Now sadly, differences do come
up between God's saints. That's what we're dealing with
here. And these differences can be
difficult to settle. We're talking about things that
are serious to each person involved. Serious matters. Something that's
very important to each person. We're talking about wrongs that
have been done. Usually both parties have done
something wrong. We're not usually without fault
ourselves if somebody has wronged us. But these are serious wrongs. Sometimes the passions are high,
the feelings are hurt. So what are believers to do in
a situation like that? What are we to do? Well, saints
at Corinth were literally taking one another to court. They were
taking one another to court to an earthly judge. They were suing
one another. They were having an earthly judge
settle matters between saints. And they were doing this before
the world, before other unbelievers. Now, you notice here, when Robert
read this text, Paul didn't ask who did what. He didn't ask all the particulars
of the situation between brethren. The reason he didn't ask that
is because that's totally irrelevant. That's just irrelevant. Now,
this is God's Word that we're about to read here. So whatever
God says, that settles the matter. This is what believers are to
do in situations where there's been wrongs done. This is what
we're to do. Now what we're going to see here
is when a difference arises between God's saints, God says here,
graciously, lovingly, settle the matter privately between
ourselves and forgive." Alright, now the first thing
he tells us here is that saints should never go before unjust,
unregenerate judges. To a court of law, between an
unjust, unregenerate judge instead of going to the saints. Now look
what he says here, verse 1. Dare any of you, and that's strong
language because this is a serious matter. This was a serious offense. Believers taking believers to
court. He says, dare any of you having
a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not
before the saints. Now understand, this is not condemning
the use of a court of law. That's not what he's doing here.
Whenever Paul was unjustly charged by self-righteous men, Paul appealed
to Caesar's court, remember? So he's not condemning a court
of law, it may be necessary. If you're unjustly charged by
men of this world, nothing else you can do about it. You'd be
slow about that. That's not necessarily the first
resort, but it's not a sin if a believer has to go to court
in such a situation. That's not what he's condemning.
What he's saying here is if God's saints have a problem with each
other, it's a sin. It's a disgrace to go to an earthly
judge to settle the matter. Now that is a disgrace. He says
here, dare any of you, having a matter against another, go
to the law before the unjust. What does that mean, before the
unjust? Well, an unjust judge, he's speaking
here of an unregenerated man, an unregenerate man. Natural
men do not have spiritual discernment. They don't have spiritual discernment.
Look back at 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14. He said, The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their
foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Natural men don't understand
this book and they're not motivated and they don't operate according
to the grace revealed in God's Word. They just don't. So, if
a judge in a civil court, you come before a judge in a civil
court, he's got one responsibility. That's to uphold civil law. That's to uphold the law of the
land. He's dealing in justice only. An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth. He's not going to deal in spiritual
discernment. He's not going to deal with love
and grace and mercy. He's dealing in justice, justice
of the land, the law of the land. So God says to you saints, dare
any of you that has a matter against a fellow saint, dare
any of you take a fellow saint to this kind of a judge? No. God forbid we do that. Don't
take another saint to court. That's what he's talking about
here. Alright, see that's an unregenerate man. He's going
to judge just according to the flesh. Alright, now look at this
second thing. If a matter can't be settled
between God's saints, then it should be taken to fellow saints
because saints have spiritual discernment. Now look here at
verse 2. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
Now look at verse 3. Know you not that we shall judge
angels? Now the point that is being made
here is God's saints are not undiscerning judges. God's saints
have spiritual discernment. were born of God and given spiritual
discernment. Back there in chapter 2 when
he said that the natural man doesn't receive the things of
God, he doesn't know the things of God, he can't know them, the
next verse says, but he that is spiritual, he judgeth all
things. Yet he himself is judged of no
man. So God's saints are spiritual.
They're given spiritual discernment by the Spirit of God so that
we can judge by the Word of God. What does God say? We can judge
with God-given spiritual discernment. We can judge by faith, looking
to Christ, trusting Christ, doing what's best for the glory of
God and for the good of His people. That's how The saints are going
to judge. And he says here, God's saints
judge the world. We judge the fallen angels. And
that word judge there means judge, it means condemn. And the way
that we judge the world, even now we judge the world and condemn
the world. Ungodly men and fallen angels. And we do it by God-given spiritual
discernment Believing on Christ. We rest in Christ. We believe
God's Word because God's taught us His Word. Look at Hebrews
11 and look at verse 7. Hebrews 11, verse 7. It says there, By faith... See
this? By faith. By faith. Noah being warned of God of things
not seen as yet. moved with fear. Fear of God
prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Now watch this,
by the witch he judged the world. He condemned the world and became
heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Now we know this,
all judgment belongs to the Son. The Lord said, the Father has
committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor
the Son as they honor the Father. Now when Christ executes judgment
on this world, His saints will be with Him. He's going to come
with a multitude, no man can number, an innumerable number
of saints. He's going to come with His saints.
