July 9, 2025 • 53 mins
God intends for the church to be a display of his glory, which means the church’s holiness, or lack thereof, has a massive effect on its witness. It’s no wonder, then, that Scripture commands church discipline. In this message from Matthew 18:15–20 and 1 Corinthians 5:1–13, David Platt urges the church to take seriously its responsibility to address sin in the congregation. As we hold one another accountable, we are aiming for the purity of the church and the eternal good of one another.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to David Platt Messages a weekly
podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We started diving in last week to Matthew, chapter 18
, and this week we're going tobe in Matthew 18 again and then
be in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5some.
These are the two reallyprimary texts on church
discipline, and I want us tolook.
Here's where we're going.
We're spending three weeks here, and this is the second of
three, so we're in the middle.
The goal today is to spend timein Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians
(00:30):
, chapter 5 and get biblicalfoundations.
Let's see what Scripture says.
What's going to happen today,though, is these biblical
foundations are going toprobably provoke a lot of
different questions around thisroom.
Well, how does that look in thecontext of church today?
How does that look in thecontext of this church?
How does this look at BrookHills?
We're going to dive into someof that next week.
We'll see some practical things, but there's probably going to
(00:52):
be a lot of questions left over.
But the goal is let's see whatScripture teaches, understand
what Scripture teaches and thenlook at how to implement it.
I included in your notes there.
I wanted to just kind of reviewwhere we've gone real quickly,
especially if you weren't herelast week.
We talked about why we don'ttalk about church discipline and
why many churches have nothingto do with it, ignore it almost
(01:15):
why not church discipline?
And many say, well, we're notgoing to do that, because church
discipline is legalistic.
And obviously it can becomelegalistic If we start imposing
non-biblical or extra-biblicalregulations or rules on one
another or if we confront oneanother in sin in a way that is
not gentle and Christ-like andloving with humility.
Obviously church discipline canbecome legalistic, but
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scripturally church disciplineis not legalistic, it is loving,
and we know.
We know we're going against thegrain here.
We live in a culture where it'snot even popular to discipline
children and we don't even seethe love in that and sort of
talk about discipline in thechurch.
This is a challenge.
Church discipline ischallenging, but it is loving.
That's what Scripture teaches.
(01:58):
Some people say well, whatabout Matthew 7 and 1?
Don't judge, or you too will bejudged.
What we said last week is keepgoing to Matthew chapter 7,
verse 5.
What Jesus is teaching incontext there in Matthew chapter
7 is that we look at sin in ourown lives so that we can see
and help a brother who isstruggling with sin in his life.
That's the whole point.
Matthew chapter 7, verse 5takes us to, though, what Jesus
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is teaching there here inMatthew 18,.
It's all over the New Testament.
We help one another grow inholiness.
That's what church disciplineis about.
Now some might say, well, peoplewill leave.
We talked about how churchgrowth or church discipline is
not the sharpest church growthtactic You're not going to see
this one on TV very often or onthe best seller list in the
(02:42):
Christian bookstore.
Your best discipline now, thatdoesn't bring in the money.
But here's the deal.
What we've said is this isGod's church to grow, not ours.
And we are foolish to thinkthat we know the best way to
grow the church.
When God has given us His Word,we need to align with His Word
and trust God.
To add to our number, that'sthe picture you see all over the
(03:05):
book of Acts, and we looked atActs 2, acts 5.
Some say, well, we don't knowhow to practice church
discipline, and what we'resaying is let's learn how then.
Now what is it?
We talked about holistic, andboth these facets of church
discipline are huge.
First, formative churchdiscipline.
We define that as continualtraining that we receive from
(03:25):
the Word and the body of Christas our lives are transformed
into Christ's likeness.
We are in the church.
All of us are disciples ofChrist.
That implies we are underdiscipline.
Even the fact that we're sonsand daughters of God we have a
Father.
Hebrews chapter 12 teaches ourFather disciplines us because he
loves us.
None of us is the finishedproduct.
We are all being transformedmore and more and more into the
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likeness of Christ.
That's discipline.
It's happening in our lives allthe time.
Now, part of that is restorativechurch discipline, corrective
care taken by the body of Christin matters of unrepentant sin
in a brother or sister's life.
This is key.
If we are left to ourselves, wewill wander into sin.
(04:09):
Every single one of us has asinful nature still in us.
It wars against the spiritualnature, the nature of Christ in
us.
It's Galatians, chapter 5.
It's the war between the fleshand the spirit.
And part of the purpose of thechurch, of the community of
faith, is to guard us, to helpus spur one another on toward
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Christ.
That's why Christianity cannotbe lived in isolation, because
we have a tendency to sin.
Now Christ has forgiven us,he's empowered us over that, and
the whole point of thecommunity of faith is to help
one another avoid sin.
And so what we're seeing inrestorative church discipline is
when we start to wander, whichany one of us does I do, you do.
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We all have a tendency to dothat.
We want a brother or sister whois there by our side who will
say stop.
We don't want a brother orsister who's going to wait until
we have gone this much fartherin sin.
We want someone to stop us here.
And this is the picture when itcomes to restorative church
discipline, which is what Jesusis addressing in Matthew,
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chapter 18.
And we talked about how thefoundation in this whole picture
of discipline is the grace ofGod.
There's a great book by a guynamed Jerry Bridges that I would
recommend if you want to divein deeper.
It's called Disciplined byGrace and the whole point of the
book is there's a picture hereof grace and discipline that
come together in a beautifulrelationship, and we saw that
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grace expressed in the wholecontext surrounding Matthew,
chapter 18, verse 15 through 20.
We talked about approachingchurch discipline.
How does Jesus approach churchdiscipline?
He tells us we need childlikehumility.
One how does Jesus approachchurch discipline?
He tells us we need childlikehumility.
It takes a great deal ofhumility to confront one another
in a way that honors Christ intheir sin, and then it takes a
great deal of humility toreceive correction from one
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another.
We need childlike humility.
We need a deep concern forholiness.
We need to be serious about sin.
We have become so casual withsin.
We today are so flippant withthe holiness of God and we need
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a deep concern for holiness.
We need to see sin not like ourculture sees it, but like a
holy God sees it, such a waythat we would not be surprised
to hear Jesus say if your righteye causes you to sin, gouge it
out and throw it away.
Sin is that serious.
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We need a deep concern forholiness.
Along the way, we need a passionfor the herding Picture in the
parable of the lost sheep.
The whole point of churchdiscipline is not to kick people
out.
The whole point of churchdiscipline is to keep people in,
to keep people close to Christ,and the picture here is a
father who runs after a shepherd, who runs after sheep, a father
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who runs after us and uses theafter sheep, a father who runs
after us and uses the church todo that.
And along the way, we needforgiving hearts.
Obviously, we need to forgiveas God has forgiven us, and so
all of that leads up to Matthew18, 15 through 20, applying
church discipline.
So what do you do?
Look at Matthew, chapter 18,verse 15.
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Jesus says if your brother nowfollow along, you'll see four
steps here.
See if you can identify them.
If your brother sins againstyou, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you.
If he listens to you, you havewon your brother over.
But if he will not listen, takeone or two others along so that
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every matter may be establishedby the testimony of two or
three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
And if he refuses to listeneven to the church, treat him as
you would a pagan or taxcollector.
Then Jesus says I tell you thetruth whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earthwill be loosed in heaven.
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Again, I tell you that if twoof you on earth agree about
anything you ask for, it will bedone for you by my Father in
heaven.
For where two or three cometogether in my name, there am I
with them.
Okay, step one applying churchdiscipline Private correction.
Step one private correction.
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If your brother sins againstyou, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you Now,side note here, some of you in
your Bibles, I'm guessing mostof us where it says in verse 15,
that first phrase if yourbrother sins against you.
Now, side note here, some ofyou in your Bibles, I'm guessing
most of us where it says inverse 15, that first phrase if
your brother sins against you.
I want you to look down in yourBibles there and you probably
have a little note, a littlefootnote in your Bible that
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takes you to the bottom and itsays something along the lines
of some manuscripts do not havethe words against you.
And this is what this is goingto be kind of a tangent, but I
hope a valuable tangent.
Real quickly, this is what NewTestament scholars would call a
variant, and what that means isin the earliest manuscripts we
have, there are variants.
There are slight differencesbetween those earliest
(09:17):
manuscripts.
This is the in this case.
Some of those early manuscriptsdon't have the words against
you.
Some of them do, and so ifyou're translating the
Scriptures then you say, well,do you include it or not?
And some people will say, well,this is why you can't rely on
the Bible, because it's not eventrue.
You don't even know what theoriginal manuscripts are.
This is where I want toencourage you, take heart.
Ninety-nine percent of variantsare practically totally
(09:40):
insignificant.
They are one letter missinghere or there, or maybe word
order switched around, not in away that changes meaning.
In that one percent that aremaybe a little more significant
than that, none of those, noneof those affect central
doctrines or tenets ofChristianity, even in this
picture.
This would be one of those onepercent where, if your brother
sins against you, the reality is, when you take this whole
(10:03):
picture in light of the entireteaching of the New Testament,
some would say well, this isonly when somebody directly sins
against you.
But the reality is Galatians,chapter 6, verse 1, teaches us
that when a brother is caught insin, we should restore him
gently.
It's not specifically specifiedthere.
Well, if it's against you, andso the pictures the New
Testament gives us is if you'vebeen directly sinned against.
(10:24):
If your brother's caught in sin, this is what you do.
You go and show him his fault,just between the two of you.
So here's the principle thatwe're going to see kind of
unfold in these first two stepsespecially, keep the circle as
small as possible, as long aspossible.
Jesus says don't go and talk tosomebody else about your
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brother's sin, which, let's behonest, is the first thing that
we are prone to do and that wedo all the time.
And Jesus is saying Scriptureis teaching that that is sinful.
It is sinful, it's Ephesians 4,29 through 32.
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To speak about a brother orsister in a way that does not
build up their needs, theircharacter in Christ, that's the
picture in Ephesians 4.
We looked at that a couple ofweeks ago.
Our tendency is to go and maybeeven to fish around and find
out if anybody else knows aboutthis brother's sin.
Jesus says don't do it.
Go to your brother, go to yoursister.
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Just between the two of you,resist the temptation to gossip,
because then you need to beconfronted.
Now.
