Latest / Admonition Podcast / Restoring The Erring - Aaron Cozort - April 12, 2026

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Restoring The Erring - Aaron Cozort - April 12, 2026 · Admonition Podcast

• 0:01
  Good afternoon.
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  That song has always held a special place since I was a child.
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  It was my great grandmother's favorite song.
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  And so we grew up when I was very young.
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  singing that song whenever we would go to Ma and Paws, that's Salem, uh Arkansas, and visit them.
• 0:27
  And if my uncle was there invariably, uh she would get her grandson, my uncle, to lead that song and he led it at her funeral.
• 0:37
  Just always a spectacular song and one with a great message.
• 0:42
  This afternoon, I wanted to spend some time with us examining
• 0:47
  restoring the airing.
• 0:51
  We're going to examine this from four different perspectives as we go through the lesson this afternoon, but...
• 1:00
  The scripture, both Old Testament all the way through to the book of Revelation, speaks concerning the need for restoring the airing.
• 1:08
  It gives us examples of the airing being restored.
• 1:12
  It gives us examples of those who are airing refusing to be restored to a right relationship with God all throughout the text.
• 1:22
  But what we're going to do is evaluate this beginning first with their scenario.
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  What is the scenario of the person who is erring from Christ?
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  If we turn to Revelation chapter two, Paul, or sorry, Christ, as he is writing through John, will write to the church at Ephesus, a congregation that is doing many, many good
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  things.
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  They're doing many right things.
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  And yet he addresses a problem with what their heart.
• 1:56
  is doing.
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  In Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1 we read, the angel of the church at Ephesus write, These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst
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  of the seven golden lampstands.
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  I know your works, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.
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  And you have preserved
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  or sorry, persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary.
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  Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
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  Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.
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  Consider first as we examine the scenario of the airing is that you can have an individual who, or in this case a congregation, that is on the brink of being past Christ's long
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  suffering.
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  We all recognize, or at least we should, that for a Christian there is an individual who has access to the grace of God.
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  But God is clear that there is a point in which His grace runs out.
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  That is not to say there's something too great for His grace to cover, that there's some sin too great for the blood of Christ to redeem us from, but as someone continues to walk
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  further and further and further away from God, God reaches a point where He says, my long suffering and my allowance of my grace to cover your sin ends here.
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  Paul will write over in book of Romans, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
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  God forbid.
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  May it never be so, he says.
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  Now, one chapter over from Romans chapter six where Paul says that, Paul will make it clear that there will be times in our lives where while desire to be obedient to God and
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  yet with our bodies we will do that which is wrong.
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  where we'll desire to do what was right and we'll end up doing what was wrong and that we will be held accountable for it and yet now, he says, under Christ there is no
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  condemnation.
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  So we have the benefit of grace but John makes it clear, Paul makes it clear, there is a point at which God's long-suffering with our failure to obey runs out and you'll notice
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  that Paul points out that the heart has something to do with it, the motivation has something to do with it, and guess what?
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  John points out the same thing.
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  And John says, as he writes this message from Christ, I know your works.
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  I know the labor that you're involved in.
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  I know you're active.
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  I know you're defending the truth.
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  I know you're doing all these things, but I also know your heart is no longer in love with God.
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  So consider the scenario is that for some who are erring, they're still in the pews.
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  They're still there every Sunday, they're still there every Wednesday, they're still attending all the worship services and all the Bible classes.
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  They may be teaching, they may be preaching, they may be serving as an elder.
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  We know the church at Ephesus had elders because those elders came and met Paul as he was journeying back to Jerusalem and they wept as Paul was leaving them knowing they would
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  never see him again.
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  But to that same group of elders, Paul said that there would be some from among their own number who would rise up causing sheep to come after themselves and turning into wolves.
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  Now, as you look at this, you'll notice that the airing can be inside the assembly or outside the assembly.
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  They can be regular members.
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  They could be teachers, they can be preachers, they can be elders, they can be the person who helped start the congregation.
