Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew 18? We will read from Matthew 18:15-20.
And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he hear thee not, take with thee 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 also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.
Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee again for inviting us to Thy table. We thank Thee for reminding us again how much Thou dost love us. We pray that Thy love may constrain us, that we may no longer live for ourselves, but live for Thee, Who died and rose again.
Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we look to Thy Holy Spirit to illumine us with Thy Word. May Thy Word be life and spirit to us. We pray that Thou wilt lead us into Thy truth, and Thy truth shall set us free. We give Thee all the glory, in the name of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The church is a mystery hidden in God throughout the ages and centuries, and it was not revealed until the fullness of time.
That is the reason why, when our Lord Jesus walked on earth, He did not mention the church until toward the end of His life, in view of the cross and in view of the accomplishment of the work of redemption. He was able to let out, as it were, that secret of the church.
So, in the Gospels, you find that even though the church is in the very heart of our Lord Jesus, and it is for that reason He came into this world, yet He was not able to reveal it until He had Calvary in view.
In the record of the Gospels, we find the word church, which is ekklesia, the called-out ones gathered together, mentioned only twice. Once is in Matthew 16. We shared on that last Lord’s Day how, in Matthew 16, our Lord Jesus mentioned, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
He is speaking of the church universal. That is the very nature of the church. The church is built upon the foundation of our Lord Jesus Himself, for He is the Rock.
The church is built with living stones like Peter. We who have confessed the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, are living stones. We are being built up together upon the foundation of Christ to be the church.
And the Builder of the church is none other than the Lord Himself. He said, “I will build My church.”
Because the church is spiritual in nature, you find that the conflict is also spiritual. The gates of Hades will all be opened to attack the church, but our Lord Jesus said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” because it is the Lord Who builds it.
So, in the first mentioning of the church, we find all the spiritual principles concerning the church being given to us.
Now, this morning, we would like to enter into the second mentioning of the word church by our Lord Himself, and that is in Matthew 18.
In order to understand this second mentioning of the church, I think it is important for us to see the occasion. In other words, we have to read the text within its context.
Now, in Matthew 18, at the beginning of that chapter, you find the disciples came to the Lord Jesus and asked Him a question: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?”
You know, the disciples argued among themselves all the time: who is the greatest among them? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?
Our Lord Jesus brought a little child into their midst and said, “Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
In other words, in the kingdom of the heavens, you have to be like a child. Why? Because spiritual things are hidden from the wise and prudent, but they are revealed to babes.
Unless we are converted as a little child—in other words, unless we really repent of ourselves, do not rely upon ourselves, humble ourselves before the Lord, and accept Him as our Lord and Savior—we will not be able to be in the kingdom of the heavens.
In the kingdom of the heavens, they are all childlike people—not childish, but childlike. There is no self-importance, no self-sufficiency, and no self-reliance. They are humble, depending upon God Himself.
We must be like little children; otherwise, we will not be in the kingdom of the heavens. How precious are those childlike people in the sight of God, because our Lord Jesus said, “Their angels do always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” How precious are little children in the sight of our Lord Jesus. Do not offend any of these little children.
It is within this context that our Lord Jesus began to say, “If thy brother sin against thee.” What should you do? Eventually, He mentioned the word church: “Tell it unto the church.”
So, brothers and sisters, here you see the connection between the kingdom of the heavens and the church. Those who are in the kingdom of the heavens are those who are in the church.
To put it another way, when we are converted as little children and humble ourselves under the authority of our Lord, then we are, today, in the kingdom of the heavens.
Even though one day the kingdom of the heavens will come upon this earth in public manifestation, when our Lord Jesus returns, He will establish the kingdom of the heavens upon the earth. Then the whole world will see what the kingdom of the heavens is like.
But today, the kingdom of the heavens is already here, though it is hidden. It is in those who humble themselves as little children and put themselves under the authority of the King, our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, in one sense, the church, in reality, is the kingdom of the heavens today. That is the connection you find between the kingdom of the heavens and the church.
But in this second mentioning of the word church, you find our Lord Jesus showing us the other side of the church. The church is heavenly in nature, but its testimony is upon the earth.
You remember one day Peter, when he was on the housetop, saw a vision. He saw heaven opened, and a great sheet, bound at the four corners, coming down from heaven.
In the sheet were all kinds of four-footed animals, and he heard the voice, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter said, “Lord, I have never touched anything unclean.” So the voice said, “What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.” It happened three times, and then the sheet went back to heaven.
Now, it is a vision of the church. It has its origin in heaven, but it comes down upon this earth. It is filled with those who were originally unclean but are now being cleansed by the Lord.
