Missing the Mark Series: The Failure of Self-seeking and Vindication

Missing the Mark Series: The Failure of Self-seeking and Vindication

For our scripture reading this morning, would you please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I'd like to go to verse number 1. Begin the reading in verse number 1. Bear any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.

Let's mark our Bible to this portion of scripture this morning for the message, and once again acknowledge him and ask his blessing on the word that we have read.

Our gracious Father, we thank you that you clearly, as we've already seen this morning, you make it clear in your word what we should do and what we shouldn't do. And we want to gain a greater heavenly perspective, eternal perspective, your perspective, Lord, even on this matter of sin and all its manifestations in life, Lord. And we do want to abhor that which is evil. We do want to cleave to that which is good, so help us in that, Lord. Help us to understand the true nature of sin and the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of our sins. And, Lord, now that we have been accepted in the Beloved, help us. Help us to live for Christ. Help us to live day by day in a way that a watching world could see there is a difference. There is a marked difference in our lives, not simply in the way we dress, but also in our spirit, also in the way that we treat one another, also in the way that we talk, the way that we think of others, the way that we treat others. Lord, help us. Help us that Christ may be seen in all these different aspects of our lives, that we may bring glory to the one who has called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. Help us to see even today, Lord, is there some sin in my life that I wasn't even aware of? Lord, something that is keeping me from more of the blessings that are found in Christ and being a blessing even to others as I am called to be. So help us in that today, Lord. Bless us as we continue in this worship service. May we honor and exalt the name of Christ. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

The Lord has laid it upon my heart to bring out some of the aspects or some to speak of what is it about sin and the missing of the mark, what does that look like? We talk about missing the mark, but why is it that it grieves God's heart when we sin against him, when we sin against his word? And why did Jesus Christ have to go, he didn't have to, but why did he go to the cross to die on that cross for our sins?

The Jew, last week we said, the Jew thinks, well, Romans chapter 2, right, I'm better than the ones over in chapter 1. I'm better than the pagan, the unbelieving. And I mentioned even last week that I certainly want our children to know this world is full of sin. This world is full of sin, but at the same time I don't want them to think that just because you were born in a Christian home and just because you have been taught better things, that doesn't make you not a sinner. Just because you haven't gone to the full potential of sin in the missing of the mark does not automatically save you. You need the Savior yourself. Every man, all have sinned. And there are different aspects of sin. There's different extents to which the will has gone in rebellion in that sin. There's different understanding of knowledge. We even pointed out last week that there's language in scripture that indicates punishment will be more severe for those that had more knowledge and still sinned against that knowledge that they had.

We've talked about the age of accountability and how there's indication in the scriptures, I believe, that well, the scripture makes it clear the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Yes, we've inherited a sinful nature, but we are going we are going to answer for our own sins when we stand before the Lord. We're going to give an account not so much for Adam's sin, but for our own sins that we have committed in that day. And if we stand before a righteous and holy judge without a Savior, we have no hope. But thank God that we do have a Savior who perfectly hit the mark. He's the only one who perfectly hit the mark. He fulfilled the scriptures. He obeyed the law. He was made under the law, and he obeyed it perfectly without sin. He knew when he said, among you that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. Well, he knew that if people were honest, they would say, well, I'm not without sin. I have sinned. I've come short of the glory of God. Well, missing the mark. Missing the mark.

Now, there are different ways in which the mark is missed. There's a word here for sin in our text today that I want to bring out, and it may be one that we don't typically think of. It is very little found in the Greek New Testament, but it is here in verse 7, and it is this word in verse 7, Now therefore there is utterly a fault, a fault among you. This is a sin, but it's translated here. It is the word fault. Interestingly, I understand that this word has the idea of something that is diminishing that which should have been given full measure. We might say they had fallen short in this thing that they were doing. They had come up short of what God expected of them in the way that they were handling things among themselves, or failing to handle things among themselves.

Now, you'll remember in the past couple years, we did go through 1 Corinthians a couple years ago through 1 Corinthians, and we certainly saw some things about this, but my heart was struck in this truth that there is a fault, utterly a fault among you. There is other ways that this could be defined as a diminution, a decrease, even a defeat. It's interesting, this word comes from the verb to be overcome, to be defeat, a defeat, to defeat. Interestingly, it was also used in the judicial terminology. It was used of a defeat in court. So, we're kind of putting together this idea of something that is a fault. It is a defeat. It is this idea of a decrease or a loss in some way of what should have been. What should have been, but it was not because there was a failure in some way to do what, as we're going to see here, what the Corinthians should have been doing, and they did not do, and therefore we might say Satan got an advantage over them through this sin on their part.

