Open your Bibles with me to the
book of Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 and I'm going
to begin in verse 46 in the last part of that chapter. Let me
just say that passage that Brother Randy just read in 1st John chapter
3, I believe is one of the most misunderstood, misused, and abused
passages of scripture you'll find in the Bible. And I'm going
to do pretty much of an exposition of that chapter, but not today. Today I'm going to begin talking
about brotherhood. Brotherhood. You know, when we
talk about brethren, the brethren, teach the brethren. The Bible
refers to the people of God as holy brethren. When we talk about
brotherhood, what are we talking about? What does that really
mean? What's the basis of it? What's
the evidence of it, the fruit of it? And I've entitled this
message in the form of a question. And the question is this, are
you really my brother? Am I really your brother? You
can ask that. Are you really my sister in Christ? Are you really my brother in
Christ? Are you really my brother? We use that term brother so loosely. We all do. Brother so-and-so,
this brother. What does the Bible say about
brotherhood? Now there's all kinds of different
brotherhoods and fellowships, aren't there? There are physical
brotherhoods. Like, for example, you all have
families, earthly families. And you have either brothers
or sisters in that family. It means you have the same father
and mother. It means you have that physical
connection. You may form relationships with
people in clubs or in circles of friends. and you might be
brothers, it may revolve around a lot of different things, mutual
likes and dislikes, mutual habits, personal prejudices, and preferences,
all kinds of different ones. There may be civic clubs, charity
clubs, all of that, but that's not what I'm talking about. What
I'm talking about is the fellowship of the people of God. Now this
is really an offshoot of what I preached in the last two messages
concerning the fatherhood of God. Is God really my father? And of course we learn that that
relationship of a sinner with a holy God who must punish all
sinners to whom he imputes or charges iniquity, how in the
world could we ever come into a position where I can honestly
and without embarrassment call God my Heavenly Father. How is that even possible? And
of course we learn that the only way that's possible is by His
free, sovereign, majestic grace in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ who is called the Elder Brother of His people. In fact, he even calls his people
his brethren. We'll see that. And that relationship
comes about by adoption. And that adoption is the adoption
of grace, where God first chose his people before the foundation
of the world and gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Placed
all the conditions of their salvation on Christ. And then it comes
by redemption because the ones whom God chose didn't deserve
to be chosen. As you said, Christ receiveth
sinful men, sinful women. God did not look down through
a telescope of time and foresee what you would do for Him in
any capacity and thereby choose you. That is the height of religious
pride. That is the height of self-righteousness
and unbelief. Election and adoption are all
of sovereign grace, and the only answer that we can give to this
question, why did God choose me and why did God choose this
one and not that one, is the one the Lord gave in Matthew
11 when He said, For so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight.
That's it. had to pay the debt to the justice
of God that we ran up in our fall in Adam and in our sins. And that's what Christ came to
do to secure the adoption of grace. He redeemed us from our
sins that we might receive the adoption of sons. His precious
blood, the full payment to the justice of God for all my sins And in that transaction, His
righteousness has been imputed to me, charged to me. And so there's adoption by redemption.
And then it comes by regeneration, the new birth. We're born dead
in trespasses and sins, and we're born into another family, naturally. And it's the family of Satan.
I mention this, and I want you to look at this. When the study
of comparative religion became popular years and years ago,
and a lot of it was incorporated into the curriculum of our universities,
religious scholars sought to find the essence of all belief
systems. What can we say commonly about
what everybody believes, all religions? And they came up basically
with two, what they think were truths, One of them was the universal
fatherhood of God, and the second was the universal brotherhood
of man. Some would add a third one, and
that is some form of the golden rule. Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you. But the Bible doesn't teach these
things the way that man by nature sees them. The reality is this,
the Bible has never taught the universal fatherhood of God.
It teaches the universal creatorhood of God. God created all for his
glory. Scripture teaches us that. But spiritually speaking, he's
not the father of all without exception. We fell in Adam. We prostituted ourselves out
to another father. That father is the devil. And
I'm going to show you that in just a moment. The Bible does not
teach the universal brotherhood of humanity. It teaches the universal
neighborhood of humanity. Everybody without exception on
this earth is my neighbor, according to the Bible. And that includes
my worst enemy. So that when we hear the standard
of righteousness in the law, it comes out this way, love God
perfectly and love your neighbor as yourself. And what does that
show us? It shows us that we need a righteousness
that we cannot produce. If I'm going to be saved, being
the best that I can be will not do it. There's none righteous,
no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. There's none that seeketh after God. So if I'm
going to be saved, if I'm going to be placed into the family
of God in any capacity, it's got to be by sovereign grace
that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's it. Nothing else will
do. Look at Matthew chapter 12. The
Lord here is teaching, preaching the gospel. He had reproved the blindness
of the Pharisees. He had talked about that their
only hope of the forgiveness of sins is where the Holy Spirit
leads a sinner. I'm not going to get into this
today, but people talk about the unforgivable sin. No such
thing. Chew on that a while. I'll preach
on it later. Give you something to think about.
