Alright brethren, our passage
tonight is in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 6 through 15. But really, I'm just going to
deal with verse 6. And I'm not going to read the
whole passage again. We'll come back another time
and deal with some of the other aspects of it. Tonight we're
going to deal with the most difficult part of this passage and the
most difficult thing when something like this happens. Before we
go further, I want though to focus you on what prompted this
to be written. Why did Paul write this? What
was the problem? It says in verse 11, he said,
for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but are busybodies. Now this problem had gotten so
bad that brethren had written to Paul to inform him and ask
that he help them. So we know this had gotten pretty
serious. Now some were not working at
all and maybe this had to do with that false doctrine that
Paul dealt with where they had heard Christ was returning very
soon. Maybe it had to do with that.
The other thing they were doing was they were being busybodies.
They were interjecting themselves and other brethren's business
in their personal lives and interfering. But this applies to any disorder.
This applies to any time there is a public known disruptive
disorder. And that's why this had to be
dealt with. It was known. It had become known
to the brethren. It had become known publicly.
and it would distract from the preaching of the gospel and it
would be disruptive to the peace of the church. So it had to be
addressed because it had gotten that bad. Now next I want you
to focus on what our spirit should be toward one of God's saints
who walks disorderly, whatever it be, whatever it be. This should
be the spirit, and in verse 15, he said, yet count him not as
an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. And that's our subject,
not enemy, but brother. Not enemy, but brother. Now,
when we're dealing with erring brethren, always remember what
it took to make them brethren. God the Father chose His people
freely by His grace. He saved by grace. He chose us
by grace. And He sent His only Son. And
our Lord Jesus laid down His life, poured out His life's blood
to answer and satisfy the curse of God for that brother that's
walking disorderly. The Spirit of God, the Spirit
of our Lord Himself dwells in him. He's been regenerated. A new man's been created within
him and the Spirit of our Lord dwells in him. God alone, Christ
alone is able to work His will and His good pleasure in a brother. Always remember that. Go with
me to Philippians 2 and let's look at this one more time. Philippians
2. Paul here is directly speaking from what our Lord said in Matthew
18. He said, when you're dealing
with a brother who's aired, and two or three of you are gathered
together to deal with this, he said, I'm there. He said, don't
offend one of these little ones that believe in me. It's better
for you that a millstone were hung about your neck and you
cast in the depth of the sea. Why? He said, what you do to
them, you do to me. They're one with Christ. Always
remember this, and remember Christ is, He's working His will and
good pleasure. He's in that brother, and He's
in you, and He's in each of His people. Now listen to what He
says here in Philippians 2.12. He says, You work out these things
with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things
without murmurings and disputings. that you may be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
holding forth the word of life. That's the motivation for God's
sayings. Our motivation in every precept
of the gospel is Christ who laid down his life for us and made
us perfect in him. That's our motivation, to do
everything without murmuring and disputing, to be blameless
and harmless and without rebuke in the midst of this crooked
and perverse nation, to shine as lights in the world as we
hold forth the gospel, the word of life. Our motivation is Christ,
what He's done for us, and what we trust He will do, and that
He's in our brethren, working His will and good pleasure. Now
we're not going to get past verse 6 tonight, so let me just read
it to you. We'll look at some other passages
in our other verses here, but let me mainly just read verse
6. He says, Now we command you, brethren, Thessalonians 3, 6,
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh
disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of
us. Now, I want to look at three
things here, and I want to look at what happens before you get
to this point, and then we'll deal with this point right here.
The first thing is keep private matters private. Keep private
matters private. What do I mean by that? Well,
if you personally become aware that a brother is walking disorderly,
no one else knows about it, it's not being done publicly, it's not open before the public,
then you go to that brother alone and do not tell others. You go
to him alone. This is what our Lord Jesus said.
Paul said here, we're saying this in the name of our Lord. This is his word to us. He said
in Matthew 18, 15, if thy brother shall trespass against thee,
go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall
hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. False religion. It seemed like they're more eager
to find sin in their members and uncover it and cast people
out than they are to see people settled and brought in. They'll
run to a passage like this and they'll quickly put men out of
the congregation and they'll have a meeting and everybody
show up for that meeting. because everybody loves strife
and division. And that's all it ends up being, strife, division,
confusion that casts somebody out. But the whole point of this
admonition, the whole point of our Lord's Word in Matthew 18,
the whole point of it right here in our text, is to not cause
distraction from the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
This is what we need. This is our life. This is our
bread from heaven. Christ is feeding us the true
bread from heaven. He is that bread. He's feeding
us through this gospel. The whole purpose is so that
we can hold forth the word of life. This is what we need. And there be no distraction.
