Corinthians: Discipline of the Christian

This is Sunday evening, October the 7th, 1976. We do thank the Lord for gathering us together again. Some of you, I hope, may still remember two months ago, we fellowshiped something on the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians.

Of all Paul's letters, the letter to the Corinthians, especially the first letter, is the most practical of all his letters. By that we do not mean that his other letters are not practical. Sometimes, you know, we have a kind of misconception.

We think that the more spiritual it is, the less practical it will be. But of course we know it is a misconception, because spirituality and practicality go together. They are not contradicting to each other.

The more spiritual it is, the more practical it should be. But in this first letter to the Corinthians, Paul deals with practical issues of life, both individually and collectively. That's the reason why we say that 1 Corinthians is the most practical of Paul's letters, because it deals with practical issues, with practical matters.

But dear brothers and sisters, in this most practical letter, Paul is dealing with different problems. He deals with all these problems according to certain very important, vital, behind all these problems, behind all the solutions for these problems, you will find great principles, great spiritual principles are being applied to each problem. In other words, it is not just dealing with different problems and trying to solve them.

It is applying great spiritual principles to solve these various problems. So when we are reading 1 Corinthians, I hope that on the one hand we may see these problems, and yet on the other hand we may find out what principle of principles are being applied in a practical way to solve them. Two months ago we mentioned the first problem, and that is this matter of unity among God's people.

You know, the Corinthian believers do not even bother to ask Paul this question. They have such a problem in their midst. Some say, I am of Paul.

Some say, I am of Apollo. Some say, I am of Jesus. And others say, I am especially, in a very special way, of Christ.

They have this problem in their midst, and yet they do not even bother to ask Paul about this problem. But Paul considers this as the most important problem in the midst of the Corinthians. So in his letter to the 1 Corinthians, he deals with this matter first.

And there is a great principle involved. And the great principle is, is Christ. Here you have a problem.

God's people are not united. God's people are divided. Even though outwardly they are still together, and yet mentally, in their entity, they are actually already divided into parties.

Some go after Paul. Some go after Apollo. Some go after Jesus.

And so on and so forth. And Paul just asks them one question. Is Christ? If we can answer this question rightly, then the problem is solved.

Is Christ divided? If Christ is divided, if Christ is divisible, then there is room for people of God to be divided. There is room for parties in the Church. There is room for people to say, I am of Paul, I am of Apollo, I am of Jesus.

But if Christ is not divided, then it is absurd. It is absolutely impossible for the Church of God, for God's people to be divided into parties. It is not permitted.

It cannot be. It should never be. Because if we do that, we are trying to divide Christ.

Why? Why are the people in the Church in Corinth are divided? The reason is, their eyes have shifted from Christ. When your eyes are set upon men, spiritual men, great servants of God, ministers of Christ, even men of such stature as Paul, Jesus, and Apollo. But if you set your eyes on men, you set off on Christ.

Men always divide. Only Christ. So brothers and sisters, here you will find in this matter of unity, actually it comes down to a very basic, simple spiritual question.

Is Christ divided? If our eyes are all towards Christ, we cannot be divided. Because Christ is one. But if our eyes are distracted to this man or that man, immediately.

So here you find the first principle in dealing with this matter of unity. Tonight we like to enter into another thing. I do not know why I should go into this.

But somehow, we'll go into it. Let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. We'll read the whole chapter. In a sense, this is the most depressing chapter in the whole Bible.

It is universally reported that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not even among the nations. So that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and ye have not read a moon, in order that he that hath done this deed might be taken away out of the midst of you.

For I, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged as present to deliver in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ye and my spirit being gathered together with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, him that hath so wrought this, to deliver him, I say, being such, to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened.

For also our Passover price hath been to sacrifice, so that let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I have written to you in the epistle not to mix with fornicators, not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with avaricious, avaricious, and vicious, or idolatrous, since they need to go out of the way. But now I have written to you if any one called brother, be fornicator, or avaricious, or idolatrous, or abusive, or a drinker, or a taker, not to mix with him, with such a one not even to eat.

