Matthew 18:15-20 | "Failures in Listening"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Please take your Bible and open it to the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 18.

If you are our guest this morning, we are working our way through Matthew's gospel.

And we are at a place of scripture that makes some people uncomfortable.

Don't worry, you are here under the providence of God.

So this applies to you, whether this is your home church or not.

If you are a believer in Christ, this fits you and gives instruction and encouragement and strength to you no matter where you worship.

And you can take this home to your home church and encourage your church to be obedient to God's word as we find here.

Our text in the Gospel of Matthew is one of the easiest to understand.

And yet it is one of the most misapplied passages in the Gospel of Matthew.

It's straightforward and yet very awkward to put into practice.

It pokes at our pride as though a needle is poking at an inflated balloon.

It crushes our ignorant perceptions and it demands humility of us.

It is simultaneously often implemented and yet rarely followed.

Nevertheless, when it's appropriately implemented, this passage is the key for multitudes of diverse people to come together and to walk with Christ together as one body, unified by the Spirit of Christ.

Our passage is Matthew chapter 18, beginning in verse 15 through verse 20.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

I was going to go all the way through the end of the chapter, but I decided I just can't do that.

There's too much.

So I didn't want to do that to you.

It's a portion of scripture that is often categorized as church discipline instructions.

And that's not wrong.

That's not wrong.

But it would be more accurate to say that it speaks of what to do when pride displays itself outwardly against another person in the assembly of believers by not treating another person as more significant than yourself.

That's what this is really about.

Look at it with me.

Matthew chapter 18, verse 15.

Matthew 18:15

If your brother or your sister sins against you, go and tell him his fault.

Between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother, but if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Amen.

If you have not listened to last week's study of chapter 17, verse 24 through 18, 14, I encourage you to do that.

Because you cannot really get the depth of intention in the verses we've just read without hearing what we studied last week and also without hearing what we will study next time at the end of this chapter about forgiveness.

It all fits together.

It begins really in chapter 17, verse 22, where Jesus spoke of his impending death and resurrection.

Jesus had a humble approach to suffering for our sin that led him to teach on humility.

That's where this begins.

Not so much in somebody offending us or sinning against us, but in us walking in the footsteps of Jesus as little ones.

That's where this begins.

Jesus expects his followers to be little.

And you'll remember that it's in the passage there that he brings a child into the presence of his disciples who are talking about greatness.

And Jesus says, if you want to be great, don't worry about being great, worry about being little.

Worry about being humble.

It was humility and love for others that drove Jesus to the cross.

And we are to be motivated by that same kind of humility.

So disciples, followers of Jesus who possess the humble heart that Jesus desires are called little ones.

And we must labor.

That's an important word because it's not easy.

We must labor to treat God's little ones properly.

Because let's face it, we all irritate one another.

Maybe it will be a little bit longer for some than others, but we'll all irritate you at some point.

So we have to labor, work hard and diligently at treating one another properly.

Why?

Because we are little ones of Jesus.

And as little ones of Jesus, we mirror the heart of Jesus.

But that theology of littleness could leave the impression that Jesus is okay with his little ones essentially becoming punching bags.

Put another way, does Jesus imply that we must, as the saying goes, grin and bear it when someone sins against us?

Is that the kind of humility that he's calling for?

Does Jesus intend to teach us that humility means that we have to absorb every kind of mistreatment without recourse?

The answer, of course, is no.

That's not what Jesus means by humility, by being a little one.

As a just and righteous king, Jesus provides a pattern, a set of steps for maintaining unity among his little ones.

And the structure of this passage that we've read is very straightforward.

The first three verses deal with the process of dealing with sin.

The second set of three verses deal with the authority that is present to deal with sin.

Both the process and the authority are expressed through several if statements.

If you are one to mark up your Bible, I encourage you to highlight or circle or underline all of the ifs.

If your sibling sins against you, again, that's a sibling in Christ, another little one.

If your sibling sins against you, if they listen to you, if they do not listen to you, if he refuses to listen, if he refuses to listen again, and if two of you agree.

Six if statements.

Very, very straightforward pattern here.

And they resolve at the end with a conclusive four, giving us the reason for something.

