The End, Exercise, and Effects of Restoration

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

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Well, it's certainly good to be back, and having come back, I would have loved to return to Matthew 6 and continue on with the
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Sermon on the Mount, but both this morning and next week we'll be taking a little bit of a detour away from Matthew 6.
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Next week we'll be looking at the first part of Colossians 3, which I trust everyone in the room is memorizing ahead of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
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But this morning we actually have an occasion for a slight detour for an even better reason.
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Last August, I took a detour from the series we were in at that time to preach a sermon titled
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The End, Exercise, and Effects of Excommunication, from 1
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Corinthians chapter 5. And we were reminded that at that time, church discipline involves both the individual in question as well as the church, and church discipline is, in the first instance, all about the church.
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We saw that from 1 Corinthians 5. Remember what the church is. Our own Confession states the members of churches are saints by calling, visibly manifesting and evidencing, in and by their profession and walking, their obedience to the call of Christ.
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That's what it means to be in a church. That's what it means to walk in this covenantal relationship as brothers and sisters.
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And that's all backdrop to what we looked at last August in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul began, it's actually reported there is sexual immorality among you, such as is not even named among Gentiles.
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A man has his father's wife, but you are puffed up. You've not rather mourned, so that the one who did this thing might be taken from among you.
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For I indeed, though absent in body and present in spirit, I've already judged him, as if I were present.
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In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the
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Lord Jesus. So we looked at that passage back in August, a very heavy passage, and really the epicenter of what we understand to be the basis for excommunication in a church.
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We understood and defined excommunication as the removal of membership to the local church and its benefits, which includes removal of Christian fellowship until repentance is acknowledged by the church, and thereby, reconciliation is enabled.
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Now, the key I'd point out to you there, and this will be very significant for the rest of the message as well as the meeting today, the significant point is that the repentance is acknowledged by the church.
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That's the key. We here have a congregational polity. We don't have a
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Sicilian Pope. We don't have a Presbytery Council. We believe that the
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Lord Jesus Christ rules the congregation by His Spirit working through the members. This requires a certain understanding of the basis of authority in the church.
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It's Christ's authority brought out by the Spirit through the membership. And as we say, excommunication is the removal of not only the membership, but all the benefits of the membership, including
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Christian fellowship, until repentance is acknowledged, not by the offender, not by the leaders, but by the church.
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That's why we're having a meeting this afternoon, to ascertain and understand these things together.
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And so it's my joy, in light of last August, to preach a message that I've titled
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The End in Exercise and Effects of Restoration. Preaching last
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August, I didn't know that this day would come. When you enact excommunication, you are, as Paul says, handing someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
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There's certainly a vibrant hope within that, Paul says, so that the Spirit may be saved, but it's a weighty thing.
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It doesn't sound very hopeful. To hand someone over to Satan, that doesn't sound very hopeful.
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And so there's this gnawing fear that perhaps that's the last note, that's the last chapter that is to be written in terms of that relationship.
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All the prayer, all the hope is that the leverage, the impact, the weight, in some ways the anguish of excommunication will have its intended effect, which is restoration.
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And as we said, it's the first point for us today, and it was the first point back in August, the end of church discipline, the end of excommunication is always, always, always restoration.
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That's entirely out of our hands. All we've done is gather together and committed a man outside of the church to the realm of the
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Prince of the Power of the Earth. And so it's with solemnity, but also with deep joy, that we can look at 2
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Corinthians chapter 2 and have a message about restoration. If anyone has caused grief, he's not grieved me,
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Paul says, but all of you to some extent, not to be too severe. In other words, not to make too much out of it.
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This punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, is sufficient for such a man. So that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps he'd be swallowed up with too much sorrow.
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And so I urge you, reaffirm your love to him. Now not all scholars and commentators link 1
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Corinthians 5 with 2 Corinthians 2. Not all see the man in question in 1
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Corinthians 5 as being the man who now is urged to be forgiven and embraced by the church at Corinth.
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I think the case is to be made and held in that way, but regardless, you do have in 2 Corinthians 2 the case of restoration, of someone who had been put out of the church fellowship by means of excommunication, had been punished by the majority of the church, and now
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Paul commends them to restore such a one. And notice that for Paul, in 1
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Corinthians 5, he makes a real big deal out of the sin because the Corinthians had made such slight of it.
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Oh come on, it's not that big of a deal. You know, my neighbor Phil, he's kind of in the same love triangle,
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I mean, come on, it's not that big of a deal. And Paul says, it's a big deal. In fact, this is so leavening in the church that you've lost your whole understanding of just how sinful this sin is.
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I don't even have to be there, I don't even need to understand the facts, I've just heard the news and I've already judged him.
