Ministry of Corrective Discipline

Introduction: The Race of Faith and Means of Perseverance

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, July 11th, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. In our second hymn this morning, we sought to stir ourselves up to stretch every nerve in running what the scripture calls the race of faith, the race of the people of God. And it is a sad but undeniable fact that not all who set out in the Christian race make it to the end and win the victor's crown.

0:40 The Bible speaks of those who believe only for a while and in time of temptation fall away. And yet the same Bible makes it plain that only those who having entered the race continue. In faith, holiness, and obedience to the end have any grounds to believe that they shall receive the victor's crown, the reward of grace at the end of the road.

1:11 And we are in our Lord's Day morning studies in the scriptures examining some dimensions of the biblical teaching with respect to this whole subject of the people of God and their continuance in the way of faith and holiness. Having examined some 30 pivotal texts in the New Testament which teach the necessity of the perseverance of the saints, we are now examining some of those strategic portions in which the means ordained of God to secure the perseverance of the people of God are set before us.

1:52 Now we are not dealing with the subject commonly called the means of grace. In general, that would take us into a much wider field of study. But rather we are concerned to look at those passages which have a direct bearing upon the subject of perseverance and the particular means ordained of God to assist the people of God in that path of perseverance. And I have suggested that the means of our perseverance...

2:27 The means of our perseverance ordained of God come to us in two broad categories. Those means that I have called the corporate or social means, the means connected with the life and ministry of the church, and then the individual or the private means of perseverance. Thus far we have examined two of these corporate means. We have seen that primary among those means is the ministry of the world.

2:57 That means the ministry of the word by the appointed overseers of any given flock of God. And then we saw in our study last Lord's Day, the ministry of continuous mutual exhortation. Exhortation understood in its biblical sense as encouragement, comfort, and urging to biblical norms and privileges. Now we come this morning to consider...

Defining Corrective Discipline

3:27 Third, means ordained of God for the perseverance of the people of God, a means deposited in the life and ministry of the church. And it's what I am calling the ministry of the corrective discipline of the church. The ministry of the corrective discipline of the church. Now, in opening up the subject, what I propose to do is to give you, first of all, a working definition of what I mean by the terminology, the ministry of corrective discipline.

4:05 Then we shall survey six pivotal passages dealing with the ministry of corrective discipline and in conclusion make three very pointed applications based upon the service, the survey of those key passages. First of all, then, a working definition of the ministry of corrective discipline. You see how necessary last Lord's Day morning's message is to understand this morning's. If we understand exhortation primarily in the context or in the framework of rebuke and reproof, well, this will seem to be an overlapping.

4:50 But if we understand exhortation, as we ought to understand it, and as I trust I demonstrated from the scripture last Lord's Day, then we will see that this is indeed a distinct category of a means of perseverance. And I'm using this terminology, corrective discipline, in this sense. Corrective discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt by the people of God to bring a sinning brother or sister to God. to bring a sinning brother or sister to God.

5:22 Corrective discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt by the people of God to bring a sinning brother or sister back into the way of faith and holiness and obedience by means of individual or corporate reproof and entreaty, or when necessary, by corporate excision, that is, by excluding them from the life of the church. Now let me just go over that very briefly and then we'll turn to the scriptures. Corrective discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt. We must never think of corrective discipline as though it were some kind of a harsh club

6:02 to be wielded in a legalistic, insensitive way upon the people of God. Corrective discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt by the people of God to bring a sinning brother or sister back into the way of faith and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness and holiness. faith, holiness, and obedience that is back into the way of biblical perseverance by means of individual, one-on-one, or corporate, two or three, or the entire church, by means of

6:40 individual or corporate reproof and entreaty, pleading with a brother or sister to see his true state and to repent, or when necessary, by corporate excision in the language of scripture, accounting that person a heathen or a publican. Now then, having set before you that working definition of the ministry of corrective discipline, let us briefly survey the pivotal passages dealing with this ministry of corrective discipline as a means of perseverance. In the first chapter, we see that the ministry of corrective discipline is a means of perseverance. The first chapter, we see that the ministry of corrective discipline is a means of perseverance.

