This Hurts me More Than It...

Problem using Matthew 18. But this is not the only passage that helps us for, you know, division or problems in the church. Another problem we have that needs disciplining is when there is doctrinal error. It's pretty serious. When somebody is teaching something in the church that is incorrect, that is unbiblical.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean something that is just controversial. Somebody has an opinion about the role of women. Should women, say, serve the communion or not? Well, what about your opinion on divorce and remarriage? There are issues that we discuss that not everybody has the same opinion on.

We're talking about doctrine which is fundamental to the faith, okay, that Paul was defending in the New Testament, things such as the divinity of Christ, the plan of salvation, the authority and the inspiration of the word, those fundamental things that contribute to our faith. I'm not saying those other issues that are mentioned are not important. I'm just saying that doctrinal error in this case is when someone is teaching something that will jeopardize the salvation of an individual. What do you do when somebody begins to teach, for example, it's not really necessary that you be baptized.' What do you do in a situation like that? Well, Paul tells us that we should, first of all, find out why the person is teaching this incorrect doctrine and try to patiently teach them the truth.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2 2nd Timothy chapter 2, in verse 23, he explains this situation to Timothy, a young evangelist. And he says to him, But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. You know, don't debate all the issues, you know, Don't do that. And the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach and patient when wrong, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. Paul says, teach with patience the correct way.

Then if the person persists in this, rebuke them. In Titus chapter 1 verse 13, Titus is just after 2 Timothy. Chapter 1 verse 13, Paul says, This testimony is true for this cause, he says, reprove them severely, that they may be sound in the faith. When people are teaching things which are not accurate, rebuke them. Tell them, you're wrong.

You must stop doing this. This is incorrect. And then Paul tells us in Romans chapter 16 verses 17 18, if the individual continues in this, after you've tried to teach them, after you've tried to patiently admonish them, after you've warned them, if they continue, Paul says in Romans chapter 16 verse 17, Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching, contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. Turn away from them. And so you teach them patiently, you warn them, rebuke them.

If they continue, he says, turn away. Remove yourself from them. Withdraw your fellowship. Everybody needs to be careful about doctrinal error. And of course, the Bible tells us, especially the elders, the leaders of the church, they have a special charge to guard against you wonder sometimes, you say, well, we need to run that by the elders.

We need you know, we're gonna have a program. We're gonna have a class. We're gonna teach a class. Some people sometimes get a little impatient, you know, saying, Well, why do I have to ask? Why do I have to run this by the elders?

Well, because their job is to protect the congregation against false doctrine. And they can't do that unless they know who is teaching and what everyone is teaching. That's why they control very carefully the teaching program of the church and that's as it should be. Okay. Another type of situation.

So we've had someone, for example, who has a personal conflict, what we need to do. Someone who is teaching false doctrine. You notice that's not the same thing, is it? How about somebody who is overtaken by sin? In Galatians chapter 6 verse 1, flip over there, they talk about someone who's overtaken by sin and what you should do.

He says, Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Here's the situation, it's not the same as the others, that requires discipline. It's not about 2 people in conflict. It's not about somebody who's teaching false doctrine. It's about somebody who's caught in a sin.

And it doesn't mean somebody, you know, has caught them in a sin. It doesn't say here, you know, Somebody caught you. Hey, I saw you coming out of that bar dead drunk. It's not like that. Here it's somebody who is overtaken, trapped.

The Greek word is a hunting term. Like an animal is going through the woods and you've laid a trap and they've stepped in it and bam, they're caught in a trap and they're trying to get their leg out. That's the word that they use in the Greek here. Somebody, a Christian, who because of weakness or because of ignorance or because they were unable to overcome the temptation, whatever reason, are trapped in a sin that they can't get out. Whatever it is, a situation, a relationship, a bad habit, whatever it is, they're trapped.

And they need to be rescued. Somebody needs to apply discipline. But what kind of discipline? Certainly not the kind you talk to somebody who was teaching false doctrine. And not the kind in Matthew 18 where, you know, somebody has offended, this person has offended no one.

They're trapped. They need somebody to come up and open the trap and release them. Well, Paul says, Here's how you apply this kind of discipline. Let's read it again. He says, You who are spiritual, you who are spiritual, who is supposed to go and help this person?

