Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070318.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
III. Overcoming Moral Disorders In The Local Church
B. Shifting Our Reliance In Secular Courts To Godly Christian Appraisal
(1 Corinthians 6:1-11)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Our secular courts do not render moral justice for Christians:

(1) When the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade case, Justice Harry Blackman who wrote a 64-page document on the decision noted that "objection to abortion came mainly from two sources: the oath of Hippocrates and Christianity. Since the oath specifically forbids abortion, the Court wrestled with its influence but concluded that, in the context of general opinion, ancient religions did not bar abortion.' As for Christianity, it was apparently dismissed by the court because of the separation of church and state." (The Rebirth of America, Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986, p. 86)

However, in making this ruling, the Court failed to follow its own precedent. In its 1892 decision on the Church of the Holy Trinity vs. United States, the Supreme Court noted: " . . . Our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian . . . " (Ibid., p. 21) Thus, in 1973, the Court bypassed its own 81-year-old precedent that the United States was "emphatically Christian" to adopt pagan views on abortion!

(2) "On November 17, 1980, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law that required the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms. It held these commandments were plainly religious . . . and may induce children to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and to obey the commandments." (Ibid., p. 82)

Yet, in sheer hypocrisy, "Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments, with the great American eagle protecting them." (Ibid., p. 68) When cases are argued before the Court, the plaintiff or defendant lawyers can see, meditate upon and perhaps venerate and even obey those same commandments!

(3) Columnist George Will summed up the moral failure of our nation's court system as it particularly affects Christians when he wrote: "And it is, by now, a scandal beyond irony that thanks to the energetic litigation of civil liberties' fanatics, pornographers enjoy expansive first amendment protection while first graders in a nativity play are said to violate amendment values." (Ibid., p. 84).

So, we ask, "What would GOD have us do in RESPONSE to this LACK of MORAL JUSTICE in our SECULAR COURTS for CHRISTIANS?"

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I am concerned over how our secular courts fail to render morally upright rulings for Christians, so how am I to respond?!"
  1. Paul critiqued the problem of Christians suing one another in secular courts by going before unsaved judges, 1 Corinthians 6:1.
  2. His REASON was a believer's spiritual stand and moral capacity to judge is vastly superior to that of unsaved judges, 1 Cor. 6:2-11:
    1. First, since believers will judge the world, including unsaved judges [and jurists as the case may be], it is wrong for Christians to submit to sue one another before the unsaved as the latter are positionally the least esteemed in their lost state before the Church, 1 Cor. 6:2, 4.
    2. Second, since believers in their glorified state (after the rapture) will even judge angels, and as angels [and demons, or fallen angels] are higher in creation than are Christians in their present state (Psalm 8:5 with 1 Thess. 4:13-18), it is wrong for Christians to submit to unsaved judges [and jurists] to settle problems between them, 1 Cor. 6:3-4. Indeed, Paul urged the Corinthians to find at least someone in the Church wise enough to settle their internal disputes, 1 Cor. 6:5!
    3. Third, in taking fellow believers to court before the unsaved, the Corinthians were abusing fellow believers by subjecting them to judgment by the lost who were positionally far below them, 6:6-7a!
    4. Fourth, in bringing other believers before unsaved judges [or jurists], these believers failed to take the Christian route of suffering wrong as opposed to taking their own vengeance, Matt. 5:38-40; 1 Cor. 6:7b!
    5. Fifth, besides not rightly letting themselves suffer wrong, the believers took vengeance on fellow believers, another sin, 1 Cor. 6:8!
    6. Sixth, the unrighteous judges [or jurists] before whom the Corinthian believers brought each other were morally ill-equipped to make decisions in contrast to the believers themselves, 1 Cor. 6:9-11:
      1. Paul's description of the sinners in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 aimed to describe the morally deficient court officials of 1 Corinthians 6:1:
        1. The Greek word, adikos translated "unjust" (KJV), "ungodly" (NIV) or "unrighteous" (ESV) that described the unsaved judges of 1 Corinthians 6:1 appears elsewhere in 1 Corinthians only at 1 Corinthians 6:9, cf. Moulton & Geden, Concordance to the Greek Testament, 1974, p. 22.
        2. Also, if we assume that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, the only other Scripture passages where he used this word were Romans 3:5 and Hebrews 6:10, and both of them deny God makes unjust (adikos) judgments in judging people, Ibid.
      2. So, the "unjust" described in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 are the "unjust" unsaved judges [and jurists] of 1 Corinthians 6:1 as follows:
        1. Some judges [or jurists] are sexually immoral (pornos), 1 Cor. 6:9b; Arndt & Ging., A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., p. 700.
        2. Some of them are idolaters, 1 Corinthians 6:9c.
        3. Some are adulterers (moichoi), 1 Cor. 6:9c; Ibid., p. 528.
        4. Some are catamites (malakos), those in a same-sex context who play the passive role (Ibid., p. 489-490), 1 Cor. 6:9d.
        5. Some are pederasts (arsenokoitays), those in a same-sex context who play the lead role, 1 Corinthians 6:9e; Ibid., p. 109.
        6. Some court judges [and jurists] are thieves, 1 Cor. 6:10a.
        7. Some of them are covetous, 1 Corinthians 6:10b.
        8. Some are drunkards, i.e., substance abusers, 1 Cor. 6:10c.
        9. Some are verbal abusers (loidoros), 1 Cor. 6:10d; Ibid., p. 480.
        10. Some of them are swindlers, 1 Corinthians 6:10e; Ibid., p. 108.
      3. In striking and vastly spiritually superior contrast to such morally-lacking non-Christian judges [and jurists], the believers had been washed, sanctified and justified, or pronounced righteous by God through faith in Christ, 1 Cor. 6:11 with Rom. 3:23-26.
      4. Hence, the unsaved judges [and jurists] were ill-equipped to render morally upright judgment for differences between the Corinthian believers, making it very wrong for these believers to sue one another before such unsaved parties in secular courts of law!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. (2) As a believer, if we are wronged by another, (a) may we either let ourselves be defrauded (Mtt. 5:38-40) versus suing in court [EXCEPT if the welfare of our DEPENDENTS is threatened and the WRONGDOER is UNSAVED, 1 Tim. 5:8], or (b) if our foe is a believer, may we submit to the advice of godly believers or let ourselves be defrauded if no such godly advice is available or if our opponent fails to heed what godly advice is given to him.

