I was back to 1st Corinthians chapter 5, 1st Corinthians chapter 5,
and I'm really struggling with this humidity, what? It's 75% humidity.
I don't know how long it takes to get past it guys. I'm sorry,
but yeah, if you guys want to give me water, or just throw water at me, it'd be
good.
1st Corinthians chapter 5, the title of the sermon this morning,
I'm not taking it from any of the verses, but the title of the sermon this
morning is Church Discipline. Church Discipline. The reason I wanted
to call it that, rather than just a verse from the passage,
is so if you ever wanted to look up, what did Kevin teach about Church Discipline
again? You know, if we ever have to carry out
Church Discipline, we can go back and look at this chapter, go back to this
sermon, refresh our memories. And I think it's important, it's a very
important topic, because a lot of churches, when it comes to
Church Discipline, are very coy, very quiet about it. Okay,
they don't really open up to their members
about people being disciplined, or sometimes people leave the church and
it's all hush-hush and rumors start. I'd rather be an open and honest
church about what's going on. If there's ever a time where we actually
have to carry out Church Discipline and kick someone out of
the congregation, that everybody would be aware of that.
Okay, not because we all want to laugh that person to scorn or anything like
that, but it's so we know, hey this person needs prayers, this person needs
help, you know. And in light of what we're
going to read in this chapter, hopefully this gives you some insight
of how we ought to handle Church Discipline in the church.
And you know, we're also going through some of these sins. Let's have a look at
this very quickly in verse number 11.
So on Thursdays, not every Thursdays, but we're going through slowly, we're
going through this list of sins that will get you kicked out of church
and we're going to going into detail about these sins. We're going into
detail of what these sins do and how it destroys yourself and how it
destroys the church congregation. Now I'm not going to go into any great
detail about these sins. What I really want to cover this morning
is the more the practical things about kicking someone out of
the church, the practical things about Church Discipline.
So I hope that it's a blessing to you, okay. But
you know, I'm already uncomfortable as far as, you know, the weather is concerned.
But this is pretty, this is a pretty uncomfortable chapter as well.
So hopefully, you know, we haven't got our normal nice leather seats.
You know, it's hot, we haven't got fans, we haven't got the air conditioner
and we've got a hot topic as well. So I'm hoping that everyone's just
just, you know, just, you know, hopefully you need to be cooled off
after the sermon, you know what I mean. So let's look at verse number one.
Verse number one. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and
such fornication as is not so much named,
so not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his
father's wife. So look, the first thing, the very first
verse out of this chapter ought to make you cringe, right. That
it says there that it is reported commonly.
So this was known by the whole church or just
commonly known in the church that there was a man, there was a brother in the
church who had taken his father's wife to himself as committing fornication
with his father's wife. That's pretty disgusting.
That's pretty vile. That's pretty wicked to the point where even Paul says
not even this sin is named among the Gentiles. I mean not even the
unbelieving world is committing such a sin. That is not something that's
commonly, you know, reported amongst the world
but it's commonly reported amongst this church. It's commonly reported amongst
the Corinthian church. What a disgusting and vile sin and I
kind of think about how can this situation even
come to be. Now first thing I just want you to notice, I don't believe this is
his mother. I think the fact that it says his
father's wife is more so probably his stepmother. You
know it's possible that his mother's passed away,
his father's taken on a second wife, she's lived with them
and my only way to understand this is possibly
the father's passed away now and they find themselves living together
in this situation, the stepmother and the father's son
and you know he's pretty much taken her as his concubine I suppose
and you know Paul says there is fornication
among you. There's fornication among you. I find this alarming, alarming
that it's reported commonly in the church that there seems to be no
action being taken that this man is in such a wicked sin.
Look at verse number two. Paul says and ye are puffed up. He says to
the church you're puffed up. Why? Because they allow this sin to
carry on in the church without carrying out church discipline,
without making an example of this situation he says because you've done
no action, because you accepted in the church you
are puffed up, you are prideful and have not rather mourned. So this
church should have been mourning, this church should have been weeping
about such a great sin in their church but rather puffed up.
They're more righteous than God himself. They're accepting of this sin
knowing full well that God would definitely not allow this
amongst the presence of his people.
And then it says that he hath done, so pay attention to this phrase here,
that he that have done this deed might be taken away from among you.
Had they mourned, had they wept, had they not been puffed up they would have put
this man away from among them. They would have made sure they carried
out church discipline. They would have made sure they had kicked
this man out of the church but because they were so puffed up,
because there were so many problems in this church, the visions among them,
strife, envy and all that kind of stuff, they put up
with this sin. Okay and let me tell you now if this church
ever becomes like the church of Corinthians where it's divided,
where there's strife, where there's arguments amongst members, where we're
not united in one mind, we too will start to allow certain sins,
certain wicked sins into this church. Okay it's so important that we stand
united as we've read throughout the previous
chapters in this book. So you know the right thing for this
church to have done was to kick this individual
out of the church. Verse number three, for I verily,
so Paul says I verily as absent in the body
but present in spirit have judged already. He goes look I don't even need to
be among you. I'm absent from you. I'm away from you. I'm
writing this letter but I can already make judgment. I can
already tell you what the correct measure is, the correct judgment is
for this man. And then he says as though I were present
concerning him that have done so, that have
so done this deed. You know this isn't a difficult decision.
Okay if we find someone in our church that's doing these great wicked sins
that we see in this list, this ought not to be a difficult
decision for us. Okay we can be absent from the body. We
can be away from the church and we would know full well that this individual
needs to be kicked out of the church. The only reason it might be difficult is
because it's a family member. It's a loved one. It's someone we care
about deeply and that's why you ought to be mourning about it
if someone that we love in this church is committing a great sin.