Well, first of all, a person who is spiritual, somebody who is mature, somebody who at least knows enough that they can tell the difference between someone who's a rebel, someone who's teaching false doctrine, someone who's in conflict, and someone who's trapped because of their own ignorance, because of their own weakness. Someone who is meek, he says, who is spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. What kind of discipline are you applying here? Someone who has a spirit of gentleness. One who does not fight against God is the actual translation.

A calm and humble, reassuring gentle attitude, confident in the grace and power. You ever see nurses working in the emergency room? There's blood. It's all over the place. There's trauma.

The person's trembling. They're in shock, you know. Very calm voice. You know, that's all right, sweetie. Especially those who work with children.

The children are crying and screaming for their mothers. They're in pain, you know. And they're just cutting through all the, you know, all the debris and the torn clothing and the blood. They're saying, That's alright. It's okay.

We're gonna take care of it. You know, and the person who's got a broken arm, the bone sticking through the flesh, you know, nice and calm and reassuring. Well, that's what he's talking about here. Somebody's got their life messed up. It's gone down the tubes.

There's no hope, nothing. They're caught in this sin. They need somebody to go in there and reassure that person, it's alright. Don't worry. With God all things are possible.

We can take care of this. We can work it out. Don't be afraid, you know. That's what he's saying. This is the type of discipline here that he's talking about.

And then he talks about, he says, Each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. What kind of person do we need? What kind of discipline do we need? We need reassurance, we need gentleness, and we also need someone to go in there who themselves have been able to control themselves. You know, one who cannot hold his tongue is in a bad position to exhort one who drinks too much.

A gossip is in bad shape to go and discipline somebody who is an abuser of self with alcohol. Someone who can't control their eating, for example, is in a bad position to go point the finger at someone who's addicted to nicotine. See what I'm saying? So he says, the person who goes in to apply the discipline has to be one that has demonstrated that they have a measure of self control. Paul says, before we restore, we should look to ourselves to see if we can show a proper example and if we are able to resist temptation.

Those who are spiritual are to restore, he says, finally here, looking to yourself to restore the one. That's a medical term. It means to, actually to set a broken bone, to restore one. And so when that person is trapped, you're to put them back. It's a corrective, loving restoration.

And it assumes that that person wants and responds to the treatment. In my experience, many times I've seen those who are trapped in sin, they're either abandoned to die or they're put out of their misery by our sharp tongues. And that's not what people need when they're in trouble. That's not what someone needs when their marriage is falling apart. That's not what somebody needs if they've been arrested because they've done something wrong and you have to go bail them out.

They don't need, you know, for you to tell them that they've messed up. They know. They know perfectly well. They need someone who is gentle, They need someone who can offer reassurance in the grace and the power of God. And they need someone that they can admire that at least that person has been able to either conquer their own sins or demonstrated a certain amount of self control in their lives.

So you see, not all discipline is the same, is it? Sometimes it's conflict between 2 people. Sometimes it's false doctrine, you have to rebuke a teacher, or something like that. Sometimes somebody is caught in sin. Sometimes somebody needs someone to go in and help them, get out of a difficult situation.

Another instance of discipline that requires discipline is when someone is a repeating troublemaker, just a troublemaker. I go to Titus once again. Let's go back to Titus chapter 3. In Titus chapter 3 verse 1011, Paul talks about this type of person in the church, Not quite someone who's teaching false doctrine, not someone who's in conflict with someone else, not someone who's caught in a sin, somebody who just causes trouble. He says, reject a factious man.

There's there's the troublemaker. A factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted, and is sinning, being self contained. You know, some people, factiousness means to divide. Okay? A factious person means somebody who creates division, trouble in the church.

Whether they do it consciously or unconsciously is not the problem. They just do it. Now usually these people usually do this by complaining. That's the murmuring and complaining. Something's wrong.

They don't like a brother. Or they don't like, you know, it's too cold in the auditorium. Or they don't like one of the elders. How the elders is is doing their work, or how the preacher preaches, or the deacons are not deacon enough, or they're deacon too much, or, you know, there's something that they don't like. Did I say deacon too much?

Alright. There's something they don't like and that's okay because, you know, we're 350 people in this congregation and you can't get it right every time. You can't you know what I'm saying. It's tough to make sure everybody gets everything that they need. But this individual he's talking about will start to complain and the problem is, instead of solving the problems, instead of going to the elder, going to the preacher, going to where the situation can be fixed, they're just gonna complain.

