Sin in the camp... your suggestions?

I seem to recall the Apostle Paul would say the offenders should be excommunicated.

It's harsh, but I think its important to show them that they are in serious sin. Will they come to true repentance without punishment? Will they ever feel as if they are doing wrong if the church sits by and doesn't say anything. [b]We're sending them to hell if we don't say anything[/b].

Krispy,

Absolutely. This is why the churches today have no credibility. I was speaking with another believer about two things. Do you recall Ananias and Sapphira being struck down by the Holy Spirit for attempting to lie to God? And their deaths caused the fear of the Lord to settle in their midst. Is this same Spirit dwelling in the hearts of "believers" today?

The other thing is in 1st Corinthians about the man who was kicked out of the church for having his father's wife. The problem was sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is tolerated today by allowing practicing fornicators and adulterers to be members or even in leadership positions in the church.

No one wants to deal with it.

But we do know judgment will start in the house of God. If we do not return to the bible's standards and uphold these standards. We will be only fooling ourselves.

Murray

I posted some quotes from a old timey Methodist Evangelist named [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Jones_%28evangelist%29]Sam Jones[/url] on a different thread the other day that I think are very applicable.

If I had ten thousand angels to preach to to-day, every word I should say would be pure. Our Saviour preached to men. His sermon on the Mount would not have had so much in it about adultery if He had been preaching to angels. God keep me dead honest in dealing with souls. I want to lay my gun on the rail and aim straight. If I hit you on the side, I did not mean to hit you there, but right square in the head. If you think I hit you accidentally, you never made a greater mistake in your life. I hit you with malice aforethought.

I once knew a new pastor who, upon taking charge of his church, was met by a delegation of the deacons previous to delivering his inaugural sermon. They said: "No, brother, you musn't preach about fashion, because our fashionable members will be out to hear you. You musn't preach about dram-drinking or liquor selling, because several of our members who are liquor-sellers will be out to hear you. you musn't preach about covetousness, because several of our millionaire members will be out to hear you." "Well, what can I preach about?" he asked in great perplexity. "About the Mormons," replied the good deacons; "give'em blazes; there won't be a Mormon to hear you."

I want to be a good man and a good husband, but God keep me from being a "nice" preacher.

A great many people object to pointed preaching because it pains them, they say. This suggests the story of the old lady whose daughter's tooth ached. She sent for a dentist. he came and pulled out a pair of big, old-fashioned forceps. The old lady screamed out, "Don't put them things in my daughter's mouth; pull it out with your fingers!" That would be mighty nice if it could be done. God bless you all! if you will let me get the old gospel forceps hold of these teeth, I will bring them out, but I can not pull them with my fingers. I want that understood.

[b]The devil has no better servant than a preacher who is laying feather-beds for fallen Christians to light on[/b].

Krispy,

After I had posted I realized I had not answered the question.

This just goes to show how far we have fallen. I wanted to use the example of what to do when a brother is in error.

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat his as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

Matthew 18:15-17

It is of the assumption in this scripture that the church would know what the Word says about any given error.

Now we do not even have that.

God help us. Give us leaders that are not man pleasers. Bring the truth back into the pulpits.

This truly is an epidemic. How long will we cling to deceit. Purge us O God.

Murray

More Sam Jones fun:

One committee called him to their town to preach to sinners. They were offended when he came because he preached at them instead. Upon complaining to him they were told by Jones, "Never mind, I will get to the sinners. I never scald hogs until the water is hot."

On another occasion someone asked him why he didn't attack the Catholics more, to which he replied, "When I get through with the Methodists, it's bedtime."

Krispy,

You know what the scripture saith: especially in Eph. 5:1-7....I do not read where there are any exception to kinfolks committing these sins and how to deal with them, do you? Jesus says we are to 'hate' our kinfolks...which I would understand to mean we are to not allow love for kin to interfere with our serving the LORD.

And what to do if the preacher acts like a wimp in handling the situation: the fellow can always leave and join Krispy's house church...hopefully, he will be Biblical in handliing a similar situation.

My opinion,
ginnyrose