In the course of our verse-by-verse
studies in Ephesians, these Lord's Day mornings, we arrived several
weeks ago at verse 15 in chapter 1, which is the first verse in
the second major paragraph in the book of Ephesians. And in
that particular verse, the Apostle Paul underscores the two great
Christian graces of faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all
the saints, and indicates that the news of these graces, present
and flourishing at Ephesus, were to him the strongest indications
that grace was present and flourishing. And so we extracted the principle
from the text that the presence, development, growth of faith
and love are the two great evidences of the presence and growth of
the grace of God in the hearts of his people. And taking my
trigger from that text and some other matters that have arisen
in my pastoral dealings, I felt it warranted to digress or, if
you want to think of it in terms of amplification rather than
digression, to focus upon this principle of brotherly love,
what it is and how it will act at the grassroots of imperfect
saints living in the presence of other imperfect saints. And so last Lord's Day morning,
I read to you about thirty passages from the New Testament indicating
the supremacy of the grace of brotherly love. And I trust you
were convinced, as I am, that the weight of scriptural evidence
clearly indicates that brotherly love is the queen of all Christian
graces, at least if you're thinking in terms of graces expressed
in a horizontal way. Of course, love to Christ is
supreme and is the mother of all other graces, but as far
as the graces of a horizontal nature, brotherly love is queen
above them all. You can see I'm no male chauvinist.
I didn't say it was king. I said it was queen. And after
reading the passages and making the assertion of the supremacy
of this grace, we drew four very necessary conclusions. He who
is not loving his brethren is guilty of gross sin. Secondly, he who is not growing
in love is not growing in grace. Thirdly, the presence or absence
of love to the brethren is demonstrated in the concrete realities of
our actual dealings with men. You don't go home and get in
a corner like Jack Horner did and just put your hand on your
heart and if it feels all warm and gushy, know that you must
love the brethren. No, no. The presence or the absence
of love to the brethren is demonstrated in the concrete realities of
your interaction with them. And then the fourth principle,
the growth and expression of brotherly love do not come automatically. If they did, we would not have
these dozens of exhortations to love one another. Secondly,
we would not have these dozens of descriptions of how love will
work. And though it is a Christian
grace, like so many graces, it is caused to blossom by means
of pointed exhortation and detailed description. And the Christian
who feels he needs neither exhortation nor detailed description is a
fool, for he's put himself outside the circle of the whole mentality
of the Scriptures. Then with that broad overview
and those four conclusions before us, we began to treat the subject
so practical and so needed Love in the presence of the sins of
my brothers and sisters. And our focus, of course, was
upon 1 Peter 4 and verse 8. Above all, Peter says, have fervent
love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins. And what Peter is talking about
are those many failures. errors, mistakes and shortcomings,
the things of which James speaks when he says in his own letter,
chapter 3 and verse 1, in many things we all offend. That's
James talking. Great pillar in the church, in
many things we offend all. And so we as God's people must
learn what it is to deal with these many evident imperfections
in one another. If there is not fervent love,
we will magnify those sins. We will amplify them. We will
mark them. We will broadcast them. But fervent
love will veil them. Fervent love will hide them. Fervent love will cover them. Now, if I did not make it sufficiently
clear last week, I thought I did. But in case I did not, let me
say two things, and this finishes our review. This is sort of an
appendage to last week's message. 1 Peter 4.8 is not a directive
to me when I have sinned against my brother. Peter is not saying,
when you've sinned against your brother, you should then think
in your mind, oh well, he's to have fervent love to cover my
sin, therefore I don't need to make it right. No, no. This is
a directive to me as to what I am to do as I behold the faults,
the many failures, the many mistakes, the many shortcomings of my brethren. I am to have that love which
covers. God's directives to me, when
I'm conscious that I have sinned against my brother, we're going
to consider this morning. The second thing I want to say,
if I didn't make it sufficiently clear, this is not a directive
given with reference to specific wrongs done to me which demand
rebuke, which demand censure, which demand admonition. We're
going to deal with that today. Peter is dealing with that thing
that we must learn to reckon with, and I repeat it at the
point of being tedious, those many, many failings which we
cannot, which we must not, which we dare not mark and remember
and put in our ledger books. For the scripture says, Love
taketh no account of evil. And that's an accounting term.
