So tonight we are continuing in our series on our covenant life together, an exploration of the Grace Covenant Church membership covenant. And we come to paragraph four. And as I was thinking through really my whole life as a Christian, I can honestly say I've never heard a message on 1 Corinthians 6. I only say that to say it's not a very popular topic to talk about disputes between believers. But I actually thank God that as controversial and as difficult of a topic as this, that the Lord has given us light. The Lord has given us revelation. He's given us answers on how to think about it. It's a similar way of thinking about, for example, all the hard Psalms in the book of Psalms. There are Psalms in the book of Psalms that put words to my grief that oftentimes in the valley of despond, I don't have words for. I could reach for the Psalms and they can give articulation to what I'm feeling. So also when it comes to how to settle those nasty, difficult, challenging, complexing situations that have every need of intricate wisdom within the life of the body. that Paul has given us some options which are frankly just off limits. I thank God for that. So we're looking at the settling of disputes within the body of Christ and I'm just going to read for you the portion of the paragraph that we'll be looking at. It says this in paragraph four, we commit to the settlement of disputes by and or among the members of the church without appeal to any outside civil court, according to Matthew 18, 15 through 20, and 1 Corinthians 6, 1 through 8. So America has become, I would say, the most litigious society on the face of the earth. And we've become so because our culture is obsessed with one thing. Our culture is obsessed with rights. That's what we're obsessed with. We're obsessed with rights, and I'm not saying there's no place for rights, but like anything else, a legitimate conviction can turn into an inordinate obsession. And I think that that's what's happened, part and parcel of what's happened in America. This rights-oriented litigious society has so infiltrated the modus operandi of Americans that Christians can inadvertently imbibe it without thinking twice about it. Thankfully, however, as I said in 1 Corinthians 6, we have an authoritative apostolic declaration, you could call it an opinion, but really it's a declaration, on the whole matter of Christians settling disputes with Christians in the secular court. And here's the thing, if we really believe that the Bible is inerrant, inspired, infallible, and applicable to every area of life to which it speaks, Then here's the challenge set before us tonight. Are we going to be willing to submit to Paul's instructions for believers settling disputes among one another? What is our tendency or our temptation? when we actually get into that situation. What are we tempted to say? What are we tempted to think when we get into a nasty dispute with a believer that has the prospect of going to court, and then we look at 1 Corinthians 6, what are we tempted to say and think? Well, my situation's different. Paul didn't have my circumstances in mind when he was pinning this. Okay, so you're wiser than Paul, you're wiser than God, and there's no instructions for you in the Bible. I don't think so. I think that God was exceedingly wise in using his servant to pin this for a number of reasons that we're going to look at tonight. So why don't you open your Bibles and look at 1 Corinthians 6. I'm going to read in your hearing verses 1-11 and then we're going to consider this sticky issue of believers going to court amongst one another. 1 Corinthians 6 verses 1-11. The Apostle Paul says, when one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we're to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life? So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers. I'm trying to add the sense of sarcasm that Paul is putting in here because it's a spiritual gift. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded that you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers? Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Here comes a gospel bomb right here in verse 11. And such were some of you. but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So let's consider this tonight. I'd like to look at it under a number of heads, and the first head is this. Let's just look at the context and recognize what I'm calling the boundaries of jurisdiction. What was going on here? More than likely, what was going on, and I won't go into the detail about the Greek words that are used, but when he uses words like defraud, That word is most commonly used in Greek literature for a dispute that either has a disagreement over a high financial figure or over property. So there were two parties in the church, both believers, probably landowners, which means that they're probably wealthy because only wealthy people and citizens own land in this time. Had a dispute, probably over land, perhaps over finances, and obviously even with property, finances are involved as well. And they decided, instead of resolving it in the context of the church, to go to civil courts. And what Paul is basically saying, very simply, is that the church is to deal with its own matters in house. So there's a very simple principle here. The church has jurisdiction, which that means authority over matters of the heart within the context of the