Assembly Discipline — Norman Crawford

New Testament Giving Versus Old Testament Tithing

If we look at our subject tonight, the first question is, some use Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 2 as a guide as to how much to lay aside from the paycheck. Is this a good guideline? You may look at Hebrews 7 and 2 if you like.

That's the scripture that speaks about Abraham, Israel that is paying tithes in Abraham because Abraham gave to Melchizedek the tenth, I'll just read the verse for you, to whom also, that is to Melchizedek, Abraham gave a tenth part of all, being first by interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace.

I think we mentioned this in the meeting the other night, I may not have, I thought I did. The tenth, the tithe of the Old Testament was a commandment for Israel. They held the land in trust from the Lord.

They were to give back to the Lord the tenth of all their increase and it was a commandment for Israel. It is not a commandment of the New Testament and it is never used as a guideline in the New Testament for giving.

The other night when we were looking at that passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, we pointed out that even people who were in poverty gave liberally, but they gave according to the grace of God that had been bestowed upon them.

And I would say that it is up to the individual as to how much they give, certainly some give more and some give less, but we need to be careful that we don't try to bring Old Testament law into New Testament behavior.

And it is not a New Testament teaching that you give a tenth to the Lord. There are believers who give much more than that, but certainly there is no commandment for how much. The second question is, is it scriptural to give assembly funds to help a brother in the spread of the gospel if he is not full-time in the Lord's work?

Supporting Elders Who Labor in Teaching

The thing we have to guard against, and guard against it like the very plague, is clericy. And I'm afraid that there are ways in which we do have some forms of clericy. Clericy, of course, is the priestly class, the clergy class in Christendom, and we do not have such a thing.

But to answer the question, why not let the scripture answer it, and that would be the simplest way to explain it. Read with me, please, in 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 17, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.

Obviously these elders are laboring, they are giving a great deal of their time and energies to the word of God and to teaching. The next verse has to do with material things, for the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward.

Very obviously there were men in those New Testament assemblies who, because they gave so much of their time to the business of teaching, so much of their time to the study of the word of God, that they were unable to earn as much as their living required.

And the assemblies were responsible to have fellowship with those men. These men were not, as we call, full time in the work of the Lord. So there is definitely a scriptural example to show that. So it is not a matter of whether a man is full time in the work of the Lord or not, it's a matter of whether he is doing the work of the Lord and needs help.

Because there are several men that we know who are full time in gospel work and need no financial support, for the simple reason that they have means, so they do not have any need of financial support, but they are full time in the work of the Lord.

So certainly it isn't a matter of whether a man is full time or what amount of time he is giving. The fact is that you have fellowship with the Lord and his work, and therefore fellowship with those who are in need, who are spending their time in the work of the Lord.

The Purpose of the Law and the Deposit of Gospel Truth

Now tonight we are reading, first of all, in 1 Timothy chapter 1, so if you had your Bible open at chapter 5 it would be quite easy. 1 Timothy chapter 1, and we are reading first of all, we should go back in the chapter to read at verse 5.

The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which some having swerved, that word swerved means to miss the mark by the way, that's very close to the word that is used in the familiar gospel verse Romans 3 and 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, for which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling, talking that is, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor of what they affirm.

But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers and so forth.

Verse 10 says, if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. Now verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience, and you'll notice the great similarity to what we just read in the earlier part of the chapter.

In other words, he's returning again to the subject he'd been dealing with in the earlier part of the chapter. Holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away trust from them concerning faith, have made shipwrecked, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

I'm going to do something that I always find a little awkward in speaking. My wife said to me, I think you do better without outlines, and that's very likely true, but then you have the outlines to look at and can look at them later on, so it's for your benefit that they have been made.

I'm going to tonight look at the verses and read them as we come to them and try to explain them after we read them, rather than reading a number of scriptures right now. If you look at your outline, you'll notice that, first of all, the subject is discipline for doctrinal evil, doctrinal error.

