September 2026
Sermon Transcript
Church Discipline
We are here in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. This is a fairly famous chapter in the Bible and it is a bit controversial in today's world. I do not think it is necessarily controversial to those of us that are soul winners who have been around for a while, but it is something that is very controversial to the average church person. The first four chapters are the first 25% of the chapters we have already gone through — kind of setting the groundwork — and then we get to the meat and potatoes of the issues at the church of Corinth, the major sin that is taking place. The name of this sermon is Church Discipline.
There are many churches that exist today that would never kick anybody out for any reason. They take the mindset that no matter what the sin, no matter what the issue, we as Christians turn the other cheek, we put up with it, and anybody is welcome in the local church. That is not what the Bible teaches. Sometimes people use the example of saying well, church is like a hospital so people can recover — so you have to let people come even if they have sins and issues and problems. Now look, I do not have a problem with the terminology that church is like a hospital if you explain it the right way. My wife worked as a nurse for several years before we were married. And here is the thing — even at hospitals, they reject certain people because they might have a disease or a plague that is going to spread to everybody. Or they will put them in a separate section because they say we cannot have you around the other patients because what you have is going to spread. Somebody with a broken leg — being around them is not going to make you break your leg. But there are certain things that spread. And it is the same way in church. There are certain sins that spread. And the Bible says certain people should be removed from the local church and not welcome there.
Verse 1 — The Sin at Corinth
What it says here in verse 1 is: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." A man is sleeping with his father's wife.
Let me define what the Bible means by fornication. Turn to 1 Corinthians 7.
1 Corinthians 7:1–2: "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." The Bible says that if you do not get married, there can be a risk of fornication taking place. As men and women we have natural desires given by God that are not sinful within the bonds of marriage, but if you partake in those before you are married — that is what fornication is according to 1 Corinthians 7. Sleeping with someone before you are married.
If you are married and you sleep with somebody else, that is known as adultery. Fornication is when neither person is married. If you are single and you sleep with someone who is married, that is also adultery — and at another level beyond simple fornication. Though fornication itself is a major sin. If fornicators are removed from the church, it goes without saying that people committing adultery also get removed. If fornication is enough to get you kicked out, obviously things that are more extreme under the same basic umbrella of sexual sin would also get you kicked out.
So the Bible is saying if you are sleeping with someone you are not married to, you are guilty of fornication and you are not welcome at the local church. Why? Because you are teaching other unmarried people that it is a free-for-all and it is not a big deal to sleep around before you are married. God expects us to come to our wedding pure. And of course there are people that have made mistakes in the past, but we cannot have a culture at a church where everyone is just sleeping around and getting pregnant out of wedlock. Certain things are not acceptable. We do not expect people to be perfect — it is not like if you look at a billboard and lust in your heart you get kicked out of church. We have a sinful nature and do things that are wrong, but the Bible puts certain things in place, and they are good because they serve as a warning to help scare us and prevent us from committing major sins.
Now go back to chapter 5. There are a couple of opinions about this verse, and I will give you mine but leave you to decide for yourself. When it says he is sleeping with his father's wife, it is not saying he is sleeping with his mum — it is saying his father is remarried. Otherwise it would just say he is sleeping with his mother. And at that point, that would be far worse than what is taking place here.
Now it says fornication. For that reason I do not believe his father is still alive. If his father was still alive, I believe it would have said adultery because the man would be married to this woman. Even if they were divorced, it would still be adultery. So I personally believe his father is dead. But it is still a bizarre and wicked and sinful thing. If you are a man and your father remarries, and then your father passes away, and you then sleep with his wife — the woman he was married to while he was alive — that is sick. That is disgusting. That is perverse and weird. It is not right, even though there is no biological relation between the two of you. We all agree on that. And even in a sexually perverse society like Corinth, with the temple to Aphrodite and all the sexual immorality that was common there, this was not a common thing. Even the Gentiles were not doing this.
