You can open your Bibles. As I said to Matthew eighteen. Uh, but I'm going to begin tonight by reading a verse from first Corinthians thirteen. It's a verse that you you don't need to flip to, because I'm sure you likely know it, or at least you recognize it when I read it. Let me pray for us and then we'll begin. Lord, we do pray that you would be glorified and magnified in the life of our church. Tonight we pray that your Word would come alive in us, that it would convict us, conform us, mold us into the very image of Christ. We do want to be more like him. We pray that your word would accomplish that. We ask that in Jesus name. Amen. First Corinthians thirteen verse seven says, love bears all things and love believes all things. What does it mean when the Word of God says that love believes all things? On the one hand, does it really matter what you believe? Somebody might ask you a question and you would answer with, I believe that, and that communicates right away that you're not confident in what you're saying. Almost. It communicates a disregard for your answer. I remember one morning after preaching here at Immanuel that I met a gentleman I hadn't met before. He was in a sharp blue suit. Yea tall, and looked to be two hundred years old. And he met me right in the aisle over there. He was the parents, the father of one of our members, and he was visiting, and I was happy to meet him and thanked him for being here. And then I asked him. what he thought of church. This is a normal question and he looked at me with his steel eyes and said, young man, you kept saying a phrase that should never come out of a preacher's mouth. I was like, oh, hello. And he said, you kept saying, I think that. And he said, nobody comes here to hear what you think. It's like, okay, Roger. And so I went to war at that moment against the phrase, I think that in my sermons and have been shocked to realize how often I say it. What a worthless phrase. I think that I think it's a terrible phrase. So on the one hand, we understand it doesn't matter what you think about something or believe about something in that sense. But on the other hand, Christians use the word belief very differently. We just finished a series on the Nicene Creed. For example, the very opening line of the Creed is we believe the whole creed is going through a statement about what it is the church believes. It's called a creedal statement because it's a confession of our common belief. We confess our faith when somebody baptized, they come out of the water saying, essentially visibly proclaiming by virtue of their baptism that they believe the gospel before they're baptized. They'll even be asked, do you believe that the death of Jesus is the final and sufficient payment for your sins? And they say, yes. And then we baptize them based upon your profession of faith, I baptize you in the name of the father, son, and Holy Spirit. And so they go under the water and they they come out, having presented their belief to the church. So in that sense, belief is very much an essential part of what we are as a church. You would never say to somebody, do you believe that Jesus's death is the final and sufficient payment for your sin? Not that it matters much. You also recognize that within the Creed, when we say we believe and we go through the creed, or we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe in one God. That's an exclusionary belief. When we say we believe that Jesus Christ is God of very God, light of light, we're saying we are putting people that deny that outside of our belief. So our belief now, not only is it important, but it's also exclusionary. We're saying we believe this and not that. So then you get to first Corinthians thirteen verse seven. This is love believes all things. Well, certainly that doesn't mean that we believe that there's more than one God. Certainly it doesn't mean that we believe that Jesus Christ was truly a man, but not truly God or truly God, but not truly man. Of course not. So when we say we believe all love, believes all things, we don't mean it believes every concept in the whole world. And we say love believes all things. We certainly don't mean to say it doesn't matter what love believes. It doesn't matter what you actually believe. Little kids will claim this verse if they know it well enough with the cookie crumbs on their face. Did you eat a cookie? No, no I didn't, and you have to believe me because love believes all things. So there's a tension in this verse that love before this says love bears all things. And what that means is that love will endure everything for you. Love will endure everything that is required to win you over. Love bears that love never gets to the breaking point where it says, you know I've tried with you enough. I'm done. Love never gets there. Love will bear and endure all things. There's not a. You know, bridges might have a weight limit. Trucks have a weight limit. Love has no weight limit. You can't put too much on love where the person says it's broken. Me, love bears all things. And then the next part of that is that love believes all things. Now, obviously there's a fulfillment of this in Christ that Christ on the cross bore all of our sin. He didn't bear some of it. He bore all of it, thereby fulfilling the mission that God had sent