Building Up the Church Part 2, Dealing with Sin (Luke 17:1-10) | Pastor Peter Kim

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Good morning, church family. Happy Lord's Day. We're going to go ahead and begin our worship as we approach our God who is great. We're going to sing this song, Great is the Lord. Great is the Lord and most worthy of the great In the city of our God, the holy place The joy of the whole earth Great is the Lord who we have, the glory He aims us against the end of the world We bow down, we bow down on our knees, and Lord, we, and Lord, we want to lift your name on our eyes, and Lord, we want to thank you for the works you've done in our lives, and Lord, we trust in your eyes.

I faithfully love, for you alone are God eternal, through all earth and heaven above, praise the name, praise, is the Lord and most worthy of praise. In the city of our God, the world will be blessed, the joy of the hope of the world, the glory of the Lord. Here is the Lord who we have a day to our knees. He aids us against the enemy when we bow down on our knees.

And Lord, we want to bless your name, Lord. And Lord, we want to thank you for the worship done in our lives. And Lord, we trust in your unfailing love. For you, Lord, are God eternal, through our earth and heaven. And Lord, we want to lift your name. And Lord, we want to thank you for the works you've done in our lives. And Lord, we trust in your unfailing love. For you alone are God eternal, through our earth and heaven above. For you alone are God eternal, through our earth and heaven above.

Good morning. Welcome to Bering Community Church. As you guys know, today is Father's Day, and so outside as you were coming in, you probably saw a nacho station, but I was told to remind us that it's for the fathers, okay? So it's not for the kids. It's Father's Day, not People Day, okay? So they would just tell me they didn't make enough for the whole church, so we can reserve that for the fathers, okay? Unless you're making a new announcement today that we don't know of, then you can go and grab that. So please, after the service, go visit there. Did you notice something different when you walked in today? Okay, some of you guys did, some of you guys didn't. Some of you guys walked in and said, did we get new paint in this room? We actually moved the AV, AV room, okay? So if you notice that there's more chairs in the back. We're doing this because at some point we are planning to open up that wall so that we can make more space like all the way through and that'll add about 130 more chairs we were in the process of possibly putting up a mezzanine here and we found out that it's going to trigger all kinds of stuff from the city it's going to cost 1.2 1.3 million dollars just to add another you know 100 some chairs and said that financially I don't think that was a worth it and so by doing this we can add maybe about 130 chairs. And so we're going to be doing that. So that's why we're doing that. So just keep that in

mind. All church retreat that's coming up in August 7th through August 9th at Renaissance Esmeralda Indian Wells. This Wednesday is the last day to sign up. Okay. So we've had pre-registration. We had regular registration and we had late registration, but it's going to, it was going to be closed this Wednesday because we need to tell the final number to the hotel after that. and so if you are planning to come please let us know again this Wednesday is the last day to do that foundations of redemptive history the third part of our Genesis starts study is that's going to start on September 2nd at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and then obviously home groups if you haven't signed up for it please sign up for it now because it helps us to get organized do we have enough small groups do we have enough space do we have enough home groups to be able to accommodate that and if you sign up late it's kind of hard for us to do that late and then if you ask for certain things like can I go into this group or that group we may not be able to accommodate you later on and so if you are planning to participate in the bible city which most members obviously are and you haven't signed up please sign up okay and that'll help us to organize for that all right outside of that let me pray sorry we do have baby presentation today where's uh Right? Am I wrong? Is it today? Where is, is it today? It is today.

Where? Okay. All right, so where are they? Okay, can you come up now? Are we supposed to do it now or later? Now, right? I'm so disoriented. I miss one Sunday, and then I'm confused. Oh, after the... You know what? Yeah, it's after. We were working on the AV booth all week, so I'm just disoriented. Okay, so not yet. Sorry, that's my fault. Okay, okay. So we're going to pray for the offering, and then after the offering, the praise time, and then before I preach they're going to have they're going to come up okay sorry about that all right let me pray for us heavenly father we thank you and praise you for who you are and we pray father god that you would bless this morning and help us lord god to focus our full attention on bringing glory to your name we pray father god that you would be gracious to us and you would search us and know us and see if there's any hurtful ways in us.

And we pray, Father God, that the offering that we give may be multiplied for the sake of your kingdom, that many more people would come to Christ, Lord God, to know your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Church family, let's stand together as we stand, why don't we say hello to a couple people around you. I haven't seen them for a week or so. Amen. God bless you.

Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning our Son shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy All the saints adore Thee Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.

Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before thee. Who was at his hand And evermore shall be Holy, holy, holy Though the darkness guide me Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see Only Thou art holy There is none beside me Perfect in power, love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty God in three persons, blessed tree God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity.

