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It would be nice to continue with numbers 19. There is much that we didn't consider.
Would verse 11 be a good place to start? Would that be about right?
Numbers chapter 19 and verse 11.
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean 7 days He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the 7th day he shall be clean. But if he purify not himself the third day, then the 7th day he shall not be clean. Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defile the Tabernacle of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet upon him.
This is the law. When a man dies in a tent, all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent shall be unclean 7 days. And every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man or a grave, shall be unclean 7 days. And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt effer, for purification, for sin and running water shall be put thereunto in a vessel.
And a clean person shall take Hyssop, and dip it in the water, sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there and upon him that toucheth a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the 7th day. And on the 7th day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even but the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, That soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.
The water of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him. He is unclean.
And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water's separation shall wash his clothes, And he that toucheth of water separation shall be unclean till even, and whatsoever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until even.
00:05:19
Well, as we mentioned in the meeting, excuse me, as we mentioned in the meeting this morning.
The third day, I would suggest, is the full realization of the magnitude of sin in the presence of grace, and it's a very necessary thing in restoration. And that's why the importance of the third day is emphasized here.
The individual who was unclean.
Could not bypass the third day by excusing him or herself, or by pretending that that purification wasn't necessary. And so it is with you and me under Christianity. I can't bypass the third day and pretend that the sin wasn't all that serious or well, after all, I can remember once.
When I reproached a brother for something he had done, and his reply was well, someday you will know the stress and strain I was under at that time.
Well, that's not the kind of talk from someone that's reaching the third day. When we reach the third day, we don't blame anyone but ourselves.
We don't say yes, I've sinned but and start pointing the finger at someone else. Yes, others may have been an aggravating factor. Others may have been wrong too, and God doesn't pass over that either. But the Lord says to you and me, we are dealing with you. At this point every one of us shall give account of himself to God. And so it's very, very important that we get to the third day.
Before we can go on any further and if I try to skip over it or somehow.
Get around it, it says Clearly here he shall not be on the 7th day.
He shall not be clean. God wants to perform a thorough work of restoration, not simply a shallow 1.
And we thank the Lord that there is a 7th day.
And that speaks of perfection.
The third day in Scripture, I would suggest in a general sense, speaks of death and resurrection.
And in that sense, I believe here it is bringing us back to the cross, making us realize that we have, as we mentioned this morning, sinned not merely in the presence of a holy God, but in the presence of His love and grace.
And that we have sinned in spite of the one who went into death and rose from the dead, in order that we might be saved, suffered untold sorrow in the three hours of darkness in order to put away sin.
But we mentioned yesterday.
God never occupies us with sin, except to judge it and then to go on.
The Spirit of God never occupies me with myself except to judge sin, and so God doesn't lead me with that awful sense of sin.
It's necessary. I have to be brought right down to the very bottom where I realized that I was to blame. And I can't start making excuses by blaming others.
But when God gets me to that point.
Then how thankful we should be that from that point upward, from that point on, it's going upward to the 7th day.
What? Does God want me to be occupied with? The fact that I have sinned so seriously? Does he want me to go on the rest of my life groaning under the awful sense of my sin? I believe that's what it means in Second Corinthians when it says.
00:10:05
We are not. In fact, we could turn to it. Second Corinthians. I think it's chapter 2.
2nd Corinthians 2 And it says in verse 10 Paul writing to the Corinthians about a man whom they had been obliged to put away according to his instructions in the first epistle. And here in the second epistle in verse 10 he says.
To whom ye forgive anything I forgive also, For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. And here's the verse.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. And up in verse seven he says.
Contrary. Why she ought rather.
Excuse me?
Ought rather to forgive him and comfort him.
Lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow.
I can still remember many, many years ago now visiting a 16 year old girl in a home for unwed mothers.
Who's sad to say it had a child out of wedlock?
And her parents were believers, but they wanted nothing to do with her. And I remember having a visit with her, and she was the Lord's. And I remember pointing that verse out to her and saying, Satan will whisper in your ear, You have failed so seriously, You have messed up so badly, you have so disgraced the Christian testimony and dishonor the Lord that you might as well just throw it all up and go out into the world.
What can you do for the Lord? How can you be a testimony anymore? How can you ever get back and enjoy happy fellowship with the Lord and with other believers? And that's what Satan does. He takes an advantage of us in that way. He gets one advantage over us and getting us to sin, and then he gets another advantage by persuading us that there's no restoration. And so I would suggest in simple terms.
