Church Discipline (3): The Right Scripture for the Right Problem | Hebrews 3:12-13

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Okay, let's go ahead and pray, and then we'll get started. Precious Heavenly Father, we thank

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You, Lord, for the opportunity once again to gather together, and to worship and to glorify

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You, and to hear the preached Word. Father, we ask that You open up our minds to the truth, and help us to be receptive to it, to apply it properly, as we discuss this very important matter of church discipline.

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We thank You, Lord, and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So this is part three of the series that we've been doing on church discipline.

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And I'll do a brief recap of what we've covered so far.

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We started by talking about how many churches tend to either neglect or abuse church discipline, but we also looked at how church discipline is not only important, but necessary, especially according to the

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Protestant Church throughout history. We read the Belgic Confession in Article 29, the marks of a true church being the preaching of the

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Word, the administration of the sacraments, and church discipline. So that is a mark of a true church.

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And if you do not practice church discipline biblically, then you are either a false church or a very dysfunctional church.

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It's that important. And so there are many good reasons.

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There are many important reasons for why church discipline must be done. One of them is to maintain the holiness and the purity of the church.

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The other one is to take the exceeding sinfulness of sin seriously and its destructive effects because sin is very destructive and it must be dealt with appropriately.

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And of course, the other very important situation for church discipline is to get repentance out of the sinner and forgiveness out of the victim.

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So very important to keep those things in mind as we continue to walk this out.

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Also, when we try to confront somebody, we need to be careful to prepare ourselves first, to examine ourselves, to judge our own sin first so that we're not guilty of judging hypocritically, which is what

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Jesus talked about in Matthew 7. And so the next step would also be to assess the situation properly.

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So we need to assess the situation by asking ourselves questions like, is it sin in the first place?

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So we know if something is sin or not based on whether it's the moral law, if it's violating the moral law.

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So that's also associated with the Ten Commandments. So the

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Ten Commandments are a summary of the moral law and further summarized by the two great commandments that Jesus talked about, to love

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God and to love your neighbor. And so that is how we have an understanding of what sin is.

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Also, two categories of sin that are very important are sins of omission and sins of commission.

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So sins of omission are the things that we should do but don't. Sins of commission are sins that we do but shouldn't.

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So like committing adultery. And then a sin of omission would be like telling the truth.

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So now we also have different kinds of sin that we have to deal with.

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So is it a public sin? Is it a private sin? Are we guilty of the same sin?

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Are the grievances coming from both directions or just one party? So there's things like that.

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Also respecting authority over the individual. So if it's a child, then the parent has to be involved.

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If it's a wife, then the husband may also need to be involved. Animals, owners, so things like that.

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Respecting the authority of the individual. And so there is an extremely important...

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The Bible has a lot to say about church discipline, obviously. And one of the key verses that we've been operating on is

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Hebrews 3, 12 -13. Hebrews 3, 12 -13 says this,

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It is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And this really kind of summarizes the importance of church discipline.

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And how necessary it is for us to take an active role. An active role in dealing with our own sin and in the sin of our fellow believers when it's called for.

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So it's really important to see what the

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Bible tells us regarding this matter. And to live it out properly, live it up appropriately.

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Another important principle here is to not neglect the entire counsel of God.

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So what does the Bible have to say as a whole regarding the topic of church discipline or anything else?

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And also never to read a passage in isolation because that's how you see a lot of people misinterpret very important passages dealing with church discipline.

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And we're going to touch on that a little bit more today. So we must take, based on what we just read in Hebrews 3 and other numerous passages, we must take an active role, be active in dealing with sin in ourselves and with our fellow believers.

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Or professing believers. So very important.

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Now, this also does not mean that we should be spying on each other, right?

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Or be busybodies. That's not what it means. It doesn't mean that we should be spying on each other or trying to, you know, lie in wait for like the woman caught in adultery.

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You know, the Pharisees were just trying to spy on her and trying to catch her in the act so that they could put Jesus on the spot.

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And so that's not what we're called to do. We're not called to spy on people. But at the same time, it does not mean that we should just keep to ourselves and mind our own business and not worry about what anybody else is doing.

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That's also not biblical. That's also being negligent of what the Bible calls us to do as believers, to do the one another's, right?

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Love one another. Bear one another's burdens. And so fulfill the law of Christ.

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That's in Galatians. So that's what we are called to be involved in each other's lives in a healthy way so that we can pray for each other, love one another, rejoice with one another, and bear one another's burdens and confront each other's sin, right?

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So that's really important. Again, Hebrews 3 .13. Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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Another extremely important passage is in 2 Timothy 4 verses 1 through 4.

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And we can turn to that. I'm going to read the amplified version because it has a lot of good commentary on it.

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But 2 Timothy verse 4, 1 through 4. This is a pastoral epistle that Paul wrote to Timothy to charge him on the responsibilities of what an elder or a pastor is supposed to do.

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And in this passage, in 2 Timothy chapter 4,

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I'm going to start in verse 1. He says this, Preach the word as an official messenger.

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Be ready when the time is right and even when it is not. Keep your sense of urgency, whether the opportunity seems favorable or unfavorable, whether convenient or inconvenient, whether welcome or unwelcome.

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Correct those who err in doctrine or behavior. Warn those who sin.

