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

remove the foot or the toe or something, because if not, it's going to spread. You know, you have gangrene, for example, that begins to spread. They have to remove that particular member of the of the body. Well, in like manner in a church, sometimes people can get involved in such grievous sin, such horrible sin, according to the Bible, that there's no recovering that person within the church. They have to be physically cut off, removed from the congregation in order for that person to repent, heal and come back. Okay. And so this is what the Bible is referring to when it talks about us being the members of the body. Now, let me ask you a question here, and I'm going to give you four different answers to this. And that is what does church discipline accomplish? Because, you know, a lot of churches don't practice this practice of church discipline, but they should. But, you know, there are congregations that do and they do in various ways. Excuse me. I swallowed my spit. How many of you have ever had that? It's the worst. You know, and the reality is this is that if you don't practice church discipline, then what you have is a cesspool of sin in the church. You know, there goes there's situations in church that go unresolved. There's conflict that goes unresolved, that sin that begins to spread like leaven in the church, and it actually contaminates the church. And so people would look at a church like ours and say, Oh, man, I can't believe you guys kick people out of church. You guys remove people from the congregation. That's cultish, you know, but let's just be honest here. The cult is the one that wants to keep everyone in and never let anybody out. Whereas according to the Bible, God wants us to keep our congregation pure, which is my first point here. The what church discipline accomplishes is that it keeps the congregation pure, not perfect, but pure. Okay, now let's look at an example of this in the Old Testament that we can apply to the new. Look at number chapter 12 and verse number nine. It says in the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he departed. Let me give you a little bit of a background of what's taking place here. Moses and Aaron are siblings. Excuse me, Miriam and Aaron are siblings of Moses, and they are essentially opposing Moses at this time because he married an Ethiopian woman that didn't approve of that. For whatever reason, they didn't want him to marry a black person. You know, they're kind of they're being stupid here, and they're kind of going into, you know, an area that is not part of their jurisdiction. They're criticizing him for who he married. And so they're going to Moses and they're criticizing him. And God is, you know, becomes very angry about this. He doesn't like the fact that the siblings are trying to usurp the authority of Moses, who's the man of God. They should just mind their own business, right? They're criticizing him for his leadership. They're not approving of what he's doing. And it says in verse nine that God's anger was kindled. What does it mean to be kindled? Well, we use that term to describe, you know, wood that's being turned on fire. It's being it's kindling a fire. It basically means that God's anger is being stirred up, right? He's angry at them. And of course, this is after he rebukes them. He reproves them for that. Look at verse 10. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle. And behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam and behold, she was leprous. So as soon as he's done rebuking her, he goes back to heaven. You know, the glory departs from the tabernacle. And Miriam immediately from head to toe just becomes diseased with leprosy. Okay, obviously not a coincidence. Verse 11 says, And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Now, let me just mention this is that Aaron is not afflicted with leprosy, which leads us to believe that the one who originally came up with this usurping Moses authority is Miriam. She's the one who's probably going to Aaron's like, Hey, this isn't right. You need to back me up on this. She's the one who's basically the troublemaker in the story. Okay, so Aaron comes on her behalf. And it's like, Hey, don't lay this sin upon us from where we have done foolishly. Verse 12. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of the mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, God, I beseech thee. Now, leprosy in the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament, of course, is a picture of sin, right? And it's a great picture of sin because of the fact that leprosy is contagious. And so this is one of the reasons why in the Old Testament, according to Leviticus 13, one of the things that the priests had to do was come and check the person if they had supposed leprosy. And if they did, they would be removed from the congregation for a period of time until it cleared up. Right. And in fact, it specifically was for seven days. And then they would return and it's just like, Oh, you still got some hint of leprosy. You need to go out for another seven days. And so they were specifically removed because leprosy can spread. It can get in the walls. It can get in the skin and eventually can cause death. Well, that's like sin, right? Sin can do that. You know, sin can spread in a church. Sin can spread in a person. Sin is contagious. Okay. So we see that the, the analogy here, we see the parallels here and Moses sees this. And of course, Moses is very compassionate. He loves his sister. He loves Miriam and Aaron. And so he is interceding on their behalf and he's telling God, heal her now. Now here's the thing is that most of the time when Moses prays to God, he gets his answers. He gets his prayers answered. Like, you know, he's very close to the Lord and God is always like, all right, I'll do it for Moses sake or whatever. And this is this, he does not get this prayer answered. Okay. Verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, should not she be ashamed seven days, let her be shut out of the camp from the camp seven days. And after that, that let her be received in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days and the people journey not till Miriam was brought in again. So he's like, if Miriam, let's say she didn't have leprosy and it was only that her father spit in her face, she would be considered unclean and she should be shut out of the camp for at least seven days. Now, obviously leprosy is worse than getting spit in the face. God is just making a point here saying that she's unclean. She has sin, therefore she needs to be removed from the congregation for a period of time. Now, what are some things that we can learn from this? Well, one is, is that when someone is unrepentant of their sin, they need to be removed from the congregation. And we're going to go over the specific sins in just a bit, but this is teaching us that when a person is filled with leprosy, which is a picture of sin, and they're not willing to get that right, guess what they need to be removed from the congregation for a period of time, maybe not permanently, but at least until they become clean again, they're willing to repent. They're willing to clean up their lives and come back to the congregation. The second thing that we can learn is that we can't have a Moses attitude when this happens, right? Like, oh man, Miriam, we had such a good time together though. She's such a good, we went soul winning together and she's such a good person. And we were like best friends. And can't we just like, can't we just give her some time? Can't you know, he's being a bleeding heart here, right? He's like, can you just heal her now? And Aaron's like, Hey, can we not lay this sin upon her? No one's perfect pastor. You know, we all make mistakes and you can just go over all of the bleeding heart excuses that people want to give to keep someone who's unrepentant of sin in the church. Okay. And this is Moses saying this, and what does God say? She needs to be shut out for at least seven days. Okay. And you know what? If people get thrown out of our church to get church discipline, here's what we don't need. We don't need bleeding hearts in the church saying, well, yeah, they're fornicators, but can we just give them a chance? You know, can't we just folks, if you truly love the people, you would love the discipline that's being instituted upon them so they can get right with God and not have God's curse on their life because of their sin. Okay. And so he's telling her, she's going to be shut. She's cut off from the congregation for seven days. And, and by the way, that's holding the congregation of the Lord back from traveling again. Because at this point, you