Good morning. It's such a wonder that we have such a God who forgives us. It's good when we can preach the gospel even as we sing it, and we've just had some great songs that preach the gospel even as we were singing it, and we should be a people swept up in gratitude that God would look upon folks like us and say, yeah, I'm going to have mercy on you and draw us close. I think I speak for all of us when I say it'll take forever for us to get over it. And even then, there still won't be time enough to praise Him for everything that He's worthy of. Indeed, our God is good. It's good to be in His presence this morning. Well, it had all of the elements needed to drive ratings and to attract attention. Two public figures, gifted in communication, showing business moxie, showed up in a courtroom in New Orleans. The attacks launched by these two parties, one against the other, were vicious and personal. The charges salacious and unseemly. each one accusing the other of sexual impropriety, misuse of funds, violations of their respective roles. With the amount of money that was involved and the influence they had over such large audiences throughout North America and throughout the world, the television cameras were sure to roll. And so it was that Jimmy Swaggart and Marvin Gorman met in the courtroom on that infamous day in 1991. There's no need to rehearse the trial and its outcome here. It is enough to say that the attraction of money, the lure of sex, and the lust for power proved to be too much for these men to resist, and resist they did not. While these men were never really orthodox in their Christian confession, they were continuously pegged as evangelical tele-evangelists who supposedly represented millions of American Christians. And the shame and the disgrace and the amount of distrust that this caused the public at large to have for evangelicals took a terrible toll. The media, for its part, struck entertainment gold. They loved reporting on the trial and all of the sordid details, as did the skeptics and the atheists and others who were all too ready to charge all evangelicals with hypocrisy. materialism and being just another special interest group among many others in the U.S. political landscape. And so it is, even all these many years later, the stain from that shameful period has not fully gone away in the American psyche. Evangelicals are often today mistrusted because of the actions of a few. Now, I need to be clear. These men were guilty of great crimes and of great sins, and they deserved whatever punishment they received because they had violated not only the law of God, but the laws of the land. But the problem was that a watching world showed little interest in trying to make distinctions between false teachers masquerading as televangelists and the average evangelical in the pulpit and in the pew. The church had been embarrassed by the spectacle of these Christian leaders, so-called, airing out their dirty laundry in the courts before watching world, especially by those who had made a point of preaching unholiness and even calling out other televangelists for their supposed sins while they were doing the very same things. If you were alive during those days, I want you to remember the disappointment, the embarrassment, The shame, perhaps, the anger you felt as you heard about these proceedings. And if you were not alive during that time, think of two major figures, television personalities today in the Christian world, going to court and launching a series of accusations against each other. That's exactly how the Apostle Paul felt as he addressed the church in Corinth in the first century. In our passage today, we're going to see that Paul is exasperated, that believers are taking one another to court to settle issues that should have been handled in the church. And so the word goes out for us to listen, to pay attention, to take heed, and perhaps to learn so that in our day we might not succumb to similar things, whether in a great scandal or even in a small local scandal, quote unquote. The Apostle Paul has a tough message for us today, but it is still the holy word of God given by the inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit. And so we do well to listen. So I invite you to stand as we read God's word today from First Corinthians, chapter six, verses one to eight. And the unchanging and errant word of God says this. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try these trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life? So if you have such cases why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church. I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between the brothers but brother goes to law against brother and that before and believers to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong. Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers. Fathers, we turn to you now. We need the help that only your Spirit can give. And so would you give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to believe and wills to bend so that we would match yours and serve you well. Lead us now in Jesus' name. Amen. If you've not already done so, you can turn your bulletin over and follow along in the sermon outline that is there and take notes. You can go deeper into this passage throughout the week. We get to our first major point, which is an ignorant audacity. Now, I'm going to begin by citing the verse as it is in the middle of the verse, as it's found in the English Standard Version. Does he dare go to law? As we read this passage, we can hear the frustration of the Apostle Paul. He's saying, how dare you to this church in Corinth, which would be a great translation of this verse. He is clearly miffed. He is