What I Would Do Differently
Sermon 5 1 Corinthians 5
IV. Discipline is for the good of the church
A. Verses 6-8 again.
i. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
ii. In other words, it is damaging to the church to allow unchecked, unrepentant sin to continue because it will infect the whole church.
iii. Unchecked, sin spread through the whole church. It defiles the conscience of weaker believers; it teaches new Christians that sin is not a big deal and does not need to be pushed back against in their lives.
iv. Unchecked, unrepentant sin in the church is like putting a drop of black ink into a glass of milk. It is not going to stay static; it is going to darken the whole thing.
v. The watching world will think that we do not even believe what we say we do. They will not see unchecked sin as attractive, they will see the church saying one thing and doing another, and if the church does not look different from the world, why would the world want what the church has?
vi. It would be more attractive to see people loving each other in Christ, shedding their posturing, admitting sin, and spurring one another on to changed lives reflecting their Christ.
B. Verse 9-13.
i. The concern of the church ought to be the purity of the church.
ii. Their job is not to judge the world. People who are not Christians, act like people who are not Christians.
iii. Both Jesus and Paul believe that the church should be distinct from the world. That is why there is church membership, it is declaring that these people are, from the best that we can tell from their professions and lives, Christians following their Lord.
iv. A church does not make someone a citizen of the kingdom, it does, however, have a responsibility for declaring who does and does not belong to Christ’s kingdom (like a passport). This is authority explicitly given to them by the head of the church – Jesus Himself.
v. The actions of 1 Corinthians 5 are not to pronounce the person’s final condemnation but to seek to avert it.
Conclusion
In our day, we are tolerant, expressive individuals with radical autonomy, and we keep each other at arm’s length. We say, “you have no right to speak into my life and I will not bother you, either.” If that is our posture, we do not want the church – we do not want real community – not in its biblical form, not in what Jesus envisions for us.
How can we say we love one another if we do not do everything we can to keep one another from sins that harm us, our families, and the church? How can we say we follow Christ if we throw off His commands? How can we say we want to win the world when we will not protect our witness before the world; the witness that we are a distinct people, set apart by God for Christ’s purposes?
Recently I stumbled upon our very first covenant from 1889. Here is the opening paragraph of the church covenant they adopted when they formed FBCC: Hoping and believing we have experienced the regenerating grace of God and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we do now solemnly covenant with each other to walk together in brotherly love and do what we can to promote the precious cause of our [common]
Lord that we will exercise a Christian call and watchfulness over each other.
Have we ever done things the way we have been talking about today and in previous weeks? You bet we have. But somewhere along the way, we lost it. And that is not unique to us, we may simply have been doing what other churches were doing or what we thought was right at the time or what was most pragmatic or comfortable.
But by God’s grace, we can return, not only to the covenant of those who founded FBC Cordele 130 years ago, but to our Baptist forebearers, to the Reformers, to the early church, and to the vision Jesus and His apostles had and have for the church.
Will it be easy? Will it be comfortable? No, it will not. But Jesus never promised ease, did He?
But will it be worth it? Obedience to Christ is always worth it. Let us choose faithfulness.
For our good, for our witness, to be a light in the darkness, and for God’s glory.
Sermon 6
Ephesians 4:1-16
Introduction
It is important to note before diving into the text the context in the epistle in which it is placed.
The gospel indicatives appear in the first 3 chapters. Paul then uses the final 3 chapters to give the gospel imperatives. In other words, he spent 3 chapters saying what Christ has done for us, and then spends the last 3 chapters telling us how we ought to respond to that gospel. If we had just the first 3 chapters, we would not know how to respond and live in light of the gospel. If we had just the last 3 chapters, we would not know from whence we derive motivation and power to pursue these commands.
It is after 3 chapters of gospel goodness that Paul begins chapter 4. It is interesting that after his beautiful telling of the gospel, the very first thing he talks about in regards to how to respond to the gospel has to do with the our approach to the church.
He begins chapter 4 with the word “therefore,” which basically packs with it the meaning of, “based on everything I have said, this is what you should do with that information.”
He thus implores them to walk in a manner worthy of the calling of the gospel of Christ.
And by “walk” Paul means in every area of one’s life. Walk is the disposition and actions of a person day-to-day.
And so, what is the very first thing he talks about in regards to walking in a manner worthy of the Gospel? The Christian’s relation to the church. Why? Because the natural outflow of actions by a heart gripped by gospel truth is lived out in the local church. A response to the gospel that does not find its expression in the local church is one that is disconnected from the model given in Scripture, as we have seen.
And if we are to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, this means Paul envisions Christians living in a distinct way from the world. And it reminds us that church membership is only for Christians.
Paul envisions life change in every facet of our lives that is ethically different than the fallen world because what he said about the gospel in chapters 1-3 is true. Christ really has saved us so that we can pursue life the way God intended before the fall. And so, Paul envisions church membership as helping us walk in this manner worthy of the calling of the gospel.
It gives shape and direction to our lives, it reminds us of the glorious truths of the gospel, it holds the beauty of Jesus before our fickle and wandering eyes, and it joins us to other people who will call us on our wanderings to help guide us back to the narrow path – and that is the essence of the discipline we talked about last week. Church membership and discipline helps us from rejecting the gospel with our lives, it helps us to repent and pursue faithfulness because we all – each and every one of us – are susceptible to giving into sin and waywardness.