As We Come to the Table #2

We're talking about a guilt that sends people to hell. This is a hellish sin.

This is a particularly devilish rebellion against God to live like this. Hello and welcome once again to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today Don shows us what the Bible says about being reconciled with others before approaching the Lord's communion table.

And now as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word, let's join in for part two of a message called As We Come to the Table, here on the Truth Pulpit. What would a spirit of disunity look like in your heart? What would it look like in your heart? And I want to give you four A's. Four A's to help you identify a spirit of disunity in your own heart. Well, number one is anger. Anger. Do you have an inward resentment against someone over something from the past that they said or didn't say, did or didn't do? You know, is there an inward resentment in your heart towards someone else in the body? Is there anger in your heart? Is there resentment? Is there bitterness toward another person in your heart?

That's a bad sign. Secondly, there's this matter of accusation. Accusation. You complain verbally to other people about the person, maybe bypassing, addressing the person directly as Matthew 18 would call you to do. And instead you just complain, do you know what this person did? Do you know what he did to me? Do you know what he said?

Do you know what they did? And there are accusations that are made, and sometimes maybe it's nothing more than simply having these conversations around your own dinner table and just feeding off of that within the confines of your own family. That's not okay. Those words are an expression of what's in your heart, and it's very possible for people to turn their family against others through the poisoning words that they inject at, you know, in the context of your own home.

So anger, accusation. Thirdly, avoidance. Avoidance. You won't talk to the person. You see them coming and you walk the other way, pretend like you didn't see them.

You won't engage them. And fourthly, here's the worst one of them all. Here's the climax of it all. Alibi. Alibi. You justify your behavior to yourself or to someone else if you're questioned about it. So you go from anger to accusation to avoidance and then alibi and you start to justify yourself in what you're doing. You justify your inward grudge. You justify your avoidance. And listen, I'm saying this because, look, we're all on the same side here. The peril of self-deception in that condition is unbelievably great.

It is unbelievably great. It's not simply that others can't draw it out and help you see it clearly. You don't see it clearly yourself. But how do you examine your heart to identify the spirit in yourself?

You hear yourself saying and thinking things like that. I just will not talk to him after what he did to me. What she did was wrong. I won't forgive him for that.

I won't forgive her for that. Really? Really? You would claim to know Christ and you would have an attitude like that in your heart? Really?

Really? Do you not know the first thing about the gospel and about your own sin against God? To claim to know Christ? To claim that Christ has forgiven you and you won't forgive someone else of a lesser offense? Scripture is filled with warnings and rebukes about this. It's filled with it. And yet we are so capable, our hearts are so deceitful that we can think we're walking well with the Lord while we've got that side by side in our heart.

If that kind of bitterness is in your heart, then you need to repent and you need to make it right and you need to do it now. That brings us to our second point. How do we respond if that's the case? How do we respond if that's the case? We say, you know, that what do we examine? We examine our hearts for that spirit of disunity and resentment. And the question then is how do we respond?

Here's the question. It doesn't matter what the pastor says in one sense here, because I know people that want to can dismiss anything that a human being says to them. But what does God call you and me to do if we find that in our hearts? And this process of self-examination strikes us with the recognition that the Word of God has pointed to us and said, you're the man, you're the woman here that the Word of God is describing.

How do we respond? This brings us into a test of whether our profession of faith is genuine or not, or whether we're simply a hypocrite that does not have and participate in the realities of spiritual life that the Spirit produces in the true people of God, the true people of Christ. What does God call us to do when we find that in our heart? Turn to Matthew chapter 5. The Scripture could not be more clear, more explicit about this than it is. Matthew chapter 5. What does God call us to do when we find that divisive spirit in our own heart, that resentful spirit in our own hearts? Well, in Matthew chapter 5, this is of course in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is teaching what the fruit of true repentance looks like. When the Spirit of God has saved someone, he produces certain characteristics in their heart that are placed there in seed form and then they grow and flourish and blossom over the course of time as the Spirit of God works in their heart.

And it's a matter of righteousness. You see, in Matthew chapter 5 verse 20, and this is just so compelling to me as I contemplate these things, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 20, I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Scribes and Pharisees of course were the religious leaders.

They were thought to be at the time the spiritual elite in society. And Jesus says you've got to be better than them. And so he's setting a very high standard of righteousness, setting a very clear idea of what the fruit of true repentance looks like, and then in the rest of chapter 5, he gives a series of six illustrations to show what that righteousness looks like and what is the righteousness that God requires. And here's the thing that I want you to see. Having set that standard, having emphasized how important this righteousness is as he speaks to his disciples, as he speaks to those who would claim to know him, the very first illustration that he uses deals with this matter of holding grudges against someone else.