How do we process all of that?

How do we put it all together?

Because we could get wrapped up in talking about each one of these.

I could probably have a sermon on each one of the if statements, and that would bore us all to tears.

Well, we could summarize this very simply, I think.

And that's with two statements.

What if a little one is sinned against?

And what if the sinning one does not listen?

I've entitled this sermon Failures at Listening.

Because while there are six if statements, those probably aren't the prominent intention here.

The prominence is given to the failure to listen.

And it's not just hearing, it's hearing that leads to an action.

So what do we do if in humility of following Jesus we are sinned against?

Do we just have to be a punching bag that absorbs it all?

No, we don't.

Okay, well, what if we do what Jesus says and there's no response?

There's no genuine listening.

Well, the first if statement provides the first potential.

If someone sins.

Now, in a perfect world, there would be no such potential, right?

So we are in a, we are considering here a Genesis 3 world.

I just lost a bunch of you.

That's okay.

Genesis 2, there's no sin in the world.

Genesis 3, sin enters into the world and changes everything.

In a Genesis 2 world, we don't have to worry about this.

In a Genesis 3 world, we always have to worry about this.

We live in a fallen world capable of great sin.

Sin that even impacts believers in Christ and churches, assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's our context.

Jesus has been speaking about his little ones who believe in him.

Sin impacts Christ's humble people.

My friends, we are capable of sin.

Just let that settle.

This text means nothing.

It has no implication for you and for me if we do not recognize that we sin a lot.

And we sin against one another.

And in our pride, we may sin in such a way that others are offended or even drawn into sin themselves because of our actions.

It shouldn't happen.

It shouldn't happen to God's little ones.

Those who are little ones who are walking with Christ in humility shouldn't be sinning against one another, but that's a Genesis 2 world, not a Genesis 3 world.

Right?

So the Lord issues a command here.

If someone sins and the sin impacts you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If you've been sinned against and you are going to speak to sin in someone else's life, it's probably wisest for you to consider the Sermon on the Mount first.

Specifically Matthew chapter 7, verses 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Matthew 7:2

That's the passage that you're familiar with.

It's the one about the speck in somebody's eye and the log in somebody else's eye.

If you're going to go and speak to someone else about their sin, probably think about your own life first.

What do we mean by that?

Well, start with your own heart.

Seek the Lord's gift of a humble heart first.

Prayerfully confess your sin to the Lord.

And anyone you have sinned against.

If there is unconfessed sin in your own life, you will be blinded by that sin and approach someone else with pride rather than humility.

Humbly ask the Lord to make you aware of your sin and your need for his holiness.

Oh, that can be painful.

But it's necessary.

Be aware that you are more sinful than you realize.

And be open for the Lord to make you aware of that.

So we have to deal with sin in our own life, honestly and wholly.

If our sin then has properly humbled us, then we will be more prepared to speak to someone else about their sin.

And then Jesus says, Go and tell.

Go to that person and tell them of their sin.

Now Jesus, Jesus here is very intentional.

It's not about you feeling better.

It's not about you getting some sort of glee and personal benefit out of pointing out somebody else's sin.

This is about what Jesus is doing to expose sin.

Not to bring about pain, but to generate repentance.

Jesus wants to restore relationships.

He wants reconciliation.

He wants healing of the problems that have been generated by sin.

And there's a sense here in which we're making another individual aware of their sin.

So there's a, you might say, an educational tone.

Because what happens generally is if we sin against somebody else, we're blind to that.

We have blinders on, and we can't see our own sin.

That's the implication here.

Because if we did see our own sin, we would go and make it right.

Because we're little ones.

So we're blind to our sin.

And Jesus says you need to make them aware of their sin.

So go and tell them.

Now you have to be careful not to not to go with a spirit of blaming or condemning or even reproving.

God doesn't say go to them and demand repentance.

He says, go and tell them.

Tell them what?

They've sinned against you.

Instead, we are to point out the sin and seek their repentance.

Notice that Jesus doesn't define the sin.

He doesn't define even the category of sin.

He doesn't say that we're only to do this if we perceive the sin to be terrible.

Well, who gets to define terrible?

