For a short break, we come back to our studies in 1 Corinthians. And I want to read the passage that we'll be looking at later this evening. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, reading verses 1 to 11. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 1 to 11. Let us hear God's word. If any of you has a dispute with another. Dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life? Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, I want to change the translation here slightly because it is an accusation and not a command. If you have disputes about such matters, you appoint As judges, even men of little account in the church, I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another. And this in front of unbelievers The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Amen. May God bless his reading, the reading of his word to us all. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the passage which we read the first half of this chapter, verses 1 to 11. And the title I've given to our study this evening is Washing One's Dirty Linen in Public. washing one's dirty linen in public and it's generally regarded in our society that that is not a good idea. Some of our garments are better washed in decency and in private than out in the street for all to see. Now I say that it's not a good idea to wash our dirty linen in public And one of the sickest and saddest things of our modern society is the way in which many people do precisely that. The wives or husbands or ex-wives or husbands of famous people, one can almost predict that a few months after their divorce, they will sell the grimy story of their marriage to some popular newspaper. And a lot of things will be printed which should never be printed and never be known. And of course people delight to hear of this embarrassing and shameful scandal. It's a mark of a sick society. It's a lesson which the Corinthian Christians hadn't learnt. They were washing their dirty linen. in public and sadly it's a lesson that some Christians haven't learned today. And the situation was made worse by the love affair which Greeks had with lawyers and with the law. The Greeks are probably the most litigious nation that has ever lived. One of the things that startled my wife and me when we went to live in Cyprus was the number of lawyers' offices. It almost seemed as if every two or three shops there was another lawyer's office. And we used to wonder how do they make money? But they make lots of money because the Greeks still love taking each other to law. And it's almost a spectator sport, a form of entertainment. If you've got a couple of law cases going against your neighbours or against members of your family. And right back in the first century, that was the case. They were constantly going to law against each other. And in some cases the juries were very large. The ancient writers tell us of juries of over a thousand members. So that in a city, a typical Greek city, the average Greek man would be an amateur lawyer. He would have served on a few juries, he would have had a few cases, he would have defended a few cases. It was almost an entertainment. And when the Greeks had nothing else to do, they would go on down to the local court and listen to the cases being argued. That was the culture. The members of the church in Corinth hadn't escaped this cultural pattern and they were still influenced by the world around them and being affected by the culture. This was a situation where apparently several members of the church were taking each other to law. And the situation was made worse by the fact that they were a very divided congregation. They had a divided spirit. They were competitive people. Argumentative. Very touchy about their rights. They were addicted to judging. The verb to judge and its cognate forms is used over 40 times in 1 Corinthians. Nine times in the first eight verses of this chapter. They were addicted to judging other people, to accusing, to defending, to arguing, to debating, to disputing, to taking each other to court. That was the atmosphere in which they lived. And here in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is dealing with a situation where two believers in the church, perhaps more, are at odds with each other. They have a disagreement. It seems to be a financial dispute. Those, in any case, are often the most common and the most bitter disagreements. And they couldn't settle this disagreement. And what did they do? One member took the other member to court. to a pagan law court in Corinth. And in that pagan law court, one member accused a fellow Christian. And the whole city was able to know that two Christians were at law against each other. The whole city was able to talk about it and gossip about it. And that's what Paul is dealing with here. He is extremely upset and very angry. Now Paul was quite willing to go to court to save his own life against injustice. We read in Acts 25 11 that he appealed to the Roman court of Caesar and exercised his right to be tried there. If his life was threatened by an unbeliever, Paul was quite willing to go to court and use process of law to defend his life and his integrity. but never would Paul take a fellow Christian to court. And his annoyance and upset come out so clearly in this chapter. The first word in the original Greek of chapter 6 is the verb, do you dare? Do you dare to take your dispute before the ungodly for judgment. In other words, he begins the chapter by saying to the Corinthians, how dare you? Here's a man who is angry. There is very little calm argument in this chapter. There are many, many burning, piercing, rhetorical questions. He keeps