Thank you so much. Go back to
Matthew 18, and I'll read my text for you. Matthew 18, and I'm going to
dwell on the 20th verse. Our Savior is the speaker, and
he is speaking to his disciples. He said to them, for where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. This is a blessed, encouraging
word to all of the people of God. I'm sure it was to these
disciples. 11 of these men love Him and
believe Him and rest in Him. 11 of these men will be redeemed
by His bloody death in the not too distant future from when
He spoke these words. And this verse right here gives
us a very clear indication that He is merciful to the miserable. He is gracious to the unworthy. He is patient with the sinful. He is the helper of the helpless. He shows great compassion to
the needy. I'm thankful that our God shows
grace to the chief of sinners. If you
have an opportunity sometime and you want to read a fairly
lengthy sermon by John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress,
and I'm sure we have some copies of Pilgrim's Progress in the
bookstore, but he preached several other sermons, wrote several
other sermons, and one of them is called Grace Abounding to
the Chief of Sinners. And I have read that two or three
times, and it's always a blessing to me when I stop and think that,
especially since I consider myself with no apologies to the Apostle
Paul to be the chief of sinners, I think about the fact that grace
has abounded toward me. And you who are the people of
God, can you not also echo those words. You would repeat that,
I'm sure, in your own heart. Grace does indeed abound to the
chief of sinners. Now these words were spoken by
him who sets himself forth in the book of Revelation as the
true and faithful witness. He's faithful to the Father's
commission The commission that He received and which He voluntarily
agreed to obey in the covenant of grace to come to this world,
to live and die a bloody death in the stead of guilty sinners.
These are the words of Him who speaks always the truth and who
is always faithful to His Father and also faithful to His people. There is one you can always count
on. There is one who will always,
through his word, be honest with you, and he is your Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He came to save, he came to redeem,
he came to seek out, and he came to save those who are lost. And having found those who are
lost, he feeds us, He nourishes us. He has gathered us together
in His arms as the little lambs that we are. And He is carrying
us all the way home unto glory. And that day we shall be gathered
together by our Savior, gathered to be with Him, gathered to spend
eternity with Him, gathered to enjoy Him forever. And remember this, saints of
God, even as our Lord Jesus spoke these words to his disciples,
for he was ever attentive to their needs, he is also ever
attentive to your needs and to my needs. And He says to these
men, who would be facing persecution, they would be facing many of
a death of martyrdom, they would suffer disappointment in our
Lord leaving them, though they did not at that time understand
the necessity of His leaving them. But he gives them this
word of promise. He says, where two or three of
you are gathered, gather together in my name, not in the name of
your denomination, not in the name of your church, but gather
together, he says, in my name, in my name. And that would also
mean for my glory. when two or three are gathered
together to remember me, to think upon me, to worship me, to honor
me, to remember my death, to remember my resurrection, to
remember exactly where I am now and what I'm doing for you now.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, in my name,
that's the key. In my name, there will I be in
the midst. I would remind you these are
sinful men he's speaking to. And I'm sure that as I read these
verses to you, you paid attention to the words. The 18th chapter
begins with them being so much aware of themselves and
so self-centered, they ask Him, Who is going to be the greatest
in the kingdom? Is it going to be me? Am I going
to be above the other disciples? And they actually raised this
issue several times. In fact, you get over a couple
of more chapters in Matthew chapter 20. James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, They kind of pushed their mother forward and said,
why don't you ask him if us two, us two brothers, James and John,
ask him if we can set one on his right hand and one on his
left hand when we come into the kingdom. We're not concerned
about these little fellows. I hope they make it into the
kingdom of God, but we want to be in charge. This was an issue
these men had. They were self-centered, arrogant,
taken up with self, and don't seem to be, at least on this
occasion, concerned about the Redeemer and about the Savior,
and certainly not concerned about their brothers in the Lord. They
wanted to know who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom
of God. Rather than having lowly thoughts of themselves, rather
than humbling themselves and expressing gratitude over being
in the kingdom of God, being an object of God's grace, being
one for whom the Savior would lay down His life, Instead of
viewing salvation and the kingdom of God as a great grace on the
part of our Lord, they have elevated thoughts of themselves, sinful
