(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

2 Corinthians 2, the Bible reads in verse 1, But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. As I said in the sermon on chapter 1, a lot of the sentences in 2 Corinthians are a little bit hard to understand. It's written in kind of a heavy style. And so you have to really slow down and try to understand what he's saying here. But what he's talking about is the fact that in chapter 1, he is talking about how he's going to come to Corinth, and they've got problems there, and he's either going to come in love or he's going to come with a rod, and it really depends on them. He doesn't want to have to chastise them and rebuke them and go in their cracking heads. He'd much rather go in and be gentle and kind and loving, but there are just some problems that need to be fixed. There's some sin that needs to be dealt with, and he talks about in chapter 1, if you would just back up, just to remind you, chapter 1 verse 23, Moreover I call God for record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. And remember, he was planning on coming to Corinth, but he didn't come yet because he wanted to spare them getting their faces ripped. So what he wanted to do was send this letter in advance to try to straighten things out as much as he could before he got there, because he was determined to go there and not come to them in heaviness. He didn't want to come to them and be this downer and everything's negative. He wanted it to be positive. So he wants to send the letter and try to fix things before he gets there. He says, I don't want to come to you again in heaviness. Look at verse 2. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? He's saying, look, I don't want to come there and make you sad and depressed because I actually derive a lot of joy from you, okay? Because these are people that he had reached with the gospel. He had won them to Christ. In fact, if you would, keep your finger here, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. First Corinthians chapter number 4 verse 14, 1 Corinthians 4 verse 14, the Bible says, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel, wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. You say, I don't follow any man. Well you know what, then you don't follow even the man Christ Jesus or the Bible then. Because you know what, this attitude that says I don't follow any man, really? Because the apostle Paul said, hey, I have begotten you in the faith, I have won you to Christ, be a follower of me. This attitude that says we don't follow any man, we only follow Jesus, that is a carnal, wicked attitude to have, to say well I'm not going to follow anybody. Look we should all be willing to follow the leadership that God has placed over us in our lives. And even as Brother Segura recently preached, great leaders never forget how to be a follower. We all at times need to follow the leader. But he says here, be followers of me, look at verse 17, for this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. I can't believe he's talking about my ways and I teach everywhere, oh it's just me, me, I. No, it's leadership, friend, it's leadership, it's the Bible. The apostle Paul is telling them, look, yeah you've got 10,000 instructors, all kinds of people that want to teach you the word of God, but how many fathers do you have? You know, how many people begat you in the gospel? And you know what it reminds me of? My dad taught me a soul winning tip. A long time ago when I was a kid, he would talk about how when he would win someone to the Lord, they would often want to just go back to their old church that they already went to. You know, so they're already a member of some Christian church or whatever the denomination. And then he would win them to Christ, whether at the door or just, you know, on a friend basis and when they would get saved, they would just kind of want to go back to their same church and my dad would always ask that person, now, did they ever get you saved? So why do you want, you know, do you really think that that's the right church to be in when they failed to get you saved? And that's a pretty good point right there, isn't it? Why would you want to keep going to the church that you went to for years and never got saved? You know, the guy who gets you saved, boy, that guy can probably teach you other things about the Bible as well, right? So Paul is saying, look, you know, yeah, you've got 10,000 instructors, but you don't have a lot of fathers because in Christ Jesus, I've gotten you through the Gospel. So flip back to 2 Corinthians with that in mind because when I read this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, the first thing I thought of was children, okay? The first thing I thought of was as a parent, your children bring you a lot of joy, right? I mean, they bring so much joy. Every single day, your children bring joy into your life, you know, otherwise you're doing it wrong, okay? But I, you know, I know in my house, I get so much joy on a daily basis from my children, okay? And they, we don't want to make them sorry, right? And as Paul is saying here, look, if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad but the same which is made sorry by me? So our kids, they make us glad, but oftentimes we have to make them sorry. Why? Because we have to punish them. You know, when they disobey, when they break the rules, we have to chasten them. The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. And the Bible says that every child receives chastening from his father. What son is he whom the father chasteneth not? And so we often have to make our children sorry even though they give us so much joy, even though we love them so much. And sometimes it can be irritating because you want to be nice to your kids. You want to do nice things for them. You want to give them gifts. You want to take them fun places, but you run the risk of spoiling them because then they start giving you attitude and they start being bratty and disobeying. And so as a parent, we can't just fail to discipline because, well, they just bring me so much joy. I just love them so much, so I just can't bring myself to discipline them. Paul is saying, look, I don't want to, but I will, okay? I will discipline you if necessary. And he says in verse 3, and I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. And children, they can bring their parents great joy or great sorrow. The Bible says that he that begetteth a fool has no joy. Did you hear that? He that begetteth a fool has no joy. And then on the other side of that, the Bible says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. So when our children are doing right, there's no greater joy than that. But the one who's a fool, that when our child makes ashamed and does wicked things, boy, there's no greater sorrow than that, okay? And so it can go either way. So Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians. He's trying to warn the Corinthians. He's trying to correct them so that he doesn't have to have a bunch of doom and gloom when he gets it. He wants to rejoice with them. He wants to enjoy them and not be one that's just coming down on them all the time. Look at verse 4. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. So he had written them a pretty rough letter. He's referring back to the book of 1 Corinthians where he chews them out in a few places and rebukes them very sharply. And he's saying, you know, I wasn't doing it just to grieve you. I wasn't just trying to rain on your parade, but I wanted you to know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. And the Bible says that he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. So when we discipline our children or when we correct our children or have to tell our children no, it's not that we don't love them. It's the opposite. It shows that we love them. The fact that we care enough to discipline them and tell them no shows our love to them it's not that we just want to grieve them. We just want to make you miserable. You know, we had a miserable childhood and we want to make sure that you do the same thing because misery loves company. Of course not. Okay. We love our children and want them to turn out right. That's why we discipline them. Okay. And as the saying goes, this is going to hurt me more than hurt you. That's often a true saying. You know, we don't want to have to discipline our children. We would rather reward them and bless them. And you know, we're God's children and God wants to reward us and bless us. But if we keep messing up, then he's going to have to keep punishing us and it doesn't make us happy. It doesn't make him happy. Same thing when a guy like the apostle Paul has to correct a wayward church, a sinful church. You know what? It doesn't make anybody happy, but it's necessary and it has to get done. And it showed that he actually loved them because if he didn't love them, he wouldn't do any hard preaching. He would just be kind unto them as they go off the cliff and just tell them, hey, you guys are doing great. Looking sharp there, buddy. Keep it up, you know, as they sail off the edge of the cliff. The guy who loves them is actually going to warn them and stop them. So he said, you know, that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. Verse 5. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me but in part that I may not overcharge you all. What's he saying? There's ones who are committing the grievous sins in the church. And specifically, there's fornication that's brought up and other things that he's correcting. And we'll get to that a little bit later in the message. But he's saying if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me but in part. What's he saying? You know, I'm not really the primary victim here. It's really no skin off my back. You know, if you guys commit these wicked sins and hurt one another and do bad things, it's not directly affecting me. Yes, I am hurt in part, but it's not really me that's the victim, right? You know, they're grieving the Holy Spirit. They're grieving their fellow church members. They're grieving the people around them. The Apostle Paul is correcting them not for his own benefit but for their benefit, right? And the Bible says here, he hath not grieved me but in part that I may not overcharge you all. When he says I don't want to overcharge you all, he's saying, you know, I don't want to exaggerate like you've just hurt my feelings so much or you've harmed me so much or made me feel so terrible. He's saying, look, I don't want to exaggerate, okay? But yeah, you did grieve me in part and I love you and that's why I want to fix the problem. Then he goes into this in verse 6. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that you 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 basically for the first five verses, he's kind of explaining to them the rationale behind why he had to come down so hard on them, why he wrote them a scathing epistle, why he's writing them negative things now, how it's because he loves them, he wants to have joy, he wants to be happy and get along, but we have to deal with these things. And he's saying, look, it's no skin off my back, it's not me personally that was primarily wounded here. And then he explains that the guy who he rebuked earlier in the first epistle, the punishment that was inflicted on him is enough. Sufficient means it's enough. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many. And he's saying, look, now that the guy has been punished, now contrary wise, he's saying now you need to turn around and do the opposite and now you need to forgive this guy and confirm your love toward him. So there comes a time when you need to come down on somebody and rebuke them, punish them, maybe even throw them out of the church as he had prescribed in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. But then there comes another time when the person repents and gets it right that contrary wise, contrary means the opposite, you do the opposite. You bring them in. You forgive them. You confirm your love toward them. Now one of the things that I think people often misunderstand about this passage in 2 Corinthians and how it ties in with 1 Corinthians is that I think a lot of people when they interpret these verses in 1 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 2, and 2 Corinthians 7, they kind of get the idea that we're just talking about one guy. You know, that it's just all about that one guy in 1 Corinthians 5 and that chapter 2 is all about that one guy and that chapter 7 is all about that one guy. That's not the case, okay? That one guy was an example that was being brought up of multiple problems, okay? And this example goes for a lot of other situations, not just that one guy. Let me show you what I mean. Flip over to chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and look at the very end of the chapter there beginning in verse number 20. For I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not. He said, look, I'm afraid that when I come I'm not going to like what I find and you're not going to like who I am when I show up because I'm going to be in chastisement mode, right? Lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumults, and lest when I come again my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, look at that, many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they've committed. Now let me ask you something, was that guy in 1 Corinthians 5 the only guy who's fornicating in this church? No, he said, look, there are a bunch of people and not all of them have repented. Now apparently some have repented. It seems to indicate that the particular guy from 1 Corinthians 5 had repented and had gotten right, but what we need to understand is that that guy was just an example. There were many people that had not repented of their uncleanness, fornication, and lasciviousness and he's saying, look, you guys better clean house before I get there. I'm glad for what you guys have done so far to clean things up, but you need to finish the job and get things straightened out and get things cleaned up before I get there. What I want to point out, if you go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, is that it says in verse 6, sufficient to such a man is this punishment. It doesn't say sufficient to that man as if we were talking about a particular guy. Sufficient to that man is the punishment. He said sufficient to such a man. What does such a man mean? In our modern vernacular we would probably say a guy like that. Such a man would be a guy like that. Sufficient to a guy like that is this punishment which was inflicted of many. And so when we interpret chapter 2 and chapter 7 and chapter 12, we need to understand that there are multiple situations at play here. Let's flip back first of all to 1 Corinthians 5 to get the full picture. Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Keep your finger in 2 Corinthians 2. We're going to go back and forth a little bit between these two. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, it said in verse 1, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. Now first of all, we know from chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, it's not one incident. There's fornication among them in general. There are multiple situations. But then there's this one situation that stands out because it's extra disgusting. It's extra wicked. It's something that even the Gentiles would blush at. Even the Greeks living in Corinth, they're disturbed by this. They would be horrified by this that one should have his father's wife. Now you say, what's the big deal about that? Why is that such a horrible kind of fornication? Well, for the sake of time, I'm not going to take you back to the Mosaic law. But if we study the law of Moses, there are multiple places that explain the wickedness and the exceeding sinfulness of a man and his son basically having a relationship with the same woman. And again, we see this in the life of Absalom where Absalom did the disgusting act of lying with his father's concubines. So when a woman has been with a man and then later on down the road, the son would be with that same woman, then that's something that is disgusting in the eyes of God. It's something that is an abomination. And so that's what happened here. The word fornication is referring to people that are not married engaging in that kind of a physical intimate activity in bed. And when it says adultery, that's people that are married. So throughout the Bible, when the people are married, it's adultery. When the people are single, it's fornication. And so some people would say, well, this is adultery because it's his father's wife. I believe that this is one who had been his father's wife. And the wickedness of it is that he's being with someone that had been with his father, which the Mosaic law in four different places, I believe, prohibits. So it's a pretty big deal that God brings up repeatedly, okay? So this man had fornicated with his father's wife. It's not his mom or it would have said his mom. This is his father's wife. His father might have died or his father might have divorced her and maybe he divorced her and now the son's whatever. We don't know the exact detail. But it's some kind of a situation of fornication involving his father's wife. And he says in verse 2, you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. Now to the modern Christian, this would seem opposite of what they would call tolerating sin because what they try to claim is that if you come down on sin, you're puffed up. Isn't that what they say today? You know, somebody preaches hard against sin, rebukes sin, throws people out of the church, what do they say? Oh, you're so prideful. You get accused of being prideful when you deal with sin and when you cast these people out of the church. But in fact, the Word of God says that the people who want to keep the sinners in church and tolerate this kind of wicked sin, they're the ones that are puffed up. Now why is that? Because they're the holier than thou's. Oh, they're so loving. They're so forgiving. Oh, they're so godly. They're even more forgiving and righteous and godly than even the Lord himself. They forgive stuff that he wouldn't even forgive. So that's why he says you're puffed up because a lot of people are puffed up with just how they're so tolerant of everybody and everything. And then when somebody actually, you know, cleans house, they claim that it's pride. Well, the Bible says the opposite. He says you should have mourned, right, in verse 2, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already, oh man, it's so judgmental, have judged already as though I were present concerning him that it's so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. What does that mean to deliver them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh? Well, what is it that he's actually telling them to do? Look at the last verse in the chapter. But them that are without, what does without mean, outside, outside the church, them that are without God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So he tells them, outside they get judged by God. So put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And what does he call that? Delivering them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That tells me that when you're getting thrown out of the church for sin, you're under the wrath of God. You are under the judgment of God. If you get thrown out of the church, God's going to judge you. And if you get thrown out of the church, you're being delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So you should be very afraid. If you get thrown out of the house of God for one of these sins, and you're not afraid, then you're a complete idiot. Because God's wrath is coming on you, and you have been delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That ought to scare you, okay? And that's the, because you say, well, what's the big punishment of being thrown out of church? Well, so what? I'll just go to a different church. Or so what? I'll just stay home from church. So what? I'll just watch the live stream. Well, I'll tell you what the punishment is. Something else. God judging you. Being delivered unto Satan for the destruction of your flesh. That's the punishment, friend. It's what God's going to do to you when you get thrown out of the local church. Now, what are these people being thrown out for? What type of things? Well, they're getting thrown out, first of all, for fornication, right? And this is not talking about an unsaved person that commits fornication, or a person who is just, doesn't know any better, they're just a worldly person. No, this is talking about he that is called a brother that's a fornicator, right? So someone who's in the church, and they're a Christian, they go to church, and then they get into fornication. Well, that's a serious sin. And that's something where we have to throw you out of the church, if you're guilty of that. If you're smart, you'd be horrified and scared to death and terrified, and you would repent immediately and be very