For what have I to do with judging those outside also? Ye judge them that are within, but those without God's judgment remove the wickedness from among them. In the church, let's call it, they have a very serious problem in their midst. Someone has committed such a serious sin that not even the nation, now can you think of that? Someone in the church at college has committed such an unnatural sin that even it is unheard of among the nation.

And when such thing happens in the church there, the one who has so sinned continues in the fellowship of the church as if nothing happened. And the rest of the church let this thing remain in their midst, do not deal with it never, as if everything is all. Now that is the situation there.

Something very serious, something that affects the testimony of Jesus is the church there that touches the very testimony to the core. And yet, though the one who has committed the sin and the rest of God's people in the church just tolerate, allow the whole thing to remain and go on. Not only that, but probably they have developed such a mentality.

We are no longer under law. We are under grace. And by grace to them, it means that you can do anything you like.

It's licentiousness. In other words, it's an abuse of grace. Probably they try to explain it.

It is grace. So, nothingness, but it is an abuse. And to the rest of the Corinthian believers, they allow this thing to go on as if there is nothing.

They close their eyes and probably they even boast of themselves, and they do. They boast of themselves as being highly intellectual. They are not touched by emotion.

They are very tolerant. They are very liberal. Outwardly it appears as if they are very loving.

They give the appearance of they are above everything. Oh, they can tolerate anything. They are able to be so liberal, so loving, so dear.

Probably that's them. And because of that, Paul, who has such sensitivity before God, his spirit is purged. And there you'll find he writes to them and says, Purge out the old leaven.

Do you not know that a little leaven can leaven the whole lump? Don't you know that Christ is our Passover? We have already had our Passover. We are now in the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. We have to keep the Feast with Unleavened Bread.

There cannot be any leaven during the seven days of Feast. Now, I believe, brothers and sisters, you know the background. The children of Israel, they were in Egypt as slaves with no hope of living.

Doing these labors, heavy work, they cried to the Lord and the Lord said, Notice to them that Pharaoh would not let them go. In spite of praise after praise, Pharaoh refused to let them go. His heart was hardened against God.

So finally God used the Passover land to deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of our Passover land. Who can deliver us out of the hand of Satan? Only. It is Christ who is sacrificed for us.

And because He is sacrificed for us, we are delivered out of the hand of Satan. But immediately following the Passover, there will be seven days of Unleavened Bread. During those seven days, there shall be no leaven throughout the borders of Israel.

If there is any leaven left, that man will be cut off from the commonwealth. They have to keep the feet with Unleavened Bread, with the bread of sincerity and peace, not with malice and wickedness. Now, brothers and sisters, we are now, the Church is now keeping the feet of the Unleavened Bread.

We have had our Passover, Christ. We have believed in the Pastoral Land. And now we are in the seven days of the Unleavened Bread.

Seven is a complete number. In other words, the Church is to live through her days on earth as keeping the feet of Unleavened Bread. We are to be pure, to be sincere, to be true.

And there shouldn't be any malice, any wickedness, any sin, remaining in the Church, undoubted, unrepentant. But in Corinthians, in the Corinthian Church, there is a leaven. And if that leaven is not purged out, it will leaven up the whole land.

The whole Church will be leavened. And because of that, Paul advises them to purge out the old leaven, to drive out. Paul tries to stir up the conscience that the Church will rise up to deal with this matter.

And thank God, if you read 2 Corinthians, you'll find that the Church listens to Paul. Their conscience is purged. They rise up to deal with this case.

It brings that man. And in 2 Corinthians, Paul has to do another thing. They become so strict that even after the man is repented, they will not let him come back.

So Paul said, he has suffered enough. Now you can receive him back because he is purified. But brothers and sisters, this is not what is in my heart for tonight.

What is in my heart for tonight is this thing. There is a great principle in the Church. And if this principle is not understood and applied, it destroys the very meaning and testimony of that very discipline.

You know, when we hear the word discipline, we don't like it. People are afraid of this word. People rebel against the very mentioning of this word discipline.

