1 Corinthians 5:1-8 | Episode #984

July 17, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope.

Applying God's word to your daily life.

As we finish Faithful Finance, we want to produce our winter Bible study done at Lake Community Church on First Corinthians.

It'll be a fairly long Bible study.

We will break it up into different parts,

and so you will get a really good, really fast study through the book of First Corinthians before we move on to the book of Joshua.

This is a very, very tough passage.

And when I say a very, very tough passage, it's a tough passage because for some reason, some people just struggle with the idea of sin and how that's supposed to be handled and taken care of.

And to tell you the truth,

a lot. A lot of people have been.

Well, they've been mistreated by the church in this regard.

And when I say that, I say that in all love and respect, they've just been mistreated by the church in. In the. In this regard. And so they struggle with this.

And I think it's really, really important that we come to an understanding of it so that we can help people. Because remember,

the whole work of Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection is redemption.

And not only has he got a work of redemption going on, but he is taking those things. He's providing the miracle of life to the world, to the universe,

and he is revealing that. He is able to take something that's dead and make it alive,

something that's broken,

and make it whole, fixed, and then take something that is.

That is sick,

that is.

That is unable to mend itself and. And. And make it healthy, make it whole. And so when you're. When you're studying through the book of First Corinthians, you get to this passage.

Now, the Corinthian church was a very worldly church and had a lot of sexuality as far as worship went on, as far as the pagan gods that they worshiped.

And so this was a issue that they would have had going on in their church. And it's not something. It's something that's not uncommon that we see today in the society that we live in.

And they had an issue in there, and the issue was that they wanted the. They had a desire to not be condemning, and that would be a proper,

Proper point of view, but they wanted to also be accepting of everything.

And that led to people going to the outer edges of.

Of public,

blatant sin.

And that's a struggle.

Now, I want you to hear me. We all have sin,

and we all have a sin nature. And that sin nature is innately desirous of certain aspects of sin. And we're all different in that way. Nobody's exactly the same.

You, you may, your sin nature may manifest in a whole different way than somebody else's.

And especially with your experiences and with your family background and all the things that go on with that, your, your sin nature is going to struggle, just going to struggle.

And there's no doubt about that. It's going to struggle with,

with God's word. It's going to struggle with redemption and walking in the salvation that God requires of us.

And when you're born again, then you've got those two that, that war going inside of you that Paul talks about.

The war,

war against the war with your flesh.

And, and your flesh is always hungering for.

Well, it's always hunger for sin.

It really is. And I can't say it any other way other than to just say it the way it is. You're set. Your,

your flesh desires to walk in sin.

And, and your, your flesh has, has, has.

The word is lust, which is one of those things which, where it's almost overwhelming your, your, your flesh lust for some type of sin. And most of the time, a lot of it.

And so that's a problem now when you struggle with it, when you hate it, you don't like it,

you give into it.

That is not public sin.

That is a repentant heart. Anyone who struggles with any kind of lust of the flesh, which we all do in some way,

if you struggle with that, whatever your lust of the flesh is,

whatever that is,

you are going to, you are not going to overcome it all the time.

You're not going to be perfect in, in your dealing with it. And in fact, the monks of, of the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages, really, the monks of the Middle Ages especially,

they were trying to get away from the world, get their flesh totally away from the world and not indulge in anything of the flesh. And they couldn't even do it in their monasteries where they couldn't speak to each other and ate modest meals and had to do that were modest jobs.

And they walked around not interacting at all, not interacting with other human beings, only interacting with God. And they struggled with their flesh.

They did.

They struggle with their flesh. Why? Because you can't get away from it. This flesh is just here. And Paul says, who can separate me from this body of death? It's a struggle.

But, but when we come as a church and we say not only that sin that is clearly spelled out in scripture is okay,

but you can flaunt it in front of everybody, and you can just do it how you feel.

You. You do what makes you feel good, do what makes you happy. When we do it that way,

boy. We are highly destructive, not only to ourselves as believers, but we're highly destructive to those who are very susceptible to the struggle of sin. We really are.

And what was going on in Corinth at this time was there was a man, a young man,

who had taken his father's wife.

Now, we don't know, and it doesn't say whether his father was alive or dead, but that didn't matter.

Old Testament law of the word of God from the Old Testament tells us that you're not to have your father's wife. Whether. Now, we don't think it was his mother.

We're not talking about incest here, but it could have been. It doesn't say that it's not.

And, and even if it wasn't incest,

he took his father's wife. Even if his father had passed away,

that was strictly forbidden that you were not to take your father's w. Life. And that's what he's done. And in verse in chapter five, it starts out this way, it is actually reported that there is a sexual immorality among you.

