All right, if you have your copy of God's Word, if you would open with me to Matthew chapter 18. Ms. Brenda got her bulletins done a little bit early this week, and I made a text transition, but she already had her bulletins printed up, and I wasn't gonna ask her to redo them, so. very easy to text Mariah and say, make this our text, and she could change the PowerPoint quite easily. We've been in a series, probably, I may have one or two more, but nearing the end, probably nearing the end, but we've been in a Sunday morning series on meaningful church membership. Every week has been a verb, whether it is joining, assembling, giving, Exercising, following, worshiping, every week has been a verb. And this week is the same thing with the thought of disciplining, not discipling. Though really those two things are akin to each other, we are focused this morning on disciplining, on disciplining. Matthew chapter number 18, verse 15. Moreover, you might take notice that moreover ties us back to what has just been said. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, And you can really understand this verse, whatever we bind on earth has already been settled in heaven. It's already been bound. We're just bringing ourselves in line with what's already been done by God, in the mind of God. Verse 18, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever shall loose on earth shall be, has been loosed in heaven. And I'm gonna keep reading because I really think it'd be good for us. Every once in a while, will you let your preacher stomp his feet just a little bit? Verse 19, again I say in you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Four, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now I'm gonna stop my feet just a minute and then I'm gonna move on. But verse number 20, two or three are gathered together, has got absolutely nothing to do with you and two buddies sitting down at Starbucks over a latte and having church. Because you know, the Bible says where two or three are gathered together. Nor does it have anything to do with there only being eight people here on Wednesday night, like there was this past Wednesday night. Well, there's only two or three, but gosh, that has nothing to do with this. If there's you and you go back in the text and there's one or two more, that makes two or three. Verse 20 is about church discipline and has nothing to do with the fact that you can just have church out in the woods somewhere as long as there's two or three of you together. Now, have you ever been in an argument with your spouse? This would never happen to me, mind you. But have you ever been in an argument with their spouse and maybe they twisted your words? Sort of took them out of context and made it to fit their argument? That doesn't make you very happy, does it? Why on earth would we do God's Word that way? The context matters. All right, I'm through stomping my feet now. That verse is so abused, and by people who ought to know better. I've done it in the past, but thankfully, I hope God has helped me some. Verse 21, we're talking about this thing called forgiveness. Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him. Till seven times, you say unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. This morning, the subject of disciplining. There's a Christian ministry called Nine Marks. This is a highly respected and conservative organization that focuses a lot on God's glory, Christ's kingdom, local churches, and pastors. They have conferences, I've attended one of them, to educate and encourage preachers and teachers, was benefited by it. And they have a podcast, they have a website, they are a large and trusted source of godly material in our Christian community. And they also write books, very good books, by the way. And one of the very first publications that they put out was nine marks of a healthy church. I have this book right here and would strongly encourage everyone to get them a copy and read that book. Not that it matters just a whole lot, but I agree with all of the nine marks. They list nine marks of a healthy church, and I agree with every single one of them, even if I don't agree with every single word of the book. But one of those nine essential elements that is listed of a healthy church is this, biblical church discipline. Biblical church discipline. In fact, it is the seventh mark listed there as a necessary behavior, teaching, and practice of healthy churches. Unfortunately, however, church discipline is not a normal behavior for most churches in our age. A small percentage, I would think, of congregations among the numerous denominations actually practice any form of church discipline, which is sad indeed for any number of reasons. God's glory is directly tied to scriptural church discipline. The church's reputation is tied to biblical discipline. The spiritual health of the body is connected to church discipline. and the eternal spiritual good of an erring individual is inseparably connected to biblical church discipline. The Bible makes clear churches who do not practice discipline are out of order. This is a fact even if it rubs some people the wrong way. It is a fact, even if it rubs you the wrong way. Jesus himself taught the very first church this doctrinal behavior in the text that I have read to you this morning. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. is devoted, the entire chapter is devoted to church discipline. Any rational minded person will agree that discipline is an absolute necessity for any society or any organization. Whether it's the home, the workplace, the community, And yes, in church also, discipline is necessary. Brothers and sisters, God Himself disciplines us. Isn't that what Hebrews 12 says? That if you do not receive discipline, then you are an illegitimate child and not a son of God. Because God will chasten every one of His children. And if God practices discipline, Jesus told His churches right here to do it. It is modeled for us in Corinthians and we know it is necessary for the betterment of a people, a group of people. Why on earth don't churches do it then? Why won't churches generally practice church discipline. Well, there are any number of reasons, I think, that could be cited for that. But I think the primary reason why local churches in our age don't practice discipline is they've succumbed to the pressures of society. I think that's what it's really about. Or stated another way, they don't want to be seen as unloving. by