Our Responsibility in Church Discipline

Well, let's take our Bible and let's turn back to Galatians chapter 6. Like I said earlier, we'll be in verses 1 to 5. Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 to 5. And we will turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And we will turn over to John chapter 13 as well. I definitely want you to note those verses and make them a part of your study this week. Now I think that most everyone knows that we are in this series that revolves around life in the body, life in the local church. Now I firmly believe that we are covering some vital biblical teaching concerning life in the local church. And if we will work hard, I'll say that.

If we will work hard in all that we have before us, if we'll work hard to understand and apply what we're studying, I believe this will enable us to live better in the local church, in the way the Lord wants us to live. Now I went back and I looked at some information from our first message. And I wanted us to re-familiarize ourselves with some reasons I gave us. Originally I gave us three reasons why I felt like we needed to deal with this subject and the many subjects that we are looking at. First of all, as the pastor, I felt very strongly that we needed to address some of the difficulties we faced in the past.

Now I want you to notice, some of you know some of the obstacles and difficulties that we have faced. And a lot of what we have studied, they've addressed that. And it's been good for you. It's given you some answers. This helped you along. As a matter of fact, it has helped sanctify you, some of you in a great way. And second, I really saw that we need some help in understanding how we're to live in the local church. And I've had some very good conversation. I've had some good phone calls. I have heard some of you say that you're processing what we're studying. And I'm watching you learn how to better live in the local church.

And then third, I shared that I know that we have some new folks here visiting us here at Grace Life Church in Brookhaven. And all that we are studying will help you understand more of who we are. Because as you visit in the life of a local church, you have to determine where the Lord wants you to be. And so this is good for you as well. Now last week we looked at a vital component. And that is a vital component that pertains to healthy church life. And that is the subject of church discipline. And it is vital to church health. I put, personally, I put practicing healthy church discipline right up there with preaching a correct gospel.

I put practicing healthy church discipline. It's right in there, just as important as striving to have a truly regenerate church membership. Last week I said that practicing church discipline is so vital that if we miss the mark here, we really cripple the work of the local church. And I mean the local church. It will ruin the witness of the church in the community and even beyond the community. And really if we miss the mark here, our children will suffer and our children's children will suffer for this sin. Now I want to take a minute and I want us to kind of evaluate our motives. What are our motives here? I mean, what are our motives?

We need to ask ourselves that. See our motives should be, first of all, that we love God. I mean we love the Lord that has saved us. And second, our motive should be that we love His word. Really those two can be blended together because if we love God, we're going to love His word. And if we love the word like we should, it's going to reflect a true love for God as we should have. So our motive here is that we love God and we love His word. And next our motive should be that we love the church and we love the local church. And then our motive should be that we love authority. That might surprise some of you.

See God has authority over our life. He is our Lord and this is His church. He has purchased His church with His own blood and He has authority over His church. And then He's also given His leaders the authority to carry out these things such as church discipline. So we should love the authority that the Lord has put over us. And then last our motive should be a love and a desire for purity. We should desire purity in our own lives and we should desire purity in His church, this church. And you could add to that list of motives and I would imagine that some of you will.

Now last week I do know that with all that I gave you, I really unloaded the wagon. I know it was a lot for you to grasp. I gave us what I call the prescription for church discipline and the principles for church discipline out of Matthew 18 verses 15 to 20. I'll go ahead and let you in on a secret. I reserve the right to repreach that one day. As a matter of fact, I might just divide that up. There might be a day when we need to take a little more time with the prescription and then take a little more time with the principles. You see, this information is timeless. There'll be a day when we need to come back to this information.

Now I broke down that teaching out of Matthew 18 in seven ways. We saw the problem. We saw the people. We saw the place that all of this is taking place. That's the church. We saw the purpose and then we saw the process and then we saw the power and the presence of the Lord. We saw the problem of sin among brothers in the church. Yes, in the church that Matthew 18 teaching, it anticipates the local church and we saw the purpose. And the first purpose is restoration. Yes, ultimately our Lord may be removing a false convert, even a wolf that could be in the fellowship, but our primary motive is restoration.

