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Why don't you turn your Bibles to the most politically incorrect chapter in all the Bible? The most politically incorrect chapter maybe in all the Bible, Old and New Testament, is 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
So, if you'll open there. We are working our way through 1 Corinthians. We finished chapter 4 last week and now we embark upon the second moral problem that the Church of Corinth needs to address. The first, it took four chapters for Paul to discuss worldly wisdom that had infiltrated the Church to the extent that they were buying into worldly wisdom and a worldly philosophy.
And it was splitting the Church right at the top. Factions, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Christ, I am of Cephas. And Paul moves to the second problem found in chapter 5 verses 1 through 13. I left corporate America about 14 years ago so I never had to go through tolerance training, sensitivity training.
How many people here have been to some kind of sensitivity training in their workplace? Okay, many of you have. Today I am going to give you a course on insensitivity training. There is only one thing worse than unrepentant sin.
And that is unrepentant sin in a church that is not dealt with. There is only one thing worse than incest. And that is incest that is going on in a local church that is not dealt with. The bride of Christ is to reflect her groom.
As Jesus Christ is holy, undefiled, spotless, blameless. Jesus Christ in John 12, we learn that when the angels in Isaiah 6 see Yahweh on the throne and they shout out, holy, holy, holy, John 12 says they see Christ.
And so Paul wants to address this issue that the Corinthians have. And that issue is they are tolerating unrepentant sin in the church. Now of course we all sin, but the issue here is unrepentant sin, the kind of sin that destroys a church, that permeates a church, that undermines her foundations.
In one sense, toleration is good if we are to have a fair and permissive attitude towards someone's thoughts, practices. But in a cultural sense, or a social sense, or a religious sense, we are not supposed to be respectful of the sin in the church and approve it.
We are supposed to deal with it. The sin of tolerance Paul is going to address. You may hear this called church discipline. Church discipline. The Belgic Confession in 1561 said, by which a true church is known, number one, the preaching of pure doctrine.
Is this a real church? You've got to have preaching of pure doctrine. Two, the administration of the sacraments or ordinances, the Lord's Supper and baptism. And number three, the exercise of church discipline.
How can you have a church if you don't have preaching, the administration of the Lord's Supper and baptism, church discipline? The abstract of principles of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1858, three marks of a true church, true order, true worship, discipline.
We have come a long way when it comes to seeing churches exercise church discipline. Historian Greg Wells said this, Churches back in the old days, pre-Civil War, in America, held regular days of discipline in their church.
I have my own spin on that and that would be 40 days of discipline, but that's another subject. And the church would gather together and they would heal breaches in the church and issues in the church and one-on-one asking for forgiveness, rebuking obstinate people, excommunicating those that resisted discipline.
The fascinating thing to me is the remarkable thing in our society today and in evangelical churches is not the absence of church discipline, it's the presence of it. Doesn't that strike you strangely?
It's not the absence of it, it's the presence of it. Not many months ago, my friend who went to the Master's Seminary with me and Southern Seminary with me, had to announce somebody's name from the pulpit and he was in Fox News in moments.
Oh, look at that church. It's the Inquisition. It's the Spanish Inquisition at that church. Closer to home, it's like the Salem Witch Trials, parading the young adulteress through the town like in the Scarlet Letter.
Today, we'll look at chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians and we'll deal with this issue. Church discipline in the local church. Let me read to you all of chapter 5 and I want you to look for the four important words that thematically tie this chapter together.
And those words are remove, cleanse, deliver, and purge. We say we believe the Bible. You can tell if somebody really does if they'll do what it says. If you don't do it, then you don't really believe it.
1 Corinthians chapter 5, I'll read from the ESV 1 through 13 and look for those words, remove, cleanse, deliver, and purge. And you'll notice right from the beginning, Paul is very abrupt. It's not a smooth transition.
He is just very abrupt and he gets to the point. 1 Corinthians 5 .1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. For a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant.
Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I, Paul, am present in spirit. And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
But when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Verse 9, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world are the greedy and the swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality, or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler.
Not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is not those inside the church whom you are to judge. God judges those outside. Excuse me, let me re-read at the end of verse 12.
Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. Now before we look at our outline this morning, how does chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4 fit with chapter 5?
That is to say, what is the connection between dealing with leadership in chapters 1 through 4, and then moving to this issue of sexual immorality in the local church? What is the connection? The connection is this, show me a crisis in leadership, and I'll show you something that affects everyone else.
Show me permissive leaders, and then the sin will spread. No leadership at home, by the father and by the mother? Anarchy rules. Show me a lack of church discipline in any church, and I will show you the leaders are mainly to blame.
Before I forget, I just have to say this. If you ever move from here, if you ever go someplace else, you should say to yourself, how do I pick a church? And I personally could never attend, be a part of, pastor a church that doesn't have verse-by-verse preaching, exalting Christ Jesus, of course the Lord's Supper and Baptism, and church discipline.
Because it's not a church without discipline, there's no purity of the church. You say, yeah, but they've got a really good rock band. That's good. You know, it's like Christian rock. It's not Christian in that it gives rock a bad name kind of thing.
They've got a good youth program. Friends, everything else will find its way into the local church when the biblical mandate is being done, and that is preaching discipline. I could never go to a church, actually let me say it this way, it's not a church without church discipline.
It's a tax-free assembly with certainly Christian people there, but it's not a church. And Paul was going to make sure that the church of Corinth, the church called by the blood of Christ, called by Christ and His substitutionary atonement on Calvary, confirmed by the resurrection, would live a life commensurate with their calling.
So this morning we'll look at only the first two verses as we begin to develop this theme of a pure church for the glory of Christ. And let me give you, for the outline this morning, six politically incorrect thoughts that are mandatory for every person in this building to believe.
If you want to believe the right things, here are six of them so this can be framed properly. Because the world is saying one thing, and the Bible is seemingly saying the exact opposite. And if you aren't thinking right, you're going to run into trouble.
And it all starts in the mind. And by the way, I'm going to push so many envelopes today, we might as well just start off at the beginning. I don't want you to be open-minded when it comes to this topic.
If you went to a Jew 2 ,000 years ago and said, you ought to be open-minded, they'd probably look at you and they wouldn't say, oy vey, but something close to that. Oy is actually the word woe. I think vey is woe in Yiddish.
They'd look at you and say, no, that's not right. We're to be closed-minded. Open-minded people let anything come in, let anything go out. They let the bad stuff come in and they let the good stuff go out.
Closed-minded people say, I'm going to think about, of course, bad things and good things, but I'm going to only accept those things that come through the grid of biblical thinking. Because I'm fallen.
I don't think properly. I don't assess things rightly. I'm selfish. Things appeal to me because I benefit from them. So I want you to think properly. I want you to be closed-minded. Biblically centered.
Six politically incorrect thoughts that I hope the Spirit of God rivets to your brain. Because you'll need them in the days to come. Number one. The first politically incorrect thought is this. You are your brother's keeper.
Or your sister's for that matter. You are your brother's keeper. Let's find out in chapter 5, verse 1. When it comes to other Christian members of this church, you are to love them. Look at verse 1. It's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you.
Like it or not, we are all one church body. Aren't we? There is a mutual dependency that we have. I find it very interesting that Paul doesn't say this. Jim Smith, you're the one committing that sexual immorality.
I'm over here at Ephesus. Now you stop it right now. What does he say? He doesn't call out the person by name. He calls out the church. This is not just some kind of, well, you know, they're struggling over here and I'm okay.
There's struggle in the body and we're all responsible. And remember what Paul said in chapter 4 at the end? Verse 19 of chapter 4. But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. And I will find out the talk of these arrogant people.
Not just the talk, but their power. He says in verse 21, What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness? He's talking to the church. Of course it's wrong that this man is doing this.
But it's also wrong that the church says, Live and let live. I looked up all the one another's in the Bible, and there's too many to list, but just listen to a few. Love one another. Prefer one another.
Receive one another. Greet one another. Serve one another. Bear one another's burdens. Forbear one another in love. Forgive one another. Admonish one another. Teach one another. Comfort one another. Edify one another.