clearly upset that they are doing something so audacious. The little rendering would be, who dares any one of you to go to law? Does any one of you really dare to do such a thing? Now, Paul knows, you'll recall, that this is a gifted church. He's reminded them that several times. He's even asked, do they lack any spiritual gift? He knows they have many blessings in Christ. They have many talented persons. But again and again, instead of turning to the wisdom that they have in Christ, they turn to their own so-called wisdom and to the wisdom of the world. And here they're turning to the world to take care of issues that should have been dealt with in the church. So we've seen again that this church is a painful one to study. It's in moral collapse, as if confronting gross sexual sin, the failure to do so, was not enough. Now they're even airing their dirty laundry in front of a watching world. The fighting and division among themselves has spilled over into the public square. And as we saw in our opening story, it's a story that repeats itself far too often throughout history. Paul's going to use some logic here as he talks to the church here in this passage. He's going to use some contrast to show them what they should be doing in light of what they are doing. But first, he challenges them by asking about justice and the unrighteous. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Now, the word that is rendered here is grievance, always meant something legal. It's always a legal matter. In other words, a legal term is used here. Makes it sure that that's the case by following up by saying, go to law immediately afterwards. Today, we would say, he took him to court. The problem, though, is that these things were taken to the secular court. And so the word that is translated as unrighteous here could actually be translated as wicked. And it makes for a nice contrast. In the same verse, we see saints and the wicked. I don't think he's necessarily saying that everything that a secular court does is wicked, though they often were in his day. But the real issue is that these judges and courts were not of the Lord. They were not under the direction and wisdom of the Lord, and therefore they didn't have the wisdom necessary to touch matters dealing with the church. They didn't have the godly wisdom needed to understand godly Affairs the wisdom of this world is not fit to judge the things of the kingdom of God Therefore believers are not to bring kingdom business before those who may not in fact even be in the kingdom Now for his part Paul has had a very interesting history with the secular courts some of it good some of it bad sometimes the courts showed mercy on him like Galileo did in acts 18 and let him freely go on his way and At other times, he was mistreated by the courts, wrongly beaten, wrongly accused, wrongly imprisoned. We see that by Felix in Acts 24, who was waiting for a bribe and thus was holding Paul without even launching a charge against him. So because he's had good and bad experiences, I don't think Paul is necessarily drawing on his own experiences. I think he's referring to the fact that the kingdom of God deals with kingdom of God matters, and the kingdom of men deals with kingdom of men matters. Now, in those days, the courts had a terrible reputation. They were seen as favoring the rich and the powerful and the influential. They were not there so much to establish justice as to declare winners and losers, as to honor some and to shame others. It was commonly known that judges were very open to a bribe. Therefore, the courts would be abused by the rich who could afford them, at the exploitation of the poor who could not. So a few years before Paul was writing this letter, this concern was so widespread that even James, the half-brother of our Lord, expressed the same concerns as he writes to believers in the diaspora who've been scattered throughout the Roman Empire. And he says, but you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? And the way the courts were set up, they lend themselves to corruption, because the court sessions were often held in the open. They were for public viewing. They would be a spectacle that people would gather and observe what is going on. And so they became these displays of great power, of great oratory, more like theater than anything that would resemble the search of justice. So you can imagine, then, with the Corinthian culture as it was, this played right into their hands of emphasizing power and influence and public speaking and great displays of so-called wisdom. But it also confirmed in the minds of the people that the courts were not a place to win justice, but to gain public victory. In fact, one famous character in a famous play at that time asked this question of what availer laws were money rules alone? And the poor suitor can never succeed. So a lawsuit is nothing more than a public auction. Imagine being a believer trying to live in such a situation. In the courts, the common tactics of the lawyers were to win at all costs, tear down the reputation of the one who was opposing you, lie about the evidence, cheat on the rules, bribe the judges. Everything was fair game. They could use the most unbridled language. They could talk about his friends and relatives in salacious ways. They could launch all kinds of accusations because it was not a place where there was a calm presentation of the facts, a debate over the right way of doing things or right decision and where an impartial decision would come. No, it was a free for all. and those who had the gold won, which is the secular version of the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. How can one Christian do that to another, Paul asks. And so the