Once again, I'm not going to be doing an exposition of a specific passage. I have a more topical subject to deal with today. I'm going to be giving you something of a bird's-eye view. Each of the sections of this particular lecture could be elaborated in great detail. I'm sure most of you will understand that.

Therefore one always runs the risks, well it's almost a certainty that I will probably provoke more questions that I'm actually going to answer. But at least if you're thinking and it drives you to the Scriptures, then I will be delighted and very grateful to the Lord for that. We're going to read three separate passages of scripture. So would you please stand with me as we read the Holy Word of God? Our first passage is going to be Ephesians chapter 5.

We're going to read verse 25. This has become so associated with weddings that we simply think weddings when we go here. And weddings are good things. We like those. But there are profound truths here that can lie under the icing of weddings.

You know, there's some foundational stuff that's very important, and I want us to see that in the verse that we're reading. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. We would focus your attention on the fact that Christ loved the church. Now Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, verse 47. In fact, we'll back up to verse 46.

And they, the newly converted, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Revelation 3 verse 19. The head of the church, the Lord Jesus, says, As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent.

Amen. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his inspired and infallible word. Father in heaven, we praise and thank Thee for granting us another morning in Christ. Blessed be thy holy name. Thou art so good we love thee because thou has first loved us.

We thank thee for drenching us in the love of Christ and thy blessed amazing grace and amazing love. We thank thee that thou dost love us so much that thou will not leave us as we are in our sinful flesh. We thank thee, O Lord, that thou dost bring and sometimes sharply the blows of love that correct us, that correct our thinking, our speaking, and our actions. And we thank thee and pray that thou wouldst help us to better understand the discipline of thy church. We ask all of these things, that thou wouldst be exalted.

Father, I pray even in a message like this that thou wouldst take thy word and open the hearts of the lost. There are no doubt lost ones in our midst. Father, especially the religious lost ones. Lord, for those who have just enough religion to think they're okay with thee and yet are dead in their sins which thou breathed life into their souls this very morning and Father I pray that thy precious blood-bought sheep would feast upon thy truth. Help me to handle these things in a way that will bring thee glory and do thy people good.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Please be seated. The first of the three texts that we read, these inspired and infallible texts, tell us that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son of God, and the Word of God made flesh loves the church. Our fleshiness, our remaining sin, our backwardness because of this, keeps us from appreciating the bigness of what those few words mean. Christ loves the church.

He loved her before the foundation of the world. He loved her while on earth. He loves her now and is interceding for her And he will love her forever. Of all the things in this created universe, mountains, valleys, oceans, seas, rivers, plants, flowers, trees, birds, fish, mammals, nations, kingdoms, sun, moon, stars, and all the galaxies. Jesus loves the church more than these.

He loves the church more than anything else in creation. God's eternal Son so loved the church that He gave Himself for it. The Holy Scriptures describes what this means. The eternal Son of God became the Son of Man for His church. He shed His precious blood for His church.

He rose again the third day for His church. He ascended up into glory for His church. He intercedes at this very moment for His church and will someday return for His church, so that she may reign with Him in perfect, unchangeable, indescribable joy and glory throughout all eternity. Blessed be the name of God. Furthermore, consider these things.

Furthermore, consider these things. Why did Christ create the heavens and the earth, to host the church? Why did he become man and die in agony on Calvary's cross? To save the church. Why did he send his spirit into this world to empower the church?

Why did he inspire and preserve his infallible word to instruct the church. Why will Christ come again in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory to gather up his church? He predestinated, elected, calls, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies his church. All this and more is included in Paul's words, Christ also loved the church. Far more than I have time this morning to set before you.

And those remarkable words are followed with these, and gave himself, and gave himself for it. Now, what does Jesus do once he saves a sinful soul? Well, according to the book of Acts, the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Now this very verse, if taken to heart, obliterates church maverickism. Obliterates church maverickism.

It annihilates the idea that people can think they can just be Christians and float without being associated with the body of Christ. Yeah, it's a mess. It always has been at certain points. Anyone that reads the New Testament understands that there's a battle going on. The church doesn't always look pretty, but the groom, the bridegroom, the blessed husband is working on us day in and day out, cleansing us.

The day is coming when he will present us in splendor, without spot or wrinkle. To stand outside of that work is a great tragedy. One's walk with Christ cannot be healthy when ignoring the very body for which Christ died. Jesus wore the crown of thorns, endured scourging upon his back, took the nails in his hands and feet, and shed blood and water from the spear that pierced his side. Christ chose his people in love, gives them a new heart to repent of their sins, to believe on and to love him, to be in constant union and communion with him.

