Church Discipline (7 of 10 Non-Negotiable Elements of a Healthy Church)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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Church Leadership (8 of 10 Non-Negotiable Elements of a Healthy Church)

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Amen, we'll go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to 1st Corinthians chapter 5 1st

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Corinthians chapter 5 and we're going to be looking at the first five verses of that and as you're turning there

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You know that we've been in this series over the past six weeks of the ten

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Non -negotiable elements that will be present within any healthy church

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And we've been identifying one of those ten every single week And I got to say it feels a little awkward for us because this type of topical preaching is not common for us around here

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For those of you that have been with us very long You know that our habit is to pick a book pick a section of scripture and walk a line by line through it

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But I have to say I believe that this has truly been beneficial for us over the past few weeks in this particular season for our

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Church allowing us to really hone in on what's truly important for a church

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And these previous six that we've looked at if you've been with us the expositional preaching the gospel

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Biblical theology I have to look at again conversion Evangelism and then last week we saw church membership.

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These are all Usually found to one degree or another in most churches healthy and unhealthy but We got to remember not to the degree in which scripture prescribes them if you listen to each one of those sermons

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Only healthy churches carry them out properly to that extent But you can usually find remnants of these six within relatively unhealthy churches

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However, the next element that I want us to talk about today When combined with the other six properly, well really when combined with the other nine properly is

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The one that truly separates the pack today's topic truly separates the pack within our modern context of Evangelism evangelical churches and it is the topic of church discipline

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That's a big one. Please bear with me if you're watching online or you're here and you're like you could just checked out

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You're like, okay. This this is not something I'm interested in. I understand. This is a very difficult topic

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This is an utterly foreign concept to Western evangelicalism very very few churches

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Practice this and and in fewer practice it properly and when we think of church discipline

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Unfortunately because most evangelical churches don't when we think of church discipline a lot of people

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I talked to think of cults We think of the Mormons right where they they disassociate

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I don't know what they call it, but they they carry out some form of discipline We think of Jehovah's Witness, you know where they shun each other.

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They just throw you out of the family You're completely out of the loop if you don't abide by their rules

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We think of the Amish where they get thrown out of the community lose their family and those sorts of things

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We think of the Church of Christ in this community which carry out a form of discipline within their context

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But all of these churches all of these groups Have sabotaged this concept and perverted it from its original purpose and practice

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They've they've distorted it to some form of authoritarian shunning It's used as a tool to keep people in line

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And if you think about it, it's necessary for the for those cults right the people within these cults

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They don't have the power of the Holy Spirit and dwelling in them in order to obey the law of God and all of those cults, you know loosely based themselves off of Scripture a distorted version of Scripture and so they can't understand why the people can't follow

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The what's prescribed in Scripture because they don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit They're missing the gospel.

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And so in order for them to be Motivated they need a motivation of fear, don't they?

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they need a motivation a fear of losing community a fear of losing family members and some of them do when they don't abide by the rules a fear of losing identity and This is a godless distortion of this beautiful biblical practice

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And so today I would like for us to see from Scripture the sacrificial loving act of church discipline the sacrificial loving act of churches church discipline is one of the most loving and most

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Unifying God -honoring practices in all the church So much so that a church that does not practice church discipline

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Biblically is not a church at all. And let me explain that to you for a second church discipline is essentially discipleship

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Right church discipline is happening all the church discipline is happening right now Because we have different forms of church discipline church discipline comes in positive form

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Me proclaiming the truth is a part of church discipline This is a discipline that we're carrying out as a church a singing songs a discipline.

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This is a positive But then Scripture also has a negative Discipline and that's the one we want to talk about today, but a church must carry out churches

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So let's read our passage here in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 And and so if you're familiar with the the letter that Paul writes to the church in Corinth You know that they are a mess.