We want freedom. And by freedom, we mean that free from being interfered. We are free to do anything we like and we'll go by without any ill effect.

That is our concept of freedom of liberty. It is popular today with freedom, with that kind of concept. But dear brothers and sisters, if there is no discipline, there is no church.

This is what our brother, dear brother Watmanee said to us. He said, if there is no discipline in the Church, you don't have it. If there is no discipline in the family, do you have a home? If everyone is free to do whatever he likes to do, and he can get by without any discipline, if in a family there is no discipline whatsoever, you don't have a family.

You don't have a home. The whole thing is chaotic. If there is no discipline in the nation, it is oddity.

There is no order. It is ruin. It is suffering.

Therefore, if there is no discipline in the Church, you don't have the Church. In the Church in Columbia, these people are so impolite. They want liberty.

They think they have found the liberty in Christ. And they misuse their freedom. They think that they are free from anybody's interference.

They just are free to do anything they like. They don't like discipline. They do not have discipline.

And they dare not apply it. And that is a weakness. That is a fatal weakness to the Church, you know.

If this is not corrected, the whole Church will be hidden in this time. So, brothers and sisters, I feel tonight a burden to you. Here with you, brothers and sisters, on this matter of isn't it true that today among God's people we do not see discipline very much.

Almost none. Everyone seems to be on his own. The Church does not dare to discipline any brother or sister.

So fear that it may appear very light, but you know, because there is no discipline. Everything is. There is no discipline.

There is no authority in the Church in connection with Christian discipline. Of course, we are not talking about personal discipline. That is a personal matter.

In other words, a Christian who knows no discipline personally never grows up. He remains a baby. It is discipline that will build up your character.

But we are not talking about the personal discipline. We are talking about more in relation to one another in the Church. You know, according to the Word of God, discipline can come from three different directions.

In other words, there are three different areas of discipline. And let us call them for the time being. We will explain it.

Fatherly discipline, brotherly discipline, and Church discipline. Fatherly discipline, that is to say, discipline that comes from the Father. When you read Hebrew, you will find what we are talking about, fatherly discipline.

Maybe we read a little bit of it just to give us a basis for consideration. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 5. And ye have quite forgotten the exhortation which speak to you as to sons. Now here you will find the exhortation is to the sons.

In other words, it comes from the Father. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

Ye endure for chastening. God conducts himself towards you as to a son. For who is the son that the Father chastens? None.

But if ye are without chastening, of which all have been made partakers, then are ye vassals and not sons. Moreover, we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we revel in them. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirit and lips? For they indeed chasten for a few days, as he is good to them, but he for profit in order to the partaking of his holiness.

But no chastening at the time seems to be matter of joy, but of grief, but afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it. Here you'll find it is the discipling of the Father. The Father is discipling the Son.

Despite is not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when reproved You know, these are the two wrong attitudes that we can take. When the Father is discipling us, we may either despise it, in other words, we don't care. We don't listen.

We don't take it. We reject it. We will not learn the lesson, even if he disciplines us.

We despise it, consider it as nothing. So, the lesson is that you can harden your heart against the discipling of the Father by despising it, or you can go to the other extreme. You faint under it.

Oh, that is too much. You are too hard. God, you are really too cruel.

Why do you treat me like this? And you faint. Is it not true sometimes, you know? When the Father is disciplining us, brothers and sisters, do not despise his discipline. Learn to submit yourself under his disciplinary hand.

Look to his hand. Look to his face. And do not just faint, because he will not chasten us more than we can bear.

For whom the Lord loves, he takes and scourges every son whom he receives. The reason why the Father disciplines the son is because... Now, this is something we need to understand. You know, when we are under discipline, we tend to think that the Father does not love us.

When the Father is scourging his son, the son will think, well, the Father hates me. Therefore, he does all this to me. Yes, that is true.

The Father chastens because he loves. He scourges because he cares. Because he receives.