Exhort one another. And if it's the sin of somebody in the church, forget one another. No. They're all biblical except the last one. When it comes to sin in the local church, it affects you. Think back to 1 Corinthians 12 or Ephesians 4.
The body of Christ is like a body. And you just don't go, Well, you know, my toe is all messed up, and it's kind of got some necrotic tissue on there, I think maybe even gangrene. And up my vein there seems to be a line getting closer and closer to my heart.
But you know what? It's just my toe. It's just my foot. No, we are related to one another. And when the world says, You're not your brother's keeper. You keep your mind out of their business. Paul doesn't think that way at all.
Number two. Number two. Don't fall for this lie. The first lie is you aren't your brother's keeper. The second lie is this. What happens between two consenting adults in the privacy of a bedroom is nobody else's business.
What happens between two consenting adults in the privacy of a bedroom isn't anybody else's business. That's a lie. That's not true. When you look at the passage, verse 1, it's reported that there's sexual immorality among you.
Specifically, a kind that's not even tolerated among the pagans, for a man has his father's wife. It may be private, but it does affect other people. It permeates the body. Garland said sexual immorality like this can never be treated as if it were only a private matter.
Well, you see a beautiful bride and she has the white dress on, and I love weddings just to see the bride and the groom and the family and all that. It's never happened, but I guess it could happen here.
They're out taking pictures, kind of the new land, and she brushes up against some pitch on a tree. Oh, she looks so good, so beautiful, but that huge, big smudge on the back of her dress, no one will see that.
There's a smudge on the dress of the bride of Christ at Corinth, and Paul doesn't care if they are doing this shameful, lewd behavior on the top of the Acropolis or in some dark, dingy, prostitute house.
It's still in the church. Number three. Number three. You must not tolerate unrepentant sin that ruins Christ's reputation. You must not tolerate unrepentant sin. Now, let me say this before we look at the text again.
Corinth was a sex-obsessed seaport. Remember all the thousands of prostitutes that would descend upon the city for worship? Remember all the people that would come and go to this kind of place? And it was either part of just lewd behavior, licentious behavior, or worship in a temple.
There was all kinds of sex that was going on that was outside of marriage. And certainly Paul isn't against sex. We'll see in chapter 7 that he'll actually say if a husband and wife are able and they're not regularly meeting together, they're sinful.
He's not against the design of God. What he's after is any kind of sex that sullies and is dirty, and that is all sex outside of marriage. Marriage being obviously and only between a man and a woman. Now, the word sexual immorality in the ESV, I think you'll know the word when I say it, pornea.
Pornea. It just means all sex outside of marriage. And in this particular case, we're going to see that it's incest. And Paul says what? I'm here at Ephesus, and word has gone out like the Drudge Report or a viral video that you are all so tolerating sin, the sin of incest, and now it's getting to me.
It's actually reported to me. Something that pagans don't even look upon with pleasure. Oh, they had all kinds of sins they looked upon with pleasure, but when it comes to incest, Cicero even said, that's not right.
Pagans know better. You guys have no righty. That's why we even get our words today, they're like Corinthians. In the old days when California was crazy, they called 1st and 2nd Corinthians, 1st and 2nd Californians.
He's kind of writing like it's shocking. It's actually reported among you. The called ones by Christ. Born again. Justified, sanctified. And the way the tense is in the original, it's spreading. It's going farther.
Thyatira has maybe heard of it. Pergamum has heard of it. The pagans who are loose, they even think, look at that's going on over there in that church assembly. How shameful. How wrong. Pagans don't tolerate it.
Church of Corinth, don't you tolerate it. That's the point. It's severe. Do something. Calvin said, it is abominable to the Gentiles in the same way as a loathsome and horrible monstrosity, for it is a bestial lust, which destroys even natural modesty itself.
Now maybe something like this has happened among the Gentiles. But when it does, it's condemned. And now you just are live and let live. Now if you look at the text, the wife of his father, most commentators are right.
It's a stepmother. It's the man's stepmother. Whether the dad is still alive or not, who seduced whom, it matters not. This is the kind of thing that under Old Testament law was forbidden and would make you incur the death penalty.
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's nakedness. Leviticus 18. If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall severely be put to death.