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  Or in the case of Ephesus, they can be the whole congregation as a unit that have become those who are erring from Christ.
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  Consider Psalm 119.
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  Psalmist writer in this Psalm that is this extended exposition about the glory of the Word of God and God himself will write in Psalm 119, 176 and he'll write, I have gone astray
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  like a lost sheep.
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  Seek your servant for I do not forget your commandments.
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  Second thing that we need to understand about the person who is erring is they may not be erring because they're ignorant.
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  Sometimes you will find someone who is erring from the truth, they're erring from the Word of God, they're erring from faithfulness to God because they're ignorant about God's
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  commandments.
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  But Psalmist writer as he writes concerning himself says, that's not my problem.
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  And yet he's pleading with God to seek him, to find him, to bring him back because he knows God's commandments.
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  And so you see here the struggle that sometimes the person might be erring because of ignorance.
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  Sometimes they're erring not because of ignorance, but because something else.
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  has gotten a hold of their lives.
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  Jesus, as He spoke concerning the sower, would describe the fact that the sower would go forth to sow and He would send that seed out and some of it would land on the wayside soil
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  and would never penetrate.
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  It was the paths that were walked in between the fields and it would sit on that path and it would never go into the ground, it would never penetrate into the ground, it would
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  never produce anything, and the birds would come by and they'd pluck it up and Jesus says that's Satan.
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  Taking the word of God out of the hearts and the minds of individuals and they never will become receptive to it.
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  But then Jesus also describes the thorny soil.
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  He describes the one who the seed goes down in and it's, you know, at the right time of year, the time of planting, the time when you put something in the soil and guess what?
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  It's gonna come up no matter where it lands.
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  And the seed goes down into that soil and it begins to spring up, but as it springs up, also come up the thorns and the brambles and the things that are there on the edges of.
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  of the land that's been prepared for the seed.
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  And as that thorny soil produces both the seed and the plant and the thorny soil produces the thorns and the things that are going to choke it out, you see there the Word of God
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  going into the heart and the mind of a person who's still overcome with the cares of the world.
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  And the cares of the world choke out the Word of God.
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  Sometimes it's ignorance.
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  But then again, Jesus describes the stony soil where the seed goes into the soil, it begins to grow, begins to germinate, it begins to sprout, and the plant begins to rise up,
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  and it's growing and it's looking great, except there's no depth.
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  And because there's no death when the heat of the summer sun comes out, it withers and dies.
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  because the soil is not right.
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  Sometimes it's because somebody's ignorant, sometimes it's because they have no depth in themselves.
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  We need to be aware about the scenario of the lost.
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  If you turn over to, sorry, Luke chapter 15.
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  Luke chapter 15, Jesus in a prolonged parable, not three parables, one parable, will speak concerning
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  four different groups of...
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  uh to four different groups that are lost.
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  He will speak concerning the coin that is lost.
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  He will speak concerning the sheep that is lost.
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  He will speak concerning the son that is lost.
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  And he will speak concerning the elder brother who is lost.
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  But as you consider the parable of uh the lost son, notice verse 11.
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  A certain man had two sons.
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  The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
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  So he divided them to them his livelihood.
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  And not many days after the younger son gathered altogether, I'm gonna get my words out tonight.
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  And not many days after the younger son gathered altogether, journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
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  But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want.
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  Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
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  and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything.
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  But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?
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  I will arise, go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
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  Make me like one of your hired servants.
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  And he arose and came to his father.
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  And when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
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  And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son.
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  But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
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  and bring the fattened calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.
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  For this my son was dead and is alive again.
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  He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry." As you notice this example that Jesus places before those who he is teaching, you'll notice that here is an individual
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  who, of his own choosing, became one who was erring.
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  out of his own desire to participate in the evil and the sinfulness of the world, took not only his own life, his own existence, his own energy, but he took half of everything his
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  father had ever produced and squandered it.
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  And as he reaches, as we might term it, rock bottom.
