Luke chapter 17 Then said he the Lord unto his
disciples It is impossible It is impossible but that offenses
will come. But woe unto him through whom
they come. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than
that he should offend one of these little ones. Now it'll be helpful to us to
look at Matthew's account of this in Matthew chapter 18. So
let's turn over there. We have language in Matthew chapter
18 that expounds what we just read in our text. So verse 1. Matthew 18, at the same time
came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say
unto you, except you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever
therefore 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 but 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. Woe unto the world
because of offenses For it must needs be that offenses come,
but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." Now if we consider
several key words and phrases, I believe in this and in our
text will, by God's grace I pray he'll teach us the message of
this passage of scripture these two passages of scripture first
of all of all clearly our Lord's teaching is a rebuke to what
the disciples told him in verse one who's going to be the greatest
and so when we see it in our text in Luke and we see it here
we should take it that way because we're just like them we should
take it as a rebuke and a warning it's natural for men and women
to be competitive always comparing ourselves to others. And you
may have noticed, whenever you do that, you're gonna come out
ahead in your own eyes. Every time, that's why you do
it. That's the reason you do it. And the same reason I do
it. Every time, but our Lord told
them, and think about what he said now, this is strong, but
it's the truth. Our Lord told them that if that
even matters to them, If that's their thinking, if it even matters
to them who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, then they're
not even getting in. Remember what he said there in
verse 3, except ye be converted. That word means to turn around. When you're talking about who's
going to be the greatest, who's going to get the most glory and
the most praise, You know, who's going to be the best and the
greatest in heaven? You're heading the wrong way.
What you need to do is turn around and go the other way. And if
you don't, you're not even going to be in the kingdom of heaven.
That's what he said to them. Very strong, strong language. If you're concerned with your
own greatness in this matter of heaven at all, what heaven
is, what it means to be, in glory, then you're heading the wrong
way. It sounds simple, doesn't it? Just turn around. That's
easy enough. It's impossible. It's impossible. Not until the Ethiopian changes
his skin or the leopard his spots will we do that. It's going to
take a miracle of God's grace to turn us around. In Lamentations
5.21, the prophet said, Lord, you turn us Turn thou us unto
thee, O Lord. Turn us away from ourselves and
thinking about our greatness and what we do and what the reward
of what we do is. And turn us unto you. Turn thou
us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. That's when
you're going to turn to, when God turns you. And that should
be our cry. That should be when we receive
this rebuke from our Lord, because we still have a lot of self in
us, don't we? A lot of flesh. This rebuke and
this warning, may this be our prayer. Lord, turn us, convert
us, that we might enter into your kingdom because you did
that, not because of anything we did. So notice also how personally
our Lord takes the welfare of his children in verse 5 there. And who so shall receive one
such little child in my name, you receive in me. And if verse 5 is true, then
verse 6 tells us that when that happens, when this other thing
happens, if you receive a little child in my name, you've received
me. So what have we done if we offend
one of his little children? Nothing to speculate about. We've
offended him. When we've done that, he takes
that personally also. He has offended himself. Remember
our Lord's parable, we just read it a moment ago in the study,
the king shall answer them, well actually we read something different,
but listen to this, Matthew 25, 40. And the king shall answer
and say unto them, verily I say unto you, insomuch as you have
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you've
done it to me. And that's both positive and
negative. When you do something, when you
don't, If you read that text there in Matthew 25, you see
that. And this is one of the most comforting truths in scripture
to me. Because I am one with the Lord
Jesus Christ, what does it mean to be one with Him? United together
with Him as my representative, as my righteousness, as my sin
offering? When He lived, I lived before
God. When He died, I died. before God, and that's what baptism
signifies, but here's part of what it means. Because I am one
with Him, I never experience anything alone. I never experience anything alone. You think about that. When I'm offended, He's offended.
When somebody does something good for me, they've done it
to Him too. My Redeemer is intimately acquainted
with and personally invested in all of my joys and all of
my sorrows. He sends them all but also He
experiences them with me in some sense. That's what He's saying.
