Matthew
18:6-7 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who
believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung
around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world
because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the
offense comes!” NKJV
Sin is the great enemy of man and the cause of all
the sickness, sorrow, and suffering in our present world. For the unregenerate
man sin is enslaving. For the man regenerated by the Spirit of God living by
and under grace, the enslavement to sin has been destroyed, but the daily
battle with sin continues throughout our life of being sanctified by Him. The child
of God fights sin daily, but he has been given a disposition from our Lord to
hate sin and evil. We are told over and over by the Apostles Paul, Peter, and
John to not sin or in some places to put off the old man and put on the new man
or to mortify/put to death our members on the earth or to no longer present our
members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present our members as
instruments of righteousness to God.
The New Testament is saturated with this language
and to not be aware of it means only to be void of reading the Word of God. To
deny that this is the theme throughout the New Covenant would be to deny the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and deny the Scripture as being God’s own
inerrant Words. As we read through the Gospels we find occasions where our Lord
Jesus displayed His Righteous Indignation about a matter. When He wanted to
heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath in the Synagogue, He asked the
people if it were lawful for Him to do this and they kept silent. Our Lord turned
to the Jewish people and looked at them with anger over the hardness of their
hearts because they were more concerned with tradition and rule keeping on the
Sabbath, that they placed that above the man being healed by our Lord.
Our Lord never displayed anger when He was attacked
personally. As the Scripture states, “When He was reviled He did not revile in
return; when He suffered He did not threaten” but when His Father was being
dishonored or His word being misrepresented our Lord was very indignant. The
words our Lord uses in the above Scripture text are the most serious, scary,
and stern words He ever used when addressing any of the disciples except maybe
when He turned and looked at Peter and said, “Get behind Me, satan! You are an
offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of
men.” As we walk with our Lord, each of us can only repent of our own sin
against the Lord Jesus Christ and we cannot repent for another person’s sin. Therefore,
I believe it is very offensive to Him when someone who uses His name and
identifies themselves with Him leads others into sin and error. The following
passages of Scripture are evidence of God the Holy Spirit bringing the Words of
our Lord into remembrance and the seriousness it resonates in the heart of
Christ Jesus our Lord to each of the New Testament writers:
Romans
14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this,
not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. NKJV
Romans
15:1-3 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and
not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his
good to edification. For even Christ pleased not Himself; but, as it is
written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. KJV
1
Corinthians 8:12-13 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their
weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother
stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. NKJV
1
Corinthians 10:32-33 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to
the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things,
not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be
saved. NKJV
1
Corinthians 15:33-34 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake
to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I
speak this to your shame. NKJV
These are just some examples of how our love for
other brothers and sisters in the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ should
constrain and compel us not in any manner to cause any of them to sin by our
words, deeds, and by our overall lifestyle. This is why our Lord spoke such
strong language to drive home His point of wanting His true disciples to live
above reproach and blameless in this world of woe. He wanted us to see sin the
way He sees sin and in so doing painted a very graphic picture by using the
things that we can use to advance in making very much of sinning out of our
flesh. Who among us does not view their eyes and the ability to see out of them
with great value and worth, to all of us I say they would be considered
priceless. Our hands and feet give us mobility here on this earth and serve us
in so many ways we take for granted and can also be occupied in stealing,
masturbation, fighting and many other sins and they too are priceless to us. Now
was our Lord speaking the following words literally, no but His Words paint a
clear picture of the value of a life abiding in Him verses a life under the
dominion of sin. Sin is no joke to Jesus Christ our Lord. He can see before we
ever commit an act of sin the horrible consequences that one sin will cause for
a person, a family, and in many cases many generations of a family (see the
article or short story entitled “Paralyzed by Sin” (http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=96798).
Matthew
18:8-9 “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it
off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame
or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the
everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it
from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than
having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” NKJV
The Lord Jesus Christ knew certainly that offenses
or causes to sin or enticements to sin would surely be hurled repeatedly at
them and us from the world at large, but He wanted to warn them and us of the
wolves dressed up in sheep clothing, the spots in our love feast who would
feast with us without fear, living according to their own lust, sensual persons
serving only their own interest, and flattering true disciples to gain some
sort of advantage. These are people, who appear to know our Lord Jesus and have
a form of godliness, but they are devoid of the power of godliness and we are
to turn away from these people because their goal is to lead us into satisfying
the flesh all the while with the illusion of still serving God. Some of them are
the spirituality crowd who find their way into the Church of God holding onto
the false spirituality trying to mix it with Jesus Christ and like Jannes and
Jambres mentioned below they are magicians or sorcerers like Simon in the Book
of Acts Chapter 8 who wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit (read the
whole story there).
2
Timothy 3:6-9 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make
captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes
and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt
minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for
their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. NKJV
2
Thessalonians 1:6-9 Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with
tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest
with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do
not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power. NKJV
“Every Christian will readily allow that sin is
insidious, but it is one thing to recognize this in theory and quite another to
be regulated by it in practice.” A. W. Pink
“None can hate [sin] but those that love the law of
God; for all hatred comes from love. A natural man may be angry with his sin,
but hate it he cannot; nay, he may leave it, but not loathe it; if he did, he
would loathe all sin as well as any one sin.” Abraham Wright 1611-1690
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
No comments:
Post a Comment