Address—C. Hendricks
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Begin tonight by reading the first verse of Matthew's Gospel. Matthew.
Chapter 1, verse one.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.
The son of Abraham a little bit later in this gospel.
The Lord Jesus asked the Pharisees, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?
And they answered the son of David.
And then he went further and asked them another question.
But their answer was right. He was the son of David, but he was more than that, and they didn't know that.
But this gospel begins with him being presented to us as the Son of David.
The son of Abraham, so it brings before us the Messiah.
The Christ, the Son of David.
And it's especially Jewish in character.
It might seem striking strange to us that this gospel which is.
Very much Jewish is the only one of the four.
That speaks of the church.
It's found two times in this gospel.
And why, if it's if this gospel is so Jewish in character, why does the church appear here?
Well, if you turn over with me to the 12TH chapter.
We'll just quickly touch.
On these things.
And at the end of the 12TH chapter.
Verse 46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without.
Desiring to speak with him.
Then whence one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered, and said unto him, That told him, Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren.
For whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother, so in this chapter he disowns.
The natural relationship and he owns the spiritual one.
And then the very next chapter.
The same day when Jesus out of the house.
Out of the House of Israel speaking, this is a very dispensational chapter.
And at this point in the chapter the 5th, 6th and 7th chapters, he gives the constitution or the principles of the Kingdom.
Chapters.
8:00 and 9:00 He does the works of power of the Messiah, proving who he was.
In chapter 10, he sends out the disciples and empowers them.
To do miracles and to announce that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It's there.
It's about to be manifested. The King was there.
And they did those works of power to demonstrate that.
At this point in the Gospel.
Uh, he disowns the natural relationship which he had with Israel. He goes out of the house.
The House of Israel typically, and he sits by the seaside, the nations.
And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into his ship, and sat in the whole multitude sat on the shore.
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, A sower went forth to sow.
Now in this chapter we have 7 parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.
That is the form that the Kingdom would take during the absence of the king while the king was in heaven. It's only used here in Matthew. It has a dispensation of character to it, the term the Kingdom of heaven.
Especially applies. Not exclusively, but especially applies now that.
The king has been rejected and is in heaven.
And instead of Speaking of the Kingdom as a king reigning in righteousness, which is what the Jews were looking for, he speaks of a sower.
And the Lord is that sword, and he's sowing the seed in the word world.
And this parable divides into one, three, and three. The first one, you might say, is introductory. He sews and the seed falls upon four different kinds of ground and bring forth brings forth fruit and so on. And then the next three, 2-3 and four, we have the the outward character aspects that the Kingdom takes as a result of that seed sown in the world.
Begins very small and then blossoms into a great tree that.
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That harbors birds of the air and so on. And it's like Levin hidden. 3 measures of meal and leaven leavens the whole. We can see the evil spreading throughout Christendom.
So really, 2-3 and four refer to outward Christendom. The Christendom means Christ's Kingdom, the meaning of the word.
And then there's the parable of the tares, the wheat.
That both are going to grow together in the Kingdom of Heaven, the sphere that acknowledges and recognizes the authority of the King.
And then the last three parables, he goes into the house and he gives them instruction for what would be true of those who were real.
In the Kingdom, well, it's not my intent of going into this chapter, but just now we turn over to chapter 16.
And verse 13.
It's important to comment that at this point in the Gospel of Matthew, he's been thoroughly presented as the king.
And the works of power have been done, the principles of the Kingdom have been enunciated.
And he's taken a position now outside of Israel and.
Bringing the Gentiles, the nations into a new order of things altogether, something that had never existed before. Completely different thought. A king reigning in righteousness and a sower. He was sowing seed. And the Lord is now doing that. He's been doing that for nearly 2000 years. And the result of that seed sown is a vast system of things. We call it Christendom.
