Should the Church Excommunicate?

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I invite you to continue to stand and open your Bibles with me this morning.
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We're going to be turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
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And we're going to be looking at verses 3 to 8.
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1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verses 3 through 8.
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For though absent in body, I am present in spirit.
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And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
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When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
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Your boasting is not good.
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Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
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For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
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Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I pray that now as I have the opportunity to preach again, I pray that you would, as I always pray, Lord, keep me from error, sanctify my words, protect them with the truth for the sake of your people, for my conscience and for your name's sake.
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I pray, Father, as we deal with a difficult subject this week and in the weeks to come, I pray that you would open our hearts to a better understanding of your word, to the truth of what it says and to a commitment to what it is teaching.
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And Father, if this message is challenging, if this message is convicting, if this message is, Father, difficult, I pray that by your spirit that you would teach us and guide us into the truth.
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And Lord, keep us from rebellion and knee-jerk reactions and reactions of the flesh.
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And I pray it, Lord, in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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The title of the message today is, Should the Church Excommunicate? Should the Church Excommunicate? When we hear the word excommunication, there's almost an ominous feeling which comes along with that word.
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It's almost like in the movies, when you hear a person say something, you hear the sound of the drumbeat after dun-dun-duh, you know, excommunication.
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And it's weighty, and it's powerful, and it can be somewhat foreboding.
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It's considered by some to be an outdated term, an antiquated idea which has no place in the modern church.
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And it is certainly beyond the realm of possibility in many churches where tolerance for any and every kind of evil is practiced.
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And sometimes evil is even celebrated.
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And one of the things that I think has done damage to the concept of excommunication within the church is that historically it has been abused.
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And so this morning I wanted to simply mention some of the abuses that have happened and make the point that I am in no way saying that every instance of excommunication that has been done in the last 2,000 years has been godly or right or proper.
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In fact, much of what happened in the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages and even following that during the time of the Reformation when it came to the subject of excommunication was ungodly and disgusting.
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At the height of the Holy Roman Empire's power, excommunication was the tool of the Pope which was used to keep people in line, even the king.
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Some have questioned, who had more power in the Holy Roman Empire? Was it the king or was it the Pope? Well, the answer is simple.
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One had the power to condemn the other to hell.
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And when you have that powerful a trump card, there's really no question as to who holds the bigger stick.
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In the medieval period, Pope Gregory VII clashed with King Henry IV over who had the power to install clergy.
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King Henry IV believed that the king should have the power to install bishops and he was the king of Germany, he believed he should be able to establish bishops in the German church.
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Well, Pope Gregory disagreed and as a result, he excommunicated Henry.
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And in doing so, he placed the entire nation of Germany in peril because if the king, who is the authority and representative head of the kingdom, is under condemnation of the church, then the rest of the nation then falls under that same condemnation.
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Would the entire nation suffer because of the misbehavior of the king? Well, Henry was afraid of rebellion among his people.
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So he chose to seek the mercy of the pope.
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And during the harsh winter of 1077, Henry made a journey through the snowy mountains to meet with Pope Gregory.
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And when he arrived, the pope made him stand outside the walls for three days in the snow.
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Nay, not stand, but kneel for three days in the snow.
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And he lifted himself of his kingly vestments and he stood there only in his undergarments and he knelt down for three days, begging the pope for forgiveness.
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And finally, after three days of begging, the pope opened the doors and allowed him to be relieved of his excommunication.
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Probably the most famous case of excommunication in the history of the church was that of the excommunication of King Henry VIII.
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A different Henry, but still the king.
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When King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, they were both Roman Catholic.
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In fact, he had to get permission from the pope to marry Catherine of Aragon because she was the widow of his brother.
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And to do that, he had to have permission from the king.
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And he got permission to marry her.
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And later, he became infatuated with Anne Boleyn and he decided to divorce Catherine so he could go with Anne Boleyn and be married to her.
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So he sought an annulment for his marriage from the pope and the pope would not allow it.
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Pope Clement VII was unwilling to annul the marriage and as a result, excommunication would happen if he went forward.
