Regulating Precepts (Mat. 5:21-24; 18:15-17)

Introduction: The God-like Work of Peacemaking

0:01 Sunday morning, March 26, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:10 Now let us again unite our hearts in prayer and ask that God, by the Holy Spirit, would attend both the preaching and the hearing of his own holy word. Let us pray together. Our Father, we thank you that in the opening psalm read in our hearing and in the psalms and hymns we have sung together this morning and in the reading of your holy word, that the great issues of human sin and guilt and the marvelous realities of divine grace and

0:54 pardon have been set before our minds and hearts again and again. And we thank you for this great reminder that at the end of the day, these are the realities that above all others really matter. Help us then as we turn to your word and will again be confronted with those realities that our hearts may reach out in eagerness to receive all that you have revealed and that we may know the ministry of the Holy Spirit taking the things of Christ and bringing

1:37 them home to our understanding. Friends, unless we are today, we have started to be concerned or concerned. and if you have some time, we are obligated to come forward for a mouthful of prayers. And if you do come forward, but you know that you don't have the strength to come forward and the Heart of Christ has gone because of this very theme, you just don't come forward able for all people whose flesh is not being obtained.

2:17 Amen. God bless you. Amen. Amen.

2:18 Amen. Amen. Amen. words. He wrote, there is no more God-like work to be done in this world than peacemaking. There is

2:31 no more God-like work to be done in this world than peacemaking. So wrote the man of God from another generation. And since we as God's people are called upon to be imitators of our God, Ephesians 5.1, then the issue of being a peacemaker must be a matter of deep concern to us.

The Internal and External Dimensions of Peacemaking

3:02 And in our consideration of this theme, divine counsels for peacemakers, last Lord's Day I sought to accomplish basically two things. Number one, to establish from the Word of God that being a peacemaker is a matter of deep concern to us. Number two, to establish from the Word of God that is a prominent duty laid upon all of us who claim to be true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We examined six texts of scripture, beginning with the Beatitude, which says, blessed are the

3:40 peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God, and on through to other texts in the New Testament, establishing, that the matter of being a peacemaker is of the weightier or the greater matters of the revealed will of God. And then in the evening we began to answer the question, since it is my duty as a Christian to be a peacemaker, how can I actually be one who makes peace? How do I go about being

4:22 a peacemaker? And I answered by saying that when we collate the biblical materials, we come to the conclusion that if we are to grow in the sanctified grace and ability of being peacemakers, there must be an ongoing internal work within our hearts, and there must be an ongoing activity in our lives. With respect to our hearts, we must seek to have a ruling or governing disposition. There is a

5:02 ruling and governing disposition to be sought and to be cultivated. And from the scriptures we saw that that disposition or attitude is to be one of Christ-like lowliness and meekness, for Solomon says, Only by pride comes contention. It must be one of God-like forgiveness, one of heaven-born wisdom, and one of love-impelled forgetfulness. But not only must we recognize the need for this governing

5:42 or ruling disposition or attitude of the heart, but if we are to be peacemakers, there are explicit directives to be understood and obeyed. And so we move this morning from what is inward to what is outward, and what can be measured by our actions. Those explicit directives which are to be understood and obeyed. And we're going to look at just two of the most fundamental

Underlying Assumption: Sin Among God's People

6:21 of those directives, which, if properly understood and continually implemented in any congregation of God's people, it is well nigh impossible that anything but a climate of peace will be maintained. Now, first of all, we must consider the underlying assumptions of these directives. These two directives that we'll consider, one from Matthew 5 and the other from Matthew 18, they are directives

7:00 that have an underlying assumption. And the underlying assumption of our Lord Jesus, for both of these directives come from his lips, is that amongst his people who have a fundamental disposition to be peacemakers, and who have embraced the repeated injunction to be makers of peace, that there is nonetheless the reality of sin within their

7:36 interaction that would disturb their peace and their unity. In the directives which our Lord gives to his disciples, he is always not only the divine idealist, God's perfect ideal. He is the first designalHANZE of all ooh. what would be Cash that we in this passage will find into these directives here, by understanding of the external nature of all people and so far off in our existence .

8:07 I pray that you abandon element of our holy knowledge our true conscience , and truth and wisdom and morality in our continually reminding us that he not only knows our frame and remembers that we are dust, but he knows that in this life we are yet sinners. In the prayer that he taught his disciples to pray as the framework of their petitions, this comes out so clearly. Not only are they to pray those noble and God-centered petitions,

8:49 hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, but he acknowledges that his own people will have a daily struggle with the reality of sin, and he teaches them to pray, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who are indebted to us. So the underlying assumption in these directives is that though the people whom the Lord Jesus calls to himself and owns as his own will have implanted within their hearts by his own transforming grace a fundamental disposition of peacemaking,

9:33 he accepts the reality that their indwelling sin will work in certain ways and in such manifestations as to disrupt that peace and therefore... Therefore he has given us explicit directives to be understood and obeyed that given the reality of a peacemaking disposition implanted within his people on the one hand, and the fact that that disposition must operate in a realm where sin is still committed one against another,

10:15 therefore they might yet maintain... a climate of peace within their midst.

