We're in Luke 17 today. It might be helpful if we kind
of remember that the chapter breaks and all that kind of thing,
and the numbering of the verses is just for our aid in finding
things. But if you looked at the original
document, there wouldn't have been a break anything as far
as chapters goes. And if you recall last week when
we were looking at the rich man in Lazarus, and I mentioned then
that I didn't really think it was a parable, and I think today's
The lesson from chapter 17 kind of helps bear that out some.
We went through that rich man and Lazarus and how the rich
man didn't do anything for Lazarus. And when they both died, Lazarus
went to be in Abraham's bosom, and the rich man ended up in
hell and torment. And we looked at the crumbs from
the table that that talked about. So as we go into chapter 17 with
that in mind, In chapter 17 verse 1 then said
he that would be Christ said unto his the disciples It is
impossible, but that offenses will come But woe to him through
whom they come It were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea then he should
offend one of these little ones and Take heed 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 unto thee, saying, I repent, thou
shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the
Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had
faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine
tree, be thou picked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the sea, and it should obey you. So he refers to these maltreatment
of what he calls one of his little ones. And we're going to look
at that a little bit today. A couple of interesting words
that we'll examine. And this verse seems to reflect
back again on the narrative between that rich man and Lazarus. And
it presents to us today really two scenarios. One regards how
one of his little ones is treated. In this case, it was by that
rich man who was obviously an unbeliever because of where he
ended up. And the other one is offenses from within the body. Offenses from one in the church
to another. He says, it's impossible, but
offenses will come. But woe to him to whom they come And so we have these two scenarios.
One really regards the world, and then the other one regards
the church. And the term little ones, again,
is a term of endearment that we find in the Scriptures. It's
used a couple times in the New Testament. And the Lord uses
it regarding those whom the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace,
and it's kind of used indiscriminately. in the view of his elect. And
sometimes it's talking about actual believing children, and
other times it's referring to believers, particularly newborn
believers that are metaphorically regarded as children and referred
to that way. And we find that in John chapter
13, verse 33. As Jesus is talking to him, he
says, little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall
seek me and as I said unto the Jews, whether I go you cannot
come, so now I say to you. So he refers to these ones whom
he loved from before the foundation of the world as little children.
After the resurrection, in John chapter 21, verse 5, Jesus appears
to the disciples and says, children, have ye any meat? They're not children in the strict
physical sense. It's just a term of endearment
that He applies to them. They're His children. They're
the children that's referred to in Isaiah where He says, Behold,
I and the children whom thou hast given Me in the covenant
of grace. But sometimes we have an example
of an actual child where if you want to turn over to Matthew
18, Turn over to Matthew 18, beginning
in verse 1, 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, Accept ye be converted, and become
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven." Of course, now if you took that literally, you'd have
to say, okay, you're not an adult anymore, you have to actually
physically become a little child. Well, that's not the spiritual
sense of it. You just have to become, as a
little child, entrusted in your attitude toward Christ. He said,
Verily I say unto you, unless ye be converted and become as
little children, ye 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." And that's kind
of that same phraseology that we find here in Luke chapter
17. And then he goes on to say, because
of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe
to that man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore, if thy hand
or foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee,
for it's better for thee to enter into life, halt or maim, rather
than having two hands or two feet and be cast into everlasting
fire. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee. It's better for thee to
enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes and
be cast into hellfire." And of course, he's not really recommending
that you pluck your eyeball out or chop off your arm or your
foot or whatever, but spiritually speaking, it's a comparison. So in verse 10, that ye despise
not one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven
their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is
in heaven. For the Son of Man is come to save that which is
lost." And so now he kind of makes a leap here, if you've
been following along, in verse 12, he says, "'How think ye,
if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray,
does he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains,
and seeketh that which is gone astray?" And we covered that
in Luke a couple of lessons back. And if so be that he find it,
verse 13, if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you that
he rejoiceth more of that sheep then of the ninety and nine which
went not astray. Even so, it is not the will of
your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish." So there the term little ones is applied to
the sheep in general and whatever age they might be. The Lord has certainly dealt
with many children in the Old Testament and the New Testament,
and His appointed time is His appointed time when He reveals
Him, and we don't control that. Anyway, this term, little ones,
it's a term of endearment for His people in whatever age or
condition they're in. So back to our lesson today. I'm going to back up my notes
here. So we had the example of an actual
child. You know, the Apostle John used
a similar term of loving endearment regarding those in his charge,
as did Paul. It was just a common way that
they referred to those that were ones that they
had been placed in their charge as bringing the gospel. 1 John 2, verse 1, he says, My
little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin
not, and if any man sin, so he uses the term man and little
children all in the same But it's just a term of love and
a term of endearment. He said, If any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Paul
wrote that to the Galatians in chapter 4 verse 19. He says,
My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be
formed in you. And so they use that term as
terms of endearment. And so really what Christ is
pointing out, that's His view of His people. And however old
they are or however young they might be, they're all to Him. They're all His little ones.
