The Protection of Church Discipline

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Pastor John Samson is back to give his third teaching in a series on the Church, this time dealing with the often neglected subject of Discipline. A Church failing to exercise discipline among its members is an unloving Church, walking in disobedience to Christ.

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Welcome to The Dividing Line for today. My name is Pastor John Sampson.
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It's a joy and delight to come to you as a guest host again for Dr. James White, who's away traveling.
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Please check the blog and be praying for his ministry as he's doing some very valiant, noble things in the cause of Christ, and we're very much appreciative of his ministry, of course.
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So glad to be with you again. We're talking about the church. The last couple of times
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I've been here guest hosting, we've talked about the biblical case for church membership and also the blessing of church membership, what is entailed, how does it work, what is supposed to happen.
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Some people have had bad experiences in this area, but the Bible still says what it says, and we need to do what
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God says, God's way. Let's do it right, and let's learn of these things. I have to give my testimony that I have not always understood this, but implementing it thrills my heart knowing that I believe
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God is in it because Christ is shepherding his sheep through his under shepherds.
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And I'm so thrilled to be able to learn these things and introduce it in the church where I'm one of the eldest
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Kings Church in Peoria, Arizona. We've talked a lot about what the church is.
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We talked about many of the scripture references to talk about church membership.
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Acts 5 is another that we didn't talk about, where the Apostle Peter was bringing church discipline in a very strong way, a very unusual way in the book of Acts, chapter 5, where we have a couple called
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Ananias and Sapphira, who are slain in the spirit, so to speak. They really were.
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They were dead because of their testimony regarding what they were doing with a certain piece of land that was sold.
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They basically, in a nutshell, lied about what they put in the offering. That's basically what they did, and they were slain by God.
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God made sure the early church was going to be a place of holiness, where the fear of the
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Lord prevailed. And it's interesting about the reaction of those outside.
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It says, Great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard these things.
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Very interesting. They knew of this. They knew what was happening.
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And the scripture says that many were outside of the church and would not join the early disciples, though they held them in high esteem.
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We're joined there is interesting. Again, a concept that we've lost in our day, where it's just easy to just show up at a church and think we're part of things because we show up.
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Yet there was a commitment in the early church that we need to come back to and see again in our day. In talking about church membership, we then go on to talk about church discipline.
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And I wish I could parade in front of you some of the people I know who've been blessed because of the right teaching and the right manifestation, the right enforcement of church discipline.
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I know that there are stories where leadership have extended their hand way too much, too heavily.
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But just because people have done that doesn't mean we should shoot for the real thing. The real thing is a biblical idea of fulfilling what
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Christ has said regarding his church. It is his church. It's interesting in the three times that Jesus mentions the word church.
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All of them occur in the Gospel of Matthew. First of all was in chapter 16, where he says,
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I will build my church. Then in chapter 18, he mentions the word church twice.
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And in that context, it's all about church discipline. And that's it.
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That's all that Jesus said about the church, except it isn't quite the whole story.
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Because Jesus now, through his apostles, is teaching us what his church is to be.
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And that's what we have in the rest of the New Testament. Both the Gospels and the epistles tell us how
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Jesus wants his church to function. So it's not just Paul speaking with his ideas.
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It's Jesus through Paul. It's not just Peter. It's Jesus through Peter. And so we go on.
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I remember coming across a quote that I think is helpful in summing up some of the things we've talked about so far regarding the church.
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It's a quote I picked up from John Piper regarding what is the local church.
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And he said this, the local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess
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Jesus Christ as Lord in obedience to Scripture. They organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the
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Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, subject to church discipline, and scatter to fulfill the great commandments.
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And so it's the local church.
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It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church.
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It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church.
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It's the local church. It's the local church.
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It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church.
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It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church. It's the local church.
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It's the local church.
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It's see that's what the words actually say in 1st
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Corinthians 11. So that's the local church. We're moving now to talk about the marks of a true church, namely the gospel, the
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Word of God rightly preached. You can't preach the Word of God rightly without getting the gospel right.
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Secondly, administration of the Lord's Supper and water baptism in its correct biblical framework and thirdly church discipline.
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It was Theodore Baezer and others who talked about the fact that those were the three marks of the church.
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Luther had much to say, Calvin had much to say, other reformers had much to say, but it was really as the generations went on they talked about three marks of a true church.
