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Man, the title of my sermon this evening is separating from wicked brethren. Separating from wicked brethren. The Bible ends this chapter by saying, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person and we're talking about a brother or one who is at least called a brother who is a fornicator, covetous, idolater, et cetera. Let's look at this passage together. It says in verse number nine, 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 she needs go out of the world. So he's saying, look, when I wrote to you in an earlier epistle telling you not to company with fornicators, I didn't mean with the fornicators of this world because in that case you pretty much have to go out of the world because this world is filled with fornicators. When it comes to worldly, non-Christian people, that's what they do. And so the apostle Paul is telling us that we do not have to break fellowship with a worldly, non-Christian person who is a fornicator, but he says, if any man that is called a brother, there in verse 11, but now I've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one, no not to eat, okay? Do not even eat with them, have no fellowship with them, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now, if we get the context of this passage, there's a situation in the church where there's this man, there's a common report, everybody knows basically that this guy in the church is committing fornication and it says in verse two, you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. Now let me say this, whenever you talk about judging people who are involved in serious sin, right? We're not just talking about any old sin because if we were talking about any old sin, then we would all be doomed. No one could fellowship with any of us because we're all sinners, we've all come short of the glory of God, nobody's perfect, but we're talking about these certain big sins that are listed here, these certain things that God does not want to be a corrupting influence in the local church, these big things of fornication, drunkenness, et cetera. Whenever you start judging these things and saying, hey, we're not going to tolerate fornication, we're not going to tolerate drunkenness, et cetera, people will say, oh, you know, you're just unloving or you just don't have the right spirit or here's what they'll often say about any kind of strong leadership or taking of a stand or judging anyone. They'll say, well, you're just so prideful, you're being filled with pride. But you know what the Bible actually says is that the people who are tolerating fornication in the church, they're the ones who are puffed up according to the Bible. I mean, the Bible doesn't say here that people that are sick of fornication that are against fornication that don't want to tolerate fornication to be the norm within the church. Those people aren't being arrogant or holier than thou or puffed up. No, rather it's the holier than thou bleeding hearts who are puffed up, who think they're so much better than everyone else because they're just so loving and so forgiving that they will allow unrepentant fornication to run rampant in the church or drunkenness or whatever. Who's puffed up? It's the fake sloppy agape, holier than thou bleeding hearts that are puffed up. It is not the ones who actually want to follow the Bible that are puffed up, okay? And so let's just get that straight. He says you're puffed up that don't want to get rid of this guy. You're puffed up and have not rather mourned 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, we're in verse three, have judged already as though I were present concerning him that had so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you're gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. He's saying, look, get rid of this guy, cast him out of the church and by casting him out of the church, you're delivering him unto Satan because, and here's what that means, is that this guy is no longer being protected by God. This guy is under the curse of God. You know, God puts a hedge of protection around his children. He puts a hedge of protection around godly Christians. The Bible says the angel of the Lord and campeth round about them that fear him. Job had a hedge of protection around him, but then God removed that hedge of protection. Well guess what? According to scripture, the one who is thrown out of the church for one of these serious sins is under the curse of God and so they're delivered over unto Satan and that is going to ultimately lead to the destruction of their flesh. Now this could be for their good in the long run. If they're not saved, this could lead to them getting saved, okay? If they are saved, then that chastisement could cause them to see the error of their ways and get right with God. But ultimately, church discipline does two things. Casting out that wicked person does two things. Number one, it's a wake up call for that person. It's a punishment for that person. It puts that person in a place where bad things are going to happen to them that will hopefully scare them straight and get them back on the right path. But number two, it removes the leaven from the church so that the rest of the church is not contaminated with that wickedness. Let's not miss that part. So church discipline has two goals. One is to reform the person who's in sin, right? We would love to see them get right with God. But number two, the goal is to just get them away from other people that they would be a bad influence upon. Look what the Bible goes on to say, your glorying is not good, verse 6. Know ye not that a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump, now leaven is yeast. When you're baking bread, some of you might have done one of those sourdough type recipes where you have an endless starter. Who knows what I'm talking about? Put up your hand if you've worked with that kind of starter. Where you get the starter and it just goes on forever. You keep adding flour, you add water, you feed the starter and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing because it's like a pet that you have. It's literally a living organism. I mean, it's a lot of living organisms, but it's all that yeast in there that's alive and it's growing and it's multiplying. And the Bible talks about, you know, you put a little leaven into the lump and then you mix it together. The whole lump gets leavened. Sin is like leaven where it spreads and it can contaminate the entire church. And so it says a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump, purge out there for the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you're unleavened for even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And then he follows that up with, I wrote unto you in an epistle, not company with fornicates. He's getting down to the nitty gritty. This is what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this guy who's living in fornication. I'm talking about other people that are involved in serious sins, idolatry, railing, drunkenness, etc. Get rid of these people. Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now notice it says that if any man that is called a brother, verse 11, be a fornicator. If he's called a brother. Now is this guy saved? Well it could, sometimes he'll be saved and sometimes he won't be saved, right? Because it's any man, any man who's called a brother. Let me ask this, is any man who's called a brother for sure saved? Is any man who's called a brother for sure not saved? No, it could go either way. The point is that whether or not the person is saved is not relevant. What is relevant is that they are claiming to be saved, that they are considered a saved Christian, that they are considered part of the church. That is the relevance. Whether they are saved or not, we can't see that. We can't see the heart. We don't know. We can guess and say, well I think he's saved or I think he's not saved. But at the end of the day, God can see that heart and we don't really know. But it doesn't really change how we deal with this. Now what does this mean if any man that's called a brother? Look if somebody is not a Christian, not saved, and they're living in fornication, well you know it's sin, it's wrong, it's wicked, but the Bible is not demanding us to separate from that person. But if the person is viewed, is seen by others, is called a brother outwardly, and we would look at that person and believe that they are a saved Christian or at least claiming to be, now all of a sudden we have to separate from this person. So let's say somebody is just a brand new believer, they just got saved, obviously they should be given time to grow, they're not necessarily called a brother, I mean they just got saved, they need to grow, they need to learn, they can be given some time to get these things right, I get that. But what about somebody who's grown up in a Christian home, they know what's right, they've been raised in a Christian home, they're seen as a part of the church, they're seen as a Christian young person, and then they go into this kind of lifestyle. What if we kept that person around? You know what, we're sending a message that says this is acceptable. And even if we say it's wrong, it's bad, but we're saying yeah but we'll still tolerate it. You know, it's okay. And look, I have been in churches that do not believe what I'm preaching, and you know forget not believing what I'm preaching, they don't believe this chapter because this chapter is clear. I mean I've talked to people that literally were on staff in independent fundamental Baptist churches that had never even heard of church discipline, they didn't even know what it was, I remember showing 1 Corinthians 5 to a staff member, to an assistant pastor at an independent Baptist church, and just you know, kindly, gently showing him 1 Corinthians 5 and saying, and he's just saying, I've never heard of it, I've never, that doesn't, I've never heard pastor preach on that. And I'm like, well that's funny that you have to hear a pastor preach on it before you'll believe the Bible. Like you're looking at it, it's in front of you right here, it literally says, if any man that's called a brother is a fornigator, don't eat with them, put away from yourselves that way, well I've never heard of this. Well pay, I don't know, wake up next time, pay attention. Or maybe your pastor's not preaching all the counsel of God. But this is a chapter in the Bible, this is right, this is biblical, but I've been in churches that don't believe this and don't practice this, and you know what? They literally would have people running church activities, having the Sunday school class come over to their house, and they're living in fornication openly. I mean, people, they're not married, they're living together, and the whole church is going over there for a party. The singles are going over there for a party, or whatever. And I'm talking about church sanctioned activities, and these people are just members in good standing. It's kind of a message that's sent to our young people, that basically fornication's not a big deal. And we live in this day of the stupidity of, well you know, it's just another sin and we're all sinners, and all sin's equal in the sight of God. Really? Because that's not in the Bible at all, okay? We're all sinners, but we're not all fornicators, we're all sinners, but we're not all drunkards. God is a sinner, but we're not all idolaters. Hey, the Bible says these people have to go. I'm gonna follow the Bible. It's clear cut. Go if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And we're living in a day where things are even weirder than that, where people want to have open sodomites in the church. And the old IFP is literally inviting open sodomites and even transvestites into the church. Okay, and that will never happen in this church. You can take as long as I'm the pastor here, you know. Maybe after I die a hundred years from now some weirdo will be here, but it will never happen while I'm the pastor. I would rather stop pastoring than to preach a whole sermon with some transvestite in the crowd, you know, some transvestite sitting in the front row or something. You think I'm just gonna preach my sermon like that? If the church said, well, Pastor Anderson, times change and we voted on this and we've decided we want to allow this thing to come to the church, I'd say bye. You know, I'll go back to turning in a screwdriver. I'll go back to doing electrical work happily, okay. I'm not gonna pastor transvestites and reprobates and haters of God. Not gonna happen, okay. Never gonna happen, folks. But there are people that say, yeah, you know, we need to allow that. Or how about this? How about this? Oh, if you have a relative that's a sodomite, you can still have them over for Thanksgiving and you should still have them over for Christmas so you can show them the love of Christ and show them the love of God and that's gonna cause them to get right with God and everything. I remember that wretched man, Todd Friel, he was saying if you have homo-relatives, you have them over for a barbecue, invite them over to your house, bring them over for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Now tell your kids that what they're doing is wrong, but bring them over. But you know what, your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks, okay. And so if you're gonna sit there and say like, well, it's wrong but, you know, okay kids, let's just bring over the worst deviant pervert freaks and they're gonna come over to our house and we're gonna love them and treat them well and act like it's fine. But it's wrong though, you know. But again, this comes from the bizarre, literally insane doctrine that says that all sin is equal, which is absurd. Like I've literally had somebody say, well, murdering someone is like stealing a pencil in the eyes of God. What kind of a bizarre God are you worshiping? Because the God that I believe in has a whole list of commandments and he gives different punishments for different commandments. Never did he say, well, it's just the same, it's just the same thing. Really that's funny because certain sins get you kicked out of the church and others don't. So apparently it's not all equal in the sight of God. But that's the fruit of that stupid doctrine is that now people will bring predators, pedophiles, weirdos into their home and expose them to their children and say, well, you know, we just gotta show them love and we're gonna reach them and blah, blah, blah. No, they're gonna reach you. They're gonna reach your family. They're gonna reach the church, not the other way around. Now in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, we have what I like to call the Jimenez doctrine. And the reason I call this the Jimenez doctrine is because, you know, he's the first person that I heard this from and it was such an epiphany the way that he explained this that it actually ended up being named after him, okay? So this goes down in history as the Jimenez doctrine. Let me give you the Jimenez doctrine in a nutshell and then we'll look at it in the scripture. The Jimenez doctrine says this, homeless bums who refuse to get a job aren't allowed to come to the church. This is the Jimenez doctrine, okay? Now you say, well, I don't know about that. Well, let's