Turn back to Matthew 18. Matthew 18. The title of the message is a gospel precept. We are given a gospel precept. What we are given here in these
verses is how to treat a brother who has offended me. This is
one of the reasons going verse by verse is so important. We
not only need the doctrines of the gospel, what we call the
doctrines of grace, but we also need the precept of it. The word precept means it's a
rule, it's a guide, it's a principle, an unwritten law, a code of conduct. That's the precept. And what
our Lord here is giving us a code of conduct of how to handle a brother, sister,
who's offended us. And we are offensive, aren't we? James says this in James 3.2,
"'For in many things we offend all.'" We're all guilty of it. All. If any man offend not in
word the same as a perfect man able to bridle his whole body,
but in many things we offend all, it's we're sinners. We are
sinners. Not only are we offended, but
we are offensive at times. You know, Solomon said, and I
can't think of the exact verse of it, but he said this. He said,
don't be offended when you hear something said about you because
you know that you have said the same thing about others. Solomon said that in Proverbs. He said, don't take it so personal
when you hear something said about you because you said the
same thing about somebody else. It's just who we are. Because
we are sinners and sinful, we can be offensive. We can offend
and not even realize it. We can offend and not even realize
it. But when it happens, our Lord gives us instructions on
how to deal with this. And it's to be done in a spirit
of forgiveness. That's the one thing that dominates
this lesson here. It's to be done in a spirit of
forgiveness because Peter came to him there in verse 21. And
Peter said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against
me and I forgive him? How many times is he gonna sin
against me before I can do something about it? That's really his question. And the Lord says, Well, he said,
and Peter said, till seven times. You know, after seven times,
on the eighth time, can I do something about it? And the Lord
said, no, no, no, no, no. He said, I say until 70 times
seven. A definite number for an indefinite
number. But let me simplify this. Let me simplify this. And here's
the answer to this question. How often do you want God to
forgive you? That's how often you forgive
your brother. That's it. It's that simple. It's that simple. But let's go back here and pick
up on verse 15. And the one thing you're going
to notice here is the absence of harshness. It's not there. It's not in our Lord's voice.
In the absence of a written law, there's no law mentioned. There's
no law mentioned here. Because we're operating, listen,
we are operating under the grace of God. We're not operating under
a law and this commandment. We're operating under grace.
Under grace. Grace, now listen, grace will
enable you to go that extra mile with your brother. A law won't. Peter says, until seven times. See, he put a limit to it, but
the Lord puts no limit to it. Not in grace, not in grace. If thy brother, here's the key
word. The key word is brother. Yes, even a brother can trespass
or sin against us. How do we handle it? Well, first
of all, our Lord teaches us to handle it in the spirit of forgiveness,
in the same spirit in which He handles us, in the spirit of
forgiveness. How many times have we sinned
against the Lord and He has forgiven us? Forgive us our debts as we
forgive others, in the same measure as we forgive others, is what
He's saying. And then secondly, keep it private. Keep it private. Not telling anyone else. Remember
this scripture. Love covers a multitude of sins. The love of God has covered our
sins. I am so thankful that 99.9% of
my sins, the Lord has kept private. He hasn't exposed you and He
hasn't exposed me. He hasn't opened us up for everybody
to see. He sees us, but He's kept it
private because love covers a multitude of sins. And don't let your sin
become bigger than His sin. That's sad, isn't it? When my
sin becomes bigger than the offense. The brother may not even know
he even offended you. And then thirdly, go to him or
her in the spirit of love. This is what you call precept.
This is where you get down to living. Our Lord always deals with us
in the spirit of love. He deals with every one of His
children in the spirit of love and kindness, even when He chastens
us. When the Lord chastens us, He
chastens us with the rod of love. It's not a rod of anger. It's
not a rod of judgment. It's the rod of love. And He
says, you do the same thing. You deal with your brother the
same way. Go tell him his fault between thee and him. See, keep
it private. Nip it in the bud before it blooms. Notice how tender our Lord teaches
us to handle one another, the same way He handles us. The same
way He handles us. You know, fire is easily put
out if it's contained in a small area. If you keep it in a small
area, it's easy to put out. If you don't put fuel on it,
it's easy to put out. If you don't just, I'm gonna
go put that fire out and throw more wood on it. Well, there
you go. Next thing you know, you got
a huge fire going. Just don't put wood on it. Don't fuel it. This is what our Lord's teaching
us. And here's the blessing, listen. Here's the blessing.
