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to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew
chapter 16. Matthew 16. Matthew 16, we'll be reading
verses 18 to 19, and then turning a few pages over to chapter 18
as well. Matthew 16, 18 to 19, we're picking
up a conversation that Jesus is having with his disciples
about who he really is. And Peter has just declared that
he is the Christ, the son of the living God. And Christ says
this in verses 18 and 19. And I also say to you that you
are Peter and on this rock, What he has just declared Christ to
be on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will
be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed
in heaven. Then turn over a couple pages
to chapter 18, Christ having there, I believe, in chapter
16, spoken of the invisible church, that universal church containing
all the saints of all times. I think he turns his direction
on the local church as we see from the context here in Matthew
18, I'm going to read verses 15 to 20. Moreover, if your brother
sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and
him alone. If he hears you, you have gained
your brother. But if he will not hear, take
with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three
witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses
to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even
to hear the church, Let him be to you like a heathen and a tax
collector. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever
you bind on earth will be bound or will have been bound in heaven.
And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed or will have been
loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two
of you agree on earth, concerning anything that they ask, it will
be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three
are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them."
Let us pray and seek the face of our God. Oh, Lord, we come
before you thanking you for your word. Lord, your word gives us
light so that we might walk as we should, as your people, not
just as individuals, but as a church, how we should operate as a gathered
local body. Oh, Lord, speak to us today.
May we see your power, your authority. May we see what you have vested
to the church in terms of that power and authority. and make
us faithful in all of your commands, you giving us grace and help
us to do all things in love. We pray in Christ's holy name,
amen. You may be seated. Well, if you
are regularly among us, you will know that the topic this morning
is church discipline, church discipline. What comes to your
mind when I say those words, church discipline? Perhaps you
have never heard of it before, or if you've heard of it, you've
never seen it acted upon. In the time in which we live,
that would not be surprising. For others, it may conjure up
remembrances when church discipline was acted upon, but not in a
biblical fashion. But I am more inclined to think
that it is most likely the minority gathered here that have seen
truly biblical church discipline exercised in a compassionate
yet firm manner and probably even fewer that can testify of
witnessing cases where God has blessed that act of the church
in discipline in the salvation of the soul or restoring of a
brother or sister. You see, the idea and practice
of church discipline has fallen on hard times. Many churches
embrace neither the doctrine of church discipline or the practice
of it. However, the scarcity of the
exercise of church discipline in our day, and even possibly
the misapplication of it in other instances, neither lessons The
force that the Word of God has in talking about this topic of
church discipline, neither does it lessen the necessity for it. What I have for you today rests
upon the foundation of the sermon last week in regard to church
membership, to covenant membership in the local church. You see,
membership, and discipline, they go hand in hand. This relationship
one with another and the discipline that's just necessary because
of our fallen nature, they go hand in hand. And do not we understand
that in the realm of family life? The carrying out of discipline
in a home flows from those two realities, the reality of relationship
and the reality of authority in that home. The same applies
to this spiritual family we are in. Our church covenant reflects
the union. of these two principles of membership,
relationship, and the discipline, the authority that the church
has to exercise that discipline, it joins those two together in
perfect union. This is what our covenant states.
It states that the joining member covenants to submit to biblically
defined and biblically regulated church discipline for the purpose
of reconciliation with God and man. You see the submission to
that discipline, it's embedded in the relationship that's defined
in the covenant. Now, you may have come knowing
this was the topic, you may have come with questions today, and
you may leave with those same questions. I'm not going to be
able to answer every question. I may not be able to scratch
where you itch, but what I want to do this morning is I want
to set before you and convince you of why church discipline
has a place in the church. Why does it have a place in the
church? That's what I want to convince
you of this morning. And I would like for us to consider
the subject under the following three headings. First, a biblical
case for church discipline, a biblical case for it. Secondly, a historical
case for church discipline, a historical case And then third, finishing
up with the purposes, the purposes of church discipline. So first,
a biblical case for church discipline. And first, I want us to consider
the clear teaching of Christ, the clear teaching of Christ
himself, our opening text in Matthew 18 shows that Christ
anticipated sins and offenses happening among His gathered
people. He anticipated sins in the local
church. And with this anticipation, He
gave them ways to resolve these offenses, to take care of these
sins. There is a progression that is
set forth in seeking to bring the acknowledgment of the offense
and then the due repentance of the sinning brother or sister.