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So here's what you're going to do, you're going to gather together and put him out from you, because you are unleavened. That's what
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Paul says. So he makes a big deal out of what the Corinthians thought at the time was not a big deal.
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Now here, in 2 Corinthians 2, the Corinthians are like, we've learned our lesson. This is a really big deal and we're going to watch this guy squirm.
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And notice just how Paul begins, well if anyone's caused grief, he's not grieved me, but you, but let's not go into that.
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It's like, let's not make a big deal out of this. Weren't you the one that said we should be making big deals out of things?
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He's going, no, no, no, now it's time to cover. In fact, this man is about to be overwhelmed in his sorrow.
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He's persisted alongside of you. You ought to forgive him. You ought to comfort him.
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And so rather than urging for someone to be excommunicated, here in 2 Corinthians 2,
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Paul is urging that such a one is embraced and forgiven. He says literally, I urge you, reaffirm your love to him.
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That love had been put on hold. That love had been put in a container with a big question mark over it.
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But all along the way, we see in Paul's heart, whether in the fact that his desire was for the spirit to be saved or in this fact that he was concerned about the offender being swallowed in grief, not appropriately received, forgiven, and comforted.
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We see that Paul's heart was always after restoration. Now does that mean that discipline, church discipline, is not punitive?
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Well, we couldn't say that. Of course, there is something punitive about it. He says the punishment was sufficient, so there's something punitive about it.
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But like a parent punishing a child, that parent loves that child. The end is always restoration.
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It takes a child a little bit of life to learn the lesson, but they understand that discipline is done by love.
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A parent who doesn't discipline their children hates their children, just doesn't care, doesn't care enough to set them on the way that is right.
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It doesn't care enough to actually show them what is good and the consequences of what is not good. And so too with the church, we could say a church that's not willing to go through the anguish, through the weight of church discipline, is a church that doesn't actually love its members.
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Even in the midst, even in a world that says, to discipline is actually not to be loving at all.
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We would say quite the contrary. It's the same world that says to discipline children is to not love them at all.
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And we would say biblically, no, of course not. That's utter nonsense. As the writer of Hebrews says, our fathers corrected us as they saw fit and we respected them for it.
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We grew up to honor them and follow them in that example. So the end of discipline is always restoration.
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This clarity, as we've said, is important not just for the offender. It is important for the offender so that they can think of themselves rightly, not delude themselves into thinking that somehow their way of life will lead them into the kingdom.
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It's a work of mercy to say the way you're living is not a way that leads to life. It is surely the way to everlasting death.
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So a church disciplines out of love, out of warning. But this clarity is not just for the offender, this clarity is for the church.
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As we said last August, sheep are not goats, wheat is not tares.
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Light is not darkness, truth is not error. Righteousness is not sinfulness, defilement is not holiness.
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Church discipline establishes that contrast. We see a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
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And what we unpacked last August was that church discipline, and particularly the exercise of excommunication, it results in the offender no longer being given what we call the extension of charity.
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A really important concept here, and we'll apply this a little bit later toward the end with application. But essentially, a church membership consists of those who have a profession of faith, both by their mouth and by their life.
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They say, I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm a servant of his. I'm a brother and sister,
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I believe in the gospel by which I am saved. And that profession, that visible profession, is actually something that we take account of, we regard in charity.
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So charity is extended. Why is charity extended? Because I can't see your heart in the way that the
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Lord can, and you can't see my heart in the way that the Lord can. You can see the profession of my mouth, and you can observe the profession of my life, my walk, but you can't see my heart.
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And so in light of the profession of my mouth and my life, you extend a certain charity to me. Ross isn't what he should be, but he's better than he used to be.
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I'll give him a little bit of charity and call him a brother. Well, thank you very much, and I'll do the same for you.
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So there's an extension of charity that consists in the membership of a church. Discipline is the suspension of that charity.
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Excommunication is the termination of that charity. No longer is there the framework of,
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I charitably regard you, I charitably assume you to be a brother or a sister. When Jesus says that the keys are given to the church, this is part of the weight of what the church identifies.
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Those whom you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Those whom you loose on earth will be loosed from heaven.
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If you're a rightly ordered, rightly governed, rightly led church, you feel the weight of it.
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So in light of that, Jesus says when discipline leads to excommunication, you regard the offender as a heathen, as a task collector.
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In other words, as an outsider to the kingdom. We asked the question in August, well, how are we to treat outsiders to the kingdom?
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Well, we treat them the way that Jesus treated outsiders to the kingdom, with a continuing desire to see their repentance, and in light of excommunication, to see their restoration.
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The end, again, is always, always, always restoration. We seek with the gospel, we pray for repentance.
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We don't blunt the sharp edge of excommunication, that leverage, that weight, that distance is meant to have an effect.