church, and it has its own set of penalties that it dishes out, if you will, within the context of the church. What is the most extreme penalty that the church can dish out, if you will, called the keys of the kingdom? What is that? Excommunication, right? And all that means is any protection that a person may have under the confines and authority and umbrella of the church is now stripped away. And according to 1 Corinthians 5, they are wide open to the wiles of Satan. Paul says, hand them over to the Satan for the destruction of his flesh, but hopefully for the salvation of his soul. Now the church does not have jurisdiction over criminal activity. And so there are certain things that happen within the context of the church that go beyond our jurisdiction, and we must go to the state, okay? So if there were, God forbid, a case of pedophilia, sexual abuse, in this congregation, certainly the elders are going to deal with it behind closed doors, but that is concurrently with reporting it to the state. We're not gonna mess around with that. There are criminal charges and jurisdiction that must be answered to that goes to the state. But this is not the case here. There was not necessarily, there may have been, but there wasn't necessarily criminal activity. It was a disagreement on a business venture. And Paul had just finished telling the Corinthians in chapter five to put the sexually immoral man out of the church, who by his profession was in the church. So that was the man who slept with his stepmother. He told him to do so based on the authority that Christ had given the church to deal with the matters inside the church. And he says, if you back up in 1 Corinthians chapter five, verses 12 and 13, this is very interesting. This gets at the distinction between the jurisdiction between the church and the state. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, so purge the evil among you. It is the task of the church to purge evil from withinside the church. Now, here's the next thing we need to remember under this head. The church has everything it needs to deal with interpersonal matters between believers through the word of God and the gospel. Ephesians 3.10 says this, that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Now that doesn't mean that within every single congregation you have the level of wisdom that one might hope for, but it does mean that if it's not in your local church, you can go to the universal church and get help without going to the civil courts. In other words, this is where we as Baptists want to have a fraternity with other churches so that if issues arise in the church that maybe we might say are beyond our caliber, our skill, that we can go to other pastors, go to other men and women in the church who have expertise in these areas and try to seek arbitration or reconciliation between two brothers. So what does 1 Corinthians 6 teach in a nutshell? Paul, very simply, forbids Christians to sue persons who are members in good standing of a Christian church that is faithful to Scripture. Now, I've picked those words very choicely because we're going to come back at the tail end and give some qualifications to that. So let me give that again. What is he teaching? Paul forbids Christians to sue persons who are members in good standing of a Christian church that is faithful to scripture. Now, does Paul say anything in here that would forbid us from going to court against unbelievers? No, he doesn't. Okay, so every case seems to be judged by its own merit, but Paul is not forbidding going to court at all. He is limiting the scope of his instruction to believers who are good standing within the church. So that believers were going to court against unbelievers was shameful for three reasons. So let's look, secondly, why is it shameful for believers to sue each other in secular court? There's three reasons. The first reason is this, an eschatological reason. This is what Paul does. Paul always goes to the eschaton. He always goes to the end. He always goes to the new heavens and the new earth. to frame our response to matters and pressures and difficulties and challenges and temptations in this life. He takes the reality of who we are in the future to shape and form our response in the temporal time. What does he say? He says, don't you know that in the eschaton, you, together with all the saints and with Jesus, are gonna judge angels and the world? Yes. Yeah, Daniel chapter 7, 21 to 22, makes a reference to saints judging the world. And 2 Peter 2, 4, Jude 6, and I know this isn't inspired, but 1 Enoch 67 to 69, which is Jewish apocalyptic literature in the vein of 2 Peter and the book of Jude, says that we will judge angels. So yes, good question. What is he doing here? This is a greater to lesser argument. If you're going to judge the world and angels in the eschaton, then how much more lesser matters in this life? Trivial cases in this life. And the triviality doesn't come in like petty theft as opposed to grand theft auto. The trivialness that he's talking about is this life is trivial compared to the eschaton. That's what he's getting at. And so it's a greater to lesser argument. Don't lay your case before those who have no standing in the church. This is what Paul says all throughout his letters. You know what he's saying? Be who you are. Be who you are. You are inheritors of the new heavens and the new earth that