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The gospel rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered and church discipline.
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This third one was something of a component that came later. Theodore Baezer was a successor to John Calvin in Geneva and I have a quote of his
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I'd like to share with you where he says exactly this. To conclude, in what place the
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Word of God is purely preached? So you find a place, you find a group of people where the
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Word of God is purely preached. He says, the sacraments purely administered and ecclesiastical discipline, that's church discipline, conducted conformably to the holy and pure doctrine.
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There we recognize the Church of God no matter how few or small of appearance in men's eyes.
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I love that quote. It doesn't matter the size of the church, whether it's large, very large or small, very small.
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If those three components are taking place it's a true church. I remember not long ago people coming to our church in the
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Phoenix area and wondering why I was talking about church membership when we had so few in the congregation and my response is and was, well whether we have small or a lot we want the church to be the church no matter what its size and according to God we're to do it his way.
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I don't have a choice in this and church membership should be in place as soon as we can introduce it because that's what
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Jesus wants of his people. It's actually his idea. That's why we call the
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Church King's Church. So three marks of true church, the gospel preached purely, sacraments administered and also church discipline.
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Why would they talk about that third component? That's what we're going to talk about today. People say but aren't you just being superior by talking about sin and talking about the fact that others have sinned.
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You want to show your ecclesiastical clout and flex your muscles to show you've got authority.
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No, no, no. It's actually a fearful thing for leaders to introduce church discipline because whenever you point a finger at anyone there's at least three fingers pointing back at you and we know that we're all sinners.
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The only way you can get into the church is to first of all admit you're a sinner. That's how we come to Christ isn't it?
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I'm the sinner, he's the Savior. Call upon the name of the Lord to save us from the wrath of God that we deserve.
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But here's a concept we must get in place. Some sins are worse than others.
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Some sins need to be exposed and there needs to be a period of time where the person sinning is called to repentance and they need to repent or else certain measures needs to happen and that is
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Jesus' words to the church. Matthew chapter 18. Let me quote from Dr.
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R .C. Sproul from his book The Holiness of God regarding that concept that all sins are equal in God's sight and he makes the point that that's actually an incorrect idea.
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People say all sin is sin and that is true but not all sin is equally sinful.
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Some sins are worse than others. That's true in our society. It's wrong to speak evil of someone but it's far worse to go and murder someone and that's why the punishments under the law are different for those two things that people do.
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Those two actions. The punishment should fit the crime. Jesus made it clear that the one who delivered him over to you talking of the
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Jewish authorities has the greatest sin. John chapter 19 verse 11.
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So even there though we're jumping into the passage I don't believe we're taking it out of context when we say
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Jesus believed that some sins are greater than others. Judas' sin was greater than others and that's borne out by that one verse.
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So let me quote Dr. Sproul. He said this. The sins listed in Galatians 5 19 through 21 may be described as gross and heinous sins.
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The New Testament recognized degrees of sins. Some sins are worse than others. This important point is often overlooked by Christians.
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Protestants particularly struggle with the concept of gradations or degrees of sin.
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We tend to think that sin is sin and that no sin is greater than any other. We think of Jesus teaching in the
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Sermon on the Mount that to lust after a woman is to be guilty of adultery.
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We are aware that the Bible teaches if we sin against one point of the law we sin against the whole law.
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These two biblical teachings can easily confuse us about the degrees of sin. When Jesus said that to lust is to violate the law against adultery he did not say or imply that lust is as bad as the full act of adultery.
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His point was that the full measure of the law prohibited more than the actual act of adultery.
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The law has a broader application. The Pharisees thought that because they never committed the actual act of adultery they were free of sin against the law.
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They assumed that if they actually refrained from killing people they were keeping the law against killing.
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They failed to see that unjust anger and hatred were also included in the wider meaning of the law against killing.
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Jesus taught that hate is a sin against another person's life. Hatred violates people.
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It is not as severe as actual murder but it is nevertheless a sin. The smallest sin involves a sin against the whole law.
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The law is the standard of holiness for us. In our slightest transgression we sin against that standard.
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We violate the call to holiness. Again that does not imply that every sin is as wicked as every other sin.
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Jesus repeatedly spoke of degrees of punishment in hell as well as those whose guilt was greater than others.
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Do we get the point? He continues. The idea of gradations of sin is important for us to keep in mind so we understand the difference between sin and gross sin.