Go to Leviticus chapter 18.
Leviticus 18:6: "None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord." Now, obviously when Adam and Eve were first created and they had children, their children married each other because there were no other options. At the time there was no real biological or genetic issue with marrying someone near of kin — but nowadays it causes major health problems, as was seen historically in English royalty where intermarriage led to severe birth defects in many of the children born. But those were very different circumstances — you start with two people and somebody has to marry somebody. That is just the way it worked. But now the population is huge and there are any number of people you can marry. Do not marry someone near of kin. It is bizarre. It is weird. It is sick.
The Bible says the nakedness of thy father or the nakedness of thy mother shalt thou not uncover. That does not need any other explanation. Verse 8: "The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness." — which is further proof that the woman in 1 Corinthians 5 was not his mother, because back in verse 7 she is referred to as his mother. If you sleep with your father's wife, you are uncovering his nakedness because the wife belongs to him. And even when he passes away, you still do not lie with that woman because your father slept with her. It is gross. It is perverse. It is weird. Go to chapter 20.
Leviticus 20:10–11: "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." Whether the father is alive or not, it is still gross and perverse.
On a side point that has nothing to do with the sermon but is worth mentioning — Sigmund Freud, the biggest name in psychology throughout history, supposedly taught that every boy secretly wants to kill his father because he has a desire to sleep with his mother. No, that is just Freud. That is just a reprobate, perverse, and disgusting individual projecting his own depravity. Boys love their mothers. They want to hug their mums. They do not want to do anything perverse to their mums. That is ridiculous.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
Even in a sexually perverse society, there were certain things they were not doing. And 1 Corinthians 5:1 says: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you." When something is reported commonly and becomes knowledge to the world, it is an embarrassment to the church. At the average Baptist church or really any denomination, girls will get pregnant and nothing is done about it. But if everybody is getting pregnant at our church, it is an embarrassment. And what it is saying here is that this is common knowledge — the other religions going by, those worshipping the goddess Aphrodite, pass the church of Corinth and mock them for having someone sleeping with his father's wife while they themselves are living in sexual perversion. God's people ought to be more holy and more godly than the world.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12.
2 Samuel 12:13–14: "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." As churches, we should be godly and zealous. And you have to realise that if sin takes control of the members of our churches, it becomes a public embarrassment. What churches often do is they are ashamed and embarrassed, so instead of dealing with problems they try to cover them up because they do not want people to know. But the Bible says that is not how you deal with it. If there are major problems, you have to deal with things. Sometimes you handle it within the church and do not make it a public situation. But other times things have to be dealt with publicly. Either way, sin gives great occasion to people to blaspheme. People already hate us and want something to attack us with. Do not give them ammunition. We need to live godly, separated, holy lives and try to do what is right.
Go back to 1 Corinthians 5.
1 Corinthians 5:2: "And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." Puffed up — full of arrogance, full of pride. The philosophy being, we are more loving than other churches because we always give people a second chance. God is the God of the second chance. We are loving, we will forgive everybody. So they do not kick out anybody. They look at it as a boastful thing that they are willing to forgive whoever. A lot of people also like having major sin in the church because it justifies anything they do — it kind of lets everyone get away with whatever. But you have got to deal with problems and sins at local churches.
Go to 2 Kings chapter 22.
When it comes to this topic, I want to show you a very perverse sin that not only is something that gets you kicked out of church, but that the government should actually execute people for. This is a real issue in 2026. The issue I am referring to is the LGBT.
2 Kings 22:1–2: "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem... And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left." The Bible says King Josiah was a good king who did that which was right. He cleaned house. Let me show you one of the sins he dealt with in the land.
Go to 2 Kings chapter 23.
