Take heed that ye despise not
one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven
there are angels who always behold the face of my Father which is
in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to
save that which was lost to save. How think ye, if a man hath a
hundred sheep, one of them be gone astray? Doth he not leave
the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh
that which is gone astray? He's after that lost sheep. He
wants that lost sheep to be found. If so be that he find it, verily
I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the
ninety and nine which went not astray. Luke's gospel, he says,
that need no repentance. Even so, it is not the will of
your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish. And that should be our same desire,
our will, not our will. Moreover, if thy brother, not
a worthless sheep, but thy brother, shall trespass against thee,
go and tell him his faults, between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast
gained thy brother. 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, every thing
said, witnessed, may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear
them, tell it unto the church. And if he neglect to hear the
church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 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. Four, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst." Then
came Peter to him after a little while, thinking about what the
Lord said. He said, How often shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times? Jesus saith
unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until
seventy times seven. And as I said, I'm going to give
you my pastor's comments on this from Brother Ryle and himself
at the mouth of two or three witnesses this morning. We live in a sinful world. We
ourselves are sinners. There are many injustices, there
are many injuries, there are many offenses. Some intentional,
sadly, but some unintentional, if not most. And our Lord said
it's impossible, but They will come from the world, they will
come from our brethren, and they will come from us. James said
this, he said, In many things we offend all. We offend all. In many things. Not just one
thing, but many things. ourselves offend everybody at
some point because we're sinners. And there's going to be, there
has been a time that you have offended someone and they've
offended you. And it will happen again until
the day we die. Now this is what my pastor said. He gave three points. He said,
number one, our attitude toward others who have offended us.
And he's not even dealing yet with the one who did the offense.
He's dealing with us, our attitude toward them. Because we can't
do anything about them, really can't. So he said, our attitude toward
others who have offended us reveals our true relationship with God. And this is why J.C. Ryle said
this is one of the most deeply important messages that we could
hear, because our attitude reveals our relationship with God. Peter,
on hearing this, it deeply convicted him. Because he's the one that
said, how many times? How long should I put up with
this offense from my brother? Seven times? And he thought he
was being generous, didn't he? He thought, this is about all
I can take, isn't it? And our Lord said... And our Lord really gives numbers
in Scripture. He gives numbers, definite numbers
that really illustrate in them. 490 times, how many times a day is
that? Someone calculated that if we
sin just once an hour for 50 years, that we will have committed
nearly 500,000 offenses. You know we offend our God more
than that, once an hour. And our Lord gave this parable
of a man who owed 10,000 talents, which is the equivalent today
of $20,000,000. And then 100 pence. And another man owed 100
pence, which is $20. And the man who was so greatly and debt to another that just
kept piling up debt, millions of dollars of debt, was just
frankly, freely, completely forgiven it all. Amazingly though. That's amazing forgiveness there.
Then he turned around, and the man owed him $20, and the man begged him to forgive
him. He'd pay it back. And he wouldn't. And I was angry. There are two
things that will keep us out of glory. Number one, continual
murmuring and complaining, like the children of Israel. That's
finding fault with God's providence. That's like little children that
are never happy, never satisfied. I want, I want, I want. I'm not
happy, I'm not happy, I'm not happy. And you're staying out. And we're
all guilty of that, aren't we? And the other is not forgiving. Not forgiving. Neither will your
heavenly Father forgive your trespass. Mercy. Because heaven, Ryle said, is
a place where everyone there, the theme of it is God's mercy. Everyone there knows the only
reason they are there, those who have attended Him infinitely,
are only there because of the infinite mercy and grace and
forgiveness of God to them. And so everyone there feels unworthy
to be there and is speaking of and singing of His great love
and forgiveness. 1 John, go over there, 1 John,
and these are scriptures that that he read, and I went and
looked them up. 1 John chapter 2. This is the book, as you know,
of love. This is the book that the Lord
told John to write, and you know it speaks of brotherly love more
than any other book. Our Lord, the last thing He said
to His disciples, one of the last things He said to His disciples
was, This is my commandment, like a father to children who
are prone to fight and fuss and fight. That's just what little
children do. And he said, this is my commandment,
that you love one another as I love you. Peter got it. Peter heard that. He was so convicted,
he rose up. They'll leave you, not me. They may do that. And it wouldn't
surprise me at all if old James didn't leave you, Lord, because
I'm suspicious of him. Okay, Peter. You're going to
be the first. Peter got it. And later on, he
said, we need to love his brother. He said, see that you love one
another with a pure heart. I mean, from the heart, not just
lips. and fervently, actively. Paul got it. Paul said, provoke
one another to love. We provoke one another in every
way there is. He said, make them love you. Provoke them to love you. Provoke
them. It takes work, doesn't it? The
Lord said, blessed are the peacemakers. They're the children of God. I want to be a child of God. 1 John 2 verse 8 says, A new
commandment I write unto you, and this thing is true in him
and in you, if you are in him, because the darkness has passed.