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Again all of our sins require forgiveness. All of our sins are acts of treason against God.
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We need a Savior for our little ones as well as our major ones. But some sins are more significant than others and we need to identify which these are less we fall into the pharisaical trap of majoring in the minus.
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Let me just say in response to that if someone hates someone he has no right to say well because I obviously hate the man
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I might as well go ahead and kill him too. No. A thousand times no. To act on the evil intention of the heart would be to confound that sin many times over.
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Jesus' point was just because someone has outwardly not done a sin with their actions, with their hands, with their body, with their whole being, that does not mean they're still guiltless in the eyes of God because to hate is to violate what
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God intended when he said don't murder. But at the same time it's not equivalent to say hate is equal to murder or lust is equal to adultery.
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We can't just say well I've lusted I might as well just go commit adultery as well. No, that compounds the sin many times over.
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All sin deserves God's wrath and the punishment of hell yet not all sins are equal.
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And that's why in the church we have to talk about sin. We have to talk about it from God's perspective and go to the
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Bible for that. When we talk about the church, when we talk about the book of Acts, we see that conversion to Christ included being added to the church.
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The Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter, the Apostle John would scratch their heads in vain to try and understand the concept of someone being converted and not being part of a local church.
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We have that idea today because we're so individualistic in our walk with God.
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We think it's just me and Jesus. I don't need the church. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Numerical records were kept. They said that these people were added to the church.
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You read Acts chapter 2 41 through 47. Much of the New Testament cannot be obeyed outside of the true believers involvement in a local church.
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That's serious stuff I'm saying. That's why I've been taking the time to go through this from the
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Bible. Hebrews chapter 10 we've talked about this. Verse 25 it says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some.
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Again that's the Lord himself through the writer to the Hebrews telling us that we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves as some are in the habit of doing and we're to do this all the more.
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Assemble ourselves all the more as we see the day approaching. It's the local church that is in view.
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It would be impossible to understand that verse if we're talking about the universal church.
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How do we assemble with the universal church? It's the local church that is in view.
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The word assembling is actually interesting. Episynagogue. We get the word synagogue from that.
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It's an assembly point. It's a place of meeting where the Christians are. A known place of meeting.
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That's a biblically ordered church. There's godly elders in place which comprise of converted men who are members themselves of the church and who meet certain requirements, certain qualifications outlined in 1st
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Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1. Then there is the sharing of those ordinances of baptism which really is the entrance into membership of the church.
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You're converted. You call upon the name of the Lord. You repent and believe in Christ and you are then water baptized which indicates your entrance into the local church and then the
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Lord's Supper is that continuing expression of communion with the risen
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Lord. Again when you come together do this. Some people have the idea now
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I'm just gonna be a Christian by myself again. Hopefully as you've gone through the scriptures with me and you've looked at those scriptures you'll know it's like an analogy of an ember, a piece of coal alongside the other coals in the fire.
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It's hot. White hot. Red hot. It's hot hot hot but when it's removed from the other coals it will glow for a while.
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It will give off heat for a while but after a time that heat will be lost.
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There'll be a lack of attachment to the fire and it will result in that coal growing cold and it will die out.
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The fire will die out. We can disregard these commands of Christ but we do so at our peril and we do so in disobedience to the
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Lord himself. We have obligations to each other even to the point of pointing out sin sometimes in the extreme even in a public way.
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For that we need to see Jesus and we need to see his words in Matthew chapter 18. We've looked at this before but it's very good and important that we look at it again.
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Matthew chapter 18 Jesus said this, if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
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Really this is Jesus mandate for every kind of offense and sin that occurs in the local church.
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It's something that should be primary. It's something that should be known by everyone.
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This is the way we're supposed to function according to Jesus. Not go talk to anyone else.
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If we're offended we go to the person and we go to the person quickly. We don't wait six, nine months then send them a letter.
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We deal with this. If your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
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If he listens to you you've gained your brother but if he does not listen take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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If he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church that's numbers two and three of Jesus three statements about the church, a klesia, let him be to you as a
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Gentile and a tax collector. In other words have nothing to do with that person.
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Treat him as an outsider. When we talk about church discipline it sounds negative.
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It's a bit like being asked did your parents discipline you? Oftentimes what they mean is did they spank you?
