Evict the Leaven!

1 Corinthians 5: 6-8 (ESV)
6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

A little bit of yeast makes the dough rise. A "little bit" of sin impacts every bit of our lives. Observing the Lord's Supper is a time for us to allow God's all pervading grace to evict that nagging sin from our lives. Join us Sunday, July 30th at 11 AM as we observe the Lord's Supper.

DEALING WITH SIN IN THE CHURCH

DEALING WITH SIN IN THE CHURCH

1 Corinthians Chapters 5 and 6 (NASBu)
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. 2You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Leviticus 18:7-8
'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. 8'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness.

Leviticus 18:29
'For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people.



1. We Are to DISASSOCIATE WITH CHRISTIANS WHO PRACTICE SIN.
9I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

2. We are to
DECIDE DISPUTES BETWEEN CHRISTIAN OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM.
6:1Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 2Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 4So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
7Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.
9Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.


3. We are to DECLARE OUR BODY’s OFF LIMITS TO IMMORALITY

Sexual Sin Harms You!
12All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.

Sexual Sin Controls You!
All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Sexual Sin Is a Gross Perversion of God’s Best for You!
13Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.


4. We are to DECLARE OUR BODY’s THE PROPERTY OF GOD!

Your Body Belongs to Jesus Christ!
15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "The two shall become one flesh."

Your Body Is the Dwelling Place of the Holy Spirit!
17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.


Galatians 5:1
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Proverbs 5:3
For the lips of an adulteress drip honey
And smoother than oil is her speech;

Proverbs 5:18-19
Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.



Vs. 1
Greek pornenia for immorality

Vs.2

God's Vision or My Dream?

How Do I Distinguish Between a God-Given Vision and A Self-Generated Dream?

"Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint," Proverbs 29:18. Vision has been defined as a God given picture of His future. Vision is seeing what could and should be rather than what is and shouldn't be. And more than ever God's people need God's vision for their lives.

John Piper, (desiringgod.org) the Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, is a self-described Christian Hedonist and states that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. A God-given vision is obtained as we go hard after God. When we are recieving God's vision into our lives we are delighting and satisfying ourselves in Him. The Psalmist stated it like this, Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

A God-given vision draws you closer to God as you pursue Him and His purpose for your life with everything in you, while a self-generated dream will take you farther and farther from Him as you pursue it. The question to ask as you seek to determine whether your pursuing His vision for your life or your own dream is , "Am I drawing nearer to you Lord?"

The Work of Saving Grace

How Does Saving Grace Change ME?

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The Work of Saving Grace

 

 

1. Saving Grace Creates a New Heart in Me!

REGENERATION

Regeneration is a change of heart, wrought by the Holy Spirit, who quickeneth the dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the Word of God, and renewing their whole nature, so that they love and practice holiness. It is a work of God’s free and special grace along.  (II Cor. 5:17, John 3: 1-18, Gen. 3:15, Exodus 3: 14-17, Matthew 1:21)

 

Ephes. 2:1, 4 & 5

Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. 4But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, 5that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's special favor that you have been saved!)

 

Ezekiel 36:26-27

And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. 27And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.

 

 

2. Saving Grace Gives Me a New Direction. (I turn from sin and self toward God.)

REPENTANCE

Repentance is an evangelical grace, wherein a person being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evil of his sin, humbleth himself for it with Godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrence, with a purpose and endeavor to walk with God so as to please Him in all things. (Luke 13:3, 5, Acts 2:21, 4:12, 5:11, 16:30-31)

 

1 Samuel 7:3

Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines."

 

 

3. Saving Grace Grants Me a Right Standing with God!

JUSTIFICATION

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal of sinners, who believe in Christ, from all sin, through the satisfaction that Christ has made; not for anything wrought in them or done by them; but on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith.  (Romans 5: 8-10, 10: 1-13)

 

Romans 5:8-10

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's judgment. 10For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life.

 

4. Saving Grace is Unshakable Trust in God!

FAITH

Saving faith is the belief, on God’s authority, of whatsoever is revealed in His word concerning Christ, accepting and resting upon Him alone for justification, sanctification and eternal life.  It is wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and is accompanied by all other saving graces, and leads to a Life of holiness.  (Eph. 2: 8-10, Hebrews 11,John 3: 3-21, 36, 5:4, 10:9, 28-29)

 

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

 

Job 13:15 (KJV)  

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. 

5. Saving Faith Generates a Desire for a New Lifestyle in Me!

SANCTIFICATION

Those who have been regenerated are also sanctified, by God’s Word and Spirit dwelling in them.  This sanctification is progressive through the supply of Divine strength which all Saints seek to obtain, pressing after a Heavenly Life in cordial obedience to all Christ’s commands.  (Romans 6: 1-23, 8: 1-18, 29-39, 10: 9-10-13, I Cor. 6: 19-20, II Cor. 5: 17-20)

 

Do you not know that the wicked will not 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.                      1 Cor. 6:9, 11

 

to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:                                         1 Cor. 1:2

 

"You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Leviticus 19:2

 

What are the Signs that Saving Grace is Working in Me?

 

1. Obedience to Christ!

1 John 3:9

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

 

2. Overcoming the Pressures and Temptations You Encounter!

1 John 5:3-4

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

 

3. You Are Growing Fruit!

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.