5. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judges. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. This is God's word, infallible and inspired. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Our text is verses one through five, which I'll read again. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, the situation in the church at Corinth was dire. There were many evils and sins into which the saints in the church at Corinth had fallen. One of the chief sins into which he had fallen was her failure to exercise church discipline against a man who was commonly known to be living with his father's wife. And the church at Corinth was at such a low spiritual state that she was determined to live with that sin in her midst. She was determined not to take that sin in hand by exercising church discipline against the man who was living in fornication. And so low was the spiritual condition at Corinth that while the church at Corinth was determined to excuse that sin, she herself was puffed up with pride about it and even gloried in it, as verse 6 indicates. Your glorying is not good. Her glorying went something like this. Yes, we know there's a man here who lives in gross fornication. He lives impenitently in gross fornication, but we are a church of love, and we understand the struggle of the sinner. We understand that we're all sinners anyway. And so we, showing this love to him, are going to leave him as he is, and not put him out as the word of God requires. Paul comes to the church at Corinth and says to her, Your glorying is not good. That's pride on your part. What you ought rather to do in love for God, in love for his truth, in love for holiness, in love for his spirit, in love for the brother who's sinning, is to take away from among yourselves that wicked person and put away from among yourselves that wicked person. What Paul calls the church at Corinth to do is to exercise church discipline. And that's the calling of the New Testament church today, to exercise church discipline. Church discipline is very, very important in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So important is it that it is one of the marks of a true church of Jesus Christ, as the Belgic Confession in Articles 28 and 29 teaches. The three marks of a true church are the pure preaching of the gospel, the doctrines of the scripture, second, the faithful administration of the sacraments, and third, the proper exercise of church discipline. It's a mark of the true church. So that a church of Jesus Christ who has Jesus Christ living in her and dwelling with her is a church that exercises church discipline. A church that is departing from the Lord Jesus Christ and his truth is a church that will not and does not and cannot exercise church discipline. So important is this mark of the true church that at two occasions In the life of a denomination, the churches of a denomination ask each other about exercising church discipline. The first occasion is the annual visit of the church visitors, two ministers appointed by classes to visit each council of each church in the classes. And one of the questions that the church visitors are required to ask of the council Every single year is this, is church discipline exercised faithfully in this congregation? And every single year when those church visitors come to our congregation, our council answers, yes, church discipline is faithfully exercised here. The second occasion that the churches ask each other about this is at every single meeting of classes. Before the classist begins, or just after the classist is declared constituted, the president of the classist will ask each consistory represented there four questions, rather. And one of those questions is this, is church discipline exercised in your church? And publicly before the classist, the elders of this congregation answer every classist meeting, yes, church discipline is faithfully exercised in our congregation. That's how important as churches, as a denomination, we take this mark of the church, that we ask each other regularly, do you exercise church discipline? The importance of church discipline is also evident from the fact that our church order uses an entire section of its four sections to explain church discipline. The last section of the church order contains all of the rules and the procedures for the proper exercise of discipline in this Christian church. Church discipline, as the Belgic Confession calls it, or Christian discipline, as the Heidelberg Catechism calls it, is of major importance to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. What we're going to do in this brief series then on church discipline is look at what this church discipline is all about. There are threats to every mark of the church at every point in the history of the church. The devil wants to take away the pure preaching of the The devil wants to take away the proper administration of the sacraments. The devil wants to take away the exercise of church discipline. And so it is good for the Church of Jesus Christ from time to time to be reminded of the importance of these things. And so we have a brief series on this truth of church discipline. Tonight we're going to look more at the nature of church discipline from 1 Corinthians 5. In subsequent sermons, we'll look at repentance under church discipline from 2 Corinthians 2 and 7. We'll look at the steps of church discipline