Trip Hazards

passage that I have been longing
to preach almost as long as I’ve been a Christian. Longing to
dig into this passage and really extract out the truth therein.
And so I guess just bear with my excitement. It’s an interesting passage and
essentially it is a condensed version of Matthew 18. For those
of you who are familiar with Matthew 18, sometimes it is referred
to as the kick them out of the church passage, which it is not. It is a passage that deals with
the unpopular subject of church discipline. But the ultimate
goal of church discipline is not to kick them out of the church.
It’s to restore them to Christ, first and foremost, to Christ
and then to the church and then to others. Matthew chapter 18. Don’t go
there. I’m just going to review just
a bit. Jesus entertains a question, who is the greatest in the kingdom?
And that no doubt produced some friction among the apostles and
Jesus there uses that to launch into the admonition to beware
of what he calls stumbling blocks. Ultimately, It prompts a question
by Peter about forgiveness. How often should he continue
to put up with this attempt to be known as the number one apostle?
And Jesus’ counsel at the end and also recorded here in this
passage, the Gospel of Luke is as many times as it takes, essentially.
It is a passage ultimately about forgiveness, but first and foremost,
we have to consider what I would call trip hazards. Trip hazards
in the retail world have become a major focus of what the people
assigned to the task of loss prevention. A trip hazard can
be something substantial, perhaps a broken step in a building,
perhaps a puddle of some liquid, perhaps some banding material
lying on the floor, a cardboard box, And as the litigious society
in which we live, as the lawsuits have increased, the focus upon
trip hazards has increased as well. But if we are concerned
in the retail world about trip hazards, how much more in the
spiritual realm should we be concerned about the spiritual
equivalent of a trip hazard? What Jesus calls a stumbling
block. That’s what we want to look at this morning. So we want
to focus on is those spiritual stumbling blocks. And to do that,
I want to go into this passage that I have longed to study and
preach for some 15 years. Luke, chapter 17, beginning in
verse one there, the passage is in your bulletin, if you prefer,
with place for notes. He, that is Jesus, said to His
disciples, it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come. But woe
to him through whom they come. It would be better for him if
a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into
the sea than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke
him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you
seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I
repent, forgive him.” It’s one of those passages that for me,
clarifies this conundrum, this twin horns of theology that so
many people get hung up on. God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. There are a number of passages
in Scripture. There’s certainly plenty that speak about one or
the other. There are plenty of passages that speak about man’s
responsibility, and there are plenty of passages that speak
about God’s sovereignty. And there are very few passages
that put the two together in the same sentence. This is one
of them. And oftentimes I’ve gone to show
the principle in action that two things can be true. God is
sovereign and man is responsible. In essence, he says, it is inevitable. It’s going to happen. God is
sovereign. Those things are going to come,
but the one who perpetrates them is responsible. But that’s not
why we’re here this morning is to talk about that element of
the passage. What I want to look at is the
stumbling blocks. I want to look at the spiritual
trip hazards that we all face because we live among sinful
people. I’ve identified this morning
four cautions. When you begin to deal with trip
hazards in the retail world, sometimes you have long and detailed
procedures in how to deal with perhaps a hazardous spill, perhaps
some dangerous thing that’s lying on the ground. And Jesus wants
to give us counsel on how to deal, what processes, what concerns
we have when dealing with these spiritual trip hazards called
stumbling blocks. First and foremost, Jesus says
stumbling blocks, number one, are to be expected. They are
to be expected. He says it very simply. They
are inevitable. They are certain. They are already
predetermined. They are coming. And you might
as well get ready for them. It is inevitable, it’s literally
they’re impossible for it not to happen. Because of the present condition,
not only of the world, but even of the church comprised of sinners
like you and me. It’s morally impossible not to
have these kinds of stumbling blocks. Take you back in your mind’s
eye to the nature of humanity. Even after we’ve come to Christ,
that sin nature is still there, resident within us. Take you back in your mind’s
eye to Genesis 6.5. One of the clearest descriptions
of the human heart that Scripture records, then the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Do you get all those superlatives?
