There are times when a chapter in the Word of God seems to impress you, but you do not understand why it is getting to you so deeply.
As you go a little deeper into it, it reaches into your heart a little more. If you come back to it in a week, it reaches you again. Matthew 18 is one such chapter which you could refer to frequently and stay with for years. It speaks of the ambition we must face in our own hearts.
We are never without that feeling of ambition when we first come to Christ. It is hard to get rid of our ego trip, isn’t it? Everyone seems to be on one until they come to really know what discipleship is. It is difficult for us to think of others in the same way that we know God thinks of us.
Invariably we are more harsh in what we remember about our dearest friend than God is in what He remembers about us. We always fall short in forgiving other people and in giving them the same opportunity and grace that we want to have ourselves.
It is easy for us to slam the door on others, so that they do not have the opportunity to enter in; yet we constantly pray for God to set before us an open door that no man can shut (Revelation 3:8). But we cannot look for God to open a door for us that no man can shut, if it is still in our heart to shut the door on another man. There must be within us that which unselfishly wants to help others into a walk with God.
It is easy to assess others from little characteristics they have, from things in their past, from the associations you had with them, or from wrongs they may have done to you, and to find that you have not forgiven them completely. Yet you can forget so readily those despicable things that were in your own life.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and stood him in their midst, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” Matthew 18:1–7.
How can you become as a little child? Remember that a child is teachable. Some parents may think their children are stupid and slow to learn. There is a vast amount of knowledge that children must acquire to live in this world, and they are constantly gearing themselves to learn. I wonder how many times they double all their knowledge within the first grade. I wonder how many times they double it again in the second grade. They constantly reach out in their fantastic drive to learn something new. We do not fully appreciate this, because we have forgotten what it is like. Children become teachable, and they must be humble because of the rule that a child is to be obedient (Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20). The child is measured, judged, disciplined, and lectured to based upon one thing: he is to be obedient, submissive, teachable, and alert to learn (Proverbs 13:24). This also comprises the humility of a true disciple.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. James 1:19, KJV.
One attitude that hinders people in their walk with God is that they come to think they know all the answers. Aren’t you aghast when you see a brother who suddenly feels he knows all the answers? You know he does not, and you know you do not either; but you refuse to let him have that arrogance because you know it will destroy him (James 4:6). We learn to be humble about what God has yet for us to receive.
In the sight of God a little child has a spirit that the Lord Jesus so values that He says, “If you receive one such child in My name, you receive Me” (Matthew 18:5).
If we only knew how closely identified our Lord is with every little child, our efforts to teach them the Word and minister to them would be the most important ventures we undertake.
Parents would not look upon their children casually; but with fear and trembling before God, they would approach Him and say, “O God, as I receive this little one, born of my own flesh and blood, I receive You.” How foolish it is for an adult to shove a little child away and say, “I’m busy reading the Word. I’m busy praying.” If he would turn and minister to that child, it would be as though he were worshiping the Lord Himself, for He said, “As you receive this little child, you receive Me.” But this must be done in His name. “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.” Matthew 18:5. Couldn’t this be the reason that some mothers are frustrated and wonder why they do not break through in the house of God? It is because of their attitude toward their own offspring.
What happens if you cause one of these little ones to stumble? The answer is very simple: it would be better that a millstone were put around your neck and you were cast into the sea.
“And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire.” Matthew 18:8.
Our attitude toward transgression never measures up to God’s attitude. The Heavenly Father looks upon sin with horror and complete rejection. He knows the price that He gave through His only Son to remove sin (I John 4:9–10).
Somehow we do not see how great the price was, and so we do not see how deadly the sin is. Who of us would say, “If my hand has caused me to stumble, I will cut it off; and forevermore I will come to the house of God with a stump instead of a hand.” We do not have that attitude.
“And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the hell of fire. See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 18:9–10.
