Take your Bibles and turn over with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. On June 19, 2014, the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination voted to change its definition of marriage and allow its pastors and elders to perform gay marriages. The vote in the denomination was 429 to 175 of the General Assembly of 1.76 million members of the Presbyterian Church of the USA. To change the definition of marriage, I read this as well, an article, the United Methodists lose one-fifth of the US churches in a schism This is dated June of 2023 by a growing defiance of the LGBTQ bans. More than 6,000 United Methodist congregation, a fifth of the US total, have now received permission to leave the denomination amidst a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ. and then I saw this this week, this is what prompted a little bit to just kind of research back, came up. Mississippi's largest United Methodist Church votes to leave the denomination. A congregation that is said to be the largest United Methodist Church body in Mississippi voted overwhelmingly to leave the mainline Protestant denomination in Jackson, Mississippi. voted to disaffiliate itself from the UMC Mississippi Conference after months of discernment over whether to join the thousands of congregations that have left the denomination amidst the schism over their stance on LGBT positions, and said the church plans to change its name. And some, just a few of these things that I've just kind of read. Also noticed that this summer there was a split within the Southern Baptist Convention this summer over the ordaining of women ministers. And the denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to uphold its stance on no women preachers, but a lot of the Southern Baptist churches chose to disagree and separate over the convention's decision. And so it's just interesting that as we see in so many of the denominations and churches across America, many of our churches have fallen because of faulty leadership. but has gradually over a period of time led their churches and the larger denomination of those churches into anti-biblical views and going more towards the populace of what the world is saying and what the culture is saying. And many of these leaders who are afraid of standing up for what they believe in, But there are some churches who are standing strong and their leadership is standing strong. And it has become a very divisive thing in our very woke world that we live in. And I see when we come to First Corinthians, the church at Corinth had a leadership problem. And it was a struggle within this church. Obviously there were unity issues. You had multiple different groups that were divided. And chapter 1 dealt with that, a lack of unity, and this church was unhealthy because of the schisms that were happening. Different leadership within those groups, those subgroups, had pride that was welling up in their heart. People were against one another and not in the right place of God's Word. And Paul rebukes them for it. And then later on, as he is dealing with his church, we also see there are some problem with ignorance or ignoring sin. And in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says, it's reported commonly, it's public knowledge that there are members within your church who are living openly in sin. And I can, and Paul says, I've heard of it all the way from where I am. And you're puffed up. And he says, you have chosen not to mourn, not to be sorrowful about that sin, but in your arrogance thinking that you are more spiritual because you are choosing to be unaffected and ignore it. And Paul says in verse 2, he said that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from you. Now look at verse 3, and the time I have is brief this evening already, I understand that, so we'll just look briefly at a few verses here. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you gather together, And my spirit, that's with you, he said, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, you gather together to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Let me mention a few things just here this evening when it comes to Paul and his leadership. Paul recognizes that the leadership at Corinth is lacking, not standing up for the Lord, and not dealing with some things that should be dealt with. So the Apostle Paul, in this one long sentence, verse 3 down to verse 5, is one of Paul's long sentences, in this description of what he's going to talk about, what Paul does is Paul's going to pull rank. He doesn't often do this, but when he has to, he will. He pulls out his apostolic card. And he says he uses that authority of being an apostle of Jesus Christ. And there's only a few apostles. It is not everybody can, and they will die off at the end of the first century, John being the last of them. There will be no more apostles. The gift of apostleship was given to the church for the first century only of that time for the writing of scripture and the leading of the church until eventually the canon of scripture was closed and then that position, that gift of apostleship no longer carried on after the first century. that the Apostle Paul could pull his Apostle card in this place. And I believe what he's doing is he is giving some leadership where leadership is lacking. And he's doing it in the form of a pen because he can't be there in body. So he is being there in spirit through this letter by the word of Jesus Christ. However, the Apostle Paul does not overstep his authority. Even the Apostle Paul recognizes he's going to give strong encouragement, strong advice, and strong authority. But when it comes down to it, the Apostle Paul is not a Pope. He's not some area where he can come over the church and then say, I'm going to make this decision for you. No, he gives his strong advice, this is what you need to do, and I'm warning you. And then he says, but you need to do it. I'll be there in spirit with you. I'd love to be present with you, but here's my judgment. Therefore, you need to fall in line and make this decision too. Paul uses the word that we don't like to hear, judge, the J word. We live in a time when it's like, you can't judge me. I can do what