Sermon: Church Discipline as a Means of Grace

Let's take a moment and let's pray before we open up Second Corinthians 2:5-11 together this morning.

Father, we are thankful that you are a God who is not silent, that you have spoken, and that you continue to speak, that you speak to us this morning as the word is read and as the word is preached. We pray that you would give us ears to hear, that you would give us hearts to respond, and that you would give us spirits that are humble to receive. Conform us unto the likeness of your Son, we pray. It's in His strong name, the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

This morning, Second Corinthians 2:5-11, this is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you. For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough. So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in

everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his designs." For the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

During World War II, the Germans controlled the Atlantic for the first number of years, and they did so through their and by their submarines, what they called their U-boats. Part of the success of the U-boats in World War II was the way that they coordinated and communicated with one another. They were often called wolf packs because they would operate together and look like a wolf pack taking down prey. And they wreaked havoc across the Atlantic and up and down, especially the eastern

seaboard of the United States in 1941 and early 1942. The secret of their coordination was a machine called the Enigma machine, and the Enigma machine looked like a little typewriter that had special keys on it, and a code would come in, and that little typewriter with special keys would type out that code, and then they had a code book by which they could decrypt it, and they could coordinate their attacks with one another. And for years, this underwater flotilla dominated the Atlantic, but

then things changed on October 30th, 1942. The HMS Petard forced the German U-boat, the U 559, to surface. And upon surfacing, two British sailors, Lieutenant Tony Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier, swam to the sinking submarine. They grabbed its code books, and they passed the documents up to a 16-year-old canteen assistant by the name of Tommy Brown before the submarine sank, taking those two British seamen to the bottom

with it. But those code books made their way back to England, and from that moment on, everything changed. It gave the Allies the upper hand, and the war in the Atlantic drastically changed. Why? Well, because they knew the designs of the enemy.

We have an enemy, and we know his designs. But even better, we know his playbook. The greatest adversary in the world, and we know his playbook. That's how Paul is ending our passage this morning. Three points this morning. First, the heartbeat behind discipline, grief, not bitterness. Second, Satan's first play, neglect. And our third point, Satan's second play, severity. First, the heart behind discipline, grief, not bitterness.

Paul begins our passage by noting the sin of an individual has caused pain, and what was that sin that was committed? Well, we don't know. It could be, some speculate, it could be the man in 1 Corinthians 5 who had committed adultery, or had slept with his father's wife, his stepmom, and it could be that sin that Paul is referencing. "That man," Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:2, "is to be, 'removed from among you.'" It could be that man.

But more likely, it's someone else. It's someone else who opposed Paul directly when he made that emergency quick visit to Corinth that we talked about last week. Someone that it appears had confronted Paul, had slandered Paul, and had accused Paul. Because he says in verse five, "If anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me." The inference being that the pain was aimed at him. "Not to me," but he says, "in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you."

That is, the pain that this man caused me by his sin, yes, it caused me pain, but that was nothing compared to the pain it caused you, because why? Because he's in your midst. He's part of your congregation. And thus, the church there in Corinth exercised church discipline with respect to that man. I want us to note that Paul fights the temptation to descend into bitterness. As he said in verse four, "I wrote you," our verse from last week, "I

wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love I have for you." Not bitterness, but grief. The man sinned against Paul, but Paul's response was not anger. It was not bitterness. It was not revenge. Rather, it is grief over the man's sin.

As the years have passed, as I've walked through the Christian life, and especially being in ministry, the more and more I

guess I've come to the conclusion that one of the greatest enemies of our soul is bitterness.

It destroys relationships. It will destroy your church. It will destroy your soul. And we always have a good reason to be bitter. There's always good reason. You did this to me. You said this about me. You didn't do this as you promised for me. You didn't. There's always good reason. But there's even more always good reason to kill it at its root because it will destroy your church, your personal relationships, and you.

Paul does not give into bitterness

We speak of church discipline. Bitterness and anger are not the catalyst for it, nor its cause, as evidenced by Paul. Grief is the cause, and the catalyst is to be love.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those that He loves, and so the church disciplines those that it loves, whereas a lack of discipline is a lack of love. It's a lack of love for the individual, and we could do a full stop there. But it's not just a lack of love for the individual, it's a lack of love for the church, because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, when there is sin in the midst, unrepentant sin in the midst, it's like leaven that spreads through the church.

