One of the most difficult aspects of church life is how to deal with those who create division and disorder in the body. People like this can come into any congregation and cause massive disruption in the normal life and order of the church. What should the response of the other members be? How should the elders of the church respond?

This session is titled Dealing with the Disorderly and we're dealing with a very specific text this morning. It's 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 6 through 15. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jason Dome. I've been the husband of the lovely Janet for 24 years. God has given us six children ages 20 to 9.

One of them is married as of a month ago. I've been born again for three decades or something like that. I've been an elder for a decade and I've been full-time in service to the church where I serve, which is Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, which meets about 10 minutes from here. So that's who I am. I also wanted to begin by giving you a personal history related to church discipline.

Scott and I have been in the same churches for 24 years now. So for the first 20 of those years, I think this is right, I didn't consult with Scott, but I think we saw two excommunications over the first 20 years. Those are the only instances I can remember of something coming to the surface enough to be dealt with at the church level. Over the last four years, we've seen seven cases of church discipline. Not all coming to the point of excommunication but all coming at least to the point where it needed to be dealt with at a public and a church level.

I think Scott and Dan and I would say over those four years as we dealt with these seven cases, we've gained a level of experience we never wanted to have. But we would also look back and say that God has taught us a lot through us. He's helped us to grow up and he's wiser. He's wiser than we are. Number one, there was a man in the church.

He started a ministry. He committed sexual misconduct in the middle of that ministry. Number two, there was a case of adultery. Number three, there was a case of counter-adultery, the other spouse saying marriage. Number four, there was a man who was working in a business and stole a sizable amount of money from that business.

Number five, there was an elder that we had sent out to plant a church. He subsequently stole tens of thousands of dollars over a three-year period from that church. By the way, if you're squeamish about me saying this in our meeting, we're going to help you with that. Number six, there was sexual misconduct within a family. Number seven, there was the theft of 20 to 40 laptops from a major carrier over the period of a year.

I hope this feels like a barrage as I name these off. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Because it felt like a barrage to us. Two of these ended in excommunications. The rest were resolved short of that.

I hesitate to say that they were resolved successfully because there's still various levels of fallout from all of them. But they were successful in that at least sin wasn't swept under the rug and things that were done in darkness were brought to the light and dealt with. At least it was successful. These were successful in that sense. During the course of these seven cases we learned a couple of things.

First we learned this, if outsiders think that family integrated churches skim the cream off of the top of other churches in order to have a lily white existence, either they're misinformed or they're crazy or they're both. That is not the reality of family integrated churches. We have the same problems and we're sinners being sanctified by grace and we have the same kind of sins you see in any other church in any other part of the country or world. Second thing we learned was that though we were a seasoned elder team coming into this season, meaning we had been an elder, each of us had been an elder for a period of years that we didn't know nearly as much as we thought we knew. We found Matthew 18 to be very wonderful and to be very helpful, but we also found that we needed the breadth of the New Testament, the whole breadth.

Matthew 18 by itself was not enough for the seven cases that we encountered. So we're gonna come to this text now with that being the introduction and let's come to the text praying. God we come to you for help. We don't come proud. We know that we don't know all that we need to deal with these things among your people in a way that would honor you.

And so now we're crying out to you God that you would come among us and help us to understand your word more sufficiently, better. Come and teach us Lord. We long to sit at the feet of your Son and be taught the things that we need to know to love your people well. I pray that it would be so in Jesus' name, Amen. If you don't already have your Bibles open to 2 Thessalonians, please open them.

Again, we'll be in 2 Thessalonians, it's the final chapter of this letter, chapter 3, beginning in verse 16 and reading through 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6, but we command you brethren In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority but to make ourselves as an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread but as for you brethren do not grow weary in doing good and if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle note that person and do not keep company with him that he may be ashamed.

Yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother." This is such a rich text. So I believe this to be the structure of this text and I'm going to divide it into these three parts. The first part is verse 6 by itself where the command is given. The second section is verses 7 through 13 where Paul gives the grounds or rationale for the command and he gives specific counsel related to the command. And then the final section is verses 14 and 15 where the command is repeated and some really helpful necessary clarifications are given.

