When you listen to sermons, do you apply the teaching to yourself first? or do you find yourself sometimes thinking about other people you know who really ought to hear this message? Today, on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg considers an important warning from Jesus. about Hypocrisy.
Now, I invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 17 as we continue our studies in Luke's Gospel. We read from the first verse. Jesus said to his disciples, Things that cause people to sin are bound to come. But woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck.
than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
So watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, I repent. Forgive him.
The apostle said to the Lord, Increase our faith. He replied, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea. and it will obey you. Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, Come along now and sit down to eat?
Would he not rather say, Prepare my supper, get yourself ready, and wait on me while I eat and drink? After that, you may eat and drink. Would he thank the servant? Because he did what he was told to do.
So, you also, when you've done everything you were told to do, should say, We are unworthy servants. We have only done. our duty. Amen. At the beginning of chapter 12, As Jesus began to speak to his disciples in front of a great crowd of people that had become as large as thousands, enough for them to be trampling on one another.
He had issued a warning. For them to be on their guard against what he referred to as the yeast of the Pharisees. This, he said, was actually hypocrisy. By the time you get to the 20th chapter, he is pointing out again that these Pharisees liked to wear big long robes, which drew attention to them. They like to pray profoundly long prayers in public.
And they liked to ensure that they had the seats of honor. Add all of the special banquets. And so again Jesus is urging his followers to make sure that they beware of that kind of thing, that they watch out lest they become infected by that kind of yeast.
Now, as important and as necessary as that warning clearly was, it carried with it an inherent danger. Indeed, it does. Namely, That the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ may become so preoccupied with identifying the discrepancies which they find in the lives of others. That they fail to face up to the peculiar challenges which they themselves are facing. In short, and in immediate terms, any one of us can find that it is much easier to detect the things that are wrong in other people than for us to spend two minutes facing up to what is wrong in our own lives.
And so here in the 17th chapter, Jesus, using the very same terminology, issues a word of warning this time to his disciples. You'll see it there as the opening phrase in verse 3. Indeed, this little phrase uh forms a fulcrum, as it were, on which balances the first two verses and then the fourth verse. Watch yourselves. Prosecutor.
Heutois it is in the Greek. Just one verb. And then yourselves. Watch yourselves. So This is not unfamiliar territory because our parents always told us: just wash yourself.
Don't worry about your sisters. Don't worry about your brother. Just pay attention to yourself. The teachers would tell us, quit turning around, Alistair. Just watch yourself.
Oh, did they only say it to me? Just watch yourself. So what is true in terms of the care that is parental and the care that is that of our scholarly teachers is also true in terms of the exhortation of Jesus regarding spiritual things. And this is not isolated to the Gospels. Those of you who are familiar with the Bible at all will remember that Paul, when he takes his leave of the Ephesian elders in a dramatic scene on the beach, uses the very same terminology.
And he says to them, I'm about to leave you and I want you to watch yourselves. Because after my departure, there will arise from among you these people who will draw folks after themselves.
So he says it is imperative that you pay attention to yourselves, lest you be found. amongst the company of the faithless. In practical terms, it's the kind of exhortation we respond to all the time. The stewardess, the steward says to us on the airliner, check to see that your seatbelt is fastened securely. You can be the kind of person that's always interfering in everyone else's business.
Well, have you got yours? Have you got yours? Have you got yours? The thing takes off and you're bouncing all around like a crazy person because so concerned were you to make sure that everybody else was in order that you neglected your own circumstances. Put on your own oxygen mask before trying to help anybody else.
Just in case in your endeavors to fiddle around with everybody else, you actually suffocate in 12F. Be humble enough to recognize that when we really face the facts. It's not our brother, it's not our sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. And while it is an easy out for me to identify my own sins in other people's lives, which I find very easy to do, oh, look at that dreadful driver, oh, look at that person. I see my own sins magnified most in other people.