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Exhort and encourage those who are growing toward spiritual maturity with inexhaustible patience and faithful teaching.

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For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction that challenges them with God's truth, but wanting to have their ears tickled with something pleasing, they will accumulate for themselves many teachers, one after another, chosen to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors that they hold.

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And will turn their ears away from the truth and will wander off into myths and man -made fictions and will accept the unacceptable.

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So this, again, is calling us to be active. The pastor must be active in preaching against sin, confronting sin, rebuking sin, sometimes even publicly when the situation calls for it.

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And we need to also actively deal with our sin. There was another passage that we read in the last message.

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I believe it was in, I think it was in Corinthians, where...

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Yes, it's in 1 Corinthians 11 31. It says, if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

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So if we judge our own sin appropriately, we won't have to initiate, somebody won't have to initiate church discipline on us.

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So judge yourself, judge your sin, judge the sin in your life, confront the sin in your life, repent of it, mortify it, crucify it.

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Do not entertain even the appearance of evil in your own life, right?

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So as we continue in dealing with the other situations, we need to make sure we have those principles in mind.

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So, okay. Now, a few other recaps that I failed to mention last time.

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This was very important last time that we talked about. Both repentance and forgiveness are necessary when resolving church discipline conflicts, and they must be genuine.

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Repentance and forgiveness must both be genuine, right?

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So when somebody sins against somebody else in the church, the sinner must repent genuinely, and the victim must forgive genuinely, right?

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And this is what we talked about in the parable of the unforgiving slave, right? The unforgiving servant, he had a massive debt.

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The master told him to pay it and he said, please have mercy with me. He gave obeisance to him.

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He pleaded with him and he told him, please have patience with me and I will repay you. And the master had mercy on him because he showed repentance.

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He demonstrated repentance, but later on, it turns out that his repentance was not genuine because he choked his fellow slave who owed much less and made him pay for it.

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So his repentance was not genuine, and therefore what happened? The fellow servants reported the sin to his master, right?

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That's why it's an analogy. It's a parable for what we need to do in church.

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If we witness something, we need to confront it appropriately. And the master therefore threw him in prison and said, you will not get out until you pay every last penny, right?

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So we must be genuine. Our forgiveness and our repentance must be genuine because one of the sins that God detests more than anything is hypocrisy, right?

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That's one thing that he dealt with the Pharisees a lot. He constantly rebuked them for being hypocrites.

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You hypocrites, right?

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And so hypocrisy is a pernicious, detestable sin in God's eye.

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So we must be genuine. We must have genuine repentance and genuine forgiveness.

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Also, if it is not genuine, then church discipline must be applied or escalated, right?

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So because even though true forgiveness requires repentance from the sinner, if the sinner does not repent, the victim must not harbor any bitterness or unforgiveness or hold grudges.

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We cannot hold grudges or unforgiveness or bitterness because that is sin. And if you are guilty of doing that, you may need to be confronted for doing that because that is sinful.

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Again, in Leviticus 19, 16 through 17, which we read last time, it says,

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You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.

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And so even if we confront the sinner and he does not repent, he gets excommunicated as called for.

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But again, the victim must not harbor bitterness against that individual.

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He must be willing to forgive and pray for them so that God will grant them repentance and that ultimately reconciliation will happen.

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True reconciliation can happen by God granting the sinner repentance and they can be therefore restored and the victim can also forgive that individual, the sinner.

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And this takes us now to Colossians chapter 3 verses 12 through 15 because it touches directly on this matter.

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So if we go there, Colossians 3 verses 12 through 15, it says this,

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Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another.

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And if one has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other. So as the

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Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

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Very important. We must forgive and also bearing with one another, but that does not mean bearing with one another's sin.

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It means to bear with one another's burdens and weaknesses because if there is sin, we are called to confront it.

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And even if one has a complaint, so when we talked about in step one, check first if it is sin, but even if it's not sin, if it's a complaint, in the

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Greek, there's different words being used. The Greek word for sin is typically hamartia. It means sin.

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And you also may have heard in systematic theology, the study of hamartiology is a study of sin.

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But this word is mamphane. It's a different word. It's a complaint. It's something that's a grievance or a complaint.

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It's not necessarily sin. You still have the ability to confront the fellow believer of a complaint.

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It doesn't have to be of sin. But at the same time, when we also talked about how love covers a multitude of offenses, love, it is the glory of one to overlook an offense.

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So it is appropriate for you to overlook an offense if it is not a sin. It is not appropriate to overlook it if it is a sin, though.

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If it is a sin, it must be dealt with according to what Scripture teaches. So that's a key passage here.

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And because obviously as Christ has forgiven us, so we must also forgive others.

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That's exactly what the parable of the unforgiving servant is teaching us. Right. Christ has forgiven us all our sin.

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Therefore, we must forgive others when they sin against us. And even in the Lord's Prayer, right?

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Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Key. These are key principles that we must live by as believers.

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Repentance and forgiveness. So Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 through 2.

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This is another very key passage. Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 through 2.

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Which says. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

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Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

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So once again. Any if you see anybody caught up in a sin.

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You who are spiritual. You who have judged your own sin first appropriately and are not guilty of the same sin, therefore not guilty of hypocrisy.

