Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of establishing a culture of honor within the body of Christ, highlighting that honoring one another is essential for receiving God's blessings. He explains that while we are called to honor all members of the body, this does not contradict the biblical mandate for righteous judgment, which is necessary for correction and restoration. Bickle clarifies that Jesus taught us to judge, but with the right spirit and purpose, aiming for redemption rather than condemnation. He stresses that true judgment involves tenderness, grace, and confidentiality, and is ultimately an expression of God's love and care for His people. The sermon calls believers to confront sin within the community, ensuring that such actions are done in a spirit of humility and love.

Well, I've been speaking about the culture of honor that the Holy Spirit is establishing in the body of Christ worldwide. In paragraph A, I just want to give a little review of my last message on this and I'm going to continue on the subject of the culture of honor and give several different expressions of it, not just tonight but other messages as well. Paragraph A, just in review, the Holy Spirit is the guardian of the culture of honor in the body of Christ. He's the one that is responsible for seeing the culture of the body of Christ and he requires that we honor one another. It says in Romans 12, in honor giving preference to one another. Now, the Lord releases increased blessing on us when we honor one another. Now, we don't just honor the people that we agree with but across all the different streams and the different ministries in the body of Christ, with all the different, all the differences in ministry, all the differences in ministry focus, even with all of our deficiencies, the Bible commands us to honor one another. And one of our important values here at IHOP is that we want it to be true of us, of all of us, the newest among us, that we never, under any circumstances, do we speak about other ministries in a negative way because of their deficiencies or differences or anything negative about them. That's a commitment we've made to establish a culture of honor here in all of our ministries and to uphold it in all of our personal conversations with people in the body of Christ just as they come and go around the world. And as we do that, blessing will increase because increased blessing comes out of increased honor. Paragraph B. Now, in honoring the ministries and we bless them for the, even in the deficiencies and the differences, this is not a contradiction to the biblical command to bring righteous judgment. Now, at first glance, that seems like a contradiction. How could we bring righteous judgment to different ministries or members of the body of Christ at the same time honor? It seems like there's a contradiction and the truth of it is that we can only establish a culture of honor as we're faithful in the mandate of scripture for righteous judgment. We're going to break that down in just a few moments. Paragraph C. Jesus is the one who taught us to judge. Now, that seems so strikingly off, but it's a biblical truth. We are actually commanded to judge. Now, the most famous verse in the Bible, the most quoted verse in the Bible, is judge not. Don't judge. Everybody knows it. All the believers know it. All the unbelievers know it. Everybody knows the verse. Don't judge. And we're going to look at that verse in a few moments. The problem is it's taken out of context and it's given a wrong interpretation. Because Jesus is the one who actually taught us to judge. Now, what he taught us not to do, what he taught us to avoid, is judging in a wrong process with a wrong purpose with a wrong spirit. He didn't say don't judge. He taught us don't judge with the wrong spirit in a wrong process for a wrong reason. And so it's true to say the Bible teaches us to refuse to judge in a wrong way. But the Bible also teaches us very clearly we must judge in the right way. And it takes courage and it takes spiritual vitality and sensitivity in order to obey this commandment to judge in precisely the way that the Lord says to judge. Now, if you were to just interview somebody randomly out in society, they would tell you almost nine out of ten, if you said does the Bible say judge or don't judge, nine out of ten would say believers and unbelievers don't judge. Absolutely. And they would be proud they got the right answer. But the fact is they would have the wrong answer. There's multitudes of Bible verses in the New Testament that actually not suggest but actually command us to judge but in the way that God judges, not in the way that critical men judge. And it's a very different type of judgment. It's a very different spirit with a very different motivation. In John 7 verse 24, Jesus said don't judge according to appearance. In other words, don't judge by the limited information, the superficial information of what you can see at a glance. He says if you're going to judge, he goes on to say don't judge according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment. He commands us to judge in the right way because righteous judgment involves tenderness, grace. It involves having the right information. It involves confidentiality. It involves judging for the purpose of redeeming and recovering that which is lost in a person's life. Paragraph D. Now many people in the church have totally wrong ideas about what judgment's about and what the scripture means by judging. When the Lord judges us, he's giving us opportunity to have deliverance. When he brings his judgments, his intention is to make wrong things right. It's to correct the things that are hurting our life. He's exposing them to deliver us from them. That's called judgment. And the vehicle of judgment often is an obedient believer. Where we are messengers of judgment is a better way to say it. We are exposing things that are bringing damage and destruction to someone's life. We expose them with the intent that they would be liberated, that they could enter into their destiny and the fullness of blessing. It's parallel to the doctor who examines the cancer patient and says, I have the true information. You do have cancer. But the good news is we caught it in time and we can treat it and we can remove it. Now that, if a doctor said that, the bad news is there's cancer. The good news is it can be treated. We got it in time and there's a full 100% chance of recovery if you'll go through the process. So there's a bitter pill but there's good news in the context. Now the doctor that had the information and looked at the cancer patient