4-79. Temptations Are Sure To Come

Luke 17:1-6

In this episode, JB and Dan Reed explore Luke 17, focusing on the inevitability of temptations, the importance of humility, forgiveness, and the call to be different from the world. They discuss practical ways to strengthen faith and live out biblical commands in everyday life.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

And he said to his disciples, Temptations 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, than 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. The apostle said to the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and plant it in the sea, and it would obey you. Welcome back again to the One Truth Podcast in 479 on this beautiful week of June 2026. Officially in summertime, Dan.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Officially. We are.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Just a few days, just a few days in, but uh I'm I'm thinking I told Carrie yesterday the Lord is sending the message because June 21st came, first official day of summer, longest day of the year. And June 22nd and 23rd were hot.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

I tell you, I know you get lots of rain, but we've I think someone said the fifth wettest June in history. In DFW. Now they measured that at the airport. That's the official measurement, but I'll tell you what, I've got a cinch in six-inch rain gauge, and it's overflowed because I didn't dump it out once and it's halfway full again. All in jail.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, that's not normal in y'all's part of the world. No, it's wonderful. See, this is where it could be a video podcast, because y'all aren't getting to see what I'm seeing, but you can't see a nice little young, young reed child come in, give her dad a hug and kiss. That's why she's my favorite. Yeah, yeah. Must be headed out for the day. Or just got up for the day.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

There's no telling what that one's fixing to do today. Oh, she's having a birthday party tonight. Three weeks late, but she's got two other friends that have birthdays right around the same time, and we finally got smart and said, hey, let's have one big party for all the friends instead of having three parties for all the friends.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah, yeah. I think that is wise. Wise discernment and counsel there.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Well, I didn't figure that one out, but I'll be cooking, grilling, swimming, cannonballing. I'm more of a can opener kind of guy, not a cannonballer.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

You know, I haven't done either one quite some time myself.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

It's so much fun. It's the only way to jump in the pool.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Unless you're plunging, then you just tiptoe in.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Do you still well obviously you don't do that in the summertime, but do you still are you still cold plunging? I did it for a bit this winter and then I stopped and for no reason just one thing about it, you stop something, it's hard to get back into the routine.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

It really is. You I walk by it every morning and eh, no thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I've never had to stop cold plunging myself, but kind of just walk walk by it myself. My green pond there. It's just it's difficult to pass. I where I live, I mean, I know I'm only three hours south of you, but there just wouldn't be a whole lot of cold plunging to be done anyway.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

