Christians are rebuked for taking fellow believers to court, a sign of carnality and immaturity, when the church should be capable of resolving such disputes. The sermon emphasizes that believers are called to judge the world and angels, and therefore should be able to settle minor disagreements amongst themselves, rather than airing them before unbelievers. It further stresses the importance of understanding one's identity in Christ, noting that believers are washed, sanctified, and justified, and belong to God, urging them to glorify Him in their bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit and members of Christ, not to be defiled by sin, especially fornication.
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chapter six this will be our subject with more chapter six of first Corinthians this is our twenty fourth twenty third message I think we're twenty six on the book of Corinthians we've been taking all this time getting up to chapter six but now it's going to be chapter by chapter chapter six this morning chapter seven tonight chapter eight and nine next week and I want you to use your pencil if you have one and There are some things we want to point out, six especially, as we read chapter six. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust or the unsaved, and not before the saints.
Now here's the first thing I want you to note. Do ye not know those four words, that the saints shall judge the world. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matter? And now three more words. Know ye not that we shall judge angels how much more things that pertain to this life. If then we have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you?
No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren, but brother goeth through war or to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law, one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and vet your brethren. Now we have three more words, the same in verse nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Be not deceived, neither fornicators nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves, if mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And here's a wonderful verse. How are we going to take care of all these inconsistencies in the first ten verses? And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Now he leaves taking a Christian or one Christian taking another Christian to court. He leaves that and goes into another subject, that of the Christian's body, beginning at verse twelve. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of them. Meets for the valley and the valley for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. Now notice the first mention of the body. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
There you have it mentioned, Christ the body. and God hath both raised up the Lord Jesus and will also raise up us by his own power. Now the fourth time those words know ye not, know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ, shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot, God forbid. What know ye not? Now here's the fifth time. What know ye not that he which is joined to encarlet is one body? There you have the body brought in again.
For two says he shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Plead fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. That's the fifth time he refers to the body. But he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body. There's the sixth time. And here is the sixth time he makes this remark. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.
For ye are bought with a price, Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. And so six times he refers to their lack of knowledge, eight times he refers to the body. This is very, very interesting. These Corinthian Christians claim to know so much, and Paul said that he come behind in no gift, and many of them had attended the schools of learning in Corinth at that day. But when it came to subjects in the church, they seemed to be so ignorant. They seemed to be at a loss to solve some of these simple things that come up in a church.
And so he's rebuking them for their lack of knowledge and also for permitting a Christian to take another Christian to court. when that subject or that matter could have been settled by the local church and its leaders. And in all their boasting of their knowledge and understanding, he says, Know ye not, know ye not, or don't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you know, you ought to know, because the source of all wisdom and knowledge you have in your Bible. How strange it is today that so many people are ignorant of what the Bible has to say and what it is.
There's not a thing that comes up in a Christian's life, but what there's not a verse in the Bible that covers it. It's just a case of knowing the book, and so he reduced them for their lack of knowledge of the Scriptures. Know ye not, know ye not, do ye not know? Now it's understandable that an unconverted person doesn't know the Scriptures because the Bible says that the unsaved man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them, for these things are spiritually discerned. I don't care how educated, informative an unsaved man may be.
He may be a professor in one of the highest colleges of learning. But when he comes to the Bible, he just does not understand. He cannot explain it nor interpret it because he doesn't have the Spirit of God in his heart. The Bible is written by men who were possessed, laid hold of by the Spirit for holy men of God's faith as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. And if you do not have God, Holy Spirit in your heart, As the result of your conversion to Christ, you do not understand the Scriptures, and you do not have the teacher, the expositor, to explain the Bible to you.
Once you become a born again Christian, then you have the source of all true knowledge, and the Spirit of God is able to explain the Word of God. He may not do it the first year you're saved, or the second. because we're babes spiritually, just like we're babes physically. A young convert may not understand certain things. He's just a babe in Christ. You don't give a stake to a three-week-old baby. He can't digest it. But later on in life, he'll want it and can handle it. So there are things in the Bible that you have to mature in order to understand.