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  He realizes as he is doing that which a Jewish young man would be aghast at doing, feeding the swine, and not just feeding the swine, but desiring to eat what they're eating.
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  He is so hungry in his current situation.
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  He is outcast, he is ignored, he is being actively starved to death in his scenario.
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  and he realizes where he's come from.
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  He's realizing exactly how far he has fallen and he determines to repent.
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  But consider that sometimes some of the barriers to repentance is that someone who is erring imagines what their new scenario will be like.
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  Imagine if this young man had thought concerning his scenario and said, you know what, I can't go back.
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  I will never again hold the position that I had.
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  ah I can't go back.
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  I was once well respected and no one knows where I am now.
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  Everyone thinks maybe I'm dead or I'm gone, but no one knows my current state.
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  They'll never accept me for who I am.
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  Sometimes people spend time not repenting because they're too afraid of the new scenario if they do.
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  because they're considering in their own mind what it's going to be like, how people are going to treat them.
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  This young man is determined, I'm going to go to my father and I'm going say, you can't put me back as your son, you can't raise me up above the servants, no, no, make me your
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  lowest servant because the lowest servant in your house is still better than what I've got.
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  And yet you'll note that his perspective and his opinion on how things should be moving forward was completely ignored.
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  He was welcomed back.
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  He had been sought after in a way, for the Father had been watching for him to return.
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  He was brought back with open arms.
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  He was accepted and everything was forgiven by most, not all.
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  But as far as his relationship with his father was concerned, he was restored back to life.
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  He was accepted back home.
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  In Galatians chapter six, Paul, as he is writing to the churches of Galatia, who he opens his book by writing to them his letter and writing to them, letting them know that they
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  are turned aside from the truth.
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  And so quickly after they received it.
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  But in chapter 6 verse 1 he says, brethren, if man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you
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  also be tempted.
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  Paul, as he writes to these Christians, says, those of you who are spiritual, now be careful with that phrase because
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  Quite often we all consider ourselves to be spiritual, right?
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  The person who looks at themselves and ignores what the Word of God says is, I'm pretty spiritual.
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  Paul is using this phrase to describe someone who is right with God.
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  And one of the biggest struggles we have in restoring those who have gone off into false doctrine is that the people who are actively ignoring God's Word in pridefulness in their
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  lives and in their actions and in their teaching try to be the ones to restore the person who's gone off into false doctrine.
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  And guess what?
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  It doesn't really work to have someone who's separated from God because of pride to tell someone who's separated from God because of doctrine that they need to repent.
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  Because the person who teaches false doctrine will see right through the pride.
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  And say, wait a minute, you're telling me to repent?
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  Look at your life.
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  See, Paul says, no, no, no, no, no.
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  First, you consider yourself, lest you also be tempted.
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  Jesus had taught in Matthew chapter seven, judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.
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  And.
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  Paul is bringing that forward here to restoring the air and he says, you, before you go out, before you start visiting the person who's wayward, before you start trying to insist
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  that they need to repent, you shine the light on you first.
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  You get your life right before you start going to get them to get their life right.
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  But then he also says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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  Paul emphasizes that it's going to be very hard to restore the airing if all you plan to do is increase their burden.
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  I mean, that's what everybody wants to be restored back to, right?
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  They were carrying a burden of sin, now they're bearing a burden of guilt and sin.
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  And they're no better off than they were when they were first told to repent.
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  Jesus will point out concerning the Pharisees, you remember Matthew chapter 23 as he gives those woes, that they would search heaven and earth to go find one person who was a
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  Gentile.
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  to be a proselyte, to become a Jew, to repent of their pagan ways and make them twice the child of hell than they already were.
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  We need to be careful that as we strive to restore the airing, we don't become the airing.
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  But then consider not only their scenario, but our responsibility.
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  Galatians chapter six, verses one and two right here in this text, before we leave this text, let us consider that we have a responsibility to those who are overtaken in a
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  trespass.
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  Brethren, we don't belong to a social club.
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  We don't belong to a polite society organization.