his children. They're all his ones that he's
loved from eternity, from before the foundation of the world.
Those whom the father had given him. As we mentioned, I think
it's from Isaiah 18, where he says, Behold I and the children
whom thou hast given me. And so his view, Christ's view,
is through the prism of eternal electing love. And it's really
not based on age or lineage or performance or behavior or works
or any kind of a quantitative measurement of faith. Romans
9, the children not being born, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. I love Jacob, but Esau I hate. So his love is based on his eternal,
unchanging, and unmerited grace. It's not based on what, as we
just mentioned from Roman, before they did anything, any works,
good or evil, that the purpose of God in the election might
stand. In our previous lesson from Luke, we referred back to
Luke 12, verse 28, where it's written, If God so clothed the
grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, how much more will He clothe ye? Remember, we said
that was kind of you little faiths. Your faith is little. And He
has the ultimate faith, and we depend on His faith. We depend
on His faithfulness, and His faithfulness is, it's almighty,
and it's unchanging. And it's the greatest. It's that
word megas that we use, like in megaphone. It's largest. It's big. And it's all supplying. So our faith is in His faithfulness. not in our own abilities or our
own way that we do things or don't do things. His regard for his people, and
I think it's really important that we understand this because
he says, anybody that offends one of these little ones, not
just children, but any of his elect. If anyone offends them,
it's better that a millstone were hanged around his neck."
And referring to Lazarus, Lazarus was no young child. It doesn't say how old he was,
but we can just kind of read between the lines there and assume
that he was older. But his love is just beyond mortal
comprehension. And I referred back to a phrase
from a verse from one of Norman's lessons called the apple of his
eye. And that's from Zechariah chapter
2 verse 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled
you, for he that touches you touches the apple of his eye. Just so many times we think things
just go by and nothing happens. We see the Lord's people abused
in various situations, and it just doesn't seem like He We don't see an immediate reaction,
I guess is what we might say, or we don't see an immediate
judgment. But, you know, we just have to think that we just have
to trust in His faithfulness. We just have to trust in His
judgment. We just use the Apostle Paul
all the time as such a great example because he was on his
way, if you look in Acts and other he was on his way to Jerusalem
with letters from the elders to abuse the Lord's people. He was going to arrest them and
haul them off in chains back to Jerusalem where some of them
would meet an untimely death and some might just be whipped
or imprisoned or what things we don't know. But he was one that was touching one of the Lord's little
ones. And yet, in God's purpose in time, He would use him in
a great way. He says, He's a chosen vessel
to bring My Word to the Gentiles and to the kings. And the view
of the Lord is that, yes, certainly He did it. was abusive to some of the Lord's
people. But in the Lord's scheme of things, those people would say, well, those things didn't turn
out to be worthy of anything compared to the glory that we're
in now. So there you have that. One of the Lord's people touches
the apple of his eye and he says, you know, it's better then a
millstone was hanged around their neck and they were cast into
the sea, then that they offend one of his people. And we're
going to look at that a little bit more in detail here in just
a minute. In a previous lesson here from
Crumbs from the Table, again we referenced Luke chapter 12
regarding the term hell, Gehenna, the valley of Hinnon where the
trash fires were and that's where they cast all the bodies of the
criminals. and they didn't bury them, they
just threw them on the burning rubbish heap. And in Luke 12, verse 4, He says, I
say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill
the body, and after that have no more that they can do to you.
