Good morning, everyone. I thought maybe I should introduce myself today. My name is Jeff Smith. You may remember me. I used to come to church here. It's good to see you. It's good to be back. It's not that we've been gone the whole time. You may know some of us have been coming back and then gone again, but we've been gone for three Sundays. It seems like forever. So, very glad to be back. It's good to see each of you, see your faces, and let's go ahead and start our day and our Sunday school class by seeking the Lord's help in prayer. Our Father, we thank you today for Jesus Christ, who has made our lives meaningful and has delivered us from our sins and from the judgment that was hanging over us because of our sins. He has delivered us from guilt and from the power of sin as well. We are so thankful today for this great salvation. We're thankful for this greatest of all gifts that you've given to us, even your son, and that you did not spare him but you delivered him up for us. And so we come to you with praise in our hearts, with gratitude. We also come today desiring to worship you and desiring to be fed from your table. We are conscious that we have much remaining sin within us, much remaining darkness and cloudiness of thinking, and your word is our lamp. It is our light upon our path. And we pray that you would grant to us the ministry, the help of your Holy Spirit as we all gather here today, sincerely seeking to know more about you, to understand your truth and how it applies to the various aspects of our lives, both as individuals and as a church. And we pray you would give us hearts that understand it and love it, and that you will give us wills that endeavor by your grace to shape our living and our feeling in every aspect of our life in accordance with your holy word. We do pray that you would forgive us of our many iniquities. We are very conscious, those of us who have been born of the spirit and have your spirit and dwelling within us, you have shown us our iniquities and our sins and we are very conscious that even in our best deeds, sin still clings to us and that We have no righteousness of our own that we can present before you as an argument for you to bless us. But we do come with Christ, as it were, in our arms into your presence, trusting in His perfect, complete righteousness that you have promised has been credited to all those who believe in Him. So we pray that for Christ's sake today you would not deal with us according to our many sins, but according to Your great mercy to us in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Well, I'm a bit embarrassed with my PowerPoint presentation after I heard about what happened last week with the... I heard good reports about the excellent PowerPoint that was very professionally done, and everyone was talking about how good it was, and I think Rob used it, but Mariella actually put it together, is that correct? Yeah, okay. But we'll go back today to my just kind of bare bones PowerPoint. As you know, we've gone through most of this outline and we were in this section here, the church's government, a commitment to biblical leadership, and we've covered these three things. regarding church officers, particularly we focused on the eldership. These were the units that we've covered so far. But there's one other issue that I wanted to address under the heading of church government that I want to take up. And after I finish this, we'll be in this about a couple, two, three weeks, we'll be done with this whole series. I think I may have told you last time we were already done with it, but as I began to think about it, I thought this was a good occasion to address this subject, really, and it's an important subject. I think we need to consider it because of how much it's neglected in our day, and also so that our thinking about it is clear and sound and balanced, and I thought it was a good time to do so since we don't really have any any major issues of church discipline in the life of our church right now, that it would be a good time for us to survey the teaching of the New Testament on the subject. So that's what we're going to do. I think a very important question that's been asked in church history is this, what are the marks of a true church? Not to mention the marks of a healthy church. That's why that's a little different question. But what are the marks of a true church? There are marks of a healthy church. But what are those marks that must be present for a church to even be a church? in the biblical sense of the term. Obviously, the word church can be used very broadly, but biblically defined, how do you define what a church is? It's bare bones minimum. What is a church? Well, that is a question that has been discussed by theologians in history, and particularly this was an issue during the time of the Protestant Reformation. And in general, the Protestant Reformers were in agreement that the marks of a true church are basically three. the preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel, in other words, the pure doctrine of the gospel, the right administration of the sacraments, the Lord's Supper and Baptism, the sacraments are administered, and the faithful exercise of church discipline. Now, certainly there's more to being a healthy church than that, but this is what you'll find in many of the Reformed confessions when defining the marks of a church, of a true church. Now, many of them mention church discipline, but not all of them actually specifically mention church discipline. Where it's absent, it's assumed as something that's necessary to the proper administration of the sacraments, some degree of discipline in determining who they might rightly be administered to and who they're not to be administered to. Now, in this regard, I agree with Robert Raymond. I think many of you know who Robert Raymond is. I think he's preached here before in one of the conferences, and he actually is pastoring a church, I believe, nearby here, a Presbyterian