This is one of those pointswhere I'm convinced we could do
so much at this small, simplepoint to save the reputation of
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Christ in each other and toguard against division of the
church.
If we just did this one littlesimple part of church discipline
correctly, then it would saveone little simple part of church
discipline correctly.
Then it would save what I'mguessing scores of people around
this room know as heartache inthe church.
Let's guard this, let'simplement that right there.
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This is not, this doesn'tinvolve some major church
organization, church disciplinestakeout team.
This is just in the context.
This whole picture, this firststep, is in the context of our
relationships with one anotherall the time.
We're always doing this.
We're always helping oneanother in individual ways like
this and we're making sure that.
I've seen it happen.
(12:37):
You've seen it happen over andover and over again.
The more people know about abrother, know about a brother or
sister who's struggling in thissin, the more the case is built
, so to speak.
The more people know about that, the harder it is going to be
for that brother to be restored,because a root of bitterness is
going to grow in that brother.
It's going to be very difficultas opposed to you going to him
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and saying this is what, andeven being open hey, did I
misunderstand this?
Oftentimes we've got totallywrong information.
We've read a situation wrong,we're talking to all these other
people about it and brotherover here has done nothing wrong
.
And so, for his sake, for yoursake, not to fall in sin and for
the sake of the glory of Christ, keep it just between the two
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of you.
Go to your brother or sister.
Jesus says if he listens to you, you have won your brother over
.
I'm convinced 95% of churchdiscipline happens right here,
something we do talk now.
Nobody likes that kind ofconversation.
That's why we go talk toeverybody else, because it's
easier to talk to other peoplethan to talk with each other
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about sin and struggle.
But do the hard work from thevery beginning and just go to
your brother, love him, care forhim in humility Same picture
that Matthew 7 teaches.
You've looked in your own life.
You're going to help yourbrother with a speck in his eye.
Go to him, love him enough tocare for him.
Go to him and not be talking toeverybody else about this and
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in the process you'll win yourbrother over, gain your brother.
I'm convinced we do step oneright here.
We've done the majority ofchurch discipline in the church.
No team necessary, no officialorganization.
Just live among one another andcare for each other enough to
help each other avoid sin.
Step one private correction.
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But what Jesus says, verse 16,is if he will not listen I want
to pause here before we go tostep two If your brother will
not listen, will not listen tothe word, will not receive
correction.
That's when you go to step two.
If your brother turns from sinat that point and the whole
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church discipline picture herein Matthew chapter 18 is not in
play anymore.
Now there might be follow alonghere.
There might be situations wheremaybe a brother or sister has
some relationships that need tobe restored.
As he's turning back.
There's some things that you'regoing to help walk with him or
her through in the process ofrestoring and the consequences
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of those sins.
That's a whole other picture.
But what the rest of Matthew 18is dealing with is unrepentant
sin in the church.
A brother who will not listento the word, a sister who will
not listen to correction fromthe word in the body of Christ
and continues unrepentant in sin.
If they don't listen, then yougo to step two.
Step two small groupclarification.
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Small group clarification.
And by small group Jesus saysone or two others, take one or
two others along so that everymatter may be established by the
testimony of two or threewitnesses.
He quotes there fromDeuteronomy, chapter 19, verse
15, picture pattern from the OldTestament where others are
brought in to testify to thetruth of something and again the
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picture here is to keep thiscircle small, to gather together
one or two other believers whoare gentle and humble and loving
and caring to go with you.
They can, in the processthere's all kinds of things.
Those one or two brothers canhelp you understand.
If you're imposing somenon-biblical or extra-biblical
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legalistic regulation onsomebody, that's good.
Brothers and sisters.
Say that you don't need to beconfronting this.
Say that you don't need to beconfronting this, but if it
needs to be confronted in abrother sister's life, now
you've got two or three peoplewho are saying we love you and
we care for you and we want youto experience abundance in
Christ and so we're talkingabout you with this, about that.
For that reason, two or threebrothers or sisters doing that.
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Again, this doesn't necessarilyhave to involve a church leader
or a pastor.
In fact I mean it could.
But I think the best context isto involve someone or a couple
of people who know that person,who are involved in that
person's life, who know whatthey're walking through and who
will walk with them through thatstruggle.
So here we've got the majorityof church discipline in these
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first two steps.
The goal is keep this thingsmall in these first two steps
and then it widens in step three.
Jesus says if he refuses tolisten to them, in other words,
if he will not receivecorrection, if he continues
unrepentant in sin, then tell itto the church.
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Step three church admonition.
Now church is involved.
Well, what does that mean?
Well, the word here tell it tothe church is ecclesia.
It's the word we see all overthe New Testament for the
gathering of believers, theassembly of believers, and the
picture is the local church, theassembly, the gathering, and
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that looks different indifferent contexts.
But now the circle has widenedto involve the church.
Tell it to the church.
Now, I know that as soon as wesee that, we think okay, so you
go from three to 4,000.
How does that look in thecontext of the church in Brook
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Hills, the church that we are apart of?
And those are some of thethings we're going to dive into
next week.
Let's just see what Jesus issaying here.
He says tell it to the church.
The gathering of believers, theassembly, the local body, tell
it to the local body.
And the picture here.
I've wondered at this point,man, that seems to get large.
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Quick, why, why would it benecessary?
Why would Jesus say go to theassembly of believers and tell
them about this brother orsister and their sin, why and
this is the picture.
This is one of those times inthe study for me over the last
couple of weeks that just camealive in a way I had not
realized before in this textwhat's going on here.
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And I think part of the reasonI hadn't realized is because
even when I've seen churchesthat practice church discipline,
I think this is somethingthat's missed out on churches
that practice church discipline.
I think this is somethingthat's missed out on Oftentimes.
The time when it comes to thewhole church, the whole
gathering, when a brother orsister sin who's going to be
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who's under church discipline isbrought before a whole
gathering, is oftentimes whenthat brother or sister is being
excommunicated or removed frommembership in the church, which
we're going to talk about injust a second.
But that's not what Jesus issaying here.
It may get to that point, buthe says tell it to the church
and listen to the very nextphrase if he refuses to listen
even to the church.
So the picture is the point oftelling it to the church.
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The whole gathering ofbelievers is so that now you
have an entire local assembly ofbelievers out of love and grace
and mercy and humility is goingafter that believer, saying we
want you to turn to Christ, wewant you to trust in Christ.
Is loving them enough, caringfor them, showing the mercy and
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grace of God to them in order todraw them back to Christ?
And the picture here I love thepicture here of a God who does
not leave us alone to wander offinto our sin, but who gets to a
point where he says I love youso much I'm going to send my
people to show you that love,and my people are going to be an
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expression of that.
And so the picture here is thechurch expressing the grace and
the love and the mercy of God inorder to bring this brother
back from his sin.
Grace and mercy all over thisdeal.
It leads to step four.
If he refuses to listen even tothe church, then treat him as
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you would, a pagan or a taxcollector.
Step four churchexcommunication.
Excommunication, removal fromthe church.
And the imagery here is Jesussaying treat him as if he were
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not a brother in the church,treat him as if he were outside
of the church.
He's no longer treated as amember of the body of Christ,
excommunicated, expelled fromthe church, which is the
language we'll see in just asecond in the New Testament.
I want us to see here inMatthew, chapter 18,.
This is not an option.
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This is a command from Jesus totreat a brother or sister in
unrepentant sin as if he werenot a member anymore, as if he
were not a brother or sister.
That's a command from Jesus,which means to not obey.
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This is to sin.
Ladies and gentlemen.
We are in sin, we are indisobedience as a body if we do
not do this Now.
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Let's pause here for a secondand let's just be totally honest
with each other.
This doesn't seem right, doesit?
This is tough.
This is certainly tough toimplement, but this is tough to
understand.
Doesn't this go against thegrain of all of our thinking?
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Isn't the church supposed to bethe people and the place where
everyone is welcomed?
Why would the church say tosomeone you cannot be a member
here, you are excluded frommembership here.
Why would the church say that?
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Doesn't that seem to go againstevery picture of the church
that we have in our minds?
Why would Jesus say this andwhy would the New Testament
church actually do it?
Take a right with me to go to 1Corinthians, chapter 5.
1 Corinthians, chapter 5.
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I want you to see how the NewTestament church was obedient in
this.
They were living indisobedience by not paying
attention to this whole pictureand God, through Paul, called
them to obedience.
First Corinthians, chapter 5.
As you're turning there, quick,quick setup the city of Corinth
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, a city of loose living, sexualimmorality, I'm convinced, in
many ways very similar to ourculture today, where sexual
immorality was rampant, hardlyeven noticed.
You don't have to sit throughone round of commercials on TV
or sit through five minutes of amovie today to know that sexual
immorality is just accepted asrampant and it's no big deal.
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We're desensitized to it, justaccept it as rampant and it's no
big deal.
We're desensitized to it.
And the picture in Corinth isthat it infiltrated the church.
And I'm convinced the pictureis the exact same today, exact
same today.
And so what happens is Paulwrites this letter to the church
.
Here in chapter five, headdresses a situation which I
wish I could clean this up some,but there's just no way to
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clean it up.
The situation is there is abrother, there's a member in the
church who is sleeping with hisstepmother.
That's the picture.
And he is a member of thechurch and Paul addresses them,
and I want you to hear what hesays 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1.
It is actually reported thatthere is sexual immorality among
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you, and of a kind that doesnot even occur among pagans.
A man has his father's wife,which the original language.
There is a picture of hisstepmother and you are proud.
Shouldn't you rather have beenfilled with grief and have put
out of your fellowship the manwho did this?
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Even though I am not physicallypresent, I am with you in
spirit and I have already passedjudgment on the one who did
this, just as if I were present.
When you are assembled in thename of our Lord Jesus and I am
with you in spirit and the powerof our Lord Jesus is present
hand this man over to Satan.
Your boasting is not good.
Don't you know that a littleyeast works through the whole
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batch of dough?
Get rid of the old yeast thatyou may be a new batch without
yeast, as you really are.
For christ, our, our passoverland has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us keep thefestival, not with the old yeast
, the yeast of malice andwickedness, but with bread
without yeast, the bread ofsincerity and truth.
I have written you in my letternot to associate with sexually
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immoral people.
Then paul says not at all,meaning the people of this world
who are immoral, or the greedyand swindlers or idolaters.
