Temptation and Sin

Our scripture reading this morning is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17, verses 1 through 4.

Luke 17:1–4

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Luke chapter 17, beginning in verse 1.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

And he said to his disciples, Temptation to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, I repent, you must forgive him.

Thus ends the reading of God's Word.

Shock and awe.

As I've thought about this passage this week, that's the reaction that I have.

The first couple verses, if we understand the implications of it, are shocking.

And if we understand the implications of the next two verses, we stand in awe.

It's shocking the warning that Jesus gives here and the weight in which he places on it.

And then the call for forgiveness, we stand in awe when we understand what forgiveness is and what Christ has called us to do because what he has done for us.

And so this morning I want us to look at this passage in these two areas, the first two verses, the awful influence of temptation.

Jesus turns now to his disciples, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders, the crowds had been there.

Jesus was telling these various parables.

We've seen that in chapters 15 and 16.

Many were overhearing them.

But now he turns to his disciples.

And he gives them some instruction.

And he says, temptation to sin are sure to come.

We live in a fallen world.

He says, stumbling blocks, that's what the translation, another translation says, stumbling blocks are sure to come.

He says the presence of sin is unavoidable.

And we read the newspaper, we go online, we just look around, we look at our own hearts and we realize that sin is all around us.

That sin is in us.

That the presence of sin is unavoidable.

The power of sin is so strong sometimes.

The pervasiveness of sin is complete.

It is total.

It affects all of who we are.

It affects this world that we live in.

We see the implications of it every day in our relationships and our lives.

We see the ramifications of it.

As we look around us, this world is filled with men and women who are sinners, who are filled with evil, have evil in their hearts, and their disposition and their intent is to live in independence of God.

And sin isn't just a problem out there.

Sin is a problem in here, and sin is a problem in here.

And so Jesus warns his disciples temptations to sin are sure to come.

And sin isn't just in this world, but it's entrenched in our very hearts.

In fact, Jesus in Matthew chapter 15, verses 18 and following says this.

Matthew 15:18

He says, But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

He says, when you look at your words, when you look at the things that come out of your mouth, when you look at the things that you say, recognize where that comes from.

That comes from your heart.

A month or two ago, I was reading the newspaper online, and it was an ESPN article about this basketball player who, in the midst of, it was when the playoffs were, and some of you may remember the details of it, but uh he let off this tirade during this press conference and said uh some derogatory comments, some vulgar uh words, and and uh he was censured by the NBA afterward, and and uh he was giving an excuse for it, and his coach said, I know this player, that's not him.

And I read this article and I thought, well, then who was it that they were filming yesterday?

And and the the attitude was, well, that I know him, I know his character, that's not who he is.

And I remember reading this, and I said, Yes, it is.

Because if it wasn't, it wouldn't have come out of his mouth.

And this is what Jesus says.

He says, For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

These are what defile a person.

And so when we look at our lives, we realize sin isn't just a problem out there.

It's a problem in here, and it's a problem in here.

And so Jesus warns his disciples that the temptation, that stumbling blocks are going to come.

Every Christian faces three enemies, the Bible tells us.

The world, the flesh, and the devil.

In Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, it says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world.

Ephesians 2:1–3

There's the world, there is this system that stands in opposition to God or just ignores God.

That this world that we live in is in rebellion to God, and so the systems that are set up are set up independent of God without God in view.

And so we live in this world, and we at one time walked in this world before we came to know Christ.

He says we follow the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

And we've talked about this before.

We have an active enemy in the devil that is sober and vigilant.

The Bible tells us, be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.

But then Paul goes on, and this is among whom we also lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And even though we have come to Christ and we are genuinely new creatures in Christ, we are not totally new, and the reality is that we still have the presence of sin in our lives, and so it is possible if we aren't submitting ourselves to Christ continually and relying on the strength that he provides in the person of the Holy Spirit, then not only can we sin, but we can lead others into sin.

And so Jesus gives this warning.

He gives a woe here.

He says, Woe to the one through whom it comes.

The word woe here is a word of warning, of calamity, of horror, of disaster.

It means, how horrible will it be?

How horrible will it be?

There's a warning of judgment here.

And he says, How horrible will it be for the one who claims to be a disciple and leads others into sin?

The Bible warns us in Hebrews 10, 31, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 12, 29 says, For our God is a consuming fire.

The Bible tells us that not many should desire to be teachers, for do you not know that you will incur a stricter judgment?

And what Jesus says here is there is a fate worse than death.

I was thinking about what that fate worse than death would be, and the first thing that came to mind was country music.

I don't know why.

