A lot of Christians have no idea what church discipline is, or how it's supposed to work and be done. Many have never once seen it done, many have never even heard of it. We had a visitor one time when I was preaching on it, and he said, I've been in a church all my life, and he was an older man, he said, I've never heard anybody talk about this before. But it is something that the church is commanded to do when one of our members rebels against God and refuses to repent. Their rebellion can be either with regard to what they believe or how they live, either one. But it needs to be significant. It needs to be with a refusal, even after being confronted and called to repent, to repent. It involves a settled, opposition to God and His revealed faith or commandments. Resistance to obey Him. It has to be a settled opposition. It's not like you just fall into sin and then you repent again, but it's where there's a pushing away. In Matthew 18, Jesus taught us that church discipline begins when you see your brother sinning and you go to him. You're to go to him and try to restore him, just very simply. If he refuses, then you take another person. or two, and you talk to him with those people. If he still refuses, you and the people you took are to take him to the church. That word is ecclesia, the assembly is what it means. It could be either the assembly of the congregation or the assembly of the whole church. And we understand it from the Old Testament where the elders always did this, and Jesus is not changing anything here. The elders are the ones who are responsible for receiving and for discipline members and all those things. So we understand the assembly here to be the church. It's two or three gathered together in his name. Okay, that's what it refers to. So if the individual will not hear then even the elders, the ecclesia, then they are to officially remove that individual from membership and that individual is not to be counted as a Christian anymore. So rebuke is used first, calling him out for his sin, then expulsion. And other scripture shows that there's a middle place, too, that can be done. Suspension from fellowship and the Lord's Supper can be used prior to expulsion from the church in an effort to win the person back to the Lord. So that's used according to the discretion of the elders and whatnot. For our scripture reading, I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 5, 1 through 13. This won't be our only scripture reading, but the first one anyway, where Paul addresses the Corinthian church for neglecting to discipline a man who was actually having sex with his stepmother. So it was a pretty scandalous thing. And he wouldn't repent. So here is God's word, 1 Corinthians 5, 1 through 13. Give careful attention because it is the word of God. The apostle says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles. That a man has his father's wife, and you're puffed up, and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. He needs to be removed. For I indeed is absent in the body, but present in the spirit, have already judged as though I were present, him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, so here I think it is talking about the gathering of the elders to act in this judicial process. It says, with the power of Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens a whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a one. So the idea there is that while they're still called a brother before they've been expunged from the church, removed from the church for their persistent sin, then you're not to act like everything's okay and just have social relations like everything's fine. It's a serious matter. They're claiming to be a Christian and they're living in defiance of God. And so there's a not having normal social interaction with them, but rather admonishing them, as it says in another passage, still as a brother or sister. But verse 12, he goes on to say, for what have I to do with judging those who are outside? So once a person's been removed, or people that are already outside, you don't expect them to live like Christians. They're not regarded as brothers. So he says, do you not judge those who are inside, in the church, but those who are outside, God judges. It's not that they won't have to answer for their sins, but the church is not, they're not part of the church. He says, therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person. So that's where you remove them so that they're no longer regarded as a member or a brother. So may the Lord then add his blessing to the reading of his word. The problem of neglecting church discipline is by no means unique to the Corinthians that Paul addresses here. As I've already mentioned, a lot of Christians have never seen it done. I never saw it done. I grew up in a church. I never heard of it, never saw it done. And when it is practiced, it is very easy to complain about it. It is certainly not a pleasant thing for anybody, either the offender or those who have to do the discipline. It's almost always messy and rather awkward and difficult to manage. Someone will always complain that in some ways it was not handled well, and usually they're right. Usually it wasn't handled very, because it's very difficult and awkward timing, how you do these things, how you present them, how you approach them. Some will think it was too public, some will think it was not public enough. Some will think