spirit of learning to live that way, we are justified – legally acquitted by God of the guilt of your sin by Jesus’ blood. That is what God does for us when we come to Him the only way possible – through His Son Jesus Christ.
That doesn’t mean we’ll be perfect, like I said a moment ago. We will still struggle against sin, the old sinful self in us battles against the Holy Spirit who is in us (Galatians 5:17). I still struggle. The people in the Church at Corith struggled: immorality, greed (self-seeking), and slander were not only present, but prevalent. It’s all part of the “living carnally” the Spirit has been talking about, but a believer must never allow himself to come under the power of sin. They only way we can prevent that is to pour ourselves into the Word of God, prayer, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ so that we are much more cooperating with the Spirit than fighting against Him.
CONCLUSION:
The church at Corinth struggled with sin and carnal living. We struggle with the same issue. It may involve different sins, but it all leads to pushing ourselves away from God, fighting with each other, and being miserable. That’s not how God wants us to act. He wants us to follow His Son’s example of grace and mercy, allowing ourselves to be wronged at times and not demanding judgment upon anyone who offends us in any way. He also wants us to understand the truth, that those who love or obey sin will not inherit His Kingdom. We are to love and obey Him, and that will be evident in how we treat other people.
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