Alright, grab your Bibles. Turn to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5 in your Bible. Stand please. I'm just going to read a couple of verses here. You might say, what in the world? It's ok, it's in the subject. It's just their kick-off verses here. Verse number 4. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus let's pray Lord we thank you for your word we thank you father for the opportunity here to continue in our study and and maybe complete this this lecture tonight or or maybe get real close and finish it out next week, but we just pray father that you'd bless our time now and Help us to apply the things that we learn properly in Jesus name. Amen may be seated all right, so we are continuing in our landmarks of Baptist doctrine ecclesiology church discipline And we are in our fifth session on lecture number 13, which is The Discipline of a Church. And I won't go through all of the background again. You'll have to watch the other videos if you want to get all that info. But we're on page 706 if you have the book, if you're following along here. And we're on point number 6, The Way of Church Discipline. So Church Discipline chapter As some put it, 1 Corinthians 5 gives insight as to the conduct and effects of corrective discipline. Now this is when, what was the term we used there? This is when the Formative discipline. I don't want to say that it has failed, but this is when someone has rejected formative discipline and they are now under corrective discipline. Does that make sense? So. As we look at that now, remember, the goal is formative discipline and never to leave the formative discipline stages. The goal is to never get into this part of it. Because if formative discipline is happening properly, then repentance will take place and you don't have to get into this. But if repentance does not take place, it says in the first point here, it says the church acts corporately. Again, as I've said in the past, corporately does not mean incorporation. Corporately means collectively or as a group. So as verse number 4 says, when ye are gathered together, it is not a pastor's place to put people out of the church. It's not. You've got a problem with somebody? I can counsel you. I can give you advice. I can direct you biblically in how to help restore the relationship, but you better not come to me and say, we need to get rid of this person. Not my job. Not my job. And not only is it not my job, it's improper. When you have a problem with somebody, if you need to come to me and say, hey, I'm having a problem with this person, can you give me some pointers on what to do? Or pray for me because it's my problem, not their problem. Or it's pray that I'll have patience with their problems. And sometimes that's the case. It's not somebody that's in gross sin. It's somebody that's got, that rubs you the wrong way, so to speak, that they, there are maybe in a lot of cases, I'm not, we're not talking about real discipline a lot of times when somebody comes to me and says, Pastor, Pastor Gemlich is, you know, he really, He bumped into me in the hallway, and he does that all the time. And I just think he does it on purpose. I said, well, maybe he does. Maybe he just wants you to know you're his friend. Have you talked to him about it? Now if you come to me and say, Pastor Gimlick bumped into me in the hallway. We need to get rid of him. His wife says amen. That is not the way to do it. And believe it or not, that's probably going to flip back around to you. It's probably going to be a question saying... The question might come back around and say, what makes you think that he needs to be gotten rid of? We've got a whole consensus here, brother. No, I'm just kidding. What did you say, brother? Or maybe nobody needs to be gotten rid of. Maybe that, yeah, maybe. There are some churches that are like, there are some churches that are, oh, he bumped into you? Well, that was so unthoughtful and so inconsiderate. We should probably bring that before the church. And I mean, now that's a little bit ridiculous, but every little thing that happens that that is sin in somebody's life ends up being suggested that it's brought before the whole church to deal with it. Now, if there is public sin, yes, it has to be dealt with publicly. But it doesn't have to be dealt with publicly. There are options. I don't find anywhere in Scripture where the offending party who has gotten right with God has to come up in front of the whole church behind the pulpit and apologize to the church. I don't see that in Scripture. I've seen pastors do that. It causes now, they that sin rebuke before all. We're talking about public sin. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that we bring them up in front of everybody and say, I can rebuke you from right here where you're sitting. Or, if someone has gotten right, If someone's gotten right and it's fixed, well, if there are public consequences, then there has to be a public discussion at least, or at least a public service announcement, we'll say. So, you know, if something happens that is not illegal, right, obviously if something somebody kills somebody and they get right with God about it, but then they let us know, well, I killed this person. Well, sorry, we'll just let everybody know why you're not here anymore and you're in prison. You have to deal with temporal consequences, even though you got right with God and you dealt with the eternal consequences, you still have to deal with the temporal consequences and face the music, so to speak. But if someone has done something wrong that the temporal consequence happens to be, let's say, for example, the temporal consequence happens to be a new person in the world, for example, and there are no other offended parties, not an adultery scenario, okay? Simply two single people that have done wrong together. There would need to be a public statement made, and it doesn't, if they've gotten right, it doesn't necessarily need to be a public statement that they have to make. It depends on how they want to handle it. I know, like I said, I know some pastors would bring, you know, oh, you've sinned against God and the church, you need to come up here and apologize. I don't think that's necessary. Now, I might be wrong in some people's eyes, and some people may feel like that's necessary, but I don't think it is. I think that those things can be corrected without making a big spectacle out of it. Does that make sense? Yeah? I know we're talking about uncomfortable stuff. But when someone is to be removed from membership because they refuse to repent, typically, they're not present anyways. So it's not like you're bringing them up here and saying, all right, get behind the pulpit. We're going to grill you and then kick you out. No, they're probably not here. Most of the time, they're probably not going to be there. Now in the Corinthian church, this sin was so open and bold that that person probably was there. And Paul tells them when you get together, again, not the pastor's job, the church's job. Number two, or letter B here, the church acts authoritatively with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse four. church acts corporately the church acts authoritatively just as Matthew the Lord Jesus said in Matthew whatsoever you bind on earth should be bound in heaven whatsoever you loose on earth should be loose in heaven in other words he's saying that that the church. Body has authority and that authority is binding authority and as it says here, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Letter C, the church acts purposefully. And this one's got several sub-points here. The offending member is to be removed for the benefit of the whole body. Not just the rest of the body. Right? Not just the offending member is, in this case, is removed not just for everybody else, but for everybody including himself. It is also for his good. In this particular case, in verse number 5, it says, delivered unto Satan. It says, note, the final end of church discipline may even be the physical death of the sinning member. Now, that does not mean that the church executes the person. That does not mean that the church does the executing. It just means that they deliver him. They put him out. What's that? At McGregor Road, at one time, We were trying to raise the elevation out there where we were putting that building. And so we had dump trucks dumping piles of dirt everywhere in that back field. And so there were just all these piles of dirt, and sometimes people would, people from town would be visiting the church, or the kids or whatever, and they'd say, teenagers, they'd say, what are all those piles out there? I'd say, oh, that's all the people we church disciplined. So I told them that we were kidding. But we joke about that, but that's a very serious problem. In fact, in 1 John, the Bible says there is a sin unto death. And that's a part of that. Sometimes, by the way, keeping someone who is living in sin under the church membership, believe it or not, your church membership protects you. I'm not talking about the worldly side of church members. Maybe you've got a membership card or something. We don't do that here. But your church membership, not the fact that your name's on the bulletin as a member, but the fact that you're a member of the body of Christ, it protects you from some aspects of the attacks of the devil. It also puts a target on you from the devil from another perspective. But it protects you in a lot of ways. And as Brother Kaiser used to always say, there are benefits to membership. Lots of benefits to membership. And that protection is removed when the person is removed. And that's why it says, deliver him unto such-and-one unto Satan. In other words, you're saying, you know what? Now, we're not talking about kicking someone out of the building, but for sake of illustration, The walls protect us from the outside, right? Right? Just like your skin protects your organs and your bloodstream and all that stuff from foreign matter. Unless there's some strep that gets in your mouth and then it's in there anyhow. Or you have a sore or a cut or something, right? If you remove something out of your body and put it outside of your body somewhere, it now can be attacked by anything that's outside. Because it's no longer protected on the inside. Right? Just like if someone has offended