Morning Sermon

September 23, 2007

The Church and Discipline

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I have heard it with some frequency during the years of my ministry, and I almost have come to expect it. The words differ, perhaps, from case to case, but the basic idea remains quite consistent. It has to do with discipline. Church discipline. When a particular problem with sin or ungodly behavior by someone within the church becomes known, the familiar comment is, "The church can't get involved with that because it will just make the situation worse."

Or even more broadly, "If you say something about it to him, he'll just get mad." "If you confront him with his sin he might leave the church." So we avoid confrontation. We avoid dealing with sin. We avoid doing the very thing that Jesus tells us to do!

Mat. 18:15 "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone."

Paul writes a bit more broadly in, Gal. 6:1 "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted."

There you find good and wise restraint placed upon your attitude. You have the obligation of the spirit of gentleness toward the other person, and humility with regard to yourself. But the basic duty is the same as Jesus' instruction. "Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone."

Jesus actually anticipates first that it will be successful. "If he hears you, you have gained your brother." Praise the Lord.

James 5:19 "Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins."

So why are we so hesitant to do so? Why are we so unwilling to do something so clearly and explicitly commanded by our Lord? Perhaps, it is because we are afraid. Fearful. Perhaps with a measure of pride and selfishness, not wanting to risk doing something that might well cause someone to get mad. After all, one of the common mantras of our day is, "I want to be liked." "I don't like conflict." And therefore, I think that I can solve problems by ignoring them. After all, everyone knows that if you ignore a problem or a conflict long enough it will simply go away.

Everyone knows that if you ignore a two year old's temper it will go away. Everyone knows that if you ignore five year old's habit of lying it will go away. Everyone knows that if you ignore a ten year old's rudeness and impoliteness it will go away, along with a fifteen year old's drug use and a seventeen year old's promiscuity. Just ignore all those typically patterns of childhood long enough and they will all go away. Everyone knows that. Right?

Certainly a lot of parents act like they know that. Ignore the problem because you don't want to make it worse, and it will eventually just go away on its own. What a horrible, horrible lie. With tragic consequences.

God's wisdom is quite different when it comes to raising children.

Prov. 13:24 "He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly."

You see, it is a matter of love. Prov. 3:12 "For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights."

This discipline, this correction comes with good reason. With good hopes. Prov. 22:15 "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him."

That's the goal. Drive away the foolishness. Far away. And, therefore, save his life!

Prov. 23:13 "Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. 14 You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell."

Did you get that? Do not withhold correction but use a rod to bring punishment, and he will not die. Punish him, discipline him, to rescue him from hell!

I hope you know that is true. But for my purposes this morning, I hope that you know it is also true for the church.

Paul writes in, 1 Cor. 5:12 "For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person.'"

And why? For what purpose? 1 Cor. 5:5 "...deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

And we come to the subject of the church and discipline. What do you when there is sin in the camp? Ignore it? No, no more than you would ignore the sins of your children. And don't ever, don't ever label that choice to ignore sin as "love." God does not call us to ignore. But to deal with it. Confront it, though I have some hesitation with that word because of the implications it might give you of being "confrontational," or unnecessarily confrontational.

But rather than trying to find the right word to label what you are supposed to do, let me just read what exactly Jesus tells you to do.

v.15 "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother."

That's the first step of HOW to deal with the sins of others. The first step in the whole process of what is often labeled simply "church discipline."

I. PERSONAL CONFRONTATION IS THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO SIN. It is such a simple concept. And all too often simply ignored. Jesus doesn't give options, just,

A. The necessity of dealing with sin personally and privately. The necessity.

Now, I should add one point, here, which is actually to say that every time someone sins you don't HAVE to go to the person to deal with the sin. There is one other option. What I would call unilateral forgiveness. In other words, you choose to forgive, without a confrontation. You choose to forgive, with a confession of sin or even an acknowledgment or awareness of it. You simply choose to forgive.

1 Peter 4:8 "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins.""

So you can choose to forgive an offense, and choose, therefore, not to hold that offense against the other person, choosing never to raise the issue of that offense again, because you love the person. That is most often what happens in good marriage relationships. You might not have time to confront every offense, and most of the time most of them are able to be dealt with unilaterally. You choose to forgive.

But let me emphasize here, that means you can't bring it back up later, when you are really mad. It means that you can't keep a record of wrongs. And it means that it cannot create in you any form of bitterness or unresolved emotion. And you can't talk about it to someone else, either!

If you can't deal with it yourself, such that you are willing and able to put it behind you permanently, then you are back at the necessity of Matthew 18. "If your brother [or sister] sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone."

And don't miss that emphasis upon being alone. You go to the person personally. And, I might add, that doesn't mean sending them an email! "Go and tell" doesn't mean anything other than going to someone and talking to them! Personally. With personal interaction.

And privately, without going to anybody else first!