The exhortation of Jesus to the disciples here is to make sure that they are checking themselves. And there are four particular areas in which the check is to take place. When you listen in on the pilot and co-pilot again in an airliner, you know that they go through a fairly systematic checking procedure. And so they read from their manual, and the person who is in on the responding mode, who is checking the instrumentation, when they read one, he says check, and two, check, check, check, check, all the way through. It's very, very important.
Why? To preserve their own safety and the safety of those who are in their care.
So when Jesus says, I want you to conduct the check, It is for the very same reason. to make sure that first of all we are in check then that in turn we may be able to have an impact on others.
Now, what I'd like to do in order to help us come to terms with this passage is to turn the directives of Jesus into four straightforward questions. each of which I think emerges clearly from the text. And the first question is this, on the basis of what he says in verses 1 and 2, And this is on the test for all of us. Check mark number one. Am I causing others to sin?
Am I causing others to sin? Now, Jesus is very straightforward. You notice he says, things that cause people to sin are bound to come. It's ridiculous for us to think that we can live in a world where we're not confronted by that which tempts us to sin, to wrongdoing, to wrongthinking, etc. There are pitfalls and there are stumbling blocks on the pathway that each of us faces each day we live our lives.
Jesus says, I recognize that. But I want to say to you Woe to the person who by their life digs those holes creates those stumbling blocks. Nobody can misunderstand what he is saying. It is possessed of absolute clarity. It is also marked by a striking gravity.
If you think that I am saying something that is overstated, said Jesus, you're not listening carefully. It would be better for an individual to be thrown into the sea With a millstone, which is a giant stone that was used in the grinding process, with a millstone tied around their neck. than for that individual to be the cause of one of these little disciples to sin. People say, well, is this a reference to children? Or is it, what is it?
We can't say with clarity. It certainly applies to children. You're going to cause children to sin. This definitely fits you. If it is a reference to those who are marginal, who are fledgling in the discipleship journey, those who are publicans and sinners and who have so recently come to follow Christ, now he says, are you going to put a stumbling block in these little ones in the way of these little ones?
You'd be better. to be drowned in the Cuyahoga River. than to face the punishment that awaits those who are prepared to live loose to the scriptures in this respect.
Now, you say that is a strikingly grave statement.
Well, of course, it is. When he issues the same exhortation at the beginning of chapter 12, and you can go back to this for homework, you needn't turn to it. When he says, I want you to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees, beware that. He then goes on to speak in very similar terms. He says to his disciples, I don't want you to be afraid of those who kill the body.
But instead you should fear him. who after the killing of the body has the power to to throw you into hell.
So here is Jesus. The loving Beautiful, wonderful Savior. speaking about the reality of hell in such a way, number one, that he recognizes its reality, number two, that he is aware of its gravity, and number three, that that truth Should so impinge upon the minds of his listeners that they recognize that what he's saying here is eternal in its implications. Am I causing people to sin? Am I causing my kids to sin?
Am I causing my brothers and sisters in the Christian life to sin? Do my words induce them to sin? Does my lifestyle induce them to sin? Is there anything about what I do that is digging a hole for their feet? Is the way I spend time with my girlfriend?
I'm speaking in the third person now, as you know, I have a wife. Is the way, this is a generic question for all, is the way you spend time with your girlfriend, fellow, Causing a stumbling block, are you going to cause her to sin? Do your feet go places that may dig a hole for others? Does your mind give you words that dig a hole for others? If the answer is yes, If you're about to dig a big hole for somebody to fall in, he says, it would actually be better before you get to that if you died a horrible death.
Because that would be much easier to deal with than the prospect of the judgment that awaits such activity.
Well, you see, that is absolutely incredible.
Well, Jesus was very clear about it. Indeed, in Mark's Gospel, as Mark records these incidents, he contains the passage where Jesus says, you know, in relationship to yourself, if your eye is offending, you just pluck it out. It's a metaphor. If your hand is offending you, chop it off. If your feet are offending you, chop them off.