Survey of Matthew 18: Gaining the Brother

7:17 The first one is found in Matthew's gospel and the 18th chapter, the gospel of Matthew, chapter 18. Now, this is obviously a church context. Our Lord gives only two explicit references to the church in the gospel of Matthew, and this is one of them. The other, of course, is in Matthew 16. Matthew 18, 15, And if thy brother sin against thee,

7:50 go, show him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church.

8:15 And if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee, as the Gentile and the publican. And then our Lord goes on to underscore the authority of his own word and presence, ratifying such actions of corporate discipline. Now, the major point to be considered in conjunction with our study this morning is this emphasis upon gaining the brother. Notice the language of verse 15. We are to go

8:50 and show him his fault between thee and him alone. And if he refuse to hear them, tell him to go and show a brother his fault with this end in view, that of gaining our brother or our sister. And bound up in that concept of gaining is, of course, bringing our brother or sister to the point where he or she sees his sin, owns the sin, deals with the sin, so that there is a restoration of personal fellowship between the sinning brother or sister. And if he or she sees his sin, he or she has sinned against. But the gaining goes further than that, because the

9:28 passage obviously teaches that if this sin will not be dealt with, it will ultimately lead to the regarding of this person as an unconverted man or woman. Because in the path of perseverance, a true believer does not willfully, deliberately, perpetually pursue a course, of sinful behavior. And therefore, this process of going to him alone, taking two or three, and then having the church speak to the heart of this man or woman, has in view this restoration

10:08 to the path of faith, of holiness, and obedience. And only as a last resort, when this person refuses to be restored in biblical terms, he must then be regarded as one whom we can no longer look upon as a fellow traveler in the road that leads unto life. For that road is the road of holiness, the road in which we are seeking to deal with our sins. And we do not regard any sin as a little sin. The thing in itself may be in the

10:42 judgment of others a relatively insignificant thing. But if it is clearly a sin against a brother, it can be established in the presence of God. And if it is clearly a sin against a brother, it can be established in the presence of witnesses. It is not that someone may have looked a little bit the wrong way and may have meant something by a glance.

11:00 Not the picayune things that love delights to cover, but here is clearly a sin, the nature of which can be established by impartial witnesses, and the whole end for which our Lord instituted this process, was the gaining of the brother.and so you see, the working definition fix. Corrective discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt by the people of God to bring a sinning brother or sister back into the way of faith, holiness, and obedience by means of individual, go tell him his fault between thee and him alone, or corporate, two or three witnesses,

11:43 let him hear the church, corporate reproof and entreaty, or when necessary, corporate excision. And the great end for which he is even cut off is hopefully that this may be used of God to restore him to his spiritual senses and bring him to repentance that he may once again be brought back into the way of faith, of holiness, and obedience. Then turn over to the gospel according to Luke. Remember, we're just taking a brief survey of the pivotal passages. We are not exhaustively

Survey of Luke 17: Rebuke and Forgive

12:20 expounding any one of them. Now here it is not explicitly a church context, the word church is not used, but in the light of the fact that our Lord very clearly gathered his own into a functioning assembly, directed his apostles to establish churches, surely the directive, though not exercise, was to be used as a remembrance of Christ's resurrection, to establish his own life for the righteousness of his family. In the light of the fact that our Lord very clearly purely gathered his own into a functioning assembly, directed his apostles to establish churches, explicitly church-oriented, implicitly fits that framework. Luke 17, and he said unto his disciples, It is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come.

12:58 The world being what it is, human nature being what it is, occasions to stumble into sin will always be present until our returning Lord ushers in the new heavens and the new earth. But woe unto him through whom they come. You do not have a Christian determinism that says because offenses will come, therefore the person who is offended and offends others, the one who sins and occasions sin, is not blameworthy. Not according to the scriptures.

13:34 Woe unto him through whom they come. It were well for him that a millstone were hung about his neck and he were thrown into the sea rather than he should go. Cause one of these little ones to stumble. Take heed to yourselves.

13:49 If thy brother sin, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. Here we see the very clear responsibility we have to one another.

14:13 If a brother sin, or sister sins against you, you are responsible to rebuke that sinning brother. But you are to rebuke him with a view to extending forgiveness. You long to see his sin thoroughly dealt with. The assumption is that he will acknowledge his sin to God and having acknowledged his sin to God, he will then feel the pressure of the horizontal dimensions of his sin and he will turn to you and say, my brother, my sister, I sinned against God.

