in a matter of 12 hours.
So we're a little bit longer.
So just get ready for some nice change of weather.
It's been so humid.
That's really the most annoying thing of the heat this time.
It just feels like we're, you know,
where Marcel is from in the Philippines.
Just like constantly just humid.
So, but that's Houston.
I wouldn't have any other way
'cause I'd rather not be done with all that snow
they're having up North.
So at least we don't have that.
But service times 10.30, Sunday evening, 4.30 PM.
Wednesday service 5.30.
And then our soul winning time is Sunday at 2.00 PM.
The week of the verses.
Philippians 1.15.
Some of the preach Christ even of envy and strive
and some also of goodwill.
And so I hope everybody had a good Christmas.
Got to spend time with the family, did some good eating.
And now you're on a diet weight loss plan
'cause you ate too much, right?
Baptisms, we've had one for the year
and we're at 276 souls won for the year.
So we've got 24 to go to hit that 300.
Let's see if we can do it between now and Wednesday.
So whoever wants to chime in and help out with that,
just reach out to me, we'll figure something out.
And then I still need to add more activities,
but February 8th, we've got Pastor Dylan Oz
of Anchor Baptist Church coming to preach for us,
both services.
Pastor Bruce McHale will be here sometime in March.
And then we've got some other events that I will add here
as the days go on.
And then on the back, we have our prayer list.
So just go ahead, I mean, our prayer request,
just go ahead and keep praying for those individuals.
If there is a prayer that I need to add or remove,
just let me know.
I'm pretty, I try to stay on it, is what I'm trying to say.
So are there any announcements?
Anybody, anything I missed, Pastor Cobb?
Well, so the, I didn't have all the details,
but thank you.
January 12th, let me write that down.
That's right.
Before Pastor Oz coming in, he wanted,
he texted me that he wanted to come in one day early
and take his daughter over to NASA.
And so I figured we could do something as a group.
So we looked into it.
And so we can look into, we'll get you guys details,
but the church can take care of getting you guys there.
The only thing you guys would need to take care of
is getting there and parking.
But I think everything else we can handle.
So let us know, 'cause we do need a minimum number
for that group discount.
We need a minimum of 20 for the group discount.
It shouldn't really be an issue.
If he's here, our family, that's already seven.
If we just have one more family, that's already,
you know, what is it, 12?
Just three families and we're golden.
But if you guys will let me know, that'll make it easier.
If we have to adjust, we'll make that announcement then.
I think that'd be really cool to just go and fellowship.
We'll do some fellowship in that day.
And then of course he'll come and preach for us that Sunday.
So, I'm glad you reminded me of that.
And I just want to appreciate everybody
continuously helping out with picking up after themselves
and all that good stuff that we've been saying.
But January 12th is Sister Millie's surgery,
so just pray for that.
That's just around the corner.
So, that's always nerve wracking.
If we need to do anything, pastor, let me know
so we can take care of that.
I know she talks to you more
as you go and get your haircut regularly there.
All right, if nothing else,
let's turn our handles just one page over to 271.
Turn our handles over to page 274.
Be in First Corinthians five.
First Corinthians five,
Brother Matt will read First Corinthians five for us.
- Corinthians chapter five.
First Corinthians chapter five.
Corinthians chapter five, verse one.
Bible reads, "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; and ye are puffed up,
"and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done
"this deed might be taken away from among you.
"For I barely as absent in body, but present in spirit,
"have judged already, as though I were present,
"concerning him that hath done so this deed.
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
"when ye are gathered together, and my spirit,
"with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
"to deliver such a one unto Satan
"for the destruction of the flesh,
"that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
"Your glorying is not good.
"Know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the old 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.
"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.
"I wrote unto you in 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 ye needs go out of the world.
"But now I have written unto you not to keep company
"with any man that is called a brother be a fornicator,
"or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer,
"or a drunkard, or an extortioner,
"with such a one know not to eat.
"But what have I to do to judge them also that are without?
"Do not ye judge them that are within,
"but them that are without, God judge them.
"Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
"Let us bow our heads and go to the Lord in prayer."
Father, thank you for gathering us here this morning.
Thank you for all that you've done for us.
Thank you for this wonderful life you've given us.
Lord, thank you for this church.
Thank you for your word.
Lord, we pray that you soften our hearts
and give us ears to hear.
And Lord, please fill Pastor Reyes with your Holy Spirit
so that he may preach the message with boldness
and clarity from your pulpit.
That's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- Corinthians 5, thank you, Brother Matt and Kymar here.
As you can see, it's a very short chapter,
but it's a very important chapter.
Let me just get my, the title of the message this afternoon,
or this morning, sorry, this afternoon.
I'm already, I'm already at the end of the day.
The title of the message this morning
is put away from among yourselves.
Let's take it from that last verse there.
Put away from among yourselves.
And I'm dealing specifically with the topic
of church discipline today.
It's not something that I've addressed.
So a little bit over a year ago,
we had an uptick in church membership.
We went from, we literally doubled in size
from one weekend to the next.
And so a lot of the things that I just take for granted,
I realized that maybe I haven't touched on or preached on.
And now that it's been a little bit over a year,
I've dealt with a lot of, I always told my wife,
I was like, the problem with the small,
the great thing about a small church is the small church,
but the problem with the small church is that,
it's a small church, right?
And then the great thing about a big church
is it's a big church.
You get more people, you're doing more things,
but with that comes also more people.
And so the problem with the big church
is that it's a big church.
And you say, that sounds like you just said the same thing.
It is, it's the same thing.
It just depends on if it's concave or convex.
We can look at it at a problem from the fact
that it's a problem or we can look at it as a challenge,
something that we need to address and overcome.
And so that's really the goal today is that,
especially over the last couple of weeks,
I had to deal with some individuals.
I'm not gonna rehash that.
I've already touched on those sermons.
I even dealt with that last week.
But that being said,
what happens when I have to deal with someone
or a group of people and I have to kick them out of church
or just wicked person?
And so a couple of things that I wanna address just before,
I've got a couple of points from you
about how we do church discipline.
What's interesting is that I don't know who knows what,
but we've been doing this,
I've been serving here over a decade
and we've always had a form of discipline.
Pastor Cobb, it's not necessarily had to be talked about
'cause we just weren't that big
and so there wasn't that many people
that would either question it or deal with it or move on.
But I figured this is a good time to just address it,
number one.
Number two, it's good to preach it
because that way if it comes up again,
I can just refer people to the sermon
and I don't have to repeat myself.
