69a) Corrective Church Discipline #1

Introduction to Corrective Church Discipline

0:01 Now we continue this morning, brethren, to take up yet another aspect of the task of pastoral oversight, namely the awesome flesh-wuthering duties connected with what I will be calling radical or corrective church discipline. We've already considered our responsibilities with respect to the church as a worshipping assembly of new covenant priests, as a praying assembly of new covenant Jacobs, and then as a ministering serving assembly, the church ministering to itself in love. And now we proceed to examine the duty of the church and of its overseers in conjunction with the corrective discipline of its members. Now by way of introduction, relative to this broad and vital subject, something must be said. First of all...

0:58 First of all, to clarify and explain the precise significance of the terminology that I will be using in the lectures today. First of all, we need to understand the nature of generic or formative discipline. If we think of discipline in its broadest sense, it simply means training. As V. Raymond Edmond has very helpfully defined discipline in Baker's Dictionary of Theology, page 167, discipline implies instruction, correction, but training which improves, molds, strengthens, and perfects character. Now if that's what discipline is in its broadest sense, then there ought to be in the ordinary life of the church a constant exercise of formative or ordinary discipline. But instruction, correction, and training that improves, molds, strengthens, and perfects character. And this formative or ordinary discipline would bring within its orbit all of the ordinary means of grace

2:07 in the total life of the church under the blessing of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It would include, of course, applicatory, expository preaching, corporate warnings, individual pastoral inquiry and care, the mutual admonition, and encouragement of the members, and all of the facets of those elements covered in the previous lecture of the duty of the church members ministering to one another in love. However, the focus of our study today is much more limited. We're going to deal with, not with formative discipline, but with corrective or radical church discipline.

2:52 We'll be dealing with those things which bring within its scope such matters as public rebuke, censure, suspension, and excommunication, or the canceling or reversing of the church's keys of admission into the church. And here we can use an archaic word. It is now dismission from the church. It's a proper word, it's archaic, but I like the fact that admission and dismission hang together as a helpful couplet as the church exercises the keys, entrusted to her by her Lord.

3:29 And since the devil hates this duty and its balanced, principled performance, let us, even as we work through the materials today, pray that the Spirit of God will give us accurate understanding of our duty and then fortify us with the moral courage that will enable us to perform that duty when we are called upon to perform it in our future sphere of ministry. Now, as with so many other things, the terminology that I'm using is not sacrosanct. However, since discussion of the thing itself is vital, and since the thing has this term attached to it, namely church discipline, we don't want to throw it out irresponsibly. Some of you have heard me in the past use the terminology that I have a prejudice for the terminology with seniority. And where terminology has come down to us through church history and in the crucible of the disciplines of the people of God and the servants of God, we must have compelling reasons to throw it out and replace it with new terminology. So, generally speaking, what I'm referring to as radical or corrected church discipline is covered under the more generic rubric of church discipline.

4:52 I'm using the distinction, which is formative or ordinary discipline, corrective or radical church discipline, simply to isolate the issue and hopefully to introduce some terminology, not to replace the older, but to refine it and fine-tune it so that we will speak of corrective discipline. And if people say, what do you mean by that? It gives us an opportunity to speak of that more positive, ordinary framework of the discipline of the church upon itself. Now, as we take up the subject, I'm not sure how far we'll get in our two lectures this morning, but if we don't complete the subject today, eventually we'll cover four major divisions of the subject.

The Necessity of Corrective Discipline: Lord's Teaching

5:36 We'll consider the necessity for corrective discipline, the purposes of corrective discipline, thirdly, the major forms of corrective discipline, and then finally, some necessary warnings in conjunction with the administration of corrective discipline. Now, first of all, we take up the subject of the necessity for corrective discipline. The great question that presses in upon us is this. Will my task as an overseer of the flock of God demand, there's the key word, not suggest or intimate, but will my task demand that I involve myself, my fellow leaders, and the flock of God in which the Holy Spirit has made me an overseer in this unpleasant task of corrective discipline? And the answer to that question from the scriptures is clear and unequivocal. And the necessity rests down upon two massive pillars of divine revelation. The first being comprised of the clear teaching of our Lord, and then secondly, the manifold, apostolic injunctions.

