First Corinthians 5 Part 3 God Gives Us A New Heart and New Spirit: Choose To Follow Christ Each Day

Purge out the leaven of sin and replace it with sincere faith and God's truth. 

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7)  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8)  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 

In our last lesson we looked at some of the texts that teach us that leaven is a type or a picture of the insidious nature of sin.

It begins hidden and unseen, which corresponds to thinking wrong thoughts. 

The corrupting and decaying influence of leaven begins diffusing through our mind to the point that we spend much time thinking about something that is sinful.

Just as leaven makes bread dough rise through fermentation, so the leaven of sin makes us rise up to commit the sin we have been thinking about.

This is why Jehovah commanded that all the Hebrews search for any leaven in their homes in order to discard it. 

God is teaching us that leaven in our lives must be purged out. 

God's command to eliminate any leaven coincides with the observance of Passover. 

This sacrifice points to Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (See Exodus 12-13; John 1:29).

The apostle tells us to remember Christ our Passover slain for us each day.  We must remove the old leaven of sin with its lust and impurities that we were slaves of.  

Radical depravity produced unrighteous living in our lives and it must be eliminated. We must seek godliness by following upright and godly men, who have sincere faith. 

Paul tells us to take note of those whose walk with the Lord matches their profession of faith in Christ, and follow those that walk worthy (See Philippians 3:17).  

Sins deadly wage has been replaced with eternal life from God.

Romans 6:20-23  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21)  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22)  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23)  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins because the wages of sin is death. 

However, the gift of God is eternal life through repentant faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Before Christ, we lived in the kingdom of darkness and were subjects of the Devil (See Colossians 1:12-14). 

Before Christ, we served the lusts of our flesh and committed sin. We had no righteousness and were under the wrath and condemnation of God.

The wonderful saving grace of God liberates us from the shackles of sin. We are free to serve God and bear fruit for His kingdom.

Jesus' death and shed blood and resurrection expiates our sins. He takes them away and removes them dully from all who put their trust in Him.

Christ's sacrifice propitiated the Father in heaven such that He is now for us and no longer against us (See Romans 5: 1-11; 8:31-39).

Christ's church should be pure and holy, and not tolerate corrupt and scandalous behavior by its attendees. 

Each believer must be as the unleavened bread with no mixture to sour and corrupt them. 

This implies that we should purge out all impurity from our heart and life, especially from the wickedness that the Corinthians were consumed with.

We should be careful to avoid all malice and mischief. Love is the very essence and life of our Christian faith. 

Jesus commanded us to love one another with the same love He has for us (See John 13:33-34; 15:10-14).

Love is the best representation of the image of God, for God is love (See 1 John 4:16). Therefore it is no wonder that love is the greatest beauty and most distinctive trait of a true Christian. 

But malice at its root is murder for it springs out of a hatred for others. He that hates his brother is a murderer (See 1 John 3:15). 

Those who have malice and hate toward others still carry the image of the Devil who was a murderer from the beginning  (See John 8:44). 

So must we remember that Christ Jesus our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us in order that He might redeem us from sin. 

Grace frees us to love and serve God and walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:1-6  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2)  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3)  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4)  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5)  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6)  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  

Our Christian duty toward God is to purge out any leaven in us all the days of our lives. 

We should die with our Saviour to sin, be planted into the likeness of his death by mortifying sin, and into the likeness of his resurrection by rising again to newness of life.

A new heart and spirit from God produces new life from Christ in us. 

Ezekiel 11:19-20  And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: 20)  That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

Salvation is the work of regeneration whereby the Spirit of God gives us a new heart and a new spirit so that we might live for the glory of God alone.

He removes our heart that was hardened and callous toward Jehovah, and replaced it with one that is tender toward the things of God.

He sends His own Holy Spirit to live in us. He seeks to lead us, guide us and help us grow spiritually. 

He seeks to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. He seeks to produce His fruit in us to equip us for kingdom work and Great Commission living (See Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 5:22-25). 

A renewed mind craves holiness and righteousness from God.

Ephesians 4:22-24  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23)  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24)  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 

The phrase "put off" connects with Paul's instruction to "purge out" any leaven of sin from our lives.

He generally gives us very practical examples of sin that we must put off, but each put off is followed by a command to put on something that is godly and holy. 

We are to purge out or put off all the ways of our old man life. We are made a new creation in Christ and our old way of life passes away. 

We must continue to make sure that we do not revert to any of our old pattern of living for doing so dishonors God. 

We must then have our minds renewed by studying God's Word and asking the Holy Spirit to change how we think. 

Then, we are able to put on our new man in Christ and are willing to submit to God's governance. He will produce clean, righteous living in us. 

A renewed mind is conformed more and more into Christ's image. 

Colossians 3:5-11  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6)  For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7)  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 8)  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9)  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10)  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11)  Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 

Paul tells us to mortify six sinful behaviors because those are things that God hates. 

If we love God then we will most certainly seek to honor Him with how we live this life. 

Thus we must put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, corrupt communication and lying because these are wicked acts of our old man. 

We must put on our new man in Christ and seek daily to have our minds renewed through Bible study, spending time in prayer and seeking help from God's Spirit.

Each of us must choose each day whom we will serve: God or ourselves.

Joshua 24:14-15  Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 15)  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. 

God gave us a free will to exercise. He does not create robots who mindlessly obey Him. 

Rather, our Father seeks to help us grow and mature and prosper as His redeemed children, just as we seek the best for our own offspring. 

This involves making a choice on our part. We must choose these good things God has for us. 

We must choose to deny ourselves and take up our cross in order to follow Jesus each day. 

We must choose to read and study the scriptures. 

We must choose to spend time in prayer asking God to change us from the inside out. 

We must choose to walk in newness of life.

God's Spirit will give us the desire for all of these good things. 

He will help us grow and mature spiritually. He will come alongside to comfort and strengthen us when we need Him to.

He will produce more of His holy fruit in us as we learn to submit to His leading in our lives.

1 Corinthians 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 

Thus, we press on toward the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. Love for the things of this world should pass away as our love for God and His Word increases.

Bob