Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18, the last time we
were here, we ended with verse 14. And if your Bible has the backwards
P paragraph symbol, mine says that verse 15 is the start of
a new paragraph. And it says there are three more
paragraphs to the end of this chapter. And we could look at
each paragraph individually. Sometimes when we go through
a book, we go paragraph by paragraph. We could break this down much
more than that. In a moment for our message,
we're going to look at one verse from this portion of scripture
here. But I thought about in reading
what we're about to read, you may see why I thought about breaking
this down into sections and finishing out the chapter slowly. But as
I read this, I realized that this is all talking about the
same thing. Our Lord is dealing with one
subject in the rest of this chapter and the heading at the top of
it says what it is. It says at the top of my page
anyway, it says how we are to treat our offending brethren. When offenses take place. And
so sadly, they do. So sadly, they do. That's my
deep prayer and desire for this congregation is that love might
reign and unity might reign and peace might reign. We are sinners and our sin always
gets in the way. It always gets in the way. I
will end up offending Knowing that I'm offending. And I will end up offending,
not knowing that I'm offending. It's just in my nature to do
it. And the reason is because I'm a sinner. That's what I am.
I'm a sinner and I'm sorry. I say, I'm sorry. When this congregation was here
10 years ago, those who were the congregation 10 years ago, when the congregation called
me to be the pastor, Brother Tony is the one who physically
called me on the phone. I'll never forget where I was
standing. My heart had been waiting on
that phone call. He called me on the phone and
asked me if I would consider being the pastor. And I didn't
take that lightly. It's just the Lord had prepared
me to want to be the pastor here. I didn't want to just pastor. The Lord had prepared me to just
be here. I had in my heart, I was settled
on coming here, whether I was a pastor or not, I was going
to sit in the pew. I just wanted to be here. The Lord just put
me here. But he called me to ask me if I would pray about
and consider being the pastor. And then I did. And I said yes. And over the
next few days and weeks and months, he and I had many conversations
over the phone. You remember that? Many conversations. I called Brother Dwight. I called
Chris. I called the men who were here
at this time. I was in Rocky Mount, Virginia,
and he was here. We talked about many things.
We talked about our dreams and our hopes and our desire for
the ministry here. I pray the Lord will have a work
here and bless us here. We talked about our desire for
the glory of God and the gospel of Christ and how thankful we
were that God had united us in fellowship and in unity. And
there was one conversation that as long as the Lord will let
me keep my mind, I don't believe I'll ever forget it. I was headed
to the bank. I was in Rocky Mount, driving
to the bank, talking on the phone. I was going down to that little
external teller building that Deborah Huff used to work in. We were having such a precious
conversation on the phone, so I pulled over in the parking
lot to finish our conversation. In the middle of that wonderful
call, this is what he said to me. He said, there is just one thing
about all of this that breaks my heart. He said, I know that at some
point I am going to disappoint you. You remember that? And he said, I'm asking you right
now, 10 years ago, he said, I'm asking you right now, when that
time comes, Will you forgive me? And I said to him, do you know
what breaks my heart? I know, I know that at some point
I'm going to disappoint you. That kills me. But I know that at some point
I, in my sinful flesh, I am going to disappoint you. I'm going
to be a disappointment to you. And I asked him 10 years ago,
I said, when that time comes, will you forgive me? That time has not yet come that
he has disappointed me, but I'm pretty sure I have disappointed
him many times. And I'm also pretty sure he has
forgiven me. I believe he has. It is so sad to say, but because
sin dwells inside these bodies and because it has such a reign
over this flesh, there are times that it raises up its ugly head
and we just cannot suppress it. There are times that we just
can't suppress it. But our Lord has instructed us
right here when those times come that you offend or are offended. He said, this is how I want you
to handle it. This right here is how I want
you to handle it. Let's just read these verses together and
see what our Lord has to say. Matthew 18 verse 15 says, Moreover,
if thy brother shall trespass against thee, Go and tell him
his fault between thee and him alone. Communicate. He said, you love each other. Go talk to each other. You may
be offended in the flesh, but you love each other in Christ.
There we may be. There are times when we may be
offended in our flesh, but we love each other in Christ. We
know we do. And he went on to say, if he
shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Everything is back
the way it was. Verse 16, but if he will not
hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth
of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And
if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But
if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen
man and a publican. What he's saying is keep it as
quiet as you can. Just keep it as quiet as you
can. Let two people go to each other alone. And if they can't
reconcile, then let a brother or two come to mediate. And if
separation and division has to take place, then in that point,
tell the church what's going on so they won't wonder why there's
been a split. But keep it as quiet as you possibly
can. If two can come back together, then there's no reason anybody
ever knew they were apart. No reason at all. Verse 18 says,
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 loosed in heaven. That's what he told Peter when
he gave him the commission of the gospel. If the gospel is
the offense, he's talking about when offenses come. If the gospel
is the offense, if the gospel is what separates, that's an
eternal separation. But if that's not it, if we are
truly bound together forever in glory, then may God bind us
together down here on earth. May he do that for us. Verse
19 says, again, I say unto you, that 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. For where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them." The Lord willing, we're going to look at that verse
for our message in a moment. Then came Peter to him and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive
him till seven times. Jesus saith unto him, I say not
unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times, seven, 490
times in Luke's account, the Lord said, it's not seven times. He said, it's seven times a day.
