Tonight, we turn in the Scriptures to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And as I said earlier, it is a weighty subject tonight. And I thought it's one of the moments where, since this is such a difficult subject, that we look carefully and consider as we read the Scriptures that this is something that has been confessed in the church for a long time. And tonight we're going to read something out of the Heidelberg on page 43 in the back of your Blue Psalter hymnals, and then we'll turn to page 84 following that in something out of the Belgic Confession. But first, I'd like to read tonight the first 13 verses. We're only considering verses 1-5 of 1 Corinthians 5. Let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord. it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. For a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging others? is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge god judges those outside purge the evil person from among you may the lord bless the hearing of his word and now we turn to the back of the psalter to page 43 and in this section uh this is in the heidelberg catechism we're talking about the keys of the kingdom and you have two keys of the kingdom that are here uh presented the preaching of the holy gospel and christian discipline toward repentance that's question 83 both preaching and discipline open the kingdom of heaven to believers and close it to unbelievers in question 85 you have it now addressed how we are to view christian discipline so the question is how is the kingdom of heaven closed and opened by christian discipline and there we read according to the command of christ if anyone though called a christian professes un-christian teachings or lives an un-christian life if after a repeated brotherly counsel he refuses to abandon his heirs and wickedness and if after being reported to the church that is to its officers he fails to respond also to their admonition such a one the officers exclude from the christian fellowship by withholding the sacraments from him and god himself excludes him from the kingdom of christ such a person when he promises and demonstrates genuine reform is received again as a member of christ and of his church and i want to read one more section on page 84 tonight page 84 where at the top of page 84 the paragraph there at the top we have here the marks of a faithful church a true church and i'm going to read that paragraph the marks by which the true church is known are these if the pure doctrine of the gospels preached therein if it maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by christ if church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin in short if all things are managed according to the pure word of god all things contrary thereto rejected and jesus christ acknowledged as the only head of the church hereby the true church may certainly be known from which no man has a right to separate himself and we'll stop reading there i don't know how you felt when we read the apostle paul but i've come to the conclusion that the Apostle Paul just doesn't fit at all our American version of niceness. It just doesn't work, does it? He's been mad in chapter 4. He's been aggressive. Did you feel the frustration there in chapter 5 when I read that? Excommunication. What does that bring to your mind and how do you feel when you hear that word? Do you shiver a little bit? Does it make you uneasy? How do you feel? It really should be no surprise that one of the things that mattered very much to Jesus was the purity of his church. It mattered a lot to our Lord. In fact, you know in Matthew 18, he outlined the process by which we are to deal with sin in the life of the church and sin, somebody who falls into unrepentant sin. And Jesus there outlined the three steps by which we deal with that. the first one if somebody sins against you you know uh the the whole process you go to him if he sent against you you go to him and you point it out to him and jesus says if he hears you you you've won him it's always the goal isn't it jesus says you've gained your brother that's always the goal restoration we don't want to see anyone go down the path of sin we care we love and then he says listen if if they won't hear that then you have to take somebody else but i want you to listen to the last step jesus finally says if he refuses to listen tell it to the church and if he refuses to hear the church his whole status then is to change he's cast out he is to be a heathen and a tax collector. When the church makes that kind of judgment, when the church renders that kind of judgment, that is when we cut him off from the fellowship, he is to be suspended from all the blessings of the membership in the life of the church. And then Jesus says something that gets often so abused and used for personal Bible study, but not really what it is. he says where two or three are gathered in my name i am there in the midst of them the context being when the church does what it's supposed to do if it's just two or three who are witnesses and have rendered the judgment i support it i'm there i recognize it it's a chilling statement chilling statement when the church makes a declaration that so and so is living in sin and they render the judgment, Jesus says, that's my decision too. That's my decision too. And Jesus here is encouraging the church to be strong in dealing with sin. The reason, this is the reason that historically Reformed churches, as we looked at tonight, saw this discipline as a mark of a faithful church. This was a great conviction throughout the time of the Reformation in trying to recover the purity of the church, that discipline was one of the marks where you could see and you could tell that the Spirit is really working, that it's true. Because the Spirit's goal is purity for the life of the church. The Spirit's goal is holiness for the life of the church. Well, as you know, nothing is more hated, nothing today is more misunderstood than the concept of discipline. We are in a culture that doesn't understand discipline. We are an undisciplined culture, period. And we don't understand its purpose. We don't understand its benefit whatsoever. And