Will you please turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 5? We will read from verses 1 through 8. Actually, we want to cover chapters 5 and 6 this morning.
It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father’s wife.
And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him that hath so wrought this thing,
in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
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.
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ:
wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we do praise and thank Thee for Thy tremendous, amazing love for us. Thou lovest us to the uttermost. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou wilt never let us go, but Thou wilt pursue us until Thy beauty, Thy life, Thy character, and Thy glory may be manifested among Thy people.
O Lord, we do praise and thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We ask that Thy Holy Spirit will open Thy Word to us and open our understanding. We pray that Thy Word may fall into good ground and bear fruit unto Thyself.
We do realize, Lord, whenever we come together, we are in Thy presence. We are on holy ground. Teach us how to humble ourselves before Thee as Thy bondslaves. Open our whole being towards Thee, and allow Thy Word to do Its work in us, transform us, and conform us to Thy blessed image. We give Thee all the glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We have been fellowshipping together on this most important subject: our calling. We, as the redeemed of the Lord, have been called to a wonderful fellowship. We are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, can you ever imagine people such as we are, and yet God, in His great love towards us, should call us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ?
Think of the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Whom is He fellowshipping with? Sharing together without any reservation, in perfect harmony. He is fellowshipping with His Father in the Spirit; and likewise, the Father opens Himself completely to the Son, withholding not anything from His Son, sharing together with His beloved Son.
And just think that God has opened up this divine, holy, perfect, eternal fellowship to us who are redeemed. So we have the privilege. Every one of us who is redeemed of the Lord has been called.
And because we are called into this fellowship, we ought to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul said, “When I come among you Corinthians, I have determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
Now why? Because it is Jesus Christ and Him crucified that brings us into that fellowship. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified that enables us to fellowship. That is the only way, that is the only content, and that is the only possibility. Therefore, we need to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And if we do that, we will truly be one, as He and the Father are one.
You know, as you begin to read this letter to the Corinthians, you will be amazed that Paul could, at the very beginning, say that we may speak one thing, that we may be united in one mind and one opinion. Now, how can that be?
If we are really faithful to our calling and really know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, then Christ is not divided. Otherwise, there will be division—not only division in the world, but division in the church. And that is what we find in the first four chapters of this first letter to the Corinthians.
Now this morning, we would like to go into the second problem that the church in Corinth had. Again, it amazes us that this was not something the Corinthian believers inquired of Paul in their letter to him.
Paul said, “This is something that is universally reported.” In other words, when you talk about division, he said the household of Chloe told him about their division. But here, he did not need anyone to tell him, because this was something universally reported. It was known everywhere. Even when Paul was not in Corinth, he heard about it.
Strangely, the Corinthian believers did not even ask Paul about this problem, because to them it was nothing. They were so dull in their conscience that they considered this thing as common, as nothing to worry about. But the Apostle Paul, with his keen perception, spirituality, and discernment, considered this a most serious problem. It had to be addressed, and it had to be dealt with.
Now, what is the problem? The problem is incest. A brother in the church in Corinth took his father’s wife, and this was something not even known among the nations.
Yet when this happened, the church at Corinth said nothing and did nothing, as if it were nothing. But when Paul heard of this, he saw that it was a serious breach of the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. It was such a contradiction, an affront, a violation of that fellowship—that sacred fellowship—so unholy and so unclean.
And Paul’s spirit was stirred. So he said, “Even though I am not with you in body, in spirit I am with you. And in spirit I have judged this matter. With you all, I have committed this man to Satan, that his body may be destroyed in order that his spirit might be saved.”
Brothers and sisters, when Paul dealt with this situation, he took the higher ground. In other words, he was not just looking at this sin, or at other things—as you will find in chapter 6, where he mentions that one brother would go to the court of the world to accuse another brother.
When Paul was dealing with all these negative things among God’s people, he took the higher ground. That is to say, he looked at them from the standpoint of the positive—from the standpoint of God’s purpose, God’s heart, and God’s will.
Therefore, in this chapter he mentions the matter of, “Let us keep the feast” with unleavened bread. That is his approach.
Now, brothers and sisters, we know Paul said, “Our Passover, Christ, has already been sacrificed.” Thank God, when we have the Lord’s table, it is the reality of the Passover feast that the children of Israel kept year after year.