But I want to tell you something. Without Christ, no sin is forgiven. That's what that teaches. Blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit. You know what that is? That's
unbelief. Rejecting Christ, who is the
only way of forgiveness for any and all sins. And without Him,
no sin is forgiven. But in Christ, the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth us from what? All sin. And there's no sin that
is unforgivable. But all sin is unforgivable without
Christ because God is just. So don't go looking for any one
specific sin. That was created by false religionists
to scare the hell out of people. That's really what it was. I'm
being serious. Scare them out of hell, they think. But actually
it makes them two-fold more the child of hell than they are. And I'm not trying to be mean
or unkind. But this is what the Lord's teaching. He said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. There's no way of forgiveness
apart from Christ. There's no way of righteousness
apart from Christ. There's no way of salvation.
There's no way of eternal blessedness. There's no way of glory apart
from Christ. That's our message, isn't it? So while He's speaking, look
at verse 46. He says, while He yet talked
to the people, Behold his mother. Now you know who his mother was.
That's Mary. That wonderful, that beautiful
woman who was blessed among women. And what a joyous honor and privilege
was placed upon her. But let me tell you something
about Mary. Mary was a sinner saved by the grace of God. through the blood and righteousness
of her son." That's an amazing thing, isn't it? And it says, Behold his mother
and his brethren. Now, the Bible makes a clear
distinction between brothers in the flesh, brothers and sisters
in the flesh, which is purely physical and a temporary relationship
that comes by natural birth, and brothers in Christ, which
is purely spiritual and eternal, and it comes by adoption, comes
by redemption, election, redemption, and the new birth, and it lasts
forever. The Lord Himself had half-brothers
and sisters in the flesh. This is His brethren. The Bible
teaches that. Certain segments of religion,
they don't want to believe that. They want to believe that Mary
remained a virgin all of her life. She couldn't be defiled
by a man if they're going to pray to her and they're going
to worship her. But she wasn't to be prayed to
and worshipped. No human being is to be prayed
to or worshipped. Understand? I had some Jehovah
Witnesses come to the house years ago and They said, well, you
know, we're all Christians. And I said, no, we're not. They
said, well, why would you say that? And I said, because you're
an idolater. Like I could have hit him in
the jaw with my fist. But you're an idolater. And he
said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, do you worship Jesus of
Nazareth? And they said, yes we do. Do you pray to Jesus of
Nazareth? Yes we do. I said, you don't
believe He's God. If you worship and pray to any
one human being who's a human being who's not God, that's idolatry. Christ is God in human flesh.
He had a human body. A human nature without sin. Created
for Him in the womb of this woman Mary. The Virgin Mary, who at
that time was a virgin. who had never known a man in
a sexual way. And he was conceived in her womb
by the Holy Spirit, but it was a perfect humanity, body and
soul, without sin, without the fallen sinful human nature. But
he had a physical body and Mary and Joseph who were married and
they had other children and this is what it's talking about. His
brethren stood with him. Now I don't have time to go into
all of this but I could show you a lot of scriptures concerning
his half-brothers in a physical way. One of them is John 7, 5
where he's talking and it says, neither did his brethren believe
in him. In other words, at that time,
all of his physical half-brothers were unbelievers. And then over in Galatians chapter
1 verse 18, it talks about Paul going to Jerusalem after his
conversion. And he went and he saw Peter
and he stayed there with Peter 15 days. And it says in verse
19, but other of the apostles saw thy none save James the Lord's
brother. Now that James was one of these
brethren here. in Matthew 12, 46, and he's the
one, one of them who was said in James, in John 7, 5, who didn't
believe at that time, but that brother, that half-brother, connected
to the Lord's physical humanity, later became converted and was
the one whom the Lord, I believe, whom the Lord used to write the
book of James. And they say he was the pastor
or one of the elders at the church at Jerusalem, and that could
be so. but the Lord had half brothers and look at it he says
verse forty six while he had talked to the people behold his
mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with
him now he's about his father's business right preaching the
gospel and it says in verse forty seven then one said unto him
behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak
with thee he had to be told twice now look at his answer verse
forty eight But he answered and said unto him that told him,
Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?" Verse 49, he stretched
forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold my mother and
my brethren. Now what is he talking about
here? He's saying, it's like he's saying this, who is my family? Who really is my family? The
Lord himself is saying this. Do you think that he didn't love
his mother, Mary? His physical mother? I guarantee
he loved her perfectly. Do you think that he didn't respect
her? Oh, I guarantee he respected her perfectly. But here's the
point that he's making. Behold my mother and my brethren,
verse 50, look at it. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, The same is my brother, and my
sister, and my mother. This is my family." Who are they? Those who do the will of His
Father. Now, what do you suppose He's
talking about doing the will of His Father? If somebody were
to ask you today, do you do the will of the Father? How would
you answer that? Well, He said now He's got brothers
and sisters here. Now he has a family here, am
I wrong? He turned and he pointed to his disciples. Here they are. Here's my brothers. Here's my
sister. Here's my family. And he said,
now, that can't be said of anybody unless they do the will of the
Father. What do you suppose he's talking
about? I'll tell you exactly what he's talking about. He's talking
about believing and resting in Him for all salvation. That's right. Trusting Christ
for all righteousness. I have one righteousness before
God. The imputed righteousness of Christ. Now what's your righteousness
before God? Tell me. What is it? There's my brother. Right there. You have anything else to plead
before God? If you don't, you're my brother,
you're my sister. That's what he's talking about right there.