But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which
after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say
unto you, fear him. And are not five sparrows sold
for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore
you are of more value than many sparrows." So again, we want
to highlight and emphasize how God views His people, how God
views His elect. And in our lesson today, He's
referencing both the world and the church about things that
can occur that can be an offense to one of His little ones. the
main lesson is it's not a good idea to offend one of His little
ones, because He does not suffer the abuse of His elect except
it be according to His eternal purpose, like we just used that
example from Paul for one. But what does it mean to offend?
Well, it's more than merely to call a name or say something
derogatory about someone, malicious intent to abuse them
verbally and physically even. In the Greek it's the word skandalon,
and used in this context regarding
one of his elects, it's a serious matter. And that word skandalon
means it's a trap stick. It's the stick that you would
put the bait on that's over the snare so that when the unsuspecting
victim goes for the bait on the stick, they step in the snare
and they're caught. And so that's kind of where the
etymology of the word comes from. And it really means a snare or
a hindrance. Sometimes it's referred to as
a stumbling block, a rock of offense, a stumbling stone that
we find in the New Testament and in the Old. It's a hindrance or an occasion
to stumble or fall used in a sense to cause one of Christ's little
ones, again, not an age-specific terminology there, but it causes
one of Christ's specifically, or more importantly, one that's
rather immature in Christ, but to cause them to doubt or to
lose trust in Him. You do something that causes
them to not trust in grace, not trust in His finished work, not
trust in His merit and His imputation of that to you. And you know,
in a good sense, it's used of Christ in reference to the unbelieving
Jews. And you can find that in Romans
9.33 where it says, a quote of an Old Testament verse, it says,
Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence. And that's just what they called
Christ there. And the same gospel that was
a blessing to believers was a stumbling stone to the Jews, the Jewish
nation. They didn't believe that He was
the Messiah. They didn't believe that that the Old Testament Scriptures
spoke of Him. They just didn't see that. So to them, it was a stone of
stumbling that here He was right in front of them and they couldn't
see Him. In 1 Peter 2, verse 7, it references
this. It says, "...unto you therefore
which believe..." He's precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient,
whereunto also they were appointed." Isn't that an interesting way
to read that and see that? That they weren't the elect,
they were appointed to this. And to them he was a rock of
offense and a stone of stumbling. So as we reference this back
to our lesson last week on crumbs from the table regarding the
rich man and Lazarus, Remember this scenario, Lazarus is tossed
down at the gate, just dumped there, begging crumbs, desiring
to be fed from the crumbs of the table. And he got none. He got nothing from that rich
man. He got no bread of life. none
of the oil of the Spirit. He got nothing from that. And
when we couple that with what we have today, you kind of get
the impression that not only did He not give him what he needed,
He probably gave him something contrary. So if you were to imagine a scenario
where Lazarus is at the gate, and obviously he's one of the
Lord's people, and maybe he's praying to the Lord for relief,
praying to the Lord for deliverance, and this rich man passes by,
And not only does he not get that, but maybe to the contrary,
he says, hey, you know, if you believed in this Jesus person,
pray to Him. Maybe that the stones that you're
laying on be turned into bread that you want. Where did we hear
that little section of verse come from? From when the Lord
was being tempted. And maybe if you'd kept the law,
Lazarus, in this life or in a previous life, maybe you wouldn't be in
such a wretched mess. Who did sin? This man or his
father that he was born in this condition? And perhaps he might have said
to him, you're praying to nobody. That's foolishness. He's not helping you. And for him, it would have been
better if a millstone would have been tied around his neck. And
we were looking that word up this morning, and it's not a
little grinding stone that you would grind in like a mortar
and a pestle. It's a big enough grind wheel
that it has to be turned by a donkey or some beast of burden. It's a huge old weight. And it
grinds that grain into fine flour. And it was better than one of
those tied around your neck and you were cast into the sea, that
he should offend one of these little ones to try and cause
him to doubt. Christ's faithfulness. To try
and cause him to doubt that salvation is by grace. To maybe try to
cause him to doubt that Christ even was true. That He's real. And that you're not foolish for
believing. And so that's kind of the message
for the world. And in a sense, a word to the
church we have to be careful that we don't fall into the same
kind of situation. Those abuses don't go unnoticed
or unjudged. Aside from divine grace, the
punishment is severe. It's better that I remember what
that rich man said. I'm in torments. I'm in these
flames and torments and I would be I'd be happy if Lazarus just
dipped his nasty old finger and touched my tongue with a drop
of cold water. I'm in such torments. And remember that he was never
repentant about it. He never said, Lord, I'm sorry
that I was an unbeliever. It was none of that. It was just,
we'll have Lazarus do some more stuff for me to help me. Or send
him back to my brothers and tell them about this awful place I'm
in. Abraham said, well, they have
Moses and the prophets. If they won't hear him, They'll
not believe. Well, send him back. He's dead.