But it shouldn't be a hard decision to know hey this person needs to be taken
out of the congregation. This person needs to be kicked out of
the church. Okay verse number four, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now I just want you to notice that this
isn't just Paul. Okay this is just Paul's view. This isn't
just man's opinion as far as kicking someone out of the
church, but it's in the authority, 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 and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So kicking someone out of the church isn't just some, the opinion of the
pastor. It's not just the opinion of the church.
It's not just the opinion of Paul, but it's the opinion, it's the judgment of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his power that we would need to
at some point potentially, I hope not, but at some point potentially kick
someone out of the church for the great sins
they have done.
So never have the mindset and I've seen this in other churches
where a pastor has had to make that decision. A pastor has had to
kick someone out of the church and then who does the congregation criticize?
The pastor. That's who they criticize. They don't think well this is what the
Lord Jesus Christ demands of them. They don't think that this is in the name
and in the power of Christ that this person needs to be delivered
out of the church for the destruction given over to Satan the verse said there.
Okay this is something spiritual. This is something that the Lord Jesus Christ
demands of, but I just want you to notice a few
things here. Someone that is kicked out of the church
for these wicked sins is being delivered unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh. That's pretty harsh. That's pretty hard
okay but it's the truth. Okay if someone gets kicked out of the
church then spiritually they are being given
over to Satan for Satan to destroy that person and that sounds
that sounds pretty hard. Now I say that to you because you don't
want to be someone that gets kicked out of the church.
Okay you don't want to be someone that has these sins in their life
openly rebellion against God you know hiding this sin from the congregation
and then you know being found out and being kicked out of the church
for Satan to do what he wants to you. I mean that'd be pretty scary
okay that's number one. So you know you want to make sure if some of these
sins are in your life or you know today or in the past at some
point that you find the power to overcome that
sin okay and that power is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ okay and look
there's another concept that I want you to think about is that this man
hadn't been delivered unto Satan just yet even though he was in this great sin
Paul says look you need to cast him out you need to kick him out so that
Satan is given the ability to destroy that person.
That means what does that mean that means that the church of God
the house of God has a great blessing in it
that blessing is a spiritual protection from Satan himself. I don't know if you've
ever considered that but church being in church being a member
of a church being a regular attendee of church
provides you a spiritual protection from Satan.
Okay now we know that Satan goes about roaring as a
lion roaring and seeking to you know whom he may devour
we know that but there is a special protection for God's people
that are assembled in the church okay now I bring that to your attention
because you don't want to be someone that forsakes the assembling of
yourselves together you don't want to be someone that skips church
on purpose for no reason whatsoever. I know there are legitimate reasons to not
be in church I understand that but you don't want to be someone like
this person that gets kicked out of the church
that you know you voluntarily say you know what I'm not going to church this
week I'm not going to be part of church you know because when you skip church
one week you know it makes it easier to skip it the second week
it makes it easier to skip it that month and before you know it
that protection that hedge of protection that spiritual protection
of the church will be removed from you and Satan can have his way with you as
well and you're not even kicked out of the church
you're just voluntarily giving yourself over to Satan
and his wickedness okay so I really appreciate that we have visitors today
right from Papua New Guinea because that concept is true
you know wherever you you travel and visit you need to find yourself a church
especially if you're going to be away for a long period of time you want to
find a congregation of believers knowing full well that there is a
protective spiritual hedge in a church that I can attend okay
now the other thing that I want you to pick up here is even though this man
was in great sin even though this man's flesh is going
to be given over to Satan to be destroyed he's still a saved
believer believe it or not he's still a saved
believer look at verse number five to deliver such and one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus was this person saved
yes now here's the thing in a lot of churches someone that's doing
a wicked sin like that guess what they're going to be saying
he's not saved oh yeah I mean for him to be doing such a wicked sin
that man cannot be saved but what do we find here
that a believer can also do these great and wicked sins why
because we still have the flesh right this man had
had not had not been walking in the spirit you know he'd been walking
according to the flesh you know yeah he hadn't been crucifying that flesh daily
and you know he was bringing this sinful you know this sin amongst
upon himself but his spirit is saved and I want you to pay attention to the words
because I don't want you to misunderstand what it says here
it says that the spirit may be saved in the
day of the Lord Jesus what is the day of the Lord Jesus
it's the rapture right many references in the bible talking about the day of
the Lord Jesus Christ it's the rapture so it's not saying here
because some people have read this and say well hold on
maybe he's being given over to the devil so that he would be
that he he would be saved you know some people have said that because it kind of
sounds like it says that he like the spirit may be
saved so it's kind of like potentially he's not saved now but there's
a future salvation for him should he be under the attack of the
devil and then you know repent and turn to Christ or something like that
but it's not it's not saying that it's saying that his spirit may be saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ why is that important because at the rapture
he's going to receive his resurrected body
at the rapture is going to receive that body which does not struggle with sin
that body which is perfect that is is not corrupted
that is immortal and so he's in the flesh right now
this flesh you know Lord willing will be destroyed by the devil
but the spirit would be saved for that new resurrected body
that's what it's teaching here that here that spirit would be saved for that day
so he would receive his new resurrected body and no longer
be oppressed by this sin that he has upon himself I mean that just proves
that this man was saved because he's going to be raptured
on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to receive his resurrected body
okay so again never judge someone's salvation just because of their sin
you know I mean even a sin as wicked as this you know don't think oh we got to
cast him out because he's an unsaved devil
and we never want to see him again because there is a time
for him to be reconciled and we see that later on in second corinthians
in the book of second corinthians um now it says here in verse number six
well actually before I read verse number six I just want you to notice a couple