And such an immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles,

meaning this is something that not even the Gentiles say is okay. Okay. And so many times we want to love people through their struggles. We want to love people through their redemption to the point where we want to make it okay that they.

That. That. That they have these struggles of sin. And I want you to hear me.

Scripture does not teach it. Oh, it's okay.

It's okay to. To do the sin.

It's. It's not to indulge yourself in sin. It's not. What is okay is, is that you've been redeemed and the price for your sin has been paid for, and God loves you, and God wants to take care of you, and God wants.

Wants to bring you up out of that. But you can't say to God, yeah, but you got to accept my sin.

You can't say that to him. That's not how that works. God is in the. In the redemptive process,

not. Not in the process of. Of. Of saying that it's okay to continue in it. And this young man had. Had grown up and been taught by the people of this church that it was okay for him just to do what he felt like was okay.

And it wasn't okay.

And he was, he'd taken his father's wife. Verse two says, and you're puffed and you're,

you're puffed up.

That.

And have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. What he's saying is you're, you're, you're puffed up. You're even proud.

You're proud that,

that you have someone in your church that is doing something that is in, in many ways grotesque. Biblio world from a world perspective, but it's also wrong from a biblical perspective.

It's, it's just totally not right.

But see, they, they wanted to be,

they wanted to be considered inclusive.

And you need to hear that they wanted to be considered inclusive. They wanted to be considered that, that they were tolerant of,

of,

of all things.

And, and that idea of inclusivity and tolerance, I want you to hear me. That is unscriptural. And it's not just an Old Testament idea. It's a New Testament idea.

In fact, in the New Testament, we're quite clear,

clearly told, do not tolerate evil.

Do not tolerate what is evil, but love what is good.

And,

and let me say this. If you take your mother's wife, your father's wife,

as a man,

you have done something that scripture clearly indicates to be wicked.

And the people of the church said, you know, we're an inclusive, tolerant, loving bunch and you know,

we accept everybody.

Well, I'm sorry, when you're born again,

you're a new creation. The oldest past, the new has come.

You're too. You're to repent and turn from sin. Now,

does that mean you're going to be perfect? No, you're not. Does that mean you're, you're not going to struggle with certain sin?

Absolutely not. You're going to struggle with sin. In fact, that's the whole salvific process is God teaching you to struggle through sin and to overcome sin. And you can't, you can't identify sin in your life and say, well,

God's God saved me and, and I just keep on sinning.

The grace of God is, is not to be misused.

God loves mercy. And he doesn't. He doesn't really want sacrifice. He'd rather give you mercy. He'd rather give you mercy for your sin. God desires to give you mercy for your sin,

but that mercy also, which means I, I don't get what I deserve.

That also comes with grace where I get what I don't deserve. And when you,

when you continue in your sin and even revel in it and even take pride in it,

and that's an important word. When you take pride in it. Let me say this.

You. You are. You are misusing and abusing the grace of God.

And,

and, and so Paul even asked the question, shall we keep on sinning that grace may abound more? And he says, by no means.

And so he says. Notice what Paul says about this young man. Paul tells the church, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

when you are gathered together along with my spirit,

with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,

that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I remember teaching this as a young pastor from the,

from the niv. It says, it says, hand him over to Satan that his flesh might be destroyed, but that his soul might be saved.

This is the idea of.

Of. Of allowing Satan to have full access to your flesh. And by the way, I want you to hear this. And I. It's a. It's a teaching that I need to hear on a regular basis in my own flesh.

It's a, It's a. It's a teaching that I really need to know. And what is that teaching?

Well, the teaching is this.

That.

That when I indulge in my flesh,

I am destroying.

I'm destroying my. My, My blessings, My. My life.

I am. I am destroying the things that God has. Has meant for good for me. And I'm indulging in the evil that.

That eats us alive.

And so what did Paul say? He says, when y' all are together and I'm with you in spirit,

hand this man over to Satan.

And Satan only has access to his flesh. He doesn't have access to his spirit.

His spirit's going to be saved. His spirit's going to be a part of the redemption work of God. But he says, tan him over, Satan. So this flesh might be destroyed,

but his soul might be saved.

He says, your glorying is not good.

Verse 6.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump or a little bit of yeast works itself through the whole dough?

What he's saying is, and by the way, leaven and yeast, every time you see it in the Bible, it's a picture of sin.

It is an exact picture of sin.

Once you see it,

you know that God's talking about sin. And he says, just takes a little pinch of leaven. To work its way through the whole. Whole lump of yeast.

I mean,

lump of bread.

And so when you're. When you're letting a little bit of sin into your life,

it's going to work its way through your whole life, and it's going to be destructive for your whole life. It's going to be. It's going to be deadly for your whole life.

