Now, we began to look at this passage last week. This whole discourse is about kingdom life that Christ gives in Matthew 18, and you'll remember that it arose because of a dispute amongst the apostles as to who would be the greatest. And he spoke about humility and pride. He spoke about dealing with our own sin in verses 6 to 9, that we are to cut off our hand of its sins, to take out our eye of its sins, and to take off our foot of its sins. Telling us to be very vigilant and very severe with our own sins, and to show them no mercy. This is obviously a difficult passage. It's becoming more difficult. These are sensitive issues because Christ is portraying them all in the negative. He's talking here about the fact that we sin against each other, that we sin against God, that there is such a thing as pride. These are not comfortable things to think about or to speak about. But he tells us the reality of the fact that offences do come. Woe to the world because of offences, verse 7, because offences will come, but woe to the man through whom the offence comes. And these are snares, traps, in which we make each other sin. So he's just telling us the reality of the fact that although he's called a church together, and he reigns over it, it will have things like this going on in it all the time. The whole church throughout the world will have this on a daily basis. This will always go on. So his concern is how to deal with that. And we saw last time that a lot of it should be dealt with with what we would call a positive discipline. That's what this passage is about. The word discipline and the word disciple are the same word. If we are Christian disciples, it is because we have acknowledged our sin, we have received a saviour and put our faith in that saviour as king over us, and we are acknowledging our need to be disciplined, to be instructed and corrected. That our first great correction is when we put our faith in Christ. We are acknowledging when we put our faith in Christ that everything that happened before needs corrected. So there's none of us here that have never been corrected. We were all majorly corrected when we first placed our trust in Christ, and he has corrected us ever since. That is what discipleship is. There is a master and a Lord who loves us, and we are his pupils, we are his understudies, we are his disciples. And he teaches us things that are constantly correcting our thoughts and the bent of our heart. He's constantly doing that to us. So a disciple loves the Lord and receives that from him and most of the time, hopefully, is willing to receive that correction from him and to put it into practice. And that's the positive discipleship or discipline. Most sins should be dealt with that way. between us and the Lord and they should be put right. But you'll know that sometimes things go beyond that and we don't deal with these things ourselves before the Lord. And the Lord picks up on that and says in verse 15 that if a brother sins against you, you have to go and tell him that he has. He might not know, he might not be aware of it, or he might not be aware of the severity of it. That's the instruction the Lord gives us. So although we have a positive discipleship with the Lord all the time, and all of us, if we're professing Christians and we're in Christ, we should want to put these things right ourselves anyway, but the Lord acknowledges that there are times where we do have to go and speak about these things. And we saw what the rules were about doing that. Let me just quickly mention them to you before we get into our passage. We said that we must make sure it is a sin, not a perceived offence, not that we're uncomfortable, not that our preference wasn't met, not that we're just having a bad day. It must be a sin, and we saw how important it is to know God's Word and to study our catechisms that explain God's law to us in all of its beauty, and we must be sure that what the person has done is actually sinful. Not just that we're upset about it, but that it is actually a sin. We also have to make sure that we go spiritually. We saw that. The Lord doesn't say just go in any old way. We have to go according to biblical principles. And Paul tells us, those who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. So when Paul says, those who are spiritual in Galatians, he's talking about those who are alive and walking in the Spirit and near to the Lord at that time. It is a requirement that if we're going to do any good for anyone else, that that must come from our own fellowship with Christ. our own knowledge of his own love and grace and discipline of ourselves, so that it can all be done in proportion if we're going to approach someone else. And the Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount, be very careful about that. If you don't go spiritually, if you're not right before the Lord at the time yourself, If you are not in a close fellowship with Christ fearfully at the time, and your graces are not flowing fully in your own heart, Christ says don't go and try and take something out of someone else's eye, because there may be something sticking out of your own. So we have to examine ourselves in that, make sure it's a sin, make sure you go spiritually, make sure you go privately, and that's self-evident. I don't need to explain that again. He tells, go and tell him alone. Most of these things surely should be dealt with in that way, and we said that that was to protect the person's name and these things, but we are not to create unbiblical rules about that. Some sins rise above the private and they have to be dealt with with more people. Some