The Purity Of Christ's Church - [Matthew 18:15ff]

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Well, even though it's snowing, or it was snowing, it was good to be together all as one this morning, one service.
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I think we sing better when we're all together, don't you? Or maybe it's just when Gary's here visiting, I'm not sure that's how we sing better.
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We live in a land where consumer is king, or queen, or royal highness.
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Did you know membership in clubs and fraternal organizations are eroding in those clubs that require the members to do anything?
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If you just join and you're not required to do anything, that's one thing. But once you begin to ask for things, membership goes down.
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You can ask credit card companies regarding membership fees and dues.
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The philosophy is simple these days. If you expect anything from the members, they're not going to show up.
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People like to coast, people like to relax, people like to be part of something they don't have to do anything about.
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But church membership, although it has its privileges, it also has its responsibilities.
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Church membership has expectations on her members. The Lord Jesus Christ, for His church, requires her to do things, including to be personally holy.
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Why don't you take your Bibles this morning, and let's turn to Matthew 18, and look at a passage that describes that very thing.
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Matthew 18. We'll begin, Lord willing, next week, our series through the book of Malachi. But today we're going to look at Matthew 18.
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God is holy, 1 Peter 1, and He expects His church to be holy.
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What would you do if you lived in a society where there was no rules, and it's just anarchy? What would you do if you had a family at home, and the parents didn't discipline the children?
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I saw that yesterday in the Charlotte airport, and I saw this little boy, and he just,
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I could tell, has never been disciplined in his life. Because I could see the bad fruit come out, and I just thought, if his arms were long enough, and strong enough, and biceps big enough, his mom wouldn't say anything back to him, because she would be, for the
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Mike Tyson knockout, just on the floor, down for the count. Al Mohler said, if we tolerate sin within our body, within our own congregations, then what right do we have to talk about sin that's in the world?
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And so what do churches do? We want to be consumer oriented, consumer friendly, we don't want to offend anyone.
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Yet, Mohler goes on to say, you know, the Bible doesn't give us a whole list of rights of privacy.
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As a matter of fact, the Bible is very intrusive.
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And the early church lived together, accountable to each other for the way they maintained their marriages, and the way they raised their children.
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Maybe as Don Richardson said, Christianity is meddlesome. It gets into your family life, your business life, your personal life.
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If I were to ask you this question, what makes a church? If you had to define for me, what's a church?
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What are the essential components? What must be part of a church? What would you say?
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Well, it's interesting, church history has said this, number one, to have a church, you must have faithful biblical proclamation.
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Why is that? Because when you do preach the Bible, we know, as Jesus said in John 5 and in Luke 24, that the
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Bible speaks of Him. A Christian church proclaims the scriptures, and as they do,
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Jesus Christ is talked about. He's the hero, He's the captain, He's the redeemer. Like what
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Steve said today, He lived perfectly, He died sacrificially, and He rose triumphantly.
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It's all about Jesus. Number one, you've got to have preaching. Number two, you have to administer the
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Lord's Supper and baptism. Call them the sacraments if you like, call them ordinances if you like.
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But there must be an obedient church who would do what Jesus would say. If He's the
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Lord of the church, if He's purchased the church with His own blood, Acts chapter 20, then
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He has the right to say, this is what you do in my church. And so He says,
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I want you to baptize followers, and I want you to partake of the Lord's Supper. But those are only two.
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There are three essential marks of the local church. I know some people have nine marks for ministry, there are three marks of a local church.
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And of course they would agree with that. The third one is church discipline. The exercise of church discipline.
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Proper proclamation of the word, which will exalt the Lord and Savior of the church.
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Lord's Supper and communion, and then church discipline. And that's what Matthew 18 talks about today.
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Lots of times when we go to Matthew 18, we immediately jump to verse 21 and following to talk about forgiveness, and we'll probably read that today.
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It is a great passage. It is a wonderful passage. But we're going to focus in this morning on verses 15 through 20 or so, as we discuss what
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Jesus says about His church and how He expects it to run. And that is, here is when someone sins against someone else or others, what do we do?
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Most of the time I would say that churches just ignore sin that's in the church.
