Sunday Sermon: Offense, Faith, Forgiveness and Humility

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Sunday Sermon: Offense, Faith, Forgiveness and Humility

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with us. We're going to read Luke 17 verses 1 -10 in your hearing today.
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Stand with us if you would to honor the reading of God's holy word. Luke chapter 17 verses 1 -10.
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These are the words of the living God. He said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they've come.
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It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.
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Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him.
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If he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying,
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I repent, you must forgive him. The apostles said to the
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Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith like a grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey you.
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Will any of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table?
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Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink?
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Does he thank that servant because he did what was commanded? So also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants.
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We have only done what was our duty. Thus far as the reading of God's holy words may be seated.
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If you are taking notes today and want to put a header at the top of the page, here is what
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I have put at the top of my page, what we are going to cover in this text of scripture this morning.
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Offense, forgiveness, faith, and humility.
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Offense, sinning against and being sinned against.
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Forgiveness, faith, and humility. If you just gave the first four verses a read and you stopped there, it would seem as though that was a good place to stop.
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If you read just verse 5 and 6, it seems like there is plenty to think about in just those two verses.
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If you read verses 7 -10, that section, that little clump of scripture, that paragraph seems disjointed and out of place when you just read it for itself where it is and you read that alone.
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But when we look at it in the large context of this entire passage of scripture, I believe today that we will see that it makes absolute perfect sense for remembering this, what we are reading.
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This is a continued discourse here, what we are reading here, that Jesus is giving.
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One moment he will turn to the Pharisees and the scribes and the other moment he will turn to his disciples and speak with the intent of both hearing, both the sinner and the saint if you would have it, hearing the truth of what he has to say.
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But both the sinner and the saint, there is particular context that is spoken of. We read in chapter 16 the account of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son.
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I'm sorry, in chapter 15. In chapter 16 we read about the unjust steward, the unjust manager.
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We read about the law and the kingdom of God. We read about the rich man and Lazarus, the reality of hell itself.
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And here today, in the text, beginning in verse 17 verse 1, we are going to be examining the words of Jesus as he turns back to his disciples here and he lays out five things that we are going to communicate to you.
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Number one, he lays out the practical reality of being sinned against and sinning against others.
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The practical reality of being sinned against and sinning against others.
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Next, number two, Jesus states in plain speech that it would be better for a millstone to be hung about the neck of the one who causes his little children to stumble.
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Very clear in this statement. That's number two. The third thing we are going to see and hear as Jesus relates the necessary response.
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This is very important. The necessary response from the believer to the believer when we are sinned against.
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The fourth thing, Luke will record the disciples' plea for help. That's what we'll see next.
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The disciples' plea for help to Jesus. And what is their plea? Quite simply, it's increase our faith.
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And fifthly, lastly, in verses 7 through 10, really what we see here is
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Jesus' call to humility. For when it comes down to the end of the way, we must everyone recognize and realize that we add nothing to the
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Lord. We don't make the Lord any better by living and breathing. We don't add to his holiness, his righteousness, his truth, his goodness, his majesty or his glory.
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We do not add anything to God. So we must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.
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Now pastoral preaching, let me say this congregation, pastoral preaching is quite a different animal as opposed to evangelistic preaching, preaching outside the church, preaching in conference.
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Conference preaching is different. Everybody loves to go to conferences because they get revved up on the truth of the word when you go to the right conferences and you hear the word preached.
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Amen? But pastoral preaching doesn't always seem to be that lively or even sometimes, to be quite honest, you might think that is unnecessary what was taught to us.
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We know these things. And let me say this, to be honest with you, this is one of those passages, you've heard us say this in passing before, not concerning this passage, but this is one of those passages where it's not fun for me to preach the message that I'm going to preach to you today.
