The general subject of these verses, as we saw last Sunday, is the discipline of erring church members. But step back for just a moment and reconsider the entire chapter. Isn’t there another theme underlying everything? The chapter begins with the disciples arguing about who would be greatest – who would hold the highest offices in the upcoming Millennial kingdom. This undoubtedly had a divisive effect on that little assembly of Christians. So Jesus kindly rebuked them – “repent, be ye converted.” “Whosoever … 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.” Then the conversation turned towards “offenses” – scandalizing the little ones of Christ. The debate about “greatness” was probably doing just that – hurting some of the weaker brethren. It might be better to be physically maimed, than to have to eventually stand before Christ at the judgment to be rebuked for offending one of the children of God. “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.” When Christ next talks about going out into the wilderness to find an erring, wandering sheep, was He talking about one of His little ones, who had been driven away by the bickering of other disciples? Or was He talking about going out to bring back the offensive saint? That scandalous Christian was just as out of the fold and away from the flock as the new believer who had thrown up his hands in disgust at the hypocrisy of his elders.
From there Christ Jesus went on to lay down some rules about the discipline of trespassing church members. Can anyone be sure that the “trespasses” of verse 15 are not the same as the “offenses” of verse 10? If someone has offended you, “go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” And for what purpose? “If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” Isn’t the ultimate purpose of church discipline church unity? Even if that trespassing brother refuses to “humble himself” – so that if he must be expelled from the church and treated as an heathen and a publican – the purpose is for greater unity in the remaining assembly. Unless I am mistaken, the underlaying theme of this entire chapter is unity, fellowship and agreement.
Unity is one of the things that Christians and churches should strive to achieve and maintain. Over and over again, the New Testament places this subject in some sort of spot-light. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In another of Paul’s “now I beseech you, brethren,” he wrote “mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” He concluded his Second Epistle to the Corinthians by saying, “Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” Paul says in the same sort of things to the Ephesians and the Philippians. And Peter picked up the same theme – “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.”
Most of us – all of us – by nature desire unity and peacefulness – if we can be the center of the circle. But the principle of the Word of God is that Christians should sacrifice their position for the sake of others. Romans 12; 14; and 15; I Corinthians 8; 10; 12; 13; II Corinthians 6 and 11; James 2 all deal with this subject. “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.”
All of this brings me up to my message and my misleading title – “The falsely accused.” You may have initially thought that I was going to talk once again about church discipline, but this time about the accusation of a trespass – falsely laid. You might have thought that I was going to talk about what to do when the charges are unfounded. I’m afraid that sort of thing can happen, but we will have to leave that in the hand of the Holy Spirit, because the Lord doesn’t deal with that in this scripture. No, the false accusations that I’d like to consider are made against verses 18-20.
What is the meaning of verse 18?
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Satan would have you to believe that this is talking about salvation – a man’s deliverance from sin. This is what a great many so-called “Christian” churches would have you to believe. Some of them teach that unless you are a member of THEIR church, you are not a citizen of Heaven. And therefore, if they decide to expel you, for whatever reason, then you are lost and bound for Hell. Throughout history’s Middle Ages, literally millions of people were enslaved by heretical churches through this false doctrine. Other churches teach that entrance into Heaven is based on your participation in their ordinances. If you are not baptized then you’re sins remain in you – or on you like mud. But that is an un-Biblical idea and therefore false doctrine. Or they say that in eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, you somehow ingest the Saviour into your soul, thereby making you fit for eternity. But of course, they say – that ordinance – the Lord’s supper, communion, or the mass, must be through their church, and not some other church. Again, the idea is un-Biblical and therefore heretical. There are probably a dozen variations to this idea, but they all come back to the necessity of some church being the key to eternal salvation.
Calvary Baptist Church – our church – believes that this is Christ’s church in Post Falls, Idaho. To the best of my knowledge there is not another scriptural church in this community. There is not another church in this city which comes close to preaching the whole counsel of God. But having said that, I cannot honestly say that only people who are members in good standing in our church are Christians. There are children of God in other churches, and there are children of God who are in no church at all. All of those Christians ought to be members here, but the fact is – they are not.
In that light, what does verse 18 mean? “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The Bible teaches that Christ’s church – His local assembly – is important to Him. For example, it is called “the pillar and ground of the truth.” There are a hundred important subjects, about which you will never hear the truth, except in one of God’s churches. You won’t hear the truth about abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, capital punishment and Biblical morality in the news media or in a Hollywood movie. And you won’t hear the truth about salvation from sin, the deity of Christ, the nature of Hell, and the imminent return of the Lord in 90% of the so-called churches in our communities. This assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth in Post Falls. And to be excluded from its membership through church discipline is a serious matter. Being separated from truth is like being forbidden to eat healthy food – you may eat lots of junk food, but you will not be as healthy as you ought to be.
Similarly, the Bible calls this church and each of the other scriptural churches in this world “the body of Christ.” That is – this assembly represents the person of Christ in Post Falls. We are supposed to be the means of Christ’s working in this community. I am not sure that anyone’s religious service is ever recognized by God as proper outside Christ’s church. If someone is excluded from Calvary Baptist Church, that exclusion is recognized in Heaven. Despite that person’s eternal salvation by the grace of God, his usefulness to the Lord is gone.