I should also note that this has to do with personal and private sin, and there is a useful contrast with what could be called public sin. In other words, some sins are public in nature and known publicly, in which case a private confrontation is not absolutely necessary. Our Book of Discipline puts it this way: "Offenses are either public or private. Public offenses are those which are commonly known. Private offenses are those which are known to an individual only, or, at most, to a very few individuals. Private offenses may or may not be personal, a personal private offense being one which involves injury to the person bringing the charge. No charge of a personal private offense shall be admitted unless the judicatory has assured itself that the person bringing the charge has faithfully followed the course set forth in Matthew 18:15-17; nor shall a charge of a private offense which is not personal be admitted unless it appears that the plaintiff has first done his utmost privately to restore the alleged offender. However, even in the case of public offenses, it is not wrong to seek reconciliation in terms of Matthew 18:15-17 or Matthew 5:21-27 or Galatians 6:1."

So a personal and private meeting isn't necessarily and absolute requirement for more public sins, but even then, it is still a wise and good idea. Because the goal in dealing with sin is to seek reconciliation. That's how conflicts are supposed to be resolved. That's how God has instructed us to resolve conflicts. You go to the other person seeking reconciliation. And you seek that reconciliation by addressing the problem directly.

B. The necessity of seeking reconciliation by addressing sin. Amazing, isn't it, that we seek reconciliation by avoiding sin. We seek reconciliation by not talking about the problem, sometimes justifying ourselves by saying that talking about it will just make it worse.

To be sure, if you talk about it the wrong way, it will make it worse. If you forget the call to gentleness, and lay aside the duty of humility, if you speak with arrogance, bitterness, anger, self-justification, self-righteousness, a sense of superiority or obvious hypocrisy, you just might make everything worse. But the principle here is still true. In your human relationships, you must be willing to seek reconciliation when there is offense.

There are such dire consequences for a failure in this regard, most notably, Heb. 12:15 "...looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled."

Have you ever known married couples that ended up bitter? Toward each other. Because differences were never addressed.

Have you ever known divorced couples whose divorce was brought about by a failure to resolve a series of relatively small problems, and the bitterness that developed was simply too great to overcome, having completely wiped out any mutual bonds of affection?

Because we are all fallen creatures, sinners by birth, we must address the sins that offend us in order to seek reconciliation. For because of that sin, all too often reconciliation won't happen unless you pursue it diligently.

And never forget that goal. If you go to someone in order to confront them with their sin, and your real purpose is to get something off your chest, you have just made the situation far worse. If your goal is to vent your own anger, if your purpose is to retaliate, to get even or just to gain sympathy by letting it be known how deeply hurt you are, then you lose sight of reconciliation. The goal is reconciliation.

C. The goal of reconciliation. The goal is the restoration of the relationship. The goal is to put the offense behind you, so that it will not be allowed to cause harm to the relationship. The goal is restoration, so that the offense is forgiven, never again to be raised as an offense. The goal of confronting someone is so that you yourself can forgive them!

And Jesus expects that goal to be accomplished. v.15 "If he hears you, you have gained your brother."

That's not a pessimistic and unanticipated expectation. It is to be the ordinary expectation. Your brother will hear you! Praise the Lord, you have won your brother. Don't ever lose sight of that goal.

But, sadly, what if it doesn't work? What if the private and personal intervention doesn't work? Then we come to the beginnings of,

II. THE FORMAL PROCESS OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE IN RESPONSE TO SIN. This second step really is the beginning of that formal process. The second step is to take a witness, one or two. For obvious reasons, and for very good reasons. v.16

Jesus teaches,

A. The necessity of multiple witnesses. Scripture knows of now process of discipline and justice that relies merely on "he said, she said" testimony. There must be at least two witnesses. You must involve and engage a witness in order to bring about a reconciliation and restoration. The principle was well established and carried over from the Old Testament.

Deut. 19:15 "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established."

That was especially true in case of a capital crime, Deut. 17:6 "Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness."

Two witnesses. At least. Never a single accuser.

I should note that in our own OPC Book of Discipline, this statement is found, "A specification presented in support of a charge may be established by the testimony of witnesses or by duly authenticated documentary evidence. The testimony of one witness shall not be sufficient to establish the truth of any specification."

So it is in our church discipline, one person bringing otherwise unsubstantiated charges will never be able to prove the offense. There must be multiple witnesses.

And again, don't lose sight of the goal of reconciliation. The idea is not simply to gather witnesses for trial, but to bring to bear upon the sinner the gravity of his guilt. That he might repent. That reconciliation might be accomplished.

But again, you must realize sadly, it might not happen that way. Then what? Simple. "Tell it to the church." v.17a "And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church."

Now, I hope you don't think that means, "Start gossiping about it to everyone you see in church!" I hope you don't that means, let everyone in church know what kind of a dirty rotten scoundrel you are dealing with. NO. The goal is still reconciliation. So with your two or three witnesses, you bring your case to the church. And when you bring a case of discipline to the church, that means that you bring it to the Elders of the church.

"Tell it to the church" means bring the case to the Elders, those men who are charged by God not only to "rule over you" but to "watch out for your souls, as those who must give account." That is, therefore,

B. The necessity of church engagement. It is the Elders of the church who are given the responsibility to be overseers and rulers, to govern the church and to direct the affairs of the church, and so it is to the jurisdiction of the Elders that you instructed to appeal. "Tell it to the church."