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Instead of renouncing it, instead of confronting it, it's just ignored. If I were to ask you out of all the churches you've been to, how many times have you heard church discipline enacted?
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We don't want to do that for what kind of reasons, I wonder. After all,
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God's Word is pure, isn't it? The words of the Lord, Psalm 12, are pure words.
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Psalm 119, your word is very pure. Shepherds should be pure.
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Paul said to Timothy, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
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And Jesus requires that the church be pure. Let me give you some reasons before we do some exposition in the text.
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Why church discipline should be carried out. I alluded to it earlier. Number one, it's
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Jesus' church. This is just kind of a little intro setting up the passage. Why practice church discipline?
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Number one, it's Jesus' church. Overseers are to take care of the
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Lord's church which He purchased with His own blood. We've been bought with a price. We've been ransomed by God.
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Number two, to maintain the church's purity. Number three, to reclaim offenders.
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When you discipline a child, you're doing it for their own good and you want them back into fellowship with mom and dad.
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It's the same thing in a local church. Additionally, you want to deter others from sin.
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I'll tell you what, without ever talking about my family, because I wouldn't do that in this particular case, of course, right kids?
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But when one kid gets disciplined, somehow everybody else just starts acting properly.
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Man, they are already. When there is discipline done in a local church, it does deter others from sin.
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Additionally, when there's church discipline, it prevents Jesus from turning His face against that church.
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You can read the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verses 14 through 25, and that's exactly the case.
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If you're not going to discipline my church, then you're not my church. Who wants Jesus' face set in opposition to them?
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But I'm telling you, there are so many reasons why people, why maybe we wouldn't want to do church discipline.
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Why disrupt what's going on? Why rock the boat? We like peace.
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I know it's just a false peace. It's a peace of idolatry. But we don't want to enforce the rules.
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What if we enforce the rules and people might revolt? People might run away if I discipline my kid?
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Maybe they'll run. Same thing happens in local churches. Maybe we fall into tune with the modern world.
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You know, we can't judge. Judge not, lest we be judged. Some churches don't want to do church discipline because they're going to get sued.
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They don't want to get sued. Some think it's too old -fashioned. You know, scarlet letters, Salem witch trials,
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Spanish inquisitions. But the main reason we want to follow church discipline, it's because it's the most loving thing that a church could ever do.
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Did you know that? It's the most loving thing a church could ever do. Jesus' Apostle John said this in 2
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John. This is love. Ready for a definition of love? That we walk according to His commandments.
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To be quite blunt, a church that doesn't do church discipline is the most unloving church on the planet.
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It's not really a church. Even Jesus said, Those whom I love, I what?
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Reprove and discipline. Even the author of Hebrews says, For those whom the
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Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.
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Let's take a look at Matthew 18 today. And the outline is very simple. Let's take a look at the four -step process of church discipline.
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Four steps. Four steps that are easy to understand intellectually, academically.
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Super easy to understand. A child could understand these. But it will take men and women of courage and strength and resolve and doctrinal and personal fidelity to enact them.
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And so this is the pattern for church discipline. And these are Jesus' words as we find them in the gospel of Jesus, the
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King, the Old Testament Messiah who is on earth now. And He talks about the church for the first time in Matthew 18, verses 15 and following.
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Step number one. To love the Lord and love others as we think about sin in the local church.
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You must go to a sinning brother or sister so that you might win him or her.
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You must go to a sinning brother or sister in order that you might win him or her.
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Verse 15. And if your brother sins, go and put it on the prayer chain.
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Start gossiping about it. Talk about it with other people. If your brother sins, this is ongoing sin.
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This is sin that he's stuck in. This is grievous sin. You know, there are some sins that you can cover. It's a glory to cover certain sins.
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It's a glory to cover all sins. Here Jesus says if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private.
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Somebody's stuck in tar. I remember seeing the La Brea tar pits. Have you ever seen the
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La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles? And these big woolly mammoths would wander down there. Well, not when
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I was there in Los Angeles, but, you know, 50 million years ago. The good thing about the video, there's a bad thing about video, but there's good things about video as well.
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And they would get stuck in this tar, saber -toothed tigers. They would get stuck in there, and they could not extract themselves.