Love doesn't go around with its little ledger book saying, Aha,
what can I see in you to put on the debit side? What can I
see in you? Love does not do this. Love,
if it finds anything written there, pulls the page out. Love
spills ink on the page. Love taketh no account of evil. And so Peter's directive is a
most necessary one, and I trust you'll see as we open up some
other scriptures today, that unless we experience what Peter's
talking about, we cannot rightly obey the directives of Matthew
5, Matthew 18, Mark 11, and Luke 17. Anything we do in the way of
rebuking our brethren for their specific sins against us, anything
we do in exhorting them about their own particular aggravated
sins, which we must point out to them, unless it is couched
in the setting of fervent love that is willing to cover the
multitude of sins, will simply become a house full of people
picking at one another's warts and molds. So I preached on 1
Peter 4, 8, 1 because that is the larger context of the specific
directives to which we shall turn this morning. All right,
with this directive, to have fervent love among ourselves,
love that instead of noting and marking and broadcasting and
remembering these sins and shortcomings, will cover them, let us turn
today I don't know how many we'll cover. There are six or seven
that I do want to cover eventually. Key passages which put together
form a beautiful mosaic covering all the general cases of brothers
and sisters sinning against other brothers and sisters and how
love is to act. Now, if you happen to have the
particular ability of making mosaic artworks, you will know
Or at least you will understand, if you've seen a mosaic, that
the piece that goes up here in the left-hand corner that may
form, if it's some kind of a seam that may form a part of a cloud
and part of the sky, that piece is not the whole. And you may
be impatient as the man puts it in place, saying, oh yeah,
but that's only part of the sky. When are you going to? Well,
just give us time. You've got to set that piece
first. And just be patient. As the man then sets the next
piece, finally you'll have the whole picture. Now one of the
temptations you're going to face is when we turn to the first
passage, you're going to anticipate all the things it doesn't speak
to. Now don't do that. Or at least try not to. All right?
Try not to. And if you're tempted to, just
hold off, because these six or seven key passages, and I've
been amazed at how comprehensive they are and how beautifully
they dovetail together, all together they form the mosaic. Any one
of them by itself does not tell the whole story of what love
does in the presence of the sins of its brothers and sisters. Well, the first passage then
is Matthew chapter 5. Will you turn, please, to the
fifth chapter of Matthew? as we consider our Lord's directives
for love in the presence of a sinning brother or sister. And the way
we're going to approach this passage is the way we'll approach
every passage we treat this morning. We're going to say a word about
the context, and then the situation contemplated in the passage. Thirdly, the directives given
by the passage, and fourthly, the lessons derived from the
passage. Context, situation contemplated,
directives given, lessons derived. Matthew chapter 5, the directive
is verse 23. If therefore thou art bringing
thy gift, thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. first be reconciled
to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Now the context of this passage
is very easily discerned by a reading beginning with verse 21. It's
one of those sections in which our Lord is stripping away the
veneer laid over the law of God by the scribes and Pharisees
and by their traditional interpretation of the law of Moses. ye have
heard that it was said but i say unto you and in this particular
context he is dealing with the false understanding of the sixth
commandment thou shalt do no murder and our lord is showing
that the thinking of the scribes and pharisees was terribly shallow
and woolly with reference to the sixth commandment this commandment
forbids all unjust anger And it's in the context of dealing
with unjust anger in the interrelationship of one man to another that our
Lord treats the subject that is before us this morning. So
much for the general context. Now, notice the situation contemplated. Verse 23, If therefore thou art
offering thy gift at the altar, here the situation is one that
is bounded by Jewish custom and practice. you were a good Jew,
and you're coming up with a sacrifice or a thank-offering to the appointed
place of worship. Just as you've come to present
that particular gift, whether it's a lamb that is to be slain
by the priest and you're just about to lay your own hand upon
it, symbolically transferring your sins to it, or whether it
was some kind of a thank-offering, at that point, in the act of
bringing your gift when your mind was most sensitive to your
fellowship with God. One of the results, one of the
side effects of that conscious approach to God was the sensitizing
of your conscience. Just there, as you were offering
this offering, bringing it to the altar for the priest to receive
it and present it to God, either a thank offering or a sin offering,
at that point, Jesus says, you remember that your brother has
ought against you. That is, he has a just complaint
against you. At that point, you remember in
the exercise of vertical worship that there was something wrong
at the horizontal level. And there is brought sharply
to your mind that you wronged your brother, wronged his person,
wronged his property, perhaps wronged his name, but whatever
it is, at that point, the conscience becomes acutely sensitive of
the harm done to your brother. And notice how careful our Lord
is to indicate that. And there, right before the altar,
thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. Well,
at this point, you've got a problem. Shall I go through with my offering,
presenting it to the priest as an act of worship, and having
him present it to God? Well, the Pharisees would say
yes. The Pharisees had set up a rule which says, once you begin
the act of offering, you must never break it off under any
circumstances. In other words, their concern
was maintaining ecclesiastical form and ceremony. Jesus said,
no, if the law of God impinges upon your conscience in an act
of worship, there's something more important than sacrifice,
obedience. is better than sacrifice and
to hearken than the fat of rams. And so he says at that point
you say to the priest, excuse me, excuse me, I've got something
I've got to make right. Would you mind just keeping my
altar, my gift over there on the side of the altar? I'll be
back in a few minutes. And so he leaves the temple. And he
makes his way back home, into the neighborhood, finds this
brother, and he says, Dear brother, as I had gone into the temple
to worship, my conscience smote me for those words that I spoke
to you in that particular setting, and I know that it was sin against
God, and I know that if my confession to Him is to be genuine, it must
be coupled with the acknowledgement of my sin to you. Brother, will
you forgive me? And he says, yes, my brother,
I will forgive you. There's a shaking of the hands
and probably a kiss on the cheek. And there is reconciliation.