6:55 First of all, then, as we think of the clear teaching of our Lord, we're going to concentrate on two watershed sections of scripture. Matthew 18, 15 to 20, and then the data found in the Lord's words to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. First of all, then, in Matthew 18, 15 to 20, and we might consider as a kind of distilled praises of the extended teaching of Matthew 18, the succinct statement in Luke 17 and verse 3. And though you're all familiar with the passage, I do want to refresh your mind concerning the major elements of its content.

7:38 First of all, the setting of the Matthew passage is most significant. The chapter opens with this statement of the terms of true discipleship or admission into the kingdom of God. Our Lord says, Except you turn and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. And then, beginning in verse 7, our Lord opens up the realism of discipleship or one's presence in the kingdom in a sinful world where the people are liable to sin.

8:17 So that in verses 7 through 14, we have, some of these sobering statements of our Lord relative to this realism of sin as it exists in the world, a world in which disciples are exposed to the tragic reality of sinful defection from their Lord. The words of Douglas Bannerman in his classic work on the doctrine of the church, page 178, are very helpful in underscoring the essence of the setting of the Matthew 18, 15, to 20 watershed passage. I quote him, These words were spoken shortly after our Lord's first great utterance concerning his church. They belong to the very close of his Galilean ministry to the time just before his last journey to Jerusalem. The disciples had come to him with questions as to high position in the kingdom of heaven. In reply, Christ spoke to them concerning the spiritual conditions needful if men are to enter, that kingdom at all. He spoke concerning occasions of stumbling given to little ones who believed on him and concerning the love and care of his heavenly Father and theirs for such little ones.

9:36 He passes on now by a natural transition to speak upon a kindred subject, namely, in what spirit and by what methods sins and occasions of stumbling among fellow believers should be done. He spoke concerning occasions of stumbling which should be dealt with by his disciples. So you have admission to the kingdom and then you have the realism of the impact of a sinful world upon the subjects of the kingdom and now the issue of how offenses are to be dealt with among the members of that kingdom constituted into local congregations. And then the primary concern of this passage is abundantly clear.

10:20 The church, in which the Lord Jesus dwells, two or three gathered in my name, there am I in the midst, is a fellowship in which it must be constantly and unmistakably clear that everyone who is allowed to remain in that fellowship is committed to a life of universal holiness. If you had to distill the whole emphasis of this passage, that's the emphasis given by our Lord. There is no categorizing of sins, sin into mortal and venial sin, little sins, medium sins, big sins. Once the sin as sin is visible and discernible, reprovable and provable, if the brother will not deal with it, he shows himself to be a non-Christian in his practice and therefore he must be treated as such in his ecclesiastical standing. That's the distilled essence of the Matthew 18 passage. Whether he is a true believer is not for the church to judge. But for the church to say his conduct is inconsistent with the non-negotiable standard for a true believer on that the church must make a pronouncement.

11:41 And this passage clearly underscores it. So in the face of the realism of imperfect and sinning disciples, there is the idealism of a cleansed and holy community here on this earth.

Matthew 18: The Idealism of a Holy Community

12:01 The realism of sinning disciples is balanced by this biblical idealism of a cleansed and holy community here on earth. And while at times we are grieved with some of our brethren who have a broader view of the church and their misuse of the passage of wheat and tares and the good fish and the bad fish, etc., listen to Bannerman speaking as a Presbyterian. In this part of his discourse, here he's quoting from A.B. Bruce's The Training of the Twelve. It's a footnote in Bannerman. In this part of his discourse, Jesus had in view the future rather than the present, contemplating the time when the kingdom, that is the church, should be in actual existence as an organized community. He's talking here like a Baptist, isn't he?

12:52 With the Twelve exercising in it authority as apostles, he gives direction for the exercise of discipline for the purity and well-being of the Christian brotherhood, confers on the Twelve collectively what he had already granted to Peter singly, the power to bind and loose, that is, to inflict and remove church censures. This seems rather too limited in interpretation. His aim throughout is to ensure beforehand that the community to be called after his name shall be indeed a holy, loving, united society. End quote.

