Matthew 15:1 — William MacDonald

Resolving Personal Offenses According to Matthew 18

Individual insights today in which we take individual verses from the Word and just try to extract some honey from them. The first verse I'd like to look at with you is Matthew chapter 18 and verse 15, the latter part of the verse, or the middle part, I should say.

And moreover thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Notice those words particularly, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

Someone has said something to you that has deeply offended you. Not only offended you, you're hurt, you're crushed, and you cannot seem to rise up above it. And the Bible says, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

But you don't want to, it's too difficult. So you start brooding over it. You go over all the details in your mind. At night when you should be sleeping, you rehearse the entire unpleasant incident and pretty soon the sulfuric acid builds up in your system.

When you should be sleeping, the steam is building up in the boiler. I'm mixing my metaphors. The Bible says, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. But it's just too difficult for you to do it, and so you don't.

Then you think, I wish I could get the message across to him anonymously. Is there any way I could get word to him without knowing that it came from me? Or maybe you hope something will happen to him to wake him up to the enormity of what he has done.

You wish that something would happen to him to shame him for the way he talked to you, but it doesn't. You know what you ought to do. You ought to go and tell him his fault between you and him alone, but it's just too traumatic.

By this time, it's hurting you more than it's hurting him. He doesn't know all of the things that are going on in your gastrointestinal system. But others can tell. They can tell by your glum appearance, and when they talk to you, your mind is off in another hemisphere, and your work suffers, and you're simply too preoccupied.

And the Bible says, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. Well, up until this time, by a tremendous display of willpower, you have refrained from mentioning it to any other Christian. But the pressure on you is simply unbearable.

And so now you break down, and you just tell one other person, just for prayer fellowship, you understand. And the Bible all the time is saying to you, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, and when you tell it to this other person, he says to you, why don't you go and talk to the one who has offended you?

Well, that does it. So you decide that you would bite the bullet, and after rehearsing your speech, you go and you obey the word. You tell this man his fault. And he takes it surprisingly well. He tells you he's sorry.

He asks your forgiveness, and the interview is terminated by prayer. A great load has been lifted off your shoulders. Your stomach quits churning. Your metabolism returns to normal. Probably Dr. Jones is having cardiac arrest at my use of medical terms here.

But you kind of hate yourself for not having had the sense to obey the scriptures sooner. God's way is the best way. And when somebody offends you, God says, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

Sometimes when you do that, you know, instead of breaking a friendship, it cements a friendship stronger than it ever was before. Isn't that amazing? It really is. God's wonderful way. Okay, while we're still in the Gospels, let's turn over to Luke chapter 5 and verse 28.

Levi's Immediate Response to Christ's Call

Luke chapter 5 and verse 28. I'll begin at verse 27. After these things, he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of customs. And he said to him, follow me. And he left all, rose up and followed him.

Now I don't know how you picture this scene in your mind. I picture Levi or Matthew sitting out at a table by the highway. I don't really think he's in the IRS office. He's out there where traffic is going by and he's collecting tolls from the people as they pass.

He's a publican, he's a tax collector. And if Levi was a typical tax collector, not all the money worked its way to the Roman government. Some of it worked its way right straight into his pocket. All right.

A lot of people have passed by and then one day Jesus passes by. And this is the most remarkable thing. All the Lord Jesus says to him is follow me. And Levi rises up from his table. He forsakes all and he follows Christ.

Now that's the most remarkable thing, isn't it? What went on in Matthew's life at this moment? Well, first of all, I think there was a tremendous spiritual awakening in Levi's life. I said a lot of people had passed by there, but nobody had ever passed by like Jesus.

And I believe that in that moment, Levi saw his sins exposed. I think that's what the verse means when it says that which is that was the true light which lightens every man coming into the world. It shines on every man.

When we're in darkness, we don't see ourselves in all our sin, but when the light comes into the room, everything is exposed. And I think when the Lord Jesus met Levi that day, he his whole life passed in front of him as it never had before.

Not only that, but he realized the emptiness of his life and he heard the promise of better things. The amazing thing is that his response was immediate. He left all, rose up and followed him. Amy Carmichael wrote those lovely words, I heard his call come follow.

That was all. My earthly gold grew dim. My soul went after him. I rose and followed. That was all. Who would not follow if they heard his call? Well, that's what happened to Levi that day. And you know, in making that decision, he little realized the wonderful things that awaited him.