Directive 1: Reconciliation Before Worship (Matthew 5:21-24)

10:23 Now, having spoken briefly of the underlying assumption of these directives, now we come to the heart of our study, the identification and exposition of these directives. And the first is found in Matthew chapter 5, Matthew, chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24. If, therefore, you are offered a life of peace, Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24, your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has ought or has something

11:01 against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way first, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Now the immediate context of these words of our Lord Jesus, as those of you familiar with the Sermon on the Mount will readily know, is that beginning here in verse 21 of Matthew 5, our Lord is committed to stripping away all of the artificial limitations which

11:44 the scribes and Pharisees had placed upon the pure intent of God. Upon the giving of his law. And so we have these instances throughout this chapter where he says, you have heard that it was said. You have heard that it was said by them of old time.

12:04 And what our Lord is doing is he is peeling away the encrustments which the scribes and Pharisees had put around the law of God, and showing the true intention of God's law. And the first. First commandment with which he does this is the commandment, thou shalt not kill. We commonly call it the sixth commandment.

12:28 You shall do no murder. And the scribes and the Pharisees and their traditions had so conditioned the thinking of our Lord's contemporaries that if they did not actually unlawfully take the life of another human being. They were content. That they were.

12:51 They were keeping all that God was requiring in the commandment, thou shalt not kill. But our Lord goes on to show that that commandment not only deals with the actual unlawful taking of the life of another. But in verse 22, he points out that it deals with the internal disposition, which if given its logical outcropping. Would result in the taking of the life of another.

13:26 And so he focuses upon a disposition of unrighteous anger that finds expression in demeaning or derisive or insulting speech. I say unto you, verse 22, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to him. Say to his brother, shall be in danger of the council and whosoever shall say, you fool shall be in danger of the hell of fire.

14:01 What is he doing? He is showing that God's commandment. You shall do no murder, not only forbids the ultimate expression of ill will to a fellow human being by putting a bullet through his temple or his heart. Plunging the knife.

14:20 To his vitals. But it also forbids the entertainment, the harboring of unrighteous anger and ill will to another human being. And the expressions of that ill will with the mouth. But now he's going to show that the command goes even further.

14:43 It even goes verse 23, if therefore. You are offering your gift. Your gift at the altar in there. Remember that your brother has something against you.

14:57 Leave your gift before the altar. Go your way, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. And he makes one other application. Verse 25, agree with your adversary quickly.

15:15 That part of the text is no concern of ours this morning. Do you see what our Lord is doing? He is saying that that commandment not only forbids the unlawful taking of the life of another human being. It not only forbids the harboring of ill will toward another human being that would break out in demeaning and derisive and slanderous speech to another, but it also mandates that among the brotherhood of his own people.

15:53 We are determined to remove anything that causes a relationship of ill will. Or if ill will is allowed to fester, it can become unrighteous anger and unrighteous anger. If festering and given its right opportunity would result in murder. You see.

The Situation Envisioned: A Sensitive Conscience at the Altar

16:20 Therefore our Lord is taking this commandment and showing how exceeding broad are its demands. But now I want us to focus having looked at the general context and the drift of thought upon these words of our Lord Jesus Christ. And first of all notice the situation as our Lord envisions it. If you are offering your gift at the altar.

16:50 And there remember that your brother has something against you. One of the old commentators so graphically describes what our Lord is envisioning that I want to read a paragraph of his commentary to set it before you. The meaning evidently is do not, I'm sorry, the meaning evidently is not dismiss from your own breast all ill feeling. But get your brother to dismiss from his mind all grudge against you.

17:31 And here is the actual picture. It transports us to the moment when the Israelite having brought his sacrifice to the court of the Israelites awaited the instant when the priest would approach it to receive it in his hands. He waits with his gift. At the railing which separates the place where he stands from the court of the priest.

17:59 Into which his offering will presently be taken there to be slain by the priest. And by him presented upon the altar of sacrifice. It is at this solemn moment when about to cast himself upon the divine mercy. And seek in his offering a seal of mercy.

18:19 And seek in his offering a seal of mercy. And seek in his offering a seal of mercy. It is a seal of divine forgiveness that the offerer himself is supposed all at once to remember that some brother has a just cause of complaint against him through the breach of this commandment in one or other of the ways just indicated. What then?