An angel with a hot line to heaven is assigned by the Heavenly Father for each child. Do you know what a hot line is? It enables the leaders of countries to communicate quickly if there is trouble. With the hot line to heaven, an angel always beholds the face of the Heavenly Father. Nothing in the spiritual realm is ever allowed to cloud or to block an angel’s contact with the Father when that angel has charge over a little child. This helps us realize what God thinks of children.
“For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.
“And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer.
“Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Matthew 18:11–18.
The binding over of any situation comes from the Lord. This does not mean that we take action, and then God sanctions it. It means that we cannot set about in the will of God to bind anything but what the provision has already been declared and made in God. We become the ones who execute it. It is like using electricity: the juice is there; we just throw the switch. We execute it. What we bind on earth has been bound in heaven. What we loose on earth has been loosed in heaven. With two or three agreeing together, we can come to a man and say, “We loose you from this demonic oppression,” because Christ has already made the provision, in fact, for that man’s liberation.
“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.”
Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents.” (This is equivalent to ten million dollars in actual silver by weight, and to much more in buying power.) “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii” (about eighteen cents); “and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow-slave fell down and began to entreat him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ He was unwilling however, but went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.
“So when his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow-slave, even as I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:19–35.
It is very important that you heed this. You must learn about the grace of God. Those of you who have had a rough past have never found me inquiring as to what you did or what you were. I have never been concerned about it. Likewise, you must bury anything you have known about one another in the past. When you come into this walk with God, bury it quickly. God has buried a lot for you; don’t ever raise it.
Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:18–19.
And don’t raise something about your brother. To see someone in the Body stumble and then to begin to form an opinion of him is not for you to do. Let me tell you how I have learned to think: Someone’s offenses may be many, but if he comes to me and says, “I’m sorry,” or if I go to a brother and say, “This is wrong; make it right,” and he says, “I will,” then in my thinking, the offenses are erased, as though they never happened.
Forgiveness is so essential. God shows mercy to those who show mercy.
With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. Psalm 18:25–27, KJV.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Matthew 5:7.
We must never hold in our minds an image of a man in his failure.
Some were once dug out of the depths of sin, and now they have been walking with God for several years. Recently one such person came to me, weeping, and said, “You never reminded me of that. You never mentioned it.” I had forgotten it. I had honestly forgotten.
Train yourself to think like God. Ask God to bless you to be a forgetter. Be like Paul: forget those things which are behind, and reach forward to those things which are before (Philippians 3:12–14).
I cannot stress this to you enough. The spirit of Body ministry is one that brings us all under the grace of God. Not one of us has anything in our hearts to boast of. We come into a liberation of the grace of God, and sometimes it is abused a little; but generally it serves such a good purpose of delivering people from legalism, because the legalists are the ones who are so harsh in their judgment of one another. You must forget everything that is past.
It does not make any difference how many times you stumble or how many times your brother stumbles. The main thing is that right now, in the present, there be unity (Psalm 133:1; Ephesians 4:1–3). Let the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:7, 9). Let there be that which says, “It has all passed. It is all gone. What we are now, we are by the grace of God.”
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. I Corinthians 15:1–11.
Paul persecuted the people of God. Paul never forgot that he was saved as one untimely born, but he was saved too late to stop the course he had started in hundreds of people’s lives. Homes were decimated because of his persecutions; in some of them only the mothers were left to put their children to sleep at night because Saul of Tarsus had had their fathers killed. People were mutilated and probably crippled for the rest of their lives because of beatings and persecutions. I wonder if he ever forgot how he watched over the coats of the people as they stoned Stephen (Acts 7:58–60; 22:20).
It is too late to undo the things we have done. Paul never forgot that. He called himself “the chief of sinners” when he wrote to Timothy, but he said, “I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. I Timothy 1:12–15.
Paul did not stop persecuting the Christians until the day the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Years later, standing before Agrippa, he told the story of how Jesus had appeared to him and told him what he was doing, and how he had repented (Acts 26:1–23). As Paul stood there, facing five years of imprisonment and the difficult journey to Rome, he said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19).
After the Lord met him, Paul never again knew what it was not to show mercy. Of all men, he needed mercy.