This sinful, dark, ignorant, selfish old man is dead. The true light now shines in
you. He that saith he is in the light
and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that
loveth his brother abideth in the light. There's no occasion,
there's nothing that will make you stumble. Nothing. But he that hateth his brother
is in darkness, walketh in darkness. Darkness of anger and wrath and
bitterness and malice and so forth. Look at 1 John 3 verse
14. 1 John 3, 14. We know we pass from
death unto life because we love the brethren. Not talking about
our earthly brethren. Our Lord said he that loves those
that love him. There's no combination of that.
Even the evil, the unregenerate love their family. But he that
loveth his brother like a brother, that's supernatural. That's God-given. He that loveth not a brother
abideth in death. Verse 15. Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer. No murderer hath the eternal
life abiding in him. Verse 18, it says, My little
children, let us not love in word. I love you, brother. Well,
do you? Neither in tongue, but in deed
and in truth. And hereby we know we are of
the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. I really do
love him. I don't want there to be a calling
now. So I'm going to do whatever I can for this not to continue.
So if our heart condemns us not, oh my, then we have comfort.
But if our heart condemns us, God's greater than our heart.
He surely knows us. Chapter 4, verse 7. Beloved,
let us love one another. Love is of God, everyone that
loveth. How? Like God, like Christ, mercifully,
graciously. 1 Corinthians 13 is the description
of love in it. Here's why. Love believeth all
things. Wants to believe in God. Love
hopeth all things. Love endureth all things. Love
beareth all things. Putteth up with all things. Love
never thinks. Never. He that loveth not, like
that, verse 8, knoweth not God, as God is brought his love and
heart. See, God is love. And this was
manifested in this way, the love of God toward us. God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him, made him a
bloody sacrifice for the likes of us. Oh my, it goes on and
on. Brothers love his brothers. Brothers
love one another and they do fight, they do fuss. I'm ashamed
of it. My brothers and I did. My middle brother and I did,
mostly. And the grief I caused my sister. She was never intentionally
cruel to me before I was to her. Little brothers are like that,
you know. Oh, I caused her so much grief.
But she loved that. Oh, how she loved that. But I'm
ashamed of that. But, you know, we forgave and
we forgot. That's real forgiveness. You
forget it. To this day, I can't remember
what any fight that we ever had was about. I can't remember. Not to mention all the offenses
I caused my parents. And to this day, they can't remember.
And it's not just old age. It's grace. It's love. See, love
covers it. He said, our attitude in the
midst of these injustices and injuries and offenses to us reveal
whether or not we have received a new nature. To exercise mercy and forgiveness
is to be one whom the Lord has shown mercy and forgiveness. that you've not received it.
Ephesians 4, look over here, Ephesians 4, this is, oh how
I need this, and I know you do, because we're just alike. Ephesians
4, and I read these over and over again. Ephesians 4, it says
now, if so be, verse 21, you have been taught have heard him,
heard of his marvelous mercy and love and grace to you, what
he did to his son for you, who offended him. The truth, that's
the truth, the gospel truth. Then put off concerning that
former old man who's corrupt according to his own selfish
and deceitful lusts. He deceives himself. Be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Put away lying. Speak every man truth to his
neighbor. Remember one another. Be angry
at sin not. Let not the sun go down on your
rack. That is, don't go to sleep until it's resolved. Either give
place to the devil. See, the devil has you if you're
in the gall of bitterness, the bond of iniquity, The devil has
you. Verse 30, Grieve not the Holy
Spirit. These things are things that
grieve him more than anything else. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Verse 31, Let all bitterness,
wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you.
With all malice, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Be ye followers of God as dear children. Walk in love as Christ
also hath loved us, and giving Himself, remember this, and offering
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling sacrament. Remember that. That's the next message. Colossians
3, Colossians 3, we're looking at this at the mouth of two or
three hundred witnesses, verses of Scripture, God's Word, that
bear witness to us of this truth, prove and rebuke and correct
and instruct us in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfectly
pure and truly furnished unto all good works. That is just
like Jesus Christ. That's who I want to be. That's
what salvation is all about. Be like Him. Now, verse 12, put
on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels
of mercy, inner feelings of mercy, kindness, humility of mind. That's
what will give you mercy, make you merciful. Humility, needless
longsuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. Any man have a quarrel against
any. Even as Christ forgave you, so
also do you, do ye. Above all these things, here
it is, put on charity. Well, that is love, which is
the bond of perfectness, so mature it. Love is the greatest evidence
of maturity. See, mature love understands
the other person, knows their friend. How does one know someone
else is praying? They know their own. You, like
a parent, knows a child, that a child knows a parent. Why is
that? Because the parent was a child.
