We're standing for a Scripture lesson. We're in the final chapter of 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, 1-4. And Paul says, this is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them, since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak. in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God." Amen, dear saints. You may be seated. As Elder Craig mentioned, we have entered the last chapter of this long series in 2 Corinthians. Just to give you a preview, I have planned two more sermons for this book. And then after that, there are, as you know, 66 books in the Holy Bible. And over the years, I have preached from 55 of them. That leaves 11 that I have not. So my plan is to preach one sermon from each of the 11 books that I never did preach, so that I can honestly say I preach the whole counsel of God. Nobody could say, you were there 36 years and you skipped that book. So that's the plan. That will leave probably, I don't know, five or so sermons till the end of the year. And we'll have something, you can pray about that, to be special to close out. Probably won't be a book series, but something very special. So it gives you a little bit of a preview. But for right now, let's go to the Lord. in prayer, shall we? Father, thank you for the Word of God. All of it speaks to us of Jesus. All of it, the written Word, is inspired, given to us for our good. Now, as we enter this somewhat sobering part of the Holy Scripture, we know that it's also got much gospel in it as well. We commit that to you. In Jesus' name, amen. So, as your pastor, your gentle shepherd, I want to assure you from the very start of this sermon that God, your Heavenly Father, the Apostle Paul and his writings, and all true and faithful ministers of the gospel, including myself today, would entertain any of you who would ever come to us with humble, contrite, repentant, broken hearts and spirits, knowing yourselves to be sinners, knowing yourselves to have no righteousness. We would welcome you with open arms, with hearts and love and even joy. But as Paul deals here in 2 Corinthians, there are some proud of their religious achievements, apparently, who may be tempted to look down their noses at others who haven't attained to such a level and who are still, in truth, operating on the covenant of works. And for those people, the ministers also have an attitude and a responsibility and a role, but it wouldn't be of that same generous, gracious nature. But all of it is accruing to the love of God, the glory of God, and really the good and well-being of all the saints that make up the Church of the Living God. So, there's simply too much at stake with regard to the gospel and the mercies of God for us to come short in this area of the grace of God and the truth of the Holy Scripture. So, we do not want to stand in the way of this good news. And the people in Corinth were being told by Paul not to do that either. All the saints are to love God together in Jesus Christ. Therefore, let's make it our gospel goal on this Resurrection Sabbath day to fear our great God, even as we are perfectly loved by him," looking together at 2 Corinthians 13, 1-4. So the title of the sermon is Warning Countdown. I sort of take that title from Paul's initial words that it's the third time he has planned to come to Corinth. So there's this sort of ticking time bomb, if you will, and he's going to come. and there's either going to be a gracious and wonderful joyful experience or one that's a little bit difficult. So that's what we're looking at. The doctrine of these verses is the true church's authentic ministry carries great authority. Well, I think that goes pretty much without saying, especially given the last couple of chapters in 2 Corinthians, but really it's all throughout the scripture altogether. And how could this teaching of the authentic ministry having real authority not be the case, given the nature of the triune God, and the constitution of the church or kingdom of God. So Jesus Christ is Lord and King of all and therefore he has given authority and he is the ultimate king. Now authority when properly employed is always to be used with caution, and humility and complete dependence upon the Church's Lord and King, her ultimate head, Jesus Christ. So, let us comprehend now the dynamics surrounding the fact that the true Church's authentic ministry carries great authority. First, even though redemption or reprobation are on the line, Now what I mean by this initial point is that this was what was happening in Corinth. Redemption and reprobation were on the line, and that same thing is how it's happening in every true church in the world today and throughout history. Every Sunday, every Lord's Day, every new Sabbath day, either election and its evidences or reprobation and its fruit get demonstrated and exposed. And this is mostly manifest through the way we hear the gospel preached. Do we resonate with it? Do we accept it? Do we bring it into our hearts? Do we see it as true, and in so doing, want to become more conformed to the image of Christ? And then, for instance, even at the Lord's Supper, when it's fenced, how do we respond? Do we respond with humility? With submission? With the sense of coming under each other in love? and receiving one another. Everything we do and every attitude we have, particularly during our Sunday Sabbath worship services, reflect who we really are in our hearts of hearts and not who we hope other people think we are. So this is kind of the great exposure time. And this is also why the Apostle Paul opens next week's lesson, Lord willing, if God gives us another week, with these words of verse 5a. Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. In fact, next week's sermon title is going to be The Faith Test. It's going to be quite exciting indeed. So dears, if you're here today and you love Jesus Christ, you're happy to be here, you wouldn't want to be anywhere else. you accept the good news of this glorious, gracious gospel, then I'm saying to you, don't be afraid. Fear God, of course, but rejoice. Be full of joy, satisfaction. Relax in a certain glorified, sanctified sense. But if that isn't the case, then fear and tremble, especially with regard to the words that we're going to read in today's scripture lesson pretty soon. Even though redemption or reprobation are on the line, the minister's weakness and the Savior's strength are sufficient. Now Paul's going to make this point rather profoundly in today's scripture lesson. The minister must be weak because he possesses nothing inherently in himself other than sin, corruption, pollution, death, damnation, and condemnation. Just like you, there's nothing good in me, or in any of God's ministers, including His Apostles, like the Apostle Paul. And our blessed Savior must be strong in order to completely, 100% overwhelm not only all that weakness, but all the sins of all God's elect people that make up His Church, the Church of Christ. But even here, a Redeemer dies in weakness, according to Paul in verse 4a. Christ did this, dying in weakness, becoming one of us. Flesh of flesh, bone of bones. He comes and identifies himself perfectly for us and dies for us, and then applies that death blessing to our hearts and imputations so that all our sins are forgiven, because they were paid for by the one who died in weakness. So how does a perfectly strong Messiah work through his church's weak and in themselves totally powerless ministers, including you in your ministries? The answer is, that's a miracle of God. The Lord did this in the first century with the Apostle Paul and his comrades, and he's still doing it in the 21st century with every truly called minister and all those in the Presbytery with him. Let's do the exegesis of these interesting verses 1 to 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 13, and together grasp what Christians must understand about church discipline. Now, church discipline is one of those things few people want to think about, talk about, even imagine exists, but it does exist. It was here in this passage of scripture, it's throughout the whole Bible, and the faithful church has always practiced it. But unfaithful churches never practice church discipline. Some of the reformers, some of the puritans, some of the reformed theologians even today do find the three marks of the church being proper gospel preaching on Sundays from faithful pulpits, proper administration of the sacraments as per the Lord's Supper even today, and church discipline. And I think I like that because you can't really administer the Lord's Supper without church discipline. Anyone that comes to the table is actually submitting to Jesus Christ as he administers his government through subordinate others. So the issue of church discipline, the purpose of it is to glorify God, purify the church, and reclaim straying covenanted sinners who are in the church but who are straying. Now, it's not primarily punitive. A lot of times people think church government is like this negative thing, and by punitive I mean punishing oriented. It's not primarily punitive, although obviously that is included in it. Now let us learn or be freshly reminded of what Christians must understand about church discipline. First, that unrepentant of sin will not be tolerated, verses 1 to 3a. Paul writes, this is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them. since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me." So what Paul's mostly referring to here, just to set the context, is public unrepentant of sins. But what we always have to realize, dears, and this is an absolute truth, despite all the lies of the devil in the world, is that every unrepentant of private sin manifests itself in a public way. It may not come to the full light in this world, but it will be evidenced by lack of covenant faithfulness in a true church, for instance, if somebody is clinging to a private unrepentant of sin. Public unrepentant of sins is pretty much what we have in view here from verses 20b and 21b from the earlier chapter, as Paul had related to us a number and chronicled certain sins that the Corinthians were publicly notorious for having not yet repented of. And so that is somewhat in view. But what I want to be clear about here is that we're not talking about the fact of sin. We're not talking about the reality of sin, and we're not talking about the truth that we're all sinners. See, we're not doing that. These are unrepented of sins. There's a difference between sins and unrepented of sins. There's a difference between failing and falling into sins, which we all do, and which we hate and abominate, seek to leave and crucify and repent of, there's a difference between that and sins that we love and cling to and won't repent of because we love them. We love them more than Christ, we love them more than ourselves, we love them more than anything. That's the difference. Now even last Sunday during our confessional time we quoted 1 John 1.8 where the great tender apostle had written these words, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So this isn't a sermon about just sin. That's what we all do. We are sinners. We're acknowledging that, we're confessing, we're not pretending, we're not going to put on some phony show as if that isn't the case. We all know that. We all know it about each other and about ourselves and everyone else in the world. But it is about unrepentance. And so what Paul has in view here is largely well-advertised sins being committed in the context and knowledge of the church there in the congregation in Corinth. And as I mentioned, he listed many of those in verses 20b and 21b of the earlier chapter. But really, I think perhaps the worst sin that Paul brings out here is a disdain for proper ecclesiastical authority. That's really what's coming down the hammers falling on that sin right here. in these verses, especially where Paul says in verse 3a, since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. So they were still looking for proof from the great apostle Paul of his own apostleship over against that of the false, ludicrous doctrines and practices of the super apostles. So this sin of disdaining proper ecclesiastical authority is extraordinarily serious. The Corinthians' propensity toward the super apostles was worse than the sins of the flesh, which he lists here like impurity, sexual immorality, sensuality, and earlier gossip, conceit, slander, hostility, and disorder, anger, jealousy, and quarreling. All those things are really