And then we saw the four step process of discipline. That was a lot. And then last we saw the power and the practice of church discipline. When we are practicing church discipline, our Lord is with us. We are working in concert with the Lord and there is Christ's presence in it all. Now occasionally I'll do this, but I want to give you some homework. Listen folks, I beg you, I call you, I charge you to take what we studied last week and to study your notes and meditate over those passages. Re-listen to that message if you need to because you need to understand the prescription and you need to understand the principles.

It needs to be in your mind. It needs to be in your thinking. It needs to be in your understanding, so much so that you can explain it even to someone who might not be where you are. So your homework is this, make sure what we studied is in your mind and it is in your understanding because it is the foundation from which we work. Now last week at the conclusion of the message I really shared with us that we have a choice here. We can choose to put the medicine, the bitter medicine of church discipline right up there on the fireplace mantel and not take that medicine or we can take the medicine that our Lord has prescribed.

We can choose to obey what God has given to the church or we can disobey. Now I'll be honest with you, this is a non-negotiable for me. It's been a while since I've made an emphatic statement like this. There are certain things I just will not tolerate in the life of the church. I will not pastor a church that does not practice church discipline. And I've taught you church discipline thoroughly through the years and it is a must. I was reminded of just how vital this is just this week.

I was having a conversation with some friends that are involved in the life of another church and they were explaining how they have a low view of church membership in the life of the church. And I remembered what we studied. And then I began to explain church discipline and they really begin to tip their hat that they didn't practice church discipline in the life of their church. And I was reminded how vital this teaching is. Now honestly in all of my study the past couple of weeks I did want to get to a place this morning where we looked at some of the examples of church discipline that we see.

Really all of this week I was zeroing in on 1 Corinthians chapter 5. There was a situation there in Corinth. There was sexual immorality in the life of the Corinthian church. And you know what's sad? There were some in the church that were bragging about that. They were arrogant. I know we'll get to some of those examples in the future. But in all of my study the past two weeks I really began to see that we all need to understand our responsibility in church discipline. See we have, we have a big responsibility here. Maybe a responsibility that you might not have seen before. Let's go back to our Galatians passages.

Verse 1, "Brothers, brethren, your copy, your translation might note that as brethren." This really means brothers and sisters. "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression or trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone. And not in his neighbor.

For each will have to bear his own load." Now just like last week I want to make a few comments before we get into what I call the heart of the message. Right away in these verses, right away we see the possibility of sin in the lives of Christians. Now let's be honest here, sin is a possibility. But that's not enough. Really sin is inevitable. As a matter of fact, the Apostle John shoves this fact right into our face. First John chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. Notice what John says. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. You know what John is saying?

If we raise our hand and say we have no sin, John says we're a liar. The truth isn't in us. Verse 9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now James in his little book is a little more subtle, but he still shows us the inevitability of sin in our lives. James chapter 1 verse 14 and 15 says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, and then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown gives birth to death." But think about it. Did we not see this possibility?

And did we not see the inevitability of sin in Matthew chapter 18? The text says a brother has sinned. The brother has sinned and he sinned against another brother. And Matthew did not preface the teaching by saying, "Well, a Christian may sin one day." No, he doesn't. It's almost like Matthew assumes this will be a problem in the church. So listen, folks. It's not that we may sin, it is we will sin. And if we live out our life in the body of Christ, the local church, we will bring that sin into the life of the church. So a question is it when? It's a given. But there are a couple of questions that we need to ponder.

Get these questions, please. First, when we sin? Will it be a type of sin or a pattern of sin that needs discipline? Let me restate that question. First, when we sin? Will it be a type of sin or a pattern of sin that needs discipline? And the second question, if we sin in such a way where we do need discipline, will the church discipline us properly? So sin is inevitable. And if we practice biblically balanced, healthy church discipline, sin and discipline will be a part of church life. So this morning I want us to see our responsibility in church discipline. Yes, our responsibility. This is called church discipline, not elder discipline.

