Forgiveness-Obedience-Gratitude — Luke 15-17

0:00 Before we get started I do want to just recommend a few materials that I found helpful. This one, I'm making this one my, giveaway book. I'll keep buying these and giving them out to people. I had the chance I think a year ago when a guy came to work on our furnace and he was a Muslim guy and I gave this to him to... And we had been talking about the lord together and talking about, things regarding religion and, it was just a great opportunity to give it to someone that this this is what he needs to know about.

0:44 Like, this person, Jesus Christ. And so, I'm also going to mention this in in the message today. So, The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Great read. In fact, you can...

0:54 First one to come up and and grab that. You can have that one. The next one is unless you repent by Harry Ironsides, H. A. Ironside.

1:07 William MacDonald says, a breath of fresh air dispelling the fog. I found this tremendously helpful in regards to learning about what repentance means. So with that, let's just open our time in a word of prayer. Dear lord, we just come before you this morning. We're grateful to be here.

1:28 We thank you for your word that it's true. We thank you that it it guides us, it gives us direction, it's a light in a dark path, Lord, and it tells us who you are, tells us how to live. And and so as we open this word this morning, we just pray that your spirit would be amongst us, that it would move, that we would understand your word, and that we would be able to apply it. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

1:56 If you turn into your Bibles to Luke chapter 17, Luke chapter 17, I'm going to turn there as well. And we are in Luke 17 and we're talking about this at the teaching meeting the other day and I was expressing, I've really enjoyed these past few chapters of Luke because it's very cyclical in nature. Christ is teaching. He gives some some instructions to his disciples. He gives some parables.

2:30 He may have to talk to the Pharisees. He talks to different kinds of people but he does this pretty regularly. He might take a break and say, look, you just need to know these things. Next, we're gonna... I'm gonna teach about the kingdom of god.

2:44 I'm gonna bring a certain spiritual point from a parable. Then I'm going to go and heal somebody. And so it's just got this cyclical nature to it. And I've really enjoyed that. And so now in this section, I get a little bit of direct teaching because or I don't know if it's because but I I do enjoy that.

3:06 I'm a little bit more inclined to that myself. Something that we recently heard about was in Luke 16 regarding financial things. How do we how do we keep our money? How do we use our money? How do we store up heavenly riches?

3:23 Okay? And something we're going to talk about today is just some more direct instruction on developing Christ like character. What are some of the things the Lord wants us to know, some qualities that we need in our lives? So there's going to be three pairs of these. We're going to talk about repentance and forgiveness.

3:45 Those things go hand in hand. We're going to talk about faith and obedience and how when we have faith, it's going to follow that we're going to obey. And then finally, we have gratefulness and glorification. We're going to see how when we're grateful for the things the lord has done for us, it just points us back to the lord. It points back to him and he's going to get all the glory in that.

4:57 The apostle said to the lord, increase our faith but the lord said, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and be planted in the sea and it would obey you. Now, which of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep will say to him, after he comes in from the field, come immediately and recline at the table to eat. On the contrary, will he not say to him, prepare something for me to eat and properly clothe you clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink. And afterward, you may eat and drink. He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

5:43 So, you too, when you do all things which were commanded, you say, we are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which we ought to have done. While he was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee and as he entered a village, 10 men with leprosy who stood at a distance met him and they raised their voices saying, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they were going, they were cleansed.

6:21 Now, one of them, when he saw they had been healed, turned back, glorifying god with a loud voice and he fell on his face at his feet giving thanks to him and he was a Samaritan but Jesus responded and said, were there not 10 cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to god except this foreigner? And he said to him, stand up and go, your faith has made you well. The lord always blesses the reading of his word.

6:57 Amen. So, you go back to the very beginning in verse one. What does it say? It says, it's inevitable that stumbling blocks would come. Christ says this, he says it's it's almost like we can't avoid it.