13:34 And so the primary concern is clear. Then the assumed framework is clear. It is the framework of the individual acting as a member of the church, and it is a framework of the church acting as one in conjunction, with the individual. It is the church in the presence of Christ.

13:56 It is the church engaged in prayer. And since you will have to guide the church by instruction and government, it is vital that you have a deep-seated, biblically grounded, intelligent conviction with respect to this assumed framework for the entire corrective disciplinary process, which is the individual as member of the church, the church acting in unison with respect to the individual. That's the assumed framework. And then the urgency of everything in this passage is equally clear.

14:34 All of the verbs are imperatives.

14:39 If thy brother sin, or sin against thee, and there's a textual question, what are you to do? You are to go. Imperative. Show him his fault.

14:51 If he hear thee, you've gained your brother. If he hear thee, he hear you not. Take with you. They are imperatives all the way through.

14:58 This is not left to our discretion. It is a matter of whether or not the final words of Matthew 28 will be obeyed. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And this is one of the most explicit, clear commands left by our Lord Jesus Christ.

15:19 And I remind you of His words in John 15, 14. You are my friends. If you do the things that I command you. Not the things that are easy to do.

15:30 Not the things that it's popular to do. But the things that I command you. And if my command and precept are clear, you either validate or invalidate the profession of your love to me and your subjection to me. For why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

15:50 And so the Matthew 18, 15 to 20 passage, certainly answers the question, is corrective discipline necessary? Our Lord, in all the triumphalistic language of Matthew 16, that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, does not envision in the plenitude of His power and grace building a church in which it will not be necessary to deal decisively and radically with certain croppings out of sin by means of corrective. Discipline. So to envision any church on earth where this is not necessary is to envision something that the Lord Jesus doesn't envision.

16:33 And when people get a vision of the church that goes beyond the words of the Lord and the anticipation and practice of the apostles, they got a church I want nothing to do with. I don't care how beautiful it may sound, it is an idealism that is out of touch with the word of God which is often the flip side of a carnal escapism from the nitty gritty of the reality of dealing with things as they are and as they are envisioned by our Lord and His apostles. And then the second watershed teaching of our Lord is found in our Lord's words to the seven churches. I would urge you never to minimize the importance of Revelation 2 and 3 in your practical ecclesiology.

Revelation 2-3: Christ's Assessment of the Churches

17:16 This is one of the reasons we were delighted when Professor Goswiller said he felt constrained to teach in this area because he was afraid because there is so much that is vital to a practical, realistic ecclesiology when Christ Himself is assessing the state of those seven churches, commending and condemning and counseling and giving direction. And you'll notice how central the issue of discipline is in the estimation of our Lord. When He is commending the Ephesian church, notice how explicitly He commends their exercise of corrective discipline. I know your works and your toil and patience and you cannot bear evil men and you did try them that call themselves apostles and are not and you found them false. And then we could add verse 6 but this you have that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans which also I hate. And if those things manifested themselves in the life of the church they were being delved into the church. They were being dealt with decisively.

18:26 I like the old word peremptorily. That's a good word. Look it up at your leisure. And the Lord commends this.

18:32 He doesn't say you're giving a totally skewed notion of my unconditional love to men. Stop all that nonsense of being so persnickety about purity of life and doctrine. You must convince the world of the ubiquity of divine love. Unconditional love.

18:50 That's the great message of the Christian faith. Nonsense. The Lord commends them for their exercise of discipline. But he also reproves for the lack of this both at Pergamos and at Thyatira.

19:04 Notice chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 speaking to the church in Pergamon or Pergamos But I have a few things against you because you have there some that hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to the people of Israel to commit fornication so you have also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner. He says this should not be that within the framework the aegis of that church any should hold to these aberrant teachings and be tolerated. And he calls upon them to repent and implicit in that repentance would be the exercise of appropriate corrected discipline upon these who are teaching error within the church. Likewise in the church to Thyatira verse 20 of Revelation 2 I have this against you. Those are frightening words to think that the Christ whose promised presence is the great glory of the church gathers with us with a frown gathers with us with and against us upon his lips. That should scare the liver out of us.