No, you'd be okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, it'd be more like cool plunging.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Which doesn't sound much more fun. So anyway, neither here nor there. Summertime, 2026, season four, another, another run through Luke here into the 17th chapter. I was listening to some on this. And um, you know, we we obviously wouldn't say we've taken our time, but taking the time that we felt like we need to as we go, just kind of let it unfold as as the Spirit is led, or we've tried to do that. And um but as we're here in Luke 17, i if we zoom out just a little bit and think about it, we're we're just a few months from in in the gospel accounts from Jesus' uh crucifixion, burial, resurrection. So as he's on and away again teaching, um, you know, that that's kind of think of the timeline really. Uh, but we're getting close to the end of his earthly ministry. And um so anyways, I I was listening to MacArthur teach on this chapter there the last few days, and and um, anyways, he he kind of opened this chapter, kind of recapping because from what I could gather, they had taken a break from from going through Luca for the summer and we're we're picking it back up, and so he was kind of resetting the stage, kind of like we try to do here. Um, and uh and as far as where we're at, and and again, it was just a another good reminder for me of kind of where where we are in the story, uh, as we pick back up here this week in Luke 17. So as we uh as as we just talk about that and where we'd kind of picked up and and left off there last time of uh uh in Luke 16 last week, because this will drop again in the uh in the following leak week. And if you were with us last week, uh you'll remember we we covered an array of of topics from divorce and remarriage and and material wealth and luck thereof and and servanthood and and and where all it goes. And and as we get into 17 today, we're gonna kind of have uh again, because Luke, it seems like here hits, I thought Dan just he hits the high points. You can get a little more detailed uh teaching from from Christ out of each of these first few points we'll talk about. If if you go to Matthew or even Mark in an instance, uh you get a little bit more, uh, it seems like there's just kind of hitting highlights as we go across here in these first few verses. And uh Luke makes the point of them, and I'm sure it's a lot of the things. This is things that Jesus taught on often and quite a bit, but as we uh as we kind of get into them here, uh he he hits them, you know, basically just uh almost like one line or uh as he covers uh as we get through there. But uh it opens in the in the first uh first three or four verses, and we'll just take the take maybe the first two verses and then and then the next two, and then the next two, and then the next four um in that sense. But uh he opens up and I thought this was uh an interesting um passage to study and when it talks about temptations or stumbling blocks, depending uh temptations to sin or or or stumbling blocks, depending on the version that you have. But uh it opens in verse one and says, he said to his disciples in the ESV, it says, temptations to sin are sure to come. And what more literal could we have than that of like temptations are going to happen, they're inevitable, is what the NAS says. And uh, they're sure to come. And then he follows it up, but woe to the one through whom they come. And like I said, we'll we'll bounce, or at least I will, uh, back and forth from Luke 17 and Matthew 18, because Matthew 18 gives a little more uh fuller of a picture of this teaching, I thought, of the way that Matthew records the same teaching from Christ. And in Matthew 18, he says, uh in 18 verse 7, he says, Woe to the world for temptations to sin. And uh I think the biggest thing that we can chalk up here is if we're sitting here, and if you're listening to that, you're setting or standing or whatever, but um temptations are gonna happen. They're inevitable, they're sure to come. If you're alive, walking, breathing, there there will be a temptation that you will face to sin or to stumble today. That's not the question at hand. That's not the warning at hand. And um, I think when you read that from Matthew of woe to the world, uh as Christ says, What woe to the world, it's expected that temptation is going to come from the world. Again, that's not the warning. The point here, the warning is woe to the one whom through they come. You should expect believer, temptations from the world, but also believer, don't be the cause of the temptation to sin. So, you know, kind of a uh just to the point opening, but what uh any thoughts there before we keep going there, verse one, Dan?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Well, I'm in the Christian standard Bible today, and mine does not say temptations, mine says offenses. Offenses will certainly come.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah, I think that's how maybe the King James puts it to you is offenses, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

And but what whatever, I mean, either word. Let's I mean, I've been tempted this morning, and and I I don't know how you want to put this, but man, just and as we get into the rest of the chapter, he's telling us this is this is what's gonna happen. Hey, you're gonna be tempted, you're gonna get people who are are going to commit offenses towards you. And he's not telling us anything that that's not I mean, when he gives us a heads up, that's that's what's gonna happen. Tough times are gonna come. What whatever it is, trials and tribulations, temptations, man, it if you're a man and can go through a day without being tempted, I wanna I want to talk to you and see I I want to know what you're doing during the day, Josh. I I want to know how you spend a a day of your life, whoever it is out there listening to you, if you and don't get me wrong, you ladies have have temptations as well. A lot of the same temptations men have, but well, I think what the Bible calls temptation or offenses now, the world calls hate. It's okay. Here it is. This is for you, this is for your enjoyment, this is for you to like and to partake in whatever it is.

unknown 10:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

No, and I think that's why you see that in Matthew 18 of woe to the world for temptations to sin or or or offenses to sin or stumbling blocks. The the the the literal of the Greek um I think is stumbling blocks. It's interesting. I was just pulling that up. Uh we'll have a little Greek lesson because you know I speak it so fluently. But the the literal of that word, whether it's offenses or temptations to sin or stumbling blocks, is um well the the English that we would complete a scandal, scandal. It's scandala. And so but like you just well, you should expect that from the world, right? You should expect scandal, you should expect things to be put in front of you because just like you said, it's it's you could drive down I-45 and look at the billboards through Dallas, and there will be temptation to sin of lust, of homosexuality, which I guess would fall under lust, of materialization, uh you you name it, but the world, like you said, we'll just call it normal. You cannot look to the world for this and say, you well, one I think that we can see here, you shouldn't be surprised, because you should be expected, and it's it's gonna be there, and it's not yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