It's done to me. And His purpose in all of it
is my good and His glory and we do well to remember that. Now look again at verses 6 and
7 of Matthew 18 and see how this sheds light on our text. But
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 he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe
unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses
come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Now
these little ones, he says, whoso shall offend one of these little
ones. It's not just talking to little
children about little children in general. The Lord used that
little child. He brought a little child into
their midst to teach them humility, to teach them the attitude that
his children must have. The little children in verse
6, though, are the ones who humble themselves like that little child,
only in a spiritual sense. They come to God in humility
and not saying, you know, I'm going to be first. No, I want
to be first. That's not how they come. They humble themselves like that
and in verse 6 we're told something further about them. Who are these
little ones? They believe in Christ. One of these little ones
which believe in me. So remember the little child
is just an illustration of who he's really talking about. It's
his little children. His spiritual children. His sons
and daughters. Eternally. He is their father,
their everlasting father, and he loves them dearly. That's
why you don't mess with them. This is a simple picture, isn't
it? And a very beautiful one. Very beautiful. Now, our Lord
said that offenses must come to them. There are going to be
offenses that come to them. And this isn't just little bad
things that happen. If you look at this word, this
means real trouble, real problems. This isn't just you had a bad
hair day. This is beyond that. And listen to what our Lord said
in John 16, 33. These things have I spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have trouble, tribulation. That word tribulation comes from
the word tribulum which was a sieve that the wheat was separated
from the chaff with a tribulum and it was agitated very greatly. You didn't just sit there and
tap on it. You had to really agitate that thing and the wheat
was tossed back and forth and bashed from side to side and
the chaff eventually would fall away from it. And we're that
wheat and that tribulum, that tribulation is God shaking us
to our very core. It's a violent thing if you're
a piece of wheat. Tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Now
this world hates your Lord. There's no mistaking that they
hate the Lord Jesus Christ. This religious world hates the
Son of God. It hates your gospel. And I say
your Lord and your gospel because again, He takes it personally
and so do we, don't we? What people say about Him, when
we got baptized, we're saying, I'm with Him. You hate Him, hate
me too. You love Him, love me too. You
believe Him, you trust Him, I do too. And we're one with Him in
that sense, in every sense. So the world hates your Lord,
it hates your Gospel, it hates you. because of him listen to
John 15 18 if the world hate you you know that it hated me
before it hated you and that's that's cause and effect it hated
him first and therefore you because of him for his sake if you were
of the world the world would love his own but because you're
not of the world but you're better than the world no But because you are not of the
world, but are more spiritual than the, no. Because you are
not of the world, but I have chosen you. There's the difference
between you and the world, right there. I've chosen you. Out of
the world. Therefore, the world hates you. They hate the God who elects,
and they hate the ones he elected. Now, that's just simple and clear,
isn't it? Because of this hatred, there will be offenses. They
must come. They must come, but woe unto them by whom these offenses
come. Now, why must offenses come?
That's a good question to ask with regard to this. In our text,
in Luke 17 there, the Lord said it is impossible to avoid them.
It is impossible but that they will come. They must, but why? Well, I bet you could preach
this part for me. Number one, because the Lord
ordained them. You got that one, didn't you? Before I even said
it. Listen to 1 Peter 1.5. He's talking
about the people of God who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time
you're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you greatly rejoice
in that salvation in that power of God though now for a season
if need be you are in heaviness through manifold trials Now we
rejoice greatly in his salvation, in his power, the power that
keeps us, in the love by which he keeps us. We rejoice greatly
in that. But now, for a little while,
if necessary. Why did he put that in there?
He didn't just say, if need be. He didn't just say, though now
for a season you're in heaviness through men of full trouble.
You may not be. If you are, it's because it's
needful. If need be. You are in heaviness
through manifold trials and here's why. Here's why God might deem
it necessary for you to go through some trials. That the trial of
your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though
it be tried with fire. That the trial of your faith
that you might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ. It's for His glory. It's for
His praise and honor and glory. Now trials are necessary in God's
estimation. If it was up to me, you know,
Chris, you know, it's going to be your decision. You can suffer
when you think it's necessary and you can not suffer when you
don't think it's necessary. How much suffering do you think
I would do? I don't think any of it's necessary
to you. I'd rather learn another way.