20:19 Let the whole world stand outside the church and frown and point the finger and be against us. But if the promised presence of our risen Lord is with us what do we care? But if he's got a complaint then we don't care if the whole world gathers outside and strokes us and commends us and praises us to high heaven. If he's against us we've had it.

20:43 And he says I have this against you. You suffered the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and seduces my servants to commit fornication to eat things sacrilegiously and to eat things sacrilegiously. And she teaches and seduces my servants to sacrifice to idols, etc. The Lord Jesus says I have this against you.

21:00 You have permitted this to go on uncorrected and undealt with and I have a complaint against you.

21:10 You'll notice that under 3 under 1 I listed the text 2 Corinthians 2.9 Please put it down here at this point that in the light of this clear teaching of our Lord in Matthew 18 and in the letters to the seven churches it should not surprise us that the Apostle Paul clearly indicates that fidelity in this area is often a test of the genuineness of our submission to Christ. For in dealing with the subject of church discipline in this context Paul's exhortation to receive back with profuse expressions of love and acceptance the man disciplined who has truly repented notice the sphere the sphere in which Paul puts the issue in verse 9 of 2 Corinthians 2 For to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether you are obedient in all things. He said this was the testing crucible. The things pertaining to this whole disciplinary issue would be a litmus test of the depth of your commitment to a life of your own. to a life of your own.

22:26 to a life of your own. to a life of your own. to a life of your own. to a life of your own.

22:27 to a life of your own. to a life of your own. to a life of your own. to a life of your own.

22:27 to a life of your own. to a life of your own. obedience and submission to the Lord Jesus. Jonathan Edwards in the section of his classic sermons on the subject of the nature and end of excommunication writes but the absolute authority of Christ ought to be sufficient in this case that is in the case of exercising corrective discipline if there were no other motive.

22:52 Our text is only one of many passages in the scripture wherein strict discipline is expressly commanded and peremptorily enjoins. You see? You know what the word means now because you have a synonym. Now, how can you be the true disciples of Christ if you live in the neglect of these plain positive commands?

23:13 If you love me, says Christ, keep my commandments and you are my friends if you do whatsoever I've commanded you. But he that loves me not keeps not my sayings and why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say? If you love me, if you strictly follow the rules of discipline instituted by Christ, you will have reason to hope for his blessing for he is wont to bless his own institutions and to smile upon the means of grace which he has appointed. And particularly, brethren, in this day when the issue has in some circles been grievously abused and when others are proliferating literature and sermons and emphases attacking straw dummies with respect to the matter of heavy-handed shepherding and all the rest, you've got to clear your mind of all of the influences of these matters and fix your gaze upon the Lord Jesus and hear the words that come from his mouth with respect to the necessity of corrective discipline within the church. But then, the second massive pillar that demonstrates the necessity for corrective church discipline is the matter of what I've called the manifold apostolic injunctions. The manifold apostolic injunctions. Now, obviously, with the time constraints,

The Necessity of Corrective Discipline: Apostolic Injunctions

24:41 I cannot even begin to give a responsible, contextual, philological, grammatical, practical exposition and application of these texts, but you should be familiar with them and understand that what they are and whatever they teach, they teach the necessity of corrective discipline in the church of Jesus Christ. And therefore, any church that claims to be walking in submission to apostolic authority as embodied in the scriptures will be a church that takes seriously its stewardship of corrective discipline. Any church that purports to be built upon that church of which Christ is the chief cornerstone and the foundation is comprised of apostolic teaching, Ephesians 2.20, it will be a church which in its superstructure has in its planking, in its siding, in its sheetrock, biblical elements of corrective church discipline. And these are the texts that ought to be at your fingertips whenever the issue is raised. If you're called upon to preach on the subject, these would be the watershed texts that you would open up from the apostolic writings.