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You who have judged a sin in your life, repented of it and crucified it, dealt with it.

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You confront the fellow believer who is caught up in a sin himself in a spirit of gentleness because sin is so damaging and sinful that you too can be tempted if you are not careful.

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And therefore also bear one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ. Bear with one another's weaknesses.

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Bear with one another's burdens and be patient with one another so that we can fulfill the law of Christ and build each other up as the body of Christ.

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Build one another up in love and in truth. So we are called to confront in love and in sincerity and in truth and in maturity.

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You who are spiritual. Okay. So now I want to revisit Matthew 18 15.

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Matthew 18 verses 15 through 17. That is where Jesus lays out the basic principles.

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The instruction for confronting a believer who sins against you personally.

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So in Matthew 18 verse 15, I'm going to go ahead and read that.

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If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

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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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So this is very important because step one is to confront the sinner directly alone.

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Step one, you are not supposed to tell anybody else that somebody has sinned against you.

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Okay, that's very important. We must confront the individual who sinned against us privately first.

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Not to divulge that sin to somebody else. Because if we do, that's disobedience to what

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Christ has commanded. And it could also be gossip, right? So if somebody sins against us, we must first judge ourselves, establish if it was sin, give the opportunity for the sinner to repent.

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And if those things still don't happen, then we must confront the sinner first without telling anybody else.

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Now there's a really good passage here from a fellow

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Reformed Baptist. His name is Benjamin Keech. He was one of the Reformed Baptists back in the day who helped to put together the

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Baptist standards that we hold to. The Baptist Confession, the Baptist Catechism. So Benjamin Keech.

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In fact, the Baptist Catechism is also called Keech's Catechism, even though I don't think he was the one that wrote it.

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But he was one of the people that was instrumental in Reformed Baptist doctrine. Now, he has a very good little booklet, which

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Lord willing, I'll order some copies to give out some copies for you all. It's called The Glory of a

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True Church. And in that booklet, he says something very critical.

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He says one of the causes of discord. In fact, he lists several reasons for discord in the church.

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The first one, the very first one he lists is this one, is that through the ignorance in some members of the rules of discipline and right government, particularly when that rule in Matthew 18 is not followed, specifically verse 15.

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Instead, one person takes up an offense against another and speaks of it to this or that person before he has told the brother offending of it, which is a palpable sin and a direct violation of Christ's holy precept.

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Such must as offenders themselves be in a gospel way dealt with. To prevent this, the discipline of the church should be taught and the members informed of their duties.

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So what he's saying is if you divulge somebody else's sin against you to somebody else, you are guilty of sin and therefore must be confronted yourself of not doing, of sinning against the fellow brother because you divulge the sin.

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So you therefore must be confronted and instructed properly that we cannot divulge sin, somebody else's sin until we have followed the appropriate steps in Matthew 18.

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Okay, so that is crucial. Now, the next step is if the believer does not listen to your admonition of bringing the sin to him, then you take step two, which is to if he refuses to listen.

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No, I'm sorry. Yeah, then tell it to bring two or three witnesses with you. Again, that witnesses does not mean somebody who actually witnessed a sin because of what we just talked about, right?

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It's somebody who is there to establish the charges with the sinner and to establish the fact that the victim confronted him first.

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So, because again, when you tell the person the sin, you tell him between you and him alone and nobody else.

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That implies that nobody else is aware of the sin. Okay, if somebody else witnesses the sin, then

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Matthew 18 no longer applies. Okay, if somebody else witnesses the sin against you,

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Matthew 18 no longer applies and that individual must be confronted by either the one who witnessed it, the victim or both.

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Okay, that is very important to keep in mind.

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Now, step three is if he refuses to listen to even them, the two or three witnesses that are with you, then tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

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Gentile and a tax collector. So, this is the final step in the process of Matthew 18.

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If the sinner does not listen to you or to you and the two or three witnesses that you bring with you, then you must tell it to the church.

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Now, how does that look like? What does it mean to tell it to the church? What does that look like? All things,

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Paul says, must be done in decency and in order. So, what the process should look like when something like this happens is you take the step to inform the elders of the church and in a church meeting with members only, we announce what happened.

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The announcement is made that the sinner, the offending party, has sinned.

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He was confronted twice, first by the victim, then by the two or three witnesses.

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He refused to listen. Therefore, we are making it a public announcement so the entire church can call that person to repentance.

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And in a church meeting, we call a church meeting with members only, we announce the sin, we confront the individual and call them to repentance.

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And if after that they still refuse to listen, even to the church, then they are excommunicated.

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They are kicked out of the church in order to preserve the purity and holiness and to protect the victim and to protect the rest of the church from the same sin because they haven't listened.

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So, that's very important. Now, the other key factor in this is how long should we take to confront the sin or resolve the conflict when somebody sins against us or when there is sin involved, especially when somebody sins against us.

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Now, for that, let's turn to Matthew 5, verses 21 through 26. Matthew 5, verses 21 through 26.

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Okay, it says here, You have heard that it was said to those of old.

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Now, sorry, let me just preface it. This is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. This is basically

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His first public teaching. His famous Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7, is the Sermon on the Mount.

