Who are our brethren? That's the topic today in Matthew
chapter 12. We're going to begin at verse
46. And you know Christ has been, in his earthly ministry, he continued
to travel through the area and teach and preach and to perform
miracles that testified of his deity and his power to not only
heal physically but to save especially to save his people from their
sins. And here he's teaching in a house and there's a seems
to be a lot of people there listening to him and look at verse 46 and
47 it says, while he yet talked to the people behold his mother
And of course, you know, that's Mary, his mother, his earthly
mother. And his brethren stood without
outside the house where he was teaching, desiring to speak with
him. Now the brethren here are his
stepbrothers. We'll look at that in just a
moment. And verse 47 says, then one said unto him, behold, somebody
came in and told him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without desiring to speak with thee. Now, although we do not,
worship Mary, the human mother of Jesus. We don't, I've got
in your list, we don't elevate her to the status of worship
as the false Roman Catholic Church does. We do recognize that, as
the scripture says in Luke, that she was truly blessed among women,
and I make certain that we understand. Read what that says, she was
blessed among women, not blessed above women. And to worship Mary
is idolatry. Now that's the long and the short
of it. That's just the truth, folks. I know that's offensive
to a lot of people, but it's true. The only one who's to be
worshipped is God Almighty, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. No human being is to be worshipped.
When you attribute attributes that belong only to God to a
human being, that's idolatry. And so to worship her is idolatry.
We're to worship God alone. And Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus of Nazareth, he's God manifest in the flesh. And when we worship
him, we worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not
three gods, but one God in three persons. So he's the one and
only mediator between God and men. Mary is not a mediator between
God and sinners. The apostles, they are not mediators. between God and sinners. Christ
is the one and only true, proper, appropriate mediator between
God and sinners. That's what it's written in 1
Timothy 2 and verse 5. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men. And we come to the Father through
the Son. We don't come to the Son through
Mary and the Father through the, we come only to the Father through
the Son and on the basis of the merits of his obedience unto
death, his cross work, his keeping of the law, his perfection. and the death that he died to
satisfy the justice of God for the sins of his sheep charged
or imputed accounted to him. And that's why he went under
the law. He was made under the law. The Bible says that God
sent forth his son made of a woman, now that's Mary, the human mother
of Christ. And we look at it this way, she's
the human mother of his humanity. The Catholics say sometimes they
call her the mother of God. She's not the mother of God.
God has no mother. God has no beginning and no end.
He's infinite. He's immutable. There is no mother
of God. But she was the human instrument
that God used to bring the humanity of Christ into the world. The
word made flesh dwelt among us. Back over in Genesis 3.15 is
the first prophecy of the humanity of Christ when he's called the
seed of woman. In Genesis 3.15, who would be
against Satan, her seed against Satan's seed. And so, and then
you see, for example, passages like Isaiah chapter nine and
verse six, which says, unto us a child is born. That's the humanity
of Christ. But a son is given. That's the
deity of Christ. The son was not born, the son
of God. Because God has no beginning
and no end. He's the alpha and the omega.
But his humanity had a beginning. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, and his humanity had a beginning.
And he united himself, his deity, with his perfect sinless human
nature. And he walked this earth as God
manifest in the flesh. That's the kind of person that
it took to save us from our sins. He had to be both God and man
in one person. And that's an awesome truth.
It's a mind-boggling truth. How do we explain it? How do
we grasp it, you know? He's the Word made flesh. He's
God manifest in the flesh. He's Emmanuel, God with us. He's the I am. And yet He's fully
God in every attribute of deity and He's fully man in every attribute
of humanity without sin. And in that capacity, as Galatians
4 says, God sent forth his son, that's his deity, made of a woman,
that's his humanity, made under the law, that's his office and
his work, made under the law, that is all of the salvation
of his people, given to him before the foundation of the world,
God's elect, all of the salvation of those people was conditioned
on Christ. That Isaiah 9, 6 passage, when
it says, unto us a child is born, a son is given, it says the government
shall be upon his shoulders. Well, what government? The government
of salvation. The government of God's covenant. The government of grace. It was
placed on his shoulders, not yours and not mine. If it was
placed on our shoulders, conditioned on us, it would fail. And that
includes the best of us, the worst of us, and everybody in
between. But it couldn't fail because it was conditioned on
Christ, the God-man. And so you look at passages like
Romans 1 where it talks about the gospel of God. which concerns
the person of Christ who was made of the seed of David. The
humanity, the human nature of Christ came through the seed
of Abraham, the seed of David, the tribe of Judah, that's his
humanity. And that he was declared to be
the son of God with power, that's his deity. So understand that. So being the human mother of
the humanity of Christ, Mary was not, as the Catholics say,
the mother of God, because God has no mother. God is eternal,
God is immutable. But again, Mary was the mother
of the human nature, body and soul of Christ. And so when this
person, whoever it was, said, your mother's out here, and your
brethren, Think about this, let me give you this before we leave
this point. As we read that Mary was highly
favored, now listen, we don't wanna just cast a negative on
Mary for this reason. She was highly blessed, highly
favored, the scripture says. But now if you're a sinner saved
by grace, you are too. You're highly favored and you're
highly blessed of God. And it's all because of Christ
and his righteousness alone. It's not because that you deserve
it. God didn't look down through the body of women and say, now,
well, the best one I can see is Mary, so I'm gonna pick her.