14:46 I sinned against you in this act. I have sought and received the forgiveness of God according to his promise. Will you forgive me for this sin? And should he come to you seven times in the day with areas in which he has sinned against you, you are to manifest that you long to see him in the way of perseverance, which is the way of continuous confession of sin.

15:11 Sometimes dozens of times, our Lord assumes that the way of perseverance is not a way of some imagined perfection, but it is the way of continuous confession and repentance. And you and I are to encourage one another in that way by mutual reproof as well as encouragement, exhortation as we examined it last Lord's Day morning. The main point of this passage, the sinning brother is not to be allowed to go on in his sin. We are not simply to pray for him that God will deal with him.

15:53 If he sinned against thee, rebuke him. Don't expect the Holy Spirit to do what God has told you to do. Now what you do, you need to do in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. You need to do prayerfully.

16:10 That's why I included that in my working description. Corrective discipline. Discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt of the people of God. It is a prayerful exercise.

16:23 I know that my reproof will not be effectual unless the Spirit of God makes it effectual. But I also know that I may pray for ten years and the Holy Ghost is not going to speak audibly in the ears of my brother. I must pray and then reprove. And I must reprove in the spirit of gentleness, gentleness and loving desire to extend forgiveness when my brother or sister acknowledges his or her sin.

16:52 Now why is this so important? Because we live in a world in which occasions of stumbling abound. The opportunities to turn out of the way of perseverance in faith and holiness and obedience are on every hand. It is no easy thing to enter the race and to complete it.

17:13 The occasions to... To stumble and fall and apostatize abound on every hand.

Survey of 1 Corinthians 5: Excision for Salvation

17:20 And our Lord has made this gracious provision that we might help one another to stay in that way by rebuking and by forgiving one another. Then the third passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Now here again, the context is explicitly a church context.

17:44 Most of you are familiar with the general, the content of this chapter. The report was brought to the ears of the apostle that there was an immoral relationship being exercised at Corinth, one that even raw pagans did not tolerate. And the Corinthians were boasting in their so-called Christian toleration. And they were not dealing with this incestuous relationship.

18:13 And so the apostle Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 5, 3, I verily being absent in body but present in spirit have already as though I were present judged him that is so wrought this thing in the name of the Lord Jesus, you being gathered together. Here is a church context. Not the church in a generic sense, but the specific congregation at Corinth. You being gathered together and my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh in order that the spirit may be saved

18:57 in the day of the Lord Jesus. Here the direction in its very essence is quite clear. That this sinning man at a specific gathering of the people in the self-consciousness of the presence of Christ and of apostolic authority was to be delivered unto Satan that is put outside the realm of the visible community of the people of God. He is to rejoin, as it were, the ranks of the kingdom of darkness in which all men by nature dwell, in which people, when God saves them, can pass out of that realm into the realm of God's visible community

19:39 when they become part of his people. Now, he says, because this man is in a course that is utterly, utterly inconsistent with the state of grace, he must no longer be given the privilege of being acknowledged as one who is on the road that leads to life. Therefore, deliver him unto Satan. But what's the end in view?

20:04 Notice, the end is very clearly stated. In order that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Even this ultimate act of excision, even this cutting, or in the language of the latter part of the chapter, the last verse, this putting away of the wicked man, has a saving end in view. It is not the church with a narrow heart and a narrow spirit consigning the man to hell and saying, we're done with you, you've made your bed, lie in it, and go to hell in it.

20:42 That's not the end in view at all. The end in view is that God may use this severe, severe act of discipline to bring the man to feel and own the horror of his sin, that dealing with this fleshly pattern of his life, he may be brought back into the way of faith and holiness and obedience, and thereby be found among the ranks of the redeemed at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see the great end for which this act of discipline, was enacted, was in direct connection with the subject of perseverance.

Survey of Galatians 6: Restore with Gentleness

21:26 Then we turn over to Galatians chapter 6.