He gives them his spirit to obey and to persevere with him, gives them baptism to identify them, gives them his supper to edify and to commune with them, gives them his church to grow and mature them. Christ did all this and more to add them to his church. To say, I don't need the church, I don't need the church, is to say I do not need the work of Christ and what he's ordained. Weak and fallible as any local body is, if It is truly a church of Jesus Christ. It is his work, his ongoing work, and that's where he's working.

So let's ask a question. What is a church? The first thing for us to do is to define the meaning of the word church. The Greek word translated into the English church is ekklesia. Church is ekklesia.

The noun ekklesia is derived etymologically from ek, out of, and kaleo, to call. Accordingly, it designates the totality of those who are called out. That's really important. The Church is a called-out assembly. The powerful and effectual calling of Almighty God comes in Christ through the power of the Spirit and the Word.

And sinners are drawn out of their darkness, translated into the glorious kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus adds them to his church. They are called out to be with him. This is a call of love. This is the bridegroom calling his bride to himself.

This is a holy romance. We can get really dry about ekklesia and these things, and there shouldn't be anything dry about it. Christ loved you so that He would not leave you in your sins, and he drew you to himself with cords of love." For people to say, I don't need the church is a complete denial of this. It is a remarkable rebellion against the eternal purpose of God. So the church is a called-out assembly.

But To help us grasp the nature of the Church, we need more detail than just a nice definition of a word from lexicon. We will not here discuss the difference between the local and the universal Church. That's another discussion. But we will confine our thoughts to the notion of a local church. That's the only thing you ultimately have to do within this world.

That's what you interact with. John Murray here is very helpful. He says, according to the Scriptures we should speak of the church and conceive of it as a visible entity that exists and functions in accord with the institution of Christ as its head. The church that is the body of Christ and directed by the Holy Spirit, consisting of those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints, manifested in the congregations of the faithful. Make sure you latch a hold of that last line.

"...manifested in the congregations that called out assembly." He continues, the church is the assembly of the covenant people of God, the congregation of believers, the household of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ. It consists of men and women called by God the Father into the fellowship of His Son, sanctified by Christ Jesus, regenerated by His Spirit, and united in the faith and confession of Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. That's a great sentence. I understand it seems like we're being washed over, overwhelmed in verbiage, but the fact of the matter is all of these things are biblical truths that ought to overwhelm us. We ought to be knocked flat with the power of these truths.

Brethren, we just get too dry with theology. It ought to be on fire. Our hearts ought to blaze at this stuff. This is the eternal purpose of God being manifested and where do we see it in the church? In this gathering of people who no matter what the details of their conversions are and they're wildly different and widely different, there's a certain sameness.

There's always that place where Christ draws them out of darkness to himself. That's what they have in common. It's not just that they're all computer geeks and enjoy talking circuitry and programming. It's not that they all enjoy bass fishing. It's not that They all have various hobbies together.

It's not just that they're all home schoolers with their own special set of problems. What we have in common is Jesus Christ and his saving power. And that is a testimony to the world that he is indeed the risen Lord of glory. He's real. A church is a living thing because Christ has given her His Spirit.

Every one of His people is indwelt by that mighty Spirit. One more word from Murray here. He says, where there is such a communion gathered in Jesus' name, there is the Church of God. I trust everyone here knows it's not the building. Oh, I'm going down to the church.

Well, actually, you're probably not. You're going down to the church building, hopefully the church will be meeting there. 1689 Confession gives us a little further insight. Again for those of you who are not of that particular conviction, I hope that you will at least find this helpful, even if this is not what you confess. It says, All persons throughout the world professing the faith of the gospel and obedience unto God by Christ, according unto it, not destroying their own profession by any errors averting the foundation, that means doctrinal error, or unholiness of conversation, that means a wicked life, an openly sinful life that denies the gospel and the Savior, are and may be called visible saints.

Visible, again, manifest, something the world can see. And of such, ought all particular congregations to be constituted." Now, Jonathan Lehman gives us a little more modern definition, though it's almost as wordy. And the reason that you see these men grappling – I love definitions – but you see men grappling with these definitions is because the thing is enormous. And trying to get it compressed into a nice, you know, cliff notes type of thing is quite difficult. Lehman says this, quote, A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ's name to officially affirm and oversee one another's membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.

