Transcript for:
2 Corinthians 2:1,11 -Restoration To Fellowship- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-01-12
Found the transcript but need the audio? View Episode
Second Corinthians chapter two verses one through 11, and this is a section of scripture where the apostle Paul where he gives us instructions on how we can restore people that may have fallen into sin. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Second Corinthians two verses one through 11. But I determined this with myself that I would not come again to you in in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad but the same which is made sorry by me. And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears not that I should be grieved, but that you should know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of the many. So that contrabwise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him for to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether you'd be obedient in all things. To whom you forgave anything, I forgive also, for I forgave any anything to whom I forgive it, for whose sake forgave I it in the person of Christ, lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we're not ignorant of his devices. Father, we thank you for your holy word, and we see that, Lord, within the church of Corinth, there was conflict, there were problems, there were disciplinary things that the apostle Paul had to deal with. He didn't like doing it. It it wasn't fun, but lord, a little leaven does leaven the lump, and he needed to deal with it. And then it it it caused more problems, and he's he's really trying to help the folks understand how they can restore a brother or sister who's fallen that now comes a place of repentance. How are we to restore them, Lord, once we've implemented the the discipline? So help us, Lord. Help us to glean and understand to apply these truths to our lives in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated? So Paul was having discipline problems within the church. Number one in chapter five was the immorality of a man taking his father's wife and, the church thinking, hey, that was so hip and cool that we're hipsters, we're cool, and and we don't need to worry about fornication among professing Christians. Fornication in the world's one thing, but fornication practiced in the church, almost, you know, flaunting it, if you will, like the gay pride parades and things like that, is something Paul says, no. No. This is a grievous issue. Take that person and confront them, and if they don't repent, then you need to give them over to Satan for the destruction of the body, for the saving of their soul. In first Corinthians chapter five verse five, he said a little leaven leavens a lump and so it can begin to permeate the whole church heretical doctrine or aberrant behavior and all. So his apostolic authority was also being challenged by someone he doesn't name. And he's written letters sent to emissaries and possibly even made a personal visit on his way to Macedonia to try and deal with this church that was very gifted, very very gifted, but also very very carnal and babes in Christ. So he's now received word from Titus that the person or persons that were involved have repented. So that's a good thing. He, they excommunicated the person that was causing the trouble with the immorality, the man taking his father's wife and parading their immorality, and put him outside the church. And, being outside the church gave them over to Satan and that they were buffeted, they, began to suffer a bit, and whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son or daughter, and the Lord can use the devil to whoop on his even his own kids circumstantially and such and cause them to come to a place where they say, you know what? I need to I need to rethink what's taken place here. So godly sorrow leads to repentance. This person reached the place of godly sorrow, and and so Paul now is saying, alright. Now you need to restore this person. You need to restore him. Don't just don't just leave him outside anymore. Bring him back in. And so the restoration of the repentant sinner. We all sin, but not all of us repent. And what we're gonna go through today doesn't work today. It doesn't work. You see, how many churches were in Corinth? One. If one of you get mad at me because I gotta discipline you, what do you do? You just go to another church. And you go to another church and continue to be immoral. Doesn't matter. You just slide right in. Church discipline's very, very difficult today. There's all different types of churches out there. And there's churches that'll always look the other way of immorality that maybe we're looking at saying, you know, we need to address this. And any given Sunday, know there's people here that are involved in immorality because again, we all sin. All of us sin. Every single one of us, but not all repent. And so we wanna be those that repent. We wanna be those that are convicted by the Holy Spirit, that we don't need to be excommunicated. And if we are, that we come to repentance quick. If we confess our sin, which means to agree with the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit's job is to convict of sin. The devil come and condemn you, but the holy spirit if we confess, means to agree with the holy spirit, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Pastor Chuck Missler used to call that the Christian's bar of soap. And so every family, every husband and wife, all of us are sinners, and we will continue to be sinners until we get our new glorified body. So we need a way of resolving conflict. We need a way of preserving the integrity of this church, the integrity of God's word. And that way is to follow his word and to do the right thing no matter what. I'm gonna do the right thing, whether it works or not. It's not a pragmatic thing. If I got somebody here that I know is parading or flaunting, you know, their sin, man, I'm gonna I'm gonna pray for them first of all. I'm gonna pray that one of you go confront them because I don't wanna. But ultimately, I'm the one that's gonna answer before God, so I've got to. And I have and I'll continue to do. And I'm hoping and praying that they'll come to their senses and we can restore them to fellowship. But if they don't, I don't consider, oh, I lost. I can't do that again. No. I have to do it again. Because I'm preserving the whole. I'm preserving the rest that's here. If I let it go, if I don't nip it in the bud quickly, it's gonna spread. And our kids are watching. Our kids are gonna watch and say, hey, I remember when they were sleeping together, they were living in their house together outside of marriage. Nobody said anything to them. Doesn't the bible say to avoid all appearance of evil? Just the very appearance of, you know, a man and a woman living in the same house outside of marriage, the appearance of evil, the neighbors, everybody are watching, wondering. Oh, but they're the exception. They're the ones that can date for two years and not have sex. They're exceptional. Yeah. Right. Well, we're married in the eyes of God. That's what the teenagers say in the back seat of a car. We're married in the back seat, you