But it's not just a lack of love for the individual and a lack of love for the church, but it's also a lack of love for the Lord. He makes that clear in verse 10 by saying all of this is, quote, "in the presence of Christ." As Wiersbe said about this passage, he said the man sinned against Paul and the church, but he had most of all sinned against the Lord. When timid church leaders try to whitewash situations instead of facing them

honestly, they are grieving the heart of the Lord. Bitterness and anger are not the reason to implement church discipline, but grief and love are, and Paul evidences it here.

Second, Satan's first play, neglect. This church was in danger. That's why Paul stopped and he made this emergency visit to them. It's why he wrote a harsh letter as he says to them. It's why he confronts sin and he confronts sinful people in 1 Corinthians. There's real danger of neglecting to discipline in love, and that plays right into the hand of Satan.

When the Reformation began in the 16th century, there were a number of problems, a number of crises that immediately emerged, and one of the great crises was, how do you determine what is a true church? They're leaving the Roman Church. Well, why leave that church, and why is this a real church, but that is not a real church? And the Reformers, looking at the scripture, said, well, there are three marks of a real church, a faithful church, a true church.

The first is the word preached, the second is the right administration of the sacraments, and the third is the exercise of church discipline. And the Reformers rightly looked at that and said, listen, all three of these things must mark a church because you must have the word preached. You must know God's revelation, and it must be proclaimed. This is at the very heart of what we know we know we know to be true because it

is the very revelation of God, and so it must be preached. This safeguards the purity of the church, safeguards the peace of the church. But you also must have the right administration of the sacraments. They are the visible word, as Augustine said. They come alongside of and support what you have heard through your ears, what was proclaimed as the word, and it seals to you these realities of the gospel and of God's truth.

And the third is church discipline. Church discipline safeguards the peace and the purity. It safeguards the purity of that word proclaimed. It safeguards the peace of coming to the table that as people do, they have settled their problems with one another, the sins that they've committed against one another. It safeguards the table. It also safeguards their own souls so they don't eat and drink judgment upon themselves, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians.

And the Reformers are looking at these three and saying, look, if you're missing one of them,

the entire thing falls. They go hand in hand. Our adversary would undermine the church, the truth of the word, the Christ we serve, by convincing the church that church discipline is unnecessary.

But to administer discipline in a church, there must be clearly defined boundaries of the makeup of the church. That is, there must be those who make up the church as opposed to those who do not. So Paul here is addressing a local church when he says pain has been caused to, quote, "all of you." Who's the you? When he says, quote, "You should rather turn to forgive and comfort him," who is the you that should do that?

When Paul references the majority of them in verse six, to have a majority, you must have a defined whole. When Paul says that they are to have that man in 1 Corinthians 5, as we just mentioned, quote, "Remove from among them," what defines the boundary? Who is them? There must be a list of who belongs. In 1 Timothy 5:9, the early church made a list of widows, widows who actually belong to the church. In Hebrews 13 and Acts 20, both the Hebrews writer in

Hebrews 13, Paul in Acts 20, as he's addressing the elders at Ephesus, both of them say that elders, pastors, will have to give an account on that last day for all those souls that were under their care. On that last day, I will appear before the judgment seat of Christ as an elder in this church and have to give an account for souls under my care. Well, everybody in this state is not under my care. Everybody in this county is not under my care.

Everybody in the city is not under my care. Everybody sitting in this room is not under my care. But I want to know who's under my care because I'm held responsible on that last day. There has to be a definition of who is the church. This is the importance of church membership. You can't exercise church discipline without it, and without church discipline, we have no church.

Some might say, "Well, give me a verse that tells me that I have to become a member of the church," and say, "I can't do it," but that's not how you do theology.

As the Westminster Standards say, by good and necessary consequence, we can deduce that church membership is required. Membership matters because discipline matters, and discipline matters because the church matters. There's danger to the body and there's danger to myself when church discipline is not exercised among its members.

So when a brother or sister in Christ sins against you, you're to walk through the process of discipline. You approach them, Matthew 18. You let them know the sin that has grieved you. If it can't be overlooked, if it's not something that can easily be moved on from, then you approach them. And if they won't listen to that, then you are to take someone else with you, and you are to approach them, and this is your witness, and the two of you.

And if they do not respond to that by confession or repentance, then you're to tell it to the elders, and that formal process begins with the elders.

It's truly one of the hardest things in church life.

It's one of the hardest to practice, and it's one of the hardest to trust, especially when you're the one being disciplined.

So I'm going to challenge you, challenge me.

Would you resolve now as a church member, I'm held accountable by my pastor. I resolve Resolve right now that if you are brought into the discipline process by your elders, that you will trust the process.