church. Where is that? Is that in Miami where he is? Fort Lauderdale. I agree with Raymond that the first mark, the preaching of the pure doctrine of the gospel, is essential to the being of a church at all, while the other two we might put more in the category of being essential to the well-being of a church. However, it is interesting that while our Protestant forefathers and their successors considered church discipline as an essential mark of a true church, as you probably know, we're living in a day in which church discipline is hardly practiced in churches at all. Albert Moeller, who's the president now, he's been for several years now, president of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has written an interesting series of articles on this subject entitled The Disappearance of Church Discipline. You can download them on the internet. In fact, I think if you just put Albert Moeller, The Disappearance of Church Discipline, you'll find these articles. They're excellent articles. But let me just quote some of his comments. He writes, the decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church. The absence of church discipline is no longer remarkable. It is generally not even noticed. Regulative and restorative church discipline is, to many church members, no longer a meaningful category or even a memory. As a matter of fact, most Christians introduced to the biblical teaching concerning church discipline, the third mark of the church, confront the issue of church discipline as an idea they have never before encountered. At first hearing, the issue seems as antiquarian and foreign as the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials. And yet, without a recovery of functional church discipline firmly established upon the principles revealed in the Bible, The church will continue its slide into moral dissolution and relativism. Evangelicals have long recognized church discipline as the third mark of the authentic church. Authentic church discipline is not an elective, but a necessary and integral mark of authentic Christianity. And this is not so merely because of what the Protestant reformers said, but because of the teaching of the New Testament itself. as I hope we're going to see. Now, as you know, brethren, we live in a day of mega churches, but you wonder what would happen to many such churches if they began to practice church discipline. How much of the appearance of growth in the megachurches that we see today, and I'm not saying this is always the case, but it raises the, how much of it is really just wood, hay, and stubble that will be burnt up at the day of judgment? Another quote, this time from John Leadley Dagg. He was a Southern Baptist leader in the 1800s who wrote the book some of us are familiar with. We have it in our, I believe we have it in our book room, the manual of church order. There's a manual of church... I don't remember. One of them is doctrine, the other is church order, and I think they've been put together now in one book. The manual of church order. He said this, It has been remarked that when discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it. When discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it. Well, if that's the case, If that's the case, then I'm afraid that Christ has already abandoned many churches in America today, even some who are set forth as mega church models that all of us are supposed to follow. Well, in light of that climate in which we live, I felt it'd be wise for us in the context of these lessons is freshly and carefully to expose our minds and our consciences to what the Bible teaches on this subject. Now, obviously, This is not the most pleasant subject to study, but it's a very important subject. Now, before we begin this, I need to define what is meant by church discipline. Church discipline, technically, it's a very large term that takes in the positive and the negative. It can be either considered positively or negatively. On the positive side, There's what is sometimes been called the formative discipline of the church, the formative discipline of the church, and that's something that's always taking place in the life of the church. When we talk about the formative discipline, that just involves the regular activities of the preaching of God's Word and the application of God's Word to the hearts and lives of God's people, pastoral shepherding and teaching, brother-to-brother interaction and exhorting one another, the accountability of church membership as we seek to help one another in our faith. That's the formative discipline of the church. And that's church discipline in one sense. But the focus of our study right now is much more narrow than that. Our focus will be upon what is usually thought of whenever someone speaks of church discipline, but what more precisely can be called corrective church discipline. So you have formative church discipline that's always going on in the life of the church, but then there is this corrective church discipline. And by corrective church discipline, we're speaking of the activity of the church in addressing situations when a member has turned out of the way of righteousness and truth. Okay? It's the activity of the church in addressing situations when a member has turned out of the way of righteousness and truth. He or she is behaving in a manner that both threatens his own soul and threatens the testimony, the unity, and the moral or doctrinal purity of the fellowship. So when speaking of corrective discipline, we're in the realm of such things as public reproof, suspension of privilege, exclusion from the membership, excommunication, and so forth. All of those fall under this category of corrective church discipline. So when I speak of church discipline in these lessons, that's what I'm talking about, corrective church discipline. And what I hope to do is first to seek to establish the necessity of corrective discipline in the church. And to do so by means of just a survey of the major passages