saying, do you not know, do you not realize Why are you doing this? There's a sense of horror and upset in almost every phrase. And he's disappointed not just with the individuals involved, but perhaps even more so with the whole church for allowing this to happen. and his upset is directed to the whole congregation. These people are always getting things the wrong way round. We saw last time that there was blatant sin inside the church and they refused to judge that at all. But when there's a financial dispute They can't wait to run outside the church for judgment. They won't exercise judgment within the church where it should be exercised, and they insist on looking for judgment outside the church where it shouldn't be exercised. Everything wrong back to front. And as we shall see, Paul could react with similar horror today. And I think we'll find this passage is a lot more relevant to us, perhaps a lot more uncomfortable than we anticipate. The section is divided into two. In verses one to six, he deals with the inconsistency of public quarrels. And then in verses 7 to 11, he gives instruction to disputing believers. First of all then, verses 1 to 6, the inconsistency of public quarrels. And he makes four main points here. The first is that there is a sad loss of perspective. there is a sad loss of perspective. We don't know the reason for this argument in the church at Corinth. It almost certainly involved money of some kind. Some Christian felt that another Christian had cheated him or her in some way. Paul uses words in the chapter like cheat, do wrong, thieves, greedy, swindlers. Some financial matter. Perhaps someone had borrowed and wouldn't pay back. Perhaps someone had bought something which hadn't come up to standard. Or some other matter. Some financial matter. And Paul strongly suggests that it simply isn't worth quarrelling. He describes it in verse 2, these things as trivial cases. Trivial things, literally in Greek, the very least things. Things that aren't important. Things that don't matter. He says in verse 4, if you have disputes And he uses a particular grammatical form, there are two Greek words for if, and the particular word he uses with the mood of the verb that comes afterwards implies that you shouldn't have disputes. There shouldn't be disputes about these trivial things, but if you have them. What he's saying here is, in view of all that I have taught you, about the privileges and blessings of the Christian, and that you have received these blessings by God's grace, is it right to fall out over a few pounds? That's what he's saying. There's a lack of perspective here. You remember chapter 3, verse 21. All things, he says, all things are yours. All are yours. And you are Christ's. Christ is God's. You've been given forgiveness of sins. You've been given a new nature. You've been given the Holy Spirit. God has promised to care for you and to provide for you and to protect you and to guard you and keep you. You know that when you die You will go to heaven to a glorious new world and a new life where you will reign as kings and queens forever and forever and forever in a new universe with everything that you could possibly want or possibly need freely provided for you. You have received all this though you didn't deserve it. You've received it for nothing. You've received it as a gift and you're fighting over a few pounds. Is that not very inconsistent? Is that not a sad thing? Is that not a lack of perspective? Two of you at least are so angry over a small trivial matter of money that you're taking each other to court and all the wealth of heaven is yours. A lack of perspective. And then he says secondly, there's a denial of their position. There's a denial of their position, verses 2 and 3. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? We will judge angels. Now it's uncertain exactly what this involves, what Paul means here. Perhaps you remember how in Matthew 19, 28, Jesus said to the first disciples, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. We don't know exactly what Paul is referring to here, but it is a position of great honour, of great credulity. of great rule. The saints will judge the world and we're all going to share in that honour and in that rule and in that privilege. We are going to pass judgement, as it were, on this corrupt world, doomed to destruction, from which we have been delivered. We've been saved out of the world. We've been lifted above the world. By grace, we are superior to the world. And someday we're going to look at that world in all its lostness and condemnation and express judgment on it, Christ's judgment, God's judgment. That ruined, empty, dead, blind, useless world from which we have been rescued and which we're going to judge. And yet Paul says, when you want someone to judge for you, Who do you go to? You go to a poor, blind, dead sinner on his way to hell and you sit under his authority and you ask him to be your judge. Is that not a pathetic thing? Is that not a denial of your position? We're going to judge the world! And yet we have to go trotting off to some corrupt little Roman official to tell us how to organize our affairs. The Corinthians are submitting themselves to the authority of perishing men. Men whom they will one day see condemned, lost, blind, ruined men. And they're going to them and they're saying, tell us what to do. Proper translation of verse 4 which I gave you in the reading. Paul shot the irony. If you have disputes about such matters, you appoint as judges men of little account in the church. It's a tragic irony, a complete denial of their whole position. There's a loss of perspective. There's a denial of