Also, the Bible teaches that the Lord’s churches are – or will – make up “the Bride of Christ.” We will get to this subject in more detail later, but the fact is that Christians who are also members of Christ’s churches will have special honors and privileges throughout eternity. The erring Christian, who has been dismissed from membership in an earthly assembly of Christ, will loose unimagined blessings in eternity. “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
I feel quite firmly that verse 18 is falsely accused of teaching something which it doesn’t teach. But it does teach other things which are not often recognized.
And verse 20 is falsely accused as well.
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” It looks to me like there are two false assumptions in regard to these words. The first is the idea that by gathering in the Name of the Lord, the omnipresent Christ is somehow made to appear. Without ever saying it, some people picture this verse as some sort of godly seance – conjuring up Christ. The Bible says that the Lord is always present when two or three of His saints meet together. And the Lord is always present when even a single soul is suffering, or is in prayer, or is merely walking down the street. Christ is merely stating here what should be obvious.
The other assumption however is more of a problem. There are a lot of people who think that when two or three get together, in the Name of the Lord, they constitute a church. For example, there are probably thousands of families this morning sitting around their living rooms, reading their Bibles, and singing a few hymns while momma plays the piano. Dad may read from some devotional book that he has found, or perhaps he has spent a little time and developed a devotional of his own. Or perhaps they are sitting in front of their televisions, listening to some TV evangelist. And they call themselves “a church,” using verse 20 as their authority. Balderdash.
Those folk – possibly Christians, and probably well-meaning – need to consider the context of the verse. First, the word “church” isn’t mentioned here. So the gathering of the two or three saints did not constitute a church. Rather, the gathering to which Christ referred was an expression of the church already under consideration earlier in the context.
Why isn’t that family, that I mentioned, in one of the Lord’s churches? I hope that it isn’t because they have some incidental, insignificant difference with the doctrine of the local church of Christ in their community. If that is the case, they will be more than just embarrassed at the judgment seat of the Lord. “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” It might be because there isn’t a scriptural church in their community. That could very well be the case. If so, they should seek out one of God’s churches somewhere and try to establish a relationship with them – membership, fellowship in some way, mutual support and mutual encouragement. Every Christian ought to be a member of one of the Lord’s churches.
Matthew 18:20 is often misapplied – falsely accused of teaching something that it doesn’t teach.
And verse 19 is also accused of teaching things that it doesn’t.
“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” The verb “agree” is translated from a wonderful Greek word – “sumphoneo” (soom-fo-neh’-o) – “symphony.” And what is a symphony? It is the blending of several dozen of instruments, and pages of music into a musical agreement. There are a many classical symphonies which I greatly enjoy, but there are others – not so much. And I have met some Christians who will not listen to classical symphonies, because they were written by wicked men. Do you suppose that the Lord might agree with that philosophy?
I have heard wicked people paraphrase the words of this verse, applying them to themselves. But this is not a universal declaration; it is not a promise of Christ which applies to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world. A family, which has spit in the face of Jehovah throughout their lives, gathers together in a hospital room. They unite themselves, perhaps even holding hands, and they plead with God for their cancer-riddled loved one. They think that, despite their on-going rebellion, their unified prayer will somehow affect a miracle. They need to be taught in advance that such is not the case. This verse doesn’t make that suggestion.
There is also a related idea which is equally false. Don’t think to yourself that if two or three people pray in unison that they somehow force the sovereign God into doing their bidding. I realize that this verse appears to say this, but it must be kept in the context of rest of the scriptures. If the thing requested is consistent with the will of God, and the glory of God, and the declarations of God’s will, then you can be sure that “as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them.”
What the Lord is saying is that nothing is impossible to the sovereign, omnipotent God. For example, there may be a rebellious son, an atheistic neighbor, or a wicked president – bank president. That person has resisted all logic, all instruction, all correction – everything that is reasonable – running head-long towards disastrous sin. But you refuse to give up on that person – asking a group of Christians to pray for that person’s conversion. God is able to turn every heart in wicked Ninevah back towards Himself. He is sovereign enough to give a new heart to a wicked, Christ-hater and persecutor like Saul of Tarsus. He is sufficiently omnipotent to raise the dead and to heal hopelessly diseased bodies. So bring your symphony of prayer before Him, and plead with the Lord for the miracle that you desire. But remember that your will may not be according God’s will, and you can be sure that God will prevail. Keep praying until the Lord somehow indicates that you should stop. You may even justly plead the Lord’s promise in this verse – “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” But don’t accuse the Lord of unrighteousness or deception, if your united prayers are not answered the way that you think that they should be answered. Let the Lord be God – because He is, whether you like the idea or not.
These three verses are often misapplied. They are taken by people who don’t know the Lord, and don’t know His salvation, and they apply them to themselves. The blessings which human beings need, are dispensed by the grace of God, not by churches, by bribing God or twisting His arm. For example, if we desire deliverance from sin, or from the effects of our sins, then we need to humble ourselves before Him, repenting of our sin and trusting His grace. Christ Jesus has told invited us, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Don’t turn to churches – or to self effort – or to divine manipulation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”