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  We don't belong to a group of people who are perfect, walking in immaculate, flawless perfection.
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  We are Christians who are righteous by the blood that atoned for our sins for which we could never atone for our own sins.
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  And as we consider one who is overtaken in a trespass,
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  We need to remember exactly where we came from.
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  For in Romans chapter 5 it is made clear that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
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  But then consider as well that we need to be, as we look here in this passage, we need to be those who are willing to restore the airing.
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  Sometimes you have individuals who are living their lives and participating in the body of Christ and someone goes off and someone becomes wayward and we're just like, well, I guess
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  they're gone.
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  Maybe they'll come back.
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  We don't give it a second thought.
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  We don't give it a second effort.
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  I guess if they'll come back, they'll come back.
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  No, it is part of our responsibility to restore those who are erring.
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  That doesn't mean we'll always be successful.
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  It means it's our responsibility to try.
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  But it is also our responsibility to bear with one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.
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  Consider James chapter five.
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  James, as he writes this passage, this section of Scripture that is fundamental to practical applications within the lives of individuals, he will write as he closes out
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  that letter, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul
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  from death and cover a multitude of sins.
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  James makes it clear that not only do we have a responsibility to do so, but there is a blessing to those who do so.
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  And even better, if they consider and they see their brother wandering off into sin and they restore them, and no one ever knows the brother wandered off.
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  No one ever knows that the person had become erring.
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  Rather, they were restored to the truth and they're set back in a right relationship with God.
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  But another point is to be made here and that is that just because someone has gone off into error and is restored back to the truth doesn't mean that there is a requirement by
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  God that all of their sins be broadcast.
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  All of the things that they messed up, all the things that they did wrong needed to be declared to everybody around them.
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  That's not what the Bible teaches.
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  Rather that the one who does this, the one who turns a sinner from the error of his way,
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  covers a multitude of sins.
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  We are not in the business of spreading dirty laundry.
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  We are in the business of washing people clean in the blood of the Lamb.
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  I don't know about you, but if you gave me the choice between spending time with a bunch of people's clean, well-laundered garments and a bunch of people's soiled, dirty, nasty
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  post-work-in-the-muck-and-mud garments, I know which one I'd prefer to be around.
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  But reminder, you know, even those of us, if we use the example of the garments, even those of us who go about our daily lives might not have participated in it a whole lot by
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  way of hard labor and yet still find out those clothes still need to be washed.
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  just because we didn't spend the whole day in the sewer doesn't mean we don't need to be about washing our own clothes.
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  And it's certainly not the case that we need to be going around criticizing other people's clothes if we're not even washing our own.
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  Jude will write, this half-brother of Christ by all indications of both history and tradition will write as he concludes his letter, verses 22 and 23 of Jude chapter one, he
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  says, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
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  Jude will point out,
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  that there are some individuals who will depart from Christ.
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  There are some individuals who will go off into error that we need to grasp, as it were, by the nape of the neck the way you would a child who's about to step into a fire and rip
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  them back.
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  And he says, you need to hate the sin.
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  You need to show compassion to the one who's overtaken in it.
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  1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul as he writes to Timothy,
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  will write to this young man who is in Ephesus, who is working with his congregation that Paul loved so much.
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  He will write to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and beginning in verse 19 and say, not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.
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  Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear.
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  Now, part of the responsibility of the church is to restore the person as quietly as possible.
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  We use Matthew chapter 18 as the example.
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  Jesus says, the one who's been sinned against, go to the person who sinned against you privately.
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  And if he repents, you've regained your brother.
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  If he will not hear you, take two or three witnesses.
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  and perhaps He will hear them.
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  If He won't hear you and He won't hear you and two or three witnesses, then you're going to have to take it to the assembly.
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  And the whole assembly is to try and to get that individual to turn from the error of their way.
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  You see, as we mentioned before, we're not in the business of broadcasting people's sins.
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  We're in the business of restoring the airing.
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  But Paul will point out even when it comes to an elder, he says, number one, you don't accept an accusation against an elder unless they come with witnesses.
