Numbers 15:31
Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
To despise the word of the Lord and break His commandment is to sin deliberately and defiantly with a high hand, not in ignorance, as when the seventh commandment is violated after straight truth and the terrors of the Word for the last days have been heard. Such knowing transgression will receive the awful visitation of God, whether the offender is old or young. Never has it been regarded as so exceedingly sinful as now, because God is purifying unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.
Anciently those who committed these sins were taken without the camp and stoned to death, and temporal and eternal death was their doom. Because that penalty of death by stoning is abolished, the sin is now indulged beyond measure and mistakenly treated as a small offense that can be settled by mere confession and sorrow. Mere confession does not remove the guilt or lift God's frown and curse from the camp, for unaddressed sin corrupts the young, removes the ark of God, and brings wrath so that He will not dwell in the assemblies, and therefore the church must take a strict and thorough course, suspending offenders from fellowship and the privileges of the house of God and refusing to say Amen to their prayers and exhortations.