18:44 Is he to say well as soon as I've offered this gift I'll go straight to my brother and make it up with him? So, before another step is taken, even before the offering is presented, this reconciliation is to be sought, though the gift may have to be left unoffered before the altar.

19:10 You see, our Lord is taking a very concrete situation, and he's describing the one who has come up to the temple, and he's about to offer either a thank offering or that which would be a sacrifice, a sin offering, and because he is not a mere formalist, listen to me now, because he's not a mere formalist, who when he goes to his religious ritual doesn't think of spirituality.

19:40 In spiritual realities, all he's thinking about is doing his religious thing, but because this man is thinking of God, the God for whom he is grateful, if this is a thank offering, thankful for the mercy of God and the goodness of God and the kindness of God, or if it is a sin offering, the God against whom he has sinned, but this God who has promised pardon and forgiveness and symbolic. He automatically sets forth and seals that forgiveness to him in the object lesson of the offering up of an innocent animal.

20:20 This is no formalist. He is a man having dealings with God, and in the more intimate, concentrated dealings with God in the temple, and in the midst of the divinely appointed rituals, his conscience is unusually sensitive. And at that point...

20:41 At the point of having intimate, heart dealings with God, he remembers something. He remembers that there is a brother who has a legitimate complaint against him. There is a brother who has something against him. And the against him has obviously created a breach in mutual harmony.

21:11 And the against him has obviously created a breach in mutual harmony. And the against him has obviously created a breach in mutual harmony. Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, Because verse 24 says, suspicion about me or some ungrounded ill will toward me. No, this is a case wherein

21:49 seeking to have dealings with the God of burning holiness with respect to my gratitude for his mercy to me or seeking afresh his pardon and forgiveness for my sins, I remember my own sin against a brother. I remember that there is someone who has a just complaint against me that has raised a barrier to our dwelling together in peace that has disrupted

22:25 in the language of Ephesians for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now what

The Mandate: Leave Your Gift, Be Reconciled, Then Worship

22:36 do you do? Well, in language that cannot be misunderstood, with very succinct, orderly imperatives, look at the language of our Lord Jesus. Leave there thy gift before the altar. The moment he says you remember the reality of this moral and ethical abnormality with respect to your brother.

23:08 Stop your ritual worship. Leave your gift before the altar. Don't follow through and have the priest place it upon the altar. Say, excuse me, Mr. Priest Man, I've got some business

23:26 to take care of. Leave your gift before the altar and go your way. For what purpose?

23:41 A word of order. Priority. First, be reconciled to your brother. What does that mean? You

23:50 go to him and say, my brother, I was going up to the temple a half an hour ago and as I was reflecting upon the mercy of God to me or seeking afresh the pardon of God for my own sins, my conscience was sensitized in those more intimate dealings with God and I remember, brother, in my dealings with you this past week, that I treated you in a manner that was contrary to the spirit and the grace of the gospel. I treated you with carnal brusqueness. I manifested a spirit of angry speech to you. You did something

24:33 to me that though you didn't hear me say it outwardly, inwardly, I said to you, you dumb knucklehead. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense.

24:41 That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense.

24:42 That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense.

24:43 That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense. That's the sense of the words raka and phoo, that's the murderous spirit in the heart.

24:49 The flaming words which if they could be turned into instruments of death will kill another man, and my brother, God has brought those things to my remembrance and you have just grounds to have an issue with me and I come in the posture, will you forgive me my sin again? against you? Will you forgive me for wronging you by that act of insensitivity, by those words that were far from words framed with love? My brother, will you forgive me? And the brother, obeying the

25:34 Lord Jesus who says in so many other places, even in the Lord's prayer, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. When you stand praying, forgive. If your brother sinned against you, rebuke him. If he repented, forgive him. The brother says, why, of course, my brother,

25:56 I freely, unreservedly forgive you that wrong. I too am a forgiven sinner, and they embrace and are reconciled. And now he runs back to the temple. Look at the text.

26:11 Comes in now with his face aglow, not only with fresh eagerness to offer up his thank-offering or his sacrifice, but with a conscience void of offense to God and to man. And then he comes and offers his gift. Now in the light of these clear words of our Lord Jesus Christ, what are we to learn? What are the great principles? We no longer come up to a literal temple. We no longer offer literal sacrifices

Principles from Matthew 5:21-24

26:52 to a literal priest. What are the principles that carry on over into the more spiritual realities of the rituals of new covenant worship in which we are all new covenant priests and in which we are the living temple of God, made of the living stones by the power of God? Well, let me underscore three very simple but obvious words of application. The first is this. Unresolved issues which disrupt peace between brethren are regarded by our Lord

27:35 as a serious issue, even a breach of the sixth commandment. Do you see that from the text? Unresolved issues. I'm not talking about the phantoms that people spin out of hypersensitive hearts taking offenses over nothing. It's as if your brother has something against you.