25:55 And we'll just briefly go through them. I'll read them, make a comment or two, and pass on. First of all, in Romans 16, verses 17 and 18. Does the apostle assume that having laid out this marvelous exposition of that gospel which has as its central blessing the righteousness of God received by faith, does he assume that minds and hearts suffused and percolating with all of the glorious truths of this blessed redemption in Christ, freeing us from the condemnation of sin, bringing us into possession of a perfect righteousness, of the privileges of adoption, the gift of the Spirit, the pledge of glorification, and all of the rest? Does he assume that hearts suffused with this will be hearts that never, never need to reckon with the realities that demand church discipline? No. He was too much of a realist.

26:55 So what does he say at the end of this glorious epistle? Verse 17 of Romans 16. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling contrary to the doctrine which you learned and turn away from them. You mean the doctrine taught is not going to have a sufficient expulsive influence that the church will not be plagued with these characters?

27:26 Paul has no such confidence in his teaching. And God have mercy on those who have such in their own and think that their teaching will produce a condition that goes beyond the necessity of this. There's a lovely, helpful, wholesome realism in the apostles' words. They that are such serve not our Lord Christ but their own belly.

27:48 And this is why the church must mark them and turn away from them. Look what they do. By their smooth and fair speech, they beguile the hearts of the innocent. You see, often the teachers of error and those who are fomenting divisiveness, they pick off those whose hearts have already turned away from Christ, from his people, from his truth.

28:13 They have an ethical controversy with God that makes them vulnerable to intellectual aberrations. But here, he says, there are some that are just sitting ducks, not because of some moral aberrations, they beguile the hearts of the innocent. There are innocent ones, naive ones, those who don't have discernment. And these people, with their errors, have learned to master the tools of rhetoric and drive them to the purposes of the devil.

28:47 They serve not Christ but their own belly, their own native appetites. But they don't come as the purveyors of blatant antinomian theology. There is, there is a smooth and fair speech. And so often it drips with, quote, preaching Christ, our liberty, the sufficiency of Christ.

29:08 It sounds so sweet and beautiful.

29:12 But you know them by their fruits. And what do they do? They cause divisions. And they cause stumbling.

29:21 That's what their stinking, rotten, drippy teaching does, no matter how much. It has a semblance of a perfume of Christ about it. Look at its fruit.

Key Apostolic Passages on Discipline

29:33 And he assumes that the whole church is going to be sufficiently grounded that he can say, I beseech you, brethren. Now granted, unless we allow every single member to be his own judge and jury on these issues, it must be the discerning church under a discerning body of leaders implementing this clear directive. All right, then we move to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

30:00 The most clear directive. Crucial chapter. What 1 Corinthians 13 is to the practical description of love at work. 1 Corinthians 15 is to the doctrine of bodily resurrection and its crucial place in salvation, excuse me, in the gospel, in the purpose of God and redemption.

30:21 1 Corinthians 5 is to radical, corrective discipline. The most pivotal passage. What Matthew 18.15 is, with respect to the words of our Lord, this is with respect to apostolic directives.

30:36 And the culminating principle in this whole chapter is Paul's last statement in verse 13. We're not even going to attempt to read the chapter. You know the subject of the chapter. And here is the duty laid upon the people of God.

30:50 But them that are without, God judges. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves. We're not dealing here with what the motives are. In terms of his salvation, we'll come to that under a separate heading.

31:04 The church being insulated from the leaven-like influence, all of those things we'll touch in due course. But what we want to see here is that no church claiming to be in subjection to the rule of Christ administered through the teaching of the apostles embodied in the New Testament documents, no church can validate its claim to be such a church that allows known wicked men to remain, as members among themselves. This text clearly indicates there are certain ones that have identified themselves as wicked, and they must be put away. And whatever the putting away means, it must be done.

31:46 And it must be done if Christ and his apostles are to be obeyed. Then 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 5 to 11, this is the watershed text on what we might call the pleasant side, of corrective or radical discipline. When it has affected repentance in the heart of the one discipline, how is the church to respond? Is the church to put him in a halfway house and say, now if you behave yourself for six months, we'll wink at you.