The very first one. Look at it there in verse 21. It goes down through verse 26. He says, you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever says to his brother you good for nothing shall be guilty before the Supreme Court, and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Pause there for just a moment. Jesus here is giving repetition to emphasize his point. It's not so much that there's a big progression from the court to the Supreme Court to fiery hell. It's rather a matter that he's emphasizing how important it is to address this sin in your heart. And notice that whatever else he's saying about this anger, whatever else he's saying about this kind of resentment, he says we're talking about a guilt that sends people to hell. This is a hellish sin. This is a particularly devilish rebellion against God to live like this. And so he goes on to say, how is it then that you're to respond if you're angry with your brother?

Well, you don't let it rest. Verse 23 says, therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, in other words, if you are coming to God to worship and you're right there, you're ready to offer in that Jewish context, you're ready to offer your hand, your sacrifice over to the priest so it can be offered. And he says at that moment, and you remember that something is wrong, you stop everything. You turn away from your outward act of worship and you deal with the issue with your brother.

Let's look at verse 23 again. Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown into prison.

Truly, I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent. Jesus gives two principles here in responding when you find this in your heart or in a relationship. He says this, he says, seek peace first and seek peace fast. Seek peace first and seek it fast is what he is saying. Now Jesus had already emphasized the importance of peace and being a peacemaker in the Sermon on the Mount. Look back at chapter 5 verse 9 where he says this, Matthew chapter 5 verse 9, he says, blessed are the peacemakers for they, and the idea is this, they and they alone shall be called sons of God. It's those who make peace that are called the true sons of God.

They're the ones who manifest the true peacemaking character of the very nature of God. What was Christ doing when he came into the world except he was making peace with those who were in rebellion against him? He came on a mission of reconciliation.

He came on a mission of restoring harmony to a broken relationship. That's at the core of the incarnation. That's at the core of the atonement is reconciliation between sinners and a holy God. And so obviously only the people who share something of that peacemaking spirit could truly belong to him.

Somebody that cast it aside, someone that does not practice peacemaking, someone that resists it could not possibly, could not possibly have the Spirit of God inside them if that is a settled, hardened refusal to make peace that's being manifested in their heart. Now, somebody could hear that and say, well, you know, I've been around a few churches, you might say. If that's true, then that means that there's a lot of people in the church that aren't even Christians. Yeah.

Yeah. That may be the implication. What does it have to do with the truth of the matter? You can't reject the truth simply because of what its implications might be.

You just look at the Word of God and see what it says. Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they and they alone shall be called sons of God. Now, the peace here of which Jesus speaks is not that inner tranquility that modern evangelicals are so fascinated with. Well, I feel peace about this. It's not what he's talking about. He's talking about harmony in relationships.

Peacemakers, not peace-feelers. And, beloved, here's a very important point as we're contemplating this. And what Scripture tells us is that those who have received forgiveness from Christ forgive others. Those who have received forgiveness from Christ forgive others.

Look at Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, verse 12, Jesus taught us to pray, said, Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. That guarantees integrity in your request for forgiveness. If you are a stingy forgiver and you pray that way, you're asking, God, forgive me in a stingy way. But if you're a generous forgiver, God gladly forgives you. Verse 14, he says, For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Look at Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. Apostle Paul says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

What comes next? What does he say next after he says, Do not vertically grieve the Holy Spirit of God? He says this in verse 31.

He goes directly to this issue of relationships and unity. He says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Beloved, ask yourself this question. If you find yourself trapped in this spiritual condition, what do you believe about the forgiveness of God in Christ to you? If you're a Christian, you should know God forgave all of my sins in Christ. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. 1 John chapter 1, verse 7. Well then, if you've been completely forgiven, then your perspective on horizontal wrongs is that you completely forgive them all and hold nothing against the one who wronged you. I can't tell you how many times over the years we as elders have talked about matters in the church and we just shake our heads and say, If that person would just forgive and move on, this whole situation would go away.

And it's true. Look over at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14. Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. And so this is a priority for true Christians. This matter of peace, of reconciliation, this is a high priority. It's far more important than your earthly job. It's far more important than extracurricular activities.

It's far more important than your Christmas celebrations. This is a high priority to God as shown by how many times it's addressed in the Word and shown by how it reflects the Spirit of the sacrifice of Christ Himself. And so Jesus, going back to Matthew chapter 5 now after we've illustrated from those verses, go back to Matthew 5. Jesus says that this condition of heart is to be addressed first. It just became your highest priority under the authority of Christ. When He says there in verse 23, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go.

First be reconciled to your brother. So you seek peace first. And we see something of the priority of God. You seek resolution first before you go to worship. And over these next 48 hours, I would venture to say for some of you, you're dealing with things in your heart and maybe you need to seek someone out and talk to them and say, this isn't right. I want to make it right. I've been wrong in the way that I have held something against you.

