Bitter Roots in the Church

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Well, good morning.
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I want you to, if you would, open up your Bibles with me and turn to the book of Hebrews.
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We're going to be back in Hebrews chapter 12.
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As we've been studying the book of Hebrews now for quite some time, going verse by verse through the text, we are getting close to the end.
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Now that we're almost to the last chapter, we're going to begin looking at what's going to come next, possibly sometime during 2013 we'll be ready to move on.
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So let's start preparing now.
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But we are continuing to look at Hebrews chapter 12.
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And our study has been looking over verses 12 through 17.
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What we did the first week, a few weeks ago, is we just read through 12 through 17, and we just started breaking down the passages as we went.
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And it's taken a little bit longer than I thought, but that happens sometimes.
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You begin to look at a particular passage, you begin to flesh out the importance of the passage, and you begin to find things there as you're preaching through it, as you're studying through it, that you want to make sure that the congregation does not miss.
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So that's where we are.
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We've been looking at verses 12 through 17.
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And I wanted to talk a little bit before we read the text about what we've learned so far.
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Really, verses 12 through 17 give us a model for practical Christian living.
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And as I've said many times, the 12th chapter of Hebrews is when the author goes from talking about that, which is very, very doctrinal, theological, very historical, and he switches from that and he moves to the highly practical, moves to the passages that's really hitting us right where we live, really giving us an application that we can drive home.
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And so that's why I've just entitled this whole section, it's Practical Christian Living, because that's what it is.
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Verses 12 through 14 effectively tell us that Christian ethics really are founded on two principles.
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Christian ethics are founded on these two principles.
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Number one, we want to strive to be at peace with everyone.
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Meaning we strive not to hurt people, we strive not to lie to people, we strive not to treat people wrong, we strive to always do in every case as much as we can to live at peace with all men.
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And it echoes what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 12, where the Apostle Paul says, as much as it depends upon you, live at peace with all men.
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He's saying there very clearly, it's not possible to live at peace with everyone, because some people won't be at peace with us.
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Some people just will not give us that peace.
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Some people will not love us back.
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But as much as it depends upon us, live at peace with all men.
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Do as much as we can to never allow a battle or a war or gossip or anything to come from our side.
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Always be ones who are willing to forgive.
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Always be ones who are willing to give whatever is needed that the battle not continue to rage.
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So that's the first step of Christian ethics.
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The other side is not only do we live at peace with other men and with the world, we seek to live at peace, but we also seek to live in holiness towards God.
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And that really of the two is the most important.
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We live at peace with everyone else, but we live towards holiness when it comes to our relationship with God.
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We want to seek to live in holiness.
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And basically what that means is we want to live according to the way God would have us live.
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And sometimes holy living does put us at odds with the world.
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So that's why I said that one really is the most important.
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Because if our holy living offends the world, if our holy living is not acceptable to the world, well, that's what Jesus said was going to happen.
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Because Jesus said the world will hate you because they first hated me.
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So in that sense, we must obey God before we concern ourselves with men.
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But we can't just leave out the fact that we also are supposed to live at peace with men as well.
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So therein lies our ethic.
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And then we move to the passage in verse 14, or verse 15 rather, where it says that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.
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And this is what we talked about last week.
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In the community of the faithful, in the church, we are supposed to be focused on one another so that we encourage one another towards the obtaining of grace.
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And by that we don't mean that we actually obtain the grace by our works or anything like that.
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But we want to ensure that no one fails to be in the grace of God.
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By that we actually call each other to a higher standard of living.
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We call each other to a higher standard of Christianity.
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We actually rebuke one another for sin.
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We encourage one another in righteousness.
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And we have sort of a sanctified meddling.
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We're encouraged to be involved in each other's lives.
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We're encouraged to actually speak into each other's lives on issues that would affect what it means to be a Christian.
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And if we see one who is not living as a Christian, someone who is living as a worldly person, who is living as a sinner, a pagan, whatever word you may want to choose to use there, we call that person to account.
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And that is something that is sorely lacking today in many churches because, quite frankly, once a church grows to a certain capacity, once there is a certain number of people in a church, it's very easy for people to hide in that church.
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It's very easy for people to sort of blend in with the crowd and not have to be called to account because, I mean, no one knows who I am.
