I have been praying that God
will be pleased both to give me grace to preach to you and
to implement in my life the message of our text this evening. The
title of the message is Strong Doctrine. The text contains the strongest
doctrine set forth in all the Word of God. Deep things. Deep things. Just strong meat. No milk here,
just strong meat. By comparison, the things taught
in this text will make predestination, election, Reprobation, limited
atonement, efficacious grace, all seem to be just a piece of
cake, just child's play. Turn with me to Luke chapter
17. We'll be looking at verses 1
through 5. I want you to find your place, hold your Bibles
open, and follow along. Then said he unto the disciples. Now remember the context. It begins back in chapter 15
where the Lord is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees who
disdainfully looked upon his reception of publicans and sinners
and said, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And he spoke
that parable of the lost sheep, the lost corn, and the lost son.
and the reprobate child to those Pharisees. Then in chapter 16,
he continues, and he's given us the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus. The rich man obviously representing
those Pharisees, Lazarus, the poor sinner who trusts in the
Savior. And now the same crowd sitting
in front of him. But he says to his disciples, those who profess
faith in him, those who followed him, those who believed him. He speaks to you and me. We who
profess and claim that we are washed in his blood, robed in
his righteousness, and saved by his grace. Then said he to
his disciples, now watch what he says, it is impossible It
is impossible. Now, we use that word a lot.
That's just impossible. When our Lord uses it, He means
it. It is impossible, but that offenses will come. No way, under the shining sun,
this isn't going to happen. What offenses is He talking about? How is it that these offenses
must come. How is it that they must come
and there's no possibility they won't come? Now let me answer
the second question first. Offenses must come because God
Almighty has purposed that they come. Because he has purposed
through the use of or by over-roving offenses that come to do good
to his church and kingdom. to save his people and bring
glory to his name. We live in this reprobate age,
the God of this age. I'm talking about what folks
call God in this age, who doesn't have any control over anything.
He's as useless as a bucket without a bottom. And they say God doesn't
have anything to do with bad things. Multitudes are the opinion
expressed by a Presbyterian preacher who lived over 100 years ago
by the name of Charles Finney. This is what Finney said in commenting
on this text. I read it, and I was a little
shocked that even Finney would say it. This is what he said.
The doctrine of this text is that sin under the government
of God cannot be prevented. Under God's government, something
can't be prevented? To say that God Almighty can't
do something, to say that God Almighty cannot prevent something,
is to say that God is not God, and He is not Almighty, and He
is a useless figment of your imagination. It is utterly blasphemy. Listen to what God says. Surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath
without restraint. Brother Bob Pontzer read a passage
in Isaiah 45 just a little bit ago back in the office. In that
passage, God is speaking of the deliverance of Israel. He named
the deliverer who would come and bring them out of Babylonian
captivity hundreds of years before he came and told how he would
come and told by what means he would deliver the children of
Israel and that he was going to bring them into bondage this
way and take them out this way. And this is what he said, Isaiah
45 verse 7, listen, I, I, not Satan, not circumstances, I form
the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Now you may scratch your head
and wonder what on earth all that means. This much I know
what it means. God says I do it. I'm in control. I rule everything. Offenses must
come because by these things God Almighty distinguishes true
believers from false professors. Hold your hands here in Luke
17 and turn to 1 Corinthians for a moment. Chapter 11. Now listen to what the book says. Paul told the Ephesians when
he was departing from them, of your own selves shall men arise
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Offenses
must come. He said in 1 Timothy 4, the Spirit
speaketh expressly that in the latter days, latter times, some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils. Offenses must come. The Apostle
Peter puts it this way. But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privately, with cunning craftiness, shall bring
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and
bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of. Offenses must come. Why? First Corinthians 11, 19. There must be also heresies among
you that they which are approved, approved and accepted of God. may be made manifest right in
your midst. You see, the offenses will deceive
the unbelieving and the hypocrite. The offenses will destroy the
reprobate. But those who are accepted of
God through the blood and righteousness of Christ who believe on the
Son of God will not be moved away from Christ and his gospel. We're back here in Luke 17. What
are these offenses? What does our Lord have in mind
in this passage? You will observe probably I have
put off preaching this message for a while because I want to
know the answer to that question. What does our Lord have in mind
when he speaks of these offenses? What are these offenses that
must come, by which multitudes are turned away from Christ?