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And so, too, in Galatians 6, we might look at it later today, when someone's enslaved to sin, it's like they can't get out.
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They're wrapped up in sin, and they need someone else to come behind them and untie the ropes and come in front of them to talk with them.
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And Jesus said if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private. If he listens to you, oh, wonderfully, you have won your brother.
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It's between you and the other person alone. It's not behind his or her back. It's not to a group.
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And you go to the person and talk to them about the sin. Mr. Laney said, this is so convicting.
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It's easy to gossip. It takes courage and care to confront. Any coward can gossip.
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But it takes someone with courage to go to a sinner caught in sin to reprove.
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And if you notice the word there, reprove, it is the same word used of the Holy Spirit. When he comes, he will convict or reprove the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
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It means to convince. It means to confront. It means to expose, to bring to light.
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And the point is, what's the goal? The text says to win your brother. That word could be used of financial gain.
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You want to profit with business? That's the kind of word here. Except it has nothing to do with business. You want to win your brother.
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You want to gain your brother. You want to bring them along. Not to score points. Not to say,
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I'm going to get after you. I'm better than you. I would never do that. How low can you go? But it's always in the constant stream of even the work of Christ.
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It's redemptive. It's the redemptive work of trying to win a brother. It's the most loving thing you can do.
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Proverbs 27, Better is open rebuke than love that is what? Concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
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And you go to that person in private. That's what Jesus says. Have I seen this correctly?
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Do I understand the situation rightly? And you want to try to get them to agree with you and repent.
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I love Leviticus 19. You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart.
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You may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You're not going to confront somebody because you hate them.
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You love them and you love the Lord who's told you to go do it. You want reconciliation. You want restoration.
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And so you go. And they're sinning. That's what the word sin there means. To miss the mark.
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The word there means they've offended. They've not done what God has called them to do.
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By the way, this is one of the reasons why children are not allowed to be members of a local church.
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Because children aren't able to function as New Testament members of a local church. If a person's a member of a church, they should be able to do the most hardest work of all, and that is to go to a brother or sister and say, it's something that I could easily do.
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I'm probably not as godly even as you are, but you are stuck in sin and I'm here to try to help you.
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Peter, when he sinned, Paul opposed him to his face,
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Galatians chapter 2. And then wonderfully, at the end of Peter's writing ministry, 2
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Peter 3, he called Paul his beloved brother. Because look at the text.
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You have won your brother. True or false? He who wins souls is wise.
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True. Of course you have to say true. It's a Bible verse. That's the oldest pastoral trick in the book.
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And interesting, what's the context? Look at verse 10 of the same chapter. See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
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What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety -nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
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And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices, I've gained the brother over the ninety -nine that never went astray.
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So it is not the will of My Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
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The goal of church discipline is to win the brother. And if you've won them, everything stops. We're back to zero.
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We're back to fellowship. I mean zero in terms of the scale. We're back to complete restoration and fellowship.
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It's interesting. Our Constitution says, It is the duty of any member of this church who has knowledge of the erring individual's heresy or misconduct to warn and correct such erring individual in private, seeking his or her restoration and repentance.
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You go assuming the best. You go prayerful, asking God for wisdom. You go for the glory of God.
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And if they repent, everything stops.
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But if step one doesn't work, step two. Let's find out in verse 16. Again, I want to remind you that these are
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Jesus' words. And these are words to be heeded. If you love me, Jesus said you'll obey me.
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And so, therefore, the New Testament churches, like it or not, has to obey. Step two, you must get witnesses to confirm.
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You must get witnesses to confirm the lack of repentance. Verse 16 of Matthew 18.
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But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.
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Now, think about it. If you were a student of the Old Testament, and I know most of you are, this verse would probably come to your mind,
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Deuteronomy 19. A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed.
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On the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed. So you don't need two or three witnesses of the sin, because that means if you only sin in front of two people or one person, you might have some kind of clause out.
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But here is so the sin and lack of repentance can be confirmed.
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And Jesus draws on this Old Testament, Deuteronomy 19 .15.
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The witness, our witnesses, come along to make sure that that person has been rebuked properly, that they have been confronted biblically and with holiness.