And were it to reach the end of the progression in the text,
in what is stated out as a private matter, It's made a public matter
in the end, and it's made such by Christ saying they refused
to hear. They refused. And he says, and
if he refuses to hear the multiple witnesses, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear
the church, let him be to you, that gathered body, like a heathen
and a tax collector. So, the matter, if it was not
repented of, was to come before the church. You see, the church
was to speak with a singular voice, a singular voice. The church was to take a unified
stand. This is the mind and will of
Christ. These texts in Matthew they address the authority of
Jesus Christ that rests with His bride, the church. She has, as we saw in Matthew
16, been given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. She has keys. James Bannerman points out that
the kingdom of heaven is to be understood of the visible church
of Christ, not the universal, he says, but actually the visible,
that's where we see it. Yes, the keys have been given
as it were to the universal church, but what we see operating is
the keys of the kingdom and it's in each local church, it's the
local church. And he says the power of the
keys is the power of opening or closing the door of that church
in the case of parties seeking admission. or meriting exclusion. Exactly equivalent to this power
of the keys is the authority to bind and to loose, or the
authority to bind upon men their sins so that they shall be shut
out from the church, or to loose them from their sins so that
they shall be entitled to admission. As we think about the teaching
of Jesus Christ. We have in the letters to the
churches of Asia Minor that we find in Revelation 2 and 3, we
find among those letters Christ commends one church for actually
exercising discipline, but He also warns two churches for not
exercising church discipline that He expects them to exercise. And then he wraps up the last
of the letters with a declaration that his own discipline brought
to bear upon these churches is merely the act of his own love. In Revelation 3, 19, he says,
as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. As many as I love, I
rebuke and chasten. We have to think about that when
we think about sins that we come across in our brothers and sisters.
If Christ loves them, he wants the sin dealt with. That's what
he does. And shall the church have a different
standard than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who purchased the
church with his own blood? Consider secondly, under this
heading of the biblical case, consider secondly the confirming
exhortations of the apostles and the constant practice of
the New Testament churches. It was confirming exhortations
that we have in the New Testament which became the consistent practice
of the churches of the New Testament. And I'm just going to give you
a list of various texts. And note that in these, they're
addressing the vast majority of the churches or the elders
who are receiving these letters from the apostles. It's a vast
variety. We see it in almost every letter. Romans 16, 17 to 18. Paul declares there that divisive
persons are to be marked by the church and avoided so that their
smooth words and flattering speech would not deceive the simple
within the congregation. They are to be marked and they're
to be avoided. 1 Corinthians 5. A very familiar
text when we think of the church in Corinth. We can't get this
text out of our mind because there in the midst of Corinth
in the church, there was immorality going on such that Paul says
it's not even named among the Gentiles. And Paul instructs
the church in Corinth to deal with the immorality of one of
those members of that congregation. You see, they prided themselves
on not dealing with it. They saw this as grace. They
saw it as mercy. Paul did not see it that way.
Paul did not understand it as that. He says, in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, okay,
it's the church coming together, when you are gathered together,
along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
do what? Deliver such a one to Satan. Deliver such a one to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus. Do you not know that a little
leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out, purge out
the old leaven. When you're to gather together,
deliver such a one to Satan, purge out the old leaven. Then in his second letter to
the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11,
we have him referring to a restoration, most likely of this very one
that the church had disciplined back in after receiving that
first letter. One has pointed out that the
same principled love that moved the church to engage in the unpleasant
action of putting this man out of the church, that same principled
love was now to be manifested in smothering him with evident
tokens of that same love in restoring him to full church fellowship.
The emphasis is the same love, the same love that put him out. is the same love that after repentance,
and he talks about in that second letter what that true repentance
looks like so that they can understand it, and when they see it, lavish
him with that restoring, forgiving love, same love that acted to
put him out. 2 Thessalonians, now we're looking
at the church in Thessalonica, 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 6 through
15. Yet another letter to another
church, a letter that addresses the need for discipline. He says
there, but we command you. We don't suggest, we don't suggest,
hey, this is the way we found this prophet. No, we command
you. in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you do what? You withdraw, not one or two
of you, he's writing to a church, that the church withdraw from
every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition
which he received from us. And he goes on to say, now those
who are such, they're idle, busy bodies, We do what? We command
and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness
and eat their own bread. And he says, and if anyone does
not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep
company with him that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count
him as an enemy, but do what? Admonish him as a brother. In the first letter to Thessalonica
in chapter 5 and verse 14, 1 Thessalonians 5, 14, Paul had written to the
church there saying, now we exhort you brethren, warn, warn those
who are unruly. Comfort the faint-hearted, uphold
the weak, be patient with all. You see how true it is of us
as sheep, and I'm a sheep before I'm a shepherd. When we're faint-hearted,
we want the comfort. When we're weak, we want to be
upheld. And when we're a mess to deal
with, we want people to be patient with us. But are we as willing
when we're unruly to be rebuked, to be warned? They're all acts
of love. They're all acts of love. And
we as parents, you know, we were young like our children. And
it was hard for us to fathom, if my mom and dad really love
me, why would they discipline me? Well, we get a little older,
we begin to understand that and hopefully we implement that same
love in dealing with our children. But that's what we need in the
church. We need to understand that this is an act of love.