sins are public anyway. I gave you some examples of things that do not require to be dealt with privately. If you know someone in the community who's a member of the church and you see them every night walking back to their house drunk, and people are seeing them, and all the neighbours know they're doing it, you are under no obligation to go and speak to them privately about that. You can go straight to the church and say, this is being done publicly, and we care about this person, and they're obviously away from the Lord. There is no rule here where Jesus says that no matter what the situation, it must always be private. That's very wrong, and it can be damaging. So make sure it's a sin, make sure you go spiritually, make sure it's private, and make sure if you're the one receiving it, make sure you receive it. If it's done in these ways for the right reasons, make sure you receive it. Don't look for sins in the other person, don't create attitudes in them. If you're receiving a correction, don't look at the other person and say, the only reason I'm being corrected here is because this person is judgmental or something like that. That is just you pushing away what is going on in you and pushing it on to someone else and blaming them for doing something that Christ has called them to do and has told them to do. and we said that this whole process is good. It is loving and it is for restoration. Christ's concern here is that we would gain our brother at the end of verse 15. If he hears you, you have won or you have gained your brother, which is always the motive in which we do this. It's not always possible, but it should always be the base consideration that when we are doing this, it's because we want to gain the person back. Now we'll see now that this process increases in grade, it increases in seriousness and that is based on the fact that not everyone will receive a correction and there may be something in their life that really needs to be put right but they will not listen to the other brother or sister. And Christ is aware of that and he gives this very wise increase of situations. He says that if he will not hear you, verse 16, take one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. He increases it. This is based upon the fact that not everyone will repent. when they are corrected. And that is what Christ means by, if he hears you, he means that you and I will repent when we hear the brother or sister who has come to us. It doesn't mean you just audibly hear him, obviously that's ridiculous. It's not just about hearing the person out and saying there may be something in that, but when Christ says that he hears you, that's just a short expression for that when the person comes, you acknowledge, yes, this happened, or yes, I said this, or yes, that is the case. and that there is repentance. And Christ speaks about that throughout the Gospel, that that's what our response should be. If you look at the parable he tells after this passage, which we'll see next week, he tells Peter a parable about forgiving others. And then, for example, In verse 25, the man was not able to pay and his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children, all he had, and that payment should be made. And then the servant says, he fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. He said later on in the passage that this is about repentance. I can't see the reference right now, I haven't noticed it down. Peter asks, how many times in a day should I forgive my brother? Seven times? And Christ says, no, if he comes to you many times in one day and says, I repent, then you have to forgive him. So this is all about repentance. We're given a key there in the parable to interpret the words we're looking at in verse 15 and 16. When Christ says, if he will not hear, bring truthly with you, he said that the person will not repent, the person will do what this man did. He fell down and said, have mercy on me, I will pay you all. Have patience with me. That is someone who's responding in the right way to this correction. And repentance isn't complicated. It basically means that we are grieved and we are contrite about what we have done. That's what it means. Repentance is not just acknowledging, yes, this happened and I was involved. And that's the end of that. Repentance isn't even just saying, I know that must have been uncomfortable for you and I'm sorry. That is not repentance. Repentance is, something has been done. It is clearly sinful in God's word. You have come to me with it and I can see that what I have done is not in accordance with the law of God. This is just another expression of my sinfulness that I already know is there. I can see this. It grieves me that I did or said such a thing. And I sorrow over the fact that I have said or done this thing. That's what sorry means. It's lost its meaning. We say sorry almost as this nice thing to put at the end. It's a courteous, civil thing to say. I'm sorry. But the word sorry comes from the word to be grief or to be sore. That's where the word sorry comes from. So if you truly are sorry, If I am truly sorry, if I hear that something bad has happened or I even hear there's been a bad accident or something like that and no wrong has been done, I say to you, I am so sorry to hear that this has happened. I'm telling you that I'm sorry. I'm not unmoved, I'm affected by it. I am sore and grieved that this is the case. And the same is true if we're actually apologising or asking for forgiveness or repenting. When we say, I repent, what we're saying is, I am sore, I am grieved by this and I turned from it and I don't want to