And if you're a member of this local church, this responsibility is yours. Now that's the title of the message. I think you can hear that by now. This is our responsibility in church discipline. Now I want to go back and read the verses again in light of what I have just shared. Go back to the verses. "Brothers, sisters, brethren, if any one of you is called in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself. Let's you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

But let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his load alone." Now out of these verses, I want to show us four responsibilities that we must possess. These must be in our lives four responsibilities that show us our great responsibility in and to church discipline. So number one, I want us to see our responsibility to be spiritual. We see this in verse one, our responsibility to be spiritual. Now notice one little part of verse one. It's right there in the middle.

"Brothers, brethren, if anyone is called in any transgression," here's the phrase, "you who are spiritual." You who are spiritual. But a question right away, who is the spiritual? Who are the spiritual? See the spiritual are the believers that are walking in obedience to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. See they are living a life that demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, the fruits of the Spirit that are listed above in chapter five. Let's go up a little to Galatians five starting in verse 19. Now I want to read verse 19 because we see the works of the flesh contrasted with the fruits of the Spirit.

Look at what Paul writes. "Now the works, the manifestation of the flesh, the sinful nature are evident. In morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." In other words, there's more. Paul says, "I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Here's the contrast, "But the fruit, the fruits of the Spirit, that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, the sinful nature, with its passions and desires." And verse 25, "If we live by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Why are we in step with the Spirit? By seeing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives." So the spiritual, they are those that are filled. They are controlled by the Spirit as opposed to being controlled by the flesh, the sinful nature. That's why we needed to see both. Then Paul deals with this in Ephesians 5, 18.

Paul says to the Ephesians, "Do not get drunk with wine." He's talking about a work of the flesh, a work of the sinful flesh. That is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Here Paul is commanding those believers to live a life under the influence and under the control of the Holy Spirit as opposed to living a life that is controlled by sin. Now note this important fact about Galatians 1 or Galatians 6, verse 1. Notice that the text does not say, "You who are mature." Look at your copy. It does not say those who are mature. The text says, "You who are spiritual." See we must see that the spiritual are not necessarily the more mature.

You see maturity depends on one's spiritual growth as it relates to time. Maturity is developed by living a spiritual life over time, but any Christian can be spiritual. Yes, any Christian can be spiritual. I like how John MacArthur puts it. It's real simple, but it helps here. Notice what he says and I'm quoting, "At any point in the life of a Christian, from the moment of salvation to his glorification, he is either spiritual walking in the Spirit or fleshly walking in the deeds of the flesh." So who is the spiritual one here that is to do all of this work? It is any true Christian that is walking in the Spirit. They are Spirit controlled.

They are obedient to the Spirit. They are obedient to the Word of God and those fruits are being made manifest in their life. So if we're born again, but more specifically, if we're a member of this church, we have a responsibility to be spiritual. We have a responsibility to be spiritual. That is to walk in obedience to the Spirit, in obedience to the Word, in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, not walking according to the deeds of the flesh. And we have a responsibility to be spiritual and to this work. Now a warning here. If you're not walking in the Spirit, do not engage in correcting a brother or a sister.

Listen, do not, especially if you are not a mature believer, because listen, a mature believer has walked with God for years. And if you do, if you do approach a sinning brother or sister and you are not spiritual, you will do it in the flesh and you'll do more harm than good. So we must see. Our responsibility is to be spiritual. And we are to walk in obedience to the Spirit in all matters pertaining to life. And we are to be the spiritual ones who engage in this discipline. Discipline, yes, correcting brothers and sisters in the body. See we are to be spiritual for this work of discipline.

We are to be spiritual for the total work of the life of the church. And we are to be spiritually used for God, for His glory in the world. We are to be spiritual, but the context here in these verses is being spiritual for what? This work. So I want us to move on. Number two, I want us to see our responsibility to restore the fallen. Our responsibility to restore the fallen. Let's look back at verse one and let's look at what we see before that phrase that we read earlier and after the phrase. Look back at the verse.

Brothers, brethren, brothers and sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression or trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, least you to be tempted. Now here we see the beginning of the work, this work here of discipline and correction. Here we see the spiritual Christian. He's called, they are called, they're compelled, but they are thrust to engage in this work in this responsibility. Now notice how all of this unfolds. Notice how this just unfolds out of the verses. First we have the fallen. First in the verse we have the fallen.