All I once held dear, built my life upon. All this world reveals and wars to all. All I once thought, gave me, I have counted, lost, spent, and worthless now, compared to me. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Now my heart's desire is to know you are to be found in you And no one has hoped to possess my faith What I could not earn All surpassing in A righteousness Knowing you, Jesus Knowing you There is no greater thing You're my love, you're the best And you're my joy, my righteousness And I love you, Lord Oh, to know the power of your risen life And to know you in your sufferings To become like you in your death, my Lord

So in you to live and never die Knowing you, Jesus Knowing you is the greater you gain You're my all, you're the best You're my all, you're the best You're my show, my righteousness, you're my all, all the best, you're my show, my righteousness, and I love you all. All right, now, would you come?

Okay, if I can ask the parents to come now. This is why we're expanding our room. We need more space. for the children that are coming into the church. Okay, can I give you the mic? All right, I'll kick it off. Hi, my name is Kevin. This is my wife, Melissa, and this is our newest son, Asher. He's our second boy. He's turning four months old tomorrow. grow. So yeah, Asher in the Bible, he's the eighth son of Jacob. He's one of the tribes of Israel. His name means blessed or happy. So we did really like the meaning of his name, but we also like just how it sounded with his older brother Abel. So that's why we went with it. Yeah, our prayer request is that Asher would grow in the wisdom and grace of God, and through God's calling that one day we hope he will respond in faith, in repentance, and with a love for Christ.

And then for us as parents, now that we're the parents of just two young boys, it's very easy for us to just be in a pattern of trying to survive. So our prayer for us is that even in the mundane, we can be seeking opportunities to faithfully point them to Christ. Thank you. Hi, I'm Kalem, and this is Christine. This is our fourth child, Cody Renxin Cheng. Our prayer request is just for energy that we could raise Cody up with the same care and dedication as we're raising our firstborn, and hopefully through us that God may grant him wisdom to just be able to navigate through whatever life throws at him in ways that honors him. Hey everyone, my name is John. This is my wife, Jess. This is Corinne.

She's the fourth of our kids. We've got three older boys, so she's our first girl. She is, this probably leads into my prayer request. I got two prayer requests, but she is the last of our planned kids. So, you know, same with our other kids. We just pray that mom and dad can lay the right foundation for worship and lordship at home, especially just with a girl at home. It's been the most beautiful experience, but there's just a little bit of dread for what happens in 18 to 18 plus years. So the second one, just because this is probably our last, but if you could pray for just us to enjoy our kids. I feel like we just blinked, and my oldest is 10 now, so time just goes by really fast. And it's a lot of effort to just enjoy our kids, so just pray for that.

Thank you. All right. Hi, church family. My name is Nick. This is my wife, Karis. And this is our daughter, first kid, Eden Ruth Ma. We just really like the names. There's no significance to it. And our prayer request is that she would just grow up to be a woman who clings to God and seeks after him. Yeah, thank you. Hi, good morning, everyone. My name is Victor. This is my wife, Lauren. This is our son, Evan Fu. We chose Evan because we liked it, but I'll share really quickly about why. So, in our family, our initials are L, O for Olivia, and V for Victor. And when we were choosing names, I was very corny and thinking, oh, we should go with an E name so our initials can spell love. So, we laughed about it, a lot about how silly it was, and then six months later, we decided to do it anyway.

So, there it is. And our prayer requests are that our children would come to know Christ, and that for Lauren and I, that God would grant us the strength to be persistent and consistent in sharing the gospel with them. Thank you. Hi, my name is Joe. This is my wife, Jane, and this is our son, James. His English name is James. His Korean name is Chuan. basically just basically in korean just means uh just in terms of uh called peace uh just to have peace for him and and for him uh i think our just prayer request is just so similar to to know god similar to victor we are a little corny all our name starts with the j including us joe james and all the children so we just want to continue the tradition and just our besides the prayer Christ before him to know God is just for him to know the word and for us to be faithful to God in our lives. Hey, church. I'm Justin. This is my wife, Callie. This is our son, Kanoa.

We named him after, or I named him after a surfer. And then my wife's like, oh, it sounds nice. So his middle name's Elijah. So like two baby inches ago, someone's like, oh, it means the Lord's my God. I said, sick. Kanoa. Kanoa Elijah King. If you could just pray for us. If you could just pray for us that I think as we're first-time parents, there's a lot of wants and desires that come naturally. I mean, if we're not careful, it can turn into a weight. So just for us to just really love and depend on God, and for our son to know him. Hi, everyone. I'm Martin. This is my wife, Michelle, and this is our three-month-old Marie V. Mao. Marie is just the French version of Mary, and like the mother of our Savior, we want her to be brave in her faith and to just trust God in everything.