nasty and negative, but this is even worse. And in fact, this is the cause for those. Not accepting God's authorities at every level, first church, in the home, also in the government, in the culture, starting in the church, is worse. Because this led to the entertainment of heretics among them in Corinth. And that happens today too. At any rate, Paul's not going to have any of it. He's not going to stand for it. And these first two and a half verses make that very clear. And yet he would be completely fair. He's going to be above board. He's going to be biblical. He says in verse 1b that every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So if he's going to call a church court there in Corinth and bring in the presbyters to be the judges sitting with him to determine the nature of these charges, he's going to be totally fair. In fact, he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15b, where he says, every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So you're not going to show up in Corinth and say, I think you did this, but I have no proof from anyone else. Every charge must be established. These are public sins by two or three witnesses. So what Christians must understand about church discipline that unrepentant of sin will not be tolerated, and that Christ exercises it, that is, church discipline, having merited the responsibility, verses 3b through 4a. He, Christ, is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." Now dears, I hope that you really see the gentle shepherd, Jesus, there. So Paul's kind of dropping a hard hammer there earlier, and now he says that Jesus is in view. He's not weak in dealing with you. He's powerful among you. who is crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God. The gentle shepherd is always seeking to find that lost sheep, bring them in to the full fold of the church. You do know, I trust, that the law rightly scares the daylights out of us. You know, the conscience under the conviction of the law is under tremendous stress. It's only those who are hardened in reprobate, completely hardened from the effects of the Holy Spirit's work, that have no sense of that. The law is scary, but every time that happens, we ought to flee directly to Jesus, our refuge, our hope. The gentle arms of the sweet Savior who says, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my burden is light, much lighter than sin. It's a beautiful thing. Christ didn't come down here to whack us. You know, we all know John 3.16. How about John 3.17? God sent his son to save the people of his church, the world. He didn't come here to destroy us. He came here to gather us, to bring us together into one church. Having already predestined and elected us to glory from eternity past, the Holy Spirit comes across the globe and collects every single one of his children, puts them in the faithful church. Jesus now is ascended into heaven, and at that exalted place he has sole possession of all the authority, status, and situation of that enormously important role as the exalted head and king of the church and everyone else, sitting at the Father's right hand. At the end of the day, dears, it's not really church officers who do the church discipline. It's really Christ himself who does it through his truly called church officers. As we carry out that duty correctly and with humility, watching ourselves lest we also be tempted, The Messiah certifies our ministries and completely joins himself to us and with us in our judicial determinations regarding human beings who have strayed away from him in the context of the covenant of the Church. Now all this is made very clear with the famous words of Matthew 16, 19, where Jesus said, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And I actually think that Paul's words here in verses 3b and 4a are seeking to speak more about the strength Christ has to retrieve his straying sheep than he is about casting out hypocrites among that sheepfold, even though clearly he is vested with that authority as well. So what Christians must understand about church discipline that unrepentant of sin will not be tolerated, that Christ exercises it having merited the responsibility, and finally that God's shepherds act in the same spirit as that of Jesus, verse 4b. For we also are weak in him, Christ, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God." Now here the blessed Messiah Christ our Lord and his real and authentic church ministers are again joined in this ministry to and for the Church of the Living God. Now, we fallen, redeemed, and yet truly called human ministers are, quote, weak, verse 4b. Indeed, we are less than weak even as we are, quote, in Him Christ. We're in Him Christ and yet we're completely weak. But Jesus, the divine human minister of the church, nestles all of us into his heart, his confidence, and his communion, so that quoting the great apostle at the end of verse 4, he writes, in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. What Paul means by this is that though he, Paul, and all ministers are truly weak, nonetheless, because of the divine calling upon that life, of those people, those men. In Paul's case as an apostle, his ministry in and as the true church has heaven-sent authority and is thoroughly backed up by divine power. Paul also seems to imply in that last sentence of verse 4 that no matter what the Corinthians actually ended up doing, would they repent or would they stay recalcitrant? Would they show themselves to be redeemed or reprobate? Whatever they did, He, like all faithful ministers in the church ages and all times, will comfortably repose himself in the safe embraces of his Savior, knowing that he has discharged his duties, in his case, as an apostle. Well, dear saints, I know this is a little on the heavy-duty side, but it's always good for us. And the grace of God is our hope, but the law of God is also important. The law of God drives us to the Son of God. Let's do a little more application this morning and comprehend why a warning countdown is good for the regenerate and the non-regenerate. You know, God's written word has got to have literally hundreds, if not thousands, of warnings in it. And not all of those warnings are directed to people outside the bounds of the Christ-affirmed