Before that time comes its line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. But these things in the Bible can be eventually understood as the Christian reads the Bible. Now, if you're going to spend more time reading the newspaper than you are reading the Bible, whether you're a Christian or not, you're not going to understand the word of God. You've got to read this book if you're going to understand its content. And here are these Christians, and these people were Christians in Corinth, some of them bragging about their knowledge and their understanding, and yet he has to rebuke them about their lack of knowledge when it comes to settling matters in that local church.
So this is the point we want to stress this morning, in taking up these things that they were not able nor qualified to explain or understand. Paul asks six questions. And I want you to notice the first three of these questions, and this has to do with what we are, what we are. Notice verse two. And you'll see the two questions in verse two. And three. Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world, and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Now verse three, again, three, know ye not that we shall judge angels. How much more things that pertain to this life. So we're going to judge the world, and we're going to judge angels. And in verse nine, he says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. So he's asking them questions. Don't you know? Do you not know, and these three questions have to do with what the Christian is? What are we? A Christian is a child of God.
He's one who is born again. He's not unrighteous in the sight of God. He's one of God's children. And as such, God says you ought to have the ability... to do some of the little things that are necessary to be done in a local church. Don't you realize we're going to judge the world? We're going to judge angels? How wonderful. And then in that verse nine, he makes it very plain, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but the righteous will. That's what the Christian is.
He's righteous before God. not because of his own personal righteousness, but because of the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who accomplished that righteous work upon the cross and settled the question of salvation, he said, It is finished. And when I accept that righteous one, and he's the only one who ever lived in this world and on this earth who was righteous, there is none righteous, no not one. That is, taking man out of Christ. But when you see Christ, you see the only righteous person, sinless person that ever walked this earth.
And through what he did, that saves a soul, and you become a righteous one. And so that's what God wants us to remember, who we are. The next three questions in verse fifteen and sixteen. Remember to whom we belong. Verse fifteen, he says, And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ. Verse sixteen, What know ye not that he which is joined to an hour that is one body? How terrible that is.
Verse nineteen, What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? So he takes up these questions. The first three has to do with who we are, and the next three has to do with whom do we belong. We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not our own. We're here. He says, I bought you lock, stock, and barrel. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. Therefore, glory by God in your body and in your spirit, which are his.
So we see who we are, what we are, and to whom we belong. We need to remember how we have been redeemed. That's a nice thing to do. To remember how we were saved. When we were saved. Also, it's nice to remember we are in the sight of God accepted. Remember that God sees us in Christ. He doesn't see me in my old sinful state in Adam. He sees me in Christ Jesus. And the third thing it's nice to know, and that is...
to whom we belong. Now, the first one, we need to remember how we have been redeemed, and if the second, what we are on the site of God, and third, to whom do we belong. These are the most important weapons that any creature has. If every pulpit in the world today were to present these three things and ask these three questions to his congregation and every individual in it, His ministry would be effective. These are trusts from the Word of God. May I ask you those first. Do you remember how you were saved?
Do you remember when you passed from death unto life? I'm not talking about when you joined the church. Millions of people have joined the church just like they joined some social society. So more. I'm asking you, when did you become a born-again Christian? When did you pass from the broad way to the narrow way? When did you come to know Christ and the new life that he imparted to everyone who trusted? For they that are in Christ are a new creature. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. Do you remember when that took place?
And do you also remember what you are in the sight of God? Do you remember that? When you became a Christian and you're in Christ and Christ in you, and you know how God looks upon you as one who is accepted in the beloved one? Do you know in the third case to whom you really belong? You belong to Jesus Christ, for he has purchased you. You are not your own. If you don't know these things, you have every reason to have a question mark in your mind whether you're a Christian at all or not.
It's not what you think you are. That's the book. God wants you to know these things. and not being done. And you can know it. He said, don't you know, don't you know, I've given you my word. Can you have anything more authentic, more sure, more fundamental, more convincing, more assuring, more comforting than my word? If I have God's word for something, that's all I need. I need nothing else. And when I know what I am, a child of God, and what I know, when I know how God looks upon me, not as a sinner, but as a child of God.