When they were in Egypt as slaves, God redeemed them by the Passover lamb. Every family would prepare a spotless lamb, and on the fourteenth day they would kill that little lamb and put the blood on the doorposts of their house.
Everyone in the family gathered within that house, and they ate the Passover lamb. While they were eating, at midnight, the angel of destruction from God passed through the whole land of Egypt to kill all the firstborn in that land, both man and animal—from Pharaoh to the slave.
But when that angel saw blood on the door, he passed over. So it is called Passover. Because of the blood of the lamb, the Paschal lamb, the children of Israel were spared.
Now, brothers and sisters, we know this is a type, and the antitype—the fulfillment—is in our Lord Jesus Christ. God sent His only begotten Son into this world as the Lamb of God. He came to take away the sin of the world, and because of that He was slain on Calvary’s cross, and His precious blood was shed.
Because our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed, the angel of destruction passes over us. Our sins are forgiven. We are spared. We are redeemed. Satan and the world were judged, but we were delivered. Now, that is Passover. Every one of us has our Passover.
Yet you find that with the children of Israel, immediately after Passover—the next day after Passover—they had to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As a matter of fact, these two feasts are together.
In the New Testament, you will find that sometimes the Feast of Unleavened Bread is called the Passover feast, because they are one and the same thing. You cannot separate these two feasts. Even on the day of Passover, you eat unleavened bread; and after that, for seven days, the children of Israel should eat only unleavened bread. In the houses of the children of Israel, there should be no leaven whatsoever.
According to the custom of the Jews, before the Passover they had to search their house most seriously. They searched the house to see whether there was any leaven left. They had to purge out all the leaven from their house. Why?
Because in Exodus we are told that if anyone, during that Feast of Unleavened Bread, should eat leaven, he would be cut off from the commonwealth of Israel. In other words, he would be deprived of all the privileges of the covenant of God with the children of Israel. It was a serious thing.
Passover is just one day, because our Lord Jesus was sacrificed once and for all. You cannot have a second time. It is only once, and He has done it forever. But the Feast of Unleavened Bread continues for seven days.
Why? Because seven in the Scripture represents perfection and fullness on this earth. In eternity, the number is twelve; but on earth, seven is a perfect number. So it simply means that the Passover feast was kept for one day, but the Feast of Unleavened Bread had to be kept seven days. In other words, it is continuous.
It is a lifetime thing to us. With the children of Israel, there were only seven days; but with the church, it is a lifelong feast. The church is celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and we will celebrate until the return of our Lord Jesus.
So here you find the Apostle Paul says, “Our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.” We recognize that, we accept that, and we believe that. But if we believe that, then what shall we do following that Passover? Let us celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
So, to put it simply, the church today is celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The church itself is a new lump. It is meal, three measures of meal, to be offered to God as an oblation, as a food offering.
So, brothers and sisters, we are all in the days of celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You can see the seriousness: if there is any leaven in the church, it has to be purged out, because it is in contradiction even to the meaning of Passover, to the meaning of our salvation. It is a contradiction to what God has done.
We, being redeemed, must keep the feast with sincerity and truth—not with malice and wickedness, not with leaven, but with unleavened bread.
Now, what is leaven? Leaven is not permitted to be offered to God with the meal offering. In other words, when you offer the meal offering—the flour, the bread, the loaf—you have to offer it to God without leaven. If it is with leaven, it will not be accepted.
You know, in offering there are two things you cannot offer: leaven and honey. No honey, no leaven. Why?
What is leaven? Leaven is something, a dough, that you put into the meal, into the flour. By putting the leaven in the flour, it begins to ferment. Then you find the flour begins to be blown up, puffed up.
The result is that flour, or that meal, becomes larger than it really is, and softer, more tasty to people. Now, that is what leaven is.
We use leaven when we are making bread. I remember when I learned to make Chinese bread, I used leaven, and I saw how the flour was puffed up and blown up. People like leavened bread. If it is unleavened, it is hard. It is hard to digest, and it is not as tasty. You know, that is leaven.
But leaven in the Scripture always speaks of something evil and corrupt.