that deal with this subject in the New Testament, we're going to begin with the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself. And then we'll survey the teaching of His apostles in the New Testament epistles. And I also hope to set forth some of the very purposes and intended benefits of church discipline and perhaps also warn about the abuses of church discipline. So, God willing, that's the roadmap that I'm going to seek to follow in these Sunday School lessons, beginning today with the necessity of corrective discipline in the church as underscored by the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself. And how many of you... maybe some of you can guess what the first text is that we'll look at that... where we have Jesus teaching on this subject. Does anyone know where it is? Yes. Matthew chapter 18. Right, Matthew. And let's turn to Matthew 18. Verses 15 to 20. And I'm gonna read that to us and then we'll... We'll just look at what is taught here. Jesus said in Matthew 18, 15, 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 in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." And we'll stop there. What I hope you'll see as we go along is that this is not the only word on church discipline in the New Testament. This is not the exclusive word. Sometimes people, they immediately think of this passage as the word on church discipline with reference to every kind or every situation of church discipline. But I hope we're going to see as we work our way through some of the key passages that that's not the case, not the final word in the Bible on the procedures of church discipline in all cases. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important passages on the subject. So, now for my fancy outline. We'll consider first of all the provision, the provocation envisioned by our Lord. Now, there have been folks who have mistakenly sought to make this passage the standard for all occasions and situations of church discipline. But what I want us to see is that this particular passage refers to a specific type of situation, okay? Not to every type of situation, all right? First, it refers to a situation involving a private offense, a private offense. We're going to see in 1 Corinthians 5 that Paul addresses a situation that was a public scandal that was already known by the whole church. He doesn't give exactly the same instructions that are given in Matthew 18 because it was already a public matter. But this is a situation involving a private offense. You'll notice Jesus says in verse 15, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, okay, if he sins against you, this is referring to a private offense. Now there is a textual variant here in the Greek manuscripts, some of the best, some of the oldest Greek manuscripts omit the phrase against you. And I won't go into all the arguments pro and con in looking at that, but you will see that reflected in the New American Standard translation. If you have the New American Standard, the words against you will not be there. However, without getting into that debate, either way, the situation envisioned is clearly not something that's already common public knowledge in the church. Your brother has sinned against you, perhaps directly against you, or it's quite consistent with other passages in the New Testament to apply this to a private sin that may not have been directly against you, but it's something you have seen or you've become aware of. Either way, what is envisioned here is not something that's already commonly known. It's not something that's already resulted in public scandal. It's clear in this passage that this is something that the church body does not already know about. Otherwise, step three in this process found in verse 17, which involves telling the church about it, well, that would be needless if the church already knew about it, you see. If it were a public sin, the church would already know. So this is a private offense. And again, we'll see later there are other passages that address more directly how the church is to handle publicly known scandalous situations. But here we have a private offense. Secondly, it's a situation involving a serious offense. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, sins against you, go and tell him his fault. And the word translated sin here is just one of the common New Testament words for sin. And what is sin? 1 John 3.14 tells us that sin is the transgression of the law. So we're talking about something that is a violation of God's law. It's a sin. Now that immediately raises a practical question. Has Jesus been telling us that we're to confront everything and anything in our brother that could in any way be interpreted as being wrong? Are we to be constantly rebuking, repenting, and forgiving one another over every little thing that happens? That's one extreme. Or is he only talking about really, really, really, really big sins? You know, sins that are on the skeleton or in 9-10 level. That's the other extreme. Now, because of the danger of going to extremes, I think this is a question we need to consider. And if we remember that we must interpret any individual text of Scripture in light of what the rest of the Bible says on the subject being addressed, I think we'll find that the Bible does provide us with a balanced answer to this question. And I want to first just give this in summary form. And this is something that I touched on way back in another lesson when we were just dealing with interpersonal relationships with one another in the church. But I'll just give the answer in summary form and then break it down for us. A serious offense is any sinful action that cannot be overlooked without harmful consequences. Okay? Any sinful action that cannot be overlooked without harmful consequences. Now let me break this down. Any sinful action. Again, if your brother sins, not that your brother has violated your own personal convictions in some area that the Bible doesn't directly speak to. Or