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A very good morning, and once again welcome to Gospel Light and our Sunday morning worship service. As we have been praying and as we have been experiencing, we have been going through COVID for a long period of time now. And we all understand that this is a virus, this is a disease that spreads by close contact or transmission.

And we've all learned if anything, we have learned the importance of isolation and separation and quarantine, and so on. But do you realize that not only does the virus spread, if you're not careful, and if you do not practice good hygiene, sin can also spread amongst God's people, and we need to understand the principle of isolation.

That's what Paul, I think was talking about in 1st Corinthians, chapter 5. There was this sin disease in one of the members of the church, this was a grievous sin of sexual immorality. The word there is the word, 'porneia'. The word that is translated fornication, it's a basket term that includes all kinds of sexual sins. But this sin is described here, where the man is having an ... an illicit relationship with his father's wife, likely his stepmother.

So, this is a terrible sin, "That is not even tolerated amongst the Gentiles," [1 Cor 5:1] the people who are not part of the church. It's so shameful that it should be named in the people of God; amongst the people of God. So Paul says, "It is a terrible thing that you do not deal with this problem but that you become arrogant." [1 Cor 5:2]

"You're proud, you're boasting that maybe you are a tolerant people or maybe you are tough, and you can withstand this sin amongst your midst, in your midst." But Paul says, "No, that's a wrong approach!" "You ought rather to mourn. And this person who has done this thing should be removed from among you." [1 Cor 5:2]

So he's saying, "You really need to separate this guy, otherwise it will spread to the rest." So very simply this morning, we're gonna look at the topic of "Christian Decontamination". Alright? There is a sin, there is a virus, there is a sick person in our midst and we need to decontaminate, otherwise, the whole congregation or community will be infected. That is the line of thought for Paul in verses 6-13.

[1] Contamination
So very simply, let's look at number one — the reason why you need Christian decontamination is because there is contamination that can take place in the first place.

Now, if Paul lived in 2022 Singapore, and he has this problem, I think he will probably use COVID as an illustration. I think so, it is very apt, this disease spreads very fast, and it can be deadly. But because Paul didn't live in our day and age, he couldn't talk about COVID. In fact, in those days, they do not have an idea about microbes, they don't always understand why diseases happen. They don't have this microscopes to look at micro-organisms.

So Paul doesn't use COVID, but he uses a very common everyday example of dough and bread, very interesting illustration. He says, "Do you not know that a little leaven, leavens the whole lump." [1 Cor 5:6]

So, this is language of making bread, leaven is like yeast and well, bread .... my ... my ... I'm not a bread fan, I don't really like bread, my wife does, she likes sourdough bread. So this is a picture of sourdough, you cut it right in the middle, you split it into half, and you will see that it is filled with holes, many many holes.

How do you get the holes in bread? Because if you don't have holes in bread then your bread is very flat, it is very maybe not so soft and spongy. Maybe a bit like your chapati, that is bread without holes or air pockets inside. But if you have air pockets, this is because someone has introduced leaven or yeast into the bread.

So, the yeast would feed on the starch and the sugars and it will produce carbon dioxide. And this carbon dioxide is like air that kind of puffs the whole thing up, so that your sourdough bread is soft and delicious. A little bit sour, that's why it's called sourdough, carbon dioxide, it's ... it's acidic. So that's how leaven works, it makes the bread soft, airy, spongy, easier to eat.

Now, in the good old days, what people do is that they usually have a whole lump of leaven dough or bread, but they will not use the whole thing. They will pinch out a little bit to keep it for future use, so the next time they want to have leavened bread, they just take the remnant pinch of leavened bread, the previous time, and mix it together with another batch of unleavened bread.

So this pinch of leaven bread, when mixed with this bunch of unleavened bread will cause the whole lump to be leavened. The yeast can spread really quickly, and that's what Paul understands. He says, "Do you not know that a little leaven will spread and leaven the whole lump?" [1 Cor 5:6]

The implication is this, of course, if you don't deal with this person who is living in serious; open; unrepentant sin, his lifestyle, his sinful ways would spread very rapidly amongst God's people.

