Process of Church Discipline

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And we're going to now look at, for the last 20 minutes or so, we're going to look at process and methods for church discipline.
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I've already given you the biblical outline by virtue of steps.
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Private rebuke, private rebuke of witnesses, public rebuke before the church, and then excommunication from the church.
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That's the four steps.
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Have any of you ever seen discipline practiced? Yes.
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Within a church? Yes.
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OK.
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What did it look like? Was it like the biblical model? It's very similar.
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And what would make this really relevant is it began on Facebook.
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OK? OK.
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You know what I mean? The issue began on Facebook.
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OK.
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But they were given many opportunities to take it off, or repent, if you will, or, you know, or.
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And they wouldn't do it.
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And eventually, after a period of time, like you said, it led to excommunication.
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Wow.
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Is there anybody else still out there? No, sir.
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OK.
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Well, that's interesting.
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It began on Facebook.
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Yeah.
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I mean, everybody can see that happening.
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Well, that's kind of what we're going to talk about.
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Because there are times where events happen which throw the order of operations off.
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When I say order of operations, if we say there's an order for the steps, private rebuke, private rebuke of witnesses, you know, down the list.
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Well, sometimes, I'll give you an example before we even get to any of this stuff.
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I was too young to remember.
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But years and years ago, when this church was Forest Christian Church, back when I was young, I came here when I was six, seven years old, six or seven.
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But there was a lady in the church who was living with a man, and they were not married.
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And no one called her out.
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No one went to her and called her to repentance that I know of.
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But it became a point of gossip within the church.
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And she stood up in the middle of church and said, I'm living with this man.
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We're not going to get married.
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It's none of your business, and you need to keep your mouth shut.
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She said that in church.
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And now that we are where we are as a church, we're certainly not where we were.
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We've gone through a lot.
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And those who don't know the history of this church, we don't even have the same name anymore.
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But like I said, I've been here that long to remember that.
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And somebody asked me, well, what would you do? I said I would immediately call her to repentance.
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Before the church, there would be a call to repentance.
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Because she's bypassed step one and step two.
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She's bypassed step one, which is the necessity of a private rebuke, which would protect her dignity.
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That's gone.
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She's announced her sin before the world.
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And I don't need any witnesses.
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She's confessed before the world.
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So it would then be a rebuke before the church, a public rebuke.
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She wouldn't repent either.
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No, that's right.
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So it would jump right to that.
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Now, that doesn't mean that we wouldn't then go and try to counsel her and talk to her and love her and all those things.
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But the point is, step one, step two are kind of null at that point.
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She's voided it out by her.
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She's run headlong into three.
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And that's why I say, when you mentioned Facebook, if it's public, it's public.
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At that point, it's no longer a secret.
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Let's say, for instance, let's just say a man was cheating on his wife.
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And there were pictures of him all over Facebook going on dates and having interludes, kisses and stuff on Facebook.
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I'm not saying that's what it was.
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But let's say that happened.
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And everybody in church knew about it.
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Well, at that point, you still would go to him.
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You would still call him to repentance.
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But it's not private anymore.
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I do believe the reason for the private rebuke, in part, is to maintain that person's dignity and to love that person, even though they're in sin.
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You love them and you don't spread their sin abroad.
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We cover a sin if we can so that we don't embarrass and shame people.
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We love them.
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When I say cover sin, I don't mean we cover up.
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But if a person repents, it's over.
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You don't have to make it a show.
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Am I making sense on that one? Okay.
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All right, so while the Bible outlines the process of church discipline, not every church practices it in the same way.
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Number one, some churches don't do it at all.
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And I do believe that that's wrong.
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If a church does not practice discipline in any way, shape or form, I believe they're outside of the will of God on that issue.
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I'm not saying it's, the reformers would say they're not a true church because they would say a true church practices discipline.
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But I would say at least they're not in the will of God on this issue.
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If they allow sin within their midst and especially within their membership without addressing it.
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And I'll give you, I mean, there's so many examples, but I have specifically heard of churches where there was adultery going on within the church and no one said anything about it because these people were just too important within the church to be addressed.
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I mean, happens.
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Scary, but it does happen.
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So some do not practice discipline at all.
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Some churches add steps to discipline.
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And this is an area of great contention, at least in my mind, because there are some churches that would, you remember we said there are basically four steps Jesus gives us.
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They would add steps.
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For instance, one of the steps I have it on here would be the withholding of communion.
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So for instance, let's say you got a person in the church who is sinning, you go to that person, they refuse to repent.
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Somebody else goes to them, they refuse to repent.
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And so the elders would go to them and they would say, okay, until you repent, you can no longer take communion.
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Now, that is a pretty well...
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No, let me make sure I'm saying this right.
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That is a pretty common practice in certain churches that communion be held back.
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And the idea behind it is 1 Corinthians 11.
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1 Corinthians 11 says some of you in eating this have gotten sick and some have even died.