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I show up, I sing, I hear the pastor preach, and I go home and no one knows if I was there or if I wasn't.
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That's one of the benefits of having a smaller congregation is I know you, you know me.
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You've been in my house, I've been in your house.
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For the most part, that's pretty much the way it is.
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And if I haven't been in your house yet, give me a call.
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You know, that's sort of the way we are.
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We want to be involved in each other's lives.
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Not because we want to be nosy or petty or nitpicky, but we want to encourage each other towards righteousness.
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Some of the most blessed opportunities in my life have been times when I have been called to account by a more mature brother or sister in Christ.
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Somebody who has been willing to share with me somewhere where I was lacking because at that point I was either unwilling to see my lack or I was unwilling to admit it.
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And it was nice to have someone who was willing to love me enough to tell me where I was lacking.
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So that's the first part of verse 15.
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Today we're going to pick up right in the middle of verse 15, which is where we left off last week.
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But before we do that, I want to read the entire passage and begin reminding us of the context.
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And let's stand together to do that.
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Beginning of verse 12.
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Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
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See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.
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That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
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Our Father and our God, as we seek to continue on in our study of this section of Scripture today, we pray first and foremost, Lord, or I pray first and foremost, Lord, that you would keep me from error as I teach, as I am a fallible man who is capable of being incorrect, capable of preaching false truth.
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And Lord, I just pray that you'll keep me from that.
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I pray that you'll open the hearts of the people to hear the truth and to receive it.
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And Lord, that that which is spoken today will glorify you, and that how we live it out would equally glorify you.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Sometimes it's hard to stop in the middle of a sentence when you're preaching through a passage.
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So really, I wanted to make sure that we understand this is actually one whole idea that I sort of cut in half last week.
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Because the entire sentence, beginning at verse 15, says this, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.
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You see, the first part of that is our focus upon one another, as I've already mentioned, about how we encourage one another in righteousness.
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We encourage one another towards living holy lives.
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We encourage one another so that if one of us is living a lie, that that person may not continue to live a lie without that being exposed in their heart.
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I think everyone here realizes that not everyone who calls themselves a Christian actually is a Christian.
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I mean, I think that could be very easily just proven if you look at America.
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Because America still, generally and by and large, if you look on people's Facebook statuses or if you look on people's applications for certain things where it asks for religious preference, almost everyone says, you know, Christian.
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I mean, of course, there are a lot of other religions out there, Muslim, Jew, and now the effectively non-religious has become the newest wave of movement.
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But a lot of people still put Christian who have no true desire or fidelity to Christ.
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They have no desire for Christ, no fidelity to Christ, but they still call themselves a Christian.
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And if you say, well, why are you calling yourself a Christian if you have no real faith in Christ, if you have no real desire to follow after Him, if you're not seeking to be with His people or to be in His house or to study His Word, why do you call yourself a Christian? A lot of times they'll say, well, hey, I believe in Jesus.
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And that's the answer.
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And sometimes if they went to VBS when they were a kid or maybe if they ever watched a baseball game and they saw somebody holding up a sign, they may shout out, well, John 3.16 says, whosoever believeth in Him will not perish.
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And they'll say, right there, man, I believe in Jesus, so I'm a Christian.
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Well, believing in Jesus does not necessarily make a person a Christian in the same way my belief in Buddha doesn't make me a Buddhist.
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Oh, did I catch you there? Think about what I said.
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Believing in Jesus doesn't make a person a Christian any more than my belief in Buddha makes me a Buddhist because I believe Buddha existed.
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I believe Buddha said some pretty smart things, actually.
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I also believe Buddha is not the Savior of the world.
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I believe Buddhism itself is a pagan religion.
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But if you just boil down some of the things that Buddha said, some of the things he said were wise in what they were, human wisdom.
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Would you call me a Buddhist because I say I believe that Buddha existed or that I think he said some wise things? No, absolutely not.
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You would not consider me a Buddhist.
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Why then do people consider themselves Christians because they believe Jesus existed? And hey, he might have said some really wise things.
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But you see, that's what Christianity has become for many people.
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It's become sort of a bland mental ascent to the fact that, yes, Jesus lived.
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Yes, he probably died on a cross and that whole resurrection thing, you know, there's a lot of myths from the first century, so we don't really know, you know.
