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Welcome to Studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching. And now here's Gary. We are a society almost totally given over to sensuality, to the point that nobody sees anything wrong with it because it becomes a kind of standard. The Bible is an adult book, and there will be a lot of scripture in the next couple of weeks that we will just kind of move right across and you can read it yourself and you'll know what it means. But the thrust of First Corinthians is Paul was writing to a people in ancient Greece who were absolutely secular, superior in their way of looking at life, thought of themselves as culturally, morally, ethically superior. They had more money than anybody else. They had virtually anything that they wanted if they set their mind to it. And they had become utterly given over to sensuality. Now, chapter five, which we looked at last week, talked about a report from the congregation that there is what the Bible refers to as fornication among you. And such fornication is not so much as named among Gentiles, just a four letter word today. Porn. It's there, it's everywhere. And what I want to do is try to convey what I believe Paul was attempting to convey, and that is that in a world such as this and such as we live in today, and by the way, I fight this same battle, I'm not any different from anybody else. In a world such as we live in today, you have to try to see yourself not as the human being you now are, but as the spiritual being you're gonna be. You have to see yourself in that way progressively. You have to change the view of yourself so that at last you begin to say, I'm going to be a human being, immortal, resurrected, without any disease, without shortcomings, to live and rule and reign with Christ throughout eternity. And we'll get into that in chapter six today because Paul talks about it having seen yourself that way. This world then becomes of practically no consequence. This world and the things that are going on here are such a blip on the radar screen of eternity, they'll be gone in an instant. And what you are eternally is all that will remain. And so you got to begin to see yourself as an eternal creature. Paul, referring to the problem in that congregation, got into the idea of judgment. And let's look at First Corinthians 5:9 12, or 9:13 as we go into the sixth chapter today. 5:9. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with fornicators of this world, or with covetous or extortioners, idolaters, for then must you needs go out of the world. In other words, you've got to rub elbows with people who are not absolutely pure people. The only way you can avoid that is to die. He says, so you're going to be living elbow to elbow with a bunch of dirty rotten scoundrels. But now he says, I've written unto you not to keep company of any man that is called a brother. This is concerning someone in the church be a fornicator, covetous, idolater, a railer, drunkard, extortioner. With such an one not to eat for what have I to do? To judge them also that are without. Do ye not judge them that are within, but them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now, what he's talking about here is fellowship among the believers. And he's talking about judgment, the concept of judgment. Very interesting, because nobody wants to be judged. Don't you judge me. Can't judge a man unless you've walked a mile in his moccasins or whatever, right? Don't judge me. Can't judge me. And in fact, a lot of people will quote the words of the lord in Matthew 7. Let's just go over there right now. Because a lot of people on the subject of judgment will say, judge not that you be not judged. Those are the words of Jesus. Well, this is where we ended last week. Matthew 7:1. Jesus says, Judge not that you be not judged. Well, that would seem at first to be contrary to what Paul is saying, right? Paul says, go ahead and judge. In fact, you need to judge people, particularly those within the congregation, those that are outside of the Lord. Let the state take care of them. But if they're in the congregation and you observe something going on that the Spirit tells you is not of the Lord, you need to judge that. So the words of Christ back here in Matthew 7. And by the way, this sermon of Jesus, commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, his first major sermon, he came to the Jews as king, announcing, I'm king, I am your king, I am your Messiah. Here I am, receive me. The relationship between Jesus and his people was not as savior to saved, but rather as king to kingdom. And it is on that basis that he is speaking to them in Matthew 7. Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again. In other words, you as subjects in my kingdom, be very careful of judgment. And he's presenting himself here as the righteous judge. And why beholdest thou the mote, that is the dust speck that's in thy brother's eye, but considereth not the log, that is the big stick that's in your own eye, going around judging other people, moving when you've got all kinds of things wrong with you. He's talking here about what we would call secular people. The Jews at this time had not received a spirit. They had no access to the Holy Spirit. Their king had come, and it was their job to receive him as king or to reject him, which they did. At this point, he's lecturing them on judgment and everyone to whom he's speaking, everybody in this crowd is an unsaved sinner. Flat out. He's not talking to any saved people here at all. He's talking to the Jews. They're not saved. In fact, they're