effect of this turning to the courts would have furthered the divisions that were already going on in the church at Corinth. Imagine then a Christian even being dragged into the courts, it would put him in an awkward position. How do you maintain integrity and a testimony in a free-for-all circus that the public is attending? Now, in the introduction, or at least earlier, I said this was a legal term. I said that then, and I make a distinction now. This was a legal term, but not a criminal one. In cases of criminal conduct, it is clear that the church should always turn things over to the civil authorities. But this was a legal matter that could easily be solved among believers. It was not a criminal offense. And so Paul is exhorting them, challenging them, saying, this is not the way it should be. So he draws another contrast, and he says, the world and the worldly. Or do you not know that saints will judge the world? And I think Paul has in mind here the situation that existed in Israel as it was working its way through the wilderness onto the land of promise, where there were tribunals set up to govern matters of tens and hundreds and thousands, to take care of the legal matters and disputes among the brothers. And those instructions were given in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. So Paul, from his experience in theology, would say God wants God's people to deal with things in God's ways among the people of God, not running off to their neighboring nations. That is what the church in Corinth should have done. It should have been handled internally, not seeking legal redress from those who are not even believers or who are not part of the church. And so it's not difficult for us to imagine the scenario, though we're not told clearly here. But it's given all that we know about the culture in Corinth, it was probably a rich brother in the church who was used to doing things the world's way and perhaps was under some type of challenge and didn't want his reputation or his status to be affected, is taking a poor brother to the courts. But whatever the case, it is clearly the case of two believers who are fighting it out in the courts when they should have taken it to the church, which is the place where At least we hope in Christ there is the love and wisdom of grace necessary to mitigate these matters. And so Paul asks this sharp rhetorical question, do you not know? Ten times Paul asked this question in this letter. He expected more of them. This was a church he had planted five years before. He had sent Timothy. He had sent others to be teaching them. He had written letters to them. He expected more for them. Ten times when addressing their behavior, he says, Do you not know? Six of them in chapter six of 1 Corinthians, two of them in the passage we have before us. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Now we're going to talk about that, how that works with what he said in chapter 5, because in chapter 5 he exhorted the church that they were to judge what was happening inside the church and not worry about what's happening outside. Now he is saying, don't go to the outside to judge what is happening inside. Take care of these matters among yourselves. And so here the church was in an awkward position. The church was not dealing with the big issues internally that she was supposed to deal with. And now is not dealing internally with trivial matters, but is trying to deal with them with those from the outside. And so Paul says the saints will judge the world. This idea would go back to Daniel chapter 7, where we were told that the people of God are going to judge the nations. And in that intermediate period between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, there were 400 years of silence. And so people were trying to fill in some of the blanks. And we have what's called the Apocrypha in different books. There was writings on this that the saints of God would one day rule the nations, but it wasn't just left to Daniel and the Apocrypha. Jesus Christ himself said that his apostles would sit on thrones and rule. He promised the churches in Revelation that believers themselves would judge the nations. Paul himself says that we will reign with Christ. Of course, the important thing to understand is we will do that with and in Christ. But because we are in Christ, we have the wisdom and authority to deal with these types of things in the here and now, with wisdom, with grace, with tough love, keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. And so Paul is using here what is called the greater to lesser argument. If Christians, he asks, are going to judge the whole world, can they not handle trivial matters in the church now? And so our text rightly renders what the original says as trivial cases. He's trying to make a point. They think it is so important that they protect their own reputation, that they protect their own wealth, that they protect their own, that they go to the courts and Paul says, forget about those trivial things. They're temporary. Focus on the eternal. Focus on the kingdom of God. Get over yourselves and focus on Christ. And focus on what he's doing as he builds his church. Now, we must make a distinction. These are legal matters, but not criminal matters. The church must never hide criminal matters. The church must always obey the law of the land in these criminal matters because God also ordains governments and juries and judges to keep the peace and to promote justice. But Paul is asking, if believers one day are going to have such an important role, namely the world, judging the world, how difficult can these trivial matters be? As if he's saying, look, if we're going to judge the whole world one day, it's a