In our regular Sunday morning
expositions of the Book of Ephesians, we arrived several weeks ago
at verse 15 of chapter 1, in which the theme of brotherly
love was introduced. Taking advantage of that introduction,
I have led you in a digression on that theme, or an amplification
of the theme of brotherly love, particularly love to the Brethren
as it acts in the presence of the sins of the Brethren. Having established the fact that
love of the Brethren is the queen of all horizontal graces, the
queen of all vertical graces, of course, is love to the Godhead,
but the queen of all the horizontal graces is love to the Brethren,
We have been focusing our attention upon those portions of Scripture
which give love the directive it needs in the face of the sins
of the brethren. For I remind you that love is
motivation, but it is not direction. As one old writer has said, law
is love's eyes, and without it, love is blind. And I have added
to that, to make it a couplet, Love is law's heart, and without
it, law is dead. We are to love the brethren,
but the question is asked, what does love do in any given situation? And to answer that question,
we go to the Scriptures. And we are asking and seeking
to answer the question, what does brotherly love do in the
face of the sins of the saints? The saints are an odd gathering
of people. They're called saints, holy ones,
but there is much about them which is not holy. They are striving
to be yet more holy, and yet, in the midst of their striving,
there is much yet of remaining corruption and sin. Therefore,
when we are called upon to have fervent love among ourselves,
then there must be some directive, how does love relate to the sins
of imperfectly sanctified And in answer to that question, we
have thus far covered two major categories of the biblical directive. In the midst of those many sins,
those quirks, those weaknesses, those many failings, those moral
and ethical warts and molds which are upon the faces of the people
of God, Peter's directive is clear. Above all, have fervent
love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins. And so love cast a veil over
those many sins. The absence of love will cause
us to mark them, to amplify them, to broadcast them, to irritate
them, and to bring all forms of division and friction because
of them. But fervent love will constantly
cast a veil over them. Now, the second major category
of the sins of the brethren which we've been dealing with is this.
What does love do in the presence of specific and aggravated sins
between individuals? For just as certainly as the
word of God to believers is have fervent love that covers those
multitudes of sins, so the scripture says what love is to do in the
presence of specific sin. Sins that are very clearly of
such a nature as to demand some action. And we've looked at the
directives. If I'm conscious that I've sinned
against a brother, I'm to go and make right my wrong. Matthew
5. If I'm conscious that a brother
has sinned against me, I am to experience the grace of a forgiving
attitude. I'm to extend forgiveness in
my heart and then Mark 11 joined with Matthew 18. I'm to go to
my brother and in that spirit of love and that disposition
of forgiveness, I'm to point out his sin. I am, in the words
of Luke 17, to rebuke him and upon his confession and repentance
lavish the expressions of my forgiveness towards him. And
then we concluded our study last week in this same general second
category of what about those sins which are not particularly
against me, but I see my brother sinning. Not the kind of sin
which I can cover. It's the kind of sin which I
know will cripple him and cripple his witness and be a reproach
to Christ. What am I to do? Leviticus 19.17
is the framework of the basic directive. I am not to bear sin
by being silent, but I am to go, in the words of Galatians
6.1, in the spirit of meekness and seek to restore this brother
who has been overtaken by a specific sin. Now, so much for what we've
covered thus far. And now, this morning, we want
to consider two more, and this will be the end of the subject
for now. two more major categories or
situations relative to sin amongst the saints and love's responsibility
to that situation. First of all, the activity of
corporate love to an impenitent or openly disobedient believer. You see, we've been dealing now
with sins between one believer and another, and how the individual
believer is to deal with it. We had a hint of corporate responsibility
in the latter part of the section in Matthew 18, but I want us