do the same thing again. I acknowledge this. That's what the Lord means when he says, if he hears you. Now, for lots of kinds of reasons, we will not hear. We may disagree with the thing, we may just not see it, there may be a stubbornness, there's all kinds of reasons that we will not acknowledge something like that. And the Lord says, well bring two or three. so that there will be some witnesses and there will be some more wisdom. Others can come in and they can also hear what's taking place. They can look at it and give their judgement on it. And that, for you and I, is supposed to tell us that this is becoming more serious. There are other Christians involved now. It's not just one person that's coming to me, now there are several coming. So the Lord says that as a wise part of this process, and for the fact that if it's a public sin, if someone is having an affair or there's things like that going on, that You might go and speak to the person, but it's good to have two or three with you, so that if the person admits something, that there are other witnesses who have heard that. So take two or three with you, because when something's said, it needs to be marked, it needs to be recorded, so that people can't deny it afterwards. So, what I'm telling you here, these are not my ideas, this is not how I want the church to be run, this isn't something I get a kick out of at all. These things are difficult, but this is the reality of man and woman, this is the reality of the visible church. The visible church will have membership in it, and office bearers in it, and things like this will happen. And we need to be ready, and we need to understand that Jesus knew this, and he tells us there is a way to approach this. First on your own, and then taking two or three. But if it's the case that the person was still not here, verse 17, If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. And we need to understand this part of it. This is a very important part of it. Only the second mention of the church in the Gospels. The first mention is in chapter 16 when he tells Peter, on this rock I will build my church. That's him introducing it. And here he mentions it again. There obviously wasn't a well-known church at this time, a church of Christ with that name. Christ hadn't died yet, he hadn't poured out the Holy Spirit upon his apostles. The church at the time was the Old Testament church, as we would call it. The kingdom of God, as built by God throughout the Old Testament, centred in Jerusalem, with a large eldership and priesthood, and with prophets. And Jesus, obviously, is going to take the kingdom from the Jewish people, and he's promised this because of their refusal. He will give it to the Gentiles and build a church. When it says here, tell it to the church, you and I, especially as Reformed Presbyterians, need to understand the importance of this. The church is the assembly of God. And if you were here the last couple of weeks in the evening service, we've been looking at that. The church is the assembly of God. The word church is the word ecclesia. which is two words, the word ek and the word kaleo. Ek means out of, kaleo means to call. That's what the church is. The church is the ek kaleo, the ones who have been called by God out, called out of the and placed somewhere else together as an assembly of his people, set apart by him to live under his word, to live in holiness and to be consecrated for only God's service and not the world's service. That's what we are. Whether we're in Christ, whether we have adhered by membership to a visible church, we have all made that profession, and we have said, I am out of there. I am out of the world now, and now I am here, I am in the assembly of God's people. And God had that assembly in the Old Testament. Through every group of the Bible you see it shaped and growing and shrinking. He's always had an assembly of people, and that's what Jesus is speaking about. If he will not hear, or she will not hear, her sister or her brother, or he will not hear these other people that have been brought, you have to go to the assembly where God reigns, and you must speak about it there. That is what the church is. And that church that is mentioned here in a kind of flower form, that initial sprouting of the church that Jesus mentions, that church is brought together under certain principles. That church has doctrine, that church has worship, that church has government and that church has discipline. It's built by Christ on the word of Christ and the word of the apostles. All of these things are authoritative. We can't make up our own rules. When Jesus says bring it to the church, we're bringing this thing to an established body, to the kingdom of God as governed by his word. That is a kingdom that is clear about its doctrine, that is a kingdom that is clear about its worship, it is governed in a certain way and it has church discipline. That is what we call the visible church. We are part of it. The Covenant RP Church of Meadville is part of the visible church and we are governed by these things. And when Jesus says, help to the church, that church is organised that way and that church exists. for the gathering and perfecting of God's saints. That's what it's for. It preaches a gospel to call them out of the world and inside. And once they're inside, the church's reason for existing is to perfect those people. We have the saying, nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect, so it doesn't matter that I did this. Or, we're all sinners so you should expect that from me, so it's okay, so let's not worry too much about this. This church