So that's the roadmap for the rest of our time is to break this into these three sections and look at them in detail. Okay, so now back with Bible in hand. Let's look again at verse 6. I want to read it again and then talk about it. But we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us." In this verse we have the command and it's given in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So you know by the fact that he's saying he's commanding that it's authoritative, but he piles onto that by saying he's doing this, giving this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now who is the command from? Chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, Silvanus or Silas and Timothy. That is the we in our text. It was the command 2, chapter 1, verse 1, to the church of the Thessalonians.

That's the you in our text. So we command you. Paul, Silas, and Timothy commands the church of the Thessalonians. This is very significant. This is not a personal letter from me to you, from one person to another person.

This is from three men of God to a church of believers. So when our text says we command you brethren, this is to the church. Consider what Paul says in Colossians chapter 4 verse 16. When this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So there's an expectation when Paul writes a letter to the church there is an expectation that it will be read corporately, delivered to all together, and that it will be shared with others.

And I believe that the clear implication on the text that we're looking at in detail is that this is more than personal action being called for, meaning that it's more than I have a personal observation about you, and so I take an action that others may or may not take. It's not that. It's corporate, and I'm going to develop that more later, but that's very important. It's central to the meaning of this text. What is the command?

Withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly. That is the command. I want to take this in bits. We're just going to break this up into the smallest units. The first two words, withdraw from.

The NASB and the ESV and the NIV render it, keep away from. It is a keeping away from. The Greek means to remove oneself, to withdraw oneself, to abstain from familiar intercourse from one. Okay? So we're—we used to engage in familiar intercourse.

We were close. There really weren't many boundaries. We were free to do so many things together and it's now abstaining from that level of personal intercourse. It's to disentangle. Think of the wonderful tangling that happens among the people of God.

Isn't it wonderful how this works and we get all tangled up in the local church and that's as it ought to be. Our lives touch at a hundred different points. Praise the Lord. God intended it to be that way. So we're intertwined and this is an unwinding of that.

We're backing up from the tangling that goes on in a healthy church. And this is married with verse 14 later in our text. We're not dealing with that specifically now, but it's the same concept, do not keep company with. So I'm saying these are the same thing. To withdraw from is to not keep company with.

Now the Greek behind not keeping company with has to do with literally, in the Greek it means to mix up with, you're not doing that anymore. You used to mix up, you used to tangle up with and you're not doing that anymore. Now pulling that phrase from Verse 14, do not keep company with, this is the same language as 1 Corinthians 5 which we just studied. Listen again to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 11. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, exact same construction, not to keep company with, who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person.

So in 1 Corinthians 5 we see an overlapping between these two kinds of disciplines. That shouldn't surprise us. There are some things that are the same between the two and some things that are different. One of the things that is the same is that you don't keep company with, and that includes not eating with them. That's explicit in 1 Corinthians 5.

Here's a verse that reinforces that. In Galatians 2, Paul opposes Peter to his face and here's a verse from that text, Galatians 2.12. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles, But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision." So Peter's doing it wrongly in Galatians 2, but he's withdrawing and he won't eat with them. And what Peter's doing wrongly in Galatians 2 Paul and Silas and Timothy say you should rightly do that towards those who are walking in a disorderly manner. It's the same concept.

So withdraw from was the first two words. The next two words are every brother. That's who you're withdrawing from. Every brother. These are people who can and should be viewed as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Again at the end of our text, verse 15, it explicitly says to treat them this way. You don't treat them as an enemy, but you admonish them as what? As a brother. So they have not lost their status as being regarded as a brother or sister in Christ. And it's every brother, meaning this must not be observed with partiality every brother, the friend of the elder as well as the known church headache Easy to withdraw and not keep company with the elders good friend.

But it's every brother if you meet the criteria for walking in a disorderly manner then we withdraw from you then we don't keep company with you without partiality. The next two words, who walks. Withdraw from every brother who walks. This is manner of life. This is pattern of life.

This is what characterizes you. This is not a bad day where you didn't make your bed. Who walks? Who has a certain pattern of life that characterizes them. Final word, disorderly.

That's how they walk. That is the pattern of their life. It's a disorderly pattern of life, disorderly manner of life. They're characterized, their life is characterized by disorder. NASB renders this leads an unruly life.

So instead of disorderly, NASB renders it unruly. It's not a dissolute life with openly scandalous sin so these are not 1st Corinthians 5 sins where you look at it and you say this is easy you're out for the testimony of the church but it's a brother whose life is persistently disorderly persistently unruly he has a life that is out of step with the Christian testimony. That's what Paul and Silas and Timothy are getting at in this text. So Paul will give an example, we're coming to the specific example that he gives, and it's someone who doesn't work, but he doesn't start with the narrow. He starts with the broad, disorderly, unruly, And then he further develops this by saying, by defining disorderly, unruly, not according to the tradition which he received from us.

