Have Not Repented

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're going to begin today in verse 19, and we're going to read into chapter 13 all the way down to verse 10.
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There's one single thought that moves through this entire pericope, and we want to follow that thought throughout today's lesson.
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And while you're turning there, I just want to give a few preliminary thoughts. It seems evident that in modern evangelicalism, there is a shifting away from the preaching of repentance.
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In fact, it was just this past week that as I was, as I often do on my drive to and from the church, oftentimes
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I'll call and talk to Mike a little bit about what I'm going to be preaching, and we'll banter about what we're discussing.
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And I mentioned to him that I was preaching this text and that I was preaching on the subject of repentance, and he mentioned to me about two television commercials that he had recently seen, and those commercials were from very well -known ministries.
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I won't mention the names of the ministries, but two, if I mentioned them by name, you'd know exactly who they were, and these ministries have a relatively good reputation among evangelicals and even conservatives.
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But Mike pointed out to me that both of these ministries have removed any words of repentance from their commercials and their gospel presentations, and instead they use other words.
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Ask Jesus into your heart, and pray this prayer after me, and that's how you get saved.
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And there's no call to repentance of sin. There's no call to repentance to turn from sin, and this has become so common in our modern evangelical world.
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I was thinking about this, and I thought, why is it that repentance is avoided?
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And I came to four conclusions. I think the four reasons why repentance is often avoided in gospel presentations is, number one, is there has been a shift in gospel presentations towards a therapeutic gospel.
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A therapeutic gospel is not about calling for change, but rather for calling for comfort.
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We want to make you feel good about where you are, not call you to change, and that has become very common.
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In fact, a few years ago, a study was done, and it simply said that most people who call themselves
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Christians don't really believe in the God of Christianity. They believe in what the people who did the study, they called it moralistic therapeutic deism.
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Moralistic therapeutic deism. This is what that means. Do good, right? Feel good.
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That's moralistic. Do good. Therapeutic, be good, and God, who is essentially not really involved, may be happy with you.
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That's deism. So moralistic therapeutic deism, and just think about when you're sharing the gospel with people, a lot of times, what do they say?
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Oh, you know, the man upstairs, he's happy with me, right? Or my life's good.
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I know God's happy with me. I'm doing good things, therefore God's happy with me.
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That's moralistic therapeutic deism. That's the way the gospel is presented in so many ways, and any reference to sin is often downplayed as, you know, well, it merely separates you from God.
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That's what you'll often hear. Sin separates you from God. Well, sin does separate you from God. The Bible says those words, so that's not wrong, but sin is actually something that brings you under the condemnation of God.
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When was the last time you heard that? When was the last time you heard that sin actually causes the judge of the universe to be your enemy?
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But doesn't the Bible say that because of sin, we are at enmity with God? Doesn't the very words of scripture tell us these things, but we won't say it because it doesn't feel good.
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It's not therapeutic at all, and so one of the reasons why repentance is abandoned is because of this therapeutic gospel.
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The second thing is a fear of offense, a fear of offending people.
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Now I have found that a lot of ministries don't mind offending people with worldly things.
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They'll drive Harley Davidsons onto the stage, they'll zip line into the—oh, yeah, don't look surprised.
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I can show you the videos. They have Harley Davidsons on the stage, zip lines, zip line in the pastor, and they don't mind offending according to worldly standards, but they won't say repentance because by goodness repentance offends people.
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If there's a call to change, that's offensive, and we can't have that. The third thing is the prosperity or self -improvement gospel, that what the gospel has intended to do and the purpose of the gospel is not to change you toward God.
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It is not to change your heart and cause you to turn from your sin, but rather it is to give you all the things that you've ever wanted.
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It's about prospering you. I heard somebody say this the other day. I think it's very thoughtful.
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It said if the pastor that's preaching is promising to you the very things that the devil promised to Jesus when he was tempting him in the desert, you might want to think about getting a different pastor.
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What did he promise him? All the kingdoms of the world, all these things, this is the blessing. If that's the command, if that's the promise rather, then maybe it's not the promise of the gospel.
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And finally, and I think this one very recently has become huge, and that is this emphasis on inclusion and tolerance.
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And someone said, well, what's wrong with inclusion and tolerance? Well, what do we mean by those words?
