 And it's a great privilege to open the Word of God to you. I have the text of Titus, chapter 3, verses 9 to 11. You should have an outline in your bulletin that should be able to help you follow along. In that outline, we're going to cover three verses and two main commands. One, the first command is to avoid foolish arguments. It's in the imperative. And second in the imperative is to reject divisive men. So those are the two simple commands that God wants you to do today. Also give another disclaimer that this sermon is not preached to be preached to any person in particular. I don't have a vendetta, I'm not out to get anybody. I was already studying this topic before any trouble had come up in our church. So just so you know, this is simply the study I was already doing, and it's the Word of God. So by way of introduction, let's think about the idea of appeasement. Appeasement in the political context was made known by Neville Chamberlain. Appeasement in the political context is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict. The term most often applied to the foreign policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany between 1937 and 1939. His policies of avoiding war with Germany have been the subject of intense debate for 70 years among academics, politicians, and diplomats. And historians' assessments have ranged from condemnation for allowing Adolf Hitler's Germany to grow too strong to judgment that he had no alternative in Britain's best interest. At the time, these concessions were widely seen as positive. And the Munich PAC concluded on September 30, 1938, among Germany, Britain, France, and Italy prompted Chamberlain to announce he had secured peace in our time. So to give you the details of the story, Hitler goes into Czechoslovakia and he begins to take Czechoslovakia and claim it for Germany. And there's a big political uprising. What are the other countries going to do? Are they going to allow Germany just to take this country? So there's this Munich PAC, there's this agreement. And there's a famous picture where British Prime Minister Chamberlain is shaking hands with Adolf Hitler in this peace pact in the year 1938. What happens in 1939? World War II. Chamberlain says upon his return, my good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and now I recommend to you go home and sleep quietly in your beds. Within the next six years, approximately 60 million people will be dead. Appeasement was not a good idea. Winston Churchill said about appeasement in his policy. He said, in a peaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last. In the church, there is an idea concerning church discipline of appeasement that lets make peace at all costs. But there must be a time when church discipline must be applied. Must be applied biblically, wisely, not with haste. The Word of God must be obeyed in this area. We must not fall into an appeasement. Let's turn to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 verses 9 to 11. It avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and useless, reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning being self-condemned. So let's begin to think about the overall understanding of Titus and the book as a whole. This book is a book telling us instructions for the church so that we would be careful to maintain good works. Look at this theme throughout Titus. Turn to chapter 1 of Titus. In verses 5 to 9, we have qualifications of elders. In verses 10 to 16, there's a warning about false teachers. In verse 16, it says they're disqualified for every good work. In chapter 2 verses 1 to 8, we have an importance of discipleship in the church. In verse 7, it says that in all things, showing yourselves to be a pattern of good works. In verses 11 to 15, he says the grounding, he begins to look at the grounding of these good works, is in the gospel. He says in the end of verse 14, that this will produce a people's zealous for good works. Chapter 3 verse 1, he says, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey and to be ready for every good work. And again, he goes into the gospel in verses 3 to 7 and verses 8, the results of that. I want you to confirm constantly that those who believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. In verse 8, these are good and profitable to men. And he contrasts these good works instead with verses 9, 10, and 11. And then he ends the epistle in verses 14 and let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful. Church discipline is one of those good works. But what is the grounding for it? Why do we do it? You must be reminded of that if you're to obey this text and have the motive to obey this text in verses 9 to 11, remind yourself of these truths in chapter 3, verses 3 to 7. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten how you were once foolish? How you didn't know the Bible? You may have professed yourself to be a Christian, but in reality, in the commands that are given, you didn't really know them. And you were disobedient. And you didn't want to know them. It wasn't that you couldn't read. It wasn't that you didn't know the Bible wasn't important. You were purposely a fool. Have you forgotten how you were disobedient? What you did know about the Bible? You disobeyed. You knew that lust was wrong. You knew that covetousness was wrong. You knew that that anger was wrong and yet you disobeyed God anyway. He described this as we were deceived. Have you forgotten how you developed your own view of God so that He would allow you to live whatever way you wanted? Have you forgotten how you were serving various lusts and pleasures? This word for serving is the word for slave. You were a slave to whatever your body told you. You were chained to it like a great rock that's pushed over a cliff and it pulls you over with it. Have you forgotten how you were a slave? Have you forgotten that you were