Address—Robert Boulard
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I thought maybe we would sing #328.
To begin 328 and maybe if we get a little bit sleepy we'll sing another one halfway through, I'm not sure.
But if anybody is nodding and so on, we may just stand up and sing another hymn 328. Perhaps somebody could start it for us.
Let's ask the Lord's blessing on our meeting this afternoon.
I'd like to just read a couple of verses of scripture.
To open up, there are, let's return to Deuteronomy Chapter 11, and we're just going to read maybe three or four verses there. There are two places on the face of the earth that God intended to be happy.
Places, and he actually uses a little term here that I often think of.
As the days of heaven upon earth two places and so this is the first place.
That we become accustomed to when we're born into this world. Verse 18. Deuteronomy 11. Verse 18. Therefore shall ye.
Lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be frontlets between your eyes. And you shall teach them your children, Speaking of them when thou citizenine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou lie us down, when thou risest up, and thou shalt write them upon the doorpost of thine house, upon thy gates.
That your days may be multiplied in the days of your children.
In the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth. Well, we know that the world is stained with sin, and it's filled with corruption and wickedness. But God intended that the Christian home. This was a godly Israelite home. But the principle applies that the godly Christian home was to be a little safe haven from the world, and it was to be so enjoyable for the.
Family that it would be just like a little picture of heaven on earth, and there would just be rejoicing as the word of God had power with the parents and they would cause the delight of the word of God. The delight of Scripture would be passed on to their children and they would have a delight in it. And then they would be together, the father and the mother and the and the children in the presence of the Lord just enjoying.
And delighting in the Word of God, and in the company of God himself. But then the other.
If you just flip over a page, it's a page in my Bible. He intended that there would be another place.
That would be a very happy place, characterized by joy in his presence.
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And he says.
In Deuteronomy chapter 12.
That.
Let's just.
Read just using these little verses introductory.
Let's read verse 11, Deuteronomy 12, verse 11. There shall be a place which God to cause his name to dwell there thither shall you bring all the other command you.
Your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithe, your heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow unto the Lord, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God.
And your sons, he and your sons, and your daughters, and your men servants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates, for as much as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. Well, isn't that nice to read that word? Rejoice.
One of the things, one of the memories is most.
Remarkable to me as a young person, as a young child, was the pleasure and the joy of going to the assembly meetings. Now, as you know, I wasn't brought up among those gathered to the Lord's name, but there was a little meeting room that I went to in a place called Rockaway Valley.
And other places as well. And it was an imitation. It wasn't really the real thing, but it was a pleasure to go and to read the Word of God there and to be with those brethren.
But there was a price to pay. And the point is, let's turn to.
Chapter 23 of Proverbs where it doesn't read one verse there there's a price to pay to make it a happy place and to rejoice in the presence of the Lord. It's going to cost something. Everything you do costs something, costs time, costs money. Maybe it costs your effort and it may cause you to.
Sacrifice and look like you're losing out on something in this world that the world values. But God is no man's debtor, so it says in Proverbs chapter 23 verse 23 by the truth.
And sell it not?
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding or intelligence. So by the truth make a transaction, and if you make a personal transaction with the Lord.
I can't make it for you.
You make a transaction with the Lord, it's going to cost you something to lay aside your own agenda, your own purposes, your own desires. And as we had before us yesterday, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do and own the Lordship of Christ? And you know it says a couple of times in Scripture. As for God, his way is perfect.
Now you can't improve on that, can you? Perfect perfection.
But those of us that are a little bit older didn't always follow that advice, and so we've made a lot of mistakes and we've had to retrace our steps every now and then, and we have these embarrassing moments and regrets in our lives because we didn't.
Follow that advice. We didn't buy the truth. We didn't pay the price that was required to walk in all of it. And you know, in the French translation it says 911 point, don't sell. A little bit of it is really the sense.
By the truth and keep all of it.
There was a man. I'm not here to tell you stories or entertain you, but I just feel.
Is necessary to point.
To emphasize the price that sometimes has to be paid.
To walk with God.
There was a man in the Rockaway Valley area. He lived in a place. This was in the early 1900s. His name was Mr. Croft. I can't remember what his.