Now, let's draw back for just a moment to verse one where we read this very bold statement. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? We saw one Sunday school hour this morning, didn't we? We need to trust and obey God's plan. We need to do things God's way and not, what is our tendency? Our tendency is, as we saw in 1 Thessalonians 5, 15, render evil for evil, right? To render evil for evil. That's our tendency, isn't it? But, instead of doing that, we trust God's plan. We will not render evil for evil, but rather we will seek to de-escalate those things and we will understand that there's not, you know, two wrongs don't make a right.

Well, here in this passage, we see that the problem back in verse one is spelled out. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust? No, there are matters that rise among you. How are the saints to deal with them? Well, they're to deal with them among themselves, right? Among the brethren, in the church. There is a proper way to handle those things and the failure to do that is a fault. The failure to handle it as God has ordained in his word is actually going to result in a defeat. It is a defeat for God's people and that is not done as the Lord has laid out.

As he's going to say here in verse number two, Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? This kind of reminds me of that exhorting Euodius and Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Sometimes we can disagree over things that don't really even matter. And that's what we see in Corinth. There were a lot of these peripheral things and they were all uptight and concerned about. And Paul is addressing these things that if they had been spiritually minded they probably would have gotten the answers to them. They probably would have understood. And there were cliques and divisions and sects in the church. Paul said, I really like brother Apollos. I think he's true godly man minister. He's the best minister. And then there's Paul and some like Cephas. Different ones like different ministers. And pettiness, petty things that were going on. And like we said this morning, when there's strife and when there's disagreement, if that is not handled in a godly way it can lead to bigger problems. It can lead to more. And it's unresolved strife, unresolved matters. Words have been spoken, actions have been taken. There's sort of this even payback that happens sometimes. But sometimes it's kind of this passive aggressive sort of payback that can happen. And these things ought not so to be among brethren. These things ought not to be. But there was a lot of carnality and a lot of this kind of thing and gossiping and things going on in the church at Corinth. And we notice these are things Paul is rebuking them. And he's saying to them that if you're going to judge the world one day these things that are going to, in light of eternity that are going to seem like really small things why are we taking these before even the court of a public opinion? Why are we taking them before the courts of this world and going to law about these things against one another?

He says, Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life. If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church. I can't help but think how Paul has said. He's already said that God uses the weak things. God uses the base things. God uses the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. If anyone seemed to be something, let him be your servant. In other words, even the very least among you can take the word of God and let's resolve this with the Scriptures. Maybe you've gone to a brother. Maybe in this situation someone had gone to a brother and said, We've got to talk about this. There's some issue here and we need to resolve this. Maybe the brother said, I'm not going to talk to you about it or I don't agree with you about that. So you take a couple others with you. I believe in that situation these certainly should be spiritually minded individuals, not carnally minded individuals that should go. But here we're going to resolve this among ourselves and hopefully it doesn't have to get to the level of it's before the church. But it may come to that or it comes before the church. But we're not going to take this matter before the world. If the church is functioning like it should we're going to deal with this matter among ourselves as brethren. We're going to deal with this matter.

I've often said that if we have an ought against a brother or there's something we've been offended in something that's been said or done we need to pause and say, Is there something I've done that may have caused him to do that? You know, in a marriage. In a marriage, when you have two individuals coming together the two shall become one. You cannot have two self-centered individuals because it will not work. You will have bickering and fighting all the time. There must be submitting one to another in a certain sense. There must be serving one another by love. All those passages we read in Scripture apply to a husband and wife. Serve one another by love. Think not only on your own things, but think also on the things of others. And where there is a failure in that, there's going to be a surfacing of the other. There's going to be this rearing of its ugly head of strife and contention that's going to come up. And that's the fault. As we've said before, where there is a lack of wisdom, sin will manifest. We need to walk in wisdom so that we do not fall into sin in our lives. And walk into sin in our lives. Because if we are not walking according to God's wisdom, we will sin. It's the want of wisdom so many times that leads us into vanity which leads into sin. It is the want of love among ourselves as brethren, or love between two individuals as brothers and sisters in Christ, and love of self that produces these, and pride that produces these divisions, that produces these faults among the brethren.

Now, we see that they were having in this church, there was a real sin going on, a real shameful thing that was going on in the church that they weren't even talking, or they weren't even addressing. There was this sin that was not so much even named among the Gentiles, among those that are without, that was going on, a sin of fornication that was happening right in the midst of the brethren. But they were so caught up with these women to be right, and wanting to have the last word, so to speak, on something. Oh, I'm right about that. No, you're right. I'm right about this. And yet, there was this putrefying stench that Paul was having to address. There is open fornication going on, and you're not even dealing with it. What does he say here in verse number six? But brother goeth the law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong?

