Corporate Responses to Sin

Introduction: Brotherly Love and the Sins of the Saints

0:04 In our regular Sunday morning expositions of the book of Ephesians, we arrived several weeks ago at verse 15 of chapter 1, in which the theme of brotherly love was introduced. And taking advantage of that introduction, I have led you in a digression on that theme or an amplification of the theme of brotherly love, particularly love to the brethren as it acts in the presence of the sins of the brethren. Having established the fact that love of the brethren is the queen of all horizontal graces, the queen of all vertical graces, of course, is love to the Godhead, but the queen of all the horizontal graces is love to the brethren, we have been focusing our attention upon those portions of Scripture which give love the direction. And I have added to that, to make it a couplet, love is law's heart, and without it, law is dead.

1:31 We are to love the brethren, but the question is asked, what? What does love do in any given situation? And to answer that question, we go to the Scriptures, and we are asking and seeking to answer the question, what does brotherly love do in the face of the sins of the saints?

1:55 The saints are an odd gathering of people. They are called saints, holy ones, but there is much about them which is not holy. They are striving to be yet more holy, and yet, in the midst of their striving, there is much yet of remaining corruption and sin. Therefore, when we are called upon to have fervent love among ourselves, then there must be some directive, how does love relate to the sins of imperfectly sanctified saints?

Review of Individual Responses to Sin

2:28 And in answer to that question, we have thus far covered two major categories of the biblical directive. In the midst of those many sins, those quirks, those weaknesses, those many failings, those moral and ethical warts and molds which are upon the faces of the people of God, Peter's directive is clear. Above all, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins. And so love casts a veil over those many sins. The absence of love will cause us to mark them, to amplify them, to broadcast them, to irritate them, and to bring all forms of division and friction because of them. But fervent love will constantly cast a veil over them. Now, the second major category of the sins of the brethren which we've been dealing with is this. What does love do in the presence of specific people? What does love do in the presence of specific people? What does love

3:32 do in the presence of specific people? What does love do in the presence of specific people? What does love do in the presence of specific people? What does love do in the presence of specific and aggravated sins between individuals? For just as certainly as the word of God to believers is, have fervent love that covers those multitudes of sins. So the scripture says what love is to do in the presence of specific sins, sins that are very clearly of such a nature as to demand some action. And we've looked at the directives. If I'm conscious that I've sinned against a brother, I'm to go and make right my wrong, Matthew 5. If I'm conscious that a brother has sinned against me, I am to experience the grace of a forgiving attitude, I'm to extend forgiveness in my heart, and then Mark 11 joined with Matthew 18, I'm to go to my brother and in that spirit of love and that disposition of forgiveness, I'm to point out his sin. I am, in the words of Luke 17, to rebuke him and upon his...

4:32 Confession and repentance lavish the expressions of my forgiveness towards him. And then we concluded our study last week in this same general second category of what about those sins which are not particularly against me, but I see my brother sinning. Not the kind of sin which I can cover. It's the kind of sin which I know will cripple him and cripple his witness and be reproached to Christ. What am I to do? Leviticus 19, is the framework of the basic directive. I am not to bear sin by being silent, but I am to go, in the words of Galatians 6, 1, in the spirit of meekness and seek to restore this brother who has been overtaken by a specific sin. Now, so much for what we've covered thus far, and now this morning, we want to consider two more, and this will be the end of the subject for now, two more major categories or situations, relative to sin amongst the saints and love's responsibility to that situation.

Corporate Response 1: Spiritual Segregation for Disorderly Conduct (2 Thessalonians 3)

5:41 First of all, the activity of corporate love to an impenitent or openly disobedient believer. You see, we've been dealing now with sins between one believer and another, and how the individual believer is to deal with it. We had a hint of corporate responsibility in the latter part of the section in Matthew 18, but I want us to zero in this morning on that situation in which the body of believers is conscious that one of her ranks is in a present state of impenitence or open disobedience. What does love do in that situation? And then the second major area, if we have time, the activity of responsible love when a leader within an assembly is guilty, of sin. First of all, then, the activity of corporate love to an openly disobedient believer. And the directives of Scripture break down into two subheadings. One is this. When there is a believer guilty of open and obvious disobedience,

