Corrective Church Discipline, Part 2

Introduction: The Purposes of Corrective Discipline

0:03 Discussion of the various responsibilities connected with the task of shepherding or overseeing the flock of God, we have thus far considered those which relate to the corporate life of God's people as a worshiping assembly, as a praying assembly, and as a body ministering to itself in love. And we are now examining the vital subject of the church exercising itself in the solemn responsibilities in conjunction with corrective or the radical discipline of its members. Now last week I sought to clarify the terminology with respect to ordinary or the formative discipline of healthy church life in all of its private and public means of grace, and how this is different from the corrective or radical discipline that brings within its scope such biblically-based, mandated actions as public censure, avoidance, and excommunication. Now in our initial consideration of this weighty subject, we examined the biblical basis for the necessity of corrective discipline, and we saw that it rests upon two massive pillars of Holy Scripture. Pillar number one, the clear teaching of our Lord Himself, that's large letter A in your outline. And then?

1:33 We considered, secondly, large number two, the manifold apostolic injunctions. Now we come today to large letter B in your outline, namely, the purposes of corrective discipline. Having seen from the Word of God the necessity of corrective discipline, now we address large letter B, the purposes of corrective discipline. Now as we come to this subject, we find ourselves as with so many other aspects of biblical truth, both in doctrine and practice, in that we must seek to grasp the full spectrum of the purposes, plural, of church discipline. We must never seek to isolate one purpose and extend it into a universal that incorporates all others, nor must we magnify one of the purposes above the other, let alone exclude any from the many purposes revealed in the Word of the living God.

2:51 And in your outline, there are five purposes that are listed, to which I have added a sixth in the reworking of the lecture in preparation for today, and I believe it is a separate category. I wrestled for some time to settle in my own judgment whether it were really an amplification of purpose number one, or indeed a separate purpose, and when I was just about 50-50 in my judgment, the fact that Jonathan Edwards lists it as a distinct and separate purpose or function, Jonathan Edwards cast my judgment to include a number six. All right then, we take up together, brethren. The purpose is for corrective church discipline, and in setting out the various purposes indicated in Scripture, let me emphasize that they are not treated in order of importance or with an assumed equality in all cases, but since I cannot teach you in the form of a pie, but must teach you one, two, three, four, five, six, this is the manner in which we should approach them. The purposes of church discipline are not simple, but they are complex. They are not one-sided, but multi-faceted.

Purpose 1: Maintaining the Honor of God in His Church

4:18 And the first is the maintaining of the honor of God in His church. As each individual Christian is to reflect the character of God, so the church in its corporate life and identity is to reflect the character of God. The church is to reflect the character of God. The church's identity is to do the same.

4:37 The Lord is not speaking so much to individual disciples, but to the disciples in their identity as the people of God when He says to them, Ye are the light of the world, ye are the salt of the earth. And this is brought out very forcefully in a text such as 1 Peter 2, verses 9 through 12. He said that ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation a people for God's own possession, to what end? In order that you as the people of God, the elect race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, that you in your collective love would be the people of God. Nearly 500,000 people of God will be the people of the Holy Nation. 40,000 people!

5:33 life and identity may show forth the excellence, the alitas, the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And one of the great ends for which God has made us part of that elect race in royal priesthood and holy nation, the people of His own possession, is that through us His own glorious virtues may be displayed. Again, we look in Romans 2 and verse 22, and we see that where sin is tolerated to the point that it is observed and discerned by the unbelieving community, when it is tolerated in the covenant community, what happens? Well, in Romans chapter 2, we read in verse, speaking, of course, of the Jews who rested in the law, etc. Let's start in verse 22, Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who glory in the law, through your transgression of the law, dishonorest

6:55 thou God, for the name of God is blasphemed. Blasphemed among the Gentiles, among the hordes of the Goyim, who claim no covenantal relationship, who claim no privilege of having the oracles of God and the covenants of God given to and made with them. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. You claim this privilege, this association with, and subjection to.

