Pray your blessing, Lord. Pray for the utterance of the Holy Spirit, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so, moving into chapter 6. Now, just by way of review, in chapter 5, Paul had really focused on holiness in the church. Holiness in the church. And it started out, the beginning of chapter 5, with Paul, bringing up the point that it was commonly reported that there was fornication among them, sexual immorality. Fornication, the word porneia in the Greek, covers all sexual immorality. It encompasses all of the holiness code, all of the sexual sins covered in Leviticus 18 through 20. That's why some people today errantly try to tell us that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, for example. or other kinds of sexual sins, perversions. But Jesus did speak against the sin of porneia, the Greek word porneia, sexual immorality, in Matthew 19, and that encompasses all of those sexual sins. It assumes all of those sexual sins. The Jews, when they spoke of sin, knew of no other code for that than the holiness code that God had given them, and that is the holiness code. That the new testament also presupposes And so there was this sexual immorality among them a man had his father's wife a stepmother And this was a sin that even the gentiles even the non-christians were ashamed of paul says and they were tolerating this sin And paul is correcting this and you know, they're puffed up They're prideful maybe about their toleration. We're so loving. We're so accepting When paul says you need to get this guy out of the camp because he's unrepentant He's not a christian who's struggling with sin trying to get the victory there. We make a distinction there We help there we come alongside there. We encourage no, this is one who is hardened in rebellion unrepentant And so there you have to exercise church discipline paul says he needs to be delivered to satan for the destruction of his flesh that he may be Saved his spirit may be saved in the day of the lord And so we learned about that. And then we saw at the end of the chapter, how Paul had talked to them and kind of probably this was a review for them or a clarification about holiness in the church. How, yes, we live in a world of ungodliness. We're surrounded by people that are practicing wicked works. We can't get away from the contamination of this world that's living in sinful darkness. We can't get away from it. We'd have to go out of the world, Paul says. And yet we are to be a holy people. We're to keep the camp clean from open, unrepentant sin. That's what Paul is talking about when he says, look, I'm talking about people who are called brothers and sisters in Christ and who are living in open and willful sin. Don't even eat with them. Don't have company with them. And so you see, the whole chapter is about holiness. We're in the world, but we're not of the world. And we need to, one, avoid the contamination of those sins trying to come into the church through professors that are living in willful sin. There's a contamination. Paul says a little leaven leavens the whole lump. But number two, our witness is at stake. We are supposed to be image bearers. We're supposed to be a light to this world. How are we going to be a light if we're walking in darkness? And if we are giving people the idea that the gospel of Jesus Christ sanctions the continuance in sin, which Jesus died on the cross to save us from. And so now, moving on, he's going to temper this, because when you think about holiness, holiness can quickly, if it goes astray, can run into sins of self-righteousness. Oh, how self-righteousness and how pride can cloak themselves under the banner of holiness. how so often we can have our righteous indignation, when really at the bottom of it all, it's not really about what's right, but it's about what's right for us. And it's not about what's really just and fair in the sight of God, but it's about us getting for ourselves what we think is just and fair. And so often we can have this righteous indignation. Oh, I'm fighting for holiness. I'm all about holiness in the church of Jesus Christ. I will not suffer sin in my brother, Leviticus 4. I will surely rebuke my brother. And yet, a lot of times it's just a cloak for us trying to obtained for ourselves. And so chapter 6, it's interesting, he's going to temper that, and he's going to use this illustration of another kind of sin that was in the church at Corinth. Let's read these first several verses here, and then we'll get into it. It says in chapter 6, You know what, I'm in the wrong book. That's not going to help me to read 2 Corinthians 6. He says, Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. Depends how you read that. I'll talk about that. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth to law with brother and that before unbelievers, the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. I'm going to stop right there for today. And so, at the beginning of the chapter, you're dealing with the issue, and this comes up in the church. Sometimes there are grievances that even true brothers and sisters in Christ, I don't have to tell you this, have against one another. There are grievances. When it says dare, that is to boldly venture, as if Paul is saying here that this is a very dangerous thing. This is not something you should be quick to jump at, an opportunity to drag your brother or sister in Christ into court. This is something you should think about with dread at the very thought of this idea. Dare any of you? Having a matter. The word matter there simply means a thing. It means you have something against someone. You have an issue. You have a grievance. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust, meaning contend in the courts. Go out and contend in the public courts with your brother or sister in Christ. It says go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. The unjust, that's the unrighteous. That's what the word is. It's the unrighteous. And it's interesting here that the apostle would use this term to describe the world and its court system. Unjust. Now, I think it's easy for us to accept that, living in the times we're living in. We have seen some decrees coming down from courts and very high courts at that, that are absolutely anti-Christ, wicked rulings. We are seeing that. But, you know, the Bible talks about the unjust. The Bible talks about the people of the world and the condition that they're in, those who are not believers in Jesus Christ. And it seems almost like Paul's correction here is showing or exposing that the Corinthians have a kind of naivety to the world they're actually living in. You know, the Bible says that the whole world lies in wickedness, or in the lap of the wicked one, under the devil's power. Ephesians 2 also echoes that sentiment, that truth, that men who are in their sins walk according to the course of this world, and they walk according to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, who is none other than the father of lies, the devil. They're walking after Satan. And so, there has to be an understanding of this for the Christian. And this plays into whether or not when we're weighing whether we are going to go to the public court system to seek justice, whether we're going to take that measure, I'm not saying you can't get a Christian judge. I'm not saying you can't, by God's common grace, get a good ruling, even from an evil judge. In fact, God uses wicked people sometimes in the Bible to accomplish His purposes, doesn't He? Sometimes God gives favor to His people from wicked men, right? Sometimes you find acts of justice where you would never expect them. But we are not to be naive about the world we're living in. The Bible says, and Jesus said, beware of men for they will deliver you up. Beware, beware, be careful. And especially when you have a much better option, which is what Paul is going to talk about. He's going to talk about, look, there is a much better option here, much more wise option, and an option that doesn't bring reproach upon the name of Christ for how we handle our grievances as Christian brothers and sisters. Now, there are criminal cases. Those need to go to the courts. That is not something... If there's a criminal act, if there's a criminal case, yes, that needs to go to the courts. But when there are these small grievances among Christians, and in this case, it seems like Paul's saying this is something that it was better to be just overlooked. It was better to just suffer the wrong, turn the other cheek and move along and love one another and just... It's better to have the peace and suffer a little loss. than to fight against one another and contend with your entitlement attitude. So this is not talking in this context about some kind of criminal case that of course would have to be brought before the courts. If there's some kind of heinous wickedness going on in the church that needs to be reported, you better believe we're going to report it as fast as possible. Don't even care about how it looks. Don't even care about how it looks to the church or the reputation of the church. It's immediately, if it's a criminal act, it's getting reported to where it needs to get reported. Because that's the right thing to do. But if we're talking about small grievances amongst one another, where we can exercise love and long-suffering and forbearance with one another and be content to suffer some unfairness in this life because Jesus suffered so much unfairness and cruelty in his love for us. Certainly, we can bear with one another. Amen? The world today is so filled with entitlement. It's so filled with this, that's not fair spirit. Fight back, this victim mentality. that goes absolutely to excess and poisons the soul with hatred for others. And so, they have a matter, they have a grievance. It's not of a criminal nature like that. The Church, like Jesus in Luke 12, 14, is not to be an arbiter over worldly affairs, such as settling grievances about land between family members or inheritances and things like that. But certainly, the Church does have the jurisdiction to exercise some arbitration, especially involving spiritual matters. Especially involving grievances between brothers and sisters and to at the very least offer some counsel to them Right between one another and try to seek some form of reconciliation and peace amongst brothers and sisters in Christ to offer some kind of to offer some kind of a a a third party to the issue of grievance between brothers and sisters so they can have someone on the outside that's unprejudiced and unbiased to help them work through the situation to reconciliation. Certainly there's a place for that and Paul is going to talk about that. And so, dare any of you having a matter against another to go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Before