But if God says it's needful, I want to bow to that, don't
you? I want to bow to that. They're brought for a purpose,
they're brought for His glory, that's what we just read, but
also for our good. Gold, when it's tried with fire,
you know what it is? It doesn't change the gold, but
it gets rid of some things that need to be gotten rid of. So offense now from another person
is not the only form of trial. When he mentions trials, it may
not involve somebody offending you. But of course it's included
in that. And then the second reason that
offenses must come is because God loves you. And you think about it. Turn
to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12 verse 6 Hebrews 12 6 for whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, if
you endure tribulation, trouble, trials, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? Now how do you want God to deal
with you? Notice the form now that this
chastening started with in this passage. Go back up to verse
2. In chapter 12 there, verse 2,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself. lest ye be wearied and faint
in your minds. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin." So notice it's contradiction
of sinners against him. It was offenses committed by
sinners to him. So that's the context in which
he says, endure chastening, and do so knowing this. Endure contradiction
of sinners against yourself. Endure offenses from people that
hate you and your Lord. That's why they did what they
did to Him, and they're going to do some of that to you. But
that's God dealing with you, not them. And He's dealing with
you the way we would want to be dealt with, as with sons and
daughters. How different it is when we see
it from his perspective. We see a trial from our perspective
and it's the end of the world. Every one of them is the last
one for me. This is it. I'm never getting
out of this. I'm never going to get over that. But we will, we do. we will endure contradiction
of sinners against ourselves but instead of getting mad or
trying to get even with them or getting bitter about it or
getting even down about it we ought not to even get down about
it think about what this passage of scripture says of course God
uses unpleasant experiences to correct us he's our father My
children endured some unpleasant experiences. And you know why
they did? Because I love them. That's exactly
why. No other reason really, because
I love them. From my point of view anyway, woe unto the one though by whom
these offenses come, the means by which. Now they're not doing
it for your good. They're not. And it's not pleasant to the
flesh when we do endure chastening from the Lord in the form of
contradiction of sinners against ourselves. Hebrews 12, 11, that
same chapter. Now, no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. It's grievous, isn't it? Nevertheless,
afterward, it's hard to enjoy a whipping, isn't it? If you
do, there's something wrong with you. But afterward, now they
look back and they say, thank you dad for not letting me just
do what I wanted to do. Thank you for disciplining me.
Thank you for teaching me about accountability and about the
authority of the Lord and that he's to be obeyed and honored
in all things. Of course, they didn't say it
that elaborately, but that's how I heard it. But afterward, it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. And of course, as in all things,
the third reason is for His glory. He's going to be glorified in
it. There's nothing more glorifying to God. It's wonderful when everything
is going just fine and the Lord is... And again, we tend to call
good things that happen to us blessings and bad things, you
know, not so much blessings. Sometimes it's the other way
around, isn't it? But we understand that. when the Lord is blessing us
or what we perceive to be blessings and they are the good things
of this life and you know things sometimes go the way that we
want them to and we know that's according to His will now and
to praise Him in that is good but you know to praise Him when
it don't go your way to praise Him when it's in the middle of
a storm After the storm is a good time to praise him but during
it Is a real good time to praise him He's glorified in that And
remember it said there where we read in Hebrews 12 11 it yielded
the peaceable fruit of righteousness And remember what our Lord said
in John 15 8 herein is my father glorified that you bear much
fruit. I God is glorified when that fruit is yielded. And sometimes
some things have to be cut off in order for that fruit to flourish,
to grow, and to be born. Here is my Father glorified that
you bear much fruit and so shall you be, my disciples. And don't
miss, before we get out of Hebrews 12 there, don't miss this, how
that when considering our own trials and suffering in this
world, We're reminded of Christ. He deliberately said, consider
Him. When you're suffering, when you
go through a trial, when it's chastening or whatever it is,
but especially if it's the chastening of the Lord, and He'll use the
contradiction of sinners against you, just as it was in His case.
But whenever any of that and all of that comes, consider Him. Isn't that what He said there?
Consider. Consider Him. Looking unto Jesus,
and consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be weary. Listen to me now, what is that
saying? Well, if he suffered, you know I'm in good company.
That's not a bad thought. But what are you thinking when
you're suffering? You're thinking, this is bad.