sorrowful, very repentant, and then be reinstated and forgiven, and then come back to church, okay? That's the right attitude to have when you get busted for one of these sins, okay? So the Bible says in verse 9, 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 much needs go out of the world. He's saying, look, if you're never going to hang out with fornicators, you'd have to just leave planet earth, because unsafe people, guess what they are? They're fornicators, they're covetous, they're drunks, they're everything. But he's saying, now I've written unto you not to keep company if a man that is called a brother be a fornicator. So look, it's okay for me to go out to eat with an unsafe, worldly person who's a fornicator. It's okay for me to go out to eat with, or have lunch on the job with, an unsafe, worldly person who is a drunkard. But it is not okay for me to eat with someone who is called a brother, someone who claims to be a Christian, someone who is in the church, or thrown out of the church, who is these things. See, that's a different thing, because the Bible says if they're called a brother, and they're a fornicator, covetous, idolater, railer, drunkard, or extortioner. What are these things? That's what a fornicator is. That's someone who goes to bed with someone outside of marriage, right? That's number one. Covetous. Now look, obviously every single person has some degree of covetousness in their heart, or they would be a perfect person, because the root of all sin is covetousness, right? Lust conceives and it brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. But if someone's being thrown out for covetousness, that means that their covetousness is so blatant and open that people can actually look at it, see it, and diagnose it, and say this person is not changing. They're not fixing this. They're not getting this out of their life. We can't have this person around. You say, well, how would that manifest? Somebody who's so blatantly covetous, it's the person who that's all they talk about. Somebody who's coming in and all they want to talk about is just getting wealth, the love of money. And look, I've known people like this. All they can talk about is just getting more and making more money and trying to get other people involved. You know, this is like your Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki seminars, and I realize that Donald Trump is now the President of the United States, but I'm still on my preaching where I used to preach about Donald Trump like 10 years ago as being a guy who would come and write books and do seminars about how to make money, right? Think big and kick whatever, you know? And all of his seminars and Robert Kiyosaki or whatever that guy's name is. Who knows what I'm talking about? The Asian guy who's a similar deal. And they're just big on making money and they're just big on the love of money. I've also seen people back in the 1980s when I was a kid that would get into Amway and they would just get obsessed with money, obsessed with getting rich. All they can talk about is the house they're going to get, the car they're going to get. And you know, when people are going down that road, they need to be corrected. And if they refuse to receive correction and they just want to spread that in the church, spread the love of money and covetousness, then that person should be thrown out of the church at that point. So that makes perfect sense to me. The next one, he says an idolater. I believe that this is talking about literal idolatry. I think this is someone who would bring in images, statues, and graven, molten images that they would pray to, bow down to, be superstitious about. You know, that stuff needs to be corrected. We got to get rid of that stuff and people who want to persist in that, they're not welcome if they want to pray to statues and set up shrines and idols and so forth. He says also a railer. What's a railer? A railer is one who brings false accusations, okay? There are people who just bring just crazy, wild accusations. False accusers are punished severely in the Bible. When you accuse someone of something and it's not true, then that's a serious offense and you'll get punished for that. And that's something that could get you thrown out of the church as well, being a railer. Some people try to redefine railer just saying anything negative. You preached hard. You're a railer. Well, then that would make every prophet in the Bible a railer because they all got up and yelled and screamed and hollered and rebuked sin. And we're talking about a railing here. We're talking about a railing accusation, accusations that are found in nothing, okay? And we just threw somebody out over this less than a week ago, you know, that little witch and her husband that were basically going around saying, oh, Pastor Anderson stole money from Steadfast Baptist Church while he was there. Okay, what in the world? Zero basis in reality and if you want to accuse Pastor Anderson of doing something that's just off the wall and crazy, you're thrown out of the church. And you know what? It's not just because I'm Pastor Anderson. If somebody accuses someone else in the church of something off the wall, crazy, there's no evidence, there's no facts, they should be thrown out of the church. You can't just go around just blowing off your mouth and accusing people of this, accusing people of that. Pastor Jonathan Shelley just threw a family out of the church because they brought some railing crazy accusation about something that had supposedly gone on and it was just based not in reality at all. It was something that happened in another state and they're trying to say it happened in Texas or something. But at the end of the day, they had no evidence and they're just blowing off their mouths. There's no facts. They got thrown out of the church. So you can see how railers get thrown out of the church. And then it says, after railers, it says drunkards. Now what's a drunkard? Drunkard people might have a different definition of what a drunkard is. I don't believe that if someone drinks one beer, it makes them a drunkard. Now let me say this. I'm totally against drinking. I've never even tasted beer in my life and I don't believe in any drinking. I believe that we shouldn't even look at the alcoholic beverage, amen? So I am totally against drinking. I'm against moderate drinking, social drinking. I am a teetotaler and don't believe in touching the stuff, amen? And that's what our church believes. But if someone drinks a beer, that doesn't make them a drunkard, I don't believe. If someone dabbles in this, so, you know, I'll tell you what. I have decided as a pastor because as a pastor, you know, you have to be able to execute judgment on these things and you got to draw the line somewhere, amen, of what constitutes a drunkard. And so I've laid down some guidelines of what I believe a drunkard is based on what the Bible teaches and just based on what we see in society and standardly accepted definitions of drunkenness in the United States of America. I mean, if you