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They're a problem They've got all these issues and Paul has been rebuking this church and by the time he gets to chapter 5

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He says there in verse 1 it is actually reported that there is sexually and sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is

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Not tolerated even among pagans For a man has his father's wife

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You are arrogant Ought you not rather to mourn

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Let him who has done this be removed from among you For though absent in body

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I am present in spirit and as if present I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing

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When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of the

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Lord of our Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh

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So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Those are hard words, aren't they?

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Well, let's stop again, let's test God to Illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth and help us as we talk about such a difficult topic

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Dear only father we come to you once again, and we ask that you work in our in our frail minds God I pray that you would help us to see the clarity of your word

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But not just see it though not just hear it God But be doers of it to obey it to understand

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What you're truly calling us to do and to be as a church and as a people and father

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I pray you guard my words God. I pray that you would Help me speak with boldness and clarity

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Christ's name. Amen Well the the church here in Corinth much like the

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Church of America today is immersed into a pornographic culture Right.

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This is a Greek culture where very few things are taboo You think you think that America has gotten bad in that area?

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You you can't even begin to scratch the surface to go back to Greek culture of this time This was far beyond anything we've experienced in our lifetime

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Like there's hardly anything off the table in this culture. The Greeks are just a very distorted group of people

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They're an idolatrous culture where there is no fear of God no regard for his laws.

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They have their own idols They've created their own gods that they can they can just live however, they want to and so they've they've suppressed the truth in their unrighteousness as Paul says, right and this culture as it often does it has seeped itself into the life of the church there in Corinth and It does so by chipping away at the people within the church

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The same as it happens to us today You know, we live our lives within the sphere of a culture right we have jobs we we we have we live in neighborhoods

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We're around the world and we're around all of this and eventually become desensitized to its vulgarity

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And it's easy for us to because we were once a part of it And so it's an easy transition for it to seep into our lives now that we are on The other side and we're in the church.

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We see this specifically today Think about the things that we hear and see on TV Things that you turn cable television on today would have shocked you beyond recognition 20 years ago

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But now we're used to it You can see how quickly it happens within a culture bad company truly does corrupt good morals in every case and this this particular chipping away at their

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Morals is what has taken a place within the church in Corinth Instead of seeing the true reality through the lens of God's Word These people there the church in Corinth.

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They've started seeing a distorted reality through the lens of the culture So instead of seeing through God's Word we see through the lens of a culture passenger matter

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There's some chairs right there if you want to help them The world tells them Who are you to judge?

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right Who are you to judge? tolerance and unity at all cost

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You live your truth, and I'll live mine who gets decide who gets to decide a standard of morality that's what the world of bombards us with doesn't it and That Greek culture was constantly they were all about These lofty ideas and thoughts they loved all the different thoughts

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They would gather together and just talk philosophy all the time like hey your religious thought your philosophical thought

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All of them are welcome to the table. This is all great. We love thought we love to have just an open

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Dialogue and so that culture is pushing in on that church, and we can feel it

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We can we can very much sympathize with that because we sense that very same Mentality and this leads them.

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They're the people within Corinth as a church to tolerate wickedness Wickedness that's even beyond beyond the standards of the world mind you

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That's what what's weird is it just it actually even takes it past what the world is even accepting And they do it under the guise of love and acceptance

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And thankfully God doesn't leave them there

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He sends Paul to shake them out of their stupor as he often does with his children

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So let's look at verse 1 specifically. We're in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 1

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Paul says it is actually Reported that there is sexual immorality among you now mind you as Paul is writing this letter.

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He's in the city of Ephesus Okay, so if you're not familiar with the map

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Corinth is here a big section of the Mediterranean Sea is here and Ephesus is over here

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Paul is not close to Corinth and It the world was much bigger in that day you can imagine so getting word from one spot to another would have had to have been very intentional and So Paul is writing this letter and this news comes from this great distance

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Across the Mediterranean Sea to him while he's serving in Ephesus So if Paul and Ephesus is being given word of this you can imagine

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How word of this has spread throughout Corinth, right?