This is just going to get worse. I'm never getting out of this.
I'm going to die. Bad things are going to happen. If you think
about what happened to him, it's not just that we're in good company
in our sufferings. Because he suffered, nothing
bad can ever really happen to me. Even though it may look bad
to me, it may feel bad to me, I may consider it a bad thing. If I consider his sufferings,
I'll understand that he bore all of my sufferings, my true
suffering, my true, my punishment, my wrath and condemnation from
God. What are these things? You know
what Paul called them? Just light afflictions, which
are but for a moment. Just light things. The real suffering,
he bore it. And because he did, I'm not just
comforted in the fellowship that I have with him in suffering.
I'm comforted in the fact that my sufferings are really blessings. Because of him and what he did.
That's just the truth now. God's gonna work it for my good.
And that's why. That's why, because it is Christ
that died. The context of him saying, we
know that all things work together for good, to those that love
God, to those who are called according to His purpose, is,
it's Christ that died for me. That's the context of it. And
that's why they do. That's why they work. For my
good. Because He suffered. Now when
I'm suffering, consider Him and what He suffered. and be comforted
in that. That your suffering is not even
bad. It's actually a blessing from
His hand. He wouldn't have brought it otherwise. He wouldn't have
brought it. Turn to 2 Timothy with me, chapter
2. So we're reminded of the Lord
Jesus Christ in our sufferings and to endure those sufferings
patiently and with joy. And he's the motive in that,
he's the motivation in that, and he's the goal in it. It's
for his glory. Now look at 2 Timothy 2.1. Thou
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. and the things that thou hast
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also." Now he's instructing
him in preaching the gospel, teach the gospel that the Lord
taught me and I taught you and that you know of him, the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. And then he says this, in that
endeavor, it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy. Thou therefore endure hardness,
endure difficulties, endure contradiction of sinners against thyself, of
circumstances against thyself. Endure these things as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And notice he's glorified especially
in his sovereign electing grace. that he may glorify and honor
and obey and please the one who chose him to be a soldier. It is in the
cause of the gospel and in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we are to endure and persevere. Do you notice that right off
the bat? It's in the gospel, in that passage right there.
And when offense has come, Don't be removed from the simplicity
that's in Christ. Don't be distracted. Don't be
dissuaded from that work that the Lord has given us to do.
He sent us to go and preach. All things that I've taught you,
teach everybody that'll listen. And those that believe, I'll
save them. And those that don't, I'll damn them, He said. Now
notice what the Lord said in verse 3. Take heed now to yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. Back
in our text. Take heed to yourselves. Now it would be easy to have
a proud attitude in this also. Think about this. The Lord has
told them that if you offend one of my little ones it would
be better for you to have a millstone hanged around your neck and you
to be cast in the sea. And they're thinking, well, we're
his disciples. He's going to protect us. He's
going to take it very personally if somebody offends us. But it
would be easy to take some pride in that too and say, well, if
you do anything bad to me, boy, you're going to wish you hadn't.
That's not the right attitude. Listen now. God's going to punish
anybody that does something bad to me and good enough for them.
Oh, no, we can't have that attitude. He said, take heed to yourselves
now. Think about it. Take heed to yourselves. He's
teaching them something and they're not to look at others and think
about others in a bad light because of this and say, well, they shouldn't
have done that to me, you know, things like that. That's the
same thing that this started with. Who's going to be the greatest?
Compared to who? Compared to Christ? None of you.
Isn't that right? You're making the wrong comparison.
And don't be thinking of others in this thing either. Listen
to Acts 7.54. Remember what Stephen said. When they heard these things,
this mob heard that Stephen was preaching the gospel of Christ
and renouncing their works. He specifically told them, your
works are worthless now. They're worse than worthless.
without faith in Christ. There's no salvation. There's
no acceptance with God. And when they heard Him preaching
that, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on Him with
their teeth. But He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing
on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. And
they didn't like that either. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord
and cast him out of the city and stoned him. They were sitting
there railing on him and they mobbed him and opposed
him. And they're saying, he's gonna
regret this. This is gonna be a real bad experience.