That he says, therefore, purge out the old leaven. What he's, what's he talking about? What? He's talking about the lust of the flesh. He's talking about the. The old sin that came up when we.

When we were young, that we knew we was in our lives when we were young. He says, purge that stuff out. Don't let it stay in. How do I purge it out?

Well, I don't have the power to overcome sin, but I do know one who does have the power to overcome sin, and that is Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus Christ and the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And he is the bread of life. He's the unleavened bread. And if I eat from him and I walk with Him,

I'm able to purge myself of those things that are highly destructive and deadly for me.

He says.

He says, for indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast,

not with the old leaven. What's he talking about?

What he's talking about? He says, we're gonna. We're gonna keep the feast or our relationship with God, and we're not gonna do it with the old leaven. What are we gonna do it with?

Well, we're going to do it with the new bread,

the bread that's without leaven. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness,

which, by the way, you know, when I leave my sin, my brother beaten and tattered on the road,

struggling with sin,

am I not hateful toward him? Am I not malice? Is there not malice in my heart? When I allow someone to do something that I know is highly destructive and deadly for them, is it not hateful for me to leave them in that position?

Well, absolutely. It is somebody who's struggling with, and you name it, we can come up with all kinds of sin.

And, and we do nothing to help them, and we do nothing to. To bring them up and pull them up out of the pit. When we do that,

we, We. We are acting with hate toward them and not love.

He says, let, let us not. Let us not keep the feast with the Old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the leaven unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Notice,

he says we need to be people that tell the truth.

Now, I want you to hear me.

This guy that we're talking about is a believer. He's got a spirit.

He says, hand him over to Satan that his flesh might be destroyed, but that his spirit might be saved. And that is the word Numa found there. In verse five, he's talking about a person that is born again.

Now he's going to explain that this is not talking about the world, people in the world.

Oftentimes Christians think we need to go out there and condemn the world.

Well, the world's already condemned. The world's already condemned by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you something. The finished work of Jesus Christ says that the world and the power that functions in the world has been overcome by Jesus.

And so we, we don't have to speak to the wickedness of the world. The wickedness of the world is what it is.

What are we in the business of doing? We're in the business of loving each other,

teaching each other, growing each other, giving each other sincerity and truth. Not giving each other maliceness or wickedness. We're not giving each other those things. We're teaching each other and teaching each other to walk in the goodness and the blessing of God.

That's what we're supposed to be doing.

That's our job.

And, and, and, and what about the people in the world? We're supposed to be light to them.

We're supposed to be loved to them.

We're supposed to be hope to them.

I mean, they're the ones. They're the ones that are dead in their trespasses.

I mean, I mean, I don't have to tell a lost person that they're. They're broken and hurt. They. They may not admit it to me personally, but they know they are.

You know, you were.

We all know we are.

Even in my state of being redeemed and born again, I still struggle with that old flesh. Well, if I struggle with that old flesh when Jesus Christ has redeemed me,

if I'm struggling with that old flesh when Jesus Christ has redeemed me, how much more? The one who doesn't have him doesn't have a hope, doesn't have a new human spirit, doesn't have the Holy Spirit, doesn't have the blood of the Lamb.

What about them? Well, man, they're going to be in there's no, there's not any question. They're going to be. They're. They're in death and hopelessness.

I'm not condemning them.

They're the woman. They're the woman at the well. They're the woman found in adultery. What did Jesus say about. Say to her?

He said. He said, well, if your accusers don't accuse you, neither will I. Go and notice what he said. Go and send no more. See, salvation had come to her that day.

Redemption had come to her to that day. She'd come to meet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. She'd come to meet Jesus. And Jesus had, had said, I don't condemn you.

But he also said, what?

Go and sin no more?

Well, that's the whole process of salvation. That's why we're doing this.

We glorify God. You know, it's almost impossible to believe something so broken and dead,

so, so sick as we are that we could ever, ever, ever do anything godly or hol.

It's amazing that we do. And when we do, we glorify God. And when we walk in our salvation, we glorify him more and more. And when we take the blessings that only come from Him.

Wow.

What, what don't we do?

What are the things that we, we, we. We.

He's given us the blessing, the blessed hope that it's only found in Him.

He's given us blessed hope that's only in Him.

So he says, don't keep malice or wickedness, but sincerity and truth. Let's be truthful to each other.

And that's not truthful. That's out of hatred. That's truthfulness. That's out of love. It's sincere love to say what is evil and what is good.

It's sincerity of love that tells another that, you know, you don't have to live in that anymore.

It really is.

And it,

you know, the truth is,

it really should be as you go today I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.