The word that's translated offenses means stumbling blocks, things
that cause people to fall. The root meaning of the word,
Brother Bobby comes out here sometimes and sets traps for
rabbits. And when you set the trap, you
raise that thing up, and it has a trigger device. When the rabbit
runs in there to get what he thinks is going to be good food,
he's going to have a fresh, easy meal. He doesn't have to look
for it. He runs in there, and the trap door falls. That's the
word that's used here, the trigger device of a snare. Offenses,
the trigger device of a snare, that which catches the prey.
Let's read the words in their context. They come immediately
after the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Our Lord is
talking about the offenses that deceive the soul. Offenses that
carry eternity bound men and women to hell. The offenses our
Lord is talking about here are not mere hurt feelings. I'll
deal with that a little bit in a minute. Romans 14 talks about
that. We don't want to offend a brother.
We don't want to cause a brother to stumble. We don't want to
cause a brother to fall, even for a while. But that's not what
he's talking about. The offenses here are not injured
pride. No, no. These offenses are damning
heresies. The Judaizers at Galatia. The
real worshippers at Colossia, those are the men who brought
offenses, teaching by works that men can be saved, teaching that
by their will, men can make a difference with themselves. And the offenses
he's talking about is behavior, behavior that leads others to
eternal ruin. Our God speaks in his justice
of how that he visits iniquity of one generation upon another
generation. These days, people like to talk
about individual rights and individual freedom. Our individual rights and freedom
are meaningless. compared to the rights and freedom
of the nation and the world at large. And in the kingdom of
God, our individual concerns ought to be, in our opinion,
and they are in reality insignificant compared to the needs and the
welfare of God's church as a whole. The sooner we learn that, the
better we'll be able to serve each other and serve our God. We're adults. We can do what
we want to. Moral questions come up. Well, they're consenting
adults. We have no right to interfere with that. You don't live as
an island. You don't live as an island.
You moms and dad have a responsibility to your family to take them by
the hand and, by example, lead them in the worship of Christ
our Redeemer. You have the responsibility as
individuals in our society, in your community, where you live,
where you work, by your example to take everybody under your
influence by the hand and say, come on, this is the way we walk
to glory. This is how we worship God. This
is what it is to believe God. I have on occasion I had to sharply
rebuke folks dear to me. I sat down and said, now listen,
you are by your example. Show your sons, your daughters
how to go to hell. That's what he's talking about.
Offenses that by behavior ruin the souls of men. The whole world,
in fact, is a stumbling block. There's not one thing in this
world that is not calculated to turn the heart away from God. Dress, aspirations, the flatteries
of the world, fame, riches, influence, all these things we grasp after
with both hands. Oh, God, cut these hands off
rather than let me grasp after anything but Christ. You grasp for the world and you'll
let go of Christ. You can't reach for both and
you can't have both. Not going to happen. Indeed, the religion of this
world is calculated. You watch and listen. You watch
and listen. Now don't. Don't do that. I'll
tell you what I know. It's calculated to elevate your
pride, to puff up the flesh, to make you think you're somebody
and make you feel good about yourself. It is calculated with
hellish cunning to take you to hell. It's calculated for that
purpose. All right, But woe unto him. Offenses must come. It's impossible
but that they must come. They're going to come. This is
God's purpose. But woe unto him through whom they come. Well
now, how can that be? If God's purposed it, how can
men be responsible for it? You can take that up with God
on the judgment day. Woe to him. or through whom they
come. It were better for him, it were
better for him, it were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck. Have you ever seen a millstone?
Some of you folks have. That's a big piece of rock. It's
better for you to have a millstone necklace and jump in the sea.