know, married in the eyes of God. We didn't have sex. Well, why is she pregnant? It's a miracle. The immaculate conception happened again. So how do we restore a sending brother to fellowship? We reprove in love, number one. Notice verse one. But determine this with myself that I would not come again to you in heaviness. So Paul's been there once before in heaviness. He he's he doesn't like walk softly and carry the big stick. He doesn't like doing what I just engaged with Arthur in. It's ugly. It's not fun. We're brothers. We love one another. But there's Cheryl and there's other people involved and it needs to be dealt with. He didn't know. Now he knows. But if he persists, if Arthur were to persist in resisting me, then I'd have to say to him, this isn't the right church for you. I'm not gonna tolerate that kind of rebellion. Being ignorant's fine. Let's explain ourselves. But once we've explained ourselves on Facebook over and over and over again, I finally conclude these people must be drunk. They might not be saved. And they get angry at me. And so I bring other pastors on there to to say the same thing I'm saying. But they've got new gnostic type information the world's never seen before. And it it it's just it it's mind blowing to me. And then it spreads. It spreads to there's no preacher of rapture. King James Bible's bad. Five zero one c threes in churches are bad, and they just go through a whole tirade of things that that they're against. And I'm listening to this guy and I'm thinking, you know, I remember when you divorced your first wife, then I remember where you're married to your second wife and you moved away, and then you messaged me and tell me that you're getting rid of her because she's not doing what you tell her to do. And now I'm supposed to listen to you with your third wife? I I don't mind you being married three, four times. Many of you, I can listen to you because you're in submission to God. I'm talking specifically about a guy, he don't listen to anybody. He thinks he's God. He thinks he's smarter than everybody. And so why do I have to waste a minute with you, you know? Oh, I wanna debate you. I wanna debate you. How can I debate somebody that drinks their bath water? I can't debate someone like that. There's there's it's idiocy. It's the idiocracy, and I couldn't take it anymore on Facebook. My fingers were no feelings, so I got off of Facebook. And I got off of Instagram and and and all of it. And I was trying to provide articles. I was trying to provide information to help people prophetically to see the times we're in. But I got suckered into this flat earth debate, and they don't like to be called flat earthers and all that. And and and again, like I said, I found out from answers in Genesis and other places that it's proliferating, it's spreading. And so we're trying to nip that in the bud in this church and not allow it and pastor Kevin Lee's church, he's trying to nip it in his, but if people are are rebellious about it and won't listen to reason, what are you supposed to do? And so they say, oh, he's beating a dead horse. You betcha. I'm earnestly contending for the faith. I have to. So confrontation seldom works. Most of us are too proud to repent and admit wrong. Proverbs nine verse eight says, reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man, he will love thee. And so I like it when somebody helps me to get back on track. The blind fall in the blind, they fall into a ditch. So I I cherish my pastor Chuck and those that taught the word of God and stayed with the word of God and and weren't weren't sucked up into every wind of doctrine that came through the church over the years. And they stood their ground and they gave me a good balanced, you know, teaching, and and discipleship for me. And I was humble enough. I was teachable. We call being teachable, where we don't know anything, but we're here to learn. If you think you know everything, you're not gonna learn anything. You gotta continue to be teachable. I spend all week long studying. All week long, I I study, I read articles, and I listen to bible studies, and I read, and I look over Matthew 17, or excuse me, Revelation seventeen and eighteen this week. I'm looking over, other aspects of prophecy over and over again, see if there's something I missed, see if something new I need to learn. I went through a bible study on neo calvinism because a lot of that's has crept in. Why do I why do I keep wanting to learn? Because I need to learn. I need to keep learning. Some of it, I rejected. Some of it, the guys that were teaching, no, I don't agree with that. It doesn't fit. It doesn't it doesn't work. That that doesn't fit with this scripture, but but, you know, we can agree to disagree. It wasn't a core issue. And they don't know who I am at all, but but I I need to learn. I need to be in the word of God. I need to use my time wisely. And so confrontation is painful for all involved. You've heard your mom and dad say when they're going to spank you, this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. You look at your grandkids and we don't want to spank, grandparents don't spank. I look at Wayne and Brittany and boy, they've got they've got a lot on their hands, lot on their plate in training up a child in the way they should go. When they're old, they won't depart from it. I think of Abraham in Genesis 22 taking his son Isaac, who's about 17 years old, and taking him up to Mount Moriah to offer him as a burnt offering. I think of Abraham, son, this is gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you. Oh, yeah. I'm the one laying on the altar, you know. I'm the one the fire's gonna come, the knife and the whole thing, you know. But you see his submission there. In Psalm 32, David is describing, what it was like, after he repented. After Nathan the prophet was sent a year of David trying to hide his sin, and God in his grace and mercy sent Nathan the prophet to point him and David, you're the man. What man? Yeah. The man that that's that's, exploited your neighbor, took his one little ewe lamb, and, you know, you took, Uriah the Hittite, you took his wife Bathsheba under yourself, and you thought, you know, there was no there was no consequences there. Then you murdered Uriah and Nathan says, you've given great occasion of the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name. The unbelievers, the nations around are watching you David, what you've done. You didn't get away with it. The sword's never gonna depart from your family. And as you read Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51, you get a picture of David who's just like you and I. He's a sinner. He's a murderer. He's a liar. Jesus said, if you've ever been angry at your brother, you're already a murderer. If you've ever been lustful toward a man or a woman, you're already an adulterer. So we've all fall short of the glory of God. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so David, he's there and he's describing, I'm so thankful the holy spirit recorded these penitent psalms where David's repenting before God and pouring out his heart. He's pouring out his heart, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. He lost the joy. He was drying up inside. He was miserable as a sinner trying to cover his sin. Whosoever tries to cover his sin won't prosper. And like I said, God in his grace and mercy rescued David by sending Nathan the prophet to confront him. Confrontation. He's confronting the king. And David David took the hit. He took the confrontation. He was wise in that regard. And he says, the Lord speaking to David in Psalm 32 verse eight, I'll instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shall go. You don't know which way to go. I need instructions, Lord. I need guidance in my life. And God says, I'll guide you. I will guide thee with my eyes. So just keep your eyes on Jesus. He's the author and the finisher of your faith. Keep your eyes on him. When he points over, go left, you go left. He says, right, go right. He wants you to stop, stop. He wants you to move forward, move forward. He wants you to shut your mouth, shut your mouth. So I'll instruct thee and teach the way you should go. I'll guide you with with my eye. And then he uses a contrast. Be not be be not like the horse or the mule. Kathy calls me a jackass. She says it's biblical. It's in the King James. Balaam's donkey. So be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with a bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. So God uses pain. God puts a bit in the horse of the mule's mouth and if you wanna move the mule to the left, you pull on the left rein. Move to the right, pull on the right. So some of us were so obtuse or were so difficult hearing the holy spirit, God has to use pain. Because whom the Lord loves, he chastens and he scourges every son or daughter. And so pain is a is a real good way to get people's attention, but I'd rather I'd rather avoid the pain. I'm getting too old to keep, you know, learning the hard way. And so this guy was given over to the devil in first Corinthians five verse five. He should have just repented. He should have just quit doing what he's doing, but they were obstinate. They were proud in their sin. And so what else could they do? They had to give them over. They had to excommunicate them. The church today like Corinth is rife with immorality. Drugs, fornication, alcohol, lust, greed, covetousness, gossip, slander, hate, envy, jealousy, divorce. God hates divorce. And we we we don't wanna see our daughter's divorce, our sons divorce. We don't want them to go through what we went through, what our parents went through. We do everything we can to try and shore up relationships and and build one another up, build up the family, a lot of pressure upon the family. And we we're here to support. And if if we make it through another year in our marriage, we we look to the Lord and we say, Lord, this is by the grace of God. Because if I didn't know you, Lord, I wouldn't make it. I wouldn't even make it this far. And so we we give him all the praise, the honor, and the glory. And and so with the knowledge that there's always sin here, I don't wanna be a sin sniffer. I'm not the holy spirit. I'd rather teach the word of God in such a way that I see the fornicators put their head down when I when I talk about fornication. And I know I hit them. When you throw a rock into pack of wolves, it's the one that's yelping that, you know, you hit. Right? You're sheep, you're not a pack of wolves. But sometimes I come across like I'm I'm I'm running after wolves. Right? And there's wolves mixed in with the sheep. There's goats mixed in with the sheep. And some people, you know, I don't wanna know. I hear things, but I don't wanna know because I don't like to confront. I want it to be like Pollyanna. I really do. But if you rub it in my face, if you force me, then I'm gonna be that jackass that beats that dead horse till it's done. It's your fault for rubbing it in my nose. I begged you. I don't want that here. I don't want that here. Well, then the gloves come off. And so the I had a woman in the church years ago that was cheating on her husband, but she'd come to church and raise her hands and worship and everything, and it began to really convict me. I didn't wanna be the one to confront. The husband was broken, just so broken. Loved his wife to death even though he knew she was sleeping with another man. And I was driving home and in the church van in those days, and I saw her vehicle at the home of this her boyfriend, and I swung the thing around. And they came up there and they were drinking wine and having fun. They thought I'd wanna drink some wine with them and no, I'm not here for that. I'm sorry. I'm not here. This isn't a party. And so I had to qualify. The way I qualify is, do you consider yourselves Christians? Because if you're a Christian, I'm gonna deal with you differently than if you're a worldly person. I don't expect a worldly person to live a moral life. But someone that professes to be a Christian, especially one that attends our church, I'm gonna qualify it. And if you say to me, yes, I'm a Christian, then I said back to her, well, that's strange. Do you guys consider yourselves that you're gonna go to heaven? Oh, yeah. We're going to heaven. Well, that's strange. The bible says adulterers, fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God. Boy, I made a lot of friends that day. Then he steps forward like you need to leave, you know, like that, you know. And but I made the point. I got it across. I had to. And the husband appreciated it, but the woman just dug her heels in even deeper and wound up divorcing her husband and moving for you know, continuing to move on. But but as far as my responsibility as a pastor, that wasn't a a good moment for me. That wasn't something I, you know, hey, I heard that you guys are doing this. Pastor Rick's gonna knock on your door. You know? You hear that tap at the door. Oh, it's pastor Rick. Oh, he must have heard what we're doing. I don't wanna know. Don't tell me what you're doing. Again, if you rub it in my face, the holy spirit's gonna convict me. And I'm not a man pleaser, I have to be a god pleaser. I have to be so stubborn that when I know I'm in the right, I'm willing to lose all of you. That's how stubborn I've gotta be. I gotta be here to please God, not men. And that's the way we all should be. There should be a lot of love involved. The the goal is to restore the sinner, to restore the marriage, to help them find the right way. But the church today is like corn, it's just sin everywhere. But if the holy spirit convicts, then we got the we God gives us space to repent. Nobody needs to know about our secret sin because the holy spirit convicted me privately, and even though pastor Rick knows and Kathy knows what you're doing. No. Santa Claus knows. And you know, if I hear about it and I wear the shirt that says what, you know, whatever I hear is gonna wind up in the sermon, you know, be careful. Don't don't let me know about these things because it'll wind up in the sermon. You'll be saying, man, how did he know? Well, the Holy Spirit's convicting you. Why? Because we're all sinners. There's not one person here that's unique and has a unique sin. Sin covers the whole room here. All of us are trying to get to the finish line. And it's not easy. But if we keep a short account, coming