What is he saying? Not that the key to spirituality is for a lot of blind people to be going around in wheelchairs. He is saying the metaphor is clear. Don't go down that road in your mind. Don't go there with your hands.
Don't go there with your feet. And remember. That if you cause another person to stumble and fall into sin. It would actually be better.
So you were drowned. In the sea. We say, well, I mean, in what areas could it happen?
Well, it could happen in any area. By my indifference. I may provide a stumbling block to those who know me. They say, you know, he's just a sham. His religious observation is out there or it's up there, but it's not heart religious observation.
He's indifferent to the things of God. And I've watched him and I know that he is. And as a result of that, he's actually caused me to stumble into the same situation. I frankly couldn't care less. The stumbling block not only of indifference, but the stumbling block of idolatry.
The kind of idolatry that Jesus has been addressing here in these previous sections. Where the rich man has no interest in the poor. Where he regards himself as a self-made man, where he worships himself and his own dealings rather than worshiping God. The stumbling block of immorality. For none of us lives to himself alone.
And none of us dies. To himself alone. As Phillips paraphrases it, the truth is that we neither live or die as self-contained units. Despite the fact that America teaches us that the individual is God, you know, that you're your own destiny, that it's only about you and about what you believe and what you decide and where you're going and everything else, that is absolutely bogus. Because the fact of the matter is, all of us are completely hinged to one another in some way, good or ill.
And God has determined that within the framework of the body of Christ, it should be that way, in order that just as brothers and sisters in a family can watch out and care for one another, so that in God's family the same thing can happen. Ask yourself the question: am I causing others to sin? That's the first thing on the test. And in James 3, remember, James says, Let not many of you become teachers, for he who teaches will be judged with greater strictness.
So, for all of you who think that the apex of Christian living is teaching a Bible study, don't be so fast to jump on it. Flying on a plane the other day in the same context as I just described, the fellow in front of us kept turning around, especially in the first 10 or 15 minutes. I thought he was checking to see if the flaps were up. It was a kind of decrepit 727 and if you remember how those flaps come up on those things. I was kinda concerned they were up myself, but eventually they were up, but he ke still kept turning around.
And I thought it was because I was quoting people like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and we were having a high old time talking politics. But eventually he leant over and he said, Are you on the radio? And I said, yeah. And then we had a little conversation, and it was nice. But I also got a note a few months ago from somebody who heard me in action as well.
at the Continental Desk at Hopkins. When I wasn't charmed by the fact that they wanted $75 to transport my golf clubs. And in the course of letting the person know how I thought it wasn't a very good idea. Apparently, I caused some anonymous person to stumble who then wrote to me saying, You're great on the radio, but you stink at the Continental counter. I'm not going to say that.
Who's who wants to sign up for this? It'd be better that a millstone was hung around your neck and you were drowned in the sea than that you caused people by means of your lifestyle or your words to fall into the pit. Am I causing others to sin? Secondly, am I learning to forgive? Am I learning to forgive?
Watch yourselves. Don't cause people to sin. Watch yourselves. And if your brother sins, Take action. The follower of Jesus is to be diligent.
This kind of compassion is not weakness. He's not talking about fostering an indifference to evil. Consequently, he says, if your brother is sinning, rebuke him. Rebuke it. Of course, the people say, well, what right do I have to rebuke anybody?
Or you have a responsibility to rebuke them. Yeah, but I can't see anything because after all, you know, you who am I? You're you. And the whole point of this is that this is a self-purifying principle. Because if I am going to identify in the lives of others, sin.
I'm surely going to identify it in myself. Therefore, I'm going to have to be dealing with it here if we're going to be dealing with it there.
Now, in Matthew chapter 18, I'd like to turn you to it for just a moment because it's germane to what we're facing this evening at the communion service. Jesus says in Matthew 18, 15, That if your brother sins against you, you should go and show him his fault. Matthew 18, 15. Notice the phrase that closes out the sentence, just between the two of you.