7:12 It's in our sin nature as humans that sin is going to come, stumbling blocks are going to come. You might ask the question, why why do I keep sinning as a Christian? I'm going to answer that but he's saying that sin's going to come and that stumbling blocks are going to come. What's a stumbling block? Really, it's anything in life that causes you or some someone else to sin.

7:42 Maybe this is related to the passage that we had just discussed last week in in chapter 16 regarding riches, regarding being too focused on money and the collection of things and and living in ease. That certainly can be a stumbling block. There's so many other things and just by way, I I don't want to highlight those because we kind of already know those different sins. So, I I really not to like to go over those so much but we do know what those things are, the things that might distract us and and carry us away and cause us to sin and what does Christ say? It says, woe to the one through whom they come.

8:26 What is this word woe mean? Well, I was looking at the different sections in which it says, woe and looking throughout God's word and what I came up with is it's just an expression of of disappointment. Christ is saying he... That he's he's so disappointed that this would happen that that someone would cause someone else to sin. Verse two says, in a continuation of of his displeasure or what he thinks about this, it's better for him, the one who causes someone to stumble.

9:05 If a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea, then that he may cause one of these little ones to sin. And so, he just uses this extreme language. It's better for him to die in this really bad way than for her him to cause someone else to sin. Now, if you take a look right at the end there, it says, little ones to sin. Now, if you compare this passage to some of the other parallel passages in both Mark and Matthew, you take a look at those passages and around those sections, it talks about personal sins.

9:48 And it talks about how when you have a personal sin in your life or a personal habit, it says, use drastic measures to get rid of those sins. And it talks also about little ones. It talks about how you could have faith. The kingdom of god If you want to be in the kingdom of god, you must must have faith like a little child and so in one sense, I can say, I I would I would agree with the fact that maybe the little ones causing a little one to sin, maybe it's referred to as a child. God forbid that someone might cause a little child to sin, to be led astray from the the teachings of god's word and the truth that's in god's word but I think I think I'm thinking of a different perspective when God looks at us.

10:40 He might call each and every one of us a little one. And I think saying little one, it's sort of a description of innocence. Think about it as before somebody were to cause someone else to sin in a particular way, they were innocent in that little area, in that area of sin. They may not have ever done it and so, Christ is saying, woe to the one who would cause someone else to now sin maybe and even in a new way. So, maybe it's a it's a child, a little one, an innocent one but also just anybody in general that could be innocent in a way, in a certain way of of sinning.

11:25 And and the Lord expresses his deep displeasure, his disappointment that this would happen. There's another section in the Bible, Genesis six, five, and six says, then the lord said that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, that every inherent intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. So the lord was sorry that he had made mankind and he was grieved in his heart. I can't think it carries that same sentiment, that same sorrow that god would feel that sin is in the world that someone might cause another person to sin. So, what do we do when this happens?

12:27 Be on your guard. The the translators might in your Bible add add a exclamation point there. They add that punctuation for emphasis. Watch out for this. This might happen.

12:41 It's going to happen. So, watch out for it. What do we do? It says, if your brother sins, rebuke him. Now, I was looking at the frequency of the word rebuke and I might just mention it once because it doesn't mention it a ton of times in Luke but it just says rebuke him.

13:02 Call your brother out. It, I think that when it says your brother, it represents this relationship that you might have with someone. Whether that person sins against you or you just see him sinning against somebody else or certainly against the lord. It says, if your brother sins, rebuke him And then it says, and if he repents, you can forgive him. You forgive him.

13:32 Verse four, and if he sins against you, seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. So, now, gets a little more personal. The first section it said, just if he sins, rebuke him. The next part says, if he sins against you, and then he comes to you and asks and says, I repent, you shall forgive him. Now, what's cool too in verse in verse four, it just gives a little bit of a more explanation of what's this attitude that we would have to someone that would sin against us but they come to us in repentance.