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So we don't relate as casual friends, as though a scandalous sin is water under the bridge. We didn't shun or give a cold shoulder, but we were certainly distant, aloof.
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In the time of excommunication, of course, there's an opportunity to engage the word, perhaps even to observe prayer, hear prayers for their sake, to be implored, to be reconciled to God through Christ.
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And so we said the church withdraws Christian fellowship, but not Christian compassion. You see the heart that Paul has, and the way that Jesus explains the goal of Matthew 18, if he listens, you've gained your brother.
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That's the goal. Not to be listened in a way that the word goes in one ear and out the other, but to actually be listened to in a way that you've gained.
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You've turned a sinner from the error of his ways. You've gained him. It's what
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Paul says in Galatians. Brethren, if a man has overtaken any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one.
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That's the goal. The man's overtaken. What's the goal? To footstomp?
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What's the goal? To kick him in the ribs while he's down? What's the goal? Why can only gentle and meek brethren surround such a one overtaken by sin?
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Because the goal is, restore such a one. And so the end of excommunication is what we have before us this afternoon.
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It's restoration. August was a hard sermon to preach.
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This is a wonderful sermon to preach. Let's talk about the exercise of restoration. Consider how
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Paul elaborates what this restoration ought to look like for the church at Corinth.
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He says, not only you ought to forgive this man, but he says, you ought to comfort him.
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It's striking that Paul includes that. Because he knows there can be forgiveness sent at a distance.
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Forgiveness that is phoned in. And he says, no, no, that won't do. When something has been fractured, you've got to wrap it tight.
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When something has been broken, you need to put a thick cast of covering over it. And so it is in a broken relationship in the church.
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You've got to wrap tight. You've got to get close. He says, don't just forgive. Don't wave from across the canyon and go, all is forgiven.
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I'll never see you again. No, you wrap tight. You draw close.
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Don't just forgive, comfort. In other words, restoration is, in Paul's mind, consolation.
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I think I said something in August like, where repentance is observed by the church, the floodgates open.
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That's a good image to have. If there had been the hopeful trickle, now the floodgates burst.
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Console. Comfort. Relieve. Ingratiate.
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Enjoy. It's representing the heart of Christ toward repentant sinners.
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What does the heart of Christ look like toward repentant sinners? When you read the gospel pages, don't you see the delight of Christ just jump off the pages?
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He's amazed when people repent. He says, I wish you could hear what I hear.
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Angels bursting into song. You don't know what it's like. There's no party on earth like the party in heaven when a sinner is converted from his way.
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That's what Jesus says. He says, I love it. I revel in it. The exercise of restoration involves really two things, because restoration is reconciliation.
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That's what we're talking about. What is restoration? It's reconciliation. And reconciliation is always a two -way street.
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There's always two parties involved, two or more parties, if there is to be reconciliation. And so let me address the first of the two parties here.
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That is the offender. So the offender is to be reconciled to the church.
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Well, what does this restoration look like? Well, Paul says to the church, it is to look like forgiveness and comfort.
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It is to look like no longer allowing someone to be sorrowful, but rather clothing them with joy and strength.
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So what does that mean for the offender? Well, I would counsel this. It means a Gospel testimony.
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A Gospel testimony. Excommunication leading to restoration is just a microcosm of what it's like to be converted.
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You come to an awareness of your sins, a conviction of the guilt, and then you're embraced by the mercies of the
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Gospel. And you find a church where you're held forth with that celebratory love. Yes, you belong to us.
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You're one of us. We've baptized you and count you as a brother and sister. You too have been brought out of darkness into light, out of death into life.
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You too know the Savior that we love and worship. And so the relationship of excommunication to restoration is microcosm of the conversion experience, horizontally speaking.
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And that means that to the offender, you walk away with a testimony.
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A testimony. Part of this testimony is borne out not just at a vote on a
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Sunday afternoon, but in all that flows from it. It's a testimony that clears itself in due time.
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There's had to be a clearing to get to this point. There's had to be a proving of sorts.
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But that doesn't end this afternoon. In some ways, that just begins. Paul emphasizes this in 2
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Corinthians 7 when he makes a distinction between sorrow that comes from God and sorrow that is like the world.
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And remember that he has sorrow on his mind earlier in 2 Corinthians 2. And he says, this one is about to be swallowed up by his sorrow.
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What kind of sorrow might that be in light of 2 Corinthians 7? Well, it had to be godly sorrow. Because this man kept persisting, kept showing up, even though he was effectively distanced by the church.
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And he persisted in that, not in a boastful way, not in a way of trying to make his presence felt and sort of corner people into receiving him.
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In other words, it was a humble perseverance. And Paul observes this and he says, you ought to forgive him and comfort him.
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It's a godly sorrow because it was brokenhearted. It was a godly sorrow because there had been a zeal and an energy now in a new direction.
