1 Cor No.11 settling disputes

reference to one or two things which perhaps sound somewhat novel and later on we'll be exploring these and trying to apply them to our own lives 1 Corinthians chapter 6 if any of you has a dispute with another dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Saints do you not know that the Saints will judge the world and if you are to judge the world are you not competent to judge trivial cases do you not know that we will judge angels how much more the things of this life therefore if you have disputes about such matters appoint as judges even men of little account in the church I say this to shame you is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers but instead one brother goes to law against another and this in front of unbelievers the very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already why not rather be wronged why not rather be cheated instead you yourselves cheat and do wrong and you do this to your brothers do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God and that is what some of you were but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God amen I just would full if you'd have your Bibles open at 1 Corinthians in chapter 6 we have been making our way through this particular epistle now for some 11 Sunday mornings our syllabus therefore is dictated by what the Apostle wrote some nigh on 2,000 years ago and the remarkable thing is we have increasingly discovered as we've been examining his teaching that it is just as though he wrote for the modern situation that's the miracle of the Bible you can take your philosophies from the Greek world you can take the best of English literature you can read your Shakespeare and your Shelley and you will never find anything that compares with the Bible in as much as its message is timeless it has a unique feature it is always up-to-date and those who have sensitive eyes and feeling hearts can discern God's message on every page that I say not because I'm a preacher and you would expect me to say it that I share with you as my own personal conviction I never ceased to marvel at the relevance of Scripture to my own life I made reference to a moment or so ago when speaking to the children of being a teacher if memory serves me correctly there used to be or perhaps teachers can confirm this afterwards there still is a series of books which were known which were entitled generally the know-how series the know-how series and they purported to show children as the title indicated how to do certain things know how to do them well I'm not suggesting that the Apostle Paul should have used that title for 1st Corinthians but it would not exactly have been inappropriate know how know how what Paul well know how to conduct your church affairs know how to place a right esteem on a Bible teacher know how to distinguish between those who work for the unity of the church and its disunity know how to cope with difficult circumstances know how to appreciate that the wisdom of the cross is far superior to any of the so-called wisdom of this world know how to cope when someone within the fellowship falls into a bad sin and remains unrepentant know how so many times in this letter you find Paul using that little formula introducing fresh blocks of teaching I would not have you ignorant brethren on at least six occasions here in this chapter he starts off a particular point by saying don't you know this verse 2 for example and also verse 3 don't you know this and verse 9 don't you know this you see the burden of the Apostle is that Christian people should be informed not only about theological matters that may perhaps be unwisely regarded as purely academic but about practical issues the working out of what you believe in terms of of what you believe in terms of your ordinary life and your corporate life as a Christian community know how to do it I wouldn't have you ignorant later on as though he's got a school in front of him and he's taking assembly he would say I don't want any of you to be immature I don't want you to be children in understanding be men that's an exact quotation from Paul as he gets towards the end of this particular epistle a know-how book well what does he want us to know how to do in this passage that commands our attention for the next 25 minutes or so he wants us to know how to cope with a serious matter that might arise between one Christian and another or a group of Christians and another group of Christians it's a thought of dispute not just a trivial quarrel but something that is of great seriousness and might cause Christian people to think in terms of going to a court of law and asking a judge to use his wisdom and show who is right and who is wrong in a certain matter in fact though we're not given details it's pretty apparent from verse 6 that this situation was not purely academic in Corinth there was the actual case of one brother at least going to law against another well how do you cope in that sort of situation this is the matter to which Paul calls us and again it's relevant in South India in one of the southern states of Kerala there are courts that sit almost every day of the week and they have as their workload just deliberating on cases put their way by a variety of Christian communities who can't sort out who owns what particular property property it's a terrible tragic story left perhaps by the denominationalism of missionaries of years ago the missionaries have cleared out their land of their mission compounds is up for grabs and there are terrible disputes in South India over this issue now you see it's very relevant that our Indian Christians can come to Paul's letter and discover here teaching that will be applicable to them and of course it's not just in South India that one alas is confronted sometimes with this situation I cannot go into details I would not it's sub judice in any case but there have been occasions here on the