This wonderful Lord's Day, we thank you for the worship service we had. Dear God, we learned so much about you and about life through the scripture. We know that in you, Lord, is our life and being and that your word is without error and it addresses all areas of life. We pray now, dear God, as we address another difficult subject in our Sunday school lesson, that you would give us illuminating grace. Enlighten us, dear God, and teach us that we may better understand the practices and marks of a healthy church, that we may apply them here at Grace and Truth. In Christ's name, amen. All right, so it's been a few weeks. I know that it's a Sunday school schedule. It's kind of been up and down. I almost find it's difficult to do every week, but I do enjoy when we have this time together. So today we'll be looking at the next mark in nine marks of a healthy church. I believe we're on the sixth mark right now, and that is the mark of biblical church discipline. Biblical Church discipline. I don't know if you were able to read the chapter or not, but we'll be going through this and kind of just looking at some of this. And before we open up, I want to once again kind of just draw you guys out. in what your thoughts are of church discipline, what your experiences were, negative or positive, and what you're coming into this, what preconceived notions you're coming into this. And if you're a member, if you've just become a member, then you've taken the membership course, you've read our booklet on church discipline, so you're probably, it's fresh in your mind from recently. But I'd like to just open up and hear from you guys. What are your thoughts on biblical church discipline, and negative or positive? Nobody. I thought about this the other day, and I'm not even keeping up with your book, so forgive me for that, please. But it dawned on me that, you know, I was reading about, you know, you have a right or you have a responsibility Yes. Right. Very good. And a rebuke is certainly part of church discipline. Absolutely. Um, we all need to be corrected because if we didn't, we'd be perfect. Wouldn't we? And so, um, somebody once wrote that our image of ourselves is as accurate as if you were to go to the funny house at the carnival and look at yourself in one of those funny mirrors. That's about as accurate as our own view of ourself is. Right? But other people see us for who we are. They see things we don't see. They see our failures and imperfections. And so it is actually loving that our brothers and sisters in Christ do see things that aren't right and they correct us for it. Right? That's a loving thing to do. Okay. I think it's necessary because it makes us accountable. Right. Right. I mean, it's accountability. And let me just preface all this, because when we talk about church discipline, we're talking about those who are part of the membership. Our last class, we dealt with membership. Who are those on the inside, and who are those on the outside? who are members, who are non-members. And Marcello called me up the next day and said, Bob, I wasn't convinced, but now I'm fully convinced that church membership is biblical. And I was encouraged by that. But we understood the basis of church membership, who's in, who's out. And church discipline, obviously, you can't discipline someone who's outside the church, who's not a member. Discipline is only for those who are in the church. right nine marks talks about two different kinds of discipline corrective discipline and and formal discipline or or or I forgot the term he used but but there's a sense where there's a corrective discipline on a regular basis coming to church in here in The word preach, you're being corrected and rebuked by the message you hear. You're being corrected and rebuked by the Bible studies that you hear. But when we talk about corrective discipline or biblical church discipline, we're talking more specifically about a personal interaction amongst each other. What would be some objections to church discipline practiced in the church today? What would be objections? What would be an objection? Well, the church shouldn't do church discipline because... What would be an objection to why it's wrong? Yeah, who are you to judge me? Go ahead. Yeah, because we don't want to lose members. Yeah, got the money coming in, right? Very good. But both of those are, you know, on one end, people will say, I mean, used to be John 3, 316 was the best known Bible verse. But I think today it's probably Matthew 7.1. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Who are you to judge me? Naturally, we don't like when people correct us and rebuke us. If you're honest with yourself, who really enjoys it? Oh, I'm so happy you've recorrected me today. When somebody corrects you, our normal response is to get irritated, because our pride and our ego is wounded. So nobody really likes being corrected or rebuked. It strikes right at the heart of sin. It strikes at the center of our ego. So yeah, I think that's correct. Who wants to be? How dare you judge me? I'll actually tell a story. There was several years ago, in the early days of Grace and Truth Church, we had a guy who attended our church, and he invited a girl and a guy who he was friends with and they came to visit the church a few times. And they were not believers. They were not Christians. They were coming to visit. And they had come to take the Lord's Supper on a couple of occasions. And you know what kind of warning I give when I give the Lord's Supper. I'm very clear. I'm very specific about who should take the Lord's Supper and who shouldn't. If you don't understand me, you're either not paying attention or something's wrong. But anyway, so this couple kept taking the Lord's Supper. So I had to have a talk with them one day because they could not keep coming to the Lord's Supper and be living in sin together. And this woman was so angry at me. How dare you judge me, she said. Let God judge me. You have no right to judge me. And of course, I explained to her that as a pastor, I'm making a judgment call based on God's word. It's not me who's judging you. It's the word of God makes these judgments, and we have to protect the order. And I gave the whole explanation, but it wasn't good enough. And her and her boyfriend left the church and never came back. And I don't regret that, because it needed to be done. It needed to be done. And so, yeah, there are times where we have to make judgment calls. That's