In this sermon, the speaker addresses the issue of Christians taking their disputes to secular courts instead of resolving them within the church. The speaker emphasizes that this behavior not only demeans the Christians involved but also reflects poorly on the justice within the Christian community and on Jesus Christ himself. The speaker urges the believers to instead seek judgment from respected individuals within the church. The sermon concludes with the reminder that the actions of a few individuals can impact the testimony, life, and ministry of the entire Christian community.

Will you turn please to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the first eight verses of the portion that we read together will comprise our text for the morning. Now as you're turning, may I remind you that the atmosphere in the city of Corinth tended to the situation that Paul describes. Corinthians were a loquacious people, eloquent, they loved dialectics, spent great time in reasoning, discussing, arguing, talking, and therefore it wasn't strange that they should get into clashes and would end up in law courts deciding in temporal affairs. Now, Paul uses this local situation at Corinth, this abuse at Corinth, as the means of establishing certain universal truths. We pointed out that 1 Corinthians is actually the charter of the church and the principles that are found in it are for the guidance of that assembly of believers that are desirous of being blessable. I use the term because we sometimes feel that in our praying we have to overcome God's reluctance and persuade him to bless. No, not at all. All we need to do is be blessable and God will bless us. He has riches that he's waiting to bestow. He has uncounted blessings, unfathomed love that he's waiting to share. We must be blessable. I think it's an axiom, I say it again, I've said it at other meetings, perhaps not here, but I would rather never have a prayer answered than to have it answered at the expense of the character of God. I will do without rather than to have God change to answer my prayer. You see what I mean? I need God worse than I need anything. And if God were to cheapen himself or lower himself or change his character in order to meet our need, we would be greatly impoverished by our seeming blessing. So all we need to do is recognize that when we're where God can bless us, then it's his delight to do it. He thinks thoughts of good and not of evil. This is the charter of the Church that deals with those practical problems. Isn't it strange that we sometimes ignore the fact that it's the little foxes that tear down the vines and eat up the grapes? How often we think it's the great crimes, the great sins. They're certainly to be dealt with, but it's the little things that we often would pass. You always know when you're in a revival atmosphere. It's not difficult to ascertain. A revival atmosphere is one where people feel the same way about the little things, in their estimation, that God feels. When you come to the place where these little things that you've tolerated and permitted acquire the heinous character that God assigns to them, and you're concerned about them and deal with them, you'll know you're on revival ground. A lot of people are praying for revival. They really don't want it. They want others to have it so that they can have evangelistic in-gathering. Now that's the fruit of it, but revival is that atmosphere where God's presence is so wonderfully real that everyone that's there is aware of the fact that that which God sees, they see, and that which God hates, they hate the way he does. And it's often surprising what it is that falls under this divine hatred. Now that's why we read and study and expound the book of 1 Corinthians, because we want to be a blessable church. Therefore, we must take each of these principles line upon line and precept upon precept, like logs in a building, and lay them so they interlock. I was reading to David, my youngest child, on Sunday, Monday rather, one of those very scholarly tomes that he would have in his little library, The Three Little Pigs, and I was impressed with the tremendous lesson that that little childish story has. One built it out of straw. Oh, it looked so good and was finished so soon. And another built it out of sticks and wood, and it was even apparently a more solid appearing. And then you remember the one little rascal that just went brick by brick, and put the mortar and put them together and framed it and shaped it. Ah, but when the wolf came. Well, the one that attacks the work we do isn't a wolf, he's called a lion, the old lion the devil. And everything that is done that is of the nature of straw or wood will surely fall. And only that which is done with the bricks of eternal truth, laid in love for God and a desire to glorify him, will be an edifice that will stand. So let's take a lesson from the children and build our lives and our fellowship and worship in such a way that it will endure, will be to the praise of the glory of his grace. Dr. Ironsides, beloved memory to all who've read him and to those of us who knew him, a great friend in the Lord, has stated that if the Church today would simply obey the teachings and principles that are found in 1 Corinthians, most of the barriers that stand in the way of the ongoing of the gospel would be removed, and the hindrances that stand in the way of the working of the Holy Ghost in power would be removed. 