It's an act of love. Titus, he's writing to... One
of the men he is sending around to the church is to establish
pastors, and there in Titus 1, 10 through 13, Paul writes, for
there are many, many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped. Their mouths must be stopped. And this is why, who subvert
whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the
sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their
own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore,
rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Later on in Titus 3, verses 10
through 11, it says, reject, reject a divisive man after the
first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is
warped and sinning, being self-condemned. To his young son in the faith,
Timothy, in his first letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1, 19 through
20, He tells Timothy to wage the
good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some,
having rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck,
of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that
they may learn not to blaspheme. Later on in that same epistle
to Timothy in chapter 5 and verse 20, he says, those who are sinning
rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. And then to the church in Galatia,
Galatians 6, 1, we read, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any
trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit
of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. There are many instances. of
church discipline in the teaching of Christ, in the exhortation
of the apostles to the churches. And Lord willing, we'll see in
a few minutes the purposes of these very exhortations. Why were they given? Before dealing
with that, I want us just to consider a historical case. for church discipline. Not only
do we have biblical case for it, we have historical case for
church discipline. One of the blessings that came
out of the Protestant Reformation was clearly defined and articulated
marks of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Belgic
Confession of 1561, which grew out of that rich Reformation
soil, it states the following in chapter 29. The marks by which the true church
is known are these, if the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached
therein. if the pure doctrine of the gospel
is preached therein. You want a mark of a true church?
The pure gospel is preached there. Second, if she maintains the
pure administration of the ordinances as instituted by Christ, okay,
the ordinances that belong to the church, Are they administered purely
as Christ instituted? And third, if church discipline
is exercised in punishing sin. It's a mark of a true church. Church discipline is exercised
in punishing sin. And this is the way they saw
these three things. They said, in short, if all things are managed
according to the pure word of God, all things contrary thereto
rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only head of the church.
Hereby the true church may certainly be known from which no man No
man, and that would be professing faith in Christ, no man has a
right to separate himself from such a church. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones saw the
urgency of the addressing of the lack of church discipline
in his own day. This is what he said, the third
mark of the church And the one I am most anxious to emphasize
because it is so sadly neglected is the exercise of discipline.
There is no doubt at all but that this doctrine is grievously
neglected. Indeed, if I were asked to explain
why it is that things are as they are in the church, if I
were asked to explain why statistics show the dwindling numbers, the
lack of power, and the lack of influence upon men and women,
if I were asked to explain why it is that the church is in such
a perilous condition, I should have to say, that the ultimate
cause is the failure to exercise discipline. He could have mentioned the lack
of pure, strong, biblical exposition in the pulpit. He could have
talked about that, but he said if he had to hang it on one thing,
It was the failure to carry out biblical church discipline. Robert Murray McShane expressed
his increasing conviction about the importance of church discipline.