7:31 The covenant relationship with covenant obligations, with covenantal ethics, and yet he says you live contrary to it, and the result is God's name is blasphemed through the very community that he says in Isaiah should be his instrument of light and praise among the Goyim, among the nations. And likewise in Titus, writing to the new covenant community, and writing concerning very practical matters. Of the ethics of domestic order, he gives as his buttressing motive that there should be serious recognition of these ethics and diligent implementation. Speaking of the older women, they are to be this, that, and the other. To what end? Titus 2, 5b. In order

8:29 that the word of God be not blasphemed. You are the community who claim to be subject to God and to his word. And if in this matter of the canons of ethical behavior that God in his word has assigned to men and women, older women, younger women, if you are not living in conformity to the ethics of those covenantal documents, as the community claiming special covenantal relationship with God, you, even as ancient Israel, become the instrument through which the word of God is blasphemed. Now why do I emphasize this on the front end of taking up the purposes of corrective discipline? For this simple reason, rather. Until this matter of the honor of God in his church grips our hearts and continues to condition our hearts, we will not be prepared to deal with our feelings, our fears, and our various forms of reticence to engage in corrective discipline. There must be in us something of the passion which consumed our Lord Jesus,

9:55 who, when he saw his father's house defiled, was prepared to be considered a madman, prepared to have it said of him, Zeal for your house has consumed me. You have turned my father's house into a den of robbers. And you see, the glory of the church is never truly stained biblically. When it becomes a gathering place of publicans and sinners, cleansed of the ways of publicans and the ways of sinners, but when the church claims to be the congregation of those delivered from the dominion of sin, planted in the narrow path and pressing on to conformity to Jesus Christ, and there is patent contradiction of that claim, then the honor and name and word of God are blasphemed. And one of the great purposes for which God has instituted corrective church discipline is that his honor might be maintained in his church. And at this point, as I will be all along the way in the lecture, I'll be quoting from Jonathan Edwards in his excellent dissertation

11:21 on the whole subject of church discipline, in which he gives five reasons for church discipline. I read to you number one, page 121, sermon 5, volume 2. If you tolerate visible wickedness in your members, you will greatly dishonor God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the religion which you profess, the church in general, and yourselves in particular. As those members of the church who practice wickedness bring dishonor upon the whole body, so do those who tolerate them in it.

12:00 The language of it is that God does not require holiness in his servants. Christ does not require it in his disciples, that the religion of the gospel is not a holy religion, and that the church is not a body of holy servants of God, and that this church in particular has no regard to holiness or true virtue. We greatly dishonor God. So then, the first reason or purpose of corrective discipline is the maintenance of the honor of God in his church where that discipline is.

Purpose 2: The Restoration and Salvation of Members

12:35 That discipline is necessary for such maintenance. But then secondly, one of the major purposes of corrective discipline is the restoration and salvation of the members of the church.

12:51 Now, I trust we are sufficiently grounded in our systematic theology that we feel comfortable with this statement. All of the true people of God shall persevere in holiness unto the end.

13:09 But, all of the true people of God must persevere in holiness unto the end. They shall, but they must. And when we are thinking of God's work, his shall becomes the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. When we deal with our must, that is the doctrine of the necessity of the perseverance of the saints.

13:37 And we must hold tenaciously to the doctrine, of the preservation and the perseverance of the saints. From God's perspective and our understanding of his revealed will, they shall persevere. But from the perspective of our revealed duty, we know that we must persevere, and that that perseverance is our duty. Matthew 22, 14, He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved.

14:11 And Hebrews chapter 10, verses 38 and 39, My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrink back, my soul has no pleasure in him. They must persevere. But, we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition, but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul, we shall be preserved. We must persevere, and we shall be, preserved.

14:43 Therefore, as a means of grace, corrected discipline has as its goal nothing less than the salvation of the souls of those upon whom it is exercised. And this is patent in the major text dealing with church discipline. For example, in Matthew 18, what is the end in view? When the brother has, when the brother has been sinned against, or when the brother has sinned, and his sin has been observed as a private offense, why does the brother go to him?

15:22 If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Gained him to what? Gained him to the reality of true communion in the company of those pressing on in the way of holiness. Those who are pursuing peace with all men, and the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.

15:46 And the escalation has the same end in view. If he hear you, then the brother has been gained. And so the end of the discipline is not the excision of the sinning member, but the gaining of that member into fellowship and into the way of holiness once again. Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 5, in what is the way of holiness?

16:12 It is perhaps the strongest passage of that peremptory discipline which Paul commanded upon this fornicating man. What was the end in view? Well, it wasn't simple. It was complex, but one of them was this.