14:16 What is that attitude that we should have? I would say that we would be ready, ready to forgive. In fact, I was just reminded this morning of when mister Bingham brought up that section in Luke 15 about how the father was there. He was ready to receive the prodigal son when he came back. The prodigal son, maybe when he was there feeding the pigs, maybe that was his rebuke and he came to his senses and he repented and he turned back and he turned back to his father and he said, I'm unworthy even to be called your son and he ran back to his father and his father was welcoming him and welcoming him to forgive him and so he's telling his disciples, he's saying, we should have this same attitude when someone sins against us and then they would come to us in repentance and say, I repent.

15:11 I'm sorry I did this that we'd have that same sentiment that we would turn to them and be able to forgive them. It says that if he sins you seven times a day, if he sends you against you a lot of times, it's it's just another way of saying a lot of times and he comes to you and repents every time. We could have that same same attitude of being ready to forgive that person. Now, I said this before, why why would why would Christ allow these things or why would god allow these things to happen? It's certainly a big question in our lives.

15:49 If I'm a Christian and the lord saves me from my sin, why wouldn't he just either take me away right to heaven or why wouldn't I be perfect and have this ability and constant practice after turning to the lord of never sinning again period and I'm I would submit you this this morning that I would say that even though it's inevitable, Christ said that it's inevitable that sin's going to come. These these instances in which they do happen, it's an opportunity to express Christ like character again. Even to the world that we would have this opportunity to express what Christ has done for us in the offer of forgiveness again once again. And isn't it it just so great that we could have this opportunity that even though our previous situation, if you think about a before and after picture, when someone sins against someone, the relationship is tarnished. It's ruined.

17:00 The people don't have a great relationship but think about when they do come back to that person and they they repent and they ask for forgiveness and that person does forgive that person. That relationship through Christ and the forgiveness forgiveness that's offered could be better than if it didn't even happen, right? Think about it in the garden before anything happened. Adam and Eve were there. They were in the garden.

17:30 They were in perfect fellowship. Christ or the lord came down and and fellowship with Adam and Eve during the cool of the day but what's one thing that they did not have there with them? They didn't have the Holy Spirit in dwelling inside of them and so we see even though that this sin happened that Adam sinned and Eve sinned and sin was brought into the world and thus, it was passed along in all humankind even though that happened. Now, we can be rescued by Christ because of his death on the cross and now, our relationship and our close and our intimate relationship with god the father, god himself can be better. Now, we can have that indwelling of the Holy Spirit and that we would be able to even not sin in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

18:28 And that's why that the lord would still allow that to happen in our lives. Now, I'd like to go through the book of Luke. I was studying and I'd like to look at repentance. The lord just kind of put it on my heart to just look at the book of Luke. What does the book of Luke say about repentance?

20:07 Repentance and then forgiveness. And even other sections, it talks about how John says, do the works that are do the fruit that represents repentance. Do the works of repentance. Almost like saying, don't play the hypocrite. You've repented.

20:27 So, now, put it into practice in your life and make a change. Repent and turn back to the lord. Go to chapter five of Luke. We're going to see the purpose of the lord the purpose of the lord regarding repentance. This might even be a theme verse.

20:53 Christ says in verse 32 of chapter five, I've not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners. Back up in verse 31, Jesus answered said to them, it is not those who are healthy who need his physician but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners and so you see that purpose for which Christ came. He came to call sinners to repentance. Those that have wandered away, those that have turned their back on the lord and need salvation.

21:34 He's come to call the the sinners to repentance. Next, chapter 13 Luke chapter 13, you have this section where it talks about repentance. Verse three, no, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So, in this section, you see the payback or the consequence of not repenting. That those examples that he gives there in that section talking about how Pilate mixed the blood with their sacrifices or how the Tower Of Siloam fell and killed a whole bunch of those people.

22:27 He used that example to say, look, repent or you will also likely perish. Turn to Christ now. Turn to god away from your sin before it's too late. Next, chapter 15, chapter 15. We heard from from brother Christian.