That the 7th day is the converse of the third. If the third day is the full realization of the magnitude of sin in the presence of grace, the 7th day is the full realization of the magnitude of God's grace in the presence of our sin. What do we find out on the 7th day? Just what we have in first John 1:00 and 9:00 if we confess our sins?
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
How? Because way back before the cross, the Lord knew that I would commit that sin, and it was all settled at the cross.
And so God can come in and forgive that sin on the basis of the advocacy of Christ. And how can Christ be our advocate? Because he has been our substitute already. And so.
What a blessed thing it is that God does not leave me with the overwhelming thought of how awful the sin is. I need to get to that point. I can't skip it. But then.
Full restoration is a realization that God's grace is far, far greater than my sin.
And the enjoyment of his love and grace is still there, even though I have sinned. It doesn't mean there may not be consequences, because serious sins bring down the government of God. They did in David's time. Of course. For him he was fully restored. But there was the government of God, and the richness and glory of repentance and restoration did not take away the government of consequences of the sin.
But nevertheless, that didn't affect full restoration.
00:15:18
That 12 doors where it says that he shall purify himself.
With it on the third day, That doesn't mean he took the water and put it on himself, just it just means that he repented.
I would see it a little differently. Vern and I stand to be corrected, but.
To me it brings out the fact that while in serious sin, others may need to be involved. Yet I have my responsibility to get before the Lord, and in that sense, even as an individual, I can avail myself of the water of purification.
I can go to the Lord.
And in being in his presence, realize that.
Yes, I can be restored. I may not if I let's.
Put it out in Christian terms. If I have sinned in such a way that I have had to be put away from Christian fellowship and from the partaking of the Lord's table, I don't restore myself to the Lord's table. Others have to do that. It takes their discernment as to whether I have reached the third day and then the 7th day, and the Lord can and does use them to administer that water.
Purification.
But I have appreciated it that it also includes my responsibility to get before the Lord and administer that water too. But.
I speak subject to correction. I've never had this chapter taken up in a conference that I've been at before, and so maybe others have different thoughts.
So his verse 12 Then connected with verse 19.
I would think so, yes, and I wouldn't see myself why both could not go on. If the sin is not too serious, and I shouldn't say too serious, I don't want to let anyone think that sin isn't isn't serious, but God doesn't make every sin alike. He speaks of the greater sin and so on. But.
Ted Sester brought that out this morning that you and I can apply the water of purification to our secret sins before they become public, and so this chapter covers a lot of angles. I would suggest it takes us all the way to something that becomes a public sin, but it also applies to that which may not have gone that far and gives me my responsibility before the Lord.
But even in a very serious sin.
Can't just say, well, I failed so seriously that I guess.
I say that because I heard with my own ears a brother say this.
He said yes, I have sinned seriously and I was put away from the Lord's table, but there's no one in my assembly that's spiritual enough to restore me. So what do I do?
Yeah, that's what he said.
This chapter doesn't let him off the hook like that. He can get before the Lord. He can, in that sense, apply the water to himself. Yes, his brethren may have to be stirred up, and maybe his sense of his brethren spirituality was a little warped by the sin he'd committed. So his judgment may have been a little impaired at the time, and we allow for that. But.
Even if others are not able to sprinkle the water on me, I can't use that as an excuse not to be restored, at least to the Lord, and then trust the Lord to work in the hearts of my brethren.
But I don't like to push it on to you, Brother Don. But what would your thought be on that? And I don't mind if you disagree with me.
I won't address it directly. First I'd like to go to another preface and then come to it.
00:20:01
Psalm 19.
Psalm 19.
And verse 12.
Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me, cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Beat back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
We've talked about being unclean and defilement and secret.
Faults and so on. And then public ones and these. There's four points here that show us the progression of what happens in our own souls.
In need for judgment, self judgment, and restoration.
The first one is who can understand his errors. What David is saying here is a little bit like the apostle Paul, who said I'm not aware of anything in myself.
But that doesn't justify me. In other words, we may be going on with something that we're not aware in the light of the Word of God is is not according to God.
The fact that our conscience isn't at work, nobody said anything. We're not perfect. Personally conscious of something does not mean that our walk is perfect and clean.
And David understood that, as it were, was saying, well, Lord, you're the only one that can look at me perfectly and recognize if there's something of an error in me.