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My father was Welsh, very Welsh, yet I kind of think he was in some sense patriotic,
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American in this little sense because he laid on the stripes and I saw the stars.
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Yeah he loved me. He did. He who refrains from discipline hates the child, book of Proverbs says, and I can attest to that.
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My dad loved me. He sometimes beat the living daylights out of my behind and I felt his discipline but let's not have that concept in place as the only thing to mention when we talk about discipline in that negative kind of discipline that means a spanking or something we don't want to look forward to.
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We actually need discipline. God disciplines us according to the book of Hebrews.
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Doesn't seem pleasant at the time but we need it. Remember that hymn, prone to wonder
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Lord I feel it. All of us should say I need the help of my brothers and sisters.
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Sometimes it's like a blind spot when you're driving. You don't see everything. You don't see everything about yourself.
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We can be self -deceived and we need the input of those who are around us to say this area of your life looks like you're out of whack.
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You're not walking in harmony with Christ in this area. We need to talk about that. Most of the discipline in the
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New Testament and in our lives is positive. We are to be nurtured and challenged and healed because we're broken people and much of that discipline comes through the ordinary means of grace as the
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Word of God is proclaimed to us. That's God's discipline, his forming of us.
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If we have the concept of a tree and we put a stake next to that tree as it's being formed, as it's growing, it allows the tree to be growing in a straight line rather than all over the place and that is actually a blessing for the tree.
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It helps it to grow in the right direction. It shapes that tree.
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So it is with church discipline in the sense of the the normal way it is exposed and carried out is in the normal use of the means of grace as the
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Word goes forth. There's a correction but there's also an extension of God's mercy in showing us the way forward, the way to obey
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Christ, the way of holiness. All of these things are positive. It means, church discipline, that we have a concept in place that to be a
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Christian we've got to take Jesus' words seriously and his commands are not for any other reason than for the health and well -being of the people of God.
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It's for our health and nurturing that he speaks to us in this way. If someone claims to be a member of the church who will not live by the standards of Jesus, that needs to be pointed out and there are times for the glory of God and for the person's own good that we need to exclude that person from membership.
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Sometimes someone is straying so badly that the church needs to be called, as in the case in Matthew 18 when they're not dealing with an issue, there comes a point where if the person remains unrepentant something has to be done on a church -wide scale so that the person is brought face -to -face with their sin with the purpose being that they repent and we can move on and get on with life in the kingdom of God.
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But when they still refuse to repent, we have to treat them in a certain way for the well -being of the people.
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If someone is unrepentant of teaching false doctrine or they're committing fraud amongst the members of the church, that needs to be exposed.
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If they will not repent and if that is not in place in a church, there's no protection.
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There is no protection for the people of God. We're not disciples of Jesus unless we adhere to the sayings of Jesus, the words of Jesus, following Jesus.
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There needs to be a distinction between the church and the world. We've looked in Matthew 18,
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I think a second passage that certainly has been mentioned already but I believe we need to look at it more clearly and closely is 1
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Corinthians chapter 5. And if you have a Bible, I invite you to turn there, 1
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Corinthians chapter 5. By the way, a book that I would recommend on this issue of church discipline is called
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The Handbook of Church Discipline by J. Adams. Very wise, scholarly and yet accessible material on this subject.
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1 Corinthians chapter 5, I'm going to refer to some notes. I was reading a chapter in a book by Earl Blackburn and he was quoting
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Jim Eliff who was preaching on this passage and he wrote some notes that this pastor had made and I want to refer to them as well because I think they're helpful as we walk through this passage.
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I know people have been burnt by bad church discipline or overbearing church discipline but let's hear
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Jesus now through Paul speaking to a church that was not dealing with an issue in the church and let's hear
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Christ now through Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 1
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Corinthians chapter 5. Let me say this as we begin, church discipline is not contrary to love.
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Actually, not to implement church discipline may be one of the most unloving things a church can do.
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The church has to have some standards of behavior. Are you saying you're better than us?
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No. Are you saying you're better than other people? No, but I'm saying that Jesus says some things need to be outlawed.
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If they happen, yes there can be forgiveness but that thing needs to stop. I'm amazed at large churches that have no church discipline where couples are known to be living together without being married and no one says anything.
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That is a disgrace and it's a blot on the testimony of Christ in the community.
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Let me say that again, it's a blot on the testimony of Christ in the community.
