[Mark Welch] Well, brethren, I personally have three brothers. I also have three sisters. As children, we grew up on a small farm out in northwestern Ohio. The closest town was about 4 miles away. It had about 500 people. We had about 240 acres that we could roam on the farm, which my dad and my uncles owned together. There was a time when the three oldest brothers were all young and we actually slept in a bed together, all three of us. And we really liked that on cold wintry nights when the snow would literally blow into our drafty upstairs window. We had a farmhouse. It was a big house and it was a big brick house, but the windows were not that great. And we would put plastic in there and they would fill with air. And then sometimes the plastic was faulty and the snow would come in. And that's how we grew up. Other than that, it was a great life. Sounds bad. It doesn't sound too great. But actually, it was a very good upbringing, childhood.

However, we did fight like brothers and sisters, too. They can fight as well. They've got sharp claws. Anyway, we grew up looking after each other for the most part. We could beat up on each other, but we surely did not like it when anyone else tried. So we were protective of one another. We would always come to the rescue. We grew up understanding, at least to a point, what it meant to be our brother's keeper or to be our sister's keeper. A keeper is someone who looks after something or someone, someone who keeps something safe, keeps it from harm. A keeper looks after the best interests of another person. A keeper of sheep, for example, looks after the sheep. They try to keep the sheep safe from wolves, from falling in ditches, and whatever else might happen to the sheep. Oftentimes, a keeper will even risk his own life for whatever he is protecting. Now, I don't suggest risking your life for money, but security guards at banks have risked their lives, obviously, trying to keep the money safe. Some have lost their lives with Dillinger and others who were quite active in robbing banks once upon a time. Also, a bodyguard is a keeper. I don't personally have one. But a bodyguard tries to keep a person safe, and they will also risk their life to keep their charge safe. That's what a keeper is. It's not all that complicated.

What does the Bible say about being your brother's keeper or your sister's keeper? What does it mean to be your brother's keeper? Are we supposed to be our brother's keeper, or do we not have to really worry much about that? We might also ask, who is your brother? Who is your sister? Today we're going to cover some real-life principles that will help us be better keepers, better keepers of our brothers and our sisters and what that means. Let's go to Genesis 4 where we find the only time in the Bible where this term is even used. You probably know where that is. "Am I my brother's keeper?" someone asked of God. Let's read the account.

Genesis 4:1 “Now, Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord.’”

Yes, God was the one that put the process together and out came this baby. Pretty amazing, I would think, for that first mother and father, as it is to all of us who have children. And she says,

Genesis 4:1-3 “‘I have acquired a man from the eternal.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now, Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.”

Certainly nothing wrong with being a farmer, with taking care of planting vegetables and fruit and so forth and harvesting those things. Nothing wrong with that.

Genesis 4:4 “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.” So notice how that's written, though. It's a little different here. "He brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat." The very best is what it's talking about. "And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering."

Maybe Cain did not go out of his way to get the very best of the first fruits and he was slacking to some degree. God noticed it. God was not happy about it. He did not respect Cain and his offering.

Genesis 4:5-6 “And Cain was very angry when he saw this.” His countenance fell. He was not happy with God. “So the Eternal said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why is your countenance falling? Why are you upset with me? If you do well, will you not be accepted?’”

Okay, that is a good question. If you do well, will not God accept you? On the other hand, if you don't do so well, don't expect God to accept that. You know, God has expectations of us. He wants us to behave in certain ways. And when we disappoint Him, we disappoint Him. And if you do not do well, guess what? Sin lies at the door. Sin is the transgression of God's law. God tells us how to live, tells us the way we are supposed to be living, and when we are going contrary to that, sin lies at the door. No doubt Cain had been instructed on the type of offering that should have been given. But he did not take it as seriously as he should have, and he was neglectful. And so God was not happy with that.

Genesis 4:7 He says, "Sin lies at the door and its desire is for you." Satan and sin want to get the best of us. You know, they want us to go down that path. They want us to sin against God. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Okay, God tells us that, “We should not just give in to sin, but we should fight back and rule over it.”

Genesis 4:8 "Now, Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel." He attacked Abel, his brother, and killed him. “Then the Eternal said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel, your brother?’”

Now, you would think that Cain knew this was going to happen. Cain knew this day of reckoning, this time of reckoning was coming.

