All right, we're in Matthew chapter 18, look down at your Bibles at verse 15.
It says here, Moreover, if thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell them unto the church.
But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and as
a publican.
And the title of the sermon today or this evening is Offenses in the Church, Sin and
Heretics.
Really, we're just talking about the concept of church discipline, all right?
Or often we'll use the phrase excommunicating someone out of the church.
What does it mean to excommunicate someone out of the church?
What it simply means is that if they don't meet these requirements or if they violate
one of these commandments that we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Matthew chapter 18
and other portions of scripture that we're going to look at, they're basically going
to be excommunicated from the church.
They're going to be thrown out of our church.
Now this is something that our church strongly believes in.
This is something that our church not only believes in, but we practice, we teach about,
we try to educate our people from our church why this is valid, why this is biblical and
why this is something that we should be doing at all times throughout the year until Christ
comes back.
Now, go to Ephesians chapter number 5, hold your place here in Matthew 18.
We're going to go back to that in just a bit.
Now this is not a popular practice amongst independent fundamental Baptist churches or
just churches in general.
Why is that?
Well, because if you think about it, you know, a lot of people, they're thinking, man, they
want to grow a church, they want to build a church, they want the people to come to
church, but if you're kicking people out of the church, how is that going to happen?
Well, you know, the Bible tells us to not lean on our own understanding and all the
ways we should acknowledge him and he shall direct our paths.
And at the end of the day, we just need to make sure that we're pleasing to God, that
we obey his word, that we're living a life and having a church that's honoring unto him
and we understand that God will bring the increase.
You see, when we think, well, you know, we know better than God.
You know, we think that if we just disciple these fornicators or these drunkards or, you
know, this heretic, we just let them stay in the church, eventually they'll come around.
You know what?
You just need not to lean onto your own understanding.
You know, we need to make sure that we just deal with it biblically and we don't want
to, we also don't want to be a church that's just trigger happy, just throwing people out
just for no reason.
Okay.
I'm not saying that exists, but you know, I'm sure there could be a tendency to do that
for whatever reason, but we do need to make sure that we have a balance in this area and
try our best to adhere to biblical doctrines in regards to throwing people out of the church.
Now, why is it that we have to excommunicate people out of the church?
Well, the primary reason is so we can have a glorious church.
Okay.
A church that's pleasing unto the Lord.
Look at Ephesians chapter five, verse 25.
It says here, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave him
so forth that he may sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So we see here that the apostle Paul's comparing a marriage to the relationship between the
church and God, local churches and God.
And what do we see here is that the church, for example, our church is cleansed.
It's washed by the washing of the water of the word, right?
But the preaching of God's word, the teaching and the instruction that the Bible gives us,
we instruct our people and through that people get right with God.
They get sin out of their lives.
We instruct them about Matthew 18.
We instruct them about first Corinthians chapter number five, therefore people are not left
in obscurity.
They're not wondering, Hey, why is this sin taking place in the church and nothing's being
done about it?
You see, this is not saying that we should be a sinless church because sinless Christians
don't exist.
Amen.
Other than the ones that are in heaven right now.
Okay.
But on this earth, sinless Christians don't exist, but you know what?
There's certain sins that God does not tolerate within the local new Testament church.
And it'd be foolish for us to just ignore first Corinthians chapter five.
It'd be foolish for us to ignore Romans chapter 16 and be foolish for us to just ignore Romans
chapter one or Matthew chapter 18 and not see that clearly the Bible is telling us that
there's certain people that should not be allowed in the local assembly.
We're not just talking about reprobates, we understand that according to the Bible they
shouldn't be allowed.
So why wouldn't you allow reprobates into the church?
Well, why would I allow someone who hates God into church?
You know, this is a place where we worship God, where we love the Lord, where we praise
him in song, where we honor him to the preaching of God's word.
And if there's someone in the congregation who the Bible says hates God, you know, they're
not welcomed here.
You know, you're not going to try to get a Burger King employee to work at McDonald's
with that Burger King, you know, outfit on, it's not going to work.
You know, try to get someone who works for a completely different company just working
one company with that same uniform, it's not going to happen.
You know, there's two different people there, two different companies, and in like manner,
you know, reprobates not only do they not belong in here, they don't want to be here.
And the only reason they would want to come here is to create division, create conflict,
infiltrate the church, and have these nefarious agendas to destroy our church.
Okay, go to Revelation chapter two, if you wouldn't.
So we see here that God wants us to have a glorious church, not a perfect church, but
it does say that it should be without spot, without wrinkled, without blemishes, okay.
Now on Thursday, I preached on second Peter chapter two, and it talked about how these
false teachers and false prophets who Romans one would also consider to be reprobates.
The Bible says that there are spots in your feast of charity.
It says that also in Jude, that there are spots among you.
And that's referring to what we see in Ephesians five, you see, the Bible says that the church
should be without spot, what does that mean?
Without these infiltrating Judas Iscariots, these people who desire to come in and destroy
our church, we should not allow them into our church, okay.
And I'm getting ahead of myself here, but let's look at a couple of things here that
we see in the churches that are highlighted in Revelation chapter two and three that would
disqualify a church, okay.
First of all, you know, a church that doesn't do any soul winning, it's not a church that
glorifies God.
It's not a glorious church if the church doesn't do legitimate soul winning.
Now, what do I mean by legitimate soul winning?
Well, the example that we see in the Bible is the soul winning where you open your mouth
boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel.
Where you go to, you know, two and two, door to door, preaching the gospel, seeing people
saved, giving a clear presentation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ
and seeing people saved.
That is a soul winning church.
Now, we would consider ourselves to be a soul winning church.
Why is that?
Because we have specific times delegated specifically for soul winning.
We send out our people to go out and preach the gospel, to do soul winning.
If a church is just into track dropping or, you know, door hangers or, you know, they
have these evangelistic services, I'm sorry, but that's not soul winning.
You know, doing a track drop, it's not soul winning.
You're just being a mailman at that point, okay.
Doing the door hanger business, that's not soul winning.
Soul winning requires a spirit filled Christian to present the gospel, the death, burial and
resurrection to see people saved, right?
Look at Revelation 2 verse 1, it says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, right,
these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience,
and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they
are apostles that are not and has found them liars, and has borne and has patience and
for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted, nevertheless I have somewhat against
thee because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, for whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else
I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of its place except thou
repent.