I often think of that on the day that a man trusts Christ as Savior on the day that a man commits his life to the Lord for service. He little realizes all that's packaged in that decision. First of all, of course, Levi obtained the priceless blessing of salvation.

From then on, he started to wear out his sandals on the toes instead of on the heels. From then on, he had more joy when he was sad than he used to have when he was glad. And from then on, he could say something lives in every few Christless eyes have never seen.

That wasn't all. He became one of the twelve. Just think of what a priceless privilege that was. Matthew became one of the twelve apostles, accompanied with the Lord Jesus, slept under the same roof as the Lord Jesus, heard his incomparable words and saw miracles performed by him such as no other man had ever done.

Matthew was a witness of Christ in resurrection, and he went forth with the message glorious, and eventually he had the privilege of laying down his life for the Son of God. So that wasn't all. To Matthew was given the priceless privilege of writing the first gospel.

The Spirit of God came upon him and said in so many words, I want you to write the gospel presenting the Lord Jesus as the King of the Jews. I said he left all, but it does seem that the Lord allowed him to keep his pen, didn't he?

And the pen was converted as well as Levi, and he used it to write that wonderful gospel. Yes. He left all, but he gained all and found the real reason for his existence. Christ's call comes to all. If we respond, he blesses us beyond our wildest expectations.

He really does. Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20. Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20. It says, Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Isaiah 5 and the Reversal of Moral Standards

In this verse of scripture, God pronounces a woe on people who reverse moral standards and make sin respectable. And you know, it's going on all around us in the United States today. People making sin respectable and suggesting that moral purity is something less than desirable.

In our daily bread, Herbert Vandelucht gives three illustrations that he got out of the paper. First of all, he read an article about pornography that treated it lightly and deplored the puritanical attitude of religionists.

Pornography is good, but those who oppose it, you know. Second, he came across a newspaper account that told about a parent-teacher group that was trying to get an unmarried pregnant teacher removed from her class.

And the article went on to say that that woman was a beautiful person and the mothers and fathers who were trying to get her out were villains. Well, that's what this article, that's what this verse is talking about.

Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. And third, he read an article about a rock concert in which there was a lot of drinking and drugs and several young people were killed at this concert.

And the one who wrote the article blamed all our social ills on those who don't like those kinds of gatherings. Imagine. It was all the fault of people who don't like rock concerts. Well, that's what's going on today.

We today are witnessing an enormous wave of moral reversals. People have abandoned the absolute standards that are found in the word of God. And I think what's happening is that as people go more and more into sin, they want to justify themselves and they come up with these bizarre explanations.

And some of them resort to what is known as ad hominem arguments. That means that when you can't argue the case on its own merit, you start to speak against the people involved. And that's exactly what happened in these three cases that Herbert Vanderlucht spoke about.

The first case, they deplored the puritanical attitude of religionists. That was the trouble. In the second place, the mothers and fathers were the villains. And in the third place, those who didn't like that kind of rock concert, they were responsible for all of our social standards, social problems.

Well, it's not only those who are blurring moral distinctions, but if you read your papers carefully, you'll find there are an awful lot who are blurring them. And usually it's ministers, it's men in the pulpit who are doing it.

Isn't it shocking that in this great tidal wave of sin and rottenness, it's religious leaders? And they say, well, it really isn't that bad. Some years ago, there was a book came out in England called Honest to God by Bishop John Robertson.

And he said in this book, you can't say that a thing is inherently wrong. It depends on whether it's done in love or not. And he really supported some terribly sinful things in that book. And he's still a bishop, as far as I know, no action was taken against him.

And so that's what religious leaders are saying today. They're saying that drunkenness is sickness. And they're saying that sexual perversion is an alternate lifestyle and cohabitation is OK if it's culturally accepted.

And they speak well of abortion and public nudity and prostitution and personal rights. Well, it's all a lot of confused thinking. It's the lies of the devil that drown men in perdition. That's why I think verse 20 of Isaiah 5 is such an appropriate verse for the day in which we live.

Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. May the Lord help us not to be swept along by the confused thinking and perverted thinking about us in the world today.

Christ as All in All Rather Than Spiritual Experiences

And we won't if we stay close to the word of God and abide by its standards. OK, back to the New Testament, Colossians chapter three and verse 11. Colossians 3 verse 11 says,. Whether it's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

I'd like to just take those words out of the verse. Think with you about them for a little while this afternoon. Christ is all and in all. There's a tendency today for Christians to spend an awful lot of time looking for new spiritual experiences.