I want. Who are you to be my judge? And the Apostle Paul uses this word in a strong fashion. We all like to be our own people. We all like to be independent. We all want to come to our own conclusions with our mind and then make judgments and determine. We all want to be, to some extent, our own boss. And when someone comes in and makes a judgment about our lifestyle and our choices and our decisions, We kind of put up defenses and walls. However, what the Apostle Paul is setting here, is he's setting within the corporate body of the church, you have the truth of God's word. And we are to make moral judgments, moral decisions, based on people's lives, and how they live, and whether their life matches up to the word of God. And when you're talking about the membership of the congregation, we are all accountable to one another. And we all hold underneath the Word of God. And the leadership of the church, and the body of Christ corporately together, is to judge one another. And that may make you feel uncomfortable, especially in a very independent mindset. in a subjective mindset that I have my rights, I have my decisions, I can make my right, I can believe what I want, you can believe what you want, we'll just come to disagree. However, what the Apostle Paul was saying, when it comes to morality and right and wrong, we have thus saith the Lord, and we can rightly make judgment based on someone's obedience or disobedience to the word of God, and then hold them accountable to that. The Apostle Paul is saying that the church in Corinth is not making good judgment. Not making a good decision. And the Apostle Paul is saying, I've already judged. I've made this decision. This man is living in sin. And he needs to be dealt with. Now you need to make that judgment as well. Call it for what it is and deal with it. Don't look the other way. As Paul says, I have already judged, I've already given you this word and this decision, make this moral judgment and discernment. And I wanna say in some extent for all of us, even for the young people and the young adults in our church, we are to make moral discerning decisions, okay? Moral judgments. There is a way by which we should do that. And the Bible gives us directions. That's why we compare Scripture with Scripture. And I believe the Apostle Paul is walking the road of what it means to hold people accountable in their actions to the truth of God's Word. He will deal with this in another passage. Turn over with me to the book of Galatians chapter 6. I've alluded to this, but I want you to just see this. We're talking about making moral judgment based on other people's decisions, specifically those decisions that are counter to the Bible. So when we compare what Paul has said in Corinthians, and then we compare it to the book of Galatians, and I believe, if I remember my order right in my New Testament epistles, I believe Galatians comes before Corinthians. in the order. So Galatians has already been written and spread out through the churches of Galatia. And then the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians are then written out. And so if we're following this in line, then this word has already been spread out by the time the church at Corinth. Did they have the book of Galatians? We don't know. If Paul spent time in Corinth for a while and had already written this book, I'm sure this material had already been addressed with the church at Corinth. So when we come to Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1, listen to what the scripture says. Brethren, talking to believers, these are churches in Galatia, multiple churches that are gathered together. If a man be overtaken in a fault, and let me just mention this word overtaken here. This word overtaken is the idea of being trapped, being caught. It can have two ways, I read really widely. Sin has a tendency, this is what sin does, to trap you, to blind you, and to catch you. Right, that's what sin does. The devil lays the snare, he gives the temptation, and then you go and bite it when you get it. The chains of sin, the cords of sin that wrap up in your life. We talked about this in Sunday school as well in the book of Proverbs chapter seven, where this man who has fallen into sin, and then he realizes, like a bird in a snare, like a deer in a trap, he says. Like a man bound with his cords, sin that wraps him up, and now he's trapped. That's what the devil wants to do, is to trap people with sin. However, there's another instance about this. When he is overtaken in a fault, this means he has found out. He's caught in his sin, or she's caught in her sin. This happened in David's life, when he thought nobody knew. He passed the letter on and put it through the captains, and then Joab read it, and Uriah was killed, and nothing, and Bathsheba was brought in, and he married her, and then she was already pregnant, and then they lived this life, and whew, nobody found out. And then all of a sudden, Nathan comes to him. It says Nathan, or it says David. People know your sins will find you out. And David is caught, if you want to say it, he's overtaken. His sins are then revealed. Because see, those whom God loves, He chastens. And when you're caught in your sin, however that may be, that is a measure, if you're a child of God, that is a measure of God's love. He does not want you to continue in that sin. So oftentimes you can't turn around and say, oh, that person's father, if we don't want to walk in at that time, or if you need to check in my phone and doing this or that. God loves you. And he doesn't want you to continue in that pattern of sin. So when you are overtaken, yes, sin traps and catches us and chains us. However, God loves and at times he will expose that sin to those around and then you are found out. and it's consistent with the scripture, when that happens, when a sin is learned and found out and you're discovered, then the scripture says in this verse, you who are spiritual, which are spiritual, restore such a one. Now remember in the instance of the one who is spiritual, this is very important. You see, the Corinthians thought themselves to be spiritual. However, Paul said, you're carnal, you're babes. You think you're mature, but you're