our position. And thirdly, there's a neglect of their resources. There's a neglect of their resources. If there was anything the Corinthians were proud of, it was of their wisdom. They were always going on about it morning, noon, and night. They were in love with wisdom. We are wise, they said. As Christians, we are the wise. We have the knowledge, we have the mystery. The world are lost and blind and ignorant. We are the wise. Look at the stinging sarcasm of verse 5. Is it possible that there is nobody among you, nobody among you, wise enough? to judge a dispute between believers. You're all great wise people, aren't you? You've such wisdom, such ability, wiser than everybody else. And yet when there's a dispute, apparently there's not one single person in the whole church wiser to judge a simple dispute. All your pride all your gifts, all your abilities, all your blessings, but you can't seem to deal with a very, very simple problem. Paul says, if there are disputes among the fellowship, why not appoint a respected Christian, one of your own number, someone with wisdom and sensitivity and graciousness to listen to both sides. And to come to a decision which will honor God, why do you run off to the ungodly? Is there nobody wise enough in the church to settle this? And then the fourth and last point he makes in this section, there is the loss of perspective, there's the denial of their position, there's the neglect of their resources, and then worst of all, far worse than anything else, is the damage to their witness. The damage to their witness. That's the most grievous thing to Paul. And there's a tremendous shock in the original, in the closing phrase of verse 6. He says, instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelief. in front of unbelievers. They're distressing their own church before the world. They're erecting a massive barrier to the gospel. They're bringing dishonor to Christ their Savior. Paul says, what sort of a witness is it when the whole city of Corinth is gossiping and sniggering and laughing about the Christians who can't get on together. What sort of a witness is that? What sort of a message is it in a town in Ulster when it's known to everyone that there's a row in the local church? What message can that church have? What influence can it have? They can't even get on with each other. They talk about the peace of God. They can't even be at peace among themselves. They talk about loving your enemies. They can't even love their friends, their brothers and sisters. Paul says, in front of unbelievers. That's why he begins, how dare you? How dare you? Take all this dirty linen and wash it in public for people to point the finger and laugh and mock Christians who can't get on together. In spite of all their boasting, this public quarrelling is totally inconsistent with their Christian position and their profession. The inconsistency of public quarrels. But Paul's a true pastor, and he doesn't stop with rebuking their inconsistency, so he moves on to some practical teaching in verses 7 to 11. It's pointed, it's painful, but it's very helpful. Instruction to disputing believers. Instruction to disputing believers. And he is still addressing the whole church, the whole congregation, but I think certainly in the opening verses he's focusing specially on the two parties to this dispute. And I think that in verse 7 he is speaking to the injured party, to the injured party, the party who has been offended, the person who has been wronged, who has been cheated, the person who is innocent, The person to whom some harm has been done. And look what he says to this person. The very fact that you have lawsuits means that you have been completely defeated already. He's speaking to the injured party who has taken his brother or sister to court. Couldn't get justice, went to court. And Paul says the fact that you've gone to court means that you're a loser. You may win your case, but you're still a loser. You're still a loser. You may be in the right. You may be in the right, but you're wrong. You're in the wrong. You may achieve victory in the law court, but as a Christian, you've been defeated. What does he mean? Well, he says, you may gain your point. You may get a few pounds awarded to you. You may keep the piece of property you want. You may safeguard your pride, but you have shown yourself to be an unforgiving, ungracious, revengeful, selfish person. How many times has it been true of all of us that we have won the argument, and walked away quite pleased that we had won the argument, and then five minutes later felt ashamed of ourselves. How petty we had been, how touchy, how selfish. Wouldn't it have been far better, even if we were in the right, just to let the whole Oh no, I'm not going to be the prophet. I'm in the right, and I have to be seen in the right. Paul says, you're a loser, you're a loser. Even if you're in the right, technically, you're still a loser. Because you've said to the world, I'm not willing to suffer. I'm not willing to carry my cross. I'm not willing to take second place. I would rather ruin the reputation of my church than be injured. I would rather damage the prospects for the gospel than suffer. Paul says to the person who's taking the lawsuit, you're not a winner. There are no winners in this situation. you've been completely defeated. And he goes on to say in verse seven, why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Why not just let go and forget about it? Why make an issue of it? Be big enough to forgive and to forget. All right, somebody did you wrong. Somebody in the church did you wrong. We'll agree to that. You were right and they were wrong. They