See the text says if anyone is caught in a transgression, the New American says if a man is caught in any trespass. Now this can mean two things. It can mean that the guilty party here has actually been seen. They've actually been caught in the act of sin, but it also can mean that the guilty party here was caught by the sin itself. Some say the second option is more of the meaning here because Paul uses the word trespass and trespass speaks to the idea of stumbling and falling. That is why the King James renders this portion of the text overtaken in fault. There doesn't seem to be a premeditation in the sin.

It doesn't seem to be a premeditation in the fall. It seems that they are caught off guard and they fall. Maybe they dabble with the temptation and then they fall. So this seems to be less of a premeditated sin and more of a brother or a sister that is overtaken by a temptation. Maybe they stumble in an area and ultimately they fall into sin. So we see the fallen. Then second we have the restoration. We see this restoration. Now the text says that the spiritual should restore the fallen one. Look back. If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him. Now this word restored literally means to repair.

I spoke about the meaning of this word last week when I talked about the purpose of church discipline and the purpose is first and foremost restoration. But we need to see how the word was used in their culture. This word restore was used often to speak of mending a broken fish in there, to setting a broken bone, or putting a dislocated joint or limb back into its place. It speaks to restoring to an original condition. But we need to ask the question here. Restored to where? Restored to where? First, the fallen is restored to a right relationship with God.

See any sin, whether it's premeditated or not, any sin hinders and severs the believer's relationship with God. So first and foremost, the sinning brother or sister needs their relationship with God restored. Their relationship with God needs to be mended. It needs to be put back into its proper place. But then second, the fallen, they are restored to a right relationship with other believers. If the offense is caused a break in a Christian fellowship, either with one brother or one sister or two or three, that relationship needs to be restored. It needs to be mended. It needs to be put back into that right place.

So we have the one that is fallen. You see, they have fallen here and they are restored by the spiritual brother or sister. But third, we have the approach. We must see this approach. Go back to the verses. What does he say? Keep watch on yourself, least you too be tempted. And earlier he says, you who are spiritual restore him in gentleness. The rest of the verses tell us how, how all of this work is to be done. First this is to be done in a spirit of gentleness, not in a spirit of pride, not with this spirit of persecution that we discussed last week. No, but this is a work done with great gentleness.

Now a question, where does this spirit of gentleness come from? Is it just the way we are? Is this a part of our personality? You know, some folks will say, well, you know, I'm just not wired that way. Does this come from training or even a Bible study? Now listen here. One can be given instruction in how to approach a sinning brother, but this really cannot be taught. Actually, this gentleness is a fruit of the spirit. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit working in one's life. This is a manifestation of the spirit of God working in the life of a Christian. Again go back to Galatians 5 verses 22 to 23.

We see that gentleness is a fruit of the spirit. So there must be a gentleness. There must be a gentleness in approaching the sinning brother. And then second in this approach, this must be done with caution. The text says this work should be approached while keeping watch so as not to be tempted. Here Paul is saying that even the spiritual, yes, even the spiritual can be tempted. The spiritual can fall in the sin because they are sinners too. So great caution needs to be exercised here.

So notice this great responsibility, this great work here, the spiritual, not necessarily the mature, the spiritual is to restore that fallen brother or sister. They are to approach them with great gentleness trying to help them see their sin. And this is a work of the spirit of God in them and through them. They are trying to help them see how they have fallen. Because of their sin, there is a break in their relationship to God. Because of their sin, there is a break in their relationship to believers who see their sin. They have fallen and they are like a broken bone. They need mending.

They are like a dislocated joint that needs to be put back to its proper place. Remember it's about restoring to that rightful place. Now an application, we need to remember it is the spiritual who is responsible for this work. And we cannot check out here and say, "Oh, I am just not that experienced. Oh, I am not a mature one. It's not maturity, it's the spiritual." I have been reminded in study of times when I wasn't as mature, but I was spiritual. I think back to years ago in the life of the church where I served. Now I wasn't the pastor, but I was a minister, an ordained minister.