He wrote the following. When I first entered the work
of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast
importance of church discipline. I thought that my great and almost
only work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious
in the time so short that I devoted all my time and care and strength
to labor in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were
brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something
like abhorrence, It was a duty I shrank from and I may truly
say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you
all together. But he remained faithful and
this is why he says, but it pleased God who teaches his servants
in another way than man teaches. to bless some of the cases of
discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the
souls of those under our care. And from that hour, a new light
broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance
of Christ, so is church discipline. I now feel very deeply persuaded
that both are of God. that two keys are committed to
us by Christ. The one, the key of doctrine
by means of which we unlock the treasures of the Bible. The other,
the key of discipline by which we open or shut the way to the
sealing ordinances of the faith. Both are Christ's gift and neither
is to be resigned without sin. Hezekiah Harvey, a Baptist theologian
and pastor writing in the latter half of the 19th century wrote,
no other cause probably is as potent for evil in the churches
as the general neglect of a true church discipline. A more recent book describing
the marks of a true healthy church, it notes the following. Greg
Wills, professor of church history at the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, has brought to light a crucial change between the
generations of our great-grandparents and our grandparents. What he
finds is the virtual disappearance of corrective discipline from
our churches. Will's book, Democratic Religion,
offers a wealth of quotations reminding us that pastors of
the early 1800s clearly considered their most important tasks to
be faithfully preaching the word and faithfully administering
godly discipline. Wills shows that in pre-Civil
War days, quote, Southern Baptists excommunicated nearly 2% of their
membership every year. Incredible as it may seem, while
they were doing that, their churches grew. In fact, their churches,
he writes, grew at twice the rate of the population growth. But Wills goes on to state his
summary of how the church got to where it is today. He said,
after the Civil War, observers began to lament that church discipline
was floundering, and it was. It declined partly because it
became more burdensome in larger churches. Young Baptists refused
in increasing numbers to submit to discipline for dancing, and
the churches shrank from excluding them. Urban churches, pressed
by the need for large buildings and the desire for refined music
and preaching, subordinated church discipline to the task of keeping
the church solvent. Many Baptists shared a new vision
of the church, replacing the pursuit of purity with the quest
for efficiency. They lost the resolve to purge
their churches of strained members. And note this, he writes, no
one publicly advocated the demise of discipline. No Baptist leader
arose to call for an end to congregational censures. No theologians argued
that discipline was unsound in principle or practice. It simply
faded away as if Baptists had grown weary of holding one another
accountable. More and more examples could
be given. Multiple quotes could be given. And you can even read older church
documents, the meeting minutes, and find episodes of church discipline
happening in churches. It's in their annals. You can
read all of that. But suffice it to say, what was
once common among the churches of Jesus Christ has now grown
obsolete. It's grown obsolete. You see,
the reality of sin has been exchanged for the idea of sickness. Discipline
is no longer prescribed, but rather therapy. The man-centered theology of
Arminianism has given birth to easy believism and the false
doctrine of the carnal Christian. And in the process, it's diminished
the law of God and the pursuit of holiness that every Christian
should be engaged in. God is no longer the God he was
once declared to be. And therefore, man is no longer
the depraved creature that he was once declared to be. And
therefore, sin is no longer the odious, soul-damning, relationship-destroying
act it was once considered to be. Well, having considered both
biblical and historical cases for church discipline, consider
with me finally the purposes of church discipline, the purposes.
Why does the Bible take that much time, spend that much ink
on telling us all the exhortations of Christ and the apostles? Why
have... Many, many books have been written
about this very thing of church discipline, what it has to do
with this, the very purposes of church discipline. The church has been given by
her head, Jesus Christ, commands and duties, right? The church
has been given commands and duties, and they come from Christ our
head. The Great Commission makes it clear that the duty of the
church in recognizing and proclaiming the authority of Jesus Christ
is to teach his disciples to do what? To observe all things
that he has commanded. The authority of Christ is to
be reflected not only in the teaching, teaching that is to
be only what he himself has commanded, nothing more, but nothing less,
but that authority also is to be reflected in the actual observance
that is required by the disciples who were taught. It's not just
teaching them. It's not just filling their minds
so that they know what they need to do. It's teaching them to
observe all of these things, to observe. all of these things. The teaching is for the purpose
of the obedience of the disciples. Our confession of faith, the
second London Baptist confession of 1689 in paragraph 7 of chapter
26 concerning the church, declares both the authority of the church
as well as the duty of the church in light of that authority. It
says this. to each of these churches, thus
gathered, the local churches, to each local church, according
to his mind, declared in his word, Christ hath given all that
power and authority, which is in any way needful, for what?