south coast of England when I personally have been approached as to litigation involving oneself in legal dispute amongst Christian people within the context of the judiciary of the legal system of England and my reaction was then and still remains now in no way will I be party to any Christian be he an individual or representative of a group taking an issue against another Christian before the British legal system well more of that in a moment or two you will discover as Paul seeks to answer this question that in these 11 verses there are some very interesting things that he has to tell us for example he will inform us what a community used to be like what it used to be like before men and women were converted then he will tell us what the Christian community has come since Jesus Christ was trusted as Lord and Savior and then he will go on to inform us what a Christian community should never allow and finally why the Christian community can't allow certain things now you'll have to pay particular attention this morning because I'm not working directly through these 11 verses in sequence in fact almost getting myself ready for the Hebrew language tomorrow I'm starting virtually at the end and working forward which the Hebrews and the Chinese know but it's not common policy here in the United Kingdom if you move towards the end of this passage to the ninth and the tenth verses you will discover what the Christian community at Corinth was formerly like Corinth was in effect the Chicago of the Greek world do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God and Paul's got his eye on the average Corinthian Corinth was akin to Sodom and Gomorrah of the Old Testament era there was so much immorality there was so much promiscuity that it seemed as though bestiality was a mark of the day it was very much intertwined into the religious practices of the of the Corinthians they had a great temple on a hill that overlooked Corinth and in that temple took place in the name of their deity the most reprehensible things which one would not discuss in a mixed congregation such as this here was Corinth the city that gave the Greek language the verb to Corinthianize to act as a Corinthian and that was synonymous with being almost like an animal in your behavior pattern could any evangelist have gone with less with with greater fear to any city in Greece than the city of Corinth would anyone have thought that there could have been a place on God's earth that was less likely to produce Christian people than the city of Corinth these must have been the forebodings of Paul as years before he wrote this letter he finds himself in a God-given a pathway moving towards Corinth he knows what the place is like in Calcutta today when the floods come because the drainage system is inadequate the sewers come to the top of the roads a disgusting terrible thing the citizens of Calcutta have to cope with well morally speaking the sewage was on the surface in Corinth and when Paul went there he had to preach on the most difficult patch so to speak in the whole of the country of Greece and he reminds us and there is no exaggeration at all of the terrible lifestyle of the Corinthians the advent of sex shops and promiscuity and so on and so forth is not new it's as old as the depravity that there is in the heart of man so what does Paul do he reminds the Corinthians that they were redeemed they were delivered from the sewage of Corinth and as he lists these sins which I won't read out again he tells us in the 11th verse that is what some of you were you were like that my dear friend never forget the state that you were in when God rescued you never forget what you might have been but for the grace of God I don't suggest that you wallow in unpleasant memories but it's good for us sometimes as Christian people to remember the greatness of our deliverance and to thank God that he took us out of the sewage the muck and the filth of this world not that I'm suggesting all the Corinthians indulged in the whole catalogue of these sins but this was the general nature the atmosphere the ethos that there was in Corinth now says Paul you were you were delivered from that by the grace of God remember what you were and then moving towards the final verse of our passage for consideration this morning the Apostle reminds them what they have become I read you verse 11 and that is what some of you were but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God Paul uses a trio a trinity of verbs to describe the exquisite Christian experience this is what happened to you there you were in all your muck in Corinth but in God's grace you were washed you were sanctified you were justified the NIV puts it in the past tense the authorized version puts it in the present tense you say which version is right the thing is they were both right because in the original language the idea is of an action in the past which has consequences in the present I was washed I am washed I was sanctified I am sanctified I was justified I am justified here is a threesome description of conversion what happened when I confessed in the north of England years ago Jesus Christ as my Savior well if you'll not blush at the language I was washed in the blood of the Lamb and that's not my language it's the language of Scripture you read Revelation 3 and chapter 21 those who are redeemed are people who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb what is the property of this blood why did Jesus die well he died my friend to cleanse you from your sin the blood of Jesus Christ says the Apostle John who doesn't blush at the language the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son keeps on cleansing us from all sin that's what these Corinthians had experienced they were washed but not just washed they were sanctified that means to say they were set apart set apart for for the Living God for his service this was the remarkable thing to