And there are real and unreal that which is genuine and has life, and that which is mere profession in that sphere. By the time we get to Matthew 16, here he goes up into the northern part of the land, Caesarea Philippi, as far removed from the divine center down at Jerusalem. And he asked a question.
Verse 13 When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man am? Notice he doesn't say Whom do men say that I, the Christ AM?
After he's gone through this.
Instruction in verse 20. Then charged to his disciples.
That they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Now why does he say that?
Because that testimony had been adequately rendered.
That He was the Christ and they had in their hearts not actually in fact.
Had rejected him yet, but in their hearts they had rejected Him as the King, as the Christ.
As the son of David.
And so he takes the character. He speaks of himself now as the Son of Man, speaks of his rejection as the Messiah by Israel. And now he takes the term that applies to the whole human race. He was the Son of Man.
And he asked, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So it's a title that he takes in connection with his rejection here as the Messiah. And now he's going to introduce something altogether new.
And they said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremiah are one of the prophets. They compared him.
To the great ones of this world.
The very greatest John the Baptist, the Lord said.
But that comes infinitely short of who he really is.
He's not just a great man.
So he asked his disciples now whom say he that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Jewish confession.
And the Son of the living God, the Christian confession.
He was declared to be, Paul tells us in Romans 1/4. He was declared to be or marked out as Son of God.
By the spirit of holiness. By resurrection of the dead.
So resurrection proved him to be all that he claimed to be. He claimed to be the Son of God when he was here, and he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake of the temple of his body.
Only the Son of God could utter words like that, and when he raised himself from the dead, he proved that he was indeed the Son of God.
Well, the Church is founded upon this, you might say, twofold confession that Christ, he is the Messiah, He's the sent one, He's the anointed one, He's the prophet, the priest and the King. He's all that, and he's the Son of the living God, bringing before us the truth of resurrection.
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That's what Peter owned him.
To be. And the Lord says, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona calls him by his natural name.
For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. He had learned this truth as a revelation from the Father. Wonderful.
Wonderful revelation.
And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter. Now the word Peter doesn't mean rock, it means a stone. It's a part of a rock.
It's in the original language. It's PETROS. Petros.
And then the Lord goes on to say, Upon this rock, Petra, Petra.
And a Petrus is a part of a Petra.
But Peter does not mean rock, it means a stone.
And Peter talks about that in his first epistle. He says, To whom coming is unto a living stone? Ye also, as living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood.
So Peter had learned the meaning of his name and in changing Peter's name from Simon to Peter, he as much as says I'm going to build something new that has never been in building before my church.
And I'm going to build you in Peter as a Peter of Patras, a part of the rock. He had to be made of the same stuff and substance as the rock itself. So we need to be born again. We need a new nature. We need to become Peters in order to be built into his church. We can't be built in as Simons in our natural relationship to him. We need a new life and a new nature. So he gives him this new name. Speaking of that, thou art Peter, and upon this rock he.
Confess the truth of this person. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will build my church. It wasn't yet in building.
Now, the King James translators, the Bible that we're using, didn't understand dispensational truth that wasn't recovered until quite a few years after this Bible was translated. And they thought that the church in Israel were one and the same, or that at least the church was an extension upon an improvement of Judaism, which it is not.
And had they understood dispensational truth, they would not have headed the Psalms and the prophets in the Old Testament with the church does this and the church does that. Because if you read the context where those notes are given by the translators, you would see that it wasn't the church at all. It was the subject of the Psalm or the prophecy. It was Israel, it was Judah, it was Jerusalem, it was Zion, but it wasn't the church because the church.
Couldn't exist.
Old Testament.
Why not? Because it's founded upon the death and resurrection of Christ. And we're going to see as we go through these three chapters, 1617 and 18, that truth developed and how that the Lord here speaks of the church as being something future. He says I will build my church.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. All the power of Satan will not prevail against what Christ builds. He's here viewed as the builder. And here's the first mention of the church. Why is it mentioned in Matthew, which is so Jewish in character? Because that Jewish testimony that He was the Christ had been adequately rendered at this point, and he'd been rejected in their hearts.