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. You've gained
a brother. Instead of a separation, there's
unity. What is it worth to gain a brother?
Listen, we are trying to gain a brother, not lose one. I don't
want to lose any of you. I hope you don't want to lose
me. We're trying to gain a brother.
But if he will not hear you, take two or three witnesses from
the church with you and speak to him about the matter." You
know what he's telling you? Don't give up. Don't give up
on your brother or sister. Don't give up on them. You know,
the Scriptures teach us, let everything be done before two
or three witnesses. Don't ever receive an accusation
against a brother without a witness. That's a good rule of thumb.
Don't ever receive an accusation against anyone without a witness. And don't try to establish anything
without a witness. Let everything be done as Scripture
teaches before two or three witnesses. Solomon said this, in the multitude
of counselors, there's wisdom. There's wisdom. You know, those
two or three others that go with me, they may have more wisdom
about it. And I tell you this, since they're not the offended
party, they'll have a better judgment about it than I would.
You know, if you can take yourself out of it, that's when you can
have good judgment. I tell you what, it's hard to
fight a battle with your emotions. You have to learn to separate
that and use good judgment. He says, take two or three witnesses
with. But the rule is still this. The
rule is still try to keep it private as possible. Don't take
the whole church like you're trying to prove a point. I got
a point to prove. Your point's useless. What you're
trying to do is keep unity, the unity of the Spirit, the unity
of the brothers and sisters in Christ. It's the unity of the
body. It's not proving a point. We don't do that. Can you see the tender mercy
of the Lord Jesus Christ here? It is so tender how He's dealing
with this, and how He's telling us to deal with such matters.
This is how He deals with us all the time, in such tenderness. We are all just sinners saved
by grace. That's all we are, sinners saved
by the grace of God. And if he pulls his hand back
a little bit, we'll offend everybody. We will be offensive if he lets
us. It's by his grace that we are
gracious and that we can be kind. It's the work of God. And notice
here who went to whom. The offended one went to the
offender. This is so opposite of what we
do, isn't it? We get offended, we build a wall up, nobody can
get over. We don't do that. Our Lord says
not to do that. The offended one, he goes to
the offender. Is this not exactly what God
has done? We have offended God, we've broken
His law, we've sinned against Him. He came to us. He came to us. I came to seek
and to save the lost, the Lord said. I came to seek and to save
the lost. He went after the lost sheep. The offended one, he's the one
that goes to the offender and said, look, brother, let's deal
with this. Or sister, let's deal with this. Grace, listen. Grace always moves
first in reconciliation. Grace always moves first. That's why He came to us. The grace of God came to us and
fetched us and brought us to Him. Pride
will not let you win your brother, but grace will move you toward
Him to be reconciled. If it's, I tell you what, if
the grace of God is in you, if the love of God is in you, if
the grace and love of God is in me, it's going to come out.
It has to come out. What is in me must come out. What is in me is who I am. It's
who I am. But he says there in verse 17,
if he neglect, If he neglects to hear you before the witnesses,
then tell the church." In other words, don't give up on him until
you've exhausted every way possible to be reconciled to your brother. Never lose a brother or sister
easily. Easily. You say, well, they don't
really matter. Nah. If Christ died for them, do they
matter? If they're a part of the body, what part of your body
doesn't matter? Every part of my body matters.
It matters to me. And every part matters to him.
Never lose a brother easily. You say, well, he's upset with
you. I don't care. I think that's one of the worst
statements you could ever make in your life, one of them. I
don't care. That's one of the worst statements
you can make. We should always care. When we don't care, that's
when trouble arises. We should always care. But now these trespasses here
that he's talking about, you know, being offended by a brother,
brother sinning against you and you're offended, they're not
petty differences. They're not petty differences.