It’s difficult to even stay ahead of them all. In other words,
man was totally depraved. When Adam sinned against God’s
clearly revealed command, he lost his innocence. And having
lost his perfect righteousness along with his wife, he lost
that precious communion with God. In addition to that, though,
that’s where Adam and Eve acquired their sin nature, and that too
was passed on to us. No wonder the psalmist wrote
accurately of his own heart. Psalm 51.5 Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity and in sin. My mother conceived me. Psalm
58 The wicked are estranged from the womb. Romans 5.12 Just as
through one man sin entered the world and death through sin,
so death spread to all men because all sinned. We’re sinners. And along with that deadness
in sin comes that tendency to sin. And that’s why Jesus says
that these stumbling blocks are inevitable. I want to clarify this word stumbling
block, because it’s used a number of different ways in Scripture.
There are good stumbling blocks. Sounds like a contradiction of
terms, doesn’t it? The Christ, as the cornerstone
of our faith, is spoken of as a stumbling block in 1 Peter
2. He can be a stumbling block for
those who can’t see who He is and stumble over the fact that
He was the God-man. The cross is spoken of as a stumbling
block in Galatians 5.11. The gospel is a stumbling block
to many. There are good stumbling blocks,
but that’s not what is Christ focus here. There are bad stumbling
blocks, evil stumbling blocks spoken of in Matthew 18, as we’ll
see in more detail in a moment, spoken of in Romans 14. Where
it says there, Paul urges us not to put an obstacle or a stumbling
block in a brother’s way. There in that context, it’s all
about the so-called gray areas of our Christian life. And essentially,
he says, if something is a stumbling block to another, then step back
and have nothing to do with it. Don’t put a stumbling block in
a brother’s path for whom Christ died. There are good stumbling blocks,
but there are bad stumbling blocks as well. And those are what are
in focus here in the passage. And as long as the world is what
it is, until Christ returns and returns us to glory and a glorified
state, there will always be those who lay traps and snares and
stumbling blocks in the path of their fellow brothers. And
there will always be there be those that trip over them. First Timothy. Pardon me, Second
Timothy speaks of a difficult day and age. Realize this, that in the last
days, difficult times will come and there will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips,
without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God. And you say, no wonder any one of those things would cause
any believer who isn’t watchful to stumble. So it’s a necessity
for us. It’s absolutely imperative that
we expect them. It is inevitable that they are
going to come. J.C. Ryle said it this way, professing
Christians cause offense whenever they bring discredit on their
testimony. It’s a graphic word, this stumbling
block, It’s essentially we’ve taken
the word and we’ve we’ve recrafted it. The original word, you’ll
hear it in the Greek scandal. It’s scandalous. What we do and
we misbehave in front of others is to live a scandalous life.
And in our scandal, we cause them to stumble. That’s exactly
the thought that is playing out here. It’s scandalous life. being lived out and causing others
to stumble. And J.C. Ryle says, Christians
are not exempt. Christians are not exempt from
causing others to stumble. Whenever they bring discredit
on their testimony, he says, by inconsistencies of temper,
word, or deed. He says, it’s us. You can look to this passage.
You can try to find an escape hatch and try to say, well, yeah,
no doubt the world is going to cause us to stumble. But it’s
so easy to overlook yourself, isn’t it? So easy. He goes on and says, we do it
whenever we make our Christianity unlovely in the eyes of the world
by conduct not keeping with our profession. We say we’re one
thing. We live another way. And anybody
who sees us has to wonder that if that’s what Christianity is. Ryle continues. The world may
not understand the doctrines and principles of believers,
but the world is very keen sighted about their practice. Another pastor said it differently.
He said people may hide the goodness of their lives or cease to have
any goodness to exercise. But they cannot hide their lives.