see what the Bible says. It says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 6, now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but our busybodies. Now then that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread, but ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing, and if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed, yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. The Bible talks about these people who refuse to work, they're working not at all, and God says if they won't work they should not eat, number one. Number two, he says withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly, and the disorderly people are the ones that are not working at all that were described, and then he says have no company with them. Withdraw yourself from them, have no company with them, they shouldn't even be allowed to eat if they refuse to work. We've had people like this come to our church, refusing to work, I'm talking about young people. We've had multiple guys that were like early 20s homeless bum derelicts, sleeping out in the parking lot, sleeping in parks, sleeping in street corners, refusing to get a job, and here's the thing, we've tried to help a lot of people like this, you know, because we always want to help people get right with God if they're willing to get right, we'll help people out, and so we've helped people out. Brother Segura has taken these people and gotten them cleaned up, and he sets up job interviews with them, because we know some companies that if you have a pulse they'll hire you, and so we would try to set these people up with jobs, and we've had a couple that just refused, they won't show up for the job interview, they won't work, they don't want to get a job, and you ask them when are you going to get a job, and they just say I'm not going to, and then you see them around town panhandling, and they would even be in our church parking lot with their set up, and they'd be panhandling at the Wendy's right there and everything like that, and then when the landlord would get on their case, I go on with faith for a Baptist church, no you're not. And so we have cast these people out, we have trespassed them off the property, we've thrown them off the property, and we are following the Jimenez doctrine on this. They're refusing to work. They're not allowed to do that. That's not an option for a lifestyle for a young man to just become a beggar. Now look, you're in the wrong religion. That's Buddhism, okay? In Buddhism, being a beggar is a virtue. You get a little begging bowl, and you go around every morning and you beg with your begging bowl. I don't know, you might even be able to learn some Kung Fu while you're out of it. That could be cool, the Kung Fu part, but this isn't Kung Fu Baptist. This is not Shaolin Baptist Church. This is not a Buddhist monastery. This is a Baptist church, and you have to work for a living, okay? Maybe Hinduism will approve of you, but Christianity doesn't, okay? Because Christianity demands that you work for a living. I remember when I first started Faithful Word Baptist Church, there was a nice young man that was visiting from out of town, and he was a fundamentalist Baptist, and we were having lunch with him. It's when the church was really small, and he said to me, he said, you know, I don't know how this came up in conversation, but he said, you know, when it comes to people that are saved, when it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what, you know, we should never separate from any of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because we're going to be with them for all eternity. I mean, they're our family. They're our brothers and sisters in Christ, so we should always have fellowship with them no matter what. Now, if people aren't saved, you know, yeah, we would separate from those kind of people, but he said, anyone who's saved, we need to have unity. We need to have fellowship. I mean, that sounds pretty good if you haven't read this passage. And I took him to this passage, and, you know, I believe that he received what I taught him, but I took him to this passage, and I said, look, the Bible says in verse 6 that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. This isn't even somebody who's called a brother or says their brother. It just says withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly. And not only that, just in case there's any doubt, jump down to verse 14, and if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed, yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. He's not your enemy. He's your brother. Have no company with him. Why? So that he will be ashamed. And look, I have known a lot of people who got thrown out of a church and they were embarrassed about it, but they got right with God. It led to them getting right with God because it's scary, it's humiliating, it's embarrassing, and you say, well, why is it scary? Well, you know what? If you don't think it's scary, you don't understand God's curse upon you if you are kicked out of the local church. So you know, look, if you're kicked out because you're into drugs or drunkenness or fornication, man, you better make that right immediately because I wouldn't want to go around with that cloud hanging over me of being delivered over to Satan in that way. And so it's important that we follow this. Why would we want the person to be ashamed? Because hopefully they will be shamed into doing what's right in that situation, okay? Go if you would to Matthew chapter 18. Now everything I'm preaching, I kind of flies it in the face of the way our culture is going because our culture is going in this way that just says tolerate everything and don't judge anything or anyone and it's just unconditional love, unconditional tolerance, just unconditional grace for everyone, okay? That's not what the Bible is teaching though. We need to follow the Bible. The Bible says there are certain sins that get you thrown out of church, refusing to work, being a fornicator, being a drunk, being a railer, et cetera, gets you thrown out of the church. Now in Matthew 18 there's another example of how someone could be thrown out of the church. It says in Matthew chapter 18, and here's what I want to make clear because a lot of people get this wrong, a lot of people think that if somebody is a drunk or a fornicator or a railer that we have to go through this Matthew 18 process with that person and that is not true. Here's the thing, in order for you personally to not eat with a person who's called a brother that's a fornicator, they don't have to be kicked out of their local church. You could just make that decision unilaterally on your own. You can just decide this person's called a brother, I know that they're living in fornication therefore I'm not going to be their friend. No church discipline even required. Does everybody see what I'm saying? Do not confuse these two things. If someone is living in fornication, they're out. If someone's a drunkard, they're out. If someone's a railer, they're out. That's just, you're out. Now obviously people who are repentant can always be reinstated, of course, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the fact that a person who is called a brother, who's a drunkard, we're to separate from that person immediately. Even if the church, you might be going to a Baptist church that doesn't practice this and there are people in the church that are living in fornication and the church just allows that to go on. That doesn't mean that you have to be that person's buddy, it doesn't mean that you have to go to their house, it doesn't mean that you have to eat with that person. If I were in a