What's terrible to one person may not be terrible to another, right?

He doesn't limit the correction of sin to murder or adultery or child abuse.

Unfortunately, we often tend to follow this only if we perceive the sin to be horrendous.

And so we let little things go.

But that's not what Jesus said.

Jesus leaves it open so that any unrepentant sin may be addressed.

On the other hand, Jesus doesn't give us the freedom to do this if we've merely been offended.

Did you catch that?

Jesus doesn't say if somebody offends you, go and tell them.

It's not what he says.

Because offense is not necessarily sin.

Because you may be taking offense when there was no sin intended.

Doesn't mean if you're bothered by something or you don't like what someone has said that you should go and tell them.

It may be, honestly, that you are too sensitive.

Or that you've taken offense when none was given.

So there's a personal evaluation of our own hearts that's going on here constantly.

And then we go one-on-one.

God allows each sinning believer to repent of their sin before it ever becomes an issue of which others are aware.

Isn't that gracious?

The correction of sin ought to be regular.

It ought to be happening in our fellowships all the time.

But we shouldn't know about it.

Because we should be able to go to another person as a little one to a little one, and that little one should respond with humility and repentance, and there should be reconciliation and restoration without any of the rest of the church knowing about it.

Sometimes that happens.

Sometimes there's a lot of what we call church discipline going on behind the scenes, but it ends after the first if or after the second if, and the church doesn't know about it.

That's fabulous.

That's what should happen.

Jesus provides grace.

And this is indicative of the goodness of God.

We don't often think about the goodness of God in connection to these few verses.

See, it's a little one in our context.

As humble believers, they're not going to naturally want to make a big deal out of being sinned against.

They're going to absorb it.

But they're going to recognize that the holiness of God demands dealing with sin.

And they'll understand that this isn't so much about me versus them.

It's about them and God.

See, this whole passage is not about one-to-one relationships as much as it is about a sinning believer's relationship to a holy God.

It's not about us, it's about the holiness of God.

Because there's a spiritual reality that's being displayed here.

And that's what needs to be fixed.

Sin is ultimately a spiritual reality about the king being offended, being sinned against, being rebelled against by his little one.

And that needs to be made right.

So the little one that is sinned against is not out for revenge.

It's God who exacts revenge, right?

That's why he said, Be careful that you don't cause one of my little ones to stumble.

Be better if you were drowned in the sea.

That's why we have to put this in context.

Jesus has made it very clear.

I will exact judgment if you sin against my little ones.

So if a little one approaches you about being sinned against, make sure you you confess that sin and you repent of it and you get restoration with them and with me, because otherwise you will face my judgment.

So Jesus provides a way, a means for his little one to address being sinned against in a way that doesn't lead to pride.

At the same time, the element of privacy allows the sinning believer a chance to respond with humility without anyone else knowing of their sin.

That's God's goodness.

Because let's face it, God has every right to take what we do in the dark and expose it to the light so that everyone knows.

But he's gracious here to say, I'm gonna be good to you in a way that you don't deserve.

He provides a way for us to be together as brothers and sisters in Christ while still living in a sinful world, but it only works if we are all functioning as little ones.

But the reality is that we're not always humble and repentant.

And that works both ways.

The ones sinned against may forget about the Sermon on the Mount parts, about the log in the eye, and they may go and address the being sinned against with their brother or sister in Christ, having a log in their eye, and so they are they are coming with an arrogant spirit that turns one off.

On the other side, the sinning one who has been approached about their sin, even if it's done in humility, may not have a humble receptive spirit.

And so they're gonna turn around and they're gonna gossip about the situation.

They're going to lash out in anger or in frustration, they're going to ensure that everyone knows that they've been slandered or wronged.

They may even begin gathering people to their side with quotes.

Likely by misrepresenting the situation, maybe unintentionally.

Because that's what a prideful spirit does.

That's what a Genesis 3 spirit does.

But that's not to be the response of God's little ones.

So, friends, can I ask you a favor?

If you notice that someone is speaking about what others are saying about them, or if you notice or you hear that they're spreading information about how they're being treated, and you observe that they're going from person to person and drumming up support, don't listen.

Don't join them in that.

Don't entertain their speech.