16:29 Verse 5, Deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, whatever that means, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's ambiguity as to what the destruction of the flesh is. Is flesh used there in terms of remaining sin?

16:52 Does it mean temporal judgments upon his body? Well, though there is difference of interpretation there, I don't know that there is any with regard to the latter part of the verse. Whatever the destruction of the flesh is, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus is clear. There is a salvific end in view even in this radical excision of this sinning man at their next gathering.

17:22 It is to the end that this radical church discipline may result in the salvation of the man's soul. That it will have under God a spiritual shock effect that will cause him to break off from his sins and to get back into the way of biblical holiness. And likewise, with the familiar Galatians 6, one passage, if any one be overtaken in a trespass, the purpose of going to the brother is this, to restore him. Restore him.

17:58 To see his spiritual bone that has been broken, set and mended, that he may once again run with alacrity in the way of faith and holiness and obedience. Likewise, the second Thessalonians 3 passage. It's stamped upon the face of the action that is here mandated by the authority of Christ through the apostle. If any man obeys not the epistle, note that man, have no company with him, to the end he may be ashamed.

18:32 And what is the end of that shame? Not that he would slink out of the assembly, yet count him not as an enemy, admonish him as a brother, that the church of shame and the admonition would be effective to get him out of that disorderly state and walking in an orderly manner, commending the gospel he professes to believe. Now in this sense, it is accurate to say that radical, corrective church discipline is indeed a loving act which reflects the loving heart of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Who after His most scathing words in the seven letters to the seven churches, the one in which He said, I'm about to puke you,

19:23 spew you out of my mouth, His lovely Elizabethan English that says nothing,

19:29 I'm about to puke you, I'm about to spew you, vomit you. And what does He follow those words with? In Revelation 3.19 As many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten.

19:45 As many as I love, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Now, brethren, pray this perspective in, or you'll never be up to the task of giving biblical guidance to your people in this area. Does the Bible teach that willful continuance in any sin will result in death and judgment? Does the Bible teach that?

20:12 That willful indulgence in what a man knows to be sin does the Bible teach that willful, perpetual patterns of indulgence in sin lead to death and judgment? Yes, that's why Jesus said, anything that causes offense, he takes the admonition of mortification into grotesque analogy and speaks of whacking off right hands and casting them away, plucking out right eyes. Well, if that's so, then we must make this plain, the men in our life together as a church, so that when a pattern of sin emerges and the ordinary means of grace and the lesser levels of corrective discipline have not enabled the man, the woman, to deal with that sin, but they go on and persist in it, what does radical discipline do? Whether suspension, excommunication, what it is saying to this man is what is preached in the word of God that no one, no one willfully, deliberately, continuing in a path of known sin has biblical grounds to say he's on his way to heaven. And now what the church has said in its speaking voice, it will say in its actions by putting you outside of its pale

21:35 or holding up to serious doubt for a period of time whether indeed you are one of us. Now that is not an act of unkindness. It is an act of truth. It is an act of truth and of love.

21:50 Listen to Geshti, who is a Mennonite, writing in a book called Discipling the Brother, published by Herald Press. He has stated this beautifully. There is much in the book that I would not endorse, but this I endorse wholeheartedly. There has been, unfortunately, bad excommunication practice.

22:12 And this has conditioned the thinking of many people to the point where they can see nothing redemptive in the dismissal of a member from the church.

22:22 Therefore, it is essential to see that excommunication does not represent a breakdown of grace or a departure from the gospel. Excommunication is a renewed presentation of the gospel message to an impenitent brother in that it confronts him with the truth that Paul states in 1 Corinthians 6-9. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. To utter this truth in warning to those who have apostatized is just as consistent with the nature of the gospel as informing men in evangelism that unless they repent and believe the gospel, they will not enter the kingdom of God.

23:06 Thus, excommunication rightly practiced never cuts men off from grace. On the contrary, its function is to prevent persons from anesthetizing themselves against the gospel. Excommunication is the form under which the church continues to make grace available to the impenitent.

23:32 What a marvelous statement of it. Excommunication is not then merely loveless condemnation. It's necessary in spiritual life as candid diagnosis is in medical practice. Without facing the truth, persons cannot find spiritual healing.

