I put in the bulletin the messages
that blessed me and seem to have blessed others and recommend
to you to listen again, too, and for the first time. Some time ago, Mandy and I were
attending a Bible conference in Crossfield, Tennessee. Well,
I was preaching. I preached in it. And right after
me, Brother Bruce Crabtree preached a message from this chapter,
Luke 17. And it was such a great blessing
to us. We'll never forget it. Remember, it was such a blessing.
Such a blessing that I asked him, and he was going to preach
for us, I said, would you please preach that message to our people?
And he did. Whether I have any liberty or
not this morning, may the Word of God have liberty. It will.
If I don't, go back and listen to that message, Brother Bruce.
I did. I listened to it again. This follows what we just studied.
The rich man ended up in hell. Look at Luke 17, verses 1 through
5. Then, after that parable, he
said to his disciples, it's impossible, but 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. Take heed
to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee
seven times, in a day. And seven times in a day turn
again to Thee and say, I repent. Thou shalt forgive Him. And the
Apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith. What is the connection between
faith and forgiveness? What does that have to do with
forgiveness? Well, that's the title on the subject here. The
Lord's dealing with faith and forgiveness. There is no forgiveness
without faith. And there's no faith without
forgiveness. Faith is life, the life of God
in the soul. It's a gift of God. It's just
another word for salvation. God gives faith. By grace you're
saved through faith. It's being quickened by the Word
of God. Born again by the Word of God is to have your eyes open,
have your ears open, have a new heart to receive what? The Word
of God. The Word of God opens your eyes
to who God is, opens your eyes to what you are, and opens your eyes to see what
it took to bring such a sinner to God. This is faith. This is faith, in a nutshell.
You should know who God is, holy, just, righteous, who by no means
cleared the guilty. And I've sinned. But God in Christ forgave me
all my sins for Christ's sake. I could step down from here right
now. And you've heard the message. Faith. There's no forgiveness
without faith. God won't forgive you for turning
over a new leaf or, you know, trying better or trying this
or that. No, He'll forgive you one way. There's one reason. God forgives any human being
for anything for Christ's sake. There's no forgiveness without
faith. Now, now forgive us. God will forgive. Our Lord said,
all manner of sin shall be forgiven. All manner of sin and every single
sin that every single believer on the Lord Jesus Christ has
sinned. Past, present, future. Gone. Wiped out completely. God said
so. No condemnation. Who is he that
condemned it? God justified. How's that? Believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ died. They're gone. Their
sins and iniquity. He said, I'll remember. No more.
Why? Why? For Christ's sake. That's
the only reason. See, I didn't do this for your
sake. He told Israel, I didn't choose you because you're more
or better. You're just like the Egyptians. You were just like
them. And there's still an old man
in there that's just like them. And I'm going to forgive you,
God said, because I am that I am. Because I'm your God and I chose
you and I've loved you. He said of Jacob, remember Isaiah
43, thou hast been honorable. Don't you think Jacob said honorable?
Honorable. There's no forgiveness without
faith in Christ. It's only, he said, I'm the way.
I'm the true, I'm the alive, I'm the... Christ is the only
way to God. The only way of forgiveness with
the Holy God is through the blood of Jesus Christ and the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's it. There is no other
way. No forgiveness without faith. And there's no real faith. Someone
does not have real faith who does not forgive others. Doesn't have it. Our Lord said
that. If you don't forgive, I won't
forgive you. Didn't it? You know, I had a
man write me, I just wrote an article about that, what our
Lord said, in our bulletin, on what the Lord said. If you don't
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father
forgive you. That's what He said. What does that mean? It means
what it says. That if you don't forgive, whoever, whatever, whenever,
70 times 7. I'm not going to forgive
you. Is that what he said? Is that
what he said? I want to see every head nod in there. That is what
he said, okay? I had a man write me an anonymous
letter. It means he's a coward. It means
he doesn't want to discuss it with me. He's afraid to face
it. An anonymous letter from West Virginia saying, you're
preaching works. You're preaching mercy conditioned
on what we do. Wisdom is justified of our children
then. God speak. Wisdom is justified of our children.
