SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2022 10:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 18:15-20”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:15-20
Message of the verses: “15 "And if
your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you
have won your brother. 16 "But if he does not listen to you, take
one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY
FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the
church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a
Gentile and a tax-gatherer. 18 "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth
about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is
in heaven. 20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there
I am in their midst.’”
I mentioned that we would talk about a section of
Scripture from the book of Acts, and chapter 5:1-11, as this story tells about
the severe discipline of Ananias and Sapphira.
They were a married couple who had seen what other believers were doing
in giving money to the church in Jerusalem.
At that time the money given to the church would be given to the
apostles who would use it to care for those who were in need. The believer would come and lay their money
for the church at the feet of the disciples.
This couple had seen what some of the other believers were giving and so
they decided to sell some land that they had and give it to the church. Now I don’t know if they had planned to keep
some of the money back or if once they got the money decided to hold some of it
back, but that is what they did and then they both lied about it. In the end both of them died as God killed
them for lying to the Holy Spirit. These
people were believers and so they went to heaven but they certainly messed up their
rewards by doing what they did. I can
very well think that lying was a thing of the past in the Jerusalem church
after this happened. God disciplined His
children, and although I don’t know how many other times this has happened in
the church age, I have to believe that it has happened again and again.
John
MacArthur writes “The selfishness of Ananias and Sapphira was deplorable, but
their great sin was in lying about what they had done, not only to the church
but to God. In this particular case in
the early church, God took discipline directly into His own hands and
demonstrated before all how sin is to be dealt with by removing the offenders
from the church and from the earth! The purity
of the church not only was protected by making God’s people more fearful of sin
but also by helping to keep out of the fellowship those who were not true
believers (v. 13).” “But none of the rest dared to associate with
them; however, the people held them in high esteem.”
In the book of Corinthians Paul mentions in the 11th
chapter about some others who had gone to be with the Lord sooner than they may
have figured they would because of how they were getting drunk at the communion
services. Let us also look at 1 John
5:16-17 “16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to
death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit
sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do
not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin,
and there is a sin not leading to death.”
The
truth is that “God has not changed His attitude about sin or about purity. He is every bit as much concerned for the
holiness of His people today as He was when the church was born. Sin has to be death with or it will destroy
both those who practice it and those who tolerate it. God may still act in supernatural ways to
purge the church, but He has primarily given that the responsibility to the
church itself. The church must be ‘self=policing’
with regard to sin. The horrendous
scandals that have tarnished the church recently reflect the abysmal failure of
believers to confront sinning leaders and followers. The word often has had to expose what the
church tried to cover up” (John MacArthur.)
Looks
like it will take one more SD to finish this very important introduction on
Church discipline.
12/29/2022 10:27 AM
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