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And so some pastors feel like it's their duty to hold back communion because the person's in danger of eating and drinking damnation upon themselves.
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That's what Paul says.
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And so I've even heard back during the time of the Puritans of the pastors having tokens that they would give out so that if a person, you had to get a token before you could take communion.
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They had to examine you before you could take communion.
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That to me is very far afield.
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But the idea though is holding back communion is one of the ways that certain churches exercise discipline.
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I'm not saying I agree with that.
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I'm just telling you this.
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I can tell you, Frank, you don't agree.
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Well, you know, we talked about before legislative sacraments.
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Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.
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And that's been because of the way that your body handles it I have found myself just going like, I just don't, I don't understand it.
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But I mean, I understand it.
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Yeah.
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But I found myself in, I hate to use the word conflict but I found myself going like, I don't know about that.
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Because that seems like, I mean, you know, if you say and you prefer to, if a church indeed does that, if you're not in right standing with your church.
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Yeah.
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Now we do that.
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And I was just fixing to say that.
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What we say.
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What's the difference? Well, the difference would be we're still leaving it to the conscience of the person.
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Okay.
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So if a person comes to our church, we have communion that is for Christians only but it's not for members only.
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Some churches practice what's called closed communion.
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Closed communion typically means that it's members only.
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And I understand, I appreciate members only communion but we've just not practiced that within our church.
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We practice an open communion but the table is still fenced in two ways.
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We say one, if you're not a believer, don't partake.
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That's first and foremost.
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If you're not a believer, don't partake.
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And we say this, if you are under disciplined from another church, if you are not in right standing with another church, we would prefer you not partake because again, another church has found them to be outside of the faith.
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Another church has excommunicated them from the church meaning they don't believe that they're believers necessarily.
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So that's the reason we're saying for your sake, we would prefer you not do this.
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But nobody walks around with a stick and says, whack.
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I told you not to do that.
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It's still, we pass the plate or we hand the bread.
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It's still going to be their conscience that will decide whether or not they're gonna partake.
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But we do encourage people who are under disciplined not to until they reconcile with their church, until they reconcile with their church.
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So that's the first two.
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Some don't practice it at all.
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Some add steps such as holding back communion.
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And some include counseling or other steps prior to restoration.
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So for instance, here's a good example.
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You come or I go to you, you're sinning.
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I say, brother, you need to repent.
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And you say, okay, I repent.
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And I say, okay, now we're gonna do six weeks of counseling before you're fully restored.
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I know churches that sort of do that.
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They add a process of restoration rather than accepting the person back in on the basis of repentance.
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And I think there is some wisdom in that only the sense that just because somebody says I repent doesn't mean that it's genuine.
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And so if you got a guy who's been cheating on his wife, and you go to him and call him to repentance, and he says, okay, I repent.
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I mean, do you automatically believe him? I mean, you might want to, but there might be a, again, I can see it.
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It's not something we do here.
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I'm just saying this is the way churches, I get the reasoning, right? They're saying, okay, we need to spend some time with this guy to make sure that his repentance is genuine.
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All right, you may say, well, that's not their business to do that.
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Well, that's part of the whole reason of church discipline is to try to restore them.
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And if let's just say every Tuesday, I'm going to James and saying, you're cheating on your wife.
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He said, I repent.
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And the next Tuesday, you're cheating on your wife again.
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I repent.
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If there's this pattern that's an unbroken pattern, then, and again, I know James, you're not.
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So that's why some churches do include a process of restoration or a process of counseling within the discipline.
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And I will say this, if I knew there was a man in our church who was dealing with some kind of issue of sin, it might lead to counseling, but I wouldn't necessarily call it discipline.
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I would just say it was shepherding, discipling.
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It only is discipline.
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In my opinion, it's only becomes discipline once they're excommunicated.
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That's when they're under discipline is when they've refused to repent.
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But if a man is struggling, that's different than a man who has given up the struggle and he's dived into the sin.
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That make sense? There are also times when a person may force exceptions to the standard practice of discipline.
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I already told this story, public proclamation of sin and refusal to repent.
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I told that story earlier about the lady.
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And then there are some people who just resign their membership.
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People who just say, as soon as they, as soon as like, let's say, Frank, you go to Ed and say, Ed, I know you're sinning.
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And Ed goes, I'm out of here.
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Boom, don't you talk to me no more.
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You go, la, la, la, la, la.
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You stick your finger in the air like you used to do with your mom and run down the road.
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I can't hear you.
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Yeah, it's like, I don't wanna hear it.
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I'm not.
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And they send a letter of resignation in and immediately they're gone.
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That does happen.
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Now, our constitution here at Sovereign Grace sort of deals with that because we say even if a person leaves and resigns their membership, if they leave in sin, it will still be made known to the church so that the church may pray for that person.
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So it's still, they will still be brought before the church even if they resign because if not, I mean, everybody would just forfeit and run.
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So that's what I would say.
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These are just times when, as I say, we got four steps, but sometimes people bypass or jump over the steps.