Seven times every day, just keep forgiving and forgiving and forgiving
and forgiving. Just keep forgiving. Now that's
his command to us on what to do in this situation. That's
what he said to do. And here's the reason for the command. All
right. What he just said is the command. And what he is about to say right
here is our motivation for wanting to treat each other the way he
has commanded us to. Verse 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. Now if your Bible has the center
reference you see that one talent is 750 ounces of silver. If you have that, you see that
to be the case? One talent is 750 ounces of silver. Let's do some math for the sake
of the subject here, okay? One talent is 750 ounces of silver.
At 16 ounces in a pound, One talent is 46.875 pounds of
silver, right at 47 pounds of silver, 47 pounds of silver,
one talent, okay? This servant owed 10,000 of them,
10,000 talents. That's 468,750 pounds of silver. That's almost a half a million
pounds of silver. And then it goes on down in the
middle of the margin there to say how much money that was at
that time. And I don't know what that means,
187L10S, I don't know what that means. In today's money, so we
can understand this in today's money, silver is right now worth
$22.21 per ounce. or $355.36 per pound. $355 per
pound times 468,750 pounds is $166,575,000. That's how much
this servant owed. $575,000. Verse 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 that owed him $166,575,000. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and
children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant
therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience
with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion, watch this, and loosed him and forgave
him the debt. All right, now this is important.
He did not say, I tell you what, I'm gonna let you go, but you
make sure you pay me back. I'm gonna let you go out and
work, I'm gonna let you go sell some things and you do what you
need to do, but you make sure that you pay every penny of this
bill. He didn't do that. He forgave him the debt. He forgave
him the debt. This is what he said. You owe
me nothing. That man fell down and said,
please have mercy on me. I'm so sorry I've sinned against
you. Please. He said, you owe me nothing.
Your debt is wiped clean. Totally wiped clean. You are
completely forgiven. Are we reading between the lines
on this? You are completely forgiven.
Verse 28 says, But the same servant went out and found one of his
fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence. Now he owed 10,000 talents. This other servant owed him a
hundred pence. A pence is not a talent. The
center reference says a pence, the Roman penny. is the eighth
part of an ounce. A talent is 750 ounces. A pence is one-eighth of an ounce. It took eight pence to make one
ounce. So this other servant owing 100 pence divided by eight
means he owed 12 and a half ounces of silver, not even a pound. This other servant at $22.21
per ounce, this other servant owed him $277.63. Now he owed
$166,575,000 and he was completely forgiven his debt. And then he turned around and
saw someone who owed him $277.63, and this is what he did. Verse
28, but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which
owed him 100 pence. And he laid hands on him and
took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou ow'st. And his
fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him, saying,
Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not,
but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very
sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done.
Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him,
O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou
desirest 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. Seeing what Christ has forgiven
us, if we really ever do get a hold of what Christ has forgiven
us, that's all the motivation we need to forgive our brethren.
That's all the motivation we need. Seeing that for us, to
be completely forgiven, Christ had to be delivered to the tormentors. He was delivered to the tormentors.
Our complete, free, total forgiveness cost Him everything. Someone
had to pay that debt. We've been nothing but an offense
to Him. That's what I am in my flesh to God. I'm an offense
to Him. I'm just an offense. Nothing but sin against Him.
Our actions have produced, they've tried to accomplish, nothing
but division and separation from Him. If God left us alone, that's
what we would do with all our might. We'd try to accomplish
division and separation from Him. But in the death of His
own cross, this is what He said. This is just amazing. He said, Their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. It's amazing, isn't it? Their
sins and their iniquities I'll remember no more. I've put them
all away. They're gone. We're at peace. We're at peace. That middle wall
of partition has been broken down. We've been joined back
together in unity and we're at peace. Reconciliation. Hearing
that causes God's people to want forgiveness and reconciliation. It is the new heart of the child
of God. When there's no forgiveness from God, there's no real forgiveness
in the heart. But when the forgiveness of God
is there. It makes itself known. Just hearing
that our sins and iniquities will be remembered no more, that
makes us want to not remember the sins and iniquities against
us anymore. It makes us want to desire that,
even if the flesh is still holding on to it. That new man desires
it. Lord, give me that ability to just let it go. Just let it
go. This portion of scripture will
summarize everything we just said, all right? I'll close with
this. Go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 verse 29, it says, Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. If offenses ever come to us,
let's just remember that he has forgiven us, our Lord has forgiven
us 166,575,000 sins. And I don't think that number's
high enough. If a couple hundred offenses
come to us, May God just graciously remind
us of everything we've been forgiven in Christ and let's just let
everything go. Let everything go. We're brethren. Let's do
everything we can do to gain each other, love each other,
forgive each other for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, you're
dismissed.