We realize that we're forgiven for Christ's sake, completely,
100%. And if I really believe that, If I really believe that,
I've got to forgive other people. I've got to show that. If I've
been shown that, I most certainly will show it. Not like he did. So he's telling this to his disciples.
I remember one time he said, if you repent, you're going to
perish. All of you. Jane, Peter, John, all of you. Now, beginning in verse 1, it
says it's impossible that offenses will come. Woe unto them through
whom they come. Turn to James chapter 3. There's
going to be offenses. It's impossible not to have offenses. Not to be offended, not to be
offensive. Sin is everywhere. That's the problem. That's still
our problem. In sin, David said, in sin did
my mother conceive me. I was shapen in a different time.
Flesh, Paul said, in my flesh, in me, that is in me. Paul said
this, there's no good thing. That which offends and gets offended. All creatures are flesh. And
flesh is flesh, and there's no flesh that can really get along,
coexist. You see these signs on the back
of Subarus? Coexist. There's my Volvo. Coexist. You've got all these religions.
We need to coexist. Ain't never going to happen. Never going to happen. There are prejudices in the animal
kingdom. Lions and tigers don't get along.
Dogs and cats don't get along. Okay? Cardinals and Blue Jays. We have a bird feeder and everybody
can have anything they want, but those Blue Jays come and
you run them out. Cardinals do the same to the Sparrows. Why
can't they get along? Flesh. Sin. Right. Black and white. They're
never going to coexist. North and south. We can differ
because of where we live. Male and female. Ain't going
to happen. Only one way. Only one way we
can coach it. We'll be found in that ark. Remember? It was one time in the history
of the world that every animal, the wolf laid down with the lion
laid down with the lamb, and dogs and cats licked each other.
It was in the ark. God changed their nature. And
that's the picture of Christ. All these programs and everything
is not going to bring people together. Offenses will come. And this goes for everybody. We're all flesh, aren't we? And
we're going to be offended and be offensive. James chapter 3.
Here it is. James 3 verse 2. In many things
we offend. We all offend. The Berries aren't
like the Mayhens. The Mayhens are not like the
Berries. We really are, but we... You know how it is. They're strange,
those strange people. They don't do things like we
do. Well, somebody said that about you. Why are we different? It could
be swathed... We're not different. Sinners! And read on, it says, if any
man offend not in word, now here's where we all offend and are offended,
in word. That man can contain his whole
body. He can control his, what's the
proverb says, he's able to control his spirit, his temper better
than he that winneth a city, more strong, stronger. Now in
verse 5 it says, the tongue is a little member and boasts great
things. What a great matter, what a little fire kindling.
It's a world of iniquity. Verse 8, the tongue can nobody
tame. It's unruly. It's poison. down and he rebukes us all. He
said, now who, verse 13, who's a wise man, do with knowledge
among you? Let him show. See this. Conversations
works with meekness and wisdom, but if you have bitter envy and
strife in your heart, don't glory, don't lie against the truth.
This didn't come from above. It came from that old man in
you. Envy and strife, confusion. The
wisdom from above, verse 17. Here it is. Christ, pure, peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, good... And the
fruit of righteousness, sown in peace, of them that make peace.
Oh, that sounds wonderful. It is wonderful. That's Him whose
name is wonderful. That's the way He was and is. That's the way I want to be.
But with man, this is impossible.
Isn't it? We're all going to offend. We're
going to offend, and we're going to be offended. Say, not me. Well, you just offended
God saying that. Pride. Pride is the worst offense
of all to God. It's named with the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, pride. For us to boast of anything.
Oh, Simon Peter did, didn't he? Oh man, the Lord brought him,
showed him what he's capable of. Except for the grace of God.