to church a soft heart and the holy spirit convicts us. Now we're driving home, we're in worship, we're in the time of teaching, and saying, you know, thank you for reminding me of that. Thank you, Lord, for convicting me. Thank you, Lord, for reminding me how it's your blood that washes and cleanses me of all sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, continually cleansed the man of all unrighteousness. Lord, I like walking in the spirit. I don't like being in the flesh. Lord, I'm addicted to you. I'm addicted to seeking you and getting to know you. You're far greater, far better than any of my pet sins. The idolatrous areas of my life. Second Timothy four verse two, Paul told Timothy, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. There's that long suffering there. I don't like it. Jesus said in John sixteen eight, he said, he would give the comforter of the holy spirit to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Not condemn, convict. In John three seventeen, for God sent not a son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So he sent in the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, to convict the world of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they believe not on me. When you stand before God, there's only one sin that you're going to be held accountable for, and that's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That means you didn't believe in Jesus. He's the savior of the whole world. He's paid for the sins of the whole world, especially for those who believe. Of righteousness because I ascend to the father. So if you're in a cult, if you're in a religious trip of performance, hey, prayed for three hours today, I read my bible today, I went to church today, I tied, that's a performance. That's a works. If you wanna try and get there by works, then you need to be able to send to the father like Jesus did. He's showing you he's the only one righteous because he ascends to the father. And of judgment because the devil, the prince of the world is judged. Jesus wins. He spoiled all principalities and powers. He triumphed over them. And so we thank the Lord for the Paracletus who comes alongside, who lives and dwells within, who comes upon us to empower us for service. And Timothy, he's got a tough job as a young pastor. He's gonna be rebuking people that are older than him. I used to be a young pastor. I'm I'm middle aged now. To rebuke, to exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Doctrine matters. Because part of what the devil's strategy is is to give doctrines of demons, flat earthers, to stumble people. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Not the book of Enoch, not the Apocrypha, the canon of scripture. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, which means it's God breathed. And Peter describes how holy men would record. So in the original autographs recorded, God's word is inerrant. No mistakes. King James has some mistakes. Some some transcribing errors which we know where they are and we can we can fix them. Right? We know but nothing pertaining to any core doctrine essentials. And a lot of bibles that are printed today don't meet the the standard of the original autographs and 33,000 changes were made when Westcott and Hort changed the King James Bible. They said they were gonna get rid of the these and the vows, but there are many doctrines that were affected by their their changing and and redoing the the bible. So all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's important that I know this is God's word, not man's word. A guy in YouTube begins to talk and people think he's an authority. You've got the word of God as your authority. And God makes it simple enough that even a child can understand it. It's not complicated. My kids can go outside, my grandkids, and they can look at the moon, they can look at the lunar eclipse that's coming, and with a little bit of help with their parents, they can know that that shadow's there because the globe is round. And the sun is shining, and you're seeing the the shadow off of the earth onto the moon and end of story. Move on. And so all scriptures give my inspiration for God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. So to reprove, you disapprove of what somebody's doing. So you reprove them, you bring correction, you show them the truth. We use the word of God. Also, Matthew 18, if a brother sins against you, number one, you go to them privately. You go in private. A lot of times here, people many people leave the church not because they're all mad at me, Rick with the anger problem. You're mad at each other. You're fighting amongst yourselves. And I'm trying to be the referee. I'm trying to keep you loving one another and treating each other nice. It's been a honeymoon. It's been awesome to watch people loving one another here. But some of you got ought against somebody and I hear about it and I just I just pray and hope that you guys resolve your differences. Well, there's a way to do that. You go in private. Just you and them alone. If it's not working, bring somebody with you. Bring a witness. If it's still not working, then you bring it before the the leadership of the church. He says verse two, for if I make you sorry, who is he then that makes me glad but the same which is made sorry by me. So a lot of times pastors have number twos. They have assistant pastors, hatchet mans. Pastor Chuck had Romaine. Pastor Romaine. So pastor Chuck could be viewed as pastor smiling. He'd just smile. Oh, glorious, you know. And everybody's like, oh, he's so nice. No. He's pretty ruthless behind the scenes. You just don't know. But he'd send Romaine after you, and Romaine would deal in a disciplinary manner. So I had problems on my Israel bus trip and and pastor Chuck's brother Paul came to me and said, yeah, I had problems too and I just had the guy deal with the problem couple. Because if I deal with it, they won't listen to me the rest of the trip. But if I have somebody else go, they can vent their anger toward them, direct their anger toward them rather than me. So that's a methodology that many of the pastors use because they know how distasteful it is to have to confront somebody and how people will hold grudges, you know, against you later. And so I gotta make you sorry, but you're the one that makes me, you know, makes me happy. And I wrote the same unto you lest when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. So Paul did not want to be harsh. He begged for them to repent. You're pleading with people to repent. Please stop doing what you're doing. If you've got a prodigal daughter or son, you know what I mean. You're begging them to repent. You're begging for them to stop. Please. God has something so much better for you. He exhausted every reasonable avenue to get the person to repent. Quit being so rebellious. Just stop it. Why do you persist in going your own way? So Paul says in second Corinthians thirteen one, this is the third time I'm coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. I told you before and I foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now, I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all the