1 Corinthians 5:9-13 + 6:1-6 | Episode #985

July 18, 2025

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

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 + 6:1-16

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.

So he says here in.

He says here in verse nine, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.

All right? Now he's going to deal with the Bible quite clearly, especially in Romans, chapter one. Go back to that Bible study quite clearly deals with sexual sin.

And let me tell you something. I don't know of many human beings that don't have some aspect of sexual sin in their heart that's just going to be. It's a strong desire, it's a strong instinct, it's a blessing that's given to us by God.

And if you've got it,

if you've got that desire, and he's going to talk about those who, who maybe can. Can really deal with it well,

and what they should do. But if you got that desire,

desire, you're going to struggle with it.

Now notice what he says in verse 10. Yet I certainly did not mean with sexually immoral, immoral people of this world.

Notice he says, I'm not talking about the people of the world,

he says, or with the covetousness.

The covetous or the extortioners or the idolaters. Idolaters, since they would need to go out of the world. Meaning the only way, only way you can deal with them other than through the finished work of Jesus Christ is they'd have to leave the world.

We're not trying to. We're not trying to preach.

We're not preaching a. I want you to hear me. Your message is not a message. Your good news is not quit sinning. That's not a good news. I want you to hear me.

The gospel is not a gospel that says quit sinning. A gospel is a gospel that says turn from the world and your sin and death and turn to Jesus Christ.

I want you hear me. That's the good news. There's an answer to the death that you're going through. And that is turning to Jesus Christ. That's a good news. You don't listen.

So many young believers, people have said, well, you know, he's got this problem or you know, he's got that problem. Preacher. You're going to have to tell him. If he comes to this church, you have to tell him.

He's going to have to deal with that problem. I don't have to tell him anything about that problem.

I'm going to be honest with you. If somebody is genuinely born again and they've repented and they've turned to God and they're chasing after God, I don't have to tell them their problems, you know,

because they've been given a counselor and they'd been given a paraclete, a one who'd walk beside them, and that's the Holy Spirit. And I've found that the Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin.

He really will. And he's good at it. And not only is he good at it, he's good at teaching you how to walk out of it. You know, one of the things that makes the Holy Spirit so great is he's able to teach me how to walk in the way I should walk.

Now, I try to help people. I try to give them wisdom. I try to give them love. I try to give them compassion. But I have trouble walking in my own salvation.

If I didn't have the Holy Spirit, there's no way I could make it. And the Holy Spirit leads us to all holiness and all righteousness.

And,

you know,

he's pretty amazing.

In fact, he's holy. He's the Holy Pneuma, the Holy Spirit of God.

He says verse 11. But now I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother. Notice he's. He's quantifying this.

Don't keep company with anyone who's named a brother who is unrepentant. You need to put this in here so you can understand it. We're not talking about the ones who are repentant.

If I got a brother that's struggling with something, I need to struggle with him. If I got a brother that needs his hands lifted up, I need to lift them up for him.

If I got a brother needs to be carried, or sister that needs to be carried, we need to be carrying them. But if you've got one that's going to just live in their own sin,

he says, who is sexually immoral,

covetous idolater,

a reveler, a drunkard,

an extortioner,

don't even eat with such a person.

Now, notice he started with sexual immorality. Why? Because the subject matter of the passage is a young man who took his father's wife.

But, but he, he says, you know, covetous. I'm. I'm a covetous person.

Sexually immoral.

That's a. Definitely part of my lust of the flesh. Idolater, meaning I place something above God. I make something that in this world that's more important to God.

Yeah. There I am. That's me. A reveler.

Will you. What are you saying? A part of your pastor? Well, I've been one before.

I'm not as big a revelers as most people, but, you know, I have. I tend to be a little bit more introverted in my, in my heart.

A drunkard.

I have not really had a problem with alcoholism. But, but, but, but. Now,

cheesecake. Yeah.

So can I turn to the drunkard and say, what's wrong with you, you drunkard?

Well, no, he's going to ask me what's wrong with me.