Now all these definitions are imperfect. They're all helpful. Again not one of us will probably walk out remembering a single one of them, but at least I hope you recognize and remember certain of the truths involved in this. All of this helps us to understand a little bit about that extraordinary organization and organism called the body of Christ. One biblical analogy is that of a body made up of various parts, various members, functioning together with its head, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is both an organization and an organism. It has to have structure. It is organized. God is a God of order. You cannot read Calvin's Institutes without seeing the fact that he was captured by the idea of God being a God of order and that it is sin that disorders and it is for that very reason that we need to be disciplined sin disorders Church discipline helps us to get back into order, God's order, when it is done Biblically.

More on that in a few moments. So, the church is the manifestation of God's eternal purpose in Jesus Christ. Every church is a wonderful testimony to the saving grace of God. It is a gallery that shows us God's wonderful love and mercy to every kind of sinner. So then, if we have at least a little bit of an idea about what a church is that you can remember a called out assembly and all of the other things that make it what it is, then what is church membership?

Now I was really tempted to spend a good bit of time working through all of the reasons why one should be a church member And I realized that by the time I was done doing all the things in the sections that I have, it would be about a five-hour message. It would be a mini-series. And so once again, I've resisted the temptation to stop and do that, interesting and helpful as that would be. But let me say, Jonathan Lehman, again, has written a little book on church membership, and he really deals quite thoroughly with many of the issues regarding why you should be a church member. Of course, any regenerate person is, by the very nature of being in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, is a member of his body.

But that is worked out in time, space, and history in these gatherings. That's crucial. This is God's nursery. This is where we grow up. This is where we're supposed to mature.

This is where we are to learn and then go out from here, not simply having a head full of a few more facts, by which many of us become theological blowfishes. But the notion is to hear our God speaking in power, telling us how he wants us to bring him glory in this life. And we should go out and take what we've heard on Sunday morning or Sunday evening or and or Wednesday or whenever you meet with the Lord's people, Jesus the head is instructing his people so that they will start living and looking like products of his grace. So, by the new birth we are united to Christ and we are members of his body. But we should be united to a visible expression of that body.

And I know that we could have a lot of arguments about the various ways that the differing churches understand membership. But these are expedients that are important. John Owen, in his treatise on the church, makes very plain statements that all of us would understand if someone would read them and explain them to us. But he says very, very clearly that who doesn't understand that any human organization needs order? And by order, that means there are things we do, things that we don't do, and that we need to abide in those things.

My beloved brother, Scott Brown, often says wonderful and memorable things. The best one I've heard in a while, he spoke in our congregation and I'm quite sure he has said it in a number of places, but he said, All your life you're going to be under imperfect authority. I don't remember all the rest of that sermon, but that was branded on my heart. That's exactly the case. Stop complaining.

You're not going to find perfect authority anywhere. That doesn't mean you give a pass to sinful practices in churches, fully, provably, unbiblical practices. But you're going to be dealing with faulty people, faulty elders all of your days. Join a church and be committed to that local body because that is the expression of God's eternal purpose being worked out in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is God's work.

Again, when we talk about church membership, meaning aligning yourself with that local body. Jonathan Lehman is helpful. He says, quote, church membership is a formal relationship between a church and a Christian characterized by the Church's affirmation and oversight of a Christian's discipleship and the Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the Church." It was a long one again. Why? Because there's this immense amount of truth that we're trying to pull together.

What it means is You need to be in submission to elders and a local body in order for you to grow and look more like the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's plan. No conference can take the place of that. This is a real and living thing. I thank the Lord for technology and I'm thankful that nowadays when some of our members are sick or out of town and can't get to a solid congregation, they'll Skype in, or they'll stream in, and they'll be, quote, worshiping with us over technological means.

But I can tell you what, everyone that I've ever talked to, I'm sure the exception is out there, everyone that I've ever talked to has said, you know it's good to be able to pick up the message and hear it and all that kind of stuff, But there's nothing like being there. That's because the Holy Spirit comes here to the gatherings of his people. It comes when they gather. There's nothing like it. There is no other meeting on the face of the earth more important.

All the bankers, all the people that want their world government, all the people that are in the power politics and thinking that they're making the world run. There's not a meeting anywhere on the planet that comes close to Jesus meeting with his people. That is the most important thing happening, and you need to be a member of that, committed to that. And find out what your church's means are, and ask yourself, just because there is no single verse that says you must sign a paper, that's really ridiculous. To me, that's a sign you need to be a member of a church and grow up.