churching people or disciplining people. The sad irony is this. Failing to confront egregious, unrepentant sin in the life of a confessing believer is not an act of love. It is an act of disdain. disdain for God, disdain for the Bible, disdain for the church, and disdain for that erring individual. When churches like ours practice this, while many others don't, we are considered to be the odd man out. the abnormality, while those folks at Memorial Heights, they're just mean, unkind, unloving. How dare they discipline someone? We would be fooling ourselves not to think that some in our own community see us in this way. to the pressures of culture around them are walking in open disobedience before God. Those who fail to discipline. I want to read something. I want to share something with you. I want to debate whether to do this because it eats up a little bit of time. But in this book that I mentioned, Deborah quotes a Baptist historian by the name of Greg Wills. He's a professor at Southern Seminary, I believe, professor of church history, incredibly smart guy. And he's talking about the decline of church discipline, how it used to be so common. And he's talking about Baptist churches. I pastor a Baptist church. That's primarily what I'm talking about. And he's talking about the decline within the last 150 to 200 years of churches following this practice. And I want you to hear what he wrote. Speaking of Baptist churches, Wills writes this. He says, they lost the resolve to purge their churches of strained members. No one publicly advocated the demise of discipline. No Baptist leader arose to call for an end congregational censure, no theologians argued that discipline was unsounded principle or practice. Listen to this. It, that is discipline, simply faded away as if Baptists had grown weary of holding one another accountable. And that's our society. People want to be a part of a church, and I speak it again in the journal, they want to be a part of a church where they can come and go as they please and not be bothered one way or another. Or not come and not go and not be bothered one way or another. Our society fights against accountability and responsibility. and church discipline is holding one another accountable before God under the instruction of Scripture. I know, and I'm sure many of you do too, that there are churches right here in our community that refuse to address, to confront people who are living in known sin and rebellion against God. They are active and not just members, but in roles of leadership in the church even though they're leading lives directly contrary to the word of God. Now these churches who refuse to discipline, they may seem loving, they may seem tolerant, but they're actually doing damage to the kingdom of Christ. dishonoring the Lord and doing harm to the souls of those who were involved. For the sake of convenience, comfort, or pragmatism. I can't help but think about 1 Corinthians 5, verse 2, where Paul told those Corinthians there, they had that church member who was living in open sexual sin, and everybody knew about it. Listen, he said, rather than being broken over this, you're proud, you're puffed up. Shouldn't you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? There is a clear mandate given by God that churches exercise discipline to unrepentant, erring members. And brothers and sisters, I'm teaching and preaching this in this series of meaningful church membership. One is a warning to us all. warning to us all not to live in such a way that would warrant congregational censure, but also that you and I accept our responsibility to be actively involved in the process of disciplining one another, holding one another accountable. Well, I can't help what other churches do. They do what they do. They'll be accountable to God for it. But I want Memorial Heights to continue to be a church that reluctantly but necessarily exercises discipline when called upon. I want to ask and answer four questions this morning about discipline, about church discipline. Our answers primarily will be found in the passage we have in front of us, but we'll make allusion to some other scriptures as well. Here are the four questions. that I want to ask and I want to answer, okay? Question one, what are the different forms of church discipline? What are the different forms? Number two, what behaviors merit church discipline? Number three, what are the desired results of church discipline? And number four, what are the consequences of failing to exercise? So first, what are the different forms of church discipline? What are the different forms of church discipline? Because when we think about discipline, or when you mention church discipline, people automatically jump to the very end. They jump to the idea of exclusion or taking people off the church roll. But in truth, this is, at least almost always, the last step of discipline and not the first. So when I talk about church discipline, don't sit there and think, oh, you're just talking about excommunicating people. That's only part of what I'm talking about. Just like when you're raising children, you normally do not skip to corporal punishment straight out of the chute. I know I gotta be careful because of the world in which we live. But I started saying, but I believe, it doesn't really matter what I believe, the Bible still says if you spare the rod, and spoil the child. The Bible says you do not spank your children when they need it. Very candidly, you do not love your children. That's just what Proverbs says. More will be here on Wednesday night. But you don't spank or paddle a child for every offense. In fact, if you normally warn, warn, warn, and if they continue on, then you take that final step. Same thing with church discipline. It involves teaching, and instruction, and warning, and praying, and encouraging, and more prayerful pleading. But if someone won't listen, then and only then do we go to the final step of exclusion. Now, there are exceptions to that. If someone is publicly known guilty of a very egregious sin, yes. But beyond that, we follow these different I would encourage you, if you're somebody who writes things down, to write these three things down. There are three types of church discipline. There's formative discipline, formative discipline, corrective discipline, and then what I call separative discipline. Let's look at them very quickly. Formative discipline. This is discipline that is taking place right now. Right