Their blood is upon them. Leviticus 20. Deuteronomy 22. A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he shall not uncover his father's skirt. Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 27. What's the community's response to all this?
It's interesting. Back in Deuteronomy 27, you'll want to turn there. It's the fifth book of the Bible. As we would say in Germany, Moses 5. Deuteronomy 27. And I want to show you something that's very fascinating.
There'll be a truth from God, and then there's to be a response from the community. Yes, that's true. And here's probably where we get people shouting out, like Reformed Baptists do, Amen. Are yawning really loud like that.
That would be unreformed Episcopalians who would do that. Deuteronomy 27 is going to be set up in such a way that you'll see this covenant community Israel hearing truth about the purity of their assembly.
And when they hear the truth, they're supposed to respond, Amen. You'll find this fascinating, Deuteronomy 27. Verse 9 will start. Now, there's lots of differences between Old Testament Judaism and the New Testament Church, but certainly a similarity is the purity of the people.
God's people must be pure. Deuteronomy 27 .9. Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, Keep silence and hear, O Israel. This day you have become the people of Yahweh your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of Yahweh your God, keeping His commandments and His statues, which I command you today.
That day Moses charged the people, saying, When you have crossed over the Jordan, thee shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. So you've got those members standing on this one mountain.
They're the blessing side. And on the other mountain, thee shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice, Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast-metal image, an abomination to Yahweh, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman and sets it up in secret.
And all the people shall say, Amen. Verse 16. Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road. All the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
And now we come to the apex, verse 20. Cursed be anyone who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's nakedness. And all the people at Corinth said, who knows what they thought.
Well, they're bad. And when you see somebody on Jerry Springer, you realize there are other people worse than you, so you must be okay. And all the people shall say, Amen. And the church of Corinth should have known better.
Paul was there for 18 months. They said nothing. The rabbis in a book that's not biblical, but taken as a commentary of these verses in Deuteronomy, says there is no forgiveness in order to atone for a man who has done this.
Forever only to execute him and kill him and stone him and to uproot him from the midst of the people of God. For any man who does this in Israel should not have life for a single day upon the earth because he is despicable and polluted.
How about that? Back to 1 Corinthians 5. He has his father's wife. Sexually has her. Not just a one-time sin, but on and on and on. And the word to have might even be married. Sexual relations with his stepmother.
Shameful. Alexander Pope said, Vice is a monster of so frightful mean as to be hated needs but to be seen. Yet seen too oft familiar with their face. Listen to this. We first endure, then we pity, then we...
Mark this, congregation. Bethlehem Bible Church is not a support group for those who have sexual addictions. Unrepentant sin is not tolerated. People want the church not to be a support group. Oh, you're doing that?
I understand. It's like in the media. If you do something horrible, just say you have an addiction and go in for treatment for a while, and you're good to go. Just don't do it as often and not out as much in public.
I can just hear the people at Corinth with all their reasons. How are we going to take this person out? Do you know? He's got all the money. And if we kick out this person with all the money, we're dust.
I've had pastor friends before that have had to announce people's names for leaving their husband unbiblically. And just before that's done on a Sunday, the pastor gets the phone call from the rich person who built the church building, says that if you now announce my daughter's name from the pulpit, I'm going to bury you.
Well, you know, we ought not to be so harsh. Maybe they're in treatment. Friends, let me say this. If the person is repentant, what do we do with repentant sinners? We rejoice, don't we? Aren't you glad you aren't kicked out of this church for sin?
What if your name got read up here because you sinned? I guess there'd be no time for special music, would there? But if the excuse is, what if they sue us, are the excuses, well, you know, I have OCD, and I'm just obsessive compulsive when it comes to this, you know, incest.
I actually looked up the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM. It was published back in 2000. That's the latest. It doesn't have anything to do with sexual addiction. But it does, however, give us this wonderful disclaimer so we can just think we're okay.
It's under the section of sexual disorders not otherwise specified. So there's probably all kinds of things you're doing. We just don't have a name for it yet, our medicine for you yet. It's all selfishness.
I'll give you a disorder if you want one, narcissistic personality disorder. Oh, you know what? Let's not confront the person. Let's just send them to Sex Addicts Anonymous. I found another place you could send them, Sexaholics Anonymous, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.