2 Kings 23:7: "And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove." The sodomites — the homosexuals, from whom the LGBT gets its name — their houses were broken down. They had been allowed to get close to the local church, close to the local house of God, close to the spiritual places of meeting. And what did Josiah do? He got rid of them. Broke down their houses. I tend to think the sodomites were inside the houses when they broke them down. In 2026, people would say that is ridiculous, how can you break down their houses, that is rude. And yet in 2026 Baptists let them inside the church. In the Bible, they were not even allowed to be beside the house of the Lord, and yet in 2026 Baptists let them be inside of church. They should not even be near the house of God. It is disgusting. It is perverse. It is wicked. Leviticus 20 actually has the death penalty for their sin. I did not write the Bible. I did not write Leviticus 18 that says what they are doing is an abomination. The Bible says their houses were beside the house of the Lord and Josiah did what was right and got rid of them. We cannot do anything in society because our governments are not going to enforce that in 2026. But at least churches can keep them from the house of God. Especially when you have young children at the church — if you are a parent with kids, your children are in danger of being attacked and molested by those perverts. That is reality.
Going back to 1 Corinthians 5:3 — if somebody gets kicked out for being part of the LGBT or being a pedophile, not only do they get kicked out of church, they are not welcome back. Ever. They are never going to be welcome at Soulwinning Baptist Church. They are not allowed. The Bible says their houses were broken down that were beside God's houses, so we are not going to let them in the house of God. They will be removed. They will be gone and never given a second chance. Some are very obvious. Others come in and act normal and it gets discovered later that they are a homosexual. One reason we do not have children's ministries is because children's ministries are a breeding ground for sexual perverts who come in to try to have access to young kids. We do not have that at Soulwinning Baptist Church. We are never going to have that. At every other Baptist church they are welcome — not at Soulwinning Baptist Church. Why? Fornication is enough to get you kicked out of church. Sodomites have hundreds of partners and are not married. Why would they be welcome when even someone in fornication is not? It makes no sense. They are not welcome.
Verses 3–5 — The Apostolic Judgment and Delivering to Satan
1 Corinthians 5:3: "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed." Even though Paul is not there in the actual church, he has already judged. Why? Because it is commonly reported. At some point, when you have this many witnesses and this much proof, you know it is real. Obviously you can have multiple lying witnesses — they railed and gave false witness to get Jesus put to death, we get that. But there is enough information here that Paul says I have the proof. I already know this is true.
In the world we live in today, it is getting harder with AI because things could be faked. Even a video might have some doubt about it now. So it is kind of scary for the future of church discipline in some ways. But there is enough proof here that Paul the Apostle says even though I am not there, I have already made the decision — get them out.
Verse 4–5: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
This is an interesting phrase in verse 5 — that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Let me show you something. Turn to Revelation chapter 2.
Revelation 2:20–22: "Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols... And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. And I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." Women are not meant to be teachers in the local church. The Bible says I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man. But here you have this woman, referred to as a Jezebel, teaching servants and seducing people to commit fornication. A church under judgment because there is fornication and sin in it — just like the church of Corinth — and it must be dealt with.
When people get kicked out of church and their flesh is destroyed by that process, the spirit of the church is saved.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 5: "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." This is my opinion, but I believe that phrase the spirit may be saved is referring to the spirit of the church — the church of Corinth. We use the word spirit in this way today too, like the spirit of the team. And the Bible does speak about the spirit of the church. Churches can have their candlestick removed as it says in Revelation 2 and 3. So I think this is a reference to the local church itself being saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Now look, I could be wrong on that. Some would say it is referring to the individual. Either way it is certainly not saying you can lose your salvation. The Bible says I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. He that believeth on the Son hath, present tense, everlasting life that will last forever. A gift is not something that is taken back. We understand once you are saved, you are always saved, no matter how good or bad you are after getting saved. So any interpretation that says this person might go to hell if they do not get right with God is off the table. But another possibility is that this person inside the church is an unbeliever, and his flesh being destroyed by getting kicked out is going to make him realise he needs to get right with God and eventually get saved. I have heard that preached before and it is a reasonable interpretation.