If you could pray for us as parents, we really want to raise Marie well up in the Lord. We really want to just make her know Christ at a young age and just to minister to her. thank you all right thank you all right before they go i want to take a minute to pray for them and again you know i know that this is something that we right now because we have so many people who are having children that we do this i think it seems almost seems like every other month right now but as i get older and i know some of you guys are getting older it's naturally we end up thinking more and more about the next generation that what god has blessed us with and the labor and struggled that is this something that's going to carry on to the next generation right and so we really you know are we have vps coming up this week and we have so many people who are volunteering and so you know this is something that i always feel blessed every time we have vps because we have so many younger people at church and even young parents who come and volunteer but we're praying that we don't just create an environment where they feel safe they're protected you know the world is hard so maybe have a community where they can come and fellowship and but we really are praying that they will come to faith early and that they would be the next next generation of warriors who will take the baton and really fight for the kingdom of god and so each one of

these parents obviously are the front line where they're sharing the gospel with them and we're praying that that we would be able to participate in this not just watch and say there's someone else's children but these are the first generation like we work so hard to go overseas to share the gospel and in different parts of the world but we have young souls here in our church that we want to first and foremost prioritize and make sure that they're coming to christ they're being discipled they're they're going to be the ones who not just kind of oh these are my parents church but that they would embrace the church as their own and that they would hear the gospel and that they would fight for the gospel for the next generation so if you can join with me in prayer as we lift up a prayer for all of them.

Father God, I just want to thank you so much for your continued blessing upon our church. And we know that each one of these children are precious souls, Lord God, that you've entrusted to these parents. And as every single one of them has asked, Lord God, that they would be good stewards of the souls that you've handed into their family. I pray that they will be a source of great joy, great blessing, that you give them the energy physically and spiritually to be a good steward of who they are help them lord god to see the preciousness of what you have given that it would be handed down to their children that their eyes may be open their heart may be softened that the power of the gospel would come to their lives sooner than later that they would spend many years on this earth lord god shining your light to this world and so for that end i pray father god not only for the parents but for the rest of the church for the next generation of souls, Lord God, in this church, that you would raise up people, Lord God, who love you, honor you, who be sold out for your kingdom, that more and more people in this generation will be able to know who you are.

So for that end, we ask for your anointing over these parents. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, thank you.

Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 17, and I'll be reading from verse 1 through 4. Luke 17, verses 1 through 4. He said to his disciples, it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent, forgive him. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would help us, Lord God, to see your will and your heart and your thought through your words. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, when we think about the church. Probably the church is probably one of the greatest blessings that God has given us.

Some of our best memories, especially if you grew up in the church, is from the church, the friends that you've made. Many of you met your life partners, right? Your wife, husband at the church. You have probably fond memories of going out to missions and sharing the gospel. And some of you guys who were here with us early on in the church, you know what church was like when our church was so small, and we didn't know even if we were going to have the building to meet in, and some of you guys, you know, may remember that. So, some of our fondest memories are in the church, and those of you who came from other churches and joined us later on. But some of the biggest pains in the church, some of the most, you know, bitterest and difficult memories also come from the church. And it's not necessarily because of certain organization or how things were run majority of that good and bad probably come from relationships relationships in the way you dealt with people and maybe some people you know loved you and then some people didn't understand you and they hurt you and and in the midst of all of that you have good and the bad but we all know that everything good there's no relationship in your life even marriages that you think seem perfect at this point maybe they've been married for 30 40 50 years and they have the perfect marriage and maybe some of you younger thinking like if i can meet my soul mate you

know maybe our marriage is going to be like that that would be when i'm in my 50s or 60s or 70s that this is what our relationship is going to be like but i have not met a single relationship right whether they're young or old who don't have their own stories of struggling of conflict of fighting, and then having to reconcile, and to forgive, and compromise, and so all that labor that went into bringing the marriage to where it is today. Now, I share all of that, again, because the point of the message is not just about relationships, but it's about the church. You cannot build the church until we commit to the same things. The text that we're looking at today, jesus says be on guard now everything jesus says is important but why does he start this section by telling us be on guard because be on guard is like taking time to make sure say hey pay attention to this just like when jesus says truly truly i say to you right this is important be on guard because what stumbles us more than anything else in our christian life and in the church is human relationships. And in particular, how we deal with sin. And that's what he's going to be getting at today. I have two large outlines for this text in first service. I didn't get to the second one, so I ended up just on the first side. But let me give you the broad outline in this text. Take sin seriously is point number one, and take grace seriously is point number two.

right and I didn't get to I didn't get to the second one so there's no grace today okay it's we're going to be talking about the first one I don't think I'm going to have time to get to the second but both are extremely extremely important he says be on guard because the consequence of not being on guard about how we deal with sin can not only ruin us individually but it can ruin the church, you can ruin every relationship, right? He says, be on guard. And so the first thing that he says is, if your brother sins, rebuke him. Now, just that phrase alone may already trigger some of you. Maybe it's from a bad experience or maybe you got hurt in the past or whatever it may be. The idea of rebuking sin seems unbiblical to you, some of you, because the way that you heard the gospel and the church, it's like the idea of confronting sin is like, oh, didn't Jesus die for sin? Aren't we supposed to be gracious towards sinners? So when the Bible, when Jesus tells his disciples, pay attention, be on guard with this, he says, if your brother sins, rebuke him.