which I brought your attention when looking at the second verse of the opening chapter of this letter Paul directs his epistle to the Church of God in Corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy that's a remarkable statement called to be holy in Corinth called to be holy in worthy and where does my holiness come from basically the precious blood of Jesus Christ the indwelling of God's Spirit it marks me out in his service but Paul does not just use the language of the laundrette washed and sanctified he uses the language of the of the law courts justified that's the term which declares says the Apostle Paul how our standing is in the sight of God because Jesus has died no longer am I responsible to answer the sin problem question that confronted me previously he's taken my sins in his own body he took them to the tree to Calvary's cross and a Christian is a man when looked on by God who is washed sanctified justified there he was in Corinth before conversion he was owned by the Corinthians their lifestyle it mesmerized him it enslaved him it chained him but the day came when Paul preached the gospel and these polluted Corinthians they were washed by Jesus Christ they were sanctified they were justified I says Paul in an unconscious reference to the Trinity he says all this happened in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit the Holy Spirit of our God the Father that's what a Christian is he bears the imprimatur the stamp of God Father Son and Spirit upon him later on this evening we shall be baptizing two men in water in this baptistry and we will baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost what are these men they are men who have been redeemed washed sanctified justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God well you see what Paul has done he has reminded these Corinthians of the state that they were in before they had the gospel preached and now he has informed them he's brought back to their attention the condition that is now theirs they belong to God through Jesus Christ but we must not stop there because there's one other important thing that is brought out perhaps not so much in verse 11 but throughout the whole of these verses when Paul refers to the ordinary Christian believer what terminology does he use well he calls the Christian a brother time and time again in this epistle he will use such an intimate term look at verse 6 instead one brother goes to law against another brother the word there implied when Paul speaks about the Corinthians he refers to them as his dear children what is the point well precisely this if I have confessed Jesus as Lord not only am I in a right condition with the Father if you like in a vertical sense horizontally I am in a right relationship with those who also confess Jesus Christ as Lord and God as Heavenly Father that means that they're my brothers they're my sisters how do I treat my brother in a literal fashion let's think of my blood brother who I love dearly how would I treat him imagine he'd done something wrong to me imagine there was a problem within my family circle what would I do ring up the local paper would I go and see my solicitor and say you know my brother he's such a terrible person of course not I love my brother if we have problems within our family nobody knows outside the family we resolve it ourselves on the basis of love and we are concerned for our family reputation such as it may be and now you see I'm just using a human illustration but let's think of this in even more important terminology here are these blood-bought Corinthians these people who have been hewn from such a rotten quarry these people who have the stamp of God upon them who are in a right relationship with God and have within their Christian family other brothers and sisters now problems occur they shouldn't occur amongst Christians ideally speaking they will not says the Apostle in the first chapter but he's realistic enough to recognize that we're not completely what we should be and so he appreciates that from time to time there will come difficulties individual Christian with individuals groups within groups how are these difficulties to be resolved what should a Christian never allow well says the Apostle in the first verse if any of you have a dispute that word is a legal phrase if any of you has a dispute dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Saints the answer that the Apostle Paul obviously is given is that it is wrong it is illogical it is unloving for a Christian ever to think in terms of taking another individual group of Christians before the law courts why is this well it's not as the authorized version might imply at first reading because the law courts in those days were unfair the authorized version gives the first verses dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints no the Apostle is not implying that the courts in those days were unjust or unfair simply because they were pagan and Gentile indeed he tells us in Romans chapter 13 verses 1 to 7 that we are to pray or Christians in those days were to pray for the Roman judiciary the law courts in Acts 17 the Apostle Paul is very grateful for the unbiased judgment of one legal pagan official and on another occasion you remember he appeals to Caesar so he can't mean that at all he's not in any way suggesting that the Roman courts were unjust what he is suggesting is the AV brings out is that the courts were controlled by ungodly unbelieving men and it is wrong for a believing Christian a saint a washed person a justified person to take any dispute in front of an unbelieving court be it of Roman nature or of British well what is to happen when problems do occur in in a Christian fellowship what is to happen says the Apostle well if you have disputes verse 4 about such matters appoint as judges even men of little account in the church and he goes on and there's perhaps a little biting cynicism