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Who belongs to the church? Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ, we are glad you're here, but you're not part of the church. I mean, we are very glad you're here, and we hope by God's grace, he will open your heart, you will turn from your sin, you will trust in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. But you're not included if you're not in Christ. We make this very clear when we come around the table, right?
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When we come around the table, it's even printed in your bulletin, please don't participate in this table if you're not in Christ, because the
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Bible says it's a danger to you. It actually threatens. It says, don't do this. There have been people who've gotten sick, and some have even died.
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There's a church just up in Atlanta, one of the largest churches in the United States, who is proud to indicate that they accept anyone into membership, even atheists.
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We're happy if atheists would be happy to join with us, and we welcome them in, and we allow them to serve. Hopefully, they're not teaching
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Bible studies, but who knows? But this pressure for inclusion and tolerance.
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Now, should we be tolerant? Well, let's at least for a moment say, we all are called to bear with one another's issues and failures and those things.
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We are called to be, as Mike said this morning, we're not called to be the president of the Sin Sniffers Association, walking around behind everyone, trying to find their errors, trying to be the ones who are the
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Holy Spirit in that person's life. That's true, but we cannot, must not, and will not ever say that sin is right.
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And if that's what toleration is, that's wrong. To say yes, we're going to simply say, we're not going to call for repentance, because sin doesn't need to be repented of.
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What a shame that would be. Or we're never going to mention sin, then we don't have to deal with it.
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Beloved, this has been on my heart all week as I've been preparing this message, because Paul is going to say in this message, he says,
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I'm coming to you, I'm coming, and when I come, there are those of you who have not repented, and you're not going to like it when
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I get there. There's some of you who have not repented, and I'm calling you to repent.
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That way, when I get there, I don't do what I should do and must do. In fact, I would rather that I not have to do it.
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It'd be great if I showed up and you were already repented, and I didn't have to go through with what I'm going to have to go through with, and that is actually calling you out and maybe possibly even removing you from the church.
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You understand these are actually biblical things? You understand that it is only within the last generation or two that churches have stopped doing that?
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If you read the history of the Baptist church, you will find that the willingness to confront sin and even excommunicate people was very common up until the last few generations, particularly within the last hundred years as the church became more concerned with bringing people in than the people who were in being concerned with their sin.
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And now it's all about how many people can we get here? How many people? We don't want anyone to leave ever, because it's all about inclusion and toleration, not holiness.
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So, again, we're going to talk about some serious stuff today. And number two does come into the mind sometimes.
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Is this going to offend? Well, if it offends, let God be the one who offends.
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Amen. And not be me and my offensive nature, but let it be
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God's word that offends us. And if we are offended, to know that we should take it up with Him. Let's stand together and read.
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Beginning again at verse 19, Paul writes,
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Have you been thinking all along that we've been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, beloved.
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For I fear that perhaps when I come, I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish.
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That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
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I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.
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This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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I warn those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, and as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again,
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I will not spare them. Since you seek peace, or since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.
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For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God.
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And then verse five, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.
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Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourself, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test?
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I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.
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But we pray to God that you may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.
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For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak, and you are strong.
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Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason, I write these things while I'm away from you, that when
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I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
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Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, God, as we now seek to understand this text, and I know,
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Lord, that it is a lot of text, Lord, I pray that you would help us to see the symmetry of it, the continuing nature of the argument, and how
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Paul begins and ends with this idea that he is doing this for their up -building.
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Not to tear them down, but to build them up. Lord, I pray that you would keep me from error as I preach, as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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I pray that you would keep me from that for the sake of your name, for the sake of my conscience, and Lord, for the sake of your people.
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And Lord, now as we consider the subject of repentance, I do pray, Lord, that no one here would misunderstand me, that no one would think that I am preaching, that there is a necessity call for perfection before turning themselves to Christ, but Lord, that every man should recognize where they are and should turn to Christ, that he might give them the grace of sanctification.
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Lord, let us not confuse that order, that we must clean ourselves up before Christ can save us, for Lord, no one can be saved in that order.
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But Lord, I pray that when we come to Christ, that we would come to him willing that he should turn our hearts from our sin, that he would give us the grace of sanctification, and that he would grow us in this holy faith.