Now, you gotta get that. Get your highlighter highlighted in fifteen colors. Underline it 17 times. Do you see it? Just between the two of you.
What is it that causes factions, cliques, disruption within the church? It is the identification of wrongdoing. And then further wrongdoing compounds the wrongdoing as a result of the individual being unwilling to do the brave biblical thing. In other words, go to your brother and talk to him. The average way it happens is someone offends against another person, party B offends against A, A refuses to go to B, A instead goes to C, B then goes to D.
And so by an exponential growth process, you have this divergence between people.
Now all we need to do is what the Bible says. Go to the person. Settle it yourselves.
Now this happens to me. I remember not so long ago.
Well, actually, it is quite a long time ago now. I'm getting much older. But one of the elders called me up and said, You know, last night at the meeting, he said, You know, when you said X to Y, That was no good. I mean what you said was true, but the way you said it was bad. And you offended me, and I'm sure you hurt him.
And so I'm calling you to ask you to phone him up and get it sorted out, and then phone me back and tell me that you did it.
So I put the phone down for a moment. I had a little talk to myself: like, hey, I'm the pastor of the church. What are you talking about? That lasted about a nanosecond. And I said, yeah, that's right.
So I phoned the guy up. I said, sorry. I phoned the other guy up. I said, did it. He phoned me.
I left a message. He phoned me back. I said, that's fine. Let's move on. It's over.
Instead of it becoming the Third World War, right?
Now, if it doesn't get cleaned up in that way, then the instruction is very clear. If your brother listens to you, as in this instance, then you've won him over and we can keep in the battle. If, however, that does not happen, you go get two others and take them along so that, as in the Old Testament, every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. That is why you should not hear an accusation against an elder without, says the New Testament, the accompanying testimony to the validity of what's being said.
So the presence of these individuals is simply to say, I came to you and I mentioned X, you refused to listen, and I'm back here with two of your buddies who feel the exact same way. And what we're saying to you is please don't do this, or please turn from this, or please respond in this way. And if, as a result, the individual listens to you, then you've won your brother over, end of the story, back in the battle and keep marching. But if he does not listen, if she does not listen and refuses to do so, then tell it to the church. Why would you tell it to the church?
Is this a punishment? No, it's a purifying principle. Who cares for the individual like the church? They committed themselves to be a part of the church. They said, This is my home.
This is where I want to be shepherded. This is where I want to be taught. This is where I want to be nurtured. This is where I want to be guided. Here are my friends.
Here are my loved ones. These people matter to me. I care for them. We are united in an eternal bond. Fine.
Then we've got to tell your family so that your family then can pray for you, so that the thing that you're unprepared to respond to at the moment, you may respond to and you may be restored. Hence the rebuke. And the rebuke in the tough love is to produce repentance in order that there might be change and in order that there might be forgiveness. And if in turn They refuse even to listen to the church. Then they should be treated as you would treat a pagan or a tax collector.
How would you treat them? As people that need to know the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus. reaching out to them with the news of forgiveness. reaching out to them with the message. of salvation.
Now go back with me if you would then to Luke chapter 17. The disciple of Jesus needs to be honest and straightforward. calling attention to wrong behaviour rather than slandering the individual behind their back. And where there is repentance, there will be forgiveness. And so the believer mustn't be the kind of person Who bears grudges?
Instead, he must be the forgiving person. Forgiveness. Is not a feeling. It's a promise. People tell me all the time, I can't forgive.
It's not that you can't forgive, it's that you won't forgive. You're listening to Alistair Begg, UnTruth for Life. Alastair has titled today's message Be Careful How You Live. We'll hear the conclusion tomorrow.
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Tomorrow, we will learn more biblical self-checks. for evidence of hypocrisy in our lives. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