he's violated your preferences regarding some non-moral issue that the Bible doesn't specifically say you can't do it or you can do it. It's in that area of liberty of conscience where Christians may differ. It's not simply that your brother has done something that you don't like. No, the text is not talking about trivial matters. It's not talking about petty differences of practice and opinion. It's talking about something that is a bona fide sin. In other words, your brother has done something that is clearly forbidden in the Word of God, God's law, okay? So it's any sinful action. Secondly, it's any sinful action. Only sins of action should be confronted in this way for the simple reason that we can't see into our brother's heart. And this is what Paul was talking about in Romans 14, 4 when he said, Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And when he said in 1 Corinthians 4, 5, Judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Judging the heart is the prerogative of God alone. Now obviously actions reveal hearts. issues, don't they? And if there are actions and words that reveal a heart problem, an attitude problem, we can address that attitude problem in our effort to help our brother. But even then, we have to be careful because we can never be certain what's really going on in a person's heart. The thing that we are called upon to address is the sinful action that has come out of the heart, okay? So it is any sinful action. and it is any sinful action. Number three, any sinful action. There's nothing here in the text about big sins or small sins. The word that's used is a general Greek word that's used for any kind of sin. And when we look at the New Testament, the New Testament is full of examples of sins that were addressed, confronted by the apostles in the early church. They include very heinous and gross crimes such as fornication, adultery, idolatry, drunkenness, false teaching. They also include more common sins like lying, gossip, cheating, legalism, divisiveness, deceit, and even neglecting to work. We see Paul addressing this issue of people neglecting to work and even calling the church to address that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. So all of these are sins and all of these sins as well as any sin are included in what Jesus says here. There's no limitation here if he sins, if your brother sins. So we have no basis to restrict this command to only certain sins. It's any sinful action. But there is one other very important qualification, a qualifying consideration. any sinful action that cannot be overlooked without harmful consequences. Okay? Someone may say, well, all sins have harmful consequences, and that's true, but as I explain what I'm talking about, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from. Someone may say, Pastor, do you mean to insinuate that there are some sins in our brethren that we should simply overlook? Yes. I do mean to imply that and even to say that. So where do you get that? Well, remember, we're not to take this text out of the context of the general witness of the rest of Scripture on this subject, and there are places where the Bible tells us that sometimes we should simply overlook the sins that we see in our brother. For example, we're told in 1 Peter 4, 8, and above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will do what? Anybody know the text? It will cover a multitude of sins. We read in Proverbs 19 11, the discretion of a man makes him slow to anger and his glory is to overlook a transgression. So he doesn't have an attitude, it's just looking for something to find that's a sin that he can point out in his brother. He's He is glorious to overlook a transgression. So there are situations, there are multitudes of situations, as Peter says, when it's right to overlook our brother's sin. You see, there are common sinful infirmities and blemishes that plague the best and the most godly, most holy of Christians. Character quirks in your brother, areas where he still needs a lot of growth, areas where he's simply lacking in maturity. And if we took the time to confront every possible sin that every Christian might commit, even commit against us, that's about all we would ever have time to do. All we would be doing is going around in the church rebuking one another all the time. So then how do we know then whether to throw a blanket of love over something or to confront a sin in a particular situation? Well, as I've wrestled with this question, I think we can derive from the Scriptures three very simple, helpful guidelines when it comes to this question. Sometimes it's a difficult question. Sometimes we're in a situation we're not sure. But I think at least these guidelines can help, okay? First of all, if the sin creates a barrier between you and that brother, there needs to be an effort to address it and to repair the relationship. Fellowship between you and that brother has been broken because of that sin. There's an unreconciled relationship. In that case, it needs to be addressed for the sake of the peace and the unity of the body. You can't just let it go. You remember that's the emphasis of the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, remember he says, if your brother has something against you, go immediately and be reconciled to your brother. And, of course, that works both ways, whether you're the offended brother or you're the offending brother. The point is that an unreconciled relationship between two believers and the fellowship of the saints is not to be tolerated or allowed to remain. When sin has created a barrier in your relationship with your brother, it should be dealt with. You should make every effort to deal with that, okay? The second guideline. If it's a situation in which you have no confidence that the brother already sees his sin and is already seeking to overcome it, then it's something to address. What do I mean by that? Well, if you know that he's growing in that area by confessing his sins and