you go, look into the world for justice. Before you go, look into the world for righteousness. Just remember a few things about the world. Paul, he classifies the entire world under that heading of unrighteous, unjust. Psalm 42 says, O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing? The word leasing means deceit. How long, he's saying to the men of the world, how long will you seek after deceit? Romans 1.22, talking about the world's rejection of God, rejection of the light of creation that shows God's glory, suppressing that truth of God's revelation of Himself through creation. Bible says the fool says in his heart there is no God. It says in Romans 1.22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. A fool in the Bible is not someone who is intellectually deficient. There are some very smart fools. There are some very smart fools out there. A fool is a godless person. Let me give you some descriptions of those who have turned away from God and rejected God. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1.7. Is that someone you want to turn to for righteousness? Is that someone you want to turn to for true justice? Someone who hates, someone who despises wisdom and instruction? Proverbs 1.22 says, fools hate knowledge. To the extreme of that is the fool that has said in his heart, there is no God. Proverbs 14.1. Proverbs 12.15, fools die for want of wisdom. Or that's Proverbs 10.18. Proverbs 12.15, the way of the fool is right in his own eyes. Proverbs 12.23, the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. Proverbs 13.16, a fool layeth open his folly. Listen to this one, Proverbs 14.8, the folly of fools is deceit. Proverbs 14.9, fools make a mock at sin. Proverbs 14.16, the fool rages and is confident. Proverbs 15.2, the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. Proverbs 15.14, Uh, the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness, so they feed on it and they pour it out. Proverbs 16.22, the instruction of fools is folly. Proverbs 18.2, a fool hath no delight in understanding. And Proverbs 29.11, a fool uttereth all his mind. Now, there is a process of degradation that people go through. Not everyone is just as bad as every other person, of course. But, at the end of the day, when a person has said, no God for me, that is a fool. And there is a corruption, there is a contamination. And to think that that's not going to influence the decisions in our courts. To think that that's not going to influence the decisions of those ruling us. is very naive because the bible tells us that satan is the god of this world he's the god of this age he he exercises a dominion over those who believe his lies and do you think satan is not going to use that put forward or set forth unrighteous decrees, unrighteousness. Do you think that Satan's not going to use these corrupt people to issue verdicts that are false, unrighteous against God's people? Yeah, it's happening. We're seeing it happening now. We are seeing in this country the beginning of the weaponization of the law against Christians. It's happening more and more. People are being sued simply because of their convictions based on the Bible. simply because they believe what God says. They're being taken to court, and they're losing money, they're losing property, because Satan is the God of this age. So we don't want to be naive. Before we run seeking justice from the courts of this world, yeah, you might get it by God's common grace, but before we do, beware of men! Beware! Because you don't live in Christendom, you are living in a world that is swayed by the evil one. So beware. Dare any of you to venture this? Dare any of you? A world of fools is anti-Christ. It's an anti-... You're going to the court of fools. The same court of fools that decided that Jesus was worthy to be condemned to death and crucified. That's the court of the world. It's the very court that put Jesus to death on the cross. And yet here are some Christians running out to the court for justice, seeking justice. Chris Austin has a quote about this verse. He says, Think about that. And so, yes, we're not anti-government, we're not anti-court system. We know that's a blessing of God that we have courts, and God uses it. We have the standard in Romans 13, where it says there, Paul says, and this is the same one speaking, Listen to this. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God for thee to good." He's saying the governmental leaders are servants of God for good. They are there to punish the evildoers. They wield the sword of punishment. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister, the servant of God, a revenger to execute wrath. Think about that. To execute the wrath of God on evildoers, on him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. And of course Romans 13 is speaking of the ideal. The ideal is that our rulers, those in the courts, punish evil and reward good. That's their job. And we know, often, they come short of the ideal, do they not? Sometimes they reward evil and they punish the good. And what do we do in that situation? We are to be subject in the government in the same way the Bible says a woman is to be subject to her husband, the children to be subject to their parents. But you're not to be subject in obedience to something when someone tells you to do something evil. There's an example of the apostles in Acts chapter 5. Should we