In that case you would have toleave this world.
Paul just gets honest.
Listen, this is talking aboutthe church here.
If you were avoiding thesexually immoral in the world,
you couldn't go out of yourhouse, you'd go somewhere else,
another planet.
But now I am writing you thatyou must not associate with
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anyone who calls himself abrother but is sexually immoral
or greedy, an idolater or aslanderer, a drunkard or
swindler.
With such a man do not even eat, don't even sit at the table
with him.
What business is it of mine tojudge those outside the church?
(26:34):
Are you not to judge thoseinside?
God will judge those outside.
Expel the wicked man from amongyou.
I want you to notice theforceful language Paul uses here
.
Four times what he says to do.
Verse two, he says put thatbrother out of your fellowship.
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Verse five hand him over toSatan, which we'll talk about in
a minute.
Verse seven get rid of thatbrother, member of the church.
And verse 13, expel the wickedman from among you.
This right here pretty muchrules Paul out of being on the
front cover of church growthmagazines.
He's just lost his right to theever, and not just Paul.
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Jesus tells us this in Matthew18.
Paul talks about it here in 1Corinthians 5.
The Word of God is telling usto remove a member from the
church, to remove a brother orsister from the church.
Why?
This doesn't make sense to us.
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So why and I think 1Corinthians 5 gives us the
answer in a variety of differentways.
You've got this in your notes.
First, do this for the purityof the church, for the purity of
the church.
This, I'm convinced, is theprimary issue, as we're going to
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see in a minute.
This is good for the brother orsister who is in immorality,
but the primary issue here isthe effect on the church.
The purity of the church is atthe forefront of 1 Corinthians,
chapter 5 in a variety ofdifferent ways.
Look at these truths that risefrom 1 Corinthians, chapter 5.
First, church members areaccountable.
(28:22):
Church members are accountable.
I want you to notice that Paul,in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, is
not confronting the brother whois in sexual immorality.
Who is he confronting?
He's confronting the brotherwho is in sexual immorality.
Who is he confronting?
He's confronting the church.
He's not rebuking the brotherwho is caught in sexual
(28:44):
immorality, he is rebuking thechurch.
And the picture here is thechurch being told that they are
disobeying God for the way theyare responding to this brother.
The issue in 1 Corinthians 5 isthe church's toleration of sin.
(29:04):
And he says to them you areaccountable, church first before
God.
1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse16 and 17, just a couple of
chapters before this talks abouthow the people of God are the
temple of God.
And Paul is saying you're thetemple of God and you're not
guarding the holiness of thattemple.
All throughout the OldTestament you didn't let idols
(29:25):
hang out in the temple.
You cleansed the temple.
In the same way, now you're thetemple.
You do not let impurity reignin the temple and you're
accountable before God for that.
But not just accountable beforeGod.
Church members are accountablefor each other.
This is the point of 1Corinthians, chapter 5.
(29:46):
The church, the body ofbelievers.
The church is responsible forthe sin of its members, is
responsible for the sin of itsmembers.
Did you catch that?
The church, the body ofbelievers, is responsible before
God for the sin of its members.
(30:06):
We do not think this way.
We think of sin.
We think about sinindividualistically, don't we?
We think, well, that's thatbrother's problem, that's that
sister's struggle, and that'sexactly what they were doing in
1 Corinthians, chapter five, andPaul rebuked them for it.
He said it's not that brother'sbusiness before God, it's your
(30:29):
business before God that he isliving in unrepentant sin.
You are accountable for God andfor each other.
That's the whole picture and itmakes sense in light of what
we've seen all the way up tothis point over the last three
or four months.
As members of the body ofChrist, we belong to one another
, right, we belong to oneanother in the way that and
(30:49):
that's what this whole yeast anddough is about.
One member's sin doesn't justaffect them.
One member's sin affects theentire body of Christ.
We saw this a year ago when welooked at sin in the camp
Achan's sin.
Joshua, chapter 7,.
One man's sin affects theentire people of God.
(31:10):
We have no clue how serious sinis.
We have no clue how serious sinis.
We have no clue how serious sinis in the community of faith.
And we are responsible beforeGod for each other.
Do you realize?
Let this soak in.
(31:30):
You are responsible for theholiness of the brothers and
sisters that are sitting aroundyou at this moment, brothers and
sisters behind you, beside you,in front of you.
You're responsible for theirgrowth and holiness.
(31:50):
And if there is a brother orsister sitting around you, a
member of this body sittingaround you that is unrepentant
in sin, is continuing on inunrepentant sin, then God holds
you responsible.
God holds us responsible.
I mean you in a plural sense,you, people of God, us.
(32:12):
We are responsible for eachother's sin.
It's even this picture verse 2,when he says you're proud.
Shouldn't you rather have beenfilled with grief?
That word there, it's a greatword.
It's a sorrow over sin and thepicture is it's to experience
sorrow and grieving over someoneelse's sin in the same way that
(32:34):
we would experience sorrow andgrieving over our own sin.
It's to grieve over other sinsas if they were your own.
That right there in and ofitself, you think about it.
Maybe this is why we don't dochurch discipline and why we're
(32:54):
not grieving over each other'ssins, because there is so little
grief in our own hearts for ourown sin.
Don't miss the connection.
If we are casual with sin inour own hearts, then we will be
casual of sin in other people'slives.
When we are serious about sinin our own lives, then we will
(33:16):
have deep sensitivity to sins inthe community of faith.
That's the picture here, and sothe lack of church discipline
in our culture and incontemporary church today is a
reflection on our casual,flippant attitude towards sin.
We don't think it's a big dealtowards sin.
We don't think it's a big deal.
(33:40):
1 Corinthians 5 says it's ahuge deal.
One writer said a church thatdoes not mourn over sin,
especially sin within its ownfellowship, is on the edge of
spiritual disaster.
When we cease to be shocked bysin, we lose a strong defense
against it.
Church members are accountable.
(34:01):
Church members must be humble,must be humble.
What is the sin of the churchat Corinth here in 1 Corinthians
, chapter 5?
What's their sin?
That Paul points out?
Look at verse 2.
And you are what?
You're proud.
You're proud.
What does that mean?
(34:21):
Proud, were they proud of thisguy who is committing this
sexual immorality?
Are they boasting about that?
Certainly not necessarilyboasting about his exact sin.
But follow closely here.
Do not miss this, his exact sin.
But follow closely here.
Do not miss this.
I want you to see with me whatPaul is identifying as pride in
(34:43):
1 Corinthians, chapter 5.
Don't miss this Pride.
1 Corinthians, chapter 5, it'sbeing addressed here.
Pride is toleration ofunrepentant sinners in the
church.
That's pride.
Paul says Pride, toleration ofunrepentant sinners in the
church.
It's not necessarily that theywere boasting about how great
(35:06):
this man's sin was, but theywere boasting about the fact
that they welcomed him, thatthey were open-minded to use our
terms today that anyone,including someone in such
heinous sin, could be a memberof this church, and they were
proud of it.
Look at our grace and ourfreedom.
(35:29):
You can do anything you wantand be a member of this church,
and Paul rebukes them for it.
Church, and Paul rebukes themfor it.
Now, key words thereunrepentant sinners in the
church.
This is not talking about theway we approach those who are
unbelievers outside the church,in sin.
It's not talking about those inthe church who are hungering
(35:51):
and thirsting for righteousnessand growing in holiness and
struggling with sin along theway.
This is unrepentant sinners inthe church.
Language here is a man has hisfather's wife.
It's present, continual action.
He is living in immorality andyou are saying he is welcome
here as a member of this body,and Paul says that's pride.
(36:13):
Your boasting is not good.
Now, the alternative isobviously what?
The alternative of pride ishumility.
What's humility?
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 5,then, humility is exclusion of
unrepentant sinners from thechurch.
That's humility.
Paul says this is what youshould do Turn from your pride
(36:33):
and exclude him, and exclude isthe right word.
We saw the forceful languagePaul used in verse 9.
He says don't what you shoulddo Turn from your pride and
exclude him, and exclude is theright word.
We saw the forceful languagePaul used In verse 9, he says
don't even associate with him.
Verse 11, he says don't eveneat with him.
And this is not the only placePaul talks like this.
This is not just Paul waking upin the morning and having a bad
day and writing 1 Corinthians,chapter 5.
He says it's in other pointstoo.
2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6.
(36:54):
He warns the church to keepaway from a brother.
2 Thessalonians 3, verse 14 and15.
Take special note not toassociate with this particular
brother.
2 Timothy 3, 5.
Titus 3, 10.
(37:14):
2 Timothy 3, 5.
Titus 3, 10.
Having nothing to do with thisbrother, I want us to realize
something.
This is the exact opposite ofwhat we think, isn't it Like?
We think this is totallyreversed.
We think it is humble towelcome everyone as members of
(37:34):
the church.
We think it's a sign ofhumility to say it doesn't
matter what you continue to doin sin, you can still be a
member.
We think that's humble.
In fact, we think it's pridefulto do anything different.
We would certainly call anychurch that's casting out
members because they continueunrepentant in sin.
Who do they think they areHolier thanthan-thou?
(37:58):
People Talk about legalism.
That's what that church is allabout.
They're removing members.
Don't gloss over this.
We can't miss this.
If, by God's grace, we areobedient to Him in Matthew 18
(38:20):
and 1 Corinthians 5, and Godforbid that we would get to this
point with a brother or sister.
But if we did and a brother orsister was removed from this
body, mark it down from thestart that will not be perceived
as humble.
(38:41):
It will be perceived asprideful, arrogant legalism.
But the picture that 1Corinthians 5 is teaching is
exactly the opposite.
Church, it is pride to toleratesin among each other like it is
(39:03):
no big deal.
It is pride and it is sinagainst God.
Toleration of sin is sinful andit is humility to address sin
in a brother or sister's life,even to the point of expelling
them from the church ifnecessary.
(39:26):
It is pride to sit back and,under a banner of grace and
freedom, welcome everyone asmembers, no matter what they do.
That is pride, 1 Corinthians 5says.
And it is humility to careabout each other and to care
about the holiness of God suchthat you would confront each
other in sin and, if it gets tothis case, that you would expel
(39:50):
someone from church.
We choose the first option,toleration, because it's a lot
easier, isn't it?
You talk about hard work.