of things here because verses six seven and eight I've
often heard taken out of context okay often when I
hear verses six seven and eight preached it's completely removed
from this chapter okay so the first thing I want you to notice is that
verses one to five which we've already read is about this
man in fornication right it's about this man being kicked out and
given over to satan okay but then verses nine if you want to
look at verse number nine it says I wrote unto you in an epistle
not to accompany with fornicators and then we continue reading to verse
13 where again it's talking about you know uh kicking
people out of the church okay so verses one to five is about
kicking someone out of the church and verses nine to thirteen is about
kicking someone out of the church now sandwiched between those verses are
verses six seven and eight so
the reason I say that to you is again because I've heard six seven eight
completely removed from the context and I'm going to explain that to you a bit
later but I believe verses six seven and eight
you know it's not a coincidence that it's sandwiched between these passages
because it continues the same thought it's about the same thing okay look at
verse number six your glorying is not good why were they
glorying because they were puffed up that's what
he's saying your glorying is not good the memory verse
know ye not that little leaven leaveneth the whole lump
what are we talking about here what are they glorying what are they puffed up
about the fact that they allow this man in the
church to be involved in such great fornication
such great wickedness then it says know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump what is leaven it's like yeast it's an old it's an old
leaven is like an old fermented uh dough that when you mix it with new
dough it rises just like yeast does for bread it rises
the bread right so it's soft and fluffy that's how people genuinely like to eat
bread so he uses this example of this man in
his great wickedness and this man is the one that's been
described as the little leaven because if you allow a wicked person
like that in the church guess what it'll spread to the whole church if you
allow a church if you allow wicked people in your
church committing great sins that is commonly reported reported everybody
knows about it and yet everyone's accepting of it guess what
it's going to taint every person in the church
everybody will say well hold on that person can be part of the church look at
the great sin that he does hey i can i can
dabble in a little bit of that sin myself
you know it's fine because that's the influence of sin
people that are involved in sin want others
to also be involved in sin okay for some reason people find
like a like a justification you know i'm i'm struggling with this sin
but if everyone's struggling with this sin then it's okay and that's that's
what happens to a church if you allow a little leaven
a little wicked that wicked person to coexist with everybody else
in the church service they're going to influence everybody in a negative way
and of course we can take a practical personal application to this as well
of course we can say hey if we allow a little leaven a little sin in our life
yes it can leaven the whole lump hey that's why we ought to be walking in the
spirit that's why when we do sin we ought to be confessing our sins to the
lord jesus christ and maintaining a good fellowship with
him keeping a short account with god yes we're going to sin every day yes
we're going to be wicked yes we still have this old flesh
but you know ensure that that leaven is taken out of you when you sin
by confessing those to christ and asking him to forgive you
okay but i want you to understand the context the context
of this is the church the little leaven is that wicked man
that was going to taint the whole church with his
sin all right now look at verse number seven
purge out therefore the old leaven purge out what does that mean
get rid of it what are we talking about kicking people out of the church
you understand how keeping this in context helps understand the passage
helps understand these verses purge out the old leaven
purge out that fermented because you know leaven many times in the bible
is a picture of sin not always it's also a picture of the kingdom of god
it can be used in a positive sense but many times
it's used in a negative sense in fact jesus christ mentions a couple of times
about the leaven of the pharisees uh but it's it's uh it's sin purge out
there for the old leaven or kick the guy out of your church that year may be a
new lump a lump without that leaven as ye are
unleavened but then look at this for even christ our passover is sacrificed
for us for even christ our passover is
sacrificed for us
now this is what i mean by people taking things out of context because
verses six seven and eight people i've heard preachers say this they take those
passages and say well this is about the lord's
supper this is a badass partaking of um you know the grape juice and the
unleavened bread and they take these passages to teach
on the lord's supper but it's actually about kicking someone out of your church
if you keep it in context you see how how
you know you can look at a passage and come to a different conclusion
and why it's so important to make sure when you read your bible you read the
whole book read the whole chapter read the verses
surrounding a passage because it's going to enlighten your
understanding of what god's primary application is for those verses
and look the bible is so deep there's always secondary applications
there's always third applications and fourth applications
you know the bible is like it just you can you just you just continue
unraveling it yeah the more you read it the more you understand it
the more you see correlation between verses the more deep you're going to get
into the in the bible but never forget the
primary application because that's the key thing that god
wants us to understand okay but uh so christ our passover
now you guys ought to know what the passover
is i think okay that's one of the one of the most basic teachings that you get
about the old testament that passover if you remember when
israel was was still in in when the children of israel was still in egypt
and the lord was going to deliver them out of egypt the last
plague that the lord does on the egyptians is to kill all the first
bonds all the first one you remember that
whether it was man or whether it was cattle
but for the jews to be protected or for the israelites to be protected
from that uh that punishment they were to take a lamb
and actually you know what let's read it let's go there
uh let's go to exodus chapter 12 exodus chapter 12 let's read it
exodus chapter 12 keep a finger in first corinthians 5 if you can
and go to exodus chapter 12
exodus chapter 12
exodus chapter 12 verse 1 and the lord spake unto moses and aaron in the land
of egypt saying this month shall be unto you the beginning
of months it shall be the first month of the year to you speak ye unto all
the congregation of israel saying in the 10th day of this month shall uh
they uh they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house
of their fathers a lamb foreign house so this was a practice
to be done once a year on this first month
of the year verse number four and if the household
be too little for the lamb let him and his neighbor
next unto his house taken according to the number of the souls
every man according to his eating shall make your count
for the lamb so if your family is a smaller family you can actually invite
your neighbors to come and partake of the passover together if
the lamb is too much for one family okay now uh
sorry well what this was on guys this number five this number five your
lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take
it out from the sheep or from the goats and it's important that the lamb was
without blemish because christ is our passover lamb
we just read that in first corinthians chapter 5 okay so christ was without sin
and so the lamb had to represent something that was pure
and good and without blemish without any sin
a male of the first year you shall take it out from the sheep
or from the goats and you shall keep it until
up until the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly
of the congregation of israel shall kill it in the evening
so the passover was to take place in the 14th month
of the first year once a year verse 7 and they shall take of the blood and
strike it on the two side on two side posts and on the upper door
post of the houses wherein they shall eat and they shall eat the
flesh in that night roast with fire and unleaven bread remember
that unleavened bread what did we read about
that was covered in first corinthians chapter 5 as well right the unleavened
bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat
it eat not of it raw nor sodden at all with water that means
sodden means it's an old word for boiled with water so don't boil it
but roast with fire his head with his legs
and with the pertinence thereof pertinence is like
you know all the organs all the guts as well you know roast the whole thing
eat not of it raw oh sorry uh verse 10 and you shall let nothing of it remain
until the morning and that which remaineth of it until
the morning you shall burn with fire so you got to eat eat eat that that day
and if there's anything left over the next day you just burn the whole thing
you don't eat it again okay and of course what does that picture
the fact that christ was crucified once for sin
okay you partake of it once and then whatever was left should be destroyed
it's not going to be eaten again because christ lady's
laid his life down once okay now um uh verse 11
and thus shall you eat it with your loins girded your shoes
on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste
it is the lord's passover for i will pass
through the land of egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of egypt both man and beast and against all the
gods of egypt i will execute judgment i am the lord
and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses
where ye are and when i see the blood i will pass over you
that's what the passover represented is that when god sees the blood of the lamb
he will make sure that the israelites will not be hurt by this plague
he will pass over them and will instead hurt those that do not have the blood
that is a picture of our savior that is a picture of the
shed blood of christ on the cross when you believe in the lord jesus christ
you are clean from all your sins right you're cleansed through the blood of
christ and when god looks at you if you if you
put your faith in christ he will pass over you in judgment he
will not judge it because the blood of christ has been spilled
and his righteousness is upon you and we see this type we see this picture in the
old testament picturing or pointing people to christ
having that object lesson so they would understand that in the future
there would be one to come that would fulfill this
it's a symbolism of christ and his blood
and the blood shall sorry verse 13 and the blood shall be
to you for a token upon the houses i read that already
where you are and when i see the blood i will pass over you and the plague shall
not be upon you to destroy you when i smite the land of egypt okay
now i want you to notice verse 14 it's the last verse i'm going to read in this
chapter verse 14 and this day shall be unto you for a
memorial so what's the passover it's a memorial
and you shall keep it a feast pay attention to that phrase
okay and you shall keep it a feast to the lord throughout your generations
you shall keep it a feast so he says it twice you're going to keep this feast
you're going to keep this feast you shall keep it as a feast by an
ordinance forever now what's forever does it ever end
it's eternal the passover is a feast to be kept forever all right
now i want you to just just keep that in mind and i'm going to just go back to
first corinthians chapter five now first corinthians chapter five because
i want to first explain to you my understanding of this passage okay
keeping it in context and then i'm going to show you how other
people have different views okay just just for your information
just for your information so back to first corinthians chapter five
verse number eight now remember that phrase look at verse number eight
therefore let us keep the feast isn't that what we just read in
in old testament in the exodus that they allow to keep that feast forever
now paul is saying to the church therefore let us keep the feast
what does that mean on the 14th day of the first month
that we need to be doing the passover like they did like take a lamb
without blemish invite the neighbors over you know
you know you take the blood and put it on the doorpost is that what we're
meant to be doing no how do we keep the feast of the
passover in the new testament therefore let us
keep the feast not with old leaven what was the old leaven
the wicked man in the church that was to be kicked out
right not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice what's malice
it's uh intent to cause harm and wickedness
that's something that's exceedingly sinful exceedingly bad
okay but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth what sincerity
being honest and without compromise truth obviously
sorry no sincerity is being genuine and not hypocritical
okay god wants us to be a church that's genuine
and not hypocritical okay because if we're preaching against sin
and yet we allow a wicked man like this in our church that's being hypocritical
okay and uh a bit of sincerity and truth
truth is to be honest without compromise okay being open and honest about things
okay so if we ever kick someone out of the
church i'm going to be someone that tells you the honest truth
why that person's been kicked out of the church okay because we don't want to
hide it and then let rumors spread and make things worse than they ought to be
but i just want to show you how is the passover kept
this this is a type old testament type we know the lamb represents jesus christ
but what does the unleavened bread represent a
a pure true and sincere church and the old leaven represents the
man or the person in the church that ought to be cast out of the church
so they don't leaven the whole lump do you see that
do you see how the type in the old testament fulfills
how a new testament church ought to practice you know church discipline
and again like i said some people take these verses and say well no that's
about the lord's supper but hold on is he even talking about
the lord's supper in fact it's chapter 11
where we act paul actually teaches we won't go there but it's chapter 11
that paul teaches on the lord's supper to the corinthian church it's it's
many chapters later where he covers that topic
okay now so how do we keep the feast how do we keep the feast of the passover
well christ right christ is our passover and it's something to be kept forever so
if you put your faith on christ guess what christ is your eternal
passover christ is our passover okay you've put
your faith in christ that is you keeping the feast of the
passover and as a church keeping ourselves
unleavened when there is leaven the old leaven the
wicked man we need to cast that person out of the
congregation okay within the context of this chapter
now i don't know if you guys have ever heard this
taught before okay i haven't okay but as as i study this chapter
you cannot remove these verses away from the rest of what's going on here
