Open—Tim Ruga
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Just a verse here.
Verse 21.
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
First Corinthians, chapter 8.
And verse 13.
Wherefore.
If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend now.
We actually considered these two passages here locally about, I don't know, one or two years ago and.
What we are considering about this was what the word offence means, and that is.
Basically, what's on my heart now, but to just speak about one part of that and what we were talking about then was that this word offense has really got this. The idea of making one to stumble and in particular making a brother to stumble over something where they have the word of God for what they are doing.
And maybe they don't see clear to Christian liberty the way I do.
And and so I ignore their conscience in the matter and I make them to Istanbul. This word offence I understand means really it's more along the lines of scandal to scandalize someone. I think it's actually that's the word in in Greek scandalous or something like that. And.
It isn't the idea of just saying something that gets somebody upset. That's the way we use the word offense today. And that isn't the scriptural meaning of this word offense. It really is speaking about where in the case of Romans is taking up more the case of a Jew who got saved and there they had the word of God that said they weren't to eat certain meats.
And they knew that. And of course they came into Christianity by trusting in Christ.
And having done that, they didn't yet know the scripture and what the scripture said as far as that we're free to eat all meats. And what we just had in our local reading here in Timothy, that all, all these things are made by God to be received with Thanksgiving and so not being delivered into that Christian liberty. This one, if I'm going to go eat in front of them like Paul says.
Then I could really stumble them and.
And Paul wasn't going to do that. He's going to wait until they could see the liberty that they've been brought into in Christianity, and then he's going to maybe do it, but he's certainly not going to do anything that would stumble this weak brother or sister. And then in Corinthians here, it's maybe more the case of one who was saved from the Gentiles, a heathen who had worshipped idols or eaten things offered to idols, and now this one got.
And they have a conscience about that. They're not yet delivered into this fact that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, and it all belongs to Him. And therefore, even if it was offered to an idol, then it's still the Lord's. I can't change that. It doesn't belong to the idol. And so you might have liberty to do that as a Christian, but to do that in front of people have weak consciences. He said that legitimately.
Would hurt them and Paul wouldn't do it. And that, I believe, is really the meaning. And I think it's a really important distinction.
That was helpful for me to see when we came to that and to understand it doesn't mean that anything that gets me upset that I might hold over you or anything that gets you upset that you might hold over me so that we can just get our way any matter. Although we should certainly in love consider one another. There's no question about that.
So I just wanted to look a little bit more at this word offense and if we could go over to first Peter chapter two, I think.
We really have the thought there.
This here is in first Peter Two. It speaks about the Lord.
And it says about him in verse 7. Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious.
But unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. So we say the fence has the thought of of maybe causing someone to trap or fall. And that really is the thought. Here we have a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence. They both are talking about roughly the same thing, maybe different.
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Breeze of it stone of stumbling is the one that would cause someone to trap and the Jews, of course, they didn't recognize who the Lord Jesus was and so he was that one who made many of them trip and not only trip, but this rock of offence, they actually fell on that rock. And you get the idea that they both have a similar thought in what follows because it says.
Even to them would stumble at the word being disobedient.
And so both of these stone assembling the rock of offence caused stumbling.
May be different degrees of it and they as Jews wanted to have a Messiah that would lead them to victory, give them whatever they wanted take care of all their needs. Those things that were prophesied in the Old Testament. But what they didn't want was a Messiah who would tell them about sin and their guilt before God and the remedy for that sin and so they were offended at the Lord Jesus Christ and it's important to see that because.
That's not the way we think of offended other than we say, well, they just got upset with him.
But we think there's never to be any offence. Well, the Lord Jesus gave offence to the Jews. And if we just go, we can look at number verses that show this if we go to Mark chapter 6.
Chapter 6 and verse three we find what the people were saying about the Lord Jesus said, is not this the Carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judah and Simon and are not his sisters here with us and they were offended at him.
And so this shows that.
It's the same word they were stumbled about that it wasn't just that they were.