member is doing this, don't worry about that, we're all sinners. But that isn't the biblical model. The biblical model is that the church exists to perfect sin. So wherever it sees sin, in us all, we are to be constantly concerned about being perfected, of growing in holiness and obedience to it. Have the roots of sin pulled out of us one by one? We should all be concerned about that. I should be concerned about it every time I read God's Word, every time I listen to God's Word being preached, every time I examine myself. at the end of a day or the end of a week, and I analyse my behaviour, and you see all the ways that you've fallen short, my attitude to that should not be, well, we're all sinners. My attitude to that should be, that ought not to be there, and next week it's not going to be there, because I will strive against this to cut it out. My hand, my foot, it's sinned, I'm going to cut it off. Why? Because God has shown me in his word that the church is there to perfect the sins and to sanctify them and to change them. That is what the church is. Doctrine, worship, government, discipline, and it's there to gather and perfect the sins. And what has God done to make that happen? He has He has set rules for how that church is to be governed. How does God gather and perfect the saints? He does it by giving the church a government. You can see that he's speaking about government here. Tell it to the church. Not just everyone in the church, but in verse 18, Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bound on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. That's government language. It's the government that has the authority to bind things on people and to loose those things from people. We can't do that as private Christians. Only a collective government can do that. To put a bind on someone or to loose someone. Or as Jesus says in Matthew 16 to Peter, I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. This is about keys, and it's about loosing and binding. This is government, and God has given this kingdom that he's established in Christ, he has created an order of government for it. You know how important that is anyway. Imagine this country without any government. It's true even in the civil world, and God's given that as a good thing. Imagine there was no government. And everyone just does what's right in his own eyes. It's the same with the church. For the perfecting of the saints and for keeping a standard of holiness in God's word in the church, he has established a government and that government is the ministry and the eldership. That is the biblical basis for these things. These men who were given the keys here in chapter 16 and chapter 18, yes they were apostles, but that was an extra thing they were given. They were basically elders and ministers. That's what the twelve were. They were pastors. And it's to that collective group that the keys are given. And when Christ ascended, that government grew, and more were brought into it, and elders were established and appointed in each local congregation, and these keys remain there. Now obviously we're in very, it's provocative language. Some of you will know, as soon as I say keys, you'll think of the Pope, because he says he has the keys. And what he says is Scripture, and what he says is authoritative and it cannot be questioned. That isn't what Jesus established. Not only twelve, Jesus establishes, there's thousands of these people all over the world. Jesus establishes an equal, spread out, mutually accountable government. There is no president in the church. Christ is the president. The government, even when you think of pastors and elders in terms of church government and voting, they are equal. The church government is one and it is equal and there is a plural number to maintain justice in these things. So he gives doctrine, worship, government, discipline to perfect the saints and he does so by putting a government in this church. I want to spend the rest of the time we have just pointing out a few things about this And I want you to hear it. This is given as a gift by God. You might think, I don't need this government in my life, or I don't need to be part of a church. All you need is Christ and the Holy Spirit. Well, if you want Christ and the Holy Spirit, Christ is a king, and he has appointed senators, he has appointed governors. You say you want the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Order, and that Spirit gives gifts to men, and that Spirit governs his church. And I just want to say that that government is a real government. It's not a buddy system, it is a government, and it has actual authority and actual power. That's what a government is, it exercises power and authority. It's not to be done as a tyranny, but we are not to resent it unreasonably, as though those who govern are to be opposed and resented. This is being lost today, that the church government has power. That power is not physical. The church can't arrest people. The church can't physically restrain you. The church can't come to your home and beat the door down and force entry. The church can't put you in prison. The church can't take your money. It can do none of these things. It's not that kind of kingdom, it's spiritual. And the church government's authority and power is a moral and spiritual one, but I want you to know that, that it does have moral authority. The church doesn't come to you with ideas, the church doesn't present things to you for discussion and say, do you agree with the church? It has authority over what is clearly in God's Word. So, the church is not going to discuss with you