And he's sitting there saying, I see God, I see God's son. That
wasn't what they were looking for. That wasn't the reaction
they were looking for. They cast him out of the city,
verse 58, and they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they
stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, He fell asleep. When God's Son is standing up,
waiting to receive you into His arms, you don't die. You fall
asleep. And you wake up in His arms. Think about what Stephen is saying
there, though. If God does not lay this sin to their charge,
then who's going to get charged with it? Stephen understands that. He
knows that God's just not going to sweep it under a rug. Whose
charge is he going to lay it to then? Somebody's going to
be punished for it. But he said don't punish them
for it. Stephen completely understood exactly what he was saying. He's
praying that God will be propitious to them at the mercy seat. That the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ would be their atonement. And
he would have mercy on those who treated him so badly. Remember
when they said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire and
brimstone on these people like Elijah did? And he said, you
don't know what manner of spirit you're of. So we can't have this attitude
now. Well, if you offend me, God's going to put you in hell
and good enough for you. No. No, that's not it now. And think about this, Stephen
said, don't lay this sin to their charge. Think about who was there. Saul was one of them, wasn't
he? He was the chief of them. He was the one running that show.
And so we know that at least in one case, God said yes to
Stephen's prayer. Don't lay this sin to their charge
and Saul of Tarsus was the one in charge of that stoning. And
this is what our Lord teaches us now in our text. Don't offend one of my little
ones. But listen, what if the one doing the offending is one
of his little ones? Saul was. Would you say this
contradiction of sinners against somebody would be defined in
what Saul did? Having Stephen stoned to death
outside the city? The Lord said to Saul of Tarsus
in Acts 9.4, Saul fell to the earth and heard a voice saying
unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Not my sheep, not my
elect, not my preachers, me. Why are you doing this to me?
That's our text. And the Lord Jesus, he was seated
now at the right hand of the majesty on high. Saul couldn't
persecute, how could he persecute the Lord? We know the answer
to that dilemma. But also Saul himself was one
of the little ones. And later he was greatly persecuted
also, wasn't he? He gives an account of many of
the sufferings that he endured as an apostle of Jesus Christ. So our Lord says, forgive them.
In this matter of the Lord defending us, I'm glad he does now. But
I'm glad he defends us. I'm glad that he takes it personally
when somebody commits an offense against one of his little ones. But let's not take a vindictive
attitude and in turn become an offender. Because we will if
left to ourselves. Our natural response to being
offended is to offend. That's why he said, take heed
to yourselves. Take heed now. Because both in
how we take being offended and in taking heed to make sure
we do not ourselves offend, our motive, our motivation, and our
goal is Him and His glory in all of that. We've seen that
in every one of these passages we've read. Notice what the disciples
said when the Lord taught them to forgive seven times. He said,
if your brother offends you seven times and seven times turns again
and says, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, and he repents of his sin,
you're to forgive him. All seven times and that doesn't
mean that on the eighth time you can put a knot on his head.
He's saying that seven is the number of perfection. He's saying
just keep on. In one text he said seventy times
seven. How often shall we forgive our
brother? Seventy times seven. So it's clearly saying that we
just keep on forgiving. We just keep on. And we remember
why. By His grace, we remember why.
Ephesians 4.32, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. But notice what they said in
response when he said seven times. The next verse, what did they
say? Lord, increase our faith. It's almost funny, isn't it?
We could think about that anytime we read anything that the Lord
teaches us to do. Now you think about this. The
Lord said, here's what you do. You forgive. And what's our first
thought? Lord, then we need you to do
something. That's the right thinking. If
I'm going to do something, you're going to have to do something
first. You're going to have to give me something. Oh, if we're
going to have the grace to do what He says, we're going to
need more faith. We're going to need to believe
on Him even more deeply. Now, we'll spend more time on
this next time, Lord willing, but this is true of all the teachings
of our Lord. If we want to obey, we need faith
from Him. Without faith, it's impossible
to do what He says. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. if the gospel itself is to be
obeyed. Now we know from the scriptures,
we've seen this before, how that believing on Christ is an obedience. It's called the obedience of
faith in the scriptures. And also Romans 10, 16, he said,
they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord,
who hath believed, I report. So even believing the gospel
is an obedience. But how does that happen? Next
verse, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God. Lord, if we're going to obey
you in coming to Christ, to begin with, in abandoning our own works
and will and way, and clinging to Christ, who is our righteousness,
who is all of our hope and life, If we're going to do that, how
is that going to happen? Lord, give us some faith. Give
us faith to believe. Increase our faith. Do you need
more faith? Do you reckon as you sit there
tonight, do a quick estimation of how much faith, how much do
you believe God? Do you think you need more? Stronger faith? Increased faith?