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All these things are what he later describes as godly sorrow. He says, godly sorrow produces repentance which leads to salvation.
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That's not to be regretted. Unlike the sorrow of the world, what does that produce? Death. Oh, there's a lot of people that mistake godly sorrow for worldly sorrow.
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And there's a lot of people that had the testimony, they've been burnt by the church, they sort of struggled to ever, you know, the church is full of hypocrites,
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I've been burnt by the church and so on. Oh, I was repentant, I was repentant. They're just full of worldly sorrow.
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The sorrow of the world produces what their life will end up producing, death. Paul says, observe this very thing.
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You sorrowed in a godly manner. What does that look like? What diligence it produced in you. What clearing of yourselves, note that.
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What indignation, what fear, vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication.
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In all things you prove yourself to be clear in this matter. You see how he returns to that?
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What clearing of yourselves, you proved yourselves to be clear. That's the image of godly sorrow.
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That's what Paul observes in this man in 2 Corinthians 2. There was desire, there was energy, there was indignation, there was broken heartedness, there was humility, but above all there was a clearing.
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You've shown yourself to be clear. Now it takes time to show yourself clear.
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It's been a long time since August. It takes time to show yourself clear.
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There's time yet to come. Such time is not to be regretted. Godly sorrow makes you look back and say, as excruciating as this was,
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I can't regret the fruitfulness that it's grown. That's a gospel testimony. As horrific as the entrance may have been, it's like Rosaria Butterfield saying, my conversion was a car crash.
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It was a car accident. It's like the worst, most painful thing I've ever gone through in my life, and I bless
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God for it. And I can't wait to tell others all about it. And I've written a whole book recounting it.
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It's a gospel testimony. That's not to be regretted.
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Why? Because godly sorrow is God -word sorrow. Godly sorrow is not to be regretted like the world would regret it, because the world can only think of the world.
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The world can't transcend anything beyond the cares and concerns of the world. Worldly sorrow is always something that leads to regret, because it leads to death.
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You're not getting what you can out of life, and you've only got this little flash. Make of it what you can in this dog -eat -dog world.
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All you can do is regret if you have worldly sorrow. But with godly sorrow, there's no regret.
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How much pain, how much anguish, how much heartache, how much damage, how much consequence has there been?
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When you have godly sorrow, you have God -word sorrow, and what happens? He brings beauty to your ashes.
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He brings fruitfulness to the soil you salted and burnt. That's what the
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Lord does. Godly sorrow is God -word sorrow. Notice we read this from Psalm 51 as we opened the service.
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David, of course, effectively having church discipline directly from the
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Lord himself, which leads to him recounting these words in Psalm 51. He knows who the
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Lord is. Notice this whole thing is God -word. You want a working example of what godly sorrow looks like,
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Psalm 51 is godly sorrow. It's God -word sorrow. He's speaking to God.
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All of his reference points are about God. Even when he's speaking about other people, it's really just about God. Behold, he says, you desire truth in the inward parts.
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You've been living a false life. I hid everything over. I carefully maneuvered the chest pieces of my subterfuge, and all along you just wanted me to behold.
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All along you just desired truth in the inward parts. Better translation, you took me to the hidden place to teach me wisdom.
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I think he's recognizing the hidden place, the dark place, the place that few go to.
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He's like, you brought me really low in a place that other people don't often go. And in that dungeon of trial, you taught me wisdom.
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Psalm 51 is the overflow of this. In the hidden place, you make me know wisdom. And what's the direct response of this?
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Purge me with hyssop and I'll be clean. Wash me, I'll be whiter than snow. There's nothing he can do to patch up this ship.
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It's sinking. There's nothing he can do to cleanse himself. God, you must wash me. You must purge me.
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I know that now. And now in a very worshipful, reverent way, he's almost sweetening the deal with God.
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He's not making a deal with God. It's all lopsided. God, you have to do this. But I love that he engages with God in this way.
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Make me hear joy and gladness so that the bones you've broken may rejoice.
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I know you love worship. And I want to worship you. And in fact, if you speak joy and gladness to my heart, even these broken bones will rejoice to you.
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It's like a man who's been crushed by the weight of his sin. And now he's looking to God in a way he had never before in that hidden place.
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The Lord has shown him this wisdom. And he says, even though I'm crushed by the weight of my sin, if you speak joy to me, my broken bones will worship you.
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Well, how is God going to speak joy and gladness? David is still a sinner. And so he says, hide your face from my sins.
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Blot out all my iniquities. You see, God's word sorrow is not just the big one.
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The obvious one. David says, blot out my iniquities, plural.
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I'm a sinner, he says. I'm a sinner. It's not that big sin.
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It's this heart I have pumping in my chest. It's these dark corners.