No, no. You know what Mary was? She was
a sinner saved by grace. And she herself said that. I've
got this listed in your lesson in Luke chapter one, verses 46
and 47, in her song of praise. after she'd had the Christ child.
She said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Savior. She called Christ the baby in
her womb. She called him her Savior. Well,
who needs a Savior? Sinners. If you're not a sinner,
you don't need a Savior. but we need a savior. His name
shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their
sins. Now it says here in our text
that it says, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand outside
desiring to speak with you. After the birth of Jesus, Mary
bore children by her husband Joseph, several children, and
that's who he's referring to, his stepbrothers that came through
Joseph. You see, Christ was not born
of the seed of man, Joseph. Joseph was his stepfather. Mary
was his mother because he was born of the seed of the Spirit
in her womb. And these brethren here were
his earthly, physical stepbrothers. And I've got them listed here.
You can see in Matthew chapter 13, verse 55, their names were
James, Joseph, or Joseph, Simon, and Judas. Now that's not Judas
Iscariot. This is Judas, son of Joseph.
And he also had stepsisters. It's mentioned in Matthew 13,
56, but they're not named or numbered. We don't know how many.
So they had other children. You know, the Catholics say that
Mary remained a virgin. She did not. She had children,
and he had stepbrothers and stepsisters. And so, in John chapter seven,
you can look these scriptures up, we won't turn to all of these.
But in John seven, verses one through 10, his brothers, his
stepbrothers, they went to a festival while he stayed behind, and John
17 five tells us that at that time, his stepbrothers did not
believe in him. They had yet to come to faith
in Christ as the Messiah. Acts chapter one, verse 14. talks
about his brothers and mother are described as praying with
the disciples. So at that time, we can rightly
assume that they were brought to faith in Christ in the book
of Acts. And then Galatians 119 mentions
that James was Jesus' brother, his stepbrother. So understand
that. Now that's what's happening here.
His earthly mother, Mary, the mother of his humanity, and his
stepbrothers are outside and they come and this guy comes
in and says, well, they wanna talk to you. All right, and the
whole incident here is, it's kind of like this, you know,
if mama calls, you stop everything, and you listen. In other words,
you put everything aside for her. Well, that's not what happened. Now look at verse 48. Christ
answered and said unto him, and that told him, who is my mother,
and who are my brethren? Now here's the disciple, came
to tell him that his mother and his stepbrothers wanted to speak
to him, and he says, who is my mother, who am I? Now he's not
being cold or disrespectful to his mother and his stepbrothers
at all, and I've got in your lesson here, Christ loved his
mother and made sure she was cared for after his death. You
remember he looked down to the Apostle John, he said, behold
thy mother, and mother behold thy son, and take care of her. He made sure she was provided
for. because he loved her. But what he's doing here, he's
using this opportunity to teach one of the most important lessons
that believers need to learn. And that's this lesson here,
that our spiritual family in Christ, our eternal family, connected
as we are connected in Christ, in union with Christ, in fellowship
with the Father and the Son, called by the Spirit. Our connection,
spiritually and eternally, is infinitely higher and more important
than our earthly families. And that's what he's gonna teach
here. Now that doesn't mean we're to neglect our earthly families.
That doesn't mean that we're to treat them badly. or wish
them ill will, we'll look at that in just a moment, but we're
to recognize that the relationship that I have with you, my brothers
and sisters in Christ, that's gonna last forever. That'll never
end. My relationship with my earthly
brothers and my sister, my mother, that'll end when I die or when
Christ comes back again. Now we have specific instructions
in the Bible about how we're to treat our fathers, our mothers.
In the Ten Commandments, it was honor your father and your mother.
Christ did that. He honored his stepfather and
his stepmother. He kept the law perfectly. And
love your neighbor as yourself, all of that. Okay, but recognize
this, the relationship that I have with my spiritual brothers and
sisters in Christ is infinitely more important. And so it's important
that we understand who our brethren are and who they're not. So he uses this opportunity and
look at verse 49. He stretched forth his hand towards
his disciples, his followers. and said, behold, my mother and
my brethren. He made it clear that his true
spiritual and eternal family are his disciples. And who are
his disciples? Who are, look at verse, well,
we'll look at verse 50 in just a moment. But he says, whosoever
shall do the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Who are his
disciples? What is it? They're those who
do the will of his father. And what is it to do the will
of his father? Well, the Bible's clear on that. The revealed will
of God to believe on his son whom he has sent and follow him. That's what he's talking about.