More than anything else, each of us needs to hear the gospel
of Christ and Him crucified. That's what the brother who's
walking disorderly needs. We need to hear of how Christ
alone saved us by His works of obedience to God and how He works
effectually in His people and how He is our salvation. That's
what we need to hear. Now, when you know of a brother's
sin that no one knows, if we would love one another as Christ
loved us, then we must remember how Christ laid down His life
for us. He knew everything about our sin. everything about us. And we must remember, what did
He do? He laid down His life for us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came down and took flesh and He took our
offenses upon Himself. He bore our burden, bearing the
curse of the law by being made a curse for us. He bore our burden. That's what He did. That's how
He covered our sin in His own blood. He covered our sin. Don't
forget that. The Lord Jesus Christ covered
your sin. He paid everything just as owed,
and with His own blood, His own righteousness, He covered our
sin. And this is what He instructs
you and me to do. You're familiar with Galatians 1, but it's just
a few pages back if you want to see it. But he tells us this in Galatians
6 and verse 1. He tells us to do the same thing.
He says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fall, ye which
are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. The
spirit of meekness is trusting Christ. Do it trusting Christ,
knowing He's in your midst. He works in His will and good
pleasure in your brother. Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. You're very apt to go from being
the one who's trying to help a brother who's walking disorderly
to being the one who is walking disorderly. You get what I'm
saying? Consider what, there's a self-righteous
Pharisee in you, and me too. Lest ye also be tempted. Bear
ye one another's burden, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
That's what Christ did for us. He bore our sin, and our offense,
and our curse. He said, now you bear one another's
burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think
himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceives himself.
But see, if we make private matters known, and we uncover another's
sin to all, it will work the opposite of what the aim is here.
It will distract from the gospel of Christ, and it will cause
strife and division, and that's where it always leads to. And
usually, if we do that, if we know a sin nobody else knows
about, and we go ahead and broadcast it, or we go ahead and try to
deal harshly with it, we usually end up proving that within us,
in our own heart, there's envy, and malice and strife. We usually end up proving that.
I can show you that from the word of God. You remember the
two women who both thought the baby was their own child? And
so Solomon, in his wisdom, said, give me a sword, let's cut this
baby in half and each of them can have part of the baby. And
the one who loved that child, the one to whom the child belonged,
submitted and said, she can have the baby. When you love your
brethren and you love the church, you don't want to see them divided.
You don't want to see them divided. The whole endeavor is for peace. It is for all to be seated at
Christ's feet looking to Him alone. Another aim here is not
to give the unregenerate world reason to reproach us. We not
only don't want to see brethren divide, we don't want to give
the unreligious world a reason to reproach us. And whatever
has to be dealt with by the church must always be among brethren
only. You don't want to have people,
visitors sitting in on these matters. It's brethren only.
And when the unregenerate world is told, if you go tell the unregenerate
world, they will shame not only the fallen brother and not only
the church, they'll shame you who told it. Listen now, Proverbs
25, 9. Listen to this. Debate by cause,
it means speak to your brother about the cause. debate thy cause
with thy neighbor himself, and discover not a secret to another,
lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn
not away. A talebearer, Proverbs 11, 13
says, a talebearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a
faithful spirit concealeth the matter. The faithful spirit is
one given by Christ, one who's had his sin covered by Christ.
You know what he does? He covers his brethren's sin. He bears it and covers it. Now,
if men were as quick to speak the gospel of Christ, his person
and his work, as they are to speak about other sins and rumors
and scandal, if men were as quick to speak the gospel as they are
to speak of those things, the gospel would run far and wide. Scripture says, Proverbs 26,
20, where no wood is, the fire goeth out. So, where there is
no tailbearer, the strife ceases. And we're not just talking about
going out in the world and telling people, though that's concluded.