27:59 It's a thing that you can go and address, and when it's addressed, you're reconciled. People who spin out of offense out of their own sensitive hearts can never be reconciled to God's people. The problem's with their own heart. But here's a situation that I'm talking about, where there's an unresolved issue, a real issue, which disrupts real peace between brethren. And those issues are regarded by our Lord as a serious issue, even a breach

28:39 of the sixth commandment. You may think, ha, no big deal. Everybody blows his cork once in a while. Well, that may or may not be true. But if it were true, then it

28:54 means everyone who blows his cork has got to leave his gift and be reconciled to his brother. You see, the fact that you say, well, everybody blows his cork once in a while, everybody gets irritated and says a nasty word once in a while, what does that have to do with the text? You come to offer your gift. There, remember that there is someone who has something substantive, something real that you have said or done.

29:28 Someone that is caused to preach in the peace that ought to obtain between brethren. What does a peacemaker do? He leaves his gift. He goes to his brother, and he does all that he can short of sin to be reconciled to his brother, and then come, and he offers his gift.

29:55 The second observation from this text is this. Concrete efforts to restore peace between brethren are to take precedence over the deeds and acts of formal worship. Concrete efforts to restore peace between brethren are to take precedence over deeds of formal worship. Jesus says, leave your gift. First go, be reconciled, then come.

30:31 Concrete efforts to restore peace between brethren are to take precedence over the deeds of formal worship. First Samuel 15, 22, to obey is better than to sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. And it's interesting that in this section, we see that the Lord of hosts is the one who is most faithful to Jesus. And the Lord of hosts is the one who has the competence to be faithful to Jesus.

31:05 And the Lord of hosts is the one who is most faithful to Jesus. And the Lord of hosts is the one who is most faithful to Jesus. of our Lord's dealing, he moved from the second person plural to the second person singular, to bring it down to the conscience of every individual who claimed to be one of his followers. He moves from the second person plural, speaking in broad, general terminology, and here in verse 23, if therefore thou, you individually are offering your gift, and there you remember you go, you leave, you first be reconciled, you come.

31:41 And the third observation, and this is perhaps the area where perhaps most of us need fresh enlightenment to our consciences, the primary responsibility in this text, the primary responsibility rests upon the one aware of the brother's legitimate complaint to take the initiative. You see that? If you are offering your gift, and there remember your brother has something against you, he has a legitimate complaint against you for something you've said, done, or not done,

32:20 or not said, some breach of the law of God, you are to leave your gift, you're to go your way, you're to be reconciled to your brother. You're not to say, well, if my brother's obeying. Matthew 18, and believes I have sinned against him, doesn't Matthew 18, 15 say, if thy brother sinned against thee, go tell him his fault between thee and him alone? Yes, it does say that, and we're going to look at that as the second major text in a few moments.

32:53 But you see, in this passage, the onus is not placed upon the offended, but upon the offender.

33:02 You see that in the passage? You remember that your brother has sinned against you. Something against you. You are to leave.

33:11 You are to go. You are to take the initiative to be reconciled. You're not to reason, well, I may have wronged him, but if he's obeying God, he'll come to me. If it's serious enough, he'll come to me.

33:29 No, God says in his word in this passage that the responsibility rests upon the one aware of the brother's sin. The brother's complaint to take the initiative to rectify the issue. Now, dear people, if we took this seriously, do you see the profound implications it would have? What would it mean when you husbands and wives in the rush of a Sunday morning had stumbled over the chain of command and somehow things got tense and there was a nasty, sharp word spoken by husband to wife or wife to husband?

34:06 There was some irritating, carnal words spoken to the kids. And in the rush of getting ready, nothing was said. You came off to church. If we took this seriously, you see what we'd make sure we did between Sunday school and gathering in this place?

34:27 We'd make sure in the midst of giving the kids their banana and their piece of fruit and their piece of cheese and whatever other snack we give them, we somehow got the family aside and said, look. Please turn this cassette over to continue. Continue the message. We somehow got the family aside and said, look, Savior White, dear, you have grounds to have something against me.

34:57 I spoke to you in a way that was un-Christ-like. I didn't call you a ninny, I didn't call you a fool, but you know and I know that whatever my words may have been, my disposition was contrary to the spirit and demands of the sixth commandment. And because the kids saw it, you gather them together as well and say, Daddy has asked Mommy's forgiveness. And Daddy wants to ask your forgiveness.