He's going to judge the world. We're so one with Him, we're
going to be with Him, one with Him in that judgment. Now, the
chief way the saints are going to judge this world and judge
angels is because we trust Christ. We believe Christ. We believe
His Word. Just like Noah condemned the world, he judged the world
through faith. He believed God. Now let me show
you this in Jude. Go to Jude, the book right before
Revelation. Jude, and look at verse 14. Jude
14. And look at the last of the verse
there. Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are ungodly. That's who we're talking about
when we say the world. To judge and convince all that
are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they
have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, all
their word which ungodly sinners have spoken against Christ."
Now, listen to what I'm saying. By God-given discernment, through
God-given faith in Christ, the saints are going to judge. We
do now, and we will then. We judge that the deeds of all
flesh is unrighteous, is ungodly. We
judge that about our own flesh. And the way we do so is, we do
so by believing on Christ, who is the righteousness of God.
We declare all His deeds are righteousness, and that He is
our only righteousness. And by that faith, that faith
in Christ, trusting His deeds, His righteousness, as our own
deeds, as our righteousness, it condemns the ungodly man who
trusts in his fleshly deeds. And by faith, by God-given discernment,
by faith in Christ, heeding God's Word, believing God's Word, we're
declaring through faith in Christ that every speech that the ungodly
man makes against God, against his Christ, against his Word,
is ungodly. Because through faith we know
God's Word is so, it's true, and we believe God. We believe
God. So, you know, He said to the
Thessalonians, He said, when He comes, the ungodly are going
to be cast out from the glory of His presence. When? When He
comes to be glorified in His saints and admired by all of
them in that day. That's how we're going to, while
He's judging the world, we're going to say, Amen, because He's
righteous. His Word is truth. He's true
and He's holy and He's righteous and He's all are righteous. So,
the point here is, though, is that that unjust judge, that
unregenerate man, he doesn't have this discernment. He's not
going to judge like God's saints are going to judge. And so what
he does here is by showing us this, by showing how you're going
to judge the world, brethren, he's saying now, God's saint
is a better judge than a worldly judge is. He's far better. He says he's valuing the judgment
of God's saints far above worldly men, worldly judges. Look here
at verse 2 again. 1 Corinthians 6. He says, if
the world should be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge
the smallest matters? Look at the end of verse 3. If
you're going to judge angels, how much more things that pertain
to this life? You see that? So he says, then,
if you have judgment of things pertaining to this life, set
them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. There's two things
that could be said here. There's a lot of commentaries
that say that this is not translated properly. Most agree on this,
that this should be translated that it's a rebuke. He's rebuking
the church. And he's saying now, if you've
got matters that need to be judged between you, why do you set as
judges them that are despised in the church? He's saying by
the church. In other words, why would you
go to a judge outside of the church who has no esteem among
God's saints? Why would you go to him to judge
you? So it's a rebuke. He says, I speak this to your
shame. But now, Our translators are smart fellows, and I tend
to go with them over what other fellows say, and this is true
too. He says here, you sent one to
judge the matter who's least esteemed in the church. And you
think about this, what he's saying here to us is this, the least esteemed man in the church has
more wisdom to judge spiritual judgment between God's saints
than the highest Supreme Court judge in the land. You'd be more
wise to go to one of God's saints to settle this according to God's
word using some spiritual discernment than you would to go to an unregenerate
man if he sat on the highest court in the land. Be far more
wise. Far more wise. You believe that?