obey God or men? Right? If someone tells us not to preach the gospel, guess what? Can't obey that. Can't follow that command. And so the same thing. This is not license for the governments and the powers of the world, or even for a father, anyone that has any position of authority to use that authority for evil purposes and to try to impose evil on those under their charge. No one is required to violate the ultimate authority under an authority of man. No way, no how. Our authority is God and those rulers are to be subject unto God. They're to be subject unto God. Insofar as we're not violating God's Word, we're to be subject, even to powers that are wicked and evil. Insofar as we can be subject, we'll be subject. We're to be good citizens. We're to honor, give honor to whom honors do. We're to honor the court system. We're to honor and pray for our leaders and governors. But we are not to be naive. about the situation we're living in. We're not to be naive. We know, we know, although God is supreme, Satan holds sway over this world and over the high places, the Bible says. He controls to an extent by his lies the court systems and the governments, the United Nations. He is over all these things influencing, and that is why we're seeing so much of this evil being forced from the top down. Despite the fact that many people, many people do not want it forced on them. But they're forcing it from the top down. Who's at the top? Satan is behind this. Principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. So we can't be naive about that. Now I want to focus on Verse 2, he says, Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Paul here uses a greater to the lesser argument. a greater to the lesser arguments. If the saints shall judge the world, then certainly, certainly they ought to be able to judge small matters amongst themselves, small grievances between themselves. And think about this, the fact that the saints, which when we think back to 1 Corinthians 1 and who the saints are, we're the nobodies. God takes that which is foolish in this world. He takes the nobodies like us, like the Galilean fishermen, right? And he chooses them. Those are his people. Those are the ones he uses. And to think that he takes us and would sit us up on thrones of judgment. That we could be governors and rulers in the age to come. It's a complete upheaval. It's a complete reversal. You know the Bible teaches this. In fact, the way he phrases it even implies that they ought to know this. He says, do ye not know? Haven't you heard about this? Haven't you read the scriptures? Don't you know what's coming in the future? Don't you know? The saints will judge the world. Don't you know this? You know, he's probably referring back to Daniel 7.22, talks about the Ancient of Days coming, and says judgment was given to the saints of the Most High. And the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. But I want to read you a few other verses that are very fascinating regarding this theme of saints exercising judgment or governance. One of them is the idea that we are going to reign as joint heirs with Jesus Christ. You remember what 2 Timothy, I think it's 2 Timothy 2.12, if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. We will reign with Him. And it's interesting that Ephesians 2.6 tells us that God has made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And it really clarifies it. Moreover, in Hebrews chapter 2, and it says this, For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come. Interesting. Whereof we speak. He says, But one in a certain place testified, saying, this is quoting from Psalm 8, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. It's interesting. Of course, this is talking about Christ. And by the way, it's interesting when you read Psalm 8, often our first inclination in reading Psalm 8 might be to think about, oh, it's talking about Adam because it says, you know, what is man that thou are mindful of him? It talks about him giving him dominion and so forth. But it says, who is the son of man? The son of man. Adam wasn't the son of man. It's talking about Jesus and it's talking about the dominion. That's what Hebrews is talking about. And we have the dominion we are going to share with Jesus Christ. Those who overcome, Revelation says, we are given the right to sit on his throne. Amen. Glorious future. And Paul says, do you not know this? Even with just the Old Testament, don't you know this? Revelation 2.26, he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. Whoa! That's right out of Psalm 2. That's talking about Jesus. Remember, I have set my king on my holy hill, Zion. He says he's going to break his enemies like a potter with a rod of iron. He's going to dash them in pieces. And here it uses the same language of the saints. Whoa. He shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter, shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received my father. We have a little hint of this, even with Jesus's words to the apostles in Luke 22, 28. He says, ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at the table of my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Now, I don't know all the details of what this future age holds, but I know from everything I read in the Bible, it is going to be magnificent, it is going to be joy, it is going to be paradise, and there are going to be responsibilities that we