And so now he he develops and introduces the new thing.
In Matthew 13, he talked about the Kingdom of heaven, the sphere where He would be acknowledged during the time of his rejection, and his.
Presence in heaven. But here now he talks about something more vital than that, and that is the church that he was going to build. I will build my church.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.
Notice that Peter receives the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, not the keys to the Church.
But the keys to that?
Sphere where Christ's authority is recognized during the time when the King is in heaven.
And Peter used those keys on the day of Pentecost to admit the Jews and on the day.
Later he admitted the Samaritans and then the Gentiles. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now this is said to Peter.
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This is an Apostolic commitment of the Lord to the Apostle Peter.
And we have almost the same words in Matthew 18, but there it's not to an apostle.
There it's to the assembly, to the local church. Here we have the Church Universal, which Christ said he would build, and in Matthew 18, where we have the administrative side of things and we'll see that we have the church in its locality.
Then charged his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ, and we saw.
That the reason he does that is because that testimony had been adequately rendered and he'd been rejected as such, so he takes the broader title.
Of the Son of Man.
Well.
From that time forth, verse 21 began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Now that's the very foundation truth. In order for him to build his church, he had to suffer, he had to die, and he had to rise again the third day.
Peter didn't like that idea. And so Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from the Lord, this shall not be unto thee. And the Lord administers the severest rebuke that he's ever administered to anyone here. To Peter it just pronounced him blessed, because he had confessed him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. But now he turned and said unto Peter, Thou art get thee behind me, Satan.
Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savours not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Had the Lord hearkened to what Peter said, Had he spared himself from the cross? There would be no Savior tonight. There would be no salvation.
There'd be no church now. That was the very foundation upon which the church would be built.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, now that he's introduced the church.
It was still future. It wasn't in building, couldn't have existed in the Old Testament, couldn't have existed while the Lord was on earth. It had to await his death and resurrection and his ascension to the right hand of God and then the sending down of the Holy Spirit.
And then the church was formed. But here now He gives what is characteristic of those that would be His disciples during this time when he was rejected here and gone back to heaven.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.
This must have been very strange to the ears of these Jewish disciples who were expecting their Messiah.
To set up the Kingdom in power and glory and to establish Israel as the head of the nations.
And now he talks about denying oneself, taking up his cross and following him.
Strange words to a Jewish ear.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake shall find it.
They didn't know anything at this time really, about the present day of grace. They didn't know that the Kingdom would be held in abeyance for all this 2000 year period while the King was in heaven.
So you can understand the puzzlement that they had over the Lord's words.
He says in verse 26, What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
They were looking for an earthly Kingdom.
And he talks about if you had it all and lost your soul, what would it profit?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? They were looking for outward things on earth, and he talks about the most vital thing there is, the condition of your soul.
And if your soul isn't saved?
All those other things are worthless.
For the Son of Man, again, he uses that title.
Shall come in the glory of His Father. Now He goes in his thoughts, right past the Christian dispensation with the Son of Man, returning to set up his Kingdom now in power and glory. The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with his angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works.
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Who is that? That He's going to reward? Those who have been faithful and true to Him in this present day of grace, whom He is calling out to be a people for His name, those who are, who are identified with a rejected Christ.
He's going to reward them, every man, according to his works.
Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death until they see the Son of man.
Coming in his Kingdom.
And then he explains in the very next chapter what he's talking about after six days.
Jesus taketh Peter, James and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart.
And was transfigured before them.
They saw his official glory, the glory that he will have in His Kingdom reign.
Not his personal glory, but his official glory. He was transfigured before them.
And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. They'll be the heavenly Saints represented by Moses and Elias. They'll be the earthly Saints represented by Peter, James, and John.
They'll all have a part in that coming Kingdom. We'll have a heavenly part. The Jewish disciples here on earth will have that earthly part.