I'd like to send them to Support Group Anonymous because the church is a support group now instead of a Holy Bride of Christ. The treatment is always the same. Repent and experience the forgiveness of God.
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain what? Mercy. If you're enslaved to sin, don't you want the mercy of God? I do. This whole thing, we're going to unconditionally love you, unconditionally accept you, isn't found in 1 Corinthians 5.
Paul was shocked that the church didn't deal with it. And people today are shocked if you do deal with it. The first time I ever was at Grace Church and John MacArthur stood up and said with a sorrowful face, saddened by the gravity of sin and how it ravages people's lives, and said that they will have to remove from membership and excommunicate during a communion service, and then he named the person's name, I almost fell off my chair.
A year later, my brother came to town and he was with his wife, I think fiancée Molly at the time, and then he did it, MacArthur, again. But when I looked at Matthew 18, when I looked at Galatians 6, when I looked at Acts 5, when I looked at 2 Thessalonians 3, what are we going to do as we say we believe the Bible?
Except we don't really believe that part over there that says tell it to the church. That's probably not in the best manuscripts after all. There's a sin worse than incest, and that is the sin that allows a congregation to care less about the reputation of Jesus Christ.
Number four, number four. Number one, you are your brother's keeper. Number two, sin even in private of a church member affects others. Three, don't tolerate unrepentant sin. And number four, it is arrogance, not love, that tolerates unrepentant sin.
It is arrogance, not love, that tolerates unrepentant sin, verse 2. We just have to love them. We just have kind of group hug. It's all time for love. Paul would say to the church of Corinth, it's not love.
Love says, Jesus said, if you love me, you will what? Keep my commandments. Love obeys. Love says I want what's right for God and for the person and for the church. And so what does Paul say? Can you imagine verse 2?
And you are a little too loving. You got to kind of ratchet up the discipline. No, what's he saying with an exclamation point? You are arrogant. And what's the word from last week that we learned for all you Greek scholars?
Somebody say it out loud. Fousio. You are fousio. Fousio is an onomatopoetic word that sounds like what it is. It means to inflate. You ever inflate some kind of helium balloon? And up it goes. You're prideful.
He says you're all puffed up. You're all a bunch of hot air. You're arrogant. You're not loving. Show me a church that doesn't do church discipline and I'll show you the most prideful church you've ever been in.
Sorry, club, because it's not a church. Their way is better than God's way. God's way is tell it to the church, deal with unrepentant sin that affects the body. Man's way is, well, you know what? If I do it, we had all those visitors today from the college.
They're just in town for the first week of college. They're looking for a church and if we get up and say somebody's name, they'll never get over that. They'll never come back. This is Jesus' church. The elders are under shepherds.
We do what we're told and leave the results to God, don't we? Isn't that the way we live our Christian life? It's not to be tampered with. Adding from the Bible. Subtracting from the Bible. Well, that just won't work.
That's kind of antiquated. You know what we sometimes do? That was cultural. Actually, if you want cultural, did you know sacrifice was a cultural thing back then too? Where somebody would have to pay the price for somebody else.
So, substitutionary atonement, that's cultural too. Paul says you're prideful. You think your ways are better than God's. You think it's your church. Oh, it won't affect us. We're smart. We've really got good leadership.
Paul was here. He taught us for 18 months. We think we know what Paul would expect. You know, the body is really bad, but the spirit's good. And so if the spirit's good and the body's bad, let the bad people do with their bad bodies what they wish.
The spirit still will be intact. Who knows what they were thinking? But one thing's for sure, they were arrogant. And Paul says, look at the last chapter, chapter 4, verse 6, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
Verse 18, some are arrogant. Verse 19, arrogant. The talk of these people is arrogant. It's not within the bounds of Christian liberty. And he says, you, ye, ye are arrogant. Too confident. He says, Corinth, deal with sin or it will deal with you.
As Thomas Watson, the great Puritan said, either kill your sin or your sin will kill you. In three weeks, I'll be in Corinth and I'll look all around and the church of Corinth is dead. Churches without Matthew 18, step 1, 2, 3, and 4 are arrogant because their way is better than God's way.