Upset at what he was saying that isn't the thought here, but they they were stumbled at his words and it can include the idea of being upset certainly can. And we are going to see that in just another. In fact, let's go over to Luke Chapter 7.
I think we have it there.
Well, we'll go on and find it, but the Lord in Luke 723 says blessed is he, whoever, whosoever, shall not be offended in me. And so they were upset at what he said. They were upset at who he was. They were upset that he came as a lowly carpenter's son into Galilee. These were things that of course caused them to stumble, is that this can't be the Messiah, can't be the one who claims to be. They were offended that he.
To be God, even all of these things cause offended offense to them because they wouldn't accept who he actually was.
And it's an important thing to say about the Lord Jesus, because when you consider the Jews and how they were offended.
It's important to understand that their offense came as a result of their wrong thought, not because of the Word of God. The Lord Jesus came with every proof of scripture.
And everything he did and everything he said was perfectly in accordance with God and His Word. And so all the offence came when people could not see or refuse to see that what he said was right.
And that he was who he claimed to be, and that it was according to the Word of God. Let's go over now to Matthew chapter 13.
We have a similar verse there at the end of.
Verse at the end of the chapter. Verse 56 his sisters, are they not all with us?
Well, verse 55, is not this the carpenter's son?
The sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him?
Again you see that they were upset with the Lord Jesus and you find this word offence. If you look it up and I did, maybe you can tell that.
Over and over and again in connection with the Lord Jesus.
He really offended people and the question is, is offense wrong or is it something that is right in its place? And when you see it in connection with the Lord Jesus, I hope we all understand.
That in every case with him, there was nothing on his side that was wrong when there was a fence Scover. Just a chapter 15 here.
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In verse 12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying, Now the Lord is speaking to them, and he's talking about things that go into a man, and and that which comes out is what defiles. And the Pharisees heard all of that and they got really offended.
And we could look at this a little bit more here as to what the Lord is speaking about, but if you go to the beginning of chapter 15, you'll see.
That is talking about the washing of hands and the tradition of the elders. And this is what it was that the Lord wasn't doing. He was not going along with the traditions of the elders, but instead He was speaking that which was true from God, and that's what they got offended at.
And that is the right kind of offense. If there has to be an offense or theirs was the absolute wrong thing to be offended about, it's because they refused what the Lord said.
And I just want to look at a couple of examples that we had just briefly in our Sunday school class not long ago. It was in Luke Chapter 11. Some distinctions there that I found personally helpful. I just want to pass them along.
Go to Luke Chapter 11.
And we have possibly the same story.
And.
There we have in verse 37.
Says as he that's the Lord Jesus speak. A certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to me. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
And the Lord said unto him, Now thee Pharisees, may clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without?
Make that which is within also.
But rather give alms of such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye tithe, mint, and rue, in all manner of herbs, and Passover judgment, and the love of God.
These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
And now if we can just go down to verse 45, then answered one of the lawyers and sat on to him, master, thus saying thou reproach us also. And I just read that last verse because that shows that they were offended. They they said you're approaching us as well and they don't like it. They didn't like it at all. And of course you see the words that the Lord Jesus is using.
Fools.
Words like that, I'm sure the Lord said that in the perfect way. He didn't have any flesh to be involved in that. If I were to say words like that, probably my flesh would be involved somehow, but never with Him.
But just to look and see, I think we have two different things in in the offense that the Lord was giving to the Pharisees here and.
These things are to me, they were very helpful. The 1St is about not washing the hands when he sat down to eat and they were making a deal of it. They were, they were marveling. They hadn't done it. He should have done it. We saw on the other passage it was the tradition of the elders.
This was something that you did. It was really important. He didn't do it. And so they were making a big deal about it. And the Lord, he had no time for that. It wasn't the word of God. They were pressing it.
And he calls them what they were and he calls out what they were doing. They were all concerned with that which was external. And he said, no, no, no. That's the thing. It's what's inside that's important here, not this external thing. That's your tradition that is not found in the Word of God. And He brings it very definitely before him and offended them.