21:30 Galatians chapter 6, and here again the apostle is writing to the churches of Galatia. He assumes that the people who hear this letter read, for remember there were no printing presses,

21:44 the elder or messenger who received such letters did not go down to the local library and make Xerox copies of the parchments and pass them out to everyone at the next prayer meeting. So these epistles were read in only one place, in the gathering of God's people. They are church epistles. And writing then to visible saints gathered in visible churches, the apostle writes in chapter 6 and verse 1, Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself,

22:29 lest you also be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Here again, you see, is a trespass. Someone has very evidently violated a revealed norm of scripture. It is not the picture of a believer sitting around with a magnifying glass, trying to find something that might possibly be a fault in his brother or sister.

22:57 It is not that at all. But here is a brother or sister who is overtaken in a trespass. He is violating a norm of scripture, something that is contrary to continuance in a life of faith and holiness and obedience. And now the brethren are to do what?

23:15 They are to seek to restore him. And that word restore is the word that is used to say, set a limb that is out of joint. Now if someone comes into the emergency room at Mountainside Hospital and his shoulder has been put out of joint in a ball game, the doctor doesn't look at him and say, you're all out of shape, you're a mess, I'm going to whack you back into shape. No, it requires unusual gentleness and deftness of hand to reset that arm and put that bone in its proper socket so that the arm may function, well again.

23:53 Well, that's the picture. Here is someone who is spiritually out of joint and we don't go to them and just crack their arm. We are to go in the spirit of meekness, the spirit of gentleness, but we are to go. And we're to go with a view not of saying, well, your arm looks a little funny, but none of us is perfect.

24:12 So you can just go on that way. No, we're to say, look, my friend, do you know that you're out of joint spiritually? He may not be aware of it. That's the tragedy.

24:20 We can be spiritually out of joint, and look in our spiritual mirrors and think that everything is fine. But someone else sees that we're out of joint. And if a brother be overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual, and that does not mean you who have attained some great degree of spirituality, no man who walks in humility will make that judgment of himself. It simply means those of you who are presently under the regulative influence of the Word of God.

24:50 You are walking, you are walking in the Spirit. You're not perfect. You're not a super saint. But you are one who at that point is not living the life of a hypocrite, one who is not knowingly grieving and quenching the Spirit.

25:04 Go to such a one in the spirit of meekness, seeking to restore him. Here's the responsibility that we have towards one another. To what end? That we might be kept in the way of faith, holiness, and obedience.

Survey of 2 Thessalonians 3 & 1 Thessalonians 5: Admonish the Disorderly

25:21 Then over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Remember what we're doing now, just a brief survey, not of all, but of the pivotal passages on this matter of the ministry of corrective discipline. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brotherhood, every mother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which they received of us.

26:00 And then in the next verses, he describes what this disorderly conduct was against the backdrop of his own positive example of an orderly walk. And in this particular context, it had to do with people who were unwilling to be gainfully employed and were sponging on God's people. They were taking advantage of the good, goodwill of God's people. They were appearing as very spiritual in waiting for the return of the Lord.

26:29 And Paul says, in essence, if they won't work, don't let them eat. Let their tummies begin to play a tune on their backbone, and that will straighten out their eschatology. Now then, he says in verse 14, and if any man obeys not our word by this epistle, note that man, that you have no company with him, to the end of the day, to the end of the day, to the end of the day, to the end of the day, to the end of the day, to the end of the day, to the end that he may be ashamed. Now that's not an absolute statement.

26:57 Avoid him completely because he says in the next verse, yet, count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Well, how can you admonish him if you don't have contact with him? So what he is saying is you are to withhold from him the full-orbed, open-faced, unfettered privileges of church communion. He is to, to feel the pressure of his brethren upon his conscience, saying to him by withdrawing from that full-orbed, open-faced, free, social interchange that the people of God enjoy, by withdrawing from him and not giving him that privilege,

27:42 the community of the saints is reminding him, you are out of step. The way of faith and holiness and obedience, the way of perseverance is a way of obedience to apostolic faith. Apostolic directions and example. And the apostle's example is clear.

27:59 The apostle's directive, verbally, is clear. If any man will not work, let him not eat. If you turn away in a high-handed manner from that apostolic norm, you have no grounds to say that you are in the way that leads to life. The way that leads to life is the way of obedience.