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 3:1–8; 4:7.
God can forgive. I want to speak plainly to those of you who have been out in the world of sin. That life is over and past. You are serving God now. Can you heed what Paul said? Can you say, as he did, “The grace that came to me was not in vain. It was not something that met me and then ended. By that grace I have labored more abundantly than they all. I was forgiven much, and I loved much.” How driven he was to help and to minister.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. I Corinthians 15:10.
“For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47.
Break your bonds with the past and with past associations. This is difficult for some people, because they have deep psychic bonds—bonds in their memories and bonds in their spirits. As these bonds are broken, go down deep into your spirit and get rid of the meanness; get rid of the unforgiveness; get rid of the hostility that judges; get rid of the old ways of thinking. God has been good to you; now you begin to minister His goodness to others. Now you forgive others. Show mercy to others. Open the door to everyone that you can. God loved us while we were yet His enemies (Romans 5:8–10), and yet we struggle to love our enemies. We need this forgiveness in our spirit.
You cannot revive the past and try to correct it. No doubt there are people in the Body today who could not correct the past anyway, because some of those they have influenced toward hell are now corpses, lying in some grave. Others are probably so twisted that they would not listen—their capacity to hear is gone. There are things you were a part of, but those things are in the past. By God’s grace they are ended for you.
You cannot judge anyone who has been, or who still is, in the same things that you were a part of in your past, because you yourself have been forgiven. On the ledger, you stand on the side of grace. You cannot be harsh or hostile in your attitude toward someone else, just because you happen to have a certain worldly wisdom: “I know that look. I know that pitch. I’ve been there too many times myself.” Maybe you are judging from a jaundiced eye. Maybe you could help that person a little.
The key of ministry is grace: His grace that takes us out of the world of evil is also the grace that comes to enable us to minister. The gifts are gifts of grace. The ministry is according to the grace of God. Everything we do is by the grace of God.
But your carnal mind can be hostile and evaluate and judge things in people as though God had never forgiven you—as though you had earned that place and status of righteousness all by yourself. Have you forgotten the pit out of which you were dug (Isaiah 51:1), that you can see someone in a pit and criticize him? No, you cannot do that.
This walk is based on the grace of God. Do not confuse it. Grace is not an excuse to dump all the legalistic restrictions, prohibitions, and taboos and say, “Hallelujah, we kick up our heels—all in the name of Jesus! We can be rebels against everything!” That is not grace.
Grace is a divinely imparted ability to do what you would never be able to do, to be what you would never be able to be. Grace is the miracle by which we become saints, by which we become the army of the Lord, by which we turn from unrighteousness to serve the living God. That is the grace of God. Oh, the marvelous, wonderful grace that comes to us!
Because they are in a position of responsibility to take oversight for others, elders and deacons are given greater perception as to the needs of others; and without realizing it, they can become harsh in their evaluation of the flock. There must never be harshness. Even when you reprove, it must be with love. Even when there is firmness in what God sets before the Body to walk in, or in the rigors of discipleship, there cannot be that harshness, because harshness judges and evaluates another man without the grace of God. No matter what needs you see, you must see them in view of God’s grace, so that you can help that person and minister to him with love.
When you start walking with the Lord as a believer, it is wonderful. But after a while you reach a place of feeling “established.” Then the things of the old nature start coming up. A man who is out in the world is cynical. He sits on a throne of ego, and he evaluates and judges everyone else. He has to be on the top. But when we walk with God it is completely the opposite. We humble ourselves; we are servants of one another (Galatians 5:13). We have to reverse our thinking completely. The old ways of thinking must go. Paul said, “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh” (II Corinthians 5:16, KJV). Our relating to one another must be in the Spirit.
As far as I am concerned, no one has any handicap from anything in his past. No one who comes into this walk with God is to be considered a second-rate citizen because of the past. Each person has an equal opportunity in the Spirit to rise to the height he can reach. We must have faith and grace within our hearts for one another. Some of the most unlikely people will rise to great places in the Lord. Do not be critical. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first (Matthew 19:30).