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And then when you start talking about actual fidelity to him, that's when the wheels really start falling off the cart.
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And true fidelity to Christ is something that is really not seen in a lot of folks.
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Because true fidelity to Christ includes genuine faith and fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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This is why James in the book of James says, you believe that God is one, you do well.
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But demons believe that and they tremble with fear.
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Now, why am I talking about this? Why am I bringing this up about people who call themselves Christians and are not? Well, as we said last week, there are some people who fail to obtain the grace of God.
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There are some people who come into church, they hear about the grace of God, they hear about the call to repentance, and yet at the same time, their hearts are not changed and they leave no better than when they came.
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They leave in the same unsafe condition that they come.
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But here's the situation that's being talked about in this particular passage now.
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Because he says, root of bitterness, and when he talks about root of bitterness, what he's talking about is a person who comes in, remains unsaved, but doesn't leave.
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They stay in the church and because their hearts are not saved, they become within the church a bitter root that has the power to influence and destroy.
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In fact, that phrase, bitter fruit, it says that no bitter root, or root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.
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That phrase actually comes from Deuteronomy, and I want to show you where it comes from.
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Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 29, Deuteronomy chapter 29 and verse 18.
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Deuteronomy 29.18 says, Beware, lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations.
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Beware, lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.
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So right there, there is the foundation for the idea that the writer of Hebrews is giving us.
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He's looking back to the book of Deuteronomy.
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He's looking back to this idea of bitter fruit, and he's saying, here's how it was used in the past.
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It was used in the book of Deuteronomy to describe anyone who would be in the congregation of the faithful, but yet not serving the God of Israel.
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Anyone who was in the congregation of the faithful, but yet was not a true believer, that person, if left in that condition and left among the people, that person has the power to then begin to spread that poison throughout the congregation.
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And we have to be careful about that.
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We not only have to encourage one another to walk rightly, we not only have to encourage that people fail to obtain the grace of God, we have to be cognizant that there will be people in and among the church who will attempt to lead people astray.
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There will be bitter roots among the people.
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There will be roots of bitterness that spring up.
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And back in Hebrews 12, look at what they do.
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They spring up, they cause trouble, and by them many are defiled.
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And that's how it works too, by the way.
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This person comes in, they have no love for Christ, they have no love for the people of God.
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What they want to do is they want to cause problems, and you know what, that's not probably what they are thinking, but that's what's in their heart because for whatever reason they don't agree with what's being taught, they don't agree with what's being done, they don't agree with what's going on in the church.
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And so they begin to spring up, and by springing up they begin to show themselves by causing trouble, and by causing trouble they begin to affect negatively many people within the congregation.
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Now many of you are well aware of churches where this has happened.
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We've seen churches split and divide.
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And almost in every case I've ever spoken to from another pastor's perspective, and I have pastors who are friends of mine, and I've talked to them who have been in times where churches have split, almost in every instance it has come about because at some time and in some way a person was in the church who was either unhappy with the way the church was doing business, was unhappy with what the church was teaching, was unhappy with whatever was going on, but instead of seeking a godly way of remedying the situation, that person instead became a root of bitterness in the church, and they led that division.
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And it happens.
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And we have to be cognizant of the fact that it happens, and we have to look for the bitter roots, and we have to call them to account.
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In fact, we are commanded to call them to account.
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Now, some people might be thinking, and at least this is what I was thinking, so I'm going to maybe hope that you all are on the same train of thought that I'm on.
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When I was looking through this particular passage, when I was looking at this, I was thinking, you know what? The Bible talks about in one of Jesus' parables that there would be weeds among the wheat, or we also know the wheat and the tares.
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People call it that.
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There would be tares among the wheat, and that those tares are supposed to be left undisturbed.
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In fact, let's go there and read real quick.
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Matthew chapter 13.
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Because some have interpreted this this way.
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Some have read Matthew 13, and they have said, well, you know what? If a bitter root comes up in the church, it needs to be left alone.
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Because hey, in Jesus' parable, those tares were not disturbed.
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So let's read that, and let's see what it says.
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Matthew 13 and verse 24.
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Speaking of Jesus, it says, He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seeds in his field.
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But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed seeds among the wheat and went away.
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So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
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And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, do you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? He said to them, An enemy has done this.
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So the servant said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, No, less than gathering the weeds you root up the weed along with them.