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And he who began a good work in us will complete it in the day of Jesus Christ. Lord, give us mercy now as we consider these things.
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And Lord, where repentance is needed, especially among those who claim the name brother or sister.
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Lord, may it be that today be the day of repentance.
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In Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you've been among us, you know that we have been now in Second Corinthians for about a year or so, and we're finding our place here on the off ramp of the of the epistle, finding our landing point.
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We'll be closing this book here in a few weeks and then moving into the
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Gospel of John, which I'm excited to preach and looking forward to preach. And for those who haven't been among us for maybe your visitor today or the first time here,
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I want to just kind of give you a very quick overview of this epistle. And for those who have been here, just a quick reminder, as I know, it's a week to week thing and it's easy to forget the things that we've learned from week to week.
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Paul is writing this letter, the second letter to the church at Corinth, and he's writing to them because he is about to be going to them.
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He is sending Titus before him with some other men to do a collection or to oversee a collection that's being taken for the church in Jerusalem that was suffering persecution and famine and was in desperate need.
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And Paul is also addressing those in Corinth who would call into question his ministry. Throughout this book, he has addressed those who have called into question his integrity, who have called into question his truthfulness, who have called into question his spirituality and his faithfulness, his commitment to the truth and the gospel, even the very message that he preached.
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And this is what happened in the life of the Apostle Paul. He would go to a church like the churches in Galatia. He would plant churches there and then he would leave.
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And after he leaves, fierce wolves would come in after him seeking to lead the people astray.
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And we see this over and over and over in his life. And I'm sure it was not unique to him.
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I'm sure this happened to the other apostles, but we have mostly the writings of the Apostle Paul to outline these things that happened and to give us a picture of what first century
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Christianity was like. First century Christianity was not a group of churches that were all lily white and perfect as the freshly driven snow.
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No, they were churches filled with false teachers and men who wanted to bring corruption and destruction into the church.
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False teaching is not new. I've been so overwhelmed as I have been preparing my lectures for the academy and each week talking about some new division in the church.
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Divisions arose immediately in the church and there was all these battles going in the church.
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Whether it was the Gnostics or the Ebionites or whether it was the Marcionites or later dealing with the
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Arians and the Pelagians and all of these different groups that rose up in the church to try to bring destruction.
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And they did. Many of them dividing the church and leading men and women astray to their own peril.
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It's a serious time of terrible tragedy. It's a terrible tragedy to see a soul led astray.
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Amen? Isn't it a terrible thing to see somebody led into false teaching and darkness and woe unto that man who leads them?
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And that's where we've gotten to in the letter. The first seven chapters as I've mentioned before of this letter is
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Paul defending his ministry. The second section is chapters 8 and 9 where he talks about that gift, the offering given to the church of Jerusalem.
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But then in chapters 10 through 13, Paul is laser focused against the men that he calls the super apostles.
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And that's not a good thing. The super apostles were the men who had raised themselves up against Paul, who had raised themselves up to positions of prominence in the
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Corinthian body, who had declared to be men of education, who had declared to be men of great oratory skills, who were declared to be men with letters of commendation that they had brought with them.
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Who knows where they got them? But they came in with a sense of authority and they sought to undermine what
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Paul had done. Paul calls them agents of the devil, ministers of Satan, ministers of unrighteousness.
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And so now we come to this section where Paul is bringing all of his thoughts to a conclusion and he's telling them what is about to happen.
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I'm coming. I'm coming to you. He's already said he's going to be sending
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Titus and two other men before to do the work of ensuring that the offering is properly handled so that when
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Paul gets there he doesn't have to do that. But Paul is coming in one sense to bring correction against those who are questioning the truth of the gospel and are bringing in false heresies.
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Paul is coming to bring in a very serious correction.
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And so we're going to read about that and we're going to walk through this text. If you'll notice in verse 19, he mentions that this is for your up building.
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And then in chapter 10, I'm sorry, chapter 13 verse 10, he says this is for your building up and not for your tearing down.
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This is how I see this as a group. This is all one idea within the broader scope of the letter.
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You may think me trying to preach 14 verses of text is a fool's errand. I know.
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But I am going to make mention right away that verse 5 and verse 6, particularly verse 5,
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I'm going to redo next week because verse 5 can stand on its own.