Now, this is Paul's way of describing it in today's English language. You may say, "One rotten apple spoils the barrel." This one rotten apple can cause the entire barrel to be spoilt or rotten. Or if you like it in Chinese, it will be 近朱者赤，近墨者黑，[jìn zhū zhě chì , jìn mò zhě hēi], you get near something that is white, you become white, you get near something that's black, you become black.

Something along that line, don't ask me about the Tagalog or the Indian version, I ... I'm not so familiar, but I know the English and the Chinese one. But the concept I think is easy for you to grasp. So Paul is saying, "Don't you know that contamination will take place? So instead of being careless or casual or even cowardly about dealing with sin, you've got to be decisive about it, otherwise, it will spread like wildfire."

[2] Cleansing
So knowing this, Paul then says, "You've got to cleanse it out. You've got to remove it." "Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" [1 Cor 5:6] "So what you should do is to, "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump." [1 Cor 5:7]

Now, what does it mean to cleanse out the old leaven? He doesn't make it vague, he actually makes it very clear. In verse 2, he says, "This person ought to be removed from you." Cleansing out the old lump, removing the old leaven, means put this person outside of the Christian community, outside of your fellowship. "Deliver this man to Satan." [1 Cor 5:5]

In other words, he's no more under the spiritual protection of the church. "You are not to associate with this sexually, with a sexually immoral person or people." [1 Cor 5:9] Verse 11, "Not to associate." And then verse 13, "Purge the evil person out." So it is very clear that to cleanse out the old leaven means to remove this man entirely from Christian community.

Now, again, this is not an easy thing to do, but they must do it. I ... I am not someone who is very familiar with bread. Huh, like I said, I'm not a bread fan, I have never done or made any bread but I ... I think I do know a little bit more about diabetes and ulcers.

And this might look like a very innocuous wound on the foot of a man, but this is a problem for doctors and for the man, because in a person who is suffering from severe diabetes, his blood supply is not very good. And that's why he gets ulcers, and the problem with these kinds of ulcers in diabetic leg or diabetic feet, is that they don't heal well at all because the blood supply is poor.

So when I was working in SGH, in a department that is specializing in all these conditions, we ... we call it the "Chow Ka Department" [Hokkien dialect], "The Rotten Foot Department," because a lot of chow kas there. And it's a pain because it might look very innocuous, like ... it looked very simple, very simple to deal with, just wait a while, it will heal. The problem is that they don't wait a while and heal, they get worse and worse and they don't heal.

The blood supply is so bad, there's nothing that can be done! Doctors, if they could not do some angioplasty or whatever to open up the blood vessels, would have to tell the patient, "I'm sorry, Sir, this wound is not going to heal, it is going to spread and the only way we can save your life, not your foot, to save your life is if we chop off your foot or your leg from below your knee."

We call it BKA, not Burger King, whatever but "Below Knee Amputation". You say, "Why so radical? Why so drastic?" Because the infection, if you don't deal with it, it's going to spread up into your bloodstream and kill you, if you don't do anything. Well, it's got to be removed! What to do! And it's painful, it's difficult, but it's got to be done.

"So this man living in sexual immorality, if it ... if nothing is done about him, it's going to spread, it's gonna kill the church. So why are you sitting there, arrogant and proud that you are tolerant or you are tough? When you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and you've got to cleanse it out."

So Paul says to them, "Cleanse out the whole old leaven, take away this man of sin, so that you may be a new lump." [1 Cor 5:7] So that you maybe not identified as a people of sin, so that you may be a healthy people, not a sick people in sin. Do that!"

And then, knowing that this is difficult, he lays on the motivation on why we should do it, besides knowing that it's going to spread to the rest, he lays on a Christ-centered reasoning. He gives us a Gospel-centered motivation to why we should deal with this problem. So he enriches our understanding here, when he tells us that the leaven he's talking about is no ordinary leaven, it's a special leaven. It's a special occasion that the Jews are very familiar with because he goes on to talk about the Passover lamb.

Aah, something special here! And then he links in verse 3, or another verse that says, verse 8, that says, "Let us therefore celebrate the festival." So this is not a daily making of bread and making unleavened bread process, but this is speaking about a very special occasion for the Jewish people.