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Let both grow together until the harvest.
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And at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned.
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But gather the weed into my barn.
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All right, stop there for a second.
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Get a picture of the parable.
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The parable is this.
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Jesus is talking.
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He said there was a man who had a field.
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He put good seed into his field.
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And his enemy came in, put bad seed, seed for weeds and things like that, among it.
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And when they started to grow, the reapers began to see, Hey, there's weeds growing up.
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Do you want us at this moment to go pull the weeds out? And the master said, No, let them both grow up together.
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Because right at this point, it's going to be hard telling the difference.
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Because at this point, right here where the weeds are growing, when they first start growing, everything kind of looks the same.
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But wait until it's time for the harvest.
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When it's time for the harvest, it will be much easier to separate.
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We'll come in, we'll separate the wheat, put it in the barn.
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We'll take out the tares and throw them away.
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And this has been interpreted by some people to apply to the church.
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And I've heard it preached this way.
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They'll say this.
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They'll say right here, this is the church.
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And in the church, you have believers and unbelievers.
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In the church, you have weeds and tares.
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And what this passage is telling us is that the tares in the church should be left undisturbed.
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They should be allowed to just grow along right with the believers.
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And they shouldn't be called to account.
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You should just let them grow up in their sin while believers are growing up in their righteousness.
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And just leave them be and let God sort it out in the end.
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And that's what this passage means.
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Well, the great thing about this passage is it's not left up to interpretation.
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This passage actually comes with an interpretation.
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You've just got to look a little further.
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Go to verse 36.
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Then he left the crowds and went into the house.
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And his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
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See right there, even that shows they didn't even really quite understand.
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Okay, the weeds, who is that? And who is the wheat? What's the field? What is all this? So Jesus answered, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man.
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Okay, right there.
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The one, the sower, the master of the house, that's the son of man.
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The field is the what? It's the world.
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Does that say it's the church? Is the church in view here? No, the church is not in view here.
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This is a picture of the world.
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And the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
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The weeds are the sons of the evil one.
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And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
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The harvest is the clothes of the age.
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And the reapers are the angels.
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The whole meaning behind this parable is this.
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It's an answer to the question, Why is it that God puts up with evil people? The question is this.
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Why is it that we see these evil people out in the world? Every one of you has had this question.
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You see somebody who is a murderer or a rapist or anything else.
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You see them and you see those people and you say, Why is it that God lets them live? Shouldn't they just be dead? And the answer is very simple.
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God is saying at this moment, they're all growing up together.
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But in the end, he will gather his people into his barn and he will gather those who are determined to destruction into the pits of hell.
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So the picture of this parable is very simple.
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It's not a picture of the church.
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It's a picture of the world.
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And if we try to apply this parable strictly to the church and we come away with the attitude that when someone is a wheat, or excuse me, if someone is a tare, if somebody is a weed among the people, that we should just let them be.
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Then beloved, we come to a very precarious perch.
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Which would be easy for us to be knocked off of.
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Because what the Bible actually says we're supposed to do when someone is in sin in the church is that we are supposed to go to that person in love and we are supposed to confront them about it.
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And if need be, if that person refuses the godly counsel of the church, that that person is to be removed for the benefit of the body.
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Did I make that up? Or did that come from the Bible? It's from the Bible.
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Let's look at it.
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Let's look in Matthew 18.
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Write just a couple of verses to your right.
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A couple of pages rather.
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Matthew 18 and verse 15.
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This is the passage on church discipline.
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It tells us exactly how we are to manage bitter roots.
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Number one, it says if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
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Right away, we see a few things here.
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And I've actually taught on this quite a few times because I think the issue of church discipline is so far removed from the church today that it has to be reminded.
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Even how it's supposed to happen.
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Because it's so foreign to any idea of how church is to operate.
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First and foremost, if a person sins, then that sin is to remain private in the beginning.
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Let's say person A sins.
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And I recognize their sin.
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And I know the passage says if they sin against you.
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And that does make it very personal.
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Jesus is here making it very personal.
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Because if I see sister something sinning against brother so-and-so, then yes, it's brother so-and-so's responsibility to go to her.
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It's his responsibility first.
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If he has been wrong, it's his responsibility to go and seek that person's repentance.
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And to do it privately.