Now Look back at chapter 2 verse 15. This helps us to understand what he's talking about when he says the tradition that has been received. Therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught whether by word or our epistle. So we learn about the traditions in the same book, chapter 2, verse 15. These are traditions that are taught, not just observed, and they've been taught by word.

Paul has preached them and they've been taught by epistle. Paul has written about them. These are not the vain traditions of men in any shape, form, or fashion that Jesus condemns in the Gospels. They are inspired, authoritative, apostolic teaching and pattern. That's what he's talking about in our text the traditions that were received from Paul are inspired and authoritative and apostolic teaching and pattern.

So they're bound to these traditions. That's why in verse 14 of our text He says, and if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him. So this is authoritative. This is not we give gifts on birthdays kind of traditions. This is apostolic authority.

Paul actually in the closing verses of chapter 3 says I signed this. It has the stamp of apostolic approval. That's verse 6. Now let's look at 7 through 13. I want to read it again and then talk about it beginning in verse 7.

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner not working at all but are busybodies now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. But as for you brethren, do not grow weary in doing good." In this section Paul gives the grounds or the rationale for the commandment and he gives them specific counsel about an example of what it would mean to walk disorderly or to have an unruly life. And for the sake of time I'm just going to warn you I'm cheating this section.

Okay, there's a careful exegesis of this section would require more time than I have to say the other things that I think should be said. So I'm gonna narrow this to the bearing I think it has on the topic at hand today, church discipline. Here's the thrust of the argument. Christians live in a certain way and so Paul's saying I gave you a pattern. I showed you how Christians live.

And this hearkens to 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1 where Paul says, Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. That's exactly what's happening in our text. Paul says, I have my eyes on Jesus. I've learned to walk like He walked. Now you put your eyes on me and learn to walk like I walk.

We lived among you and we left a pattern. It's how Christians live. So the details of your life might be different, but the characteristics of your life ought to be the same and part of that is that there's a direction towards order in your life. In the life of a Christian there's a direction, there's a trajectory towards order, not towards disorder. It is unchristian to have a trajectory of life away from order towards disorder.

But it's distinctively Christian to have a trajectory of life away from disorder towards order. And this is, Paul modeled this among them so a persistently disorderly life is unacceptable for the Christian And he gives us a specific example. It's the person who won't work. It's the moocher. It's the person who acts busy but is really just in other people's business.

That is a disorderly life. That's an unruly life. And it's not a small thing. In 1 Timothy 5, Paul says that if you don't provide for the members of your own household, you're worse than an unbeliever. In 2 Thessalonians 3 in our text, he says They won't even provide for themselves.

This is not what we would think of as a low-level sin, this is a very serious matter. This is not how Paul lived, and when Paul lived among them in that way, he wasn't modeling super Christianity, he was modeling Christianity. And it's how they must live. And it's a great example, but it was never intended by the Apostle Paul to be an exhaustive list, okay? Know that about 2 Thessalonians 3.

Disorderliness, unruliness of life is not limited to just a guy who won't work and eat his own bread. It's an example of a broader category of disorder and unruliness. So what might be some others? Jesus said, let your yes be yes and your no, no. For a person who's always missing their commitments, I don't mean late to a couple of meetings.

I mean can't ever be counted on to deliver on their word. They're out of order. They have a disorderly life. They live an unruly life. For the husband who nurtures his hobbies to the neglect of his family, he's out of order.

Talking about pattern of life. I don't mean he played golf once when he should have been home with his family. I mean a pattern of nurturing his hobbies while neglecting his family that's out of order that's unruly the church should act on that a person living in squalor when you cross their property line you start encountering the refuse all the way to the porch and in the house it looks like an episode of Hoarders. That's out of order. That's not a Christian life.

And we could multiply the examples, but the point is it's a life that's significantly inconsistent with the pattern of life for a Christian. That's the point. Someone who lives a life that is significantly inconsistent with the pattern of life for a Christian. Not a super Christian, a Christian. Paul tells them not to coddle disorder but to confront it.

This is very important for our churches. We are not to coddle disorder and unruly lives. We are to confront disorder and unruly lives. In the specific example in the text, if a person doesn't work, the person doesn't eat. You let them go hungry.