Now, there's a few things that we need to highlight here before we really understand what Jesus is trying to say. And again, just as much as we need to take sin seriously, we need to take grace seriously because those two things go hand in end. It's not one over the other. You know what I noticed that in the years that I've been preaching, the church can be divided into two parts, and I hear it from both sides. I hear one part saying, Pastor Peter is too harsh. He's always confronting. I always feel guilty after his sermons. Why does he have to do that? And then I also hear from another part of the church, you say, oh, Pastor Peter is not confronting sin. He kind of allows everything to happen. It's kind of loosey-goosey. There's not enough discipleship in the church, and we need to be more disciplined. We need to call people out in their sin, and I hear from both camps, and if I was to ask you today, what do you think? Your opinion is our church is a bit too harsh to stand on this side, and if our church doesn't discipline enough that you stand on this side, I don't know exactly where you would stand, right, but it will be divided based upon your perspective, based upon what you brought into the church and maybe your past experiences that you kind of prefer this over that. And so when we look at a text like this, when it says, rebuke sin, right? If your brother sins, rebuke him, you kind of read

that and say, oh, okay, you do that. And then you might want us to spend all our time talking about if he repents, forgive him seven times. If he does it, you do it seven times, right? And you kind of want to camp there and then hurry up to skim over that. Or maybe if you're on the other side, it's like, finally, he's talking about sin. We need to deal with this, right? And then maybe you want to kind of camp here for a while and you're afraid that if we talk too much about sin that people are not going to take sin seriously. Both sides are in the room, right? And most people think that if you are to my left, you're liberal. If you're to my right, you're too conservative them because they see themselves like this is my perspective so because this is what i see that it must be it must be this way if you're to the left or to the right right well how do you know how do you know if you're too far left or how do you know if you're too far right how do you know if you're too gracious to the point where you're allowing all kinds of licentiousness or how do you know you're being too harsh where you're kind of bordering on legal legalism and creating an environment where people feel judged all the time how do you know if you're being balanced well the scripture tells us that's why fix your eyes upon christ the author and perfect of our faith we don't know when we're in balance because we always think that wherever we are is where the

balance is that's what we think so if we don't allow the word of god to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart and we try to balance based upon how i feel my perspective you know We will oftentimes get that wrong. And we sometimes actually even do more damage. And that's why we have to stick to the Word of God. If the Word of God says this, then we're going to preach this. If the Word of God says this, we're going to preach that. But if we say, you know what, I'm not going to say this because I'm afraid that people are going to take it the wrong way so I can skim over that because I want to talk about this. And we try to balance it. We have to just preach to the Word. And whatever balance is going to come, it's going to come from preaching the Word.

in in season and out of season we're not going to skim over anything when when harsh teaching comes then harsh teaching is going to come when graciousness is being taught that's what we're going to teach and hopefully maybe not in one sunday hopefully within months within years that it will naturally we would hear the whole counsel of god and not just one and the other so this morning i'm giving you a warning a heads up right i i meant to tell you both okay but today you're going to hear rebuke. Okay. Because he begins by saying, rebuke your brother if you sin. So first thing that we need to understand is, he says, if your brother sins. This is not a generic rebuke over every sin that you see. See, in particular, he says, if your brother, he's talking to the disciples. He's not telling Peter, if your brother Andrew sins, rebuke him. Or John, if your brother James sins, rebuke him. He's talking to all the disciples, talking about the followers of Christ within the church. If you see sin, he says to rebuke him. 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, "For what have I to do with judging the outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church, but those who are outside God judges? Remove the wicked man from among yourselves." He said, "First and foremost, our concerns should be within the church. First, if the church is speaking out against unrighteousness and filth and immorality outside the church without giving much attention to the

immorality inside the church, then we automatically lose our voice. In order for revival to break out all over the world, it needs to first break out within the church. We can't expect the world to change if the church doesn't change. So first and foremost, he says to take sin seriously inside the church. 1 Peter 4:17, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us, first, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" First and foremost is the church. Revival is not going to break out in the marketplace. Revival is not going to break out outside. First and foremost, when revival breaks out people are aware of their sin because that's what the presence of god automatically does as soon as he shows up every instance where the glory of god is revealed no matter where they are it may be the prophet it may be a king it may be one of the disciples they are on their knees in awe and in terror of the presence of god and just like isaiah in confronted by the glory of god He says, "Woe is me, woe is me.