flat out ignorant of what he is, of what he's going to do. And they're living in sin and they're walking around pointing a bony finger at each other. And Jesus says, verse 4. How will you say to your brother, let me put. Pull the mote out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye. Let me get that little dust pick out of your eye and you've got a log sticking out of your eye. Don't ever say Jesus didn't have a sense of humor. He did, you hypocrite. First cast the beam, the log out of your own eye, and then shall you see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye. Was this possible? No. Can anyone save himself? No. And Jesus knew that even as he spoke. How are you going to cast a log out of your own eye? He's talking about sin here. Jesus is saying to this Jew out here, before you can judge anybody, you got to get rid of the sin that's in yourself. How was that possible? It was not possible because Jesus had not died, shed his blood, he had not given his spirit in salvation. He's speaking theoretically here of that which is to come, but which in this day was not possible. He's speaking to people who can't judge each other because they're in a condition of lost, unredeemable sin. What's their redemption? Well, it hasn't come yet. He's standing in front of me speaking as king, but not as redeemer at this point, because that's still three years down the line, three and a half years. So verse six. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet, turn again and tear you apart. So the principle of judgment with which Jesus speaks, He's speaking to the unsaved here. And basically he's saying, you people cannot judge each other because you're in a condition of sin. Paul, on the other hand, writing to the Corinthians, says, you people have been saved by the blood of Jesus. You have a congregation that's spirit filled, and the Spirit gives you the ability to judge sin in your own congregation. The only question is, will you do it? And let me just sidetrack for a moment here and ask a question. Have you ever been in a congregation? I asked this question last week. Have you ever been in a congregation where somebody was sinning and you knew about it and you thought to yourself, I could point this out to a few key people, but you know, that would cause a lot of trouble. I don't think I'll do that. I think I'll just kind of let that go. Have you ever been in a situation like that? Boy, I don't want to cause trouble. If I spoke up and decried what's going on here, that might split this church wide open. I don't want to do that. Ever been in a situation like that? I have. And in fact, I was the one who did something. And it didn't split the church wide open. It split the church about halfway wide open. But I was forced to do something I didn't want to do because there was open sin. In a sense, this is what Paul is talking about. It's always easier just to kind of let things ride. You know it. I know it. It's always easier not to judge. It'll be all right. He'll come around. That's okay. It'll be fine. That's not what Paul is saying. Verse 12, 1 Corinthians 5. For what have I to do? To judge them also that are without. Do not ye judge them that are within. You're supposed to. Them that are without, that is, outside the church. God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. I have had the unpleasant duty at one point of having to put away a wicked person. Believe me, it's no fun. You don't want to do it. You have to do it. You may have to do it yourself, and you're not doing it in the civil or Legal sense. You're doing it in terms of morality based upon what you know from the Word and from the leading of the Holy Spirit. And it's not a legal process at all. Now, you can go to the Pastoral Epistles and find some legal processes over there, but it's not really a legal process we're talking about here. We're talking about judging on the basis of the leading of the Holy Spirit. And that's exactly where Paul goes at this point. 6 1. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. He's asking a rhetorical question here. Two people in the congregation have an issue. They're both saved. Do you take your case to a civil court? Well, there's a principle that he's talking about here, and the principle is church fights shouldn't be aired in state courts. That's basically what he's talking about. In fact, there's a book, the name of the book is Great Church Fights. It's a very entertaining book. Talks about all the great internal church controversies in history. Great Church Fights. Wonderful title. And in a lot of cases, great church fights have been taken to civil court and they shouldn't have been at all. And in fact, there are cases in court right now involving churches involving breach of contract, et cetera, et cetera. There have been some great church fights in the state courts, but Paul says, uh, this is not right. And on what basis is it not right? Verse 2. Do you not know that saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more are the things that pertain to this life? Now, this is the principle I was talking about a minute ago. You've got to begin to think of yourself not as a human, but with all kinds of foibles, shortcomings, weaknesses. You've got to begin to think of yourself as an immortal being with a glorified body and a perfect mind, perfectly meshed with the will of God through the Holy Spirit and given great responsibility, such responsibility, that you'll be able to judge the world. Now, I don't think Paul's talking about the great White Throne judgment here, in which God's throne will be set up and he judges the evil ones in the end of time. What I think he's talking about is the adjudication of affairs down through eternity. In other words, we are going to rule and reign with Christ. 