Keeping the Virus Out of the Church

All right, if you would take
your Bible and take your Bible. I’m not
going to tell you where just yet. I promise we will open our
Bibles and use them plentifully today. But if you just have your
Bible in your lap for a moment, we’ll get there. One year ago,
almost to the day. March 22nd of 2020, I preached
the message that I need to sort of revisit this morning. I knew that this message was
important and would be enduring because it was oriented from
God’s word. But just one year later, I see
that the significance of this message has remarkably increased
in that one-year period of time. That message was my final sermon
in the book of James. You might remember it. It was
the second of a two-part message on James 5, 19 and 20. That passage, as you may recall,
is one of several passages that deals with the very delicate
subject of confronting a brother in his sin. James addressed it
like this. James 5 19 and 20 just said,
My brethren, if any of among you strays from the truth and
one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from
the error of his way will save his soul from death and will
cover a multitude of sins. Now, my title for that message
was confronting the pandemic. dealing effectively with life’s
most deadly virus, that of sin. And this was my introduction
exactly one year ago. Quote, I really don’t want to
make light of this, this Corona virus, less affectionately known
as COVID-19. No one really knows how bad it
is. how many people will become infected,
how our economy will be affected, what kind of social, political
upheavals there may be. The situation is already serious. This week, you may have read
the CDC’s rather gloomy outlook regarding this sickness. They
forecasted a worst case scenario that up to 160 million Americans
could become infected and as many as 1.7 million could die
if this disease were to go unchecked. So For those of you who enjoy
reading those kinds of reports and trafficking in that kind
of statistical analysis, you would have to agree that less
than 1% mortality rate is really not that bad. Not so bad, really,
when you consider that there is another disease that has infected
every person ever born already. And if it isn’t dealt with, It
will result in death. That disease, of course, is the
disease called sin. Now, here’s my point. In our
all-out effort given to mitigating an outbreak of a physical disease,
a virus, ought we not be infinitely more concerned with a spiritual
disease with which we know We are already infected, end quote. And with that, we launched into
our consideration of the passage James 5, 19 and 20. And as I indicated a moment ago,
James is really just one of several places where the subject of confronting
a brother’s sin is addressed. Listen to how plentifully and
directly and consistently the subject is presented. Just listen. Matthew 18, 15. If your brother
sins, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to
you, you have won your brother. Romans 16, verse 17. Now I urge
you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions
and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you have learned
and turn away from them. Galatians 6.1. Brethren, even
if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore
such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself.
And there’s 1 Timothy 5.19 and 20, and Titus 3.10, and 1 Thessalonians
5.14, and 2 Thessalonians 3.6, which essentially echo those
same admonitions. Like I said, We heard this exhortation
from James exactly one year ago. The message title, Confronting
the Pandemic. It was absolutely then an intentional
double entendre because I was acknowledging the health scare
that had only just erupted. We men had just returned from
the Shepherds Conference. where 6,000 men gathered worshiping
and fellowshipping and singing side by side for three full days.
And so we were a little bit surprised to see our attendance limited
by the state to 250, which didn’t affect us. And then they reduced
it to 50, which was a pinch. And so we went to two services
and then they reduced it to 10. And as you will recall, we went
to 5 10 person services for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t sustainable. And then came the masks and then
came the distancing and all the rest. Two weeks to flatten the
curve almost a year ago. But again, while acknowledging
this historical health scare, my title also pointed to a far
more deadly virus, a virus that has already affected every person
ever born, a virus that is deadly, a virus called sin. And we thoroughly interacted
with James 5, 19 and 20. And so the year unfolded and
I along the way became a little bit alarmed. Because we heard and considered
this clear admonition from scripture that we as believers are tasked
with turning a brother back from the error of his way. And that
in so doing, we will save his soul from death and cover a multitude
of sins. There’s a lot at stake there.
It’s our brother’s soul. Surely, if that’s the case, then
we must be found faithful in our own responsibility in the
matter, right? Unfortunately, that is usually
not the case. Even though we heard and considered
this clear admonition from scripture, I have caused to wonder about
our own faithfulness as a church to watch over one another. Typically, this Christian duty,
this practice of caring for our brother’s spiritual well-being,
which ought to be a feature of our Christianity, for some reason
often goes undone. And I wondered why. And I’d like us to consider that
question this morning. Why is it so common a thing that
we do not address sin in our brothers lives? And so for a
sermon title this morning, exactly one year later, I would propose
a sermon title something like this. Keeping the virus out of
the church. with the same double entendre,
acknowledging the coronavirus thing is still hanging around. We have to sit apart from one
another. But ultimately, I’m pointing here to the supremely
more deadly virus of sin. How do we keep sin out of the
church? And in order to help examine
ourselves, I thought we might just consider a few of those
verses that admonish us to practice this care for one another of
our Christian friends. And in so doing, I want to ask
some basic, really basic questions of each of the passages that
I want to look at. Who? When? What? How and why? Who is being addressed? Who is directed to do a thing?