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If somebody sins against me, I do not have the right to go to Nathan and tell him about it.
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Because all I have done at that point is I have caused Nathan's opinion about that person to be just like mine.
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Negative at that situation.
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If somebody comes and sins against me, my first responsibility is to tell them about it or shut up.
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If I can't tell them, I shouldn't tell anyone else.
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Now that's a lot easier said than done, ain't it? As soon as I say it, I know how hard it is to live that out.
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Sometimes it's so hard to tell someone when they hurt you.
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It's so hard to tell someone when they offend you.
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But it's real easy to tell someone else.
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And that's often how we recognize sin.
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If it's real, real, real easy to do, and what's right is real, real hard to do, we recognize the sin in that.
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We're supposed to go to them.
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We're supposed to tell them their sin.
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And it's supposed to be between that person and you alone.
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And that's it.
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And you know what I have found in years of ministry here at this church? What I have found is when I obey this, more often than not, the person doesn't even know they've offended me.
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They don't even recognize their sin.
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And when it's pointed out to them, they immediately say, I'm sorry.
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I didn't mean to do that.
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I repent.
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Let's see how we can fix this.
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More often than not, because they recognize what happened, they're willing to do something about it.
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However, if I go and tell Nathan, and I go and tell Jimmy, and I go and tell Ray, and we all get together and we talk about it, and I'm not calling any of you guys out.
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I've said Nathan four times already.
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Nathan's my buddy, so we talk about him.
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If I go and I pull you guys into a group, before I talk to that person, then I've started to engage in sin, and I've opened up a can that I cannot close.
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Because how many of you have ever done this? How many of you have ever went up to somebody and said, hey, I want to tell you something, but don't tell anybody? And how many times did it work? Never! And by the time I've told Nathan, and I've told Jimmy, and I've told Ray, and I've told whoever, then somebody comes up and they say, hey, I heard about how sister so-and-so really made you mad.
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How did you hear about it? Well, I heard about it from this person.
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Well, how did he hear about it? How did this person? We don't know, and that's how it begins, and how the problem persists.
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So first and foremost, when it comes to issues where there's a root of bitterness, there's a problem in the church, there's a sin in the church, we address it privately, one-to-one, in love.
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Speak the truth in love to one another.
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That's our responsibility first.
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But then, what if? What if the person, having been told about their sin, refuses to repent? And says, you know what? I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
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Sure, I'm cheating on my wife, but hey, God understands.
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I've heard that.
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Somebody straight up, I'm cheating, but hey, God and me, we've got an agreement.
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I said, yes you do.
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You're on your way to hell.
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I think he agrees.
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But, what kind of an attitude is that? Oh yeah, me and God, we agree.
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But seriously, what do we do once a person has refused to repent? The passage goes on to tell us, it's very clear.
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It says in verse 16, 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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That is the key.
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Is that once you have taken a person, called a person out on their sin and they refuse to repent, you are supposed to at that point, not go create a gossip session, but you are to get mature believers to help bring upon them the responsibility of the repentance that is needed.
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For instance, this person has sinned.
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You go to them.
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You tell them you love them and you are seeking their repentance.
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They refuse.
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Who would you go to? You would go to a mature believer, somebody that you trust, more than one, who also knows of the sin and you bring them to the person to help impress upon them the importance of their repentance.
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Now, something to consider here.
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This also is a checks and balance system because you might be wrong.
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You might think that that person is in sin and they are not.
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It might be you.
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You might be having a moment of judgmentalism.
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You might be having a moment of hypocrisy.
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You might be having a bad attitude yourself and you go to somebody and say, you need to tighten up, brother.
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You need to repent.
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And the guy says, I didn't do anything.
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And then, I'm going to go get two or three witnesses.
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And you go back to those people and they say, he didn't do anything.
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Now, you are the one who may need to be called to account.
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You see, it's a checks system.
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It ensures that this person is not just a he said, she said situation.
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But it's a recognizable, verifiable, determinable sin.
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Once that's done, and the person refuses to repent even when called out by two or three very mature believers, once they've done that, if they refuse to repent, they are to be taken to the church for discipline.
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Verse 17, if he refuses to listen to them, speaking of a group of two or three, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
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And if he refuses to listen even to the church, and I like the fact that it says even to the church.