We are to have fellowship. Eating is fellowship. We are to have fellowship with all the saints. So you find that the church is spiritual and heavenly in nature, but earthly in testimony.
Why is this so? The church is one, universal. It includes all who believe in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, from the first one who confessed the Lord as the Christ, the Son of the living God, to the last one who believes Him as such.
All of them are within that church universal. We are all living stones, and we are all supposed to be built up together—not just put together, but built up together organically—as His church upon the Rock, our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the church universal.
But, brothers and sisters, today we are still in this mortal body. We are still limited by time and space. Being still in this mortal body, how can we express the spiritual principle of the church? It can only be expressed locally, that is, where we are.
Because only where we are can we gather together, fellowship with one another, and be built up together in a realistic way.
So here you find our Lord Jesus saying that the church has a local expression. All the spiritual principles in the church universal ought to be practiced locally, where you are.
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Where? There is locality. In the church universal, you do not have a “where,” because it is everywhere. But because we are limited, there is a where: where you are, a locality, a place where you are located.
Then there are two or three. Two or three is the minimum number. One person cannot represent a church, because the church is a body, and a body has many members, not just one member.
This does not mean that it is limited to two or three. In this very incident, if your brother sins against you, there are two. If he does not listen to you, you get one or two more, and then there are three or four. If they do not listen, then you tell the church. So there are more than two or three, but two or three is the minimum number.
In other words, it is collective; it is corporate. You have two or three located in a certain locality, so they are able to contact each other.
These two or three are gathered together. They are not scattered. You may have two or three, but if they are scattered, it is all one, and one, and one. You do not have that corporateness there. So the two or three have to be gathered together.
In Hebrews, we are exhorted not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. So it is very important for God’s people to be gathered together.
But it is not just gathering together. You can gather together and form a club. This gathering together is gathered unto Someone. We are gathered together unto the name of our Lord Jesus.
That is the reason for their gathering together. It is not a social gathering; it is not a political gathering; it is not a gathering of any kind. It is a gathering unto the Lord Jesus and unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
When you say they are gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus, it simply means they put themselves under the headship of Christ, under the authority of that name—the name that is above every name, and unto which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
So this is the only reason for their gathering. They are gathered upon a center, and that center is a Person, a divine Person, the Lord Himself.
That is the purpose of that gathering. When they are gathered together unto that name, something happens. The Lord said, “There am I in the midst.” In other words, the very presence of the Lord is there.
That is the minimum expression of the local church. So, dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is showing us that all the spiritual principles in the church universal ought to be put into practice in the local church.
If every one of us who is in the church were childlike and under the authority of our Lord Jesus, you would have a perfect church. You would have no problem of any kind, and that is what it should be.
But unfortunately, we are still in this flesh. Not only are we limited by time and space, but even though we have the life of Christ in us—and it is that life of Christ in us that is the building block of the church—yet we still have our old flesh with us.
We are not perfect. We are on the way to perfection. Because of this, you cannot find a perfect church on earth. As somebody said, if you want to find a perfect church, and if you are there, it is no longer perfect. That is very true.
That is the reason why you find problems in the church. In Matthew 16, the problem is spiritual, in the spiritual realm. The Lord said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The conflict is in the spiritual realm.
But when you come into the local church, you find the problem is human. Now, you cannot completely separate these two things, because oftentimes the enemy uses humans to cause problems. But the problem is human; it is on earth. It is not in the heavenly realm, though the two are related.
So our Lord Jesus, when He mentioned this matter of the local church, said, “If thy brother sin against thee.” That is the local church, because we are together, because we are close together.
If we only meet once a week for an hour or so and then say goodbye for another week, probably there will be fewer problems. But if we are together, put ourselves under the name of the Lord, serve Him together, worship Him together, and try to encourage and help one another—not at arm’s length, but very close together, just like the members of a body—then offenses are almost unavoidable.
The Lord said offenses seem to be unavoidable in the world. When you think of your own body, you use your teeth to cut food, but oftentimes when you eat too fast, you bite your tongue.
Actually, the tongue helps you with your eating, because if you do not have the tongue, who is to transport your food back and forth? That is the tongue’s work. We need each other, but oftentimes you bite your tongue. When your tongue is bitten, the tongue cannot say, “Well, if you bite me, I’ll leave.” You cannot do that.
So you find that in the body of Christ, the law is love. What the Lord is trying to show us is that, in the local church, the law of love is the law of the church.
“If thy brother sin against thee.” Here, what our Lord Jesus is telling us is not a serious thing that affects the whole church. No, it is not that. It is a personal relationship.