I'm having not I'm not having trouble with my thoughts this morning. I'm having trouble with my words, I think. But that's we're not called to be of the world, and I think that's one of the harder things not to understand or realize, but to perform, to do, to be set apart from the world. Because whatever it is, uh the sin that so easily entangles us, ensnares us what is that? Is that James, Josh? Anyway, if if the Bible's telling us watch out for the sin that so easily entangles us, that means it's not gonna be very hard to sin. It's natural.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Good grief. Adam and Eve did it right in front of God. And if you don't think they had communion, they used to walk through the garden together and talk to each other together. But when evil arose, guess who they chose? They chose something that the world had to offer. So don't think Josh and I sitting here, we're definitely not on a high horse, we're down on the ground in the with you in the trenches in this battle with you, wondering how in the world can I stay away from the sin that so easily entangles us. And if I get a few seconds, I'm gonna look that up, Josh, because like I said, now I'm having trouble with my thoughts figuring out where that Bible verse is.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I'm about to give it to you if we're on the same page, which I think we are, if I can find it. New Bible here, so I'm having to study the page a little bit more about where it is. I was off by chapter or you were thinking of James, that that our our our lust or the beginning of sin that then comes up, or were you thinking something different?

SPEAKER_02 13:46

No, I was in Hebrews. You know, Hebrews, James, half brother this year. Just one button to the left. That's it. Yeah. One to the left, two to the right. It says, therefore, Hebrews 12.1. Uh therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us. Let us run the race, and and here it is, and this is where my mind was missing. Let us run the race with perseverance. Let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. That's the NIV version. Endurance, perseverance, courageously run that race. It takes a little courage to follow Jesus, right? It takes perseverance to stay on that narrow road that is mentioned. It's easy, Josh. It is so easy. I get up, I don't know, about six in the mornings, and by six thirty I can be off track.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

If I'm not persevering, if I'm not focusing, if I'm not abiding and communing with God from the very beginning of my day, I I can pray in the morning to Lord, don't let me mess it up today. And by the time cells are fed and tended to, I could have messed it up somehow. Because I've already lost track. How simple our mind is to lose track of something so important as our creator, something so important as the God that sent his son from heaven, a place of paradise and joy and no pain and no sin and no crying or suffering to come to earth and endure all of that. Endure the pain, endure the suffering, take on our sin and the weight of the world on his shoulders to sacrifice his life for us. How e how how can we so easily forget that? Or are we are we not running with endurance or we're not persevering? It sometimes it's not easy, Josh. Most of the time it is not easy.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Yeah, as long as we're touched to the flesh and and and it's it's gonna be it it's it's the war that's spoken of in Galatians of the your your flesh and spirit, the the the work of the flesh and the work of the spirit, and that they're in contrast to one another, they're against one another. That's the the wage of war on sin. Yeah, Nolan, our pastor, said it uh it's been a while, but um one of the clearest descriptions of of a Christian is that that a Christian has denounced war on the sin in their life. And and and and you're gonna battle, battle that war. But you said something a while ago that's gonna probably get us a little bit off track for a minute, but we don't want to do that. Yeah, well, it's gonna be a good track that we're taking off.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Well, can I say something before you if you say what I said? Because you just said war, and and this isn't a spitball war, guys. This is flesh and blood, this is getting after it, this is bombing, attacking sin in your life every day. Not with paper straws and wads of paper that you're barely making a dent in anything. But something that will defeat it every day. Maybe minute by minute, you're defeating sin in your life. It is war, Josh. It is absolutely war. And go to battle.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

