Forgiveness in the Church

Transcript

GRM 1216
02/10/19
Forgiveness in the Church
Colossians 1-3; Matthew 17-18
Gil Rugh

We've spent the last couple of studies talking about the church, the local church, some of the aspects of it and a general overview, and I want to continue that this morning. Again, more of a broad overview and what it means to be part of the church of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ, the family of God. So different pictures of the church used in the Bible. We are Christ's body, various members of the body; we are God's family. He is our heavenly Father; we are brethren together; we are God's building. His various parts are put together and just the different pictures used in Scripture. We're not going to look through each of those, but want to just look about the relationship God has brought us into, with Himself and with others, what that means, how we are to function. And we'll also touch on what is sometimes called church discipline, as it fits into this as well.

But I want to go to Colossians 1 in your Bibles. Some of you have studied Colossians, have taught Colossians, a rich book given by the Spirit through the Apostle Paul, very similar in content to the letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the church at Ephesus. We see the letter to the Ephesians and the church at Colossae, the letter to the Colossians. These are churches in the same general geographical area. When we studied the book of Revelation, we studied the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2-3. These churches would have been located in that region. Ephesus was one of the churches addressed first in Revelation 2, Colossae was not individually addressed. The church at Laodicea is and it is mentioned in this letter to the Colossians. So, these churches have close proximity and the letter to the Ephesians is similar in content to the letter of the Colossians, as many of you knew since you have studied it.

Just start in chapter 1, I want to highlight these opening chapters and then look into chapter 3 a little bit. Paul writes it, he is writing in verse 2, “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae.” So clearly it is a local church in the city of Colossae and Paul has had contact with this church through a representative, Epaphras. But he knows of them, they are saints, he writes to them as saints. Saints are those who are believers in Jesus Christ, a saint is a holy one. Some of your Bibles probably have a note in front of saint, and you look in the margin and it says holy ones because saint, holy, sanctified, all from the same basic word, they form a group of that word. Saints are holy ones, they are those who have been set apart from sin to God. God is holy because He is perfectly and completely set apart from all sin, any defilement. We are holy ones, saints because God in His saving grace has set us apart, redeemed us from our sin, and now we belong to Him. We have become partakers of the divine nature, as Peter wrote. That doesn't mean we are divine, but it means the character of God who is our heavenly Father, who caused us to be born again, we now partake of His nature and so are to produce characteristics that are consistent with God's character, as we will see.

They are faithful brethren in Christ. What makes you a brethren, part of God's family, is that you have recognized your sin and guilt and placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. You are born again. So, by virtue of being in Christ, identified with Him in His death and resurrection, you have become part of God's family. The church is called in 1 Timothy 3 the family of God. It's believers, brethren in Christ who are set apart by God for Himself, holy ones.

The ones at Colossae, Paul expresses his thanks to God for them, he prays for them. They came into this salvation when they heard, down in chapter 1, verse 5, “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.” And in verse 6 is that long sentence, he says that they came to understand and believe, then, that grace of God in truth. It's through the truth that God has given, the message concerning His Son. What that means, salvation is provided when you hear that and understand it and place your faith in Christ and His work, you are cleansed from your sin, you become a child of God, you become part of His family. And we'll see something of the richness of what that means to belong to God in this unique and intimate way.

He goes on to talk about Jesus Christ. What Paul does in these first two chapters of Colossians, he talks about basic doctrinal truths that are foundation for us to live the life that has now been given us in Christ, that new life, eternal life. We have passed from being the old man to the new man, as the Scripture pictures it. And down in verse 13 he talks about “He rescued us from the domain of darkness” ruled by Satan, prince of darkness. We have been transferred to the kingdom of His Son, a kingdom which will be established on this earth when Christ returns in power and great glory. And he goes on to talk about the redemption that Christ provided, in verse 15 that Christ is God in the flesh, He is the One by whom, through whom and for Him, verse 16 says, all things were created. And He is before all things because He is the Creator of all things. And it is by His power everything holds together. He is the One who died and was raised from the dead. All the fullness of deity dwelt in Christ in bodily form, something we have to keep clear. Two things are crucial—you must understand the person of Christ, He is the God/Man; you must understand the work of Christ, He died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, was buried and was raised from the dead, and is alive, seated at the right hand of God and is returning some day.