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So rather than disobeying the pope and facing excommunication, Henry VIII decided to go a step further and declare himself the head of the church.
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No longer would the pope have authority over the Church of England.
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Now the monarchy would have authority over the Church of England.
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And Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, annulled their marriage in 1533.
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And in 1534, Parliament passed the Acts of Supremacy making Henry VIII the head of the English Church.
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This would go on to bring about the establishment of what we know as today the Anglican Church.
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Now they would later ally with the Reformers.
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But in a sense, they began because of the threat of excommunication.
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As I said, the history of excommunication within the church is one that's fraught with abuses.
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It's fraught with scandals.
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Especially when the church and the state ruled together.
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It's certainly been with its failures.
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Some of the most famous, or rather some of the most godly, faithful and noble believers in history have been excommunicated from the recognized church.
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Go back in history with me to this time of John Wycliffe.
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John Wycliffe was a godly man whose desire was to translate the Bible into English for the common speaking world.
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And he did so, but he did so while under the excommunication of the church because he dared to preach against the doctrine of transubstantiation.
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John Hus, one of the followers of Wycliffe, would also be excommunicated because of preaching what they called the teachings of Wycliffe.
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And he was not only excommunicated, but he was drug out and he was burned at the stake under the condemnation of the Roman church.
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Martin Luther, as I said earlier, had been excommunicated by Pope Leo X on January 3rd, 1521.
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And William Tyndale, who also translated the Bible into English, was burned at the stake.
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And anyone who was found reading his translation of the Bible into English was excommunicated from the church.
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All of these men, faithful men of God, who at the time were suffering at the hands of a wayward church that was misusing its power and was far from God.
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And many today will use those examples of heinous overreach and abuse of power as reasonings why the concept of excommunication should be done away with entirely.
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Look, if you look at the past, you will see abuses and you will see scandals and that's the reason why the entire concept should be jettisoned, is the argument of some.
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Many churches do not even discuss the topic.
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Others claim that the practice abandons the underlying teachings of mercy and grace that Jesus gave to us.
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And Mark Devers said this quote, he said, When pastors first hear of church discipline, they often think the idea is ridiculous.
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It sounds unloving, counter-evangelistic, weird, controlling, legalistic and judgmental.
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It certainly seems unworkable and some even wonder if it's illegal.
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That's a quote from Mark Devers, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington.
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So we hear all these things and yet we know this.
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We know this truth.
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Excommunication, as difficult as it may be, as difficult a subject as it may be to discuss, is clearly a biblical concept.
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Now some people reject the term excommunication, they don't like that term.
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But here's the thing, whether you call it excommunication or church discipline, excommunication simply means to be put out of fellowship.
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Church discipline is an act of putting someone out of fellowship.
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It's the same thing.
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But I will say this, there was a time in the past where the term excommunication was tied very much to a person's salvation.
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And if you were under excommunication, it meant that the church was taking away God's grace.
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And the church had the power to give grace or take it away.
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And so there is a sense in which that word excommunication would automatically combine with the idea of eternal damnation.
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And so I do want to be clear, when I talk about excommunication today, I'm using it from the biblical perspective.
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And Paul uses the term, this, this is what he says.
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He says, about the person who is in sin, they are to be delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
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That's the passage in what it says this morning.
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Later, he will say, he will quote from Deuteronomy, and he will say, purge the evil person from among you.
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So, that's where we're getting the term excommunication from.
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And I want to make this clear, because I certainly don't want to confuse or create any issue of thought this morning.
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When we talk about the word excommunication, we are not pronouncing a final judgment on someone's soul.
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But we are saying that the person is not living as a Christian in the fellowship of the body.
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A person can be under excommunication and yet still be saved, but they are not behaving or living a Christian life.
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We understand that.
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We do not, I don't have the power to look into your soul to know whether or not you are saved.
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However, we are given the process of excommunication, the process of church discipline, to keep the church from allowing sin to not only grow within it, but to permeate and spread within it.
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Sin is like a cancer.
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Sin is like a sickness.
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And when sin is allowed to grow and to spread, it can destroy a church.
