And verse one, in Corinthians five and one. It is reported commonly, or it is everywhere, noise abroad, as the revised version puts it, that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have as far as white, and ear puffed up, have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this thing, this deed, might be taken away from among you. For I barely, as absent in body but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath done, hath so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrifice for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, or let us keep festival, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened dread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators. yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters. For then must ye need screw out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called of brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such and one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge then also that are without, that is the unsaved? Do not ye judge then that are within, within the jurisdiction of the locus of church. But then that are without, God judges. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. This is a very solemn chapter, but you have to take it up when you're taking up the book. Nevertheless, it's very... necessary and good for instruction in such cases. Though amazing that these things took place in the first century and were handled by apostolic authority, so those in succeeding generations would know how to handle cases of this kind when they did come up. Paul had been dealing, first of all, the first difficulty was lack of unity. There were four parties in the Church of Corinth and the Assembly, and he was trying to straighten that up. These four parties that we mentioned, you see, in chapter one. So I undoubtedly feel that Paul thought, what's to use tackling another problem, especially one like this, unless there is unity. And so after getting that one thing settled, the unity or this problem among the Christians cleared up, now we can move on to a subject and the power subject in one way, and yet I don't know whether it is. Whether to have division or systems or sects, as there was the case here, if that not really in one sense is not worth, then a moral problem. Because the one is doctrinal and that's more severe in the sight of God than something moral. Not that we're minimizing anything moral, this degeneracy was wicked, and it had to be dealt with. But the Apostle does not undertake to handle it unless the first problem is cleared up. These systems cleared up and they were united. Notice in verse one how he deals with this terrible sin among them. It is commonly reported, or as we mentioned, it is everywhere noise abroad. that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. In those days, under Grecian and Roman law, polygamy was legalized. It was all right for the man to have four or five wives, like the Mormons teach in their doctrine. They don't practice it. The country won't allow them, yet many men have more than one anyway. But this was legalized in those days. And this man, he had, his father had different wives. And so this brother was familiar with one of his father's wives, his stepmother, in other words. And this was the sin. And it's quite evident that this woman was not in the fellowship of the assembly in Corinth, because she's not brought into discipline. The man is. But the woman is not brought into discipline. And as we notice later on in the chapter, God judges those who are without the church. But the church is to judge those within. And so only the man is disciplined in this case. So you have that remark. It is commonly known. It's spread abroad. It's tolerated this delinquency war. They didn't seem to be bothered much about it. When I thought of that as commonly known, and as we mentioned earlier, this city was about one of the third largest in Rome at that time, they did not have the news media that we have today. I was reading, I think, yesterday it dawned on me, they didn't have the radio, they didn't have the TV, they didn't have newspapers, they didn't have the telephones. And yet this thing was spread all over, from mouth to mouth. No rumor. This thing was the natural case and all its ugliness there, and it was spread around just by gossip. I don't know what they'd do with it today. Well, I guess we already have an evidence of what we see today in the news when it breaks out in Washington. Man gets into trouble. The world knows it because of the news media. But back in that day, it passed from individual to individual. And here is this case, so commonly talked and talked about, and nothing being done. He says, you're just puffed up. Showing, as we noticed back earlier, he said, you're carnal. Carnal Christian can put up with just about anything. And these men were carnal. Not only they tolerate the division going on, but they tolerated a man living in sin. just passing it up. He says you're puffed up, puffed up, and you haven't mourned. Instead of being puffed up about this thing, you ought to be mourning about this thing. Because it's an open violation of the Word of God over in Deuteronomy, you have this text in verse seven twenty, cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife. Now that's under law. And here's a man guilty of that, and the curse of God rested on him, and in those days he was cut up from Israel, taken out and stolen. How severe was the sin of this kind, and here it is, right in Corinth. And you stop to think of it. God had intended this assembly, this church in Corinth, was to be his avenue. as a witness for him in the midst of that godless city, and for a while it was. The power of the gospel was demonstrated in that nest of Christians how happy they were. What a testimony for God, a bright shining light in the midst of that cesspool of