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It's not something that I absolutely latched onto and loved. To be honest, it was one of the things that I fought and I kicked against because how easy it is for us when our brothers and our sisters sin against us to say, boy,
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I hope they suffer. To be like James and John, when the city refused the
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Lord, James and John went to the Lord and they said, do you want us to call down fire from heaven? How easy it is for us to have that attitude.
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But what this passage is, is a relational passage. Church, as members of the body of Jesus Christ, we are called to love one another.
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And not only to love one another, but to love one another with a pure heart, fervently, a fiery love for one another is what we are called to have.
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And as such, being a congregation, being a family, gathered together regularly together, we are going to inevitably, without a doubt, face being sinned against, amen, and here's the hard part, and sinning against our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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Votie Baucham would say, if you can't say amen, just say ouch. That's the truth.
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And this is what Jesus states very plainly here. The first term that he uses, the scripture says, he said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come.
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They are certain. It is inevitable. The Greek word used there for the term temptations to sin is the
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Greek word skandalon. It means to cast a stumbling block in one's way.
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Jesus says it is inevitable that skandalon, that stumbling blocks will come.
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They are unavoidable realities of life. The only way, and really this is not even a way, because even if you closed yourself off and shut yourself off, we shut ourselves off from one another, you are still going to find problems with yourself that were undiscovered because you were focused on everybody else's problem.
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So you are going to have problems one way or the other. The best thing that we can do is figure out how to biblically handle our problems, how to biblically face sinning against our brothers and sisters in Christ, and how to biblically face being sinned against with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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This is what we are going to see. The word there for inevitable, anandektos in the Greek, it appears only here in the
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New Testament, and it means impossible or unavoidable. So if you are taking notes, you can put this down as a good point here on this.
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It is unavoidable to not be sinned against or not to sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ.
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We are called to be aware of this. So the literal reading, it's read negatively, it's impossible for stumbling blocks not to come, is what
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Jesus said there. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 37 through 43, hear the word of God.
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And he answered, Jesus answered, the one who said the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
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The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
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The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
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The son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and lawbreakers.
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This is where that term scandalon is used. All scandalon, all causes of sin and stumbling and lawbreakers.
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And the scripture says, and throw them into the fiery furnace, that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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Again we see the confirmation of the reality of hell. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
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He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Again in Matthew chapter 16, verse 21 through 23, the word of God states, from that time
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Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
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And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Peter, the apostle Peter, takes the
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Lord Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him. Now, the only person that I know of is the false teacher
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Jesse Duplantis who the Lord comes to for instruction, but just in case you're confused on this, the
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Lord don't need your help. The Lord don't need your correction. He is perfect. He is pure.
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He is righteous in all of his ways and in all of his doings, but Peter comes to Christ.
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And Peter said, Lord, be it far from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.
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But he turned to Peter and he said, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me.
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You are a scandalon. This is where that word is used. You're a scandalon. You're a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
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In Romans, chapter 16, verse 17 and 18, the apostle Paul writes to the
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Roman church, I appeal to you brothers, and this is what he says, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.
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These obstacles, these are the scandalon. That word scandalon again is used there.
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And Paul says avoid these who cause stumbling blocks. For such persons, the scripture says, do not serve our
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Lord Christ, but they serve their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive.
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So we see here the reality of stumbling blocks, the reality of being sinned against, and the reality of sinning against others.
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It's when we come to this honest, honest fact, and we face it head on, and we don't have some kind of a misconceived notion that everything's just going to be flowers and sunshine all the time.
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Man, I've been at that church, somebody might say, I've been at that church for 10 years and we ain't never, I ain't never had to run in with anybody.
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But they have failed to tell you, they only show up once a month, twice a year. It is inevitable that you will be sinned against in the church.
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It is inevitable that you will sin against others. But what do we do? First of all, in the text, we understand this, what
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Jesus says. Notice, he says it's inevitable that temptations of sin are sure to come.
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But he says this, but woe to the one to whom through they come. This word woe is a very big little word.