to zero in this morning on that situation in which the body of
believers is conscious that one of her ranks is in a present
state of impenitence or open disobedience. What does love
do in that situation? And then the second major area,
if we have time, the activity of responsible love when a leader
within an assembly is guilty of sin. First of all, then, the
activity of corporate love to an openly disobedient believer. And the directives of Scripture
break down into two subheadings. One is this. When there is a
believer guilty of open and obvious disobedience, he is not walking
orderly. He is to be met by the corporate
discipline of spiritual segregation. Then, if that does not prevail,
the second directive is, he is to be met by the corporate discipline
of spiritual excommunication. And so we have two directives
to that situation in which a whole body of believers is called upon
to deal with a specific individual who is not walking in obedience
to the revealed will of God. Spiritual segregation and then
the most drastic action spiritual excommunication. Now, for the
passage which is pivotal to the concept of spiritual segregation,
please turn to 2 Thessalonians 3. And remember, the theme is
not church discipline, but brotherly love. The larger context of Paul's
directives is set forth in 1 Thessalonians 4, in which he says in verse
9 and again in 10, But concerning love of the brethren, you people
at Thessalonica have no need that one write unto you. For
ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed
ye do it toward all the brethren that are in Macedonia. But we
exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more. So here's
an assembly dwelling already in a great measure of brotherly
love. Paul exhorts them to abound in
that love more and more. Now, on the surface, what he
says to these people, dwelling in love, exhorted to abound in
love, may sound very strange. Look carefully at verse 6 of
chapter 3 in 2 Thessalonians. Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves
from every brother." What a strange way to tell people to love the
brethren. We exhort you abound in love. Now, he says, we command you
to withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly
and not after the tradition which they received of us. Now, as
we look at the passage in a brief overview by way of exposition,
consider the circumstance contemplated. Then we'll look at the directive
given, and thirdly, the essential lesson to be learned. What is
the circumstance contemplated? Well, you have a brother, one
who in the judgment of charity is a brother in the faith. He
has made confession of his attachment to Christ in faith and love. He has come into the visible
community of those described in the first part of the chapter
as the Church of the Thessalonians in union with God the Father
and the Lord Jesus. But now he begins to walk disorderly. That is, he is walking contrary
to apostolic tradition. And that's simply another way
of stating he's walking contrary to biblical authority. Apostolic
tradition is now embodied in the pages of scripture. So the
circumstance contemplated is very simple. Here is a man a
part of the visible community of confessed disciples, professing
to be subject to Christ their king, administering his kingship
through the apostles, his designated court of authority, and this
man is not walking consistently with that directive. Now, in
this specific context, what was his disorderly walk? Well, there
are three or four things that can be said. He was apparently
loafing and refusing to work at a legitimate calling. Verse
11, For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly that
work not at all. So his disorderly walk was he
was not employed at a legitimate calling by which he could provide
the monetary substance necessary to put food on his table and
clothes on his back. Now, of course, he had spiritual
reasons for not doing this. He wasn't just a lazy good-for-nothing. He had, quote, spiritual reasons,
namely, The certainty and the nearness of the Lord's return,
in his thinking, was of such demand, made such demands, that
a man should not be bothered with such mundane issues as earning
a living. You see, that was to be carnally
involved in the light of great spiritual priorities. So he's
become so spiritual that he doesn't need to work in his waiting upon
the Lord's return. Now, second thing he apparently
was doing is he was spreading gossip, particularly about the
Lord's coming. Look at chapter 2 and verse 2.