and notice how important the words so it said in verse number eight
not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness
now if you look at verse number 13 verse number 13 in the chapter
first corinthians chapter 5 verse 13 look at this but them that are without
god judgeth therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person
so what's the wickedness the wicked person that we need to cast out the old
leaven that we need to get rid of in the church now
let me say this um there are some people some and i'm not i'm not criticizing
these pastors i'm not criticizing these churches
i just want to make you understand how we can
you know genuine saved believers can look at the same passage and come to a
different conclusion because some people will look at this and
say well we're to keep the feast of the passover
and they associate this with the lord's supper now i i i do not
believe the passover the the feast of the
passover has anything to do with the lord's supper you know the
lord's supper where we take part of the the juice the grape juice and and the
young leaven bread i don't believe i don't believe the
lord's supper is a continuation of the passover
i don't believe it's it's the passover in the new testament
though there are some similarities and those similarities is the fact that they
point back to christ okay point back to christ sacrifice and
that's pretty much the only similarity but when you have types in the old
testament and they've been fulfilled then
it's done away with and the worst thing is when christians
go and think hey we need to keep the passover we need to go and celebrate
get together and and partake of an old testament practice
and think well god still wants us to keep the passover because they read this
chapter and said what's this to keep the feast
yeah but you've totally removed it from the context all right
and they partake of the lord's passover and they think they're doing god a
service they think they're praising god they're not because christ has come and
what was a type what was a picture of christ christ has come and fulfilled that
and christ i don't know if you've heard this term before christ is the
anti-type when you see types in the bible it's to
point to the anti-type when you see israel going through the
red sea and that's called the baptism that's a type
of the new testament baptism you know where we we we uh
you know um you know immerse in the water and rise out of the water
that was a type and the new testament baptism is the anti-type
the type was the passover and the anti-type is christ and his
crucifixion okay don't waste your time with types
okay don't think that i need to do the old types the old feasts
uh to please the lord no you just need to put your faith and trust in god
you put your faith and trust in christ and his sacrifice that's you keeping the
passover that's you keeping the passover for
all eternity okay and another example is the
sabbath day the sabbath day i don't know if i've got a
reference to that um because people read these passages
and they think they need to they need to continue keeping these things
let me just see if i if i uh actually took down that um
so just bear with me oh yeah yeah i did actually did exodus chapter 31 verse 16
i'll just read it to you exodus 31 16 says wherefore the
children of israel shall keep the sabbath to observe the
sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant what's perpetual
it's continuing it doesn't end okay it is a story between me
and the children of israel forever for in six days the lord made heaven and earth
and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed
so hold on now we're meant to be observing the sabbath day you know the
seventh day adventures for example believe hey we got to keep observing the
sabbath day because god said it's forever
yeah but you've not read the book of hebrews right hebrews chapter 4
where it says that the seventh day is a representation of what christ has done
for us that the resting on the seventh day
represented a rest from our works for salvation
jesus christ is our sabbath rest and jesus christ is the
anti-type to the type of what the sabbath was
and then people say well hold on we still see the sabbath being mentioned
in the new testament yeah because that's what they call
saturday okay it's shabbat in the hebrew i'm going
back to the hebrew sorry guys so but they that's what saturday is
okay so when you read sabbath in the new testament it's because it's saturday
that's what that's what they're saying it's not saying that they're observing
the sabbath it's just that they're probably
meeting on saturday or they're doing some works for the lord on saturday
it's fine okay because the fulfillment of the sabbath was jesus christ
okay let me give you just an analogy of this a real life
analogy so obviously christina's pregnant with our 10th child and
we've got some ultrasound pictures and every now and again christina looks at
those ultrasound pictures because you know
she wants to see you know what her baby might look like and just have a look at
the face you know is it like the other kids you
know who who might he look like but do you think after she goes through
labor and delivers that baby do you think she's going to grab those
ultrasound pictures and go oh my baby or do you think she's going to grab the
newborn and hug the newborn and kiss the newborn
and praise the newborn what do you think she's going to do is she going to
go for the the type or is she going to grab the
energy type the real baby and celebrate and hug that baby do you
think she's going to take those ultrasound pictures say my baby's here
you think i'm going to post pictures on facebook of the ultrasound pictures
after the baby's born right no once the baby's here that's
the main thing right the ultrasound pictures don't
matter anymore okay it's just a foreshadowing it's just a
picture of what was to come which is that newborn child all right
or what if samuel turns one when does he turn the
one next month samuel turns one next month
let's say you know like birthday parties you do a cake and presents
do you think christina's going to you know when we're going to sing happy
birthday to to samuel do you think she's just going to
bring photographs of samuel and say all right say let's sing happy birthday to
samuel look at his photos no you'll be like where's samuel like
we're singing to him let's just get samuel here right that's
i mean that sounds stupid right that's how stupid it is
to go back to the old testament types and celebrate and worship that in that
way when the lord jesus christ has already come
and we need to have our eyes upon him and not the not the types of the old
testament if you ever get invited hey i'm going to
have a passover feast would you like to come
just say no i've got jesus christ jesus christ
and we have the new testament ordinance of how to
look back at his sacrifice which is the lord's supper okay
but i just want to show you how people can take these passages right and they
say well see the passover was done once a year and so
the lord's supper ought to be done once a year
okay that's what they get it from that's what they get it from because they think
of it as a continuation of the passover rather than thinking
well hold on christ was the passover lamb
and that has been fulfilled and again i'm not criticizing because look
if if god wanted us to do it a certain way you know the lord's supper
you know do it this many times a year or he would have told us
okay he leaves this open for every church to make a decision about that
you know some churches have a closed uh communion policy or a close communion
policy we here have an open community
communion policy and let me tell you don't make that a big problem don't make
that the issue okay you know i've heard people say you