By the way, when I would describe, people would say, Well, you know, how is what is hell?

And I'd say it's fire and brimstone where the worm does not die, and country music plays in the background.

So I'm not quite a fan.

There is a warning here.

There is a warning here that Jesus gives.

He reminds us, he says, there is there is a fate worse than death.

There is a fate worse than dying.

And to fall into the hands of the living God, the God who is a consuming fire, and to cause others to sin, it would be better, this is what Jesus says, it would be better to die.

And that's shocking.

Look at what he says here.

Verse 2.

It would be better, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea, then he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

What Jesus is saying here is it would be better to be executed than to lead a believer into serious sin to walk away from Christ.

And that's shocking.

A millstone, and the millstone here, was probably one that would have weighed several hundred pounds, that uh that would have been used to crush grain.

Uh donkey would have turned it around in circles, it would have been used to uh to mill grain.

And he says it would be better if you had this several hundred pound stone tied around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.

One commentator said this, he put it in these terms.

He said, a mafia-style death is better than one who leads others into apostasy.

Says author Daryl Bach.

Better to swim with the fish.

Better to go swimming wearing cement shoes or a cement necklace.

What Jesus he says that it is so serious to cause somebody to turn away from Christ into egregious sin that it would be better for a millstone to be tied around your neck and to be cast into the sea.

How can one be a stumbling block?

Well, it's done, and we see this in Scripture.

Jesus warns his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the false doctrine of the Pharisees, and false teaching abounds in the world that we live in.

And like the Pharisees, we can put heavy burdens on people's backs of others and hold ourselves to different standards, and there's so much error in this world of people that stand up purporting to preach in the name of Christ and say that they're preaching the Bible, and yet they're telling their own ideas and their own thoughts, and they're leading hundreds and thousands of people astray.

And Jesus says it would be better that a millstone be hung around his neck.

It's done when a leader has an affair or lives in a moral lifestyle, and the congregation, when that comes to light, suffers the repercussions of it.

I was just talking to somebody yesterday, and they were sharing a story about years past of a well-known pastor that I hadn't heard of, and I looked it up and saw uh this whole sordid affair that happened and the hundreds and thousands that were influenced by it.

It's done when someone entices somebody else to commit sexual immorality.

It's done when instead of love and grace and forgiveness, our attitude is to win at all cost.

It's done when we divide family and friends and church over our petty points of disagreement.

It's done when attitudes that tear down and destroy.

It's done when we gossip and grumble and complain.

It's done when we sin, and our sin is like a cancer that metastasizes and spreads.

And so Jesus warns his disciples woe to the one through whom it comes.

And so we see here, first of all, the shock of the reality of leading others astray.

And the shock of the warning that Jesus gives to us to recognize the seriousness of sin and the implications of sin in our lives and how that influences not just us, but it spills over and influences those who are around us.

This led one pastor that I read to say this.

He said, on occasion, he would lead a group of pastors, and this was one of the prayers that they would pray.

Lord, if one of us here is headed for adultery, take him home now.

And they prayed that throughout their entire ministry.

Jesus warns here, first of all, the awful influence of temptation.

And so we stand in shock of what Jesus says.

But now we stand in awe of what he says next.

We've seen the awful influence of temptation.

We realize the propensity that we have to sin.

But what do we do when somebody sins against us?

How do we respond?

And so, secondly, here we see the extravagant uh extending of forgiveness.

Notice what he says in verse 3.

He says, pay attention to yourself.

And this is a transition between what he is saying then and what he's about to say.

He tells them, pay attention to yourselves.

I love that he says that to his disciples.

And maybe, maybe you don't do this.

I know I do this sometimes.

I'm listening to a sermon, and as I'm listening to it, I think to myself, boy, I know who needs to hear this.

And then my name starts, and then my mind I start thinking of different people.

I'm gonna send it to this person, I'm gonna recommend it to the person.

And I think about all these other people that really need to hear this message.

But I don't stop and say, you know who really needs to hear this message?

Me.

I need to pay attention to myself.

I need to begin by looking at my own heart, looking at my own life, instead of looking out to everyone else and the person sitting next to me and three pews ahead to say, God, what's going on in my own heart?

What's going on in my own life?

I need to look at myself first.

And so Jesus says here, pay attention to yourselves.

Why does he tell him that?

I think there's multiple reasons here.

First of all, he says that because he says, don't be a cause of stumbling for others.

We have a tendency to look at others when we hear warnings rather than looking at ourselves.

Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 16.

1 Timothy 4:16

He says, keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching.

Another translation says, watch your life and your doctrine closely.