And then the Lord says, look, then come, then come and offer
thy gift. Now, this is not speaking about
a brother who may have something against me for which the law
of God does not condemn me. I was preaching in Wales one
time, and someone had it against me that I had on a tie that was
a little brighter than they thought was ecclesiastically acceptable. Well, it never bothered me when
I prayed that that bothered them. They may have ought against me
for my tie that was a little bit too bright for British standards,
but that didn't bother me. This is talking in the context
of the Law of God. And where there's been a breach
of that law and your conscience smites you, that issue is to
be made right. So, the situation contemplated
is clear, the directives given are clear. Break off your worship,
discard the normal proprieties of ecclesiastical procedure,
leave the gift, be reconciled to your brother, then come and
complete your act of worship. So much for the context, the
situation contemplated, the directives given. Now, what are the essential
lessons derived from this germane to our study this morning? Well,
the first and most predominant one is simply this. No acts of
worship are acceptable to God if they come from a heart in
which there is willfully, unconfessed wrong to another brother or sister. No acts of worship are acceptable
to God if they come from a heart in which there is willfully unconfessed
wrong to another brother and sister. Though the scribes and
Pharisees make rules, don't interrupt your sacrifice, Jesus says in
essence, so what? The law of God is as much binding
upon you in your acts of worship as it is in the place of your
business, and that law demands that you deal with all wrongs
at the horizontal level with reference to your brethren. And so then love to the brethren
in the context of this assembly will express itself in this sensitivity
to my sins against Him. If you can profess to worship
God and have genuine dealings with God in a vertical way and
not have your conscience made sensitive to horizontal relationships,
you're kidding yourself. You're kidding yourself. It is
utterly impossible, it is a moral impossibility to have the heart
and mind, the spirit brought into contact with the God of
righteousness and not have my sensitivity to ethical righteousness
heightened and intensified. That's why the Bible everywhere
ties the two together. John says, now some of you people
say, I love God. He says, wait a minute, you love
that man out there? You don't love him, you don't love God.
He says the two are hung together. If I'm truly sensitive to the
living God, I'm not just going through the motions, coming with
a sacrifice and throwing it into the hands of a priest and having
him go through the motions and going my way. If this, I come
with that gift. If, as I come with worship, I
am truly coming to the living God through His Son, I am offering
the sacrifice of praise and true confession, if ever the conscience
will be made sensitive, it is at that point, and when it is,
then in humility I must be willing to seek reconciliation. So if you say you love the brethren
and you're insensitive to the wrongs you have done to them,
or you're too proud to humble yourself to make right those
wrongs, you are not walking in love. This is what love does
in the presence of sin amongst the brethren. Now, this passage,
Matthew 5, must immediately be balanced with Mark 11.25. We
put the one piece in the mosaic, the next piece that fits right
next to it. It was carved perfectly to fit
there, and it won't fit anywhere else, is Mark 11 and verse 25. Now, again, just a brief word
about the context. Beginning with verse 20, we have
the record, Mark 11 and verse 20, of the amazement of the disciples
when they saw that fig tree withered that Jesus had cursed. Jesus
uses that amazement rooted in the cursing of the fig tree as
an object lesson of the power of faith, verses 22 and 23. Have faith in God. Verily I say
unto you, whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou taken
up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart,
but shall believe that what he saith come to pass, he shall
have it. He uses this as a springboard
to speak of the power of faith, and then he goes on In the natural
connection, verse 24, therefore I say unto you all things whatsoever
ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye
shall have them. Since the greatest exercises of faith are generally
found in the context of prayer, our Lord moves very naturally
from this object lesson on the power of faith, buttressed by
this great promise to belief, to true faith, and then this
great promise of prayer in faith and what it avails under God. But our Lord concludes the paragraph
by this condition. Yes, whatsoever ye pray and ask
for, believe, and ye shall have, and whensoever ye stand praying,
forgive. If ye have ought against anyone,
that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. So, the context is clear. Now,
notice the situation our Lord contemplates. Here's a man who's
heard the Lord's words. Whatsoever things ye desire when
ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
And he's seeking to not mumble some words, not simply to sad
his conscience that he's had, quote, his devotions. He's seeking
to pray in his prayer. He's seeking to engage God. That's what prayer is. He's seeking
to, may I use the biblical term that's often used? He's seeking
to prevail in prayer. He's seeking to really lay hold
of God. So he's having unusually intense
dealings with God, and he happens to be standing in this posture
of prayer, apparently a posture often used in prayer. In public
prayer, it would seem particularly. Scripture speaks of, I will with
the men, pray in every praise place, lifting up holy hands.