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Paul saying hey, it's it's actually reported to me Oh way over here in Ephesus that there's sexual immorality among you and now this word is spread all throughout

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You know the people in Corinth are looking in at the church and They're looking in and it's it's like so much for what

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Peter says in 1st Peter 1 14 and 16 He says as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance

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But as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct

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Since it is written in here. He quotes an Old Testament passage. You shall be holy for I am holy

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So much for that verse throw that one out Right. I'm in the church at Corinth. What's the purpose in that so much for what

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Peter says later on in chapter 2? he says being a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the

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Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and do his marvelous light so much for let's throw that out

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The lost and dying world is looking in God has called us out of the domain of darkness and made us a city on a

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Hill, right? That's what the church is a beacon of light, isn't it? It's supposed to be a light up on the hill that the world can look in in the midst of their darkness and not be able to see and see light up On that hill and what is the talk of this beacon of light amongst those wandering through the darkness at this moment?

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What do you think's happening what's the talk of this beacon? Look at what he says next in that verse and he says and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans

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For a man has his father's wife so now not only have they

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Been corrupted by the world and brought the world into the church and their their perspective

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They've taken it a step further and that's typically what happens The most disgusting things that happen in our world today happen within the church don't they

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Like Satan gets his foothold in and he's like, haha. I'll take you the edge. I'm gonna kick you guys over the edge

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That's the way it works, right? And so the world is looking in these blind people walking around in darkness

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See a beacon of light up there and instead of saying hey, there's hope there there's difference there

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They're saying they're just like us as a matter of fact, they're probably worse There's no hope there's just more darkness

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There's just more hopelessness And with it more hypocrisy because they claim to have some

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Enlightenment they claim to be better in some way Yet act just like us and sometimes worse

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Now, of course not everyone in the church there in Corinth is living this lifestyle, but here's the thing they might as well be

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It's just one individual that Paul's addressing here But it might as well be all of them because their silence on this matter is essentially a stamp of approval, isn't it?

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They're saying hey this this guy's amongst us. He's living this life We're gonna tolerate it.

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We're gonna accept it and look at what Paul says next in verse 2 How does

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Paul address it? He says you Are arrogant This This right here is the very reason churches don't do church discipline

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Because they are arrogant Churches think they know better than what

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God has prescribed Proclaiming to be wise they became fools, right?

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They have bought into the world's wisdom of tolerance unity and acceptance at all cost

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Who were we to tell him to repent? After all he professes

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Christ He professes all Orthodox truth Who am

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I to judge? You know many churches today out of their arrogance won't practice church discipline because they know what it'll cost them

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That's why it's gone away. I know it'll cost them those numbers

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And those numbers are far too important to disrupt What arrogance?

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What total complete Arrogance just as Paul tells the church at Corinth.

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You've accepted this. I've heard it all the way over here in Ephesus I've heard the news of what's going on.

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I know the details because of how vile it is and You are arrogant and you won't deal with it.

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You think you know better than God Churches have forgotten that Jesus said he will build the church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it

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And that this is what he has prescribed for that very church And they're just too busy building their own kingdoms aren't they this is much of Christianity today

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I Think that this church in Corinth actually celebrated this kind of thing in their arrogance.

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I think that's another reason. He's calling them arrogant Right. I think they really thought that they were showing love and compassion

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Remember they bought into what the world's perspective of love was and Acceptance they've they've been they've they've been infiltrated by the world's way of thinking instead of biblical thinking and here

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They are and they see this man within their midst living this life and the world's looking in and they're actually

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Carrying it as a badge of honor saying look how tolerant we are. We just trumped your tolerance

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That's how much Jesus loves us We're just this tolerant and Paul's It's arrogance

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And Paul exposes that in the next part of verse 2 once he say next he says Ought you not rather to mourn you're walking around haughty and arrogant like you've done something special for the kingdom that the world looks in and Applauds you because of you trumping them and their tolerance and acceptance.