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And if you notice, the circle of who's in the know is super small.
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This is not a widespread phenomenon. It's super small. There are just a couple people involved, two, maybe three people involved.
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That's it. Slander is always sinful. Gossip is always to be avoided.
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Pleading for repentance is mandatory. And the text is super clear.
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You just go to them with one or two more, so that they can see this confrontation.
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They can see this rebuking. They can see this love establishing the sin, establishing proper rebuke and leading to repentance.
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If they repent, you've won your brother. If they don't, step three. Step three, Matthew 18, found in verse 17, the first half.
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So first you go by yourself. Then you take one or two with you. And now Jesus says, remember this is
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Jesus' church. He does what he wants. It's not Mike Ebendroth's church.
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I cringe if I ever say out loud, my church, meaning somehow this is my church that I own.
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No, this is the Lord's church here in West Boylston. Step three is you must be prepared for the elders of the church to notify the church of the sin so that you can pray for and win your erring brother or sister.
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Verse 17, and if he refuses to listen to them, the one person, then with the one witness or two witnesses, tell it to the church.
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I'll never forget as long as I live the time when I was at Grace Community Church and John MacArthur read these verses and then he announced someone's name, first name and last name, and he said they were in unrepentant sin.
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Some people remember where they were when Kennedy got shot. Other people when the space shuttle blew up.
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Where were you when certain things happened? I'll never forget it as long as I live.
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But the text says what? Look at the text. I mean, like I've said before, a child can understand this, but it takes the spirit -empowered person to do it.
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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses, kick him out.
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If he refuses, tell the deacon board. If he refuses, tell the pope. If he refuses, tell the elders.
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If he refuses, tell the seminary. If he refuses, tell everybody on the radio. If he refuses, tell the synod, the bishop.
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What's the text say? It's a word for the local body of believers. It says tell it to the church.
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Ever ask yourself the question why? Why do you tell it to the church? Answer, if you knew something about there's a sheep, it's in the middle, it's in the road, it's stuck, and I told you about that, why would
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I tell you? So you could go help. In this particular case, so you could pray for the person, and so now you too can go to that person.
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It's the ministry of the church. You know for a reason. This isn't for gossip.
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This is, I now know. I didn't know there was a sheep in the ditch. I know there's a sheep in the ditch now.
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Let's go. Let's get the tractor. Let's get the shepherd's crook. Let's go. Some people are like, well, you know, maybe we'll just tell the local magistrate or judge or secular court.
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Maybe they could help us. But it's Jesus' church, and even
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Paul, he says, if anyone has a case against his neighbor, don't go to law before the unrighteous.
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Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?
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Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
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And so Paul reflects Jesus' words. Step one, not too hard to do.
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You go to the person. Step two, bring one or two. It's a little harder to do. Step three, as to quote my mother, usually throws people for a loop, that the church needs to pray for the fallen comrade.
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They need to beg them for repentance. It doesn't say post it on Facebook.
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It doesn't say tweet it out. It says tell it to the church. It doesn't say tell it to a prayer meeting only, a small select group of Bible study people, only the
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Wednesday night attendees, for they're the elect. We don't have Wednesday night service, do we? Are we elect?
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All hands on deck. Somebody has fallen overboard. Rescue. Our constitution says, if the board of elders determines after a thorough investigation, in accord with the procedures prescribed by pertinent scripture, including
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Matthew 18 and 1st Timothy 5, that there is corroborating evidence that the erring individual has sinned or is continuing to sin, that he has been appropriately confronted, and that he or she has refused to repent, then the elder shall inform the church and the congregation thereof at a regularly scheduled worship service, in order that the church may call the erring individual to repentance.
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Step 4, Matthew 18, verse 17 goes on. Four steps of church discipline in this particular case.
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One, go to the person. Two, bring one or two with you to confirm that this was done properly.
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Three, tell it to the church. All hands on deck. Four, you must treat the hardened sinner as an unbeliever.
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So there's time in between each of these steps. The scriptures don't tell us how much time.
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There's usually quite a bit of time between step number one and two. You let the
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Holy Spirit have time to work, and I don't know about you, but if you've ever been confronted, you might not instantaneously respond with repentance.