So our Lord says, woe, woe, woe, woe, fences will come, woe to
him through whom they come. It is better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck, he cast into the sea, that he should
offend one of these little ones. Now, go to Matthew 18, and this
is the same story. Matthew 18 is when the disciples
were arguing about who was greatest, and the Lord called a little
child and put him on his lap. In the midst of them, at Matthew
18, I want you to hold this place, we're going to keep coming back.
This is the same story, okay? And he said in verse 3, after
they were arguing about who's greatest, none of you are. He
was. There's nothing great about any
of them. See, they forgot, didn't they?
They forgot who they were and where they came from. In verse
3, he said, except you be converted, talking to them, and become as
little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of God. And whoso shall receive
one such little child in my name receiveth me, but whoso shall
offend one of these little ones which believeth in me. I have a millstone hung about
your neck, cast in the sand. Woe unto the world because of
offenses. They're going to come. Offenses
are going to come. The Pharisees were offended by
Christ. They were offended by everything
He said. They were offended by the truth. And they were offensed
to God. And they offended God's people.
They offended Christ, didn't they? They laid hands on Him
and sold Him and wanted Him crucified. The whole world did, it's going
to happen. Our Lord says, they hated me, they'll hate you. It's
going to come. But don't you be the offense. Don't you be. Because He's going to gather
together them all and put a millstone about the neck of everybody that
hates the truth, that hates His Son, hates His people, and cast
them in the depths of the sea. Oh, may we stand on the stone.
Christ Jesus. Be found in the cleft of that
rock, Christ Jesus. But offenses will come. And in
many things we all offend. But so here it said, now here's
what he said. In verse 3. Go back to the table. He said, take heed to yourselves. You are not, there's nothing
you can do about other people. There's nothing you can do. It's
going to happen. But take heed to yourselves.
Judge yourselves. If your brother... Now the world's
going to hate you. And our Lord even said, forgive
them. Pray for them despite the leadership. That's impossible. That's with man, it's impossible. I have really, by the grace of
God, the Lord has given me at times a true heart to not want
the death of people that hate me, not want them to be destroyed,
but want their salvation. That's not me. He says, pray for them despitefully. But if your brother, if your
brother, who's that? That's the child of God, if we
can profess and believe her. If your brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him, tell him. And if he repents, forgive him. No question of that. Right? Forgive him. Thou shalt. Look at verse 4. It says, If
he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times
in a day, turn again, to thee, how could a brother do that?
Well, that's what the Lord said. And
in seven times a day, He said, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thou shalt forgive me. No questions asked. And so that's when Peter, they
all said, All of them said, Lord, increase our faith. What's faith got to do with forgiving?
I've already told you. If you really realize how much
God has forgiven you, if you really believe that, it shouldn't
be a problem to forgive others that have never done to me what
we've done to Him. It shouldn't be a problem, but
it is. So, he says, take heed to yourself.
It was Simon Peter in Matthew 18. Peter came to him and said,
Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive
him? Seven times. Peter, it's almost like Simon
Peter said, how much do I have to take? How long suffering do
I have to be? I mean, when can I just cut him
off, Lord? Tell me how many times? He said,
70. 490 times. Which is a definite number,
meaning keep on forgiving. Keep on forgiving. Don't ever
stop forgiving. Keep on forgiving. Why? He never stops forgiving. Aren't
you glad? Aren't the sweetest words in
God's Word to you, His mercy endureth? To a sinner, those
are the sweetest words you've ever heard. Sweetest note on
the seraph's sound. His mercy endures forever. His mercy endures forever. One
psalm, 26 times. His mercy endures forever. Every
verse. So our Lord says, take a good
look. Take heed to yourself. If not, If you don't forgive,
you won't be forgiven. There's no real faith. You really
don't believe. You really don't know what you've done. You really
don't believe what you are to God by nature. You really don't
believe that. You really don't believe that you've done anything
amiss. You really don't believe you need repentance right now.