shouldn't have done it. But how often have you wronged God? How often have you sinned against Him? What does God do? Does He take you to court? Of course He doesn't. God forgets. You ask forgiveness, you're cleansed. We have cheated God, we have wronged God. We say, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, not as we take our debtors to court. So there's a very hard word, hard to put into practice. But there's this word to the innocent man, to the guilty party, to the innocent party, to the injured party, listen, to take this person to court. To make a big issue of it is to be a loser. And even if you win, you'll still be a loser. Because you'll be ashamed of yourself. Let it go. Forget about it. Forgive. Just let the person wrong you. Put it out of your mind. Don't get bitter. Don't get angry, don't get up onto your high horse and start disrupting unity and spoiling the reputation of the church for the sake of your name. Let it go. Let it go. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Very hard to put this advice into practice, isn't it? We might ask, but does this not leave innocent people in the church very vulnerable to horrible, selfish, dishonest people? Does this not mean that the people in a church who are soft and gentle and humble and easy going, are they not going to be ill-treated and abused and robbed with no weapons to defend themselves? Is Paul not letting the guilty person off lightly? Is this not a charter to profit here in the church? But just wait a moment, for Paul has something far, far more devastating to say to the guilty party. He speaks to the innocent person first, he says, listen, don't make a big deal of it, just let it go. But then he turns to the guilty party, verse 8, verse 9 and so on. He says, you cheat, and you do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. doesn't pour his punches. He knows exactly what is going on. He calls sin by its proper name. You're a cheat. You're a wrongdoer to your brothers. And even worse, he goes on to deal with the implications in verse 9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. He says to this person, you are behaving wickedly. Do you realize what this means? You're saying by your dishonesty, I am not a Christian. That's what you're saying. The wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. And you're being wicked. You're behaving in a wicked fashion. You're cheating, you're doing wrong, and people who do that aren't Christians and aren't going to heaven. And you're full of yourself as you plead your case in court. You're a proud, arrogant Christian. You think yourself so spiritual, pleading your case, defending your wrongdoing. In fact, he says, you're really lining up with the dregs of humanity. You're claiming as your associates, and he mentions them in verse 10, the sexually immoral, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, drunkards, slanders, swindlers. These are your friends. These are your allies. These are the people you're lining up with. These are the people you say you belong to. You're losing the friendship of God to join with the scum of the earth. Is that what you want to do? Do you want God to mark you down as a cheat? As a wrongdoer? This should never have gone to court. He says you should have acknowledged the wrong that you did. You should have paid back the money. You should have sought your brother's forgiveness. How dare you wrong your brother? How dare you treat him in such a fashion? He's wronged to take you to court, but you're far, far more wrong in committing the injury which tempted him to take you to court. He has committed a little sin, but you have committed a huge sin. So you see, Paul is far, far sterner. with the guilty party and with the innocent. He says to the innocent party, look, don't make a big deal of it, don't take it to court, just let it go. But when he turns to the guilty party, he's very, very fierce and very strong. He says you're behaving in a totally non-Christian way. And the point is And notice pastoral concern here further on in the passage in verse 11. The point is he says, I don't think you are really like that. You used to be like that. You used to be a wicked evil person. That is what you were. But you have been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. He says, Christian, I think you're a Christian. Don't behave like a sinner bound for hell. People outside cheat and lie and defraud. You can't do that. Remember what God has done for us. Remember what God has made of you. Remember how Christ has died for you. Stop behaving, stop acting like a lost sinner. Be what you are. And surely it would be a very hardened person who wouldn't repent after this instruction from the Apostle. I wonder who it was or who they were in the church at Corinth sitting listening to this letter being read. Paul says you're cheating, you're wronging, you're behaving like a sinner bound for hell. You're selling heaven for a few pounds. And I would like to think that after this letter was read, one man would stand up with tears in his eyes and start moving across the church and say, look brother, I'm going to drop the lawsuit. And the other would come to meet him and say, look brother, I'm going to pay you back the money. And it would all be solved. See how the gospel is very practical. Very, very practical. Now just for a moment or two could we say something by way of application to ourselves. It's not probable that any of us will end up facing a fellow believer in court. And I suppose it's even more improbable that we'll end up taking a fellow member of this congregation to court. I devoutly hope that will never be the case. Although tragically