And from what we can gather historically, this was part of the practice. But be that as it may, the situation
contemplated is a man engaged in prayer, seeking to lay hold
of God. Now, as he does, he is conscious
that he has ought against someone else. In other words, someone
has wronged him. Maybe he happens to be the man
back on that street that this other brother in Matthew 5 had
to come to. He's having prayer in his own
home. And as he's praying, he thinks of his brother Aby, who's
up there at the temple. And he says, boy, you know, he
really did me rotten. He shouldn't have done what he did to me.
And yet he's trying to pray. And he's got this spirit of resentment,
of anger, of desire to get even, to retaliate. And what does the
Lord say to him? When you stand praying, here's
the directive given, forgive. Now, does he say, wait till the
brother comes to you and owns his sin and then forgive? He
doesn't say that. He says, when you stand praying,
forgive. When you stand praying, forgive. In other words, there must be
in your heart an attitude of forgiveness experienced. That's
the opposite of ill will and anger and vengeance. The disposition
to forgive must already be extended so that before that brother ever
comes from the temple down to the side street to meet me and
confess he's wrong, or before I ever go to him to point out
he's wrong, forgiveness is already extended. Then when He acknowledges
His sin and owns His sin, I confer that forgiveness upon Him, and
I declare verbally, yes, I do forgive you, but the disposition
of forgiveness is to be known in the heart whenever and wherever
I feel ought rising up in my heart against my brother. Whensoever
ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against anyone. There is the directive of God.
We are immediately to forgive and hold nothing against them.
And many times this means that instead of pleading some great
promise such as we have here for some great accomplishment,
I must spend the greater part of my time in prayer for the
Spirit of God to burn out the dross of my own loveless spirit. And I may spend the rest of my
time in devotions pleading with God to purge from me and to deal
in me with this thing in me that wants to retaliate, that wants
to stand off and say, no, sir, no attitude but one of judgment,
no attitude but one of distance until my brother comes crawling
to me. That's not the attitude of grace. I'm a sinner, often blind to
my sins and failures. He is a sinner, blinded perhaps
to his sins and his failures. The directive of my Lord is that
when I stand praying, forgive. The attitude of forgiveness experienced,
the disposition to forgive extended, and then the act of forgiveness
conferred when there is acknowledgment and repentance. Now, what lesson
do we learn, fundamental lesson from this passage in Mark 11?
Well, just as Matthew 5, 23 teaches that no act of worship is acceptable
in which I have not confessed my wrongs to my brothers and
sisters, so no act of worship is acceptable if I have not confessed
my wrong of an unforgiving spirit unto God. In Matthew 6, 14 and
15, is the clear commentary upon this passage. After giving us
the main content of all true prayer and what we commonly call
the Lord's Prayer, our Lord goes back and expands one facet of
that prayer because he knew it was the one most difficult for
us to deal with. After giving us that comprehensive
statement of what is involved in true prayer, then he goes
back in Matthew 6, 14 and 15, and what facet does he amplify? this matter of the disposition
and spirit of forgiveness. Matthew 6 and verse 14, For if
ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you. And so if
I seek to lay hold of God for forgiveness of my sins, While
having any other disposition than that of willingness to forgive
my brothers and sisters their sins, God says my confession
is not sincere, my repentance is not sincere. For while I'm
repenting of one sin, apparently I'm clinging to the worst sin,
a loveless spirit, in the very act of confessing some other
sin. Now, when you put these two passages
together, can you see how beautiful it is at a practical level? Let's
go back to the temple. Let's call this fellow Simon,
and his neighbor is Nathaniel. And Simon's coming to worship.