To the end that ye be not quickly shaken in your mind, nor be troubled
either by spirit or by word or by epistle as from us, that the
day of the Lord is just at hand. This fellow was evangelistic
in his convictions. Apparently they're going around
saying, look, you people that are out putting in your 12 hours
a day to earn bread, money to buy bread for your tables, uh... you're you're tied down to the
earth and you're uh... you're kind of uh... second-grade
citizens in the kingdom of heaven in the light of the lord soon
return one thing matters let's have all of our energies focused
upon a conscious awareness of his soon return and this mundane
business of making a living is inconsistent with that so they
were stirring up this talk about the imminence of the lord's return
the third thing they were doing because they still could not
convince themselves that they didn't have stomachs, they got
hungry. So when they got hungry, they
did what they thought was sanctified sponging on others. Look at verse
12. Now them that are such we command
and exhort you in the Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat their own bread. Apparently, they weren't so spiritual
that they didn't get hungry and need bread. So when their spirituality
was yanked out of the clouds by the earthy demands of an empty
stomach, they came to your door saying, hey, you got a little
extra casserole for a friend tonight? And they were eating
not their own bread, but somebody else's bread. And then the fourth
thing about these disorderly people is they apparently became
generally meddlesome and gossiping. Verse 11. For we hear that there
are some who walk among you disorderly that work not at all but are
busybodies. In the midst of all their so-called
spiritual preoccupation, they had lots of time to slip in carnal
remarks about other people and sticking their nose in everybody's
business. So then, to walk disorderly in this immediate context meant
that a man was a loafer, a gossiper, sponging on the saints, and meddlesome
in other people's matters. Paul says this was disorderly
because it was contrary to apostolic tradition. Now that tradition
came, first of all, by apostolic example, and then by apostolic
precept. Look at the apostolic example
in verses 7 to 9. For yourselves know how ye ought
to imitate us, For we behave not ourselves disorderly among
you, neither did we eat bread for naught at any man's hand,
but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might
not be burdensome to any of you, not because we have not the right,
but to make ourselves an ensample unto you, that you should imitate
us." Paul says, this is certainly a failure to keep apostolic tradition,
we demonstrated that the Christian life is consistent with responsible
labor to provide normal necessities. We set the example, Paul says.
But not only was this disorderly person denying apostolic tradition
that came by example, but by precept. By precept. 2 Thessalonians 3.10, For even
when we were with you, this we commanded you, if any will not
work, neither let him eat. He said, One of the things we
made very clear at the outset of our instruction to you as
babes in Christ, and remember, Paul was only there a space of
about three weeks. One of the most fundamental ethical
implications of the gospel that he laid upon the new converts
was, being in Christ does not negate your responsibility to
carry out a legitimate calling in life to provide your daily
necessities. Then he buttressed that precept,
taught them at the beginning, with his letter that came later
on. And look at the first letter, chapter 4, verses 10 and 11. We exhort you to abound more
and more, and study to be quiet, and to do your own business,
and to work with your own hands, even as we charged you that you
may walk becomingly toward them that are without, and may have
need of nothing." Now, you see, this was not a matter of ignorance.
Disorderly conduct in this context meant that in this specific area,
these people, however many there may have been, were openly disobedient
to apostolic example, apostolic precept given in person, buttressed
later on by a letter. But now their sin was not directed
to any one individual in the congregation. It was a sin obvious
to the whole congregation, but not specifically directed to
any one given individual within the congregation. Therefore,
I've put it in a separate category. It's not like, if thy brother
sinned against thee, go and rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive
him. This is a sin obvious to the
whole, and now it must be dealt with by the whole. Now that moves
us then from the circumstances contemplated into the directive
given. And what is the directive given
to the whole congregation with such disorderly people? Verse
6. We command you, brethren, in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this directive
comes with all the authority of the kingship of Christ, the
headship of Christ over the Church, administered through apostolic
directive, and therefore can only be ignored and refused at
the expense of a denial of that headship of Christ. We command
you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye,
and here's the key word, withdraw yourselves from this brother. That is, you are to engage in
corporate segregation from this brother. That's the basic directive. Corporate segregation. Withdraw
yourselves, brethren. Now in verse 14 he gives us an
explanation of that direction. Verse 14, If any man obeyeth
not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company
with him to the end that he may be ashamed. What does it mean to withdraw
yourself? It means to have no company That
is, with those peculiar aspects of distinctively Christian social
gatherings, which would probably include refusal to admit him
to that most intimate social gathering of the people of God,
the Lord's Table, If they had love feast here, there was no
indication they did. They may have to omit him from
their love feast and from that general intimacy, which is extended
in a peculiar way to the family of God. Let me illustrate. Maybe this fellow happens to
live on your street and on the way home from work, or if you've
been out doing something in the evening, you might occasionally
stop in and just have a cup of coffee and chat and have a word
of prayer together. Paul says, don't do this anymore.