You hear what he’s saying? He says, every one of us are
somewhere on that continuum of holiness. We’re all growing in
Christ likeness. Not one of us is perfect. Some
of us have advanced a little further than others in the things
of grace. You can’t hide your life. And
he goes on and says, for good or for evil, the life will be
seen and will have influence. Isn’t that frightening? Isn’t
that frightening that It’s not so much that your best day might
be seen by a few people, but your worst day and your worst
moment is going to be seen by them too. And unfortunately,
it seems like people only see those bad days, those bad moments,
don’t they? They stick out like a sore thumb
from anybody who professes Christ. Samuel Davies, the great early
American pastor, said it this way. He said, we are watched
by those who are of opposite tendencies. You know what? The world is not going to stand
up and applaud when you have a good day of Christianity. Isn’t
that true? When you walk out of here today,
don’t expect people to stop their cars and look at you and gawk
in admiration at the worship that you’ve given to God. It’s
not going to happen. We are watched by those of opposite
tendencies. We are under daily examination. Your Christian life is under
perpetual scrutiny. Isn’t that encouraging? But it’s true. And how we live
our lives determines really whether to what degree we’re going to
set stumbling blocks before the path, not only of fellow believers,
but also of unbelievers. John Rogers, entertaining the
same thought, said it this way, that rebukes those who profess
religion and remember not before whom they live. They forget who’s
watching, he says. But they live as if they were
only among the good, which would hide their frailties or interpret
them to be the best. Not as if they were among the
wicked that seek occasion against God’s servants that desire no
better loot than the fall of a professor. They can’t wait.
The world can’t wait to find a flaw in you. They couldn’t
wait to find a flaw in Jesus. Do you think they’ll treat you
any better? It’s impossible. Given our nature, it’s impossible.
Stumbling blocks are going to come. What is it? What is a stumbling
block? It’s a scandal we’ve already
seen. But in simple terms, it’s offenses. And the offense that he speaks
of here isn’t merely an insult. It’s not just bad manners, but
it’s an incitement to anger. It’s a betrayal into any sin,
whether by temptation or by angering. It’s a bad example. It’s misconduct
in the Christian realm. It is an impediment in our pursuit
of truth and righteousness. It’s a bad example. of Christianity,
and it causes us to stumble. And we face them all the time,
don’t we? You know we do. It is anything, really, which
may be an occasion of mischief to another. And when you think
of the great breadth of people in their walk towards the eternal
kingdom, you’re immediately faced with a myriad of different kinds
of people Some of whom have no ability to discern right from
wrong. They look to you. You don’t even
know they’re looking. And your behavior may cause them
to stumble. And I say, God forbid, God forbid. Stumbling blocks are inevitable,
but let’s be sure that it isn’t us who are setting them before
others to trip over. There’s a second caution in dealing
with stumbling blocks. Not only are they to be expected,
but stumbling blocks bring trouble to the perpetrator. It’s not
just a mistake. It’s not just a misstep on our
part. It brings ultimately trouble. Our bad example that causes another
brother to stumble will bring us trouble. Look back at the
passage. He said to His disciples, it
is inevitable that stumbling blocks come. And most people
would want to take that and say, see, I’m only doing what comes
natural. God ordained it. God’s sovereign.
He knew I was going to mess up. And he knew they were going to
be watching. God is sovereign, but man is
responsible. It is inevitable that stumbling
blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come. And that little
word woe that speaks of this terrible thing that’s coming. You know of it most frequently
in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 23, where repeatedly
Jesus gives that word to the Pharisees. Woe to you, Pharisees,
scribes and hypocrites. He says, beware. It is a call
to caution. It is a call to examine your
life. It is a call to beware of the
pending judgment that is at hand. Woe to him through whom they
come. This is nothing to be taken lightly. I had never sung the
hymn that we sang, familiar with the tune a moment ago, but I’ll
tell you the lyrics, they took sin seriously. And I’ll tell
you in our society, we don’t. We look at it as a little indiscretion,
a little slip. We’re so quick to forgive ourselves
and so slow to forgive everybody else. This is Jesus’ perspective
on sin. Woe. Take heed. Woe to him through
whom they come. Jesus takes sin very seriously. I want to press on for the sake
of time. It said there were four cautions, and I want to park
for some time on the third. Four cautions for dealing with
stumbling blocks, spiritual stumbling blocks. They are to be expected.