That's true. So Paul now takes up this subject of a Christian taking another Christian the law. And he opens with the word dare. Verse one of chapter six, dare any of you, having a master against another, go to law before the unjust or the unbelievers, be it a judge or a jury, and not before the sinner. Here was another sign of their immaturity as Christians, their carnality. He says, Are ye not carnal and walk of men in chapter three?
Immature Christians that should be adult, they are mere babies. And thus she challenges them. I dare. I challenge you to take another child of God into a courtroom and have a non-converted judge or maybe an unconverted jury. Settle things that belong to the church to settle. Settle things with an open Bible before people who know it. And let this subject be cleared up without having the dirty lidden hung out before the world. Because that's exactly what the devil wants to do.
There's nothing the devil delights in more than to find a fuss in the church. He loves to scatter that abroad. to bring disgrace upon the name of Christ. He doesn't like to spread it around the good things that are done in that church, but some bad things. I think of a case in mind up in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina a number of years ago. There was a little split. Well, it was little to begin with. About three-quarters of that membership were born again Christians and knew their Bible. The other quarter were pretty worldly, modernistic in their theology, and pretty wealthy, the professional Zeus in that church.
The subject came up about the Bible, and this three quarters of a percent of the membership stood by the Word of God, and they didn't want to be associated with a certain theological seminary because Of the leanings of that seminary, they were teaching evolution, contrary to the teachings of what you have in Genesis one. So it became a court case as to who was going to get the church, the property. And when all this appears before a judge, did all the judge ruled in favor of the few intelligents?
wealthy men, and let them have the property instead of the three-quarters of that membership, and if they pressed, in small news and or drovers, blasted them, and they got to the Associated Press and went all over the country, they blasted the undemocratic decision of that judge, giving in to the one-quarter and ignoring the three-quarters of the members. and the little handful got, and likely most of them all, unconverted. And those who weren't unconverted did know Christ, they were carnal men. The press took it up.
When I tell you was in big letters, and I remember it well, I remember reading, how that squabble in that church, instead of being settled in the walls of that church, it was settled in a courtroom. What a smear and disgrace. They knew who smear there made it. They didn't know enough of their Bibles to sit down and absorb what's in this chapter. So the Apostle is giving his views of this situation. And what a disgrace it is. Now, that doesn't mean to say a Christian. He doesn't have to go to court at any time.
There may be times when you'll have to go to court and have a lawsuit to protect your interest, even the Apostle Paul. He said, I appeal unto Caesar when he was getting injustice, injustice before the governor. Paul says, I'll take my case to the highest court. I appeal unto Caesar. And the governor says, unto Caesar, shalt thou go. There are certain things in a Christian's life that the church can't settle, and he has to go to court to protect some of his earthly interests. But when there are things that the church can settle, they should settle it, and it shouldn't be settled in court.
One time in my life, I went to court as a character witness for a Christian. And I had never been in that position before. And her lawyer caught me off balance. The other person was a Christian. Saved in my meeting. Both of them were. He got me off onto the wife. And all I should have done was stuck with the man. as a character witness. But he got me away from that in a subtle way.
And I said then when I went home after that, never again will I ever become a character witness on a church matter in a public court. It was a very embarrassing situation to think that I knew both of them, and both of them were saved in my meeting. And here I was a witness. Against the wonder, if I'd have stuck with that, I'm here to be a character witness to the man. I have nothing to do with the other. That's out of my realm. But I believe I had that experience for the Lord to teach me a lesson.
Don't take pride when one Christian is opposed to another in a court room. Now the apostle is... burning up these men for doing that very thing, taking one Christian to court, balding enough. How he warns them about this very, very thing, and I trust it will be a warning for all of us. He says, why don't you take wrong? What's the right attitude? Either get it settled with some godly men who know the Bible. or commit the whole thing over to the Lord and wait his verdict. Don't spread it before the world.