You don't rush into rescue. You say you get the reward from your laziness. Oh, there is no reward from laziness? Well, that's what you get. That's what's on the table for you tonight.

So the unruliness, the disorders not to be coddled or enabled, you're to command them to live like a Christian. It's very simple. You're to command them to live like a Christian. Now Paul's done that. He references that in the text.

He says, even when I was with you I told you if someone won't work he shouldn't eat. So he's referencing earlier warnings. Now flip back to 1 Thessalonians. We've been studying his second letter but in his first letter he's already given this warning. Look in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 Verse 10, go about halfway through the verse.

First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 10b, But we urge you brethren, that you increase more and more, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you that you may walk properly toward those who are outside and that you may lack nothing." Now look at chapter 5, verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. So he's already instructed the people in the church, 1 Thessalonians has the same audience, it's to the church of the Thessalonians. So he's written to these people before and he's already told them that they should work for their own bread. And he's already told the church to warn the unruly.

So This is not a nuclear strike at the first sign of trouble. This is not smashing a gnat with a sledgehammer. He's warned the people previously to work, earn, eat your own bread, work in quietness, mind your own business, and he's already told the church, warned the unruly, and now he hears a report that these warnings have been disregarded and so he's escalating. It's not a nuclear strike at the first sign of trouble. This must in our churches start with Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 and 2.

Brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, our text doesn't contradict any of that. It presupposes that all of that is in operation that when someone is caught in a trespass, those who are spiritual go and they attempt to reclaim them in a spirit of gentleness.

Clearly the disorderly, the unruly are given an opportunity to right the ship before the church withdraws. It's not, I notice I don't have anything to do with you. Not at all. That's not what's being taught. Paul's already given the warnings.

There's already evidence that the warnings have been disregarded. What Paul is commanding and advocating for in this text should be preceded by a patient process of warnings, but not too patient. Verses 14 and 15. Let's look at the last section of our text. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him that he may be ashamed.

Yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother. So here in these last two verses, the command is repeated and clarified in some important ways, in some ways that I'm really glad he addresses. We need all the data in verses 14 and 15 for sure. This is what we saw up in verse 6. The command to withdraw from with disorderly brothers and disorder was defined as not living according to the apostolic tradition.

That's what we saw in verse 6. So here in verse 14, we have someone who doesn't obey their word. That's the same thing we saw in verse 6. And we have the command not to keep company with. That's the same as we saw in verse 6.

This is a repetition. So the core elements are the same. There are a few nuances here that are very helpful and clear up some important matters. Here's the first one, this edition, Note. Note is not in verse 6, it is in verse 14.

Note the person. The Greek means to mark, to note, to distinguish by marking. It's only used here in the New Testament. This is not just a personal observation. It is a corporate denotation.

Important to your understanding of what it means. Note could mean personal observation. Note to self. Here's a disorderly person. No, that's not what's being taught here.

What's being taught here is a corporate denotation. So we agree together that this label fits this man. It's a marking in the church. This is a unified position of the church for the glory of God and the good of the person. Are you with me?

Does that make sense? It's a unified position of the church. The church is saying you brother are disorderly. You brother have an unruly life. You've lived an unruly life among us.

We have observed it and for the glory of God and for your own good we are withdrawing from you. The second clarification is we're given the expected result that he may be ashamed. Can you believe this is in the New Testament? I thought the New Testament was all about grace. It is about grace.

It is about grace. And this stops, this Paul saying this stops endless whining. Like you're being merciless. You're shaming them. Yes!

Well, no and yes. No, we're not being merciless. Yes, we are shaming them. Because sin is shameful. Sin ought to be shameful among the Lord's people.

It's unfitting for the Lord's people. Persistent sin in our lives is shameful. We've been set free from the power of sin. We don't have to live persistently like that. So it's a declaration by the church, Christians live in this way, you live in that way.

And we're fundamentally changing our relationship with you until you act like a Christian Calvin says this shame like sorrow is a useful preparation for the hatred of sin That's a great comment on this text. That he may be ashamed and Calvin says shame makes you ready to hate sin. That's what they need. They're being given what they need. The church is given the disorderly man, the unruly man, what he needs, what she needs.

Something that makes him or her ready to hate sin. They're being taught to hate it. We need to learn to hate it. God hates it. We should share His mind and His heart about our sin.