To what end? When he asks you and says, hey,
Hank, how come you haven't invited to see me? You say, well, the
apostle's word was very clear. You're walking disorderly. And
though it pains me, I'm withdrawing that intimacy of fellowship from
you. To what end? Notice carefully
now. What you're to do? Have no company. Why? That he
may be ashamed. That is, that he may feel the
social pressure of this corporate segregation, and by that leverage
may be brought to see his sin, repent of his sin, and be brought
back into the fellowship of the people of God. For listen, if
he's a true believer, there's only one thing more painful than
the withdrawal of the fellowship of God's people. That's the withdrawal
of conscious fellowship with his Lord. And since His Lord
dwells in His people, you can't separate those things as clearly
as you can do in a sermon or on paper. And to feel the withdrawing
of the fellowship of the people of Christ is to feel the pain
of withdrawal from Christ Himself. And so the whole purpose of this
sanctified segregation is that this brother may be ashamed of
his disorderly walk, and being ashamed of it may be brought
to repentance and to reformation, and once again be brought back
into full unfettered fellowship with the people of God. So you
have the direction in verse 6, withdraw. Explanation in verse
14, what it means to withdraw, why you withdraw, but then you
have the qualification of verse 15. And yet, count him not as
an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. You see, his sin has
not yet come to the place where he is to be regarded as the publican
and the heathen. We're not in 1 Corinthians 5,
in 2 Thessalonians 3. It would seem that this is sort
of a halfway place between that severest form of discipline and
full, unfettered fellowship with the people of God. He says, still
regard him as a brother. Instead of going by his house
and having a cup of coffee, you go by and you knock on the door
and you say, Hank, have you faced your sin yet of disorderly walk?
Well, I sure hope you do soon. I'd love to start coming by for
that cup of coffee and fellowship again. I love you in Christ,
but you're walking disorderly. I'm admonishing you, my brother.
You better repent for your good and for the glory of Christ and
the good of His Church. I'm still praying for you. Well,
won't you come in for the cup? No, sorry. No fellowship on that
basis till you repent. You go your way. You admonish
him as a brother. You still keep up that tangible
expression of your love in your admonition, but you cannot attach
yourself to him in full unfettered fellowship until there is evidence
that he's dealt with his sin. Now this, I say, is the directive
of God for those situations in which there is sin, disorderly
conduct, evident to the entire assembly, but not directed to
any one individual, and not of the nature yet as to demand excommunication. Now, having looked at the circumstances
the Apostle contemplates, the directives he gives, what are
the essential lessons we should learn from this passage? Well,
the essential lesson is this. It is true biblical love which
seeks the well-being of this man that causes the people of
God to segregate themselves from him. Can this man enjoy full
fellowship with his Lord if he is walking in disobedience to
apostolic directives? Yes or no? Can he? No, he can't. But he can deceive
himself into thinking he can still walk in fellowship. He
can sit around in his chair looking up with a very sanctimonious
look in his face and singing, O Lord Jesus, how long, how long,
ere we shout the glad song, Christ returneth, hallelujah! He can
really think himself quite spiritual that he's not working because
he's waiting for the Lord to come. He can deceive himself
into thinking he's in fellowship with his Lord. Now, if you love
him, You want to get him undeceived, don't you? Well, Paul says here's
one way to do it. He can surely begin to see and
feel the withdrawal of the fellowship of his brethren. And so your
dealings with him at the tangible and the visible level are to
be a reminder to him of the reality that exists in the untangible
realm of his relationship to his Lord. And therefore, it is
love that withdraws from this brother. It's not bitterness.
It's that you love him enough to see him wrenched loose from
his delusion. And so, in love, we withdraw. And a failure to do this is a
vicious form of self-love. It's like the parent who says
to the child, And this will be the reward. Fail to do this and
this will be the punishment. And the child does not do it.