now. As I stand and preach to you, we are all being disciplined by the Word. That word discipline carries with it the idea of instruction, correction. God's Word is like that water that washes away our fields. And when we sit under Sunday School teaching, Bible preaching, when we're reading, We are being disciplined by the Word. This is formative discipline. We're told, Paul told Timothy, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. That is formative discipline. It is using our words and our actions to correct and to warn. Think about it like this. How many times did you tell your child, don't speak with your mouth full? That's formative discipline. That's what it is. Be mindful of who your friends are. That is counsel. That is instruction. That is formative discipline. You tell your child, use your manners. Don't slam the door. On and on. This is formative discipline. But you also add with that, this clear statement. If you fail to obey, there are consequences for your actions. If you won't listen, after a repeated warning, there's consequences for your actions. And brothers and sisters, that's what formative discipline is, and that's what we're doing right now. And you as a church member have a responsibility to be disciplining one another in a godly way. That is instructive by word or by example. You are to instruct others in a godly way. And I'm going to go ahead and say, whether we like it or not, every one of us is teaching or instructing others. Whether we, how we view corporate worship. I'm trying to decide if I want to get fired this Sunday. How you view corporate worship. That is whether you show up or not. Whether you show up on time or not. You're instructing others. You're either instructing them in righteousness or you're not. You're either formative, disciplining them towards holiness, or you're pushing them from it. But all of us are teaching. What are we teaching? It's like, we can think whatever we want to think. Children do what we do, not what we say. You hear that? You can preach all you want to, but if you live a different way, they're going to follow how you live and not what you say. That's formative discipline. Your actions, your words should be helping others form good habits, healthy habits, godly habits. Formative discipline is step one. Then there's corrective discipline. Corrective discipline is exactly what we find in our text in front of us. It is when there's a problem, you go to that person to try and correct it. Verse 15, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell everybody on planet earth about it. No. If your brother sins against you, you go to him or her, one on one, and you try to privately resolve the matter. This is corrective discipline. This is biblical. If you can't see it on the page, It's right there in red and white, or black and white. You and I are told, we don't like this. Very few people are really good at this. Very, very few people actually do it. Instead, we allow that frustration and anger to fester instead of going to that person. But the instruction is we go to that person with the effort of resolving the matter. That's corrective discipline. If I sin against you, and I will, I will fail you, I'll disappoint you, I'll say something, it'll happen, and so it will happen with others. And if it's egregious enough that it's an issue for you, you have the God-given responsibility to come to me humbly and say, Brother Lewis, you may not know this, you may not But it hurt me. It bothered me. And I'd like to get it out. Let's get it in the open. Let's clear the matter. Let's resolve it so we can move on. That's corrective discipline. And that's what we should be doing. Sadly, we just don't do much of that. But that same principle holds true whether someone sins against us individually, or they sin against the church, or they sin against God. If you know of someone within the church, and I'm not talking about perfect obedience. Brother said they're not a perfect church member here, not one. But if there is someone who is living, who is a member of this body, but is living in open, unrepentant rebellion against God, you, you, and don't say come get Brother Lewis. You have the responsibility to go to that person and say, listen, what you're doing isn't right before God. I'm trying to resolve this with as few people involved as possible. Let's sit down, brother. Let's sit down, sister. Let's talk about it. Let's pray about it. You can't keep on doing this. This doesn't honor God. This isn't consistent with Christian conduct. That's corrective discipline. And what do you do? What do you do if that person won't listen to you? Well, I'm glad you asked. Verse 16, if he will not hear you, then take with you one or two more. There's you, there's one or two more that ties together on that two or three that we find in verse 19 and verse 20. You take with you. The goal is, if you look at the close of verse 15, You tell him his fault between him and him alone. If he'll listen to you, you've gained your brother. That's what you're after. You're restoring that fellowship as it ought to be. But if he won't listen to you, then you take with you one or two others so that they can hear the whole matter, both sides, this and that, and that there is accountability and clarity about what happened and didn't happen. That's corrective discipline. It is taking some others with you. You should begin with private consultation. Private consultation. And then that should escalate. If the person won't listen, then that should escalate. And then I think that's the point where you go to some spiritually minded people in the church. You have this passage in your bulletin. Galatians 6 verse 1. We which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. You take with you others, spiritual minded people who are trying to restore that individual. And then, if they still won't listen, this is corrected. Then what do you do? Verse 17. And if they shall, if he shall neglect to hear them, you tell it to the church. Then it's brought to the church. If that person will not listen to the church, then comes separative discipline. You have formative discipline, corrective discipline, and if they will not listen, then it escalates to separative discipline. And by that I mean separating a person from the membership of the church. The biblical model is that there is a member of the body that has corrupted itself. And in order to protect the health of the whole, you cut off, that's the biblical