Sin, Discipline, and Grace in the Church

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.240 Me To first Corinthians, Chapter Five. I'll be reading first Corinthians five this 2 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:33.259 morning and preaching from this portion of God's word. So First Corinthians Five, 3 00:00:35.810 --> 00:00:40.369 Paul begins, and I sort of imagine him with shaking his head, his 4 00:00:40.609 --> 00:00:46.090 jaw open, his eyes unbelieving, as he reports the what he has heard 5 00:00:46.689 --> 00:00:51.880 to the Corinthians. First Corinthians Five. He says, it is actually reported 6 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:56.840 that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not 7 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:03.349 even tolerated among pagans. For a man has his father's wife and you are 8 00:01:03.590 --> 00:01:10.750 arrogant bought you not rather to mourn, let him who has done this be 9 00:01:10.909 --> 00:01:15.590 removed from among you, for, though absent in body, I am present 10 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:19.019 in spirit and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one 11 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:23.340 who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the 12 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:26.420 Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord 13 00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:32.180 Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the 14 00:01:32.299 --> 00:01:36.810 flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 15 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:42.689 You're boasting. It's not good. Do you not know that a little 16 00:01:42.730 --> 00:01:48.719 leaven Levin's the whole lump, cleanse out the old Levin that you may be 17 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:53.319 a new lump, as you really are unleavened. for Christ, our Passover 18 00:01:53.359 --> 00:02:00.640 lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old 19 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:05.469 leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of 20 00:02:05.870 --> 00:02:10.229 sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with 21 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:16.099 sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or 22 00:02:16.180 --> 00:02:21.900 the GREEDIS and greedy and swindlers or idolater. Since then you would need to 23 00:02:21.939 --> 00:02:24.379 go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to 24 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:30.370 associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual 25 00:02:30.409 --> 00:02:34.729 immorality or greed, or as an idolater, revil or, drunkard or Swin 26 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:38.409 Lord, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I 27 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:43.009 to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you 28 00:02:43.090 --> 00:02:49.120 are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among 29 00:02:49.599 --> 00:03:06.909 you. May God bless his word to us. May Be seated. Paul 30 00:03:06.949 --> 00:03:10.949 speaks to us in First Corinthians five and very clear terms. There are few 31 00:03:10.990 --> 00:03:16.340 things here and there which you might find a little bit of confusion around, 32 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:21.580 things that you're not exactly sure how to interpret, but the core of his 33 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:24.060 message should be, I'm very clear. He says it at the beginning, 34 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:30.610 he says it throughout and he says it at the end, that this gross, 35 00:03:31.009 --> 00:03:38.129 big, notorious and public sin that is among the church needs to be 36 00:03:38.289 --> 00:03:44.919 purged. The person who is doing this thing should be removed from among the 37 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:52.639 people, excommunicated, set outside the boundaries of the fellowship of the Church and 38 00:03:52.719 --> 00:04:00.909 the people so that they might be saved. In our passage today we learn 39 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:05.870 that the church and Corinth had another big problem. We've been thinking about one 40 00:04:05.990 --> 00:04:11.539 through the first four chapters, and that was this arrogance over their understanding of 41 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:15.180 the ministry, of the Gospel and other similar things related to that. Now 42 00:04:15.660 --> 00:04:20.339 Paul comes to another one. He's heard a report, and he says, 43 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:26.850 it is actually report worded, that their sexual immorality among you and of a 44 00:04:26.889 --> 00:04:30.889 kind that is not even tolerated among the Pagans. For a man has his 45 00:04:31.129 --> 00:04:38.529 father's wife, and not only was that a problem, that sin in itself 46 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:42.360 with this particular man, but there was a second problem, which is that 47 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:46.319 the people in Corinth, the body of the church, was failing to do 48 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:51.120 its job in removing this person from among its members, and they needed to. 49 00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:59.910 The Sin in particular was the sin of incest, and when way of 50 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:03.870 describing that or putting it would be