Now, I understand I'm a Singaporean, you are Singaporean, we are not Israelis, we're not Jewish people, so these kinds of things may not strike us immediately. Just like, if I were to talk to a Caucasian about oranges and ang baos and lion dance, he would have no idea that we are talking about Chinese New Year. It's a festival for our people, for the Asians, for the Chinese maybe.
But when you talk to a Jew and you talk to them about unleavened bread, Passover lamb, and a celebration of a festival, they know that this bread is in that context.

So what do the people do during Passover celebration? Well, this harkens back all the way to the days of Moses, thousands of years ago. The people of Israel was slaves in Egypt, God inflicted ten plagues or will inflict the 10th plague soon, but told the Israelis, the Jewish people, "Go and kill a lamb, a lamb without blemish. Take its blood ..."

You can see the man there on your right side. "Take its blood and smear it on the doorposts, hide in the house, celebrate this festival by eating the lamb that is killed. Barbecue it, have a wonderful feast and bake for yourself unleavened bread, so that as you are hiding behind this door that is smeared with the blood of the lamb, my angel of death who comes to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, will pass-over your house when I see the blood or when he sees the blood."

So this festival is a very important festival for the Jewish people because it marks these people out as God's people, protected from the wrath of God. And soon after this, they would leave Egypt, they will leave all their old lifestyle behind, and be a new nation before God, who leads them personally. So in this command for the Passover Feast, God specifically told the people of Israel, not only to smear the blood, eat the lamb, but, "You will have to eat unleavened bread for seven days." [Ex 12:15]

You may be used to Gardenia soft bread, but I want you to eat chapati for seven days. "No leaven, take out all the leaven, on the first day, you shall remove leaven out of all your houses. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day, I brought your host, your armies out of the land of Egypt." [Ex 12:17] "You shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwelling places, you shall eat unleavened bread and they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt for it was not leavened." [Ex 12:39]

So, they obeyed exactly what God said. "Okay, we are going to celebrate this salvation, this deliverance with eating this lamb and also unleavened bread." So when you look at this picture, you are immediately reminded, that this eating of unleavened bread is a picture of leaving the old life of Egypt, right? "This is what we are used to eating, but now we have to remember, God has called us to a new life, to be a new people, to have unleavened bread. And all that is possible because of the lamb we are eating right now, whose blood was spilt to cover us from the judgment, that will befall the whole nation of Egypt."

So it makes tremendous, rich imagery, when Paul says, "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump." [1 Cor 5:7] What he's saying here is, "Remove the sinning brother, the man who calls himself Christian, remove this man from the fellowship so that you may be a holy people, a new nation like Israel was. And you do that because you are saved, you do that because you are redeemed, you do that because you really are unleavened.

He say, "When, when were will we saved? How were we unleavened?" He says, "For Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed." Do you see this is a throwback, Exodus, chapter 12. The entire story of the Passover is now applied practically in the congregation of the church. "Guys, live as a holy people. If there is sin, persistent, rebellious, unrepentant sin amongst you, deal with it, because God has already cleansed you from sin, live like how He has called you, be an unleavened people."

Why? "Because Christ, your Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for you." So, the motivation is a crystal centric one. The motivation is a Gospel-centered one. Church discipline is not left to our whim and fancy, it is God's will and we do it because of God's love.

So, "Let us therefore celebrate the festival."[1 Cor 5:8] Huh, huh, Paul is saying, "Out of the overflow of joy, knowing that we are unleavened because of Christ the Passover Lamb, "Let us celebrate this new life, not with the old leaven, a picture of malice and evil, of sin, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." [1 Cor 5:8]

So it's not just a simple passage, but it's one that is rich, and you just got to pause a bit to appreciate it from Paul's theological point of view.

[3] Clarification
Now, finally, let's look at some clarification.

He said, "I wrote to you, earlier in my letter, not to associate with sexually immoral people." [1 Cor 5:9] So, he's referring to a previous letter. Now, what book are we studying here? 1st Corinthians. So we don't have an earlier letter to be qualifying this book as 2nd Corinthians. So, there was an earlier letter written by Paul, to the people at Corinth, but it's not given to us, we don't have it, it's not part of the canon of Scripture, it's not part of the Bible. But Paul is referring to an earlier letter, that he has already said, "You are not to associate with sexually immoral people."