him on to be our Redeemer. And as you take a step back from first Corinthians thirteen and look at a bigger picture of Scripture, you recognize that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God's promises throughout the Bible, all of the tensions in the Bible, all the prophecies in the Bible find their fulfillment in Christ. This is what Paul writes in Second Corinthians one verse twenty. He says, all the promises of God find their yes in Christ. That is why through Christ we say our Amen to God for his glory. In other words, we say Amen or truth through Christ to God. You can't say Amen to God except through Christ. Everything is fulfilled through him. Nothing is fulfilled outside of him. Then Paul says, It is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and he has anointed us. He's put his seal on us and given His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. So in two Corinthians one, there Paul is making this argument that because God sent Christ, Christ fulfills all prophecies. Everything has there. Yes. In Christ. Then he sends us His Spirit, which binds us back to Christ so we can pray to the father our. Amen. At the end of our prayer is coming from the spirit through the son, back to the father, and there's no way to pray to God except through the son. And so when we say love believes all things, what we mean by that is love believes that all things are at their their zenith in Christ. That love that is given to us from God believes that all things find their fulfillment in Christ, that all things take on not just potentiality, but actuality in Christ. That every promise of God that is for your good will come to pass in Christ. Everything God has told you is true in Christ. Of course there's lies in the world, but even the devil is defeated by Christ. We don't believe the lies of the devil when it says love believes all things. It doesn't mean you believe the lies of the devil. But you do believe the devil's lies are ultimately put to death by Christ. The context of two Corinthians one is the Corinthians were telling Paul that he was untrustworthy because he said he was going to come, and then he changed his mind. And Paul's answer to them, big picture answer is that I wanted to come, but I'm trusting Christ to purify the church, not me. So Jesus is going to do his work in you, and I'm believing that he really will. When I said yes, I meant yes. But now things have changed. That's what he means by that. These are the same people to whom he had just written. Love believes all things. We understand that all of the Old Testament promises are fulfilled in Christ. All the New Testament promises to you, not just conceptually, but to you, actually promises of peace, joy, love, goodness, forgiveness, salvation, sanctification, fellowship, hope, glorification in heaven are all made possible and fulfilled to you in Christ. Do you believe that? I mean, that's what First Corinthians thirteen is telling you. Do you believe that everything God has promised will actually be yours through Christ? Love believes all of it. Love believes like Romans eight says. Romans eight says that all things are happening for your good and for God's glory. That takes an incredible amount of belief, an incredible amount of faith. You're going through severe suffering, severe trials, severe difficulty, grief, death in the family, a broken marriage, rebellious kids. Do you believe that that is happening for your good and for God's glory? And the answer is yes. I have to believe it. What's the alternative? I mean, what is the actual alternative in real world terms? What's the alternative for me to say? This traumatic thing that's happening, this terrible thing is happening, is not actually under God's control. It's not actually for my good, and there's no way it can be for his glory. That's the alternative. You know what, love, if you have love for God, does not allow that. Love compels you to believe that all things find their meaning and significance in Christ. He said he would never leave us or forsake us. He said he would go away and prepare a place for us. He said, greater is he that is in you, and he sends His spirit than he who is in the world. He said, with every temptation laid in front of you, he gives you a way of escape. He said that those who abide in him and walk in his word will bear much fruit. He said that. Do you believe all of those things? Love believes all things. They're his promises, he said, go into the world preaching the gospel, and he will be with us until the end of the age. Do you believe that? I mean, love believes all things. They're his promises. They're fulfilled by him And for his glory, all in light of the cross, which shows us the love of God. So with that in mind, turn back to Matthew chapter eighteen, if you might still be there. Verse eighteen truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. This is very similar language to Matthew chapter sixteen. In Matthew chapter sixteen, Jesus tells Peter, I'm giving you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And so he's repeating the phrase now so we can bring with us everything from Matthew sixteen. Do you remember? I've been going verse by verse through Matthew sixteen all the way through eighteen. So it was about four years ago. The point of that passage in