It was through Him, through Christ, verse 20, that God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself, note this, “having made peace through the blood of His cross.” There is no peace with God apart from the cross of Christ. Everyone, and this will become clear as we move along but I mention it so you are ready for it. Everyone who has not placed their faith in Jesus Christ is the enemy of God, is living a life of active disobedience to God. “There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked,” Isaiah wrote. You cannot have peace with God apart from Christ. But Christ did everything necessary for anyone and everyone to enter into that relationship of peace with God where you belong to Him and you belong to the family that He has created.

That's why Christ came, He reconciled you in His fleshly body through death. The result of that, when you place your faith in Christ, some day you will be presented before God the Father, the end of verse 22, “holy, blameless, beyond reproach.” And the evidence of that is now you live a life of faith. Verse 23, “if you continue in the faith.” When you are born again you live a new life. If you claim to be born again but you don't live a new life, you have never been born again. And you can't be born again by trying to live a new life.

I pick up my watch, if I keep telling this watch, start breathing, start breathing, it can't. It is not a human being, it doesn't have life. That's what you are telling a dead man, as we are going to see, to change his life. We are dead spiritually until God makes us alive in Christ, then we are reconciled to God. Note this, verse 21, “although you were formerly alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” This is what we all were. Important to understand when we are going to talk about functioning together as believers, we understand what we were. We don't have bad sinners and good sinners here. We as Christians tend to get confused and we begin to look at people through a certain external activity, and then we look back at our lives and say, I never did some of those things. As though God's salvation wasn't as great for us.

Did Christ have to hang on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin? It doesn't get any greater than that. We somehow begin to get a little bit of corruption in our thinking, even as believers. You were formerly alienated, you didn't belong to God, you were separated from Him, you were hostile in mind. This is the issue, it is internal. It is my heart, my mind, that inner person that I am. That's why the Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. My life wasn't so bad, and I got saved at an early age, and I never lived a dissolute, immoral, drunken life. I just wasn't that bad a sinner. Well, you can thank God for His grace that you didn't maybe indulge in all the sins you could have. But as God looked at your heart, He saw one thing—desperate wickedness.

We were hostile in mind. There are only two kinds of people in the world—God's friends and God's enemies, those who are hostile toward God and those who are not. We look at our world and sometimes at Christians as Christians, we get confused. We think, what are people thinking? Look what they are doing. I never thought people would act like this, I never thought people would approve of this kind of conduct, this kind of behavior. Well, what do we expect from those who are hostile in mind? Their evil deeds flow from what they are, they are cut off from God, they are God's enemies. This is what we were. Paul is trying to drive home what we were, so it is clear what we are to be. We were just like the worst. So don't look at those people and you see and say, that is so disgusting, I don't know how they could do that. That's a denial of what God says about you and me. He says we were just like them. He tells the Colossians in verse 21, “formerly you were alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” Now “He has reconciled you” in order to present you cleansed, if I can summarize this, completely. How can someone so defiled stand before a holy God and be declared to be holy, blameless, beyond reproach? Because reconciliation has taken place. When that happens I am washed clean, my account is clean. We'll see more about that in a moment.

Paul says that is my ministry, to preach the truth of the Gospel which is the foundation for people to be changed within so that their life can be different on the outside. And it is a process of growing, verses 28-29. We are teaching the Word, nourishing people in the Word so that we can become complete, mature in Christ. And he goes on in chapter 2 and reminds us and reminds them, you want to be careful that you don't get off track. Christ is the foundation. Verse 9, “In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. In Him you have been made complete.” Don't go chasing after other things, don't go chasing after other doctrines, other people. You are made complete, perfected in Him, everything God wants you to be. In Him we have everything necessary for life and godliness. It seems those who call themselves Christians, even evangelicals, always come up with some new thing. They are like the world, advertising, selling something. They don't have anything new. We tell you about the Savior that is old, that's what we have. We tell you about sin that has not changed and the corruption and defilement of that sin. And the cleansing that is available in Christ.