your ideas about the Trinity. The church tells you this is what the Trinity is. Now, if you have difficulties in questions, obviously you ask them, but you know the point I'm making, the church isn't in a kind of consultative mode where we're making this up as we go along and we just take everyone's ideas in and we're bound by those. No, if you're a Christian and you've come under Christ and he's appointed a church government, then that church government teaches actual doctrine that is indisputable and it teaches it with authority. And so the church says, this is how Christ died and this is what I achieved. And it's not going to suggest that to you, it's not going to give that up. You have to receive that, you have to come as a member of the visible church and as the church is saying, this is who Christ is. You have to hear that. This is how we are to worship. The church has authority over that. There's a clarity in God's Word about the principles of worship, and the church has the power to enforce that. If we are here as members, and a group of members rise up and say, we want the worship to change, the church just says to those people, I'm sorry, I'm sore that you've come with us. I understand that this is complicated, I understand that you may have been taken away by these things and you're thinking about them and you've come to these positions, but we are telling you as the church that that is wrong. We are telling you because Christ has established this church and whatever they bind on earth is bound in heaven. I'm going to say a couple of more things about that as we explain this a little further, but just take that general principle. I know you have questions about it. Power can be abused, authority can be abused, obviously, but just take the principle. Don't look at the church as this nice group of people, it's an organisation which we go to, it's kind of like other organisations. It's not, it's a kingdom. It's a kingdom, and its government is real, and its statements about doctrine and worship and your life are real. The church's power is not only over doctrine, is it? It's over life. The church has power over my life. I have voluntarily adhered myself to the church of Christ. I made that choice. And even further, if you're an office bearer, then there's added responsibilities and binding upon you. in the way you need to behave in these things. But we as members have entered the church, and the church has power over our lives. It doesn't have unmitigated power. Let me put it positively. The church has power over the holiness and sin levels in people's lives. The church, when there is something clear in Scripture, it says, you shall not commit adultery, then the church should not feel guilty at all about enforcing that command. There are things in God's Word, wherever it is clear, the church of Christ can tell me and tell you, you cannot do that. And you might say, oh, you have no power over me. They do have power over us. If I behave in a certain way that is clearly against the word of God, then the presbytery can come to me and say, you are not going to do that. And I say, but I want to discuss it. They say, no, you are not going to do this. And that's that. And it's the same for us too. It sounds so harsh and intimidating, of course it does, but we're dealing with Jesus Christ here. Has Jesus Christ never said to you, you're not doing that? He said it to me. He said it to me and it stings. But when we have to get away from this idea that the church is this optional, opt-in, opt-out kind of place, where we go in and pretend we're under a government, but when we want to live our own way, we just tell them to go away. Because who's Lord? You. You're Lord, but you're not Lord. You don't know God's law inside out, you're not the best assessor of your own heart, etc. etc. So there are going to be things in your life where at certain points the church, in love and grace, will come to you and say, this cannot be there. And here is why. And when that happens, we have to receive it. So there's a government and a doctrine and a discipline. And the church government of ministry and eldership is over doctrine. It can make clear statements about doctrine, and the church has. And it's also over our lives as well. Let's comment on this practically and apply it to ourselves now with the few minutes we have left. in light of church discipline, because that's what this passage is about. This is when the Christ speaks of, tell it to the church, and if they refuse to hear the church, let them be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. This discipline done by the church is a mark of the true church. If it's not there, it is not a church. God called his people out to be holy And there are so many examples in scripture of the church enforcing that holiness that the most clear examples of it really are in 1 Corinthians, where you have a church there but Paul is certainly questioning whether they will continue as a church. And he says to them that there's no exercise of discipline in Corinth. A man has his father's wife, and the church is saying, we're being gracious to this person and we don't want to put him out of the church, and Paul gives these great principles, and he says, are you crazy? Your glorying is not good. Do you not know you were called to be holy? This is a holy people. You can't allow things like this in the church. Do you not know a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Do you not know you're called to be holy? You cannot have a church that allows sin to grow and refuses to do anything about it and still call it a church. And our fathers in