Then Peter makes another blunder. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.
If thou wilt, let us make here 3 tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. He virtually makes the same mistake that the men of the world made in the 16th chapter when they compared the Lord to the great men of this world. So he puts the Lord on the same level as Moses and Elias, and he's rebuked by the Father.
While he yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.
And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid.
And Jesus came and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. I think the lesson we have to learn here is, first of all, if the church is going to be built, it has to be founded upon his death and resurrection, his sufferings.
And then we who follow him, what is to characterize our pathway is self denial, taking up the cross and following him.
During this period when he's away.
And not back here, raining in righteousness.
We who are in the Assembly are not to make too much of any man, no matter how gifted, no matter how talented, no matter how helpful he may be in the Assembly.
They saw no man save Jesus only.
And especially when we're going through troubles and difficulties, our eyes must be fixed upon him.
He's the only one that has the answers, he's the only one that can lead us to right, and we can very much go astray if we follow any man.
They saw no man.
Save Jesus only.
He is the head of the Assembly. He is the one who is in the midst.
And he's the one that we are to have our eyes fixed upon.
And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. He repeatedly tells them about his rejection and his resurrection from the dead. They did not understand what he was referring to. It was hid from them.
When certain truths.
We read certain truths in the scriptures if they don't fit.
With our thoughts.
Or if we have developed a sort of a theological system of things and we come across a passage that doesn't fit in that.
We tend to to just forget it, read over it.
Because we can't.
Put it into our.
Way of thinking.
And this was something about the problem that the disciples had in connection with his.
Sufferings and especially the resurrection. What does that mean?
I will be raised from the dead. What then would happen? They were looking for the Messiah to establish a Kingdom on earth, and now he talks about going away and suffering, dying and rising again. And then what would that introduce? What would that bring about?
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Now we know the answer to those questions, but they didn't at this time, and so it was quite a puzzle to them.
Now we have to Passover some verses. Verse 14. Let's pick up the story there. Chapter 1714. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him, saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed. For off times he falleth into the fire, and OFT into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer? You bring him hit her to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, why could not we cast him out here? They were confronted with a problem, one who was possessed of an evil spirit, and they couldn't cast the spirit out.
I believe that we've been presented with a problem.
And there's an evil spirit of distrust and lack of confidence and in subjection and all of these evil things.
And we haven't been able to cast that out.
They asked him why could we not cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief.
Because of your unbelief.
For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain this, this tremendous problem, this insuperable difficulty, this mountain.
Remove heads to Yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
All the power of the Lord Himself is at our disposal, if we will draw upon it in simple faith.
And in childlike confidence.
But we haven't done that.
We have been faced with tremendous problems.
And there's been the lack of that, that faith, that looking to him, seeing no man save Jesus only.
And then he says one more thing, verse 21.
This kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting.
Dependence, confessed weakness, prayer and fasting. That self denying that he's talked about earlier.
Now he met those moral conditions as a man.
He didn't just cast the demon out because he was God, but he met those conditions as a man.
And the disciples didn't.
And because of that, they were weak.
They weren't.
They weren't separated.
As they should have been. And so it has been with us.
Then he reminds them again, verse 22, we're looking at these verses, these chapters in connection with.
Principles relating to the assembly.
Verse 22 While they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men.
And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.
He had to tell them over and over again because they didn't receive it.
They didn't want that truth. They didn't. They resisted it.
It wasn't to their liking. It wasn't to their thinking.
As it had been formed by the Old Testament, the Old Testament spoke of the sufferings of the Messiah.
But it spoke so much more of the glory of the Kingdom.
And this is what they were looking for.
So he tells them again they were exceeding sorry now.
We have another principle in verse 24 to the end, and when they were come to Capernaum.
They that receive tribute money came to Peter and said doth not your master pay tribute?
He saith Yes.