I want you to note something. Verse 13, “You were dead in your transgressions, the uncircumcision of your flesh.” You were lost, dead, defiled. You don't get any worse off than that. If you say we have four bodies here—one was shot, one was run over by a truck, one was struck by lightning and one died of old age. That's all secondary. Do you know what? They are all dead, they are cut off from this life, they no longer function here, they no longer have a living connection here. We forget that. Well, I wasn't a sinner like that . . . You were dead. What is that body? Is one of those bodies going to get up and say, by the way I didn't die as bad as they did. You are dead. Shut up and lie down. You are dead. We forget, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. “He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven all our transgressions.” How did that happen? Having nailed “out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” You are familiar with the picture. When Christ was crucified on the cross, Pilate the Roman authority put on the top of the cross, Jesus, king of the Jews. That's why He is dying, He is king of the Jews. That's the Roman authority to execute Him, that's the reason He is dying. So anybody that came and stood before that cross, and the Jews were offended by it—just say He said He was king of the Jews. Pilate said, I have written what I have written, being crucified king of the Jews.

What is Paul saying? He is taking it out of the way, having nailed all that was against me—my guilt, my sin, the penalty for that sin. Nailed to His cross. It is paid for, the penalty has been paid in full. That's why you who were dead in your transgressions can be made alive, having been forgiven. Two words we are going to talk about for forgiveness, this is one of them. This word comes from the word grace, charis is the word grace, charizomai is this word. These are two different words, they are not exactly synonyms, although they both refer to forgiveness. This word stresses that our forgiveness comes because of God's grace, you have been forgiven by grace. You are not forgiven by anything you did because it was by Christ being crucified on the cross, paying the penalty for all your transgressions, all your offenses. That meant you were spiritually dead. He is dying to pay the penalty, for the penalty for sin is death. They are paid in full. So you have been forgiven, or we might expand this, have been forgiven by His grace all your transgressions. They are all forgiven, those sins, that sin and all of its manifestation which could only earn me an eternal hell, forgiven in Christ. He tells them to live in light of that.

Come to chapter 3. You'll note how chapter 3 begins, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above.” We died with Christ, we have been raised to new life with Christ. Now the focus of our minds is on something new—things above where Christ is seated at the right hand. “Set your mind on things above.” That's what controls me now, now the things of this life and what it offers, its appeal. I see what God has promised me, what God has prepared for me, what God intends for me. I set my mind on those things. That doesn't mean I don't fulfill certain responsibilities here. I mentioned if the police and fire departments say don't block the exits, that's fine. We don't block the exits. We don't say, I'm going to heaven, I don't care about that. No, we do it. We go to work, we earn money, we pay our bills. But the focus that shapes our lives and directs us is not here, it is there—heavenly things.

Verse 5, another therefore. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead.” Do you know what happens when a person is dead? That body doesn't respond to the things associated with the physical life. You may go hug that body but there is no response. That's part of the pain of death, that person is no longer here, there is no life. They get no satisfaction, that which was so enjoyable is gone and it is just a body. Consider the members of your earthly body as dead, there is to be no response then to sinful things, “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed which amounts to idolatry.” He mentions things that we ought not to be drawn to. Now he wouldn't have to say it if we didn't have to do it. He is telling us how to think. “Therefore consider the members of your body,” they are dead to these things. This is how we deal with it. Now if there was no attempt to draw us to that, it wouldn't have to be said. So he is trying to bring these Colossians along, but you'll note he starts with sins that most of the Christians would agree are bad. I mean, immorality, idolatry, same thing as greed. Of course, those are the bad ones. And you note, he says it is “because of these things the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.” You'll note how God characterizes unbelievers—they are sons of disobedience. That's a way of saying that's the characteristic of their life, they live it in disobedience.

The unbeliever never does anything that is pleasing to God, that's why Romans 3 says there is none that does good, not even one, because as God looks at the heart it doesn't come from a person who has bowed in submission to the living God, agreeing with God. But he is a guilty sinner, claiming the forgiveness that God gives through faith in Christ. They are sons of disobedience, that's what we all were, that's the realm in which you live—disobedience. Sometimes it expresses itself more openly, sometimes less so. That's where we got the crazy idea of the Moral Majority back in the 1980s as though there are unbelievers, but the majority of people are at least moral. Well, our eyes are a little more open today, aren't they, and where people will declare themselves. And all it is, is what the condition of the heart was and always has been—sons of disobedience.