And I watched a friend in the life of the church, he began to have a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. It just didn't look right. I just didn't, it just didn't look right. And so what did I do? I began to pray. And I began to see some red flags here. I began to hear some things. So I began to pray and I began to seek the Lord. And finally one night I couldn't take it any longer. I went and I sought him out. I went everywhere that I knew he would be because I wanted to sit down with my brother. Well, I couldn't find him that night. So I went home, I literally drove home in my car and I out loud, I prayed.

I said, Lord, I have done all that I know to do to find my friend and my brother and I can't do it. And I went to bed. Well, the next morning I had to go to the hospital and I made that hospital visit and I walked right out the door of that hospital and there he was. And you know, I leaned up against his truck and I was honest. I just approached him in his sin. I saw things that weren't right in his life and I was honest and I wasn't very mature. Oh, but I was spiritual and God was enabling me to confront him in his sin. And I loved him. I didn't persecute him. I didn't hurl stones at him.

I begged him not to leave his wife and not to act out in that sin. And I'm sad to say that he did not heed the warning. He did not allow a brother and other brothers to restore him. I think back to some people in the life even of this church where I have gone to them kindly and lovingly and other men have gone and had pointed out patterns of sin and patterns of unhealthy behavior and tried to gently move them towards restoration, being right with God and with other brothers and ultimately right in the life of the church. You see? And what do we see here? What do we see? It is our responsibility to restore the fallen.

And again, it's not just the elders. It is our responsibility. Number three, I want us to see our responsibility to carry the weak. Our responsibility to carry the weak. Now from our responsibility to restore the fallen, now we see our responsibility to carry the weak. And we see this in verse two. Notice the verse. "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Now really we see a continuation of this work. The spiritual Christian is called to help carry the weak. Now this is a restored brother or sister, you see? They've been restored but they're weak. And so after they're restored, there is another layer. Now a question.

What are these burdens? Go back to the verse. Verse one, "Bear one another's burdens." See these burdens would be the temptations that can haunt the restored brother or sister. Now remember, this brother, this sister has fallen into sin. He or she was overtaken in a fall. They were overtaken in a sin. Maybe this wasn't a premeditated sin. Maybe there was a temptation they just got a little too close to and they fell into sin. But no matter how and no matter why they fell, the burden here is in the temptation which can still haunt them. We really need to see what's happening here. Yes the sinner is forgiven. Yes they have repented.

Yes they have been restored fully and in every way. But that does not mean this restored brother or sister is free from temptation. On the contrary, because they have fallen into sin, the temptation for that sin and sins may be even greater. This temptation may be persistent and maybe even oppressive at times because of the fact that they have fallen. I have a good one stop resource in my library. My wife uses it very often. If you're looking for a one stop Bible commentary, I'll recommend one to you. The author is William McDonald. It's called the Believer's Bible Commentary. And I really like how he describes this.

It's really easy to catch. Notice what he says and I'm quoting, "Burdens refer to failures, temptations, testings, and trials. Instead of standing off at a distance and criticizing, we should fly to the side of a brother in trouble or distress and help him in every way possible." But why? Why would we do this? Is it just because we are commanded to do this? No. We cannot do it in some robotic fashion. No. It is because engaging in the spiritual work of this responsibility fulfills the law of Christ. And the law of Christ is love. Jesus said in John 13 that he gives a new command and that command is that his people would love one another.

Now here is where I want us to turn back to John. When I say turn back to John, we took quite a bit of time and we went verse by verse through the gospel of John. And I want you to put your eyes on this verse, but I want to point something out. If you turn to the beginning of John 13, you see that Jesus is washing his disciples feet. And then if you look towards the end of John, you see that Jesus is teaching his disciples that he's going to go to the cross. So this verse is sandwiched between Jesus washing the disciples feet and the teaching of going to the cross.

And notice what he says in verse 34, "A new commandment I give you." These are the disciples. That you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Now notice what's happening here. Jesus had just washed the disciples feet and in washing their feet, he was taking the lowest positions, the lowest of lowest slaves performed this lowest of tasks. And Jesus was telling them that he was going all the way to the cross. In going to the cross, he was taking upon himself the very sin of man.