Every single day, all of us do things that are the obvious outworking of something we know we have to do. So there needs to be some kind of visible understanding that we're a part of these people. And if they say please, you know, go through this, have this time of teaching with us, we wanna know you, you wanna know us, we wanna make sure that we're all getting together here and that we're on the same page, or at least you understand what you're submitting yourself to, do it, find out. It's all part of the instructional part of the church. It's not something left out of it.

Well, be a church member, faithful to a gathering. Well, if we have a little idea what a church is and what a church member is then, someone who is committed to an expression of God's work called a local assembly, a local church, Then what is church discipline and what's its relationship to it? By the way, the title of the message is Church Membership and Church Discipline. These things are inseparable. I could give you a long list of biblical reason why I believe you need to be a member, a clearly committed member to a local congregation, but read Jonathan Lehman and he will help you with that.

But I would say to you the most compelling to me is the issue of church discipline. It is the most... You can't be excommunicated from something that you were never a part of. It's not possible. Now I know a lot of the arguments because we get folks all the time that say, well, you know, I like it here and I like the preaching and I like the fellowship and I like the Lord's Supper and I've been baptized, But there's no verse that says I have to sign the paper.

Church discipline to me points directly to why you should be. And here are some of the reasons why. The first thing we want to talk about is what church discipline is not. Let's all admit that if we've ever even heard the term or ever been close to a congregation that practices it, it's kind of a gloomy term. None of us stand—I mean, they're not kicking the walls down to get into this conference, right?

It's been advertised for half a year. Where's the thousands? Where's the standing room only for the Church Discipline Conference? You know, people are like, hmm, negative. You know, This is shadowy stuff.

Ooh, legalistic. What is it not? Church discipline is not, It is not an invention of sinful human beings. It arises from the teaching of Jesus Christ, the head of the church, of course rooted in the Old Covenant, and the apostles. It is obvious.

It is obvious. When we practice it according to God's Word, it is not malicious, unloving, legalistic, or sinfully judgmental. It's not. When we practice it according to God's word, we do not heartlessly kick someone out of the church. Have you ever heard it said that way?

Maybe it's just in the circles I run in, But it's always about, you know, oh yeah, but it's kicked him out of the church. That's not the point. And by the way, that's usually followed with they kicked him or they kicked her out of the church because they made a mistake. When we practice it according to God's word, it is not shooting our own wounded, as some modern objectors put it. So then let's consider what it is.

What is church discipline? Church discipline has a broad and a narrow sense, and I'm sorry to say that most of us think of it almost exclusively in the narrow sense, and that's part of the reason we tend to think of it negatively. Storm clouds, gloomy, you know, I've had a hard week. I don't want to come and hear judgmental stuff. Hezekiah Harvey is very, very helpful here.

He defines both the broad and the narrow sense, and I would like to share his thoughts with you. He defines Church discipline as, quote, all those processes, all those processes by which a Church, as entrusted with the care of souls, educates its members for heaven, such as their public and private instruction in the gospel, the maintenance of social meetings. Now, when it says social here, it doesn't mean like social networks. The way we use social today, It's not talking about a club. It's talking about the fact that we are social creatures and that we are gathered together.

The maintenance of social meetings for their edification, they're being built up, and comfort, and in general, the cultivation of a spirit adapted to awaken and cherish the Christian life. In This lies the chief power of the church. Did we get the picture here? To make it simple, church discipline begins when someone stands in the pulpit and says, open your Bibles 2, and reads the Word of God, and then tells you what the Word of God means, and then applies that to your life. That's church discipline.

Because as Brother Ford said the other day, I was ready to stand up and say, don't stop now. Keep going right on this same thing. The idea, the same root of disciple is there in discipline, And it has to do with learning, to be a learner. So discipline, we think, ah, Rod, no, that isn't where we should start. We should start with being discipled, being taught.

It is church discipline to say, we should do this. We should not do that according to the Word of our God. That's discipline. And then we should be being cultivated, I love the way he says this, to cherish the Christian life. That's what all this teaching should be about.

It's not about entertaining you, it's not about beating you up, It's about making you ready for eternity with Christ and between now and then making us more and more like the end product we will finally end up being. That's discipline. That's wonderful. That is discipline. That's wonderful.