said, hey, you know what? I want to keep this thing positive. I don't want to give you any negative news. You know, I just want to make this a positive time and bless you, see you later. But doesn't tell the cancer patient that they actually have cancer. And there is time to remove it if they act swiftly. He says, no, I don't want to be negative. I don't want to point out the the bad things. I'm just going to let things happen as they happen. That doctor could be accused, not just of malpractice, but of not caring for the welfare of that patient. Well, it's the same way with judgment. Judgment is part of God's instrument to expose that which is damaging and destroying people's lives so they can get liberated from the spiritual cancer and the way that doctors expose physical cancer in order to bring deliverance to the patient. Now Jesus operated often in judgment. He did it in the right way. He did it for the right reasons. Judgment unto deliverance. Now this may sound strange, but it's actually Christ-like to judge people. It's godly and like Jesus to judge if we do it his way. Now I would like somebody to get on the Oprah show and say that. Now I'm not really, I don't watch Oprah, but if they do that, I'd like somebody to video it and let me see that thing. It would just send shockwaves. It is Christ-like to judge. Just pause for a second. Let him take a deep breath and say, well, in the way that Jesus judges, it's not Christ-like to judge like people commonly do, but it is Christ-like to judge. We just have to do it in the right process for the right purpose with the right spirit in the way that Jesus modeled. Jesus brought more judgment than anybody in the Bible in terms of his words, but his judgments were always meant to bring deliverance in the wake of the judgment. Paragraph E. It was Jesus who commended the leaders at the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, verse 2. He commended them. He blessed them for exposing and calling out the false apostles in the city of Ephesus. He says in Revelation 2, verse 2, this is Jesus speaking. He goes, you tested those who claimed to be apostles. You found out they were liars. Now there's a lot in this verse because these apostle type guys, they have big personalities and most of them have big followings and when somebody calls them out and says that they're liars and proves they're liars, Jesus says that's good. But these apostle guys did not like this and you can be sure there were ramifications that were negative towards these leaders at Ephesus here in Revelation 2, 2. These church leaders that obeyed Jesus, they paid a price, but the Lord was pleased with them because the Lord does not want false teachers who bring destructive doctrines and destructive behavior to others in the body of Christ. He wants them to be cut off because he cares for the false teachers and he cares for the people that are receiving from them in a gullible way. It says in Revelation 2, verse 20, Jesus speaking again. He says, I have a few things against you. He's talking to the church at Thyatira. He goes, here's one of the things I have against you. You allow false teaching. This woman named Jezebel is teaching that it's okay to live in immorality. He goes, none of you are stopping her. None of you are judging her. None of you are delivering the church or delivering her from this cancer that's working in her ministry. And Jesus says, I have this against you that you haven't confronted her and to confront her means to judge her, but it's to judge her for the purpose of bringing redemption and bringing deliverance to her and to the people that are listening to her. Paragraph F. Paul did the same thing. He exposed ministries in the body of Christ that were false. Now again, these were not ministries that he had a different, a different ministry style from. There were plenty of different ministry styles that Paul probably didn't really appreciate, but he would bless those ministries. And there were plenty of ministries that had deficiencies and Paul blessed those, but this is something beyond differences and deficiencies because we always bless at that level. This is focused on those that have destructive doctrines and destructive behavior. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 12, he says, I will continue to cut off the opportunity of these false apostles. Now the way you cut off the opportunity of a ministry is you expose them as false so that their followers no longer follow them. That's how they're cut off. The point I'm making is this. This is Paul the apostle, this is Jesus the great apostle, yea more than an apostle, fully God, fully man. They are operating in righteous judgment. And it is a, it is not a contradiction to the grace of God. It is an expression of the grace of God. Righteous judgment is an expression of the grace of God and it actually leads to true honor being established in the body of Christ. By removing the cancer, there's greater health in the body. Now this isn't nice teaching, but this is really troublesome when you walk it out. This is the sort of thing our society is really against because the number one value in the western society today is tolerance. And the number one virtue is tolerance. But Jesus did not preach tolerance. He preached honor and mercy for people with deficiencies, yes. Honor and mercy for people with differences, yes. For diversity, yes. But when it came to destructive doctrines and destructive behavior as defined by the scripture, Jesus was adamant that grace would call them out so that the others would be protected from them and the vessels that were involved in it had the chance to be protected as well by repenting. They would be protected by seeing the light and some people really do see the light and they repent and they leave that way behind and many don't repent and they really get stirred up. Titus chapter 1. What I'm doing is giving you a quick overview of what the New Testament teaches about grace and honor and judgment, how they actually judgment when done right is an expression of grace, not a contradiction to it. He said in Titus 1, verse 10, there are many they teach things which they ought not to teach. Verse 13, rebuke them sharply. What? Rebuke them, judge them sharply. He didn't say judge them with the wrong spirit, but judge them with confidence. Don't mix your words. Be kind, have a gentle spirit, but don't be intimidated and don't judge them with blunt edges, but make it crisp and clear. Say what you mean and mean what you say and make it clear to where there's no question as to what you're saying. Paragraph G, he told Timothy, rebuke with all long-suffering. Titus 