here because the Corinthians have claimed to be very very wise people he says in the fifth verse I say this to shame you is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers but instead one brother goes to law against another what is the Apostle really getting at he is suggesting that within the gathered Christian community there are certain things that are to be done if difficulties occur and of course he is rehearsing the teaching of our blessed Lord Jesus who tells us in Matthew's gospel and chapter 18 that if a man has a dispute against a fellow believer he goes to him he tries to work it out if the believer won't listen to him then he takes a couple of witnesses if the witnesses and the one who has offended are unable to bring peace about then they are to go to the whole church you see it's to be a private affair why is the Apostle so concerned well he's concerned about this as he tells us in the second and third verses of this chapter for a rather interesting reason he is concerned because ultimately Christian people and this is something I do not claim to understand in its entirety ultimately they will be involved on the day of judgment in the time that is yet to be in drawing alongside the Savior and executing judgment themselves look at the second verse do you not know that the Saints will judge the world look at the service he advances upon his comment do you not know that we will judge angels the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes speaking to his disciples reminds them in the 19th chapter of Matthew's gospel that the day is coming when he will judge and they will be on thrones with him they will exercise judgment they will share in the judicial process which our Lord Jesus shall initiate in the book of Jude and in the sixth verse references made to fallen angels who await their condemnation now again there's not time to go into these rather interesting matters but there is sufficient evidence in scripture for me to say this that in front of the Christian church there is a tremendous program that God has in store when our Lord Jesus comes back we shall be involved in something that is almost beyond human comprehension to understand there is a new era coming there is a new world dawning says the apostle later on in one of these epistles I has not seen it is not heard the things that that God have that are in store for him the New Testament tells us that God still has a tremendous purpose in the universe which he shall regenerate there are remarkable things that the Christian has still in store for him because he trusts the Lord Jesus as his savior and part of this is the whole business that we don't fully comprehend but scripture hints at it standing alongside our Savior executing judgment in this universe amongst men amongst angels these are remarkable things and the Bible tells us that what God has in store for us is so wonderful it beggars description in human language now this is the point of Paul if you have such a great program in front of you which involves even judging fallen angels getting alongside the Lord Jesus acting under his authority as an agent of judgment can you not yourself cope with trivial cases that come up trivial by comparison within the ranks of a Christian community of course you must if you don't says the apostle well it brings disrespect upon the reputation of the Church of Jesus so he uses that powerful language in verse 5 I say this to shame you I want you to feel embarrassed as I write to you like this it is a positive disgrace that any Christian should think in terms of taking another before a court manned by unbelieving Gentiles and ask them in their limited wisdom to pass judgment now my time is gone but let me gather my remarks together we as Christian people should be very concerned for the reputation of the gospel I bring you back to those trio of verbs that Paul uses at the end of the 11th verse we are sanctified we are justified we have a tremendous inheritance we have a tremendous program in front of us we've got so much that binds us together so Paul argues for unity and when there is dissension when there is any problem at all Christians do not fragment they do not break away from one another they stay together they sorted out together in the privacy of their own community bathed in the spirit of love that's why Paul writes 1 Corinthians 13 later on that great love son well you see how correct I was by saying that this epistle is in effect a know-how book know how to cope with problems in the Christian community when they arise personally take it to the one who's offended you sorted out if you can't come to agreement then bring a spiritually gifted person along maybe an elder maybe a deacon if it gets very very serious the whole gathered church community must be drawn together and they shall pass judgment but there is never a recourse to any outside judiciary not amongst Christian people it is a scandal it is a disgrace it is hanging out so to speak of dirty washing amongst unbelievers who say if that's how Christians believe I want to behave I want nothing to do with it at all Paul is concerned you see for the reputation of the gospel and we share that same concern and we bless God for further revelation from Paul how to cope knowing how to deal with any difficult matter which might confront us in the complex world of the 20th century well we move on next time in three Sundays time to conclude this chapter I mean 518 by handle God has guided by flock from age to age give to us the same passion as you did to the apostle to preserve the reputation of the gospel and help us to appreciate more and more what you have delivered us from and what binds us together as brothers and sisters through our Lord Jesus and in the declaration of that same gospel enable us all got to bring many another poor sinner from the sewage of iniquity into the cleansing into the purity of the gospel blessings for Christ Jesus