No, and and so so I think we talked about it on here that we went to Florida and sat on the beach and and and and that. But uh the the other thing we did this a couple of weeks ago was um we went to uh the campus of Ligonier and Reformation Bible College and St. Andrew's Chapel, uh church there that Sproul had planted. And um just went there for the for the evening service on Sunday. It was close to where we were, and something that uh just a place that I kind of wanted to see and and see kind of what it was like when me and Carrie got to go to California after we did a camp in Arizona once. We went to Grace Community Church, kind of tour it around out there, and and just that's something we like to do. Um and um anyway, so we go to the Sunday evening service at St. Andrews, and you walk in, and it's a it's a beautiful church, but um you you you kind of see the way a lot of things are designed, and and um I think I've referenced on here last summer in our church, we read the holiness of God together, and in the last, I think it's the last chapter of the holiness of God, Marcy writes about the the separation of the secular and the and the uh or the the profane and the holy. And so she said that a while ago, we we obviously all live in the world. We're we're we're in the world, we're sent out into the world, but we're not to be of the world, and that's difficult, right? It's it's hard for all of us. And um so a lot of the way that the worship from from the way that that RC designed the church and to the way that the the worship service is conducted, and and and you can read in his book about this, but you can you you see it acted out a lot is is as you're entering into the sanctuary of the church to worship the one true God, there's intentionally a separation of the profane as you're entering in to worship the holy. Now, we're no don't get me wrong, the bill a building's a building, that doesn't matter. We're we the Bible says, the New Testament says the temple of God, the Spirit dwells inside the believer, and uh, and that. So it's it's not I'm not trying to say that there's some continuation from from what the temple was where heaven and earth met, um that we read about through the entire Old Testament, and that's still standing as we read Luke 17, um in that time frame. It's not now, but Sproll makes a big point of that threshold of of entering into the holy and out of the profane. And so when we walk into you know when you walk into that church, there's I don't remember what this what the word is, but you know, you would call it a four-year in a common building, but there there's the that threshold, and then you enter in through a kind of neat designed little door, and then the church is very, I guess the word would be gothic. It's very uh built like a European church would be uh stained glass windows, the the four beast that represent Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then he also has a window of Paul that's that's up behind the the pulpit, all of the windows, and and and you know, growing up I can remember going in most churches, you would you would see it had stained glass windows, and like what's the purpose? Well, again, uh you can see the light out, but from the outside nothing, nothing really comes in. And uh there's there's more to that that I couldn't even explain. But anyways, as you walk into this church, you without even any really trying of your own, you naturally lower your voice. You naturally everything's very reverent, just just in how you carry yourself. And again, it's just a building. I'm not I'm not going off on the building, but and then the way that they open the service is the lights come down, not different colored lights or anything like that, but just come down just a minute, and the organ plays, and he plays two or three songs there. And and then the bullet does just reading, and it says, you know, as as the prelude begins, uh spend this time in prayer, reflecting and focusing on the Lord as you as you prepare to worship him. And so when you said that a while ago about being in the world and we're called to be different, that there's a lot of I I was it's a different sense. And you know, we we go to a Presbyterian church at the moment and are members of, and it's been been amazing and awesome, and and uh you know there's there's different liturgy that's different. Than the way I grew up. It took a little getting used to, but everything's very intentional and very reverent on focusing on worshiping the one true God, the one true Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess sin together. We uh reflect on scripture or and catechism together of why we believe what we believe and what it truly means. And I say all that to say that looks a little odd in some instances to if you're a person just walking in and seeing that, but it also should look a little odd because the church is different from the world. And and you know, we live, I'm watching this documentary series on uh it's called the religion business of anyways. I'm not far enough into it to really understand what their whole point is, but the point that I'm making, and then I'll shut up, is there is a difference in the church and the world, and there's a common push that the church is becoming consumeristic, and it should look, and with that, it should look more and more like the world. What would people come for? What kind of music would they like to sing? What this, that, and the other, versus the one true God, how does he command us? And we're going to get into this in the later part of this chapter today, or where we get to today, of how are we commanded to worship God? How are we commanded to serve him? Who who are we worshiping? Is it about him or is it about us? And anyways, when you said that, it just it made me think of of that um because that really it had an impact on me, if you can't tell. Of Yeah. And and even the way that I worshiped as we were there. It it it impacted me without Yeah, I don't know. It was giving me a lot to think about.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

To be different. What does that mean? You're gonna miss out on something? What are you gonna miss out on? And I'm not different enough, guys. I'm I prom I'm sitting here, I got conviction going all over my soul this morning. I am so and I don't know exactly what the conviction is. We'll find out. Maybe today, maybe in two years. I don't know. But we're called to be different. What are you afraid missing out? What are you afraid of missing out on here on this earth? If you're lucky you're gonna be here 80 years, how long are you gonna spend in eternity? What are you gonna miss out here on earth that's worth spend missing out on in eternity? To be different. And Josh, I'm just an East Texas redneck Baptist kid, and I'd love to come sit in your church. Not beside you. I mean, yeah, I'd like to sit beside you, but I'd love to just come as myself, right? And not and just experience. I mean, y'all confess into each other. What's wrong with y'all? Right?