2, verse 15, rebuke with all authority or confidence. Titus 3, verse 10, reject a divisive man after a first and second warning. All of these are expressions of judgment in the New Testament. All of them are expressions of the grace of God and honor in the body of Christ. None of them are contradicting the teachings about grace and mercy. Top of page two. Now we've got it, paragraph H, we must learn to honor people, but on Jesus's terms, not on humanistic terms. We honor people, but in a way that has allegiance to Jesus. Now our society teaches honor with toleration that has no allegiance to Jesus in the Word of God. We honor everyone for anything that they want to do, regardless whether it's loyal to the Word of God or not. Now we are not called to abdicate our responsibility to be faithful witnesses because we're committed to honor. We will be faithful witnesses by the grace of God while operating in grace and in honor in the body of Christ. Now another way to describe righteous judgment is in Ephesians 4.15. Another term for righteous judgment is speaking the truth in love, or another phrase. To speak the truth in love is synonymous with righteous judgment. It's for the sake of deliverance so that people can get set free from that which is besetting them in their life. We don't sacrifice truth for love. Some folks in their mind, they have a false dichotomy. Well that group's into love, but the other group's into truth. It is impossible to love without truth. And it's impossible to speak truth without love. Because just to roll negative facts without a spirit of reconciliation, redemption, it's really not the truth. You might be able to speak true information, but the truth requires that it's spoken in love if it is really representing the truth. Because the truth is a person, not just an idea. His name is Jesus. We don't choose between truth and love. They are expressions. They each are expressions of the other. With truth, our ability to love is far greater. Now it's called, often called tough love because it has an ouch dimension. But again the patient with cancer, they don't want the doctor to flatter him. They want him to say, you have it, but we can get rid of it if we act now. Bad news, but in the context of good news because there's hope for full recovery. Again that same doctor that would flatter them and say everything is good. You know I just want to keep this thing positive. I don't want to get into a negative spirit. I'll see you in six months. Come and visit me in six months if you're still alive. That would be a horrendous thing. But many believers operate that way and they call it the grace of God. They call it mercy. It is seriously deception. And it's mostly deception that's based on a man-pleasing spirit. It's not just that they love grace and mercy. They love being loved by people so they're tolerant so they can be honored as being tolerant. Most of that is rooted in the fear of man and a man-pleasing spirit. Because the truth, the truth that delivers them is the only thing that will deliver them. Tolerance will not deliver them. Truth will. And we care that they're delivered. We care enough to speak the truth. Paragraph I, Luke chapter 17. This is an interesting command. This is actually a command in Luke 17, verse 3 by Jesus. He says, if your brother sins, if your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. Now there's several messages here. Now the one, the most obvious one that we focus on is the forgive him part. And that's a very important to forgive him. But another message is if he repents, forgive him. In other words, if he repents, the relationship can be restored. Now we forgive everybody every time before God. Meaning we can't hold a, we can't be bitter in any relationship. Even if they don't repent, we have to forgive them and release them in that sense. But in terms of restoring our relationship and integrity with them, they must repent. You cannot release a person from what they did if they sinned against you and maintain a relationship of integrity. You can't, you cannot just overlook it. You must look at them and they must, you speak straight with them. They must own the sin they did against you or the relationship can't be healed. You could be free of bitterness. You could forgive them in the general sense before God. But the relationship cannot be restored if they don't repent. But the point I want to look at here is not the forgiveness and the need for repentance. To have forgiveness in the relational way. Again, in the horizontal sense is where the forgiveness is. So that the relationship itself is restored. But again, just so you're clear, if the guy doesn't repent before God, you still forgive him so your spirit doesn't have bitterness in it in your relationship with God. But in your relationship with them, the relationship is still broken until they repent. But when they repent, forgive them and release them. It's not legalistic, it's biblical to require they repent. But it's not just biblical, it's realistic. Because people can't get, they'll never trust again a person who sins against them. They can't trust that relationship if the person doesn't own the sin. But if they do own the sin, we need to forgive them 100 percent. But the point I want to focus on here in Luke 17 is the first part. He says if your brother sins, rebuke him. We're actually commanded to rebuke. That's a command. That's actually not even an option. That's a commandment. Now in this commandment, there's several implications that are not immediately obvious. First of all, I want to look at the idea of sinning. Now he didn't say if your brother annoys you, rebuke him. It didn't say if your brother hurt your feelings or you feel rejected by your brother, rebuke him. It's talking about a serious and a weighty sin caused in the relationship. You ought to rebuke him. Now when you hear the word rebuke, maybe the first image that comes to mind is a negative tone. We don't have to rebuke with the wrong spirit. We can actually rebuke with a tender spirit. We can rebuke with gentleness, with a spirit of mercy. So when you hear rebuke, don't lose your way on this passage because you have a the image of a guy with a scowl on his face and an angry tone. Say whoa, rebuke. Well how about if your brother sins, share with him. Well if the idea of share means point out the sin, then that's good. Now what most people do when a brother sins against them or many people, they avoid the relationship. They end the relationship. They avoid it and they just kind of smolder on the inside and they just grow in resentment. They don't tell the brother. They just end the relationship