Assembly Discipline and the Reality of Human Failure

It would be nice if we never had to speak about assembly discipline. It would be lovely if it never existed. But don't be discouraged by the fact that it is necessary. I have found a great deal of encouragement in what I mentioned to you, I believe, the very first night of these meetings, that the first time the Lord Jesus ever described an assembly, there was sin in it, there was failure in it.

One man had sinned, he had trespassed against his brother, and the Lord could have introduced the first teaching about a local assembly in some different way. He could have introduced it as an entirely ideal thing, without failure, without sin, without a mar in it.

But he chose not to do that. And in his sovereignty, and in his eternal wisdom, he chose to speak about an assembly, first of all, in relation to failure. And if you don't get any encouragement out of that, I don't understand why you don't.

Because there never has been an assembly down through the centuries where there was not failure. There never has been anything that man put his hand upon that he did not mar by his own imprint. Anything that man is linked to has sin in it, failure in it.

And the encouraging thing to me is this, God has maintained testimony through the centuries, in spite of human failure, and he will maintain it to the end. And I was reading today in Matthew 28, the wondrous words of the Lord Jesus, Lo, I am with you always, or all the way, it truly is, even unto the end of the road, even unto the end of the age.

And so we're thankful for that, that his presence is guaranteed, but we can expect human failure and error. So 1 Timothy chapter 1 is a teaching about how to deal with false doctrine. Now it is, the word blasphemy is used about these two men, if you look at verse 20, that they may learn not to blaspheme is how the chapter closes.

And of course our idea of blasphemy is taking the name of the Lord in vain, swearing in other words, but that is not what it means here at all. And if you look at your outline, you'll notice that there are a number of places in the New Testament where the word blasphemy has nothing to do with swearing an oath.

It has to do in this case with speaking blasphemous words against the faith, against the truth of the gospel. And in these pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, the faith, the gospel is looked upon as a body of teaching regarding the Lord Jesus.

And it is called the charge, it is called the commandment, it is called the teaching, the doctrine, it is called the precious treasure, the precious deposit. It is the faith, the faith concerning Christ, who he is and what he is and what he became and where he is.

That's truth concerning his person. And that's the great context now. You remember the first night we told you that you must always interpret a scripture in its context. And the context of 1 Timothy chapter 1 is a precious deposit of truth that was given to Paul by the Lord.

And later on in the second epistle and in the close of the first epistle, that same precious deposit of truth is given to Timothy. And it is what we call gospel truth. Now some people think that gospel truth is telling a sinner how to get saved.

Well, that's a very small part of gospel truth. Because gospel truth is all that relates to the redemption of our souls. All that relates to the Savior and his work. Now these men were speaking blasphemous things against the faith.

And this will be a guide to brethren who have to deal with a case of false doctrine. These men not only erred a little, but the word actually is in verse 18, they shot wide of the truth. And that's the second epistle, by the way, that I'm now speaking about in chapter 2 and verse 18, where it actually tells us that they, and mentions Hymenaeus again by name, and says that they shot wide of the truth.

And we know there what the evil teaching was in 2 Timothy 2. It was a denial of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And a denial of the future resurrection of the bodies of believers. So it was a denial of a very vital truth.

Doctrinal Evil, Excommunication, and the Possibility of Recovery

Now brethren, that will help you. In other words, you don't deal with a man as these men were dealt with, for they were put out of the assembly. They were delivered onto Satan. And therefore, we have to use 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 to understand what that means.

These men were put away for false teaching. But it wasn't some wrong interpretation of a verse. It was actually blasphemous things against the Lord Jesus. Hard to believe that such men were really saved, isn't it?

And yet there is an intimation here that these men may have been truly saved. Because you'll notice the language of verse 20. It says that they might be taught that they may learn not to blaspheme. So definitely, even in the dealing with these men, there is the idea that there could be recovery.