piece of cake to deal with the things in the church now. So let's keep it in its proper perspective. I hope you feel Paul's agony here. This whole situation is a tragedy. It's a betrayal of the gospel itself. The Christians who had been called out of darkness into light, who had been set apart from the world to be servants from God, who were declared to be holy in their position, are failing to be holy in their practice. And what was the thing that they prided themselves the most about? Their so-called wisdom. Being citizens of the Roman Empire with the great poets and orators and writers from the past. And it's at that very point that Paul has been reminding them, ah, their wisdom ain't so wise. And their wisdom does not stack up against the wisdom of God, because the wisdom of God is tapped into that eternal stream of which we are part, not this temporary cultural foolishness that they were falling into. And here we have another example. The late Supreme Court Justice Antony Scalia commented on this passage, and I think he gives us some good insight. He says that Paul says that the mediation of a mutual friend or a church authority should be sought before parties run off to the law courts. Good Christians, he says, just as they are slow to anger, should be slow to sue. It's good advice, both for the church in Corinth and for the church today. But how we understand what Paul is saying here? On the one hand, in chapter 5, verse 12, he says, don't judge the world. Judge what's happening on the inside. Now here he says, do you not know that we will judge the world? How do we understand that? To judge or not to judge? And the answer is yes. It's a question of timing. In this present age, we do not have the authority to judge with the idea of condemnation and exercising punishment what sinners are doing. That is left up to God. But one day when we reign with Christ, we will be in this ruling authority. And so it's between what is our responsibility and privilege now and what it will be then. And so we need to be careful not to let creep into this age what is reserved for the age to come. And so just as he has called them out for the world and the worldly, now he talks to them about the heavenly and the mundane. Do you not know that we are to judge angels, he says? How much more than matters pertaining to this life? Now, he surely must mean about the fallen angels here, who are referred to in different places, the judgment that we will perform. But even then, we need to keep in mind what he's saying and not saying. We recognize that Jesus is the real judge. Jesus is the one who gives out rewards. Jesus is the one who gives out punishments. And so Paul is not trying to give a full doctrine here of what the final judgment's going to look like. He's not even trying to give a full doctrine of what angels are like. That's not his point here. His main point is the greater to the lesser. If we're going to have this great role in the future, a glorious position in Christ, reigning with Him, can believers not now deal with the mundane and daily matters in the here and now? trying to help them figure out where true wisdom comes from and how true wisdom is lived out. In Christ, the Corinthians have a great future. They have a great hope. They have great promise, great privilege. And so Paul is reminding them again and again. He's bringing them back to Christ. He's saying it's all about Christ. You've been placed in Christ, sanctified in Christ, given gifts in Christ, in one body in Christ. You will be brought into the presence of the Father one day through Christ and reign with Christ forever. Stay in that privileged position with the wisdom of God revealed in Christ, with the righteousness of God given to us in Christ. And act accordingly. stand against the so-called wisdom of the culture around us. He's saying, act out who you are. You are holy, so be holy. You've been set apart, so be separate from the thinking of the world. You are justified. So live in the freedom, the forgiveness that you have in your holy position. You're sanctified. So live in a way that makes you stand out from a watching world. Act with the wisdom of Christ and stop acting like the world. This is what we hear him saying over and over again. We're only in chapter six. But he's going to bring up more as we go through the rest of this book, but it's going to keep coming back to it. All I have is Christ, Christ alone. The cornerstone and as we sing those truths week by week, let's let the Word of God seep into our hearts say yes Against the wisdom of the world. I will live for Christ and so in our first major point, which is our longest one for today. We have an ignorant audacity Secondly we have an ignored authority You are the church Paul reminds them act like the church, both in what you do and what you say and what you don't do and what you don't say. And so he is rebuking them for turning to the unqualified. So if you have such cases, he asks, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? Think about how far they have fallen and the status that they have in Christ. Not only are they dividing themselves up in their little parties in the church, I follow this speaker, and I follow that, and I follow this teacher, and I follow this one. Not only are they not dealing with serious sin in the church, but now they've decided that they're not going to deal with matters in the church, they're going to run off to the courts. They've fallen so low They have such a bad understanding of the gospel and who they are that they're willing to drag another brother through the dirt and drama of a court case in front of a pagan judge. Think of how selfish that is, not considering the greater needs of the church, not considering