First name was, but he was an old man in the mid 60s when I knew him. And he sat beside an old wood stove in the house that Yolande Croft once lived in. And he had a little rocking chair and he sat there by the wood stove. And he would, he loved children. And we would go to see him and he would speak with us and visit with us a little bit. And I asked Yolan one day why?
What? What's so special about Grandpa Croft? And she said, well, you know.
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He was a young man, he had a young family and his wife died, went to be with the Lord.
And he was distraught, but he remarried, remarried a young sister in the Lord, and he lived in a place called Lac de Plage. I don't know if you remember where Lac de Plage is. I've only driven by it, but it means in English, Lake of the Beaches. And it's a beautiful lake of beaches. And that's where he lived.
But there was a little assembly meeting hall in Rockaway Valley.
I suppose in those days might be an hour away and probably impossible, impossible to come there very frequently. And so this young bride that he had said to him, she said, you know, if we stay here in Lac de Plais, it's a beautiful place, but if we stay here we're going to raise a bunch of heathens and they'll be lost to this world.
We need to move, we need to get back to Rockway. And anyone here who knows like what Rockaway Valley is like, it's not like Lac de Plage.
It it's pretty rocky and it's a pretty hard place to earn a living, but this man picked up his family and moved to Rockaway Valley.
And he eked out a living, bought an old building, tore it down, built himself a house, banged out the nails and so on. And he was a mainstay in that area.
A godly brother raised godly children with the help of a wife, a godly sister, and some of those children are in fellowship at the Lords Table today. Some of those relatives are in fellowship at the Lords Table today.
But it cost them that home, that beautiful home in Lac de Plage, so that he could live next to the meeting room, not perhaps right next to it, but very, very close within walking distance of that meeting room. He paid the price and he bought the truth in his day. And young people, every one of us, those that are older.
We're all going to have to pay a price and God will test us on the principle of faith as to how much we value.
What it is to be in His presence. I want to ask you a question before we get into our subject here. Did you come to the meeting this morning?
Or did you come to be in the presence of the Lord?
I was a young man, perhaps, maybe a little older than a young man, but I was working in Michigan and.
Came home from the office working, you know, with the car companies. It's like a giant chess game, and you're against a whole bunch of competitors, and you feel like you're playing Monopoly all day and getting beat up. And I came home one day and it was a Wednesday night, I think. And I said I had a brother. Bob Collard was there for supper.
I said, Brother Bob, I'm so tired. I don't know. I'm so weary. I don't know if I come go to meeting tonight. He looked me in the eye. He said what You're telling me you're too tired to come into the presence of the Lord tonight?
I said, well, maybe I'm not too tired to come into the presence of the Lord tonight. So I went to the meeting that night. Isn't it nice to remember that we come into the presence of the Lord? Don't get into the habit of saying, well, I wonder if I'm going to go to a meeting or if I maybe I'll go to a meeting tonight. Maybe I won't make the call, make the decision, pay the price as it were.
To decide.
To be in the presence of the Lord as often as you can. It'll be like heaven upon earth.
You will look back and you will have memories of those occasions and little.
Capsules, little Nuggets of scripture, little Nuggets, little gems that the Spirit of God has given you.
That are with you for a lifetime. Perhaps I would say for eternity. Isn't that the truth for eternity a little nugget a little portion of Christ and if you miss a meeting that you could possibly be that meeting and this is a I'm just quoting chapter Brown many years ago used to say this. If you miss a meeting where you could easily have been at meeting and you didn't go to be in the presence of the Lord.
You missed something that the Spirit of God had for you that night or that occasion.
You miss something and you may never get it again and so it's vital for us.
As I say, to have a Christian home, to have a home where there's the Word of God has power and it is reverenced and there is fruit for God in the home, it's going to be like heaven on earth. And then in the assembly it's the same thing. There's if the Word of God has power and there is a bowing to the authority of the Word of God and a love for it.
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And a sense that we're coming into the presence of the Lord. There's going to be fruit for him.
And it'll be as if it's heaven upon earth. And I just rejoice to see these young ones here racing around with their little cars.
And little boys and girls, and I have to think about that verse every time it says heaven upon earth. And those little ones, they remember, they'll get a little bit older, but they'll remember these friends that they played with and the happy time that they had. Well, let's turn to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 18. I want to take up this chapter.