They float around from seminar to workshop to convention to conference, and what they're really after is something that will give them permanent victory or freedom from the ups and downs of Christian living.

For instance, here's Dr. So-and-so, and he advertises a great new breakthrough that will make you radioactive with the Holy Spirit. Here's a lecture coming up in your town, some newly discovered shortcuts to the abundant life.

All kinds of lures held before the people, the royal road to fulfillment, the threefold secret of victory, keys to the deeper life, five easy steps to holiness. Get it? Easy steps to holiness. Or maybe it's an altar call where the preacher says, and beneath the promise receives the filling, or maybe it's the bodily healing kick or healing of the memories.

People are always looking for some new spiritual hide, and I don't doubt that some of these people offering these lures are sincere, and I don't doubt that there's some value in what they offer, but I want to tell you this afternoon there are no shortcuts to holiness, and the problems are still there.

We have to live day by day in dependence upon the Lord. Christ is all in all. It's better to be occupied with Christ than with experiences. One of the old words he said, and I like this, he said, a sanctified self is a poor substitute for a glorified Christ.

That means that if, supposing you could, through all of these conferences and workshops and all of that, supposing you should reach some state of blissful sanctification, you'd still be far short of a glorified Christ.

And so the lesson is, don't be looking for these experiences, but look off to Christ. There's no disappointment in him. We have all that we need in him. He is the all-sufficient one. A .B. Simpson was the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance, and he spent the early years of his life looking for these experiences.

But toward the end of his life, he wrote a hymn, and the hymn is called Himself, Himself. And the words are these. Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling, now it is his word.

Once his gift I wanted, now the giver owns. Once I sought for healing, now himself alone. All in all forever, Jesus will I sing. Everything in Jesus, and Jesus everything. Well, it's wonderful that he came to that experience toward the end of his life.

Encouragement for Labor That Is Not in Vain

We can come to it now, can't we? Christ is all and in all. And a sanctified self is a poor substitute for a glorified Christ. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

This is a tremendous verse of encouragement, and it makes me think of some other passages in the Bible that have been a tremendous encouragement to me in serving the Lord. Passages that have kept me from quitting.

And I'd like to share them with you today. The first one is in Isaiah 49, verse 4. Maybe somebody here is discouraged today. Well, look at Isaiah 49, verse 4. It says, Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work are recompensed with my God.

There was a time in my life when I was going through a very difficult patch, and it really seemed as if the whole thing had been in vain. I got a letter from a Christian sister, and she couldn't possibly have known what I was going through, but the Lord knew.

And after she signed her letter, down at the bottom, she wrote, Isaiah 49, verse 4. And I read it, and it was like the voice of God speaking to me. Then I said, I have labored in vain. It's all in vain.

All the service is just wasted. I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain. But it says, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord. I guess that means, yet surely my justice is with the Lord. God will see that justice will be done.

And my recompense, most of the modern versions, my reward with my God. Maybe that's a verse that the Spirit of God would have you to cling to today. You might think it's all in vain. It isn't all in vain.

God's a very good bookkeeper, and he knows all about it, and he will reward in a manner worthy of himself. Another verse that's been a tremendous help to me is Isaiah 55, verses 10 and 11. Another passage, Isaiah 55, verses 10 and 11.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in buds, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

For it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things whereto I sent it. If you are engaged in any way in propagating the word of God, you're engaged in a work that cannot fail, that all the hosts of demons and men cannot stop it.

I think of the rain and the snow coming down from heaven, and not all the armies of the world can stop the snow from falling. I mean, the snow in itself isn't that much, you know, just little tender snowflakes.

But once they start, I say not all the armies of the world can stop them from falling. And the word of God is like that. The snow comes down, and the rain comes down, and it fructifies the land, and the crops come up, and the word of God is just like that.

The word of God is irresistible, and wherever it goes, it accomplishes for God and for the kingdom of God. So again I say that anybody engaged in the service of the Lord and propagating the word of God is engaged in a work that's irresistible and a work that cannot fail.

God says it will not return to me void, it will accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things whereto I sent it. Third one is in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 40. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 40.

And there we read, He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. That's amazing, isn't it? This is a tremendous encouragement to me, because in this verse the Lord Jesus identifies himself with his service.