6:52 he is not walking orderly, he is to be met by the corporate discipline of spiritual segregation. Then, if that doesn't work, then he is to be met by the corporate discipline of spiritual segregation. If that does not prevail, the second directive is, he is to be met by the corporate discipline of spiritual excommunication. And so we have two directives to that situation in which a whole body of believers is called upon to deal with a specific individual who is not walking in obedience to the revealed will of God. Spiritual segregation, and then the most drastic action. Spiritual excommunication. Now, for the passage which is pivotal to the concept of spiritual segregation, please turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And remember, the theme is not church discipline, but brotherly love. The larger context of Paul's directives is set

7:58 forth in 1 Thessalonians 4, in which he says in verse 9, and again in 10, but concerning love of the Lord, he says, in verse 9, and again in 10, but concerning love of the Lord, he says, in verse 9, and again in 10, but concerning love of the Lord, he says, in verse 9, and again in 10, but concerning love of the Lord, he says, in verse 9, and again in 10, but concerning love of the Lord, he says, in verse 9, and again in 10. You people at Thessalonica have no need that one write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another, for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in Macedonia, but we exhort you brethren that ye abound more and more. So here's an assembly dwelling already in a great measure of brotherly love. Paulo exhorts them to abound in that love more and more.

8:37 Now, on the surface, what he says to these people, dwelling in love, exhorted to abound in love, may sound very strange. Look carefully at verse 6 of chapter 3 in 2 Thessalonians. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother. What a strange way to tell people to love the brethren.

9:10 We exhort you, abound in love. Now, he says, we command you to withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which they received of us. Now, as we look at the passage in a brief overview by way of exposition, consider the circumstance contemplated. Then we'll look at the directive given, and thirdly, the essential lesson to be learned.

9:40 What is the circumstance contemplated? Well, you have a brother, one who in the judgment of charity is a brother in the faith. He has made confession of his attachment to Christ in faith and love. He has come into the visible community of those described in the first part of the chapter as the church of the Thessalonians in union with God.

10:04 God the Father and the Lord Jesus. But now he begins to walk disorderly. That is, he is walking contrary to apostolic tradition. And that's simply another way of stating he's walking contrary to biblical authority.

10:22 Apostolic tradition is now embodied in the pages of Scripture. So, the circumstance contemplated is very simple. Here is a man, a part of the visible community. A community of confessed disciples, professing to be subject to Christ their King, administering his kingship through the apostles, his designated court of authority.

10:46 And this man is not walking consistently with that directive. Now, in this specific context, what was his disorderly walk? Well, there are three or four things that can be said. He was apparently loafing and refusing to work at a legitimate, verse 11.

11:06 For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly that work not at all. So, his disorderly walk was he was not employed at a legitimate calling by which he could provide the monetary substance necessary to put food on his table and clothes on his back. Now, of course, he had spiritual reasons. For not doing this, he wasn't just a lazy good for nothing.

11:37 He had, quote, spiritual reasons, namely, the certainty and the nearness of the Lord's return. And his thinking was of such demand, made such demands that a man should not be bothered with such mundane issues as earning a living. You see, that was to be carnally involved in the light of great spiritual priorities. So, he's become so spiritual that he doesn't need to work in his waiting, upon the Lord's return.

12:06 Now, second thing he apparently was doing is he was spreading gossip. Particularly about the Lord's coming. Look at chapter 2 and verse 2. To the end that ye be not quickly shaken in your mind, nor be troubled either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, That the day of the Lord is just at hand.

12:23 This fellow was evangelistic in his convictions. Apparently, they're going around saying, look, you people that are out putting in your 12 hours a day to earn bread, money to buy bread, read for your tables, you're tied down to the earth, and you're kind of second-grade citizens in the kingdom of heaven. In the light of the Lord's soon return, one thing matters. Let's have all of our energies focused upon a conscious awareness of His soon return.