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And He is giving instruction about a lot of the perversions that the

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Pharisees had overlaid. They overlaid the law of God and replaced it with their traditions and have misled

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Israel, the nation of Israel, regarding these matters. And so, Jesus is clarifying the intent of the

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Old Testament and expounding it further. So, that's when

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He says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

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But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says,

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You fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. So, if you are offering your gift there before the altar,

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No, I'm sorry. So, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.

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First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

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Come to terms quickly, quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court.

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Lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you'll be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

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So, here Christ is teaching us, Resolve the conflict quickly.

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This is extremely important because so many churches get this wrong. So many people teach this incorrectly, and they say church discipline takes a long time.

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No, it shouldn't. It should not take a long time to address sin in somebody's life.

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This should be addressed quickly. So much so that Jesus even says, If you are in a worship service, and you are bringing an offering, and you remember that you have an issue with your brother, immediately leave and go be reconciled with him.

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That is how important this is. We must deal with this situation promptly.

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Do not wait several days, several weeks, several months, or even years.

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That is unbiblical, and that is sinful. We must deal with the sin quickly. Now, as I mentioned earlier, there is wisdom in allowing the sinner some time to reflect and repent on his own.

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But that doesn't mean to take several days, or several weeks, or months. It just means take a day or so to reflect on what happened, so that you yourself can prepare yourself.

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Prepare yourself first. Is it sin? Did he actually sin against me? Was it actually sin?

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And am I ready to judge the sin in that brother? Have I judged the sin in my own life first?

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You can take the time to do those things, and give the opportunity for the sinner to also reflect and repent.

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Give him a day or so. Let him repent. Give him time to repent, and come to you.

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Because if he does that, then the problem is solved. Then you don't have to walk out Matthew 18 against him, because he already walked it out.

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He already judged the sin in his life, and is seeking reconciliation with you. So, that's important to keep in mind.

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But, any longer than that is unbiblical, and you need to move on this quickly.

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Because Jesus is saying, again, the effects of sin are very destructive.

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The little leaven leavens the whole lump. So, we must take care to address the sin quickly, before it spreads, or becomes worse in that person, or it spreads to other people, who become victims of this person's sin.

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Okay? So, this is extremely important, to get this right.

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We must deal with this promptly, like Christ said. Deal with him quickly.

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Come to terms quickly. And, of course, as believers, we should be willing, we should be willing to forgive, and willing to repent.

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If you're not willing to repent, there's something seriously wrong with you. Right? There's something seriously wrong.

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And that is to be confronted. That needs to be dealt with promptly. Okay? Alright.

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Now, we've already touched on this. There are certain situations in which Matthew 18 does not apply.

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Matthew 18 does not always apply. This is, again, another way in which churches twist the intent of Christ's teaching of church discipline.

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Matthew 18 does not always apply. If multiple witnesses see somebody sinning against you, that is no longer a

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Matthew 18 situation. You are all called to confront that person, whether together or individually.

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So, now, other situations. There is another very important matter.

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If somebody accuses you of sin, or if somebody sins against you, and you confront them, and then they say, well, but you sinned against me.

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Now, in that situation, if you are not able to work out the dispute, that calls for a different process.

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That's no longer Matthew 18. Matthew 18 is only when somebody has sinned against you. It's a one -sided sin.

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If there is an accusation of sin coming from both sides, that's a different matter. That must be dealt with in a different situation, a different response.

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That takes us now to 1 Corinthians 6. So, let's go to 1 Corinthians 6.

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1 Corinthians 6. Another critical...

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1 Corinthians is a very key passage in church discipline. Paul is addressing a lot of the issues of church discipline in the church, in the

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Corinthian church. The church was very caught up in scandalous sin and was not confronting the sin in certain people, and Paul is rebuking them severely, rebuking them and telling them to examine themselves.

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So, and he removed that sinful person that we talked about in 1

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Corinthians 5, which we'll also touch on a little bit later. So, in 1 Corinthians 6, let's read that from the beginning.

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When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

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Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

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Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life?

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So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame.

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Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers?

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But brother goes to law against brother, and not before unbelievers. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.

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Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers.

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Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.

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Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

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And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the

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Spirit of our God. Amen. Okay. So, another key passage here dealing with another matter.

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Now, when, when, again, you have to be careful, we have to be careful not to pervert the meaning of this passage.

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Paul is not saying to simply take the abuse and leave it alone.

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Paul is saying, when he says here, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

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What he is saying is, as believers, we should not take legal action against a fellow believer.

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That is forbidden. You should not sue a fellow brother. That is forbidden.

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That is sinful. And it is beyond sinful because it demonstrates the level of ignorance or of unbelief that you have in yourself because you don't even seem to be aware of the fact that we as believers are going to judge the world with Christ.

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We are going to judge unbelieving sinners and wicked reprobate angels with Christ.

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That is the power that we have been given in Christ. That is the authority that we have been given in Christ. And as such, as judges of the world and of angels, are you not competent to try trivial matters in the church?

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Trivial disputes. This is the level of rebuke that Paul is dealing with in the church.

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We are responsible and we should be mature enough to deal with disputes that arise within the church.

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And so, if there is a dispute, again, if there is a dispute between two parties and the accusations are coming from both sides, the direction from the

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Paul, from the scriptures that we have is to seek a biblical, mature mediator to help resolve the dispute.