And note, “you also walked in them.” The danger is we begin to think of ourselves as we never were like that. The Bible repeatedly reminds us that's what you were. Paul will tell Titus, remind them they were just like them. We get so spiritual that we begin to look and say, those people are so disgusting, I just don't know how they could be like that. As though what were you? What was I? I never would have done that. You don't know the wicked depths of your own heart. It's the grace of God, as Paul said, by the grace of God I am what I am.

So verse 7, “in them you also walked when you were living in them.” I didn't do some of those things, I didn't worship idols, I wasn't that greedy a person. I did a lot of good things. I didn't do immorality. Put them all aside, “anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech.” Now we move to things that are problems in the churches. We have studied the letters to the church of Corinth. We draw the line here, but now we get to things like anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech. In verse 9, “And do not lie to one another.” I think I draw the line after verse 5. But we all did this, this is where we live. How the sin is manifested is secondary to the fact that's where we lived, that's what was on the inside of me. No matter how healthy. I remember one of our dear members, talking to him in the hall, a number of years ago. He says I feel good. Look at me, I look healthy and that, but the doctor said I am filled with cancer. I will be dead in months, and he was. Didn't matter how he looked. We get the idea, this is the way we were spiritually, as God looked at us. He saw a heart, an inner person so corrupt, so defiled, so consistently rebellious against Him that it deserved an eternal hell.

Put them all aside. In other words, now if I have been made new, verse 9, you “lay aside the old self with its practices.” And now I have a picture here, it's like clothes. The clothes you put on are what people see. You say you are going to put on your face or you put on your clothes, you dress for something. If you have been working in the yard and you have what we call your grubbies on and you are dirty and sweaty, people will say well, you have been working in the yard. We usually clean up some to come to church. Then you go home and you say I'm going to put on my comfortable clothes. So, the clothes represent something. And that's what he has here—you have put them all aside, they are like old clothes, they are discarded. That's not what I am anymore, and it is these sins that characterize you—anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, immorality, greed. All these things, they come out, they came out. They were there because that is what was in me. Nice people, very nice people, seem gracious. Sit down and explain the Gospel to them. Well, unless God has been working they probably won't say, thank you, I want to trust in that Savior. Sometimes they are offended, they are upset. I don't want to talk about that, I'm not interested in hearing that. Wait a minute, I thought they were good people, they would be interested in what is the greatest good. Not so.

This salvation, we get a lot of discussion, the sad thing is Christians get involved. I got invited to a meeting of pastors from the city and some evangelicals—racial reconciliation and social justice. And all kinds of mixture are going to be there. Well, here is the solution, you are made new. We put off the old man, verse 9, with its practices, you put on the new man. What is characteristic now that you've been made new within, you've been born again. Now don't go back and do the old things. You live a new life. This is for everyone.

Verse 11, “a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman. Christ is all, and in all.” That's the reconciliation the Bible talks about. In places I never thought, I was reading in a journal and I never thought this would be, how important racial reconciliation and social justice is for us. What's the foundation for it? We look at the world and say they don't make any sense anymore. I look at some professing Christians, I say they don't make any sense anymore. I thought foundational to this reconciliation was the finished work of Christ, and what binds us together and overlooks all these divisive things—race, position in life, importance in this world, money—and binds us together is the common salvation we have in Christ. This has bound us together, not externally but internally. How are we going to get self-centered, selfish people living as sons of disobedience and in rebellion against God, but we ought to overlook our differences. Well, the sin that binds us together emphasizes and stresses the very thing we say we are going to overcome. I'm not interested in getting together and praying for social justice and racial reconciliation with a mixture of believer and unbeliever. I am willing to come and present the Gospel that will reconcile you to God, enable you to be reconciled to other believers. But other than that, we live in a world that is divided.