living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another? Something nice couldn't happen to someone else without you wanting it, without you desiring it. You couldn't forgive because you hadn't been forgiven. Do you remember holding onto that anger and bitterness, seething as you went to sleep and as your blood pressure rose? But do you also remember in verse 4, but when the kindness and the love of God, our Saviour towards men, appeared? Oh, what kindness! It's one thing to be kind to people who are kind to you, but it's another thing to be kind to your enemies and God was kind to you when you were his enemy. What love is this? God our Saviour. How did this come? Verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done. This salvation is so far from anything you did, it is a work of being born again. He says, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. You didn't need a wash up, you didn't need a clean up, you didn't need a tune up, you needed a resurrection and God Himself gave it to you. Have you forgotten how He made you alive when you were dead in trespasses and sins? Verse 6, how He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour only because of what Christ has done. This grace was poured out to you. He's Jesus Christ our Saviour just like God is our Saviour in verse 4. He is God our Saviour. Jesus, in verse 7, He speaks about how we've been justified by His grace and become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We've been declared righteous in His sight and adopted. In this salvation you just don't get your sins forgiven and relate to God somehow as like the angels do. No, you get to relate to God as adopted as a son and be an heir. Because of this wonderful truth in this Gospel you should be faithful to uphold good works. If He has given everything to you, if He didn't spare His own Son, how could you not obey Him in the smallest things like with our friends? In verse 8 He says, this is a faithful saying, these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. And what about those good works? What's the character of them? They are good and profitable to men. But in verse 9 what's the contrast? But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and useless. You see how unprofitable and useless contrasts with good and profitable in the verse before. Okay so here's the first good work in our text. Avoid foolish arguments. Avoid them. Get around them. The word here to describe the avoiding is often used to walk around something. It's used to shun. It's used to get a distance from. When you see foolish arguments coming, don't partake in them. What are some of the foolish arguments then? The foolish arguments, first he starts with the general term, foolish disputes. Here he's describing things like, it's a general term here, he's going to get into more specifics. So some of the general ideas that people want to talk about today, that you're to avoid. How about in many commentaries men spend their entire lives debating the liberalism of today and they spend their entire life writing articles and studying foolish arguments that should be rejected, that they've already been proven false and move on already. The Bible is true. You don't need to continually debate those who are in academic circles in order to make yourself look smart. That's a foolish argument that we should move on and move on to more important things. Godliness, righteousness, what the Lord wants us to do, what he's instructing in this epistle. You should not spend time debating all day with the many details of those in the Jehovah Witnesses about whether Jesus died on a stake or whether he died on a cross or these many, many arguments that come up that are not going to be applicable to how we live and follow the Lord. The next example of the Lord gives is genealogies. You remember this is used one other time in the New Testament, it's in 1 Timothy, chapter 1 verse 4. Pastor Mark covered this. It has to do with this old Jewish idea of looking at the genealogies and saying, you know, this is kind of boring. Let's spice it up a little bit in order to make it more interesting. Let's think up a story and make up a story about somebody in the genealogy. And so it becomes kind of like Aladdin's tales. Oh, wow, the genealogy became very interesting and exciting. We're making up fanciful myths and stories. Think about today how we have every few years this idea of a Bible code comes up. The Bible code is a fanciful idea that maybe you'll see it online, you know, click here and find out the secret meaning of the Bible. And I'm like, wow, I thought it just came from reading the Bible. No, there's a secret hidden meaning of the Bible. And it works kind of like this. You take a word like troops, T-R-O-O-P-S, and then you say you're going to take out every other letter and it comes out with top, okay? So then you turn to Acts 6 and 7 and you're like, okay, let's take out every other word and see what we can find. And you're like, I found a J, I found an F, I found a K, JFK. Here's the hidden prophecy about the JFK assassination in here. These things aren't new. They come back every generation. It's not just new to Google or whatever, however you see it on. It is something that continually comes back. It's a foolish, fanciful idea like the genealogies. You should not spend time debating it. You should avoid it. You avoid it because it makes peace in the church. You don't fall into the trap. I remember being with a brother and we were open-air preaching and Hiawasi and Silver Star and there was a cult there preaching about how, if anyone who eats lobster is of the devil. And they were looking at us and they knew us that we were Christians and this cult is preaching about nutty and pork and things like that and they say, if anybody has any argument that shows that you can eat this stuff, say it now and they look right at us. And I'm looking, I opened my Bible to 1 Timothy 4 