Now the thing that we should automatically notice here is that soul winning is not the
only work, because this church says, right, Jesus is saying in verse number 2, I know
thy works and thy labor.
Why?
All the things that we can do other than soul winning that's considered work in the eyes
of God.
Good things, right?
But it says here that we should still be doing the first works, okay?
And if a church does not do this, it's not a church that glorifies God.
Because at the end of the day, why do we meet together?
Why do we preach the word of God?
Why do we try to clean up your life?
Why do we try to teach you to be a good father and a good mother, to be a godly couple and
a godly husband and a godly wife?
Why do we try to train our children the way they should go?
Why do we do all these things?
Well, the reason for this is so we can be formidable people to preach the gospel, meet
for the master's use.
Why?
Use for what?
To preach the gospel, to see people saved.
But if a church is not doing that, they're teaching doctrine, they are working, they're
laboring, they're trying them who say they are apostles and are not, but they're not
soul winning, guess what?
They're not a glorious church.
Why?
Because that is a church that has a blemish and the blemish is that they're not soul winning.
Skip down to verse number 12.
But not only that, but a church that's not glorifying God, that's not glorious, tolerates
heretics, is tolerant of heretics.
Look at verse number 12.
It says, and to the angel of the church of Pergamos write, these things saith he which
hath the sharp sword with two edges, I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where
Satan's seat is, and thou holdest fast my name and has not denied my faith.
Even in those days where in Antipas my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, were Satan
dwelleth.
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine
of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Why is it that 2 Peter chapter 2 says, why does it say that Balaam was a false prophet?
Well, because we see here that he taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children
of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
What was he doing?
He was teaching false doctrine.
This is a heretic, okay?
And a church that tolerates these people is not a glorious church.
In fact, we see here in Revelation chapter 2 that Jesus Christ is coming down on this
church for this exact reason.
Now look, obviously you're going to have people who come into the church who have different
ideologies.
Maybe they were taught wrong.
You know, maybe they were taught about repent of your sins, okay?
They were taught that form of, you know, that gospel, that false gospel.
They were taught something that's contrary to God's word, but you know what?
At the end of the day, after they've been admonished, after they've been shown the truth,
if they still reject that, the Bible says that we're supposed to reject them.
They say that they're subverted, they're a heretic.
We don't try to disciple them to try to help them along.
That was the discipleship, right?
Showing them the Bible and saying, hey, this is actually what the Bible says.
That is the discipleship.
It doesn't require three years to show them that.
You know what it requires?
Three minutes.
And that's it.
And if someone just clearly rejects that, the Bible says that they are a heretic.
And people like that are dangerous.
Why?
Because if they see what it says and they say, I don't believe it, then what are they
doing here?
What are they doing here, right?
But you know what you have is churches all across the country who have all kinds of heretics
in the church.
They're just infiltrating.
And what are they doing?
They're just kind of going around to see if they could draw away disciples after them.
You know, they go from person to person trying to teach them their false doctrine, trying
to basically just subvert people away from the Bible.
And the Bible says that that's not tolerable.
We shouldn't tolerate that.
We should kick out heretics from the church, okay?
And we'll get a little more into that in just a little bit.
Go down to verse 18.
So tolerance of heretics.
Not only that, but Thyatira we see here, they're tolerating sin.
Look at verse 18, it says, unto the angel of the church of Thyatira, right, these things
saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like
unto fine brass.
I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works, and
the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication
and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
This is not a glorious church.
You know, fornication is not a sin that is punishable by death in the Old Testament,
but it's still a grievous sin in the church.
You know, when two people are, you say, well, you know, I'm just living with my girlfriend.
We're just not sleeping together.
Well, you know what?
We don't know that.
So by default, we're just going to think that's exactly what you're doing.
You know, don't come to me and say, well, I just live with them, but we're not doing
we don't, you know, I sleep on the couch and she sleeps on the bed.
You know, in the minds of the people, if they hear that you guys are living together, they're
going to think you're committing fornication.
You know, and here's the thing, you know, you may not be committing fornication, but
you know what?
Eventually you will, because you're making provision for the flesh.
So don't be so foolish to think that you can abstain from such a wicked sin living together
with someone else.
Oh yeah, we're together, but we're just abstaining from that.
No, you're an idiot.
Okay.
And look, we need to make sure that in our church, we preach against it.
We uphold this standard.
We hold this biblical conviction that we don't allow people who are involved in fornication
in the church.
Okay.
Now they have a couple options.
Obviously we don't just boot them out.
If they know that they don't know that that's wrong, we approach them.
If you find out about it, they have an opportunity to repent.
Just like it says here, she has space to repent.
So we tell them, Hey, here are your options.
You could either break up, move out, right?
Or you can get married or you can leave the church.
Here are your options.
Okay.
And I think that's pretty fair, you know, and so churches that allow these things into
the church are not glorious.
He said, you believe your church is glorious, you know, to the best of our ability.
I think we are.
I don't think that's a proud statement.
I don't think that's a pompous statement because God has given us a template to work with.
And if we're fulfilling these responsibilities, we can basically say, yeah, I believe this
is a church that glorifies God.
Not perfect, but I believe it's a church that glorifies God.
And as the spots come in, as the wrinkles show up, as the blemishes show themselves,
we deal with them on a case by case basis.
We don't just, you know, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
We try to deal with it swiftly, as soon as possible, and then we move on.
Okay.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
You know, a church that's not glorious is not soul winning.
It tolerates heretics, and it tolerates sin in the church, but not only that, a church
that's without, that has blemishes, spots, and wrinkles is a church that has unresolved
conflicts in the church.
Now we didn't find one there in Revelation 2, but we do have one in Revelation, or excuse
me, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Okay.
Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 1.
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before
the saints?
Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world, and if the world shall be judged
by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Knowing not that we shall judge angels, how much more things that pertain to this life?
If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least
esteemed in the church.
I speak to your shame.
Is it so that there is not a wise man among you?
No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren.
But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another.
Why do ye not rather take wrong?
Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.
What do we see here?
Unresolved conflict.
You say, well, they're resolving it.
Yeah, but they're resolving it before unbelievers.
And that's not even a good resolve.
You know, they're suing their brothers for whatever reason.
It doesn't specify as to what's taking place at the church of Corinth.
But we do know this.
It got to the point where they were actually going before unbelieving judges.
You know, we are actually better judges than the judges in the court system, according
to the Bible.
The Bible says that the least esteem in the church can resolve conflict in the church.
And look, what do you have today?