not the same because Matthew 7.1 is talking about condemning someone or putting down someone, you know, to make yourself look big. That's totally different than making spiritual judgments, which we are called to make as believers. You know, you made a good point. Churches want to fill their pews and fill their coffers. Church discipline doesn't kind of meet that It doesn't meet that kind of qualification. So yeah, are there any other objections why church discipline people would object to it? Yeah, could be. I would agree with that. Yeah, I mean, you could be right about something, and if you come across the wrong way, you shoot yourself in the foot and won't accomplish anything. I know a thing or two about that. What are the problems when a church fails to practice church discipline? What is a problem when a church fails to practice church discipline? It becomes a joke. Kind of like what I referred to earlier, Sovereign Grace Ministries has kids being molested. Those people should have been excommunicated and turned over to the authorities, right? The Lord's favor is no longer upon it. How can you expect God's blessing? I go back to the whole Eli and his son's issue, which I referred to in my sermon. Last time we spoke, Miguel so wonderfully brought that to our attention. Well, true church discipline presupposes that the church is healthy and sound, right? Because church discipline can only be legitimate if the church is legitimate. Right? So if the church is preaching a false... And basically, the reason why church discipline is this far down, because we've covered that the signs of a healthy church are preaching the sound gospel, preaching sound doctrine, you know, carrying out the ordinances, all these other things, church membership. So, there has to be a sense that the church is healthy, it's sound, it's biblical, if you're going to practice sound church discipline. Right? So, for instance, Martin Luther, when he prostituted the Catholic Church, was issued a papal bull, and a papal bull basically declared by the Pope that I have the keys of heaven and you are outside the kingdom of heaven, Martin Luther, you have been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Now question, was Martin Luther's excommunication legitimate? Was it bona fide? No, why? because it was a false church, it was an apostate church. If anything, it was in the reverse. It was the Pope himself who was under the anathema, and it was Luther himself who had the keys to the kingdom of God. Church discipline all comes down, basically, I want you to turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16. We read this last time too, And membership and discipline kind of go hand in hand, so there's kind of some overlap here. I'll be repeating myself, but it's okay. In verse 17, Jesus answered him and said, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood is not revealed as to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of God, of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Turn again to Matthew 18, which is our text, our centerpiece text for biblical church discipline. And let's read through this and kind of get an understanding, because who lays down the orders for biblical church discipline? Man or God? God. Christ himself who builds the church. Christ himself who laid the foundation of the church. Christ himself who said that the gates of hell shall not prepare. The builder of the church himself gives the rules for the church of who's in and who's out. Listen to what he says. So how do we deal with it when there's sin in the church? Well, Jesus gives us step-by-step instruction. Verse 15 of Matthew 18. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Notice again the reference to that which is bound on earth will be bound in heaven, that which is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. The keys of the kingdom of God. Who has the keys of the kingdom of God? The church. Excellent, Marcello. No, because it's not the Pope and it's not the pastor. It's no individual. The church in itself as an entity has the keys. Because if you notice here, in the method of church discipline that Christ lays out, who has the final say of who's in and who's out? The church. It's a corporate decision. It doesn't say tell it to the elders and then let the elders excommunicate them or count them as a tax collector. It says the whole church makes this decision because the church is a community, is God's covenant community, has the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And the church binds that which is on earth, which is bound in heaven and loses that. And so essentially, if you're a sound church and you, you practice church discipline, that's essentially the same as saying, God is ratified this. He has spoken through his people. And so we want to uncover this, um, a little. All right, I want to ask the first question. What is corrective church discipline? What is? Let's get a working definition. Anybody want to take a crack at giving me a working definition in your own words of what biblical church discipline is? Go ahead, Marcello. A brother or sister does something wrong, whether it's to you personally or something you saw. You just approach the person and tell them in the nicest way possible. you're going through all the details I just wanna know what is it as a what is what does it mean to church disciplines at what is it what is the meaning of it correct okay very good anyone else to restore someone okay anyone else wanna to educate yes absolutely anyone else to enlighten okay Very good. We couldn't hear you too good either, Paul. It's for the good of the body. Well, let me give this working definition from 9marks.com. Church discipline is the process of correcting sin in the life of the congregation and its members. This can mean correcting sin through a private word of admonition. So Marcello was referencing that there. It can mean correcting sin by formally removing an individual from membership. Church discipline can be done in any number of ways, but the goal is always to correct transgressions of God's law among God's people. So the goal is to correct transgressions of God's law among God's people. We are a lawful people. We're a holy people. We're righteous. The word righteous simply means those who conform to the law of God. So if someone's a lawbreaker in the church, what did I talk about church membership, that the church is an embassy? Remember that kind of illustration