Number 5. Number 5. Are you sleepy yet? Hello. I love 1 Corinthians because it just deals with these kind of topics. By the way, when I was in seminary, I never thought I'd say some of the things I just said today.
Who gets up and preaches about those things? But what do you do? Well, we just finished chapter 4. Let's get to chapter 6. This is the best. I want to have Paul's attitude when it comes to holiness, don't you?
Here's what God has done for me and He's caused me to be born again. By His own free choice and His own sovereign grace, He's made me alive in Christ. He's quickened me with Christ Jesus. He's raised Jesus from the dead and I'll stand before Jesus one day with you.
I want to just do what He says. I'm not really very smart, but I know if I'm told a direct order as a person in the army, I'm to obey it. There's nothing unclear about this passage. Deal with sin in the local church for the glory of Christ.
And you'll see that those people that stay are the ones concerned about holiness. Every time I read somebody's name from the pulpit and thankfully, it's only been about 4 times in 13 years. Every time I read somebody's name from the pulpit by name with a specific sin that has permeated the body and we need to excommunicate that sin, usually one family leaves.
Now there's a lot of reasons people leave, but that's the wrong reason to leave a church. If you're a visitor today and this is your first time, picking a church because of church discipline is the right reason to pick a church.
That church is concerned about holiness. Number 5. Unrepentant sin should make you mourn. It shouldn't make you happy like it does the world. This is the right response instead of being prideful. The world says, wow, look at how wild that sin is.
Paul says, here's what you should do when there's sin in the church. And I hope this is what you've been doing with our particular church discipline case that's going on right now. I hope you're mourning.
You should mourn. Verse 2. You are arrogant. Here's what we should be doing when it comes to sin in the church. Ought you not rather to mourn? Ought you to be sad? Nine Greek words for mourning. At the top of the list, there's the word for mourning that means the wail of a person when they've lost a loved one.
When my mother died, I could not contain myself. You know how you say, well, I don't mind to cry, but that whole thing where your arms start shaking, your head's shaking, and you just visibly and outwardly cry.
You just can't stop it. My father died. I'm at the funeral. It's just like you feel yourself kind of simmering, the slow boil, and before you know it, you're just weeping. Out of the nine words for mourn, this is the word that's used for when you lose a loved one and you're just sick.
When there's sin in the church, it affects the body and it affects the name of Christ. And Paul says, you're having a party and there should be a death funeral procession going on there. This is the word that was used when someone was affected, a town was affected by a pestilence and everybody died, they would mourn.
Sackcloth and ashes. You guys have balloons out. Streamers. This is the kind of mourning where if you look at me, you say, he's mourning because I can't keep it in. And it's an ongoing thing. You ought to keep on mourning and grieving until it's dealt with.
You ought to lament over, mourn over. As if there's a death in the family. Carlisle said that men must see the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin. Blood-bought people should hate sin and mourn over sin in the body.
Listen to D .A. Carson. Everything that we know and appreciate and praise God for in all Christian experience, both in this life and in the life to come, springs from the bloody cross. Do we have the gift of the Spirit?
Secured by Christ on the cross. Do we have the fellowship of saints? Secured by Christ on the cross. Does He give us comfort in life and death? Secured by Christ on the cross. Does He watch over us faithfully, providentially, graciously, and covenantally?
Secured by Christ on the cross. Do we have the hope of heaven to come? Secured by Christ on the cross. Do we anticipate resurrection bodies on the last day? Secured by Christ on the cross. Is there a new heaven and a new earth?
The home of righteousness? Secured by Christ on the cross. All this is secured by Christ on the cross and granted to those who have faith in Him. And in response to the cross of Christ, then we do what we're supposed to do.
As Jesus mourned over sin, when Jesus was at Lazarus' tomb, why was He mourning? He knew He was going to raise Him from the dead shortly, didn't He? Because Jesus was mourning, not that His body was dead forever, but He was mourning over what sin does to a body.