If a dead man comes back, they'll believe. And he says, nope. They
won't believe even if one came back from the dead. There has
to be a divine work of grace in their hearts. So, as far as
the church goes, in this case of offenses, remember
when Paul was on his way Damascus, and the Lord appeared to the
brother there. And that guy said, you know,
Paul, Saul, he's an awful person. And the Lord says, he's a chosen
vessel unto Me. And that was the end of the debate. He said, okay, when he gets here,
we'll take care of him just like you said. And when he got there,
they received him like a brother. And even though he'd been awful
to them and promised more awful things, when the Lord saved him, he became
a brother. And that's an important thing
for us to remember. And the same problem can arise
in the church whether for the rich man or the world that offends
His elect, it were better for them that a millstone was tied
around their neck and they were cast into the deepest part of
the sea." And you know what? I was just thinking about what
agony that portrays. You know, you're being dragged
down into oblivion with no hope of salvation. relief, no hope
of being saved. Every part of you struggling
against that certain doom with no help, no bottom, and no relief.
And for the church, we have the struggle of our old nature against
the new nature. And so it counsels them in verse
3 of Luke 17. He says, That's what's going to happen
to the worldly people that offend my brothers, my children, my
little ones, my elect, my sheep, the church. He says, take heed
to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him.
And you know, in our modern parlance, rebuke means to scold or to reprimand. But my Vines Expository Dictionary
has it primarily to put honor upon and then to adjudge, and
hence signifies to rebuke. And so as it applies to a brother
offending a brother, we're to put honor upon them because they
are the saved they are, just as the elect, just as you are.
They are the sheep. They are the church. And if they
do something that is an offense, then you're to a judge or you're
to make a decision. Then you're to a judge or then
you're to decide what course of action to take. And so the
sense really seems to be that we should honor our brother in
Christ first. That's the paramount base point
for our actions and how we treat one who is saved by grace and
forgiven just as we were. And then we base our response
subject to that primary object of importance. Base our response
based on the fact that they're saved by grace the same as us
and been forgiven. How many things has the Lord
forgiven us? How many things? And you know, many responses
may be called for, but all with an attitude of love as Christ
loved us and forgave us our sins. And it may be a correction regarding
the gospel. They're newly saved and they're
immature in the doctrine and what's going on. Maybe they have
a wrong notion about something like in Acts we learn about Apollos. who only knew the baptism of
John, and he was speaking mightily. And Aquila and Priscilla came
and took him aside and counseled him more correctly on grace. And so they expounded unto him
the way of God more perfectly, is what my Bible says. So they
didn't go slap him upside the head and rebuke him like, you
got that all wrong, ding dong. You just need to shut up or something. They took him aside privily,
and they said, let me tell you about grace. We know that you're
a believer because of what you're saying, but let me tell you a
little bit more about grace. Did you know that He loved you
from before the foundation of the world? That He's the Lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world? Do you know that
you were predestined? He had foreknowledge of you as
a believer, and one of His that He gave to Christ to redeem,
and all those things that Christ did for us in redemption, they
expounded to Him the way of God more perfectly. And sometimes
it may require a more stern admonition, reminding them of grace, and
grace alone as Paul did with the Galatians. I marvel that you were so soon
removed from Him that called you out of darkness into grace
by this gospel, which isn't even a gospel. They've just been saved
and they've already been led down some path by someone who
knows what the source of it was, but they've kind of bought into
it. And so He corrects them in a
loving way. And He calls them, as we've read
from chapter 4, my little children. And in Colossians 3, verse 12,
"...put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved
vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering."