And I would say that I have never been able to find discipline in the New Testament that doesn't involve the principle of recovery. I have never found it. I believe in every case of discipline, it is discipline.

Now that sounds like I said something redundant, doesn't it? That every case of discipline is discipline. But just stop for a moment and think of the meaning of the word discipline. Discipline means to teach.

Discipline actually means to learn lessons. That's the real meaning of the word discipline. And there are some who are corrected by word, and there are some who are corrected by the rod of God upon them.

And there are some who are corrected by assembly discipline. But we want to be sure that before we do that, we have scripture to clearly guide us. So Galatians 5 and 9 speaks of false doctrine. And it uses the exact language of 1 Corinthians 5.

It says, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. So doctrinal evil will bring leaven into the assembly, yeast, that produces a bloat and adds no value and causes great problems. So this was actually discipline for evil teaching regarding the Lord Jesus.

And I maybe haven't been specific enough, I'm sure the brethren who have responsibility understand this well enough, but I think all of us should understand it, that if someone denied the cleansing value of the blood, if they denied the efficacy of the death of Christ, if they denied his deity as the Son of God, if they denied that he became a true man, and brethren, as far as I'm concerned now, if they denied that the Lord Jesus had any sin in him of any kind, if they said he did, if they said that he had any sin in him of any kind, that would be blasphemy.

That would be false teaching that would need to be dealt with in the same way that these men were dealt with. Now, the next subject is in Matthew 18, and we're just going to turn to it quickly and read a couple of the familiar verses there.

Matthew 18 and the Assembly’s Authority to Bind and Loose

And you'll see very quickly why I want you to be looking at the passage when we are examining the meaning of these verses. Matthew 18 and verse 17. And if he shall neglect to hear the church, if he shall refuse, that is, to hear them, if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it on to the church, but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be on to thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now, let me read that 18th verse to you again. And you look at your Bible, and I'll read it to you in a very literal sense.

Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, having been bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, having been loosed in heaven. Now, it means just this. This assembly is not taking some kind of government into its own hands.

It is only carrying out heaven's decree. The decree is made from heaven, and earth carries it out. That's the way it is. It's not the other way around, that heaven agrees with an action on earth, but rather that heaven decrees and the assembly on earth carries it out.

Now, very obviously, this man didn't need to be put away from the assembly, because the thing could have been settled very easily at the beginning when the brother that he had offended, the brother that he had trespassed against, came to him.

He could very easily have settled the matter right then and there by saying, I was wrong and I'm sorry. But he didn't do it. And two or three more were taken. And don't be trying to put into this things that aren't there, because these two or three had the confidence of the man that was in the problem, and not only did they have his confidence, but they had the confidence of the whole church.

And we call those kind of men elders. And elders had not yet been taught by the Lord Jesus or by his apostles. So there's no mention of the word elders here. Had he spoken about elders, it would have been interpreted as being elders of a synagogue, because that's the only kind of elders they knew about.

So there's no mention of elders, but clearly these were men who had the confidence of the saints. And so they went to the man who had sinned, and he still refused to acknowledge his sin. He refused to hear them.

And then the matter was taken to the assembly. And now you have a man who is extremely rebellious, for surely he must realize that this is a matter that the whole assembly has now taken up in responsibility.

But he refuses to hear the church, which I take to be a very, very strange thing. And that man was then excommunicated from the company. But oh, you see, many don't think that's excommunication. No, they don't.

I'll tell you what they think. They think that this man that had been sinned against, that he was to carry out the discipline against the offender himself, but the rest of the church was not to carry it out.

You know, I have heard of a lot of ridiculous things in my life, but nothing quite that ridiculous in a context like this. It would literally mean, if you can picture now the whole situation, here's the man who has been offended against.

He's been trespassed against, the real word is, he's been sinned against. And he is to treat this man like a heathen man and a publican. But everybody else in the assembly is to treat him like a brother and in fellowship.