They bring trouble to the perpetrator. They must be watched. Number
three. They must be watched. Jesus here
says, guard. Be on your guard. It’s a graphic
and frequently used word in the New Testament. In Matthew 6, he tells us to
beware of practicing our righteousness before men. And that is the most
frequent translation of this word. Beware. Be watchful. And I’ll tell you, people, the
church is not watchful. We have dulled and grayed what
is sin to the point where we don’t even deal with it at all
anymore. We’ve pastored churches in small
communities. And the tendency in a small community
is, my sins are so plainly evident before everyone, how could I
possibly rebuke Uncle Joe? And after all, he is my uncle.
And so what you have is this lowest common denominator mentality
that ultimately lowers the standard to the point where it is no standard
at all. He says, be on your guard. Be on
your guard because, beware, because that sin is pervasive. It will permeate. It will touch
you in time. Even if it’s just the lowering
of standards. Because then if you overlook
Uncle Joe’s, then you’ve got to look Betty’s as well. And soon, there is no standard. And soon the standard comes to
rest on your doorstep and you lower the standard for yourself.
You lower the standard of what Christianity is As I said, to
the point where it is no more Christianity. Turn if you want, I want to spend
a few moments in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Same scenario. Same
exact scenario. This sinful lowering of standards
that Jesus says we must be on watch for. We must stand guard. The stumbling blocks are going
to come. They will bring trouble to the
perpetrator. But Jesus says we have to be
watchful of them. And we have to be watchful of
their influence in our own life. First Corinthians five, verse
one, it is actually reported that there is immorality among
you and immorality of such a kind as does not even exist among
the Gentiles. Do you get the shock The absolute
stunned amazement of the apostle in speaking to the Corinthians
here. He can’t even believe what he’s having to deal with. That
not even in the Gentile world have the morals sunk so low,
and yet in the church, the precious church that he had helped to
plant there in Corinth, they had sunk to a new moral low. Immorality of such a kind as
does not even exist among the Gentiles that someone has his
father’s wife. By that, I take not to mean his
own mother, but his father’s remarried wife. Look what his
evaluation is of their treatment of it. You see, we can. Here’s
what happens. We tend to applaud ourselves
and pat ourselves on the back and call it mercy when we overlook
sin in a believer’s life. Oh, how merciful we are. How
magnanimous our love for our brother is. And that’s exactly
what was going on in Corinth. You have become arrogant. He says you’re arrogant. And
you have not mourned instead so that the one who had done
this deed would be removed from your midst. He calls for church
discipline. Instead, what they had done is
pat him on the back, overlook his sin, pretend like it never
happened, which is what happens in churches day after day, year
after year. And the standard goes lower and
lower and lower to the point where there’s no standard. Sin ought to produce mourning.
We ought to be broken hearted about sin. Sin brings consequences. We just saw it. It brings that
woe. It brings the judgment that is
going to come. Jesus said there in verse two,
it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around
his neck. And he were thrown into the bottom
of a sea, then he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Is that graphic imagery or what of judgment? Now, the judgment
of a believer is not going to be of the same kind as an unbeliever,
but we are going to be judged. Call it evaluated, graded, whatever
you will. Ultimately, we’re going to stand
before a holy God and answer for our life. And if we caused
some to stumble because of the way we lived, we will answer
for that, too. Sin should produce mourning.
That’s what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 5. You have not
mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would
be removed from your midst. Do you get the connection here?
He says that if we take sin seriously enough and the sinner sees how
we are responding to his sin, that can become an occasion for
him to repent. But if we overlook it, if we
downplay it, Ignore it. Pretend if it doesn’t happen.