look at a pamphlet from Alcoholics Anonymous, you know, and they tell you what it means to be a drunk, you know, it's pretty much a lot of the same stuff that I would say because it's kind of just common sense, isn't it? Like here are some examples of what I believe it means to be a drunk, okay? When you're mixing drugs and alcohol, you're a drunk, okay? A social drinker isn't taking a few Vicodins before they drink so they can get a little more bang for their buck. That's not social drinking, okay? When you're drinking and driving, you're a drunk because that shows that you have no self-control, you have an addiction that's out of control that you can't even abstain from alcohol when you're going to be operating a motor vehicle. So you're criminally operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, you're a drunkard. If you drink alcohol every single day, you're a drunk. If you binge drink, you're a drunk. If you drink until you puke, you're a drunkard. And if you drink hard liquor, you're a drunkard. I don't care what the quantity is. If you're doing shots of whiskey, tequila, bourbon, whatever, vodka, you're a drunk. I don't care what the quantity is. That's not social drinking, friend. That is drunkenness. And so you say, well, I don't quite agree with you on that. Well, that's okay. That's my opinion, you know? And that's the standard that we have set here because the Bible does not give a blood alcohol concentration and say that if you get to this BAC, you're a drunk. So we have to exercise judgment here and decide, you know, what we're going to consider a drunk versus somebody who's just not perfect or somebody who is just, you know, a little bit messed up on that or a little bit backslidden or whatever versus where we would declare that you're a drunkard, okay? And then the last thing is an extortioner. An extortioner is someone who threatens someone with violence in order to get money from them. That's an extortioner, okay? These people are to be thrown out of the church. Now let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 with that in mind. So 2 Corinthians chapter 2, it's not just about that one guy, although it is about that one guy. It's not just about that guy who committed fornication. It's also about the ones who were drunk. It's also about the ones who were extortioners or idolaters or railers or anything else, okay? The Bible is talking about all of these people, such a man, sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many. So how many people inflict the punishment? One person or everybody? Many. I mean, it's not just the pastor shuns that person. You know, if somebody gets thrown out of the church, then we're supposed to have nothing to do with that person. Now, if someone leaves the church on good terms, there's nothing wrong with being friends with that person if they leave the church on good terms, but if they're thrown out of the church for sin, if they're what's called excommunicated or cast out of the church, then you should have nothing to do with that person because that's the punishment. Otherwise, you know what you're doing? You're interfering with the punishment. It would be like if a parent sent their child to bed with no dinner and then you're sneaking them dinner. You know what you're doing? You're teaching that child to continue sinning, to continue disobeying mom and dad and that the punishment's not real. That's what you're doing. And that's what you're doing when you buddy and pal around with people that have been thrown out of the church for these reasons or for other reasons because the list in 1 Corinthians 5, that's not the only reason people get thrown out because there are other places in the Bible about throwing out the heretics and there are other places in the Bible about throwing people out who offend someone and do not receive correction after two or three witnesses go to them and after it's brought before the church. So there are multiple scenarios of people getting thrown out for various reasons and that punishment is supposed to be inflicted of many and that punishment is to be put out of fellowship and to be under the judgment of God, okay? So they basically are losing friends and God's going to punish them. Now you say, well, that's so cruel. It's unloving. No, because what it actually is supposed to do is be a wake-up call. The goal is that the person would get right and come back. That's the goal, to get right and come back. So the Bible says in verse 6, sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so that contrary wise, rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow, wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him. Now there's a little bit of disagreement on how this is actually carried out and I believe that both sides have their merits so I'm not dogmatic on this but some people have a school of thought that says, well, if somebody's thrown out of the church, then they shouldn't be reinstated immediately. You know, there should be basically a waiting period or they should have to, you know, be clean for this many weeks or a certain amount of time and then be brought back in. And then the other school of thought would say, hey, as soon as they repent, they're immediately reinstated, okay? Now I would lean toward the fact that they would be immediately reinstated when there's real, genuine repentance there, then they would be immediately reinstated. And then you say, well, what's the punishment then, you know? What's the punishment? Well, the punishment is that they're basically rebuked in front of the whole congregation because it's called out, they're publicly thrown out. Even if they come back the next service, that's a pretty serious punishment right there, to be embarrassed or have your sin called out and publicly rebuked like that. So there still was a punishment. Other people would point to things like Miriam, you know, when Miriam in the Old Testament spoke against Moses and God punished her and then Moses interceded for her, God said, hey, she has to be outside the camp for seven days and then she can come back. So then people would point to that and say, hey, seven days before they can come back or a month before they can come back or whatever the case may be. But let me just say this, go if you would to Luke chapter 17. And again, I'm not saying that I'm 100% right on this or I'm not being dogmatic about this because I can see the argument for both sides but I would lean toward bringing people back immediately if they are genuinely repentant and we have practiced that. We've practiced the idea of somebody committing these sins and being, you know, rebuked, cast out and immediately reinstated but then there have been other times when people are cast out and they're not reinstated even if they want to be because of the fact that they don't exhibit genuine repentance, okay. Look at Luke chapter 17, this is an important scripture from Jesus himself, it says in verse 3, take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespasses against thee, rebuke him. Look, if somebody does you