And as we read and feed upon the Lord in the word of God, we should become more sensitive and more aware of what is pleasing to the Lord and what is not.
And we become enlightened by the word of God and may say, come to a scripture someday, we may have been a believer for 10 years.
And we read it and we say, oh, I never realized that before. And we change, we say that I can see the Lord doesn't want that. And that's what's described as the first one, something we're not even aware of. But then the Lord can allow in us, He says, verse 12, Who cleanse thou, me, from secret faults?
These are things that we are aware of.
In our own hearts, in our own thoughts.
The thought of foolishness is sin you. We can sin easily in ourselves without ever saying a word or doing a thing with respect to another person, because our thoughts themselves can be impure and wrong in the sight of God as well as the possibility of something in us that we do that no one else is aware of it.
Nobody knows that, nobody sees it, and in yet our conscience, we're aware of it and our conscience, and we recognize it's not pleasing to the Lord and in that way.
David recognized that in his own personal life and he says cleanse me.
From secret faults.
But what then the progression? If there's not that self judgment in something that is the Lord brings before us and in our conscience that we are aware of, then it says keep thy servant back also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.
It progresses in US.
That we become willful.
And we purposely do things that we know when we do them.
Are not according to the word and will of God.
It's a presumptuous thing to know God's will, and Kanchi with conscious will be against it.
And do my own thing. What happens? God says.
They get dominion over me, they take control.
00:25:01
I visit.
A detention center.
Every, well, usually twice a week, but every Monday night, particularly when we're interacting and the kids will say.
I made a mistake.
That's why I'm here.
And they don't.
Always call it a sin. Now it's a mistake and.
When then some come to the Lord and been saved and everything changes. But the point I'm trying to make about it is this.
That will say after that, but I made a mistake. But I don't like this place. I'm never coming back here.
In other words, the statement is the. What's being said is I'm not going to do that again.
So I don't come here.
And then a few months later.
We see him and maybe we see him again.
At age 18, that's the oldest stage allowed at the detention center. After that, you go to an adult facility. Some kids will be back every so often until they're 18.
What it is that they've done has control over them.
And if sin is not judged in us, that's where it goes, and it becomes a presumptuous sin. And in God's perfect wisdom, very often He exposes it.
And if others know, and then we have numbers 19, and the activity of others involved in it. The 4th one is I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
And sin can take on a great transgression character.
That puts the consequences of this life to the rest of one's life.
Doesn't mean that the soul is not restored. David committed very, very serious sin in his personal life and.
Yet the Lord worked in David, and he was restored.
In his own soul, although he suffered the consequences both for himself and for his family, and for the Kingdom, as to the consequences of things that David had done.
In that way, but in a little more directly connected with what Bill said, I would like to use Job as an example to try to agree and illustrate the point a little more.
Others recognize something had gone wrong in the life of Job, and they came to comfort him. And they were very.
Real they when they came to Job, they sat seven days with job without saying a word.
There was a real desire to help Job in all that had befallen him, and so they started to converse with Joe about it. And the first three friends, None of them were actually directly a help to Job.
Because they didn't realize.
They tried to help Job from their own perspective, one by experience, another just saying Job, If this happened to you, then you must have done something wrong. And what is it? What is it that you did wrong that God's done this to your life? And so on.
But here's the point. The 4th Elihu worked in a different way.
Here's what Elijah did was he sought to put Job into the presence of God so that God would deal with Job directly.
And even one who seeks to help in the work of purification, the intention of the work is the necessity of seeking to help a soul be brought into the presence of God by the word of God.
To the ashes that the Lord may use that to bring about the self judgment.
You can't make your brother judge anything. You can point out sin, you can say you did wrong, but you can't change the heart. Only God can truly restore a soul, and God does it by His word, by the ashes in in Numbers 19.
00:30:06
And consequently the work is to bring before the soul that which would direct them.
To drill directly with God and see what is done. Not against their brethren, not against the world. That's part of it. But that's only a first step. The real greatest part of the offense is against God and His honor. And it's, I also want to say, part of what the self judgment is, or the application.
One of the friends talked to Job and he started to give an answer before he was done. He was no longer talking to the friend, he was talking to God.
If you if you trace it out, you'll see every time it showed the sincerity of Job to get right with God.
And finally, when Elijah speaks to him and brings him into the presence of God, it's almost hard. You have to be careful to read it to see where it's no longer a lie who's speaking, but it's the Lord speaking directly to John.