and they are offended on the inside and they leak to others on the outside which is called slander. And the relationship is never restored. Jesus said no, don't do that. I want you to rebuke him because I've done this a few times over the years, quite a few times, and there's been times where I have failed to do this. But when you go and rebuke a brother, you have to get yourself ready for it. And the rebuke always goes different than you think it will. Always. And often it goes better than you think it will. And Jesus knows that. Every rebuke I've ever given a brother, it always ends up different than I imagined and usually it ends up better than I imagined. The brother answers with information that's different than I was imagining. Even though I had good information, when they responded things were different and I felt different and I get delivered through the process, not just the brother. And so the Lord says when a brother sins against you, don't just ignore it because the truth is you won't ignore it. It will still work on the inside of you and it will slip out in inappropriate ways, whispering to people in the hallway so to speak. You'll end up sinning, but if you go through the process of rebuking your brother, many redemptive things will happen inside of you in the process and they will happen inside of the brother and the relationship many times will be restored. Sometimes it won't be. But any way that it goes, if you do it in the right spirit, you end up better as the rebuker. Most believers just avoid it. Or they psych up and rebuke in a wrong spirit. They kind of rev up and they go in and explode and they do the right thing in all the wrong ways and they lose ground. Jesus doesn't talk about the process here in the spirit. He gives that information in other passages, but when you read the whole of the Bible, you get the whole message. The rebuke is done in the right process for the right purpose in the right spirit. Roman numeral two. Now Jesus gives us information about the right process and the right purpose. The famous passage in Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. If your brother sins against you, Matthew 18 verse 15, go tell him his fault. It's between you and him alone. Now that word alone is critical. We have to tell him. Jesus is just repeating what he said in Luke 17, the verse I just looked on the verse about rebuke. He says it again in Matthew 18. He goes, if your brother sins, don't forget it. Actually tell him. Yes, you can email him if you have to, but it's better if you tell him in person because it changes when you're in person. The dynamics change in a positive way more times than not. Now if your brother sins, tell him. Articulate it. Make it clear and hear his answer. His answer will come back and you'll be different. Keep it between you and him. Now that's where a lot of people stumble in doing this in the right process. What some will do, they'll look for the loophole. I've done it. I know about the loophole and I've been called into the loophole a few times. Here's the loophole. You find a person to pray about it with you and to give you counsel. That's just a dignified way to gossip. I go to someone or someone comes to me. I've done it both ways. It's gonna happen to me both ways. We get counsel. Help me sort this out. And the Holy Spirit says, no, no. Don't sort it out with another person. You got a big thick Bible and you got the eternal spirit living in you in open heaven. Talk to God and wrestle till you know what to say. I'd rather someone tell me what to say. Jesus said, well you're already judging in a wrong way then. You have to do it the right way. Go to him alone. Many dynamics will take place inside of our spirit when we do this. We have to wrestle with God. We have to get clear. We have to get our emotions in a certain place. Many things happen if we go alone. They happen different if we bring 10 people in and we put it on the internet. Here's what Jesus says. If he hears you and there'll be many surprises if you do that. Many surprises because the grace of God will move. You've gained a brother. You were changed in the process as well but you've gained a brother. Go on verse 16. But if he won't hear you then go take one or two more. Now I found through the years of trying to obey this passage it's not always easy to find the one or two more. Hey bro you want to go with me? I'm going to go talk to this guy. He refused me. The guy goes nah I don't think so. I think I'm really busy. That's another process to find who will go with you. That's not always easy. Verse 17. If he refuses to hear the two or three of you then you announce it at the church on Sunday morning. You tell the church. Really you must. This is a command. This is not a suggestion. This is the mercy of God. This will bring honor and safety to the body of Christ if this happens. This is not the opposite of love. This is where love will prosper in a community. But of course very few people ministries ever do this. Now I've done this maybe 10 times in 30 years. And the truth is I probably should have done it 30 times in 30 years. Because there's been that much sin and that much refusal to repent of brothers that have been ensnared in sin. Now you only tell it to the church if they refuse to repent. Now lest you're you feel that hot discomfort you're going oh no. You're thinking about you right now. Later I'll make the point but I'll just give it to you in advance. Anybody that repents. Anybody that repents we are to hold the information of their sin and total privacy. We are never to make known a man's sin if it's repented of. If it's under the blood it must be safe and secure forever. Very important. You only tell it to the church on Sunday if the brother refuses to repent after the witness of two or three. Not because again it has to be a sin against the brother. It can't be that brother you annoy me so I want to confront you. Or brother I feel rejected by you so I want a confrontation meeting so that I don't feel rejected anymore. No this is not about that. This is about a serious sin that's happened in the relationship. But it doesn't stop there. If he refuses to hear the church. He hears the man. He's just got a brazen heart. He goes you know what? I hear. I was there when the announcement was made. In the name of Jesus I rebuke that announcement. I'm staying put. I'm here to stay and I'm not changing. Jesus said make that man be like a heathen to you. Meaning he is in this context like a tax collector. He is not welcome in the community till he repents. Not because he's a sinner but because he's a believer who's confessing a living faith in Jesus