Who is the person being spoken to? When? When do they go? When do they respond? When do
they spring into action? What? What are they to do? What does the writer or the speaker
ask or even command them to do? How? How are they to proceed? What are the particulars of this
delicate task? Why? Why are they asked to do
this? And so I would like you to turn
back to Matthew chapter 18 verse 15. Matthew chapter 18 verse 15 and I want to I want you to notice
of this verse right off the bat regarding our first question
of this passage who is being directed who’s being asked or
commanded to do a thing And here in Matthew chapter 18 we would
see that in context in verse 1 that Jesus is speaking to his
disciples, but he’s quite obviously setting forth an enduring principle,
a practice that is to be perpetuated in the church for all time. And so the who that is addressed
broadens dramatically, doesn’t it? Jesus leaves the offender here
very vague. He just says, your brother. In
a sense, it’s a hypothetical situation. But he says, and so
we conclude that this is any Christian brother going to another
Christian brother or sister. It’s not limited to the elders
of the church. That’s my point. And when do
they respond? When do they spring into action? Or as Jesus says it here, when
do they go? Simple. When someone sins. If your brother sins. If your
brother sins, go. Now most times, believers indwelt
by God’s spirit, nourished on God’s word, are going to be immediately
convicted by their sin. Keep short accounts. Confess
your sin. We start every worship service
the same way. There usually isn’t need of a
brother or sister to address it because we’ve already responded
to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, right? But there are those times where a brother sins and sadly,
Excuses are made, deceit sets in, the conscience is hardened,
and there is no response to conviction. The person has become convinced
that his sin is not sin. And this is where the brother
must step in. But what are they to do? Look
at the text. Look at Christ’s own words. He
tells them what to do. Such a brother in such a situation
is to go and show him his fault. And I take that to mean ultimately
he’s to open the scriptures and to show him the truth about what
he’s doing and to call him to repentance. But that sounds so very mild
to our ears, doesn’t it? Go and show him his fault. But
this word is much stronger than it’s translated here in the NAS.
Elsewhere it’s translated, Luke 3.19, reprimand. Convict, John
16. Expose, John 3.20 and Ephesians
5.11. Do not participate in the unfruitful
deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. It’s even translated reprove
or rebuke elsewhere. Here’s the bottom line. It’s
not just that we casually go to our brother and say, oh, by
the way, did you notice this about yourself? This brother observing his fellow
Christian engaged in obvious sin goes to him to reason with
him and admonish him and appeal to him to turn away from such
sin. To repent. And while you’re there looking
at the passage, look at the how. How does this brother go? Jesus
says in private. He doesn’t blab it through all
the church. and let this guy find out secondhand. He doesn’t
spread it around under the auspices of seeking counsel, spreading
it to nine or 10 other people before he ever goes to his brother.
And when he goes, he doesn’t attack him in a crowd of people.
There may be occasion for a more public meeting in the future,
but not now. Not yet. Not initially. Here it’s man to man or woman
to woman, believer to believer, brother to brother. It’s private.
