David Platt Messages
David Platt Messages is a podcast that highlights sermons from teacher, author, and pastor David Platt.
David Platt Messages
Covenant Discipline and Restoration – Part 1
The idea of confronting people in their sin seems like the last thing a church would want to do, particularly if its goal is to attract more people. However, when Jesus gave instructions regarding the church, the topic we know of as church discipline as a top priority. In this message from Matthew 18:15–20, David Platt exhorts the church to carry out its God-given responsibility to deal with sin and to seek to restore one another. We can trust Jesus to build his church, for he desires our holiness and he knows that sin is destructive.
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You are listening to David Platt Messages a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author and teacher David Platt.
Speaker 2:So let's be honest, let's just put it out on the table Church discipline is a pretty negative topic in many of our minds. As soon as we mention church discipline, there's all kinds of ideas, images, pictures of the holy police that come to our mind Ideas, images, pictures of the holy police that come to our mind. Some of our guys have been working on trying to depict some of those images that might come in our minds, so I want you to watch this video with you. Maybe this is how you picture church discipline Watch this with me.
Speaker 3:Ma'am, thank you for meeting with us here today. We are attempting to address the matter of church discipline. Who are you? That is not important, and we are starting with you. In the case of you cutting off another person in traffic I believe we have photographic evidence- Wait a minute.
Speaker 4:I don't remember cutting anyone off in traffic and, to be honest, this picture's kind of blurry.
Speaker 3:You're going to need to calm down. It is a little blurry. If you'll take a good, hard look at this photograph, you'll realize that this is a photograph of you. All we're asking you to do is to confess what you did, so this situation doesn't escalate. What exactly do you want me to confess?
Speaker 3:We want you to confess that you cut this lady off. I want you to wait outside. Wait outside and calm down, ma'am, I apologize for my partner. I can't control him. I'm going to need you to sign this full confession. Full confession what does?
Speaker 3:that have to do with anything. It has to do with your heinous sin, and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg my heinous sin and the tip of the iceberg, my heinous sin, and then we're gonna open up a whole dossier on it. Don't pretend that cutting someone off in traffic isn't a sin. It's a horrible sin.
Speaker 4:Wait a minute, this does not look like me. Oh, it's you. Is that a mustache A?
Speaker 3:mustache. That does look, I thought it was lipstick, but now that she says it, where did we get this? Photograph. Who is this? It looks a little like you, looks like me. You brought the picture in here. Where'd it come from?
Speaker 2:Where did you get this? Picture lady Off your refrigerator.
Speaker 3:I can't believe that my own partner.
Speaker 2:Don't you turn this on me. Get up against the wall.
Speaker 3:Don't you turn the. I'm not the one with the mustache and the blurry coat. I think you guys have this, I'm gonna leave.
Speaker 2:You don't deserve. I'm thinking this is not what Jesus had in mind when he talked about church discipline. So I want us to dive in and I want us to hear from Jesus how he approached this issue and this topic and the church. Matthew, chapter 18, verse 15. I'm convinced that this whole picture church discipline. This is one of those words discipline. Even that just needs to be redeemed. In our day we think negatively when we think of discipline, and that's not how Scripture approaches discipline. We need to redefine, understand again what Scripture means when it uses that kind of picture terminology. So Matthew 18, verse 15. Jesus says when it uses that kind of picture terminology. So Matthew, chapter 18, verse 15.
Speaker 2:Jesus says If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen, even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell you the truth whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them, father. This whole passage ends with a promise of your presence and your response in prayer, and so we come to you this morning and we pray that you would help us to understand your word, help us to understand this whole picture that we often neglect or ignore. We don't know how to put this into practice, and so we pray that by your spirit, you would teach us and train us and mold us into a people who are obedient to your Word, even when it seems difficult to do. We pray that your Spirit would guide and lead our time, not just in your Word this morning, but as we consider what this looks like in the context of our faith family. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. It's really interesting when you think about it. This is Jesus' first initial instruction to his disciples about the church. We've seen the word church mentioned one other time in the Gospels, matthew, chapter 16, with Peter's confession of Christ as Lord and Jesus saying that the church is gonna be, with Peter's confession of Christ as Lord and Jesus saying that the church is going to be built on that confession of Christ as Lord. But then you get to Matthew, chapter 18, and this is his initial instruction to the church, which in and of itself that should just leap out of the pages of Scripture before us for us to realize.
Speaker 2:This whole issue of church discipline was not number 99 on a list of hundred things that Jesus said were important in the church. This is at the top, right after confession of Christ as Lord. We see Jesus talking about church discipline, confronting a brother or sister in sin in the church. This is extremely important. It should signal to us this is not an optional in the church. This is not extra credit. This is essential. This is not an optional in the church. This is not extra credit, this is essential. This is fundamental. And yet it is so often neglected that I'm guessing many of us have not heard a sermon or seen church discipline practice. Some of us have, but many of us, I'm guessing, haven't. That obviously shows us we need to see what Jesus is talking about here and consider how to implement it.
Speaker 2:Now, there's a lot of reasons why we don't do church discipline, maybe excuses or objections to church discipline. You've got them listed there in your notes. Why not church discipline? Some say well, church discipline is legalistic. You can't be a church of grace and a church of discipline. Church discipline contradicts the grace of God and the love of God. Mark it down. Without doubt, a church that starts to talk about church discipline and a pastor that starts to talk about church discipline will immediately be open to the charge of being legalistic. It's inevitable. People say church discipline is legalistic. Now we're going to come back to each of these and think about how Scripture addresses these thoughts that we might say. But let's just run down them.
Speaker 2:Second one what about Matthew? What about Matthew 7.1? Do not judge or you too will be judged. Matthew 7.1. This is the verse that it's almost a catchphrase that comes out whenever you start talking about churchism. Well, you don't judge. Don't judge, or you too will be judged. We live in a day where the intolerable sin is to say that something is wrong. You don't say that something is wrong in someone else's life or something is wrong in the culture around you. Who are you to say that? Don't judge lest you be judged? Or maybe we quote John 8, 7. Let he who is without sin, let him, cast the first stone. Anybody in here not have sin? Okay, well then, none of us can really point out sin in each other's lives. We'll use phrases like that. What about Matthew 7 and 1? Do not judge lest you be judged. Third, people will leave.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you what's not at the top of the charts on church growth magazines the trend of church discipline. We're a church that disciplines sinners. It just doesn't work well. On the billboards today You've got all kinds of catchphrases for churches. We're a church that loves. We're the church that cares. We're the church of joy. We're the church that meets needs Brook Hills. We're the church that disciplines. You put that on your billboard, your website. You're not going to achieve high attendance Sunday the next week. It's not going to happen. It doesn't work. People not only won't come to leave, even the topic of this is probably causing people around this room to think I don't know if I'm in for this and if people don't leave.
Speaker 2:Sometimes church discipline causes a pastor to leave. I was having a meal with a fellow pastor this last week and he was asking what we were studying. I was telling him what we were diving into over the next few weeks and these were his exact words. His exact words were well, why don't you give me a call in a few weeks, if you're still there, and let me know how it goes? That'll bless your heart. So either you'll leave or you'll make me leave if we dive into church discipline, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Next, we don't know how to practice church discipline, particularly in a church this size. How do you practice church discipline? I've had people tell me you can't do it. It's not possible in a church this size. Don't even try.
Speaker 2:Now you look at those four phrases and it may surprise you, but I think those four phrases actually have some validity in the sense that we don't understand what church discipline is and we're reacting very clearly in some of these things to abuses of church discipline. But we've got to be careful whenever we think of an abuse of church discipline, not to throw church discipline out the window in light of its abuse. For example, church discipline is legalistic. There's no question that throughout the history of the church there have been times where things have been done in the name of church discipline, oftentimes things added to the word rules, regulations put on people you need to do this, this, this and this and this that are not in Scripture. Oftentimes things done in a wrong spirit, in a wrong attitude, which we're going to talk about in a moment. But when you think about that phrase, church discipline is legalistic. That does not add up with biblical church discipline. Biblical church discipline actually says the exact opposite. Scripture doesn't say church discipline is legalistic.
Speaker 2:Scripture says church discipline is loving, loving. That's the picture that Scripture gives of discipline. We think it's noble or compassionate to sit back and to say, well, that's someone else's sin, someone else's decision, someone else's responsibility and they're going to live with what they do and so I'm going to let them do whatever they think is best. That sounds noble, compassionate, even spiritual to us. But let's be thankful that the God of the universe doesn't love us like that, doesn't leave us alone in our sin. Well, it's your decision. He comes after us, he pursues us. That's the whole picture. In church discipline it's love. Hebrews 12, 6,. God disciplines those whom he what Loves. A parent disciplines those whom he loves. Discipline is a very loving thing. To be indifferent toward a brother or sister in sin is the exact opposite of love. It's cowardice. It hides behind a cloak of false love and false humility. Church discipline is loving. It's caring to reach out to someone.
Speaker 2:Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an incredible book on Christian community. He was a follower of Christ in the middle of Nazi Germany. This little book called Life Together. I want you to listen to what he said. It's a great quote. It deals with this picture of church discipline being loving. Bonhoeffer said follow along close. Nothing is so cruel as the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin. Did you catch that? Bonhoeffer said it's cruel to be tender and let a brother walk away in sin. It's compassionate to offer severe rebuke that calls a brother back from sin. Church discipline is loving.
Speaker 2:What about Matthew chapter seven, verse one? Don't judge, lest you be judged. Well, keep going to Matthew chapter 7, verse 1?. Don't judge, lest you be judged. Well, keep going to Matthew chapter 7, verse 5. This is the whole picture when Jesus says if you have a plank in your own eye, don't be trying to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Then he gets to verse 5 and he says take the plank out of your own eye and then you will be able to see clearly and do what? Remove the speck from your brother's eye. The implication is that as you grow in holiness, you will help others grow in holiness. This is the whole picture, and so what Jesus is saying in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 1 is in no way contradictory to what he's saying in Matthew chapter 18, verse 15 through 20. They go together. Obviously there is a sense in which God has authority to judge that we don't have, and there's a sense in which humility must be a part of this whole picture which we're going to talk about. But Jesus is not saying don't point out sin, don't help other brothers or sisters turn from sin. He's saying the exact opposite. He's saying grow in holiness so you can help others grow in holiness as well. That's what Matthew chapter 7, verse 1 through 5 is about. It's what Matthew 18, 15 through 20 is about.
Speaker 2:This next picture if we talk about church discipline, if we implement church discipline, people will leave this right here may be the most important truth that we see today, and it's really much larger than just church discipline, but it applies to church discipline and has huge ramifications for everything we do as a church. So don't miss that. People will leave. Brothers and sisters, this is God's church to grow, not ours. This is God's church to grow, not ours.
Speaker 2:As I was studying this week, I was just struck with a reminder. There are easier ways to pastor and there are easier ways to grow a church a lot easier ways. I can come up with a list of things that we could do to try to increase the crowds. I get lists of things across my desk every single day in the mail. Soften the message, play secular music, give people money, do a series on sex. That's the new thing. You can draw a crowd today. There's all over the place. It's a popular thing to do. Get new trends every day, new catchy things to do. Draw the crowd with this, do this or this or this or this. Can I be honest with you? I want to avoid every single one of those. I want to avoid them deliberately and intentionally, to go out of the way in avoiding them. You know why? Because I want to be a part of something that can only be attributed to God and not the creativity of the pastor or the trend of the day, which we are bombarded with. Week after week, month after month, year after year. There are more trends put before us, but that's not the way God grows His church.
Speaker 2:Let me show you how God grows His church. Go with me to Acts chapter 5. You've got to see this. We've looked at this text before Acts chapter 5, only explained by God. Look at this. Acts chapter 5 shows you a picture of church discipline that God directly handles, that God takes into his own hands.
Speaker 2:Acts chapter five, verse one. Imagine the scene Now. A man named Ananias Acts chapter five, verse one together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property With his wife's full knowledge. He kept back part of the money for himself. So we've got deception, we've got lying going on here but brought the rest, kept back part of the money for himself. So we've got deception. We've got lying going on here, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.
Speaker 2:Peter said Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal. What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men, but to God. Listen to verse 5.
Speaker 2:When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. How about this? For understatement. Great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Can you imagine that Somebody gets killed in the offering by God? Great fear all over the room. The young man came forward, wrapped up his body and carried him out and buried him. Verse 7,.
Speaker 2:About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? Yes, she said. That is the price. Peter said to her how could you agree to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also. At that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. And the young man came in. Young man came in finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Speaker 2:Second time it says it. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these things. Now you read that. Let's be honest. Put this together with Matthew, chapter 18. You're thinking. I'm thinking what are you doing here at God? Why is your first instruction to the church not word about how to create a cozy environment for people to feel warm and welcome? Why is your first instruction to the church not worried about how to create a cozy environment for people to feel warm and welcome? Why is your first instruction to the church about confronting brother or sister in sin? And why is the first picture we have of the church in Jerusalem God striking people down dead?
Speaker 2:The offering how do you grow a church? A couple people die in the offering. That'll do it. That's weird. This doesn't add up with us. But look at this, don't miss it. Verse 13 and 14. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. How does that happen? You notice? Verse 14, were added passive. Who was adding them? Takes us right back to the language in Acts 2, 47. The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. So don't miss the picture we're getting here because this is so different.
Speaker 2:God is apparently about growing the church in very, very different ways than we are. How is God growing the church? I want you to see the relationship between the holiness of God among his people and the growth of the church. Don't miss this. God is growing the church by creating a people who are so radically committed to holiness and obedience and righteousness that everyone around them in the world is afraid to join. And yet they're joining because God is adding to their number. Let me repeat that how is God going to grow the church? By creating a people who are so committed to holiness and righteousness and obedience to Him that there's no other explanation. The people around see the holiness of God, revere the holiness of God, and God draws them to Himself in a way that defies explanation. God do it. God do it. God do it.
Speaker 2:In our day, god trump all the ludicrous phrases and catchy trends that we come up with when we take church growth into our own hands to try to appeal to people and, in the process, say things like well, when people are on the front door, we don't make sure not to talk about serious commitment to holiness and serious commitment to righteousness and radical obedience. Don't talk about those things, why not? People on the front door were dying in Acts, chapter 5. Let's put radical commitment to holiness, obedience and righteousness at the forefront of the church, and let's trust that God knows what he is doing in growing his church and he is able, more than able, better than all of our trends put together, to draw people to himself. This has been his plan throughout Scripture Old Testament, ezekiel, chapter 36, verse 22 and 23.
Speaker 2:It is not for your sake, o house of Israel, that I'm going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations. That nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I show them how holy I am through you. I'm going to show my holiness through my people. Ezekiel, chapter 36, verse 22 and 23. Same picture 1, peter, chapter 2. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, declaring the greatness of the one who has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We don't. We don't show the world how holy God is by becoming like the world and by showing them darkness that they're familiar with. We show the world light, holiness, radical commitment to holiness, and God entrusts people to his church. God grows the church and now don't miss it.
Speaker 2:Who's getting the credit for church growth, not the creative pastor, not the trendy church. God alone can get the credit for that kind of growth. This is God's church to grow, not ours. Do we believe that the elders? Literally since right after I came, we have been praying together about this picture of church discipline and really anticipating even what we are doing this morning? For years now, praying and studying, seeing the importance of this Praying that would give us grace, the faith family to obey his word. And I know, I know that there is a chance that some people will say I'm not in as shepherd in this faith family. I pray, I pray that you will see this picture's a good thing, but we're going to go with the Word because we're going to trust that it's good and God knows what he is doing. It's God's church to grow, not ours. Well, we don't know how to do it. Then let's learn how to practice church discipline. Let's learn how to do it.
Speaker 2:Richard Baxter wrote one of the classics on pastoral ministry, a book for pastors. This was, hundreds of years ago, called the Reformed Pastor. I want you to listen to what he said. He said my request to the ministers is that they would at last, without any more delay, unanimously set themselves to the practice of those parts of church discipline which are unquestionably necessary and part of their work. It's a sad case that good men should settle themselves so long in the constant neglect of so great a duty.
Speaker 2:The common cry is our people are not ready for it. They will not bear it. But is not the fact, rather, that you will not bear the trouble and hatred it will occasion you? So let's be a people who say we want to obey the Word, we're ready to obey the word. So what is church discipline? What is church discipline? Well, it's not a witch hunt, it's not looking to get even with somebody. It's not an investigation of rumors, it's not an interrogation. There's no badges involved in this thing. What is church discipline?
Speaker 2:And this is where I want us to see two facets of church discipline, one that's reflected come back to Matthew, chapter 18. One that's reflected here and one that's not. But I think we need to see both facets in order to understand this picture in Matthew, chapter 18. Two facets of church discipline, both extremely important. First, formative church discipline. Formative church discipline, kindative church discipline. I'm going to put a definition there Continual training. We see this in the Word Continual training that believers receive from the Word in the body of Christ as their lives are transformed into Christ's likeness.
Speaker 2:Let's all get this on the table. We need discipline right. Everyone needs discipline in this room. We all need discipline. Anybody not need discipline. If you speak up like you'd prove the point, okay, we all need discipline and we're all under discipline. We're all under discipline at this moment. We are disciples of Christ. We're all under discipline at this moment. We are disciples of Christ. We are learning from him. Matthew 11, 29. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Whole picture of the Great Commission Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Make disciples, teaching them to obey. We're all learning to obey. None of us is the finished product, so to speak. None of us has arrived. We're all growing. We all have areas where we need to grow more and the whole process of discipleship is a process of discipline, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:Formative church discipline we are everything we do in the church, preaching, teaching small groups, everything that happens in our lives. Do we realize every single detail that happens in our lives? God intends for our sanctification, for our growth in Christ. You think about that, the great things that have happened to you this week God has intended to mold you more in the likeness of Christ and the difficult things that have happened to you this week, this month, in your life, in your family, even those things. This is how you rejoice in trials, because you know the testing of your faith develops what Perseverance. First finish this work and you'll be mature and complete, not lacking anything. That's the picture. Even the worst things we face, god is conforming us more and more into the image of Christ. That makes everything around us good. That's why Romans 8, 28 says All things, god works together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. What's his purpose? That we would be, two verses later, conformed in the likeness of his son. Everything, everything in our lives is God disciplining us by his love, teaching us, training us in Christ's likeness. That's the picture.
Speaker 2:It's the picture of being well disciplineddisciplined. You think about a battalion of soldiers. If you were to say, man, that group of soldiers is well-disciplined, you would not be saying that they're constantly in conflict and constantly disobeying their commanding officer. No, you would say that's a group of people that has learned, that has been trained to follow their commanding officer. Same thing in the home. You saw children. You say, well, those children are well-disciplined. You would not say that if they were always disobeying their parents and they were always being punished for that. You would say they're well-disciplined because they have learned to obey. The same picture in the church God, make us a well-disciplined people. And that doesn't mean we're always going around on each other talking about hey, do this, do this, do this, this area of disobedience. No, well-disciplined people are people who are obeying our commander, following after Christ. God, create that kind of discipline in us. To use Richard Foster's words from his classic on the subject celebration of discipline. That's what the Christian life is a celebration of discipline. So that's formative church discipline.
Speaker 2:Second facet of church discipline is restorative church discipline and this is where Matthew chapter 18 comes in, specifically addressing corrective care taken by the body of Christ in matters of unrepentant sin in a brother or sister's life. Don't miss this. This is not about Matthew. 18 is not about the daily struggle we all have with sin. We all struggle with sin in our lives and we are constantly growing in the image of Christ. And so don't think as we're talking this morning. Well, man, I struggle with this sin, I'm about to get kicked out of this place. That's not what Matthew chapter 18 is teaching. Matthew 18 is specifically addressing when a brother is caught in sin, to use the language from Galatians, chapter 6, verse 1, caught in sin, and when that sin is addressed by the word in his or her life, then they continue in it. They don't listen to the word, they don't listen to correction from the word, and so they continue on, unrepentant in sin. That's the picture that's being expressed here in restorative church discipline.
Speaker 2:Now, regardless whether it's formative, restorative, whatever it looks like, I want to point out there is one foundation for this entire picture of church discipline, and this is key. This cuts right at the heart, this goes right to the teeth, so to speak, of that idea that church discipline is legalistic. So don't miss that. The one foundation for church discipline is the grace of God, grace. Grace is the one and only foundation for biblical church discipline. I want to show you this in context here In Matthew chapter 18, this is a part of the study for me this week that just came alive in a way.
Speaker 2:I'd read through, studied in some ways, matthew 18, 15, 20 before, but I'd never seen it in the richness of the context that surrounded it. It is just sandwiched in the middle of startling pictures of grace in Matthew, chapter 18. And we think we hear grace and discipline. We almost think they're oxymorons, like they contradict one another, they don't go together. But what scripture is showing us is that discipline and grace, beautifully, are intertwined together, beautifully intertwined. I want to show it to you. Look at Matthew, chapter 18, verse one through four. Listen to the context. This is what leads up. We're just going to kind of go step by step to what leads up to verse 15. Listen to verse 1.
Speaker 2:At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So that's how this whole picture starts. Listen to what Jesus does. He called a little child and had him stand among them and he said I tell is how we approach church discipline. I want you to see how Jesus approaches it. First got this in your notes we need childlike humility, childlike humility. Jesus sets the stage for a conversation about church discipline with a picture of the humility of children. I want you to think about how that kind of humility is required, is necessary in this whole picture in Matthew 18, 15 through 20.
Speaker 2:To go to a brother or sister and to address sin in their lives requires deep humility, childlike humility. To go to a brother or sister in pride or in arrogance, in a picture of superiority and inferiority, misses the whole point. It's an abuse of church discipline. We go in humility knowing we are all in need of grace. There is level ground here at the foot of the cross. And you struggle with this, I struggle with this Struggle with different things, and we need we all need the gospel. We need the grace of God every moment of every day. And so we approach a brother or sister in humility. Now, not a false humility, there's a false humility that sits back and says, well, who am I to say something about their lives. It's false humility, it's indifference toward your brother or sister. True humility goes to them In humility, humbly, gently addresses sin.
Speaker 2:Now, it also takes humility to receive that kind of correction, doesn't it? I mean, who likes that? I can speak from personal experience on this one. I'm not going to go into specifics, but I can think of a variety of times when a brother or sister has come to me and has said David, there's something here in your life I want to ask you about man. As soon as they start talking, defense mechanisms just rise up to the surface. You know that. You know that feeling. I start, I start reacting. No, you don't understand. I'm a pastor. Like I preach, I teach. I can even turn one of those into a teaching moment for the person who's confronting me. I appreciate your concern, but what you need to learn from this is that, like it's horrible, these mechanisms rise up. We don't want. That's why we receive correction from one another.
Speaker 2:But this is the picture. This is the picture of what it means to be the body of Christ, isn't it? Don't we want people around us? Don't we all have blind spots? Don't we all have things we do say? Don't we all have patterns, struggles, that we want a brother or sister around us who loves us enough to humbly come to us in the middle of the host, even when they know it might kind of sting a bit and crush our pride? Our pride needs to be crushed. Brothers and sisters, pride cannot live beneath the cross.
Speaker 2:Spurgeon says let's rise with humility. This is the picture to say to a community of faith I need you to help me avoid sin. Are you willing to say that? We need to be willing to say that this is humility, and then a humility that comes to you in that child, childlike humility we need. I sin, I sin and I hate that fact. I want to sin less and less and less and less, and I want brothers and sisters around me who want me to sin less and less and less and less. I want brothers and sisters around me who hate sin as much as I do and will keep me from taking this step that leads to this step and leads to this step, this step. I want somebody stopping me at the first step, somebody who I'm in community with, that humbly approaches me and God, give me humility to respond to that. We need childlike humility. Leads into the second. We need a deep concern for holiness. A deep concern for holiness.
Speaker 2:Listen to where the shift comes here in verse 5. Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world. Listen to verse 7 and 8. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin. Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come.
Speaker 2:If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. Sin is serious Jesus says Extremely serious and if it's that serious, then we want to guard each other's holiness. We need a deep concern for holiness, and this is really where we've got to ask ourselves the question as a faith family, do we want to be a holy people? I mean really Really. 1 Peter 1, 15, 16, be holy as I'm holy. Do we want that? 1 Peter 1, 15, 16, be holy as I'm holy. Do we want that? Do we want to make it hard for one another to be complacent? Do we want to make it hard for one another to enjoy sin? Yes, yes, yes. Now we we often times react against that.
Speaker 2:A pastor, a friend of mine up in Washington DC, wrote this and I read it. It just pierced my heart because I saw my own tendency in it. Imagine this church, he said. It is huge and it's still growing numerically. People like it, the music is good, the people are welcoming, there are many exciting programs and people are quickly enlisted into their support. And yet the church, in trying to look like the world in order to win the world, has done a better job than it may have intended. It does not display the distinctively holy characteristics taught in the New Testament. Imagine such an apparently vigorous church being truly spiritually sick, with no remaining immune system to check and guard against wrong teaching or wrong living. Imagine Christians knee-deep in recovery groups and sermons on brokenness and grace, being comforted in their sin but never confronted. Imagine those people, made in the image of God, being lost to sin because no one corrects them. Can you imagine such a church?
Speaker 2:Apart from the size, have I not described many of our American churches? Isn't this our tendency? From the size, have I not described to many of our American churches? Isn't this our tendency? I'm not saying sermons on brokenness and grace are bad, but our tendency is to gravitate toward people who don't think sin is that big a deal and to gravitate toward churches that don't think sin is that big a deal. Look at the landscape, this is where we gravitate toward. And so to be around the people and to be a community of faith, do we realize the strategy, the adversary here, to even get us to look at church as a place where we can be comforted in sin and never confronted in our sin?
Speaker 2:God, make the church at Brook Hills a place where it's not easy to lapse into sin and to run off into sin, where we love each other enough and we love the glory of God enough to say we want to be holy, we want to be pure, and none of us is perfect and different of us struggle with different things, and we need to understand those struggles in each other's lives and come alongside each other. So we're not going to be indifferent toward each other. We're going to serve one another in humility. We're going to help one another pursue the holiness of God. God, may that be so A deep concern for holiness. To realize how serious sin is.
Speaker 2:And listen to the follow-up here, verse 10 through 14. See that you do not look down on one of those little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. Then listen to verse 12. What do you think If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away? Will he not leave the 99 on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. We need childlike humility, a deep concern for holiness and a passion for the hurting.
Speaker 2:You recognize this image? This is Luke 15. This is parable of the prodigal son, but don't miss it. It's applied here. It's applied here to Jesus' pursuit through the church of those who are caught in sin. That's the context here. Do we realize, do we realize in this room, that when we are caught sinning, that that is evidence of mercy and grace? Do we realize that how many of us probably all of us can think of points where we wish we'd been caught here instead of way down the road here? Somebody look out for me here, show mercy and grace, praise God, he comes pursuing after us. Listen to this now. Now we've got an understanding of Matthew, chapter 18, 15 to 20. This is God saying I love you so much that if worse comes to worse, I will take an entire people that will come pursuing after you in love. That's the end.
Speaker 2:The goal of church discipline is not to kick people out. The goal of church discipline is to restore brothers and sisters, by the mercy and grace of God, to intimacy with Him. And that leads to this last part. We need a passion for the hurting and we need forgiving hearts, because right after this, right after this verses 21 through 35, is the parable of the unmerciful servant, when Peter asked Jesus how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? And Jesus answered I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times. In other words, keep forgiving. As he repents, you forgive. And that's that's the picture, and the whole picture of church discipline that when a brother or sister repents and turns from sin, that forgiveness is waiting with open arms. Not well, you know he did this in the past. We follow the one who remembers our sins no more, and so we don't hold that in that way Again. So we forgive, forgiving hearts, ready to forgive you look at all of these together Childlike humility, deep concern for holiness, passion for the hurting, forgiving hearts. Who is our model in all of these things? It's Christ himself. Christ himself who, in humility, came, the deep concern for holiness, passion for the hurting, the seeking shepherd who stands ready to forgive. Christ does these things in our lives and it's good, and we're not going to have time to dive too much deeper in. But what we're going to see is that Christ is doing this in the church. That's why he's given these words to the church to show his grace and show his love and show his mercy. God, help us to see this.
Speaker 2:I got an email from one church member. I won't mention their name, you'll see why. This was a while ago. Dear Pastor, two weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, my wife came to you after church with a dire request for prayer. It was indeed dire, for I was on the verge of making a huge mistake that would have haunted me for the rest of my life. I was in the process of leaving my family in search of who knows what, something better, something straight out of Satan's playbook. I was on the edge of a cliff with one foot over my wife and everyone she knew were praying that I would come back, and because of their prayers and their words to me, the Lord did not leave me to do what I thought I wanted to do, but rather he poured out grace on me and my family and we are once again whole, thank you. Those prayers shielded me from justice until I was shaken to my senses and could ask for mercy.
Speaker 2:This is the picture. This is a picture of people who care, who care enough about a brother or sister next to them that, whether it's a small step or a large step, we're beginning to wander in any way from Christ and the abundance that comes in Christ. A brother or sister that will put an arm around your shoulder and say no, let me help you, let me come alongside you, let me do the hard work of even searching after you and walking with you through this. We're not going to have time to dive into that last part, but let me say this I'm convinced, confident, that there are likely brothers and sisters around this room this morning that have your foot hanging over a cliff and before you put your stuff away. Just listen real closely. I'm convinced there are some brothers and sisters in here who are likely about to take a big step, who have been flirting with this or that and, by the sovereign grace of God in bringing you to this room at this moment, I want to urge you to repent and to not take that step and to turn back Brothers and sisters around this room who have taken that step and who have gone down a road.
Speaker 2:I want to urge you, by the grace and mercy of God, to turn back. His mercy comes running after you. His power is available for you over sin and he alone is sufficient for that task. Turn to Him, be forgiven, turn and be forgiven and experience His power. Forgiven, turn and be forgiven and experience His power. Don't continue down that road.
Speaker 2:Maybe some of you, for the first time you've never trusted in Christ to cover over your sins. I invite you to trust in Christ today. Turn from your sin, trust in Him. He died on the cross to cover over your sins, to give you His righteousness. Trust in Him today and, brother or sister, do not continue down that road, no matter how small you think it may be. Well, I'm sure there's some big things in here he's talking. No, there's small things all across this room, small things where we're giving the adversary a foothold. Take it back, by the grace of Christ and the power of Christ. Take it back. Walk and discipline before Christ. Experience the grace and mercy of the word of God saying to you this morning you need to stop in your tracks.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of David Platt Messages For more resources from David Platt You're just stopping your tracks.