If he does not love you, if he does not care about your spiritual welfare, he won't discipline you. What's the use of disciplining you? So, therefore, Paul says, God conducts himself towards you and towards the son. If he does not discipline you, then you are a bastard.

You are not a son. It is the privilege of a son to be disciplined. Of course, the discipline of the Father comes to us today through the Holy Spirit.

That is to say, the Holy Spirit will so arrange our circumstances and bring us under his discipline. He is the Father of all wisdom. A human Father loves his son, cares about his son, and will discipline his son because he wants his son to grow up, to be a man.

But a human being, no matter how much he loves, there is a selfishness. There is not that full wisdom in love. So, sometimes he may discipline rather, that is true, but our Heavenly Father, who is the God of all wisdom and all love, he will never do that.

During the time of discipline, it is not a very pleasant thing. To be chastened is not pleasant at all. So, the Bible says, for they will be chastened for a few days as he did to them that he for profit in order to the partaking of his holiness.

But no chastening at the time seems to be matter of joy but actually. When a person is under chastening, it is a time of bliss so far as our flesh is chastened. It is evil.

So far as our soul is concerned, we are going through a period of difficulty. But that's only for a few days. Praise God.

Why? Because the Father's purpose is for our profit that we may be made partakers of his holiness. We receive the life of Christ in us. And this life of Christ in us has its nature.

A holy nature. But this holy nature of this life of Christ in us will not be our character until we have gone through discipline. You are not made partakers of his holiness.

In the practical sense, you have his holy nature in you, but you are not made a partaker of his divine nature, of his holy nature, of his holiness. In other words, his nature is not your character until you have... It is discipline that builds up. It is discipline that makes children silent.

Throne of silence. So, brothers and sisters, you'll find here is a whole area of discipline. It is the discipline.

Why does he discipline us? It may not appear to be so, but it is. It is love. And the end result is we are conformed to the image of Christ.

And that is to say, we begin to have the character of Christ imbued. So what will be our attitude when we are under the discipline? 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5 verses 6 and 7. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the due time, having cast all your care upon him, for he cares. When a person is under the discipline hand of the Father, his attitude should be humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.

God resists the crowd. He gives grace to the humble. If we humble ourselves to him in due time, he will exalt.

That is the attitude we need to take. And of course, in the Bible you have many, many instances of this nature. But brothers and sisters, I would like to apply this principle a little further.

Basically, it is the Heavenly Father who is disciplining us as his sons. Because he is our Father. He is above us.

Therefore, he can discipline us who are his children, his sons. In other words, it is the higher that disciplines us. Physically, it is the Heavenly Father.

But you know, Paul says, he advances in the church. Some are little children. Some are young people.

Some. So we would like to apply this principle a little further. Hear the church.

Hear the Lord to raise up people like fathers. Now what do you mean by fathers? It simply means that among God's people the Lord may raise up some who are more mature. They are mature in relation to the other brothers and sisters, and they are almost like fathers.

Paul says to the Corinthians, you have a thousand instructors and teachers, but you have only one father. And Paul is a father to them. He begat them with the gospel.

So Paul says even though you may have a thousand instructors, but you don't have a thousand fathers. You have only one father. And here in 1 Corinthians you find Paul is disciplining the church there as a father.

He said, do you want me to come in love or to come with a rod? In other words, here you'll find the apostolic authority. And he is the one to whom the Lord has entrusted these believers and because they are secure in the faith. He is like a father to them.

And you see how Paul out of his love for them, he gave the very strongest and even if they did not repent, he would come. But how the Corinthians believers misunderstand they think that Paul does not love them. Oh, if Paul should love the Corinthians believers, people can do anything they want.

Everything is okay. But brothers and sisters, that's not love. That's not love.

Paul loved them so much. He just cared for them so much. He cannot see them going down and down and down.

He that does good is of God. He that does not do good does evil, has not evil. It's not religious.

It's diocetic. Diocetic. So here you'll find again the apostle John is exercising authority over diocety as a father.

Over. Brothers and sisters, this fatherly discipline requires spiritual study. The problem today is we do not have many.