23:50 Far from being unloving, evangelical excommunication is the only loving and redeeming course of action possible in given circumstances. End quote. And so if we have a passion as we were reminded in the previous hour for the souls of our people, if and when they come to the place where their souls are in jeopardy, if they go on thinking that grace is consistent with the lifestyle they are living, excommunication is God's voice speaking to them. Speaking in the action of the church saying no, no, no, no.

24:31 That course of action will land you in hell. Repent of it. Get back into the way of holiness. And then you are welcomed back into the community of those who are under the canopy of that grace which breaks sin's dominion and is not consistent with its continuous reign.

24:52 For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the dominion of sin. You are not under law but under grace. Listen again to Jonathan Edwards who says, Benevolence toward your offending brethren calls upon you to maintain discipline in all of its parts. Surely if we love our brethren it will grieve us to see them wandering from the path of truth and duty and in proportion as our compassion is moved shall we be disposed to use all proper means to reclaim and bring them back to the right way.

25:29 Now the rules of discipline adapted to this end that infinite wisdom itself could devise I'm sorry, now the rules of discipline contained in the gospel are the most proper and best adapted to this end that infinite wisdom itself could devise. Even excommunication is instituted for this very end. The destruction of the flesh for the salvation of the spirit. If therefore we have any love of benevolence to our offending and erring brethren it becomes us to manifest it in executing strictly the rules of gospel discipline and even excommunication whenever it is necessary.

26:13 Remember the scripture says and there's beautiful parallels in a well-ordered home it is the man who hates his son who refuses to chastise him but he that loveth him chastens him diligently. And while the sentimental humanist on the outside sees a loving father spanking his child and calls it child abuse that son will rise up one day and call his father blessed that he didn't cooperate with the devil in sending him to hell. And so an unthinking world and a sentimental unbiblically trained church may say when you and your people engage in balanced biblical corrective and radical discipline how unloving how harsh how censorious if God will own it to keep people in the way they'll rise up in the day of judgment and bless God that you were willing to use a divinely ordained means to get them to heaven. And so the second purpose then of corrective discipline is the restoration and salvation of the members of the church. But then thirdly there is a third purpose and that is the advancement of the church. Of the purity and health of the church itself.

Purpose 3: The Advancement of the Purity and Health of the Church

27:34 The advancement of the purity and health of the church itself. False living and false teaching have a defiling influence upon others.

27:49 They do not break out in a church with a self-made cocoon that insulates their influence. Two clear examples of this Romans 16 and verse 17. One of the pivotal passages on radical or corrective discipline in a more advanced stage. Now I beseech you brethren mark them that are causing the divisions and the occasions of stumbling contrary to the doctrine which you learned and turn away from them for they that are such serve not our Lord Christ but their own belly and notice this terminology and their own belly and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent. You see sometimes the breaking out of evil in a congregation acts like a magnet and draws to itself others of the same disposition.

28:55 But in this case Paul says these people were able to influence not those who had an ethical and moral controversy with God. They were simply guileless innocent inexperienced and these errorists beguiled the very term used of Satan in his influence upon Eve lest as the serpent beguiled Eve. These should be beguiled. Therefore he says you must mark them you must avoid them they do not have a neutral influence they have a beguiling influence upon the innocent lambs of the flock and therefore the advancement of the purity the health the safety of the church is bound up in the exercise of radical or of corrective discipline and then of course in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 this is one of the things that is emphasized by the apostle. Notice the complex gathering of motives. Verse 6 Your glorying is not good. You glory that you can maintain this man within your church.

30:06 In your ranks don't you know that when you put but a little lump of leaven in a whole table full of bread dough that the whole lump is infected and influenced by that little leaven it's a little leaven that leavens the whole lump a little as opposed to the whole and therefore we cannot take the attitude well we've got 50 people so we have someone that's in a path of immorality someone who is in a path of what the Bible puts in the same class with immorality who is a reviler who has an ungoverned and ungovernable tongue but that's just one I mean we've got 99 or 49 people happy content sheep but the Lord will take care of it. Oh is that so? Are you so naive to think that the devil will not make sure that that lump of leaven gets smack dab in the middle of the whole lump? Paul says don't you know don't you know something you saw when you were a little kid and you saw your mother put a little leaven in and the whole lump rose don't you know go back to your mama's kitchen and learn some ecclesiology don't you know a little leaven leavens the whole lump and add to that a text that I've not listed in your notes but put it in