know i'm not going to this church because they do closed communion
are you serious is that what you're going to base
your fellowship with because that church does closed communion so i'm not
going to partake of that i mean i've heard christians say that
when they've got a good church to go to and yet they don't want to be part of it
because of the way they do communion but i just want to show you how people
can take this verse and i can understand why they do things a certain way i can
understand why they interpret things a certain way uh
even though i disagree with it but i can understand and yet i will give them the
benefit of that because here's the thing here's the thing that you're going to
understand the kind of people that you ought to feel like we're talking about
this all ties in together right we're talking about kicking people out of the
church people that we ought not to fellowship with
who are the people that we ought to fellowship with who are the people that
we ought to be in company with well first of all let me give you some
ideas people that have the right gospel people that have the right jesus christ
people that have the right spirit okay if someone comes to you with another
jesus another spirit another gospel those people are not people you ought to
fellowship with that's not a church that you ought to be part of
okay that's number one now if they got the right gospel great what else would
you like in a group of people that they're king
james only that they believe that god has given us a preserved
word of god pure without error okay especially if you're looking for a
church you want a church that is doing so winning
and look here's the thing if that church is not doing so winning
then if you've got no other option you go so winning right but you want to make
sure that you're in a church where the pastor will support you
and even if you're the only one doing it that they're not against so winning
because that's the first works that the lord jesus christ has left us
that's the great commission that the lord jesus christ has left us okay
so we've got the right jesus we've got the right spirit right gospel
we've got the king james we've got a good church now what
well does this church allow wicked people that we see in this list
is this church made up of people that are what does verse um
11 say that are fornicators covetous idolaters railers drunkards and
extortioners in the church are they allowing those people in the
church well if they do that's probably that's not the church you want to be in
why because that leaven's going to leaven you
that leaven's going to leaven the whole lump okay
now these are the things that you need to be mindful of when you choose your
friends when you choose your fellowship when
you choose your church these are the things
okay these are the things that you should divide over okay
but are you going to divide over how people do communion
are you going to divide over these doctrines where people read passages and
come with a different even though i disagree with them do
you think that's going to cause me to break fellowship with people
and yet that's what i see and that's what i see i see people not wanting to
go to this church because they've interpreted this passage
differently than they you know even though the church is the
right gospel even though the church teaches from the king james bible
even though the church is is pure and unleavened and doing the best they can
to serve the lord they'll find some issue and say well i
don't want to be part of this church because what they teach about this
and yet what do they do they go with their mates they hang out with their
drunkard friends their fornicating friends
that is hypocrisy when you look at your brethren
and you decide to create divisions over things that are trivial
or things that are secondary or tertiary in nature and yet you go well i don't
have any fellowship i'm going to hang out with my worldly mates
i'm going to hang out with my friends that are drunkards and fornicators that's
fine because they're not safe that's not fine and we'll read later on
that you're not even to company with people like that that are in the world
okay and that's why we ought to not have people like that in our church
we ought to kick them out what does jesus say about
um i don't know if i've got the reference but he says beware of the 11
of the pharisees um i think it says which is hypocrisy
okay which is and that is that is hypocrisy when you have when you're
saying hey like you know this church differs a little bit here i'm not going
to be part of it but then you go hang out with your worldly mates
that are all into all these kind of sins that is hypocrisy
don't divide over non-essential matters these are the key things
the right christ the right gospel the right spirit
an unleavened church that's serving the lord
that's king james only and doing the soul winning that's what you want in a
church if you've got that you're doing a lot
better than many people out there okay if you've got that you're blessed
okay now let's go on to verse number are you still in first corinthians chapter
five first corinthians chapter five let's go
to verse number um nine
verse number nine
first corinthians chapter five verse nine i wrote unto you in an epistle not
to company with fornicators so paul is saying look i've written to
you in the past this isn't my first letter to you even though it's called
first corinthians there was a letter previously that he
wrote to them okay
so i wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators
verse number 10 yet not all together with the fornicators of this
world nor with the uh the covetous or extortioners or
idolaters for then must ye needs go out of the
world okay so we ought not to be making
friends with the unsaved people who commit these sins
okay oh but they're better friends than people in church yeah you're not meant
to company with them okay they may be better friends they may
very well be but the command of the lord is not to be
they're friends not to fellowship and i know there are situations where you
can't help it i know we need to be in work i know we
need to be you know out in in the world from time to time and i
know we have family members that are not saved and i know i know you know
i understand there are some things you cannot help you know you're
you know there might be a work function that you need to be part of for whatever
reason okay and and there might be drunkenness going on
or whatever okay now if you can avoid it avoid it but i know sometimes
you know your work requires you because it is a work function or whatever okay
but as much as is in you possible don't company with these kind of people
these are worldly people and then verse number 11 verse number
11 but now so in this letter corinthian church
now i have written unto you not to keep company if any man
is called a brother so as someone that is saved
someone in the church that is a brother or a sister
someone that is safe and look does paul need to say this to them
he's already written to them that they shouldn't be
you know fellowshiping with these kind of people in the world
i mean shouldn't you say well even more so in the church
and yet paul has to tell them look i have to tell you i have to write to you
now not just the world but your brethren
you're saved brothers and sisters i'll just read it again but now i have
written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a
fornicator or covetous or idolater or a railer or a
drunkard or an extortioner with such and one know not to eat so i'm
not going to go into any great details about this sin
again we're doing that on thursdays but a fornicator is someone that's committing
sexual relations outside of the marriage and that that obviously
represents this man that's with his father's wife