And as the parent faces the personal pain of having to enforce the
discipline, he becomes so weak that he backs off and he still
gives the child the reward that he should have received only
for obedience. That's not love. That's a form of hatred for the
child in love for yourself. And so it is with any fellowship
of God's people who say, oh, look, our brother, it just got
this area of blindness. And oh, yes, the Bible speaks
clearly. Yes, apostolic tradition is very,
very clear. Oh, yes, by precept and example,
the Word of God speaks with absolute clarity. But we dare not segregate
ourselves from Him. We'll drive Him back into the
world. or he'll think that, and we can begin to come up with
all kinds of fleshly reasons as to why we should not obey
the directive of God. May I remind you that God knows
best how love is to act. The remaining corruption in us
is such that we can't many times discern between unprincipled
sentiment and true biblical love, so God tells us what love will
do. and love will move a congregation to spiritual segregation for
the sake of restoring a brother and also for the sake of the
wholesome climate of the entire body of Christ. Now, what is
the application of this passage to us? I have sought to give
a brief, though I trust accurate, exposition of what disorderly
conduct meant in that setting, the directive of the Apostle,
the reason behind it. Now what does all this say to
us? It's all well and good for us to know what it meant to them,
but what does it mean to us? Well, I believe this is a minimum
of its message to us. Should there be those among us
who right now or in the future begin to manifest a pattern of
behavior and attitude contrary to the clear directives of the
Word, what are we to do? Suppose someone begins to manifest
the activity of a biting tongue which is wounding this one and
that one until, after individual exhortations, it becomes, as
it were, common knowledge that there is this disorderly conduct
in the use of the tongue. perhaps a kind of humor that
is tainted by the risque and double meanings and subtle innuendos
and other forms of sin that become common consciousness, though
not specifically directed to any one given individual. May
I suggest that you and I have the responsibility of this directive,
namely, to strike out in the course of sanctified segregation. Begin to withdraw intimate Christian
social contact with these people, but in so doing, make it clear
as to why we are doing it. That's where admonishing comes
in. Don't treat him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now let me put it into a very
concrete thing. If you find that there's an individual
in the church who, when you are with that person, their speech
and attitude is such that it causes you to think things you
should not of others, It causes you to find attitudes stirred
up in you that are not right, and you've admonished that particular
individual, and there has been no evidence of bringing that
use of the tongue and the perspective of life under the discipline
of Scripture. You have an obligation to say, Brother so-and-so, I
do not find that my time with you is unto edification, and
I'm going to withdraw the intimacy of fellowship until such time
as you acknowledge your sin and repent of it. so that our fellowship
together can be in Christ and mutually edify. Generally speaking,
sins of this nature will come under the scrutiny of the elders,
and there may be times when a public announcement needs to be made
to the congregation, directing the congregation to withhold
intimate fellowship with a given individual. Now people say, Boy,
this sounds like a throwback to the days of the Spanish Inquisition.
My friends, may I remind you these are the directives of love?
Of love? Love that longs that the crippled
brother be restored, and when other means have failed, this
may be the means that God will make effectual to his facing
his sin. This is not harsh. It is for
the good of that person, and it is for the good of the assembly. And the most accurate parallel
I know in the human realm is what you do when you quarantine
someone. When someone's got the measles and you quarantine them
and put dark shades in the room and you don't let them have much
light, that may look rather cruel. But the dark shades are for his
good. You don't want his eyes to be damaged. And unless medical
science has proved that that's just an old wife's fable, I still
think that that's the judgment of medical science that one should
not be exposed to bright light. And so it's for their good that
you put those shades on, and it's for the good of others that
you keep that person in his own room and segregate him from those
whom he may contaminate by his disease. And so it is when a
man or woman begins to walk disorderly within the assembly, and the
sin is not of such a nature as to warrant excommunication at
this point, there is yet the danger that others may be infected
with that particular malady, that particular sin. And so there
must be the segregation for the protection of the whole and for
the health of that brother. And brethren, Sisters, there's
nothing I'd like better than to just skip a passage like 2
Thessalonians 3 and just say, oh, well, that's there, but you
know, we should just push it under the rug. It would be very
convenient. And should the time arise in
the near future or in the distant future when we as an assembly
must actually implement this, I don't think there's anyone
going to be running around the parking lot having a hallelujah meeting
saying, oh, isn't it wonderful? We're going to be able to segregate.