35:30 I want to be able to worship God and have dealings with God in my heart. And I don't want in the middle of my worship to remember what I buried from an hour or two ago. When I did and said and acted in the Lord's presence. And I don't want in the middle of my worship to remember what I buried from an hour or two ago.

35:48 In those ways that were contrary to God's will and you'll humble yourself before your wife and your kids- in between your church service and Sunday school. And make sure that the issue's made right. When you go to gather the family to family worship, it won't be the ritual of reading the Bible and praying a prayer when the kids and the wife have seen you irritated and un-Christ-like in words. and attitudes. How can you think when all around your table are those who have bona fide

36:31 legitimate things against you? Are you ready to make peace at the expense of humbling yourself and taking the initiative, going to whomever it may be, getting on the phone ten minutes after the end of a phone call, realizing that you spoke in a way that could well have been interpreted as being caustic or harsh, and going off and trying to have your devotions, and there remembering your sister, your brother would have a just complaint against you.

37:16 You say, Lord, excuse me, I'll get back to my Bible as soon as I've done what you've told me. I'm going to leave my offering of my devotional time until I'm first reconciled to my brother or my sister. You see, dear people, there's no way to get around this passage. You either obey it or you stiff-arm it. It doesn't leave us any... Oh, I know, you're starting to think about,

37:43 oh, do you mean, Pastor, that I should literally get... Look, look, don't try to calm your conscience with bringing up ridiculous exceptions. Just start taking it to heart and say, Lord,

37:59 give me grace to do what it says. As much as in you, Lion, I'm going to give you grace to live peaceably with all. Be at peace with all men. Leave your gift before the altar. Go your way. Be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.

38:28 Puts new meaning on a text like 1 Timothy 2.8, does it not? I will that the men pray in every place without what? Lifting up holy hands.

38:39 Without wrath and doubting. Lifting up holy hands. Let the men pray out of the context of a life marked by universal holiness and a heart devoid of ill will toward one's fellow men. First, be reconciled to thy brethren.

Directive 2: Confronting Sin Between Brethren (Matthew 18:15-17)

39:05 If we would obey the manifold directives to be peacemakers, then we must pursue peace with all men. And this directive must be understood and implemented. In dependence upon the grace of God. In looking to Christ for wisdom in its application, yes, but it must be implemented. And then the second clear directive is Matthew 18 and verse 15.

39:38 Matthew 18 and verse 15. The Lord Jesus, who in Matthew 16 gives us the first explanation explicit reference to the church in the New Testament and says that he will build that church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Here manifest his realism that he knows that in that church, in this age, there will be sin between brethren. In spite of all that his grace has wrought for them and his spirit will effect in them, they will still sin.

40:17 And they will still sin against one another. So anticipating that reality, he gives this very clear directive, verse 15. And if your brother sin against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he hear you, you have gained your brother.

40:42 But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more that at the mouth of two witnesses or three. Every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. And if he refuse to hear the church, let him be unto you as the Gentile and the publican.

41:03 Now what's the situation envisioned here? Well, the situation envisioned is a sin has been committed against you by one in the fellowship of the church. Now it's a real sin. Now that's where we've got to understand. Now that's where we've got to understand. Now that's

41:19 where we've got to understand. Now that's where we've got to understand. Now that's where we need to understand the directive before we try to implement it. And how do we know it's a real sin? Well, first of all, the word used — if thy brother

41:28 sin against thee? The standard word for sin missing the mark. What mark? Not the mark of your own personal wins or your own standard of what is right and wrong, but the mark of God's holy law, by which any deed is to be judged as sinful or virtuous, if your brothers sin against you, if he breaks the law of God in such a way that that breach of the law of God in one way or another terminates upon you, he

42:06 touches your goods, he demeans your reputation, he violates the ninth commandment, he seeks to despoil your virtue by unclean words or looks or acts, he seeks to encroach upon your right of property thou shalt not steal, if he seeks to seduce you to worship another god, if he sins against you, it is envisioning real sin, first of all by the word used, secondly because it has caused a real disruption in the relationship between you and God.

42:44 Jesus said, you've lost your brother through this particular sin, so you must show him his fault in order to do what? To gain your brother. In other words, whatever has come has been real enough to cause a real breach so that you've lost, in terms of experiential unity and peace, you've lost your brother. This is the standard word.

43:14 To win back, to gain, what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world? Paul says, I do this and that that I may gain the more. You've lost your brother, distance has come because of sin. And thirdly, the word translated here, show him his fault, it's the only place where this word is translated this way in our English Bible, ek lecho, it's the word translated everywhere else.