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It's a very big little word. It's a term of denunciation. It's a term of denunciation.
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It is an explicit warning. When you hear this word woe, in the country, woe means stop, right?
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Don't go any further. Hard telling what'll happen if you go any further. It's a strict term of denunciation and not just a far out judgment to come, but a soon to come judgment.
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Jesus is speaking contextually here in the passage. Again, remember what Jesus is leading to, the destruction of Jerusalem coming in AD 70.
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But notice, in other words, what Jesus is saying is not an empty threat. Here, literally,
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Jesus discourages anyone who would place a stumbling block before his children and follows his statement with an example of a severe consequence.
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He don't just say you better not, but he says you better not, because if you do, you need to know that it will be better for you.
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If somebody put a millstone around your neck, tied it tight and threw you in the lake, and you sink to the bottom, unable to swim to the top, it would be better for you to be dead than to set a stumbling block before the children of God.
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This is how serious this is. Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 13.
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Jesus says, woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
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But it will be more bearable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than you. Why is he speaking this?
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Remember, there has never been a generation who experienced, saw, and physically had the
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Son of the living God in their midst. He said the judgment for Tyre and Sidon will be better for you.
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And you, Capernaum, you will be exalted to heaven, but you will be brought down to hell.
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Again, we see this idea of exalting, being self -exaltation. What is the result of self -exaltation?
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The scriptures teach us the result of us exalting ourselves to a level that we ought not to exalt ourselves to is that God will abase us.
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And godly abasement isn't a pleasant event. Jesus goes on, again, still in Luke chapter 10, verse 15, or chapter 11, verse 42 of Luke, Jesus says, uses this term, woe to you
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Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and you neglect justice and the love of God.
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These ought you to have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you
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Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.
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Then one of the lawyers said to him, Teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also.
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And I just wonder, in my imagination, Jesus, if he didn't think to himself, you get it.
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Yes, you are thinking too highly of yourselves. Now, what is a millstone? The millstone referred to here.
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The millstone is about a four to five, we're not talking about little millstones that were used in the houses.
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We're talking about the big millstones. This is the reference to it. Four to five feet wide, a foot thick, thousands of pounds.
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And what Jesus says is, if you cause his little ones to stumble, it's better for you to have this thousand pound object tied around your neck and thrown into the ocean.
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This language that Jesus uses is a picture of severity. It's a severity of the judgment that is to be poured out on those of that generation, because that's who he's speaking to here, that generation.
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And yet, in this time, contextually, in the passage, Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the importance of how they relate to one another.
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It is a timeless truth. The next thing that Jesus says here, notice what Jesus says in verse three.
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He says, pay attention to yourselves, exclamation mark. Stop. Pay attention to yourselves.
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Be on guard is what it means. It means to turn the mind to, is what the word means. It means to be attentive.
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Be attentive to a person or to a thing. It means to be caring for, to be providing for, to take heed to.
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And specifically, Jesus says, take heed to yourselves.
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Listen, we've got enough to worry about with ourselves and our own problems and our own sins and our own issues, right?
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For us to be worried about all the sins of everybody else, just realize they're a part of life.
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But we do, we do have an effective way that the Lord has given us by the power of the
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Holy Spirit that lives in us and sanctifies us to help each other and to relate to one another through these issues of sin.
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In Acts chapter 20, verse 17, this idea of being on guard,
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Paul uses it when he writes to the Ephesian elders. He says, now from Miletus, in Acts 20, verse 17, he sent to Ephesus and he called the elders of the church to come to him.
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And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the
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Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.
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And how I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our
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Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul states, and now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem bound by the
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Spirit, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the
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Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and inflictions await me.
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But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only
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I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
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And now behold, I know that none of you who among whom I have gone about proclaiming the
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King of God will see my face again. And then he makes a big statement. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all plain language.
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He was saying there ain't nobody here who is going to be able to say that your blood will be on my hands for the concerning the proclamation of the truth of the gospel.
