The NXR Podcast - March 19, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Lying Women & Abusive Pastors

Topics
church membership church discipline church membership spiritual abuse
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
John MacArthur David French Joel Osteen Reformed Baptist Francis Collins Jesse DuPlantis Russell Moore James Version Phil Vicious Jesus Christ Mark Dever John Piper Beth Moore Tim Keller Gentile Asherah Connor Baal Paul
QUESTIONS - Is “School Choice” A Form Of Theft？ DAILY TRUTH - A “Goat” Will NEVER Become A “Sheep”

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 1 minute

Words per minute

146.18

Word count

8,988

Sentence count

212

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The importance of local church membership and the role of church discipline in the Christian life. The Bible contains at least five strands of evidence that point toward the importance of church membership. Each reveals something vital to Christian faith, which would be denied if there were no definable local Church membership.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 All right, listen, guys, I get it.
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00:00:35 with a friend we hope you'll take the time to do so thank you so much god bless again for those
00:00:41 who are new to covenant bible church we are a church that is committed predominantly to
00:00:46 expositional preaching namely expository preaching going verse by verse chapter by chapter through
00:00:55 whole books of the Bible from beginning to end. And we have taught through the Psalms, and we have
00:01:00 taught through the book of Hebrews. And we recently completed our journey and study through the book
00:01:05 of Hebrews. And before embarking on another book of the Bible, there are a few isolated sermons,
00:01:12 each with biblical texts, of course. Not just a revelation of man, but a revelation of God.
00:01:17 But one-off sermons, for lack of a better term, that we're going to be committing ourselves to
00:01:23 these next few weeks before we start a new book of the bible right after easter sunday that book
00:01:29 of the bible being the book of joshua but for today the topic at hand is church membership
00:01:36 church membership this is something that i'm committed to preaching on average probably twice
00:01:43 a year because i believe that it is vital to the christian life that it's important and that in
00:01:49 many evangelical churches today, the concept and principle of church membership is radically
00:01:56 neglected. So today, we are going to be looking at the importance of local church membership.
00:02:04 In the beginning of your notes, as a brief introduction to this sermon, I've written the
00:02:10 following. The Bible contains at least five strands of evidence for local church membership.
00:02:16 Each reveals something vital to Christian faith, which would be minimized at best or denied at worst if there were no definable local church membership.
00:02:30 In other words, my thesis is this.
00:02:34 There is no explicit statement in the New Testament that says thou shalt become a member of a local church.
00:02:42 if there were I'm personally convinced that we would find that verse right next to another verse
00:02:49 that would say something like upon conversion the Christian should continue to inhale and exhale
00:02:56 in the same way that the New Testament apostles did not find it necessary to command Christians
00:03:03 to continue breathing they did not find it necessary to command church membership church
00:03:10 membership is the no duh of the new testament it is assumed it is assumed and it is assumed
00:03:20 we can take that position because there are multiple other things in the new testament that
00:03:25 are explicitly commanded that cannot be fulfilled in any meaningful tangible practical way apart from
00:03:35 church membership and so we're going to be looking at i said at least five strands we're going to
00:03:41 focus our attention this morning on four four different biblical texts that give us certain
00:03:48 commandments in the new testament that all christians are to obey that cannot be meaningfully
00:03:55 or practically obeyed in any sense apart from assuming local church membership that being said
00:04:03 the primary text that we'll work with today is Matthew chapter 18 verse 15 through 17. And so
00:04:10 for this text I would like to invite you to stand with me for the reading of God's Word. I'll read
00:04:17 our text for us in its entirety. When I finish reading the text I'm going to say this is the
00:04:22 Word of the Lord at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be
00:04:27 to God. One more time, our text for today is Matthew chapter 18 verses 15, 16, and 17. The
00:04:37 Bible says this, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him
00:04:44 alone. If he listens, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others
00:04:51 with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses if he
00:04:58 refuses to listen to them tell it to the church if he refuses to listen even to the church let him
00:05:06 be to you as a gentile and a tax collector this is the word of the lord all right please be seated
00:05:14 in your notes right after this text i've written the following church membership is implied by the
00:05:20 way the church is expected to discipline its members. The church appears to be the final court
00:05:27 of appeal. That is the highest ecclesiastical court on earth for appeal in matters of church
00:05:35 discipline. If there is no such thing as church membership, then how do we define the group of
00:05:41 people who will take up this extremely delicate and important matter of exhorting those who are
00:05:48 unrepentant, and finally, if they do not repent, rendering a righteous judgment about their standing
00:05:56 in Christian community. It's hard to believe that just anyone who shows up claiming to be a
00:06:02 Christian should be part of this process. Surely, the church, that phrase in Matthew 18, must be a
00:06:11 definable group in order to handle such weighty matters so that we know who the scripture is
00:06:18 actually referencing when it says tell it to the church so in matthew 18 we find a multiple step
00:06:27 process for dealing with sin we find jesus process that he prescribes to the apostles to then teach
00:06:37 other New Testament church leaders that this would be the process throughout the entire gospel age
00:06:44 that the New Testament church would diligently follow when it comes to the issue of dealing
00:06:49 with sin and this process begins with first and foremost a private step if your brother sins
00:06:58 against you go to him alone go and tell his fault to him alone and if he listens to you
00:07:06 you have won over your brother what's implicit in the word listen there is if he repents if he
00:07:14 hears your concern the charge that you're bringing against him if he hears it with ears of humility
00:07:21 and contrition he listens and agrees and acknowledges his sin and is sorry for his sin
00:07:29 then you have won your brother over, and the process of church discipline is finished.