43:44 For rebuke or reprove. And what it really means, if your brother sinned against you, reprove him between you and him alone. There's something reprovable, so reprovable, that if you bring in two or three witnesses, you can carry their conscience that you're not dealing with some petty little imagined fault. It's substantial enough that it can be established in front of witnesses and if necessary, carry the conscience of a whole church.

44:15 To put the man out of the church. So what our Lord is envisioning, again, is not hypersensitive people going around just waiting for someone to raise an eyebrow one thirty-second of an inch the wrong way at the wrong time and assume the worst. Such people need to go have dealings with God and ask him to drive the nails of spirit-wrought mortification into their self-centeredness. It has to be done.

44:47 It has to be done. It has to be done. It has to be done. It has to be done.

44:48 It has to be done. It has to be done. It has to be done. It has nothing more to do than measure how much somebody's eyebrow is raised or not raised when they see it.

The Three Phases of Confrontation and Discipline

44:55 This, our Lord is describing, is a situation where there's real sin, one brother against another. That's the situation envisioned. Now, what's the direction given? Well, it has three phases.

45:11 Direction number one, and this is what we want to concentrate on this morning. Phase number one is this. If your brother sinned. If your brother sinned against you, go, show him, that is, reprove, rebuke him for that sin between you and him alone.

45:34 It doesn't say, if your brother sinned against you, go and tell your closest friends and seek their sympathy for you and stir up their animosity toward your brother. Alas, that's what many of us do by instinct. And if you don't admit it, you have either attained a level of sanctification beyond the average church member in Trinity Baptist Church, or you're lying.

46:05 When someone wrongs us in the fellowship, what is the instinctive thing we do? We tell our closest friends, starting with our husband or wife, how they wronged us, seeking to elicit their sympathy for us and their ill will to the person who wronged us. And if we're honest, we'll admit that's what we do as natural as breathing.

46:32 Thank God there's a few heads shaking, yes. That's what we do if left to ourselves. But you see, Jesus, knowing that would be our tendency, brings us up short and says, no, if your brother sinned against you, go, show him, convict him of his fault, of his sin between you and him alone. That's the first direction.

47:00 The second directive in phase one is private confrontation with a view to restored fellowship. Or look at the next part of the text. If he hear you, what's that mean? Not if he just sits there and listens to your words come in the outer vestibule of the ear.

47:20 But if he hears your reproof, he owns his sin, he acknowledges his wrong. He says, my brother, will you forgive me? My sister, will you forgive me for that wrong against you? And you, without any hesitation, say, my brother, my sister, I live under the cross of Christ in the canopy of God's continued forgiveness.

47:43 How can I do anything other than forgive you? What's the result there at phase one? Look at the text. You have gained your brother.

47:55 You've gained your brother. What's happened has been restored. Open-faced fellowship. Open-faced fellowship.

48:04 Open-faced fellowship. Open-facedァ�as replaced enmity. Face to face delight in one another has been restored. And the issue need go no further.

48:21 Except I don't believe it would be a violation of the principle, that the sin were not of a shameful nature. Then for a husband to share with his wife how God blessed his obedience, he need not even name the brother. But say, dear. I had a marvelous experience today.

48:40 day. I did what Jesus said. Someone wronged me in such and such an area, and I tried to do what Jesus said, and I did it full of fear and apprehension, wondering if my brother would stonewall me. But as I went prayerfully and in dependence upon God, he heard me. We've

49:05 embraced. Sweetheart, God honors simple obedience. For a husband to say that to his wife, doesn't need to mention who it is. To share that with a brother or sister in testimony of God's goodness, yes, but you see, the knowledge of the sin went no further than was necessary to deal with it righteously, to restore peace. That's being a peacemaker, not just a lover

49:35 of peace. But a maker of peace. You've gained your brother. Then our Lord envisions a phase two if he hear you not. He may listen to you, but he won't hear you. That is, he won't own

49:49 his sin. He will not acknowledge his sin. He'll not seek forgiveness for his sin. What does a true peacemaker do then? Say, oh, well, I gave it my best shot. Let's forget it. No.

50:01 If it was of that nature, you should never have gone in the first place. It was in the category of a thing that love should have covered. If it's serious enough that that sin, that violation of the law of God, he will not acknowledge. Who knows how much his conscience has been hardened that there are other sins he's not dealing with. And when a man starts dealing with sin carelessly and begins in the language

50:29 of Hebrews 3 to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, though a brother has come and pointed out a specific sin. He's putting himself in the high road to apostasy. I've met lots of people in my life who can make the most moving, generic confessions of depravity in their prayers, but who would rather die than own one sin in the presence of a fellow mortal and say, I sinned against you. Will you forgive me?