And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him saying, What thinkest thou, Simon?
Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers?
Peter saith unto him.
I want to hear the principle that the children of the royal family.
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They don't pay customer tribute, they don't have to pay taxes. They're free. Certainly the king doesn't.
And he was the king.
And they were sons of the king, so to speak.
So he's established the principle that the children are free.
But is it time to exercise that freedom?
Is this the raining time? Well, the King's not raining. The kings rejected.
The king has been cast out, he's been sent away with a message. We will not have this man to reign over us and we are identified with him in that.
State of things.
So the last verse tells us notwithstanding, lest we should offend them.
Go thou to the sea and cast in hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money.
That take and give unto them for me and thee. And that piece of money was exactly the amount for the two of them to pay the.
Tribute and the Custom.
The very means he used to get that tribute money proved that he was the King, the sovereign of the universe.
But he didn't insist on that. Then he accepted his rejection.
And we too are identified with the rejected Lord.
So what does this last portion tell us? We don't stand up for our rights there's so many are telling us to do.
But we accept.
Our path of rejection with him, the reigning time, isn't here yet.
That was the error of the Corinthians. Paul had to say to them, You have reigned as kings without us, and I would to God you did reign that we also might reign with you. But this isn't raining time, this is suffering time.
We have title to reign with him and that one day will come to pass and we will reign with him and we will be seen as his bride in that day, in the very closest of relationships with himself.
But that's not yet the time for that.
So he's in rejection.
And those who don't understand that that we are following a rejected Lord don't understand the true character of Christianity.
Chapter 18 now.
At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven? That question?
Lays bare my heart and probably your heart as well. We want to be great.
We want to know how to be the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. In this sphere called the Kingdom of Heaven, we call it Christendom.
How can we be great? Who's the greatest? Tell us.
Well, it just betrays the what's in our hearts. Notice how the Lord answers the question.
He answers it in A2 fold a 2 step way.
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
He uses a little child as an object lesson to show us one who is of no account in the eyes of the world, one who has not made a name for himself, not made a mark for himself in society. Just a little child, insignificant, and one who often could be just ignored or despised because he was a little one.
And he says in answering the question you've asked me, who's the greatest? Well, you can't even get into the Kingdom until you become as a little child and are converted.
Until you receive a new life.
So he says the first thing, the first step towards answering your question is how do you become?
A. A citizen of that Kingdom where you have to become as a little child, be converted 1St and become as a little child if you don't.
Do that you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Now, once you've entered, become as a little child, taken that place of nothingness.
Then he goes on to answer the question directly. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself.
As this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
So once we are in that Kingdom, we become as little children to get in, then to be great in it is to be nothing in it to take the place.
That he took when he came into this scene.
He took the place of nothingness.
He emptied himself.
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Came took upon him the form of a servant.
And that's the pathway of those who are truly great.
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me the attitude that we show towards those who are insignificant, and whom the great ones of this world would tend to look down upon and despise, and make nothing of the attitude that we show towards those who are little children, or of little account in the Assembly.
Betrays ourselves, betrays us.
So he says, whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. James talks about that same principle and he says, if someone come into your synagogue with gay clothing, you say, oh, hit, sit down here and someone come in with very mean clothing, you say stand out there off by yourself, and you become judges having evil thoughts. James says you exalt the one and despise the other, but that's not to be the principle that prevails.
In this sphere called the Kingdom of heaven, we see, we know it, we know it prevails very much, but it's not what we have set before us. Here then verse 6, A very serious verse. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. To offend a little one that believes in him is to turn him out of the way, to cause him to stumble, to cause him to trust less.
In the word of God to cause him to doubt the authenticity of Scripture.
And the reality of God and so on. That's what he's talking about when he talks about offending.
It's not giving some offense to someone because you're faithful in preaching the truth to them.
But he's talking about causing to stumble and trust less.
In the things of God.