You have churches that have conflict amongst brethren, right?
There's offenses that are being taken place, and they're not dealing with it.
So what happens here?
You have a division of people.
You have this dude sitting over here, bitter at that dude sitting over there for years.
And they just completely stay away from each other.
They're angry, they're bitter at each other, and they're not resolving it.
And it ends up just turning into just a cesspool of bitterness.
You know, because bitter people produce bitter people.
Did you know that?
They defile other people.
Have you ever met a bitter person?
Bitter people just have nothing but negativity spewing out of their mouths about other people.
You know, we just threw someone out of our church who's like that, right?
We threw someone out of our church who was turned aside after Satan, right?
They're turned aside after Satan.
What were they doing?
Being toddlers and busybodies, criticizing the leadership, criticizing yours truly.
And what happened?
Well, we found out about it, and we dealt with it, and they were thrown out of there,
excommunicated out of the church.
Why is that?
Nothing but bitterness was coming out of that person's mouth.
You know, bitter towards things that happened in the past, with their spouse, with other
people.
And you know what?
Every single person that we've told about this person being thrown out, they're like,
oh, man, I'm so glad about that.
That person just was like overwhelming me so much.
Like I'm, man, I knew that was going to happen because this person made me feel they were
just calming, nothing but negativity, criticizing the leadership, criticizing you, criticizing
their spouse, just toddlers and busybodies.
And you know what?
Churches are filled with people like that.
Churches are filled with people who are toddlers and busybodies when the conflict is not resolved.
You know, and by the way, I'm not saying that if you have an offense towards someone, just
take off the gloves and go, you know, fistfight in the back.
I mean, that's what people used to do back in my day.
But this is church.
We don't do that.
And he's like, all right, guys, you know, just, just, just, you got five minutes, right?
Three rounds.
Okay.
But you know what?
As believers, at least it's the same in the church.
We should have enough judgment to be able to resolve something with our brethren.
Okay.
That when there's conflict, we can go to them and resolve a specific conflict.
Because if not, then you have this cesspool of just bitterness, anger, wrath, and malice.
And that's not something that we want in our church.
Why?
Because we want to be a glorious church.
We want to be a church that's without spot, wrinkle, without blemishes.
We want to be brethren who dwell in unity.
I mean, how beautiful is it for brethren to dwell in unity?
How wonderful is it?
Why do you think people like to stick around in our church after church for the fellowship?
They stick around longer for church than for the preaching.
You know, they come over and they just hang out because it's a beautiful thing to dwell
in unity.
You just dwell with your brethren, you fellowship, you just have a great time.
And you know what?
Even though you're tired at the end of the night, you leave with your spirit just joyous.
Because you had some good fellowship with your brethren.
That's beautiful.
Amen?
But you know what?
It's not beautiful if you have conflict, if you leave bitter.
You know why certain churches, as soon as church ends, it's just like...
You laugh because you know what I'm talking about.
As soon as church ends, everyone's like, I'm out.
Because they don't want to be around you.
Not you, but they don't want to be around the people in the church.
You know what I mean?
Because they're bitter towards them.
They have conflict one with another.
You see what I'm saying?
Now tonight, no one's going to leave like immediately after church.
Like, I'm not doing that now.
But what I'm saying is that, you know, we need to make sure that we resolve things and
I don't want to get ahead of myself here.
Go to chapter 5.
And the Bible tells us in chapter 6 that the least esteemed in the church can resolve conflicts.
You don't have to have some PhD in the law, you know, to be able to resolve things.
You're a Bible-believing Christian.
You have the Word of God.
You have the Holy Spirit.
You have discernment.
Hey, hopefully you have some maturity about yourself.
And go deal with things man to man, woman to woman, okay?
Just deal with it.
First Corinthians chapter 5, what's another thing here?
Well, we're going to talk about specifically here in this portion of scripture is unrepentant
believers involved in sin.
And we know about this, but this is something that we need to kind of go over every once
in a while, okay?
Now in chapter 5, we have a very grievous sin that's taking place in the church, which
is fornication.
But it just so happens that Paul addresses this matter of fornication and he throws five
other sins that qualify for being thrown out, okay?
Look at verse number 1, it says, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you
and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have
his father's wife.
Now what do we see here?
Well, what's taking place from what we look at from the word that's being used, fornication,
his father's wife, what's taking place here is this man is committing fornication with
his stepmom.
Now because it's talking about fornication and not adultery, we can safely assume that
the father is dead.
Because at that point, that woman is loose from that covenant, according to Romans chapter
number 7, she's not an adulteress, okay?
And Paul's saying here that this is fornication and this is not appropriate here, okay?
Verse 2 says, and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done
this deed might be taken away from among you.
And what is he saying here?
He says, look, you're being proud, you're not grieving, you're not mourning, and the
person who has done this deed should be taken away from you.
He's not saying should be killed or anything like that.
He says should be taken away from among you, okay?
For verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though ever
present concerning him that hath so done this deed.
So Paul's saying here, look, I'm not even there and I know what you should do.
Now how do you know that Paul knows that?
Because of the fact that the Bible clearly teaches what fornication is.
You see, this is not an obscure subject.
So therefore, Paul doesn't have to be present to be able to judge it.
You know, subjects like divorce, subjects like remarriage, subjects like adultery, subjects
like fornication, you don't necessarily need to be present to be able to judge the situation,
we just already know what the Bible says about it.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 4, when ye are gathered together in my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So what is the Bible saying here?
That when you, when someone like that is taken away from among you, you excommunicate them,
the Bible refers to that as delivering them up unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
This is referring to someone who has not repented of that sin.
So they have not gotten their right, they want to continue in their fornication, therefore
you excommunicate them.
And the Bible says because that's bound here on earth, that's bound in heaven, God is going
to chastise that person and allow Satan to destroy that person's life.
Now what is the goal of that?
Well, the goal is that when Satan destroys their life, they repent.
They get right.
They say, man, this is stupid, I should get out of fornication, if not, I'm going to die.
And they come back, they repent, they get back into fellowship.
It says in verse six, your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, purge out therefore the old
leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is
sacrificed for us.
Let us keep, excuse me, excuse me, therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.
What is he saying here?
Don't allow this sin into the church.
Take it out, he says.
Purge it out.
Why?
Because if you don't purge it out, it's going to permeate the entire church.
If you make an exception for fornication, you're going to have to make an exception
for all other sins as well.
If you make an exception for adultery, you're going to make an exception for divorce.