We're talking about keep talking about it to brethren, keep talking
about it to family, keep talking about it to others. Where there
is no tailbearer, the strife ceases. As coals are to burning
coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. When the Lord first told Peter
that he would deny the Lord, the Lord knew his sin and knew
what he was going to do. When the Lord first told Peter
he would deny the Lord, that was between the Lord and Peter
alone. The Lord told Peter that alone. And then when Peter denied
him that third time, and that rooster crowed, Peter and the
Lord locked eyes, and it was between them alone. Even when
the Lord came and restored Peter, there is no doubt, 100%, he took
Peter away from the group and he began to restore Peter and
instruct him how much he loved him and told him to go on and
feed his sheep what the Lord had taught him. It was between
them alone. That's what the Lord said, go
to your brother alone. And when Peter turned and John
was walking up behind them, and the Lord said, what about John?
The Lord said, if I tarry, how did he put that? He said, if
I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow
thou me. It's between Christ and his child. If you go to a brother alone
and he hears you, if you go to him and he hears you, and the
Lord grants him repentance, that's the end of it. That's the end
of the matter. That's what the Lord said. Go
tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear
thee, thou hast gained thy brother. That's the end that we're aimed
at when the motive is love. And that's what, to gain your
brother without causing more sin, to cover sin. James said, brethren, if any
of you do err from the truth and one convert him, let him
know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his
way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of
sin. Well, our Lord says, if he will not hear you alone, you
go to him, he will not hear you alone, then take one or two more
with you. That's what the Lord said. But
again, the aim is to gain your brother. You're to take witnesses
with you. Brother Ben pointed this out
to me. I thought it was a really good observation. What are we
witnesses of? Take one or two witnesses with
you. It's not so much to go and bear witness against the brother.
That's included to tell him his fault. But more than that is
to bear witness of Christ to him. It's to speak of Christ
to him. Because the power is not of us.
The power is not in your ability to admonish. The power is not
in our ability to rebuke. The power better not be of us
trying to force a brother to do anything. That goes for when somebody's
first converted or if they're converted from a fall. The power is of God and not of
us. And he works through the power of the gospel alone. It's just as applicable if you're
talking to a brother one-on-one or if you have two or three talking
to a brother. It's just as necessary to speak the gospel of Christ
in a one-on-one setting when you're helping a brother who's
fallen as it is to stand here and preach the gospel of Christ.
Because it's how the Lord's going to work through the gospel. So
you select brethren to go with you who are gifted by God's grace
to admonish. You know not everybody's gifted
with that. There's scripture that bears that out. Not everybody
has the gift to admonish. Some are given this gift to do
so with a humble spirit, exalting Christ, speaking the gospel,
with a meek spirit, with a quiet spirit, and to season it with
the salt of admonition, and do it so wisely in the way they
do it. They're able to speak of Christ
and His grace, seasoned with the salt of admonition, rather
than judgment and condemnation. Love is gracious. Because you've
experienced the grace of God. You've experienced His love.
He loved us without a cause in us. He loved us because He would.
He loved us in His Son Christ Jesus. So He was gracious to
us. He did everything freely. We
didn't earn it. We didn't deserve it. And we
still don't. He does it all by grace. And
when you have that love of God in your heart, you're going to
be gracious in your dealing with brethren. Love is merciful. The love of
God is merciful to erring brethren because you know what a sinner
you are in your flesh. You see that evil is present
with you in everything you do. You hate it. You desire to be
free from it. But you know the only one who has ever been able
to deliver you from it is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you
know that about your brethren. And so you're merciful. And you
pray to the Lord. You not only speak the gospel
of Christ, you pray to the Lord and you wait on Christ. and you're
merciful to your brethren. Remember when two or three go
to an erring brother, Christ said, I'm right there in the
midst. I'm there. He's there. Christ said, what
you do to your brother, you do to me. That's why he said, it'd
be better a millstone hanging about your neck than you to offend
one of my little ones that believe in me. Work out these things
with fear and trembling. That's what reverence does. That's
what we saw from 1 Psalm 130. Reverence is going to wait on
the Lord. Reverence is hoping the Lord's word and reverence
is going to speak the gospel of Christ. And do it all with
fear and trembling because you know Christ is right here in
our midst dwelling in each of His people. But now secondly,
in our text we know we're past those steps because now the brethren
have written to Paul, they're letting him know they need help
on this. So then what do you do? Well
take note how Paul went about this. Take note how he went about