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  There is not one person who's allowed to make an accusation against an elder unless they have witnesses.
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  And the reason is because the elder should have demonstrated already by their life and their actions and their qualifications to hold that office that their character is above
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  reproach.
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  So if their character has already been examined to be above reproach, you're not going to accept any testimony unless it comes with witnesses.
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  But Paul says if that witness and that testimony comes and is proved to be true, you don't get to rebuke that elder privately.
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  You don't go to that elder in quiet.
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  You have to do it openly.
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  You have to rebuke them publicly so that the rest of the congregation knows and recognizes God holds even the leaders accountable.
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  You step back and think of all of the disruption and all of the nonsense that goes on in our lives and our daily lives in this country as a result of leadership in the country
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  that is never held accountable for the wrong that they do.
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  God says that's not how my church operates.
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  He says you address this publicly.
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  Turn to Luke chapter 23.
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  Luke chapter 23 and in verse 33.
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  We find Jesus on the cross and we read, when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the
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  left.
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  Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.
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  Consider part of our responsibility is to be number one in a right relationship with God, number two.
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  with a heart willing and ready to forgive.
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  Now there's something interesting about this passage and this statement.
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  As Jesus makes this declaration to God, makes this request to God, it is not unconditional.
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  It is rather a request on behalf of those who have not yet repented.
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  You turn over to Acts chapter 2 and Peter as he is preaching is going to confront many of the exact same group of people who have just with their own hands crucified the very Son
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  of God and Peter doesn't say but don't worry you're already forgiven for it because Jesus prayed for you.
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  That's not what he preached.
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  He preached rather that they were accountable for it and they were guilty.
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  And he commanded them to repent.
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  and be immersed in water for the remission of their sins.
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  It is possible to pray that God will forgive someone and still it be necessary for them to repent.
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  Because God's forgiveness always requires repentance.
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  So then consider as we move on from our responsibility, what do we do when they do repent?
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  How are we to behave?
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  How are we to act when they do repent?
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  Again, James chapter five.
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  James chapter five will point out this very idea.
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  James will tell us that the individual who wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let the one who does this know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways
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  will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
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  We are to realize that when the person repents, we have converted them back to salvation.
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  Before we move on from this, let us consider that there are some physical actions that have long-term physical consequences.
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  that are not immediately resolved or wiped away by a person's repentance.
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  An individual who has murdered someone can be forgiven of the murder.
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  That doesn't mean there aren't consequences for their actions.
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  David might have remained on the throne.
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  David was forgiven by God, but you might consider in the life of David and in his family, there were an abundance of long-term consequences for the actions that David participated
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  in.
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  in regards to Uriah.
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  David brought catastrophe on his own house by his sin, even though he was forgiven just a short time after he committed it.
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  There's a difference between consequences for actions and forgiveness.
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  But James will point out that the person who has been restored is no longer to be held as though they are still sinning.
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  They are to be considered a convert the same way as if they had just put on Christ.
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  It is important for us to realize that we do not put people on a pardon system after they repent.
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  All right, well, we're going to watch it for about six months and see whether you step out of line again.
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  No, they're forgiven.
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  We don't take a new convert who's just come out of a life of sin, just put on Christ, been immersed in water for the remission of their sins and say, hold on, we're going to watch
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  it for about six months, see if this actually takes.
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  No.
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  And yet too often, congregations do that very same thing.
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  Turn to Matthew chapter 18.
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  Matthew chapter 18 in this passage we already mentioned earlier, Jesus will point out, beginning in verse 15, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell his fault
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  between you and him alone.
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  And if he hears you, you have gained your brother.
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  Jesus says if He's willing to repent right then and there, you're back.
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  God's restored the relationship between you and one another and between Him and you and the situation is done.
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  need not go any further.
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  Psalm 51, this passage attributed to David in the scenario of Uriah and Bathsheba and the sin that was committed.
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  We read in Psalm 51,
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  Beginning in verse 10, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
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  Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
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  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit.
