We're going to begin in Matthew
18 and verse 15 where the Lord speaks here of what I call the
gospel way or the way of grace to handle offenses which sometimes
arise within the family of God. You know, we're saved completely
and perfectly by the grace of God. And that's a marvelous thing. We're gonna sing at the end of
the services today, Amazing Grace. We love that hymn. If you know
what grace really is, it's just a, you'll always stand in amazement
at it. Because it shows us that our
salvation is the accomplishment of our Savior, not ourselves.
And that gives us hope, that gives us assurance. And so whenever
we talk about our relationship with God, we always speak in
terms and in the context of grace. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God saves us by grace,
He keeps us by grace, He protects us, preserves us, and He'll bring
us to glory by His grace. And it's a blessing to know that
none of that, none of that is conditioned on us. Now God brings
us by His power, by His grace, to seek to honor and glorify
Him in our lives, in our attitudes, in our relationships, But isn't
it good to know that our salvation does not depend upon what we
do and don't do? Now, that doesn't give us an
excuse to sin. It doesn't give us an excuse
to offend one another. But it shows us, in fact, it's
the opposite. It's what inspires us. That's
why I call this the grace of discipline. We're disciples of
Christ. Well, disciple means discipline.
It means a follower. It means a learner. And even
being saved, we're, listen, God will not charge us with our sins. We're washed in the blood of
Christ. We're righteous in his sight based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed. And then we have life from the
dead. The righteousness of Christ imputed is the ground of our
justification and it's the source of our spiritual life, which
involves knowledge and desires, new desires to follow God. And
yet, having said all of that, we know we're still sinful people.
Now, we are. And that applies to the most
mature Christian and the most immature Christian. And we know
in this life, our relationship with God is great. We need to
see that our relationship with one another is that of grace,
too. It is. And it doesn't mean that
we can just treat each other badly. We go through this life,
we'll have disagreements. Christ here, listen to verse
15, he says, moreover if thy brother, now he's talking to
believers here. If thy brother or thy sister
shall trespass against thee. And that means sin. Go and tell
him his fault between thee and him alone. Just make it a private
matter. Don't spread it all over the
church. Don't try to divide people, get
on my side or your side, all of that, but a private matter.
And if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Now
one of the things that you need to see about this is this is
not talking about every little difference of opinion and spat
that believers have. Because that just comes with
the territories we live in this world. This is talking about
something major that disrupts the unity. And in the end, if
it doesn't work, he says to treat that person who is insistent
upon the sin as an unbeliever. Now, if you look at Galatians
chapter six with me, turn over there. This is a passage that talks
about believers, as he says, who are overtaken in a fault.
In verse one of Galatians chapter six. Now listen to this. He says,
brethren, if or although a man be overtaken in a fault, now
he doesn't mention any specific fault here. And we have a tendency,
we wanna categorize everything, you know. But the point here,
this is something serious. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual. Well now, every child of God
is spiritual in a sense, but we don't always act spiritually. Sometimes we act in the flesh. You remember over in the book
of Corinthians, he said, you're carnal. That means fleshly and
then there are divisions over preachers and over other things.
And that's why we're told in Galatians chapter five to walk
in the spirit and don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. We're
in a warfare. It's a warfare within. And we
always have to be on our toes spiritually. We always have to
go to the word of God. So you which are spiritual, what
he's talking about is those who are not overtaken in this fault,
restore such in one in the spirit of meekness. Now the spirit of
meekness is submission. Submission to the word of God.
Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Whatever fault
that person or that brother or sister is overtaken in, you're
subject to it too. I'm subject to it too. And so
he says, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of God. That is, we're striving to love
one another as we love ourselves. And he says in verse three, for
if a man think himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceiveth himself. Now that kind of attitude that
says, well, I would never do that. You see somebody who's
overtaken in a particular sin or a particular fault, and you
look and you say, well, I would never do that. Well, you better
be careful. You're thinking too highly of
yourself. But the issue here is the relationship of brothers
and sisters in Christ by the grace of God. Now go back to
Matthew 18. The point is, is that our goal
always ought to be restoration, reconciliation, not to get our
way. Over in Philippians chapter three,
turn over there. The apostle brings up Philippians
chapter two, Philippians two, where there was a problem between
two believers. And he says in verse one of Philippians
2, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort
in Christ. Do we have comfort in Christ?
Do we have confidence in Christ? See, that's the whole issue.
I'm gonna be talking about that today in the 11 o'clock message
because, you know, as we heard a week or so ago about standing
before God at the judgment. And if God would say to me, depart
from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. Well, what
am I gonna say? Well, here's what we gotta understand
about that. If you go back to that, and stay
there at Philippians 2 now, but if you go back to that Matthew
7 passage, what were those professing Christians or professing religionists
saying? What were they saying? They were
saying, Lord, haven't I done this? Lord, haven't I done that?