but he's refusing to follow through on that confession. And the idea is to wake him up to deliver him from his cancer so that he would find deliverance in his life. Paragraph B. Now we are commanded to make righteous judgments in a world in a society that greatly values tolerance of which the greatest virtue in the nations is the virtue of tolerance which is a disaster by the way. There is goodness in tolerance but tolerance with no boundaries is disaster. It is not kindness. It is not love. It's a counterfeit mercy and it brings ruin to the people of God. It brings ruin to the kingdom of God. So the great virtue in society of tolerance, it is a virtue and tolerance is good if it's measured with limits on it. And it's measured and limited by the word of God itself. We're loyal to the word of God in our commitment of tolerance. We don't go beyond the word of God in our tolerance. We have an open spirit but it's in by defined by the boundaries of the word of God. Now I'm still in paragraph B. I think one of the most challenging elements of the New Testament, one of the most challenging demands of the New Testament is this idea of righteous judgment. If we do it in our interpersonal relationships, number one, righteous judgment. We hold the line. We actually tell the person who sins against us. We actually have the meeting and we follow through with it. Then secondly, there are corporate issues to where we take a stand against ministries that have false doctrine that are dangerous to the body of Christ that are affecting our community. It's those that are affecting us, our sphere of authority in the kingdom. It's not just like you check the internet for anybody that says something bad so you can blast them. It's those that are affecting your sphere of authority. When we take a stand on false apostles and false leaders and then when we take a stand for issues in society like the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of life, these kind of issues and there's others as well. It will bring many social dynamics our way. When you stand for truth, you get a lot more enemies but you get a lot more friends. You have a lot more pain but you have a lot more grace. You find yourself captured in studying the word to find out how to respond because you have many more opportunities to respond good and bad. When you take a stand, when you take a stand, the righteous are excited. The compromisers are offended and the battle begins and all of a sudden instead of just kind of having a nice quiet afternoon, you're searching out the scripture to figure out how to respond to the bad responses, how to respond to the good responses. You're praying. You're asking the Lord for dreams and visions. Your whole dynamics of the community are affected by this stand. Whether it's a brother standing one-on-one in a relationship for righteous judgment or we're standing publicly against false ministries or against false ideologies in our society, it will affect the whole community and a community that refuses to take a stand for righteous judgment God's way, they will actually come under God's judgment if they will not stand for it. Now that judgment that they come under, it's actually a natural byproduct of their neglect. Their judgment is their people live in compromise and it increases in a profuse way. A people that will take a righteous stand but not just take a stand but in the right way, the right process, the right spirit and that takes, that's a vigorous spirituality that's required to do this thing right. But a people that will take that stand will have a grace of God in their midst that will increase. A people that will not take that stand which is the majority of the body of Christ, they will be under the judgment of increased compromise. The very dynamics that we will face by grappling with the offenses, grappling with the counterattacks, grappling with figuring out how to say it right, repenting for saying it wrong, praying, fasting, dreams, visions, all of those dynamics will actually have a sanctifying influence on us as a community. So the Lord is clear in the New Testament you must make a stand. You must take a stand. I think it's what probably the most challenging commandment in the New Testament is to take a stand but not just to take a stand. Some take a stand. That's not enough. We have to take a stand. We have to go through the right process. We have to have the right purpose for it and we have to have the right spirit in taking the stand and that again it requires a vigorous spirituality to do this thing right. But the increase of grace is evident. Paragraph C. Today in the western world there's a radical individualism. The the sovereignty of the individual is emphasized. That the individual it's what they think and what they see that's the final authority in the post-modern day where there's no absolutes. The private dimension of our faith. Now we are individuals and I like that part of life. I love being an individual and I like the private dimensions of my faith but here's the here's the tension. I'm not only an individual. I'm part of a covenant community. And all of my faith is not private. Part of my faith is public. Part of what I believe is your business and part of what you believe is my business if you're part of this community. We belong to one another in a covenant community called the Church of Jesus Christ and part of our faith is not just individualism and private. It's public. Now this is a new idea for some folks in the post-modern society where there are no absolutes and people determine what truth is by how they feel about truth. Very deceptive a very great deception that's making its inroads into the church. If you confess Jesus as your savior you are a part of the body of Christ. You are a part of the community of God. You are required by Jesus to uphold the standards of the Word of God. Those standards are not subject to personal interpretation. Now the application of many of the minor issues of life yes but immorality, drunkenness, denying the Lord, heresies about His divinity. Those issues are solid plain and main statements in the Word of God that are not open for private interpretation. In other words people aren't free to choose what they believe is what they I mean free to determine what the standards of morality are. The standards of morality are clear in the Bible and if you belong to Jesus and you give confession to Him and you're a part of the covenant community we have the right to hold you to the standards and you have the right to hold us to the standards. That's part of our glory together. Individual believers the end of paragraph c are not