church that allowed those kind of people to come to church, I would stay away from those people because that's what the Bible says. So it's not just about church discipline, my friend, it's about separation. It's about separating from people that God tells us to separate from. We don't want them to be a bad influence on us or others. And you say, well, this is kind of harsh, yeah, but it's tough love is what it is and it will help people actually get right with God. If we actually lived in a society that shamed people for fornication and drunkenness, there'd be a lot less fornication and drunkenness. We live in a society where it's just considered fine and then lo and behold, it abounds. So Matthew 18 is describing a different situation. Notice Matthew 18 is not talking about drunk people, Matthew 18 is not talking about fornicators. Look what Matthew 18 says, it says in verse 15, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, is thee singular or plural? The is singular. So he's talking to the individual and he's saying, if thy brother, you know, Fidel, if your brother trespasses against you, okay, we're not talking about somebody who's going out and getting drunk or fornication. I'm saying somebody does you wrong, right? One person. Then it says, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, right? So that guy did you wrong, go to that person and try to fix things alone with that one person and just hopefully you can just get it resolved quietly and not make a big deal out of it, right? If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother. Amen. Problem solved. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. So again, somebody's, somebody has, has burned Fidel, right? And he goes to that person and tries to talk, let's say Daniel, you know, has burned Fidel and Fidel goes to Daniel and says, look, you know, you need to make this right. And Daniel's just like, no. And Fidel's clearly in the right here. And Daniel has done something very serious and Daniel's just refusing to make it right. Then Fidel grabs one or two other people and says, hey, you know, can you basically help me talk sense into Daniel because he's not making this right and it's serious and whatever, you know? And then basically they go together and talk to Daniel and say, look, Daniel, come on, you need to make this right. And Daniel refuses. Then at that point it would be brought before the entire church. And we, we, we'd call out Daniel in front of the whole church and say, look, you know, this is what he has done. He's refusing to make it right. And if he, and if the church basically says, yeah, I mean, this is clear, this is obvious, you know, Daniel's right. Then Daniel needs to repent. He needs to listen to the judgment of the church. And if he refuses to hear that judgment of the church, then he's to be cast out of the church because he's refusing to listen to the judgment of the church. And then let's read, let's finish reading the passage. It says, if he shall neglect to hear them, verse 17, tell it unto the church. And oh, by the way, and why do we bring the one or two witnesses? Part of it is just to make sure that everybody's on the same page. This has been explained to Daniel when he's not fixing it and everybody's heard the facts and every word is established. We've heard Daniel's side. We've heard Fidel's side. We've heard it all here and it's all established. If you will not hear them, then tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and as a publican. So at that point it's like, hey, this guy is cast out of the church. He's as unto us as a heathen man and as a publican. We don't want to have it. And then look what the Bible says. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What's he saying? He's giving the church authority to do this. God in heaven is giving the church authority to pass judgment on controversies between members and he's saying, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And that's what the Bible says, okay? That's what it is. Now oh, by the way, let me just, this has nothing to do with anything, but the legacy standard Bible, which is neither legacy nor standard because this is the legacy, the King James. This is the standard, the King James. I use the standard Bible. I use the legacy Bible and I'm a latter day Saint and I'm a Nazarene. But anyway, but, and I'm a presbyter as well. But anyway, here's the thing. The thing about that is that in this LSB bizarre new Bible that changes God's name to Yahweh over 7,000 times, a pronunciation and spelling and name for God that no one in America has used for centuries, but all of a sudden it just, it's the, it's the hot new, uh, doctrine. It changes this verse instead of saying whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. It says whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. So trying to imply that basically whatever we do on this earth, like we're just reflecting something that already happened or basically just taking away our power. I don't know. Maybe the legacy standard Bible can also change that part about Adam naming the animals and maybe they can change it to like whatever name Adam called the animal. That's what God already called it anyway secretly. Well that's a Calvinist junk. Anyway that was a digression. I'm sorry. Now actually I'm not sorry, but let's get back to the issue at hand here. Okay. First of all, bozos love to Matthew 18 people like twice a week or you know, like, I don't know, three times a year or something like this should be used sparingly. This is for serious issues folks. Okay. You know, we had this bozo idiot in our church recently who is just wants to Matthew 18 everybody under the sun and he's just constantly coming to me with drama. The biggest drama mama ever and just constantly having strife with everybody and just wants me to Matthew 18 this person he's trying to Matthew 18. It's like every service he's trying to get his two or three witnesses together. He's just got so many irons in the fire. I don't know. He's probably got a file cabinet at home of like who's on step one, who's on step two and who's on step three of Matthew 18. And the thing about that is that this, this should be reserved for actual serious issues. Not just somebody offended you a little bit or, you know, I don't know. They didn't, they didn't say hi to you or they, they got upset with you or whatever. You got in a little fight or something. Look, people are going to get in arguments. People are going to have disagreements. And so Matthew 18 should not be used as a bludgeon to beat up on people that you don't like socially, people that you don't get along with or people that stole your girlfriend or something. You know, you don't just pull out Matthew 18 as like your nuclear option or something. Okay. This is for serious issues, not just for every dumb little thing. Why do you know? You know, the Bible says that we should just turn the other cheek, suffer ourselves to be defrauded. So what kind of things would be serious enough for Matthew 18? Well, obviously this is up to interpretation, but how about this? I mean, what if somebody hired someone in the church to come do work at their house? Like they hired a contractor and got thousands of dollars of work done at their house and then the person just didn't pay the bill. Now the Bible says that we're not supposed to sue our brother in Christ. We're not supposed to go to law. So how do you deal with something like that? That would be a Matthew 18 situation. Somebody using your services, refusing to pay the bill, right? Somebody damages your vehicle or damages your property or something and is refusing to pay for it to make it right. Or it