Is that what you're gonna say? I'll tell you what we'll say.
Our only hope is Christ, the grace of God. And if that's what
we say, if that's our testimony, if that's our heart, you're not
gonna hear him say, depart from me, you that work iniquity. I
stand before God in the righteousness of Christ. Not in my own. Listen, they said, haven't we
preached in your name? Well, what am I doing right now?
I'm preaching in his name. Now, I've never cast out demons
that I know of or anything like that, but done many wonderful
works. Well, every true believer can
say that. We've done many wonderful works,
but we know that the works we do are by the grace of God and
the power of God in us. We're not the source and the
power of it. It's God that worketh in you to do and to will His
good pleasure. But here's the thing about it.
I've preached the gospel for what, 40 years now. But I'm not
gonna stand before God and say the reason that you should bring
me into eternal glory is because I've preached. There's only one
reason. that I should be brought into
the glory of God eternally, and that's the blood, the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it. And that's our testimony. Well,
he says here, he says, our goal is restoration, our goal is recovery. Not division. And then look at
verse, and the strongest motive now here is always the gospel. This is not legal discipline. Issued by something called a
disciplinary committee who goes around just looking for things
to find fault. Or make sure that everybody is
pure and perfect and as holy as I am or anything like that.
That's legalism. That's a stench in the nostrils
of God. But now he says here, he says
in verse 16 of Matthew 18, he says, if he will not hear thee,
in other words, if a brother has trespassed against us, and
you go to that brother or that sister, and you try to reconcile
and try to get them to admit their fault and repent, and he
said, if they won't hear you, Then take with thee one or two
more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word
may be established. In other words, if they won't
hear you privately, then get another brother or sister or
two and go to them and talk to them, sit down, in a loving way. In a way, a positive way that
would bring about restoration of fellowship. heal, mend that
relationship. And in the same way, under the
law, every word had to be established by two or three witnesses. And
think about it this way. Our biggest problem in this issue
of forgiveness and all of that is somebody said one time, said,
well, I can forgive, but I can't forget. And that's a cop out. Because if I tell you I'm gonna
hold this against you for the rest of your life or something
like that, well, now think about that. Does God hold us, does
he hold it against us for the rest of our lives? No, he says
I will remember your sins no more. Now what does that mean?
Well, it means he will not charge us. He will not keep bringing
it up. He will not keep holding a record of it, you know. And
so remember, that's grace. God will not impute our sins
to us. He imputed them to Christ. And
Christ put them away, and we're righteous in his sight, and when
we mess up with each other and whatever happens with each other,
we need to keep that in mind. because this is the grace of
discipline. Not the law, but the grace. Now,
you know, I don't have anything necessarily against using the
word law, because I've always put it this way. You know, somebody
says, well, we're not under law, we're under grace. Well, what
does that mean? Well, that means we're not condemned. We're not
condemned. The law cannot condemn us. And
the law is not our motive. Grace is, we're under grace.
We're justified before God. But I don't have any problem
with using the word law because when God says something, when
Christ preached to his disciples, he was not just making suggestions. He was giving mandates. Love one another. That's the
law of love. But it's not motivated by law. You understand what I'm saying?
It's motivated by grace. How much have I been forgiven
by the Lord God of heaven and earth? How much? I don't even know myself. I'm
sure it's probably exponential. me because I know what I am and
yet God has forgiven me and my relationship with God is established,
firm, eternally because of His grace in Christ. Keep that in
our minds and so look at verse 17 now. He says, and if he shall
neglect to hear them, that is after you've gone to that person
privately and told him or her what she's done
and how we need to reconcile, and you brought two or three
witnesses with you, if they don't neglect to hear them, tell it
unto the church. Now I don't believe that means
have a business meeting or something like that, but I mean, I believe
it means let the church be aware and, you know, in a public meeting
or whatever, but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be
unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. That's a lost person.
In other words, this is somebody who claims to believe in and
love Christ, which, now listen, you cannot claim to believe in
and love Christ and still hate his people. That's one of the
greatest inconsistencies that people have. And, you know, Christ
said, you know, just back in the prior lesson, where he said, When you treat one of his little
ones, that's how he takes it personally. I thought about in
Matthew 25, where he's talking about the judgment, where he
separates the sheep and the goats. And he said, I was in prison
and you visited me, or I was in prison and you didn't visit
me, I was hungry and you didn't, all of that. And the people of
God said, well, Lord, when did we ever do anything like that?