Church. In fact, it's probably true that most of them are addressed to professing members of the covenant of God, be it in the old expression under the old covenant, or the new expression in which we are today in the new covenant. The warnings are there for a reason. Let us now get a fresh appreciation of why a warning countdown is good for the regenerate and the non-regenerate. Again, by countdown, Paul's telling them, I'm getting ready to come. You better be ready. Here we go. First, because all of us are called to fully submit to Christ. You do know, I trust, dears, that every human being who's ever lived or ever will live is commanded by God to obey Him completely. No one gets out of this command. The first father, Adam, was commanded by God to completely, comprehensively obey Him. And the command is still there for every human being. Everyone is commanded to believe and obey God. On top of that, we are all commanded by God to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, in light of that, we are all commanded by God to keep all the commandments, starting with the most important one, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Now, if you need a little bit of biblical proof for this, here are two verses you can jot down. Isaiah 45, 22, and Mark 12, 28-30. The only secure place in the entire universe of the fallen, or even if it was an unfallen world, is the gracious covenant church of Jesus Christ. Do you understand that where you are right now is the only secure place in the whole world? Everyone else is on pins and needles, on thin ice, standing on spider's webs, ready to collapse into a fiery hell, except for the the common grace of God holding them alive to continue to hear the gospel and to be scared into their wits by the law of God, which tells them the truth, doesn't mean they'll believe. They might even believe in the facts and deserts of hell and damnation and still not believe. This actually does happen. But for us who are in Christ Jesus, may that not be the case. You know that all sinners everywhere in the whole world are clamoring for the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus taught that in Matthew 11, 12. Everything everybody out there in the world is doing, they think they're doing it for other reasons. They're actually seeking their own sense of the kingdom of God. And that's not all bad, because we're created in the image of God, we can't help but do that. You have the opportunity to understand the truth about these things, and to actually enjoy the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. So the point I'm making, dears, is simply this. The sooner we understand the nature of this fallen world in which we live, and therefore comprehend that Christ alone is our only hope, and that he with the Father and the Holy Spirit is the one who safely ensconces us in his holy and beloved church, the better. There is nowhere else to go, dears. There's no other safe zone. And this is because at that juncture, when we realize that, we realize how necessary it is that we remain faithful there. And we call this covenant faithfulness. Remain faithful there. We could no more survive the sin and condemnation of this fallen world while being outside the ship of Christ's church, rocking and rolling on the waves of a sin-fallen universe, than Noah would have been able to survive outside the ark that floated above the wrath of God on the ancient fallen world. why a warning countdown is good for the regenerate and the non-regenerate, because all of us are called to fully submit to Christ, and he will separate the true believers from everyone else. What will happen on the great day of judgment, which is coming, also occurs before that day, when church discipline, administered by true ministers applying the law and the gospel, is accomplished. And when it has punitive sanctions carried out, that's because it was necessary, even though we would always prefer the other result. Everything in all the universe is heading toward this cataclysm, this collapsing, this separation that will occur on the great day of judgment. The sheep of God on Christ's right hand, the goats on the left, the wheat on the right, the tares on the left. The redeemed on the right, the damned on the left. This great divide, that's where we're heading every day, every Sunday. We're all getting there, even as we get older. There's no escaping it, there's no escaping the law of God. There's no getting around it. It captures everyone. It condemns everyone. It assigns all of us to death and hell and damnation. Because we didn't keep it perfectly, we're condemned. One offense is all it would take. There's no escaping it. Our only hope, our only hope is Jesus. His gospel, context of his community, his church, his covenant. The one who kept the covenant of works and the moral law for us and applied that to our account in his imputation, his act of obedience we call it. Put all your faith, all your trust, all your hope, all your life, all yourself, everything you have. Cast it all on Him. Love Him, trust Him, fear Him, glorify Him, honor Him. Give it all to Him. Christ Jesus, who by legal imputation gives to His dear beloved children of His church perfect, pristine, absolutely pure righteousness, the perfect standing before a holy God, for we cannot approach that God except in that state, and there's no way we could be in that state except for the one who substituted and sacrificed for us, gave his life for us. Rejoice then that you are a child of God and a redeemed member of his beloved church. Your saint's warning countdown finds the clock ticking day by day, Lord's day by Lord's day, week by week, month by month, year by year, decade by decade. But in Jesus, the true saints who love God in him have no need to fear. the warning countdown. Let's pray. Father, thank you for that. Thank you that Paul is clear in setting out these doctrines and being upfront with the Corinthians and us too. Thank you that everything is serious in the church. It's all about life and death, heaven and hell, sin and grace light and darkness, Christ and Satan. It's all about redemption in Christ's blood, and we thank you for it. We bless you. He's our only hope, and we gladly and thankfully cast ourselves on him today. In Jesus' name, amen.