I mean, you know this. It goes without saying that today, what we are taught to do is say nothing. That's what we're taught to do. We're all told, we're all programmed, we're all pressured to say nothing about anyone and to never render a judgment. You can't judge me is the motto of our society. And you understand now how difficult this is living in a culture that says this, where tolerance is the acceptance, is the way of the people today. Tolerance. Where everything is love and everything is understanding and you're not supposed to take a stand on anything because truth is relative anyways. Truth is whatever it personally means to you. There's nothing objective and therefore you can't. You don't have the liberty to judge. That's where you live. That's the time you live. The pressure is to do nothing. It's easy. It's easy. Let's face it. Any church that does this today will be characterized as unloving, judgmental, schismatic. I mean, you could go on and on down the line of how a church will be characterized if it steps up to the plate and does what it's called to do. The mere name, excommunication, invoking the worst kind of feelings in people who cry church abuse. And I'm not denying that there is church abuse. If I were preaching a sermon tonight on the spirit of love in which it should be done, which it should be done in the spirit of love, if I were preaching tonight on those sort of things, I'd go to Galatians chapter six and I'd go to other passages to tell you the spirit in which we are to do it. Tonight, I'm looking at the principle of it with you. And as difficult as it is, Christians have to think about why Christ commanded it and why we're called to do it. That's really the emphasis here in 1 Corinthians chapter five. It brings us to the heart of this particular passage tonight that discipline is Christ's way of keeping his church pure. Discipline is Christ's way of protecting you and your children. Discipline is Christ's way of going after wayward sheep. And if that's true, the negligence in those things is pastoral cruelty. Cruelty. The church in Corinth, already in the first century, was really struggling with this issue. We've been studying this church in Corinth now for a few weeks, and I knew it would be a challenging series, but I believe so beneficial for the life of the church today because the church in Corinth, the church in America, is the church in Corinth. The church in America, we've reverted back to a first century context. And we've been studying this major problem of the church in Corinth that the church had been infected with worldliness. They would not accept what they were a part of. Remember in chapter one, one of the first things he said is you're called to holiness. They didn't accept what they were called to. They rebelled against the way that God set it up. They didn't like how it was going. Surely he could have done this differently. Surely it could have been viewed a little bit more powerfully to the world. Just a little. There seems to be no strength in any of this. There seems to be no real power in any of this. It doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. In our own lives, we often feel like there's just not much to all of this. That's a real experience of Christians. And what we find is that the Corinthians began to start looking at the world and saying, well, there's real power. Their ways are so much more effective. And now we find that because the Corinthians had adopted the wisdom of the world in doing ministry, lo and behold, what do you think happens to a church that adopts that mindset? You're going to be plagued with worldliness. You understand this? If you adopt that principle for doing ministry and you want to look like the world and behave like the world and worship like the world worships its idols, you're going to infect your church with worldliness. That's what's going to happen. and you're going to have all sorts of problems break out. And that's exactly what Paul's dealing with in Corinth. The church is overflowing with worldly problems, lo and behold. And couldn't they put that together? Well, now we're dealing with a major one. And the first one here tonight has to do with sexual morality that had filled the church. I want everyone to look tonight at verse 1. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. Can you feel that? For a man has his father's wife. What are you shocked about there? Probably not what the Apostle Paul is shocked about. It's not the sin he's ultimately shocked about. It's bad. There's something else that really shocked the apostle. The sin was really clear. There was no, it wasn't one of those situations, well, that's kind of gray, you know. It wasn't that. It was a painfully clear sin in the life of the church. This man was involved in gross sexual immorality with his father's wife. Most likely not his biological mother. Whatever the case, it was some form of incest. And what makes it somewhat painful is that any knowledge of God's law among Christians who are familiar with God's law knew that the law of God addressed this particular sin over and over. Strangely enough, this sin. In fact, you may recognize it because it's the sin we studied last time in Genesis with Reuben and Bilhah, isn't it? Leviticus references this particular sin over and over. Listen to Leviticus 20. The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. Twice that said. They were to be stoned in the Old Testament if you came across this. And then it goes on to say, you shall put away the evil from among you. So the principle here was that the congregation had to be cleansed because this particular sin had polluted the whole thing, the whole church. And so it didn't become, in the Old Testament, just a leadership issue. It wasn't just a leadership issue, and I think that's really important to think about tonight. In order to purify the whole congregation, God commanded that everyone give a verbal amen to the judgment that was rendered. Listen to Deuteronomy 27. Here it is again. 27, verse 20. Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's bed and all the people shall say amen. Amen. So in other words, the law said, and this was the principle, the people were all to support the decision of the leadership and the purification of the body. God's law said it. Black and white. That's what he required. Congregation was to affirm that. Now, in the New Testament, obviously, the church was not under directly a theocracy so we weren't taking up stones in the new testament and we're not doing that today that was not the answer but paul is looking at the clear principle that transfers the clear principle that guides the law here for the church and the principle was and you remember in the old testament that sin was to be removed from the camp sin was to be expelled from the camp the old leaven was to be purged that no one disputed everyone knew that but here's what shocked paul here's my question as i look at this text tonight was it unclear that this was wrong was it unclear no it was condemned everywhere in the law and to even further accent that point what does paul say the gentiles viewed this particular sin as paul says listen this particular sin going on in the life of the church the gentiles don't even tolerate that the gentiles would look at that and say that needs to face some kind of penalty in the civil realm so what is shocking the apostle paul here's what is concerning no one was justifying the behavior everyone knew it was wrong no one was running around saying that's okay even civil law condemned it what was happening the shock was the careless laissez-faire the attitude they did absolutely nothing about it. Now, I pause when I think about that and ponder that for a minute. I ask the question, why? Isn't that a fair question? If I've already made the case, it's not theological. In other words, no one would argue from the law that that's permissible or even from the civil realm that that's permissible. They all know it's condemned. In other words, no one sat around the elder's table arguing and writing letters. Stop that. That's okay that he's doing that. Everyone knew it's wrong why did they do nothing well you really have to understand first century corinth don't you think of everything we've studied if you're worried about fitting in if you're worried about fitting in with the world and being valued you've already infiltrated inculcated into the life of the church a certain measure of worldliness And the response here of tolerating the sin and taking it lightly, I'm still wrestling with why they did absolutely nothing. And the only answer I come up with is this. You do that when you're afraid of the consequences of what you do. You do that when you're afraid of the consequences of what you do. How much do we hate the concept of discipline today? Go back to the Old Testament for a minute. Imagine around the congregational camp, the elders had determined that this was sin. The law said it. And all of a sudden, everyone had to give the verbal amen. Imagine if that's your dad. Imagine if that's your son. Imagine if that's your daughter. Can you feel this now? It's painful. What happened in Corinth? Paul says, you're arrogant. You're totally arrogant. Ought you not to mourn? In other words, do you really care about that person? Let him who has done this be removed from you right now. I'm struck by that. They're puffed up. They're full of pride. And I think, well, how do you translate that to being puffed up and full of pride? I don't think anyone in Corinth said, this is okay, they knew better than that. What was the pride? The pride Paul is speaking of here is fearing men and not fearing God. That's the pride. In other words, something happens in the life of the church when leaders are faced with a choice. And what should be, at least, the first concern of leadership when things are put in front of them. The first concern of leadership should be, what has God said? What has God's law said? For instance, let me give you an example. In just a few verses later, did you notice what's said in verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6? Do not be deceived. Now, he prefaces what he's about to say by saying, don't make a willing choice to be deceived about this. I'm going to state something now that's very black and white for you. neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Is that pretty clear? Is that black and white? Anyone who lives practicing this, Hardened in it. Anyone who lives doing these things will not enter heaven. They're not going to heaven. If someone in the life of the church is practicing that, don't be deceived about it. You initially say, well, it makes me really uncomfortable, but I can't really argue with that, can you? We agree. Those people down at the gas lamp district doing that, hey, I mean, it's bad. What if it's my son? what if it's my daughter? The question is, am I really loving them to leave them alone? That's the question. Am I really loving them to do what Corinth is doing? Because that's the default. That's what we'll do right here. And that's the question I want to ask all those who claim to be so loving. Are you loving? And there came the challenge. We all may agree that these things are wrong until a key figure in the life of the church has a son involved in them. That's all fine and dandy until some family with a big name has somebody close involved in it. One of the parents gets involved with the sin. Set one of those cases in front of the elder body. You've got a problem now. Houston, big problem. Those are the things elders never want to deal with in the life of the church. Those are the things we're all scared about in the life of the church. But here's the point. Godly leadership, principled leaders are called to act on the truth. And when you act on the truth, you move forward trusting the Lord. Realizing that whatever consequences you're going to face from this, well, you just have to face them. You just have to face them. That's good leadership. That's really good leadership. I was moved this past week listening to the way our leaders responded to the shooting down of the airline. What did you think of that? I was appalled. Do you know why I was appalled? They called it a tragedy. They called it an accident. It was no accident. It was terrorism. it was barbarism as a former leader called it and