actually babes. So the church in Corinth was carnal in their level, all right? So Paul, seeing the absence of spiritual maturity and leadership in the church at Corinth, he's got to pull his apostle card from way far away and make the decision for them and encourage them to step up the plate. Because nobody in Corinth was standing up doing anything that was right. And Paul was saying, you need to grow. And what Paul says here is those who are spiritual, not puffed up, not self-righteous, but those who are mature and walking in the Lord. Not those who haven't all figured out. But the leadership of those who have responsibility to know that there is a life that we should live that is in line with the Word of God. Those who are spiritual. Those with spiritual eyes to see someone. And notice what he says here. Restore, this word is a medical term, meaning to set something straight. If you've got a broken bone, They would use this word to take that bone and restore it. Put it back. And then splint it up. And wrap it in a cast. So then it would be restored. That's what this word means. To make that which is crooked, bring it back and correct it. Such a one. Notice what it says. In the spirit of meekness. Some of you may have a translation that says in the spirit of gentleness. The word meekness is the same word that is used in Galatians in the previous chapter for one of the fruit of the Spirit. It is power under control. This does have a tendency to deal. When you're correcting someone who has a broken arm or a broken leg, you want a doctor who's gonna do it in a tender yet firm way. You know, he's not gonna tell the nurses, all right, hold him down and we're just gonna chop it off. And here's this giant needle and we're just all over the place, all right? No, no, no, you want a doctor who has soft hands, right? And you want a doctor who's gonna be tender. And even though it is gonna hurt, like anything else, he's gonna say, now there's only a hurt for a minute, right? And then we'll make it all better. You want a doctor who's gonna be tender. Yes, he's gonna be honest, he's not gonna be deceptive. but he's gonna be gentle. He has all the power and all the tools to just, you know, just go on right in and do it. However, you wanna at least give you some instruction ahead of time of what to expect because the spirit of meekness, humility. And notice he says at the end of this verse, considering yourself, here's the warning, to consider yourself lest you also be tempted. This is where humility comes in. This is the reason we need to deal with discipline in a tender, compassionate, spiritual, mature way. It's because we understand that when we've been in that place, or we could be in that place, we would want someone to deal with us in the same manner. Knowing that temptation is strong. Knowing that if it wasn't for the grace of God, we would all be blinded by our own wants and passions and desires. First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12 tells us, let him that thinks he stands, take heed that she fall. So as Paul deals with this in Corinth and he lays out the pattern by which we are to help restore those who have fallen into sin, we can also compare this with Matthew chapter 18, which would come from a word from the Lord Jesus Christ as he gives the pattern by which we are to walk through and how to deal with those who have been overtaken by a fault. So it's important. As I mentioned earlier in Matthew chapter 18, after he tells you that one has an offense, go to him one. If he doesn't, take two or three witnesses. If he doesn't listen, then go before the church. If he doesn't listen before the church, then you are to put him away. And then you come down to that last verse that we said, as he gives in, where two or three are gathered in my name, I will be in the midst. And that verse is in the context of church discipline. In other words, when the church makes a judgment on a person's life who has chosen to refuse God's word and to live rightly, and the church makes a decision to say, we want to restore, we want you to follow in this pattern, God says, when you do that, I'm right there in your midst, in your power. You remember we heard last week from the missionary about love, tough love, that sometimes love comes along and has to be firm and has to correct. And it doesn't seem like it's loving to the person who is receiving the correction, maybe even receiving the discipline, but it is love nonetheless. And the Apostle Paul is seeing this church at Corinth who has a leadership problem, and he's saying, I'm going to make this judgment, and then I'm going to highly warn you. You need to do the same. And then he lays out into the rest of the chapter the pattern by which to follow. Father, I pray as we close this evening. Lord, would you help us to have a tender spirit, a meek spirit, a gentle spirit, With those who have made decisions that are contrary to God's word. That maturity comes along and says that we're going to consider ourselves. Knowing that God loves and cares and often will discipline. It is a measure of God's grace. And yet within the body of Christ we hold one another accountable and we love one another. Sometimes love is tough. And Lord, we pray that your tenderness and your graciousness would speak through us even in the process of encouraging others and admonishing others to do what is right. And if there is someone here tonight who has some hidden sin, and all of us deal with some kind of sins that we need to constantly be confessing, but if there is someone here that is living in sin, and consistently in a pattern of that, Lord, don't let them get away with it. Lord, would they be overtaken and caught because you love them and you care for them? And Lord, would you encourage them to do what's right and to make it right? Thank you for the opportunity that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And Lord, you love us and you care for us and you long for us to show forth the testimony of Jesus Christ in a very wicked and perverse world. And oftentimes that means we need to make stands in a world that says right is wrong and wrong is right. We come back and filter things through God's word. In Jesus' name that we pray.