the faith knew this well. That's how the whole reformation happened. It was a reformation of doctrine, a reformation of worship, and a reformation of church discipline and government. And the marks of the church are that the gospel is truly preached, the sacraments are properly observed, and that the church takes seriously who takes the sacraments and the level of holiness in each congregation. These are badges and marks of the church. You have things that you buy and there's a lot of fake things out there. There's lots of things I've bought in the past and you need to be able to spot the genuine article and the fake, and they look very similar. And you look for marks, you look for features, authentic materials in these things. And if you know these objects well, you can learn how to spot the difference between a genuine and a fake. And the church is the same. It has real marks, badges, that Christ has put on it, seals. And if you look at the seals, and this one is not there. There is no concern for truly holy living, or the sacraments are treated in a terrible way, or there isn't true gospel doctrine preaching. So you think about that. If a church has a Lord's Supper and baptism, and it has a church government, and it has some very moralistic elders who enforce that morality upon the people, but there's no preaching of the gospel, it's not a church. And you can figure out the different combinations. There are large bodies of people out there where Jesus is named, and salvation is mentioned, and the blood of Christ is spoken about, and men speak about these things in large mega-churches. And these are called churches, but these churches don't observe the sacraments, or they don't have any standard of living for their membership that's enforced. It's almost counter-cultural and counter-intuitive for us. We want to say that's a church. How wonderful that they're preaching Christ, but if it doesn't have these other marks, it's not a church. It's not a church. You can't preach Christ in his atonement and his forgiveness and not apply his law to people, that they always come together. You cannot preach the cross and forgiveness of sins and then not preach the progressive cleansing of those sins in people's lives. They always must come together. It's a mark of the church and it's a mark of true Christianity. even before the church would ever discipline you or I, the Father is already disciplining us if we are Christians. The presence of correction and discipline is a mark of a true Christian. We read about it in Hebrews 12. We see that Paul says, do not despair if you are chastened by the Lord, or take it lightly. For the ones who the Father loves, he rebukes and corrects. And that is a mark that you are a son. It's a mark that this Father cares about you and will correct you and direct you and discipline you. He says if you don't have that in your life, you are illegitimate, you're not a real son. You may look like one, you may be there among the other sons, but there's an illegitimate son, because the father says, not my child, so I'm not going to discipline him. Judas was not disciplined by the father. He wasn't corrected and brought back because he was an illegitimate son. But Peter, who swore and cursed and denied Christ, was immediately corrected and brought back and restored. Why? Because those whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And that is a great mark for you or I. Have you ever been chastened by the Lord? I have. It's not pleasant. It can be dark, you can lose all your peace, it's very unpleasant, you can take away many of your blessings, there can be a season for your Christian life when you don't even enjoy your life at all. Because the Lord is displeased. Is it pleasant when your father shouts at you? Those of you who are children, those of you who are fathers, you see the reaction of the child when you show some authority. Is it pleasant? It's not pleasant. The child is afraid. The child is uncomfortable. The child cries. But it is good for the child. It's a mark that they are loved. Because love doesn't just take a block of butter and smooth it all over. Love doesn't do that. Love wants reform and love wants the child to learn that moral misbehaviour is dangerous. It's destructive and it may seem small at the time but it can grow and it can destroy lives and fathers and mothers know that. How much more for our heavenly father, Paul says. even though it feels terrible, it is a blessing from our Father. And Paul says it trains us in righteousness. So when the whole thing is resolved, we are better for it because we live closer to the Father. So it's a mark of a true church that they are concerned about this. It's a mark of true Christianity that it happens at all. It is for the glory of God and the good of the church. The king here tells us to do it, because his concern is not only how subjective fallen sinful people may feel, Christ does care about that, he's not cruel, but that's not his only concern. You think Christ's only concern is that a true Christian or an illegitimate Christian feels comfortable. I hope we don't think that that's Christ's only concern. He's not cruel and unfeeling, but he has bigger things on his mind. The good of the entire church and the good of his own name. This is for the glory of God. It is not glorifying to God if there is really something there and it's going to damage a brother or sister or damage a church. It is not good and loving to look at it and say, if your brother sins against you, forget about it. If your brother says, if he will not hear two or three, leave it at that. That does not glorify God. Christ has the long view in his mind and he knows what sin does. You think Adam and Eve thought that taking the fruit would consign millions to hell. Our idea of the ramifications of disobedience are far smaller than the reality. When anything's there, brothers and sisters, the church must do this for the glory of God and for the good of the church. Sin spreads. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. If it's just left there and given a little compartment, it will spread. That's what sin does. It spreads like a disease. That can be attitude, that can be gossip, that can be anything. We think these things are small. Gossip is one of the most dangerous things to Christians. It can destroy faith, it can destroy our witness, it can sever us from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, it can make us bitter, it changes us, it's a disease. You can fill out the list. I obviously can't catalogue everything. I can't. But it's for the good of the church in that way. We must never become a 6th commandment church. We must never become an 8th commandment church or a 9.5th commandment church. You know the point I'm making. The church has no right to look at a root of sin come up in its midst and say that's okay. It's at that point we reveal how unlike God we are and that our profession for Christ is so unlike him. If these things come up, we don't say it's okay to leave that there right now. or to say that only certain commandments are important. That is not for the good of the church. And there are nine commandment churches. There are two commandment churches. Our own church constitution in the book of discipline that our pastors and elders have to follow, it says that a church that allows that to be and refuses to discipline it will surely invoke God's wrath and curse, not only against the congregation but the denomination. Our own church directory says that. and it's by no means an extreme directory. It's amazing that it does say that, but they have got that from the Bible. It is for the good of the glory of God and the good of the church. If the church Christ mentions here ignores this, friends, and it becomes reluctant out of a false sense of love or the fear of man or anything like this to deal with something real, it will bring God's wrath upon the church. He does not view it lightly when we allow evil to pervade our assemblies. Now, I've mismanaged my time severely and I have a whole other section of a sermon to speak about how we're to view this authority that Christ speaks about here when he said, we'll see in the Bible, and I think we'll just have to do it next week. So, can I just leave you with a sense of this? Be thankful that there is a church of God on earth, a kingdom. And when you view it, go to your Lord and go to the text of scripture where he speaks about it. Come to it and look at it and ask, what is this? It is an assembly with governors over it. It has standards. It can speak about doctrine and worship and my life. And it governs, in many ways, our lives. and don't have an attitude to sin that gives it a corner. Don't be that brother or sister that is telling other Christians that these types of sins are no big deal. Don't be the one that liberalises a church. Don't be the one that takes something that God says he hates and you portray an attitude that isn't that important. We have to be very, very careful. Next time we'll see. how the church is to govern and discipline in this way, and we'll say a few things about what happens when that power is abused in these things. So just be aware of that, I'm not going to leave that out. But let's leave things there and ask the Lord that he would bless this, what is a difficult subject to our needy souls. Let's stand for a moment to pray, let us pray. Our gracious God, we give you thanks for the truth of your word and that it teaches us and it refreshes us. We pray we would receive all these things and that we would grow in our understanding. We give you thanks for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King and Head of the Church. and who has entrusted and delegated that headship and that authority over his people, and that he is called those who would govern in your church. according to the rules of righteousness and mercy and grace and wisdom. We thank you that you are a God of order and that you are involved in our lives in these ways. We pray that as you convict us and speak to us, and as we become sore because of our sin, we pray that we will be quick to turn to you, seek your face in mercy, to be restored and to walk in the fullness of obedience. And we pray also that we would acknowledge and accept and understand that you have placed this in your church and that you have placed men who in Christ are to guide and to enforce God's word. We pray that we would that we would have the right attitude to that, and that for us as members or as those who bear office, that we would all with one eye look at the seriousness of sin as your word says, whether it's in our thoughts, in the words we speak, in our viewpoint or attitude and in our moral conduct. We pray that we would own our discipleship of Christ and own the fact that he told us to baptise and to teach, to obey all that you have commanded. Help us to be those kinds of people. that we would take obeying these things seriously and be willing to obey the Lord in all of his glorious law. Be with us as we let these words sink down into our ears and help us, O Lord, to honour this portion of your word. and to work with it in the context of the church. Forgive us our sins, O Lord, and help us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.