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Oh yeah, I've heard about that church. You can live together, no one says anything. If that can happen, if you can go years and the leadership knows that's happening and they do nothing, that is not a protection for the people.
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It's not in the interest of those people because those people are self -deceived, thinking that they're walking with God and they're living in known sin and it's a blot on the testimony of Christ in the community.
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You go and you share the gospel. Oh, which church do you go to? Oh, I go to this big church on the hill. Oh great, well
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I'm not really interested because sin is not even exposed there. You can do what you like.
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There's no difference between the world and the church. The testimony of Christ is not honored in such venues.
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1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1, Paul writes this, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, talking of the church at Corinth, of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.
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For a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?
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Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Again, notice the implication there to have an in and to have an out, clearly in view.
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You can't put someone out, you can't remove someone from something unless they're first in something.
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So the church has standards and they need to be implemented because you've not done anything about this thing.
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You're being arrogant, you really should be mourning and you should be enforcing
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Jesus' words here. If there's no repentance from this people, this couple, a man and the father's wife, this is not good.
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This is not good at all. Let him who has done this be removed from among you. So the church is actually to judge its members.
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Are we saying that? Yes we are. Look at verse 3 through to verse 5. For though absent in body I am present in spirit and as if present
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I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled, again a reference to church membership, not just anyone who shows up, but you, the church, when you are assembled in the name of the
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Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, again Jesus is involved in this, it's not just Paul on his own, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
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I'm not sure exactly what that means but I have enough about me to know that it's not good.
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This is not a good situation to be delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. You're in wide open territory where the wolf can devour.
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Why? So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Notice the purpose in delivering this man, removing this man from amongst the flock, delivering him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, was for the purpose of restoration.
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So his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. So he'd come to his senses and realize this is not conducive to the people of God.
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This is not the walk of a Christian. What you're involved in is in no way Christian and we the church are saying so.
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We are not going to tolerate this for the sake of Christ and his gospel. We're going to use the responsibility of the church to remove that contaminating source of sin.
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Let's read verse 6. Your boasting is not good. They were actually boasting about the fact that their sin was more prevalent than the pagans around them.
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That's not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
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This has a reflection on all the members of the church. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened, for Christ our
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Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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Deal with the sin, put it out, don't allow it to contaminate the people of God.
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Ultimately, the final act of discipline involves excommunication.
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If there's no repentance, if there's no restoration, then the church, hear this, is to withdraw its most precious gift, which is fellowship amongst the brothers and sisters.
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Hear that again. If there's no repentance, if there's no way that restoration is happening, at least at this point, there needs to be, according to Paul and according to Jesus, excommunication, a withdrawing of that gift of fellowship with the saints.
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Verse 9 says this, I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
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Then he goes on to define what he's talking about, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters.
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Since then, you'd need to go out of the world. He's not saying don't associate with sexually immoral people in the world or else you've got no one to talk to.
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That's all that's going on in Corinth. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother.
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See the point? He's inside the church or at least he's claiming to be a part of the people of God.
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If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.
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Withhold fellowship. Don't just hang out with him at Denny's and McDonald's.
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Don't go out for a meal with him. Don't give him the gift of fellowship right now until there's repentance.
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There needs to be repentance of his lifestyle. Anyone can struggle with sin, but if someone's enjoying it and has no desire whatsoever for repentance, back off.
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You're not being Christian to him by putting your arms around and say, there, there, there. No, no, no.
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You say, you need to repent, brother. You need to repent. And we, the church have something to say about this for the good of your soul and for the good of the testimony of the gospel in the community.
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Now hear this. If the church fails to purge that unrepentant member, that disobedient member, it is in flagrant disobedience to God and his word.
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I don't care how big the church is, how small the church is. It's not obeying Christ. That's serious.
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Verse 12, for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Question mark.
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I think though the question's not answered, the obvious answer is nothing at all.
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Paul was not to judge those outside the church, but as an apostle writing to the church at Corinth, he says,
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I'm judging this situation and my judgment is you need to remove this guy. If he will not repent, you have to do this when you gather together, when you are assembled with my spirit and with Jesus behind me, put the man out if he will not repent.
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For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church?
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Again, an expression of membership. Is it not those inside the church whom you, the church, are to judge?
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Question mark. The obvious answer here is yes. It is those inside the church whom you, plural, the people of God are to judge.