You remember in Matthew 16:6 and Matthew 16:12. One day, our Lord Jesus Christ was crossing the sea, and suddenly He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
The disciples said, “Well, we forgot to bring our bread.” But our Lord Jesus said, “Do you not remember? Five loaves and two fishes fed how many people, and how many were left? And you remember how, on another occasion, four thousand people were fed, and how many baskets were left?” He said, “I am not talking about physical bread. I am talking about the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
Now, what is the doctrine of the Pharisees? We know that the Pharisees were the strictest sect in Judaism. They made studying the Bible—that is, the Old Testament—their life work. They not only studied, but they tried to keep every letter there.
More than that, they believed and followed the teachings and traditions of the fathers. In other words, when you open the Old Testament, you have the Word of God there, but you also have principles concerning how all these teachings are to be applied.
Throughout the years, rabbis—great rabbis—were raised up, and they tried to interpret these Old Testament texts and make applications of them. Suppose it says that on the Sabbath you should do no work. Now, what is work?
If you are hungry and go through a field of wheat, you can pick the grain. That is not work. But you cannot rub it. If you rub it, that is work. There are all kinds of things. On the Sabbath, you can walk only a certain distance; if you overdo it, you are doing work. In modern times, when you get into an elevator, if you push the button, you do work. That you cannot do.
Now, what is the doctrine of the Pharisees? What is the leaven of the Pharisees? They blow up the Word of God. They put something into it—human thoughts, ideas, and interpretations—and blow it up, making it more than what it is.
They mix truth with falsehood, human teaching with God’s Word, until it suits the taste of people. So our Lord Jesus, on this earth, said, “You hypocrites,” because you keep the traditions of the fathers and violate the Word of God.
Who can accuse these Pharisees of not knowing the Word? No, they knew the Bible. They were teachers. But they were not keeping the commandments of God, mixing human traditions with God’s pure Word. That is leaven.
And what is the leaven of the Sadducees? The Sadducees were another sect in Judaism. As a matter of fact, at the time of our Lord Jesus, the high-priestly family were Sadducees. They were rationalists. They rationalized the Word of God.
If something did not appeal to their reasoning, they said, “This is not true.” So they did not believe in resurrection. They did not believe in spirits or angels. They did not believe those things because they were beyond human reasoning.
If you say they did not believe in the Bible, they studied the Bible. They tried to keep the moral teaching and ethics in the Bible, just like people today. They love the Sermon on the Mount, thinking it is the highest ethical teaching in the world. But do they keep it? Are they able to keep it?
Now, this is the leaven of the Sadducees. If you say they do not believe, they are a sect of Judaism. If you say they believe, they do not believe. That is where the confusion is.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Why? Because if it is one hundred percent error, everybody will know and nobody will believe it. But if you mix error with truth, that is leaven. It blows up, it puffs up, but it suits human taste.
Yet our Lord Jesus makes it very clear: to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a lifetime matter. So every sin, every wickedness, every leaven has to be purged out.
Now, how do we keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Remember what the Bible says: “Let us keep the feast.” Is this a celebration? What do you celebrate? You celebrate something that our Lord Jesus has already accomplished for us.
Think of that. He is our Passover Lamb. He has delivered us from sin, from the world, from our old man, from the flesh, and from the whole creation. He has delivered us completely. We are now a new lump.
So we celebrate. How do you celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread? It says, “Keep the feast, not with old leaven.” You cannot celebrate with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
You see a contrast here. If you celebrate with malice and wickedness, that is the old leaven. If you celebrate with sincerity and truth, that is unleavened bread.
Now, what is malice? In our Chinese Bible, malice is translated “hidden poison.” It is poison that is hidden. That is malice.
And what is sincerity? Sincerity is transparency—completely open, transparent, nothing hidden, crystal clear.
And what is wickedness? Wickedness is the opposite of truth. Whatever is not truth in the sight of God is wickedness. Truth is the Word of God. Truth is Christ. Anything that is not Christ, anything that is not according to the Word of God, is untrue; it is wickedness.
So we cannot celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread with malice and wickedness. The only right way to celebrate is with sincerity and truth—nothing underground, nothing hidden; pure, transparent, open, according to the Word of God.
Brothers and sisters, we want to ask one question: Why was it that the church in Corinth reacted in such a way? With such a hideous sin in their midst, they did not mourn. They did nothing. They considered it very common. “It is okay. It does not matter.”
Do we not know that if there is leaven, sooner or later the whole lump will be leavened? That is the reason you have to purge out the leaven. You cannot allow even a little leaven in it, because eventually it will pervade the whole lump.