“So, as those” verse 12, “who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved.” I mean, how amazing that we were chosen of God. That's where it started, not my initiative, His. We are the electos, we are chosen of God, holy and beloved ones. I mean, God cleansed me, I am the object of His love. He loves me. What are we to do? Bask in our theology of who we are. Well, you put on a heart of compassion, you'll note a heart of compassion. He has changed us within, that's the process, more and more the character of the living God to whom I belong is now being produced in my live. “heart of compassion, kindness, humility.” We think things are different. People are arrogant, you see it displayed, we use the political realm, but it is characteristic of the world. They promote themselves. Humility was not exalted in Paul's day either, we think it is new today. But it wasn't then, that was viewed as weakness. People who were the nobodies, they had humility, they didn't have any choice, they are nothing. If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will. Well, come to know the living God and there is One who will care for you like no one else does. There will be a family that will care for you or better as no one else does.

Look at verse 12, “gentleness, patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other.” You see where he has moved this? To down now, where he gets to where we are. “Bearing with one another,” as one Greek commentator said, a very accurate way of translating this is putting up with one another. It implies some tension is there. You don't have to bear or put up with someone who is always so good to you and does everything you love. You put up with those who aren't so easy. “Forgiving each other,” there is our word that has grace in it again. You do it by grace. You don't have to earn my forgiveness, I don't have to earn your forgiveness. I didn't earn Christ's forgiveness, He bestowed it upon me graciously. You graciously forgive each other, “whoever has a complaint against anyone,” and the standard here, it's not like somebody like Paul says, like I have been forgiving. “Just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond on all these things put on love.”

When I left this morning, I put on a topcoat or an overcoat, a coat that goes on top of everything as you are going out. That's what this love is, now this garment you put on over all this is love. Why? Look at the characteristics of love, the agape love the Spirit produces in 1 Corinthians 13. They don't produce all these things. It puts others before yourself, it thinks of others as better than yourself, it looks out for the well-being of others. So, these things, then, I do. That's what produces unity, that's the perfect bond of unity, so that the peace of Christ can rule in our hearts. Somewhere along the line we get off tract and we lose our way. That's the standard.

How does the Lord forgive me? Well, Gil, it is going to be conditional, I'm going to forgive you everything you've done up until this afternoon. Now we'll see how you do from there. Where would I be? Well, we read earlier that He nailed everything that could be brought against me to the cross and that is going to enable me to be presented before the throne of God Almighty as holy and blameless and without spot. He wiped it clean.

Time requires us to come back to Matthew 18. This is a chapter we have misidentified, we call this where we talk about church discipline. Should probably be where we talk about church restoration. But the context is the same we are talking about in Colossians. I want to mention this, I don't have anything in particular in mind. Sometimes you address issues when there is something right before you, sometimes it is good to address it when there are no issues because some issues become so emotional, somehow, we lose our handle on Scripture. Do you know the thing to do? Get grounded in the Scripture and then no matter what wind blows, whatever storm comes you stay true to the Scripture. We as believers can become as irrational as unbelievers sometimes, we are just bouncing around. The Scripture hasn't changed. I don't have anything in particular; not like next Sunday we are going to announce some explosive thing. We're talking about how the church ought to function, so since I was talking about the church we had to talk about this.

The context of Matthew 18 is how much God loves His children, how precious they are to Him. You better treat them, as we would say, with kid gloves. You better do everything you can to help them; you better you do everything you can to keep a fellow believer from stumbling or having a problem in his walk with the Lord. And furthermore, you better forgive him completely no matter what he does, or God says I count you as an unbeliever and I will not forgive you. That's why one very popular commentator that many read said forgiveness is probably the outstanding mark of a believer. And I think it is true, because if you don't forgive you won't be forgiven. And that's the parable Christ will end with.

So, he goes on, and it starts out, we can identify with. Verse 1, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’” Do you know what? We have a problem, what are they focusing on? Comparing themselves with one another and how I probably deserve a better place than Matthew does, or John. Who is going to be the greatest? And who is going to get to stand above the others? He called a little child. People get confused on this, He is not particularly talking about the salvation of children, He is comparing His true disciples to a child. Unless you are converted, He is talking to adults who are jockeying to get the best place in the kingdom that the Messiah will establish. “Unless you are converted and become like children,” there is a comparison going on here, “you will not enter the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven.” You can't get saved. This is the problem with God's plan of salvation, if I can put it that way from our perspective. It is humbling. You can't be saved, you can't be forgiven unless you are willing to see yourself as God says you are. And that's humbling. You are nothing, you are a hell-deserving sinner, you have nothing to offer Him. The best works you ever did are not pleasing to Him.