But the next verse helps explain it. Verse 6: "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" Referring to the entire church. So I think the context of the spirit being saved in the day of the Lord Jesus ties into the fact that the whole lump, the entire church, is not defiled with this sin. That is what it is referring to.
Often leaven references false doctrine. Here it is referencing sin. The Bible is saying a little sin is going to spread like leaven and destroy the entire lump. This is a sin that spreads. Somebody breaking their leg does not spread to other people, but somebody having the flu could spread. Certain sins are not likely to spread, but others are. And fornication is one of those things that is going to destroy the entire lump.
We do not kick people out for every single thing. If somebody tells a lie they do not get kicked out for that — unless they are railing, which is making false accusations, but a simple lie does not get you kicked out of church. Lusting after a woman does not get you kicked out. Watching a bad movie does not get you kicked out. Smoking cigarettes does not get you kicked out. But being a drunkard, you do get kicked out for. Fornication, you do get kicked out for. There are certain things you get kicked out for, and certain things you do not.
Verse 7–8: "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
The phrase let us keep the feast is interesting. It says in verse 7 Christ our Passover. So it is referencing the feast of the Passover. The Lord's supper — what some people call communion — is a continuation of the Old Testament Passover with some changes, because Christ our Passover has already come. We remember the body and the blood of Jesus. We drink the grape juice, not wine or fermented juice. We eat unleavened bread because leaven is a picture of sin and Jesus was sinless. So this is a reference to the Lord's supper.
Why does it mention this? Because it is talking about sins that will get you kicked out of the local church. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
1 Corinthians 11:27–30: "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." The Bible says people take the Lord's supper unworthily. And as a result, people get weak and sickly, and some even sleep — meaning die. Referring to saved people. Many would even die as a result of taking the Lord's supper unworthily.
Now, the most common thing people say is that eating and drinking unworthily refers to an unsaved person taking the Lord's supper. But wait — the terminology of sleeping is not given for unsaved people who die. The terminology of sleeping is given for saved people who die. This is not a reference to an unsaved person taking the Lord's supper. Of course, you should be saved to take the Lord's supper — it is a remembrance of what Jesus did for us. But what the Bible is saying is you need to judge yourself. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
A first-time visitor who does not even understand salvation is not going to know all of these things. What the Bible is speaking about is someone who knows, according to 1 Corinthians 5 which references the feast of the Passover, that they are not welcome at the local church — and yet not only do they come to the local church, but then they take the Lord's supper when it is offered, which is directly unworthily because of their known sin. The Bible says you can even become sick and weak and sickly and die as a result.
At our church in Pampanga and Manila, we do the Lord's supper once a year around Easter time, mirroring how the Passover was once a year. I still need to work out a plan for Melbourne on when we will do that. But the thing is, if you realise you are living in fornication — a major sin that will get you kicked out of church — and you are not welcome at church, and you brazenly come to church while living in that sin and take the Lord's supper, the Bible says God might strike you down dead as a result.
I mention this because a lot of people get very scared to take the Lord's supper because they think, my life is not perfect, I have sin, I watched a bad movie, I listened to some bad music, so I do not feel comfortable taking it and I do not want God to kill me. According to the Bible, you do not have to worry about being killed unless you are living in sin that would get you kicked out of church. In that case, maybe just skip taking the Lord's supper. Actually, better yet, get right with God so you do not have to worry about it. Obviously, when you take the Lord's supper it is a good time to reflect upon your life and the changes you want to make. Whenever I take it, I think about what Jesus did for me and I realise I have so much work to do in my life. But I am not afraid to take the Lord's supper because I am not living in sin that would get me kicked out of church. I am a sinner saved by grace and I am welcome at church because I am not living in these major sins.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
Something can take place where the church itself does not know about the sins going on. You could be living in a sin that would get you kicked out of church, and the reason I have not kicked you out is because I have no idea. I am not aware of it, so obviously I am not going to kick you out. When we take the Lord's supper, I do not just directly ask everybody — are you living in fornication, are you doing this, are you doing that? That is ridiculous. I could not do that. I just take it by faith that people are right with God. But the Bible says if you judge yourself, you are not going to be judged.
