The young people, you're dismissed for your classes now. May the Lord bless you and cause you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. May you understand what it means to be washed white as snow in the blood of our Savior. Please turn with me now in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. We come to our last passage that we're going to be looking at under this title, How People Change, Matthew 18, 12 to 20. We've been saying that the way that we change in the body of Christ We don't change often because we don't pursue change rightly, and the way we need to pursue change rightly according to the New Testament is through relationships and redemptive relationships, relationships where we help one another to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Last time we talked about our need to be in a particular type of redemptive relationship, that is relationship with our shepherds, elders, that we all need leaders. We all need shepherds in our lives. We need to be under those who are looking after us. The implications, we're all sheep. We all have the capacity of wandering away from the good shepherd. And so that we need one another, we need particularly elders overseeing us. But since we all have the capacity to wander, this natural proclivity to wander, to drift, we need one another as well. We need to shepherd one another because we're all sheep. That phrase, one another, such an important phrase in the New Testament, occurring about 50 times. Well, the particular Greek word that's translated one another occurs about 50 times in the New Testament. We're told to love one another, to care for one another, to serve one another, to be devoted to one another, to pray for one another. But a couple of particulars I want to mention as a lead-in to our message who are also called to encourage one another. Twice, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 11. Hebrews 2.13, we're told to encourage one another. Now, encourage in the Greek means literally to call alongside. Now you think about that, what's happening, a flock of sheep, we're God's flock, we're His sheep, and sheep are to stay together. And so one of the sheep begins to wander, and so encouraging means, hey, come back over here, call alongside, to parakaleo, to call beside you. That's encourage one another. admonish one another, takes it to another level, admonish one another, Romans 13, 14, Colossians 3, 16, means to set the mind right, that it's a little more emphatic, that the sheep's wandering and he's not thinking correctly and so that's why he's wandering and so we're called as others, one another, to one another, each other in this way, to go talk to them and set their mind right. What are you thinking? You're a sheep. Why are you over here by yourself? This is crazy. And so we come to a passage today which continues to show that, that need to be one-anothered and to be confronted sometime. In our culture, confrontation like this is not something that's popular. You can tell somebody anything except they're wrong in our culture. You can't even think they're wrong, apparently. Now that's apparently what so many are lobbying to see. You can't even maintain the position that someone's wrong. Tolerance has been redefined. Tolerance used to mean that though you disagree with someone, you treat them kindly. Now it means you can't disagree with them. That's not tolerance. That is oppression, intellectual oppression. It's not freedom. In that culture, it's hard then to, we're in a climate that makes it seem when you come and talk to someone about a problem they have, that you just, who do you think you are? But the New Testament pictures us as people who need that in our lives. In fact, the Old Testament does too. It's so instructive that the second commandment, not the second commandment in the ten, but the second great commandment. Remember Jesus was asked what's the greatest commandment? love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." He quoted Deuteronomy 6 verse 5. And then he said, and the second great commandment is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then he quoted Leviticus 19.18. You shall love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. It's instructive that the verse immediately preceding that where he says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, says this. you shall not hate your neighbor, you will surely reprove him." That is, to not reprove your neighbor is to hate him. To see him in danger spiritually and to not speak to him is to hate him. And we come to a passage of Scripture where this becomes even more clear. This is a passage on church discipline. In the title of the message, How People Change, Part 12, we need to change through being under church discipline. We all need to be under, that is, an environment where we will be disciplined. You know, the word discipline is very closely related to the word disciple. The root is the same. Disciples follow Jesus, and to follow Jesus you need to be disciplined. That's why David said, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Later he says in that same psalm, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Now the rod and the staff weren't there for like just little love taps. Well they really were there for love taps, but they didn't feel like a love tap when the sheep got it. The rod and the staff were there to remind the sheep to stop going the wrong way and to come back. And David says how good it is that we have a God who loves us enough to shepherd us. And it comforts me to