If you make an exception for divorce, you're going to make an exception for remarriage.
If you make an exception for drunkenness, you will make an exception for people who
smoke pot.
Okay?
Why?
Because a little leavened, leavened at the whole lump.
You're basically tolerating sin and you're not just going to be able to tolerate that
one sin, you're going to permeate the church with all kinds of sin, okay?
It goes on to say, I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters,
for then must he needs go out of the world.
But now I have written unto you not to keep company.
If any man that is called a brother, this is referring to if someone is a Christian,
be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or railer or drunkard or an extortioner was
such in one known not to eat.
Now what do we don't understand about that?
It says don't keep company with them.
What does that mean?
Like not keep company.
Okay.
Don't even eat with them.
I mean, that's pretty, well, does that mean I can't go to magic mountain with them or
something?
Well, look, if it says don't keep company with them and don't even eat with them, that's
probably in that list as well.
In other words, don't be around them.
Verse 12, for what have I to do to judge them that are, excuse me, for what have I to do
to judge them also that are without, do not he judge them that are within, but them that
are without God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
How is this possible if we have this universal church, you know, this universal church doctrine
that says we're all the church.
Well then first Corinthians five is completely invalid then.
How do we put them away?
Because as soon as we kick them out, it's like, ah, joke's on you.
I'm still in the church.
I'm still part of the church, buddy.
You can't kick me out.
But here's the thing.
If you have local churches, that's very much possible.
Okay.
How are you going to deliver them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh if it's a
universal church?
Are you saying Satan's in the church or something or what?
But if you have local New Testament churches, this is very much possible.
And it gives us a list of sins that qualify someone for being excommunicated.
It says fornication, covetousness, idolatry, railing, drunkenness, and extortion.
Pretty simple.
We're all sinners, okay?
We all make mistakes, but for whatever reason, God chose these to say, hey, this is not appropriate
for the church.
You can't allow someone to be in there.
And look, you could look at this and basically assume that some of the sins that are not
labeled are still implied here, like adultery.
You know, someone's committing physical adultery, well, you know, it says fornication, doesn't
say adultery.
It's okay.
I understand that they're not the same thing, but guess what?
Adultery is actually worse.
That's right.
Amen.
All right.
And because it's worse, therefore, it will fall into this category as well.
Just use some common sense.
Okay.
But the Bible says here that we're supposed to put away from among ourselves that wicked
person.
Now, again, we're not on this trigger-happy agenda just to kick people out for these things.
You know, it grieves me when I have to kick someone out of our church for these reasons.
It grieves me when someone doesn't repent.
But you know what?
We need to make sure that we don't lean onto our own understanding and our own emotions,
that we just adhere to what God says.
And look, within the last, even the last two years of our church's existence, we've had
to do these things.
And you know what?
It's no reason, in my opinion, why God is blessing our church.
Obviously, you know, the soul winning has been great, but you know, our church has been
growing a lot.
And thank God for that.
And I believe it's God bringing the increase.
But you know why He's bringing the increase?
Because I believe He thinks that we are a glorious church that's without spot, wrinkle,
we're not perfect, but we're doing our best to adhere to what the biblical principles
are in regards to this.
Go to Romans chapter 16.
You know, and our own understanding says this, man, but you know, I love them, and they just
need to grow a little more and try to get it right.
And here's the thing, like, I used to believe that too, okay, that was that was my way of
thinking.
You know, it's like, we just got to disciple them, you know, teach them.
And really, this is what that means, okay, is that you don't have the gall to go confront
them, you just kind of hope that they catch it on their own.
That's basically what that means.
So you might have, I had the best intentions, I didn't want people to be involved in fornication,
or any of these sins, but we would hope that they would just catch it from the preaching.
And look, thankfully, some people did.
Some people who were involved in fornication that I knew in times past, they got married,
they got it right, at my old church, and you know, they corrected it, or they stopped drinking
or whatever it is.
But you know what, still, that's not the appropriate way to deal with it.
You know, I know things are rather caught than taught.
But the Bible says here that we ought to teach this.
So they need to catch what we're teaching when it comes to this.
And it's my responsibility, as the leader here, to approach people who are involved
in this and just plainly tell them, hey, you can't be involved in this, here are the ramifications
if you do, if you choose not to repent, etc.
Look at Romans 16 verse 17, it says, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause
divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them.
So one sin or a list of sins that can get you kicked out of the church is the sins that
we see in First Corinthians chapter five, but also heresy can get you booted out of
the church, okay?
It says here that these heretics are those who are causing divisions and offenses contrary
to the doctrine.
So it's not like you can't believe differently than us as a church or as me as an individual.
It's this is that, first of all, if you believe in damnable heresy, you're going to get kicked
out.
Okay.
And look, if you're sincere, then you will not deny when we show you the clear scriptures
from the Bible.
Because someone who's sincere in the Lord who really wants to learn will not because
at that point you become subverted, the Bible says you're subverting the Word of God.
But someone who's sincere will adhere to what the Bible is saying.
Now here's the problem, though, is when you have people who believe differently on something,
and what do they do?
They try to go to people in our church to try to teach this doctrine.
They don't even come to me.
That's problem number one.
When you go to people in our church, you know what I mean?
But for some reason, you don't see fit to come talk to me.
Why is that?
Why is it that you feel yourself comfortable talking to other people about these doctrines,
but you don't actually come to talk to the leader about it?
You see, if you weren't afraid about this doctrine, or you're not afraid that it's potentially
heresy, then why wouldn't you want to come talk to me about it?
Why not have a discussion about it, you know?
And this is primarily the reason why Eric Ballesteros was thrown out of our church.
That flaming heretic, who I believe is a stinking reprobate, okay?
He's a devil, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Claiming that the oneness people are saved and angry because we, oh, you guys are so
mean to Adam Fanon.
Well, go join his church.
There's enough trash to go around to go into that church.
That's a big trash bin.
And if you feel so sorry for him, why don't you move out there and join that church then?
You know, and I know people don't like that type of language, but you know what?
It's Bible.
God considers reprobates trash, and especially people look, oh, you know, you're just too
harsh on Eric.
By the way, no one said that in our church, okay?
Lest anyone think that I did, or that someone did.
You know, this guy, he believes something vastly different than us.
He believes that you can just stop believing in salvation, period, and still be saved.
He believes that you can believe in a different Jesus and still be saved.