Let me ask you something, who is out of fellowship? If that's what it means, the man who was trespassed against is out of fellowship, and everybody else is in fellowship with the offender. You know, brethren, that's just a little bit of ridiculous teaching.

That can't be. I couldn't accept that for a moment. You know where that teaching comes from? Well, it comes from exclusive brethren who didn't really believe in this kind of discipline at all. But they used a word which they thought was absolutely compelling.

They used the idea, let him be unto thee, which is singular, as in heathen man and a publican. And they said that means unto the man that was offended, who was sinned against, who was trespassed against, let him be unto thee, but not to the rest.

But it won't hold water, because verse 18 says very clearly, Verily I say unto you, plural, whatsoever ye, plural, shall bind, plural. So you see, the assembly took the action. And this man was excommunicated as a rebel from the assembly.

Now there are some who say, well, you could get rid of a person that way, that you didn't want. Well, a godly assembly wouldn't do that. And godly elders wouldn't function like that. And the fact of the matter is that this man's business was taken in order, first of all personally, then two or three, and then to the entire assembly, and then it was necessary to act.

Now very clearly that's the teaching of the Lord. If you don't like what I said about it, of course you can study the scriptures yourself and come to your own conviction about it. But that seems to me to be clearly what it is saying.

Moral Evil and the Discipline of 1 Corinthians 5

Now the next is our most tragic of all kinds of discipline. It is 1 Corinthians 5. And I would like to read with you, please, in the passage, and perhaps we can get some very positive truth out of it if we look at it.

1 Corinthians 5, verse 1, It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you. Verse 2 tells us, You are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed, and that's a singular, he that hath done, that's a singular verb, this deed is a singular noun, might be taken away from among you.

For I verily as being absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has so done, singular, this deed, singular. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and this is one of the greatest of verses, sad that it's in a context dealing with moral evil, but nevertheless it's a lovely text.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the authority of every assembly gathering, and it is the authority for discipline. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together. And that's an expression that is found seven times in 1 Corinthians, and it is found in this form nowhere else in the New Testament.

When ye are gathered together. So this is the epistle of the gathering together. And my spirit, that is Paul's apostolic spirit, and forgive me for saying Paul's apostolic spirit, I'm sure you know what I mean.

Paul's spirit as an apostle, because this is apostolic authority. With the power, with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

And I take it that that verse means that this man, in spite of the heinousness of his sin, that he was a child of God, who had fallen into such terrible sin. But so great was his sin that when you come to the close of the chapter, he is called a wicked man.

Even though there seems indication there in verse 5, that the man was truly saved. It's remarkable how much sin, how dark and evil, can be the sin of even a believer. Now look at verse 11 with me. Now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one know not to eat.

Are we getting some skip, Jim? Is that picked up from somewhere? Okay. Now, this passage deals, of course, with moral evil. The putting away of a person who has been guilty of one of these six sins listed in verse 11.

Now, first of all, we have to deal with the man. Because this man wasn't guilty of all the six sins as far as I know. He was guilty of one of them. He was guilty of fornication. But the man had to be dealt with.

Now, there are those who have been saying, and it's been quite commonly said in recent years, that the reason the man was put away was because he had an unrepentant attitude. Because he did not bow and confess his guilt and forsake it.

Now, what these people are really saying, and I'm trying to be as plain as I can, what these people are really saying is if the man had been repentant and confessed his sin, he would not have had to be excommunicated.

He would not have had to be put away. And the way those people express their teaching is like this. They say he was not put away for an act. He was put away for a wrong attitude. Now, there is no question that the man had a wrong attitude.

But there is also no question that the assembly had a wrong attitude. In fact, if you were to read with the Lord what Paul says to them, if they had truly mourned as they ought to about the sin, if that had truly been their attitude, this man would have been taken away by the Lord.