it was too soon, some not soon enough. Some will say it was too harsh, some that was too lenient. I have heard even elders and reformed churches object to discipline being carried out because they say, well, it doesn't do any good anyway. And that's an interesting thing. That's what brings us to our topic today that I am presenting to you. It is a question, does church discipline ever work? Okay, that's the question because that is a sentiment of many people. We only do church discipline, it doesn't work anyway. I want to begin with a more specific question, okay? And that is, does church discipline ever work to restore the offender? Cuz we're gonna see later it has other purposes besides that. But the first thing here is, does church discipline ever work to restore the offender? That is one of its purposes. That is its initial purpose. In the passage we just read, 1 Corinthians 5, 4 and 5, Paul says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So when a person is put out of the church for refusal to turn away from their sin, they're turned over to Satan, as it were. They're put into his territory. They're taken out of the church where Jesus Christ is their master, and they're put with Satan. You're now with your father, the devil, put into his territory outside the people of God. The goal is that by doing this, the person will be brought to their senses so that they will repent and be saved when the day of judgment comes. I see that's what happened that we saw in the song of Solomon. He was there. She refused him. She rejected him. And then he left. Admittedly, the language is a little difficult to understand here in our First Corinthians passage. It's beyond the scope of this sermon to get into the details, but the overall meaning is very clear, isn't it? The goal is restoration here, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That is when Jesus comes to judge. The goal is that this person will end up right with God when they die, when they come before God in judgment, come before the Lord in judgment. The goal is even clearer in other passages. For example, in Matthew 18, what did Jesus say? At every stage, when the individual goes, when they take other people with them, and when they bring it before the church. If he hears you, when you confront your brother and rebuke him, if he hears you, you have gained your brother. The goal is clearly to gain the brother. It's not just to punish him or something. The whole objective is to get him to come back again. Likewise, in 1 Timothy 1.20, Paul speaks of Hymenaeus and Alexander. He says, Whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. These guys were teaching in the context they were teaching false things. So Paul says, I put them out, put them out of the church because they're teaching things that are of the world. And I send them off to a world that they may learn. A hard way. In Galatians, we're shown that restoration is supposed to be our goal from the very outset. In Galatians 6.1, he says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass. So it's not just that he sinned and then he repented. This is someone that's overtaken. He's not walking with God. Overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one." Spiritual just means you are walking with the Lord. It doesn't mean you're some high level or something. You're just in right communion with the Lord. It says, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. We know that we're vulnerable to sin. In 2 Timothy chapter two, Paul tells the servant of the Lord to be gentle and patient when he's doing this. In humility, he says, correcting those who are in opposition, opposition to the Lord and his ways, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken by him to do his will. The goal is clear, isn't it? It's restoration of the individual. Of course restoration is what we want. We love our brothers and sisters. We love our Lord Jesus. We love the church. We don't want people to be estranged from him. We don't want them to be walking no more with him. We don't want them to die in their sin. And you see, it's heartbreaking when one of us goes away from the Lord. And when they do, we obviously want them to be restored. But sadly, church discipline doesn't often bring about that result. The restoration of the center. The truth is, restoration actually happens a whole lot more at those initial levels. So it's so important to do that. OK, when the individual goes to the individual in private and says, hey, what are you doing? Many times that will be effective and it'll turn someone around. You can talk to many people who've been turned around that way. They've been brought back. But when it goes a bit further and you take more people, sometimes that will be effective. But the longer it goes, the less likely it is to see real results. There have been many people that we've had to remove from the church here, and many of them have not ever come back to the Lord. And it's a very sad and grievous thing. When the matter escalates to public process, which it should, it's often the person has turned away and they've shown that they're not really one of us. Nevertheless, sometimes, by the grace of God, it does work. Earlier we read about the man at Corinth who was having sex with his stepmother. That was in 1 Corinthians 5. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, second Corinthians, he speaks of a man who has repented and who needs to be fully restored in the church. And many expositors think that it's the same man. It likely is. It really doesn't matter too much whether it is or not, though. It shows that someone repented and needed to be restored. We don't know why we wouldn't think it was this man, because that's who he talked to them about in his previous letter. But take a look at 2 Corinthians 2, 3 through 11. Here's another scripture for us. He says, this is 2 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 3. He says, and I wrote this very thing to you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you." So Paul had to write hard things to them in his first letter because they were not doing right. And he didn't want to come and have a nasty experience coming and saying, what are you guys doing? You got this guy, you haven't even dealt with it. He's having sex with his father's wife and you haven't even, he wanted to deal with this before he came. Because he said, I don't want to come in that kind of a way to you. And you don't want me to come. If you love me, you don't want me to come that way. I want to come and rejoice that you're serving the Lord, that you're being faithful to him. He says, but verse five, but if anyone has caused grief, He has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent, not to be too severe. What does he say, not to be too severe? Cuz this guy's repented now. He says, yeah, he grieved everybody when he did this, when he rebelled. It was difficult for me, it was difficult for you, it was difficult to deal with. But he says, hey, I don't wanna be too severe on him because he's come back now, he's repented. And we know that for sure because Paul says to him that, that to them, I'm sorry, that they need to restore him. And if the guy hadn't repented, he wouldn't tell him to restore him. Look at verse six. He says, this punishment, this church discipline that you exercise, which was inflected by the majority, is sufficient for such a man, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. He's repented now, so don't keep laying it on him. Verse eight, therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. For to this end I also wrote that I might put you to the test whether you are obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, okay, you've checked out this guy, you've seen his repentance, you forgive him. He says, I forgive him. Your judgment stands. He says, for if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we're not ignorant of his devices. Now it's distressing, as I mentioned before, that a lot of churches don't do church discipline at all. That's a big problem. But then you have those ones that do church discipline, and among them, there are some who never restore anyone. It's like once somebody has done something, then they're out. They're on the outs forever. They never can be quite settled. They don't receive them back. And that's just as wrong. Paul makes it clear here. Today, then, we are rejoicing that church discipline worked in the case of restoring Anita Hinken. She told the session that God used it to contribute to her restoration. Her sincerity is demonstrated by the fact that when she came to be restored, she came back to the church that removed her. That's what proper order calls for in the church. Because the ones that know the situation, that had to deal with the situation, are the place where you go to be restored. This makes the person face their sin rather than simply running off to another place and kind of leaving it behind and forgetting about it and other people don't, you know, it helps to deal with it as if, looking as if nothing happened in that way. Paul certainly speaks of the church at Corinth restoring this man. This is good for everyone. It brings joy to the whole congregation to see a restoration of a brother and sister. It forces those who are proud or self-righteous to learn forgiveness. We had a situation early in our church where a man actually did stuff that was very sinful to the members in the church, to all of them, violating a trust. And as a result of that, there were people that had a hard time. How could he do such a thing to the church? And they had to learn to forgive and to not be self-righteous when he repented. It helps the offender to see the full acceptance of the church and the Lord. So it's good for that individual, too, because they think, well, these people are going to hold this against me. They're going to look and they need to see that that that's not the way it works in the in the Lord's house. Now, there may be individuals that do that, but it shouldn't be the way that the whole church behaves themselves. They are not forever a second class Christian. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul speaks about how the whole church had responded to his rebukes. Paul wrote hard things to them, and the whole church responded in the right way. He explains that he was very distressed after he admonished them. He wrote that letter, 1 Corinthians, he said all these hard things to them that they needed to deal with, and he thought, these guys are going to hate me. Like, they're going to hate me because of all the stuff that I said to them. And he was struggling with that. You know, you send the letter, how are they going to receive it? It takes a while for it to get there in those days. And it takes a while to find out how they did receive it. So he was kind of on edge. And Titus, one of his companions, was the same way. He was anxious about them, too. And he visited. And he found out that they responded well. And that they did repent, and he was elated. Paul describes their true repentance in 2 Corinthians 7, 8 through 11. He says to the Corinthians, for even if I made you sorry by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, I hated it. For I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry. Though only for a while. That's the good part. Though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow, the right kind of sorrow before God produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death, separation from God. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you. The new life, they're living the new life. What clearing of yourselves. They're acknowledging the wrong that they did. What indignation, a hatred for what they had done. What fear, reverence before the holy God against whom they sinned. What vehement desire, passion to come and follow Him now. What vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication. OK, they showed clearly, as he says, that they had repented by the way they responded. In all things, you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. That's what we want, isn't it? Restoration where it's clear that there's been real change and real restoration. OK, this brings us then to our second point. Seeing a sinner restored brings great joy. It brings joy, first of all, to the godly, not to the ungodly. Most of you know the story of the prodigal son, the young man that took his portion of his father's inheritance. He asked him for it. I mean, he didn't steal it, he took it. And it was to be used, of course, for bringing forth his household and bringing forth a family that would have that inheritance to use for going on with the kingdom of God. But instead, he spent it all in just a few years in a riotous living. It was a lot. And he took it and he just wasted it all away. And you know the story, he came back. What was the father's attitude? He came back and said, you know, he was humble. He said, make me a servant in your home. I can't be your son anymore because of what I did. Make me your servant. The father rejoiced and he killed the fatted calf. He had a big feast. There was joy. There was celebration. He was so glad. The godly are glad when there is restoration. What about the ungodly, though? It's in the story, too. In fact, it's probably the main thing the story is emphasizing. The elder brother. What did the elder brother do? He said, well, I've been here all along. I haven't done anything like that. Why are we having a big feast for this guy? He wasted everything. I've been faithful the whole time. You don't do this sort of thing for me. It's very sad to have that attitude. He did not appreciate the fact that even though he had never run off like his brother did, he had received great mercy from his father for his entire life and had the privilege of being accepted in his home. for his entire life. You say, well, of course the father should accept his son, wouldn't it be bad if he didn't? Well, yes, we're talking about an earthly father like that, but the picture here with God, where we're all rebels and we've all gone away, we're all guilty of sin, and that he should have mercy on us. If you grew up in a Christian home and you walked with the Lord, you have a privilege that is priceless. And if somebody rebelled against that and comes back, you should be so glad that they came back because you love your father, because you see your father's mercy to you and therefore you want to see his mercy to other people. The son didn't understand. The elder brother didn't understand the mercy of God. He didn't get it. He didn't realize what a privilege it is to have communion with his father. The restoration of a sinner then brings joy to the godly, but not the ungodly, even when they're in the church. The restoration of a sinner also brings great joy to the leadership of the church. Rebellious members do not know the distress that sincere elders have about you. You don't know the sleepless nights over you, the agonizing cries for repentance that seem to not be heard. Nor do children know the distress of their parents over them, the deep sorrow the sense of rejection, the horror of what may become of their dear son or daughter, all mingled together, all those things mingled together in a confusing mess, all blended together, causing them to mourn over that child in a way that's worse than if they had died. God has made elders and parents to be like this. That means that they have a great joy when the prodigal comes home. Paul describes the joy that flooded his soul when he got the report from Titus that they had responded with godly repentance at his rebukes. I mentioned that before in 2 Corinthians 7. Verse 6 and 7 he says, nevertheless God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by His coming, but also by the consolation, the comfort with which He was comforted in you. When He told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for Me, so that I rejoice even more. Paul found out, they were glad that I rebuked them. They responded the right way. This is wonderful. I thought they would hate me forever. And Apostle John, he put it like this in a general way. He said, I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the truth. That's the way of leadership in the church. We're told that not only does