Where are you going to get that from? from the one who gave you what
faith you have now. That's where you're going to
get it. They came to the right place, didn't they? Lord, increase
our faith. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus,
and think about this, this is the context of what we just read
a while ago. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God." Have you noticed over
the years how that nothing that we talk about in the scripture,
we can't talk about it without it being about Christ and what
He did. That's why Paul said it, we preach
Christ. It doesn't matter what you're
preaching. You're talking about enduring trial? Hebrews 12 is
all about that. And it starts out that way. Look
to Him. He's the one that gave you the
faith that you have. And when you finish this race,
whatever faith you have then, He'll have given you that too.
He's the author and the finisher of our faith. Who for the joy,
that was set before Him endured the cross. Faith's object is
Him. Faith does not just believe that
everything is going to work out. Faith believes on Him whether
things work out or don't work out. Right? We know that. He's the object of faith. Looking
unto Jesus. The one who gave us faith and
the one who keeps us by faith. That's what we read a while ago.
Kept by the power of God through faith. Lord increase our faith. Why would Paul bring that up
when talking about our faith? Because he's the one by whom
our faith came to be. He's the one who keeps us by
faith. Where we read there, 1 Peter 1.5, who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. Who is it that keeps us? Christ said, you're in my hand. You're in my hand. And no man
can pluck you out. Christ crucified is the object
of our faith, looking unto Jesus. Now think about it. He's talking
about faith there, the author and finisher of our faith. So
what does he tell us about faith? Well, that it came from him.
He's the author of it. That by whom something comes
to be. That's what that means. Why is
there faith? He authored it. He gave it to
us. And he's the one that keeps us by faith. But also he's already
told us something about faith before he ever said the word
faith. Looking unto Jesus. What's the object of our faith? Christ. Christ crucified. Who endured the cross despising
the shame. That's why Paul said what he
did. We by faith look unto Jesus who endured the cross for us.
That's how you're going to get through the trials now. That's
how you're going to get through them. And that's how you're going
to be able to have the right attitude in them. Now God defends
us. He does. He keeps us and there
are consequences to offending one of His little ones. But we're
not going to sit there and have a vindictive attitude about it
either and say, well good enough for them. You know, I hope they
go to hell for offending me. What? We know not what manner
of spirit we're of if we think like that. How are we not going
to think like that? By looking unto Jesus. The author
and... Who are we? He's the Alpha and
Omega of our salvation. How can we look down on anybody?
That's how we're going to think right about it. By looking to
Him. And all that He did for us, If we have more faith, what
are we going to do? We're going to look more unto
Jesus, that's what. I like what Paul said, you know,
I have everything, but I want to be with Christ, which is better. What can be better than everything?
I have all things in Christ. What can be better than Christ?
More Christ. And if we have more faith, that's
what we're going to do. We're going to look more to Him. And that's how we're saved. That's
how we live in this world. It's not just something that
happened a long time. It's our life. He's our life.
Faith in Him is our life. When offenses come, look unto
Him as the one who orchestrates everything. And think about why. When offense has come, look unto
Him to see that He's glorified in it. Look unto Him, look to
Him as the purpose of it. Not just me getting out of it.
I don't want to suffer one moment longer than I have to. But we
must by His grace now have the attitude that I want to suffer
just as long as necessary for Him to be glorified. When offenses come, look unto
Him with thanksgiving. His disciples rejoiced that they
were worthy to suffer for His name. Oh Lord, give us grace
like that. Look unto Him with gratitude
for dealing with us as with sons. Oh, if God looks at me as His
son, Everything that's included in that bring it When offenses come look unto
him who forgave us all of our trespasses And shed his precious
blood to wash them away and let's ourselves be forgiving in nature
Lord give us or faith Let's pray