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Look at the book of Revelation.
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We talked about this in our Sunday school this morning.
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What happens when a church's sin allows to grow and grow? The Bible says it's as if we have a lampstand in the midst of us and God comes and does what? He removes the lampstand.
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It's a picture of taking the Holy Spirit, because sin is allowed to flourish in a body.
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And so such must not be allowed.
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There has to be consequence.
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There has to be dealing with the issue of sin.
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And as we said, the issue in Corinth was obvious.
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I don't want to go into it again.
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I spent almost an hour preaching last Sunday on the sin of Corinth and what was happening.
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A man has his father's wife.
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And if you don't know what that means and you want to know more about it, go listen to the recording.
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I'm not doing another hour on verses 1 and 2.
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We're at verse 3.
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We're at the consequence.
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We're at excommunication.
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And by the way, when I read my wife this sermon, as I do most weeks, I read my sermon to my wife prior and we talk about it.
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She said, there's no way you're getting through this in one day.
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Next week is Mother's Day.
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This is going to be great.
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I'm not stopping.
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We're going to go right through, wherever.
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So bring your guests.
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I hope they're here.
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This is important.
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But here's the thing.
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When we see this statement in verse 3.
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He says, Paul says, I am present in spirit.
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And as of present, I've already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
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Paul is stating the fact that he's already made a judgment.
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He has already determined this person is guilty based on the reports, based on the evidence, based on what he knows.
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This is true and this is something that is worthy of the church's intercession over this thing.
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He says, I've already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
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Verse 4.
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So when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Stop right there.
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He says, when you are assembled.
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There is something that is very vital about the body in the life of the church.
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The assembly is the church.
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Often times we get confused about this.
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I know you've heard me say this a thousand times, but please don't ever forget it.
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When we talk about the church, it is not the building.
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It is the assembly of the believers.
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And I recently noticed something.
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Sovereign Grace Baptist Church is a similar church to ours in theology.
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They're over in Arlington.
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And Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, I go there every few months for a little pastor's meeting and we get together and talk and pray.
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And I notice what their sign says.
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It doesn't say Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.
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It says, this is where Sovereign Grace Baptist Church gathers.
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I really like that.
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Because the point of that wording is not to say, this building is the church.
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No, this is where the church comes when they assemble.
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This building is simply the shell.
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But the body is the church.
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Really, really, really like that.
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And so we need to get that mindset.
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Because Paul says here, he says, when you're assembled, you got a job to do.
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When you are assembled as the body, you've got something that is your responsibility.
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What is it? You got to deal with the sin that's going on.
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Beloved, we gather really seldomly if you think about it.
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We gather for a little over an hour once a week.
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Those of you who come on Wednesday night, we see each other on Wednesday night.
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And sometimes, you know, we have Bible study for men, Bible study for women.
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Some of you attend those things.
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But we gather very, very precious few hours during the week.
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And become at that moment, become the assembly.
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Become the church when we gather.
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You say, well, we're always the church.
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Well, we're always the church in the sense that we're always the body of Christ.
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But when we gather, we are the assembled body of Christ.
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And I do believe there's a special meeting with God that happens when we all come together.
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I believe the Holy Spirit is always with us.
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Don't think I'm saying this is a temple.
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But I am saying when we come together, there's a time, there's something special going on here.
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And this is what he says.
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He says, when you're assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, you're coming together as the body in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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And my spirit is present.
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Remember I said this last week.
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Paul's not saying he's a mystical, ethereal figure in the room.
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No, he's saying I've already made a judgment.
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I've already given my approval to what's happening.
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So my spirit is present with you all.
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So you have the authority of the Apostle Paul with you.
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You've got Jesus Christ's spirit with you.
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You've got the Holy Spirit within you.
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You are the gathered body.
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You've got something to do.
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What do you got to do? Verse 5.
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You, that's the collective you, are to deliver this man to Satan.
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Now I've got to tell you.
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That does not mean that there's like an area of town where we're going to bind his hands and tie his feet and put him on a stick and walk him out and cast him through the gates of Mordor or whatever.