He's going to present his gift before the altar. There he remembers
that he's done something wrong to Nathaniel. He's spoken some
harsh words to him over the back fence. And so his conscience
smites him. And he tells the priest, you
keep my gift there. I've got some business to take
care of. At the same time, Nathaniel's gone into his closet to pray.
He's gone in to have his own devotional exercises. And while
he's seeking to pray, he's conscious that he has ought against Simon.
And that dirty rascal, the way he talked to me. Who in the world's
he think he is? Then he says, but Lord, Lord,
how contrary to the spirit of the gospel. Have not I spoken
unkindly and you've so graciously forgiven? Lord, am I not a fallible
weak man, a sinner in need of your grace? O God, take that
attitude from my heart. Give to me the spirit of forgiveness."
To Simon. The Lord, by His Spirit, is gracious
to grant it. And then he goes on in praying,
and while he's praying, there's a knock on his door. And he goes,
and there's Simon. And Nathaniel says to him, Simon,
oh, how are you? I was just thinking about you.
He said, well, I was thinking about you. He said, look, I'll
tell you what's happened to me. I went up to the temple to offer
a gift this morning. My conscience was snipped that
I could not worship God while I wronged you in this area. You have ought against me, Nathaniel.
It would only be right if you were angry and miffed with me.
I sinned against you the way I spoke. Will you forgive me?
Nathaniel says, Oh, I've already forgiven you in principle. God
has met me here on my knees. I hold no ill will. And now I
gladly declare to you, you're forgiven. See how beautiful?
God meets them both where they are. And the wonderful thing
is, if one or the other is stubborn, if Simon is stubborn and not
going to come, Nathaniel doesn't need to be under the burden of
a vicious spirit that will choke his fellowship with God. And if Simon's going to get right
with God and Nathanael's nodding goes to him and he won't hear
him and won't forgive him, thank God Simon's right if he's done
what God told him and has sought to make it right. But the curse
is when Nathanael stands out there and says, I know what Matthew
5 says. Won't Simon better come to me?
And here's Simon over here saying, I know what Mark chapter 11 says. If he's got anything against
me, he better forgive me, so I'm not going to him. And when
you get Christians like that, what happens? The Holy Ghost
is grieved. And then you have those seeds
that begin to send down their roots. And I marvel at our Lord's
insight to human nature and how balanced He is in His instruction.
And so I call upon you as God's people this morning to get rid
of all this idea, I've got a right to have people come crawling.
If you only have one right, my friend, that's to be in hell.
That's the only right I've got to be in hell. That's all. And when my heart is bathed in
the spirit of divine forgiveness, then I can say with my Lord to
men upon whom forgiveness was not conferred, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. What
was our Lord doing? Was he declaring them justified?
Of course not. They were impenitent. But what
he was saying is, I hold no ill will to them. My heart extends
forgiveness. Forgiveness cannot be conferred
until there is repentance and fleeing to the blood of sacrifice. But ah, there was the spirit
and the disposition of forgiveness extended to them at the moment
of their most vicious impenitence and wickedness. They had crucified
the Lord of Glory. And he says, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. I submit that this is
precisely the spirit in Stephen who reflect the attitude of his
Lord when the stones were pelting down upon him, squeezing out
his life. What are his last words? Father,
lay not this sin to their charge. Does that mean they were justified?
Of course not. What Peter is, what Stephen is
saying is, I hold no ill will to these. My murderers, and my
friend, until that's your spirit, you have a spirit foreign to
the gospel. You have a spirit foreign to
grace. And if you can entertain a spirit like that continually,
a spirit contrary to that, you have serious grounds to question
if you've ever understood grace. Serious grounds to question if
you've ever understood God's grace. I would buttress the exposition
and application of Mark 11 25 with two passages from the epistles. Will you look at them with me,
please? Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. In the midst of these exhortations,
in the last paragraph, the Apostle says, verse 30, And grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness, what is bitterness? That's what grows in a heart
that's been wronged, where there's been no repentance, no confession. Someone's wronged me and they
haven't made it right. What does the flesh produce?
Bitterness. Bitterness. What is wrath? Ah, that's the
same reaction. I've been wronged. Amendments
have not been made. Wrath, anger. And what does it
produce? Clamor, railing. What does He
say with all these things? Let them be put away from you
with all malice. And what should replace them?