If your brother sins against you, that is very common, right? Because we are human. Sometimes you think your brother sins against you by neglecting you. Suppose you come, you say hello, and he turns his face away. You think, “My, he has sinned against me.” You are offended.
Whether it is conscious or unconscious, you do not know, but such things do happen. Sometimes you feel you are neglected.
As you find in Matthew 5, our Lord Jesus said that if you are angry with your brother, or if you call your brother a fool, or look upon your brother as Raca, sometimes we can sin against another with our words and with our attitude—sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously.
Such things do happen, and when they happen, they affect our relationship. In other words, our fellowship suffers. The Lord said you should not let such things continue.
If your brother sins against you, in this case it is the brother who has sinned against you. But if you read Matthew 5, you find that it deals with the other side.
When you are offering your gift at the altar, and you remember that your brother has something against you, what do you do? You leave your gift at the altar, go to your brother, and reconcile with him as soon as possible.
In other words, before the Lord returns, let us settle it. This concerns the one who has sinned. So do not think that the one who has been sinned against should just wait for the one who sinned to come and settle the matter. Matthew 5 deals with the one who sins.
If you sin against any brother or sister, go and reconcile before it is too late. That is what you do, because relationship—fellowship—is the life of the body.
But here in Matthew 18, the Lord is using the other side. If a brother sins against you, it is not you who have sinned against him, but your brother who has sinned against you. What should you do? What is your reaction?
Can you say, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” just like the law says? Of course not. We are not under the law.
What should you do if your brother sins against you, whether consciously or unconsciously? Do you say, “I am unfortunate because I am in New Testament times. If I were in Old Testament times, I could do what I liked. But I cannot do that. Being a Christian, I will bite my tongue and endure. Unfortunately, I am a Christian”?
Is that the reaction you should have toward your brother? Because of that, will you have nothing to do with him anymore? You still meet together, but never talk to each other and look away from that brother. Is that what you should do?
If you do that, you have been sinned against—that is true—but if you take that kind of attitude, you will find that very quickly the atmosphere of the assembly will begin to change. That is no love.
So our Lord Jesus said, if your brother sins against you in a personal matter, you who are sinned against have a responsibility of love. It is not merely a duty.
Usually, when a brother sins against you, you wait until he comes and apologizes, because he is the one who wronged you. But is that a Christian attitude? Is that love?
The Lord said, you love your brother so much that you do not want him to be in darkness. You do not want him to remain in the wrong and affect his fellowship with the Lord. You want to help him.
So you go and reprove him. Is that not good? You can go and reprove him, vindicate yourself, show him that he is wrong, and demand an apology. No, that is not what the Lord means.
If your brother sins against you, not only do you endure, because love is longsuffering, but love is also kind. In other words, you have already forgiven him.
You are not trying to vindicate yourself. You are thinking of him, not of yourself. You want fellowship to be restored. You do not want to see a brother who sins against you remain in a condition where you are unable to fellowship with him.
So, not with a revengeful spirit, but with a loving spirit, you go to the brother. You have already forgiven him, but you speak the truth in love, telling him that he has done something wrong.
That will affect his life with God, and you do not want to see that happen to that brother. You love him. You want to restore him. That is the attitude you should take.
Usually, if you go there with such an attitude, you restore your brother; you gain your brother through love.
But if he does not listen to you, is that the end of love? No. You go and find one or two others, perhaps brothers and sisters who are respected by both you and that brother, and ask their help as witnesses.
You go to the brother again and try to convince him in order to restore him. If he still refuses, then what do you do? You go and tell the church.
Now, if this is the church universal, where are you going to tell it? The church is too big; it is everywhere. You have nowhere to go. Evidently, this is the local church.
You can go and tell the church. By telling the church simply means that you go to those who are spiritually responsible for the church, and then the church will try to help that brother.
If the brother refuses to listen even to the church, what do you do? Listen carefully. Is the brother to be excommunicated from the church? No.
Then you look at that brother, to you, as a publican and a sinner. In other words, because this is a personal thing, it is not serious enough to affect the whole church.
Even though the church tries to come in and help, it remains a personal relationship. So, in that case, that brother, so far as you are concerned, is to you—as the Bible says emphatically, to you, not to the whole church—as a publican and a sinner.
In other words, you pity him. You still pity him. It is not that you completely neglect him. You still pity him and hope that he will be recovered.
So, brothers and sisters, this is love. Love is the law of the house of God. Love is the law of the local church. Love will go the second mile.
But love and discipline are not contradictory. In our human minds, we think that if there is love, there should be no discipline, but that is a false idea.