That's the devil's thing. Now he comes to something else, and this is very important. He comes to the subject of the body, and what a subject this is. And you'll notice how he reminds these people at the end of this discourse on a Christian taking another to court. He brings in the gospel in a beautiful way in verse eleven. And such were some of you but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our Lord. He brings them back to the cross and the cross settles all matters.
I don't care what the differences may be, you get those appalling parties back to the cross. And if they've got any sensitiveness to the content, they'll see the answer there. When Christ was reviled, he reviled not again, but committed himself unto God who judges righteousness. How wonderful those words are. He says, you're washed, you're sanctified, and you're justified. Don't you see that, Christian? washed house he says now you're clean to the word which I've spoken unto you and you have a lovely verse that explains this situation and I'm going to read it to you it's over in first Peter chapter one and verse two elect according to the knowledge of God the Father the sanctification of the Spirit now this sanctification work is before they are saved That word sanctification means setting apart.
As we've said before, the Lord Jesus had to sanctify himself, but he didn't have any sins or what did he sanctify himself for? He set himself apart, he says in John, I, for their sake, the saints of my disciples and apostles, I sanctify myself, I set myself apart to do the will of God, and I want them to do the same. And so here you find the truth of sanctification. The Spirit of God is setting apart, singling out from what does he say in the rest of that verse, to sanctification of the setting apart of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood. The Spirit of God singles out an individual and sets that person apart with a view to that person obeying the gospel, and when they obey the gospel, It means through the strengthening or the shedding of the blood of Christ, they are justified before God.
It's been wonderful during your life to be preaching, and God singles out some person that I don't know. I may have persons in my mind who I realize and think they need to be saved, but someone I didn't have my mind on at all got saved. God is singling that person out. You know when he's singling you out. You know when God billions. The Spirit of God is singling out an individual whose individual. And when he singles that person out and convicts them of sin, he urges them to obey the truth. And if they will accept the gospel, they will be saved.
They will be justified before God. This is the truth and teaching of God's wonderful work. Now we come to the last half of this. That's verse twelve to twenty. All concerning the boss. There were those in court. They were called the libertines. They thought you could, now you're saved, you could do what to please. Notice what verse twelve says. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Paul says I could do some things as a Christian and be, I'd say, but I'm not going to do it.
If I did them, they would disgrace my law and be a bad example for us. So he says I'm going to look after my body. His body was the thing he was concerned about, and the body is very, very important. What does he say about the body? He says, I'm going to keep it under. And in that rendering over in the ninth chapter, first Corinthians, he says, I beat my body black and blue. I might keep it under. God sets me aside. and unusable subjecting the boss to the will mind of God notice what these people were doing fairly solemn verse thirteen meets for the belly and the belly for meat but God shall destroy both here are people and they were gluttoned They were using their body just a feast, and
eat everything and anything, whether it benefited their body or whether it didn't. They were going to eat anyway. These people lived to eat. That's all it is. Not eat to live. Remember, your body doesn't belong to you, and you're damaging God's property. the way you treat your body. If anything grips my heart and thrills my soul, is to know that I've got a body that belongs to the Lord. And I get on those scales every month.
I want to look after my boss because it's a thrill to have something that belongs to the Lord. And I want this body to be in working shape just as long as I've got it. If I were to do something that put my body down or made my body unusable, or I were not able to carry out the work of the Lord because of some foolish thing I did because of my appetite, that would break my heart. I want God to get all the mileage you can out of this body of mine.
And these people were carrying this thing too far. Food for the valley and the valley for food. These were natural appetites and passages. God says, I'm going to destroy both. Did you notice that? Verse thirteen, Meats for the valley and the valley for meat, but God shall destroy both it and death. God says, the time's coming when I'm going to destroy those passions, those appetites that you've abused. One thing with a Christian, if you're a born-again Christian and doing this, the time's coming when that body that you didn't take care of is going to be raised into the likeness of his own body, and he tells you that, He says to that in verse fourteen, and God hath raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by our own power, by his own power.
Even though a Christian abuses his life down here, God is going to glorify it to his grace. But there's something else here. These people thought that just as they had passions as to food and appetites as to food, they could also use that body for fornication. This is the thing that Paul reduced. He tells you that. Does he not say in verse fifteen, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot?