And that's the that's the ultimate wonderful work. If one speaking to somebody, they're not after a while listening to what you say to them, but they have been brought to say, the Lord's talking to me, and then you will get the proper judgment in them, God will get the proper judgment in them, and there will be the repentance that comes from it and God's work in restoring them.
Completely and to recognize his grace.
God's proof.
That job had reached, will say, the 7th day.
Was after Job said I abhor myself and repent and dust and ashes. The proof of the grace of God? Was God said to Job. OK, now you pray for your friends.
You pray for your friends.
But what? You know, you're being the ones that set all those nasty things to me and misjudge me and told me this and deal with me that.
No, You said you prayed for your friends. He did. And the Lord blessed him. And if we hold anything against those that the Lord has used in bringing out sin.
It in itself is an evidence that the work is not complete in US.
But when David said against thee, and the only, have I sinned.
Was that the third day?
That was the work of God and his soul, right? And then they could, And then they could, the 19th verse.
That we had a clean person, a sprinkle to the unclean on the third day with that.
Yes, I I think we we have it here in the take it, keep it in the context of the chapter.
When if I can find it quickly, but what you see is.
Um.
Let's go to verse 18. A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkled upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touches the bone, and so on.
What it's saying to us is.
If I sin against God.
There's going to be effects, whether they're aware of it or not.
In others.
It doesn't mean that they're going to nest this and if my own communion with the Lord has been broken.
Death, Separation of the communion at that point.
Then my very presence and conversation and whatever is going to have a negative effect on others, whether they know it or not.
And in that way David was saying to the Lord against thee and thee. Only have I sinned, because he was recognizing that was the root between himself and God, even though we recognize, and he did too, that a lot of others were affected by it. But it starts with.
00:35:03
And it ends with in terms of the need for restoration.
If.
I am restored properly to God.
Then all other effects will take the right place, and I will cease to defile others, and God, in His grace and mercy may work with others, so that the effect of that uncleanness that I have brought into others lives has affected it.
One very simple illustration of it. Suppose I'm a father and I have unjudged sin in my life. Who's who's suffering?
The most immediate ones to suffer is my wife and my children.
They may not know anything about it, but they're suffering.
They're suffering because of the unclean condition of my soul robs me.
Of the mind of the Lord, for the needs of those that I am interacting with and may be dependent upon me.
So what happens if I get to a point in sin in my life and I never get to the third day?
Suppose.
The spirit of God through the word of God doesn't reach my heart.
And.
There's no restoration and I go on.
With this unjudged sin.
How long does the Lord deal with that?
Is it what we get in first, John?
Chapter 5 where it says there is a sin unto death.
And he also says there's a sin not unto death. Does that have a part in the play there? Or where I'm not reached by his grace and I go on without reaching the third day?
I would say so, yes, that it can come to that. And of course that's the Lord's.
Decision, if we could say it reverently, to make that call. The illustration has been used of an ambassador to another country and, if he behaves so badly and so poorly, represents his own country's interests. It is an unusual for the authorities to recall him, and in principle that can happen with a Christian, and it does happen.
Unhappily, of course, there are those who have.
Gone all the way to their deathbeds and reached the third day on their death beds.
And there are those who will not, if I could use the term, reach that day until the judgment seat of Christ. Because of the judgment seat of Christ, when my life is reviewed, I will have his thoughts about what I said and did during my pathway down here. And so everyone will in that sense reach that third day, and there will be the full enjoyment of the grace of God in eternity. But.
I will have to admit it the judgement seat of Christ.
That I that I was I was wrong and I won't have any problem doing it because the old nature will no longer be there and I'll have his thoughts about it.
And so it's sad, but it's sometimes dear believers go to be with the Lord, never having really dealt with sin and.
We just have to leave that where it is.
Well, isn't it true that faithfulness, the Lord's faithfulness to us, will not allow his child to go on?
Indefinitely in this life without some type of government dealing with them.
Or if needs be.
They go.
There's a sin under death and they fall asleep in the north. Rather than have the child of God continue in disobedience, the Lord does take him home. Is that not true? I've seen that myself.
Yeah.
I would only say let's not be quick to pin that label on a brother who's taken home and make the judgment in our own souls that that's why the Lord took him home. Far better to leave it with the Lord.
But it does happen. The Lord said. Many are sick and weak among you, and many sleep. Most definitely. Paul gives us an answer to that question.