12:52 And this mundane business of making a living is inconsistent with that. So they were stirring up this talk about the imminence of the Lord's return. And the third thing they were doing, because they still could not convince themselves that they didn't have stomachs, they got hungry. So when they got hungry, they did what they thought was sanctified sponging on others.

13:14 Look at verse 12.

13:16 Now them that are such, we command and exhort you in the Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. Apparently, they weren't so spiritual that they didn't get hungry and need bread. So when their spirituality...

13:32 was yanked out of the clouds by the earthy demands of an empty stomach, they came to your door saying, hey, you got a little extra casserole for a friend tonight? And they were eating not their own bread, but somebody else's bread. And then the fourth thing about these disorderly people is they apparently became generally meddlesome and gossiping. Verse 11.

13:56 For we hear that there are some who walk among you disorderly that work not at all but are busybodies. In the middle of the night, in the midst of all their so-called spiritual preoccupation, they had lots of time to slip in carnal remarks about other people and sticking their nose in everybody's business. So then, to walk disorderly in this immediate context meant that a man was a loafer, a gossiper, sponging on the saints and meddlesome in other people's matters. Now, Paul says this was disorderly because it was contrary to apostolicism, apostolic tradition.

14:34 Now, that tradition came, first of all, by apostolic example and then by apostolic precept. Look at the apostolic example in verses 7 to 9. For yourselves know how ye ought to imitate us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat bread for naught at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not be burdensome to any of you, not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you, that you should imitate us. Paul says this is certainly a failure to keep apostolic tradition.

15:16 We demonstrated that the Christian life is consistent with responsible labor to provide normal necessities. We set the example, Paul says. But not only was this disorderly person denying, apostolic tradition that came by example, but by precept, by precept. 2 Thessalonians 3.10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, if any will not work, neither let him eat. He said one of the things we made very clear at the outset of our instruction to you as babes in Christ, and remember, Paul was only there a space of about three weeks, one of the most fundamental, ethical implications of the gospel that he laid upon the new converts was being in Christ does not negate your responsibility to carry out a legitimate calling in life to provide your daily necessities. Then he buttressed that precept, taught them at the beginning with his letter that came later on.

16:24 And look at the first letter, chapter 4, verses 10 and 11. We exhort you to abound more and more and study to be quiet and to do your own, your own business and to work with your own hands even as we charge you that you may walk becomingly toward them that are without and may have need of nothing. Now you see, this was not a matter of ignorance. Disorderly conduct in this context meant that in this specific area these people, however many there may have been, were openly disobedient to apostolic example, apostolic precept given in the Bible.

17:06 In person, buttressed later on by a letter. But now their sin was not directed to any one individual in the congregation. It was a sin obvious to the whole congregation but not specifically directed to any one given individual within the congregation. Therefore, I've put it in a separate category.

17:30 It's not like, if thy brother sinned against thee, go and rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. This is a sin. This is a sin obvious to the whole and now it must be dealt with by the whole. Now that moves us then from the circumstances contemplated into the directive given.

The Directive of Spiritual Segregation: Withdrawal and Admonition

17:48 And what is the directive given to the whole congregation with such disorderly people? Verse 6, We command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this directive comes with all the authority of the kingship of Christ, the headship, of Christ over the church administered through apostolic directive and therefore can only be ignored and refused at the expense of a denial of that headship of Christ. We command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that ye, and here's the key word, withdraw yourselves from this brother. That is, you are to engage, engage in corporate segregation from this brother. That's the basic directive. Corporate segregation.

18:46 Withdraw yourselves, brethren. Now in verse 14, he gives us an explanation of that direction. Verse 14, If any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him to the end of the world. And that he may be ashamed.

19:11 What does it mean to withdraw yourself? It means to have no company. That is, with those peculiar aspects of distinctively Christian social gatherings, which would probably include refusal to admit him to that most intimate social gathering of the people of God, the Lord's table. If they had love feast here, there is no indication they did, they may have, to omit him from their love feast and from that general intimacy which is extended in a peculiar way to the family of God.

19:49 Let me illustrate.

19:51 Maybe this fellow happens to live on your street and on the way home from work or if you've been out to doing something in the evening, you might occasionally stop in and just have a cup of coffee and chat and have a word of prayer together. Paul says, don't do this anymore. To what end? When he asks you and says, hey, Hank, how come you haven't invited to see me?