Love and discipline go together. In Hebrews 12, our heavenly Father loves us so much as His sons that He chastens us. If He does not chasten us, then we are not sons, but bastards. He loves us, so He disciplines us, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
There is no contradiction between love and discipline. If there is love, there is bound to be discipline. Discipline without love is wrong, but love without discipline is also false.
When your brother sins against you, you go and reprove him, trying to gain him. That is brotherly discipline.
In the church, you find there are different degrees of discipline. The first degree is brotherly discipline, and that is what you find in Matthew 18: if your brother sins against you, you go and reprove him in private.
Unfortunately, what is often done today is this: if your brother sins against you, you do not go to him. You go to other brothers and sisters and tell them what has happened. You spread the news.
The brother who has sinned may never know it, but everybody else in the church already knows it. That spreads division.
Your responsibility is not to spread the news. Your responsibility is to restore the brother in private. Do not tell anybody. In private, with love, try to restore him.
Only when it cannot be done do you tell two or three—not gossipers, but two or three who have spiritual weight to help. The final step is to tell the church.
But still, you find that the church does not exercise discipline in this matter. It is you who exercise discipline. To you, he is as a publican and a sinner. That is brotherly discipline.
The Bible tells us there is also fatherly discipline. You find fatherly discipline in Galatians 6. If anyone is overtaken in a fault, those who are spiritual have the responsibility to restore that brother. But be careful lest you also be tempted.
Here you find a brother who is more spiritual than the brother who has sinned. He has a responsibility of love to give fatherly advice and to help those who are weaker.
Then, of course, you find church discipline. We see this in 1 Corinthians 5. That is excommunication, because the sin is commonly known and is not repented of. Therefore, the church has to clear the leaven, and there is excommunication.
But even with excommunication, it is for restoration. Hopefully, the one who is excommunicated will repent and return.
Some people believe that Paul, in 2 Corinthians, refers to that brother who repented and asks the church to receive him back.
Or, as you find in 2 Thessalonians, if a brother refuses to work and relies upon others, even though he has been helped and told a number of times, and still will not do so, then you are not to keep company with that brother. Yet you still admonish him as a brother.
Or you can find in Titus 3 that if a heretical man, having been warned again and again, still causes divisions, then you do not even eat with him.
So, brothers and sisters, you find there is discipline in the church, but there are different degrees. In every case, discipline is based on love. That is the very meaning of discipline: it is based on love.
In this section, you find our Lord Jesus not only mentioning love as the very law of the church and discipline as going together with love, but He also mentions the matter of prayer.
Immediately after the brother is disciplined, the Lord continues to say, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done unto you.” He speaks of binding on earth and being bound in heaven, and of loosing on earth and being loosed in heaven.
Why does this matter of prayer come into the picture? Because you find it is all related. How do we solve problems in the church? By prayer—by prayer.
Because the church is a spiritual body, you do not use other means to solve problems. You find that whenever the early church had a problem, they went to pray.
If they pray in unity, with one accord, and if the prayer is according to the will of God, God will do something.
So this corporate prayer, this executive prayer, is very important in the church, because this is the only way to solve problems.
I believe that even when a brother sins against others, will not repent, and remains in darkness, if two will agree and pray for him, eventually he will come to the light. There is nothing that cannot be solved by praying together.
But remember, it has to be with one accord. That one accord is not just you and I agreeing. One accord is that we all agree with the Lord. When we all agree with the Lord and pray together, He will hear us.
That is the binding and the loosing. Here again, there is a little difference. In Matthew 16, the Lord said to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
There you find the keys of the kingdom of heaven, related to opening the door of the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens to the Jews and to the Gentiles. God used Peter to open the door to the Jews on the day of Pentecost and to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. That is the loosing.
But in Matthew 18, this binding and loosing is related more to solving problems in the local church.
So, dear brothers and sisters, you find that all the spiritual principles in the church universal ought to be put into practice in the local church.
What the Lord is looking for is a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. What the Lord is looking for is a church built together.
What the Lord is looking for is that bride, that wife, who has made herself ready and is clothed with wedding garments, waiting for the Bridegroom to return.
So, dear brothers and sisters, how is the church built? In Revelation 2 and 3, you find the seven churches in the building. In Revelation 21 and 22, you find the New Jerusalem, the church universal, being built.
The church universal is built by the local churches being built. In the building process, you find there are many faults, many warnings, and many matters that need repentance and recovery.
But when it comes to the fulfillment of the church universal, you find it is all glorious. That is the way the Lord is working.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we do want to praise and thank Thee that we are not perfect, and yet Thou art perfecting us. We ask Thee, Lord, that we may be willing to abandon ourselves, put ourselves in Thy hands, and allow Thee to work in us until we are fitted one to another and become a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, presentable to Thee, our glorious Lord. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.