I might clarify in the future things that I learned,
but I'm definitely not going to repeat myself
a whole sermon like this, right?
But let's pay attention to a couple of verses there.
It says there in verse eight, it says,
"Therefore, let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of," what?
"Sincerity and truth."
And so that's the way I'm coming at you today, right?
My goal is to be sincere and truthful
about the matter of how I deal with people in the church, right?
And then in verse 11, you know, if you look at verse 10,
he says, "Yet not altogether with fornicators of this world
or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters,
for then much he needs go out of the world."
He's saying, "Hey, I told you not to keep company
with this class of people."
But then in verse 11, he says, "But now,
I have written unto you to keep, not to keep company,
if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator
or a covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard
or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat."
So it says, hey, not only did I tell you not to keep company
with these people when they're removed from the church,
but because you guys weren't getting it,
let me make the list even stricter, right?
And so this is a really important doctrine
because it also just applies to human psychology, right?
In the sense that I remember being in business
and I remember my business mentor would always say,
the people that you surround yourself with
and the books you read will determine the individual
you become in the next five years, right?
And from a church perspective,
who we surround ourselves with
and what we're basing our sincerity and truth from
will determine the direction,
not only of yourself spiritually, but of the church, right?
And so this is really what I'm trying to address today,
right? The modern church today, they want what?
They want peace, but they don't want purity.
And what do I mean by purity?
In order to purify something, you have to purge it,
you have to call it out, you have to talk about it.
They don't want any of that.
They want unity, but they don't want any truth.
That's all, just get along, just don't preach on my sin,
don't step on my toes, you know, don't, none of that, right?
They want fellowship without holiness.
But this type of action,
when you've got to deal with someone in the church
or someone's in the church,
this is the type that requires rebuke, right?
So from mainly from the pulpit,
when I'm preaching at the congregation,
my goal is to reprove, right?
Or, you know, admonish,
meaning I'm trying to hold you accountable
like I would hold my kids, right?
I'm not gonna throw my kids in jail or feed them with,
sometimes I joke with them and my son makes that joke with me
but sometimes I'm like, they make me so mad.
I'm like, I'm just gonna throw you in a room
with some bread and water of affliction
and they'll just look at me, you know, like,
of course, I'm just being,
I'm taking the Bible way out of context there, right?
I'm just being exaggerated.
But that's not my goal here either.
It's not like, I'm not trying to whip you
or put you down or get you to leave all mopey and sad.
I'm trying to build you up, right?
We're edifying each other.
But there's times specifically when I preach
about a specific subject of the world or an attack
or anything that that requires rebuke and rebuke is harsh.
You know, in Jude, the Bible says that the angel Michael
would not bring a railing accusation against the devil.
Rather, he said, God, you rebuke him, right?
So who does, you know, rebuke is a strong word
and in the railing,
it's not something to be taken lightly either, right?
And so these are the things that I wanna address, right?
Like church discipline, doctrine, broken fellowship, right?
The goal of the sermon is to clearly lay out
and I rarely write notes,
but I wanna make sure this came out correctly
because I do get tongue-tied and I speak very fast, right?
But the goal of the sermon is to clearly lay out
how our church will continue
because this is what we've done anyways.
I've always followed this model
or to the best of my abilities, I've learned it.
It's just that I don't always publicly voice it, right?
There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes
that even the people who know
don't always know what's going on, right?
There's a lot of things that I'm dealing with
that I'm not gonna necessarily just dump on you.
Number one, 'cause it would become gossip,
and number two, 'cause that's not your role.
Just like you're not dumping all your problems on me
because I don't live with you
and deal with you and all that stuff.
Everybody's got their own set of things, right?
And so how we will continue to handle church discipline,
the difference is that there was not a sermon
on the subject, right?
So therefore, if I preach this and it pricks you
or feels like it's about you,
number one, it is probably about you, if you feel that way,
'cause that's the easiest way to address anything.
Anytime you feel like a sermon is about you,
it probably is about you.
Even if I don't think, even if I'm not thinking
that was the reason for preaching the sermon,
that's just the way God works, right?
But if you're guilty of this, just move on.
I'm not addressing anything specifically.
There's specifics that triggered it,
but I'm not addressing anything specifically.
But in the future, after the sermon,
I just wanna lay it out so that if I need
to address anything, then I know how to deal
with that discipline, right?
In addition, in the past, I've heard stuff
about membership and all that stuff,
and I've never really addressed it
like the way when I took over.
For me, first of all, as a pastor of this church,
I determined church membership, right, for the church.
So now you can feel differently about the subject,
and that's fine, but that doesn't mean that you're right.
That just means that you feel differently about it, right?
I can disagree with God.
That doesn't mean that I'm right.
I mean, just God's right, right?
And on the subject of this, if you show up three times
in a row or you're showing up, you're a church member.
That's it, right?
Whether you think you are or you're not,
that's the way that I look at it.
And so I'll like it or lump it.
That's the way I'm gonna address it.
That's the way I'm gonna deal with it.
Most of the people here, you guys have showed up
way more than that.
You are all considered church members.
I'm talking to the congregation, not some newbies.
I'm looking out, I don't see any newbies here.
So, right, and then the last thing I wanna address
is that when I'm talking, 'cause I do really hate
bringing sermons like the one I brought against, you know,
JAA or against the guys that were kicked out.
It's not my cup of tea.
Personally, that's not the way that I am.
I do like a good fight, but I prefer to have a fight
against like the enemies of God
versus someone that's just become an enemy, right?
But it's not a pissing match.
It is really church discipline, right?
A pissing match, and I hate to get a little crass here,
but when I was five, six years old,
and I first moved to the United States,
they put me in ESL, English as a second language.
That's my first few years of school.
We would get half in Spanish, half in English,
and I don't know why I'm telling you all that,
'cause just the point I'm getting to is they threw,
I guess it was just a bunch of crazy kids.
ESL is not necessarily like you're gifted and talented.
They dump in even the kids
that don't necessarily speak Spanish,
but they basically dump in all the bad kids,
or they used to in my day.
I don't know if that's the case anymore.
That's how it was in my day.
And it was a mix of English as a second language
and basically all the dumb kids that were ordinary
that the other teachers didn't want,
they would dump them with us.
So when we got recess, like these 15 minute,
30 minute breaks, we would go
and everybody goes gets their water in the restroom
and all the kids, and this is why I'm saying it's not lewd,
'cause we were five, six, seven, eight.