Better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck. and
cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these
little ones." Our Lord is here referring to an ancient form
of capital punishment among the Gentiles. It was reserved only
for the basest, most reprehensible of criminals. Hard to even make an analogy. If you had a man who was a child
molester, who was guilty of raping and murdering small, innocent
little girls. And the society is enraged. They're
enraged by him. Enraged by him. This is the punishment
reserved for him. That's the punishment. Our Lord
says this. It would be better for a man
to be guilty of any horrid crime for which men are justly executed,
than to be guilty of causing another to perish forever under
the wrath of God in hell." Now, Merle, that's just about
as strong a condemnation as he could give. Who are these little
ones? Again, let's remember the context. The answer's got to be determined
by the context. The little ones of whom our Lord
is speaking here are those poor, despised publicans and sinners
who were sitting before him as he gave out the doctrine in these
chapters. Back in Luke 15, verses 1 and
2. Those publicans and sinners who were despised by the Pharisees
and the scribes. Those publicans and sinners whom
the scribes and Pharisees, against whom they shut up the kingdom
of God. Now, our Lord is addressing his
disciples. Try to picture the crowd. Over
here are those good folks, those religious imbeciles, in their
long flowing gowns and their broad phylacteries, got a family
Bible under their arms so everybody know they love Jesus. Good folks. And mingled in here with his
disciples. Republicans and sinners. harlots, dopeheads, drunks, thieves, who need mercy and grace and
salvation. And the Lord Jesus sort of waves
his hand over this crowd of sinners. And he says, woe to him. through whom offenses come. It were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he was cast into the
sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones, these
helpless, poor, needy souls. Now let us ever beware of our
Lord's warning and take care not to be the cause of offense,
not to be the instrument of destruction for another. When do men cause offenses to
come? Certainly this is done any time they persecute believers
or endeavor to deter others from serving Christ. And offenses
come by heretical doctrine which subverts the souls of men. But
that's not all. Offenses are not limited to just
those actions. We lay snares before men by which
Satan traps the souls of many whenever we bring reproach upon
the gospel of God's grace in the name of our God by our behavior. Do you remember why God killed
Moses and would not allow that he should bring Israel into the
land of promise? Because when God said, speak
to the rock that was already smitten, Moses smote it again,
and the Lord said, because you did not sanctify me before Israel. Do you remember what Nathan said
to David? Do you remember what his great crime was? He had stolen Bathsheba. He had committed adultery. He
had Bathsheba's husband Uriah murdered. And this is what Nathan
says about it. By this deed thou hast given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. God keep me from such behavior. to give the enemies of God reason
to blaspheme. This is the crime Paul charged
against the Jews who had the word of God and the oracles of
God but believed him not. He says the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you. You who claim to be his people,
you who have his word and have his name and have his worship
and have his house and his temple, the Gentiles see you and blaspheme
God because of the way you behave. Now let's take care. Turn to
1 Corinthians 10. That we give no offense to eternity
bound sinners. That we lay no snare before them.
That we destroy none. Whether therefore you eat or
drink. Boy, that's getting down to just
about where you live every day, isn't it? Whether you eat or
drink. Whatsoever you do. Whatsoever
you do. I'll put you sure that doesn't
mean everything. Oh yes it does. When you eat
and when you drink and whatever you do, throughout the course
of your day, throughout every day of every week of every month
of every year, whatever you do, do it with this conscious ambition
in mind, the glory of God. So preacher, that's impossible.
I know, but that's the goal. That's the mark. Now read on.
Give none offense. Give none offense. This is what
it's talking about. Neither to the Jews, nor to the
Gentiles, nor to the church of God. Alright, back in Luke 17. Now I can almost anticipate our
thoughts. For I sure wish Brother Don would
pay attention to this. Boy, I wish Rex would hear this.
Oh, Brother Peterson, he needs to listen to this. Watch now. Verse 3. Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him. Now here our Lord moves to another
of these deep things of God. He warns us to carefully avoid
giving offense to eternally bound men and women in verses 1 and
2. In verses 3 and 4, he's telling us to take great care, we who
are his disciples, we who believe God, we who are born of his spirit,
take great care not to take offense at the actions of your brothers
and sisters. He began by saying, take heed to yourselves. There's
a reason. It is ever our proud tendency
to take heed to others, to guard others, to watch others, to discipline
others, to correct others. Most of you know I get a lot
of correspondence, both by email and regular mail, asking a lot
of questions, a lot of questions. Some of them are real serious.
Most of them come down to this. Now, they never state it just
this way. Brother Don, I'd like to know what about Larry Brown's
doing. What should a man do who is in
this position? How should he behave? Because we like to control you.
We like to judge you. We like to manipulate you. Seldom. I'm talking seldom. I am talking
seldom. In 35 years of pastoring, have
I had someone write to me, or sit down across from me at the
desk, or sit across from me at the dinner table, and say, Brother
Don, I'm in a quandary. What should I do? Our Lord says, take heed to yourselves.