And what does the world want to do? Yuck it up. Laugh it up. Pack up your troubles. Drown your sorrows. One man said, the summa bonum of life becomes a good time. True or false? Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
I hope you say true. Jesus said it. Same word. Mourn. Crying. James 4 .9 has a verse that seems so out of context. Who preaches on this verse? James did. He says to the church, Be wretched and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. And finally, number six. The sixth politically incorrect thought that's important to remember while we think of church discipline. This is where He's leading up to, by the way.
You must acknowledge that unrepentant sinners should be removed from Christ's fellowship. You've got to excommunicate them. You have to acknowledge that unrepentant sinners should be removed from Christ's fellowship.
Verse 2. Last sentence. Let him who has done this be what? Removed from among you. Taken away. He did have community with you and now you move him out of community. We have communion. We put them out of communion.
We ex them. Not excise them, but like an exit you go out of. Excommunicate means you put them out of your fellowship. To be removed. To expel. And it is a command. And so what do you do? You say, I have solidarity with the elders.
That when the elders announce someone's name from the pulpit, we with them with solidarity and agreement say, yes, it must happen. It's not rash. It's not for punishment. It's not for vindictiveness. It's for obedience.
Their heads and maybe their church is like this huge overinflated balloon. Ever seen those balloons that you hold the handle and you blow them up about like this and you just keep hitting back and forth those punching balloons?
Works perfect on like little kids' noggins. Just like that. You don't really want to fill it up too largely because those are big enough. They've got some pressure and when they pop, they really pop. The Corinthians as a church, sadly because of their leader's influence, their heads are so big they don't even care about any kind of sin that's unrepentant in their church.
And with this little sentence, Paul comes along with a needle and he just goes, get rid of them. Kick them out. Remove them. Expel them. Sin is always in a local church. But there are some sins that are so bad for a church when unrepentant, when lived in in an unrepentant fashion, they must be dealt with.
Sexual sins. Sins of factiousness. Sins of wrong doctrine. Now if I were you, this is what I would do and so I hope you do it. Instead of thinking right now about our current church discipline scene and situation, yes, I mourn over it and that's sad.
It affects other people. If I were you, I'd just examine your own hearts for a minute to say, am I leading the kind of life that contributes to the unity that Jesus secured on the cross? Are there things going on in my life, private now, but that one day God will certainly make manifest?
Are there things in my life now that could ever contribute to a problem at the church? The good news is when you do that self-examination and then say, oh God, forgive me, cleanse me, wash me, you pray through Psalm 51, then you end up what?
Receiving forgiveness and never end up that far down the line. Mark it well. You just don't fall out of a tree. You have to climb up it first. I can't believe that happened. Everything seemed good and then the person just leaves their spouse.
They just commit incest with their stepmother. How did that happen? I'll tell you how that happened. Step by step by step by step and the tree was climbed and then the fall was great. So what does God help us to do?
We're to examine what we do now. We examine the baby steps so we never get to that spot. God, keep me clear. God, permeate my mind with Scriptures and then heighten my conscience so that the sins that I used to think were little are now really big because I know they're against You.
So therefore, based on what Your Son has done, wash me and cleanse me. And then even murderers and adulterers can experience the joy of their salvation like King David did. Isn't that good? No matter what you've done?
No matter how many times you've done it? I don't know when it's going to be that we get lawsuits at the church for doing church discipline but the day we stop church discipline and concern for the purity of this church is the day that this church should have a new name and that should be Ichabod.
The glory of the Lord has departed. Church discipline is to restore sinners. It's to make you afraid of sinning. But it's mainly to show that we care about what Jesus did and we will obey Him no matter what the consequences are.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, You are the Great King. You are the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and as our Lord, Father, it is our desire as an elder board, a deacon board and as a church to obey You no matter what.
Give us strength. Give us resolve. Father, I pray for the churches in New England that they would have church discipline. That they would care about their churches. Your church. Father, that churches would begin to be rescued from liberalism because someone, many people would stand up to say holiness matters.
Lord, we pray for our current situation when it comes to the church discipline in our family. We pray that You grant repentance. That You would grant restoration. That You would, Father, stop what's going on now so that in the days to come we will not have to purge unrepentant sinners from our midst.
Give us hearts of mourning, Father, over this. And give us hearts of gladness knowing that there is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son. In His name we pray. Amen.