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An important question is whether or not a person who has been excommunicated should be or will be allowed into the assembly without repentance.
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And some would say, yes, the person should be allowed into the assembly because they need to hear the gospel.
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And some would say no, because the person in sin is a danger to the spiritual health of the body.
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And as unpopular as my position is, and I know that I differ with some of my reformed pastor friends on this issue.
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I've even had this conversation in a public pastor's meeting.
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I take the second position.
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Once a person is under excommunication, they are no longer welcome to be within the body because as long as they are living in unrepentant sin, they are a danger to the body.
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But somebody would say, well, how are they supposed to hear the gospel if you've turned them over? If you won't let them come hear the gospel, how are they supposed to hear the gospel? My answer to that is multiple fold.
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My first answer to that is if they're at this point in the discipline, they've already heard the gospel many times, because if they're at the point of excommunication, they have already had multiple people come to them.
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Multiple people call them to repentance.
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Multiple people have shared Christ and the gospel with them.
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They have heard the gospel.
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That's number one.
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Number two, I do believe we have a biblical precedent.
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In 1 Corinthians 5, when Paul talks about the man who was sleeping with his father's wife, he says, turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that he may be saved in the day of the Lord.
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What does that mean? Does that mean continue to let him come to church? Or does that mean turn him over to the devil? And again, you may interpret it different than I do, and that's fine.
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As I said, there are two different interpretations here.
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The first interpretation, I get it.
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People want him to hear the gospel.
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But I would say, here's an example.
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Let's say you got a man in your church, cheats on his wife, falls in love with the woman that he's cheating with.
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Now he wants to come to the church and listen to the gospel with his new girlfriend.
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Yeah, nah.
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I mean, you think, well, he should be able to.
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No, no.
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Not if mom is still here with the kids.
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He gotta go.
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He gotta go.
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Yeah.
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Huh? No, he's with a girlfriend.
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I mean, he's bringing girlfriend with him.
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He has been excommunicated, I'm saying.
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I didn't go through all that.
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He cheated on his wife.
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He won't repent.
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He falls in love with a new lady.
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He leaves.
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He's under excommunication.
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But then he calls and says, hey, Pastor Keith, can I come to church? I got a new girlfriend.
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Can I come sit in church? No.
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Will you marry us? No.
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Absolutely not.
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No, but that's an extreme example, and I realize it is.
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Sometimes extreme measures need to be taken for the saving of the body, correct? Yeah.
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Yeah.
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What is your reference on if your right eye causes you to sit and pluck it out and if your left hand causes you to sit and cut it off? Would that be used in the same reference? Well, that would definitely apply if the person were encouraging other people to sin.
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Right.
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For sure, yeah.
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How many times over has it talked about not being a stumbling block, especially for your brothers? Yeah.
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Absolutely.
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I'm glad you said that because I'm looking around, I don't see one, but there's our church confession.
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Just last night, I taught on the two articles that deal with church discipline.
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It was Article 42 and 43, I think, is the ones I was teaching on.
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And the article, the first article is church discipline, and the second article is caution in church discipline, that this ought to be done prayerfully, lovingly, carefully, and certainly not out of spite.
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I tell you this, if I have a personal vendetta against somebody, then that's not discipline.
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That's vengeance.
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You have to refuge yourself.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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I would have to step away.
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Conflict of interest? Yeah, because at that point, I'm going after them because I'm angry.
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And somebody might say, well, it's righteous indignation.
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Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
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Is there such a thing? As righteous indignation? Absolutely.
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No, I would, I think, biblically speaking, I could make a case that we have every right to be angry at abortion clinics.
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I think every one of us has a right to be angry at those who murder and rape children.
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I mean, I think there's a biblical righteousness that allows for us to be angry at those things, but the Bible tells us to be angry and sin not.
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Yeah, and he never sinned.
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So.
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It's tough though, because sinners who are disciplined sin.
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I talked about that last night, and let's close with that thought.
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Let me close with a thought, because we do gotta get, we gotta finish up tonight.
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And next week, we talk about money.
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Aren't you so excited? Talk about giving.
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That's our last class.
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But one of the things that I pointed out last night in regard to church discipline is the hardest part of it is the church is all sinners.
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So what makes a person subject to church discipline if we're all sinners? The answer is the only one sin that can cause anybody to be disciplined is the sin of impenitence, the refusal to repent.
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So if I come to you and I say, brother, here's a sin that I see you, and you say, yeah, I'm struggling and I'm repenting, help me, counsel me, whatever, that's different.
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But if I come to you, I say, brother, you're sinning, and you say, no, I'm not, or I am, but I don't care, that's a different attitude.
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And that's the attitude that I think addresses, that we address in church discipline.
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Yeah, let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for your truth.
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I thank you for such a difficult subject, but yet such a fruitful conversation.
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I pray that it has been fruitful for everyone here.
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I pray that you'll lead us home safely, bring us back in the same way.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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We'll turn now.