others that if I come again, I will not spare. So do you want me to come as the heavy? Do you want me to take the apostolic authority that Peter utilized with Ananias and Sapphire in Acts chapter five? Do you wanna start stacking bodies simply for lying to the holy spirit? Want me to come hard? You want me to come soft? Paul wants to come soft. They're challenging his authority. They're saying, oh, you're you're no different than anybody else. What makes you so special? Well, can you raise the dead? Show me your show me your resume. Show me the fruit of your life. Show me where God called you, where he appeared to you, the risen Christ and all. That's for an exclusive group of of men. And, you want me to act like Elijah? You want me to call down fire upon the Assyrians and kill 50 of their army? Jesus and the the boys were going through the area of Samaria. He's heading toward Jerusalem, but they had to pass through Samaria in Luke chapter nine. And so he sent some ahead to get the city ready when the city, those there, Samaritans were half breeds and they were prejudiced. That's why Jesus purposely in Luke 10, when the guy says, who is my brother? You know, love your brother? He put within the story the good Samaritan to kinda gall, you know, to kinda goad the Jews and their hatred of Samaritans. And so they're gonna go through the area of Samaria, and, the people were turning their back upon Jesus and the boys. They're not showing them, kindness. And James and John, the sons of thunder, they asked Jesus, do you want us to call down fire from heaven like Elijah did? Want us to barbecue him? Do you want me to come hard or soft? Jesus came soft the first time, didn't he? When he comes back the second time, it's no pony. Right? Is it? The sword of his mouth and the brightness of his coming to destroy the antichrist, and all the blood is high as the horse's bridle. There's no picnic. And Jesus said, you know not what spirit you're of, for the son of man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Why would you think that I'd advocate barbecuing the Samaritans, James and John? You got it wrong. And they were maybe thinking of Elijah. As they said, even as Elijah did in first Kings chapter 18, he caused the fire to come down to lick up the the offering that was there in the water as he's contending on Mount Carmel with the 450 prophets of Baal. And then later in second Kings, when, chapter one verse 10 where the, Jehazi was gonna help those of Ekron and get some help from them. He had hurt himself, and Elijah came there and said, hey, why don't you turn to the God of Israel? He's able to help you. And they didn't want his help, and so, they sent some soldiers out there and he called down fire and barbecued them. Slew them. Then slew another 50, you know. And, so don't mess with them. They have the power to do it if they need to. And the two witnesses for three and a half years are gonna be tormenting the planet during the tribulation period. They have authority from God to torment the earth dwellers. Verse four, for out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. And so Paul's saying it just breaks my heart to have to do this. I hope we can get past this. I hope we can get to the point where you repent, where we can restore you. So Paul responds, in love, faithful are the wounds of her friend, the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. So how to restore a sinning brother to fellowship? Number one, reprove in love. Secondly, resist legalism. Resist legalism. But if any man cause grief, he has not grieved me but in part that I may not overcharge you all. So this isn't personal. I'm not gonna seek vengeance or revenge you, but no purity, no peace. If there's no purity, then there's no peace. Then we quench the holy spirit. We grieve the holy spirit. And now we have to operate from a central standpoint. We gotta try and make each other feel good with entertainment and cycle babble, you're the center of the universe humanism. But if we're true and honest before God and and take our lickens and allow the Lord to bring correction, instruction, and righteousness, then the Holy Spirit's well pleased. And we experience the peace with God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. Now we're not hypocrites using legalism projecting our sin onto somebody else. People do that a lot, you know. They're sinning, they're doing things, and then they try to find fault with pastor Rick. And then you find out later, I could never please him. I could never get him where they'd stop disrupting. And then later, find out his jealousy, it's envy, and it's a mask. It's it's hiding their adultery that they're engaged in. They can't hear from the holy spirit. Four people would get saved and Kathy be there in the back, you know, count and seeing the hands go up, and the guy didn't even know anyone got saved. He's so obtuse, and he's in the same room there. Every Friday night, they're having barbecues inviting their little group together to cut me down and cut the church down. Divided power plays, all these kind of things. And pastor Chuck always says, hey, let the Lord defend you. I've tried that. Do the best I can with that. Doesn't always work. So you gotta persevere. A guy told me, without me, all you got's a boombox. If he leaves, he's gonna take 30 people with him. So I gotta wait. I gotta let the Lord deal with that. These coup attempts. Resist legalism. Sufficient to such a man, verse six, is the punishment was inflicted of the many. So the church as a whole, they recognize through with the leadership that they need to excommunicate this man and this woman. And so first Corinthians five verse five, you give them over to Satan for the destruction of the body, the saving of their soul. So we as parents, this would mean don't be enablers. Don't enable your prodigal, your disobedient children by continuing to prop them up in their sin. At a certain point, we have to let go of them, give them over to the Lord, and say, Lord, you spank them. They're too big for me to spank now. We might try to save their life by paying for rehab and get them out of there and get them sober and all that and then they do it again and again and again and it's hard. It's hard. If your phone dings at night or rings at night, man, that might be that call. Because they've already been to the hospital, they've already had alcohol poisoning, they've already overdosed, and you don't know how much longer. It's hard. It's really, really hard. Then that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. I don't typically do that. Somebody sin and then I rebuke them before everybody that others might fear, you know. Boy, what a methodology there. Intolerant of sin. We're not to be tolerant of sin. We're to be intolerant of sin. We have the phrase, you know, hate the sin, love the sinner. I I believe that to be true. Titus three ten, after the first, if a man's a heretic after the first and second admonition, you're admonishing him, reject him, get rid of him. That's how serious heretical doctrine is, heretical teaching is. Go to the person a couple times. If they don't get it, then let them know the way that I say this. I don't think this is the right church