and the way of Matthew 18 from Matthew 18. And we'll look at our calling towards those who have been excommunicated from various passages that explain that reality. Tonight, We turn to 1 Corinthians 5 and the truth of church discipline. That's our theme then as well, church discipline. In the first place, consider what it is. In the second place, consider how it is to be done. And the how there doesn't mean the steps of Matthew 18 or the steps of when you go to classes or not. We'll get to that later, Lord willing. But this refers to the spirit and character in which church discipline is to be exercised. And then third, we'll look at the why. And there is the purpose of God in church discipline. Church discipline, what, how, and why. Church discipline is the judgment of the church against one who is walking impenitently in sin, who is a member of that church, either by baptism or by confession of faith. Church discipline is an action that the church takes against the impenitent sinner. And that's evident from the history in the church at Corinth. Paul refers in verse one to a common report among the Corinthians And that common report does not mean this, that it is commonly reported about you in other places that there is fornication in your midst, but that among yourselves, it's commonly known, it's commonly heard that this fornication is going on. The specific sin to which Paul refers here is indeed fornication, sexual impurity of a particular man who was a member of that church. In the city of Corinth, sexual promiscuity was rampant. The Greek culture at that time was filled to the brim with fornication and immorality. So that fornication was even part of the worship of the pagan gods in the city of Corinth. But this was a man in the church who was living in such fornication, such gross fornication, that it became commonly known among the members of the church. The particular form of this man's fornication was heinous. It was gross, even in the eyes of the pagans around them. This man had his father's wife. It does not say this man had his mother, which would be another way to refer to his father's wife if it was his father's first wife from whom he was born, but apparently refers to his stepmother. His father's wife, and apparently this woman, was not a member of the church, but was pagan, for Paul calls the church only to put out this man, this one man, through Christian discipline. The main aspect of this man's sin was not the particularly heinous nature of it, but the impenitence of it. The man continued in this sin, And that's evident from the end of verse one, where we read that one should have his father's wife. And the tense of that verb have could be translated this way, that one should be having his father's wife. He should continually be having, he should go on having his father's wife. The man was impenitent in his sin and continued to live in this sin. The man's own impenitence in this sin made the sin of public knowledge in the church at Corinth. It is reported commonly among you, that's where to put the words among you, it is reported commonly among you that there is fornication. Fornication is reported. The kind of fornication is that a man continually has his father's wife. By identifying this sin as requiring church discipline, Paul does not mean that fornication is the only sin that the church disciplines for. And that's evident from later in the chapter when in verse 11 Paul writes, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such in one know not to eat. Paul lists all kinds of sins there. The key to church discipline is not which particular sin is being committed, but the key is impenitence in that sin. A man may fall into the sin of fornication and repent, and by his actions demonstrate his repentance. That man is not put under church discipline. A man may fall into the sin of idolatry and repent and by his actions demonstrate his repentance. He is not put under church discipline. But the man who continues in his sin and is impenitent by that continuation is the object of church discipline. Paul goes so far as to call this man who was impenitent in his sin a wicked person. That's the end of verse 13, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Paul refers there to the spiritual character of that man, which spiritual character is evident in his actions. Paul earlier in the chapter had referred to the one who hath done this deed, verse two, And then also verse three, him that hath so done this deed, by his deeds of continuing fornication, he revealed himself to be of a wicked spiritual character. And that's the key for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ then too in determining who must be put under discipline. It is the impenitent man or the impenitent woman or the impenitent young person who continues on in sin. The action that the church is to take against the impenitent is church discipline. And that action of church discipline is described in the passage as taking away that man from you and putting away that man from you. That word, that same word in the original is used in verse 2 and in verse 13. In verse 2, that word is passive, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. In verse 13, the word is active, but it's the same word, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Take him away and put him away. And the force of that one word in the original language is that that impenitent man