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It's these shadows that I move through in my life. I'm a sinner. The only way you can speak joy to me is if you hide your face from my sins.
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Purge me. Cleanse me, he's saying. Create in me a clean heart, oh
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God. Creation ex nihilo. I have a fallen heart. Create in me a clean heart.
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What does that look like? Throw out that heart of stone. Create in me a heart of flesh by your own spirit.
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Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Don't cast me away from your presence. Don't take your
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Holy Spirit from me. God's word sorrow has allowed David now to see all that he had taken for granted.
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Though he was a man after God's own heart. And there were powerful times in his life where he modeled in a way that the
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Lord took to himself all that he would become. David's son, yet David's Lord.
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He modeled that humility, that wisdom, that strength, that integrity, that reverence.
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And he took it for granted. What was really of the Spirit of God he thought was just of his flesh and he could muster it up or call it on demand as he saw fit.
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In the hidden place he realized what Jonathan Edwards said, the only thing
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I contribute to my salvation is the sin that made it necessary in the first place.
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And so from this crushed place, David says, restore me.
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That's the key word, isn't it? Restore. What a beautiful word.
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This mighty man of God whose whole walk before the
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Lord has imploded and in this fractured pit of sin and grief and sorrow the cry of his lips and the song of his heart is simply restoration.
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Restore me, Lord. Bring me back. Make me whole again.
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Wash me in the joy of your salvation. Notice what he says. Uphold me by your generous spirit.
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It's not me. It's not what I'm able to do. I'm not able to do anything but stumble and fall,
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Lord. Not only do I need you to cleanse me, if I'm not to fall again, I need you to uphold me.
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In this hidden place he's learned the wisdom and he has now a gospel testimony. A gospel testimony is simply what
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John the Baptist said. I must decrease, he must increase. That's a gospel testimony.
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Let me tell you about myself, how I ruin everything I touch, and let me tell you about the goodness of the
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God that I love, my Savior. That's a gospel testimony. A gospel testimony is not something unique to someone who had been excommunicated and is now,
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Lord willing, about to be restored. That is the testimony of every member of the body of Christ.
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You shouldn't be a member of the body of Christ if you don't have a gospel testimony. A gospel testimony is essentially what
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David is relaying in Psalm 51. And that's why he says, and this is where he really is, in a reverent way, sweetening the deal,
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I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners will be converted to you. How's that going to happen?
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I have this testimony now. I have this testimony of thinking I could do it just by virtue of who
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I am, what makes me unique. I'm this young, lion -hearted man after God's own heart.
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Well, I saw just how far my flesh could deceive me, and I've been crushed now into the weight of my sin, and I realize
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I'm wholly dependent upon God, and oh, what a testimony I have to share now. Lord, if You restore to me the joy of my salvation, transgressors will know
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Your ways. Sinners will be converted to You. That's what David says.
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How do you hold your head up in a church body after you've had some grave sin, after something like excommunication?
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It was a punishment. It was humiliating. How do you hold your head up?
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You don't. You don't hold your head up. You hold
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His name up. You hold His ways up. You hold His character up.
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You exalt His mercies. That's what David is doing. And in that way, in due time, you yourself will be exalted.
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It's what Jesus said. The one who makes himself nothing is then exalted over all.
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The one who makes himself least becomes first. So you don't seek to restore yourself.
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You look to the Lord to restore the joy of His salvation to your life. You seek to exalt Him. You tell transgressors of His ways.
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Not what I can do and why I'll be different and the eight -step strategy
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I have to make sure this never happens again. Now all of a sudden, it's your testimony, not His. It's not a
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Gospel testimony. David had to overcome the feeling of, well, how can
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I speak to anyone? How can I approach anyone now? Now I have a broken testimony. Now I have a marred testimony.
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I wasn't walking in integrity like so many others around me. Now I have a broken testimony.
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It is no broken testimony to have the boast, all my hope is in the cross. That's not a broken testimony.
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That is the testimony. It's no stain to your life and walk to sincerely tell others, all
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I have is Christ. That's not a stain. That's the Gospel. And so it may be that the one who's in this crushed place seeking restoration has a wisdom that few others in this congregation will come to have.
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That's why David says, in this secret place, you taught me wisdom. So that's to the offender.
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What about to the offended? What about the church? The one who must acknowledge the sin that led to excommunication as well as the repentance that must lead to restoration.
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Well, we asked the question in August and James 3, 3 we confess we all stumble in many ways.
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Is that true? Yes. Is church discipline directed at sin?
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Yes. Do we all in the church struggle with indwelling sin? Yes.
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So why isn't the whole church under church discipline all of the time? Well, the answer we established was because church discipline is directed to unrepentant sin.
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Or, very important, that which over time undermines the credibility of repentance.
