Dealing with sin in the church

Psalm 23 “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

INTRODUCTION

We are continuing our study today about relationships in the church. The subject today is, “dealing with sin in the church”.

Paul made this comment in his letter to the Corinthians, “a little leaven levens the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6). Sin is like a cancer that begins as one tiny spot and begins to spread over the entire body. If it is not dealt with it will disease the entire body and eventually lead to death.

When sin becomes an issue in the church, it must be dealt with to keep the church healthy. And a mark of a true church, is church discipline. A church that refuses to carry out church discipline, forfeits the power of God.

So today Jesus is going to teach us exactly how to carry this out church discipline in a biblical manner and to make sure it does not lead us to sin.

SIN must be dealt with in the church

Matthew 18:15–17 NASB95

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. “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. “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

“if your brother sins”

This is talking about relationships in the church

A brother is referring to another believer

Someone who is an active member of the church who has stumbled or fallen into sin

Your translation may say “if your brother sins against you”

And if you look in your Bibles there should be a number there to show that there is an alternate translation

I think that is the correct translation because Peter says specifically in verse 21, “how many times shall my brother sin against me?”

So the issue at hand is WHAT TO DO “if your brother sins against you”

How do we do this

1) Go show him his fault in private

Go to that person and tell them how they sinned against you

Church discipline is to be kept as private as possible.

We each have a personal responsibility to hold each other accountable for their actions

If I am offended by someone, then I am the one who has the responsibility to speak to that person

If you are offended by someone, then you are that person who should be going to confront them

If we follow this principle, we will cut down on 90% of conflict in the church

Most church conflict begins with something small that does not get dealt with

And it grows and grows until it is out of control

So to keep fires from burning up the church, we must deal with them immediately

Notice the reason for going to that person: “to win your brother”

The whole purpose of confronting someone else in sin is to to restore that person.

And the whole purpose for church discipline is to help bring the person back to where he needs to be with Christ

The entire process is to win your brother

It is never punitive!

It is never revengeful!

And if you have revenge, or anger in your heart I would recommend not confronting them until the Lord has taken that anger and resentment away

What do you do if they wont listen to you?

2) If they refuse to repent, take one or two witnesses back with you

(v 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.”

We do not just write people off, we get more people involved so that the brother in sin may repent and turn from his ways

You must make sure you have the facts

Never make the mistake of assuming something that may not be true!

That is a recipe for disaster

Assuming someone did something without concrete proof will end very badly

We are not mind readers

We do not know what people have in their hearts

Concrete facts are absolutely necessary

Now what if that person still refuses to repent?

3) Tell it to the church

(v 17) “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as Gentile and a tax collector”

The issue is now to be brought out into the public for the whole church to hear

And this is really where things can get ugly

The hope is that by having the entire church involved in the issue, then that individual will repent

If they do not accept the decision of the church, then they are now to be seen as an outsider rather than a covenant member of that body

The individual who refuses to repent can no longer be considered as a Christian

That does not mean mistreatment!

It does not mean the church looks down on them

But it does mean that individual is not behave that way and be ion communion with the church.

Some churches cringe at this and refuse to follow through with it because they think its too harsh

But the individual who sinned has made that decision,

And that person is now disgracing the name of God, the church of God, and the people of God!

And he is harming the fellowship of the saints.

And he is causing damage in that church, and the church is see him as lost!

Paul would say to deliver him over to Satan.

Do not make him feel like he is still part of the church body!

There should be some clear lines of separation from one that refuses to repent

The church has the authority to make the final judgement

Matthew 18:18–20 NASB95

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

This whole thing is like a courtroom scene

There is a transgressor

There is someone who was offended by that transgressor

There are witnesses

And the church is to become the jury

That is what verse 18 is talking about.

“Binding and loosing” refers to “permitting or forbidding”

And what Jesus is saying is that the church has the authority to forbid or permit certain behavior

So the church has the right exercise authority according to the Word of God

The members are under the authority of the church, just as the church is under the authority of God’s Word.

Take either authority away and you no longer have a church!

How does the church make such a judgement upon someone?

What if it is something in the gray area?

What if it there is no clear answer in God’s Word?

How does the church know how to make the right decision?

IT MUST BE BATHED IN PRAYER

“if two of you agree on anything that they may ask” (by praying)

God guides church is disciplinary actions when the church seeks God through fervent prayer

Making final decisions cannot be based upon opinions

It also cannot it be based upon favoritism

It is wrong to acquit someone because they are a friend

It is wrong to acquit someone because they have been in the church for 30 years

It is wrong to ignore sin because someone serves or contributes a lot of money.

This is a call for righteous judgement!