Because that gathering of support is a prideful way of refusing to listen to the Lord's corrective and humbling work.

A prideful approach or a prideful reception will soon result in questions like why wasn't this kept private?

You ever heard that?

You see, what could have been a simple issue, surrounded with humility and repentance, can balloon to greater damage.

And notice as well how God carefully protects the whole body of Christ in this situation.

It's our Genesis 3 nature to desire information.

We want to hear the little bits and pieces.

We want to hear what's going on in somebody else's life.

And oh, somebody sinned against you, tell me about it.

I want to hear about it.

That's our sinful nature.

We like to hear about that.

We want to know gossipy details, but if, as it should be, it's handled in private with humility, the body of Christ isn't tempted to sin.

The body is kept from the power of the evil one to desire knowledge that they don't need to have, or desire to spread information in a gossipy way, to speak evil of one another, or to sin against other people.

So do you see now why why Matthew began this lengthy session, the session with dealing but with humility?

It doesn't work if we don't start as little ones.

Because God's people must be cautious, extremely cautious, not to have an attitude of superiority.

We have to cultivate the holiness of God and the purity of the church through loving correction of sin.

We must do that.

But that has to be done, that has to be achieved through humility and repentance.

And that leads to a significant truth that I think we need to hear.

That is this it is a loving act, it is a loving act to seek repentance of sin.

If your sibling in Christ sins against you and you don't go to them, on the one hand, that could be gracious and forgiving, as we'll see next time.

On the other hand, it could be that it is it is developing roots in you that begin to go deep and it develops bitterness and angst and tension that leads to a hateful relationship.

It is a loving thing to seek to humbly draw someone back to a right relationship with Christ.

The most loving thing you can do is to take the log out of your own eye and go as a little one to another little one and say, please be restored.

There will be a positive result if the individual is little, if they're humble about it, and has a heart softened by the Spirit of God and has been granted repentance by the Lord, they will listen and they will be restored to you and to the church.

And the goal is always, always repentance and restoration and reconciliation.

The goal must never be to humiliate, to degrade, or to generate shame.

Now, embarrassing and shameful feelings may result when sin is brought to light.

But that's not the goal.

The goal is for relationships to be restored, for sin to be forgiven.

That may result in feelings of shame.

Because that's what happens when we understand the holiness of our God.

But then with confession and repentance, our right relationship with Christ is confirmed.

But those approached for sinning may not listen.

Let's face it, we are all still infected with sinful pride.

And our pride may not want our sin to be noticed, much less confronted.

It's embarrassing and it's painful for our sins to see the light of God's holiness.

It may be that a person will not listen when confronted about their sins.

No, as Christ's little ones, we should be open and willing to hear what we've done, to submit to correction.

And if we don't, we ought to be saddened that our brothers and sisters do not confess their sin and repent.

But the repetition here of not listening reminds us that too often the result is not littleness, but pride.

Too often the result is, no, I'm not gonna listen.

Why should I listen to you?

What do you know about me?

And that's a sinful reaction.

And in that sinful reaction, we are choosing to ignore the work of God through another believer.

So Jesus provides some instructive guidance for both parties if there's no genuine listening.

And the guidance that Jesus gives is that the little one who was initially sinned against should tell the person about their sin again.

This time with some support.

So the one sinned against has another resort, saying, Hey, I'm not required to just stand here and take this.

At the same time, the one who has sinned in the first place is not allowed to retaliate.

Now, these witnesses are not people who have witnessed the first sin.

They're witnesses to the speaking, to the telling.

They go along with the person sinned against and they witness that this person has told the other person of their sin in a spirit of humility, of kindness, and of gentleness.

To say, yes, they've acted as Christ's little one.

And the other person has heard this.

A quite literal translation would be something like, upon the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.

So they are there to establish what was said and how it was said.

The idea is that they're not there to confront or even to speak, they're there as witnesses of the interaction between the ones who sinned and the one who was sinned against.

And the confronted person has yet another opportunity to respond to the Lord's correction and repent of their sin.

Isn't that good of Kim?

The Lord says, You had an opportunity, you had a chance.

And he says, I'm going to give you another chance, as my little one, to respond properly.