be removed from the congregation. He be removed from the midst of the congregation. He be taken away from among you who gather here and he be put away from among yourselves who are members of the church. The process of church discipline, which is a process, is the process of putting away and taking away a man from the midst of the church. That means, practically, that church discipline has two parts to it, as far as its nature is concerned. That the end of church discipline in the first place is that the man's name be removed from the membership roles of the church. He is no longer counted as a baptized or communicant member of the Church of Jesus Christ. His name does not appear in the membership directory. His name, more importantly, does not appear in the papers of the individuals of the church. He is removed from the roles of the church. But second, and more importantly, there is a real spiritual separation put between that man and the church of Jesus Christ. He is taken away from among you, and he is put away from among you. There's a spiritual removing of that man so that he is no longer a part of the body of believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There may be other connections or relationships in which that man stands to us yet. We may go to work with him as a coworker at the office or at the plant. He may be a neighbor on our street. He may be a blood relative of us, but he is put away from among us. He is taken away from among the spiritual assembly of the people of God. He is put out and removed by church discipline from the church of the Lord Jesus Christ as long as he remains impenitent. The reason for this putting away for his being removed and spiritually separated from the church is found in the identity of the church of Jesus Christ. Who are we as the church? And that's a very important question in this whole matter of church discipline. as Paul himself emphasizes and is at pains to emphasize. Paul says in verse 2 that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you, from among you. And verse 13, therefore put away from among yourselves, from among yourselves that wicked person. There is something about you and being among you to use the words of the text that is special and that is important and that demands that that impenitent man may not be among you anymore. What is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Church of God. Those who are gathered according to God's eternal decree of election in time brought together by his word and spirit who assemble together in the worship of the church for fellowship with God and with one another. That church of the Lord Jesus Christ is sanctified in Jesus Christ with every meaning of sanctified. All of the washing and cleansing that belongs to that word in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the church that's cleansed in his blood from all her sin. And that church of the Lord Jesus Christ is where Jesus Christ himself dwells. That's what the church is. It's the dwelling place of God. It's the body of the Lord Jesus Christ which has communion with her head. to use the language of the text now, Jesus Christ dwells among you. Jesus Christ is present among you yourselves as the church of God. He's here now tonight in this body of believers. He's here by his word, which he proclaims. He is here by his spirit. He dwells in your hearts by faith and in mine. He unites us to himself so that we are very really one plant with him and one body of him. The Lord Jesus Christ dwells with you. He is in our midst in his love, his grace, his compassion, his mercy, covering all our iniquities in his blood, renewing us by his spirit, speaking a word of peace to our hearts. is among you and among you yourselves. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is among you, that impenitent man who will not repent of his sins but lives in them and goes on in them, he may not be here among you. This is not an assembly for the impenitent. This is an assembly for those who belong by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to him. And so Paul calls the church in light of who she is, says the body of Jesus Christ, put away that wicked man from among yourselves and mourn that he may be taken away from among you. That calling of the apostle of Jesus Christ to exercise church discipline is sobering. It catches us almost, we would say, off guard because the calling to put away a man from among your midst or a woman or any impenitent person is a calling to deliver that impenitent man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And when we see that in verse five, we start, I need to read it again, deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That's what church discipline means. When the church of Jesus Christ comes to that decision finally, where she says after the process of church discipline, you are excommunicated from the body of Christ. When that happens already in silent censure, And a man is not allowed to come to the table of the Lord, though his name is not announced yet, and though his sin is not announced yet to anyone. When a man is forbidden the sacraments and finally excommunicated from the church, that's the church delivering such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. It has to be that. That's the only thing it can mean to put someone out from among yourselves. Because here in the church of Jesus Christ is where Christ dwells. Here