28:16 It is the way of obedience to all of God's precepts. And so we say to this brother, look, my brother, by your disobedience, you are bringing into question that you are truly in the way. And we long to have with all of our hearts the joy of embracing you as a brother who is in the way with us. And therefore, we're going to withdraw some of the privileges of open-faced, full-orb church interaction and fellowship to what end?

28:46 That we may admonish you. There's the word for rebuke, reproving, and correcting. That's that special word. Not exhort, but admonishing by word and by deed.

28:58 To what end? Not that this man may be beaten down and treated as an off-cast, but we long to see him restored to the path of obedience and holiness. And when he is, then he is restored to full-orbed, open-faced fellowship with those who are traveling that same path with him. So you see how the emphasis again falls upon the positive, corrective nature of this means that God has established.

29:32 And 1 Thessalonians 5.14 is a parallel passage. We'll simply read it to buttress what we have seen in 2 Thessalonians. It's a summary, a general direction given to all of God's people.

29:46 1 Thessalonians 5.14, and we exhort you, brethren, all of the brethren, admonish, admonish, the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all. And the indication is that he expects the rank and file of the brethren to know the difference between the disorderly, the faint-hearted, and the weak. He expects God's people to make some ethical and moral judgments about their brethren.

30:19 Otherwise, the directive is sheer nonsense. We exhort you, brethren, to admonish the disorderly. 1 Thessalonians 5.14, and we exhort you, brethren, to admonish the disorderly.

30:29 Well, then you see, it must be evident that there is a pattern of disorderliness. It is not a matter of going around and nitpicking and making private judgments. This one's disorderly. That one's disorderly.

30:39 It must be conduct that is evident to every reasonable person, as was the case of these who refused to work. They were going around. Any group of the church there at Thessalonica would get together for fellowship. All you need to do is say, have you seen Brother So-and-so in the church?

30:53 Have you seen Brother So-and-so in the church? Oh, yeah, he was panhandling by my place yesterday. Oh, isn't that interesting? He was by my place the day before.

31:00 And then another sister says, huh, he was by our place for two days straight. Never did a thing. Just sat around and talked how he's longing for the Lord to come. But he'd forget about it about three times a day come mealtime.

Survey of James 5: Converting a Sinner

31:12 Well, you see, there was a general consensus of the disorderly pattern. And now he says, when there is, the entire church is to bring to bear upon that individual its void not to condemn, not to beat him down, but to admonish with a view to restoration. And then the final passage, James chapter 5. In our brief survey of some of the pivotal passages of this means of perseverance, James chapter 5, we expounded this passage in greater detail when we were dealing with the subject of the necessity

31:55 of perseverance. Now notice its contribution to the means. My brethren, if any among you, you who are gathered in church fellowship, for according to chapter 2, if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, James is writing to those who know what it is to meet in visible, organized church fellowship. My brethren, if any among you err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall cover

32:39 a multitude of sins. Any among you, there in the visible community of the people of God, someone errs from the truth, he goes into a path that is contrary to the path of faith, of holiness and obedience, and one of the brethren comes and converts him. In what sense does he convert him? He points out his sin.

33:06 He prayerfully lays before him wherein he is erring from the truth in theory or in practice. He points out the dangerous end to which that will lead. And God is pleased to bless his efforts so that that brother who was erring from the truth is brought back into the way of truth and in so doing, James says, the soul is saved from death and a multitude of sins is covered. And so strategic is the human instrumentality that if we did not have other verses, we might conclude from this verse that it is within the power of one human being to bring about spiritual conversion

33:50 in another. But of course, we know that is not to be pressed into this text, but the thing that is to be extracted from the text is God uses this means if one among you do err and one of you convert him. It doesn't say one of your elders. It says my brethren if one of you convert him.

34:14 Now this is not to deny that your elders have a peculiar responsibility in this area. We saw that under means number one. This is all one fabric. But it is to say that this is the responsibility and the privilege of all the people of God.

Application 1: Refusing Church Membership Trifles with Your Soul

34:30 Now then, coming around full circle to where we started, do you see why I gave you the working definition I did and I believe it will stand up to the test of every one of these passages. Corrected discipline is the prayerful, loving attempt by the people of God to bring a sinning brother or sister back into the way of faith, holiness and obedience by means of individual or corporate reproof and entreaty or when necessary by corporate excision. Now in the light of that teaching what does this say to us sitting here this morning?