language, you cut off that member to keep that infection from spreading. How can I not use this as an illustration? Our own dear Christian friend, Fred Beaver, is in the hospital rehab right now because he had, in fact, five separate infections setting in on one of his big toes. They tried, they tried, they tried to correct it, but they couldn't get rid of it. But in order to keep it from spreading, they had to amputate it. Fred didn't want that. Doctors, nurses, staff, nobody wanted that. Family didn't want it. But in order to protect the health of the whole body, it had to be cut off. Same thing with separative discipline. In order to protect the health of the whole, it must be cut off. Can I read something to you? Whether you want to call it exclude, remove, the old term is church someone, but it is removing them from the membership of the church. Listen, I'm going to read this. Excommunication is the final stage of church discipline. It is undertaken only if other corrective measures fail to bring the sinner to repentance, though painful and traumatic Excommunication is not an unloving act. Would it have been loving for the doctor to say to Fred, that toe is terribly infected, but we're not going to address that issue. We're just going to leave it alone. Would that have been an act of love? An act of service to him was to do what they did. And then how is this person who has been disciplined, how are they to be treated? Look at verse 17. If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church, and if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Very simply, you are to treat that person as if they are an unbeliever. When formative discipline has failed, when corrective discipline has failed, and separative discipline has been enacted, that is the church body, and that's how we do it here, when the issue is brought to the church, it has been known that attempts have been made to reconcile the matter, but it cannot be reconciled, Then the church votes to remove that person from the membership. It is a church action. Under the authority of Christ our King. Can I throw in a real quick caveat real quick here? Churches make mistakes. Now I want you to hear that. I want to give that disclaimer. Churches make mistakes. They do. Sometimes they act too quickly. They act too harshly. They don't know the whole story. People have failed in the church. They fail to reach out and encourage or to bring that person back. Churches make mistakes. It happens. It does. And in that case, it is understandable if that person is put off by the bad actions of the church. But they still ought to try to right it at some point. But let me say this again. When someone is excluded from membership, a church is saying, by their action, by the vote to remove them, a church is saying that person, right now, is not living a life that is consistent with Christian conduct. The church is not saying that person is not saved. We can't know that. The church is not saying they're not a Christian. We can't know that. But what we can know is that their lifestyle does not back up what the Bible says Christians do. And when there's that incongruity, when there is that separation between Christian talk and Christian walk, a person says they're this, but they're living like this, and they refuse to change, a church must act. They must act. And again, they're not saying that that person is not saved. They may be saved. They may be like that prodigal, though, that has wandered away from the Father's house. I've been there. I know. And I'm thankful for the prayerful patience of God's people led with the Father that I would be returned." But this ties together verses 18 through 20, and I don't have time to preach all that, but verses 18 through 20 tie together with separative discipline. Whatever we bind on earth, brothers and sisters, God's already done it. We ought to get ourselves in line with what God has already decided. Whatever we bind on earth is bound, has been bound in heaven. Whatever we lose, we lose in heaven. But I got to move. What behaviors merit church discipline? Those are the three types, formative, corrective, and separative. Those are the three types. What behaviors merit church discipline? Well, in our text, if you sin against another brother and refuse to apologize, if you sin against someone, you've hurt them, you've done wrong by them, and you stubbornly refuse to own it and correct it, that merits church discipline, whether it is formative discipline, corrective discipline, or ultimately, separative discipline. A sin against God, a sin against the church, an open sin, open rebellion, public failure, all of this warrants the same response that is given to us. We try to correct it privately if possible. If not, you take one or two others, and if they won't, your den is brought to the church. But what? What? I want to share with you, again, out of this book, some of the behaviors that merit. We don't have time to get in all of this. But I want to share with you some of the behaviors that merit church discipline. This was, in fact, that quote right here, a church that was organized in the early 1800s, what was on their bylaws. What was on their bylaws, if you did not do these things or you did do these things, you could be facing separative discipline or exclusion. They list an outward moral failure, outward violations of the moral law, pursuing any course of action which, in the judgment of the church, could bring a reproach upon the body, disreputable behavior that harms the church's good name. You ready for this? behavior that merits church discipline, here's how they put it, for absenting themselves habitually without good reasons from corporate worship. You know what that's talking about? Not showing up for church. I mean, it's one thing if people are sick and they're shut in. Now I'm going to get everybody every kind of mad. I don't understand for the life of me. I don't understand why people can go all over planet Earth, but they can't come to church. Amen. Amen, brother. You want to talk about a hot view? I've had people, man, oh my goodness, literally screaming at me on the phone. Who do you think you are? telling me I'm going to get kicked out of church. And I want to say, do you really care? I'm serious. I don't mean to be a jerk. I've been called everything but a Christian over this. I don't understand why people get so upset about being removed from the membership of the church that they ain't set foot in in a year. hard.