Matthew sixteen is that Jesus is building his church, and he's going to build it through Peter's preaching, and specifically Peter's preaching, that Christ is the cornerstone, that he is the the rock of salvation, the foundation of salvation. The apostles are the what is going to be built on, but Christ is the cornerstone. Everything is built off of him through the apostolic preaching, the ministry that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Truly God, truly man. That was Peter's confession. You are the son of the living God. And Jesus says, I'm going to build my church through that. That's the promise. Then he tells Peter on your confession, I'm building my church. You know from acts, the book of acts that Peter's preaching launches the church. That's where you find the fulfillment of that, not in some ongoing, you know, papacy or ongoing person of Peter's seat in Rome or whatever. No, it finds its fulfillment. When Peter preached a sermon in Pentecost comes and the Holy Spirit energizes and grows and blossoms the church. And Jesus says, I give to you, Peter, the keys of the kingdom, What you bind on earth is bound in heaven. What you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Now you have some questions from that back in Matthew sixteen, but the bare minimum in Matthew sixteen is Jesus is saying through the preaching of the gospel, there are sins that are forgiven, and there are people that are condemned. All of it comes into focus. Where else but in Christ? When you reject Christ, you stand condemned. When you receive Christ, you stand forgiven. And Peter and the apostolic and by extension, our own proclamation of the gospel of Christ, means that you can look somebody in the eye and say, if you turn from your sins and you receive Christ, you trust him. You have your sins forgiven. It doesn't matter how big your sins are, it doesn't matter how long you've lived apart from Christ. If you surrender to Christ, your sins are forgiven. They're written on paper and nailed to the cross. The debt is cancelled. Jesus actually forgives you of your sins. And you can believe that because he says it's true And you can declare that without wavering, without waffling, and without being like, I'm pretty sure he's going to forgive you of your sins. No, there's no need to doubt the keys of the kingdom have been given through the preaching of the message to the ministers of the gospel. But what's interesting in Matthew sixteen, that is the apostles, specifically Peter. Do you see what happens here in Matthew eighteen? It's the same phrase in Matthew eighteen. Only now where is Peter? Where are the apostles? Where are the elders? They're not here. What is here? Church discipline is here. That's what's here. You see somebody in their sin and you confront them. Now, a lot has happened since Matthew sixteen. Of course, the proclamation of the gospel, the Transfiguration has happened. Now the parable of the lost sheep has happened. Now there's this idea of a church. This is prophetically about the church. Of course, he says it's the church. His second usage of the word church in the whole Bible is right here. The time is coming where there will be a church in the world, Jesus is saying, and people will be added to it through the confession of faith that they made back in Matthew sixteen. You surrender your life to Christ. You're baptized. This is the Great Commission. This is the third use of church at the end of Matthew twenty eight, that the the gospel is going to go into the world. Jesus is going to build his church and through the preaching of the gospel, and people will be baptized, be made into disciples. And so you, Matthew sixteen, receive Christ. You make a public profession of your faith in Christ. And now the church is growing, but people begin digging in on their sin. It's much easier when dealing with outsiders, right? When dealing with the person you met at the mall, the coworker that just got transferred into your office, your new neighbor who just moved in, and you tell them if you believe the gospel, your sins are forgiven. But if you reject the gospel, you stand condemned by God. That's almost easier to say to somebody you just met. What about somebody who goes to church with you? Somebody you've known for a long time? Somebody whose kids are baptized in church. Maybe you went to their wedding. And they stand in front of you and say they're rejecting what the Scripture says. They're not interested. They're rejecting what it says. Remember this morning? I said, sometimes people will justify not pursuing church discipline on a person just like that, because they'll say something like, oh, they know what the Bible says. I'll tell you, you sin blinds you. You think Samson knew that Delilah was going to betray him? I mean, it happened a few times already. Sin makes you blind to the most obvious things. And so you tell a person, listen, you're saying don't. Don't do this. Maybe they repent. If so, great. If not, you bring a witness. We talked this morning about how, as a witness to the confrontation, not a witness to the sin, that would probably be impossible, but a witness to the confrontation. Maybe a couple witnesses. And you plead with the person, and you don't skip this step. You don't say, oh, it's you know, it won't work, so let's not do it. Do