He was choosing to love mankind with a sacrificial, a sacrificial self-crucifying love. And he says to these disciples, "You love each other just as I have loved you." And listen folks, nothing fulfills the law of Christ more than loving and carrying a brother or a sister that is struggling. Yes, sacrificially, yes, even as a slave, they are weak, they are weary. The world and trials and troubles and their past sins and mistakes and temptations and even their own sinful desires are weighing them down. Victory seems to be well beyond their reach because why? They are drowning in their temptations and trials and troubles.

But isn't that what our Lord did for us? Didn't He do that for us? Didn't He save us when we were lost and in need, really headed towards the devil's hell? Yes, Christ has done that for us. So notice this great responsibility. After the spiritual Christian has helped restore the fallen brother or sister, then they are to come alongside them and to help carry their burdens. The spiritual brother helps carry their temptations. The spiritual sister helps carry those trials and those testings even when the struggling brother or sister seems too weak to make it. Oh, the spiritual brother or sister is right there to carry those burdens.

Isn't that what Jesus did for the disciples throughout the duration of His earthly ministry? And isn't that what Jesus has done for us? Yes. But I want us to notice a little more instruction here. We can overlook this. See, we've got to keep the proper perspective here. We've got to have the right view and the right perspective here. Look at verses 3 and 4. Notice what we see here in Galatians 6, verses 3 and 4. "Or if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

But let each one test his own work, his own life, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor." Now what's happening here? First, Paul is saying, we are no better. We're no better than the struggling brother. We can't think of ourselves as being any better. If we do, he says, we deceive ourselves. And then second, he says, if we look at ourselves, we can't compare ourselves and boast as we look at other folks. No, we can't compare ourselves, period, paragraph. We are to look at our own life and we are to see that we are no better than the brother or a sister that needs our help.

And you know what verses 3 and 4 are? A humility check. A humility check. Now in application, to be honest with you, the first three things that came to my heart and mind, really, I think it haunts the halls of many churches. And look, we need to get this. And look, if any of this is in our hearts and minds, we need to beat this out of our hearts and minds like we would an infestation of rats, I'm telling you. Because I've seen this. One of the things that we see many times is that some want to just shoot the wounded. They just want to shoot the wounded. See those folks, their spiritual gift is this, shotgun. They just aim and fire.

And that's what happens, see? A brother or a sister is weak and they're struggling. And there's some folks, it might be from across the sanctuary and it might be even in a Sunday school class, they just shoot the wounded. Then second, there's some, they want to ostracize the hurting. See their spiritual gift is cold shoulder. They don't want to talk. They didn't want to engage. They don't have time to deal with people's problems, see? And they just give the struggling brother or sister the cold shoulder. And then the third way of dealing with all of this is some want to just bulldoze the struggling. See their spiritual gift is bulldozer.

And what they do is they'll engage the hurting brother or sister, but they just boil them over with their opinions and what they need to do right now, this day at this time, you see? In any of these attitudes and approaches need to be gotten out of our hearts, they cannot function in the life of the local church. And you know, folks, really what we have to be honest with ourselves about is this spiritual weakness is real. I'll share with you my real life story. Now this spiritual weakness story did not come from sin in my life. Many of you know that I was involved in another church at another time.

There was a lot of troubles in the life of this church and ultimately I was dismissed. I was dismissed. I was let go. And that was a difficult time for me. And my Lord would not let me go straight to serving on staff at another church. And so when you leave one job, you've got to get another job. And I had to get a real job. If I can kind of poke fun at ministers, you know, preachers don't have real jobs. They just get paid to read their Bibles all day. Isn't that right? But you know, that was a very difficult time for me. I lost my career. I lost my vocation. I lost what I loved to do. I lost who I was.

And I was praying and I was walking with the Lord and I was being obedient. And I went through a long period of time of spiritual weakness. It was a tremendous time of struggle and of temptation and of trial. And I was weak and I was weak and I was looking for brothers and sisters to come alongside and carry my burden with me. Many times I was shot at. Many times I was ostracized. And many times I was bulldozed. Spiritual weakness is a reality. And we must embrace that reality if it is us. And not only that, we must embrace it if someone is weak to our left and to our right in the life of the church. Now let's move on.