could be some kind of a statement that's made or a fight or something if it's serious. You know, like, like for example, you know, there, there one time there was a situation where somebody, you know, uh, yelled at somebody else and, and told them that they were, you know, you're, you're not saved. You're a reprobate. You're wicked. You're a pervert in front of like 20 people and embarrassed and humid. You know, that, that could be pretty serious, right? You know, making like a serious accusation in front of a bunch of people and whatever. You know, that could be a situation that needs redress because that's major. That's a big deal. But here's the bozo version of this. The bozo version of this is, oh, six months ago, uh, this guy criticized me six months ago and now I want to initiate Matthew 18 proceedings because I'm mad at him right now. True story. That is a literal true story. Okay. When did this happen? Six months ago. What? Why are we talking about this now? Here's a, here's another true story. Okay. Somebody said something faggoty and then another guy's like, dude, quit being a faggot. That is not a railer. Oh, he's a railer. Throw him out. He's a railer. That's not railing. That's an, and by the way, let me say this. You know, that's an opinion, okay? That's just an opinion. Like if somebody says something queer sounding and you're like, dude, that sounds queer. Quit being a faggot. That's just a figure of speech. He's not saying like, you are a homosexual. You are a reprobate. You know, you are, you know, you're evil. You're a pervert. No, that's not what it was. It was just, dude, you said something queer sounding. So quit being a faggot bro. Okay. Now look, you say, well, I don't think quit being a faggot is the right way to address that. And it's not a Matthew 18 thing either, is it? Get over it. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, like it's one thing. Look, people, if you spend enough time around people, they're going to say things that offend you and you're going to say things that offend them. And if we just Matthew 18 everybody, every time they say something offensive, we're going to be doing this on a weekly basis. I mean, how would you like to come to church every Sunday morning and it's like, all right, here's the Matthew 18 of the week, all right, before we get into the service, we have three people to call before the church for correction. You want to be, I mean, we would literally, if it's just every strife, every disagreement and look, if somebody ripped me off for 50 bucks or something, that's not even worthy of Matthew 18. You know what I mean? It's like, come on. Even the, even the bill of rights says it's gotta be more than 20 bucks. And that was back then when 20 bucks was like, what, a thousand bucks now or something, you know, I hope it hasn't been that much inflation, but it has been a lot. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, you know, if somebody ripped me off for a small amount of money, I'd just be like, whatever. But you know, if it was a big amount of money or something, if it's something really serious or, or if someone was being inappropriate with my wife or something, or if someone had, you know, damaged something really expensive or if somebody was like actually going around and spreading like a serious rumor, like, Hey, you know, this person, you know, then it's like, okay, those are serious issues that can need to be dealt with. Does everybody kind of see what I'm saying? Like, and look, I can't tell you exactly where to draw that line, but I will say this, things that are minor, let them go. Things that are serious. That's what Matthew 18 is for. You know, obviously we all have to use a little personal judgment on what that is, but, uh, you know, he said I was acting queer six months ago, you know, is, is not, does not qualify, especially if you were acting kind of queer. Okay. And here's the other thing I want to say is that when we look at Matthew 18, we're talking about clear cut issues. So think about this. We just read Matthew 18 together. I mean, does anybody want to read it again or does it seem pretty clear? Everybody okay with what we read? Okay. So when I read Matthew 18 and I see like you go and tell him his fault, he doesn't listen. You get a couple more people, you tell him his fault. Sorry, I'm using you Daniel, I'm using you cause I love you. Okay. But like, you know, uh, go and tell him his fault and, and you know, and, and, and get two or three witnesses and talk sense. Take it to the church. If you won't hear the church. Now look, don't you get the impression that whatever this is, is so clear cut. One person is so clearly in the wrong that basically the two or three witnesses are going to agree. The church is going to agree. Everybody's kind of on the same page that this guy's unreasonable. Or do you think it'd be a thing where like 51% of the church thinks what he did is fine and 49% think it's wrong or 60% think he's wrong and 40% think he's right or 75, 25. You know, to me, this seems like a pretty clear cut case where pretty much any reasonable person is like, dude, you hired this guy to do this electrical work and you didn't pay the bill. It's pretty clear. This isn't for just vague convoluted issues. And this, this guy who kept wanting me to church discipline, everybody, I told him, I said, you know what, if, if, if I listen to you right now and I brought this before the church, more than half of the church would be against you. More than half of the church would want to throw you out of the church. So I'm, I'm actually doing you a favor by not bringing this before the church because it would be your butt that got tossed because the church is not going to back you up on this. This is for clear cut issues. Everybody see what I'm saying? Where it's like one person's clearly right. One person's clearly wrong. If it's a confused mess and there's two sides to it and people are bickering and fussing, you know what? Then at that point it just needs to be dropped. If the church can't get to the bottom of it and have a clear decisive, this person's right, this person's wrong, then it just needs to be dropped. And let me say this too, by the way, is that if you have a problem with somebody in the church, you do not have to be friends with that person, okay? I've had people come to me over the years and say, hey, this person used to be my friend. They used to invite me over for dinner and they used to spend time with the right and they don't want to be our friend anymore. You need to talk to them and make them be our friend again. And I said, no, I'm not going to do that. I will not do that because I said, you know, nobody has to be friends with you. You need to find different friends. Okay. We have 400 people in our church. So if there are people that you clash with, then just be friends with someone else. Right? I mean, but I will say this, you do need to be civil to everyone in the church, right? So let's say, let's say that I, you know, since I'm already picking on Daniel, let's say Daniel's a member in good standing at the church, right? Daniel's a member of good standing. I don't like Daniel. I don't like his face. No, I'm just kidding. But like, let's say I don't like Daniel for whatever reason. I've got some beef with Daniel. I've got a personal problem with Daniel. He and I have smoke as the young people say these days. If I've got smoke with Daniel, you know what I'm going to do? I'm still, if, if, if I walk by Daniel, if Daniel holds his hand out to shake my hand, I'm going to shake his hand. I'm going to smile and say, hi, I'm not going to hang out with Daniel. I'm not going to get together with him. And I might