51:05 Maybe he's one of these. In the fellowship, in the prayer meeting, he'll make most moving confessions of sin. But when a brother comes to him and says, in this area, my brother, you wronged me and I've come not to beat up on you, not to push you down, but I've come to point out your sin, that dealing with it, I might gain you and you might be back in the way of gospel holiness. So you take with you two, one or two more. To what end? That at the mouth of two witnesses

51:41 or three, every word may be established. See, this is something substantive that can be established before reasonable, mature, spiritually minded people who can say, yes, brother, you wronged him in this area. We entreat you as he has entreated you. Own your sin, repent of it, seek his forgiveness. He

52:02 stonewalls them. He won't hear them. Phase three, if he refused to hear them, tell it to the church. The congregation is gathered, and the church is apprised by the witnesses, by the offended party of the issue. And there's

52:20 an entreaty made by the voice of the church, and he still refuses to hear. Then the Lord Jesus said, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. What's that mean? No longer regard him as part of the brotherhood. Why? Because you see, he has regarded so lightly

52:40 the peace and unity of the brotherhood that he shows himself, as long as that attitude prevails, to be void of one of the fundamental characteristics of the brotherhood, which is what? Blessed are the peacemakers. And if he loves his sin and his pride and saving face more than dealing with the sin that has caused the breach in the unity of the brotherhood, he shows himself to be acting like a non-Christian. And God says, since he's chosen to act that way, you treat him that way. Let him be to you as the Gentile

53:25 and the tax collector. You put him out of the church, into the company of those who have no concern about making peace, except when it promotes their own ends. But it's in the pursuit of their own ends they must cause wars and fightings. In the language of James, whence come wars and fightings?

53:49 Among you, come they not from your own lusts that war in your members? You lust and desire, you fight and you kill. That's the world. Well, any man in the church who puts so light a premium upon being a peacemaker that he'd rather cling in his stubborn pride to his sin that's been pointed out by one loving brother, by two or three loving brethren, and by the whole assembly?

54:19 He shows himself to lose any rightful claim to being part of the brotherhood. Put him out.

Principles from Matthew 18:15-17

54:28 Now, dear people, it seems to me that again, with all the kinds of questions that can be raised about this possible situation and that possible situation, the obvious implications of this text are such that we don't need to ask a lot of questions. All we really need to do is start praying for a lot of people. We don't need to ask a lot of questions. We don't need to ask a lot of grace to do our very plain duty.

54:56 By way of application, I want to say with respect to this passage, obviously unresolved issues between brethren are regarded by our Lord as a serious enough issue to be escalated to public discipline if they are not resolved. See how serious our Lord regards it here? In our first passage, he says, The issue is serious. Serious enough to suspend formal worship to deal with the issues of being a peacemaker between unreconciled brethren. Here the Lord says that unresolved issues between brethren

55:40 are regarded as serious enough to issue in public discipline if not resolved. That's scrumptious. autonomouslyלא reparation Willingness

56:21 disaggregation would be a new intention because we are going towards יה worship you remember that you are the one who wronged another. There you remember your brother has something against you. In the Matthew 18 passage, you are the one who has been wronged. And as one old quaint writer said, if God's people ever obeyed this, you know what would happen? They'd often be meeting halfway between each other's houses in obedience

56:58 to these two passages. The one who in seeking to have dealings with God remembered, oh, I said something, I did something. My brother has just caused to have something against me. And then there's the brother who thinks as he contemplates the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace and the mandate to be a peacemaker. And as much as in him lies to

57:26 live at peace with all men. And he says, my brother, wrong me in that area. And it's significant enough and serious enough that I must go and point it out to him. And this old writer was saying, you see, if both are in that posture of obedience, they'd meet each other running toward each other's house. The one who was

57:47 conscious of having wronged another and the one conscious of being wronged. May God grant that some of us, if not literally in spirit, will know. The reality of that kind of obedience to the word of God. God, the great realist gives us one passage where the focus of the responsibility is on the offender. He gives us another passage

58:18 in which the focus is on the offended. He's covered all the bases, no excuses or unreconciled brethren in an assembly. And then thirdly, from this passage, we learn, that the knowledge of the private offense is to go no further than the demands of righteously dealing with it. The knowledge of the private offense is to go no further than the demands of righteously dealing with it. If thy brother sin against thee, show him his fault between

58:53 you and him alone. And if you're not exactly sure and you need counsel, don't name names. I've been involved in the last couple of weeks in one of the most sordid, sickening, vile aspects of church discipline that I've ever had my counsel sought about. A pastor has spent hours on the phone with me, but to this day, if the man guilty walked through the door, I wouldn't know him. He's

59:23 not once breathed his name because it was none of my business. And I didn't want to . And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base natured nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin.