That is a most serious thing, and yet the Corinthian believers considered it as nothing. Why?
We already mentioned at the beginning—not today, but formerly—that the Corinthians were noted at that time for two things. They were noted for their eloquence. You speak like a Corinthian: eloquent.
But there was another thing: you live like a Corinthian—corrupt. That is what they were. But thank God, our Lord Jesus shed His blood. He washed them. They were sanctified; they were justified.
But how could they be so negligent that they did not even consider this as something serious? Probably, on the contrary, they thought themselves very liberal, openhearted, and loving.
Why? Basically, it was because they did not take the cross of our Lord Jesus into their lives. They believed in the objective work of the cross, but they did not allow the cross to work in their own lives.
They wanted to live their own easy life. Whatever they liked, they wanted to do it. They rejected the working of the cross in their lives, and that is the reason you find everything old—the old leaven—coming out.
So, brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ and Him crucified is so central to Christian life and to the church. If you do not know Jesus Christ and Him crucified, if you do not allow Jesus Christ and Him crucified to come into your life—not just as a teaching—eventually it will be like the church in Corinth.
We all talk about, “Do not judge.” “If you judge others, you will be judged.” In Matthew 7:1, it says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” If you judge others, you will be judged; therefore, do not judge.
But, brothers and sisters, if you read the Word of God carefully, there are two different kinds of judging. One kind is bad. We should not judge in that way.
That is to say, if we judge by criticizing, despising, boasting, and being arrogant—thinking that we are perfect and others are not—that kind of judging is forbidden. God is our Judge.
If we judge people with critical eyes, the same judgment will eventually come upon us. But that does not mean that we should not judge. Why? If you read all of Matthew 7, it says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.”
If you see your brother with a mote in his eye, you go to him and say, “Brother, you have this mote there.” I thank the Lord that our Lord was a carpenter. In a carpenter’s house, when they are doing woodwork, you have all these little things flying around, and they can easily get into your eyes.
Our Lord said, if you go to your brother and say, “You have a mote in your eye; let me take it out,” remember that you have a beam in your own eye. How dare you judge your brother? Judge yourself first. Take out your beam, and then you will see more clearly.
Does that mean that you just let your brother go? No. Then you help that brother take out the mote from his eye. In other words, it does not mean that you do nothing and say nothing, as if you have not seen. Not at all.
Judging has another meaning, and God wants us to judge. To judge is to discern. We have to judge between good and evil, right and wrong. If there is no sense of such judgment, what kind of life is it?
God is love, but He judges. We need to discern. Of course, we need to judge ourselves first.
If we allow the Holy Spirit to judge us, and allow the cross to work in us, then we will have the spiritual discernment to see what is going on in others. We will have the ability to serve and minister to them. Without judgment, there can be no ministry.
Therefore, the Bible says the spiritual man discerneth all things. If you cannot even discern, how can you help? How can you minister?
So here you find there are two kinds of judgment. See the judgment of Paul. He said, “I am with you in spirit. My spirit and you are together, judging this matter. Purge out that leaven.”
In other words, this is judging in spirit, not in the flesh. If you judge in the flesh, that is wrong, because you are arrogant. You think that you are perfect. Who are you to judge?
But if it is in the Spirit, there is humility, there is love, and there is ministry. That is the judgment that we have to have. The church in Corinth had no judgment.
Paul had to touch their conscience, to try to arouse them, that they might discern, judge, and even execute. Otherwise, if they allowed this thing to go on, sooner or later it would leaven the whole church. Purge out the leaven.
When you read 1 Corinthians 5, you may think Paul was too harsh: “Deliver that person to Satan. Let his body be destroyed.” Why? That his spirit might be saved. There is love behind it.
Then, if you read on to chapter 6—and even chapter 5, verse 12—Paul says, “For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within?”
In other words, we have no right to judge those who are without. God judges them. But we have a moral responsibility to judge those who are within, those who are fellowshipping together. We need to judge one another.
That is to say, we need to minister to one another, to help one another towards celebrating with sincerity and truth. Otherwise, we fail in our responsibility.
Continuing on in chapter 6, Paul says, “Do you not know that one day we will judge the world?” The saints will judge the world. If today you are acting like the world, how can you judge the world in the day to come?