You know, so according to his standard, the Mormons are saved, the Jehovah's Witnesses
are saved, the Catholics are saved, because they all have a different Jesus.
And then what does he do?
Does he come to me and talk to me about it?
No.
What does he do?
He puts up this hour and 16 minute boring video about this heresy as he's indirectly
criticizing me in the video, and then he comes in, did you watch the video?
You have no stones.
Yeah.
Why don't you have the stones to come talk to me about it face to face, and say, I have
this issue with this church, and you, you know, why don't we just go ahead and talk
about this and deal with it right at the end of the day?
Why do you have to make a video first, and then send me the video and say, hey, did you
watch it?
You're a weakling.
By the way, this guy has the gall, right, he says, oh, you have a, you have a hand-me-down
church.
That's what he tells me.
You have this hand-me-down church from Pastor Steven Anderson.
But here's the thing.
Yeah, it is a hand-me-down church, because we're a satellite church.
But you know what's funny about that is that that heretic was a part of this hand-me-down
church.
He said amen during the hand-me-down preaching.
He gave money to, in the play at this hand-me-down church.
He fellowshiped with hand-me-down people.
And all of a sudden, you're a hand-me-down church.
You know, there's a word for a person like you, it's called a hypocrite.
You know, someone who is here for months on end, disagrees with everything, by the way,
doesn't just disagree with me, disagrees with all of you.
Because we dwell in unity when it comes to these doctrines.
So therefore, he disagrees with you as well.
You know, you're a hand-me-down church.
No, you're a hypocrite.
So people like that are not tolerated.
You know, oh, you should be more patient with them.
We need to understand that certain people need patience, but certain people need a nine
and a half foot out of the church.
Why?
Because we need to be a glorious church.
And those people like that are spots in your feast of charity.
Okay.
Now, and it says here, mark them which cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which you have learned and avoid them.
So if the Bible is telling us to kick these people out, it's also telling us to avoid
them.
What does that mean?
Don't fellowship with them.
You know, and look, there's people who have left our church because of that whole situation.
You know, that's on them.
And you know what?
I'm glad that they left because of the fact that if they're harboring any anger towards
me because of what I've done, then they probably should go somewhere else.
Because if you're here and you disagree with the decisions that we make with me as a leader,
you know, you probably should go somewhere else.
That's what's weird about Eric, is that he hated me and he disagreed with me, yet he
sat through hours of preaching.
There's something weird.
There's something wrong about you if you do that.
Okay.
Divisions.
You said, what does it mean to mark them?
What does it mean to grab a Sharpie and just go say heretic on their forehead?
I wish that were so.
Mark them in context of Romans 16, the beginning of Romans 16 from verses one all the way to
verses 16, he's calling out a lot of people for the good things.
He's like, these are fellow laborers.
These guys are good.
This person helped me and he's naming them by their name.
He's calling them out by name.
This person's a blessing.
This person helped me.
So if he says mark them in verse 17, marking them means call them out by name.
You know, that's why we named them Eric Ballesteros.
So you know who we're talking about.
Go to Titus chapter three.
Heretics will not be tolerated because of the fact that they bring in their leaven,
they bring in damnable heresy.
Second Peter chapter two tells us that there shall be false teachers, a false prophet.
There were false prophets also among the brethren, even as there should be false teachers among
you who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies, even the nine, the Lord God that
bought them.
So what is the agenda of a false teacher to privately bring in damnable heresies?
That is a very grievous sin in the eyes of God.
This is something that only reprobates and haters of God will do.
Okay.
Look at Titus three verse nine, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain.
A man that is inherited after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that
is such is subverted and sin is being condemned of himself.
You see, we don't get into arguments.
We just say one admonition, two admonition rejected.
Oh, but that person just wants to argue with me.
We don't argue.
You know why?
Because we're right.
It's just how it is.
Why would I argue with someone who I know is wrong and I know that I'm right.
Oh, you're so proud.
No, the only reason I know I'm right is because I'm reading what the Bible says.
It's something very clear.
So therefore that person has subverted, hasn't subverted me, subverted the word of God.
Okay.
Go to first Timothy chapter one, first Timothy chapter one.
And this is something that we got to constantly work out on week in, week out, year in, year
out trying those who say our apostles and are not making sure that we keep heretics
out of the church.
And look, we don't go on a witch hunt here taking here, you know, but here's the thing.
The Bible tells us that God is faithful and he will make manifest the folly of the these
infiltrators.
Their folly shall be made manifest.
The problem is, look, other churches have infiltrators.
People who don't practice church discipline, they have infiltrators as well.
And God makes manifest their folly.
The thing is the pastors don't do anything about it.
They just like leave them there like, oh wow, that guy believes different.
You know, he's a, he seems to be a part of that Jesus only movement.
One is modalism or whatever, but hey, you know, he says he loves God and you know, he's
faithful to church and he gives that tithe, you know, they can stay.
You know, God says that he will make manifest the folly of these people.
So when it happens, we just deal with it right away.
Okay.
Look at 1 Timothy 1 18 it says, this charge I committed to thee son Timothy, according
to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare
holding faith in a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have
made shipwreck of whom is Hamaneus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they
may learn not to blaspheme.
Now, if I were to guess just based upon comparing scripture with scripture, it potentially could
be that Hamaneus and Alexander are saved because he's delivering them unto Satan.
But here's the thing, regardless if they're saved or not, he's delivering them unto Satan.
So both people who are unsaved or who are heretics and those who are saved and are booted
out of the church for these reasons, they're still delivered unto Satan.
Okay.
That they may learn not to blaspheme.
I'm going to skip a couple of things here because I need to get into my next point here.
Go back to Matthew 18, if you would.
So what are the things that will get you excommunicated out of the church?
Well, the sins that we see in 1 Corinthians chapter five.
What else?
Heresy.
Damned-able heresy.
Now look, if you believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, you're not going to get kicked out.
Okay.
Now you say, so I can believe in the pre-trib rapture and be here?
Yes, of course.
You know?
But here's the thing, I'm going to preach on it.
You know what I mean?
It's going to be preached against and I'm going to preach for the post-trib pre-wrath
position.
Right.
Because that's not only my position, that I strongly believe that that's what the Bible
teaches.
Amen.
I believe it's very clear.
Okay.
But here's the thing, someone who is sincere and really wants to know the truth, I sincerely
believe that when the evidence is presented, they'll adhere to it.
Okay.