We literally go to the restroom.
I remember this like it's today,
and you'd sit and who remembers the trough for the men?
There was no urinals, there was trough,
and all the kids would get there
and literally would have a pissing match
to see who could pee across the trough.
We're not, we're five, six years old.
There's nothing, the cool thing for us is a boy is like,
let me see how far I can pee.
And we'd sit there and just,
now that I think about it, I'm like, no wonder boys like,
they say how do boys survive life and pee in general?
We do all the dumb things.
The things that we would think is cool
at five or six years old is how far can I pee
across this trough?
You get a five or six year old girl and she's like,
how can I make this little dollhouse look pretty?
In the meantime, it's like, where's our son?
I don't know, he's peeing out there somewhere
and seeing how far he can pee, right?
But that's what a pissing match,
that's where we get that term, right?
It's a pissing match, it's to see who's the best.
But I'm not trying to, if you think you're better than me,
be my guest.
The Bible says to esteem others better than yourself.
When I bring something from the pulpit,
it's because I'm looking at it from God's word
and what God's instructed me to do, right?
In 1 Timothy 5, if you want to turn there,
1 Timothy 5, right there in verse 17,
the Bible says, "Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
For the scripture saith,
thou shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,
and the laborer is worthy of his reward.
Against an elder, received not an accusation,
but before two or three witnesses,
them that sin, rebuke before all,
that others also may fear.
So the reason that I did such a harsh rebuke
is because the Bible instructs me,
hey, do it publicly so that others may fear,
so that others know that, hey, this is not some place
where you can just be lazy-daisical,
lala-gagging around with doctrines.
You're either in or you're out.
Now, does that mean you have to agree with me on everything?
Absolutely not.
But if it's a core doctrine,
you better agree with our church doctrine.
Otherwise, why are you even here?
If you don't agree with our core doctrine of salvation,
I don't want you here.
I mean, if you ever work salvation,
go work somewhere else and then go to hell, right?
I mean, we preach it hard enough.
These are the things.
But for example, if you think Melchizedek is a king
and he's not Jesus or he's Jesus, he's not a king,
I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you, right?
Or you're pre-trib and I'm post-trib.
I mean, I'll preach post-trib all day long,
but if you wanna be pre-trib, be my guest.
You know, do what you wanna do.
And then right there,
this is commonly used in verse 18
to talk about paying the pastor, right?
Right there it says,
"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn."
And that is a correct application.
But also the way that I read this is,
hey, it's not your duty to also try to just shut me up
because you don't like something,
because you don't like what I'm preaching, right?
You're not supposed to hold me back
or encourage me to hold back.
My encouragement from you guys should be,
hey, we need to deal with this stuff
and we need to keep the church pure.
That's the way that I read that, right?
And the labor is worthy of his reward.
Now, why 1 Corinthians 5?
1 Corinthians 5 is the famous chapter
and it literally is the 13 verses
dealing with church discipline.
But the Church of Corinth had a lot of problems.
So it's not just like this one random chapter.
It's like a buildup of issues, right?
I'm gonna give you just this very brief overview
of 1 Corinthians so that you see
that Paul is not just going out on a whim.
He's building up before and after,
and he's literally addressing this
from a biblical perspective, right?
The main theme of 1 Corinthians,
or one of the main themes, there's a lot, right,
that you can draw from,
but it's the correcting carnal Christianity
by calling the church back to what, to Christ.
So it's centered on holiness, on love, on order.
We have to have rules and order in church.
And actually, it deals with the rules and order
of our church that don't even apply,
they're outside of even the purview
of the laws of the government.
And we'll touch on that, right?
We function under God's law, not man's law, right?
Now, that being said, I'm not here to,
you know, we're not like an entity
where I'm gonna tax you, that's not what it is.
I'm just saying spiritually,
there's certain laws that we have to abide by.
In chapter one, you know, Paul's talking about
that Christ is over Christ.
He's talking about not having carnal division, right?
Paul rebukes divisions in the church
and reminds him of salvation and rest
and Christ crucified, not in personalities.
You don't have, you can turn there if you want.
I'm gonna give you one verse
that really stood out to me of each one.
Wisdom or status says, "Now I beseech you brethren,"
in verse one, chapter one, verse 10, it says,
"By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
that ye all speak the same thing
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that ye be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and in the same judgment."
By the way, this is a corporal unity,
not an individual unity.
How you deal with your family on biblical
and spiritual issues is outside of the church.
That's your choice.
Men, I'm looking at you.
How you lead your family in Christ,
that's your responsibility, not mine.
Mine is just to preach the word of God,
hopefully give you the ammunition so when you go home,
you know, and you're dealing with these issues,
you know how to deal with them from a biblical perspective.
Chapter two is Paul's talking about spiritual truth
that requires spiritual, what, discernment.
God's wisdom is revealed by the spirit,
not by human intellect.
Natural men cannot receive spiritual things.
The Bible says in verse four, it says,
"In my speech and my preaching was not
"with enticing words of man's wisdom,
"but in demonstration of the spirit and power
"that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
"but in the power of God."
You know, he's building up and he's telling them,
"Hey, I'm not telling you this out of my own thoughts.
"Today I'm not preaching to you."
And all the time I shouldn't be preaching,
but specifically today I'm not preaching
to you my own thoughts.
These are not things that I came up with, right?
In verse 11 of that same chapter, it says,
"For what man knoweth the things of man,
"save the spirit of man, which is in him,
"even so the things of God knoweth no man,
"but the spirit of God.
"Now we have received not the spirit of the world,
"but the spirit which is of God,
"that we might know the things
"that are freely given to us of God,
"which things also we speak,
"not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
"but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
"comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
"But the natural man receiveth not the things
"of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him,
"neither can he know them,
"because they are spiritually discerned."
Now what's interesting is we use this verse
when we're talking about soul winners
and people that are lost.
Meaning, hey, the lost person can't understand
the things of God until they get saved.
But when Paul's dealing with the Church of Corinth,
he's making the assumption
there's a lot of saved people there.
Meaning that when you become a backslidden Christian,
you know what you're acting like?
The natural man.
And so there are times that a Christian can fall back
and not understand the Word of God
because they're not in the Word of God.
They're not activating the spirit.
They're living for the lust of the eyes
and the lust of the flesh, right?
In chapter three,
he's talking about carnality exposed in God's building, right?
The church is God's building and God's temple.
There's carnality, there's strife, there's pride,
there's immaturity, there's judgment.