about he's given us various foods, whatever we want to eat and I'm like, this is a foolish dispute. What am I going to do? Are you in front of a whole bunch of people in public about eating lobster? What would it do to the gospel? Everyone who we were there to reach with the gospel would say, oh, look at these guys arguing over lobster. This is stupid. And it would be, right? Next, he talks about contentions. It's not just strange, aberrant theological things that he's talking about here. Contensions is a general term about fighting. It's a general term about strife, discord, arguments. It's used in 1 Corinthians 1 and 1 Corinthians 3 to describe the argument of I'm of Paul, I'm of Paulus, I'm of Jesus. It can be a strife among Christians. It's used in Philippians 1 verses 16 to 18 where those who are preaching Christ in order to get at Paul and hurt him while he's in jail. These contentions are in the sin lists in Galatians 5 20 about the works of the flesh. They're in Romans 1 29 about the unrighteous deeds. This strife, this contention, this fighting is in the list of those marks of an unbeliever there. It's also in Romans 13 13 where in this section of application the Christians about how we're not to live with strife and envy. Paul gives it in 2 Corinthians 12 20 in a sin list that Paul doesn't want the Corinthians to fall into and it's also a characteristic of a false teacher in 1 Timothy 6 4. It's general arguing, general discord is in the list of something to avoid to go around. He finishes out his list with strivings about the law. That's like arguing with the Seventh-day Adventist about what you're going to eat or arguing with the someone who goes to a messianic congregation about wearing a prayer shawl. These arguing about ceremonial aspects of the law. Don't get into the debate. Let me help you. When you are prideful you're more prone to get in debates. When you like to sit back and think you know I know a lot. Now I need to show that to people that I know a lot. Here's somebody I can put that on display with. Ah and you are eager for the opportunity to put your knowledge on display. Don't fall into that debate. You got a wise man assesses is this a fight worth getting into? Is this going to be helpful for the gospel? Is this going to be helpful for this person's soul? You see? We're commanded here to avoid those foolish things and it's a mix of doctrinal issues and it's a mix of foolish things that are of life, doctrine in life, doctrine in life. There's regular discord and contention in this list. Okay so the key part that we're to cover today is verse 10. We've seen that we one we're going to avoid. We must avoid foolish arguments. They are harmful and useless. They are the opposite of good works. Unprofitable. But instead what are we to do? We're to reject divisive a divisive man after the first and second admonition. Knowing that such a person is warped and sinning. You must reject a divisive man. Now there's a number of questions in order to understand this text right? Begin to write these down if you're taking notes because I'm going to use these to go for the next half an hour maybe. We want to know one is this a heretic or is this a guy who just has started trouble in the church? Is it one or these or is it both? Okay two, how do you know a divisive man? Devices and this can be hard to measure. How do you know it and what is it and what is it not? Three, what does the reject mean? What does that mean? What do I do with them? Four, how does this affect the doctrine of church discipline as a whole? Are we the only one who believes this way? Okay so first is this talking about a heretic or a divisive man in the church? The answer is yes. Yes. It's talking about both. It is not only talking about the Benny Hins of the world or the T.D. Jakes of the world or somebody who's denying the Trinity. It is not only referring to that but it refers most clearly to someone who causes division in the church whether they use a big doctrine or a little one. They can use a good doctrine and cause it to be division in the church or they can use a evil doctrine. Jesus said wisdom is known by our children. Wisdom is known by our children beloved. Think about what that means. You can have a heretic who causes a church to blow up like a Benny Hinn or you can have somebody who could be a Baptist go into a Presbyterian church and cause that church to blow up over believers' baptism and that person will be using a good doctrine for an evil purpose. The doctrine, wisdom is known by our children, it produces the same result. Satan doesn't care whether he blows up the church with a heresy or with a good doctrine. But when a man is divisive he must be rejected. Wisdom is known by our children. What else shows that this text is talking about division in the church that it is the heretic and the man who causes division in the church is shown by the overall context in Titus. Think about chapter 1 verses 10 to 16. There are idle talkers, deceivers, especially those in the circumcision. There's doctrine. And verse 16, they're being abominable, disobedient, disqualified for every good work. The combo of life and doctrine. Chapter 2 verses 1 to 10, there's a doctrine of discipleship. There are things that speak to things. Verse 1, which are proper for sound doctrine. And verse 7, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, life and doctrine. Life and doctrine. You cannot separate them. In verses 11 to 15 is the next section. We have the doctrine of the return of the Lord. We have the doctrine of our sin and need for repentance, the doctrine of conversion, that the grace of God teaches us that we would deny ungodliness and worldly lust. And in turn, that turns into practice in verse 14 that we would be His own special people, the doctrine of election zealous for good works. Life and doctrine. Life and doctrine. In verse chapter 3 verses 1 to 8, it begins in verses 1 and 2 