you know why you believe it's going to work? Because Jesus said to do it. And love believes all things. So you believe that what Jesus said is effective, even if it's an outcome differently than what you thought it might be? You appeal to them and they say, no, I'm not doing it. It's too much to bear. I'm not following what the Lord says. Then you go after them with the church, and the whole church appeals to them. Can you look that person in the eye and say, if you repent of your sins, the Lord will forgive you? But if you don't, you stand under the judgment of God. Like I said, it's easier with the new neighbor than with someone you've been with for twenty years. It's a grave thing to tell somebody that. But you have to believe that it's true, because this is the most loving thing you can do for somebody who is stuck in their sin. The sheep that is lost and stuck in the rocks. You go get them and you look them in the eye and say, if you repent and come back, we'll all receive you. And of course, people will say, I can't come back to the church. I brought too much shame on the church nonsense. No Christian would ever say that. Oh, don't repent from your sin because we've seen this before. No, of course they receive you. But if you reject the Word of God and leave the faith, you stand condemned. You stand under God's judgment. It's so hard to say. And Jesus tells you when you say that. Here's that phrase again exactly from Matthew sixteen. Matthew sixteen. It was on the front door through baptism into the church. Matthew eighteen. It's on the back door. So you're baptized into the church based upon your confession. And there are only two ways out death or discipline or the rapture. I'll give you the rapture also, three ways out. That's it. And so you've been baptized in the church based upon your confession of faith. You received as a brother or sister in the in the church, part of the body of Christ. Amen. And you walk with the body of Christ marked off from the world. You don't live like the world. You don't look like the world you don't love, like the world you don't value things like the world. You live differently than the world because you're part of the church. And this goes on all the way until glory. Or at some point you decide you're done. And you're going to go your own way. The church cannot just let you go. They can't just let you wander away. I mean, churches do all the time, but they ought not do that and say, just, just go. Maybe the next church that finds you will love you enough to discipline you, not us. So go ahead. And they go, no, no, no should never be like that. It should be the church that says, no, you can't. You can't sneak out. This is like the airport that that door is armed right there. You press the button. You're not letting that happen. We're coming after you. We appeal to you. This is why it's so important to have a clearly marked who's in the church and who's not in the church. That's why membership is important. This is why what? What is a church is important. This is why you can't do church discipline on somebody in your Bible study that meets at Starbucks. That goes to twenty different churches. And what are you supposed to do in that discipline? The guy out of Starbucks, the manager, will not go along with it. What makes a church is a Christian concert a church? No. Our conferences, churches. There's a couple conferences that I go to every year. It doesn't make them a church. We all know each other. We have accountability with each other. But we're not a church. We can't discipline somebody out of the Shepherd's Conference. Just gathering together with somebody does not make you a church. Having elders and membership and the ordinances. Baptism. Communion. But this mutuality, this becoming the body of Christ. That's what makes you a church. It's a little bit circular here. You're a church when you're the local representation of the body of Christ, and you're the local representation of the body of Christ when you're church. But that's because this is the church is the body of Christ. It's the presentation of the body of Christ on earth. We are the members, one to another of the body of Christ. And you have a unique relationship with people in your church. I have a very good friend, Clint. Clint and I have known each other for a long time. He does not go to Emmanuel Bible Church, but we're good friends. Our wives know each other. We're good friends. I have another friend, Ryan, sitting right over here. I've known Ryan for a long time. We're good friends. Our wives are good friends. Is my relationship with Ryan different than it is with Clint? Well, yes. But why? Is it just because Ryan moved out here to Emmanuel Bible Church so long ago to be the youth pastor? A little bit, but more than that, it's in the ongoing living of our lives in the same body. We're mutually accountable to each other in this body. We're serving under the authority of the elders in this body. We're pouring out our lives in this body. Not so with Clint. I mean, I love Clint, but he's not giving his life in this church. And so if I wander off into sin, Clint can confront me, but he can't discipline me. There's just a different kind of relationship you have with people in your church, and that's the way it's designed. Because we're the body of Christ. It