I gave? And this is the kingdom of God, the government of the kingdom of God. So the government of the kingdom of God has laws. Just like the United States has laws. And if you break those laws, there's a penalty. I mean, we practice excommunication in society. Where does that take place? In prison. Prison is the removal of someone from society who has forfeited their right to be a member of that society anymore. And they're put in prison. They're separated from society. They're excommunicated from society. And it carries the same meaning. For someone to be removed physically and removed from membership of the church, we're simply declaring you are not fit to be a member of this society and being a lawbreaker, breaking God's law and bringing, you know, infamy to the name of Christ. Now, the Bible gives plenty examples of church discipline. Hebrews 12, 1-14. We just looked at Matthew 18, 15-17. Another big one is 1 Corinthians 5, 1-11, which we're going to look at in a moment. Galatians 6, 1-2. 2 Thessalonians 3, 6-15, 1 Timothy 1, 20, 1 Timothy 5, 19-20, and Titus 3, 9-11. We will only look at two of those passages for the sake of time today, and I will do so as I move on. And so the first question we need to ask about biblical church discipline is, when do we practice church discipline? When do we use this? When do we initiate? The short answer is simply when somebody sins, right? When there's sin in the camp, we deal with it. We don't overlook it. We don't brush it under the carpet. But the answer might differ depending on whether we're talking about informal or formal church discipline between private confrontations and public church-wide confrontations. Any sin, whether of a serious or non-serious nature, may elicit a private rebuke between two brothers and sisters of faith. That's not to say we should rebuke every single sin. Every time your brother or sister sins, you don't rebuke them for every little thing they do. But it's simply to say that every sin, no matter how small, falls into the realm of what two Christians may lovingly raise with one another in a private meeting and prudence depending. When we turn to the question of which sin requires formal or church-wide corrective discipline, we need to tread a little more carefully. So let me just kind of break this down in a couple of ways. There's always going to be sin. And the question is, how do you deal with it? Well, the first thing we need to do is, we're all going to make mistakes. We're all going to do dumb things. But when do we identify a pattern of sin? I want you to think about a pattern of sin. So if you come to my house one day, and I'm hanging out, and I drop an F-bomb, you'd be shocked and horrified, wouldn't you? Right. And you might just say in your shock, you may not say anything to me. You might think Bob slipped, you know, but if you see me dropping F bombs on a regular basis, what do we have there? I'm using a very explicit example, just trying to, to get a picture of it. If I'm doing it on a regular basis, what are you going to think? You're going to think there's a pattern here. Bob's language is course and unbecoming of a pastor. And so I think I need to sit down and talk to him about it. There's also a difference between public and private sin. There's sin that affects the church. And then there's sin that is private, right? There's different degrees, right? So if I'm dropping F-bombs within the four walls of my home, that's sinful, and it may affect my family. But if I'm dropping F-bombs in the church on Sunday morning, that's going to be pretty bad. And I'm using a very explicit example again. But there's difference between public sin and private sin. If I lose my temper at work, You know, if I work by myself and, you know, let's say I'm painting a wall and I mess up and I start screaming and yelling and lose my temper, that's pretty, you know, that's sinful. I need to repent and ask God for forgiveness. But if I'm losing my temper and having tantrums in church, I'm affecting the whole body. Do you see what I mean? Now, some sins in our private life trickle over into the public life of the church. right? Sometimes when believers go into business with each other, which I never recommend, sometimes that arrangement doesn't work out and the sin or the problems between two brothers can trickle over into the church life now because they're both members of the church. Now it becomes a public matter. Do you see what I'm saying? And so legally there's a sense where we have to discern where these patterns exist How many people are they affecting? And that will determine on how we deal with it. Do you see what I'm saying? So some sins, now while we have Matthew 18 right as the step one, step two, step three, and then finally excommunication, there's also another kind of grasping or understanding that some sin in its public nature might require immediate action. So for example, in my sermon today, we talked about if there's sexual abuse taking part in a church, I don't think step one and two are necessary. I don't need to sit down and say, brother, you're sinning. You need to repent. Stop sexually abusing kids. There's a sense where the gravity and the knownness of this sin is so great and so large that you expediently move and quickly move without delay to bring this person on public charges. Because to fail to do so would bring great reproach upon the church and the covenant community of God. If someone is spreading false doctrine in the church, if I have a covert, let's say Mormon in the church, who's secretly trying to convert everyone to Mormonism, I don't need to go through all the formal steps I simply need to remove that person or ask them to stop doing what you're doing or I'm gonna ask you to leave. I did that one time. Several years ago, we had a woman come into our church and she was a oneness Pentecostal. If you're not familiar with that, they basically believe in an age-old heresy called, not Molinism, I'm trying to think of it, Modelism. Modelism, all these isms and different heresies, your mind gets lost sometimes. And it's basically a denial of the Trinity. And she was going around the church basement we were in Yonkers trying to convince everyone that this was the truth and that we were wrong for believing in the Trinity. And so a couple people came up to me and said, Bob, you got to talk to this girl. So I went over and sat down and I spoke to her. And I said, listen, I don't want to listen. She was