2nd Timothy 2:12 says, if we suffer with Christ, we'll also reign with Christ. We're going to be co regent with Christ. In other words, as hard as it is to believe, as hard as it is for me to believe about myself, one of these days I am going to have regency. That is to say, I'm going to have incredible authority under the Protocols of Heaven. I'm going to have power, I'm going to have the ability to rule. I don't know exactly what I'll be given to rule. In a sense, that will depend upon how the Lord trusts me. And that in turn will depend on whether I have proven myself trustworthy in this life. But I'm going to have regency with the Lord in an immortal body, a body of light and a body of power, just like his body. That being the case, what am I doing worrying about this little body and all the little concerns of this little body? It's nothing. This is what Paul constantly tries to do. He's trying to get you in the frame of mind to start thinking of yourself as an immortal, as one who will judge the world. Now, the world here, where it says, don't you know that you're going to judge the world? He says, don't you know that you're going to judge the cosmos? That's what Carl Sagan used to talk about. The word world here in the text is cosmos. Cosmos is what it is. The sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the Oort cloud, the galaxy, the Sagittarian arm of a Milky Way galaxy. I mean, we're talking big stuff here. We, we're talking regency beyond our wildest dreams. The cosmos, which is in a broken state. And God is calling out a people to rule and reign. He's calling out a people for his name. What, by the way, does it mean to pray in Jesus name? We often say in Jesus name. Amen. What does that mean? In fact, somebody asked me about that a couple weeks ago. What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? Or what does the phrase in Jesus name mean? It means in the old sense of the word, having access to his. Regency, you remember when Joseph was sold to the Egyptians as a slave and he proved himself worthy to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said, I am impressed by this man. So much so I'm going to make him second in the kingdom. And what did Pharaoh do? Pharaoh gave Joseph his signet ring. And a signet ring is the ring that has the mark of Pharaoh on it. And you would press that ring into moist clay or into hot wax. And you would then be acting as Pharaoh's person. You would be Viceroy. That's exactly what it means when it says, don't you know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy of to judge the smallest matters? You've got to think of yourself as having Vice Regency wearing the signet ring of the King. Well, if you go around wearing that signet ring, it means you have to behave in a certain way, right? You are not cheap stuff anymore. You are not throwaway stuff. You are special. And it's only when people forget who they are in Christ and sink back to the human level that difficulties erupt in the body. So he's saying, we're going to reign with Christ. Revelation 20:6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power. That's us. We're going to be swept up in the first resurrection, actually in wave one of the first resurrection. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Now, the they here specifically would be the saved during the tribulation. But the principle is the same in some way that we don't yet understand. We're going to have access to the protocols of heaven and the regency of Christ, and we need to begin to think of ourselves in that way. I know it's hard. I know you'd rather think of yourself as somebody very much like you are right now, and you'd like to engage in things that make you comfortable right now. But, you know, the job of the Word is to afflict the comfortable right and to comfort the afflicted. You've heard that before. If you're pretty much happy with your life, even though it may have its faults, the Lord comes along and says to you, wait a minute, I'm going to rattle your cage a little bit, get you to think about who you are in Christ. Did you know that you're going to judge the world, the cosmos, the broken cosmos, and that includes Satan, the fallen angels. That includes things we don't even know about right now. And he says in verse three, don't you know that we'll judge angels? Well, those angels are the ones among others that are resting in prison right now awaiting judgment. While we're on the subject of judgment, who has the right to judge whom? We have a very small congregation here. Which of you can judge some others? Can anyone judge anyone? Well, yes, matter of fact, yes. At the leading of the Lord. Well, that's risky, isn't it? I mean, boy, that could unleash a bunch of trouble. Lord just told me I need to come tell you what you're doing is wrong. And before you do that, you might want to be really sure that it's the Lord telling you to do that. But you get the idea. You need to be thinking of yourself suddenly. Not as well. Gee, I got my own problems. I'm not perfect. And if that person over there does such and. Well, I'll just go ahead and let him do that. That's okay. Right? I'm not going to say anything. Right. I could cause trouble. Right. Well, okay. See ya. Bye. Bye. That's going to one extreme. The other extreme is suddenly finding yourself the chief adjudicator of the church who's compelled to go around and judge everybody. Both of those extremes are