Or we have even no person of such spiritual that can be father to us. Brothers and sisters, you know father is very important. Very important.

I can never forget. I think it was 19... I was in Hong Kong. And my father went to India for a conference.

And while he was in India, my grandfather passed away. In Shanghai. My father loved my grandfather very much.

Because my grandfather was ill, my father at one time was coming to the States. And because my grandfather was ill, he cancelled the trip. He didn't want to come.

And when my grandfather got better, he felt it was alright for him to go to India for a conference. So he went. But when he was in India, my grandfather passed away.

And of course my family dare not tell my father about the news. So they asked me to tell my father when he came back. His trip was passed by Hong Kong.

That I would tell him about the news. So I remember very clearly. My wife and I and my brother.

My brother happened to pass by Hong Kong. So we went to the pier to meet my father. And he was way up.

High up on the ship. And we were there standing there. And we saw him.

He suddenly noticed that in China we know when a relative dies, we have a black band put on our arms. Suddenly he noticed that on me. So he called down.

He said, what happened? And of course it was my grandfather. Of course he was deeply moved. So we took him from the boat in a few hours.

So we took him to our home. And let him rest for a while. And I can never remember what he said to me.

At that moment it didn't register that it seemed to be very, very common. He said, son, I no longer have a father. Of course, my grandfather died.

He no longer had a father. But what is it? It seemed to be so common, you know. It didn't register.

But I remember the words. Until 1960 I was in England. And the news came from Shanghai.

My father passed away. And you know when I heard that, I remember what my father said. I no longer have a father.

And it broke me down. Why? Having a father to take care of you. A father who loves you.

Who disciplines you. He cares so much that he is strict with you. Honest with you.

He will not flatter you. He will not deceive you. But he will deal with you frankly and honestly for your good.

And if you had no father, what a loss. What a loss, brothers and sisters. What a loss it is to the church today.

There are almost no people of such spiritual stature. Oh, that it may have people like Paul, like John. How much better it would be.

But, not everybody can be a father. You may have a thousand instructors. Many are just instructors.

They can instruct us. But they cannot discipline you. Because they themselves have not learned the lesson.

Oh, do not try to go out and discipline others as if you are a father to them. When you reach that spiritual stature, yes. But if you do not have that spiritual stature, don't do it.

It will not work. So what I'm thinking is, oh, how we need to ask the Lord to raise up in the church people with spiritual stature. It is not just a matter of discipline.

Behind discipline there is love. There is care. There is all these things behind it.

And because you have thought behind it, when discipline comes, you find it is for our profit. It is good. Very good.

And this is the first area of discipline. Now if we do not have spiritual people, have people like fathers to us, then does it mean that there is no discipline whatsoever because we are more or less on the same level? Therefore you cannot discipline me and I cannot discipline you because we are on the same level. There is another kind of discipline.

We call it brotherly discipline. Brotherly discipline. Now by brotherly discipline of course it means that you are on the same level.

It is not as a father coming down to the son. But you are more or less on the same level. But it so happens that at that particular moment or in that particular instance you are in a better position.

That's all. It doesn't mean that you are really better, but in that particular case you are in a better position. Now let's read Matthew 18.

Matthew 18 verse 15. But if thy brother sin against thee, go reprove him between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

But if he do not hear thee, take with thee one or two besides, that every matter may stand upon the word of two witnesses or of three. If your brother sin against you, you are equal. You are brother to brother.

But sometimes your brother sin against you instead of you sin against your brother. Oftentimes we sin against our brother. But there are times when our brother sin against us.

Oftentimes. What is it? Probably the best we do is, well, he is my brother. So what can I do to my brother? Try to forget him.

I'll try to forget him. We consider a great victory. I don't remember the exact words, but I think I read it in the writing of Campbell Morgan.

He said when he comments on this verse, something like this, the church has not practiced this. We think that if our brother should sin against us, the first reaction probably will be, you are my brother and you sin against me. I cannot forgive you.