to say this incest is acting like you're 51 00:05:03.990 --> 00:05:10.459 married with someone in your family that you're not and shouldn't be married to. 52 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:16.740 In this case it was a son acting like he was married to his stepmom, 53 00:05:18.100 --> 00:05:23.009 and that's what the phrase wife of his father probably refers to. That 54 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:27.850 it's not that it is his stepmother, and if the father was still alive 55 00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:30.769 it, this sin may have been even worse, because then it would have 56 00:05:30.810 --> 00:05:42.720 been not only incest but adultery. To these are very big sins and everyone 57 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:50.069 knew it. To give them a wakeup call and avoid certain wrong conclusions about 58 00:05:50.069 --> 00:05:56.470 the law and the old covenant, Paul doesn't quote Leviticus Eighteen or Leviticus twenty, 59 00:05:56.509 --> 00:06:00.069 which does forbid incest, but to make his point, and he's he 60 00:06:00.189 --> 00:06:04.180 instead he says this sin is a of a kind that's not even tolerated among 61 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:10.019 the Pagans. I don't have to go to Moses to show you this. 62 00:06:10.139 --> 00:06:15.779 You don't need special revelation. Natural Law, God's Natural Law, teaches this 63 00:06:15.939 --> 00:06:20.970 plainly enough. The Pagans don't even accept this, and yet it's no big 64 00:06:21.009 --> 00:06:26.810 deal, it seems to be in your congregation. You're sitting on your hands 65 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:31.209 instead of dealing with the sin that is among you, and indeed the Pagans 66 00:06:31.290 --> 00:06:35.920 did not tolerate this. In Rome, those who are found guilty of incest 67 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:42.399 were guilty of a criminal charge. They could be banished out of the city 68 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:49.269 to an island, exiled. You'd lose your citizenship if found guilty, potentially 69 00:06:49.870 --> 00:06:55.149 you could lose your property, your social status, common fellowship with friends and 70 00:06:55.310 --> 00:07:00.819 families and in cases where it was also adults, as may be the case 71 00:07:00.980 --> 00:07:04.819 here. One Historian, Bruce Winter, tells us that the charge of incest 72 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:11.699 combined with adultery was so serious that is excluded from a five year statute of 73 00:07:11.899 --> 00:07:16.449 limitations under Roman law, which means even long after the crime had been committed, 74 00:07:16.490 --> 00:07:21.290 a person could be found guilty and sent into exile. This is how 75 00:07:21.329 --> 00:07:29.769 the Romans, who are not necessarily followers of God's moral law and all kinds 76 00:07:29.810 --> 00:07:36.040 of other ways, dealt with this particular sin. What does not. What 77 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:41.279 is the implication, or what are some of the implications, of the church 78 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.470 failing to deal with this in their own congregation? In Matthew Twenty Eight, 79 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:50.230 Jesus tells us go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name 80 00:07:50.269 --> 00:07:55.110 of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe 81 00:07:55.389 --> 00:08:00.300 all that I have commanded you. This work that he commands us to is 82 00:08:00.339 --> 00:08:03.259 not the work of one individual, but the whole body of Christ, founded 83 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:09.819 in Christ and his apostles. But when that body of Christ, when the 84 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:13.009 church, when, as the church, we allow big, public, notorious 85 00:08:13.050 --> 00:08:20.610 sins that even pagans don't tolerate, we are not walking any longer in the 86 00:08:20.610 --> 00:08:22.250 name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. We are not 87 00:08:22.410 --> 00:08:28.879 observing and teaching others to observe all that Jesus commanded. We're not we're not 88 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:35.759 following the Great Commission. We're doing the opposite, and this is dangerous not 89 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:43.629 only to our not only to our witness, but even to our existence as 90 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:52.429 a church. Why would I say that when, revelation to three, Jesus 91 00:08:52.549 --> 00:08:58.700 writes letters to seven churches, which represent the whole church throughout time and there 92 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:05.379 he makes there. He says he that he will come against those people and 93 00:09:05.539 --> 00:09:09.210 those churches that do not repent. To the Church in Ephesus, he writes, 94 00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:13.289 and of revelation to five, I will come against you and remove your 95 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:20.730 lampstand from its place unless you repent. He's essentially saying this congregation will itself 96 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:28.360 be excommunicated out of the Church if they do not repent, and this also 97 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:37.039 applies to individuals. Excommunication for refusing to repent of sin can also apply to 98 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:43.269 congregations in a way, including refusing to excommunicate in an individual that needs