1 Corinthians has this for us. Now, I'm approaching the matter of the Christian in law courts, and may I say this, that if a Christian does something that breaks the civil criminal code of the land under which he resides, it is expected that the whole Church will consent that he be tried by civil law courts. We're not talking about that. When the community, when civic law says this man has violated this statute, we're to recognize that the community has a right. We trust and pray that none of this company will ever be called before such a tribunal. But we give it all respect. I believe in that verse in 1 John that says, If any of you sin, a sin unto death, we're not to pray for him. I think that has reference that if anyone commits a crime as it's interpreted by the state, we're not to pray that he'll be saved from the death that the law has. They were living in a context of persecution. And in the time that John wrote, it was a crime, punishable by death, to worship Jesus Christ and not to worship the emperor. Now, I believe John was saying that if one of your number violates one of these unreasonable laws, don't pray that he'll be spared from death. Don't pray that he'll be spared from it. If God sovereignly chooses to spare him, well and good. But if he doesn't, let the law. You see, there's two ways you can vindicate the law, such unreasonable laws. You can either do what is demanded or fulfill the penalty that is required. If it says sacrifice to the emperor or die, you uphold the law just as much by your willingness to die as by sacrificing. They gave you an alternative. We're not talking about this when we come now. We're talking about what was happening in Corinth where, over temporal matters, the Christians were taking Christians to law. You must see the situation if you're to understand the Scripture. It was a difference between Christians about relatively inconsequential matters, and Paul begins the portion by a challenging inquiry, verses 1 to 4. Dare any of you, or really what he actually says, how could you possibly dare? My, what strength he puts into those words. How could you possibly dare, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? This involves relationship of a professed Christian to a fellow Christian. Now it, of course, by inference, allows the possibility that Christians will have difficulties. They've been known to, you know, in the past. And he doesn't say that they won't have difficulties. Later on he tells us that there needn't be, but he does allow here the possibility that you could have a matter in which you differ with a fellow Christian. But he, of course, by the same token, presumes that they're Christians. A Christian is one whose purpose is changed from pleasing himself to pleasing God, and he assumes, therefore, that all that a Christian could possibly want is justice. Nothing more, just that he should have right done. And furthermore, he assumes that there is no principle of the word of God that's been violated. For obviously, if one of them has broken the word, then that one is guilty before the word. So you have a situation where two that are born again have come over financial matters, land, or possessions into a place where each strongly holds to his own point of view, and there is no scripture involved as to the rightness of it. Both think they're right. But what was happening in Corinth was in these situations, they were going before the civil magistrates and presenting these questions. It might have been such a situation as you had in the Acts of the Apostles, where the Greeks said that their widows weren't getting as much as the Jewish widows were, where it was a matter of benevolences of the church. This might have been the kind of situation or between issues that would have been of a similar material nature. Now the apostle Paul asks a question which, in the light of this, reveals the future ministry of Christians. First you see him indignantly facing this tragic situation, and then he asks a question which is going to give depth to the consideration of the whole issue. Do you not know that saints shall judge the world? Now they had obviously been taught it, or he would have had no reason to expect them to know it. Undoubtedly, when he was there in his course of his instruction in church, in founding this church, he had told them what you read in Daniel, the seventh chapter, the 22nd verse, that the righteous shall reign. And in Matthew, the 19th chapter, the 18th verse, you find Christ making this similar reference. And in Revelation, the third chapter, in the 20th chapter, you find strong implications that the child of God is going to reign with Christ and rule with Christ and serve even in this jurisdictional capacity. So there was every reason for Paul to have taught these people that in that future day, they would actually judge the world and would be responsible, therefore, to have wisdom from the Lord sufficient for it. Now, said he, if the world is to be judged by you, why should it be necessary for you to carry these little matters to the civic courts? Then he would ask the second question. Do you not realize that angels are going to be judged by you? Now, angels are the most intelligent beings, perhaps we could use the word, at least the highest of the created beings that God has made. And man, therefore, in this wonderful relationship that he'll sustain to the Lord Jesus, is going to