thoughts, egotistical thoughts, ambitious thoughts, self-serving
thoughts for which they were rebuked. You see, in the kingdom
of God, in salvation, in that everlasting kingdom of our Lord,
the only one who is the great one is the king himself. And all of those who are in the
kingdom of God are equally the children of God, equally righteous,
equally blood bought, equally accepted in the Beloved,
and we shall all have an equal standing, because having entered
into the Kingdom of God, we will realize more than ever we are
there solely by the free and sovereign grace of God. It's not a matter of who's going
to be the greatest. We know who's the greatest in
the Kingdom of Heaven. It's the King Himself. It's the
One who redeemed us. And all of us sinners saved by
grace shall be equal in His sight. We shall all receive an equal
inheritance. We shall all receive an equal
reward. For the reward that we will receive
is the reward for our Savior's obedience through life and in
death. And we're all perfect in the
Son of God. I'll tell you, it was self-love
that led them to ask this question. And yet he says to these men,
who were kind of wallowing in pride, he says, where two or
three of you who are having lofty thoughts about yourself, where two or three of you or
any of my children anywhere at any time are gathered together
in my name, I'll be in the midst. And my friends, I'll tell you
this, that's exaltation enough. That the King would so love us that he would gather with us
anytime he draws us together to worship. And I say to all
of us, and I say to those of you who are watching this morning,
isn't it an honor that the Lord himself is with us this morning? I lay hold of this promise. So they were arguing about who'd
be graced in the kingdom of heaven. And then he reminds these men
who are focused on self. You don't do that, do you? I'm
sure nobody in here just focuses on yourself. We're all guilty. But he reminds them, he reminds
them in what condition he found them. He found them as lost sheep. The shepherds sought and found
them." Why are you having elevated thoughts of yourself? Shouldn't
you be exalting? Shouldn't you be praising? Shouldn't
you be acknowledging the greatness of the Shepherd who found you
in your lost condition? He sought you, He found you,
He redeemed you, He made you righteous, He provides for you.
Shouldn't you be focused on the Shepherd? They were focused on themselves. And when He said to them there
in verses 11 through 14 concerning Him being the shepherd, saving
those which were lost, there's nothing in those words that would
lead them to think, well, they would be exalted above others.
We were all lost sheep. We'd all gone astray. None better
than the other. None worse than the other. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And He came, He laid down His
life, the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd laid down His
life. He gave His life for the sheep. And He sends His gospel and He
rescues us. He draws us in by a magnetic
grace. A grace that pulls us to Him. A grace that saves us, a grace
that works within, and we're new creatures in Christ Jesus. He is saying to these disciples,
you who were seeking to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven
and the kingdom of God, don't you remember where you were when
I found you? Peter, James, John, you're out
casting your nets. You weren't thinking about me.
You weren't seeking me. I came seeking you, because I'm
the shepherd who seeks and finds the lost. And so he could say
to the rest of the disciples, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, Rather than standing around arguing
about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, you
ought to be thankful that the shepherd loved you and came and
gave his life to save you. And then he speaks to them about
a very sensitive subject, offending your brother or sister in Christ. You mean to tell me, preacher,
that Christians have disagreements among themselves? Yeah, we do. Because we're imperfect. We're
imperfect. You mean to tell me that children
of God don't always get along in perfect peace and happiness? You mean to tell me the church
isn't a place of tranquility, where we all love one another
and we accept one another as well? You mean a brother or sister
in Christ can offend me? And what's worse, you mean I
sometimes offend others? Yes. And our Lord deals with
this. What our master is saying is
this. The people he came to save are
sinners. We're sinners. Imperfect in ourselves, certainly. We fail many times, absolutely. We weep over our sins. And we
give thanks to Him who has washed us from our sins with His own
blood upon the cross of Calvary. We're just a bunch of sinners
saved by grace. And I want to be careful. I always
try to be. I'm sure sometimes I offend people. I don't mean to. I mean, if my
preaching offends you, you'll have to endure that. And
if the truth offends you, well, I can't be sorry it offends you,
but I pray for you that the truth won't offend you. But if I, if
myself, if I do something or say something or don't seem to
give you the attention or I don't answer you in the right kind
of way, I'm sorry. Don't be afraid to apologize. You see, usually when we read
this passage of Scripture, we're thinking about, yeah, so-and-so