The confronted person has another opportunity to respond to the Lord's correction and to repent of their sin.

And if that's the humble response, we're like the shepherd in verses 10 through 14 who goes out and finds the one sheep who's been wandering away and he comes back and he celebrates.

That's fantastic.

A lost sheep has returned home.

But as we are too familiar with, we know that there is also the possibility of a proud reaction.

And if it gets to this point without repentance, we should probably be ready to expect the development of anger and resentment and bitterness.

And the individual who's being spoken to about their sin may exert more significant effort to garner support, to evade addressing their sinful attitudes and actions.

And so we we have this back and forth going on, and we're thinking, what's going to happen?

And the Lord gives us another option.

He says, if they refuse to listen a second time, great.

Thankfully, we have yet another thing, another step given to us by the King Himself as to how to deal with one another when we sin against one another.

It may be that Christ people don't humble themselves.

We should be humble enough to submit to the Lord's correction, and we should be saddened if someone does not confess their sin and repent.

But the repetition here is of not listening reminds us that we often refuse to hear.

Matthew changes the word here.

Remember being a little kid and my grandpa turning off his hearing aid on purpose to tease me.

It's a great picture of what pride does in us.

It's as though we turn off our hearing aid so that we can't hear this noise about our sin anymore.

If they refuse to hear yet again, we are to involve the pressure of the many by telling the gathering of believers.

He says, if if he refuses to listen to them, that is to the three, to the two or three, tell it to the church.

Jesus' command to bring private sin into a public arena causes us to bristle.

We bristle because we favor our privacy.

We think we deserve privacy.

We believe it is a fundamental human right to have our sin remain in the dark.

But the Lord's holiness and the purity of his people supersede any right of privacy we might have.

Now, the church family doesn't need to know the gory details of another person's sin.

That's not the point.

No, the purpose of everyone knowing is so that all of us together can unite as one body to encourage the sinning brother or sister to repent of their sin and to be restored to one another and to the Lord.

That's the pressure of the many.

By all of us approaching the same person, the same sinning believer, and encouraging them to repent of their sin, the hope is that they will be humbled enough to confess and repent and be restored.

But you know what often happens?

What often happens is that that simple act rarely has follow-through in the church.

You know why?

We're little ones.

We're little ones, and we don't want to we don't want to offend somebody else.

That's their private business.

So we're double-minded.

On the one hand, we want to know the juicy details, but on the other hand, we don't want no, that's that's I'm not gonna get involved in that.

So we go on maintaining the same kind of relationship with the sinning person.

We don't do this.

We're not willing to go up to a brother or sister in Christ on a Sunday morning in the fellowship hall or in the foyer and put our arm around them and say, hey, brother, hey, sister, I love you and I want God's best for you.

Would you repent of your sin and be restored and reconciled?

That is the most loving thing that we can do for an unrepentant sibling in Christ.

Unfortunately, our tendency is to view the unveiling of sin as an atrocity.

They do that at that church?

Really?

We perceive the unveiling, the bringing of sin to the light to be cruel, to be mean-spirited, to be divisive.

But that's simply a prideful response to God's desire for holiness.

My friends, God is so jealous of his holiness and our purity and humility that he is driven.

He is driven to love us enough to discipline us for our sins.

That's what Hebrews 12 says.

He says, listen, he disciplines you because you're a little one.

Because you're a son or a daughter.

He does this because he loves you.

Indeed, it's hateful toward an unrepentant child of God to ignore what God says here and to act as though everything's okay.

If there is sin between a child of God and the holiness of God, it is not okay.

If we adore the beauty of holiness and desire the purity of the Lord's people and we pursue littleness like Jesus, then we're going to love people enough to call them to repentance.

But what if they turn off their hearing aids even then?

Well, Jesus says if they refuse to listen to the church, after a sufficient time has been provided, apparently, for assembling of the saints to call the individual to repentance, that may be days, it may be weeks, it may be months.

And the hope is that we never reach this step.

Our desire, right, is immediate repentance so that we can begin working on restoration and reconciliation immediately.

But unfortunately, pride and even other sins will sometimes impede or prevent that repentance.