wrong, if somebody sins against you, there's nothing wrong with rebuking him, amen. If your brother sins against you, if he trespasses against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him, and if he trespasses against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. That's pretty extreme. That's pretty extreme. So Jesus is teaching a very extreme level of repentance here and he's teaching an extreme forgiveness, right, of saying, look, if people repent, forgive them. And I think he's kind of exaggerating here or using hyperbole, just giving the most radical possible example just to drive in the fact that you keep on forgiving people. So if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back and say, I repent, you forgive them, right. Just like when Jesus said, you don't forgive them seven times, it's 70 times seven, right. You forgive them 490 times, okay. So the Bible does come down pretty heavily on the side of forgiveness. So when in doubt, forgive people, okay. When in doubt, forgive them. Now the unrepentant, we're not required to forgive the unrepentant, period. And I know a lot of people don't like that and they disagree with that and they'll point to maybe Jesus, hey, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Forgive them for they know not what they do. What about the people who do know what they do? What about the people who do something, they brazenly sin, they're called out, they're rebuked and they will not take responsibility, they will not repent, they will not fix it. Okay, look, that person cannot be reinstated. We're not going to bring that person back in and confirm our love toward them and reinstate them. No, there has to be repentance. That's what the Bible teaches, okay. Fellowship is restored when there's repentance. And if the person is unrepentant and cast out, then they will never be restored if they never repent. If they never get it right, then they're forever cast out, okay. Now if you would go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, he says, sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. So what he's saying is if you throw the person out of the church and just rebuke them hard, cut off contact with them and just their name's mud, well, what he's saying is that if that person repents, we don't want them to just be swallowed up of over much sorrow. We don't want them to just think that their life is over. We don't want them to commit suicide. We don't want them to just get out of church permanently or go out and live a life of sin or just mess up their life because of the fact that the best case scenario is that people get right with God, okay. Now this is not talking about the unrepentant. You know, the unrepentant deserve whatever happens to them. You know, they're out there. God's judging them. They're delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. We can't bring that leaven into the church. Little leaven leavens the whole lump. The leaven cannot be in the church, okay. And the whole point of throwing them out is to get them right. It's a punishment that's meant to be a wake-up call. It's a way for them to hit rock bottom so that they can get right with God. But the one who is repentant, the one who is truly sorry, the one who wasn't just evil and malicious and duplicitous, the one who's actually somebody who messed up and they're sorry, hey, we don't want to ruin that person's life. We want that person to come back. And you know what's so funny is people accuse us of just throwing people out and we never let anybody come back. We never restore anyone. You know why people think that about us? Because we don't talk about the ones that we restore. They say, well, where are all the examples of people you've restored? I can't give them to you. Because guess what? It's forgiven and forgotten. Why would I sit here and bring up a list of names of people in the last 13 years and let me tell you something. It would be a long list of people that have been thrown out of this church, they've been fully thrown out and that have gotten right with God and come back and gone on to live for the Lord and be great church members, great Christians. You know what? It would be a long list but guess what? I'm not going to tell you about it because of the fact that those people should never have their sins mentioned to them again. Why? Because they already were punished, they already repented, they got right with God. Why bring that up? That's not forgiveness when you keep bringing that up or using them as some kind of an example or something. Wrong. No. Now the ones that stand out are the ones who are thrown out and spend the rest of their lives saying that our church is a cult and, you know, we're so bad and blah, blah, blah. You know what? And if you get thrown out of the church and you say, oh, that church is a cult, it's funny how it wasn't a cult last week when you were a member in good standing. Funny how it instantly becomes a cult when you get thrown out. Why? Because of the fact that either one of two things, either number one, you're just sour grapes that you got thrown out and busted for your sin and so now you're taking that out on us. Or number two, which is more likely, which is 99.9% of the time the case, is that you already hated us while you were here. You already hated us and so as soon as you're thrown out, you start expressing what you felt all along. You start expressing your true feelings that were there all along. That's what's actually going on, folks. When people get thrown out, they go from just being your best friend to your worst enemy and they just hate you. And here's what I think is so funny, the pattern. When people are thrown out of the church, the pattern is that they instantly just hate us and attack us and call us every name. And the funny thing about it is that they love to say the way you're going now, Pastor Anderson, what you're becoming, what you're turning into, it's not the way you used to be. And I'm thinking to myself, I've gotten nicer. But every time, whenever people are thrown out, they're like, oh man, this church used to be awesome until recently. But Pastor Anderson, man, he's just not, you know, he's gotten so mean. You know, this movement has gotten so hateful. This church has gotten so hateful. I'm thinking to myself, we were declared a hate group in 2009. The ACLU declared our church an official hate group a decade ago. Oh, you guys have gotten so mean. Boy, the meanest preaching you'll ever hear is from 2006, 2007, 2008. I mean, that's the mean stuff. You know, what are you talking about? Oh, now you're teaching this. Look, the stuff I'm teaching now, you can go back and find it all in the early preaching. Go listen to the sermon on whatever, pick the topic, name the topic, and go back and listen to the preaching from 06, 07, and 08. And it's not going to be exactly the same, but it's pretty much the same stuff and it's usually going to be a little meaner. Those are the angry years. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. But look, if anything, I've gotten nicer. So to sit there and say, oh, you know, you're getting the, because here's what they don't want to admit. They don't want to admit that they were happily here for years until they got busted. So they have to somehow explain why they were our biggest cheerleader. Go F, give me an F, F, give me a W, W. You know, they're our biggest cheerleader online. You know, we've got spirit, yes we do, we've got spirit, how about you? And then all of a sudden, they just hate us. You know what it makes them look like? A fraud. It makes them look like an hypocrite, it makes them look like a phony to go from being the biggest cheerleader to the biggest hater overnight. So they have to be like, well, the church changed. Well, you know what, why don't you just ask Second Sunday Amanda how much we've changed? You know, why don't you ask, yeah, how much have we changed, Amanda? Zero. Exactly. She's been here since the Second Sunday of our church. She's been here for 13 years. Ask the people who've been here for a decade if we've changed. Brother Segura, what if you've been here for a little over a decade? Has it changed? No, it's the same thing, folks. These people, they went out from us, but they were not all of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. When somebody is singing your praises and then turns on you and bites you and hates you the next minute, you know what, that's a duplicitous person. Now it's one thing if you turn on somebody because some new thing was exposed about, you know, let's say you thought somebody was a good person, all of a sudden you find out something horrible about them. But you know what, our church is the same, the preaching is the same, nothing has changed, friend. Oh, but you know, the way that you just go after the false teachers, yeah, that's new. Oh, the way you rip on the people that are busted being, you know, infiltrators, yeah, that's all real new. Yeah, the reprobate stuff, yeah, it's brand new, just came out, 2018. It's bizarre, folks, that anyone would actually believe that for five seconds. And so it's not that things have changed, it's that the people were hypocrites, they're duplicitous, they're wolves in sheep's clothing, and they get exposed and they show their true colors and it is what it is. But the Bible talks about here in verse 9, for this and also did I write that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all things. He's saying, you know, it was a test also, I'm writing to you to see if you guys are going to obey and get things right and get things fixed. Verse 10, to whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Now what does he mean by that when he says, I forgave it in the person of Christ? Because Jesus told the members of the early church, he told the apostles, he said, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And so what he's saying is that if we throw somebody out of the church, that person's under the judgment of God. That person has been delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, okay? And when we reinstate that person, then that person is no longer under the judgment of God, okay? God actually gives us the power to throw people out and to bring people back in, based on biblical principles, okay? And so the church has that power, and look, it's a fearful, scary thing to be thrown out of the church. Now again, there's nothing in the world wrong with leaving the church and going to a different church. And you might just say, I don't like Faith Lord Baptist Church, I don't like you, Pastor Anderson. That's okay. And if you don't like me and if you don't like our church, you're not under the judgment of God if you just leave and go to a different Bible believing church. There are about 40 independent Baptist churches in the greater Phoenix area that are King James Bible only. And I can think of at least 10 of them that do soul winning. So this isn't the only church. And so there's nothing wrong with switching churches. Switching churches is no problem. I'm talking about when you are thrown out of the church for wickedness. That's a scary thing, man. You better not give sleep to your eyelids until you make that right. And when you're lashing out at the people that throw you out, you know what you're showing? That your fate is sealed at that point. You're doomed. That's all you're doing. You're just dooming yourself, okay? And so getting thrown out of the church is a scary thing. You know what's funny is that I've never been fired from a job and I've never been thrown out of a church. And you know, you talk to people that are just constantly getting fired from their job, but it's never their fault. And people are constantly getting thrown out of their church and it's never their fault. You know, any normal person, if they get fired from their job, needs to do some introspection. And take a long look at themselves in the mirror and say, hey, what can I do better on my next job? What can I do to fix this problem? Not just, well, yeah, they added in for me all five times that I got fired. Oh, well, I'm just getting thrown out of churches all over. You know what? Look, I understand that sometimes good people do get fired from their job. I get that. And I understand that sometimes good people could get thrown out of their church. I get that. It's out there. I've seen examples of good people getting thrown out of a church because they were thrown out for a totally unbiblical reason. It had nothing to do with what the Bible teaches, okay? And I've seen people get fired from their job and it was not their fault at all. So that's not what I'm saying. But you know what? If I were you, if I got thrown out of a church or fired from my job, I'd do some serious introspection and I would do some serious soul searching and make sure that I'm not the problem. Not just a neat, ah, how dare you. But if it's a pattern for you, we know what the answer is, friend, if it's a pattern for you. You say, well, I'm just too holy. I'm too righteous. No job can employ me. You're a bozo. Because you know what? There are godlier Christians than you that go to work every day and they can be a good Christian and a good employee at the same time. You can do both, friend. Now if you work at a casino, that's not going to work, okay? But I'm saying, you know, there are a lot of honest jobs. You can go out there, you can work your job, you can be a good employee and a good Christian at the same time, right? And you know what? You can go to church and the church be wrong doctrinally or have problems and you can still go there and be a successful church member and grow and thrive and serve God there without getting thrown out if you're a blessing. You know, churches don't throw people out of the church that are a blessing typically. And they typically don't fire employees that are making them money. Businesses like to make money more than anything else. They don't really just like to surround themselves with faces that they like to see and people that are friendly and people that they like to hang out with. They typically like to surround themselves with people