This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 17, 1994.
We are beginning our reading this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, and we are starting with verse 14 of that 4th chapter. We’ll be reading through the 5th chapter, the 8th verse. From there we’ll be turning to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, so you may want to put your finger in that place as well. I’m reading this morning from the New American Standard Version. Please give your attention to the reading of God’s word.
I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I exhort you, therefore, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
Now, some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with logs, and a spirit of gentleness?”
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become elegant and have not mourned instead in order that the one who has done this deed might be removed from your midst. For I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven. that you may be a new lump, just as you are, in fact, unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” As I said, we are looking also at 2 Corinthians this morning, chapter 2.
But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again. For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? And this is the very thing I wrote to you last when I came. I should have sorrow from those who want to make me rejoice. having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you, that if any had caused He has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree, in order not to say too much, to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.”
For to this end also I wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his scheme.”
Our Father, by your word you made the world, and by your word you have made us, your people. Truly, now, by your word you sustain us. And we ask, Lord, that we might understand your word in relationship to our present situation. Indeed, O God, may we be sustained, may we be sustained by this word which you have given to us, as your Spirit is pleased to minister to us through it, and that for the sake of your Son, our Savior. Amen.
Now, it has been my prayer that you would not weary of our discussion of this matter of church discipline. We come to the completion of this discussion this morning, taking it up at the point at which we left it before stopping for special reflection upon our Savior’s resurrection, and also for special reflection upon the supper which we are to keep in our Savior’s memory. Our focus throughout our messages on this issue of discipline has been this text, which we have read from again this morning, 1 Corinthians 5. and the case of discipline that arose within that particular congregation. Here is what we have said thus far.
Despite the spirit in the modern Church, despite what the modern Church says, Church discipline, and this according to the Bible, and certainly confirmed by our heritage as Presbyterians, is a mark of the true Church of Jesus Christ. It is to be administered in cases of doctrinal and moral sin, and it is to be administered in cases of administrative injustice and this because of the honor of Christ, whose Church is to reflect His glory and purity, the very glory and purity of the heavenly assembly which is being convened by Him. So important is this discipline for the Church that the very presence of God cannot be expected without it. Therefore, to forsake or to abandon discipline within the Church is for the Church to forsake and to abandon God. In this regard, the modern Church does in fact remind us of the opening chapters of 1 Samuel.
You remember what was going on in Israel, described in those early chapters of 1 Samuel, Eli, the priest and the prophet of God, officiating over the people of God, yet unwilling to discipline his own sons, who had become infamous with regard to their behavior and attitude. God sent judgment upon Israel, the Philistines came, they even captured the Ark of the Covenant. Eli’s sons were killed in the battle, word having reached Ben, one of his son’s wives, with news of the death of her husband and the capture of the Ark. labor, gave birth prematurely, and in her death gave to her child the name Ichabod, which means no glory. Translated forth, then, the glory has departed from Israel, the people of God.
Indeed, then, with regard to this matter of discipline, as far as the modern Church is concerned, it has, in fact, posted over its doorway that word Ichabod. No glory, for the glory has departed. God, in fact, has departed because there is no longer any discipline within the Assumption.
In these messages we have also spoken about the manner and the attitude with which discipline is to be pursued. As to the manner, we have drawn from the comments that appear in 1 Corinthians 5, particularly verses 3 through 5, and the inferences that are there, and noted those inferences with what we find in Matthew 18, verses 15 through 20.
That discipline, while spoken of in one regard, is the action of the entire Church, the whole Church being enlisted in the enterprise, yet at the same time it is carried out within the Church by those who have that responsibility specifically. According to the Old Testament pattern, it was the priest and the judges. In the New Testament it is the ministers and the elders, and in our Presbyterian settings we call the alliance of ministers and elders the session. So that with regard to manner, the manner of discipline. What about the attitude with which discipline is to be pursued? Here we are dealing with something of the greatest importance, the attitude with which the Church is to pursue discipline within its ranks.
In this regard, we have looked at Paul’s attitude specifically from sections in 1 Corinthians, ranging from the fourth chapter through the sixth. It’s not that we don’t find examples of this elsewhere, but this is a point in Paul’s writings where this matter is specifically addressed. You note in these chapters that Paul comes at this matter of discipline with great intensity and with absolute seriousness. For example, at the end of chapter 4 in 1 Corinthians, Paul sets the tone with respect to his attitude by casting the present disciplined case in the light of the final judgment.