with good works. And that section ends in verse 8 with maintaining good works. And it's all based in that gospel doctrine. Life and doctrine. Life and doctrine. And so this next section in verses 9 to 11 is the same idea. In here is life and doctrine. There is doctrines with genealogies, strivings about the law, but then there is also how that works itself out in practical life with division. What else shows us that this is a generally contentious man, whether by doctrine or by his life is in verse 9. In the context, in verses 8 we have the good works. Verse 9 we have the bad works connected with this. And in those works we have contentions, general strivings, general strife. So it shows it's a regular work. It's an evil work that happens in the church. Sometimes people will say reject a divisive man and they'll pull out their King James version and in the King James version it has heretic, reject a heretic. That's an older, that's a misunderstanding of the use of this the word in Greek here. That's if you look it up in B-DAG, one of the most respected lexicons, they show that it's a second century idea to make the word heretic only for someone who has false doctrine. In the New Testament usage it's either, either or. It's somebody who causes division in the church. That's why it's translated this way in your ESV, in your NKGV or in your NASB, rejected a divisive man after the first and second ammunition. The word is used that way in the New Testament as well. When you look up all the uses in the New Testament there is the uses of general strife. Here it's also used of an adjective. It's the only time that this word for division is used as an adjective in the Bible and it's described to the man and Paul does it in such a way that he uses more words than they're necessary and when you're looking at it in Greek you can kind of see you know he was a little wordy here. Why was he doing that? To make it very clear that this is the man's character. It's known by his fruit, by what he does, that he's not just a man who has done divisiveness. He is a divisive man. All of us, beloved, can be divisive. All of us have the danger of being divisive with one another. But here we're talking about someone whose character is known by this now. He won't stop doing it. He can't stop doing it. It's in his blood. So we know it by the overall context of Titus that this is talking about general strife in the church, general division in the church and not heresy alone. We know that by the general over-understanding of Titus and the context of Titus. We know it with a contrast with verse eight. We know it with the description of contentions in verse nine. We know it with the actual description of divisive man. We also know it in the contrast of in verses chapter one verses 10 or 9 to 16. There's the description of the heretic and it's a qualification of a pastor in chapter one verse nine that he may be able to by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. In verse 11 their mouths must be stopped. In verse 13 they must be rebuked sharply. There's a different pattern for how to deal with the heretic here than there is in Titus chapter three verse 10 where he says rejected divisive man after the first and second admonition. So because of all these reasons you can see that this text is talking about general divisiveness and you can use a big doctrine or a small doctrine. Okay so now now that we looked at what this is what about the practicality of it? How do you know a divisive man? What is one and what is it what is not a divisive person? In Jonathan Lehman's book on church discipline he gathers some principles in pages 112 to 113 and you want to write these down. This is one of the more important practical parts of the sermon okay. So this is the time to wake up. This is time to wake up and we get ready to write these down because this will be important for you to evaluate and help you think through if someone is being divisive later on. You will want to look these up again okay. So first these are adapted I adapted these slightly from you can read his in his own book we may have it on the shelf from Jonathan Lehman book on church discipline pages 112 to 113. First principle they refuse to cease making accusations or spreading their particular doctrinal view when asked to stop. They refuse to cease making accusations or spreading their particular doctrinal view when asked to stop. And when this happens when they're asked to stop usually it goes underground. Their particular doctrinal view and their discussions and they're trying to win arguments. When they're asked to stop it goes underground for example let's look at Proverbs 6 Proverbs 6 verses 12 to 15 a worthless person a wicked man walks with a perverse mouth he winks with his eyes shuffles with his feet and points with his fingers perversity is in his heart he devises evil continually he sows discord therefore his calamity shall come suddenly suddenly he will be broken without remedy there's something deceptive about this guy he doesn't just come out where everyone can see it and say what he believes no he points with his finger he shuffles his feet as a signal he's he's a coward he's hiding and his purpose is so that he may sow discord planting seeds to win people to his view so one they refuse to seek make making accusations or their particular doctrinal view when asked to stop two they are tempting other members to question and suspect and even criticize leadership they are tempting others to other members to question suspect and even criticize leadership look at Genesis 3 1 in Genesis 3 1 now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman has God indeed said you should not eat of every tree of the garden what is Satan trying to do here but he's trying to get Eve to suspect God to question God to criticize God and they and he does it by a question so number three the next principle of a sign of a divisive man