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Is that what you think? Ought you not to mourn instead They're accepting they're celebrating their big tent acceptance and tolerance and love and here comes here comes the

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Apostle Paul as he often does the Debbie Downer right that obnoxious Theobro that theology guy always dumping cold water on everybody's party

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Right the Paul comes in he says he's saying hey Corinth. This isn't the win you think it is

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You should be mourning over this man's sin And you should be mourning over your derogation of duty to pull him away from such an abomination

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You should be mourning because you yourselves are in great sin because of this

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You've disobeyed our Savior Jesus Christ and what he's called for his church

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And you have now placed yourself as head of the church. You are arrogant and you should

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Repent and mourn now you may be thinking As he says this look at what he says next he says let him who has done this be removed from among you

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And again, you may be thinking well that sounds an awful lot like shunning I thought you said this wasn't that wasn't the purpose of church discipline

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But that's what you said. It wasn't the purpose of shunning well in order to stand what Paul is saying here we need to understand the context in which he's saying it and The context will always be in light of the rest of Scripture won't it and specifically in this case

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Actually the very words of Jesus during his earthly ministry is what the Apostle Paul has in mind as he is talking to the church

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In Corinth here, so turn with me to Matthew 18 Matthew 18 we're going to be starting in verse 15 and Here we see an account where Jesus has just told the parable of the lost sheep right this lost sheep that that Left the 99 to go after the one and we misunderstand that verse

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And I think it's better for us to understand it when we see the immediate transition into verse 15

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It starts to come together because I think Jesus is talking about what he's talking about here in 15

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So Matthew 18 verse 15 says Jesus's words here if your brother

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Sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone

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If he listens to you you have gained your brother now We see a progression of steps starting to be laid out here

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Right if your brother sins if your brother is in sin Confront him go and gossip about him to all your friends

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Make sure that everybody's on the same page and then go confront him, right? Is that what

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Jesus said? No No, he says go alone this is step one in this progression of steps that Jesus himself lays out for us and He does this so because we all fall into sin, don't we?

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Who in here has not fallen into sin? yesterday Thankfully, no one's arrogant enough to raise their hand, right we constantly fall prey to sin

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And this is why God has prescribed this very process. This is the church This is what we talked about last week with membership.

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This is why membership is so important This is why being a part of a body is so important as iron sharpening iron, right? We go to our brothers.

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We see our brother in sin We go to him alone and we confront him about that sin and I'll be honest

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I've seen this happen many times and more often than not. This is where it ends And what does he say?

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He says you've gained a brother You've gained a brother She gone to him alone and he repents you've gained a brother.

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Now. Does that mean that he wasn't a brother before? No, because Jesus started off by calling him our brother

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He was already our brother. What he means is that if if that brother falls into sin is confronted about that sin

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Confesses and repents of that sin. He is showing evidence of truly being your brother, right?

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Checking with me Because a true Christian will always repent eventually a

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True Christian will never go on without repenting now on the other hand

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There's another option you may think someone is a brother Someone that's a part of the church a fellow

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Christian They go to the communion table with you. They they sing the songs with you

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They they they do service with you. They pray with you. They do all the things with you fall into sin

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Open sin that you see you confront them about that sin only to have them reject repentance

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Hence showing evidence of Them possibly not truly being a brother. You see that on the other hand, but here's the good part is doesn't mean you to give up on them

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Look this says in verse 16. He gives us a second step if he doesn't repent

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It doesn't mean that that's automatically not a brother. Remember we all fall into sin But in verse 16, he says but if he does not listen take one or two others along with you

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There's step to bring one or two others along with you now There's a lot of questions involved and who you bring with you

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I think I think already implied is just some common sense mature brothers and sisters

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Right, maybe maybe your pastors or a deacon in the church or just somebody that's your brother or sister

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That's just a mature older saying you don't want to bring a young saint That's gonna maybe go around and not know how to deal with this

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But you take two or three one or two with you along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three

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Witnesses you say we're we're a stubborn people at times, aren't we?