And then he says, woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. We expect the world to do this to us, to try to destroy our faith. Like the one teacher said to the mother, I'm going to do everything in my power to destroy the faith of your daughter.
And the mother was wise in taking her daughter out of his class. But that's the kind of thing that the Lord speaks about.
The world to the world because of offenses. Then he talks about us. He says in verse 8, Wherefore if thy hand if what you do.
Or thy foot where you walk.
Offend thee, cause thee to give offence.
And to stumble a little one.
Cut them off and cast them from thee. If this hand stole and I literally cut it off, it would never steal again, would it? It would be cut off. But I'm to deal so severely with myself in connection with anything that I do or where I walk that would cause to stumble.
A simple Christian or a little one?
That I'll never do it again.
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life halter maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
So what we see and look upon if that.
Causes us to stumble others.
Give offense.
Pluck it out.
Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones.
The tendency of our hearts is to be to show favoritism.
And to despise a little one, now he's using this, the little one, the little child, he's using this as an object lesson. There might be a little one in the assembly that's not really a little child any longer, but they are spiritually, and we're not to despise them.
For I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. They have a representation up there. Don't despise them down here.
Well, the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost, I believe a statement that refers to the to the little child. He died for them and they're going to be in heaven.
How thinking now we have the exercise of grace on the part of the shepherd towards one who goes astray, one of his own. Luke 15 We get 1A sheep that is lost and the shepherd goes after it. That's a picture of a Sinner. But here you have a sheep that's gone astray, a picture of a St. that's gone away, and how the shepherd restores that one. Helsinki if a man have 100 sheep.
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One of them be gone astray. Doth he not leave the 99 and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which has gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, He rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the 90 and 9 which went not astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. And if they're left out in the cold and away from the assembly, they're going to perish. They need to be.
Recovered and so you have the energy of the grace of God going out.
And towards one who's gone astray to bring them back.
Back into a place of usefulness and blessing.
Not the will of your Father that is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish, whether that refers to a little child or to one who is of little account in the assembly. Don't despise them.
Now we come to that portion, verses 15 through 20, which we've often read.
But I wanted to show in going through all this quickly just what the setting is where these verses are found.
Moreover, verse 15 If thy brother shall trespass against thee goal and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, the first verse 15 is that same energy of grace on the part of the one who has been sinned against going to the one who has committed that sin and seeking to gain him, telling him his fault and seeking to gain him. It's the energy of grace going out, seeking to gain him, to effect reconciliation. If that fails, is there any other?
Recourse. Any other step that should be followed.
Yes, verse 16 says, If he will not hear thee.
Then take with thee one or two more. Now these are brethren from the local assembly. There we get that from verse 17, but I will come to that in a moment. But these are all from the local assembly. The first mention of the church in Matthew 16 is the the the church universal that Christ would build. It was future at the time and here now he talks about that.
Local assembly in a locality that would take the place.
Of Israel in connection with dealing with problems that would come up.
In their midst. So here now he talks using the principle of grace.
To show the activity of Grace in seeking the restoration of the one who has committed the offense.
Verse 16 says, If he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
So far now we have 4 people identified, the one sinned against the one who did the sinning, and one or two more three or four people.
And it says if he neglects.
To hear them.
If the entreaties seeking to gain the one fail.
Let him be Tell it unto the church, it says, there's one more.
One more step that can be taken. Tell it unto the local assembly.
But if you neglect to hear the church.
Let him be unto thee as an heathen man in the public. And now let's stop there.
At this point, he's talking to he's talking to the one that's been sinned against.
And that one refers to the one that sinned against him as thy brother. Notice verse 15. If thy brother shall trespass against thee, at the end of the verse, the Lord says thou has gained thy brother, so he's viewed as your brother.
And it's all in the singular.
It's between the offender and the offended 1 and he's looked upon as thy brother.
But having refused your personal entreaty.
Having refused when one or two more were taken from the assembly.