be able to judge angels. Now, by implication, Paul would say, if you're going to be entrusted by the Lord with the privilege of judging angels, then he's going to give you the wisdom with which to do it. Do you not feel that he can give you the wisdom with which to handle these matters that are now before you? Then, of course, you see, the Apostle Paul has the desire that they should recognize what's happening when they bring their fellows before the civic judges. Who lose? What happens? Well, in the first place, it demeans them. They are degrading their testimony as Christians. And, of course, the second thing is that it is casting strong aspersions upon the justice to be found in the Christian community. And thirdly, it is a great reflection on the Lord Jesus Christ, that his own should be forced to carry these matters into the court, that they are unable to settle these difficulties between themselves. So in these first four verses, you find this indictment that he is making of them, leaving no question. He concludes it by saying, if ye then have judgment of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. This is actually a very, very difficult translation. It is, I think, rather far from the point. It would be better if you were to say, if ye then have judgments of things pertaining to this life, do you think it wise that you should set them to judge who have no standing in the church? Here is a judge of a civil magistrate in the time in which Paul is writing, maybe a wise man, highly esteemed in the community, but he has no divine insight, he hasn't been born again, he knows nothing of the grace of God. And so Paul said, you take someone, a man, a mere man, who has no contact at all with your heavenly Father, has had no experience of grace and none of the wisdom that comes from above, and you would set him before you and accept his wisdom and his judgment when he has absolutely no standing whatever among the children of God, saying by doing this that you hold those that are without Christ to be wiser than those who have been born again and have heavenly standards built into their heart. Then we find a critical indictment, a challenging inquiry, now a critical indictment in verse 5 and 7, the first part of the verse. I speak to your shame. Isn't it amazing when just in the previous chapter when he had discovered this case of incest in the church, he commanded, he ordered expulsion, excommunication. He said, let him be unto you as a heathen. Don't have him in your fellowship, he's a spot in your feast. But Paul used the method that suited the need. And here it was a grievous thing that had done great harm to their corporate testimony, but the situation was one where he said, I'm going to shame you. I want you to discover what you've done. I want you to see it in its proper light. And therefore he isn't ordering or suggesting excommunication at all. Simply that everything that grieves the Spirit of God must be dealt with. There's no such thing in one sense as a little sin, but they will be dealt with in terms of, first, the revealed will of God, and secondly, the social consequences. There are some crimes which are, because of their very nature, demand that they be dealt with by expulsion. There are others that grieve the Spirit of God and short-circuit God's blessing and keep him from using you and bringing shame on the church, but the method of dealing with it is not expulsion. They're to be brought to see the nature of the attitude and disposition. I'll assure you that if you come to the place in your own thinking where you say, well, the assembly, the company of believers would be better off without him, or better off without her, you have fallen into a snare of the devil. There is a time, but many times I have found people that have defended those cases that the Scripture condemns and actually demands expulsion. They've defended the person that's committed the vile purple sin and insisted in some way that they be allowed to stay, and then on the lesser things, they have secretly in their hearts hoped that someone would leave or go or be driven away or taken steps to see that they would. And this, I say, is a great fault. Paul makes it clear that he must deal with everything that grieves God, but you don't deal with everything the same way. It's dealt with in love. And may I urge you, therefore, that if you see something in another's life that grieves God, it isn't your responsibility to go to them and say, now, you ought to be ashamed. It isn't your responsibility to force the shame. It is your responsibility, however, to go to them and entreat them, as we saw from last week's study. But you must recognize that when your heart attitude is to the place where you wish someone were gone, something very grievous and sick has transpired. It's the same way that if you had an inflamed thumb, you'd insist on amputation. You don't. If your foot is infected, you don't insist on amputation. You'll do everything you possibly can. You will face the fact that there's infection, but every member is precious, and every member of the body is precious, and each is to be treasured by all the others. This is what Paul is saying. Strong, we're to recognize it, we're to face it, but we are to deal with it in terms fitting to the need. Paul condemns what they've been doing. They have been trying to take care of these things by taking a brother to law, carrying these minor cases over