It can’t get more serious than this. This he does in the twenty-first verse of that fourth chapter, when he places the rod mentioned in that verse. of discipline over against love and gentleness, over against love and gentleness, as if the two were mutually exclusive. You see, then, how the light of the final judgment is shining forth from this text. We cannot think of a situation in which the rod would be so contrasted with love except that one that bears the mark of finality and is a reflection of the final judgment. In other words, But Rob here, spoken of at the end of that fourth chapter, is conceived of as devoid of love, and has in view a situation when there is, in fact, no love left. and all that remains is the wrong, all that remains is wrath.
All true and godly discipline, therefore, by way of God’s appointment carries the stamp of this terrifying prospect, and that’s what makes it so effective. It carries within it the prospect, you see, that love will cease. if there isn’t change. There is the threat, you see, however subtle, however quietly communicated, that the love can, in fact, end just as it will, in fact, end with respect to the reprobate in the last judgment. Now, although Paul’s suggestion of this in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 21 may appear to be quite subtle, so subtle that we are liable to miss it, certainly we do not miss the note that we find within his tone, a note which is totally and completely indignant with respect to the sin that is addressed.
His tone is fully indignant, so much so as you move through the fifth chapter and into the sixth, his statements seem to be abrupt and devoid of mercy. Note what he says, verse 2 of chapter 5, the one guilty of this deed is to be removed from you. He speaks about turning this individual over to Satan. In verse 13 of that fifth chapter, he says, remove the wicked man from among you.
Moving down into the sixth chapter, verses 9 and 10, there is absolutely no laboring with regard to Paul in this matter at all. His indignation continues to burn as he speaks about fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, the perverted, homosexuals, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers.
He says, unequivocally, these shall not impact the kingdom of God. No equivocation on the part of all, no discussion about extenuating circumstances, the environment in which you were raised. All the excuses that you might make to yourself, no dirty gray areas, only black and white. That’s the way it is. Justice, strong justice against religious and moral depravity.
Paul, therefore, as the spokesman of God, and I would dare say as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. For we must not think of Paul somehow abstracting himself from Jesus Christ at this point, when he begins to speak about discipline. Paul, therefore, as the spokesman for God and as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, calls upon the Church at Corinth to share his indignation. You’re asking about the proper response to this text?
He is calling upon that church at Corinth to share his indignation and to join him in his Christlike and godly desire for justice, strong justice. The call as a spokesman for God and as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ He is calling upon all those, then, who would name Christ’s name and claim membership in his church. He is calling upon you, this church, Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Osborne, Pennsylvania, to share his indignation and to join him in his desire for justice, strong justice.
You must not draw back. If you draw back, to use the words of 2 Corinthians 2, you fail the test. You fail the test. You must not recoil. But I don’t like this business about discipline. I don’t like this matter of having to give an account. I don’t even much like apologizing or asking forgiveness.
You must not draw back from the Apostle’s intensity. even though it frightens you. And well, it should frighten you, because you see, we’ve already established that the very judgment of God, even the final judgment, aren’t due. But it’s not merely a matter of you not drawing back. You see, what the Apostle is forcing you to do is to embrace this intensity. You’ve got to embrace it! You have to embrace his zeal, not because you are convinced that justice, strong justice, is that which will make for a better world or an improved society, and you’re committed to a law-and-order approach to life generally. No!
But because you know God, and that he is terrible in all of his judgments, and that our God is a consuming fire. And because you know Jesus Christ, the one who is indeed the meek and gentle Savior, but also the one who is described as coming with a two-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth on the last day to exact justice upon the earth. So as a result of your knowledge of God, and your knowledge of Jesus Christ whom you own, you must embrace the Apostle’s intensity, his zeal, And you must be committed to this matter of the Church’s discipline. Realizing all the while that this discipline by its very nature carries within it the message that love can in fact end. Leaving a sinner to the wrath of God, and to the wrath of God alone. Now, two things must now become ever more clear to us on the background of what we’ve said.
First of all, it should be clear to you that the Bible in its entirety does not allow us to let go of the wrath of God. is that wrath that comes into focus in 1 Corinthians 4-6, and in the discipline that Paul demands with regard to this congregation and its circumstances. You will note, therefore, that God’s wrath is not simply an Old Testament reality. Is it not equally obvious in the New Testament?
But no further is the fact that God’s wrath here is set before us that does then bring into clear view, does it not, the absolute necessity for repentance. I have defined repentance for you on occasion. It is abandonment before God throwing yourself on His mercy without making any excuse whatsoever, in the declaration that you are sorry for what you have done. But this whole matter of wrath now being set before us, does it not set clearly before the absolute necessity for repentance. God’s wrath is a reality, a genuine prospect.
Our sin incurs the wrath of God unless there is repentance, that that wrath might be laid aside. Our repentance, then, becomes a testimony of the Spirit’s work in us, that we, after all, belong to God, that we are in Christ. And being in Christ, we are capable of repentance. Without repentance, there is no such testimony in us, and God’s wrath abides on us. This is why we must insist upon repentance in our own case.