The child is not yet a parent. But the parent knows a child
and knows they're praying. So what do they do? They love
that child. They know it's praying. They
know what it's capable of. And even when they do it, they
pray. I know they're praying. And they forgive them readily
because they know I did the exact same thing to my parents. And
I continue to do the exact same thing to my Heavenly Father. And this bond of love will keep
us together if it's mature. It's the bond that keeps us from
falling apart. It's the bond. Love, it's the
glue that keeps us together. And it's got to be mature love,
or it won't. Not selfish love, childish love.
And that's the greatest evidence. Greatest evidence. And he said this, he said, our
attitude in this offense reveals our concern, whether or not our
concern is truly for the glory of God, over ourselves. Many folks get mad, get upset,
get angry, and want to quit, and some do. And when they do
that, when they leave the gospel or quit supporting the gospel,
there have been people who do that to spite whomever, the preacher
or somebody in the church. Quit supporting the gospel. Can
you imagine? What they're saying is, I want
this whole thing to die. It doesn't matter to me if this
whole thing dies, because I've been a patient. Well, that person's
a phony. They're not in it for the glory
of God. Solomon gave, there was, the Lord gave this illustration
of Solomon and two women, and it was hard to know which one
was the true. Oh, the Lord's wisdom. the depth of his wisdom. There was a baby that died, and
the woman whose baby it was switched it with another woman's baby.
Remember that? Two harlots, mind you. They're
both worthless women, sinners. Two harlots. And the woman switched
the dead child for the woman's live child, and the woman whose
live child it was woke up and saw, this is not my child. So
they both went to Solomon. And Solomon, who is a discerner,
like our Lord, was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Divide and asunder. Who really loves, who does this
belong to? And Solomon said, go get me a
sword. And they brought him a sword. And he said, cut the living child
in half and give half to this woman and half to the other. And the woman who was a phony
said, yeah, do that. Let's have division. Yeah, I
don't want her to have it and I don't want her to have it.
Let's have death, let's have separation, let's have division. And the woman who wanted life,
didn't want to cause any pain or suffering, she had enough
herself. She was willing to suffer herself to be defrauded or deprived
of that child that it might live. Let this thing live. Just get
rid of me. Let me suffer from now on. But
let it live. And Solomon said, that's the
truth. The Lord knows. The reconciler. And he said,
it's not a matter, well, I'm right, and he's wrong, or she's
wrong. That is not in the consideration
here. the glory of God. What's at stake? What's at stake? Brother Ryle,
we're going to go back to our text. There's so much more at
stake here than my hurt feeling. It's the glory of God and others,
because He, that is, Scripture says, beware a root of bitterness
whereby many are defiled. We defile everyone around us
when we're in that state, and they know it. Read with me again verses 15
through 17. If my brother shall trespass
against thee, go and tell him his faults between thee and him
alone. Just you two. He offended you,
it's nobody else's business. You go to him and tell him alone. If he will hear you, You've gained
a brother. Isn't this what you want in the
context? In the context, our Lord said,
I go after one stray sheep. I want to find this worthless,
lost sheep that keeps going astray. This prodigal son has grieved
me more than you could possibly know. It's not my desire for
him. He ought to. He's not worth saving. But that's what I do. And they
said, your brother did this. Isn't that the intent? To gain
a brother? Ryle said this, if we had unhappily
received any injury from a fellow member of Christ's church, the
first step to be taken here, the Lord in His wisdom said,
is to visit him or her alone. And tell him or her they're false. He may have injured us unintentionally. And we're fallible. We don't
understand. We can't look on the heart. We
don't know completely. Our Lord does. But we don't.
He may have done this unintentionally. And if he has, like Abimelech
did to Abraham, he'll apologize for it. If he did it intentionally, and
what have we not done in times past intentionally? You husbands
and wives, have you ever gotten a spaz? Anybody other than Nindy
and I got in a spaz where you said some pretty harsh things
to one another? Anybody? I don't see one head
nodding. You're a bunch of liars. It's
just a shame to admit it. It's a shame to admit it. Yeah,
we're ashamed of those times, aren't we? Because we say things,
and in the heat of anger, we do, we lash out. And it may partially,
we may mean that. You're this way. Yeah, well,
you're that way. Well, yes, you are. She is that
way. Well, yes, I am. And we just lash out. And you
shouldn't have said it, but you said it. And later, you regret
it. You did it intentionally. Then later on you think, you love that person. And you
kiss and you make up. You talk to one another about
it. You say, I'm sorry I said that. Now if only you'd straighten
up. No, that's what we think when
it's nearly always 50-50. You know, we're both sinners,
aren't we? and put a male and a female center
together, and you've got, you're really in trouble. Go to that
person, and they may be unintentional, and they may be able to explain,
or you misunderstood them, or you caught them at a bad time.