And what happens to the service? Well, that's what's happening to the Lord. In other words, you might go door to door in your neighborhood and get a sore nose from having so many doors slammed in your face.

And you feel badly about it, and you sulk, you know, and you think how cruelly you've been treated. Well, it isn't really you, it's the Lord Jesus, isn't it? In doing that to you, they're doing it to the Lord Jesus, because you're there as his messenger.

On the other hand, when people do receive you, it's just the same as receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's thrilling. What a dignity. The Word of God put on service for the Christ of God. Absolutely thrilling.

The final verse I'd like to share with you as an encouragement in the work of the Lord in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 through 16. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 through 16. I'll read the whole passage.

Good. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from Central to Macedonia.

Now thank the unto God which always, always causes us to triumph in Christ and make of manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are being saved and them that are perishing, for the one we're the savor of death unto death, for the other the savor of life unto life, and who is deficient of these things?".

Well, just for the background of the verse, the Apostle Paul came to Troas, which was on the western shore of Asia Minor, and a wonderful opportunity opened up for him there in the gospel. We could say he was having a great revival campaign, but he was heavy in his spirit.

He wanted to see Titus because Titus was going to bring him news from Corinth, how the Corinthian believers had responded to Paul's words and Paul's letters. And here he is in Troas, and God is working in a wonderful way, and he has no rest in his spirit.

He's got to leave. He's got to leave a place where the blessing of God is upon the meeting, and he crosses over the water to Greece to find Titus, his brother, in Macedonia. Now you'd think that would be a terrible defeat, wouldn't you?

What an awful defeat, leaving a place of blessing and triumph in the gospel and crossing over to meet one man, and that one man a Christian. There was no defeat. He says, "...but thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.".

I'll tell you, that's majestic. Paul is crossing over the sea there, and he sees Christ marching ahead of that ship and always leading him in triumph. And that's a tremendous encouragement to me. Sometimes there are things that seem to be adverse in the work of the Lord, but Christ is always leading in triumph.

And I remind myself that the wave may seem to overwhelm us, but the tide is sure to win. There's something else very lovely in this passage that we read, and that is this, "...where a favor of life unto life to some, and death unto death to others.".

Generally, we judge a person's effectiveness by how many people that person leads to the Lord, but God doesn't. Life unto life to some, but death unto death to others. And I believe that God rewards faithfulness, every instance of faithfulness, where a person has made a bona fide presentation of the gospel, even if the other person rejects it.

Kind of a different way of looking at things, isn't it? But that's the way God is. God looks at things differently than we do, and what he wants us to be is faithful in presenting the truth of God. The picture that Paul uses here, of course, is the Roman conqueror, and he's coming back to Rome, and all along the sides of the road there are incense bearers, or a man holding incense pots, and the air is fragrant with the incense from these censers.

And here comes a conqueror now, and his soldiers are behind him, and behind his soldiers are the captives that they've taken in war. And you know, it depends on whose side you are, what that incense means to you.

If you're one of the conqueror's soldiers, that incense spells victory, but if you're one of the captives, it spells defeat. And that's what we have here, the flavor of life unto life to some, and death unto death to others.

What a wonderful encouragement in the work of the Lord, I think. You know, the service of Christ is the prince of calling, and there are enough encouragements in the word of God to keep us going on in spite of all the discouragement that may come to us.

Praise his name. 2 Corinthians 5, while you have your Bibles there, it's 2 Corinthians 5, and verse 13. It says there, whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. I'm just going to read that. Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.

God's Irregulars and Zealous Christian Service

God has a lot of irregulars in his army. And oftentimes these are the people who win the greatest victories. When I think of the Apostle Paul, I don't think of him as being odd, but apparently he was.

He was one of God's irregulars, because he says here, whether we be beside ourselves. People must have been saying he was beside himself, he was a fanatic, he was a nut, a religious nut. Well, there are people who in their zeal for God seem to be eccentric.

They use original methods instead of sticking to traditional ones. They're always saying and doing the unexpected. These people can murder the King's English and get away with it, and they can violate every rule of preaching and teaching because they're filled with the Spirit, and they see great results.

They're dramatic, they're electrifying, and people are shocked, but they never forget. W .P. Nicholson was a man like that, preached in Ireland years ago. He was odd. He was eccentric. He came one time, he came on the train to the railroad station, and all of the ministers were there with all their pomp and regalia to greet him, and he stepped off the train and he said, let's get down on our knees and pray.