And this is the spirit of it. It's not you saying you did me wrong and I'm here to fix it. No, it's you going and saying I've been in the wrong toward you and I am so sorry. I've betrayed my Lord with the bitterness that I've cultivated and held in my heart. Please forgive me. I'm not here asking you to repent.

I'm here asking you to forgive. That's the spirit of it. So you seek resolution first before you worship. The greater priority is reconciliation, beloved. To sit at the Lord's table, you must first clear the air with men. Jesus says it's more important to reconcile that relationship than to be present at worship. This is just the Word of God. This isn't me trying to protect turf in Truth Community Church. This is the Word of God to His people.

This is the natural consequence of salvation, forgiven vertically, now forgiving horizontally. And without that, you have to go back to whether the first principle is in place or not. So you seek it first. Second point, in terms of what you do in response, you seek peace fast. Seek peace first. We saw that from Jesus' words.

You seek it fast. Look at verse 25. Jesus says in verse 25, make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent. They had debtors' prisons in those days and if you owed a debt to someone, they'd throw you into prison until the debt was paid off. It was a means of motivating the family to contribute in order to seek the release of their loved one. But what Jesus is talking about here is that he's picturing litigants on their way to a courtroom.

You could put it that way. And the idea is that once you get before the judge, you don't know what's going to happen. The judge might rule completely against you and rule completely in favor of your opponent. There's real genuine risk here in the picture that Jesus uses. And those that have any acquaintance with the legal world and with litigation, they know and understand that the closer that the trial date gets, the more likely settlement is to come because people want to control their risks. And so people get a lot more tolerable. People start to work together the closer the judgment day is coming. And Jesus says, let that picture of avoiding the risk of an uncertain outcome, let that picture inform the way that you seek reconciliation with others. There's a coming judgment day where we're all going to stand before the Lord and we're going to give an account to him. And we won't take the time to develop this any further, but Scripture gives us the sense that somehow the Lord will dispense rewards in proportion to the manner in which we have been generous in dealing with others and being gracious toward others. What do you want from God? Do you want God to deal with your rewards strictly and harshly as you deal with those people you refuse to forgive? You want God to treat you like you treat people who have offended you? Or do you want to treat people now like God has dealt with you in Christ and trust the Lord to sort that out and forgive as freely and generously as you want the Lord to freely and generously forgive you? There's got to be an internal integrity.

There has to be consistency here about it. And Jesus says, Jesus says to seek it fast. He says, verse 25, make friends quickly. Do it fast. The commands emphasize the form of the commands in the Greek text communicate urgency. It says this is in an urgent matter. And, beloved, I want to tell you that this mindset, I'll do it later.

I'll do it later. That is lethal to spiritual life. You resolve that relationship now before you feel the discipline of God on your life for failing to do it. That's the instruction and wisdom of our Lord. And so, beloved, churches divide.

Churches divide because individuals disobey these words from Matthew 5. Individuals get self-righteous in the midst of a perceived offense. They justify themselves and accuse others. And then when it finally comes out, weeks, months, years later, they're too hardened to reconcile. They refuse to listen. You know, and they'll pack up their bags and walk out the church.

Seen it so many times. People that prefer their anger to sitting down and trying to work something out. They preferred their self-justifying resentment and misunderstanding and sometimes lies to just sitting down and talking and obeying Matthew 5. Sinclair Ferguson says this in his book on the Sermon on the Mount. He says, Animosity is a time bomb. We do not know when it will go off. We must deal with it quickly before the consequences of our bitterness get completely out of control.

Most human relationships that are destroyed could have been preserved if there had been communication at the right time. Jesus says the right time is as soon as we are conscious that we are at enmity with our brother. Our response will reveal the reality of our gratitude for God's grace to us in Christ and our gratitude for His grace to us in this church.

Or it will show something else. And so, beloved, if you're upset with someone under your roof or outside of your roof within the body of Christ, seek peace first. Seek it fast. May the Lord humble us to respond in repentance and then by grace restore us where needed to Christ and to each other. That's Don Green. And, friend, you're listening to The Truth Pulpit. Our teacher will continue in our series called Reflections on Our Lord next time. Meanwhile, if you'd like to find out more about this ministry, just go to thetruthpulpit.com. While you're there, you'll find all of Don's teachings along with a host of other study resources. That's thetruthpulpit.com.

And now, before we go, here's Don with a closing word. I want to let you know that we have a number of topical series available for download or CD requests at our website, thetruthpulpit.com. Issues like the place of Roman Catholicism, anxiety, transgenderism, homosexuality, and the charismatic movement. You'll find series on those topics and so many more at our free authors link at thetruthpulpit.com.

I invite you to take advantage of them all. God bless you. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit. I'm Bill Wright. Join us next time on The Truth Pulpit as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word.