This gives the brother, the offender, the best possible opportunity
for repentance. Before pride sets in and great
numbers of people become privy to the situation. Why do all this? Why put yourself
through all this hassle? Jesus tells us why. Look at Matthew
18, 15 once again. Why go? Because if he listens
to you, you have won your brother. Did you catch that? If this wayward sinning brother
listens to you, if he receives you as his brother, understands
your concern, responds to God’s word, you’ve won your brother. You’ve turned him from error
back to the path of righteousness. And if you’ve ever been part
of such an event, you know that there is almost nothing sweeter right up there with sinner’s
initial conversion to Christ. To see someone in sin repudiated
by God’s grace and resume their walk with Christ, there’s nothing
more thrilling than that. Okay, so that’s Matthew 18. Does the next passage teach us
something altogether different? Turn to Romans 16 verse 17. Let’s see. Romans 16. Scroll all the way down to verse
17. Well, right off the bat, Paul
identifies his target here. He tells us the who who is being
addressed. It’s his brethren. It’s very
general. It’s not just the elders of the
church. It’s not just an apostle who
might have been there, but it’s the brethren, the Christians
who are at Rome, men and women. This is an important point that
we will notice again and again and again as we go through more
verses. Those responsible to address
their brother’s sin are the brothers or the more archaic here, the
brethren. Well, when do they go? When do they respond? Look at
the passage. I urge you, brethren, keep your
eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances. When a brother
observes another brother engaged in dissensions and hindrances,
he goes, he responds. Paul knew firsthand the destructive
nature of these dissensions. It was literally a standing apart. Those who begin the process of
division in the church, they stand apart in order to draw
others away with them. They’re factious. The word for
hindrance here is equally ugly. It’s the word from which we derive
our word, our English word, scandal. Their scandalous sin throws a
roadblock before other believers, an obstacle to their own pursuit
of Christ-likeness. J.C. Ryle. said this of scandalous
sin, professing Christians cause offense. Whenever they bring
discredit on their testimony by inconsistencies of temper,
word, or deed, we do it whenever we make our Christianity unlovely
in the eyes of the world by conduct not in keeping with our profession. So what are faithful believers
to do with such a man? Paul says simply, keep your eye
on them. Keep your eye, watch them. And if the behavior persists, he
says, turn away from them. Turn away from them. You certainly
don’t want to participate in their dissensions and hindrances. Instead, he says, avoid them. Literally, the word means to
bow out of the conversation. or even bow out of the relationship. And that sounds so harsh. Why
would we do this to a professing Christian brother? Look at verse
18. Paul provides the reason for
this shocking demand. For such men are slaves, not
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own appetites. And by
their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the
unsuspecting. They’re deceptive. Such men are
deceivers in your midst. That’s why Paul says, keep your
eye. And if they persist, avoid them
completely. Paul addresses the matter of
our brother’s sin in Galatians chapter six as well. Would you
turn there? Galatians six, verse one. And here, immediately, Paul identifies
those whom he’s addressing, not elders, not some apostle, not
even some special subset of leadership within the church, a couple of
guys who are faithful, But brethren, very general, believers in Christ. And when do they move? When do
they respond? Note again, when someone sins. I see a pattern here. When someone
sins, when Paul says here, if anyone is caught in any trespass,
we go. This word trespass is a very
informative word. It refers to stepping over the
line of some boundary. Translated in the NAS, either
as trespass or transgression, whereas sin, the more general
word, speaks of an offense against God which results in estrangement
from him, transgression zeroes in. on the particular offense,
the very specific law that has been violated. Transgression
points to a violation that results ultimately in a departure from
the course of righteousness. So a brother in this situation
is in very, a very bad situation. And so when we find a brother
in such a condition, we are to go. Paul says here to restore
such a one. This word too is a graphic one.
We came across the word most recently in what I consider a
life-changing passage for me personally, 1 Corinthians 1.10.
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all agree and there be no divisions among you, but
that you be made complete in the same mind and the same purpose.
That word made complete, that’s our word here. Restored. The gospel writers use it when
they capture the scene of the soon to be called disciples fishing. Remember, they were mending their
nets. They were restoring their nets.
Jesus himself used this word to speak of a student who is
fully trained. When Paul uses the word, it varies
in significance from prepared to restored. Here, Paul uses the word to speak
of a sinning, wayward brother that is placed back on the path
by his loving friend. He says that a godly spiritual
brother should restore such a one. And to this, Paul includes the
how, doesn’t he? Look at the passage. How are
they to go about such a delicate task of addressing a brother
in his sin? He says that this is to be done
in a spirit of gentleness, not brashly, not harshly, not arrogantly,
but gently as is becoming of a Christian. It’s interesting
here that Paul doesn’t provide a reason why to confront our
brother. It’s almost a given. Instead,
he provides a reason why we go in gentleness. And this is instructive. Why do we go in gentleness? So
that we too will not be tempted. See, confronting a brother is
a dangerous proposition. Especially if we have not dealt
with our own sin, the log in our eye, remember? Or if we’re
forgetful of God’s own forgiveness of our wretched sin. Would you turn to 1 Timothy and
chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 19,
we haven’t alluded to this passage yet. And this passage is a little
more complicated because it does at least involve the elders of
the church, though not exclusively, because it’s an elder’s sin that
is in view. But still, a fellow brother in
Christ may well be called upon by God as he witnesses his brother
in Christ, even though an elder in some unbecoming attitude or
behavior. Elders sin, and when they do, they too must
be confronted, and they too have a path to restoration in most
cases. What Paul moves to guard here
is the integrity of the eldership from false charges. And so as exhortation is addressed
very generally, no one should be eager to receive an accusation
against anyone, especially not of an elder. But when must they
be justly confronted? When do we go to talk to an elder? When they continue in sin. This is an objective situation.