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Get somebody in the church who is wise enough, a neutral third party who is wise enough in the church to help you resolve the conflict.

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Work it out. Work it out internally. Okay? What Paul is saying, again, this is where people twist this passage and say, well, you should just turn the other cheek.

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Turning the other cheek does not apply to believers. That only applies to unbelievers.

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If somebody wrongfully sins against you, that's an unbeliever, that is when you are called to turn the other cheek and to pray for them.

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When those people who persecute you and revile you and use you wrongfully, that is when we are called to turn the other cheek and to rejoice because we are bearing the marks of Christ.

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But when it is a believer, you are called to not respond legally.

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If a believer sues you, you are called to not sue them back. You are called to take the abuse, the legal action, to take it, but resolve it in the church.

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Confront that person with a mediator in the church so the matter can be addressed in the church and therefore restoration can be made properly.

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So if somebody sues you wrongfully, that's a believer. They sue you for a bunch of money and then the matter gets settled in the court.

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But therefore, after that, you are called to confront that person in the church with a biblical mediator and resolve it.

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Resolve with the matter there. And if the sinner does not want to accept the terms of reconciliation, then escalation must happen.

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Church discipline must be happening. He may have to be excommunicated. But we must deal with the matter maturely within the church.

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There should be somebody in the church who is wise, who is mature enough to deal with this situation.

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Someone who is spiritual. That's what Galatians 6 talks about. Somebody who has dealt with the sin in their own life and is not guilty of hypocrisy and is mature enough to handle the dispute.

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So, somebody who is seasoned in the faith. Okay, very important.

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So now that's yet another situation that we must account for. Now, there are other sins that require more immediate action and therefore do not fall under Matthew 18.

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Certain sins such as sexual immorality or adultery fall under this category.

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Now, we have indication of this because if you recall, sexual immorality and adultery in particular was punishable by death in the

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Old Testament. That indicates to you the seriousness of the sin. Adultery is a serious matter.

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Thou shalt not commit adultery. The 7th commandment. That is a moral law. That is a very serious and scandalous sin that should have no place in the church.

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So, for that situation, let's turn to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5.

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Okay, I hope we're doing alright. I have a little bit left to go.

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So, I'm going to try to finish up because next week

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Tim will be preaching. Okay, 1 Corinthians 5. Starting in the beginning.

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It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.

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For a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?

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Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Okay, don't go to Matthew 18.

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Remove him immediately. Okay. For though absent in body,

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I am present in spirit. And as of 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

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Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

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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. 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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I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

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But now I am writing to you not to associate with anybody who bears the name of brother, a professing believer, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

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Have no fellowship with them. For what have I to do with judging outsiders?

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Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.

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Purge the evil person from among you. Okay. This is a key passage as well.

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Okay. Now, listen carefully to what he says here in verse 11.

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I am writing to you not to associate with anybody who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler.

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In those situations, that person must immediately be excommunicated and have no fellowship with him until he repents.

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Okay. He must repent. So, now real quickly. So, an idolater, if you worship an idol, a false god, if something in your life takes priority over God, that is idolatry.

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Okay. Now, reviler. Reviler is somebody who speaks evil of others.

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Somebody who reviles you is somebody who speaks evil of you, speaks lies about you and evil of you.

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That is a reviler. Drunkard, that's a drunkard, obviously. Swindler, that's somebody who defrauds people, who cheats people wrongly, who uses unjust scales, right?

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Somebody who uses unjust scales, unjust business practices or cheats people out of their, what's rightfully theirs.

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That is a swindler. Now, in those situations, those sins are particularly scandalous sins that require immediate excommunication and judgment.

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And until they repent, they are not allowed inside, back in the church. So, sexual immorality.

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This is another one. Sexual immorality in this situation includes, we would say includes adultery because the sin that he is rebuking the person in verse 1 is adultery.

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A man who has his father's wife is guilty of adultery. It is a particularly bad form of adultery because that is a very, that is a perverse sin, but it is adultery nonetheless because they are married.

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And so, and just to distinguish here, fornication is premarital sex, premarital sexual relations.

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Adultery is when one party or more is married. Okay, that's adultery.

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Now, there is a distinction. There is a distinction that we have to maintain. Okay. So, in matters of adultery, this process, a similar process to this would apply because the scriptures do not explicitly address adultery, but they do in a general sense, such as this passage in 1

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Corinthians 5. Step one, if there is a situation like adultery in the church or if you are the victim of adultery in the church, step one is to report it to the elders immediately.

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We must report it because this is going to become a public thing because again, this is a scandalous sin that sexual immorality is something that must not even be named among us in the church.

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So, it must be reported to the elders so that it can be made public. Step two will be to directly confront the individual committing the adultery.

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Confront the individual to repent and to submit to marital counseling with the spouse so that they bear fruit in keeping with repentance because there must be repentance demonstrated.

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It must be demonstrated and there must be accountability so that true repentance has taken place and true repentance can be made because that person has broken the trust of the spouse.

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Right? So, the trust must be restored through proper measures, marital counseling and repentance.

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And if they refuse, if the person refuses, immediate excommunication and public announcement of that.

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That's very important and not to associate with him at all. But that doesn't mean we kick out the victim.