iniquitous. And the devil saw to it, before long that bright and shining light in that wicked city was dimmed. by one man, one man. And because of that one man's inconsistency, and some Bible teachers believe he must have been a leader, that one man caused the devil to get the victory of what a mess you have in connection with this degeneracy here in Corinth. Only goes to show how busy the devil is today. trying to cause things to arise among God's people and just bring disgrace and dishonor upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, you're pumped up. He had plenty of evidence that it was true, no rumor. All kinds of evidence that this thing was so, no, using your imagination, it was fact. It was easily proven. I read something. I thought it was quite serious in connection with an employee in the post office. And this employee, it was for a long time, guessed that he was stealing things from the post office. A lot of stamps were missing. But they couldn't check this alleged crime because he said, oh, I'm not guilty. I don't take any stamps. But they set a trap for him. One day one of the government men walked up and searched him, and he did have a block of stamps on him. And he denied. He said, I bought these from my own youth. But the government agent took out a brush with certain liquid on it, and he smeared it over the front of those stamps. And what flared up like a flame? stolen from the general office. There was that indelible ink, and it cleared up when moisture was put on it. The man was caught red-panded and dealt with. There was the evidence. There was the evidence. And the disciplining here in Corinth was not on some guesswork, or maybe so. Paul had dispatched Timothy to go to the situation, those reports, and examine the situation. And Timothy gave the facts, and Paul had plenty of evidence that this thing was true. How we should be as Christians today careful about these things, not the gossip of the disgruntled Jews, using their imagination, their evil imagination. concerning something they've heard as a rumor and just keep rolling it along like a snowball till it gets out of control. How much better for God's people to do if Paul said ye should rather have mourned about this thing, and got on your knees and prayed to God for help that this situation be cleared up. But it seems to be the human heart loves corruption. You'll find this up in the courthouse when they're having a case, some legal case relative to some property. There's very few spectators there, but you get a case of sex, a lurid case, and the courtroom will be packed. People have a tendency to feed on filth. Strange things, but this shouldn't be engaged in that. But yet here, these Corinthians, he says, your pastor, You're actually glorying in this thing. What a state they must have been him. So the Apostles, he deals very sternly with them, boasting of a false liberty. Evidently, saying, well, we're Christians, we're saved by grace. So it's all right. And that's not something new. I know a man who has his doctrine in this town. He says the Christians will go out and... till fifty people. Commit murder. Knock off fifty people. Oh, it's all right. You're saved. You're going to heaven. That kind of preaching is dangerous and damning. You think Christians can do as they like it, and they're covered by grace. God has no time for that kind of teaching or preaching. Christians should live lives that are convincing and also... consistent that they might in some measure get across to the public the unsaved world at the church church that is purest powerful and a church that is all the time patronizing and compromising is powerless and paralyzed God wants his people to demonstrate his love of him and his hatred of his I, N. Take to the sixth. So here's the Apostle, and you'll notice how he handled it in verses three and four. These are amazing verses, verses three and verses four. What does he say? For I, verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit. The Apostle must have spent a lot of time in prayer when he heard about this situation. Only God knows how much birching of heart he went through and the burden he had, how he poured out his soul unto God, and he said, This thing has been so revealed to me, as far away as I am that I've already judged it. I already have the mind of God on what's to be done. Now, that's something, isn't it? That's what he says in verse three, For I barely as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that have done so done this deed. Now here are some majestic words. It's a court scene. Paul's there. The criminal's there. But there's someone else there. Verse four. In the name, what a thought it is. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such and run unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Think of that. He's speaking now with authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together. This man is to be delivered unto Satan. That's a horrible thought. To have a man turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And in a home this week I was speaking to a gentleman, his wife, and he had fought practically all his life that a person could be saved and lost and saved and lost. I said, Jim, you will be taken up that chapter five on Sunday night, Lord Willingey. Now here he's are down with the flu. I said, there's a man who was guilty of a heinous crime. And Paul says that man is going to be turned over to Satan for the destruction of flesh. The spirit shall be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That man was saved. And his soul went to heaven when he died. But his body had been turned over to the devil. He entered into the realm of Satan. But think of man being turned over to Satan that the flesh might be destroyed. What a thought. God often has used cases like this. He has used Satan as an instrument of discipline. In the Old