offended me, I'll tell you. Yeah, he did me wrong. Well,
you may very well be truthful about that. But aren't you guilty too from
time to time? I say what the Master said to
the Pharisees, he that is without fault, let him cast the first stone. I'm sorry if I didn't speak to
you, I didn't shake your hand or whatever. I'm sorry if I've
just crossed my mind some of my years ago. came to our church
to visit us, and somebody dinged their door in the parking lot,
and they said, I'm never coming back to that church again. I
said, well, I'm sorry they dinged your door. They should have told
you. But that's no way to stay away from a place where the gospel
of grace. People get offended. I think
I can tell this story. This lady's gone years ago, many
years ago. This is back in the late 70s. This lady baked beautiful cakes,
all tremendous. Blue ribbon at the county fair. And we were having an eating. And somebody cut her cake before
she got there, before she came down to cut it herself. And Franklin
just made a mess of it. And she saw it. She said, I'm
never coming back to this church again. Now that's a good reason
to leave the gospel, isn't it? Somebody offended her. And I
don't know who did it. I went to see her and I said,
listen, maybe I did it, I don't know. She said, I can't believe someone
would be so thoughtless. Don't be offended by what people
say or what people do. We're all just sinners saved
by grace. I thank you for putting up with
me. I thank you for putting up with
my ways, with my sometimes peculiar ways. And I'm sorry if I offend
you, but I'm not sorry if the gospel offends you. This is what
our Lord is saying. Get along. Because remember,
He is not ashamed to gather us together and meet with us, notwithstanding
all that we have done unto Him. Isn't that amazing? Nobody has
ever begun to think about getting started to doing to you what
we've all done to our God. And He forgives us. And He doesn't
hold anything against us. So, to summarize what I've said
so far, the Savior basically is dealt with three subjects
as preface to this one verse. He reminds these men, he's dealing
with them on the basis of their question, who's greatest in the
kingdom of God? You egotistical fools. Who's going to be the greatest?
Better be thankful that you'll be there. And then he deals with them,
reminding them that they were sheep who went astray. And the
shepherd found them and fetched them back unto himself. Then he says, if you are offended
by somebody or if somebody else offends you, go and talk about
it with them. Work things out. And if you can't, well, then
other steps are given. Take a couple of people with
you. If that doesn't work, go before the church. These are
the steps of discipline, you see. But then he comes to this, and
to me, the first 19 verses remind me that this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Now, from this one
verse of scripture, let me give you Let me give you just several
little things very briefly. Number one, the place. He says
this in verse 24, where two or three are gathered together in
my name. For where or wherever. Wherever. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. What matters
is you're gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. doesn't say in a building, could
be outside, could be in your home. fairly confident that I'm preaching
to somebody who's watching right now on the internet, and probably
husband and wife are in the kitchen, maybe over a cup of coffee, or
sitting in the living room, and they're reclining chairs, or
just one or two or three together, maybe several more. But if you've
been gathered by the Lord, to be the audience, the listener
of the true gospel of free grace to sinners through the Lord Jesus
Christ. I tell you, the Lord is in your
midst, my friends. Isn't that wonderful? He said,
I'm there. It doesn't matter where. After
Adam and Eve sinned, they came to worship God at the east of
the Garden of Eden. Just one place. Just one place. It wasn't a building either.
It wasn't even a tent. Just one place, one location.
The Lord met with, He gathered with Noah when Noah piled up
some rocks as an altar to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. He met with Israel by the Red
Sea. He met with Isaac out in the
field. Jacob piled up some rocks at
a place called Luz, later it's changed to Bethel. He piled up
some rocks and went to sleep, and the Lord came to him when
his head's laying on rocks. He met Jonah in the belly of
the whale. How's that for a church? but that's where the Lord made
his presence known to Jonah. He visited Jeremiah in a dungeon. He met with John the apostle
on a lonely island called Patmos. He met with Nathanael underneath
a fig tree and with Zacchaeus underneath a sycamore tree. See, it's wherever. It's wherever. He met with Peter on top of a
housetop, on the roof of a house. He meets with his people. Many
have met in caves, in tents, in the open air. He meets with his people. Here's
a dear sister or brother in Christ washing dishes, doing housework,
mowing the grass, and your thoughts are driven to think about Christ
and His glory and His bloody sacrifice. He's meeting with
you. He's visiting you. God doesn't confine His meeting with you to a building.
I'm thankful for the building we have. But I'll tell you where He is.