And you know, someone who doesn't, will do one of two things, they'll just keep their
mouth shut and just say, you know what, this is obviously a post-trib church.
I'm just not going to say anything about the pre-trib rapture.
And that's fine.
They'll just say, you know, they like maybe our soul winning or they like the preaching,
the fellowship.
And that's great.
That's okay.
They can still stay.
Right.
And I think the problem is when they start criticizing the leader, right.
And by the way, what if they don't criticize me, but they start criticizing Pastor Anderson,
you know, he's the leader.
He's still the pastor of this church.
I'm just, I'm the pastor who stands in, in his absence, which is the majority of the
time.
Right.
And ultimately in a couple of months, we're going to go independent, but he's still the
pastor.
So if that person's criticizing him, that at that point we were going to come down on
that person because of the fact that if we've taught on it, and then you are criticizing
the leadership, then why are you even here?
See, that's the weird thing is when they stay here in spite of disagreeing and being vocal
about their disagreements, that's when the problem arises.
Because if a person just believes in the pre-tribulation rapture, let's say they believe that the Jews
are God's chosen people.
Let's say they believe they don't believe in the reprobate doctrine.
If they just want to believe that, right.
But they just want to stay in church.
They enjoy the fellowship and they're like, you know what, I don't want any conflict with
that.
I just won't say anything about it.
That's perfectly fine.
We'll probably get people like that in the future and don't come down on them if they
don't believe.
They say, yeah, I disagree with that, but you know, Hey, I love this church though.
And you know, I believe in the right salvation and I love the soul winning.
I love how it's family integrated.
That's okay.
The difference is when they know where we stand and they begin to criticize the leadership
because of that position or try to subvert people like, Hey, he's wrong about that.
That's wrong.
You know, after the tribulation, that's a stupid movie marching the Zion, that's a song
in the hymn book.
That's not a doctrine, you know, and you start doing that, then at that point it becomes
a problem because at that point you're not going to leadership.
Now that person comes to me and says, Hey, I disagree with you on this.
Can we talk about it?
I'm like, yeah, let's talk about it.
And at the end, if we agree to disagree, that's fine.
And if the person's wise, they just won't mention it.
You know, but here's the thing, anybody, again, anybody who's sincere, who's sincerely looking
for the truth, they can't deny what we clearly teach.
And I think we all agree that when we go over these doctrines, we go over a lot of scriptures
to the point where it's just, it's undeniable.
Okay.
Now let's talk about unrepentant believers who have trespassed against their brothers
because that's another reason that can get you kicked out.
Even a safe person.
Okay.
And this is where we started off in Matthew 18 is referring to a brother who trespasses
against their brother.
What does that mean?
They offend them.
Now look, offenses will come.
What does that mean?
Someone's going to offend you.
You shouldn't be shocked when that happens.
Oh man, people are going to offend me in this church?
Yeah, they're going to offend you in this church.
It's going to happen.
You know?
Some offenses, if the offense comes from the pulpit, I'm not repenting of that.
I've had people get offended because I preach on fags and stuff like that.
I've literally had people get up and walk out.
One time I was preaching on the Jews and I wasn't even like preaching like super hard
on the Jews.
Like I preach very hard on the Jews in times past.
This one was just like a same, just, I don't know, I was just kind.
I was just stating the facts with a smile on my face or something and the person just
like got up and walked out.
You know, I'm not going to repent of that because it's just in the Bible.
We're talking about offenses that like you offend each other because of reasons outside
of the Bible.
Okay.
Relational reasons, comments that were made, business situations that didn't turn out right.
These are offenses that are worthy to be addressed and taken care of.
And if they're not, then the leader has to get involved.
And if the person does not repent after the leader gets involved, then the leader has
to go before the church and excommunicate that person before the church.
Look at verse 15, it says, Moreover, if thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell
him his fault between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother.
Now look, that is the goal.
Gaining your brother.
What does that mean to gain your brother?
It means you've reconciled that situation.
You've shaken hands and there's no conflict between one another.
Okay.
That's the goal there.
Our goal should be to dwell in unity.
Our goal should be to gain a brother and say, man, I'm so glad that's over with, you know,
and just get right with each other and say, all right, man, I'm glad that's taken care
of.
We got that out in the open and we could be friends again.
Let's go have a Coke together.
Let's go eat or just hang out.
That's the goal.
And the goal should be that when someone trespasses against you, do not harbor it.
You just sit in church and you're just steaming inside.
You need to go to your brother and look, there's a reason why the Bible uses terms like brother
and sister because it's a family, right?
And as family, we should have such openness that we can just go to each other and say,
look, I'm going to be honest, you offended me when you say that I was fat.
I'm doing my best to lose weight and you just come up to me and just, you say that I'm overweight
and I'm obese and you know, I already know that I don't need you to come tell me that.
And John's like, I'm really sorry about that.
It's the truth.
But he's just like, Hey, I didn't know I, and look, sometimes people just don't know
that they offend you based upon their personality or just made a flippant statement.
They just don't know.
That's why these guidelines are created here.
So if John offends me, I go to him and say, Hey, you offended me.
And John says, I'm really sorry about that.
I even know.
I apologize for that.
And I repent.
Okay.
Now let me show you what repentance is not.
I'm sorry about that.
But I told you the truth though, you know, you are fat, so, you know, that's not necessarily
repentance.
You know, this is the, this is like the whole situation with the person we just throw throughout
where they literally said, well, I'm sorry if you got offended, but I'd do it again.
Their exact words.
I do it again.
And I do it all the time.
That's like the opposite of repentance.
Repentance means you have like, there's some sorrow there that you hurt your brother because
they're your brother.
So if someone offends you and look, this is what happened amongst ladies, ladies, listen
up because ladies can easily get offended too, you know, and they can harbor bitterness
towards other ladies in our church.
That ought not to be, if that takes place, go to your sister and just get it right.
Say, Hey, you offended me.
You know, you said I was too skinny or whatever, and you made this comment and you said that
my hair was not beautiful that one day and I worked so hard on it or whatever, you know,
I'm just creating an example.
I don't know what ladies freak out about.
Okay.
You said my food at the Pollock was horrible and I slaved over it or whatever, you know,
just apologize.
Look what is it worth justifying yourself?
What is it worth you coming out saying that you're right rather than just be like, I mean,
think about this.
Isn't your relationship with your brother more important than that?
It's far more important to just gain your brother.
You know, it's better to just look, it says, just allow yourself to be defrauded and say,
you know, I think maybe I, I'm pretty sure I was right.