We should love righteousness and hate sin. And the action by the church, the noting and withdrawing, has this additional function that we also see in 1 Timothy 5 verse 20. 1 Timothy 5 verse 20 is about an elder who it's been verified was in sin and it's about the public rebuke of that elder And we read this in 1 Timothy 5.20, those who are sinning, the elders who are sinning, rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. When you are ashamed by being noted and withdrawn from for your disorderly life, I sit up straighter. It has this function and it's a good function in a church.

We shouldn't think it's the end of the world that someone would feel ashamed for their sin. It's good for them and it's good for me. Here's the third thing we see in these last two verses. Verse 15, yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother. Now 1 Corinthians 5 was about a different kind of circumstance regarding a different kind of sin.

It says, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3 says this isn't like that. Okay, This is not the turning over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. They keep their status as a brother or sister in Christ actually gives us liberty to relate in a very different way than an excommunicated person. You have many freedoms to relate with this brother or sister even though you are withdrawing and not keeping company with and noting those things are all true and plain in the text but you still have the freedoms to relate with them in certain ways that you would not be free to relate with an excommunicated person.

I'll talk more about that in a minute, but that's very important. Here endeth the exposition. Now I have some additional observations to make. Five observations. Number one, what it means and doesn't mean to withdraw and not keep company with.

I want to try to draw those lines. At least give some helpful thoughts. I hope they'll be helpful. What it means and doesn't mean to withdraw or not keep company with. It does mean no chumming around.

That's one of the beautiful entanglements with the people of Christ is that we have the ability to have such a familiar intercourse, such a camaraderie. Chumming around is the unsanctified way to describe that. We're not doing that when we withdraw and when we don't keep company with. We can have time with them, but it must be intentional time. It must be focused time on helping them make progress in the faith.

They have to make progress in the faith. They can't stay the same. And so it is a fundamental change of the nature of our relationship with them until they start living like a Christian. So my time with him or my time with her has to be much more intentional than it used to be, much more focused on their progress in the faith than it used to be. It does mean no eating together, that's so clear from 1st Corinthians 5 and from Galatians 2 where we saw Peter wrongly withdrawing and not eating with.

So no meals, no meeting for coffee. That means no Lord's Supper. Brothers and sisters, That means no Lord's Supper. Now there's debate about that, but there should not be debate about that when you read 1 Corinthians 11. It is a meal.

Yeah our Church doesn't observe it that way either. But don't let our current shortfall in practice make us think wrongly to think, what's the big deal? The Lord's Supper at the time when Paul is giving this exhortation is the time of most intimate communion among the people of God. So if anything's off limits, that's off limits. What it doesn't mean to withdraw or not keep company with.

Amish shunning. This is not amish shunning. You can make eye contact. You should make eye contact. You must make eye contact.

You can and should and must have a cheerful disposition. I'm not saying you can have a trivial disposition. I'm saying this is not a requirement to be dour towards. Not at all. We don't have to be posturally punitive.

That's a new term I'm coining today. Your posture doesn't have to punish them, your body language doesn't have to express displeasure and disapproval every minute of every day. That's not what the Apostle Paul is teaching. It doesn't mean you can't engage in discipleship. You should admonish him as a brother.

There should be encouragement and ongoing rebukes as they're necessary as you would a brother or sister in Christ. Discipleship can be engaged in certain ways. Number two, what it means and doesn't mean to walk disorderly. What it means and doesn't mean to walk disorderly. It does mean Having a deeply entrenched pattern of life that is disorderly in a way that is blatantly un-Christian.

That's what this text is talking about. A deeply entrenched pattern of life, so you see it over and over again that's disorderly in a way that is blatantly unchristian like not working and eating other people's foods and running around acting busy when you're just in other people's business. That is blatantly unchristian behavior. If that's deeply entrenched in your pattern of life, then you're disorderly and you're unruly and the church should take action against you. What it doesn't mean is occasional instances of disorder.

There are two men in the room who are staying with me. You probably noticed my bushes need trimmed. I don't want to hear how you can't have lunch with me. That's not what this means. Sanctification is progressive, and sometimes it's slow, and we should be patient with one another.

But what we are being taught in the text is that sometimes a life becomes blatantly un-Christian and then it's time to withdraw. But it doesn't mean that we now have no concept of progressive sanctification and we have no patience for others that is in any sort of correspondence with the patience that God has shown to us. Always keep that in view. Number three, There is a gradation in the New Testament teaching on church discipline. We're seeing that in 2 Thessalonians 3.