free to choose any lifestyle they want with the assurance of never being judged. That's that's fantasy. You can't choose your own standards if we're talking about the main and plain standards of righteousness in the Word of God. Paragraph d. Now we're called to judge the saints and part of that reason we judge the saints is part of it is for their deliverance for their own salvation. Let's read this account in first Corinthians chapter 5. Paul says in verse 1 I hear there's sexual immorality among you. Verse 2 he goes the problem is you're puffed up. You're proud. You're not mourning that one of your members is living in open immorality. It doesn't bother any of you. Paul goes I'm I'm grieved beyond measure that one of your members is living in open immorality and nobody cares about this. He says this brother ought to be taken away among you. In other words he ought to be forbidden to be a part of the fellowship till he repents. It ought to be public information and everybody unified refusing to allow him access to the socializing not just the public meetings but the whole social network of that covenant community till he repents. Well his other option is to say well okay I'm not a believer then. Well can I still be your friend? So you want to deny the Lord over this? I've seen people say well hey if it means I can't hang out well then maybe I'm not a believer. He says no you don't want to go there. You don't even want to go there. You want to go the other direction. Paul said in verse 3 indeed as absent from the body because Paul was in another city at the time he goes but I'm present in spirit. He goes by the Holy Spirit I'm aware of what's going on there in Corinth in that city. He goes I've already judged the guy. The elders of Corinth failed to judge him because they had a wrong concept of judgment. Paul says I've already judged him. He said verse 4 in the name of Jesus when you gather together to your next public meeting. Now listen to this. I've never had the nerve to do this but he goes in your next gathering verse 4 then verse 5 deliver that man over to Satan. Gather together pray and release him to Satan that Satan would afflict his flesh to wake him up so he would repent. Look at verse 5 so that his spirit would be saved in the day of the Lord. Paul said if this brother continues in the path he's on he will end up denying his faith and losing his salvation. This is really serious to God. It's not a small thing. The judgment isn't who's nice and who's not nice. The judgment is about waking the brother up because his salvation is in the balance. Paul said if he doesn't wake up he won't be saved in the day of the Lord. That's the implication of this verse. A person can deny the Lord and leave the faith. It's a biblical doctrine in the New Testament. That's it's a prominent doctrine in the New Testament. Paragraph E. Paul goes on and finishes the story. The same chapter 1 Corinthians 5. He says verse 9. He says now I wrote you not to keep company with an immoral person. He goes don't allow them in your midst. He goes verse 10. He goes let me qualify this. I don't mean an immoral person who's an unbeliever. Of course let the unbelievers in for sure. Absolutely. Verse 11. He goes I'm talking about not allowing fellowship if he claims to be a brother. He claims that Jesus is his Lord. He claims to be a part of the covenant community. He must uphold the standards. Now he may stumble in immorality. There's many that stumble in morality. That's not what Paul's talking about is. But this guy stumbled but he would not acknowledge it as a sin. He would not repent of it. Many stumble and repent and stumble again and the repentance is real and they belong in the midst of the community of God and they need to have a safety in the community of God while they're repenting and getting freedom from the snare of immorality. But he's not talking about a guy struggling. He's talking about a guy who openly refuses to live to repent and he lives in immorality. Paul says verse 11. I have not written to you. I have not written to you to to break fellowship with anyone. Well let me say I'm reading it wrong. But now verse 11. I have written to you not to keep company with anybody named a brother who is sexually immoral, covetous, idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with them. Don't let them socialize with you until they repent. If a brother is a drunkard and he's repenting of it, then let's gather around and help him get free. But let's require that he really goes through a process to get free. If he's a drunkard or immoral or covetous or a swindler, an extortioner, and he's not repenting, he cannot come to the meetings and you should not socialize with him under any circumstances. The point is to wake them up because their salvation is actually in the balance. Now they don't know that. They may not even believe it, but it doesn't matter. It is true and we need that they would be woken up if we truly love them. Top of page three. Paragraph F. Paul again to the Thessalonians commands that they withdraw from brothers in the body of Christ who refuse to repent. And that's the key phrase. They refuse to repent and they're in the church. If they're unbelievers, that's a whole different thing. There's nothing scandalous about an unbeliever denying the Lord. That's not a problem. Our mission field is to win them, to accept them, to bring them in. But once they cross the line and they name the name of Jesus, it doesn't mean that they can't stumble. It doesn't mean they can't stumble often, but they have to have a different confession. They have to confess it as sin and they have to declare war against it. Let's go to Roman numeral three. Now we're looking at the judging with the right spirit. Now this is the famous verse, Matthew 7 verse 1. Jesus said, judge that you be not judged. For with that, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And in the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Why do you look at a speck in your brother's eye but not consider the plank in your own eye? Verse 5. Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Verse 6. Do not give what is holy to the dogs. That's talking about people there. Or to don't give your pearls before swine. Now the dogs and the swine, he's talking about people that are unresponsive to the gospel. No, unresponsive to the word of God, even in the midst of the community of God, he's talking about. He's talking about believers in this context that are refusing the standards of the word of God. Verse 15. Beware of false prophets. You will know them by their fruits. Okay, paragraph 8. Now Matthew 7.1. Do not judge lest you be judged is the most famous verse in the Bible. It's the most quoted verse undoubtedly. But if you only quote the verse and you leave it there, you can make it say don't judge. But if you read it in its context, it's clearly telling us not to judge in a wrong way. The judging in a wrong way is the point that Jesus is making. He's not prohibiting judgment. He's prohibiting judgment with a wrong spirit. We have to read it in its context. Most people that quote it, quote the verse out of its context so they make it mean what they want it to mean. Now in the context, you can study it more clearly afterwards. You'll notice in verse 5, he says, remove the plank from your eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck. In this passage, Jesus is still calling us to remove the speck from our brother. But we're to remove the speck after we remove the plank. He's not prohibiting us to remove the speck in a brother. He's saying it just has to be second. The correction is moving the speck from first to second part of the process. But many that read this, they don't read verse 5. They only read verse 1. In other words, don't point out anything wrong in a brother. Jesus, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying only point it out after you've pointed out what's wrong in you. Then point out to your brother. Then verse 6, he says, don't give the precious things because now they're in the conflict. If the subject is judgment, and he says, in the process of removing the speck, or even somebody removing the speck from your eye, regardless which way it's going, there's going to be the times where there will be those that are the dogs and the swine. Now this is a metaphor, a common Jewish metaphor for people that were unresponsive to God. In the process, and I have it written down there, you can read the verses on your own on the notes, there is a limitation on what you share in the process of confrontation. But the point I want to make here is that Jesus is not telling people not to judge because in order to identify false prophets, swine, and dogs, you have to identify these people are off. You have to make judgments to even have these categories. So what Jesus is clearly saying, we have to judge with the right spirit. He's not prohibiting judgment, but prohibiting judgment in a wrong way. Because in the very passage, he says, beware of false prophets. You can't beware of a false prophet. You have not judged as false and identified as false. You have to do that to beware of them. So Jesus is clearly not prohibiting judgment. He's prohibiting judgment with the wrong spirit. And that is the spirit of the self-righteous, critical spirit of the Pharisee who doesn't judge themselves before they judge others. That is the thing that makes the judgment process. It violates the judgment process. Now there's several quick principles that we have to follow if we're going to judge with the right spirit. Paragraph B, we have to judge gently. We have to approach the person tenderly without harshness. We're hoping for the best. Our goal is to restore them, as it says in Galatians 6. Paul says here in Galatians 6, if a man is overtaken in any kind of sin, you who are spiritual commit to restore the man, but do it in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself first, so Paul's agreeing with Jesus. So when we go to the brother to take the speck out of his eye, which we're commanded to do, we have to go with a spirit of tenderness with no harshness, and we have to go hoping for good news and for their full recovery. That already disqualifies a significant amount of the judging that goes on in the body of Christ. It's therefore not righteous judgment if it's not gentle. Top of page four, it needs to be humble. We need to look to ourself. Now this is a burden, because when somebody, when the situation arises and I need to confront a brother, the Lord whispers through his word and says, I want you to look at the plank first in your own life. Well Lord, because this is not something you do for three minutes walking down the hallway to the confrontation meeting. To look at the plank, this is what the command is. It's a literal command. We have to dial down, change gears. It takes a day or two to do it. That's like, Lord, honestly, I don't even want to rebuke the guy. And number two, I got too much going on to dial down, change gears, and look at myself. Lord says, well you're in a jam, because I commanded you to bring righteous judgment to the guy, but I command you to look to yourself first for a season before you do it. So whatever, however busy you are, get unbusy and do this. I mean, this taking time again, it's not righteous judgment. If you're just on your way to the meeting, you've already got your argument, you're going to know the brother, you're going to confront him, but you haven't really taken a day or two to look at yourself, you are then going to bring judgment to him in a false way. Paragraph D, it has to be accurate. We have to take the time and the effort to get all the info. It says in Proverbs 18, he who answers a matter before he hears the whole story, it's a shame to him. If you give the answer before you've heard the whole story, it says folly and shame describes you. Why? Why is it a folly to answer? You can't bring the confrontation when you only got half the information. Why? Verse 17, because the first one to plead his case seems right, but when you hear the other guy's story, you go, oh, the first guy wasn't that right. So the scripture says you got to get all the information. Lord, you know, I don't have time to do my own inventory and then to get all the information to make this righteous judgment. Why don't I just let the guy go? The Lord says no, because if you don't do righteous judgment, if you don't participate in it, there will be a judgment on your spiritual community, which means sin will just increase. The weeds will prosper in the garden. They will grow profusely if we don't pull them out and confront them. It's work. It takes vigorous spirituality to do this, but that's what God's calling us to. Paragraph E, we have to be patient. We have to give the brother time to process the information and we have to give him time to repent. Look at the verse in Revelation 20, I mean 2 verse 21. Jesus even gave Jezebel time to repent. Can you imagine? Jeze gets a chance to repent. Jesus goes, give her room. The guy's going, really? I mean, now that we know how stirred up you are about her, he goes, yeah, I've given her room because I could still deliver her and I could deliver the people without judgment, without the negative judgment or circumstances. So