trying to convince me. I said, listen, I don't want to hear you. I said, we are Trinitarian. That's what the Bible teaches. You are welcome to come to my church. You are welcome to participate and to hear the gospel and to worship with us, but you are not welcome to continue to spread this heresy amongst our people. I said, if you can't do it, I'm going to ask you to leave. And she left and she never came back. I don't think that I did anything wrong. I left the door open. You're welcome here, but we will not accept this kind of false teaching in our church. End of story. And so we move rapidly to the fourth step. And so it takes a sense of wisdom in dealing with different things. For the most part, when we are dealing with our church discipline, it's going to be a very slow process. For the most part, in dealing with everyday sins and habits and patterns of sins in each other's lives, it will be a very slow process. And if done correctly, it will very rarely lead to excommunication. So let's kind of walk through this in how it's done. So the first step is pretty simple. There's a sin, a pattern. Again, it's not just some isolated incident. There's a pattern of sin that has developed in someone's life in the church. They're, now to qualify this, they're a member of the church. If you're a non-member and you're living in sin, I don't have any right to tell you anything, but please do not take the Lord's Supper like I did to the woman who was living with her boyfriend and came twice to the Lord's table. But if you are a member in living in a pattern of sin, and let's say, let's say I won't use any of the example, or let's say I have Joe and Jane Doe right here. And Jane has identified a pattern of sin in Joe's life. And she's seen it continually. It's incumbent upon her now, right, not to go to Aaron and say, hey Aaron, Joe, he's in filthy sin. Did you know that? He is doing X, Y, and Z. Is that his responsibility and obligation? No. What would that be called? Gossip. You are injuring your brother or sister's reputation instead of dealing with them head on. And the Bible strictly condemns that. I can give you tons of proverbs about that. So Joe is in sin. You go to Joe and you pray. Turn with me in Galatians 6.1. Let's look at how we do this. Turn with me in your Bibles to Galatians 6.1. It says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, You who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Right? So, Joe is in sin. There's an identifiable pattern of sin in Joe's life. What does the scripture tell us? He's caught in a transgression. He's literally entangled. How do you go to that person? In a spirit of what? Gentleness, bingo. Wasn't that what Maritza was saying earlier? It's not what you say, it's how you deliver it. So what does the scripture tell us? How you deliver this initial approach to dealing with this person? In gentleness. It's one of the fruits of the Spirit. Thank you. So you don't go up to Joseph and say, you dastardly, wicked sinner. How dare you? But, you know, it's a spirit of gentleness, but look at the humility there. For you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. And look, keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. There's a sense there where when we enter into this, we're entering into a spiritual conflict. And in our attempt to try to restore someone, Satan could come and lure us into sin to bring us down to prevent the restoration from taking place. Martel, are you going to say something? Yeah, I have a question. Can you explain spiritual? Well, spiritual would simply mean someone who is walking in the spirit, someone who's keeping step in the spirit. We did this recently when we were studying the book of Galatians. The person who is spiritual is not someone who has prophecies and visions. It's not someone who meditates in the woods. But spiritual is listed very clearly in Galatians chapter 5. The fruits of the spirit are gentleness, meekness, self-control, all these things. Someone who's walking in the spirit. Someone who's keeping step in the spirit. If you're in the same sin Joe is in, probably not a good idea that you correct him, because you're in a bad, you probably need to be rebuked yourself. So that would, yeah. In other words, not that spiritual meaning that you're a believer. Right. We're not talking about that. Someone walking in the spirit. Right. Someone walking in the spirit. You have to be a believer to walk in that spirit. We're all in the spirit. So we're all spiritual in the fact that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Let me explain what I mean. What I mean is that if you're in the flesh, I would agree yeah yeah I would agree with that well let's go to well we were here in Galatians let's look at chapter 5 right let's look at the difference between someone who's in the flesh and someone is in the spirit verse 16 I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. Now this is all context, right? Someone who's spiritual, this is the listing of it, right? Look at verse 19. Now here is someone who's in the flesh. You want to know what it means to be in the flesh? Here's someone who's in the flesh. sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. So if you're being characterized by living in the world in inflection and sin, not only do you not have a right to rebuke someone, but it says, I warned you as I did before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You're in jeopardy of being disqualified from the kingdom just as much as the person you want to reprove. In verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is joy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Now, let's be realistic. No one is perfect. So in that case, we could all disqualify ourselves from rebuking or correcting someone else. But we're looking at more of a general habitual pattern. What is the overall pattern of someone's life? I might fail in certain areas, but overall, if my pattern is spiritual, then I think I should have enough confidence with prayer in the spirit to go to someone. Jesus says, pick this plank out of your own eye before you pick the speck in your brother's eyes. But you notice what it says in Matthew 7? It says, so that you could pick, so that you could better see to pick the speck out of your brother's eye. It doesn't say so that you can't address them, that you can't correct them. But if you got this huge plank in your eye and you're trying to criticize someone else's small