have. And some of them include, apparently, governance with Christ. The saints shall judge. You know, some have proposed, looking at this verse here, do you not know that the saint shall judge the world? They have proposed that this speaks of some kind of post-millennial kind of situation, where the Christian church in the world is supposed to usher in the kingdom, and the post-millennials like to say, We are to take up positions of power in government. So they encourage their, the Christians, they encourage us to become political activists and politicians and take up positions of power so we can usher in the kingdom of Christ. And then when we take the world for Jesus, then Jesus returns. Right? Well, Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. He says, if my kingdom was of this world, my servants would fight. No, the Bible does not teach that it's going to get better and better and we're going to enter into a time of Christendom brought in by our political activism and so forth and by taking up positions of power and societal structures. No, it doesn't say that. The Bible says the end is going to get worse and worse. The Bible says men shall wax worse and worse. Deceiving and being deceived is what the Bible says. That's what the Bible says. And so, some have proposed this kind of speaks of a post-millennial kind of situation, where the gospel becomes supreme in the earth, otherwise known as Christendom. But remember back to chapter 5, which specifically tells us that judging outside of the church is God's prerogative, and it's His business and not ours. It's our business as Christians to judge matters in the church. God judges those who are outside. And a lot of these statements in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, talking about our dealing with those inside of the church, and then not going to those outside of the church because they're unrighteous, they wouldn't work on a post-millennial kind of Christendom. They wouldn't work. It would upset the whole Scriptures. It says, also we shall judge angels. Look at this. Not just the world, And think of the irony of this, just going back to the statement that the saints shall judge the world. How, if we are to judge the world, are we then going to go out there to the courts and allow the world to judge us? Isn't that interesting? We're the ones that have the light of the truth. We're the ones that have the judge, right, Jesus Christ, and we have his light to go by and make decisions and judgments by. Why are we going to go out to the world that is headed for judgment, which the Bible says the saints will judge? Why are we going to sit in judgment under them when they operate by a contaminated system? Why are we going to do that? And then it says, It says, are you not worthy to judge the smallest matters? Then in verse 3, know ye not, again, You should know this. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? Now, there's been some debate about what this means. Judging angels? What? You know, almost every time the Bible in the New Testament speaks of angels, if it's not qualified, it usually means good angels. But it's hard to suppose, because we have no other Bible evidence to come up with anything like this, it's hard to suppose that we could sit in judgment making some kind of legal decisions about angels, the elect angels, the good angels, the holy angels, it doesn't seem very plausible. It's hard to say, even though it is unqualified in the statement, it's hard to say that this is good angels. Many have taken the position this is talking about the saints exercising judgment over the fallen angels, the evil angels, Satan and his hordes. Certainly, we know that the fallen angels will be judged. For that, you can compare 1 Corinthians 15, 22 through 24. But, so, in any case, it may, and here's a solution, it may be using the term judge here in terms of governance, governing. Um, just like it says in hebrews. He has not subjected the world to come to angels the judgment Governing over so it could be talking about the good angels that in the world to come because christ is obviously over angels exalted above every name And we are in christ and we sit on his throne and rule with him that we are then over the angels But in any case, we're going to judge angels, and we get the idea of the argumentation is here, how much more things that pertain to this life. How much more are we going to be, should we be able to exercise judgment with these smaller matters of this life? Then verse 4, if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. The Greek here is a little tricky. There's some different views on what this means. First of all, and I think probably the most prominent view on this verse, is that it's talking about the heathen. It's talking about the unjust. So you would read it like this. If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, Why are you setting them over you as judges, i.e., the unbelievers who are least esteemed in the church? Meaning, among the people of the church, these are least esteemed. Right? These are not people that are esteemed as full of wisdom. The world may think they're really wise, but when we seek wisdom in the church as Christians, we seek out people who are wise according to the Scripture. We seek out wise counselors who know the Word of God. So these, to us, are least esteemed. That's the idea there. Why are you setting them over you? when