the fact that that brother that they're dragging to court is of equal value in God's eyes, redeemed by the same blood, filled with the same spirit, under the authority of the same word, having the same promise of eternal life. That one you're going to drag through the courts? Not only is it selfish, it's unwise. I'm sure they thought that they were doing the right thing. I'm sure they thought this is what our culture would say. I'm sure they thought that's what the experts counsel would have given them in that day. But if Christians have everything they need in Christ, do we believe that this morning? That Christians have everything they need in Christ? Let me ask again. Do you believe that Christians have everything they need in Christ? If you believe that, Corinthians, then why are you dragging fellow believers before the people's court? But there's a tendency for us to do the same today, is it not? It's considered matters of disputes, or schooling, or marriage, or child rearing, or dealing with difficult issues. The temptation and often the practice is to take those things to the experts of the culture and not to take them to the leaders of the church. Has not God set up leaders who will shepherd and watch over his flock? So Paul is asking them, why are you taking these things before those who are not part of the church, who don't have a vested interest in how the church is going to grow and develop? Far better, he says, to have the matter settled by the mediation of believers than to have unrighteous judges judge these things. And so he rebukes them, saying, you're taking it to the unqualified. And then he challenges them about the unutilized. I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. I say this to your shame. Now, a few chapters before, he was rebuking them and saying, I'm not saying this to shame you. I'm saying this to exhort you. But here he doesn't hold back and says, I am saying this to shame you. Because in Paul's mind, there are at least two evils here. One is just the fact that a brother is taking another brother to court. A brother who is an equal heir in Christ, a brother who will have an equal inheritance, a brother who is a precious chosen child of God, And they're fighting it out before the unrighteous. And that is the second one that they're actually doing this before watching world. One of the reasons why Paul calls the church to judge these matters internally and to take care of them is to keep the testimony of the unity of the body of Christ. But it's also to protect the honor of God. How many times as we read through the Old Testament stories of the people of God walking through the wilderness and even in their sins as the prophets are sent to them one after the other, does He say, My name is blasphemed among the nations because of you. And so it's to protect the honor of God's name as well as the people who have the name of God. These men that I shared in the beginning, if they had been more interested in protecting the honor of God than in protecting their own honor and empires, they would not have acted the way they did. But in doing so, they caused God's name to be mocked in the media. Mocked before watching culture, and so it was with the Corinthians of Paul's day. What Paul is asking this church He's incredulous. If we're with him, he can barely write. I think he probably had it dictated. But he can barely contain himself. God's people, he asks, cannot take care of God's matters? You are so entangled in the way of the world and doing things that you so desperately want to gain a win or a public victory over your brother? Is there no one wise enough among you to deal with this? You, who claim to be so wise? These are tough passages, these are tough texts, but they're given to us by the Holy Spirit of God under His perfect inspiration. He says, don't be a church that parades its problems before the world. Deal with problems the way God would have you deal with problems. The Corinthians are just living out a sign of defeat. And there's a play on words here that doesn't come out in our English translations, and so I want to draw our attention to it. If you remember, if we go back to chapter 1, verse 28, where Paul was talking about those that God calls, and he says, not many of you were lifted up or wise. In fact, he said, you were lowly. You were despised. We might translate that as nobodies in the eyes of the culture. It's the same word that he uses here. He is saying that it is better that the nobodies of the church handle these matters than the experts of the world. Do you hear the sharp sarcasm that's coming from him? You who are so wise show yourself to be incompetent. Let the despised Christians handle the business of the kingdom of God. And so we've seen this morning so far an ignorant audacity An ignored authority finally, an invited acknowledgement. Paul's going to end this paragraph with a sharp challenge. He says, believers, weigh eternal values versus temporal values. Weigh the cause of Christ versus the cause of one's personal wealth and reputation and power. And so he starts by stating their sad defeat. To have lawsuits at all, the text says, with one another is already a defeat for you. There's a sense of finality that their testimony has been defeated in the community because they've not lived according to the gospel. They're continuing to pursue the wisdom of the world and the way the world thinks and the practices and tactics of the world and even following the ends justify the means type of thinking. So the sad fact here is that no matter the outcome, there can be no winners. At least one of the believers is going to lose. But in this battle that takes place, all of them will be worse for wear. Because it's not a clean