No, no. This will be done with pain.
This will be done with tears. This will be done with grief.
This will be done with a weeping heart. And I trust with some
weeping eyes. But it must be done. You see,
the Bible does not speak into a starry-eyed, idealistic context. Paul faced the very real possibility
that you'd have a confessed brother who would not respond to apostolic
example, to admonition, and who would need the pressure of sanctified
spiritual segregation. Now, I'd love to be able to be
so starry-eyed in my idealism to say, that'll never happen
at Trinity Baptist. All the saints here are going
to be so sensitive to the voice of God, so obedient to apostolic
instruction. We're never going to need that.
But that's all it would be is starry-eyed idealism. And the
realism of the Scripture faces us with these directives because
we need them. And I remind you that Jesus Christ
said, Make disciples, baptize them, teach them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. And this is part of the
all things. And so though I don't like to preach on a passage like
this, I must do it in obedience to my Lord. And we as a congregation
must implement where necessary this directive. in obedience
to our Lord. So then, here is the first directive. For that situation in which you
have individual sin demanding the corporate exercise of discipline,
then you have the second and most drastic form of corporate
activity, not spiritual segregation, but spiritual Excommunication,
and the key passage here, of course, is 1 Corinthians, Chapter
5. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 5. Now let's follow the same pattern
in working our way through the main thrust of the passage. What
is the situation contemplated here? Well, Paul tells us, verse
1. It is actually reported that
there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not
even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father's
wife." There's apparently a case of a professed disciple in the
church at Corinth who is living in a common-law relationship
with his own stepmother. A form of incestuous relationship,
which Paul says even the Gentiles, with all their adultery and fornication,
they don't stoop that low. But this is what happened here.
Apparently a confessed disciple living in this illicit relationship
with this pagan woman. Now, what was the attitude of
the Corinthians? Well, they were puffed up about
it. And ye are puffed up and did not rather mourn. Maybe they
prided themselves in being so broad-minded that they could
tolerate this. I don't know. I don't know what lay behind
their being puffed up, but Paul says whatever it was, instead
of being humbled and broken and crushed, you've allowed this
man to go on in this state and in this condition. So the situation
is one in which this man has no shame, the assembly has no
shame, and now directive is going to be given. And what is the
directive? Basically it's this, that when they gather together,
Verse 3, For I, verily being absent in body, but present in
spirit, have already, as though present, judged him, in the name
of the Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and by my spirit, with
the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan,
for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved
in the day of our Lord Jesus. The Apostle gives them directive
as a peculiarly commissioned servant of Christ. He exercises
that authority, tells them to gather together and to deliver
this man over unto Satan. But, in verses 9 to 13, he makes
it clear that whatever he says about this man is but the application
of a general principle. In other words, he doesn't want
them to think they are only to do this the next time somebody
in their ranks lives in an incestuous relationship. No, no. He goes
on to say, I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company
with fornicators, not at all meaning the fornicators of this
world, or with covetous extortioners, idolaters, for then you must
needs go out of the world. But, as it is, I wrote unto you
not to keep company of any man that is named a brother, be a
fornicator. or covetous, or an idolater,
or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such
in one not to eat? But what have I to do with judging
them that are without? Do ye not judge them that are
within? But them that are without God judges, put away the wicked
man from among yourselves." And the drift of his argument simply
stated as this, Here you have a man whose conduct is an absolute
denial of the gospel. The sin is of such a magnitude
that, unrepentant of, only one course of action is open to you,
declare by your excommunicating him that he no longer has the
right to call himself a believer. Put the wicked man away from
you. By his presence in your midst
as the sanctified ones, he is still regarded as a Christian
in the eyes of the church and in the eyes of the world. That
kind of conduct is utterly inconsistent with true Christian faith. Therefore,
declare in your dealings with him the true situation. Put him
on the outside of the community of the saints. But Paul says,
not just in that instance, but wherever there is sin. the nature
of which is inconsistent with Christian profession, be it idolatry,
extortion, fornication, covetousness, drunkenness, extortioners, no
matter what the sin may be, if it is the kind of sin which,
continued in, is incompatible with the profession of Christianity,
you have but one thing to do. Put away the wicked man from
among yourselves. Excommunication is the directive. Now, what is the purpose in this?