Genesis 4:9-10 "Where is Abel, your brother?" Cain said, "I do not know." He lied to him right off the bat. He knew exactly where he was. And he asked the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" trying to deflect things, trying to hopefully throw God off, which isn't possible to do. And God said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." God knew what had happened.

Genesis 4:11 "So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you." Things would have been much, much better had Cain not sinned. He said, "A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth."

So obviously God was very displeased with Cain who rose up and murdered his brother. You know, they were the very first brothers. They were blood brothers from the same parents, from Adam and Eve. You would think they would be pretty close to each other since they were the only ones around. They grew up and surely there must have been some closeness there. In some ways, I'm confident they were close. But hatred, anger, jealousy, and envy are powerful forces as well. And as God says, "Sin lies at the door and you must not allow sin to rule over you. You have to behave differently." So it's hard to imagine that he didn't care for his brother, but nevertheless, he murdered him.

This incident should tell us something about the human heart. It truly is desperately wicked. "It is deceitful above all things," as Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, and we must continually be on guard lest hatred, anger, jealousy, and resentment might not overtake us. Do you think you are immune to jealousy, to envy, to resentment? It can overtake us and cloud our judgment. We really do need to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. And this is a prime example of walking in the flesh, to actually rise up and to murder your own brother. It doesn't get much worse than that, does it?

Now, I'm going to go back close to 50 years. It's hard to believe. But many of you have heard of Alex Haley, the author of the book "Roots" that was made into a very popular TV series. In fact, I remember very vividly watching this with my children and explaining certain things to them about...How could that be? Fifty years ago, the kids weren't even born. It must have been later on we watched it again. That had to be it. Because they weren't even born when it first happened. Yes, which was before my children were born. So it was later on. It must have been a rerun. You know how that happens. Because I'm pretty sure the kids did see this show. But you remember Chicken George. Some of you. Some of you have no clue what I'm talking about, but some of you, look it up on YouTube. You could probably watch it. I don't know.

Anyway, Chicken George and Kunta Kinte were two of the main characters in this series, and it dealt with a history of a Black family that began when Kunta Kinte was enslaved and brought to America. Alex Haley thought a lot about the subject of hatred because he did a lot of research through his family. His family, some of them were slaves. There was documented stories that had happened to the family. So Alex Haley thought a lot about the subject of hatred, and he said something very insightful about hatred in his own life and the lives of his family. He said, "Hatred, at its best, will distort you, at its worst, it will destroy you, but it will always immobilize you." It will always have an effect. It will have a very bad effect because hatred and resentment is a deadly poison. It's something that we must fight against and not allow to rise up within us.

If you're going to be a good keeper of your brothers and sisters, you're going to need to learn to love rather than hate. Satan would love for you to hate, to learn hatred, and to have that feeling toward other people rather than love. Hatred or resentment will poison a friendship. On the other hand, brotherly love is a gauge of the true Christian. Christ said his disciples would be known by their love for each other. How many of us have been immobilized to greater spiritual growth because we bear some type of hatred or resentment that we have a very difficult time getting rid of? It's in the inner recesses of our heart and mind. It comes up continually. It plagues us.

How many of us have had marital problems because of some type of bitterness, even hatred to some degree, that has not yet been removed or hasn't been forgiven? How many of us are holding a grudge against another person and have basically refused to forgive them? Brethren, what does it mean to be your brother's keeper, and how does all this tie in together? Are you really expected to look out for the welfare of your brother and your sister? To what extent and degree are you your brother's keeper, your sister's keeper? And let's answer the question, who is your brother, who is your sister? And again, are you a good keeper of your brother and sister?

So are you your brother's keeper? Yes. Yes, in that you and I are all created in God's image, and we are all his children. So this is point number one. Yes, we are our brother's keeper because we're created in God's image and we're all his children, so God looks at us as brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters. You are brothers and sisters. We've got lots of brothers and sisters in this room. We're all related to each other. Spiritually, for sure, some of us are related physically. Certainly, some families have more family members here than others. But we are to be good keepers of one another. We are God's children fashioned in his likeness, and we do have a responsibility toward one another. God does want and he expects us to learn to love each other, even if we don't really like each other that much. Now, we can learn to love each other and we can learn to like each other, I think, and we are to look out for each other, to be one another's keeper. Cain should have been Abel's keeper. Cain should have looked after his little brother. He should not have been so jealous and so envious, but he was, and he rose up and killed him because of it.