Verses 9–13 — Who to Fellowship With
1 Corinthians 5:9–10: "I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world." The Bible is not saying you can never be around somebody living in fornication, because at your job you are around people living in fornication. You might try to give the gospel to unsaved people. You meet people living in fornication when you go soul-winning. But inside the church it is not welcome. What the Bible is saying is that if people are living in a sin that will get them kicked out of church, you should not fellowship with them. If they get kicked out of church, you should not fellowship with them outside of church either. That is part of the punishment — nobody fellowships with them. And that can be something that motivates them to get right with God and get back in church.
To avoid everyone living in these sins you would have to leave the world entirely. You would have to move to the moon. Not possible. No matter whether it is Australia or the Philippines or anywhere in the world, you will be around people living in sins such as these.
Verse 11: "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat." When someone is called a brother — known as brother so and so, or sister so and so — and they are living in that sin, you are not supposed to keep company with them.
You might ask — what if somebody is living in fornication and we meet them out soul-winning and we get them saved? Should we invite them to church? My position is yes, because they know nothing about these things yet. Churches deal with this differently. I know a common approach is to give someone two weeks to get something right — you get it right, you are welcome here, if not, you are not. But you should not let this go on for an extended period of time. If somebody starts coming to church and they are living in a major sin, once they are coming regularly they will start to be known as brother so and so or sister so and so. At that point they cannot be living in these sins. I would say somebody comes to several services and then I would talk to them and say here is what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians. They have a chance to get right or not. If they do not, they are not welcome at church.
I remember once going soul-winning in West Virginia and I saw a group of people. As I walked up, I realised there were people doing drugs and someone who appeared to be a crossdresser. I gave them a church invitation anyway. One of the guys saw it and said hey, I know that church, I got saved on the bus route as a kid and I want to come to your church. I thought, okay, this is kind of unusual. He was actually saved and solid on salvation when I talked to him, so I said hey, if you want to come to church, I will give it a chance. He started coming. I printed him a Bible reading chart to get through the Bible once in a year and he was reading every week. After about a month I found out he was living with his girlfriend. Obviously, I talked to the pastor about how to deal with it. The pastor suggested we go to his house, get his girlfriend saved, and then explain the situation to them both. We gave the gospel and it seemed like she got saved, but she was not coming to church.
I had asked him before if he had ever been married, because if he had been divorced he would not be supposed to remarry and should live single according to the Bible. He told me he had never been married. I assumed she had never been married either or just did not ask. But it turned out she was divorced. So the whole time I was trying to encourage them to get married, I found out after about a month that she was divorced. That means this whole time he was living in what the Bible would call adultery — living with a divorced woman. And so eventually I stopped giving him a ride to church. He went on the bus route a couple of times and then quit coming. It is what it is. The Bible says if somebody remarries and marries somebody else they are not living in a continuous state of adultery, but if you get divorced you are supposed to stay single. That is what the word of God teaches. And if someone is living with a divorced person, that is what would be known as adultery. I was not going to keep bringing him to church anymore. At some point the church has to deal with issues. We are not going to let an issue drag out for months and months. It has to be dealt with earlier. Sometimes you might meet someone you like, you start bringing them to church, they are getting involved — but if they are living in these sins, they have got to get it right or they are not welcome.