Pay attention to your life, pay attention to your teaching.

And we can lead people astray in either of those areas.

We can lead people astray in what we do and how we live and the things that we do, the attitudes in our heart, but we can also lead people astray in our teaching.

So Jesus tells us to pay attention to ourselves, to look at our own lives.

I think Jesus says this as well.

Secondly, he's saying, be careful not to be drawn into sin when you're trying to help others.

He's about to tell them to be involved in other people's lives.

If your brother sins, be involved in his life, be involved in our life.

But we have to pay attention to ourselves because while we're helping others, we can be enticed to sin as well.

We can be dragged away and influenced by the very people that we're trying to help if we're not careful.

In Galatians chapter 6, verse 1, Paul says this, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore them in a spirit of gentleness.

Galatians 6:1

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

And so when Paul, when Jesus here says, pay attention to yourselves, when Paul says, keep a watch on yourself, it's important for us to realize even as we're getting involved in people's lives, even as we're reaching out into the messiness of people's lives, we need to be careful that we're not influenced by it.

That we're not enticed by it.

We can be helping somebody who's in uh in anger and bitterness, and we need to be careful that that attitude doesn't rub off on us.

We can help somebody who's caught in the throes of depression, and as we sit and we listen over and over again, we can become discouraged and despondent ourselves.

We can be tempted by the very uh immorality or lifestyle that people are living if we don't watch ourselves.

So the Bible tells us to pay attention to ourselves, to watch ourselves.

One old pastor wrote this in 1641, a man by the name of Thomas Shepherd, he was reminding his listeners of not to be naive to think that we're above temptation.

That we could look at ourselves and we could think more of ourselves than we ought to think, and think that we're not capable of committing some of the sins that we see in other people's lives.

And so he's warning his listeners to recognize that there is more evil in their hearts than they give themselves credit for.

And this is what he wrote.

He says, Thy heart is a foul sink of all atheism, sodomy, blasphemy, murder, whoredom, adultery, witchcraft, buggery, so that if thou hast any good thing in thee, it is but a drop of rose water and a bowl of poison, where fallen it is all corrupted.

It is true thou feelest not all these things stirring in thee at once, but they are in thee like a nest of snakes in an old hedge.

Although they break not out into the into thy life, they lie lurking in thy heart.

And what he's warning us, and what Jesus is warning us here, is we should never assume we're above being tempted in any area of life.

And even the things that may not enter our mind at present, we still need to guard our hearts from.

And so Jesus tells us to pay attention to yourselves.

And we need to be careful that we don't become cynical in trying to help others.

That it's possible as we reach out, and I know this is a pastor.

Uh you you minister to people and you hear story after story of struggling and sin and difficulty and problems and temptations.

And if I'm not careful, it would be very easy for me to become cynical and despondent.

And so I need to watch myself and all of us need to pay attention to ourselves.

But notice what Jesus says here next.

He says, if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

Jesus recognizes that Christians do fall into sinful habits and patterns.

He says, if your brother sins, Christians wander into all kinds of sins and they struggle with all kinds of temptations and they they experience all kinds of difficulties.

And we need to watch each other and care for each other.

I always think about Cain in Genesis chapter 4.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Cain makes this statement in there.

In Genesis chapter 4, he says, Am I my brother's keeper?

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

And he says this in coldness and callousness of his heart.

Am I my brother's keeper?

But the reality is, is we are our brother's keeper.

We have a responsibility.

To care for one another, to be involved in one another's lives, to be interested in each other.

And yes, we have a responsibility to intervene in one another's lives when we see them struggling in sin and temptation.

Look at what Jesus says here.

If your brother sins, rebuke him.

This means we not only have the right to be involved in other people's lives, but we have the responsibility to hold each other accountable.

He says, if your brother sins, rebuke him.

Now, what does this mean here?

And I think for some of us, this is a very difficult thing to put into practice.

We by nature don't like to confront.

We by nature don't like to become involved in other people's business and other people's affairs.

And so there's a tendency for us to live and let live, to not become involved in other people's lives, even when we see them doing things we know that they shouldn't be doing.

And so there's a tendency within our hearts to hold back and to not say something.

But the Bible tells us we need to love one another enough to have the courage to step in and to be involved.

But we need to do so with the right attitude.

We need to be willing to say the hard things in people's lives for their good and God's glory.

The goal of rebuking or confrontation is always restoration.

And that's something that we need to keep in mind.

Whether we're looking at the formal discipline of Matthew 18 or if it's just in a personal relationship, we need to look at our own hearts and say, what is my goal in talking to this person?