20:09 You say, well, the Apostle's word was very clear. You're walking disorderly. And though it pains me, I'm withdrawing that intimacy of fellowship from you. To what end?

20:20 Notice carefully now. What you're to do, have no company. Why? That he may be ashamed.

20:27 That is, that he may feel the social pressure of this corporate segregation and by that leverage may be brought to see his sin, repent of his sin, and be brought back into the fellowship of the people of God. For listen, if he's a true believer, there's only one thing more painful than the withdrawal of the fellowship of God's people. That's the withdrawal of conscious fellowship with his Lord. And since his Lord dwells in his people, you can't separate those things as clearly as you can do in a sermon or on paper.

21:05 And to feel the withdrawal of the fellowship of the people of Christ is to feel the pain of withdrawal from Christ Himself. And so the whole purpose of this sanctified segregation is that this brother may be ashamed of his disorderly walk and being ashamed of it may be brought to repentance and to reformation and once again be brought back into full unfettered fellowship with the people of God. So you have the direction in verse 6, withdraw. Explanation in verse 14, what it means to withdraw, why you withdraw, but then you have the qualification of verse 15.

21:49 And yet, count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. You see, his sin has not yet come to the place where he is to be regarded as the publican and the heathen. We're not in 1 Corinthians 5 in 2 Thessalonians 3. It would seem that this is sort of a halfway place between that severest form of discipline and full unfettered fellowship with the people of God.

22:20 He says still regard him as a brother. Instead of going by his house and having a cup of coffee, you go by and you knock on the door and you say, Hank, have you faced your sin yet of disorderly walk? Well, I sure hope you do soon. I'd love to start coming by for that cup of coffee.

22:38 I'd love to have a cup of coffee and fellowship again. I love you in Christ, but you're walking disorderly. I'm admonishing you, my brother. You better repent for your good and for the glory of Christ and the good of His church.

22:50 I'm still praying for you. Well, won't you come in for the cup? No, sorry. No fellowship on that basis till you repent and you go your way.

The Essential Lesson and Application of Spiritual Segregation

22:59 You admonish him as a brother. You still keep up that tangible expression of your love in your admonition, but you cannot, you cannot attach yourself to him in full unfettered fellowship until there is evidence that he's dealt with his sin. Now this, I say, is the directive of God for those situations in which there is sin, disorderly conduct, evident to the entire assembly, but not directed to any one individual and not of the nature yet as to demand excommunication. Now, having looked at the circumstances the Apostle contemplates, the directives he gives, what are the essential lessons we should learn from this passage? Well, the essential lesson is this. It is true biblical love which seeks the well-being of this man that causes the people of God to segregate themselves from him. Can this man enjoy full fellowship with his Lord if he's walking in disobedience to apostolic directives?

24:12 Yes or no? Can he? No, he can't. But he can deceive himself into thinking he can still walk in fellowship.

24:22 He can sit around in his chair looking up with a very sanctimonious look in his face and singing, O Lord Jesus, how long, how long ere we shout the glad song, Christ returneth, hallelujah! He can really think himself quite spiritual that he's not working because he's waiting for the Lord. He can deceive himself into thinking he's in fellowship with his Lord. Now, if you love him, you want to get him undeceived, don't you?

24:49 Well, Paul says here's one way to do it. He can surely begin to see and feel the withdrawal of the fellowship of his brethren. And so your dealings with him at the tangible and the visible level are to be a reminder to him of the reality that exists in the untangible realm. In the realm of his relationship to his Lord.

25:12 And therefore, it is love that withdraws from this brother. It's not bitterness. It's that you love him enough to see him wrenched loose from his delusion.

25:25 And so in love, we withdraw. And a failure to do this is a vicious form of self-love. It's like the parent who says to the child, do this and this will be the reward. Fail to do this and this will be the reward.

25:41 Do this and this will be the punishment. And the child does not do it. And as the parent faces the personal pain of having to enforce the discipline, he becomes so weak that he backs off and he still gives the child the reward that he should have received only for obedience. That's not love.