That's so. That's so. God's saints judge
this world. You know right now, whatever
God's saints judge. The Lord said, whatever you bind
on earth is bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth is
loosed in heaven. God's ruling this world right now for His
people. Everything He's doing, He's doing
it for His people. And God's saints rule this world
right now. We're to make kings and priests
under God right now by Christ's blood. So you'd be far more wise to
go to the least of God's saints to ask them to settle this matter
than to go to a Supreme Court judge. Look at this. I speak
to your shame, he says, is it so that there's not a wise man
among you? No, not one that should be able
to judge between his brethren? So get what he's saying. If we
can't settle a matter, seek out one of God's saints. Seek out
a wise man among God's saints. And they're going to use spiritual
judgment. What do I mean by that? That unjust judge is going to
judge strictly by the law. They're going to judge according
to the facts. and make a judgment based on law. Judgment. Justice. That's it. God's saints are going
to judge in love and mercy. We're going to judge according
to God's Word. We're going to judge endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That judge
sitting on a bench in a civil court, he don't have a clue about
that. And he's not going to judge that way. We're going to judge
in that which you're going to give Christ the glory, reminding
one another of that. Reminding one another that forgive
one another even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
And now listen, when you go to one of God's saints, and they
show you in the Scriptures, or they settle this thing, and they
pass their judgment on it, then let it be settled. That
means whatever concessions you have to make, whatever restitution
has to be made, settle the thing. Heed what they say and let it
be settled. Let it be over. Forget it. You
know, we can't say, well, that's what I believe that one ought
to do. They ought to heed this judgment and do this and give
me half everything they got. Well, I'm going to have to make
some concessions too. If we're going to settle this thing as
brethren, you know, we're going to have to make some restitution
and some concessions here and settle this thing like brothers
in Christ. You see what he's saying? So
when you get the judgment from a saint, let it be settled. Let
it be settled. Don't keep on and keep on. Let
it be settled. Alright, now look here. Here's
the third thing. And another reason we shouldn't
take a brother to court is because it's going to give the unbelieving
world cause to speak evil of us. Look at verse 6. He says, But brother goeth to
law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. A brother in
Christ goes to law with a brother in Christ before this unbelieving
world. If a child gives those in the
community a reason to speak evil, that's bringing reproach on their
house. That's bringing reproach on their
mother, their father, their sister, their brother, everybody in the
house. That's how it is with God's house. This is God's house. This is the household of God. Remember Paul said, you're like
children to me. He brings reproach on the pastor.
like it does a father and a mother. Brings reproach on brethren,
brothers and sisters, and worst of all, brings reproach on our
Redeemer, on Christ. Folks will say, they claim to
preach grace. Look how they act towards one
another. That gospel don't do a thing for them. You don't want
folks saying that. We don't want folks saying that.
Look over at Titus. Titus chapter 2. This is what God's Word teaches
believers. This is why we want to walk honorably
before all men in this world. Titus 2, look at the end of verse
5. That the Word of God be not blaspheming. And I'd encourage you to read
all of Titus. It's a good book on this subject of honoring the
Lord in the way we walk. All this world sees is what we
do. That's all. And they're going to see what
we do and they're going to... We don't want to give them any
cause to speak evil of us. That the Word of God be not blasphemed. Look down at verse 7. Titus 2,
7. In all things show thyself a
pattern of good works. In doctrine show uncorruptness. Gravity. That means being grounded. sincerity, sound speech that
cannot be condemned. Now here's why. That he that
is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing
to say of you. Paul said over there in our text,
he said, he's going to say it in a minute, I'm saying this
to shame you. He's speaking to brethren. When the thing is,
we ought to be walking in a way that those who are contrary to
this gospel are ashamed to say anything of us. He says there in verse 10, look
at the end of Titus 2.10. He's saying, showing all good
fidelity when you work at the job, and he says that they may
adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. adorned the doctrine of God our
Savior in all things. He told Timothy, give none occasion,
that means no reason whatsoever, to the adversary to speak reproachfully. What's our motive for this? What's
our motive for this? I'll give you three things to
always remember. Remember whose you are. This
is to God's saints. Remember whose you are Remember
who's you are, what you are, and how. Who's are we? Who's are we? Go back to our
text, 1 Corinthians 6. Who's are we? Well, you're not
your own. You're not your own. If you're
God's child, you're not your own. You hear worldly men say,
well, I'm my own man. Nobody's going to tell me what
to do. That is not so if you're a child of God. You're not your
own. Look here, look here at verse
19. He says there in 1 Corinthians
6, 19, He says what? Know you not your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God, and you are not your own? You are not your
own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God
in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Whose am I? I'm God's if I'm a child of God.
I'm God's. Well, what are we then? Scripture
says we're redeemed from the curse of the law. Redeemed, justified,
made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says we're
sanctified. That's what it is to be a saint,
to be sanctified by God. Scripture says we're complete
in Christ. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit. That's what we are, Scripture
says. How do we get to be that way? God the Father freely, sovereignly,
without any cause in His people, chose us in Christ. Elected us
unto salvation in Christ. You didn't earn that, I didn't
earn that. How did we get to be this way? Christ the Lord
purchased us with His own blood. He paid the precious price of
His own blood to pay all the debt we owe. And God, the Holy
Spirit, regenerated us and gifted us with all the gifts of God,
teaching us this gospel in our heart, giving us faith to believe.