If you are an unbeliever, of course you don't know anything better. I am in a more glorious position than you are so I have to forgive you. But if you are my brother, why should I forgive you? You have no right to sin against me.

You should know better. Now that probably will be our first reaction. Then our second reaction probably will be, well, after all he is my brother so let me forgive him.

Let me try to forget him. Probably that's as far as we go. Is there any discipline? No discipline.

No discipline. We are exhorted to exercise discipline on one another. If your brother sins against you, go.

Reprove him between me and him. You go. You take the initiative.

You do not wait and see, it's my brother who sins against me so he should come. Why should I go? He should come and apologize. But the Bible says, you go.

Why? Because he will not come. He is the one who sins. He is the one in darkness.

And being in darkness, he does not know. And he will remain in darkness if you don't go and reprove him and open his eyes. Will you allow your brother to live in darkness? That's not love.

So here you'll find again discipline comes from love. It is not that your brother sins against you therefore you go to him and reprove him and say, brother, you sin against me and try to vindicate yourself. No.

Don't do that. It is because you love your brother so much. You see your brother in darkness.

You are not considering yourself. You are considering your brother. Because you love your brother so much and he remains in darkness, he doesn't know to repent.

His fellowship with the Lord will interrupt it. And therefore out of love you go. You take the initiative.

You take the trouble. Discipline is very troublesome. You take the trouble to go and point it out to them.

But remember between you and me. When our brother sins against us, where will we go? We do go. But we go to other brothers and sisters.

We let everybody know except that brother. And you make the matter worse. But the Bible says you go to that brother.

You reprove him out of love. Not out of vindication. And try to instill and if he does not your duty is not finished yet.

He may not listen to you because you two are in a sense in trouble. Go and get one or two, two or three. One or two.

Of course the one or two or the one or two in the church. Not just everybody in the church. Not just those people who stand with you.

Because if you go with those people who stand with you your brother will never listen. Must be one or two brothers with sense. That brother will respect you.

If your brother do not respect you, probably he will respect these brothers. So get one or two others and go the second time. That is the second line.

You go the second time and tell your brothers and sisters this is brotherly discipline. A brother is disciplining trying to restore what a love relationship there is amongst them. But today we are much lacking in love.

We say we love our brothers but do we go into this trouble? Well, we are afraid to be misunderstood. But we are thinking of ourselves. We are not thinking of ourselves.

There is a case in the Bible. But it is an open case. Now there is a reason for it.

In Galatians chapter 2 you remember one instance. Peter came to Antioch. And Peter was a man with revelation.

God revealed to him that whosoever God has claimed shall know man's promise. And for that reason he went to Camellia's home. So in other words, Peter had a revelation that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

So when he came to Antioch he mingled himself with the Gentiles. He ate with the Gentiles according to the truth. According to the revelation he received.

According to the truth of the gospel. Some brothers came from Jerusalem from James. And you know James was very strict in keeping the law.

So these brothers came and Peter got frightened. He got frightened. So what were these brothers he thought with James that I Peter am eating with the Gentile believers.

So suddenly he got frightened. And he separated himself from the Gentile believers. And because he did that, such a big brother.

Even Barnabas. And you know what Paul did? Paul withstood Peter in public before his face. Paul did not talk about him behind his back.

Paul withstood him and said what you do is not right. Now why? Why did Paul do it openly? Because it is a matter of openness. So it is not just go to him alone.

That is the reason. But anyway you find here, Paul and Peter, they are in the same. Paul had no jurisdiction as it were, no authority over Peter.

Nor Peter over Paul. One is an apostle to the Jews. The other is an apostle to the Gentiles.

In a sense they are on the equal level. And yet even Paul who was younger he could discipline out of love. Out of truth.

And thank God Peter. Peter was delivered. And when Peter wrote his letter you find he even said our dear brother Paul there are many things he wrote that is not easy to understand.

But don't try to misunderstand it. It is the word of God. Dear brothers and sisters on the side of the brother who exercises the discipline it should be love.

It should be love. And on the side of the brother to be disciplined learn to submit to one another. Now brothers and sisters, this is something almost unseen today.