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The Spirit of God convicts and confronts and sleepless nights, and finally, then you repent.
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So step one and two, there's usually time in between. Step two and three, there's usually time in between.
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One person goes, two people go, three people go, a group goes. You send certified letters to the person, and if you don't repent by such and such a time, then your name will be announced.
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It's a longer time period. But pretty much by now, after step three, there's settled sin in the heart of a person to the degree that after step three, within a couple weeks, often step four is implemented.
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Treating the hardened sinner as an unbeliever. Verse 17 says, Jesus said, this is
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Jesus talking, if he refuses to listen even to the church, notice the church is involved, notice the church is praying, going, writing, emailing, texting to that person.
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If he refuses even to listen to the church, with a command in the
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Greek, let him be to you singular. What's determined by the church must be followed by you.
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You can't say, oh, the church is too hard, the elder boards are too tough. Let him be to you singular
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Christian as a Gentile and as a tax gatherer. Friends, even the farmer's almanac would know that one bad apple spoils the whole barrel, right?
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And I'll say it again because it's such a difficult thing in our society today. People say, well, it's unloving to do church discipline.
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It is the exact opposite. If you love Jesus, you'll do what he says. And if you love the person, you'll try to go rescue them.
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It's the most loving thing a church could do. But at the end of this time, what happens?
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Let them be to you as a Gentile or tax gatherer. Let them have no more community, no more communion with the church.
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They're in communion with the church until this step, and now they're out of communion with the church. They used to be in, and now they're out.
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And they had communion, and now they are excommunicated. They're kicked out of the church and treated like an unbeliever.
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And then every time you see them, you think of them as a person who needs the gospel. They need to have their sins forgiven.
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They need to be regenerate. Think about Gentiles.
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They just couldn't saunter on in to the temple. There was a certain spot they could go to, and they couldn't go any farther.
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And if they went any farther, what happened? There's a death penalty for them. Now, of course, this has nothing to do with the death penalty.
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It has to do with exclusion of community. They don't get the fellowship of the church anymore. They don't get the Lord's Supper at the church anymore.
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They don't get the privileges and activities and joy that the church gets together. Let him be to you as a tax collector,
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Gentile. And it's interesting he uses two things here,
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Gentile and tax gatherer. You know, if you're born a Gentile, you're a Gentile. There's nothing you can do about it.
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You're just born that way. I was born a Gentile. There's nothing I can do about it. But here, he even ups it a little bit.
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It's just egregious. It's a tax gatherer. This person had access to the temple, could go in.
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They were Jewish, and by their own rejection of God. They weren't outcast by birth.
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They were outcast by choice. We, the Jews, are now going to try to extract money from our own
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Jewish people. And so, they're to be ostracized from the fellowship of Israel.
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So, too, the principle is ostracized from the fellowship of the church. The sinning person is basically asked this question.
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Would you like to repent and stay with God's people? Or do you want to hold on to your sin and be with Satan's people?
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Do you want the communion and the fellowship of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and his people?
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Or do you, by choice, a personal, volitional choice, decide to be a person of the world, a pagan?
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2 Thessalonians, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloft, or aloof, rather, from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the tradition which you receive from us.
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And this is not the end of church discipline. The end is either they repent or they die. But this is the end of what the church should do publicly.
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Our own Constitution says, He or she shall be publicly dismissed from the fellowship and or membership of the church and congregation thereof at a regularly scheduled worship service.
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And he or she shall be publicly restored to all the rights, duties, privileges, and responsibilities of fellowship and membership, if or when they repent.
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That's what we're after, is restoration. Now, fascinatingly, look at verse 18. You probably see it in your
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Bible, one whole paragraph there, one whole thought process, you can call that a pericope.
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And so it doesn't end in verse 17. It goes on with some very important information. Matthew 18, verse 18,
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Truly I say to you... This is very trustworthy, it's coming from Jesus.
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It's absolutely true. Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosened in heaven.
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Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my
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Father who is in heaven. And now we think this is a verse for our prayer meetings on Thursday nights.
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Of course, the Lord is there on Thursday nights. But in the context of church discipline, do you want to have
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Emmanuel, God, with us? You want to know that you have Jesus Christ and His communion, His fellowship?