If he's talking about, well, we keep his commandments. Now
I know what Randy read in 1 John 3. Those who keep his commandments.
We're going to talk about that later on. Is he saying, well,
those who try to keep my commandments. Is that what he said? He didn't
say those who tried. Somebody said, well, I know I'm
not perfect, but I'm doing my best. Well, first of all, you're
not doing your best. Neither am I. Don't lie to yourself. Oh, I'm doing my best. I had
a fellow tell me, he said, I'm doing my best to keep the Ten
Commandments. I said, no, you're not. You're not doing your best. But I told him this, even if
you could do your best, you know what the Bible calls you? An
unprofitable servant. You still haven't earned God's
blessing, and it still will not make you righteous. Man at his
best. Am I telling you the truth? Those that do the will of my
Father, he said. Do you realize this? Now here's
the brotherhood. We're going to talk, you know,
the brotherhood of the people of God. We are those who have
the same Father. Isn't that right? And while we
read this a couple weeks ago and last week, John 6, 44 and
45, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him, and I shall raise him up again at the last day. which
means that's the security of salvation, the security of the
child of God, the security of all those who come to Christ.
And then he says, as it is written in the prophets, they shall all
be taught of God. He therefore that hath heard,
how are you going to hear without spiritual ears? You must be born
again, or you cannot see. He therefore hath heard and hath
learned of the Father, How God can be both a just God and a
Savior. How He can be just and justifier.
Upon what ground is God reconciled to me and I unto Him? He that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, coming
to Christ. That's doing the will of the
Father. You see, if you're my brother in Christ, if you're
my sister in Christ, if I'm your brother in Christ, we have the
same Heavenly Father, and He's identified and distinguished
in this book through the gospel. So what are we talking about?
Well, we're talking about gospel brotherhood. We're talking about
brotherhood of truth. The Apostle John in 1 John says
it's a brotherhood of light. It's a fellowship of light. That
means truth. That's the gospel line of the
glory of God in Christ. The revelation of His righteousness.
It's a fellowship of righteousness. We stand before God justified
based on His righteousness imputed and we have no other plea. And
it's a fellowship of love. Love to the brethren, which we'll
talk about. But when we talk about brotherhood, and as I mentioned,
there's all kinds of brotherhood and fellowship and connections
here on earth. But when it comes to a relationship
with God, do you know there's only really two brotherhoods? Two families? And it's either
the brotherhood of Satan. Now that may sound harsh and
mean, but it's not. It's just the truth. There's
either the brotherhood of Satan or the brotherhood of Christ.
Now let me show you. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Let me describe for you the Brotherhood
of Satan. Now, when most people hear that
term, who do they normally think of? Well, they'll think of the
radical jihadists, the Muslim Brotherhood. Or they'll think
of someone who is, or a group who is openly immoral and degrading. And those would be included in
the brotherhood of Satan. But let me show you how the Scripture
describes it. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3. He says, But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world... Now, who's the God of this world?
That's Satan. They're under the control of
Satan. Have blinded the minds of them which believe not. There's
the brotherhood of Satan. Them which believe not. Lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. There's the brotherhood of Satan.
Blinded, lost in unbelief. But what about the brotherhood
of Christ? Look at verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. We preach salvation in Christ
our Lord. Founded upon Him, the Rock. Founded
upon Him, His righteousness. And ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake, verse 6, for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. There's regeneration,
conversion. There's the new heart. There's
the heart of conviction. There's the broken and contrite
heart. Christ received a sinful man. God be merciful to me, the sinner,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. There's the family of Christ.
The brotherhood. Let me show you another one.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Listen to this. Ephesians 2 and
verse 1. He talks about those who hath
been quickened. Well, the subject here has to
do with those who have been brought out of the family or the brotherhood
of Satan into the family and brotherhood of Christ. And you'll
notice in verse 1 the words hath he quickened are in italics.