Pray? On a railroad platform? Small places to pray? Well, those bishops and those men had never prayed on a railroad platform before. I guess they were horrified at the thought, but they got down and prayed.

People like this, God's irregulars, are a constant source of embarrassment to staid and conventional Christians, and these poor Christians shudder at the thought of violating cultural norms, and oftentimes they try to change God's irregulars, but fortunately they don't succeed.

Some folks, I don't know whether they're here this week and last week, from Guthrie, Oklahoma. I have a friend in the assembly there in Guthrie, Paul Rennes, and he was a Roman Catholic and God was working in his life.

He was at the universities there in Oklahoma City, and one day he walked across the campus and there was a religious fanatic out there preaching. His name was Holy Hubert. Anybody ever hear of Holy Hubert?

Well, he's quite a character. He was active on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, when all the militants were trying to destroy the university. Holy Hubert has missing teeth where they've been knocked out by his opponents, but it doesn't bother him at all.

Well, anyway, he was preaching on a campus there, Oklahoma City, and Paul Rennes, a seeking soul, passed by, and Paul went back to his room and he fell on his knees and trusted Christ as his Savior, and he's never met Holy Hubert.

I don't suppose Holy Hubert even knows that somebody got saved that day, but God knows. He's eccentric, and I say other Christians are embarrassed by him. Don't be embarrassed by him. Did you know the Lord Jesus seemed eccentric to his own family?

I never picture him that way. To me, he was the most wonderful, the most sane person that you could ever envisage. But look at Mark 3, 21. Mark 3, 21. It said, when his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him, for they said he's beside himself.

Beside himself means insane. And if you check with the other Gospels, those friends were his own family. His own family said he was beside himself. He was so zealous in his work that often he had no time even to eat, and his mothers and brothers wanted to take him away quietly because they thought he was going off his head.

They said he's beside himself. Dear friends, it was Jesus who was the sane man, and they were the ones who needed help. I didn't tell you the last part of W .P. Nicholson. I heard so many stories about him when I was in Ireland.

But I mean, he'd be preaching with a throng of people, and he'd see a woman coming in with a yellow dress, and he'd see a vacant seat down here, and next to the vacant seat there'd be a woman in a black dress, and he'd say, would that black bird please move over so the canary could sit next to her?

See, he did. He said things like that. And you know that that man preached with such power, and so many people were saved at one time in Belfast that some of the machine corporations there had to build extra sheds to house the stolen tools that were returned.

Can you beat it? He was queer. He was odd. But boy, he was powerful under God. Imagine having to build sheds to house tools that had been stolen, and now these people were saved and they were going to make retribution.

You've heard about one of God's irregulars who wore the sandwich board on him. On this side it says, I'm a fool for Christ's sake, and on this side it says, who's fool are you? I go along in San Francisco, and maybe there's a black man there, and he's walking along with a Bible in his hand at the corner of Powell and Market, and he's just walking along and saying, Jesus is coming, are you ready?

And I want to tell you, the people go by and they hold up their supercilious noses and probably mock him, but that man could be just as important in the purposes of God as the prophets in the Old Testament, because that's a real prophetic ministry that he's carrying on.

Most of us are too much like the ordinary, aren't we? We leave the average where it is, we're like Peter just warming himself. We succumb to the chill of our environment. Roland Hill was an eccentric, Billy Bray was an eccentric, C .T. Studd was an eccentric, and Nicholson was an eccentric.

Fred Mitchell said this, and with this I close, better a thousand times effective peculiarity than ineffective ordinariness. Isn't that a mouthful? Better a thousand times effective peculiarity than ineffective ordinariness.

First love may sometimes be peculiar, but thank God it's effective. And some of us have lost it. I don't ask you to be odd, I don't ask you, I'm not myself, I'm not eccentric like that, but when you come across Christians like this, don't write them off.

Thank God for them, because they often accomplish more than we do in their zeal for God. Shall we pray? Father, once again we thank you for your precious word, so many facets of truth in it, and we see how through verses like these you are trying to conform us to the image of your Son.

We're really appalled today when we think that men thought the Lord Jesus to be peculiar and insane, and the Apostle Paul to be beside himself, and it's been going on down through the years. Lord, we just thank you today for those who don't care, who are dead to public opinion, and determined, spread forth the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We give thanks in Jesus' worthy and precious name, amen.