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That was what we established in August. So clearly there's this picture. We said that discipline upholds this testimony of the
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Gospel. There's a testimony of the Gospel in either direction. Whatever happens with excommunication.
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It's joyful when the testimony of the Gospel comes off the heels of restoration. But there was a testimony of the
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Gospel laid out back in August. Part of that testimony was that the
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Gospel really does have power and it really does transform someone's life. And this is not just a charade that you can waltz into the
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Kingdom. This is something that must happen by the Spirit of God. Dead men won't enter into life.
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They must be made alive. Must be born again. That's a Gospel testimony. So we said, last
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August, at the beginning, discipline is about examining the testimony of the
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Gospel. The first steps of church discipline. It's about examining the testimony of the
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Gospel in someone's life. At the end, discipline veering toward excommunication, discipline is about vindicating the testimony of the
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Gospel. The Gospel has real power. Not empty words.
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But now, in light of restoration, if at the beginning, discipline is about examining the testimony of the
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Gospel, and at the end, discipline is about vindicating the testimony of the Gospel, then with restoration, discipline is about enacting the testimony of the
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Gospel. Enacting the testimony of the Gospel. Putting into practice what the
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Gospel looks like. That's what we get to do as a church body. Gospel enactment.
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Notice what Paul says. You ought rather to forgive and comfort
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Him. I urge you, reaffirm your love to Him. So the celebration of embrace is as public as the discipline was.
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It demonstrates genuine forgiveness. We enact the
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Gospel. We enact, if it helps with the picture, the joy of the prodigal's father. It wasn't a cool reception.
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It wasn't, you know, the prodigal actually making it into the boot room, and then into the kitchen, and the prodigal's like, what are you doing here, you know?
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Well, I guess you can come back if you haven't eaten much lately. That's not Luke 15. That's not the reception of the prodigal.
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The church enacts that celebration, that embrace.
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It's almost a delight just to be able to delight in forgiveness. And so the celebration is
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Godward, as godly sorrow must be Godward sorrow, so restoration must be
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Godward. It's a time to thank God for His faithfulness. We handed a man over to Satan.
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We could do nothing. There was no hedge of protection of the means of grace.
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There was no staying in the middle of the convoy or running with the herd. It was just here, prowling lion, here you go.
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We could do nothing. And in God's great mercy, we're at this place now where we're considering restoration.
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That is a time to thank God for His mercies. If you read the agenda at all,
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I laid out from our own book of church order what it means for someone to be excommunicated. That's how it begins.
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Excommunication means that the offending and unrepentant member is delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That's 1 Corinthians 5.
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And secondly, that he's viewed as being outside of the body of Christ. In other words, the covenant community of Christ's body.
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That he's excluded from the Lord's Supper and the ministry of the church to the saints.
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That his membership is terminated. And that members don't keep close company with him. That's what excommunication has meant since August.
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So then what does restoration look like? We don't actually spell it out in our book of order, but it's simply the reversal of all of those things.
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That's what restoration is. So rather than to be put out of the church, he is welcomed back.
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Not begrudgingly, but sincerely. Wholeheartedly. Rather than being delivered to Satan to destroy the flesh, he's delivered from Satan and welcomed into the means of grace.
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Armored and strengthened by them. Rather than being viewed as outside the body of Christ.
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Where you slip over yourselves because you're saying friend. Or just speaking first name.
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Now he's welcomed back as a brother. That word ought to be like music to someone who had taken it for granted.
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It's popular now. Everyone is brother. Somehow Hulk Hogan had his way and the whole culture says bro or brother about everybody.
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We can just take it for granted. Everybody's a brother. In the Christian church, that word, that appellation actually means something.
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And perhaps you don't know how much weight it has until you've been on the outside of it. He's welcomed back as a brother.
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A fellow saint. A co -laborer. A joint heir.
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With the Savior and His body. And rather than excluded from the elements, the broken body, the blood poured out, the symbols of communing with Christ, of receiving all that His crucifixion has meant for His people, now he's a rightful partaker.
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A recipient that must partake. Rather than having his membership terminated, he's fully restored.
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All that charity is reaffirmed with integrity. Now, that charity has a volume dial on it.
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And I'm sure as the church, for a lot of people, it's sort of like, how does this reconciliation, how does this restoration actually work out?
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Because I need to embrace and I need to love in a lavish way and I need to extend charity again to my brother, but it's not like the charity
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I had in past years. It has a volume dial on it. One of the ways
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I've been thinking about it is simply this. Charity is charity. You regard that profession, you count them as a brother.
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But charity, in time, can take on a certain substance. It can take on a weight. And when charity becomes weighted, that's simply another word for trust.
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So charity, over time, taking on weight, becomes what we would call trust. Rather than members not keeping close company, he is to be surrounded with mercy, good comfort, fervent friendship of those who had been distant since August.