I am a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips." He recognized his sin in the presence of God. So the first thing that he's talking about is to take sin seriously within the church first if your brother sins. And the second thing that we need to understand is if your brother sins. This is not about preference. This is not about your experience. is it sinful? He's not saying go rebuke people who are not listening to you. You know, I live longer than you, and maybe you should be doing this, and maybe you should live here. We should buy that and don't buy that. He's talking specifically, is it sin? Is it clearly spelled out as sin? Because oftentimes, if you go around starting pointing out things that are a matter of principle, a matter of application, maybe from your experience. You create an environment where you become the litmus test. You know why this is so dangerous? Because that's exactly what the Pharisees did. There are some laws that they highlighted and they were good at and they rebuked everybody and confronted everybody based upon the traditions that they've created.

Jesus never broke any law that God gave, but they kept on calling him a sinner. because they didn't distinguish between sin and their tradition. Jesus never. He lived perfectly. He obeyed every single law, and yet they kept on saying, that guy's a sinner because he kept on breaking their tradition. So first, taking sin seriously within the church, but we need to recognize that is it sin? Is it specifically spelled out in the Scripture? Is it clearly sinful? And if it is, he says, to rebuke them. The idea of rebuking anybody in the modern-day church sounds so strange. Because didn't God say, don't judge, or you're going to be judged? I hear that all the time. I hear politicians say it. I hear in the church, don't judge.

It's like, you know what, maybe they shouldn't be doing that. We're going to confront this, and we practice church discipline. But didn't the Bible say that we shouldn't judge? well they're quoting Matthew 7 1 when they say that do not judge so that you will not be judged you see that the Bible says that so we're not supposed to judge who are we who are we to tell them that this is wrong they can't do this well you have to read the whole passage that passage that they're quoting is it is the first line of the rest of what he says in verse 2 to 5 for in in the way you judge. Look at that, in the way you judge. It's not just judging, it's in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Did you notice that? The whole thing is not simply saying, don't judge. Don't ever judge anybody. He says, no. It's the way you're judging. He said, you're so gracious to yourself. You allow all kinds of sins and all kinds of hindrances in your eyes, but when it comes to others, you can't tolerate their sin. You can't tolerate their mistakes. And he says,

first take the log out of your own eyes so that you can see clearly, so that you may be able to what? Judge them rightly. The problem that he is referring to, do not judge so that you will not be judged. He's talking about a hypocrite where he highlights his strength and then hides his mistakes and then highlights other people's sins and then they sweep under the rug, right? what they're good at. Scripture tells us that first and foremost, sin is utterly sinful, right? He said the whole purpose of the law was to make sin utterly sinful. We don't pick and choose and say, "You know what? I'm good at. Nobody's doing this. Everybody should be doing this." And then things behind the scene that maybe people don't know obviously and you're hoping that other people don't poke around in there? Maybe you're good with discipline and whatever it is that you're doing, I'm studying and I know the Bible and then when it comes to your finances, integrity, right? And you're hoping nobody would find out. He said that's what he's referring to.

But the Bible tells us in Romans that the law was given to us to make our sin utterly sinful. That we would recognize how dirty, how filthy the damage that it does. You know how long He waited? The book of Galatians tells it in the fullness of time, Christ came. And part of the fullness of time is to give enough time that the law would reveal the sinfulness of man that the law would reveal they will come to a point and recognize the damage that sin does that at the end of 1500 years of living under the law that they will come to the conclusion woe is me that they have 1500 years of curses upon curses upon curses the damage that it did to their kingdom the damage it did to their relationship the damage it did to their relationship with god the damage it did to their worship 1500 years for them to personally experience the filth of sin in order for when christ to come because everything that jesus was going to do was dependent upon people recognizing their sin and the reason why the pharisees didn't recognize Jesus is because they didn't recognize their own sin. Sin was not utterly sinful. They would highlight what they're good at. They were good at discipline. They were good at memorizing.

But when it came to the weightier matters of compassion and love, they said, why do you ignore these things? The struggle that we have today is that we live in a culture where so much of the counsel of our sin is you're not that bad God took 1500 years to set up the tabernacle tell them not to do this and don't break the sabbath and 10 commandments all so that they would come to the conclusion of how utterly sinful sin is and then we live in a generation where people all around us are working so hard to unravel all of that, that sin is not that bad. So if you go to a psychologist and you ask them, "This is what I'm doing," maybe you're struggling with sin and said, "Well, what was your upbringing like?