covetous people who desire or lust over material possessions
an idolater someone that worships idols a railer
you know a person that insults or scoffs
about about somebody you know and or or to somebody about somebody else that's a
railer a drunkard someone that's intoxicated
with alcohol or drugs or it just has loss of control in that sense
you know is not sober-minded an extortioner
someone that obtained something from somebody with threats or by force or by
blackmail that's an extortioner we all want to
have people like that in this church okay now verse number 12
for what have i to do to judge them also that are without
do not ye judge them that are within so we need to judge
within within our church okay but them that are without so those that
are outside of the church god judgeth therefore therefore put away
from among yourselves that wicked person okay that's the end of the
chapter therefore put away from among yourselves
that wicked person that's the that's the command that's the
bible teaching it might seem harsh and if we ever do
that yes it's gonna hurt okay especially if you love that
person but that is the command of god because we ought to love
god more than we love our brethren you know we ought to be doing his work
his words and keeping his works rather than pleasing man
okay now so there are certain people that we are
commanded to kick out of the church now what i want to talk to you about is
just a practical thing so if this happens in our church and i want i want
you to to know okay because i want you to hold me
accountable as well okay if we have someone in the church that has these
sins and i allow it you go kevin remember that remember that
chapter you know first corinthians chapter five
you know we need to keep each other accountable and obviously there's
there's leadership within with me as well but let me just say a
couple of things here if you're one of these people that has
these sins in their life i'm saying right now i'm not saying in
the past okay now let me just say this as well i mean
this church is about five months old i don't think it's even five months yet
it's about five months old and as far as i'm concerned
when this church started it's a clean slate i really don't need to know about
your sins in the past i don't need to know whether you're a
drunkard and i'm sure some of you were or a fornicator i'm sure some of you've
done that or whatever you know as far as the church starting
it's a clean slate across the board i'm not going to
carry out church discipline for something you did five years ago okay or
something that you did six months ago before the church started
or if someone's a new person in the church you know
and you know they've done something in the past i'm not going to hold that
against them okay you know we start as far as this church as far as i'm
concerned it's a clean slate now we shouldn't be
naive you know especially if there are people that have done some of these
sins that they're capable of doing that in
their flesh you know i'm going to be you know i'm going to watch over your
souls i'm going to make sure you know that uh you know i'm not
completely ignorant of that but i'm not going to
call that person out as guilty having done something in the past right
now this is a command for the whole church to kick this person out of the
church obviously i'm not going to know everything
and if you guys know somebody in the church that is in these sins
then you need to let me know about it okay you need to let me know about it
but even better even better than that if you yourself
are in this sin any of these sins then even better than that is you tell me
yourself you tell me you know why because if you
tell me and you come you know what that tells me
that tells me that you're honest and you want to sort this out
okay and what was what was the problem with this church in carinthians is they
were puffed up and paul says you should have been
mourning if you come to me and say you know pastor you know kevin brother
i struggle with this sin in my life to this day
you know what i will mourn with you i will weep with you
i will come and i will fast and pray with you and we will seek the lord's
power to help you overcome that sin in your
life and i will help you put an action plan together to get this
sin out of your life okay and if we do all of that and you
still fail then i'm gonna have to kick you out but
at least i know you're trying but if you're keeping it a secret and
somebody in the church comes to me about it i'm gonna have to make diligent
inquisition about it okay now again don't be someone that comes up with
false accusations and a false witness i don't want to hear that okay turn to
uh let's see turn to deuteronomy chapter 19
deuteronomy chapter 19 deuteronomy chapter 19
because the bible has a process okay god's given us a process
of bringing an accusation against somebody okay
deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15 deuteronomy 19 verse 15
it says this one witness one witness shall not rise up against the man for
any iniquity or for any sin or in any sin that
he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at
the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established so if i
have one person come and says you know what
i saw brother so-and-so stagger out of the pub you know drunkard vomiting
that's one witness you know oh i'll probably approach that brother and ask
him you know but i can't really carry
anything out i mean if he denies it if he denies it i've only got the one
witness but if i've got two witnesses i've got three witnesses
then that matter can be established and then we can cast that person out of the
church does that make sense but one witness is
not enough you know you can't come to me and say
well you know and let's say let's say the guy turns up completely
drunk off his face the church and you say pastor kevin i told you i
told you what no it was one witness okay it was one witness and we need to
follow the law of god but uh look at verse number 16
because there is punishment for a false witness as well deuteronomy 19 verse 16
if a false witness if a false witness rise up against
any man to testify against him that which is wrong
then both the men between whom the controversy is
shall stand before the lord before the priest and the judges
which shall be in those days and the judges shall make
diligent inquisition that's what i mean by diligent inquisition
let's investigate this matter okay investigate this matter
if there's a false accusation especially and behold
if the witness of the false witness sorry if the witness be a false witness
and have testified falsely against his brother then shall you do unto him
as he had thought to have done unto his brother
so shall they put the evil away from among you
so if you come to me and you falsely accuse
you're a false witness you're trying to get someone kicked out of the church
and you say you know so-and-so's in fornication
and that brother says i'm not that's that's a that's a lie
and it's come and we do diligent inquisition we find that you you're a
false witness you're a false report then you're the one that gets kicked out
of the church you get to you you you suffer the
consequence of trying to get someone else
to be punished or or go through that church discipline does that make sense
so we need to make sure if we're going to bring an accusation against someone
and we ought to when it comes to this list of sins but that we make sure that
it's solid that it's true okay not just some
rumor okay and i'll probably hear rumors
anyway there's always rumors there's always rumors
but we need to make sure that it's a true witness
or you're going to be the one that gets kicked out of the church okay so that i
just want you to understand the process but even better if you're in