there was no sense that we're going to really hold somebody accountable for who did this why why was there no sense well the answer to that was it just mere fortune it was not misfortune the reason is because how we speak affects our interest in other words if i speak too strongly here our economy might be hurt our reputation with diplomacy could be hurt the same is true in in so many respects in just life and in parenting and and good leadership you know we all will look at things somewhat black and white until we're faced with a situation until it's going to blow up on us and the questions of the truth of the matter don't matter anymore the questions of the truth of the matter don't matter anymore do you know what's going to happen if we touch that well that person's done so much in the life of the church they've done they've given so much in the life of the church they were so integral to our existence in the life of the church and so and so is so well known in the community are we sure we want that uproar are we sure we want that heat i don't want to open that can of worms they're heavy contributors that person has a lot of connections the spillover the potential for spillover on that one i'm just not willing to go through it and then do you want what's going to be said out there about our church you know what's going to be said out there when we cast somebody out when it all blows up and this person runs out and complains everyone else about how wicked of a church we are and how unloving and how judgmental. So what's the easy route? Nothing. What good will it do anyway? Does discipline really work? I've heard that. It doesn't really work. And that's being puffed up. People puffed up in the fear of men and not the fear of God. It was most likely for social reasons that the church in Corinth did nothing. He was male. You could get away with a lot as a male in first century Corinth. It was much easier than to deal with women in those days as still is true today. He probably was very well known, influential. As one pastor said, these people are dangerous in the life of the church and any form of discipline is considered unloving. The pressures on us are all the worse. I remember years ago as a young student training for ministry and I was in an internship and I remember particularly a situation that came before the elder body and a man who was very well-known in the life of the church, well-known, connected to everyone, stopped coming. And then he forbid his wife and children to come. And I'm sitting at the table and all the elders were sitting there saying, well, that's just too bad. Too bad. And I'm thinking, isn't discipline warranted? I asked them. And the devastating look on their faces. They were not going to touch that. We're so afraid of response. But I can't get over Ezekiel. If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet so that the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes away any one of them that person is taken away in his iniquity but his blood i will require at the watchman's hand so you son of man i've made you a watchman over the house of israel when you hear a word from my mouth you shall give them warning from me paul was horrified the church did nothing it had this relaxed attitude to the dealing with sin it didn't take sin seriously and now paul says and we move to what what are you to do paul says here's what you're to do make a judgment render now think about how counter-cultural this is render a judgment that's so unloving isn't it verse three for i indeed as absent in body but present in spirit have already judged as though I were present. Kim, who has done, who has so done this deed. Listen, I'm not there, but if I was there in spirit, I can tell you right now, I have already rendered the judgment where I am. You do it too. You make the judgment. And that's so hard because we're all told not to today. But Paul does make a crucial distinction that we're going to come back can look at next time when he says, listen, you don't have to judge those on the outside. God will do that. But you are rendering judgments on the inside. That I am calling you to, says the Lord. So Paul says, render the judgment. In verse 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, 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 so if you break this down this is what you come up with you're procrastinating the next time you come together do it no more no more of this too much is at risk here's what i want you to do inspiration of the holy spirit in the name of our lord jesus christ which is so fascinating you know why did paul say that well what is the one thing people trying to justify sin in the life of the church do well jesus jesus is on my side jesus accepts me jesus loves me jesus jesus supports me the church is condemning me but but jesus no no jesus and i we've got it worked out and paul says use his name in the name of jesus christ the lord jesus christ what are you to do well jesus affirms what church discipline does this is why we read it from the heidelberg tonight and we read it from the belgics especially the heidelberg at the end of the day paul is saying that that we're unlocking and we have the keys that of the kingdom to to open and close and the kingdom of heaven and and notice here that they've been entrusted to the church i mean this is this is a remarkable statement that there's a great responsibility entrusted to the church that when the church faithfully does this it should cause some kind of fear on the whole life of the church when you're gathered together paul says along with my spirit in the power of the lord jesus christ in other words when the elders who are appointed discern the facts they do it in love they determine what is the truth they render the judgment here's what you are to do deliver such a one to satan for the destruction of his flesh i remember paul in first timothy 1 he said some rejected concerning the faith have suffered shift wreck of whom are hymenaeus and alexander whom i delivered to satan that they may not learn to blaspheme this is all over here's what paul's saying here's the mystery of this tonight and here's why i say this is the ultimate act