Why? Lack of love. Lack of love. If we really love one another with a pure love how can you allow a brother or a sister remain in darkness? You are concerned.

You care. You not only pray for them, you do everything you can to restore the discipline. Peter seemed to lose faith.

Old Peter. Challenged by young Paul in a sense. Who are you, Paul? When I am following the Lord you don't know him yet.

If we take that kind of attitude what will happen? Oh, how we need to submit ourselves as Paul said, one to another. Do nothing because you are more senior. Therefore it must be you who disciplines the others and not the other way around.

Maybe in a certain instance your brother is able to help. Maybe in more instances you may have you may be able to help your brother. Because it happens you are more spiritual than your brother.

But still there is the possibility of your being helped by your younger brother. How beautiful discipline is. It is just beautiful.

And then lastly there is what we call church discipline. Church discipline in a sense is the last reason. In a matter of discipline, it is those people who care for us.

Whom God has raised up to care for our state of welfare as fathers. But we despise their discipline. If we reject brotherly discipline then as a last resort Matthew 18 tells the church.

And the church will discipline that brother. And if he does not listen to the church, then you look at him as of the nation. In other words he is out of fellowship.

Why is he put out of fellowship? For the sake of bringing him to his senses that he may come back. You know brothers and sisters it may not be that clear today. But I believe in the early days when a person is saved, God delivers him out of the world and puts him in the church.

His whole life style is changed. His whole life relationship is changed. He no longer belongs to the world.

He now belongs to the family of God. And if he is put out of fellowship he is all alone. He cannot go back to the world.

He is out of fellowship in the church. He is all alone. And that brings him to his senses.

So here you'll find it is not because of hating him. It is trying to bring him to his senses with discipline. Because he cannot live by himself.

And he will come back. So brothers and sisters here in Matthew 18 that is what it is. It is church discipline.

It is the law he says. In 1 Corinthians 5 it is church discipline. Here you'll find it is something that is universally reported.

It is all known. It is not a hidden thing. And the church allows it to continue as if nothing happened.

So Paul says purge out the old leaven. The church has to rise up. Has to have a conscience before God.

Has to be sensitive before God. Purge out the old leaven. Drive out the wickedness.

Deliver him to Satan. To destroy him? To destroy him. If he is not repentant his body will be destroyed but his spirit will be saved.

If he is repentant even his body will be saved. And in 2 Corinthians you find this brother. And of course in Titus 3 you have the same thing.

In Titus 3 if anyone is heretic, is divisive in spirit warn him once or twice and he does not listen in Thessalonians you have the same thing. 2 Thessalonians 3 if anyone will not work Paul says and refuse to listen then you don't walk with him. Let him be alone until he is ashamed of himself and comes back.

So you find in the Bible these disciplines in the Bible. Oh brothers and sisters today there is no discipline in the Bible. Very little.

Why? Because there is a lack of spiritual authority. You cannot discipline without authority. Because if there is no authority no spiritual authority, who will listen to you? Oh that God will restore spiritual not traditional authority.

It is all spiritual authority. And if there is spiritual authority there in the church the church can exercise and discipline is a sure way. So here you find in the Bible there are three areas.

Fatherly discipline. It is based on spiritual authority. Brotherly discipline.

It comes out of love. And church discipline based on spiritual. And if you have these disciplines going on in the church brothers and sisters all the building will be going on.

And also other people. Many people dare not dare not because they know there will be discipline. Oh that the Lord will have mercy upon them.

Lord we tremble when we talk about discipline because we are not fit to exercise discipline nor to speak about discipline. Oh Lord forgive us. For the sake of the building of thy church we pray that thou will restore discipline in them.

Thou will raise up people with spiritual specialties who can be as thou. Thou will raise up brothers and sisters with such brotherly love that we may restore one another. Oh thou wilt put thy church in such spiritual authority that the discipline will be respected.

That people will be restored. Oh Lord restore discipline in thy church. We ask in the perfectness of our Lord Jesus.

Amen.