This is not a suspicion or conjecture. This is known, evident, clear,
objective sin. And when we see such, what are
we to do? What are we commanded? Paul tells
us that in the case of objective continued sin, the elders to
be rebuked. Remember that word that we looked
at just a few moments ago in Matthew 18, 15, go and show him
his sin. It’s the same word here, rebuke. He’s called into account this
elder. He’s admonished. And Paul immediately
adds the how he is to be rebuked or corrected. An elder is in
sin. is to be rebuked, and this before
the entire church, in front of everyone. Paul wants young Timothy
to know that sin is serious business, especially among the leadership. Okay, but why Paul makes such
a public spectacle of one who has and might once again be a
leader in the church? Fear. That’s what Paul tells
us. Good fear, that the rest, not
only the rest of the elders, but the rest of the saints as
well, may be fearful of sinning, lest they too endure such a disgraceful
event. Nobody wants that. Please, if you would, turn to
Titus chapter three. We’re asking the same five questions
of each of the passages. Who, when, what, how, why. Titus chapter three, look at
verse 10. It’s a passage that we just considered.
So we’ll look at it only briefly. Paul doesn’t single out or identify
who he’s directing here. It could be Titus, the island
leader. But that responsibility would
eventually bleed over to the elders that Titus was appointing.
But in concert with some of the other parallel passages, this
command must also be general. Factiousness must be a concern
for the entire body. When does someone respond? Simple. When a brother is factious. What
is he to do? He, and I would add the entire
church, is to reject such a person because they are in the process
of destroying the church. That’s what factiousness does. Reject, we don’t like that word. That doesn’t even sound like
a Bible word in some sense. Reject, it has such a heaviness
to it. But that’s what it means to refuse,
to reject, or as 1 Timothy 4, 7 translates, have nothing to
do with. But even this action of rejecting
is not done immediately, it’s not done hastily. Paul tells
us how such a person is to be dealt with here. He is warned
not once, but twice. And though Paul declines to provide
a reason why here for such an approach, the reason is obvious. Factiousness destroys the unity
of the body. Factiousness destroys a church. Please turn, if you would, to
1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14. Here again, Paul identifies his target audience
immediately. We urge you, brethren. It’s a
general admonition given to the entire church, not just to her
leadership, and it is a strong admonition. Paul is practically
pleading with them. We urge you. This is serious
business. And keeping our pattern here,
When do we go? When do we move? When we see
professing believers that are behaving in an unruly manner. Or when they are faint hearted
or when they are weak in faith, weak spiritually. When we see
our fellow believers in such a condition. They are to be admonished
in the case of the In the case of the unruly, they’re
to be admonished. In the case of the faint-hearted,
encouraged, the weak are to be helped. But the behavior that
is most germane to our discussion this morning is that first one,
the unruly. The root word here, tactos, just
speaks of a well-ordered, circumspect, untroubled, and untroublesome
individual. He’s ruly. But the word here speaks of one
who is unruly. He’s just the opposite. It’s
trouble for them wherever they go, they bring it with them.
And when we see such behavior in the church, what are we to
do? We are to come alongside such
a person and admonish them, correct them, appeal to them. Can’t ignore
it. Such behavior can’t be allowed
to continue. And to this simple command, Paul
doesn’t add any detail. It’s simple and straightforward.
He doesn’t tell them how he doesn’t tell them why. Although it’s
clear enough. A troublesome unruly individual
brings chaos where there ought to be order. Now, we don’t know
what was going on in Thessalonica, but it must have been very concerning
to Paul because Paul addressed it again in his second letter.
