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Eugene Prewitt

Restricted Fellowship

Turn through in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

Yesterday we discussed the work of the church in keeping itself pure and putting away open sinners.

There is a relation of church discipline to to who you hang out with and who you fellowship with in a brotherly and sisterly like fashion.

We're in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and we're looking at verse 9.

Verse 9 by the way tells us that the Apostle Paul did have writings that while they were inspired were at the same time not part of scripture.

1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9 says, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators.

If that, if we had that epistle in the Bible it would be 1st Corinthians and this would be 2nd Corinthians and the 2nd Corinthians would be 3rd Corinthians.

But since we don't have the first 1, we're in 1st Corinthians 5 verse 9.

So the earlier letter said not to keep company with fornicators.

And you should know that Jesus summarized the world as, in his day and our day both, as a generation of fornicators.

A wicked and adulterous generation, was the way that he said it.

Verse 10 Paul clarifies, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous of this world, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must your needs go out of the world." In America, if you did not keep company and refused to fellowship with anyone that was covetous or immoral, in the cities you would have to hermitize and if in India you refuse to keep any company or fellowship with anyone who was an idolater you would have to find a Muslim conclave verse 11 that now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or a covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a 1 know not to eat." Is there more free fellowship and association inside the church or outside the church?

The church has a purpose to win these centers into our body.

But The church as itself, as a purpose, has the same goal to win.

And if there is an open center that's inside the church, and the outside sees us all fellowshipping together as 1 body, what do they conclude about the church?

The church really isn't much different than they are.

You can read about that in early writings.

As a matter of fact, you can read the thoughts of the worldly.

They look like us and they talk like us, so they must be about the same as us.

Verse 12, for what have I to do to judge them also that are without?

Do not you judge them that are within, but them that are without God judges.

Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Now there are 2 different causes of disfellowshipping brought out in the New Testament, they are related, but they aren't the same.

You can disfellowship a man because of open sin, and you can disfellowship a man because of open doctrinal teaching of apostasy.

That is, the man who teaches the wrong thing, or the man who is an open sinner.

They're related because the man who's teaching the wrong thing is a sinner.

However, you're not disfellowshipping him for his sin, because his sin is not open.

His doctrinal, his Fighting against the truth and doctrinal stubbornness in his teaching of the wrong thing is just heaven's way of Helping us find pernicious sin in the church But it doesn't show us what the sin is and we don't use that sin as part of our condemning process.

I guess I should show you some of the verses that talk about what I'm saying.

It says, now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

Speaking of the Judaizers in particular, disorderly, not, that is not in harmony with the order of the church, with the elders who had responsibility for church organization, look at verse 14.

And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and what does it say?

Have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.

What is my purpose for the benefit of the individual and not keeping company with him?

That he can realize that he is not up to par for the spiritual requirements of the church.

So Paul said in Romans 16 verse 17, Mark those which teach, let's read it Romans chapter 16 verse 17.

It says, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and what does it say?

Avoid them, for they that be such serve not our Lord Jesus, but their own belly, who by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

You're not disfellowshipping them because of their sin, but it's as clear as the day that they are sinners.

Because of their danger as a doctrinal teacher.

Now you should know that if you go to the Spirit of Prophecy and look at what Ellen White says about church discipline, you'll find a number of defining statements.

First of all, she takes as the primary source of information on this topic, Matthew 18.

Matthew 18, of course, is that passage where Jesus talks about how to relate to interpersonal sins.

That is, if you sin against me or I sin against you, that there's no way that disunity can really rise in the church if Matthew 18 is practiced.

Ellen White uses Matthew 18 quite broadly when she applies it.

That what is, that the keys are in the hands of the church, that what they bind will be bound and that what they release will be released.

She indicates there that if a man is disfellowshipped from the church, yet if he will repent, that the church has authority at their discretion to bring him back in and to forgive him and re-fellowship him.

There is an exception highlighted in the first line of the testimonies.

If you want a reference where you can read about it, it's in page 215.

It describes there a man, it doesn't tell you what his sin was, but I'll tell you what his sin was.

That is, if homosexuality is sexual relationships with someone of your own gender, beastality is the same with an animal.

And he was known for this very gross thing in his community.

In his case, the church was told that not only should he be disfellowshipped, but even if he repents ever so heartily, that the church must leave his case alone.

That the standing rebuke of God rest upon him, and the church, if they re-fellowshipped him, it would lower morality to the very dust.

Well, the passage specifically says that if he goes to heaven he must go alone without the fellowship of the church.

But it says the church is a beacon for the world to uphold the standard of morality.

That in doing that, if there's someone whose standard of morality is far below even that of the average gross sinner.

That the church can't associate itself with that kind of morality.

It might have been very different if that man had had that sin when he was outside the church.

But he practiced that sin while he was inside the church.

And in that, he compromised the church's integrity.

I have a handout here, but I only made 1 copy, but it has really all I could find on this topic this morning.

In the church, we should be close-knit with each other.

We should be close-knit, but if someone begins to teach and fight against the truth, we should distance ourselves from him so that he'll be ashamed.

If he persists in doing that, his character eventually will be found in an open sin and he should be disfellowshipped.

Perhaps if he is violently opposed to the truth he should be disfellowshipped as is.

In Galatians Paul says, I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

However we should distance ourselves from him in association because of his danger as a teacher, and so that he will be ashamed.

What about the covetous and fornicators inside our church?

We should distance ourselves from them also, but not for very long.

We only distance ourselves from them until we can practice winning church discipline.

When sinners have been removed, they can be treated as publicans, that is people to be 1.

They would have to be very gross sins to be a real exception.

For example, a man who had his own father's wife wouldn't be an exception.

And the large summary of the week is that The work of being an elder is not 1 that is so simple that you can just know without thinking what to do in every situation.

It requires individual attention to the situation, prayer and consideration, Study and carefulness that you can give good advice to the church that is under your oversight.

If you want to aspire to that, it will require quite a knowledge of the Bible.

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Restricted Fellowship

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