Because they weren't thinking about it in terms of what they
do. And he said, in so much as you've done unto the least of
my brethren, you've done it unto me. And that's the issue. Now, that doesn't mean that you're
going to consign them to hell or anything like that. We can't
do that. That's God's business. But in
other words, if a person, if this issue cannot be settled
in a gracious way, then that person is to be treated as you
would treat a lost person. And that's not legalism now.
And that's not threatening with hell. It's just showing that
their inconsistency, if God's being gracious to me, why do
I have such a problem being gracious to you? Remember that. Let that be sealed
in your mind and upon your heart because it's the grace of God
to me that draws out my love and forgiveness to you and to
others. So he says, look at verse 18,
he says, verily I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What he's talking about there
is the authority of the word of God that's given to the church. We have an authority. It's not
our personal authority. It's not our opinions. It's not
even our own personal view of things. It's the authority of
the word of God. If I bring down a mandate in
my preaching, it better be based upon God's authority because
I'm an ambassador of Christ. That's like an ambassador today
in the diplomatic corps. An ambassador of the United States
of America represents the authority of the government of the United
States of America, not his own. And so this is the same as, you
remember, it's the same when it comes to preaching the gospel.
You remember over in Matthew chapter 16, where Peter made
that confession about Christ being the rock of
the church. And Christ told him, he says
in verse 18, this is Matthew 16, Peter said, thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God, the Messiah. In verse 18
of Matthew 16, Christ said, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock,
not Peter now, Peter's not the rock upon which the church is
built, Christ is. And he says, this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And he says in verse 19, and I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What is he talking about? He's
not talking about Peter being up at the pearly gates, letting
people in and all that. That's myth. That's false religion. Peter's a sinner saved by grace.
And he didn't just give the keys to the kingdom, just personally
to Peter. He's given it to all of his preachers. He's given
it to his church. And what he's talking about there
is the preaching of the gospel. When we preach the gospel, whatsoever
is bound in heaven will be bound on earth and vice versa. In other
words, we tell people, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved. Believeth not, and you will be
damned. What is the key to the kingdom
of heaven? It's Christ crucified, risen
from the dead. Well, it's the same thing in
church discipline, in relationships, when it comes to preaching and
teaching God's word. So if you have this situation
that cannot be reconciled because one of the parties will not hear
it, and you're forced to treat that person as a heathen or a
publican, verse 17 of Matthew 18, what you're saying is not
a personal judgment that's given out of anger, you're just simply
saying what God says. And that's bound in heaven and
earth. And so look back at verse 19. He 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. And then he says, for where two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. Now this is one of those verses
that people take out of context, you know, and they make it try
to apply to every little thing. It does not mean that if you're
a believer and you find another believer and you all pray to
God and you agree on any issue, on anything, that you're gonna
get what you pray for. All prayer, now think about this,
all prayer is by the grace of God and it's, founded upon this
one fact. Thy will be done. I pray for our brothers and sisters
who are going through illness. If I had my way, I'd heal every
one of them. Wouldn't you? Whether I like them or not. No. No, I'm just teasing. I'd heal
every one of them. But see, that might not be God's
will. It might be God's will to take one or two home to be
with Him. And what a glorious thing that
is. And we'll miss them. But we know that that's the will
of God. And you know what? The will of
God is always good. It's always the right way. It's
always the wise way. And when it comes to his children,
it's always good for them. And so though we let our desires
be known, whether it's two of us, three of us, or one of us,
we let our desires be known, here's our prayer. Lord, thy
will be done. Now, we don't always know the
will of God in the providence of our lives until after the
fact. Isn't that right? I pray to God
that I don't fall again, all right? I may fall out of this
chair before, I don't know. And I want healing for myself,
I want healing for you, all of us. But we don't know, we pray
his will be done. But he says, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. When
the people of God, by the spirit of God, under the preaching of
the truth of God, are gathered together like we are today in
his name. Now what does that mean? That
means under the truth that identifies and distinguishes the true and
living God from idols. The true Christ from counterfeit.
The spirit of God from an evil spirit. The true gospel from
a false gospel. That's what it is to meet in
his name. His name identifies and distinguishes him. And he's
identified by his doctrine, his truth. God says, this is who
I am. And we meet together acknowledging
and and receiving gladly the truth of that's who God is. I've told you about the sign
I saw up in Huntington, West Virginia one time, outside of
a Methodist church, and it said, the God who hates, we don't serve
him. Well, whenever they meet together,
they're not met in his name then, because the God of this Bible
hates all workers of iniquity, Psalm 5. And the only reason he doesn't
hate us is because he's removed our iniquities and laid them
on Christ and Christ died for them. So what the whole issue
here is this, coming together, forgiving one another, receiving
one another in his name. And he's with us by his spirit
and by his word. And he said, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. That's it. Okay.