So let's start with the big picture and talk about who's your brother. We got to know who our brother and sister are. We've talked about it some already, but does it extend even further than what we've talked about? In the broadest sense, every human being is your brother or sister, not just those in this room, but everyone out there, all over Cincinnati, and Milford, and India, and Sri Lanka, and all around the world. Even if they're not a part of God's church, in one sense, they're still our brothers and sisters. God is going to call all of them eventually. God will bring all of them to a truth and an understanding of His way of life. We'll all have an opportunity to choose God, to choose Jesus Christ, to choose this way of life. But in the meantime, we still need to realize and remember that they're our brothers and they're our sisters to some degree.

Now, the Bible does make a distinction between a blood brother, someone who's closely related in their own family, and also a spiritual brother. There's a distinction between a spiritual brother and a distinction between the larger human family. So let's go to 1 Timothy 5:8 where we read a scripture on this very topic. And this is talking about close family members here. 1 Timothy 5. 1 Timothy 5:8. Yep.

1 Timothy 5:8 "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household...if he does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

That's what God says about someone who doesn't look after his own family members. He's worse than an unbeliever because oftentimes unbelievers will help out somebody in need and will pitch in when there's a need for that. If anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith. So the household is closest, and then it goes out from there, extended family members. They're all important and we should all consider their needs, and if there's anything we can do to help keep them safe and productive and blessed in certain ways. So that's 1 Timothy 5:8.

And again, we don't want to be like infidels. We want to be following what the Word of God says. "We should have special ties with our close family members, and we should always be working towards making amends when relationships are strained." Now, I know relationships get strained. There have been some strained relationships in our family to some degree. Thankfully, I can honestly say that not to any huge degree, even though seven brothers and sisters, you'd think there might be more. But that really hasn't been the case. We got along pretty well overall. But I know in some families, there's so much animosity, they don't even see each other at times. They don't want to see each other. They don't want to be in the same room with each other. Well, it's my belief, and I think the Bible bears this out, that we should always be working towards making some kind of amends, if possible.

Now, there are some sins that are so grievous that may separate us people for a long time. I get that. I understand that. I'm not judging that. That's between you and God or whoever and God. But wherever we can make amends, whatever we can do to help the situation, we should certainly try to do that. "We do have a special responsibility toward our physical families, our brothers and sisters who are closely related to us." We should not ignore them. We should not write them off. We should always be praying about the situation and how things can improve. You know, with God, all things are possible. Miracles do happen. Things do change. So let's keep that in mind.

Let's go to Mark 7. Again, we are answering this question about who our brother is and how we treat one another, how we learn to keep one another. Mark 7. This is something that Christ had a real problem with. He took these people to task for their ungodly behavior. He didn't mince words about it. He called them hypocrites, which He does that on a number of occasions in the Bible, especially Matthew 23.

Mark 7:5-12 Let's begin reading, "Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him..." Of course, they were always trying to trip him up. They were always trying to cause him problems. He says, "'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?' He answered and said to them, 'Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites?'" Quotes scripture to them. "'As it is written, this people honors me with their lips. But their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things you do. Rather than focusing on the commandments of God, you put all of this effort into these traditions.' He said to them, 'All too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition.'" And then he gives an example. "He says, 'For Moses said, honor your father and your mother. And he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban. In other words, it's set aside as a gift to God. Then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother.'"

So they were manipulating things. The religious leaders of the day were manipulators. They were manipulating people to give monies to the temple that could be used for their own benefit rather than preaching clearly the Word of God and telling them to take care of your family, take care of your mom and your dad first. And then if there's anything left to give...I mean, we're not talking about tithes because tithes are a different matter, but this was a gift that was being given.

Mark 7:13 He says, "Then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down and many such things you do."

This was one example, but they were doing many such things to manipulate and to cause the people to actually sin against God by not taking care of the more important things like tending and keeping the family members. In Galatians 6, there's a verse here that talks about doing good to all men, not just to our brothers and sisters in Christ, or not just to our blood relatives, but actually looking out for all people to the degree that God gives us opportunity. Let's see that. Galatians 6:10.

Galatians 6:10 "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all." Now, you can emphasize all because then he says, "Especially to those who are of the household of faith."