the leadership rejoice, not only do the godly rejoice, but also we're told that all heaven rejoices. when a sinner repents. In Luke 15, 7, that's where the prodigal son is in the same section, Jesus said, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. The angels minister to us. They're concerned about our salvation, and they rejoice greatly when we return to the Lord. But Jesus himself is the one who rejoices in heaven. He's the king there, and when he rejoices, everybody rejoices. The whole place is filled with gladness, and he says one sinner repents, and that's the way it is in heaven. In our Old Testament reading from Song of Solomon, chapter five and six that we read earlier, he speaks of how He found the renewed affections of his bride to be irresistible. It was so wonderful to him that he could hardly even stand it. It had been necessary for him to stay away for a time to test and deepen her repentance. But when he saw her seeking him, he could not stay away. He saw her love and her affection. and it moved his heart, he had to get in his chariot, get his chariot and go to her at once. What a comforting thought that is, brothers and sisters, the delight that our Lord has and that he testifies to one sinner that repents. Before I wrap up this sermon, I want to point to another important thing. Remember that I started with the question of does church discipline ever work? And then more specifically, I went to, does it ever work to restore the offender? Well now, even though church discipline does not always work to restore the offender, it always works in other important ways. Most of these are brought out in 1 Corinthians 5, the passage I read at the start of this sermon. First, it always works to preserve the truth. The church is called the pillar and the ground of the truth. Why is it called that? Because the church is the place in all the world where God has put his truth. They're the ones that have the gospel of salvation. They have the word that we're sinners and the word of reconciliation that we can come to God through Jesus Christ our Savior. They have the truth about what is right and wrong. Everybody goes all over the place judging each other and going this way and that way. We have the oracles of God. That's what sets the church apart from all other institutions in the whole world. And the text is charged with the task of faithfully preaching the word and faithfully upholding the truth of God. See, and what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. Obviously, if the church does not address rebellious unbelief, and rebellious behavior in the church, then we're no longer upholding the truth of our gracious Lord. We're no longer the pillar and ground of the truth. We're one that is supposed to be, but we're not. We're not holding the truth. A church that does not practice church discipline is only a generation away from being a church that will no longer preach the gospel. You see that over and over and over again, like the church that I grew up in. The gospel that sinners so desperately need and the gospel that honors God. In Revelation, Jesus speaks about that when he warns churches that are not carrying out church discipline. The seven letters, some of the churches were not doing that. He says, I'm going to come and take away your lampstand if this continues. You're not going to have the light of the gospel of truth. You're going to go into the darkness and not be a church that bears witness to me as one of my truth bearers, the one that upholds the truth. Think of an illustration, think of an excellent university that turns out engineers that are consistently competent. So that anybody that hires these engineers knows this guy is going to be competent because they don't graduate anyone unless he's competent. What happens if they stop upholding their standards and they allow incompetent people to graduate with full approval? Soon their diplomas will become worthless. They'll mean nothing, might as well not even have one. When we tolerate sin and unbelief in the church, when we tolerate lies and falsehood, we teach the world that the church is no different than they are. We put up our rainbow flags and do things like that. We no longer have a message for Christ. We no longer uphold his witness to a lost and dying world. We don't have anything to say. But when we obey the call of God to remove the ungodly person, to confront this sin, we continue to have the message of truth for the salvation of sinners. We retain the lampstand. Now you see, the church will retain its lampstand for a little while. It'll keep preaching the gospel even though it's not doing church discipline. But I say, it's only a generation or so and that gospel will be gone. Often mainline churches deny that it is possible for them to go astray. But the scriptures show that this has happened all through history. And what I mean by history is Old Testament history. What is the greatest example of the whole church going astray? It was when Jesus Christ came into the world. What did they do? They rejected him and crucified him. It was only the people who had the word of God and who followed the truth that continued in the truth and they were vindicated as God's people as we've seen in Revelation. He crushed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. in order to vindicate those who are following him and say, who are the true people? They're the ones that receive me as Lord and