How did your mom treat you? How did your dad treat you? Did you do this? And were you bullied when you were younger?" And so you're trying to figure out, and part of the reason why they're asking that is so that at the end conclusion of it, oh, that's why you're doing what you're doing. So at the end of the counseling session, you come out thinking like, oh, okay, I am the way I am because they did this to me. I am the way I am because these things happened to me. And so when you come out and you're living in sin and somebody tells you that it's because of this, this, this, and this, then it's no longer your fault. They need to repent. So even when we repent, there's no weight of repentance. You're not pounding your chest like, yeah, yeah, yeah, these are bad things. I shouldn't be doing this, but you don't know what I went through. You don't know the trauma that I'm... You know what? I've been counseling people long enough. There isn't a single person in this room that hasn't been traumatized somehow. Not a single person. We live in a fallen world and you're surrounded by fallen people and you are a fallen person. And as much as they've hurt you and you've hurt them, so there's not a single person that I've met doesn't have some sort of trauma in their life. So if we use that trauma as an excuse to sin, then you will always have a reason to sin. See, when he calls us to repentance, we come to the point where you say,

it's me. You know, when I was younger, there was a Sunday school song that we used to sing. It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's not my mother, it's not my father, not my brother, not my sister. It's me standing in the need of prayer. And even though this was something that we sang when we were younger, it was constant reminder. Repentance is when I say, it's me. It's me. I did that. It's a corruption in me. You know, I look at other people and say, How come they experience the same thing and they lead to the glory of God? And why does something, a little thing happen to me? I said, why did they do this to me? Until sin becomes utterly sinful. We're not going to understand why he says, rebuke your brother.

It's not simply to shame them. Because until sin becomes utterly sinful, the gospel is an utterly glorious. Well, we turn grace into cheap grace. See, in Matthew 5, 29 to 30, before I even read this text, years ago, we were at Together for the Gospel, and we had a panel. They had a panel of speakers that have a Q&A session, and I remember all the famous pastors were there, and John Piper was one of them that was sitting there, and one of the questions that came up was, what do you say to a brother, or even a sister, but in that case, it was brother who continues to struggle with pornography. And you've counseled them. They repented. They counseled them, repented. This has been going on for years. And nothing seems to change.

How should we deal with this brother? And you know what John Piper said? He said, "Tell him they're going to hell." So everybody was shocked. And then from shock went to laughter. because everybody thought he must be joking you go to hell john piper is joking you know and then the the moderator said okay okay you know just in case that people are going to take you literally that they're going to go to hell if they're struggling with porn and they don't overcome it you know can you explain and john piper double double down said no that's what jesus said and then he read this passage matthew 5 29 to 30 if your eye right eye makes you stumble tear it out and throw it from you for it is better for you to lose one of your parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell if your right hand makes you stumble cut it off and throw it from you for it is better for you to lose one part of one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell and he just read that passage he's like I'm just telling you what Jesus said now of course he's not saying that if you struggle with sin that you're going to go to hell because that's why Christ came.

But the point that he was trying to make was that you need to take the fighting of sin this seriously. The author of Hebrews says the same thing, Hebrews 12:4, "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." He doesn't say, "I know how hard it is. We all struggle with that, but thank God that He died for us." So hopefully you can conquer it. But even if you don't know that your salvation is secure, now there's nothing theologically wrong with what he particularly said, but the author of Hebrews says, "No, you have not fought to the point of shedding blood. You've jumped to conclusion of grace too easily." And that's why it's become acceptable to live in sin in the church because we don't feel bad.

allowing sin to permeate in our lives and in our church, and we think, "Oh, but God loves us unconditionally." Again, it may not be wrong, but have we fought to the point of shedding blood? If your sharing of… and let me get very specific, because I know a lot of people struggle with pornography if you've allowed watching pornography to be normal in your life and you come maybe say oh you know I'm supposed to confess and share and when you share it you have other people sitting there saying oh me too I'm struggling too and all of a sudden you don't feel it so bad oh this is normal everybody struggles with this so this is normal and then what happens is you have a church environment where people are sharing, but there's no striving. There's no consequence. And so sin is no longer utterly sinful. Sin just becomes one day. It's just something that you live with, not realizing the damage that it's doing. It's preventing you from praying. The Word of God is not going through your heart. You can't share the gospel because you feel guilty, you come to worship God and the song doesn't hit you anymore, and you remember when you first became a Christian and how on fire, where is that, and you think maybe this is just normal, that being lukewarm is normal, because everything, everybody around you seems like they've accepted this.

But every time you open up the Scripture, it says, "No, that is not what God desires. is not normal. It's because we've allowed sin to be a normal part of our lives. So when he says, "If you see a brother sin," he says, "Rebuke him." He says, "No, take sin seriously. Don't accept that as a normal pattern." That's why it says, "Flee sexual immorality." And I'm pointing that up because we have a young church and I know how prevalent that is because I hear it all the time. And I have sympathy for you because you don't have to go look for it. They come looking for you. They put it in your email. You click something in Facebook and then they come after you. So if you're not vigilant and if you're not committed to fight against sin, it will come after you and because it is hard and difficult you end up accepting it oh yeah yeah of course I feel guilty but you're you're okay with just feeling guilty but not conquering it and you don't realize the damage that it's doing to you to your relationships to prayer to the study of the word of God to evangelism to the glory of God to the church That all the problems that you are having, you're frustrated, you're thinking, if I did this, if a small group was different, if the preaching was different, if this was different, and you're trying to fix everything else, except sin is no longer utterly sinful to you.