he's actively recruiting fellow dissenters actively recruiting fellow dissenters Proverbs 16 verse 28 Proverbs 16 28 a perverse man so strife and a whisper separates the best of friends a perverse man who's so strife and separating the best of friends is because of pride is because of pride that you can't let your particular view has got to be made known you got to be able to convince people you got to be able to have the encouragement of seeing people follow you the affirmation that what I'm doing is true and right and it ends up separating the best of friends point four from again from Jonathan Lehman I didn't write these point four their activity has become a clear distraction in the church's life it frequently has arisen in conversations between members it has consumed elder time and members admitted that it affected their ability to listen to sermons this has happened these four points have happened to us in the past few weeks he adds another point that has to do with accusations he says another mark of a divisive person is they make five they make claims that they couldn't they can't corroborate with other evidence or witness in other words they make an accusation and they don't have any evidence or any witnesses and they stick to it regardless of being called out on that these are practical helpful points for you to know when divisiveness is around what is divisive what is it not okay think about what it's not and this I hope to make this clear to you divisiveness is not having a different doctrinal view in the church divisiveness is not having a different ministry of philosophy or how we should run the church divisiveness is not holding these things beloved I know that I have room to grow and I'm part of the leadership team I know that in I hope in the years to come 10 years from now I'm stronger doctrinally than what I am now and some of you can help me for that it's not divisiveness to hold a different position in the church it is not divisive to question or confront leadership we need that we need that badly we need your accountability I need your accountability with this sermon you gotta listen and evaluate and if I say something wrong you have to confront me I need it we all need it as a body it's not divisiveness to question or confront leadership it is divisiveness to question and confront leadership to somebody else and convince them of your opinion and not having talked with leadership it is wrong to suspect someone of divisiveness without evidence it is wrong to think well I know this person's having trouble maybe they're gonna leave the church and so then you begin to think oh I saw them talking in the parking lot it must have been a divisive conversation it happens right you're not to have that then you will be the divisive person you see that you see how this can happen to every one of us it's not something that's always just for so-and-so it will happen to you understand what it is and what it's not okay now that you understand the doctrine of it it's not just somebody who's a hair all out heretic it is somebody who causes division the church with a big doctrine or little one and they works out in evil works it is understand what it is and what it's not by these principles now understand what does it mean to reject a divisive person that's what the text says for us to do that's what we're commanded to do from this text and particularly Titus is commanded to do it he has a responsibility and the leaders he here we're told reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition so this rejection let's look at roman 16 verses 17 to 18 this helps us understand what this rejection is now I urge you brethren roman 16 17 now I urge you brethren note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them for those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple so here you're told to avoid them don't hang out with them in the commentary on Titus night says that they must be removed from the fellowship of the christian community though ESV says have nothing more to do with them have nothing more to do with them in the same way this word is used paraitetomai it's used for rejecting false doctrine I looked up in 13 different dictionaries and everyone when they refer to Titus 3 you know what they say reject them have nothing more to do with them you don't hang out with the person that's what it person that's what it means in the New Testament I look up all the uses of this um verb in the New Testament and it none of them are dealing with a person so I'm like how do I understand okay what do I do with a person they're there I with ideas about people who rejected God or ideas about rejecting doctrine but what do I do with a person well Josephus helps us with that because he's using the same type of coin in Greek right and he describes when he tells about the story of amnon and tamar he uses this word amnon and tamar amnon wanting to sexually abuse his half sister so he devises a plot okay I'm going to pretend like I'm sick and she's going to make me some pancakes and because she makes them just right and then he's going to kick everybody else out of the house so that he can attack her and the word that he uses to say to get everybody out of the house and not be there is this rejection have nothing more to do get they are out out out out of the presence so that he can attack her what we are to do with a divisive person what you are to do is to reject them when it gets to this point have nothing more to do with them okay so now how does this affect the doctrine of church discipline as a whole some will say well this can't be a text in church discipline because it's different than Matthew 18 where are the steps listen church discipline doesn't come in a box that you just hand out to the same dose to everybody in the same measure if somebody comes we use this example before somebody comes you know I'm planning to kill so-and-so I'm planning you