Look at how Jesus did when something was said against him in a bad spirit or in a way to try to harm him. He usually just, I think we saw where he just kept his mouth closed. He didn't even respond to it, except when it was said against the truth. The truth he defended. He stood very clearly against that. He drove people out of the house of the Lord, because they were turning it into a marketplace. But here we see, you know, sometimes you just need to forbear one another in love, right? You need to forbear one another in situations where there's friction and there's, you rub each other wrong, and then don't let that become something, because no one's willing to just take it, so to speak. Take it. And that's not so to speak. That's what he says. Suffer yourselves. Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? That person's personality gets on my nerves, we might say. Okay? All right? Are you going to tear the church down because of it? Are you going to die on that hill? Is that what you're going to make it all about? No. Are you going to take this batter all the way because of tit for tat to court? God forbid. I'm not saying there's never a point where we need to go to the brother. There is, okay? If this is hindering the fellowship, well, we need to sit down with God's Word, and even take some of the least among us, and let's sort this out before God, and let's have some humility about it, and let us love one another. By this, all men should know we are the Lord's disciples by the love we have one to another. Right? They ought to be able to see Christ in us in those things.

Obviously, later on, Paul was saying in 2 Corinthians, this repentant brother, he is truly, truly repentant, and he has sorrowed with godly sorrow, and they were still now not wanting to restore this brother. It's clear. He has been deeply humbled over this sin and has repented of the sin. But what we're noticing with all of this is this fault, this fault that would make them want to not let anything go, or not let it be resolved, but even taking it to the point of going to the court, the fault among them was the Lord has told you. He's commanded you that we're to love one another. And if any man hate his brother, then he abides in death, is what the Scripture says. If we hate our brethren, then we are actually abiding in death.

Now, I've seen in recent days in the independent fundamental Baptist world the failure of another man, and I won't go into the details of that. Another pastor that was greatly put up on a pedestal spoke in many youth conferences. People said when you heard him speak, you didn't hear him speak. You experienced him preach. You experienced it. It was a very big personality. And then now we have things coming out, going to a trial of situations that ought not to be named that aren't even hardly named among the Gentiles, the degree to which this man's sin has gone. I think about there are faults that arise in a church that should not have even ever come to a point that they're at because they ought to be dealt with between brethren. They ought to be addressed between brethren, and when they're not addressed and they're not dealt with in the biblical manner in the church, then they come to a level where we see gross manifestations that get out into the public eye, and these things ought not to be. We see embezzlement. We see adultery. We see pedophilia, all kinds of things. Boy, is the church ever at a low, the public image of the church today at a low hour, where there is great disrespect and shame that's associated with the name of Christianity because of this.

Now, I know I cannot control, you cannot control, anyone but your own response to the Lord. But I think about this church. I think about our church, the Lord's church here that he has, that we are a part of. We think of this example that's given to us here this morning, and I am exhorted, I am admonished by this passage of Scripture. If there is a fault, if there is something between me and my brother, let's make that right. Let's make that matter right. If there's something that I can just say, you know, I don't like how you said that or I like how you did that, but I am going to take it for the cause of Christ. If it rises to the level of a sinful spirit that's going on, well, let's address that, but let's address it with humility. Let's not let the devil get an advantage over us in this thing. Let's not let the devil have any more ground than he already has, because he's obviously very busy in the churches. We're told in Ephesians 4-3 that we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, that doesn't mean covering up sin. That doesn't mean turning a blind eye. Paul was, I believe this matter, whatever these matters the matters they were taking each other to court over were things that did not justify even in a secular context, that kind of thing. They didn't justify. They were not even, he says, smaller matters. Let us not miss the forest for the trees, because we're on some self-seeking, self-vengeance. We talked about that in Sunday School Hour this morning. Let's not render evil for evil unto any man. That self-centeredness blinds us from the real things we ought to be attending to. I feel like I was slighted by someone. Well, if we go around with a chip on our shoulder, we will feel like we're being slighted by someone all the time, won't we? If we go around with a chip on our shoulder, there's always going to be something that upsets us. And then what do we do? Do we get angry with someone or do we give them the silent treatment? That's how these clicks form in churches, right? We start, I'm not going to talk to him anymore. Or, you know, I'm going to hold this thought. I'm going to grudge against the brethren. The Scripture says not to do that because the judge stands before the door. The judge stands before the door. I am instead commanded to be kindly affectioned. Scripture, Romans 12-10 says, one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. Preferring one another. This doesn't mean that I sweep sin under the rug. If there's something that, you know, I'm to exhort my brethren. If there's something that a brother, that we saw in 1 Thessalonians, I'm to warn them that are unruly. But I'm to do it in love. I'm to do it in love.