wrong. What Paul's talking about here is order in the congregation, operating in the Holy Spirit and not under civil authority. We're not supposed to think about law, but rather the leading of the Holy Spirit. Let's talk about those angels. Know ye not. By the way, there are eight know ye nots in First Corinthians, and I'm going to point out every one of them. The first one is First Corinthians 3, 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? The Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now, does that sound familiar? What's the subject there in that particular know ye not? Paul is saying, don't you know that you're the temple of God? It's the same thing I'm trying to say. In other words, you've got to get your mind wrapped around the concept that you are not a mere mortal. You are an immortal being who will be raised to eternal life and given co regency with the Lord. Don't you know that you're the temple of God? Yeah, but I don't really want to be the temple of God because that's a lot of responsibility. Right. That's kind of your reaction. It's my reaction. My reaction is I know how bad I am and not yet. Lord, I'm not ready to be thought of as a temple. Give me another 10 years and come back and see me, because by then I'll be ready to be called the temple of God. But not today, right? Forget it. You're saved. You're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You're the temple of God. The second Know ye not is in 5, 6. Talking about church discipline, your glorying Is not good. Know ye not the little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven. Number one, you're in the temple of God. Number two, you need to begin to see to it that the old ways are systematically removed and replaced by the new ways of thinking in Christ. Third, know ye not 6:2? Actually, 6:2 is do ye not know, which is slightly different wording in the Greek. And I take two and three together to be a kind of a combined. Know ye not judging the world and judging angels. That's the third idea presented in this letter by Paul. First of all, you're the temple of God. Secondly, purge out the thirdly. Don't you know that you're going to judge the cosmos and the angels? See, what Paul's doing here is building this idea step by step by step, that you are not who you think you are. You're already an immortal being. If you could just begin to think of yourself in that way. Yeah, you say, but that's hard to do. Yes, it is. It really is. But you have to do it. Those angels, those fallen angels go to Jude. Let's remind ourselves once again in the book of Jude about those fallen angels. And of course, we examine the Epistle of Peter as well about those fallen angels in Jude 6. The angels which kept not their first estate. In other words, they were supposed to live in the regions of, or the dimension of heaven. And at a certain point the angels looked toward the earth and toward the new creation that God had made there. And they said, you know, this would be really good. We could go down there. We're superior beings. We could just make hash of these human beings. We could turn them into our personal slaves. And essentially that's what happened. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great day. That judgment is coming and we're going to be part of it. We're going to judge those angels. How, in what way are we going to participate? I have no idea, but it's going to be interesting. I mean, it's going to be interesting. Second Peter, where Peter also is talking about false teachers, likening them to the fallen angels. Second Peter 2, 4. For if God spared not the angels of sin, but cast them down to Tartarus, the deepest part of Hades, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, spared not the old world, but saved. Noah, the eighth person, preacher of righteousness, bringing in a flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. Condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example to those that afterward should live ungodly and delivered just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Well, you get the idea. False teachers, false spiritual authority is going to be cast down, has been cast down to some extent already. But the judgment is coming and we're going to be part of it. The angels are superior to humans. Man is created a little bit below the angels. After we're resurrected, we're going to be superior to the angels, which is a very difficult thing to believe. But the Bible validates that idea. We'll be walking next to Jesus just as his disciples walked with him by the Sea of Galilee. We're just going to be walking with him. We're going to be, I don't want to say equal to him, because we're not equal. Not ever going to be equal to him, but we will be his companions and will be doing his will. It's almost more than you can believe. Am I right? It's just hard to wrap your mind. You mean that's good? You mean really, am I really going to be that way? That's your first reaction. Oh, this has got to be some kind of an imaginary thing, a fiction of some. No, no, it's not. It's the truth. You must begin to see yourself in that way. And then your first reaction, if you're like me, well, boy, I don't know whether I want to see myself that way or not, because it puts a lot of weight on me, a lot of responsibility. If I'm going to be one of those people, if I'm going to be really righteous, and if I'm going to be capable of judging at the heavenly level. Man, that puts a lot of heat on me to live right. Puts a lot of heat on you. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to say, I'm an immortal being in Christ? I'm going to live right. No more mistakes. Sure you are. It puts the heat on you. Well, that's exactly what Paul's doing with the Corinthians. These Corinthians who live in a place of money, power, Greek philosophy, sensuality. A world where the flesh can absolutely revelation. The flesh can just basically do anything he wants to do. He's talking to these people with a bunch of know ye nots. Don't you know who you really are? You're the temple of the living God. Don't you know? You're gonna judge all these sinners? You're gonna judge the fallen cosmos, you're gonna judge angels. Don't you know who you really are? Does that not put the heat on you? Be honest. It does me. Because it makes me wake up and say, if that's who I really am, then I need to check myself out and make sure I'm living up to the high calling. There are other know ye nots in First Corinthians. We'll touch upon them when we get to them. If then. Verse 4. You 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 is able to judge between his brethren, but brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Have you noticed that in a declining society, several things happen? One of the things that happens in a society that's in decline is it becomes what's called litigious, which is one of those $63 words that means people suing each other. I'm going to sue the socks off you. I got a junkyard dog lawyer who's just going to drag you through the mud. And when he gets through with you, I've got this other junkyard dog lawyer. You're not going to be worth a dime, you know? Well, that's basically the world we live in today, and it's getting worse and worse and worse. Why? Because the law is deemed to be the agency whereby you find righteousness. We'll find our righteousness in the law, whether it is religious law of some sort, Sharia, Islamic law, whether it's Hebrew law, or whether it's Anglo Saxon case law. We'll just find our righteousness in the law. Right? That's what people do. They start wagging the finger at each other in a declining society. My lawyer is more powerful than your lawyer. Well, I've got a lawyer out here. I'm not going to tell you his name. You've seen him on tv. I've got a lawyer out here. He'll make you shaking your boots. This is what Paul had to deal with in Corinth because Roman law was vaunted at the time to be the highest expression of human interaction. The Romans were very, very proud of their law. And if you read the history of this period, you'll discover that they considered Roman justice to be supreme, almost on a divine Level. And in fact, if you recall, Paul took his case before Caesar as a Roman citizen. When he talked to Felix, talked to Roman procurators and so forth, they said, ah, you know, if we juggled things around a little bit, we might even set Paul free. Paul says, no, I'm going to take my case to Caesar. You people think so much of Roman law. I'm going to go all the way to Caesar and we'll see what happens. Why did he do that? Well, I'm convinced that he did it to show them that their law could not bring true justice. In fact, because of Paul, among others, Roman law is now one of the high points of historical shame, the horrible things that it did to people. But at the time, Roman law was just thought to be wonderful. It was the high point of roman society. Verses 4 and 5. Paul is talking about what happened in the church. And notice that, look who got to do the judging in church. Those who are least esteemed. Why do you suppose that is? Because the most esteemed wanted to stay out of trouble so they could retain their high esteem. That's exactly what happened. I speak to your shame. He says, it's so that there's not a wise man among you, no, not one that should be able to judge between his brethren, decide a matter of. This gives you a lot to think about here. And this idea of judgment is not judgment under law. This is judgment as governed by the Holy Spirit of God. The leading of the Spirit. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law with one another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? You do wrong and defraud. And that your brethren, even your own brethren, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Okay, what is a righteous person? How do you define a righteous person? A righteous person is someone who has been declared righteous by the finished work of Christ. Paul details this in the Book of Romans. We've been made righteous in Christ, not by any work that we have ever done. And he says, don't you know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Well, that's obvious. If you're not saved, you won't inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate nor abusers themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. You mean you can judge people by their behavior? Boy, that's risky. It is. It's very risky. Who are these people? These are people who basically start with principle of self worship, the enthroned human being. I am who I am and I deserve everything I can get. The unrighteous. And that includes all of the things of this world, the sensual things. Idolatry is the second thing mentioned there in verse 9. Idolatry includes heathenism, paganism, including the worship of the things of this world. That would include the worship of money, by the way. And if you don't think money is worshiped today, think again. Remember, the object of life, he who dies with the most toys wins the game. Right? That's pretty much the secular model of how to succeed in this world. That's idolatry. He who dies with the most toys wins a game. A lot of people play that game. And how foolish