In verse 17 of that same chapter says,
"If any man defile the temple of God,
him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
And he's building up to the fact
that we are all members of one church,
but we're one body.
But each member will suffer its own demise,
its own discipline,
but it'll also affect the church itself.
Chapter four, we need to be stewards of God's word,
not celebrities, right?
In chapter, there's several chapters in 1 Corinthians
where they're arguing, "Are we of Apollos
or are we of Paul?"
And what he's saying is,
"No, we're all of Jesus Christ, right?
The ministers are servants and stewards of God,
so he rebukes their pride."
And he shows the examples of suffering.
In verse 6, he says, "And these things, brethren,
I have in a figure transferred to myself
and to Apollos for your sakes,
that ye might learn in us not to think of men
above that which is written,
that no one of you be puffed up one against another."
In other words, why is there strife?
Because one's prideful and the other one's,
everybody's puffed up against itself.
Chapter 5, we see, we already saw this,
but the one that I wanted to focus on for this
is obviously there's gross immorality
and the church is just turning a blind eye.
And we cannot turn a blind eye to specifically some sins.
I mean, we can't turn a blind eye to any sin,
but there's sins that will actually affect the body itself.
And here, we know that basically there's adultery
and fornication going on.
It says, "But now I bring you not to keep company
of any man that is called a brother fornicator
or covetous or an adulterer, a raider, a drunkard,
or extortioner with such in one know not eat."
So it gives a very specific list
because of course we're all sinners.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, right?
In chapter six, it actually is dealing with lawsuits.
And you know, they're going to,
they're actually suing each other.
The Bible says, you know,
we shouldn't even sue each other, right?
It says in verse 12 of chapter six,
"All things are lawful unto me,
but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under the power of any."
So not just because it's allowed,
doesn't mean you do it, right?
You don't just have to act on every whim of desire
or of your feelings.
In chapter seven, when he's dealing about marriage
and singleness and contentment, it's a long chapter,
but in verse 18 he says,
"Is any man called being circumcised?
Let him not become uncircumcised.
Is any man called in uncircumcision?
Let him not become circumcised."
Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing,
but the keeping of the commandments of God.
Meaning, hey, stop arguing over stupid stuff, right?
And so if I'm picking a fight,
it should be a righteous fight, not something dumb, right?
If you disagree with me, for example,
I know we have people here that are,
we're all homeschoolers, we're all freethinkers, we all,
I know what I mean by, I know there's hybrids, right?
But we're all, I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you,
oh, you're here two days a week, we only homeschool,
or hey, you're on a scheduled vaccine schedule,
we don't vaccinate, or hey, you only eat organic food
and we eat inorganic food, you know, that's not,
those are, that's what it's talking about right there.
Like, we need to just be like, that's not,
that doesn't do anything.
But hey, if you're not sowing and raising your family
in the fear and ammunition of the Lord,
and if you're not going to church,
if you're not reading your Bible,
and you're just turning a blind eye to things,
those are the things we address.
Chapter eight, like I said,
I'm going through this quickly.
The points that I have are from 1 Corinthians 13,
those are just to drive the point home.
This is really the crux of the matter, right?
In chapter eight, he's dealing with
the fact that knowledge without love destroys.
He says, but take heed in verse nine,
lest by any means this liberty of yours
become a stumbling block to them that are weak.
He says, hey, take heed and bring your liberty
under subjection unless you're gonna be
a stumbling block to others.
Says, I don't want you leading people the wrong direction
'cause people will follow you, especially if you're a leader.
And if you lead them the wrong way,
they're gonna see that as an excuse to do the same thing.
Chapter nine, there's a right there in verse nine,
it says, for it is written in the law of Moses,
thou shalt not muscle the mouth of the ox
treadeth out the corn, doth God take care,
doth God take care for oxen.
And I really believe this
because he's talking about the law of Moses.
That's why I know this application is correct.
So I'm about, hey, don't shut up the people
that are preaching correctly.
Not just the preacher.
Hey, if someone brings an issue, you know,
one of the biggest challenges in America today,
also in churches, is that the preacher's not willing
to listen to truth from the congregation.
It doesn't just go one way or the other.
Like sometimes that's why you got all these people
coming out years later saying, hey, I went to the pastor
and I went to the deacons and I went to the leadership
and I was abused and I was taken advantage of
and nobody listened to me because they would muscle,
you know, the truth.
That's not the goal here.
The goal is to preach truth.
Now that being said, we are going to use discernment.
We're not going to just jump to conclusions,
but we should definitely listen and apply these things correctly.
Chapter 10, he warns of their failures.
In verse 23, he says, "All things are lawful for me,
but all things are not expedient.
All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not."
And notice he uses a lot of the same language.
He's basically, he's very repetitive in chapter,
I mean, in 1 Corinthians.
In 1 Corinthians 11, about the Lord's Supper
and about men having short hair and women having long hair.
In verse 1, he says, "Be ye followers of me,
even as I also am of Christ.
Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things
and keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you.
But I would have you know," and I want you to pay,
this is a really important set of scripture.
He says, "Hey, be ye followers of me."
So I'm asking you as the pastor of this church
to be followers of me as I follow Christ.
But then he says in verse 3,
"But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ
and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God."
Now pay attention here,
especially because we have this Trinitarian thing.
But the head of Christ is God, so that's easy.
But this has really stood out to me.
The head of every man is Christ.
Because you wonder like we say,
well the man is the leader of the home,
the man leads in the church,
but the head of every man,
every man in here and in the world,
I didn't say saved or unsaved,
I just said the head of every man is Christ.
All men will have to answer to Jesus Christ
for taking the things of God serious
or for looking at them like it's just another walk in the park.
Right, this is a serious thing
and I want to tie this together with Ephesians 5.
You know, we know the famous verses, verse 23 says,
"For the husband is the head of the wife."
And it says even as Christ is the head of the church
and he is the savior of the body,
therefore the church is subject to Christ.
So let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.
So Christ is the head of the church, right?
But Christ is also the head of every man.
So God, I mean, Jesus Christ rules here and it lines up, right?
Because women should keep silence in the church.
We don't allow women preachers.
But hey, men have a huge responsibility, especially in the church.
That's why when I make decisions like the ones I've made in the last couple weeks,
it's not taken lightly.
First of all, I'm not an island.
I'm not just making decisions all willy-nilly.
There's leadership in this church that I deal with.
I have certain men that I can count on that I call and I'm like,
"Hey, what do you think about what I'm going to..."