Had any macaroni and cheese lately?

You have to really.

You have to really think about it and understand it. And you got to look at it. But he's saying, if, if, if I continue in my sin unrepentant,

and you are. You've been trying to love me through it, and I'm just going to walk in it. He says, you're not even to eat with such a person.

They're a believer.

They're going to continue in their sin. He says, have nothing to do with them.

He says, for what? Have what?

For what? Have to do with judges.

Those also who are outside.

What he's saying is what. What I have to do to judge those who are outside. Meaning that's not my job.

Do not judge those. Do. Do you not judge those who are inside? Yeah,

yeah. Do we make judgments about sin and in life for those who are on this side? Not, not with those on that side, but those who outside God, judges,

therefore put away from yourselves the evil person.

What, what Paul is saying is kick that person out, remove them from the church.

And they did. They actually did this.

And we're not going to be studying Second Corinthians, but you find out in Second Corinthians chapter two that this person repented and came back. And then Paul has to tell them to forgive him and let him get back to being who he's supposed to be in the kingdom.

So we find out that this church discipline that takes here,

takes place here. We find out that it actually works when, when we hand people over that are unrepentant to have their flesh taken care of by Satan, they get repentant, real Fast.

And that's what happens here. And we find out in Second Corinthians it does. But then you got to learn to forgive. You can't be holding grudges against people. And, boy, let me tell you something.

Unforgiving heart is a ungodly heart.

And if you. You have somebody that you think is just terrible and awful, and, boy, we got a lot of folks who think that about folks. Am I right? They're terrible and awful, and we can't have that.

And that's not going to be a part of our church. Well, let me tell you something. If they walk in in repentance, I don't care how terrible they are, they got a seat at the table.

They got. They got room at the foot of the cross. They can kneel down before Jesus at any time.

And does that mean when they kneel down before Jesus, that they're going to get rid of all their sin?

Not, they're. They may get rid of all the sin that's washed away right there, but they're going to still have that nature they got to struggle with. And that's what salvation's all about.

And that's what we're in the business of doing.

We're in the business of helping people walk in their salvation.

And anybody who doesn't think that. Let me tell you something, you're missing out.

Because I'm not in the business appointment that people see. And I in the world, I don't do that at all.

I never do that at all. That's not what. It's not. What my business is.

My business is. Is helping the redeemed walk in their redemption and helping the lost see the light of God's life.

That's what it's all about.

And when we do it well, when we do it right, boy, the kingdom's built and God really moves. He sure does.

It says we've made it through chapter five.

Taking about 30 minutes. We're moving on to chapter six.

Chapter six, it says this.

Dare any of you having a matter against another,

go to the law before.

Before the unrighteous and not before the saints. Now you're going, Pastor, what is this talking about? Well, I'm an attorney also. Well, I was an attorney until this morning.

Now Governor Ivey has appointed me as district judge of Tallapoosa County. And so I'm changing over from an attorney to a judge.

But this is about bringing lawsuits in worldly courts, and it's talking about not suing your brother in court, but going to him first.

Going to him first in,

in, in love and working things out.

Now he says, do you not know that the saints will be judged, will judge the world? And if the world be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Now, I want you to hear me.

We, we, we in Tallapoosa county, where we live, where our church is,

we've had a lot of really good judges, really, really good judges and godly judges and good men.

And they have always, always, always, in every court I've ever been in, whenever there was a dispute between two parties, they have always instructed them to go either outside the courtroom or to the back of the courtroom or to one of the rooms off the side of the courtroom and sit down and see if they can work their matter out.

This is a biblical model of things, okay? This is a perfect biblical, biblical model of things. Why?

Because people who work things out together,

who work through struggles that they have with each other, who work through problems that they have with each other and that come to agreement,

they're far more likely to live by that agreement than if they take their matter before a judge and get him to, to rule on it. And let me tell you why.

Because the truth is, no matter,

no matter how wise the judge is and no matter how smart the judge is and no matter how insightful the judge is, the judge is not going to know everything.