31:34 Hebrews chapter 12

31:39 if we would advance the purity and health of the church this is why we must be deeply concerned about this matter verses 14 and 15 follow after peace with all men and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord looking carefully lest there be any man that falls short of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby the many be defiled the many be defiled one root of bitterness influencing the many then of course you have in the Ephesians 4 30 passage and its context one of the most powerful words with reference to the advancement of the purity and health and well-being of the church as necessary in conjunction with this matter of corrective discipline before he says grieve not the spirit notice the setting verse 29 let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth but such as is good for edifying as the need may be that it may give grace to them that hear and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger

33:07 and clamor and railing be put away from you with all malice be comforted be kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving even as God in Christ forgave you well suppose there is a member who will not forgive who is determined to maintain a disposition of ill will and unforgiveness even though a brother or sister has said I've acknowledged all that my conscience enlightened by the word has condemned me for I've asked your forgiveness will you forgive and they say no I will not forgive according to our Lord in both the Lord's Prayer Matthew 6 14 and 15 according to his extended parable in Matthew 18 that settled disposition as part of a man's soul is an indication he's a stranger to grace that's very clear now if that breaks out in the church what are you to do oh say well that's not grievous immorality I won't deal with that my friend if that disposition is inconsistent with being in a state of grace it is particularly that disposition that is mentioned in conjunction with grieving the spirit and if there is a grieved spirit what happens then to the livingness of worship to the livingness of preaching to the livingness of the sense of God's nearness a grieved spirit becomes a withdrawn spirit and a withdrawn spirit means we are left

34:36 with a carcass of orthodox reformed regulative principle worship that has the smell of death and of it we can say as they did of Lazarus behold he stink and brethren that's the fruit of an unwillingness to deal biblically with these things these things that grieve the Holy Spirit when they are not settled in the ordinary formative discipline of the church or not settled at the lesser levels of private admonition and why they must if not dealt with be brought into the realm of corrective formal discipline I say the purity and the health and the well-being of the church is at stake listen again to Edwards same page your own good loudly calls to the same thing for what has already been said you can see how liable you as individuals will be to catch the contagion which is easily communicated by reason of natural depravity in a degree at least remaining in the best of men besides if strict discipline be maintained among you it will not only tend to prevent the spread of wickedness but to make you more fruitful in holiness if you know that the eyes of your brethren observe all your conduct

36:04 it will not only make you more guarded against sin but more careful to maintain good works and to abound in the fruit of the spirit thus you will have more abundant joy and peace in believing Edwards envisions the church as a church without any pharisaic judgmentalism a church in which all of the eyes of the brethren are observing each other's conduct this is Jonathan Edwards this is not some radical domitist or some extreme anabaptist this is the esteemed Jonathan Edwards speaking on the subject of church discipline so if you have a heart for the church Christ's guide to do good to what to it to purify it to present it to himself a glorious church you must you must you must have a heart for the implementation of radical or corrective discipline when necessary but then there is a fourth purpose and that is the deterring of others from sin the deterring of others from sin and here we look at two passages in the new and several parallel passages in the old testament you remember that in our lecture last week we noted that in dealing with the subject of the sins of elders the apostle gives on the one hand a prohibition to Timothy

Purpose 4: The Deterring of Others from Sin

37:33 and then he gives a positive injunction and he says in chapter 5 of 1st Timothy with regard to elders against an elder here's the prohibition received not an accusation except at the mouth of two or three witnesses assuming that the witnesses have come forward and it is reasonable established that there indeed has been sin then that sin reprove in the sight of all for what end in order that the rest may be in fear now obviously that's not the only purpose you see why it's so vital to take the principle of systematics here sure you want the elder who has sinned to be restored to fellowship with God credibility and all those other purposes but the one that is highlighted is the deterrent faculty or the deterrent function not faculty the deterrent function he says those that sin reprove before all probably referring to elders so that when people see that elders are not immune from proper reproof when they have sinned not when someone is simply conjured up notions that they've sinned or has chosen to make up a pack of lies and compose letters and tell people what devils they are but when their sin has been clearly established they are to be reproved why it will have a deterrent effect that others