you have saints who know the Word of God, who have the light of Scripture, who have the light of Revelation, who have wisdom from God to judge and discern the situation. That's the first view. Some have taken another position, and the second position is very interesting. Godet is one of these commentators who takes this position. He says that Paul here, as he was in chapter 4, is showing a little bit of sarcasm. And so, what he's saying is, in his view, He's saying a command now. He's saying this is an imperative, not why do you... He's saying it's not why do you set those who are least esteemed. He's saying it's imperative. He's saying, Paul is saying, take the least from among you. Take the least esteemed among you to perform this arbitration. For that would rightly show of how little importance should be attached to these squabbles. So, the first view is, if that's right, it would be saying, why are you bringing these matters before the unjust, before unbelievers? The second view, if it's an imperative and sarcastic, would be, why are you bringing this up at all? Why is this even an issue in the first place? And there is some weight. to that view. But in any case, either way, they're both true. You shouldn't be bringing this before unbelievers because we have discerning judges in the church. Hopefully, we'll have enough wisdom to judge. And secondly, it is true that you shouldn't even bring it up at all is what he's going to argue. And so, that one, you have a couple different views. But he says in verse 5, I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? Is there not one who shall be able to judge? Is there not one person? You remember that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, they were carnal. And we went through and described why that was. What was the carnality? There was this careless neglect of the Word of God and of prayer. And so there was a lack of spiritual growth. They were still babes in Christ, he says, still babies. And so, yeah, in a room or a church filled with baby Christians, that's right, they may not be able to find one wise among them to properly discern and exercise judgment. He says, it's a shame to them. It's a shame to them. There is not a wise man among them. No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth the law, verse six, but brother goeth the law with brother and that before the unbelievers. And then notice what he says here. Now there is utterly a fault among you. That word fault means a defect. There is a defect. There is something defective in your Christian life. He says there's utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. And then he gives us a very counterintuitive statement. And it makes us pause for thought for a minute. Whoa, what are the implications of this, Paul? Look what he says. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? What a statement. I mean, this, to Paul, is an obvious thing. This should be a no-brainer for you, Corinthians, that you should just suffer wrongs and allow yourselves to be defrauded. What's the problem here? Do we think like that? You see how now, talking about getting back to the bigger picture of this whole series, walking in the spirit, what is Paul talking about here? Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, you do wrong and defraud your brethren. You know, Jesus taught this. And he's not, Paul's not teaching toleration of sin in the church. He's not teaching them to just, okay, if people are going to be wicked and evil and defraud and steal and do all this corrupt things in the church, we just, I guess we'll be a doormat. That's not what he's saying. He just got done in chapter 5 dealing with that. You got to deal with the sin, right? But he's dealing with this self-entitlement. This fighting for what's right and fair for us. Instead of having a spirit after Jesus who said this in Matthew 8, sorry, Matthew I'm trying to remember the, where is it? Well, Jesus says, if anyone takes you to law, he says, give him your coat also. Remember what he says? I think I've lost the reference here. He says, if anyone sues you in court, let him have your cloak also. He says, turn the other cheek. If someone hits you on the cheek, turn the other cheek, right? Jesus taught that we are to lay down our rights and our liberties in love, as a witness, in love. But that doesn't mean we don't deal with issues. Matthew 18, Jesus said, If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and thee alone. And this is the way the church ought to deal with things. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take thee with thee one or two more. Then in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear, tell it to the church. If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen, man, and a publican. So there is a process of dealing with issues and contentions between Christians, and there's an issue we are to confront sin, but a lot of times it is something where we can just suffer the wrong. If it's a small wrong, if it's not detrimental to the health of the church or to the health, the spiritual health of that person, right? If it's one of these grievances that we often have, little squabbles, a lot of times we can just overlook it, suffer the wrong, and be content to not always have life be perfectly fair for us. Amen? Because it's never going to be perfectly fair, and we're always going to be at everyone's throat if we're trying