this. He wrote the first letter to
them, declaring He knew their election of God, He knew how
God had chosen them, He knew how Christ had worked effectually
in their heart, and brought them to submission to Christ, and
that their faith and their love was spoken throughout. He spoke
of the Gospel all through that first letter. And then in this
letter, He preached the Gospel to them for three chapters before
He ever gets to this. That's what I'm saying brethren,
we're to speak the gospel to one another at all times when
you're dealing with some error. And when he wrote that first
letter, he dealt with this. He says, it's touching brotherly
love, you need not that I write unto you. See, he's encouraging
them. With all the sin and rebellion there was at Corinth, Paul said,
he told them, you come behind in no gift. God's blessed you
with all blessings, blessed you personally, you come behind in
no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus. You see, you
want to comfort and strengthen and encourage your brethren to
look to Christ in what He's done for you. That's going to be the
motivation. That's going to be the constraint
in their heart. And so we said, as touching brotherly love, you
need not that I write unto you. You yourselves are taught of
God to love one another. God's taught you. to love one
another. He said, and indeed you do it
toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia and we beseech
you brethren that you increase more and more. And then he seasoned
it with this. He already knew back in that
first letter. He seasoned it with this. And that you study
to be quiet and do your own business. and to work with your own hands
as we commanded you when we were there. He seasoned that gospel
with this admonition, that you may walk honestly toward them
that are without and that you may have lack of nothing. Again
in this letter. The Spirit of God did this. The
Spirit of our Lord worked this in Paul. We are writing by the
Spirit of God and He for three chapters preached the Gospel
to them. Told them, Beloved, we're bound
to thank God for you. God chose you from the beginning.
Through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth,
we're to too. He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of
the glory of Christ. He told them, I know God is going to
keep you with all our confidences in the Lord. He preached the
Gospel to them. And then he seasoned it with
this. Now he comes here and he reminds them of the example that
he and the others set for him. He does that in verses 7 through
9. We're not going to look at that later, but another message. But he's seasoning that gospel
of grace with this admonition. And then he reminds them of the
word he gave them when he was with them in verse 10. He said
that if any would not work, neither should he eat. And then he addresses
the Aaron brethren directly with this exhortation, and he tells
them, this is the exhortation from our Lord. He says in verse 12, Now them
that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ. that with quietness they work
and eat their own bread, for we hear that there were some
which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies."
You see, what I'm trying to show you is in every epistle, in every
epistle. What you hear in churches today
is the back half of epistles preached, but they're not preaching
the gospel. But before they ever got to those
parts of the epistle that dealt with these practical things,
they set forth the gospel for chapter after chapter after chapter.
In Romans, from Romans 1 all the way to Romans 6, he spoke
of how sinful we are, he spoke of that we have to be justified
through faith in Christ alone. And then he gets to Romans 6
and he says, what, shall we sin that grace may abound? And you
would think the next word out of his mouth to show that, God
forbid, that's not what we preach. We love holiness, we love righteousness,
we love godliness. And you'd think the next word
out of his mouth would be some very practical exhortation. And
he begins by telling them, in Christ we're dead to the law.
Why did he do that? Because that's the worst problem
we have when a brother falls or when we start thinking about
these practical things is to become puffed up in this self-righteous,
pharisaical thinking we can contribute by our works under the law. So
he begins there and says, you're not saved through the works of
the law. There's an old man in you that's still seeing and evil's
present with you all the time. You can never get to a point
where you say, I've arrived and I'm past Romans 7 now, I'm into
Romans 8. They go together. He's saying
the only way you're going to mortify the flesh is through
the Spirit of God. And He's going to keep you mounted
in Christ and look into Christ and trust in Christ. You can't
even pray as you are without the Spirit, He said. But all
these things that are coming about, He's working them all
together for our good, for them that love God according to His
purpose. Because who he foreknew, he did predestinate to be formed
in the image of his son. And he came and he justified
us, and he called us, and he glorified us, and he did it all.
And so, from Romans 6, from Romans 1 to Romans 12, before he ever
gets to anything practical. What I'm saying to you is, when
you go personally one-on-one, it's just as important to speak
the gospel of God's grace. And if a word needs to be spoken
of admonition, season that word of grace with this admonition.
He said, Paul said in Colossians 4, let your speech be always
with grace. Well, it's just black and white.