even avoid Daniel and just, just cause I don't want beef. So I'll just stay away from Daniel and we can both just live our happy lives here and go about our business. And here's the thing. Look, we've had situations where we are doing a mission strip or something and people have come to us just quietly and told us, Hey, you know, so-and-so and I don't really get along. Is it all right if you don't, you know, make us share a room together on the mission strip because we don't get along. And you know, we always say, yes, no problem. Yeah. Or, or, Hey, can you please not pair me up with so-and-so on soul winning because he and I don't get along or she and I don't get along. No problem. You know, we want to have peace. We want to get along. But what we're not going to do is this thing of, no, you have to be friends with everyone. You too have to make things right. You know, we're not just going to lock you in a room and say, you guys can come out when you've resolved this and when you're friends again, you know, because some conflicts just might never get resolved. And you know what happens when conflicts just aren't going to get resolved. You know what you do? You agree to disagree. You agree to disagree, right? You know, you, you, sometimes you, you know, you run into strife and you can't resolve it. You know, you always just reach for that Matthew 18 button all the time. Why don't you just decide, you know what, we can't resolve this. I'm just going to part ways with this person and just, we're just going to go our separate ways and let's just agree to disagree. And you say, well, pastor Anderson, that's not really a perfect solution. You know, life doesn't always have perfect solutions, but we've been doing this for 17 years and we do a pretty good job of keeping the peace around here. We do what we can and you know, I am philosophically against forcing people to be friends with people that don't want to be friends with. It doesn't make any sense and it just makes people hate each other more. It breeds resentment. And I've noticed that people who want to be friends with people who don't want to be friends with them are usually weirdos because stop and think about any normal person. If someone said to you, get away from me. I don't want anything to do with you. I don't want to be your friend. Would you keep pursuing a friendship with that person? Any normal person would just be like, well, I don't even want to be your friend either. Then that's how you feel. I mean, if you don't want me around, then I'm going to go where I'm wanted. Isn't that what normal people do? Okay. Like, no, you can't leave. You know, you're one of us now. You have to be on our friend group and you know, it's weird. It's crazy. And people who've pushed this over the years, the people who came to me and sat down with me in my office and said, you need to make these people be friends with us again. Of course they turned out to be total freaks, total weirdos that got thrown out of the church because that's a super weird attitude to have that says you got to be my friend because normal people don't want to go where they're not wanted anyway. And so when there's strife, they avoid it. And you know, the Bible says that we need to endeavor to keep the unity. We need to endeavor to keep the peace as much as is possible. As much as lying in this, we should strive to live peaceably with all men. Okay. And so therefore if, if two people are like baking soda and vinegar, let's just not throw those people together for, you know, they should be civil, smile, handshake, whatever. But if they don't get along, why don't they just sit somewhere else and the church is big enough for everybody to serve God and have their friends and do it. Now here's where it crosses the line though. If I decide I have a problem with Daniel, this is where it crosses the line. If I start telling people, Hey, stay away from Daniel. Daniel's a bad guy. I know pastor Anderson won't do anything about it, but I know that Daniel's a bad guy. So we need to stay away from, you know, Hey, if pastor Anderson and the staff and the church and everybody has decided, Hey, we're not going to throw this person out. This person's a member in good standing. Then leave that person alone and don't warn people or go around telling them, you know, you need to just mind your own business on that. And just, if you don't, like I said, if you don't want to be around that person, then don't be around that person, but you can't talk smack about them to other people. Okay. You need to just let it go. If you would go to Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15, the sermon kind of veered off a little bit in a different direction than I had planned, but that's okay because I wanted to get more into this story of the prodigal son, but I'm not really going to have a lot of time to get into the story of the prodigal son, but I'm just going to touch on it a little bit. Okay. And I think because we all kind of know the story or most of us probably know the story a little bit, it's going to be okay. You know, we can give it just a quick version of the prodigal son story because what's the sermon about? Just a quick review. We're talking about the fact that look, if people are living in really serious sin, they need to be cast out of the church, right? The fornicators, the drunkards, we don't want them contaminating the rest of us. Okay. We don't want them leading our young people into sin. We don't want to say, well, fornication is wrong, but you know, we tolerate it. We don't tolerate it. That was number one. Number two, we looked at the Jimenez doctrine, which said, Hey, it's not just the list of things on first Corinthians five. This also is people who are refusing to work, refusing to get a job. They're lazy bums. They get cast out as well. And I'm not talking about people who are independently wealthy. I've had some people want to cast people out of the church who didn't have a job, but they had like a bunch of money that they were living off of. It's like, well, you know, I mean, that's if they're retired or have a nest egg or extra money or they're just taking some time off from work. That's I'm talking about people who are refusing to work and begging and not, you know, taking care of themselves. Does everybody see the difference there? Like somebody came to me, well, this guy's on disability and he's refusing to work. It's like, well, you know, that's his business. But anyway, and then thirdly, we looked at, and so, so we looked at the list in first Corinthians five, then we looked at the Jimenez doctrine. Then we looked at this idea of Matthew 18, where if there's conflict, serious conflict between people that can be resolved by the church. And if somebody refuses to hear the judgment of the church, then that person is cast out because otherwise the church's judgments would be meaningless. Otherwise the church be like, all right, you're guilty. And then they're just like, okay, ha ha. And then just don't pay up or don't make things right. Do you see what I mean? So there has to be some teeth behind Matthew 18. That's where kicking people out comes in. What is a railer? Right? This is on the list in first Corinthians five and this one sometimes ends up being a crossover between Matthew 18 and first Corinthians five. The railer is the person who makes a railing false accusation about somebody. And again, this is not making a statement of opinion. Giving your opinion is not railing. We're talking about making factual statements that are wrong. If somebody says, I know you're a reprobate and they don't know, there's no evidence of that person committing those types of sins, then that's a railing