know I'm planning to kill this guy over here that you don't bring him back you don't allow him back for the next service right you don't handle him the same as somebody who's having trouble with their marriage or something right you don't handle church discipline all cases the same and the bible expresses that and gives different prescription for different types of people in 1st Corinthians 5 Paul from a letter from a letter he's not there he says get the church discipline on the move he's already out I'm telling you in the letter he's already out this guy in Corinth and why because of the circumstance because of the public nature of his sin everybody knew it there's a different circumstance so he has a different set of steps Matthew 18 is the norm here in Titus there's a particular danger of divisiveness and speed is of the essence speed is of the essence beloved because divisiveness is a church destroyer and it can happen just like that so now are we the only ones who believe this we'll listen to Jay Adams people like to quote Jay Adams Jay Adams says if he's in dealt with quickly speaking about this text if he's in dealt with quickly he will split your church before you know it many churches have been destroyed by failure to observe this command to the letter thinking they knew better than God they spent long time periods of time working with people whose purpose in prolonged counseling was to give them more opportunity to influence others in the congregation actually in order to save the one they hurt many they lose many because you think you know better than this text you think you'll be more merciful than God don't think that your arrogance we cannot be more merciful than God he is the most merciful one believe this text believe it some more quotes Brian Chapel says there's a difference between needing to divide and loving to divide a divisive person loves to fight the differences are usually observable a person who loves the peace and period the church may be forced into the division but it's not his character he enters arguments regrettably and infrequently when forced to argue he remains fair truthful and loving his responses he grieves to have to have to disagree with a brother those who are divisive divisive by nature lust for the fray incite its onset and delight in being able to conquer another person in other words they love to debate he goes on for them victory means everything so in an argument they twist words call names threaten manipulate procedures and attempt to extend the debate as long as possible and along as many fronts as possible divisive persons frequent the debates of the church as a result the same voices and personalities tend to appear over and over again even though the issues change paul's words caution us about the seriousness of being divisive though ego and entertainment may be served by argument such engagement damages the church and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary here john calvin calvin says we must see that what he means here in this text by the word heretic there is a common and well-known distinction between heretic and schismatic that's what he's saying he's saying the same thing there's a difference between the guy who just has false doctrine and the guy who causes division in the church calvin says here in my opinion paul disregards that distinction for by the term heretic he describes not only those who cherish and defend the erroneous and perverse doctrine but in general all those who do not yield ascent to the sound doctrine which is laid down a little before in other words those strivings it was in verse nine those contentions he goes on this under under under this name he includes all ambitious unruly contentious persons who let let away by sinful passions disturb the peace of the church and raise disputings in short every person who by his over weaning pride breaks up the unity of the church is pronounced by paul to be a heretic steven cole is a pastor in our conservative baptist association out in arizona he says regarding this text some people say that it means something less than excommunication but surely paul wouldn't allow such divisive sinning men to remain in the fellowship of the church trying to recruit more people to their cause since divisiveness and trying to recruit people to join in faction our sins those who persist persistent such sins must be put out of the church after the first and second warning by church leaders hit the ego he goes on he says it's far easier to debate theology and obtuse points of doctrine than it is to love your wife as christ of the church to love your children and bring them up in instruction of the lord to be a good worker at your job and to practice a food the spear on daily basis that is not to say that theology is unimportant or irrelevant quite the contrary he says rather it's it's it is to say that it's easy to use theological debates as a convenient cover for sins such as anger pride selfishness impatience and laziness johnny max says about this text so he stands against the truth speaking of the divisive man against the leadership of the church against the will of the spirit he may be holding some novel interpretation some novel myth some genealogical extrapolation some mystical interpretation he may be holding some ignorant interpretation of scripture he may also be holding some course of action some personal whim some personal preference about behavior or conduct or whatever the issue is he is divisive what do we do the verb says reject reject that's the last word have nothing more to do with them reject it's very much like matthew 1817 let him to be to you as a pagan in an outcast cut him off from the fellowship in 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 14 if anyone does not obey instruction in this letter take special note of that man do not associate with him so that he may be put to shame do not regard him as an enemy