There, we're going to take up six points really in connection with this chapter. It has to do, you know, the church is only mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. It's not mentioned in the other Gospels. And so the Lord Jesus, as we said yesterday, gives a seed plot of Christianity in the Gospels himself, and then he left it for the apostles to develop the truth.
Because the apostles were not indwelled the disciples, they were not indwelled with the Spirit of God, so they really were hobbled.
In a marvelous to be indwelled with the Spirit of God, to have the spiritual capacity.
To understand the things of God and to enjoy them, the capacity to enjoy them and the capacity to be able to communicate about them, that's marvelous. You have more than the apostles did before.
Before the cross you have, you're indwelled with the Spirit of God. Well, let's read. I'm going to just for the sake of time, instead of reading the whole chapter, would you permit me to just read a little bit? We'll comment on that little part and then we'll go to the next part. So it says here in chapter 18 of Matthew verse one. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest?
In the Kingdom of heaven, 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. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth Me. But 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.
Well, what we find here in this chapter is the principles of really our conduct and how our conduct should be governed while we come to be in the presence of the Lord, and it should be a part of our Christian life throughout.
And so the first thing, isn't it remarkable? The very first thing on the list is humility.
You know, some of you may have remembered Brother Manford Gertz in in Germany. I used to do business in Germany. So I'll visit them and remember Well his little expression. Every now and then the subject of humility came up and he would say, he would get right up into your face. He'd say, oh, did you read my book Humility and how I obtained it?
You know humility and how I obtained it.
Well, you know the Lord Jesus.
The Son of God, who had every right as God in this world, they decide his rights.
That you might come into blessing and that he might demonstrate in his own life.
How you ought to conduct yourself. And so he humbled himself.
And became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
You know, his life was characterized by humility.
Let's read in Matthew Chapter 11.
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We read these verses and sometimes they're applied in the gospel, but really they had to do verse 282930.
You know, the Jews were struggling under the burden of Judaism and laws and everything. They had something like 613 laws that they had to keep. They couldn't even remember 10.
But they struggled and struggled, and so they had a law and it was unyielding.
But the Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. They labored under the burden of the law. He says, I will give you rest.
So Christianity isn't a set of rules, That's just a person, the person of Christ.
In his arrest, he says take my yoke upon you.
And learn of me.
That's a true disciple. You know what disciple is? A learner.
You learn something about the Lord every day. You know I'm going to be 67 on my next birthday.
And you know, I'm still reading in the morning and I get up in the morning, I'm looking for some treasure, and every now and then I find a little bit of treasure.
And I underline it and I highlight it in my Bible and I savor it and.
I'm still learning and then I've got such a poor memory that a year later, maybe even a few months later, I have to re enjoy it. I have to relearn it.
As your memory fails as you grow older, you're going to find that you need to read the same thing over and over again.
But the Lord Jesus, blessed Savior.
He was meek and lowly. He wouldn't take offense and He wouldn't give offense. That's really what it means. And you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Well, the Lord desires to walk with you, but that walk with the Lord is one that's in humility.
God resisteth the proud. God resisteth the proud. You know what it means to resist.
You put if if Daisy got up here and I'd push against him, I'd push and push. That's what it means, means God resists the proud. You see a proud man in politics and so on.
God is resisting him, and God resists the pride of men, and He judges those that are proud. But here we have these little children and He took a little child, placed him in His presence. You know the Lord taught in different ways. He taught. This is an object lesson. He took an object. Brother had a stone here last night.
He used an object, a little child. What can a child do? Can't defend himself.
Believes everything you tell them.
Is very dependent, can't really acquire food on his own, perhaps might beg on the street and so on, but he's helpless. And you and I come into this world helpless and in the things of God, you and I need to come into the presence of the Lord in humility, because we know nothing.
I like to read, you know, lying down and dead. I like to read lying on the sofa, lying in my chair. I'm comfortable.
And every now and then I just have to put my book down, sometimes put my Bible down and say, Lord, I don't know anything.
I don't know anything. I didn't know this.
I don't know anything.