Especially, I know myself.
I do these things specifically because I am jump the gun.
And I have a high emotional and a high reaction.
I want to make decisions quickly.
And sometimes I know that I need to be able to hold your horses,
make sure that you're actually addressing this properly, right?
And so chapter 12, verse 12 says,
"For as the body is one and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body being many,
are one body, so also is Christ."
Hey, all of you affect, positively or negatively,
the growth and the prosperity of our church.
Chapter 13, we know the famous verse, it's all about love,
but I like the verse 11, it says,
"When I was a child, I spake as a child,
I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
Hey, you want to have love, you better grow up.
As a matter of fact, the whole theme right there is charity is maturity.
If you think you love someone, then you're mature.
If you're not mature, then you don't know what love is, period.
Chapter 14, edification, verse 3 says,
"But he that prophesies speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and to comfort."
And then verse 33 says, "For God is not the author of confusion,
but of peace as in all churches of the saints."
Hey, sometimes you got to get rid of people
because they're going to cause confusion, right?
When someone is railing on the leadership,
what does that do?
It causes confusion.
It causes doubt to creep in.
Is the person that we think that we,
the reason we showed up or we trust or the integrity,
they start to, you know,
put a little bit of doubt or weakness in that integrity.
Verse 15, talking about the resurrection.
Verse 19, "In this life only we have hope in Christ.
We are of all men most miserable."
And so guys, the head of every man is Christ.
This is coming from my Christ-centered position.
And then the last one, 16, when he's talking about final exhortations.
Verse 9, he says, "For a great door and a factual is opened unto me,
and there are many adversaries."
Hey, what's the whole purpose of just constantly dealing with all these issues?
He says, "Hey, you guys have a great opportunity to be great.
You're going to do some great soul-winning.
You're going to grow. You're going to do this.
But you know what? Because you're doing this.
Because I've opened up this great ineffectual door.
There's many adversaries."
The attacks are going to continue.
So this actually is a very appropriate sermon
because as long as we continue pushing,
and I'm not slowing down for any reason.
If you're coming with us, we're going.
So you're either coming with,
and this boat's going to get slings and arrows and shots
and stumbling blocks and spikes.
People are going to attack in different forms of different ways.
We need to know that when we make decisions
from a biblical standpoint, why are we doing that, right?
Those are the things that we're focusing on.
So let's go to the points.
Like I said, I've got that was half the sermon is just this intro.
And then the other half, it's really quick.
I've just got some points for you.
Point number one is from 1 Corinthians 5.
Let's go to verse 12.
Sin and heresy must be judged inside the church, right?
It's not for the world to decide, church fathers, some book.
Look, our church is based on the Bible and I'm not the authority.
God is the authority.
Christ is the authority.
If you don't like it, take it up with Jesus.
I'm just the messenger.
Now, you can shoot me because the Bible says you're going to hate me anyways.
But just remember, you shoot me.
It's not like the message is going to change.
The message is the message.
And I'm not talking about that crap version of the Bible called the message.
I'm just talking about the message that Jesus Christ has given us, right?
Does not rebuke Corinth for knowing about the sin.
He rebukes them for what?
For tolerating the sin.
Hey, when someone gets kicked out of this church,
it is your duty in obedience to Christ
to not have any fellowship with those people outside of the church.
It's not me telling you, it's Christ telling you.
I want to make that super clear
because 1 Corinthians is super clear about that.
He says in verse 12, "For what have I to do to judge them?
Also, they're without.
Do not ye judge them that are within?
But them that are without, God judgeth,
therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person."
Hey, and when someone gets kicked out,
it's because they're considered wicked.
I don't care how nice they might look, how nice they might dress,
how sweet their wife or husband might have been or their children.
That's wicked, right?
As a matter of fact, I won't even read it,
but even after I preached the sermon I preached last night,
without any prompting of my own, I got another text.
And I finally blocked this individual.
And in that, in there, he railed on me
and said other choice words about me.
I don't really care.
I'm just saying, I know that what I did was correct
based on the Bible, but not only that,
it's your duty to remove that excrement from your life.
That dung, right?
John 7, go to John 7 and verse 16, the Bible says,
"Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not mine,
but his that sent me.'"
Even Jesus said, "Hey, my doctrine is not mine,
but his that sent me.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.
He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory,
but he that seeketh his glory that send him.
The same is true and no unrighteousness is in him.
Did not Moses give you the law?
And yet none of you keepeth the law.
Why go ye about to kill me?
The people answered and said, "Thou hast a devil.
Who goeth about to kill thee?"
Jesus answered and said unto them,
"I have done one work, and ye all marvel."
Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision,
not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers.
And ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man,
if any man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision,
that the law of Moses should be not broken.
Are ye angry at me because I made a man every wit hole on the Sabbath day?
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
And this is powerful because Jesus is like saying,
"Look, you guys are so worried about the law.
I made someone better because it wasn't according to the way you thought.
You're not following, but let me tell you what."
He says, "Actually, it's better than what you would have done
because I'm not following the law of Moses.
I'm following the law of God."
Romans 16 verse 17, the Bible says, "Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them."
It's not just mark, it's mark and avoid.
"For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ
but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple."
Hey, I've already given you all that proof.
"For your obedience has come abroad unto all men.
I am glad therefore on your behalf.
But yet I would have you wise unto that which is good
and simple, concerning, evil."
And I want you to pay attention to verse 18.
It says, "Such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ."
Right?
So I don't care if they're saved or unsaved.
Look, an unsaved person is not going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if they're reprobate, we need to kick them out.
But if they're saved and they're not serving the Lord Jesus Christ
and they meet those criteria, you need to kick them out
because they're just going to detract from the issue.
Galatians 1 verse 6 says, "I marvel that you're so soon removed from
Him that called you to the grace of Christ unto another gospel,
which is not another, but that there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you,
let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now, if any man
preach another gospel unto you, that ye have received, let him be accursed."
That's twice. "For I do not persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men.
For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Hey, you say, and by gospel, it's not just the good news of the death, burial,
resurrection, gospel just means the good news, the whole Bible is the good news,
the whole thing. A church that refuses to judge false doctrine or any of the other issues has
already judged truth unnecessarily, like they're just dropping the ball. I'm not perfect, I'm
definitely going to drop the ball, but if I'm aware, I'm not going to drop the ball, right?