accusation. But if somebody just says, well, you know what? I think you're acting like a dork. That's not railing because that's just their opinion. It could be rude and inappropriate and whatever, but just, we want to make sure that we don't just get carried away and start calling everybody's a railer and everybody has offended me and I'm Matthew 18-ing a different person every month. Now the last thing I want to talk about is Luke chapter 15, which is the story of the prodigal son because the title of the sermon is separating from wicked brethren and separating from wicked brethren is something that can be difficult sometimes because we don't want to separate from people that we like, even though the Bible says that we should, right? Or maybe they are relatives, maybe they're family. Maybe it's parents or children or siblings or close friends or whatever. Look, if I have friends or family that are Christians, Baptists, they're, you know, they're called a brother and they are living in fornication, I will break fellowship with them. I don't care who they are. I will break fellowship with them, children, parents, siblings. I don't care who it is. Now don't just use this as an excuse to just break fellowship with your parents or whatever, willy nilly. Look, if your parents aren't saved, this doesn't apply. I'm talking about saved people or at least people who are called a brother, whether or not they're saved in their heart, only God knows for sure, but I'm talking about people that are called a brother. If my parent or my child or my sibling were a drunkard, you know, I would break fellowship with that person. Well, it's family, nope. That's where I stand on that. Now it's heartbreaking when family goes off and does these things. But in the story of the prodigal son, and we're not going to read the story for sake of time, all of it, but in the story of the prodigal son, we got the two sons and the younger brother says, give me the portion of the inheritance that falls to me now. Now obviously this is a punk attitude, a bratty attitude, a rebellious attitude, but the dad basically says, fine, here you go. Here is your part of the inheritance. And here's where the guy goes into major sin. The guy takes that money and he goes off into a far country and he wastes it all on riotous living. Now the Bible doesn't go into detail about what this guy's doing, but it's pretty obvious that this guy is not just buying expensive meals and clothes. It's riotous living. In fact, the way his brother interprets this is he spent his money with harlots. And the brother's probably right about the facts of this. He has a wrong attitude, but that's what he said. And the Bible says he's doing riotous living. This would be drunkenness, carousing, fornicating, gambling, you know, just whatever that lifestyle. You can use your imagination. The Bible doesn't give us the details because the details aren't important. What do people do? What do Christian young people do when they get away from the Lord? When they rebel against their parents, when they leave the church, what kind of things do they do? Let's have a little interactive session. What kind of things would Christian young people who left faithful word and rebel against their parents, rebel against the church, and went out and lived riotously, what type of things would they be doing? Somebody help me out. Fornicating. What else? Drugs. Get a tattoo. Right? Hey, I'm 18. Go get a tattoo. What else? Going to bars, going to parties, marijuana, drugs, steroids, whatever. Okay? Right? Strange piercings, okay? Just casinos, gambling, hitting Las Vegas, strip club, bars, drugs, alcohol, I mean, whatever, right? We could just list a bunch of stuff, but you get the idea. That's what this guy did. This guy's out doing a bunch of bad stuff. Look at verse 14, and when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want, because here's the thing, when you burn your family, now all of a sudden you don't have that safety net when things go wrong. So now he's out of money, and nobody's there to help him, and he joined himself to a citizen of that country, verse 15, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave him. He's lusting after the pig's food, because he's so hungry. Now ask yourself this question. If this guy had continued to prosper, if he had gone away with his money, and he just kept making more money, and kept prospering, and kept doing well, would he have repented and come home? Unlikely, because it appears that what got his attention was when he ran out of food and is lusting after the pig's food. And this is what you would call hitting rock bottom. This guy hits rock bottom, now all of a sudden he's been humbled, he hits rock bottom, he's ready to get right with God. And when he came to himself, this is when he snaps out of his stupidity of his youth. He said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and despair and I perish with hunger? He's saying, you know what, living the Christian life, being in church, following God, that's the right way to live my life, that's what I should have been doing, and this life sucks. This is stupid, I was an idiot. Because remember, this is a parable. It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And so it's not that, oh, the hired servants have food. It's a spiritual thing of, I'm not right with God and I'm empty on the inside, maybe not necessarily physically hungry, but if people go out and live a sinful life, even if they have money and food, they're empty on the inside and they're thinking, man, the Christian life is better. I'm going to go back. You know, I want to go back, he says. He says, I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck. You see, the big thing about this story that we talk about a lot is the fact that we should be happy when people come home again. People get right with God. Let's welcome them with rope, with open arms. Let's love them. Let's have compassion. Let's be ready to forgive the repentant. Okay, amen. But here's what I don't see in this story. You know what I don't see? I don't see the dad begging his son to stay when his sinful son says, I'm want the money and I'm going to go into a far country. You know what dad basically says by, I mean, there's no indication that dad said, oh, please would you stay? It's like, bye. You know, if that's the life that you're going to live, then see a sucker. And you know what else I don't see? I don't see the dad going out and going and bringing and finding him and bringing it back and begging him to come home. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. Okay. There's nothing that we can do for someone who doesn't want to be helped. And here's the mistake that a lot of people make in their lives is that they have their kids become adults and get away from God and maybe they're out fornicating or doing whatever. And here's what they do. They continue to prop up that sinful lifestyle and they continue to help them and bless them and show them love. And they think, well, if I just keep showing them love, but I've seen this my whole life and it doesn't work, it doesn't work. You know, oh, well, you know, oh, let's just keep giving them money so that they can buy more drugs. You know, oh, they're living in fornication. Let's throw them a baby shower for their bastard child. Folks, why would I throw a baby shower if my kid had a bastard child and celebrate a child being born out of wedlock, which is shameful and sinful and wicked? Well, it's not the child's fault. Last time I checked, no baby ever enjoyed a baby shower. You think that some fetus is just like, oh man, I didn't get a baby shower because I didn't get that cake, blood sugar spike in my umbilical cord. I should have felt a blood sugar spike from that baby shower. No, you know, look, if your child is living in sin, rebelling against their parents, rebelling against the Lord, you know what? Let them hit rock bottom and say, well, you're just not loving. No, you're just not doing what the Bible teaches. The Bible says if a brother is walking disorderly, if he's living in fornication, if he's living in drunkenness, have no fellowship with him. Let him be ashamed. Why? Because we want them to hit rock bottom. We want them to realize that they need family, that they need the church, that they need friends. But if you're basically, if they can have their cake and eat it too, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? You know, you're just out living in sin and your parents are still just having you over and giving you gifts and taking care of you and helping you financially and you're just spitting in their face and spitting in God's face. No way. When you think that you're doing your kid a favor by actually encouraging and propping up their sinful lifestyle, no, the best thing that you could do for them is to deliver them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. That's the best thing that you could do for that Christian young person who goes astray is to say, you know what? I'm not counting him as an enemy, but I'm admonishing him as a brother and I'm going to have no company with him that he may be ashamed and saying, you know what? You're not welcome. You can come around when you clean up your act. Come around when you're ready to get right with God. And you know what? Here's the thing about that is nobody's expecting anybody to be perfect, but you know what? There's a big difference between not perfect and living in fornication, not perfect and being a drunkard, a drug user, whatever. Okay. So look, the bottom line is, and you just say, well, I just can't let go, I just can't let go of this person. Well look, why don't you just have a little faith in God's process and just trust that God's going to bring that person back around and you say, well, what if he never does bring them around? Well, guess what? Eventually we're all going to die anyway. It's all going to be over. Eventually we're all going to lose everything. Everybody look around, look around. Everything that you see, everything you see is all going to be gone someday. Every person that you see is all going to be gone someday. Everybody in this building is going to die someday unless Christ returns in our lifetime. And even then this body is still going to be toast because it's going to be changed into a new body. None of this is going to exist. These chairs, this building, your car, your house, it's all going to be gone someday. And you know, uh, your, your, your spouse, your children, your parents, your best friend, you're going to lose all of them. You will lose them all eventually you say like, Oh, you know, you're such a downer. I'm just giving you a reality check because you know, doesn't the Bible actually say something a lot? And I didn't have this in my notes and I'll close on this point. Didn't the Bible talk about people who give up houses and give up lands and they give up, don't they give up children and brothers and sisters and for my sake and the gospels? Well, you know, he is no fool who gives up what he can't keep in order to possess that which you cannot lose. And so therefore in order to do right by the Lord, in order to earn rewards in heaven, in order to follow the word of God and have faith in his program, I am willing to cut anyone loose from my life that the Bible demands that I cut loose from my life. Whoever that is, whether that be my best friend or parent, child, sibling, I will cut them. Whoever God tells me I need to cut loose, I will cut loose. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I'll even cut myself loose. I'll die for Christ. Oh yeah, that's what the Bible demands of all of us, right? If the Bible demands for me to be willing to lay down my life for Christ, do you think maybe the Bible might tell you, hey, that person who is living in fornication, you have to give up that person as a friend or that guy who's a drunk, you have to give up that person as a friend. Well God, you know, God's just asking too much. You know, sorry, but you can't be friends with your queer cousin anymore. Oh, you know, it's too much. Stop giving me your toughest battles, Lord. Get over it. Life is a vapor. We got to do what the Bible says, folks. Now look, not necessarily the most pleasant subject, but it's the word of God. And you know what, if you don't like something that I said tonight, if you don't like something that I preached tonight, that's okay. But if you don't like something because it was in the Bible and you don't like it, I mean, what did I say that wasn't in the Bible? Well, you know, the way you applied it. Okay, well then I'll tell you what, you got all, you turned all the scriptures, you interpret them the way that you want then. I think that you're going to have a pretty hard time interpreting 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Thessalonians 3 other than the way that we interpreted them tonight because you know, we didn't really do a lot of interpreting because it's pretty clear stuff, friend. And so, hey, don't get mad at me. Don't kill the messenger. And if you don't agree with me, fine, then don't agree with me. But I hope you agree with the New Testament, what the New Testament said. And if I got something a little bit wrong, then go with what the Bible says. But I don't believe I got anything wrong tonight. I believe that what I've taught is biblical and I am not going to go chasing after people who don't want to live for God and beg them to come to church. I will never beg anyone to go to church. I will get on my knees and beg someone to get saved, but I will never get on my knees and beg anyone to come to church ever because I only want people to come to church who want to be here and who want to live for God. And here's the thing, if somebody is super backslidden and living in drunkenness and fornication, I'm not going to be like, oh man, why don't you come back to church? Why don't you come back? Because I don't want them to come back to church because they need to get right with God first. And then now, obviously I would love for them to get right with God and come back to church, but I'm not just going to beg them to come back to church because the thing is they need to get right first and they might need to hit rock bottom first. And if I'm filling all their social needs and financial needs and familial needs, then how are they going to hit rock bottom like that? Show them some tough love. Let them hit rock bottom. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for the fact that you are a forgiving, loving God who gives a second chance, Lord. And Lord God, if there's anybody here in this building tonight that ever finds themselves on the receiving end of these kind of scriptures and they find themselves being the one kicked out for fornication or they find themselves being the one who's excommunicated for drunkenness or being a railer or whatever sin they fall into, Lord, I pray that they would always understand that they can repent and like the prodigal son, they can come home and make things right. But Lord God, help those of us who are here in the church to have the backbone to take a stand and say we are not going to allow these type of sins to run rampant in our church and in our home. Help us to have the courage and the faith to carry out your sentence against these crimes, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.