26:00 That's a form of hatred for the child and love for yourself. And so it is with any fellowship of God's people who say, oh, look, our brother, it just got this area of blindness. And, oh, yes, the Bible speaks clearly. Yes, apostolic tradition is very, very clear.

26:19 Oh, yes, by precept and example, the Word of God speaks with absolute clarity. But we dare not segregate ourselves from Him. We'll drive Him back into the world. Or He'll think that...

26:32 And we can begin to come up with all kinds of fleshly reasons as to why we should not obey the directive of God. May I remind you that God knows best how long it takes for us to obey Him. And true love is to act.

26:46 The remaining corruption in us is such that we can't many times discern between unprincipled sentiment and true biblical love. So God tells us what love will do. And love will move a congregation to spiritual segregation for the sake of restoring a brother and also for the sake of the wholesome climate of the entire body of Christ. Now, what is the application of this passage to us?

27:21 I've sought to give a brief, though I trust accurate exposition of what disorderly conduct meant in that setting. The directive of the Apostle, the reason behind it. Now, what does all this say to us? It's all well and good for us to know what it meant to them.

27:37 But what does it mean to us? Well, I believe this is a minimum of its message to us. Should there be those among us who right now or in the future begin to manifest a pattern of behavior and attitude contrary to the clear directives of the Word, what are we to do? Suppose someone begins to manifest the activity of a biting tongue which is wounding this one and that one until after individual exhortations it becomes, as it were, a common knowledge that there is this disorderly conduct in the use of the tongue.

28:18 Perhaps a kind of humor that is tainted by the risque and double meanings and subtle innuendos and other forms of sin that become common consciousness though not specifically directed to any one given individual. May I suggest that you and I have the responsibility of this directive, namely, to strike out in a course of the spirit of the Lord. The act of sanctified segregation. Begin to withdraw intimate, Christian, social contact with these people, but in so doing, make it clear as to why we are doing it.

28:59 That's where admonishing comes in. Don't treat him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now let me put it into a very concrete thing. If you find that there's an individual in the church who, when you are with that person, their speech and attitude is such, that it causes you to think things you should not of others, it causes you to find attitudes stirred up in you that are not right, and you've admonished that particular individual, and there has been no evidence of bringing that use of the tongue and the perspective of life under the discipline of Scripture, you have an obligation to say, Brother so-and-so, I do not find that my time with you is unto edification, and I'm going to withdraw the intimacy of fellowship until such time as you acknowledge your sin and repent of it, so that our fellowship together can be in Christ and mutually edify. Generally speaking, sins of this nature will come under the scrutiny of the elders, and there may be times when a public announcement needs to be made to the congregation, directing the congregation to withhold intimate fellowship with a given individual. Now people say, Boy, this sounds like a throwback, to the days of the Spanish Inquisition. My friends, may I remind you, these are the directives of love.

30:23 Of love.

30:26 Love that longs that the crippled brother be restored, and when other means have failed, this may be the means that God will make effectual to his facing his sin. This is not harsh. It is for the good of that person, and it is for the good of the established, and the most accurate parallel I know in the human realm is what you do when you quarantine someone. When someone's got the measles, and you quarantine them and put dark shades in the room, and you don't let them have much light, that may look rather cruel.

31:04 But the dark shades are for his good. You don't want his eyes to be damaged. And unless medical science has proved that that's just an old wives' fable, I still think that that's the judgment of medical science that, one should not be exposed to bright light. And so it's for their good that you put those shades on, and it's for the good of others that you keep that person in his own room and segregate him from those whom he may contaminate by his disease.

31:35 And so it is when a man or woman begins to walk disorderly within the assembly, and the sin is not of such a nature as to warrant excommunication at this point, there is yet the danger that others may, they may be infected with that particular malady, that particular sin. And so there must be the segregation for the protection of the whole and for the health of that brother. And brethren, sisters, there's nothing I'd like better than to just skip a passage like 2 Thessalonians 3 and just say, oh, well, that's there, but, you know, we should just push it under the rug. It would be very convenient.