Humility here is the hard work.
Think about the pain involved in1 Corinthians 5.
Maybe not even just the pain,but the risk involved here, in a
(40:15):
culture of honor and shame inthe first century, to shame a
brother and think about it evenmore Now.
We don't know the details.
This is hypotheticalspeculation, but even if it
wasn't the case here, it couldcertainly be the case in our day
.
What if it's a brother who isparticularly influential?
What if it is a brother?
This brother is extremelygenerous.
(40:36):
What if this is a brother?
This brother is extremelygenerous.
What if this brother hasinfluence, power in the
community?
One writer said to lose thefavor of a key benefactor, for
example, would have beenunthinkable in Greco-Roman
society and would invitehostility.
It would have been moreexpedient for such a leading
figure to be protected fromcriticism which might lead to
(40:59):
his excommunication.
There may be, in other words, asituation where some have
chosen to ignore the sinfulactions of another rather than
lose the favor of so prominent aperson.
Think about a fledgling churchat Corinth in a time of
persecution, where it wasdifficult to be the church and
(41:19):
be followers of Christ, to havethis leader carried away in the
immorality in the city and toexpel him from the community and
to bring that reproach uponyourself.
There's an easier way to dochurch in Corinth.
In the same way, there's aneasier way to do church in
Birmingham.
But Paul says no matter what itcosts, you guard the holiness of
God's temple.
You promote the purity of thechurch.
(41:42):
You're accountable for God forthat, and this is humility.
Humility does not tell God howhe should be gracious.
Humility obeys God with fearand trembling and gentleness.
(42:08):
Humility obeys God no matterwhat it costs.
Church members are accountable,must be humble and church
membership is essential.
We've talked about this before.
We'll just hit on it briefly.
But the implications here forwhat it means to be a member of
the body of christ are huge.
(42:30):
Most people read the storytoday and think, okay, removed
from the church, big deal, whatdoes that really matter?
And it shows how far we've come, how much we have minimized
what it means to be a member ofa local body of Christ, to think
that this would be not a bigdeal.
It was a huge deal in that day.
This was severe, and don't misswhat the Bible's saying here
(42:53):
about what it means to be amember, a part of a local body
of Christ.
The church, that local body,defines who is a member.
This is not up to theindividual here, it's up to the
body, because the body of Christis responsible for defining who
is members in the community offaith.
That's the picture here.
And on a deeper level, don'tmiss what Matthew 18, 1
Corinthians 5 are both teachingIsolation from the church
(43:15):
reflects separation from Christ.
Whether it's this picture handthis man over to Satan, which
we'll talk about in just asecond or Matthew 18, treat him
as you would.
A pagan or a tax collector.
To be excommunicated, expelledoutside of the body of Christ
was to be recognized as someonewho's not even a believer, not a
brother or sister.
This is why, again, if weminimize devalued church
(43:38):
membership, what it means to bea member of the body of Christ
and we live Christian lives thatare just kind of floating all
around, not connected to a localbody, then we're going
completely against the NewTestament.
The New Testament has nounderstanding of a follower of
Christ who is not a committedmember of a local body of Christ
, who is not a committed memberof a local body of Christ, who
(44:00):
is committed to that gathering.
We've talked about that beforeand so the picture here is is
Paul saying excommunicatesomeone, first for the purity of
the church, second for thesalvation of the individual,
salvation in a holistic sensehere the good of the individual.
Salvation in a holistic sensehere the good of the individual.
Hand this man over to Satan sothat the sinful nature may be
(44:22):
destroyed and his spirit savedon the day of the Lord, verse 5.
Now there's tons of debate onthis and we're not going to have
time to dive into all thedifferent interpretations here.
The point here don't miss thepurpose, because even different
ideas, thoughts on hand this manover to Satan, sinful nature
may destroy what do those thingsmean?
They all lead to his spiritbeing saved on the day of the
(44:45):
Lord.
So the picture is this is forthis man's good, day of the Lord
, day of judgment.
So, whatever it means, handthis man over to Satan so the
sinful nature may be destroyed,it is for his good, for his
salvation.
Now we think how is thatpossible?
How can you hand a man over toSatan for their good?
(45:06):
And this is where this is likethree or four sermons down to 30
or 40 seconds.
In a nutshell, there's precedentall over Scripture for Satan.
Satan, the ruler of this world,god of this world, lowercase g.
God of this world is still notsovereign.
(45:28):
God is sovereign over Satan andover everything Satan does.
And we see in Scripture Godusing Satan to accomplish God's
purposes.
It's the whole picture we sawin Job, right, god uses Satan to
bring Job 40 chapters later tosay I repent in dust and ashes
(45:49):
and I see the glory of God.
God used Satan to accomplishthat.
2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse7 through 10.
Paul, there was given me athorn in my flesh, a messenger
of who?
A messenger of Satan.
Given to me a messenger ofSatan to drive me to trust in
the strength that God provides.
God used Satan to teach Paul totrust in his grace and his
(46:14):
sufficiency.
One more example 1 Timothy 1,verse 20.
Hymenaeus and Alexander theyhave been handed over to.
Satan uses the same language.
I have handed them over toSatan so that they would be
taught not to blaspheme.
God has a purpose in this andthere's a lot of questions there
(46:35):
.
That's for those three or foursermons.
There's a lot of questionsthere.
That's for those three or foursermons.
There's a lot of questionsthere.
It's mind-boggling to say theleast.
But the picture is God issovereign over Satan and God is
first ultimate picture here isthe purity of the church.
But this is for the good of anindividual that being cast out
of the church he would see theseverity of sin.
He would feel the consequencesof not being united to the body
(47:02):
of Christ.
And just think about even thatright there, if we just stopped
right there, even that thatbeing out of the church would be
a picture of the severity ofsin, that he would see the
consequences of being separatedfrom the body of Christ, of sin.
That he would see theconsequences of being separated
from the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians, chapter 5,.
(47:24):
This whole picture only worksif there is a distinction
between the church and the worldthat he's cast out into right.
If there's no distinctionbetween the church and the world
, which is where we are today inso many ways, then this picture
makes no sense to us, becauseit really looks pretty much the
same to be outside in the worldand inside in the church.
God, help us to change that.
God, raise up a church that isdistinctively unique, that is
(47:45):
distinctively holy, in the sameway that Acts, chapter 5, says
awes the world and draws theworld to Christ.
This is the picture here.
For the salvation of theindividual, I pray that God
would make us a community offaith.
That is in and of itself andwho we are.
(48:06):
We are a gracious deterrentfrom sin, gracious deterrent
against sin.
The thought of being separatedfrom this body is in and of
itself a gracious deterrentagainst sin.
No, I don't want to beseparated from the body of
Christ.
For the purity of the church,for the salvation of the
individual.
And you know this was comingfor the glory of God.
(48:31):
Paul starts this whole pictureand he says this kind of sexual
immorality, it doesn't evenoccur among pagans.
Not even the world condoneswhat you are now condoning in
the church.
Can I be honest?
This is where this journeybegan for me as a pastor in this
(48:52):
body.
It was not long after I camewhen the elders and I were
contacted by a woman in thiscommunity.
Her husband had committedadultery against her and was
(49:17):
with another woman living withher, in the process of divorcing
his wife.
And she contacts us and shesays my husband has come and
he's joined your church whilehe's living with this other
woman.
And she said I don't get it.
How can a member of your churchbe sleeping around on me and
(49:46):
you all do nothing about that?
That pierced me and we addressthat individual situation
specifically.
But it was clear how is thatpossible?
(50:07):
And it's possible because wehave ignored Matthew 18 and 1
Corinthians 5.
We have ignored Matthew 18 and1 Corinthians 5.
And I'm not sure that we wereready at that point to dive
right into this, and so this hasbeen a long time coming, but we
(50:27):
need to dive into this.
We need to implement this Forthe glory of God not to be
compromised in the world.
We need to implement this inchurch.
Questions abound how that looks, questions abound.
But let's be firm in this onething we do not want to
(50:50):
compromise the glory of God inthe world around us when they
see the church, and we certainlydon't want to use justifying
explanations that we're proud ofin the process.
God is doing so much across thisbody.
One of the things we need towork on and we are working on is
(51:14):
how to celebrate better all ofthe victories around this room,
this body of believers.
There are scores and scores andscores of small groups all
across this body that are takingon this city for the glory of
Christ, starting ministries,plugging into ministries,
infiltrating communities allacross the city for the glory of
(51:35):
Christ, starting ministries,plugging into ministries,
infiltrating communities allacross the city with the gospel.
There are dozens, dozens ofindividuals and families in this
faith family who right now areeither praying seriously about
or in the process of givingtheir lives to go to another
nation that does not have accessto the gospel, of giving their
lives to go to another nationthat does not have access to the
(51:56):
gospel.
There are stories of communityand grace and mercy all across
this faith family.
God is doing awesome things andI'm convinced that the
adversary would like nothingmore than to undercut that with
sin in the camp here or there.
(52:18):
And for us to think it's smalland it's not a big deal and it's
not worth addressing.
And so let's say, as a people,we're going to be obedient here.
Show us how, god, we're goingto be obedient.
We're not going to have time tofinish, of course not, but
here's what I want us to do Iwant us to pray and I want us to
pray obedient.
We're not going to have time tofinish, of course not, but
(52:38):
here's what I want us to do Iwant us to pray and I want us to
pray together in response tothis word, in light of Psalm 24.
Let me read it to you.
This is a psalm.
This is a psalm that waswritten when people were
journeying.
Follow this, follow this.
When people were journeying tothe temple for worship, a place
where the glory of God dwelled.
This is what they would say whomay ascend the hill of the Lord
(53:00):
, who may stand in his holyplace, he who has clean hands
and a pure heart, who does notlift up his soul to an idol, he
will receive blessing from theLord.
Such is the generation of thosewho seek him, who seek your
face, o God of Jacob.
That's what they would say.
They would look inside.
Do we have clean hands, do wehave a pure heart, before we
even go to the temple?
(53:20):
Now, here's the picture.
Not Old Testament anymore, weare the temple, and so the
question is church.
Do we have clean hands and apure heart?
You are listening to David Platt Messages a weekly
podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We started diving in last week to Matthew, chapter 18
, and this week we're going tobe in Matthew 18 again and then
be in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5some.