Or he may be able to explain himself, and he gives several
illustrations from the scriptures. At any rate, Ryle said, This
friendly, loving, faithful, manly, straightforward way of dealing
with our brother is the way our Lord said to do it. And if he's
a brother and you're a brother, it'll be over and it'll never
be the same again. Let it not. He said, take two or three witnesses. Very rarely have I seen this
happen, but two or three witnesses, those that are impartial, those
that love both, those that have an understanding of both, those
that have an understanding of themselves, two or three witnesses,
those who may have heard, may have seen, not heard someone that heard
it, but witnesses. That's the way we want to be
judged. It is faithful, righteous judgment, true judgment, loving
judgment, forgiving judgment. May I have two or three witnesses
tell this man. And Galatians 6.1 says, If a
brother be overtaken in a fault, and every one of brethren, every
one of us have been and will be overtaken in a fault. Something will overtake us that
we will be mired in it, and we'll be a sorry brother. And it says, you that are spiritual
have some real understanding, restoring in the spirit of meekness. How? Why? Meekness. Considering
thine own self. Knowing. I've been in a bad way
before. I've been in a real bad way.
You know, here's what I'm hearing. Let me hurry and close. Ryle
said, many a breach could be prevented if we were more ready
to practice this rule, you and me. It's just you and me. Don't be sorry. I told you before
how much I admire our brother Don Bell. And I admire him for
this more than as much as anything. Not only his Christ-like character,
and this is it. If he hears something about a
brother from someone else, he will not take that person's word
for it, no matter who it is. He'll go to that person, call
that person up to whom he heard this about, and say, tell me,
I heard this such and such and such. Is it true? Now there's
a man who wants to, who loves the truth, not lie. There's a man who wants to reconcile.
There's a man who doesn't want to believe the worst. He wants
to believe the best. And what if it is true? Then
what? Look at this. Our Lord said,
verse 23, that the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain
king which would take account of his servant. That's us. When
he began to reckon with, one was brought unto him that owed
him ten thousand talents, twenty million dollars. And for as much
as he had not to pay, nothing to pay, his Lord commanded him
to be sold, and his wife and his children, and all that he
had, and payment to be made. The servant fell down and worshipped
him, saying, Lord. Apparently it was with his lips,
wasn't it? Lord, have patience with me,
I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the
debt, all twenty million dollars, frankly, freely, completely forgiven,
wiped out. Now bring it in, not one cent,
you won't owe me one penny. The same servant went out and
as a fellow servant, just like him, that owed him $100, $20. He laid his hands on him and
took him by the throat, saying, pay me what you owe me. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me. I will pay you. I'm sorry. I
didn't mean it. I'll restore it. And he would
not. They cast him into prison, and
he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants,
witnesses, saw this, they were very sorry, and they told their
Lord that was done. And their Lord said, after he
called that man, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
thee twenty million dollars, because you asked me, just because
you asked me. Shouldest not thou also have
compassion on my fellow-servant, as I have pity on thee? And his
Lord was wroth, delivered him to the tormentors, he pay all
that was due unto him, that's hell, for the unforgiving, unmerciful. Likewise shall my heavenly Father
do also unto you, if you from your hearts pure, true forgiveness,
forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. Does not our Lord do to us what
he told us to do to one another? He comes to us through his word,
personally, and says, you've offended me. Time and time again, you've offended
me. And we're not innocent. And then he tells us, and then
we repent. If we hear it arrived, and he
says, thou art the man, I'm wrong. And if we repent, you know what
he does? And you know how often we keep doing this? And we repent
490 times an hour. And he forgives us. He just forgives
us. Okay, I won't bring that up.
Okay, I forget that. But more than that. More than that. He didn't just
forgive us. Now, I want you to listen to
this. We talk about grace, we talk
about forgiveness, we talk about amazing grace. And this is how
He said, you do this. Our Lord not only forgave His
people, but He took all the offenses whereby they offended Him. All our iniquities, whereby we
offended Him. and took his altogether lovely,
spotless, inoffensive, innocent, loving, kind son and laid on
him laid it on him mined on him and slit his throat and put it on the cross and pour
out his wrath on him. It was due to me. Do you see why he says, do you
realize what I've done to you? And you won't forgive the slightest
offense. Mine and him had put Oh Lord, and this is why Peter
said, after he heard all this, he said, Lord, can't grace our faith. You got
to help me. Alright, may the Lord use you.