You've got a big job handling that. The gospel of God's grace
teaches us to be gracious to one another and to judge and
discipline and correct ourselves. Take heed to yourselves. Read
on. If thy brother trespass against
thee. Well, Lord, it looks like you
talked to him. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke
him. If your brother or sister in
Christ says or does something by which he wrongs you, graciously,
kindly speak to him about what he's done. Speak to him and no
one else. Speak to him. Make him aware
that you've been injured, that what he did he shouldn't have
done, always presuming that he's totally ignorant of having offended
you. Always presuming that he's totally
ignorant of what he's done. That he had no intention of hurting
you. The word rebuke here doesn't
mean ream him out. That's not what it means. That's
not what it means. Moms and dads, you know how you
rematch your children? Man, you get mad, you sit down,
and you give them what for? And you know what they do? They
buck up, and they'll swell up, and they'll bow their back, and
their determination is to do worse. That's not the word. The word rebuke carries with
it the word of honor. Honor him. Honor him. Honor him
as your brother. You take your child who has behaved
in a manner that you know is hurtful to that child. The child
has done something because it's hurtful to the child, it hurts
you. And you set him down in private. You say, now son, I've got to talk to you. And
your heart's broken. This is not what you intended,
but what you did. But here's what you did. And I don't care
if that son's 40 years old, he'll bow to it. He'll bow to it. That's the word. If thy brother
repent, forgive him. Forgive him. Some time ago, I inadvertently spoke a word of fiend to a very
dear, dear friend. And I wouldn't have offended
this dear friend for anything in the world. Wasn't aware that
I had. Totally unaware. And he spoke
to me, honored me, kindly, graciously. And I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. And he did exactly what our Lord
says here. If you repent, forgive him. As
soon as he says, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I would not intentionally
hurt you for the world, forgive him. Drop all resentment. Drop all anger. Showing nothing
but sweetness of temper, kindness of love, the respect of one who
has done no wrong, and do it immediately. If you repent, forgive. That's over. That's over. Don't mention it again. That's
over. Perhaps you think, well, Brother Don, that's tough. Oh, that's just tough. That's
tough. Oh, no. No, no. That's the easy
part. Verse 4 is tough. And if he trespass
against thee seven times in one day, does exactly the same thing
seven times in one day. And seven times in a day, he
turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. You see,
our brothers and sisters, Sadly, this is so sad, our brothers
and sisters are just exactly like us. Just exactly like us. You know
what that means? That means they keep on doing
the same blasted dumb things all the time. Do you? Do you? You say something? Before you get your tongue bit,
you say it again. They keep doing the same dumb
things all the time. That means they give you the
same repeated opportunity to be gracious all the time. A just
man falleth seven times and riseth up again. Why does he use seven? Because
the word seven is a word used for grace, it is a word used
for perfection, it's a word used for completion. Throughout the
whole of our lives, we constantly make the same mistakes. I just
happened to think about this when I was preparing this message.
I used to say to my daughter, just don't do the same thing.
Just quit doing that. Don't do that anymore. And I
looked at this, and I thought, same thing. Same mistakes. You see, nothing is more constantly
urged in the New Testament. Nothing. I challenge you, I challenge
you to show me otherwise. Nothing is more constantly urged
in the New Testament than the practice of forgiveness. Why? Because there is nothing to which
we are more naturally disinclined. We're very inclined to show it,
to put on the show of it. We're very naturally disinclined
to practice it. Our flesh wants vengeance. I'm talking to you as honest
as I can. My first response When I am wronged is always retaliation. That's my first response. Defend
and retaliate. Grace teaches forgiveness. Pride
wants to punish. You're going to suffer for that. Mercy teaches forgiveness. Self-righteousness
demands retribution. Love demands forgiveness. Turn to Matthew 6. Now listen
carefully while you turn. I want to talk to Don Fortner.
Just to me for a minute. Just to me. You listen in. Maybe you've got something to
say here. If I can't forgive my brother the few trifling offenses
he may have committed against me. And then I know nothing experimentally
in reality of the blessed forgiveness of sins by the grace of God through
the blood of Christ. And let's see if that's what
the book says. Matthew 6 verse 9, our Lord is teaching us how
to pray. He says in verse 9, after this
manner therefore pray ye. He didn't say recite this prayer.