And finally, having turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of the local assembly itself.
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The word to that individual is, let him be to thee as a heathen man in the public end.
Not a brother any longer, but a heathen man and a publican. He's to look upon him as though he was not even saved. A heathen man and a publican.
Let him be to thee.
Now in verse 18 we have a change from the singular to the plural.
And I just want to make this one comment.
The value of a translation like the King James that retains the singular form of the second person pronoun and the plural form can be seen in this very passage.
Umm, every second person singular pronoun that starts with AT.
Thee, thou, thee thy, thy, that singular.
Every second person pronoun that starts with AY, ye, you, you're, yours is plural.
Very simple rule, but that's how with the King James and Mr. Darby's and others that retain the older English where you have the distinction between the singular and the plural, you retain the precision that's in the original.
When you go to the general you, you don't know if it's a singular or a plural you. So that's that's a strong argument in favor of retaining the the older English. Now in verse 18, it's all plural.
Verily I say unto you, whenever you read a you in the King James, it's always plural, never singular.
Always plural.
The singular is the.
Or thou.
Verily I say unto you, plural, who is he talking to now He's talking to the local church.
No longer to that individual.
When he says, let him be unto thee, isn't he the man in the public? And now he's talking to the local assembly?
Verily I say unto you.
Whatsoever ye plural shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So here in Matthew 16 he committed the keys of the Kingdom of heaven to Peter with the authority to bind and to loose.
But we don't have that Apostolic authority with us any longer. But we do have assembly authority. And thank God there is authority. Thank God that there is a place still on earth which can deal with disciplinary problems. If there wasn't, the Church of God would be the would be the place where iniquity could abound and there would be no power to deal with it.
And that would be, that would be like saying that the presence of the Lord can exist alongside his tolerated evil. And that's an abominable thought.
I turned back for a moment to Deuteronomy 17, where we'll see a similar passage.
And how problems were handled.
Under Judaism.
Deuteronomy 17, verse 8.
If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke.
Being matters of controversy within thy gates.
Then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God should shall choose. That was Jerusalem.
And thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire.
And they shall show thee the sentence of judgment, and thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose, shall show thee.
And thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee.
According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do.
Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand or to the left.
And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God are unto the judge, even that man shall die.
And thou shalt put away the evil from Israel, and all the people shall hear.
And fear and do no more presumptuously.
Well, that's how they handle things in Judaism.
In the Old Testament they went down to Jerusalem, where the priests and the judges were and the whatever they decided, everyone submitted to it. There was no ifs, ands or buts about it.
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But we don't have a Jerusalem in the same sense.
That they had in the Old Testament located in one geographical place. But do we have a Jerusalem?
Is there something that answers to Jerusalem today?
In the in the assembly, in the church.
Is there a place?
Well, that we can go to and have matters of controversy resolved.
Yes, there is.
And we have it right here.
Verse 18 of Matthew 18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth.
Shall be bound in heaven.
Has that authority and sanction.
And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.
The one instance we have in the Epistles where this principle was carried out is First Corinthians 5, where there was the case of immorality in their midst Fornicator.
And Paul ends the chapter by saying, Put away from among yourselves, that wicked person.
And they did it.
The second epistle tells us that they had.
Repented, grieved to repentance, and they had taken action and dealt with the evil.
And then he exhorts them. Evidently the one who was put under, put away repented.
And he was overcome with sorrow.
And Paul says now to them that they should forgive him.
Comfort him.
Show their love to him.
So what they bound in that first epistle, they now loose in the second epistle.
Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then he goes on to say again, I say unto you, that if 2 of you shall agree.
On earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name or unto my name.
Is the more correct translation there? Am I in the midst of them that 20th verse tells us?
What is the authority?
For the twos and threes gathered to his name to act for him.
And by his authority.
That's how they can bind and loose because he's in the midst.
I like the verse in Ephesians 5 which says, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wise be to their husbands in everything. The first part of the verse as the church is subject to Christ.