doesn't mean one church is more important than another, or one church is better than the other. No, but there's local congregations that are the local expressions of the body of Christ. And that congregation cares for each other and goes after each other and encourages each other and calls each other to repent and prays for each other and presses on together. We give our money to each other. We give our time to each other. We trust our kids with each other. We do all of that together. That's the local church. Again, it's not something at Starbucks. It's something at church. And that's what Jesus says in verse nineteen again, I say to you, if two or three of you agree about anything, it'll be done for them by my father in heaven. Ironically, the biggest irony is that this passage is most often quoted at Starbucks. Only three people showed up to Bible study. Hey, it's okay. It's on Matthew eighteen, verse nineteen. No, it's talking about when even a small church gathers together the two or three here. Who are the two or three? The witnesses, that's who. The two and three are the witnesses to the sin, to the confrontation. So they're involved in the confrontation. They listen to both sides and they come away saying, you guys need to repent. Don't keep walking in sin. Repent. And one person says, I'm not repenting. I'm not doing it. I'm out. And you think, ah, man, I can't I can't speak up now. I can't tell that person by walking away from the clear commands of the Bible. You're putting yourself outside the fellowship of the church. I can't say that. But Jesus says, yes, you can say that. And when you say it, you're speaking for him. Where two or three are, he is there with you. You're not often some limb somewhere saying if you abandon your family and your marriage, you're leaving the covenant commitment you made with our church. Please don't do that. You feel like you're so far out there on your own. No you're not. Jesus is with you in those conversations. He's right there. Ultimately, this guards the purity of the church. And so in the church, that person comes back to faith and says, I repent. I was so wrong, I repent, you can receive them back practically. I'll tell you this. I mentioned this in one of the services this morning, but not all three practically. I'll tell you, this failure to do church discipline ends up eroding relationships. It does. Sometimes people say, I don't want to discipline this person. I don't want to go after them because we've been friends for so long. I value it so much. I've seen that movie before and I'll tell you what happens. They go away and the years go by and you try to stay in touch with them and everything, but the conversation turns. I mean, the guy who leaves his family and you try to stay friends with him, you didn't go after him. In discipline, there's just a cloud of ambiguity. The people at the church don't know what that guy is doing in life. They don't know what his standing is. They're weird about it. I think I heard that he left his family, but I'm not sure. Nobody knows. Nobody knows how to deal with him, you know? But he didn't go after him in discipline. So you just try to stay friends with him and whatever. And it gets weird. Like a few years later, they. They feel betrayed by you. They tell you you didn't support me when I left my spouse. When I left my wife, you weren't there for me. And you're saying, of course I wasn't there for you? Are you kidding me? Of course I wasn't there for you. Whether or not you did church discipline, there's distance now. They've left the body. They've left the body when they're outside the body. The promise in verse twenty kind of runs onto the rocks. Where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm among them. Yeah. They're not in the body anymore. There's confusion in the church and a hardness in relationships. Do you believe that church discipline works? I mean, love believes all things. Jesus gave it to us. You believe that? It's worth it, even when it's hard? Yeah, you have to. Do you believe that it's the right thing to do, even when it's costly? Remember, part of the goal is this one person getting restored to the church. Of course, it is ultimately that you want the wind your brother over. But part of the goal is not even focused on that person. Once that husband leaves his relationship, you think I want to do discipline to win him back? And you think I don't think it's going to work and so you can waver and not do it. But remember, the rest of the goal of discipline is to protect the body, to protect the body. You don't want somebody that's untrustworthy around the children. And you wouldn't say, I don't want to kick him out of Sunday school. That untrustworthy guy. I don't want to kick him out of Sunday school because what would he think? And, you know, I knew his parents and whatever. No, you wouldn't say that. You'd say no. Get out of here. Because my duty is to protect the kids. And this is a children context. Remember, Matthew eighteen kids on both ends would argue church discipline. If somebody said they'd kill you. Jesse James, the famous outlaw whom I'm named after. Okay. I don't know if that's true. My parents told me they wanted to give me a name that could work if I was a boy or a girl. So, Jesse, it is. It's a little bit less dramatic. I'm