39:03 may be in fear and then in Acts chapter 5 and I'm personally convinced that we have this incident among other reasons that God himself might say something right on the front end of the establishment of the Christian church where the disciplinary agent is not the apostle taking the lead in guiding the church to excommunicate Ananias and Sapphira but the Lord himself excommunicates them and kills them in one stroke that's what he does to these hypocrites and what happened after the Lord himself became the one who executed discipline by death and therefore removal from the church look at the text verse 11 and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all them that heard these things and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch a crowd attracts a crowd I mean this was the end thing going on at Solomon's portico thousands gathering but they didn't forget the buzzword that went through the whole thing there God kills hypocrites but of the rest dared no man join himself to them

40:32 albeit the people magnified them and believers for the more added to the Lord multitudes of both men and women there's a healthy church people magnifying them but just like you can admire the roar of the engines on an old piston driven prop driven plane you don't want to put your head into that whirling propeller they stood up at a distance and they admired there was something glorious and awesome for us God kills you and yet God brought enough people to the place where they wanted to know him and be in the way of holiness and under his favor that he was adding multitudes there was the power to repel that gave them something worthwhile to attract the people to and when a church ceases to have both its attraction and its repelling power it ceases to be a biblical church no man dared join believers with a more attitude there was the deterrent of God's disciplinary activity and then you have those passages in Deuteronomy I'll only read one of them and the others are parallel Deuteronomy 17 12 and 13 with regard to the implementation of the civil discipline

42:00 upon the theocracy God says in verses 12 and 13 and the man that does presumptuously and not hearkening to the priest that stands in the church that stands to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the judge even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously and that very terminology shall fear and do no more presumptuously Deuteronomy 13 11 and 19 and verse 20 does church discipline have a deterrent effect yes and I don't need to prove it in a computer readout God has said it well then let sin reprove before all that others may fear God was the great disciplinarian in Acts 5 fear came upon all no man dared join himself and here again listen to Edwards who underscores this matter I've already read this particular paragraph in that letter the latter part of it emphasizes in the beginning he talks about the contagion but in the latter part he mentions the whole matter it will make you more guarded against your sin he includes the deterrent as the flip side of the good of maintaining purity in the church then fifthly

Purpose 5: The Prevention of Christ's Judicial Judgment upon the Congregation

43:29 the fifth purpose of corrective discipline is the prevention of a judicial judgment of Christ upon the congregation and this of course is a doctrine that is so strained on the ears of this generation but it's a dominant doctrine in Christ's last words spoken to the churches there in the book of the revelation look at revelation 2 and verse 5 as he calls that church through its messenger whoever the messenger is to repent from having abandoned their first love remember therefore revelation 2 5 whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come to you and will move your candlestick out of its place except you repent here our Lord threatens a blood bought community with his judicial judgment if the words mean anything that's what they tell us if you do not repent if you're weighing whether it's worth the pain of repenting of abandoning your first love and recovering it whatever that means he says I lay this before you if you do not I will come and move your candlestick out of its place

44:59 and we know that he did in that area of Ephesus now is one of the darkest places I correspond with a precious missionary seeking to learn the language of the area to minister where Christians can be named and numbered by just the dozens because somebody didn't really believe Christ look at chapter 2 verses 14 to 16 speaking to the church at Pergamum I have a few things against you 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 commit fornication so you have some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner repent therefore or else that sounds very threatening is it Christ like to threaten repent or else repent therefore or else I will come to you quickly and make war against them with the sword of my mouth whatever it means it's a threat from the exalted Christ if they do not deal with these evil doctrines and the evils producing coming from those doctrines in the church he himself will come and he will bring judgment upon them

46:27 and the similar sentiments of verse 20 with reference to the church of Thyatira I have this against you you suffer that woman Jezebel to seduce my people I gave her time that she repent she wills not to repent behold I cast her into a bed and those that commit adultery with her I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he that searches the reins and the hearts and will give to each one of you according to your works and perhaps that is not just a reference to the eschatological apportionment in the day of judgment but in the context could well be an addendum to the threat of his ongoing blessing being predicated upon the church's willingness to deal with the evil in its ranks and you remember what is true of churches is also true of individuals and here the apostle makes that abundantly clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 dealing with the disorders at the Lord's table and the attendant love feasts at Corinth you remember what he says in verse 30 for this cause many among you are weak and sickly and the exegetes can debate

