Out Of Service
Let's Call A Spade A Space • Sermon • Submitted
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· 57 viewsHow do we refer to those who have forsaken the Lord and His church? A hard look at the assembly and those who have fallen away.
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings, once again it is an honor to stand before you this afternoon and preach the Word of our most awe inspiring God.
Thank you, to each of you that have come and stayed the course to hear such sound doctrine preached and I pray you bear with me just a little while longer with my topic of “Out Of Service.”
This particular topic and the doctrine that deals with it has become, in most places, lost like the law before the days of Josiah.
Like Manasseh and Amon his son () there has been a couple of generations of leaders that have lead the church away from the doctrine waywardness and church discipline.
This has caused a whole generation or two to know not the law of God in these areas.
If we want the Lord’s church to survive and thrive we cannot run from truth but embrace it and cultivate it in our lives.
What Does “Out Of Service” Mean?
What Does “Out Of Service” Mean?
We don’t know what “out of service” means anymore.
We don’t know what “out of service” means anymore.
It’s unfortunate but not surprising that if you were to ask the church as a whole, here in America, at what point does one fall “out of service” you would get a wide variety answers.
Everything from “they never will fall out of service” to “they never will be in service.”
Once again the reason for this is two fold.
First, elders in the church over the last several generations are so ignorant on the subject themselves that their flocks didn’t stand a chance to be fed properly and are weak and immature spiritually because of it ().
Second, the church has bought into the Satan led liberal lie that loving someone is telling them they are never wrong, that they cannot “be judged.”
Meme of a skeleton on a bed looking out the window and it says, “Me waiting for others to realize that saying ‘do not judge’ is a judgment.”
Out of services means...
Out of services means...
There are several terms and phrases used in the Bible to describe one that is “out of service,” which we will recognize as we study what it really means to be “out of service.”
Before we begin looking at that I want us to first understand what “out of service” doesn’t mean.
Someone isn’t out of service just because they sinned.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Someone isn’t out of service just because they
If you noticed, even those walking in the light are in continuous need of the blood of Christ, why, because we all still sin.
Just because someone sins doesn’t mean they are lost, as long as they repent (turn back to God) and confess that sin to the God, He will forgive them and it will be “removed from their record” ().
So what does out of service mean then?
It means someone has “turned away” or “backsliding” from God.
5 Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.
It means some has become wayward from God.
Heb
2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.
How does this happen?
It happens when the heart of man drifts away from God and His Word.
20 He that hath a wayward heart findeth no good; And he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.
Pr
14 The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
This backsliding isn’t something that happens really quick but overtime as we “drift away” from God.
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
The word “drift away” here in the Greek means “not aware of moving because there is no anchor.”
What is something the faithful need to look for in those that are beginning to backslide?
The very first sign of someone drifting away is going to be noticed in their attendance.
Let me be very clear here…no one that loves the Lord their God with their all will seek excuses to miss the assembling of the saints.
I’m not talking about reasons, which are things that “cannot” be helped, such as sickness, flat tire on the way to services, etc…I’m talking about excuses such as sports, 4H, tired, family are in, etc...
If you start hearing someone trying to justify their excuses from worshiping their God with the rest of the saints with statements like “well the Bible doesn’t say I have to meet other than once Sunday” they are drifting away from God.
Their love for God and heart is already being corrupted and stained with sin instead of being holy and true to righteousness ().
Love incorruptible () is a heart that cannot imagine missing an opportunity to worship here on earth with their brethren.
A corrupted heart is one that seeks excuses to try and get out of doing the very thing we are seeking to do for eternity in heaven.
Remember, the Hebrew writer made it clear how to “stir up one another to love and good works.”
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
The building of love for God and our brethren and the encouragement of doing God’s work i.e. divine works is accomplished most profoundly through the fellowship of worship.
If someone is drifting away from God they will stop “loving to worship God with their brethren” and if this happens they are in danger as the next verse tells us.
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
Heb 6:4-
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Summery
Summery
Falling “out of service” or becoming “wayward” isn’t something that is instantaneous, typically speaking.
You will see them drift away more and more beginning with their love for worship being exposed by the excuses they make.
However, the problem with all this, is not seeing the signs, it’s not doing anything about it to help save their soul.
How Are The Wayward To Be Handled?
How Are The Wayward To Be Handled?
They must be disciplined biblically.
They must be disciplined biblically.
What good is it to try and discipline sin if we do so in a sinful way?
Jesus tells us exactly how we are to proceed when discipline is needed.
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 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 collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you 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, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Paul would some up what Jesus said here to the Galatian churches.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
They must not be coddled.
They must not be coddled.
When people start backsliding far too many members of the Lord’s church will either ignore it or make excuses for it.
I’m not say we need to be harsh or mean but we do need to be direct and as this lectureship is aptly named “call a spade a spade” or “call the sin a sin.”
We cannot make excuses for their sin and we cannot coddle their sin, it needs to be purged or it will infect the entire congregation.
1 Cor 5:
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
In when Ananias & Sapphira sinned against God their punishment was swift (death) but why did God take such measures there?
11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
They must be recognized as brethren.
They must be recognized as brethren.
Yes, we cannot coddle sin but we must also not forget they are our spiritual family and their soul is the most important thing in all this.
If we enjoy disciplining our brothers and sisters we have missed the whole point of discipline; it’s to correct and help our brother or sister return to righteousness so that “we” may spend eternity with them after this life.
2 Th 3:
15 Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
Lv
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
They must be disciplined biblically.
They must be disciplined biblically.
It’s because of this love for our family members soul we will be willing to gently but frankly respond to their sin.
What good is it to try and discipline sin if we do so in a sinful way?
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
They must receive our help with their sin.
They must receive our help with their sin.
Because we love our brothers and sisters we will gently but frankly respond to their sin and then turn around and bear that sin with them.
This is exactly what Jesus was willing to do for every single one of us.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
This concept is expected of the faithful and true to their family that is struggling in sin.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Summery
Summery
Those of our beloved brethren that have started backsliding need our mercy, kindness, gentleness, and especially our love.
No child of God can make it through this life on their own, which is why Jesus built the church so that we would have each other to lean upon and keep one another accountable.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the sever rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin.”
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.