00:07:35 But if he does not listen to you, then we must appeal to a higher court.
00:07:42 The next step in church discipline is that we would bring along with us one or two others.
00:07:48 Why? So that the testimony may be established in the presence of two or three witnesses.
00:07:54 this is according to the law word of god that we find in the old testament in multiple places but
00:08:01 most notable in the book of deuteronomy now notice implicitly what we see in this second step of
00:08:09 church discipline bringing one or two others so that you and the one or two included combined
00:08:15 would constitute two or three witnesses what's implicitly contained in this in this second step
00:08:22 is number one the the two or three are now going not just to correct the individual but as a small
00:08:30 jury to ultimately weigh and judge and consider who's actually in sin this is vital for the
00:08:42 evangelical church to understand in our current hashtag me too movement
00:08:47 and and the hashtag me too movement believe all women women can only be victims women can do no
00:08:57 wrong that movement that we're in is just as prominent in the evangelical church as it is
00:09:03 in the secular world the sbc is rife with believe all women rhetoric
00:09:12 grace community church and john macarthur the believe all women attacks against him
00:09:19 are profound the church has not been safe from this particular strategy of the devil
00:09:28 and it does come from hell feminism comes from hell
00:09:33 and what we see with the two or three is this our current culture assumes that the first person to
00:09:44 run into the room is the victim but the bible teaches that if someone runs into the room and
00:09:52 says i'm oppressed and it turns out that they're lying then the one that they actually charged is
00:09:59 the victim a victim of someone bearing false witness the lord despises the bible says and
00:10:09 detest loathes and hates a false witness and in biblical law if someone were to bear false witness
00:10:19 whatever the penalty would have been for the individual that they're bearing false witness
00:10:24 against, if they had been found guilty, that penalty now falls
00:10:29 on the one who bore false witness. And so if it's a capital
00:10:32 crime, the person who bears false witness under oath is now
00:10:38 going to be stoned to death. And the people of God would
00:10:43 respond with a resounding amen. The Lord is good. He is
00:10:49 righteous praise the lord bearing false witness destroys a society a mouth that breathes out lies
00:11:03 brick by brick deconstructs and tears down the very bedrock of a culture
00:11:11 so when we bring the one or two others with us those one or two others in this second step of
00:11:19 church discipline they are coming to be unbiased unpartial non-partial judges they're coming with
00:11:28 the individual saying this my brother sinned against me i went to him one-on-one and he
00:11:33 didn't listen would you please come with me and you go with them and you're now listening but
00:11:39 here's what you're doing you're not just reinforcing the person who's saying they're in sin
00:11:44 you're not just reinforcing their charge that the person's in sin you're coming in in an unbiased
00:11:50 fashion to weigh and determine who's in sin because there are two potential sins one is
00:11:56 that this person really did sin against this one who's bringing you in that's one potential sin
00:12:01 the other potential sin is that the person who's bringing you in is actually bearing false witness
00:12:06 and bringing a false charge against their brother and that their brother actually didn't sin and
00:12:12 the actual oppressor in this scenario is a person who's crying out, I'm a victim. That that person
00:12:19 is actually the victimizer and needs to be corrected. And so the one or two others come in
00:12:26 the scenario and they seek to weigh without partiality. And the Bible says, again, in the
00:12:33 Old Testament, that when we judge certain cases, we shall not be partial to the rich. But did you
00:12:41 know brothers and sisters that the bible also explicitly mentions that we shall not be partial 0.58
00:12:46 to the poor men can lie so can women the rich can lie so can the poor everyone is a sinner
00:12:58 and i would argue that by and large not as a 100 guaranteed rule but i do believe that societies
00:13:08 and cultures and nations go through stages and that there are certain sins that can be more or
00:13:16 less prevalent in different times of a culture in different times of the life of a society
00:13:23 and so again not as a 100% hard and fast rule not as a guarantee but as a general observation
00:13:33 i would say that in this current season of the life of our nation and western society not just
00:13:41 america but western civilization as a whole and the ways that that has also seeped in and become
00:13:47 predominant in the evangelical church as well i would say that more often than not not always
00:13:53 but more often than not when there is an outcry of abuse the person who is saying they're oppressed
00:14:02 has a better chance of being found out to be the liar
00:14:05 than actually the one telling the truth
00:14:08 and that the person actually is an oppressor.
00:14:12 That is where we're at right now.
00:14:16 We are immersed in victimology.
00:14:19 We are immersed in a culture that
00:14:23 hook, line, and sinker
00:14:26 has swallowed the rhetoric of white supremacy.
00:14:28 that we must overthrow and dismantle the patriarchy and that's our culture right now
00:14:37 and and what what sinners tend to do what the wicked tend to do is they'll take something that
00:14:46 is true but they'll take the minority and make it the majority they'll take the footnote and make
00:14:52 it the headline so the headline of the story is white cops shoot an unarmed minority or the
00:15:00 headline of the story is power dynamics in this company or in this church where a man in a position
00:15:07 of power and authority takes advantage of a woman those things happen throughout history they've
00:15:15 happened and even in this current moment they still happen but that is not the majority report
00:15:22 it is posited as though it's the majority report it's made on every news cycle the headline of
00:15:30 every story but it's not the major headline of the story should be black lives matter raises
00:15:38 millions of dollars, doesn't spend any of it actually helping people of color, but buys large
00:15:44 mansions instead. That's what happened. The actual headline of the story should be a woman claims 0.99
00:15:54 that she was abused, turns out she lied, and she should get the same penalty.