So there's a differentiation being made here. Yes, the household of faith is a greater priority. We should take care of one another first, but then we should look carefully as God gives us opportunity to help others. That's one reason we do the food bank, because there are plenty of people out there that could use the food that we can certainly give, and we can help them. That's a small way. There are many other ways that we should be involved or we should try to get involved as God gives us opportunity, which sometimes it means maybe you should look for opportunities rather than just wait always on something to fall into your lap. It's okay to take some initiative, too, to do good to all. So here again we see that in a very real sense all people are related to us. They're brothers and sisters. We all come from Adam and Eve and then we all come from Noah and his family. Now, we all are related. We're all related. We are all blood relatives going back far enough. So we should not overlook the good that we can do to help other people and to set a good example for others.

Now let's go to Luke 10 where we really get into this question again about who is our brother, who is our neighbor? The story is told in Luke 10. It's a story that Jesus Christ tells, it's a parable, and he's trying to get through to hard-headed Pharisees and scribes, disciples, all of us. Luke 10:25.

Luke 10:25-28 "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, tested Christ, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And he said to Him, 'What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?' So He answered and said, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength, and with all of your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself.'" The two great commandments that are listed in another place, Christ refers to them as the two great commandments. "And He said to him, 'You have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.'" But he, wanting to justify himself, undoubtedly he was feeling a little bit guilty. He was also trying to get by with as little as he possibly could rather than think in the bigger picture.

So he asked the question, 'And who is my neighbor? Is it just the person living to my right, to my left? Is it just a very isolated few? Who is my neighbor?'

Luke 10:30-31 “So Jesus answered and said, 'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he stopped and helped him immediately.'”

Now, we know it doesn't say that. Instead, this priest, a representative of God, saw him and moved to the other side. He passed on the other side and did not stop to see how badly he was hurt, if there was anything at all he could do. He just went on by.

Luke 10:32-34 "Likewise, a Levite..." Okay, the Levite is also a part of the priesthood. You've got the Aaronic priesthood. You've got the Levites. This is another religious man, supposed to be a representative of God. "Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side." So he did exactly the same thing. Looked, noticed, he said, "Hope you're well," went on. He probably didn't even say that. "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed..." This was a certain Samaritan, probably because all Samaritans would not have done this. But this was a certain Samaritan who did. "And as he journeyed, he came where he was. And when he saw him," guess what, "he had compassion on him." So he went to him and bandaged his wounds. Now, it's likely this man was likely Jewish, it doesn't really tell us. Not a Samaritan, pretty sure of that. "So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him."

So he brought him, he took him to the inn, he went out of his way.

Luke 10:35 "And on the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'"

So he went above and beyond what most people would call his duty. He went above and beyond, and undoubtedly he had some kind of a relationship with the innkeeper who trusted him that he actually would pay him. He had stayed there before. He knew what kind of person he was, what kind of character that this man had.

Luke 10:36 "So Christ asks the question, 'So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?'"

This is a thought-provoking parable here. Who do you think was neighbor to him? Was it the priest? Was it the Levite? Or was it this lowly Samaritan? The Samaritan who was looked at as a dog, as someone almost less than human, a bad guy. You know, the Jews didn't think that highly of Samaritans, and Samaritans didn't think highly of the Jews. But in this case, this Samaritan stopped and helped. I don't think it really mattered to him who this person was that was injured. It didn't matter. He was going to help him regardless, and he was a good neighbor. He was a good keeper of that person. That's what Christ wants us to be. He wants us to be willing to go out of our way to help those in need. So anyone who is in need is a neighbor, a brother, a sister. Anyone we can help, if God gives us opportunity, then we should strive to help them, to support them. So all of our brothers and sisters, they're neighbors, we are to be good neighbors.

So again, we ask the question, are you your brother's keeper? Yes, number two, in that Christ's disciples, two Christians, are to be known by their love one for another. We are to be good keepers because we love each other. We love one another. This extends to our brothers and sisters in the broadest sense, not just blood brothers, not just brothers and sisters in the faith, but it really does go out to all people. I don't believe Christ was saying love those in the church, love those who are family, but you don't have to love the other people out there. It's not necessary. I don't expect you to. I don't really want you to. Now, that's not at all what God says. Let's go to John 13, and let's read it together, verses 34-35.

John 13:34-35 "So Christ says, 'A new commandment I give to you that you love one another.'" Now, that's not a new commandment, is it? That part, nothing new about that. But he says, "As I have loved you that you also love one another."

