Can restoration occur after a pastor has been caught in a scandal?

You must take each case in detail by itself; if one go away so, he has left the assembly; and if he leaves it under a charge against him, he must clear the charge before he comes back. He cannot come back without the case being judged by the assembly. It may be investigated by brethren, but not judged. Further, it should be named, if it be a case of sin and guilt. If a charge of fornication, say so; it is uncleanness; and if it was a public scandal, I should not be in any hurry to receive back. It is not a nice principle to talk about the honour of the assembly being involved; but the Lord's honour should come in. Yet, for the good of the individual, it should be done if the soul is really restored; though it be a strong case of public scandal, let him in again; never mind what people say. Here is one: A man overwhelmed with sorrow, and the apostle tells them to receive him, though it was such a scandal that its like was not even named among the Gentiles. A man may confess his fault, but this does not say his soul is restored. If it is a matter that nobody knows, and the man consults you and confesses all the fault, and is restored, you must judge whether it is a case for the assembly to deal with or not. If it is a matter between two brethren, the two might settle it. The "old leaven" is the leaven of the old nature; the "leaven of malice and wickedness" may be a more active expression. I am not to keep the feast with the old nature at work.

You must take each case in detail by itself; if one go away so, he has left the assembly; and if he leaves it under a charge against him, he must clear the charge before he comes back. He cannot come back without the case being judged by the assembly. It may be investigated by brethren, but not judged. Further, it should be named, if it be a case of sin and guilt. If a charge of fornication, say so; it is uncleanness; and if it was a public scandal, I should not be in any hurry to receive back. It is not a nice principle to talk about the honour of the assembly being involved; but the Lord's honour should come in. Yet, for the good of the individual, it should be done if the soul is really restored; though it be a strong case of public scandal, let him in again; never mind what people say. Here is one: A man overwhelmed with sorrow, and the apostle tells them to receive him, though it was such a scandal that its like was not even named among the Gentiles. A man may confess his fault, but this does not say his soul is restored. If it is a matter that nobody knows, and the man consults you and confesses all the fault, and is restored, you must judge whether it is a case for the assembly to deal with or not. If it is a matter between two brethren, the two might settle it. The "old leaven" is the leaven of the old nature; the "leaven of malice and wickedness" may be a more active expression. I am not to keep the feast with the old nature at work.

When restoration or mending of the wounded soul is the object, and when all is done in meekness by one who is spiritual and who has a deep sense of his own weakness, confession and restoration of soul will most likely follow in the majority of cases. It may not take place at once, so more than one visit and much prayer may be required. If the failure is confessed and judged and the soul restored to the Lord, the matter is settled and others need not know of it. But if the soul does not yield to the Word nor confess its wrong and is not restored, another form of discipline may be required.

A. That elders took an active and leading part in discipline, as in the general care and government of each local assembly, seems to me unquestionable according to scripture. It is sometimes forgotten or unknown that nine-tenth of cases of discipline need not and should not come before the assembly, but only such matters of scandal and wickedness, whether of doctrine or practice, as call for extreme measures as in public rebuke or, as the last resort, in excision. In this final act the assembly has the responsibility, though there may have been many efforts on the part of chief men among the brethren to avoid its necessity. In flagrant wickedness, as where a man called a brother is a fornicator, drunkard, or the like, the clear duty is to put away; and the assembly acts as soon as the sorrowful facts are known with clearness and certainty. The ruined state of things has not set this aside. It is a responsibility resting on the saints in the Lord's name. If they do not, they are essaying to keep the feast with leavened bread; they practically deny that they themselves are unleavened. Those who have the Spirit ought not to doubt that they have His power; even as the Lord's authority, to put away the evil doer; and this duty is none the less because he sometimes seeks to escape so solemn an exclusion by a tardy profession of repentance. But such a plea should have no influence in staying this action of the assembly, which is bound to prove itself clear in the matter, and not merely to seek the restoration of the offender. Their first duty is to the Lord, elders or none, chiefs or none; so it always was, and so it should be where we have only here and there men who have the qualifications, not the formal title. It would ill become any man to arrogate a higher place than when apostolic order prevailed. It is a duty to help and guide the assembly. No man is called to judge for it a case which comes before it, though it is happy when faithful men of grace and wisdom can settle matters of minor moment so as to spare the need of an appeal to the assembly — an appeal only right in the gravest matters or in such as all other means have failed to remedy. Otherwise the assembly, instead of preserving its place as God's temple, is in danger of becoming the engine of caprice, terror, or tyranny, for fleshly individuals who drag things and persons there without warrant from God's word.