trying to change in that area, you really don't need to admonish him. Why? Because the whole purpose of admonishing him is to try to get him to do just that. Well, if he's already doing that, you don't need to confront him. Okay? But if you see no evidence that he's even aware of the problem or that if he is aware of it, you see no evidence that he's trying to grow and to change in that area, then you need to address him because that may be the only means to awaken him and cause him to see the issue and to awaken him from his spiritual inertia. Okay? So that's the second guideline. Third guideline. If his sin is such that it will hurt others, or bring reproach upon the name of Christ and the cause of Christ, it needs to be addressed. Then you need to make sure that your brother has truly recognized his wrong and has repented of it. And that seems to be at least one of the major concerns of our Lord here in this text when you consider it in its context. Notice what he says up in verse 7 of Matthew 18. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come. but woe to that man by whom the offense comes." And he's talking about, in the preceding context, things that bring a stumbling block or offense to others and bring reproach upon the name of Christ. And that's part of the concern, you see, that's driving what our Lord is teaching us in Matthew 18. There's this concern about being a cause of stumbling for others. And it's in this context that Jesus says, if your brother sins, go and tell him his fault. So these are three simple guidelines. What sins in our brother or sister should we address? The answer, any sinful action that cannot be overlooked without harmful consequences either, it cannot be overlooked without leaving a barrier between you and your brother, or it cannot be overlooked without endangering your brother's soul because he doesn't seem to be seeking to address this area in his life himself, or it cannot be overlooked without hurting others and bringing reproach upon the testimony of Christ and the church. Okay? I think those are three helpful guidelines there. So it's a serious, it's a private offense, and it's a serious offense. Now, let's look at the procedure that's outlined by our Lord in addressing something like this. And he's very clear here. There's nothing ambiguous about what the Lord Jesus says. You know, it's pretty straightforward. It's pretty clear. It's not difficult to understand, I don't think. First of all, he says, tell him his fault between you and him alone. All right, so you're to go to your brother and you're to show him what you believe to be his sin. Now, we could spend time talking about the manner in which we should do this, the attitude, we should do it quickly, we should always do this humbly, gently. considering ourselves as also subject to sin, Galatians 6.1. But there is something about the manner of it that Jesus really underscores in this particular passage, and that is that you are to do it privately, privately. Jesus says, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone, between you and him alone. That's very clear, isn't it? He doesn't say if your brother sins against you, go tell the church. No, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. He doesn't say go and tell sister so-and-so or go and tell brother so-and-so about it. No, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And notice also, he doesn't say, if your brother sins, just go and pray for him. He doesn't say that either. No, he says, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. So you're not to backbite, you're not to gossip about it on the one hand, and you're not to just stew over it on the other hand. You personally are to go to your brother in love, Jesus emphasizes in other passages that this is to be done quickly. Don't let this linger on for a long time. Go quickly, go humbly, go gently and privately and show him his sin. And what's the goal? If he hears you, if he hearkens to what you're saying to him, you have gained your brother. That's the whole purpose here. It's to gain your brother. It's to restore him to a right relationship to Christ, a right relationship to you. if it's related to the church or right relationship to the church. If he hears, if he repents, if he says, thank you brother, please forgive me. You forgive him and you've gained your brother and that's the end of it. That's the end of it. You're to bury it right there. And so it's just a matter between you and him alone. Now the vast, vast majority of situations Let me just pause here and say that that one simple guideline is violated so many times in the life of the church, and it grieves the Holy Spirit when it is. It's not go and tell brother, sister, so and so, or whatever. It's go and tell him privately, just as you would have him to do to you. Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. You don't want someone going and broadcasting what you perceive to be their sins. to other people throughout the church. If you believe that they've sinned, if someone believes that you've sinned against them or sinned in some way, isn't that what you would want them to do, to come to you privately to address that situation? Sure, that's what all of us would want someone to do, and that's what we are to do in our relationships with others, to do it privately. Now, in the vast, vast majority of situations, that's as far as it has to go. If you're committed to dealing with such things biblically in the way Jesus tells us, most problems need never go beyond the private level. But now, what if you do that and it doesn't work? What if he refuses to acknowledge his sin, or perhaps he disputes whether or not he has sinned, and it's a question as to whether he has or he hasn't, and nothing's been resolved? What are you to do? Or maybe he just won't listen to you and keeps on doing this thing, whatever it is. What are you to do then? Well, Jesus tells us secondly, to take one or two witnesses, verse 16. But if you