00:16:01 That's what happens. It's not the only thing that happens, but it is happening more often
00:16:07 than the other that's the moment that we're living in brothers and sisters listen the sons of issachar
00:16:14 knew the times it is not enough only to know principles you also need to be a christian
00:16:22 with discernment who can say what time it is what time is it a lot of the rhetoric the social
00:16:30 justice rhetoric you know my problem with it it's not that social justice doesn't matter
00:16:35 my problem with it is that it's 50 years too late
00:16:39 a lot of the rhetoric that you hear if that was coming out in 1940 it would have been good
00:16:47 the problem is it's coming out after that it's not an issue so we're saying oh there's this 0.96
00:16:56 oppression and blah blah blah blah blah but but then asians have to score higher on their sat
00:17:02 to get into college the second whites and then down the list there is literally affirmative action
00:17:10 which is racism there is discrimination and different weights and measures the lord had
00:17:17 another thing he hates false witness he also hates unequal balances unequal weights and measures
00:17:23 there are different weights in measures for determining certain tax brackets for determining
00:17:29 what school you can get into what benefits you can get and and some of these things it's not just
00:17:36 cultural impulses but it's actually legislative law at a judicial legislative level there are
00:17:45 unequal weights and balances and the lord the lord abhors these things according to his word
00:17:52 we need to be like the sons of Issachar we need to know what time it is now that being said I
00:17:59 I, cause I, I don't want you to say, amen, I'm going to do that. I'm going to walk out of church
00:18:04 today and live a more courageous life. And then you get punched in the face and you're like, well,
00:18:08 my pastor led me astray. I had no idea. Cause you will get punched in the face metaphorically or
00:18:12 literally. This is one other thing. The sons of Issachar knew the time, but what that means when 0.97
00:18:19 you say something, when it's actually relevant, right? So you're not talking about social justice
00:18:24 50 years too late, but you're actually talking about it when it's relevant. You know what that's
00:18:29 called it's called being a prophet and you know what happens to the prophets they get killed
00:18:36 now later generations build tombs to honor them right everybody says i love charles spurgeon
00:18:44 that's because he's safely buried under six feet of dirt if he was still alive you'd hate him
00:18:49 i promise you you know how i know you'd hate him because you hate john mccarthur
00:18:53 and john mccarthur is tame in comparison to charles spurgeon
00:18:59 charles spurgeon was calling people out on the front row in his church saying you sir the gloves
00:19:06 that you have belong to your employer and you stole them and he's calling them out by name and
00:19:12 pointing at them in front of a thousand people charles spurgeon was way more intense way more
00:19:22 intense. So knowing the times, like the sons of Issachar, means that you're actually crying out
00:19:28 against injustice when it's actually taking place. Everybody, as a good rule of thumb, when Amazon is
00:19:36 putting Black Lives Matter on their screensaver and on all their packages, then you know there's
00:19:43 actually no need to say it any longer because everyone already agrees. If a corporation is
00:19:50 doing it then what you're saying is this is a battle that's actually already won
00:19:55 but but but when it's a time where there's an actual injustice taking place not 50 years ago
00:20:02 but today and and you know that if you were to speak out that instead of being hoisted up on
00:20:08 shoulder top and given a parade in your honor you would actually be penalized then that's how you
00:20:15 know that's the thing that's the target that you should be hovering over and you should do it with
00:20:21 strategy and shrewdness and wisdom don't be suicidal but also don't be a coward
00:20:29 but know that if you know the times and you talk about not just
00:20:35 giant see i've used this illustration in the past it's like
00:20:39 talking about sins and certain things culturally wide sins and injustices that have already kind
00:20:48 of come and gone and been dealt with right the overton window has already shifted right that
00:20:54 the parade is already happening what that's like is is like it's like somebody who risked their
00:21:00 life and killed a giant that was terrorizing the people of god and then what you do is after the
00:21:08 giant that just moments ago you were shaking and quivering out of fear now that he's he's good and
00:21:14 dead and laying on the ground with his head severed you run up to the giant you start kicking him in
00:21:20 the side i'm a warrior no you're not and there's another giant right over here that's literally
00:21:29 taking the church the people of god and decimating them and you're like i won't stand for giants
00:21:36 that you're kicking the dead corpse.
00:21:39 And there's a giant at large that's actually alive
00:21:42 that's currently destroying the people of God.
00:21:45 Nothing to see here.
00:21:50 That's Mark Dever.
00:21:51 I'm going to name.
00:21:54 It's John Piper.
00:21:57 That's Russell Moore.
00:21:59 That's Beth Moore.
00:22:01 It's David French.
00:22:03 Francis Collins.
00:22:04 Tim Keller.