I don't care if you have been baptized six times and taken communion ten thousand times, you have no value to Him. Christ didn't die for you because you are so valuable, that's turning things around, that's corrupting grace. You have nothing to offer God, He didn't need you, He didn't need me. That is humbling. You have to let go of everything else. I have been trying hard for my life, I have been a faithful church goer, I've given money. Let it all go, let it all go. You are nothing. You see yourself as God sees you or you don't get in. Could it be any clearer? Well it sounds like He is God and you are not, doesn't it? We somehow think, I have something to say here. You have nothing to say, I have nothing to say. I just agree with what He says, I am a sinner. Lord, I deserve hell.

That's what He is talking about here, you become like a child. It is humbling. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child.” It's a little child, he's just a little kid, a little baby. It is humility. You see yourself, you are totally dependent on God, on His mercy, His grace. You cast yourself in faith upon His mercy. Lord, I have nothing to bring, I have nothing to offer, I am already justly condemned, I am guilty, I am on my way to hell. I am asking for mercy, I want to claim the death of Christ, so you credit me with my sins on His cross. “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.” He's talking about the believer. People, supposed theologians, say I was carrying a baby in another country, one of these poor places, and I realized I was carrying Christ. Has nothing to do with Scripture. We receive one of God's children, you receive Christ.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me,” that's who we are talking about. Now they are called God's little ones, it is showing how precious they are, they are under His care. It's like that little baby that you take care of, that's what God looks at and says we are His children. You cause one of these little ones “to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” We see that, we still have some sense. Somebody who abuses a little, helpless baby or child and they send him to prison, even the prisoners attack him. This is how God has said we are, we are His children. You understand what you are dealing with when you deal with a child of God. Not talking about people ought to see me. No, this is how we need to see others. You'll note what He says, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble…” We need to be caring about one another. It started out, am I one of the most important when the kingdom comes, Lord, to I need to be most concerned about others and what is good for them. And I want to be very careful I don't do anything that would cause you to stumble, get you off track. We get callous.

So stumbling blocks are going to come, that's where He goes. But they are caused by unbelievers. True believers have the welfare of other believers on their hearts all the time, or should. And that's where He says cut off you hand if that's the problem; cut off your foot if that's the problem. In some grotesque situations some people have done that. They've read this verse and said, I want to go to heaven, I'll cut off my foot. We've already said the problem is the heart, the problem is the mind, the inner person. That's what determines what these hands will do, where these feet will go. You don't solve the problem by getting rid of a limb because the problem is internal.

In verse 10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” Hebrews 2 tells us that angels are ministering servants, sent to serve on behalf of the heirs of salvation. I need to give careful thought to how important you are to God, how special you are to God. How careful I want to be about your growth, helping you to be everything God wants you to be. I get taken up with me, do they appreciate me, was he thinking about me, did they do anything for me. Christ has turned it around, don't despise one of these. He is talking to His disciples. It started out in verse 1, who of us is going to be the greatest in the kingdom? In verse 10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones…” The ones you think aren't as important as you, shouldn't get as good a position? You don't look down on them, they are important to God, they better be important to you.

And then He uses another picture of a little lost sheep. Remember the Jews, shepherding was their focus. Remember they couldn't be mixed in among the Egyptians because they were shepherds. This was before they became a nation, a family. They were shepherds. So, He uses sheep. If a man has a hundred sheep, Jesus will use this parable of unbelievers, He uses it here of the importance of believers. You have a hundred sheep, one of them goes astray. You don't say I have ninety-nine, I don't have time to be bothered with the one. As shepherding people, they knew, you made sure those ninety-nine were safe where they were because you were going off to find that one. Every one was perfect. That's why in the Old Testament, like David, if a lion tore it, he went and found it until he found the ears, if that was all that was left, because he would account for every one. Every one is precious.