If you would turn one book to the right, 2 Thessalonians 3,
verse 6. Here, Paul, once again, generally
calls out the brethren, not the elders, not the leaders of the
church, the brethren. And when do they move? When they
see someone leading an unruly life. This kind of behavior in
the church should stir the godly man to action. It cannot be ignored
or tolerated or allowed. What are they to do? Simply put,
Paul says, stay away, keep away from such a one. This, of course,
assumes that the man has been addressed in his behavior. He’s
been talked to and warned and admonished, and now he must be
dealt with more severely. He’s to be avoided. The godly
are to keep away from an unruly man. And Paul closes in verse
seven with a simple explanation. Why? Because we ought to follow the
example of those who live godly, disciplined lives. It’s a really
simple equation. And now, finally, turn back to
James chapter 5, verse 19. James chapter 5, verse 19, which
passage we considered exactly one year ago. And as we saw then,
and as we have seen echoed in many of the passages that we’ve
considered this morning, James addresses the brethren. It’s a general address. Not the
elders, not the apostles, not the leaders of the church, whatever
their title is, the brethren. And look at how utterly generic
the exhortation is. One. Someone. This case is not assigned to
the elders exclusively. It points to a believer, any
believer, any Christian who loves and cares for his wayward fellow
believer, anyone. James doesn’t provide even the
faintest hint of a prerequisite for serving Christ in this regard.
In fact, a new believer can often spot sinful tendency very quickly. Everything is fresh and new to
him. Why is this guy living this way? This is the brotherly responsibility
of all Christians. Any Christian who knows the situation
and cares enough goes. When are they to respond? Situation’s
simple. He’s strayed from the truth.
I pointed out this last year that this Greek word translated
here strayed is the word from which we get our word planet.
Because the ancients believed that the stars just wandered
around the night sky. And the saddest way that this
word is used in the New Testament are those passages that speak
of straying, wandering, wayward sheep. They’re in error. They’ve imbibed
false ideas, bad doctrine, wrong theology. And even if James presents
this as a hypothetical situation because James does say if, if
any, he knows full well that such a situation is not only
likely, it’s inevitable. There will be those who stray
and when they do, you need to know how to respond. James knew. the prevalence of
sin, the inward temptations, the steady inclination of the
human heart toward transgression. Sooner or later, James says,
you’re going to see this. Just look around. Someone is going to fall. Someone
is going to sin. And when they do, what are you
to do? James tells us, turn him back. This brother, like a good brother,
is watching over the lives of his fellow saints, having noted
that something is amiss. Obviously has prayed about it,
obviously searched his own heart, obviously dealt with his own
sin. He goes and he turns in. The man was in error. His way
was false, but now he’s turned. He’s turned back to the way of
truth. And so perhaps now you can understand
my alarm, my concern this past year. Our brother’s souls are at stake,
and we have not been as faithful as we could to the clear commands
of scripture to warn our brothers. It’s just typically not the case. It always concerns me to have
someone ask me, after noticing that someone has gone missing
from our body for many months, hey, whatever happened to so-and-so? I know. But I always wonder,
why don’t you know? And so, although brotherly care
and concern for one another’s spiritual well-being is commanded
to be a hallmark of the local church, typically this solemn
duty goes undone, overlooked, unaddressed. And I wondered why. And I’d like us to consider that
question this morning. Why? Why is it so common a thing
that we don’t typically address sin in other people’s lives? And if I may be even more direct
with you, I would have you ask yourself this question. Why don’t
I address my brother’s sin? And I don’t want you to take
the easy way out here. and suggest that maybe an excuse
is that you’re unaware. I want you to pretend for a moment
that you do know. And I’d like us to assume that
we’re fully aware of our brother’s sin. I thought it through and
I listed as many reasons as I could. And I came up with a dozen very
quickly. Why do we tend not to confront
our brethren as sin, first. We don’t identify their behavior
as sin. We don’t see it as such a bad
thing. Perhaps our standard for what is considered sinful is
too low. Perhaps we don’t even really
know the divine standard for right and wrong. Second, we don’t
want to jeopardize our friendship with them. And so we choose rather to ignore
their sin. I’ll proceed to show you in a
moment that that is not true friendship. Not in Christ, it
isn’t. Third, we don’t think it will
do any good. Maybe we’ve talked to them before.
They were less than receptive. Maybe we’ve had a bad experience
in the past, whatever. But we hold back. We don’t go
because we don’t think it will help. Number four, we don’t like
the idea of church discipline. We wish that we could ignore
it. We know that it’s there. We know that it’s a thing. But
if we just ignore it, maybe it will just go away and vanish
from the pages of our Bibles. The reformers believe that any
church that did not practice church discipline was no true
church at all. When will we understand that
church discipline is for the sake of the offender? It’s for
the purity of the church and the glory of God. Number five. We don’t believe that it’s our
duty. Maybe the pastor, maybe someone else’s job, not ours.