There is all this, "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear" (1 Tim. 5:20), "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such," etc., and the like; but, if evil has arisen of such a character as to demand excommunication, instead of the church having a right to put away, it is obliged to do it. The saints must approve themselves clear. He forces these people into the recognition of their own condition, gets them ashamed of themselves - they retire from the man - and he is left alone to the shame of his sin. (See 2 Cor. 2 and 7) That is the way the apostle forced them to exercise discipline. The conscience of the whole church was forced into cleanness in a matter of which it was corporately guilty. And what trouble he had to do it! That is, I think, the force of, "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; lest Satan should get an advantage over us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." What the devil was at was this - the apostle had insisted upon the excommunication (1 Cor. 5:3-5); and the church did not like it. He compelled them to act; they did it in the judicial way, and did not want to restore him, 2 Cor. 2:6-7. Then he makes them go along with him in the act of restoration: "to whom ye forgive," etc. The design of Satan was to introduce the wickedness, and make them careless about it, and, afterwards, judicial; and then to make it an occasion of separation of feeling between the apostle and the body of saints at Corinth. Paul identifies himself with the whole body, first forcing them to clear themselves, and then taking care that they should all restore him, that there should be perfect unity between himself and them. He goes with them, and associates them with himself, in it all; and so, in both excommunication and restoration, he has them with him. If the conscience of the body is not brought up to what it acts, to the point of purging itself by the act of excommunication, I do not see what good is done: it is merely making hypocrites of them.

The man was put forth, his sin being bound upon him. The discipline succeeded, hence we find Paul writing later, "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which [was inflicted] of the many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive and comfort [him], lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow" (1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2:6-7). In receiving him back the assembly administratively remitted his sins. The assembly is responsible to guard the Lord's honour. If evil intrudes itself, it is bound to deal with it when known, in the fear of the Lord, or it forfeits all claim to be regarded as God's church. There are three things, however, which should be borne in mind on such solemn occasions; (1) the honour of the Lord, (2) the purity of the assembly, and (3) the blessing of the offender. If the first be lost sight of, all that is done, however right in itself, is on very low ground; if the second, the consciences of all lose the moral profit which should be reaped from the sorrowful circumstances, and if the third be not kept in view, our hearts are apt to become hard and careless with regard to those of the Lord's own who are beguiled of the enemy.

While the Assembly is to act in faithfulness towards the excommunicated one, the desire and prayer of each one should be that the person may be restored to the Lord and to the fellowship of the gathering again. This we have previously dwelt upon in the beginning of our study of "Discipline. "As time goes on, brethren may feel led of the Lord to visit the erring one in a purely pastoral way and labor for his restoration. If there is not grace and spiritual strength to deal thus with him, no advance should be made towards such an one, as a mere social visit would really be annulling and depreciating the act of excommunication and would greatly retard restoration of soul.

Properly speaking, the advances for return to fellowship ought to begin with the one who has been put away. His sorrow and humble attitude would indicate to the Assembly that the discipline has been effective and that a work of God is going on in his soul. When the cause for excommunication has been owned and judged and removed out of the life, and when there is real evidence that the disciplined one is truly restored to the Lord, the Assembly may take up the case for restoration to Assembly fellowship and loose the discipline.

Our sin may have seriously shaken the confidence of other believers, and it may be that the sin is serious as to have caused the assembly to put us away from their fellowship. In such cases, the Lord certainly desires restoration just as definitely as He did in the cases of David and Peter. My brethren will first be concerned that I have truly judged the sin and have been restored to the Lord. They will look for an attitude changed to one of submission and faith. But being restored to fellowship with the assembly involves also being restored to their confidence.

p451 [From the French.] DEAR -, - I had already heard of your fall, but I did not know the details, nor did I know that you had been restored. … Having been restored by the assembly, I receive you as pardoned by God, and as His child, recognised by Him as belonging to the assembly just as any other brother - as myself - for we are all pardoned sinners. But, as a personal matter, I may tell you what I think. You never knew your heart to the bottom, you never were really delivered. When this is the case, there is always too much confidence in oneself. Then your activity, and the acceptance of your labours by others, have hidden from you the inward state of your soul; and this very activity has had the effect of making your conscience ever less sensitive to the evil which was in the heart. God, in His sovereign and faithful grace and in His mercy, did not allow this to go further. I do not at all think that you were wanting in sincerity; but activity, when one is not in the presence of God, when the heart does not judge itself, has always a tendency to harden. You will be much happier now that all is known; and God has permitted that all should be known by men also, because there was in your case a tendency to have a good opinion of yourself. For He is faithful in all His ways, and we are, save as in grace, only miserable creatures who are worth nothing.

And may we not add that when the restored brother is again in his place, his sin is not to be remembered? True, he will not forget it; but shall the others, by look or manner, betray lack of confidence? Ah, we are too much like the world, which "forgives, but cannot forget." Neither can we say such an one must keep silence, and never again expect to be used of the Lord. It was Peter, the wandering sheep, who was made a shepherd for others (John 21:15, 17). When David was restored he would teach transgressors God's ways (Ps. 51). He will walk softly the rest of his days, a chastened person, but a happy and a useful member of the body of Christ. "He restoreth my soul, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."