And the way they operate is this, they use the complaint like bait. So if they're anywhere where there are some brethren, they'll start this complaint and they'll throw it out like bait and they're gonna see if anyone grabs. Then someone else will say, Yeah, you know, me too. You know, I never liked that guy much myself. Woah.

Woah. Got something on the line right here. Now we're 2 that don't like this person. And now whenever the saints assemble together, you got 2 guys, when they get together, they're having fun because they're together, not liking this 3rd guy over here, or this program over here, or this situation over there. And pretty soon there are 3 guys like that.

And 3 guys and 2 girls, and their wives and their friends. And pretty soon you've got a group. And that group there, their only purpose in life is to complain and grumble and create division among the brethren. Now, what does Paul say to do here? See, that's a real problem.

I've experienced that problem. Paul says, 2 warnings. 2 warnings. Number 1 warning, brother, sister, you need to stop doing this. We need to fix the problem, get it to your satisfaction, you know, take care of business, but you need to stop, you know, doing this.

And then he says, warning number 2, and you dis fellowship it. Out. And we did this in Montreal when I was preaching there and it was against the preacher. And this preacher did exactly the same thing all the time. Complain, complain and pick something out and, you know, just got himself involved in other people's congregations.

The preachers got together finally and wrote them a letter and said, warning number 1, you've got it in this letter. This is your warning. And if we have to tell you a second time, we'll go directly to your elders. He didn't like that, but he never did it again. And there was peace in the church.

We didn't have no trouble after that. We didn't have any trouble after that. Peace and quiet. Everybody was able to get on and do the work, serve the Lord. So a repeating troublemaker, 2 warnings.

How about another situation? Need to move along here, almost done. Open immorality, not the same, is it? It needs discipline. It's not conflict, it's not false doctrine, it's not somebody caught in a sin, it's not somebody creating division.

It's open immorality. Somebody just openly is immoral. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 12, Paul talks about the man who has his father's wife. He's he's committing incest. Actually, it was his I believe it's his stepmother, but still legally it was it was incest.

Here you have an open immorality in a public way, not repented of and proven to be true. Paul says, and I need to summarize because we move along, that they needed to rebuke this brother. And if he didn't repent, to put him out of the church because his actions were destroying the reputation of the church. You see what happens, brothers and sisters? The people in the community judge us not by what I say and not by the goals that the elders lift up before us that we should pursue.

The people in the community judge us by how each of us act when we're out in the community. That's how the people judge the church. It would be nice if they judged us just from the sermons, let's say, just from the elders' announcements about all the good things we want to do but that's not how it works in the real world. Real world, the Choctaw Church of Christ is judged by how each of you and I too conduct ourselves in the community. How we operate when we go out to purchase our groceries and how we treat the stock boy and how we, you know, how we negotiate with the mechanic to fix our car and, you know, how we treat the girl at the bronze, you know, because if we're in a hurry to get our ice cream and if she spills it on the floor, that's how we're judged.

And Paul says, if you live your life immorally, publicly, and you don't repent, you need to be put out of the church in order to save the church. There's a form of discipline. And then finally, in 2nd Thessalonians, and I have to I don't have any time left, he talks about disorderly conduct. Somebody who's not really being immoral, not creating division, not teaching false doctrine, not really caught in a sin, somebody who's just lazy, not working, just, you know, kind of buzzing around, making a nuisance of themselves, not producing anything in the church. Same thing he says.

You know, it's not go to him once, go to him twice, go to him 3 times, bring the whole no, that's not what he says. He says, go to him and warn him and if he doesn't put him out. Pretty stiff medicine, pretty stiff medicine. Now, a couple other things, a lesson to yours. There are some things that are common in all forms of church discipline.

For example, sin is proven to be involved. Whether it's conflict or doctrine or division or immorality or living a disorderly life, sin must all always be proven in order for discipline to follow. You don't do any discipline until you prove that sin has actually occurred. Number 2, discipline is everybody's responsibility. It's not the preacher who will, you know, Hey, I'm preacher.

You need to go. You need to go talk to that guy. I always want to say, why don't you go talk to that guy? He's your brother. Oh, well, yeah, but you get paid to do that.

Oh no, I don't. No. If that brother offends me personally, you can be sure that I will go see that brother personally as a Christian. And in other situations, obviously, I have a greater responsibility, but you know what I'm talking about. Everybody's involved.