And in this passage, Paul says there are two basic purposes.
First of all, it's a purpose of love that desires this man's
salvation. Look at verse 5. Deliver such-and-one
unto Satan, whatever that means, and I'm not going into that this
morning. It's not my purpose. for the destruction of the flesh
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
It is a soteric purpose. The excommunication of the church
is not vindictive justice. It is soteric. It is saving judgment. It is saving excommunication. It is an excommunication that
has as its undergirding desire that this most radical of action
may finally bring this man to his senses and he may yet prove
himself to be a true believer as he repents of his activity
and is brought back into the fellowship of the people of God. And 2 Thessalonians, 2 Corinthians,
the book of 2 Corinthians seems to indicate that this form of
excommunication had its desired effect in this man. And so Paul
writes the letter saying, receive him back, lest he be swallowed
up with overmuch grief. And then the second reason, it's
the safety of the people of God. In that whole section here, verses
6 through 8, about purging out the leaven, so that the people
of God viewed as a sacramental community, as the people of God
who are seeking to render acceptable worship, may be an unleavened
lump, that they may not be tolerating the leaven of moral and ethical
conduct contrary to that which they profess in their total life
and worship. So the safety and purity of the
Church demands that there be this spiritual excommunication. I use the word spiritual in contrast
to the Romish idea that when the man is excommunicated, then
it's your responsibility to starve him to death or to cut off his
fingers and to exert all kinds of physical pressure upon that
individual. No, this is spiritual activity
to be conducted within the realm of the authority of the Church.
So then let me say by way of application that even in this
most severe ecclesiastical action, the people of God are motivated
by the deepest love for the offender and for one another. They are
not actuated by hatred, by vengeance, or by retributive or retributive
justice. That's God's business. They do
not refuse the man his daily bread and bring on him economic
boycotts, etc. It is a spiritual excommunication. And I submit to you that it is
love's last resort with regard to a sinning brother, but it
is an activity of love. Sounds strange on our ears, doesn't
it? In a day that says love will make you tolerate anything and
under any circumstances, Let that man go on thinking he's
a brother, though he's living in incest. That's to tell him
a lie. Do you love a man and let him
damn himself with lies? Yes or no? Of course not. Therefore, tell him the truth.
And what is the truth? That continuing in that kind
of sin, he has no grounds to claim himself a Christian. And
if he has no grounds to claim himself a Christian, he doesn't
belong in the visible community of Christians. Therefore, cast
that brother from you, Paul says. But what's your purpose? That
the Spirit may be saved. That God may yet use this to
bring him to repentance. And again, I would love to have
the starry-eyed idealism to say, well, that'll never happen at
Trinity Baptist. No one will ever live and get
engaged in the kind of immoral relationships that will demand
this. But I have no scriptural grounds to have that hope. I'd
like to believe that none of you will ever become a drunkard,
an idolater, a railer. I'd love to be able to believe
that none of you would ever be guilty of these sins. But I have
no grounds to believe that you won't. What chapter and verse
can you bring forth to prove that such sins will never come
out of our midst? Brethren, if they do, don't stick
your tail between your legs and go out like a whipped puppy,
disillusioned, and say, oh well, I've had it now. I thought there
was one church that was up like that. Who said you're to have
that attitude? Who said? That's the reaction
of an unbiblical idealism. But rather, if and when such
should arise, it's our submission to apostolic directive in love
that is the test of whether or not we're a true church. And
if by God's grace we're able to take these directives and
submit to them with tears and with pain, but with unflinching
principle, then you hang in with us, won't you? Because that's
the evidence of our love to Christ. If you love me, you'll keep my
commandments, even the commandment that we have here, put away the
wicked man from among yourselves. Oh, I'm not asking God to bring
such to pass that we might prove our obedience. My prayer is,
Lord, may your people be kept from this. But I ask you, can
you give me chapter and verse, some precept or principle, that
I can claim that we'll never need to do what's said here in
1 Corinthians 5? If churches the Apostle Paul
founded needed it, we just might. And so the necessity, dear ones,