to 99 00:09:43.309 --> 00:09:48.870 be excommunicated. Jesus writes to the Church and thire attire in revelation to eighteen 100 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:52.059 through twenty nine. Actually, let's let me turn to that and read that 101 00:09:54.460 --> 00:10:01.460 that you might hear the weight of his words. Revelation to verse eighteen and 102 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:09.090 to the Angel of the church and Thire Tire rite, the words of the 103 00:10:09.169 --> 00:10:13.009 son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire whose feed are like 104 00:10:13.169 --> 00:10:18.210 burnished Braunze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and 105 00:10:18.330 --> 00:10:22.759 patient endurance, and that your latter work succeed the first, but I have 106 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:28.080 this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a 107 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:33.279 prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat 108 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:39.990 food sacrifice to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses 109 00:10:39.070 --> 00:10:43.669 to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a 110 00:10:43.789 --> 00:10:48.509 sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great 111 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:54.059 tribulation unless they repent of her works and what I will strike her children dead, 112 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:58.940 and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the mind 113 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:01.940 and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 114 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:05.289 But to the rest of you, and Thiratirah, who do not hold 115 00:11:05.409 --> 00:11:09.570 this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, 116 00:11:11.289 --> 00:11:13.129 to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden, 117 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:18.480 only hold fast what you have have until I come, the one who conquers 118 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:22.799 and who keeps my works until the end. To him I will give the 119 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:26.320 authority over nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, 120 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:30.679 as when the earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself 121 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:35.070 have received authority from my father, and I will give him the morning star, 122 00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:39.230 he who has in ear. Let him hear what the spirit says to 123 00:11:39.309 --> 00:11:46.299 the churches, to hear the problem. The church had a person who is 124 00:11:46.419 --> 00:11:52.940 exercising and doing things in it was could be considered gross sexual immorality. The 125 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:56.659 Lord was calling her to repent, callowing those who are following her to repent, 126 00:11:56.700 --> 00:12:01.330 and they were not. They were refusing to repent and because of that 127 00:12:01.649 --> 00:12:09.210 and because of the Church's unwillingness to repent, danger was at hand. Tribulation 128 00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:16.919 was coming and more would come soon. It's important, in other words, 129 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.519 that when we read a passage like First Corinthians five, then we don't simply 130 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:28.360 hear this crazy and gross sin and just passed by it like a video clip, 131 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:33.350 some crazy thing on the internet and we shake our heads and scroll on 132 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:37.549 to the next thing that has no bearing on our lives. No, this 133 00:12:37.710 --> 00:12:41.549 does have bearing on our lives. It warns us a way, of course, 134 00:12:41.629 --> 00:12:46.379 from gross sins and from sin of every kind and any kind, but 135 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:50.620 it also tells us that these things apply to us, that we must take 136 00:12:50.659 --> 00:12:56.299 the word of the Lord seriously because, unless I missed something, sin is 137 00:12:56.419 --> 00:13:01.570 still a part of our lives as individuals and within the body of the Church 138 00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:07.250 and we need to understand the nature of that sin and we under need to 139 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:11.889 understand the nature of our Lord and Savior that we might look to him for 140 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:22.279 salvation from that sin. And so, for the remainder of my sermon I'd 141 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:26.120 like to point out just a few things that we might notice from this passage 142 00:13:28.110 --> 00:13:31.149 and be reminded of that we might follow the word of the Lord here in 143 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:37.190 First Corinthians Five. The first is we think about what the nature of sin 144 00:13:37.389 --> 00:13:41.940 is, is to notice that it is like leavin. That's how the Lord 145 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:46.259 describes it to us here through his apostle. He says in verse six, 146 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:52.059 do you not know that a little Levin Levin's the whole long and he's speaking 147 00:13:52.139 --> 00:13:54.340 about bread right. You add a little bit of Leavin to the bread and 148 00:13:54.769 --> 00:14:03.809 the whole thing is affected. It is systemic. It moves throughout the whole 149 00:14:03.889 --> 00:14:07.570 body. Sin Is not just in this one tiny little place and can be 150 00:14:07.129 --> 00:14:11.799 cordoned off and sanctioned off from every other little place. It has effects on 151 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:18.039 the whole thing. This happens, of course, individually, doesn't it? 152 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:22.879 We wet one little thing into our lives and it we allow it to be 153 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:26.190 there and we sort of say it's not a big deal, until, of 154 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:31.629 course it is a big deal. Perhaps you've had a dream or perhaps you've 155 00:14:31.629 --> 00:14:37.549 actually lived out this dream where you lie and then you lie to cover up 156 00:14:37.549 --> 00:14:41.059 your lie, and then you lie to cover up your lie and then it 157 00:14:41.179 --> 00:14:45.740 just builds and builds and builds until you are in this big tangled mess of 158 00:14:45.779 --> 00:14:50.500 a thing. Sin Doesn't just it's not just a thing in our minds or 159 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:54.529 a thing in our hearts. It's all connected. It it, it intertwines 160 00:14:54.610 --> 00:15:05.129 with ourselves, it's it holds US captive. Sin Spreads, it affects us 161 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:09.440 in our lives. It affects us not only in different parts of our of 162 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:15.159 ourselves, but in our relationships. In our lives too, we allow sin 163 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:18.600 to sort of have this one piece over here and then it starts showing up 164 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:22.110 over here. Oh well, I just do that at work. I would 165 00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:26.269 never do that at home. Well, I just do that at home, 166 00:15:26.309 --> 00:15:31.429 I would never do that at church, and so on and so forth. 167 00:15:31.549 --> 00:15:35.019 It spreads, it moves, it in facts and a lot of times we 168 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:39.820 think of sin is something that is a lot less than this. We think 169 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:43.659 of is something that, because it's like manageable, like a like a little 170 00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:48.139 plant that we forget about and it's just sort of over there and it'll be 171 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:54.409 fine. Sin Isn't like that, scriptures say. Sin Isn't like that, 172 00:15:54.049 --> 00:16:00.129 and it's not only true within our lives or in the within like ourselves, 173 00:16:00.169 --> 00:16:03.360 or our relationships or areas of our lives, but it's even true in our 174 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:07.600 relationships as a church. And that's in particular what Paul has in mind here. 175 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:14.399 He speaks of this person, I'm as, being eleven as their sin. 176 00:16:14.519 --> 00:16:18.440 He says, you need to cleanse it out. This will affect you, 177 00:16:18.590 --> 00:16:26.149 and this is not right. When we see sin, wherever we see 178 00:16:26.149 --> 00:16:30.029 sin, we ought not to treat it lightly, we not ought to let 179 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:34.220 it go. Sure there are it doesn't mean that we treat all sins exactly 180 00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:41.019 the same way. And things like church discipline can be abused. There are 181 00:16:41.179 --> 00:16:48.330 such things as overreacting, but thinking of sin as a minor thing, as 182 00:16:48.370 --> 00:16:52.370 an unimportant thing, as a thing that ought to be ignored or, worse, 183 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:59.169 coddled and protected, should not be a part of our thinking, should 184 00:16:59.169 --> 00:17:06.359 not be a part of our acting. What should our response be, especially 185 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:14.200 when there is a big problem within the body, within the church. We've 186 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:18.670 seen this from time to time in local congregations and in denominations as a whole, 187 00:17:18.710 --> 00:17:26.509 where things are found out, discovered sometimes made open by the world, 188 00:17:26.710 --> 00:17:33.059 exposed in the news, shown to everybody to look at, to mock and 189 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:37.579 to see. What should our response be to those kinds of things when we 190 00:17:37.740 --> 00:17:41.980 have when our sins have been discovered, or when we discover them ourselves? 