00:22:06 they kick dead giants and pretend not to see living giants that are currently destroying
00:22:13 the people of God. They're bad shepherds. They're bad shepherds. 0.95
00:22:23 So, church discipline. Well, I mean, those guys should be disciplined. But for our purposes today,
00:22:32 the second step of church discipline, the one or two that you bring with you,
00:22:35 is not that one or two are coming in immediately wholesale believing your testimony because you
00:22:42 might be lying they're coming with you as arbiters to weigh between your charge and the other person
00:22:51 getting to make their defense and after weighing these things and the testimonies being established
00:22:58 in the presence of two or three witnesses they then are rendering a judgment and if the judgment
00:23:06 they render is that the charge you brought is true and this person really did sin against you
00:23:12 and implicitly in the text we might also assume they really did sin and they really are still
00:23:19 not repentant about that sin, then we elevate to the next court of appeal. We go to the highest
00:23:28 earthly court. And biblically speaking, the highest ecclesiastical court on earth
00:23:34 is not a presbytery. It is not cardinals or bishops. It is not the pope. It is not synods
00:23:44 or councils, it is not the board of elders or deacons, it is the church, the local church,
00:23:55 the collective local body of believers, young and old, rich, poor, elder, non-elder, deacon,
00:24:11 member the people of God in covenant with one another in a local setting a local church
00:24:22 they are the final jury they are the final court that will determine ultimately what is right
00:24:30 and when they render that judgment the words of Jesus if we were to go on in the text just to
00:24:38 show you how weighty that judgment of the church is the words of jesus is this that whatever you
00:24:47 loose on earth will be loosed in heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in
00:24:54 heaven in other words when the collective body of the saints in covenant in a local church setting
00:25:02 together when they render a judgment if it is to lose someone to hand them over as the apostle
00:25:10 paul did to hand them over to satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme for the destruction
00:25:16 of their flesh but that their soul might be saved on the last day when the church hands someone over 0.64
00:25:22 and that's what it means when it goes on it says treat them as a tax collector or a gentile 0.55
00:25:26 Gentile. That simply means treat them as an outsider, as someone on the outside of the people 0.50
00:25:33 of God. Hand them over. And for the record, treating someone as a tax collector or Gentile 0.98
00:25:38 as an outsider, removing them from the body of the church is synonymous with handing someone over to 0.95
00:25:44 Satan. I've used this illustration before. I'll use it again. If you've ever watched National
00:25:50 geographic animal planet whatever which gazelle gets eaten by the lion
00:25:58 the one in the middle of the herd or the one that's on the outside
00:26:04 satan what does the bible say prowls around like a roaring lion so satan prowls around like a
00:26:13 roaring lion seeking what? Who he may devour. And who do lions devour? The one separated from the
00:26:21 herd. So to hand someone over to Satan is essentially simply to treat someone as an
00:26:28 outsider. To loose them. Whatever you loose on earth, you're no longer. You are a Gentile and
00:26:35 a tax collector. You are no longer in covenant with the church, this visible church. To remove 1.00
00:26:41 someone from your midst like the apostle paul commands in first corinthians chapter 5 purge
00:26:48 the immoral brother from among you hand him over he's committed a degree of sexual immorality
00:27:00 that is unheard of even among the pagans even among the pagans and you are proud the apostle
00:27:08 says no rather you should be ashamed hand him over paul says spiritually speaking with apostolic
00:27:17 authority i've already removed him now you better follow my judgment and do the same
00:27:23 and many biblical commentators and scholars and theologians agree that in paul's second letter
00:27:31 to the corinthians second corinthians namely chapter two when he mentions a man who is being
00:27:37 overwhelmed by unceasing sorrow that should be welcomed back into fellowship with the corinthian
00:27:43 church that is actually the same man see the church discipline it not only exists to protect
00:27:50 the purity of the church it also exists as a form of tough love to produce repentance
00:27:56 in the center let me say that again church discipline is not only a tool that jesus gives
00:28:02 to us to protect the purity of the church from a bad influence but also it protects or rather it
00:28:12 it ultimately in the sovereignty of god if he wills it could be used to bring about repentance
00:28:19 in the center that that form of tough love might eventually bring them to contrition
00:28:26 to not mere worldly sorrow but godly sorrow that brings about repentance that leads to life
00:28:37 also we might add the fact that there are multiple steps in the process and that there is a jury
00:28:42 that things are being weighed that testimonies have to be tried and true that there must be
00:28:50 two to three independent lines of testimony eyewitness testimony in order for something
00:28:56 to be established and then weighed by a larger jury namely the whole congregation the church
00:29:02 itself all of this is because jesus is committed to justice and therefore due process
00:29:08 that's where we get these principles in our law system today it's being eroded but we got it from
00:29:16 the bible church discipline how how intricate the process is in the bible what that says is that
00:29:23 jesus is committed to protecting the church from the center and penitent center but jesus is also
00:29:29 just as committed to protecting the alleged sinner from an abusive church because that happens too
00:29:37 that happens all the time
00:29:40 one more word about church discipline
00:29:46 every church
00:29:49 I'm talking about
00:29:50 Catholic Church
00:29:52 Eastern Orthodox Church
00:29:54 Episcopal, Anglican, Presbyterian
00:29:57 every kind of Baptist
00:29:59 I'm talking about
00:30:01 Joel Osteen's church
00:30:02 I'm talking about Jesse DePlantis
00:30:05 false churches prosperity churches fake churches churches online every single church in the world
00:30:13 has this in common they all kick people out they do so the determining factor of whether or not
00:30:23 it's pleasing to the lord is this not whether they kick people out but how do they kick people out
00:30:30 Do they kick people out the way that the owners of a casino
00:30:34 would kick out someone caught counting cards?
00:30:38 They're quietly ushered to a back room,
00:30:40 their kneecaps are broken, and you never hear from them again?
00:30:45 That's how a lot of pastors kick out people from their churches.
00:30:48 You know that, right?
00:30:50 Where's so-and-so?
00:30:51 I haven't heard from them in eight months.
00:30:55 Oh, they were removed.
00:30:57 By who?
00:30:58 I never heard about them.
00:30:59 I didn't remove them.
00:31:00 we didn't exercise church discipline we didn't have a congregational meeting they weren't given
00:31:06 the opportunity to share their testimony and for it to be weighed alongside the testimony of the
00:31:11 pastors that's church discipline but that's casino kneecap breaking church discipline
00:31:18 which is what most churches including sadly reformed churches do because at the end of the
00:31:24 day, they don't care a hill of beans about the Bible. They're a
00:31:28 joke. They might be Presbyterian. They might adhere to the 0.79
00:31:33 Westminster in theory, not in practice. They might be Reformed
00:31:37 Baptist and adhere to the 1689 in theory, not in practice. When
00:31:42 the rubber meets the road, it's elder rule. I appreciate John
00:31:49 MacArthur at least calls it what it is. He is elder rule and
00:31:52 They say it publicly.