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It says in verse 5, examine yourselves and see whether you're in the faith. I'm going to spend an entire sermon on just that.
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But I want to show today how that fits into the broader context, even though it can stand on its own.
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I want to show how it fits within this context of these 14 verses, what we call a pericope or a section of the letter that stands on its own and has a purpose.
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So let's begin by looking at verse 19. Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you?
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Now, I must stop right there and immediately say, well, I've said that throughout the book.
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I've said Paul has been defending his ministry and that he has been defending the integrity of it.
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I even said it again today. So I had to think about it as I was reading verse 19. Well, am
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I contradicting myself or is Paul contradicting this? No. And it's not a contradiction because he has in fact been making a point about the truthfulness of his ministry, making a defense, but his defense has not been to them for himself, but it's for them.
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That's the point. Read it again. Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ all for your upbuilding.
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I'm not doing this for my sake. I'm not doing this for the sake of my reputation.
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I'm not doing this for the sake of myself. I'm not doing this because I want to ensure that the name of Paul is raised up and exalted, but I'm doing this for you because you're the ones who heard the gospel from me and now have departed from that.
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I'm doing this on your behalf, not on my behalf. Ultimately what
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Paul is saying is I don't have a selfish motive here. I'm not doing this for myself.
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I like this commentary. This is trying to, in this commentary, it's a public commentary, it's the name of it.
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At this point they tried to give a paraphrase of what
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Paul is saying, so I want to read this to you. He says, you perhaps imagine all this time
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I've been pleading with you by way of self -defense. Do not think that. You are no judges of mine.
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My only object is to speak before God and Christ, not to defend myself since I have no need to defend so far as you're concerned, but to help in building you up by removing the falsehoods that alienate you from me.
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Paul's saying I'm not doing this to defend myself, and even if I was going to do that, why would I need to defend myself from you?
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You're not my judge. I'm speaking this before God and Christ, and ultimately I'm doing this to build you up.
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There's no selfish motivation here. This isn't Paul attempting, in some way, shape, or form, to make himself the object.
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Paul is not the object of 2 Corinthians, Christ is the object of 2 Corinthians.
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That's the point. But Paul defends himself because he is a representative of Christ, and if they have rejected what
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Paul has said, they've actually rejected Christ. So this is for their benefit.
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This is for them. Paul said this isn't about me defending myself.
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This is not self -motivation. This is about your misunderstanding of the gospel.
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So let's put it in maybe an illustrative way. Let us just, in our mind, think that someone came into your life and began to preach and teach you a false gospel.
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Let's say you met a friend, and that friend was part of a cult, and they began to come to you and have coffee with you and tell you all about their cult, often how it's done, one -on -one, and began to call into question all the things that you have been taught, and to begin to call into question all the things that you have learned.
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And then one of our elders reaches out to you and says, hey, I understand you're getting, this person is teaching you these things, here's where the errors are, here's where the dangers lie, here's where the pits are, and be careful, and don't you know that over the years we have taught you this about Jesus, and we've taught you this about the gospel, and we've taught you this about grace, don't you remember these things?
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Would we be doing that to build ourselves up, or would we be doing that to protect you from the wolves? That's exactly what it would be for.
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But I've seen so many times, I've seen that scenario work out in the life of people, and you know what the false teacher says?
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Oh, they just want to keep you for themselves. Oh, they just want you to believe what they believe. Oh, they just want you to be under their thumb.
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You see, Paul says, it's not about me, it's not about defending myself to you, it's about you, it's about your heart.
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Do you understand that a false teacher is more dangerous than a bad doctor, a bad lawyer, a bad judge, a bad first responder, a bad law enforcement officer.
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All those can be bad, but a bad preacher's worse, because where all of those can affect your body and your liberty, the false teacher is affecting your soul.
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That's Paul's concern. I'm doing this because of your soul.
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Then he says in verse 20, for I fear, and by the way, he says the word fear twice, he says in verse 20 and in verse 21, for I fear that perhaps when
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I come, I may not find you, or I may find you not as I wish, and you may find me not as you wish, that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
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Paul says, when I come, I'm afraid,
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I have a fear, here's my fear, by the way, this is where sometimes
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I'll say fear's not always the opposite of faith, Paul has faith, but he also knows people, and he knows these people, and he says,
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I fear that when I come to you, I may not find you as I wish.