Who would have believed that Saul of Tarsus, a murderer of Christians, would be one of the most effective apostles of the Lord? Paul never forgot; he always remembered that God had been so merciful. He said, “I was chief of sinners, but I obtained mercy” (I Timothy 1:13–15). No wonder he was so anxious to preach the mercy of God to everyone.
As long as God enables me to preach the Word, I will constantly hold before you the things that create the right spirit to keep the Body of Christ pure, to keep it moving forward.
One of the greatest needs is to keep our young people moving along in the Lord. Because of the zeal that is in them, I know what can happen. In their ignorance, they can generate feelings and ideas and revert to ways of thinking toward each other which will destroy them. We must lead them on in the discipline of mercy. Grace is a discipline. You discipline yourself constantly to show grace.
The human flesh is subject to a natural downward force, a gravitational force to your soul. The old flesh constantly pulls down, constantly seeks to revert to the things of the old nature. But we discipline ourselves to keep rising in the Spirit to that level of grace, to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
Whenever we fail in showing love and mercy, in every practical way we can, then we find that in spite of all our efforts, we make no progress. If we want to get free and move ahead in God, then we must emphasize the teaching of grace and forgiveness, and really learn what it means.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, You have already searched our hearts in a fresh way. This Word has come to us to search down to the depths of our feelings. People will come from the east and the west and the north and the south to learn Thy ways, Lord. Shall they hear words and doctrines, prophecies and psalms, and yet look to us and find that they do not see the Lord Jesus Christ and His mercy and love? Nay, they are going to see You, Lord. We pray in Thy Spirit that there will be the showing forth of Your mercy and Your grace in everything we do and in everything we are—even in the ways of our thinking, in the ways of our speaking, and in the ways we evaluate things.
To have heard this Word means that by faith we are going to walk in it. To have heard it means that we have bowed our hearts in a repentance that embraces a comprehension of our need. Lord, we do not want to be those who are worthy of having a millstone tied around our neck and being thrown into the sea. We do not want to offend one of these little ones for whom Christ died. We want to see how important is our attitude and our ministry to the little children. We pray that there will be a fresh vision, a fresh burden in our hearts toward them, in the name of the Lord.
Sometimes the generation gap affects the young people, so that they think the older people are not “with it.” And the older people look at the young people and have doubts. The years can bring a loneliness that a younger person does not understand. Over the years, this loneliness comes to the older people and they feel cut off from life. They no longer have the health, the vigor, and the alertness they had when they were young. They are not able to move about as freely. Living is a constant conservation program for them. But read what the Scriptures say about the older people and about the honor that is to be given to a father and mother (Leviticus 19:32; 20:9; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 15:4).
The old are not to be discarded. We must not forget the battles men have fought and the things they have done, how they have borne the heat of the day. They will yet fight some more!
“ ‘You shall rise up before the grayheaded, and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.’ ”
“ ‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.’ ” Leviticus 19:32; 20:9.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” Exodus 20:12.
We are a big family. There will be some older ones and there will be some younger ones. There will be some babes who come along, and there will be some giants, with their hair all white, standing in the sight of God. We walk together; we are a family. The younger brothers treat the women as sisters, in all purity.
Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are widows indeed. I Timothy 5:1–3.
There must be this pure relationship. The Lord’s Body is holy! It is greatly esteemed! It has become the extension of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the earth. He is the Head, and we are the Body (Ephesians 1:22–23; Colossians 1:17–18). In the sight of God Our Father, we are the extension of Christ, the Lord, in the earth.
Let there be a humble awareness, a fresh vision, a fresh attitude toward what we are and what we are to be to one another.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:22–23.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. Colossians 1:17–18.
Have compassion for one another. Put yourself in another’s shoes once in a while and you will not criticize him. Instead, you will think, “Well, that poor brother is stumbling along, but I see what he is going through. I am going to help him. I am going to bless him in the name of the Lord.”
It is time to be compassionate. Think about one another, and weep tender tears of love.