Not saying this vocally, but you can think within yourself, you know, maybe I think I
was right, but you know what?
This isn't worth my relationship with my brother.
I rather take the wrong and say, yeah, I was wrong.
I'm sorry about that, brother.
You know, will you forgive me?
That shows a lot of maturity.
And by the way, what do we want in this church?
We want mature people.
God wants a mature Christian to be able to resolve conflict, not to harbor bitterness,
not to harbor anger.
So on and so forth.
Look what it goes on.
So you go to your brother.
You tell him first his fault verse 16, but if you will not hear thee, then take with
thee one or two more than in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be
established.
Now this can be done with me.
So John offends Eric.
He says, Eric, your piano playing sucks.
Okay.
And Eric's like, man, I practiced so much.
And like this guy just went on and said, and he goes to him, he goes, Hey, I don't appreciate
you saying that my piano playing sucks.
And he says, well, you know, stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Cause that's what I think.
And he's like, man.
So he goes and he grabs Paul and he grabs hike and he goes and he's like, Hey, you know,
John offended me saying that my piano player, my piano playing is just terrible.
You know?
And it offended me.
So obviously the brethren know that that's an offense they approached on and then hike
and Paul tell him, Hey, you offended Eric in this area.
You should get this right.
That's wrong for you to say something like that.
You understand that Eric works really hard at his piano playing and you know, he's a
blessing to our church.
You shouldn't say things like that.
Okay.
And John says, it sucks.
It's terrible.
And you guys are all wrong.
And I'm not repenting of it.
I've heard way better, you know, and he's just being obstinate about it.
Okay.
At that time you bring it up to me and I approach, we can approach him as well.
Or I just take it before the church and say, John, you offended Eric and saying that his
piano playing is bad.
You offended him and you have not decided to get it right.
You know, either you repent now or you're going to be executed out of the, get it out
of the church.
Now obviously that's a silly example, but that's basically how it works.
And if he's like, no, I'm not, then we say, okay.
I say from this pulpit that John is excommunicated out of the church because he has offended
our brother in Christ.
He's not desired to get it.
He has not gotten it right.
He's not repented of it.
Therefore, John, you need to get out, you know, and John has to get out.
And by the way, if he refuses to leave, he's like, I'm not leaving.
Then at that point we got to get physical and actually take him physically, take him
and take him out, grab him and take him out.
Now we want to avoid that because I like John, I'm just kidding.
We want to avoid that with anybody, okay.
Look at verse 17, and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.
So obviously this is, this involves the church leadership, okay.
But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
So let that sink in your ears.
So let's say, let's not use John as an example because that's, I know that's a silly one.
Let's say for example, a heretic, okay.
And he does not want to get it right.
Or even a person who's a fornicator or extortion or whatever it may be.
If after he's been publicly rebuked, I mean, this is a pretty obstinate person.
If you think about it, when you publicly rebuke that person and the church is in agreement
and he's just like, no, that's an obstinate person.
That's not a humble person.
The Bible says that he should be unto us as a heathen man and as a publican.
What does heathen mean?
Don't tell me.
Unsaved.
Unbeliever.
And hold on a sec, but I thought he was saved.
Yeah, but the Bible says, let him be unto thee as a heathen.
What does that mean?
You treat that person like an unbeliever.
You say, you know, I don't know if you're saved or not.
You actually could question their salvation at that point.
He said, I don't know if he's saved or not, but you know what?
We're going to treat you like one and you're not welcomed here because you have not gotten
it right with your brother.
Okay.
And that's what the Bible says.
There's no way around this.
It's very clear.
Now, look, if you're in here today and 10 years from now you're in this situation, don't
let it get to the point where you become a heathen man and a publican.
Just humble yourself and get it right.
It says verily, I say to you whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say to you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they
shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father, which is in heaven for two or three
are gathered together in my name.
There am I in the midst of them.
You know, it's interesting.
We like to use that for a lot of things, right prayer, but this is actually referring to
kicking people out of the church.
So if I can, I agree, even if I can, I agree, but if the church and I agree that this person
should not be in the church, God says, I'm for it.
I agree with you and I back you up in that decision is bound in earth, but it's also
bound in heaven as well.
That means God is going to honor that judgment.
Now how will he honor that judgment?
Well, first of all, by blessing our church, by getting the leaven out, but also by delivering
that person into Satan, by allowing that person to be destroyed.
Now let me see here, go to second Corinthians chapter seven.
This is an uncomfortable thing for churches to do today.
You don't see this done a lot.
I will say this in my old church, there was a form of church discipline that was done.
It wasn't done to the extent that we do it, but it was done.
I specifically remember people being involved in fornication and I remember my father-in-law
coming up to the pulpit and saying, Hey, if this person sinned and, but he's repented.
So he, he would actually have them come up and he would apologize to the entire congregation
and say, you know what?
I did wrong.
I was involved in this sin and I dishonored my family and the church and I, and I'm sorry
about it, you know?
And he would get it right.
And then he was, he would be welcomed back into fellowship.
Now we don't do that.
You know, just simply for the fact that I don't give anyone an open platform just to
come up and just say they're, they're, they're whatever, they're two cents, but Hey, at least
that was done.
You know what I mean?
In regards to that.
But here's the thing, a lot of the reasons why people don't do this and why pastors don't
do this in churches is because they don't want to offend people, you know, and they're
afraid of losing their congregation.
They're afraid that people will be like, I can't be in this church.
They kick people out, you know?
But again, this is not your church.
This is God's church.
Now we often say this is my church, right?
But at the end of the day, this is God's church and we, we are stewards of this church.
We're stewards of this ministry and rightfully so we need to make sure that we are adhering
to the principles that we see in the Bible and not be a respecter of people.
Sometimes people don't get kicked out because they have a lot of money.
People who are worthy to get kicked out are not being thrown out.
You know why?
Even though they're involved in some sin or they've created some offense, because of the
fact that they're rolling in the dough, they got a lot of money and you know what?
The pastor doesn't want to kick that person out because of the fact that they're dishing
out all the money inside the plate.
They're helping the building program or whatever it may be, you know?
Well you're respect their people at that point.
I don't care how much money you have because my, my God has more money than you.
He owns a cattle on 1000 Hill.
He can make money appear out of nothing if you wanted to, you know?
And we need to have faith that God will always take care of our church no matter how the
culture or how other churches think, how radical this concept is.
Where do I have you turn?