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We've already confirmed We all fall into sin constantly and sometimes we get stubborn we get caught up in that sin

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And we we don't want to let it go for a season Right again, that's that's part of the beauty of being a part of a church where other brothers and sisters can come alongside you

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And prompt you out of this and we just need that we need a group of brothers and sisters who love us enough not to Just leave us there right, we don't we don't want them to just leave us there and I Think sometimes some of this

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Boils down to like not doing church discipline not following Jesus as prescribed means here I think sometimes it boils down to us just forgetting how

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Unbelievably destructive sin is we forget that at times don't we?

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how Overwhelmingly destructive sin is

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It's It's an abomination against God God hates sin. God can't be in the presence of sin and outside of Christ What a sin do it leads us to eternal damnation doesn't it?

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eternal consequences before an eternal God Pouring his wrath out on it because of how

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Destructive and vile it truly is and for those of us that are in Christ its consequences and chastening

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It brings about consequences doesn't it Every single time we forget how destructive it is and when we see a brother and sister in the midst of it

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We know one of two things either they're not a brother or sister and there's going to be eternal

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Consequences for this and they're proving that or we can look at them and we can say oh, no

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They're gonna get chastened That's gonna hurt there's gonna be consequences from the father how many of you growing up had siblings and Hated hearing your sibling in the other room getting a spanking

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Some of you weirdos were the were the mean ones that were okay with it, right? But us normal people hated it, right?

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We hated hearing our sibling getting spanked in the other room But here was the thing that sibling being spanked in the other room was good for them, right?

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And they deserved the spanking. It doesn't mean that we have to love the spanking We have to love the the outcome of the spanking, but we don't love the process of that discipline

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We should long to help keep our brothers and sisters from the consequences of sin because we love them

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We long for them and we have a good and gracious father that is chastening them with his loving hand

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But there are still consequences to the destructive nature of sin But here's the thing it goes even deeper

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If that person doesn't get chastened and doesn't submit we are left to assume that they are never siblings at all

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That makes it harder We have to assume they were never siblings and well as a matter of fact quite the opposite They were actually enemies of our very father all while eating at our table

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That seems to cut even deeper doesn't it? The step that Jesus has given us

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You can see where it's leading towards restoration now

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He gets us to step three. Look at verse 17

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If he refuses to listen to them, if he refuses to listen to the two or three people that have come to him now

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Tell it to the church Most churches today are good with steps one and two

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But this one is where we lose them. They want to halfway obey

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Jesus It's like how about we walk them through steps one and two hey go to them

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I'll teach that part you go to your brother if he doesn't take a couple people with you to confirm it

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And if they don't repent Let's quietly remove them from the role

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Let's not make a stink about this Why get the other why get the church involved?

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It's just gonna make people mad. They're gonna be confused It's gonna hurt the church the people in the world are gonna look at us and they're gonna go

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Judgmental and then we're gonna feel weird and then we're not gonna be accepted and then we won't have as many guests next week

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This let's just obey let's obey steps one and two and we'll be okay Let's ignore step three, but that's not what

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Jesus said to do. Jesus is very clear on this third step, isn't he? He doesn't say hey, by the way steps one and two.

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Yeah, you got to do them step three and four. They're optional That's not what he does. He continues on with this progression

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Why is this step so important? Why must we take it before the church because it gives the church body a chance to participate in the process of?

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restoration the whole body You notice the key purpose in each of these three steps so far.

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What is it to gain a brother? That's the whole purpose of these three steps and as we talked about last week in membership.

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We're a body This is one unit. We are not individually our own we belong to each other

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There is a process that goes with this and if we're going to bring accusation against a brother or sister of sin

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Everyone is responsible to get involved at this point the church must be informed so that they can pray for so they can plead with and Petition this brother or sister who is in unrepentant sin this whole body

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Is responsible to participate in the process of church discipline the whole body those first two steps are

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Usually where it ends praise God Sometimes it gets to this third step

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And we can't skip it. We must follow through this third step also serves as a very loving protection for each of the members

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What if the church leadership could walk through steps one and two and then take matters into their own hands

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They can just discipline someone behind closed doors where where's the accountability and I've seen this happen before Or they quietly remove someone from the roles say they're not a member anymore.