is that? Those are idolaters, adulterers. Moychos is the Greek word. Unlawful partnership with the spouse of another. The effeminate are mentioned here. Abusers of themselves with mankind mentioned there. Thieves are mentioned there. Greek word for thieves is kleptos. Kleptos. Covetous people are mentioned there. This is interesting. The covetous in verse 10. The Greek word is pleonectes. That Greek word is very interesting. It means always wanting what others have, or always wanting more than you currently have. Like in the immortal words of John D. Rockefeller, I believe. How much money does it take to make a man happy? Remember, all together now, class, just a little bit more. We all know that that's the Greek word pleonectes. That's translated covetous. Drunkards are mentioned there. Revilers, leiodoros in Greek. And a reviler means an abusive person, a shouter, a screamer, a railer, a troublemaker. Nor extortioners. It's very interesting that this word extortioner is the very same word as is translated rapture or catching away, as in the rapture of the church. Harpagi, an extortioner is somebody who grabs everything he can. It's someone who loots, pillages and plunders, takes anything he can take. And it's the Latin word raperi or the Greek word harpagi, harpazo, which means to grab something up. That's exactly how we're going to be taken. When the Lord comes, we're going to be pulled up. He's going to take us out Quickly, in a rather violent manner. And here it's used to indicate someone who is quick to loot and steal, take everything he can, and ask questions later. Looters. What's Paul saying here? He's saying, the righteous do not engage in these behaviors. I think we know that he follows that with this statement. And such were some of you, meaning you're not that way anymore. Such were some of you. But you're washed. You're sanctified. You're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. How are you washed? Well, you're washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has washed away all of your sins. How are you sanctified? The greatest discourse on sanctification in the Bible is Romans, chapter 8. And the whole idea of Romans 8 is that the Holy Spirit delivers you from the power of the flesh. Have you been delivered from the power of the flesh? Well, not completely, if you're honest. Come on. The process of being delivered from the power of the flesh, that's the process of sanctification. Actually, theologians say that positional sanctification dictates that we have been totally released from the power of the flesh, and I believe we have been. But still the flesh asserts itself itself, right? You know that it does. Nevertheless, Romans 8 starts this. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit. And there it is. Paul uses the term the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. You see, the law of the Spirit is that thing that enables Christians to judge among each other correctly. If you are led of the Spirit, then you can function as judge and should function as judge. Does that mean that you've got to be the church busybody running around judging everybody? No, we're talking about matters of importance within a fellowship. Occasionally some of these rise up. Occasionally, when they do, you become fearful and you say, I don't think I should confront this because it would just cause a lot of trouble. But Paul is saying, if you're led of the Spirit, you've got to know that you're operating under the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which enables you to be a judge. Romans 8 gives 19 illustrations. That is, if you look at the entire chapter 8 of Romans, you'll find 19 illustrations of how the Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer on a daily basis. And of course, it ends up for. I am persuaded that neither Death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So Paul, going back to 1 Corinthians 6, 11, says, and such were some of you. But you're washed, you're sanctified, you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Christianity is distinct in several respects. But maybe the most distinct aspect of Christianity is it is the single. And I mean the single single and the one, the only pursuit on the face of this earth that is actually able to change a person from the inside out. Psychiatry can't. And if you don't believe it, read the latest psychiatric papers. Transactional psychology. Whatever the stamp or brand, it doesn't change you from the inside out. It may modify your behavior in some respects. It may socialize you in some respects. Then there are the pop culture lecturers. You know their names. Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better. Think positive, you know, on and on and on. But none of those change you. Only Christianity changes you from the inside out. And why does it? First of all, it puts you in direct contact with the spirit of the living God. Secondly, it reminds you over and over again. Don't you know that you're the temple? Don't you know you're going to judge angels? Don't you know you're going to judge the cosmos? Don't you know who you really are? It's high time you found out who you really were. And if you do, it's not going to pump you up and make you proud and arrogant. It's not going to puff you up walking around, hey, you know what? I'm going to judge angels. I don't know about you, but get out of my way because I got a lot of power. No, it doesn't turn you into that kind of person. What it does is increase your potential for reverence of the Godhead. Suddenly you realize, wow, I've been made an effective part of a