Savior. They're the ones that that I recognize. You see, so scripture shows how this has happened in history that's inspired. We've seen it happen, of course, as we would interpret history since then. Many churches that have gone away from the truth and many times not carrying out church discipline is the beginning of it. Another way that church discipline works is in preserving, preventing sin from spreading. Paul, speaks of this in a very helpful and memorable way in 1 Corinthians 5 as leaven. He says, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Leaven is the bread that has yeast in it. Leavened bread has yeast in it. And you take that bread and put it with bread that you want to leaven the whole bread, the yeast spread into all of the bread. And it happens very quickly, doesn't it? It spreads, it grows into the whole thing. Well, Paul is using that to explain that if sin is not dealt with in the church, it's gonna be contagious. It's gonna spread to the whole congregation. This is just, sadly, the way that people are. Even Christians. Like, if we don't have anyone come and say, hey, what are you doing? When we're going to, right? Then, and everybody starts doing stuff. After a while, everybody's just going to do it without even thinking about it. You know, you see this all the time. If there's no consequences, it's like sheep. It's like children. What if there's no consequences for sheep? No consequences for children? They're going to go astray. Of course, it's true that some people will see the rebel put out of the church and they'll still follow his bad example. Their wicked heart was just waiting for an opportunity. But by removing them, it prevents the sin from spreading to the entire church. Another way that church discipline works is that it honors the Lord. When his people become rebellious, they show contempt for him. He is glorified in forgiving even the greatest sinners, but he is not glorified by sinners who rebel against him and are not dealt with. He's also glorified when they are dealt with according to his way. His honor demands that such persons be called to repentance, if they will not repent, that they be put out of the church. Church discipline is always done in the name of Christ, meaning that it is done according to his directives, according to his God-given authority, the authority that he gives to us, and his authority as the head of the church. If it is not done, then we misrepresent him as our head and master. We are showing that Jesus doesn't do what he actually does do. In other words, we're not carrying out his directives. In 1 Corinthians 5.4, Paul speaks to the elders assembling like this, he says, He's showing that Christ's authority, Christ's power is what is exercised. As Jesus said, whatever they bind on earth is bound in heaven. They are not to do their own thing. You see, they're acting in His name. They're speaking for Him. Elders greatly err if they think that they can be more merciful than Jesus can be, or that they should be. Yet another way that church discipline properly exercised works is that it both prevents God's judgment and it increases God's judgment at the same time. That needs explanation, doesn't it? Let me explain. Church discipline prevents God's judgment because it removes the sin that would bring judgment on the whole church if it was not dealt with. When a congregation has sin that's not dealt with, remember Achan, then it can bring God's judgment upon the whole church, chastisement on the whole body. Paul talks about this with regards to the Lord's Supper, which he calls here the feast with Christ as our Passover. He says in 1 Corinthians 5, 8, therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, okay, with sin, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So see, that would be repentance and yielding to Christ. In chapter 11, Paul tells the Corinthians that the whole congregation is being punished because they had not dealt with sin in their midst. Sin was tolerated. Okay, so more judgment comes to the whole church if sin is not dealt with. So that's the way it works. It removes it so that there's not this extra judgment. But I also said that church discipline can increase God's judgment. Now how is that so? It's like this, when we're serious about dealing with our sin, the sin of the church, the Lord will be serious about dealing with our sin. His word will minister to us effectively. It will be more powerful in convicting us and correcting us. He will be speaking to us so that we'll be hearing his word of judgment. Like all the time in our lax churches, we'll be left more and more to go their own way. If they're not practicing church discipline, soon nobody will care. If they do not uphold the Lord's day, what happens? Do people still uphold the Lord's Day? Nobody upholds the Lord's Day anymore. Nobody. If they don't care whether their members are serving each other, what happens? Nobody bothers to serve each other. They all fall by the wayside. This is a matter of great concern. The matter of great concern is that the Lord will stop dealing with them. He will leave them to go their own way. Why do you think When you read the Old Testament, they're first starting out, they've come out of Egypt, everybody's zealous. They've set up the tabernacle, they've done a bunch of work. They're all excited about going on with God and what he has for them. And then Nadab and Bihu, all they did was take some fire. It wasn't