know that He'll do that. Matthew 18, 12-20 is basically just saying that same thing. That our God is a shepherding God who will shepherd us and the means that He uses, His rod and His staff are other Christians in our lives. We need to be under and involved in a church where church discipline is practiced. This is something that has been misunderstood in our day through a couple of different extremes. One, on the one hand, people have misused it, abused it. I remember reading an article about churches that abuse some years back, where scriptures like this are taken and twisted and just really used to to inflict pain upon people, almost cultish kind of behavior that some Christian churches have engaged in. But on the other hand, what's really more prominent than that or prevalent today is the neglect of this important command. I remember when I was early on in my ministry here at the church, I'd just been here maybe a couple of years, and I had the opportunity to have lunch with an older pastor who was from a very successful church, I thought, a church that was just thriving, growing, and a large church. In talking, we had a great time together. It was so encouraging throughout the meal. And then at the end, I just said, I said, before we, I have a question for you. And I said, you know, I'm dealing with a situation in our church where a man is leaving his wife and he's not listening. He's not hearing. We've gone to him and we've gone to him in a group and we've said, you know, you need to realize you can't, you have no biblical grounds to divorce your wife. You've got to work toward reconciliation. I'm sure there are problems that she has too, but you need to work on this. You can't leave her according to the scriptures if you're a Christian. And anyway, so I told him about that. I said, you know, we're at the place where we're supposed to tell it to the church, which we're going to see in this passage. What do you tell? Do you simply say that he's just not listening to the Word or do you say that he's, you know, he's abandoning his wife and he's committing adultery? And that pastor, who I respected so much, said to me, we don't do that. I was asking him a practical question. What does it mean to tell it to the church? Do you give specific details or not? How much do you tell so that the church can effectively go after him? And he said, we don't do that. We're too big. I remember my heart just sank. I thought to myself, how can you just ignore the clear command of Jesus Christ? It's inconvenient, so we don't do it. And so, because of this neglect in so many churches and because of the abuse in a few, it's very hard for us to have a proper view of church discipline, but the Bible really presents it in the most positive light and with amazing balance when you see it in context. Look with me at verses 12 to 20 of Matthew 18. Matthew 18 verse 12, What do you think, if any man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst." Let's pray together. Father, we ask that you might open our spiritual eyes and give us your truth, that you might send forth your light and your truth and let them lead us to your holy hill, to the place of your habitation. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Now, I want us to consider this subject, church discipline, under three headings. They all begin with a P, or at least the main word starts with a P. And the first is the purposes of church discipline. It's three points. The first is the purposes of church discipline. Then we're going to look at the process. But the purposes now of church discipline, and there are two purposes that I think we see in the passage. And the two purposes are this, the good of the wayward individual, the good of the wayward individual and the glory of God. Those are the purposes of church discipline. The good of the wayward individual and the glory of God. So let's look first at the good of the wayward individual. We're asking, why does God call us to discipline one another? And it's for our own good. It is for the good of the wayward individual. Verses 12 to 14. The context of verses 15 to 20 are so important to read. It doesn't just start off. Jesus doesn't just start a dialogue by saying, if your brother sins, go. It comes out of a context and a flow of thought. And it's so important for us to see that. In fact, I really wish that the translations The NASB that I'm reading was revised, I think, in like 98, and they took out a word that really is there in the Greek, and all the translations have done this. I don't really know why, but verse 14, it says like this, So it is not the will of your father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish, and if your brother sins. Before, that was in the NASB, and if your brother sins, because there's a conjunction in the Greek that's not translated. Sometimes that's, you know, when you move from English to Greek, Greek to English, I mean, that's okay, but here I think it takes something away because the flow is missed. It's really a conjunction there, and if your brother sins, go. I've just been talking about sheep, wayward sheep that are gone astray, and the shepherd's desire to go after that one and leave the 99, and if your brother sins. You see? If your brother's caught in sin, go after him. Like a shepherd that would leave the 99 in the fold and go in search for the one. So the purpose of church discipline is the good of the wayward individual. There's a desire to bless. There's a desire to restore. It's really, in a sense, a search-and-rescue operation. You know, we hear