Christians do end up in court. against each other. But what can we learn from this passage? Surely one thing we can learn is that as Christians, Paul is telling us here not to fall out over what is trivial, and not to get agitated about secondary things, about temporal Surely he's telling us to keep a biblical sense of proportion about what is really important, what is eternally important, our riches in Christ, our salvation. Wouldn't this be a good passage to preach in parts of Ulster today? Christians, some of them said they were ready to die, to die. to be able to walk down one particular road with an orange sash and a banner. I wonder what the Apostle Paul would have to say about that. He talks about travail matters. You are Christ. All the heavens and all the earth is yours. All the riches of salvation are yours. Or how a vote goes in a city council, or whether there's been a little bit of discrimination Where there are road signs put up in Irish, oh my word, the heaven is full. And are we living in a province where people, and many of them Christian people, get so agitated, so wound up about matters that are utterly, utterly trivial. Utterly trivial. Happens in churches too. What colour are we going to paint the church hall? And the church is nearly split open. So whether it be pink or green, perhaps green is not a very good choice, but whatever color is going to be painted, arguing over trivial matters. Paul says keep a sense of perspective. There's another principle. All personal disagreements among Christians must be settled inside the church. all personal disagreements among Christians must be settled inside the church. Inside the church. One guarantee I think I can give you on behalf of myself and my fellow elders. You, the members of the congregation, will never hear of any argument or disagreement in our session. And whether we have them or not is for us to know. But if we ever do differ, our differences are always settled in that room before we leave. Before we leave. Always. And we always leave in harmony. It has to be settled. And it's true also. It's true in the family. It's true in the congregation. We're not to talk about our differences to the outside world, or not to parade them. Paul says, look, settle it among yourselves. Don't let your congregation die. Don't let your Savior die. Settle it among yourselves. Let us make that an unbreakable rule. Isn't it tragic when you hear of a quarrel in a church, and you hear stories from both sides? people are running around, getting support, should be settled in the church. And one final point, remember always to use Schaeffer's phrase that the church is before the watching world. We are being watched. We cannot afford the luxury of selfish disputes. There's enough controversy that we have to engage in, necessary controversy, biblical controversy, God-honouring controversy. We have to make a stand for things. We have to say things that are unpopular and offensive. We have to contend for the faith given to the saints. We have to say things that people don't want to hear. But we can't add to it by our own disagreements. People are looking for a community which is different. And we believe in a saviour who gave up his rights for the sake of other people. And allowed himself to be robbed and cheated and hurt and injured and killed. And he took it all. and he could have called down legions of angels at any moment, but he didn't do it. Now are we willing to follow our Saviour, to allow ourselves to be injured and treated badly and cheated? Are you willing for that? That's what happened to Jesus. That's what happened to Jesus. He glorified God not by striking back. We're called to follow him whatever the cost may be. He said in John 13, 35, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. I believe there would be no better New Year resolution than we could all make than something like this. If I, in this coming year, am annoyed or angry or upset with a fellow Christian, I will either settle it with them, or I'll try to get someone else in the church to help us to settle it, or I'll forget about it. But the one thing I will not do is talk about to anyone outside the church. Don't dare to do it. Amen. Let us bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, we seek to be realistic as we come before you now. And we know from the knowledge of our own hearts and from our past experience that there is no way in which we are going to get through 1997 without hurting and upsetting some of our dear brothers and sisters here. For we all have too many sharp angles, we are thoughtless and insensitive, we are stubborn, we are mistaken, we all have flaws and failures. And so Lord, we know that without meaning to, in the slightest way, it is quite possible that we will wrong. some of our brothers and sisters. And it is more than possible, it is certain, that we will upset them at some time, either by what we do or by what we don't do. How we thank you, Father, that none of that matters in the slightest, if the love of Christ fills our hearts and our lives. For it is the lubricating oil which soothes all the shrieks and scraping noises of our humanities rubbing together against one another. So, Father, we pray that you will help us to be sensitive, help us to be loving and kind, help us to think before we speak, help us to try to overcome our own personal thoughts. But more than that, O God, help us to learn how to forgive and how to forget. Help us to reflect on how much you forgive us every day and how dependent we are on you forgetting and not holding our iniquities against us. We thank you for the spirit of love with which you have blessed us over the years.