That doesn’t produce anything. Look at Paul’s example. Look
at verse three, for I, on my part, though absent in body,
but present in spirit, have already judged him who has committed
this, as though I were present. Paul pounded down the gavel and
said, guilty as charged. In the same in the name of our
Lord Jesus, when you were assembled and I with you in spirit and
the power of the Lord Jesus have decided to deliver such a one
to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. And you say, how
harsh this is not the beloved Apostle Paul, even the fiery
Apostle Paul that I’ve come to know before that he’s giving
somebody over to Satan. Read it again. What Satan gets
is not his soul. He gets his body. It’s the same
thought as what is engendered there in 1 Corinthians 11. If
we don’t take the Lord’s Supper seriously, many among you are
sick and a number sleep. Keep sinning. God will take you.
He will take your body and take your soul to heaven and give
your body over to the devil himself. Jesus essentially says, or Paul
here essentially says that he’s going to turn this man over to
the world. And the devil in time is going to consume his flesh,
usually with his own sin. Why? So that his spirit may be
saved in the day of our Lord Jesus. You know what this is
by Paul? It’s an act of mercy. It’s an act of mercy to confront
sin. I love the way Richard Baxter
said it. You’ve heard me say it 50 times
if you’ve known me a month. Pretend not to love them if you
hate not their sin and seek not their salvation.” He says, you
call it whatever you will, but this idea where you can gloss
over somebody’s sin, make light of it, is not love. It’s not
a loving thing. The loving thing to do is to
go and to address the sin, Paul says. Verse 6, your boasting is not
good. And here’s where we come to the
point. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little
leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? So now all of a sudden,
Paul transitions to a bread baking course, right? Now, we’ve seen
leaven in the past used in good and bad ways. What he says is
that sin, that standard that you’ve just allowed into the
church now is going to permeate. And it’s going to continue and
it’s going to perpetually go and go and go until it reaches
every member. It’s going to affect and infect
the entire church. No wonder the admonition comes
in verse seven, clean out the old leaven so that you may be
a new lump, just as you are, in fact, unleavened for Christ,
our Passover also has been sacrificed. I’ll have to come back and preach
the rest of that. Great words. Great words. But essentially
what Jesus says here is what Paul echoes there in 1 Corinthians
5. Sin, if left unchecked, is going
to run its course and it will affect you. And if you think
that you can overlook and call it mercy, overlook sin in a brother’s
life and call it mercy and not be affected by it, you’re dead
wrong. Jesus says it. Paul says it. No wonder Paul’s admonition at
the end of the book of Romans. I urge you, brethren, keep your
eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the
teaching which you heard and turn away from them. Paul put
a premium on holy living. Paul put a premium on peace in
the church. Paul put a premium on dealing
with sin. That brings us to point four.
Point four. Our fourth caution in dealing
with stumbling blocks. Stumbling blocks are to be expected.
They bring trouble to the perpetrator. They must be watched. And fourthly,
they must be confronted. They must be confronted. Jesus
says, If your brother sins, rebuke
him. And if he repents, forgive him.
And here’s where I said you have a microcosm in the Gospel of
Luke of the entire chapter of Matthew 18. There in Matthew
18, a much more full treatment of dealing with the brother’s
sin, where he says the first time we go to him, and if he
doesn’t listen to you, go with another brother. And if he doesn’t
listen to them, go with the church. Tell it to the church. Dealing with sin is a crucial
thing. But let’s go back to this passage.