God forbid. Here were some of these Christians, and they were allowing themselves to have fornication with some of the temple prostitutes in Corinth. For in Corinth some of those pagan religions had hundreds of these prostitutes around the temple. They had no respect for the human body. We'll be on that more tonight. Paul said, don't you know the seriousness of this? Will you take that which belongs to God and join it up to something that belongs to the devil? Will you take the body of Christ, the body that God loves so much, He paid for it with the blood of His Son, and you can't control those passions, and you're going to commit adultery, and you're going to commit fornication?
No wonder he says, Plea fornication. He tells you that. Plea fornication. Verse eighteen. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What an awful, horrible union. To take a body that the Lord Jesus Christ brought and redeemed and joined. a heart. But he says, those that are joined to the Lord are one citizen. Is there any wonder he puts the emphasis in this portion on the body, the body, the body, the body?
That body is a wonderful thing. God has given it to you that you might take care of it and use it as he would have you use the body. How important the body is. Think of God. How is God going to get his gospel across to this world? He gave his Son a body. The Lord Jesus said, A body hast thou prepared me. And here is the eternal Son of God submitting himself to the dimensions and limitations of a human body. And in that body he tabernacled among men.
In that body he suffered and bled and died. In that body he rose again. In that body he sits at God's right hand with the scars of Calvary on us. In that body he's taking care of his children here on earth. Now God has moved from using the body of his son when he was on earth nineteen hundred years ago to using you and me. It's our body. that God wants to use. For your body belongs to him. And through you he works and through you he walks. Yes, your body.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body. Does this not give you a new dimension of appreciation of your body? I fail to think I've got a body that God wants to use and has you all crazy. This body is not for me to do what I like to do. It belongs to him. Your body is not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glory by God in your body and in your spirit, which is his.
Christian, you belong to the Lord. You don't belong to yourself. You belong to him. And you'll only be rewarded in heaven in the measure you have used your body for his glory. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable unto God, which is your most intelligent server. You're only going to have one body. Friend, God wants to use. There's no greater honor. There's no greater satisfaction on earth than for God to use your body.
Here he rebukes them for going to court with other Christians. Then he rebukes them for their abuse of their body. And he ends this chapter going back to the cross again, as we've already noted in verse twenty. For you're bought with a price. Therefore, glory by God in your body and in your spirit, brethren. To think that Christians should let their body be governed by passion, appetite, abusing the body. causing it to break down because of indulgence in things that dishonor God, even to overstuffing your body.
And we're still using that body in fornication. God forbids that any Christian should do that. Today the world calls it free love. Paul calls it fornication. The world speaks of free maritalism. marriages or premarital fornication and getting together trial weddings trial marriages God says you use that body before you're honorably and rightly married and God says you're a fornicator you've abused that body and you've made that body a member of another You can't get a sinner and a harlot to make her a member of Christ, but you with your body can become a member of that which is of the devil to your body.
How serious is it? How serious? I hope you realize that God loves you. He wants to save you. He wants to use what you've got. Friend, it'd be far better to be a cripple. and use what potential you have to glorify God and to be one of these big muscular fellas on the front page of a magazine. There he is, a powerful physique, but he's in his sin going down to hell. He's abused that body that God gave him. God wants God.
He can take a weak body and accomplish more. If that body belongs to him, then he can take the greatest body on earth, which is unconverted, and that body is being used to gratify its appetite and lust. Are you a Christian? If not, become one this morning. If you are a Christian, Paul says, I dare you to abuse those things that I've given you, that body. useth of the Lord shall we pray our Father in heaven in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we come into thy presence we ask thy blessing on thy words speak to all our hearts and challenge us what are we doing with the property that really belongs to thee may we realize the thrill the joy the happiness that comes realizing our souls are saved forever and our bodies are thine to be used on earth within the compass of thy holy will.
May we realize this this morning, as never before, save some precious souls. We stand and sing our closing hymns, this humbly praise you. In Jesus' name.