Whenever the assembly takes an action, a disciplinary action, it does so as subject to Christ. It is representing Christ.
It is executing A discipline which.
He would have them to execute.
Taking their directions from the head, energized by the Spirit and according to the Word of God.
And when an assembly action has been taken, when there are, when there is a competent witness.
If two of you shall agree.
2 is the number of competent testimony, if there's a competent witness in agreement, having the Lord's mind that such actions should be taken.
It shall be done for you of my Father, which is in heaven. So there's the promise of answered prayer when there's a real getting before the Lord. As to this doesn't say there will be unanimity in this, hardly ever is.
Especially when you're dealing with a troublemaker.
But if it's the case, even in the case of the Corinthians where they had to put away that.
That fornicator, they were not unanimous. It was it was the many that was there.
And there were others there that had not judged that kind of a sin in their lives in the past. He tells us that in the 2nd chapter, In the second epistle, the 12TH chapter.
So it's not, it's not a question of majorities or minorities in an assembly action, It's a question of.
Having his mind.
And acting according to the word of God, according to his mind.
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And the power for it, the competency for it is.
His presence, where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. So does the Church have a Jerusalem?
Yes.
Every local assembly gathered to the name of Christ is Jerusalem.
That's where the Lord has said His name.
That's where he is in the midst.
That's where they are.
Competent to act for and by his authority.
And woe be to him that resists it in the Old Testament, one would lose his life if he didn't hearken to the voice of the priests and judges.
And so it's a solemn thing to resist.
What the Lord has set up here.
He goes on to say just a few more thoughts and then we close. Then came Peter to him.
And said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? He has just talked about Thy brother shall trespass against thee. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him along. How often are we to go through this?
And till 7 times Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until 7 times, but until 70 * 7.
The Lord's patience with Israel.
Is 70 * 7.
70 weeks are determined upon by people to bring about their full and complete blessing.
And so it speaks of that.
Coming Day of Blessing for Israel, The guiltiest people on the face of the Earth 70 * 7.
And then the last part of the chapter where 1 old was owed to 10,000 talents in his master forgave him.
And then someone comes to him owing him 100 pence and he wouldn't forgive. And it was brought to the attention of the Lord in verse 34 says the Lord was wroth.
And delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if he from your heart.
Forgive not everyone, his brother, their trespasses.
So what ought to characterize the Christian testimony is forgiveness.
The exercise of grace.
Towards those that have failed.
Forgiveness.
And I like the bumper sticker that I've seen. Not perfect, just forgiven.
And we are a forgiving people. We've been forgiven 10,000 talents. There isn't anything more.
Harmful to the spiritual state of an assembly is an unforgiving spirit.
Don't ever cherish an unforgiving spirit. No matter what anyone has done to you. It's you're never entitled as a Christian to say I can't forgive him or I can't forgive her for that.
None of us can say that because God has forgiven me 10,000 talents.
Who am I to say I can't forgive?
Someone else have it in your heart, that forgiving spirit, and then when they repent and come to you and confess, you can extend that forgiveness to them and show the very heart of God.
Well, it's nice to see how that this this section relating the principles relating to the Church.
End up with forgiveness.
But don't ever forget when discipline is necessary and we are in a world.
We are sinners saved by grace. We have a sinful nature.
We need discipline, everyone of us.
And that is, that's an authority which the Lord has given.
To the assembly, not for their overthrowing, but for their building up, for blessing. We need to be checked, we need to have, we need to be spoken to faithfully. How many times I've needed that? But how wonderful. He restoreth my soul. He goes out after the strange sheep, brings them back.
May we have that energy of grace, seeking the one that has offended against us, seeking to win them. And if he's unwinnable, maybe discipline is necessary. But always remember whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and we're under the chastening hand of God right now.
And he loves us, He loves us, and so he chases us. May we hearken.
To him.