59:37 And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And

59:41 if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And if that's true of sordid, vile sin of the most base nature, then it's not a sin. And

59:45 of the kinds of much more limited grievances that are nonetheless sins against one another? Oh, may God forgive us when we have disobeyed this clear directive. Tell him his fault between you and him alone.

Gospel Realities as the Foundation for Peacemaking

60:08 You and him alone. Then fourthly and finally, and I'm so glad I can end on this note, the essential elements in restoring and maintaining peace between sinning brethren are the great issues of the gospel, are they not? Conviction of sin, repentance, divine forgiveness. That's the stuff of which these passages are made.

60:38 You remember your brother has something against you. You go to be reconciled. How? You own your sin.

60:46 You seek forgiveness. He extends forgiveness. You see, we are seeing mirrored in human relationships the stuff of which every Christian says his very spiritual life is composed. That he has come to an offended God.

61:05 That the God against whom he has sinned with a high hand. But that God who though the offended God, even while we were enemies, the scripture says, sent his son to die. For the likes of us. And when by the spirit of God we have been brought to conviction of our sin, for when he has come he will convict.

61:27 There's our word. He will reprove the world of sin. And we have owned our sin and sought forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. We know the blessedness of being reconciled to God through Christ.

61:44 And we know the blessedness of ongoing forgiveness through the blood of Christ. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, it's a people whose souls are constantly soaked in these gospel realities that do not find Matthew 5, 22 and 23 or 23 and 24 and Matthew 18, 15 and following difficult to obey. Because they reflect in our interpersonal human relationships

62:23 the great realities upon which our eternal salvation hangs. A God who stands ready to forgive. The psalmist says, You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon you.

62:46 Do you really believe that a fellow believer can be daily living, living under the canopy of the forgiveness of God in Christ and that you're going to meet a person with a hundred barriers when you go to him to say, I long you will be forgiven?

63:08 There's almost a sense in which we should long to have opportunities to see the spirit of the gospel manifested in our interpersonal dealings. How many times in my own study when one of the shepherds has come and acknowledged some grievous area of deflection from the law of God and the ways of God and at times attitudes and dispositions and things that were sins against me and they finally have gotten it all out and I've said, my brother, my sister, you've asked forgiveness. You are freely, fully, unreservedly forgiven.

63:51 They've looked at me with silence and I said, well, what do you want me to do? You want me to go get a stick? Beat you?

63:58 You want me to give you some penance?

64:02 I sit here this side of the desk for one reason only. I ought to be even for the sins of this day. I sit here with the privilege of ministering the gospel for one reason. I'm a forgiven sinner and forgiven sinners are forgiving saints.

64:28 And dear people, if we have reservation, how we'll be met when we go saying, I do remember John or Mary or Peter or Sally has grounds to have something against me. I must leave my gift and go to them. Whatever struggles I have, I shouldn't have to struggle with whether or not they'll receive me. Whatever my struggles may be, it should not be that.

64:56 When Jesus says, if you forgive not men that trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive yours.

65:04 When Jesus says in the parable of Matthew 18, if you're ready to take, your brother by the throat for the few pennies he owes you when you profess to be forgiven your millions by God, you've never known divine forgiveness.

65:20 Your heavenly Father will deliver you to the tormentors and you'll not come out until you've paid the last part.

65:28 Oh dear people, if we are what we say we are, a gospel church, born by the gospel, sustained by the gospel, we live by the gospel, then surely gospel realities will make us peacemakers one with another. When we seek not only to cry to God for and cultivate the disposition that we focused upon last Sunday night, but when we understand and obey these directives given by the Lord Jesus

66:11 to maintain righteous holy peace within his church. For as the Psalmist says, righteousness and peace have kissed each other and they are to kiss one another in the church. Never peace at the expense of righteousness, never a professed righteousness at the expense of peace. May God bless you.

Prayer for Obedience

66:44 May God grant that we will take these counsels to peacemakers and begin to obey them in ways we never have before, determined that we will in so doing obey the injunction as much as in you, Lion, live peaceably with all men. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your holy word and we pray that the Holy Spirit would enable us to receive, with its directives and in dependence upon your grace

67:28 and with the hearts suffused with the blessed realities of your saving mercy, that we may as a congregation implement these directives of the Lord Jesus, that we may not be guilty of formalistic worship tolerated in the midst of friction and tension and unresolved, issues between brethren. You would give us the grace to be obedient to these clear directives from the lips of him whom we say we love. May he not say to us, why do you call me Lord, Lord,

68:10 and do not the things which I say, but may we manifest our love to him by obedience to these words. Seal them to our hearts, we pray, and where obedience to them will demand issues that need to be addressed, even this day, give grace, Lord, that they may be addressed, that we may know the blessedness that comes in the way of obedience, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.