You ever tell the Lord that I don't know anything? Maybe you ask him some questions and he'll answer your questions, ask him questions about Scripture. And you know what happens is the next reading meeting you go to maybe two readings meetings later or whatever, the Lord will answer your question. Oftentimes you'll answer it with a word, but this is the very first principle that the Spirit of God brings before us and the words of the Lord Jesus himself. What ought to characterize Christianity?
In the assembly and in the Christian testimony was to be humility.
Not pride.
Oh my. Is that what characterizes my life? That What characterizes your life? Humility.
You know, we live in a world that says I have rights. Well, we said yesterday, and I think of it oftentimes. You know, Mr. Barry used to say that if you took the Lord Jesus as your Lord, you gave up your right to choose. You don't have any rights. The Lord Jesus has rights, but his rights were trampled in this world. But if your true follower, the Lord Jesus.
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Why you'll walk with Him in humility? Well, I just want to encourage you to walk in humility with the Lord Jesus.
And as a little child in humility.
To take a simple place and not seek prominence among the people of God at all, not seek prominence in your family, not seek prominence in the world, but to just walk with God humbly.
And it's an easy yoke.
I'll tell you one more little story. I don't want to tell too many but want you to remember this.
When I was a young man, I came to work in Hammer Bay and I worked for my father-in-law a little bit with him and we were building a picnic shelter at the CNIB campgrounds in Hammer Bay, Gordon Bay.
And there was a hot July day, I don't know if maybe 30 degrees, 35°. And here we were trying to help put this thing up and there was a tight time schedule.
And we had a beam like a 6 by 8 beam that went down the center of this picnic shelter. It was like 30 feet long, something like that. And we had to carry it. We didn't have anything that we could take. So the both of us had to pick this thing up, one at one end, one at the other. And it was just weighed a ton fur. I don't know how I picked it up, but I was walking to carrying this thing.
And it seemed to be getting lighter. I thought, well, maybe I'm getting used to carrying this, you know, and.
And finally I look back and here was my father, my future father-in-law, one hand under one hand under one hand. He was walking towards me and he was pretty well carrying the whole thing by himself. He was a very strong man.
And you may feel weak in the things of God, you may feel like you can't do it and you don't have the strength to do this. But there is one that is strong enough. And in the things of God, He's going to allow trials in your life, testings of your faith, and He's going to allow difficult situations. And yet you're in the yoke with Him. And it's not an unequal yoke.
If you're cleansed with the precious blood of Christ, why, You're a child of God, and here the Son of God who redeemed you with his own precious blood, is all right alongside, and he's carrying the heavy end of the load. You're not.
You may sing him seem like you're carrying the heavy load, but you're not. Well, that's the first thing that really characterizes Christianity, ought to characterize Christianity and characterize the assembly. This humility, not a seeking of my own will and a pressing forward of my own agenda, but really humility and childlike humility. Well, let's look at the second one here, verse 7. Woe unto the world because of offenses because.
For it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off.
Cast them from thee, for it is better for thee to enter into life halt or 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 you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into Hellfire or really eternal fire.
Take heed that thou that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
Well, this second portion really has to do with self judgment. And you know when it speaks of a knife and it was spoken of yesterday in Proverbs chapter 23, put a knife to thy throat, it speaks of self judgment.
The 9th and Christianity ought to be characterized by unsparing self judgment.
Not allowing anything in my life that would be hindrance to others. And you may say, well, I have a right to do that. I have a right. And I'm a, I'm a believer. I have equal rights with every well, you know, the assembly is not a democracy.
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You're a guest.
In the guest chamber.
You're a guest of the Lord Jesus.
He delights to have you there as a guest.
Oh, he loves everyone equally.
But it's his rights that have to do with the assemblies, His glory that has to do with the assembly. Not your glory, not your rights, not how you like things done or would like things done. No, it's how the Word of God presents it in connection with the truth. Well, you know, what happens here is if I assert my own rights, I assert my own opinions and I.
Carelessly run roughshod over the consciences of others.
Then what it says here is I might offend a little one.
He says despise verse 10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.
For I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven.
Well, you know, there's an angelic work going on in heaven and before the Father.
This is what the word of God tells us. The Lord Jesus tells us that there's angels in heaven and they're looking after Isaac.
And Joanna?
And some others here. I don't know your names, but there's an Angel looking after you after your interests in the face of the Father.