these sins you come to me about it because i'll be
more merciful you know i'll be willing to help you
through that and again if if how does that work with the two
witnesses well here's the thing if you've admitted that you're in that sin
and i'm working with you to overcome that sin there's the two witnesses
there's your there's your witness and there's my witness okay
but uh you know what this reminds me of a little bit as well
i used to work i said employ a lot of people
and sometimes employees would slack off and they wouldn't be pulling their
weight and so you know commonly people are like i just sack them
well hold on no i mean they've got the training you know they're
they've been a good worker in the past maybe they just need a little help
and we put them on a program to help them get back to where they ought to be
you know let's we give them a month for example you know at the end of this week
i need you to do this have this much productivity
at the end of this week you know this much and you need to get to the point
where you're back on board where you're back you know
i'm willing to work with you because i want to lose you and then get someone
else and train them and go through all that process again
and you know why that's so important is because
that person truly knows that you know their pastor loves them truly
knows that person's willing to work with them
and help them to get past this sin and if you get past it praise god you can
continue being a member in the church but let's also be
merciful to people that are new christians you
know people are doing these sins all the time they get saved they don't a lot of
them don't know about these that these things are
great wicked sins and so they come to the church or they're new to the church
and yet we know they're in these sins just just be patient be merciful
you know give me the opportunity as well to be able to talk with these people
and let's say let's say a boyfriend and a girlfriend that are living together
come to the church you know i'm not going to kick them out
in day one because they're committing fornication
but i will approach them probably in week number two if they've come back
and address this with them and say look the bible teaches
you know you can't continue this relationship either you get married
or you break this relationship or you get out of the church because i'm going
to have to kick you out of the church if you continue fornicating in the
congregation
and let me say this as well again if i ever do kick someone out of the church
i will tell you i will tell you that we've kicked them out of the church and
i'll tell you why i might not go through every little bit of detail
but i'll say it's because of fornication fornication or something you know it's
because of drunkenness or something like that okay i don't need to
give you the whole life story and you know destroy them even more than
necessarily because you know that that's that's god's way
of of casting them out of the church and letting satan
to to destroy them now is that the end of it so someone gets kicked out of the
church i know i'm going a bit long but i think this is important
okay if you can turn to second corinthians second corinthians chapter
two
second corinthians chapter two because there is
a process for restoration there is a process to have this person that's been
kicked out of the church to be allowed back into the congregation
because isn't that what we want do we really want them out attacked by
satan for the whole is that really the the end
goal no the end goal is we want them to be repentance we want
them to get right with god we want them to get right with the
church i mean back amongst us fellowshiping with us
you know for us to be a blessing to them and for them to be a blessing to us
for us to be able to worship the lord together isn't that the end goal
of course it is look at second corinthians chapter two verse five
so this is another letter this is the third letter that paul has written to
the corinthian church and verse number five he says this but if
any have caused grief he hath not grieved me
but in part that i may not overcharge you all
sufficient to such a man is this punishment
which was inflicted of many so he's talking about this man
if you read the whole thing you'll understand it's the same man that he
spoke about in first corinthians chapter one in chapter five
that he's saying this man has had the punishment
and then uh has taken his punishment look at verse seven
so that contra wise ye ought rather to forgive him
and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up
with swallowed up with over much sorrow so this person paul is saying to the
church now you ought to forgive them why because this person has come back
he's suffered enough he suffered the punishment of satan
enough he wants to get right with god he wants to get right with the church
he's apologized to the church and paul is saying you need to forgive him
and you need to comfort him you need to forgive him
and comfort him this proves that he was repentant
at this point in his life and he apologized to the church
and if someone that is kicked out of the church comes to me and says kevin i
want to get right with god i want to get right with
you i want to be back in fellowship praise god praise god for that and i
will get them to come and not only do they have to apologize
to me but i'm going to get them to stand up here and apologize to the church
and when that happens you forgive them that's it
you forgive them and you it's behind us we move forward you don't bring it up to
them again that's not forgiveness once you forgive something just the same
way god has forgiven you for your sins he's put them as far as the east it's
from the west we do the same for someone that's been kicked out of the church
but brought back in because they've been repentant for what they've done
okay you don't bring it up again we move on with our church
why do we forgive him look at verse number eight
wherefore i beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him
for to this end also did i write that i might know the proof of you
whether you be obedient in all things so the reason i wrote to you first
corinthians is to see whether you're going to be obedient to the word of god
and they did they kicked this guy out okay but now he wants back in
okay verse number 10 to whom you forgive
anything i forgive also and if i forgive anything
to whom i forgave it for your sakes forgave i it in the person
of christ so look at the warning in verse 11 the warning
so why ought we to forgive that person okay look at verse 11 lest satan
should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices
so this is the role satan plays in church discipline first you cast them
out of the church so satan can have his way with them okay
but if that person is repentant and wants to be back in the church and
apologizes but we refuse to forgive him satan's
going to destroy our church do you see that lest satan should take
getting advantage of us so that's why and you might say well
that person's done such a great sin i can't forgive him
well if you can't forgive him then satan's going to have his way with the
church we ought to forgive him because again
church ought to be this protective hedge from satan do you see that so if someone
wants forgiveness you better forgive them okay first of
all because it's it's the right thing to do
okay because god's forgiven us we ought to forgive others but also because we
want to protect this church from satan taking advantage of us if we
have an unforgiven heart and unforgiven spirit
that's an open door for satan to come and destroy us
okay um that's that's what i had for you this morning i hope that's something
there's been some things that you've learned there
let's just pray