First of all, he says, if your brother sins. So all the while
through this passage, the stumbling block, the one who is laying
the stumbling blocks, the one clearly in focus here is a Christian
brother. Or at least an alleged, a professing
Christian brother. He’s your fellow believer. And
it says that If your brother sins, and I would probably even
stretch it when he sins. That really is the context of
this. And given the fact of our sinful nature, it’s a matter
of time, isn’t it? Isn’t it a matter of time before
I offend you and you offend someone else? It’s part of our nature. We’ve already seen it. When he
sins, rebuke him. Leviticus 19 set forth the principle
in the Old Testament. Leviticus 19, 17 says, You shall
not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. So far, so good. You may surely
reprove your neighbor. In essence, what he says is to
not reprove your neighbor, to not correct him when you see
him in sin is akin to hatred. It’s to tell them, I don’t even
care about you. I don’t care what the consequences are. I
don’t care what’s coming your way. Proverbs 17, 10, a rebuke goes
deeper into the one who has understanding that a hundred blows into a fool.
It is part of the commandment of God that we look to each other’s
lives and give them the care that is their due. One pastor said it this way,
rebuke him in order and if possible in such a way as to make him
come to repentance. That’s the goal, isn’t it? To
weed the sin out of his life that he may be blinded to. This
is for the purpose of securing your own peace and the peace
of the church. And so far as he is concerned, to prevent his
falling into deeper sin and apostasy. And I ask you, do we care for
each other in that way? You know, that usually isn’t
our first response. When people come to us and they challenge
us, and usually it doesn’t come even in the form of a rebuke.
This word is a strong word. It means to really lay it to
somebody. Let them have it. It’s a solemn
charge. It comes in the term of even
a penalty. Look, you better shape up or
else. We don’t do that usually. At
least it isn’t where we start. Most times we never ever get
there at all. We never ever say, you know what?
Look, you are blowing it. You’re ruining your testimony.
And I admonish you. I rebuke you in your sin. Not
a popular thing. If you’ve ever had it happen
to you, I have. Not in those terms, but I have.
I’ve had brothers come. address things in my life. Perhaps
you’ve had it too. And your first response is now,
oh, thank you. Thanks for pointing that one
out. Can I buy you lunch? That’s not how it goes. First,
pride sets in. And you come up with all kinds
of excuses. And first, you look to his life
and point up all of his sins. Throw up all his bad things.
And then weeks later, When the Holy Spirit finally begins to
get a hold of you, those words begin to resonate. And you know
deep down in your heart, His concern is for you. His concern
is legitimate and genuine. You know that He has your best
interest at heart. And He’s appealed to you from
God’s Word itself and desires that you might be more conformed
to Christ. You know that it’s a good wound.
We talked about this several weeks ago. The proverb there,
faithful are the wounds of a friend. It is a wound and it does hurt. It opens you wide open. Nobody
said it was going to be easy, but it’s a good wound. It’s a
good wound. It’s a Christian duty. It’s a
Christian duty to deal straightforwardly and faithfully with those who
sin against us or those whose sin we observe. It is a Christian
duty to deal with it. Unless you think that this is
a mild word, like reprove, correct, admonish. That’s the much milder
form of this duty. We are to go to those. And there
are times where we say, you know what? I think you’d be better
off if you do it this way. You know, I think you’re pushing
the envelope here. I think what you ought to do,
you might want to study up on this issue. But you know what? This word is used only of that
stern correction. that takes into mind the fearful
consequences that will befall the one caught in the sin. Peter rebuked Jesus. Remember
that one? That didn’t go over so well.
Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. And Jesus turned
the tables on Him and rebuked Peter. Strong admonition. And there’s no doubt, you can
make the argument that this is part of the pastoral ministry.
And it is. Paul said to Timothy, We are to preach the Word in
season and out of season. Reprove, there’s the softer version.
Rebuke, there’s the stern version. And exhort, teach with great
patience and instruction. We are to rebuke one another.
We’re to love one another enough to address the sin in their life. That passage there, 2 Timothy.
When I preach this, I mean, this was probably one of the, if not
life changing, ministry changing passages that I’ve preached.
One of the biggest. 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 4. I solemnly charge you in the
presence of God and of Christ Jesus. I mean, is there any more
stern and solemn introduction than that one? I solemnly charge
you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom,
preach the word. You hear that every seminary
graduation, every would-be pastor reads that, owns those words
as his own. When I preached it, I preached
the passage upside down, and here’s why. I went to verses
three and four. The first thing I did was say
this. The time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine. We’re in that time. The time
will come and they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to
have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves
teachers in accordance to their own desires. And they will turn
away their ears from the truth and they will turn aside to myths.