So therefore, even when we celebrate the gospel, it's cheap, it's superficial. Revival is not going to break out until we take sin as utterly sinful. And that's why he says, if you see your brother sin, rebuke him. Don't tolerate that. Now, he's not saying go around that you see everybody saying, I'm going to do this. And again, you could be a hypocrite. First and foremost, we need to take sin seriously. You cannot accept, you cannot accept struggling and watching porn. And think somehow, think somehow that there is no hindrance to your walk with God. That somehow your prayers aren't going to be any different. That somehow that you're going to be able to continue to share the gospel and bear fruit and make disciples while sin has become acceptable.

The damage that it does. But again, to remember, the point of this is not simply to shame. He says to rebuke them because his point is to turn them. In Galatians 6, 1 through 2, 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 so that you too will not be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. So here, when it says bear one another's burdens, what is the burden he's referring to? Fight against sin. That's what he's referring to. Not, you know, life is hard and having a hard time paying bills and all that is true, right? Life is much better when we're able to share with other people.

This text, when it says share each other's burden, he's talking about fighting against sin. So part of bearing one another is our 10th covenant, in our 10-fold covenant is that I promise to keep each other accountable.

It's easy to sign when you're not in that context, but as soon as something goes wrong, it's like, oh, they're so judgmental. No, we're not just simply judging. It's because we're trying to keep our church pure. We're trying to help you so that you don't live with this hindrance and being fooled and allowing the devil to have a foothold in your life hindering you. You can't speak here because of this. You can't talk here. You can't be bold here because of this. and so we end up having a form of godliness with no power because we pick and choose where we're going to be bold because we can't be bold everywhere because if I'm too bold, we feel guilty. James 5, 19-20, it says, My brethren, if anyone among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from an error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

and some again the idea of like oh we shouldn't judge if we really cared if we were really gracious we wouldn't say anything we would just absorb their sins you would never do that with somebody you really love if your younger brother or sister is starting to go down a path or doing drugs and you know their life is going to get ruined you don't sit there and say who am I to judge you're not going to you're not going to care that they might not like it you're not going to care they say oh how come you judge you're so legalistic you're not going to care because you can't see your brother going down that path you know where that's headed so because you love them you're going to sit down with them you can't do that even if you hate my guts at the end of this I cannot allow I cannot sit here and just watch you go down that path and ruin your life because you love them. It is not love to be indifferent. Either you don't believe that this is going to harm them, or you're more concerned about your welfare than you do them.

So this is all within the context of love, of love. If your child is making decisions, I'm not talking about they're not being wise i'm not talking about maybe you know i would have done a different but they're choosing a path of sin that's destructive how many of you parents would sit there and say who am i to judge no your love is going to compel you to go to them to get them to turn to get somebody else involved do whatever you need because they cannot go down this path See, when Jesus tells His disciples, if they sin, rebuke them, this is not simply like, "Oh, I'm so disgusted with their sins, just get them out of here." No, He said, "Help each other, bear each other's burdens." Take sin seriously because sin is the reason why the world is the way it is.

Sin is the reason why there's starvation. Sin is the reason why there's death. Sin is the reason why marriages are so difficult. Sin is the reason why children rebel. Sin is the reason for all of this. And so he says, if you see that creeping into the church, if you see that creeping in to somebody you love, rebuke them because they must turn, not simply should turn, they must turn. And again, be careful. We're talking about sin, not your opinions, not your experience, but sin. Sin must be taken seriously. That's why in Matthew 18:15-17 he said, "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. And if he listens to you, you have one, your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two or more.

And if he doesn't listen to him, then take it to the church." And if he doesn't listen, even after that, he refuses to see sin as utterly sinful. And he said, "He will not repent, so let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." idea of carrying out church discipline, and I understand because I didn't grow up with church discipline, and I remember the first time studying through this, it's like, this just seems off. It just seems like, what? We judged them? We kicked them out of the church? Some people have a hard time with even membership, right? How can we have members? We're so exclusive. I wouldn't let some people in, some people out, right? So we have a hard time with membership, but to take people out?

And yet all over Scripture, 1 Corinthians 5:10, "Remove the wicked man among you." 2 Thessalonians 3:6, "Keep away from unruly people who are not living in obedience." Titus 3:10, "Reject the fascist person after warning a couple of times." Romans 16:7, "Turn away from those who cause divisions and hindrances." All of this for what purpose? One, to keep the church holy, and two, so that they would turn from their sins so they would return now we have to be cautious because those of you who are on this side and i told you if you were to choose one or the other and you say yeah we don't have enough of this finally we're going to start rebuking people right and you're kind of like okay can we just skip next week we don't need that we already know that about grace both of them are absolutely necessary we need to take sin seriously and we need to take grace seriously i don't have time for grace today okay we'll deal with that but it is equally important in fact what jesus says to the disciples he says forgive them if they repent seven if they even if they come seven times every day he said forgive them you know what the the disciples said after that? Increase our faith. What? How do I do that? This is beyond me. We'll talk about that next week. I say this because we cannot pray for revival. As much as we're praying, Lord, help us to be the light to the world. Help us to be bold and share in the gospel.