One other question arises in connection with the third day and the 7th day and.
In as much as this may be the last reading meeting.
00:40:05
It should be taken up and there have been a lot of questions about this.
In First Corinthians 5, when an individual has to be put away from fellowship with the Saints and from taking part in the Lord's table, the scripture is pretty clear, Paul says.
By inspiration not to keep company, and with such an one know not to eat.
We all recognize that.
The question has arisen.
Let's consider the case of someone who unhappily is in that position. What is our responsibility relative to what we have been taking up in this chapter? How should those in the local assembly react toward that individual, and is there a point at which they can reach out to him, or should they be reaching out to him right from the very beginning?
How should we handle that?
We know, of course, that when a very serious sin has taken place.
Paul, as an apostle, could deliver that individual to Satan.
I would question whether we have that authority today. But the Lord can do it, and what is really being done is for the individual who has chosen in that sense Satan as his master, and who has chosen to act as if he were part of Satan's world.
God says in order to be cured of it, you'll have to be put out there and see what it's really like.
And then we learn through sad experience that the pleasures of sin are only for a season and that Satans world is not so nice after all, and it's meant for our good and for our repentance. But I just asked the question, where do we go from there as to the responsibilities of others? Because we know all too often Saints with the best of intentions take matters into their own hands and say well.
He or she is repentant, so I feel free to socialize and eat with them, and sometimes that causes confusion. How do we deal with that?
Who doesn't that deal with it in the 5th chapter of First Corinthians?
It's.
It says, But now I have written unto you not to keep company. If any man be called a brother, be a fornicator or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer or a drunkard, all of these things are would.
Keep him from fellowship.
Or an extortioner.
With such a one know not to eat. That is no social fellowship.
That doesn't say show them love, it says no show social. What is so? I don't know.
What bothers me is what's so difficult about what that says. It's like somebody said, what don't you understand about No, what don't you understand about no social fellowship, you know?
But sometimes we just want us to see it, so it's difficult to for us to know what it means. No social fellowship.
It's and that's it's really a problem in the day in which we live.
But OK, Verne, now you've been asking questions, let me ask, does it mean no contact with the individual whatsoever?
I think, I think if you if it's an assembly decision that you ought to have the permission of the assembly.
To do it and I so I think that's what it is. I mean, I don't think you should take it on your own. You cannot as an individual.
Resend the, the, the.
Decision of the assembly which is bound in heaven and is bound on earth. The Lord is bounded. The assembly binds it and you as an individual have no authority to unbind it or to meddle with it. That's that's the way I see it.
But.
I mean, I just, this is the word of God and and it's not the way. It's not the way I feel. I feel like I would like to throw my arms around him. And I have to admit that when I was a young man, I love those people. But I knew what the scripture said and what these brothers were telling me, and so I had to act like I was mad at the brother so I wouldn't shake his hand. Well, that was all wrong, of course, but.
00:45:09
Still, I should love him. It shouldn't affect my love for him.
Should it? I think he's a brother. I shouldn't. I should love him, but I circumvent.
The government of God, if I go on my own and show him social fellowship, and that's what turned this man to the Lord.
But if we don't do this, we circumvent God's government in his life.
To bring him to repentance. And that's what the whole the whole thing is not to get rid of him, but to bring him back.
At what point was the Man in Second Corinthians chapter 2, verse 7 next week?
What point in his restoration?
When the assembly brought him back into fellowship, wasn't it?
How do you decide if somebody is repentant enough?
You get 10 different opinions.
What would that be? Would it be in this?
Principle. The 15th verse, I suppose, of the second chapter of First Corinthians. It says. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. So there is spiritual judgment. We're not saying that, you know.
The the brothers in the assembly should have some spiritual judgment to understand when there's repentance in a man's life.
I think the problem today is, is that when a one is disciplined either.
Silenced or put out of an assembly, he really doesn't have the effect that it did in Corinth. At the time when this person was put out of fellowship, he had nowhere else to go and he was really out there alone. But today.
It seems like the discipline that is imposed on one who should be disciplined.
Is so watered down that it really doesn't have the effect anymore that it did then because they have families, they have friends and people say, oh, you've been wrongly treated and where you're going to be your friends and you you can just are they just leave and go to a Church of their choice or whatever it is. Doesn't have the effect anymore because of the condition of what we are in today in the church.
Am I right?