about these from time to time. Someone's lost in, you know, some park or some nature preserve, and they've not been heard of for some period of time, and what happens? They mobilize the rangers and those that are trained for search and rescue, and they go and they try to rescue them. Or someone's lost at sea, they had an accident out in the ocean, and what happens? The Coast Guard goes on a search and rescue operation. This is really what is the spirit of church discipline. It is a search and rescue operation. It is that which is done for the benefit of the person that is struggling. Now they don't see it that way often. When they're in their sin and they're wandering, remember we're sheep. We don't know we're in danger when we're in danger. but God says, this is how I see it, you're going after that wandering sheep. I mean, think about how helpless a sheep is away from the shepherd outside the fold. What chances has he got? I mean, sheep are so dumb, he's gonna just, he doesn't know how to get back where he was going. You've never seen a movie about the amazing journey of a sheep that traveled across the country to find its way home. Dogs, cats, maybe, but not a sheep. Sheep has no idea where he's going and he has nothing to defend himself and all he can do is alert predators by, bah, bah, lunch, come and get it, you know. So a sheep on its own is just, it's just, it's imminent death. And so the urgency of the shepherd to go get him That's the heart behind these commands. A wandering Christian. And you see this in the repetition of the phrase, gone astray, straying. One of them has gone astray. Verse 12. Search for the one that is straying. End of verse 12. Verse 13. He rejoices more over it than the 99 which have not gone astray. It means to wander and just to to get lost. And the idea, actually, is to be deceived. It's often used of what false teachers do. They deceive and lead astray. And so, often, Christians will be deceived. They'll, like the gentleman I mentioned earlier, he was convinced that God wanted him to be happy and so that he could have an affair with this other woman and marry her even though he was committed by covenant to another woman. How did that happen? Well, it was his own deceitful mind. It was the world's lying to him. Maybe it was that woman also, or some of the false teaching he had listened to. Whatever it was, he was wandering from the truth. When you look at the broader context, even, you see God's great concern for His people. He uses right before this, we didn't read this passage, but in verses 1 to 11, He uses the metaphor of a child. He says that believers, the one who believes in Him, is like a little baby, like a little child, like a toddler. The disciples actually, if you look at how it comes up, they're arguing over who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They had a lot of discussions about this. I thought they would have learned. But anyway, they're arguing again about who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, probably at Peter's house, and Jesus calls a child to Him. probably a toddler from the Greek word, a child that's able to walk and able to come to him and able to understand, but it's a little child. It's certainly not, you know, a child in school. It's a child between probably two and four. He calls the child to him. He places him in front of him and says, this is what you must become like to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Then if you don't become like this, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That is that you have to have childlike faith. You have to realize to be saved, you have to realize that you can't do anything to earn your salvation. Just like a little child, you know, you don't see little three-year-olds making out a list of all the things they have to do that day. You know, what are we going to eat for lunch? I think I'm going to fix, you know, I'm going to fix macaroni and cheese. I'm going to, I need to go shopping. No, what do they do? They just wait until somebody gives them what they need. They may cry. That's all they can do. Help me. They don't usually say help me, but they're basically saying that through other ways, right? And so he says spiritually to be saved you must be like that. You must acknowledge that you are impoverished spiritually and that you are as dependent upon God to save you as a little child is to have his mother pick him up, feed him, protect him, care for him. That's the essence of salvation. A lot of times people take these verses out of context and say that when Jesus says it's not His will for any little one to perish, He's talking about how much He loves little children. He does love little children, but He's talking here about little Christians. And He's likening them to children. And He says, listen, who's greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Let me tell you something. I love every single child in the kingdom of heaven with such fervent love. This is His message in context. And he goes on to say, listen, you're worried about who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I love every child, every spiritual child who comes to me like this child, this little child. If they come spiritually to me, they're precious to me. And let me tell you, you better not mess with them. That's what he basically says from verses 6 to 11. He talks about stumbling blocks. uses the word stumble or stumbling block six times in that passage, really from verses six to nine. A stumbling block was a trap. It's actually the Greek word skandalizo