Point number two, false doctrine breaks fellowship. It doesn't matter what happens
anyways, it's going to break fellowship anyways. So why would you want to continue in that kind of
fellowship, right? It's not about a personal conflict or being nice, you know, believe me,
and I'm going to say this, this is probably not going to sound nice, but let's just be really
truthful today. Believe me, I have personal conflicts with members of this church. And what
I mean by that is I have things that I don't agree with you guys that you do. Let me just,
let me lay it out. You know what? I'm also not so dumb to think that you guys don't have personal
conflicts with me and my family and my kids. It's just the nature of life. That being said,
we're called to love and esteem each other better than ourselves. That's why you'll never hear me,
or God willing, you won't unless, I mean, I'm human, but I don't think that I've done that.
I'm not just going around telling you what I think or what bothers me of you, because it doesn't
matter, right? That's not the issue. Now, if you say something stupid about doctrine, believe me,
I will address it, right? If you get up here and you're like, "Oh, you know, we need to let queers
in because it's just so nice," and other churches are doing it, I'll be like, "You know what? Let me
show you the Bible verses, and if you don't agree, then maybe this is not the church for you." But,
you know, if you're doing something that I don't necessarily agree with because you do different
with your family, it doesn't matter, because every family is different. You know what? I guarantee
you guys are looking, I just stopped even thinking about that, because I have three kids,
my kids run around, you know, they do all kinds of stupid stuff. I guarantee you guys go home,
and I don't want you to tell me, I just know that's a fact, right? We all have that in us,
like every family does that, and they're like, "Oh, did you see the pastor's kids today? I can't
believe that they..." Whatever, you know, it's life. All families, so I just, let's just lay it out.
That's not what I'm talking about, right? This is about the doctrine of Christ and His Word.
Go to 1st Timothy 6, but I'll read for you real quick, 2nd John 1, and verse 9 says, "Whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the
doctrine of Christ, he hath both..." Now it's interesting that I can even continue to drive
this point home on the doctrine of the Trinity without even talking about it says, "He hath both
the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him
not into your house, neither bid him God's speed, for he that bidded him God's speed is a partaker
of his evil deeds." Hey, it's not even your duty. You know these people that say, "Oh well I invited
the Mormons into my house or the Jehovah's Witnesses in here." You're wrong. And people get mad at me.
I've had people get mad at me because when Jehovah's Witnesses show up to my house, I'm like,
"You need to get out of here. You're going to hell. You're from the pit of hell. You serve the
devil. You serve Lucifer. Get out of here. You wicked, evil, and adulterous individual. Now."
That's the way I deal with Jehovah's Witnesses coming to my house. As a matter of fact,
one time they came over and the neighbor was looking. I was like, "Oops, the neighbor saw me."
But that's what has to happen. That's what the Bible says. Hey, don't bid him God's speed.
I don't want to be a partaker of their evil deeds. 1 Timothy 6 verse 1 says, "Let as many
servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of
God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters." Hey, if you have a
believing leadership, "Let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them
service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach
and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the wholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud
knowing nothing but doting about questions and stripes of words. Whereof cometh envy, strife,
railings, evil surmises, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth,
supposing that gain is godliness. From such, withdraw thyself." Notice it's individual. Hey,
you need to remove yourself from those individuals. Masters is leaders, right? Bosses,
leadership. Who would be masters in modern vernacular today? Your boss. The boss is a
master. He's the one that has the master control over your hours and your salary and your time.
Your husbands, fathers, right? Children, it's not just the dad, it's mom. I've been dealing with
that with my little one. She'll come and tell on her mom on me. And I'm like, "Let me just remind
you, mama's got as much authority as daddy." As a matter of fact, when daddy's not around,
you might as well just take it as gospel, that if mama says something, daddy's got her back.
Because you know what I won't do? I won't undermine my wife's position. Now, if I disagree with her,
we'll deal with it privately and we'll get on the same page. And I'll set that thing straight,
but I'm not going to do that for my children. They know. I'm like, "Hey, when daddy's gone,
what does mom's voice sound like?" Like daddy's voice. In church, you have the pastor, but you
also have, we have deacons. Here at the church, we're small enough, we don't have deacons,
but hey, we have guys that are in leadership. I've already pointed those guys out. You shouldn't
despise that type of leadership. So why would you maintain friendship with not only the Trinity
deniers, anybody else who's around? You know what? If you're maintaining a relationship with anybody
who's been removed from the church, it's spiritual treason. And you know, in the United States,
treason is still punishable by death. And you know what? Spiritual treason is the same.
I'm not going to kill you. Let me just make that clear, because people love to take us out of
context. Nor will I ask anybody to kill you. The Lord can take you out. The Lord can punish you
seriously for these things. In 1 Corinthians 11, which is still dealing with the church,
he says, "Hey, don't even do the Lord's Supper incorrectly, because if you get the wrong lump,
you could make those people sick and weak and even what? Sleep." Which is talking about death.
This is a serious issue. I've got a couple more points for you. And we're done here.
Point number three, heretics, they're supposed to be rejected. Look, church is not a rehab program.
We're not a rehabilitation program. Here, you're called to learn. If you need to be rehabbed into
some weird doctrine, you need to be coddled, you need to be babied so you're not a victim of
your own stupidity, go somewhere else, right? Here, I don't expect you to be at the same level
that I am. I know everybody's at a different level, but I expect you to listen and apply the
things that you're learning, and if you're not, it's going to become evident over time, right?
God does not command us to endlessly dialogue with heretics, right? "Oh, let's just hash this thing
out. Let's talk it out." No. If you've been admonished, move on. Titus 3.10, go to 2 Timothy,
but in Titus 3, the Bible says, "For this is a faithful saying," verse 8, sorry, "and these
things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works." Pay attention, hey, if you believed in God, you should be careful
to maintain good works. Two things, number one, that's how you know salvation is by faith alone,
because the only way to maintain good works is that you've believed in God and now you
should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men,
but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law,
for they are unprofitable in vain. A man that is in heretic after the first and the second
admonition reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself.
Hey, you already know that he already condemned himself, so don't worry about it. It's not my
problem. You know why I like 1 Corinthians 5 and church discipline also? Because first of all,
it's a very specific list. And second of all, it doesn't make everything in your life my problem.