For their carrying on that order in worship and discipline. which He hath instituted for
them to observe with commands and rules." For what? For the
do and right exerting and executing of that power. The do and right exerting and
executing of what power? The power for the carrying out
of worship. and discipline. It is a vested
power and authority. The church has not been granted
the option to diminish in her teaching the requirements of
Christ. We have no option to diminish
them, to change them, to add to them. Nor has the church been granted
the option to minimize or ignore the due observance of those commands
within the congregation. We've not been granted that freedom. If we are to be faithful to Christ
in this matter of church discipline, we would do well to consider
the purposes for church discipline. I've been greatly benefited in
this consideration by two brothers, Brother Albert N. Martin and
Daniel E. Ray, that's W-R-A-Y. And Chapel
Library has actually published some works specific to church
discipline, and you may find them in the back, and if not,
we can order others. But those two men and others
have... They pulled together stuff from
these two men and others in these very brochures and they're very
helpful, very helpful. Some of the earlier quotes that
I gave actually came from these materials. The first purpose
I will state, it's the highest purpose. If no other purpose
was given, this would alone suffice. And it's this, the maintenance
of the honor of God and his church. Why church discipline? For the
maintenance of the honor of God in His church. You see, there
is nothing more important to God than His own glory, His own
honor. Our salvation is not more important
than the honor and glory of God. In fact, Our salvation is to
the honor and glory of God. It's not about us, it's about
him. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he may have the preeminence. To him. Be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. We are not at liberty to determine
how God is honored. We don't decide that in our worship
or in the carrying out of church discipline. Those two things
that the vested authority is from Christ. He has made it clear
in his word how he will be honored. John Gill, Baptist minister and
theologian, stated, for as his name is dishonored by the evil
practices or principles of church members, so this is the most
open and most effectual way of removing that dishonor that is
brought upon it. This ought to be always the chief
aim and the sincere view in the administration of church discipline. The second purpose. The second
purpose, subordinate to the first, is the restoration of the offender,
the restoration of the offender. The Bible speaks of gaining,
gaining a sinning brother, of restoring a man who was overtaken
in a fault, of turning a sinner from the error of his way. of
witnessing the revelation of a soul saved on the day of the
Lord Jesus. You see, the discipline of the
church is designed to be the act of the triune God, and should
therefore be done with the view of the divine purpose of discipline,
as mentioned in Hebrews 12. You see, God, it says, disciplines
for our profit. that we may be partakers of his
holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be
joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, in spite of the
pain, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness
to those who have been trained by it. It's God's aim. God's
aim is our profit. God's aim is that we might be
trained in the fruit of righteousness. So the second purpose is the
restoration of the offender. The third purpose, the health
and purity of the church. The health and the purity of
the church. And if you'll note in these three,
It just kind of came to my mind here. The first is the benefit
towards God. It honors his name. The second
is a benefit to the offender, the one who's actually sinned.
But this third benefit is the congregation. It's the health and purity of
the church. In the many passages that we
considered earlier, the Bible warns of the danger of undealt
with sin. We read of the deceiving nature
of wrong doctrine, of the leavening or infectious nature of high-handed
sin, and of the actual subversion of whole households through acts
of insubordination. Now, as we have studied in recent
weeks, Jesus is about the business of removing the spots and wrinkles
from his bride, and he does this through the washing of the water
of the word. And one of the ways, okay, one
of the ways that Christ accomplishes this washing of the bride is
through his church actually applying this word through the means of
admonition, rebuke, and corrective discipline. It's for the health
and purity of the church. Remember, Paul said, just a little
bit of leaven, it leavens the whole. It leavens the whole. Fourth, also a benefit to the
congregation, the fourth purpose is to deter others from sin. to deter others from sin. We read earlier from 1 Timothy
5.20, those who are sending rebuke in the presence of all that the
rest also may fear, so that they may fear. Such a result was witnessed in
the early church when God himself brought discipline upon Ananias
and Sapphira. And he did that through the means
of the apostles who were pastoring that church. It came down through
them. And we read of the effect that
their deaths had in Acts 5.11, so great fear came upon all the
church and upon all who heard these things. I think that's
talking about those outside the church. Other churches as well,
they heard about this. Ananias and Sapphira were neighbors
to somebody. They heard about it and they
feared. It brought fear. Brothers and sisters, sin has
consequences. It has. If those consequences
aren't faced here and now on this earth, they will be faced
on Judgment Day. It has consequences. Far better
to deal with momentary consequences from church discipline than to
not receive any discipline and face those consequences down
the road. It's good for us to be reminded of the consequences,
to be reminded that sin will not go unpunished. Solomon states
in Ecclesiastes 8.11, because the sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, Therefore, the heart of the sons
of men," not the doer of the deed, the hearts of the sons
of men is fully set in them to do evil. The fifth purpose is to prevent
the hand of God from coming in judgment upon the congregation.