temporal matters before the civic magistrates, and in the seventh verse he says, Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Utterly a fault among you. And here he makes absolutely no place to rationalize the matter or to get around it. He's simply stating it's a fault. We are faced with the fact that the Scripture teaches love, and it is the fruit of the Spirit. And love is very patient, very kind. Love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful. Now, Paul had that measure of the fruit of the Spirit of which he spoke, or else he was preaching far beyond his experience, which I do not feel. But at the same time, you find that he is absolutely fair and honest. There is a kind of thing that outside of the Christian church and some of the cults parades as love. It overlooks everything, it is so loving and so soft and so mushy that there are no moral standards, no character, no integrity, no strength. Everything goes and it's all covered by something that's called love. Now, let's not be more loving than the Word of God, and let's not be more gracious than the Apostle Paul, and let's not go beyond the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's recognize that just as in your home you love your children dearly, but you don't hesitate to discipline them when there is discipline needed. You have a love which goes beyond a mere sentimentality. It goes to the best interests of the Lord Jesus Christ. It goes to the best interests of the entire community. Imagine what would happen if one of our presidents, for instance, should say, well, here I am president and there are many in federal prisons and all I need to do is sign a paper and they'll be released, and I love these men too much to keep them from their families. I love them too much to force them to stay in prison. Can you imagine what would happen if the federal prisons were open tonight and all that are there were given presidential pardon? Those of us that were shocked by this terrible atrocity committed out at Brunswick a week or two ago where the man left the taxi and went in and slew the four, went out of house with some trepidation at night saying, I wonder where this madman might be. Well, just imagine what would happen if the president were to open the prisons and flood the country with all that are in federal prison and he'd do it on the protest of love for them. What would happen? Why, he would indicate that his love had gone completely without moral quality and wherein he would profess love for a few individuals, he would demonstrate actual hatred of the rest of society. And Paul here says they weren't all going to court, but he was pointing out that the whole testimony, the whole corporate group were affected. The life and the witness and the ministry of all were affected by what the few did. And this is what we must learn from this Scripture. What you do affects the group. What you do in your personal life, in your personal relationship, when the Spirit of God has joined you to a group, and I'm not speaking now in terms of membership. There is a corporate membership that's necessary for the functions of a group before the legal community. But I'm talking now of a spiritual entity in every one of you that have been joined of the Holy Ghost to this testimony, regardless of whether your name is on the roll or not. If you've been joined of the Spirit of God to this testimony, and he knows, for he does the adding, your life is very much a part of this total group. It's a body. You're part of it. And now here was a situation where one man in the fifth chapter had an incestuous relationship with his father's wife, and the whole church suffered because of it. Here's another situation where certain members are taking their brethren before the law court, and the entire church suffers because of it. Now Paul demonstrates his love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul demonstrates his love for the church, his body. He demonstrates his love for the unsaved community by frankly and honestly and courageously and lovingly. And here again the overtones of Calvary love are surging through all Paul is saying, and yet there's no wishy-washiness about this. There's no ugly sentimentality that oozes past moral flaws that ought to be dealt with. He says in this seventh verse, Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you. Oh don't you want, don't you want to have God deal with you that way? Don't you? Oh I do, I do indeed. I want God to deal with me. I want to be right. I believe God puts that into the heart of everyone that he saves. And I am assuming, therefore, that everyone that's here that's a part of this testimony has the same deep motivation that I have. I want to be right. If I'm not, I want to be. I want to be, and that's what Paul says here. This is a fault among you. All you need to do is change it, right it. He didn't say get rid of you because you have a fault. He didn't say you've got to assassinate or excommunicate. No, just get it right, set it right. And so if the Spirit of God shows you something in your life that is utterly a fault, it may not be going to law, but it's the universal principle we're seeing. And the Spirit of God shows you that in your motives, in your relationships, in your activities, if you're grieving him, the assumption will be that because you are a child of God, you ought to please God. And therefore, you welcome. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. I was just with my mother these past days. And my, the deep appreciation she has for the skillful surgeon that performed such a splendid thing for her. And yes, it hurt greatly. Oh, how grateful you should be for the loving Lord that points out those flaws in your character, in your attitude, in your motives, in your relationships. Why, you should no more resent the discovery of a moral, ethical, spiritual growth than you would resent the doctor that told you that you had something that needed to be excised. You ought to welcome it. There ought to be an open transparency in all of our hearts. Lord, I want you to do everything you need to do. This ought to characterize us. And if you can assume that everyone is just as eager as you are, then you won't need to do any gossiping. You won't need to do any backbiting. You won't need to do any whispering. Your assumption is they want to be right. They want to be right, and they're going to do it. And the other is an assumption that they're malignant and they're vicious and they're devious. That isn't true of the people of God. You can just whole openly say, I want to be right, and I'm willing to face everything God shows me that's wrong. Now you do the other the same honor, with the same charity, and say, this person, this member of the body wants to be right, and all he needs to do is see what's wrong and understand it from the word, and he'll change it. You must have this attitude toward the children of God, or you will be plunged into a morass, a slew of despond, that will automatically excommunicate you from the whole body. We're mortals living in mortal fresh flesh, and all of us are subject to error. But the one basic postulate that you must make of every child of God is he wants to please God. His motives are just as pure as mine, his desire is just as pure as mine. He wouldn't be associated with the people called Christian if he didn't want to be one. Then all the bitterness evaporates. Maybe they don't see it the first day, maybe they don't understand it, but there's no place for bitterness when you give others the honor you want to take for yourself. If I were to ask you today, alone, privately, just take you one by one, bring you in, and I'd say to you, now listen, do you really want to please God? Do you want to deal with everything in your life that displeases God? I don't think there's a one of you that would say, no, I don't want to please God, and I refuse to deal with, well, you know what would happen if that were the case? You'd disclaim all part of Christ. You'd automatically testify that you didn't have anything in Christ, no share in Christ, no portion in Christ, and you weren't a Christian. Don't you see? Now, if I could talk with you alone, that's what would happen. Well, why can't we do that as a corporate group? Why can't we say of one another, that person, she, he, wants to please God. That's his passionate purpose, to please God. All I need to do, oh, you know, it makes so much difference how you come to a person. If you come having prejudged and pre-condemned, automatically there'll be self-defense. If you can recognize, if you can just give to others the charity you want yourself, everybody wants to please God as much as I do. And that's what's happened here. These people have assumed that this brother is trying to defraud, trying to get and keep. One says he's trying to keep, and the other one says he's trying to get. And so, where can it end up? Only in a trial. It's the only place, because they've impugned motives. But if you can assume, now, remember this, in the course of our excursion through life, we probably are going to encounter someone that does have malicious motives. And you may become involved with someone along the way who absolutely disproves all pretense of profession of being a Christian. That's often possible. Then, of course, we must deal with them on identically the same way. For when you find someone that refuses the entreaties of the Word of God, they are to be unto you as a heathen. Now Paul gives a clarifying explanation in 5b and 6 and 7b. The verses are divided. Is there not a wise man among you? Know not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. You remember this church at Corinth bonded itself, prided itself on its wisdom, superior wisdom, so much that they could say, well, we don't like Paul, we want Apollos. They were the homiletical judging class, you know, and had a popularity poll for God's servants, and we've dealt with that. And they thought they were exceedingly wise. Now Paul comes to them with the lovely needle of irony, and he uses it so skillfully, and you must be careful of it, because most of us don't have the skill with which to use it, you know. But Paul comes with a sharp, penetrating needle of irony, and he puts it into their little balloon of pride. And he says, isn't there anyone among you that's wise enough to do this? Surely there must be someone there. And they've been saying, we're the people, you know, when wisdom, when we die, wisdom dies with us. And Paul says, there must be somebody. You just look and hunt. You might find somebody that could do it. Isn't there not one wise man among you? Where now is all this wisdom you have? And then he goes on to imply, why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? You have bounted yourself on your wisdom, but it's pride. And in your pride, you fail to