or skandalon. Our English word scandal transliterates that Greek word. The skandalon was the trigger of a trap. It was that, you know, the trigger that caused the snare to fall. or the trigger that caused the trap, the spring, the scandal, the scandalon. And so the idea of being scandalized in this idea of the Greek word was to be trapped and to have the subsequent effect of being trapped emotionally and also conduct-wise. So the idea would be to be trapped in sin and then to be led into greater sin. And Jesus says that's something He feels very strongly about. every single child of his. And so, that's the context leading up to when he goes to sheep. And then he says, go after the lost sheep. You see, I don't want my children trapped, scandalized. I don't want my sheep lost. Go after them. It's the good of the sheep. It's the good of his precious children. It's the good of the individual. One of the key words, actually, in the first 11 verses is the word, one. It occurs over and over again. Verse 6, or actually verse 5, whoever receives one such child in my name. Verse 6, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, and on and on and on. He's looking at the one. And He's looking at the one sheep there in verse 12. One goes astray. Doesn't He go in search for the one that is straying? So the purpose of church discipline is the good of the wayward individual. But it's also, there are two purposes under this first main point, the purposes of church discipline. The good of the individual and secondly, the glory of God. When we look at the broader context, we really see the heart of God. I began to explain that even in what we just were talking about. That when He talks about, in fact, the phrase He uses three times in the passage is, one of these little ones. One of these little ones. Verse 6, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble. Verse 10, see that you do not despise one of these little ones. Verse 14, So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. God loves each little one. Look at His heart. He sees us though we're a body, and we've been talking about that a lot, we're a corporate body and we're to see ourselves more that way. It's not just that way. There's the individual and the many. And God looks at the individual, His heart. And you see his earnestness when he says, listen, if you want to cause them to be scandalized, it would be better for you, if you're going to lead one of my little ones into sin, verse 6, it would be better for you, rather than to do that, go ahead and tie a millstone around your neck and go jump in the water and drown. That would be a better alternative than messing with one of my little ones. And then he says, verse 7, woe to the world because of stumbling blocks. Woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes." God is pronouncing judgment on the one that causes a little one of His to stumble. Then He... Look at the imagery. Verse 8, "...if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off." Listen, if your hand or foot is causing a stumbling, cut it off. God is so earnest. Pluck out your eye. Don't mess with My little ones. And then as a shepherd, he goes after the one. And what do we see? We see God's, in this passage, the glory of God. We see the affection of God, the concern of God, the determination of God. And so, when church discipline is practiced, what's happening? Not just the good of the individual, but the glory of God. God is being reflected. He's being made known. Our God is a God who cares about the individual. Our God is a God of affection and concern and determination. Our God is a God of love. The gospel is on display. Verse 11, "...for the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost." When we go after the one who is lost, we are visibly testifying that the Son of Man came to save that which was lost. That's the gospel. Jesus came into the world, was born as true man to seek the lost. He didn't come to help those who were, you know, doing alright, just to give them a boost. He came to make the sick well, to make the dead alive. And He did that through the blood of His cross. So church discipline rightly done is truly for the good of the individual and for the glory of God. Now, may I ask you this? The application we need to all look at is if we are finding ourselves in a situation where we're going to a brother to deal with their sin, what's my purpose? What are my purposes? Is my heart really motivated for their good and His glory? Or, am I wanting to get some vengeance because I've been hurt? I want you to know how much you hurt me, and I want you to repent and confess it. That's not the heart of God. That's not the heart we're supposed to go with church discipline. If you're still feeling that way, you haven't gotten the log out of your own eye. So Matthew 7, you need to read and work through before you practice Matthew 18. But by God's grace, it can be that we can really be motivated out of the good of the other person and the glory of God. So the purposes of church discipline, the two purposes, we covered that. The second point is the process of church discipline. And there's a four-fold process that we see unfold for us in verses 15 to 18. Verses 15 to 18. And you see these, the four pieces of the process, really there's five imperatives in verses 15 to 18, and the first two are part of one step, and then the next three of those five are each another step in church discipline. So the imperatives really lay out for you the process. And the first step in the process is seen in verse 15 with the two imperatives Go and show. Go and show. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. That is, that we are to make the effort to go. You can't just wait and hope that the sheep comes back. You're to go and to show in private. The way you apply this, if you realize that a person is in a situation where they're really in need, you go after them. And like I said, a lot of times we get mixed up because we think they're in need because we really just have a need to vent. That's not church discipline, biblical church discipline. That's sin on our part. We're not to Vengeance is mine," says the Lord. We're not to take revenge. We're to deal with our offenses and to go and restore peace. Yes, we're to go and make peace and we need to forgive and they need to confess. Yes, but the heart is to bless. And there's a time where you overlook. Proverbs 19.11 says, it's the glory of a man to overlook an offense. And most of the time we overlook because we offend each other. You know, if you're around people, they're going to offend you. We are going to offend one another. We're going to forget things. We're going to say things we shouldn't say. A lot of times people offend us because we misconstrue what they meant. And we jump to conclusions. If I'd said that, I would have meant this. And we take offense. And there's places where you go, not just, hey, what you said is sinful and what you said is... No, you go and you ask questions. Hey, you know, you said something earlier. What do you mean by that? with that kind of a tone. Not like, hey, you said something earlier, and I want to get this worked out. You're just doing more damage. They're going to have to come to you. And, hey, brother, I know I sinned yesterday, but you're really sinning in a big way right now. Well, that'll be good. If you start talking that way, maybe it'll all get worked out. The issue is there's a place where we overlook and there's a place where we go, and the motivation to go is the good of the individual and the glory of God. And if those things we see are part of the process, then we go. And when you go, you show. That is, you try to clearly show the person their fault, the Scripture says. And one of the good ways of doing that is to ask questions. You know, a lot of times when you make declarations, you sort of, you cause people's defenses to come up. But if you ask a question, it helps them to really examine themselves. One of the most striking things to me, and it's really mind-blowing if you think about it, is that Jesus was always asking questions of people. Now just think about that. The omniscient one was always asking questions. Somebody, a rich young ruler comes up to him and says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, well, how do you read the scriptures? And he keeps asking him questions. He doesn't answer his question directly, he asks questions. And this is what he does when he talks to people to bring them into restoration. What's going on? He asks questions. Now, not because he needs the answer, it's because he didn't need the answer, we do, but he didn't. But he knew that the best way to get to the heart is to ask a question to get the person to think about the situation themselves. And so that's a good way to go, to go into show to ask questions. Now, but the goal is to help to come to the truth. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. Maybe there's a real problem. Maybe there's a pattern here. And I just want to talk with you about that. How can I help? Privacy is important. You see that when he says in verse 15, show him his fault in private. Literally in the Greek it says, show him his fault with you and him alone. So privacy, keep the circle as small as possible. And I think it's also important to note that it requires patience. Thank you. It requires patience. The only verb in the passage, verses 15 to 18, that is in the present tense, is the verb go. All the rest are eras, which are more punctiliar action. Show, you know, tell. let him be, are all heiress tense, but go is in the present tense, and that is, remember Greek present isn't time, it's the kind of action. The Greek present is continuous action rather than a point in time action. And so when it says go and show, the idea is that you're willing to go more than once. You don't expect that first time you go and you show, then you move immediately to step two. Hey, I want to talk to you about a problem. This is a situation and do you see it? Do you agree with me? Okay, I'm calling up some friends right now. I'll be right back with you. We're going to move to step two. No, you put the truth out there and you allow the Lord to work because the goal is restoration. The goal is not to be proved right. But there's that idea that maybe there's going to be some time that you allow it and you go again. Hey, have you thought about what we talked about the other day? I've been praying about it, and have you thought about it?" And realizing that when we go and show we should do it like Jesus did in John 13 when he gives us a model of how to forgive one another or how to confront one another is washing feet. I think that's a picture of how we're to deal with one another's dirty sin. He says, wash one another's feet in the same way that I did. To wash somebody's feet, you become like their slave. You don't come at them like this, you come at them like this. Great passage to meditate on before you go. So the first step is go and show. The second step, if they don't listen to you, he says, if he listens to you, you have won your brother, verse 15. Verse 16 is the second step. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you. The next step is to take. take one or two brothers with you for the purpose of restoration. Not to embarrass, but to... if this brother is convinced he's going in a direction that, like I said, this brother I was talking about before that was convinced he... God wanted him to be happy. He had prayed about it. He was sure that God was good with him leaving his wife and he was convinced of it. Well, it wasn't enough just for me to talk to him. We had to go in a group. to say, listen, here's a couple of brothers, or here's a few brothers telling you, I know there's a lot of problems in this situation. We're not saying just, you know, everything's magically going to be okay, but we're saying that to go the way you're going is to walk away from Christ. The way is going to be hard to come back, but God will be with you in it. And the reason I think he says, take one or two with you, first of all, is to persuade. Because he says, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact will be confirmed. The first part of that is, when you talk to the brother, what you're saying is confirmed by other people. Yes, this is the truth. And then if he continues not to listen, then you have also, on the other hand, two or three can confirm that he's still not listening. That's the second step. The third step is in verse 17, the first part. It's in the next imperative, tell. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. This normally would mean to tell it to the elders first who then, after investigation, they may need to tell it to the congregation. The idea here is a public call to expand the search and rescue mission. Remember, this is a search and rescue mission. We see this often reported on the news. Someone's lost and what's happened? People are, you know, they gather up volunteers and they fan out and they search an area. That's kind of what's happening when you tell it to the church. You're saying spiritually, pray for this. You didn't know about this situation because it's been kept quiet. Because a brother was dealing with it one-on-one and then a circle was dealing with it. But you now need to know about it because he hasn't heard, he hasn't listened after a period of time. And so now, the way you can be involved in the rescue is to pray and to look for opportunities of how you might directly speak to that person. You don't have to know all the circumstances to help. You can say, you know, John or Jim, whoever the person is, I know that there's problems going on in your life that apparently there's some real issues. I just encourage you to trust the Lord Jesus and trust His Word. I care about you. What you're doing, you're looking at that sheep saying, come back. You're encouraging. You're admonishing. This is one of the reasons, actually, this idea of telling it, an important part of the process, that Jesus says, this is the way that I work to bring back my wayward sheep. It's an important part of the process that in recent decades in America, it's become clear that the church has to act with wisdom in this area. Something that we've talked about in some of our business meetings is that for us to really help hold one another accountable in this way, and I believe we all need to be this, I need to be under discipline, so that if I start wondering, you'll come after me and you'll do this process with me. And if you're a believer, you should want that for the same reason, because Jesus says you need that. Well, for us to do that in this day in America, it's become clear that we have to have what's called informed consent. That is that you have to be an adult. Remember we talked about church members that got saved before they were 18, had to go through the membership process again? It's not that we were saying that they're not already members of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to be under discipline in the church, they have to give, as an adult, informed consent. Yes, I understand the terms of membership and I agree. I put myself under the discipline of this church. We've realized that for many of us who've been members for a long time, we never did that officially. In fact, you're looking at one of them. When I joined the church, we didn't have this informed consent. We didn't submit to discipline. Now, I tell you today, I'm submitted to this. But legally, if I was to go off the deep end and you guys came after me and you told it to the church, Ty's just lost his mind. You wouldn't say that. You would say, Ty's not hearing. Ty's in trouble. We need to pray for him. and I could sue the church for libel, slander. You publicly slandered me and the courts would fine for me against the church because there was no informed consent. So we understand that God's standard is higher than any law of man, but the Bible also tells us in Romans 13 that we should obey every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. So we've realized that legally, if we get everyone to give informed consent, we can then abide by the laws of the state and do what God has called us to do in His Word. We're going to do what He's called us to do in His Word, whether we abide by the laws of the state or not, but where we can abide by the laws of the state, God wants us to do that. Make sense? So, you'll be receiving emails, in fact, we're going to send one to everybody, in which you're going to receive an email that's going to say, I ask you the membership vows and do you affirm them? If you're a member of