Examine Yourselves

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

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Look at 2nd Corinthians 13 starting in verse 1. Paul writes, This will be the third time

I am coming to you and by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.

I have told you before and foretell as if I were present the second time and now being absent

I write to those who have sinned before and to all the rest that if I come again

I will not spare since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me who is not weak toward you but mighty in you for though he was crucified in weakness yet he lives by the power of God for we also are weak in him but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith test yourselves do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified so I'm gonna break this message down into three points this morning point number one is the overall subject of church discipline because that's really what's in view here some of the members in the church changes needed to be made otherwise church discipline would have been the next step certainly when

Paul arrived and you notice how he says by the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established does that remind you of anything hopefully it should when

Jesus spoke of this subject in Matthew 18 so we'll look at that as point number one point number two is

Paul's apostolic authority what is he doing here he's turning the tables on his critics who were questioning him oh you you want to examine me no you need to examine yourselves that's what he's saying as to whether or not you're even a believer so his critics might have also been saying

Paul's not even in court does he even have authority here so we'll look at that question and then point number three self -examination why did they have to do this well we talked about some reasons but why did they have to do it how does one going about how do they go about doing this should every

Christian examine themselves and couldn't self -examination lead to having doubts doubts about your salvation is that isn't that bad well we'll look at that and how really what it should do is lead to an even greater assurance of your salvation so starting with point number one the subject of church discipline let's walk through the first few verses verse 1 of 2nd

Corinthians 13 Paul mentions how this will be the third time he is visiting the church and then he makes this comment the testimony of two or three witnesses let every word be established so some people have taken that and they say alright he's visited them once twice and he's coming a third time then he says by the mouth of two or three witnesses so some people believe that Paul is referring to his first visit that's one witness his second visit that's another witness and then his third visit that is the third witness that's not what he's referring to okay what is he referring to all that statement two or three witnesses comes from God's law

Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 says one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established so a witness is a person right a witness is a person who can provide testimony in a court of law if it's your word against his then who's to say who's telling the truth but if you can get two or three witnesses that should be enough to convict and you say yeah but what if people conspire and they bring together false witnesses then in God's system of justice whatever penalty would be brought upon the accused party that penalty is then imposed upon the people making the false accusations so if somebody two or three people conspire and we saw this man committing murder he should get the death penalty if they're lying guess who gets the death penalty the ones making the false accusation

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that our justice system could learn a few things from the scripture if we did false accusations would just about disappear frivolous lawsuits as well and say yeah but we're not under the law so are we supposed to ignore the things written in Deuteronomy if anyone ever says that that's a person you should not listen to obviously we're not under the old covenant but everything written in God's law guess what it's still true some things apply some things don't it's still true and obviously

Paul is he thinks this still applies two or three witnesses because he's going back to Deuteronomy and saying this is the way that it is so someone who has observed wrongdoing they can bear witness to what happened and Paul tells the

Corinthians I am coming to you and by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established so you know if somebody's living in sin or if they're doing things ongoing that's creating a lot of chaos and division within a local church it's not going to be difficult to find two or three people who can attest to that because it's all being done in the open so Paul's gonna come and he's gonna find two or three and he's going to handle it he would rather they deal with it before he gets there though that's what we've been saying the past several weeks but he says if I show up we talked about this last time you're not gonna like my response if you're still acting this way you're not gonna like my response look at verse 2 he says

I have told you before and foretell as if I were present the second time and now being absent

I write to those who have sinned before and to all the rest that if I come again

I will not spare all right let's turn to Matthew chapter 18 and see what

Jesus said has to say about this subject and listen this is a relevant topic okay if this does not get preached in a local church the local church just stops talking about this stops preaching about this eventually they will stop practicing church discipline how do

I know that well hey exhibit a the Corinthians were not doing it which is why Paul may have to step in the

Corinthians they had the Old Testament scriptures they should have known I believe they did know how to deal with these things they just didn't want to do it because it's unpleasant and we all understand that it's not enjoyable but it is necessary what did

Paul say in 1st Corinthians a little leaven leavens the whole lump and if I had to guess

I would say upwards of 50 % of evangelical churches today maybe even more simply don't practice church discipline there's a well -known phrase that you been hearing these days no justice no peace you've heard this no justice no peace well

I'll tell you if there is no justice in a local church there will be no peace in a local church if people can behave however they want and abuse other church members and take advantage of people and lie and cheat and steal and there's nothing done about it then a local church can be no peace there so what's the proper way to handle this first we must ask who's the

Lord of the church who's the head of the church Jesus is the head of the church so let's look at what

Jesus has to say Matthew 18 starting in verse 15 Jesus says moreover if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone if he hears you you have gained your brother but if he will not hear take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established so you can see right there is the same principle from the book of Deuteronomy from God's law verse 17 and if he refuses to hear them that is the two or three witnesses then you tell it to the church but if he refuses to even hear the church let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector what does that mean you are to regard them as an unbeliever and you are to have no fellowship with them someone might say but does a church really have that right or authority to excommunicate someone or the authority to remove people from the membership roles well what is the

Lord of the church say surely I say to you whatever you bind on earth it will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth it will be loosed in heaven this is the responsibility that Christ and the authority that Christ has given to his church and he goes on verse 19 again

I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven so two or three witnesses right right look at verse 24 where two or three are gathered together in my name

I am there in the midst of them some people think this is the definition of a local church

I've seen this in study Bibles the definition of a local church is where two or three are gathered together

I don't know who came up with that but that's not the truth the church is the assembly more than two or three okay you and your friend in your living room not the church okay and it's used in the context of church discipline so that's often taken out of context but what is

Jesus's point when a church does this Christ himself is standing there in agreement now turn to Galatians chapter 6 and lest anyone get the wrong idea no church wants to do this it's obviously not enjoyable nobody wants to do this but the whole purpose of this is to keep the peace the whole purpose of this is to be corrective not punitive the goal is to rectify the situation and to bring about healing and in restoration and restoring a fellowship between brothers that's that's the point several opportunities are given two or three witnesses are brought forward and why two or three witnesses to protect a person from being accused falsely have you ever been accused of something that you never did that's an abuse so the witnesses by the way the witnesses should be people that actually witnessed it not just a grab two deacons let's go there's supposed to be witnesses so it's to protect a person from false accusations and you know

I would take it a step further because there are abusive church leaders there are cults out there where the people in charge are mistreating the people in the pews so if a church leadership is abusive and they make false accusations or discipline somebody unjustly in the congregation remember the principle in God's law whatever was to be imposed upon that person is actually imposed upon the person bringing the false accusation so in that scenario the church leaders would be regarded at least by God as heathens and tax collectors so this is protecting people this is this is a good thing all right and let's not lose sight of Christ's love for the church we understand that but Paul had a great love for the church and he writes based on that in Galatians Galatians 6 verses 1 & 2 brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass judge him and kick him out no what does it say if a man is overtaken in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted bear one another's burdens and so the fill the law of Christ so this is about protecting the church protecting peace and harmony within the body of Christ Proverbs 3 verse 12 says for whom the

Lord loves he corrects just as a father the son in whom he delights thanks for listening

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church like to listen to the complete message or you like more information about the ministry visit our website