Godhead. I'd better begin to act like it. You know, that's the key. Such were some of you. Oh, yes, you can think back to your teenage years, if you dare, or your twenties or whatever. Such were some of you. Verse 12. All things are lawful unto me. Now there's a mouthful right there. I love it. This is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. Verse 12. All things are lawful unto me. Wow, that's what it means to be free in Christ. In Christ ye shall be free indeed. You're not under any legalistic stipulation of any sort. You are not. Wow. You mean I can do anything I want and get away with it? No, but all things are lawful unto you because you're no longer operating under law. You're operating through the directive power and in union with the Holy Spirit. And you got to keep thinking about that. And I have to keep reminding myself of this over and over again. Because my tendency is to begin to think like a human being, a sinner. My tendency, because of old habits which die hard, is that I continue to think of myself as the old me who. Not that, really. Well, I'm not going to tell you about the old me, but, you know, and I shouldn't. I need to be thinking about the new me. As Paul said, put off the old you, you put on the new you. It's a process. And in this process, all things are lawful, but all things are not expedient. All things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Now, that's an interesting statement there in verse 12. That's really an interesting statement. Because notice, you can break the law with impunity because all things are lawful to you. What happens if you break the law? Are you getting away with it? Like, you know, like the little kid, don't eat any of those cookies. They're for company. So mom goes upstairs and kid eats a couple of cookies. Mom comes back, eat those cookies. Didn't eat any of those cookies, did you? No. Doesn't look like there are as many cookies there as there were. Oh, there are. They just settled down. Mom, it was a matter of breaking the law. What happened to Junior when he broke the law? Got cookies. Yes, but what really happened to him? Suddenly he was under the power of the law. In this case, the law of the household. Had he chosen rightly not to take any cookies, he wouldn't be under the power of the law. He would be operating in a state of grace. But the minute he chose to take the cookies, he put himself under the power of the law. That's what Paul's saying here. All things are lawful unto me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. If you break the law, what you're doing is making yourself subject to the law. Why would you do that? That's a stupid thing to do. Then he says, foods for the Belly, the belly for foods. But God shall destroy both it and them. Now, the body is not for, and let's substitute a word here instead of fornication. The body is not for sensuality, but for the Lord. And when I say sensuality, I mean the sensory world. It's the world that pulls at you. It is the feel good world. That man, you know, I got eight new crisp hundred dollar bills rolled up in my pocket and I feel good. And I've got this Ferrari over here and I'm wearing a $2,000 suit. I feel good. That's a sensual world. There are all kinds of feel goods in this world. Paul is now moving into this area of the feel good world. World foods for the belly, the belly for foods. But God shall destroy both it and them. Body is not for sensuality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his own power. Here's a Know ye not. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Wow, this is a good Know ye not you are part of the body of God? I mean literally. And how that works, I do not know. If you know, tell me. I'd love to find out. All I know is that I am a member of the body of Christ. And Paul continually expounds on this subject in Ephesians, he defines it in Philippians, he presents it in terms of the struggle of the believer. Here he's using this know ye not to make people remember just exactly what they are. He said, you're the temple need to purge out. The old leaven says, you're righteous, you're going to inherit the kingdom. And here he says, don't you know that your bodies are actual members, that is parts of Christ's body? Shall I then take the members or the parts of Christ's body and make them the members of an harlot? And by the way, harlotry means a variety of things, including the worship of the things of this world in general. Remember Hosea, the prophet God said, you marry a woman of the street and have children by that woman of the street as a demonstration, and you love her as a demonstration of the way. I love fallen man. Your bodies are part of Christ. If you are a part of Christ, can you join your body to the things of this world? Of course not. God forbid. Now I'm going to stop right there. As we get into First Corinthians 7, there will be places that we cannot fully expound because this is a Sunday morning group, not a group of men over 30 study group. So there are things we're not going to talk about. There will be things that we'll brush past slightly. But remember that First Corinthians is written for one purpose, and that is to make you constantly believe in yourself as what you will be, not what you are. Right now, actually, you are, but it just doesn't appear that you are. Just because you can pinch yourself and it hurts you stab yourself with a knife and you'll bleed. Makes you believe that you're a mortal being. Actually, you're not. You're an immortal being. And you need to start thinking about it that way. And that's what Paul's telling the people here.