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How does Paul wish they would be? Repented. He wishes they would repent, he's going to say this in a moment,
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I wish that when I come, I don't have to do anything about this because it'll already be done, but I'm afraid that when
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I come, I'm going to find you not as I wish, and then the next line seems kind of weird, he says, and you'll find me not as you wish.
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What does he mean? I really, you know, I read different translations through the week, I try to study the original language as well, but I often look at other translations, and I really like the
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New Living Translation here, because this is really what he's saying, he said, I'm afraid that when I come, you won't like,
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I won't like what I found, oh, excuse me, let me start again, I'm afraid that when I come, I won't like what
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I find, and you won't like my response. That's what he's saying. When I come,
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I'm afraid I'm going to find you unrepented, and then you're not going to like my response to that, because if I come and I find you, and you're not repented, you're not going to like my call to repentance, you're not going to like the way
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I'm going to respond, because I'm not going to respond by going, oh, it's okay, I'm not going to respond by saying, yeah, no problem, you guys decided to keep doing that, and that's cool.
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No, when I come, and I've called you to repentance, and you refuse to repent, there's going to be some response, and what the response is going to cause, he gives eight specific things he's concerned about.
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In just this short verse, he gives eight specific things he's concerned about. Number one is quarreling, contention, strife, wrangling, maybe translated that way in your
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Bible, it's going to be a fight, because I'm going to come, you are still doing the things that I've called you to repent of, and if you're still doing them when
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I get there, it's going to be a battle. There is nothing more difficult than the battle that ensues with the unrepentant sinner, because the unrepentant sinner will be unrepentant in one of two ways, either they don't believe what they're doing is sinful, that's bad, that one you have to kind of prove it, right?
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The person, oh, this isn't sinful, oh no, we've got to walk through the proof, and that's part of the quarrel, part of the battle, we've got to show you what it is, but then the person who knows it's a sin and doesn't care.
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Sometimes I'll watch, I have friends who go and preach the gospel at abortion clinics, and they're trying to save babies, and they're trying to give the gospel, they're trying to do good things,
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I've gone before, I'm thankful for ministries that do that, but I will tell you the thing that's most heartbreaking, because it's on video, you see these women who will say,
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I know it's murder, and I don't care, and you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not exaggerating, they will say,
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I know I'm killing my baby, but I don't care, that's harder, because that's a hard heart, it's one thing to say,
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I don't believe this is sin, now we've got to debate what does the Bible really say about it, but if you know it's a sin, and you're still choosing it, well, that's a quarrel and a half, because that person often has that heart that has no intention of softening.
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Paul says, when I come, one of my concerns, there's going to be quarreling, and the next word is translated in many
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Bibles as jealousy, I'm not sure that's the best way, because modern day jealousy, we have a sort of a, kind of a modern way that we connect jealousy to things, the word here is actually the same word, we get the word zeal, comes out, zeo, or zeo is the word, and it means literally to be hot, and it's almost the exact same as the next word, which is the word thumos, which means angry, so imagine how it kind of falls, it's like, they're going to be quarreling, they're going to be heat, they're going to be anger, you guys are going to be mad if I get there, and I've called you to repent, you haven't repented, and I say something to you about it, you all are going to be mad, he's telling this is what's going to happen, it's going to be hot, it's going to be angry, in fact one translation of anger is outburst of passion, boy you want to find somebody passionate about somebody, find somebody who's dead, caught in a sin and don't want to give it up, they are passionate about it, passionate about either it not being wrong or they don't care if it's wrong, like the person who says, who's committed adultery and now they're living with their mistress, well hey man if God didn't want me to be happy why would he put this woman in my life, she's still
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Jezebel man, like what you talking about, heard somebody the other day defending
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Jezebel, a woman preacher, and she said, well
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Jezebel is really the hero of the story, well she's the hero because she's the feminine hero, and all of these, this is again where the
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Bible talks about calling evil good and good evil, when you're going through the Bible and you're celebrating the evil woman, and saying she's a celebration of feminine strength, you a knucklehead, that's a proper term, knucklehead, say quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, again this is just ramping it up, hostility is also translated rivalry, factions or disputes, literally dividing people, that's what that means, it means to divide people up, so this is going to cause a fight, those fights are going to be heated and passionate and it's going to end up dividing people over it,
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I've never once seen a church exercise church discipline where there wasn't some division that followed, if you don't know what church discipline is, we're going to talk about it here in a minute, but ultimately church discipline is when someone is in the church, they have refused to repent, they refuse the counsel of the church, and they are continuing in their sin, and the church has to respond to them and say to them they are no longer part of the covenant community, that's hard to do, but almost every case
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I've ever seen, that person who leaves takes people with them, because it creates division, and then slander and gossip, what's the difference?