But you will have a question, "Does it mean then that I can't befriend with anyone who is living in immorality?" He says, "No, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters since then you will need to go out of the world." [1 Cor 5:10]

So Paul is not saying, "No, no, no, I'm not asking you to avoid every sinner in the world. That would not be possible because that would mean you have to go to the moon." He ... he probably didn't say that, but that's what probably he meant.

"But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother." [1 Cor 5:11] This is the clarification, the Christian or the church is not called to separate or to live apart from the world. We can't! Because we will all need to go to the moon, but the church is to separate from someone who calls himself brother or Christian, but he is guilty of living in persistent immorality, greed, idolatry, and so on and so forth.

Now, if someone who is called a Christian, lives in such a persistent, unrepentant and open way, "You don't even eat with him." [1 Cor 5:11] "Hah, you mean I cannot go to a hawker center, if I see him ah?" No, no, that's not quite what it is. I think we need to understand this. It's not just about eating together, this implies deeper fellowship and communion. That's how meals are taken to be in those days, it's not just a functional getting yourself food, it means a celebration of a kind of relationship we have.

So Paul is saying, "If someone calls himself a Christian, but is living in such a sinful lifestyle, you are not to associate with him, you are not to call him brother." But for the rest of the world, we are not to live apart from them. Remember, we are called by God to be in the world but not of the world, but we are sent ultimately to the world.

I think this is where maybe some Christians and even groups of Christians have gone wrong. They live a kind of hermit lifestyle, they, they like to be seclusive, they like to be exclusive, they like to live away from the world, thinking that they are sinful and they must not be tainted by them. It is true, we must not be tainted by them, but it is also equally important that we are sent to them.

Jesus in his high priestly prayer in John 17, did not pray that God will remove the apostles from the world, but that God will keep them in the world but not of the world.

The Amish people in the United States are a group of professing Christian people, and their philosophy is we must not be in the world, like the world, and so they reject technology, reject being with society as a whole, they want to be exclusive. But if Christians, true followers of Jesus Christ, all live like that, who will fulfill the Great Commission? How are we to be the salt and the light of the world?

How about Jesus Himself? Did Jesus say, "Hey, you guys very dirty lah! Go away! Go away!" Did He do that? No, He did the opposite! He did what the Pharisees, the religious leaders despised and hated, because He ate with sinners and publicans. He ... He did it so much, that He's called the friend of sinners.

It's almost like if He lived in our day, He would be with the salak gao gang, or the Ah Bengs and Ah Sengs, He will be there with them. It's like, "What! He's ... He's the Messiah!" And He's with all these tattoos, ring here ring there people ... drinking people. He is with them. "Oh, He's not very holy, you see!" Holier than you think, He was with them but never liked them, and He was with them, for them.

When asked, "How could you be with these kinds of people?" He said, "Actually, you don't understand, those who think that they are well do not need the doctor, but those who know that they are sick, need the doctor, and I am the Doctor." And if you think about it, as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, as His body, we have to be in the world, for the world, even as we want to be protected, so that we are not like the world.

In a sense, it's like COVID, once again huh, but this time not so much isolation, but as doctors, doctors go to the sick, doctors cannot say, "Oh, I don't want to be like you, so I avoid, you got a job to do." You've got to heal them, and the church is called likewise, in the world not of the world, because we are sent to the world to bless the world.

So Paul makes this simple clarification, "It's not my business, it's not our business to do with judging outsiders, people who are not part of the church, it's not our parsa [role in Malay language], we can't tell them to change this and change that. God judges those outside."

I think this is actually a very helpful principle in our day and age. I am not sure but I do feel that maybe Christianity, the church as a whole today is more and more politically entangled, that will be the word I'll use. It seems like people in church, talk and are concerned and are passionate and are so entangled with politics, it almost feels like the church should dictate or influence politics.

Well, I think as citizens we can share our point of view, but I ... I hope that as a church, we would focus that the business of the church is for the church, the people of God. We are not here to make policies for those outside the church. We are not here to dictate who is, what should be done for outside the church. I think God has given us governments to do that, and I hope that as Christians, whilst we can again share our view, we are not to overly burden ourselves with things outside, and Paul understands this principle.

He goes on to say then that, "Those who bear the name of the brother, we are not to associate." [1 Cor 5:11] And in verse 13, he makes it again explicit, "Purge the evil person from among you."

I ... I like to just end off by clarifying, this is not a rapid fire, immediate chopping off of people once we see someone in sin. I think we need to balance it with an understanding of Matthew 18, where Jesus did clearly explain that there are steps that we need to take before the ultimate step of excommunication needs to take place.

You approach the person one on one, you then bring one or two along as witnesses, and if he still doesn't listen, you bring the church there, and if they still do not listen to the church, then the inevitable will have to take place and that is excommunication. But in every step of the way, our prayer, our desire is not to excommunicate, our prayer, our desire is that the brother will repent and be restored, and we do this in love.

But this has to be done for the sake of the brother, so that he may suffer and learn and repent. And this has to be done because the church needs to be protected, decontaminated. And this needs to be done because Jesus died, so that we might be saved, so that we might be a holy people, and we can't fail Him right here.

"But Pastor if we do this, people will leave the church because you guys are too holy." I don't think so! I don't think people will leave the church just because the church exercises proper; loving; wise church discipline. I remember the story of Ananias, how he lied against the Holy Spirit, lied against the church, and God struck him down. He died and the Bible tells us, "Great fear came upon all who heard of it." [Acts 5:5]

I mean, it's like, "Whoa, you don't mess around with Christianity, you don't mess around with the church, you don't mess around with the apostolic teaching and the people who follow that!" Not only Ananias died, Sapphira his wife also died, because she also lied the same way. And again, the Bible tells us, "And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things." [Acts 5:10-11]

"You see, when the church is so serious about sin, people avoid church," you say. But that's not what we read, verse 14, and "More than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women." It's counter intuitive, it's paradoxical!

We think that if we maintain low standards of holiness, more people can come. No! When we do exactly what God wants, uphold biblical standards of ... at least outward holiness and morality, because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fear comes upon the church and upon people who hear it. And I think they would come to the faith, just like the people in the book of Acts did.

It is unfortunate, but as a church we had and will have cases of church discipline. We don't do it with glee, we don't do it because we like to, we hate to do it! But we have to do it, and we must do it, if there is sin in the people of God. There will be cases, and I hope as a church we have the right attitude, posture and outlook towards this.

We prayerfully long for brothers, sisters, who are excommunicated, to return back to the people of God, back to following Jesus. And I hope that as a church, we will never refrain or back-off from doing something that may be difficult. We do it for the sake of the Gospel.

If you're here today, and you do not know Jesus, well, what is the Bible all about, what is this Book all about? It's really, if I may say, "About the Passover Lamb, it's about Jesus, that innocent Lamb that was sacrificed on the cross 2,000 years ago, whose blood was spilt so that we might be saved from God's anger."

Do you know today that God is angry with sinners, God is angry with men who rebelled against Him, but do you know that at the same time, this God of holiness is also a God of love? He sent His Son to die and pay for your sins. I pray you will hide behind the blood today, there's nothing that will shield you from God's wrath, except the blood of Jesus Christ.

And the promise of the Bible is this, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." I pray you find everlasting life, you find forgiveness, you will find reconciliation with God as you look to Jesus.

Let's bow for a word of prayer.

Father, we thank You today, even as we deal with a difficult, painful subject, it is all predicated on the truth that You are the God of forgiveness.

We are amazed that we can have all these teachings simply because there is a way back with God. There may be some this morning amongst us living in persistent sin. I pray dear God, that they will not continue in their ways, but there will be a fear of God struck in their heart, there will be a love for God as they see the love of God in Christ, the Passover Lamb. And we pray You will then by Your Spirit stop them right in their tracks, because there is forgiveness, there is reconciliation possible with You.

We pray also this morning for friends and guests who may be here. Maybe they are struck with the realization that You are angry with them for their sin, but Lord, help them to see too, that You love them and gave Your Son for them. So, I pray You will turn their eyes unto Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Grant to them repentance, grant to them faith, help them to turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ, that they might be saved, forgiven and healed.

Dear Lord, help Gospel Light, we don't want to be a country club, we want to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood. We want to be the new lump, so help us to be diligent in putting away leaven. Keep this church pure, that the fear of God may be in us and amongst people watching us, and we pray that will draw many to a life-changing relationship with Jesus, as well. So, bless each one here, we thank You in Jesus' Name. Amen.

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