It's to believe on Christ, whom the father sent into the world
to save his people from their sins. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, he says, and him that cometh me I will
in no wise cast out. That's the true spiritual family
of Christ. And what I should have added
on your lesson there, it says Matthew 12, 49, put a dash there
and put verse 50, because it goes along with it, look at it.
Verse 50, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father, which
is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother.
That's my family, he's saying. And to do the will of his Father
is to believe on the Son. That's what he's talking about.
If he means, you know, when people look at this passage like that,
they say, well, to do the will of my Father. Do we always do
the will of the Father as far as keeping the commandments?
And the answer is no, we're sinners. So if that's a condition for
me to be in the spiritual family of Christ, then none of us are.
But what's he talking about? You remember when they asked
him that question, what can we do to work the works of God?
And he said, this is the work of God, that you believe on the
Son, you believe on him whom God has sent. Believing on Christ. And this is the true spiritual
family and eternal family of Christ. It's made up of those
who were chosen unto salvation before the foundation of the
world, 2 Thessalonians 2.13. who were predestinated unto adoption,
Ephesians 1, 4 through 5. I've got all this listed here.
Who were justified and redeemed by his blood. Romans 5, 9, Ephesians
1, 7. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all my sins on one ground, the blood of Christ. Nothing else. It's to be declared
righteous in God's sight on one ground. The righteousness of
Christ imputed to me, charged to me, accounted to me. And then
it's to those who are effectually called to life and faith by the
Holy Spirit. You must be born again. The Holy
Spirit will bring these to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. They'll believe on him, they'll
rest in him. That's the spiritual family of
God. And one of the most important
issues of being a believer, Being in the family of God is the matter
of the reality of true fellowship. Because what does the word of
God tell us? It tells us that all who are
saved by God's grace are first and foremost in fellowship with
the Father and the Son. Look over at 1 John chapter one
with me. Let's look at just a couple of
these scriptures because they're so important and people Even
sometimes believers are just too casual with this, you know,
calling people brother, calling people sister. You gotta be careful
here now. And I know, you know, somebody
says, well, we can't judge. Oh yes we can. Now does that
mean that we can look into people's hearts and see what others cannot
see? No, no. God is the supreme judge
of all things. But listen to this in verse one
of 1 John 1. It says, that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, I was talking about the
gospel there, the message of grace, the truth. Now there are
lies and there's truth. There are false gospels and there's
one true gospel wherein the righteousness of God is real. It's the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. Salvation is by grace. And that means, that means there's
no part of salvation which a sinner who is blessed with it can say
that he or she earned it or deserved it. My whole salvation was earned
for me by Christ. And there's no blessing of it
that I can say I deserved or I earned. That's what grace is
all about. Grace is for sinners. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
And so that which we have heard, that which we have seen with
our eyes, John saw the Lord Jesus Christ, that which we have looked
upon and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the
life was manifested, made known, and we have seen it, we bear
witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested unto us, made known to us, that which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may
have fellowship with us. Faith comes by hearing. and hearing
by the word of God. And it's God who gives us the
ears to hear. By nature, we don't have ears
to hear. By nature, the Bible tells us the natural man receiveth
not the things of the spirit of God. So if you believe the
gospel, the true gospel, if you believe in the true Christ, it's
because God gave you ears to hear and eyes to see it, a new
heart, you must be born again. And so that's what he's talking
about, that you may have, heard we declare unto you that you
also may have fellowship with us. And he says in verse three,
and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ. Now there's the foundation and
the basis and the ground of true fellowship with one another.
It's our fellowship with the Father and the Son. And back
over a page or two in 2 Peter 1, he shows us in 2 Peter 1, he's
talking about grace and peace here. Verse 2, look at 2 Peter
1. He says, grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. That's what eternal life is,
knowing God by revelation through the preaching of the gospel.
Knowing how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Knowing
who God is and how he saves sinners by his grace through the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine
power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness, not some things, but all things that pertain to
salvation, through the knowledge of him that hath called us unto
glory and virtue through knowing Christ, whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises." Now, what are those
promises? It's the promise of salvation.
It's the promise of grace. It's the promise of glory. all
the promises of God, which are yea and amen in Christ. And he
says that by these, these promises revealed to our hearts, our minds,
our affections and will, might be partakers, fellowshipers,
that's what that word is, participants of the divine nature, the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. You see that? That's our fellowship. And as sinners saved by grace
and brought to faith in Christ, we're commanded by God to be
in fellowship, partnership with other believers who believe the
same gospel. And we know it by their testimony.