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Slander is evil words spoken, gossip is evil words spoken in secret, that's the difference, if I slander you that's something
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I say publicly, if I gossip about you I might say the very same thing, but I say it by saying hey come into my office real quick,
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I want to tell you about brother Gary, brother Gary smiling right now, he don't need to be, I just saw you smiling, no this is how it is, slander is open, gossip is closed, that's really the distinction, and that's how it happens, sin brings all these things in, unrepentant sin brings all these things in, and then conceit, translated in some
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Bibles as arrogance, puffing up, it literally means to swell, because what happens to the sinner who refuses to repent, he often stands on that unrepentance, and holds up his fist, and commands, yes
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I'm gonna live, I'm gonna do my thing, and how dare you question me,
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I'm gonna tell you a story, I wasn't there, but it happened in this church before I, okay
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I've been in this church for 40 years, so it was a long time ago, this church wasn't always
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Sovereign Grace, there was a time when we were back on Trout River Boulevard, Pat's told me this, and I've heard other people tell the same story, there was a lady in the church, she was living with a man, they weren't married, they were living as husband and wife, she stood up in church, said
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I don't care if y 'all think it's a sin, I'm gonna keep doing it, that's arrogance, that's conceit, and that's what sin does to the heart,
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I can do this, and you can't say a to me, by the way if that happened today, it'd be a different story, we believe in church discipline, we believe in calling out sin, and being honest about it, and even following through with church discipline, and that is not a threat, that is a truth, and a reality, we have to, the
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Reformers believe that the church had three distinct markings, because the big question during the Reformation was, how do you know what is the true church, and the
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Reformers said, well it's about being a true church, not necessarily the true church, Rome claimed to be the true church, right, the
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Eastern Church claimed to be the true church, and the Reformers said no, every local church is a true church, if they're preaching the gospel, participating in the sacraments, or the ordinances, and they're exercising discipline, because any church that doesn't do those three things, has ceased to be a church, if they're not preaching the gospel, they're not a church, if they're not participating in the ordinances, they're not a church, and if they're allowing sin to continue without being addressed, they're not a church, even though when you address sin, what does it lead to, quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, gossip, conceit, and disorder, and some people would say, well why, that's not, it's just not worth it, honestly, mega churches build their ministries often on this reality, it's just not worth it, we'd rather have the people here, than address their sin, now
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I'm not saying every mega church is like that, and please don't, I mean there are big churches that practice church discipline, I'm not painting with too broad of a brush, and anybody who thinks that I am,
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I will apologize, I'm not saying every big church is this way, but I know that many are, that there will be sin in the church, there will be no addressing of that sin publicly, or privately, because it's more important to build the church by number, than it is to address the people in sin, in the church, a lot of green chairs empty in here, and I don't ever wonder why,
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I really don't, we are not on a trajectory for 5 ,000 people, it's just a reality, verse 21,
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Paul says, I fear that when I come again, my
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God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier, and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality, that they have practiced,
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I fear when I come again, my God may humble me before you, what that word humble means, to be brought low, that's what the word humble means, and you can think of it like in the idea of humiliation,
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Paul says, my fear is that when I come, and when I get there, I'll be brought low, because you won't have repented, understand the heart of Paul is this, he does not want them to not repent, he wants them to repent, so that when he comes, there will be rejoicing, and not quarreling, backbiting, fighting, slander, and all those things, those are the result of unrepentance, he says,
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I want to come to a repented church, so that I don't have to mourn over those, notice what he says, who sinned earlier, and have not repented,
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I don't want to mourn over that, I don't want to be broken over that, I don't want to be brought low because of that,
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I like what Calvin said at this point in regard to this particular text,
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Calvin said, Paul reveals to us in this text, the mind of a true and sincere pastor, when he says that he will look on the sins of others with grief, no pastor in the world that I've ever met, and I don't think there's, well, let me back up,