Well, what would it mean then? That God has to write the book again? No, absolutely not. Well then it's just simple. Here it says.
Yet all.
With such a one, no not to eat.
So either that's still good or we have to.
I mean that's that's how I that's how the individuals should act, not what that individual does. But our responsibility is to act upon the plane. And I and I emphasize that on the plane, Word of God.
It doesn't make any difference what you think.
What you think is not important at all. It's what the word of God says. This book that we have in our lap gets what God said. And if it's not, you know, when I was first, when I first heard the gospel of the preacher said, he said, if this is not the word of God, this is one of the most.
Wicked things that was ever perforated on on the on on mankind. Let's throw it out the window. But if it's the word of God, then this is this is what?
This is how you get life. And so it's the same way today. The word of God is not recognized as the word of God. It doesn't have the weight in our life. We read it and then, but I think.
Yes, you hit it.
I think there's a maybe a bigger question for that many of us.
00:50:05
Have to experience and.
You know, this is the word of God.
And and 1St Corinthians 5.
I believe I have to apply that to all Christians. So if I have a man that I'm doing business with and he professes to be a Christian and he's living in sin.
Absolutely. I don't feel that I can eat dinner with them. Absolutely. Because this is the word of God. It doesn't matter what I think about it now, I think.
The Cape, You know what I think doesn't really matter, OK? I get that. Where the difficulty comes in is when someone, I think that there's a room full of people that we want to submit to an assembly decision, OK?
But what happens is a lot of times the person that's under discipline doesn't want to come anymore.
And so they don't frequent the assembly, and maybe they never come back to the assembly meetings. And then three years later, we run into them in the grocery store or we see them at the health club or whatever else. And we're a young person and they're our friend and they're not going on in that anymore and they're going to the church next door. Now, how do I deal with that? Because they're not a fornicator. They have.
You know.
I would hope they have taken care of that with the Lord, but they, for pride or whatever reason or bitterness, have not come back to the assembly. They they.
Just have not made it right with. Never came back to assembly. Don't maybe even think that the Lords in the midst do not think there's any.
Authority there in the assembly to put them out in the first place, and that was between them and the Lord.
So they're not.
Where I where the question is for me and I want to submit myself to the word God is the person was put out for fornication. OK in my example here like in first printing 5, but now they're not going on in that.
They're never going to be received back in their mind because, I mean, they could be, but they don't want to be. So now do I treat them as a fornicator in my example, three years later and they're going on, you know, at the church next door, and I see them every day. Do I keep shunning them?
That's where I myself don't see the scripture on that and.
I would like some help on that. So that's me.
Good question.
If it's a dumb question doesn't have to be answered today, it's a good question.
I'm pretty clear on if they are in the assembly and you know, I I think scripture is very clear on that. But I think more most of the time you know this. What my example is, is generally how it flows out.
Few comments. First Corinthians chapter 5, verse one.
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you.
This is presumptuous.
Great transgression sin.
For which numbers 19 would apply as to the matter of restoration?
The Saints in Corinth had no revelation, no instruction, no First Corinthians written for them to know what to do.
In the matter that was they were facing.
But Paul, who speaks to them, says in verse two you're puffed up.
And have not rather mourned a right spirit in the presence of God.
Will respect and mourn if there is that which is contrary to the honor of the Lord Jesus.
Even if it doesn't.
Necessarily know what to do about it, and Paul rebukes them for it, he said. You should have mourned.
And you should have mourned that the person that did such a deed was taken away from you, from among you.
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They didn't know how to do that, but they should have had an inner sense in their souls that what has been done is a dishonour to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And such a one should not be in his presence.
And to be in the assembly and to sit down in the name of the Lord is to be in his presence and he said.
You should have felt that.
Paul in verse three says.
And I'm not there physically, but in spirit I'm with you, and I have judged concerning this matter, concerning this deed.
That in verse four, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's the authority, because that's the name in which they were together. It wasn't their own name. They didn't take a name of a church or this or that.
They were specifically identified with the name of the Lord Jesus.
When ye are collectively, ye are not individually, ye are not a few brothers are, but you are all identified with this sin.
That is dishonouring the Lord when ye are together.
And my spirit will be with you. And what is the power for it? The power of our Lord Jesus Christ? For what purpose to deliver such a one unto Satan, that is into Satans power, into Satans realm, outside the protective care of the assembly itself?
For the destruction of the flesh, For what purpose that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus?