I'll show you that in just a moment. To be with them. That doesn't
mean, sad to say, that doesn't mean we're always gonna get along
and agree on every little thing. but we agree on the gospel. We
agree on who God is. We agree on who we are, sinners,
who if God were to give us what we deserve and earn, it would
be condemnation and death. We agree on who Christ is and
how God saves sinners by his blood and righteousness alone,
by grace. We agree on those things. We
don't have some here who are in fellowship with us. who believe
that salvation is conditioned on sinners. We're in fellowship
over the same gospel. We agree on that gospel. And
that drives us together and keeps us together in the faith. So we're commanded to be in fellowship
with other believers, and we're commanded not to have fellowship
with unbelievers. Now that doesn't mean, again,
That doesn't mean we're to treat people badly or to wish them
ill will, but we cannot have religious fellowship with unbelievers. Now let me show you that. I've
got a lot of scriptures there on the last part, but I don't
have time to go into all. That's why I gave you the lesson,
so you can study it for yourself. But look over at 2 John, the
little book of 2 John. Let me give you an overview here
just to conclude with. The book of 1 John establishes
what I call the benchmarks of fellowship. And those benchmarks
are light, which is truth, righteousness, which is our standing before
God, and godly love, which binds us together in the gospel. Even when we don't get along.
We're bound together in the gospel. We're family, spiritual family. 2 John tells us who we are not
to have fellowship with. Look at 2 John, look at verse
nine. It says, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, they don't believe in and continue in the teachings
of Christ, the gospel. The doctrine. They hath not God,
it says. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. He's in fellowship
with the Father and the Son, therefore he's in fellowship
with other believers. Now, verse 10 says, if there
come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, this truth, this
gospel of God's grace, of the righteousness of God, receive
him not into your house, neither bid him God speak. Now the house
there is not your home. We all have family members who
are not believers. That's not saying don't let them
into your home or anything like that. Shove them out. That's talking about the church.
You're not to receive them as members of the church. That doesn't
mean you're to keep them outside the door. Let them come in and
hear the gospel. Anybody's welcome to come in
here and hear the gospel, but you're not going to be received
into the fellowship of our spiritual family, our church, unless you
believe this gospel. And that's what he's saying here.
Receive them not in your house, neither bid him Godspeed. Verse
11, for he that biddeth him God's speed is a partaker, a partner
of his evil deeds. I've had people call me and say,
well, I'm a missionary and I need some support and wondering if
your church would support me. And I get to talking to them
and say, well, what do you believe? And I find out pretty quick,
they don't believe the same gospel we believe. And I tell them,
no, I can't support you. I can't support you. because
I can't bid you Godspeed. You're not preaching the truth.
You're not preaching the narrow way that leads to life. You're
not preaching the gospel of God's grace. You're preaching a cleverly
disguised system of works. And I have to say, no, I can't
support you. I pray for your salvation, but
I can't pray for furtherance of your ministry, because I'm
not going to be a participant in that evil. Now that may sound
hard to people, but that's just the way it is. I had a fellow
one time ask me the question, he said, why are you so judgmental? And I told him, I said, because
the Bible commands me to be. God's word commands me to be.
Well, on the same token, look over at 3 John, just across the
page there. And in 3 John we're told to receive
those who do preach the truth. John had sent preachers to this
particular church and here in 3 John and verse 4 he says, I
have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the
brethren and to strangers, that is, brethren whom you don't know,
but you find out they're brethren because of their testimony of
the truth, which have borne witness of thy charity before the church,
whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort,
thou shalt do well. Because for that, for his name's
sake, they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. And
so he says in verse eight, we therefore ought to receive such,
don't reject them, that we might be fellow helpers of the truth.
If they're preaching the truth, if they believe the truth according
to their testimony, receive them. Help them on their way, pray
for them, support them if you can. That's what he's saying.
Now, Christ was very open and honest with his disciples. He
told him that because of this gospel, in Matthew chapter 10
and in the book of Luke, I think it's chapter eight, he said,
your own earthly family members will turn against you over this
gospel. And he said that, he told him,
he said, but if you love them more than me, you cannot be my
disciple. You cannot take sides even with
your earthly, in this area, in this religious fellowship, You
understand that. And I've known people, I've known
husbands and wives who are split over the gospel. Now they can
stay together as husband and wife and love each other, but
they cannot have fellowship together. And Christ, you know, in the
book of Luke, he even says, if you hate not mother and father.
Now he's not talking about an ugly, sinful, self-righteous
hatred that wishes ill will. He's simply saying that When
it comes to this gospel, we cannot compromise even for our nearest
and dearest loved ones on this earth. We cannot do it. Because compromising would not
help you or them. It would just reveal both of
you to be lost. So understand, who are my brethren? Who's my
family? Those who do the will of my Father,
which is in heaven. Okay.