So Christ was different. Christ was about ready to lay his life down for his friends. He was different. People saw that he was different. He really did care for all people. He loved all people. So the new commandment is love as I have loved you, love one another. Again, all people, not just those who are the closest to us in relationship, but all people.

John 13:35 "By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

So it is important that we do reach out in love toward other people, no matter who they are. If we can help them, we should certainly consider helping them, getting involved and being a part of it. God wants us to be willing to do some things that are uncomfortable. That takes faith. It takes fighting off fears that we talked about in the sermonette. I mean, obviously there's a proper balance as God gives us opportunity. You know, God's going to take care of us. He wants us to use wisdom. He wants us to step out in faith, not in foolishness. So there is a difference. Step out in faith, not in foolishness. But on the other hand, step out. Make a difference. Get involved. Maybe do more than you've done in the past. Maybe more than you've ever done in the past. So God is love and we are to become like Him. Love is the very first fruit listed in regard to the fruits of God's Spirit. We talk about that a lot. Just as God cannot lie, we must also realize that God cannot murder. Cain murdered Abel. God has never murdered anyone. God has killed people, but God has never murdered anyone like Cain rose up against Abel out of hatred and resentment. God isn't that way. God really does love us. He is our keeper. He takes care of us and watches over us. It doesn't mean that He doesn't allow some bad things to happen in our lives, difficult things to try us, to test us. God certainly does allow that. We do live in this world. We are a part of the world. Even though we are to come out of the world, we have to live in the world.

Cain intended to kill his brother, to murder Abel. He probably had thought about it for a while. I don't know. It's hard to say. He certainly rose up. Maybe it was spur of the moment. But it doesn't say that he had any kind of remorse for behaving the way that he did. The sixth commandment prohibits murder. God does not want us to have that spirit of murder within us. Instead, he wants us to have the exact opposite. Let's learn to love each other, not hate each other. Let's learn to care for one another. "God through Christ says, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.'" You know, that can be a little uncomfortable too, to actually pray for enemies, pray for people that really don't like you very much, are trying to harm you in various ways. Love your enemies. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. We may be tested. And in that one, in a variety of ways in the future, we'll obviously have to wait and see.

But again, are you your brother's keeper? Thirdly, yes, in that the second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself and to help fulfill their needs and godly desires. So we talked a little bit about that. That's the second commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. Most people do have a certain love for themselves. Most people don't despise themselves. You know, we're kind of fond of ourselves. I'm a little bit fond of Mark Welch. I kind of like the guy. And I think most of us, hopefully, we like each other somewhat at least. We see some good, some redeeming qualities in there somewhere. So it's okay to love yourself in a godly manner, in a godly way, within right parameters and right perspectives. Let's go to Matthew 22:39 where it kind of bears us out about talking about loving yourself. I mean, God doesn't want us to hate ourselves, right? That would not be cool. We're created in God's image. God's invested a lot in us. God loves us. We should love ourselves.

Matthew 22:39 “And the second is like it.” We're talking about the first and great commandment, loving God with all your heart. “Second's like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Oh, so we are to love ourselves. And we're to love our neighbor the way we love ourselves. So God wants us to love our neighbor. We already saw that. So he wants us to also love ourselves and try to love them in the same way we love ourselves or we want to be loved. That's a tall order to some degree, but it is our calling. And then to make you even more uncomfortable, let's go to Mark 11. That's my job. I'm not supposed to speak smooth things. Right? I'm supposed to talk about the difficult things. Mark 11.

Mark 11:24-25 "Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them." Have faith. Believe. Don't stop. Believing. Don't stop praying. If it's worth praying about, keep praying about it, trusting that God will answer one day. That's what He says, "Believe that you receive them and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone..." This is the uncomfortable part. "If you have anything against anyone, forgive him." Anything, that's pretty all-encompassing. If you have anything against anyone. Now, I know that that may not be something we can do right away. You know, that may be something that may take a lifetime or most of a lifetime to try to get there. Because some people hurt us so badly that it's very, very difficult to get over it. You know, it just really hurts. It's continually on our minds. It keeps coming back. It plagues us in various ways. It's difficult.

Mark 11:26 "But if you have anything against anyone, you are to try to learn to forgive him. Do your best to learn to forgive that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses."