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Let's just We're gonna take matters into our own hands. There's There's no accountability here.

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Where's the protection for that person that's been accused of sin? There is none. Where's the accountability that protection is gone?

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Because protection is in transparency And this is a family this is a body

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We must be open and Step three is essential for a church in This process of church discipline and you ask some of you may be confused

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Okay What leads to this point like what sin qualifies us to get to point three?

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Like I get like if my brother sins against me like if they say something that offends me and I don't like it You know,

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I go to them and they repent they say they're sorry We're good But if they don't like I take a couple friends we deal with it like at what level

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I get are we talking about gossip here? Like it can someone get to step three over gossip.

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Can someone get to step three over? over not attending church It can someone go to step three over over Is it we just qualifying like adultery or divorce and all of that stuff?

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Is that what we're talking about the big sins? Well put it this way All sin

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And I've said it before and if you've gone through our membership class, you've heard me say this when

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I explain church discipline There's only one sin in the Bible that gets you church disciplined

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You're like one sin. You just said all sin One sin gets you church disciplined the sin of unrepentance

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Can gossip get you to step three you bet you it can Can a lack of attendance to this church get you to step three you bet you it can

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But here's the thing it only gets to step three if you refuse to repent of that sin, that's it

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That's all So we need to be clear on that the sin of unrepentance is it that gets you to this step?

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Now finally we get step four Look at the second part of that verse and if he refuses to listen even to the church

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Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector Well, that's really clear right

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What does Jesus mean? About this in order to understand what Jesus is saying here We must understand the audience that he's speaking to right here, right?

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He's this is Jesus talking to a Jewish audience, right? This is a

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Jewish people. The Gentiles haven't been grafted in quite yet And these are Jewish people so when he says

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Gentile and tax collector he is essentially saying those outside of the faith

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Here's why at this time as Jesus is speaking Jewish people saw

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Gentiles as unclean dogs not a part of the covenant of God They're outside of the faith

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So when Jesus says Gentiles these Jewish listeners go oh, we'll just unbelievers pagans

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But then he adds this tax collector You understand to a Jewish person in this day see

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Rome comes in and takes over right Rome comes in and then they pick

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Somebody that's a snitch out of the group and and takes a Jewish person makes them a tax collector and this tax collector

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Turns on his people turns them in when they're not when they're not telling all the truth about their their

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Finances so that Rome gets the most money and so these tax collectors they betrayed their own people

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So they've been cast out of the circle already. They're outside of the faith also So when

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Jesus is telling this if you go through these steps You have given ample time for repentance

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Restoration is the purpose Because these are unbelievers Right Gentiles tax collectors outside of the faith within our context but by rejecting

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They are proving themselves to not be in the faith again

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Unrepentance, that's it. That's the only one This right here is the process that Jesus lays out these four steps that the

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Apostle Paul has in mind as he's writing to the church at Corinth in our passage in 1st Corinthians 5

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Look back at our text in 1st Corinthians 5 now now that we see that within the context

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Paul says in verse 3 in 1st Corinthians 5 For though absent in body, you know, remember he's in Ephesus.

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He's not there in Corinth For though absent in body. I am present in spirit and as if present

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I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing He's talking about this this man who is living in this ungodly lifestyle now one

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Paul did have authority that none of us do And Paul was an apostle.

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There are no more Apostles So could he have pronounced judgment on this man without the steps that Jesus just gave us?

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I don't believe so I don't believe Paul would have done this even with whatever authority he had

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Because everything that Paul does you have to you have to watch is is as an example for all of us believers

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Right. He doesn't abuse any power or authority that he has. I Believe that this process had already begun.