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I hope there's not any out there, I'm sure there are, enjoys church discipline, enjoys having to call out sin, and again,
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I have to correct myself, because I have met some knuckleheads, that's my word of the day, I have met some knuckleheads, that seem like that's all they want to do is be a sin sniffer, but in general, it's a grievous thing to have to call out sin, and it's even more grievous thing to have to follow up about it, wouldn't it be a blessing if we never had to get to part two of church discipline, church discipline has three parts, the first part, you have sinned, and a person comes to you in your sin, and calls you to repentance, and the
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Bible says if you repent of your sin, if they repent of their sin, you've won your brother, and case closed, no gossip, no slander, no
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Facebook posts, no YouTube videos, it's done, it's over, it says, but if you go to your brother, and he refuses to repent, you take two or three witnesses along with you, which is interesting, because Paul mentions two or three witnesses here in this text, two or three witnesses was the standard of the law, by the way, if you ever go to jury duty, tell them that, that's what
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I did, they said, would you be willing to have somebody prosecuted with only one witness,
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I said, no, the Bible demands two or three witnesses, and unless there's corroborating evidence, video of some kind or something,
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I'm not going to judge a man based on the testimony of only one person, and church discipline is not based on the testimony of only one person, so Paul says take two or three witnesses, go to that person, call them to repentance, and if they refuse to repent, they must be brought before the church, but if they do repent, guess what?
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Those two or three witnesses, it's over, it's done, but it is a grievous thing to have to get to part two, it's a blessing to just go to someone and say, brother,
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I know you're in sin, and you need to repent, and that person say, I want to repent, help me God to repent, help me to pray for repentance, walk with me through repentance, counsel me through this, that may be necessary, you may have to love that person, and minister to that person, and that's true,
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I don't know about you, but I still struggle in certain areas of my life, and I'm glad that I have men and women in this church that love me enough to tell me the truth when
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I fail, my wife being the most of those people, my elders being the second, but any one of you has the freedom to come and speak into my life, and I hope
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I have the freedom to speak into your life about those things, and wouldn't it be great if that was as far as it went, wouldn't that be great, but unfortunately it's not as far as it goes.
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Now, Paul says, they have not repented, and he speaks of three specific sins they have not repented of, and I noticed,
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I was reading through preparing, and I saw this, and I said, he has not talked about this for the entire book, because the three sins he mentions are sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality, think about all the time we've studied over this last year through 2
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Corinthians, Paul has not really addressed these particular sins, why is he bringing them up now?
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Well, if you go back to 1 Corinthians, he addresses those sins a lot in that book, chapter 5, he's got a guy who's sleeping with a stepmama, we got in chapter 6, he says, there are all kinds of sins out there, he talks about homosexuality, and idolatry, and all these other things, and sensuality, and all these things, he talks about in chapter 7, marriage sins, and people who have divorced, and married other people, he talks about all these things, there's all kinds of sexual immorality that's addressed, and sensuality that's addressed in 1
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Corinthians, he hasn't mentioned it here though, you say, well, why is he bringing it up now?
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I'm going to give you my thought on this, Paul's opponents, the super apostles, have made a name among themselves, and that has been the focus of Paul in these last few chapters, he's been focusing on these super apostles, these men who brought in destructive teachings, and one of the most common destructive teachings that is brought into the church, is the teaching that sexual sin does not need to be repented of,
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Mike talked about it in this morning, about the cult prostitution and things like that, the churches in Revelation, you know, you do in the
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Nicolaitan, how did you say it? What was the possibility of what they were teaching?
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They were teaching these things. You can do these things. You say, oh, there ain't churches out there that teach sexual immorality is okay.
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Absolutely there are. But more so, there are churches that don't condemn it from the pulpit, they don't call people to repentance, they allow it to go on without calling people to repentance.
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That's more common. So why has Paul brought up these sins? He doesn't tell us exactly why, except that they haven't repented of these things, and I think the reason possibly why they haven't repented is they have teachers who tell them that it's okay.