And doesn't matter how good the lawyers are and how much evidence they put.

They put in front of the court, it doesn't really matter.

The judge is not going to really see it in its fullness the way it actually is. And the judge is going to really, really struggle to know what would be the right answer for the parties that are standing in front of him.

And that's just the truth. It's just the truth.

I may know you and you might sue somebody, and I know them, and both of them come before me, I still am not going to really know completely and truthfully the heart of the matter.

I'm not.

But two believers ought to be able to come together and talk out and work out their differences.

And if it takes it, give to your brother, give to your sister,

you'd far rather have the relationship than have,

have the physical,

the physical item you're. You're arguing over or the, or the contract that you're struggling with each other with, you just, you're just going to be far better off not,

not bringing it in front of a judge. Now, in this situation, if they took it to a judge in Corinth, they were going to take it to our own righteous judge, meaning and take somebody who wasn't a believer, and that believer is going to make a ruling about it.

And,

and Paul says, you know, this is crazy.

Don't y' all have the wisdom of God? Don't you have God's. The ability to hear,

to hear from God? Why can't y' all work out your problems with each other, your differences with each other? You ought to,

you ought to be able to do that. And, and it's crazy to take two believers and have someone who is not a believer make, make decisions, really make rulings,

make rulings about the matter in front of everybody. He says, you know, do you not know that we all judge angels? What he's saying is you're, you're able to make judgments.

And remember, remember, oftentimes we're saying, are you, Are we supposed. I thought we weren't supposed to judge.

Listen, listen. That's not what Jesus was saying, okay? When he says, judge not, lest you be judged. For in the manner in which you judge or in the weight or measure you judge someone, it'll be weighed out to you.

Now what, what is he saying?

Well, what he's saying is, is if you're judging somebody for condemnation purposes, I'm condemning them.

I, I found them wanting, and I'm saying I'm condemning them because of that.

However, that, whatever that is,

you know, you've done this,

I judge you wrong or immoral or whatever, and I find you guilty. And I want, I want, I want you to be condemned over this matter. If that's the case, then remember,

whatever the, whatever the level of judgment you gave them, what, whatever,

at whatever level you've placed over them,

the same things being placed on you says, judge not lest you be judged. For in the manner in which you're judged or in the, in the weight in which you're judged, it'll be judged unto you.

Now, if you look at someone and you see their struggle and you weigh out to them a lot of, a lot of grace and you say, and you say in your heart, man, that person is in a, is in a battle, and I need to step in and step out and I need to,

I need to love on them and help them,

have you made a judgment that they got a problem and they got an issue?

Sure you have. But what have you given them?

What, what measure have you measured it up against? Well, you've measured up against the grace of God.

And when you measure something up against the grace of God and You give them that grace. You know what it gets. You know what God gives back to you? Grace.

You give condemnation, you get condemnation. You give grace, you get. You get grace. Okay. All right. You go. Well, what. How does this measure up with. With the passage before us?

Well, the passage before us is we got somebody who is just out there and they are going to do their sin and they're going to flaunt it in front of everybody, and they're going to act like God is okay with it, and that is deathly destructive to them.

And we can't say that that's okay because,

you know, I don't want anybody to let me walk around doing something that's just going to totally and utterly destroy my life. I don't want to.

I want you to tell me the truth. Well, if you tell me the truth, you judge me worthy of your love and your truth and your wisdom, and you give it to me,

that's a blessing. I don't have to take it, but that's a blessing.

He says,

if then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life,

do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? Meaning,

do you allow people who are not.

Not believers to make these judgments on you? You shouldn't do that. He says, y' all. He says, I say this to your shame.

It is so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one who able to be judged between his brethren.

But brother go. But. But brother goes to the law against a brother.

And. And that before unbelievers. What he's saying is,

don't sue or don't take someone to court who is a believer without first trying to work it out, without. But without first trying to find someone with some wisdom that can work it out between you two.

Don't do that.

That's a powerful message, isn't it? That's a. It's an important message.

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.