So if there's no change after three times of seeking repentance, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Oh, what's that mean?

Before we talk about that, let's realize once again the grace of God and the patience of God.

It's a good thing that I'm not God.

Because after the first step, if somebody arrogantly turned off their hearing aids, I would want to smack them to hell.

Yeah, God has a lot of work to do in me.

He has a lot of work to do in all of us.

But notice the grace of God.

Each time the unrepentant person has an opportunity to humble themselves as a little one and say, Okay, I'm gonna hear and I'm gonna respond properly.

So each step provides the opportunity, the expectation, the anticipation, the command to consider someone else as more significant than yourself.

Friends, this works both ways.

Works both ways.

Let's think about you, you going to someone to approach them about their sin.

You might have have the boldness to do that once in private.

My experience has been that very few people have the boldness to do that twice and to take other people with them.

But if you consider that sinning brother or sister more significant than yourself, you're going to overlook your own feelings and say, This is what's best for them.

On the other side, you have the opportunity to say, I need to humble myself, to make myself little, and see this person as a little one of Christ that is more significant than me.

You see why this passage is all about considering one another as more significant than yourself?

But we can only do that if we followed through first, considering ourselves as little ones.

We'll talk about forgiveness next week.

The word Gentile comes from a word that our English word, ethnicity, is derived from.

In this context, it refers to a person who is not a part of the community, part of the assembly.

They're not part of the family.

That means that they are treated as though they are not one of God's little children.

Tax collectors were rejected people.

You didn't associate with tax collectors.

As traitors of their people, they were informants for the enemy.

So the pinnacle then of this correction is you move them out.

They're no longer a part of the family.

They're no longer considered an integral part of this fellowship.

They are removed from that.

So God says to consider the unrepentant person as though they are not a part of your church family if the previous three steps have been followed without genuine repentance.

We go back to the ifs, right?

If this, if this, if this, at any one of those points there is repentance, it's done.

And that's grace.

But if they do not repent, consider them as an unsaved, unregenerate person who does not have the Spirit of God within them.

In the context that we've been looking at, they are not to be viewed as one of Jesus' little ones.

That's hard.

Especially if you've known that person and gone to church with them for decades.

In practical terms, they cannot be a member of a local church since the primary basis for membership is faith in Christ.

And he says, don't treat them like that.

Consider them as not that.

They're not to be viewed as believing little ones.

Instead, whenever you see them in public or even if they attend church gatherings, you should continue not in the same vein of friendship.

You should take every opportunity instead to encourage them to repent and turn to the Lord.

Your relationship should change to encourage repentance.

That is the most loving thing you can do.

If your relationship remains the same, you're acting in a hateful way, not a loving way.

Now, some some might still be uncertain about that.

Maybe it's a detractor who's saying, you know what, you don't have that authority.

You have no right.

You have no basis for that.

And and there's some truth to that.

We don't have inherently that authority.

But the king does.

The king does, Jesus does.

He has the rule over his family, he has the authority over his little ones.

And he often accomplishes his corrective work through his little ones.

So for that reason, God grants himself the authority to correct sin in the church.

He says, Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

It's probably better to translate this as shall have been bound.

We talked about this back in chapter 16 with Peter, having the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

What's happening here is that what's taking place on earth is something that has already taken place in heaven.

So we're not initiating anything that's new.

We're merely echoing what's already taken place in the throne room of heaven.

When the body of Christ functions together, echoing and mirroring the holiness of God, it's simply repeating what's already been done in heaven.

So there's no need for an inherent authority in the local church because that's already been done in heaven.

We're just merely echoing it.

And when the process has been followed and the local assembly is merely following through on what has been done in heaven, we dismiss people from fellowship for unrepentant sin.

Why?

Because God's already dismissed that person.

He's put them outside of his fellowship for the discipline of sin.

There's two encouraging points in this text to help us through the difficulty of this process.

First, God intimately guides the church in corrective matters.

If you've ever done this, if you've ever gone to somebody else, you might feel desperately alone.

You might be shaking, literally shaking.

But you're not alone.

You're not alone.

What does the text say?

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven, for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

First, let's verse verse 19.

If two of you agree, it will be done.

