f you have not read the first part of this series, I suggest that you read it before you read this, and that first post is located here.

After having established that God causes His Church to grow through the preaching of His Word (Rom 10:14, 17) in the first post, we will now see that Scripture clearly shows that God also grows His Church when there is purity within the congregation. Now, for this to occur there are some things that are umm...prerequisites if you will. The Church must be made up of regenerate believers. This may seem like a no brainer to some, especially since the word Church itself literally means "called out", so of course the Church should be made up of a body of believers who have been called out, elected, or divinely selected by the Almighty. However, there are organizations of Church planters who poll the non-believing community to ask them what they would like to see in the Church. They ask these unregenerate people what would bring them in the doors, and that is why you see so many Churches now that are indistinguishable from the world system. Since these so-called Churches have become like the world to appeal to worldly people, they are then obviously made up of those who are not truly saved, and since they are not born again, they are utterly incapable of being pure (Rom 3:10-18) and it is impossible for them to please God (Heb 11:6), or for them to live righteously as God has called us to be holy just as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16). As I pointed out in the last post, for the Church to grow, it must be continually devoting itself to the teaching of Christ and the Apostles (Acts 2:42), and in doing so it can't help but be offensive to the unregenerate sinner (Jer 6:10). We are destined to be hated as Christ was, but we also ought to be blameless as Christ was. That is the importance of the Church having purity, that we do not suffer reproach that is due us because of sin. That is why Jesus Himself set up a system of discipline that the Church is to practice, however, it is almost never practiced today, mainly because most Churches have become so much like the world that they tolerate sin, to their detriment, but do not be deceived, Christ is not in their midst (Rev 2:20)

Matthew 18:15-17
"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

Here, Jesus is clearly stating that something must be done about sin which involves those who are in the Church. True Churches can not tolerate such behavior or they run the risk of having their lamp put out and not having the blessing and authority of Christ behind them (Rev 2:5). Now, I am not saying that we should be critical fault finders who nitpick every single sin that we may see, or make ourselves out to be junior detectives that go around searching for sin in peoples lives. For instance, if someone misspeaks and says something they shouldn't have, or maybe has an outburst of anger one time, we overlook such things because "love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Pet 4:8). We should be understanding that our flesh has not yet been redeemed and because of that we are unable to be free from every and all sin. However, since our sinning is a reality of our life until we are brought into glorification upon the return of Christ, that does not at all mean we should take sin lightly. Romans 6:1-2 says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Paul, here, is giving the strongest negative in the Greek saying, God forbid that we continue in sin because we are forgiven for our sins, that type of attitude shows a total lack of thankfulness and respect toward the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf (Heb 10:26-31). We are to deny ourselves to the point of death (Matt 16:24), no longer living for our selfish desires but by faith for the glory of Christ (Gal 2:20). Our lives should be sacrificially yielded to Christ in complete obedience, clinging to the Word of God so as to allow it to transform us into the image of our Creator (Rom 12:1-2). The process of sanctification should be continually taking place, making it so that our sins are happening less frequently and farther apart (1 Thess 4:1-8). Just because we are still in the flesh and prone to sin, that is never an excuse for our sin. We should realize that each and every sin that we commit is the exact thing that killed the Son of God. Our sin is precisely what held Jesus to the cross, so upon sinning, we should be mournful and weep over the fact that we have offended and transgressed against our Lord and Savior (James 4:8-10).

The Apostle John makes all this crystal clear when he says, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8), showing us that yes, we are prone to sin, and yes, because of our innate sin nature we will stumble from time to time. However, John explicitly says "No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him" (1 John 3:6). In saying this, John is telling us that anyone who habitually sins, or whoever has a life that is characterized by constant sin has not been redeemed. They are deceived in thinking they are a Christian. The sticky area is that there are times when a legit believer will fall into a season of sin, but upon being confronted, they should respond to the voice of God, repent and turn away from their sin (1 Cor 5 & 2 Cor 2:4-11). So, a verse like 1 John 3:6 should really strike fear and doubt within the heart of a person about the legitimacy of their calling and they should wonder if they have ever truly believed with a faith that brings forth fruits in keeping of repentance (Luke 3:8).

Now, according to today's market driven Church paradigm, Church discipline is not in the least bit conducive to their visions of expeditious massive growth. They are more interested in packing the pews than in being obedient to the Word of God. But, look at Acts 5, where Ananias and Sapphira after having sold a piece of their property, went to the Apostle Peter and lied. In a vain attempt at appearing generous, they claimed to be giving ALL the money they had received for that property, to the Church, but in reality they had secretly kept a portion for themselves. What happens next is the ultimate in Church discipline..."Ananias fell down and breathed his last" (Acts 5:5). God disciplined both Ananias and Sapphira to the point of death for lying, which caused a "great fear {coming} over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things" (Acts 5:11).

Now, take into account, that during this time in the early Church, the Apostles, by the power of the Holy Spirit, were preforming great signs and wonders, causing the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the dead to rise (Acts 5:12). The miraculous would have attracted the masses into flocking to the Church, but they would have been coming for the wrong reasons. Just like today's Church planters that try to get people in the doors for all the wrong reasons, whether its Starbucks, Crispy Creme or some form of entertainment...God must purify His Church from sin and from those who are there for selfish ambition through discipline, no matter how counter productive it may seem to Church growth. Because, in spite of the disciplinary death of Ananias and Sapphira and the fear that spread throughout the Church because of it, "all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number" (Acts 5:14). So far we have seen from the Scriptures, that the way that God grows His Church is totally opposite from what the modern Church says we should do to see growth in the congregation.
This deals a deathblow to the wisdom and scheming of men. It is written that "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God" (1 Cor 1:25-29) If only those who profess to follow Christ would read His Word so that they may know this, so that they too will "BOAST IN THE LORD" (1 Cor 1:31) alone.