process. It's an unseemly process. So the word that's here for lawsuits, again, is a legal term. And Jesus did use the same term when he gave us principles for how to deal with conflicts in Matthew 18. Now often we turn to this in matters of church discipline, but it's also just in matters of disputes among believers. Paul's saying they didn't follow these principles that Jesus gave. And so he's against the one not only bringing the complaint, he's against the one that's being complained against, and he's against the church because they didn't act and help when they should have. this church that Paul is reminding them that they are. He tells them that they have the Holy Spirit of God, that they're indwelled by the Spirit of God. They are the temple of God who is holy. They have the wisdom of Christ that they should be able to act in ways that will bring about a proper resolution. And so in light of the bigger picture, Paul wants them to see that to lose is not to lose. So he asked the question, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded. And so at this point we start to squirm and we start to wonder a little bit and say, well, do we have any legal rights that we can pursue? And I think Paul gives us an example that we can follow here. Because Paul, at times in his ministry, did take advantage of the legal rights that he had as a Roman citizen. But he didn't every time. Oftentimes he did not take advantage of the rights that he would have had. His guiding principle was to do whatever would help advance the cause of Christ, whatever would help the cause of the kingdom of God. That is how he would react. It wasn't about him and his personal rights. It was about the glory of God and what would promote the glory of God in any given situation. So we see an example in his life in Acts chapter 16. Paul has started preaching the Gospel in Philippi. He's been arrested. He's been beaten. He's been thrown in jail for preaching the Gospel. He's spending the night in jail and he's singing hymns and he's praying with Silas. And it was at that moment that God intervened with an earthquake that brought about the salvation of the Philippians jailer, the salvation of his family. The church in Philippi is starting to grow. But here's the thing. Paul was a Roman citizen. He could have claimed his rights to not even be beaten and jailed. But he didn't. He was willing to pay the price that the gospel would require because he knew that those in Philippi themselves who didn't have the privileges that he would have would one day also have to suffer for the cause of Christ. And he wanted to leave them an example. In fact, he will write to this church years later when he is writing from another prison. And he is telling the church in Philippi, be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. And he even says, follow my example. How could they follow his example if he hadn't given them an example to follow? But he did. But there was more to the story. After they had thrown him in jail and beaten him and didn't get him through the proper process, they tried to sneak him out of town quietly. So it says they wanted to just dismiss him and throw him out of town. And it's at that point that he asserted his rights as a Roman citizen. He said, no, you're not going to just let me slide out of town. Now I'm going to show you that you can't treat a Roman citizen this way. And he got an official escort out of town. He wanted them to see that the church is not the threat to the Roman Empire. The church is not the lawless and the rebellious. The church is those of the redeemed who are good citizens and who respect their authorities. This was the same argument that the apologists, the defenders of the faith, used for the first 200 years of the church, telling the civil authorities, your problem is not with us. We make the best citizens. We're good neighbors. We pay our taxes. We love our neighbors. We pray for those in authority. We submit to their authority. Your problem's not with us. even though, you know, like us, your problem is with our God. But Paul had already set that example for them, sometimes taking advantage of his rights and other times not. And so it's not my rights at any cost, it's God's glory, whatever it takes. Because Paul is showing us that if we are to suffer for Christ, that it might be better not to claim our rights, so that the gospel would shine forth. Because the church has often been pushed forward through suffering. The church has often gained ground by the persecution of the saints. The Apostle Peter, writing to a very similar audience, to a church living under the Roman Empire, says, submit to your authorities. Be willing to suffer for Christ. And don't see suffering as a surprising thing, as something to be avoided at all costs. Well, getting back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, when we look what's going on before and after these verses, the next passage we're going to deal with talks about who will inherit the kingdom of God. And so the idea of eternity is in mind here. Act in light of eternity. And so he asked the question then, in light of eternity, In light of those who will inherit the kingdom of God, in light of the cause of Christ, why not suffer a loss now instead of distracting from the cause of the gospel? Why not even be defrauded? Why not lose a court case? Better yet, why go to court at all? Because in light of the coming kingdom of God, what are material possessions? I think Paul here is reflecting the attitude and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who left the glories of heaven and all of the rights and privileges he had being in the divine presence gave himself up for the church. He was despised, mistreated, misunderstood, a