Testament, many times God used unconverted Gentile nations to whip his people, Israel, the wicked Babylonians, the Chaldeans. God used these godless countries and nations to whip his chosen people, Israel, saddened and saved. Think of how God did use some. Think, for instance, the case of Job, as you have over in the book of Job. But God always puts a limitation on Satan's power. He can turn one over to Satan. This man has been in your realm, Satan. He had no business living in that realm and doing the things he's done. But you punish him. But save his soul. You go no further. You can touch his body. You can touch his life. But you can't damn his soul. that saved. Look at the case of Job in Job two. And verse four. And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. So went Satan pork from the peasants of the Lord and smoked Job with sore boils from the soul of his foot onto his cross. And the devil complained a little later on. He said, No wonder I can't get right at Job. You've put a hedge about him, a hedge about his house, and about all that he had. God had three hedges around Job, and Satan couldn't get at him until God took down the hedges. So when God wants to punish some of his people, by getting into voluntarily the devil's realm, God can let the devil do a little more, and he'll do it. My what delight he had in old Job, the greatest, one of the greatest men to the east, what a testimony he had for God, and here he is, and Satan is working Job over and working him over good. But notice another case of Paul in Second Corinthians twelve, seven. What does he say here in Second Corinthians twelve, seven? And lest I should be exalted above measure, to the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. The word buffet, not the buffet. And Paul is at the mercy of Satan. Why? Because Paul had so much revelation given to him. Paul had been so used of God, he had seen so much, he had been caught up into the heavens. He saw so many miracles before. And Saul, like every other Christian, has a fallen nature. And there was a possibility Paul might get a big head. and become inflated. God says, I'm going to let the devil give him a thorn in the flesh, lest he be exalted among above measure. There's another case concerning Peter in chapter Luke, or twenty-two of Luke, and verse thirty-one. What do you read here? And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may shift you as weak. But I pray for thee that thy faith stay alive. The Lord Jesus, knowing and telling Simon, you're going to be in the devil's sin, Simon. And I'm going to pray for you. Here's the devil, and he's after Simon. He knew the Lord was going to use Simon on the day of Pentecost. to win three thousand souls to trite. He wants to get a hold of Simon. And the Lord let the devil get him into his sieve. But he says, I pray for you, Simon. No doubt Simon in that sieve is like wheat in the sieve. He got rid of some chaff. But when the wheat came out after that experience, The wheat was a whole lot cleaner. It had been knocked about all right in the sieve, but it came out a whole lot cleaner. And God sometimes puts us into those circumstances and gives the devil a little leeway with us, and we learn a few lessons. Simon Ebony didn't do that. Right after that statement, he says, Lord, of all men, for six, I won't be. He hadn't yet learned the nothingness and the weakness of Simon Peter. He was willing to take on the devil, and he came out second day. This is some of the ways in which God turns us over to the wicked ones. We ask for it, we get it. So in this case of this man, God turned them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. No doubt about it, this man was not Repentant, persistently, willingly, disobedient. No doubt about this man. Commonly reported, been going on a long time, and everyone knew about it. But they were puffed up. This man was gloring in it even himself. What a situation. They were not disciplining his salvation. This man's salvation was secure. They were disciplining this man because of what he did. and because of what he did affected the assembly. That's the discipline. Discipline. Discipline the individual and also discipline him because of what he called in the Church of God. The smear that he called. The scandal that he called. That's why he had to be disciplined. Discipline is always with the view to restoration. Where there's true repentance, there will be true restoration. Notice what Paul says relative to this is over in Second Thessalonians three and six. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. Also you have another verse. And he says, And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him. Why? That he may be ashamed. The person who has sinned against God may put up a big front. You'll notice these men that have come recently into the news this scandal up in Washington. The first comment that came from them when confronted by the news meter, not true. I'll prove it. In every case it was true. Why didn't they come out in the beginning and confess it? He said, tell the lie, and then have the truth come out. How foolish we are when we know we were guilty. This fellow haze, living in ungodliness. Why, he'd go to bed, sleep like a babe. His conscience wasn't disturbed as a leader in the government. to be guilty of that wicked thing and behavior. But when he was caught, that's what troubled him. His conscience wasn't absurd about what he was doing. His conscience became alarmed when he got caught. And he took a handful of pills to find quiet, not really his conscience, but he had been caught. He couldn't face up to him. We live in a day, it seemed. when it's old-fashioned to have a guilty conscience. When I was young, growing up, you could do little things. You were brought up in a sheltered home under the influence of the word of God. To have a bad thought bothered you, to tell a lie with terror, or