35:15 And in our remaining time I want to open up three lines of application. The first is this. And I take no delight in saying what I'm going to say at this point, but I know that this has been a burden shared by my fellow elders and in this series they've asked me when this point was going to be made and I said it would be made at this point in our study. Please listen carefully.

35:42 He who refuses to place himself within the sphere of corrective discipline trifles with his own soul. He who refuses to place himself within the sphere of corrective discipline trifles with his own soul. Now what is the sphere of corrective discipline? According to these passages, five of them explicitly, the sixth one only implicitly, the sphere of corrective discipline is the visible family of God, the church, the community of the saints

36:26 into which men and women and boys and girls enter by voluntary choice when they are prepared to be openly identified with Christ, His word, His people, His laws, His ways and to give themselves to Christ in His church and to live out the responsibilities of that identity with Christ and with His people. And yet they're sitting in this congregation, men and women, boys and girls, who though you profess to believe in Christ, you profess to be a child of God, you refuse

37:10 to become a part of this visible community of God's saints or any other where the word is preached. And this is not an appeal for church members for Trinity Church. We never make such appeals. But it is an appeal to your conscience to put yourself in the framework which God has ordained for your perseverance.

37:36 For by keeping yourself out of that framework you trifle with your soul. When these passages say if thy brothers sin against thee the context is church, life and fellowship. When the scripture says if your brother be overtaken restore him, the context is church, fellowship. It is not qualitatively different from the passages dealing with the responsibility of your overseers.

38:07 When it says obey them that have the rule over you and when it says they watch for your souls, the whole assumption is that that is not an ad hoc relationship or an assumed relationship. It is one that has been entered by mutual consent. When men and women are prepared openly to identify themselves with Christ and his people and the overseers and the people of God know who they are and seek under God to have their hearts enlarged to take them in to love them to weep with them and for them and to watch over one another for the interest of our own ongoing perseverance. I ask those of you who profess to be Christians

38:52 have you ever seriously considered that by refusing to place yourself within the sphere of corrective discipline, that is, within the sphere of the visible church with biblically constituted oversight and with congregations seeking to live by these rules of scripture, has it come home to you that you are trifling with your soul? As I said several weeks ago, it's a wonderful and blessed thing to know that one has people who have a conscience before God about watching over my soul. Who will not, who dare not allow me

39:37 to go on in a path contrary to the word of God without rebuking me, restoring me and making every effort to see to it that I get back into the way of faith and holiness and obedience. Now I'm fully aware that we live in a day where everybody says I can do my own thing. My friend, when you think you can make it to heaven on the straight and narrow way without the means Christ has ordained, you impugn the wisdom of Christ and you trifle with your own soul. I plead with you this day, consider this God appointed means for your salvation,

40:20 for your ongoing preservation, for your being kept in the way of faith and holiness and obedience and ask yourself honestly, why will I not commit myself to a body of God's people? Why will I not commit myself to a specific band of overseers? And if you're honest, some of you will have to say the reason I won't is I want to maintain the options of backing out when the going gets rough, of making unilateral decisions about what's best for me. The scripture says he that separates himself rages against all sound wisdom.

Application 2: Refusing Corrective Discipline Despises Your Salvation

41:04 We desperately need one another. But then there is a second line of application and it is this, he who refuses to embrace corrective discipline despises his own salvation. See the difference? Some refuse to place themselves within the sphere of corrective discipline and thereby trifle with their souls.

41:29 But there are others of you who have placed yourself within the framework of corrective discipline but you refuse to embrace that corrective discipline when it is exercised. And I say he who refuses to embrace corrective discipline despises his own salvation. And I remind you of those two texts in Proverbs to which I made a very brief and passing reference several weeks ago. Let's look at them in greater detail.

41:58 Proverbs chapter 15. For here we are not dealing with exhortation but we're dealing with reproof and correction. Proverbs 15 and verse 10. There is grievous correction for him that forsakes the way.