Not that that's the purpose. That's the reason why the Lord wants that action taken for a good purpose.
And so he says.
Verse six know you not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. That person's presence among you is leavening everything.
Is that making everything unclean is allowing the working of evil, even though it's not overt in everyone else Levin works internally in something without explicitly being seen. Is leavening the whole lump, and so I'm not going to try to go through the whole chapter, but.
When he says in verse after such an action is taken.
He says first of all, verse 9.
Not to keep company with fornicators.
And then he says in verse 11, I've written to you not to keep company.
And with such a one not to eat.
It's important to recognize that there are other ways of having contact with people than having fellowship with people.
And there is the work that the Lord engages souls in, and we see it in numbers 19. And I'll turn to it to connect it to this which is not keeping company with a fornicator when one goes to them.
As directed in a pastoral way from the Lord to seek to bring that soul to repentance or to self judgment.
But having said that, one has to understand these words.
And there's a character of the interaction and if it's social, which eating is the character of that or even other ways not. Oh, I didn't eat with them. We just went to the gym together or something like that. That's fellowship. That is explicitly against what is said here, but before going back to the Old Testament in Second Corinthians chapter 2, where you have the restoration.
You see something else that I think is important and that is.
Verse.
6.
Sufficient to such a man as this punishment which was inflicted of the many, so the contrary wise, you ought to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye should confirm your love toward him.
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Verse 10 To whom ye forgive anything I forgive also. It's very important principle.
You don't individually take up a he's restored with an individual. The assembly collectively does it. And the apostle Paul was saying to whom ye forgive anything. Did he judge the man was right with the Lord? Yes, he did.
In fact, he was speaking to them about the fact that if they didn't act, the man might become overcome with ever over much sorrow. He personally had judged that the man was should be restored to his place in the assembly.
But at the same time he didn't act individually in it. He didn't go to the man and say I know you really love the Lord. He didn't act as a in a pastoral way and tell him he was restored.
But the assembly is just a little slow to get on the same page. No, that's wrong.
That's contrary to what it says here. It says to whom ye forgive anything I forgive. Also, I'd like to also turn to Leviticus or back to numbers.
To our chapter.
Verse 18 A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in water and sprinkle it upon the tent.
An application, The assembly.
Upon the vessels, upon the persons that were there.
We say.
The unjudged evil in an assembly affects the whole. It leavens the hall. There's not only a work in the individual, but there's a needed work in the assembly.
Because the effect that uncleanness and defilement has on everybody here is the application of it to those who are still within as we use the as the expression is used in the New Testament, but it also has another.
Verse 19. And the clean person shall sprinkle it upon the unclaimed.
And that has application to the soul after they have in New Testament been put away from the table of the Lord, There is still a place, without violating the know of social fellowship, to take the word of God.
And apply it to an individual, perhaps first seeking to bring them to judge their sin and repent of it, and have the light of the word and the ashes.
Brought as Elijah did in a wonderful way, bringing Job to where he repents of himself.
And then there's a further instruction in Leviticus.
Chapter.
14.
In chapter 16 we have a character of sin called Leprosy that has its of that character where there's putting away or putting out.
It's another chapter that has to do with some of these same subjects.
The law of the law of the leper and so on. But it says when it comes to the restoration in chapter 4.
And verse two, it says, This shall be the law of the leper. In the day of his cleansing, he shall be brought unto the priest, and the priest shall go forth out of the camp, and the priest shall look. And behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, there's also a priestly work in judging whether or not.
The work of repentance and restoration is a complete one.
And has actually taken place, and it's a matter often of spiritual discernment. And the priestly function is to if you will go outside the assembly, outside the camp, and when they have been told that such a person has, someone might report this person is really sorry for what they did and so on. There is a place for the priest to go outside and see.
And make a judgment as to that, and if that, judgment.
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Is brought to in the New Testament application to the assembly, and it's on the mouth of two or three witnesses to establish it. Then the assembly together can act for the restoration of the person. And so there isn't at all both individual activity. There is things that are only for the assembly, but there is also.
In these principles, there is work that is done outside the context of the outside the assembly itself.
That the Lord uses in His ways of bringing about repentance and then the Restoration.
Our time has pretty well gone Dawn, but could you comment on what?
On the question Ted Sester brought up, what about an individual who perhaps we crossed paths with?
Maybe a couple of years after they've been put away and we know them and it's obvious to us that they're no longer in the sin, but they are not coming back to the local assembly and seeking restoration.