Okay so I was going to say a lot about the casting people out, but I think that's pretty
self-explanatory there.
Now what do I mean by being repentant?
So this is the last point I want to give you.
Well, you know, how, how can people repent and come back?
So if someone is involved in fornication or in these types of sins, what do they do in
order to come back?
I will say this, you know, heretics are never welcomed back, never.
You know, Eric Ballesteros is never welcome to come to our church.
I don't care how much repentance he shows, he's such a liar, he's injurious.
You know, he's such a two-faced, bold-faced liar that even if he said he repented, I would
not believe him.
Because heretics can be trusted, they're liars, okay?
So if someone who believes Danville heresy is thrown out, they're never welcomed back.
Now someone who's involved in the sins of Matthew 18 of the offense or even in the sins
of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, they can repent and come back.
Now look what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 8, it says, for though I made you
sorry with the letter, I do not repent, though I did repent, for I perceive that the same
epistle has made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance.
For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us to nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the
world worketh death.
Now in context of what we see here, he's actually talking to the church at Corinth, not to an
individual.
This is not referring to the person who was involved in the sin of fornication in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5.
This is now actually addressing the church at Corinth.
Why is that?
Because in 2 Corinthians, you have the church at Corinth, they have already excommunicated
that person out of the church.
So what's the problem?
Well, the problem is this person repented, but they still were not welcoming him, welcoming
him back into the fold.
So he's saying here, hey, you guys repented, and that's great because you threw him out
of the church.
Okay.
And he says, but the sorrow of the world worketh death, for behold the self-saving thing that
ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves,
yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what behemoth desire, yea what zeal, yea what revenge
in all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
And he's referring to the fact that they're allowing that fornicator to stay in church.
Okay.
And then obviously later on, he's talking about, hey, welcome them, you should welcome
them back.
You know, he's repented, he's gotten it right.
But we see here that a godly sorrow has some of these elements here.
So if a person is committing fornication and they come back and they say, hey man, I'm
really sorry about that.
You know, I was doing that stuff, you know, I just want to see if I can come back to church.
You know, I don't really consider that a genuine repentance, because if they're just kind of
flipping about it, I don't consider that genuine repentance.
But if a person comes and says, hey, you know, you're right, I'm really sorry about that,
I really want to come back to church, and I'm really sorry about what I did, it was
wrong, it was sinful, and you know what, can I come back?
You know, obviously you can discern if someone's being repentant in that manner.
Okay.
But wait, in like manner, if you've offended someone, there should be some genuine repentance
when you ask for forgiveness.
It's not like, yeah, I guess, you know, yeah, I guess I'm sorry, whatever, you know, that's
not genuine repentance.
You're just doing it just to go through the motions.
There should be some, if you genuinely love your brother, you should heard that you heard
that person.
Right?
I don't care how hard you are, or how much of a man you are, you know, as Christians,
we should love our brethren, and the Bible says that we should have fervent charity towards
one another.
You know what fervent charity does?
It recognizes I've hurt my brother.
We need to get that right.
And I'm so sorry that I offended you in that manner, will you please forgive me, and just
move on after that.
Okay.
Now go to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
By the way, later on in Matthew 18, you know, Jesus Christ shares the parable, right?
And he talks about the parable, and he uses that as an illustration to show, you know,
this guy was forgiven of so much, and yet someone else wronged him, and he wasn't willing
to forgive that person for that debt that he owed him.
You know, we should never have that attitude towards our brethren.
Look at Ephesians 4 verse 31.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from
you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even
as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.
So what should be our attitude towards our brother?
We just forgive them.
Be tenderhearted.
In other words, you put the offense behind you.
You know, I often say this, and I mean it, sometimes, you know, we need thick skin, okay?
We need to make sure that we're not sensitive people, that we have thick skin.
By the way, that does not mean that you're not offended, because we can still get offended.
Thick skin is being able to put it behind you once it's dealt with, and you don't just
keep bringing it up afterwards.
You know, you just keep rubbing it in that person's face.
You just keep bringing it up and bringing it up.
At that point, you haven't forgiven, if you keep bringing it up, because the purpose of
forgiving someone is just to say, hey, I'm sorry, can we move on?
Let's be friends again, and let's not bring it up anymore.
But a person who says, well, I forgive you, but then they just keep bringing it up is
not someone who's forgiven.
Now, obviously, you understand, you know, we forgive, but it's hard to forget at times.
But we need to make sure that we do our due diligence to try to forget as much as possible.
And this is how you can forget.
Just stop thinking about it.
Go think about something else.
You know, don't be idle.
Don't think about it.
Just occupy your mind with other things.
Think on things that we see in Philippians, right?
That which is just, holy, true, lovely, okay?
We need to make sure we think upon those things so we're not just harboring bitterness towards
that person, okay?
So what's the message today?
It's simply this, is that, you know, our church believes in church discipline.
We believe it is biblical to excommunicate people out of the church.
We've done it before.
We will continue to do it as the situations arise.
This is not the goal.
Now, look, I look forward to kicking heretics out of the church.
I do not sorrow at all when that happens.
I'm not heavy of heart when I have to throw people who are heretics out of the church.
That's like, man, we should like have ice cream every time we do that, amen?
That's like breaking record attendance.
That's great because I don't love heretics, you know?
But I do grieve if we have to throw out a brother who's involved in sin.
And my hope would be that they wouldn't allow it to get that far, you know, that they would
just get it right.
But we need to do this.
Why?
Because we want to be a glorious church without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish.
Fire heads and have a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you for your word, and thank you for the guidelines that you've placed within
your word to show us, to teach us to be a glorious church, Lord.
And I really do pray that we are a church that glorifies you, that honors you, that
you would be pleased with us.
And I sincerely want that from the bottom of my heart, Lord.
I want you to bless our church.
But I want to be a church here in the Los Angeles area that is pleasing unto you.
And I'm not perfect.
I make mistakes, and our church members make mistakes.
But help us to be consistent in our adherence to these principles that we find here, to
excommunicate certain people out of the church when needed, from the sins of First Corinthians
chapter five, or even an offense that takes place, according to Matthew 18.
And help us not to stick our head in the sand, but to understand and see that these things
are going to happen.
Heritage will come into the church.
And when they come, we're not to, our eyes should not pity when people like that are
dealt with swiftly.
I pray, God, that you continue to help us to do so.
Help us to be a church that glorifies you until the second coming of Christ.
And I pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.