to get perfect treatment for ourselves. If we have this attitude that God and all the creatures of the world should serve us and our interests and our entitlement, and we should be treated a certain way, and if such and such a person at church doesn't treat us this way, and if we don't get what we want or what we deserve, then we're gonna fight for it. And we're gonna speak evil of one another until we get our way. That kind of a spirit is what he's coming up against. He's not saying we don't deal with issues, but he's saying we're against this entitlement spirit, we'd rather lay it down in love, lay down our liberties in love. I've gotta finish up here. My final point is this. And I'll pick it up next week with wherever we're at here, I'll pick it up next week. In 1 Corinthians 5, what was at stake? What was at stake with that man that had his father's wife in 1 Corinthians 5? The glory of God. God's own name, right? Doesn't He put His name upon His people? Aren't we Christians? It means little Christ. Doesn't He put His name upon us? We're followers of Christ. Don't we represent him? Aren't we, according to the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5 ambassadors for Christ? Aren't we supposed to be a light to the world? Aren't we supposed to represent Jesus to the world? What was at stake in 1 Corinthians 5 when this man had his father's wife and there's sin in the church? God's own glory. And yet in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul points out, not a person among them wants to deal with that situation. No one wants to stand up for the glory of God. No one wants to fight to defend God's glory in His name and deal with the sin in the church. Oh, but when we get to chapter 6, when someone has a personal grievance, when the offense is against them, they're so quick to go after, to fight for justice. I'll take them to court. You see how we can have this righteous indignation and this sense of justice and fairness and totally not care about God's glory. And here's the bottom line. When we have any grievance, are we concerned about the glory of God? Are we just concerned about our own self-interest? And this is something about walking in the spirit. There is something greater than our own self-interest to live for, isn't there? Right? There's something greater than our own self-interest. There's something so much greater that it's worth not only laying down everything in this world, but laying down our very lives for. Amen. And it's love, because when they took their brother out to court, they dragged their brother in the court with the unbelievers. They're fighting for what's right, but it's at the expense of God's glory. They're willing to drag God's name through the mud for their personal interest. We should be willing to be dragged through the mud for God's glory. We should be willing to suffer wrong. Bear patiently unfairness of this world, even amongst each other, for God's glory, to maintain the peace, to strive for peace with one another. Amen? Does it painful? Does it hurt? It's the example Jesus said, isn't it? Isn't it? Didn't he suffer wrongs? Didn't he suffer mockery? Didn't he suffer injustice? Didn't he bear it patiently as a silent lamb? Didn't he commit his soul to God as unto a faithful creator that we're supposed to do the same as well? Say, you know what? I may not get everything fair in this world, but guess what? I can appeal my case to heaven. God's going to sort it out later. For now, I'm going to walk in love. I may lose some things in this world, but guess what? I'm supposed to have lost this world when I got saved anyway. I was supposed to count it all as lost when I got saved anyway. To be like those saints in Hebrews 10 who counted the spoiling of their goods, joy. They knew they had a better and enduring treasure in heaven. Amen? Thinking back to the cross, thinking back to the fact that we are not entitled to a day on this earth. We're not entitled to a breath. We're not entitled to any good property, any good possessions, any good treatment. We're not entitled for people to treat us good. We're not entitled for people to treat us the way we think we deserve. We're entitled to hell. And when we realize that, we lose this sense of entitlement. And when we see what Christ laid down for us, we're willing to lay down this entitlement, lay down our liberties, lay down things, yield to our brethren. Let them be right. Let them win. Let them have their way like Abraham did with Lot. And so that there's peace and so that there's love and unity amongst us. Amen? Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. Lord, this is hard for us, especially in this society, Lord. We're very litigious. We're very out for what's fair and what's right, Lord. But I wonder how much we're out for God's glory. I pray, Lord, that this will be a church we would be like Phineas, Lord. We will be about the glory of God. We would be weeping over God's name being dragged through the mud, far more than we're ever disturbed for what happens to us. I pray that we would be like Moses in that respect, who would not defend himself, but, oh, he defended God. He was ready to defend God. When they made that golden calf, he ground it to powder, but he wouldn't defend his own name. He just left it with you. I pray that would be us, Lord, as we learn to walk in the spirit in Jesus name. Amen. All right. We're going to have a communion here.