You really don't believe that if you don't forgive. Now, man offends. Go back to
Luke 17. Man offends, and yet, you know,
God allows whatever happens to happen. He said that the spirit
of Antichrist, the mystery of iniquity, the authority work,
only he who letteth, lets it. Nothing. The wrath of man is
what prays it. And the remainder of wrath, he
restrains. Everything is under the control
of God. Everything. Every offense. Every
offense. Our Lord said to His disciples,
they're going to take you, they're going to kill you, they're going
to... He said, not one hair of your head is going to fall until
I say it's time. And then your heads are going
to fall. But the Lord allows every offense to happen. He allows
it. It wouldn't happen if He didn't. Now here's faith. That no matter
who it is, no matter what it is, it happens to me. God did it. Eli, they came to Eli. Now Eli
wasn't being a faithful man, you know that? He wasn't being
a faithful high priest. He got old and fat and lazy in
his eyesight and he forgot to light the lamp. He forgot to
light the lamp. The lamp went out. He had one
job basically, light the lamp. And God had already purposed
to take the ark away and put God's people in captivity. And
He sent the Philistines. And through Samuel, the Lord
told him, Eli, the Lord is going to kill your sons, both of them.
They were bad boys. They were bad. What did Eli say?
It is the Lord. Who killed them? The Philistines
did. Who did? No, it's the Lord. The Lord sent
the Philistine to kill his son. And here's faith. The Lord did
it. Was he thinking, I'm a lousy father? I'm a lousy preacher? I'm a poor excuse for a believer? Whatever God sends, I deserve
it. Didn't he? You know he did. David. David. The Lord said, the sword's
not going to part from your hand. Why? They said, I deserve it!
But now, hold on. God doesn't kill people for the
sins of their fathers. He doesn't kill the fathers for
the sins of the sons and vice versa. He doesn't do it. God
is merciful. God is gracious. God deals with
individuals. But every single person is convicted
of their own sins and says, whatever God sends my way, whatever it
is, I deserve it. When Shimei came to cuss David,
his dear friend said, I'm going to take his head. He said, no,
the Lord sent him to cuss me. I deserve worse. I deserve worse. Job. Job. Everything that could happen
to Job happened. The Sabians, the Chaldeans killed all his
children. He took all his goods. He didn't
blame the Sabaeans. He didn't blame the Chaldeans.
He said, the Lord did this. The Lord took it all away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Just don't take my salvation.
Just don't take away my hope. The fact of the matter is we
have never done to our Lord what... I mean, people have never done
to us what we have done to our Lord. Never will. No one will ever do to us a fraction
of what we have done and do and will maybe yet do. We just don't
know what we're going to do. We just don't know. If you had
told David what he was going to do when he was 30 or 40 years
old, he would have said, God forbid. But he didn't. And that's why pride is such
an offense to our Lord. Pride. Pride. And to forget Him. Here's how we offend our Lord.
We forget Him. We murmur. We complain. Kind
of like a pardoned criminal complaining of his lot in life. Be like old Barabbas. I thought
of Barabbas. When Barabbas first heard that
you're free to go, they came and got Barabbas. He was getting
ready to die. He's going to put him on one
of those crosses. And they came and got Barabbas. And Barabbas,
they opened the gate and said, go, you're free. You're free.
You're not going to die. Go, you're free, Barabbas. Why? Well, they bring him out there
and say, look, look on that cross right there. That man took your
place. Well, who is he? He's innocent.
He's the Holy One of Israel. He's God's Son. Why is He hanging there? For
you. He's hanging there for you. He buried your sins in His body
on the tree. He's taking the punishment that
was due to you, Barabbas. He is captive so you may go free. He's going to die so that you
might live. He's going to be condemned so that you be cleared,
Barabbas. What's His name? Jesus of Nazareth.