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It's as if to say, if he refuses to listen to the whole body that's speaking to him, and calling him out on his sin, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector, which in that time and in that particular context, a Gentile and a tax collector was not one who was accepted into fellowship, was not one that was accepted into worship and to be a part of the community of the faithful because of their misbehavior.
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So it really is a statement of excommunication.
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This person is in the church.
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They're continuing to sin.
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They refuse to repent.
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This person has, by their behavior, become a root of bitterness in the church, and that root must be removed if the church is to be healthy.
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It's like a body with a cancer.
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If the cancer is left unattended, it will eventually destroy the whole body.
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And then he goes on in verse 18, Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
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Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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By the way, a lot of guys read that and they talk about money and how you bind it in heaven and you say you're going to get it and name it and claim it and all this garbage.
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What he's talking about is when the church makes a declaration of excommunication, that that's binding.
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And verse 19, it goes on to say, Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
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For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
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How many times has that been used to describe something like a prayer meeting? People say, Oh yeah, we had two or three, so hey, Jesus was right in the midst of us.
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Well, however true that may be, Jesus is in the midst of one of you if you're praying.
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The two or three are gathered thing has nothing to do with a prayer meeting, has nothing to do with church, has everything to do with church discipline.
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The whole idea is this, is that when we come together as a church to call out a root of bitterness and to remove it from the body, that Christ is there working as well.
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It's the context which determines the meaning.
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And this verse sits right in that context.
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Because right after this is when Peter comes up to Jesus and says, Alright, now how often do we have to forgive somebody? I don't want to get into that today, but really, what's Peter talking about? Because Jesus just said, as soon as a person repents, then you have to forgive them.
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That's the whole idea of sending the first person to them.
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The first person going is seeking their repentance and if they repent, they have to forgive them.
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And Peter says, Whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
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Now we've got to ask the question about how many times does a person need to be forgiven? What if he keeps doing this thing? Yes, but if he is battling a sin, that's the thing we've got to remember.
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Excommunication from the church, church discipline, is only for one thing.
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It is only for a person who has a heart that is not contrite.
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A person who refuses to repent.
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It doesn't matter what the sin is.
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If somebody commits a heinous sin, but falls upon their face in repentance, they are to be received back into the church.
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You might say, Well, I don't like that person anymore because he hurt me.
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Well, get over it.
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Because you hurt God through your sin and yet He receives you.
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Get over it.
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The only thing a person is to be removed for is unrepentant sin.
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An uncontrite heart.
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Somebody who says, I refuse the counsel of the church.
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I refuse the counsel of mature believers.
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I refuse the rebuke of my brother.
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That person is to be removed because that demonstrates a bitter heart that will become bitter fruit.
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Now, we look in the history of the church.
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We see all kinds of men and women who have been bitter fruits.
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Don't you know that had this process been practiced, that so much of the destruction that has happened within the body of Christ could have been avoided.
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Consider your David Koresh's, your Jim Jones's, these men who very early on were simply leaders in their own congregations, but later went on to be so bitter that their fruit destroyed countless lives.
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There is a reason why the church is called to discipline.
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It is for the sanctification of the body.
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That no root of bitterness would spring up and defile many.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank You.
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Thank You so much for the reminder as to why we are called, first and foremost, to be honest with one another, to bring holy words of love and rebuke to one another when they're needed, and to stand against sin, and to be honest about the potentiality of there being someone who is seeking to be a bitter root in the church.
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Father, we do pray that we would never have hearts that are so judgmental and so fixated on sending someone out that we would not recognize a contrite heart or a repentant spirit.
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We do pray, Lord, that none among us would have such a heart as that, because we truly do not want to send anyone away, but we want to show everyone the love of Christ and minister to them.
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But Lord, at the same time, give us strength.
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Give us courage to never be afraid to go to our brother or our sister who may be in sin and call them to a higher standard of living.
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Not in judgment, but in love, that we might be encouragers one to another to live as Christ and to be conformed to His image.
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Father, we do pray that we would never forget the centrality of the Gospel in our lives and that we would carry that Gospel into the world, sharing with the world that Christ is the only Savior and mankind is in desperate need of that Savior.
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In His name we pray and for His sake.
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Amen.
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Beloved, I want to encourage you to stand with us as we sing.
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If you have a need for prayer, please come.