32:13 And should the time arise in the near future or in the distant future, when we as an assembly must actually implement this, I don't think there's anyone going to be running around the parking lot having a hallelujah meeting saying, oh, isn't it wonderful? We're going to be able to segregate. No, no. This will be done with pain.

32:32 This will be done with tears. This will be done with grief. This will be done with a weeping heart. And I trust with some weeping eyes.

32:40 But it must be done. You see, the Bible does not speak into a starry-eyed idealistic context. Paul faced the very real possibility that you'd have a confessed brother who would not respond to apostolic example, to admonition, and who would need the pressure of sanctified spiritual segregation. Now, I'd love to be able to be so starry-eyed in my idealism to say, that'll never happen at Trinity Baptist.

33:12 All the saints here are going to be so sensitive to the voice of God, so obedient to apostolic instruction, we're never going to be able to do that. We're never going to be able to do that. We're never going to be able to do that. We're never going to be able to do that.

33:19 We're never going to be able to do that. We're never going to be able to do that. We're never going to need that. But that's all it would be, is starry-eyed idealism.

33:24 And the realism of the Scripture faces us with these directives because we need them. And I remind you that Jesus Christ said, make disciples, baptize them, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And this is part of the all things. And so though I don't like to preach on a passage like this, I must do it in obedience to my Lord.

33:49 And we as a church and a congregation must implement where necessary this directive in obedience to our Lord. So then, here is the first directive. For that situation in which you have individual sin demanding the corporate exercise of discipline. Then you have the second and most drastic form of corporate activity.

Corporate Response 2: Spiritual Excommunication for Gospel-Denying Sin (1 Corinthians 5)

34:15 Not spiritual segregation, but spiritual excommunication. And the key passage here, of course, is 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

34:30 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

34:36 Now let's follow the same pattern in working our way through the main thrust of the passage. What is the situation contemplated here? Well, Paul tells us verse 1. It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication is not even among the Gentiles that one of you hath his father's wife.

35:00 Here is apparently a case of a professed disciple in the church at Corinth who is living in a common law relationship with his own stepmother. A form of incestuous relationship which Paul says even the Gentiles with all their adultery and fornication, they don't stoop that low. But this is what happened here. Apparently a confessed disciple, living in this illicit relationship with this pagan woman.

35:31 Now, what was the attitude of the Corinthians? Well, they were puffed up about it. And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn. Maybe they prided themselves in being so broad-minded that they could tolerate this. I don't know.

35:44 I don't know what lay behind their being puffed up. But Paul says, whatever it was, instead of being humbled and broken and crushed, you've allowed this man to go on in this state and in this condition. So the situation, is one in which this man has no shame, the assembly has no shame, and now directive is going to be given. And what is the directive?

36:05 Basically, it's this. That when they gather together,

36:10 verse 3, for I verily being absent in body, but present in spirit have already, as though present, judged him, in the name of the Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and by my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one for Satan, unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. The apostle gives them directive as a peculiarly commissioned servant of Christ. He exercises that authority, tells them to gather together, and to deliver this man over unto Satan. But, in verses 9 to 13, he makes it clear that whatever he says about this man is but the application of a general principle. In other words, he doesn't want them to think they are only to do this the next time somebody in their ranks lives in an incestuous relationship. No, no. He goes on to say, I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators, not at all meaning the fornicators of this world, or with covetous extortioners, idolaters, for then you must needs go out of the world.

37:19 But, as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company of any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner with such in one not to eat. But what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do ye not judge them that are within? But put them that are without God judges, put away the wicked man from among yourselves. And the drift of his argument simply stated is this. Here you have a man whose conduct is an absolute denial of the gospel. The sin is of such a magnitude that unrepented of only one course of action is open to you. Declare by your excommunicating him that he no longer has the right to call himself a believer. Put the

38:13 wicked man away from you. By his presence in your midst as the sanctified ones, he is still regarded as a Christian in the eyes of the church and in the eyes of the world. That kind of conduct is utterly inconsistent with true Christian faith. Therefore declare in your dealings with him the true situation. Put him on the outside of the community of the saints. But, Paul says, not just in that instance, but wherever there is sin, the nature of which is inconsistent with Christian profession, be it idolatry, extortion, fornication, covetousness, drunkenness, extortioners, no matter what the sin may be, if it is the kind of sin which continued in is incompatible with the profession of Christianity, you have but one thing to do. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves. Excommunication is the directive. Now, what is the purpose

The Purpose of Spiritual Excommunication: Salvation and Purity

39:17 in this? And in this passage Paul says there are two basic purposes. First of all, it's a purpose of love that desires this man salvation. Look at verse 5.