comes with wisdom, that is godly, led by the Spirit. You have, within the context of the church, what it takes to adjudicate these cases. Here's the second reason why it's shameful. because it brings shame upon Christ and his bride. It was an embarrassing witness for the Christian community to exchange disparaging characterizations and accusations between unbelievers in a public forum. You know what they were doing? They're essentially airing their dirty laundry before the world. We shouldn't air our dirty laundry before the world. The fact of the matter is, sadly, many who go by the profession of Jesus Christ or many who claim to be Christians have given unbelievers ample reasons not to be Christians. We don't need to give them more clout, we don't need to give them more excuses, we don't need to give them more reasons to deaden their conscience and not listen to the need of the gospel. But we do that when we clog the courts and the dockets with ridiculous cases, because what we're communicating to the world is this, we couldn't figure this out in the context of the church, so we had to come to worldly wisdom. It's a shame. And can I just say one more thing? Can I just step back and make an outside observation? Do you notice that for Paul, there's a place for shame in the context of the church? I think sometimes in American culture, we think, well, there's no place for shame in the church. Well, Paul is saying right here, his driving motivation is to say, Corinthians, you should be ashamed of yourself. And not ashamed of yourself for ashamed of yourself sake, but ashamed of yourself because what your actions are doing is tarnishing the name of Christ and tarnishing the purity of the church. There's a place judiciously used, governed toward and leveraged toward gospel realities to use shame to bring people to truth. Now, a third reason why this is shameful, and this is huge, is that civil courts treat symptoms while the church treats heart matters. He says in 1 Corinthians 6, 4, so if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? Because they have no standing in the church, they will not judge disputes between believers in a way that treats the heart. Instead they will simply deal with the symptoms and render judgments Paul knew that the adversarial civil court system encourages the type of behavior that nurtures spirits of contentiousness resentment unforgiveness and bitterness Which are the exact opposite of the fruits of the spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness fidelity gentleness and self-control Antonin Scalia, one of the, I think he's dead now, he was a Supreme Court Justice, he's quoted as saying this. Judges can also tell you of brothers and sisters, he's talking about literal brothers and sisters, permanently estranged by litigation over a will, or of once friendly neighbors living in undying enmity because of boundary dispute that is, in financial terms, inconsequential. Whatever the legal rights and wrongs of such matters, these results are not worth it. What does James say about where disputes arise? He says in James 4, what causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. When such quarrels come before the civil court, do you think they care about reconciliation? They don't care about reconciliation. All they care about is fixing a symptom, putting a Band-Aid on a symptom and rendering judgment that oftentimes makes both sides even more bitter because each side didn't get what they wanted. And guess what alters or fixes the desires that they have in their heart? The gospel. And what does the church have? The gospel. So the gospel gives to this problem what it really needs, the real solution that it needs. I do not say that that means it's going to be easy, but I do say that the church gives what the state cannot. Now, another reason that Paul is giving this advice is because this is consonant with his Jewish background. Remember when Moses was getting up in the morning and judging cases from morning to evening? And then old Jethro comes along, his father-in-law. He's like, what are you doing, Moses? Why don't you appoint some judges and distribute the justice? He's like, oh yeah, that's a great idea. So he appointed judges within the context of Israel. They didn't go to the Assyrians. They didn't go to the Philistines. They didn't go to any outside court. They judged matters within the context of the people of Israel. And so Paul is taking the general equity of that model and taking it up in the new covenant and making it binding for the Christian church. Now Paul also says in verse seven, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? If we don't know what it is to be willing to be wronged, we haven't understood the work of Christ. Love covers a multitude of sins. It is a man's glory, the psalmist says, to overlook an offense. I'm not saying that there's no limit to this, but if we, as we examine our lives and our hearts, cannot identify any incident in our life where we are willing to overlook an offense, then we may have fallen prey to the rights-oriented attitude of our culture. I have known godly men and women who have not been paid back large sums of money that they loaned to a Christian brother. Rather than make us think about it, because they could afford to go without it, they just let it go. They sought peace and not litigation. But even in the cases where it is understandable that you don't let it go, but instead seek restitution from your Christian brother or sister, there's a vast difference between seeking restitution in the secular courts and seeking restitution within the context of a local church. Now let me say under number three here, Let me point out the grave consequences of greed and its remedy. Here's all I want to say here. I'm going to kind of sum this up, okay? I read verses 9 through 11, even though I think our knee-jerk reaction would be that verses 9 through 11 don't belong to this context. Because how do we usually use 9 through 11? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not enter the kingdom of God? And then he gives this list, right? But do you realize that that's connected to this matter of brothers taking brothers to court in secular courts? Here's the thing. I think that when we think of what heaven's gonna be like and how it is populated, our desire as a church is to imitate what heaven looks like here on earth as much as we possibly can, right? So there will be no homosexuals in heaven. So we seek to keep those who are unrepentant in their homosexuality out of the church here. No adulterers in heaven, so we try to keep adulterers, unrepentant, hard-hearted adulterers out, and we use the keys of the kingdom to do that. I think we're comfortable with thinking about putting homosexuals out. I think we're comfortable with thinking about putting adulterers out. But what else does this list say? The greedy. Swindlers. Have you thought about that? When's the last time you heard of a church excommunicating somebody who was greedy? Now I understand greed is kind of a hard thing to measure, right? Homosexuality, that's pretty easy. Adultery, that's pretty easy. How do you measure greed? I wouldn't say it's impossible. But I think the fact that we can't think of instances where the church has put out greedy and swindlers and thieves says more about the culture's grip on our church than the apparent absence of swindlers and thieves and greedy people in the church. So here's the thing, what is Paul saying here? He's saying there is a place if people will not listen to the instructions of Paul of putting greedy people out of the church, of putting thieves out of the church, okay? But what is the consolation for that? What is the consolation for those who are greedy or were greedy or were swindlers or were thieves? Verse 11, such were some of you, but you were washed. The gospel changes adulterers, homosexuals, idolaters, thieves, drunkards, just as much as it changes the greedy and the revilers. and the swindlers. Here we see Paul's gospel ethic coming through in all of his letters. What does he say to the Corinthians? Be who you really are. You were those things, but by the power of the gospel, you are no longer those things. So what's the ideal scenario? Number four. The ideal scenario, very simply, is that you would use Matthew 18 with any dispute that you have in the church. What is Matthew 18? Somebody sins or offends you, You go to your brother, they don't listen, you take two or three, they don't listen, you take it to the what? The church, and the church adjudicates. Now let's just say that a matter was, a business dispute was brought before the church, and the elders seek to roll their sleeves up and work through the matter. And there are some technicality things there that are above their pay grade. What can they do? There's actually a group of Christian lawyers who are called Christian conciliators that you can meet with so that it stays in the universal church. And what they will do is they will seek to bring about arbitration in the case of disputes between believers and bring some type of resolution. That way you don't go to litigation in civil courts. But number five, What happens if things aren't ideal? Let me give you a few suggestions, okay? What if you have a dispute with another brother or sister in another church? So not in your church, but in another church. And that brother or sister says, my elders are unwilling to deal with the matter. You have two options, two alternatives. Number one, you could just drop it and be defrauded, like Paul says. But if wisdom would dictate that that would be unwise, you can ask your elders to seek out those elders. Because by the way, you're just going by the word of this brother or sister. You ask your elders to go to those elders and say, hey, can we meet? Can we work through this? All of Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians six. Can we, you know, bring this into the courts of the church and deal with this? And if they do great, then you work through it. If they don't. Here's where it gets tricky. If the church refuses to follow the instructions of Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians six, then you have a big decision to make. What the Reformers taught us is that there are three essential marks of a church. They preach the gospel, they administer the sacraments biblically, and they practice church discipline. And the Reformers said, if one of these three, one or more of these three marks are not there, then it is not a true church. So if your elders have strived to work with those elders and they just refuse to practice church discipline, Then your elders, I believe, have the liberty to declare that that is not a true church. And if it is not a true church, then the person with whom you have dispute