of love deliver somebody back into the realm of satan put them back there Cast them out of the kingdom of the church. Cast them out where principalities and powers still hold sway. Put them out there. Why do we do that? The whole world out there lies under the sway of the evil one. Here you've got so much protection and care and nurture from the family, but know what? Suspend him from all of that. Put him back out in that. Why would we do that? Paul says, so that his flesh would be destroyed. You say, how is that loving? Like this. He's going to go out there and he's going to suffer all the terrible consequences of his actions. And nobody's going to be supporting him in that. He's going to go out there and he's going to face it hard. He's going to go out there and the devil's going to strike him. He's going to go out there and all the consequences, as one pastor said, physical, emotional, spiritual, of his sin as the devil attacks, he sees that, what might happen? He might wake up. He might come to his senses. God might bring him back that way. And what's encouraging about this is that he's saying when the church does this and honors the Lord, the Lord acts. The Lord works through that. So as I read 1 Corinthians 5 and he says deliver him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that he might be saved. There's the goal. That's the platform to use for Christ to go after the wandering sheep. In other words, remember the parable? The 99, I'm going after the one. This is how you do it. This is how you go after the one. Cast him out. And the Lord may go get him. And he holds out that hope to encourage the church. But if we're sitting here saying, oh, it's great, come on in, have a seat as what goes on today. We're not going to judge you. Come on in. The whole body gets defiled and you bring down judgment on the whole thing. So by doing this, and this is why I say discipline so misunderstood today by excommunicating which is never the goal by the way the goal is always restoration but but by doing this there's the real possibility they will be saved before the final judgment and that brothers and sisters is the most loving thing we could do to somebody who remains so belligerent and hardened in their sin that they want nothing to do with us so then you pause tonight and you say is our present mentality with regard to sin lackadaisical tolerant you know even anger at church leaders who are lovingly trying to do this when you do that are you really being loving to people where is true love really shown it's not in supporting sin i mean the principle still stands spare the rod you hate your son Still stand. And the beauty to encourage you tonight in closing is this. What happened to this guy? You ever wonder? I'm convinced that 2 Corinthians is talking about this man. Listen to this. This punishment, this is 2 Corinthians 2, which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man. It was enough what you did. So that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you, reaffirm your love to him. He repented. And the Lord put that there to tell you and to encourage you in doing this. Look at what happened in the first century. He turned back. This man was put out and he felt the sorrow and the weight of it. And he had so much sorrow that filled him up. the church still remained a little hard to this man. And Paul says, no! The goal was accomplished. Love him. Embrace him. It worked. Discipline worked. Christ saved him. And Paul says, bring him back on in. Receive him back. That's always the goal. Discipline is always restoration. And next time, we're going to look at the consequences of what happens. And this is what Paul goes into next. of what happens when we neglect this in the life of the body. Will it be difficult? Will discipline be difficult? It'll be immensely difficult in our culture. We've got to be wise in how we do it. We've got to be careful in how we do it. Painful, yes. Challenges will be immense. People can avoid discipline today by running down to the next church and hiding out. I know it goes on all the time. But we should do it because the Lord told us to do it. And because it's the greatest demonstration of the fear of God and love for people. I know we'll earn the label of being unloving and mean and gossip will follow. But wouldn't it be far worse on judgment day to realize that in our shepherding, we let people continue in the paths they wanted to do while they sat here thinking everything was okay and they never make it into the kingdom of heaven. I'm willing to take a little bit of abuse now. A little bit of attack that I'm hard and cruel and whatever you're going to get today to see people saved. That's a minimal cost. May the love of Jesus compel us seeing that He loves sinners and this is His way of going after them. And may we remember that we have these promises from Him, sure promises, so that then we should learn what He loves. As He says here in this section, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we've not understood discipline. And I'll be the first to confess that church leaders, including me, have not always done it in love or in care. And that we do fall short in the way that we've done it. But that doesn't negate the responsibility because we're sinful. And we ask for forgiveness that we have not taken seriously enough Your holiness. Seriously enough about what our calling is as a separate people to You. Not seriously enough in our own lives. And tonight, this is greatly convicting. But all we read on this passage is mercy. I mean, this is what you've put on display. the greatest demonstration of mercy is to discipline it demonstrates your love and so give your leaders boldness give the congregation supporting hearts and may we all do things in a way first and foremost to fear you and not men would your name be praised anyone faces this in the future would you bring them back and restore them. And would your name be praised as we see you leaving the 99 and going after the wandering sheep. May your glory and honor and power, may everything that we say and do, we seek to honor you in your will as you have revealed here. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.