32:16 Another six months you behave yourself, we'll shake your hand. Another six months we may embrace you. Another six months we may...

32:23 No, no. How are we to deal with someone who under the blessing of God upon the institution of corrective or radical discipline is brought back into the way of a consistent lifestyle of a disciple? Has repented? Well, here, this passage underscores what we are to do that our discipline is suffused with the truth of the gospel.

32:49 And this you'll find I found tremendously helpful in a Mennonite writer of all writers. It crystallized some things I've been wrestling with for years. That every institution of Christ is an extension of the gospel and reflects and underscores and buttresses the principles of the gospel. Now, when the sinner coming from the far country returns in repentance and faith, how does God meet him?

33:13 God is the father who seeing the returning prodigal a great way off runs to meet him. He doesn't tell him here's a tent fifty yards from the house set up shop there and when you behave yourself for three months we'll let you come to a meal once a day and then...

33:27 No, no. The gospel brings him into the immediate status of a loved and lavished upon son. Now, church discipline is gospel discipline. And when the person disciplined repents we're to reflect the gospel.

33:45 And that's what 2 Corinthians 2, 5 to 11 is applying God's free, full pardon and acceptance of the returning not only the returning prodigal but the returning backslider. And he is to be confirmed. He uses strong language. You're to forgive him to comfort him.

34:04 You're to confirm your love to him. You're to gospelize him when he comes back. That's the essence of it. Well, I said I'm not going to preach on these things.

34:13 It'll take real self-control but the fruit of the spirit is self-control and I trust I'll have a measure of it. All right. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 writing to the people of God again not explicitly to overseers but certainly overseers are involved in giving order and direction to the church. If a man be overtaken in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness looking to yourself lest you also be tempted.

Further Apostolic Directives and Conclusion

34:45 This is not a trespass that love is to cover. This is a trespass of sufficient serious nature that it needs some kind of specific focused corrective discipline. Whatever it is that's what is needed. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14 a pivotal text in terms again of generic congregational duty but one to be carried out and the preparation for it so much hinging on the kind of spiritual leadership we exhort you brethren you the brethren admonish the disorderly encourage the faint-hearted support the weak be long-suffering to all admonish the disorderly the disorderly and under wise leadership people are to be made discerning how do I identify a disorderly one and what does it mean to admonish well one thing is clear the disorderliness is not something simply to be born with it is not something in love to be overlooked it is of sufficient manifestation and aggravation as to warrant this element of corrective discipline namely admonition and then the other thing 2 Thessalonians 3 6 to 15 is perhaps the second most major watershed passage in the apostolic literature

36:10 1 Corinthians chapter 5 radical corrective discipline for gross immorality here in 2 Thessalonians 3 some lesser form some less radical but real corporate discipline for someone walking in a disorderly manner it begins with the words we command you we command you brethren as though that were not enough he says in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ if the fact that I an apostle command you doesn't cut mustard with you remember I do this as one who stands under the Lord Jesus Christ so you can't treat this with impunity and then he says that you withdraw yourselves withdrawal is a manifestation of submission to the word and authority of the Lord Jesus Jesus Christ and then he opens up the apostolic directive with respect to this imperative for congregational activity in the exercise of corrective discipline then in 1 Timothy 5 in verse 20 while there is a debate as to who is envisioned in this directive is it elders that sin since the subject matter in the context is elders starting in verse 17 the elders that rule well are to be counted worthy of double honor verse 19 against an elder don't receive an accusation except to be at the mouth of two or three witnesses

37:39 I personally believe it's referring then if at the mouth of two or three witnesses an elder is justly charged with sin then that sin reprove in the sight of all that the rest may be in fear and if the subject is elders then it shows they don't have diplomatic immunity if it's broader the principle is still the same there comes a point where proven sin must be the subject of public shaming public reproof then that sin reprove in the sight of all that the rest may be in fear and then in Titus chapter 1 and in Titus chapter 3 we have two more key passages with respect to the apostolic injunctions the manifold injunctions that warrant corrective discipline verse 10 of chapter 1 in Titus there are many unruly men vain talkers deceivers especially they of the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped men who overthrow whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake one of themselves a prophet of their own said cretins are always liars evil beasts idle gluttons here was a stereotype that just happened to be true and it may not have been politically correct to repeat it but Paul doesn't care under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he says one of their own has indicted them and his indictment is true politically correct or not this is what they are and any cretin