There is this, in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, if you'll turn there with me, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, I've alluded to this passage of the desire to restore this brother. But let's turn to it now, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. There's a statement beginning in verse number 1. But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad? But the same which is made sorry by me. And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears, Not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is the punishment which was inflicted of many, so that contrary wise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, for perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things, to whom ye forgive anything. I forgive also for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it for your sakes, forgave I it in the person of Christ, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. The word advantage here means to claim more, to covet, to have more than one's due. We give ground to Satan when we do not follow God's way. When we do things our way, what is the picture here? We commit these faults. We are actually defeated because we are seeking our own rather than the things that are Christ's, the things that would bring glory to him. And here, isn't it interesting? There's this selfishness even that Paul's addressing here in this passage. The man has repented. The man has soared over his sin. What does he say here? The words we just read there confirm your love toward him. Confirm your love toward him. Even when a man has to be put out of the fellowship and delivered to Satan that he might learn not to blaspheme, even then you are to love and pray for him. When love is seen, the church may ultimately have to discipline in love for the glory of God, but even then it is not a hatred. The problem with these brethren were that they were seeking to vindicate themselves among themselves over things that didn't even matter, things that didn't even rise to the level of this other matter that was going on in the midst. And they were just gacking about it, but were not doing anything about it. They were gossiping about it. And Satan was doing what? He was taking advantage of it. He was taking advantage.

What I'm getting at with all of this is to say, we need to see sin as God sees it, not as, well, what are the consequences in my life? Well, somebody did something against me. We need to see sin as God sees it. Not only somebody else's sin, but our own. Before we take the mode out of someone else's eye, we need to address the beam in our own eye, the Scripture says. And if we do that, then we will go to the brother with a desire to reconcile, a desire to make it right rather than a desire to, let's just really punish him. Let's take him to court. Let's do all these things. I know that when my wife and I, when we've had to resolve things between ourselves, you've got to lower your voice. You've got to go to one another in love. And you've got to work through these things for the glory of God and for the good of your marriage. And it's very much the same in a church, because we're brothers and sisters here. We have got to resolve these things before God's Word.

There's many different backgrounds we have as brothers and sisters in Christ. There's many different expectations we have, many different personalities, right? But God must get the glory. If we fail to give God the glory in the way that we handle things among ourselves as brethren, Satan will gain ground. Satan will gain ground. The name of Christ will be further dragged through the mud, because you can guarantee that the world is watching, the world is looking, and they are ready to take advantage of failures, faults among believers. May all men know that we are our Lord's disciples by the love we have one to another. Can we see that the failure here was the failure of love for God first and love for the brethren, that they were even doing these things? And they understood the perspective that one day we're going to judge the very people we're going before. Let us not drag the name of Christ through the mud here. Sometimes it happens to a point that we don't have any control over it, but may we not be the cause. May you and I not be the cause of the name of the Savior being dragged through the mud, and Satan get an advantage over the church and over the brethren because of these things.

Self-seeking gets in the way of seeking God's glory. Satan takes advantage of vengeful spirits, doesn't he? He takes advantage of vengeful spirits, but he loses ground when we humbly deal with issues among ourselves as God has ordained for us to deal with them. He loses ground when we speak the truth one to another in love instead of just, you know, ignoring the issue. There's issues that need to be addressed, yes, but in love. He loses ground when we forgive those who trespass against us. He loses ground when we endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. May we, through Christ, we are overcomers. May we live like overcomers. May we not live like the defeated, so to speak. May we not live like, well, so much bad has happened in the name of Christ. Oh well, may we say, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for our church, let's pray that God will help us to stand upon his word and not seek our own selfish advantage. And, you know, the failure of doing that results in more sin, even the talk about it. It will lead to more ungodliness, right? May God, as the Scripture says, God help us not to grudge against the brethren, certainly not to go to court with the brethren. May God help us to see the heavenly perspective of this, that we would not fall into this trap by our own self-will of Satan, but that we would confirm our love toward the brethren, that we would honor the Lord in our spirit, one with another.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for these moments we've had in your word. My heart was just struck as I looked at the understanding of this word and what all is implied. And there's probably a lot more that we didn't even touch there, Father. But I want my heart to see it is when we fail to do things your way that Satan gains ground. That starts in a personal walk with you. It starts in a marriage. It starts with children and a home. It affects the relationship with our brethren and the church. Help us, Lord, to recognize any of these faults among us and help us, Lord, not to lose out on what you have for us because of this self-seeking. Lord, so many times it's been said by people, what could have been? What could have been if this had not been the case? What could have been? Well, Lord, help us to take that into mind. What all can be through Christ? What all can be if we will just do your will and think your way and treat one another as you have told us to do? Lord, help us in these things. We have a watching world that we live in the midst of and help us to shine as lights in a dark place. Until the day dawn, until the day star arise in our hearts, may others be able to see the love, the peace, the joy of Christ in our lives. We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.