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I Think I think he's being informed about the steps that have already been taken I think that the process of these four steps or the three steps had already been done and the church had refused to follow through with the last and Hardest step and that's why they're arrogant

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They have gone through these steps. This man's been confronted. He refuses to repent the whole church knows about it

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He refuses to repent and now in their arrogance they've decided we're not gonna obey what

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Jesus said So Paul pushes them into it look at verse 4

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Says when you are assembled Now remember, this is a churchwide process when you are assembled as the as the

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Ecclesia that we talked about last week the church in The name of the

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Lord Jesus and my spirit is present With the power of our

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Lord Jesus Why does he say that because he's tying us back to Jesus his own command

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He's saying he's the head of the church in whom we have the authority to do So not only when you gather as the

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Ecclesia as the church you have authority, but I'm there with you Spiritually because I'm part of the universal church with you

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I'm with you in spirit because I affirm what you're doing Affirm what the position of where we're going with this that this man is in sin and that this process needs to be stepped and We're doing it within the authority of the head of the church

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You can no longer pretend that you're the head of the church and make those decisions You must obey the true head of the church, which is

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Christ So with the power of our Lord Jesus verse 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction

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Of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord Wow That seems harsh, doesn't it? Paul just told them to deliver this man over to Satan Paul says the same thing when he writes to Timothy in first Timothy 120

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He when he's talking about Hymenaeus and Alexander he says whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

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What does this mean? What what is Paul saying to the church to do what does he say he just did with those two people

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What is this? What is he talking about? Hand them over to Satan Well in order to understand this we need to kind of go back to a little bit of what we talked about last night last

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Week, what is the church? What is the church here on earth? The kingdom of heaven right the kingdom of heaven is in me it's in you it's in you it's in all of us

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It's in the presence. We're in our embassy right here in a foreign land, right? We're in the domain of darkness, but this is the domain of light.

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We're in the kingdom, right? So what is the church the kingdom of heaven and what is everything on earth except the church the kingdom of darkness?

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right Who rules this kingdom? Satan Now ultimately

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God rules everything Satan can't make a single move Satan has to go to God. Hey, can I do this?

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He's like Yeah, you can do that. Don't go this far I'm in charge.

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He knows who's in charge But God has given him domain in the domain of darkness here as he rolls

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Roams around like a like a prowling lion seeking who he can devour right?

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So this is his kingdom and Satan has no domain within the church

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So when Paul says hand them over to Satan What's he saying?

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Remove them from the church Remove them from the domain of light from this

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Representation of the kingdom of God on earth you remove them from the church for what purpose?

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He says so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord You see unbelievers find themselves

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Comfortable within the church at times don't they? They've prayed the prayer. They've been baptized.

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They are comfortable in their minds. They serve they show up They're good

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They just live in a little bit of sin over here living a little sin over there and if we

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Just allow them to live in sin Or we coddle that sin essentially was what the church at Corinth is doing with this man

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Making them think it's okay. They will never be confronted with their desperate need for the

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Savior We've allowed them to be comfortable in their sin

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How loving is that How loving is that to watch somebody that's in our midst that we care about we look at a person

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They're sitting inside of a burning house, and they're dead asleep How loving is that?

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That's not loving and that's what churches are doing when they just tolerate Unrepentant sin within their congregation.

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They're letting their person set in that burning house saying well. It'd be rude to wake them up How arrogant?

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This is what Christ himself has prescribed, and he's the head of the church

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So we don't practice church discipline for the purpose of shunning. It's not for the purpose of acting like we have it all together

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It's not to scare everyone into compliance and make them do as we think they ought to do.

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It's the most loving Unifying thing we can do as a church Because its purpose is restoration

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Because we go to a brother and we follow these steps and we gain a brother because now they repent and they've proven themselves to be part of the household of faith, or we've exposed the fact that they're not and we don't let them sit there in that comfortable

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We call them to action repent Repent turn to Christ You're not a part of this and we're going to make it known you can't be a part of this

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You're not welcome to this table. You're not welcome in quinoneal with us That is not your place because you're not a part of this you have not been brought into the universal church

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You have not been brought to Christ in faith and repentance You are an open unrepentant sin and we cannot assume that you have a place at this table

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And we're going to love you enough to tell you that in Hopes that you may repent and be saved

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How loving it's a beautiful thing isn't it? there's so much beauty in church discipline and We do this out of a spirit of love and gentleness.