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Beloved, sexual sin is not okay. Pornography is not okay. Pornography is a sin.
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Adultery is not okay. Adultery is a sin. Fornication is not okay. Fornication is a sin.
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None of these are sins that are irredeemable. These are not the unforgivable sin, but they are sinful and need repentance.
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How common are those three things that I just mentioned today? Pornography is still the most, the biggest business in the internet is the pornography business.
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Fornication is the norm today because people are waiting so long to get married, to live with the person before they get married, and having those relationships before they ever give their vows to one another, and what does the world say?
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Well, that's just the way it is. In hell, I mean, that's the way it is when you're following the world.
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There's a very specific order of events from a biblical perspective.
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Meet someone, fall in love, get married, and then enjoy the blessing of intimacy within the marriage covenant.
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And when you do that, it's blessed by God. The Bible says the marriage bed is sacred.
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We get it out of order, and we dare people to say something about it, and adultery is rampant.
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That's the result of all this. Beloved, I've got to draw to a close before I get to chapter 13, and I'm mad because I wanted to go further, but there's no way
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I can really say all that I want to say, so I guess I'm going to have to make this two parts, but listen, I do want to at least connect to what he's about to say.
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He said, this is the third time I'm coming to you. And then he says that about every charge must be on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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I warn those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent as I did when present, that if I come again,
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I will not spare them. You know what he's saying there? I'm coming, and I'm coming hoping to find repentance, but if I don't, there's going to be a confrontation.
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He says almost the exact same thing in chapter 10, verse 2. I beg of you that when
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I'm present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing those who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
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He's saying when I come and I'm present among you, I may have to show boldness among you.
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I don't want to. I want to come in and there not be quarreling, and there not be fighting, and there not be these things, but it's going to be dependent on how you receive this.
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Beloved, the reality is no one wants to hear that they're doing wrong, but the
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Christian response when someone points out our sin, even though the immediate guttural and even emotional response may be frustration, anger, the
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Christian response is self -evaluation. It's to actually examine ourselves.
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When someone calls us to repentance, do we immediately know, or do we actually do what he says, examine ourselves?
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And I know the easy answer is to say, well, everybody's a sinner and everybody sins every day.
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We know that. But here's the reality, and please hear me when I say this.
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There is a difference between struggling with sin and being given over to sin. These people in Corinth are given over to sin.
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They have said, I'm going to do it regardless. That's the issue.
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You come to me, or you come to Mike, or you come to Andy, you come to any of our deacons, you come to your brother in Christ in this church, and you say,
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I'm struggling, then brother, sister, we're going to struggle along with you. You need somebody to be accountable to.
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You need somebody to help love you. You need somebody to walk with you. You need somebody to comfort you and help you. As the
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Bible says, we're going to come along as a brother. We're going to bear that burden with you. But if you are in a sin, and it is obvious within the body, and you say,
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I'm not going to repent, there will be a different response. There will be a call to repentance, and there will be a consequence.
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Not a threat, but a consequence. Paul says, I'm coming, and I hope that when
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I get there, I don't have to do anything. But that's up to you.
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I encourage you this week, read the rest of the chapter. We're now in chapter 13.
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We're in the final part. And in the weeks ahead, we're going to look at what he means when he says examine yourself.
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See if you're in the faith. We're going to study that more. But I hope today was at least challenging enough to you that you'll consider how this does apply to us.
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Yes, Paul is talking to the Corinthians. Yes, he's writing to them. But it applies to us in this way.
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If we are living a life of secret sin, or even open rebellion against God that just happens to have gone unnoticed, the
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Bible says if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we should live a life of repentance. And if our gospel is devoid of repentance, it's not the gospel of Jesus.
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Brothers and sisters, may we turn. May we seek help. May we not become accustomed to living with joy in sin.
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But rather, like David, say, Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation when he repented.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. And Lord, so much of it is so full and so powerful.
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And I pray that the words have not reached deaf ears today, Lord, but that they would be ears willing to hear.
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And every one of us, that every one of us would recognize the call to repentance.
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And if we have been living lives of secret sin and maybe lives of unnoticed sin, Lord, I pray that we would turn from those, that we would trust in Christ, that he would give us the comfort that comes only from him.
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And the power of the Spirit to turn from those sins. In Jesus' name, amen.