we're going to give her time. So when you go and confront the brother, it's not like you have the hit squad all ready for the meeting tomorrow. We know he's going to say no. He may say no, but we give him time. Because you don't have the, the next step ready for tomorrow and say, well, he refused us last night. Let's just nail him because he said no. So let's be finished with them. The Lord goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Give the brother time to process the information. Give him time to weigh and feel the gravity of what's before him. And fifthly, finally, it has to be confidential. We only make the information known to the people that have the authority to restore. You only make the information known to people that have the authority to restore. You never reveal anyone's past sins if they've repented and it's under the blood and they've repented. Even if they've stumbled in it, if they genuinely repent, we never ever reveal it ever in the future, never publicly, never privately, under no circumstance. It stays under the sanctity of the blood of Jesus. It's sacred information if it's repented of. It says in Proverbs 11, a tailbearer reveals secrets, but a man with a faithful spirit or a woman with a faithful spirit, they will conceal the matter. They won't reveal it. They will hide it because the brother repented. Now if the brother doesn't repent it, we bring it to the next level. But we're talking about if the brother repents, we hide it a hundred percent. It says in 1 Peter 4, above all, above all have fervent love. And he gives the example of fervent love, cover the brother's sin and the implication is since he repented. If you have fervent love, you never reveal the man or the woman's sin from a day ago or a year ago or a decade ago. Fervent love covers if the brother or sister has repented. That's the key phrase. Proverbs 17, we'll end with this. He that covers a transgression seeks love. And again, it's covering a transgression that's repented of. That's all, that's the testimony of Scripture. But a guy that repeats the matter is separating friend relationships. I mean over the years, you're bound to get lots of information. If you're in a community that confronts sin because we care, you'll get after time a lot of information, but that's sacred information. A brother's sin that's been repented of that's under the blood is sacred information to the Lord. So, what do you do with this? Let's stand. I'm going to have you pray. You're going to ask the Lord two things. There's two assignments. I have it written down there. You can read it later if you want to know the verses on it. Assignment number one. Ask the Lord, is there any brother that sinned against you and you just ignored it? Because the truth is you didn't really ignore it. The truth is it bugs you and it works in you. I don't mean a brother that annoys you. I'm talking about someone who sinned against you. It bothers you more times than not. And probably because you're human, you've leaked it out a little bit. The Lord says, no, no, no. You have to go to the brother and you have to tell them and you have to get your spirit all in sync to do it and it's a vigorous process to do it. Like, oh, I don't want to do that. The Bible says you have to. If your brother sins, tell him. Matthew 18 verse 15. If your brother sins, rebuke him. Luke 17 3. Two times Jesus said it. So that's assignment number one in prayer. Is there any brother in the last period of time that has sinned against you and you haven't done anything about it? And you haven't, you might say grace, but probably it's because the fear of man and you just don't want, you don't want to stir, you don't want to hassle. But the Lord wants you to hassle with it because it will change you and change him. Number two. Is there any believer you're connected with? I don't mean that you just know about, but anybody you're connected to in relationship that's living, that's confessing Jesus, they're involved in the body, I'm not talking about a backslider who doesn't even come around because they're already out of the body. I'm talking about someone who's involved in the body, but they're involved in repeated immorality, drunkenness, extortion, covetousness, reviling, any of those things in 1 Corinthians 5. And they're not repenting of them and they're doing it as a lifestyle. You must go to them and begin the process of confronting them. You have to. If you're in relationship with them and you have clear information, they're doing it. It's like, oh man, why did I have to come to this meeting tonight? What? This is going to mess everything up. The Lord says, oh it's going to change your life too. When we get into the fray, so to speak, we get changed, the brother gets changed, the social dynamics change, but the grace increases. Of course the enemies increase as well. But so does the grace and the Lord's pleasures on us. And there's a safety in a community that takes this seriously. So we're going to pray. Father I ask you right now. I'm asking every single person in the room, just to pause for a second. This is a very serious subject. It will, it will change your life and change the body. To ask the Lord, is there anyone that sinned against you? I don't mean annoyed you, but sinned against you. Yes. You're making a commitment. Lord if you'll make it clear, and it ought to come to you real quick. I have to go talk to him alone. Now if it's a dangerous relationship where somebody is abusing you, that's a different, I'm not talking about that. Because if your physical harm is at stake, that's a different issue. But I'm talking about they sinned against you apart from that point. You have to go to them alone. So right now you're talking to the Lord. And you're saying, okay Lord I'll do it. Just talk to him for a minute. Now the next one. Is there any brother, sister, they're active in the body. They're coming to the worship settings. They're in the social network. But they're living in open drunkenness, immorality, reviling, extortion, and they won't repent. You have to talk to them alone. Now if two or three of you were with them when they were doing it, maybe you could have the two or three you could go because you were all eyewitnesses. But you have to do something. You cannot ignore it under a false pretense of grace. That is a deception. That's a man-pleasing spirit. That's not grace. But you have to go to them tenderly, gently, with confidentiality, with patience, in all the ways we described. Jay, just lead us in worship. I just want everyone just to stay in your chairs and not come forward tonight. And just think about this for a few minutes.