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Everybody who's, Paul said, everybody who's here under the sound of our voice is accountable.
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And guess what? Today, that is the same truth. Every time the man of God stands up to proclaim the gospel.
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I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about sir. I'm talking about Kenny and class that down the road when Aaron and Jonathan and Gary and them stand up to preach the gospel, every time the gospel is proclaimed, you are accountable.
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The question is, what will you do with the gospel? He goes on to say this concerning this.
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Take heed to the importance of that phrase there, where Jesus said, pay attention to Paul states in X 2028, pay careful attention to your sales and to all the flock in which the
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Holy spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
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For he said, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
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And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them.
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Therefore be alert. There was, we see that term again, be alert. Remembering that for three years,
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I did not see snap or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace.
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Oh, today, our hope for you is this, where I'm trying, where I'm hoping that you're understanding that I'm pointing you is the word of God concerning our relationship with one another church.
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He said, I commend you to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those that are sanctified.
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So he said, pay attention to yourselves. And here comes the hard part. If your brother sins, rebuke him.
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Not so difficult there, huh? And if he repents,
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Oh, wait a second. I've taken the sharpie. I've marked that part out. I don't like that part, right?
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You mark it out all you want. It doesn't change the truth of the word of God. Jesus said, if your brother sins, rebuke him.
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If he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying,
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I repent, you can just decide if you want to love him and forgive him.
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No, that's not what the word says. That's not what the word says.
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If he turns to you seven times saying, I repent, Jesus said, you must forgive him.
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Jesus explained what and how often this forgiveness is to be demonstrated by those of us who profess to be saved by the grace of God.
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Matthew chapter 18 verse 21 through verse 35.
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This is the word of God. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me?
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And I forget him as many as seven times. It's all, you can almost hear the hope in Peter's voice, right?
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Seven times, right Lord? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven.
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Therefore, Jesus states, therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
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This is the kingdom of God. This is what the kingdom of God is like, Jesus is saying. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents.
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And since he could not pay his master, since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payments to be made.
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So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything.
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And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
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By the way, the Lord taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer, right? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
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He goes on here in Matthew 18, 28. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe.
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So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you.
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But he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servant saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
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Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you.
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And in his anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.
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So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart.
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The apostle Paul writes to the church at Ephesus in chapter four, verse 32, the apostle
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Paul encourages and exhorts the church, be kind to one another, be tender hearted, forgiving one another.
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Why? Because God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Why should we love each other and care for each other and forgive each other?
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Because Christ has forgiven us. If we are saved, this is a hard saying, if we are saved, there's no excuse for us being at odds with one another church.
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There is no excuse for continued bitterness and anger and wrath to be carried out amongst one another within the body.
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There is no excuse. John Gill states concerning what Jesus said, take heed to yourselves or to one another that you neither give nor take offense.
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This is what we're to be looking for, Gill said. Take heed to your spirits, to your doctrines, walk to your walk and to your conversation that you give no offense to any, that you are not stumbled by what you shall see in and meet with from others.
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And so we land upon this famous, two famous verses, verse five and six.
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These are the verses that are knitted on embroidery patches and are placed on our refrigerator.
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These are the ones that are on the sticker that we place on our notebooks and everything.
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These are the ones that are so often taken out of context. But here's the context.
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The apostle said to the Lord, what? Increase our faith. Not because they had a body to raise from the dead, not that they had somebody to heal that was sick, but that they found it to be an impossibility amongst themselves that they would be able to do what
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Jesus just said to do, to forgive your brothers and sisters in Christ.
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But Lord, you don't know what they did. Look to the cross. He knows, he knows what it is to be spoken ill against.
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He knows what it is to be betrayed. He knows what it is to be beaten. He knows what it is to be tortured.
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He knows what it is to be a base. He knows what it is to be ignored. He knows what it is to be left out.