he lives by his grace and love and mercy. Here he speaks to his church in his compassion for her, the word of the gospel of life. Outside of this church, the Lord Jesus Christ does not speak in love. Outside of his people the Lord Jesus Christ does not dwell in mercy. The Lord does not dwell with the wicked unbelievers. The Lord does not dwell with the reprobate. And for a man to be put out of the church then means that he is delivered outside that love of the Lord Jesus Christ to Satan. That does not mean That for all of the time that an impenitent man lived in the church, he did have the love of Christ. And that being put out, he loses the love of Christ. If that man is an elect, then God will use this church discipline to restore him. And he had the love of Christ all through as an elect of God. But if this man is a reprobate, then he never had the love of God. though he lived in the midst of the church where the love of God is proclaimed to the people of God, to the elect, to those who are chosen in Christ and believe in him and their seed. The man is put out of the church and by that delivered to Satan. And he is delivered to Satan through church discipline for the destruction of the flesh. The idea of the destruction of the flesh is that it is miserable, even in one's body, as well as in one's soul, to be under the control of Satan. Satan is no benevolent Lord, as our Lord Jesus Christ is a benevolent Lord. Satan is cruel. Satan hates men and hates women as the creatures of God. And although Satan causes, under the sovereign providence of God, many, many to follow him, Satan hates all of those who follow him. He does not have their interest in his heart. He does not love them and desire to give them good things. He desires to ensnare them and destroy them. That's how Satan views all of his followers. How much more does he hate the church? And all of those who go by the name church. All of those who live for a time under the confession of the church. How much he hates the church. And when a man is put out of the church and delivered to Satan, how Satan rejoices to take hold of that man and destroy him and break him in the sight even of the members of the church. Satan is cruel. He hates all men and all women and hates especially those who have gone by the name Christian. This is sobering, so sobering that we have to read it again to be sure of it. Deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. The spiritual implication of this is that God gives over that impenitent man to his sin so that that man goes further into his sin and becomes even hardened in that sin. And that explains why it happens that when a church begins to exercise church discipline upon an impenitent member, that member becomes very hard in his response to that discipline. And even more rebellious in his response to the Word of God that is brought unto him. Part of the explanation for that hardening, that increased rebellion, is that he is being delivered over unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. The Church of Jesus Christ must be aware of what it is doing when it exercises church discipline. The Church of Jesus Christ is not hoping that the man who is excommunicated has a happy life. The Church does not hope that that man's way will be smooth, that he is spared from tears that he is spared from afflictions. The Church of Jesus Christ that exercises church discipline is consciously in obedience to the Lord, delivering a man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. She is putting him out of the Church of Jesus Christ, where alone the love of God reigns. that exercises church discipline and obedience to the word of the Lord's apostle, must be prepared that this be her prayer and this be her desire, that the man be delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that he may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ and brought to repentance by that remedy. of church discipline. This is the what of church discipline. Now we come to the how of church discipline, not the steps or the announcements, but the spiritual how of church discipline. Church discipline is to be exercised in love. The Church of Jesus Christ pursues church discipline with zeal and with vigor and without flinching in love for Jehovah God and for our neighbor in the church. That's evident from Paul's rebuke of the Corinthians in verse 2. And ye are puffed up, says Paul, and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." Love for the Lord Jesus Christ is a love that mourns when a man continues to have his father's wife. Love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the law of the Lord Jesus Christ which says thou shalt not commit adultery. Love mourns when that law is broken and when a man goes on impenitently in that sin. And love for the neighbor mourns when this sin is commonly known and reported in the midst of the church. Love for the neighbor that desires his deliverance from that sin, which is alarmed at his showing signs of being already under the control of Satan and doing the bidding of Satan and not the bidding of the Lord. Love for the neighbor mourns over sin. And love for God and love for the neighbor mourns when any of the members of the church fall into sin and are impenitent in that sin. Over my own sins, the sin of a brother or a sister in the church is so humbling to the child of God who recognizes but for God's grace. There go I, and there go I with more vigor than that man himself is committing that sin. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ mourns sin, does not rejoice in sin, does not cover up sin, but mourns that Church at Corinth, on the other hand, was puffed up. That's the only other thing to be. If the Church of Jesus Christ does not love the Lord and his truth, does not love his law, does not love the brother, that's being puffed up against God, against his word, against his truth, and against the brother. It's sheer pride. And it's pride that's silly. That's ridiculous. And Paul uses a description here of that pride to show how silly it is. He's puffed up. He's puffed up. It's like an animal who will raise its hackles and have all its fur stand on end to look bigger than he is. That's the equivalent of what men in the church were doing in Corinth. They were puffed up. They were flexing, puffing out their chest, puffing up their cheeks even to look big, to look important. And it's so silly, so ridiculous that you want to take your fingers and pop the cheeks and blow out all of that air. That's the pride, the silliness of the pride that the Church of Corinth displayed. She was proud over against God, over against his word. and over against her neighbor. Where Jesus Christ dwells in his church, the church hearing of sin is broken in heart. There was so much mourning on the part of the Apostle Paul as he wrote this letter to the Corinthians. And that mourning comes out in verse two You should have mourned instead of being proud. But that mourning comes out especially in 2 Corinthians, the next letter he wrote, where he says to the Corinthians in more than one place, I was sorry for a time. I mourned as I wrote that letter to you. I'm not sorry for the result, which was this man's repentance. That's the rest of the story in 2 Corinthians 2. But I mourned. As I wrote this letter to you, that's the response of the Church of Jesus Christ that knows sin. Instead of turning her face against the Word of God and against her neighbor, the Church of Jesus Christ, with love for her Lord, mourns sin and her own sin in the Church. In the second place for how the Church is to exercise Church discipline The church is to make a judgment. And both parts of that are important. The church is to make a judgment. Let's start with the idea of the judgment. Paul indicates that in verse three, when he says, for I verily as absent in body, but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has so done this deed. Paul is not saying there, I'm making a rash judgment because I'm not there, I'm far away from you. Paul is saying the report here is so commonly known and so well established that the judgment is already made. I make this judgment already now, though I'm not with you in body, I am with you in spirit, but I make this judgment. And by using that word judgment, Paul means that the church also must make a judgment. The judgment that the church must make is whether a man is living impenitently in sin. The church must take the standard that God has given, which is his word, and the church must apply that word to the circumstance at hand. That's what the church at Corinth should have done. The word of God says thou shalt not commit adultery. Here is a man who's living impenitently in adultery. The church must make a judgment on the basis of the word of God. This man is sinning. And if he does not repent of this sin, then we must proceed to put him away from ourselves and take him away from us by removing him from the church. Paul further indicates the standard of this judgment in verse four when he says in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and that word name in the Bible as we've seen before often means the revelation of someone or something. The name of God for example is not just a handle that we use to call upon God, but it's the revelation of God. He is God Almighty. He is Jehovah, the I am that I am. He is his names. His names are his revelation of himself. And so it is here with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ means according to the truth and the standard of our Lord Jesus Christ. When a man lives impenitently against the standard of the name of Christ, that is the revelation of Jesus Christ contained in the scriptures, the church must judge him and put him out of the church. Our Heidelberg Catechism explains that further in Lord's Day 31 on the keys of the kingdom of heaven. One of those keys is Christian discipline. Question 85 asks, how is the kingdom of heaven shut and opened by Christian discipline? Thus, when according to the command of Christ, those who under the name of Christians maintain doctrines or practices inconsistent therewith and will not, after having been often brotherly admonished, renounce their errors and wicked course of life, are complained of to the church, or to those who are thereunto appointed by the Church. The Heidelberg Catechism shows that the name of Christ, the standard by which we judge, is this revelation of Christ, a man who is deviant in doctrine or deviant in practice and who will not repent, must be judged by the Church. Then the second part of that idea, the church must make a judgment. Look at the church now. It is the body of Christ that is called to make this judgment. The apostle Paul says, I've made a judgment, but the apostle Paul does not say by that, he's therefore put out by me. Even the apostle of the Lord, would not put this man out, recognizing that the authority for putting a man out belonged to the church. And so he says to the church, when ye are gathered together, and I'll be gathered there with you in spirit, not in some mystical way that Paul would appear to them there, but in his own heart and mind, It was as if he were present in Corinth, seeing everything going on. In his own heart and mind he says, I'm there with you, but when ye are gathered together, deliver such and one unto Satan. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ must make this judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ himself through her makes this judgment. Now practically that works out with the elders of the church taking the lead in this Christian or church discipline. The elders are called to receive the charge of sin. The elders are called to investigate the charges of sin. The elders are called to judge according to the standard of the word of God with regard to that sin. The elders are called to make the final decision to excommunicate and even before that to bar from the table of the Lord. The elders take the lead in that, but that does not mean that Christian discipline is the work of the elders alone. The elders do that as representatives of the church, of the whole congregation. And that's reflected in reformed church discipline. through the announcements that will be made to the congregation, as well as through the calling of Matthew 18, for individuals to rebuke one another, and finally lay it before the church if there is impenitence, and in the acquiescence of the congregation to the judgment that the consistory passes in excommunicating a man from the church, by that the whole church of Jesus Christ excommunicates and puts out the impenitent sinner. How is the church to discipline in love for Christ and the neighbor by the church making a judgment, and the church is to do this as a spiritual exercise by the spirit of Christ in her midst. The Church of Jesus Christ is not left on her own by the Lord in his call to exercise church discipline. The Church of Jesus Christ is empowered by the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that it is the power and authority of Jesus Christ himself in operation in church discipline. Paul indicates that in verse four at the end, when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is it that makes us love God and love his law, but the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts? Who is it that makes us love the neighbor with a love so keen, so zealous that we're willing even to go to that neighbor and warn him, which may very well be to our hurt, of the sin which he is committing. Why, it's the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. The church of Jesus Christ is not on her own in this sobering calling of church discipline, but is empowered by the spirit of the Lord who dwells with his church and who calls her Put away from yourselves that wicked person. And then fourth, regarding how the church is called to exercise church discipline obediently. The Lord Jesus Christ, through his apostle, commands his church, put him away. Deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Church of Jesus Christ is tempted to be disobedient to that command of the Lord's Apostle. Perhaps the temptation to disobedience comes from my own shortcomings and my own sins because I'm living impenitently in sin. And I look at that brother or that sister in the church and think to myself, if we go through with his discipline, then that means we must go through with my discipline. And I don't want that reproof. I want to continue as I am. And so I'm not going to go through with that discipline of that brother. Perhaps the temptation to be disobedient when it comes to discipline is our fear of the face of men. Those who are put out are people we know. people we love, people we go to church with and have gone to church with. Church discipline is not exercised upon strangers, but upon men and women whose faces we cherish and whose faces we know, and whose relatives perhaps we know, and whose friends perhaps we're friends with, so that we're tempted to be disobedient by saying, but what will happen to all of these relationships I have with all of these people if we go through with church discipline? There are temptations to be disobedient to the command of the Lord. That disobedience to the command of the Lord is being puffed up and is a disregard for the law and the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ tempted to be disobedient must hear the word, put away that wicked person from among you. The power for that obedience is the spirit of Christ who dwells in this church and who works in us alone for our Lord Jesus Christ and in honor of his face, more than the honor of the face of any man. Why? Why must there be church discipline in the first place to preserve the church? That's really outside of our text a little bit. It's verses six and following. but it's good to mention it, Paul says, a little lovin' lovins the whole lump. The idea is a little sin left unchecked in the church, tolerated by the church, permitted by the church, will soon spread to the whole church. The whole lump will be infected, will be lovin' with that lovin' of wickedness, that lovin' of malice, The Church of Jesus Christ does well to heed that warning and that purpose of Christian discipline. If the