victim of injustice both by the secular and the religious courts of his day. And He did all of it for the glory of God. It says that He endured the cross, scorning its shame because of the glory that was before Him. He took the way of the cross. He bore the injustices and the offenses that were against Him. He also bore the injustices and the offenses against us. Paul is telling the church, follow in that trail. Be willing even to be mistreated for the greater cause of the gospel, because in light of eternity, what happens in the here and now is trivial. The cause of Christ, Paul would tell us, and the church's testimony to Christ outweigh the mundane and the daily. They outweigh the light and momentary afflictions and losses that we may suffer here on this earth. Paul is telling the Corinthians, do not be involved in behavior and act like those who will be disqualified from the kingdom of heaven. Rather, act like those who have been redeemed and set apart for the kingdom of God. And this is the consistent testimony that we see all throughout the writings of Jesus, the words of Jesus and the apostles. I'm just going to flash a few examples across the screen. As Paul is writing to the church in Rome, he says, Repay no one evil for evil, but get thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. He writes to the church in Thessalonica, For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not children of the night or of the darkness. Again, writing to the Church of Rome, he says, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The Lord Jesus Christ himself said in the passage we read this morning, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him, the other one also. Strikes directly at the heart and the pride of man. In the Sermon on the Mount, he reminded those that are citizens of the kingdom of God that you are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in this heaven. We'll close with just one more passage in this section from Peter. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name." The consistent testimony of Paul, the consistent testimony of Jesus, the consistent testimony of all the apostles is that in light of eternal glories and blessings that await us in Christ, it's better to suffer loss in the short term. What can we lose that God cannot replace? What has God given us that He cannot give back? What has God given us that he will allow us to resort to earthly and human means to protect? When he says, I want you to be wise in all that you do. And lastly, then he rebukes them because not only have they brought one another to court, but they are not wronged, but are doing wrong. But you yourselves wrong and defraud even to your own brothers. It's better to be defeated. in a personal case and have a good testimony to Christ and to win at all costs. And yet the Corinthians were doing exactly the opposite. The Corinthians, as it turns out, were not wrong. They were doing wrong. They were not wronged. They were defrauding others. They weren't victims. They were victimizers. Paul has pointed often to their wisdom, so-called, even one of their own sages, Plato said, to do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it. So they weren't even listening necessarily to the wisdom that came from their own heroes. I think we would do wise wisely to learn from a fellow Christian who is a lawyer in Southern California who helps churches in these matters. He says it is far better to lose financially than to lose spiritually. Think of the context that's going on here that Paul is writing these things. And so this morning we have seen an ignorant audacity, an ignored authority, and an invited acknowledgment. Jesus has not left us without a plan to follow. He has given us passages that teach about how we are to regulate and deal with problems among ourselves. They are to be dealt with as much as possible privately, but dealt with they must be. And it's only when they cannot be dealt with that the church should be involved. And there are resources. The church is a resource. There are those that want to help the church. There are businesses, if you will, ministries, where their whole purpose is to help churches deal with issues within the church and not resorting to the courts. Because Paul is reminding the church in Corinth, and he reminds us today that we live in the world, but we are not to live and act like the world. Our primary calling as purchased and redeemed and owned servants of Christ is to witness to his glory and to proclaim his gospel. And as we keep that big picture in mind, as we keep God's timetable in mind, We're going to cherish more and more the fact that our ultimate citizenship is in heaven. Our ultimate rewards are in heaven. Our ultimate identity is in heaven. And by being heavenly minded under the wisdom of Christ, we will live as good citizens here on the earth in the time that we have. May it be for each one of us. Let's pray. Father, we turn to you and we thank you. Because you balance the Law and the Gospel. And as you show us the Law, and as our hearts are unveiled and our sin revealed and our guilt exposed, you then show the Gospel. And so we turn to Christ. And we say, thank you that we are in Christ. And now, Father, because we are in Christ and because you have given us your Holy Spirit, would you move us in a way now that we would show that we are in Christ and live in the wisdom of Christ and live for the kingdom of God as Paul exhorts the church and as you inspired him to do so. Oh God, let it be that this week, this month, this year would be a year that we fall more in love with Jesus Christ and His way of living, standing against the temptations of other ways of life. Lead us, we pray, in Jesus' name.