And I just say that because we need to be very careful. What it is that offends you and me. Is it something that is tradition?
Or is it something that we're being confronted with that is in the Word of God?
If it's not in the Word of God, it's just tradition and it offends me that I need to examine myself. That's the position these Pharisees were in. This isn't at all the case of First Corinthians chapter 8.
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Or Romans chapter 14.
This is a very different case. This is those who did not have the word of God and they were pushing, they were pushing tradition instead. And so the Lord Jesus speaks to them very strongly. But now just one more thing, the second example that we read in verse 42.
He says, Woe unto you Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and rue in all manner of herbs, and Passover judgment in the love of God. These ought ye two have done, and not to leave the other undone. There's two things here that I just want to make a point about first of all.
The Lord Jesus.
Didn't call them out for it. He didn't say they were wrong about the tithing of Mint and Row. And when you look at that.
They could have had scripture for doing that.
And if that was their personal exercise and that's what they were doing because they felt that that was right according to what was in the word of God, the Lord wasn't going to say they were wrong. You don't find that they were forcing others to tie mint and rue. It doesn't say that that's what they were doing, and the Lord doesn't call them out in the same way for that.
You could take, I don't know, it's Genesis chapter 18 maybe.
Where Abraham meets the king of Salem and his name is Melchizedek, right? And he gave ties of all it says there. And so it you could take that and say, well, he gave ties of everything. So even if it's little things like mint and Roux, I should give ties of that. And, and this seems to have been what their practice was. Of course, you find out in Hebrews, it gave ties of the spoil. Spirit of God tells us it wasn't everything, it was just the spoil.
You know Abraham had recovered.
But a Jew could just go to Genesis and say what doesn't say that it only says, you know, gave them tithes of all. And so I should do that as well. And in fact, it looks like the man in Luke 18, the the the Pharisee who's there with the Republican, remember, and and the publican wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but he said, God be merciful to me, a Sinner. But the Pharisee was proud and he stood there and he says he fast twice in the week and he gives ties of all that he possesses, he says.
So it looked like that might have been their thought and the Lord doesn't condemn them. So if that's what you got from the Word of God and you're just doing that yourself, that's fine. He's not going to condemn him. But what he does condemn him for here is that there was something that was definitely in the Word of God and they weren't doing it and was very big. The other was a little thing, and the Lord doesn't set aside the little thing. He says this ought you to have done.
And so good. That was your exercise. That was there in the word of God. You, you believe you saw it there, then you should have done it.
But not leave the other undone. And what was the other was those big things, And he calls it judgment and love of God.
These were the weighty matters of the law that you couldn't miss. You could not miss that That's what God wanted done. And they were passing over that and focusing in on these little things and making that the big deal. And the Lord doesn't take away the little things. Yeah, do that. You should do that. But this big thing that God is looking for, that's clear and unmistakable in the Word of God.
How come you're not doing that? That's what you should be doing.
That's what offended them because they didn't accept it.
What about us today? Are we offended about just what is in the Word of God?
Or do we have other things that we add to it that we demand that they be done too, and if not, we're offended?
It's a real challenge. It's a challenge for me. I'm not just speaking to other people because they've been a lot of these things in my own heart. And I have to tell you that if anybody in this room likes tradition, you probably don't like it more than me. And it's been something maybe in Africa more than anywhere that I've really, really had to examine my heart on. But I think always it's really important that we do it. What does the word of God say? What does the Lord look?
From me and from you. And those are the things we need to do. And if there's other things that we think we see, that's good. Let's go ahead and do that. Not leave aside those things that are crystal clear and weighty things before God. Let's do all those little things too. But certainly let's not go press them on our brethren or somebody else who doesn't say it. And then if there is something genuinely in the word of God, my brother's not delivered from it. Well, that is indeed what.
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14 and one Corinthians 8 are talking about, and we should consider that as well, but let's be careful that that's what it is and not the other.