Once again, a lot of words there. But this broad sense is roughly equivalent to what some today would call formative discipline. Harvey later defines the narrow sense as, quote, the action of the church, whether as individuals or as a body, in reference to offenses committed against the laws of Christ. Now that's what most of us normally think of. And interestingly enough, we don't normally think of the spectrum of discipline.

We just usually think immediately excommunication, That's it. So we go discipline, excommunication, and that's what we hear when someone says church discipline. And while that's true, it's certainly not untrue, it so narrows the picture that we don't see the glory and the beauty of the big thing. Hear these words again. It's all the processes.

The Lord's Supper, baptism, All of these things, prayer, the preaching and teaching of the word, all the means of grace, all the processes by which a church, as entrusted with the care of souls, educates its members for heaven. That's great. That's what should be going on right here. We shouldn't be just getting notes for how to do the next thing that is expected of me. Don't misunderstand me.

That's an important thing. But see it in the bigger picture. We're being prepared for heaven. And one of the most powerful ways that's done in the church is discipline, beginning with the preaching of the word. There's again a spectrum of this discipline.

Among those who are reformed by conviction, there are two views. There are those that would say there are just two aspects, essentially, of church discipline, public rebuke, and excommunication. There would be those who see an interim element, if you want to call it that, facet. It would be public rebuke, suspension, and then excommunication. And that's for the brethren to hammer out.

And that is one of those remarkable things where some of the finest minds in the world come down in both categories, in the theological world. So whether you see two aspects or three, don't leave out others. One of the things that would be good when we do Church Discipline Conference 2 would be rebuke, rebuke between brothers and sisters. That is church discipline. When we lovingly obey this book and reprove and rebuke one another in various situations.

There doesn't have to be a gathering of the church for that. It just needs to be something that goes down between a brother and sister or whatever the configuration and they work it out according to the Word of God, usually prefaced with a rebuke. Brethren properly understood, church discipline is one of the most, if not the most, important factor in maturing God's people. I believe if any of you have been listening to the messages and have been so encouraged by some of the things that you're hearing it is because the men bringing these especially those of the congregation hosting us have been through the ringer on church discipline and nothing makes you grow up like having to deal with this issue. It's vital.

It's why you need to be a member of a church so that you are disciplined from the most pleasant aspect of it, hearing from our God, to the most painful aspect of it, excommunication. When a congregation has to gather together and say, we're putting you out, Someone that has been praying with you, someone who's been walking with you, someone perhaps who's been a dear friend, someone who you've watched grown up in front of you, as I have seen, and have to say We're turning you over to Satan. Only an unregenerate fool could not see the weight of this and the maturing and the process that must go into it. And that's real education. Nothing makes you grow up like this because you have to examine yourself.

You have to examine yourself. Others' sins should make you terribly uneasy about your own. If you look at them and say, I'm better than that, somewhere along the line you have quenched the Holy Spirit. You're talking to you. The Lord's not speaking to you." This is all important stuff, and it's what the Church is made of.

Now this idea, this narrow sense, is also roughly equivalent to what some would call corrective discipline. Unfortunately, as I've said, the narrow sense, especially excommunication, is usually all we think about when we come to that word discipline. I hope we've opened that up just a little bit for you to see that it's a very broad process, a very wonderful thing. It's like parenting. You know, you shouldn't, when you say parenting, the first thing that comes to your mind shouldn't be spanking.

You know? It's a very big thing that would include disciplining our children, and so it is here. Well, let's run on a little more quickly. Number one, the church discipline is an authoritative work of Christ in his church. That's what it is.

That's why it's important that we separate this from being a creature of men, human beings, sinful human beings. Jesus Christ instituted church discipline, Matthew 18, 15 through 17 makes it clear we've had good expositions of that. Church discipline arises from at least three things. One, Christ is the builder of his church. He said, upon this rock I will build my church.

Number two, Christ is the head of that church that he is building. God the Father has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head of the church, the head over all things to the church. Number three, Christ is the discipliner of his church. When we carry out in the broad and in the narrow, in the formative and in the corrective forms of discipline. That's Jesus Christ's work.

To say we will not correct someone, that's not loving, is to deny the love and the work of Christ in his blood-bought church. He's the builder, he's the head, he's the discipliner. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, which means learn from me. That's where discipline begins. And when we obey him in Matthew 18, We're acting on his behalf, but he's the discipliner, and that's why it's so serious.