to do something worse. You'd go to bed, you couldn't sleep. Your conscience bothered. body. Conscience is crying out. Yes. Today, people can do almost anything and go to sleep and sleep like a child. The conscience has become dead. It is causing the environment in which we live. We're not sensitive to sin. That's the tragic thing about today's world. Some will say why. Didn't they say, well, Give him another chance, and as Christians, we ought to love this man. No. God says, put away from yourselves that wicked person. In our judicial system today, there's such a thing as rehabilitation. A man gets caught guilty of a crime. Right away they try to start the machinery for rehabilitation. That man should be punished with a crime already committed. then be rehabilitated. That's the way God says it. The punishment has got to come after the punishment then rehabilitation. But we're so slack in the world and slack in the church. God only knows if the lid were taken off from the denominations and the big churches of this city. I think a lot of people will be shocked. more than shots. Someone almost dropped dead of what's going on. Things are just bypassed and become everyday behavior. No one squeals on anyone else, and so who's going to call a kettle black? If one started talking, others would start talking. You know what you have. But today, when I was first saved, my early day... Now and again we adhere to a person being disciplined. And I remember in our own home assembly where there was a case of discipline for moral behavior, immoral behavior. At that worship meeting there wasn't a dry eye. When a godly brother rose up at the end of the worship meeting he mentioned the case. He mentioned the individual involved, and he read the scripture. Look away from yourselves, that wicked person with such and one know not with me. And that man was there, sitting at the back. There wasn't a dry eye. No one was getting pleasure out of this. This was God's discipline. And that man was prayed for. No bitterness, no hardness. God is disciplining one of his children. He's protecting his testimony. The leper in the Old Testament was put without the camp, less eager, leprosy to others. And so it is in the New Testament. How solemn those words deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. put away from yourselves that wicked person, and that's a Christian. Now born again, Christian. These are solemn ones. You also have doctrinal error dealt with over in First Timothy one, twenty. Two men had been guilty of destroying the faith, of whom is Hymenian, and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not the blasphemy. Here are two men delivered unto Satan because of doctrinal error. I don't think we realize what it must be to be turned over to Satan. If anything, I shudder to think what is to have an experience like that. And if we realize these things, we will be very careful about our manner of life. So we come to this text. Lovely text about a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump in verse six. This is the reason why this has got to be dealt with. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. If you don't deal with it, it's going to stretch. Leaven is something or a substance that causes fermentation, either in dough or liquid. Such is ye. It spread silently. Always was it. Unless this thing is exposed, he says, is this going to permeate the whole church? So he says, get rid of the leaven. But there you may be a few lumps on level. How wonderful to know that God has the remedy. For doctrinal error, moral error. But there are other things also in verse eleven. Born at Gavers. Chalvetous, that's a lust for money. We've had the lust of the flesh, but his lust for money. Idolatry, worshiping something other than God. A railer? I ran across something by Dr. Ironside this week, and I was glad I did. This is exactly what he said. Vailing. It is a person who has a tongue loose at both ends and on a pivot in the middle, a vicious talker, an evil speaker, one who can destroy the reputation of another just as a murderer drives a dagger into the heart and destroys the light. A valer is a wicked person in the sight of God, and Mr. Ironside was a very gracious man. Man can be put out for that. And a drunkard, one who persists and refuses victory over that habit to our Lord Jesus Christ. There is the victory, if there were only up to heaven. Then you have the vision, one who caused the vision. Murder is not mentioned in this, but the lesser takes care of the worse. If there to be put out for these things, certainly there will be put out for murder. In fact, your social system will take care of the murderer. He'd be put behind the bars and eventually capital punishment. So the law would take care of a man like that who was guilty of murder. So here are the things that God says that he'd be put out from. Put out from fellowship with God himself. Put out from fellowship with God's people. Put out from fellowship with the privileges that God's people involve. Put out... in the way of sickness and possible death, as in the case of quarrel. For this caused many a week, sickly, and many sick. Paul says if you don't judge this thing yourselves, God will do it. That's it. He shall never mind those outside. God will take care of them. You take care of those who are within the jurisdiction of the assembly. You get away from the fornicators and so out of this world, you'd have to go out of the world. You mingle with them in your employment. But here's a case where the glory of God is infringed on and smeared. And God is jealous of his people and his testimony. And so God's going to protect them. And this has got to be dealt with. Only those within the church. qualify can deal with a situation of this kind. And it's an awesome responsibility. And I trust that we will remember this and ponder these days. V. Horn said one time, and