Now what that normally means is that the King James translator
supplied it. It wasn't written into the original
transcript, original manuscript rather. But them putting that
in just simply was their way of emphasizing that he's talking
about those who were once lost and now they're saved in that
sense. So it doesn't do any damage to
the truth of the passage. So look at what it says in verse
one. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. That's how we're born. Dead in trespasses and sins.
Spiritually dead. With no desire for the things
of the glory of God. Verse two. Wherein in time past,
this is how we were when we were dead in trespasses and sins,
walked according to the course of this world. Now it may have
been a religious walk. Understand that. Listen, walking
according to the course of the world isn't always somebody who
hangs around in bars all the time or stays drunk all the time. Okay? That is the course of the
world. But it can also refer to somebody
sitting in a pew somewhere hearing and believing and promoting and
supporting a false gospel. It can refer to someone who's
doing their best to keep the Ten Commandments in order to
be saved. So he says, according to the
prince of the power of the air, that's the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, a child of disobedience in the
New Testament is an unbeliever. Verse 3, among whom also we all
had our conversation, that was our walk, In times past, in the
lust of the flesh, now the lust of the flesh can be a religious
lust too now. I'm not discounting immorality
and perversions now. That's included. But what I'm
trying to get people to understand is you can't limit these terms
to the immoral segment of our society if you're going to understand
the Bible. if you're going to understand
what it means to be in the family of Satan, the brotherhood of
Satan, as opposed to the family of Christ, the brotherhood of
Christ. And that's why I emphasize this, because I try to do this
on our television program all the time, because people's minds,
when they hear that lust of the flesh, they think of the immoral,
and they look at themselves and say, well, I'm not immoral, so
that means I must be a child of God. Not necessarily. Is it okay for children of God
to be immoral? No. Should children of God be
moral people? Well, of course. There's no debate
there. But this lust of the flesh can
be a religious desire. And he says, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind. and were by nature, that is,
as we were naturally born, the children of wrath, even as others."
Now, the people of God have never been under His wrath in the way
of the sentence of condemnation. There's no condemnation to them
who are in Christ. But by nature, as we were born,
we were no different than children of wrath. We deserve wrath. If God were to judge us at any
time based upon What's in us or what we do, it'd be wrath.
But here's verse 4. Now that's the family of Satan.
Here's the family of God. Here's the brotherhood of Christ.
But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us. Remember what Paul wrote back
in Romans 8 about the love of God? Or Romans 5, the love of
God shed abroad in our hearts and the spirit of adoption in
Romans 8 whereby we cry Abba Father. Even when we were dead
in sins, God loved us in spite of ourselves. He hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace, you are saved. He hath
raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through
Jesus Christ. See, it's all about Christ and
it's all about grace, isn't it? For by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. This is the family of Christ.
And look at verse 10. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Turn to Galatians chapter 3.
Let me show you one more. Galatians chapter 3, verse 26. Are you really my brother? Well, I know everyone sitting
in this audience who believes this gospel. You're my brother
and you're my sister in Christ. And I thank God for you. Isn't that the way it is? Now,
those who don't believe it, they're not my brother, not my sister.
I pray that God will bring them into the family. Pray for them. I'm going to talk about that
next week a little bit. On how we are to look at those who are
not in the family of Christ. And how we're to look at those
who are in the family. But look at Galatians chapter 3. He says,
verse 26, for you are all the children of God. How? By faith in Christ Jesus. That's doing the will of the
Father. Who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who is my
sister? Christ said. Them that do the will of my Father.
Well, you're all the children of God. You're in the family
of God. Brothers and sisters, by faith in Christ, do you believe
in Him? Do you rest in Him? Do you trust
Him for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all righteousness,
for all life and all glory? For as many as you have been
baptized, placed into Christ, have put on Christ, you've believed
in Him. You've reached out and laid hold
of Him, as Paul says. There's neither Jew nor Greek.
When it comes to a relationship with God, what country or ethnic
race you come from has no bearing here. If you're in Christ, you're
my brother, you're my sister. You see that? Bond or free, what's
your station in life? You may be a bondman, you may
be a freeman. Doesn't matter. If you're in
Christ, you're my brother, you're my sister. There's neither male
nor female. He's not removing, like people
today are trying to remove all distinction of the sexes. That's
sinful. That's ungodly. He's not saying
there's no difference between us. There are differences, but
when it comes to my relationship with God and being in the family
of God and being in the brotherhood of Christ, that has no bearing. I'm a child of God. For you are
all one in Christ Jesus, and if you belong to Christ, then
are you Abraham's seed, that's his spiritual seed, and heirs
according to the promise. What is the promise? It's the
promise of salvation. It's the promise of forgiveness.
It's the promise of righteousness. It's the promise of eternal life
and glory based on the righteousness of Christ. There's the family
of God. There's the brotherhood of Christ.
And we'll talk some more about that.