Secondly, church discipline is a loving work of Christ in his church. It's not only authoritative and authoritative work, but it is a loving work. Christ's love for His people is astonishing and I trust we've just had a little taste of that as we began the message here. What Christ has done to save his people from their sins is overwhelming. I don't ever want to lose the glory of it.

And brother, just because of our backwards flesh, we can. Yeah, yes, Jesus died, rose again. Next. It's like, no, stop right there and praise God and drink deeply. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

Because he loves her, he disciplines her. As he appeared among the candlesticks, he declared to the church at Laodicea, As many as I love, as many as I love, " that means every one of them, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Now you can say to the elders of your church, you're not being loving when you rebuke and chasten someone. But if that's the way you think, you must think that way about Christ because those are His words and we're being patterned after that. As many as I love.

We think love is just the eternal giving us a pass. No, it isn't. It's holding us accountable and helping us to grow through it or receive the consequences of rebelling against it. It is a loving work of Christ. Jesus rebukes and chastens every one of His children.

Thirdly, Church discipline is an instructional work of Christ. Jesus is our mediator, our prophet, our priest, and our king. And as our prophet, he sends his Spirit with his word to enlighten us and to make us more like Him, to think like Him, to speak like Him, to walk like Him. There is doctrine and discipleship. We have to have doctrine.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that in the history of words, doctrine is more concerned with abstract theory and discipline with practice or exercise. Doctrine then has something to do with teaching or belief. Discipline in its root sense means to instruct, to educate. It came to mean instruction having for its aim to form the pupil to proper conduct and action. Brethren, this is the eternal purpose of God, Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.

That begins now. And part of the picture is corrective discipline. But the whole thing is worked out as discipline, doctrine. We must have sound doctrine which disciples us, and forming us like our teacher is what's in view. Let me run ahead very quickly.

I'm going to skip a few things because I'm running out of time. What is the relationship between membership and discipline? Well, first is accountability. Once again, I need accountability. So do you.

What does the apostle Paul command his younger representative? Timothy, preach the word in season, out of season. Comfort, caress, and encourage. Now that's what it would sound like if we wrote it. What is the Holy Spirit inspiring to say?

Reprove, rebuke, exhort. Right? That's it. Now that doesn't mean that every single thing we ever say or preach has to come in a form of rebuke, But the notion, brethren, is here, that there's something instructional going on. We desperately need help.

We desperately need guidance. We need to be formed like the one who saved us. And it is the discipline of the church, beginning with its teaching ministry and going all the way to its corrective form that helps us get there. This is the outworking, yes this is about the fifth time I've said it, that it is the outworking of God's eternal purpose. You see that's so much more than just thinking, oh well, we're going to have two and a half days about excommunication.

Accountability. He tells him to do all of this, this reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine. Paul wanted Timothy to preach and apply the infallible word to the gathered assembly in Ephesus. And in doing so, he was holding them accountable to their professed submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you say you're a Christian, you are bowing to the Lord.

And we need to be held accountable to that because somehow we tend to forget that we are his subjects as well as his children and friends. The Church Covenant of Bethesda Baptist Church in Greene County, Georgia in 1817 says this, We do voluntarily and jointly separate ourselves from the world and give ourselves unto the Lord, holding ourselves henceforth his and no longer our own. We do also voluntarily and mutually give ourselves one to another and receive one another in the Lord, meaning hereby to become one body, jointly to exist and act in the bonds and rules of the Gospel, each esteeming himself henceforth a member of a spiritual body, accountable to it, subject to its control." How many people do you think would sign on to that nowadays? But it tells you where we are. I mean, listen, most of us have confused the American dream and democracy with Christianity.

It isn't that way. We are under a king. He tells us what to do, how to live, what not to do. And we're to lovingly, not with grit teeth, joyfully submit to him. We need that accountability and that's why discipline is so important.

Perhaps no greater evidence exists for membership in a local church than church discipline. As I said at the very beginning, the very notion speaks of being included or excluded. That's the idea. You're in the body of Christ or you're out of the body of Christ. And church discipline in its broad and narrow sense." Points to this.

Let me close with an additional thought. I realize this is going to sound kind of like a footnote, But it is a question that has arisen. I missed a couple of sessions, and so it may have been dealt with more extensively and better. But having had this proposed to me, let me bring up the issue of Can a church discipline a non-member? This is an important question.