and someone has done wrong, and there is protection from... now there's still chastisement. Right? The Lord still chastises His own. You're still somewhat protected from the devil in that sense. But when removed, when put outside of the protection, you're open for attack from all directions. Yeah, that's why I use a microphone. But you're open to attack from all directions. That's why, you know, when there are surgeries and things that happen where people's organs may be removed from their body and replaced or, you know, whatever that is, whatever's going on, whatever needs to be done, it's a very, very clean room and they try to provide the same sort of protection that your body gives to your organs through trying to make sure that everything's clean and everybody washes up and all of the different, and the temperature's right, and everything's just so. And so that's, it's important to recognize that there are protections. And when someone is put out, they're delivered unto whatever can get them out there. By the way, sometimes keeping somebody in brings things upon the whole body also. It wasn't a church example, but Jonah. The mariners suffered because of Jonah's sin. They lost a bunch of stuff. They threw all the stuff overboard. their tackling and their food and stuff, and they're just throwing it all overboard to try to make the ship light enough to be okay and all that. And then Jonah says, no guys, it's me, throw me overboard. And what happened? As soon as Jonah was thrown overboard, forget Jonah, what happened to the mariners? The storm was gone. And the difficulty that they were going through was over. Sometimes, that's a benefit to the whole body if someone is living in sin and refusing to repent if they're removed until they repent. Suicide, you know, No, I think he wanted to die. In fact, even toward the end, he's under the tree there. Well, not the tree anymore, but he's under the sun and he's angry and he says, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? I believe, if I remember correctly, he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Yeah, so I don't want to go into all that with Jonah, but there are mutual benefits to being in the church. There are protections being in the church. And there's wrath that comes upon the erring member that also hits the other members. that also affects the other members. If you sin, your sin does not only affect you, it affects everyone around you. In the light of so many cruel events that have occurred throughout church history, it is important to see that death occurs at the hands of Satan in the permissive will of God, not at the hands of the church, of course. That's what I could have just read instead of just saying, yeah, the church isn't responsible for executing. This is not at the hands of the church acting in concert with the civil authorities. Oh man. Don't want to open that can of worms there. We'll just say it this way. There there are some. So called churches that felt that it was their responsibility to take care of that part, deliver them unto Satan at the stake or at the noose or at the firing line. And various, lots of torture and things like that, where this passage was applied to any and everything that could be called sin or heresy by the Church of Rome for, well, They called them the Dark Ages. I'm talking about the whole passage. Delivering such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. I mean, they literally did the deeds of Satan. Destroying for having different opinions, for being a heretic is what they called them. Says furthermore Exclusion from a church does not mean the offender loses his or her salvation Right says that the spirit may be saved The day of the Lord Jesus, you know, they don't lose their salvation Verse number seven purge out Purging may be painful, but it is necessary to have godly fruits Now, we don't want to do that unless it's absolutely necessary. By the way, there's a whole other part to this, and that is that the guy repented later, and they were told to receive him back. And so, again, the goal isn't to just cut them off and ignore them and shun them. No, you allow them the opportunity to repent and let them come back. Verses 9 and 11, not to keep company. I know I just said we're not supposed to shun them, But in this particular case, it says, all Christian fellowship should be withdrawn once a brother is excluded. He is to be treated as one who would treat a lost man, just as Jesus said, let him be unto thee as a heathen man, a publican or a heathen, but not shunned. It just means that they are, just like anybody else that you'd meet on the street that's not saved, treat them the same way. Verse 10 clarifies this requirement by distinguishing Christian company from normal worldly association. But you would treat them, you know, you don't hang out with them like you do another brother or sister in Christ, but you treat them like someone who needs to repent because they do. Verse number 13, put away, says withdrawn. And by the way, the word put away is the same terminology that is used for divorce. And that is very much what it's like for someone to be removed from a congregation. It's like a divorce in a sense. It's