Sermon Tone Analysis

You have heard it said.

Once you tried the rest come to the best.

For Central Baptist Church we say… Once you tried the rest come to those who can pass the test.

Hmmm why would we say that?

The protestant reformation was faced with a gigantic problem and a huge question that needed to be answered.

If they would follow the principles of the reformation they would be cast out of the Roman Catholic Church.

In accordance with Roman Catholic Dogma salvation is only had in the church.

If you were cast out of the church the doors to the kingdom of heaven would be closed to you.

To leave the Roman church is to leave the kingdom of God.

This is why the threat of excommunication was such a huge deal.

If you are excommunicated you had no salvation… the doors to the kingdom of heaven would be closed to you for the church hold the key to the kingdom of heaven.

But did Rome truly hold the keys?

They would if they were a true church.

Was the Roman Catholic Church a true church?

If they were gonna leave the church man they better believe that they are not a true church because they would not have salvation.

This was no trivial matter… they are staking their eternal life on these reformation principles.

Were the 5 solas really worth possibly going to hell?

The true church truly does have the power of the keys, did Rome still have it?

Man you better believe that they better answer that question and fast.

Sooo… what is a true church?

After intense study and time we owe a large debt of gratitude to our historic protestant brothers.

Who gave us the marks of a true church.

The first mark… the faithful preaching and receiving of the Word of God.

The faithful administration and reception of the sacraments or ordinances (Lord’s Supper and Baptism).

And the third our subject today … the faithful practice of church discipline.

If any institution calls itself a church yet are missing one or more of these marks… it is indeed not a true church.

It does not take long… just a brief moment of thought we start to see churches falling off of the true church list.

One of the most neglected mark of the true church is the practice of church discipline.

Al Molher writes, “The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church.

No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself as a voluntary association of autonomous members, with minimal moral accountability to God, much less to each other.

The absence of church discipline is no longer remarkable—it is generally not even noticed.

Regulative and restorative church discipline is, to many church members, no longer a meaningful category, or even a memory.

The present generation of both ministers and church members is virtually without experience of biblical church discipline.”

The reformers called it the 3rd mark Al Molher calls it the missing mark.

To add to this… many times when church discipline does happen it is not done correctly and abused.

Used by insecure leadership to control church members, to get money and resources, to manipulate.

Church discipline used to punish members, try to punish members of other churches, church discipline used to get even.

And improperly done because of its application in our nonsensical thinking in our current culture.

A church in Florida went through the church discipline process with a female member of the church for her illicit sexual immorality that she would not repent of.

So now it went to the final step where she would be brought before the entire church membership to repent, but she protested and declared that it was none of their business and did not want her sin made public.

The church decided to carry-on and so she went to get help from fox news.

Bizarre thinking… she did not want her sin exposed to the several thousand members of her church but now it is exposed to millions of people who watch fox news.

The bizarre thinking of many today cause the application and method of church discipline and sadly truly caused fox news to expose a cloudy and convoluted application on the biblical nature of church discipline in the church.

As our church culture continues to degrade and become more and more assimilated into the culture of the world, the practice of church discipline will be done less and less and if it is done, it will be done improperly more and more.

I like how Al Molher states it,

“Put simply, the abandonment of church discipline is linked to American Christianity’s creeping accommodation to American culture.

As the twentieth century began, this accommodation became increasingly evident as the church acquiesced to a culture of moral individualism.”

This creates the confusion.

How is it that people come to the church to get directives as how a Christian should live, but don’t want directives as to how Christians should not live?

One pastor reminded me this week about the pastor seminars put on by the SBC to help with church growth.

They say the method must be… open the front doors wide and close the back doors.

Essentially saying… make it more assessable and desirable.

Make it fun and easy to be a part of.

Close the back doors by initiating programs that will make it hard for people to leave the church.

Commitments, plug them in, lock them up… done make it easy for them to leave.

But in reality as unpopular as this is gonna sound.

Biblically we get a different picture.

Churches need to narrow front doors and open wide the back doors.

Dr. Mark Dever writes, “If we really want to see our churches grow we need to make it harder to join and we need to be better about excluding people.

We need to be able to show that there is a distinction between the church and the world- that it means something to be a Christian.”

Let us make it known today that it really does mean something to be a Christian today.

There is a standard, there are expectations, it is not just joining a social club and an organized support group.

If someone claims to be a Christian and refuses to live as a Christian should live they must be disciplined.

The scriptures are clear.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s take a look… For the gospel we want to get it right and get it out.

For our church polity we want to get it right and get it done.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

What is Church Discipline

Why Church Discipline

Reconciliation

The first thing we will look at today is a clear and sober identification of what discipline is.

Next, believe it our not, the Bible is pretty clear as to why we should and must practice church discipline.

Finally, we will see that the gospel continues to give us by the power of the Spirit leading and causing us to live Holy before the Lord.

Thesis: Though our culture desires to have us exist without distinction from the world, it is the truth of scripture and the power of the Spirit of Holiness that will cause us both to will and to do of His good pleasure only by the presentation of precious shed blood of Christ to the Father.

I. What is Church Discipline?

- The Key to open and close the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven.

A. Simply defined as the process of correcting sin in the life of the congregation and its members.

Clearly, there is to be a clear distinction between Christians and the world.

Paul makes this point in his assumption.

B. There is a clear distinction in his mind between the church and the world.

We are supposed to be different from the world.

Are the members of our church living Christ honoring lives?

When we bring on members to our church do they understand the commitment to live a life that is distinct from the world.

C.

And when a person who professes to be a Christian shows themselves to be unsound or non-Christian in either doctrine or life… we go through the Matthew 18 process.

D. 1.

We go to that person.

We confront them in relation to their erroneous beliefs and or lifestyle trespasses and we support, pray and encourage them to bring them to repentance.

If they repent we have won our brother or sister.

Because reconciliation is the goal.

E. 2. If they do not listen, then we are to take a couple of people with us so that its confirmed by 3 or three witnesses and we support, we pray, and we encourage to bring them to repentance and if they repent we have won our brother or sister.

Because reconciliation is the goal.

F. 3. If they still do not listen then we present the person and their sin before the congregation the church and we support, we pray, and we encourage to bring them to repentance and if they repent then we have won our brother or sister.

Because reconciliation is the goal.

G. 4. If they do not listen then we excommunicate.

They are cast out of fellowship as a member.

Not thrown out of church.

But declared and unbeliever and no longer in the kingdom of God.

Fully backed sanctioned and supported by Christ in heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.