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Yes. Really? Yes. God judges those outside.
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Verse 13, purge the evil person from among you. Is that in my
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Bible, Mildred? Yep, it's right there. Purge the evil person from among you.
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Put them out. Put them out. That doesn't sound very loving. Actually, it's very loving.
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It's very, very loving to enforce biblical church discipline and say, hey,
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Gary, we've heard this is going on and we've heard, in fact, we've seen you've not repented.
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You're in flagrant disobedience to God and for the good of your soul, we're going to have to put you out of the church.
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We're going to have to hand you over to the enemy for the good of your soul. And we pray as we do this, even with trembling knees, knowing we're sinners ourselves, that you'll come to a place of repentance.
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Because what we're not to do is judge your soul. Ultimately, we're not the judge of your soul.
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I don't know if you're truly his or not, but you're showing all the signs of not being truly his.
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That's not our place. We're not judging your soul, but we're judging the sin. It's of such a high prominence that we cannot allow this to continue in the church.
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And for the sake of your soul, Gary, we're putting you out. But we want you to understand that our desire is that you come back to Christ, that you'd have a true conversion if you haven't already had one.
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And if you are truly his, you will come back. You will. There's a process that Jesus explained in Matthew 18, love for Christ and his body demands the exercise of church discipline.
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And it's actually unloving not to exercise biblical church discipline.
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There are repercussions for not doing this. We just allow sin to run rampant. There's no fear of God in the church.
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Outsiders have no real driving sense of the need to get right with God because the church in the world, there's no difference.
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There should be a difference. 1 Corinthians 5 says there should be a difference. Fornicators in the church don't even share meals with them.
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Not if they're unrepentant. Verse 12 and 13 is really a summary of God's word to us.
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What do I have to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you, the church, are to judge?
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God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. God will deal with the outsider, but he's now asking you and actually commanding you.
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Purge. That's an action word. Purge the evil person from among you.
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Strong stuff. It's not the only place where this is mentioned. It's very important we get that.
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I'd like to turn to a few other scriptures in our time remaining. Galatians chapter 6 is one of those passages where we're not to, as we're instructed, have an attitude of superiority at all because we come as sinners ourselves.
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Even the elders of the church are sinners themselves. We're simul justus et peccator.
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At the same time, sinner and righteous. In one sense we're as sinful as anyone else, but in another sense we're covered with the righteousness of Christ.
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Galatians 6 verse 1. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him, not in a spirit of arrogance or superiority, the exact opposite, in a spirit of gentleness.
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Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Don't go in to this saying this is going to be a great day.
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We get to exercise church discipline. No, it's a fearful day and we need to watch ourselves as we do it, knowing that we are prone to wonder and we feel it ourselves.
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Watchfulness or else we too may be tempted. On in our Bibles to 2nd
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Thessalonians chapter 3. The Bible has much to say, the New Testament has much to say about the way we ought to handle issues in the church.
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2nd Thessalonians 3 verse 6. Here we read.
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For among them, 2nd Thessalonians 3 verse 6, are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth.
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Those are wonderful words, but I think I'm reading 2nd Timothy and I should be in 2nd Thessalonians. 2nd
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Thessalonians 3 verse 6. Here we go. In my former days,
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I'd have said someone needed to hear that. Now I just said, hey, I made a mistake. Here we go. 2nd
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Thessalonians 3 verse 6. Now we command you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Again, notice the authority by which Paul is writing. He was writing under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit. That should be enough, but he's now speaking and writing in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. There could not be more authority in what he's saying. That you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness or laziness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
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So you find a lazy brother, he won't work, he won't do any work. What do you do?
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Keep away from him. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it.
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But with toil and labor, we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
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For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
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For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, laziness, not busy at work, but busy bodies.
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Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
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As for you brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed.
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Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Here's a man who's lazy and he's defending his laziness.
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Don't have anything to do with him. That's a measure of church discipline right there.
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1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 20 says this, talking about those who have made shipwreck of their faith.
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In fact, talking about verse 19, we can jump in there. Holding faith in a good conscience by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith among whom are
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Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I've handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
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Again, exactly what's involved in this, there's kind of speculation as to it, but it's not a good thing to be handed over to the devil.
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Don't just put your arms around and say, we love everybody. No, the false teachers, people that are attacking now the
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Christian faith, hand them over. That's a strong, strong word to Timothy.