that are making money for them. That's typically what businesses think about. You know, when I was in business, you know, I hired people not because I wanted a new buddy but because I wanted them to make money for the company, right? Isn't that what you do when you hire people? So the church basically casts people out in the person of Christ and forgives people and brings people back in in the person of Christ, representing Christ, right? Because Christ isn't on this earth throwing people out of the church and bringing people back in. So we do that in the person of Christ. You know, when we go soul winning, we're ambassadors for Christ, right? And we beseech them in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Well, the same thing when somebody is sinful and they get thrown out of the church but they're repentant and then you reinstate them, you know, you're doing that in the person of Christ. You're doing that as an ambassador of Christ. But don't you dare try to bring people back into the church that are not repentant, that still have the wrong attitude, that are still justifying their sin or even continuing in their sin. Let's hurry up and finish here. He said, for your sakes forgave I in the person of Christ, verse 11, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now how is Satan going to get an advantage of us? The Bible is saying here that if we don't forgive, Satan will get an advantage of us, right? He's saying, look, if you don't forgive this guy, if you don't confirm your love toward him, Satan could get an advantage of you because we're not ignorant of his devices. Now why is that? Because when we don't forgive people, there are two problems that can happen. Number one, if we don't forgive people, that person could be swallowed up with over much sorrow. That person could just despair and quit because nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I've ruined my whole life. You know, we want to give people a pathway back home if they're sincere, if they're repentant. So number one, it harms the person who's not being forgiven. But number two, it's harmful to the person who doesn't forgive them. Here's why. Because not forgiving someone is called being bitter. So let's say somebody does me wrong and that person is repentant and I don't accept their apology, I don't forgive that person, I continue to be angry toward that person, then that becomes what's known as bitterness, being bitter. And the Bible says that we shouldn't have a root of bitterness springing up in us that would trouble us because it would cause many people to be defiled. So we don't want to become bitter people or cynical people. And look, when you keep getting stabbed in the back, when people keep turning on you and being a Judas, and look, I've been stabbed in the back so many times I can't even count. I've had so many people that I do nice things for and they just turn around and just treat me like garbage. And it's like Paul said, you know, it seems like the more I love you, the more you hate me. That's what Paul said. And you know what, it's hard sometimes not to get bitter. When you do things for people and you treat people well and they just turn around and treat you like garbage and stab you in the back and you just get betrayed and betrayed and betrayed and betrayed. And you know what, you can get to the point where you get bitter and where you get cynical, where you get to the point where it's like you don't want to be friends with anybody. You know, I don't want to be friends with anybody, you know. I'm sick of it. Everybody's such a phony. Everybody's such a backstabber. I'm never going to trust anybody again. I'm never going to be friends with anybody again. I don't want to do anything for anybody because no good deed ever goes unpunished. But is that really the right attitude to have? But you know what, that's the attitude that sometimes can happen. And look, those thoughts have definitely entered my mind. I'm not going to lie to you. Those thoughts have entered my mind about how no good deed ever goes unpunished. Isn't that the truth? And just how people just stab you in the back and all the phonies and people who love to just kick you when you're down and kick you when you're down and with their mouth they show much love and they hate you in their heart. And it's easy to get cynical but you know what, we must put away bitterness, wrath. We must forgive. We must move forward. So if people are repentant, forgive them. If they're not repentant, stay away from them. And you don't have to just burn and see the anger and wrath toward that person because if they're out of sight, they're out of mind. Turn that person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, cast them out and then just go forward. But don't project that on other people. Don't sit there and treat other people bad because of what that person did because you're still just holding that grudge and harboring that. Look, throw them out and let God deal with them and just move on. And then the ones who are repentant, forgive them. And I don't mean just say I forgive you. I mean actually forgive that person. Just put aside the bitterness, put aside the anger, put aside the hatred and actually forgive that person from your heart. And forgive and forget. Stop thinking about it. Stop dwelling on it. Just let it go. And you know what? Forgiving people is what Christ commands us to do. He doesn't recommend it. He commands it. And he says that if you don't forgive other people, he won't forgive you. Now, it's not talking about salvation. Obviously you're saved. But do you want God to forgive your trespasses on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis? Or do you want him to just hold a grudge every time you screw up? We all screw up, folks. We want God to let things go, then we better let things go. Because whatever measure we meet, that's how it's going to be measured unto us again. So if we're a very forgiving person who lets things go, God's going to forgive us and let things go. And we want God to show us more grace. We need to show other people grace. So that's what the Bible's teaching here. We don't want Satan to get an advantage of us. You know, yeah, deliver them unto Satan, but we don't want to have Satan getting an advantage of us. So we want to make sure that we forgive as Christ forgave. The rest of the chapter is about other things, so we'll cover that later. Let's fire it up. What a prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord. Help us to forgive the repentant, Lord. Help us to love people that have been restored and not to hang things over people's head, Lord, but to let them go, move on, move forward. And just to give people a chance to push a reset button and do right and live right. Lord, when people mess up, they need a path forward. They need a way forward, Lord. And so those that are sincere, Lord, help them to repent and help them to be forgiven and reinstated and restored. And help us to have a tender heart that would forgive others. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.