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I've never even read that book.
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You're not throwing him out into a pit.
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When he says that you are to deliver this person over to Satan, what this is saying is that this person is to be removed from the fellowship and given over to the world.
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This person is no longer to be counted as one of you.
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He's to be turned over to the world.
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Now this is interesting too because if you think about it, some people might think that Satan is a willing participant in this.
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I used to do something called Judgment House.
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I would work with a Baptist church locally and they did a Judgment House.
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It was just a little play where they talked about the end of someone's life and someone went to hell, someone went to heaven.
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It was an attempt, honestly, having been a part of it, it was an attempt to scare people.
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And it did a pretty good job at certain times because at one point you had to walk through hell and Satan was there and Satan was sort of like the governor of hell.
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He was announcing the rules and putting people in cages and all this.
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It was really odd.
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Let me just tell you, Satan is not the governor of hell.
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Satan is a participant of the tortures of hell when he is cast into the lake of fire.
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So just so you know, that picture was actually incorrect.
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Satan is not the governor of hell.
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And I say that only because when somebody says we're turning him over to Satan, it's as if somebody might have the picture wrong in their mind that God and Satan are somewhat in cahoots here.
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No, Satan is always opposed to what God is doing, but he's always under God's authority.
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You understand that? Satan is always opposed to what God's doing, but he's always under God's authority.
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And what I mean by that is when we put somebody out into the world, Satan is more than willing to influence them for evil.
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He's more than willing to destroy them.
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He's more than willing to attack them.
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He's more than willing to be their enemy, and he is, and he continues to be.
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And that's the point here because when we put them out into the world, we're turning them over to a world that is going to eat them up.
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But for what purpose? For the destruction of the flesh.
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Now, I must admit, that phrase, the destruction of the flesh, has been interpreted differently by different commentators and different thinkers in the Christian history and the Christian world.
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One even said, the flesh there is talking about the church body, and by putting the person out, it's like you're cutting your finger off, you know, that's destroying your flesh, and this is a member of your body, and you're putting him out, so there's destruction of the flesh.
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I don't think that's the accurate, but that's one interpretation that the flesh there is talking about the church body.
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I think that actually it's the person himself is undergoing a type of destruction because he's no longer part of the fellowship of the body.
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He's being put out into the world, and now the flesh is going to be having to deal with all of the temptations, and all of the problems, and all of the troubles of life without the blessing and the umbrella of protection that's provided by the church.
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But what's the purpose? Paul tells us the purpose.
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Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
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Now, some people think the destruction of the flesh is actually death, like you put him out and hope that he gets killed because then if he's saved, he'll just die and go to heaven, possibly.
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But what if by putting the person out, the actual motive is so that the person will realize the love, and the care, and the affection, and the protection that was provided by the church, and it will make them yearn for that again.
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I'll give you an example.
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Brian Borgman is a pastor that I listen to and care for him a great deal, and he's a member of FIRE, the group that we're a part of, Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals.
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He's a member pastor, and I listen to him a lot.
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Beautiful sermons.
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I recommend if you're looking for another pastor to listen to at work, Brian Borgman is his name.
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And he said this about this particular thing.
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He said years ago, they had to enact church discipline on a lady.
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And he said after two weeks, because they separate fellowship, they said, you know, we love you, but you're in sin, you're not allowed to come back and be a part of the fellowship anymore.
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He said after two weeks, the lady calls him on the phone, and she said, I can't do this without the church.
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I can't live this way.
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I've been separated from all that I love and all that loves me.
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I need to repent.
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Isn't that awesome? Isn't that great? And somebody says, no, no, if you put them out, they're never going to come back.
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Not true.
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It can be a sanctifying work in the life of a person to say this is it.
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And that's an example of that happening.
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So he says, turn them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that their soul may be saved in the day of the Lord.
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We're praying to God that this person will repent.
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We don't put them out because we hate them.
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We don't put them out because we're prideful over them.
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We put them out because we're mourning over their souls, and we pray that they will repent.
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It's the purpose, that's the goal, that's the desire is to see them saved.