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

That's different.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yeah, yeah, together, but yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

It's fine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

I'm gonna get no, you don't need to know what I've been doing. What are we gonna miss out on here that's worth even as followers of Christ, we're storing up treasures in heaven, and I don't know enough on the details of it. I don't know if anyone really truly knows, and I um I haven't read enough in the Bible on heaven, and I don't there's no excuse. I just haven't on heaven. I just know there's gonna be no more sin, and I can't wait for that. Josh. I don't this is gonna sound, I don't care about anything else. There'll be no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering, no more sorrow, no more of the temptation or the offenses, no more. Why can't I store up more treasures in heaven instead of chasing what this world wants me to chase? Because it can be we will so easily get off track, so easily lose our endurance, our perseverance, lose our minds chasing after the world, what it has to offer. I want to be successful, yes, in everything I do. As a husband, as a father, as a minister, heck, as a pig farmer, and I consider those opportunities, right, to share the gospel, opportunities that God has given me, places He's put me in my life. But what else? What what can we Are we getting trapped trapped in something that's not of God, that's ungodly? They tell us it's so easy to get ensnared. Right there in Hebrews 12 1.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

No, and I think that's the that's the I just keep thinking about the same thing of of woe to the world for the temptations that will come. And here it's temptations to sin, offenses to sin uh are sure to come. And and again, you say, Man, how am I gonna, how am I going to survive that? Well, the the same way we see the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4, that he survives. That is described by the words of the living God. And we've been given gracious gifts. One and and his word, two in his church. And I keep coming back to that. Are you a part of a local church? Do you worship with other believers? Are you, and when I say a part, not just an attendance and a seat on Sunday morning. Because if that's the if that's the extent of the the church that you have, then you're not saying that you should do more, I'm saying you don't have any idea what you're missing of the grace that God's provided in his people of living life together. So when these hard trying times, these temptations to sin are seem overbearing, you run back. Or you're surrounded by the church, other people, James talks about, that don't think you've been tempted to only you, that they're they're all, we all battle these things. And so, you know, the the common world vernacular would be surround yourself by by people that you know can lift you up. But but here it's just surround yourself by other believers that are also empowered by the Spirit of God and together fight these battles and and go. And maybe that kind of ties us back into the second half of verse 1 that we've we've made it so far today in 31 minutes, but that's okay. He's don't be the other, don't woe to the one through who these temptations come. You expect it from the world, but woe to you who claim to be religious. Woe to you followers of me, if there's temptations that come through you. And and he follows this up with one of those hard things that you know you you think of of Christ and and his love and grace and mercy, and we have such a loving, merciful God that we see the seriousness of what he's saying in the analogy that he rings next in verse 2 about this reference to a millstone, and it that the person who temptation comes from, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the sea to drown. That's strong language that Jesus chooses. And if you don't know what a millstone is, and in their time frame, there's two big heavy stones, and the gist of it is they used it to grind grain, and it was heavy enough and large enough and big enough that it was impossible for a human to do it. They had to use an ox, they had to use a donkey, they had to use an animal to move it. And so he he chooses that in his analogy to say that it was so heavy and so large that it took an animal to use it, that it was beyond anything that a human could bear to use it. And he's saying, Woe to you, do these temptations come from. It would be better that a millstone be hung around your neck and you be cast into the sea, lest you should cause one of these little ones to sin. And in Matthew 9 and Matthew, or Mark 9 and Matthew 18, he says, Lest cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin. So so we don't want to be the cause of offense. We don't want to be the cause of stumbling. We don't want to be the cause of temptation to sin. MacArthur opened this whole section talking about humility, and I thought it was it was very good of humble yourself before the Lord, humble yourself before your fellow man. And um four of the points that he brought out, and this will gotta come out as we keep going through here, but um he said, humble people do four you know are known marked by four four different things. These were four of the ones that he brought up. Uh, one, they they do their best to restrain from offending others, they're ready and eager to forgive, they recognize their own weakness, and they reject honor as unworthy servants. And as we kind of continue through 17, uh we'll we'll see all four of those in these first ten verses of being not to be an offense, not to cause others to sin. When others sin against us, that we're eager to forgive them. We recognize how weak we are and how we need the Lord, and that we realize that we should reject any honor because we are just unworthy servants doing what we should be what we should be doing anyway.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