39:30 Deliver such and one unto Satan, whatever that means, and I'm not going into that this morning, it's not my purpose, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. It is a soteric purpose. The excommunication of the church is not vindictive justice. It is soteric. It is saving judgment. It is saving excommunication. It is an excommunication that has as its undergirding desire that this most radical of action may finally bring this man to his senses and he may yet prove himself to be a true believer as he repents of his activity and is brought back into the fellowship of the people of God. And 2 Thessalonians, 2 Corinthians, the book of 2 Corinthians seems to indicate that this form of excommunication had its desired effect in this man. And so Paul writes the

40:39 letter saying, receive him back, lest he be swallowed up with overmuch grief. And then the second reason, it's the safety of the people of God. In that whole section here, verses 6 through 8, about purging out the leaven so that the people of God viewed, as a sacramental community, as the people of God who are seeking to render acceptable worship, may be an unleavened lump, that they may not be tolerating the leaven of moral and ethical conduct contrary to that which they profess in their total life and worship. So the safety and purity of the church demands that there be this spiritual excommunication. And I use the word spiritual in contrast to the Romish idea that when the man is excommunicated, then it's your responsibility to starve him to death or to cut off his fingers and to exert all kinds of physical pressure upon that individual. No, this is spiritual activity to be conducted within the realm of the authority of the church. So then let me say by way of application that even in this most severe ecclesiastical action, the people of God are motivated by the deepest love for the offender and for one another. They are not

42:03 actuated by hatred, by vengeance, or by retributive or retributive justice. That's God's business. They do not refuse the man his daily bread and bring on him economic boycotts, etc. It is a spiritual excommunication.

42:21 And I submit to you that it is love's last resort with regard to a sinning brother, but it is an activity of love.

42:33 Sounds strange on our ears, doesn't it? In a day that says love will make you tolerate anything and under any circumstances. Let that man go on thinking he's a brother, though he's living in incest. That's to tell him a lie.

42:48 Do you love a man and let him damn himself with lies? Yes or no? Of course not. Therefore tell him the truth. And what is the truth? That continuing in that kind of sin, he has no grounds to claim himself a Christian. And if he has no grounds to claim himself a Christian, he doesn't belong in the visible community of Christians. Therefore, cast that brother from you, Paul says. But what's your purpose?

43:15 That the Spirit may be saved. That God may yet use this to bring him to repentance. And again, I would love to have the starry-eyed idealism to say, well, that'll never happen at Trinity Baptist. No one will ever live and get engaged in the kind of immoral relationships that will demand this. But I have no scriptural grounds to have that hope. I'd like to believe that none of you will ever become a drunkard, an idolater, a railer. I'd love to be able to believe that none of you would ever be guilty of these sins. But I have no grounds to believe that you won't.

43:57 What chapter and verse can you bring forth to prove that such sins will never come out of our midst?

44:04 Brethren, if they do, don't stick your tail between your legs and go out like a whipped puppy, disillusioned, and say, oh, well, I've had it now. I thought there was one church which sucked like that. Who said you're to have that attitude? Who said?

44:21 That's the reaction of an unbiblical idealism. But rather, if and when such should arise, it's our submission to apostolic directive in love that is the test of whether or not we're a true church. And if by God's grace we're able to take these directives and submit to them with tears and with pain, but with unflinching principle, then you hang in with us, won't you? Because that's the evidence of our love to Christ. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments, even the commandment that we have here, put away the wicked man from among yourselves. Oh, I'm not asking God to bring such to pass that we might prove our obedience, my prayer is, Lord, may your people be kept from this. But I ask you, can you give me, chapter and verse, some precept or principle that I can claim that we'll never need to do what's said here in 1 Corinthians 5?

