WHEN THE WATER GETS IN THE SHIP

                                      1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Have you ever thought about how well a ship floats and sails on the water? Everything is alright as the ship is in the water. What happens when the ship takes on water? When the ship takes on the water that is a sign of big trouble. Very similar is the fact that we must stay in the world until Jesus comes. The Church is fine unless the world gets into the church. When the Church takes on the world, or when the world gets into the church that is an indication that there is big trouble. Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are letting the world into the Church.

The Attitude Toward Sin.

Sin is something we don’t like to talk about. That is part of the problem. We become passive and then we accept it is a way of life. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord (1 Cor 5:1-5)

This was a shocking sexual sin, it was repulsive even to those who are not Christians. God forbids this type of behavior, it is sin. ( Leviticus 18:8).‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father The woman evidently is not a Christian, no judgment is pronounced on her. If that was not bad enough the attitude of the church was that of acceptance and acting as if nothing was wrong. This was not good. Our attitude toward sin is very important. Listen to what Peter said about sin. 2 Peter 2:20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Hand this man over to Satan. He must be disciplined. This disciplined is designed to make the man see that he is headed for Hell.  Paul says he is with them, just as Jesus is with them in their assembly. Jesus said: For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”(Matt 18:20).

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor 5:6-8)

Let look at the food additive yeast, when yeast is placed in the dough it makes the dough rise. its properties spread throughout the dough. Yeast is symbolic of sin. Before Jewish families ate the Passover, they were to get all the yeast out of their homes. Christ is our Passover and we are to get sin out of the Church and out of our lives. What is sin? Sin is breaking God’s law. Sin is the overstepping of a boundary, Sin is missing the mark, sin is taking aim at the target and deliberately missing the mark. Stop, Stop, Stop no matter what you say you can not explain your way out of it. You need to adjust your attitude and humble yourself before God and ask Him for forgiveness.

Our attitude toward a sinner who calls himself a brother or sister should be to hand them over to Satan. How are we to accomplish this? We must put them out of the Church. They have adopted this sin as his lifestyle.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those insides? God will judge those outsides. “Expel the wicked person from among you”(1 Cor 5:9-13)

They would not associate themselves with non_ Christians who were sinful. The problem here is it is necessary to do so. How can you lead them to Christ if you cut off all association with them? Don’t get it twisted. You are the light of the world. You are to lead those who are living in darkness to the light of the living God, Jesus Christ. You are not to join them in the world but guide them out of it. The problem we are dealing with here is that there is a person who claims to be a Christian brother or sister in Christ but is living among us according to the ways of the world. If you love them, then they have to go. Love will always discipline, parents who love their children disciplines them so that they will do right.

In 1980 The NFL team, the New Orleans Saints lost several games in a row, so their fans came to the stadium wearing brown bags on their heads. Many of the bags had AINTS written on them. When the AINST finally won they had a bag burning ceremony. The Corinthians hadn’t been acting like Saints.

Speaking of sin, The scripture says that the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Think of this a man goes to court facing the death penalty, the judge says that he was the most despicable person he has ever seen, The man knew that he was going to receive what he deserved and he was sorry and asked the judge for mercy, the Judge said Guard go in that door and get my son to bind him and put him in cuffs and bring him to me. So the guard did what he said. Then the Judge said to his son you are sentenced to death for this man’s crime and He looks at the man and said go you are free.

This is what the judge of the universe did for you and for me, but the only way you can realize this and receive this gift is that you believe in God’s Son, that He died on the cross for your sin. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved ( Roman’s 10:9)