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The victim spouse, the spouse of the victim, they still need support and they are still welcome in the church.

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Now, one of the problems with adultery is that many churches,

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I believe, have a wrong view of addressing adultery by counseling couples to divorce.

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And this is where you see a lot of problems taking place in the church because probably the most popular view in churches today, even conservative churches, is to allow divorce in cases of adultery.

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But I believe this is a misinterpretation of what Jesus was teaching. And we need to be careful not to, again, we need to have the whole counsel of God in mind and not twist around passages out of context.

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So, the reality of the situation is, and this will require a more thorough message later on, the subject of marriage and divorce, but I do want to touch on this because it is relevant and because it is common.

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It does happen. So, adultery. I'm going to read from the

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Westminster Confession, Chapter 24, because this does a nice job of summarizing the popular view of divorce.

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It says, Section 5, Chapter 24, adultery or fornication committed after a contract being detected before marriage, in other words, a betrothal.

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This is talking about a betrothal. Giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract.

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In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce and after divorce to marry another as if the offending party were dead.

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This is the common view of divorce. If adultery, if somebody commits adultery in a marriage, then you are allowed to divorce them.

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But this, I believe, is wrong. I believe this is unbiblical because the

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Bible is pretty clear that divorce is really not an option. Divorce is really not an option.

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There are very limited situations in which divorce is actually allowed and adultery is not one of them.

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Why is that? And I'll deal with this briefly. I don't have time to deal with it fully, but one of the ways in which you know that divorce was not allowed and is not allowed is because in the

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Old Testament, how was it dealt with? In the Old Testament, adultery was punished by death.

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You can't divorce somebody who's dead. Right? So that's why it's so important to keep this in mind.

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Adultery was punishable by death. Therefore, divorce was not allowed. It didn't apply. Divorce only applied in certain situations of betrothals.

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And that's what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 19. So, this is important to keep in mind.

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We must... God hates divorce. Right? Malachi... God says very clearly in Malachi, I hate divorce.

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Therefore, we are called to not divorce because if you do divorce, you have a lot more limited possibilities that you can do.

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So you have to be very careful. Now, in dealing with adultery, divorce is not an option.

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And this is why we have to be careful. That is not the proper response to that sin. It is not divorce.

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You are called as a believer to work it out. According to passages like 1

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Corinthians 7 and 13. 1 Corinthians 13. Now, that does not mean, however, that you can't separate.

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Separation might be necessary. That may be proper and necessary if in order to avoid exposure from other men or women getting involved with the family, especially the children.

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Separation might be necessary. So that is important. That does not mean divorce.

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Separation is not divorce. Keep that in mind. We are called to work things out. Try to work things out.

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That must always be the case. Including abuse.

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Even if there is physical abuse. Separation is important. But not necessarily divorce.

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Not divorce. Okay. Now, Lord willing, we will deal with that matter in more depth later on.

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But, now let's turn to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. I'll start from the beginning in Ephesians 5.

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Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

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But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

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Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place.

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But instead let there be thanksgiving, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

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Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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Therefore, do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

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Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the

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Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

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But when anything is exposed by light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

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Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. This is again illustrating the same principles that we've been talking about.

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It must not even be named among us, these sins. These wicked, insidious, particularly scandalous sins must not even be named among us.

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They must be repented of immediately and confronted immediately. Okay.

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Now, there are other sins that imply a sense of finality.

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These are even stronger. These are even stronger types of sins that incur a more severe punishment or response from the church.

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One of those, the most important one, the most serious one, is false teaching, teaching a false gospel.

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Okay. For that, let's go to Galatians 1. In Galatians 1,

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Paul deals with that matter. Galatians 1, verses 6 -9.

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Here, Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

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But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one who we preached to you, let him be accursed, anathema.

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As we said before, now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be anathema, accursed.

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Now, that word, anathema, is an extremely strong word.

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What it literally means is, let him be condemned to hell. Let him be excluded from salvation.

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Okay? There is a sense of finality that is strongly given there.

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If you preach a false gospel, you are anathema.

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You are not welcome at all. And so, the response is that serious.

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You are reckoned as finally condemned by God if you preach a false gospel.

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And Paul is so serious about this that he says it twice. He says it twice, emphatically.

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And he says even an angel, if even an angel comes to you preaching a false gospel, he is accursed.

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He is anathema. Right? That is how serious false teaching is. And we are called to reckon that person as condemned.

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No hope. You have no hope. You are condemned. Okay? Very important.

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So, that is how we should reckon people now. Even people like Joel Osteen, like Benny Hins, people who are teaching the false doctrine, that is how we should reckon those people as finally condemned in the church.

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Now, Titus, there is another important passage from Titus. Titus 3.

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Titus 10 -11. This is dealing with a divisive brother.

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He who is divisive or schismatic, there is also a different process to follow than Matthew 18.

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Titus 3 -10. As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned.

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Okay? So, this is important. Because if a person is stirring up division, if a person is teaching things contrary and leading people away from the established teaching of the church and contradicting it, then that person is being divisive and he must be warned twice, no more than twice.

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This is not Matthew 18. Okay? That person must be warned twice and if after that he has not repented, have nothing more to do with him.

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He is warped, he is self -condemned. There is another sense of finality. There is a sense of finality there.