You know, God looks on our heart. He sees if we're really wanting to try. He knows how we've been treated, how we've been abused or misused in various ways. So God's very understanding and He's very compassionate. No doubt He takes all of that into account. But we cannot deny that our job is to learn to forgive anyone anything. And then certainly we will be forgiven ourselves. So if you believe that you've been wronged, mistreated, or abused in some way by a brother or sister, pray about it, try to forgive them, and never stop trying. Keep working at it and God will give you victory. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and helps us along the way.

Now, Joseph is an excellent example of someone who forgave his brother's wrongdoing. I've never been sold into slavery by my brothers, or my sisters for that matter. Joseph was. He was sold into slavery. You know, they probably didn't treat him all that great, at least for a while. Obviously, God was in this scenario and in this situation, and God did deliver Joseph. But the amazing thing is that Joseph learned to forgive. It is interesting that he did not reveal himself right away. I think he understood that these brothers need to learn a lesson here. I don't have to reveal myself immediately. I'm going to let this play out for a while. It'll be for their own good. Plus, I'm just not ready, perhaps, to deal with this. He obviously cared for his brothers. But you wonder how much played on and how could they do this to me? Selling me to the Midianites, to our enemies. I mean, no telling what he had to go through, you know. So an amazing story of someone who's an excellent example of someone who was able to forgive his brother's wrongdoing. He was indeed his brother's keeper. And he came back and did good to them all.

So again, are you your brother's keeper? Point number four, yes, in that Christ's disciples are called to judge righteous judgment. Yes, we are our brother's keeper, but we're also supposed to judge righteous judgment when it comes to dealing with our brothers and sisters, especially those who are of the faith. We are expected to help a brother or sister in faith who is sinning or going astray. Matthew 18 is about sin. It's about something pretty serious. It's not just a minor infraction of some kind. It's not just a tiny little offense. It is a hurtful thing, a sin against another person, you being the person in this case. So let's go to Matthew 18 and talk about how to deal with something such as this.

Matthew 18:15 "Christ says, 'Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.'"

Okay, so a brother does something that's very hurtful that's actually a sin. Usually when you hurt someone badly, there's a sin there. It's called the law of love, if nothing else. The law of love is broken. It's broken. It's not, you know, you didn't think it through very carefully. You weren't very considerate of how this was going to affect another person. So it was something that was neglected. "So if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother." Okay, so if it's a sinful thing and you go to him and say, "Look, what you did was wrong. It was sinful. It was hurtful. I hope you see that." He says, "No, I think I did the right thing," and shows absolutely no remorse, but it was a sin according to the Scriptures. He says, well, first of all, "If he hears you, you have gained your brother." So you go to him and say, "Oh, I'm so sorry. You know, I didn't realize. I should have thought this thing through. I should have realized how hurtful this would be, how difficult it would be for you. It was not very loving, that's for sure. These are the things that I did wrong that I apologize for. Please forgive me." Now, that goes a long way to healing the breach when someone is willing to admit they handled something poorly, that they should have done it differently.

So, "If he hears you, you've gained your brother." So you go to him in humility, saying, "This hurt me, it was really something I don't know if you thought this through very well or not, but blah, blah, blah, these are the things that you violated here that was extremely hurtful." And then if the person hears and says, "You're right, you know, I'm sorry," then your relationship is restored. You have gained your brother.

Matthew 18:16 "But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established."

So it's not just two people any longer. It's a few other people who know the situation or know the people and understand the situation fully, and they're on the right side of things. This is assuming that they're on the right side of things. The person really did sin and he's not accepting it. He won't listen. So you bring two or three other witnesses in who know something about the situation. And they confirm that, yes, you behaved badly here. “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.”

Now, I don't think it means tell it to 450 people, or 20,000 people. I think it means go to the church authority and have a sit down, you know, have a conversation about what transpired, why this was a sinful act, why it was not handled properly. You've got some witnesses, you've got the church that is involved now. We're trying to get God's mind. We're not trying to hurt anyone. We're just trying to have the right outcome so that relationships can be restored and things can go on properly.

Matthew 18:17 “But if he refuses even to hear the church, then let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”

So there is a point where if the sin's grievous enough, if it's not repented of, the Scripture does talk about a time to excommunicate or disfellowship someone who refuses to repent until such time as they do repent. That's the overall goal is to help them see the error of their ways. Hopefully they would not be so stubborn and that God would get through to them in time, and they would repent and be restored.