So I think I think the Lord, the Lord, the world gets confused with judging and rebuking. Don't judge me. You're not supposed to judge. Well, there there is a time to judge, and there's definitely times to rebuke. There's also times to forgive. Over and over and over, as we see right there. If he sins against you seven times and comes back for forgiveness, forgive him seven times. I believe it's when Jesus is talking to his disciples. Maybe it was Peter. 70 times seven that we are to forgive. I don't like this verse, Josh. See, someone congratulated me for being on a couple of weeks in a row yesterday, as we were talking to show pigs, and I should have skipped out on this one. Then I wouldn't be convicted and wouldn't be working on my relationship and following Jesus like I need to.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Well, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

I I thought that it is interesting what you brought out in verse 3 of pay attention to yourselves is what the ESV says. Be on guard is what the NAS says. But pay be on guard of yourself. If your brother sins, rebuke him. I thought R.C. brought out a neat point in his commentary on this. He said, you know, it's a it's a it's a common conception that as a Christian we should give unilateral forgiveness unconditionally, regardless whatsoever. And I think the you see that in Christ when he's hanging on the cross and he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. We should be eager and willing and wanting to forgive. But like you said, Dan, if your brother sins, rebuke him. Sin needs to be called for what it is. Now, that doesn't mean walk around looking, poking back and forth. I saw that, I saw that. You don't do that. I'm the police, so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

That's what the HOA does. We don't need that's what the HOA does.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Yeah, you don't want to be like an HOA saying mow your grass for the grass hole. The grasshole. But he plainly says in verse 3, pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. Come to him. Again, I've said this on here, it's been a while, but Dan's one of the handful of people that I know when they come to if they see me in sin, whether against them or in general, that when they come to me and bring it to my attention, they're not pointing their finger at me. They're coming to me in love to help me that I've obviously been entrapped in a sin. And then back to the temptations to sin, you think of that even in the sense of being entrapped in sin. It happens to all of us at one point or another, especially if you show pigs and do any other thing. But you know, January, February, March for me, man, I can get trapped in sin, like you can't imagine. And I again, I'll say this again that the difference between when I was lost and now is I I want, I I want my brothers and sisters to grab hold of me and say, hey, and rebuke me. And we hear that word rebuke, it sounds, it's it's just like in this culture, it's like, oh no, I don't want to do that. Right. And it both works both ways, right? Like, I don't want to be rebuked, and I don't want to go rebuke someone else. I'd rather just like that's between you and the Lord, y'all figure it out. But he calls us here. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And that's it.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

True repentance requires true forgiveness.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah. And he goes right on in four. If he sins against you seven times and turns to you seven times, saying, I repent. You must forgive him. We should be a humble people. It's not, it's, it's, it's, it's hard, it's not easy. And we see that in verse five and the next thing when he says, the apostles say to the Lord, Increase our faith. They see the this the bar that's set of forgiveness. And and and if we're all sitting here and we're all being honest, when when someone truly sins and hurts us, it's hard to forgive. We might and so that's increase our faith, Lord. And I'm gonna play this clip uh from from our pastor from uh when when he's in uh he's on the Lord's Prayer that I thought uh was really, really good. And anyways, as I was reading this, I thought, man, that would fit perfect here. So I'm gonna play this and then and then get Dan's reaction to it. So here is Nolan, our pastor at CPC. If I can figure out how to make it. Oh, I've got it muted. That's why it wouldn't work, Dan. It's funny how that works. You gotta. Sorry, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

When we see our sin for what it is, even when we don't cover it up or pretend that it's not there, even when we do repent of it and receive forgiveness of sins, it doesn't mean that we'll find it easy to begin to forgive others. It's not. In fact, one of the hardest things to do in life is to really extend forgiveness from the heart to those who have really sinned against us. And I think that's precisely why Jesus teaches us to pray this prayer. It's so hard to forgive real sin against us. And so Jesus is teaching us here if you're gonna have any hope to really forgive others, it's gonna have to be a supernatural work of the Spirit in your life. You ought to be praying about it. You ought to pray every day because Jesus knows that for every follower of Christ, there are people in our lives who have wronged us. They've really hurt us. Jesus doesn't teach us to minimize debt and sin to say it's no big deal, but Jesus does teach us to bring that hurt, to bring that sorrow, to bring that pain before the Father, and that He would grant us soft hearts to forgive the sins of others against us.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