He's the Christ, the Messiah, the substitute. The Holy One
of Israel who came to die for His people by His stripes are
healed. Taking captivity so the captives
go free. That's Him. You're going free
Barabbas. Now what if Barabbas, now he's
living in a house and he's got everything he needs. He's free,
he's not dead. What if he starts complaining? What if somebody
treats him badly? What if somebody does something
wrong to him? That's us. That's every one of
us. From the oldest to the youngest.
That's every one of us. That was what whole Psalm 106
is all about. That's why we read it. It starts out with praise
the Lord now. Praise the Lord for His goodness.
Praise the Lord for His great work. What's the Lord's greatest
work? Redemption. Salvation. Forgiveness of sins. For who? The unforgivable. And it ends that way. Oh, praise
the Lord. He remembers for us. We forget Him. You'll never forget
that. We forget to be merciful. You'll
never forget to be merciful. We don't forgive. He always, everything, freely, because He is. So disciples got a little glimpse
of this. May we get a little glimpse.
And they said, Lord, You've got to increase my faith. And old
brother Bruce brought this out so well. I love it. He said, they had faith. They
didn't have it before. The Lord came along and chose
them, and called them, and brought them, and bought them, and taught
them, and did everything for them. And they had little faith.
Little faith, not too much, but they had faith. Little faith,
saving faith. The Lord asked one time, who
do men say that I am? And they said, they say this
and they say that, like today. Who do you say that I am? Simon
Peter, the Father, the Christ, the Son of the living God. You're
my only hope. You're my salvation. You're my
redemption. You're my Lord that chose me,
that bought me, that brought me, that taught me. You're my
all. You're my everything. You're my salvation. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that? Ed, do you believe that? I do. I do. I have this precious faith. I've been given this precious
faith. Boy, it's sure not much. The Lord said, if you had faith
of the grain of a mustard seed, it's sure not much. But it's
a little bit of faith, and it's saving faith. Lord, I believe.
And you know what we all say, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. There are times when I don't
act like I don't believe at all. I blame everything and everyone,
and I shouldn't blame anybody. Blame everything and everyone
but me. I believe, help my unbelief.
I believe, but I forget, I fail, I fall. Help me, Lord, help me,
help me, help me. My old brother Bruce said this,
those who have faith want more. Those who have more will be given
faith, fruit, mercy, love. Those who have love, true love
for God's salvation, will be given more. Those who have love
think they don't have any. Those who have true love say,
I don't... John Newton's poem. Here's a point I long to know.
Often it causes me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Is
that so with you? Those who have love want more.
Those who don't have any, don't care. The Lord increased my faith. If we had just a little faith.
Our Lord said this in verse 6, if you had faith as a grain of
a mustard seed. And He chose mustard, and it's
like that plaster. I did a whole message on that.
Mustard plaster, Elijah put on Hezekiah's. It's symbolic of
the gospel. Our Lord called the gospel a
grain of mustard seed. The mustard tree, that's Him.
If you had the grain of a mustard seed, just an ounce of the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'd say to this sycamine tree,
you see sycamore trees everywhere? Everywhere. They grow mostly
by the water. And they grow big, tall. They're everywhere. You rarely
see one of those fall over. Not by the water. Their roots,
you know why? Because their roots are deep.
Planted by the water and down. Planted by the rivers of water
and their roots take deep. And if you had an ounce of this
faith, he said, you'd say to the sycamine tree that's deeply
rooted, something that's deeply rooted within, you'd say, be
gone. And it'll obey you. And one time he said to mountains,
he said, if you say this mountain, be gone. These things are rooted in us.
You know that? Self, pride, hatred, malice. Peter said, put away wrath and
malice. Put away this and put away that.