00:31:53 There is no congregational vote at Grace Community Church.
00:31:56 Those elders, they don't like you.
00:31:58 If something's going on, they make the determination.
00:32:02 You're gone.
00:32:03 No one hears from you again.
00:32:05 And at least they publicly say it.
00:32:07 You know, they're elder rule. 0.92
00:32:08 I would never be a member in an elder rule church because I think it's unbiblical.
00:32:13 But John MacArthur, regardless, is the Protestant Pope and everybody likes him.
00:32:18 So, you know, whatever.
00:32:19 but I love Matthew 18 and the word church here doesn't mean elders standing in as representatives
00:32:29 of the church it doesn't mean presbytery standing in as representative of the church it's not
00:32:36 bishops it's not cardinals it's not elders it's the church the word church this is crazy this is
00:32:42 some deep exegetical study right here the word church in our text it means church
00:32:47 i know if you're not careful you'll miss it but but the word church means church
00:32:56 and for those of you who have been members of our church you've seen us carry this out
00:33:02 by god's grace only once and lord willing hopefully never again that's unlikely but we can pray
00:33:09 church discipline i believe should be rare and it's not just for impenitent sin impenitent meaning
00:33:17 the refusal to repent after being approached by the appropriate parties and gone going having
00:33:23 gone thoroughly through all the steps of church discipline that's impenitence refusing to repent
00:33:28 however i would add this the westminster confession i like what it says in this regard
00:33:32 it is both impenitent and high-handed sin. So we have, you could say it like this, we have the
00:33:41 principle in Matthew 18 that Jesus gives us, the principle for church discipline and how to remove
00:33:46 someone. But we have the example or the case study in 1 Corinthians 5 from the Apostle Paul.
00:33:53 And I do not believe that it is a mere coincidence that the principle that Jesus gives includes
00:34:00 impenitence as the chief characteristic of the one who should be removed but in the case study
00:34:05 it is not only impenitence but it happens to be a man who has committed a sin that is unheard of
00:34:12 even among pagans in other words it's not this guy didn't invite my kids to his birthday party
00:34:19 and i went to my brother alone and i called him on his sin and he said he had the audacity to say
00:34:27 pastor that it wasn't a sin he said he actually said that this is going to blow your mind that
00:34:32 i'm emotional and too sensitive so now he's bringing false charges and i brought one or two
00:34:42 others with me now they happen to be the one or two other emotional and sensitive women in the
00:34:48 church but i brought them and we have now determined and we'd like to bring it to the church
00:34:55 this person's impenitent no it's it's not merely that this person has sinned
00:35:01 and won't acknowledge and repent of their sin but it's also impenitence coupled with
00:35:08 a degree of high-handed sin it's not just mere relational discord which matters that can become
00:35:18 a rotten root of bitterness that springs up and defiles many conflict relational conflict
00:35:25 in the church can have harmful effects but again i say i do not believe it is a mere coincidence
00:35:32 that when we have the principle of impenitence but the case study of someone actually being
00:35:39 excommunicated that it is not merely impenitence but it is also a kind of sin and degree of sin
00:35:47 that is egregious egregious not subjective not hey he's quarrelsome
00:35:56 quarrelsome there is an objective definition it's a biblical word but there's a lot of debate about
00:36:04 how to define what it is to be quarrelsome you go with the king james version and quarrelsome means
00:36:09 an elder must not be a brawler which means he might be really quarrelsome by someone's subjective
00:36:16 definition of quarrelsome but so long as he hasn't punched anyone in the face he could be a pastor
00:36:21 there are some guys that hold that view there are others who say he could be quarreling all the time
00:36:28 because jesus was and so was paul but it means lover of quarrels and there's a difference between
00:36:34 defending the truth versus going and picking a fight and then there are others who say he just
00:36:41 shouldn't argue at all because the bible says he must have a good reputation with outsiders
00:36:45 And they subjectively interpret good reputation with outsiders, meaning that pagans and sinners who hate God somehow like you.
00:36:55 There's a lot of difference of opinion.
00:37:00 But you know what's nice about sins like adultery?
00:37:07 Like the man who took his father's wife?
00:37:11 What's nice about that is that it's not subjective.
00:37:15 it's real clear it's real clear okay that merits removal and again for the final time i say
00:37:25 i do not believe it is a mere coincidence that we're given the principle of church discipline
00:37:32 that includes impenitence as the chief characteristic to look for but when we're
00:37:37 given an example in case study of a guy actually being removed by the church
00:37:42 it's not that
00:37:44 well his tone is off sometimes
00:37:47 no it's that
00:37:49 he's really messing up
00:37:53 I've already said it
00:37:55 don't need to say it again
00:37:56 there's a difference in
00:37:57 I don't like your tone
00:37:58 versus
00:38:00 dude keep it in the family
00:38:02 isn't supposed to be played out like that
00:38:04 those are radically different
00:38:08 not a coincidence
00:38:10 in terms of church membership here's the deal who is the church
00:38:17 so so the bible doesn't explicitly command say thou shalt be a member in a local church
00:38:24 but the bible does command jesus himself in matthew 18 says you must righteously practice
00:38:32 church discipline and to practice church discipline it's not just appointed leaders
00:38:36 practicing it in a back room breaking kneecaps no church discipline the final court of appeal
00:38:41 is the church and as we've already looked with a deep exegetical study church means church shocker
00:38:48 and so the question is in order to do church discipline and the highest court of appeal being
00:38:53 the church itself then we have to have a way of determining deciphering who is the church
00:39:00 and without church membership formal local church membership do you know how you determine who is
00:39:06 the church attendance it's mere attendance apart from church membership and there actually being
00:39:14 a process then the only way to truly determine who is the church is who shows up which means
00:39:23 all of you who are joining us for the first sunday apparently i'm your pastor you haven't
00:39:29 even determined if you like me you probably have determined you don't like me but the point is i'm
00:39:33 your pastor because you're here and if we had a church discipline case going on right now you'd
00:39:37 be privy to it and you don't even know their name you don't even know who these people are
00:39:45 and we don't even know if you're regenerate we don't even know if you're a christian
00:39:50 but you're the church and the church is the final ecclesiastical earthly court
00:39:57 for rendering a righteous judgment
00:39:59 in regards to the alleged impenitent sinner
00:40:02 for either loosing or binding,
00:40:04 removing or keeping.