is not part of a true church, therefore not a member in good standing. And then and only then would you have the liberty to pursue the matter in civil courts. Now, even then, you wanna think long and hard about whether it's worth it to bring it into the civil court system. But the reason I bring that up is because sometimes things are not always cut and dry. And the fact of the matter is, in our church culture, there are thousands, maybe more, of people who are claiming to be Christians and hiding behind the supposed authority of their church, when in reality, they're not Christians at all. And if they have defrauded a Christian, and they're not truly a Christian, they should have the liberty to go to court against them and see them as an unbeliever. Now, let me just give you finally some preemptive practical considerations, and I'm just gonna blow through these real quick, okay? Let me give you three thoughts, all right? Number one, know what you're getting into. If you, and I think specifically of our congregation here, because I think we have some people in this congregation who are small business owners, people who are handymen, people who engage in projects, know what you're getting into. Take into consideration the wisdom and maturity of the brother or sister with whom you're getting into a business deal. Do they have integrity? Are they committed? Are they committed to their relationships? Are they committed to the church? Are they committed to their wife? Do they have a good business ethic? Just know what you're getting into and ask yourself, if this goes south, is it worth dissolving this relationship? Just ask yourself that. Please be wise as serpents and gentle as doves and take into consideration there's nothing wrong with having a contract with a brother or sister. If you think about it, when I go to Mr. Woodbury's shop and I get my car fixed, there's a contract. They commit to do their part, I commit to pay, okay, there's a contract. And that happens all over the place in secular matters. Why do we think, why do we gullibly, I would say, think as Christians? Well, he or she is a Christian, so we're all one in Christ, so he's gonna be honest, he's gonna be full of, come on, really? I mean, I think we've all had too many bad experiences where we've learned that some Christians, dag nabbit, they don't act like Christians. Have a contract. A contract where you can know when to expect payment, when the deadline for work is going to be done. If that deadline's not met, you know, is payment deferred, how do all those things work? A contract can help to lay out clear protocol and provisions for cases when payment is not made according to contract and when work is not done according to contract. And then finally, and this goes with the second one, Take church membership and church discipline into consideration when you're entering into a business agreement with a fellow believer. What do I mean by that? If you're gonna enter into a business agreement with somebody outside of this church, you need to know, are they a member of another church? Have you ever thought about that? Well, think about it for a second. If things go south, who are they gonna have to answer to? They're gonna have to answer to their elders. And if their church doesn't practice church discipline, guess what there's a lack of? Teeth. to hold their feet to the fire and make sure that they act as Christians. Furthermore, if they do have church membership, some churches will have membership but they don't practice church discipline. Does their church practice church discipline? So again, you can have teeth that will hold their feet to the fire. I don't think there's anything wrong with writing into the contract that if things go wrong, we on either side will commit to submit to the decision of our elders in the church. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And I think you're actually protecting yourself and you could write in the contract, we commit to not going to civil court over any disagreement. So finally, the gospel is the remedy to quarrels. Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 20 to 23, for what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, that is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth, When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. The gospel should inform our response to disputes with Christians. Like Jesus, we should be willing to be wronged. And like Jesus, we should be willing to overlook offenses. And if necessary, if there must be a dispute, we submit our decisions to the context of the local church in accordance with 1 Corinthians 6 and Matthew 18. All right, I'm gonna pray for us. I'm gonna dismiss us. And if anybody wants to stick around for questions and discussion, we can do that, okay? Let's pray. Father God, thank you for your word, and thank you especially for your word in this very controversial and difficult matter. I pray that you would give us wisdom, Father, and I just pray at the outset that There would never be such disputes in this congregation. But Father, if there be, I pray that you would give us the wisdom and the willingness and the humility to submit these judgments to the wisdom of the church, that you might be glorified and your name might be preserved in the minds of unbelievers in this world. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right, you are dismissed.