42:20 In the context of the life of the church, there ought to be grievous correction for anyone who forsakes the way. Anyone who moves out of the way of faith and holiness and obedience, there ought to be correction. There will be the divine correction. Whom the Lord loves, he chases and scourges every son whom he receives.

42:43 But there will also be the correction of the people of God marking the disorderly brother and withdrawing certain dimensions of fellowship, rebuking him, reproving him, telling him his fault between ourselves and him alone. And if he does not hear us and we do not gain him, taking the witnesses, having the church speak, and he that hates reproof shall die. He that hates reproof shall die. I can think of instances even in past weeks where some of you have been lovingly reproved by your brothers and sisters and you're still bristling.

43:24 You hate reproof. You justify yourself. You put your tail between your legs and you start singing the little song Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me, I'm going out and eat worms. My friend, you don't need to go eat worms.

43:41 You need to humble yourself and repent and vomit out your sin. You need to go to your brothers and sisters and embrace them, if not physically, at least verbally, and thank them for having enough concern to see you kept in the way of faith and holiness and obedience that they've come and sought to point out your sin. And my friend, if you're determined to be holy, you're not a stickler about technicalities as to how it's done. I've been manhandled a few times, but it was the manhandling of love.

44:16 And someone may not have been the wisest reprover on earth. And they may not have been the most tactful. And the knife with which they sought to cut out the cancer that they saw in me may have been a bit rusty. And they may have taken half of an organ that was healthy and going after the diseased one.

44:35 But thank God they came. And thank God they had the moral courage and the love and the compassion. I find it awfully difficult to relate to that mentality, that when one is reproved or rebuked, there's an immediate concern to go through the Bible and see if it was all done according to the letter and to the textbook, every little detail right. And where did you hear about this?

45:06 When the Bible says, my friend, have they come with something that's real? Does it make any difference where they heard it? If they're helping you to see your sin, are you not in debt to your brother or sister? Why are you so touchy about technicalities?

45:22 Come on now. Don't squirm. Just look up here and face me and be honest. Why are you so upset about technicalities?

45:29 Why are you so upset about so-called personality awkwardness and the one who pointed out your sin? Come on, get honest. Is it not that basically you hate reproof? And all that's a smokescreen.

45:45 If God can use a dumb donkey to get a wayward prophet back to moral sanity, he may use one of his children who lacks a little bit intact, who lacks a little something in experience. But you see, this can so discourage the people of God from engaging in this ministry if those who ought to know better and are further along the way bristle over technicalities rather than take a young brother and sister and say, thank you for pointing out my sin. And then maybe a week later come back and say, you know, I'm so grateful it's been like this. I'm so grateful it's been wonderful this past week to pray with a good conscience

46:29 and to have better communion with God. And as I think of your part in it, I'm so grateful. But listen, let me tell you something. The next person you go to, let me give you a little suggestion.

46:40 See? And then you help them and you encourage them. But if when they come and the first thing you do is bristle, they shy away. All of us are that way.

46:50 We're all the same. And some of us who have to do this in the middle of our office, though we've had to do it hundreds of times, each time is as hard as the first time. And we get butterflies in our stomach. And we break out in a cold sweat at times.

47:08 And we almost wish that something would come that would cancel the appointment or the proposed meeting. It's never pleasurable. But oh, if we love one another more than we love ourselves, then we'll be prepared to engage in and receive this ministry. He who refuses to embrace correction, corrected discipline, despises his own salvation.

47:33 According to Proverbs 15.10 and then look at 15.32. Very quickly, Proverbs 15.32.

47:41 The same emphasis comes through. He that refuses correction despises his own soul. But he that hearkens to reproof gets understanding. He despises his own soul.

Application 3: Neglecting Discipline Despises Christ's Ordinance

48:01 The person that refuses correction despises his soul. May God grant if that spirit is in any of us that the Lord will come and purge it away. But then finally, the church that does not practice corrected discipline despises a precious ordinance of Christ calculated to preserve his people. Oh, hear me, dear people.

48:30 The church that does not practice corrected discipline despises a precious ordinance of Christ calculated to preserve his people. There's that beautiful statement in Ephesians 5 that Christ nourishes and cherishes his church because it is his body. Now, how does he nourish and cherish his church? One of the major means is this.