And when a brother or sister are withdrawn from because of their actions, everybody has to withdraw. I've seen that in churches too. Half half do and half don't because they feel sorry for the person. They don't realize that that's the same thing as when dad wants to discipline Johnny over here, little Johnny, not big Johnny, but little Johnny for having done something. Okay, no TV tonight.

And mom comes along and goes, Oh well, yeah, but you can watch your favorite program. And what does that do to little Johnny? Or what do you think that does in the church when half the church disciplines and the other half says, no, well, you know. And then the third thing, all discipline follows a particular pattern. There's confrontation.

You got to confront the person with their mistake. There's restoration. That's where you teach and you restore and you try to set the broken bone and you try to make things right. You try to work it out. There's no time limit.

You take the time that it takes to work it out and then there's reintegration, bringing the person back into fellowship, confrontation, restoration, reintegration. Now, if the person doesn't restore, if the person refuses to repent, refuses to work with you, then there isn't reintegration, there's disfellowshipment. We don't like to practice that because we don't like to discipline. It's a sign of our age. As parents, you know, our generation doesn't like to discipline and the same thing is in the church.

The modern church doesn't like to discipline. I've seen it everywhere. People, you know, some old guy just drops, leaves his wife, goes off with some other gal, totally totally abandons his his family, goes off with some other gal, divorces her, gets married over here. Absolutely no good reason at all. And then pretty soon this old boy is just sitting in the pew at a church down the street and nobody says a word.

And you ask yourself, what's going on? We don't want to discipline people. Now, one last thing. What if you're on the receiving end of the discipline? It was easy because we're sitting here saying, yeah, that's true.

Boy, those guys better watch out. But what if it's you? What if you're on the receiving end of the discipline? You know what? I don't think you'll ever be able to live as a Christian a whole life and not be disciplined.

Every single person here is going to experience discipline at some time in their lives. Either the word is gonna discipline in other words, I'll be preaching and the word is just hammering at you and you're being disciplined, right? I've heard you say that to me sometimes, Well, you were talking to me this morning, boy, you stepped on my feet this morning. That sermon had my name written all over it, you know. That's right.

Well, you know that I don't write them like that. But the word, the Spirit of God is talking to you through the lesson. You'll either be disciplined that way or your conscience will discipline you. Has your conscience ever said to you, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you know, and oh, leave me alone already. Or the most painful of all, the elders or the brethren will come to see you and say, brother, sister, we need to talk.

That's very painful. But somehow, some way, you're going to experience discipline as a Christian. And when you do, try to remember these last few things. 1st of all, don't get mad. Don't get angry.

Don't get depressed. Don't get frightened. Remember that being disciplined and corrected is part of normal Christian growth. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 3 to 7. God disciplines those he loves.

So don't get angry. Secondly, examine carefully what's being presented. Maybe somebody's wrong. Hey, that wasn't me coming out of the bar. That was my twin brother.

Sometimes people are wrong. Sometimes you didn't say what you're accused of having said. You know what I'm saying? So if you're on the receiving end, examine carefully to make sure you straighten it out. Number 3, if the warning is justified, repent.

Don't deny it. Don't run away. Don't get mad. Repent saying, You're right. I'm wrong.

How can we fix it? There's always a way to fix it. With God, he always leaves the door open. And finally, love and appreciate those who discipline you because their efforts are a sure sign that they love you. The guy who's gonna gossip with you, he doesn't love you.

But the guy who will say, that's gossip. That's wrong. We need to stop that. That person loves you because that person is risking that you reject them in order to do the right thing. That person loves you.

That person is willing to lay themselves down in order to cover your sins. Love the person who disciplines you. We all need discipline, and we all need to be involved in this process. So what's your situation this morning? Do you need to accept the discipline of the Lord?

Is that what you need to accept? Have you been disciplined this morning somehow? Or do you need to accept the baptism of the Lord? Which is it? The baptism of the Lord or the discipline of the Lord?

Either way, whether you receive his discipline by confessing your faults and being restored, or you come to him for the first time in repentance and baptism, either way, one thing is for sure, you'll walk out of here this morning forgiven and joyful and at peace with yourself, at peace with your god. If Jesus is calling you, if Jesus is disciplining you this morning, then we encourage you to come forward now as we stand and as we sing our song of invitation.