And they would never have had the great problem to deal with in the assembly. That's what he actually is saying now in verse 2. You are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

That is the Lord taking him away. You see? But the Lord didn't take him away because the assembly was not in the right attitude. The assembly was not mourning. But is that a true statement that the man was dealt with for an attitude and not an act?

It is wrong. It is so very wrong. That's why I emphasized when we were reading verse 2 and 3, he that hath done this deed. That's the reason he was dealt with. Not because of an attitude at all. Because of a sinful deed.

And that seems so clear and obvious that I don't want to labor it anymore. I'm sorry there is that false teaching. I have run across it so much in recent years in many different places. I do know some of the sources of it.

And it is tragic that men who profess to be teaching the Word of God can teach such things. Because I would consider that what they are teaching is defiling to assemblies. Because we are very clearly told here that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

And sin, unjudged in an assembly, will open the door for wickedness. Until you have a flood of sin. And please don't tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. I know far too well what I'm talking about.

Because I've seen it. Not only once. But a number of times. When sin is not dealt with properly. Scripturally. In a godly way. In a mourning attitude. Of grief and sorrow and tears. The assembly will fill up with sin.

So that's the solemn warning of 1 Corinthians 5. That a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Now, the man was put away. He was disciplined. But there was a special meeting of the assembly to carry it out.

I take it that's what verse 4 very clearly means. This particular coming together of the assembly wasn't to break bread. It wasn't for prayer. It was to deal with the case of immorality. And I have taught for a long time that I believe that's the correct order.

To call a meeting of the assembly and only the assembly. Why? Because if a case of discipline is tacked on to the end of a breaking of bread meeting. You have those in the seat of the unlearned. And you have to ask them to leave.

Wondering what's going on and what is happening and what it's all about. And maybe even trying to find out. And brethren, if there's anything that should be quarantined to an assembly, it's a case of discipline.

So that you call together the church. Not those who are not in fellowship. You call together the church. And you have a special meeting for the carrying out of discipline. Now that discipline, as I said, is preservative.

The Six Categories of Moral Disorder

To keep the entire assembly from being defiled. I'm going to go over with you the meaning of the six sins that are listed in verse 11. This man was not guilty of them all by any means. He was guilty of the first one.

If any man that is called a brother, be a fornicator. And fornication is a wide term. It means moral uncleanness with another person. It involves some of the sins that are common in our wicked age. And I decline even to speak of them.

But it involves unnatural sins. Fornication would include, for instance, homosexuality. So fornication is wider than adultery. Adultery is a specific term that refers to a particular sin. Fornication is much wider.

And he that is guilty of an act of fornication must be excommunicated from the assembly. To be covetous does not mean that you wish you had the car that your neighbor is driving. Please don't say that you deal with a person for something like that.

It doesn't mean because you saw someone with a fur coat, and you would like to have a fur coat like that, and probably you wouldn't. But that's not the idea of covetousness here. The idea of covetousness is acting.

You can't judge motives. You can't judge thoughts. You can't judge hearts. You must judge actions. So covetousness is when a person acts to take something that is not his or her own. And therefore, a person guilty of shoplifting, for instance, would have to be dealt with in the assembly for covetousness.

But as Mr. McShane told Brethren many years ago when he was in this country, and I was traveling with him and preaching with him, that question came up from some of the elders of the assembly. And I was amazed at the wisdom of Mr. Albert McShane.

He said, Brethren... It was a case of shoplifting, by the way. He said, Brethren, is this person sound in mind? And they said, No. And he said, Brethren, treat this person as a person who is ill. Use good wisdom.

And I thought that was good sense. I didn't know the case, so it was only what the Brethren said about it. But there might be cases like that. And it might be a case of actually treating a feeble-minded person in a different sense altogether than you would a person who is wholly responsible for their actions.

What about an idolater? Well, it was a person who actually bowed down to idols and worshipped them, partook of the idol's feasts, and involved themselves with the idol's temple. The railer, we are given two outstanding illustrations of railing.