I believe, and my brethren may strongly disagree, I believe that the answer is a qualified yes. I didn't used to believe that. I used to say, I have no jurisdiction over this person. Bye. But there are other passages in scripture that make me realize I have a very strong responsibility to someone who has been sitting under my ministry.

Discipline is a part of loving one another as Christ loves us. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." If someone says they're a Christian, they're sitting in our congregation and they're professing to be Christ but not joining themselves to the congregation. Should they go into certain kinds of sins unrepentantly, I think I have a responsibility and the elders of our congregation have a responsibility to address that. But here's where the qualifications come. Oh, and by the way, I think also included in that is the golden rule, therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you likewise, even so to them.

This is the law and the prophets. I know that I need correction. I know that I need accountability. I know that I need reproof. The day will come, I'm sure, when I will absolutely love being reproofed.

I'm not quite there yet. But I love its effect because I have to deal with it and I'm faulty. Now church discipline then aims to expose, to warn, to protect, and to present a good witness for Christ. I owe these things to someone sitting under my ministry. If they profess to be Christians and they regularly meet among us, I have a responsibility to reprove, rebuke, exhort, and to hold them accountable." Now, where there is unrepentant sin, this is, again, now where the qualifications come in.

Perhaps with a nonmember there should be no public rebuke. There are some common-sense reasons for that, including the laws of your state. In our state, at least a few years ago, it may have changed, in our state any organization can discipline its members. But if someone is not a member and they're disciplined, whatever the discipline in the organization is, they can sue your pants off. And Therefore, including churches, if you make someone's sin publicly known, they may, at least in my state, go after your church in a big way, which they cannot if they're members.

So there's just some practical issues here. So speaking it publicly may not be the wise thing to do, but taking them aside and taking the instructional purposes of the Church of Jesus Christ and instructing them, reproving them and calling them to repent of their sins, I believe is our responsibility. And I think that if the person does not repent and continues in these trajectories, I never use that word until this conference. Thank you, Dan. These things then would lead to what I would call the narrow part of discipline in which we would take the person aside and we would instruct them, you must not take the Lord's Supper because and make it very clear to them why and then tell them that we're instructing those who distribute the elements not to give it to them.

So that's interesting theory. No, we had to do this. And I think I'm out of time. I will take just a few more moments and try to explain. We had a man in our congregation that had professed to be a Christian for a long time, he'd been among us, everybody in the congregation loved him, loved his family.

It was discovered that he'd been an adulterer for 25 years. But before we knew all of this, He believed that he had not been converted as a young man, and he believed now that he truly was a believer, and he asked for believers' baptism, and due to the work that he had, he was being taken away on a trip on the day that we wanted to baptize him and receive him into the congregation. So we baptized him and we said, when you come back we will bring you into the fellowship of the church, giving you the right hand of fellowship. Well, while he was on the trip he fell back into his sin And the church would not receive him into the fellowship, and we had to deal with him in just this way. We gathered the men privately.

We said, this is a private meeting, this is not to be posted anywhere, this is not to be discussed with anyone but your spouse. We're keeping this man from the table and we're not receiving him into the fellowship of the church. And we instructed those who distribute the elements that were he to show up in the Lord's Supper, which we asked him not to, they were not to serve it to him. And he would go and sit in his car or we have a guest house, he would go and take a nap in the guest house while we were doing those things. It was very painful, it was very difficult for our congregation.

Everyone loved him. But he was not a member, but we had baptized him, as it says in 1 Corinthians 5, those that are named a brother or called a brother. We had baptized him, calling him a brother. Therefore, in that context, we said we cannot withhold disciplining his soul. So I think there are qualifications.

You might do that differently, but I believe that there are times when we not only can, but we must deal with those who are non-members because of accountability, because of all of what the church is, because of what all church membership means, and because of why Discipline is so important. So membership in one of Christ's congregations is a privilege, it is a blessing, it is an honor, it's a responsibility. Christ's people are identifiable by their profession, their holy living, their gathering with and love for Christ's people, their participating in Christ's ordinances, and their submitting to Christ's discipline. This is possible only in the context of membership in a local church. So let us look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church, by faith, and love him and love his church, because he loves the church.

Amen. Righteous Father, we thank Thee for this time together. Father, I love these people and I pray that you would wonderfully bless them. Bless all the men that will be speaking the rest of the day. Bless the discussions.

Bless the fellowship. And prepare everyone's heart for a most blessed and wonderful Lord's Day worship tomorrow. And may it all be to the glory of the head of the church. Amen.