These things are rooted in us. And what does it take? Lord,
help me. Increase my faith. Dig the matter. Lord, take the axe to the root
of the matter. And get rid of this. It's in
me. Please, it's been in me from birth. I want it gone. This mountain,
I make mountains out of molehills. Don't we? Well, let me close with it. And
the Lord said this in verse 7, having a servant plowing or feeding
cattle, saying to him, by and by, when he's come from the field,
go and sit down to me. No, you'd rather say unto the
servant, make ready wherewith I may serve, gird yourself and
serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, afterward you eat and
drink. And does he thank the servant because he did the things
that were commanded of him? I try not. No, he's got a master
and a servant. He just talked about serving
God, man. The self. He said, so likewise, verse 10,
when you have done all those things which are commanded of
you, say this, we are unprofitable servants. We've just done that
which was our duty to do. Not merit. It's mercy. Now, what is the Lord saying
here? Well, a servant is chosen, aren't they? A rich owner chooses
who will be his servant. And that's all of God's people.
They're chosen. You didn't choose me, Christ said. I chose you.
All right? They were freely and graciously chosen, given a place,
given a home, given food, given raiment, and every grace and
everything required of a servant. The master provides it all. Everything,
you have it all. You're not working for this,
I'm giving it to you. You're just working for me over my,
in my term. All right? The servant. Have
we not freely been given all things graciously by our Lord?
Chosen by Him, given all things, provided all things in Christ.
He is our raiment, He is our food, He is our dwelling place,
He is our all. He's promised, I'll give you
all things. Just serve me. Just serve my
cause. How's that? My people. Not yourself. My people. Me. Because they're
me. All right? The servant is unworthy. The servant is unworthy. He didn't
earn that job. The servant didn't earn that
job, he was given that job. And we're in God's kingdom, not
because we're better than anybody, but because God chose us and
put us in the kingdom. All right? And the servant works
for his master, for his master's cause, his master's estate, out
of love and mercy. and a sight of his love and mercy
and grace and kindness to him, and he serves willingly, and
he serves cheerfully, and he serves gratefully and thankfully,
realizing I could be out there on the street. I could have been
left out. I'm here because he chose me
and brought me and bought me and taught me. And the servant
says, I'm just thankful to be here. What were you having me
to do? I'd rather be a doorkeeper. Just
let me be a doorkeeper in the house of God. And after all I've
done, if I do anything, if I do anything for the cause of Christ,
it's not merit, it's unworthy of notice, but it's just my reasonable
service. Anything I ever do for anybody
or anything is just what I ought to do for all that He's done
for me. And here's what I am after it's
all said and done. I'm just an unworthy from nowhere, and He's worthy. That's the servant. My duty,
my delight, for all that He's done for me. What about forgiveness? That's where we come back. That's
where it all started. Forgiveness. And our Lord gave
it. I was going to have you turn
to Matthew 18 where He gave that. He said the servant, He said
He came and He saw a servant that owed him 10,000 talents.
And the master pitied him. The master pitied him. He owed
a lot of money. He pitied him. And he just frankly
forgave him everything. And he was so grateful. And what
did that man do? He went out and grabbed somebody
by the neck that owed him 500 talents. Pay up. I might. Let you go. And our Lord said the master
was wroth. Nothing makes him more angry
because of all he'd done for them. So, Lord, increase our
faith. Make us to see how much you've forgiven us.
Make us to see how unworthy we are. Jacob said this when his
life was over. He said, I'm unworthy of the
least of thy mercies. And all the truth you've shown
me, all the times you've told me, all the times you've warned
me, all the times you've taught me, all the times you've showed
me, showed me, showed me, kept showing me, kept showing me.
I go, Ephraim, I'm not going to give you up. I'm not going
to give you up. I'm not going to let you. I'm not going to
give you up to yourself. I'm not going to do it. I'm going
to chase you. I'm going to rebuke you until
you're brought down to see what great things the Lord has done
for you. That's faith. That's faith. And that's forgiveness.
All right, Brother John, you come.