These are the two reallyprimary texts on church
discipline, and I want us tolook.
Here's where we're going.
We're spending three weeks here, and this is the second of
three, so we're in the middle.
The goal today is to spend timein Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians
(00:30):
, chapter 5 and get biblicalfoundations.
Let's see what Scripture says.
What's going to happen today,though, is these biblical
foundations are going toprobably provoke a lot of
different questions around thisroom.
Well, how does that look in thecontext of church today?
How does that look in thecontext of this church?
How does this look at BrookHills?
We're going to dive into someof that next week.
We'll see some practical things, but there's probably going to
(00:52):
be a lot of questions left over.
But the goal is let's see whatScripture teaches, understand
what Scripture teaches and thenlook at how to implement it.
I included in your notes there.
I wanted to just kind of reviewwhere we've gone real quickly,
especially if you weren't herelast week.
We talked about why we don'ttalk about church discipline and
why many churches have nothingto do with it, ignore it almost
(01:15):
why not church discipline?
And many say, well, we're notgoing to do that, because church
discipline is legalistic.
And obviously it can becomelegalistic If we start imposing
non-biblical or extra-biblicalregulations or rules on one
another or if we confront oneanother in sin in a way that is
not gentle and Christ-like andloving with humility.
Obviously church discipline canbecome legalistic, but
(01:37):
scripturally church disciplineis not legalistic, it is loving,
and we know.
We know we're going against thegrain here.
We live in a culture where it'snot even popular to discipline
children and we don't even seethe love in that and sort of
talk about discipline in thechurch.
This is a challenge.
Church discipline ischallenging, but it is loving.
That's what Scripture teaches.
(01:58):
Some people say well, whatabout Matthew 7 and 1?
Don't judge, or you too will bejudged.
What we said last week is keepgoing to Matthew chapter 7,
verse 5.
What Jesus is teaching incontext there in Matthew chapter
7 is that we look at sin in ourown lives so that we can see
and help a brother who isstruggling with sin in his life.
That's the whole point.
Matthew chapter 7, verse 5takes us to, though, what Jesus
(02:21):
is teaching there here inMatthew 18,.
It's all over the New Testament.
We help one another grow inholiness.
That's what church disciplineis about.
Now some might say, well, peoplewill leave.
We talked about how churchgrowth or church discipline is
not the sharpest church growthtactic You're not going to see
this one on TV very often or onthe best seller list in the
(02:42):
Christian bookstore.
Your best discipline now, thatdoesn't bring in the money.
But here's the deal.
What we've said is this isGod's church to grow, not ours.
And we are foolish to thinkthat we know the best way to
grow the church.
When God has given us His Word,we need to align with His Word
and trust God.
To add to our number, that'sthe picture you see all over the
(03:05):
book of Acts, and we looked atActs 2, acts 5.
Some say, well, we don't knowhow to practice church
discipline, and what we'resaying is let's learn how then.
Now what is it?
We talked about holistic, andboth these facets of church
discipline are huge.
First, formative churchdiscipline.
We define that as continualtraining that we receive from
(03:25):
the Word and the body of Christas our lives are transformed
into Christ's likeness.
We are in the church.
All of us are disciples ofChrist.
That implies we are underdiscipline.
Even the fact that we're sonsand daughters of God we have a
Father.
Hebrews chapter 12 teaches ourFather disciplines us because he
loves us.
None of us is the finishedproduct.
We are all being transformedmore and more and more into the
(03:49):
likeness of Christ.
That's discipline.
It's happening in our lives allthe time.
Now, part of that is restorativechurch discipline, corrective
care taken by the body of Christin matters of unrepentant sin
in a brother or sister's life.
This is key.
If we are left to ourselves, wewill wander into sin.
(04:09):
Every single one of us has asinful nature still in us.
It wars against the spiritualnature, the nature of Christ in
us.
It's Galatians, chapter 5.
It's the war between the fleshand the spirit.
And part of the purpose of thechurch, of the community of
faith, is to guard us, to helpus spur one another on toward
(04:31):
Christ.
That's why Christianity cannotbe lived in isolation, because
we have a tendency to sin.
Now Christ has forgiven us,he's empowered us over that, and
the whole point of thecommunity of faith is to help
one another avoid sin.
And so what we're seeing inrestorative church discipline is
when we start to wander, whichany one of us does I do, you do.
(04:52):
We all have a tendency to dothat.
We want a brother or sister whois there by our side who will
say stop.
We don't want a brother orsister who's going to wait until
we have gone this much fartherin sin.
We want someone to stop us here.
And this is the picture when itcomes to restorative church
discipline, which is what Jesusis addressing in Matthew,
(05:12):
chapter 18.
And we talked about how thefoundation in this whole picture
of discipline is the grace ofGod.
There's a great book by a guynamed Jerry Bridges that I would
recommend if you want to divein deeper.
It's called Disciplined byGrace and the whole point of the
book is there's a picture hereof grace and discipline that
come together in a beautifulrelationship, and we saw that
(05:33):
grace expressed in the wholecontext surrounding Matthew,
chapter 18, verse 15 through 20.
We talked about approachingchurch discipline.
How does Jesus approach churchdiscipline?
He tells us we need childlikehumility.
One how does Jesus approachchurch discipline?
He tells us we need childlikehumility.
It takes a great deal ofhumility to confront one another
in a way that honors Christ intheir sin, and then it takes a
great deal of humility toreceive correction from one
(05:55):
another.
We need childlike humility.
We need a deep concern forholiness.
We need to be serious about sin.
We have become so casual withsin.
We today are so flippant withthe holiness of God and we need
(06:19):
a deep concern for holiness.
We need to see sin not like ourculture sees it, but like a
holy God sees it, such a waythat we would not be surprised
to hear Jesus say if your righteye causes you to sin, gouge it
out and throw it away.
Sin is that serious.
(06:42):
We need a deep concern forholiness.
Along the way, we need a passionfor the herding Picture in the
parable of the lost sheep.
The whole point of churchdiscipline is not to kick people
out.
The whole point of churchdiscipline is to keep people in,
to keep people close to Christ,and the picture here is a
father who runs after a shepherd, who runs after sheep, a father
(07:04):
who runs after us and uses theafter sheep, a father who runs
after us and uses the church todo that.
And along the way, we needforgiving hearts.
Obviously, we need to forgiveas God has forgiven us, and so
all of that leads up to Matthew18, 15 through 20, applying
church discipline.
So what do you do?
Look at Matthew, chapter 18,verse 15.
(07:27):
Jesus says if your brother nowfollow along, you'll see four
steps here.
See if you can identify them.
If your brother sins againstyou, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you.
If he listens to you, you havewon your brother over.
But if he will not listen, takeone or two others along so that
(07:50):
every matter may be establishedby the testimony of two or
three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
And if he refuses to listeneven to the church, treat him as
you would a pagan or taxcollector.
Then Jesus says I tell you thetruth whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earthwill be loosed in heaven.
(08:12):
Again, I tell you that if twoof you on earth agree about
anything you ask for, it will bedone for you by my Father in
heaven.
For where two or three cometogether in my name, there am I
with them.
Okay, step one applying churchdiscipline Private correction.
Step one private correction.
(08:33):
If your brother sins againstyou, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you Now,side note here, some of you in
your Bibles, I'm guessing mostof us where it says in verse 15,
that first phrase if yourbrother sins against you.
Now, side note here, some ofyou in your Bibles, I'm guessing
most of us where it says inverse 15, that first phrase if
your brother sins against you.
I want you to look down in yourBibles there and you probably
have a little note, a littlefootnote in your Bible that
(08:55):
takes you to the bottom and itsays something along the lines
of some manuscripts do not havethe words against you.
And this is what this is goingto be kind of a tangent, but I
hope a valuable tangent.
Real quickly, this is what NewTestament scholars would call a
variant, and what that means isin the earliest manuscripts we
have, there are variants.
There are slight differencesbetween those earliest
(09:17):
manuscripts.
This is the in this case.
Some of those early manuscriptsdon't have the words against
you.
Some of them do, and so ifyou're translating the
Scriptures then you say, well,do you include it or not?
And some people will say, well,this is why you can't rely on
the Bible, because it's not eventrue.
You don't even know what theoriginal manuscripts are.
This is where I want toencourage you, take heart.
Ninety-nine percent of variantsare practically totally
(09:40):
insignificant.
They are one letter missinghere or there, or maybe word
order switched around, not in away that changes meaning.
In that one percent that aremaybe a little more significant
than that, none of those, noneof those affect central
doctrines or tenets ofChristianity, even in this
picture.
This would be one of those onepercent where, if your brother
sins against you, the reality is, when you take this whole
(10:03):
picture in light of the entireteaching of the New Testament,
some would say well, this isonly when somebody directly sins
against you.
But the reality is Galatians,chapter 6, verse 1, teaches us
that when a brother is caught insin, we should restore him
gently.
It's not specifically specifiedthere.
Well, if it's against you, andso the pictures the New
Testament gives us is if you'vebeen directly sinned against.
(10:24):
If your brother's caught in sin, this is what you do.
You go and show him his fault,just between the two of you.
So here's the principle thatwe're going to see kind of
unfold in these first two stepsespecially, keep the circle as
small as possible, as long aspossible.
Jesus says don't go and talk tosomebody else about your
(10:46):
brother's sin, which, let's behonest, is the first thing that
we are prone to do and that wedo all the time.
And Jesus is saying Scriptureis teaching that that is sinful.
It is sinful, it's Ephesians 4,29 through 32.
(11:09):
To speak about a brother orsister in a way that does not
build up their needs, theircharacter in Christ, that's the
picture in Ephesians 4.
We looked at that a couple ofweeks ago.
Our tendency is to go and maybeeven to fish around and find
out if anybody else knows aboutthis brother's sin.
Jesus says don't do it.
Go to your brother, go to yoursister.
(11:31):
Just between the two of you,resist the temptation to gossip,
because then you need to beconfronted.
Now.
This is one of those pointswhere I'm convinced we could do
so much at this small, simplepoint to save the reputation of
(11:55):
Christ in each other and toguard against division of the
church.
If we just did this one littlesimple part of church discipline
correctly, then it would saveone little simple part of church
discipline correctly.
Then it would save what I'mguessing scores of people around
this room know as heartache inthe church.
Let's guard this, let'simplement that right there.