That is, when Jesus said, pray like this, forgive those who've trespassed against us. Man, if we don't know how to forgive, pray about it. Right? I will go to James in this one. If you need wisdom, ask for it. It's in the playbook, guys. It's all there. We just have to apply it. How often do you run the wrong play? The one our father didn't call. He said, hey, if you run this play right here, we're gonna score. We're gonna win. And we fumble. Don't interception, whatever it is. Don't run the right play. Start with prayer. Start and end, continue in prayer, pray without ceasing. Forgive those who trespass against us.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Now, and I think we see that in what what Nolan said of sin's real. Call it what it is. And we see the grace of of our Lord here in Luke 17, that forgiveness is a command from the Lord. Luke 17, we see the policy. Matthew 18, we see the policy and the process, right? And uh Nolan and I did the the out-of-context episode on here, however long ago that's been now. You'll scroll back and find it. It was it was out of context on Matthew 18. And the Lord in his grace gives us the way to deal with sin. Go go to your brother. One-on-one. If he doesn't repent, take two or three others with you and go to him. Still doesn't repent, put him before the church, still doesn't repent, and and and it goes on. But put him out. And how much better would our lives be if we simply do what we're commanded in that? Go to my brother when he sins against me versus going to my neighbor to tell him about how my brother sinned against me. You know, we have the common phrase that we talk about it more than we pray about it, but that's exactly what we're saying. And and and again, this is not a let me beat you over the head with how many ways you're screwing up. This is a wall, man, how we can all say we've we've you're screwing up, but the the grace and mercy that we can walk in the Lord when we see it and we tr when we say, Father, I've I failed yet again. Lord, increase my faith so that I may run to you and do it your way. Lord, help me and show me how to do it your way, not my way. And back again to the same of when we're surrounded by other believers, mature believers that walk and train and teach, these things become easier. When we're surrounded by the world and alone, we're not alone, but by ourselves, it's hard. And we have a large maybe maybe you're listening and you don't you don't have this body of believers, this church locally, to have these bonds and this this strength and this family and the bride of Christ. Man, I cur uh you don't know. I'm not beating you over your head saying, man, you really ought to go to church on Sunday and be a part of a local church. I'm telling you, you don't know what grace and mercy God has provided you that you're missing out on by neglecting that. That that's that's what I'm saying. And I feel it every spring that we're on the road for 90 days. It's hard. It's hard. He finishes up and we'll we'll just up in verse six. It says, and the Lord said in response to their increase our faith. It says a wild statement to me as the analogy, but I think it makes the point. He says, If you had faith, like the grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and plant it in the sea, and it would obey you.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

I think it just proves the the when we have just that little faith what God will do with it when we're faithful. And we can completely lean in on Him, put our faith, hope, and trust in Him, and be of that mindset every day. God, put me where you want me, put me somewhere where I can build your kingdom, put me somewhere where I can move mountains, where I can plant the mulberry tree in the sea.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I thought uh I thought Sproul's uh short comments here in his commentary on this verse, uh, and maybe be a good place to close out and where we'll pick up in the uh parable of the unworthy servants uh next next time. He says uh of this verse five and six, he says, After the admonition to forgive, Jesus give gave something of a strange and unexpected story in response to the disciples' request for him to increase their faith. He said, I don't know too many of us who can actually order a mulberry tree to cast itself into the sea. Point taken. But Jesus' point was that it doesn't take a lot of faith to forgive somebody who sins against you. Now comes the story that is unexpected. And as we get into the parable next week and next time, we'll talk about doing the things that we're commanded, the unworthy servants they that should just do as we're called, and we will pick up on that if we come back next week, next time on the One Truth podcast. So thank you guys for tuning in each week. We really appreciate it if you haven't uh done all the following and subscribe and things. We appreciate all of you that have. Share this with somebody who uh you think you find it useful. Um it's a joy. Both of us said before, not one of the lessons. I think it's time it's moving towards that.