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  As David writes these words, he wants his relationship with God to be restored, and he wants his joy to be brought back.
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  It is no surprise that Jesus, as He gives those passages in that parable in Luke chapter 15, after every single occasion where someone is restored, Jesus will point out that there
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  is a rejoicing that occurs in heaven over the restoration of a sinner.
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  And David prays for joy.
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  Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, those who were familiar with 1 and 2 Corinthians will know that in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul will write to the church at Corinth telling
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  them that they are needing to withdraw from a brother who is there who has his father's wife.
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  And as 2 Corinthians opens, the indication of the text is that
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  that they had done exactly what Paul told them to do and that the man had been restored.
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  But now they need to be counseled about how to treat him now that he has been restored.
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  So in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and in verse 6, he says, this punishment was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man.
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  That is, their withdrawing fellowship from him.
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  He says, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and to comfort him.
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  lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.
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  Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him, for to this end I also wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things." Paul says, here's this
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  brother, he was often sinned, he was committing adultery, he was withstood to the face by those of this congregation, now that he's repented, you come
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  HIT HIM!
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  You restore him to a relationship, a fellowship with the whole body of Christ.
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  You don't continue to stand off from him.
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  You don't cause him more and more and more sorrow even after he's repented.
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  But then consider, there's an obligation when we consider restoring the airing for before they go astray.
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  It is unfortunately true that there are those within the body of Christ who will depart from the truth, but certainly we should learn that there are those who are wandering from
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  the truth who could be put back on the right path before they depart.
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  Hebrews chapter 12.
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  in this chapter where the Hebrew writer has just given them an example of those in the Old Testament who were the hall of faith as we've often described it, will now write to them
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  and say in chapter 12 and in verse 12, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be
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  dislocated but rather be healed.
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  Paul uses the analogy of a limb and he says you have an injury.
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  You have someone who's struggling within the body.
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  You don't look at the injured limb and go, tough luck, get over it, we're gonna go on without you.
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  And as it tries to keep up, it goes from being slightly injured to basically being broken.
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  He says you've made the matter worse.
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  You don't do that.
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  Rather, you bind it up.
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  You make up for it.
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  You exert extra effort so that it has time to repair.
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  And then you move forward with a body that is fully functional.
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  He says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
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  Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.
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  lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
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  For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears."
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  Paul pushes forward from the Old Testament uh a perspective for us of Jacob and Esau and the damage that was done to Esau by the action of his brother who did not take compassion
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  on his scenario, who did not allow for his weakness to be an opportunity to serve him, but rather used it as an opportunity to gain from him.
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  And Paul tells us what the Old Testament didn't.
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  that Esau wept as he sought every way possible to regain his birthright, and there was not.
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  We need to be careful when it comes to those who are weak, that we don't cause them to stumble, but rather we cause them to become strong.
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  Galatians chapter 6, we won't look at it again for the sake of time, we already have, but we need to bear one another's burdens.
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  I'm gonna pick on my children for just a moment.
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  Occasionally I hear in my house,
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  But that's not mine when they're told to pick up the things that are around the house.
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  You know, we sometimes have that attitude as adults.
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  Well, I'm not the one causing the problem.
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  Well, I'm not the one who's got the bad attitude.
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  Well, I'm not the one who's causing disruption among this group or that group.
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  I'm not the one who's in the stick of the mud who won't change.
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  I'm not gonna help that person.
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  Their attitude is wrong.
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  When they change, I'll have something to do with them again.
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  God says, no, you don't.
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  Because when your attitude was wrong and when your action was wrong and when everything you did only led you to be more and more separated from me, I gave my Son to die on the
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  cross for your sins.
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  So bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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  By the way, that's what that is talking about.
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  That we live out in exemplification in our lives the actions of Christ exhibited by His sacrifice for us.
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  But then consider Luke chapter 22.
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  You find an example in the life of Christ as Jesus is going to tell Peter that he's going to deny him three times.
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  Luke chapter 22 verse 31, the Lord said to Simon, Simon indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat.