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Okay? Because in those situations, it's very rare that the person ends up repenting. So, we have to be aware of this.

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Have nothing more to do with him. He is anathema, he is excluded. He is excluded from the fellowship and you have nothing to do with him.

01:00:38

But you must confront that person. Okay? That person must still be confronted. This is situations that we ended up in recently with the other church because if you do not confront them, you are in sin.

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You must confront them first. Okay? You must warn them twice, in fact. Because the next step is you exclude them.

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They are anathema. They are regarded as excommunicated and only if they repent are they allowed back.

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But again, the reason the Bible is so clear about this is because in these situations, it tends to be much rarer for a person to repent from false teaching and from being divisive.

01:01:23

Okay? So, now, a final passage here that's dealing with similar matters.

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Romans 16, 17. Romans 16, verses 17 through 18. That's the last chapter of Romans verses 17 through 18.

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Paul says this, I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

01:02:00

Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

01:02:11

Once again, people who teach contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught, mark them and avoid them.

01:02:22

Mark them and avoid them. These are wicked people who serve their own appetites and they flatter and smooth talk to deceive the naive, to deceive the gullible.

01:02:33

Okay? So, if there's smooth talkers and flatterers, if you have somebody like that and they start teaching stuff contrary to the truth, that person is to be marked, excommunicated and avoided.

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Have nothing to do with them. Okay? They must repent. Okay. So, that's basically a high -level overview of church discipline that we've covered.

01:03:06

We see very clearly now, I hope, we see very clearly why we are called to take these measures in dealing with sin in the church because a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

01:03:19

Sin is very sinful and it will wreak havoc in a church. And that is, a lot of us have witnessed this in person.

01:03:28

We have personally witnessed this, how sin wreaks havoc in churches. It is very destructive.

01:03:33

It ruins people's lives. It ruins victims' lives and it destroys churches.

01:03:40

And it is so bad, it is so bad that there's a famous quote by, who was it?

01:03:48

Somebody famously said that when church discipline leaves a church, Christ leaves with it.

01:03:56

Okay? Christ will not be present in a church that does not exercise church discipline. That is exactly why he said when two or three are gathered in my name, there am

01:04:06

I in the midst of them. Because when you confront church discipline properly, Christ is present attesting to it.

01:04:12

When you don't confront church discipline properly, Christ is not present. And you are a false or dysfunctional church.

01:04:19

So this is extremely serious. And we must walk this out biblically according to what the scripture teaches.

01:04:29

So, failure to practice biblical church discipline tends to lead to neglect, abuse, or both.

01:04:40

It tends to lead to many problems such as the hardening, deceitfulness, conscience smothering, sinfulness of sin will tear individuals and churches apart and make shipwreck of people's faith.

01:04:58

It will shipwreck people's faith, especially the younger converts who are more vulnerable.

01:05:05

That will shipwreck people's faith. You will cause people to stumble and you will incur judgment on yourself if you do not practice church discipline biblically.

01:05:13

As individuals and as a church, we have to make sure that we do not victimize the sinner and blame the victim.

01:05:26

That is where perverse churches, false churches who do not practice church discipline biblically, that is what they tend to do.

01:05:33

They blame the victim and they victimize the sinner. And the conflict is not properly addressed with true repentance and true forgiveness.

01:05:41

So, there is another very common form of abuse. A very common form of abusive church discipline and this is very important that I want to end on.

01:05:54

You see this very often. Again, this hits very close to home.

01:06:00

Let's turn to 3 John 9 -10.

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In 3 John. That's towards the end of your Bible. 3 John.

01:06:12

We are going to read about diatrophies. Now, this is extremely important.

01:06:22

We need to be able to discern when church discipline is being abused or neglected or when there is abusive behavior from individuals, especially leaders in the church.

01:06:36

So, it says this. Verse 9. I have written something to the church, but diatrophies, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.

01:06:48

So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us.

01:06:53

He is reviling the apostles. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

01:07:06

This is somebody who is abusive. Okay? Somebody who is abusive tends to look like diatrophies.

01:07:16

They tend to put people out of the church wrongly, improperly, and they tend to put themselves first.

01:07:24

They tend to make themselves preeminent and put themselves first and make themselves the authority.

01:07:31

And that is not biblical. That is why we must be elder -led. A church must be elder -led and the elders must hold all of the other elders accountable.

01:07:43

And if somebody starts taking preeminence among them and putting themselves first and wrongly putting people out of the church and abusing them, that is extremely sinful and you are going to incur

01:07:56

God's judgment. Again, because those who teach, James 3 warns us, not many of you should become teachers because those of you who do will incur a stricter judgment.

01:08:06

You cannot take God's platform lightly. This is very serious. So these are the symptoms of somebody who has a diatrophies complex.

01:08:15

Okay? They're abusive. Many people, there are many prominent people who are diatrophies.

01:08:24

Okay? One such example is Mark Driscoll. He was a very popular preacher who was basically, basically his sin caught up to him and he was taken out.

01:08:36

He was removed. He was publicly exposed and he tended to put people out of the church. He was very abusive.

01:08:42

He would say things like, you better get out of my way because if not you're going to get run over by the

01:08:47

Mars Hill bus. Mars Hill was the name of his church and he was very abusive. People who are like this tend to be control freaks.