191 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:49.490 But Paul says, in light of this particular congregation, that their response should 192 00:17:49.490 --> 00:17:56.650 be public, it should be open, it should not be arrogant or boasted, 193 00:17:56.890 --> 00:18:04.160 boastful or hidden, but it should be mourning and in repentance. He 194 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:08.440 says in verse three that though I'm not present at though I am absent in 195 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:12.789 body, I am present in the spirit and as if present, I've already 196 00:18:12.829 --> 00:18:17.829 pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. And when you are 197 00:18:17.869 --> 00:18:22.509 assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present, 198 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:26.990 with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to 199 00:18:26.180 --> 00:18:32.140 Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that a spirit may be saved 200 00:18:32.299 --> 00:18:36.619 in the day of the Lord. They aren't to say, Oh, that 201 00:18:36.779 --> 00:18:41.490 was bad, let's hide it. They are too openly, publicly as they 202 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:48.970 assemble, acknowledge it and, collectively, in agreement with the discipline that is 203 00:18:48.049 --> 00:18:55.049 already been with the judgment that has already been rendered, set this person outside 204 00:18:55.569 --> 00:19:00.000 the bounds of the church. That would be a hard thing to be a 205 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:04.079 right, and he says that. He doesn't say you should be arrogant about 206 00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:07.519 in the also doesn't say you should be proud about it or happy about he 207 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:14.509 says you should mourn about this excommunication and these hard things of discipline should be 208 00:19:14.549 --> 00:19:19.950 accompanied by mourning and sadness, regret and repentance. And, as the one 209 00:19:21.109 --> 00:19:25.579 is set out, this is a a public response and it is a Christian 210 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:30.660 response, because it's not just a sort of pointing of fingers. It's a 211 00:19:30.819 --> 00:19:37.579 looking to Christ and asking for the Lord's Mercy. It's seeing the sin that 212 00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:41.609 is present in US and in our body and calling out to him for our 213 00:19:41.650 --> 00:19:48.970 salvation. Because who is our Passover lamb, who is the one that Paul 214 00:19:48.089 --> 00:19:55.640 says, saves us from the day of Wrath, the judgments of the Lord, 215 00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:57.960 on the day of the Lord? Who is the one who allows us 216 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:03.000 to not be judged for our sins but instead be forgiven in our repentance. 217 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:12.069 It's Christ church discipline is not just about pointing fingers angrily at other people. 218 00:20:12.069 --> 00:20:18.029 It's about looking to the Lord who has already cleansed us. Know this what 219 00:20:18.150 --> 00:20:22.579 he says? He says, yes, you need to separate this old loven 220 00:20:22.619 --> 00:20:26.380 you need to get it out that. You may be a new lump, 221 00:20:26.299 --> 00:20:33.339 but this is but, he says, as you really are unleavened. They 222 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:37.170 already belong to Christ, they have already been made holy. This is walking. 223 00:20:37.329 --> 00:20:41.569 That is not in accord with that, and that's why they need to 224 00:20:41.730 --> 00:20:45.970 act. And when they act, they need to act not as those who 225 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:49.920 are trying to prove themselves as better than each other or prove themselves as better 226 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:56.119 than the world, but is those who need the salvation of Jesus. And 227 00:20:56.359 --> 00:21:00.680 that is what this person is called to, this particular cinner within the congregation. 228 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:06.589 They're not called just to be sorry, they're not called just to mourn 229 00:21:06.750 --> 00:21:11.869 their sins. They're called to look to Christ and to repent, like the 230 00:21:11.990 --> 00:21:15.190 woman in revelation too, that we read of, and those who were following 231 00:21:15.269 --> 00:21:19.500 after her. The Lord says, I am calling her, I'm calling them, 232 00:21:19.579 --> 00:21:29.779 I'm calling to the Church to repentance. This is a great word of 233 00:21:29.859 --> 00:21:33.769 grace. We have a connection with the Old Testament and that the Lord cares 234 00:21:33.849 --> 00:21:40.329 about holiness. But we have a difference with the old covenant here. Under 235 00:21:40.369 --> 00:21:42.369 the old covenant, those who committed incense were to be put to death, 236 00:21:44.609 --> 00:21:49.279 and with no pity. That's what the Lord says. Under the new covenant 237 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:53.599 it's different. Under the new covenant he calls them, yes, to cast 238 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:59.039 them out of the church, but not to put them to death, to 239 00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:03.109 cast them out so that they might see that they are being separated from Christ, 240 00:22:03.670 --> 00:22:07.829 separated from his people, separated from those blessings in the refusal to repent, 241 00:22:10.910 --> 00:22:17.859 with the hope that he would return and he would come to the Lord 242 00:22:18.059 --> 00:22:23.460 in faith. And, as we read in Second Corinthians, that's what happened. 