49:03 He nourishes and cherishes his church by putting in the hearts of the members of his body this mutual concern that enables the people of God to ride over the natural disinclination for this duty and to rebuke one another where necessary, to restore the brother overcome in a trespass, to go and tell him his fault between ourselves and him alone. This is Christ nourishing his church by the members of that church. It is a sacred institution of Christ to preserve his people in holiness, to rub out their wrinkles,

49:47 to cleanse them of their spots in order to present the church to himself a glorious church. This is why the Matthew 18 passage from which we so often quote in conjunction with public worship and prayer must be viewed in its initial context. It is in the context of the church exercising discipline that Jesus says where two or three are gathered, there am I. This is an institution of Christ.

50:18 When we fail to admonish one another, when we see the disorderly and we keep our mouths shut, when we see a brother or sister overtaken in the fault, whether the fault is gossip or a carnal moroseness, whether it's a testy attitude that is all the time bristling, whatever it is, we know those patterns about one another. And perhaps some have yet to make the progress they could make because we have refused this ordinance of Christ. The church that does not practice corrected discipline in all its dimensions, not just the other, but the ultimate,

51:00 the most severe act of excision. But all of these kinds that we've considered in these six passages of the Word of God. I read to my fellow elders last night the portion of a letter from a pastor in another state that was shocking. The statement was shocking and then that he could write it in such an apparently cavalier way was doubly shocking.

51:25 This is a verbatim quote speaking of the ministry of someone who had brought some instruction in that church on the matter of corrected discipline. He said, quote, We do not practice church discipline in our church. Period. End of quote.

51:40 As though we don't have stained glass windows, we don't have an organ, we don't practice church discipline. Put it as though we're in the same category. Think of it. We despise this institution of Christ to keep his own people in the way of faith and holiness and obedience and to talk about it in such a cavalier way.

51:59 What a tragedy. May God grant that that will never be true of Trinity Church. If Christ is in our midst, he is in the midst to nourish and cherish his people. And he does so not only by the ministry of the word of your appointed overseers, the ministry of mutual exhortation, but by the ministry of corrected discipline.

52:24 Never forget its purpose is to get you to heaven. You see how the devil has clouded it with all this negativism, as though it was some kind of a hangover from Rome when you chop off heads and consign people to hell for nothing. No, no, dear people, it's a precious gift of Christ. And he is present in the midst of his people who exercise biblical corrected discipline to use his own institution to keep us on the way that we might be brought home at last into his presence.

Call to Unbelievers and Concluding Prayer

52:59 You see, if you've been sitting here this morning and you're not a Christian, and you've listened to even a half of what's been said, I hope you've received a very definite impression. And the impression that I hope you've received is this, to be a Christian, serious business. And to be a Christian means you get serious about God, about Christ, about sin, about holiness, about going to heaven. And if you've heard that and concluded that, you've been listening.

53:28 And you've been concluding properly. You see, to be a Christian, is something more than simply going to a house of worship at the right time, sitting in the right place, saying the right words, and then going home and doing your own thing. To be a Christian means that you come into such a relationship with Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners that that relationship regulates every single dimension of your life. That's what it means.

53:55 My friend, if you're not such a person, may I plead with you to face the ugly, shocking reality of your condition, under the wrath of God, with no real hope, with no certainty as you face the future. And I plead with you to seek the Lord while He may be found, to call upon Him while He is near, in the confidence that He has promised, that though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful

54:39 that you have given to us your holy word, this word that is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We thank you that you have not only placed many of us on the way that leads to life, you have not only promised to keep us until the end, but you have provided these gracious means by which we are kept. We ask that you would help us by the Holy Spirit both to understand accurately and to implement prayerfully and wisely every means you have ordained for our perseverance.

55:24 Then, O Lord, we pray for those who have never entered the way, who have never come to that gate of repentance and faith, who have never come to embrace your Son as their only hope of salvation, we pray that your word and your Spirit will effectually work in them, drawing them to yourself. Seal your word to our hearts and restore to your church again a balanced biblical perspective and practice of this blessed means of grace deposited within its life and ministry, even this means

56:07 of corrective discipline. Hear us, O Lord, and answer us for the glory of your dear Son. We ask in his name. Amen.