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1 Timothy 5 verse 19, in the context of elders giving them double honor if they're doing a good job, paying them well,
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I think that's brought out in verse 18. Verse 19, do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses as for those who persist in sin.
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Now in context, it's talking about elders. As for those who persist in sin, what do we do with an elder who sins?
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Rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. We're not talking about sins such as you're with the pastor as he's driving and he cusses at somebody who cuts out in front of him.
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That's bad. It shouldn't be done. It should do better than that, really, but that's not the level of sin we're talking about.
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When there's such open sin, the man is an adulterer and he's continuing in that.
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There's no repentance. He's committing fraud. He's doing some despicable things.
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If it's proven true and he is still unrepentant, it needs to be something that is rebuked in the presence of everyone so that the rest may stand in fear.
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There should be a warning given that that kind of lifestyle is not tolerated.
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It's not just covered over because he's a leader. It's especially because he's a leader that this has to be exposed.
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It's sad when it happens. When church leaders are caught in sin, we would hope that each one of them can be restored, but there's a biblical process that should be in place and one of the things that should happen is when it's gross sin, it should be made known to the congregation for the sake of the man and for the sake of the congregation rather than just being left and no one talks about it.
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It's the elephant in the room. Now, Titus, on in our Bibles, past 2nd Timothy to Titus chapter 3.
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It's amazing when you see these scriptures all together, the power of them, the clarity they bring to us.
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Titus chapter 3 verse 9. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless.
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Foolish controversies, isn't there just a lot of that? Avoid that. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.
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Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned.
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Wow! Give him a warning, give him a second warning, and then if he refuses to repent, he still wants to stir up division wherever he goes, have nothing more to do with him.
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Wow! Some people think that's, I must be reading from something other than the Bible.
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No, this is God's Word. Have nothing to do with a divisive man after a first and second warning and he won't repent.
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Warn him once, warn him twice, and have nothing to do with him. He's causing division over trivial issues.
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How much of that is happening? Church discipline needs to take place. Why? Because God cares about the people of God.
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God cares about our understanding of his truth and living it out, and he does not want divisions over unnecessary things.
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One book I'd recommend, I recommended it before here on The Dividing Line, Nine Marks of a
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Healthy Church by Mark Dever. There's a chapter here on biblical church discipline.
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I recommend it to you. Let me quote a passage from it. He says this, Mark Dever, one more thing, did you notice how serious were the consequences
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Paul mandated in these descriptions of church discipline? Put out of your fellowship, 1
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Corinthians 5 .2. Hand this man over to Satan, 1 Corinthians 5 .5.
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Not to associate with, do not even eat with such a man, 1 Corinthians 5 .9
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.11. Keep away from, 2 Thessalonians 3 .6. Take special note of him, do not associate with him in order that he may feel ashamed, 2
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Thessalonians 3 .14 .15. Hand it over to Satan, 1
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Timothy 1 .20. Rebuked publicly, 1 Timothy 5 .20.
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Have nothing to do with them, 2 Timothy 3 .5. Have nothing to do with him,
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Titus 3 .10. Is Paul just an unusually severe kind of man?
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What did Jesus himself say about the person who refuses to listen even to the church?
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Hear his words, if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
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That's what the Bible says about church discipline. I believe that it's in our best interest to look to Christ and his word, follow it, for the benefit and health of the church.
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God has so much to say to us along this line. There are degrees of sin, there are degrees of punishment, both in life and in hell.
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You read the parables of Jesus, he's much to say about this. Judas Iscariot had the greater sin.
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As we think about church discipline, think about the fact that it's a blessing. I can think of my own life and I wish at times
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I've been involved in churches that practice church discipline. I've been so impressed in just the last couple of years by observing a church that does this,
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I think very well, they're not perfect, no church will get this right all of the time, but their heart is to obey
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Jesus in this. It's a church I've observed called Grace Covenant Church in Gilbert, Arizona, and seeing the elders there mandate church discipline.
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I remember going to a particular evening service, it was a meeting called by the church and the elders asked me to come alongside and just observe.
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There was a time in that service where they asked non -members to leave, and I as a non -member of that church went to another room along with others, where they talked about someone who was straying, someone that they were having to put outside the church.