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For where two or three have gathered together in my name, in the context of church discipline, guess where Jesus is?
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I'm right there with you. I am in your midst. This is similar to doing evangelism.
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And you go evangelize and you think, it's so hard to do this on my own. I'm inadequate, I'm unable,
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I'm sinful, I'm fallible, I'm finite. To go evangelize, who am I?
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And then Jesus says in Matthew 28, doesn't He? And lo, I am what? With you always, even at the end of the age.
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When you go do those hard things that are for the glory of Christ and for His name, He is with you.
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And then when you have to do church discipline, step one, He's with you. Step two, He's with you.
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Step three, He's with you. I'm right there in the middle. Unlike Revelation chapter 2, you don't want to do church discipline?
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I'll set my face against you. Every society has rules and regulations.
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Certainly the church does. One reformer wrote, because some persons in their hatred of discipline recoil from its very name, let them understand this.
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If no society, indeed no house which has even a small family, can be kept in proper condition without discipline, it is much more necessary in the church whose conditions should be ordered as possible.
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Therefore, all who desire to remove discipline are to hinder its restoration. Whether they do this deliberately or out of ignorance are surely contributing to the ultimate dissolution of the church.
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You're either for church discipline or you're against church discipline. You're either for the purity of the church or you're against.
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I think over the years as Bethlehem Bible Church has enacted church discipline, probably every time we have to do it.
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People are sad, people are upset, and people are aggrieved because of the erring members, and probably at least one family leaves every time we do that.
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Jesus said step one, step two, step three, step four in his transchronological word.
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He's the one that purchased the church. He's the one who gave himself a ransom for many.
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A desire for a pure church should trump the fear of man. A desire for a pure church should trump the possibility of lawsuits.
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A desire for a pure church should trump pragmatism and preference. If you particularly don't like church discipline, your problem is with Jesus.
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If you don't like church discipline, your problem is with Jesus because you think it's your church and it's his.
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The absence of church discipline, therefore, is unloving on a multiple level, on multiple levels.
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Oh well, my body's got treatable cancer, but I'm worried about what chemotherapy might do to my hairline.
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Sin in the body of Christ is correctable. Sin in the body of Christ affects other people. So for the love of them, for the love of God, and for the love of the church, we reclaim offenders.
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Oh, that's just a witch hunt. It's not a witch hunt. Oh, the house is on fire.
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Better not tell anybody. It's fire. The house is on fire. Turn your
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Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 5, please. 1 Timothy chapter 5. When I think about purity, when I think about discipline, when
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I think about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Son, the Holy Father, I think to myself, God is holy, 1
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Peter chapter 1, and therefore I'm to be holy. In the middle of church discipline, there's an extra added benefit, and that is,
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I would like to make sure my accounts are close with the Lord. Yes, I fall short of the glory of God regularly and often, but boy, this makes me want to quickly confess and quickly be right with the
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Lord. Lord, thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you that you've guaranteed my full forgiveness.
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I want to walk with you. I want to do the right thing. 1 Timothy chapter 5, it says it makes people afraid to sin.
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Should people be afraid to sin? Well, the best way to answer that question is, if you could only see the holiness of God, I think of Isaiah 6.
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. All earth is full of His glory.
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His glory. 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 19.
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Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those elders who persist in sin, and of course the principle would be true because of Matthew 18, rebuke them in the presence of all.
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When an elder gets rebuked in front of everybody's presence, what happens to everyone else?
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If anyone gets rebuked in everyone's presence, what happens to everyone else? So that the rest may stand in fear.
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Fear. Does God ever use scare tactics? The answer is yes,
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He does. Fear. I'm afraid. I do not want that to happen to me. I think to myself, okay, would
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I like to keep doing this sin? Or would I like to have the elders at BBC read my name from the pulpit?
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And if that fear of man is enough to motivate me, how much more the fear of God? To think that God granted me redemption of sins because of His Son's work.
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Forgiveness. That Jesus was punished. The Father turned
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His face away from His Son at Calvary. From noon to three, it was dark.
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Why was it dark at Calvary? The Father was judging the Son, not as Father, but as judge. And Jesus paid for all my sins.