They should do this, they shouldn't do that. They just need to part
company with them and not have anything to do with them. Law
is always black and white. Because there's no love in the
law, there's no grace in the law, there's no mercy in the
law. Law's just justice. So yeah, law's always black and
white. But when you're dealing with brethren who you love, You're going to have to be patient
and look to Christ and trust Christ. So let your speech be
always with grace. Always with grace. Always speaking
of Christ and His grace and His mercy and His love to us. Always
with grace. Seasoned with salt. Seasoned. Just sprinkle a little in there.
That you may know how you ought to answer every man. That's how
we ought to answer. Especially if a brother's fallen.
Now, let's get to this rare last resort here. This is the third
thing. Now you come to this, this is rare, it's a last resort. This is only after these other
steps have been taken, much prayer, much time has passed, and a brother
continues walking disorderly. It's public knowledge. He's doing
it in public. He's doing it and causing division
amongst brethren. He's causing a distraction for
the gospel of Christ. He hadn't been brokenhearted
and brought down and begged mercy from God. What do you do? Verse six, we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh disorderly and not of the tradition
which he received of us. Verse 14, and if any man obey
not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company
with him that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother. It must be preeminent in our
hearts. It must be permanent in our heart
and we should make it known to the brother that he is our brother
in Christ and not our enemy. That must be made known. And
it's more than just saying that. It's really having the spirit
and doing it. The motive to mortify our flesh
and purge out sin and self-righteousness is this. And here's what you
have to remember. Here's the motive to purge out Sin and self-righteousness,
the old leaven. Here's the motive. Paul said,
when he was dealing with that incestuous man at Coriath, he
said, purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a
new lump as ye are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, is
sacrificed for us. In other words, each one who
Christ gave Himself for, each one Christ died for, each one
in whom He abides, you're already holy. You're already holy. That's including the brother
who's fallen. He's holy. That's what we have
to remember. He's holy. He's holy. We don't become holy by purging
out the old leaven. You don't become holy by putting
away sin and walking orderly. That's the result of being made
holy. But when you do that, you don't add to Christ having already
made you holy. That's our motive, that's our
constraint for being merciful and loving and meek and mild
and gentle with a brother who's fallen. He is holy because Christ
our Passover laid down his life for us, sacrificed himself for
us. Christ has to break our own hearts
first. You see, that's what Paul told
Corinthians. You've not mourned over this. Our own hearts have
to be broken first. Do you know that the real trial
of your faith is when a brother falls? Does that break your heart? Our own hearts have to be broken
by Christ. Why? That's my body. That one who
fell is me. He's a part of my body because
we're all one in Christ. We're all members of the same
body. If one rejoices, we rejoice. If one is sorrowful, we sorrow.
If one falls, that's me. That's breaking my heart to see
that. What do you do for your child
when they're sick? Do you call a meeting of the
family together and say, well, this child's sick. We're going
to stick them in another room and nobody have anything to do
with them anymore. No, that's your child you love. You're going
to try to make them well. You're not going to go in there,
maybe you might put some gloves on if they're very contagious.
You're going to take some measures so you don't get whatever they
have. But you're not going to treat
them differently than the love you have for them because that's
your child. That's what Paul's saying. Yes, there's some measures
that are going to be taken to correct this brother. But don't
treat him like you don't love him. Don't treat him as anything
but a brother. He's not your enemy. He's your
brother. He's one with you. Christ is in him. So our constraint, our motivation
to admonish and to receive admonition is not to make us holy. It's
because Christ already made you holy. Christ has to break our
hearts so that this is not done in a proud, haughty spirit, not
in a public display, but in a meek and a quiet spirit with sorrow
between brethren and brethren alone. When it gets even to this
point here where something's got to be done, the church has
to do this, this is between brethren alone. submitting to Christ and
trusting Christ to save the brother. The aim here is to see the brother
converted from this error and see Christ receive all the glory
for granting him repentance. That's the aim here. You can't
do it. This is to be done only when
a brother is disruptive to the preaching of the gospel of Christ,
disruptive to the unity and the peace of brethren. Then he said,
withdraw yourselves, have no company with him, but you're
not to count him as an enemy, you're not to cut off all contact
with him. Just like the child who's sick
and you put them in their bed, you're not going to be sitting
there with them 24 hours a day. But you're not going to cut them
off. You're going to still let them know you love them and still
go in there and try to express how much you care for them. Christ
may withdraw His felt presence from one of His saints. He may
withdraw His felt presence from you to correct you. But He will
never put you away because He bought us with His blood. He
purchased us with His blood. He justified us. And He shall
keep us and He will not cut us off. We earn that many times,
don't we? Has he cut you off yet? Nope.