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They may be saved.
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They may just be at that time in a moment of fallenness.
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And at that point, they may need to know that what they're doing is desperate and wrong, and they may need to repent.
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And so we call them to repentance, and we encourage them to repent.
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And you say, but that is so harsh, brother.
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I just can't understand why anyone would do that.
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Follow with me to verse 6.
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He said, your boasting is not good.
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Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? This is key.
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This is key.
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Because the question of excommunication, the question of the purpose and the reason and all this, comes down to an issue of why do we do it.
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Well, I've already said one of the reasons why we do it is because we want to see the person repent.
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But I got to tell you this.
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I think I even surprised my wife with this.
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I asked her, I said, what is the primary goal in excommunication? And she said, the restoration of the person.
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I said, no, no.
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The primary goal in excommunication is the purity of the church.
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But in that, the restoration of the person is part of that.
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But the primary goal is the purity of the church.
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Christ died for His bride.
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His bride is His body.
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It's us.
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Right? He died for us.
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And we are to be pure.
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Do you even hear that anymore? Do you even hear pastors talk about purity anymore? It's almost a joke.
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Purity is a punchline and holiness is a joke.
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You know what I saw this past week? I saw a video and it was published, broadcasted wide by many who are ungodly and unchristian.
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But the broadcast was of a preacher who on Easter this year, Easter Sunday of this year, proclaimed to his congregation, Jesus didn't raise from the dead and He's not coming back.
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Jesus didn't raise from the dead and He's not coming back.
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And through that, it played about 30-45 seconds of cuts, interspersed cuts of his preaching.
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And he threw out expletives the whole time he was preaching.
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Jesus was told He couldn't talk to the woman of the well and He said, bull.
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But He said the whole phrase.
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From the pulpit just shouted BS, BS, BS.
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And everybody's like the crowds watching the peasants being eaten by the lions.
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They cackled and screamed while the word of God was chewed up and spit out.
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Beloved, that's an extreme example of unsanctified behavior in the church.
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But we look around us and we ask the question, do we care about holiness? Do we care about purity? Do we care about ourselves before God? Every one of us will stand before God and we will give an account for our lives.
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If we are in Christ, our sins will be covered.
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Our sins will be forgiven.
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And though they be as scarlet, they will be washed whiter than snow.
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And we will stand clothed in His righteousness alone.
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I believe that.
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I know that.
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I trust in that.
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But does that give us a license for sin? Never.
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I want to begin to draw to a close.
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I gave you an outline of four questions.
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I didn't get to the four questions today.
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Because I'm going to do that next week.
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Because I want to go somewhere else right now.
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I want to go to where we started this morning.
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Brother Andy Redd from Romans 6.
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Can I read that to you and talk to you about it for a minute? Because this is on my heart.
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Because I think, you know what the problem that people have? You know what people have a problem with excommunication? I think the biggest issue people have with excommunication, it's not an issue of grace and love and mercy.
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The problem with excommunication is, they know, they know, that the reality is, I don't want it to be on me.
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I'm not going to support it because I don't ever want to be the one on the end of that gun.
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But here's the thing.
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Why do we even think like that? Could it be because we've been using grace as a license for sin? Go to Romans 6.
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Romans 6 is an interesting part of the book of Romans.
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I've taught through Romans a few times over the years, and I love this book.
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There's so much here that we could camp out on.
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But the whole first five chapters of Romans is Paul explaining the sin of man, the desperate condition he's in, the fact that he's dead in sin, not just sick, but dead in sin, and that it is God's work alone that saves.
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It's justification by grace through faith alone and not of works.
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Paul says that.
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He even talks about Abraham.
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He says, what did Abraham have to boast about because of works? Nothing.
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Not even Abraham.
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The man who was called the friend of God, even the friend of God could not use his works as his justification.
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The only justification we have is what? The work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
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That's where justification comes from.
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So the whole first five chapters is all about justification, our role being in Adam and now in Christ.
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We were in Adam, now we're in Christ.