Verse 11 lists several categories. A fornicator — we have already covered this. Covetous — obviously we can all be covetous, but someone who is always talking about money and it is what their whole life is about. An idolater — people coming from a Catholic background in the Philippines, someone who is really into idolatry, not welcome according to the Bible. A railer — railing is about making false accusations. Obviously you can be rude in your speech sometimes and it can be inappropriate, but railing itself is specifically making false accusations. And when you throw out accusations and they turn out to be wrong, you have got to fix the damage you caused. Or a drunkard — someone who just wakes up and drinks, someone whose life is consumed by it. I will not define someone who drinks one beer a week as a drunkard. Not every sin gets you kicked out of church. I am against drinking alcohol, do not think I am going light on sin, but this specific category is the drunkard. And I think drugs would apply just like alcohol as something that will mess with your judgment and is very similar. An extortioner — someone who takes money by force, including by lying to manipulate someone into giving you money under false pretences. These are people not welcome at the local church.
I am not spending time on every single one of these because the issue in Corinth was sexual sin. You could do a sermon series on each of these and that might make for a good future series, but I do not want to spend forever in this chapter. But these are people you do not eat with, you do not fellowship with, you are not around. So even if they get kicked out of church, you do not fellowship with them outside of church either.
Verses 12–13: "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." What the Bible is saying is God judges those that are without the church — the unsaved, those outside the church. They can be saved or lost and God deals with that judgment. But inside the church there is authority given to the leader of the church to deal with issues. We should judge those that are within the church.
Closing — Matthew 18 and Church Discipline
Go to Matthew 18.
Once again, we are talking about sins that will get you kicked out of church — not something minor, but sins that warrant removal from the local church.
Matthew 18:15–17: "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established... And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."
Now, 1 Corinthians 5 is not the only way you get kicked out of church — those are various sins that will get you kicked out. Matthew 18 speaks about an issue with a brother or sister in Christ at the local church and how to deal with that. Not every issue requires the full Matthew 18 process. People have been kicked out of church before and said well, why did I not get my Matthew 18 process, why did I not get to stand up and defend myself? If something is commonly reported and there are a ton of witnesses, you can judge without being physically present. Obviously, if you are having an issue with a brother in Christ, I need to know about it — nobody gets kicked out of church without my approval. You could maybe talk to someone one-on-one without telling me if you have got an issue going on, but after that conversation, especially if things are going to progress, I should be told about it before it becomes a major issue. I know people are embarrassed and shy to talk to the pastor, but we cannot let major things become worse and worse.
Verse 18: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." What the Bible is saying here in the context of dealing with church issues is that if a church and a pastor deal with a church issue, pray to God for guidance, try their best, and make a judgment basing it on the word of God, then it is going to be bound in heaven. God is going to stand by the judgment that was made. And if you loose it on earth, it is loosed in heaven. Somebody gets kicked out of church and then you decide they got right with God and you are going to give them a second chance — then they have a second chance.
In times I have dealt with church discipline, I have kicked people out of church who are never welcome back no matter what — it is bound on earth and I will never change my mind. But there are other people who have been kicked out that I did let come back because they got right with God, the issue was dealt with, and they are welcome again. Something can be loosed on earth and it is loosed in heaven.
Now obviously you could have pastors that are not basing decisions on the word of God and people get kicked out for things that have nothing to do with 1 Corinthians 5 or Matthew 18 — kicked out because they do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture or something ridiculous like that. I cannot do anything about what other churches decide. But of course you are not at a church like that. To the best of our ability we will do things the biblical and scriptural way. Rest assured, as our churches grow and as time goes by, there will be people that get kicked out for various sins. The thing is, you do not have to worry about it if you are trying to do what is right, living an honest and peaceable life, making mistakes from time to time but not living in major sins. If you are living in major sins, you should be afraid of getting kicked out of church. Why? It is a good warning sign to stop you from committing worse and worse things.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word. Thank you for the wonderful church you have given us, God, and for being a church that actually deals with problems and will deal with church discipline when necessary. I ask you to bless our churches. Help sin to stay out of the churches and help us to have the boldness to actually handle things when necessary and guide us in that process. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.