00:40:07 And so you're going to be making this decision,
00:40:09 but you don't know who we are.
00:40:11 We don't know who you are,
00:40:12 but we need the church.
00:40:14 And the only way to determine the church
00:40:16 is who shows up.
00:40:19 Unless, crazy idea, I know.
00:40:22 Unless there was like,
00:40:23 like a process outside of mere Sunday morning attendance where people showed up if they had
00:40:31 interest and you talked about practically and theologically what it meant to belong in covenant
00:40:38 to this particular local church and and you got to as elders meet with them and determine their
00:40:44 testimony they can make a credible proclamation of faith so that you know at least God sees the
00:40:51 heart we look at the outward appearance but we could at least do our due diligence to see whether
00:40:55 or not this person is in fact a Christ follower they could also ask questions of the leaders of
00:41:01 the church to determine do we agree with this church's mission its vision its doctrine and then
00:41:07 you could have some kind of formal mutual agreement where they say here I am shepherd me and you say
00:41:13 I will take you as a part of my flock that I have spiritual responsibility for shepherding and we
00:41:20 maybe even sign like a like a church covenant or something like that you just invented church
00:41:26 membership so again no verse in the bible that says thou shalt be a church membership but there
00:41:34 are plenty of verses in the bible that says this is what it looks like to obey jesus practically
00:41:38 not just theoretical obedience to jesus but practical real obedience to jesus and these
00:41:44 practical examples of real obedience to Jesus assume a way of knowing who's a part of this
00:41:51 community and who's not. And mere attendance does not suffice. And that is my thesis. That's church
00:41:59 membership. So I'll blow through the rest. Church discipline assumes church membership. Excommunication
00:42:05 is simply after the process, the final rendered judgment, after the process of church discipline,
00:42:11 if the person really is proven to be a sinner and still remains impenitent you remove them we've
00:42:17 already covered that moving on so basically just it's really two things but but then two sub
00:42:23 categories underneath each primary primary category first category is just church discipline
00:42:29 and excommunication the next one is shepherding and submission shepherding and submission two
00:42:37 sides of really the same coin on the one hand for the church member hebrews 13 17 obey your
00:42:44 leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to
00:42:48 give an account let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage
00:42:53 to you let me brag on you covenant bible church it has been a joy now granted it's been a brief
00:42:59 joy it's only been about two years all right so that's superstition doesn't belong in the house
00:43:05 of God, I apologize. But it's been a brief joy, but it has
00:43:10 been an objective, definitive joy to be your pastor. I mean
00:43:14 that from the bottom of my heart. You guys, you figure
00:43:19 things out. If you have a conflict, you deal with it.
00:43:24 You're not constantly coming to me or Connor with petty
00:43:27 conflicts. There's just a certain, I don't know, a certain
00:43:34 bar of not perfection none of us are perfect I'm a sinner you're a sinner but there's just a like a
00:43:39 minimum bar I've noticed with this church with members and many of you guys who aren't members
00:43:44 yet or attenders but still even for the attenders there's just like this minimum biblical bottom
00:43:49 line of Christian maturity there's just there's some seasoned saints and it's a privilege to get
00:43:56 to pastor some seasoned saints. It really is. It has been a joy and not groaning by God's grace.