It's not all or nothing. It's not excommunication or the church just ignores sin. It's not that. That is not the New Testament testimony. Here the New Testament testimony in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 is that we're given something that will hopefully keep a brother or a sister from excommunication.

It is a checkpoint on the way to bring them back into the fold, to have them feel ashamed for disorderliness and unruliness in their life so that it is stopped and reversed and everything goes back to normal and excommunication is never a part of the discussion. This is a gift to us to stop that, Hopefully. There's a gradation in the New Testament teaching. It's not all or nothing. It's not excommunication or don't worry about it, obviously.

Number four, I want to give you a case study. A year and a half ago we had a young man in our congregation with a disorderly life, so disorderly that he had to be removed from his home. The elders met with the church and informed the church of the issues that had caused the need for this young man to be expelled from his home. And not at that meeting but shortly after the elders recommended this action based on 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 that we withdraw from Him, that we not keep company with Him, including Him no longer being welcome to the Lord's Supper, our inability to eat with Him, a fundamental change in the nature of our relationship with Him, and we scheduled a vote. And on the Lord's Day, after the service, we brought the recommendation, and the voting members of the church voted, do you vote to withdraw and not keep company with and to bar him from the Lord's stable?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes, He's there. He's on the second row. He's hearing all of his brothers say, we're changing our relationship with you. He's being marked and noted.

It was unanimous and so he heard a unanimous testimony of the church that Christians live like this, you've lived like that, we're changing our relationship with you until your life matches the life of a Christian, not a super Christian, a Christian. I was the closest to this young man among the elders, and so I was able to engage in intentional discipleship activities for a year. I met with him every week and we just kept reading through good books. I would pray for him and we would pray together. Now a man who had been excommunicated previous to that had asked to do the same thing and I had said, no way.

I'm not at liberty to do that with you because our relationship with the excommunicated is different than our relationship with someone who's disorderly and unruly and marked by the church to be so. I believe, based on scripture, I had the freedom to do this with this young man, to admonish him as a brother in these ways with very intentional time, very focused time. It was not chumming around. We were not eating. It was not familiar intercourse.

It was discipleship. But I was to regard him as a brother. And during the course of the year, he brought his life into order. And we had another vote. Do you vote to welcome this brother back in and bring him back to the Lord's table.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and it was unanimous and he came back into the church. It was a beautiful victory. It was a victory. Number five, the big picture of church discipline. I think this is the big picture.

I think we all kinds, all the gradations that we see in the New Testament I think God is saying to the disciplined one give me my blessings back It is a privilege to be the Lord's. You don't trample on that. It is a privilege to be among the Lord's people. There are so many sweetnesses to being among the Lord's people in an unrestricted way and you don't trample on that and when you want to build a life that straddles so that you have the forbidden pleasures of the world and yet enjoy the privileges of the people of God. God says give me that back until you decide what you want to be.

Wow that sounded really Armenian didn't it? Oh well. You can't have the privileges if you're not willing to follow Jesus. The privileges are for those who follow Jesus and you wanted to straddle and you built a life straddling with one foot in both worlds so God takes your foot out of his world okay and he brings those privileges back in and either you miss them and it's crushing to you in a way that makes you ashamed and makes you ready to hate sin and it leads to a change in life and the church embraces you or you say forget this. Then what?

So you've taken the action, you've withdrawn, you won't keep company with, you've marked them out as disorderly and unruly. Then what? What do they choose? How do they react to that? You might be on a path to the next step to excommunication.

You might be. But you are likely to be, if they're really a brother or sister in Christ, on a path to repentance and freedom in an area where they were living in bondage. They shouldn't have been. They didn't have to be. But they were living in bondage, and now they're free.

So you take this action, and you see, do they kick against the goads? Or do they embrace the discipline of God? Let's pray. Oh, God, your word is so good. It's so rich.

Tells us all the things we need to know. Not a person in this room would have dreamed up what you've given us. We would have had such different thoughts. Your ways are higher than our ways. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

As far as the heavens are above the earth. Thank you for giving us your ways and your thoughts. May we be happy to submit to them. May we delight to do your will. May it be our food.

Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. I invite you to visit our website at www.ncfic.org where you can keep up to date on what is new, as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge. The NCFIC exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life. You