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Now, you ought to feel a pinch, perhaps, if you had been distant before August. You start to realize that what makes church discipline effective is actually living out life as the church.
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Most churches cannot exercise meaningful church discipline because they don't have what you need to exercise it in the first place, meaningful fellowship.
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So you go, well, we're keeping our distance from you. Who are you? I don't even know you. This discipline will mean nothing to me.
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Effectively changes nothing. If I show up wearing sunglasses the next Sunday, you won't even know who
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I am. But for someone who has been deprived of that fellowship, that close company, to be ushered back into it, it's like when
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Jacob spent his whole life on the run from his brother, who hated him, wanted to destroy him.
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And it was just a terror of his life. And even though God straightened out his twisting and deceitful ways and blessed him with flocks and children and all of these wonderful blessings, when that time at the fort of Jabbok came and He sent all of that ahead of him in the night and he was left utterly alone, fearing that his brother was about to swoop in and ambush and kill him and raise all of his cattle and kill all of his livestock and even destroy his lineage and his children.
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And so he was absolutely terrorized. If ever he was close to sweating blood, it was then. And God came in and just said, you know,
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Jacob, you have a fear of your brother and you ought to have a fear of me. You have a reverence for your brother's impact in your life, you ought to have a reverence for me.
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And so the Lord ambushes him, the Lord tackles him in the middle of the night. And so finally
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Jacob has his last priority set. He finally has the right fear, the fear that he needed. And the next day he goes out, gulping his throat down into his toes and he actually encounters the brother that he was so terrorized by.
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And rather than finding a vengeful, murderous sibling, he finds arms open and embrace and they weep together as they hold.
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And do you remember what Jacob says? To see your face is like seeing the face of God. To embrace someone that had been cast out is the closest earthly extension of what it's like to be embraced by God himself.
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Most of us in this room don't realize we wield that kind of power, that kind of impact in someone's life.
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You wouldn't know it unless you were brought to the hidden place and taught that wisdom by God himself. Reconciliation is the gospel.
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And one of the most powerful earthly examples we can offer, one of the most vibrant displays of the gospel that we can offer is in restoring a sinner and embracing them in gospel mercy, in covering them over with love and comfort, strengthening them, praying for them, walking with them and for them and by them.
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That's the gospel. There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
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This is what forgiveness and comfort seeks. This is restoration. This is the work of the gospel.
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And it leads lastly to the effects. And I just have a few to share. And some of these effects will lead into Colossians 3 next
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Sunday up at Menadnock. But as I've said, discipline reveals how we view the gospel.
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The terms of the gospel. Are we obeying the call of Christ? Does the gospel have power to change someone's life?
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Does the gospel form relationships and forge a fellowship that is not easily taken for granted or easily broken?
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Do we learn then in light of that how to actually love and bear with one another and show forth kindness and meekness and long -suffering and humility?
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Discipline reveals how you view the gospel. Discipline also reveals how you view the church. It ought to pinch some of you that to embrace is ineffective because you had never embraced before excommunication.
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It ought to pinch all of us to some extent that God loves us in a way that we can hardly match in mirror.
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God reconciles with us in a way that our feeble, fickle attempts fall so far short of.
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If we say we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we don't practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
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And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Unity is something that we have.
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Unity is something we endeavor to keep. How do we do that? Well, Paul says in Ephesians 4, with all lowliness, gentleness, with long -suffering, bearing with one another in love.
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This sounds very familiar to Colossians 3. He says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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So that's how you endeavor to keep the unity. You walk in lowliness, gentleness, long -suffering, bearing with one another.
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That's what restoration involves. That's what just being a church involves.
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We're reconciling someone or restoring someone to come back into the unity of the fold. The unity of the fold is not self -propelled.
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It's not something that takes care of itself. It's like saying, you know, buy this land, you'll never have to mow it.
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Like, oh, that doesn't sound right. You'll never have to do anything with it. It'll just take care of itself, no.
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Gardeners know you always have to weed and prune and water. There's a lot of work to be done if you're going to maintain that garden.
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Unity is something we have, but that's not something to take for granted. Unity is something we endeavor to keep. It requires loneliness.
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This is key to restoration. You will hardly be able to restore someone to fellowship if you think you're restoring them by looking down on them like this.
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Who makes you to differ? Be clothed with humility,
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Peter says. Be clothed with the kind of humility that the love which covers those sins is actually just an extension of that humble clothing.
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Come under here. Come under this humility. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
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Jesus says, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. We don't restore sinners to the fold as if we had no sin.
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We don't restore them by looking down and saying, I guess you can climb back up to the tower. We look level, if not up, at them and say like David, God be merciful to me.