So that's a good motive, isn't it? I'm God. I'm redeemed. And it's all by God's grace.
Remember who you are, what you are, and how. That's our motive. That's our motive. Now, is that
important enough to you to want this world, to give this world
nothing to be able to reproach you with or to blaspheme God
with. That's enough for the believer. That's why when we fail, it breaks
your heart if you fail. Not because God's going to cast
you out. He's not going to cast His child out. It breaks your
heart because it's just like a child whose heart's broken
if they dishonored their father or their mother. Because they
love them. They want to honor them. They're
constrained by their love, by that love for them, what they've
done for them. And they want to serve their
father and mother. That's what we are. We're constrained
by what God has done for us. That's why we want to serve Him.
So he says here now, should I take a brother before unbelievers
and sue a brother? No. Not at all. Never take them
to court. But now let me show you this
last thing. There's even a better way than this. There's even a
better way than taking a dispute to a saint and say, would you
settle this between us? There's a better way than that.
This is the best way right here. Look at the last thing, verse
7. 1 Corinthians 6, 7. He says,
Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because you
go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather take wrong?
Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? And
now take out the italicized word. Do you understand what he's saying?
He's saying, why don't you rather be wronged? Why don't you take
wrong? Why don't you rather just suffer
being wronged by your brother? Take the talisman. Why do you
not rather be defrauded? Just be defrauded. My brother
may have committed a wrong against me. Maybe he's defrauded me in
some way. You know, believers can go into
business together. Believers get married. Believers
maybe work out a deal or some land deal or any number of things
like that. Well, all those relationships
can be ended. One relationship that is not
ended is this. You're still brothers and sisters
in Christ. Just because you may be feelings
hurt and somebody acted wrong towards you and did something
wrong to you and defrauded you in sweat. That hasn't changed
the fact. That's still somebody that Christ died for. That's
still my brother. That's still my sister. Now,
they might have done something wrong against me. But if I take
them to law, I won't forgive them. I take
them to law and I'm going to take vengeance out on them. I'm
going to make sure that I get some and then more. If I take them to law rather
than take the wrong, rather than just be defrauded and forgive
them, I'm committing a wrong and I am defrauding. Look at
verse 8. No, he says, you don't do that.
You do wrong, he said. Instead of taking the wrong,
you do wrong and you defraud. And that, your brethren. You
see that? He said, instead of taking wrong,
by taking them to law, you do wrong. And he says, instead of
being defrauded by taking them to law, you defraud. You see
that? Turn over to Matthew 18. Let
me talk to you a little bit before we read this. Matthew 18. I want every believer, every
true child of God, I want you to think about this. Think about
for a moment. Think about the sins we have
committed against God, against holy God. We can't even number them. We
don't even know them all ourselves. Their sins, you and I don't even
realize are sins that we've committed against God. Has my brother done anything
nearly as offensive as what I've done to God? Really? And did God make His people suffer
the justice of His offended law? Did God make us suffer justice
which we owed to Him? Nope. God sent His only begotten
Son. And our Lord Jesus Christ bore
our sin. The shame that He despised, He
bore it for His people. And when he went on that cross,
Scripture says, he was made a curse for us. God separated himself from God. God forsook God. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He bore that for his people. And he so thoroughly paid all
the debt that we owe to God. And now God says to, when He
calls you to Himself and shows you that awful, awful weight,
that awful debt you owe to God, God reveals to His child, because
of what my son did, I forgive you. I forgive you. Because my son was willing to
take the wrong. Because my son was willing to
be defrauded in your room instead. Taking your sin, taking your
fraud, and your sin, and your rebellion, and bear your justice.
God says, now I forgive you. And not only that, God says this
to his child. God says, in fact, I don't remember
your sins anymore. And he says, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who's going to charge one of
my people, God says? It's God that justifieth. God says, I justified them. Am
I going to charge one of them? Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, that's risen again.
Who's at the right hand of God. Who makes intercession for us
before God. Now, whatever my brother's done
against me, whatever my brother has done against me, it's also
against God. Anytime we sin against a brother,
we're sinning against God. Whatever my brother's done against
me, it's against God. Now God says, before a greater
law, before His law, God says my brother He's justified and
God's forgiven him all his sin through the blood of Christ.
Now, am I going to take that brother and take him to a lesser
law in a lesser court and insist that he be judged by an earthly
judge after what God's done for him? Am I going to do that to
him? If God's forgiven him, for the
sake of Christ, shall I not forgive him for the sake of Christ?"