22:50 You see, each of these stories, what do each of these stories represent? You have the parable of the lost sheep and how when that shepherd comes back, when he leaves the 99, when he goes to find that sheep and he comes back and he tells his friends, look, I have rescued this sheep and then you have that lost coin. Verse 10, in the same way, I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels god over one sinner who repents. So, you have this pleasure that the lord expresses and that he feels when just one sinner comes to repentance. When one sinner turns to him for salvation and likewise, you have that joy that the father feels when he has these open arms to receive his son who was lost and has now found.

23:47 He comes back and he he says, get the fatted calf. We're going to celebrate this son who was dead is now alive. He was lost but now he's found and so you see there god's pleasure when one sinner repents. Next, chapter 17. Of course, that's that's the text we have today.

24:12 Chapter 17, what do you see here? Well, you see the practice of repentance and forgiveness. So, we we see how it's been preached. We have all these examples and now the lord wants us to put into practice that when we see someone repent, we would be of the same attitude that we would come and that we would be even joyful ourselves. That we would be able to forgive them when someone comes to us that we would be able to repair that relationship and forgive them.

24:43 Finally, in the end of Luke, you have chapter 24. The very end. You have this preaching of repentance. Verse 46 says, so it is written that Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and what verse thirty forty seven and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. There you have it again.

25:21 The pair, forgiveness or excuse me, repentance and forgiveness. They go hand in hand that when someone repents and they turn away from their sin and they turn away from anything that would convince them likewise or any other way of of the way of Christ that they would turn back to Christ and repent and turn to him for the forgiveness of sins. They always go hand in hand and finally, you have the book of Acts. The book of Acts is just a huge book that tells a whole bunch of stories about how people come to Christ. They repent themselves and they come to Christ and they receive forgiveness.

26:05 You have all these stories of of the apostles going out and what did they repeat what did they preach? They say, repent for the kingdom of god is at hand. That's what Christ said himself. But they go out and they preach repentance and you see people repent and they turn to Christ for salvation. So there we have just a little sketch of how we see repentance in Luke.

27:00 I was thinking about this and I was like, well, maybe they were saying like, why did they actually say this? Why did they say increase our faith here? Maybe they wanted to, they looked at this other section and they heard this teaching on repentance and forgiveness and the fact that sin is going to come and stumbling blocks are going to come and they said, well, we don't want that to happen. Increase our faith so it doesn't happen. But the lord says, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and be planted in the sea and it would obey you and so, what were the disciples asking for?

27:43 It's almost like they were saying like if if faith were a muscle, they're saying, he's saying, give us more faith like that we would be able to faith more or believe more that this wouldn't happen and what Christ is saying is, you don't need like a more quantity, a higher quantity of faith. You just need a little bit of faith and you need a little bit of faith in me. Just a little bit of faith in the lord Jesus in what god can do is enough. That we wouldn't have an increasing quantity but that the quality of our faith would increase in in the person himself That we would learn more about the lord Jesus and and that knowledge, the qualities of the lord Jesus by learning that our faith would increase and so we would look at him and be able to trust him more. Think about it if you were to you know, you have any of these examples of of chairs that you're sitting in.

28:45 And many of us come again every Sunday to go sit in them. And what would give you more faith that that could chair could hold you up? Well, you could probably go and figure out what brand it is. You could know more about how the structure is made, how those, you know, the things are welded together, how it's all screwed together. And in the same way, we can increase our faith just by learning more about the person that we put our faith in.

29:14 So, it's not on our side that we would have more faith to, you know, have more gusto that I would believe more. No, it's that we would focus on who we have our faith in and be able to increase our faith just by looking at him and knowing and learning more about him. That's how we could have more faith. That's how we could increase our faith. Now, it's kind of broken up here from verses seven through or excuse me, five and six.