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as
God in Christ forgave you. You see what he's saying? Let
your mind ever drink deeply of God's dealings with you. My friends,
listen. Long before forgiveness was conferred
upon us, it was extended to us in the gospel. God's promises
in Christ were repent and believe. The door of mercy is open. God is gracious to rebel sinners
who deserve His wrath and His anger. And when by His grace,
that grace working in us, subduing our rebel will, our disinclination
to repent and to believe, overcoming that in sovereign power, we embrace
the gospel in repentance and faith, then was forgiveness conferred
to us in Christ. but extended long before it was
conferred. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving each other. When? Only when my brother asks
my forgiveness, and until he does, allowing anger, wrath,
malice, suspicion, alienation? No, no. No, no. By God's grace,
saying from the heart, to those who would most viciously abuse
me, even as did Stephen, lay not this sin to their charge."
And then Colossians chapter 3, a parallel passage, verses 13
beginning with verse 12 through 14, put on therefore as God's
elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness,
meekness, Long suffering. Suffer long with your brother's
shortcomings, some of which you'll feel the brunt of, forbearing
one another and forgiving each other. Now notice, if any man
have a complaint against any, even as the Lord forgave you,
so also do ye. He says, do you have a complaint?
Forgive. He doesn't say, forgive when your brother acknowledges
the complaint. If you have a complaint, forgive. Have the disposition, the attitude,
have forgiveness extended. Then if it's the kind of thing
that we'll deal with now in Matthew 18, where I must go to my brother
and point out his fault and seek to get him to acknowledge it
with a view to repenting and confessing it. I go in the spirit
of Mark 11, Ephesians 4, and Colossians 3. And I submit if
Matthew 18 is wrenched loose from that, it becomes vicious
self-vindication. You've wronged me, and I'm going
to set you straight. And until you own up to it, then
you and I have had it. I say that's foreign to the spirit
of the Gospel. and the overriding weight of
the biblical teaching. Now then, turn please to the
last passage we'll have time to look at this morning. It's
another piece in the mosaic. It's not the whole thing yet.
Matthew chapter 18. The context, our Lord has been
giving general warnings and duties regarding sin and its effects
both in the world and amongst the people of God. He's told
us that we're to be cautious that we ourselves do not cause
others to sin. This idea of causing offense
and stumbling, he's been treating in Matthew 18 and beginning with
verse, let me get the right reference, Matthew 18 and the first Six
verses, he's talking about this stumbling business and woe unto
those who are on occasion of stumbling. Verse seven, woe unto
the world because of occasions of stumbling. Be cautious that
you don't cause someone else to sin. Second admonition is
be very cautious that you don't expose yourself to sin unnecessarily. Cut off right hands and pluck
out right eyes if necessary. Then he admonishes them to receive
the person who has sinned. The parable of the lost sheep
in this context seems to be the attitude we have toward a returning
brother who has sinned. But then our Lord goes on in
verse 15 to contemplate a situation in which the brother sins against
another brother. So the general context is directives
about the problem of sin, how to deal with it, how to avoid
being an occasion of sin to others. Now notice the situation contemplated
in verse 15. If thy brother sin against thee,
go and show him his fault between thee and him alone." Here a Christian
has committed a specific act of sin against another Christian,
and the tense of the verb indicates that this is not those many faults
that we bear with. Here is a specific, probably
a gross act of sin. If thy brother commit a specific
act of sin against thee. Not the many sins that we are
to pass over in Christian love. This is a specific sin. So specific
and clear enough that it can be substantiated before witnesses. Can you imagine bringing some
witnesses to help substantiate an issue based upon suspicion? Based upon reading motives? You
can't substantiate that in any kind of a court of law. Can you
imagine bringing someone and saying, well, I believe that
when so-and-so passed me at church, they looked at me with a very,
very, very angry look. Well, how should we recapture
the look and bring out the facts? You see how ridiculous it is.
The situation contemplated here is the kind of thing we dealt
with with Simon and Nathaniel. where some vicious, angry words
passed, or maybe he threw a stone through his window and he can
produce the pile of broken glass and the stone with his fingerprints
on it. Here is a specific act of sin that can be substantiated.