going with. I'm named after the famous outlaw. He was baptized at age twenty. At Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Kearney, Missouri. He wasn't really raised in the church, but he was from the community. He'd been going to the church for a few years, and he presented himself for baptism at age twenty, gave a testimony, baptized and received into membership eighteen sixty six. You know what else happened in eighteen sixty six? He committed his very first bank robbery, the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri. He kept going to church and he kept robbing banks for three years. He wasn't faithfully there. Every Sunday he would go months at a time without being at church. People thought that he was convicted, like, conflicted inside of him. He'd show up at church and have his head down in his hands, listening to the preaching, and then leave before anyone could talk to him. Go off to rob a bank again. He did this for years. The elders of the church did what is so common. They formed a committee to look into what to do with him. As I was reading this book on his life, I thought I was like, did this really happen? Then I heard the Committee of Deacons part and I was like, totally happened. They made a committee of deacons. I heard Steve Holley laugh. They made a committee of deacons to look into what to do with Jesse James, and the committee of deacons came back and told the church leadership, we need to excommunicate him. And so the leadership of the church told those deacons, okay, go to his. He's living with his mom at the time. Go to Jesse James's house, his mom's house, and confront him and tell him you brought your witnesses. You're putting him out of the church if he doesn't repent. They made the appointment and everything. You know what those deacons did? They didn't go. They left Jesse James sitting on his porch, stewing. I don't know if he was actually stewing, but they no showed it. And the elders asked him, why didn't you go? And they said, because we don't want to get shot. And the elders hemmed and hawed. Eventually they thought, you know, if we discipline him, he will burn down the church. That was the rumor that got started. Don't know how it got started, but they believed that they disciplined him. He would burn down the church. And so they said, we can't discipline him because we put a lot of time into this church. So they went six months without seeing him. He shows up at their members meeting, eighteen sixty nine, and announces that he's removing himself voluntarily from membership. And the elders are like, whew! A few months later, he killed his first person and then fled Missouri. That's his life. I'm not saying if they had gone after him in discipline, he might not have become a murderer. I'm not saying that. I am saying we'll never know. We'll never know what would happen. We'll never know what would happen if people would have gone after him and said, no. Your profession of faith you made just a year ago. Come back to faith. We'll receive you. We don't know. Love believes the discipline works even if it burns the church down. God, we're grateful that you forgive us, given us this body of believers. We're so thankful for it. We recognize the. Protective nature of the church. It's not even for the elders. It's for all of us. One to another, we are members of the body of Christ. We live together. Love together. Serve you together here. We're so thankful for Emmanuel Church, how you have strengthened this church, grown this church. We're so grateful for it. We give you thanks for your work here. I pray for anybody that is here tonight that is on the fence, so to speak, in their own heart, even if they've been baptized, even if they've been members of the church, but is fighting the war in their heart. Lord, I pray that you would encourage them tonight. The church is safe. We love each other, we care for each other, and we always receive the struggling sheep back. Pray for people here tonight who are on the fence about whether or not to confront someone in sin. I pray that you would give them courage. A clarity in their convictions. We're so thankful for your instruction, Lord. It's so simple, yet so profound. You've bracketed these chapters with the promise that you were with us when we needed them most. Things are complicated, Lord. Situations are complicated. People are complicated. Motives are complicated. Even our schedules are complicated. Even practical things about discipline can be so complicated. Yet you see the beginning and the end. You see them all together. They're all one before you. And you work all things for our good and for your glory. We believe that because love believes all things, we give you thanks for this in Jesus name. Amen. And now for parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson. If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website. If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to TMZ.com. Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C. area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel. I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service. But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church. Now, may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly. Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel boldly.