Discipline for Church Leaders and Addressing Common Concerns

45:26 If churches the Apostle Paul founded needed it,

45:31 what do you just write? And so the necessity, dear ones, of crying to God for principled love, for God's love, for that fervent love that will move us even to this most extreme measure in explicit obedience to the directive of Christ. Well, as usual, time goes so quickly. Let me just give you a couple of passages under that second heading that I was going to touch on, and I'll just give you the basic passage, two passages. What is the responsibility and love of the church when you have a church leader who teaches false doctrine or who sets a bad example by his conduct? You have 1 Timothy 5, 17 and following, a context of directives to elders, and in that setting there is the command, then that sin reprove before all that others may fear. And then you have an example of an apostle doing that with another apostle in Galatians 2, 11 to 14, when Peter, having by his example in a public way, denied one of the essential truths of the gospel, namely that Jew and Gentile come in on equal footing,

46:52 and he was hobnobbing with the Jews at the expense of denying the same fellowship to the Gentiles. Paul said, I withstood him to the face before them all, because his sin had affected them all. The rebuke was as extensive as his influence. And I believe we capture that basic principle.

47:15 We'll have, at least in capsule form, the directive of God concerning the activity of responsible love to an openly disobedient church leader. And again I say, it's love for the people of God thus affected that demands the rebuke, and it's love for the erring brother, which brings prompt and direct exhortation that he might be restored. But now in closing out these remarks that we've made and these directives, may I just very, very briefly try to clear up several questions that I'm sure are in the minds of many of you. Some of you are saying, is there not a danger that a church shall become unloving and hypercritical in the implementation of these directives? And my answer is, of course. If the devil cannot keep us from obedience to any directive, he'll try to keep us from the right attitude in the performance of that obedience. Sure, there's no truth that is not liable to abuse in the hands of the flesh. But I

48:23 would say, dear brethren, that the practical danger in our day is not overkill, but gross underkill. The practical danger is not that we shall go overboard in the exercise of spiritual segregation and spiritual excommunication, but that we've gone way, way overboard to the point of drowning in this saccharine concept of unprincipled love that tolerates everything and then just casts the veil over it and says, well, we're to love one another. Love's directive follows these lines that we have considered. But someone says, what if I don't feel loving in these things? Shall I do them anyway? Yes. Confess to God your unloving spirit and then set out to obey Him and you'll be amazed how many times your inward disposition will catch up with the direction of your obedience. Don't wait until you feel such an overpowering sense of love at the realm of your emotional responses before you exhort and reprove and rebuke one another.

49:32 But saying, Lord, whatever in my spirit is contrary to the spirit of the gospel, deal with it, judge it, cleanse it, then set out to obey. And as one of the saints told me last week, they found this so helpful in their own experience when they've set out to do what God says love should do. Then tagging in the behind has come the sense of the right attitude in the performance of that duty. And as I would put a canopy over all of these studies and try to clinch it with one dominant thought, it would be this, dear brethren.

Conclusion: The Necessity of Principled Love

50:06 Drink deeply. Drink constantly. Drink often of the essence of the gospel. As you meditate upon God's love to you in Christ, as you think often and long upon the extent of that love, the durability of that love, the patience of that love, the forbearance of that love, then by God's grace you will know something of that love in your own heart toward the brethren, enabling you to cast the veil of forgetfulness over their many infirmities, enabling you to go and to face them with those specific sins that need to be faced, enabling you to stand with a congregation in spiritual segregation when necessary, enabling you to stand with a broken heart, even to the point of excommunication when necessary. May God give us a mighty baptism of this kind of love that will then flow out along these biblically cut channels to His glory and to our profit. Love, of the brethren, queen of all those graces, may it abound in our midst to God's praise, and so that the world, as we heard Thursday night, may know that Christ has been sent of the Father. For by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,

51:36 if ye have love one toward another. The kind of love that will move in obedience to these directives, as we've considered them in Holy Scripture. Let us pray.