If you know that, he won't cut your brother off. We're simply
to let a brother know. We can't have the same fellowship
with him and company with him so long as he walks disorderly.
That's all this is. Doesn't mean you stop talking
to him. Doesn't mean if you see him you don't go up and visit
with him, see how he's doing. How else you gonna know how he's
doing? It means you're not gonna have him to your table. You're
not gonna be Muslim buddies with him now to show that you're waiting
on the Lord to correct him. We're to have a merciful spirit
that lets him know we're ready to receive him. We're ready to
forgive all offenses when Christ restores him and he desires to
worship God in peace with one another. We want him to know
that. And if this is one in whom Christ dwells, this will be certain. He will be ashamed. Paul said
there, do this that he may be ashamed. You're not supposed
to try to shame him. But by not having the fellowship
he had with you and not being able to assemble and hear the
gospel of Christ, nothing, nothing means more to one of God's saints
than assembling with his people to hear the gospel and have fellowship
with brethren. But the Lord will use that and
the Lord will make him ashamed of his sin. And the Lord will
break his heart. But when Christ has renewed him
inwardly and corrected him, then you forgive him and you receive
him that quick. Listen to what the Lord told
Peter. Peter said, How shall my brother sin against me, and
I forgive him till seven times? Jesus said, Not till seven times,
but until seventy times seven. This is what He meant. He said,
If he trespasses against thee seven times in a day, and seven
times in a day, turn again to thee and say, I repent, thou
shalt forgive him. You know what their next word
was? Lord, increase our faith. This is the trial of your faith.
That's what James' whole epistle is dealing with when a brother
has erred. And those works of faith that men like to say, well,
now let's not just speak about being doers, let's be doers. All those things James deals
with is what it is. And all of it involves us looking
to the Lord, keeping our mouths shut, not being masters, not
being judges, not being self-willed, being patient, waiting on the
Lord. That's a test of our faith. Listen,
and when He has been brought to repent and He said, if He
says to you, I repent, The Lord didn't say if he does some things
and manifests repentance and you give him a quality check
every week for six months and then when you're fully satisfied.
He said if he say to you, I repent. You've got to trust the Lord,
aren't you? He said you receive him. Listen,
2 Corinthians 6.6. This man took his father's wife. would have been his stepmother
and married her. And when he came to them and
said, I repent, Paul told him this, he said, sufficient to
such a man is this punishment which was inflicted on many.
They didn't have company with him for a while. He said, sufficient
to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted on many,
so that contrarywise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort
him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch
sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech you that
you confirm your love toward him." You see that? Now that's how to go about this
thing. That's trusting the Lord. That's
doing it in an orderly way, lest we become the one who's disorderly.
And you go home and read James 3. When that happens, it's from
a lustful spirit and it results in nothing but confusion. Nothing
but confusion. Listen, we're constrained by
God's love for us in Christ, what He's done for us. Salvation
is all of Him. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. You've received the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. God's will is, He's working
His will and good pleasure in you. His will is for Christ to
turn your heart for you to come to the Father and beg Him, Father,
Father, save me. Have mercy on me. I need mercy.
I've sinned. That's His will and good pleasure.
That's what He's working in His people. He's not doing it through
a spirit of bondage making you fear. He's doing it through the
gospel that declares Christ is our salvation. So, keep your
focus on Christ alone, above all things, and try to turn your
brother who's heir, turn his focus to Christ alone. Speak
this gospel. Season it with the salt of admonition. Well, Christ is our righteousness
and you do this because we're not trying to be made holy. Christ
already, our Passover is already sacrificed for you are holy.
You know when Paul said, he lists that long list of sins and he
said, and such were some of you. Some of them sitting there were
guilty of those sins. He's dealing with that at Corinth.
And here was Paul's word, such were some of you. But you are
sanctified. You are justified by our Lord
Jesus through the Spirit. You are. See, that's her motive. Only He can save us from our
sin. Count Him as a brother, not an enemy. Not an enemy. Amen.