fault, well, why don't you deal with your fault first? Then maybe you will be better qualified and better able to deal with the speck in your brother's eye. We have a lot of people with planks in their eyes and they want to pick the specks out of everyone else's eye. So we have to look at this in a clear way. But first, but I mean, this comes down to the first thing. There has to be a spirit of gentleness, a spirit of prayer. We, you don't go into these things with, you know, headstrong. If someone's in sin around you, you need to, you should be praying for this person first, right? I mean, if you're not praying for this person, then you really shouldn't rebuke them. Yeah, where's, exactly, where's the love? You know, this needs to be done in love, right? Because going back to Matthew 18, it says if you, if you, you know, went to somebody with their offense, and they listened to you, you've gained them. Right? The goal is what? To gain them. To restore them. Not to punish them, not to humiliate them, not to embarrass them, but to restore them, to turn them from sin. to get them out of that tanglement of transgression. But most often the case, and usually if it stops at this point, then it's over, right? You don't talk about it to anyone else. You don't gossip. It's done. It's over with. It's a sealed matter. Now, on the other hand, if it's not resolved, what do we do? I would go again. I'd go a few more times to try to talk to this person. I wouldn't rush. And if after failed attempts that you've tried to restore this person, try to show them the error of their way, and you've tried to turn them, if they repeatedly resist you, then at that time you bring two or three brothers with you. What's the reason? To establish the matter. I referenced earlier in my sermon about justice in the Old Testament and the civil law in the Old Testament, and God took justice very seriously. In the Old Testament, no charge can be established, no legal charge. You couldn't bring someone to court and charge them with a transgression or crime unless there were two or three witnesses so when when Jesus is saying so that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses Matthew 1816 he's referring back to the law Deuteronomy 19 can I please have volunteer whoever gets their first to read Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 18 Deuteronomy 1918 shall inquire diligently. And if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eyes shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, Again, there's that reference to justice, to equitable justice in the Old Testament community. We're dealing with the idea of a false witness. Verse 15 says, I want to read a few verses earlier. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established. And then based on, and then from where grace picked up, if a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priest and the judge were in the office in those days. And the judges shall inquire diligently. And if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he meant to do to his brother. Well, there's a couple of things going on here, by the way, this is referencing back to the commandment. Thou shall not bear false witness. To charge someone with a crime they're not guilty of and lie about it is what's at stake. Destroying the reputation of the life of another person falsely, framing someone, is what's at stake in the commandment. And from that, we extrapolate deceit and lie. But here we see that no crime could be punished. No one could be charged unless two or three witnesses establish the matter. No single witness shall suffice. And so when we bring this to the New Testament community, it's simply this. If I have an issue now with Joe Doe and he refuses to repent and I can't win him, I am going to get two or three more trusted brothers and sisters and I'm going to sit down and have a talk with Joe. Now, who are the people that you should bring in on this? Well, one, it should be first and foremost if you could find other people who have witnessed this habitual pattern as well. Sometimes that may not happen. Sometimes you alone may be the witness to witness something wrong, in which case, You should look for the most spiritual people around you to come alongside. You do not find someone who's been a member for two months or someone who's a baby Christian to come alongside you on an issue like this. You look for those who are wise and mature, deacons, elders. more specifically, those who can handle this. And you sit down with this person. It's a private matter. And what happens is if you get the person to confess and admit their sin in front of those individuals, then you have corroborative witnesses with those two or three people that you have brought with you. And again, the goal is what? Restoration. Repentance. This process, how long will it last? Well, it depends. What's the seriousness of the sin? If you're stealing money from the church treasury, well, no offense, treasurers and trustees, but if you're stealing money from the church treasury, then it's something that needs to be dealt with immediately, right? If it's something that is of a public and explosive and a detrimental nature to the whole congregation, it's something that must be dealt with immediately. But if it's a personal issue in someone's life, maybe someone is not being kind to their spouse, or maybe someone's church attendance has been off, or someone maybe is guilty of smoking marijuana, it might take several months of praying and meaning and urging this person to repent. No one is disciplined for sin, because we're all sinners. What we're disciplined for is resistance and rebellion. So if a thorough investigation is called, and there's no doubt about the offense or the sin in the church, and the matter is established, and the charge is established, and the person comes just straight forth and says, I don't care. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing. Then you move very rapidly. I'll give you another example. My first, I'd say my first year as a pastor, I had to excommunicate someone and it was painful and it was difficult. We had a brother who was a member who was a good member of the church. We loved him and he was sleeping with a woman and keeping it a secret and nobody knew about it until I discovered him one day. And it, it troubled me deeply. And so I met him one day, one-on-one in the church basement. And, um, he basically threw the keys to the church at me and said, I don't care what you or the Bible says. I'm going to do what I want. Don't tell me what to do. You and the church can get out of my life. And he slammed the door and left the church. Well, I invited him to meet with me and the elder at the time. I invited him to come to the church, to stand before the church. He refused anything. And so we expediently moved him right to public discipline. And we excommunicated him from the church at the next business meeting. There was no remorse whatsoever. In fact, it was defiance. It was high-handed rebellion. Look in your Bibles in Numbers 15. Here's a good example of what we call high-handed rebellion. This is the worst of sins. It's a pretentious sin. It's sin that's, I don't even know the word to use, but it's just high-handed rebellion. That's the best way I can describe it. Look at verse 32. While the people of Israel were gathered in the wilderness, They found a man gathering, verse 32 of Numbers 15, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. And they put him in custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, the man shall be put to death and all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. And the Lord, no, and all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones to death. And the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel. Oh man, I don't do this often, but I got the wrong text. Sorry, I feel embarrassed. It's the difference between unintentional and intentional sin. Verse 27. If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat or a year old for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake when he sins unintentionally. To make atonement for him, he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for him, who does anything unintentionally, for him who is a native of people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns with him. Now here it is, verse 30. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is a native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among the people, because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off, and his iniquity shall be on him." So what is this telling us? This is excommunication in the Old Testament. If someone sins with a high hand, if someone's in flat-out rebellion, blatantly disobeying and has no regard. What is it saying? They're insulting the Lord. And they shall be cut off. They shall be excommunicated from the people of God because they sinned with a high hand. There's no atonement for that kind of person. And the book of Hebrews kind of makes this clear, right? Book of Hebrews chapter 6 and 10, it says, whoever receives the knowledge of God and continues sinning, it makes a mockery, insults the Spirit of grace. It's like tramping on the Son of God. And there is no forgiveness of sins with such a person. High-handed rebellion is that that which says, I don't care what you or the Bible says, I'm going to do what I want. Shove it. That attitude, immediate excommunication. And there's not much hope for someone with that attitude. All right. So we're in step two. Any questions at this point? All right. So we're in step two. We're trying to win that person. And I take it that Jesus meant for Christians to be concerned with truth and justice, and that might require due diligence. The two or three witnesses need to confirm that indeed there is a serious and outward offense, and indeed the offender is unrepentant. However, involving other people will either bring the offender to his senses, or help the offended see that he should not be so offended. Both his step and the prior step may occur over several meetings, whatever the parties think is prudent. So depending on the offense, depending on the situation, it could be something that could go a long period of time before it's resolved. And thirdly, if the intervention of the two or three witnesses does not admit a solution, then the offended party is then instructed to tell the church, Matthew 18, 17a. And so at this point, generally the way we do it in our church, is if we've exhausted step one, we've exhausted step two, and a long period of time has gone trying to win the person, and they still refuse to repent, and they still refuse to change, and we've investigated the thing thoroughly, then the elders will present the matter before the church at a business meeting, and we do it at a business meeting to members, not to non-members. And that person can either show up and defend themselves, Or they could not show up. Usually they don't show up. And if they don't show up, it usually results in an excommunication. It's an admission of guilt. But in either case, the church has the ultimate and final decision. And so in those cases where there's an unrepentant sinner and the charges have been established, the investigation is thorough, we present the case to the body. And then the body, through a vote, votes the person out of membership or votes to retain them. And generally, the vote will be in favor of what the elders recommend. However, there are some positive occasions. We have seen, at least on one occasion in Grace and Truth Church, where someone was publicly brought before the body, and they publicly repented, and they were restored. So that means that it is possible for restoration to take place even at that level. So if someone is brought before the church, and they are rebuked by the whole church, and the person says, I'm sorry. Maybe at that point, their defenses are broken. They finally give up, and they surrender and say, OK, I'm sorry. I repent. And even in our case, what we do is we don't even immediately jump to step four, depending on the seriousness of the nature, again. But in some cases, what we have done is we'll go to a business meeting, we'll present it to the members and say, listen, church, brother or sister, so-and-so's not here. Here's their phone number, here's their address. Get them on the phone, call them to repentance, send them a letter, do whatever you gotta do, and we'll give it another three months. And if at the end of that three months, with the whole church trying to get that person back, if that person still resists, well, then we've exhausted every option whatsoever. And at that point, we reach step four. The final step of church discipline is to be excluded from the church. Jesus says that we're going to count them as a tax collector and a Gentile. We treat them as someone outside the covenant, not inside. They're