(12:16):
This is not, this doesn'tinvolve some major church
organization, church disciplinestakeout team.
This is just in the context.
This whole picture, this firststep, is in the context of our
relationships with one anotherall the time.
We're always doing this.
We're always helping oneanother in individual ways like
this and we're making sure that.
I've seen it happen.
(12:37):
You've seen it happen over andover and over again.
The more people know about abrother, know about a brother or
sister who's struggling in thissin, the more the case is built
, so to speak.
The more people know about that, the harder it is going to be
for that brother to be restored,because a root of bitterness is
going to grow in that brother.
It's going to be very difficultas opposed to you going to him
(12:59):
and saying this is what, andeven being open hey, did I
misunderstand this?
Oftentimes we've got totallywrong information.
We've read a situation wrong,we're talking to all these other
people about it and brotherover here has done nothing wrong
.
And so, for his sake, for yoursake, not to fall in sin and for
the sake of the glory of Christ, keep it just between the two
(13:19):
of you.
Go to your brother or sister.
Jesus says if he listens to you, you have won your brother over
.
I'm convinced 95% of churchdiscipline happens right here,
something we do talk now.
Nobody likes that kind ofconversation.
That's why we go talk toeverybody else, because it's
easier to talk to other peoplethan to talk with each other
(13:41):
about sin and struggle.
But do the hard work from thevery beginning and just go to
your brother, love him, care forhim in humility Same picture
that Matthew 7 teaches.
You've looked in your own life.
You're going to help yourbrother with a speck in his eye.
Go to him, love him enough tocare for him.
Go to him and not be talking toeverybody else about this and
(14:02):
in the process you'll win yourbrother over, gain your brother.
I'm convinced we do step oneright here.
We've done the majority ofchurch discipline in the church.
No team necessary, no officialorganization.
Just live among one another andcare for each other enough to
help each other avoid sin.
Step one private correction.
(14:22):
But what Jesus says, verse 16,is if he will not listen I want
to pause here before we go tostep two If your brother will
not listen, will not listen tothe word, will not receive
correction.
That's when you go to step two.
If your brother turns from sinat that point and the whole
(14:46):
church discipline picture herein Matthew chapter 18 is not in
play anymore.
Now there might be follow alonghere.
There might be situations wheremaybe a brother or sister has
some relationships that need tobe restored.
As he's turning back.
There's some things that you'regoing to help walk with him or
her through in the process ofrestoring and the consequences
(15:08):
of those sins.
That's a whole other picture.
But what the rest of Matthew 18is dealing with is unrepentant
sin in the church.
A brother who will not listento the word, a sister who will
not listen to correction fromthe word in the body of Christ
and continues unrepentant in sin.
If they don't listen, then yougo to step two.
Step two small groupclarification.
(15:31):
Small group clarification.
And by small group Jesus saysone or two others, take one or
two others along so that everymatter may be established by the
testimony of two or threewitnesses.
He quotes there fromDeuteronomy, chapter 19, verse
15, picture pattern from the OldTestament where others are
brought in to testify to thetruth of something and again the
(15:53):
picture here is to keep thiscircle small, to gather together
one or two other believers whoare gentle and humble and loving
and caring to go with you.
They can, in the processthere's all kinds of things.
Those one or two brothers canhelp you understand.
If you're imposing somenon-biblical or extra-biblical
(16:16):
legalistic regulation onsomebody, that's good.
Brothers and sisters.
Say that you don't need to beconfronting this.
Say that you don't need to beconfronting this, but if it
needs to be confronted in abrother sister's life, now
you've got two or three peoplewho are saying we love you and
we care for you and we want youto experience abundance in
Christ and so we're talkingabout you with this, about that.
For that reason, two or threebrothers or sisters doing that.
(16:42):
Again, this doesn't necessarilyhave to involve a church leader
or a pastor.
In fact I mean it could.
But I think the best context isto involve someone or a couple
of people who know that person,who are involved in that
person's life, who know whatthey're walking through and who
will walk with them through thatstruggle.
So here we've got the majorityof church discipline in these
(17:04):
first two steps.
The goal is keep this thingsmall in these first two steps
and then it widens in step three.
Jesus says if he refuses tolisten to them, in other words,
if he will not receivecorrection, if he continues
unrepentant in sin, then tell itto the church.
(17:25):
Step three church admonition.
Now church is involved.
Well, what does that mean?
Well, the word here tell it tothe church is ecclesia.
It's the word we see all overthe New Testament for the
gathering of believers, theassembly of believers, and the
picture is the local church, theassembly, the gathering, and
(17:47):
that looks different indifferent contexts.
But now the circle has widenedto involve the church.
Tell it to the church.
Now, I know that as soon as wesee that, we think okay, so you
go from three to 4,000.
How does that look in thecontext of the church in Brook
(18:09):
Hills, the church that we are apart of?
And those are some of thethings we're going to dive into
next week.
Let's just see what Jesus issaying here.
He says tell it to the church.
The gathering of believers, theassembly, the local body, tell
it to the local body.
And the picture here.
I've wondered at this point,man, that seems to get large.
(18:33):
Quick, why, why would it benecessary?
Why would Jesus say go to theassembly of believers and tell
them about this brother orsister and their sin, why and
this is the picture.
This is one of those times inthe study for me over the last
couple of weeks that just camealive in a way I had not
realized before in this textwhat's going on here.
(18:55):
And I think part of the reasonI hadn't realized is because
even when I've seen churchesthat practice church discipline,
I think this is somethingthat's missed out on churches
that practice church discipline.
I think this is somethingthat's missed out on Oftentimes.
The time when it comes to thewhole church, the whole
gathering, when a brother orsister sin who's going to be
(19:16):
who's under church discipline isbrought before a whole
gathering, is oftentimes whenthat brother or sister is being
excommunicated or removed frommembership in the church, which
we're going to talk about injust a second.
But that's not what Jesus issaying here.
It may get to that point, buthe says tell it to the church
and listen to the very nextphrase if he refuses to listen
even to the church.
So the picture is the point oftelling it to the church.
(19:38):
The whole gathering ofbelievers is so that now you
have an entire local assembly ofbelievers out of love and grace
and mercy and humility is goingafter that believer, saying we
want you to turn to Christ, wewant you to trust in Christ.
Is loving them enough, caringfor them, showing the mercy and
(19:58):
grace of God to them in order todraw them back to Christ?
And the picture here I love thepicture here of a God who does
not leave us alone to wander offinto our sin, but who gets to a
point where he says I love youso much I'm going to send my
people to show you that love,and my people are going to be an
(20:19):
expression of that.
And so the picture here is thechurch expressing the grace and
the love and the mercy of God inorder to bring this brother
back from his sin.
Grace and mercy all over thisdeal.
It leads to step four.
If he refuses to listen even tothe church, then treat him as
(20:40):
you would, a pagan or a taxcollector.
Step four churchexcommunication.
Excommunication, removal fromthe church.
And the imagery here is Jesussaying treat him as if he were
(21:01):
not a brother in the church,treat him as if he were outside
of the church.
He's no longer treated as amember of the body of Christ,
excommunicated, expelled fromthe church, which is the
language we'll see in just asecond in the New Testament.
I want us to see here inMatthew, chapter 18,.
This is not an option.
(21:21):
This is a command from Jesus totreat a brother or sister in
unrepentant sin as if he werenot a member anymore, as if he
were not a brother or sister.
That's a command from Jesus,which means to not obey.
(21:45):
This is to sin.
Ladies and gentlemen.
We are in sin, we are indisobedience as a body if we do
not do this Now.
(22:06):
Let's pause here for a secondand let's just be totally honest
with each other.
This doesn't seem right, doesit?
This is tough.
This is certainly tough toimplement, but this is tough to
understand.
Doesn't this go against thegrain of all of our thinking?
(22:28):
Isn't the church supposed to bethe people and the place where
everyone is welcomed?
Why would the church say tosomeone you cannot be a member
here, you are excluded frommembership here.
Why would the church say that?
(22:49):
Doesn't that seem to go againstevery picture of the church
that we have in our minds?
Why would Jesus say this andwhy would the New Testament
church actually do it?
Take a right with me to go to 1Corinthians, chapter 5.
1 Corinthians, chapter 5.
(23:10):
I want you to see how the NewTestament church was obedient in
this.
They were living indisobedience by not paying
attention to this whole pictureand God, through Paul, called
them to obedience.
First Corinthians, chapter 5.
As you're turning there, quick,quick setup the city of Corinth
(23:31):
, a city of loose living, sexualimmorality, I'm convinced, in
many ways very similar to ourculture today, where sexual
immorality was rampant, hardlyeven noticed.
You don't have to sit throughone round of commercials on TV
or sit through five minutes of amovie today to know that sexual
immorality is just accepted asrampant and it's no big deal.
(23:54):
We're desensitized to it, justaccept it as rampant and it's no
big deal.
We're desensitized to it.
And the picture in Corinth isthat it infiltrated the church.
And I'm convinced the pictureis the exact same today, exact
same today.
And so what happens is Paulwrites this letter to the church
.
Here in chapter five, headdresses a situation which I
wish I could clean this up some,but there's just no way to
(24:16):
clean it up.
The situation is there is abrother, there's a member in the
church who is sleeping with hisstepmother.
That's the picture.
And he is a member of thechurch and Paul addresses them,
and I want you to hear what hesays 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1.
It is actually reported thatthere is sexual immorality among
(24:40):
you, and of a kind that doesnot even occur among pagans.
A man has his father's wife,which the original language.
There is a picture of hisstepmother and you are proud.
Shouldn't you rather have beenfilled with grief and have put
out of your fellowship the manwho did this?
(25:01):
Even though I am not physicallypresent, I am with you in
spirit and I have already passedjudgment on the one who did
this, just as if I were present.
When you are assembled in thename of our Lord Jesus and I am
with you in spirit and the powerof our Lord Jesus is present
hand this man over to Satan.
Your boasting is not good.
Don't you know that a littleyeast works through the whole
(25:31):
batch of dough?
Get rid of the old yeast thatyou may be a new batch without
yeast, as you really are.
For christ, our, our passoverland has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us keep thefestival, not with the old yeast
, the yeast of malice andwickedness, but with bread
without yeast, the bread ofsincerity and truth.