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We never do this out of a spirit of condemnation and anger do we? Paul's told the church in Galatia in chapter 6 verse 1

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He says brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of Gentleness then

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I'm reminded of what the writer of Hebrew says in chapter 12 verse 11 He says for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant

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But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those that have been trained by it.

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It's a beautiful thing We're not sending people out to shun them right somebody gets church disciplined in this church

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How are we to treat them? What did Jesus say treat them as a? Gentile or tax collector does that mean to shun them no means to treat them like you do your last neighbor

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Love them You don't have fellowship with them. Those aren't your best friends Your closest relationship should be the brothers and sisters right that's koinonia.

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That's that's fellowship But it doesn't mean you shun them I will we've run into this before where I've had people they're like man

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I ran into so -and -so at the grocery store, and I like panicked and like turned around I didn't I didn't know if I should like not talk to them or say hi

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I don't know what what what the procedure here is love them Greet them like you do your lost neighbor and share the good news of the gospel with them and call them to repentance and faith

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That's what you do with a lost person, right? That's how we're to treat them now mind you

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I don't have time for this today, but there are other levels There are false teachers there are people and there are passages that I had in my notes and I just can't get to today that tell us not to Have anything to do with a certain person not to eat with them not to sit with them not to greet them not to have

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Anything to do with them, but that's another situation Those are people who still claim to be brothers and refuse to accept the discipline

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All right, those are people who haven't been cast out of the church All right, they're acting like brothers, but still living in godlessness

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That's for another day But I want us to understand that a true church will have this within Within who they are

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This will be in the heart of who they are if they love their people if they want to obey Christ the way they say

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They want to obey Christ. They will follow all four steps that Jesus has prescribed here Because it is the most loving unifying thing that could possibly be done in the church and We pray that God would use it in our midst.

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I Know personally of steps one and two happening numerous times and praise God we gained a brother we gained a sister

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But one of these days steps three and four are coming It's unfortunate, but they are and we need to be unified in love

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And this is ultimately because of the great sacrifice of our Savior, isn't it? Jesus That what representation of love is more than you lay down his life

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Right for those that were not friends, but enemies Christ set his love and affection upon us before the foundations of the world

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He's he came and lived the life We could not live and died the death that we deserved and rose from the grave and a resurrection that we could never

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Accomplish so that we could share in that great resurrection and that's what we long for for everyone is to be a part of that and Love and unity as a church

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This is the gospel Amen Amen, let's prepare now to go to the table

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If you are in the faith You are welcome to this table Pastor Jeremiah will be over here.

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I will be over here and I want you to know I know we've said it before but I want you to know that this is a time that if you need to talk

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We're that's why we're up here. Don't think you're interrupting us from taking the taking the tape going to the table this is a time if you want intercessory prayer if you just need to have a

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Conversation if you want to talk about the gospel if God is working in your heart and you're convicted come talk to us

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We're here for you. We want to talk to you and help you pray through and work through situations

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That's what we're here for Amen, amen So let's pray now that God would be honored in our time as we go

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Partaking the Lord's Supper in these elements dear Heavenly Father Lord. I pray that you would work in us as a church

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God, I pray that you would continue to mold us and form us into the image of your son

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God I pray that you would Allow us to be obedient to you and what you've prescribed what you've commanded for Scripture But that we wouldn't do it out of just sheer

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Motion and steps but that we would carry it out out of a out of a heart of love and obedience compassion for each other

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God I pray that as we go to the table and we see the word present that we would be reminded of your great sacrifice for us

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Your blood that was spilled Your body that was given for us Lord I pray that we would we would worship you as we partake in and that taste

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Lord I I pray that we would we would look around at each other and see this great unity

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Of a body that we would know of the great feast ahead That we would be reminded

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Of what's to come for us All to the glory of your great name