You know what's interesting? If you turn to John's Gospel, we're not going to turn to it. We don't have time. But Mary Magdalene was too. She saw two angels. She was talking to two angels. They talked to her, and she just kind of turned her back on the two angels. She wasn't interested in angels.
She wanted to see the Lord. She wasn't interested in angels, but there are angels, there are ministering servants.
And they're interested, Santa, the father, to look after these little ones.
And if I allow something in my life that turns aside, offends a little one, it's a serious offense. You know, I just looked it up in the dictionary a few weeks ago. Offend, It means this.
In the scriptural sense, to snare or entrap, to turn aside, to hinder or to violate a little one.
I'm going to read that list again.
To snare, to present a snare, a trap to a little one, to entrap them, to turn aside, to hinder or to violate.
Oh, it's a serious thing.
To come into the presence of God and turn aside a little one that has faith in Christ or perhaps is just exercised about coming into the presence of the Lord.
And so the Lord says here that he's using these little figures to cut off, to cut off thy hand. If I'm taken up with some hobby that I think, oh, this is, it's a hobby and I'm, I have a right to do this and well, maybe not.
If it's going to be hindrance to your brethren, if it's going to be hindrance to a little one, maybe not, says thy foot. Oh, I go to this place. That's fine. I have a right to go to the movies or to go to a ball game or whatever. No, he says. No, you don't have a right.
You might be hindering a little one. There's going to be a little one looking. I want to tell you a little story in when we lived in Massillon, OH, I had a neighbor across the road from me, Kitty Corner, and they were believers. And so my family would go up during the summer and I'd go up to Hammer Bay and I would work three days a week in Massillon and then I'd drive up for the weekend.
So one day this brother, Jeff Sprout, he invited me over to his house, his wife Nancy, and cooked a nice salmon.
Filet and oh, she was a gorgeous cook anyway.
After the supper was over.
Push back the plates and everything, he says. We'd like to know where you go to church.
She says. We've been watching you and we've been watching the young people that come to your house. They're not like the other young people that do burnouts on the street and all that kind of stuff. I mean, there's something different about those kids, he said. Where do you go to church?
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I said well.
It's not really a church. It's we're Christians gathered by the Spirit of God to the Lord's name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, where is it?
I said, well, it's in Cuyahoga Falls. Well, what's the name of it? I said it doesn't have. There's no name on the building.
What street? I said, well, he says, well how do you get there? So I said, well I go up right at 8:00 and I get off at.
Portage Trail, he said, Oh yeah, Portage Trail. And I said I go up, up by the fire station. Yeah, yeah, he says. And you turn right and yeah, I said I turn right and then I go down to.
Bailey And then I oh, yeah, yeah, I said. And then you turn left on Myrtle. Yeah, I said, yeah, I'll turn left on Myrtle.
And he says, And what building is it on Myrtle Ave.
I said, well, there's a brown brick building down at the bottom just before you turn at the park. He said, yeah. He says, yeah, it's a brown brick building, got a big parking lot. And he says, yeah, and there's no name on the building. That's the building, huh?
Well, you see, he worked in masculine.
In Cuyahoga Falls, and he lived in Massillon and he knew the building.
Was two 8.2 miles away and he knew where it was.
You're being watched.
And your life is having a testimony. People are watching you walk out of the meeting, out of your house, or driving to the meeting and they're watching and you're having a testimony. You're having an effect upon their lives. Well, let's be careful to exercise self judgment and to be sure that we never, never turn aside a little one from following the Lord.
It's a serious, serious offense and so we ought to exercise self judgment. Be careful.
As to our conduct in our Christian testimony and in the assembly, let's make it a happy, happy occasion to be in the assembly and not be seeking our own rights. Well, let's turn a little to the next little story. Here verse 12 it says, how think ye if a man having 100 sheep, and one of them be gone astray?
Does he not leave the 90 and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
And if so B that he finds it, verily I say unto you, He rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the 90 and nine 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.
Well, this is the third little story, the little third principle that should really characterize the Christian testimony and characterize the assembly.
And that is to have a shepherd in care. The assembly should be filled with shepherds.
Some of you know I have a twin brother.