And our goal ought to be their restoration, their full restoration and their fellowship with Christ, and the full restoration and fellowship with one another.

The goal of all confrontation or rebuke or correction or exhortation is restoration and nothing else.

It's not punishment.

It's not to make the person suffer.

It's not to meet out some type of discipline that you think that person deserves.

And if you enjoy the confrontation, you're not in a place to be the one to confront that person.

It should be with a love for that person and a heaviness of heart, of sin in that person's life, that we go to one another out of love for them, recognizing our own sin and our own struggles.

And so we go with humility.

One author, and I want to read this, one author gives some great advice in how to put this into practice.

And this is what he says.

He says there's a right way and a wrong way to confront sin.

He says we need to go to one another courageously, not timidly, willing to say what needs to be said, no matter what the cost.

He says we need to go to one another gently, not judgmentally, demonstrating the tender mercy of Christ.

We need to go to one another humbly, not proudly, having already confessed our own great sin.

We need to go to one another affectionately, not harshly, showing how much we love our brother or sister in Christ.

We need to go to one another prayerfully, not impulsively, asking God to glorify Himself through our ministry of reconciliation.

And then he adds this, but we do need to go to one another.

To go courageously, not timidly, to go gently, not judgmentally, to go humbly, not proudly, to go affectionately, not harshly, to go prayerfully, not impulsively, but we do need to go.

And so Jesus tells us our responsibility to one another, that we are our brother's keeper and in love and compassion to reach out to others.

And he says, if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

Now, some have mistakenly taken this passage to mean something that Jesus didn't intend here for it to mean.

But some people look at this and say, Well, if he repents, forgive him, and then they say, Well, if he doesn't repent, I don't have to forgive him.

And so they take this in a way that Jesus didn't intend for it, uh, to say that I don't have to forgive people unless and until they ask for forgiveness.

I don't have to have forgiveness in my heart towards them or extend forgiveness until they ask for it and they show that they're truly repentant.

And I don't believe that that is what Jesus is saying here, or what the Bible teaches.

Because what's the alternative to forgiving?

Would that be that we can then have a bitterness in our heart if they don't ask for forgiveness, or we can have continued anger in our hearts, or that we can have hostility in our hearts for people until they repent or resentment or hatred?

Furthermore, the Bible tells us to love our enemies.

And so if we cannot forgive out of brotherly love, we ought to love them even as we're called to love our enemies, to pray for them, to do good for them.

But most of all, we look at the example of our Savior when he hung on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.

Of those who crucified him, he cried out, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

They should have known what they were doing.

There was willful ignorance on their parts.

They were culpable for their sin.

They were responsible for it, and yet we see the heart of our Savior as he hung on the cross and he looked at the very ones who had pounded the nails into his hands and his feet and placed a crown of thorns, the very ones who were who had mocked him and spit on him.

And he looked at them and he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

But then why does Jesus use the word if here?

J.C.

Ryle, the uh old English pastor, says this this expression is remarkable.

It doubtlessly cannot mean that we are not to forgive men unless they repent.

At this rate, there would be much bitterness constantly kept alive.

But it does mean that when there is no repentance or regret for an injury done, there can be no renewal of cordial friendship or complete reconciliation between man and man.

And that is the goal of complete reconciliation.

Jesus now shares the extent of forgiveness.

And again, this is uh we stand in awe of what Jesus says.

He says in verse 4, if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him.

Now, rabbis had a saying that if a man forgave another man three times in the day, he was a perfect man.

Jesus here doubles it and adds one, but but the word seven is often used to express perfection, of completion.

And so Jesus here is not saying, well, you need to forgive somebody seven times, but if they sin that eight time, then you're, you know, all bets are off and you don't have to forgive anymore.

That isn't, again, what Jesus is saying here.

What he's saying here is he's using this to express the reality that forgiveness should be boundless, that it should be total, that it should be immeasurable, that it should be limitless, that it should be habitual.

F.

F.

Bruce, the uh the commentator and scholar, says, from the world's point of view, a sevenfold repetition of an offense in one day must cast doubt on the genuineness of a sinner's repentance.

But then he adds this but that is not the believer's concern.

His business is forgiveness.

And so Jesus here is telling us to the attitude of our heart.

That we ought to have the same attitude of our hearts towards others that Jesus had for us.

How can we forgive like this?

Is this even possible?

Is this something look at the disciples' response, and we're going to talk about this next week and think through the implications of this?

Notice what the apostles say in verse 5.

The apostles say to Jesus, increase our faith.

Isn't that how you feel right now?