In verse 14, “It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” So, we started out, who is the greatest in the kingdom, to how important every single little one is. It is that context, as we are talking about if a sheep strays. This is one of the ninety-nine, we have a lot more, but God's will is not that they perish. You do what it takes to bring them back. That's what we call church discipline. It should be called church restoration. Here is the plan for bringing them back. You start out, if someone sins, maybe against you, you go confront him, show him his fault. That word often translated reprove. It means to expose, show him what he is doing. It's like your children. They get off track, you want to sit them down and explain what's wrong with what they are doing. It is contrary. Here this is God's Word, what you are doing is not what you should be doing. It is contrary to God's will for you, it will only bring you heartache. You want them to correct it. It may be a sin against you, that would be the logical one you would know. That was wrong, I have forgiven you, but I want to help you deal with it. This is a person practicing any kind of sin.

If he won't listen you take two or three witnesses, this is the pattern of Scripture. Doesn't matter if the person is an elder. In 1 Timothy 5 it says you do the same thing with an elder, you take two or three witnesses. He doesn't get less witnesses, he doesn't have to have more witnesses. Two or three. And what do you do with him? You reprove him, same word, show him his fault, translated here. It's the same word, to reprove, elegcho. You reprove him, you show him his fault. You want to help him get back on track. You don't go there as arrogant because if anyone of you departs, Galatians 6:1, if anyone of you is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore him in a spirit of meekness. You don't go and say, I've been a Christian for a long time, I don't see how you could be a
Christian practicing that. Makes no sense, and you better straighten it up or we won't have anything to do with you. That's not the way you go, you want to restore him. This is someone precious to God, he better be precious to you. I don't come because I am superior.

I need to be careful. Galatians 6:1 goes on, considering yourself, lest you be tempted. It's not just that I would be tempted to maybe do the same sin that I am wanting to correct in him. I might be tempted to handle it not in a right way. I come as a spiritually superior person or I come as one who can reach down and help you. I come to help him because he is precious to God and if the one precious to God is not precious to me, I better consider what is my relationship to God. That's where this is going, to the point if nothing else helps him to deal and stop the sinning. That's the issue. You want to get him back, if he agrees it has been sin, I intend to stop.

Peter has a question in Matthew 18, verse 21, “Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?’” Here He uses a different word for forgive. We talked about the word in Colossians that had grace as its foundation, emphasizing it is forgiveness, on the basis of grace. God forgives us graciously, we forgive others graciously. They don't have to do something to earn it, it's by grace. Here He uses the word aphiemi; doesn't mean anything to most of you, to some it would. It's a word that means to remit, to cancel. It would be used of a debt that is canceled. It's like when my sins were nailed to the cross, my account is declared paid in full. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8 says. The account is clean, it has been stamped paid in full. It's like if you buy a piece of furniture on time or a car, when it is all paid off you get a bill that says paid in full. Or you might get a title, paid off. That's what my account is. Go look at my account that God has, there is nothing there. When I come before Him it will be as holy, blameless, without spot.

Peter says how often do I forgive, declare his account paid in full? I'll do it seven times, Lord, will that do it? That seems gracious. No. What is the extent God has put on His forgiveness of you? Of me? Now I want to be careful here, Jesus does not move on and fill in here what we fill in. And this is where sometimes Bible believers get off track. We say, should I forgive him seven times? I have been in so many discussions about this, I've been on the phone on a conference call with the board of elders in another state about this. We fill in, we would be sure the repentance is genuine. Jesus doesn't say that. Well if you have forgiven someone seven times, now you tell me to forgive him seventy times seven. I'm beginning to think this person is not genuine or sincere in his repentance. Christ doesn't go on to that. Do you know what He goes on to? The seriousness of forgiving or not forgiving, He goes on to say, and you know the parable, if not you can read it, our debt was so great in our sin with God that there was no hope for its payment. It would take eternity in hell and it still wouldn't be paid. And God canceled it.

Now when somebody does something to me, right away I'm thinking, I'm really upset. Or we see something in someone, we become their critic and on we go. Wait a minute, what does God say I am to do? Forgive them. You come down to the end of Matthew 18, verse 33, “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?” In the same way, we are to forgive others as we have been forgiven.