I call them the four marks of a spiritually decadent society.
Just this downward spiral. Lowering of our spiritual standard.
And I said, no wonder Paul said, preach the word, be ready in
season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. And that word
rebuke there means to lay open, to lay upon, and it can be positive. It’s used in the sense of bestowing
honor upon somebody, to lay upon them honor. But literally here, it means
to lay the Word of God on someone to let them have it. But to do it in such a way with
their own good in focus. But note that this is someone
who ought to know better, someone who does know better, just like
Nathan who rebuked David and Paul who rebuked Peter. Proverbs
27.5 says, better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.
I mean, what good is love? In that context, as they watch
you destroy your life by your sin. What good is that? How can
that even be called love? But watch what could happen.
If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. And people don’t hang on this,
this idea that you can withhold forgiveness of another believer
until he actively comes and repents, makes some big show of his repentance,
some formal apology. You should already have forgiven
him in your heart. It’s a mere formality by the
time you get to that standpoint. But what glorious thing if he
repents? If he sees that the words that you brought are out
of love, and he sees what he’s doing is wrong in light of God’s
Word, and he repents, forgive him, restore him. Don’t make
him a second-class citizen for the rest of his Christian life.
Bring him back in. Love him. One characterized it this way.
He said, this signifies the laying aside of all thoughts of desire
of revenge in our own cause. What it requires is the laying
aside of all malice or desire of revenge upon our neighbor.
We go to him in love, we rebuke him and we stand ready to forgive
him right then and there. And if it was wrong, if it’s
wrong to set a stumbling block in another brother’s way, how
much more wrong would it be not to forgive him? One pastor said in beautiful
terms, holiness and love meet together in this precept. Holiness
begins with the rebuking. Then, when the rebuke has once
been taken, love pardons. Love stands ready to embrace,
forgive, He says, the pardon to be granted to our brethren
has no other limit than their repenting and the confession
by which it is expressed. What a glorious truth. What a
precious thing to have a friend that would come to you and do
that, to say, brother, the way that you’re living is not only
going to be potentially harmful to you, it is going to be harmful.
It is eventually harmful to you. Not only is it eventually harmful
to you, it is potentially harmful to everybody around you. It’s
a stumbling block. You pray with them and you appeal to them and
you minister to them and you love them. Paul said it in very same terms.
Ephesians 4.14, we are no longer to be children tossed here and
there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. You know
what he says? Be watchful. Look out. Watch out for one another. We’re not supposed to be like
that. But, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. What
a great place to pause. Because in so many cases, we
haven’t grown up as Christians. Still dabbling in this and dabbling
in that. Every wind of doctrine, trickery
of men, deceitful scheming, sin. But to have a brother that comes
to us and hears to challenge people, to speak the truth in
love, to go to somebody and not only to go accurately with the
facts, because we get the facts down real quick. What often we
leave behind is the love. Or we can go in love and not
have our facts straight. To do both is the challenge.
To speak the truth in love so that in all aspects we grow,
we grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.
That’s the goal, isn’t it? Isn’t that the goal for you?
And to have a friend that would come and lovingly rebuke you,
to make you more Christlike by God’s grace. What a precious
gift is that friend? Let’s pray. Lord God, we humble ourselves
before you. We have not cared for one another
as you would have us to. So oftentimes we’ve left things
unsaid, we’ve overlooked things that ought to have been addressed.
When we’ve confronted, we’ve done so out of our own pride.
And not out of love and concern for their soul. And their testimony. Lord God, forgive us, we pray.
Grant us to examine our hearts that we might be the very people
that you’ve called us to be in seeking the purity of the church
for the glory of Christ. Lord God, we thank you and praise
you in Jesus name. Amen.