If I say somebody sins against you, and then a couple hours later, the same thing, and a couple hours later, the same thing, and a couple hours later, the same thing, and a couple hours later, the same thing, and a couple you look.

How is that possible?

Let me share just the beginning of it.

We're going to talk about this extensively next time.

Look at Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Verse 13.

In verse 12, he he begins, he's talking about this reality of this relationship within the body of believers, within the church, this new community.

In 12, he says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

That means putting up with one another, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, look at that next phrase.

As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Forgiveness begins by looking at the cross.

The message of the cross is that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly.

That he, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

When he hung on the cross, it wasn't because we were worthy, it wasn't because of how great we were, it wasn't because of how smart we were, it wasn't because of all the good things that we were going to do in our lives.

We were unworthy sinners.

Christ died for the unrighteous in our unrighteousness.

And think of all of the sin that's in our lives.

Think of all of the different things.

If we were to stop and to think of all that we have been forgiven of in Christ.

When a person comes to Christ, that person receives full and free forgiveness.

The penalty for all of our sins has been paid for by Christ.

There is not one shred of penalty left to be paid for by us.

It has all been paid for by Christ.

The guilt and the shame of that sin has been removed.

And if we stop to think about everything that we have been forgiven of.

In fact, we have a short video of all of my sins.

Do you have that video cued?

See, they never have it ready.

If we were to stop and look at our lives and think of who we are in ourselves, to really uh get a grasp of the reality of our own sin, of our own depravity.

And even the sin that's still in our lives.

I think the longer we live as Christians, the more we see God's holiness, and the more we see the reality of how sinful we are in ourselves, and the more we need to run to the cross and realize the depth and the breadth of God's love and the forgiveness that we have in Christ.

And so it says, as the Lord has forgiven you, as the Lord has forgiven you, look to Jesus, look to the cross, think of the gospel, think of your forgiveness, think of the sin that you have committed, that Christ has forgiven, that he is washed away.

Where is the beginning of forgiveness comes?

It begins by us understanding forgiveness in our own lives, to see our sin and God's great grace in the cross of Christ.

Look to the cross, look to Christ, look to our Savior.

And then understand forgiveness.

Forgive as you've been forgiven.

And so the Apollo, we're going to talk about this next week of looking to Jesus.

What does it mean to increase our faith?

It's not the amount of faith we have, it's the object of our faith.

We need to look to Jesus, and we'll talk about that next time.

When we confess our sins, God restores the intimacy of our relationship with Christ and He treats us as if it never happened.

He treats us, that's what forgiveness is.

He treats us as if it never happened.

God is omniscient, He knows all things.

It's not as if God has divine amnesia, that for whatever reason he can no longer remember our sins, but he looks at us and he sees us in Christ, and he sees Christ's righteousness in us, and when we confess our sins, he treats us as if it never happened.

And that's what forgiveness is.

In closing, let me share a story.

Comes from a commentator, uh Philip Graham Riken, a pastor, president now of Wheaton College.

He writes this in his commentary in the Gospel of Luke.

Historians tell us that King Louis VII was cast into prison and kept in chains before eventually rising to the throne of France.

The story is also told that upon his ascension to power, his close advisors urged him to seek deadly revenge by every means of violence.

In response to their entreaties, Louis VII prepared a scroll listing the names of all the enemies who had committed crimes against his royal person.

Opposite every name, he inscribed a cross in red ink.

Surely the man who committed these misdeeds would have to die.

Words of the king's blood-red list soon reached his enemies, who assumed the crosses meant that they were dead men and fled for their lives.

But Louis VII clarified his true and surprising intention.

He said, The cross which I draw, the cross which I drew beside each name was not a sign of punishment, but a pledge of forgiveness extended for the sake of the crucified Savior, who upon his cross forgave his enemies and prayed for them.

Let me clarify one point, it was Louis XII, not the seventh.

But listen to what he said here.

He says, the cross which I drew beside each name was not a sign of punishment, but a pledge of forgiveness extended for the sake of the crucified Savior, who upon his cross forgave his enemies and prayed for them.

May we forgive like the King.

More than that, may we forgive like our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Father, may we look to Christ.

Increase our faith, Lord, not that we somehow generate more faith within our hearts, but that we have a greater vision of who you are, of who Christ is, of the cross, of forgiveness, of new life, of restoration, of acceptance.

That you treat us as if we have never sinned.

That we go washed in the blood of the Lamb, that we, that our sins, though they be as scarlet, have been made as white as snow.

And because we have been forgiven, because of Christ, because of the cross, we too can forgive others.

May we see the cross.

May we see our King.

And may we forgive.

We pray in Christ.

Amen.