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But my friends, he suffered at all. Greg quoted the scripture from Hebrews in class this morning.
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We do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
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But he was in all points tempted like as we are, and yet without sin.
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Only Christ is without sin. We live with the reality of sin in our flesh.
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It is our daily battle that we fight. Gil goes on to say this.
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Let's move on just a little bit here. So the disciples plead for help. Keep in mind, they are not needing faith to heal the sick or raise the dead here.
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They are needing faith to help them relate to one another. This is the reality in the local church.
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Listen, we have been called, we have been commanded by the
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Lord to gather together, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Yeah, but they just get on my nerves.
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We'll go get them in their nerves, take them by the hand and say, can we go pray together until we get this straight?
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Can we work this out amongst us? Because my friend, we see in the
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Old Testament, when sin gets in the camp, it eats like a cancer at the whole body. What the church needs to see is this statement by Charles Spurgeon, that the world needs to see that the church is different than itself.
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That we don't relate to one another like the world relates to one another. If we're in the world, if you're a lost man and I'm a lost man, and guess what?
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You get crossways with me, I'm going to cut your tires. I'm going to go and I'm going to take your legs out from underneath you.
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I can't believe the preacher would say such a thing. I am a man as you are. Don't tell me you ain't never thought about these things either.
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You're not holier than thou. But as Christians, our minds have been renewed.
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Our hearts have been changed. Our proclivities are not what they were before we were saved.
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My friend, we hear this plea, increase our faith. May this be our plea. The last thing, the fifth thing, we see in verse 7 -10,
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Jesus communicates to the disciples here what may seem like an account of a harsh, unloving master.
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Because really, when you just read it, it does seem like cold and uncaring. And I know you've heard me say this before quoting this text.
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For it comes down to the end of that verse there in 10, and Jesus teaches that a slave ought to just say to his master,
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I'm just an unprofitable servant, rather than thinking that we're adding something to him.
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Alexander McLaren, in the late 1800s, in a sermon said this, this is so beautiful.
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He said the relation between master and hired servant is not the one that is in view. But the relation between a master and a slave who is his property, who has no rights, who has no possessions, whose life and death and everything connected with him are at the absolute disposal of his master.
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In our day and our time, we don't want to think in those terms. He goes on to say this, it is a foul and wicked relation, slavery, when existing between men, and it has been full of cruelty and atrocities.
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Keep in mind this was written in the 1800s. But McLaren goes on to say, but Jesus Christ lays his hand upon it, and he says this, that is the relation between men and God.
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That is the relation between men and me. And he says what is involved therein.
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And this is what he said, absolute authority is what is involved in the relationship between us and God.
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So that the slave is but, as it were, an animated instrument in the hand of the master with no will of his own and no rights and no possessions.
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That is not all of our relation to God, blessed be his name, but that is in our relation to him.
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And the highest title that a man can have is the title which the apostles and in the after days bound upon their foreheads as crowns of honor when they said,
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I am a slave of Jesus Christ. We belong to Christ.
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The scripture Paul writes again to the Corinthian church, you are not your own, but you are bought with a price.
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Therefore glorify God in your body which is not your own, is what the scripture says.
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And last of all, concerning that term unprofitable, servant, that term unprofitable, in the
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Jameson, Fawcett and Brown commentary, this is what they wrote, unprofitable is a word which though usually denoting the opposite of profit, is here used simply in its negative sense as if to say we have not, as his servants, profited or benefited
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God at all. We add nothing to God into who he is, but he has loved us and he has sent his son that died on the cross for our sins, that was raised up between the heavens and the earth, that bore himself the wrath of God, that took upon him the sin of the world, that he was taken down from that cross and that he was buried and on the third day he arose from the grave.
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We belong to him. So what now, as we close?
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What now? What do we do with this? This is the so what of the message. This is the so what, pastor, what do we do with this?