know, they're like nomads, they're traveling, they're going, they're wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. But it says in verse 15 that the people journeyed not until Miriam was brought in again. So sometimes, you know, people can, you can hinder the congregation to a certain degree by getting thrown out because you know what? We need to win souls to Christ. You're a laborer for Christ. You help the congregation of the Lord, then your sin is withholding the congregation from doing greater works for God. Okay. Now go to Romans 16. Hold your place there in the Old Testament. If you would go to Romans chapter 16. So don't be a bleeding heart when people get thrown out of our church. Don't be a person who sympathizes with them. And you know what? If you truly love them, you will allow the discipline to be instituted, and you will pray for them to get right with God. If you truly love the people that are being disciplined from the congregation, you will, you will pray for their restoration, you will pray for their heart to get right with God, you will not enable them in their sin. Because loving someone is not enabling them by keeping contact with them and still being a blessing to them and helping them because all you do when you do something like that is you cause that people that person to think, Oh, you know, I guess I'm not really being disciplined. Then, you know, there's people in the church is still keeping contact with me. And there's still people in the church that still love me. I guess God's not really disciplining me now is he? You know, you're interfering with the discipline that God has set forth on that person. And thereby there will not get right with God, they're not going to get their sin right. You are enabling that individual. And in turn, you yourself can be subject to church discipline for that as well. Okay, the purpose of excommunication is to punish an unrepentant offender for heresy or egregious sin with the hope that they will clean up and repent and return to the fold and emphasis on unrepentant because sometimes we often say, well, people get thrown out for sin. And that's true. But more specifically, they actually get thrown out for unrepentant sin. In other words, a person is involved in fornication, drunkenness. And we find out about it, we confront the person about it. And they're just like, well, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. You know, I just, this is how I grew up, I just, you know, I just like to drink, you know, a 40 every Friday or something to just chill me out or something. And it's just like, it's not gonna happen. Like, well, I don't, you know, this is what I've always done. So I'm not gonna get around, I'm giving you an exaggerated, you know, example here. So if that person is unwilling to give up their alcohol, then it's just like, okay, you're unrepentant of the sin that we're confronting you about. You're cut off from the congregation, you're out of here, and we're taking it before the church. Okay. And so first and foremost, let me say this is that it preserves the congregation from false doctrine. Because when we talk about church discipline, we often relate it to specifically sin. But it's also applicable to false doctrine. So if someone is going around teaching just damnable heresy, and we're not just talking about like, they teach something that's a weird interpretation of a passage of Scripture that we just disagree on, of a secondary or third doctrine, we're talking about, like actual damnable heresy, dealing with the doctrines of Christ, dealing with hell, salvation, the Trinity, things of that nature. If they start teaching that, that is, that merits excommunication from the church if they're not willing to repent of that heresy. Okay, look at Romans 16 verse 17. It says here, Now I beseech you, beseech means to beg, to implore, I beseech your brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple. So what we see here is that God wants us to mark people who are into creating a divide between the pastor and his congregation or the congregation with other congregants via teaching false doctrine. Okay. And by the way, causing division is another reason why people can get excommunicated from the church. If you are pinning people against one another, if you're pinning people against the church leadership, if you're criticizing church leadership, you qualify for excommunication from the church. And I've said this before and I'll say it again. You know, if you don't like our church, like or if you don't like me as the pastor, first of all, what are you doing here? You know, you're like coming here every Sunday, you're listening to my preaching, you're participating in the service, all to just hate me more. That's weird. You know, you're weird if you do that. And that's the thing. Okay. So if you don't like my leadership, you don't like my preaching, you don't like the way I administer things, here's what you could do. You just go find a different church. Go find a pastor that you can be under instead of just like sitting there and criticizing me in your heart, or going back home and criticizing me to your children, to your spouse, to your family. You're like, I just don't like them. And then your family's probably like, then why do you keep going there? Because the logical conclusion would be go find a different church. But let me just be honest with you, the majority of people who do stuff like that are just wicked people. And they stay in the church because they want to draw away disciples after them. They want to convince others of their opinion about the church leadership and about the church. And their hope is that they're able to take people out. Okay. And so that's called division. So if you're causing strife and division in the church via doctrine or via the leadership, then you need to be cut off from the congregation. Okay. And the Bible says here that we're supposed to mark this doesn't mean take a Sharpie and just like, you know, give you a mark. It means call out. That's what it means. You're calling people out. Okay, for that. And the reason we know that is because in Romans chapter 16, you have the call out chapter. And the first I don't know, like 20 verses or so, or should I say 16 verses or so, you know, the Apostle Paul is just honoring people by verbally calling them out, right? He's like writing down who these people are. He's blessing them. He's like these people have labored with me. And he's not just being vague about it. He's actually using their names. So is it any coincidence that when he talks about marking people, which caused divisions, he's also referring to calling them out publicly. Okay. Go to first Corinthians chapter five, if you would first Corinthians chapter five. So church discipline excommunication accomplishes keeping the congregation pure peer from what from false doctrine. You know, if you're going around teaching that you have to repent of your sins to be saved, and we confront you with that, but you and you maintain that position, then you're cut off from the congregation will take it before the church and say, this person is being thrown out for teaching damnable heresy. If you are teaching damnable heresy about Jesus Christ, saying that he's not the son of God, you know, saying that he did not resurrect, teaching a false gospel, teaching that hell is not real, right? Teaching Jehovah's Witness doctrine, Mormon doctrine, just pretty blatant, just damnable heresy that qualifies as communication. If you're going around causing division with people, you know, clicking up, turning people against another, turning people against their pastor, against the church leadership, and you're confronted with that, and you're not willing to get it right, then that merits excommunication as well. Look at first Corinthians chapter five, if you would. So it preserves the congregation from false doctrine, but also preserves the congregation from flagrant sin. And let me explain something. You know, we're not just talking about just any sin because people can make the argument and say, are we all sinners though? And the answer is duh. Yeah. No one's saying that we're not sinners, but there's a specific category of sins that God highlights that says these particular sins you cannot do and attend a local New Testament church. He said, why not? I don't know. Take it up with him. This is his church. He bought it. It belongs to the Lord. He makes the rules. He's the boss. And the boss says, we're all sin. You guys are all sinners. He's not center. You know, you guys are all sinners, but here's the thing. These particular sins you cannot flagrantly do and still participate in the local congregation. And look, you think to yourself, well, man, that's kind of