01:08:56

Okay? They tend to want to control everything and cults are like this as well. Cults tend to be very much control freaks.

01:09:04

They tend to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit in believers lives. They tend to overly control people's lives and tell you what to do excessively.

01:09:11

That is the mark of an abusive man and you are not, we are required to either confront that sin, remove that person, or leave the church if the church does not take appropriate matters to deal with it.

01:09:28

Okay? Another symptom of that is satellite churches. A lot of times, you see, this is what

01:09:35

Mark Driscoll did. He would plant satellite churches, satellite campuses or churches in other parts of the city or in other parts of the country and they would project him preaching on the other churches.

01:09:47

That is completely unbiblical. That's a sign of a control freak. You should not be doing that.

01:09:53

You should be appointing elders in every church that is present. That is what Paul instructs Timothy and Titus to do.

01:10:00

We must appoint elders in every church and that church must be governed by the elders and the preaching must be done by the elders there.

01:10:08

Not by a control freak who wants to regulate and control everything and project his teaching on all the other churches.

01:10:15

That is unbiblical. So, be careful with churches that do that. Satellite campuses and things like that.

01:10:21

Those are signs of control freaks, of diatrophies. Okay. Now, again,

01:10:28

Jesus warns against this explicitly. People who do this are showing attributes of unbelievers, of wicked unbelievers and reprobate men.

01:10:40

Matthew 20, verses 25 to 28, Jesus called them to Him and said,

01:10:48

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them.

01:10:56

It shall not be so among you but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

01:11:11

Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

01:11:18

Right? So, Christ is saying the principle here of servant leadership. The leaders of the church are called to serve the rest.

01:11:26

We are called to lay our life down for the sheep. Right? To serve them. Not to exercise dominion over them unbiblically.

01:11:35

Not to lord it over them. That's the phrase. That's the idiom. We should not lord it over people, over anybody.

01:11:43

That is what we are called to do. It must not be so among you.

01:11:50

That is a gross, serious sin that leads to many problems in churches. It will make...

01:11:58

This really can destroy churches. It will destroy entire networks of churches. It led to the downfall of Driscoll's pretty much almost his entire ministry.

01:12:09

So, it is very serious. We must beware of that. Okay. Now, I'm going to finish up by...

01:12:29

This is the booklet that I was talking about. I'll try to order some copies for you all to have too.

01:12:36

It's a very good little booklet on the nature of the church. The true church. In here, he says something very important that I wanted to repeat.

01:12:49

So, in dealing with matters of church discipline, this is what he says.

01:12:58

Section 6 of Authority for Church Discipline. We judge it necessary that a day monthly be appointed particularly for discipline and not to manage such affairs on the

01:13:08

Lord's Day. Sunday, in other words. Which should be spent in the public worship of God of a different nature.

01:13:16

Besides, such things on the account of discipline may come before the church that might not be expedient to be heard on the

01:13:24

Lord's Day. Lest it disturb the spirits of any members and hinder their meditation on the

01:13:29

Word that they have heard. In small congregations, perhaps a day in two or three months may be sufficient.

01:13:37

The power of the keys are to receive in and shut out of the congregation is committed unto the church. The political power of Christ as Dr.

01:13:44

Chauncey is in the church whereby it is exercised in the name of Christ having all lawful rule and government within itself, within the church.

01:13:51

So, this is a very wise thing to do. To dedicate days specifically for church discipline so that it doesn't distract from the worship of God on the

01:14:01

Lord's Day. So this is something that we're going to consider as we work things out in getting the church going of setting aside a specific day to address church discipline issues and make them for members only.

01:14:14

So, there is wisdom in dealing with these matters expediently and so that also gives the opportunity to not put things off.

01:14:23

Right? To make sure that we deal with these things appropriately.

01:14:28

So, in closing, the final verse I want to read once again. Hebrews 3 verses 12 -13

01:14:35

Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living

01:14:41

God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

01:14:49

Be active in dealing with your own sin. Study sin. Study sin.

01:14:56

Make sure you understand what sin is and what it is not. Study it carefully. Study the appropriate responses that we've talked about.

01:15:04

You must repent of your sin every day. And we must exhort one another every day to not sin and to confront folks biblically when they sin, when we witness somebody sinning.

01:15:19

Okay? So, with that, thank you all for your patience. Let's go ahead and close out in prayer.

01:15:30

Our precious, high and mighty Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the opportunity once again to gather today.

01:15:37

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to hear the word being preached.

01:15:43

We ask, Lord, that you would bless the word, that you would help us to assimilate its truths biblically, to digest them, to chew on them, and to eat the words of life that you've given us,

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Father God, to meditate on them and to apply them biblically to our lives. Help us, Lord, to be active in our roles, to take an active role, to not be passive, to repent of any passivity in our lives in dealing with sin, both in ourselves and in our fellow believers,

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Father God. Help us to be active in these matters and to be responsible, to be spiritual. Help us all,

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Father God, to be spiritual, to be mature in the faith and to grow in a knowledge and grace of Christ Jesus so that we can be a healthy church that properly walks out discipline and that glorifies and honors your name.

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In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

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Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical,

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Reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the

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Christian faith. If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcasts, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com