Secondly, it's serious enough to warrant excommunication if
it won't be dealt with. Now that's pretty serious. If
he won't hear the church, the final step, let him be unto thee
as the heathen and the publican. You can no longer regard him
as a brother if he persists in this sin. So then, as one commentator
has said, Jesus has in mind the graver sins. such as the majority
of the brethren would consider too serious and too dangerous
to pass over without evidence of repentance. That's the situation. Not some little thing here and
a little thing here, but a specific thing. Now, what directive does
Jesus give? Well, the first thing He says
is, go to your brother alone. Show him his fault. And that's
a weak translation. It literally means, go convict
him of his sin. The word used in James 2.9, thou
art convicted by the law. Titus 1.9, convince or convict
the gainsayers. It means to go and to lay the
case before him and to indict him for that particular sin. Now, that's what you're to do.
But what do you have in mind when you do it? Well, look at
our Lord's words. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. You're not going to vent your
spleen on him. and find a scriptural justification
for it, you're not going to rub dirt under his nose. What are
you going for? You're going to gain your brother.
This sin is of such a magnitude that it has put a barrier not
only in your fellowship to one another, but you know that this
is crippling his fellowship with God. For the same word gained
used here is the one in 1 Corinthians 9.19, where Paul uses it as a
synonym with save. to rescue from sin and its consequences. So the whole concern that our
Lord gives in this directive is a concern that our brother
be restored to fellowship with God and fellowship to me. I want to gain my brother for
God and for the fellowship of the saints. I am not going because
I think I'm better. I am not going because he's gotten
me so upset that I'm going to let him have it and I'm going
to hide behind a screen of Matthew 18. No, no. No, no. That's not the directive that
our Lord gives. I'm to go and seek to gain my
brother. Point out, convict, indict him
for his sin. showing him that if he'll but
acknowledge it, I am more than willing to forgive him. Already
the spirit of forgiveness, God, is worked in my heart by sovereign
mercy and grace and the indwelling of His Spirit. But he won't hear
me. He won't acknowledge. He won't
own up to the sin. Then, painfully, what do I do?
Jesus said, verse 16, But if he hear thee not, take with thee
one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses Or three,
every word may be established. You see, I still love him too
much to expose it to everybody. I don't immediately come back
to the prayer meeting and say, look, brother so and so is doing
such and such. And it has particular reference
to me and he won't. No, no. We want love, wants to
keep it covered, doesn't want the sin to become open scandal,
wants to spare the brother. And so the two or three witnesses
are taken. In most cases, it would be the
elders. But I don't think necessarily circumstances may be such that
others are closer to the situation and are of sufficient spiritual
maturity. and sufficient stability in the
life of the church that their witness would be accepted by
the body of God's people if it must come to the congregation.
Then if he doesn't hear them, what are you to do? If he refused
to hear them, that is, accept the indictment, confess the sin,
tell it unto the church, the gathered assembly of the people
of God. And I cannot read into here,
tell it to the elders or tell it to the church representatively.
Whatever functions the elders may have, I see in this passage
a concept of congregational activity. And if he refused to hear the
church, all of the people of God entreat him to acknowledge
his sin, to repent of it and to deal with it. But he will
not do it. The sin is of such a nature that
for the purity of the church, he can no longer maintain the
status of a member in the visible family of God. Let him be unto
thee as the Gentile and the publican. That is, you excommunicate him
from the fellowship of the people of God. Now, listen closely.
How do you treat unconverted people who are outside the church?
Well, you don't treat them like brothers and sisters, but I hope
you love them for Christ's sake. I hope you're kind to them. As
the Father sends His reign upon the just and the unjust, when
Jesus says, treat them as publican and heathen, He does not mean
write them off, have no more dealings with them, have no compassion
to them. No, no. No, no. It's been compassion
that drove you to speak to your brother privately. It's been
compassion that drove you to still regard him as a brother
and bring two or three witnesses. It was compassion that brought
him to the church. And now that his sin is not dealt
with and you can no longer regard him as a believer and you must
put him outside the pale of the visible community of the saints,
your compassion is not cut off. The difference is you no longer
regard him as a sinning brother. You regard Him as an unconverted
man. But I hope you love the unconverted.