authorized to offer their sacrifices to God. They went in and offered the sacrifice, and God destroyed them, whoa. Why did he do that then? And then later on in Israel, they did stuff that was way worse than that. Like Hophni and Phinehas, way worse than that. What happened? Well, over the years, as they hardened themselves, God didn't deal with them as closely. He let them go their own way. And that's what he does. You just get used, you get familiar, and you drift away slowly, slowly, slowly. And it's a very destructive thing. That's why Jesus came to the churches in Revelation to wake them up. To say, hey, you need to deal with this. Only a couple of them did he not have to address. So this is a very real thing. Is it in the New Testament? Yeah, Ananias and Sapphira. What did they do? They gave a great huge gift to the church, but they lied about the extent of their gift. And they were struck dead for it. How many people exaggerate about what they gave in the church? Nothing happens. What's the story? Well, part of it is God is showing at the beginning what he thinks about such things. The other thing is that if we're not serious, he's not gonna be serious with us. In other words, we're gonna become more distant to him. He's not gonna be speaking as vividly to us. Brothers and sisters, it must be our earnest desire to please Christ in every way, not just in some selected ways, not just in ways that people find attractive today. but especially in ways that they do not, because those are the ways that we're most likely to give up. If we do not hear and practice all that the Lord says, if we leave out a part of it, then we're guilty of making up our own religion instead of following Jesus Christ. He causes, He ceases to be our judge, and we become our own judges. Look at United Church. Who's judging right and wrong in United Church today? Is it the Lord Jesus? What happened? He used to judge right and wrong just a century or two ago. And among them, what happened? God forbid. Let us be zealous to see that this does not happen. Today, that means. If we're going to follow his judgment today, that means this very day today that we as a congregation are going to rejoice in the restoration of our sister. Just as it was right for us to remove her when she rebelled, today it is right for us to receive her because she has returned. Our goal must always be to be in harmony with our Lord who gave himself for us even though we are all sinners. Recently being in harmony with him meant that we had to remove someone from our church and we had to suspend another from the Lord's Supper. Today It means that we are to rejoice in the return of our sister to the Lord Jesus Christ. Please stand for prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, You are such a gracious God, and you love us so much as your people. We see the delight that you have when we walk with you. We thank you so much for the beautiful words and the songs that describe your delight when a sinner repents. It just fleshes it out for us in such a beautiful way, the words that we're told that Jesus rejoices greatly to see us repent, and we're told he tells us that in the New Testament. But here, Lord, we see it just fleshed out for us in a special way. His yearning to come to us and to express His love and His joy and our affection to Him. And we thank You so much for this, Lord. And we pray that You would help us, Lord, to be a people that truly do rejoice when a brother or sister is restored. And that we would also be those who are truly grieved when someone goes away from you. And that we would not be indifferent about that. That we would recognize that they have to be addressed and that we would want to address them in an effort to restore them. And if not, that we want to honor you and we want to honor your church. We want to preserve your church. We want to do what is pleasing in your sight and remove them as hard as it is. And as much as the world looks down on us when we do that, it gives us a bad name. And Jesus told us that when we do what is right, that we will be persecuted just like He is. We'll be made a reproach to the world. We pray that You would forgive us for often not handling the things as well as we should. We're not very skilled and very accustomed to these things. But we thank You, Lord, that Your mercy is upon us and that that you do forgive us and cleanse us for all of our unrighteousness. We pray that we would be sincere toward you, that we would not be a people who are playing games. Father, we need to walk with you. We want to have the joy of our Lord. We want to have the also the severity of our Lord and the judgment that you bring. We want to walk with you, we want to know you. We know that if we exclude one side of you, then we won't have the other side very well either. We need to see you as a holy God, who is also a loving, gracious God. A God who judges sin very, very severely, but a God who also has such mercy that it's incomprehensible. Oh, Lord, thank you that you have revealed yourself to us. You are the most high God. You are not like anyone else. You are God. We are the creature. We praise you. We magnify you. We adore your great name. We praise you for your mercy that brought salvation to us through Christ. We pray that we would delight in him with all our heart. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Lord, our God. Now, may the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.