243 00:22:26.500 --> 00:22:30.490 And, beloved, this is what happens when the Lord disciplines us and 244 00:22:30.609 --> 00:22:33.569 when he does it in love. Sometimes it's so hard, it's so embarrassing, 245 00:22:33.730 --> 00:22:38.210 it's so scary, it's so difficult, but he does it because he 246 00:22:38.450 --> 00:22:45.480 loves us, because he does desire us to repent and to turn to him, 247 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:49.559 because he does desire us to walk in the works that he is prepared 248 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:56.359 for us. He is our savior. It is through him and through his 249 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:03.829 blood that we have salvation. So yes, our response should be to exclude 250 00:23:03.950 --> 00:23:08.789 this person from Christian Fellowship, but we do so with the hope and the 251 00:23:08.910 --> 00:23:17.660 prayer that they would turn again to Christ. Should we be arrogant in these 252 00:23:17.779 --> 00:23:22.740 things? As we feel the sting of guilt and shame for our own sins, 253 00:23:22.779 --> 00:23:27.250 as we feel how easily we could fall into these things ourselves, as 254 00:23:27.289 --> 00:23:30.450 we look at our lives and see the ways in which we have fallen into 255 00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:37.809 these things, do we have any right to stand in judgment, in the 256 00:23:37.930 --> 00:23:42.240 kind of judgment that is filled with pride and arrogance, and say, you 257 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:48.720 know, I've really got my life together, what's your problem? That's not 258 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:55.000 church discipline. Church discipline is a humbly looking to Christ as the one who, 259 00:23:55.319 --> 00:23:57.630 the only one who can save us from our sins, the only one 260 00:23:57.670 --> 00:24:03.549 who can take us out of gross immorality of this and as he lists other 261 00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:10.299 kinds, grieves swindling, idolatry and others, Jesus is the only one who 262 00:24:10.299 --> 00:24:14.819 can take us out of those things and save us, and he does it 263 00:24:15.140 --> 00:24:22.019 by his blood. Yes, the Rod of the Lord is strong, but 264 00:24:22.180 --> 00:24:29.450 he shed his own blood so that we might have life. And so as 265 00:24:29.490 --> 00:24:33.049 we consider a passage like this, as we've considered the nature of sins, 266 00:24:33.170 --> 00:24:36.930 we consider the nature of the church, the nature of the Apostolic Ministry, 267 00:24:37.089 --> 00:24:40.240 is the as we consider the work of Christ among his people, and all 268 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:45.119 of these things, we need to see them all coming from the same place, 269 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:51.920 which is Jesus. The apostles of thor already is not an authority that 270 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:56.269 he has because of his own righteousness, it's an authority that he has because 271 00:24:56.309 --> 00:25:03.190 Christ has called him to speak the word of Christ. The identification of sin 272 00:25:03.509 --> 00:25:07.900 as sin, the recognition of sin, as it says is sin, comes 273 00:25:07.019 --> 00:25:14.220 from knowing the Lord and His Holiness, knowing that Jesus shed his own blood 274 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:18.140 to make us holy and, as we read, an effusions five to cleanse 275 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:23.450 us from our sin. The necessary, the necessity for our holiness is also 276 00:25:23.569 --> 00:25:30.690 grounded in Christ, who died so that we might be forgiven. The connection 277 00:25:30.769 --> 00:25:34.490 between the Leven and the oven, unloven bread in the Passover, Paul says, 278 00:25:34.609 --> 00:25:38.720 is to be played out in our lives, because Christ was their Passover 279 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:42.920 lamb. They were to get out the Israelites, as they were fleeing Egypt 280 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:47.920 or to get the leven out of their house. They were to celebrate in 281 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.789 the future the feast of the unloved bread. That was their response to this 282 00:25:52.950 --> 00:25:56.190 work of God, this miraculous saving work of God, and our lives should 283 00:25:56.190 --> 00:26:02.269 be the same. We get the leven out, not so that we can 284 00:26:02.309 --> 00:26:06.740 achieve holiness, but because God has given it to us. We get the 285 00:26:06.819 --> 00:26:10.539 leven out of our lives. We fight the flesh. We repent of our 286 00:26:10.660 --> 00:26:18.609 sins. We come each Sunday and we confess our sins publicly, even sexual 287 00:26:18.769 --> 00:26:26.089 sins. Why? Because of what Christ has done for us. We think 288 00:26:26.130 --> 00:26:30.410 about the forgiveness of our sins in light of Christ. We drop our arrogance 289 00:26:30.450 --> 00:26:34.079 and we mourn our sins because of Christ. We come to him and all 290 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:41.519 that he has done with total dependence, total humility and the strength to do 291 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:52.549 what are sometimes very hard things. Sometimes it's repenting, sometimes it's forgiving beloved 292 00:26:52.710 --> 00:26:57.829 life in the world, and the fight against the flesh is difficult. The 293 00:26:57.990 --> 00:27:02.940 Lord never said it would be easy, he said it would be hard, 294 00:27:03.779 --> 00:27:10.940 but he promises to us the strength to fight, the strength to love, 295 00:27:11.140 --> 00:27:18.609 the strength to forgive, the strength to repent. And so the Lord calls 296 00:27:18.690 --> 00:27:26.529 you today to trust him, to trust him for everything you need for the 297 00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:33.799 fight against sin in yourself and in our church. And May the Lord Be 298 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:38.240 Gracious and merciful to us, as he has promised to be. Let's go 299 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:42.759 to him now in prayer and ask that he would fulfill his word among us. 300 -->