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Humility then leads to compassion. Where will this love, where will this gratitude, where will this celebration come from by recognizing in our humility the same things that we so easily take for granted, the love and the mercy that so freely and fully surround us, the way that God by His Spirit has upheld us and we have been brought to that soul -crushing place, that we've been spared from the jaws of Satan, as it were, to this extent.
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So in that humility we have compassion. Lord, we say with the psalmist in Psalm 86, you're good, ready to forgive.
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Help me to be good and ready to forgive, abundant with all those who call upon you.
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And this leads to gentleness. Notice that Paul in Ephesians 4 says, with all lowliness and gentleness.
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That's what he says in Galatians 6. Those who will be gentle are to restore such a one. Gentleness. Not something we exactly excel in in the
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Reformed world, to be gentle. But Paul says the punishment was sufficient.
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You ought to forgive and comfort. Recognize that overwhelming sorrow and in all humility with gentleness, comfort, comfort.
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Paul says to the Thessalonian church, we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint -hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.
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Every church in North America would be remarkably different if we could just follow that passage to its core.
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It's a church full of unruly people. Warn the unruly. It's a church full of people that are fickle and faint -hearted.
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Comfort them. It's a church full of weak, worldly sinners. Uphold those who are weak and be patient with everybody.
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That is the best church advice. Everyone should put that on a mug or a fridge magnet.
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This is the way to do church. And it leads to what we'll look into next week.
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To be long -suffering, to bear with one another. This is how you endeavor to keep the unity. This is the unity that we are bringing someone back into.
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Don't take that for granted. And then lastly, and we'll close with this, we are to be watchful.
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Humble, gentle, watchful. Watchful. Church discipline and something as weighty as excommunication and restoration is to sober us up to the reality of the deceitfulness of sin.
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It's where the study left off. This holiness that God requires, apart from which no one will see
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Him. Remember Jesus astounded at times. He said, when the Son of Man returns, will we find faith on the earth?
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Is anyone going to make it? Can these bones live?
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Lord, you know. And so the advice is, look carefully.
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Be watchful. Lest anyone fall short of the grace of God.
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It's looking carefully that is often the product of church discipline.
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It ought to be for us, you know. August was a while ago, but it wasn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things.
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And I think those sobering effects were done before even summer gave out last year.
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Look carefully. Church discipline is one of the marks of the true church.
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It's the reformers Calvin laid out. There's three marks biblically governed by the
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Scriptures that demarcate what a true church is. A true church has the first mark of preaching the Word of God.
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Preaching the fullness of God's counsel. The second mark is the right administration of the ordinances or the sacraments.
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The third mark is discipline of its members. This was the first excommunication we've ever experienced as a church.
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Lord willing, this is the first restoration. This will not be the last exercise of discipline. Look carefully.
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But always remember that the end, the aim, the goal, the prayer, the hope is restoration.
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And that's what we have before us. Restoration that displays forgiveness.
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Forgiveness being the richest work of the gospel. The miracle of the gospel.
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That our eternal hell -deserving sins can warrant the free and full forgiveness of a holy God. Forgiveness is the miracle of the gospel.
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But that miracle came at a cost. It came at the cost of our Savior's own life. Perfect life. Wrought in the death of the cross.
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And therefore, in light of that mercy and that self -sacrificial love, we restore with mercy and self -sacrificial love.
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We draw close. We forgive. We comfort. We let charity take on weight and become trust.
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We have a walk that is thick. A friendship that is fervent. A watchfulness that is wise and careful and discerning.
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In this way, restoration should feel as weighty as excommunication. This is not just going through the motions, brothers and sisters.
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Restoration should feel as weighty as excommunication. Because it's nothing less than God's gospel being applied in the life of a sinner who fully and freely offers mercy to all who repent and believe upon Him, who answer
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His call if anyone has caused grief. He's not grieved me, Paul says, but all of you, not to be severe.
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This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a one, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort
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Him, lest perhaps He be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you, reaffirm your love to Him.
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Amen? Let's pray. Father, help us, we pray.
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Be present with us now as Your church, Lord. We recognize Your will will be wrought out by Your Spirit, Lord, and Your will goes much deeper than a short meeting or a quick vote.
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Your will is for sinners to be brought into Your light and into Your everlasting inheritance.
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Your will is for this body to be faithful and to be holy, to be watchful and yet to be humble.
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Lord, may Your Spirit move and have its way in us, Lord. You have been faithful to us.
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We have not been so faithful in return. You have been merciful to us. We have not been so merciful in return.
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You have been patient and long -suffering with us. We have hardly been patient in the ways that we ought to be.
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Lord, give us this grace, and may the display of Your Gospel be so rich.
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May the testimony of Your Gospel be so powerful in this church and in these lives.
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Exalt Your name, so that transgressors may be taught Your ways and sinners be converted to You.