long-suffering toward our brethren. He says, "...forbearing one another
and forgiving one another. And if any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgave you, also do ye." So the main
point here is a view of eternal forgiveness extended to us, and
so we ought to extend at a minimum, we ought to extend as much as
we can to our brother. And he says, if a brother offends
you and then he repents, forgive him. And if he offends you seven
times in a day and repents, you forgive him seven times. And
I think in another scripture it says, and even 70 times seven, And it's interesting here that,
you know, at the beginning it says He was talking to, He was
addressing the disciples. And in this verse here, He says, the apostles asked Him,
Lord, increase our faith. They understood immediately the
problems that would arise because In our nature, we want revenge.
Somebody offends us, we want to whack them, or we want to
pay them back, or we want to verbally strike back at them. It's just our human nature. Let
me read it here in Luke 17. If he trespasses against thee
seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to
thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him." Verse 5,
And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. They said, man, it's just going
to take a ton of faith for us to do that. And you know, we're
just going to not always be able to Just do it. Sometimes I think the saying
is that you open mouth and engage tongue before activating brain,
or something along those lines. In your heart, you know what
the right thing to do is, but sometimes your mouth jumps out
there ahead of you and says something that you wish you could retrieve
that back and it hadn't got where you sent it. Man, increase our faith. What a revealing statement about
our issues. What a hard thing. And it requires
resources that we just lack all the time. We just don't have
that capacity. And the Lord said, you know,
there's just no way in this world that offenses will not come either
by the world or by our brethren. We have those two scenarios.
the one that the rich man represented, and the other one that our brothers
in Christ represent. And he says, it's impossible
that offenses come. And in the church, there's just
so many examples in the New Testament where in Acts, it says certain
men came down from Judea and taught the brethren and said,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you can't
be saved. Well, when they say that, they're
just putting a stumbling block, a snare, a trap, saying grace
is not enough. And that's true today in religion.
I know you're saved by grace, but you still need to be baptized.
I know you're saved by grace, but you still need to sign here,
and you need to sign on this church covenant, or you need
to go do two years in a mission field somewhere, or you need
to do this, you need to do that. And all these things that put
the emphasis on what you do rather than what Christ has done. We're
about out of time here, so I'm just going to wrap this up. The
entire 14th chapter of Romans deals with compassionately not
causing a brother who's weak in the faith to stumble by saying
or doing things that cause him to lose trust and faith in Christ. We'll just read verse 13 of Romans
14. Let us not therefore judge one
another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. And then
he concludes in verse 19, he says, And so when a brother offends us in some way, you know,
intentionally or accidentally. We are to rebuke them. We're
to maybe decide what is the proper method and where to go to them
and say, hey, you know, you said this. It's not perhaps right. Or, you know, you're not looking
at this from a viewpoint of Christ. Try to correct it that way. And
it gives us instructions on what to do. And He says if your brother
hears you and repents, We're good. We always have the ultimate example
of Christ who forgave us so much and continues to forgive us so
much every day. If a man says he doesn't sin,
he's just a liar. But if we do sin and we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We have
an advocate. with the Father, and His name
is Jesus Christ. So ultimately, when He was on
the cross, He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. And they parted His raiments and
cast lots. So we'll stop there. We're out
of time. And next time, we'll maybe look at a little bit of
this mustard seed faith and this unworthy servants. So thank you. Until next time, as always, be
free. National Ice Cream Day.