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Jesus paid it all, the song goes, what? All to Him I owe. Why do
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I want to run back to that? It is literally like a dog running back to its own vomit. My old life, my old sin.
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I've been free. I've been forgiven. I'm reconciled to God. I'm adopted into His family. And I'm just going to run back to what it was like before.
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May it never be. The Belgic Confession, 1561, listed three features for the church.
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Pure doctrine is preached. Administration of the sacraments is given. And the exercise of church discipline.
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Why did they do that? They knew. This is so clear in Scripture. It's interesting.
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Sometimes we have different manuscripts, and different manuscripts might give us nuances on passages that are a little different.
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This is clear, crystal clear, Matthew chapter 18. One last passage, please turn to Galatians chapter 6.
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Let me remind you of our attitude regarding talking to someone who's caught up in sin.
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Remember, regularly and often, let's say in a marriage, we cover our spouse's sins.
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If you think you have the spiritual gift of confrontation, and you confront your spouse, you know, five times a day, and obviously we're not talking about that.
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We're talking about sins that are factious sins, splitting the church. Sins that reflect poorly on Jesus Christ's love for His bride.
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Sins that cause all kinds of other trouble that are unrepentant.
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But we have to go to the other person with the right attitude, because we're awful sinners. We're horrible sinners as well.
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And so we're not Jesus. So we have to go with the right attitude. And you're going to see here in Galatians 6, verses 1 and following, forget everything you learned from Nathaniel Hawthorne and the
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Scarlet Letter. We're going to brand this person. We're going to mark them out. We're going to expose them to their shame.
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Here, Paul's a lot different than Nathaniel Hawthorne's book. Restoration is the key.
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The goal of church discipline, besides the glory of Christ Jesus and loving Him, loving others, it's to restore people.
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Why do you do it? Do you want them to be restored? Galatians 6, verse 1. Brethren, if any man's caught and snared in a trespass, he's caught up in it.
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It's like an animal. He is like an animal with its foot caught in a trap. It cannot get out.
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Caught up in a trespass. You who are spiritual. That just means people who are walking by the
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Spirit. Galatians chapter 5. Walk by the Spirit and you don't fulfill the deeds of the flesh. When you're walking by the
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Spirit and you have love and joy and peace and long -suffering and the rest, you're the kind of person that should go.
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Not the elders, not the leaders. Of course, they could go. But you. You who are spiritual. What's the context?
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Condemn such a one. Look down on them. Think you're so much better. No. Restore such a one.
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How? In a spirit of gentleness. Each one looking to yourself.
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That is, the spiritual ones better look to yourself. Why lest you too be tempted. Can you imagine you can be walking by the
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Spirit. Love, joy, peace. You're filled with the Spirit. Controlled by the Spirit of God. And not your own lusts and flesh.
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And then you go confront someone. But you do it without thinking. Without prayer. Without regard to what the
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Scripture says. And now it makes you fall into the same trap. Because you think now you're better than them.
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And you're doing it in such a way that they're under you. The spiritual ones better watch out. So they don't act the same way.
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I can't believe you do that. This verse would reject that kind of attitude.
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What's the church coming to? This verse would warn against such. When they're caught.
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The spiritual ones go to restore. By the way, the word restore there. It means to set a bone.
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So you're bones broken.
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I'm trying to think. What bone is this? What? Okay, thank you. Okay, your femur is broken.
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That would hurt. And you set the bone.
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You repair the bone. You mend the bone. And you know what? Never happened to me.
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But I guess it probably doesn't feel too good. But I bet you one month, two months, three months, four months down the line.
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It will have good effect. That's the word here. Dislocated limb. You've got to go help them.
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In the spirit of gentleness. Gently. Look into yourself.
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Verse 2. Bear one another's burdens. Are you your brother's keeper? Yes. You're your brother's keeper.
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Bear one another's burdens. Fulfill the law of Christ. They got the heavy load on their back from sin.
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It's like John Bunyan's Christian and Pilgrim's Progress just weighted down with sin.
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So too, this could be a believer weighted down with sin. And you go to help. Let me help you get that thing off your back.