Lesson: The Christian's gracious standing before God and what ought to be his subsequent holy life is so vastly morally superior to the standing and life of the unsaved that it is abundantly wrong for Christians to take other Christians before unsaved courts, or to rely on such courts for truth versus relying on godly appraisals found in a godly Church, or to let themselves be defrauded if no such ruling is available or heeded by a foe!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

The one case that perhaps most dramatizes how futile secular courts with unsaved people can be to fail to provide truth and justice for believers is the famous "Monkey Trial," or the Scopes trial of 1925:

(1) At one point, Dudley Field Malone, one of the lawyers in support of evolution, charged that creationists "apparently thought that the evolutionists believe that man evolved from monkeys. He continued, It is not the view, opinion, or knowledge of evolution held by the defense. No scientist of any standing today holds to such a view.'" (Bolton Davidheiser, Evolution and Christian Faith, p. 93)

Creationist lawyer and Christian, William Jennings Bryan, rebutted this claim "by quoting Charles Darwin's own words, from the sixth chapter of [Darwin's book] The Descent of Man: The Simiadae then branched off into two great stems, the New World and Old World Monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, Man, the wonder and glory of the Universe proceeded.'" (Ibid.) (brackets ours)

Yet, "In spite of this, and other statements of the same sort . . . by Darwin and subsequent scientists, we are repeatedly told to this day that only the uninformed and the ignorant believe that according to the theory of evolution man descended from monkeys or from apes," Ibid.

(2) At another point in the trial, to support evolution, "Professor Kirtley F. Mather, Chairman of the Geology Department at Harvard University, testified that there are in truth no missing links in the record which connects man with other members of the Order of Primates.'" (Ibid.) However, "This is so far from the truth that it should have made him eligible for the charge of perjury, but . . . if steps had been taken to do this, his statement would have been considered an opinion, and therefore exempt" from this charge, Ibid.

(3) Christian lawyer William Jennings Bryan who defended the creationist view was so badly maligned in the trial that he died five days after it ended as a "crushed and broken man.'" (Ibid., p. 98, citing George F. Milton, "A Dayton Postscript," Outlook, 8/19/1925, p. 551)

So, just as the Apostle Paul wrote, unsaved judges and jurists do not have the necessary alignment to Biblical morals and ethics to judge adequately those who have been saved by Christ!

May we believers love all people, but NOT put confidence in unsaved man's secular courts to settle differences between us, but rely on the godly in the Church and ALWAYS trust in God!