but it must be as a brother do you see the again the twofold purpose is to win him by shaming him it's concerned for his soul the divisive man is also concerned for the church we're not the only ones who believe this in history or presently but i i i tell you church discipline many people grow tired of it because it's hard work don't grow tired of it beloved remember the first church discipline in the church acts five god kills ananias and sapphira he's the one who takes the first act in it and people were afraid to come because of it people who didn't come to church because of the church discipline that happened there you know i'm using that lightly you know i'm to say what god did was very serious okay and i plead with you if you disobey this text it will have great effects on your life think about the blessings of unity don't you remember psalms 133 how good and blessed is it for when brethren dwelled together in unity it's like the the the oil that comes down erin's beard or the the dew on mount herman remember that text how good is it when we dwell together in unity not uniformity but unity in the doctrines that we hold but oh what a destructive force it will bring in your life if you say you know i know better than than god i'll be on facebook with my my friend who may be divisive i will and i i warn you at that you can't underestimate what it means to disobey god's word you can't underestimate the foolishness of rejecting this command it's a church destroyer it's a poison when you say well i can see these points of wisdom i see that the points of divisiveness and how it's in somebody and i'm going to hang out with them anyway that's a bold face defiance to god be warned be warned if you don't reject a divisive man that poison will come in your life so i i warn you and i plead with you please please don't fall prey to this and your pride and your arrogance but because of the gospel remember that this command is to be obeyed in verse 11 he says know this know this knowing that such a person is warped and sinning being self-condemned know first he gives three things to know no first that he's warped this is referring that he's corrupt it's like calvin uses a description of a condemned building in this term to say that just like when you look on a building and it may look all right on the outside but inside it's a crumbling edifice it's ready to fall down upon you so it is with a divisive man he may look all right on the outside but he's already corrupt and perverted warped and the the verb usage here is very interesting there's a difference between warped and sinning in this one sentence warped is in the perfect passive sinning is in the present active indicative so the what that means is he's warped it happened in the past with ongoing results is a past completed event his warping already happened and now you're just seeing the results of it you see and in many cases it's because he's lost he's already warped and know now what he's doing now in the present active indicative but he is sinning don't make any doubt about it he is sinning with divisiveness know that the divisive man is warped know that he's currently sinning and know that the condemnation doesn't come from the church doesn't come from you doesn't come from it comes from him he is he's self-condemned he's the one who did it to himself to close there's um in the year 2000 january 31st there was a flight 261 in alaska airlines and it was a mcdonald douglas md 83 flying and 88 people on board and as they're flying over the pacific ocean what happens is they begin to lose pitch control that's where the airplane goes nose up or nose down right and they lost control went into a nose dive and then went tumbling mayday mayday mayday everyone died the ntsb looks into the the accident and they begin to the sea from the wreckage that there is a jack screw in the back of the airplane that allows that that control of the airplane and it it was a maintenance error i work in aircraft maintenance for this story is particularly impactful to me and what happened is there's a schedule of lubrication for this jack screw and one after another mechanic decided you know it's too hard to get to that it's going to take me four hours to do that job it just took me an hour if i avoid it and they neglected it and one after another neglected it neglected it and why because of complacency because of think thinking you know i've looked at a million times i've been doing this for 10 years never seen one break it'll be all right and goes on and goes on and 88 people are dead the same thing is true in the church with your discipline people say you know i i know these saying things that he shouldn't but i can i'll just look over look it it'll be all right we'll get by i know he's doing things he shouldn't i know that sin is happening i'm just gonna look it over it'll be okay and you don't believe the word of god no i believe this text i believe it so much that i will live it with the people i love i believe what god says here and i believe that even those who are genuine believers who have left and i see them disobeying this command i know the effect it will have on them i believe it so i'm gonna live it by god's grace do you believe it do you believe this will you apply this with wisdom and grace will you apply this believing the word of god that this is a command that you need to obey beloved apply it with all wisdom grace and fervency god knows better than us let's pray dear god please help us to be balanced help us not to suspect our brothers and sisters in an unrighteous way lord help us with those who are without a doubt been divisive help us to faithfully obey your word in great faith because of what you've done in the gospel lord we don't deserve to be in the church we don't deserve to go to heaven help us lord to conduct ourselves with good works while we're here in the church we need you lord desperately with this amen