Imagine being in a court room

and the judge let a guilty man go because he was his friend even though he committed a crime!

There would be an outrage

Notice the promise when we pray!

Jesus said, “I am in their midst”

We often hear this referenced as Jesus’ presence in a gathering of two believers

But that’s not the promise, the promise if that Jesus will be present when two or three believers deal with sin in the church and seek Him in prayer

This is a promise for supernatural guidance through the entire process

And that should give each one of us some sweet relief when this issue does arise, and I assure you it will

Application

A church that disciplines well must be spiritually healthy

It is no coincidence that God placed the issue of church discipline right after:

the call to be humble like a child (v 3)

and the call to purge one’s own sins (v 8)

and to be willing to seek after those sheep who have strayed (v 12)

and who have spent adequate time in prayer seeking God’s will in the disciplinary decision (v 19)

And they must be willing to forgive an unlimited number of offenses (v 22)

This is a call for us to get serious about our walk with Christ!

And its a warning that if our body is unhealthy, we will not do will helping others get out of sin

Up to this point we have been prim talking about church discipline. How to restore a brother or sister who has sinned against you or me.

But the subject is now going to change from the offender to the one who has been offended. It will change from carrying out church discipline to our duty to forgive

IMPORTANT: Forgiveness does not cancel out church discipline.

These things go hand in hand in the church

SIN MUST BE DEALT WITH IN A CHURCH

YET FORGIVENESS MUST BE GRANTED BY THOSE WHO WERE OFFENDED

Matthew 18:21–22

Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Our forgiveness must have no limits to those who offend us

“How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive Him?”

Now you gotta hand it to Peter, he shoots pretty high. when someone does something to you seven times and you forgive them each time, it gets a little old and you start wondering what is wrong with that person!

And Jesus responds with 70 times 7!

The point Jesus makes is that there should be no limit to how many times we forgive someone.

Are you willing to forgive someone for the same offense like that?

Just imagine Peter’s offer to forgive the same person for the same thing 7 times

And now we are hearing that we are to forgive that same person who does the same thing an unlimited number of times.

Why?

We must forgive without limits because that is the way God has forgiven us

Jesus told us to remind ourselves of this every time we pray: “‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Why is it important that we forgive an unlimited number of times?

We say oh God, I will never do that again!

The next day we get up and do it again!

We are the offenders against God

We break his rules

We go against Him

Yet we still expect him to forgive us

What Jesus is saying is there is no double standard

How we treat others is how we will be treated

Listen to how Jesus illustrates this in this parable:

Matt 18:23-34 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.

10,000 talents

This has been said to be an amount that would take 100 million working days to pay back.

The point is the debt that he owed was far more than he could ever repay in one lifetime.

(v 25-27) “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.

The man had a debt he could not pay

So the man begs the king for mercy, “Lord have mercy on me and I will repay you everything!”

And the Lord knows that the man will never be able to repay the debt. He’s doomed!

BUT the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him of the debt.

He wrote it off, every penny!

Every charge against that king was removed and he was given a clean slate!

AND HERE THE STORY TAKES A SAD TURN

Listen to how that slave responds to his slave after what his lord had just done for him:

(v 28-30) “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.

His slave owed him 100 denarii.

A denarii was about a days wage

So he was indebted to this man for About 3 months wages

The man with the lesser debt did the same thing the first man did, but this man refused to release the debt

He choked him and threw him in prison demanding recompense

And the wickedness of this man becomes very evident to us

(v 31-34) So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. “Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.”

Now this report made it back to the king, who was obviously upset.

And as the king he has the authority to repay this man according to his wickedness

So he handed him over to the torturers, until he should repay the debt as well.

(v 35) “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Now this is a difficult statement because it seems to imply that we can lose our salvation

But that is not what we must see.

Notice Jesus says, “forgive from your heart”

Part of salvation is getting a new heart

Ezek 36:26 ““Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

And what comes with this new heart comes the ability to forgive and the willingness to forgive

Those who have this heart will forgive

Those who do not have this heart will be like the wicked slave in the parable and should expect judgement

CONCLUSION

Forgiven always leads to forgiveness

If you have been forgiven your debt, you will be able to forgive others

I love this parable about the unforgiving servant because it so powerfully illustrates what the Lord has

We each had a debt that we could not pay, no matter how hard we try

And we know there will be consequences of that debt eventually

But there is a master, a king, a Lord who can forgive us our debt

And just like the slave, we must cry out o Him and ask for mercy

And just as the king showed that man compassion, so Jesus looks down on us with compassion

Is your heart right with God?

Are you holding a grudge against someone

Are you giving others what Jesus has given you?

~PRAYER~