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  But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.
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  And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.
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  Notice that as Jesus knew that Peter was going to be tempted, Jesus prayed for Peter.
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  And Jesus being all-knowing, something that by the way we are not, knew that Peter would still sin, but he also knew that Peter would return.
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  So Jesus prayed not only for him to be strong before he sinned, that he might avoid sin, he also prayed for him to be strengthened after he sinned.
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  But he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.
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  Then he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall uh not crow this day before you will deny me three times that you know me.
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  Verse 54 of that same chapter, we read, having arrested him, they led him and sought and brought him into the high priest's house.
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  But Peter followed at a distance.
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  Now, when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.
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  and a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, This man was also with him.
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  But he denied him, saying, Woman, I do not know him.
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  And after a little while another saw him and said, You are of them.
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  But Peter said, Man, I am not.
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  Then after about an hour had passed another confidently affirmed, saying, Surely this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean.
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  But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are saying immediately, while he was still speaking.
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  The rooster crowed.
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  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
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  Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
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  So Peter went out and wept bitterly.
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  Jesus did not give up on Peter because Peter denied him.
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  Rather, Jesus spoke to Peter while there was still a chance for Peter to change and do what was right and tried to strengthen him.
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  And then Jesus confidently reminded Peter that after he returned, after he was restored, he would be accepted back.
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  2nd Thessalonians chapter 3.
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  Paul, as he writes to this church at Thessalonica, will tell these brethren, because they're dealing with those who are departing from the faith, they're dealing with those
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  who are not walking uprightly.
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  He says in verse 13, but as for you brethren, do not grow weary in well-doing.
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  If anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him that he may be ashamed.
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  First, Paul says, you do good.
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  before someone ever departs.
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  Make it your action, make it your habit, make it your life to do good.
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  We will never restore someone who's lost by participating in the actions of the person who is lost with them.
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  We will rather have the opportunity to restore them by not wavering from the truth.
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  But he also says, yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
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  Paul, as he wrote to the church at Thessalonica, those brethren that you've got in your congregation that are turning away from the truth, that aren't doing what they ought to be
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  doing, you don't treat them like they're enemies.
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  You admonish them, you encourage them, you exhort them, you teach them, and you do so as a brother.
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  But you don't fellowship their actions.
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  You don't participate in their sin.
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  You seek to restore them in a humble heart.
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  You're here this afternoon.
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  If you're outside the body of Christ, know this.
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  The church is not made up of perfect people.
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  It's made up of redeemed, washed in the blood of the Lamb, individuals who are imperfect people, who the only time they look perfect
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  is when no one sees them, they just see Christ.
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  But if you've wandered from the truth, if you've departed from the right path, from righteousness and of faithfulness and fellowship with God, you can be restored.
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  There was a man who became a Christian.
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  He had become a Christian and as he became a Christian, he had been hearing someone teaching the truth, preaching the truth, and every day he spent time with that individual.
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  He wanted to hear more and more and more and more.
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  but his past caught up with him.
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  So one day down the road, two individuals came from another city and they were giving the ability to perform miracles to all these Christians.
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  And this man saw that they had the ability to pass on the miraculous and he allowed his old lifestyle to come back.
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  He allowed his old heart to go once again.
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  become a part of his life and he sought to purchase the ability to pass on miracles.
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  For that individual, Peter responded that he needed to repent and pray that the very thought of his heart might be forgiven him.
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  That's exactly what we're told to do for those who are Christians who depart from the truth.
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  They're told to repent.
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  And in 1 John chapter 1, God makes it clear that if they will confess their sin to him, he is faithful and just forgive them of that sin.
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  and to restore them to a right relationship with a God.
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  If you have need of that repentance, if you have need of that restoration, if you have need of the prayers of the church, you can have that today.
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  But may I make it clear, you can have it any day of the week.
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  You don't have to wait till Sunday.
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  If you have need of the invitation of our Lord, it stands always open and available.
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  Why not come now as we stand and as we sing?