He's wherever. Wherever. It's one of the reasons we don't
give what's typically called an altar call. Come down here
and say yes to the Lord. The Lord's as much back there
as He is down here. No use coming down here to meet
with the Lord. Meet with the Lord where you sit, without moving
a physical muscle. That's His presence. And what about the people? Where
two or three, not two or three thousand, these mega churches,
if you don't have that many, you're not even on the radar.
They don't even consider you to be a church. Or if you don't
have two or three hundred. You don't have to have a big
multitude to worship the Lord, to have a profitable time of
worship. Give me two or three people whose
hearts are broken over sin. Two or three people who are needy
before God. Two or three people who loved
the Savior, loved to hear about Him, loved to hear the preacher
brag on Christ. He said, I'll be with you. I'll
be with you. Three Hebrew men in a furnace. Nebuchadnezzar saw them. He said,
what are they doing in there? It's like they're fellowshipping
with one another. And there's a fourth one in there. Crank
that furnace up even hotter. He said the fourth one looks
like the Son of Man, the Son of God. Because you see where two or
three gather together, He shall be in the midst. He's right there
with them. You feel like you're in a furnace?
You feel like you're in the fire? You feel like the tribulation
is really getting hot for me, the difficulties and the trials?
Hear the Word of the Lord. I'm in the midst. You're not
there by yourself. They threw Paul and Silas into
prison. They prayed in praise of the
Lord. I hope, if that ever happened to me, I hope I'd be able to
pray and praise the Lord in that kind of situation. Not a prison like we have today,
but dirt floor with human excrement on the floor, the dirt, the rats,
whatever else is down there. What are those guys doing? They're
praying. They're praising the Lord. They're
talking about how great Christ is, how wonderful is the grace
of God. Those two disciples traveling
to Emmaus, grumbling as they walk. Ah, they're murmuring.
Ah, life's so bad. And then somebody who appeared
to them to be like a stranger, Start walking with him. He was their best friend. I'll tell you where the Lord
is. It's where his gospel goes forth. That's where he is. And
the privilege. Let me give this to you real
quick. I'm glad this doesn't say where two or three gather
in his name. You say, well, isn't that what
it says? No, that's not what it says. It says where two or
three are gathered together in my name. There's a gatherer here. There's somebody who gathers
people together. Who is the great gatherer? But
our Savior himself. He first gathered us in the covenant
of grace. He gathered us at the cross of
Calvary and laid down His life, dying for all of His people. Isaiah 40 verse 11 says, He gathers
the lambs with His arms. He gathers us as a group to worship
Him. And I'm sure you know, but I'm
going to remind you, the reason you're here this morning is because
of the unseen hands of our Lord who gathered us together and
brought us here. We come from various backgrounds,
various families, different locations. But we're gathered by His power
and by His providence this morning. And then the preciousness of
this, what delightful words. Our Lord gathered us together to worship Him. And here's the
power of it all. He says, in my name, in my name. There is everything wonderful
and good about His name. His name is the name above all
names. Salvation is in His name. Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. Everlasting life is in His name. But these are written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing you might have life through His name. Remission of
sins, forgiveness of sins is in this name. Peter stood up
before the household of Cornelius and said to him, Give all the
prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth
in Him shall receive remission of sins. Answers to prayer in
His name. He said to His disciples, Whatsoever
ye shall ask in My name, that will I do. And universal honor is going
to be paid to Him. God has highly exalted him and
given him a name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And then I remind you the person
here, he says, there am I, there am I. I'm Jehovah. There am I. Tell Pharaoh and tell all the
children of Israel, I am that I am. I am Jehovah. Who is here with us this morning
according to His own promise? The great I am. And when I think about the presence
of our Lord with us. In some ways, it kind of terrifies
me. It certainly gives me a sense
of respect and reverence, but it also fills my heart with
joy that he would gather together a bunch of sinners to listen
to another sinner talk about His saving grace, His righteousness,
and His bloody redemption. And there's His presence again.
There am I in the midst, in the midst. There's an unseen person with
us this morning. Our Lord is here by His Spirit, and I'm humbled, and I'm thankful,
and I worship. It's a wonderful place to be
where the Lord gathers His people together to
honor Him. And I'm always delighted to be
here, to be anywhere. where the Lord reveals himself
to sinners like me and like you. Let's get our songbooks. I want us to turn to 224.