Or the church's problem. You know, it's not the church's problem that people are homeless and
don't have a job and are lazy and don't have food and don't have this. Now, it is the church's job
to help a brother out. And I'm not talking like slang, but I am, I guess, help a brother out,
right? If you're in the church, hey, and you need a handout as a church member and we work it out,
that's different. We can make that decision internally, but I'm not going to help some bum
off the street. You know, I get these calls all the time, hey, are you church? You know, how often
do you guys give out food and clothes? We don't. Oh, thank you, click. Easy way, easy. They get all
offended too, like I'm some bad guy, like I'm supposed to just like kowtow to every one of
their needs. That's not the goal. Go to 2 Timothy 2, sorry, verse 14. It says, "If these things put
them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit,
but to the subverting of the hearers." In other words, to get them distracted. It says, "Study
to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase
unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker." And then he names people, he says,
"Of who Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying the resurrection
is past already and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of
Christ depart from iniquity. Hey, hey, remove that. He says, hey, don't hang out with Hymenus and
Philetus. Those are bad dudes. But they're real nice to me. I like them. I don't care. Look,
you're either serving the Lord Jesus Christ or you're serving your own self. There's a lot of
people I like that I don't hang out with anymore because God says, hey, these are not people to
hang out with anymore. A couple years back, nobody even knows this. This is just something that just
came to mind. A couple guys that were friends, it didn't even happen here, but basically this
guy started railing on Pastor Anderson, he's the pastor of another church. And for a long time,
if when I say this, you'll know who it is. For those of you that follow, if you don't, that's
fine. And I was buying this natural soap from this guy. And I was like, this guy's a railer,
like this guy's wicked, like he's just bad guy. I'm going to follow Lord Jesus Christ. So I had
to find another natural soap supplier and it was really hard. Like I spent some time looking for
something and now I found another supplier. It's not this guy because I don't want to be associated
with people like that if I can avoid it, right? 2nd Peter 2 verse 1, the Bible says,
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them
and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways,
by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." Proverbs 22 verse 10 says,
"Cast out the scorner and contention shall go out, yea, strive and reproach shall cease."
Hey, you cast them out and you know what? It's going to cease. As a matter of fact,
that's why I like the little marketing tool we have, because there's a thing called DND.
Do not disturb. And it gives the, by the way, you guys can do that. I hope you don't,
but you guys can do that. I'm very transparent, right? If you don't want to receive something,
if you press stop, I mean, if you type stop, it automatically toggles something and it won't
allow text to go to you anymore. But I can do the same. If there's people that I don't like
that are calling the church or texting the church, I just click that DND and they don't have to think
about it anymore. And it's not just this individual. This is the most recent one. I use that a lot.
There's been a lot of weird people that call the church. I'm just like, DND, do not disturb.
I don't want to hear it. Right? Because the Bible never instructs pastors to keep the heretics comfortable.
It's not my duty to keep you comfortable, right? What it instructs me to do is to preach the word,
and if there's heretics, to put them out. Point number four. I got two more points
and we're done. So I'm actually on time. I'm looking here. Let me make sure. Yeah.
Is what? Leaven. Is leavening the lump, right? And biblically, that spiritual application is
we don't want to leaven the lump. It's going to ruin it, is what it basically comes down to, right?
Paul warns about this. If it goes unchecked, it multiplies, is what that it means. The leaven,
what does that leaven do? It has the yeast grow, right? A leavened bread is flatbread.
Leavened bread is, it has, you know, it grows, it multiplies. Well, that's what happens if you let
that happen in church, right? We would just look like a big bloated piece of bread that looks really
good, it might even taste good, but man, you eat it and a few hours later you're just regretting it.
Who's ever eaten a ton of bread just because, you know, it tasted really good? And then, you know,
like, you know, it's like an hour later and you're like, oh man, what did I do? But you eat crackers,
what do people feed people when they're sick to their stomach? Crackers and water, because it's
on leaven, right? It's just, it's easy to digest. 1st Corinthians 5 there in verse 6 it says,
"Your glorying is not good, know ye not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump,
purge out there for the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ
as our Passover is sacrificed for us." And then verse 8 says, "Therefore let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of what? Sincerity and truth." That's the goal, right? We need to be sincere, we need to be
truthful. Hebrews 12 verse 15 says, "Look diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness bringing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be fornicators
or profane persons as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." Hey, don't take this
lightly, right? Hey, brother Matt, can I have that candy? Only if you give me this beautiful word.
Oh, here you go. No, I'm not going to just compromise on the word of God. Well, you know,
the new IFB just reads better. I mean, sorry, the new IFB, the new international version, the NIV,
sorry, it's because I started with the new international version. Well, the new IFB does
read better in just in general. The people are better educated. So let's just let me make that
correction. But the new international version, the NASB, the message, those read horrible.
And they remove words like hell, they remove the virgin birth, they remove salvation by grace
through faith. I mean, there's a lot of things that you just remove from that, right? We're not
going to compromise on those things. We're not going to compromise on our birthright. Joshua 7,
verse 11, it says, "Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant,
which I have commanded them, for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen
and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of
Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies,
because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed
from among you." Now this is a bit like literal thing, but the spiritual application is the same.
Hey, we don't want any accursed things in us, in our church, in our mind, in general, right? We
need to purge the leaven, not manage it. And the last point I have for you is that separation truly
is an act of love and not of hatred, right? If you're saved and you meet these criteria,
I'm going to separate because I love you. Because God said, "Hey, you need to do that. If you're not
saved, you're just a reprobate." Then it works out too because I love the congregation. I love my
children. Look, you know what? I don't hang around with a bunch of queers because I don't want my
children to be affected. Not only what they could put in their mind, but also what they could
potentially do to them. You know, I had two queer uncles growing up, and all my life, all I ever
heard from them was, "Why do you even listen to your parents? Your dad's antiquated. Your mom's
antiquated. Just do whatever you want. You know, when you're 18 years old, you don't need to obey
your dad anymore." Luckily, I was deathly afraid of my dad. I was like, "You just don't know."
But I mean, this was just like a constant theme of their life because there was no separation.
The other day, I was talking about one of my extended family members to my wife, and I think
my kids, one of them was like, "Who is that?" I was like, "Don't worry about it. You're never
going to meet them. They're just family members that I grew up with that I will never expose you
to. And if you ever do get exposed by any chance, you know, it's family. You never know." I said,
"You'll know who they are. I'll point them out." And I love what my dad, my son said. He's like,
"Yeah, and I'll just tell them they're going straight to hell. Amen. Back you up. I'll be
right there with you telling them they're going straight to hell." 1 Corinthians 5 verse 5 says,
"To deliver such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the
day of the Lord Jesus Christ." Hey, look, that's my goal would be that you're actually saved if
you get kicked out, that you just come back, you can repent. But I also don't always know,
and it's just better to just deal with the leaven right away. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 10 says,
"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work,
neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some of you which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort
by the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren,
be not weary and well-doing. And if any obey not our word by this epistle, note that man,
and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed, yet count him not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother." Hey, there's going to be even church members that, you know,
and what he's talking about is that, hey, they're not willing to do the work of the Lord. They're
showing up to church, but they're just not even plugged in. And I'm not just talking about sowing.