You took vows that you would submit to the elders of the church and their discipline. If you don't resolve now, what often happens is when that discipline comes, unless there's a prior commitment, truly a resolution in your mind, and it comes, there's this natural inclination for you and I to always find a reason not to abide by it, and we will go running. And as we go running, almost always, we throw accusations and insults over our

shoulder as we run.

It's hard.

This man in our text, he doesn't run. He's committed himself to it. He confesses, he repents, he's truly sorry for his sin, as noted in verse seven, and the discipline has its effect, and he yields to it, and it saves his soul, and it spared the church, and it honored the Lord.

What is it that you and I want more than anything else in this life as Christians? If you are a Christian this morning, it should be to want to be conformed to the image of the one that loves you. I want to look more like him because I want to look more like the one I love.

So yield yourself if this is where you're at.

Almost two decades ago, a young married woman here at URC entered into an adulterous relationship, and she was walked through the process, was confronted, and she was unwilling to leave that relationship. And eventually, the elders, after a long period of time, excommunicated her. And when they excommunicated her, they wrote a pastoral letter to her warning her the jeopardy her soul was in.

That woman, about 10 years after that, went to another church and was seeking to join that church. And they asked her, "Are you a member of any other church?" And she told her story, and so they sent her back here to URC. And she came on her own to a session meeting with the elders. And I'll never forget that night. Met downstairs.

And she sat there that night, and through tears, she told us that that letter she had put in the top of her dresser, in the top drawer of her dresser. And each day, for close to 10 years, she walked past that dresser, day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year after year, and that letter would go through her mind every morning.

And it was that that eventually cracked her. She couldn't take it anymore. And she went running back to Christ and to the church. And what I'll never forget from that night is she looked around the room. She looked at every single elder in the eye, and she just went around the room and she said, "Thank you, thank you. Thank you for loving me enough to discipline me."

And the response, without hesitation, the elders forgave her in the name of Christ. They lifted the excommunication, restored her to membership, and transferred her to the new church, where she still is a thriving member in Christ.

Which leads to our third point, Satan's second play, severity. There's also danger to the body when church discipline is exercised too severely. And that's Paul's call to this church. He's not being controlled by his pain, but rather by love. Verse six, he makes it clear that, quote, "This punishment by the majority is enough." There has been church discipline, and he said, "Look, it's reached its goal. There's a limit to how far, how much, how long it should continue.

The goal has been reached." He challenges them, verse eight. "I beg you to reaffirm your love for him." They've been obedient to Paul. Paul had told them of a need to discipline this man, and they had followed through. They disciplined him. And now Paul is writing to them saying, "Look, I'm going to test you again. I want to test and see if you're obedient in all things. He's been brought to the end of himself. He's confessed, he's repented.

Now you need to be obedient in this way. You need to be obedient again by restoring him." He doesn't want the man, he says, verse seven, to, quote, "be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow," so he wants them to, quote, "forgive him," verse 10. And if they forgive him, Paul says he himself has also forgiven him. That is, if the elders hear his confession, and it's true confession and true walking in repentance, then they, those who are in authority on behalf of the

church, forgive him. Thus, he's restored to the church, and Paul is saying, "Then I also forgive him. It's done."

The offense was personally against Paul. But you notice what he does here. He's taking a step back. He's gaining perspective, and he's saying, "Yes, this offense was against me. Yes, it caused me pain. But there's something so much more here. This man has offended Christ, and that's the real issue." So the man demonstrated confession and repentance in Christ, and thus to Paul. And so Paul can forgive as they forgive. He's not out for a pound of flesh,

but for a soul.

Church discipline is a means of grace to reclaim a soul.

That's the right view. That's Paul's view.

The Lord chooses to exercise church discipline through the officers of the church, through the elders. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18, the Lord Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to the elders of the church. These keys that he says, "What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." That is, those you admit to the church are admitted to heaven. Those that you have cast out of the church are cast out of heaven.

You exercise my discipline as a means of grace for sinners, but always seeking to do so in love, always hoping for repentance, always willing, always expectant to extend forgiveness. And Paul does that so well in this text.

As one commentator, Castro, said about this text, he said, "At the risk of looking weak, he leads the way in forgiving. For Paul, the victory is not winning the argument or fight. The victory is reclaiming the sinner who was lost but now is found." We are always to be ready to extend forgiveness. Why? Because we've received so much.

As a church, we are to be strict, but we are not to be severe.

As a church, we are gospel people.