How should we behave in that situation then?
Well, there's two kinds of people we have to deal with in the world and the.
1St.
Question is, is there a profession of Christianity in them?
And if there is not, Paul says if it's a matter of eating.
If I went and ate in the cafeteria with people I worked with at work and there wasn't a matter of of association.
Then it says you'd have to go out of the world.
You would have to leave the world because you can't have interactions with people of this world with that are not. But what changes is if that person has a professed relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now take it not Ted's case, but another one. Suppose I'm having, I'll say as I have experience. I worked in a I worked in an office, and in that office there were numbers of people that said they were believers. And I went to the management and I said, may we use this room at our lunch hour to be together, to have Christian fellowship together.
And they said yes, you may.
And so we had our lunches together, and we enjoyed the Lord together, and read the Word together, and so on. They had no.
Well, eventually some of them did, or a number of them that were also at the Lord's table that worked the same place eventually. But at at that time the question was, and it happened, someone was.
Committed adultery.
Could they continue and be part of it because they weren't associated with the assembly? In my own soul, no.
The same principles apply. They could no longer eat with us.
That was even though it wasn't part of the assembly, the principle still applies.
And its identification with the name of the Lord Jesus.
In that office with that room.
And what went on in that room? And so. But it didn't mean that for that person who had committed adultery that there was no effort made outside the context of that room to seek to bring the word of God to bear upon their conscience, to judge their their adultery.
And I think that there is application to what Ted says.
Without necessarily.
Going to mixing with them, there's still a way to seek to have strengthened them in the Lord.
His point was that suppose someone is part of a local assembly that we would feel is gathered to the Lord's name and we're in fellowship.
And they are put away.
And then we meet them two years down the road and they are no longer going on with that sin. They, in our conversation with them, it's fairly clear to us that they are no longer involved in that sin. But as Ted said, they're going to the church next door or something like that, and they have no intention of returning to the local assembly to be restored to fellowship.
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What then?
I'll answer it two ways, Bill. I'll take Harry Hayhoe's statement sometimes, he said. If you suppose yourself into a situation, you have to suppose yourself out.
But having having said that been in it though, I I understand. But but having said that, I think I would go back in that case to 2nd Corinthians chapter 2.
And say.
That I'm sorry, First Corinthians chapter 5.
First Corinthians chapter five, I would go back and say.
To in verse four deliver such a one unto Satan that for the destruction of the fest to be safe. I don't think if a person has been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe personally by my own faith, that's where the Lord is present in the midst, I can ever stop short of seeking that person's restoration to that place.
But the moment I take the position that they have no interest, I have changed that.
If I want to take up a relationship that stops short of what is, I believe in the heart of the Lord Jesus. And if I actually believe the Lord Jesus wants that person sitting in his presence to remember him in his death, and I take any activity without that as the end.
Objective I stop part short of the heart of the Lord.
So whether it's two years, five years, 25 years.
So would it be right though for that individual? I know we're going overtime a minute or two, but this is important. Would it be right to encourage that individual to go back to the local assembly and at least?
Bring their repentance before them and to.
Let them know that they're no longer continuing in that sin.
I think we are going to end up keeping going maybe longer than we should.
I remember a case in which a girl got away from the Lord, got away from her parents she had been.
In fellowship.
Later on, she started to write some letters.
Of repentance.
And those letters of repentance.
But she start she joined the church and some I think spiritual man in the church that was trying to mentor her or help her on in her spiritual life recognize that she.
Was.
He believed she owned her past life. She owned her sin.
And she could realize that she couldn't find peace.
Because of not having been.
Recognized her own judgment that was placed upon her by the assembly, and so he communicated and said, Is there any way?
That she can be set free.
In her soul.
And I just say I don't have a verse that specifically supports it, but what happened was.
There was.
A judgment made that there was repentance.
And the repentance was communicate that fact that that judgment was made.
Was communicated to her, even though in it she did not ask and was not asking to be restored collectively.
I say this with tears.
That's almost 20 years ago.
And she and her husband are presently he never had any association with the assembly.
That was before she was married.
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Her husband and she have gone to the parents and reconfessed in the last year, in fact in the last few months.
She's and they're not content where they are and though I believe the Lord has been working on her for 20 years to bring her back to the Assembly.
238.
238.
We are.
So long he remains free, breathing the House of Lords with all the sleep for my life.