I'm talking about just, sometimes people show up to church just to show up. Like, look, if you're
not even going to pay attention, if you're not even going to apply the things that you're hearing,
then you, as the other members, have the discernment to separate out of love, you know,
just remove that, right? Because what ends up happening is those people usually are busy
bodies. You ever notice that someone who doesn't have anything to do always wants to do with who?
With you, right? The person who has idle time always wants to do with you. Everybody has that
family member, right? Or a friend or somebody, "Hey, what are you doing?" "I'm real busy." "Oh,
man. Let's go hang out." "Well, I've got to work. I've got to, you know, just, I've got stuff to do."
"Oh, okay. Well, when you're done, call me." Right? And it's like over. And what is it? And so what
ends up happening is when you don't plug in though, it's not like they just gave up with you. They're
calling the next person, "Hey, what are you doing?" And then when they finally get through everybody
and everybody's busy, then what's the next step? "Hey, I know you're busy, but guess what I heard.
Got a couple of minutes, let me just tell you." So-and-so, no way. And then it becomes this,
right? Because people are just busy bodies just trying to find, because our nature is to be busy.
We need to do stuff, right? Ezekiel 33 verse 8 says, "When I say unto the wicked, 'A wicked man
thou shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn that wicked from his way, that wicked man shall
die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require thine hand.'" Hey, I don't want that blood on my
hand. I'm just going to warn you. Jude 1, 22 says, "And if some have compassion making a difference,
others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh."
Right? We need to warn people. We need to tell the truth. You know, true love is going to
warn, true love is going to separate, and true love is going to refuse to tell lies. Hey, where's
the best example of this if you don't want to have a biblical application, but you want to have a
carnal truth? Our children. That's why children, when they get to teenage years, sometimes they
think they hate their parents. They don't know what hate really is, but that's what they refer to it
is because the parent is not willing to compromise on the stupidity of the child. Well, my friend
said, "I don't care what your friend said. What you're about to do is about the dumbest thing
I've ever heard of, right? Daughter, don't do this son." Well, uncle so-and-so said, "Well,
I don't care what uncle so-and-so said. They're not your daddy." My mom said this constantly
throughout my entire teenage years growing up. She's like, "I don't care what those kids' parents
are doing. You're my child. And in this house, this is the way things are going to be. And if
we fought with my mom, well, then we'd have to deal with my dad." So most of the time we would
listen to my mom just because we didn't want to deal with dad, right? That's how it is in church.
Hey, technically, proverbially, I mean, I'm the spiritual leader. I don't want to say I'm a mom,
but I'm the lesser of the two. Christ is the preeminent one. You don't want to listen to me,
take it up with Christ. It'd be better to listen to me because it's a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of a living God, the Bible says. God put in protections so you don't have to deal
directly with them, especially when you're not spiritually ready. I don't even know if I'm
spiritually ready all the time. Thank God that I have the Bible to be like my governor so that I
don't, you know, God's speaking to me here so I don't have to just manifest in my life in some way
or some horrible punishment or something that happened. But if it happens, you know what,
we need to be grateful that the Lord's done it, right? So that's the goal, right? The conclusion,
that's why I gave you these points, is just that when the church, when we as a church do this,
and it is a church activity, when we decide, even though I'm the one delivering the news,
it's not just me saying it without running it by people, right? And the most clear example I have
right now is the Trinitarians, that's why I preach it, because these guys came in, and I didn't just
make it, as a matter of fact, I didn't even make a decision to kick them out, and then they continued
to be a pain in the butt, and Brother Matt talked to them, and I didn't ask them, they just, they
went to Brother Matt, and Brother Matt's like, "What's going on?" And then they went to Brother
Heath, and they're like, "I think maybe you were here, Joshua, that day or not," and they were just kind of, it's
not like, it's not like I just jumped to conclusions. Everybody was like, "What are these guys even
talking about?" Right? And then even after all that, I still pulled them into, you know, a section, and
I had a witness, and I said, "Hey, here's what we can do, here's how we can work with you. You guys
are young, you guys are dumb, read your Bibles. I guarantee you that in 10 years you won't even
think the way you think. Why don't you stick around, learn the things, keep your mouth shut,
keep your head down, do the work. No. Okay. Peace out. I mean, it's not like it was just like,
"Oh, you don't understand the Trinity? Ow!" It wasn't like that at all. Like, it's not like,
you know, there used to be this show in Spanish and every time that the, like, the contests would
mess up, everybody would be like, "Fuera! Fuera!" You know, they're kicking them out. It's not like
that, right? It's more like, "Hey, I love you. I want you to grow here. We love you. Hey, I want
some youth in the church, but not at the expense of stupidity and going against Jesus Christ."
Like, "We serve the Lord." God can replace three 23-year-olds with 20 23-year-olds. I believe it.
He's done it. I see it. So, it's there. So, let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
But, conclusion, put away from among yourselves. I hope that was clear, is that I will address
that personally with the men of this church. Whether it's, if it's the woman, I will never,
unless I need to, if there's no man, then I will address it with another lady.
But if we kick someone out and I hear that you're hanging out with them,
I will come at you and remind you of this servant, and then we will have a serious talk.
If not, don't worry about it. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for today.
Thank you for your opportunity to be here, Lord. Thank you for the First Corinthians 5.
Just thank you for the First Corinthians in general, because the Church of Corinth was
just struggling with what any church will struggle with. It's not like they were just
uniquely wicked. Wickedness is part of life. We're all sinners who have fallen short of
the glory of God, Lord. So teach us to discern and to be methodical and be sober and vigilant
in our minds so that we can come to biblical conclusions that are sincere and truthful,
Lord. And that's really the goal, right? Sincere and truthful. So Lord, help us to obey your
leadership and to follow you no matter what. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Let's turn our hymnals
over to page 499. Actually, can we do, I have to say it. Is it there? No. We can find it real
quick if not. Turn your hymnals over to page 566. This is more appropriate for the sermon. 566.