If I'm offended over something petty, I need to get over myself. If every little thing offends
me. You know, Paul Mahan made this
statement in an article one time. He said, one of the first signs
of spiritual maturity is taking everything personal without being
offended. That's one of the first signs
of spiritual maturity. Being able to take everything
personal without being offended. But these are not petty differences. What he's talking about here
is much more serious. I think he's talking about things like
this. Let's say it comes to business. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians 6, "'Dare any of you having a matter against
another,' that is, another brother, "'you go to law before the unjust
and not before the saints.'" You're taking your brother to
law before the ungodly. Do you not know that the saints
shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged
by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matter? Has God
not given you wisdom? I tell you this, God has given
His children more wisdom and judgment than He's given the
world. And you and I can settle the matter in love and in harmony,
and the world's not going to do that now. The law's not going
to do that. Somebody's going to leave mad,
I guarantee you. The law says, well, I'm going to side with
this one, the other one's just going to leave mad. But if it's settled by grace
and love, you know how you leave? In grace and in love and in harmony. That's how you leave. And then
there's this bickering and division Paul wrote in Ephesians, let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, no bickering,
no division. You know, in Corinthians, Paul
had to write to the Corinthians, you know what, they were bickering
over who baptized them. In other words, I'm more spiritual
than you because so-and-so baptized me. That has nothing to do with
it. If Paul said, if I baptize you,
it doesn't matter. That does not add one thing to
you spiritually. Nothing. Let there be no divisions among
you. And then he talks about morals. Morality here in first
Corinthians 5 he says it is reported commonly that there is a fornication
among you and such fornication As is not so much as named among
the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. You know
that situation there in Corinthians Paul was the Apostle Paul was
offended. He was appalled by this and And
he said, you turned such a one over to Satan. And you know,
they did. The church repented of it. They realized and saw their error.
They turned that certain person. Paul said, turn him over to Satan
for the destruction of the body, that the spirit be saved. And
then in 2 Corinthians, guess what happens? That man came back. And Paul said, receive him with
open arms. Just hug him up, hug him up. but he had made a gross
error. God's children can make gross
errors. A David can commit adultery. God's children can do anything
that an ungodly man can do, if God allows it, if God let
it happen. David not only committed adultery,
but David had that man killed. He had a hit put on her husband
and he was killed. And Nathan came to him and said,
you know, he talked about the sheep and he said, you are the
man. He said, but God has put away your sin. How did he do that? At Calvary. That adultery, that murder, everything
about David, every sinful thing of David was dealt with in Jesus
Christ. And the same thing with every
one of you who believe the gospel, with everyone whom God saves.
Your sins were dealt with in Jesus Christ. He died for them. He was punished for them. He
took the hell of your wrath. That's called grace. That's grace. And those who are not in Christ,
they're going to have to deal with their own sins when they
meet God. And then doctrinal. If there's
doctrinal error, You remember, we went through Thessalonians
with this, and some of the Thessalonians were starting to go back because
there was so much persecution, and some of them wanted to go
back under the law. And Paul wrote to Timothy, he
said for the 2nd Timothy 4, "...for the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine." He said to Titus, he wrote to
Titus in Titus 2, "...but speak thou the things which become
sound doctrine." And when we leave that, if we
leave that, if we start to compromise, if we start to compromise the
gospel, the doctrines of grace, we start to compromise them.
Now, brother, that's offensive. You find it's offensive. And
he says, go to your brother and talk to him about that. Don't
just cut him off. Do everything you can Save your
brother and save the fellowship and the unity, everything. But he says here in verse 18,
now if he will not hear the church, treat him like a heathen, a republican. There's always tares among the
weak. There will always be tares among the weak. And you know
when the Lord gave the parable of the tares and the weak, And
the servant said, should we go and take the tares up? He said,
no, no, lest while you're trying to tear up the tares, you tear
up the wheat because you can't really tell the difference. He
said, I'll do that at the end. No, I tell you, you treat them in grace
and love, but here is this, listen, and I think this is important.