I hope you have compassion upon them. I hope you're seeking to
win them to the Savior. And how much evil has been hidden
behind the perversion of our Lord's words that being republican
and heathen meant that you ostracized, laid the axe upon Him, and all
kinds of foolishness. No, no. No, no, not at all. It is just that we no longer
give him the privileges of the warm fellowship of the community
of the saints. When we shake his hands, it's
no longer as a brother in Christ, but someone whom we hope shall
be one to Christ. And I say that this interpretation
is supported by the subsequent passages dealing with the subject
of discipline, even when there's been no excommunication. 2 Thessalonians
3, 14 and 15. The Apostle says, when you've
had to discipline a brother, don't count him as an enemy,
but admonish him. Demonstrate that loving concern. So then, our Lord's directive
when there are these kinds of sins is very clear. Go alone,
if you cannot gain the brother. Take the witnesses, if he will
not repent, then it must be brought to the church. And if he turns
a deaf ear to those entreaties, then he must be cut off from
the fellowship of the people of God. Now, what are the essential
lessons we learn from this passage? Well, I've already mentioned
some of them. Though many questions are not answered, I think what
is clear from this passage is most demanding. If there is a
case of clear sin, don't speak to another person until you've
gone to the individual involved. Now, if you're not sure that
the thing is sin, if it's that inconsequential, then just pray
for love to cover the multitude of faults. It cannot be substantiated
from the law of God, from the preceptual elements of scripture,
that the brother has clearly sinned. Then don't feel that
God's appointed you, his chief inspector, to go around scrutinizing
the lives of the people of God. Generally speaking, such people
have a terribly blind eye to their own imperfections. No,
no. But where there is this case
of clear sin, you go. And if you're not heard, Then
come, please, to the elders and seek directive. And they may
give directive to take some people who are closer to the situation,
with whom there is a more natural entree of friendship previously
established. And the elders may direct you.
You take brother and sister so-and-so and you go and you face brother
and sister so-and-so with this particular thing. And you go
again with that entreaty that they would be gained for Christ's
sake and for the sake of the church. And then if it must come,
to that final and dreadful step, this person will have thundering
into his conscience the visible demonstration that he was loved
and that the people of God did all within their power to call
him back from his wayward path of conduct. Oh, how much could
be avoided if we would simply take seriously these directives. May I pass on something that
one of the members shared with me last week? They said they
knew of a certain pastor who whenever a believer came to him
and said now pastor there's such and such an issue between me
and my brother and i've tried to set it right or whether they
had or hadn't uh... and i want to give me some help
and he would say well before you say anything more i'd like
to have a record of everything that said so if we sit down with
the two of you will be able to substantiate everything out would
you please proceed with uh... your accusations well i uh... uh... and they begin to have
been all and the testimony this pastor was that the book that
he pulled out is still blank to this day Now, what did this
reveal? It revealed a pious form of gossip,
an unprincipled, an unprincipled form of gossip. Now that, brethren,
we're to avoid at all costs. Now, if your path is not clear
in an issue, then veil the facts and the names and say, Pastor,
in such and such a situation, what should I do? Don't mention
names. Don't mention it. Give the framework.
If it's a matter of Knowing what directives apply, then by all
means, come to your pastor, come to your elders for directive.
But if the directive is clear, then do what he says. Whatsoever
he sayeth unto you, do it. And so often, so often we fear
the worst in this type thing. And the Lord surprises us time
after time when we finally go to the brother and fear and trembling
and we're welcomed as an angel of God. Time after time I found
it in pastoral experience and there was this reluctance on
our part and this assumption that there will be the negative
reaction. So time has gone from us. I can't treat the other passages. The mosaic is not complete, but
I hope you see enough of it this morning that you'll realize that
love of the brethren is not some kind of saccharine sentimental
slush as is so often thought of in our day. But it is a principled
affection that causes us to walk deliberately in the directives
of Holy Scripture for the good of our brothers and to the glory
of God. And if we are to fulfill the
mandate to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, then,
brothers and sisters, we must feed upon gospel principles,
feed upon gospel motives, feed upon the magnitude of God's mercy
to you in Christ. Don't feed yourself at the foot
of Mount Sinai. Feed yourself at the foot of
Mount Calvary. See Sinai through Calvary's eyes. Don't forget Sinai. Calvary is
meaningless without Sinai. But don't you read Calvary through
Sinai. You read Sinai through Mount
Calvary. That's the perspective, constantly
remembering God's mercy to me in Christ, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven me. And in that spirit, then we shall
have that fervent love one to another, covering a multitude
of sins, enabling us to be sensitive that when we come to worship
and we know our brothers have ought against us, we'll go, knowing
that when we would pray and there is ought against our brother,
we shall forgive. Knowing when necessary, the sin
must be dealt with, for it's a hindrance to the purity of
the body of Christ. And a genuine fellowship will
tell that fault between ourselves and Him alone. And these directives
of God's Word will be obeyed by His people. And in this way,
we shall demonstrate that we are His disciples, as we have
love one to another, biblical love, principled love, obedient
love, Love that walks the pathway marked by the Word of the Living
God. May we thus be marked by that
kind of love. Let us pray.