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Verse 3. If anyone thinks he is something when he's nothing, he deceives himself.
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Oh, I'm really something. You're the one caught in sin. Ha, ha, ha. That's deceit. But let each one examine his own work.
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I'm just a sinner as well. Sinner saved by grace alone. Then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not to a brother.
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Not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own. So it's clear.
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Jesus is concerned about holiness. Personal holiness. And I think it would be good for me to ask you right now.
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Let's forget about other people who could someday be in sin. Let's ask ourselves the question.
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Are you living a holy life? What's going on behind the scenes?
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God sees everything you do. What's going on with your life behind the scenes?
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I could ask you this question. Because I already know the answer to some degree. And I don't want to do it in the spirit of un -gentleness.
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But how could we be a holy church telling other people caught in sin when numbers of men, and maybe women as far as I know, sit in front of a computer and look at pixel screens of pornography?
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This is the last day you men need to watch pornography. You ask God for forgiveness, and then you say,
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God, cleanse my mind. Maybe you don't struggle with pornography.
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Maybe it's a gossip. Maybe it's slander. This is the last day you're going to be slandering people and gossiping.
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Lord, it's a new year. Just forgive me. And I think of Jesus. Jesus never looked on a woman with lust.
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Not one. Never. He always had pure eyes. Jesus never slandered.
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Never complained. Always was thankful. Always thinking about the Father's glory.
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And so I looked at Jesus because I realized, yes, He's the example. But I also looked to Him to say, when
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I failed, I still have righteousness. His righteousness. Adam's in the garden, tempted and failed.
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Eve's in the garden, tempted and failed. Israel in the wilderness, tempted and failed. I fail.
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You fail. Isn't there someone who's going to be holy and be tempted and never fail?
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That is the answer of Jesus in the wilderness. It's not three steps to overcoming temptation by quoting
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Deuteronomy 6. It's Jesus never failed in temptation. There's the God -man.
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There's a fully real human, and He's tempted in every way. Tempted more than we ever could be because He never could release the tension and give in to the temptation.
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And yet, He did not sin. I need a representative. I need a substitute.
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I need somebody like Jesus so I can be forgiven and I can also say, God, by Your Spirit's power,
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I want to live a holy life. How can I talk about confronting sin and excommunication and all these other things when
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I'm sitting there looking at some TV screen in the basement? See how that doesn't make any sense? What would we do if we had to get ourselves forgiven?
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What would we do if we had to forgive our own sins? How many indulgences would we have to buy? But friends, it's already been done.
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You've been saved by works, the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're a sinner, Jesus is a greater
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Savior than you are a sinner. And you look to Him and be forgiven. Jesus came to seek and save those who are what?
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Lost. And so for the unbelievers here, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be forgiven of all your sins.
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And for the believers who have been forgiven, let's say this year and every day, no to some of these sins so we can respond and help and serve others.
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I mean, Paul could not get over it. He said, it's actually reported there's some immorality among you that doesn't even exist among the
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Gentiles. And then he talked about the purity of the Holy Passover Lamb, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He said, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're assembled,
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I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the
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Lord Jesus. Thankfully, he said, clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened for Christ.
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Our Passover also has been sacrificed. What would we do without our
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Savior? Let's pray. Father, I thank you for it's a difficult message.
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It's not a felt needs message. It's not a strokey message, but it's a message of truth.
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And you are serious about holiness. The spirit called
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Holy Spirit. Church is to be holy. And Father, we're thankful that the only way we could be holy is in your sight through Jesus Christ's life and death confirmed by the resurrection.
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That's the only way we could stand because of justification. We have peace with you and we can stand in your presence, as Jude said, and we can have access to you, like Paul said.
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We're thankful. Father, I pray that for 2015, that Bethlehem Bible Church's goal, it's not buildings, it's not money, it's not finances, it's not budget, it's not people, it's not programs, but Father, we want to be holy.
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And I would pray that you'd either convict those who are hiding their secret sins so they repent, or Father, I pray that you'd make them known so we can help them.
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And Father, we would ask that you just help us to be holy and help us to make sure we realize we're not better than anyone else.
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We're probably worse. But we serve you, the greatest one, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.