This verse has been used and abused beyond measure.

It's often taken to mean that if two or three people pray together and ask God for anything, but health, wealth, strength, provision, safety, God's going to give it to them because they're asking together.

That's not what it says.

We have to read the verse in its context, and the context is the correction of sin in the church.

In other words, the reality is that God is already guiding the process of the correction of sin in the assembly of his people.

And when those involved in addressing sin in another's life seek the Lord's direction, he is directing already from heaven.

And these two or three that are together praying about God's direction are very likely the two or the three that have gone with the person to address sin the second time.

They're involved in this together.

And God directs from heaven.

Even when the church, if it comes to this point, must act to put the sinning person out of fellowship for the greater discipline of their sin, God is guiding the decision.

It's not because God listens to us, it's not because we have decided that we know what's best.

It's because we followed the steps.

We followed from one if to the next if to the next if.

And God has already been working, He's already been guiding, He's already been directing the situation.

And Jesus is here.

Jesus is present in the process.

There I am among them.

God does not leave us to walk down this road alone.

Whether it's the first if when you are deciding, do I go to this person, or whether it's the last if and the church has to decide, yeah, that's what we have to do.

Jesus is there.

So this process is all resting in the providence of a good God who desires holiness and repentance and forgiveness that is driven by the humility of his little ones.

There's a balance to this corrective process, and that's the grace of forgiveness.

You're familiar with this.

Peter says, Oh, okay, Lord, I get that, but does that mean I only have to forgive my brother seven times?

Jesus rubs his forehead thinking, What have I gotten myself into?

And Jesus says, No, no, Peter, you don't get it.

We're gonna look like that next time.

Friends, disciplinary actions can get wildly out of control if there are no boundaries.

And thankfully, the Lord has given us that lesson already, first in humility and next week in forgiveness.

But in the end, if we are not humble ones that the Lord calls us to be, we're going to be acting in pride.

If we are not little ones, we can expect our actions to be Genesis 3 actions.

But if we're acting as God's little ones and humility is filling us and motivating us, and we are desiring to be like Christ, then it should not matter if the case against us is valid or not.

What do I mean by that?

Say someone comes to you and says that you have sinned against them, and it's not true.

You might get all frustrated and up in arms about how dare they?

They're gonna ruin my good name.

We should not get up in arms about it, but work to humbly clarify the issue as we consider others more significant than ourselves.

If the case against us is valid and we have sinned against someone else, we must still be the humble little ones we are called to be.

And that means that we must recognize that our sin has first and foremost offended the holiness of the sovereign Lord of the universe.

We must recognize that our sin has affected one of God's little ones.

And if my sin has affected one of God's little ones, then I ought to have one of those concrete center dividers on the highway tied around my neck and tossed into devil's leg.

That thought should then motivate us to cry out for forgiveness, to motivate us to repent of our sin, to put it aside, and to drive forward to reconciliation and restoration with God's little ones.

This all can and should happen if we as a fellowship will just do two things.

It's as simple as two things.

Number one, adore and magnify and fear the holiness of God.

What happened when Isaiah saw the King, Jesus, high and lifted up?

He said, Whoa, woe is me.

I'm dead.

That ought to be our response when we are faced with the holiness of our God.

And that should motivate us then to work to protect the purity of Christ's bride, of which we are part, to the glory and the praise of the one who was humble enough to wrap himself with a human body like a slave and to die a slave's death, so that we might be made right with him, and not only with him, but with one another.

To live together as God's little ones.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, help us.

This is a a difficult passage of scripture, but it's so important.

It could fix the way that churches function.

Lord, so often churches have have terrible reputations of belittling one another and of being unkind and uncaring to one another.

Oh Lord, change that.

Make us safe places.

Understanding that safe places are places where our sin might be addressed so that we might be right with you and right with one another.

Lord, we are Genesis 3 people.

But by your grace, we've been purchased by your blood.

We've been redeemed out of slavery to sin.

And by your grace, you are making us into the image of the King.

So enable us to be more like Jesus each and every day.

In humility, in confession, in repentance, and in forgiveness.

So that a watching world might see that and say, I want to know more about that.

Be gracious to us and forgive us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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