will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. So you're to get help. You're to take one or two witnesses. Notice, not half a dozen witnesses, but one or two. which together with yourself adds up to two or three people who are involved in this situation now. And what's the purpose of bringing these witnesses? Well, he quotes from an Old Testament text, you know, whenever there was a trial and someone was on trial for a crime, for them to be convicted, there had to be witnesses, confirmatory witnesses to the proceedings, two or three witnesses. He's not saying that these people are necessarily witnesses of the sin itself, but they're there to hear the case, to hear both sides of the situation in an effort to try to get at the truth, to confirm what is really said in the conversation, to verify the validity of the offended party's charge that the accused is really guilty of serious sin and is unrepentant about it. And sometimes when that happens, with the help of others, it's recognized, well, there really wasn't a sin in this situation and there's been a misunderstanding. But the purpose is for confirmation, to get at the issue here. And the bringing of witnesses, if in fact the accused is indeed guilty, is also calculated to apply a degree of added pressure to the one who's the offender to bring him to repentance and restoration. Okay? But what if after following these first two steps, still the sinning brother, it's been confirmed that he is sinning, but he continues to remain obstinate in his sin? What did you do then? Well, now, according to Jesus, this, what was a private sin problem has escalated into a much more serious problem. And then we are to move to step three. And what's step three? Well, he says, tell it to the church, verse 17a. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. So this problem is not to be ignored now. It's not to be swept under the rug. Rather, the whole church is now to be informed of this situation. The facts have now been confirmed by two or three witnesses. They have been convinced of the man's sin and his unwillingness to confess it, to repent of it. Now the evidence of this is to be presented to the church, and the church, having been informed and convinced, is to issue some form of corporate reproof. to the offender seeking to bring him to repentance. Now it's time, you see, for the whole church to get involved in seeking to recover this brother from his sin, going after him in a loving way but in a committed way to try to recover him from his fault by corporate reproof. And let me just note here that here we see very clearly that corrective discipline is not merely the responsibility or the task of one person. or of just the eldership. The whole church is involved in these things. Every member is involved in corrective discipline. Now, let me just say, that doesn't mean that the God-ordained channels of oversight in the church are to be ignored, okay, when something comes to this level. Pastors or elders, as with all matters pertaining to the corporate life of the church, should provide leadership and direction. You know, when you get to this part of the text, the question may come to someone's mind, well, how is this to happen? How is the offended brother with the confirmatory witnesses supposed to inform the church? How is he supposed to do that of the situation? Should they write a personal letter to all the church members informing them about so-and-so's sin? Or should they just kind of stand up in a business meeting one Sunday unexpectedly and blurt the whole thing out? Well, of course not. Of course, we know from the general principles of Scripture that's not the proper way that something should be done. That would be to disregard the God-appointed order and authority structure by which the church is to operate. In giving this direction, the Lord is not dismantling the entire fabric of orderly church government that's established in the New Testament. And so I would say the pastors or the leaders of the church should be informed so they can preside over these proceedings and see to it that all things are done decently and in order. And let me just say that this is one reason that it's wise, I think, for a church to have an already spelled out policy. Okay, we have to implement this teaching of Scripture. Christ doesn't give us all the details of the procedures of implementation. How do we tell the church? Then how does the church speak to the offended party? How exactly do you carry that out? But it has to be done in some way. It's one of those things that's in the realm of those things that are common to human societies. It speaks of in our confession where it's speaking of the regulative principle, but it talks about how in worship and in the government of the church there are general principles that have to be followed in the applying of some of these things. And so it's helpful to have a policy manual or a church constitution in which the manner in which such things are to be done is spelled out to avoid confusion in the life of the church. And as you know, we have something like that here at Emmanuel. So the God-appointed oversight of the church should be informed. Then through them, the entire church body is to be informed. And the entire church, the church has a voice here. The church, he says, is to speak. The church is to say something here. The entire church body, under the guidance of the leaders, is to issue a corporate reproof of the brother, whether that's done in a letter sent to them by the church or however that's spelled out in the church constitution. And that's implied in what Jesus says in the second half of verse 17, if he refuses even to hear the church, not just the pastors, but the church. Now, maybe the pastors speak to him representing the church at their commissioned to do so, but in some way the church is speaking. But now what do you do after space is given for the offender to repent when it becomes obvious that he's still not going to do so? What do you do