I have written you in my letternot to associate with sexually
(25:52):
immoral people.
Then paul says not at all,meaning the people of this world
who are immoral, or the greedyand swindlers or idolaters.
In that case you would have toleave this world.
Paul just gets honest.
Listen, this is talking aboutthe church here.
If you were avoiding thesexually immoral in the world,
you couldn't go out of yourhouse, you'd go somewhere else,
another planet.
But now I am writing you thatyou must not associate with
(26:14):
anyone who calls himself abrother but is sexually immoral
or greedy, an idolater or aslanderer, a drunkard or
swindler.
With such a man do not even eat, don't even sit at the table
with him.
What business is it of mine tojudge those outside the church?
(26:34):
Are you not to judge thoseinside?
God will judge those outside.
Expel the wicked man from amongyou.
I want you to notice theforceful language Paul uses here
.
Four times what he says to do.
Verse two, he says put thatbrother out of your fellowship.
(26:54):
Verse five hand him over toSatan, which we'll talk about in
a minute.
Verse seven get rid of thatbrother, member of the church.
And verse 13, expel the wickedman from among you.
This right here pretty muchrules Paul out of being on the
front cover of church growthmagazines.
He's just lost his right to theever, and not just Paul.
(27:16):
Jesus tells us this in Matthew18.
Paul talks about it here in 1Corinthians 5.
The Word of God is telling usto remove a member from the
church, to remove a brother orsister from the church.
Why?
This doesn't make sense to us.
(27:38):
So why and I think 1Corinthians 5 gives us the
answer in a variety of differentways.
You've got this in your notes.
First, do this for the purityof the church, for the purity of
the church.
This, I'm convinced, is theprimary issue, as we're going to
(28:00):
see in a minute.
This is good for the brother orsister who is in immorality,
but the primary issue here isthe effect on the church.
The purity of the church is atthe forefront of 1 Corinthians,
chapter 5 in a variety ofdifferent ways.
Look at these truths that risefrom 1 Corinthians, chapter 5.
First, church members areaccountable.
(28:22):
Church members are accountable.
I want you to notice that Paul,in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, is
not confronting the brother whois in sexual immorality.
Who is he confronting?
He's confronting the brotherwho is in sexual immorality.
Who is he confronting?
He's confronting the church.
He's not rebuking the brotherwho is caught in sexual
(28:44):
immorality, he is rebuking thechurch.
And the picture here is thechurch being told that they are
disobeying God for the way theyare responding to this brother.
The issue in 1 Corinthians 5 isthe church's toleration of sin.
(29:04):
And he says to them you areaccountable, church first before
God.
1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse16 and 17, just a couple of
chapters before this talks abouthow the people of God are the
temple of God.
And Paul is saying you're thetemple of God and you're not
guarding the holiness of thattemple.
All throughout the OldTestament you didn't let idols
(29:25):
hang out in the temple.
You cleansed the temple.
In the same way, now you're thetemple.
You do not let impurity reignin the temple and you're
accountable before God for that.
But not just accountable beforeGod.
Church members are accountablefor each other.
This is the point of 1Corinthians, chapter 5.
(29:46):
The church, the body ofbelievers.
The church is responsible forthe sin of its members, is
responsible for the sin of itsmembers.
Did you catch that?
The church, the body ofbelievers, is responsible before
God for the sin of its members.
(30:06):
We do not think this way.
We think of sin.
We think about sinindividualistically, don't we?
We think, well, that's thatbrother's problem, that's that
sister's struggle, and that'sexactly what they were doing in
1 Corinthians, chapter five, andPaul rebuked them for it.
He said it's not that brother'sbusiness before God, it's your
(30:29):
business before God that he isliving in unrepentant sin.
You are accountable for God andfor each other.
That's the whole picture and itmakes sense in light of what
we've seen all the way up tothis point over the last three
or four months.
As members of the body ofChrist, we belong to one another
, right, we belong to oneanother in the way that and
(30:49):
that's what this whole yeast anddough is about.
One member's sin doesn't justaffect them.
One member's sin affects theentire body of Christ.
We saw this a year ago when welooked at sin in the camp
Achan's sin.
Joshua, chapter 7,.
One man's sin affects theentire people of God.
(31:10):
We have no clue how serious sinis.
We have no clue how serious sinis.
We have no clue how serious sinis in the community of faith.
And we are responsible beforeGod for each other.
Do you realize?
Let this soak in.
(31:30):
You are responsible for theholiness of the brothers and
sisters that are sitting aroundyou at this moment, brothers and
sisters behind you, beside you,in front of you.
You're responsible for theirgrowth and holiness.
(31:50):
And if there is a brother orsister sitting around you, a
member of this body sittingaround you that is unrepentant
in sin, is continuing on inunrepentant sin, then God holds
you responsible.
God holds us responsible.
I mean you in a plural sense,you, people of God, us.
(32:12):
We are responsible for eachother's sin.
It's even this picture verse 2,when he says you're proud.
Shouldn't you rather have beenfilled with grief?
That word there, it's a greatword.
It's a sorrow over sin and thepicture is it's to experience
sorrow and grieving over someoneelse's sin in the same way that
(32:34):
we would experience sorrow andgrieving over our own sin.
It's to grieve over other sinsas if they were your own.
That right there in and ofitself, you think about it.
Maybe this is why we don't dochurch discipline and why we're
(32:54):
not grieving over each other'ssins, because there is so little
grief in our own hearts for ourown sin.
Don't miss the connection.
If we are casual with sin inour own hearts, then we will be
casual of sin in other people'slives.
When we are serious about sinin our own lives, then we will
(33:16):
have deep sensitivity to sins inthe community of faith.
That's the picture here, and sothe lack of church discipline
in our culture and incontemporary church today is a
reflection on our casual,flippant attitude towards sin.
We don't think it's a big dealtowards sin.
We don't think it's a big deal.
(33:40):
1 Corinthians 5 says it's ahuge deal.
One writer said a church thatdoes not mourn over sin,
especially sin within its ownfellowship, is on the edge of
spiritual disaster.
When we cease to be shocked bysin, we lose a strong defense
against it.
Church members are accountable.
(34:01):
Church members must be humble,must be humble.
What is the sin of the churchat Corinth here in 1 Corinthians
, chapter 5?
What's their sin?
That Paul points out?
Look at verse 2.
And you are what?
You're proud.
You're proud.
What does that mean?
(34:21):
Proud, were they proud of thisguy who is committing this
sexual immorality?
Are they boasting about that?
Certainly not necessarilyboasting about his exact sin.
But follow closely here.
Do not miss this, his exact sin.
But follow closely here.
Do not miss this.
I want you to see with me whatPaul is identifying as pride in
(34:43):
1 Corinthians, chapter 5.
Don't miss this Pride.
1 Corinthians, chapter 5, it'sbeing addressed here.
Pride is toleration ofunrepentant sinners in the
church.
That's pride.
Paul says Pride, toleration ofunrepentant sinners in the
church.
It's not necessarily that theywere boasting about how great
(35:06):
this man's sin was, but theywere boasting about the fact
that they welcomed him, thatthey were open-minded to use our
terms today that anyone,including someone in such
heinous sin, could be a memberof this church, and they were
proud of it.
Look at our grace and ourfreedom.
(35:29):
You can do anything you wantand be a member of this church,
and Paul rebukes them for it.
Church, and Paul rebukes themfor it.
Now, key words thereunrepentant sinners in the
church.
This is not talking about theway we approach those who are
unbelievers outside the church,in sin.
It's not talking about those inthe church who are hungering
(35:51):
and thirsting for righteousnessand growing in holiness and
struggling with sin along theway.
This is unrepentant sinners inthe church.
Language here is a man has hisfather's wife.
It's present, continual action.
He is living in immorality andyou are saying he is welcome
here as a member of this body,and Paul says that's pride.
(36:13):
Your boasting is not good.
Now, the alternative isobviously what?
The alternative of pride ishumility.
What's humility?
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 5,then, humility is exclusion of
unrepentant sinners from thechurch.
That's humility.
Paul says this is what youshould do Turn from your pride
(36:33):
and exclude him, and exclude isthe right word.
We saw the forceful languagePaul used in verse 9.
He says don't what you shoulddo Turn from your pride and
exclude him, and exclude is theright word.
We saw the forceful languagePaul used In verse 9, he says
don't even associate with him.
Verse 11, he says don't eveneat with him.
And this is not the only placePaul talks like this.
This is not just Paul waking upin the morning and having a bad
day and writing 1 Corinthians,chapter 5.
He says it's in other pointstoo.
2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6.
(36:54):
He warns the church to keepaway from a brother.
2 Thessalonians 3, verse 14 and15.
Take special note not toassociate with this particular
brother.
2 Timothy 3, 5.
Titus 3, 10.
(37:14):
2 Timothy 3, 5.
Titus 3, 10.
Having nothing to do with thisbrother, I want us to realize
something.
This is the exact opposite ofwhat we think, isn't it Like?
We think this is totallyreversed.
We think it is humble towelcome everyone as members of
(37:34):
the church.
We think it's a sign ofhumility to say it doesn't
matter what you continue to doin sin, you can still be a
member.
We think that's humble.
In fact, we think it's pridefulto do anything different.
We would certainly call anychurch that's casting out
members because they continueunrepentant in sin.
Who do they think they areHolier thanthan-thou?
(37:58):
People Talk about legalism.
That's what that church is allabout.
They're removing members.
Don't gloss over this.
We can't miss this.
If, by God's grace, we areobedient to Him in Matthew 18
(38:20):
and 1 Corinthians 5, and Godforbid that we would get to this
point with a brother or sister.
But if we did and a brother orsister was removed from this
body, mark it down from thestart that will not be perceived
as humble.
(38:41):
It will be perceived asprideful, arrogant legalism.
But the picture that 1Corinthians 5 is teaching is
exactly the opposite.
Church, it is pride to toleratesin among each other like it is
(39:03):
no big deal.
It is pride and it is sinagainst God.
Toleration of sin is sinful andit is humility to address sin
in a brother or sister's life,even to the point of expelling
them from the church ifnecessary.
(39:26):
It is pride to sit back and,under a banner of grace and
freedom, welcome everyone asmembers, no matter what they do.
That is pride, 1 Corinthians 5says.