So, you know, I've heard people say that Matthew 18 doesn't work. Well, I say it doesn't work if you don't apply it correctly. But if you do it exactly the way God says to do it, it works. Now, it doesn't require someone to behave in a certain way, but it does work. I mean, there is an outcome that is God's will if it's followed step by step and followed properly. Hopefully there's repentance and there's restoration and everything's going smoothly and everything's moving on. If there isn't, then a person has something he needs to learn and has to deal with. So regardless, it does work if it's followed the way that the Bible tells us to do it, because God's way does work. So don't let anyone tell you it doesn't work. No, it has to be done properly, then it will work. Let's drop down to verses 21-22. Oh, I see I need to wrap this up here. All right, we're going to do that very quickly.

Matthew 18:21-22 "Then Peter said to him, and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’” You know, that seems like quite a few times. “Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you up to 7 times, but up to 70 times 7.'"

So on the 491st time, forget it. No, that's not the point. The point is, we must be willing to forgive if there's some repentance involved, because repentance is an important part of the equation. I mean, but, you know, only God can really forgive sin in the truest sense. We can learn to forgive others for hurting us, for wronging us. And we should continue to do that as long as we possibly can if the person's trying to restore things, working, trying, then the point is we must always be willing to forgive. You know, God's always willing to forgive us. I don't know how many times you've sinned, but 490 seems a little low. You know, we've probably all sinned more than that when we consider the spirit of the law, the thoughts that we have sometimes. The point is, forgive your brother and keep on striving to forgive.

So are you your brother's keeper? One final last point, a quick one. Yes, you are, but not in the sense that you try to control your brother and attempt to micromanage his life. That is not the way to win people is to try to manipulate or control them or micromanage their life. In 1 John 2, last scripture, 1 John 2:9-12, it talks about the light and the darkness.

1 John 2:9-12 "He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now." So if a person says he's converted, he's in the light. God's Spirit is flowing through him in major ways and yet he hates his brother. See, they're not congruous. There's cognitive dissonance here. You can't be in the light and hate your brother because he is in darkness until now. "He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. He can't see."

1 John 2:15 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

We should not love this world. This world stinks, in the broadest sense, because think of the billions of people who are suffering right now, starving, manipulated, sex trafficking, you name it, it's going on out there. It's not a good world in many respects. It's an ugly, ugly, dark, satanic world. So, "Do not love the world or the things in the world." That's not talking about not loving the good things in the world, because there's lots of great things to love. You know, God's creation, that's beautiful. You know, we love that. We love each other. There's lots to love in the world but not the course of disobedience, the course of satanic influence that's going on in the world. We're not to be a part of that.

1 John 2:15-17 "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but it's of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it is passing away, but he who does the will of God, he is the one who abides forever."

So it is important that we know the will of God. What is God's will? Well, I can tell you God's will is to learn to love your neighbor. God's will is to learn to be your brother's keeper, to learn to be your sister's keeper. When we show hatred toward our brother, when we don't treat them with respect, when we don't listen to them or discuss things with them, but simply make decisions that will harm them with very little regard, then we're obviously sinning. You know, that is a sin against God. It's against His will to treat people in that manner. So when we do that, it is a big thing. You know, it's not some small thing. It is a big thing and we should be more careful how we treat one another.

You know, there's no way that you can protect someone, love them, and keep them if they'll have nothing to do with you. You know, if you've done something to turn them off so badly that they will have nothing to do with you, maybe part of it's on you. It may not be. All of it may not be on you. A lot of it may not be on you. But it is hard to be someone's keeper if they don't want to be kept. You know, if they don't see that you have their best interest in mind, if you've done something to offend them so badly that they don't want to be in the same room with you. I mean, obviously, these are things that should be repented of. And you know, we should try to get over these things, to make amends, to tackle the hard things and not just sweep them under the rug, but deal with them.

So let's learn to love each other and treat each other as we would want to be treated. That's important to think those things through. We are to be our brother's keeper. We are to love and to take care of one another. It begins with our blood relatives but it extends to our spiritual brothers and sisters, and then it extends to others around us as we have opportunity or as we make opportunity to serve them and to help them. So yes, you are your brother's keeper. So let's make sure we're good keepers.