29:46 They kind of break up into verse seven and it says, now, which of you, so it goes into this story. So, I was thinking, maybe, you know, maybe the disciples interrupted him while they were while he was speaking and he kind of goes back to what he was going to teach them and so it goes back to this section. Verse seven, now, which of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep will say to him, after he comes in from the field, come immediately and recline at the table. So, here he is again. He's using a story to illustrate something.

30:19 Verse eight, on the contrary, will he not say to him, prepare something for me to eat and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward, you may eat and drink. He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded. Does he? Verse 10, so you too, when you do all the things which were commanded you, say, we are unworthy slaves. We have done all that which we have ought to done.

30:51 And so in a response, talking about faith, what do we do when we have expressed our faith? It follows in obedience that we would be like that unworthy slave that the obedience that we express to the lord, it's not a it's not a it's not like we deserve anything even for the obedience that we express. We're doing it because we're unworthy slaves. We're doing it out of gratification to the lord and we're doing it because that's what the lord has has commanded us to do that we would follow him, that we would be to his disciples, and that we would obey him. We're doing it as unworthy slaves.

31:58 The lord Jesus has set his face towards Jerusalem. He's going to go and he's going to die and as he's passing between Samaria and Galilee, he comes to these 10 men with leprosy and because they had leprosy, they had to stand at a distance and it doesn't say it here but maybe they had to say and they said, unclean, unclean so that the lord and whoever maybe his disciples were with him, certainly they were. That they wouldn't get infected. That was the practice of the day. They had to say unclean and they saw the lord Jesus and they said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us and Christ saw them and he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests and as they were going, they were cleansed.

32:49 Now, the reason that he said that is because he was not enforcing but he was promoting all of what the law said in in the first five first five's books of the Bible. There were certain practices that they did in their society for for when people had leprosy, they had to go and show themselves to the priest and the priests were the one that checked them over to see whether or not they were cleansed and so you see the lord Jesus agreeing with the law. He's saying, go and show yourselves to the priests and they were cleansed and here's the very point of this story. Verse 15. Now, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying god with a loud voice.

33:40 And isn't that wonderful? That one person, each and everyone of us could do the same thing that we would be able to see what the lord has done in our life and you kind of always you kind of see this spontaneity that this man has. He turned back, he turns back after he obeys the lord and he's healed and he says, glory to god. He's glorifying the lord with a loud voice. He's saying, praise the lord.

34:13 I'm I'm cleansed. I'm healed and he turned backs turns back to the lord. Verse 16, and he fell on his face at his feet giving thanks to him and he was a Samaritan. Something else you you see here is just how personal this man's gratification is. He goes immediately to the lord and he just says, praise the lord.

34:41 He doesn't he doesn't think about those around him. He he only focuses on the lord and he goes to him in pure gratification and he falls on his feet and expresses his gratitude and we see that the lord here gets the glory that when we are grateful for the things the lord has done in our life that we would go to him and that he would get the glory. He would get the credit for these things that happen in our life that these things that he does in our life. In fact, it's the reason that we meet every week to proclaim the lord's death that we would come in gratification and praise and glorify the lord and take that hour and just be focused on him and be grateful for the salvation that we have. And he says to him, stand up and go.

35:41 Your faith has made you well. So, there you have it. You have that gratitude that that man expresses and we see that the lord is getting the credit for that that healing. By way of reminder, we have those three things that the lord wants us to know and do and practice. We have these things that go hand in hand, repentance and forgiveness and that when we have faith, then we obey.

36:14 Faith and obedience, they go together and then we when we are grateful, god gets the glory. Let's pray. Dear lord, we're grateful this morning for your word, the fact that it's true, the fact that we can learn from it. We thank you that you have provided a way for forgiveness, that you pay the penalty for our sin, and that we can come to you in repentance and be forgiven. We just thank you for this section and we pray that you would apply it to our hearts.

36:47 We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.