not a happy time. It's not a good time. It's terrible. The other passages that talk about this, you have withdraw from, there in 2 Thessalonians 3.6 and 1 Timothy 3.5 and 6. You have to note them in 2 Thessalonians 3.14, to mark them in Romans 16.17, that they're to be rebuked. in Titus 1.13 says here, note many of the scriptures cited above are applied to ecclesiastical separation from apostate men and groups. They are used to assert that a Bible-believing Baptist should separate from, for example, an apostate Presbyterian or an apostate Methodist. It says, since when is a baby sprinkling Presbyterian or an Arminian Methodist not apostate? Since when should Baptists ever be associating with non-Baptists in the first place? The fact is, all the above verses should be applied in a church setting. What he's critiquing here is not that these verses apply for other religions. They apply within a church setting. Now, on the other hand, he's also saying, what business do we have with them anyways? A relationship that you have with somebody at work that's part of some other religion that calls themselves a Christian is going to be different than the relationship you have with people here at church. Definitely going to be different. You're not going to necessarily be responsible for rebuking them for wrongdoing, unless it's related to your job. or rebuking them for wrong doctrine and all of that. It's not necessarily the battle to fight unless it is brought up. But that's a whole other message for another time. We're talking about within a church setting. But these are things that obviously we wouldn't have to mark and avoid someone who's Methodist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal or whatever. within the membership of our church because they wouldn't be members of our church if they were. So. Letter D here, the church acts humbly. I'm trying to quickly get through here. I want to finish this tonight if we can. The church acts humbly. There needs to be the right kind of spirit in the exercise of church discipline. It needs to be a mourning spirit, right? Not something that you're rejoicing over. Oh, we finally get rid of that person. That's absolutely not the right attitude. In fact, here it says, you are puffed up. and have not rather mourned." Mourning is appropriate in this scenario. A spirit of meekness, as Galatians 6, verse 1 says, right? The future spirits will restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. The spirit of longsuffering. In most cases, the action of a church to exclude one of its members should come only after Every warning, admonition, and opportunity for remedy has been exhausted. Got several passages there you can look at. 1 Thessalonians 5.14, 2 Timothy 4.2, and Titus 3.10. Letter E, the church acts decisively. When a church must act, it should act in a clear-cut manner. Titus 1.13 says, Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. A sharp rebuke does not seek to mollify sin. In other words, you're not trying to soften the blow. You're not trying to say, oh, you know what, it's not that bad. No, you're removing them from membership. It's sharp. It is bad. They need to get it right. And if they would just get it right, you wouldn't have to put them out. That's that's the point. Second Corinthians 711 there, it says, which which describes how the church at Corinth responded to God's command given in First Corinthians five. Letter F here, the church acts charitably. The New Testament makes provision for the restoration of an excluded member to full membership status in 2 Corinthians 2 verses 6-8. Let's look at that real quick here. 2 Corinthians 2. Kind of have to consider that. Verse 6, sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that contrarywise he ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him." Restoration. Really was the original goal and it should be continued to be the goal. Even after removal has taken place. Restoration should still be the goal. In this example, the church was admonished to restore the excluded member of 1 Corinthians 5. This is the highest purpose of all discipline, to restore. Restoration involves four things. Number one, cessation of all church action. is this punishment. It was enough. In other words, cessation of all church action meaning that there's no longer rejection or removal. It is from every single member they are re-acclimated, forgiven. Number two, Christ-like forgiveness. so that contrarywise ye ought rather to forgive him." Verse number 7. And see also verse number 10 which says, to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Number three, comfort him. at less perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." Erring members, members who have sinned and who have the Spirit of God in them, they're grieved over their sin. When they finally come to repentance, I'm pretty sure there's plenty of sorrow. And there's no need to add to that sorrow. but just lovingly comfort and restore them. Restored members should not be treated differently than any other member in good standing. Then number four, confirmation of love, wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him as verse number eight says. Amen.