In 1974 we came out to Winnipeg. We had an uncle that had.
Bought a field, basically 100 acres and erected a little bit of a shack and there was some Timothy on the field. And so he was bailing that up and I needed a couple of young boys to help him heave these bales onto a wagon and he was selling the hay and so on. And so we came out to the Winnipeg area. His name was Bert Hoole. I don't know if you remember him or not.
Grew up in a Christian home.
That's another story. But he didn't go on for the Lord. But my brother. My brother and I went out for the summer and then I came back east to go to school, lived at my father's house and my brother Norm decided he would stay there and stay with Uncle Bert. He would go to school there in the Winnipeg area.
And it really didn't go very well. He wasn't at the meetings.
And he was sliding.
And there was a brother in the little assembly in Pine Grove who flew.
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To anything, his name was John Hagel.
And he made specific.
Trip rented a car and went right to the place where my brother Norm.
Was they had a little chat with him, encouraged him to go home, says well I don't have the money to go home, Said how much would it cost to go home?
Norm told him how much it would cost. He pulled out his wallet. He said here you go home. You need to be at home.
And so a couple of days later, Norm showed up and he was at home again, began to go to the meetings again, and not too long after it took his place at the Lord's table and so on. Oh, we need to be shepherds, brethren. Every one of us needs to be a shepherd.
And every little sheep makes a difference. You know, this is one percent, 101 Percent. So what's 1 sheep? I got 99 more. No, that's not how the Lord sees things. Everyone was purchased with his own precious blood. What a price was paid.
There is no higher price that could be paid for your soul to set you at liberty in the presence of God, to make you a Son of God. There was no higher price paid. And how dare we look with indifference upon those that drift off, and maybe have a habit and maybe have some.
Propensity to seek company that they shouldn't seek and so on. Everyone of us should be interested in seeing all of the flock of God go on together for the glory of God. Well, you know, you'll notice here in chapter 18, it says in verse 11 That the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. There are some that don't know they're lost and they're young. They're children.
And then I think it's in Luke's gospel chapter 19, verse 10, it says the Son of Man has come to seek and to save.
That which is lost.
Well, there it's Speaking of adults. So a child doesn't have a will set against God, generally speaking.
But an adult does. And so the Lord comes to seek that adult. And there may be some adults here that aren't saved. God says He's come to seek and to save that which was lost. But the little ones, they're wonderful to have a shepherd in care for these little ones and to guide them. And it's a pleasure. It's a joy. You know, we had a little.
Grandchild in our home.
There's disappointments, you know, as parents, you'll find this out. All of us who are parents have disappointments, sorrows.
Our oldest daughter married. I don't know if he's a believer or not. He says he's not. He was brought up in a Christian home, too.
She has two little girls that came to the house in July along with some other family members. We had a nice time and the little girl, Emma, her oldest girl, went to the little Sunday school class that my wife had and.
She said Grandma, I don't know how to, I don't know how to do it.
I don't know how to do it. What do you mean you don't know how to do it? She said. I don't know how to have my sins read. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to have my sins forgiven. Grandma, tell me how.
Grandma told her how.
Grandma told her how to have her sins forgiven.
Everyone of us should be shepherds for these little ones and don't take the time for these little ones and tell them what they need. And that's really what the Spirit of God is bringing out before us here. So let's have a shepherd in care. And then it says in verse 4, verse 15, it says, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between me and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother.
But if you 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. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the Church or to the assembly. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and republican.
Verily, verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
Let's just stop at verse 17, verse 1516. Seventeen really might say the fifth thing that really should be characteristic of.
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The upper room, The Christian meeting place, The Christian testimony.
Is that it's a place where personal disputes can be resolved. And let's face it, there are sometimes difficulties among brethren, among Christians, and God has made it so that we can resolve our disputes difficulties.
We all have strange ideas, isn't that right?
We all have wrong ideas.
We all have what we think is right and good.
And sometimes we step on one another's toes, sometimes we cause an offense. And it says, If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
Oh.
You mean I shouldn't just broadcast this so and so stepped on my foot?
At about 12:38 yesterday, it still hurts.
In fact, he made a mark on my shoe.
No, it says go and tell them yourself. Why does it say this to go and tell them alone?
Because he may not know.