Come over to Luke 17. This is a different occasion but the same discussion. It's about stumbling blocks, casting a person with a millstone around his neck. Luke 17:1, He is saying to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come…” He talks about the seriousness, the inevitableness of stumbling blocks. This is a different occasion but often Christ repeated Himself because what He had said on one occasion is applicable on another as well. And the millstone. Look at verse 3, “Be on your guard!” Do you know what that means? Be ready here, this is serious business. You better be watching, “If your brother sins, rebuke him.” And that's the same word translated show him his fault that we mentioned in Matthew. “If he repents,” first be sure his repentance is genuine. That's not what it says. You forgive him. If he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times saying I repent, you have reason to doubt his sincerity. I don't know where, people I have discussions with who claim the Bible is the authority, get the authority to change what God says. We saw at the end of Revelation, you don't add to the Word of God, you don't take away. Quite frankly someone who sins against me seven times in one day and comes back and says they repent, I am wondering in my mind, I wonder if they are really sincere in this. But you know my prime responsibility is not to try to be sure their repentance is genuine. Do you know what my responsibility is? Forgive him.

I had someone come to see me a little while back, had been in my office before. In fact, this person had been there for the same reason, it was the week I was going to announce to the congregation his sin. He was back again, said I can't do it. I want to repent, I am guilty before God, that sin, I want to stop. I said, you have been here before, we've been through this, you've declared your repentance before God and made right with God. You are right with me, you are right with this church. That is settled. I'm thrilled. I had nothing more to say. The Board had already said if that person comes to any of us and repents, we won't be announcing it. I can't go on and do what God says . . . My responsibility is to forgive him.

What am I going to say? Lord, I didn't think his repentance . . . Do you know what? I've been through the 56 or 57 uses of the word repent as a verb and a noun used in the New Testament and I can't find where it says it is my job to be sure somebody else's repentance is genuine. Now I need to be careful, I realize some repentance is genuine and some is not. Some people profess faith in Christ and it is not genuine, some profess it and it is genuine. God has not turned over to me the responsibility of examining the heart. Remember Paul rebuked the Corinthians, it's a small thing that I should be judged by you. I await the judgment of God who will judge the motives of my heart. All I could do is encourage, for example, this person and say, you have been through this. I encourage you, we'll do whatever we can to help you continue on the road you say you want to be on—faithfulness to God.

Every time we have had situations come up we work through this. Well, they may be doing it to avoid discipline, they may be doing it to get out of trouble, they may . . . They may be…God simply tells me what to do.

I read Spurgeon sometimes and I was reading him this week and in talking about forgiveness, he had a statement I was a little taken aback by because in the Victorian Age when he was preaching, but he said to his congregation, mind your own business. And you know sometimes we become the expert critiques of why this person doesn't deserve forgiveness, why this person has this. Who appointed us the critiques of God's children? That doesn't mean we are soft to sin, that doesn't mean we overlook the destructive things they do that are harmful to them that are sin. But we need to be careful how we approach it, what my goal is here. It is one thing, restoration. That's why Christ said when he says he repents, he repents.

The other Puritan I was reading this week, John Owen. He said you better go slow, there is a reason. There were three steps given. Don't rush to judgment and remember, any doubt you don't proceed because, as he put it and he is a Puritan and we think of them as strict, it's a serious offense against God that you would discipline someone He has forgiven. He said we don't want to err on either side, but we want to be especially careful that we never discipline anyone that God has forgiven. The sin is done.

And so, we want to be careful in all of these matters, that we are a family. We look at each other as God's precious child and we are entrusted to each other's care, we are family, we are a body, we want it all to work together. We count each other as more important than ourselves. I can't think of anybody more important than each one of you. God says you are precious to Him, God says He has cleansed you, you belong to Him, you are His child. You are like that little lamb. There are people around to point out, if they think there has been any wandering, if there has been any imperfection. We want to rejoice in the grace of God that we all enjoy and help one another to grow in that grace.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for we don't know where to start, forgiveness, love, mercy, patience, humility. Lord, you have been so gracious to us, we would be careful to manifest that grace to others. I pray for those who are here, who sit in the seat as a son of disobedience. May they realize the greatness of that grace, the wonder of that mercy and turn from their sin and trust Christ even today. We pray in Christ's name, amen.