realize that when Christ was reviled, he reviled not again. And when he was smitten, he didn't retaliate. And when he was accused, he didn't explain. He didn't try to defend himself. Do you know how often, dear Christian friend, you are really at liberty to defend yourself and insist upon your rights? Think for a moment. How often? Well, I think if you make this the rule, you'll be safe. You feel perfectly free to insist upon your rights and defend your reputation and get all that's coming to you just as often as the Lord Jesus did. You'll have an excellent pattern to follow. You follow him. Every time in the Scripture that you can find he insisted on his rights and demanded justice and get what was due him, then you feel free. You find it. You hunt for it. It'll be a wonderful experience in reading the New Testament because you'll hunt in vain. You won't find it. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. Remember in Matthew 18, we read about the man that had owed 10,000 talents, and he pled for mercy saying, I can't pay, but I will. And the one whose servant he was wrote it off and said, consider it paid. And then he went out and found a man who owed him a hundred tenths. One dollar is against a million. And he took this man's family from him and put the man in prison and confiscated his goods all for the dollar. You came with a debt of iniquity and a debt of sin that amounted to a million dollars, an immense mountain that separated you from God and me. We came bankrupt, hopeless, helpless at the end of ourselves, nothing to offer but our crime, nothing to present but our sin, nothing to offer but our helplessness. And seeing the Lord Jesus Christ die for us, we pled part in his death. We asked for mercy, we asked for pardon, and he freely absolved us and washed us of our million dollars worth of moral guilt and accumulated debt. Now someone comes to you and raise the eyebrow to you or say a word to you or don't give you the place you need or the recognition you need or take the dime or the dollar from you. And what happens, what takes place? In our heart there comes often the same rage that was in the heart of this man forgiven of a ten thousand talents wherein he takes the man who owes him the hundred pence and puts him into prison. Such folly. What is the issue? A bit of property, a few dollars, a little this, some of that, and just tomorrow it'll be gone. Tomorrow it'll be gone. And Paul gives the word. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? No, you do wrong and defraud. And that's your brethren. That's your brethren. What's Paul's answer? What's the Christian alternative? The one is to go before the church, call for a trial, insist upon rights, justice. The other is to say, I who've been forgiven this mountain of guilt, dare I take my pound of flesh of right? You've been hurt. You've been defrauded. You've lost. Consider him. Consider the Lord Jesus. Consider the one who died beneath the mountain of your guilt that pressed him to the very gates of hell and death. And weigh your debt against that one. Our Lord taught us to pray. The very principle that they'd forgotten and caused such havoc and harm in the church was that which we, I trust, pray every Lord's Day. When we pray, forgive us our debts. As we forgive those who are our debtors. Do you see what happens? When you pray that, and you must, whether you do or not, it's his word. When you pray that, you are actually establishing the scale of your own forgiveness. You know how you are going to be forgiven? Do you know, my friend, how you stand in relation to forgiveness this morning? You are forgiven to the degree and extent to which you have forgiven those who have hurt you. You've measured it yourself. You have received what you've given. No more. You have made a covenant with God. You have said to him, forgive me not one ounce more than I forgive him. Let your forgiveness, almighty God, be measured to me in terms of my forgiveness. No more. Do you see? This is all the forgiveness you have, dear child, child of God, in terms of the measure that you've used with others. Now, why not suffer yourself to be defrauded? Love, the fruit of the Spirit, when it comes to the matter of wrong, love is very patient. The church must deal with those infractions of divinely revealed principle. The church must. But if you're the one that's involved, you have a higher law than that that you can appeal to. You can appeal to that law of love with the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. Love that's very patient, very kind, never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful. It shouldn't have to be church trial. It shouldn't have to be court. It should simply be in the awesome reflection upon the immense forgiveness of Jesus Christ through his shed blood that I say, what can the finger weight of one be toward me when the thigh and arm weight of my guilt rested on him? What is Paul trying to do? What's the Spirit of God trying to do? He's trying to keep us blessable. That's all. Just keep us blessable. The blessing of God on your life is a million fold more valuable than all the rights or reparations you'd ever gain. Keep coals of fire on their head was the injunction. Turn them over to the Lord and you'll keep your heart blessable. Keep blessable. God will make it up a hundred fold. Practical instructions for a child of God in the wicked world. May you take it to heart. Let it stand.