You may have stepped on his foot, but you were too busy. You didn't know, You didn't remember.
Or, you know, we sometimes say things to one another and we're thinking that this is pretty clean, this is straightforward and but whoever you set it to takes it a different way and maybe feels insulted.
Go and tell them right away.
You shoot them an e-mail? No, that's not what it says.
You send somebody over to tell them no. You send them a letter? No.
Talk to him. Go see him now. Maybe you can't. He's left the country or he's left the city or whatever. Give him a call. I think there's liberty to say that. But the Lord says the Lord Jesus says go tell him, you know the Lord Jesus, you offended him.
You offended God. You sinned against Him.
He came and told you. Maybe he sent an evangelist, maybe he sent a verse of Scripture. But he told you. He told you himself. You offended me. You sinned against me.
And you said, yeah, I did. I did see it. I'm sorry. I confess I sinned.
You know, Brother Gordon Hale, he didn't speak at my wedding. I wish he had, but he used to say for a happy Christian marriage, it was necessary to have a threefold cord. So one cord was the husband, 100% for his wife, one cord is a wife, 100% for her husband. And the third chord was.
Both of them 100% for the Lord.
But he also used to tell us, you know, there's going to be times when you have a little bit of a difference.
Be sure that you have these four phrases in your vocabulary.
Your wife comes to you and says, I feel really hurt. You say, oh, I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
I love you.
I think it may have been more than that, but isn't that nice? I'm sorry, please forgive me, I was wrong.
I love you.
You know, there are some people that will not say they're wrong. I'm not, I'm wrong. It was my mistake. I'm sorry. They will not say it. Can't say it. It's not in their vocabulary, but make sure it's in yours.
Make sure it's in yours and if you want to have a home that is like heaven upon earth, make sure you have those little expressions. Memorize and you use them.
I had to say it last week. Actually, I think I had to say it just before I came here, maybe after I came here.
There was something missing in the bin and I talked to my wife and finally I had I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm wrong.
I was wrong. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. I love you.
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Oh, how much would be smoothed out by that? So go and tell them yourself. But you know, there are some things the Spirit of God tells us in this little passage, some things that are never going to be fixed down here. You may try to fix them. You may want them to be fixed.
But there may be some things that you can never fix, some relationships that can never be restored.
As much as liveth in your life, live peaceably with all men, as much as liveth with lieth in you. But it may be that somebody does not want to be restored.
Oh, we should have a soft and tender heart to want to be restored. But he says you may just have to go on and say, well, I can't walk in fellowship with that man. I just kind of have to consider that even though he's a believer, we don't have much in common. He's a heathen. I mean, I have to treat him like a heathen in a sense that I don't have fellowship with him. He's still a believer, but I don't have fellowship with him while we're running out of time, but.
The fifth thing is this that in verse 1819 and 20 that this place Christianity.
And the Christian testimony, those gathered, the Lords name, it's a place where there are binding decisions made. There's authority of the Lord in that place. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever shall but 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 which is in heaven.
Where two or three are gathered together.
In my name or unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Now, we don't have time to elaborate on this little passage too much, but there is authority in the assembly. God has raised up those that are an oversight in the assembly. The assembly is not a democracy.
God has organized the assembly. It doesn't look organized. It doesn't look like there's a high priest and all this sort of thing. But God is organized and he has raised up for himself those that are in oversight that are shepherds among the people of God. And if you're eating the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says they watch for your souls as they that must give account.
They're responsible to the Lord for how the assembly goes on under their watch.
And God will hold them responsible for how the assembly went on under their watch.
You look it up in Hebrews.
But I'm just going to point out in verse 20, it says where two or three where. That's the divine place. You know, there's a little booklet, I don't know if I had it out there yesterday, but it's called the place of his appointment by FC Blount. FC Blount was a very godly man. He was an evangelist, I think. I can't remember what city was from, but chapter Brown said he was the best taught and most.
Accurate. Most wonderful evangelist that he knew of.
That he spoke on this verse of Scripture. There's a little bit of an address on it and it's well worth reading. So that the where is the divine place. The two or three is a divine testimony are gathered is divine separation together is divine oneness in my name or unto my name is divine authority. We're gathered under the authority of the Lord.