That's not saying the Lord's Prayer. That's just reciting
scripture in an act of religion. Pray like this. Our Father which
art in heaven, sanctify your name. Hallowed be thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Build up your kingdom. Save your
people. Thy will be done. God do what you will, because
your will is right. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Supply us with what we need. And forgive us our debts. Now
watch this. Did you notice this is the only
thing in this instruction about prayer that has a qualifier to
it? Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. Somehow there's a connection.
The temptation. Leaving us to ourselves. Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now he explains
himself. Why did he put that qualifier
in? For if you forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if
you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive
your trespasses. Now, that's not suggesting that
somehow if I will be forgiving enough, then God will forgive
me. No, no, no, no, no. If I don't know what it is to
forgive, I don't know what it is to have been forgiving. That's
what it's saying. Our Lord warns us, take heed
to yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. Because
you see, nothing is so harmful to your soul. Nothing makes you
so miserable, so cantankerous. I mean, nothing. Nothing will
sour you on the inside like a proud, hard, malicious, unforgiving
heart. Nothing. Nothing makes you more
utterly wretched inside than hard malice, refusing to forgive,
nursing hurt feelings, feeding malice with the manure of resentment. Our Lord warns us here, do yourself
no harm. You see, the least degree of
malice, hatred, or revenge is altogether contrary to the gospel,
totally unlike our Redeemer. But he knows what's in us, doesn't
he? He remembers that we're dust, ever encumbered by flesh. He
knows how very prone we are to offend one another and how very
slow we are by nature to forgive one another. How quick we are
to hurt and injure and how repeatedly, how repeatedly we say and do
things to quench his spirit, to disrupt his peace, to disturb
the fellowship of his body and his church. Therefore, he tenderly
teaches us how to correct the evil. when your brother does
something against you. Let's put away suspicion. Let's
leave that alone. We're always so suspicious. I
wonder what he meant by that. I wonder what he was thinking. I know what he's thinking. No,
you don't. Let's put that away. When you
dead sure know your brother's done something against you. Don't
resent him for it, but pity him. Pray for him. Call his name before
your father's throne, his father's throne. And if he aggravates
his offense by frequently repeating it, don't resent him, but pity
him. Pray for him. And do whatever
you can to help him. Turn to Galatians 6. I don't think there's any place
where this passage of scripture is more applicable than dealing
with you being offended by me. I've messed up. I made a mess
of things. I have really fixed it this time. Relations 6. Brethren, if a man
be overtaken with the thought Your brother offends you. He really does something to mess
you up, to hurt you. You which are spiritual, restore
such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. You think, well, I'd never do
that to him. If a man thinks himself to be
something when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. As often
as he offends, forgive him. If he repents, forgive him. If
he doesn't repent, let that be his problem. Forgive him anyhow.
You're carrying that too far. The Lord said if you repent,
forgive him. Yep, but I'll show you in just a minute. Our Lord
practices forgiveness another way. He forgave you a long time
before you repented. Forgive. Forgive. Brother Don,
how often? How often? The Son of God told
Peter, to forgive every repeated offense. Here in Luke he says
seven times a day. He told Peter 490 times. What? A day? Seven times seven. Seventy times seven. 490 times. Now I find something wonderfully
encouraging about that. If the Son of God commands me
to forgive those who trespass against me 490 times a day, surely
He will forgive me all my trespasses and forgive
me continually, though constantly repeated. When the Lord said all this to his disciples in general, there were 12 preachers among
them called the apostles. And they understood what he was
saying. And this is what they said. The apostles said unto
him, unto the Lord, increase our faith. They understood this is strong
doctrine. Far, far too strong for the flesh to embrace. Flesh
can grasp eternal justification and fight about it. Flesh can
grasp distinguishing grace and divide up the church over it.
Flesh can get hold of sovereign predestination and write books
about it. Flesh can preach for months on
reprobation. Flesh can love and defend limited
atonement. By comparison, all that's just
a piece of cake. Flesh can understand and promote
the most rigid, most orthodox doctrine. Flesh loves and revels
in church doctrine and the mysteries of prophecy. But forgiveness? Forgiveness requires a continual
supply of grace. Grace experienced deep in the
soul by continual forgiveness. Grace continually increasing
our faith. And the more faith we have in
Christ, the more it increases, the more fully we learn that
our only hope before God is His free, full, absolute, unreserved,
unqualified forgiveness flowing to us constantly from the fountain
of His blood, springing up forever unto everlasting life, so that
He says to us, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just
to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
all the time, continually, with no let up. Now, go thou and do
likewise.