And it is then the responsibility of the Elders to seek repentance for sin and reconciliation in relationships. And the duty of pursuing that action is at the heart of the instructions Paul gives to the Corinthian church, calling upon the wise and godly judgment of the church.

1 Cor. 5:1 "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles--that a man has his father's wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."

The church, through her Elders, is called upon to judge. We are to judge those who call themselves a brother, a Christian, and who deny that very identity by the way they live their lives. Don't miss the force of that conclusion, requiring church engagement with the process of confronting sin, "Do you not judge those who are inside?" "Yes, of course you do." That's the implied answer to that question. Followed by the contrast that "those who are outside God judges." Those outside the church are already under God's judgment. So regarding unrepentant sinners INSIDE the church, we read, "Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person.'"

That, too, comes from the Old Testament, in numerous places. Purge the evil from among you, for God's people are to be holy. There is the necessity of removing the ungodly from the body of Christ. And thus we see in Matthew 18,

III. THE ACTUAL PRONOUNCEMENT OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE IN RESPONSE TO SIN. What is to be done? v.17b "But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector."

In other words, declare such a person to be an unbeliever. Declare such a person to be separated from the body of Christ, which is the church. Declare such a person to be unclean, in the language of the Old Testament. Separated from Christ, and, therefore, separated from God. It is,

A. A determination to put the unrepentant sinner out of the church. The language of Scripture can't possibly be any clearer. Put him out. Not with a mean-spiritedness. Not with any sense of vindictiveness. But put him out, just the same.

I read the description already, "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." Remove from him the identification of the body of Christ. Remove from him the badge and title of Christian. Deliver him to the kingdom of Satan, with no rightful claim in the kingdom of God. "Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened."

How can churches miss that? How can we possibly even think, "The church can't get involved with that because it will just make the situation worse."

We must be willing to say to a person who will not repent of his sins, "You are not a Christian and you have no freedom nor right to claim that identity as a member of the church."

And ultimately, the purpose of that is for the glory of God. The purpose for the holiness of God's people in the Old Testament was clearly that God would be honored and hallowed among them. And so it is today, that God himself would be honored by his people refusing to recognize the presence of unbelievers within their number. You see, the ultimate purpose of church discipline is the glory of God. Along with that, in conjunction with that, the purpose is to protect and preserve the purity of the church, without which God will not be glorified. And those two reasons, as well as the pursuit of repentance and restoration, are the three reasons why the church must act with this pronouncement in response to unrepentant sin.

And with all of that, don't miss the climactic conclusion Jesus gives us to this subject, a conclusion that so clearly is,

B. A recognition of the spiritual authority which has been invested in the church. Actually, the words are astounding. v.18

Jesus had spoken those words to Peter as one among all the apostles in, Mat. 16:19 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Here in chapter 18, the words clearly address all the apostles as the foundation of the church, those who bore the initial responsibility in the church. The keys of the kingdom of heaven are entrusted to mere men, acting in their capacity bestowed upon them by Jesus in exercising authority in the church.

Thus it is that the judgment among men in the church of Jesus Christ is confirmed in heaven itself. This isn't an idle matter. This isn't an off-handed comment. This is at the very heart of the idea of Jesus' own authority being exercised and demonstrated by the judgments of those men whom he has appointed to govern in the church. The words are almost breathtakingly astonishing and even shockingly stunning. The earthly judgments of the church shall be ratified in heaven!

So when the church exercises the keys of the kingdom and locks the door, shutting a man outside, that judgment is to be seen as a reflection of the judgment of God in heaven. That's what's the words declare. Not that a man is able to speak for God, but that God exercises his authority through the means of mere, mortal men. Jesus exercises his authority in the church by giving men authority to govern in his name. And there ought not to be a distinction made between the two.

Now, does that mean that men never err? Or even worse, does it mean that if men do err in putting someone out the church wrongly who is a genuine believer, that such a person could never gain an entrance into heaven? No. Of course not. The action of the church cannot keep a true Christian out of heaven. So don't get tripped up going down that road.

But don't miss the dramatic implications of these words either. The judgments of the church are to be received among men as the very judgments of God, and therefore ought not to be despised or lightly ignored.

v.18 "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

We live in a day of very sad affairs for the visible church, for it is a day in which so few churches even begin to understand or accept this awful responsibility. After all, it might make people mad.

We live in a day that when this church might excommunicate a person for unrepentant sin, only for that person to go down the street and join another church. No questions asked. No questions asked.

No one cares. No one even gives it consideration any more to the judgments of the church. Few people understand fully what it means for the church to open the doors of the kingdom with those keys, even as they don't fully understand the importance of a church being willing to close the doors with those same keys.

But Jesus gives those keys to his church, and he himself confirms the right of the church to exercise such authority. "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Beloved, that is the way in which Jesus speaks of the exercise of discipline within His church, and we ought to speak about it in the very same way. Thus you ought to recognize Jesus' authority in heaven as it is made evident through the administration of discipline within his church.

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