I have to read this this past week. I thought it was quite interesting. But V. Horn said that he had one sad day. He had bought two hives of bees. And his family did nothing about it. But he somehow had a love for these things, the way they worked. And he had these two hives of bees. He was figuring that he might have seventy-five pounds of honey, and he was going to spring that as a surprise upon the family. When one of the state inspectors came along, how he did it, we don't know, but he examined these bees. He said, Mr. DeHon, these bees have a disease. And he says, I'll have to destroy them. These bees have a disease called foul brood. And he said, I'm going to have to kill them all with cyanide, cyanide, and take these boxes, these hives, bees, honey and all out there in the middle of the field, and they're growing up in smoke. Dr. DeHorn said, I was a sad man because I loved those bees. He called them his friends. He said, although I had a material loss, I had a spiritual gain. I went to my room. I said, Lord, help me as that inspector came around, inspected those deeds. Help me to inspect myself more frequently in your presence, lest I be guilty of some disease that will spread among God's people. that had a solitary effect on Dr. B. Hall. Sometimes it costs something, some close friends for chance, but this is the way God deals with his people. So we bring in the blood in verse seven B, the last part of verse seven. Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrifice for us. Let us keep the peace. Not to the old leaven, neither were leavened of malice and wickedness, but to the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Going back to the Old Testament, the blood was shed first. And then, after the blood was shed, and the people of Israel were saved, They feasted upon unleavened bread. Afterwards, saved by the grace of God, we know the power of the blood that cleanses from sin. Christ is the unleavened bread. There's no sin in him. And we feed upon him. Paul says, get that situation straightened out. Get rid of that leaven. And then begin a new lump. by feeding upon Christ our Passover, who was sacrificed for us. He is the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth. In closing, I read something just this week on a young girl in Akron, Ohio. She was a young child and a rare disease. The disease was she had no feeling. You could flip her, she didn't feel a thing. She could pile down and bump her head, she wouldn't cry, she even burnt her hand on the stove and smiled. And the only time she would cry was when she lost her temper or she was hungry. The parents took her to the doctors and the doctors examined this girl. They said there was a defect in the central nervous system, and it was a disease rarely known and had no cure. She felt no pain. No pain. You say, oh, wouldn't that be wonderful? You'll feel no pain. No, that's a dangerous life, as this article pointed out. That little girl could have appendicitis. How are you going to know? She wouldn't cry. She was immune to pain. She could break her leg. You wouldn't know unless you saw a cripple. She wouldn't cry out with any pain. Pain is a detector we need to go to a doctor. She was immune, insensitive to pain. Be a sad thing if we listen. get to the point where our conscience no longer cries out at the approach of sin. No longer a sensitive conscience that cries out when sin approaches. No sensitive conscience that cries out when temptation approaches. To be a Christian with a seared conscience or you have any reason, a conscience No feeling. That's a dangerous life for a Christian. Watch your steps. For you to go through this world and see things and hear things and be tempted with things, and it doesn't bother you, it doesn't prick your conscience. You could read the most filthy thing in print, and there's nothing inside you rebelling. You could look at the filthiest thing on TV. There's nothing inside of you crying out. That wrong for you as a Christian? You're on dangerous ground as a Christian. Very dangerous ground. God deliver me from a conscience that lost its sensitiveness. A Christian with a tender conscience is going to cry against anything that will interfere with his fellowship with God and his enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ. and his testimony in the book. These are solemn things, but they are true. And I trust that God will give up a very sensitive conscience, because it simply means this. A guilty conscience means pain. An innocent conscience, a clear conscience means pleasure. Paul says, I have a conscience void of offense toward God. and reward man. Here's the situation in court on Paul Eelwood. This is the second trouble. First, division. Second, this moral sin. Next, suddenly it's something else. Should Christians go to court with each other in the next chapter, what about marriage? And I'm looking forward to that one. What about this one? This is what God's word says about a Christian's behavior, his own testimony, and also the testimony of the assembly. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come before thee. We ask thy blessing upon thy word, how keen cutting is the edge of divine truth. how it searches our heart, how it makes us to tremble before thee, lest we be guilty of something and will cause thee to permit Satan to get at us. For we're no match for them. O God, may we know something of hiding in thee, our blessed rock of ages. We're hiding in thee. May we as Christians become concerned May we develop a tender conscience in thy presence, and by studying thy precious word, that we will be revolting at the very approach of this ugly thing, sin. And so we commend thy word to thee. If there are any here unsaved, they are already in the grip and grasp of sin and its power. May they cry out for salvation. to our Lord Jesus Christ, who we ask it in his worthy and precious name. Amen.