Make Him prove He's not a brother. Don't you try to prove He's not
one. Make Him prove He's not one. Make the tare prove it's
a tare, the wolf that it's a wolf and not a sheep. See, our Lord
is our example here. He stood one time and He said,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you together
as a hen doth gather her brood, and you would not. You know what
he did after that? He turned to the Gentiles. He
turned to us. Now, verse 18 is the seriousness
of discipline. It's the seriousness of this
matter. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose
on earth shall be loose in heaven. It's important that I deal with
this properly. Number one, this shows the unity
of the Lord with His church. Here's unity of the Lord and
His church, His body. It doesn't mean that the Lord
is following our lead. It doesn't mean that. But what
it is, that we are following His lead when we follow His instructions. When we follow His instructions,
this will be the outcome. You'll either gain your brother,
or he'll prove to be a tear. It'll be one or the other. In
heaven, the matter is settled, and when we follow His instructions,
we come to the same conclusion that heaven has come to, in unity. He's teaching unity here, is
what it is. And here's the importance of
praying about it. Again, I say to you, if two of you shall agree
on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Prayer, now
first of all, let me say this, prayer is not a wish list. It's
not a wish list. Prayer is to bring about the
will of God in whatever matter we're praying about. If it's
a division, if it's a problem, prayer brings about, it reveals
the will of God in the matter, is what it does. We are praying
for a brother, not against him. Matthew Henry said this, pass
no sentence which we cannot ask God to confirm, pass no sentence
on a brother or sister that you cannot ask God to confirm it,
that you cannot call God in on it and ask God to do according
to your prayer. Now, if you'll notice, it doesn't
say, take a bunch of you. It'll take a bunch of you, but
two or three of you. God's not persuaded by numbers. We do not gang up on God. Let's all get together. No. He
said, we're two or three of you. We're not going to gang up on
Him. James said this in James 5.16, the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man. availeth much, much. And then our Lord, in verse 20,
He leaves us with great encouragement for us to get together like we
are this morning. For where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. If there
are just two or three people here this morning, if there are
just two or three, the Lord said, I'm there. I'm in their midst. I'm right in their midst. If I had put in the paper that Jesus Christ was going to
be here this morning, you think it'd get anybody's attention?
Well, there'd be some coming out of curiosity and no doubt.
He is here this morning. He is here. If it were just two
or three of us, that are here sincerely to hear the gospel,
to worship Him, to hear from Him, He's here. You say, I can't
see Him. He's here in spirit. God is spirit. And those who worship Him, worship
Him in spirit and in truth. And Jesus Christ is God. He's
God in the flesh. Spurgeon said that His presence
is the fixed center of the assembly. His presence, the fixed center
of the assembly. And what our Lord declares, and
I'm going to close, what He declares here in verse 20, He declares
His deity. How many congregations, how many
local assemblies where the gospel of the grace of God is preached,
how many are there across this country? How many are there across
this world? Going on right now. And he said,
there am I in the midst of them. It doesn't matter if it's here,
or in Rocky Mount, or in Lexington, Kentucky, or in Mexico, in Yucatan,
and where Walter is, he's there because he's God. See, he declares
his deity, there am I in the midst. And then by saying this,
he sanctions public worship. Forsake not, the scripture says,
the assembly of thyself together, as the manner of some is. For
the number one reason, the Lord's here. Now, I like to listen to
sermons off the internet. I listen to sermon audio. But
I would much rather be here. There is a special blessing put
upon the assembly of God's saints. And the special blessing is this,
His presence. His presence. And then really we have also
a warning of neglect. Not to be here is to miss his
presence. It's to miss him. He said, I'm
in the midst. This is a gospel precept. It's
a gospel precept. It's a guide. It's a rule, it's
a principle, it's an unwritten law, but it's a code of conduct.
And now listen, and it's just as important as the doctrines
of grace. The precepts of the gospel, the
precepts of grace, are as important as the doctrines of grace. All
right.