a non-believer. We dismiss them. They're no longer able to come to the Lord's table, no longer able to come to a business meeting. Now, they can come to church. That person could still come to church because we want them to come to church. We want them to hear the gospel. Right? However, There needs to come a point where there is repentance before they could be brought back in. And another thing should be noted is that when someone is excommunicated, we're not to be buddy-buddy with them anymore. Look at 1 Corinthians 5, and then we're going to conclude. Chapter 5, verse 1, it says, it is actually reported to me there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not even tolerated among the pagans, for a man has his father's wife. Are you arrogant? Would you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. So here we have a situation of extreme perversity. So perverse that not even the pagans practice such things. A man is sleeping probably with his stepmother. It's filthy, it's disgusting, it's perverse, it's completely unbearable and intolerable. And what is the church doing about it? Nothing. What are you guys, arrogant? That's not loving you guys. What are you guys, insane? You should be weeping and mourning. Notice there's not even a step one, step two. This person should be removed. This is so unbearable, so disgraceful, this person needs to be removed from the body. And this is what he says, for though absent in the body, I am present in the spirit, and as if present, verse three, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. And when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. So when we remove somebody from the church, what are we doing? We're handing them over to Satan. Right? Because in the church, this is the embassy, right? Who's the king here? Who's the god of that world? Satan. And so when we remove somebody from the church, we're essentially casting them off to Satan. Saying, there, go. Go out and back to the world. Go back to the devil. We're actually saying, let the devil have his way with you. And my knowledge, my limited knowledge, in the few years I've been a pastor, every person that I've seen who's been excommunicated or who has left the church on bad terms, Satan does have their way with them. That person's life will be utterly, utterly ruined and destroyed in that period of time, especially if they're a true believer, even if they're not a believer. At the end of that sentence, at the end, after it says, let's say, Kevin Flynn destroys his flesh, That's a very difficult text. But I think the goal again in excommunication is the same as it was in all three prior steps. Restoration. Hopefully the person is so miserable and they They see what life is like outside the Church of God, and they are wrecked and rattled so badly. The hope is that the, like the prodigal son, hey, when he came to his senses, he said, at least in my father's house the servants are doing better than, I better go back to daddy's house. It's the hope that the Christian says, I better, the true believer comes back home and comes to the church and says, I repent, I'm sorry, and looks to be restored to the membership of the body. That's what I believe that's referring to. And even possibly, they may not come back in this lifetime, but maybe in the day of judgment, there could be. I'm of the belief that if you're a true believer, you're going to come back to the church eventually. I don't think if you're a true believer, you're going to stay excluded from the congregation until you die. I think you're a non-believer if you don't come back. You're under God's judgment when you're outside the church. If you're excommunicated, you're under the judgment of God. There's essentially a curse on your life until you repent and restore yourself to the body. And so look down, and we'll bring this to the end. Verse 11. Or verse 9, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with the sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy, or the swindlers, or idolaters, because you need to go out of the world. We already know the world is wicked. But look what he says, I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he's guilty of sexual immorality of greed and idolater reviler drunkard swindler, not even to eat with such a person for what have I to do with judging outsiders is not the inside the church, those whom you judge God judges those on the outside. And then he quotes the old Testament purge the evil person from among you. So it's not just excluding someone from church life, from membership, from the Lord's table, but you disassociate yourselves from that person. I'm not going to break bread and sit down with somebody that has been excommunicated from the church and that is openly and defiantly living in sin. Because to do so would only, how can I say, it would be like saying it's okay to sin, I'm still your friend, it's all good. The ostracization is meant to make the person feel bad. You ostracize the person so that they feel the gravity of their sin. If things are business as usual, how will the person feel the gravity of their sin? They need to sense that God's covenant community is holy. And if you choose to live an unholy life, there is going to be a distance experienced. If you're calling the person to urge them to repent and to come back to church, then that's fine. But to say, hey, Joe, come on, let's go catch a movie and have dinner tonight, when Joe was just excommunicated from the church, is doing injustice to Joe. You're not helping Joe repent and come back to church. All right. Yes. Right. Yeah. Well, prayer, there's no, I would never tell you not to pray. The more you pray, the better off you're going to be with the person, without the person. You can't go wrong praying. All right? But you also don't want to be passive-aggressive about it. Right? Let me pray with you, brother, and start indirectly or ambiguously praying about people who live in sexual sin without directly confronting the person. You know, that whole, that passive-aggressive approach is, Jesus says, go to the person and tell them their offense. And it has to be very direct and very literal. There's no ambiguity about it. I can't leave an ambiguous prayer and hope that the person clicks in their mind. They may not get it. Yeah. I would definitely. Yeah, I would pray with them no matter what, before and after. Can't go wrong with prayer. Keeps you humble before God. You bring God into it. If