That's what Paul's saying. You see why he's saying, no,
you're doing wrong and you're defrauding and that your brother? Now let's, you remember a few
weeks ago I gave you this. I can't remember if we read this
or if I just I just told you this parable of our Lord. This
is a parable of our Lord, our Master. This is when Peter said,
Lord, how often shall my brother trespass against me and I forgive
him? The Lord said, without end, without limit. And then He gave
this parable. Now let's read this together.
Matthew 18, 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which
owed him ten thousand talents." Again, there's no telling what
we owe God. We can't reckon it up. This was
a great sum, 10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not
to pay, and we couldn't pay the debt we owed to God, his Lord
commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all
that he had in payment be made. That's what the law said to you
and me. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me and I'll pay thee all. Then
the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion. and he
loosed him, and he forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out
and found one of his fellow servants, that's who we're talking about
here, one of our fellow servants, our brother, our sister, one
of our fellow servants. He went out and found one of
his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence, a whole
lot less than he owed his Lord. And I tell you this, whenever
a brother or sister, we're saying they defrauded us or wronged
us, I guarantee you it's a whole lot less than what we owed to
God. Look at this now. And he laid
his hands on him, and he took him by the throat, and he said,
Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down
on his feet and besought him, saying, Have patience with me,
and I'll pay thee all. And he would not. But he went,
he cast him into prison until he should pay the debt. I'm not
going to let him off. He said, I'm not going to forgive
him. I'm not going to take this wrong. He's hurt my feelings.
My feelings are so blasted good and deserve to be treated. I
deserve to be treated so well. I'm so much of something that
I'm going to throw him in prison and make him pay me everything.
Is that what we're saying when we won't take the wrong have
mercy on one another. That's exactly what we're saying. Paul said over there later, he
said, you can have faith that could move mountains. You could
speak, you could be a preacher that could speak to where people
just, they just dazzled them, you could preach so well. You
don't have charity, you're nothing. Nothing. I'm nothing if I don't
have charity, he said. Love my brethren. By this shall
all men know you're my disciples, that you love one another. Now
look what happened to this man. Verse 31, So when his fellow
servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and they came
and told unto their Lord all that was done. And then his Lord,
after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst
me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on
thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered
him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto
him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not
everyone his brother their trespasses." You see, our Lord has brought
us under a different rule, brethren. A different rule. Why don't you
take the wrong? Why don't you suffer being defrauded?
Remember what the Lord said? He said, you heard that it's
been written, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? He said,
I say unto you, resist not evil. Don't resist it. Whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also your other cheek.
If any man will sue thee at law and take away your coat, say,
here, don't just take my coat, take my cloak also. Give Him
more than He has for us. That's grace. That's mercy. That's
saying, I don't want... I want to be a peacemaker. I
don't want us... We're brethren. Christ paid too much for us to
fall out. Christ paid too much to bring
reproach on His name. He paid too much to divide our
brethren over this because brethren are always going to take sides.
I don't want there to be a side. Do you? I want us to all be on
the same side. with Christ. Well, if a brother has offended
me, do you want to insist that they pay you? Do you want to
insist that justice be done, judgment be poured out, that
they pay you the everlasting they owe you? Do you want to
insist on that? Or do you want to show them mercy? If we insist
on judgment, that's what we'll get from God. James said, Speak
ye and do as you that should be judged by the law of liberty. That's the gospel. That's the
law of gospel. That's the law of love and grace
and mercy and faith and peace and our God. He says, For you
shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy. And
mercy rejoices against judgment. You don't want to see your brother
judged, do you? Don't you rejoice that God's had mercy on us? Don't
you rejoice that He's shown us mercy? Don't you want to rejoice
to show your brethren mercy? If I'm offended, I know our feelings
get hurt, I know we get puffed up and proud and all that. Give
it some time and settle down. And then just consider, God's
given me an opportunity to do for my brother what He's done
for me. Be merciful. That's a great blessing. And so he says to us, brethren,
he says, be kind, be tender-hearted, and forgive one another, even
as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Isn't that such
a better way? Before it even has to come to
you going to your fellow saint and say, would you settle this?
He said, before that even comes to that, settle our court. Let's go to one another and say,
let's work this out, let's settle this thing and be done with it.
We're brethren. We're brethren. There might be some serious concessions
that have to be made, might have to be some restitution made,
depending on how badly you've wronged a brother. But don't
be unreasonable with one another. That's your brother. That's your
sister. Work it out and forgive one another.
That's what God's done for you for Christ's sake. Alright, brethren. Amen.