Because you are separated, therefore you can judge the world. One day God will give the judgment of the world to His own Son and those who are with Him.
If we are chosen to judge the world, Paul says, “Do you not have anyone among you who can judge among the brothers?” Must the brothers go to the courts of the world to get things settled? Is there no wise man among you? Why do you defraud your brother? Why are you not willing to be defrauded?
More than that, he says, “Do you not know that we will even judge angels?” Think of that. Angels are higher than man, and one day man will judge angels. So what kind of purity, what kind of character, must be built in man?
Brothers and sisters, let us not be mistaken. There is nothing wrong in judging if it is in the right spirit. It is wrong if you do not judge.
How can parents raise up their children without judging? No judging, no discipline. That is what you see today in this country. If you judge, you are not loving. In order to love, do not say anything. Let people do whatever they want.
Dear brothers and sisters, how twisted is our reasoning. If you really study the Word of God, you will find truth and love are one.
If there is truth, there is love. If there is love, there must be truth. You cannot love the untrue. If you love the untrue, you do not really love; you hate.
If you see a brother in fault, and you have been in fault before, you have experienced it, repented, and received the working of the cross in your life—if you see a brother doing the same thing and say nothing, do nothing, let it go, and call that loving—you are hating your brother.
You need to help your brother. The Bible says those who are spiritual should help those who are weak, who may fall; but beware that you be tempted.
So, dear brothers and sisters, our whole concept needs to be corrected. Today we think that if you love, you do not care about truth, because if you tell the truth, it will cause problems. People will react. People will be hurt. “Oh, do not hurt. All right, everything is okay. Nothing is wrong.”
You hate your brother. What will happen when he appears before the judgment seat of Christ? We will be acting like Cain: “Am I responsible for my brother?” God says, “You are responsible.”
Love sacrifices oneself in order to complete the other. That is the love of Christ. That is the love of God. That is true love.
You know, when I read 1 Corinthians 6, I wonder—and I wonder if you wonder too—why is it that toward the end of that chapter, in 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul says:
All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient.
All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Now, why does Paul suddenly say these things? “All things are lawful for me.” In other words, we were once under law, but thank God, we are now under grace. Because we are under grace, all things are lawful.
Now, do you understand this? In other words, you are above law, and because you are above law, whatever you do is lawful. But even so, he says, “Not all things are expedient.” Yes, you can. You are free.
I remember in the early sixties, during those days when “the sons of God” and all these things were going on, people went into a store and just took things without paying. Why? “We are sons of God. It is all our Father’s. All things are lawful. I am free. I am above law.”
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we interpret freedom in that way. “All things are lawful to me. We are the redeemed of the Lord. We are sons of God, children of God. Therefore, we are above law. We can do anything. All things are lawful.”
But remember: not all things are profitable. Yes, all things are lawful, but do not be brought under the power of any. If you are brought under the power of anything, you become slaves. You are no longer the sons of God; you become slaves.
So you find how often we interpret our freedom, our liberty, in such a way. It is abusing the liberty that God has given to us.
Maybe the Corinthian believers said, “Thank God, we are saved. We are above law, so all things are lawful. We can do anything.” And Paul said, “Now remember, not all things are profitable. If it is not profitable, do not do it. If you come under it, do not do it.”
And what is true liberty, true freedom? We are free from sin. We are free from the world. We are even free from ourselves, from our flesh. We are free to worship God. We are free to serve Him. That is freedom—true freedom.
So, dear brothers and sisters, here you find that the Corinthian church had leaven among them, and yet they were not conscious of it. Their conscience had to be aroused so that they would purge out that leaven and keep the feast with sincerity and truth.
Now, when you read 2 Corinthians, many commentators believe that the man Paul mentions there—the man who had been judged by all the brothers and sisters, convicted, and who had repented—is the same man. Paul says, “Forgive him. Receive him.”
Most likely, the man he refers to is this man who had committed incest.
So may the Lord have mercy upon His church. May He preserve His church from corruption. May He have a glorious church, holy and blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
God, have mercy upon us.
Dear Lord, we thank Thee for Thy love towards us. We thank Thee for not letting us go free. We thank Thee for touching our spots and wrinkles. We thank Thee for removing all the leaven, for desiring that we be holy, without blemish, in Thy presence.
O Lord, have mercy upon us. In Thy name. Amen.