47:56 by showing that weak and sickly those words can mean both physical weakness spiritual weakness and physical weakness but there's no question about the next and not a few sleep the concept of sleep is used of death and here he says that for this cause and I personally believe and it's the judgment of most of the commentators that I've consulted that the weakness and the sickliness are actual physical maladies that are part of God's temporal chastisements upon those who are sinning in this way and then he goes on to say if we would discern or judge ourselves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord so here is a judgment that is a form of chastening it is not judgment unto condemnation death and hell but it is nonetheless a form of chastisement that Paul calls being judged of the Lord and I don't know what else to call it but a judicial judgment upon his people and that's and you must never never forget the great teaching of the whole conquest of AI preceded by that horrible defeat in Joshua chapter 7 because there was sin in the camp there was defeat for the whole nation and when Joshua and the elders are prostrating fasting and praying

49:25 and crying to God God says up get on your feet there is sin in the camp and until it's rooted out you can pray and fast and cry to me until you are your throat is dry and you cannot speak another word there's a time when praying must give birth to singling out the aching and dealing with him and then you know AI was no problem for the armies of God and so brethren the prevention of judicial judgment is no little part of the purpose of radical or corrective discipline and then the sixth that I've added is this the effectiveness of our witness to the world the effectiveness of our witness to the world and here I give you several key texts and then also the quote from Edwards that pushed me over the hill the first text is John 13 35 by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another if the manifested love of the people of God is the attestation of our attachment to Christ then what negates that attestation but the absence of the manifest love of the brethren so if you have

Purpose 6: The Effectiveness of Our Witness to the World

50:53 a recalcitrant man if you have someone sowing discord someone seeking to inject into a loving body of God's people seeds of bitterness and hatred and animosity engaging in slander engaging in the sins listed in Ephesians for how can the witness to the world be effective if that man that woman that group of people are not brought to repent and if they will not repent excised from the body that that which remains as the church does indeed become the self-authenticating body of Christ's disciples by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another or we take the Philippians 2 14 and 15 passage do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may be blameless and harmless sons of God without rebuke shining as lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation or among whom you are seen as lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation holding forth the word of life the community holding forth the word of life is first of all manifesting the light of that word in its corporate lifestyle

52:19 and where it does not then our effectiveness as a witness is greatly hindered are the people of God the community of those who by the spirit are mortifying the deeds of the flesh and thereby show that they are on their way to consummate eschatological life if you by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live then what of someone who will not mortify his sins and after admonition and patient loving counsel he refuses to mortify his sin to allow him to remain in the community of those marked for heaven is to declare a lie to the world you can get to heaven a second class citizen without hacking and hewing and mortifying sin you can still get there and our effectiveness and our witness to the world is neutered by the allowance of such people within the pale of the visible community of God's people and Edwards understood this wrote very perceptively the good of those without should be another motive that is for church discipline what the apostle set with reference to another subject 1 Corinthians 14 24 and 5 is perfectly applicable to the case before us but if all prophesy there come in one

53:47 that believes not or unlearned he's convinced of all judged of all thus the secrets of his heart are made manifest and so falling down in his face he will worship God and report God is in you of a truth if strict discipline and thereby strict morals were maintained in the church it would in all probability be one of the most powerful means of conviction and conversion towards those who are without and surely if what we call revivals those concentrated intensified operations of the ordinary work of the spirit more localized more augmented if they teach us anything they teach us that when the church is purified and the people of God gets things right with God and one another and make restitution what is always one of the inevitable fruits mighty work of conversion among the lost and generally in that order so brethren if these six things are not enough to sensitize your conscience to the duty that will be yours as an overseer to lead the people of God into a biblical balanced wholesome implementation of radical or corrective church discipline then I don't know what would ever move you the maintenance

55:16 of the honor of God the restoration and salvation of the ministry of the members of the church the advancement of the purity and health of the church the deterring of others from sin the prevention of judicial judgment and the effectiveness of our witness to the world now at this point I think it would be well for us to take a break and then we'll come back and take up in a much briefer way the major forms of corrective discipline and some necessary warnings with respect to the administration of that church discipline