of crying to God for principled love, for God's love, for that
fervent love, that will move us even to this most extreme
measure in the explicit obedience to the directive of Christ. Well,
as usual, time goes so quickly, let me just give you a couple
of passages under that second heading that I was going to touch
on, and I'll just give you the basic passage, two passages. What is the responsibility and
love of the Church when you have a Church leader who teaches false
doctrine or who sets a bad example by his conduct. You have 1 Timothy
5.17 and following, a context of directives to elders, and
in that setting there is the command, Them that sin reprove
before all that others may fear. And then you have an example
of an apostle doing that with another apostle in Galatians
2, 11 to 14, when Peter, having by his example, in a public way,
denied one of the essential truths of the gospel, namely that Jew
and Gentile come in on equal footing, and he was hobnobbing
with the Jews at the expense of denying the same fellowship
to the Gentiles. Paul said, I withstood him to
the face before them all. Because his sin had affected
them all, the rebuke was as extensive as his influence. And I believe
if we capture that basic principle, we'll have, at least in capsule
form, the directive of God concerning the activity of responsible love
to an openly disobedient church leader. And again, I say, it's
love for the people of God thus affected that demands the rebuke,
and it's love for the erring brother which brings prompt and
direct exhortation that he might be restored. But now, in closing
out these remarks that we've made and these directives, may
I just very, very briefly try to clear up several questions
that I'm sure are in the minds of many of you. Some of you are
saying, is there not a danger that a church shall become unloving
and hypercritical in the implementation of these directives? And my answer
is, of course. If the devil cannot keep us from
obedience to any directive, he'll try to keep us from the right
attitude in the performance of that obedience. Sure, there's
no truth that is not liable to abuse in the hands of the flesh. But I would say, dear brethren,
that the practical danger in our day is not overkill, but
gross underkill. The practical danger is not that
we shall go overboard in the exercise of spiritual segregation
and spiritual excommunication, but that we've gone way, way
overboard to the point of drowning in this saccharine concept of
unprincipled love that tolerates everything and then just casts
the veil over it and says, well, we're to love one another. Love's
directive follows these lines that we have considered, but
someone says, What if I don't feel loving in these things? Shall I do them anyway? Yes.
Confess to God your unloving spirit and then set out to obey
Him and you'll be amazed how many times your inward disposition
will catch up with the direction of your obedience. Don't wait
until you feel such an overpowering sense of love at the realm of
your emotional responses before you exhort and reprove and rebuke
one another. But saying, Lord, whatever in
my spirit is contrary to the spirit of the gospel, deal with
it, judge it, cleanse it, then set out to obey. And as one of
the saints told me last week, they found this so helpful in
their own experience. When they've set out to do what
God says love should do, then tagging in the behind has come
the sense of the right attitude in the performance of that duty. And as I would put a canopy over
all of these studies, Try to clinch it with one dominant thought. It would be this, dear brethren.
Drink deeply. Drink constantly. Drink often
of the essence of the gospel. As you meditate upon God's love
to you in Christ, as you think often and long upon the extent
of that love, the durability of that love, the patience of
that love, the forbearance of that love, Then, by God's grace,
you will know something of that love in your own heart toward
the brethren, enabling you to cast the veil of forgetfulness
over their many infirmities, enabling you to go and to face
them with those specific sins that need to be faced, enabling
you to stand with the congregation in spiritual segregation when
necessary, enabling you to stand with a broken heart even to the
point of excommunication when necessary. May God give us a
mighty baptism of this kind of love that will then flow out
along these biblically cut channels to His glory and to our prophet. Love of the Brethren, Queen of
all those graces, may it abound in our midst to God's praise,
and so that the world, as we heard Thursday night, may know
that Christ has been sent of the Father. For by this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one toward another,
the kind of love that will move in obedience to these directives
as we have considered them in Holy Scripture. Let us pray.