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Even to this day, I don't know all the details, I don't know what it was, but they talked about the fact that this person had been warned of gross sin and was unrepentant, and now they were fulfilling the mandate of Matthew chapter 18.
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I was in that other room, and after about 20 minutes, one of the deacons came and said, all right, you can all come back into the service now.
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This man had been dealt with publicly, not for the sake of shameful exposure, but for the fact of honouring the work of Christ, honouring the testimony of Christ in the community, and I was very impressed.
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I still don't know what the details are, and I still don't want to know, but I was very impressed that there was a church seeking to be biblical in how it handled church members who strayed.
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The man could claim to be a Christian, but was living as a non -Christian. It was not good, not good at all.
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So, I want to invite you to pray about this when you think of your own walk with God.
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Don't be a Lone Ranger, don't try and do this on your own, but think about this for the good of the person.
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Chris Armstead was someone who was doing a podcast recently where he was interviewing his pastor who had introduced and subjected him to church discipline over the issue of alcohol, and here he was now, years later, thanking
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God for the man, for the discipline he was brought under. That's the right response of the true child of God, rather than saying, who is he to tell me what to do?
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Who are these elders that think they're better than me? I don't think that's really the case.
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Sometimes it can be, but let's allow for the fact that elders have a hard job, and one of their jobs is to be an under shepherd of Christ, and for a man who is straying to the point where he's under condemnation because of his sin, it's actually loving to point that out and to say, you need to stop this for the sake of your soul.
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It's loving for the person. It's loving for the people of God because it says sin is not tolerated.
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The sins of people left to contaminate the flock sends the message, sin is no issue.
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You can live together. You can do all kinds of stuff. As long as you show up and put something in the offering, that's fine.
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That's not fine. Purge the evil from amongst the flock.
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We have the idea that to grow the church, we need to have the front door as open as possible, allow anybody in, and then close the back door as firmly as we can.
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Don't let anybody out. One of the points that Mark Dever makes in his book is, he says,
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I believe biblically it should be the exact opposite. It should be hard to get in the church. You actually have to be a regenerated disciple of Jesus and want to be baptised.
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I want to fulfil the words of Jesus. And upon your profession of faith, we baptise you and you're in the church.
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But then there's a requirement of saying you're now subject to the church and the elders and you have people in your life who can speak into your life.
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According to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17, those elders are watching over your soul.
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And that's a good thing. It's a very positive thing. So gathering the people together and just saying anything goes is not loving, nor is it for the glory of God.
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The church is his. And we all sin. We're all guilty of sin in the eyes of God.
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But God wants a pure people. He'll not have absolute perfection in this world because we have sin remaining in us.
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But some things are so serious that we need our brothers and sisters to come alongside us and say, what's this we're here, you're believing?
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You're believing something other than the Trinity now? Let's talk about it. We need to talk about that.
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You believe in oneness theology? What's this? You've been hearing CDs and DVDs about this doctrine that the church here will not endorse.
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We hold this standard that the Trinity is important. The deity of Christ is important.
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Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. And if you think about it,
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Paul's entire letter to the Galatians was a word of church discipline. It really was.
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He would not tolerate the Judaizers as part of the flock. He didn't call them brothers.
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He called them false brothers, pseudo Adelphoi, false brothers.
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They look like brothers. They're singing the hymns, but their doctrine means we've got to jump on this like white on rice.
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We've got to jump on this quickly. This is a false gospel that is being tolerated in the
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Galatian church assemblies. We're not having it. And as an apostle, I'm writing this so that it is not tolerated.
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That's church discipline. But I tell you what, in that same chapter of chapter five, excuse me, the same book of Galatians, Paul wrote, the fruit of the
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Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. For Paul, it was no contradiction to write in very strong language about false doctrine.
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Call people false brothers. The words he said were strong and harsh, but because he loved and because the fruit of the
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Holy Spirit was working in his life and because he knew the truth about love, he recognized it was no contradiction to speak of love in the same breath.
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Because we love God and because we love people, we'll stand against false doctrine. We'll stand against wolves.
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We'll not tolerate wolves amongst the flock because we love people and we love
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God. Pray for Dr. James White as he's on his travels. It's a joy to come to you here on The Dividing Line.
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My name is Pastor John Sampson of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona.
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Our church website is kingschurchaz .com. It's a delight to come to you. God bless you as you walk in the light of his word.