39:08 who loved crete's image more than he loved Christ might have sat there with a bruised cretin self image but that's his problem this testimony is true for which cause reprove them sharply that's not a loving way to do it reprove them sharply that they may be healthy in the faith someone who's dabbling with these things and leaving himself vulnerable to the ethical and moral influences is not to be treated with kid gloves reprove them sharply if they're so stupid as to be taken in by this bring them back to spiritual sobriety by sharp reproof why? not to beat them down not to discourage them but that they may be healthy again that they may be healthy that they may be sound in faith chapter 3 verses 10 and 11 a factious man after a first and second admonition refuse now who is the factious man? that awaits careful exegesis a consideration of a number of factors but this much is clear he expects Titus to be able to identify and to help the people of God at Crete to identify factious men and they are to be admonished there is a form of verbal corrective radical discipline and it's not to go on forever after a first and second admonition refuse knowing that such a one

40:36 is perverted and sins being self-condemned what's it mean to refuse? that's an end a matter for careful exegesis but one thing it's clear it's a form of corporate public discipline that goes beyond mere words he doesn't say after first and second admonition give a third admonition but he says refuse avoid it moves from the verbal into the social dimensions of radical church discipline and then you can take first Timothy 1 19 and follow as a final passage where we see the apostle Paul indicating that these were the principles by which he operated when appropriate to act unilaterally as an apostle he tells Timothy to hold faith and a good conscience which some having thrust from them have made shipwreck concerning the faith of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I delivered unto Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme and whatever that means one thing is clear Paul wanted it down in permanent record under the guidance of the Holy Spirit there comes a time when certain people have so conducted themselves that they are to be delivered unto Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme so certainly brethren if we feel something of the cumulative weight of these key texts we're ready to conclude I trust that any church that claims

42:04 to be so so advanced as to not need corrective or radical discipline goes beyond the vision of Christ beyond the vision the experience the practice of the apostolic church and it's either a subterfuge or a horrible self-deception any church which acknowledges the need but will not implement corrective discipline is one that is living in disobedience and will provoke the displeasure of the Lord Jesus Christ now McShane was quoted in the previous hour and I want to quote him again in his memoir Bonar writes he did not make light of the Kirk's session's power to rebuke and deal with an offender once from the pulpit at an ordination of elders McShane gave the following testimony on this subject of church discipline quote when I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline I thought that my great and almost only work was to pray and to preach I saw your souls to be so precious and the time so short that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labor in the word and in doctrine when cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders I regarded them with something akin to abhorrence

43:32 it was a duty I shrank from and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of ministry among you all together this is what he's telling his people but it pleased God who teaches his servants in another way than man teaches to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Christ so also his church discipline I now feel very deeply persuaded that both are of God that two keys are committed to us by Christ the one the key of doctrine by means of which we unlock the treasures of the Bible the other the key of discipline by which we open or shut the way to the sealing ordinances of the faith both are Christ's gift and neither is to be resigned without sin now if that holy man admitted he had an aversion to this that almost drove him from the ministry do you think you're going to face this reality without fears and reservations and do you think you don't have the stuff in your heart to begin to construct a very plausible

45:01 set of reasons to say to the Lord Jesus in this area I pray thee have me excused any man who can face this aspect with a sense of glee is sick and doesn't belong in the ministry any man who will not have the moral courage to face it with tenderness and with a broken heart but with principled obedience to Christ he doesn't belong in the ministry either he doesn't belong there because it's Christ's institution in order to advance the purposes of Christ's church the church in which he dwells and the church that he says will be will conquer in his name and in his power and against which the gates of hell shall not prevail