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How are we to respond to this? And I close again by simply commending you to the word of God.
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We owe it to one another to confess our faults to one another and to forgive one another.
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How do we do this? What does the Bible say? If you turn over to James, in closing again
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I'm commending you to the word of God. The book of James sums all of this up.
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The book of James, chapter 1, beginning in verse 2,
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James writes, this is the word of God, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
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For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
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But how can we do this? How can I put up with my brother and my sister?
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You ain't got to put up with them. You're coming at this from the wrong angle.
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You ain't got to put up with them. You're commanded to love them and to cherish them.
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And so James writes, if any of you like wisdom, let him ask of God.
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Let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
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But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
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For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double -minded man and unstable in his ways.
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Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
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For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes.
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So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. But blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
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For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
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Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one with evil.
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But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
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Then desire, when it has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
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Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, for every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, from the
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Father of lights, with whom is no variable, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
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And what says the word of God going on there in verse 19? Know this, my beloved brothers, that every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
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For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
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Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
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For he looks at himself, and he goes away, and at once he forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
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If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
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Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this, to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
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Now what is the chief cause of offense against and to us as individual believers?
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My friend, it is the words of the mouth of somebody else. We're not physically hurting one another, but we are biting and devouring one another, and we are not called to do such things.
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Paul said in chapter 3, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know what we teach will be judged with greater strictness.
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For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
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If we put bits into the mouth of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
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Look at the ships also, they are so large and they are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
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So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a force is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire.
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It is a world of iniquity, it is a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire of hell.
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For every kind of beast and a bird and reptile and sea and creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
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But what does James say? But no human, no human being can tame the tongue.
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It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our
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Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursings.
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My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?
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Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
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Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
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But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
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This is not the wisdom that comes from above, but it is earthly, it is sensual, it is demonic.
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For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
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But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and full of good fruits.
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It's impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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So what is it that causes quarrels and fights among you, church? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
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You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
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You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.
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You adulterous people. What strong words James uses here. You're an adulterous people.
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Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
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Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us, but He gives more grace.
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Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
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Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
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Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded.
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Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
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Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.
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The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.
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But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge.
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He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
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In chapter 5, verse 7, He goes on in closing,
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Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of our Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rain.
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You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the
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Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
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Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the
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Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
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You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the
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Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
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Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?
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Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
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Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
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Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
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The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, as the King James puts it.
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Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
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Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
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All of this, all of that was the expanded view of what
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Jesus said to his disciples here. Offenses will come.
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We will sin one against another. It's just the reality.
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However, we are taught by our Lord to love one another so much so that we are willing to forgive one another, and not just a verbal affirmation of forgiveness, but forgive from the heart, meaning we're not going to throw it up in each other's faces, we're not going to bring it back up, but we must be willing to repent, and we must be willing to forgive, and we need not think that it is anything special.
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It's a part of who we are. It's God's children. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.
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Stand with us this morning. Our fathers, we come before your throne.
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One more time today, Lord. I just want to praise you for your mercy and for your grace that is unflinching and unfailing.
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And to cry, as the prophet Jeremiah cried, your mercies are new every morning.
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The love of the Lord endures forever, and it is for this that I praise you today.
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And Lord, it is our prayer for this congregation that as we continue to grow in the
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Lord, as we continue to spend our lives with one another,
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God, for me individually,
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Lord, I would ask you to increase my faith that I might love your people as you have commanded me to love your people, and that your people simultaneously and in unity would love one another with a pure heart, like a fire that rages in us,
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God, so that we would not give a cause of offense or stumbling to those in the world who look upon the church and they see so many problems with it, but God, help us to be a people that are striving, ever striving for holiness and to want in for that holiness that you would get glory and that you would get honor and that you would get all praise for all things, for it is your church.
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I belong to you, Lord. We belong to you.
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This is your church. Shape our hearts and mold our minds that we might be more like you with each passing day.
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For it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Praise God from whom blessings flow.