In fact, we must demand it of ourselves, as well as in the cases of all those who might be overtaken in sin, be it doctrinal or moral, within the congregation. Now, I make this point to you because there is a spirit abroad presently in the Church that says that an insistence upon repentance is a sure sign of inferior spirituality. that the truly genuine Christian spirit is so elevated that it rises above offenses, above transgressions, and treats them as if they were nothing. That’s the spirit of gender in Christianity, we are told. In fact, even further, we are told, true love does nothing less than this. It forgets offense and never demands an accountability. Isn’t that what you’re being told day after day in the media?
True love rises above offense and treats them, treats offense, treats transgression, treats sin, as if they are completely immaterial. and this being the nature of love, it must also be the nature of God. Vengeance is therefore read out of God and His being. Accountability is read out of God and what He is. Such things as vengeance, wrath, and accountability are beneath God.
He wouldn’t dabble in such things. Instead, God is completely and totally accepting, and to use the emphatic form, irregardless. In this regard, Jesus is made then the chief example from the cross. He prays, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. By this prayer, so we are told, Jesus forgave those who sinned against him out of hand completely, totally. Here in Jesus from the cross is revealed the new God. Through Jesus we come to know the new God, the one who forgives out of hand, who rises above the old deity, because this new God will not allow himself to be bothered by my sin to the point of distraction, to the point of exacting justice upon me. Jesus, by his prayer, therefore, doesn’t wait for repentance from those at the foot of the cross. At least, this is what we are told.
He forgives these individuals out of hand. Jesus does no such thing. He does not forgive those who sinned against him or executed him. Get that into your mind. He does not forgive those who executed him. He prays for their forgiveness, and there is a world of difference. And just how might those who are responsible for his execution receive forgiveness?
Like any other sinner receives forgiveness through repentance, you see. First of all, repentance has not been impeached, it has not been removed, it has rather been confirmed by the promise. And isn’t it interesting that the very gospel writer who records for us Christ’s prayer from the cross for his enemies, namely Luke, is the very one who later records these words of the risen Christ when he says, thus it was written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations. Luke chapter 24, verses 46 and 47. It is the risen Christ in that text who is insisting upon repentance in light of the justice of God’s wrath against sinners. We who follow the risen Christ must do the same. The second thing that becomes clear to us, in addition to the fact that the Bible does not allow us to let go of the wrath of God. is this, the Bible does not allow us to let go of the love of God.
As oddly as it may sound, it is Paul’s love that is preserved beneath the surface, even as you make your way through those terrifying passages in 1 Corinthians 4 through the sixth chapter. While this man speaks so strongly about sin in the assembly and the end to which sin leads, yes, there is this note, this testimony to sin, to the love of God, rather, that is operative in him. That love expresses itself in verse 5 of 1 Corinthians 5. where Paul speaks about the man’s spirit being saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The operation of discipline then, as Paul understands it, is that this man’s soul, his spirit, may be preserved, saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This means that even as Paul is speaking as he does in 1 Corinthians 5, his heart is open to the man. and his heart is ready to respond appropriately to the man in that man’s repentance. In this, Paul is like our Lord Jesus, who, though his heart was breaking on the cross, remained open-hearted towards sinners. prepared to receive them at their repentance. Is that not what he does, in fact, with regard to the penitent thief? Paul therefore proves his relationship to Christ, that he is bound not only to the Christ who comes as judge, but to the Christ who comes to embrace those repentant sinners who would be gathered to him as so many lambs to a faithful shepherd. Paul proves his relationship over and again to Jesus Christ, especially now as we move on to 2 Corinthians 2, where he pleads for this very man.
Did you pick it up? Sufficient for such a one is the punishment which was inflicted by the majority. Verse six. Verse eight. Wherefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. Paul is proving here his relationship to his savior as he pleads for this man and this man’s reception back into the full fellowship of the church. If this man’s discipline had the mark of God’s judgment upon it, his restoration through repentance has the mark of reception into glory upon it. We who claim the love of Christ therefore should stand to welcome back the slain lamb that has been turned away from God’s wrath. and we should stand to receive such with the joy of the angels welcoming sinners into heaven’s courts. No, even more, we should stand as with the heart of Christ who shall in fact receive us sinners all with great joy into the heavenly kingdom.
Our father. You have set in your word. This testimony as a test to us. May we not draw back. Rather, Lord, may we embrace that which is essential, even though others around us draw back, even to the point of offense, at the full and complete message of our Savior and his intention for his Church. We would pray, O God, for their forgiveness that they by repentance might be restored, and that our assembly might be full, as the assembly in heaven shall have no empty seat.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.