strict. You know, that's a little overboard. Well, thank God you weren't born in the Old Testament. That's why I'm bringing this up about the Old Testament because the Old Testament was far stricter in this regard. Okay. You know, here you get kicked out and you just kind of go, you go out there and obviously you're being punished by it by Satan, but no one in here is telling you what to do. You just kind of go out there and you know, you just go back home or you know, just backslidden or whatever. But in the Old Testament, when you're exiled, you're like exiled into the desert. You're left to fend for yourself. And you become a vagabond, right? Or worse, you die. Like the congregation stones you with stones. So don't complain about how strict the New Testament is. It's will is way more stricter in the Old Testament when it came to excommunication. Okay. So it preserves the congregation from flagrant sin. Look at first Corinthians chapter five, if you would look at verse number one, it says here, the apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church says it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. Now there's a lot to unpack in that one verse. Okay. First of all, he's like this fornication it's commonly reported, meaning that everyone knows about it. So let's just say this fornication at first works about the church. It's like everyone, including the church leadership knows that these people are involved in fornication and no one is doing anything about it. They're not approving them. They're not correcting them. They're not trying to help them. They're just kind of allowing them to be involved in fornication. That's problem number one. Problem number two, it's fornication. That's not so much as named among the Gentiles, meaning like unsaved people don't even do this stuff because it says that one should have his father's wife. Now this isn't necessarily what we would consider to be incest because it's not like he is committing fornication with his mother. It says what this father's wife. So the implication here is that this would be considered his stepmother, but that the father has already died. Okay. Because it's called fornication, not adultery. If they're alive, it would be called adultery because there's a difference between fornication and adultery. If you don't think so, then look at the punishment that's instituted upon both in the Old Testament. Death was instituted for adultery. It was not instituted for fornication. So what we can surmise from this particular story is that he is committing fornication with the woman that his father married, but the father has already passed away. Okay. Still super weird and wicked. Verse two, and ye referring to the congregation, the church leadership are puffed up and have not rather mourned. The he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. So he's correct in saying you're prideful. Puffed up means prideful. You're arrogant, you're prideful and you're not mourning. You know, you claim to love these people, but really what it is is that you don't mourn for sin and you're prideful and arrogant about this because this person should be taken away from among you. He says, verse three, for I verily as absent in the body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him to have so done this deed. In other words, it's like, I don't have to be presently there to give you the judgment. I could just tell you from over here that guy needs to be thrown out in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you're gathered together my spear with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, referring to the authority, listen to this to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spear may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is he saying? He's saying when a person is physically cut off, removed, excommunicated from the congregation in unity, right, agreeing together that this person deserves to be thrown out. We are sanctioning for Satan to destroy that person's life. The destruction of the flesh. So it's not like we're just removing them because we don't want sin in the congregation, though that's part of it. Out of love, we remove them in hopes that what Satan will destroy that person's life. They will create what humility and in turn, cause them to repent and get right and say, you know what, I don't want to be involved in fornication. I don't want to be involved in this wicked sin. Please forgive me. And then they're welcome back to the fold. But the point that I'm making here is that everyone who gets thrown out is under the judgment of God. Okay. Satan is destroying that person's life. Verse six, your glorying is not good, knowing that that little leavened at the whole lump. Now, what does it mean to glory? It means they're bragging. So because they're not throwing this person out, they're like, yeah, we're not like first words Baptist church. We don't throw people out. We actually love people here. We don't really, you know, they're, they're bragging is that your glorying is not good. You know, we're not like these other churches that remove people from the congregation. We actually love the Lord Jesus Christ. We actually love people that will never do something like that. We need, we need to give people time to, you know, there's just nicer than God, but he gives them this. He says in verse six, no, you not that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump. So leaven referring to the yeast spreads, right? And he's saying that if you don't deal with fornication, here's the result of that. It's going to spread in the church. How well, if the pastor or the church leadership allows fornication to go unfettered in the church without disciplining it, it communicates a message to everyone else. Oh, well, they're not being disciplined for that. Therefore we could commit fornication. Therefore we can get involved in drunkenness because we're not going to get thrown out for that. And what happens? You have the church being filled with fornication, with drunkenness, people committing flagrant sin on repentant. And now the church of God is contaminated. He says in verse seven, purge out therefore the old leaven. What does it mean to purge out? It means to cut off, throw out, church discipline, excommunicate that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover sacrifice for us. Skip down to verse nine. It says, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators. Get not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for them must he needs go out of the world. So what does he mean by that? He's saying, look, don't, you know, don't take this the wrong way. Okay. Because apparently he wrote a letter to them previously and he said, you shouldn't be hanging out with fornicators and they can take that and say, oh, that means we gotta be like Amish people just like be cut off from, you know, society and just not hang out with any sinner whatsoever. And he's saying not altogether with the fornicators of this world because obviously you're gonna be working with fornicators. We're running into fornicators, drunkards. People were involved in sin. You know, you're teaching fornicators. Fornicators are your bosses, right? We're around them all the time. So God is not saying here, you know, separate from people in this world that you have to constantly deal with. He's saying specifically, look what it says in verse 11. But now I've written unto you not to keep company. And here's the key here. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator. So now he tells them if this person claims to be a Christian and they are a fornicator, if this person claims to be a Christian and they smoke weed, if this person claims to be a Christian and they do these things, okay, he says a fornicator or covetous or an adult or a regular drunkard or an extortioner with such a one, no not to eat. So what is he teaching here? He's saying that this person should not only be cut off from the congregation, but even outside these walls, you should have nothing to do with those people. And he gives this phrase here with such a one, no not to eat. What is that talking about? Don't go have in and out with them. Don't have a coffee with them. Don't just fellowship with them. Why? Because they are a brother who's involved in fornication. Now, if you don't agree with that, then you're going to have to explain to me what this means then. Right? You're like, well, I think that's just too harsh or I don't think that that I think that's a wrong interpretation. Then give me the right interpretation of this. What is the right one? Because there's only one interpretation that we can gather from this. And that is that God doesn't want us to fellowship with fornicators who are called brothers, who are called Christians. And again, we're not talking about at your job either, because you're not fellowshipping with your boss. You're not fellowshipping with your employees. We're talking about you taking time out of your schedule, extra time that you have to go and fellowship with people who are committing these things. Okay. He says in verse 12, for what have I to do to judge them that are also that are without do not ee judge them that are within, but then that are without God judge it, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So explain to me, what does it mean when he says put away from yourselves that wicked person? How do we do that? And by the way, this also refutes, this chapter refutes this false doctrine of the universal church, where it's like we're part of the church. No, no, no, no. We are part of first words Baptist church. The church down the street is part of that church. There is no universal church, invisible church, this Catholic doctrine that Protestants have adopted. Right? So how do you know that? Because how do you throw someone out of the invisible church? How do we not eat with someone from the invisible church if we're always in the church? So obviously this is proof in local New Testament churches, right? Visible local New Testament churches. Now I want to call your attention back to verse 11. Here are the sins that God specifically says you cannot just flagrantly do while in church. Of course, the first one is fornication. And you know, I often harp on fornication because this is just a very common sin to man, especially young people, people who just don't know, they'll come to church, they're committing fornication. And we gave them a great we I give them a grace period. Because obviously, some people just don't know, right? Especially in the culture that we're in, they think it's okay. You know, they're not hurting anybody else or whatever. But it's still a sin according to the Bible. And the ultimatums that we give them is if you're committing fornication, here are your options. Number one, just break up. Or number two, if you want to remain together, here's a great option, get married. Now that's, that's probably the best option there. If both of you are believers, and you love each other, and you want to spend the rest of your lives together, okay, put a ring on that finger, get married and live happily ever after. Okay, because at that point, now you have God's blessing on your marriage on your lives, right? Or option number three, you don't want to repent of that, then you guys are thrown out of the church. Okay, so those are your options. And you know, when it comes to getting married, you don't have to have like a real fancy ceremony right away. If you're like, man, we gotta, we gotta throw a wedding together real quick, because we're about to get thrown out, you could just literally go to the recorder's office, get a marriage license right there, be married, and that's it and do the ceremony sometime after. Okay. But the point is fornication will not be tolerated in our church. I don't doesn't matter what the culture says, doesn't matter how acceptable it is, doesn't matter what social media says, or what other churches are doing. We have First Corinthians 511 that tells us fornication is sinful, and people who do it cannot be in church. It says here, or kovaches. So these are people who are just constantly talking about money in church, right, where they are creating a sense of covetousness within others. This person who does not repent of that is thrown out. And idolater. Now, again, because we live in the United States, this isn't necessarily something that we see very often. But in other countries, it's a thing. You know, if you are an idolater, even if you're worshiping God, but maybe you have statutes at home, things that you're keeping at home that are idols, according to the Bible, by biblical definition, you are an idolater. And I was actually thinking about this, this particular point this morning, as I was reading my Bible, because I was reading about Rebecca. And I was reading how she basically kept some of her father's idols, right? And I think myself, you know, a lot of people in the Bible, just held on to idols, even though they worshiped and believed in God. Right? It's like, why do they do that? So weird. You know, and then, you know, Jacob's telling me like, hey, put away your false gods. And I'm thinking, why do they even have false gods to begin with? That's so weird. If they're worshippers of the true God, why do they have idols to begin with? But let me explain to you why a lot of these people in the Bible and a lot of people today have idols. It's because a lot of those idols were made out of gold and silver. They had actual value to them, monetary value to them. So a lot of the times people would just have these idols who were believers, not because they worshiped those idols, but because they actually had, they had monetary value to them. They're made out of gold and silver and precious metals, things of that nature. So they would have them, but it doesn't matter. According to the Bible, they would still be considered an idolater. Okay. And people today might be that way where it's just like, you're a Christian, you have an idol, but it's made out of gold. You don't want to get rid of it. Or you have an idol that your grandmother gave you and it has sentimental value. Okay. According to the Bible, you're considered an idolater. And I preached on idolatry a couple of weeks ago. And the cool thing about that is a lot of people texted me and they said, I got rid of my idols. I had some idols at home and I trashed them. And so praise God for that. So fornication, covetousness, idolatry, railing, okay. Falsely accusing people of wrongdoing, right? With no evidence to back it up whatsoever. You're just like, you're railing on people. You're railing on the church leadership. This is a very grievous sin that if you are bearing false witness about people in church and spreading that in church, okay. And you're not going through the proper channels and you're literally just saying wrong things to other people about myself, about other people in our church. It's called railing and it qualifies excommunication. Drunkenness, of course, that's not hard, but drunkenness also includes any, you know, drug-induced stuff. You know, marijuana, mushrooms, fentanyl, you know, I got to call out these drugs, these new drugs or whatever. You know, huffing glue or I don't know what's another type of drug that people do. I'm talking about legitimate drugs that induce hallucinations and all that. Okay. Recreational drugs. Well, I just smoke marijuana for my pain or whatever, you know, but that's not a valid reason to smoke marijuana. You know, and first of all, let's say, let's say I just, let's say I said that, you know, marijuana is fine for medicinal purposes. Why do you got to smoke it? There's other ways to apply it, but I don't even think that's valid. Okay. Fornication, covetousness, railing, drunkenness includes alcohol. And let me just say this is that, you know, other churches disagree with this, but I believe this is the standard is you just don't drink any alcohol at all. You know, it was just like, well, they just have it. If they just drink it socially or something, that's acceptable because they're not necessarily drunkards, but here's the thing though, and what people need to understand about drinking alcohol, if you've never drunk an alcohol is if you do it every once in a while, you have not built a tolerance to it. Therefore, anytime you drink it, you get drunk, right? You know, a person who does drinks, no alcohol whatsoever, and does it once a month or whatever, they're going to get drunk because they haven't built a tolerance to it. There's no drinking alcohol without getting drunk. Well, we're not drunk. I'm just buzzed. There's no buzz in the Bible. There's no such thing. There's no term buzzed in the Bible. You're intoxicated. That's just it. Okay. And so drunkenness, you know, that will merit excommunication as well. So there's no, you know, on your Fridays or Saturdays, going to the bar and drinking, you know, having a couple shots or, you know, having a beer. I consider that to be drunkenness. Okay. It says, or an extortioner. So extortioner is when you are threatening people in our church in order to get something out of them. Okay. That's wrong to do. You know, you're, you're bullying people, you're threatening people in our church. That merits excommunication as well. Now, all of these sins, you know, if people do them in our church, obviously I'm not the you know, alcohol every now and again, or you, you kind of look like an idolater, you know, I don't go around looking for these sins. Okay. Here's the prayer that I always pray every single day of my life. This is on my prayer list. And I pray this every single day of my life. I pray this Lord make manifest the folly of the infiltrators. In other words, Lord, just, just kind of show me if something's going on. Cause obviously I'm not omniscient and I'm trying to do the best that I can as the shepherd here of the church. And so I kind of need the Lord to kind of guide me to help me to know if someone is involved in some flagrant sin that he does not approve of that needs to be dealt with. And you know what? Consistently over the last seven, eight years, God has shown me just in different ways. I'm not talking about through a dream or anything like that. Just like conversations. Someone will say something, something will happen. It's just like, Oh, okay. I got to go deal with that. And the vast majority of the time when I confront people about these sins, either one, they don't know about it regard meaning they don't know that that marriage, sex communication. And they're like, Oh man, I didn't know that. I'm going to get that right. And it's like, great. Or two, they do know it's sin and they're like, yeah, I've been struggling with that, but I'm going to repent of that right now. And I'm not going to participate in it anymore. And it's like, all right, great. We can move on with their lives. Okay. And when I do that, I don't go back to the person and say, Hey, you're not still a drunkard. Are you, you know, you know, I'm not like hanging that over their heads. I'm going to take you at your word that when you say you repent, you're repenting. Okay. If you say you're not fornicating, I'm just going to assume that you're not fornicating anymore unless you give me a reason to think that you possibly are. Okay. Then I have to confront that again. The point that I'm making here is that the Bible's teaching that these particular sins cannot be tolerated in a church. You know, why went to a church where it was tolerated? Yeah. Apparently they didn't read first Corinthians five. Cause what's another way to interpret first Corinthians five. And I know that, you know, disrupts people the wrong way when I, when I talk about this subject, but you know, I'm doing it for your sake though, I'm doing it for the sake of the church. And you'll thank me later because we don't want this to become a cesspool of sin where these sins are just kind of just running rampant. They're going on discipline. And then the next generation actually does worse than the first generation because we did not discipline those sins in the first generation. Okay. Go to Exodus 31, if you would Exodus 31 Exodus 31. So what does church discipline accomplish? Well, it keeps the congregation pure, pure from what? From false doctrine. We want to keep the congregation pure from false teachings, making sure people don't have a different gospel. They start, you know, offending the doctrines of Christ. And by the way, that's also a big thing. There's churches out there that were pastors will just allow all manner of doctrines in the church, all manner of gospels, all manner presentations of salvation, all manner of heresy. And he just kind of excuses it. He's just like, well, you know, they just got to grow and learn. Yeah. I agree with that. But can you go tell him that he's wrong though? You know, as the pastor, the pastor has the right to go say, I know you believe that, but that's actually wrong. Let me explain to you why it's wrong. And look, there's a difference between telling a person they're wrong and them saying like, man, I need to read into that. Then let me look into that. Okay. I give that person grace or a person who says, no, I think you're misinterpreting that. And you're wrong about losing your salvation, not losing your salvation. And so I'm going to keep believing. Okay. Then hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back. Don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you. Because damnable heresy will not be tolerated in the church. Okay. But also flagrant sin will not be tolerated in the church. And don't go out of this building misinterpreting what I'm saying. We all make mistakes. We all sin. We all do things that maybe we shouldn't be doing. But at the end of the day, there are things in the Bible specifically highlighted that say these cannot be tolerated though. They need immediate removal or immediate repentance. Exodus 31, number two, what does church discipline accomplish? It permanently removes people who should not be in church period. So those people that need to be removed to be disciplined in order to cause them to repent so that Satan destroys their flesh so they can get right with God and come back. And let me just make one more note about that. And that is when people repent and come back to church, let's say they were involved in fornication. Okay. Or we're involved in drugs or whatever. They come back. It's not like, well, look at the fornicator who came back, you know, not involved in fornication anymore. Hey, stop fornicate. You know, we don't hang stuff like that over people's heads. And in fact, in my opinion, our church is very loving when people come back, when people come back, people are just really happy. They're just like, man, we missed you. And, you know, they often come to me and they'll say, hey, I repent and I want to come back to church. It's like, let's pick up where we left off. You know, not ever discussed that ever again. And we should never bring their past ever up again. If it's already done with, it's under the blood, they've confessed it, they've gotten it right. Guess what? Let them move on with their lives and not hang that over their heads and not hold it against them. And, you know, let them live it down and move on and grow in the Lord. But there are certain things that should cause people to be just completely removed from the church where they will never come back. Okay. And again, being cut off in the Old Testament sometimes meant what? Exiled for a period of time. But other times, like they're cut off, like they're never coming back, not even to this earth in this particular era. Right. One of them was just the violation of the Sabbath. Look at Exodus 31 verse 14. It says you shall keep the Sabbath. Therefore, for it is holy unto you, everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Go to Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18. So we see there that being cut off, according to Exodus 31, is synonymous with what? Being put to death. Okay. And people when they read that like, man, that's kind of harsh. Well, the reason God was so severe in that punishment is because the Sabbath keeping the Sabbath pictured salvation and picture Jesus. And no one was supposed to work on the Sabbath. Just as in the New Testament, no one's supposed to work for salvation. Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. When we believe on him, we are resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. The person who desires to work on, work for their salvation will receive the second death, just as the person in the Old Testament received physical death for violating the Sabbath. Okay. That's what that picture is there. So that person is permanently removed from the congregation because of that. And let me say this, someone who's just teaching flagrant heresy and is just unrepentant, people like that are just never welcome to come back to church. Okay. They're just completely cut off from the congregation. Never woke. And I've had people that I've excommunicated from our church that I said, that person will never come back. And I don't want that person to come back. And let me say that. Let me, let me be bold enough to say this. There are people who may have gotten things like that. Right. But I'll still say you're forgiven, but I do not want you to come back to our congregation. I do that for the sake of the church. You know, there's people who committed grievous offenses to our church members amongst other things. And they ask for forgiveness. I'm like, you're forgiven, but you need to go to some other church. You cannot come back here because you are an offense unto the church. You offend too many people. Your reputation is marred here and we don't want you to come back. And you may think that's harsh, but it's not because now they have the liberty and freedom to go to any church they want. Right. Like when a person is excommunicated from the church, they are not allowed to go to any other church either. Now, I'm not checking on that. I'm not like, Hey, I'm not calling churches saying like, Hey, don't let this guy in your church. I'm just leaving that up to God because they're disciplined from the church and we have God's authority and power to do that. What's bound on earth. The Bible says shall be bound in heaven. So when we collectively agree, this person needs to be thrown out according to the Bible in heaven, God's like, I'll back you up on that. I agree with that. That is completely sanctioned. That's done. But there are instances where people are removed and it's just like this person offended wives in our church. They offended mothers in our church. They offended people in our church. They were super disrespectful. They just never improved as a member of the church. And it's just like, you need to go and you need to just never come back ever again. What's another thing that people were cut off from in the congregation in the Old Testament? Well, according to Leviticus 20, infanticide was one of them. You know, when people would give their children unto Moloch and burn their children and kill their children, the Lord says, I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he had given his seed unto Moloch to defile my sanctuary and to profane my holy name. Look at Leviticus chapter 18, if you would, Leviticus chapter 18. What's another reason why people were cut off permanently from the congregation? Committing abominations before the Lord. Leviticus 18 29 says, for whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Now, I don't have time in this sermon to develop what he's referring to, but the abominations that he's talking about from verses six through 19, for example, is uncovering the nakedness of your family or kin. Incest would be one. They were permanently cut off for that. Adultery, permanently cut off from that. Infanticide, killing children, permanently cut off from the congregation. Sodomy, permanently cut off. Let me say this, if we find out that a person is a sodomite in our church, they're cut off permanently and they're never welcome to come back. Pedophiles, never welcome to come back. We find out that someone is molesting children and they're behaving inappropriately towards children, they're cut off and I don't care if they come back and they say they repent, they're not welcome to come back to our church permanently. And you know what? There are instances where I execute church discipline and I need the collective support of the church to do so, that's actually not one of them. Like, I'm not even asking you if that's okay. Okay. There are other instances where it's just like, you know, and all the congregation said and everyone's like, amen, that person deserves to be thrown out. But you know, in this instance, if there's like a sodomite or a pedophile in our church and there's clear evidence that person is involved in that abomination, they're permanently removed and I'm just telling you that they're removed. I'm not going to ask you, though the vast majority of our church, in my opinion, agrees with that. Okay. But according to the Old Testament and Deuteronomy, sodomites are not allowed to come into the house of the Lord. Now, this is not a sermon on sodomy. You know, in my opinion, and I believe I have scriptural evidence to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt that sodomites cannot be saved. Okay. They cannot be saved. They are not redeemable because they don't want to retain God in their knowledge. There's various portions of scripture that clearly state that a person who's a reprobate is synonymous with the sodomites and reprobates are reprobates concerning the faith, meaning they're no longer allowed to believe. God removed their capability of believing. But let's say you disagree with that. You're like, well, I think sodomites can be saved. Okay. I think you're wrong and we can go toe to toe with scripture to kind of show that. But you know what, if that's what you believe, I'm fine with that. Here's the thing, though. You just can't bring sodomites to the church, though. Okay. You can't bring your reformed pedophile to the church either. So no pedophiles, no sodomites and definitely no transvestites. Plain and simple. Like why? Because we have children here. First of all, the Bible clearly says these people should be cut off from the congregation permanently. But secondly, we have children here and the Bible consistently teaches that sodomites and pedophiles are predators that seek children out to defile them and to destroy them. And we have a lot of children here. Therefore, they're not welcome here. And you can disagree with me on that. You know, I'm I give people the liberty to disagree with me on that. But at the end of the day, this is the administration of the church. It will not be tolerated here. Okay. Well, you know, you're going to scare people away like that. Well, I hope I scare the bad people away for sure. You know, I've actually never had a sodomite who knows what I believe come to our church because they have like, well, you know, I'm going to challenge that. You know, why? Because it scares them away. They're like, if this pastor believes that I'm not going to go to that church. Good. Don't come to our church. And look, we've had instances. I remember years ago, brother Alex Berea and I were out sowing and he gave a gospel track to this guy and he's like, oh yeah, I've been looking for a church and man, I'm going to be going to this church. He's like, you know, do you think your pastor, you know, I'm a registered sex offender though, you know, so I'm wondering if you can get and I was like, well, let me, let me go and get that back real quick. You know, take the track back or whatever. And he got all upset or whatever. And it's just like later faggot, you know, because I don't, we don't want a pedophile to come to our church. He was so excited about coming to our church. You know why? Because we're family oriented. That's why. And they go to congregations to violate children. So Alex did a great, he's just like, oh, okay, let me go and get that back. And then he's like holding it like this. Cause you know where that thing, you know, one of those hands up in, you know, you're going to offend people like that. I want to offend people like that. Big, big surprise. Of course. The point that I'm making is that those people are permanently cut off. Look, if they're permanently cut off from salvation, why would they not be permanently cut off from the house of God? So sodomy in Leviticus 18 talks about uncovering the nakedness cut off incest, cut off adultery, cut off infanticide, cut off sodomy, cut off bestiality, cut off. And I'm not going to go into details of what that is. It's just filthy is disgusting is what sodomites do by the way. Okay. All of these things are the abominations. And he says, anyone who does these abominations, they're permanently cut off from the congregation of the Lord, meaning they're put to death and look in the new Testament, we can't put anybody to death. Okay. But the new Testament application is that they are dead to us. Right. And they can't come into the house of God. Plain and simple. Let me read you from Galatians chapter, go to Leviticus chapter seven, if you will, Leviticus chapter seven, or chapter five, excuse me, Leviticus chapter five. Oh, I'm sorry. Leviticus chapter seven, I'm going to Galatians chapter five, Leviticus chapter seven, I'm going to Galatians chapter five. It looked to a certain degree, obviously this applies to, to the list that I gave, but it also applies to just dandable heretics, people who are just super wicked, who are reprobate. And in Galatians chapter five, we have infiltrators in the churches of Galatia. And the apostle Paul says, I would, that they were even cut off, which trouble you. He's saying, you know, my desire, my will is that those people will be permanently removed from the congregations of Galatia, be cut off completely. Okay. And so, you know, I know that's a point of contention with a lot of churches, but it doesn't have to be as long as you just see it our way. Churches just need to see it our way. And you know what they would, they would save themselves a lot of anguish and trouble and molestations and rapes and all this nonsense that takes place in these churches because, you know, they have bus ministries and they have all these ministries for children, but then they have just some of the worst people coming into the church, participating in and like, you know, over those ministries. And they essentially just give them access to these children super wicked. And so you're like, well, I agree with you. I just don't like the language that you use. Well, stick around. You'll like it. Stick around. After a while, it'll grow on you. You might find yourself saying it too. You know, it might slip out every once in a while. I'd be like, oh, actually it just rolls off the tongue sometimes. Number three, let's talk about what it accomplishes. Number three, it communicates. Listen to this. We're talking about church discipline communicates that actions have consequences, right? Communicates that actions have consequences in the Old Testament. If you participated in spiritual activities while ritually impure, you were cut off from the congregation. You know, the violation of the peace offerings, for example, if you did that ritually impure, you'd be cut off. Members of the nation of Israel were excluded from participating in religious rights and the community if they ate of the peace offerings while ritually impure. And I'm not going to go through all these verses, but you're in Leviticus chapter seven, verse 20. It says, but the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings that pertain unto the Lord, having his having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from among his people, from his people. Verse 21, moreover, the soul verse 21, moreover, the soul that shall touch any unclean thing as the uncleanness of a man or any unclean beast or any abominable unclean thing and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain to the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. And I'm going to skip some of the passages here. Go to Numbers chapter 15, Numbers chapter 15, if you would. When a person in the Old Testament was ritually impure, they were cut off. And you know, people in the Old Testament could think, man, you know, but they, they were doing the right things though. You know, they're trying to worship God or, you know, just trying to do these things. But obviously that's what God commands. And the purpose of being so strict is that other people would hear and fear, right? So when you hear about drunkards being thrown out, you hear about fornicators being thrown out, the potential fornicator in the church will think to themselves, you know, I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. I think I'm going to, I think I'm going to break up with my boyfriend or girlfriend. You know, I think we're not going to do that anymore. Or, you know what, we're going to get married, you know, because I don't want to get thrown out. People were made a byword and a proverb and an example, others fear and they get right with God because of it. Look at Numbers 15 verse 27 says, if any soul sinned through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinned ignorantly when he sinned by ignorance before the Lord to make an atonement for him. And it shall be forgiven him. In other words, you know, certain people that just, they sin because they just don't know that that's a sin. Some people that come to our church, they're fornicating, but they don't really know like, Oh man, I can't be in the church while fornicating. Or, you know, they drink a beer now and again. They're like, Oh, I didn't know I couldn't do that. I didn't know alcohol was sinful. Right? I didn't know doing these things were sinful. That's called sinning through ignorance. And what do we do? We just teach them. We forgive them. We move on. Now look at verse 30, but the soul that doeth presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproach at the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people because he had despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment. That soul shall be utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him. So in other words, he's saying there's a difference between the person who's ignorantly doing sin and the person that knows it's sin. They know they can't be doing that in church and they do it anyways. That person is someone who is unrepentant of the sin and should be removed from the congregation. Okay. Go to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18, if you would. Actually go to first Timothy chapter one, first Timothy chapter one. I'm going to skip some of this because I'm running out of time. Uh, first Corinthians, first Timothy chapter one. And here's the last point that I want to make here. And I've been basically saying this throughout the sermon, but what is the purpose of church discipline? Well, ultimately it accomplishes repentance. So a person who's thrown out, they realize the error of their ways. Satan is destroying their life. Ultimately they end up coming back. And you might think to yourself like, well, I know of some people who've been thrown out of church and it doesn't look like they're repenting. It doesn't look like they're getting right with God. It looks like they're just kind of involved in sin. Well, number one, in my opinion, one of the reasons that does happen is because that person has enablers in his life or her life that we just don't know about. Right. They have people who are, you know, helping them, spending time with them, you know, so they're, they're essentially interfering with God's discipline in that person's life. And the unfortunate and unfortunate thing about that is, is that, you know, you may think to yourself, well, if that's what they want to do, that's what they're going to do. Yeah. But that person is going to be destroyed far more severely in the long run though. Okay. And so can we really say we love that person? Can we really say that we love that person? If we're just enabling them, we're helping them, you know, truly loving them is just allowing that discipline to take its course. Okay. And allowing Satan to destroy that person's life and, and just leave it in the hands of God. But when you have people who are disciplined and they seem to be doing well, sometimes maybe they are, but it's because people are enabling them. Other times, if they seem to be doing well, it's not necessary because they're being enabled by someone else, but it's actually, they're just lying to you. Okay. Or they're putting up a front that they're doing well, right there. Oh, everything's great. As they, the resources are just completely destroyed as their health is just deteriorating as everything else, because they want you to think like everything's going good in their life, but it's not, you know, God is dealing with that person. He's destroying that individual and he's bringing them to a place of repentance. Look at first Timothy chapter one, verse 18. This is discharge. I committed to these son, Timothy, according to the prophecies, which went before on thee, that thou by them might as war good warfare, holding faith in a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck of whom is hominous and Alexander whom I've delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. So we have the phrase they're delivered unto Satan. The same thing that we see in first Corinthians chapter five, implying church discipline. He's basically saying like we threw these guys out of church. Why? So they can learn not to blaspheme. What's the intention? Did he just throw them out because he didn't like them? No, it's because of the fact that they were blaspheming the doctrines of price. They were blaspheming the Lord. And if they're saved, they're going to learn not to blaspheme and then be restored back into the congregation. Go to second Corinthians chapter two, second Corinthians chapter two. Now, I didn't have time to go over this, but in Matthew chapter 18, it essentially gives us the steps on how to execute or implement church discipline. And it talks about the offenses, you know, and I'll give you an example of this in just a bit, but, you know, talks about if someone trespasses against you, you go to that person, tell him his fault alone. And then, you know, if they hear you, then you've gained thy brother. So let's just say, you know, let me just use Brother Huyck as an example and Brother Christian. Okay. You know, Brother Huyck just grievously offends Christian, just as he does to everyone. You know, he just grievously offends Christian because, you know, let's say he owed him money, he just never paid him back or something. Okay. And, you know, this might be a real thing, actually. I don't know. I got to be careful. But, you know, let's say, you know, Huyck goes to him and says, hey, you owe me money. You know, and Christian is like, I completely forgot about that. How much was it? And he was like, it's $2, you know, and he's just like, all right, yeah, yeah, sorry about that. And he apologizes. What did Huyck do? He gained his brother. Right. Now, what the scripture is not teaching is that you go to other people for that offense. Right. So Huyck should not be going to Brother Rick and saying, man, Christian owes me $2, you know. That guy is such a derelict. And then he comes to Paul and he's like, Paul, that guy, hey, don't ever let that guy borrow money. I gave him $2. He has to pay me back, you know. And then he goes to Marcos and then he stops going to Marcos