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And now we get to chapter 6, and it's as if Paul changes gears, right? He was in this one gear, he was in third gear, now he's up to speed, he's going to drop back into overdrive, and he's going to now say, but don't allow that to be a license for sin.
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Yes, you were justified by grace through faith and not of works, but that is not license for sin.
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Verse 1 of chapter 6.
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What shall we say then? Why did he ask the question? Because this is the natural response.
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In fact, this was the accusation that Christians were receiving.
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If you believe in grace, and you believe that justification is grace alone through faith alone, then you believe that you can go out and live like the devil, and it doesn't matter.
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And you know what? A lot of people do.
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A lot of people do believe that.
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They believe that what they do is inconsequential.
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And holiness is a joke, as I said, and purity is a punchline.
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And so we get here, Paul says, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? I really believe that the question is based on something that was being stated.
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I don't know this for a fact, but the wording of the question rings to me as Paul is stating something that has been stated.
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Like he's asking the question, Is it true that we are to, as you say, and I'm not adding to the Word of God, I'm just saying this is how I think this is coming about.
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He's heard someone say, Sin and grace will abound.
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And Paul asks the question, Is it true that we should sin so that grace should abound? Is that common statement that somehow made its way in, is that little statement true? Meganoita.
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Meganoita.
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This is one of those times, and I'll give you an example.
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I'm going to talk about this Wednesday night.
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Do you all know what dynamic equivalent is? Dynamic equivalent is when you're translating from one language into another language, you don't translate it word for word, but you translate the idea of that.
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I'm going to talk about this Wednesday night.
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There's a phrase in Japanese, which means 10 people, 10 colors, is the phrase in Japanese.
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10 people, 10 colors.
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But in English, we would say different strokes for different folks, right? That would be the dynamic equivalent of that phrase in Japanese, right? When Paul says meganoita here, what that actually means is, may it not exist.
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No existence of that kind of thinking.
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But in the King James Bible, this is one of the times where the King James gives a dynamic equivalent.
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It says, God forbid.
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Shall we continue in sin so that grace will abound? God forbid that type of thinking.
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And that's Paul's meaning here.
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God forbid that we would ever think that grace is reason for sin.
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I heard John MacArthur say this one time.
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Why are we so entertained by that for which Christ died? Why do we love so much that which Christ died for? So we started today talking about excommunication, but really the reality is, the whole purpose behind excommunication is the purity of the church.
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We are not sitting here just looking for a reason to excommunicate anybody.
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We're not just going around with our little purity peccadillo finders and looking around for your little sins that we can find a way to kick you out.
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No! Such a thing would be ridiculous.
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But we are calling ourselves a church.
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And by calling ourselves a church, we are saying that we are different from the world.
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And the sad thing is, the church no longer looks any different than the world.
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The church today, maybe more than ever, looks just like the world outside.
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There's just as much sin.
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There's just as much adultery.
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There's just as many abortions.
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There's just as many divorces.
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There's just as many people hating one another and gossiping about one another and spending their time stabbing one another, if not with their hands, with their words.
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And Jesus said, they will know you because you're going to be different than them.
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They won't know you because you act the same and use grace as an excuse.
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But they will know you because you are different.
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Not perfect.
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And never leave a sermon like this and think I'm calling you to sinless perfectionism.
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I'm not John Wesley, and I don't believe in a second blessing of sinless perfectionism.
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But I do believe this.
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When Christ saves a man, he goes from a lover of sin to a lover of Jesus.
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And now the sins that we deal with are sins that we fight because we hate them.
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We don't love them.
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And I love you.
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And I hope you hear these words with love.
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Search your heart.
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Is there something in your life that you need to hate more and maybe love Jesus more in the process? Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for the opportunity to preach today.
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I pray that this word has been encouraging.
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This would not be a stumbling block to our understanding, but this would reaffirm our understanding that yes, we are saved by grace through faith.
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We are not saved by works, but that our salvation comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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And that Holy Spirit is holy.
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And He within us gives us the power to live for Christ.
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And though we fight a battle with the flesh, we pray that we, by the power of the Spirit, would desire holiness, desire purity, desire Christ.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.