00:44:04 It has been a joy, not groaning. And I don't know if it's just providentially, right? That like,
00:44:08 just like the origin of our church came out of a really crazy three years in our nation and with
00:44:15 evangelical churches as a whole, where all of a sudden these new fault lines were coming into
00:44:20 play in regards to who's going to stand up to civil tyranny and who's not, who's woke and who's
00:44:24 not who's believe all women and who's not right and and there was just kind of like this this
00:44:29 sifting you know like like this sorting of the wheat from the chaff going on in the province of
00:44:35 God and and our church because of my podcast and things like that and public teaching I've been
00:44:41 very outspoken that we are not a woke church that we are not a social justice church that we are a
00:44:46 biblical theologically conservative unapologetic church so it's attracted those types of people
00:44:52 and because it's attracted those types of people there tends to be less problems maybe that's it
00:44:57 I don't know but in the sovereignty of God he's building something here that I am really proud of
00:45:02 and humbled to be a part of and I say that as an encouragement and commendation to those of you
00:45:08 who are members of the church those of you who are regular long-time attenders of the church
00:45:12 although I do hope you become members but I'm also saying that for those of you who are joining us
00:45:16 for the first time. Our church is not perfect, and our church certainly is not the only one. We don't
00:45:23 have the Elijah complex. I'm the only one left. And the Lord responds by saying, I've got 7,000 0.89
00:45:28 reserved, on reserve, that have not bowed their knee to Baal, that have not kissed and worshipped
00:45:35 at the Asherah poles. So we are not perfect, and we are not the only ones. But by the grace of God,
00:45:40 this is a great church and the lord is doing something special and if you want to be a part
00:45:48 of it we would be honored to have you so all that being said you're called to submit to spiritual
00:45:54 authority now all authority in all three spheres that god divinely instituted the home the church
00:46:03 and the state all human authority in each of these three spheres is always vested authority
00:46:10 there is no such thing as inherent human authority meaning that an unjust law is not a law
00:46:22 an unjust law is no law at all and that applies to the civil realm that applies to the home
00:46:33 and that applies to the church what a someone in spiritual authority an ecclesiastical authority
00:46:42 in the realm of the church says something or commands something that is not rooted in the
00:46:50 commandments of God in scripture a church member not only is it permissible to disobey your pastor
00:46:57 it is actually required that you resist that ecclesiastical tyranny that's why when things
00:47:07 are not clear one of the things that a godly and mature pastor will seek to do is to exercise the
00:47:14 authority of counsel rather than the authority of command because counsel can be rejected when a
00:47:21 pastor gives you his counsel you can say thanks but no thanks but when a command is given it's
00:47:29 given with a binding quality and now if it is not a command of scripture and the pastor is wrong
00:47:35 you must still resist it but the pastor is actually exercising tyranny that would be spiritual abuse
00:47:43 that he is going beyond his jurisdiction all human authority is vested authority there is no such
00:47:50 thing is inherent human authority. And with this vested authority, all human authority has very
00:47:57 clear binding jurisdictions. You have authority this far and no further. A pastor only has so
00:48:09 much authority, and he must not overstep the bounds of his authority. That's why, again,
00:48:16 with COVID, when it came to shutting down churches, my position was to keep the church open.
00:48:23 One, because of Revelation 1 that we started with in our worship today.
00:48:28 A theological reason, but a practical reason, not just theological, but just logical,
00:48:34 and not wanting to be an abusive ecclesiastical tyrant. If the church is closed, everyone who's
00:48:41 in the church who feels obligated and convicted to worship, their conscience is dismissed. You
00:48:47 cannot worship God. We close the church. If the church is open, guess what that position allows
00:48:54 for? People can stay home and some who feel called to worship can worship. One position objectively
00:49:02 accommodates more people. One position, namely opening the church, allows those to stay home
00:49:09 if they wish and those who want to worship to worship but the position of closing the church
00:49:13 is essentially pastors all over our nation who said to their congregants who felt convicted by
00:49:19 the holy spirit and from the word of god like revelation chapter 1 like hebrews chapter 10
00:49:24 verse 24 and 25 do not neglect the gathering of the saints as some have done those who felt
00:49:30 convicted from the spirit and the word of god that we should be gathering pastors who closed
00:49:35 churches said your conscience doesn't matter i don't care and i will force you to sin against
00:49:44 your own conscience and that pastor should be removed that is abuse that is spiritual abuse
00:49:53 when we think here's here's the deal when we think of spiritual abuse abuse we think that guy yells
00:50:00 when he preaches or we think that guy takes really strong positions like the husband is the head of
00:50:07 his wife or we think that guy that guy believes that when it comes to parenting uh that the parent
00:50:14 who spares the rod hates their child yeah that's that's quoting scripture that's a quote not
00:50:22 exegesis a quote right that guy's harsh now but when when the bible talks about what's actually
00:50:28 abusive? Think of the false teachers that Paul's constantly combating. Do you know what is
00:50:34 characteristic and descriptive of the false teachers? They're the guys who have smooth and
00:50:39 flattering speech, the scripture says. The bad guys, right, are we the baddies? I wish Big Eva
00:50:45 would do that. Are we the baddies? Yes. David French, am I the baddie? Phil Vicious, am I? Yes.
00:50:51 the baddies in the new testament they're the guys who have the very smooth tone
00:50:58 the nicest guys are the bad guys and then the guys who who preach sermons like peter on the
00:51:07 day of pentecost in acts 2 that says this jesus who you crucified god has resurrected and made him
00:51:15 both savior and lord my preacher don't say you say we we include yourself we peter says you
00:51:23 look at all the old-timey preachers spurgeon we was not in his vocabulary i don't even know
00:51:29 if he knew the word it's you always you
00:51:32 that's how the apostles the good guys preached the way that the bad guys talked was smooth
00:51:41 seductive nice flattering so their tongue was kind but what made the person actually
00:51:51 heretic was not how they said things but what they said we live in a culture and the evangelical
00:52:01 church has opted for this position as well we live in a culture and a church age where we care
00:52:09 more about how something is said than what is said the party that is always identified by the
00:52:17 new testament apostles as the false teachers are the ones who are introducing strange doctrines
00:52:25 it doesn't matter how they introduce it doesn't matter what speech or tone or attitude they have
00:52:33 what matters is not how but what and in fact the apostle paul goes even further and talks about
00:52:41 those who are quarrelsome he uses the word quarrelsome and upsetting whole households