There am I.
The Divine Presence, and then in the midst of them, He's the divine center.
Oh, what a blessed place it is to be found in the presence of the Lord, with the Lord in the midst.
It's the happiest place I know of upon the face of the earth.
To be in the presence of the Lord.
And when I come into the assembly meeting, I see all your faces and so on. I see the faces of my brethren. I'm not. That's not what I'm looking for. I come and I sit and I say, I am now in the presence of the Lord. And now why am I there?
I was gathered by the Spirit of God. I was brought in by the Spirit of God and brought into the assembly.
Is the sovereignty of God the love of God?
Let's look at the next one. Here it says.
Really. This is the last one, verse 21. I don't have time to read the whole thing but.
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Peter came to him and said, Lord, how OFT shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him till seven times.
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 * 7 four 190 times.
That means I'm to have unlimited forgiveness in my heart for anyone who sins against me.
Did you sin today?
Yeah, there's forgiveness.
Did you send 490 times last week? Yeah.
Probably.
Oh, you have a savior that loves you so much. He goes on with you and your failure. And you may forget to say I'm sorry, I love you, please forgive me.
But he goes on with you in his love and his favor.
But you know if we have an unforgiving spirit.
He'll take it up with us. If we have a hard heart towards any of our brethren, He'll take it up with us. And that's what he's Speaking of in this parable. We don't have time to read it, but it's the 7th similitude of the Kingdom. We have 6 similitudes of the Kingdom in chapter 13 of Matthew and now this is the 7th one. It's very remarkable that it's the last little story that he tells in this chapter, but it's the purpose of the Spirit of God to bring it before us that we need to have a forgiving spirit.
Towards one another Now, he says there's a man that had owed 1010 thousand talents. Somebody said they made the calculation. I'm not a mathematician, but they said that's like $50 billion.
He says, oh, I'll pay all, give me some time, I'll pay it.
Well, you can't pay $50 billion. You may think you can, but the Sinner can't do anything. You can't do anything. You've been forgiven. We're all $50 billion debtors and we've all been forgiven. Those who received Christ as Savior, Every single one of us.
Now somebody may do something and sin against you and cause you grief, insult you, whatever it is, and 100 pence and you might calculate that to be maybe $10,000.
Well, it says man came and he throttled him by the throat. Read it in Mr. Darby's translation. It throttled him. Painting now.
Cast them into prison.
Things don't always run real smooth.
In personal relationships, isn't that right? So we kind of get dealing with one another in a hard way, while the Lord will deal with this because he's a father, and a father will deal with us in a governmental way. And that's what he's Speaking of. He delivers to the tormentors, and that is that we're going to have a tormented conscience. We're going to have a tormented feeling every time we remember about that one.
Person that one brother, that one sister. We're going to, we're just going to grit our teeth and we're just going to remember. And we just have an unforgiving spirit. I have it out for this brother or this sister.
Verse 35 S Likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if from your hearts.
Ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. So this is to have a forgiving spirit is one of the features of Christianity to have forgiving forgiveness in our hearts towards our brethren and to the words those in the world too. I would say so these six things are in verse chapter 18.
Principles that should characterize Christianity characterize the assembly itself is humility from verses one down to verse 6, then verse 7 down to.
Perhaps verse 10 really the second thing is self judgment, unsparing self judgment and then really we have the shepherding care. The third thing from verse 12 down to verse 14 and then in verse 15. The fourth thing is a is a place where personal disputes can be resolved in a godly way for the glory of the Lord. And the fifth thing is that verse 18/19/20 that the assembly.
Place where there are binding decisions. The name of the Lord were gathered unto the name of the Lord under His authority.
Not the authority of the brethren. And then the sixth thing, the last one, is that the assembly should be characterized by those that are, have a forgiving spirit. They know how much they've been forgiven.
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They practice forgiveness.
And if you think somebody has wronged you, go alone. Tell them yourself.
And well, we'll trust the Lord that these little passage of Scripture, these little comments, might be helped to us to go on.
And that might be for our children, for ourselves. The assembly might be a little picture of heaven upon earth.
And that our homes might be pictures, little pictures, to our children, to our young ones.
To us, those that are older, of heaven upon earth.
We commend ourselves.