And it is humility to careabout each other and to care
about the holiness of God suchthat you would confront each
other in sin and, if it gets tothis case, that you would expel
(39:50):
someone from church.
We choose the first option,toleration, because it's a lot
easier, isn't it?
You talk about hard work.
Humility here is the hard work.
Think about the pain involved in1 Corinthians 5.
Maybe not even just the pain,but the risk involved here, in a
(40:15):
culture of honor and shame inthe first century, to shame a
brother and think about it evenmore Now.
We don't know the details.
This is hypotheticalspeculation, but even if it
wasn't the case here, it couldcertainly be the case in our day
.
What if it's a brother who isparticularly influential?
What if it is a brother?
This brother is extremelygenerous.
(40:36):
What if this is a brother?
This brother is extremelygenerous.
What if this brother hasinfluence, power in the
community?
One writer said to lose thefavor of a key benefactor, for
example, would have beenunthinkable in Greco-Roman
society and would invitehostility.
It would have been moreexpedient for such a leading
figure to be protected fromcriticism which might lead to
(40:59):
his excommunication.
There may be, in other words, asituation where some have
chosen to ignore the sinfulactions of another rather than
lose the favor of so prominent aperson.
Think about a fledgling churchat Corinth in a time of
persecution, where it wasdifficult to be the church and
(41:19):
be followers of Christ, to havethis leader carried away in the
immorality in the city and toexpel him from the community and
to bring that reproach uponyourself.
There's an easier way to dochurch in Corinth.
In the same way, there's aneasier way to do church in
Birmingham.
But Paul says no matter what itcosts, you guard the holiness of
God's temple.
You promote the purity of thechurch.
(41:42):
You're accountable for God forthat, and this is humility.
Humility does not tell God howhe should be gracious.
Humility obeys God with fearand trembling and gentleness.
(42:08):
Humility obeys God no matterwhat it costs.
Church members are accountable,must be humble and church
membership is essential.
We've talked about this before.
We'll just hit on it briefly.
But the implications here forwhat it means to be a member of
the body of christ are huge.
(42:30):
Most people read the storytoday and think, okay, removed
from the church, big deal, whatdoes that really matter?
And it shows how far we've come, how much we have minimized
what it means to be a member ofa local body of Christ, to think
that this would be not a bigdeal.
It was a huge deal in that day.
This was severe, and don't misswhat the Bible's saying here
(42:53):
about what it means to be amember, a part of a local body
of Christ.
The church, that local body,defines who is a member.
This is not up to theindividual here, it's up to the
body, because the body of Christis responsible for defining who
is members in the community offaith.
That's the picture here.
And on a deeper level, don'tmiss what Matthew 18, 1
Corinthians 5 are both teachingIsolation from the church
(43:15):
reflects separation from Christ.
Whether it's this picture handthis man over to Satan, which
we'll talk about in just asecond or Matthew 18, treat him
as you would.
A pagan or a tax collector.
To be excommunicated, expelledoutside of the body of Christ
was to be recognized as someonewho's not even a believer, not a
brother or sister.
This is why, again, if weminimize devalued church
(43:38):
membership, what it means to bea member of the body of Christ
and we live Christian lives thatare just kind of floating all
around, not connected to a localbody, then we're going
completely against the NewTestament.
The New Testament has nounderstanding of a follower of
Christ who is not a committedmember of a local body of Christ
, who is not a committed memberof a local body of Christ, who
(44:00):
is committed to that gathering.
We've talked about that beforeand so the picture here is is
Paul saying excommunicatesomeone, first for the purity of
the church, second for thesalvation of the individual,
salvation in a holistic sensehere the good of the individual.
Salvation in a holistic sensehere the good of the individual.
Hand this man over to Satan sothat the sinful nature may be
(44:22):
destroyed and his spirit savedon the day of the Lord, verse 5.
Now there's tons of debate onthis and we're not going to have
time to dive into all thedifferent interpretations here.
The point here don't miss thepurpose, because even different
ideas, thoughts on hand this manover to Satan, sinful nature
may destroy what do those thingsmean?
They all lead to his spiritbeing saved on the day of the
(44:45):
Lord.
So the picture is this is forthis man's good, day of the Lord
, day of judgment.
So, whatever it means, handthis man over to Satan so the
sinful nature may be destroyed,it is for his good, for his
salvation.
Now we think how is thatpossible?
How can you hand a man over toSatan for their good?
(45:06):
And this is where this is likethree or four sermons down to 30
or 40 seconds.
In a nutshell, there's precedentall over Scripture for Satan.
Satan, the ruler of this world,god of this world, lowercase g.
God of this world is still notsovereign.
(45:28):
God is sovereign over Satan andover everything Satan does.
And we see in Scripture Godusing Satan to accomplish God's
purposes.
It's the whole picture we sawin Job, right, god uses Satan to
bring Job 40 chapters later tosay I repent in dust and ashes
(45:49):
and I see the glory of God.
God used Satan to accomplishthat.
2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse7 through 10.
Paul, there was given me athorn in my flesh, a messenger
of who?
A messenger of Satan.
Given to me a messenger ofSatan to drive me to trust in
the strength that God provides.
God used Satan to teach Paul totrust in his grace and his
(46:14):
sufficiency.
One more example 1 Timothy 1,verse 20.
Hymenaeus and Alexander theyhave been handed over to.
Satan uses the same language.
I have handed them over toSatan so that they would be
taught not to blaspheme.
God has a purpose in this andthere's a lot of questions there
(46:35):
.
That's for those three or foursermons.
There's a lot of questionsthere.
That's for those three or foursermons.
There's a lot of questionsthere.
It's mind-boggling to say theleast.
But the picture is God issovereign over Satan and God is
first ultimate picture here isthe purity of the church.
But this is for the good of anindividual that being cast out
of the church he would see theseverity of sin.
He would feel the consequencesof not being united to the body
(47:02):
of Christ.
And just think about even thatright there, if we just stopped
right there, even that thatbeing out of the church would be
a picture of the severity ofsin, that he would see the
consequences of being separatedfrom the body of Christ, of sin.
That he would see theconsequences of being separated
from the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians, chapter 5,.
(47:24):
This whole picture only worksif there is a distinction
between the church and the worldthat he's cast out into right.
If there's no distinctionbetween the church and the world
, which is where we are today inso many ways, then this picture
makes no sense to us, becauseit really looks pretty much the
same to be outside in the worldand inside in the church.
God, help us to change that.
God, raise up a church that isdistinctively unique, that is
(47:45):
distinctively holy, in the sameway that Acts, chapter 5, says
awes the world and draws theworld to Christ.
This is the picture here.
For the salvation of theindividual, I pray that God
would make us a community offaith.
That is in and of itself andwho we are.
(48:06):
We are a gracious deterrentfrom sin, gracious deterrent
against sin.
The thought of being separatedfrom this body is in and of
itself a gracious deterrentagainst sin.
No, I don't want to beseparated from the body of
Christ.
For the purity of the church,for the salvation of the
individual.
And you know this was comingfor the glory of God.
(48:31):
Paul starts this whole pictureand he says this kind of sexual
immorality, it doesn't evenoccur among pagans.
Not even the world condoneswhat you are now condoning in
the church.
Can I be honest?
This is where this journeybegan for me as a pastor in this
(48:52):
body.
It was not long after I camewhen the elders and I were
contacted by a woman in thiscommunity.
Her husband had committedadultery against her and was
(49:17):
with another woman living withher, in the process of divorcing
his wife.
And she contacts us and shesays my husband has come and
he's joined your church whilehe's living with this other
woman.
And she said I don't get it.
How can a member of your churchbe sleeping around on me and
(49:46):
you all do nothing about that?
That pierced me and we addressthat individual situation
specifically.
But it was clear how is thatpossible?
(50:07):
And it's possible because wehave ignored Matthew 18 and 1
Corinthians 5.
We have ignored Matthew 18 and1 Corinthians 5.
And I'm not sure that we wereready at that point to dive
right into this, and so this hasbeen a long time coming, but we
(50:27):
need to dive into this.
We need to implement this Forthe glory of God not to be
compromised in the world.
We need to implement this inchurch.
Questions abound how that looks, questions abound.
But let's be firm in this onething we do not want to
(50:50):
compromise the glory of God inthe world around us when they
see the church, and we certainlydon't want to use justifying
explanations that we're proud ofin the process.
God is doing so much across thisbody.
One of the things we need towork on and we are working on is
(51:14):
how to celebrate better all ofthe victories around this room,
this body of believers.
There are scores and scores andscores of small groups all
across this body that are takingon this city for the glory of
Christ, starting ministries,plugging into ministries,
infiltrating communities allacross the city for the glory of
(51:35):
Christ, starting ministries,plugging into ministries,
infiltrating communities allacross the city with the gospel.
There are dozens, dozens ofindividuals and families in this
faith family who right now areeither praying seriously about
or in the process of givingtheir lives to go to another
nation that does not have accessto the gospel, of giving their
lives to go to another nationthat does not have access to the
(51:56):
gospel.
There are stories of communityand grace and mercy all across
this faith family.
God is doing awesome things andI'm convinced that the
adversary would like nothingmore than to undercut that with
sin in the camp here or there.
(52:18):
And for us to think it's smalland it's not a big deal and it's
not worth addressing.
And so let's say, as a people,we're going to be obedient here.
Show us how, god, we're goingto be obedient.
We're not going to have time tofinish, of course not, but
here's what I want us to do Iwant us to pray and I want us to
pray obedient.
We're not going to have time tofinish, of course not, but
(52:38):
here's what I want us to do Iwant us to pray and I want us to
pray together in response tothis word, in light of Psalm 24.
Let me read it to you.
This is a psalm.
This is a psalm that waswritten when people were
journeying.
Follow this, follow this.
When people were journeying tothe temple for worship, a place
where the glory of God dwelled.
This is what they would say whomay ascend the hill of the Lord
(53:00):
, who may stand in his holyplace, he who has clean hands
and a pure heart, who does notlift up his soul to an idol, he
will receive blessing from theLord.
Such is the generation of thosewho seek him, who seek your
face, o God of Jacob.
That's what they would say.
They would look inside.
Do we have clean hands, do wehave a pure heart, before we
even go to the temple?
(53:20):
Now, here's the picture.
Not Old Testament anymore, weare the temple, and so the
question is church.
Do we have clean hands and apure heart?
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