WEBVTT 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:12.000 [ Silence ]>> If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians Chapter 5. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:31.699 We're going to try to deal with the whole chapter, which is where the apostle is transitioning from the first reported problem of the turgic earth, their divisive nature, I'm a Paul, I'm a Paulus. 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:45.679 And this comes to the second reported problem of a great sin of sexual immorality that wasn't being dealt with, that was being ignored. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:49.079 And there was lack of discipline. 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:51.840 There was no church discipline going on. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:56.439 And Paul is seeking to correct the church. 00:00:57.299 --> 00:01:02.719 He's not correcting so much the sinner, he's correcting the church. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:13.400 And so as we think about church discipline, as we have experienced in the last few months, that it's very difficult. 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:21.719 And I've thought a long time, and we've gone through several church discipline cases that are in our history. 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:26.920 And I've come to the conclusion, I understand why churches don't do it. 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:38.200 For various reasons, it's hard to do church discipline without someone being upset that you did church discipline. 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:42.799 We've had people leave our church because we practice church discipline. 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:49.799 And it's also hard to do the church discipline. 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:51.640 It's easier just to ignore it. 00:01:51.640 --> 00:02:00.959 Sometimes I'm laying in bed at night and my children's, my three boys share a room and they're angels most of the time. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:08.400 But every now and then I'm in bed wanting to doze off and I hear a little argument upstairs. 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:11.919 You know, it's just easier just to stay in bed. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:22.080 Like, "How do I let them argue?" It's hard, it's hard to get up out of bed. 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:23.639 It's hard to face these things. 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:25.099 It's hard to deal with them. 00:02:25.099 --> 00:02:30.599 It's hard as a parent to be consistent with discipline. 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:36.360 In fact, I think, you know, we've sung just the deep, deep love of Jesus. 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:43.979 I don't think there's much more evidence of God's love on our lives than when he disciplines us. 00:02:43.979 --> 00:02:49.580 We know that we're a child of God when he comes after us. 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:52.740 And it's a sign of law. 00:02:53.740 --> 00:02:56.819 That the church disciplines its members. 00:02:56.819 --> 00:03:01.819 It's a sign of law that parents will discipline their children. 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:14.199 Proverbs 13 says, "If you spare the rod, you hate your son." If you love your son, you pull out the rod. 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:18.080 If a church loves its members, it'll practice church discipline. 00:03:19.240 --> 00:03:31.699 My dad's first pastoral experience was a church, a little church outside of Russellville, Arkansas, right out of Bible College. 00:03:31.699 --> 00:03:45.379 And he wasn't there even a year and before the head deacon was arrested for drunk driving and his name put all over the paper, public transgression. 00:03:45.379 --> 00:03:50.379 The whole community knew who this man was and here he's arrested. 00:03:50.379 --> 00:03:56.340 And my dad called up the other deacons and said,"What are we gonna do? 00:03:56.340 --> 00:03:57.780 We need to address this. 00:03:57.780 --> 00:04:12.159 We need to proceed with some form of discipline and go and talk to him, see if he's repentant." And they held a emergency business meeting that evening, Sunday evening. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:20.319 And lo and behold, they took a vote and voted my father out of the ministry, out of the office of pastors. 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:24.399 So they disciplined my dad for wanting to do church discipline. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:26.680 That was his first experience of the church. 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:33.160 And thinking through that, it's hard. 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:37.500 It is hard to discipline and it shouldn't be done lightly. 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:44.600 Now we learn in the gospel of Matthew that there are four steps to the process when someone's in sin. 00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:48.079 There's a private confrontation. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.639 You wanna keep private sins private. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.939 No need for that to be made known. 00:04:52.939 --> 00:04:55.259 So it's a one-on-one confrontation. 00:04:55.259 --> 00:05:00.819 And the Bible says if they don't listen, take it to with you. 00:05:00.819 --> 00:05:12.660 So you have a semi-private confrontation and that having two witnesses is not just to up to any, but it's to make sure that the evidence is established. 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:15.240 Kind of like you're establishing, is this really sin? 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:17.120 Is this really going on? 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.360 So you have two or three witnesses verifying what's going on. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:28.120 And if that person doesn't hear two or three, the Bible says bring it to the church collectively. 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:38.939 And the church therefore has a time for the church to hear the evidence, but also to verify that evidence themselves. 00:05:38.939 --> 00:05:47.199 So that they can go and pursue the person and call the person and check out, see if that person is indeed in sin. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:56.079 And if the person doesn't hear the church, the last step is called excommunication. 00:05:56.079 --> 00:06:04.120 And what we see in 1 Corinthians chapter five is an explanation of the fifth step or the fourth step of excommunication. 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:06.040 What is excommunication? 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:10.800 Now, most of the time we think of church discipline, we simply jump to this last step. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:17.480 In some cases, I think that last step needs to be gotten to pretty quickly. 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:21.139 And in fact, I think this is what's going on in chorus. 00:06:21.139 --> 00:06:25.899 The sin is so grievous and so out in the open. 00:06:25.899 --> 00:06:31.779 In fact, the whole church already knows about it that it needed to be dealt with right away. 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:35.759 And so Paul is addressing them. 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:39.079 And in this text, we see six things. 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:45.120 We see the necessity why we must carry out church discipline. 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:51.240 We'll see the place of church discipline or more importantly, the place of excommunication. 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:56.240 Third, the authority and power of excommunication. 00:06:56.240 --> 00:07:00.920 We'll look at fourth, the nature of excommunication. 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:02.639 Fifth, the purpose. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:06.959 And finally, to what extent do we carry out excommunication? 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:08.579 How far do we actually go? 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:11.319 So let's look at the necessity. 00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:18.959 First of all, we see in verses one through three that this was a necessity and wasn't optional. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:28.660 It says in verse one, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that has not even tolerated even among pagans. 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:33.439 For a man has his father's wife and you're arrogant. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:35.720 Ought you not rather to mourn. 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:38.939 Let him who has done this to be removed from among you. 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:44.000 For though I'm absent in body, I'm present in spirit. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:49.000 And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:56.959 You see, the problem that the church of Corinth has is not that they have a unrepentant church member. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:05.519 Having sinners in the church are Christians who profess Christ, who's living in sin in a church. 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:06.600 That's not a problem. 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:08.839 That's gonna happen. 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:12.800 The problem is when the church doesn't deal with it. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:26.220 This is the crux of the problem is the Corinthians were not expelling, purging, dismissing, excommunicating the member from among themselves. 00:08:26.220 --> 00:08:44.919 You know, I once counseled a young man, maybe he's in his 20s or 30s, that was a leader in a church here in Conway, not our church, was a leader living with his girlfriend. 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:50.960 And I asked as the other leaders know that you're living with your girlfriend. 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:52.159 Oh yeah, they don't care. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:56.039 They don't care. 00:08:56.039 --> 00:08:59.000 And I said, well, God does care. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:01.700 God cares. 00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:08.879 But what a shame for the church to know about this and do nothing about it. 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:16.960 Paul is clearly upset with the church of Corinthians, the church of Corinth. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:20.519 It was a clear case of sin. 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:26.600 It was a sin even the pagans blush at, having your father's wife, your stepmother. 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:29.519 This is clearly immoral. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:33.679 This is beyond just normal sexual immorality. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:42.440 The problem with the Corinthians, they boasted or they were quite proud of their tolerance of this. 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:48.240 Rather than mourning as they should have, Paul says, you're arrogant about it, you're puffed up. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:10:10.960 And I think the reason they were puffed up about this and being tolerant about this sin taking place among their membership was the fact that as they were influenced by philosophy coming out of the Southern city of Athens, they were infected with this proto-nosticism of their day. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:22.639 Nosticism basically says the physical body and all that is physical is of no difference or had little value to the spiritual realm or was even bad. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:29.480 And so the proto-nostics of the first century split up into two different divisions. 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:41.080 Those who said the physical body was so sinful, they had to punish it, aestheticism, whip their bodies and bring their body into physical subjection. 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:52.360 So they hated their body and they denied their bodies of earthly pleasures and made sure that they purposefully did without. 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:57.519 This is a form of godliness, but denies the power thereof. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:15.919 The other form of Gnosticism is saying, well, if the body doesn't really affect the spiritual realm, if to be spiritual as long as your heart's right with God, as long as you have a good conscience, as long as you're having communion with the Lord and all is well spiritually, it doesn't matter what takes place in the body. 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:22.840 And there was a saying, the food goes into the body and both food and the body would be destroyed in the day of judgment. 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:25.799 Both is going to be eliminated. 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:29.960 And so if you're hungry, then eat, it doesn't matter. 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.240 Indulge yourself, it doesn't matter. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:39.840 And if you have physical and fleshly appetites, satisfy their appetites, it has nothing to do with your spiritual life. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:46.960 And so they begin to take this concept of eating and indulging themselves and applying to sexual immorality. 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:49.379 Well, if I have a itch, I can scratch it. 00:11:49.379 --> 00:11:51.320 If I'm hungry, I can feed myself. 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:55.159 Therefore, if I have a physical desires, then I might as well satisfy it. 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:59.399 If it's just a physical desire, it won't hurt my spiritual soul. 00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:06.879 So they were end up participating in much sexual immorality. 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:10.480 We see this later on in chapter six. 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:20.740 In fact, Paul quotes their little saying, food is meant for the stomach and stomach for the food and God will destroy both one and the other. 00:12:20.740 --> 00:12:25.080 But then he gives seven reasons for them to restrain from sexual immorality. 00:12:25.080 --> 00:12:30.159 One, the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:34.779 Two, God raised the Lord and will also raise us up. 00:12:34.779 --> 00:12:37.919 That is the body will be resurrected, it won't just be destroyed. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:42.159 Three, do not know that your bodies are members of Christ. 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:45.879 Shall then I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:47.360 Never. 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:49.080 Four, threesome. 00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:53.639 Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:57.000 Fifth, flee from sexual immorality. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:03.120 Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but sexual immoral person sins against his own body. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.480 Six, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:13.440 Seven, you're not your own, for you've been bought with a price, glorify God in your body. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:15.820 So he's like, yes, your body does matter. 00:13:15.820 --> 00:13:19.759 And this is a sin and it is a great sin against God. 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:22.960 It does spec your spiritual life. 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:31.519 As you see, they were having problems with the physical body, Chapter 15, some of them were even denying the resurrection of the dead. 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:35.600 So they were influenced by Gnosticism. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:41.840 And this led to them to be arrogant about this grievous sin that they should have been mourning about. 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:49.080 But we see that today, we see churches rather than mourning and crying about sin within their church and being grieved. 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:54.200 Because of the destructive nature of sin, we see churches celebrate sin. 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:55.840 They're tolerant. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:14:03.220 Rather than being mourning about homosexuality, they're ordaining homosexuals into the ministry. 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:06.179 This is quite sad. 00:14:06.179 --> 00:14:11.299 And it grieves God and it should grieve us. 00:14:11.299 --> 00:14:16.500 You see, we are called to mourn. 00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:25.799 Verse two says, "And you are arrogant,"ought you'd not rather to mourn." See, this is a clear case. 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:31.299 And this person needs to be, as it says in verse two, removed. 00:14:31.299 --> 00:14:48.519 You see, the first thing we see about excommunication, when there's a clear case of open rebellion and unrepentant sin, actively going on in our membership. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:52.100 This is not a matter of debate. 00:14:52.100 --> 00:15:00.399 It's not a matter of, hey, let's take a vote and see if there's enough people who say that this shouldn't happen. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.259 Paul is not giving them an option. 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:04.460 Consider doing this. 00:15:04.460 --> 00:15:07.000 This is a command for the church to carry out. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:13.559 This is a responsibility of the church to expel. 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:15.440 God's already given his judgment. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:16.279 We'll see this. 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:18.960 He's, Paul, I've already given my judgment on the matter. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.580 This is a clear case, it's sin. 00:15:21.580 --> 00:15:23.960 You should have already passed tits. 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:28.000 You should have expelled and removed this person from us. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:34.720 So we need to realize this as a church body, though it may be hard and difficult, messy and no fun. 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:39.799 It's not optional for us. 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:49.860 If indeed we wanna be obedient to God, and I would say even if we want to love the person, we truly love the person. 00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:55.440 Love God and love the person that's in sin. 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.679 We would obey God in this manner. 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:01.759 Now, where's the time and place for this? 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:04.600 Number two, the setting of excommunication. 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:05.840 We see that in verse four. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:18.879 It says, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord,"Jesus and my spirit is present." That is the early steps of church discipline that happens in private in various places. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.559 Go to them, then take two and go with them. 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:25.120 If they don't hear, then bring it to the church. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:32.080 And this last step of expelling or excommunicating a person takes place at the whole assembly. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:40.279 This is why I think it needs to happen on Sunday morning, not Sunday evening or Wednesday night or business meeting when half the church is not assembled. 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:54.759 In the presence of them all, when you're all assembled together in the name of the Lord Jesus, one, we see that the evidence needs to be established. 00:16:54.759 --> 00:17:13.000 And especially when it comes to a public matter, and we see that there's three reasons I believe that it should take place in the assembling of the saints. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.960 One, to make sure the evidence is established too. 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:32.920 Collectively, the church agreeing and seeing and calling on the person to repent is way more powerful than just one or two people coming. 00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:41.279 And third, to be a deterrent for the rest of us. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:49.079 Paul told Timothy, "Those who are sinning, rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may be feared." They may fear. 00:17:49.079 --> 00:17:54.140 Now there's a time when it's a private stuff, go privately, don't publicly embarrass people. 00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:57.880 Private sins need to be dealt with privately. 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:00.980 And by the way, private sins need to be confessed privately. 00:18:00.980 --> 00:18:07.680 But public sins, and it gets to the point, it's unrepentant. 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:11.380 It's time to bring it up. 00:18:11.380 --> 00:18:23.740 We see this sin, it's evident, and we're calling it out so that everyone else may fear, that everyone else may realize it could come to them. 00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:33.380 The first time we ever did church discipline here several years ago, it was a very hard, hard case, young man that I deeply, deeply loved. 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:41.119 Spent hours with him, doing my best to call him back. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:55.599 And after we carried it out, I had two men in our church come to me privately and says,"I had almost slipped. 00:18:55.599 --> 00:19:11.119 I was heading down a bad path." And they had private things that no one knew about, but they were slipping down and they saw the end. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:18.900 And this was enough to call them back to repentance. 00:19:18.900 --> 00:19:24.619 Now that's the setting, the time and the place of excommunication. 00:19:24.619 --> 00:19:29.039 Now what authority does the church have to do this? 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:33.599 You know, I know in our day and age, people think the church is just a country club. 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:35.119 It's just a social event. 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:43.039 It's just a loose gathering of Christians that come together and people don't take church membership serious anymore. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:48.660 And part of the reason people don't take church membership serious is because so many churches don't have church membership. 00:19:48.660 --> 00:19:51.140 You know, it's just attendance base. 00:19:51.140 --> 00:19:53.400 You just come and no one knows you're there. 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:55.319 No one knows if you're not there. 00:19:55.319 --> 00:19:56.880 It's like your favorite movie theater. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:00.319 You can call and show up, be entertained, be fed and leave. 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:02.500 And there's just no accountability. 00:20:02.500 --> 00:20:04.680 There's no one knows your life. 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:05.559 No one knows you. 00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:07.920 There's just, it's just your, there's no submission. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:11.359 There's no, there's nothing of that nature. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:12.579 And that's what people want. 00:20:12.579 --> 00:20:14.259 I think they don't want accountability. 00:20:14.259 --> 00:20:19.420 They don't want their lives to be evaluated, feel responsible. 00:20:19.420 --> 00:20:27.200 And so I think church, you can't excommunicate that. 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:30.900 And if you do that, we'll just go to another church. 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:36.619 What, what, what doesn't matter what you say, but according to this text, there's great authority. 00:20:36.619 --> 00:20:41.680 The authority is not in the church, inherently in the church. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:46.160 It's a derivative derivative authority. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:52.900 The authority comes from God and it, and it comes from heaven and extends back to heaven. 00:20:52.900 --> 00:21:00.059 It's amazing if I perform a wedding, you say, well, that's just the state that performs the wedding. 00:21:00.059 --> 00:21:01.200 No, no. 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:07.880 God says, what I joined together, what I joined together, let no one put us under. 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:12.680 You see, it's not just a man's ceremony. 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:18.839 It's God's recognizing this ceremony and he's writing it in his legal books. 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:34.319 And so when there is a church discipline case, when the church obeys God, and really doesn't have an option, but not, but to obey God, when it carries out, it's, it's a command. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:37.900 And wherever you see a command, you see authority. 00:21:37.900 --> 00:21:41.920 Anywhere God tells me to do something, I don't have to ask anyone's permission to do it. 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:51.859 So when I got, when I have commands from God, directly from God, no other secondary source of authority can tell me not to do it. 00:21:51.859 --> 00:21:56.980 Every command gives freedom of obedience. 00:21:56.980 --> 00:22:02.480 The church has been given the authority from Jesus Christ himself. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:17.619 And this is why it says in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then it goes on to say in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you do this, you're doing it in the very power and very name of Jesus Christ himself. 00:22:17.619 --> 00:22:23.700 And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 18,"What you bind on earth." So it doesn't matter. 00:22:23.700 --> 00:22:28.700 What you bound on earth will be bound in heaven. 00:22:28.700 --> 00:22:33.339 And what you loose on earth will be loose in heaven. 00:22:33.339 --> 00:22:40.500 Don't think falling under church discipline is of no importance or a little efficacy. 00:22:40.500 --> 00:22:48.099 It's a scary, scary thing for the church of the living God to discipline you or I. 00:22:48.099 --> 00:23:02.900 (silence) This means that God acknowledges and upholds his discipline even in heaven, for it is his discipline. 00:23:02.900 --> 00:23:06.019 Now think of it this way. 00:23:06.019 --> 00:23:14.519 If you were watching my children, and I was gone on a trip, I said, please correct them. 00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:17.859 Please discipline them. 00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:28.660 I know I expect them to be needing some of it, and you have my permission, my authority to correct them when I'm gone. 00:23:28.660 --> 00:23:37.900 Well, when I come back, I'd hope they have been corrected. 00:23:37.900 --> 00:23:39.980 I've asked you to do that. 00:23:39.980 --> 00:23:44.339 And as the kid may say, "Well, you're not my parent. 00:23:44.339 --> 00:23:48.539 "You don't have the right to discipline me." Say, "Yes, I do. 00:23:48.539 --> 00:23:55.900 "I've been given permission from your father." We do have the right to carry out church discipline. 00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:58.099 We have the responsibility to do it. 00:23:58.099 --> 00:23:58.940 We must do it. 00:23:58.940 --> 00:24:04.460 And when we do do it, it is God working through us to carry it out. 00:24:04.460 --> 00:24:07.680 Now, forcefully, what is excommunication? 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:09.660 What's the nature of this? 00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:11.539 We see this in verse five. 00:24:11.539 --> 00:24:18.460 And this sentence here in verse five seems so severe and it is severe. 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:19.680 It's very scary. 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:22.960 It's not a little swat on the hand. 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:28.819 It's something way more scary or dangerous. 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:37.660 In fact, I'd rather been beat with rods than have this done to me. 00:24:37.660 --> 00:24:40.299 Look at what where's Proff says. 00:24:40.299 --> 00:24:47.599 "Deliver such a one to Satan"for the destruction of the flesh." Now, what does this mean? 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:52.000 Even this phrase causes my ears to tingle. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:59.140 And there's been two major interpretation of this text throughout church history. 00:24:59.140 --> 00:25:04.079 I'm sure there's a lot more interpretation, but there's two main interpretations. 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:18.779 Some of the early church fathers, especially in the East, Christophstom, people in our day like Charles Hodge and Adam Clark and Albert Barnes, they believe the flesh here is talking about the physical body. 00:25:18.779 --> 00:25:38.859 And so if you interpret the flesh here as your physical body, deliver the person's physical body to Satan for his destruction, they're interpreting this to be something that was relevant or practical in the time of the apostolic period, kind of like Erinyes and Sapphira, they were killed. 00:25:38.859 --> 00:25:42.579 They were killed on the spot by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:25:42.579 --> 00:25:43.900 That's church discipline. 00:25:43.900 --> 00:25:48.380 They lied to the spirit and the presence of the assembly, God killed them. 00:25:48.380 --> 00:25:52.579 So they're saying that the structure of the flesh is actual physical death. 00:25:52.579 --> 00:25:58.019 And it would only be applicable during the apostolic days. 00:25:58.019 --> 00:26:03.460 And this is why they would say, Paul said, "My spirit has already pronounced judgment. 00:26:03.460 --> 00:26:05.460 "This is apostolic authority. 00:26:05.460 --> 00:26:09.299 "My presence, though I'm not physically present there,"my spirit is present. 00:26:09.299 --> 00:26:10.700 "You have my authority. 00:26:10.700 --> 00:26:13.140 "Deliver him to destruction. 00:26:13.140 --> 00:26:18.140 "Basically kick him out and he's gonna die." That's not my position. 00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:38.779 The other main position comes from Augustine and Calvin and people like Gordon Fee who interpret the word flesh here to mean the sinful desires, fleshly desires, the sinful passions, not your physical body. 00:26:38.779 --> 00:26:57.420 That is, turn the person over and all these simple desires that they're craving, all the sinful activity they're carrying out, turn that over to Satan so that Satan could get ahold of him, that his might be saved in the day of judgment. 00:26:57.420 --> 00:27:09.240 I think that's what he's talking about because in verse two, verse five, verse seven, verse nine, verse 11, verse 13,"All speak of excommunication as taken away from you"or deliver such a one to Satan. 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:11.559 "Purge one out of the old leaven. 00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:12.779 "Do not keep company with. 00:27:12.779 --> 00:27:14.240 "Don't even eat with such a person. 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:20.339 "Put away from yourself the evil person." So the idea is expelling from your community. 00:27:20.339 --> 00:27:35.460 The reason I don't think it's talking about the physical body because we'll see at the end of the sermon that it appears that this particular brother did come back to repentance and was brought back. 00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:36.400 He wasn't dead. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:39.220 He was brought back in repentance. 00:27:39.220 --> 00:27:45.779 Doing the very purpose, the purpose of church discipline is not to kill people. 00:27:45.779 --> 00:27:54.200 The purpose of church discipline is restoration and bring back holiness to the community. 00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:57.339 Now, what is the purpose? 00:27:57.339 --> 00:28:01.460 That leads me into my fifth point, the purpose of excommunication. 00:28:01.460 --> 00:28:04.940 We see this in the end of verse five, all the way into verse eight. 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:07.980 There are multiple purposes. 00:28:07.980 --> 00:28:16.779 The first purpose is to save the person so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 00:28:16.779 --> 00:28:21.400 Discipline, unlike punishment, is corrective. 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:27.980 The goal is not to be mean-spirited. 00:28:27.980 --> 00:28:30.799 The goal is not to be harsh or vindictive. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.539 It's not to be unloving. 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:41.480 It's not to be,"Well, we don't like you, get out of the church." It's not that, it's a time of mourning, not rejoicing. 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:49.460 And it's the purpose is for their deliverance, for their corrective behavior. 00:28:49.460 --> 00:28:53.960 We see in verse six, it's to protect the church. 00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:56.400 Your boasting is not good. 00:28:56.400 --> 00:28:59.559 Do you not know that 11 leavens the whole lump? 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:04.660 Charles Hodge says the nature of evil is to diffuse itself. 00:29:04.660 --> 00:29:07.240 You can see a rotten apple. 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:17.259 If you leave a rotten apple alone with a lot of good apples, it's not gonna be long before that rot becomes contagious to the other apples. 00:29:17.259 --> 00:29:20.539 What do you do if you see one bad apple in the bunch? 00:29:20.539 --> 00:29:24.500 You remove it for the good of the other apples. 00:29:24.500 --> 00:29:31.220 Now, what would happen if the church or court didn't deal with this man who's living an open sin in it? 00:29:31.220 --> 00:29:32.700 And they're boasting about it. 00:29:32.700 --> 00:29:36.259 You think that's gonna lead to holiness in the other membership? 00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:43.220 Do you think that's gonna lead to more sexual purity and chaste and discipline lives? 00:29:43.220 --> 00:29:51.400 No, such an example will spread and affect the whole lump, the whole assembly. 00:29:51.400 --> 00:30:05.839 We have to, if we love not only the brother who's in sin, we have to discipline them, but if we love our church, we have to expel and say, this is not tolerated, accepted in this assembly. 00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:11.460 It really is to be a deterrent for others, for ourselves. 00:30:11.460 --> 00:30:16.180 And that brings us to the third purpose we see in verses seven through eight. 00:30:16.180 --> 00:30:18.819 That's to keep the church pure. 00:30:18.819 --> 00:30:24.700 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. 00:30:24.700 --> 00:30:28.160 For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 00:30:30.740 --> 00:30:34.740 That is seeing you're already truly unleavened. 00:30:34.740 --> 00:30:37.839 You are, through Christ's sacrifice, sanctified. 00:30:37.839 --> 00:30:46.940 That is, you don't become sanctified or you don't become unleavened lump because you pushed out leaven. 00:30:46.940 --> 00:30:55.859 You're unleavened, you're pure, you're sanctified, you're holy, we're a holy church because of the sacrifice of Christ, He's made us holy. 00:30:55.859 --> 00:31:04.500 This is the thing about salvation that we have to believe is that salvation sanctifies us, it purifies us. 00:31:04.500 --> 00:31:09.059 It doesn't lead us to live in sin, but it saves us from sin. 00:31:09.059 --> 00:31:11.180 It saves us from the power of sin. 00:31:11.180 --> 00:31:16.140 And so the assembly of the saints is the assembly of saints. 00:31:16.140 --> 00:31:21.259 Those who have been transformed and renewed and made into new creatures. 00:31:21.259 --> 00:31:25.859 That's a reality based upon the effectual work of Christ's death. 00:31:26.940 --> 00:31:29.859 And that's because we are a holy group. 00:31:29.859 --> 00:31:34.819 Then remove that which is unholy among us. 00:31:34.819 --> 00:31:37.519 Cast out. 00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:39.299 This is why I believe in church membership. 00:31:39.299 --> 00:31:41.299 I believe in believers only. 00:31:41.299 --> 00:31:47.819 I believe in those who have evidence of fruit only belong to the body of Christ. 00:31:47.819 --> 00:31:53.059 And those who show that otherwise need to be removed from membership. 00:31:54.880 --> 00:32:16.460 Verse eight says, "Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." You see, Paul uses Old Testament imagery of both the feasts of the unleavened bread and the Passover mill as an illustration of why we must be a holy group. 00:32:16.460 --> 00:32:23.500 Now the feasts of unleavened bread would begin seven days in advance with each home would do away with all leaven within the house. 00:32:23.500 --> 00:32:25.940 They would purge their house of leaven. 00:32:25.940 --> 00:32:34.299 And on the seventh day was the official day of the feast of unleavened bread, which would be the Passover mill. 00:32:34.299 --> 00:32:39.880 This is the day that our Passover was sacrificed for us. 00:32:39.880 --> 00:32:57.059 And as Jewish families of old would do away with leaven in their homes, when we come together for the Lord's table, we're to make sure that we have done away with all malice, wickedness, and eat the unleavened bread with sincerity and truth. 00:32:57.059 --> 00:33:02.059 That is, this is to expel and keep the Lord's table pure. 00:33:02.059 --> 00:33:09.220 This is why GBC, we say you're willing to partake with us if you're a visitor. 00:33:09.220 --> 00:33:14.700 Feel free to partake and we'll have the Lord's supper in a minute. 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:19.599 You're free to take, but you have to be in good standings with your local church. 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:33.480 This is for those who are pure of heart, those who have been baptized and are in real actual communion with God and with God's people. 00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:37.880 This is the very thing that got John Calvin kicked out of Geneva. 00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:47.279 He wanted to guard the table from those who are living in wicked sins and the city told them to leave. 00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:54.400 So church discipline is for restoration, for protection, and for purity. 00:33:54.400 --> 00:34:06.359 Now, six, as we come to this last point, to what extent is excommunication to be carried out? 00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:12.280 Is it just prohibiting people from eating the Lord's table? 00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:15.119 I think that's principally what it is. 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:19.480 But is that limited to that? 00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:21.360 You can come to church. 00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:22.400 You're no longer a member. 00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:27.099 You're no longer, you can take the table, but you can sit in the back or you can sit, just be quiet. 00:34:27.099 --> 00:34:28.760 Can you come to church? 00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:31.460 What does it mean to be excommunicated? 00:34:31.460 --> 00:34:36.039 Well, we see here that it means a lot of things. 00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:42.159 Not only does it mean the removal of communion, that's when we get the word excommunion. 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:49.480 Excommunion, communic members are those who are in fellowship or in communion with God and his people. 00:34:49.480 --> 00:34:53.039 We're saying, no, you're not in communion with God. 00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:55.159 And let me say this very clearly. 00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:59.179 If you're living in unrepentant sin, now we all sin, we all fail. 00:34:59.179 --> 00:35:00.519 We don't go a day without sin. 00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:02.139 That's why we live by the grace of God. 00:35:02.139 --> 00:35:04.019 We live under the blood of Christ. 00:35:04.019 --> 00:35:05.440 Thank the Lord. 00:35:05.440 --> 00:35:11.239 As we examine ourselves, we'll find many, the devil too will condemn us of many things. 00:35:11.239 --> 00:35:14.000 He's the accuser of the brethren and we flee back to the gospel. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:15.880 We live under the gospel. 00:35:15.880 --> 00:35:30.039 But if we're living in outright immorality and unrepentant sin, and I'm talking about, we're addicted to sin. 00:35:30.039 --> 00:35:36.280 John tells us those who are born of God, God cannot live in sin. 00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:41.880 We can't have a habitual pattern of living in the same sin over and over and over again. 00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:45.440 If that is going on in your life, then you're not. 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:58.079 Now, no matter how your conscience feels or what excuses you give yourself,'cause C.S. Lewis says sinners are so good at making exemption clauses for their sins. 00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:02.400 Doesn't matter about how good you feel about yourself. 00:36:02.400 --> 00:36:07.400 If you're living in sin, you're not in communion. 00:36:07.400 --> 00:36:08.440 You may be saved. 00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:15.719 You may have all your sins past, present and future, or you do if you're saved, forgiven. 00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:20.719 But you're not in that experiential communion with Christ. 00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:29.760 And the church is a C.S. sin. 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:32.440 We have to remove them. 00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:36.079 And it's not just from the supper. 00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:41.079 But it's from the church itself. 00:36:41.079 --> 00:36:48.960 Now, we'll skip to verse 12 and look at verse 12 and 13 and come back to nine through 11 and a second. 00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:54.280 For what I have to do with judging outsiders is not those who inside the church whom we are to judge. 00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:58.880 God judges those outside, purge the evil person from among you. 00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:04.679 That is, he's saying here, we're not here casting judgment upon our neighbors who are not Christians. 00:37:04.679 --> 00:37:09.719 We're not here excommunicating those who are not even a part of us. 00:37:09.719 --> 00:37:19.920 This is for us to do within the church or to judge them and to purge them from among us, to remove them. 00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:25.840 And I take that to mean to say, no, you're not even welcome in the doors. 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:28.800 That's not saying this for unbelievers. 00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:31.320 Let unbelievers come, hear the gospel. 00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:48.119 This is a particular command for those who named the name of Jesus Christ, who are in active rebellion against Christ, were to remove them as Paul, I mean, as Jesus says in Matthew 18, were to treat them as tax collectors and unbelievers. 00:37:48.119 --> 00:37:52.559 Now, here's the most difficult. 00:37:52.559 --> 00:37:55.079 This is where it comes very practical for you and I. 00:37:55.079 --> 00:37:58.199 This is where you are a participant of this. 00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:00.320 You say, well, the church can do what they wanna do. 00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:01.400 I'm not gonna uphold this. 00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:10.880 I know if you're a member of a church and a church carries out church discipline, then you are required by God to carry out that discipline with the church. 00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:12.159 So what's your role? 00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:13.420 What's my role? 00:38:13.420 --> 00:38:18.420 Your or my role is to not have fellowship with the person. 00:38:18.420 --> 00:38:25.920 Now, I know there's exemption if you're married to the person or if it's a family member, or you work with the person. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:32.539 Of course, there's exemptions to that where you have to carry out conversations for the sake of functioning in life. 00:38:32.539 --> 00:38:40.360 But other than that, there's not any purposeful, warm fellowship. 00:38:40.360 --> 00:38:44.440 And I think we need to say this in our day, even on social media. 00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:50.639 Now, this is what it seems to be saying. 00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:52.599 Look at verses nine through 11. 00:38:52.599 --> 00:39:08.559 "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate"with sexual immoral people,"not at all meaning the sexual immoral of this world"or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters,"since then you would need to go out of the world. 00:39:08.559 --> 00:39:13.519 "But now I'm writing to you not to associate"with anyone who bears the name of brother. 00:39:13.519 --> 00:39:35.420 "If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed,"or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler,"not even to eat with such a one." What this is saying is that warm fellowship and communion that you used to participate in and enjoy is being removed. 00:39:35.420 --> 00:39:47.639 To disassociate, to dis-commen, literally this is where people get the word shun, to shun them. 00:39:47.639 --> 00:39:50.960 And now this is a hard word. 00:39:50.960 --> 00:39:53.300 We kind of want to avoid this word. 00:39:53.300 --> 00:39:56.039 You don't really mean shun. 00:39:56.039 --> 00:40:04.260 You know what shunning is, if you saw someone with leprosy and he's going, "I got leprosy," you're like, you walk around him. 00:40:04.260 --> 00:40:08.840 And it's embarrassing for the person who has leprosy. 00:40:08.840 --> 00:40:18.360 You see someone who's been excommunicated in the store and they want to go, "Hey, brother," you want to shun them. 00:40:18.360 --> 00:40:24.639 It's like, "Wait, you call me to do that?" Well, listen to the scriptures. 00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:26.380 2 Thessalonians 3, 11. 00:40:27.519 --> 00:40:40.860 "We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw, withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which you have received from us. 00:40:40.860 --> 00:41:04.599 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." How embarrassing would it be if you're excommunicated and your old friends from the church walk around you and shame you? 00:41:04.599 --> 00:41:07.400 It's meant to shame him or her. 00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:10.519 Romans 16, 17. 00:41:10.519 --> 00:41:25.320 "Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them." Avoid them, walk around them, stay clear from them. 00:41:26.159 --> 00:41:27.840 1 Timothy 6, verse 3. 00:41:27.840 --> 00:42:01.519 "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but of his seth with desputudes and arguments over words from which come envy, strife, riling, evil suspicions, useless wringlings of men, of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain from such withdrawal yourself." Stay clear of. 00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:08.000 We learned in 2 John 10 that we're not to even greet someone. 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:09.440 Don't invite them in your home. 00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:13.880 Now again, this is not talking about just the normal wicked people in the world. 00:42:13.880 --> 00:42:16.559 You'd have to go out of the world to avoid such people. 00:42:16.559 --> 00:42:25.679 You can shop at their stores, you can converse with them, you can do business with them, you can invite them over to your home, you can befriend the sinners. 00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:27.880 The Lord Jesus Christ did that. 00:42:27.880 --> 00:42:32.000 He ate with sinners and tax collectors and befriended them and loved them. 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:35.460 This is talking about those who named the named brother. 00:42:35.460 --> 00:42:43.360 So why would God put such severe discipline on someone that may actually be one of his children? 00:42:43.360 --> 00:42:46.800 It's because he loves them. 00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:51.320 You know what every child of God must have? 00:42:53.119 --> 00:42:55.559 It's innate within all believers. 00:42:55.559 --> 00:43:01.199 Because we are in Christ, united to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are spiritually one. 00:43:01.199 --> 00:43:05.920 You know, a husband and wife, no longer are two flesh, but they've become one. 00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:12.659 And once you become one, if you're truly one, it's hard to separate, let no one put us under. 00:43:12.659 --> 00:43:19.019 When you're born again, you're united to Jesus Christ and you're united to his people. 00:43:19.019 --> 00:43:22.079 You're united to a church. 00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:28.159 We cannot help but gather together, to symbol together, to love one another, to care for one another. 00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:32.400 God's put us in us that we need the fellowship of the saints. 00:43:32.400 --> 00:43:33.639 We have to have it. 00:43:33.639 --> 00:43:36.539 We don't need a command to go to church. 00:43:36.539 --> 00:43:37.780 We want to be a church. 00:43:37.780 --> 00:43:39.280 We don't have to be a command to love each other. 00:43:39.280 --> 00:43:40.800 We do love each other. 00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:43.260 In fact, it's part of our very life. 00:43:43.260 --> 00:43:45.480 Tear our family apart. 00:43:45.480 --> 00:43:46.480 It's disruptive. 00:43:46.480 --> 00:43:47.320 Tear our church apart. 00:43:47.320 --> 00:43:48.159 It's disruptive. 00:43:48.159 --> 00:43:51.119 It's like pulling limbs off the body. 00:43:51.119 --> 00:43:54.320 You have to have the fellowship of the saints. 00:43:54.320 --> 00:44:03.099 Now, John put it this way, if they can leave us and not come back, they were never a part of us. 00:44:03.099 --> 00:44:10.360 If you can live outside of the communion of the brethren, outside of the fellowship of the saints, then you're not a believer. 00:44:10.360 --> 00:44:19.900 If you can live outside of church and be just content, alone and independent, then you need to question if you truly love God and his brethren. 00:44:19.900 --> 00:44:22.639 You need to question, examine your heart. 00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:28.900 But when you take away the warm fellowship of the saints, it is crushing. 00:44:28.900 --> 00:44:30.679 It is crushing. 00:44:30.679 --> 00:44:32.420 It's discipline. 00:44:32.420 --> 00:44:37.719 Now, this is what we need to remember and the members that we have discipline. 00:44:37.719 --> 00:44:45.280 And you may feel sorry for them and may want to be friendly to them and soften the blow. 00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:52.360 It's kind of like the dad who will take a child and put some in the corner and says,"You're punished, time out. 00:44:52.360 --> 00:44:56.179 "No TV, no gaming, no treats. 00:44:56.179 --> 00:44:57.139 "You're there. 00:44:57.139 --> 00:45:00.000 "Think about what you've done. 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:01.480 "And here comes the mom. 00:45:01.480 --> 00:45:02.579 "Here's some candy. 00:45:02.579 --> 00:45:05.400 "Here's a Game Boy. 00:45:05.400 --> 00:45:17.260 "Here's a little bit of fellowship." It's undermining the severity and the redemptive process of discipline. 00:45:18.219 --> 00:45:20.320 It's meant to sting. 00:45:20.320 --> 00:45:21.840 It's meant to hurt. 00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:23.960 It's not fun. 00:45:23.960 --> 00:45:25.920 I'm not saying we rejoice in this. 00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:29.480 Any parent hates disciplining his children. 00:45:29.480 --> 00:45:30.719 He doesn't delight in it. 00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:32.199 He doesn't want to do it. 00:45:32.199 --> 00:45:35.559 It's not pleasant to do it. 00:45:35.559 --> 00:45:39.760 God doesn't tell us to be excited about this thing. 00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:40.920 It is difficult. 00:45:40.920 --> 00:45:42.219 It does hurt. 00:45:42.219 --> 00:45:45.559 But we want it to hurt. 00:45:45.559 --> 00:45:49.400 The Bible says in the purple of the bruise, there is healing. 00:45:49.400 --> 00:45:56.099 And may the Lord bring healing to the people we've disciplined. 00:45:56.099 --> 00:46:01.659 Would that not be what we want? 00:46:01.659 --> 00:46:05.639 Not their demise. 00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:09.579 We want them to be restored. 00:46:09.579 --> 00:46:15.280 You see, I believe this is the true power of church discipline. 00:46:16.280 --> 00:46:17.480 It does work. 00:46:17.480 --> 00:46:18.780 Now we know it. 00:46:18.780 --> 00:46:25.440 I believe Paul is speaking of the same person when he writes his second epistle. 00:46:25.440 --> 00:46:28.780 Actually, it's his third epistle to the Church of Corinth. 00:46:28.780 --> 00:46:34.780 And this is what he says to them in chapter two of 2 Corinthians. 00:46:34.780 --> 00:46:40.119 "For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. 00:46:40.119 --> 00:46:48.920 "So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him"or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 00:46:48.920 --> 00:46:51.920 "So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:59.679 "For this is why I wrote that I might test you"and know whether you are obedient in everything. 00:46:59.679 --> 00:47:03.920 "Anyone whom you forgive, I also forget. 00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:08.420 "What you lose on earth, God says will be loosed in heaven. 00:47:08.420 --> 00:47:12.920 "Don't think church discipline is of no efficacy or power. 00:47:12.920 --> 00:47:15.920 "Don't devalue it. 00:47:15.920 --> 00:47:17.920 "It works. 00:47:17.920 --> 00:47:21.920 "It's hard, it's difficult, it's messy, it's no fun. 00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:30.320 "But thank God, thank God he's established this"for the church. 00:47:30.320 --> 00:47:32.019 "And I've come to this conclusion. 00:47:32.019 --> 00:47:40.019 "I know it will work because if people stay away"from the church, it proves that they were never among us. 00:47:40.019 --> 00:47:42.219 "So it does truly purge the church. 00:47:43.019 --> 00:47:46.460 "But for those who are truly born again,"I do believe it brings them back. 00:47:46.460 --> 00:47:48.219 "I will bring them back in time. 00:47:48.219 --> 00:47:54.360 "So I've come to this conclusion"in my thinking about this for over years,"it's over the many years. 00:47:54.360 --> 00:48:17.139 "This must mean, this must mean that there are true believers"that truly know the Lord,"that actually will fall into sin to such a degree"and that they won't hear the normal halls of repentance,"that they actually need this final step of discipline. 00:48:17.139 --> 00:48:22.559 "And God is not giving up on those people. 00:48:22.559 --> 00:48:33.460 "He knows that even his people whom he loves,"he will discipline and bring back to himself." Let's pray. 00:48:33.460 --> 00:48:38.460 Now, we have those who we have disciplined. 00:48:38.460 --> 00:48:45.539 Let's pray for them as well. 00:48:45.539 --> 00:49:09.800 The Lord, we see the value of your church in this message and this text, we see that you love holiness and you're grieved by immorality, you're grieved by sin. 00:49:09.800 --> 00:49:17.940 Lord, you don't, you love us too much to look away and allow us to continue in it. 00:49:17.940 --> 00:49:21.380 It's self-destructive and hurtful, damaging. 00:49:21.380 --> 00:49:30.820 Oh Lord, please I pray for all of us here that you would allow our conscience to correct us before we have to be corrected by others. 00:49:30.820 --> 00:49:38.659 And when we are corrected by others, that we are quick to repent, quick to turn, that we be a humble heart. 00:49:38.659 --> 00:49:56.920 And Lord, we pray that you would use the discipline of this church, that you've given us authority to execute, to keep our church pure and holy and also to bring back those who have been excommunicated. 00:49:57.840 --> 00:50:06.880 Lord, we submit this into your care as we seek to submit ourselves to your word. 00:50:06.880 --> 00:50:08.480 This we pray in your son's name. 00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:09.440 In your son's name. 00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:21.599 (silence)[BLANK_AUDIO]