for you. I'm grossly inadequate as a pastor for you. We're not connecting. And I think there's a church out there that you fit in. And you don't know where it is because you're not searching for it yet. So today, start searching for it. That's the most loving way I can do it. So resist the legalism. It's time to restore. So you don't hold them to the letter of the law. The letter of law kills. The spirit of the law is to restore, to point them to the cross, to point them to Jesus. You don't pontificate and act like a hypocrite and that's what the that's the occasion of Matthew seven, judge not lest you be judged. The pharisees were sinning. They were prolific sinners and they were pontificating. They were they were pointing out faults in other people, but they had a huge beam in their own eye. And so take the beam out of your own eye and then go over there and pull the speck out of your brother's eye. You're magnifying these things. You're a hypocrite. So he's saying don't judge sin seriously and that you're condemning people. So it's not that you're not to judge sin, you're not to evaluate right and wrong behavior, but don't do it as a hypocrite according to the letter of the law to condemn people. Point them to the cross. Galatians six one is the right spirit. Brethren, brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, all of us are overtaken in faults. Brethren, a man be overtaken in fault. You are spiritual. Restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, meek, knowing your own sinfulness, lest you also be tempted. So if you're gonna be prideful and boast that, oh, I'd never do that. Oh, I'd never do that. And try to hammer them and condemn them, then it's gonna cause you to be filled with pride. And in that pride, in that arrogance, God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And chances are, you're gonna be like Peter. Though everyone, you know, betray you tonight, not me, not not not Peter. And Jesus said, this night before the cock crows, you're gonna die that you even know me on three different occasions. Peter, Satan desires you that he may sift you as wheat, but I'm praying for you Peter that your faith fail not. And when you're converted, strengthen your brothers. So Peter had to be broken. Peter had to be reached the place where he knew in and of himself and his natural abilities, he was no match for the devil. He was no match for the principalities and powers. It humbled him. Before God uses a man greatly, he must hurt him deeply. And so there's ongoing breaking, the broken bread and poured out wine. Your life is poured out. And so you're able to restore somebody else that's fallen because you too have fallen. You know what it is to fall. You know what it is to be inadequate. You know what it is to fail those whom you love. Verse seven, so that contrabwise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. So it's time to forgive. So what I look at is Luke 17. If I brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, seven times in a day, turn again to thee saying I repent, thou shall forgive him. So there's people that in Matthew 18, I already forgive him from my heart. Because if I don't forgive him from my heart, then I'm given over to the tormentors. Because I recognize God's forgiven me a debt I could never pay. So no matter what wrong they may have wronged me, I'm not gonna hold a grudge. I'm not gonna hold it against them because it's gonna affect my walking relationship with the Lord. But from the standpoint of fellowship, restoration of fellowship, then I look at Luke 17. If he repent, forgive him in the standpoint of restore fellowship. I can hang out with the guy again. Now I'm gonna be careful. Right? Fool me once, that whole thing, but but we can restore to fellowship. And Jesus just restored the boys all the way in, all the way back in, you know. So be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Do do do do Ephesians four thirty two. So that's a little verse that we gave a little ditty that we gave our daughters when they were fighting with each other. We made the one sing it to the other and boy, they hated it, you know. And, but it was the right way. In John chapter eight, we see this principle, this importance of grace versus law. Jesus was in the Mount Of Olives and he went into the temple in John eight, and he went in there to teach. And as he's there to teach, the Pharisees and the the sadducees, they were sadducees because they didn't believe in the resurrection. They came to Jesus with a woman that was caught in the very act of adultery, in the very act. They didn't bring the man, they brought the woman in the very act. They brought this woman and they said the law says, the law of Moses says she should be stoned. Capital punishment. What do you say Jesus trying to entrap him? And you know the story. Jesus said, he that is without sin cast the first stone. And the finger of God that wrote the 10 commandments, the finger of God began to write in the dust of the ground. And, and as he's writing there, you know, who knows what he's writing, but, from the eldest to the youngest, they began to walk out of there. Could be that maybe Jesus was writing the women they were with, the sins they had done, the things they had done that that they tried to hide, they're walking by him trying to move that dust on the ground. Nobody can see the names of the women they've been with, the stuff they've done. And then he turns to the woman, he says, where are thine accuser? And she says, nowhere, Lord. He says, neither do I condemn thee. They were trying to condemn this woman. Go and sin no more. Come to that place of repentance. That's why I went to the cross to pay for all of your sins. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. The church is a hospital. He came not for the righteous, but for sinners. That sinners would come to the place of repentance. To heirs human, it's been said, to forgive divine. Release resist legalism. Forgive him. So how do we restore a sinning brother to fellowship? Number one, reprove in love, speak the truth in love, resist legalism, and thirdly and finally, reaffirm reaffirm your love. Verse eight. Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him. So it means to confirm, confirm or reaffirm your love toward him. So restore him. So welcome the repentant sinner back into the fold. Let him back in. Now in Corinth, remember there weren't a bunch of other churches that he could go hide in and talk how mean and bad pastor Rick is and be welcomed in as a fornicator. No. He experienced a little bit of a beating, little bit of chastening, whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son. So then he comes back in and the leadership of the church receives some God still has great plans for your life. You're looking out the window. You're praying. You're interceding. You're waiting for that moment. Don't shun them. Don't ostracize them. I don't ever wanna see you again. Don't brand them. Don't label them. I like to call them nimrods or cretins, lazy gluttons, you know. I like to call morons and idiots and anything I can get away with. But that's me. That's not God's heart, is it? Except he says to the pharisees, you brood of vipers. How are you gonna escape the fires of hell? Oh, Jesus. He far exceeds any name I would call somebody. A brood of vipers, you hypocrites. Sometimes it just takes a word, a branding of a heretic. You put a jacket on him. But somebody has come to a place of repentance, you don't throw it back in their face. Little maiden arise. You there's tenderness, there's gentleness. There's times where you have to be like a coach or a father or a warrior where you're intense. Kathy says, I'm way too intense. You're so intense. You're so aggressive. But I can be tender. I can be soft. When it comes to the things of the Lord, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as on the Lord, not on the men. I'm not gonna do it half hearted. Yeah, am intense. I believe this bible. I wanna hold every word that's here. I don't wanna try to fulfill or obey 50% of it. Throw out all prophecy and things like that. I don't wanna go to a church growth seminar and and be addicted to quote unquote success. I'm not addicted to success. I'm happy being a loser. A lot of people won't die to self because they're addicted to success. They'll compromise. There's things they won't say because they're afraid they'll lose people. They look for the hopium. They look for a false hope to garner a following of people and get them get them moving in that direction. There's joy in heaven over the sinner, over one sinner that repents more than over ninety and nine just persons which have no need of repentance. He says in Luke chapter 15 verse 10, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. And so when I read that, when I first read it, I think of it's the angels that are rejoicing. And I read a little bit closer and I'm like, there's joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. Jesus is rejoicing over you. He's rejoicing in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. And Zephaniah, he's dancing. He's dancing. He's so jazzed. He's so excited. Because you were lost and now you're found. You were dead. Now you're alive. He'll leave the 90 and 9 to go find you. But you gotta repent. You gotta turn. To repent means to turn from your sin. You can't justify your sin. You can't blame somebody else. You can't hide in your emotions and your senses. He's dealing with you within the very center of your soul, the mind, the will, the emotion, the your spirit, you know in your heart you've done wrong. Surrender. Repentance means surrender. Just surrender to him. Surrender to his lordship in your life. Surrender to his authority in your life. Know ye not that you've been bought with a price? You're not your own. He bought you with his blood. He created you then he bought you. You're twice his. But don't live in rebellion. Don't live in the middle road of lukewarmness. Celebrate, kill the fatted calf, rejoice with heaven to be the parents of a prodigal so that we wouldn't pontificate and be self righteous and and point our nose down at people and lean toward legalism. But we'd have empathy. We'd have comfort and the comfort that the Lord's comfort us, we comfort others. We have a confidence in remembering that when they ask Christ into their heart and and when they were baptized, we remember them before the devil getting a hold of them and beating them with an ugly stick. That purity isn't there anymore. But Jesus didn't come for the righteous. He came for sinners. And the church is a hospital for sinners. In Mark two seventeen, they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Jesus said in Matthew twelve twenty, a bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flax shall he not quench. What's that mean? You've got the reeds that grow along the the River Jordan or the Nile or whatever, and a reed doesn't have a whole lot of strength and if it if it gets hit on the side, it can bend over. Not all the way broken, but bent, cracked maybe. And so you could come along and you could break it the rest of the way, so you see a person's life is bent, it's broken, but not all the way, kinda bent over. And smoking flax, he won't quench. That's a light that once had the oil of the holy spirit in it and shining bright. And now it's down to the wick and the oil's gone. He's not gonna come along and go and snuff out that little light that's there. He's gonna pour oil into the lamp and fan it into a flame. For to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether you be obedient in all things. So Paul tested their integrity. Discipline is not fun, but it must be done. I had a pastor come visit me one time and he's sweet, sweet, sweet man. And he said, Rick, your problem is you don't nip it in the bud quick enough. I'm long suffering. I put up with more than you can imagine of people who are disobedient, rebellious over the years. All I want to do is move forward together and you try and win them. You try and win them. You try everything you can to try and win them over. And for some you just can't. You just you can't win them over. He that spares the rod hates his son, but he that loves him chastens him both often. So you can't be non judgmental. You have to judge right and wrong behavior. And the Lord, whom the Lord loves, he chastens and he spanks, he deals with it. We teach, we model. Paul said that which you've seen in me do so the pastor needs to be a model. You really want people to be looking to Jesus but we need to emulate Jesus as fathers, as husbands, as men and women of God. So we teach, we instruct, We model, we train, we confront, we spank, and we reaffirm our unconditional love. And so I can disagree with you. I can disagree with my daughter, family member. I can disagree with their lifestyle, but I can unconditionally love them the whole way through. I can keep the phone open, keep the house open, they're welcome. I'm not gonna power play them and I disown you. Never done that. They're always welcome. And they can blame their mom, they can blame me for all of their failures. They can throw a tirade of ugliness and you just sit there and you take it. And you love on them, you point them to Jesus, you pray for them, and you try to model the Christian life. Do as best you can. We let God's word be the judge. He says verse 10, to whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. As Jesus said, father forgive them for they know not what they do. As Stephen said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, we're not ignorant of his devices. So unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, legalism will lead to Satan's tactics, his device his devices, strategies to divide a church. To have groups of Cora, Dathan, and Abiram. I'm a Paul, I'm a Apollos, I'm a Cephas, I'm a flat earther, I'm a round earther, I'm a pre trib, I'm a mid trib, a post trib, and you get everybody moving in different directions. Where two or more gathered in my name in Matthew 18, there I am in the midst. And we use that to describe a church, a small little church, a bible study. But really what it's saying is, in addition to that, it's saying that I'm there with you in authority. When you discipline somebody according to my word, when you take that immoral person and set them out, where two or more gathered in my name, there I am in the midst. I'm I'm confirming your decision based upon my word. You're not alone in this. And they're really rebelling against the Lord. And so Satan uses immorality. He uses sin, he uses corruption, he uses leaven. He also uses legalism and condemnation and pride and arrogance to quench the holy spirit. We must confront sin by speaking the truth in love and remember that Satan's a liar. So balance is the key. Love is not weak. Grace is not a license to sin. True love confronts. We're not passive. We're not tolerant of evil. If we see somebody parading born again lesbians or whatever it may be that they're trying to ram down our throats today. We love them, but we don't compromise. We don't give in and change the definition of love as acceptance or tolerance of evil. We don't allow president Obama to light up the White House lawn with the the rainbow flag when he arbitrarily decides to change the definition of marriage. And then has the audacity to say love wins, that's not love. That's licentiousness. Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. Romans six fifteen. Jude one four, there are certain men crept in unaware who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So kinda loosey goosey attitude. No? We're gonna follow the word of God. We fear God more than men. We will not deny him his glory. There's no license, there's no heresy, there's no compromise. We're gonna earnestly contend for the faith according to Jude. We're gonna prove all things hold fast to that which is good. We're gonna try the spirits in love. The cross is where sin was crushed. The cross is God's final word on sin. It is finished. Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Love confronts. When he repents, forgive him and restore him to fellowship. He was lost but now found, dead but now alive. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you or a spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted. Celebrate. There's joy in the presence of the angels when just one sinner repents. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you, Lord, that when we were estranged, when we were dead in our sins and trespasses, Lord, that you came and you, like with the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, you arrested us. You revealed yourself unto us. And Lord, and as you revealed yourself, Lord, you gave us that measure of faith and as we acted upon that faith, Lord, we experienced your grace and the work of regeneration and conversion and went from body and soul to body, soul, and spirit. And and you give us that new nature, the power of the holy spirit to live the Christian life. You flooded our hearts and minds with your love, Lord. That agape love just overflowing our hearts and minds. And Lord, at times we run low, we we we see where you're telling us to be not drunk with wine wherein to success, but be being filled with the Holy Spirit because we leak. And Lord, we're here today to be refilled, to be filled to overflowing, that we might have the capacity to love those in our homes, in our marriages, in our community, at work, those that mistreat us and wrong us and have deeply, deeply hurt us, Lord. Those that have fallen through the cracks, those who the enemy has snatched the seed and taken them away into heresy, Lord, we intercede on their behalf. We pray for them that they come to repentance. That it not get worse than it already is, Lord. So help us restore those who have strayed, those who may wind up shipwreck in their faith, Lord. Help us restore, help us to be a lifesaving station here in Bremerton for the lost, for the drowning, for those who can't cope, those without hope. Let us introduce them to you, Lord. That blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. Anyone here this morning, the holy spirit's tugging on your heart. The holy spirit's convicting you. You don't know Jesus. You don't have a relationship with him, but the holy spirit's convicting you, which means the holy spirit's identifying that that you're in your sins. And you know that you're in your sins, you know that you're not right with God. He's showing you your nakedness before him. He wants to clothe you with a robe of righteousness. He wants to put the ring on your finger, the engagement ring for you as his bride. He wants to rejoice in heaven as you come to repentance, as you turn from your sins, as you cry out to him, God be merciful to me a sinner. You don't need to rehearse as the prodigal did. You just show up. You just turn. As you're turning toward him, he's looking out the window and now he's running toward you. Jesus said, no man can come unto me except the father which has sent me. Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. The holy spirit, the father is drawing you. God wants to make his abode in you. God wants to be at home in your heart. Nicodemus, you must be born again. How can a man that is old be born a, you know, a second time naturally? No. You need to be born of the water and the spirit. Not just the natural human birth, but the the the spiritual birth, being born of the spirit. The holy spirit coming into your heart and life. As many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. Are you receiving Christ? Are you receiving him now as he's knocking on the door of your heart? God is long suffering, unwilling that any would perish, that all would come to repentance. And all means all. All means you. He's purposely waiting. He's purposely waiting, not not coming again until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. According to Romans eleven twenty five. You're holding us up. Get with it. Get right with God. That last Gentile, blindness apart has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. The bible says, whosoever will, let him come. Jesus said, whosoever comes to me, I'll know why he's cast out. He's not gonna reject you. You come as you are in your sins, and he'll wash and cleanse you. He'll transform and change you. He'll make you new. Anyone here this morning? Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Father, thank you once again that Lord we're secure, that we have peace. We have peace that surpasses all understanding knowing Lord that all of our sins, past, present, and future were placed upon you Jesus. Upon your shoulders. You that knew no sin became sin and the father poured out his wrath upon you. And in our ledger, there's no debits. There's no record of wrong. Your righteousness is imputed to us in the ledger. Just as if we've never sinned, justified, paid in full. So Lord, we thank you so much for the liberty, the freedom that we enjoy that there's now therefore no condemnation. No matter how much we wrong, no matter what we may do, there isn't condemnation. There may be conviction, but not condemnation. We don't lose our salvation then regain it. Lord, we're saved to the uttermost. But Lord, we're miserable in our sin. And so Lord, we pray that you would restore quickly. Don't let the moments turn into days and weeks and months and years of being backslidden. Lord, restore quick. Restore our marriages. Restore our families. Restore our prodigals. Restore our nation, Lord. Bring our nation to a place of repentance. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