then? Well, Christ commands the church to move to the fourth and the final step, which is exclusion or excommunication. He says, but if he refuses even to hear the church through all of this process, he still refuses. to address this problem, this sin, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. In other words, what's he mean by that? If after all these efforts this man refuses to repent, he's no longer to be considered as a member of the covenant people of God. He's to be considered someone who's outside the covenant people of God. That's really the connotation of a tax collector and a sinner. He's to be put out of the membership of the church. He's no longer, at least officially and functionally, to be counted as a brother in Christ. You say, but Pastor, that sounds hard. Well, it is hard, but it's what Jesus says we are to do. You say, but Pastor, we can't see a man's heart. That's right, we can't. And I'm not saying, and Jesus didn't say, that this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this person is not a true Christian. That's not what he says. But the point is that he shows himself to be a non-Christian in practice and is to be considered as such by the church. It's just like when we receive someone into the membership of the church. We can't see their heart. We can't make an infallible judgment as to whether they're a believer or not, but we are required to for them to be able to give us some kind of a credible testimony of conversion and a life that's consistent with that testimony to receive them. Well, the point is that this person is no longer living a life that's consistent with their Christian profession and they're no longer to be considered by the church in that way. He shows himself to be a non-Christian in practice. As far as we're warranted by Christ to judge, he gives no evidence of being a true Christian and we're no longer to regard him as a brother. Now, if someday down the road, doesn't mean that we can't still be his friend, doesn't mean he can't come to church. We would want someone like that to come to church and sit under the ministry in the hope that the Spirit of God would work in their heart. Doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to love them. Yes, we should continue to love them. And if at some point down the road he repents, he can be restored. But until he repents, he's no longer to be considered a part of the covenant community. And that means that he no longer has to be given the privileges of membership in the covenant community. Okay? He's no longer a part of the fellowship of those who have entered the straight gate, who are walking in the narrow way that leads to life. And Jesus, in one of the purposes of this, is the hope of saving the man's soul, to bring him to repentance, that he doesn't continue down this path, that if he continues down it without repentance, will in the end prove him to have never been a believer at all, and will ultimately lead him to hell. So as to protect the testimony of the church, The unity of the church, the peace of the church is to be a testimony to the world around us that Christ's church, that we don't tolerate these kinds of things and we don't condone these kinds of things. One of the things that destroys the testimony of the Christian church in America is all the sin that is rife in the churches and nothing is ever done about it. Nothing's ever done about it. So there's the testimony of the church to the world that's at stake in these things. But then also, ultimately, our great concern is that we might win this person back to the way of faith and repentance. So that's the first passage. That's the main passage in the teaching of the Lord Jesus. There's a few other things that Jesus says about church discipline that we'll not get to. But next week when we come back, we'll survey. I want to survey very quickly several of the key New Testament passages in their teaching, and then we'll kind of collate all that together. And then we'll be able to take any questions or that you might have about the subject. All right. But our time's gone this morning, so we're going to have to stop. All right. Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you that when you speak to us, you have not muttered, you have not spoken, particularly in these subjects in a way that is obscure, but you've been very clear with us. And we pray that you would help us, Lord, that There are times when we have to embrace this even very difficult and painful element of biblical church life, and it would be our desire and prayer that we would never have a situation like this, where the situation would escalate to this point. But should it happen, ever happen, Lord, help us to be faithful to that person and faithful to Your Word. We do pray, Lord, that you would help us in our interpersonal relationships to one another to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, if our brother has sinned or has sinned against us, help us to love them and to go to them privately. Lord, we pray that you would keep us from gossip and backbiting. We pray also, Lord, that you would keep us from that lack of courage when we don't love enough to go to our brother to try to help him to see his fault. Lord, this is difficult for us at times. It's easy for us not to do that, so help us, Lord. We pray that our congregation would be one in which we love one another in all of the ways that the scripture lays out for us and that we would love one another in being faithful to protect one another's reputations and also to be faithful to repair breaches in our relationships before they become something much bigger and more damaging. Oh, Lord, help us. Forgive us where we failed in this area. And we pray now that you would bless our fellowship together as we interact with one another. And we ask that you would meet with us by the presence and power of your Holy Spirit as we gather in a few moments to worship your holy name. And it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen.