Biblical Church Discipline

I appreciate that, Keith. I know I've said this quite a few times in relation to that last song. I really like that one, especially the chorus. She is treasured and prized. That is the church. The Lord has taught us that the Lord Jesus purchased for himself a people. That people is a church and He is coming back for us one day. We are treasured and prized. And I do encourage you to know that song. It's a great song of worship. A lot of truth packed in that song. And that's what we seek to do here through our worship and song, is that is to sing truth. I was talking with one of the men of our church.

We were talking about songs that can be overly emotional and such. And he made the comment slightly corrective to me that when we sing truth and we love truth that does stir up emotion. And that is true. And that is good. So I appreciate that. I think that really fits where we are going. Well go ahead and take your Bible and turn back with me to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, like I said earlier, we will be in verses 15 to 17. We'll divide verses 15 to 17. And I will not reference quite a few scriptures like I normally do, but I will do something a little different. I'm going to give you an assignment at the end of the message.

Some of you might say, "Pastor, that sounds a little like homework." Well, you can call it homework. You can call it an assignment. But I'm going to give you an assignment and it is associated with some other passages. And it's a continuation of what we're going to look at this morning. So a little later on you'll need to write those passages down. Like I always do, I encourage you to take notes because we want to be good students of what the Lord gives us. We don't want to just be listeners of the Word. We want to be studiers, if I can use that language, of what the Lord gives us on Sunday morning so that we can be doers of the Word.

Now I know I said this earlier, but this morning we find ourselves at the tenth pillar, the last pillar in our study of the ten pillars. We've covered quite a lot of ground for some eleven weeks. If you think back to the list of what we've looked at, remember we started off with the church. We had an introductory message which led us to the first pillar, which was the church. Then we studied the gospel. Then we moved on to the Bible or the Word of God. Then we moved on to saving, grace, or salvation, really whatever language you choose to use.

So we looked at what I called the top four, the institution of the church, the gospel, the Word of God as God's authoritative word, and then salvation. And I say this again, if we alter this teaching with the top four, if we move away from this teaching at all, we really just break the ship of this Christian work called the church. We really break it in half and it really sinks to the bottom of the sea. I think I told a friend of mine like this, if we're going to alter the top four, we might as well close the door and go fishing. Because we're not going to be a part of true kingdom work.

And then we moved on to number five, which was church membership. And I strongly encourage you to make sure, especially if you're new here, to make sure you digest that teaching because we probably view church membership a little different than some people that we are familiar with. And then we moved on to what I call our responsibility. This is where we roll up our sleeves. Number six, prayer. Number seven, evangelism. And then number eight, mission. See when I went to the Philippines and you went with me and I'm teaching there out of our lives and this church and you're contributing to that, we're all participating in missions.

We're just doing what we believe. And then last week we looked at church leadership. The fact that elders lead the church, we looked at what the scriptures say about church leadership. And then this morning we're in our tenth pillar, which is church discipline. Now before we dive into our message, I want to deal with three types of people and one misconception. I'll repeat that because I know you might need to write this down. We're going to deal with three types of people and we're going to deal with one misconception. Now first the three types of people. Basically we have three types of people here this morning.

Some of you have never seen church discipline. Maybe you've never even heard of church discipline. Most Baptist churches do not believe in church discipline nor do they teach church discipline. I'm sad to say that for years I was a layman in the life of the Baptist church and I was a minister of the gospel in the life of the church and I never knew what church discipline was. I never heard church discipline taught and it was only until I went through church discipline in a very bad way that I began to study church discipline. Some of you here, you have heard of church discipline.

Maybe you've seen some form of church discipline, but it was nothing but bad. I referenced that. The first time I came in contact with church discipline it was nothing but bad and it just catapulted me into the scriptures to study what the word of God said about church discipline. Most people have seen church discipline if they've seen it. It's just nothing more than kicking people out of the church and I've seen that. Yet there are some of you and you've seen biblical church discipline, but I venture to say that it's very few of you. I believe you have seen it dealt with properly here if you've been here for some time.

Now in time I believe that we will all be on the same page here. Now why do I say that? I believe in time. It takes time. It takes studying God's word and really it also takes going through church discipline in the life of the church for us to be on the same page. So roughly we have three types of people here this morning. But second I want us to look at what I call the misconception. One of the biggest misconceptions in the church can be centered on this subject of church discipline. If people, and I say if, if people have heard of church discipline most have heard of bad cases.

Many people understand church discipline and I repeat myself as just kicking people out of the church. Now let me clear up this misconception. Here at Nollababdis Church we do not believe in kicking people out of the church. I've said it like this. We don't believe in churching folks. But we do believe in biblical church discipline. Now I know I said it earlier. This is negative. There are certain things in the Scriptures that are negative and this is negative. But this is positive because this is God's word. And we believe in biblical church discipline.

And that's where we're going this morning because church discipline is pillar number ten and our understanding of the church. Now let me say this as your pastor before we continue. For church discipline to work as it should, Christians, born again people, must be willing to do three things. If we are not willing to do these three things, it's hopeless. First, we must be willing to submit to the authority of God's word. Yes, we must be willing to submit to the authority of God's word. We cannot cherry pick. We cannot selectively study and accept God's word.

We must understand God's word as it is taught and submit to the authority of God's word specifically in the area of church discipline. Second, we must submit to the authority of the church. You might say, "Pastor, the church has authority?" Yes, the church has authority over our lives. And then third, we must commit to the institution of the church. See there are so many people in our culture, they have a loosey goosey commitment to this institution called the church. But true Bible Christians who are walking in obedience with the Lord and in obedience to the word, they are committed to the institution of the church.

And then fourth, we as Christians must be willing to open up our lives to brothers and sisters within the church. And I know a lot of people are just fearful to do that very thing. Now here in Matthew 18, we are going to look at a model for church discipline. I have used the language of the prescription for church discipline. I like that language as well. John MacArthur calls this teaching the prescription for church discipline. But this morning, I'm going to use this language as a model, a model for church discipline. So let's look at these verses and then I will share with you how we will divide these verses. Let's go back to verse 15.

And if your brother sins or sins against you, go and reprove him. Do it in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother or won him over. Verse 16, "And if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen to even the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax gatherer." Some translations say tax collector. Now let me share with you how we will divide these verses.

We will look at the people involved in church discipline, the place of church discipline, the principles for church discipline, and then the plan for church discipline. Now after we divide these verses, then I will move to your assignment, your homework, if I can use that language, for the rest of the week. Because this all goes together with a lot of other teaching and scripture, and we need to make sure we get it all together and get it in our minds so we will digest and understand and put our minds and hearts around biblical church discipline. So let's look at our first major truth in our outline.

Number one, the people involved in church discipline. The people involved in church discipline. Go back to the beginning of verse 15. What does it say? If your brother, if your brother. Now this word brother, it refers to a brother in the faith, not necessarily a sibling. This speaks of a real Christian. Now all of the translations read the same thing. All of the translations say brother, whether it's a modern translation or the King James. So this is within the family of faith, this is between real Christians. These are the people that are involved in church discipline. Now two specifics. Notice a brother is the offender.

Go back to the verse. And if your brother sins. So there we see that it is a brother that is offending another. Here we see that it is a Christian that is sin. A Christian is sinned in such a way where another Christian is offended by their behavior, by their sin. And then second notice, a brother is offended. I know this is repetitive, but it needs to be seen. Here we see that a Christian brother is offended by the sin of another Christian brother. A Christian is hurt. A Christian is sinned against because of their sin. So what must we see here just in this little portion of verse 15? We must see the people involved in church discipline.

This is between brothers. This is between sisters. In the faith, or better said, it is between two Christians. Now I want to point out an application to common mistakes here. Two common mistakes that many people can make. First the first mistake is assuming that if someone sins and offends, that they just must simply be lost. I've seen people make that assumption. I've seen people sin, Christian sin in the life of the church.

And I've seen people in the very judgmental spirit jump up and say, "Well, that guy, that man, that woman, they just must be lost." And we cannot have that judgmental spirit because the Scriptures teach that Christians can sin. Now, the second mistake that some people make in a matter like this is assuming that the one who sins against them is a Christian. What I mean by that is there are lots of times people in the life of the church, they are not Christian. You might say, "Pastor, you're being a little contradictory." No, I'm showing you the extremes of the mistakes some can make.

Some can assume that someone in the life of the church who sins automatically, they are lost. And then some cannot fathom the fact that there are people in the life of the church who are lost and who do sin. I think back quite a few years ago to our study in 1 and 2 and 3 John, we learned about this man in the life of the church who was a bully in the church. His name was Diatrophys. He was clearly lost. And he was sinning in the life of the church. So we must see that Christians can sin, sin against us in the church, and we must see that sometimes they're just goats and they have on sheep's clothing.

Now second, our second truth in our outline, notice the place of church discipline. The place of church discipline. You can call this the setting of church discipline. This is more than between brothers and sisters. This is within the family of God or within the church. Let me go back and let's read verse 15 and 16 again. And then I want us to notice two specifics. And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in Proven. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two or more with you so that by mouth, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.

Two specifics I want us to see here. First, this is within the church on a small scale. I use that language small scale. Because here we see that this is between Christians, but it can involve others. What does he say? If you go and you win your brother, everything's fine. But you might need to take a witness or two. That is why I call it small scale. It is between two or it involves one or two others. But then notice things can change. The second, it is within the church on a larger scale. Verse 17, "And if he refuses to listen to them, who is to them?" Those are the witnesses. Then tell it to the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Really that means a lost person. So here we see that things escalate and it's sad. But they escalate. It goes before the church or before God's people. This goes from small scale involving two or three to large scale in the life of the entire church. But what do we need to see here? The setting. The context. The setting. It makes all the difference in the world. This is within the church or this is within the body of Christ. But we must see that we as Christians are a part of the body of Christ.

We can see as Americans, if we're not careful, we can think too much on an individualistic level. A couple of passages that will help us here. Romans 12 starting in verse 4, "For as in one body we," notice that pluralistic language, "we have many members and the members do not have, all have the same function." So we throw many or one body in Christ. What is Paul saying? We are individuals but we are members of one body.

And then Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 starting in verse 12, "For just as the body is one and has many members and all of the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ." Now I'll read those passages to help us see that we are part of the body. And this is the place of church discipline, the context. Again what must we see? Discipline is between brothers and sisters in Christ within the church and nowhere else. This isn't in the workplace. This isn't in the public arena. This is in the life of the church within the body of Christ. I'll give you an example and then make some application.

One of the first acts of church discipline in the New Testament church came in Acts chapter 5. I mean the church is growing like gangbusters. They're reaching people with the gospel and the numbers are growing like mad. But lo and behold, there's a couple named Ananias and Sapphira and they brought in hypocritical giving in the life of the church and they lied and there was church discipline. And where was this? In the context of the church within the body of Christ. Now an application I want you to see. There are some that will automatically say this. That should not take place in the church. Some will say you can't do that.

That is totally wrong. That is totally wrong. It is biblical and it is always a part of a healthy church. Let me say that again. Church discipline is biblical and it is always a part of the healthy church. Now let me turn that around. You show me a church that does not practice church discipline, doesn't believe in church discipline and doesn't teach on church discipline and I'll show you an unhealthy church because their roles will be chock full of people who have no business being on the church role. See the place of church discipline is in the context of the church. And then third I want us to see the principles of church discipline.

The principles of church discipline. Now before we can look at the principles of church discipline we must see that principles within the scriptures are timeless. Now they are principles found all throughout God's word and they are meant to be applied to our lives as Christians and I repeat they are timeless. Let me give you two examples. And I know I use these examples last time I taught on church discipline. One is an Old Testament and one is a New Testament example. The first is the Old Testament. Remember when God called Abraham in Genesis 12 he called him to himself.

He chose him as a prized possession and Abraham left his pagan background in his worship of many gods and he identified with the one true God and what did God call Abraham to do. He called him to wait and to live in Canaan. But what happened? Abraham was tested many times and there were some times when he failed the test and he left Canaan. God always called him to wait in Canaan and even when famine came he was to stay in Canaan. But what am I showing you? There's the principle of waiting on God. Even when Abraham looked to heaven and said Lord I don't know if I can stay in Canaan. Oh but God I've got to obey what you said.

See there's that principle of waiting on God. Psalm 40 verses 1, 2 and 3 teach on waiting on God. And there are times in our lives where we just have to wait. We have to wait and we have to wait. There's that timeless principle. The second timeless principle comes out of the New Testament. The New Testament book of 1 Timothy specifically chapter 2 verse 9. Now there's a passage here that says that women should not have braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. Now what's the principle here? The principle here is for women not to dress in excess in the life of the church.

See in the Ephesian church the women were getting out of bounds in many areas. They were asserting themselves in spiritual leadership. They were speaking out, out of place, out of turn in the life of the church. And one of the things that they were doing is they were coming in the life of the church, dressed and adorned in such a way where it is bringing attention on them. So the principle here is not to come for women in the life of the church in such a way where it draws all types of attention to them. It's sad to say there are a lot of people that are taking this literal and what do they do? We know many of them.

So what am I trying to show you? Principles that are in God's Word. Now I say that because I want you to grasp the fact that there are principles that we must see in the Scripture. Three principles I want us to see out of Matthew 18. The first principle. Sin must not remain between Christians within the life of the church. Oh, we need to get that. Sin must not remain between Christians within the life of the church. Verse 15, "But if your brother sins, go." Go and reprove him in private. If he listens to you, you've won your brother. Oh, if it stops right there, praise the Lord. The sins been resolved.

Verse 16, "But if he does not listen to you, you just give up." No, that's not what it says. You take one or two more so that the issue may be settled. And then if it's settled, praise the Lord. The sin is not there. So what do we see? Sin must not remain between Christians in the life of the church. Now I'll give you a parallel. Just like sin between a husband and a wife must not remain, sin between brothers and sisters within a fellowship must not remain. The second principle. Follow the biblical plan and the issue of sin between brothers. The second principle, follow this biblical plan and the issue of sin between brothers. What do we see?

Verse 15, "Go to your brother, and if you want him over, praise the Lord." Oh, but if not, verse 16, the next step, take one or two witnesses. And then if he still will not repent, what do you do? You take it to the church, and if he still won't listen to the church, then you must treat him as a lost man. So there is this biblical plan here, and when sin does, and I emphasize that word, does come between Christians, there is a solid plan to correct that sin. It is step by step. And more about the plan a little later in the message. Now the third principle. Follow discipline through to do its work. Follow the discipline through to do its work.

Now here's where it gets negative. It gets really negative. Verse 17, "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen to even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector or tax gatherer." Yes, the process of discipline must be followed through. Even the toughest of situations, they must be properly dealt with all the way to the end. So what do we see here? There are guiding principles for life between Christians within the church. Christians can't let sin remain between one another. Christians must follow the biblical plan to deal with sin between one another.

Christians or the church must allow discipline to do its work within the believer, within the context of the church. Now an application, I want to make a few comments here. We must. We must see that these principles are timeless. We must be able to pull these biblical principles from God's Word and apply them to our lives. Principles guide us from the Scriptures. Now let me get specific. We must not allow sin to remain between us as Christians. You might say, "Pastor, you've said that." Oh, it needs to be repeated. We must not allow sin to remain between us and Christians. Now I ask you two questions here.

If you got along with other Christians like you do with your spouse, how would our church life be? Let me repeat that. If you got along with other Christians like you do with your spouse, how would our church life be? Sad to say, there are some families, it's chaos, no peace, no harmony, no love, nothing but fighting and bickering and backbiting and grudges. See if you brought that behavior in the life of the church, it would destroy the church. But let me turn it around. If you brought how some so-called Christians relate to other Christians into your marriage, how would your marriage be? I've seen behavior in the life of the church.

If you brought that in a marriage, it would end up in the divorce court quickly. See what I'm trying to show you? We must not allow sin to remain between us as Christians. This gets personal. This gets real. But look, we are the body of Christ. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to the body of Christ and we belong to one another. How can the hand rise up against the foot? Then we must follow the prescribed plan. You might say, "Pastor, you already said that." Listen, it cannot be said enough. There is a biblical plan. We must follow the plan and then we must follow discipline to the end. This can be hard and many times it is not fun.

Now I pose another question. Is this question in some of your minds? What do you do when someone sins against you and you go to them and they won't follow the prescribed plan? That's when the church leaders have to step in and do it God's way. Listen, if the church leadership won't do it God's way, it will not happen. And I'm sad to say there are some of you, you've been sinned against in the life of the church and you did not have leadership to come along beside you and go through the proper steps. I've been there. I'll tell you a story and then we'll move on. I want to be careful because of time.

I'll never forget I was serving in another church and there was a leader in the life of the church who sinned against me. He made comments, comments against other people and it was a very grievous sin. And I prayed and I sought the Lord and I was studying this passage and I said, "Lord, I'm going to do it your way." And I took my Bible and I went to his place of business and I sat in front of his desk and I opened it up and I showed him what the scripture said and I said, "Brother, you've sinned against me, you've sinned against others and this must be dealt with because we didn't have leadership who would subscribe to this teaching and never went anywhere.

It just turned into bitterness and anger and frustration and I'm sad to say it was all channeled against me because when you point out sin to a goat, they never, never like it. Now let me continue. Let's look at number four. Our fourth truth, this leads us to the plan of discipline. Our fourth major truth, the plan of church discipline. What do we see? Verse 15, "If your brother sins, go and reprove him." And if you've won your brother and I insert this, praise the Lord.

But verse 16, "But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed." And then we know the rest of the passage, "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen to the church," then it's sad to say he used to be turned out of the church. Now this is the plan of church discipline. But here we must see that the Bible, the Word of God is either correct in all things or it is erroneous in all things. Listen, the Word of God, if it is correct, then it must be obeyed.

And if the Word of God is erroneous, if it is flawed, then we just throw it out the window. And like I said earlier, if we throw the Word of God out the window, close the door, sell the property, and go fishing on Sunday. But we're not going to do that. Because back in our study of the ten pillars, pillar number three, we established and we affirmed over and over that the Word of God is authoritative. It is sufficient because it has been given by God and inspired by God. Whether you know it or not, that was one of the biggest issues within the Protestant Reformation.

Those Reformers stepped up and they said, "No, God's Word is above and beyond church tradition." They adhered to the sufficiency and the authority of God's Word. As a matter of fact, some of you might not even know, but there was a great battle within the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s because there was a fight for the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Because if the Scriptures are not inspired and inerrant, well then they're not authoritative. Simply if the Bible is the truth without no error, then it must be sufficient in all matters of life and in church life. And we must submit to its authority over us.

So therefore, we must submit to this plan. Now let's look at these four steps real quickly. First we go along. Isn't that what verse 15 says? We go. We go humbly with our Bible in hand. We go prayerfully and we go to that brother lovingly. Why? We want a restored relationship. And if you succeed, notice the reward. You rejoice. Then second, you take a witness. That is, if the brother refuses to listen, you take a witness. Now what is the purpose of taking a witness? It is for protection because the witness protects the accused and the witness protects the accused her.

And then third, if the brother will not listen, then you tell it to the church. Verse 17. John MacArthur says, "The matter being reported to the whole assembly is so that all may lovingly pursue the sinning brothers' reconciliation." And then fourth, this is the last step. If he refuses to repent, every step along the way, you treat him as a lost man. You treat him as a Gentile, as a tax collector. This is after repentance has been sought and the sinner refuses to repent. Now an application I want you to see. This can only take place if the church leadership desires to practice church discipline.

If the church leadership does not desire to church discipline, you are hopeless and helpless to try to get involved in church discipline. This can only take place if the Christians within the church desire to submit to the biblical practice of church discipline. And as I said earlier, first, we submit to the authority of God's Word. Second, we must submit to the authority of the church over us. Third, we must commit to the institution of the church. And fourth, we must be willing to open up the brothers and sisters in the church. And I'll say this to you before we move on.

As the elders and leaders in the life of Nola Baptist Church, those that God has called and appointed here to lead, we adhere to biblical church discipline. And listen, I could never serve on staff at a church where they refuse to practice church discipline, and we will never have other elders in the life of this church who refuse to adhere to this teaching. Why? Because it is thoroughly biblical. Now I want to move on to the middle portion of the message. It's a lot shorter. We've seen the people. We've seen the place. We've seen the principles and the plan of church discipline. They've been there for you. They're easy for you to see.

Again, I challenge you to write them down. They're all from Matthew 18, verses 15 and 17. Now I want to give you your assignment. I want you to study three examples of church discipline within the scriptures. This will help solidify this teaching in your mind. This will help us all see this fleshed out in the scriptures. Not just the teaching, but we'll see this teaching from Matthew 18 fleshed out in certain circumstances. First, the problem in the church at Thessalonica. I think many of you are familiar with the church at Thessalonica. Paul wrote two letters, first and second Thessalonians, to the church there at Thessalonica.

See Paul had a very effective ministry in the city of Thessalonica. Acts 17 teaches us that Paul was ministering in the city and persecution arose, and there were these jealous Jews from the city of Berea, and what did they do? They persecuted Paul. And then some of the Thessalonica even followed Paul to Berea because they were hostile against Paul. But Paul, he later writes back to this church for several reasons. One reason was to correct the wrong understanding of the Second Coming of Christ. Chapter 4 starting in verse 13, going all the way into chapter 5.

But then there was another reason, and it was to correct laziness in the life of the church. In chapter 3 verses 6 to 14, Paul deals with laziness. What was going on? Because they had an erroneous view of the Second Coming, they quit working and they sat around and they waited on Jesus and became a problem in the church. And what does Paul do? He exercises discipline, and I challenge you to go study it. It is a classic case of church discipline. And then the second example, the problem in the church at Corinth. The problem in the church at Corinth. Now we know that Corinth was an ancient Greek city and it was very famous for several reasons.

Some of you might not know, but Corinth was famous for their games. Their games similar to the Olympic games that were played in Athens. But Corinth was a very prosperous city, noted for her trade, but she was very, very noted for her immorality. The term Corinthianized became synonymous for sexual immorality and debauchery. And it was in this city that Paul founded the church on his second missionary journey, and we see that in Acts chapter 18. Paul had a very successful ministry there. He stayed for over a year, a year and a half. But Paul wrote two letters back to this church to straighten out many, many problems.

And one reason was to correct gross immorality in the church. And we see that in 1 Corinthians 5 starting in verse 1. Another classic case of church discipline. But the third example is the discipline of church leaders. The discipline of church leaders. Now truthfully this is not a true example, but we have specific guidelines for discipline with church leadership. Church elders. And I do propose this as an example. Just as discipline is applied to Christians, brothers and sisters, discipline is meant for Christian leadership as well. Paul is writing to Timothy.

Timothy ministers there in the church at Ephesus, and he gives them guidelines for church discipline for leaders. And we see this in 1 Timothy chapter 5 starting in verse 19. And again, go. Go and study these examples on your own. Come with the teaching out of Matthew 18. And this will solidify church discipline within your minds and within your hearts, therefore within the church. Now before I move on to the conclusion, I'll say this as your pastor. From the teaching this morning and from your own personal study, if there are questions that arise, we will be glad.

Brother Keith and I will be glad to sit down with you over lunch or come to your home or sit down with you over a cup of coffee and walk with you through this teaching. Because like I said earlier, this can be some of the most difficult teaching in the life of the church today. Many many misconceptions associated with church discipline. Now quickly, in conclusion, I want to make five comments of application. And listen close. First, we must see that church discipline is biblical. I say pastor, you said that. I can't say it enough. Because this is the mistake many people make.

They say we cannot have a mess or a ruckus or a problem like that in the life of the church. And they move away from the teaching. Listen church, this is biblical. But then second, we must see that church discipline is good. Church discipline is good for the church because church discipline protects the church. Church discipline protects the church as an institution. Church discipline protects you. Church discipline protects the reputation of Jesus in the community and around the world. Church discipline protects the reputation of the church. We must see that church discipline protects.

And I can look back in my life and I can tell you that if churches that I've been a part of in the past exercise church discipline, they would have protected me. We must see that church discipline is rarely practiced. It's rarely practiced. And we must see that church discipline is most of the time handled wrong. I just do not understand why some people cannot just do what the scriptures say. Most of the time it is handled wrong. And I've seen it done wrong quite a few times.

And we must see that church discipline, when it is practiced, it causes others outside of the church who do not practice church discipline to look at the church and say things like this. Well, those people are a cult. Those people are crazy. Now why do I tell you that? Because I have friends in solid churches who practice church discipline and those are the accusations made against them. Why do I tell you? Listen people, if others begin to see us practice church discipline, there will be people who will make false accusations. The world and lost people will never understand spiritual things.

So get ready if God's led you here and then people in your family, people in your workplace, people in the community here of church discipline, they will automatically say things like this, "Well you people are nothing more than a cult." No, we're not. We're just doing what the scriptures say. Now what are we looking at this morning? I know I've already given you the title. I wrestle with the title in quite a few different ways and I just kept landing back. It's very simplistic. This is biblical church discipline. And I use the word biblical because we want to be thoroughly biblical in this matter.

And I use the term church because it's done within the life of the church and I use the term discipline because that's what it is. Biblical church discipline. Let's pray and then we'll sing a closing verse.