you go in the flesh, you're probably going to blow the whole thing up. Because remember, if someone's in sin, that sin is corrupting their whole being. More than likely, they're not going to respond well to you. So you've got to be prepared for that. Because their negative response could elicit a negative response out of you. So you have to be prepared that when that person slams you, that you're ready to deal with it. You've got to be spiritually ready. Because if you're not, you'll just whack right back. And what was intended to be restoration could turn and blow up into another issue. And the whole thing's, everything's ruined now. And the person, more than likely, the person is going to blow up no matter what. If you are so lucky to be rebuked one day in this church, and I say really lucky because it's actually, if you care about someone, you rebuke them. It says the, you know, it's a proverb that says, you know, the, the, the kisses of a friend are lies, but the rebukes of a friend, you know, are loving. I mean, you know, a true, a true friend will tell you when you're wrong. Someone who just lets you live in sin and oblivion and thinks that they're your friend by just, ah, let him do as he wants, who am I to judge? That's not a friend. A true friend will be the person to confront you, even at your worst. And if that person, they may not, initially they may not receive it, but down the road they'll say, you know what, that person looked out for me. All right, I'm going to wrap it up. Five reasons why we do practice church discipline. One, to glorify God. He commands it, we obey him. We want to keep the church holy. God tells us in 1 Peter 2, be ye holy as I am holy. And so to honor God, to glorify and reflect him, we want to keep the church community holy. So we do not tolerate unholiness. We don't care about the coffer. We don't care about the pews. We care about honoring God, right? That's what a healthy church does. The second reason why we practice church discipline is for the good of the offender. When is it not punitive? You're not out to get the person. You're not out to ruin their lives. Your goal is to restore that person to a life of holiness, to walking in the spirit, to win them to Christ, to prevent them from a road of destruction. I have to tell you, there was one person years ago that left the church. And by the way, here's a question I want to, lots of times what'll happen in church discipline is before you can excommunicate the person, the person will withdraw their membership to avoid excommunication. But that doesn't nullify the judgment of the church. If the church still judges that person an outsider, the judgment of God rests on it. You can't just simply walk away and exempt yourself from the judgment of God. And years ago when this happened with somebody, I wept and begged this person not to do what they did. And man, they ruined their life. And so you try to prevent people from making a train wreck of their lives. Church discipline is to do that, to save the offender. Another reason is to deter others from sinning. In Acts chapter 5, when Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead, what happened? Everyone was afraid in the church. Nobody sinned. People were scared. There's a sense that when a church practices church discipline, the rest of the body take things seriously. They know that the leadership will not tolerate sin and nonsense. And there's a sense where it teaches other peoples, do not sin. Do not take sin lightly in the church. So it's also good for the others in the church to prevent them from sinning. If you see someone getting excommunicated for something, you're going to say, you know what? I'm going to be careful because I might be next. I don't want to go through that. It's a good deterrent. The next reason why we do it is for the corporate witness to unbelievers. The world is looking at us. I brought up that scandal of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Again, today I want to bring that up. What a scandal and shame and reproach that is to the world looking in. What a shame and reproach it is to the Roman Catholic Church with all those children who were molested covering it up. What a scandal. What a witness. No wonder an unbeliever would say, why would I possibly want to join your church when you're molesting little kids and you cover it up? Why would I possibly? What kind of church? You call yourselves the people of God? When the church doesn't take sin seriously and we have a free-for-all attitude about sin, we lose our corporate witness to the world. So we excommunicate people in sin to maintain a pure witness to unbelievers. And last but not least, as Paul said earlier, we do not want to give God a cause to set himself against the church. Paul, what happens in the seven churches in Revelation? Each one is warned by Christ, except a couple of them. When Christ warns them of their sin and reproves them of their sin, what is the warning in Revelation chapter two and three, Paul? I'll remove the candlestick, or I'll throw you into a sickbed. The judgment of God, when we don't take sin seriously of the church, we invite God's judgment on the church. God will actually turn himself against us. Going back to Eli and his sons, Eli let his sons do whatever they want. God turned against them and wrote Ichabod over the church and the glory of God had departed and the Ark of the Covenant was stolen by the Philistines and they were trashed by the Philistines, they were destroyed. We read in Joshua chapter 7, when Achan took the forbidden silver and gold, which God said, let no man take, lest he die. It's banned. It's off limits. And he sinned. What happened? Well, what happened after that is the Israelites went to the Battle of Ein. They lost. They were slaughtered. And Joshua was shocked. He said, what did we do? How come we lost this war? How could this be? And he goes and prays. And God says, one of your own sinned. Well, the sin of one person, of Achan, brought the whole congregation down. God judged the whole nation of Israel because of one sinner. And what did they do? They had to stone him. They stoned him and his whole family under God's command. Because he did that which was prohibited by God and forbidden. And so we practice church discipline to protect the church, to protect the body. from God's wrath being turned against the church. All right. Time to end. I think I've said enough. Pastor Paul, would you close us in prayer?