because Marcos owes him $3, you know. But he starts going to everyone else about what he, about Christian's problem. And Christian just doesn't even know about this. And it's not like Christians being a derelict, maybe he just forgot. Right. But the problem is, is that if Huyck's going to everyone, everyone else about this particular issue, he's going about it in an unscriptural manner. Okay. He's gossiping is what he's doing. And so if you have an offense with someone, the scriptural manner to deal with that is go to that person, not to, not go to the person who's affiliated with that person, not go to their best friend, not go to a family member of that person, go to that person alone. It doesn't matter how much they owe you, no matter what they did, if they have offended you, you need to go to that person. So Huyck goes to Christian, Christian's like, that's funny, I got $2 in my pocket right now. Gives him the $2, they hug, they're friends again, they've gained, he's gained thy brother. Right. But let's say, you know, Christian's just like, I don't owe you a dime. And he's just like, you know, I'm not giving you nothing. Ye shall be recompensed at the resurrection. You know, he's just like, and Huyck's like, man, I need those $2, you know? Well, it says if he will not hear him, then what Huyck needs to do is take, Brother Huyck needs to take two or three witnesses to go confront Christian. And Huyck would go to, let's just say he goes to Cody, he goes to Brother Philip and he says, hey, I don't want to spread gossip, but I need help here because I confronted this person. This person owes me money, he's not willing to repent. Maybe you guys can help me to talk some sense into him to get him to repent, you know, put some pressure on him. Because, you know, when you come with a group of guys, it creates a little pressure. Right. So even if Christian doesn't think he's wrong, he's like, all right, here, you know, I'm sorry, you know, there it is. So two or three witnesses go, every word is established. But let's say, you know, Christian is just adamant as a stone, he's stubborn. And he tells Cody, take a hike. This guy, you two can take a hike. I'm not paying him nothing. I don't owe him $2. Well, at that point, they need to bring it to me and say, you know, this person's unrepentant. He's not willing to pay me back for this. You know, he owes me this exorbitant amount. At which point, I need to take it before the church and basically say, Christian is being church disciplined right now, because he's unwilling to repent of the fact that he owes brother hike this amount of money. And he was confronted about brother hike, he was confronted with Cody and brother Philip, and he's still willing to unrepent. So now he is unto us as a heathen and as a publican. Now at that point, Christian be like, Oh, okay, here's the $2. I'll be like, all right, give him $2. And let's move on. But if he if he says you guys can all take a hike, I'm not paying anybody. Well, the Bible says that we treat him as a heathen as a publican. Now, what is a heathen? It's an unsafe person. Publican is just a really bad person of society, a dishonest individual. So that means we treat that person like an unsaved individual doesn't mean he's not saved. It means you treat him like he's unsafe, meaning you have nothing to do with him. Right. Now, we had an instance like this, you know, about a year ago or something, and actually involved Christian. It involved Christian and who else was it? Israel. Okay. And, you know, some guy in our church who's no longer here, he's one of the people who will never be welcome to come back for other reasons. But you know, this guy, he he just blatantly disrespected both of these guys just railed on him hard, and just said it like all manner of evil against them. And they were greatly offended at that. They're just like, you're saying this, you're cussing us out. You're saying like all manner of evil against us. And they were offended, you know, rightfully so. So then, you know, they come to me and they're like, he said this about us, and we're offended at that. And so, you know, we just want to resolve this. And so I confronted the guy and I said, did you say that? And he's like, yeah, I said it. I'm like, okay, then apologize for saying that. Because these two men are in right standings with the church. Can't just go around saying stuff like that. Can't just go around just cussing people out of our church and just saying stuff about people in our church. So I'm like, apologize right now, because these people are not guilty of whatever you're saying. They're right standings. He goes, I'm not gonna apologize to anybody because I do believe, and he starts cussing them out right then and there. Right? He's in my office. And I said, okay, take a hike. I was like, you're out of here. You're being church disciplined. You're not welcome to come back, you know, until you decide to get this right. So then, you know, he takes the walk of shame. Right? We call this the walk of shame. When they're walking out, and I'm escorting him out. And he leaves the door. And then he turns around. He's just like, thank you for everything, you know. And I'm like, I'm not shaking your hand. You know why? Because he's done to me as a heathen and as a publican. There's no like, hey, I believe you, though. They are like that. But you know, I'm just a pastor here. You know, I halfway agree with what you're saying. You know what I mean? You know, just I was like, don't even touch me. You're heathen and a publican. You've been church disciplined. And he eventually got right. He apologized. But then he then he started doing some worse things after that, which is why he's not welcome to come back. But that is the manner in which to deal with the situation. Now, those of you who heard that story, now know you now you're thinking myself, wow, you know, I was about to cut someone out today at church, and I'm not gonna do it anymore. Because I don't want to get thrown out, you know, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Okay, here's the last passage of Scripture. Now, when a person is restored, this is how we're to treat them. Second Corinthians two, four says, for out of the mouth, I've had much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. Now, he's referring to the guy who's committing fornication back in First Corinthians chapter five. So eventually, that guy was thrown out. But then they let the pendulum swing to the extreme other side. And now they're just being really hard on him. Even though the guy's repented, like he's like, he's like afflicted, he's sad, he's mourning. And everyone's just punishing him for this. Verse seven, 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. Wherefore, I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him. So he's saying, look, I'm glad you guys executed church discipline, but now that guy repented. Welcome him back. Love him. Confirm your love towards him. Be kind to him. He's your brother in Christ. Don't be so extreme about it. Okay. So obviously, the balance is when someone gets right with God, you know, love that person. Hug that person. Go out to eat with that person. Welcome that person back to the fold. Restore that individual. Ye that are strong, restore such a one, you know, who, who has fallen, right? Someone who is, who's come back and they're humbled, you know, and that's one of my favorite things to do is just have someone come back and we just pick up where we left off. And I just kind of erase whatever just happened in the past and I don't bring it up ever again. And they're able to just live happily ever after in our church. That's the goal. So what's the sermon this morning? I know it's a little long today, but this is important. And I was debating whether to preach this on Sunday night, but I thought to myself Sunday morning, people need to hear this sermon though. And so excommunication is a doctrine and it's a practice of our church with the intent to keep the church pure from false doctrine, from sin. It's to teach others that others may fear. It's through permanently remove people from the congregation who should never come back. And it accomplishes repentance in the person who's been thrown out and hopefully they come back. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for this practice. Help us as your people to have a balance of justice, but also of love. And I pray that you'd help me as a, as a pastor, Lord, to have that wisdom, to discern and to be balanced in those areas, Lord, and help us as a church tip to be pure, Lord in doctrine and not to tolerate flagrant sin in the church. May you guide and direct our steps and give us discernment. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.