The severity of God's judgment, that's already been borne. That was borne by our Savior upon the cross. If this brother or this sister has their debt paid, then it's paid

If they are confessing and repenting, they are no less covered by the blood than you or me or us. Church discipline is never meant to be punitive. It's always meant to be restorative.

A punitive work is, as Christ said upon the cross, finished. It's finished. It's finished for his people. There's real danger in doing greater damage to an individual by heaping more upon them. So when an offender, having been disciplined, truly confesses and truly repents, then it's incumbent upon the church to forgive, to restore, and to welcome that repentant sinner back. If there is true repentance, there is to be true

reconciliation. Not reluctant reconciliation, but full, wholehearted reconciliation. There's to be rejoicing, no longer looking upon them as stained by that sin, because they're not. No longer looking at them as something less because they're not. Not looking at them as some kind of lesser member of the congregation because they're not.

Fully restored because they are fully forgiven. And that means, my friends, that we never bring up the old offense. We don't look down upon them. In fact, I'd argue that it is some of these people that are my greatest heroes in the faith. They went so far down that road of sin and were so far in darkness, and yet by the grace of God, they had the courage and the faith to turn around from that and come back to the light.

That's a model of faith and faithfulness and God's grace in our midst. They're a trophy of his grace.

The Apostle Peter is a great model of this.

You think about him. Oh, Peter's so ready always to have a word and professes that he will never deny Christ, and then he denies Christ three times in Christ's most desperate hour.

And then you get to John 21, one of my favorite passages in all of scripture,

where the resurrected Jesus is with Peter on the beach. And after that threefold denial, you have the Lord Jesus lead him through a threefold confession. "Peter, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." And he does it in front of the other disciples. There's a reason. And then he recommissions him three times. "Then feed my sheep. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep."

The church responded in kind. Within weeks, in Acts 1, Peter is standing up in the midst of them as a leader. In Acts 2, he's preaching at Pentecost.

Christ considered him restored, and so they considered him restored. Imagine if the early church had said, "You know, that Peter, don't know. He denied the Lord. We'll accept you back in, but Peter, why don't you stay in the background?" Or, "You know what? Maybe you're an apostle, but you're a lesser apostle than the rest." How much would it have robbed the Church through the ages as you and I read his letters, as we see his life modeled before us?

No. That's not our way because it's not Christ's way. People are amazed when they read the Bible for the first time because they will say, "Oh, this is unlike any other made-up story I've ever read. All your heroes have failings. All of your heroes have sins at the forefront." Well, that's right, because this isn't a made-up story. All the heroes in the scriptures, from Abraham to Jacob to David to Peter to Paul, they're all weak men and women.

They're all sinners.

But in their weakness, they look to him who is strong and without sin, the hero.

That's the heart of the gospel. That's the heart of our faith. Listen, our adversary's happy for people to be restored to the fellowship of the Church if it's just a partial restoration because then he's laid the seed. He's laid the seed for disruption, for disrupting the peace and the purity of the Church. He's happy for people to come in half-heartedly. Again, his stratagem is to disrupt purity and peace. Either neglect church discipline, purity, or be excessive in it, peace.

We have his playbook.

So let us not be, as Paul says, "outwitted by Satan." As he says, "We are not ignorant of his designs." So elders, exercise it. Congregants, trust it.

And if you hear of someone in formal discipline with the elders, because you don't hear a lot of it because people confess and they repent, but if you hear it, then you don't gossip about it. You pray. You trust the process. And when an individual is restored by the elders, you welcome them immediately with open arms. Immediately. Church discipline is a gift. It's a means of grace. The Word preached, the administration of the sacraments, church discipline, they're

means of grace for a God who so loves his people that he gives them these means of grace. The Lord disciplines those he loves. It's a means of grace for the good of our souls. I need it. You need it. We need it.

The dresser drawer and that night of tears are tied together in my mind.

They should be in yours. The discipline was necessary in love. And once there were tears of repentance, the discipline ceased with rejoicing and restoration. Three marks of the Church. The Word preached, the right administration of sacraments, and church discipline. All means of grace given by a Lord who loves us enough to give sinners such means. What a God. What a church you belong to. Let's pray.

Father, we are thankful. We're thankful that you love us enough that you not only sent your Son to die for sinners, but you have given us your Spirit and brothers and sisters to walk through this life with that we might be conformed more to his likeness. May we ever look to you with the eyes of faith, ever trusting your Son who is King and head of the Church, until that day that we are in glory and no longer shall we wrestle with

temptation or sin or pain caused by others. We shall simply feast with him who is the love of our hearts and who has loved us with an everlasting love. We pray all this in his strong name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.