A very commonly used alibi, number six. And this one is so frightening,
so abhorrent that I wanted to scratch it off the potential
list, but it’s at least potential. It at least gives a possible
explanation as to why people don’t go. Number six, we don’t care about
our brother. Not really. Maybe we believe that we can
ignore all the clear commands to love our brother in scripture
and somehow just justify a casual indifference to him and his soul. In reality, we don’t really care
about his salvation or about his restoration. Number seven. How common is this one? We don’t
like conflict. We don’t like confrontation.
The idea of addressing our brother’s sin is so uncomfortable to us
that we rationalize our inaction. And it makes us sound so noble. As if we’re far too much a person
of peace to confront anybody. That’s not me. Number eight,
we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the church.
That it is the institution where righteousness and holiness and
heaven itself are eagerly pursued. Where sin and ungodliness is
rooted out and repented of. Number nine, why don’t we confront
sin We feel hypocritical in light of our own sin. But this commonly
held excuse cannot possibly be valid. Jesus didn’t say that
just because we might have a beam of our own in our eye, we shouldn’t
consider the speck in our brothers. He told us to remove the beam
and then go deal with the speck. Number 10. We don’t even believe in the
concept of sin or of sin’s consequences. Number 11, we assume that others
see what we see or know what we know and they’ll deal with
it. And number 12, we don’t want them to address our
sin. This past year, we’ve seen wretched
lack of attendance. We’ve seen critical spirit tearing
at the fabric of the church, gnawing away. We’ve seen doctrinal
and theological error. We’ve seen gossip and slander.
We’ve seen sinful attitudes, sinful behaviors. I’ve asked men before in confronting
their sin, If you saw me beating my wife, would you say something
about it? Well yeah, you better believe
it. And if I saw you beating your wife, would you want me
to address you? Oh yeah, absolutely. Then why are you abusing Christ’s
bride? By your lack of devotion to the
church? By your lack of attention? By
your lack of service? multiple people over the last
three weeks express the recognition of the need of additional elders.
And that’s true, no doubt about it. But what we’ve just considered
in these verses is not the exclusive duty of the eldership of this
church. It’s the God given responsibility
of the whole body. We’re called by God. to be a
friend to sinners, a true friend who will come to a wayward friend,
come alongside him, show him his sin. Such a person is the
best of friends, not an enemy. He loves and cares for the soul
of his friend. As Puritan Richard Baxter said
it, pretend not to love them if you hate not their sin. And
seek not their salvation. That’s the best friend you could
have. A whole lot of people have this
attitude that it’s none of my business. Who am I to judge? Or like Cain, am I my brother’s
keeper? The biblical mandate is you are
your brother’s keeper. Our church constitution says
it so simply. We promise an endeavor by God’s
grace to watch over each other’s lives and not allow sin upon
one another so far as God shall reveal it to us. To warn, rebuke,
admonish one another with gentleness according to the rules left to
us by Christ. It is our duty. When we see sin,
we are to go. We are to call them back to the
path of righteousness. For God’s glory and for their
sake and for the purity of the church. Would you humble yourself
before him? Our merciful King, We come humbly before your throne
and we acknowledge, Father, the rich heritage that we enjoy because
of those dear brothers and sisters in Christ who loved us enough
that at some point in our life where we were wayward, we were wandering, they came
to us lovingly and they called us back from our sin Perhaps
even educating us as to what we were doing was wrong. Lord,
by God’s grace alone, we repented of it. Father, we cannot be indifferent
to the sin of our brothers. We must do all that we can to
pray for them and to go to them and to plead with them to be
restored to Christ. Lord God, we know. We know that not only in our
midst are the many believers this morning who are uncomfortable
realizing that they haven’t been faithful in this regard. That
shouldn’t surprise us. This is a very uncomfortable
thing to do. But we also know that there are
in our midst those who do not know Christ. All they know is
sin. Lord God, we pray for them. We pray that they would come
to know the Savior that we know. That they would come to see that
sin has been paid for by Christ in full. That they can’t do anything
to earn their salvation. They only have to place their
faith in Christ. And they are forgiven. They are
declared righteous. and they will enjoy eternity
with Christ. Lord God, may the pursuit of
righteousness be ours as a church. May that characterize us as a
people. Be glorified through us, we pray.
It’s in Jesus’ name that we ask. Amen.