To prevent the hand of God from coming in judgment upon the congregation. The demonstration of such judgment
can be seen in the narrative of the sin of Achan. Because
of Achan's disobedience, his lying, his deception, the nation
was turned back in battle with many men losing their lives in
the process. And when Joshua questioned the
veracity of God's promise to be with them, God answered in
the following way, get up, get up. Why do you lie thus on your
face? Israel has sinned, and they have
also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they
have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and
deceived, and they have also put it among their own stuff.
Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their
enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because
they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore
unless...unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Get
up. Sanctify the people and say,
sanctify yourselves for tomorrow because thus says the Lord God
of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel.
You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the
accursed thing from among you. We also have, as we saw earlier,
the threat of such divine judgment brought upon some of the churches
in Revelation 2 and 3. Christ declared that he would
remove their lampstand if they were unwilling to deal with the
sin and repent. Sixth and final purpose I will
share. is to strengthen the effectiveness
of the church's witness to the world. To strengthen the church's
witness, the effectiveness of that witness to the world. Christ
declared that our love for one another in the church, that that
testifies that we are his disciples. They'll know you are his disciples
by your love for one another. And Albert Martin has asked the
following penetrating question, what happens to the church's
credibility before an onlooking world when patterns of the sins
of lovelessness, internal bickering and backbiting between members,
insensitivity to brothers and sisters in need of material assistance
and other such sins are known and tolerated and not dealt with
by appropriate corrective church discipline? You see, a church
that refuses to deal with sin, it feeds all accusations of hypocrisy. If we preach a gospel that says
your sins need to be dealt with in Christ and Christ alone, how
can we turn around and just allow sin to then run rampant in the
church when Christ said he died? to purchase his people from those
sins. The church, the world is looking
at the church. What does it see? Does it see
our actions working hand in hand with the gospel we preach? So brethren, what should we think
of church discipline? Well, first, we must understand
that God's ways are always right, they're always good. We must
acknowledge that. And we must also consider what
God has said about discipline. He said, my son, do not despise
the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked
by him for whom the Lord loves. He chastens and scourges every
son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God
deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a
father does not chasten, but if you are without chastening?" And may I add, Not just without chastening from
God himself, but from his bride, the church. If the church doesn't
do this, what does it say? If you are without chastening,
of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and
not sons. As many as I love, says Christ,
I rebuke and chasten. As the submissive bride of the
Bridegroom Christ, we are to carry out His desires and His
will. If discipline is an act of His
love, then we must reflect that same love when bringing discipline
to bear upon any within the congregation. To fail to carry out the discipline
God intends for His children, It is indeed a loveless act. It robs God of the love that
he deserves from us as church, and it also robs the offender,
the sinner, of the love that he's due from us. Dear ones,
we ourselves will miss out on the blessing of the divine intention
of this God-ordained means of keeping us people if we walk
away thinking of discipline as some narrow, hard thing, as some
negative thing, as only being corrective and harsh. And so I wanna leave you. with
this beautiful and sweet declaration of the broad spectrum of church
discipline from the pen of Hezekiah Harvey. He writes this. Discipline
includes all those processes, all, all those processes by which
a church, as entrusted with the care of souls, educates its members
for heaven. It educates its members for heaven. such as their public and private
instruction in the gospel, the maintenance of social meetings
for their edification and comfort, and in general, the cultivation
of a spirit adapted to awaken and cherish the Christian life. In this lies the chief power
of a church, a pure and healthful tone of religious life in the
body, An all-pervasive spirit of love and loyalty to Christ
and the church are the most effective means of securing a pure life
in the individual members. For the church is then a spiritual
magnet to draw and hold souls to Christ and to itself. Well, may God bless all the means
of discipline, all the means of discipline within our walls,
that we as a church might be a spiritual magnet drawing and
holding souls to Christ and to his beloved bride. Let's look
to him in prayer. Oh, gracious Father, who is fit for all of these things, Lord, We read in Hebrews 12 that
you discipline perfectly. We know that all discipline on
earth, though desired for good means, is not always conducted
correctly. But Lord, we pray that you would
use it, that you would make us faithful as a church, faithful
as members of the church. Lord, that Christ might receive
all the glory, that sinners who err might be restored. Lord,
that the world would witness a people who have been called
out of darkness to declare your Your marvelous mercy in calling
us to that great light, make it to be so. Through Christ we
pray, amen.
Church Discipline: An Act of Love
Series The Church
| Sermon ID | 7242215531183 |
| Duration | 57:48 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Matthew 16:18-19 |
| Language | English |
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