church thinks that she is being kind to the sinner by not disciplining him, then that church must know in her own lifetime, or certainly in the lifetime of her children, the church will be infected from top to bottom with that same sin. The way that often works is this, that sin that's tolerated soon begins to bring pressure on the pulpit not to say anything about that sin, not to expose that sin, so that a generation grows up without knowing that that's a wicked sin forbidden by the Lord. And that generation runs in the sin that her parents only tolerated in the church. A little lovin' lovin's the whole lump, but when that wicked person is put out, then the church is kept free from that sin spreading by the grace of God. A second purpose of Christian discipline is the salvation of the sinner. The salvation of the wicked one who did this deed. The salvation of the man who was having continually his father's wife. The salvation of the sinner. That's what Paul says in verse 5. Deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's purpose is not to save every single sinner who's put under discipline, all of the reprobate, all of the carnal, who are not of the seed of God and the seed of Jesus Christ. They are only delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh and are destroyed body and soul in that deliverance. But the elect of God are saved by Christian discipline saved by the word of God that is pronounced against that sinner, you must be outside of Christ and outside of us as the body of Christ. The child of God who is impenitent for a time is saved by this key of the kingdom, which it pleases God to use to open the kingdom of heaven through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The way that works then is this, the church delivers that man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh and he's broken. His flesh is wrecked. He has no peace outside of the assembly where his Lord Jesus Christ lives and reigns. Broken. in his flesh, having been delivered to Satan, God comes to him and turns him, brings him back to the Lord and his gospel so that that man says, what a fool I was. We'll see that kind of repentance in the next passage in 2 Corinthians 2 and 7. He repents by the gracious operation of God and is brought in to the church where his Lord lives, dwells with him as with all of the members of the body. And the third purpose of church discipline is that the glory of God's name be preserved. Paul indicates that in verse 1 when he says the kind of fornication that's going on in the church Corinth isn't even named among the Gentiles in that city of Corinth that is saturated with immorality and fornication even the Gentiles those wicked Greeks don't have their father's wife but in the church there's a man who does What does that do to the name of God? And for every sin in which a child of God lives in penitent, or in which someone lives in penitent, being called a Christian, in every sin, the name of God is blasphemed. The wicked look on, and they say, even we know that these things are wrong. We know them deep down, at least, even though we live in them. But you in the church do the same thing with impunity. What use is the church and what use is your God and what use is your Savior who allows those kinds of things? The name of God is blasphemed. The church of Jesus Christ is called, put out, that wicked man, not only that he may be saved, but so that all who look on the church of the Lord Jesus Christ see that this is an assembly where the Lord Jesus Christ rules and reigns by his word and by his spirit. The situation in Corinth was dire, not the least of which because the church failed to exercise church discipline. Thank God for his word regarding this key of the kingdom. this mark of the true church, and let us pray to God as a congregation that he would so grace us that we may exercise it to his glory and the salvation of his people. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word to us tonight. Bless it to our hearts. We thank thee for this remedy, extreme though it is of Christian discipline, We thank Thee for the remedy, though it is very difficult. We beseech Thee, Father, that Thou wilt give us faithfulness by Thy grace and by the work of Thy Spirit in our hearts. We thank Thee for our Savior who dwells here with us, who loves us, draws us to himself in love, and draws us to each other in love. In that love, may we exercise this church discipline. Hear our prayer, forgive our sins, for Jesus' sake, amen. Psalter number 317, 317. This is, or this could be the song of one who was under church discipline and restored by it It is the song of all of us by the grace of God at the end of stanza four, I shall not die, but live and tell the wonders of the Lord. He hath not given my soul to death, but chastened and restored. Let's sing the stanzas one and four, one and four of 317. Then all good saints on earth will thank his everlasting love. In my distress, I call upon him. Praise ye, answer me. Reward my heart, delight my soul. when God's man is strong to save and do with all things well. I shall not die but live and tell the wonders of the Lord. He hath not giv'n my soul to them, Praise ye the Lord, ye hosts of hope in yonder heavenly height, and bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in his grace delight. By all his creatures' lives his name be honored, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.