00:52:46 and you know who they are the quarrelsome people truly objectively quarrelsome in the mind of paul
00:52:52 are the people who have the nicest tone you'll ever find smooth and flattering speech but they
00:52:59 are quarrelsome because they are the ones who are introducing to the apostolic church strange
00:53:05 doctrine that's causing fights and conflict. The person who introduces wrong doctrine is the one
00:53:12 who is labeled as the quarreler. And the person who defends the truth, even if he does it with
00:53:19 a raised voice, is not the quarreler. But that is the one who is faithful. And for the record,
00:53:28 the reason why I believe faithful pastors do preach and don't just pace back and forth between two
00:53:34 ferns with skinny jeans and a plexiglass pulpit right that the pulpit is just as see-through as
00:53:41 the pastor's soul I'm just going to share with you the reason why faithful pastors don't preach
00:53:47 like that the reason why they have pulpits that look like tanks and the reason why they yell from
00:53:53 time to time and they say we occasionally but they also say you is because the scripture commands
00:53:59 let the one who speaks speak as though he is speaking the very oracles of God so when I preach
00:54:07 I am not getting up here to share with you my thoughts if I am to preach at all scripture
00:54:14 commands me to preach as though I am heralding the very oracles of God so it is not I feel like
00:54:22 or I think or maybe if I've got a theological maybe in my arsenal you save that for a podcast
00:54:30 or a conversation over a snack with a friend you don't bring that into the pulpit of God
00:54:36 because here you herald the oracles of God you don't whisper
00:54:42 you don't speculate you preach you preach and although many would say that's harsh tone and
00:54:54 therefore that is quarrelsomeness the bible says precisely the opposite precisely the opposite
00:55:01 so shepherding and submission shepherding and submission let it be a joy to those in positions
00:55:12 of ecclesiastical authority knowing that they have very limited jurisdiction their authority
00:55:18 is vested not inherent they can only speak where the bible speaks if they're outside of that they
00:55:23 can counsel but it is the authority of counsel which the member is free to reject rather than
00:55:29 the authority of command so pastors should be careful not to overstep their bounds pastors
00:55:34 should be servants they should be kind but they should also be confident in the word of god not
00:55:40 in the flesh and teach what is true as though they are heralding the very oracles of god
00:55:45 and you people of god should submit so long as the pastor is faithful
00:55:50 and the pastor on his end should shepherd look at the text pay careful attention to yourselves and
00:55:59 all the flock in which the holy spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of god which
00:56:05 he obtained with his own blood that's acts 20 28 so on the shepherding side for the church member
00:56:12 obey your leaders right there the key word your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping
00:56:21 watch over your souls on the shepherding side as it pertains to the pastor to the congregation
00:56:26 pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the holy spirit made you
00:56:32 an overseer. Notice the common theme between both submission for the church members and
00:56:38 shepherding for the church leaders. In both cases, it is a particular flock. Submit to anyone who
00:56:46 claims to be a spiritual Christian leader. Joel Osteen says he's a leader. Every time he comes
00:56:53 out with a book or a conference submit right no submit to your leaders not just the leaders
00:57:04 your leaders again look church membership is assumed what's assumed is that there is a local
00:57:11 visible definable context and that the people of god they know who's a part and who's not
00:57:19 they know who their leaders are and who they aren't and I would I'll end it with this
00:57:25 you might be saying again so how do we determine who is the church you sold me Joel we got to be
00:57:32 able to have a visible local definable community the church I'm just not sold in terms of church
00:57:40 membership being the only process or way of defining that I think church attendance works
00:57:45 well i would say again c.8 i don't think it works in terms of church discipline and excommunication
00:57:50 because that would involve visitors that may not even be regenerate rendering judgments about
00:57:55 binding and loosing people that's my first point secondly i would say this in terms of you people
00:58:01 of god congregation in terms of your obligation to submit to leaders your attendance is sufficient
00:58:08 i'll agree with you your attendance is sufficient for you to identify who your local leaders are
00:58:15 however on the shepherding side of the coin your mere attendance is not sufficient for connor and
00:58:24 i to determine who we're called to shepherd you can come on sunday and say i see joel and connor
00:58:31 but you coming on sunday is not enough for joel and connor to see you
00:58:35 think about put yourself in my shoes for just a moment let's just all take out a small violin
00:58:42 and play a sad song for pastors all over the world just a little bit of pity for a moment
00:58:46 if it's mere church attendance and and and the responsibility remember the responsibility is
00:58:54 pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the holy spirit has made you
00:58:59 overseers to care for the church of god which he obtained with his blood and then hebrews 13 17
00:59:04 that we are keeping watch over your very souls
00:59:08 as those who will have to give account.
00:59:11 Like I'm going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ one day
00:59:15 and I will have to give an account
00:59:18 for keeping watch over the souls of the flock,
00:59:24 a particular flock, not the universal flock of Christ,
00:59:27 it's global, but a particular local flock
00:59:29 in which the Holy Spirit appointed me as an overseer,
00:59:32 that flock.
00:59:33 if that flock even at the local level that local flock if that includes somebody who visited for
00:59:39 a few weeks and then left and i'm responsible for their soul and they came late and left early
00:59:49 i never even got to shake their hand i don't even know their name
00:59:52 but i'm gonna have to stand before the lord jesus christ on the final day and be held accountable
00:59:58 for keeping watch over their soul lord have mercy i can't do that
01:00:05 and i don't believe by the grace of god because he is merciful that i will have to do that
01:00:11 i don't believe that the lord jesus will hold pastors accountable
01:00:15 for their flock and their flock being defined by anybody who ever showed up i think the flock is
01:00:22 more formally and visibly and tangibly defined through covenant god works through covenant
01:00:29 and there is a mutual agreement and covenant between the member and spiritual leaders in the
01:00:38 church we will pastor and shepherd you and you so long as we are faithful will submit to us i have
01:00:46 agreed to keep watch over your soul. You have agreed to submit in such a way that that ministry
01:00:52 and calling of mine would not be a groaning, but a joy. And this is a formal process. It's local.
01:01:00 It's visible. It's definable. I think it's called church membership. Let's pray. Father God,
01:01:06 thank you for your word. Bless it to your people, all for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
01:01:12 Thanks so much for listening.
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