In both cases, I take it that they are guidelines for us. In the book of Jude, and in 2 Peter 2, we are told that railing is to speak evil of dignitaries. And Brethren, we have to understand that distinct meaning of railing, or else everything that is speaking behind a person's back, we would be calling railing.

You can speak evil of one another and not be railing. Then what is railing? Well, railing is a continuous attitude and habit of speaking against government that God has raised up. And when government is spoken against with a purpose of bringing it down, and it is an attitude and a habit, it is railing.

I hope you understand that, because that is very necessary to understand. In other words, many believers are guilty of evil speaking. And if you challenged me and said, Are you ever guilty of evil speaking?

Yes. Yes, I have been guilty. Have you? I would question very much if there is a person in this meeting who could rise and say, I have never been guilty of speaking an evil word against another person.

I doubt that very much. Then should we all be put away for railing? No, that is not railing. It is sin. It brings weakness. It is a denial of the love that we profess. It is a denial of the attitude that the Lord Jesus showed to us when He saved us.

But it is not railing. Railing is to speak against the government that God has constituted with the purpose of bringing it down. Now, personally, I don't believe that any true Christian, if they were obeying the New Testament, could be an activist against the government of the land I live in.

I don't believe that. I don't believe a true Christian obeying the New Testament could ever involve themself or herself in any activity to bring down the government of the land because that would be actually railing against human government.

But I believe the principle of railing here is against divine government, that government which God has set up. And if a person is guilty of that, then they have to be put away from the assembly. A drunkard, the word means a person who is given to strong drink, a person who is habitually drunk.

That's the idea. You see, when we came to fornication, we said it was an act. And now here we've come to drunkenness and we say it's not an act. It's a life. It's a habit. It's a way of life. Why do we say that?

How do we have the right to make that difference? For the simple reason that that's the meaning of the term. That's the meaning of the word. Words carry meaning. And one of the very first things we need to do in interpreting the Bible is to know the meaning of the word.

And the meaning of the word here is a person who is given to drink and is habitually drunk. Now, the safest thing, of course, for Christians is not to touch alcohol because out of every hundred people, there are ten people that are potential alcoholics.

I went to a medical, or heard a medical seminar last year, or this year, the early part of this year, and I'll tell you, it made me have an entirely different attitude toward an alcoholic. What begins them on the course is sin.

But after a time, it's disease that takes over. It's poison in their brain cells. And Alcoholics Anonymous is right about this. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Because that substance called PDQ in the brain cells never metabolizes.

It is there as long as that person lives. And as long as that substance is in the brain cells, the smallest amount of alcohol could affect that person so badly that they would go right back into their drunkenness again.

So it's a very serious thing. Such a person who is a drunkard must be put away from the assembly. An extortioner is one who takes away by violence an act of superiority over a weaker person. A stronger person, using their strength, might not be physical strength, but using their power or strength to take away from a weaker person something that is rightfully that other person's.

Now there is a social band linked with these sins because a person who is put away for such a sin is not to be fraternized with. You are not to sit at the table with them and eat with them. That doesn't mean in a whole that parents and their family cannot eat together.

It means that there is no social link. There is no eating together in a social way. Now restoration after discipline is a far more heartwarming subject. And certainly in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and in chapter 7, you have guidelines for the restoration of those who have been put away.

Restoration, Mourning, and the Leprous House

But I would like to point out to you something about the assembly. And this might be more enlightening than anything I've had to say tonight about these terrible subjects. Whenever discipline is carried out in an assembly, there should be a spirit of mourning.

One of the most effective ministries I've ever heard Mr. McBain give was about the leprous house in Leviticus chapter 14. And that leprous house, it's a very strange thing I confess, that a house would have a fretting leprosy.

But you remember the description is if leprosy was in the stones of the house, that first of all, it all had to be scraped anyway. If there was a leper in it, the whole house had to be scraped. And that can be applied, and that's the way Mr. McBain used to apply it.