We pray for our children so that they will be the next generation of war. We can pray for all of this, but it has no power if we don't take sin seriously. Sin must be utterly sinful. What does shedding blood in our fighting over sin look like in our lives? What does shedding blood in fighting over your impurity look like? If you say, you know, I have a phone, but I can't get rid of my phone because I need this for this and this. No, you need a righteous walk with God more than you need your phone. Oh, but I need my computer because I need a computer, I have to work and I have to do this. If your computer is, you're saying is the reason why you continue to sin, you need a right relationship with God more than you need your job, than your reputation. So if you don't put your walk with God first above everything else, Satan will always use that as a leverage against you. Sin must be utterly sinful. And let me conclude with this. And there's a reason why the first qualification of an elder is he must be above reproach. Not simply because he needs just set an example, it's because he's gearing up to fight because if he's not above reproach he's not going to be able to correct others if he's putting up a front he's like i'm good at this so i'm going to fight this but this part i can't fight because i just allowed this in my life he said no you have to be above reproach because if you go into battle and you have any weakness

then that's where your enemy is going to attack so what ends up happening is you end up highlighting the things that you feel like you're good at and the things that you're not good at you just kind kind of keep it under. And then the whole church is affected by that. The whole church is going to be living in sin because you are not able to deal with it. And that's why he says an elder has to be above reproach because he has to gear up for the battle. See, we're going to get to the second part next week, right? But the second part isn't going to make a whole lot of sense until you understand what he's saying here he spent 1500 years to get us to see sin as utterly sinful and everyone everybody around us is telling us it's not that bad it's not that bad and what disturbs me is that I start I'm starting to hear it inside the church it's not that bad you're struggling with porn we all struggle with porn you're struggling with that yeah we all struggle with that the next thing you know 1500 years of work is unraveled and then the grace is no longer gracious it's just a free ticket to heaven worship is a response to a man who's in a pit who could not get out by his own strength and he is crying out to god because he sees the damage of sin in his life.

And no matter how hard he works, he can't bridge that gap. And when Christ comes and reaches down and he pulls us up because we understand the damage and the filthiness of sin that causes us to praise God for what he has done and to live a holy, holy, holy life because he is holy. when sin is not utterly sinful our worship just sounds like thank you thank you I appreciate that right thank you that I'm not going to hell thank you I go to church and I'll try to do what's right but real worship is not happening we need to take sin seriously in order for grace to be serious let's pray father help us lord we know that you warned us that there will be a time where people will not put up with sound doctrine but in order to tickle their years they will surround themselves with people to teach them and to tell them what they want to hear but as you told Timothy to preach the word in season out of season whether they listen or don't listen that your truth would go out Lord that our worship would not be empty words that we would not hold on to a form of godliness while denying its power I pray that as you have gathered us in this holy place to worship a holy God that you would cause us to be holy positionally and holy practically.

May Christ and Christ alone be exalted. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. We plan to hear about grace, and we're going to give you a preview as we sing this song, Grace. Let's pray. Leaves this inner home From death to life forever And sings the song of righteousness By blood and not by merit Your grace and riches far and wide To every tribe and nation Has called my heart to enter in The joy of your salvation By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk into The arms of Christ with me The grace that I cannot explain Not by my earthly wisdom The prince of life without a stain Was traded for this day

By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk into The arms of Christ I lay Let praise rise up and overflow My song resound forever For grace will sing me welcome time To walk beside thy safe place By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ my Lord And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my Lord.

Before we pray the Lord's Prayer, again, the reason why I spent four weeks going over the Lord's Prayer is because we want the content of its prayer to be sincere, that we're not just saying some magical words because it's in the Bible, but that each one of the lines here says, pray in this way, Our Father who is in heaven, that we're praying to a God who's not far off. He is eager to listen to us. And so he's leaning in. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. It is a prayer of surrender. Not my will, not my desire, but your will be done. He says, on earth as an end, give us this day our daily bread. It is a prayer of dependence, that I am depending on you.

Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. It is a reminder to us that because he forgave us, that he calls us to forgive one another. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. There's a recognition that we are entering into spiritual battle. So as soon as we leave, that we pray, not when we're at temptation and say, deliver me from sin, but deliver me from temptation. So the battle is before you get there. Deliver me from temptation, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So let's pray together. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. God sent His Son They called Him Jesus He came to love Heal and forgive He lived and died To buy my pardon And an empty grave is there too My Savior lives Because He lives I can face tomorrow Because He lives All fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living Just because He lives - Amen.