the church, you will receive that. And by sending it back, you are legally giving us a written record of your informed consent. We believe that's the right thing to do, even though it's a little bit tedious, it's kind of different. We're trying to obey the Scriptures. And so I'm going to be sending mine in along with you because we need to be under authority. Having said all that, then the fourth step, that's to tell it to the church, the fourth step, if they won't listen after you've expanded the community, you know, into the rescue operation, where there are more people praying and more people reaching out maybe through email or text or calling, possibly going to see, if that person still won't listen, Jesus says, the fourth step is in the imperative in verse 17, the second half, let Him be to you. Let Him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector. That is that you are, we as the body of Christ, when this happens, we are to then make a judgment based, we don't know the person's soul, we don't know, we can't see in their heart. That's why He says, let Him be as. Only God knows those that are His and those that are not. But he's saying, based on the fruit that you see, you are to make a determination and you are to treat this brother or sister now as a Gentile or a tax gatherer, that is, a person outside of Christ. It means that after Thinking through all that's happened, this person is not listening. In fact, another key word in the passage is the word listen. Curse four times. Verse 15, if he listens to you, you've won your brother. Verse 16, if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you. Verse 17, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, you see, it's listening. Are you listening to the Word of God? Jesus says, we're gonna see, Jesus is telling us that when we speak to one another like this, Jesus is speaking to that wayward sheep. Jesus himself is speaking. And he says, my sheep know my voice and another they will not follow. So if Jesus is speaking to this person again and again and again and again and he won't listen, what are you to conclude? It looks like this person may not be one of Jesus' sheep. And so with brokenness and a heavy heart, we say, I'm no longer to regard you as a brother. I'm now regarding you as someone who needs to be saved. Doesn't mean there's no change. You love them. It's just that the nature of the relationship has changed. Before it was the love of a brother in Christ. Now it's the love of a lost person or someone that only God knows if they're really saved. They may be, but we're called to treat them as an unbeliever. Now, those are the four steps in the process. We talked about the purposes of church discipline, the process of church discipline, and now in verses 18 to 20, the power of church discipline. The power. These verses, 18 to 20, are other verses that are often misapplied, misunderstood, taken out of context. Verse 20, particularly, for where two or three have gathered my name, I'm in their midst. That's used so often to speak of, you know, why we should still have a prayer meeting if only two or three of us are here, right? Where two or three are gathered. And that's, strictly speaking, that's true, but the passage is talking about discipline. And we'll see this in a moment. The power of church discipline. First of all, there's two aspects of the power of church discipline. First of all, church discipline exhibits the power of binding and loosing. Verse 18. Again, reading these words right out of what has come before, Jesus says, after He says this four-fold process, He says, "'Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.'" The verb tenses are quite instructive and the English conveys them pretty well. When whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound. whatever you loose on earth in the present shall have been loosed." The first is actually the idea, whatever you loose presently shall be found in the future to have been bound, or to have been loosed, I'm sorry. Whatever you bind in the present shall be found in the future to have been bound in heaven. You see what I'm saying? So that he's saying that it's not that what we do makes God do something, what he's saying is that the verdict of the church that's acting biblically will be found to have been the verdict already decreed in heaven. So there is great power in church discipline. When a church says to someone, when we look at your life, we look at your responses, we see no reason to believe that you're a believer. We don't have confidence that you're a Christian. We're concerned for your soul. That is power being displayed by the shepherd upon that wayward sheep. Now, it's redemptive power. It's restorative power. But it is not something to be scoffed at or looked down upon. It is serious business. In fact, he quotes, I mean this same passage, Jesus is saying something very similar to what he said in Matthew 16, 18. Just a couple chapters before, when Peter made the great declaration, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus says, you're Peter and upon this rock I'm going to build my church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I tell you, I give you the keys of the kingdom. and whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Basically the keys and binding and loosing are basically saying that the preacher of the gospel The preacher himself, the Christian who proclaims the gospel, God has given you the keys of the kingdom. When you preach the gospel and someone responds, they're led into the kingdom. They're loosed from their sins and led into the kingdom. When you preach the gospel and they reject it, they're bound in their sins and they're kept out of the kingdom. incredible power. He takes that same image and says this is what happens in church discipline. It's about the entrance to the kingdom and the removal. Now it doesn't mean that strictly speaking that we actually ultimately put somebody out of heaven, but it's saying that the action that we do is something very close to that that God has already done. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 5, and I think what's happening is the believer, a lot of times it's genuine believers who are basically removed, put outside of the protection of the church. They may genuinely be saved, but God removes all of the blessings that are theirs in Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 5, there's a sinner there that he says, there's a type of sin among you that not even the Gentiles here among the Gentiles, a man has his father's wife. There's a Christian there who was living with, in a romantic way, with a woman who used to be married to his father. Paul says, this is appalling. Put the man out of your midst. He said, I've already judged him. I've already turned him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. I'm telling you, when the Spirit's with you, put him out. Now, what that means is you determine just what Matthew 18 says. You're not a believer. We don't see reason to believe that you're a believer. And so, in brokenness, if you won't repent, we must tell you that you're no longer a member of the church. Paul says that's akin to turning a person over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh. Now even that, as serious as that is, is redemptive. Turn him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh that his soul may be saved. That's what Paul says. And in 2 Corinthians 2, you find out that that guy, they turned him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. And in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul says he's come back and he's confessed, now forgive him and love him. The rescue operation worked. And he says the same kind of thing in 1 Timothy 1.20, he's turned the false teachers over to Satan. There's some sense in which when the church renders this verdict about someone's soul, God has already done that and He's placing them in a very serious state of discipline. That's something that we should handle carefully, humbly, with brokenness. But if you find yourself or if I find myself on the other end of the staff, we should not despise it. serious business. And the last thing, it's not just the power of binding and loosing, it's the power of the presence of Jesus. What He's saying in verse 20 when He says, for where two or three have gathered together in My name, I'm there in their midst. What He's saying is when those two or three came to you and they said, repent, and you didn't. And they said, please repent. And you didn't. You were denying me to my face. That's what Jesus is saying. I was there in their midst. And that is a high view of the calling that we have as Christians. It is A serious calling, but it's a wonderful, gracious calling. God is saying, listen, like He said in the first part of the chapter, don't mess with my little ones. My wayward sheep are precious to me, and I have given the resources of heaven to reclaim them. It's His amazing love on display. He loves us so much that though we might let go of Him, He'll never let go of you. And it's exhibited when we practice this kind of biblical obedience. And when that happens, when someone is restored, there is joy more over the one that's come back than the 99 that are still here. It's like the angels in heaven rejoicing. We're to have hearts like that. And listen, it's so wonderful when we don't have situations that need this. Isn't it joyful when we walk together and we just start wondering? And we need to get better at calling one another back quickly. You know, hey, get back over here with the flock. Encourage one another. Admonish one another. Stop eating that stuff over here and come over here. But when it gets to the point where we have to go, we have to be willing to go. And I thank God that He has given me people in my life in this church that will come after me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Let's pray together. Father, we ask that you would continue your glorious work in the hearts of everyone who believes in this room, in your body here at Providence. We pray for those that don't yet believe that you would grant them salvation, repentance, and faith, a trust in the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for the sheep. Help them become like little children who know they can't do anything but ask Him to save them, to ask Jesus to do for them what they could never do for themselves, to pay for their sins and to give them a perfect righteousness. And for those who belong to you, Lord, may we all become more and more like our great Savior. Help us to be more obedient, more attuned to your voice, to follow you as we hear you speaking to us through your word, as we hear you speaking your word to us through one another. And may we be a flock that is blessed and built up. May we be a flock that loves one another with the same love that you love us with. And may we see your glory manifest in our corporate witness in a way that starts radically impacting those around us. We pray this for the glory of your son, that great shepherd of the sheep. We pray in his name. Amen.