I want us to see number four, our fourth major truth and last major truth is this, our responsibility to carry our load. We see this in verse five. Now this will be a lot shorter than what we have looked at so far. Verse five, "For each will have to bear his own load." Now here it almost seems like Paul is contradicting verse two. But here in verse five, Paul is not talking about a burden. He uses a different word here. Your translation uses the word load. And this is simple to see. Whereas a burden is too tough to carry alone, this word load refers to something that can be carried. Here Paul is talking about living the Christian life.

He is talking about fulfilling God's calling in our life. God has called each of us as believers to shoulder our own cross and to live our life. And Paul is simply saying, "We all have our own load to bear. We all have our own cross to bear." But what's the context? Remember the context. A brother or a sister, they need to be corrected. They are in sin. They need to be restored. And the brothers and sisters who are spiritual are to carry their burden. And see, a part of carrying one's load is bearing one another's burden and restoring those who have fallen.

So if any of you are saying this, "Pastor, I just can't do that." Not according to what Paul says here in verse 5. Let us not become, or excuse me, verse 5. Let each of us bear his own load. So Paul is saying that believers do have the responsibility to carry their own load. They carry their cross. And a part of this cross is helping those who have fallen and need to be restored and even carried along. And this is a part of our cross. Now I want to begin to conclude by going back to some things that I shared in the introduction of the message. And I said this, and we need to hear it again. It is a given that Christians sin. It's a given.

We're all in the same boat. I don't care how long you've been a born-again Christian and how mature you are. It is a given that Christians sin, and oh, as we live life in the body, it is a given. It automatically happens. We bring that sin into the life of the local church. But remember our two questions that we must ponder. First, when we sin, will it be a type of sin or a pattern of sin that needs discipline? And then second, if we sin in such a way where we do need discipline, will the church discipline us properly? And we see right here that every member of this church has a responsibility to engage in this work.

Yes, the elders, yes, the leaders, but this is all of our responsibility. Now I know this will take a little more time, but I want us to go back to our first Corinthians passages. I said all along, especially in the beginning when we were dealing with these verses in Chapter 12, that we would come back to these verses, and I want us to put our eyes on verse 12 and 13 again. Remember Paul is dealing with this very problematic church, divided in their allegiances to leaders, so many doctrinal problems, even grievous sin in the life of the church.

Again, this is a church where we would ask the Lord, "Lord, can I move and go somewhere else?" But what does he say? For just as the body is one and has many members, and all of the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, what did we learn? Diversity and unity, unity and diversity, so it is with Christ. Christ is forever connected to the body. We're in one spirit, we are all baptized into one body. God has done this work. He has Holy Spirit supernaturally baptized us into the body of Christ and into Christ Himself. And so we must see in looking at these passages, we need to remember that we need one another.

Although we are all different, the body needs every part of the body. It is God Himself that supernaturally placed us all in the body. And this work of discipline is a part of what? Body life. Life in the body. Now I want to wrap this up by calling our attention back to what we learned last week. Matthew 18, it was a wagonload, I know. The prescription for church discipline and the principles. We saw the problem. We saw the people. We saw the place. We saw the purpose. We saw the process. We saw the power. We saw the presence. See we saw the problem of sin among brothers in the church. And we saw the purpose is first for restoration.

Yes, our Lord may be removing a false convert from the fellowship. He may be even removing a wolf from the fellowship. But our primary motive is restoration. Here there is a treasure that has been lost and someone is not in their rightful place. And then we saw that four step process that is so valuable for us to know in our minds and our heart. And then we saw the power as we are practicing church discipline. We are working in concert with God. And then we saw the presence of Christ because He says when you're performing church discipline, I am with you. Listen church, this is church discipline, not elder discipline.

This is church discipline. We have a responsibility to this work. You see? What's the title of the message? Our responsibility in church discipline. Now as I close, I'm going to point out the inevitable. I did not answer a lot of your questions. How does this work, pastor? What do I do, pastor? I don't know what I should do here. You could be saying, okay, pastor, I see my responsibility. What do I do? Questions are good. Come. We'll help you. We'll fill those questions. And in the days to come, we'll fill more of these questions from the pulpit. And if you're asking those questions, you're on your way to fulfilling your responsibility.

So let's pray. Let's commit this to the Lord. And I believe the Spirit of God will really work this out in our lives. Let's pray.